Natural Child, Natural Society

Evidence and opinion, again.

Getting a grip on articulating the difference I sense between evidence and opinion.

Spotting the danger signs.

One cannot get angry AT evidence, unless of course, the evidence incriminates that person, and they wish to avoid it. That is another matter altogether.

Evidence, simply put , is what it is. 

Nothing one can say about it alters that. 

The evidence is neutral. It can inform, that is all.

No opinion about it alters it's basic state. 

Opinion does not change the evidence.

What is different in opinion is that the perception r bias of the 'observer' has interjected, and thrown up a projection, an internalisation, a denial.

Opinions tend to be held as personal opinions. 

They form part of self-identification and include shared internalisations, drawn from cultural, institutional, experiential, educational influencers. 

The Flag, Football Team, Big Tits are Good, Religion, Ideology, Vast Wealth, Aspiration, Alpha Male, Women are ..., Republican or Democrat?  all opinion.

For someone who holds a personal opinion, when it is challenged, they feel that the challenge is to them, to their very self, and react accordingly to the threat. 

That's why it goes skewiff  - the other party is taking things personally, and is probably unaware that they are so doing. Put two opinion holders together and watch what happens. 

People who hold opinions carry a tendency to be extremist, if only because they lack accurate information, and tend to rely upon a flow of triggers(media) and their own imagination for political insight. 

There is a spectrum over which we find many subtle extremisms, built into neurotypical or socially conditioned culture. 

These subtle extremists are on all sides, because they like to take a side, wrong or right, but always, in their own eyes, right.  They also like to know what's happening inside the other side. It's a game.

Trident. Some people believe it is right.

Brexit. Some people believe it is right.

Grenfell Towers, one week on, and survivors are still not fully covered for all their very pressing needs. 

The evidence is that the survivors deserve the full power of the state, and all material and psycho-social support to be given over to caring for these tragic people, without question, even as the search for the missing, and the investigation into how many were burned alive, are under way.  So many people afflicted.

Is it right that these people are fixated on Brexit, and that is a distraction from the real need the must be met, now, of our own people, who they claim to 'serve'?

Is that right?

These people in Government are behaving as they have been groomed and trained. Quite a lot, the Civil servants, clerical staff, back bench MPs, Coppers are decent enough people, are not violent in any way; most are doing their best to live as decent healthy humane beings who live, love and pass on. 

Their executive branch are a different matter. The political masters, local and national, must be held to account. They have committed crimes, and must be held to account.

The evidence suggests compassion, and direct action.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

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

Violence Labelling. An avoidance tactic.

I wrote this for a friend, who was articulating her sadness, her 'sombre mood' and I realise I wrote it for me, and for you too.
"Your feeling this way is part of your for humanity, and your feeling is healthy......

Stand as that health where ever you are.

Vulnerability is part of who we are at our very best, sensitive, aware. honest.... from these all kindnesses come.
And when these human qualities are trampled by insensitive government, by media and by any others dedicated to diminishing awareness and veiling blatant corruption, it is such a bigness of it that we can feel a little lost. However, that comparison, for me at least, is inaccurate, because I know we are all backed up by biology, the logic of life, the bio-logic.

Life stands with us, as we stand with Life. The system is tiny by comparison,and we are even tinier that the system. The system is a disease state that has become institutionalised, and this is a healing planet.

The biological mandate for healthy human beings does not include making war, bullying, domination..... these are all disease states emerging from hierarchical institutional violence. On a healing planet.

You are healthy.

We are healers.

That's another reason to write and speak and sing into the world we share.".

That said, I'd like to share some thoughts arising from the media led 'debate' about whether or not the van attack at the Finsbury Mosque was terrorism, and what place, ranking has White Nationalist Islamophobic Terrorism has, and so on... roll on the 24/7 word fest, a pompous parade of people who they believe they are thinking, but are not.

Here's my thinking, laid out.

Violence Labelling.

Islamic Terrorism.

Islamophobia.

British Nationalist Terrorism (IDA, UVF etc..)

Counter-Insurgency.

Domestic Abuse.

Pedophilia.

Kings.

God.

War.

Remove the adjectives.

Take away the labels.

What is in the can?

Violence.

War is violence.

Terrorism is violence.

Armed Rebellion is violence.

