Well, now that my partner is out of
hospital and recovering in a more bush-like suburb, I thought I’d put a few
thoughts down on my Monday “off”, before I feed the cats in a couple of
households and then head up to see her. I’ll begin with the limitations of family.
Now, I’ve mentioned a few times on this
blog that not everyone is blessed when it comes to family: that view is based
on the notion that families are capable of being beneficial – “good”, in a
sense. Of course, that sense varies from person to person – some treasure the
emotional support of a good family, others find their life’s meaning (which becomes unhealthy and harmful if it
becomes obsessional, or to the exclusion of other families and individual humans)
in families, some a way to pass the time.
Sadly, there are also grey areas, where a
family that is superficially “nice” may be a hotbed of guilt trips for control,
or the family – much as, in the Deverry series, slavery is described as “bad”
because it accustoms people to being cruel – accustoms people to conflict,
aggression and control, or family values that are nonBPLF (e.g., criminal conduct, which I have seen in some families).
Those, however, are topics for another
time.
(Conflict
in a family, incidentally, is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can – if done
constructively – be a resolution of past conflicts / karmic issues – which is
often best resolved when both sides agree calmly to let the other be.)
The main thing I want to cover here is that
some otherwise genuinely good families can be a constraint on individuals - which is nothing to do with idiocy along the lines of people "not being good enough" for others. As
an example, when studying metaphysics / spirituality in a serious way, it is
often necessary for people to focus their time and energy on that. Now, this is
NOT the problem of trying to deal with being “born on the wrong side of the
tracks”, as that is a manifestation and exercising of society’s bigotry and
prejudices, and thus is nothing healthy; but there are times when other
interests validly supercede those of family.
Such circumstances are also a test of that
family: if they are genuinely BPLF loving, they will not only accept, but
embrace that individual moving on to something greater.
Unfortunately, in real life, such
situations are often cursed with lack of vision / selfishness, or things such
as people planning on being supported, rather than making a genuine effort to
be an independent adult. Too often, some people make the mistake of assuming that
THEIR need to learn in a family
environment means everyone should learn in a family
environment, which is a mistake that I have written
about before.
Next, I’d like to move on to the possible
use of education
as a preventative influence.
The background to this is that I was
watching the UK TV series “House
of Cards”, and in one episode a group of thugs decide to run the Prime Minister
off the road and bash him (which is a
little improbable, but then, this is TV, and the shooting of the thugs afterwards
is even more improbable). Now, I can understand the frustration, pain,
isolation and desperation of people who have been devastated by that sort of
government, but expressing
it violently actually undermines society as well as making a constructive
resolution of what is harming them less likely. From there, it was but a small
intellectual hop, skip and a jump to note that the violence at anti-Muslim /
pro-humanity rallies is counter-productive, and that the cretins spouting hate are
doing the work of Da’esh (as mentioned in
an article on a senior counter-terrorism police office, “bogans
with slogans” do not help).
Clearly, however, these people do NOT understand
that they are doing harm. So … what should be done about this (apart from the staples of energetic work)?
Well, to some extent, the topic has been
partially considered in the debate over what to do with those who have become
or are becoming violent extremists (e.g.,
see here
and here),
and, at those stages, the options can probably be simplistically summarised down
to educate them - if they’ll listen and someone with eloquence will teach, or otherwise
do some form of harm minimisation.
However, in my view, we ideally would cast
our view further back, to when these people are being raised, and their
characters are being moulded.
Now, we’re born with our basic character, as a result of what we
have done, learned and developed, and what we have failed to do, learn or
develop, in our past lives – as well as a few things we take on or block
temporarily for specific incarnations, but that is shaped by our experiences in
this life. In a sense, what we bring into this life is the clay, and this life
is the shaping and firing.
Families are one of the shaping influences,
and this where “bad” families can be such a problem, but, in today’s world,
peer and other influences are probably at least or even more significant. I
think some neochristian once made a statement along the lines of “give me the
child until seven, and I will give you the adult” – which is a chilling allusion
to the last two millennia of neochristian social engineering.
What if, on the other hand, education also
addressed students’ character? They are well placed to do so, and it has been
done before – “classical” education in recent centuries, as well as in other
eras - and those past experiences are good examples of why it won’t and, under current
circumstances, shouldn’t happen.
Past examples have effectively been passing
on the values and mores
of society – e.g., militarism in ancient Rome and Sparta, neochristian “values”
in the last two millennia, dedication to imperialism in British “public”
schools over the last few centuries, etc.
Furthermore, many parents have the
tragically wrong “mini me” approach to parenting, where they – incorrectly - think
children exist to promulgate their own personal world view and values, and thus
they would oppose anything even if it was genuinely BPLF “good”.
Nevertheless, in an ideal world (you know, the one so populated by unicorns there is a Department for Recycling Unicorn Droppings :)
), education would pick up the inadequacies of parenting, and would also correct
the errors, in a BPLF sense. It would be something which avoids the “one size
fits all” flaw of so much current thinking (e.g., this review is, in my opinion, probably fatally flawed by the assumption that something is only of value if it can be applied to a majority whereas it SHOULD be more like this [thank you, A :) ] ), and would focus on the
individual and their spiritual needs.
And, since that doesn’t exist now, all
people can do is turn to their BPLF Guides – who have always been available,
for those who care to listen, throughout the existence of this Universe …
I was also going to discuss the fact that emotions are
not more important than principles, but that is large topic, and
will require its own post.
[2] Please
see here, here and my post "The
Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons
I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2,
although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather
engagingly - to be the Earth edition of
"The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").
[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is
no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be, and there are a lot of unwanted
changes to layout made upon publishing, so I often have to edit it immediately
after publishing to get the format as close to what I want as possible.Love, light, hugs and blessings
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix
Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga
... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this
site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue
(see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me
for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are,
to meditate-clear for peace), and here
for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend
learning how to flame, ground
and shield, do alternate
nostril breathing, work
with colour, and see also here and be
flexible.
The real dividing line is not between
Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who
believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.
- If your “gut” (your instinct/intuition) is telling you something is wrong, but logic and the available evidence is saying otherwise, the proper conclusion to draw is that you need better, more personally credible evidence. Your “gut” could be wrong, right, or missing the nuances / “shades of grey” . So could the available evidence.
- All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...
First published: Manadagr, 30th November, 2015
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's
and other minor matters): Monday, 30th November, 2015
