It matters that this conversation is happening. ~
It's not an easy conversation.
It has to be evidence based, or it will go badly.
This is the core discipline required.
Opinion now, in this conversation, is truly dangerous.
Look it as a genuine health and safety issue, along with belief,
faith, hope or ideology - none of these can be allowed to trump the
evidence (no topical pun intended...) in seeking to resolve this situation.
It will not be resolved overnight.
It can be resolved.
It is not the Sun.
It is us.
David Smail.
David Smails take on ‘reality’ is closest to what I feel :
“Hardly any of the ‘symptoms’ of psychological distress may correctly be
seen as medical matters.
The so-called psychiatric ‘disorders’ are
nothing to do with faulty biology, nor indeed are they the outcome of
individual moral weakness or other personal failing.
They are the
creation of the social world in which we live, and that world is
structured by power.
Social power may be defined as the means of obtaining security or
advantage, and it will be exercised within any given society in a
variety of forms: coercive (force), economic (money power) and
ideological (the control of meaning).
Power is the dynamic which keeps
the social world in motion.
It may be used for good or for ill.
One cannot hope to understand the phenomena of psychological
distress, nor begin to think what can be done about them, without an
analysis of how power is distributed and exercised within society.
Such
an understanding is the focus of this web-site.”
His website…
http://www.davidsmail.info/introfra.htm
Alice Miller wrote about how the institutional violence of the adult
world afflicts all our children.
She traced the psychology of power through society, into human relationships, and how the influence of violent political
power permeates society. Miller looked at the history of education in Europe, leading up to World War II, and examines the industrial powers influence on it to prepare each generation of
children for participation in that violence, as workers or as fighters, as if it were something
normal.
Something Patriotic.
She is not talking about individual parenting, (a common misconception of her intent) she looks at cultural
parenting, which is often subject to belief, faith, religion, ideology
or mere opinion rather than the evidence about, and of children themselves.
She explores how repeated war trauma fosters socialised
violence when entire populations are subjected to violence, over time, to the extent that that history is seen as glorious.
Internalisation. Very much part of radicalisation.
A very strong book, a disciplined read required.
That said....
Some Steps Towards an End to TWAT And a Start to Peace.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*This is of course an incomplete list, with only the briefest of pitches, and very little supporting, referenced documentation to substantiate the points raised.
It’s more to a thought smorgsabord on the issue of TWAT And Peace.
Here goes :
Actions that Western and all Governments can take that might lend towards a long term peace.
-caveat : there's more that I don't know than I do about all of this. A lot more. This analysis is not to be relied upon. In any way, shape or form. It is a list to things I think could alter the situation in useful ways......
1. Acknowledge the War Crime of Iraq and Afghanistan which is the responsibility of the US /UK Coalition of States that invaded and occupied both countries.
2. Arrest the War Criminals.
3. Full public accounting. Convictions.
4. Formal economic, political and cultural sanctions regime against Saudi Arabia, and it’s Wahhabist intervention in Government.
5. Cease all support for Saudi military, including ban on weapons sales. A total ban.
6. Cease all military operations against the Syrian Government. Immediately.
6.a Destroy all DAESH supply lines. No exception. Ensure no funding, arms, munitions, food, oil, petrol, diesel, medicine gets through to their fighting units. If States are involved, then they must be dealt with. International effort in good faith and honour.
7. Allow the Syrian State and people to confront DAESH in Syria, and with respect to language groups and ethnicities, enable autonomy for those as part of the political resolution of other matters. Allow the Syrian State to invite chosen allies to assist with this operation.
8. Abandon the US-UK-Russia-China competing powers behaviour which is the active dynamic in international relations. That behaviour is toxic, irrational and utterly cruel.
9. Excise all incitements to violence from all recognised Religious Texts. These are in breach of Human Rights, and cannot be countenanced.
10. Total separation of Religion and Government, and Legislation. World wide. Governance MUST be evidence based, rather than belief, faith, sectional interest or mere opinion
11. Close down Saudi funded Wahhabist Maddrassa systems, total removal. World wide. Such systems are institutionalised child abuse. No negotiation. Full records of all students to be provided.
12. Demand Saudi excise all incitement to or justification of violence from Wahhabist Texts and Teachings, and remove corporal punishment from the Saudi penal code, as an olive branch, or a carrot, a way to avoid actions 4., 5,
13. Ban Saudi Oil. Last resort.
14. Stand down all international military alliances in favour of a United Nations based resource, resourced from those competing military alliances. The UN treaties provide for a military force that maintains peace, enforces sanctions as a policing action, supporting a diplomatic, political, economic and cultural conflict resolution drive, which must, of course, be equally well resourced.
15. Detain all known participants in militia in their home countries. Process these the weed out those who are reliably dangerous, prosecute those for crimes committed and incarcerate them for Health and Safety reasons.
16. Tear apart the media cabal, and liberate the press, to articulate solid critical analysis of matters of Governance, based on evidence rather than alignments with belief, faith, ideology, bias, opinion.
17. Arrest Murdoch. Close down all media that spin, that present opinion as information, that are aligned with any political party, that are lobby tools for power interests.
18. Public Parenting information must be based on evidence rather than alignments with belief, faith, ideology, bias, opinion. Parents must be legally made to comply with the child’s Human Rights in full. Parents do not have any right to tell their child what to think. Ever.
19. Rebuilding, reparations. We must devote the resources we have to help rebuild what has been destroyed, and restore people and society to a healthy sustainable state.
20. We must also build Systems of Deliberative Democracy, rather than representative Democracy, which is obviously a failed experiment. Power as a shared responsibility.
21. Rekindle old language groups and environmental ethnicity’s, the thriving variation of healthy human culture.
22. In all, evidence based action must be the standard. All evidence must be appraised, no piece omitted, neglected, dismissed, mitigated or denied.
23. End Competing States/Warring States as an accepted political dynamic.
24, Decriminalise mind altering plants and their usage as sacred tools, and medicine.
25. Pay close attention to the Australian Aboriginals people, for they have a well of lived experience for which there is no other comparable population, listen to them and hear their message.
They are the polar opposites of the Jidhadist/Competing Industrial Powers insanity.
They truly know how to live on Earth as fully human beings in sustainable cultures.
: TWAT = The War Against Terror.
They have survived an attempted Genocide, and are here today, offering wisdom, love, nurture and peace to the culture that tried to wipe them out.
It doesn't get any tougher, in terms of diplomacy and negotiation than that. If they can, anyone can.
Yes, it's not going to be easy.
Just a reminder, Alice Miller, The Roots of Violence in Child-Rearing.
Get hold of a copy..
A Peace activists must-read.
Again and again.