Insurgency is violence.

Counter-Insurgency is violence.

Rape is violence.

Bullying is violence.

Indoctrination is violence.

Usury is violence.

Debt is violence.

Psychological manipulation is violence.

Withholding shared resources is violence.

Hoarding wealth is violence.

Telling children WHAT to think, using a reward punishment dynamic is violence.

Cladding a high rise social housing building in flammable material for the aesthetic of the rich is violence.

The issue is violence.

Not merely whose violence.

“Our wars are good wars, their war is terrorism, and therefore it is bad.”

No. Not having that.

All violence.

Violence. Power. Bullying. Manipulation.

All that violence that is fully staffed, professionalised and industrialised.

One cannot talk sensibly about terrorism without examining all the evidence in detail.

Looking at all the evidence, we can say that making policy based on opinions in this area is either intentional or unintentional and therefore nastily dangerous or psychologically unstable, or both.

When States commit to war – the intent is real, emerges from a source and has a plan and it’s run by people whose unconscious motivations are driven by disease, rather than a healthy intelligence.

To maintain the delusion of ‘Freedom and Democracy’ they avoid aspects of the available evidence, most of which exists in the lived domain of ordinary people’s lives at the bottom of the heap and talk about abstracts such as ‘Freedom and Democracy’.

It’s all drivel.

So how to tackle it?

Refuse to participate.

Look at the problem, dig into the detail.

Learn from ones own experience as part of that examination.

Were you ever bullied? What was that? What were the outcomes?

On a scientific, evidential basis we can look at what generates and maintains the cycles of violence at each level: for example (any substantial or diagnostic list or network charting of actors and influences would be much more detailed than the outlines I give here).

- Individual : Damage in Utero, disrupted development, stress induced by not being understood, adult controlling reactions to that stress

- Family : Addiction, bullying, child abuse, domestic abuse, Hierarchy of Power

- Community : Fear of the other, maintenance of a hierarchy, disruption by conquest,

- Language group : Fear of the other, disruption by conquest

- Religion : Fear of the other, fear of self, shame, guilt, sin.

- Historical Trauma : Patterns of wounded behaviour become normalised

- Criminals : Can only operate within a property owning culture. For example, by decriminalising weed, and granting folk the right to grow their own, and to consume it, but not to sell it removes the criminal income stream. Why would a Government not do that?

- Institutions : Holding power, they defend themselves, even as they are hurting innocents.

- States : War Capability, Corrupted Justice and Police Systems, Wealth control

- Ideology : Belief, omitting evidence, indoctrination,

- Environment : Lack of a healthy environment, chronic stress, unresolved trauma, street violence, neglect, divide between rich and poor,

- Genetics : no evidence that violence is a genetic predisposition

- Biology : no evidence that we, as a species, are naturally violent,

- Internalisation : all evidence points towards internalisation of external values and beliefs, via indoctrination, manipulation and spin, has a huge association with the permission for violence.

… and we can try to see how they interact, what the dynamic flows are, how do these levels of action and interaction synergise and materialise.

Of course, this is just a short list, and the web is far more complex – yet the basic core is simple, and when it is disrupted, violence emerges.

What are the common themes?

Every outcome related to an event has meaning, is evidence.

All hidden outcomes are part of the product, from sourcing material to final product, use and it’s discarding.

Opinion might be a useful guide, at times, as to what might need some examination; the opinion itself, it is not evidence, and cannot take the place of evidence.

As the British public are slowly discovering with regards to Brexit, and Fire Safety for Social Housing.

Violence is the issue.

Power, psychological and economic distress, recovery.

David Smail has written some of the most scientifically honest and insightful writings on the psychologies of power in the UK, and how they afflict ordinary people's lives ..... how the effects of distal power percolate down into the lives of ordinary people who have little power by comparision to change the behaviour of that distal power. The lived experience of people subjected to political and economic adversities. and their relations within a society that maintains the disparity inherent in that distal power relationship.

"Hardly any of the 'symptoms' of psychological distress may correctly be seen as medical matters. The so-called psychiatric 'disorders' are nothing to do with faulty biology, nor indeed are they the outcome of individual moral weakness or other personal failing. They are the creation of the social world in which we live, and that world is structured by power.

