If you don't resist evil whenever you are aware of it, however you can, at least with awareness and intention, than you are making way for it in the world and you should expect it to also find you.
It's the whole "first they came for the Jews" thing.
in case of palestinian children, you don't have to do anything. just be of the wrong ethnicity in the wrong place. and this is an exercise: if they can get away with it there, they will implement it here. biggest mistake about 'why should I care?', is the faulty assumption one is a lot 'safer' closer to the imperial core.
I think a lot of reasonably decent people don't see what they can do about the things they recognize as evil. Making pious remarks about how we're all connected is not really going to do the trick, as we can see from our ongoing experience; whereas doing anything significant might well threaten one's personal well-being. Sadly, the usual response to the predicament is more moralization. I suppose that does enable some to get some satisfaction out of the situation.
Reasonably decent people can put a dent in "evil" by simply not supporting the organisations, corporations, and political leaders who are in support of said evil. It only takes a few minutes to burn off an email to your local Senator or Congressperson & tell them how you feel about the US supporting Israeli occupation (or whatever issue is rubbing you the wrong way). Tell them you won't be voting for them next time around.
Same can be said about corporations who support Zionism, or any other hot topic issue. Don't buy their products. Send a quick note to their customer service department about why you'll no longer be spending your money with them. Finally, talk to your friends, family members, co-workers about the issues that matter to you. Some will disagree, others will agree, still others maybe have no idea and may be appreciative of your insight.
I would also add that there are many hardworking organisations risking their lives to help the Palestinians. Or taking legal action to protect those speaking out against organized oppression attempting to silence them. They can use our support. Here are a few:
We have been sending donations to UNRWA, as a Palestinian friend of many years recommended, not because they are a perfect organization, but because they are there doing the work.
1. Don't buy a single Israeli product, until such time as apartheid is removed from Israel, the current Israeli Government are either in prison or in a box in the ground and the USA prostitutes are no longer funding the criminal state in the Eastern Mediterranean.
2. Stop using large corporations' services - buy coffee from a local independent, not a global US chain. Buy your fruit and vegetables away from big supermarkets (grow your own if you can).
3. Plant three trees in your local area, be they fruit/nut trees, trees adept at making your local environment's soil more healthy etc.
4. Refuse to vote for any political party that tolerates 'Friends of Israel' in its ranks of MPs. Make it quite clear to them all that this is non-negotiable, irrevocable and lifelong.
5. Avoid listening to all MSM propaganda, be that from ITV, BBC, Channel 4, CNN, Sky, MSN, any other number of security-service controlled outlets. Find your information from those that the cowardly wastrels would call 'terrorists', 'friends of terrorists', 'lefties/far right wingers', namely those that speak their truth without reference to any standing in parties of prostitution like the UK Labour- and Conservative Parties.
6. Be prepared to model holding 'victim groups' to account when they clearly behave corruptly or in a criminal manner. There can be no peace on earth whilst corruption can be practiced by Jews, Muslims, blacks, women, homosexuals, trans-sexuals, nor any other bunch of gaslighters.
7. Bring your children up to be free of prejudice. Educate them about the truth of the world and make them comfortable with the concept that most of the global media is there to make money, not educate children to be free of prejudice.
8. Remind your children that there is almost never one place on earth where horrors occur. Teach them about Idi Amin and Milton Obote in 1970s Uganda; about the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda a generation later; about the British opium trade in China in the 19th century; about US genocides in Iraq, Indonesia, Libya in the past 60 years; about the worst episodes in Soviet- and Sino 20th century history; about German and Japanese atrocities leading up to- and during World War II. Bring them to understand that the cure for hatred is love and their contribution of love on earth is essential to global love winning over global hatred.
9. Share food your have grown with your neighbours; give them a bottle of apple juice you have made. I've yet to meet a human being that doesn't appreciate a neighbourly gesture like that.
10. Source your food, wherever possible, from ethical farmers, ethical growers, ethical marketing hubs.
I don't disagree with your analysis in general but would say that my parents certainly tried to live like this and my experience of growing up wasn't perfect at all ! Good people bent on changing the world can still be fooled by good propaganda eg my parents supported Franco in Spain and I have met others who are convinced that he could not have been a fascist dictator because the US backed him when they went to war with Nazi Germany and other fascist governments - therefore Franco MUST have been a good democrat !
My mother taught me to care about other people around the world in general, but she has that PEP thing going on - cares deeply about Native American people, but has a blind side when it comes to Palestinians, and honestly Muslims in general. Still, that basis in compassion is what led me to study languages and anthropology in college, which led to working in an international nonprofit and most importantly meeting my husband who is of a different culture, religion and nationality. I think parents can nurture the idea of compassion for the other even if they miss some important matters.
Well , isn't any current "government" just the public, "elected" face of the shy and hidden billionaires ??? ...🤔🤔🤔 How did they become billionaires ???
It's mostly consumer's money (for the so-called modern amenities and gadgets) and currently increasing government's contracts (for the electorate's and non aligned country's total submission by funneling tax-payer's money into the MIC) that made them billionaires ...
To defund them, the plebes should be ready to get out of their 24/7/365 cozy comfort-bubbles by simply refusing to consume 95% of currently available amenities and comfort-gadgets they think they are so dependent on . No need to list them up here, you well know what is included ...
Which is the %tage of people we can expect to jump in troubled, murky waters, becoming highly self-reliant and -responsible, fully sustainable, part of an egalitarian society with the decisive goal to participate in defunding billionaires in the long-run ??? ... 🤔🤔🤔
Only true off-gridders with a specific life- and community philosophy will do and are currently doing so. Let them multiply like bacteria. It won't happen but in very restricted form, regions and numbers. The vast majority simply cannot envision such a life, they are programmed for the nanny-state and freebies.
That’s how we remain powerless, because we have been conditioned and coerced In believing this lie. We have power individually but our strength is when we commit together to say this must stop and find ways to remove our consent our $ and our attention.
One of the smallest things I do in this regard is to wear a Palestine bike jersey on my almost daily bike rides. I had to look as far as Ali-Baba, a Chinese online shopping site. I got a couple for my sons, too , all for last Christmas.
