I read too much science fiction as a child - well - to be honest, Sci-Fi is still my staple.
And for the most part, the "type" of science fiction that I gravitate towards is the imaginative dystopian hard science stuff where authors are dreaming of a future state of being and how that affects us.
So, for example, Robert Heinlein was one of my mentors in the field and he talked about everything from religion to race, sex and politics in his groundbreaking work like Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers.
Or think about Orson Scott Card and Ender's Game.
These works were meant to criticise the way we do things, the way we are, and to subtly point to other possibilities.
Like what if the marriage idea was wrong and we should be polyamorous? What if men were, in fact, inferior to women? What if militarism was left unchecked?
But I digress from what I was going to write about - which was just a quick sketch of a dream I just came up with for moving forward with society after the pandemic.
(by the way - this is by far the perfect science fiction story - and in fact, has been written a few times check our Steven King's the Stand or Margaret Atwood's MadAdam series)
So - here is my science fiction suggestion for moving forward.
First and foremost - every household, everywhere, every class and country - needs free high-speed internet, probably from Elon Musk's Starlink Satellites. We also all need free state of the art computer systems and "smart" enabled devices.
These should no longer be for-profit creations - well, in a perfect world nothing should - but I am willing to start there.
This is step one - and you are not going to immediately agree with me on step two - but suspend your disbelief for a second.
Step two is that we sell off every school, every police station, every doctor's office, every church, every psychiatric clinic, every public health clinic, etc. Especially those that are government-funded or require tax breaks.
Step three is that we build campus organizations where all of these professionals work, together, along with high tech infrastructure and broadcasting studios.
NOW
Here is the thing, we start having multidisciplinary teams producing educational and creative resources that educate children, teach holistic health, manage conflict, embrace spirituality, and provide - through the internet - all the resources necessary to create "health" in the population.
Yes, we would still need hospitals, and teams that could be dispatched to deal with crime or emergent situations.
But in reality, we would be approaching the human situation from a whole different perspective while at the same time cutting an incredible amount of cost. Each of these campuses would create content that is regional, that honours every culture and race and sexuality and background - but at the same time does not have to reinvent the wheel as they would all be networked as well.
We would instantly level up humanity worldwide.
The reason we do not do this is that we are stuck in archaic patterns of professional services that are stuck in outdated thought patterns and traditions.
And I would argue that this is because of racism and elitism, classism and sexism - all of those isms.
Otherwise, we would have been working together on all this stuff long ago.
Why do we have two dental clinics in the same small town, one of which offers better care for higher prices and one of which offers to take anyone?
Why do we have food banks, churches, and social workers all doing the work while not communicating with each other?
Because we believe some people deserve better care. It is as plain, as simple, and as horrible as that.
Oh, and it also has to do with turning a profit. That is why I am fed up with capitalism and our current economic lie of trickle-down wealth.
So my solution might not be the best, and it might not be feasible, I am not a city planner or a sociologist.
But here is the thing. Even I in my little corner of the world can come up with a better solution than how we currently do it. I am willing to bet there are hundreds, if not millions of solutions that would make the world a better, and safer place - that would allow us to accomplish more with less, and that would keep us safe.
We do not implement them because they do not make anyone rich.
So here is my idea. Close the schools and make teaching an online resource. But while we are at it. Close the rest and force us to work together. I am 99% certain that it would only make the world worse for the 1%.
Wednesday 17 June 2020
Wednesday 10 June 2020
Rebellion in Creation
As a progressive Christian writer - I walk the fine line of apologist for a faith that I often find no longer speaks in a way that engages us. The specifically Christian ethos and attitudes that once were seen as the norm are no longer a part of the society we live in - with good reason, and with good riddance.
But as a spiritual being, one who finds meaning in the deeper things, the thin places between the infinite and the known - I find the stories of our tradition are useful to set us in a context that allows us to recognize the reality of the world in a slightly askew way. Being able to question the "it just is" answer that so likely follows any plaintiff cry of "why."
It is for this precise reason that we created myths of our earliest beginnings.
We all did.
The Christian "God created the world in seven days, formed Adam from the ground and Eve from Adam" is just one of a thousand - itself a copy and reworking of older near eastern myths such as the Babylonian Enuma Elis.
They are just that - cultural, religious, and traditional stories that set the stage and create a narrative for our continuing existence.
Since I live on the East Coast of Canada, the oldest actual creation story of my "place" is that of the Wabanaki Confederacy peoples. I came to know the story through the Mi'kmaq, who tell of the creative spirit of all, Grandfather, who brought Glooscap into life. Glooscap roamed the entire planet and learned much about it - but was not complete until the Eagle came from the Great Spirit and told him he would be joined by his family. His family turns out to be a grandmother who teaches him the wisdom of the earth - and then various nephews, sisters, and others who teach him the ways of all of creation.
It is a wonderful story that is meant to show us that alone we are not understanding the larger reality - and it is only when we become harmonious in our relationship with every aspect of creation - when we see everything as brother and sister, from the raven to the martin, to Susie on the corner - that we are fully "born."
I do not speak for the First People and so it is their story and I am only giving you a glimpse of what I heard and read so that you can, perhaps, want to learn more - from the keepers of such a sacred story.
But more than that, I, as a keeper of my seven-day story of Adam and Eve - want you to see that no matter whether you are looking at a story written by near Asian, European, African, or North American peoples thousands of years ago - our creation stories all say the same thing:
When "human" came to be - they were lost and alone. And in order to find wholeness they simply needed to recognize that they were part of everything - and only whole when all was in harmony. Every animal is a sister and brother, while every plant is a thing of sacred beauty.
