Showing posts with label responsibility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label responsibility. Show all posts

Free Speech and Bullying in the Public Domain - thoughts on how to confront this conflict of interest

Free Speech



Free Speech is a Responsibility, it is neither an automatic Right to a free-for-all nor is it a Privilege.

The Responsibility: that when speaking to the commons, the shared space between us all we speak truthfully, transparently and  honestly, we speak to the commons and be attentive to be evidence based, to be as good a listener as a speaker and to acknowledge what is verified, reliable and true as such, and to also acknowledge beliefs as made up, as guess-work at the very best. This responsibility is absolutely critical in any matter that concerns the welfare of millions or billions of people who share the commons. It is a fundamental humane duty of care, and cannot be abrogated.

Free Speech is not a right to promote beliefs over evidence in action on matters concerning the shared commons, the welfare of people and their lives.

Free Speech is not a right to groom, manipulate or exploit others through use of language and various logical fallacies.

Lots of very clever abusive people hide behind Free Speech - the correct way to deal with that is to identify what is being done, name the precise tactic, the logical fallacies, the half truths, twists and spins and show how they inform the agenda that is being driven, and to do so in full transparency.

This blog is a REALLY useful in helping with this.

https://politicsandinsights.org/2015/01/22/how-bullying-works-projection-and-scapegoating/

"Very few people, when put to the test, have the integrity and moral courage to stand up against bullying, harassment, abuse, threats and corruption. The targets of adult bullying are selected often because they DO have the moral courage to challenge; many people will pass by on the other side.

A target of adult bullying is most often chosen because of their strength, not their weakness

Research shows
 that targets of bullying tend to have highly developed empathy, and sensitivity for others, a high degree of perceptiveness, high moral values, a well-developed integrity, a strong sense of fair play and reasonableness, a low propensity to violence, a reluctance to pursue grievance, disciplinary or legal action, a strong forgiving streak and a mature understanding of the need to resolve conflict with dialogue. 

Often,
 targets of bullying are independent, self-reliant and “different” in some way. Weak people often disingenuously confuse these hallmarks of character with weakness.

Bullies aim to inflict psychological injury more often than physical injury. Their main aim is to control, discredit, isolate and eliminate their target."

It is vital, therefore, that all decent humane people who wish to participate, contribute and engage with the deliberations on how we deal with matters that concern our collective welfare (and our individual well being) are educated to become adept at this process of confronting the tactical arsenal that bullies, ideologues, demagogues, populists and others with malign intent bring when they present their theses in the public domain, such that they are clearly identified, their tactics exposed, their activity inhibited, disabled and prevented in the first instance, thus protecting the commons from avoidable harm. 

Our collective safety and sanity demand nothing less.

Kindest regards

 Corneilius

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

A Reminder - Herd Immunity : the Strategic Positioning of Johnson and The Ruling Faction.

A reminder of how this all started 




"letting some light into a darkened room"

Johnson, his advisors and the Cabinet, and indeed the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer and Parliament have never 'taken responsibility'.

Johnson is the self styled economic Superman, who publicly rejected all 'medically irrational' response to the Corona Virus, on February 3rd, 

"We are starting to hear some bizarre autarkic rhetoric, when barriers are going up, and when there is a risk that new diseases such as coronavirus will trigger a panic and a desire for market segregation that go beyond what is medically rational to the point of doing real and unnecessary economic damage, then at that moment humanity needs some government somewhere that is willing at least to make the case powerfully for freedom of exchange, some country ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles and leap into the phone booth and emerge with its cloak flowing as the supercharged champion, of the right of the populations of the earth to buy and sell freely among each other."

His own words, his own speech.

And a month later, on the morning of March 5th he suggested, with a smirk on his face that revealed the lie, that he had dropped the idea of Herd Immunity, one of the 'theories' which 'had been debated'. Then he says 'I think we need to strike a balance' which does not imply stopping the spread, which is what all the East Asian states had chosen, what New Zealand had chosen, and what others were choosing. What then is the balance between stopping the spread and allowing it to rip through the population - it is trying to manage a slow spread (which was known then to be impossible, and has since been proven three times to be the case, and we are at c.20% of population infected with 80% still at risk.)

transcript :

"Philip Schofield: Is the delay essentially trying to spread this out so it doesn’t all happen at once and overwhelm the NHS, and that you can actually delay it into perhaps the summer when it’s a little bit quieter and the ordinary flu might have died down a wee bit, is that what you’re doing?

Boris Johnson: Well it’s a very, very important question, and that’s where a lot of the debate has been and one of the theories is, that perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking as many draconian measures. I think we need to strike a balance, I think it is very important, we’ve got a fantastic NHS, we will give them all the support that they need, we will make sure that they have all preparations, all the kit that they need for us to get through it. But I think it would be better if we take all the measures that we can now to stop the peak of the disease being as difficult for the NHS as it might be, I think there are things that we may be able to do."

