UK Local and European Elections, the reality of The Vote exposed.

The vast majority of people in the Western style democracies are unaware that they have been purposefully infantalised and that voting on it's own, as it is currently set up is an immature form of democracy.

I was unaware of this myself for many years. I don't 'blame' the people who have been conditioned, nor do I feel any anger or frustration towards those of us whose conditioning has been so intense, because it is so ubiquitous. It permeates education, it is promoted through media, left and right, it's part of marketing's purpose through 'aspirational marketing'. Infants, children, teens, young adults, young parents and elders are all targets of the conditioning processes.

I say this because I see that the power disparity between and infant and an adult, the child and a teacher, the bully and the bullied, the 'doctor and the patient', is mirrored by the current power disparity between any individual adult or grass roots collective and The State... all too often Government ministers insist on telling us what is good for us without meaningfully including us, our stated concerns and useful insight in the discourse on what is or is not 'good for us'. They rule, we obey. Thus we the people are maintained in an infantile state.
 
Mature Democracy requires that the individual citizen is directly involved in the decision making processes over all matters that affect his or her life, and that he or she works with the community, to participate in the implementation of any policies that emerge from such discourse.

This is a matter of maturity and of personal and collective responsibility. The fact that so few people even get to the level of acknowledging this simple point reveals the utility of State Education as it exists for the preservation of Political Power to Rule Over the People.

There is NO mature democracy anywhere on Earth at this time.

The power disparity between and infant and an adult is mirrored by the current power disparity between an adult and The political and economic State... a healthy adult will care for the child, allow the child to explore and discover and articulate who she or he is and will nurture the child for the child's outcomes rather than the parents desired outcomes. A healthy parent will foster empathy and autonomy in the child.

Classical and modern politics did, and does none of this, and most often does the opposite, with dreadful results for those who have to endure: be they people conned into taking on mortgages which turn homes into investments and profits for developers, be they people whose land and water is poisoned by fracking or mining or other 'resource development', or parents who are under stress and being regulated rather than supported by Social Services, be they elders divorced from the extended family, placed in 'care homes', cared for by poorly paid, badly trained workers, care homes which are run as profit centers for private enterprise, be they civilians caught in the cross fire of 'just wars' (Iraq, Afghanistan) and civil wars where proxies are trained, funded and let loose (Syria, Libya and Africa and South America in the second half of the 20th Century), be they children diagnosed with ADHD and coerced to take 'medications' to 'manage' their symptoms, be they Survivors of institutional abuse, ranging from asylums to Guantanamo Bay... So many people whose lives are blighted by the actions of the State.

There's more I could lay out here... the point is made.

It's a feeble argument to lay those adverse outcomes against the more positive outcomes of State action as a balance sheet, for that argument demeans those who suffer and minimise the meaning of their lived experience...

As far as I am aware, the only document coming anywhere near describing the practical steps towards a mature democracy, one in which all citizens participate as equals, where responsibility of power is vested in the grass roots, where active power - that is the power to act- is devolved to the community is The Power Inquiry 2006.

You won't have heard of it because all the political parties feel threatened by it's insight into how power operates and what is needed to devolve that power from those who currently hold it,and all too often abuse it, to the grass roots where transparency can function effectively as a restraint on power accumulation and deepen accountability.

http://www.jrrt.org.uk/publications/power-people-independent-inquiry-britains-democracy-full-report

It's a .pdf, and so worth reading and studying...

And yes, by all means, do vote for the greens, or independents or others if it means something, even as a protest vote.

But do not expect that your vote is an exercise in meaningful Participative Democracy. It's not.

I urge my readers to familiarize themselves with The Power Inquiry document as a starting point in their own explorations of how democracy in the UK might be deepened, strengthened and nurtured!

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

The Vatican, The UN Torture Committee and Reward/Sanction Methods of behaviour modification.

On Friday 9^th May, a report on the questioning of The Vatican before the United Nations Torture Committee was released into the public domain at the same time that calls from within other Christian denominations emerged, from within The Protestant Churches and Evangelical Churches, to address their known issues with reporting and prevention of pedophilia and other acts of mistreatment, cruelty and serious abuse of children occurring in all settings they were and are responsible for.

The call was to not do as the Vatican has done, and seek to attempt to manage or control the ‘crisis’ so as to protect their ‘image’ and ‘status’ which inevitably causes even more trauma for all survivors.

With regard to the torture matter, it is really crystal clear to me that every form of indoctrination to which children are subjected that comes with with sanction, punishment, chastisement and reward is a form of psychological torture.

"If you are driven by the threat of eternal torture to be a good person, you're a frightened person.

 

To instil, indoctrinate, inculcate or impose upon a small child's body, mind or psyche the feeling or sensation or thought frame associated with fear of existential punishment, as a psycho-social structure or some 'moral code', as coercive and violent as it is, is torture.”

This means that the person using such a coercive process upon a child is frightening the child and a frightened child, quite obviously,  will not see sense in the instruction and the matter will thus require coercion, to ensure compliance. All for 'the child’s own good', of course. And for the good of Society.

