Whatever your assumptions, beliefs etc, the most important thing now is everybody's health and safety.

Whatever your assumptions, beliefs etc, the most important thing now is everybody's health and safety.

What really matters now is evidence based epidemiological practice.

What really matters is stopping the spread of the virus.

What really matters is that we demonstrate that we are actively taking care to not spread the virus.

What really matters is that we take proper care for every vulnerable person in our community.

My beliefs are irrelevant.

Your beliefs are irrelevant.

Belief and theory will kill, where knowledge and evidence will save lives.

My dreams are irrelevant. That is all in the future, after we have taken care of each other through this...

The Economy and Stock Market can wait.

The 5G Conspiracy Theories can wait.

The work to deal with climate change can wait, just a few months, even a year. That can wait.

The work to deal with who is liable for bad advice during the run up to this crisis, that can wait.

The Rapture can wait.

The fear of a global dictatorship being introduced can wait.

The run-to-the-hills and get away delusion is just another vector of transmission.

Evidence based medical and clinical and epidemiological really matter.

This video, one of many by Doctor John Campbell, is crucial.

Doctor John is a Nursing Trainer. He knows his onions.

Let us learn from those who have the experience.

It ought to be on all TV Networks.

It concerns what all the people ought to know, in order to make good decisions...

Let us learn from the experience of others.

Why re-invent the wheel?

Watch this video.

John Campbell is a Nursing Trainer, with decades of  experience,

He presents the information the Government is not presenting, in a timely manner, so that we can integrate  that information and understand why we must isolate, shut down, identify all infected people, treatment, quarantine etc, in order to see how far the infection has spread - to make the disease path visible in order to slow and stop that spread.

He suggests we (The UK, where I live) learn from those who have already been through the experience.





https://www.youtube.com/user/Campbellteaching

Knowledge is far more efficient than belief, assumption, prejudice or ideology in resolving problems.

In my own past experience, in roles where I held responsibility for large teams of workers, whenever I was in a situation where I did not have enough accurate information which I could absorb in a timely fashion, I noticed a tendency to imagine, to make assumptions, to guess, to fall back on belief and opinion, rather than the evidence,

This created numerous problems, for me and for others. I learned very quickly to stop, seek evidence, and work with the evidence, Belief is a very dangerous thing, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Opinion is generally useless, and tends to be a reflection of the opinion holders internalised beliefs...

It is an understandable dynamic.

If you don't have accurate info, and you are worried or frightened, what do you do?

Most people fall back on beliefs and prejudices. I know because I have done this myself.

The job of those who Govern is to provide that accurate information, in a timely fashion, so that the population, understanding the situation, can act in congruent manner to face the situation.

Good quality information, delivered on time.

The British Government have failed in this, and the Media has failed in this with regards to COVID-19.

This is not a 'flu. 

I know because I am in day 7, or possibly day 13 of the illness.

I know because I know others going through this, and I see the statistics... of those who recover, many recover with lung damage that will afflict their lives.  There is a wide range of symptoms, and variations are because each human body is different, there is no average.

That means that each of us going through this must pay attention, close attention to our symptoms, we must understand them and then take action based on our understanding. Belief will not suffice, except as matter of sheer luck.

-------

Then there is the trauma of such an experience, individual and collective.

How do you quantify that qualitative lived experience?

How do you prepare for that?

Honesty is the only way through.

So I repeat, do not be complacent because you have had flu's and colds before and gotten over them.

This COVID-19  disease symptom progress is way more variable than we are being told, the media and politicians throw the word 'mild' around as if it had value - as evidence it is void because we have no immunity to this particular virus, and bad management will kill many, many hundreds of thousands of people in the UK, millions world wide. Mild is deeply misleading.

The Government and Media have failed to inform the population in ways that would support our home treatments, in ways that would engage with is to follow the epidemiological protocols.

Herd Immunity and Take it on the Chin...

If you don't have accurate information, what do you do?

You make it up, you make decisions without all the necessary information.

Which is why so many people have been 'behaving' in ways others regard as insanitary, or even insane, and it is notable that much more voice is given in media to targeting those people, than the people who mislead them.

The media repeated the Government line, they did not challenge it, in the way it needed to be challenged.

The media is not baying for the head of Boris Johnson.

Why?

They are not calling for his resignation or his arrest,  nor or they calling for a Government of national unity, non-partisan, committed to the task, void of party politics, power grabbing and profit gouging.

Lateral Violence.

It is glorious of course, to rail about the stupidity of the masses. It's a buzz. People get off on that. It allows one to vent, to feel superior. It is a form of lateral violence. "Look at all those people who are so selfish -The loo roll hoarders, the caravans and RVs fleeing west, the frightened, the confused, the mislead, the hopeful. How stupid they are, how uncouth!" Easy targets. Wrong targets, this does not help the situation...

Social conditioning is real and it afflicts many peoples lives.
Powerful groups publish through their networks lots of dodgy 'information', gossip deliberately to mislead, mask, trigger, bully.
Where do we find accurate information delivered in a timely fashion?

Be VERY cautious of material that sets one group of ordinary folk against another. Be alert to materials that might trigger lateral violence.