Watch his careful denial.


Following that appearance on morning TV, all his main advisors spoke in the following days about reaching herd immunity - all of them knowing there was no viable vaccine available in any reasonable time horizon, and that Herd Immunity as a concept only applied to a vaccination program, it has no Public Health meaning outside that context- as if it were possible and a in the long term a good thing.

Sir Patrick Valence  :13th March

Professor John Edmunds, SAGE : 13th March

SKY NEWS : Explaining Herd Immunity as part of the Government's Strategy.

23rd of March Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Valence cite 'Mathematical Studies' and 'Behavioural Science' as informing Government Policy, with no mention of a Zero Community Transmission Strategy that had been proven in Wuhan, South Korea, Taiwan, SIngapore, Hong Kong and was being proven in New Zealand....

So whilst they claim to have rejected a Herd Immunity strategy, the social material reality is that every single policy position that have taken has been designed to allow slow spread - which is a tacit acceptance of Herd Immunity as a target.



It is impossible to control a slow spread of an infectious aerosol carried disease, and they all knew this all along. any attempt to do so guarantees that there will be surges that demand shutdowns. Opening after shutting down without eliminating community transmission absolutely guarantees that there will be another surge.

The only way to control it is to stop it, to suppress the virus and eliminate community transmission. Then keep in place rapid, efficient locally driven cluster control systems to ensure any new outbreaks are dealt with. it also requires tightly controlled quarantine borders.

These are all relatively simple mechanisms. They make demands of Government to ensure all the people are well informed, never misinformed. They make demands on Government to support all the people through the process, including lockdowns when they have lost control of community transmission.

Evidence of intentionality

The UK Government, the Ruling Faction (that includes all the media, news broadcasters and pundits, the anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, the right wing grooming operations) have never adopted a zero community transmission strategy

The Great Barrington Declaration promoters in the UK had a meeting with Johnson in September, which resulted in delays to closing schools, which led to more spread of the virus. Teachers infections rates were +300% more than their local areas.

The Spectator publishes a lie - claiming there is no Scientific Consensus, claiming that the scientists behind the Great Barrington Declaration represent a split in the virology, epidemiology and public health science communities. 

An astroturf campaign - USforTHEM funded by US NeoLiberal think tanks, co-ordinated by Conservative party back benchers, promoting herd immunity and opposing school closures, smaller class sizes and other mitigations of spread whose efforts have fed into Johnsons policy positions.

This is ALL deliberate action - at this level it cannot be described as incompetence.

Billionaires in the UK have made an extra £25 billion in the past year.

The Crony Contracts have created many, many newly minted multi millionaires.




Ask your self now - what must be done to resolve this situation?



another deliberate play



one of these politicians is honest, the other is a political grooming gangster - the different outcomes speak volumes.

Kindest regards 

Corneilius 

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

I want to hear the people, not the media.







I want to hear the people, not the media.


I am listening to the people.

I want to hear from the media - how the survivors are being cared for, in detail, to know that they are being cared for with the best, most professional, most loving care possible.

In detail. What institutions and who are doing what....  and how it is working out.

I don't really need to hear a death toll score board being slowly updated in the public domain.

I can wait for the final death toll.

The Survivors and their families and the families of those who died do not need a public theatre, whilst the fire recovery and investigation is under way.

They will likely need to go through this in privacy, in safety, according to their own needs and wishes. Their situation must guide this above all else.

We can wait.

Meanwhile.

I do not want to hear about Inquiries governed by those who bear responsibility for the policies and the way those were implemented that led to this disaster.

I want that Government to stand down, immediately, and allow a national unity alliance to take the helm, and those other parties must put down the party split, there must be no opposition to the will of the people.

They cannot be allowed to investigate themselves, or have a hand in the investigations or access to confidential investigation materials or information or personnel.

The media must cease the drip drip theatre of horror.

Show some respect.

Show due respect.

We have social media, each other and open lines of communication across the grass roots, and we know enough to not need that theatre slammed in our faces day in, day out, as they sell advertising space.

We want facts, we want reliable information, we do not want opinion.

We want fullest expression of duty of care, we want a free hands to be the ones who carry out the investigations, 100% transparently.

That is our legal right. Our moral right.

Put it another way, the current Government, being the Government in power during which the conditions preceding this disaster were altered, cannot be allowed to Govern the investigations 'at arms length' either....

The rest of Parliament has to stand up, and with all due care and attention, do it's duty to the people, who are their paymasters, above and beyond any party political assignations, and pursue the evidence, place responsibility, and be just. Be Just and Robust in carrying out their duty to us all.

