This one is easy for me. Becoming immersed in the external political situation in the Middle East -- so much through your writing, Caitlin -- eventually provoked me to spend lots of energy working on a creative project that partly involved spending several days carefully scrutinizing images of Gazan people through the lens of Hosny Salah a brave Gazan photojournalist.
The outcome for my deepest being -- my heart and soul -- dawned on me like an explosion of consciousnesses once the project was completed:
I realized I had fallen in love with those people. I love the people of Gaza. Truly.
Go ahead, be ridiculous and call me an antisemite if that makes you feel better. It will only make you appear ridiculous. True love is true.
To love the Palestinian people has nothing to do with antisemitism so don't even raise that question. The Zionist totalitarian program is to attack anyone who supports the Palestinians antisemitic in order to create false definitions in order to give cover to Israel--always a genocidal State from the inception of Zionism as a political ideology in the 19c. This genocidal assault we see today did not begin Oct 7 but should be seen as an Isreali false flag to justify this violent, ongoing genocide to complete its total theft of all Palestinian land. But not being looked at seriously is the same being meted out in the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and other parts of the ME that Israel calls Historic Palestine as shown in the map they created and presented to the UN. No secret here what they are doing with massive killings and all supported by the US with our tax dollars. The inner waking must be about learning how propaganda works and become clearly aware of it everytime we meet it.
Well said. I raise the antisemitism trope for exactly the reason I stated -- and that you actually reaffirmed: it's ridiculous. However, tanya, if the past 75-150 years has shown us anything about Zionist machinations, not only in the Middle East, but in the world at large, is that as ridiculous, as completely and unmitigatedly absurd as it might be, effing amoral Zionists will shout the antisemitic trope without basis without reason, without provocation.
I know a Western couple who lived in Gaza maybe 40 years ago. They report nice people. Everyone who has mixed with them says the same. They are very polite, hospitable, gentle, and love children.
That's right. I've known those lyrics all my life as a hymn, and as a bible verse. Very similar idea, as this from Amos 5:24. “Let justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” This is one of those lines in the midst of one of those homicidal rages by their "good" lord, which was repurposed to better use by the Black Church and the Civil Rights movement.
Amazing how there's potentially uplifting stuff in the OT, just not in the hands of Yahweh. It's an important observation, perhaps one of the roots of the "issue".
Actually, the verse itself was changed from "Let judgement roll down like the waters...." This was said in the midst of a fulminating, condemnatory rampage by the old testament god.
I think it goes to show that those with good hearts are able to find good even in things like this that are so awful. Finding such lines and rewording them to give comfort and hope, must have been nourishment to the slaves in their ongoing times of need.
I just want the cycle of genocide and violence ot somehow come to an end. I don't find it easy to think good thoughts about people like Zionists, but I think I have to keep trying to see them as people deserving of some kind of empathy. It seems that each war, genocide, occupation just creates more hate that then creates more conflict. I do think that that the way it will stop is one person at a time. I will try to be one of those people.
I was thinking about the people who support the ideology of Zionism but who are not actually murdering children and all the other things you list. You are right that the murderers do not deserve empathy, especially not for their acts, but the people who have not go that far yet do deserve some kind of empathy, maybe. I think. I am saying we need to try to understand them, why they do what they do so that we can figure out how to stop it. When I think about all the fallout from all the wars, how more war mongers have been created, I think it has to stop somehow. It isn't going to stop just by getting angry and promoting more war. I think anger is a good thing, but ongoing hate is not. For myself, I try to pull back from the hate that I do feel and try more to figure out how we got to this. I think anger is a good emotion because it spurs me on to try to figure things out.
Anyone who supports the ideology of Zio-fucking-ism FAVORS the genocide of the Palestinians, whether they are actively engaged in performing it or not!
It is a complicated thing to try to figure out how to stop this from continuing. I don't have the answers. I know that I want it to stop. I have observed that hate and revenge don't usually stop the violence of power mongers. Self defense is a good thing. Not like Israel's genocide, but not allowing yourself to be attacked if you can do that. What is happening is Gaza is doubly horrible because people are not really allowing themselves to be attacked, but the entire world is assisting Israel to commit genocide.
Also, I live in a very Jewish neighbourhood and I know some are Zionists, others I don't know. I do not want to walk down the street and hate everyone that I see. I have to try to find some humanity in them. It is often very difficult. I saw a car flying an Israeli flag today. I felt like smashing that car. So far I just feel like doing those things. If it morphs into actually doing those things, then I think I will have lost.
