Henri Giroux on Fascism and Toxic Masculinity

How politics disposes of some people so that others follow feeling numbed if not privileged, Giroux responds to the trial against victims of rape in the Brett Kavanaugh case. 

"I mean, I think that when any group or any element of the population is seen as so disposable, is treated with such almost visceral violence, we begin to get a whiff of something that is at work here that really isn’t being talked about, and that is a kind of fascist politics that absolutely hates democracy, hates the truth, hates public participation and is doing everything it can to hide, would seem to me, any visible element of what it might mean to take this woman’s narrative seriously and to talk, basically, about the crimes that are built into the system in ways that have to be addressed." The Real News Network. Interview with Henri Giroux by DHARNA NOOR

The Other is Killing Us

There is a theory which holds that "the surge in far-right support, in otherwise moderate countries such as Sweden, is a one-time response to current events – especially to the surge in migrants and refugee claimants who entered Europe in 2015 and 2016 amid the Syrian civil war." Doug Saunders writes in The Globe and Mail.

You might see the surge in media articles on racism and the need to be "woke" as blaming white people too easily, or the feminist voices on sexual harassment in the work place as portraying men as scheming predators.

Whichever side you are on, it feels like the "other" is killing us. And the "other" IS killing us. But the "other" is not the one who is usually blamed.

The "other" does not appear in public as a particular race or gender or even a personality type. This "other" is the anthro-hyena.

The anthro-hyena appears to be human, talks, walks and dresses like a human but has developed into a creature who is beyond the sentiment and emotion of the human. Neither is it a wild hyena who mates, hunts and lives on the African plains.

The anthro-hyena has a particular set of skills and an obsession to scheme and control social systems. His/her aim is dark manipulation and this will destroy all life on our planet unless we identify the activity as a singular threat.

Human culture has identified the evil "other" through stories, religious doctrine and psycho-analysis. Labels such as psychopath, the devil, satan, criminal, enemy or killer - have been well used to identify evil activity, but the anthro-hyena is much smarter and less noticeable than those we identify as threats to a functioning society.

The anthro-hyena is not the richest king , CEO, Prime Minister or President because he works behind the scene, advising, scheming and lobbying. Once identified she or he might be classified as psychopathic, rich or successful but the nature that makes her so dangerous is her ability to move around and influence institutions so as to bring about their destruction while appearing to be essential to the institution.

The anthro-hyena comes in all genders, races and classes. They adopt the language and persona of whatever group they choose to work in. They appear to represent us, whoever we are and wherever we might be. They learn the skills and discipline of the profession they adopt. But that is just their platform.

The anthro-hyena will not be the troll stalking the comment section or the killer stalking the street - the anthro-hyena will be organizing, coaching and manipulating others to do that. The devastation of society will be a strategy that links all elements so that (1) the actors believe they are working on their own behalf, and (2) the action will seem human, natural, and caused by the politics that preceded them.

However the architects and designers of the event or string of events, are never recognized or named. They slip into and out of the corners like shadows in a nightmare.

The anthro-hyena doesn't plan a new movement, protest or political group. He/she feeds the conversation by adopting a fake persona and providing the "propaganda", the "ideology" and the "doctrine" to enable the followers to do the work of fronting the movement.

For example, the oil pipelines create division among different groups. The ones who believe we need the oil and the jobs and the ones who live, work, eat and drink the resources where the oil is to be shipped. It's easy to see why each side supports their argument, but the anthro-hyena is not interested in finding common ground or coming to a workable solution. The currency is inflaming the issue, making both sides appear ridiculous, angry and even violent. Hauling out stereotypes alienates us from the basic issue.  Name calling, ridicule, fear and destruction is skillfully massaged.

The anthro-hyena also finds funding to do the work that he does not identify with. His or her name will not be shown with any movement for long. Once the destruction of social spirit has been achieved, he/she will have moved on to the next project.