No excuses. This is an adult conversation.



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.

The lived experience, before the fire. Evidence.


People are still in the building, people raised safety issues for two years prior.



Grenfell Towers. 


Immediate necessities, a starting point, and a timeline of action. 

I think - and bear in mind my lack of expertise, or access to any resource, or experience in any of this, and my lack of knowledge on so much of the detail of this dreadful trauma, this unforgiving event, this horror and it's implications, I think that
without delay – the nation, we the people and the state must meet the needs of the people who are affected, bearing in mind that  each and everyone of them will be an individual case, with individual dynamics and will need precisely attenuated support to meet their needs. No one size fits all protocols. Meet those needs in full, without any reservation. Attention to detail essential as these people process and deal with what has just happened, and is happening to them.

Appropriate support without question. Just a thought.

Provided with love, and shared grief, and all due care and intention.


Here's something else I thought about.


I'd like to share this perspective.
I have not seen it anywhere else, though I have not looked so hard to see. I want to have it checked.

My question is am I making sense?
 

The answer is not about me.

Here goes.
 
The lived experience, before the fire.


Bear in mind for a moment the time 2 - 3 year period, planning, installation, emergence of problems, emergence of evidence, emergence of detailed complaints brought to the management ‘organisation’ based on available evidence, and not being heard when raising these matters again, and again, and living all that time with a sense of the risk…. of a fire.

If I and my family were living on upper floors.

How nervous would I be?

Day in, day out.

Morning, noon and night, 24/7?

Over a period of two years or so.

Inadequate response and minimal action taken, grudgingly.

Issues avoided.

Threats.

There is evidence of all  this in the public domain.

Evidence.

Terror.

Evidence.

A constant state of being aware of an unbearable risk, and not being heard by those responsible for that risk? Your children? My mother?

Leaving those families, imagine leaving your family in that potentially lethal uncertainty for an extended period?

How that that happen? How is that possible? Where is this possible?

Cui Bono?

This  egregious incident, this dreadful trauma is set in a context of a political and economic ideology that is re-directing taxation revenue, (a shared community resource, with all that that should imply), and turning it towards commercial profit based contracted out work, as a cultural practice, placing the taxpayers funds into an arena where the ideology of business is to make something and do something, and then cut costs – usually labour costs, material costs, externalised costs – to increase profit yield well beyond the cost of the civil infrastructure and a fair fee, which ought to be the correct approach for a civil project of any kind.

Taxes are not for shareholders, or bond holders.

Taxes are for people.

Civic infrastructure cannot be a profit center.

Civic is not business., it is not commerce.

It is about us, as a people. Our home. Land.


Our money. Our lives. Our children.

The State can afford to bail out the Banks, whose behaviour was the root cause of the problem, yet it cannot afford to implement the recommendations of the Lakanal House Coroners Inquest … immediately?

That said, Eric Pickles first public response to the Coroner’s recommendation’s is interesting. He avoids more than he embraces. Have a read. Read it again. Break it down.

So from here, today I suggest a timeline:

1. Complete fire investigation, and while that is underway collect ALL evidence from residents related to the incident, and all material, hard copy or digital, related to the entire process from planning to delivery to emergence of issues to the incident, from all sources. Assign adequate, sustainable resources to complete the task rapidly, thoroughly.

PROTECT THE 650,00 people living in High Rise buildings. Now.

2. Initiate a police inquiry. Let that roll.

3. At the same time, as I outline above, which is now, should have been immediate, without delay – the nation, we the people and the state must meet the needs of the people who are affected, bearing in mind that  each and everyone of them will be an individual case, with individual dynamics and will need precisely attenuated support to meet their needs. No one size fits all protocols. Meet those needs in full, without any reservation. Attention to detail essential as these people process and deal with what has just happened, and is happening to them. Appropriate support without question.

4. Immediate implementation of the Lakanal House Fire Investigation and Coroners recommendations, by legislation, then  immediate action, starting with checks. 

5. Surely this is worth more to the tax payer, the ordinary citizen, and all our children than the 100 billion ear marked for Trident, another destructive nasty lethal mass accident waiting to happen.

6. Inquest on completion of the Fire Investigation.

7. If any form of criminal responsibility emerges, indictments, criminal investigations, sanctions, prosecutions.

8. Inquiry.  Must examine the culture, the behaviour,  the outcomes based on all the available evidence.

8.a There must be robust legislative response to the Inquiry, immediately after the Inquiry has published its findings.
9. Material action must follow on its heels.

And we must maintain oversight at the grass roots level, and have executive rights in terms of decision making during progress. Government instructed by the people.

Civic Infrastructure must be set aside from the corporate profit culture. It is wholly inappropriate and it creates a series of well known and well documented conflicts of interest. It’s a shit storm.

