Environment, social power and biological influence.

Every living organism on Earth that we know about is influenced by, and e influences, the environment from which they emerge.

"One cannot hope to understand the phenomena of psychological distress, nor begin to think what can be done about them, without an analysis of how power is distributed and exercised within society."  David Smail


The degrees of influence vary… and all participation matters.

There are networks of living influencers all across biology, in webs, networks, layers, currents, flows and interfaces. From bacteria to fungi, from ants to elephants, with wolves and beavers, flowers and trees.

All of life..

They all are active participants in life, rather than passive. We are too.

We are born both as influences of that environment, and as influencers of that environment.

There is a feed back loop built in that feeds into balance, that enables recovery after occasional trauma, solves problems.

A healing mechanism.

Every child on Earth will be influenced by, and will influence, the social environment.

Natural Child, Natural Society

   

I see both as cause and effect at the same time.

A natural society observes the nature of the child and responds to the child as a person, with dignity and respect, interest and support and a deep trust in the child’s abilities to cope with life, to develop the natural skills required for thriving in the environment, social and biological, in which they all live.

It’s should not come as a surprise to learn that the more that balance is disrupted, the more likely adverse behaviour and disease states will emerge in significant numbers.

Mad States make for maddened people.

Sick States make for a sickened people.

Happy States make for a happy people.

Bully States make for a bullied people.

“Given the kind of society you were born into, and all that you have experienced and lived through, it’s no wonder you feel the way you do.”

No man is an island.

David Smail puts it eloquently:

“Hardly any of the 'symptoms' of psychological distress may correctly be seen as medical matters. The so-called psychiatric 'disorders' are nothing to do with faulty biology, nor indeed are they the outcome of individual moral weakness or other personal failing. They are the creation of the social world in which we live, and that world is structured by power.

    Social power may be defined as the means of obtaining security or advantage, and it will be exercised within any given society in a variety of forms: coercive (force), economic (money power) and ideological (the control of meaning). Power is the dynamic which keeps the social world in motion. It may be used for good or for ill.

    One cannot hope to understand the phenomena of psychological distress, nor begin to think what can be done about them, without an analysis of how power is distributed and exercised within society.”

I think that’s pretty clear.

"One cannot hope to understand the phenomena of psychological distress, nor begin to think what can be done about them, without an analysis of how power is distributed and exercised within society."
read that again. reflect on it. it will deliver much useful insight, and provide a guide through the current power establishment.

Biology, being the source of intelligence, has crafted a basic functional element, which I call optimal biological health, to ensure the relatively smooth functioning of living systems within a dynamically changing environment.

Hierarchies of power and violence undermine that balance.

 Hierarchies of power and violence tend to impose chronic stress.

Balance is, in human terms, a question of how we respond to the evidence, rather than rely upon a reaction to get us out of trouble. The evidence is this.

We humans have embodied within us, within every cell and organ, a state of optimal biological health.

It does not include mass violence, abuse of power, loss of empathy, bullying, stealing or hoarding, self alienation, the generation gap, religious or ideological shame and guilt, addictions, obsessions, compulsions.

These are all symptoms of a state of dis-ease, a state of chronic stress.

These are also interwoven with symptoms of unresolved trauma that remain unresolved over many, many generations, and emerge as chronic stress related disease and socially accepted prejudice, nationalist hatreds, othering in general.

The emergence of so many adverse symptoms across all populations is a clear sign that the social and institutional environment is not a healing space, and is in fact creating a blockage to reaching a state of optimal human biological health, individually and as a species.

Sustainability is impossible if the current power culture persists in this psychological dysfunction.

It’s not about left/right, it’s about health and the people, now, today, and it must also encompass our long term responsibilities to future generations of humanity. Optimal human biological health.  

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.

Post Election 2015, and the challenges we face, the work we must do.

The Problem

The 'problem' is way more than the actions of one man, or one party or even of the power elites.

We are in a social system that has all the symptoms, relationships, politics and denials of an abuse family dynamic, a system of power that is psychologically dysfunctional and profoundly unhealthy that is pretending the family is ok.

