The Roots of Participative Democracy : Children

We cannot have an effective and efficient democracy unless the children experience the reality of mutual responsibility and accountability.

Democracy goes wrong when people are trained by schooling to not have a direct participation on the decisions that are made that most affect their lives....... schooling is a 12 year conditioning process that instrumentalises the child's mind and body to obedience, to a dependency on the approval of others, to negating his or her unique insights, and innate right to pursue those insights, to such degree that it becomes a hard wired neurological and physiological response...

A response that they later defend in a visceral and almost feral manner....

That said the intentional process of 'compulsory' schooling is not 'perfect' : some do escape, intact, many more partially intact.. - hence the constant faux 'reforms' imposed by Central Government.... and their denial of the benefits of a truly libertarian education where children are self directing inner motivated learners facilitated by supportive and empathic adults.
It's also the case for me at least, that as I began to honestly appraise my OWN abusive and manipulative behaviour, I began to UNDERSTAND that of those who abuse.. and gain insight into political behaviours of all kinds.... the key is not just in 'being good' but also in understanding, empathically, the behaviour of those who are oppressive...
Which is another reason for activists to REALLY go deep within themselves and find that understanding all the better to help make the wider societal changes, and to provide pathways for others to free themselves of their need to oppress.

This is what Paolo Freire wrote about in Pedagogy of The Oppressed...


And what Alice Miller wrote about in "For your Own Good: The roots of violence in child rearing"


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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



Bookmark and Share

Letter to President Michael D. Higgins

Dear President Elect,

I urge you, as President of Ireland, to be a constant and energetic voice for the Survivors, and for all the children, past, present and future, to bring empathy and clarity to bear on Irish Governance, to be fearless in this, to use your privileged position to help Irish Society to undergo changes that are healthy, that are geared towards the long term, that are nurturant of life and that make the abuse of Power a thing of the past.

You used the term 'Historical Trauma' in one of your speeches. You must now bring this phrase and it's meaning to the fore, because it is this that has driven the dysfunctional behaviour of so many, inside of politics and outside for centuries.

Greed is a learned behaviour. Abuse is a learned behaviour.

The psychology of any given Society is both revealed and perpetuated in how that Society treats it's children. To change the Society, we MUST change how we relate to and treat all our children, for they are the future..

Kindest regards

Corneilius Crowley


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





Bookmark and Share

I Don't Fit In!

I am working on a song entitled "I Don't Fit In!"

I don't fit in to a Society that accepts War as a tool of State Policy.

I don't fit into a Society that tells children what to think and applies sanctions against them for dissent against the prevailing ideology.

I don't fit in to a Society that segregates children and elders from the activities of Governance.

I don't fit in to a Society that accepts poverty as a necessary outcome of the concentration of wealth.

I don't fit in, and I am glad of it.

After many,  many years of self criticism because I felt that I did not fit in, and was therefore somehow inadequate because so many others seemed to 'fit in', and also because of the frequent criticism from many others, not least people in positions of Authority such as politicians, clergy, social workers, media pundits etc,  who use the term 'misfit' all too frequently,  which appeared to corroborate and support that self criticism, I can finally say with utter clarity that I know why I don't fit in, and that my knowledge is absolutely evidence based and accurate.

This is not to say that 'the world we live in is rotten or horrid' - it is to say that the Earth has at this time a Dominant human Culture that is abusive, and that the self criticism I and many others experience is an internalisation of the values of that Dominant Culture, and that that internalisation is part of the self policing that culture depends upon to maintain itself.

From my experience and perspective, I say that Earth is a biologically nurturant environment, where natural processes function to improve the conditions of life, for all life, in a manner that can best be described as responsive learning leading to precise adaptations to the variations in the environment.

Here is an essay by David Smail (short video of David Smail speaking about psychological distress and depression) entitled "The Experience of School: Empowerment or Oppression" that looks at this, and contains some valuable insights into the dynamics of 'not fitting in', the aggressive attitude directed towards those who 'don't fit in', by both friends and family, by co-workers, and by Institutions and how to counter it....

What kind of human being would even want to fit it to such a Society?


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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





Bookmark and Share

Letter : Church’s brazen request for more funds: and a response from a Catholic supporter!

Church’s brazen request for more funds

Letter published in The Examiner, Friday, October 21, 2011

A Chara,

PARISH priests in the Cork and Ross diocese have introduced two new quarterly collections to meet a deficit in their finances.

One of the costs they are claiming is that of implementing best practice child protection policies.

Diocesan leader Bishop John Buckley said: "Two collections would be needed every three months from now on, to ensure the diocese had enough funds to carry out its day-to-day duties."

