Naomi Klein: Jews Must Raise Voices for Palestine, Oppose "False Idol of...

Last Words Poems

 

Dear Poets

I would like to print one more chapbook focusing on the best of human nature. Life is being dismissed, I think, for the sake of power and profit and I would like us to submit a poem on what life means to us and this planet.

Recently I watched the film Where the Crawdads sing and I thought we don’t often write or display the best of our nature. I am amazed that so much is dismissed in human achievements. There is so much beauty and so much ugliness, however I would like to put down in words my feelings and to seek other feelings from good people. Then to choose a title that best describes the words.

When I think of giving birth and all the sweat and worry that goes into it, all the training that nurses and doctors must do, all the sweat and time to attain a PHD. All the work that goes into building and operating schools, building highways and housing … we have as a species achieved something.

Send your poem to me with permission to publish and a short bio. Thanks for your time and consideration.

Janet Vickers

767 Chelwood Road

Gabriola Island

BC

V0R 1X1

http://jacksonmeadvickers.blogspot.com

janetvickers@gmail.com

Love and Caring Is So Dangerous

 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-afghan-refugee-crisis-is-a-migratory-time-bomb-that-may-soon-go/

What does love look like

what does it feel like

what is the difference between

self love and narcisism?

What is the difference

between comfortable

and rich?

Affordability?

 

The real affordability issue for Canadians is the “overdependence” on fossil fuels, Cosbey said. Over the lifetime of the product, it’s cheaper to power a car with electricity than gasoline, it’s cheaper to heat a home with a heat pump than natural gas, and it’s cheaper to cook on an induction stove. As long as Canadians use fossil fuels for electricity generation, heating and transportation, “we are going to be subject to the kind of inflationary impacts that we saw as we came out of COVID,” he said.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/03/26/analysis/truth-about-carbon-tax?utm_source=National+Observer&utm

The source of the disinformation was the energy-industrial complex, which had launched one of the largest propaganda campaigns in history against the science of climate change. This corporate juggernaut chose shareholders over society, profits over people, and propaganda over science, and Republicans were duped more than most. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/03/28/opinion/climate-denial-american-politics

Hymn to The World

Once upon a time we solved problems

or attempted to anyway

but we forgot to keep the history

to recall how we did it

back then.

Imagine tribes of people

cooperating

celebrating our achievements

the thought brings tears to my eyes.

No! That didn't, couldn't happen

it was history smoothing off

the barnacles of our flesh.

At least we have a house to live in

food on the table

and medicine

so today we are okay

let's watch TV, read books

listen to music, phone loved ones

make muffins

drink wine

... let's not

worry!

Do we want to be extinguished?

Do we want to behave as though

there is nothing we can do?

Dear World

I send this love letter to you and all your inhabitants.

Every soul needs love. It is the first food of its soul.

The soul could be the accumulation of all people

and all ideas that take our attention willingly.

I understand this post looks lazy

to address the world in all its diversity

with one poem. Is it a poem?

or just a blog post?

Dear Reader I will leave you to decide

the difficult questions

details small and hardly noticed

hope that doesn't make me shallow.

I have been known to make hasty 

decisions and then regret them

lose self respect

then cry myself to sleep.

So to make up for my errors

I apologize today

for the last thirty years

expressing my thoughts.

Making judgements just like

an English girl who doesn't have

a Masters Degree

-- is it okay for people

who don't get the certificate

to make generalized judgements

-- yes it is okay as long as I don't pretend

to be something I'm not.

And besides, I love you.

People Are Talking. What do you think?

 

1. "Once a tenant-friendly haven, Quebec is now waging a class war on renters" Ricoshay Media Ziya Jones

2. "The country’s major corporations, seeking to crush union organization, have filed legal papers to shut down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that enforces labor rights and oversees unionization efforts." The Chris Hedges Report April 5, 2024. 