We are in a social system that is driven by unresolved past trauma, that re-inflicts that trauma repeatedly, quite often intentionally ( The Shock Doctrine)in the institutional desire to maintain Power over people.

We are all affected by this, through social, religious and ideological conditioning, through trauma inflicted by Power, through the disruption of natural bonding and learning processes that embed empathy and autonomy, gratitude and pleasure, and the desire to nurture all for all, which are all markers of optimal human biological health.

The resolution is not and never will systemic reform; it must be both personal and communal, and it must be a recognition of and a healing of the old wounds, the suppressed pain, the almost rampant rage and anger of which we see plenty of in movies, novels, violence. This must lead towards kinder social and institutional behaviours ....

Viva Le resolution. The old revolution concept is inadequate to the task ahead of us.

The Vision

I want to see a psycho-social healing movement that is practical that addresses the social trauma and conditioning that is inter-generational, and that feeds the urge to Power over others.

I want to see a societal model that nurtures people as persons, that articulates empathy and love, that is robust in dealing with abusers, that seeks to prevent more harm emerging, that can respect the older cultures and back of conquest of their lands for 'exploitation' and 'development' and observe and learn from them.

They have been around for a lot longer than this system has existed,and have many examples of living close to the biological optimal human health state.

The old sordid politics of the struggle for Power over the people, rather than power shared with the people*,  to nurture ALL the people as healthy loving persons by right or left is inadequate to this task.

Hatred and fear are inadequate to this task..

* (which was the primary mode of human society for the majority of our existence as a species, in spite of what most are led to think, based on the indoctrination typical of ideological compulsion schooling and mono-theistic power religions that claim to to have the 'right way' for all human beings)

I want to see a society that heals the old wounds, rather than a social institutional system that seeks to capitalise on them.



Rage or Outrage!

If we think our anger, rage and despair is going to resolve or improve matters, we are truly participating the continuation of the problem rather than the resolution of it.

Those emotions are the tip of the iceberg, and can so easily be manipulated by those who are powerful, who are abusive, who are predatory.

Those emotions are flags, calling attention to deeper feelings, to the pain, the wounding.

Harness the anger, examine the deeper feelings, resolve the matter within ourselves.

Then we can begin the work. That is the beginning of the work

The Work

"It is a failure across the progressive left in England to articulate a distinct plan that is anti-austerity, anti-cuts and anti-poverty "

I would add that there is not an adequate articulation across the so-called progressive left , of what the Community Voluntary Sector brings : empathy, care, attention to detail in meeting vulnerable peoples needs, self governance, maturation, healing; there is not enough articulation of what constitutes a healthy humane being, and there is almost no articulation of what social conditioning is, how effective it is, how it is effected.

Without these, railing against injustice has no traction.

There is also the matter of education systems, and mainstream media systems that ignore,suppress or mis-report on what is being learned in the fields of Anthropology, Neuroscience, Child Development, Trauma and Recovery studies, Biology and History as well as healthy technologies that nurture the world around us.

Plans are merely concepts, if they are not backed by the actual psychological progression I am writing about.

And for Labour the removal of the Party Whip system and a dedicated assault on that Institution in all other politcial groupings where it exists would indicate that psychological progression.

And this is where the Green party is genuinely different - I see that in Caroline Lucas, and the fact that the Green Party has rejected the concept of the Party Whip in it's entirety ... we cannot accept any practice that amounts to bullying or coercion, when it comes to decisin making processes on matters that affect our lives and the lives of others.

I see that there is a growing recognition of all of the above, every day, and am I no longer dismayed or hopeless. That is not to say I am not appalled at what goes on in politics. I am.

I have gotten over that expectation of an instant change, an easy win. I understand how deep the conditioning goes, how personal it is, and how difficult the resolution of that is as well as what helps the process of healing. I am learning to only point out the escape route rather than damn the conditioned for being conditioned. Could I damn my younger self for being conditioned, frightened, confused?

So we need to ask ourselves what we are FOR, we need to examine our conditioning, and we need to stand for that healing above all else, in the face of what ever comes... the worst outcome is we grow as people, the best outcome is we build a base of psychologically healthy solidarity as each generation passes, and in time, Society will reflect that.

Viva La Resoultion!

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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