The Patterning Instinct

"As I describe in The Patterning Instinct, in this case the underlying disease is one of separation: separation of mind from body, separation from each other, and separation from nature. 

It’s our view of humans as essentially disconnected, begun in agrarian civilizations, exacerbated with the Scientific Revolution, and institutionalized by global capitalism, that has set us on this current path either to collapse or TechnoSplit." 

Jeremy Lent, Patterns of Meaning

Old Man in the Corner

In the dark corner of the bar 

an old man crumpled in his seat

can barely lift his glass

—each pint gets heavier

each day takes more to numb the pain.

He has given up trying to understand the source

of his grief, the reason for his expulsion

from a place, like joy, peace, or belonging.

He knows like blood coursing through his veins 
he was robbed.

Of what? His manliness? His hope?

His tribe. He has lost his tribe.

He has lost his job. And someone

has to pay.

Yes he knows about NAFTA

and the jobs that went to India

and the slick talkers in suits

cutting him loose from the plant

and he knows like the knife

in his stomach that they can’t

be hurt, can’t be touched

by anything he does.

And he can’t tell his buddies

they have cut off his balls.

So when he screams

get rid of all the others,

he means those who are not like him

and throughout his years

of becoming a man

he has become the foreigner

to his own heart.

(Infinite Power, Janet Vickers. Ekstasis 2016)

Here is What Jody Wilson-Raybould Has to Say

National Observer has published an article written by Jody Wilson-Raybould.  Anyone who wants to criticize the ex-Attorney General should read this. If you wish to comment without reading her first, without listening to what she has said, you may be helping corporate lobbies create the "news" that benefits only them.

Us and Them

There are some billionaire hedge fund owners and multinational CEOs who donate to divide civil society by investing in sites like Breitbart and hate media outlets like Fox News.  CommonDreams.org 

"Investigative journalist Jane Mayer wrote a book about their efforts titled Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.

“In April of 2016, the SPLC documented Breitbart’s embrace of extremist ideas and racist tropes such as black-on-white crime and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. Further analyses showed how under executive chair Stephen Bannon, Breitbart’s comment section became a safe space for anti-Semitic language.”

Anti-Union groups like Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research have been funded in the millions.

What makes social justice and equality such a threat towards these elites that they  fund parties who are willing to take babies away from their mothers, incarcerate African Americans, support anti-semitism, Islamaphobia, denigrate indigenous people and support pornographic misogynist rape culture?

Since Canada follows US trends we can expect that right wing political parties are also supported by Corporate capitalist elites. Even CBC news has been tainted by right wing apathetic tones.

The spike in "public" support or acceptance of right wing attitudes came suddenly after Donald Trump got elected.  Our Prime Minister changed his tone from holding up indigenous rights to cheering for pipelines.

In a nutshell, the white supremacists have revealed to my imagination this Orwellian animal farm scenario:

People who are brown, Islamic, Jewish, female, intellectually curious, LGBTQ and poor - are the enemy.  Who else is left?  The ruling elite along with those who can be manipulated by propaganda.

So what is next if this hierarchy remains and rules?  A planetary playground for billionaires and their servants. One way or another - all life that cannot be exploited will be removed. Which takes us back to the Nazis who imprisoned and killed anyone who didn't subscribe to their goal of world domination.

In some states Christianity has been hijacked and changed to an evangelical cult to not only accept the brutality of Trump's campaign but to make him a God. Forget the centuries of Christian teachings of Jesus. The second coming is Money. It can change everything that invests in its supremacy as long as humanity has been emptied of conscience and compassion.  It is built on contempt for all natural life.  It is power without flesh. The worship of the monster revealed as greed, which will bring suffering to everything that is beautiful and worth living for.

Addiction, drugs and pollution will be the weapons of those who cannot tolerate any other kind of power beyond their own. If the land is flooded and the forests on fire, they will purchase land where it is not.

It won't be capitalism or communism or fascism - it will simply be the dark hole of power, the mindless, heartless machine. There will be no conscience to reveal the suffering of ourselves or others. Language will dissolve into clicks.  Knowledge will be erased. Whatever beauty can be found in nature will be a desert.

So if we do not voice our shared or diverse views, if we are irritated by people who have different experiences, people who have different faiths and wear different clothes, and you look forward to a time where everyone is just like you, and everything is what you like - you are helping the silencing of humanity.

Love Resists Hate Groups

A large American Christian charity  “has donated $56.1 million on behalf of its clients to 23 nonprofits identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups.” Ilana Novick - Truthdig.

These include anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-Immigrant groups. 

However there are many Christians and other religious groups who work on the premise of Love Resists.

Here is their message:

As people committed to building inclusive communities of love and justice, our hearts are heavy with the recent news of the murders of Muslim worshipers in Christchurch, New Zealand. When members of our global communities and families are harmed, we know we must recommit to caring for one another; to being the balm, the comfort, and the fire for justice.  We recommit to understanding Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence as part of a growing movement of white Christian nationalism that traces its roots to the United States and conflates racial resentment with religiosity.  We recommit to interrogating our own complicity in Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence. We recommit to growing the skills we need to practice community safety and to not perform safety that so often increases criminalization by involving the harms of policing and militarization. We recommit to learning about policies and practices that create a climate of violence and how to resist them, whether on the national level like the"Muslim Ban" or on the local level, like surveillance programs such as Countering Violent Extremism.  If you are Muslim or a target of Islamophobia or anti-Muslim violence, may you recommit to abiding, fierce self-love and love for your community. Love Resists is with you in loving solidarity. We affirm and echo the wordsof UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray:  "This attack is part of a global trend of unapologetic nationalism and white supremacist violence that we cannot ignore. We must call it out. We must condemn it. We must also interrogate our own hearts for the disease of bigotry and work to eradicate it." Resources for recommitting to learning and healing: Coping With Community Trauma, from the Muslim Wellness Foundation Deescalation and Interventions, a resource from Side With Love Unpacking and Resisting State-Sponsored Islamophobia, from the UU College of Social Justice What is "Countering Violent Extremism"? (CVE), from the Muslim Justice League More ways to support our Muslim siblings, from the Muslim Justice League In faith and solidarity, The Love Resists Team

Love Resists is a joint campaign by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

www.loveresists.org

Climate Strike around the world

Scenes of Climate Strike around the world shown in RollingStone Magazine - go to this link  here.

Sacred Masculine

Even though gender is a construct beyond 

the reproductive organs - I need to respect 

the hero, the sacred masculine

as it has been witnessed here.

The real man who goes out to the garden

to build a wooden box for tomato stakes

come summer.

The man who takes an afternoon nap

before he prepares supper

who knows when I am sick before I do

who keeps the TV volume down

when I take a nap.

Who held, fed and changed our first born 

while I went to the theatre,

who survived the highway-to-office battles

for fifty years, the endless sales calls, 

unmentionable skirmish in the belly, 

who had the insight to admit he couldn’t stay 

in the manager’s chair without slipping 

into that alcoholic night. Who realized

he never wanted to be a stranger to his children.

The sacred masculine holds the ability

to fix the gate or vacuum cleaner

look for the best hotel, weed the garden

coach kids how to kick a soccer ball into the net

listen to the troubles and achievements of friends,

buy birthday cards, potatoes or eggs

and allow the ‘other’ a seat on the subway

without spreading.

The sacred masculine adapts to the world 

as it is, his level gaze informing

the warrior of the weapons required

who will never win fame because

he didn't take a gun and kill something.

.