Of course, many of those stories go on to point out that almost immediately we rebelled against this wisdom - that human nature is, unfortunately, broken. And by broken, we mean that it is self-centred and violent and individualistic. These are not things to be proud of, the legends remind us, but problems to be overcome.
How did we get so far away from the stories our ancestors told around the fires?
My grandfather once took me and a cousin out to supper - we were teenagers who were visiting Florida "on our own" after a fashion and in order to be the "big man" I kept insisting that I pay for my own supper.
My grandmother turned to me at one point and said, "Put your wallet away, Your grandfather is trying to do a nice thing, you are better than that."
It is a meaningless example, but it was powerful to me and in nearly 30 years I have never even forgotten the annoyed tone of her voice and the way it instantly brought me back to realizing how I was insulting him by trying to be important myself.
It is a meaningless example, but it was powerful to me and in nearly 30 years I have never even forgotten the annoyed tone of her voice and the way it instantly brought me back to realizing how I was insulting him by trying to be important myself.
It is her voice I hear always ringing in my ears - "you are better than that."
To reclaim the myths of our ancestors is a scary thing. Mostly because it would mean acknowledging how far we are from how we were created to be.
It was, after all, this lie that we tell ourselves, that I am more important, that I am different, that I am capable of forging my own destiny, and that no one else matters, that is at the heart of the reason we no longer live in the garden of Eden.
Earth ceased being a paradise when we started thinking the individual mattered more than the whole.
And I am ashamed to say that it was the church, almost from the very beginning, that has brought us here - to the place where the only way a black woman can have her voice heard is to shout it violently in the streets. It is the church who says God created everything to be "Good" but then relegates Native Wisdom to the mutterings of savages. It is the church that somehow twisted the message of Jesus to love everyone and everything with our whole heart, mind and soul - into some sort of personal salvation mantra that comes on the backs of everyone else.
We need to rediscover the wisdom of our ancients - but more importantly, we need to realize we are the problem and figure out how to become part of the solution.
It was, after all, this lie that we tell ourselves, that I am more important, that I am different, that I am capable of forging my own destiny, and that no one else matters, that is at the heart of the reason we no longer live in the garden of Eden.
Earth ceased being a paradise when we started thinking the individual mattered more than the whole.
And I am ashamed to say that it was the church, almost from the very beginning, that has brought us here - to the place where the only way a black woman can have her voice heard is to shout it violently in the streets. It is the church who says God created everything to be "Good" but then relegates Native Wisdom to the mutterings of savages. It is the church that somehow twisted the message of Jesus to love everyone and everything with our whole heart, mind and soul - into some sort of personal salvation mantra that comes on the backs of everyone else.
We need to rediscover the wisdom of our ancients - but more importantly, we need to realize we are the problem and figure out how to become part of the solution.
It starts with admitting we were wrong.
Monday 27 April 2020
God's Preferential Option For the Poor and why clergy get it wrong
When Modern Western Society was being formed, there came to be what was called "The Three Estates." In other words - there were three types of people in the world:
The Clergy - the Nobility - The Masses.
You were either, a priest, a prince, or a nobody. Life was that simple.
I think the church at that point had forgotten its roots. It forgot that Jesus was part of the third estate, a nobody, a poor person with a social agenda. I don't think we ever really got it back.
The church has always had an identity problem. It is caused by the fact that Jesus was poor and talked about helping the poor - but the church is almost exclusively made up of middle-class folks, and ruled by the societal elite.
I know we do not want to hear this - I know so many pastors, clergy, priests - who over and over claim they are just common ordinary folk.
Well. No.
Like it or not - we are different.
And I do not mean made holy and set apart by God. That is either a construct of our powerful hierarchy or it is something we say to make ourselves feel better.
I mean we are different in that we are part of the ruling elite - we are just not paid enough for it to be part of the societal elite in our hyper financialized class structure.
Clergy are hyper-educated. Even the minority of people who go straight into the first estate have a minimum of two University Degrees. Many of us have a whole other career we trained for as well, and a huge percentage of us have more than two degrees.
Secondly - we get decision making power in a society that is really out of tune with the average jane. I can talk to the mayor about how I think something should be done - and they will probably consider it. People listen to me for advice on everything from how to bake bread to whether or not to leave their spouse. A clergy person has a scary amount of power when it comes to influencing.
People tell us their secrets. Almost everyone.
All of this, for as long as there have been professional religious leaders, has gotten us into trouble repeatedly. Think about Rasputin in the Russian Court or Richelieu in the French Court. Think about paedophile priests and native residential schools.
I wonder if it causes more problems now than it ever did.
And I wonder if this is because we pretend it is not true.
The current pandemic is changing the social landscape. I no longer think it will last long enough to change it permanently. But something else will probably happen and continue the work the virus began.
Which is the work of rebalancing society?
And what we are discovering is that the third estate, the ones we always discount as being not the elite of society, are the only ones making society function. I mean, if you take away a priest or a politician from a local community - there will still be food, and water, and fire, and shelter... as long as there are farmers, carpenters, labourers... There will still be joy and spiritual depth as long as there are still poets and musicians...
Here is the secret that everyone has always known - the third estate, the huddled masses, the poor... they are the ones who matter the most.
And when we use religious language, when we sing hymns from hymn books, when we make prayers responsive and use words that no one understands - we shut everyone out from experiencing what Religion is all about.
Greta Vosper talked about removing the magical language from religion and stop making it like we are talking to some other "being" like the great Santa Clause in the sky... and this was a good corrective.
