Basic Human Optimal Biological Health. and Trolls.

Basic Human Optimal Biological Health.

When one looks into modern endocrinology, for example, which can now describe the differences between a healthy functioning endocrine system and one that has suffered shock or is dysfunctional in some manner and plot a correlation with the health of the individual,we begin to see something else as well.

This evidence suggests that a healthy state of empathic, autonomous, connected extended family into community relationship is the base line of optimal human biological health.

That is when the hormonal cascading within the human being is working at its optimal state. The specific chemical interactions, messaging, outcomes of healthy functioning are known.

This basically happy state is the baseline of optimal human biological health, for another reason : it contains within that the ability to deal with sudden shocks, occasional illnesses, accidents and direct threats in productive, creative and healing ways. We live in a dynamic bio-space, the surface of Earth.We are elastic, we must flow with regard to those dynamics, or we make life more difficult and more complicated for ourselves.

Conditions are always, always, moving.

There has to be room for mood variation, for sadness and anger, rage and fear.

What we find is that space, that recovery ability is much reduced if stressors become chronic, unending, inevitable. Then we see the breakdown of endocrine system function, along with a host of other symptoms.

In other words we are already perfectly adapted for Peace, and like all organisms, we need a nurturant environment as Mothers, infants and children to develop those qualities through experience, into adulthood.

We are not adapted for chronic stress. I think that is made rather obvious by the massive size of the NHS and the relative health of our Society, both physically and psychologically.

Indeed there are no organisms that we know of that are adapted TO chronic stress.

Trolls in the Public Domain  - a healthy approach to a common problem.

Be it muslim people, christians, jews, germans, disabled on benefits, unemployed, out of favour foreign leaders or attention seeking celebrities, facists, anti-facists, conspiracy theorists, covert agents, or mad, angry, frustrated, desperate people, when ad hominems are deployed in the media, it's a mirror of 19th Public School Boy behaviour, hazing, joshing with intent, pecking orders, corporal punishment for the mind, etc ......

And with actual military power in the hands of the Governing bullies, (political realism does not forget that aspect of power) that makes things a little more complicated. 

For everybody. It's a bio-psyche-social issue.

When trolling infiltrates political and policy discussions,matters of ethics, war and corruption, everybody loses. We are all dehumanised by trolling  it is nasty, agressive, disturbing behaviour and profoundly immature.

Nonetheless......

Trolling is a form of bullying, it is a tactic of intentional emotional abuse and it is ultimately a weakness..  one has to understands that, and utilise it.

When there is no viable substance to the ad hominems, no mention or rational discussion of the policies, the principles, the ethics or the corruption. Just the insult. That is all useless information. The only information contained in such assaults is that the writer is a bully.
That's ALL it is.

And how best to deal with trolls? How do you undermine the bully?

This is my take on this. This is how I say 'No!'. and how I try to turn it onto a 'Yes!'.

I ignore the insult and treat it as a bit of information; depersonalise it. I do not let it get to me. It's all in the bullies head. All over his keyboard.

Then, I respond if I wish to engage, and use the incident by identifying the bullying as such, point out that  it is a known and rather obvious tactic that to maintain a false narrative in the face of facts by disrupting a discussion and initiating or antagonising an aggressive argument to derail the discussion. I then dismiss that as immature behaviour, in polite terms, of course.

"It ain't working, Buddy! These fish are not biting on that bait!"

... and then I attempt to reframe the narrative, articulate the policy, the principle, the ethic in the context of all the evidence available, and bring it back on subject, and suggest the resolution of the matter.

And I ensure that I keep each expression as clear as I can, irrespective of the reaction.

It's never just the few who are writing, it's all those who also read, and observe the discourse.

Amongst the readers who read that will be some who are on the edge of understanding and who will learn from this. Others will find reassurance. Some will be enlightened.

That way I USE the troll to clarify the issue, in public, for the benefit of all. Call it performance art, call it a waste of time, call it what you will.

I do it without reacting to the insult, or being drained by it.

I learned the hard way, slowly.

I aspire to do it with an optimally functioning endocrine system, to do it with LOVE!
 
And it doesn't always work.

We must lead.

We have to lead.

We have to become the directors of Government, local and national, by doing both we become truly international. 

