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.
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