If you hold an intention to help and to resist evil, it helps you see things that you can do.
Only one person has shouted something negative out of a car this year, and it was early, like March. I think more people on my residential 3 mile loop, particularly women, started looking in my face and smiling as I ride my laps.
I stand on the main corner in my city every week with a sign that says “Honk for a Ceasefire” and each week we are seeing more and more positive engagement. I get the occasional middle fingers and stern head shakes, but that number is very low compared to the people with their peace fingers out their windows. Keep the issue fresh in everyone’s awareness and continue to encourage people to act.
I wear a keffiyeh I ordered online wherever I go. If it inspires a dirty look from someone, I blow them a kiss 😁 even though my inclination is to pound them to sawdust 😉
I salute you even for that small act of rebellion against the machine. Today, with mass surveillance, and the ability for them to trump up charges against you, along with targeted harrassment - even the smallest act can bring unwanted attention to you. This is how we know we are increasingly living in a Totalitarian state: a state based on fear. One lives in constant personal insecurity. Human rights no longer really exist.
I think my perceptions are accurate. It is like a test of the world.
We have a lot of residents in the area from Asia, not only China and India, and some traditionally-dressed women with head coverings. One of these, who had never made eye contact in previous years, began smiling to my face, for instance.
I am a person who habitually looks people in the eye and smiles, noticing the people who never look, as much as those who appear conflicted about it, and those who sneak a peek just when I am passing by.
Because of the way I present, I see people who do sneak a furtive glance, and get a smile from me, get more open and start to see me farther away, and get ready to smile and wave.
"Being aware of the sound of a bell, does not mean that bell belongs to you. Likewise being aware of thoughts, does not mean the thoughts belong to you." ~Wu Hsin
Carl Jung often emphasized people have far less control over their thoughts and inner psyche than they believe they do. The unconscious has a depth not many suspect except to those who have actually tried to study it. Then you realize there is more going on below the surface of "awareness" than above.
I have big problems with the emergent use of the word "evil". It seems we are digging ourselves back into the ignorant hole that we very slowly dug ourselves out of beginning a half-millennium ago...
-- If one thinks of anti-social behavior as the magical quality of EVIL, it is all too easy to lock its cause in a simplistic black box, use non-universal and thus un-resolvable religious terms, have the attitude always of "throw" people away, eventually find one's way to justifying atrocities as "necessary", and only recognize one's error when one has gone to far. That's how some of the most zealous leftists think of things today about rightists, and how most rightists thought of leftists not so long ago.
-- If one recognizes some of what we call "evil" as PSYCHOPATHY (at the risk of oversimplifying: one's nature), it becomes clear that the necessary thing is careful identification, monitoring, and containment. But we cannot yet recognize the need for it, much less have something that can approach a large-scale ethical system.
-- If one recognizes some of what we call "evil" as SOCIOPATHY (nurture), it becomes clear that the necessary thing is careful identification, communication, and remediation. But, again, we cannot yet recognize the need for it, much less have something that can, once again, approach a large-scale ethical system.
People are different, and can act sincerely and socially but with very different values. I take a disciplined neutral response, because there is no such thing as values that are independent of human beings, no matter how strong the illusion that they are "part of the cosmos", or descended from God, or whatever. This is NOT the same as a personal belief that there are *no* values -- it is that each person and/or culture has their *own*. So for me, the ONLY non-negotiable divider (justifying careful and measured unilateral action) is truly and purely anti-social views, and the actual nature (and causes) of which should, to the extent practical, be parsed out.
"Anti-social" doesn't apply to all sadism. You and I and the vast majority feel pain at the infliction of pain on others. Since we have the same values on this, and we elect (vote, etc.) not to allow (physical, and in certain cases mental) pain to be inflicted, for nearly all scenarios. Yet there are also S&M people who find it not only acceptable but desirable, and usually avoid the non-like-minded. To the extent they allow their proclivities to be exercised (just as with pedophiles) in the open in our society, they are not only frowned upon but committing (our elected) crimes, and are punished. I have no problem with that. But, say, if all humans were sadists, it could be possible for it to be allowed, and simply caution the sadism-receiver to always "watch out". We've actually had that situation before re children, with the former acceptability of corporal punishment. We must always recognize our relativist position as humans.
Also, not long ago, it was one of the worst moral things imaginable to be gay, or to be an unwed mother. Further back, slavery, racism, associated social discrimination, and a host of other attitudes and associated punishments were, in the West, considered normal and acceptable, even while political disagreements were emerging. People then weren't stupid and/or ignorant -- they actually believed, in good faith and with all kinds of rationalizations, in these things. But times change, and so what is considered unacceptable, and even "evil", absolutely changes.
Right now, the case of Gaza war is an excellent example of this being split with comparable-sized sides in the West. You know full well that many Israeli supporters think absolutely the opposite of the way (most of) us here on this blog -- but they do so sincerely, as painful and incomprehensible as that is to us. Once again, stupidity and ignorance are simply not the only drivers, because there is also most often a different conception of morality. They are, well-arguably from our POV, exercising sociopathic responses due to cultural and other conditioning. But the heavy lifting of changing this is up to *us*, not to those we consider unacceptable.
Regarding the psychopaths and sociopaths in high places, I will not identify them as "evil". The word is simply too laden with magical thinking, and implies some sort of necessary static state in them, "the other". Instead, I'll acknowledge psychopaths to be the *closest to* what most called "evil", being almost incorrigibly anti-social. I advocate specifically for their identification and isolation, especially from power, and of course punishment for any law-breaking.
I understand (and agree with) most of what you are saying, but here are some points to consider:
(1) anti-social is not always bad. eg. being anti-social in an Israeli Zionist society and culture is actually a GOOD and POSITIVE thing. So the context matters.
(2) Different people have different understandings of EVIL - based on their morality and the morality of the period in history, their culture, their belief systems, etc. Hence, one person's EVIL is another person's HERO (again, some examples are Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich - who most people would consider EVIL)
>>You know full well that many Israeli supporters think absolutely the opposite of the way (most of) us here on this blog -- but they do so sincerely, as painful and incomprehensible as that is to us."
So how to we solve this problem (which recurs all the time in human history)?