I call for The Resolution. 

Not a revolution, not a repetition of a cycle from a fixed point. A resolution of the problems that are resolvable, that are problems in human relationships, that are subject to choice, volition - these are all resolvable matters.

I pray for the healthy resolution of conflict, pollution, corruption, bullying. That is where I am headed. A healthy humane society. We have been there before and it was good. We have it in us.

And when I write the word 'we', I am thinking of many cultures, languages, accents, shades and this includes all the decent people, whatever our belief systems and experiences are, we are good people who can work across diversity to find the common humanity in all matters, and we must engage .... the genuine lovers of life must unite as a Governing force. It's a miracle that we still retain that immense humanity in the face of what we are born into, what we are presented with.

Let's use that miracle.

From the grassroots, from the bacterial populations within our guts that make our lives possible, from the deepest of our humanity, the bottom of what you might call my soul, as a biological species standing for itself.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Ancient 21st Century Skills: optimal human biological health

21st Century Skills : This list was posted by a friend, on face book, without the comments after the colon...

Those are mine.

problem solving, : not taught in schools

analytical thinking, : not taught in schools

systems-thinking : not taught in schools

credibility and judgment of information : not taught in schools

technology fluencies : only taught in terms of consumerism, in schools

the ethics of fair play : taught in schools, yet not applied, oracticed in a meaningful manner, and so a sense of basic injustice and outrage is common in all school leavers, they sense the hypocrisy but find it difficult to pin it down.

collaboration in cross-functional teams : not taught in schools

accessing knowledge networks : not taught in schools beyond the limits of approved texts.

Compulsory Indoctrination masquerading as Education ... is a real problem, and we are seeing the symptoms of that problem across this election, and in many other places...  I don't blame the indoctrinated, I blame the intentional indoctrinators,they know what they are doing.

problem solving, : identifying the problem, critical thinking, access to reliable data, testing of solutions, responding to new information

analytical thinking, : critical thinking, sourcing data, questioning assumptions, avoiding opinion
systems-thinking : being able to investigate and describe accurately how systems function, or how they are dysfunctional

credibility and judgment of information : comparing data sources, access to and understanding of research methodologies, assessment of outcomes, observation of what is

technology fluencies : understanding what is being used, what is available, the limitations of extant tech, what is appropriate

the ethics of fair play : self empathy, empathy for others, and a sense of humane responsibility, do no harm

collaboration in cross-functional teams : how to work with others who have experience in different areas, and how to learn from others within a diverse group, when the need arises.

accessing knowledge networks : knowing where to search for information, knowing where to find people who are skilled in any given area, feeling centred enough to approach those with the knowledge

These are all skills a healthy Aboriginal child in a healthy human community would have developed by the age of physical maturity, when they are ready to become parents.

That these skills are largely inhibited, limited, ignored or avoid in compulsory schooling says a lot more about schools actuall function in this Hierarchcially Violent Society, and we can all see how they impact each generation of parents, who send their children to schools to learn the same lessons, to submit, to obey, to fall into line, even as they love their children, as they assuredly do.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Optimal Human Health and Power's disruption of same.

In biology, in the ‘natural world’, all organisms are mandated towards optimal health for the individual as part of optimal health for the species, in the habitat that they inhabit.

This mandate is fundamental to all biology, and has both intrinsic and extrinsic qualities.

This applies to human beings as individuals, as localised communities and as a species.

This mandate towards optimal human health has persisted throughout the entire existence of the species.

The long term existence and thriving of human beings as a species is founded on this mandate towards optimal human health being met.

In terms of that long term existence, that long term thrivival of human societies, certain qualities are associated with optimal human health.

Self empathy as part of a healthy sense of self, empathy for others, robust physical health and well being, responsive intelligence, autonomy and the desire and ability to effectively co-operate with others to meet both individual and collective needs.

These are all markers of optimal human health, in as much as collectively and individually they lend themselves to long term sustained living cultures capable of meeting the challenges and the constant changes in habitat and environment, through learning and growing by experience and by reflection.

Sense of self is an emergent quality. It is based on inner experience meeting external recognition.