3. "If the polls hold, Pierre Poilievre will be our prime minister and Donald Trump will be ruling the United States, which — according to the Orange One’s own words — will no longer be a democracy. Trump will act as a dictator on “Day 1,” he’s declared on Fox News."

4. Democracy Is Under Siege Globally. Canada is Being Tested. Michael Harris. The Tyee. 

5. Some provinces reject $6-billion housing program announced by Trudeau ahead of federal budget IAN BAILEY Oliver Moore, Laura Stone. Globe and Mail.

Where is the spirit of humanity? Where is the concern? What other experts are there? 

How can we protest against capitalism? What tools do we have?

We can organize small groups then discuss all the threats we are facing. We can do the research. Write letters to the editor, write blogs, write to those who are in government and business. We are close but not yet an authoritarian state. We can share our intelligence, experience and thoughts together.

We can use whatever gifts we have. And don't give up. Don't always compare what you have with the powers shown elsewhere.

The desire to preserve the world for good people is the best reason for living.

Be also caretakers of yourself. Eat and sleep when you need to. Seek friendship among those who have befriended you. Write lists of people who are honest and nurturing. Avoid contests. Pouring your thoughts and ideas into a contest doesn't honour your gifts and wisdom. Thousands of writers send their work to writers contests. All that work goes to a place where its read by someone who had to choose the winner.

What happens to the work that is not chosen? Who will read and learn from it?

So Worth Saving - Civil Society - thank you Globe and Mail

 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/letters/article-an-open-letter-to-canadas-political-leaders-for-the-sake-of-the/

"We, the undersigned, are calling on you to address urgently the rise of incivility, public aggression and overt hatred that are undermining the peace and security of Canadian life. This issue is so important that it transcends partisanship. 

Whatever the reasons for the increasingly belligerent nature of many of the current interactions between Canadians with different perspectives on hostilities in the Middle East or other divisive issues, we believe that no Canadian should ever be fearful because of their identities or their beliefs. Many are."

As one who has been watching and writing about this tension for many years I was really pleased to see this letter.

This problem is bigger than political parties and other leaders, it's a mental health breakdown that will continue to bring down humanity if we continue to let this mood fester.

Thanks to all those who wrote and used their influence to post it.

My Advice To The Royals

The small mindedness of some media outlets should not be taken seriously. Big bullies act in different ways for the same outcome. To feel they have won, they have power over others.

This element in human nature is global and eternal and we, the commoners are the ones who must cease to be impressed by egos who think they are winning when they put down or cause pain. 

You know this of course. We all know this yet media, capitalism and politics keep using tricks to "win" the smallest outcome with the greatest harm.

It's common sense but when the opportunity arises to get the better of someone else we stoop to win. I have seen this in women and men who have been traumatized or bruised by the idea they are only worth what they have "won". 

"What happens when we are led to believe, by an authority that's hard to dismiss,  we are isolated units competing for the most of what each of us wants?" I cannot find or remember who wrote it. I saw it back in the 1970's and it has remained with me since then.

When bullies live at home it makes those who have to live with them miserable and even traumatized.

I have annoyed really wise men and women when I present this question in public. But with a rich powerful nation killing children and an even more powerful nation funding it, all while we see the devastation happening to oceans and forests years after we were warned that climate change is threatening the future of our children and their children.

And the end of our time here is approaching.

Ignore the small-minded irritations and dive into the warmth of kindness, the slayer of human vanity. No matter who you are, how much money you have, or your job description - you are a member of the human family. Our duty is to do whatever we can to save life, not by being in charge or superior, not by elevating the worth of your blood, but by holding on to your integrity. No the press will not thank you for it and the commoners will not see it, but your subconscious will continue to advise you.

National Observer and Truth About Carbon Tax

 

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/03/26/analysis/truth-about-carbon-tax?

Be aware of  opportunists who will say and do anything to win. They are the ones who will drown a ship just to get publicity.

What's Happening Here

Apart from a war that kills innocent children,  my nervous system feels as though this is another war against life and living. This has been going on and off since humanity consolidated itself centuries ago.