Hillsborough, et al.

The fact that folks think the emergence of the Hillsborough Inquiry is the exception that proves the rule, when it is the rule. The exception meme is a veil.

Denial, mitigation, preserving power, status, rank, organisation is the rule.

The History of Public Inquiries and Government or State response in the UK is appalling, and it is frequently toxic mime of Justice that is acted out, time and time again, against a relatively disempower people.

And some people have the temerity to complain about British Sovereignty? Give me a break!

This behaviour is not rational at the human level.

It is rationalised at the institutional level.

That cannot stand.

Start today.

Hold our brothers ad sisters, our mothers and fathers close.  Be strong enough to bear it and act on what we know, with what we have - our Human Rights.


Meet the needs of the people who are affected, afflicted with this horrific trauma - each and everyone of them will be an individual case, with individual dynamics and will need precisely attenuated support to meet their needs.

Call in the UN?

The UN issued a damning Human Rights Report on the UK in 2018, following on after a previous report in 2009 that was not exactly glowing, on Human Rights Breaches committed by the British Government, across the UK.

have a read : it's quite clear.

“This was the Committee’s first review of the UK since 2009 and thus its first verdict on the Austerity policies pursued by successive governments since the financial crash. Over eight months the Committee conducted a dialogue with government officials, the UK human rights commissions and civil society groups. 

In a wide ranging assessment, expressed in unusually strong terms, the Committee sets out the following findings:
  • Tax policies, including VAT increases and reductions in inheritance and corporation tax, have diminished the UK’s ability “to address persistent social inequality and to collect sufficient resources to achieve the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights”. The Committee recommends the UK adopt a “socially equitable” tax policy and the adoption of strict measures to tackle tax abuse, in particular by corporations and high-net-worth individuals.
  • Austerity measures introduced since 2010 are having a disproportionate adverse impact on the most marginalised and disadvantaged citizens including women, children, persons with disabilities, low-income families and those with two or more children. The Committee recommends that the UK reverse the cuts in social security benefits and reviews the use of sanctions.
  • The new ‘National Living Wage’ is not sufficient to ensure a decent standard of living and should be extended to under-25s. The UK should also take steps to reduce use of “zero hour contracts”, which disproportionately affect women.
  • Despite rising employment levels the Committee is concerned about the high number of low-paid jobs, especially in sectors such as cleaning and homecare.
  • The Committee urges the UK to take immediate measures to reduce the exceptionally high levels of homelessness, particularly in England and Northern Ireland, and highlights the high cost and poor quality of homes in the private rented sector and the lack of sufficient social housing.
  • The UK is not doing enough to reduce reliance on food banks.
Jamie Burton, Chair of Just Fair, said:

“The UN’s verdict is clear and indisputable. It considered extensive evidence and gave the Government every opportunity to show why its tax and policy reforms were necessary and fair. In many important respects the Government proved unable to do this. It is clear that since 2010, ministers were fully aware that their policies would hit lower income groups hardest and deepen the suffering of many already facing disadvantage without offering any long term gain for the pain they inflicted. We urge the Government to take heed of the Committee’s recommendations and commit to ensuring that it does not diminish human rights further in the UK.” 

Simon Duffy, Director of the Centre for Welfare Reform, a member of the Just Fair Consortium said:

"The past six years of Austerity have seen the UK Government intentionally diminish the rights of its own citizens. 

The Centre for Welfare Reform welcomes the news that the United Nations has strongly criticised the UK Government for these policies - policies that have harmed immigrants, asylum seekers, disabled people and those living in poverty. There is no good reason for these ongoing attacks; instead it seems likely that these groups have been targeted simply because they are convenient scapegoats for problems they did not cause.

"The UK Government's policy has been shameful, and so is the ongoing failure of most of the media to attend to the impact of Austerity. So, we are all the more grateful to Just Fair for coordinating the efforts of civil society organisations like ourselves, and for helping to draw attention to these injustices.

"The Government of the UK is now in chaos and its future leadership is uncertain. Sadly it is unlikely that any immediate change in leadership will lead to the recognition of the UK's human rights obligations. Given recent events, it is even to be feared that the Government might try to blame international bodies for holding them to account for the obligations they freely entered into.

"The Centre adds its voice to all those who seek an end to Austerity and to the mounting injustice we've seen over the past six years. We will continue to work with groups or organisations who seek to advance justice, human rights and respect for all human beings - in all our diversity."

The Just Fair Consortium includes 76 national and local organisations and has published a series of reports that have highlighted the impact of austerity measures .

Full report here: http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/news/uk-in-breachhuman-rights/00287.html

Business as usual.

This dreadful, lethal fire, this horror must therefore be assessed within the wider context of an ideological political and social setting.