(1) "anti-social is not always bad" -- Yes, in your meaning (in the Israel example), which I think is more like "opposing dominant values", or being rebels. What I mean by "anti-social" is the psychiatric term of pure abuse of other people, because they aren't respected generally, often for no given reasons at all. In that case, other people are treated as mere *things*, to insouciantly lie to, to malevolently use for one's benefit, to ignore at will, to torture, etc.
(2) "Different people have different understandings of EVIL" -- Agreed, but I think here you mean something more like "Different people have different understandings of what, and consequently who, is EVIL". But the concept of the word "evil" is still about identifying extreme, incorrigible, and unacceptable immorality, often calling for some kinds of mass action in response.
"So how to we solve this problem (which recurs all the time in human history)?"
The first thing to do is to find a way to give up our natural inclination to use the label "evil". As I mentioned in my first post, the word connotes what I call a "magical", or mysterious, inscrutable quality, one that simultaneously allows us to ignore the causes -- i.e., once we've decided something/someone is evil, we exit negotiation thinking, and enter war thinking. I think this is counterproductive. That's why I'd rather we dive full-on into *why* someone or some society thinks the way they do (as much as we are able to) -- e.g. extreme stress, dysfunctional family upbringing, alien culture, sociopathy, psychopathy -- and take the route(s) called for. Good thing is, we already know how to confront all these causes -- except, probably, ethical psychopathic containment.
I am convinced the current problems we face consist of a malevolent divide-and-conquer process, led by at root by psychopaths and (apparently) incorrigible sociopaths. We just need to remember that most of the "enemy" camp, however, is NOT psychopathic/sociopathic.
Have been carrying different album cover sized cardboard handmade signs around since last November that read “Opposition to genocide is not anti-semitic, Killing Palestinians is” or “Palestinian Children Are Not Hamas” or “Imagine It Was Your Family In Gaza”. It is a sad reflection on society that so many are angered by this or look away uncomfortably.
It's a hard thing to reconcile when in my country Canada 90% of the population doesn't even know they spent 6 billion dollars to help kill off just about every Ukrainian under the age of 40yrs, and in the next instance will stop and help anyone stranded along the road which is pretty well an expected behavior in Canada given our harsh winters,I kind of understand it though given our US media propaganda, misinformation, online trolls and algorithmic suppression. Most of the public has no idea their living in a fictional world.
Half a million Ukrainians are now dead - mainly because the US refused to stay out of Ukraine, and refused to agree to the most reasonable terms that were being negotiated by Russia in good faith.
Yep. America ignored the Minsk accord that Russia signed in good faith that had the backing of the UN. Merkle and Hollande admitted that they only signed it to give Ukraine time to get armed.
Sadly very few Americans know that and believe that Putin just woke up one day and decided to invade Ukraine.
Half a million dead - many forced into combat against their will, in a conflict that could have easily been avoided. It's hard to wrap my brain around it. Maybe the nihilists are right after all: life is just a pile of shit.
A war that is meaningless and a tragedy for the lives lost. A "success" for the Military Industrial Complex. Feeding the US/Nato delusion and greed to diminish and balkanise Russia. Rooted in their fear of Russia and China getting together with the Global South to get away from empire dominance. Fear of a better world.
AND the need to constantly feed the MIC, and in this case, the need of the US fracked gas industry to become profitable by knocking out Russian gas to Europe and replacing it with US exported LNG.
"Sadly very few Americans know that ..." - and the rest don't want to know because it's not within 20 mile radius of their concerns. Those that do know just know. Doesn't mean they care.
I used to follow Sharon McMahon. She made fun of Putin and called him evil. She never talked about the back story. I stopped following her because she has remained neutral on Israel. She's called for waiting until the facts are in and only trusted US media sources for verification. She said she followed Motaz, but her posts never mentioned the horrors he was documenting. I thought she was reasonable. I checked her account recently and she was all filled up for some government event. I got sucked in to her grwm soft politics.
To say "the US refused to stay out of Ukraine" is a bit euphemistic--in fact the US government set up the war, prodded Russia until it invaded and then sabotaged peace talks. After, of course, instigating the coup in 2014 that put the right wing in power in Ukraine.
You are right. A big problem with critiquing empire is not seeing it for what it is, in its entirety. One thing is okay while another thing is acceptable. It would help people to have a systemic critique. The empire is good at hiding its nakedness and adults are good at not seeing it.
2.5k a day now as the Ukrainian defenses are lost. The numbers will climb higher as the Ukrainians are pushed into the open plains East of Donbass. I don't see how this ends logically for Russia without taking all of the territory to the Dnipro. A number of analysts or saying with the invasion to the Kursk region Russia can not allow Ukraine to exist other than a wild unpopulated open field. Thankfully the Russian people are far more humane than we in the u.s. The same is true of israel, Palestine will be free from the river to the sea. israel has committed suicide both morally and financially and it didn't have to be.
Yes, I heard that quote recently on Judge Napolitano's youtube show from one of the guests, probably Col. Macgregor. Astonishing numbers. And how much of that do we hear in the US corporate media? It's surreal realizing just how much of a Totalitarian state the US has now become.
For sure you already know that the current Zionist population in the Occupied Lands of Palestine are mostly a direct import (now 2nd. or 3rd. generation) of Sephardic, Ashkenazi or Khazarian Jews with origins in West- and East Europe.
Why do you think, any DNA-check is strictly forbidden in that apartheid state ?
These monsters are the REAL anti-Semites because it is them (non Semites) who are killing Palestinians, the real Semites of that land .
And it isn't the cashier at Walmart or the packager at Amazon.com that are "lazy" or "cheap". It's hard to walk into these stores these days, realize how hard everyone there is working, and not being compensated fairly for their work. America has become a cotton picking, slave wage economy. Where they want you to work for them until you die. Meanwhile, they got the mansions and the yacht and all the time in the world to vacation 6 months a year. Meritocracy my ass.
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of they friends`s or of thine own were. Any man`s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. “John Donne….to think that what happens on the other side (of the earth, street, town, country, aisle, river, ocean) won’t affect you just might fall into the category of magical thinking. You will realize, perhaps too late, when that happening comes down to you on your little spot of earth. Like Covid, or repression/ suppression of the right of free speech, assembly, press. Or that unmovable chilling cloud blanket over you head from the USA egging Russia or its own military to use a nuclear bomb on the Ukrainians.
