The Economics of Blood

If we look back at the development in the twentieth century, the most devastating cause of human suffering, of deprivation of human dignity, freedom, and peace has been the culture of violence in resolving differences and conflicts. the challenge before us is to make our new century of dialogue and of peaceful co-existence.
- Dalai Lama

Found on the Charter for Compassion email newsletter.

With Zimmerman, the Scandal Is What’s Legal (Andrew Rosenthal - The New York Times Taking Note)

...  because  in Florida you can carry a gun in public, follow an innocent stranger and then stand your ground.

Can this happen in Canada? Is it possible that some time in the future the laws here will be the same as in Florida? What will make it easy for gun laws such as this to be entrenched in law? What can we do to avoid it?

A reply from Bob Lane ...

1. Yes,
2. Possible.
3. Vote conservative.
4. Vote Green. Pay attention. Be diligent.

Elizabeth May: this is what a leader looks like

May taken National Day of Action, Electoral Reform

The leader of the Green Party is an example of what a leader is. She focuses on the issues. She informs Canadians about what she is doing, what needs to be done, and why. Visit her website for well written and easy to read articles.

There is so much trivial noise created from various interests that the really important issues don't get the coverage they deserve.  But if you want to find out more about why things happen, their causes and what we can do about them visit the sites that inform.

A good leader knows that our collective survival is built on social justice not popularity.

Other leaders include, David Suzuki, Council of Canadians, staff at Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives , Karen Armstrong, and Thomas Mulcair.

The New Bourgeoisie

Is the new bourgeoisie a rising middle class who will bring about creative destruction - turning the world away from capitalism toward environmentalism?

The shocking images of rail cars full of petroleum blowing up and burning down the town of Lac-Megantic in Quebec, as tragic, and scary as it is, is only a fraction of how unregulated capitalism has wiped out the common wisdom of social responsibility for the extreme wealth of a few.  

In other words, work safety, living wages, health, social costs, justice, and standard of living, are all irrelevant arguments because life (nature) is irrelevant in the current pursuit of profit.  To care about humanity is naive and sentimental.  The mainstream media daily provides us with an inventory of examples. 

Weather, once the topic of polite society, has become political, with every extreme event being an indicator that we are not in control. Heat waves, cyclones, droughts and floods threaten to end the Anthropocene.  Yet the anthro-hyenas refuse to pay attention.

After centuries of class restrictions, the brave entrepreneurs of nineteenth century America were not going to let tradition get in the way of a new world dream.  The economy and the market place became the opiate of the people, and although the rest of the world applauded its inventions and has benefited from unbridled enthusiasm - now when this nation is the only remaining super-power, the American people are not the recipients of this wealth. (But neither were the British people when Britain "ruled the waves".) 

Chris Hedges has identified "sacrifice zones" where "Americans are trapped in endless cycles of poverty, powerlessness, and despair as a direct result of capitalistic greed".

Humanity is the sacrifice to this current fundamentalist 'religion', because wherever nature is not taken care of, where people are not allowed hope, dignity and worth, life ends in violence. Perhaps suddenly or slowly and painfully. 

Witnessing the destruction of eco systems is a mental health issue.  How can we be reasonable, nurturing and creative people when all the signs point to pollution?

Power-worship is the most devastating, debilitating mental illness of all when it threatens our survival, and prevents us from seeing what is in front of our noses.

Our governments are deluded. Britain's "former energy minister John Hayes described concerns about the rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia – which, with their tigers, orangutans and thousands of unique species, are being destroyed to grow biofuels – as “bourgeois views” writes George Monbiot.  

This is the Orwellian new-speak we were warned about in 1984 - that something as essential as stewardship of the earth should be trivialized with words that mean the opposite. 

So those of us whose love of the natural world is a source of constant joy and constant despair, who wish to immerse ourselves in nature as others immerse themselves in art, who try to defend the marvels which enthrall us, find ourselves labelled – from the Mail to the Guardian – as romantics, escapists and fascists. That, I suppose, is the price of confronting the power of money. (Monbiot)

So let us be the new bourgeoisie. Let us agonize over how we, as individuals and collectives, can creatively redesign the operating system so that diversity and abundant nature is given the dignity it deserves.  Let capitalism represent our creativity as it did among the shop keepers of old. Let socialism represent the well-being and health of all. Let fundamentalism be the domain of roots so that vegetables, fruit, trees and families can thrive. Let the salons begin.

