Herod, Christ and the Evolution of Empathy.

Jingle Bells, and all that - 'tis Christmas, a time of good cheer to all men.

Logos of the companies exploiting parents and children to make profits whilst polluting our Earth home.

So here's a thought I present as a present to all readers.

Survival is not the same as Thrivival

These are two images I have crafted express the difference I sense that lies between thriving as a human community and merely surviving. Modern consumer culture is clearly not thriving, and it is close to not even surviving. Egalitarian cultures have thrived for many, many tens of thousands of years across this Earth. I know which state I would prefer we were living in. It is possible to live well, to be comfortable and truly happy as a community, to thrive without causing intense damage to our shared habitat. It is not thriving to live comfortably, worried, stressed out, dimly or acutely aware that we are causing irreversible long term harm and irredeemable short term harm.

"Survival of The Fittest" is in reality a meme created by the philosopher, economist, sociologist, writer and  academic, Herbert Spencer, in a book he wrote, Principles of Biology,  after having read Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection: Or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life  which Herbert, and the majority of his class took to reflect their cultural assumptions in regard to their comparison between African, South American, Asian and Indian cultures and the White European Imperial culture from which the Industrial Revolution and their wealth and status emerged. Spencer was a white supremacist seeking to justify his stance.

It became a common re-interpretation (misinterpretation)  or re-positioning of Darwin's central thesis, and was never used by Darwin in the manner most commonly attributed today, aka that the strong (the most favoured races) naturally prevail over the weak in 'The struggle for Survival' - a phrase so beloved of Malthusian enthusiast David Attenborough and others less savoury, whose sense of the phrase is probably better articulated in the term 'might is right': people such as George Bush, Dick Cheny, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Jimmy Savile and others.

Darwin first used Spencer's new phrase "survival of the fittest" alongside "natural selection" in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species, published in 1869, intending it to mean "better designed for an immediate, local environment"

Darwin was referring to the evolution of life enhancing traits in response to environmental changes, which he observed in some detail.

It turns out that empathy is one of those traits or capabilities that has emerged in the human organism, as well as many others, as a life enhancing trait that facilitates and sustains long term existence really, really well.

Optimal Human Well Being is an Evolved Default.

Empathy, and indeed love, lies at the base of both effective co-operation and accurate responses to environmental changes. It is a bio-logical mandate.

It is also true that this behavioural trait is vulnerable, and under chronic stress can be undermined. The architecture is genetic, yet the development of active empathy is experiential, it is cultural...

Some cultures are more empathic, egalitarian, others are hierarchically violent. James Prescott's research reveals this dynamic spectrum and shows a correlation  between egalitarian societies who demonstrate high nurture of babies, infants and children, and hierarchically violent societies where typically there is a disruption of biologically mandated child mother bonding processes.

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is another diligent researcher who has looked deeply at the evolutionary biology of the egalitarian cultural human. 

Her work has been presented in books such as The Woman that Never Evolved, selected by the New York Times as one of its Notable Books of 1981, Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants and Natural Selection, chosen by both Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal as one of the "Best Books of 1999" and, her latest, Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding.

Hrdy has challenged, and transcended, many of the flawed assumptions that biologists have held dating back to the Victorian era. It is a body of work that continues to provoke and inspire a new generation of scientists..

Her key insight is that alloparenting - where parenting was a task distributed throughout the group - was a key shift in pre-hominid primates, and in early hominids that drove the evolution of a larger brain, the brain that can manage the detail of layers of co-operative relationships, that can manage self regulation that is required for peaceful, effective conflict resolution and bond building over generations.

Disruption of the biological default for optimally healthy behaviour changes behaviour.

Which is the logic or reason why torture (topical subject these days) and politically and ideologically based economic pressure upon vulnerable communities and people remain consistently utilized  tools of Hierarchically Violent Power - the bullies understand the effect, and it's utility.

Herod and Christ, and the people they have been portrayed as.

I am not at all religious, nonetheless I find their stories instructive. The crucifier and the crucified.

What was Herod's childhood like? We can only guess!

But we do know something of Hitler's infancy and childhood, as we do of Pol Pot, George Bush, Tony Blair, Stalin and many other leaders who exercised power that deployed massive organised violence and caused untold harms to largely innocent people (Herodianesque) and none appeared to have had the kind of nurturing experience that would have laid the foundation for caring empathy.

Alice Miller's book 'For Your Own Good'  touches on this subject, with regard to Hitler, Stalin and 'traditional parenting' in European culture, and is a classic in this regard.

No excuses, yet understanding the roots is essential.

This is not to suggest they - Hitler, Stalin, Bush, Cheny and any other abuser - are thus excused from accountability and responsibility for their actions and the harms and consequences imposed on others by their actions. Far from it, as there are many examples of people who had dreadful childhood experiences who emerged to become kind and caring adults.

It is to suggest that there is a way to understand, and thus prevent the abuses of Power we see as a fundamental pattern of what is known as 'civilisation'. And that lies in how we parent, how we as a society related top and treat our children, and the most vulnerable people within our Society.