The people who say, “It’s not my problem” and ignore a live-streamed genocide *are* the problem. Your taxes and your elected representatives are facilitating mass murder every day. The trans-national corporations you buy goods and services from are providing the financing, computing power and materials needed to conduct 21st-century mass slaughter of children and the destruction of all infrastructure necessary to sustain life.
Thank goodness for the young people who absolutely understand why this affects them and are not going to be cowed into silence.
My generation, the 60s generation, also understood that war was wrong. It disturbs me that so many of my contemporaries forgot all of that. I never did.
Yes, I think the turn occurred when the majority accepted weapons of mass destruction without question. Murdering millions has become normal : ( You are not alone my friend.
Because good human beings care about each other. If you don’t care about the children of Gaza, then you don’t care about that abused child in your family, your community. You lack empathy! People who have empathy were raised in families that supported, cared about each other, and it’s the way to treat others too.
“People who have empathy were raised in families that supported, cared about each other.”
Unfortunately, a too large percentage of the human population, 10 - 15%, are sociopaths, and some are psychopaths, who may very well have been raised in a loving family. They are just wired differently, and, as far as we know, there is no cure.
And, OTOH, some of the most caring people I’ve met were raised in an abusive family.
Just jogged me into my theory..if economists want two chickens in every pot, then both parents of children must work. Let us relegate them to childcare,, i think generations who spent little time w parents,loving nurturing because too little time left in the day,might grow up feeling a bit indifferent.
Not entirely in agreement with you that people with empathy are raised that way: I was adopted by relatives who were cold and narcissistic and suffered greatly because of my over-sensitivity and empathy. Only now as an adult with my own children can I see the strength it took for me to retain my difference from them and embrace what they saw as weakness.
I have come across a few people who say they don't listen to the news and who really do not want to hear what is going on. Your writing expresses very well why we need to care. I will forward it to others. I am glad that you are so adept at articulating what I have been thinking but not speaking about very well.
1. Let's say you care about peace over war. Scientific American (June 2024) reports that the world is experiencing the highest level of conflict since the Second World War. War is one of the greatest causes of human suffering on a planetary scale through trauma, displacement and insecurity. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/warfares-climate-emissions-are-huge-but-uncounted/
2. Let's say you care about the survival of the planet. The CO2 emissions in the first 60 days of the Israeli bombardment in Gaza produced exceeded 281,000 metric tons from direct actions alone, and the environmental cost of re-construction of Gaza will exceed that of 130 countries. [https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4684768]
3. If you don't care about peace or the planet, you are a waste of skin.
I work at a national lab that sent everyone home without pay for one week so far, lack of funding. War over Science, the Director sent out a directive not to discuss that event with implied threat. Just think about that, a national lab doing fundamental science that corporations for the most part are not interested in went home without pay. Not that science should take precedence over other peaceful needs, it's just how bankrupt physically and morally we are in the u.s. Have we come to the end of End Stage Capitalism.
Yes we thought so too. Much of what the u.s. Gov. used to do is now done by contractors even NASA now is mostly contractors. Our lab became a LLC roughly 10 yrs. ago, three Uni. and a private co. still funded by a Gov. dept. Healthcare you could keep when you retired was the first thing that went.
Why should you care about the barbaric slaughter of civilians thousands of miles away? Because if they get away with it, they'll be doing it to you and your kids given half a chance...The Dresden firebombing was just a start...
"Enough humans having a wide enough circle of compassion to care about the suffering of other humans who they will never meet is all it will take for us to create a healthy world."
Amen! We've all got to climb out of our "bubbles" and learn about the other humans living on this big blue marble. Only then will we learn empathy.
If you don't resist evil whenever you are aware of it, however you can, at least with awareness and intention, than you are making way for it in the world and you should expect it to also find you.
It's the whole "first they came for the Jews" thing.
Was thinking about that anecdote, it seems like that's what is exactly starting to happen: from Scott Ritter, to Richard Medhurst to Pavel Durov ...
Well, as long as you don't do anything they object to, you'll be fine.
in case of palestinian children, you don't have to do anything. just be of the wrong ethnicity in the wrong place. and this is an exercise: if they can get away with it there, they will implement it here. biggest mistake about 'why should I care?', is the faulty assumption one is a lot 'safer' closer to the imperial core.
Actually, you ARE safer close to the imperial core. For awhile.
Long time, no see! You are right in pointing out the talismanic effect of wishful thinking.
Just had my head down; not much to say.
(sarc) I presume...
;-/
Of course.
Right. Why can't people just shut up and do as they're told?
This is specially true for the nuclear armed Zionist states - yes, plural.
3?
I can think of four. Possibly five, if India is counted.
Can't count Russia, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea or Iran (suspected).
I did not count France, though the case can be made...
I think a lot of reasonably decent people don't see what they can do about the things they recognize as evil. Making pious remarks about how we're all connected is not really going to do the trick, as we can see from our ongoing experience; whereas doing anything significant might well threaten one's personal well-being. Sadly, the usual response to the predicament is more moralization. I suppose that does enable some to get some satisfaction out of the situation.
Reasonably decent people can put a dent in "evil" by simply not supporting the organisations, corporations, and political leaders who are in support of said evil. It only takes a few minutes to burn off an email to your local Senator or Congressperson & tell them how you feel about the US supporting Israeli occupation (or whatever issue is rubbing you the wrong way). Tell them you won't be voting for them next time around.
Same can be said about corporations who support Zionism, or any other hot topic issue. Don't buy their products. Send a quick note to their customer service department about why you'll no longer be spending your money with them. Finally, talk to your friends, family members, co-workers about the issues that matter to you. Some will disagree, others will agree, still others maybe have no idea and may be appreciative of your insight.
I would also add that there are many hardworking organisations risking their lives to help the Palestinians. Or taking legal action to protect those speaking out against organized oppression attempting to silence them. They can use our support. Here are a few:
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org
https://www.oxfam.org/en
https://palestinelegal.org/
https://ccrjustice.org/
We have been sending donations to UNRWA, as a Palestinian friend of many years recommended, not because they are a perfect organization, but because they are there doing the work.