How brazen a move is this, in the aftermath of the Cloyne Report, to urge parishioners to cough up the cash that ought more properly be sourced from the Diocese’s property portfolio, or the Vatican direct, whose fiduciary responsibility in this matter is abundantly clear, in that it was the Vatican’s instructions to bishops that led the policy of denial, intimidation, secret settlements and avoidance of their legal and moral duty to report criminal acts to the civil authorities?

Given that the Irish taxpayer is facing a bill of €30 million, under a contractual obligation entered into by Bertie Ahern’s government, to pay the legal costs of the Church’s "contributions" to the various Governmental Statuary Reports, is it not time to counter sue the Church?

We could do so in the light of the Cloyne Report, to void those contractual obligations on the basis of fraud — that the Church made public commitments to the welfare of children and survivors it had no intention of delivering on.

Bishop John Buckley also noted that the extra funds would not be "used to compensate abuse victims".

How sad it is that parishioners are still willing to contribute to a Church so utterly unwilling to behave in an honourable manner on an issue of such grave importance, not least to the welfare of people from within their own communities?

What would Jesus say?

Corneilius Crowley 
Harrow
London
England

---------------------------------
On Wedensday, 26th October 2011 I received by post the following letter.


"Dear Mr. Crowley,

Reference to your letter in the Irish Examiner as to the priests in the Cork & Ross diocese seeking extra collections. Glad to hear that somebody in London is suffering from anxiety about the Church affairs and the need to sue it.

Many regret they were not abused, as they could afford to have a good deposit on a house - maybe you yourself are suffering from this regret or possibly not being able to claim from Bishop Buckleys collection like many are or is there some innate desperation still bugging you -- you need help or counselling without delay.

You ask what Jesus would say? He'd say 'get behind me you Pharasee.'

I enclose an article of defamation against a priest which you can read, this is only one of many cases brought  to court by priests here against false claims.

I trust that the counselling sessions will help you in so many ways, especially if you are working with others in your job.

Yours sincerely

"
I leave the senders name out for now....The article he sent was cut from The Universe, Dated October 16, 2011 (page 2) and told the story of the return of a priest ( against whom allegations were made, that have been proven false, but were broadcast as valid, by RTE, the Irish State Television station, in a program produced by  Prime Time, entitled, "A Mission to Prey") to his parish.

--------------

I WILL respond, and explain the situation in some detail. I am not offended by this letter, because it says nothing about me, though it says volumes about the person who wrote it!

Being offended is a choice, as Australian comic, Steve Hughes points out :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cycXuYzmzNg

I choose because I am mature enough to understand what Steve Hughes points out.


2. The assumptions the writer makes about me are without foundation. I KNOW this. The writer does not. His assumptions reveal more about him than they say anything about me.

His assumptions are false, yet the intent of his words are intended to be abusive, in that he makes a number of rather snide allegations:

I will deal with each point in his letter, in due course....


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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










Bookmark and Share

The Psychology of any Society is Revealed and Perpetuated in how they relate to the children.

 This chart, prepared by James Prescott, is based on detailed analysis of thousands of anthropological research papers and records, post Textor. It lays out social behavioural characteristics of a number of distinct cultures. This data indicates a key variable that can be used to infer whether or not a culture is Hierarchic and violent or Egalitarian and peaceful. This is spectrum rather than a binary.

"The Psychology of any Society is both revealed and perpetuated in how they relate to the children.

Change that and you can change everything."




Here's a song I wrote and produced in response to the Occupy Movement.



and here's my gentle song about the natural expectations of all our children.



Kindest regards

Corneilius

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









Bookmark and Share

Revolution or Emergent Recovery from a post traumatic stress Society?

By the way REVOLUTION is a rotation around a fixed point.... that fixed point may move forwards or backwards, which describes the trajectory of Power throughout History. That fixed point is the use of Power adversely against the most vulnerable, to meet the perceived needs of the most Powerful.

Thus all the prevailing mainstream and political media discourse is about how to 'save civilisation', to 'save Western values'.

The wars underway at present are driven mostly by the 'strategic interests' of Western styled Corporations and States

The values of the Powerful.

And, it must be asked, and answered honestly: who pays?

The truly impoverished, the relatively poor, the vulnerable, the elderly, the native peoples of the world, the environment...... and ultimately all our children pay, and their children will pay unless we - that's you and I, and my friends and family and your friends and family, our neighbours and our communities decide that we refuse to pay that price for the needs of Power.