Abuse and bullying are, at heart,  cultural problems. Some cultures avoid those problems by the way in which they parent and relate, others do not. The choice is ours, as we have the information, and the responsibility.

The choice is yours. It is mine.

Let us all make that choice as our daily Christmas present to ourselves, our families, our communities and our culture.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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Questions every social worker, every civil servant, every carer and every parent (to be or active) ought to wrestle with

There is a genuine need to protect society from some people whose behaviour is dangerous,  by incarceration, and  not as a 'punishment' or ‘revenge’ or 'paying the price' but as a safety of the community measure, and this must be done as humanely as possible.

There is also a need to see where rehabilitation can be efficacious, and what best facilitates this.

Abuse does not answer abuse, and violence tends to be cyclical......I have NEVER come across a Survivor who would urge violence against abusers.


It horrifies me the way Survivors voices and insights are brushed aside by people who claim to be supportive yet also declare they'd be happy to 'hang 'em'.... those people are making life for Survivors harder rather than easier because they are clouding the discourse with their rage and hatred.

I do understand that there are reasons why so many people react in this manner.

Social conditioning, inter-generational trauma behaviour patterns .....

How many people were flushed with stress hormones whilst in the womb?

How many mothers are subjected to stress by external events?

How many fathers have been trained to be 'tough'..?

How many men return from war, with wounds they mask, that their children are affected by?

How does chronic stress (12 years of schooling, relative poverty, religious indoctrination) alter the growing child, in schools, where bullying, peer pressure and submission to authority are constants?

These are not excuses for adverse behaviour, but an attempt to understand that dynamic that flows through time within Hierarchically Violent social systems where Power has a massive influence on peoples lives, and the emergent psychology of society, at the grass roots.

How many 'leaders' learned bullying as a power transaction in private boarding schools?

Is Social Services, as a State Institution, concerned with regulation over healing?

These are all questions EVERY social worker, every civil servant, every carer and every parent (to be or active) ought to wrestle with... as by taking that role on, they also take on a response-ability to those the intend to serve, and more so to the children yet to be born from those they serve....

Where is the nurture?

And importantly, the question of what best represents optimal human biological health must be tackled with a back ground in science, anthropology, history and personal growth..

These are the questions that Survivors have had to answer in their path towards resolution.

The State has yet to step up to the plate on this, as is the case for the mainstream media.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

The Pedophile Next Door : C4 'Documentary'? I don't think so!

I watched the 'documentary' , The Pedophile Next Door, yesterday, and I thought it was more about 'normalising' pedophilia as a genuine biological sexual attraction, than anything else.

Here is what C4 says : "This brave and thought-provoking documentary sets out to discover why legislation to protect children from sexual abuse has failed, and explores radical and controversial alternatives"

It does none of this.

It does not deal with the failures of reporting, policing or the cover-ups we know have taken place, orchestrated by Powerful Institutions to protect themselves.

Within the first ten minutes, the program quoted dubious research and then made the claim that pedophilia as a sexual orientation 'probably' emerges from brain damage within the womb. 

a) This is speculative theory at best

b) Child Rape is not a sexual orientation. It's a devious and abominable criminal act.

The inclusion of that meaningless theory is willfully missing the point.

It's the action taken that harms a child that is the issue, nothing else.

In terms of prevention, it ignores the reality that authoritarian parenting AKA traditional parenting, sets child and adult against each other, the former to seek autonomy and freedom, the latter to curtail the child's freedom based on false fear and authoritarian 'rights' and that this 'style' of parenting's origin lies within the Judeao-Christian tradition with it's hierarchical and judgemental ethos.

In terms of prevention it ignored Mandatory Reporting as an immediate legal necessity.

In terms of prevention it ignored solid research that links childhood trauma, stress and abuse with dysfunctional adult behaviour, research that suggests that parenting counselling and relationship counselling in Schools could prevent abuse by helping parents maintain close and open communication with their children - it is when this is not present that pedophiles knowingly groom children. Even within a single family.

In terms of prevention it ignored the reality that current sentences handed down by courts, for sexual assaults and violence against children, are way inadequate.

In terms of prevention it ignored the deceitful and intentional manner in which powerful institutions have sought to, and continue to attempt to protect themselves rather than the children.... as in the current non-going inquiry into pedophile rings within Political power circles...

Some more thoughts after sleeping on it.

The program ignores issues such as Mandatory Reporting, the adverse affects of Traditional Authoritarian Parenting, the adverse affects of Religious Indoctrination, the validated research that shows that sexual abuse is a social behavioural marker of Hierarchically Violent Societies; the program does not confront the intentional manner by which powerful institutions have sought to protect themselves rather than the children... a behaviour that is still extant.

All of which I covered above, though it is the case that all this needs repeating.

It ignored the lack of training of police and other services in how to deal with Survivors. Rotherham.