Here's a list of practical things you can do:
1. Don't buy a single Israeli product, until such time as apartheid is removed from Israel, the current Israeli Government are either in prison or in a box in the ground and the USA prostitutes are no longer funding the criminal state in the Eastern Mediterranean.
2. Stop using large corporations' services - buy coffee from a local independent, not a global US chain. Buy your fruit and vegetables away from big supermarkets (grow your own if you can).
3. Plant three trees in your local area, be they fruit/nut trees, trees adept at making your local environment's soil more healthy etc.
4. Refuse to vote for any political party that tolerates 'Friends of Israel' in its ranks of MPs. Make it quite clear to them all that this is non-negotiable, irrevocable and lifelong.
5. Avoid listening to all MSM propaganda, be that from ITV, BBC, Channel 4, CNN, Sky, MSN, any other number of security-service controlled outlets. Find your information from those that the cowardly wastrels would call 'terrorists', 'friends of terrorists', 'lefties/far right wingers', namely those that speak their truth without reference to any standing in parties of prostitution like the UK Labour- and Conservative Parties.
6. Be prepared to model holding 'victim groups' to account when they clearly behave corruptly or in a criminal manner. There can be no peace on earth whilst corruption can be practiced by Jews, Muslims, blacks, women, homosexuals, trans-sexuals, nor any other bunch of gaslighters.
7. Bring your children up to be free of prejudice. Educate them about the truth of the world and make them comfortable with the concept that most of the global media is there to make money, not educate children to be free of prejudice.
8. Remind your children that there is almost never one place on earth where horrors occur. Teach them about Idi Amin and Milton Obote in 1970s Uganda; about the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda a generation later; about the British opium trade in China in the 19th century; about US genocides in Iraq, Indonesia, Libya in the past 60 years; about the worst episodes in Soviet- and Sino 20th century history; about German and Japanese atrocities leading up to- and during World War II. Bring them to understand that the cure for hatred is love and their contribution of love on earth is essential to global love winning over global hatred.
9. Share food your have grown with your neighbours; give them a bottle of apple juice you have made. I've yet to meet a human being that doesn't appreciate a neighbourly gesture like that.
10. Source your food, wherever possible, from ethical farmers, ethical growers, ethical marketing hubs.
I don't disagree with your analysis in general but would say that my parents certainly tried to live like this and my experience of growing up wasn't perfect at all ! Good people bent on changing the world can still be fooled by good propaganda eg my parents supported Franco in Spain and I have met others who are convinced that he could not have been a fascist dictator because the US backed him when they went to war with Nazi Germany and other fascist governments - therefore Franco MUST have been a good democrat !
My mother taught me to care about other people around the world in general, but she has that PEP thing going on - cares deeply about Native American people, but has a blind side when it comes to Palestinians, and honestly Muslims in general. Still, that basis in compassion is what led me to study languages and anthropology in college, which led to working in an international nonprofit and most importantly meeting my husband who is of a different culture, religion and nationality. I think parents can nurture the idea of compassion for the other even if they miss some important matters.
11. DEFUND the government by tax-avoidance (not evasion) !!!
DEFUND billionaires.
Well , isn't any current "government" just the public, "elected" face of the shy and hidden billionaires ??? ...🤔🤔🤔 How did they become billionaires ???
It's mostly consumer's money (for the so-called modern amenities and gadgets) and currently increasing government's contracts (for the electorate's and non aligned country's total submission by funneling tax-payer's money into the MIC) that made them billionaires ...
To defund them, the plebes should be ready to get out of their 24/7/365 cozy comfort-bubbles by simply refusing to consume 95% of currently available amenities and comfort-gadgets they think they are so dependent on . No need to list them up here, you well know what is included ...
Which is the %tage of people we can expect to jump in troubled, murky waters, becoming highly self-reliant and -responsible, fully sustainable, part of an egalitarian society with the decisive goal to participate in defunding billionaires in the long-run ??? ... 🤔🤔🤔
Only true off-gridders with a specific life- and community philosophy will do and are currently doing so. Let them multiply like bacteria. It won't happen but in very restricted form, regions and numbers. The vast majority simply cannot envision such a life, they are programmed for the nanny-state and freebies.
Yes, very sharp guillotines for speed. Do you need to clean between slices?
You plan to slice them up entirely, not chop-off their heads only ??? ...
What thickness ???
Just asking on behalf of my aged dogs ...🤣🤣🤣🐕🦺🐕
Charles Dickens would have been proud!
That’s how we remain powerless, because we have been conditioned and coerced In believing this lie. We have power individually but our strength is when we commit together to say this must stop and find ways to remove our consent our $ and our attention.
One of the smallest things I do in this regard is to wear a Palestine bike jersey on my almost daily bike rides. I had to look as far as Ali-Baba, a Chinese online shopping site. I got a couple for my sons, too , all for last Christmas.
If you hold an intention to help and to resist evil, it helps you see things that you can do.
Only one person has shouted something negative out of a car this year, and it was early, like March. I think more people on my residential 3 mile loop, particularly women, started looking in my face and smiling as I ride my laps.
I stand on the main corner in my city every week with a sign that says “Honk for a Ceasefire” and each week we are seeing more and more positive engagement. I get the occasional middle fingers and stern head shakes, but that number is very low compared to the people with their peace fingers out their windows. Keep the issue fresh in everyone’s awareness and continue to encourage people to act.
I wear a keffiyeh I ordered online wherever I go. If it inspires a dirty look from someone, I blow them a kiss 😁 even though my inclination is to pound them to sawdust 😉
;-) Style Points Awarded.
I salute you even for that small act of rebellion against the machine. Today, with mass surveillance, and the ability for them to trump up charges against you, along with targeted harrassment - even the smallest act can bring unwanted attention to you. This is how we know we are increasingly living in a Totalitarian state: a state based on fear. One lives in constant personal insecurity. Human rights no longer really exist.
What are your son's experiences ??? ... Still allowed to attend school ??? ...
Interesting unconscious projection.