The externalisations of the baby, the infant, the child that is to say the inner experience which is articulated by movement, facial expression and sound, when recognised and understood by caring adults, and therefore responded to accurately, helps the infant or child to develop a healthy sense of self - the recognition by the caring adult allows the infant to become more secure that his or her inner experience and articulation of same as being valid.

“I am in discomfort, I need winding” articulated by cries and face squirming is met by “You are in discomfort and need winding.” followed by action by the caring adult to adjust the babies position, rub his or her back etc… leading to ease for the child…  this tells the child that his or her self perception is accurate. There is a mutual feedback loop between baby and carer, which both inform each other, and verify each other...

This experience leads towards healthy self empathy, self understanding, which is the basis for empathy for others.  This process can also be disrupted. If it is disrupted over lengthy periods, then the emergence of healthy self empathy will likewise be disrupted, and may lead towards a pathology, a dysfunctional 'persona'.

Infants will also internalise aspects of the external world as part of their healthy growth – so they will  internalise the love and care with which they are treated, they internalise aspects of the habitat they grow into which allows them to navigate it’s complexities, they internalise aspects of the various age groups they experience within their community so that they have an accurate life time picture from cradle to grave so to speak, and these deepen their capabilities in terms of sustained health, as parents to be and as members of a diverse community.

This internalisation is biologically as well as socially mandated, the child needs to internalise aspects of the world into which she or he is growing as well as develop a healthy sense of self through experience… so that he or she is capable of operating in a concrete reality with accuracy and healthy affect, and all these are essential qualities in terms of long term survival and thriving.

All of these are markers of optimal human health.

There is a problem, though.

All of these markers are now under chronic stress in the modern Dominant Society, and in the UK, where I live..

The State, an artifice of Power,  demands that children internalise and thus identify with the externals of Nationalism, The Flag, The Motherland, "British Values".

Organised and centralised religions demand a similar internalisation of their values.

Football clubs set up players as role models.

Media portrays men and women in an idealised fashion and most often the dysfunctional is portrayed as normal. No one I know could live with the ‘heroic’ people in movies as their roles are played, or actors, footballers, models, politicians … let alone the ‘ordinary’ people, the b-listers, as portrayed in movies…

Thus healthy self empathy is undermined, because it is constantly being challenged, put under pressure and ultimately replaced corrosively with another external identity, which serves Power rather than the individual or the community, and from that much else flows that is damaging to optimal human health.

One can also speak of massive trauma such as occasional natural events or disasters, and the more frequent trauma of intentional war prosecuted by States and other actors, the ubiquity of inter-generational trauma as a result of unresolved inter state conflict, commercially driven social conditioning, social dysfunction etc all of which remaining unresolved will affect the development of optimal human health in individuals and communities, for successive generations, across diverse populations.

For most people it is relatively easy to understand some few aspects of these dynamics in terms of an abusive family dynamic – we all know of families whose lives are blighted by addiction, bullying, child abuse, domestic violence and so on.

However there is a distinct lack of initiative to resolve these dynamics that is all too common, and yet it need not be that way.

And when it comes to the culture as a whole, and to power and politics in particular, there is in most people's perspective a dreamscape, an illusion, is what persists in the 'mainstream' rather than a well articulated and accurate description of concrete reality as it is and as it affects peoples lives.

It is absolutely critical to the future generations that we, in this information age, do all that we can to address this disruption of self empathy that leads to such inaccurate and dysfunctional perceptions upon which Power now sits enthroned.

Reading yourself

Read yourself with self empathy and you will discover more of value..

The 'ego' theory in psychology is derived from Freud's drive theories (which were his way of avoiding certain truths about how adults behaved towards children in his day)... It is also a copy or repetition of the Christian concept of the 'devil within'. Both are massive errors and very damaging, because they lead adults to over control children, often by threats, intimidation and withdrawal of love. They perpetuate chronic stress on children.

We are biologically mandated towards optimal human health, and that includes a healthy sense of self, and if that mandate is disrupted, with regard to how we develop our healthy sense of self, and there is no way to address the situation while we are growing up, then we may develop a wounded sense of self, or an unrealistic sense of self, or a damaged sense of self.

Healing that is a matter of developing self empathy, and empathy for the child we were in the situation we were in, and not a matter of controlling the 'ego' or regarding the wounded ego in a negative light.