In the 80s a massive 'scandal' occurred when it emerged that state run foster homes were rife with child abuse. Thousands of children were victimised by hundreds of adults. What the Government did was arrange to have a few abusers sent to trial, and then closed down the entire system, thus freeing many hundreds of abusers from further investigation, and destroying evidence. A cover up.

And of course, those who were victimised were abandoned.

When all of these points have been dealt with in the manner they demand, then perhaps we can go back to the issue of people who find they are sexually attracted to children and have not acted on their 'attraction'.

Being sexually attracted to children? FFS!

Being sexually aroused by a weaker, more vulnerable non adult person? Is that not indicative of a core power psychology issue - is the attraction more a question of maintaining a position of relative power?

This is a question that is valid and is not addressed.

And the program had very little to say on preventing anything other than peoples ire at pedophilia in general.

The 'cause' is not in the attraction - that's way in the background. And I say this - any adult who cannot control themselves when it comes to this kind of behaviour is 100% responsible for that lack of control.

The 'cause' is in the details of why one person with more power would assault and manipulate another with little relative power.

Which is THE primary issue facing Western 'Civilisation' across the globe as we speak. The willingness to abuse Power and to justify the abuse of other more vulnerable people.

Now let me address the self declared pedophile, Eddie.

We need more information. We have only his word, and his absence from the Criminal Records Bureau to confirm that that he has not offended. None of which is proof positive. I am not accusing him. I am saying the program does not present anything that confirms his claims.

We have his claim that he is sexually attracted both to women and to young children, as young as five.

Can this be checked in any way?

Who is he, what is his background?

We need more, much more detail as to his acknowledgement of his 'attraction' to small children.

Are there diaries where he records his concerns?

Has he ever spoken to anyone of these concerns, professionally or otherwise, who can corroborate his claims?

Why has he emerged? How did the program makers find or make the connection with him?

Is he in counseling at present?

What is his claim truly representative of?

Can we interview any of his adult partners? What do they have to say?

Is he genuine?  How did the program makers test his case?

I do understand that any adult who feels such an attraction will feel a certain jeopardy, will be inclined not to acknowledge it to others out of a reasonable fear that such an acknowledgement might lead to action against him that would hurt him, or cause him harm. I also acknowledge that to come out with this is, to a degree, courageous. It would be more courageous for him to submit to analysis and to undergo therapy to address the issue. Tackle the issue head-on.

That he has not is worrying. Does he feel that his attraction is somehow valid, even if he refuses to act on it, out of a moral consideration?

Was he paid for his 'appearance'?

There is too much in this program that is questionable, too many unanswered questions. It does nothing for Survivors, and it does nothing in terms of a robust examination of the failures of both legislation and Government services in terms of reporting, investigating and confronting child rape.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Politics, Arguments, Debates and Institutionalised Emotional Blindness

Politics, arguments, debates and the abdication of responsibility.

The Power Inquiry Report 2006.

If you have not heard of it, then I suggest that you need to know more about it. We all need to read the report and understand it's full implications, not least because it emerged from the grass roots, rather than a think-tank. And it challenges a number of assumptions about the ability of grass roots folk to engage with shared responsibility, robust governance and detailed policy deliberation.

The Power inquiry, an independent investigation into the condition of democracy in Britain, was set up in 2004. The members of its commission (chaired by Helena Kennedy) hosted meetings around Britain and heard submissions from a wide variety of interest groups, professionals, and concerned citizens. The commission published its report on 27 February 2006.

"After eighteen months of investigation, the final report of Power is a devastating critique of the state of formal democracy in Britain. Many of us actively support campaigns such as Greenpeace or the Countryside Alliance. And millions more take part in charity or community work. But political parties and elections have been a growing turn-off for years.

The cause is not apathy. The problem is that we don't feel we have real influence over the decisions made in our name. The need for a solution is urgent. And that solution is radical. Nothing less than a major programme of reform to give power back to the people of Britain..."

Examine it.

D. Cameron, E. Milliband and Menzies Campbell paid lip service to the report and initiative at the time. Cameron said, in public, and it's on video, that The Power Inquiry was the 'most important initiative in Democracy in the UK' in a long, long time.

I was there. I heard them speak and mouth hearty support for the report, as they stood and spoke before the assembled crowd of more than 500 people. 

Less than a week after attending the launch of the report, at a conference in Queen Elizabeth Hall, Parliament Square, after praising it during that weekend conference, after saying how important it was, after speaking about it in glowing terms to the attendees, they dismissed it as 'impractical.'

'Impractical'? Well, yes. Ceding power to people is always 'impractical' to the Ruling Class.

Here's an outline of the recommendations:

http://www.lgcplus.com/give-citizens-power-to-make-laws-urges-inquiry/513437.article

Here's the full document, PDF download, very much worth a reading.

http://www.jrrt.org.uk/publications/power-people-independent-inquiry-britains-democracy-full-report

Power without accountability or shared responsibility is always going to be a serious problem, and open to abuse.