It is so much more, such that one can say that it is an institutional power culture.

An institutional culture that assumes the risk is, more often than not, worth it, when the poor pay the price.

And think too of the many, many others, innocents all, who die in wars our taxes are spent on. Risk Assessed. 

A culture where one will assess the cheapest manner in which to appear to meet the risk, and deal with any consequences, no matter how grave, with resistance to the evidence, followed by Public Inquiries, and much later on related some legislative change.. and as we see, repeatedly, responsibilities are not assigned for the harms caused, even if a settlement is made. The status quo is preserved.

Justice as a business model.
 
Pay the fee, no body is jailed. It is just another business expense.

Now then, what’s next?

Is it not quite appalling that we taxpayers are forced to accept this as good Governance?

“Strong and Stable?”

“Things can only get better?”

“All in it together?”

“Big Society?”

Empty slogans.

Bullying.

Resolvable.

Surely, in 2017?

Twenty First Century….

This is where we are.

And it's shit.

Which is why we really must deal with it, and clean it up.

Like healthy adults would.

The dead are now our ancestors.

We must listen to our ancestors.

We too will become ancestors.

What will we leave for our descendants?

We are alive now.

Start today.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

Thank you for reading this blog.

https://patreon.com/corneilius - donations gratefully received









Beyond Voting: the central issue of Power laid bare.




"To vote or not to vote, that is  a good question to start a conversation, an exploration, to express a desire to understand how democracy functions and how it ought to function."

The Power Inquiry of 2006 looked at this is a lot of detail.

By asking people why they don't vote.

Seems like a good approach.

If done well, and if people are being honest, the it would produce useful information, evidence... it would test current public domain assumptions on the matter.

They did it very well.

It's amazing what listening to people, what hearing and understanding with feedback can create, in terms of expressing and identifying needs, and then helping people to meet those needs, if they need help, if they request help...

What they found was that people's perception of professional politicians was accurate.

Liars, cheats and crooks who represent those who lobby them with cash incentives, who protect entrenched Power to Rule the People through the control of social and political institutions and exonomics, whilst pretending otherwise.

What they found was that a growing constituency of people were ACTIVE in their local communities, providing short and long-term support services to the poor and vulnerable, and the community at large, which had .historic roots in victorian local philanthropy mixed with a tradition of peasant self-reliance, how communities of peasants and later workers have long organised to help each other...

What they found was that for many people political activism was action on the ground to deal with issues in their area. Voting does not convey the same degree of social committment, and could be said to be inferior in many ways, if a citizens political action was limited to voting.

The Power Inquiry found that the Community Voluntary Sector was larger than membership of political parties by a massive margin, that as a diverse commjunity, it was politically and ethically aware and was taking active responsibility in their local areas.

They found that the Community Voluntary Sector was well versed in delivering services those they helped really needed, fund raising, consciousness raising, treasury management, listening and learning from those the served, in essence the skills of self-Governance.

What they found was that the Community Voluntary Sector crossed all age and income groups.

What they found was that the Community Voluntary Sector was also versed in real democracy, in real decision making and policy creation and implementation.

What came out of The Power Inquiry was a series of recommendations for meaningful changes which would devolve power as a SHARED RESPONSIBILITY to the grass roots.

One of which was removal of the official post of Party Whip. 100% anti-democratic post.

One of which was no private funding of parties for Elections. A fund based on the number of the electorate registered, to be split equally between all candidates.

One of which was a re-call at every level of Public Office. A form of oversight.

One of which was lowering the voting age to 16. Inclusion of the young because they are not represented, and quite often are very well aware of the issues of the day, and yet excluded.

One of which was introducing Democratic Power to students in secondary Schools, to give them a responsibility and voice on matters that affect their lives. You cannot exercise or share Power unless you have some MEANINGFUL practice.

A NOTA segment on the ballot box. We ought to be able to register non-confidence in those offering themselves up for election.

And much else besides....

The Three 'leading parties' Lab/Tor/LibDem attended the conference in 2006, and praised the initiative and content of The Power Inquiry report, before an audience of more than 500 people.

Two days later, they dismissed the Power Inquiry as 'impractical.'

'Impractical'!

And then the assault on the Community Voluntary Sector was initiated, by people who KNEW the crash of 2008 was coming, and who knew they could use that to justify the cuts to the Community Voluntary Sector, and the privatisation of much of the work being done by the Community Voluntary Sector.

In other words, a clear manipulation and assault on pro-Democracy activism at the local level, designed to stress the Community Voluntary Sector, which they KNEW would also harm many of those whose lives were being supported by the Community Voluntary Sector.

And this has been carefully ignored by mainstream media, because it was and still is intentional professional cruelty designed to undermine REAL democratic intelligence within the UK.

