What’s Happening Here? II

Although I cannot prove it I get a feeling that all this focus on Putin’s attack on the Ukraine keeps giving details without analysis.  A deeper analysis is called for here and it’s urgent.

Putin declared war on Ukraine and invaded, blowing up the cities, killing people, who have no role in this conflict other than to defend their country.  We know that help has been offered to Ukraine in the form of more funding for weapons which will help the arms industry but not the small children and their parents who are traumatised.  We know the feeling of outrage because the media on this side have recorded the responses of the people, in answer to questions that can predict the response. Their home, school and hospitals are blown up and they are asked to speak into a microphone. “How are you feeling?”

Their answer is predictable—they cannot sleep during night time raids, they cannot run for shelter because they have been destroyed, their children cannot go to school and they cannot go to the hospital for treatment. Not to mention that food is scarce and power for heat or cooking is often not there.

My first question is - how is it that society has been organized so just one man can decide who will live and who will die? Why do societies support and worship the power of a minority. What moral obligation does the ruler, the president or the king have towards those who are trying to survive? And what does it do to the psyche of a man who is hungry, homeless, and desperate to find shelter in complex social structures. 

A system of scapegoating takes the responsibility away from those in position of leadership and directs it to a nameless mass who have no microphone at their mouth asking for their opinion. 

The holocaust is one example of how evil men can arrange for the death of innocent people, because death is all that is required to silence the confused masses. War is another example. 

Dressing up a chosen upper class as powerful, beautiful and intelligent, is the way societies have found a fleeting power until the public understand the cost to them. Keeping information away from the masses is another way of making them so powerless they look for victims to bully for a fleeting sense of having power. Conversations about power are not welcome in a society so invested in keeping the masses ignorant, in fact the ones who are well informed are silenced through fear mongering.

But I am getting angry at hearing about all the injustice and violence in the world without hearing the questions almost screaming from neglect. How many others feel powerless?

The cause of war, starvation, injustice, the holocaust, witch hunts, misogyny, racism, anti-semitism, excessive greed, and all the abuses we call the “way of life” is the human mind overcome with fear too afraid to ask themselves what they think.

The great thinkers we applaud today are dead. The thinkers still alive are silenced and shunned, run out of town (business, office, city) like the poor goat who doesn’t understand why he has been sent away. And extra support for the trivial comes through entertainment.  

Other events to help establish a pecking order, are wars, pandemics, poverty, homelessness, and prejudice. Media that applauds the worst in human society by repeatedly reporting all the bad news. The wasteful extravagance of celebrities, the vanities of narcisistic privilege, the worship of power-over above kindness and social responsibility.

If there was ever a phrase that capitalism and business hates its social responsibility. Right wing governments ridicule any one or group who call for fairness. Left wing governments are too few to find a generalization.

Meanwhile we are entertained by one hour dramas around cunning characters who have no integrity, conscience or bleeding heart for the future of this planet and the life that depends upon it.

Have we become the savages we love to hate?

Forget Politics (note to self)

The sun shone today. No-one explained why today. It's cold and the snow is still on the ground. No-one explained why.

Why is not a popular word once we finish school or university. What is where it all ends.

Anything containing the word "power" is not published unless you have a name like Vladimir, Donald, Adolf or Stephen. These are the years no-one wants to know about. We are eager to learn who will win and who will lose but not how to be here.

We want to run away from society since it was eaten by politics. There are too many broken hearts here. Most essays, stories and poems are rejected. Is that because we know what is happening? We learned as children that our thoughts and songs were merely noise and bad behaviour.

We crave something but don't know what. What we do know is that all our problems have been manufactured. Bad practices, ignorance, greed and violence towards all who are suspected of having less power than those who kill hundreds and millions.

The idea of taking care of life is outrageous to those who have been trained to exploit it. After all it's only women who give birth. In order to take away the power of women they must keep killing whatever women are known for.