Religion?
All Religions are equal in this analysis, yet not all parents are - there ARE parents within those traditions who do not bully, intimidate etc or indoctrinate their children. Just as there are parents who are 'secular' and at the same time cruel towards their children. One has to bear this in mind at all times. One has to be careful with generalisations and be prepared to always drill into each particular case, as required.

That said, the statistical significance and social outcomes of institutionally approved controlling behaviours, be they stimulated, permitted or inspired by Ideology, Religiosity, or as a result of trauma and other disruptions are such that we cannot afford to ignore them, and the Religions and States that permit them must be challenged on all indoctrination processes, and on all threat/intimidation based pedagogies.

I refuse to allow my work to be bent to one agenda or another

It's vital for my work to remain clear, unambiguous and focused -the issue is how we adults relate to THE NATURAL CHILD and how we adults NURTURE the natural child within the context of a Nurturant Society.,as an expression of optimal human biological health.

Meeting the mandate of optimal biological health.

This means for me, at least, the ending of war and of all hierarchical violence, and being in the best possible position to deal with the impacts of poverty, climate changes,  habitat changes etc etc.

This unites all issues without becoming an ideology - it is designed to resist being co-opted, and as such it ought to stand as a direct challenge and alternative pathway to all Hierarchically Violent Power Structures and dysfunctional Social Systems.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

More Notes on an Intergenerational PTSD thesis of Cultural History, Power and liberation.

I have determined, with 54 years of living experience, and with 25 years of research, that we Human Beings are biologically mandated to experience this Earth life, and to appreciate it fully and to nurture the biological world from which we have emerged. We are alike all other creatures in this.

This piece is a follow up from my previous piece on the evolution of PTSD cultures and Ideologies.

As a conscious human being, there emerges a combination of sensation, gratitude, wonder and love that is innate, it comes out of the lived experience of optimum biological health, and it feels to me that this 'spiritedness' can only be truly seen when it is articulated in behaviour, in relationships and in outcomes. It is not independent of human agency. This is a spirituality with no name, with only the experience, the behaviour and the outcomes to articulate it.

And so, when it comes to 'healing' and the Church's 'response' to Survivors, their Christianity is irrelevant. The Church's faith is irrelevant. Their beliefs and concepts are not the issue. The lived experience, and it's meaning are what matters.

Faith or belief is NOT material to the case of abuse, of cover-up, of intimidation, obstruction of the Law and it is most certainly NOT material to the healing process of ANY Survivor (even if a Survivor chooses to have Faith) in psychological, emotional, physical realities and and in our relationships - these abuses and harms Survivors speak of are matters of medicine, law, psychology and biology, not matters of faith.

These issues are frequently clouded, because that's partially the way unresolved PTSD based Cultural and Institutional Structures behave; they create masks and pretence, within and without, in it's denial state, as a bulwark against the truth, and it's implications with regard to their status in Power.

There are many cultural masks, some intentional, some emergent, some inherited as one culture subsumes another. It can seem complicated, yet it is simple.

The study of simplicity and complexity in biology has lead to discoveries which suggest that Civilisation is complicated, rather than complex.

This is because Civilisation as we know it is standing on a variety of constructions, crutches created in moments of crisis, in the attempt to shore up areas of action and behaviour where the natural biological mandate exposes, as it sometimes does, those actions and behaviours as being pathological, dysfunctional and damaging.

This crisis management or 'fire fighting' keeps happening because the problems remain unresolved and thus the 'organic structure' that is created becomes more and more complicated and less complex.

Behaviour and action tend, in these circumstances, to become increasingly homogenised. 

This desire for uniformity, this cultural insecurity, binds so much energy up, (energy that needs to flow freely so that nutrients are available to all biological systems, energy that human beings could use to make living together a nurturant experience) that ill-health and disease have become the norm, and the medical and ideological suppression of any visible symptoms of distress that might indicate the pathology the primary concern of Power.

That's the environmental problem described in a nutshell.

It's also our social problems described at base. In the most simple terms possible.

That the Religious Institutions are at all permitted to 'provide support services', which are ideologically driven by Christian Faith, to Survivors, is part of this necessary suppression and it is also irrational and it is certainly cruel. It's irrational because Christianity is not the issue here. It's cruel because that's an obvious distraction tactic. A tactic.