The Greens, SNP and Plaid are gaining ground BECAUSE their policies are HUMANE, above all else.

The issue of voting/not voting is being manipulated to mask this cruelty and intentionality.

That The State and Established Power are willing to be cruel to protect, enhance and expand their power is OBVIOUS - Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and our own bloody history (when read accurately, away from school texts and media history programs).

Few people ever fought and died for freedom, the majority fought and died because they were enlisted, or because they were socially conditioned to support the State. None of the political leadership fought, other than the likes of Churchill who fought the Boers and treated their civilian population with horrific abuse.

The treatment of Greek Resistance fighters post liberation of Greece, by UK Military and State, ought to be standard subject in school Histories. The UK Military and UK State enlisted those within Greece who had collaborated with the Nazis to slaughter those who had resisted on the basis that the resistance was largely populated by 'communists'.

The response to African Democratic Nationalists post WWII discloses the nature of Power in the UK. The response to Iraqi Democratic Nationalists in late 2003 disclose the nature of Power in the UK.

They plunged Greece, Africa and Iraq into a nightmare of Authoritarian Government proclaiming LIBERTY! They KNEW exactly what they were doing, and remain unapologetic about it.

Russel Brand said WHY he doesn't vote, rather than urging people not to vote per se.

And his intention was misrepresented. Willfully misunderstood.

I will vote Green, not because I think the Green candidate can win, but because the Green Candidate represents a humanist approach that is humane, that is kind, that is more empathic and that is practical, and I'd rather lose standing for that, than win a Pyrrhic victory claimed by excluding the Tories from Government, when in fact Government is the entirety of Parliament and Local Councils, and our acceptance of them as our Rulers, with the grass roots excluded from real decision making.

I vote for the entire community, not for my special interest,or traditional alliance.

I vote because I think on these matters, deeply and I care about all the people in this country, non excluded.

And I vote Green because I despise the political culture, in power and on the streets, that enables the protection of serial pedophiles in Church and State Institutions, the cover-ups, the wars, the profiteering, the lies.

I am not hopeful of an outcome based on one election.

I am hopeful because there is a growing awareness of all that I have indicated above, and it will continue to grow, year on year, generation on generation.

I vote thinking of long term outcomes, thinking of my grandchildren and their contemporaries.

I totally get why so many people do not vote, and I would not dare suggest to them that they are incorrect, given all that I have indicated above.

This election is 100% illegitmate BECAUSE of the cover-ups of the War Crimes, the cover-ups of priofteering and cover-ups of the sexual abuse of children by members of the Power structure (it also happens in families, the cover-ups..) has not been tackled head-on., Not by Power and not by the people at large.

The only reason we know what has been going on is because brave SURVIVORS broke the stories, again and again and again, in the face of opposition within the Police, within Councils, Schools, Churches and the great offices of State.

We all need to think and think again on this. Not least because we are adults with a core responsibility towards each others welfare that defines our very humanity. Whether we like it or not.

We need to act as mature responsible adults. Way beyond mere voting.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

Thank you for reading this blog.

https://patreon.com/corneilius - donations gratefully received




Are we a grown-up, responsible people .......... Letter to Irish Media.

Are we a grown-up, responsible people capable of managing ourselves with integrity and intelligence?” is the key.

(this piece was written as a response to some of the more divisive, angry and potentially abusive postings on the net with regard to the current situation in Ireland. I beleive it appplies across the Earth...)

If we are, then we don’t leave it to others – WE get involved, at the local level, and we reject the concept of being ruled, of Governance being in POWER.

We take our responsibilities towards OUR Society seriously.

We find ways to discuss, to... share information, we find ways to avoid squabbling and acting out our anger, wats to utilise that anger so it’s energy is directed towards creativity, we find time to create understanding, empathy and common ground that includes diversity, that finds ways to integrate the diverse as a pool of information and insight towards the goal of managing our country together.

Some might say it’s a lot to ask for. Well it’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure, Not as easy as voting, and sitting back, doing bugger all and handing over taxes as payment for services – we cannot afford to be mere consumers of political ideologies, of our favourite and most liked personal prejudices….

We need to mature.

We need to start and we need to be courageous enough to do this, knowing that while we don’t have all the answers, we can find them, test them and move forwards as a Society.

I am saying that we have to be aware of how our own anger and our vulnerability can be used against us; how we can be triggered by the abusers, who KNOW our vulnerabilities well.. and do exploit them - look at the Redress Board and how they took an adversarial approach to witnesses - that adversarial approach was designed to exploit known vulnerabilities of Survivors, to create hesitation in their statements and thus to sow doubt about their testimony.

Look at how unresolved anger is triggered by propaganda. These processes are known and understood by Power and used to great and unfortunately lethal effect - eg: Afghanistan and Iraq and anti-muslim propganda, or anti-imigrant propganda.