But to do this they destroy their own minds and hearts. It's not easy being "they" instead of "we" because a world where you must kill or be killed is hard work. The hardest work of all and you are alone no matter who loves you or needs you.

Would you like to start again and live through the last thousand years - the wars, the plagues, the continual looking over your shoulder for who may be coming up behind with a knife or gun?

Well we have the present moment to begin to create a future. What skills do you bring? Fixing the plumbing? Driving the car? Cooking a meal? Planting a garden? Organizing a curriculum for children or adults? Healing the sick? Creating a TV show?

None of this matters when one man has the means to destroy everything just because he chose power over life and was willing to throw everyone under the bus to get it.

He is not to blame. We, with our inability to value life, our life, our relations .... above fear and greed ... have forgotten how precious life is.

Dry Eye

 

^{Dry Eye}

^{Where are the words that frame the day?}

^{the drops for dry eye?}

^{The other day I watched a video on Facebook} 

^{Teenage boys in the park}

^{beating up whoever looked like} 

^{they were minding their own business.}

^{I recall the face of one girl in my class}

^{her breathing laboured like an old man} 

^{with synus issues breathing through his mouth}

^{she was petite but the anger on her face}

^{left her frozen like a permanent bruise}

^{except for the smirk when she laughed}

^{planning who would be her next victim}

^{as a game, as a sport}

^{and you could spot the bully}

^{whose face had only one expression}

^{—contempt for everything outside it.} 

^{Holding their bodies hard against}

^{everything else that lives}

^{like the small boy collecting insects}

^{in a jar so he could pull out their legs}

^{for hours. When other kids asked why}

^{he did it. He shrugged.}

^{When I first realized I was a girl}

^{and not a boy, I was relieved, because} 

^{I couldn’t imagine going to war}

^{(as if war began on a distant field} 

^{with guns and bombs)}

Radio Program on National vs. Private Health Care

Cross Country Check-up this past Sunday focused on our failing health care system and what to do about it. The private health care argument said it would ease the waiting lists if there was a private system for surgeries/care. The arguments for and against were interesting but I felt unease because there are interests who have time and ability to present different arguments and who can't afford a wait in pain and discomfort.  

How much money do you need to spend time listening to or arguing with the radio station?

If you suffer from anxiety, depression, exhaustion, hunger, or fear the future - you don't need fame or public thanks, you need to be able to sleep, a home, warmth, food for strength, access to a doctor when you need one, and freedom from the social habit of shaming people who suffer.

What good is wealth if its locked up in boxes in the bank gaining profit on an economic theory, but your extended family or neighbour suffer from mental and physical health issues he has no way to fix.

Food, health care and shelter, like family, are not luxuries. They are necessities.  A society where people suffer from poverty and can't afford the basic needs, do not provide peace or safety from those who live nearby. They do not provide safety even from those whose assets are locked away. They do not provide comfort to those who focus on their appearance for self esteem. They do not provide a future that is safe for all citizens except those who can lock themselves in their gated castles.

Families can't maintain bonds when even one family cannot face other members if they have no food or a home.

The only thing poverty maintains is social breakdown, people arguing over who should pay what. What "they" should or should not do. Hierarchies of worth. What is worth more - keeping up appearances or respect for life that does not seek judgement because we all become sensitive, embarrassed, hurt, individuals.

A continual obsession with 'keeping up appearances'. Finding scapegoats, blaming others, fancy economic theories, entertainment, road rage, bigotry, intellectual obfuscation, fear of the stranger, rising threats and street crime, racism, sexism, ableism.

If we don't feel safe we become agitated, judgemental, materialistic, isolated from our own sense of worth and ways to contribute to our world. Insecurity changes our nature.