I wrote previously about this misleading, manipulative dynamic. I called it grooming. Political grooming that exploits ordinary folk's varied perceptions and beliefs, assumptions and blind spots.. "The Chinese Virus".....

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.

Kindness is Political : the key strategy when faced with vulnerability.

Kindness is a key strategic dynamic when faced with vulnerability.

People spontaneously making public music for pleasure and solidarity in Italy during the lock down that was made necessary because the transmission of the viral infection had been allowed to get out of control.

Bella Chao!

#kindnessispolitical

We do not need to be cruel to be kind, when faced with vulnerability.

These two pages of the same corporate newspaper, in different neighbouring countries, presenting entirely different narratives, speak volumes, dated Friday 13th March.

An appalling vista. One one hand let us work together as a people, and let us take action to save lives.
On the other hand, we have already failed you and thus you will lose more people because we will not take the appropriate action, because the economy - our ability to exploit it - is our priority, get ready for more deaths.

Kindness and it's opposite, indifferent, callous negligence. Some other countries are blessed with Governments that bring care for the people to the forefront of their deliberations. It's not rocket science.


Jacinda Ardern speaks of kindness as a political dynamic within Government. Her intellect, her grasp  of both the economic and social detail, whilst being able to keep the larger picture in focus, her intense concern is self evident, and thus she stand in contrast to the buffonery of Boris Johnson, the narcissism of frontman Donald Trump and others of similar disposition.

Corona Virus is upon us.

I am unwell. I have been unwell since 4th March, and it is unlike any previous illness I have experienced, although it has similarities to colds or flu.

I had no idea about COVID19, I was totally not paying any attention to events in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Italy or Spain. I was clueless. Until I had a conversation  a few days ago with my daughter, who was also very unwell, and was going into 'self isolation' - a term I was unfamiliar with.  That has changed. I can assure you of that. I am now well acquainted with the phrase. I was listening to her and she was telling me about the virus, and the threat it represented. I, in my ignorance, suggested she was being terrorised by the media.

She suggested I re-think my position, and not be so arrogant. I was taken aback and respectful - my daughter is no fool, nor is she the kind to be dismissive or rude for the sake of it - and so I took her seriously and I turned to examine what was known at that stage. 24 hours later and up to speed, I understood her concern, and I apologised. I had been really unwell a week before, with severe aches around old injuries, as if they are inflamed, splitting headaches, heavy sweats whilst sleeping, chest trouble, loss of sense of smell, fatigue. I had assumed it was a flu of some kind. I was really unwell for about 5 days, and then it calmed down. That was when I was speaking with my daughter. It has resurfaced.

I now believe I am unwell with COVDI9. My breathing is way, way down, my chest feels like I cannot fill it, and I feel very fatigued, I cannot sleep much, my appetite is minimal

It's a little scary, in that there are many unknowns, I cannot get tested, and I am self  treating with Vit C, lots of fluids, rest, light foods, and hoping for the best. I am being kind to myself.

So here's the thing.  Kindness is political. Let me explain by way of looking at UK Government policy on Corona Virus, as I know it today, (I am sure I will learn a lot more in the coming months) in contrast to others who are taking a very different stances.

Monday 16th of March -  British Newspaper Front Pages focus on protecting the elderly by secluding them, by isolating them; on protecting the economy by allowing business as usual among the less vulnerable; on police powers to arrest suspected covid-19 patients (with no testing available?) and a front page portrayal of people of colour as loo roll panic buyers.

Crime and punishment, emotional blackmail and vague policy directives lacking any evidence, as grooming devices.

https://www.thepaperboy.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph/front-pages-today.cfm?frontpage=59566

This portrayal reminds me, again, of everything repulsive that has gone on in British Corporate News Media and in online trolling in the past decades, the dehumanisation of certain demographic groups, and the caricature of situations as emotive trigger material, the dearth of honest analysis leading to confusion across our population.

Where is the kindness needed in a time of increasing vulnerability?

I like to think of kindness, beyond being a personal trait or quality, as a practical method, as a way of coping with life, and as a way of learning and growing in the real material world, through experience, reflection, deliberation, honesty and practical application.

We could envision kindness as a social organisational strategic behaviour, in and of itself. Especially so in a time of emerging vulnerability and great difficulty.

Kindness is looking at the whole situation, taking the detail as well as the larger field of view. Making that extra effort to see the small and the large with equal precision.

Kindness is responsive, rather than reactive. Kindness is responding to the needs of the people in the situation of increased vulnerability.

Kindness is receptive : "I  hear you and  I have made sure that you know that I have heard and understood you, and that I am responding to your need."

Kindness is focused.

Kindness is political, in that the lack or presence of kindness in managing a power disparity and in handling governance of the commons has huge impact on the well being of the governed, who have less power by orders of magnitude than the few who occupy positions of power.

A small policy adjustment of the powerful leader or official or office can alter the lives of millions of people, one way or the other, in ways no one individual can counter.

That is not safe, if that decision, choice or action is careless.

Kindness is political.

Kindness is what is missing from the concerns of overtly financial budgets, gross population models, behavioural modification, reward/sanction dynamics, artificial intelligence and machine learning .

Kindness cannot be found in an algorithm or in coding.