Forgiveness, if it is to occur, can only be on the basis of true remorse on the part of the perpetrators, with reparations and restorative justice actualised, in material terms, and can only be offered by those who suffered as individuals, and is more importantly to be seen as a way of enabling Survivors release themselves from the pain, shame, confusion and anger they feel.

A shorter version of this was also sent out to Irish Media, and was published in the Irish Independent on February 1st 2011.



Kindest regards

Corneilius

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




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Activism, truth and response ability

There is a world of difference between responsibility, the burden, and response ability, the ability to respond appropriately to whatever is in our environment.

It is absolutely VITALthat those who claim to work for change, engage in critical analysis of known facts regarding the culture of abuse into which we are all born into.

This analysis must include a personal investigation onto one's own internalised experiences of abuse (which is a wide spectrum of behaviours ranging from the subtle to the gross) , and internalised assumptions of that culture, to be carried out with ruthless honesty, so as to excise those ASSUMED BELIEFS that are part of the internalisation dynamic.

The REASON for this, apart from being vital to one's own recovery, is that whilst facts remain, beliefs may and do change; and in so doing, may well leave those for whom one is claiming to work for out to dry.....

It's hardly worth mentioning that belief functions as a means to mask the unknown or to distract or condition people.

No activist worthy of the name can afford to allow that to happen.

As Chomsky points out, and indeed demonstrates, the activist must be fully and completely committed to the truth, and nothing else.

I do understand the anger that arises when folks begin to explore the reality of the Dominant Culture. I do understand the frustration and fear that arises as a result.

However, given the response ability of the each of us, the work of truth is of paramount importance and cannot be set aside for personal reasons. 





Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's your gift to universe

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Responsibility, Blame and the mediated disempowering of the people

Apportioning responsibility, rather than blame, empowers healing AND effective resistance to oppression.... 

Blame is the tool of the oppressor, for it entangles and disguises the various layers of responsibility and is used to confuse those who are in distress... such is the nature of our society that blame and it's partner guilt is more common in law than responsibility or remorse.

As David Smail points out in his Essay "The Moral Tyranny of Therapy" when a person who is in distress present themselves for help, what is left out of the picture is the ways in which Societal Power Relationships mediate in all our lives. What this means is that ALL the responsibility for the distress causes are heaped upon the person seeking help, instead of allocating it where it belongs.

There are powerful Institutions who directly profit from and impose conditions upon people whose effects they know about and routinely disguise, lie and cheat about, and about which Education and National Health Care Services DO NOT examine or reveal in any great detail and consequently those forces are NEVER mentioned AS PART OF THE PICTURE.
If on the other hand, someone in distress hears the following "Well, given the nature of the society into which you were born, the rampant conditioning and violence which characterises it, AND your personal experiences, all of which are at variance to your natural expectations and healthful needs, it's no surprise that you feel as you do. Let's talk about this, shall we?" then the person in distress will immediately heave a sigh of relief and get to work on the issues they face, disentangling those aspects that they themselves are genuinely responsible for or to and begin handing the others back to where they rightfully belong.
This of course is being studiously avoided by mainstream psychiatry, psychotherapy and their various mouth pieces, as much as by the mass media, the Governments, the churches etc etc..... and by MOST official mainstream Charities......
A potent example of this is the phrase oft used "Look at what YOU made me do!"
I KNOW that program because I too used it AGAINST those I bullied or hit out at in irrational anger to justify my behaviour.
As an example of what I am writing about, I can tell you that I suffered from fear and self-loathing for much of my life. This manifested in self-sabotage, depression, irrational anger and other symptoms of distress.
I blamed myself for all those symptoms and others around me did the same, including many 'therapists' and officials.
Only when I was able to discern that it was the conditioning and abuse to which I was exposed to that inculcated that self loathing, as a survival strategy of a small child, (to accept that the adults brutality was justified is a survival strategy) that I was able to address the way I thought and felt about myself and finally release the suppressed pain of the wounding’s that gave rise to those feelings. That was me taking my responsibility, my ability to respond, as my own.
I was then able to apportion responsibility to those who harmed me for such a long time, and then to those Institutions that crafted such conditioning that those people became part of.
And so I no longer ever use that phrase "Look at what you made me do!" as a get out clause or for any other reason.
 .


Kindest regards 


Corneilius 


Do what you love, it's your gift to universe







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Empathy, Truth and Power - Nature, Church and State

Empathy and Power are two mutually exclusive realities. The exercise of power over others destroys innate empathy, transforming it at best to sympathy (charidee) and at worst it becomes  a form of 'intelligence' gathering, the kind sociopaths engage in order to exert greater control over those they seek to control. They call it knowing your adversaries 'weaknesses'. 