But I think there is another step necessary here. We need to strip religion of class. That is the far more dangerous aspect of what we do - maintain a class structure that no longer serves anyone well.
We need to abandon religious trappings and become "plain" in what we do. We need to realize that the Quakers and Mennonites were the ones who best understood Luther and the whole point of the church reformation back in the early 1500's. They were trying to make faith accessible to the common person.
So no more words like epiclesis, exhortation, benediction, or sacrament. No more reading King James Bibles from the pulpit as if those words meant anything to anyone any more. No more robes and collars and ridiculousness.
If these days have taught us anything - it is that the stories of faith, the stories of goodness, the actions and language we need to use to change the world - are not ours, they belong to those who live life every single day from the gutter up.
I have a friend I have never met in Memphis - a guitar player who knows my wife - who was outside of a Walgreen's on the weekend and gave some Gatorade and protein snacks to a homeless guy... A minute later another homeless guy ambled across the street and the first one, now with a bag of groceries, says, "I got ya covered man" and hands him a Gatorade and Lunchable.
See - that is what Jesus was like. And that is what we should be like too. That is religion and those are the stories we need to tell.
The Clergy - the Nobility - The Masses.
You were either, a priest, a prince, or a nobody. Life was that simple.
I think the church at that point had forgotten its roots. It forgot that Jesus was part of the third estate, a nobody, a poor person with a social agenda. I don't think we ever really got it back.
The church has always had an identity problem. It is caused by the fact that Jesus was poor and talked about helping the poor - but the church is almost exclusively made up of middle-class folks, and ruled by the societal elite.
I know we do not want to hear this - I know so many pastors, clergy, priests - who over and over claim they are just common ordinary folk.
Well. No.
Like it or not - we are different.
And I do not mean made holy and set apart by God. That is either a construct of our powerful hierarchy or it is something we say to make ourselves feel better.
I mean we are different in that we are part of the ruling elite - we are just not paid enough for it to be part of the societal elite in our hyper financialized class structure.
Clergy are hyper-educated. Even the minority of people who go straight into the first estate have a minimum of two University Degrees. Many of us have a whole other career we trained for as well, and a huge percentage of us have more than two degrees.
Secondly - we get decision making power in a society that is really out of tune with the average jane. I can talk to the mayor about how I think something should be done - and they will probably consider it. People listen to me for advice on everything from how to bake bread to whether or not to leave their spouse. A clergy person has a scary amount of power when it comes to influencing.
People tell us their secrets. Almost everyone.
All of this, for as long as there have been professional religious leaders, has gotten us into trouble repeatedly. Think about Rasputin in the Russian Court or Richelieu in the French Court. Think about paedophile priests and native residential schools.
I wonder if it causes more problems now than it ever did.
And I wonder if this is because we pretend it is not true.
The current pandemic is changing the social landscape. I no longer think it will last long enough to change it permanently. But something else will probably happen and continue the work the virus began.
Which is the work of rebalancing society?
And what we are discovering is that the third estate, the ones we always discount as being not the elite of society, are the only ones making society function. I mean, if you take away a priest or a politician from a local community - there will still be food, and water, and fire, and shelter... as long as there are farmers, carpenters, labourers... There will still be joy and spiritual depth as long as there are still poets and musicians...
Here is the secret that everyone has always known - the third estate, the huddled masses, the poor... they are the ones who matter the most.
And when we use religious language, when we sing hymns from hymn books, when we make prayers responsive and use words that no one understands - we shut everyone out from experiencing what Religion is all about.
Greta Vosper talked about removing the magical language from religion and stop making it like we are talking to some other "being" like the great Santa Clause in the sky... and this was a good corrective.
But I think there is another step necessary here. We need to strip religion of class. That is the far more dangerous aspect of what we do - maintain a class structure that no longer serves anyone well.
We need to abandon religious trappings and become "plain" in what we do. We need to realize that the Quakers and Mennonites were the ones who best understood Luther and the whole point of the church reformation back in the early 1500's. They were trying to make faith accessible to the common person.
So no more words like epiclesis, exhortation, benediction, or sacrament. No more reading King James Bibles from the pulpit as if those words meant anything to anyone any more. No more robes and collars and ridiculousness.
If these days have taught us anything - it is that the stories of faith, the stories of goodness, the actions and language we need to use to change the world - are not ours, they belong to those who live life every single day from the gutter up.
I have a friend I have never met in Memphis - a guitar player who knows my wife - who was outside of a Walgreen's on the weekend and gave some Gatorade and protein snacks to a homeless guy... A minute later another homeless guy ambled across the street and the first one, now with a bag of groceries, says, "I got ya covered man" and hands him a Gatorade and Lunchable.
See - that is what Jesus was like. And that is what we should be like too. That is religion and those are the stories we need to tell.
Tuesday 21 April 2020
We All Need Somebody... to Hay ay ate...
I posted a small philosophical rant on Facebook around the reality of mass shootings. Or perhaps the prevalence of mass shootings. In those short paragraphs, I suggested that it was once not a part of my reality at all - but the shootings in Montreal at the Polytechnique and in 'Merica at Columbine began a slippery slope in which mass shootings happen more often and in more places.
So what happened?
I should back up a moment and tell you that yes, I do realize this to be an oversimplification. I realize there was violence previous to this. The stonewall riots for example. Or the Northern Ireland conflicts. We have always been a species prone to violence.
But when I stop and examine what I am saying a little more closely - what has changed is the specificity of the violence.
"Back in my day," which I am getting old enough to actually say now, the targets of violence made sense. It was not correct. It was not moral. But... you could sit back in your armchair while watching the nightly news and say - oh... they are after the blacks again. Or the gays. It was domestic violence. It was... you see what I am saying - there was a rhyme and a reason.