And kindness is what is missing from the interactions between the powerful and the vulnerable, in our current political dynamic.

This lack of kindness, of attention to the detail of people's lives translates into a consistent and incremental escalation of chronic stress imposed upon vulnerable people, whose immune systems, living conditions or will to deal with that lack of kindness can often break down under the combined pressures.

This is what is playing out at home, on broadcast TV news and on the international political stages. Break down.

Lessons from 1918 Flu pandemic

To the biology of the virus, to the human body and to the T-cells of the human being it does not matter what kind of political or economic model China operates, what ideology is chosen by any Government.

What matters is that State and the people agreed to a strategy of limiting the spread by top down lockdown, and by a bottom upwards and outwards process of identifying the infected and the unwell, providing support for contact tracing all cases, to identify, quarantine and offer good treatment all the way to ICU level support where necessary, covering everyone's living costs, with an aim to stopping the spread of the infection.

We have known since 1918 that this method works. It is established scientific and clinical practice.

This one chart demonstrates the efficacy of social distancing, treatment of infected people away from the community,  which helped to reduce transmission of infection during the 1918 flu epidemic - two cites, two different policies, two different outcomes.



One city went into early lock down, the other allowed large gatherings to go ahead.

Because these cities varied in their responses, and because we also know that this variation repeated itself across the Earths population affected during 1917-18, we know this is true.

SARS in 2002/3 and MERS in 2012/13 and other outbreaks of infectious diseases spread by human to human have led to further study and development of the protocols to stop the spread of infection.

Learning from experience : China

The Chinese Government and people know that they will see future out breaks, and they are devoting funds and resources to prepare for that, right now. This epidemic in China is not yet over - their systems remain active and vigilant.

The Chinese Government did not suppress information about the outbreak as they have been accused by various western news media. Some errors were made in the early days, and these have been acknowledged and addressed.

There was a case of local Wuhan Government having a go at a number of doctors, for sharing information in online social media, before the genome of the novel virus had been sequenced.  Censorship of those comments as they spread through social media was carried on for a few days.

The Chinese Government and the WHO were perhaps too cautious. The 'unwillingness' to slap an international travel ban cannot be laid at the feet on the WHO alone - that body can advise, it cannot impose.

The Chinese medical, clinical and epidemiological communities were totally open about what was happening, and were sharing there information with others in other countries across the Earths nation states, including the British Government who rule over me and my compatriots, and our visitors.

From 31st December to 7th January was the timeline involved between Li Wenliang publishing his concerns on social media and the sequencing of the genome,

It was the National Chinese Government that initiated the lock down, and threw all available resources into limiting and stopping the spread of the infection, and ramping up hospital and treatment facilities, contact tracing etc...

Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Vietnam have all acted rapidly to suppress community transmission.

Boris Johnson's plan is bogus.

Boris Johnson tells us that "many of your loved ones will die".

He says the strategy is to move 'from contain, to delay.'

Containment would mean clear and timely communication of the threat. a temporary lock down, social distancing, testing and contact tracing to identify pockets of infection, quarantine  of contacts, treatment in fever hospitals and the focus of resources in order to stop the spread of infection.

That never happened. There has never been any serious attempt at containing the virus, within the UK.

Delay is in practice to delay the correct action as indicated by best practice epidemiological protocol. That is the only delay the UK Government have made. Slowing the spread is not the same as stopping the spread of the infection. Slowing the spread is allowing the spread.

That is the policy in how it is actually happening, whatever they might call it.

The UK Government, 'led' by Boris Johnson has carried out no program of containment, and has not acted according the best medical practice. They are pursuing a herd immunity policy.

"Our policy is informed by data modelling and behavioural science" said Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, UK Government. That claim was repeated by Sir Patrick Valence, the Governments Chief Scientific Adviser.

I fell off my seat, listening to that. What  the actual flabbergasted?

Behavioural Science - not epidemiology, not medical practice, not public health protocols.

Nudge, anyone?

Herd Immunity, or Hoard Immunity? 

Protect the People or the Economy?

It can be both. This is not an either or situation.

As of this date, there is no testing offered locally, no accurate public information on local outbreaks, on the full range of symptoms, no contact tracing,  no solid information, in fact there was such confusion published in media and across online  social media that the Government were forced to say out loud that "this is not a flu!" but something much, much different.

As of this date there is still no contact tracing, no fever hospitals, no checks at airports - the UK is still receiving flights from other infected countries, there is no quarantine of incoming travellers, nothing.

No  testing, no process of identifying infected patients as early as possible, offering correct protocol advice for self management and when to move to more intensive care, there are no enhanced facilities to operate that care at sufficient strength to be kind all the way through. Nothing.

No attention to detail, no practical structural kindness by way of policy.

Social distancing, identification of people afflicted, quarantine and treatment in isolation properly supported works as a policy, together, and any gap in that undermines the whole..

It worked in 1918, where it was applied, and where it was not applied, mortality rates went way up.

There are more examples, detailed in the history of 1918, and beyond.

SARS (2002 -2003), MERS (2011 -2015),

In these epidemics, Governments involved chose to deploy all available resources to ensuring as few people as possible become infected,  they chose to act to stop the spread of the infection, not merely to slow it down. Those Governments activated a protocol that demanded that as much resources as can be made available to treat the unwell, and the seriously ill, in isolation from the general population.  The policy was to acknowledge the fatalities, and to keep and provide accurate up to date information at local level, so people know what is happening.