What I want to see and feel is an emergent recovery from a post traumatic stress based Society, such that we recover our innate, empathic and nurturant psychology at EVERY level of our Culture.... this a long term project, the work of many decades, for all the children's futures (which is our primary responsibility as adults..)






Kindest regards

Corneilius

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





Bookmark and Share

PERFECT Description of Participative and Democratic Education FOR children

Just read the PERFECT Description of education FOR children, what it REALLY means in 7 easy to grasp points, which reveal not only the hidden oppression of schooling, but also the psyche of predominant Power relationship expressed through the behaviour of Institutional, Religious, Ideological instruction and punishment in the hard core psychological meaning, yet no fancy words, no theoretical guess work....

in

"The Terrace: An Educational Experiment in a State School"


from a lecture by Dr. Royston Lambert...... given in 1971, @ The University of Exeter.

Lambert had been a Head at Dartington Hall School, Totnes, a school that was libertarian..... Here he describes those key elements....

1. First the child is seen as a distinct individual whose whole development is the concern of education : personal, creative, moral and emotional growth being viewed as important as the development of basic skills.

2. Second, as people differ so their patterns of behaviour differ and thus individuals are allowed to develop at their own pace, supported by structures or stimulated by pressures which apply to that individual alone.The are not judged by collective standards and attributes or fashioned into an ideal model type of person.

3. It follows, thirdly that children as individual moral beings are encouraged to acquire their own values in an open society and not have certain selected values thrust upon them in the process of growth.

4. Equally, as moral agents, children are allowed to decide for themselves on all matters of personal taste and expression, and when the exercises of such freedom clashes with that of others, they are subject to processes of democratic decision: likewise when matters affecting their own short or long term interests are at stake, they have a real share in the making of decisions.

5.As everyone is either personally free or bound by decisions in which they genuinely participate, control is therefore a matter of self-discipline; there is no need for external rewards or sanctions or hierarchies or systems of authority and promotion.

6. As young people are moral agents,they are equal to older ones who are the same: older people have experience which may deserve respect (it all depends of what the experience is and what they have made of it), young people have a *lack* of experience which definitely commands respect!

Therefore relations between young and adult in education should be warm and informed, not based on fear or false ideas of authority.

These are the basic components of HUMAN(e) education designed to nurture the whole child....

My comment : these are also mirrors of what the adult Institutional society does not do, indicative of what it therefore inflicts upon children, what they them selves as a children endured and unfortunately internalised.. leading them to IMPOSE their will in turn "It's normal!"

Only it's normal in a VERY, VERY sick Society!


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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


Bookmark and Share

The Irish Presidential Candidates Curious Silence

A Chara,

The most troubling thing about this 'race', Presidential this election is that NONE of the candidates inspire confidence or hope.

That one of them will get the post, by default, is the reality.

Not a word from any of them about the Institutional Abuse of Children that has been deeply embedded in Irish Society for most of the Republics existence..... be it by the State or by the Church(es) or anyone else.

Indeed no-one is talking (yet) about the abuse which occurred in the 'better' schools - Clongowes, Blackrock, Newbridge, Rockwell et al where the scions of Irish elites were 'educated' in preparation for their future positions as the 'good and the great'. Is there a link between that silence, and the views of some who might, in private, claim that their experience in such schools ‘made a man of me’?

Of all the Political and Statuary posts in Ireland, surely it is the role of the President to be the voice of all those children, given the failures of the past, starting with Dev himself, who clearly ignored and suppressed the horrific truth from the word go, an omission that led directly to my own trauma as a child during the 60s and 70s.

Apparently not. I am appalled at the behaviour of Irish Society in this regard. I do not blame the candidates alone, for they are simply a part of that culture, and it is, in truth for ALL people in Ireland to think long and hard about this and to gather some courage and act as empathy, decency and justice suggests!

Kindest Regards


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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


Bookmark and Share

How do we see children?

I re-iterate my point because it is important….

The psychology of any given culture is revealed and perpetuated in how it treats it’s children – to change that culture, WE MUST address this fundamental issue.

The Church and indeed all Institutional Religions sees children as fodder for the expansion of their beliefs amongst the people of the Earth.
The Church regarded Indigenous Peoples, as ‘souls to be saved by Christianity',  and if they rejected that kind offer,  they were to be 'sent to hell', where they were going anyway.

The Corporate Government sees children as future workers.

Ideologists of all kinds see children as future ideologists.

Authoritarian Parents see children as either good or bad, depending on the child's subservience.
Marketing Psychologists see children as ‘evolving consumers’ and source of future revenues.

The Military sees children as potential cadets, who might become professional soldiers - killers without remorse once the chain of command has assumed responsibility.