Life and living takes up a lot of room in media, politics, religion and business. Yes I know this is not a newfound idea, this is not woke material. But there are things that puzzle me.

Facebook. On my feed is a selection of images supposedly uploaded by different "friends". One of them is called Dawn French Fan Club where an image of flesh pierced with blackheads and pimples shows up every time I sign on to Facebook.

Who is the target of this image? Is it Dawn French who has way more intelligence that posting this image continually, would imply? Is it left wing feminist ideas? I have not found a way to delete this "fan club" posting?

If it's Dawn French who is a successful comedian, what would the reason be?

Misogyny is showing up a lot in comments sections responding to women columnists. Does the Patriarchy feel their power is under attack by humans who develop integrity and work towards social justice and peace? Is White Supremacy a movement to keep the public afraid of the "other". Christianity has slipped in some of its teachings by focusing on the flaws of women like Eve. Making the feminine gender a servant to masculine warmongering. Raising boys to be silent about their feelings has been very successful. Ridiculing men who are not winning all the time?

The trouble with religion is that it requires integrity to maintain its power. There is much wisdom in the bible which is overlooked for the entertainment of the outrageous.

Whatever seems so stupid is published in society over and over again but only if it benefits those who are fearful of peace, justice and sustainability. That is those who fear losing the privilege of being at the top.

Generally we speak of racism, fascism, equality and wealth, as ways of preserving status quo. But this might be a threat to those who have built their success on fear, cruelty and violence. Authoritarian class systems only benefit those at the top who nonetheless feel they are at risk from the masses.

A second chance for humanity

 The Biblical story of Adam and Eve has been used to support male dominance over female.  Eve is the temptress who is curious even though "God" warns her against eating fruit from the tree.  

Whatever the message in the first chapter of the bible, Misogyny has devoured our world through the worship of power. This is an easy way to keep women and men under the thumb of the status quo. 

Climate change theories are ridiculed because it is men who run the politics of our relationship to the planet and those who speak up about pollution, the life that suffers because of the habit to care only for the creatures linked to human benefit. The idea that all are related has mostly been relegated to religion and science. 

Today in current news papers and magazines many women are blamed for the problems we face, while we are led to believe, the natural way is to compete for the top.

It's easy to fall into "suck it up buttercup" as a response to failure in social justice.  Men who have feelings are trained to believe that business requires them to overcome their personal feelings about corporate and public issues. The subject of fixing stuff falls into who is to blame and who should pay.  Stories that may offer different ideas on why there is so much suffering and violence to the extent that we have not saved our world at all. In fact threats to the planet are laughed off  in spite of scientific studies and proof.

Right now there is a steady flow of bad news regarding survival of life on this planet. And people who are aware we do not have time to argue. We live in a world dominated by bully narratives. Bombs and Guns, Rape and Pillage, as if we haven't learned anything since the Roman Empire.

There are many who are teaching us to do better, to plan for the greater good because competing for the most of what each of us want is devisive and isolating. 

When Weapons Blow Up Your World

Shooter killed 18 People suffered a brain injury. The analysis of "his" brain showed degeneration in the nerve fibres that allow for communication between different areas of the brain, inflammation and small blood vessel injury, according to Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-evidence-of-traumatic-brain-injury-in-shooter-who-killed-18-in/

I am hearing a lot of news these days. Starvation in Gaza. Bombs killing children. Guns shooting children in school. Women murdered. Arguments from politicians who are trained and skilled at sound bites on morality but whose parties would rather serve petro states. Men denying women safe abortions yet supporting wars where women and children are gunned down or blown up.

I am hearing about corporations who starve their workers while giving billions to the CEO.

Apparently this is simply the way it is and we can't afford social justice, can't afford to care about the homeless, the drug addicts, the victims of rape and child abuse.

This is a poor understanding of the way things are. Nothing comes of nothing. There is a pecking order where those who want to "succeed" must pay attention to.