This method had form, has been used to contain epidemics for a long time, and was clearly successful where applied during the 1918 worldwide flu outbreak. People need to know what is happening in order to be better engaged in the process of suppression of an infection.

The worst misleading public narrative for me was the insistence in News Mefia and across the online social media that the illness was similar to the 'flu.

This is not a 'flu.

That typification was deliberately misleading..

That is a dangerous lie.

In terms of prevention of spread, and provision of treatment, the Chinese, Taiwanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and other East Asian states have developed practical protocols which they know from direct experience have been helpful.   Aware that there will have be many variations in dosage and reaction, they have developed the capability to analyse the data, the evidence.

Which means that they have an array of field tested protocols. Attention to detail is kindness.

Studying these as the international epidemiology community does all the time is about helping other States draft responses within their own territories - co-operation is a matter of international care, and form of kindness.

The understanding since the Spanish Flu of 1918, SARS, MERS and other cases of infectious diseases is based on real experience, the truest evidence set of all.

It is recorded in some detail that social distancing, self isolation, testing, treatment once infected or infectious until recovery all are essential parts of stopping the spread on an infection.

https://qz.com/1816060/a-chart-of-the-1918-spanish-flu-shows-why-social-distancing-works/

We can arrive at a reasonable and rational evidence based observation.

In amongst all of this, I watched  some live Al Jazeera, today and a segment on refugees, in refugee camps, about the vulnerability of those 100 million displaced people.

How can that not be front page news here?

What about the 320,000 people in the UK who are living in temporary accommodation, in B&Bs, Hotels and Hostels where most of those involved are families, all of them living in very close quarters were self isolation is very difficult to maintain?

Are they left to gamble with a loaded dice on life and death with Boris Johnson's pseudoscience and behavioural nudges as their only 'advantage'?

"Take it on the chin.".

Some reality checks.

The T-cells do not care about our political consciousness, they respond to how we are supporting our living bodies, our brothers and sister, our mothers and fathers and grandparents immune systems with every tool available. Kindness boost one's immune system.

That kindness of quality care at all stages - that people care enough to engage with and carry out shutdown and  social distancing for a temporary situation, that the care the state and other agencies take in carrying out action -  all of that care is our immune systems ally, and is a counter force to the spread of the virus within any given population in this outbreak.

What happened - real material evidence -  in China and South Korea was that the transmission from person to person was reduced, those who were infected were treated until they were clear and no longer infectious, until they had proven immunity, so that they could then not be a transmission or infection agent or submit to the disease state again, because their immune systems now know the virus, and have anti-bodies.

And there are variations in peoples immune systems which led to variations in outcomes. Including, tragically many fatalities.

Boris Johnson would not follow this practical, proven advice for all the T-cells in China!

Excuse the pun - kindness has a sense of humour.

Kindness has to be robust, firm, gentle, determined, and given an unquestioned budget for cost and excellence in delivery - the profit is the health of the population, our welfare and well-being.

Jeremy Corbyn is the kind of public figure who could hold that together.

He has ideas, based on the evidence.

If only the competing bullies could just stand aside, just for now, while we are dealing with this public threat, within Labour as much as anywhere else. We need to empower the population to be well organised as a grass roots, to turn to mutual aid, in conjunction with NHS, social services, councils and other logistics support, to organise around resources placed at our disposal according to need, so that we can all live without infecting millions and watching hundreds of thousands to die?

Would that be so bad?

Genuine Social Kindness is calling for all of  this, and more, and those who stand for power and status, the ruling oligarchies, do not agree: what they will tell you, is that genuine social kindness is a threat to the economy, austerity is necessary.

Corbyn is a threat.

Sanders is a threat.

The Chinese are a threat.

Grass roots request for the human right to regulate and eliminate industrial pollution is a threat.

The virus is just a virus, doing it's thing.

There is no 'war against a virus'; that language is puerile nonsense -  there is living with the virus, there is supporting strong immune systems supported by nurturant social behaviour.

There is knowledge based proven efficacy of care.

The Virus has no political or religious affiliations or concerns.

Kindness, as suggested above, and attention to detail are the critical elements of our societal response to the virus.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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


Thank you for reading this blog.

All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.

Australia - work with the wisdom of the land.

I think Australian folk must now look at the situation, and understand that those areas that are damaged, the homes, businesses, the families and communities that suffered so greatly during the recent forest fire season (extended) need to be very much involved in and directing their recovery.

Government, The Australian State must provide total support, but not direction.

Bill Mollison, a man with a plan.

The Colonised, and a man with a plan, backed by a gun, he having being assimilated into the colonial system such that he guards his chained brothers, that they might not escape.

It is the lives of those people, in that land that must, given the context, set out future policy that will affect them directly - their autonomy and their love for the land has never been more important.

The State can and should maintain oversight, in it's role as a supporting agency -  this recovery work will need to be studied as it rolls out and adjusted as results emerge, and the local people must therefore have all of that information and be the core decision making group on overall policy as it affects them, their lands, their children into the future, and they deserve free unfettered access to the best skills and information available to support their decision making and efforts.

Local deliberative democracy.

Take a billion from each of Australia's billionaires - and weight it so they more they have, the more the contribute, so someone with 4 billion could drop half a billion someone with 14 billion could drop 2 billion, and not really be put out. 

The Australian Government has plenty of cash available, it's called Taxation and State borrowing..

So too does it's Oligarchy, if they paid all their taxes fairly.

Give each of them an award, a medal and some honourable title for helping out. Assuage their narcissism, and get that cash.

There's plenty of cash, and it doesn't need to be a profit seeking investment.

"Any profit taken where harms of any kind have been allowed, and the costs of resolving those harms has been deliberately or accidentally avoided, is a deceit."

The profit is happy people on happy land, developing a sustainable local economy.

They Australian folk really ought to be working with Aboriginal Culture and studying the dynamics of their cultural land sensitivity.

The Australian farmer, what ever is farmed must be supported to be re-skilled in perma-culture as one of many ways to engage proven tools of ecological rehabilitation.

 The spirit of community that is already there, and move it into the 21st Century, to create a culture of healthy land and healthy peoples.

In essence, all this to arrive again, and to meet the already here, and integrate into this ancient culture that is a relationship, rather than a skin colour or a ceremony, a living relationship with an abundant land.

Reverse the damage of 1788.

The introduction of healthy land use will necessitate bringing more people to the land to hand tend, instead of machines and robots and bio-cides.

The Australian State needs to cede Aboriginal title where there are existing Aboriginal communities on traditional lands. Let them be, for they are totally a valid lane tenure polity.

I am saying this direct to you, the folk of burned Australia, your friends and families, your neighbours and compatriots and commatriots.

This could help build the bridge among rural Australia that brings you back to the people you did not heed, to meet again, this time as sharers, carers, nurturers, rather than the descendants of conquerors, colonisers and settlers.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.

The Human Species is fine, it is the Culture that is the problem.

I have been thinking, reading, writing about hierarchically violent social and cultural behavioural characteristics for 30 years, dipping into the best work I could find, work done in the past, work being done today by serious, hardworking scientists, clinicians, practitioners and by trauma survivor populations.  This study is as much a study of myself and my lived experience in this culture I was born into. There are personal elements to this pursuit as well as global concerns. Being a survivor informs my study. These are my biases.

What I have learned is this:

When we study the evolution of the human neuro-endocrine system and how it functions, how it relates to our emotional state, our mental and physical health we discover something. It is 'designed' or 'evolved' through natural selection for optimal health. Being a bully or being bullied is not optimal health on any possible measure.

Egalitarian life was/is generally peaceful,  humanely beautiful, physically healthy, grounded in solid emotional attachment and matured healthy affective state self regulation which reduces incidence of lost tempers and general violence because egalitarian culture nurtures the default setting of trust which is the basis of co-operation. 

“The mutual-aid tendency in man has so remote an origin, and is so deeply interwoven with all the past evolution of the human race, that is has been maintained by mankind up to the present time, notwithstanding all vicissitudes of history."

Pytor Kropotkin was correct.

.

This will upset quite a few people within this culture where self regulation is so dysregulated more often than not, where bullying is deemed as a normal if unsavoury behaviour, where hierarchy of power and wealth is assumed to be natural to the human condition, where competition and war fare is accepted as natural behaviour.

They are not. They are entirely cultural dynamics.

The roots of life.

When we look to cellular life, we see the origins of complex life in the union of two different entities, for their mutual benefit, in the process known as endosymbiosis.

 
When we pay attention to the the discovery that our human digestion is dependent upon 1000 species of bacteria for it's efficacy, we see co-operation as a core element of how our bodies function.  Even our moods are dependent upon the activity and health of bacteria in our gut.

Fungi and Forests mutual aid community. Ants, Trees and Bacteria working together.

https://slate.com/technology/2020/01/darwin-competition-collaboration-evolutionary-biology-climate-change.amp

In a fascinating article in The Slate - What if Competition Isn’t As “Natural” As We Think?

"Scientists are slowly understanding collaboration’s role in biology, which might just help liberate our collective imagination in time to better address the climate crisis.

Darwin’s legacy aside, though, one critical takeaway from all this is that we must learn to recognize the impulse to naturalize a given human behavior as a political maneuver. Competition is not natural, or at least not more so than collaboration.

This insight could hardly come at a more opportune time. With our climate crisis mounting, we dearly need new ways to think about our relationships to the diverse entities that share our planet.

Far too many environmentalists assume that people, driven by innate self-interest, are bound to harm ecology, that we will inevitably clear-cut, extract, consume, so long as it gives us an advantage over the next guy.

This leaves us deeply disempowered, with few solutions to climate change outside limiting humanity’s impact through some kind of population control.

When competitive self-interest is revealed to be a mutable behavior, the causes of climate change come into greater clarity: not human nature, but an economic system that demands competition, that distributes resources such that a tiny elite can live tremendously carbon-intensive lifestyles while the rest of us struggle for a pittance.

Leaving competition behind, we can also imagine richer solutions: climate policies that problematize the tremendous wealth of the few, that build economies concerned with collective well-being and sustainability"

The default mode of healthy human species specific social behaviour is trust.
Unhealthy behaviour is not a biological norm.

The default mode of healthy human species social behaviour is emotional trust, which is initiated in utero, developed through birth, infancy and toddler-hood, maintained into childhood, youth and adulthood through loving, bonded relationships where power disparity is rarely, if ever, abused, where empathy, compassion and insight prevail. 

Co-operative culture is probably the default behavioural setting for the human species.

Such cultures - Egalitarian or Co-operative cultures - do not appear to have any generation gap, they do not bully children, they do not go to war, they do not rape or steal, they do not create and maintain power hierarchies, and as the study of endocrinology and neurology reveals, our bodies are superbly adapted to that healthy state as our normative state. 

That said, the study of such cultures shows that conflict resolution is standard practice, after all we are human and we can be moody, we can wake up feeling out of sorts, we can become insecure, angry, jealous or envious and those feelings can and do lead to misunderstandings which can then become a point of conflict. 

If conflicts cannot be resolved, then trouble brews, and the longer it brews, the deeper it's impact on our bodies and minds.  Chronic stress is a dis-ease vector and a killer.

The Bully is not a bio-logical behavioural default.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0020106

This paper outlines a cultural shift observed in a wild population of Forest Baboons. It indicates the element of culture as a learned, brain to brain transmitted behavioural dynamic or milieu that can be passed from generation to generation, learned from infancy (possibly prepared in utero by the conditions of the mothers lived condition) through direct experience and liminal absorbtion.

"Reports exist of transmission of culture in nonhuman primates. We examine this in a troop of savanna baboons studied since 1978. During the mid-1980s, half of the males died from tuberculosis; because of circumstances of the outbreak, it was more aggressive males who died, leaving a cohort of atypically unaggressive survivors. 

A decade later, these behavioral patterns persisted. Males leave their natal troops at adolescence; by the mid-1990s, no males remained who had resided in the troop a decade before. Thus, critically, the troop's unique culture was being adopted by new males joining the troop. 

We describe (a) features of this culture in the behavior of males, including high rates of grooming and affiliation with females and a “relaxed” dominance hierarchy; (b) physiological measures suggesting less stress among low-ranking males; (c) models explaining transmission of this culture; and (d) data testing these models, centered around treatment of transfer males by resident females."

Here we see a clear example of a culture shift, a change in behaviour that emerges across an entire population of primates.

What this suggests to me is that the concept of the Violent Alpha Male as a biological archetype is more likely a projection of the hierarchically conditioned mind, a bully culture, rather than an inevitable, biological default or archetype.

Wolves in captivity are not wolves in the wild.

The term Alpha Male was coined to describe 'what happens in wolf packs'. However that 'observation' was crafted from within a prison, and blown apart as a theory in the wild. It originated from a study of male wolves in a zoo enclosure, an entirely un-natural set-up. Wolf packs are families, with Mom and Pop and their litter.  Wolves do not hang out in all single male groups ever. That never happens in the wild. One way to look at the study claiming Alpha Male wolves as an archetype is to think of a bunch of males in a prison. What kind of culture exists there?

When the same researchers went into the wild, they tried again, but did not spend much time observing in detail or taking blood samples, stool samples etc and stuck to the Alpha Male theory. Then some years later they returned to the wild, and this time spent a lot more time, gathering a lot more detail, until they finally understood that wolf packs were families, and in place of an Alpha Male they had Father Wolf, Mother Wolf and the family, and the children all had different characters, different skill sets and abilities and they all worked as a team using those differences to maximise their success. 

Culture is, as it turns out. a mammalian dynamic, and co-operation prevails.

Co-operation is normative to all and often between species.

The concept of a 'Struggle for Survival' biological competition as the archetype of biology is a dystopian fairy tale, the  projection myth of an insecure bully culture. No such thing exists. It's a way of looking at the world, rather than an observation.

The way our endocrine system functions proves this beyond all reasonable doubt. We get stressed when we get bullied, and when it becomes chronic that stress causes a wide range of physiological distortions and breakdowns. We are not 'designed' for chronic stress. It happens, yes, and it hurts and harms us long term.

Occasional stress is normal to all biology because the habitat is a dynamic environment, where changes occur, accidents happen and things can go wrong. If follows that being able to cope with the stress and return to homeostasis or balance is essential - and we see this all the time. Recovery and healing happens.

This is confirmed knowledge, tested profoundly. This is not belief.

We do not need to hang on to our negative beliefs about 'Humanity'  or the 'Human Condition'- they are just beliefs, and they confer no accuracy of perception.

The Biology Never Lies.

Biology does information rather than belief. 

Evidence matters.

Me matters. The Personal matters.

I think that for me, it started out with the evidence of my own subjective experience. Learning to be less subjective required that I step away a little from myself so that I could see the subjective rather than be overwhelmed by it all. I did not realise I was reeling from the trauma of my childhood, and when I did, in my late 30s, I started to very slowly develop more empathy for the child I was in the situation I was in. Very slowly.

Part of my 'learning' is the lived experience, examined in hind sight, often with less than 20/20 vision. 