Social power may be defined as the means of obtaining security or advantage, and it will be exercised within any given society in a variety of forms: coercive (force), economic (money power) and ideological (the control of meaning). Power is the dynamic which keeps the social world in motion. It may be used for good or for ill.

One cannot hope to understand the phenomena of psychological distress, nor begin to think what can be done about them, without an analysis of how power is distributed and exercised within society. Such an understanding is the focus of the work of David Smail."

He observe that many influential elements within the medical and political establishments look at the symptoms, the distress that people present with, and refuse to look at the whole social context, and thus they limit their examination, diagnosis and prognosis to the individual. And therefore they cannot resolve nor can they heal the situation.

He says that is a faulty approach. I agree.

We must include the social setting and context as part of the examination, diagnosis and prognosis of the individual. The evidence matters, all of it.

In this short video, he goes over the general thesis, in clear easy english, and so gently, yet firmly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ByF_0HV5w

A must view, and I urge readers to follow up his writings, they are easy to read, simple straight language and spot on, evidence based.

www.davidsmail.info - his writings.... if you disliked Thatcher, you're gonna love Smail, and still be challenged.

Help those who are truly in need, now, and confront the problem as we go.... honestly.

Help those who are truly in need, now, and confront the problem as we go.... honestly. I will repeat in this piece. Sorry!

On Numbers.... I'm not so sure.

At least the council could say how many people they are currently caring for, and get them to collate any others being helped outside the council's operations, by the police, red cross, other charities, NHS etc... that way we know who is alive, and we will find out the rest when the investigation is complete….

Do we need to know before the survivors, and the families of the deceased and missing?

Need to know.

Privacy and respect is not secrecy.

The fire investigators do need to collect evidence and examine that building in detail, and they will. The Fire Fighters investigation will do to the best of their ability and expertise, and they have solid backing.

We know that a criminal investigation is under way, with much of the evidence in the public domain already, That is proceeding. The survivors will need time,space, privacy, support in every way, ensuring that the helpers are always listening, and hearing the survivors.

For this, the Survivors immediate need is for us, The State and The People, to hold them first in our deliberations - they would probably suggest we hold all those living in high-rise or high density social housing, by protecting their peers in high rises elsewhere, taking immediate action, use the army if need be, they can be excellent builders....

I don't give a hoot what Government does it,minority, dodgy majority, unity, cross party whatever. Just do it.

This would remove the fear many survivors will be experiencing for the hundreds of thousands in high rise high density social housing, easing their burden somewhat in a tangible way.....

A National Infrastructure Project, carried out by the people, on fixed fee transparent social contracts... fully funded. We make this happen. Peacefully. Firmly. It is our money. Focus.

They also need appropriate accommodation, close to each other, clear lines of communication, privacy, technical assistance on all material issues, income, access to professional quality counseling, access to medical and nutritional support, access to health gyms, saunas, all healing and body work resources; they will also need to resume life living as families, as neighbors, as schools, as clubs and associations as soon as they are ready.

The entire population around the towers, those who live in the area will be traumatised too, many struggling, each to a different degree, in different ways...

The need is huge, and they don't need energy diverted from that... by rage, or violence or blame game, venting etc (it's ok to to express that anger, and it's meaning, it is felt and real - smashing things probably won't help the Survivors and others afflicted by this horrific man made disaster.) before all the evidence is up, and they are ready for the next step. They matter.

The investigations will feed into an inquest, which can be had once the full toll is known, and all the survivors are ready to participate in the inquest. That could be a few months from now.

Then, wherever criminal actions are clear, prosecutions must follow. And be severe. The police have cautioned that they will make arrests if the see evidence that warrants any arrests. I think they will want to do this and do the job well, and bring justice.

Then, and only then should a Public Inquiry start.

And we will be ready for that.

And it will not be a Chilcott, or a Hillsborough.

We will go beyond party politics, and get to the heart of the matter.

Our intent must be, among other things, Government by the people (who pay the wages and costs) instructing a national team of elected deliberaters and officials to host the public good, and engage in an adult,rational, emotionally intelligent discourse on Governance and the needs of a people, as a learning rather than adversarial team league politics. We can make that happen.

Kick political football right out of the field!

To be honest, I don't think that's too much to ask, do you?

That's the hope.