I think my perceptions are accurate. It is like a test of the world.
We have a lot of residents in the area from Asia, not only China and India, and some traditionally-dressed women with head coverings. One of these, who had never made eye contact in previous years, began smiling to my face, for instance.
I am a person who habitually looks people in the eye and smiles, noticing the people who never look, as much as those who appear conflicted about it, and those who sneak a peek just when I am passing by.
Because of the way I present, I see people who do sneak a furtive glance, and get a smile from me, get more open and start to see me farther away, and get ready to smile and wave.
Guys too, even straight guys, sometimes...
"Being aware of the sound of a bell, does not mean that bell belongs to you. Likewise being aware of thoughts, does not mean the thoughts belong to you." ~Wu Hsin
Carl Jung often emphasized people have far less control over their thoughts and inner psyche than they believe they do. The unconscious has a depth not many suspect except to those who have actually tried to study it. Then you realize there is more going on below the surface of "awareness" than above.
YOU make a difference !!! 👍👍👍🚲🚲🚲 ( ) ( ) ( )
(just waiting for the day I can click on a keffiyeh-emoji here on Substack)
I have big problems with the emergent use of the word "evil". It seems we are digging ourselves back into the ignorant hole that we very slowly dug ourselves out of beginning a half-millennium ago...
-- If one thinks of anti-social behavior as the magical quality of EVIL, it is all too easy to lock its cause in a simplistic black box, use non-universal and thus un-resolvable religious terms, have the attitude always of "throw" people away, eventually find one's way to justifying atrocities as "necessary", and only recognize one's error when one has gone to far. That's how some of the most zealous leftists think of things today about rightists, and how most rightists thought of leftists not so long ago.
-- If one recognizes some of what we call "evil" as PSYCHOPATHY (at the risk of oversimplifying: one's nature), it becomes clear that the necessary thing is careful identification, monitoring, and containment. But we cannot yet recognize the need for it, much less have something that can approach a large-scale ethical system.
-- If one recognizes some of what we call "evil" as SOCIOPATHY (nurture), it becomes clear that the necessary thing is careful identification, communication, and remediation. But, again, we cannot yet recognize the need for it, much less have something that can, once again, approach a large-scale ethical system.
Yes(ish), perhaps, but there is also "evil", such as "Sadism".
Is Sadism not "evil"? It becomes increasingly overt when you peek under rocks, and concentrated in those who rule over us.
People are different, and can act sincerely and socially but with very different values. I take a disciplined neutral response, because there is no such thing as values that are independent of human beings, no matter how strong the illusion that they are "part of the cosmos", or descended from God, or whatever. This is NOT the same as a personal belief that there are *no* values -- it is that each person and/or culture has their *own*. So for me, the ONLY non-negotiable divider (justifying careful and measured unilateral action) is truly and purely anti-social views, and the actual nature (and causes) of which should, to the extent practical, be parsed out.
"Anti-social" doesn't apply to all sadism. You and I and the vast majority feel pain at the infliction of pain on others. Since we have the same values on this, and we elect (vote, etc.) not to allow (physical, and in certain cases mental) pain to be inflicted, for nearly all scenarios. Yet there are also S&M people who find it not only acceptable but desirable, and usually avoid the non-like-minded. To the extent they allow their proclivities to be exercised (just as with pedophiles) in the open in our society, they are not only frowned upon but committing (our elected) crimes, and are punished. I have no problem with that. But, say, if all humans were sadists, it could be possible for it to be allowed, and simply caution the sadism-receiver to always "watch out". We've actually had that situation before re children, with the former acceptability of corporal punishment. We must always recognize our relativist position as humans.
Also, not long ago, it was one of the worst moral things imaginable to be gay, or to be an unwed mother. Further back, slavery, racism, associated social discrimination, and a host of other attitudes and associated punishments were, in the West, considered normal and acceptable, even while political disagreements were emerging. People then weren't stupid and/or ignorant -- they actually believed, in good faith and with all kinds of rationalizations, in these things. But times change, and so what is considered unacceptable, and even "evil", absolutely changes.
Right now, the case of Gaza war is an excellent example of this being split with comparable-sized sides in the West. You know full well that many Israeli supporters think absolutely the opposite of the way (most of) us here on this blog -- but they do so sincerely, as painful and incomprehensible as that is to us. Once again, stupidity and ignorance are simply not the only drivers, because there is also most often a different conception of morality. They are, well-arguably from our POV, exercising sociopathic responses due to cultural and other conditioning. But the heavy lifting of changing this is up to *us*, not to those we consider unacceptable.
Regarding the psychopaths and sociopaths in high places, I will not identify them as "evil". The word is simply too laden with magical thinking, and implies some sort of necessary static state in them, "the other". Instead, I'll acknowledge psychopaths to be the *closest to* what most called "evil", being almost incorrigibly anti-social. I advocate specifically for their identification and isolation, especially from power, and of course punishment for any law-breaking.
I understand (and agree with) most of what you are saying, but here are some points to consider:
(1) anti-social is not always bad. eg. being anti-social in an Israeli Zionist society and culture is actually a GOOD and POSITIVE thing. So the context matters.
(2) Different people have different understandings of EVIL - based on their morality and the morality of the period in history, their culture, their belief systems, etc. Hence, one person's EVIL is another person's HERO (again, some examples are Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich - who most people would consider EVIL)
>>You know full well that many Israeli supporters think absolutely the opposite of the way (most of) us here on this blog -- but they do so sincerely, as painful and incomprehensible as that is to us."
So how to we solve this problem (which recurs all the time in human history)?
(1) "anti-social is not always bad" -- Yes, in your meaning (in the Israel example), which I think is more like "opposing dominant values", or being rebels. What I mean by "anti-social" is the psychiatric term of pure abuse of other people, because they aren't respected generally, often for no given reasons at all. In that case, other people are treated as mere *things*, to insouciantly lie to, to malevolently use for one's benefit, to ignore at will, to torture, etc.
(2) "Different people have different understandings of EVIL" -- Agreed, but I think here you mean something more like "Different people have different understandings of what, and consequently who, is EVIL". But the concept of the word "evil" is still about identifying extreme, incorrigible, and unacceptable immorality, often calling for some kinds of mass action in response.