The recent elections in the UK are an example of that lack of empathy, in that the Illegal war in Iraq and Afghanistan is not an election issue, nor is the bail-out of the irresponsibly greedy investment bankers.

The 'deficit is however a very important issue because all parties are agreed on one thing: the debt or deficit MUST be paid, and it will be paid by the ordinary citizen!

Another example is the Roman Catholic Church's response to the witnessing of so many traumatised people, survivors of a world wide Institutional system of Residential Schools, a system that was and remains Policy; as was the landing of three Black Hawk helicopters of the US 7th Calvary on the sacred burial grounds of Wounded Knee last week. The same 7th Calvary that slaughtered 350 unarmed men, women and children and had the temerity to call that bloody event a 'battle' worthy of a battle pennant. The landing was touted as a 'peace offering'. 

Think on the reaction were some Germans to do something similar, and drive a few tanks into Treblinka by way of an apology!

If anything defines this 'civilisation' it is the almost complete lack of empathy more than any other single factor.

Canadian Oil Company, Talisman Energy, is currently attempting to invade the lands of the Achuar people, to exploit the 'resources' that lie under their land, land they have lived on, and eaten of, for tens of thousands of years. They are wedded to the land in ways few 'civilised' people understand. Talisman will utterly destroy that  relationship, and is supported by the Columbian State, a state that is also 'advised' by Tony Blair, who also 'advises' JP Morgan, UBS and Israel and the Palestinian People. Tony Blair is a Roman Catholic convert, a man who placed his hand on his heart at the Chilcott Iraq Inquiry earlier this year, and told the world that he sincerely 'believed' that the Invasion of Iraq, which was proven to be illegal, was the 'right thing to do.'

His lack of empathy for the 1.3 million Iraqis who have died violently, the millions of Iraqi orphans, the hundreds of thousands of seriously maimed children apparently makes him a good candidate to advise states and huge multinational banking corporations.

As regards the sociopathic gathering of intelligence, marketing targeting infants and young children is but one example. 

Another is the vast dataset of first contact writings that described the indigenous peoples who lived in and on the lands taken for the Church and various States over the past 600 years or so. The data shows that the vast majority were egalitarian, peaceful, stable societies. Those who recorded their observations, for the most part honestly, were not fully aware of the use to which those works would be put.

The history reveals the intent. That intent is proven by the ways in which the Australian, Canadian, Thai, North American, Columbian and many other Governments are treating the first peoples of those lands those States lay claim to, even today,even as I write people are being killed for 'progress' and 'souls are being saved'. Indeed.

The rationalisation that converts 'virgin' territories  into 'leases' for exploration, mining and development is one of many rationalisations of absolutely irrational behaviour - the destruction of life for profit. 

Residential Schools, Magdalene Launderies, Uranium Mining, People Trafficking, Cocaine, Heroin, Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Ritalin, Lockheed, Mossad are all part of the same pattern of destroying life for profit.

Here's a very fine article on the History of Debt.



"Debt: The first five thousand years by David Graeber
Throughout its 5000 year history, debt has always involved institutions – whether Mesopotamian sacred kingship, Mosaic jubilees, Sharia or Canon Law – that place controls on debt’s potentially catastrophic social consequences. It is only in the current era, writes anthropologist David Graeber, that we have begun to see the creation of the first effective planetary administrative system largely in order to protect the interests of creditors.
What follows is a fragment of a much larger project of research on debt and debt money in human history. The first and overwhelming conclusion of this project is that in studying economic history, we tend to systematically ignore the role of violence, the absolutely central role of war and slavery in creating and shaping the basic institutions of what we now call “the economy”. What’s more, origins matter. The violence may be invisible, but it remains inscribed in the very logic of our economic common sense, in the apparently self-evident nature of institutions that simply would never and could never exist outside of the monopoly of violence – but also, the systematic threat of violence – maintained by the contemporary state.


Let me start with the institution of slavery, whose role, I think, is key. In most times and places..........."

Read it, it's easy enough to understand. Debt and Violence are lovers, entwined and inextricably linked. He ends with a positive note. I agree. It's not all bad, though it is pretty ugly in most places...

The truth is out - when people who have been isolated can come together, and share their stories, they begin to form a dataset that cannot be denied. This is what the Catholic Church Residential School revelations are showing. Witness reports are reliable, when they can be verified, as they are. Mainstream Society cannot ignore these data, without becoming complicit.


The isolation of the individual is Societies condom, protecting Society from it's most feared STD : solid truth disclosure.

I have a song about this : here

Tell the truth, YOUR truth; that's how you start to bring the system of power down.



Kindest regards 

Corneilius 

 Do what you love, it's your gift to universe







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