The rage that so many died such horrific deaths, burned alive even as they tried to escape, or save their own children or brother... or granny..over human action or inaction. is understandable, and meaningful.

It cannot go away.

It is here.

It's real.

It's how it is.

For the survivors It's indescribably harsh.

And we who are less directly affected, and are together, so to speak, we gotta be strong enough to hold the survivors, and the families of those who have died, and their communities, these people who are alive and who are now before us, and our entire community most move to enfold and hold it all together, to make it so that those people can feel safe, that we are here to nurture, to counsel, to listen and hear, until they feel they can continue, that they need not worry about material needs, and that they will remain as a community, as long as they so wish, in the same locale..... in sound accommodation, rather than high rise hotels, and all else that they need. Make their material worries vanish, and hold them.

They will want to cook for themselves, do their own laundry, use the cash to buy what they need, and much else besides. They will want to establish routines, and to live on.

And each of those things that they do that restores their sense of autonomy, of continuing, will help them deal with this, as long as we are walking with them, always listening, checking what we have heard so they know they are being heard.

They will want to tell their stories, to piece it together, to understand it and share that process with those around them, being strong in it together.

They are all vulnerable, yet powerfully human...

And we gotta make healthy social change the coolest thing on the planet.

How cool is Healthy Governance? The ultimate cool, baby!

Where the elected employees of the people hear the peoples instructions, and carry them out, funded by the people via taxation, with a mutual feedback process between people and People's Service so everyone knows what's happening, and it works. A social economy. For people.

Kick the political footballs into the ditch! That is our job now.

And the pain is still here. The horror, the fear,the shame. The confusion. The rage. The despair. I

t doesn't go away when I am happy, well just chilling, grooving... it's still there. I have to carry my bit, and share my part of the community's.... we must be strong for all the survivors. Everywhere. Let us not burden them.

Each so small, yet the love of the grass roots is so big that vast herds of buffalo can run over it, eat it, and shit on it, all over it and it still grows!

Makes The State look really small indeed.

Not what they were thinking when they wrote their small state bullshit economic theories. Small Minded State. Not what we wanted, not what we want.

It's really good to know you.

That you're out there, recycling, and cycling onwards. Musicing onwards. Living onwards. You, All the good, decent, stressed or happy, ordinary folk who make this world work, who are this society, and the majority pattern is that we present the best of our behaviour, and we are kinder than any Government.

All praise to the ancestors. All praise to our descendants.

I want to hear the people, not the media.

I want to hear the people, not the media.

I am listening to the people.

I want to hear from the media - how the survivors are being cared for, in detail, to know that they are being cared for with the best, most professional, most loving care possible.

In detail. What institutions and who are doing what.... and how it is working out.

I don't really need to hear a death toll score board being slowly updated in the public domain.

I can wait for the final death toll.

The Survivors and their families and the families of those who died do not need a public theatre, whilst the fire recovery and investigation is under way.

They will likely need to go through this in privacy, in safety, according to their own needs and wishes. Their situation must guide this above all else.

We can wait.

Meanwhile.

I do not want to hear about Inquiries governed by those who bear responsibility for the policies and the way those were implemented that led to this disaster.

I want that Government to stand down, immediately, and allow a national unity alliance to take the helm, and those other parties must put down the party split, there must be no opposition to the will of the people.

They cannot be allowed to investigate themselves, or have a hand in the investigations or access to confidential investigation materials or information or personnel.

The media must cease the drip drip theatre of horror.

Show some respect.

Show due respect.

We have social media, each other and open lines of communication across the grass roots, and we know enough to not need that theatre slammed in our faces day in, day out, as they sell advertising space.

We want facts, we want reliable information, we do not want opinion.

We want fullest expression of duty of care, we want a free hands to be the ones who carry out the investigations, 100% transparently.

That is our legal right. Our moral right.

Put it another way, the current Government, being the Government in power during which the conditions preceding this disaster were altered, cannot be allowed to Govern the investigations 'at arms length' either....

The rest of Parliament has to stand up, and with all due care and attention, do it's duty to the people, who are their paymasters, above and beyond any party political assignations, and pursue the evidence, place responsibility, and be just. Be Just and Robust in carrying out their duty to us all.

No excuses. This is an adult conversation.