The lived experience of surviving long term abuse as a child, and dealing with the invisible affects as they emerged, whilst living in a bully society. I am not alone in this, not at all unique.

Part of my 'learning' has been muddling through, barely coping with depression, heartache, shame, self loathing, bullying, confusion, loss, despair. Part of my 'learning' has been resilience, dogged persistence, withdrawal and the creation of an inner fortress, a form of denial in that I understood I had grown up traumatised yet I pretended it did not afflict me as much as it had, because I could not remember much, because I was not ready to deal with it. Millions of people endure this learning across the bully culture. It's all quite sad, and it's painful.

Part of my 'learning' has been reading, studying and learning from what others had to present, by way of evidence and insight. Part of my 'learning' has been through counselling and the heartfelt advice and support of close friends. Millions of people are going through this every day.

Crucially when I began to see the Social Material realities of where I was born into for what they were  - as a culture so much larger than I - I began to realise that I was, we all are, living in a bully social system. Millions of people are grappling with this realisation emerging in our lives.

I began to understand more of why I had been made to live through all of that, how everyone is living through all of that.

This awareness among the population is  growing : the Hierarchy of Power culture is inherently toxic, and it has no natural mandate.

It is sustaining a traumatising chronic stress dis-ease dynamic.

I will repeat my basic theme. The Human Species is perfectly evolved for healthy attachment, bonding, co-operation, creative intelligence as part of 'natural' behavioural dynamics of a species living in and on Earths surface. I am perfectly evolved for the co-operative culture but have been conditioned by the lived experience of growing up in this dominator culture.

As a neo-nate my brain was ready for the egalitarian lived experience yet it met the hierarchy of wealth and power experience and that changed the trajectory.

In my case, I was born a month premature, as a Rhesus baby endured a full blood transfusion without anaesthetic and started life in an incubator for two months. A whole range of biologically mandated expectations, needs that are core to the building of behavioural and neurological pathways were never met even as the doctors and nurses fought to save my life. The NHS saved my life. I am ever grateful for that State funded co-operative movement.

That was just the start. 

This hour long video presentation of a lecture by Allan Schore examines what we call attachment theory, informed by advances in scientific ability to observe detailed processes within our brains, our endocrine systems and our bodies as we grow. 

What Schore calls the brain-to-brain relationship is revealed in some detail and lends itself to the understanding of brain development and affective state self regulation in utero and in infancy that is the world of carer and child, mother and infant in those earliest, most intimate relating to one another experiences, so much without words, so deeply limbic and yet absolutely crucial to the future emotional condition of the adult to be.  

It is important to understand that even though we do not remember the detail of our experiences as neo-nates and infants. all of that experience is written into our bodies. That means much of what determines our adult emotional state is hidden from our awareness, is 'sub-conscious'. Cultures roots lie in the mists of vague memory.

Allan Schore gives a presentation on aspects of emotional development, in terms of the brain-to-brain dynamics and neurobiology of the interaction between carer, most often the mother, and the cared for infant.



Whatever the situation, the behavioural dynamic of healthy egalitarian culture has to be learned, by experience and exposure, each generation learning from the previous. Trauma and chronic stress and oppression tend to distort this learning, Violent cultures intervene in the learning - we call it 'education' set within an authoritarian hierarchy system called school - to assure the concepts of authority and it's right to exercise violence for the preservation of social order is habituated to. Sparta being the classic example.

More is being understood about this, by more and more people, as research into the biology of behaviour has made huge progress in the past 30 years.

Learning all the time.

This work that is being undertaken, diligently and seriously by many brilliant and committed people, away from the spotlights, the stages, the accolades of celebrity, work that is seeking to understand, contextualise and heal social violence, oppression, hierarchy and abuse of power is beyond any single life time; it was there before, and will be there after I or any of my readers have been long forgotten, because it is a historical process of recovery.

As is often the case the leaders of the Dominator culture have dismissed the profoundly healthy humane realities of  the older egalitarian cultures - which they call primitive or barbarian -  cultures which form the bulk of human lived experience.

They dismissed the default biologically mandated modality for co-operative human culture because it poses a threat to the Dominator culture. We can see this today in the prevalence of what is known as Free Market Fundamentalism. A culture that pretends that human society does not really exist, that meritocracy is the natural state and that those who are wealthy are innately superior to those who are poor, whilst they ignore the fact that their wealth is precisely what generates poverty for so many others.  A bully cult.

Evidence of a community grounded in healthy attachment relationships where affective state self regulation is matured by the time each reaches toddlerhood - presenting as healthy cultures that experienced no generation gaps, no organised mass warfare, no widespread sexual abuse of children or adults, cultures that thrived through healthy relationships with one another and with their habitat, for many, many tens of thousands of years, and in significant numbers

I mark my life by the quality of the relationships within which I am embedded - are they nurturant or are they destructive?

I ask the question - why not a nurturant culture? What is impeding the development of such a culture?

This work is not an evolution, and it is certainly not a revolutionary process, it is a process of recovery of healthy relationships. The evolution of the co-operative species and our culture has already been long complete. The linear model of 'progress' is in adequate to this task which all of us face going forward in our lives.

Dominance is the language of the bully. 

Coping is the language of the bullied, who cannot escape.

Revolution is the language of the status quo.  Exchanging one Power for another.

Healing is the language of healthy human behaviour.

Reducing Power disparity abuse is a prerequisite for healing and recovery from trauma.

The defining indicator, a predictor if all other data is unavailable, of a bully culture is how the institutions, the social structures and the adults relate to and treat the children. Authoritarian control, punishment/reward dynamics to assure compliance, children as projections of parents desires and perceived needs.

The defining indicator of a egalitarian culture's character is how they relate to and treat the children. Autonomy and loving, shared responsibility.

It really is a matter of existing and imposed power disparity, and who uses or abuses it under what conditions.

It has nothing to do with 'species' and everything to do with culture.

Humanity is not the problem, it is the solution.

Healing is possible, to a large degree.

Healing and recovery are biological mandates.

We live in a traumatising and traumatised culture.

The Trauma transmission is layered - Violent Hierarchies study the effects of poverty and violence on a population, to know how to exploit people's pain to maintain loyalty to the system, and to be able to continue to wage war. That is deliberate. They cause trauma deliberately.

The lived experience - ordinary folk whose lives are afflicted by the actions and behaviour of Power, ordinary folk who are caught in the crossfire of war, economic sanctions, impoverishment, who have to flee on foot, who are offered no genuine support (veterans, refugees, the no income, low income poor for example)

People are mostly are just doing the best they can to keep a lid on that chronic stress burden, so that they can look after themselves and their children.

Nonetheless there will be varying degrees of trauma behavioural transmission, and epi-genetic changes that disrupt development and behaviour, that are NOT the fault of those people, there is no malice there, and it must be understood that dynamic will impact every person affected in profound and long term ways.

The malice emerges as powerful States refuse to acknowledge this, because they are engaged in a competitive power struggle dominated by the most powerful military states, who seek dominance, globally. Obama 'twisting arms'.

I know of Indigenous groups who protected their native lands by defending with spears and arrows, guile and forest skills, who faced down Loggers, Miners, Farmers, Oil drillers and others who had guns, and no problem with using them to kill.

Decades passed and people were murdered on both sides.

Then, eventually when the defence of their lands and cultures ceased being 'operational', when they had manage to slow down the intrusions and find external international and national support for legislation to protect their lands, they withdrew and they deliberately went through a slow multi-generational healing process, so that they do not carry the wounds forwards... they did not want to become like the invaders, numbed through their own wounds.

They chose, as a community of adults, to heal. That is a fine example of biological conscious awareness and courage. That is highly evolved healthy human behaviour.

Those same groups are still facing invasion, assimilation and violence : they are stressed to the limit, because their shared habitats are under still threat, and yet they offer insight, they offer wisdom rather than seeking revenge.

The Human Species is fine, it's the culture that is the problem.

You are NOT your culture.

I am not the culture.

Therefore I will not let it be a trap that robs me of my sensitivity and humanity.
I will not let it undermine my determination to nurture the world around me, to nurture all people, our shared habitat, the common environment. Determination goes where hope falters.

Co-operation is what allowed our human species to thrive, more than any other single factor - and the evolved level of cooperation is based on healthy attachment bonding as a core element of psychological and social arrangement.

The natural society is grounded in the natural child's needs being met in full.

Bullying disrupts that and is the at the root of much harmful behaviour.

Dominator cultures are wiping out Egalitarian cultures.

If we want a future as a species, it has to be Egalitarian.

The work then is to confront the bully cult, disarm it, recover healthy relationships across all our cultures. This is doable


Kindest regards


Corneilius


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


Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy

If we had been listening to the old, old peoples, we probably wouldn't be standing in this mess.

First People's
Axiom Poem

"If we had ever listened to   

the old, old peoples,

we would not be in this mess,

right now!"

I have been hearing the ancestors all my life,

heeding their call.

Others, born before me, and after,

have put me and kept me in this mess.

They call it civilisation.

Others, born before me, and after,

are doing their best to clean up this mess.

They call it living well.

"We are the forest, 

we are the rivers and the valleys, 

we are the weathered rocks, 

we are the trees, 

we are the roots and vines, 

the creatures are our neighbours, 

and we theirs.

living together, 

in a shared living space. 

we all nurture together. 

We are the food we eat. 

Knowing this, our intelligence, 

our sensitivity and 

our love is what makes us truly healthy human

in this place.."

We will tidy up the mess, if you let us.

We will help you heal, if you want to come home.

We will care for you, we will nurture you.

Oligarch, Pope, President or Prime Minister, Slave or Worker,

Your status not really matter,

Our intention is not sinister.

This is the generosity of ancient cultures,

Who have seen so much you do not know,

Calling to your heart and ears -

"Listen! We have much to show you,

and you have much laughter ahead,

when you heal the bully behaviour.

then you can safely rest your heart,
unworry your head.".

This is the generosity of ancient cultures,

Who have seen so much you do not know,

Calling to your heart and ears -

"Listen! We have much to show you,

and you have much growth and love ahead,

when you heal the bully behaviour.

then you can safely rest your heart, unworry your head"

whisper in their hearts :

"unhealthy behaviour is not a biological norm".

Now it is also a song...

  

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be genuinely honest, responsive to the evidence we find, and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easier .