How to Win the War

Foyle's War is a TV drama written by Anthony Horowitz that takes place during and shortly after WWII.

So far I have only seen up to 1944 but I am impressed with the high quality of this production because of several reasons.  First the characters are not simply foils to the plot - they are written and acted as real people living in difficult conditions. Second the program does not stray from the context of that time. Third what is revealed is the many ways in which war oppresses people, even those who are rational, ethical, well educated, living in highly developed societies.  Each episode reveals the destruction by showing us how the characters deal with the difficult situations.

The most heart breaking episode is "Broken Souls" which tells the story of the mental health of soldiers and civilians.  It focuses on a psychiatrist who is operating at a very compassionate level even though he has lost his home and family.  Coming from Poland to England he works with ex-military men whose lives have been interrupted by mental illness. Like the character of Foyle he is an example of a deep commitment to life and the moral standards that demands.  We watch the souls breaking and being broken by the conversations and conflicts between each character, and each character deserves compassion.

(This compares to blockbuster movies - where the good are magical and the evil mechanical robots who struggle for power with high tech weapons.  Watching a fine production such as Foyle's War really contrasts with the modern propaganda for the arms industry.)

In the "Broken Souls" episode the good doctor discovers that his wife was killed in a death camp, and filled with remorse for surviving his family he attempts to kill himself.  His suicide is interrupted and he is rescued.  But later he discovers through a Pathe News Reel the conditions of the prison camp his family were taken to.  Distraught he leaves the movie theatre and walks by the river where he is knocked down by a young German prisoner of war trying to escape.  It is while he is down in the mud that his reason is overtaken with rage just for a few moments and he picks up a rock, throws it at the German, killing him.

It is the doctor's retelling of this event that is the poetry, the illustration of how a soul is broken.  It is the narrative of every fine soldier, healer and human who survives the break down of the world around them.  It is the door to our understanding how no-one wins the war in the end. There are always broken souls who seek to mend them by causing the next war, and the next, and the next - and so it goes.

The only way to win the war is to value life more than power. This too is not an end to war forever, not a lasting solution, because once we attempt to control the lives of others, we step back into the devil's deal of power and move away from life. This is a principle of our evolution not a strategy or an ideology.

Things I cannot prove

Lotta Hitschmanova - photo by USC Canada

While I agree it's good to have facts back up our beliefs there are some that cannot be proven no matter how much research I do.  It is part of my experience to be perceptive, to sense what is happening around me, and after many years of dismissing many of these perceptions because of a lack of proof, I believe they have some element of value. 

For example I cannot prove that Jesus, who, according to scriptures, was nailed to a cross – died for our sins, not to save us from our sins as the Christian doctrine says.  Certainly these doctrines have been studied by scholars and priests for many centuries, and for whom I would never doubt their intelligence, but there is a theme in these teachings that reach me in a very deep and disturbing way.

The meaning of this story, comes from my first impression as a child. It is a warning of what happens to those who challenge authority. The imagery is so powerful it hardly needs thinking about.  The son of man (and woman) nailed to a cross, naked, and left to die a long and excruciating death, for advocating a spiritual life – what child wouldn't get that message deep under their soft skin?

After two thousand years of evolving doctrines, the most fanatic adherents have been willing to mutilate, torture, burn and murder for their Christ without feeling any apparent conflict to their Savior's message in life – although I have no way of knowing the conscience of crusaders.

What is that sin we are guilty of, that allowed him to be crucified? Is it the original sin – being born of woman, of sexual desire, of being imperfect? Or is it that we (mortals) failed to climb on the cross, remove the nails and set the Christ free?

This question is, of course, naïve, and all the arguments, interpretations, are irrelevant no matter how eloquent or learned they may be – except the meaning that most impacts the followers. 

