The pathology of a culture is both revealed and perpetuated in how they relate to and treat the children.

Critique of a States violence is not a critique of religion, or ethnicity of its constituents, and should never be conflated with either. It is critique of State Violence.

Critique of violence is not a critique of religion, or ethnicity. It is critique of Violence.

We live within a hierarchy culture of wealth and power.

The Hierarchy culture is a dominator culture that deploys layers of violence protect Wealth and Power.

This is the most honest appraisal of our culture, and it's abhorrent militarism.

Child abuse has many layers in the Dominator Cultures.

source: www.violence.de

Here is a song I wrote, Expectations of Every Child, about the needs of all our children, needs which all too often go unmet within Dominator Cultures.


1. "The psychology of a given culture is both revealed and perpetuated in how they relate to and treat the children. Change that and we can change everything."

The choice is ours, collectively, to make.

Jeremy Corbyn speaks quite sensibly, to the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and beyond.-

In England, Suella Braverman is demoted, for her public description of homelessness as a 'lifestyle choice' and her public labelling of Ceasefire Marches as 'Hate Marches'. She was removed only because she was embarrassing the Westminster Government, who mostly share her views. She was fired to protect that Government, not to indicate any alteration in Government policy.
2. "The pathology of a given culture is both revealed and perpetuated in how they relate to and treat the children and the most vulnerable among them. Heal that and we can heal everything."
Angela Rayner, a mother herself, refuses to call, publicly, for a ceasefire, which she must know is essential to protect the lives of so many children, mothers and fathers and grand parents living in Gaza. She stands with Starmer. This does not hold her in the best light. She may well change her mind soon...

The Irish Government, a coalition of old civil war party oligarchs, Fianna Fail and Fianna Gael, with the Green Party responded to 'opposition' parties and independents call for a ceasefire in Gaza, which the Dail, the Irish Legislative Assembly, approved. 
In recent days they have rejected a motion in the Dail to expel the Israeli Ambassador, who openly and publicly, whilst remaining in Ireland, supports and praises the commission of horrific War Crimes.
The Irish Government stance is to that to expel the Israeli Ambassador is to put Irish Citizens in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank at risk and to close the door to potential influence as a Government that has helped to bring about an end to militarised violence through negotiations.
There is some merit to their argument. Thatchers Government did have back channel discussions on ending the violence, even as they publicly claimed they did not negotiate with terrorists. Those back channels were part of the process of bringing peace, though the bulk of the work was done by women's movements in Northern Ireland.
However we now understand that there was collusion between British Security Forces and Unionist Paramilitaries which led to so much avoidable harm, which exacerbated the violence rather than quell it and that the British Government were well aware of this. Public face and private face.
That stance - of keeping the diplomatic doors open - was also the Irish Governments stance with regards the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, the War against Libya, the civil war in Donbas, and The Russian invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately the Irish Government also supported the movement of weapons and combat troops into those war zones, effectively contributing to the prolonging of each war. Thus the merit of the argument against expelling the Israeli ambassador fails on account that it does not reduce the avoidable harm to the people who are being harmed. There is also the potential of using the UN as the go between - where rather than a case by case basis, the matter is dealt with on a collective front.

The culture of Power, the political and social Hierarchy of Wealth, has always and is still layered with violences, to maintain its dominance. We see this undermining the potential of the UN when Security Council Members veto decisions and proposals made by the collective. 
We, as the Decent People, must take up the political task of ending all of those violences from within our own polities. It is a political task, and it requires that we organise accordingly, en masse, to elect legislators who will pass laws to end all those violence, develop policies to effect that and pursue them to their final goal.
Intersectionality is the term used to describe how all these violences are part of a whole, and cannot be set as isolated and separate cases, if we are, as we must, to confront and end those layers of violence.
In Ireland, another aspect of that dominator culture was exposed over the past 30 years, through 6 public inquiries into the mistreatment of children and vulnerable adults within residential care systems. The Churches made a ton of money during that period, the state absolved itself of its constitutional responsibilities, and both State and Church covered up the crimes, repeatedly, which led directly to more and more horrific abuse. Seven decades of horrific abuse.
There is a collective change of consciousness and awareness occurring in Irish Society. 
The historical crimes of Church and State are being looked at, but even still Church and State are evasive, and are delaying a full and honest accountability and reparations process that would finally resolve the matter.
The Dominator culture does not come from the womb. The Dominator culture does not respect the womb.
"All is born of Woman, no harm shall come to the children"
Partnership or Co-operative Cultures are inherently non-violent and equitable.
In short, Hierarchies of violence are evidence of dysfunction in human relationships, they are not innate nor are they part of the normal range of healthy behaviours which biological health mandates.
The work to confront this is a collective work, even as part of it starts with personal change in almost every case. When the healed work together, then change is more likely.
Follow the links on this page to learn more about this. It really does matter in terms of developing grounded political and social movements to confront the many abuses of Power inherent to the prevailing political and economic systems, which is the first step towards building an egalitarian culture, our true natural healthy birthright.
Here's my performance of the song, Universal Soldier, written by Donovan, during the Vietnam War, taken from one of my recent live stream shows on Facebook.





Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.
I sincerely hope it has added something of value to your reflections.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

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A Survivors Manifesto

An alarming number of adults in the so-called 'civilised' world have little or no empathy for themselves as infants and small children - most have no recall of those times, which is why that empathy seems rare.... and so this also explains why most parents are at a loss with babies and small infants and therefore tend to try to control them, because they have no empathy, they cannot sense the childs needs... and so controlling the baby feels safer and so they look for INSTRUCTIONS.... and are vulnerable to those who give instructions - yet the body knows and if trusted the adult can learn empathy again and recover....

As a child I was beaten, humiliated, punished, or neglected in one way or another, almost daily, and I HAD to believe that I was wrong and deserved the beating, just to maintain my psyche,  even if I did not understand WHY I was being beaten (or their reasons for it). 

I also had to believe the FAITH they hammered into me and that brought me great fear, for I feared I was sinful, nasty, ugly,

It took a long, long time to lose those beliefs about myself.... to find my true heart, my natural integrity.

I consider myself VERY lucky to have made that journey, and whilst it IS infuriating that so many of my brothers and sisters are still stuck in the beliefs and denial, my REAL anger is directed at all those who ensure that the conditioning continues; for the rest, patience and empathy.....

My story is not at all rare, and comparitively speaking, I was lucky..... the stories I read of other childrens lives make that very clear : my point here to make it clear that many, many people have been conditioned by circumstance and Society, rather than truly loved... and only those who are truly loved, not least by themselves, can resist that conditioning in meaningful ways....

I know what it is like to be conditioned and fearful.

I deeply appreciate all the love and support I have received and continue to receive...

I never urge survivors to speak out, in public, unless they themselves feel ready to do so.... just as I would never push a child to do anything. It's always be...st to wait until the child feels eady.

I do urge survivors to find someone they can confide in, to break the silence for themselves - and I do understand that finding that empathic person can be difficult even frightening.

I tell my story to encourage a deeper understanding of what it is to be a Survivor, for there are so many in this society.

Even though I detest war, and think soldeiry a fools game, I FEEL for those troops who return from active combat duty, the many thousands who can just about cope, the many thousands who don't and who 'fall through the cracks' because those around them do not understand what violent trauma does to a persons soul - the movies do not tell the truth about violence and it's effects, neither will the media -and neither wil the NHS, the Health Service nor Social Services....

So it has to be Survivors who do this, and it has to be those strong enough and in a position to do it, because ALL survivors need to be heard, we need to be held, to be allowed to cry, to scream, to vent for this is an essential part of the healing, no matter how uncomfortable it might be for others....

The wounded experience lies trapped beneath those unexpressed cries and wails, is walled in in an attempt to keep it alltogether, to 'fit in' and that keeps us permanently wounded, closed down, shuit off from the full vitality of life.

That is something that no-one deserves.

The stiff upper lip approach has it's merits in a traumatic situation, with limitations, yet beyond that it becomes a trap, a form of denial and assures that trauma patterns are repeated, in one form or another.

And then there are those who adapt to that societal trauma, whose abuse becomes thier identity, and who inflict abuse without conscience or remorse and become part of the System of Power that drives war, neglect, inequality, abuse.. who often 'succeed' and run banks, corporations and countries.... dangerous people, damaged people, charismatic people..... what of them?