No point in blaming anyone for the way things are. Ultimately it will be those on the lowest level of the pecking order. We are no better than crows.

To think about morality and our duty to the greater good is a waste of time and energy. Soon we shall be worms slithering in the mud. Then we shall be sorry.

Of course this is the spiral of self-talk when you feel powerless and in pain. This is the late stage of life when your loved ones do everything for you and you know in your bones you have nothing left to give the world.

Soon it will pass and you will write letters to newspapers and publishers you know will not be published. You are living on gratitude for all you have been given in terms of love and support. You even told yourself you will not become a self-defeated spirit but you can't get out of bed and walk to the room where a fire has been lit.

The weapon I am preaching from is the "be realistic" one. "Know your place in the scheme of things". All that you do have is because of others who care about you.

Those who care about justice and social conditions and the morality of truth.

Happy International Women's Day

 

THIS BODY

has known the hunger of a gentle touch

has watched the heavy breast get heavier

stroked the bulging stomach

the hunger then red river of death

this body also watched life grow

in its outer shape

a balloon so hungry

determined to suck up all nutrients

and sugars that enter

and finally the pain

pushing out its contents

a coiled he or she

kicking for more space

its song no-one can hear

pushed stopped

pushed again

relaxed again

pushed and pushing

and pushing until

its parcel slips out

with fluid red and pink

a colour I have no name for

like a burst pipe freeing

its contents so the newborn

can be free

a screeching squaling

newcomer flailing

with all its might

empties its own body

ready for the next meal

in the heavy aching breast

full of warm sweet love.

Thoughts on Israel, Palestine, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Americans

 

Here is a  conversation between Chris Hedges and Rabbi Shaul Magid.  Two educated people who are articulate and aware of their humanity. https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-chris-hedges-report-with-rabbi? 

But this issue around the depravity of war and violence is not so much about Jews and Palestinians as it is about an opportunity for other humans to spout their beliefs and their thoughts.

We (humans) should not try and defend our past or blame others. The othering habit is powerful. I have done it for more than 70 years and I understand how convenient it is in this post colonial world. I have used the labelling of people for different reasons quite religiously even though it gets us into trouble. So all the opinions and articles I've read are piercing their way through my mind and stomach. The problem is I still love people. I am dependent upon them. 

My preference is for humans to be present when expressing thoughts but right at this moment there is only one in this room where I have read numerous ideas on Facebook and listened to programs on the radio. But I still come back to this: what is the point of my opinion at this time? What does it matter to the children dying in Gaza or the people who have to get along with others in Israel?

Then I am reminded I was born in England where colonial rule was devastating to all the people with brown complexion and black curls surrounding their beautiful faces. So I suspect my readers think I am being too soft and should just put this computer down and get on with my own little life.

However my own life bumps up against other lives. And others are suffering beyond endurance. Politically I have a part to play representing the conscience of humanity floating like a cloud in the sky, as if that cloud can carry on without us. And I am not a hero.

Somewhere on this earth I must reach out to humanity. Not to say there there. Comfort is not what I have. I do have experience living here and I am totally against the violence while acknowledging the courage of individuals who have, for the sake of providing a home and food to their family entered the force. They are told what to do. They signed up to defend their side but have little control over the orders given. For me to sit in my living room making judgements only pushes the anxiety further into the battle ground.

What I hear is how cruel we have become. How will that help the future?

What Is The Purpose of War?

1.  Is it to kill as many people as possible? 

2. To gain land for more wealth? 

3. To remind society that men are more important than women? 

4. To garner interest from news media? 

5. To gain votes from a sleepy public? 

6. To take the place of sports programs where two sides battle and only one side wins because they had more money to invest in their players? 

7. To keep humanity stuck in win/lose narratives so as we don't focus on survival which requires faith in social justice and well being?