Some dismiss religion entirely.  After all history reveals our vainglory.  The teachings of Christianity have been selected and altered to fit the politics of the day.  First it was used to make the people suspicious of their own intellects and judgement, and to fear their own desires and needs.  Then it taught misogyny, a hatred of feminine wisdom. It  forced men to doubt their own feelings and fears, to become soldiers and cannon fodder. Then it taught followers to hate those who did not share their religion and race. Instead of teaching the love of Christ it taught religious intolerance.  It taught that suffering was good for you and at the same time, taught that those who suffered ill-health, poverty, injustice – must have angered God and so their suffering came with shame and guilt.

Now that a new tool of propaganda has been invented, religion is not essential.   Now voice-overs, images, TV shows, movies, consumerism, and the internet, can broadcast the doctrines that keep us serving – what exactly? Ideology? Technology? The corporate elite? Racial supremacy? Patriarchy?

Are all these things evil or are they different versions of the same thing? Should we get rid of them all and return to community and nature?  Would we then be free of oppression?  

I don’t know.  All their messages point to some truths, but they don’t willingly tell the whole truth.  Religion has also given us Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Buber, Martin Luther King Jr., Lotta Hitschmanova, KarenArmstrong, the Dalai Lama and many others who have inspired great movements.

Although I can’t prove it I believe ideology is a way of ordering life without the agony of attempting to understand it.  It’s an operating system, under different names, we willingly give in to,  in the hopes we’ll rise to a position of power that will enable us to feel  superior.  We submit to doctrines, game plans, education, clubs – believing we can reach the top, change the rules, or change the system.

So the story of Jesus, like the story of the witch hunts, the French revolution, war, capitalism, communism, and The Wizard of Oz – are all about the worship of power over the use of responsible democratic power that comes from within. Their cautionary tales reveal our inability to transcend the operating systems that punish those who seek alternatives to structural violence.  Those who affirm life through love instead of hate.  Those who work for the greater good of all. I can’t prove it but I keep seeing it this way.

Fear Won. Civil Society Lost.

"In this election Adrian Dix and his campaign hit lots of precise if small notes that a political journalist like myself might keep track of and tally, but overall the New Democrats apparently neither summoned enough fear of their opponents nor struck the themes or meme-like policy ideas that summoned enough inspiration. Campaigns are not PowerPoint presentations. They are emotional narratives. You would think that journalists like me, who describe ourselves as story tellers, would have better sensed where this tale was taking people in the late chapters." David Beers, The Tyee.

The results are in.  The majority of voters do not care enough about their society to learn how power works against them.  They are happy to believe the slogans paid by wealthy transnational interests rather than think about how this affects the quality of life for them and their family.  They want to believe in their own superiority, their natural common sense, rather than find out how the operating system has kept the masses oppressed and ignorant. They want to believe that "Jobs" and "Economy" will be good for them without understanding how power sets the terms and conditions they must work under.

The majority of voters don't want to think about their relationship to social justice, or their role in community building, and so corporate funded media campaigns keep them mesmerized and oppressed. And don't think it will be status quo.  We have told the funding interests we don't care about our province, our neighbours, or our nation.  We only want to be entertained. So they can do as they like with us.

We are now Bangladesh. We are now, in narrative, a third world petro state and the operating system is designed so our elected leaders are powerless. The land will be destroyed by pipelines and tankers and we will pay the corporations to do it.

Our teachers and healers will burn out and our schools become warehouses for our kids while we earn twenty cents an hour in dangerous conditions. Our hospitals will be kept for those who can afford to pay for them while we die in toxic swamps. And if the poisons don't get us we will be too overcome with rage to organize and cooperate.

Over the last thirty years the wise and intelligent have warned us. Yes a minority have marched, protested and contributed to rescuing the human experiment. But the majority have dismissed these efforts for the fleeting giggles of the Dragon's Den.  Our communities will descend into soap opera dramas. Eventually we will pull out each other's hair, gouge out our neighbours' eyes and attach bombs to our own underwear.

All because we were afraid of the word socialism.  All because we became afraid of our own power believing that anything we do for humanity, community and society, is bad for us.

The fangs of capitalism have bled humanity of its worth and integrity. It has made us idiots in our own living rooms and we voted for its end game.