Post No. 3,353 - Society’s better angels in response to tragedy

As I start writing this, it is 3 am here. I went to sleep mid-evening, and woke up around an hour ago - not too unusual, but today was probably partly in response to having to do a lot of driving today for a routine appointment with my GP (who is excellent enough to worth driving more than an hour each way). 

As happens many days, I have been plagued - while awake - by the nightmares caused by the trauma of my former day job, but I have two boosts to help counter that today (apart from the techniques I have been taught): 

• a newsletter from a Rainbow Mob organisation; 

and 

• when I went outside to look at the stars (who were all holding a dress up party where they dressed up as clouds - quite convincingly, I must say), one of the neighbourhood cats (who we call NP - short for Not Pebbles after I mistook him for a missing cat named Pebbles) came over to say hello, and was quite insistent on having a long pat (until my back gave up from standing and leaning over [and my back was worse tonight because of the hours in a car seat] - I need to get a small folding chair so I can sit and maybe get NP to sit in my lap rather than bend over [he doesn't object to being held, but he squirms in pleasure and winds up back on the ground).  

There is another source of appreciation as well - one coming out of tragedy ... and that is the response by so many to theoterribleoantisemiticot_rr_r_stoattackoinoBondioonoSunday - responses which stay focused on the fact that the Jewish community was targetted, responses which are nuanced, responses which seem to me to be quite genuine in their remorse. 

As I near the end of the seventh decade of a life which has seen several such mass atrocity shootings here in Australia (back to the 1980s), I have to say this is by far the best response of the Australian community to tragedy that I have seen - which does not lessen the pain, or the need to take actions which address violence, hate, and antisemitism, but, in the last day and a bit, I have seen signs of emotional maturity in many Australians that gives me more hope for the future than I have felt since the unduly optimistic and naïve 1970s. 

 

PS - the good response did NOT happen everywhere in the Australian community - and not elsewhere 

PPS - see also this YouTube video, on hopeo-odespiteotheoneedoforoworko-oinotheoUSA  

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider: 

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If you appreciated this post, please share it. I am now on SubStack, Patreon, 
and you can support me at PayPal (or PayPal Repeating Support Options) or Ko-Fi 
Any and all support will be greatly appreciated, and will aid me in continuing this work 

 

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here, and Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear  

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2025     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/  

 

Post No. 3,352 - Social conditioning - society’s brainwashing

EVERYONE goes through their society’s brainwashing - which is a more accurate description of what is euphemistically termed “social conditioning”, much as the original “commercial (or business) propaganda” is a more accurate term for what was later euphemistically referred to as “advertising”. 

Social brainwashing - and for more on brainwashing, see Encyclopaedia Britannica,   Wikipedia,   how stuff works,   the knitting cult lady,   Voltaire - is, to some extent, what enables societies to functions as it leaders/rulers/(elite) influencers want it to. 

In some societies, pre-agriculture in particular, that may well be largely beneficial. 

In others - especially coloniser and other militaristic and/or authoritarian societies, it is “bad” (nonBPM, in my terminology). 

This social brainwashing exacerbates and uses human characteristics such as the fear of isolation, FOMO, fear of human aggression, etc to accomplish its aims (including things like class and other division, and inequality). 

It can often be regarded, in fact, as evil. 

 

And it can be overcome. 

 

On a personal level, experiences that enable people to “see” (generally by becoming one of its victims) what is euphemistically referred to as “society’s underbelly” (it’s savage, uncaring, exclusionary, hateful, bigotted, violent [including SA and CSA] parts) are often what lead individuals to start rejecting and undoing that social brainwashing. 

But it can also be recognised, rejected and undone by positive experiences as well - consciousness raising and other forms of education, developing critical thinking skills, enlightenment of various types including the good types of religious paths such as Quakerism and witchcraft, and good personal growth work. 

Some rebellions have also led to major reductions of (or changes of) social brainwashing, as the resistance  historian discusses.  

 

At a social level, every movement that has promoted a fairer, more inclusive society - including mass movements against racism, misogyny, other forms of bigotry, and violence, and mass movements for a fairer, more inclusive, more democratic society (voting for those who don’t own land, for women, and for members  of other minority groups, and for active human rights actions [safer workplaces, fairer work conditions, positive duty requirements, etc], etc) - has acted to undo the evil forms of social brainwashing. 

 

And the work of this blog also counters and undoes that evil.  

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider: 

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If you appreciated this post, please share it. I am now on SubStack, Patreon, 
and you can support me at PayPal (or PayPal Repeating Support Options) or Ko-Fi 
Any and all support will be greatly appreciated, and will aid me in continuing this work 

 

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here, and Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear  

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2025     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/