But now, buddy in Nova Scotia kills 18 or more people whom he randomly pulls over. A guy drives a van through a crowd. In Las Vegas a man takes random shots into a concert crowd - and we sit back trying to figure out what in tarnation caused them to decide to go on a shooting spree. Usually never finding an answer.
So there were replies to my post. There was a fairly good discussion. But I had another discussion with a colleague in the background that made me wonder about another possibility.
Something we do not say out loud.
Maybe we were happier when there was someone to look down on.
I am not advocating what I am about to say. I am examining it from a philosophical and sociological point of view. So bear with me just a second and reserve judgement in terms of writing this off.
You see, once upon a time - in my lifetime... black people, indigenous people, gay people, women, poor people, welfare recipients, mentally challenged people and even crippled people were inferior to me. It was shown to me in subtle and overt ways. Jokes and movie portrayals, right through to outright acts of belligerence. They were all sort of normal because, well, they were inferior.
Again - this is not how I feel now, nor do I believe it "should" have been how I felt then.
But back in the day, it was politically correct to find someone in another category of life, and determine that they were the enemy, or at least if not the enemy, then inferior to me.
Which in turn allowed me to feel good about myself.
There was an old prayer once in one of our religious traditions, I won't call them out, but it was a famous prayer that you said when you woke up in the morning and part of it said "Thank God I am not a woman, I am not a..." it was an actual, written prayer, counting blessings, by pointing out that if God had hated us, he would have made us.... (black, female, gay, poor...)
And by default - being a white male person of privilege was to be blessed.
I wonder, if by creating political correctness, we took away, not only the easy target, but also our own self-worth. Certainly, we have heard men, in particular, speak like this as feminism was taking root in the '80s and '90s. If we were not the superior species, then what were we? All of a sudden there was a crisis of identity. And it was necessary, and it was good, and the way men are now is way, way, way better. But...
Think of this on a global scale. Now, no matter who you are - woman, indigenous, gay, white, crazy... no matter who you are, we live in a society where everyone is equal and everyone has value.
On the surface that is a wonderful thing. But is it also forcing those people on the outer edges of sanity to not be able to make peace with their own inner demons?
Was the ability to express anger and outrage at another "group" one of the safety factors that vented hostility which would otherwise be focused on the self?
I keep feeling I have to go back and say, once more, I am not advocating a return to racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heteronomous though or anything of the sort. I am merely trying to ask if we might see this as a possible turning point in society from whence came crazy unfocused violence.
Is it really rage at the self, at the parts of the self we do not like, outwardly manifested as a shooting spree?
And is this rage exacerbated by the fact that there is no one we can focus that negativity on? Did hating gays at least allow me to repress the violence I felt towards my own homoerotic ideas? for example.
Did hating women allow me to feel that at least as a man I had built in masculinity and power and so I did not feel weak and powerless?
I wonder...
I wonder if that is behind the rise of random violence?
And the solution, by the way, if I am even close to correct, would not be going back to a less egalitarian way of thinking. The solution would be to recognize that there is darkness in people that we are not addressing.
I think perhaps whenever we change systems or ways of thought we tend to gloss over some of the negative consequences and feel they will just go away. No one wanted to admit that there was actually a sociological reason why having a group be "lesser" helped soothe the ego of people in the group that was "greater." And because no one ever admitted that, no one worked at finding other, healthier ways, for us to cope with our inner demons.
As an aside, the more I thought about this the more other factors of modern society have clicked into place for me. Again, no science behind any of this, just observational data and it could be false - but I am an op/ed writer, not a scientist.
For example, the rise in populism within politics and the way Donald Trump, and now others, gathered large swathes of supporters simply by putting other people down.
Does this back up what I am saying? We are actually hungry for someone to hate so that we can feel better about ourselves. And in a world that tells us, it is so terribly morally wrong to hate anyone - we feel lost. But along comes Trump and essentially ignores the last 40 years. Women, gays, blacks, Mexicans, Islamic folks, they are all the enemy now...
And it makes the listener feel like, finally, I am the winner! Without having to do anything to earn that praise. By being a white, racist, male, I am perfect! And so there is a rise of self-worth, a rise of pride, and we jump on the bandwagon.
It is not America First that Trump actually sold. It is a white male first.
Seeing how effective this rhetoric was for him, and others only solidify my assumption that there is something dark and unaddressed in the modern human psyche that has to do with my need to feel better than others.
How do we fix this?
So what happened?
I should back up a moment and tell you that yes, I do realize this to be an oversimplification. I realize there was violence previous to this. The stonewall riots for example. Or the Northern Ireland conflicts. We have always been a species prone to violence.
But when I stop and examine what I am saying a little more closely - what has changed is the specificity of the violence.
"Back in my day," which I am getting old enough to actually say now, the targets of violence made sense. It was not correct. It was not moral. But... you could sit back in your armchair while watching the nightly news and say - oh... they are after the blacks again. Or the gays. It was domestic violence. It was... you see what I am saying - there was a rhyme and a reason.
But now, buddy in Nova Scotia kills 18 or more people whom he randomly pulls over. A guy drives a van through a crowd. In Las Vegas a man takes random shots into a concert crowd - and we sit back trying to figure out what in tarnation caused them to decide to go on a shooting spree. Usually never finding an answer.
So there were replies to my post. There was a fairly good discussion. But I had another discussion with a colleague in the background that made me wonder about another possibility.
Something we do not say out loud.
Maybe we were happier when there was someone to look down on.