Fascism and war are the products of the anthro-hyena's machinations. He/she has achieved his goal if a nation or continent dissolves into war, because the anthro-hyena has succeeded in redefining human identity, re-distributing our activity. The goal is not just to torture millions of people but to get humanity to forget who they are, to keep them confused and alienated from their better natures.

Capitalism has managed to do that as it moves from a simple exchange of goods to re-creating the world and all its inhabitants into a singular obsession - the gross domestic product.  Living organisms  flail and become lost when reduced to a singular goal or obsession.

Religion has managed that too after the anthro-hyena has inflamed the worst in human nature, so that the spirit is blinded by the imperative to control the masses.

The rule of law once separated from the care and concern of community becomes an instrument of oppression rather than justice.  The silky tones of the anthro-hyena seduces us to agree to and be subdued by rhetoric and rant.

Medicine becomes poison when the goal is rendered down to the limits of profit. Science becomes a weapon when the only results we are interested in, are those that bring in money.

Money becomes a false god when it is worshipped blindly. Politics loses its essential drive when campaign funding is the arbiter of success.

This planet dies when people struggle under the doctrine of the anthro-hyena's persuasion that we cannot survive without fossil fuels.

Our only defence against the anthro-hyena is to revere life, protect the environment, sustain the oceans, keep the forests, protect the vulnerable and honour the fragile.

When the surge in far-right movements is the result of current events it's because we have been drowned in ideology that the other is killing us. That other might be the anthro-hyena not those driven from their home from starvation and land clearances. That other might be the ego in each of us that we dare not interrogate, dissociated from our family and the organic matter between our ears.

Department of Deviance: Resignation

Department of Deviance: Resignation: I have been a blogger at Feminist Philosophers for about 5 years.   I resigned from the blog over the summer but now want to do so publicly -  Amy Olberding



An excellent post for our time. The more the gap widens between extremes, the more I am leaning towards kindness.

How Can We Find Our Way Home?

This past weekend I had the pleasure of reading some of my poems at the Capital Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Victoria.

Reading from a collection titled "Over There Where I Cry Mother I Am Lost" we then gathered after the service to talk, ask questions, on how we can return to a preferred future. Everyone who spoke was in touch with the politics of our day, the threats to our environment and the challenges of our relationship to one another and our planetary home. We were mostly middle aged and there was one young person there.

We are not short of thoughtful intelligent and sensitive people, but we suffer from the realization that a system drives our which is dissociated from nature and civil society. This means we find it difficult to affect change and protect our home. Out of that conversation I list several things we might consider.

1. ECONOMICS
Send letters to our political representatives, call them, let them know their duty to their constituents and country goes deeper than "jobs" and "the economy". Their reliance on lobbies who have no other interest than making the economy grow - is now destroying our home. Make noise. Get their attention. Offer alternative ways that go deeper into the problems.

2. COMMUNICATION
Do not fall back on scapegoats, threatening those who don't see things as you do, go beyond blaming to workable ideas on how we can work together. Offer hope in ideas rather than leaving it at criticism. Making claims about what "they" do leads us deeper into judgement and leaves us without ideas on how we can move forward.  Bring young minds into the circle. Listen to what they believe rather than telling them what they believe.

3. LOCATE YOUR HOME
What areas of social life do you know, what have you experienced, what skills and knowledge do you possess? What books have you read that have influenced you? Where have you come from? Your family values, your political preferences, your education level and your profession. This is where you begin because you've lived it.

4. INHERITED TRAUMA
Trauma that your parents and ancestors survived are the bedrock of your beginning as you learned how to survive. It is the lens you have inherited like your DNA and your values. How did these elements make you vulnerable and make you strong?

5. SOCIAL STRUGGLE
How did you get through elementary school, high school and university? How did you fit into your profession or work life? How much support did you get from colleagues, friends and bosses?

