I
was 'de-radicalised' by years of abuse, from Institutional 'carers' and my
legal guardians and I was in my teens and 20s a very angry young man. I was abusive, manipulative, dishonest and prone to bullying : behaviours I learned as a small child growing up in a traumatising environment, in order to survive.
aged 60, and learning all the time
In my 30s, I worked on
healing and recovery and became, bit by bit, less angry, less abusive, less manipulative, less of a bully.
That is when I started to become truly radicalised. I started to examine the roots of my distress.
Had I not, I might well have
committed some crime of harm. As it was I did intentionally hurt other people in my life. As it was I did ignore the harms I caused. As it was I blamed those I harmed for making me harm them. These are all behaviours typical of terrorists.
And as a result of my choice to seek recovery, to step away from those behaviours, and due to the good fortune of finding helpers whose understanding of these dynamics was evidence based, efficacious and empathic, it turned out that in time I became far more
meaningfully radical, in as much as I focused my gaze of the
psycho-social roots of my abusive behaviour, the root of the matter as it occurred in my life, and took personal responsibility for my actions and their consequences.
Radical means 'get to the root'.
If the Government REALLY wanted to 'tackle radicalism', then the evidence is that the healing
route of truth and honesty, ring fenced by empathy and a deep care and concern for the welfare of all people in our Society, and in all other Societies across the Earth, and is by far the most efficacious.
But that would be too radical for
Power, because in the end it would expose the psycho-social and historical roots of Hierarchical
Violence, and the symptoms of Hierarchical Violence would be seen as symptoms and not as the personal flaws and faults of those who are most vulnerable, and most wounded, and often most angry, and to would thus expose Power as we know it to the honest truth, and the choice to face that is the core element in all healing of abusive behaviours.
That is a choice that Power as we know is refusing to make. It has been offered, time and time again, and Power has refused it. The latest event in that is the rejection by the 'troika' of the meaning of the Greek referendum result.
Government executive, and Corporate Executive branches must step out of the jack-boots of distal power exercised over the people, into a new pair of shoes, the athletic shoes of a shared active participative responsibility of power
with the people as equal partners.
We, the people, must stretch every sinew, move every lever, roll every stone to forward this oh-so-basic, ethical and moral change over.
The
Power Inquiry 2004-6 looked at many aspects of this in
great detail, and whilst the leaders of the Liberal, Labour and Tory Parties came to the 2006 Conference at Queen Elizabeth Hall, opposite the Mother of all Parliaments, in London's Westminster, and praised the work of the Power Inquiry, calling it the most important initiative in the UK regarding Democratic Power of it's time, they later dismissed it as 'impractical'.
No engagement. Just a trite and brief dismissal.
And then came 2008 and 'Austerity' (which had been planned well in advance of 2008) which was directed primarily at the Community Voluntary Sector and the people they serve, to undermine and punish that constituency, for their temerity in describing how Power can be safely devolved to the UK's grass roots, the tax payers, and the marketing Guru's of the Government called it 'Big Society'. Because 'we are all in it together'. And that is true, the three mainstream political parties are all in it together. And they are all committed to excluding the grass roots from meaningful participation in decision making on matters that affect our lives.
Power is their God, and great wealth is more about utility than it is about greed, great wealth is a tool - it can be used as an oppressive or it can be turned to genuinely nurture a truly humane culture.
The people are the subjects of Power. As long as this remains, the inhumanity of Power will remain.
Voting on it's own was never truly democratic.
The bullying must cease. The abuse must cease. The lies and manipulation must cease.
The Pope travels the world, making great statements, and yet .... The Vatican is refusing to open it's files on all known predatory abusers within it's culture, and leaving it to those who are still alive, the survivors, to bring their cases forwards, fully aware that as time passes, many of those will pass on, and their witness evidence will be lost (let alone the loss within their own lives of so much for so little)
George Osborne announces a new Minimum Wage whilst planning to remove Working Tax Credits, Child Benefits and other supports that poor, vulnerable people, many of whom are in work, but being paid low wages (to enlarge the profits of their employers) - a sleight of hand worthy of a bully - and the red faced triumphalist Tory parliamentarians crow, bellow and grunt their approval in a manner befitting a hyperactive sweaty crowd cheering a boxing match as their champion strikes his opponent down to the floor.
A bit like the air punching of the Obama Situation room, when Osama Bin Laden was executed.
What manner of men and women are these?
Well, they too are 'radicalised', are they not?
They pursue radical policies with enforcement actions that cause harm and they deny the meaning of that harm, they dehumanise those they have harmed and they justify their actions through bland ideological statements.
Are they not similar to the 'terrorists' in this?
Is it not a reasonable demand that they and the terrorists they claim are 'radicalised' desist?
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