I am not advocating what I am about to say. I am examining it from a philosophical and sociological point of view. So bear with me just a second and reserve judgement in terms of writing this off.
You see, once upon a time - in my lifetime... black people, indigenous people, gay people, women, poor people, welfare recipients, mentally challenged people and even crippled people were inferior to me. It was shown to me in subtle and overt ways. Jokes and movie portrayals, right through to outright acts of belligerence. They were all sort of normal because, well, they were inferior.
Again - this is not how I feel now, nor do I believe it "should" have been how I felt then.
But back in the day, it was politically correct to find someone in another category of life, and determine that they were the enemy, or at least if not the enemy, then inferior to me.
Which in turn allowed me to feel good about myself.
There was an old prayer once in one of our religious traditions, I won't call them out, but it was a famous prayer that you said when you woke up in the morning and part of it said "Thank God I am not a woman, I am not a..." it was an actual, written prayer, counting blessings, by pointing out that if God had hated us, he would have made us.... (black, female, gay, poor...)
And by default - being a white male person of privilege was to be blessed.
I wonder, if by creating political correctness, we took away, not only the easy target, but also our own self-worth. Certainly, we have heard men, in particular, speak like this as feminism was taking root in the '80s and '90s. If we were not the superior species, then what were we? All of a sudden there was a crisis of identity. And it was necessary, and it was good, and the way men are now is way, way, way better. But...
Think of this on a global scale. Now, no matter who you are - woman, indigenous, gay, white, crazy... no matter who you are, we live in a society where everyone is equal and everyone has value.
On the surface that is a wonderful thing. But is it also forcing those people on the outer edges of sanity to not be able to make peace with their own inner demons?
Was the ability to express anger and outrage at another "group" one of the safety factors that vented hostility which would otherwise be focused on the self?
I keep feeling I have to go back and say, once more, I am not advocating a return to racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heteronomous though or anything of the sort. I am merely trying to ask if we might see this as a possible turning point in society from whence came crazy unfocused violence.
Is it really rage at the self, at the parts of the self we do not like, outwardly manifested as a shooting spree?
And is this rage exacerbated by the fact that there is no one we can focus that negativity on? Did hating gays at least allow me to repress the violence I felt towards my own homoerotic ideas? for example.
Did hating women allow me to feel that at least as a man I had built in masculinity and power and so I did not feel weak and powerless?
I wonder...
I wonder if that is behind the rise of random violence?
And the solution, by the way, if I am even close to correct, would not be going back to a less egalitarian way of thinking. The solution would be to recognize that there is darkness in people that we are not addressing.
I think perhaps whenever we change systems or ways of thought we tend to gloss over some of the negative consequences and feel they will just go away. No one wanted to admit that there was actually a sociological reason why having a group be "lesser" helped soothe the ego of people in the group that was "greater." And because no one ever admitted that, no one worked at finding other, healthier ways, for us to cope with our inner demons.
As an aside, the more I thought about this the more other factors of modern society have clicked into place for me. Again, no science behind any of this, just observational data and it could be false - but I am an op/ed writer, not a scientist.
For example, the rise in populism within politics and the way Donald Trump, and now others, gathered large swathes of supporters simply by putting other people down.
Does this back up what I am saying? We are actually hungry for someone to hate so that we can feel better about ourselves. And in a world that tells us, it is so terribly morally wrong to hate anyone - we feel lost. But along comes Trump and essentially ignores the last 40 years. Women, gays, blacks, Mexicans, Islamic folks, they are all the enemy now...
And it makes the listener feel like, finally, I am the winner! Without having to do anything to earn that praise. By being a white, racist, male, I am perfect! And so there is a rise of self-worth, a rise of pride, and we jump on the bandwagon.
It is not America First that Trump actually sold. It is a white male first.
Seeing how effective this rhetoric was for him, and others only solidify my assumption that there is something dark and unaddressed in the modern human psyche that has to do with my need to feel better than others.
How do we fix this?
Thursday 16 April 2020
Quarentine Roulette
I have posted memes on Facebook which amount to saying this: Things were broken, let's not go back.
The black and white divide between the past and the future I am calling out is, of course, artificial. And I have attributed those posts to economics, capitalism, lack of socialism, broken health and tax systems... a number of "culprits" who when taken at face value, are probably not to blame.
The other thing I have seen over the last few weeks is a so called divide opening up between introverts and extroverts. Those who are okay with being locked in a house and those who are needing to leave.
Now this divide is also artificial but has equally black and white factors attributed to it. I need to see people, I need a hug, I never liked people anyway, I read books, I have a cat... all kinds of people saying all kinds of things as if they were the one and only answer.
A problem with social media has always been presentation of ideas. How I present something makes a difference, and in social media most people present "opinions" as not merely "facts" but as somehow brought down from the mountain on stone tablets.
Carved in stone truth for everyone is rarely found in social discussion.
But we sort of know that.
So I wonder what is really behind the messages. What is at the root of thrive or failure to thrive in the pandemic world?
I am going to present some ideas born from discussion with my wife and consideration of our families and see if they might not round out some of the edges of what is causing problems both now, before, and potentially after.
None of this might ring true for you - but I think good discussion makes you think, and so I am presenting this as something to think about.
Extrovert and Introvert is a false label. Or rather, has become a shortcut, used to describe very limited understandings. To be an extrovert means more than needing to go outside. To be an introvert means more than needing to be alone.
Here are some issues around that - how comfortable are you reflecting on your own life? How comfortable are you in your own house? How much do you need to be around other people? Do you like to be in a crowd? When new ideas crop up in your head do you need to talk to other people about them? How much television is actually healthy?