8. To wake us up to the fragility that is life so we get back to caring for the world we live in and the people we love?

Sunshine starts in the hearts and minds of good people

Really good people read the news, read the books, listen to friends and family, play guitar or flute, learn how to sing and how to listen to others.

Reading the work of Sima Elizabeth Shefrin, her stories of humans getting along peacefully, and the art that appears to  comfort us as if we can get through anything as long as we have respect and compassion.

Their goodness doesn't need awards or medals, but their spirit needs to be acknowledged. Media seeks drama, but goodness needs reality for it to prosper. People need nutritious food, shelter, friends and purpose. Which also means access to health care and education.

We are at risk of losing what we have become accustomed to. Trinkets and entertainment enable us to amuse ourselves to death. We urgently need to recognize depth in society.

It has taken centuries to learn how to thrive and this helps us survive. To say I love you to those we love, to bake cookies or prepare a nutritious meal, is worth much more than being a politician, yet we glamourize and ooze over Prime Ministers. Yes we need people who will fulfill roles in maintaining integrity in leadership. We don't need tricksters who turn society upside down by promoting leadership as a form of entertainment, or entertainment as leadership.

A wealth of possessions does not make a better person if that's all they are interested in. That's a fairy tale. Unfortunately corporate media upholds wealth as an extraordinary accomplishment and  we should lick their boots.

To criticize the obvious is not much better. We might see trends as threatening our future but let's not shower morally ill narcissists with adoration for starving humanity of self respect. Lets not annoint heroes with our worship when their power brings suffering to others.

Everything is up for grabs

 

Not long ago a politician suggested you grab'er by the pussy. In his mind she is no longer a human. She is just a thing to be used. So let me take that sentiment a step further.

Women are good for cleaning house, cooking supper and having children. This has long been the assumption, even now after in vitro fertilization and abortion.  https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/in-vitro-fertilization/about/pac-20384716. 

Evan after feminism was born and reported and women have been a force in the workplace as something more than a sex object. LGBTQ voices awakening that gender is not the only thing that separates one from the other.  Movements for honouring our differences shows us just how the pecking order is more than poor, middle or upper class designations. Humanity has many gifts and challenges and it pays us to respect truth where ever we find it. When we are not fighting wars, the unknown is less perilous. 

However, USA, Israel, Palestine, Russia and Ukraine are suffering uncertainty as is Sudan and other nations.

Aaron Bushnell decided to set himself on fire to protest the war in Gaza https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges

While politics focuses on power and dismisses the beauty and pain of life, we, as a species don't seem to be fixing our problems.

Free The World for Humanity and Other Living Creatures

 Rules of engagement and good manners are traditions that have lasted for centuries. But I see a need to examine some and create new "rules". However I am one of those people who does not have a "position" where I am expected to live by the rules. But I do have some of my own that have helped me.

1. Be concerned about injustice you hear about or witness. Injustice anywhere, said Martin Luther King Jr., is a threat to justice everywhere. We (humanity) lost him too early just as we have lost Alexai Navalny. This is a loss for all now and in the future. Now none of us can sit back and hope the brave will be saving us.

2. Leadership is not about scaring everyone who knows your position. It's about sustaining places where humanity can learn who or what is ruling it and this earth. If we are not comfortable with authoritarian leaders we should not sit back and assume someone is taking care of this. Leadership is not about killing people unless we worship cruelty for its ability to shut everybody up. 

Wherever we see cruelty we must name it. I say must because it is the first stage of dysfunction. Punishment is not for those who have the power to use it. There are clear reasons for using punishment to discourage harmful behaviour in the home and the commons.

3. Weapons are designed to hurt and kill.  A good leader knows not to use punishment too soon. Even spanking and humiliating others registers as violence to the sensitive mind. Thankfully most of us have lost the appetite to watch someone being whipped or shamed in public. Watching someone  being beaten up by a gang you don't know is not entertainment. It's a sign that something in our minds and hearts has gone wrong.