"So how to we solve this problem (which recurs all the time in human history)?"
The first thing to do is to find a way to give up our natural inclination to use the label "evil". As I mentioned in my first post, the word connotes what I call a "magical", or mysterious, inscrutable quality, one that simultaneously allows us to ignore the causes -- i.e., once we've decided something/someone is evil, we exit negotiation thinking, and enter war thinking. I think this is counterproductive. That's why I'd rather we dive full-on into *why* someone or some society thinks the way they do (as much as we are able to) -- e.g. extreme stress, dysfunctional family upbringing, alien culture, sociopathy, psychopathy -- and take the route(s) called for. Good thing is, we already know how to confront all these causes -- except, probably, ethical psychopathic containment.
I am convinced the current problems we face consist of a malevolent divide-and-conquer process, led by at root by psychopaths and (apparently) incorrigible sociopaths. We just need to remember that most of the "enemy" camp, however, is NOT psychopathic/sociopathic.
Yes, the “What goes around, comes around.” We help create the environment within which we live.
Does the inherent COMPULSORY nature of The State count as evil ?
You can substitute COERCION for COMPULSORY if you wish
Have been carrying different album cover sized cardboard handmade signs around since last November that read “Opposition to genocide is not anti-semitic, Killing Palestinians is” or “Palestinian Children Are Not Hamas” or “Imagine It Was Your Family In Gaza”. It is a sad reflection on society that so many are angered by this or look away uncomfortably.
It's a hard thing to reconcile when in my country Canada 90% of the population doesn't even know they spent 6 billion dollars to help kill off just about every Ukrainian under the age of 40yrs, and in the next instance will stop and help anyone stranded along the road which is pretty well an expected behavior in Canada given our harsh winters,I kind of understand it though given our US media propaganda, misinformation, online trolls and algorithmic suppression. Most of the public has no idea their living in a fictional world.
Half a million Ukrainians are now dead - mainly because the US refused to stay out of Ukraine, and refused to agree to the most reasonable terms that were being negotiated by Russia in good faith.
Yep. America ignored the Minsk accord that Russia signed in good faith that had the backing of the UN. Merkle and Hollande admitted that they only signed it to give Ukraine time to get armed.
Sadly very few Americans know that and believe that Putin just woke up one day and decided to invade Ukraine.
Half a million dead - many forced into combat against their will, in a conflict that could have easily been avoided. It's hard to wrap my brain around it. Maybe the nihilists are right after all: life is just a pile of shit.
Agreeing with jamenta, Sam & russian_bot.
A war that is meaningless and a tragedy for the lives lost. A "success" for the Military Industrial Complex. Feeding the US/Nato delusion and greed to diminish and balkanise Russia. Rooted in their fear of Russia and China getting together with the Global South to get away from empire dominance. Fear of a better world.
AND the need to constantly feed the MIC, and in this case, the need of the US fracked gas industry to become profitable by knocking out Russian gas to Europe and replacing it with US exported LNG.
NO. The planet, the world, life, are still scintillating with beauty. And we may yet manage to rescue it from the sociopathic empire. Don't give up.
"Sadly very few Americans know that ..." - and the rest don't want to know because it's not within 20 mile radius of their concerns. Those that do know just know. Doesn't mean they care.
That would make a great research paper. The ratio of knowledge over caring. Including ignorant makes the paper less interesting.
Would you guess the knowledge caring ratio is the same for all events that make the lying mass media.
Depends on the radius of concerns.
I used to follow Sharon McMahon. She made fun of Putin and called him evil. She never talked about the back story. I stopped following her because she has remained neutral on Israel. She's called for waiting until the facts are in and only trusted US media sources for verification. She said she followed Motaz, but her posts never mentioned the horrors he was documenting. I thought she was reasonable. I checked her account recently and she was all filled up for some government event. I got sucked in to her grwm soft politics.
To say "the US refused to stay out of Ukraine" is a bit euphemistic--in fact the US government set up the war, prodded Russia until it invaded and then sabotaged peace talks. After, of course, instigating the coup in 2014 that put the right wing in power in Ukraine.
You are right. A big problem with critiquing empire is not seeing it for what it is, in its entirety. One thing is okay while another thing is acceptable. It would help people to have a systemic critique. The empire is good at hiding its nakedness and adults are good at not seeing it.
I meant to write “unacceptable.” Oops.
Correct.
To be fair, there also is the influence of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, an influence much like that of Miami Cubans in the US.
2.5k a day now as the Ukrainian defenses are lost. The numbers will climb higher as the Ukrainians are pushed into the open plains East of Donbass. I don't see how this ends logically for Russia without taking all of the territory to the Dnipro. A number of analysts or saying with the invasion to the Kursk region Russia can not allow Ukraine to exist other than a wild unpopulated open field. Thankfully the Russian people are far more humane than we in the u.s. The same is true of israel, Palestine will be free from the river to the sea. israel has committed suicide both morally and financially and it didn't have to be.
Yes, I heard that quote recently on Judge Napolitano's youtube show from one of the guests, probably Col. Macgregor. Astonishing numbers. And how much of that do we hear in the US corporate media? It's surreal realizing just how much of a Totalitarian state the US has now become.
This April the Harvard Gazette declared that Ukraine was winning. So much for the school of Veritas.
Another puke of Russian talking points!! Are you another Russian troll or just ignorant?
Your vile screed is so persuasive. Thanks to you, I'm gonna enlist in the army of Ukraine.
хохлов еще здесь недоставало, иди на бандеру молись мудило.
lol
Ethinc cleansing !!!!
They're Slaws ...
And Arabs are Semites. Just the wrong kind of Semites to satisfy the Zionists.
For sure you already know that the current Zionist population in the Occupied Lands of Palestine are mostly a direct import (now 2nd. or 3rd. generation) of Sephardic, Ashkenazi or Khazarian Jews with origins in West- and East Europe.
Why do you think, any DNA-check is strictly forbidden in that apartheid state ?
These monsters are the REAL anti-Semites because it is them (non Semites) who are killing Palestinians, the real Semites of that land .