You see - the ideas are complex. And when we say, I am an introvert I am ok - it could mean SO many different things that there is no easy label on why that is true.
Take me, I am somewhat introverted in that I recharge emotional energy by being alone. However, I cannot for the life of me sit in one place for longer than, say, half an hour. In the round of a week I usually travel, say, 400 km just driving from one place to the next - sometimes for no reason.
I cannot not have my mind occupied - so I need to be "doing" something all the time. But is that an extrovert quality or ADHD?
I have anxiety and PTSD but that does not mean that I do not thrive off of constant newness. I do not even drive home from the store using the same route I took.
So jsut for myself, there is no easy label. And I imagine that is true for others as well.
How about the economy, social safety net, etc.
I say it was broken but the reasons I say it was broken may not resonate with anyone else.
I think it sucks that the main point of most of our lives is sustenance employment. It takes two breadwinners most of their week to earn enough money to provide human basic needs. That should not be true. We should have way more time to paint, make music, love, food, etc. Or at least that is how I feel.
I always thought communal living would be a better answer. Still do. If we were in groups of 10-15 now instead of groups of 2-4 would that not be better? But again, that is me.
I do not value "stuff" the way others do. I wear old clothes and buy most of what I own at Giant Tiger. But I need high end tech and expensive rum, as well as trips across the country.
What we value and why differs from each person, and it differs greatly.
I guess when I say the old system was broken I am meaning the system that said getting rich was the plan, having 1.4 kids was the plan, working more than 40 hours per week was the plan, always buying the next new thing was the plan... these are the things I am glad have been taken away by the pandemic.
Now what is important is keeping healthy. What is important is finding joy where you are. What is important is spending time with family. What is important is making do with what you have.
And in those ways I feel joy in my heart.
But "I" think, and again, this is an opinion, that what needed to change, and may yet perhaps change in this - is that our value system needs to change.
And it is not about how we run an economy, it is not about whether we are introverted or extroverted, it is not about rich or poor, gender, sexuality, or anything that we have been fighting over before...
What needs to change is the recognition that each individual person is just that. And what I need, how I meet those needs, and how I fit in with others is unique to me alone. And I wish we could create a society that valued that - the individual and how they fit into the common good without losing their identity.
That is why I keep saying I want to go back to the hippy movement. I think they were on to something when they claimed that each person was a wonderful person just for being them.
But maybe I am wrong...
Either way - each of us needs to find how THEY thrive in this new world. I don't think we will go back to the way it was two months ago - there will be more diseases, more natural disasters, more political turmoil in the months and years to come. And they will change us. So maybe be patient with each other and try hard to help everyone be the best person they can be.
The black and white divide between the past and the future I am calling out is, of course, artificial. And I have attributed those posts to economics, capitalism, lack of socialism, broken health and tax systems... a number of "culprits" who when taken at face value, are probably not to blame.
The other thing I have seen over the last few weeks is a so called divide opening up between introverts and extroverts. Those who are okay with being locked in a house and those who are needing to leave.
Now this divide is also artificial but has equally black and white factors attributed to it. I need to see people, I need a hug, I never liked people anyway, I read books, I have a cat... all kinds of people saying all kinds of things as if they were the one and only answer.
A problem with social media has always been presentation of ideas. How I present something makes a difference, and in social media most people present "opinions" as not merely "facts" but as somehow brought down from the mountain on stone tablets.
Carved in stone truth for everyone is rarely found in social discussion.
But we sort of know that.
So I wonder what is really behind the messages. What is at the root of thrive or failure to thrive in the pandemic world?
I am going to present some ideas born from discussion with my wife and consideration of our families and see if they might not round out some of the edges of what is causing problems both now, before, and potentially after.
None of this might ring true for you - but I think good discussion makes you think, and so I am presenting this as something to think about.
Extrovert and Introvert is a false label. Or rather, has become a shortcut, used to describe very limited understandings. To be an extrovert means more than needing to go outside. To be an introvert means more than needing to be alone.
Here are some issues around that - how comfortable are you reflecting on your own life? How comfortable are you in your own house? How much do you need to be around other people? Do you like to be in a crowd? When new ideas crop up in your head do you need to talk to other people about them? How much television is actually healthy?
You see - the ideas are complex. And when we say, I am an introvert I am ok - it could mean SO many different things that there is no easy label on why that is true.
Take me, I am somewhat introverted in that I recharge emotional energy by being alone. However, I cannot for the life of me sit in one place for longer than, say, half an hour. In the round of a week I usually travel, say, 400 km just driving from one place to the next - sometimes for no reason.
I cannot not have my mind occupied - so I need to be "doing" something all the time. But is that an extrovert quality or ADHD?
I have anxiety and PTSD but that does not mean that I do not thrive off of constant newness. I do not even drive home from the store using the same route I took.
So jsut for myself, there is no easy label. And I imagine that is true for others as well.
How about the economy, social safety net, etc.
I say it was broken but the reasons I say it was broken may not resonate with anyone else.
I think it sucks that the main point of most of our lives is sustenance employment. It takes two breadwinners most of their week to earn enough money to provide human basic needs. That should not be true. We should have way more time to paint, make music, love, food, etc. Or at least that is how I feel.
I always thought communal living would be a better answer. Still do. If we were in groups of 10-15 now instead of groups of 2-4 would that not be better? But again, that is me.
I do not value "stuff" the way others do. I wear old clothes and buy most of what I own at Giant Tiger. But I need high end tech and expensive rum, as well as trips across the country.
What we value and why differs from each person, and it differs greatly.