My emotions clamp down on me too. I have not succeeded in getting the rage out of me. But I have to keep trying. I do believe that the world will change one small step at a time. I have learned in my life that by understanding those who hurt me and others, or at least trying to, I feel less hate and can then move forward a little bit, anyway. I am a little afraid of sounding Pollyanna-ish. I don't really think I am though.
Again, I applaud the effort. I tend to cope by disappearing into alternate modes of being that at least for brief periods disconnect me from it. Perhaps I'm the one whose attitude is suspect in reference to effecting change. It's a difficult knife-edge with respect to striking a balance.
To awaken, we need to be aware of the propaganda given to us for centuries. This is the term known as “Menticide” — killing of the mind, or brainwashing.
I'm not so sure about that. I'm neither religious nor spiritual (in the least). But I'm an activist. Then again, how does one define 'spirituality'? It is such a hazy, ill-defined concept that it invites much discussion and contestation.
I guess it depends on how you define spirituality. I've always been an activist, and I feel that wellness and spirituality keep me from burning out, which is essential if I want to be an effective activist.
Yes, I agree - it depends on how 'spirituality is defined and interpreted'. Just as spirituality works for you, religions and 'belief in God' works for some others. Science (and the scientific methodology) works for still others.
At the end of the day, use whatever tools you feel are necessary to help you (i.e. oneself) to be a better human and make positive changes all around them.
Spirituality works for you, Diana, as it works for many others. Critical thinking (with healthy doses of kindness and compassion when needed) works for me (religions and spirituality doesn't do anything for me).
People get their 'moral beliefs/values' and 'sense-of-self' from various sources - be it religion, God, spirituality, critical thinking, life experiences, nature, science, and so much more (and there is often a huge overlap amongst these different sources).
Yes, I was going to see sometimes it's all of the above.
If pushed to define my idea of spirituality, I say that I'm agnostic with pagan leanings. What ever spirituality is is a mystery, and that's fine with me. And I consider the earth very sacred.
I've lived and been an activist at the intersection of social and environmental justice, so there are lots of overlapping influences.
To me the intersection comes at the biosphere as a whole complex adaptive system of systems. Its complexity and what that really means in all its permutations is so beyond my puny mind that it is spiritual in a deific sense for me. I have no problem that it is a material entity. Atoms are simply packets of confined forces and energies that we clumsily represent as material in the sense that our macroscopically tuned perception understands -- although one must credit Bohr's cleverness for that initial atomic model. And then, the secrets of the quantum world and what that level of flexibility might presage for biosystems. Cloud beings were pitched to my toddler and child self and Michelangelo's old man with the itchy finger on the Sistine roof sticks in my head like a spike, but no more patience with that stuff.
The key to understanding is that 'seniority' is not a measure of enlightenment, rather in fitness to operate in a power culture. It's really pretty impossible to even work in corporate life if you are enlightened, because your value system will almost certainly be incompatible with the low-blow power culture that will be your weekly reality.
My generation had parents who were unquestioning in the value of 'university'. I can state from hard experience that universities are suitable for practically gifted, intellectually more limited individuals, as they add value. They add zero value to intellectually gifted children who are less practically dexterous. They also add pretty much zero value to anyone who took a real gap year abroad (i.e. one where they lived like a young adult, not like living with mummy and daddy).
Schools do not educate, they brainwash. I have seen concrete examples of such brainwashing at schools in the UK and those regarded as 'young leaders' are brainwashed to an incredible level. They speak like mature politicians, glibly trotting out the party line, apparently supremely unaware of their total ignorance on the subject.
So, my advice to anyone who wishes to become enlightened at a young age is this:
1. Go to school assuming everything you are told is false until proven otherwise.
2. Don't see teachers as infallible Gods, rather individuals in a place of work who may or may not have passion for their job.
3. See any training which is fully paid for by employers as worth more than £100k of debts going to a university who couldn't really care too much about your future career. Your employers have an interest in you becoming skilled to benefit them.
4. See international travel as a way to detox from UK propaganda, particularly if you detox from social media at the same time. You can gain just as much insight communing with real human beings and with nature as you will sitting in a lecture theatre or being addicted to X, Instagram and Facebook.
5. Never equate wealth with wisdom, equate it with ruthlessness, brutality, being a monopolist and being a dominant controlling individual.