6. EMOTIONAL AND SPIRITUAL HOME
Where do you find comfort? In nature? In a religious congregation? As an activist? As an artist? Where do you feel effective and where do you contribute? Even warriors need a tent to return to for support and sustenance.

7. WHERE IS YOUR TRIBE?
Where you do feel a kinship? Where do you belong? Where besides social media, can you say what you feel, reveal the deepest feelings in your heart and your mind. Remember you are not alone. Nothing that thrives is alone, not even oceans and trees, not even clouds.

8. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT
It is about what is, what was, but mostly what we can do.  Until our species becomes extinct we shall respond to the world as we know it in our hearts and minds to the best of our ability.

Hey Ontario - Unitarians Offer Comprehensive Sex Education Program

The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) announces the availability of the sex education program, Our Whole Lives (OWL), to Ontario schools and parents. 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada – August 29, 2018 – The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) advocates for fact-based sexuality education, which is provided in many Unitarian congregations through its progressive Our Whole Lives (OWL) program. 

The CUC believes that the Ontario government’s decision to repeal the comprehensive 2015 Health and Sex Education curriculum and reinstate the curriculum from 1998 will leave children at risk and adversely impact schools’ ability to create cultures of inclusion, safety and consent. Neither does it prepare students of all genders and sexual orientations to develop healthy, consensual relationships.

To fill the gap of the important information and content that is missing from the 1998 curriculum the Canadian Unitarian Council supports and promotes Our Whole Lives (OWL). OWL is an extensive  lifespan sexuality education program created almost 20 years ago by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ in the US. The curricula includes age ranges from kindergarten to adulthood, and has been updated regularly to stay current. The 2018 OWL program provides honest, accurate, and developmentally appropriate information about a range of topics including relationships, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual health, and cultural influences on sexuality.

OWL supports and encourages family conversations about sexual values and healthy decision making. The curriculum is based on the principles of self-worth, sexual health, responsibility, justice, and inclusivity, and helps people of all ages make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behaviour. The program dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision making, and has the potential to save lives.

“Through our experience offering Our Whole Lives, we understand the profound effect that inclusive, respectful, fact-based sex education can have on young people,” says Vyda Ng, Executive Director of the CUC. She adds “Our Whole Lives empowers children, teens and others across age lifespans to understand not only their bodies but also their relationships and the importance of consent and respect in building healthy relationships.”

The Canadian Unitarian Council is deeply concerned that the loss of comprehensive sexuality education in Ontario schools will leave children and youth vulnerable at a time when they most need accurate information and empowerment to make good decisions. Asha Philar, OWL Coordinator for the CUC states, “The Our Whole Lives program gives youth the tools to make healthy and age-appropriate choices and helps LGBTQ youth find self-acceptance and support. Without access to accurate information and learning opportunities, Ontario students are put at risk and we fear that LGBTQ youth will face even more barriers to acceptance.” 

OWL programs are available through many Unitarian congregations from September to May. To find out more about the OWL program and where workshops for ages kindergarten to adult are available, contact owl@cuc.ca.  

More information about the CUC’s Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education program can be found on the CUC website.  https://cuc.ca/congregations-leaders/religious-exploration/our-whole-lives-owl/ or email owl@cuc.ca.

Additional information and calls to action: 

Members of the CUC and its congregations are invited to sign the following petition calling on Premier Ford to keep Ontario’s 2015 sex-ed curriculum: https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/doug-ford-keep-ontario-s-sex-ed-curriculum

Please phone Education Minister Lisa Thompson to reinstate the 2015 Ontario Health and Sex Education curriculum:  https://www.leadnow.ca/call-to-save-sex-ed/  

About the Canadian Unitarian Council

The Canadian Unitarian Council / Conseil unitarien du Canada (CUC) is the national association of Unitarian Universalist congregations in Canada. We are a diverse faith community bound by a common commitment to equity and justice. We covenant to a set of principles, which calls us to seek peace, liberty and compassion, to search for truth and meaning, to respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and to uphold democratic processes.