I guess when I say the old system was broken I am meaning the system that said getting rich was the plan, having 1.4 kids was the plan, working more than 40 hours per week was the plan, always buying the next new thing was the plan... these are the things I am glad have been taken away by the pandemic.
Now what is important is keeping healthy. What is important is finding joy where you are. What is important is spending time with family. What is important is making do with what you have.
And in those ways I feel joy in my heart.
But "I" think, and again, this is an opinion, that what needed to change, and may yet perhaps change in this - is that our value system needs to change.
And it is not about how we run an economy, it is not about whether we are introverted or extroverted, it is not about rich or poor, gender, sexuality, or anything that we have been fighting over before...
What needs to change is the recognition that each individual person is just that. And what I need, how I meet those needs, and how I fit in with others is unique to me alone. And I wish we could create a society that valued that - the individual and how they fit into the common good without losing their identity.
That is why I keep saying I want to go back to the hippy movement. I think they were on to something when they claimed that each person was a wonderful person just for being them.
But maybe I am wrong...
Either way - each of us needs to find how THEY thrive in this new world. I don't think we will go back to the way it was two months ago - there will be more diseases, more natural disasters, more political turmoil in the months and years to come. And they will change us. So maybe be patient with each other and try hard to help everyone be the best person they can be.
Tuesday 24 March 2020
Sufficient Unto the Day...
I have always had this sense that everything was going to be all right.
People accuse me of being too laid back, and I get that. I do not worry or panic about the things that normal people worry or panic about.
(as an aside - the things I DO worry about are weird as well. I worry about what the "best" thing to have for supper is. I worry about how to get 8 hours of sleep. I worry about which shirt to wear today. I worry about whether strangers think I am attractive... But when I get cancer, when there is a pandemic, when the money runs out... no worry at all)
I would love to be able to claim this is the result of faith - that I let go and let God - or put it at the feet of Jesus or some other trite and meaningless convention of faith. But it has nothing to do with faith in that sense.
I have been thinking in the midst of this pandemic and I guess the way my mind works is basically this:
That is it in a nutshell.
So it totally explains my worries and lack of worry. I really do not care about tomorrow at any deep level. I really do not care about yesterday at any deep level. If it is happening today, then it means everything to me.
Now, as I said, this is not classical faith the way it has evolved through theology - but I wonder if it is closer to the way Jesus intended us to see the world. Is this in fact what "being religious" means?
As you can imagine, I am weathering the pandemic fairly well because I am focused almost completely on today. And today is absolutely no different from any other day in my life - except for some minor variations, and every day has minor variations, so it does not surprise me.
And because of that, I would like to make the case for ancient spiritual wisdom actually giving us the tools we need in times like this.
In my own tradition there is this whole speech Jesus gives where he says that birds of the air and flowers of the field do not worry about tomorrow - and yet they have magnificent lives. He follows this up by saying "sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof" (in the old fashioned way of our bibles) or perhaps if he was speaking to us now he might say - "there is enough to worry about right in front of you - for my sake - let it go."
And the other big spiritual gurus were pretty clear on the same thing... from Buddha who essentially said that concentrating on the here and now is the path to salvation through all the rest of them.
Live in the present. Give thanks for the present. Celebrate the goodness you see.
That is faith in action.
It is hard to do. But it is not impossible. And I guess that is where I hope we can get to. An ability to wake up and see the snow falling outside our windows, where we are locked away from the pandemic, and think - wow, pretty - and go make some toast.
The moment is all that there is. Make the most of it. That is what Jesus would have done.
People accuse me of being too laid back, and I get that. I do not worry or panic about the things that normal people worry or panic about.
(as an aside - the things I DO worry about are weird as well. I worry about what the "best" thing to have for supper is. I worry about how to get 8 hours of sleep. I worry about which shirt to wear today. I worry about whether strangers think I am attractive... But when I get cancer, when there is a pandemic, when the money runs out... no worry at all)
I would love to be able to claim this is the result of faith - that I let go and let God - or put it at the feet of Jesus or some other trite and meaningless convention of faith. But it has nothing to do with faith in that sense.
I have been thinking in the midst of this pandemic and I guess the way my mind works is basically this:
I will probably be dead tomorrow. How do I have the best day ever today?
That is it in a nutshell.
So it totally explains my worries and lack of worry. I really do not care about tomorrow at any deep level. I really do not care about yesterday at any deep level. If it is happening today, then it means everything to me.
Now, as I said, this is not classical faith the way it has evolved through theology - but I wonder if it is closer to the way Jesus intended us to see the world. Is this in fact what "being religious" means?
As you can imagine, I am weathering the pandemic fairly well because I am focused almost completely on today. And today is absolutely no different from any other day in my life - except for some minor variations, and every day has minor variations, so it does not surprise me.
And because of that, I would like to make the case for ancient spiritual wisdom actually giving us the tools we need in times like this.
In my own tradition there is this whole speech Jesus gives where he says that birds of the air and flowers of the field do not worry about tomorrow - and yet they have magnificent lives. He follows this up by saying "sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof" (in the old fashioned way of our bibles) or perhaps if he was speaking to us now he might say - "there is enough to worry about right in front of you - for my sake - let it go."
And the other big spiritual gurus were pretty clear on the same thing... from Buddha who essentially said that concentrating on the here and now is the path to salvation through all the rest of them.
Live in the present. Give thanks for the present. Celebrate the goodness you see.
That is faith in action.
It is hard to do. But it is not impossible. And I guess that is where I hope we can get to. An ability to wake up and see the snow falling outside our windows, where we are locked away from the pandemic, and think - wow, pretty - and go make some toast.