4. Corporal punishment is only okay if we don't know the people involved. Adults who divide the world into good guys and bad guys have used TV dramas as their civic education. Punishment hurts those who are punished and those in denial of the trauma that hardened their feelings into denial.

5. A society that believes punishment makes men strong is one that keeps most of its people in a state of ignorance where its "shameful" to express ones thoughts and feelings, where you'll be criticized for "thinking too much".

6. An organization that doesn't encourage its members to think, is one where all the power rests with the "leader". It might pay the CEO "246 times the average worker's pay in Canada, up from 241 times in 2021, when the average was $14.3 million". https://globalnews.ca/news/10191926/top-ceo-pay-canada-2024 Such organizations do not want their staff to think too much. Mainstream media does not want more information here so shut your mouth and mind and do as you're told.

7. The future is not likely to be kind to humans if this is the goal. In fact it will celebrate humiliation for those at the bottom and vanity for those at the top. Wherever there is privilege there is anger, disappointment and cruelty regardless of whether we admit it or not. White supremacy knows this. It fears being treated the way it had treated people of colour, the poor, the homeless and women.

8. Because humans have minds and language we are the biggest threat to the egos who simply want to control others. Because rising to the top is an obsession to those who fear being vulnerable some powerful people feel they must be protected from the masses.

9. An obsession becomes harmful to everyone, relationships become fragile and dysfunctional, and all who are related suffer in some way. Worst of all humans shut down the best part of their intelligence. Kindness, sensitivity, creativity and courage are seen as opposite. Kindness becomes weakness, sensitivity becomes weakness, creativity becomes idleness, and weakness becomes ignorance. Competing for the most of what each of us wants breaks down social strengths, makes society mad. Displays of power over use childish skills and shut down communication.

10. to identify with our position in this world is to deny our humanity and human instincts.

11. Violence becomes the means to destroy life by any other name.

 

Begin Again In Love, Humility and Integrity

 

Our political systems are broken. We talk as though politics requires a sophisticated awareness of how things work. The problem is THE PECKING ORDER and its habits.

You may think that sophisticated conversation requires a lot of education. I know I used to but recently I have been overwhelmed with a get real heartache. When leaders in business are no longer interested in what is good for the people the ruling habit seems to be cynicism (a school of thought in ancient Greek philosophy, originating in the Classical period and extending into the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods. Wikipedia). 

Idealism does not have the kind of power to back it up because power is in itself the thing we seem to be awed by. Famous people, billionaires, educational institutions, beauty, sexuality, and all things shiny and new.

This means that ordinary is not enough anymore. But this is mostly a corporate thing. Corporations demand a CEO who almost has magical powers to shut up the common man and the strong woman, while raking in profit.

It's the Wizard of Oz effect. The magician. The trickster. But in reality it is destructive. It makes us feel worthless, frustrated, angry and afraid. Between America, Russia and Israel we are doomed. 

So I say be yourself. Your sensitive, caring, vulnerable self who relies on kindness. Because we all want a civil society that we can engage in, unless you have been traumatized to swallow the power pill that demands you must always win.

Rick Salutin calls Gideon Levy more prophet --- case in point his article

 They have been destined to pay the cruel price for what Hamas did. Alongside our joy, one cannot help but think of them and their fate. An operation cannot be perfect if that is its price. https://www.facebook.com/bobbossin/posts/pfbid0obAX7TWjF5tZ2LfhJorGQzCKYChBigJVBA1DkNcdGyW4BG4wSkXjPk8P75cugZ

Chris Hedges on revenge

" There will be scholars and historians who ...  will hold academic conferences. They will say “Never again!” They will praise themselves for being more humane and civilized. But when it comes time to speak out with each new genocide, fearful of losing their status or academic positions, they will scurry like rats into their holes. Human history is one long atrocity for the world’s poor and vulnerable. Gaza is another chapter." https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/let-them-eat-dirt-read-by-eunice?utm

So we wait for another 90 years until the next chapter. We cease to worry about freedom, music, arts, love, health, society. The only thing that matters is power, ultimately through violence, fear, torture and death. The ones who kill the most are the winners. 