The Forest of Your Creation

 

^{The Forest of Your Creation}

^{Surprised? You never knew}

^{you created a forest}

^{as you wandered through}

^{the corridors of your school}

^{or office?}

^{Cast your mind back}

^{to the days of high school}

^{in classrooms of thirty others}

^{sitting at their desk}

^{you—lost in thought}

^{asking yourself what it means}

^{determined to learn the lesson}

^{of the Western Red Cedar} 

^{the Lodgepole Pine} 

^{memorizing the facts}

^{you’ve given up the good girl}

^{you just want to survive}

^{… no that’s not all}

^{you want to belong}

^{to be present and safe.}

^{which is why you created}

^{your own forest}

^{rooted in soft soil}

^{with strong healthy branches}

^{to help you sleep at night}

^{you’ve given up on control}

^{you’ve lost your short term}

^{memory, your balance}

^{you see status as flimsy}

^{fantasy, ego}

^{which you don’t like in others}

^{so why hold onto it}

^{guard it now AI is the Head Master}

^{and the Queen}

^{where is your Mother?}

^{where is the Parting Glass?}

I think I understand why

 

When far right racist misogynist movements seem to be gaining power, I wonder what the cause is. Hegemony, capitalism, patriarchy, and all things that spout the same myth. Some are superior to others. But the greatest supporter of nihilist anti-democratic warmongering is the willingness of innocent people to withdraw in fear of expressing their own values.

We join groups that echo our own beliefs or blind spots. We know that greed and fear rule the world. We might easily fall into silence and disengage. The world is ruled by evil. Children who were abused who were alienated from loving adults will rebel against community and shared responsibility.

When all arguments have been spent there is little to be hopeful for.

Its so easy to be emotionally discouraged and believe that humans are evil. There is a mound of history revealing the evil of men who seek to rule the world and the violence they are willing to do for the sake of "glory" which is not glorious at all. But which creates cruel societies. Good, sensitive people have been traumatized by bullying egos creating empires of dysfunction. Groups formed with the best intentions become corrupted by one or two who lack integrity for the sake of gaining power. 

Really evil movements corrupt innocent minds and vulnerable people are bullied, taught they must get tough if they want to survive.

But for those who suffer we have the power to reveal the healing of support. Everyone suffers or has suffered. Its a universal experience. Most of us have experienced some love even if its brief. Those who are well and healthy can identify with or feel empathy for the sad, the lonely, the hungry and the abused.

I remember the first time someone made me feel worthy and lovable. It was like a drug, like I had been rescued. It was like living in a different world. Then I rejected that feeling and was sent straight back to the world of contempt.

It's taken me to my sixties to realize there are two worlds. The manufactured world and the natural world. Both of these have their dangers but now I see I have to be involved. I am not separate from the habits and struggles I endure. I am not "other". I am part of the whole who can suffer or give something of worth.

How many centuries has it taken to educate, to learn language and the power of words. How many mothers have exhausted themselves taking care of those they have given birth to or cared for? How many fathers have endured jobs that demean their worth to feed their families? Caregivers, nurturers, teachers, scientists, artists, builders are all involved, all contributors.

The truth is banal yet banality that keeps power in the hands of a few, ultimately destroys all. Capitalism, hierarchy, politics, has a duty to preserve and care for life. What we are witnessing now is the end of an empire and the next one must include the whole planet and everyone on it.

Eight Genders In The Talmud

 https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-eight-genders-in-the-talmud/?utm_source=mjl_maropost&utm_campaign=MJL&utm_medium=email

In case anyone thinks that genders were always one of two throughout the age of human development, its good to discover The Talmud, an authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, contains in fact no less than eight gender designations including: 

1. Zachar, male.
2. Nekevah, female.
3. Androgynos, having both male and female characteristics.
4. Tumtum, lacking sexual characteristics.
5. Aylonit hamah, identified female at birth but later naturally developing male characteristics.
6. Aylonit adam, identified female at birth but later developing male characteristics through human intervention.
7. Saris hamah, identified male at birth but later naturally developing female characteristics.
8. Saris adam, identified male at birth and later developing female characteristics through human intervention.