Media Contact:

Vyda Ng, Executive Director
executivedirector@cuc.ca 

Open Letter to All Leaders

Dear Leaders please be aware of the war we are waging, between profit and sustainable life.  

"The planet is transitioning under our onslaught to a new era called the Anthropocene. This era is the product of violent conquest, warfare, slavery, genocide and the Industrial Revolution, which began about 200 years ago, and saw humans start to burn a hundred million years of sunlight stored in the form of coal and petroleum. Chris Hedges, Saying Goodbye to Planet Earth. 

Then there is this report by Guy Dauncey: BC's Climate Intentions Papers: A Timid Response and Twelve Solutions We Really Need: 

1. 100% Renewable Energy by 2040, 
2. 95% Green House Gas Reduction by 2040, 
3. Legally mandated annual carbon budgeting,  
4. Province wide public engagement, 
5. Stand firm against the pipeline, 
6. All new cars to be EV's by 2015, 
7. Massive support for urban cycling, 
8. Huge expansion of Transit, 
9. All new buildings to be zero carbon by 2024, 
10. Building energy labelling, 
11. No oil-heated building by 2025, 
12. Climate test for all new industrial projects, and zero carbon by 2040.

So, just in case you are wondering, like I am, why our powerful interests wish to keep sending us back to the end of the Roman Empire with its brutality and toxic machismo - ask yourself where has even one of these things been achieved or is seriously attempted? None?  Then ask yourself what is the common theme in the solutions to save the planet.

Life perhaps?  Has it come to this, that ruling powers are afraid of life, love and all the energies and information that shows a reverence for life? Does it look as though any political candidate who wants to save our world is going to be first tossed out by a group sabotage?

Spite is the sign of defeat

It's easy to rule the world if you have absolute power. You own the military, the civil institutions, the law and all the people. You rewrite the theology of your religion and kill those who argue. You can blame everything on those who have less power than you. Marry and behead your wives if they don't produce sons. Public executions end debate about right and wrong. You can threaten other nations with trade sanctions.  You can lie and demand that everyone calls it truth.

You can dismantle the UN, blow up cities, exterminate ethnic groups, shut down schools, ban music and theatre, fund fascism and hate groups, take children away from their parents and raise them on propaganda. 

None of this is new of course. George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood and many others have written about dystopian worlds where no trace of integrity or justice can be found.  But men and women who worship power are eager to suck up whatever crumbs that fall from the table, in order to gain more for themselves.

Pundits are ever ready to sell themselves for a few points: -  Tory MP declares that diversity will destroy us; young man gunned down in road rage; man flies his plane into home after fight with wife; Conservatives side with authoritarian regime that beheads, crucifies, and flogs citizens.

If revenge, spite, guns and killing are the only subjects discussed in my community, it leaves me without agency or representation. Those who have done all they can to keep a job, rent a home, feed their family - still end up jobless and homeless, are led to believe they have two choices - blame themselves or blame others. It's a universal problem. 

In trickle-down economics, it's not wealth but propaganda, a hierarchy of importance, a class system, a pecking order, a food chain. It's easy to rule the world because those with the largest arsenal of weapons have the capacity to invent the gimmicks to keep the rest of us occupied until it is too late to see what we have lost. Then all that's left is to kick the dog for revenge, attack the minority, send back the refugees, watch the beheadings of those who dared to speak up, vote for the politicians who campaign on punishment, and so on. 

After the shooting on the Danforth in July, Matt Gurney wrote in The Walrus "I wanted these people who had seen violence first-hand to care more. Not to be traumatized, of course. But I wanted to see signs of engagement or curiosity or a focus on policy."


When spite is the only thing we have left, we have nothing but misery. This is the boot on the face of humanity, polished and paid for by an ideology that worships power, not life, not struggle, compassion, or vulnerability.