Of course.

This is based on a dreadful misperception of the child, which has been a foundational meme of Christian European culture and indeed Abrahamic cultures for a long, long time, (the fear of Satan/The Wild in the child that must be tamed at all costs) and it mirrors all sorts of adverse power relationships that are institutionalised into our mainstream Societal structures even to this day.

This dynamic mirrors the relationship between Power, Law, the State, and the Citizen. The power issue is the core of the problem, from the personal to the Institutional. It is because this Christian-post Christian social thought map strikes at the heart of one’s sense of self as a vulnerable child that it has so much power over the adult, especially if the adult has ‘adapted to fit in’ and is less than fully aware……  with generation after generation ‘adapting to fit in’ it is easy to see how over time those PTSD patterns become ‘normal behaviour’.

I will address this aspect a bit further down this piece.

Last week, Democracy Now reported on these issues, and there was a specific report on the Evangelical Churches in the USA which I found very interesting.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/8/protestant_church_faces_new_sex_abuse

The news team interviewed Kathryn Joyce, a reported and researcher, who had some really interesting comments to make, one of which I wish to point out, whilst at the same time I recommend listening to the whole Democracy Now report on this link.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ (newsteam): We turn now to a new exposé that asks if the Protestant world is teetering on the edge of a sex-abuse scandal similar to the one that has rocked the Catholic Church. The person trying to address the problem may surprise you. As sex-abuse allegations multiply, it is Reverend Billy Graham’s grandson who is on a mission to persuade Protestant churches to come clean. Kathryn Joyce’s cover story in The American Prospect profiles Boz Tchividjian, a law professor at Liberty University, a school founded by Reverend Jerry Falwell, and former prosecutor who has worked on many sex-abuse cases. He used his experience to found an organization called GRACE: Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment.

AMY GOODMAN (newsteam): GRACE made headlines in February when the famous evangelical school, Bob Jones University, hired it to interview faculty and students about their experiences with sexual assault, then fired it before it had a chance to report the results, only to hire it back after a public outcry. Well, reporter Kathryn Joyce joins us now to discuss this major exposé, "By Grace Alone: As Sex-Abuse Allegations Multiply, Billy Graham’s Grandson is on a Mission to Persuade Protestant Churches to Come Clean." Kathryn Joyce is also the author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption and Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement.

and then the interview starts: 

Joyce outlines the Grace case with regard to the Bob Jones University and other details she has researched. This part is at 43 minutes on the play timer. She makes a very point about Authoritarian settings and predatory behaviour.

AMY GOODMAN: And the missionary kids?

KATHRYN JOYCE: And for the missionary kids, these were the subject of GRACE’s two first investigation, two different very large international missionary groups, where the children of the missionaries being stationed in foreign countries, known in Christian culture as MKs, missionary kids, they were enduring just kind of epidemic levels of sexual abuse in a number of different countries. GRACE’s reports focused on two in particular, on the New Tribes Mission and their boarding school in Fanda, Senegal, and also ABWE, another missionary organization, and what happened on the mission field they had in the 1980s in Bangladesh. And two different situations, but a lot of similarities, in some ways, in that these were both kind of very authoritarian atmospheres where children were expected to do what any adult kind of in their world was telling them to do, and this made them, sadly, kind of very vulnerable to abusers who came by.

AMY GOODMAN: And you’re talking about the missionary kids. What about the people in the communities they come to, for example, in Senegal or in Bangladesh? What happens to them?

KATHRYN JOYCE: I’m sure that there are stories there, as well. GRACE’s two reports in these situations focused on what happened to the children of missionaries, but I’m sure there are even more untold stories in terms of the children already living there who were, in many ways, much more vulnerable

.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In some of your writings, you’ve dealt with the issue of patriarchy and its relationship to religious thinking. Any sense on your part whether there are structural or philosophical directions in the churches that allow this kind of stuff to be covered up?

KATHRYN JOYCE: Well, I think, absolutely. And obviously, not all very conservative Christians or all members of the self-described patriarchy movement are going to be abusive. But reading all of these reports and looking at all of this and speaking to dozens of people, it kind of does become clear—and GRACE’s assertion—that a main factor contributing to abuse and the silencing of abuse, of victims, is authoritarian structures that focus much more on rigid rule following, on hierarchies within a church or within a community, on the subordinate role of women and children. And when you have all of these things coming together alongside a culture that sees it as imperative to cover up mistakes so that you can still promote the cause of Christ, that you are being a good evangelical witness, a lot of these things conspire to make abuse not just more common, but much more invisible.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, what most surprised you, Kathryn Joyce, in your investigation?