Tony Blair, George Bush, Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein, Myra Hindly, Ian Brady, Fred West, David Cameron, the various CEOs of Rapacious Corporations, The Pope, the Abuser Priests, Nuns, Men and Women, children even, the torturers, the bullies and beaters and killers amongst us ...... how are we to deal with these people and how are we to avoid the creation of such damaged people in the future?

How are we to deal with the Institutions that are founded in old patterns of abusive Power?

http://www.restorativejustice.org/

How can we build Institutions that are empathic, and responsive to the needs of us vulnerable human beings, that responds to the needs of the habitat and all that dwell therein?

For it is the case that such people are rarely born, they are the outcomes of Society and Institutional Power as it is.

These are the questions that I muse on, for my childrens sake, for their childrens sake, for yours and all.

I do not have to be perfect to engage thus. I do not have to wait until I have it all sorted out.

I certainly do not have all the answers and I am so glad that there are many good men and women working on these same problems, doing so honestly, with integrity and empathy, and with diligence, day in, day out for entire lifetimes.

I am encouraged that so much is now know and understood of the dyamics of abuse, of the biology of empathy, knowledge that is practical, that replaces belief with action that makes a difference.

What better legacy for our children could there possibly be, better than all the fine buildings, the great works of art, the exploration of space (where no-one human lives...)?

"Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed". -Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1819-1891)

http://www.alicemiller.com

http://www.birthpsychology.com

http://www.violence.de/prescott/bulletin/article.html

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

There is a world of difference between Religiosity and Spirituality.

The roots of that divide are to be found in the ways in which natural child-mother bonding processes, which are biologically determined, are either nurtured or not.

The research of James Prescott, Phd back in the 70s into primate mother-child bonding and the emergence of violence indicated to some degree the dynamics of this.

However, the research he carried out on primates was not possible for human beings - separating a child from his or her mother and providing a surrogate for 'experimental' purposes was correctly seen as 'unethical' - though Social Services and Hospital Protocol dictate that this separation does indeed occur, and with alarming frequency... how else is a circumcision to be carried out (60% of males born in the US are circumcised....)

So Prescott decided he'd do the next best thing and started a cross cultural survey of all known Aboriginal Societies to see if there was any patterns that could be observed that would suggest that his learnings with primates applied to human beings.

Bingo.

Absolute proof, statistically solid, that the ways in which the child-mother bond are nurtured or not are an rock solid indicator of the emergence of violence, hierarchy, sexual repression, rigid gender roles, territorialism and religiosity.

The facts are that when the needs of the natural child for healthy development are not met, when natural empathic nurturance is not fully functioning, abuse flows as a direct result.

"David  Smail correctly points out, in his book The Nature of Unhappiness, that psychological theories rarely move beyond the power exerted within the family - where by the oedipal child or the tyrannical parent - and generally fail to see the importance of wider social structures. He widens the ‘power horizon’ to include the effects of politics, culture and class on personal relations, and the impact of ideology on family life and education.

If emotional and psychological distress is brought about by social and environmental powers which originate at some distance from those ultimately subjected to them, then it follows that the best therapy comes in the form of political, ethical and ideological change. We need to move beyond the microenvironment of the therapeutic space, and through our interaction with patients provide three essential things: comfort, through proximal solidarity; clarification, to undo the mystifications of power, by helping patients to remember, see and say; and encouragement to physically and materially alter their position in the world."

 from a review by Christopher Dowrick, Professor of Primary Medical Care, University of Liverpool,

Furthermore, the research carried out by David Chamberlain, Joseph Chilton Pearce and many others into developmental neuroscience with regard to peri-natal experience, birth experience and the first years of a childs life absolutely support Prescotts insights.

Religion wears the mask of empathy, yet demonstrates time and time again a complete lack of empathy.The same applies to much of Social Services and Governance.

It's  BELIEF that is imposed externally, whereas true empathy emerges from within.

It is indoctrination that typifies Schooling and much of University 'Education'. Whereas true learning emerges from unfettered and honest exploration of the world we live in.

We need no more Religion, no more belief.

We need, we are desperately crying out for EMPATHY.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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