Or, we let the fossil fuel industry kill off life before then?. 

To ban abortions, to target POC or LGBTQ people, to blame women and the poor, and to carry on adorning ourselves with large homes while others are homeless, to outlaw the poor and the immigrants, as this earth slowly and painfully watch the innocent die a long slow death, until AI has found a way to do all the tasks that workers used to do then claim the survivors won.

Or, it occurs to us that power must include respect for life and nurture that instead of trying to control it.  Or face up to our responsibility to do no harm, to reach the heart and soul of the nurturer, to dry the tears of the battered and bruised, to build a future on the feminine and masculine working together.

Sharing our thoughts, feeding the mind that seeks peace

 There a few of us who met two Sundays ago thought it would be good for us to have a discussion group. Those who would like to have a group that expresses or listens to our innermost anxieties during this time when there are several crises playing out. If you would like to chat, I can gather a few on zoom to meet after the service, to mention points that impressed us and points that distress.  

I am thinking of informal conversations based on current tensions. For sure, we are living in a time when it seems there are dangers coming from many corners. 

Please tell me if you are interested in the idea, interested to join, I care  what you think. 

Email me at janetvickers@shaw.ca

When You Learn

 

Everything you touch dies

no matter how much you love them 

or need them

and the accute pain

at the time seems

like a bad joke gone wrong

and there is nothing you can do

unless

you find a way to kill death itself

without killing the thing you love

and now you understand

how painful it would be

to be God.

How To Feel Superior Even When You Are Not

"It is increasingly evident that resistance to action on these challenges will only be overcome through engagement with the cultural values that underpin this resistance. It also seems clear that, in trying to meet these challenges, civil society organisations must champion some long-held (but insufficiently esteemed) values, while seeking to diminish the primacy of many values which are now prominent – at least in Western industrialised society."

https://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/common_cause_report.pdf 

Of course feeling superior is not relevant and never was. Take the tardigrade for instance.  It has been around for a long time but never set up talent contests or military events to announce their presence. I never knew they existed at all until I was in my 70's.

Today we have the remnants of the White Supremacy club. Whiteness has been around for centuries. Today I am ashamed to say colonialism, war, racism and sexism is still marching out in the world and otherwise instilling movements that arrest and imprison people who do not have white skin more than the people who colonized them.

Societies create pecking orders. Ruling classes down to middle and at the bottom working classes. 

What brought out the white supremacists? Social studies. Feminism. Books. Movies.

Generally there is the feeling that white people feel bad because of all the talk and focus on injustices towards the poor, people of colour, excluding certain "types" based on how they look.

A great deal of media coverage talks about body shaming, skin colour, hair, weight.

Most of this is to promote products. Sneering advertising suggests what you must and must not do if you want to fit in. You have to buy the product promoted in the clip. What it's really saying is you have to look and feel like you are perfect in face, hair, body and clothes.

It's a little different today than fifty years ago when media programming hi lighted the perfect look for those who were "keeping up appearances".

The rules are changing all the time and no matter just how good you are at your job the company has ways of "gaslighting" you so you seem to them you are ten pounds overweight and have wrinkles.

Humanity, the natural man or woman, is not good enough unless he or she is on top. Vagaries really help to keep us confused, on edge, nervous, angry, sexist and racist.

War shows us how the big rulers who have access to the best or worst bombs, guns and military might must be superhuman not ordinary, special not common. Artificial intelligence is the beginning of the end of humanity.

Climate change is the final strategy. If we don't yet own a private jet to escape to the next planet, we are just soap operas suffering from anxiety.

The big lie is capitalism. We are worth more than we own because we don't own anything forever and all we have is our breath and the moral obligation to take care of everyone we love. 

Honour your feelings and your self for all the struggles and trials you have been through. Honour those who love and support you. Superiority is a big lie.