6. Always put doctrines into proper historical context: when were they formulated, upon what pretexts were they formulated, how relevant do they remain in today's world, how relevant are they today in the country you are living in?
7. Always understand that your parents and grandparents grew up in different times. It's OK for them to see the world differently, living their lives on a different timetable. Don't sell yourself short to please them, however.
8. Never assume that 'protected minorities' are all saints. There are tens of thousands of repulsive women, gays, blacks, Jews, Muslims, trans-individuals. White, heterosexual men do not have exclusivity over disgusting attitudes and behaviours.
9. Never assume that ordinary people from countries you are conditioned to hate are anything different to those in your own country. Russians love children as much as Brits and Aussies. Chinese value family as much as Italians. Iranians respect Jews, indeed they have one of the biggest global Jewish communities in Iran.
10. Never be afraid to call someone a patronising c**t if that is how they behave to you in public. If you suffer in silence, they will keep on behaving the same way.
Some great points here. Especially note 8, often overlooked. There will be some truly shitty people in Gaza. There will be some very lovely, gentle individuals in Israel (perhaps not as many as one would hope). Regardless, that does not give one group the right to dictate the fate of another.
University, though, is where one tends to get to know oneself and explore your own morals and beliefs by interacting with an expanded peer group from all backgrounds. It's almost a rite of passage and where you make your lifelong friends. In this respect, it does have value. Many people end up settling in the towns they attended uni. It's a breaking away from childhood and the comfort of home and learning to think for yourself. Universities are the opposite of schools when it comes to controlling thoughts, behaviours and narratives.
idk, universities more and more function within the system that feeds them and they've been pretty privatized, and with corporate capture of government, even their public funding is a vulnerability (as turns out). but the root of the protest seems indeed still at universities, admittedly.
One thing I hear time and time again is how the "Jews" accepted the Partition plan. I always knew that was wrong but I bothered to look in to it. I was right. My instincts usually are.
David McDowall (1990). Palestine and Israel: The Uprising and Beyond. I.B. Tauris. p. 193. ISBN 9780755612581. Although the Jewish Agency accepted the partition plan, it did not accept the proposed borders as final and Israel's declaration of independence avoided the mention of any boundaries. A state in part of Palestine was seen as a stage towards a larger state when opportunity allowed. Although the borders were 'bad from a military and political point of view,' Ben Gurion urged fellow Jews to accept the UN Partition Plan, pointing out that arrangements are never final, 'not with regard to the regime, not with regard to borders, and not with regard to international agreements'.
It's truly difficult to remain balanced in this frantic life of constant noise and the continuous propaganda of confusing narratives we are bombarded with daily. Gone are the days of reading a well-written book in some quiet garden nook, or kneading a lump of dough and feeling its elastic softness between your fingers. Searching for ancient arrowheads along a creek bed while your dogs race happily ahead, noses to the ground sniffing out the elusive otter family that has taken up residence in the crevices along the deep pools carved out by last fall's flooding. Young and old alike
are now so completely caught up in the latest technological devices, staring down into our "smart orbs" and scrolling endlessly, we have become distracted and disconnected from the real world around us. We should know what is going on around us and in the world. Be aware of the atrocities and lies being told to us, and call out the injustices we are observing as well as speaking truth to power. But we must also find times of quiet introspection and times of living in the moment; otherwise, in all the distraction, we will succumb to the propaganda of fear, discontentment, and frustration that our overlords desire for us to further their tyranny over us.
"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land;
there is no other life, or the like of this. I wish to live as ever if to derive my satisfactions and
inspirations from the commonest events, everyday phenomena, so that what my senses hourly
perceive, my daily walk, the conversation of my neighbors, may inspire me, and I may dream of
no heaven but that which lies about me." Henry David Thoreau
I agree...unfortunately from what I see most humans are so damaged by the toxic capitalist stew we live in on a daily basis that they hate their own lives (and themselves), and project that hate unto others. If more folks did inner work it would probably make them more open to caring about others and help them develop basic human empathy, which is sorely lacking.
The evolution of consciousness has its own timing. This particular time and what it is revealing means that humanity is ready for the next stage. None of us can now claim ignorance. Although I have followed the Palestinian struggle for many years, until a year ago I had no real understanding of how deeply pervasive Israeli influence and control is throughout Western society. I assumed that when push came to shove, the Law and our common humanity would prevail. Now I understand that, to sustain itself, Capitalism has fostered insane greed and cruelty beyond imagination. The killing fields of Gaza have laid bare the festering wound of our spiritual malaise. When we see ourselves as one human family and take on, individually and collectively the responsibilities of caring and creating a world fit for us all, we will be taking an evolutionary leap together. I choose to believe we are now capable and this is our moment in time. 💪🙏❤️
That they do. And mine make sure that they consistently show enough appreciation for said spoilage that they can overcome the occasional 2am poop in the house from eating deer carrion in the woods, or mistakenly pulling off young melons in the garden thinking they were tennis balls waiting for some fetch time. Always interesting.
As someone who tolerates the unbelievable amount of dog hair tumbleweeds that appear as soon as the weekly vacuuming of the house is complete, the copious drool which begins if meal preparation isn’t prompt enough for their liking, etc, you may accurately infer that fastidiousness is not in my Top Ten critter quality list.
I dig cats. I just never usually have my leather work gloves on hand when I’m around them. They like being wrestled with like dogs, but the claws gypsy, the claws!
Of all the creatures on planet earth, Humans are the most flawed. Have been since we crawled out of the primordial ooze. The majority always try to enjoy the complacency and comfort that comes with from the joy of while a mere handful lurk in the shadows waiting to to take advantage of
If only the fungi, which are plenty intelligent could've found a way to lead the biosphere, putting primates in a subsidiary role, maybe humans evolving would've been ok, gyp. But otherwise one has to wonder if it should've stopped at the great apes.
The last 65 years has been a tremendous struggle for me to overcome the brain-wash and propaganda that bombards me all the time.
Although I consider myself fairly successful I still struggle mightily daily. This is the worthwhile struggle along with the "inner" struggle for moral being.
I try to not (morally) judge others unless they are unkind or unnecessarily violent.
Here is Russell on the leaders we have given our power to:
Bertrand Russell stated, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Russell
highlighting the contrast between certainty and doubt in human understanding. He emphasized that being uncertain is essential for rationality and critical thinking.
The U S and the collective West is finished, we have only violence when dealing with the world.
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Russell
Being in the autumn of my life, looking back on my own journey and the many “roads” I have traveled, the one thing I appreciate the most are my encounters with some of the most brilliant sages one could wish for. It is my experience that to recognize and appreciate such an encounter you have to be in a mental position of pause, defenselessness, openness and vulnerability. The more our mind is distracted by external noice (propaganda, entertainment and anesthetic gadgets) the harder it is to recognize these encounters and windows of opportunity no matter how much they keep presenting themselves to you. It seems to me that this is becoming increasingly difficult. It is as if the average numbness is getting increasingly deeper in pace with the display of the magnitude of horror in this distorted world.
This one is easy for me. Becoming immersed in the external political situation in the Middle East -- so much through your writing, Caitlin -- eventually provoked me to spend lots of energy working on a creative project that partly involved spending several days carefully scrutinizing images of Gazan people through the lens of Hosny Salah a brave Gazan photojournalist.
The outcome for my deepest being -- my heart and soul -- dawned on me like an explosion of consciousnesses once the project was completed:
I realized I had fallen in love with those people. I love the people of Gaza. Truly.
Go ahead, be ridiculous and call me an antisemite if that makes you feel better. It will only make you appear ridiculous. True love is true.
To love the Palestinian people has nothing to do with antisemitism so don't even raise that question. The Zionist totalitarian program is to attack anyone who supports the Palestinians antisemitic in order to create false definitions in order to give cover to Israel--always a genocidal State from the inception of Zionism as a political ideology in the 19c. This genocidal assault we see today did not begin Oct 7 but should be seen as an Isreali false flag to justify this violent, ongoing genocide to complete its total theft of all Palestinian land. But not being looked at seriously is the same being meted out in the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and other parts of the ME that Israel calls Historic Palestine as shown in the map they created and presented to the UN. No secret here what they are doing with massive killings and all supported by the US with our tax dollars. The inner waking must be about learning how propaganda works and become clearly aware of it everytime we meet it.
Well said. I raise the antisemitism trope for exactly the reason I stated -- and that you actually reaffirmed: it's ridiculous. However, tanya, if the past 75-150 years has shown us anything about Zionist machinations, not only in the Middle East, but in the world at large, is that as ridiculous, as completely and unmitigatedly absurd as it might be, effing amoral Zionists will shout the antisemitic trope without basis without reason, without provocation.
I know a Western couple who lived in Gaza maybe 40 years ago. They report nice people. Everyone who has mixed with them says the same. They are very polite, hospitable, gentle, and love children.
The Western couple later settled in Egypt.
A pretty young lady with a head covering and dark hair smiled and waved at me on my bike ride this afternoon, as the driver slowed to let her do that.
I smiled back, of course, then I realized she probably liked my Palestine bike jersey, which I always wear, but don't think about much.
Love it, Dr. John!
I agree that true love is truly the answer, but like the rush of a mighty river, true love cannot be contained.
This has been eating at me all day, couldn't recall so I finally had to go back to my video at 5:11 to see the slogan painted on that Gazan wall:
"Until Justice Rolls Like Water
Until Righteousness Like a Mighty Stream"
That's right. I've known those lyrics all my life as a hymn, and as a bible verse. Very similar idea, as this from Amos 5:24. “Let justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” This is one of those lines in the midst of one of those homicidal rages by their "good" lord, which was repurposed to better use by the Black Church and the Civil Rights movement.
Amazing how there's potentially uplifting stuff in the OT, just not in the hands of Yahweh. It's an important observation, perhaps one of the roots of the "issue".
Actually, the verse itself was changed from "Let judgement roll down like the waters...." This was said in the midst of a fulminating, condemnatory rampage by the old testament god.
I think it goes to show that those with good hearts are able to find good even in things like this that are so awful. Finding such lines and rewording them to give comfort and hope, must have been nourishment to the slaves in their ongoing times of need.
I just want the cycle of genocide and violence ot somehow come to an end. I don't find it easy to think good thoughts about people like Zionists, but I think I have to keep trying to see them as people deserving of some kind of empathy. It seems that each war, genocide, occupation just creates more hate that then creates more conflict. I do think that that the way it will stop is one person at a time. I will try to be one of those people.
@ Susan T How you can feel one iota of empathy for the psychopathic murderers is beyond my comprehension.
Empathy for snipers that shoot children in the head?
Empathy for drone operators that obliterate entire families?
Empathy for insane “soldiers” who rape Palestinian doctors to death?
WHAT THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU THINKING?
They deserve nothing better than tall trees and short ropes!
Pollyanna….yeahhhhh, that pretty much describes you. Stop deluding yourself that these vampires are worthy of “empathy”… just, oh my fucking god.
I was thinking about the people who support the ideology of Zionism but who are not actually murdering children and all the other things you list. You are right that the murderers do not deserve empathy, especially not for their acts, but the people who have not go that far yet do deserve some kind of empathy, maybe. I think. I am saying we need to try to understand them, why they do what they do so that we can figure out how to stop it. When I think about all the fallout from all the wars, how more war mongers have been created, I think it has to stop somehow. It isn't going to stop just by getting angry and promoting more war. I think anger is a good thing, but ongoing hate is not. For myself, I try to pull back from the hate that I do feel and try more to figure out how we got to this. I think anger is a good emotion because it spurs me on to try to figure things out.
🙄
Ah, Susan:
Anyone who supports the ideology of Zio-fucking-ism FAVORS the genocide of the Palestinians, whether they are actively engaged in performing it or not!
It is a complicated thing to try to figure out how to stop this from continuing. I don't have the answers. I know that I want it to stop. I have observed that hate and revenge don't usually stop the violence of power mongers. Self defense is a good thing. Not like Israel's genocide, but not allowing yourself to be attacked if you can do that. What is happening is Gaza is doubly horrible because people are not really allowing themselves to be attacked, but the entire world is assisting Israel to commit genocide.
Also, I live in a very Jewish neighbourhood and I know some are Zionists, others I don't know. I do not want to walk down the street and hate everyone that I see. I have to try to find some humanity in them. It is often very difficult. I saw a car flying an Israeli flag today. I felt like smashing that car. So far I just feel like doing those things. If it morphs into actually doing those things, then I think I will have lost.
I find your attitude commendable. Wish I had more leanings in that direction. My emotions about those poor people too easily clamp down on me.
My emotions clamp down on me too. I have not succeeded in getting the rage out of me. But I have to keep trying. I do believe that the world will change one small step at a time. I have learned in my life that by understanding those who hurt me and others, or at least trying to, I feel less hate and can then move forward a little bit, anyway. I am a little afraid of sounding Pollyanna-ish. I don't really think I am though.
Again, I applaud the effort. I tend to cope by disappearing into alternate modes of being that at least for brief periods disconnect me from it. Perhaps I'm the one whose attitude is suspect in reference to effecting change. It's a difficult knife-edge with respect to striking a balance.
Ain’t one fucking thing wrong with your attitude, Vin.
Susan T needs psychiatric care; she’s delusional as hell.
To awaken, we need to be aware of the propaganda given to us for centuries. This is the term known as “Menticide” — killing of the mind, or brainwashing.
Once we’re aware to this—and can see this around us—we can begin the process: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/democide-and-menticide
This makes so much sense, and I'm noticing more people are feeling the same way. Activism and spirituality go hand in hand.
>>"Activism and spirituality go hand in hand"
I'm not so sure about that. I'm neither religious nor spiritual (in the least). But I'm an activist. Then again, how does one define 'spirituality'? It is such a hazy, ill-defined concept that it invites much discussion and contestation.
I guess it depends on how you define spirituality. I've always been an activist, and I feel that wellness and spirituality keep me from burning out, which is essential if I want to be an effective activist.
Yes, I agree - it depends on how 'spirituality is defined and interpreted'. Just as spirituality works for you, religions and 'belief in God' works for some others. Science (and the scientific methodology) works for still others.
At the end of the day, use whatever tools you feel are necessary to help you (i.e. oneself) to be a better human and make positive changes all around them.
Spirituality works for you, Diana, as it works for many others. Critical thinking (with healthy doses of kindness and compassion when needed) works for me (religions and spirituality doesn't do anything for me).
People get their 'moral beliefs/values' and 'sense-of-self' from various sources - be it religion, God, spirituality, critical thinking, life experiences, nature, science, and so much more (and there is often a huge overlap amongst these different sources).
Yes, I was going to see sometimes it's all of the above.
If pushed to define my idea of spirituality, I say that I'm agnostic with pagan leanings. What ever spirituality is is a mystery, and that's fine with me. And I consider the earth very sacred.
I've lived and been an activist at the intersection of social and environmental justice, so there are lots of overlapping influences.
To me the intersection comes at the biosphere as a whole complex adaptive system of systems. Its complexity and what that really means in all its permutations is so beyond my puny mind that it is spiritual in a deific sense for me. I have no problem that it is a material entity. Atoms are simply packets of confined forces and energies that we clumsily represent as material in the sense that our macroscopically tuned perception understands -- although one must credit Bohr's cleverness for that initial atomic model. And then, the secrets of the quantum world and what that level of flexibility might presage for biosystems. Cloud beings were pitched to my toddler and child self and Michelangelo's old man with the itchy finger on the Sistine roof sticks in my head like a spike, but no more patience with that stuff.
You can lead a horse to water....
With a human you can't even do that.
The key to understanding is that 'seniority' is not a measure of enlightenment, rather in fitness to operate in a power culture. It's really pretty impossible to even work in corporate life if you are enlightened, because your value system will almost certainly be incompatible with the low-blow power culture that will be your weekly reality.
My generation had parents who were unquestioning in the value of 'university'. I can state from hard experience that universities are suitable for practically gifted, intellectually more limited individuals, as they add value. They add zero value to intellectually gifted children who are less practically dexterous. They also add pretty much zero value to anyone who took a real gap year abroad (i.e. one where they lived like a young adult, not like living with mummy and daddy).
Schools do not educate, they brainwash. I have seen concrete examples of such brainwashing at schools in the UK and those regarded as 'young leaders' are brainwashed to an incredible level. They speak like mature politicians, glibly trotting out the party line, apparently supremely unaware of their total ignorance on the subject.
So, my advice to anyone who wishes to become enlightened at a young age is this:
1. Go to school assuming everything you are told is false until proven otherwise.
2. Don't see teachers as infallible Gods, rather individuals in a place of work who may or may not have passion for their job.
3. See any training which is fully paid for by employers as worth more than £100k of debts going to a university who couldn't really care too much about your future career. Your employers have an interest in you becoming skilled to benefit them.
4. See international travel as a way to detox from UK propaganda, particularly if you detox from social media at the same time. You can gain just as much insight communing with real human beings and with nature as you will sitting in a lecture theatre or being addicted to X, Instagram and Facebook.
5. Never equate wealth with wisdom, equate it with ruthlessness, brutality, being a monopolist and being a dominant controlling individual.
6. Always put doctrines into proper historical context: when were they formulated, upon what pretexts were they formulated, how relevant do they remain in today's world, how relevant are they today in the country you are living in?
7. Always understand that your parents and grandparents grew up in different times. It's OK for them to see the world differently, living their lives on a different timetable. Don't sell yourself short to please them, however.
8. Never assume that 'protected minorities' are all saints. There are tens of thousands of repulsive women, gays, blacks, Jews, Muslims, trans-individuals. White, heterosexual men do not have exclusivity over disgusting attitudes and behaviours.
9. Never assume that ordinary people from countries you are conditioned to hate are anything different to those in your own country. Russians love children as much as Brits and Aussies. Chinese value family as much as Italians. Iranians respect Jews, indeed they have one of the biggest global Jewish communities in Iran.
10. Never be afraid to call someone a patronising c**t if that is how they behave to you in public. If you suffer in silence, they will keep on behaving the same way.
Some great points here. Especially note 8, often overlooked. There will be some truly shitty people in Gaza. There will be some very lovely, gentle individuals in Israel (perhaps not as many as one would hope). Regardless, that does not give one group the right to dictate the fate of another.
University, though, is where one tends to get to know oneself and explore your own morals and beliefs by interacting with an expanded peer group from all backgrounds. It's almost a rite of passage and where you make your lifelong friends. In this respect, it does have value. Many people end up settling in the towns they attended uni. It's a breaking away from childhood and the comfort of home and learning to think for yourself. Universities are the opposite of schools when it comes to controlling thoughts, behaviours and narratives.
idk, universities more and more function within the system that feeds them and they've been pretty privatized, and with corporate capture of government, even their public funding is a vulnerability (as turns out). but the root of the protest seems indeed still at universities, admittedly.
It didn't used to be that way. I went to Harvard in the 70's. Zero indoctrination. Students from all over the world. It was a high point of my life.
One thing I hear time and time again is how the "Jews" accepted the Partition plan. I always knew that was wrong but I bothered to look in to it. I was right. My instincts usually are.
David McDowall (1990). Palestine and Israel: The Uprising and Beyond. I.B. Tauris. p. 193. ISBN 9780755612581. Although the Jewish Agency accepted the partition plan, it did not accept the proposed borders as final and Israel's declaration of independence avoided the mention of any boundaries. A state in part of Palestine was seen as a stage towards a larger state when opportunity allowed. Although the borders were 'bad from a military and political point of view,' Ben Gurion urged fellow Jews to accept the UN Partition Plan, pointing out that arrangements are never final, 'not with regard to the regime, not with regard to borders, and not with regard to international agreements'.
And now they're seizing that chance.
It's truly difficult to remain balanced in this frantic life of constant noise and the continuous propaganda of confusing narratives we are bombarded with daily. Gone are the days of reading a well-written book in some quiet garden nook, or kneading a lump of dough and feeling its elastic softness between your fingers. Searching for ancient arrowheads along a creek bed while your dogs race happily ahead, noses to the ground sniffing out the elusive otter family that has taken up residence in the crevices along the deep pools carved out by last fall's flooding. Young and old alike
are now so completely caught up in the latest technological devices, staring down into our "smart orbs" and scrolling endlessly, we have become distracted and disconnected from the real world around us. We should know what is going on around us and in the world. Be aware of the atrocities and lies being told to us, and call out the injustices we are observing as well as speaking truth to power. But we must also find times of quiet introspection and times of living in the moment; otherwise, in all the distraction, we will succumb to the propaganda of fear, discontentment, and frustration that our overlords desire for us to further their tyranny over us.
"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land;
there is no other life, or the like of this. I wish to live as ever if to derive my satisfactions and
inspirations from the commonest events, everyday phenomena, so that what my senses hourly
perceive, my daily walk, the conversation of my neighbors, may inspire me, and I may dream of
no heaven but that which lies about me." Henry David Thoreau
👏👏 Beautiful!
couldn't agree more! both eyes need to be open!
I agree...unfortunately from what I see most humans are so damaged by the toxic capitalist stew we live in on a daily basis that they hate their own lives (and themselves), and project that hate unto others. If more folks did inner work it would probably make them more open to caring about others and help them develop basic human empathy, which is sorely lacking.
The evolution of consciousness has its own timing. This particular time and what it is revealing means that humanity is ready for the next stage. None of us can now claim ignorance. Although I have followed the Palestinian struggle for many years, until a year ago I had no real understanding of how deeply pervasive Israeli influence and control is throughout Western society. I assumed that when push came to shove, the Law and our common humanity would prevail. Now I understand that, to sustain itself, Capitalism has fostered insane greed and cruelty beyond imagination. The killing fields of Gaza have laid bare the festering wound of our spiritual malaise. When we see ourselves as one human family and take on, individually and collectively the responsibilities of caring and creating a world fit for us all, we will be taking an evolutionary leap together. I choose to believe we are now capable and this is our moment in time. 💪🙏❤️
👍👍👍 I empathize with you and feel the same way. I think my experience was/is very similar to yours.
It ever always only was thus, just that the moral arc of the universe bends not towards justice, but towards power. Humans never do wake up.
Well, some are more awake than others.
Feral, it’s GOOD to be a cat.
But it’s great being a dog… well, if you live in a dog lover’s domicile like my knuckleheads do.
Good for you Tom!
All our fur kids deserved to be spoiled shamelessly😁
That they do. And mine make sure that they consistently show enough appreciation for said spoilage that they can overcome the occasional 2am poop in the house from eating deer carrion in the woods, or mistakenly pulling off young melons in the garden thinking they were tennis balls waiting for some fetch time. Always interesting.
lol, Tom! I must say that cats are much more fastidious than doggies😉
As someone who tolerates the unbelievable amount of dog hair tumbleweeds that appear as soon as the weekly vacuuming of the house is complete, the copious drool which begins if meal preparation isn’t prompt enough for their liking, etc, you may accurately infer that fastidiousness is not in my Top Ten critter quality list.
I dig cats. I just never usually have my leather work gloves on hand when I’m around them. They like being wrestled with like dogs, but the claws gypsy, the claws!
Of all the creatures on planet earth, Humans are the most flawed. Have been since we crawled out of the primordial ooze. The majority always try to enjoy the complacency and comfort that comes with from the joy of while a mere handful lurk in the shadows waiting to to take advantage of
Ian, Feral Finster would certainly agree with you.
Other-than-humans do not kill one another for the sake of killing.
Humans never should have evolved.
If only the fungi, which are plenty intelligent could've found a way to lead the biosphere, putting primates in a subsidiary role, maybe humans evolving would've been ok, gyp. But otherwise one has to wonder if it should've stopped at the great apes.
Vin, I think it should have stopped with horses😉
Herbivores, definitely more economical for the biosphere, gyp.
And they self-fertilize too Vin! 😁
I could be a scamp, and say "horsebleep", gyp dear, but of course, you should know. RIP Angelina.
I am 80yo born in USA.
The last 65 years has been a tremendous struggle for me to overcome the brain-wash and propaganda that bombards me all the time.
Although I consider myself fairly successful I still struggle mightily daily. This is the worthwhile struggle along with the "inner" struggle for moral being.
I try to not (morally) judge others unless they are unkind or unnecessarily violent.
Here is Russell on the leaders we have given our power to:
Bertrand Russell stated, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Russell
highlighting the contrast between certainty and doubt in human understanding. He emphasized that being uncertain is essential for rationality and critical thinking.
The U S and the collective West is finished, we have only violence when dealing with the world.
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Russell
❤️
Thank You Caitlin
The Greatest Threat to Humanity is Apathy for Leadership. The Second Greatest Threat is Apathy for Egos.
https://open.substack.com/pub/cynthiachung/p/blackrock-is-buying-up-the-worlds?r=r6fv&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=111412477
#One way out - https://www.change.org/p/the-american-citizen-demand-u-s-government-accountability-to-the-law?recruiter=362531288&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition
Being in the autumn of my life, looking back on my own journey and the many “roads” I have traveled, the one thing I appreciate the most are my encounters with some of the most brilliant sages one could wish for. It is my experience that to recognize and appreciate such an encounter you have to be in a mental position of pause, defenselessness, openness and vulnerability. The more our mind is distracted by external noice (propaganda, entertainment and anesthetic gadgets) the harder it is to recognize these encounters and windows of opportunity no matter how much they keep presenting themselves to you. It seems to me that this is becoming increasingly difficult. It is as if the average numbness is getting increasingly deeper in pace with the display of the magnitude of horror in this distorted world.