Quite a lot of the comments flying around about Russel Brand, UKIP, and politics in general are antagonistic 'debating' style, rather than mature deliberation or critical analysis. Trying to win or batter the other side down as opposed to learning enough to develop a win-win solution.

What's that phrase they use about the Court system?

Adversarial.

I find that appalling. An abdication of responsibility. Politically immature. Psychologically immature. An adversarial Parliament is immature, and unworthy, easily corrupted - a collegiate parliament would be mature and worthy and would repel corruption.

Because the issue of power and legislation is really about us, we, the people who form the community and how we work together (or not) to create a society that nurtures, that cares for the vulnerable.

The issue is about relationships based on kindness, rather than power.

Healthy discourse is about sharing, exploring and growing together.

Debate is about power, it's about who wins.

The Power Inquiry emerged out of the Community Voluntary Sector, which has decades of providing services at the local community level, dealing with amongst other things : finances, governance, research, best practices, transparency, service provision, understanding their 'clients' needs, overcoming institutional obstacles, overcoming Institutionalised Emotional Blindness, campaigning, fund raising, discourse on policy formulation and much else besides. These are real life skills.

It was these people that David Cameron's BIG SOCIETY was aimed at, as a direct institutional assault. And it was their clients, the vulnerable who suffer doubly as a result.

And it's working.

Speak to any disabled people currently being denied benefits on the false basis of 'austerity'?

Use your voice to nurture the active grass roots, as well as to chastise the powerful.

In another comment, elsewhere, I pointed out how appalled I was at the sniping that is so common.

Instituionalised Emotional Blindness. There's something here for everyone to consider.

The immaturity of the debating style of the discourse, as opposed to an effort to share, learn and grow in order to create a more nurturant society.

An abdication of responsibility. It's really quite ugly.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

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It's always worth studying leaders childhoods to see what patterns emerge.

artwork by Nikolai Kozin, London

It's fairly obvious to anyone who studies behavioural bullying the psychological projection and disassociation in David Cameron's public speeches about war, DAESH, Libya, and terrorism in general.

For example, on the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teens which became the pretext for the most recent Military assault on Gaza.

'This was an appalling and inexcusable act of terror perpetrated against young teenagers. Britain will stand with Israel as it seeks to bring to justice those responsible.'

But when have Obama or Cameron ever condemned the killing of Palestinian youths or children by Israelis in this vehement way? (from medialens.org)

There are parts of his psyche, formed from the experiences of his early infancy and Eton etc, that he has shut away within himself - the wounds accrued from fagging, the violence, the bullying, the hatred, the submission and affiliation with the more powerful 'inmates' and the cultured arrogance that he dare not admit to himself, let alone to the public, yet these experiences live within him, unresolved, unhealed and he projects them onto others so that he can 'manage' his own wounded feelings, his wounded sense of self.

He will say today that that experience was 'formative'. Many of his ilk do likewise. "It made me the man I am!"

To survive in this environment, the psyche of the child has to become deeply manipulative, and his behaviour, along with the behaviour of the established press, which is governed largely by ex-public school alumni, in the recent Scots referendum on Independence shows this quite clearly. When this psychology emerges in a Political leader with real material power to inflict harm, it becomes incredibly dangerous.

Likewise with regard to Obama and his early childhood. Adolf Hitler. Take your pick.

It's always worth studying leaders childhoods to see what patterns emerge.

This is not to offer any of those who exercise power and wage war an excuse - it is rather to attempt to gain an understanding of why they behave as they do, to outline a reliable grounded evidence based description of the cultural social psychological backdrop within which such a dysfunctional psychology emerges in statistically significant numbers.

It is to inform and to help parents at the grass roots of society and elsewhere to regain empathy for children, and not least for themselves as children growing up in such a culture, as a social movement that leads to the emergence of empathic power as a shared and caring sense of responsibility towards each other. As a basic marker of biological human biological health.

European culture has been on this trajectory of slowly recovering from this trauma cycle for some centuries, and it will take some more time to complete the process. This is scant comfort for those who are at the receiving end of powers brutalities, it does little to diminish the reality of the concrete experience of oppression perpetuated by Power.

It does however speak to the deepest nature of the human spirit, the reality of optimal human biological health as a fundamental and the need for action that is threaded into a long term perspective as well as dealing with the immediate concerns - these two go together.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Scotland Votes, political maturity

Local political activism based on empathy for the concrete reality of the lived experience rather than ideological positions - as suggested in The Power Inquiry - wherein Democratic participation in the discourse and decision making process on all matters that affect our lives....

Effective Participation requires that centralised power positions are devolved away from central to the local, away from hierarchical party structures which mirror the Power play of Authority, and as it happens the power play of monotheistic religions.

It also requires a maturation of one's understanding of shared responsibility of power and of democracy way beyond mere voting for choices 'offered' by those touting for power.

A difficulty I have with Trades Unions, one form of centralised hierarchical power structure,  is articulated by the NUT - the national Union of Teachers, who have NEVER gone on strike to protect the best interests of the children, who side with the Authoritarianism of State Education and act only to preserve their wages and power.

I see that as incredibly selfish and narrow minded and it makes them much easier to be co-opted by Power - Power can impose curricula and other policies (ADHD and drugging children who are basically bored in School settings) that cause harm to children as long as the teachers get enough money!

That's just one example. When has a Nursing Union gone on strike to ensure Hospital patients are served organic locally grown foods? Never...

I suggest, to everyone who is exercised on this issue that you download the Power Inquiry booklet and examine the detail within it - I think you will be inspired by it.

Your passion and concern is obvious. Do not waste it on voting for who rules you - get invovled and share the responsibility of power.

http://www.jrrt.org.uk/publications/power-people-independent-inquiry-britains-democracy-full-report

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Optimal Human Health and Power's disruption of same.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All of these are markers of optimal human health.

There is a problem, though.

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

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

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

Football clubs set up players as role models.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reading yourself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting the mandate of optimal biological health.

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

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

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Internalised Values or Externalised Experience, and Resistance.

"Resistance is not a question of intellect, it is a matter of access to the true self." Alice Miller ..

Understand the culture you were born into.

Understand the biology and the nature of the natural baby, infant, child, and the natural adult.

The baby, being natural, externalises his or her internal world, he or she communicates how they feel, what they want, what they fear, which are all internal experientials, and if this is met with empathy, if the mother and father and other carers, and siblings understand and respond appropriately, then the child grows in confidence that his or her inner world is understood, validated... it is this experience that writes in the neurology and physiology of self empathy, from which empathy for others emerges. Neuro-plasticity is the term that describes this quality of an alterable brain, a developing structure dependent not on programmed genetic but on experience for it's natural formation and development.

If, on the other hand, for whatever reason, the baby is met not with empathy but confusion, fear or anger or excessive control or projection, then this crucial learning cannot happen, and the baby learns to adapt to the external world and internalises the values of that world in experience, thus replacing her or his inner world with these externals, leading to self alienation. This is the basis of all neuroses.

ALL indoctrination processes, be they Religious or State Education, or Military Training etc deepen this process of internalisation of the external world, which leads to a state of fundamental neurosis as a normative.


Poisonous Pedagogy is the term applied to this entire phenomenon.

Power based social systems demand that all who are born into them undergo this process, because that is the deepest undermining of resistance... that it is not a perfected process speaks to the innate resilience and self healing of the human being as a natural organism. Power systems are continually refining their indoctrination processes to meet this emergent resistance. This is what 'reform' usually means in effect.

That said, the effects of such processes are statistically significant, and are enough to perpetuate such systems of power relationships as complete cultures...

Power systems can handle the few rebels, the few insightful writers and teachers, the few who are able to pierce the bubble. They can be portrayed as 'heroes' or as 'demons' depending upon the circumstances, yet hat portrayal will always separate them from the 'norm', which is it's intention - to turn such people into super humans, people one cannot hope or should not hope to emulate...

People are not to be blamed for being falling into the conditioned state - we are all of us vulnerable, and those who seek to help Society into recovery must bend their efforts to supporting that recovery by nurturing others, by developing humanising behaviours and processes which lead to that sense of self, of autonomy and connection that emerges from self empathy.

This explains the all too common phenomenon of people 'trying to find themselves.'

And of course, many cults and religions prey on this by providing an erstatz identity within a communal setting..... so too with nationalism, etc etc etc

"Resistance is not a question of intellect, it is a matter of access to the true self." Alice Miller ..

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Palestine and Israel : a glib psycho analysis.

Gaza : a psycho analysis.

Please bear in mind this is a sketch, and lacks in detail and nuance.

1. The situation is akin to an abusive family dynamic.

2. The Powerful and Wrathful Parent (Israel) dominates the lives of 2 children (Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank).

3. One child (Gaza) resists and complains more than the other, and the complaints are ignored. When the children complains too loudly, the parent beats the child. With a stick. And sometimes sends the more resistant child to bed without any food.

4. When the Gaza child gets really, really frustrated, and somehow gets an opportunity, the Gaza slaps the parent on the knee. (Militants launching rockets)

5. The parent then hits the child full force with a fist to the face. (IDF Militarized Air, Sea and Land Attack on Gaza, Jets dropping massive precision strike munitions from unassailable positions)

The Gazan Child flies across the room. Bloody nose. Broken wrist.

  "Look at what YOU made me do!" The Dad screams at the child, as the mother (USA/UK) enters the room.

6. Mother (USA/UK) shouts at child "Stop annoying your Dad! it' s your own fault he beats you! Obey him! He means well! Let's try at least to be a happier family, OK? (Israel is a 'Democracy'). Mother tends to child's wounds (Charity) whilst cooking meals for the Dad (Military Aid).

7. This situation is also a mirror of what is we call Western Democracy, ie; the Power Relationships of Governance, and the relative position of Rulers to the ruled, and to be fair, it is a mirror of most State Power Dynamics. It is at it's very core, the basis of all Empire logic. The current system is still rooted in Hierarchies of Power and Violence.

8. The other children (West Bank) in the family try their best to adapt to the situation, sometimes they need to scapegoat the abused child to continue to get favours, they try to pretend their family is healthy, and they keep their heads down, trying to run the family business.

One or two of the other children or cousins, living next door (Refugees living in the neighbouring Arab nations) accuse the Dad of brutality, behind his back, when talking to the abused children but do not confront the Israeli Dad. That would be too scary.

9. In other families the children have learned how to placate the abusive parent. They conform. (the western electorate) They send sweets and cards to the abused child. (Charity) to ease their conscience.

This is what is happening, at an Institutional level. Sort of.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Birth, Love and Gaza - A SONG FOR THE CHILDREN OF PALESTINE AND ISRAEL

A SONG FOR THE CHILDREN OF PALESTINE AND ISRAEL

The push, the release
the squeeze, the belief
in letting go - we both
surrender to the next life
as in the new world

I arrive to the softness of
the strange dry air,
something unknown to me,
the pulse of my mothers heart
the thumping with which I have
for nine months lived
- all of my life thus far -
oh the relief of hearing that sound again
having been briefly, yet intensely
separated from that
fundamental pulse.

I gaze with all my body,
all my soul
and we catch each other,
before I reach to feed.
and oxytocin mediates the adrenaline
I am born, and we are clean, together...

My fathers deep voice rumbling in peace and joy,
amazement and bliss.

Being born is the art of the eternal welcome.

 Mind and body
one ingenuous zone of love,
head to toe I know
that my love of life,
this desire to nurture,
the qualities
we see
and feel in each other,

and we are recognised,
for these are the echoes,
these are the dreams
that are essential
above all else.

Nurture love,
tend the garden

Blessings are
these tears of love,
these peals of laughter
like a silken glove
held and yet unrestricted.

And then the flags, the tanks, and the shelling?

This tragedy is pathology,
the loving is all gone,
the culture says no breast-feeding in public,
it's more important
that you learn your Nations song!

Gaza, and the truth about the world-wide culture of Power.

Empathy is a strength. It requires a unique human strength  to maintain empathy. It's also an expression of optimal human health.

It is true that in this Society, if one is not fairly robust, if one is in any way vulnerable, marginalised or discriminated against, for what ever reason one is exposed to being manipulated, exploited mistreated and abused. 

That has more to do with the kind of Society we live in, the kind of society we were born into than it has to do with human nature. This is a Bully Cult. The  outcomes of chronic stress induced by this cult lead to adverse behaviour patterns.

Our society is predicated on Power, and Power maintains itself by stressing each lower ranking, in effect trickle down of  structured abuse that alters peoples endocrine, autonomous, emotional, neurological, psychological and behavioural systems over time leading to chronic adverse behaviours - all 'adjustments' to fit in, to survive.

It's a trauma survival technique, very well understood. They call it the stress position. Childhood resilience often masks the painful reality.

Children playing in the ruins of their homes is Gaza 2014

And as to strength, moral strength, that comes in the first instance from a sense of self empathy, coupled with empathy for others, and is reflected in a sense of autonomy and responsive connection,  in a holistic expression, with one's community, family, land and language. Solidarity. Clean food. Loving, vibrant extended families. Libertarian Education. Trusting children and giving them space.

 "Our children do not need us to shape them; they need us to respond to who they are." Naomi Aldort

Question :

"What about the actions of Israeli Politicians who are now famous, who once engaged in 'terrorism' and are known to have murdered 'enemies' in overt and covert combat?"

or

"Is the cost, 500,000 children have died, of the embargo and no fly zone over Iraq, worth it?!"  to Madelaine Albright,who replies "Yes, I think the cost, the cost is worth it." and proceeds to rationalise that sentence. A professional denial. All our leading Politcians are trained in the art. They all, the front men, receive this training as a critical component of their work. Staying on message. Keep it Professional.

The Israeli State's answer is typical of an abusers rationalisation of the abuse within an abuse family dynamic. In fact this probably applies to the majority, if not all, of those who take to violence in pursuit of ideological or political power objectives - so include the UK, USA, China, Russia, France, etc etc etc in this world wide culture.

Here's the News!

A Palestinian family amidst the destruction wrought by Israeli War Planes, 2014

The 51-day offensive in 2014 left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead, including at least 1,462 civilians, a third of whom were children, according to the United Nations. Human rights groups reported that numerous Palestinians went missing during the war. Some were later found, either alive or dead, although the fate of 19 others has remained unknown.

Spokesperson for the ICRC in Gaza Suhair Zakkout said in a statement that the ICRC had made efforts since 2014 to try and find the location of the missing Palestinians; however, the organization has not received any responses from Israel.

from : https://palestineupdates.com/icrc-still-no-news-on-palestinians-missing-since-2014-gaza-war/

Here's the Prime Minister....!

The Foreign Minister.....!

Here's  Bob, with The Weather!

Here are the techniques :

Explain it away with false arguments. Outright Denial. Switching the goal posts.

Avoiding answering direct questions, by redefining the context, asking another question.

Manipulate peoples conditioning with populisms.

Blame the victimised. They made me do it!

Assert that what we see is nit what we see but merely what we perceive due to bias - gaslighting.

False claims to a moral higher ground based on ideology, ignoring the actual behaviour and outcomes.

Religion vs Democracy right?

Dehumanising dissenters.

Attacking whistle-blowers.

Creating favourites who support the abuser because they get 'benefits'.

Benefits and Sanctions.

The similarity between the abuse family dynamic (which is well known, understood and defined) and the Abusive Hierarchical Power system and behaviour set we call 'politics' is obvious.

In Israel, all children - teens are children - are coerced to enlist for a minimum of 3 year. Then there are various social rewards for serving as reservists. On call. Those who reject that call due to moral or conscience are chastised for dissent. Refusal to participate in the violence of the State practically ruins each Israeli child's future life in Israel.

The Israeli State teaches that military service is a good thing, refusal is treason. The British state celebrates the 'sacrifice' of 'our brave boys', mourns the loss of 'blood and treasure'.

The Abuse family dynamic. Coercion to conform. Manipulation and indoctrination.

These dynamics feed into each other. A vicious cycle is created, that runs from generation to generation - who will break the cycle that is funded by the State?

Yet, in spite of this, the fundamental human spirit of decency is the norm between people at the grass roots

Human Kind.

When we are not under chronic stressors, in a situation of relative powerlessness, we get along, across cultural and religious differences because, at the end of the day, we are families like each other. Babies, infants, nappies, disrupted sleep patterns, dirty dishes, birthday celebrations, marriages and funerals..

The Israeli childhood, leading inevitably to combat 'duty' disrupts this perception - it has to. The 'enemy' must be identified and made into a bogey man.

The Gaza childhood, leading to mere survival in a war zone at best. No jobs. No University. No prospects.

And yet people in both communities, a majority in all Societies many, many people emerge from this with their basic kindness and empathy intact, qualities that are crucial elements of optimal human health.

Essential for Gross National Happiness.

And it must be recognised that we at the grass roots of Society have relatively little power by comparison, as individuals, when it comes to confronting Political Power that is enforced by arms.

Some people mistake this for weakness. They side with the abusers when they they blame these  ordinary people by claiming their individual inaction is equivalent to complicity with what the State does. This is more bullying, and does little to foster freedom or liberty. Gaslighting afflicts all of us, on all sides, It becomes a normal behaviour pattern.

The reason  the abuser objectifies (dehumanises) the people he or she targets, is because that isolates the abuser from any connection, empathy, concern or constraint when faced with another person. One can do anything to an object. It has no value other than it's use.

Sheeple

Palestinian lives have no intrinsic value to the Institution of the Israeli Military other than as objects to be abused.  Iraqi lives had no  intrinsic value to the Institution of the Invading USUK Military or the Occupation Government, other than as objects to be subdued and controlled.

Israeli lives have no intrinsic value to the Israeli State Apparatus, other than as tools to be utilised - there is a massive bureaucracy the State funds and maintains in the operation of it's civil oppression of Palestinians, and that's a good earner for a bureaucracy of Israeli officials and clerks.  Many mortgages depend on that work.

That kind of side effect is rarely mentioned in 'the news'.

State or Public or Civil Service Employment programs enrols many, many people in the day to day banality of oppression.

An object can be bought and sold. It can be 'secured'. An object can be discarded. The State objectifies it's own officials. Kissinger's 'dumb animals', the front line police and troops who are often traumatized, and discarded.

And for the front men (Politicians, pundits, etc) a carefully crafted persona, an act, a script, a mask... a toxic mime of character, a toxic mime of intimacy (it LOOKS like......) is a professional requirement. Mark Negev.

This is a world wide culture and Gaza is revealing in real-time on Social Media, the real human cost at the darker edge of the spectrum is being captured in moving image and sound like never before. It's right outside your door, it's seeping in through the official media and is made more obvious by the denials of scores of insane officials. 

To turn away now, or to maintain the illusion of 'sides' and 'justifications' is to betray oneself, to betray one's family, one's children, one's ancestors, the future.

We must look, we must be honest, vulnerable and we must understand what we are faced with and we must act on that.

I trust this more than anything else, that the natural biological drive towards optimal human health cannot be extinguished. Once that is stimulated, once that plant receives enough light, space, nutrient, IT WILL GROW. And if the situation is conducive, it WILL THRIVE.

I feel a little uncomfortable to be articulating these hopes at a time when others are enduring horrors in real time, whilst we witness from a distance, powerless to STOP IT NOW, which our hearts cry out, all day, every minute....