How were YOU seen as a child, and how do you regard children today?


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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





Bookmark and Share

Empathy and Power : the message of the Occupations

The primary function of commerce, the exchange of goods, is to provide a service, that is to say, to serve the needs of the community; it stands to reason that it must be profitable, in order to sustain the effort, however it becomes irrational when the profit function becomes primary, and the activity – the serving of the communities needs - merely a means to that end.

That irrationality is made obvious by the profits of the military industrial complex which accrue over the ruined bodies of those whose lives are utterly destroyed by wars, launched by the Corporate State.

That irrationality is made obvious by the profits of the various ‘care’ industries, which come at the cost of the realities for those who are being ‘cared’ for, by for profit companies whose primary legal duty is to their shareholders.

That irrationality is made clear by the degradation of soil nutrients associated with modern technological farming, which is the basis of the profits made by the multinational agri-corporations.

This irrationality is made obvious by the turning of the home into an investment portfolio.

No amount of Government Regulation can address these problems as long as Government is populated by people whose allegiance is with the Corporate Profit Centre Ideology.

This ideology re-enforces a lack of empathy at all levels of society and as direct result people are suffering, people are being subject to abuse and trauma, mainstream society ignores these peoples plight, and often blames them for their pain, their suffering, their situation.

The work-shy poor, the evil Muslims, the dirty hunter gatherers, the ignorant subsistence swidden farmer, the ADHD children, the lazy depressed, the disease distressed, the clash of ‘civilisations’, the bling crazy youth, the riotous binge drinkers, the irreligious atheists, the money grabbing survivors of Clerical abuse and State ‘care’, the ‘criminal’ underclass are all urged to change their ways, pull up their socks, join the economy and get a job. Then everything will be just fine.

All these moralistic judgements reveal a lack of empathy that ought to be considered criminal, because it is not that Cameron and his like really believe these judgements – they couldn’t possibly given the massive evidence to the contrary, it’s that they use those judgements to distract and to dissemble, they use these arguments intentionally as emotional propaganda to divide and conquer.

By limiting the discourse to technological arguments, - the arguments about how best to bail out the banks to keep the cash machines running for ordinary people - to ideological debates, - David Cameron’s notoriously moralistic  “proper parenting, ethics, proper values” jibe at the rioters - and by omitting the real pain and trauma from the discourse, and the real causes of distress, - historical trauma, poverty, inequality -  Government, and the media, are holding the fort on this situation.

The occupiers form a large swathe of people who FEEL the pain and error of this situation, and are all too easy for media to typify as good, but stupid. “What is your Strategy?” asks the media, knowing that there is no strategy. This is not about strategy. This is all about empathy.

Put the empathy back into Power and the strategy will emerge. The situations will change. And it is this more than anything that Corporate Power fears and resists at every turn.

The sense that we are one community, one people, diverse and in solidarity, that we CARE for each other as our most basic and fundamental naturally emergent quality.

This is the basis of how we want our society to operate.

1. It's not the role of Business to Govern, nor is it merely to make money. It is to service the genuine needs of the people.

2. It's not the role of a genuine Religion to Govern. It is the role of of a genuine Religion to give voice to a profound and empathic Spirituality in ways that builds bridges, founded upon our innate sense of connection, between peoples, between Society and Nature.

3. It's not the role of Genuine Open Media to propagandise. It is the role of Genuine Media to host an open and honest articulation of the issues the people face.

4. The Role of Democratic Governance is one of Nurturing the people so that the genuine needs of the people are being met, by inviting full participation in the decision making processes related to how our communities function.

5. The role of Genuine Policing is Protecting the weakest people from the most Powerful. To balance any Power Disparity that is adversely applied.

6. The role of Education is not Indoctrination, it is one of nurturing the innate talents of children by LISTENING to the children, by giving them responsibility for their own choices, and by supporting those choices with all the tools available today.

7. The PRIMARY role of Health Services is to PREVENT illness and disease, not merely to manage symptoms. This includes educating the people regards diet, empathic parenting and honest relationships. It also has a precious role in the assisting the fullest recovery from trauma.

These are the demands of the people, based on genuine truths.

At present that are not the assumed and actualised roles of the Institutions of Governance, of Business, of Health Services, of the Police, of Education, of Religion though all these Institutions CLAIM that this is their role. There current role is one of exercising POWER over people and maintaining the Power Disparity at all costs.

That is not to say there are not good, honest people within those Institutions. It is to say that the good people have been intentionally and actively dis-empowered.

The occupations are the peoples statement of this awareness.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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




Bookmark and Share