Popes, Power and Native Peoples

Hello my friends....

Been a good few weeks of Festivals, though I did not do as many gigs as I wished I had done.... nonetheless, the shows were great and with such variables, quite interesting.... lots of noodling was the order of the day at Secret Garden...

August will be busy... if not very lucrative..

Here's a heads up on some important stuff ............

Protest The Pope Film Festival, Telling Stories, Survivors Wisdoms

What will it take for those who are insensitive or invulnerable (for whatever reason) to accept that in fact to listen to the wisdom of the stories of lived experience and to understand the meaning of those experiences is a deeper Science than any other, and that those who are vulnerable, sensitive, connected are equally important in terms of information about life, and that non-acceptance creates more distress than anything else.

Anecdotes are information.

A mother’s empathetic bond to her new-born child.

Does it have to be ‘proven’ by Science? Is that what it will take?

In, fact it is now well understood that the empathetic child mother bonding is essential for the healthy development of every child; that this process is soft-wired in, as it is the expected biological route towards maturity and effectively the experiences that that process generates write the neurology and physiology of the child from in utero upon which learning experiences the child's entire psyche will rest. Their potential for violence is originated in dysfunction experienced by the child in utero, during child birth or in post-natal experience... and indeed throughout life, the healthy human is vulnerable.

What does that say about the Society these questions arise from within?

What does it say about us as people born into such a Society?

For too many years the vulnerable have been admonished to ‘be seen and not heard’.

Their voices erased from History, except as a foot note of economics, an anecdote on childhood past, hyped as heroes and hung for treason.

The victims and survivors: Hidden from History. Their abusers: Unrepentant.

Official history serves but one Lord: Apparently so too the Pope.

The Power.

Official History does not serve progressive Society, nor does the Pope serve justice throughout the Community.

How is it that it’s almost never said in public that Society and Pope are linked and entwined, and are both soaked and mired in the blood and lands of many, many, many peoples..

Both Church and State have claimed to be liberating Institutions. Power always claims a beneficent purpose to the exercise of power. And lies; every time.

Unrepentant

You many not know it, but a world wide program of kidnapping the children of First Nation Peoples, carefully dressed as the manifestation of a ‘progressive’ policy move, with the barely hidden intent of breaking the cultural cycles of the First Peoples and replacing those ancient way with a compliant version, a tourist version; and that this was carried out with collaboration from within the First Nation Peoples, driven by bribery and corruption, and was planned, implemented and maintained by both The Church and by the State, for over 100 years.

It’s absolutely well documented, after all it was often administered by vast bureaucracies with efficient record keeping; indeed there is no longer a denial of the practice as policy.

What occurs by way of effective public relations performed by Governments of Colonialised lands and peoples are generally show-pieces,  carefully scripted, paid-for shows and rituals of ‘tolerance’ and ‘forgiveness’, of honouring the wounds of the past using ‘traditional’ rituals - some form of recognition,,,, - and of moving on, of some small compensation, of limiting claims by bureaucratic bungling or simply an avoidance of any responsibility as it really is.

The land ownership/stewardship, ancient ways, acknowledgement of a different way of life as equal if not in many ways healthier all round. These are not mentioned. Criminal Charges against abusers for whom there is sufficient evidence. These do not happen. Nothing happens.

There is no remorse amongst those who rule, and there never has been remorse for their policies and the consequences which many are forced to live, and for the ways in which they use power to such destructive effect.

Which is why the stories must be told, and the community at large must engage in this story telling… if not as a survivor, then as a witness.

And, if need be, a prosecutor.

Protest The Pope

You might not know this but The Pope is to visit the Queen this September. Kevin Annett will be travelling from Canada, where he has for the past 20 years supported the lives and the voices of those who survived the Canadian Indian Residential Schooling System, as will others from around the world who work to give voice to these stories, to confront the Pope, the State and the Church with their dysfunctionally adverse behaviour patterns, past and present.

To present for the perhaps first time in England a world wide exposure of the ways in which children have been abused by Church and State and how that experience is of our common history, a hidden history.

Survivors of State and Church Residential School Systems from many nations will present their evidence, and will quote much more documented evidence of Institutional Abuse of Children as Policy at the State level and within the Churches during a period of 100 years, with some similar Residential Schools with similar issues extant, as Christian and other Missionaries operate in or near Minority Native Peoples…..

And that these practices being common across the globe constitute a crime against humanity of the most serious nature, and require full disclosure, accountability, remorse and reparations as well as a fundamental examination of the nature of hierarchy and its future as a human societal model.

Kevin Annett is, like many others, seeking only resolution, the exercise of justice and finally, the freedom to heal, and to live good lives as natural people.

Kevin Annett will be presenting his documentary “Unrepentant” in London at …… and I highly recommend attending. The film is beautiful, albeit shocking, for there is a start to the healing in the telling of these stories of loss and woundings. There is a strident challenge to Society in the voices that are heard, and one can hear and feel the strength of those people, who intend to see this process through, expressed in the documentary.

One event to recommend is this :

Protest the Pope

The Film SEASON

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square , London WC1R 4RL

Monday 13 September – Thursday 16 September

More details here : http://www.secularism.org.uk/protest-the-pope-film-festival.html

Kevin Annett is an inspiring speaker, gentle, compassionate, determined, impolite, at times funny and insightful; clear as a bell he explores what the Hidden History means for us all and shows a clear path towards resolution and justice.

Here Kevin speaks outside the Catholic Cathedral in London on the issues outlined above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8do5BVTkYfI

The website www.hiddenfromhistory.org is the main website for Kevin’s work.

You will find the full story, plus be able to keep upto date with Kevins work…..

That's all, as that's more than enough to be getting on with!

Seriously, don't take it toooo seriously, just be aware and share the stories... there's a lot of work to be doing.....

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

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

Trauma and Abuse Dynamics : A flow chart of sorts.

When a trauma event occurs there are possible flows or directions emerge, one direction is life enhancing, the other is life restrictive.

Resolution of trauma requires safety first. If the culture itself is unsafe, then resolution is more difficult to attain. 

Those who resolve the trauma resultant feelings and experiences have restored their natural vitality, their flow, their ability to express authentically (since they do not shut down their feelings) and consequently are better able to respond if another trauma occurs; those who do not resolve the trauma resultant feelings and experiences may be more likely to repeat the cycle of adverse control indefinitely as they become locked into behaviour patterns, many of which are un-conscious - they ought not be 'blamed' or judged for this. 

They need support, understanding, empathy and obviously safety.

The roots of the perception of nature as a 'survival struggle' emerge from this coping mechanism when it is established as a chronic dynamic, andis then  institutionalised, built into the structures of society as those who do not resolve the trauma resultant feelings and experiences WILL build that controlling psychology into whatever they create... 

Of course, it is obvious that it also serves those Institutions (Rulers) to convince others that nature is indeed a 'struggle for survival' because that is used as a justification for their behaviour..... such as 'extirpating' native societies, fighting wars, competing adversely... 

Breaking the cycle is the result of not so much as 'adopting' different behaviours (which mask the insecurity - and is to be found in the use of behaviour modification, outcome based education, punishment, religion, etc etc ); it is a matter of facing the feelings, experiences and perceptions that the trauma generates and resolving them so that one is able to respond rather than react, and that natural vitality, the 'flow' of feeling, of direct perception into the world is restored.

Thrivival and natural dynamic equilibrium converts solar energy into more abundant life processes, utilising Earth materials, to build more topsoil, more abundant life for all; 

Survival Modality seeks to coerce, to solidify and conform material reality to the self limiting perspective of those who rule (and for whom survival is always in question, in that coercion ALWAYS generates resistance) and do so for their own exclusive perceived needs - which are to to maintain control, to keep the feelings at bay.... yet, by ignoring the symptoms, by suppressing them, they bank more and more dysfunction and that can lead to one outcome alone; collapse. 

It might take some time, yet it is inevitable.

Kindest regards

 Corneilius

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

Nurture, Nature and the Joy of Sense.

Nurture, Nature and the Joy of Sensory Acuity.

The core biological function of the adult human being is to nurture the true inherent nature of the natural child so that the natural child lives as a natural expression of life itself, of Earths emergent biology. 

Another way to say this is that the core biological function is to improve and or maintain the natural life sustaining habitat of the natural child, and of all natures children.

Reproduction arises not as a means of passing on, but as the companion of death, the companion of those processes that metabolise materials from one form to another, releasing them so that those materials can be utilised by natural living processes to enhance the fecundity of Earths biology. 

To effectively increase fecundity, earth materials have to be gathered, energy has to be expended, so that metabolic processes can act on those materials. This is what plants do, using the freely available energy of the sun to drive photosynthesis. 

Animals consume some of those materials, as do bacteria, and metabolise those materials as an intrinsic part of their living processes. Animals and bacteria also excrete metabolised materials, as well as providing them on their death and decomposition – a process I refer to as bio-returning.

This process increases the available materials for life for all life.

Trees and squirrels, which we can see, need each other. All need bacteria, who remain invisible to us, to do a huge amount of the work required to metabolise materials from one form to another.

All the senses of the human being are emergent properties, crafted by biology, to enable a high degree of functioning within the paradigm I am describing. 

These senses can be seen to operate at both the cellular level, the organ or organism level and the macro level of the habitat. They are all physical interpretations of electromagnetic frequencies that inhere to the fundamental atomic level.

Photosynthesis is a response to photons, to light and is therefore the primary precursor to the human eye, which also responds to light.

The concept of passing on DNA, of the selfish gene, of inheritance itself, is a concept that emerges from within a society that typically expresses power relationships as opposed to egalitarian relationships. 

It is an expression of Empire. For it is the case that all Emperors wish to pass on what they have ‘achieved’ to others whom they are certain will continue that achievement as a form of narcissistic ‘immortality’….. a form of vanity if you will… 

Empire tends to mould the habitat to meets its own perceived needs above the needs of all others – recognition, the placating of hubris, the placating of an irrational fear of nature, all are processes that leads directly to the desire to dominate nature. And with that to dominate ALL people.

And what is truly insane about this desire to dominate is that it negates the ability to truly sense the Earth and the habitat, and each other, with the awesome sensory abilities that inhere to our biological forms, which are freely and unconditionally given and are indeed of such stunning beauty and exquisite pleasure that they define bliss itself.

Empire has come to the party and missed the point completely and is in the process of ruining the party. 

For ALL concerned. Doh!

Kindest regards 

 Corneilius 

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

Natural Expectations : a definition

Natural Expectations : a definition

Natural expectations are sets of inherent, intrinsic design implications that emerge from within living organisms.

Another way to express this would be to say that a three legged stool has obvious immediate design implications, as would a mug, or a palm leaf woven basket. The stool is a seat or a table, the mug, an open container with a handle, is for drinking or scooping, the basket is for carrying, or holding objects within it, and it’s strap arrangement, if it has one, might indicate how it is to be carried. It’s an analogy because the stool, the mug nor the basket, are all non ‘living’ ‘things’ and are used by living beings. The materials that comprise those objects may in time be returned to nature, yet they as objects do not live, nor do they grow.

What I am writing about are the natural expectations’ of living processes.

Plants are an expectation of sunlight within certain frequency ranges, varying from plant to plant. Some utilise more direct sunlight than others. Each one has its place.

In the forest habitat Perma-culturists and Forest Gardeners describe 7 layers of light variation, from the ground to the topmost leaves, and have observed that a myriad of different plants work on all those varying levels of light, collectively and individually. Put any one of those plants in a layer it’s not normally naturally part of and it will struggle, and its natural growth cycles will be disrupted. The plants natural expectations are not being met.

Each plant in the web of life provides materials and more often than not often living space for many, many organisms, all of whom are part of the essential optimum health picture. In a forest with many hundreds and thousands of species those relationships will be incredibly interwoven in a non-linear fashion. The entire web is an expression of many, many specific natural expectations being fulfilled. All inter-related! That inter dependence is also part of the natural expectations, or design implications of living processes.

Eyes are an expectation of sunlight within a certain frequency range. We human beings cannot see ultra-violet or infra-red light with our eyes. Yet there are many animals that do use those frequencies. It is interesting to note that civilisation has developed technology to extend our sensory range, to ‘see’ those UV or IR frequencies, primarily as military/security tools and as such mostly for ill.

Ears are an expectation of sound waves. Again there is a limit, a certain frequency range outside of which nothing is sensed by that particular organ or organism or collective of cells operating as they do. Nature has determined this limit. It is no accident. Irrespective of whatever determines such processes, these naturally determined expectations are absolutely meaningful, and of vital importance to all living processes.

Plants need water. Some more than others. The local availability, source and quality of water determines what plants will thrive, and of course those plants will live there and will thrive. Salt Marshes and Bog Marshes are quite differing habitats. A few plants can handle both, most are specific to the precise habitat and it’s variations.

Another way to sense this would be to say that what we see in natural living processes is that those intrinsic, that is to say, essentially innate and natural expectations determine the parameters for the optimum health of any living process. Meeting those natural expectations ensures optimum health.

There is one other natural expectation that inheres to all living processes; that is that there is no such ‘thing’ or ‘concept’ as ‘thrash’, ‘rubbish’ or waste.

Nature does not create any waste. Ever. In natural living processes ALL materials utilised by living processes are returned to the nutrient cycles in forms that other organisms or living processes can metabolise. That return processes is pee-ing, poo-ing, leaf shedding, skin shedding, and of course dieing.

Decaying. Bio-degrading … though I don’t much like that term.

Bio-returning would be a better description, less judgemental.

This constant return of metabolised materials increases the over-all fecundity of the natural habitat. That too is a natural expectation of the entire biota or habitat.

Another way of saying this is that this very simple no-waste principle ensures the continued optimum health and growth of the habitat.

What it means, for me at least, is that EVERYTHING that lives on Earth, and everything done by those living organisms is inter-related, profoundly connected in a vast food web that feeds all life – all waste is food for life - so that life grows ever more abundant on Earth. And each and every living organism is embodied with a set of natural expectations

It follows that even the slightest input of ‘new’ or ‘alien’ materials will have consequences and those consequences cannot be easily predicted, in that because nature has not determined a bio-logical metabolic living process to handle that material, to utilise it and or return it to the nutrient cycle, the ‘new’ or ‘alien’ material can become toxic if it ‘accidentally’ interferes with natural bio-logical processes; though hind sight does of course reveal the extent and depth of those consequences, even as this is strangely ignored by so many in this modern dominant culture.

To recap, ALL natural living processes have specific and precise natural expectations that are intrinsic and that determine the parameters for the optimum health of each living process; and that the constant meeting those expectations at the individual and community levels increases the overall health of the entire species, and those many species living at optimum health, by metabolising materials created by each other they collectively ensure the optimum health of the entire habitat. There is no ‘waste’ in natural processes, because all materials are left in a state that specifically enables them to be metabolised by other living processes. Life feeds life.

Here's my song on this :

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Open Letter to Media 16-6-10 : BP, The Pope and patterns of behaviour

To whom in may concern,

It has been written that the human brain is exceedingly good at observing and discerning patterns. It’s long been 

assumed that this ability is an evolutionary trait, one that supports our ability to thrive, as part of the natural biota of Earth.

I have been observing a pattern throughout my life, and wonder, am I the only one to have observed this pattern? If so, that would make me quite unique, or possibly insane.

If not, then, given that the pattern exists, the question of the sanity of a great number of people arises. People who should know better. People in whom the public trust is placed. 

The pattern I observe concerns the following generic : an incident, or incidents occur in which serious actual harm is caused as a result of the decisions made and actions perpetrated by highly functioning organisations, such as Governments, Churches, Corporations and their leaderships, followed swiftly by denial, spin, obfuscation, and protracted obstruction of serious investigation and/or application of the Law, both National and International.

This pattern can be observed amongst the following : The Canadian Residential School System, The Irish Residential School System, The Aboriginal Australian Residential School System, The Afghan War, The Iraq Wars, The Cuban Sanctions, The Gaza Blockade, The Tobacco Companies denial of the Harm caused by Tobacco, The Bombing of Cambodia, The Oil Blow-out in The Gulf of Mexico. This list is by no means exclusive. I offer it up to give a flavour of the level of harm, the nature of the Organisations and the near ubiquity of this pattern.

Ever since the Blow-out on Deepwater Horizon this April, Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP has been less than candid with regard to this very serious incident. 

It is clear that from the outset, Tony Hayward, and those who advise him and work with him, were more concerned with protecting some inane concept linked to the image and status of BP, (much in the same manner that the current Pope and his colleagues were and remain primarily concerned with protecting the image and status of The Vatican) than in either resolving the situation and/or limiting the harm, never mind being openly truthful as the issues arose.

A pattern observed can lead to a number of conclusions. Depending upon the observers perspective and honesty. So here goes.

If these patterns are to do with healthy thrivival, or even mere survival, as the evolutionary psychologists would have us believe, then it is clear from the above examples that the survival of the Organisation takes priority over all other considerations, including the costs in lives lost and trauma caused to living organisms, be they human or non-human, and with that priority over the damage to the habitat from which we human beings have emerged. 

This is the hidden demon lurking within Richard Dawkins ‘selfish gene’ concept. 

At some point pattern this will inevitably become a liability for the human species, if not for ALL species for all time, because Organisations and Institutions ARE not biological, living entities nor are they adaptations of evolutionary processes. They are artificial structures, imposed by force, upon living processes. 

Given that this IS the case, the pattern of behaviour of Tony Hayward, The Pope and many, many others who occupy ‘leadership’ positions, and indeed populate Institutions at all levels, must be questioned, minutely observed, and ultimately understood to be a real and present danger. Anti-social is too weak a term. Socio-pathic just covers relations within the human dimension. These behaviours are anti-life. The pattern observed is an anti-life pattern. 

The Gulf of Mexico ‘OIL SPILL’ is NOT an ‘accident’. It is the tragic result of an economics based decision making process. It is part of a pattern of negative, environmentally and socially dysfunctional behaviours. 

It is incumbent on all those who have access to the public discourse to engage in the process of honestly appraising these behaviours and of sharing what is known by way of realisable resolution.

This letter is of course addressed to the worlds ‘respected’ media. You have a responsibility, as human beings, as brothers and sisters, as fathers and mothers, as relatives of all life, and you have the means to meet that responsibility. 

Kindest regards 

Corneilius 

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

The biological processes involved in the Origins of Love & Violence are no longer a mystery

And if it's all new to you, I suggest this stunning piece of research as a starting point... unless one gets to the core root, then all attempts at making a healthy change WILL FAIL.

An Introduction by Michael Mendizza (from : http://www.ttfuture.org/authors/jwprescott )

A baby's developing body and brain mirror and reflect, lifelong, the emotional-sensory environment provided by its first primary relationship, that is with its mother.

The Origins of Love & Violence (please see below) take root in this first, primary sensory environment.

What we call "affectional bonding" or nurturing, or its absence-- very early in life--structures the developing brain to interpret the world and its relationships as peaceful, pleasurable and loving or hostile, painful and violent depending on trust or anxiety experienced in this first relationship.

The biological processes involved in the Origins of Love & Violence are no longer a mystery.

During pregnancy a mother's body provides the sensory stimulation; the taste, touch, smell, sight, sound, and the pleasure or pain associated with these sensations that shape her baby's brain.

The state of the mother's own body, in relationship to her environment, safe and nurturing, or unsafe and anxious, is mirrored in the baby's developing brain and nervous system.

If mother feels safe and is herself nurtured, her baby's brain, with its creative capacities, will reap the benefit. If mother feels unloved or unsupported, is threatened, anxious, and fearful, nature will give greater emphasis to her baby's ancient core brain, with its defensive and survival systems, at the expense of evolution's newer creative capacities.





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

Read it, share it..............


also this essay which draws together the most advanced research into this most crucial issue....






http://dwylcorneilius.blogspot.com/2010/04/empathy-biological-imperative.html

What you DON'T hear from the various voices such as Alex Jones, Noam Chomksy, David Ike, The Pope, Obama, Dalai Lama, etc etc are the VOICES OF THE CHILDREN... why is this?

What is likely is that YOU don't recall the detail of your childhood.

This is the missing data that is being ignored.

Kindest regards

 Corneilius

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

Some thoughts on Sensationalist 'teachers' ..... and the truth that evil is banal, everyday, and not at all exciting.

I know the History of The Vatican, going back to when the first 'Official Christian' Church were 'allowed' in Rome - it was immediately co-opted by the system, and every church since then has also been co-opted, often willingly - the truth about Official Christianity, and Judaism from which it sprang, (along with Bhuddism, Taoism, HInduism etc etc) is that they have ever been about control, profit, power - and the only assured way of keeping all these three is to abuse people into compliance; those that refuse are murdered.

It constantly surprises me when people 'discover' what is well known by those who survive ....

It's not as though any of this info is hidden, or even obscure.

Jordan Maxwell and others like him are effectively jumping on the bandwagon, as are many 'teachers'... who promote fear rather than courage and clarity.... whose books do well, whose shows do well etc etc... all the while the survivors work pretty much on their own.....

None of them ever talk about their own experiences as children, the primary dataset of any survivor.

Lots of people, an I used to be one of them, are fascinated by this kind of info, the boogie man.... Evil is banal, normal, basic and not at all exciting... and I wanted to avoid that experience of evil in my own life....

But hey, most people think children are not naturally intelligent, (that they need to be taught) not naturally creative (they can be trained or some few are 'talented') and need to be told what to do, (or they'll go wild! ) and most parents see their children as extensions of themselves, and most people think slapping a child is ok.

Mist people in this society think human beings are the most intelligent form of life on Earth. 

Pure Bigotry.

Most people have NEVER done an honest appraisal of their childhood experiences. Not their fault, it's just that in an abuse dynamic it pays to avoid certain truths...

Most people have no understanding that the worst of the abuse is but part of a spectrum of abuse behaviours, and that without the gentle abuse that is all but invisible, that is 'accepted' behaviour, the worst cannot sustain.

I suggest reading some Alice Miller and some decent anthropology, especially first contact stuff to get a better picture...

Start here : 

Prescott, Violence and the Mother Child Bond

http://www.violence.de/pre

scott/bulletin/article.htm

l

Hunter Gatherer Parenting, Children, trust and learning... 2 parts 

http://www.psychologytoday

.com/blog/freedom-learn/20

0808/children-educate-them

selves-iii-the-wisdom-hunt

er-gatherers

http://www.psychologytoday

.com/blog/freedom-learn/20

0808/children-educate-them

selves-iii-the-wisdom-hunt

er-gatherers

Alice Miller : 

http://www.alice-miller.co

m/

You might feel I am taking a stern tone here, .... but if you really want to help Hollie Grieg, and other survivors of child abuse like her, (and there are far more than you would like to believe) you HAVE to understand the depth of this issue, you must do the work required, (some of it quite personal) and not fall for the sensationalisation that is currently a massive part of those campaigns... that sensationalisation is part of the protective shield that people are using to avoid looking into their own dynamics as part of this abusive society, and is why so many are trying to 'fix' things....

And the secrets hidden in each of our own personal dynamics are absolutely key to breaking the cycles - only the FULL truth can set each of us free enough to NEVER be co-opted by abusers in any form, be it gentle or severe.

Keep in touch.... make it less exciting and more banal, and then face the truth with courage and determination .. this is a long, long walk we are taking. 

Best be fully prepared.

Kindest regards 

 Corneilius 

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

Empathy and the failure of Ethics and Morality

A recent discussion held into the wee hours with a good friend brought out a few insights for both of us. We were chatting about parenting. And society.

We spoke of empathy and of ethics. We looked at why ethical committees of every kind routinely fail to stem the tide of abuse, corruption and other blatantly destructive behaviours.

The failure of ethics in western civilisation is perhaps definitive of western civilisation.

What are ethics?

Wikipedia describes Ethics as follows…

"Ethics (also known as moral philosophy) is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and bad, noble and ignoble, right and wrong, justice, and virtue.

Major branches of ethics include:

          meta-ethics, about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how theirtruth-values (if any) may be determined;

          normative ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action;

          applied ethics, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific situations;

          moral psychology, about how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its nature is; and

          descriptive ethics, about what moral values people actually abide by.

Within each of these branches are many different schools of thought and still further sub-fields of study."

The key in this description is the issue of MORALS.

Wikipedia describes MORALS as follows …

"Morality (from the Latin moralities "manner, character, proper behavior") is a system of conduct and ethics that is virtuous. Morality has three principal meanings.

In its "descriptive" sense, morality refers to personal or cultural values, codes of conduct or social mores that distinguish between right and wrong in the human society. Describing morality in this way is not making a claim about what is objectively right or wrong, but only referring to what is considered right or wrong by people. For the most part right and wrong acts are classified as such because they are thought to cause benefit or harm, but it is possible that many moral beliefs are based on prejudice, ignorance or even hatred. This sense of term is also addressed by descriptive ethics."

That last line is crucial. Moral beliefs are based on prejudice, ignorance or even hatred … they leave out fear (which drives all three of those definitions) and of course what they are really talking about are BELIEF systems.

I have long made a profound distinction between 'beliefs' and 'knowledge'; the former is mental, the latter experiential; an easy analogy is thus : living in the wild, a belief about where or what is food can get you killed, knowledge will ALWAYS feed you.

Likewise we all KNOW when a 'wrong' has been committed, as any infant will quickly inform you. The truth of it is felt first, then thought about. Or not.

Natural Creatures live in knowledge and they thrive. It is obvious that the natural world KNOWS what it is doing, though that knowing is perhaps quite different from the current definition of knowledge made by ‘civilisation’. The Acorn KNOWS how to become the Oak Tree. The rain forest knows many things, from how to create rain, to how to build topsoil, filter water and share ‘resources’ so that all benefit. And it’s obvious that none of this could possibly be the outcome of a series of mechanistic ‘programmes’. The levels of precision that pertain to natural living process are far too intense for mere mechanics.

What is absolutely certain is that vast parts of the human species, mostly those who live in or around what is known as ‘civilisation’ currently live in belief, and that civilisation accepts only one form of knowledge as being valid – the reduced knowledge of science, and that part of the human species, while many, (24% of all adults uses anti-depressants at one time or another) do not thrive, but merely survive in an atmosphere of fear, be they wealthy or impoverished. Faith is common place. Empathy is rare.

Experiential knowledge is routinely ignored. Tony Blair and George Bush, and many, many hundreds of thousands of people worked together to launch the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in full knowledge of the possible consequences for the people who live in those countries. The imposition of IMF policies around the world is another example. The BP Oil spill currently destroying the Gulf of Mexico is another… Empathy has no place in these activities.

That civilisations and hierarchies tend towards morality as a system, an externally imposed set of rules is the norm, the base. Indeed all civilised religious belief systems outline in some detail a range of restrictions that are supposed to be guides in moral behaviour, and while certain commonalities exist, such as ‘thou shalt not kill’ and ‘honour thy mother and thy father’, there are massive variations, which fall under the cloak of ‘cultural differences’ and which while they are protected by the concept of ‘multi-culturalism’ or ‘free speech’ or ‘religious freedom’ actually work to divide people along cultural lines – what is accepted in one culture is maligned in another.

Likewise Secular Law is divided into what is called ‘common law’ and ‘statuary law’, or ‘civil law’ and ‘criminal law’ and there’s a further division under the guise of ‘contract law’. And there are hundreds of thousands of pages of detailed definitive law concerning how citizens in any state are to be controlled, managed and the affairs of local and national governance conducted.

Nowhere in any of these is the word empathy used. Thus ethics in business, law and religion are most often devoid a discussion of the fundamental quality of empathy, a quality that emerges from within the very biology of life. I have written of this before, so there is little to add other than empathy is a bio-logical imperative. Well actually, there is. It can’t be stated often enough that empathy is, amongst many things, not least the ability to feel ‘into’ the world in ways that enable a thorough comprehension of what it is that is being felt into – a form of observation of reality that pertains to every cell, a reading of the habitat and all that is in it.

To fully sense the ‘other’ in human terms, to feel what the other might be feeling, not merely to ‘understand’ it as an intellectual exercise and to be able to respond appropriately is the core of mother-child bond.

The baby in the womb lives in an empathetically direct connection with his or her mother, and this is a two way communication that operates at the biological level as much as the conscious level. For that link to be conscious, the mother herself has to be aware of that link and attuned to it. For that link to survive birth, the child-mother bond must absolutely not be broken, and must be retained throughout infancy… mere ‘care’ does not suffice, for the infant feels the fact of the missing empathy, and the developing neural pathways of empathy do not grow.

Another way to look at this is to understand that an empathetic parent cannot strike a child not because she or he knows it is worn, but because he or she ‘feels’ the impact of the blow upon the child even as the thought arises, as though they themselves were being hit. And chooses then to engage with the child, as one would with another person of equal standing…

When an a baby or infant is left to cry, he or she is learning that their gurgling communications will not be understood or empathetically felt and therefore not responded to, and so learns to cry to alert the parent to his or her need as the only means left. The same applies to all dysfunctional childhood behaviours – they are the learning’s that arise from un-empathetic parenting.

Parents whose own childhood experience they have forgotten, who have themselves been left to cry (as has been, and remains, common in many civilised and religious communities) find this crying distressing, not because of what their children are experiencing, but because the wounding’s they have forgotten are being stimulated again. And so they seek to control the child to protect themselves. This is a dynamic that pertains to society, to governance and to all controlling behaviours. This dynamic is of course rationalised as being ‘for your own good’.

Many people will attest that the beatings they received as children did them no real lasting harm.

The truth is that within civilisation and most of not all organised religions that link is broken, damaged, avoided and lost. Someone somewhere intended that break, that loss. Someone somewhere sees some personal benefit in ensuring that that loss is near permanent.

And that is the loss of empathy, a lost that ethics alone cannot counter. This is why ethics fails to deliver.

This is all carefully masked by the way people, as infants and children, and then as adults are forced to ‘adapt’ to this dysfunctional state, by the rationalisations of Organised Religions, Civilisations Institutions, Economics and Science and by the need to ‘survive’ in a coercive world, where food, shelter and the basics of life are denied all those who for whatever reason do not work for the ‘economy’.

Adapt or die out is the message to all the indigenous peoples who live on, within the land. The history is clear on this, and the practice exists today, and is in full flow.  Adapt or die is the message to the natural child. That is what Ritalin says to children who resist the imposed hypocrisy of their parents and the State Schooling system. Ritalin and SATS replace violence as a means of behaviour modification.

The result is the same either way. Damaged children. Some, who show the symptoms, and are ‘diagnosed’, and the others who mask the symptoms and successfully conform. And work for the ‘economy’.

That lack of empathy inhere’s in much of what even avowedly ‘good’ people are led believe – for many religions, those outside of their particular belief system are condemned, and thus even good honest people will routinely act in destructive ways. Even good people support the troops. Some of the troops are good people too. But that should in no way be used to excuse them from the consequences, the truth of what they are engaged in.

We must begin to return to empathy as a primary source of information about HOW to live together, with each other as people and with all of nature as equally living beings if we are to thread a path towards a sustainable human existence on Earth.

Kindest regards Corneilius 

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