The adherents of Christian Ideology will of course deny this is the case, and quote their Faith's concepts and texts, and point to their charitable work, etc., by way of mitigation.

However the reality is that these Institutions have seen the outcomes for Survivors, and non-Survivors -those who died before they could speak out, those who died in situ.(of the abuse or neglect, wilful or otherwise). There is more than a few centuries of detailed authentic disclosures, historical data that is reliable, that show that this behaviour  occurred worldwide. They knew all along. They know.

And, knowing what they knew, having continued their Institutional behaviour, it appears that they have accepted those outcomes though they do not suffer them, and that this acceptance was deemed essential policy even it it was not fit and proper!

They are therefore participating, by inaction, by protective action and by the acceptance of those harms without seeking to prevent the harms, in the criminal offences as secondary to their status, and are liable.

What's their Faith got to do with it?

It's immaterial.

I am surprised it has taken me so long to fully and clearly articulate this ............We are human beings, and our experience of sensory sensitivity is intense, and if we are hurt, and repeatedly hurt, individually and collectively, we do feel it, and our behaviour does, of course alter, it does change, and so too would the outcomes of our behaviour. This sensitivity is biologically mandated not least because as biological organisms we emerge from within a dynamic living system, where change is constant, and that sensitivity is part of how we observe those changes and respond to them to maintain the nurturant behaviours that determine well being, optimum health. Some people call this 'creativity' - I call it common sense.

The changes in behaviour are outcomes emerging from experience and from how we humans - as animals - experience our environment, based on form, our embodied nature, and consciousness, the awareness, sensitivity, perception, language and decision making processes that can be articulated as the active mammalian we are, emerging as part of Earth's biology. This is a fundamental biological reality.

Think of new born babies, infants, children ... how sensitive!

What kind of Community would, understanding that this sensitivity is indeed a biological mandate, most ably nurture that sensitivity into maturity? What kind of Society would fulfil this biological mandate?

And what kind of Society would undermine this biological mandate?

Whatever Society it is, there will be a number of apparently interdependent causal factors that are themselves effects... and it is those interdependency cycles that we need most to be understood, if we are to return to Societal behaviours that reflect and respond appropriately to that biological mandate.

In short, we are born into an Institutional Culture whose underlying psychology is unresolved chronic PTSD. We have no choice as babies, infants, children and adults but to adjust our senses so that we can survive, let alone thrive, in this psycho-social setting.

The behaviour of Governance at it's very core is merely the behaviour of wounded, damaged and damaging children who have become adults without resolving key areas of their woundedness, who behave like someone in distress, affected with Chronic Intergenerational PTSD, in ways that are similar in dynamics, promoted and dressed up as a State, a Religion, a nationality or an ideology, or just a drunk and violent parent or partner.

Seen at that level it is tractable. It is a problem that can be resolved. Our biology mandates that there is a solution., And it's not mutating to grow metal hard scales, and talons and extra large incisor teeth, so that we become more biologically mandated to surviving in a state of constant conflict for survival. The 'struggle for survival' myth, so beloved of David Attenborough.
 
There is a solution.

I keep in mind, whilst I discuss these matters, all those centuries of war in Europe, with each generation traumatised, with every unresolved symptom integrated into the building of social infrastructure, each unresolved generation birthing a new generation with that PTSD as their background .....

It's not an 'evil conspiracy', though it does involve some seriously organised nasty, nasty behaviour, experience and horrific outcomes, on a wide, wide scale; words cannot suffice how nasty the truth about this is. It is natural enough to be fearful of looking directly into this horror.However it has to be said that Fear is also a teacher; on a personal level when one is looking at one's own fears, or on the wider level, when a community looks at societal fears.

Note how often fear is triggered by the stream of mainstream 'news', 'reports' and 'documentaries' and how little real information is provided. Is this fear a teacher? Or is it a bully?

The child that Survives adopts behaviours that help the child to make it through, yet which are unhealthy for an adult. One must respect that. One cannot 'push' someone out of their fear, and the same applies to whole Societies.

When the child or Survivor feels safe, that's the time for looking at the event or events, the experience and the real honest meaning of it, as a discipline of self healing. 