It's the very least we expect 

Grass roots people to Power :

JUST STOP IT!

It is that easy? One order. Job done.

I hold this dread, this fear and disgust and and I the hope, the trust  in my heart. Together.

The beautiful people living in Gaza, in Israel, Ukraine, Congo who are there by accident of birth and are being so brutalised by Political Power struggles they have no part in - all those lives, birthdays, births, marriages, joys, sadnesses, laughter, warmth - I hold you in my heart, I stand with you, I tell myself. At a safe distance. My standing with you is not much use, is it?

The damaged, the hurt and the abusers - these are my family too, and my response ability is to stop the abuse, by stopping the abusers. That is why our votes in lands distant to the happening now trauma and abuse matter. The abusers are getting support from our Government, they are buying weapons from our firms. 

We all share a responsibility to help nurture back to health the hurt, the damaged and to see, if we truly understand the roots of it, how such behaviour can be prevented or reduced across our entire Society. 

Those without remorse, who are a constant danger, must be isolated, made safe, humanely but without question placed where they cannot cause more harm This is an essential. A necessity. I must participate in this as well as all the rest. We all must. 

There will be practical material elements, and psycho-cultural elements to the prevention.

In the long term, this is where we are headed. We have to.

And it hurts, to acknowledge this. There is no freedom from this wound. No anaesthetic. 

I must bear that pain, and do the work. To get there. To make peace inevitable.




Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Democracy and the Abuse Family Dynamic - Gaza, the innocents and you!

1. It's a fact that in War, 'restraint' is a myth. Winning means destroying the 'other'. It's a mirror of that odious word ' debate' - One side must win! One side must beat the other! We see this infantile approach every day in the UK Parliament, the House of Commons.

We see it in the media. We see it in comment sections, in blogs. Unrestrained, abusive, willfully inaccurate, biased 'reporting' or 're-tellings'. It is ubiquitous.

Many people are unable to see this as part of an abuse dynamic, largely due to the careful conditioning of State Education, Religious and Ideological Indoctrination and Consumerism Marketing.

2. In the psychology of abuse relationships and dynamics, dysfunctional families, trauma studies etc a common theme is one of the abuser blaming those they are abusing...

"look at what you made me do!" and "this is for your own good!"  The abuser has to do this, has to be able to manage, manipulate or condition those around him or her, to maintain the position of Power.

Both Hamas and IDF do this.

They do it to their own, and to each other. And innocent people get caught up in the cross fire.

The rest of the family gets caught up in the cross fire.

Other common themes of the abuse family dynamic are that some family members become allied with the abuser, some create and maintain an external myth that says the family is really a good one, some who resist become scapegoats, then there are those who cannot escape and just keep their heads down and pretend it is not happening. And there are those who flee.

These are all survival techniques or modalities.

People who are genuinely thriving do NOT behave in this manner.

Political Power, as we know it. is a mirror of the abuse family dynamic.

Power over others is a key abuse dynamic, and the majority of our great Institutions are mirrors of the unresolved trauma of their creators, and their psychologies, their need to exercise control over people, over society at large.

The current power disparity between the citizen and the state is a mirror of the power disparity between an infant and an adult, with the adult using his or her power to control the infant and to enhance the adults power, rather than using that power to nurture and empower the child.

3. The support that the Israeli State receives from the UK State reveals that the UK is not a functioning Democracy, in terms of have a Representative Government. There are many other examples of UK State action that has no mandate amongst the majority of the people. This is a similar pattern across ALL modern 'State Democracies'.

4. In fact , we in the UK live in a situation of permanent oppression, and most of us refuse to see it for what it is. We do not resist. We 'adapt' or 'adjust', we 'fit in'. Or we 'rebel', reflexively, most often in ways that in the end, serve the abuser - because the abuser understands the limitations of 'rebellion'. Rebellion is not the same as resistance, and liberation is a much deeper dynamic than mere rebellion.

This 'adjusting' includes taking sides on issues - left/right, religious/atheist etc etc rather than being willing to think beyond such narrow definitions, being able to examine the world and one's own experience and subjecting both to a critical analysis. This is a key outcome in all indoctrination systems. It's a key outcome of the UK's State Education System. We learn to love our oppression. We learn to not see it. We learn to participate, we learn to debate, to win or to lose.

We do not learn how to craft win-win resolutions.

This learned refusal to see, this learned inability/unwillingness to look at and to understand what is happening all around us, supports the abuse dynamic, the conflict dynamic, which is largely exported by the UK State and her 'allies' - the banks, the military-industrials - to other places. For profit.

The raging arguments about Gaza and Israel that take sides, that do not see the entire human family picture, will only serve to continue the conflict. The appeals to our own Government are for the most part wasted energy. They will not heed us. Nonetheless, it is valid to register our concerns, our sadness and our outrage and to keep these alive. However, this leads to a serious question.

The Question :

If we are to resist, if we are to seek a dynamic of Liberation, what would that have to look like to be successful, both in the short and long term?

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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