The moment is all that there is. Make the most of it. That is what Jesus would have done.
Monday 16 March 2020
The Good of the Many - Leads to Loneliness
I grew up watching Star Trek.
Well - obsessing over Star Trek.
I suppose I am lucky that I chose a show that reflected a deep sense of moral value back into the world. Or perhaps I was already someone who held the values of love and inclusion close to my heart and so I loved the show because I saw myself in it.
Nonetheless - I have lived 50 years with the idea of "do no harm" and that the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. I have lived my life believing that race does not matter and that interfering with the way another person saw the world was wrong.
So the measures being taken to flatten the curve already make sense to me.
I also have been reading about how the same things happened in the early 1900's around the Spanish Flu. The Universities and schools shut down, for example. And there are undoubtedly many other examples.
The real difference I suppose is ease of travel. Back in the day we had to wait weeks till the ship crossed the ocean. Now we are there this afternoon.
I will not pretend that I mind social isolation. I am not a gregariously needy person when it comes to social interaction. I prefer writing on my laptop or playing skyrim.
But my role in life is to interact and care for those who are vulnerable and who need attention. And to offer a spiritual dimension to the reality I witness. Being the op ed type of journalist who tries to delve deep into issues that others find impermanent - like art and faith and society - sometimes means taking a different view of things.
So here is a thought that I think you might all agree with but that not many are putting out there.
The world is a lonely place.
It has been becoming lonelier and lonelier as we spend more time at home, on the internet, as we move away from family and become a global citizens.
We already struggle to find meaningful connection. And this is going to make it worse.
I fear, not the loss of 20% of the population or whatever this pandemic may do in the short term (which, I do not dismiss, it is sad and scary - but reality) What I truly fear is the aftermath.
9/11 changed the world forever. In subtle but interesting ways. We became a nanny state where agreement with the majority became the greatest social value.
It changed us.
Looking back sociologists will be able to point to that one event and say that society was moving in one direction and the twin towers altered the trajectory of social development.
Somehow 9/11 also changed science. I do not know if you remember, but before that we could clone people, we could build space stations, teleportation was right around the corner...
A decade later people turned against science and now we cannot even convince people that the planet is getting warmer or that they should wash their hands.
So what will the outcome of the Corona virus Pandemic be? How much will this change who we are?
That is my fear. That perhaps social contact and the idea of togetherness is at risk. Perhaps we will come to see people who want to be around other people as abnormal. Perhaps we will no longer have group events, concerts, sports...
I don't know. Things never happen in obvious ways because human beings are bizarrely unpredictable. Witness the fact of toilet paper shortages with a disease that does not alter your "regularity" at all.
So I might be wrong about "what" will be forever changed. Still, I worry that something will be forever changed - and not for the better.
I guess my hope is that we continue to value the good things - love, peace, hope, joy and that we fight to remember to keep those things alive even as the world shifts beneath our feet.
Well - obsessing over Star Trek.
I suppose I am lucky that I chose a show that reflected a deep sense of moral value back into the world. Or perhaps I was already someone who held the values of love and inclusion close to my heart and so I loved the show because I saw myself in it.
Nonetheless - I have lived 50 years with the idea of "do no harm" and that the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. I have lived my life believing that race does not matter and that interfering with the way another person saw the world was wrong.
So the measures being taken to flatten the curve already make sense to me.
I also have been reading about how the same things happened in the early 1900's around the Spanish Flu. The Universities and schools shut down, for example. And there are undoubtedly many other examples.
The real difference I suppose is ease of travel. Back in the day we had to wait weeks till the ship crossed the ocean. Now we are there this afternoon.
I will not pretend that I mind social isolation. I am not a gregariously needy person when it comes to social interaction. I prefer writing on my laptop or playing skyrim.
But my role in life is to interact and care for those who are vulnerable and who need attention. And to offer a spiritual dimension to the reality I witness. Being the op ed type of journalist who tries to delve deep into issues that others find impermanent - like art and faith and society - sometimes means taking a different view of things.
So here is a thought that I think you might all agree with but that not many are putting out there.
The world is a lonely place.
It has been becoming lonelier and lonelier as we spend more time at home, on the internet, as we move away from family and become a global citizens.
We already struggle to find meaningful connection. And this is going to make it worse.
I fear, not the loss of 20% of the population or whatever this pandemic may do in the short term (which, I do not dismiss, it is sad and scary - but reality) What I truly fear is the aftermath.
9/11 changed the world forever. In subtle but interesting ways. We became a nanny state where agreement with the majority became the greatest social value.
It changed us.
Looking back sociologists will be able to point to that one event and say that society was moving in one direction and the twin towers altered the trajectory of social development.
Somehow 9/11 also changed science. I do not know if you remember, but before that we could clone people, we could build space stations, teleportation was right around the corner...
A decade later people turned against science and now we cannot even convince people that the planet is getting warmer or that they should wash their hands.
So what will the outcome of the Corona virus Pandemic be? How much will this change who we are?
That is my fear. That perhaps social contact and the idea of togetherness is at risk. Perhaps we will come to see people who want to be around other people as abnormal. Perhaps we will no longer have group events, concerts, sports...
I don't know. Things never happen in obvious ways because human beings are bizarrely unpredictable. Witness the fact of toilet paper shortages with a disease that does not alter your "regularity" at all.
So I might be wrong about "what" will be forever changed. Still, I worry that something will be forever changed - and not for the better.
I guess my hope is that we continue to value the good things - love, peace, hope, joy and that we fight to remember to keep those things alive even as the world shifts beneath our feet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)