Well, even the so-called self-hating Jews (the real, highly educated, highly emphatic, genuine ones) are in that category
As a fellow Canadian, I see exactly what you see
"We'll go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost-effective."
~Kurt Vonnegut
“The good Earth - we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy.”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., A Man Without a Country.
And it isn't the cashier at Walmart or the packager at Amazon.com that are "lazy" or "cheap". It's hard to walk into these stores these days, realize how hard everyone there is working, and not being compensated fairly for their work. America has become a cotton picking, slave wage economy. Where they want you to work for them until you die. Meanwhile, they got the mansions and the yacht and all the time in the world to vacation 6 months a year. Meritocracy my ass.
Absolutely brilliant and true, Caitlin. Thanks so much for writing this piece of common sense.
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of they friends`s or of thine own were. Any man`s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. “John Donne….to think that what happens on the other side (of the earth, street, town, country, aisle, river, ocean) won’t affect you just might fall into the category of magical thinking. You will realize, perhaps too late, when that happening comes down to you on your little spot of earth. Like Covid, or repression/ suppression of the right of free speech, assembly, press. Or that unmovable chilling cloud blanket over you head from the USA egging Russia or its own military to use a nuclear bomb on the Ukrainians.
The people who say, “It’s not my problem” and ignore a live-streamed genocide *are* the problem. Your taxes and your elected representatives are facilitating mass murder every day. The trans-national corporations you buy goods and services from are providing the financing, computing power and materials needed to conduct 21st-century mass slaughter of children and the destruction of all infrastructure necessary to sustain life.
Thank goodness for the young people who absolutely understand why this affects them and are not going to be cowed into silence.
My generation, the 60s generation, also understood that war was wrong. It disturbs me that so many of my contemporaries forgot all of that. I never did.
Yes, I think the turn occurred when the majority accepted weapons of mass destruction without question. Murdering millions has become normal : ( You are not alone my friend.
What happened was they got the whip hand.
As always your insight is greatly respected and greatly needed.
Because good human beings care about each other. If you don’t care about the children of Gaza, then you don’t care about that abused child in your family, your community. You lack empathy! People who have empathy were raised in families that supported, cared about each other, and it’s the way to treat others too.
"Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can't buy enough to eat."
~Will Rogers
Today it's six people?
Probably.
“People who have empathy were raised in families that supported, cared about each other.”
Unfortunately, a too large percentage of the human population, 10 - 15%, are sociopaths, and some are psychopaths, who may very well have been raised in a loving family. They are just wired differently, and, as far as we know, there is no cure.
And, OTOH, some of the most caring people I’ve met were raised in an abusive family.
{...some of the most caring people I’ve met were raised in an abusive family...}
So there is hope, in spite of humanity being a global, highly abusive family🤞🤞🤞
Just jogged me into my theory..if economists want two chickens in every pot, then both parents of children must work. Let us relegate them to childcare,, i think generations who spent little time w parents,loving nurturing because too little time left in the day,might grow up feeling a bit indifferent.
Not entirely in agreement with you that people with empathy are raised that way: I was adopted by relatives who were cold and narcissistic and suffered greatly because of my over-sensitivity and empathy. Only now as an adult with my own children can I see the strength it took for me to retain my difference from them and embrace what they saw as weakness.
"This is what and how our leaders decide this will be "normal" " - RIP Aaron Bushnell.
What would I do if my country was committing genocide?
https://nedb.substack.com/p/aaron-bushnell-what-would-i-do
Thank you for taking the time to "have a think" about why we should care about Gaza, Caitlin, and for sharing your loving, articulate clarity.
"Widening our circle of compassion" is a mantra for our times.
I have come across a few people who say they don't listen to the news and who really do not want to hear what is going on. Your writing expresses very well why we need to care. I will forward it to others. I am glad that you are so adept at articulating what I have been thinking but not speaking about very well.
I'd like to add:
1. Let's say you care about peace over war. Scientific American (June 2024) reports that the world is experiencing the highest level of conflict since the Second World War. War is one of the greatest causes of human suffering on a planetary scale through trauma, displacement and insecurity. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/warfares-climate-emissions-are-huge-but-uncounted/
2. Let's say you care about the survival of the planet. The CO2 emissions in the first 60 days of the Israeli bombardment in Gaza produced exceeded 281,000 metric tons from direct actions alone, and the environmental cost of re-construction of Gaza will exceed that of 130 countries. [https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4684768]
3. If you don't care about peace or the planet, you are a waste of skin.
'Nuff said.
I work at a national lab that sent everyone home without pay for one week so far, lack of funding. War over Science, the Director sent out a directive not to discuss that event with implied threat. Just think about that, a national lab doing fundamental science that corporations for the most part are not interested in went home without pay. Not that science should take precedence over other peaceful needs, it's just how bankrupt physically and morally we are in the u.s. Have we come to the end of End Stage Capitalism.
You had a gag order to not tell anyone you weren't getting paid? That's too weird.
Yes we thought so too. Much of what the u.s. Gov. used to do is now done by contractors even NASA now is mostly contractors. Our lab became a LLC roughly 10 yrs. ago, three Uni. and a private co. still funded by a Gov. dept. Healthcare you could keep when you retired was the first thing that went.
The 1st. signs of total bankruptcy ??? ... 🤔🤔🤔 34 trillion are waiting to be smelted ...
Take care ... the "stuff" ahead is unprecedented.
See also your post about state-protection for DNC in Chicago ...
Any chance of getting figures for Ukraine to be added into this equation ??? ...
Why should you care about the barbaric slaughter of civilians thousands of miles away? Because if they get away with it, they'll be doing it to you and your kids given half a chance...The Dresden firebombing was just a start...
"Enough humans having a wide enough circle of compassion to care about the suffering of other humans who they will never meet is all it will take for us to create a healthy world."
Amen! We've all got to climb out of our "bubbles" and learn about the other humans living on this big blue marble. Only then will we learn empathy.
Reminds me of a quote I recently came across by John Steinbeck:
"If you are in trouble, or hurt, or in need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones."
Yes. On top of that, by not caring and letting those things happen, one becomes accustomed to those things. Those things start becoming normal.
Yup: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3961504537/?playlistId=tt6156350&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi