This weekend I took part in an Ayahuasca Ceremony, spent a good few hours in the company of a very good friends friends, most of whom were born in Africa, earn more than 20 times what I earn annually, who now live in Europe and who I discovered drink heartily and laugh with gusto.
They also love their children deeply, and indeed the wee ones were running all over the place until quite late, all very happy in the company of some tipsy adults.
I also dj'd at a fine squat party, One Drop 2 Far, and did the sound for an afternoon and evening of empowering and very fine acoustic music and poetry in an Organic Cafe in Londons Camden Town.
Quite a weekend! Has to be done, every now and again. Usually there's some excellent learning involved in these kinds of weekends for me.
One of the discussions I had over the course of this weekends activities was with a Zimbabwean, who grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe, was educated there in one of their elite schools and we talked about what was going on, politically and economically, in his home country and he helped me see something I had not quite sussed.
That the European Colonialists were not necessarily racist, and that they interacted and integrated with the local African power elites and worked their indigenous Power systems in their exploitation of Africa. Power talked to Power and shared the spoils of exploitation.
In a word, what's happening in Zimbabwe with regard to Mugabe and the take-over for white owned farms, for example, has more to do with power and control of wealth than it has to do with racism.
Furthermore, my new found friend is currently living in Dublin, and he has met and seen more racism in Ireland than anywhere else in his life (and he has been in Ireland only a few years!)
I remember back in the 70's and 80's being part of the anti-apartheid movement and focusing upon that issue in South Africa. Racism was the issue that seemed to be at the core of the problem. Being Irish in London in those days, I could identify with the racism issue. And so I was somewhat exercised about this issue in relation to South Africa.
When Mandela was released, and black South Africa's marched to power, we were jubilant. We were deeply impressed with the black Africans willingness to not shed blood in revenge for all that they had suffered. We were optimistic. We believed that we could see the future. That it would involve white and black, walking hand in hand. into a bright and peaceful future.
What we did not know was that very little was going to change. What we did not realise that the underlying issue was not about racism.
We did not understand that the issue of racism, while a real issue, was a cover for the root problem. And the root problem is the same old, same old. That there are those who hold and control power, and that power has everything to do with money and wealth and that those who hold that power and wealth are more than ready to abuse, violate and destroy anything that threatens their power. Including you and I. And our children.
Bullies with Weapons. Trickle down violence.
And they know that if they give people other problems to focus upon, that they can hang onto their power. And yes, of course racism is a problem, a dysfunctional learned behaviour, as is sexism or age-ism or religion -ism. Those kinds of problems are due mostly to conditioning. Asking who controls the conditioning and why the do so leads to understanding that the conditioners have much to fear from all the people, especially if they unite - men and women, black and white, parents and children......
And thus those issues are as nothing compared to the central issue of who holds power, who exercises power and what interests those people serve, because without the conditioning those issues would fade away as people find their commonalities. And identify their common enemy.
Concentrated centralized paranoid power.
And so it is that the War Against Terrorism, the War Against Drugs, The Fight against Cancer, The Fight Against Racism are all really non-wars, they are powerful distractions designed to direct ones attention from the fact that Power works with Power, and terrorises it's opponents (for profit).
That a Pharmaceutical Medication is proffered (for profits)in place of healthy life-styles or preventative health care, the fact that cancers' true causes (stress and toxins) are ignored and surgical removal or chemical poisoning of infected body tissue is offered (for profits), Racial Equality is mooted, Affirmative Action is undertaken while at the same time segregation-ism and ghetto-isation policies are pursued with vigour, and the indigenous poor are pitted against refugee immigrants by giving the refugee immigrants enhanced benefits whilst pursuing punitive policies and taxation against the indigenous poor, and so on....................
Things ain't ever what they seem, are they? Until you look into things a little, or have a chat with someone who's been there.
There are no black children, there are no white children, there are no brown children, there are only children.
And their parents.
Who can nurture or abuse them.
Just like Governments. And Teachers, Priests, Doctors, Gurus, etc., etc.
Finally, it occurred to me that the purpose of racism, from the point of view of Power, is to enable through false attribution, to de-humanise one 'vulnerable' group of people so that another group of people (who might be likely to usurp the Power if they knew what was really happening) are more easily led to persecuting that 'other' identified group willy nilly. Thus Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Poles and Intellectuals in Nazi Germany. Irish, Jamacian, Pakistani, 'Chavs' and Muslims in Modern Britain.
The good news is that these kinds of conditioning break down when people are left to their own devices. And that's the key - building lives that are independent of the system of power.
They also love their children deeply, and indeed the wee ones were running all over the place until quite late, all very happy in the company of some tipsy adults.
I also dj'd at a fine squat party, One Drop 2 Far, and did the sound for an afternoon and evening of empowering and very fine acoustic music and poetry in an Organic Cafe in Londons Camden Town.
Quite a weekend! Has to be done, every now and again. Usually there's some excellent learning involved in these kinds of weekends for me.
One of the discussions I had over the course of this weekends activities was with a Zimbabwean, who grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe, was educated there in one of their elite schools and we talked about what was going on, politically and economically, in his home country and he helped me see something I had not quite sussed.
That the European Colonialists were not necessarily racist, and that they interacted and integrated with the local African power elites and worked their indigenous Power systems in their exploitation of Africa. Power talked to Power and shared the spoils of exploitation.
In a word, what's happening in Zimbabwe with regard to Mugabe and the take-over for white owned farms, for example, has more to do with power and control of wealth than it has to do with racism.
Furthermore, my new found friend is currently living in Dublin, and he has met and seen more racism in Ireland than anywhere else in his life (and he has been in Ireland only a few years!)
I remember back in the 70's and 80's being part of the anti-apartheid movement and focusing upon that issue in South Africa. Racism was the issue that seemed to be at the core of the problem. Being Irish in London in those days, I could identify with the racism issue. And so I was somewhat exercised about this issue in relation to South Africa.
When Mandela was released, and black South Africa's marched to power, we were jubilant. We were deeply impressed with the black Africans willingness to not shed blood in revenge for all that they had suffered. We were optimistic. We believed that we could see the future. That it would involve white and black, walking hand in hand. into a bright and peaceful future.
What we did not know was that very little was going to change. What we did not realise that the underlying issue was not about racism.
We did not understand that the issue of racism, while a real issue, was a cover for the root problem. And the root problem is the same old, same old. That there are those who hold and control power, and that power has everything to do with money and wealth and that those who hold that power and wealth are more than ready to abuse, violate and destroy anything that threatens their power. Including you and I. And our children.
Bullies with Weapons. Trickle down violence.
And they know that if they give people other problems to focus upon, that they can hang onto their power. And yes, of course racism is a problem, a dysfunctional learned behaviour, as is sexism or age-ism or religion -ism. Those kinds of problems are due mostly to conditioning. Asking who controls the conditioning and why the do so leads to understanding that the conditioners have much to fear from all the people, especially if they unite - men and women, black and white, parents and children......
And thus those issues are as nothing compared to the central issue of who holds power, who exercises power and what interests those people serve, because without the conditioning those issues would fade away as people find their commonalities. And identify their common enemy.
Concentrated centralized paranoid power.
And so it is that the War Against Terrorism, the War Against Drugs, The Fight against Cancer, The Fight Against Racism are all really non-wars, they are powerful distractions designed to direct ones attention from the fact that Power works with Power, and terrorises it's opponents (for profit).
That a Pharmaceutical Medication is proffered (for profits)in place of healthy life-styles or preventative health care, the fact that cancers' true causes (stress and toxins) are ignored and surgical removal or chemical poisoning of infected body tissue is offered (for profits), Racial Equality is mooted, Affirmative Action is undertaken while at the same time segregation-ism and ghetto-isation policies are pursued with vigour, and the indigenous poor are pitted against refugee immigrants by giving the refugee immigrants enhanced benefits whilst pursuing punitive policies and taxation against the indigenous poor, and so on....................
Things ain't ever what they seem, are they? Until you look into things a little, or have a chat with someone who's been there.
There are no black children, there are no white children, there are no brown children, there are only children.
And their parents.
Who can nurture or abuse them.
Just like Governments. And Teachers, Priests, Doctors, Gurus, etc., etc.
Finally, it occurred to me that the purpose of racism, from the point of view of Power, is to enable through false attribution, to de-humanise one 'vulnerable' group of people so that another group of people (who might be likely to usurp the Power if they knew what was really happening) are more easily led to persecuting that 'other' identified group willy nilly. Thus Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Poles and Intellectuals in Nazi Germany. Irish, Jamacian, Pakistani, 'Chavs' and Muslims in Modern Britain.
The good news is that these kinds of conditioning break down when people are left to their own devices. And that's the key - building lives that are independent of the system of power.
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