Those that do resolve their issues, who deal with their fears must also be respected.

And so how to help the child within to feel safe again?

Possibly by developing, through exploration, a personal process of first noticing that one can take care of oneself, the adult that is safe, in the present, and then offering that to the child within, as a support, not to do anything.... just to be a first witness, an adult who cares, who is present, who will listen and hear and understand.

And let the child's response emerge.....

Let the child tell his or her story...

So that it can be understood, so that the child can finally hear those words they needed to hear at the time,  so that learning how to prevent it in the future is enabled. Without that how can one feel safe again?

That's the basic process.

That's what needed to happen then, and needs to happen now. And if the actors in the past are not available, for whatever reason, then this is another potential route... the individual need not be trapped..

This process deserves widespread support, and the primary support is a cultural acknowledgement of it's biologically mandated basis.

It's not easy, it takes time. For many the trauma is deeply grown in over time....

At the same time, in political situations there is an inherent contradiction facing people seeking liberation from an oppressive situation - the oppressed, who are dehumanised by being oppressed, in seeking liberation are seeking to re-humanise themselves, and they will only succeed when they are also seeking to liberate the oppressors from their dehumanised state, in effect to humanise the situation between and around them. That, at least, must remain as central intent, and area of constant exploration and praxis and the preferred outcome.

This is notably absent in Syria, in Iraq, in Libya, in Chile in 1973, in Indonesia in the 1960s onwards and in most places where the oppressed have taken up arms in a struggle for liberation. The 'rebels' or 'insurgents' or 'saviours' (the USA/UK Governments that have supported 'rebels' invaded to 'bring democracy') irrespective of their ideological position, appear to be intent on destroying those who they say are the oppressors rather than reaching a position of negotiation by which the situation of oppression is resolved. For the most part they are hoping to replace one form or oppression with another.

This is what Paolo Friere discusses in Pedagogy of The Oppressed.

Natural Child, Natural Society: assuming that both are cause and effect at the same time.

Freedom to be empathic, safe to be empathic.... offer that to all children.

I think the way to accomplish this is everybodies business; it is a collective action, a collective need that must be met and it's crucial to state that there is also a personal respons-ability, and responsibility, associated with this, because we are biological organisms operating in a biological reality. Neither Institutions nor individuals can avoid this work and claim they are mature or nurturing.

We all live in a shared reality, not a yellow submarine. Science and common sense assert this on the basis of evidence.

We are embodied within a mutually interdependent reality. Science and common sense assert this on the basis of evidence.

A fundamental in biology is that there is no waste, and another is that all healthy biological process lead to nurturing the environment, nurturing more life, in the short, median and long-term.

All actions seed more life. That's the basic biology, most fundamental premise emerging from Biology Sciences....

That's my primary intellectual driver. Biology emerges as a dynamic, through the action of responsive organisms that are learning all the time.

This is a long work, over generations..... aspects of it must be contextualised, understood and options or actions must be tested in the present, and over that intergenerational timescale... because others not yet born will have to pick up the mess.

Given that particular fact, that others will have to clean up the mess we leave behind, how rude and immature it is to avoid that responsibility, once it has been clearly identified?

How dangerous? How toxic?

The evidence for punishment is that punishment tends to create the desire to avoid punishment more often than to behave a certain way, naturally enough. That's therefore only a partial and usually time limited success.

Harmful behaviour should not be avoided, it ought to be confronted head-on, especially where children's lives are adversely affected, directly or indirectly.

Preventing harmful behaviour cannot be achieved through punishment. It can only be achieved through honesty, through dealing with what actually happens, and through making changes in our fundamental psychology that reflect understanding, empathy and where necessary, remorse for actions taken that have caused harm ought to drive reparations.

All of which we do not see in The Catholic Church as an Institution, or amongst the Catholic Hierarchy of individuals... for example read the recent comments by a Catholic Archbishop who proclaimed that the floods across the globe were a judgement by God, on 'our' behaviour (not the Bishops behaviour) with regard to sexuality, marriage and so forth.

"The psychology of any given family, community or society is both revealed and perpetuated in how they relate to and treat the children AND the most vulnerable people in that family, community or society." 

This mus become clear as a matter of choice.

 

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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