KATHRYN JOYCE: Well, I think what surprised me the most was watching in real time this pattern happen of GRACE going and starting and doing this investigation, getting a year into it, having spoken to dozens, a hundred of people, and then having the institution back out. This had happened once before with the mission group ABWE, and then it happened again with Bob Jones. And it was very interesting to see that. And it raised this interesting question about whether or not there is a catch-22 at the heart of GRACE’s incredibly admirable mission, that they are being hired by the groups that they’re investigating. And I think that that’s a really interesting question to ponder, but I think we also have to look at their work and say that this is very well—very much needed.

----------------

“a main factor contributing to abuse and the silencing of abuse, of victims, is authoritarian structures that focus much more on rigid rule following, on hierarchies within a church or within a community, on the subordinate role of women and children.”

What she says speaks for itself. It also mirrors James Prescott's findings and insights from his 1975 Paper : Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence.

Here’s a two page outline showing his findings in a .pdf form. 

Comparison of Social Behavioural Characteristics of Low and High Nurturant Societies 

It provides a peer reviewed anthropological narrative that accurately describes a variety of emergent social or cultural structures over time and distance, ranging from Egalitarian Nurturing Communities to Hierarchically Violent Controlling Communities. 

And the same pattern persists as Kathryn Joyce describes :  that within this range of cultures the predictor of violence as an emerging trait, or sustained pattern of behaviour of any given culture was always the degree of disruption to the child mother bond, and or the degree of control or inhibition imposed on emergent adolescent sexuality and the presence and enforcement of rigid gender power roles. 

These are resonant with post trauma behavioural patterns, where the trauma remains unresolved, where the pain remains, coping with internal pressure or conflict drives much behaviour. From the individual to the collective, aspects of the coping mechanism or strategies are internalised as within the range of ‘normal’ or expected behaviour. 'Boys don't cry'. 'Women are more empathetic'. 'Boys will be boys'. 'Girls seek out powerful men'.

The reality is of course that everyone caught up in trauma related social structures is to some degree affected by the situation, and most will have internalised aspects of it, it’s negative values and prejudices as part of that affect, and this makes for some confusion when boundaries are broken what ought to remain explicit.  The roles played out in that dynamic are hardly markers of optimally healthy human behaviour.

Kathryn Joyce's last point, about what can happen when Survivors groups get too close to the Institutions whose intent to remain and retain their power, and is less than honourable, is also very interesting, because there is a fairly well documented history of Institutions who are liable for harms caused offering an apparent ‘olive branch’ to survivors, where it becomes clear that the intended primary beneficiaries of that ‘olive branch’ is those proffering it. 

That there is a pattern of powerful institutions manipulating Survivors groups, individual survivors and NGOs through offering forms of ‘support’ favoured by the Hierarchy of that Institution. 

I think that Survivors groups need and deserve more support - and respect!- from the wider Society in confronting this situation, a necessary confrontation which has been in full flow in the public domain for nearly 30 years of public reporting of allegations, on matters than have been harmfully adverse for many hundreds of  thousands of children …  it’s narrative of Power and abuse matters for all of us, and how we deal with it will be part of the estate we pass on through inheritance. We intend to give this the focus, energy and commitment it demands.

Kathryn Joyce (And Democracy Now as ever) also bringing a much needed clarity and calm, a de-hyping of the story, a humanisation of the narrative, which is maturing the discourse and is therefore  incredibly valuable.

The main element I wish my readers to take up in why I wrote this piece, is to look at the Kathryn Joyce’s description of how an Authoritarian situation is that much more vulnerable because it has within it many of those compliance behaviour dynamics that suit predatory activity, where there is fear of The Hierarchy as much as there is respect. That fear permeates the entire issue. And it is all too often a fear and respect of distal power, a power one cannot touch or see or even influence, a power that holds life or death power over all.

That fear, that the power of life and death might be exercised upon The Vatican, drives the irrational behaviour of The Vatican, and for them that fear is so intense that it makes it rational in their mind-set to do what they are doing. 

That fear is the largest part of what really drives the ‘support’ The Vatican et al receive from their adherents, the Faithful. Who would want to lose that careful illusory safety net that blind faith, in any are of life, creates? Let alone walk right up to it and say “No! I will not stand for this!”

And it would be so easy to criticise those people for their compliance with the Institution, yet the Survivor in me has to go beyond that distaste and anger, and not to lose either sense, but to integrate them into a larger narrative, of my own life, and that of the Society into which I was born and into which I brought my own child, and it is for her and all her contemporaries and their children and grand children that I must address my actions.

The psychology, behaviour and outcomes of the activity of the Institutionalised Authoritarian Culture of Power and how these affect the majority of people alive to day have to be recognised, observed and understood. 

This psychology and behaviour needs to be observed where it occurs in all hierarchical behavioural structures, from the personal to the largest collectives. Transparency must exist in order to prevent such abuse occurring in the future, starting now. This is the ultimate precondition.

Transparency.

Authoritarianism breeds the fear that drives secrecy. 

Transparency removes it.

Privacy is not to be conflated with secrecy. 

Healthy boundaries are essential attributes in all living organisms. 

Transparency is not arrived at in an invasive environment of surveillance; it is a choice that permeates relationships, interactions and outcomes.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe