Post No. 2,602 - Some interesting reading/viewing

Here are some links that might of interest or value:

• I’ve only watched the last episode of this series, but it was quite reasonable (actually, parts of it were quite impressive - particularly the attitudes and knowledge of those in Japan), and I consider the series is well worth a look, for those who can. For details, see the trailer here, and reviews here, here, and here;
  
• My recent posts on my political blog:  
• “From the news: on governance”;   “From the news: on sovereignty - and an activism email”;   “An activism email on the use of abusive ABA practices”;   the genocide in Artsakh;   news reports on the Voice,   human rights,   and   [CW] the rebuilding of Ukraine;  
  
• “The Stats Guy: How to view the world from multiple perspectives”   https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2023/09/23/the-stats-guy-world-perspectives/   - discusses the “Thinking Quadrant”; 
• a reputable organisation has tested a programme for detecting AI generated images, and found it seems to work well; 
  
• “two memoirs of disability and family explore Deafness and dwarfism”; 
• something I could not agree more with:   “Personal Branding is the Enshitification of Humans”   https://joanwestenberg.medium.com/personal-branding-is-the-enshitification-of-humans-ab0ae119c1bd; 
• a consideration on friendship, and “Workplace loneliness is the modern pandemic damaging lives and hurting businesses”   https://theconversation.com/workplace-loneliness-is-the-modern-pandemic-damaging-lives-and-hurting-businesses-213873; 
• a site with some “old UFO photos” - not all necessarily legit (some definitely aren’t), but I suspect many are - especially those which predate World War (part) Two and those from non-English speaking nations; 
• a thoughtful video on “effective altruism”; 
• the problem of “vocational awe”; 
• a video on “Autism ... in Older Autistic Adults (60+ Years Old)” - and see also this and this;
  
• a moon bathing journey; 
• a Preston Dennett video on CE-5 cases;
  
• this week’s “afterlife report” by the  Zammits. 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram and Mastodon.

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

Post No. 2,601 - Unwarranted, foolish, and damaging, destructive, or evil loyalty [Content Warning - mention of evil]

It occurred to me today that, in at least some ways, religious loyalty is very similar to business loyalty: 

it is something that some egregiously misled/duped people adopt because they (wrongly) think they’ll get rewards - money/power for business loyalty, afterlife rewards for religious loyalty.

Both are wrong (extremely few business loyalists ever wind up better off in any way - and almost all that partake of doing harm to others [often in the amathiac guise of being inhumanely touch] will create problems for themselves - and, too often, people they are close to [I cannot describe those nearby people as loved ... ]), and both can be enabling, aiding and actively participating in evil. 

The problems of the business loyalist are partly covered by my recovery from a corporate life series, in definitions here, here, here, here, and here, and in various posts on my political and this blog - and this post includes the following: 

• “That’s the problem with the American Dream - it makes everyone concerned for the day they’re gonna be rich.” Character President Bartlett, TV series “The West Wing“, Season 3, Episode 4 – Ways and Means (at 38:57).

This article on “vocational awe”, however, is probably the best description of these sorts of problems that I can recall coming across. 

In fact, that post may have triggered the thought train that led to this realisation ...

The evil caused by the religious loyalists are exemplified in this definition, but occur elsewhere as well, and I have written about those problems in a fair few posts.

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 consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram and Mastodon. 

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

 

Post No. 2,600 - A test of spirituality

I was watching a documentary about the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, and wondering about the people who were so glib/insufficiently caring(/unprofessionally caring?) about changes to the cooling pumps - which reminded me of many narrow focused people I have known over the decades ... people who don’t care that saving costs in their neck of the woods would increase costs or have consequences elsewhere. 

As an example of that, a much touted action by Australia’s former telephone department (might have been the Postmaster-General’s Department, back then ... no, looking at this, was Telecom) was to stop recording the as-constructed location of communications cables - which meant others had to search carefully and thoroughly, without any useful guides, to check the locations of cables before doing any work. 

This is an appalling breach of good engineering practice, but, presumably because it allowed everyone in that briar patch of bureaucracy to make themselves “look good”, it stuck - and, based on my working experience, easily cost the Australian community (because of the work done by other companies - and the preventable accidents which occurred as a result of not doing what good engineering practice said needed to be done) at least three times the savings - but those costs didn’t show up on the balance sheet of that briar patch of bureaucracy so they didn’t care (or were too incompetent to realise what they had done).

I’ve read of similar counterproductive examples relating to, for instance, deferring updates to railway signals which leads to massively more expensive costs later, but those making the decision didn’t care as they would be long gone when the piper had to be paid and, in the meantime, those costs didn’t show up on the balance sheet of their briar patch of bureaucracy. 

A third example is people delaying essential maintenance activities for wastewater treatment lagoons such as desludging (wastewater lagoons are low maintenance, not no maintenance) until operational problems occur - which also (unreasonably) tarnishes the reputation of lagoons ... and I note that the Fukushima disaster with good reason tarnished the reputation of the nuclear industry. 

The people responsible for conceiving, advocating for, making, approving and implementing those decisions all, in my opinion (IMO), lacked an appropriate form of caring - which means, IMO, that they lacked spirituality. 

Now, the vast majority of us will not be in such positions of responsibility, but the principle of our actions indicating our spiritual status (or lack thereof) still applies. 

When I raise that with people in my socioeconomic culture, their mind tends to leap to things like donating to charities, not being bigots, etc - all of which are valid points, but they are also something at risk of being a performative disguise ... 

(Came across that term via social media, actually - so no, social media is not ALL bad ... )

What is needed is something that is less obvious - something people are less likely to be inclined to invest the deliberate time, energy and effort to be performative in.

As an indication, when assessing hydraulics engineers, in addition to CVs, referees, interviews, etc, I often wondered if I should watch how they pour milk out of a cardboard carton - like the cartons shown here. Most people tend to unscrew the lid on the top of the carton, then pour so that the opening is at the lowest point of the top surface - which creates an air lock, and thus unsteady flow as air is intermittently sucked inside the carton. A good hydraulic engineer would pour so that the opening is at the top, so the outlet is never fully obstructed by flow - much like this woman (and this is a good solution for cartons which need to be cut open).

So ... what could be a similar test regarding spirituality? 

Well, there are actually quite a few - helping a parent with a stroller, smiling or at least not being surly, etc, but the one that came to mind for me today (and I acknowledge this is limited to cultures similar to mine - many places in the world do not have fridges and possibly not even electricity - or not affordably) was: 

when planning how much room to take up in the office fridge for your lunch, do you allow for the fact that others in the office may also want/need space in the fridge - not just for lunches, but also for, for instance, parents who are expressing milk?

I’ll let that sit with you, Dear Reader ... 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram and Mastodon. 

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

 

Post No. 2,599 - Fixated “thinking” [Content Warning - self harm caused by hate speech and bigotry]

I learned how to block people on LinkedIn today - late to the line on that item, and not for any particular personal need, but, as:

(a) the Voice has confirmed what many people have always known, which is that some people are irredeemable bigots (or “hard no's”, in the terminology of that referendum) - and hence Martin Luther King’s saying “It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless”; 

(b) transphobia is getting organised into (another) transgenocide; 

(c) while it is vital to shut down genocidaires before they get far in their acts of hate, self-care is also important - although the use of colour and chakras is helping me cope;

I chose to act using the precautionary principle, and keep those haters out of my life - which is a strategy advocated for on other, credible, decent social media. 

The thing that strikes me about these bigots is how rigid their (gender critical) “thinking” is - how fixated on a limited (gender essentialist) choice of physical characteristics, and what that says about their character flaws (see here). 

It isn’t going to be possible to change their characters before they harm a lot of people - including driving people to death by suicide through their hate, which they refuse to acknowledge. 

In fact, the person I blocked was asking for an explanation using “calm and clear” words as to how “free speech” can cause harm ... I was tempted to ask “ever hear of hate speech?”,but lack the time, energy and health to engage with the closed minded. 

There can be a benefit in doing so, in that it shows support to others, but there is little point in doing so for the “hard bigots”.

Here are a few other links that might be of interest - and note that those who are bigots in one area are frequently bigots in other areas as well:

• (aspects of) character [Content Warning - includes disturbing/harmful matters];  
• Why won’t/don’t people change?
  Some people, I think, are afraid they might have to grieve at the loss of outdated and wrong ideas - ideas that they are emotionally addicted to. This has to be addressed at an emotional level, ultimately -  addressing the head (thinking) initially is just the doorway to the heart.
• Post No. 2,584 - Vindictiveness and other miscellaneous thoughts [Content Warning: discussion of/links to articles on jealousy, vindictiveness, narcissism]; 
• Post No. 2,592 - wrong/uninformed assumptions, bigotry, and (other peoples') regrets; 
• Post No. 2,579 - Compassion ... and gender [Content Warning: mention of violence, sexism, sexual assault, CSA]; 
• Post No. 2,589 - An article from the Australian Independent Media Network on Indigenous identity; 
• An activism email on the use of abusive ABA practices;
  
• Good and TERRIBLE (unacceptable [Content Warning] threats of violence) responses to a bad comment about colonisation;  
• An excellent response to a particularly clueless remark by an arrogant overentitled patriarchal rich person; 
• White supremacists reach new lows; 
• Some good LGBTQIASB+ news reports - some very surprising (the person I blocked had made some gender essentialist rubbish in response to this decision); 
• A follow up to “The savagery of white supremacism in Australia”: Effects [Content Warning - racism, white supremacism].
  

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram and Mastodon. 

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

 

Post No. 2,598 - no PWR this week

Owing to an increase in the time and energy demands for other commitments and events, I will now not be doing a PWR this week. 

In the meantime, the areas included in my daily candles will be where I direct my efforts, particularly Nagorno-Karabakh and the major repressive regimes. I have received an alert - see https://www.lemkininstitute.com/so/0cOgvCyyE?languageTag=en&cid=5be0937b-d764-4697-9a38-8e2f8ba3f54c - for an active genocide underway in Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh, and that is where I will be focusing my work.

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

 

 

Post No. 2,597 - Reintroduction of labels

PS - my apologies, but it seems Blogger doesn’t make labels available in the mobile view, which is unfortunately beyond my control :( 

PPS - back in 2010, I created a list of posts under each label, which can be found at https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2010/07/blogiography-tags.html. At that stage I had fewer than 200 posts: with well over 2,000 posts now, although I would love to be able to, I will not be attempting to create an updated list (I still have to allocate labels to well over 1,000 posts, apart from anything else - such as there being better uses of my time and energy).

One of the things I have become more familiar and comfortable with as a result of my intermittent and often brief forays into social media, is the concept and use of hashtags.

Blogger doesn’t have hashtags per se, but it does have “labels”.

I used to use labels when I first started blogging, but improved search engines made that less useful, and I stopped using them. 

I now consider, however, that there is a fair argument for reintroducing labels, and will do so. 

One important caution: 

there is a gap of many years in the use of labels, and I am not proposing to add reintroducing labels to posts during those years to my already not inconsiderable to do list - which means you may need to combine labels and searches to find articles. My apologies.

One other note: 

I am going to tweak the labels I have/use and list in the footer widget - mostly the less used labels. I have, for example, discontinued the label “label”, which means this post about labels has no label ... 😁

(I probably will slowly work at adding labels to those posts without them - and editing existing labels ... but that is a massive task, and will take some time - probably years.) 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram and Mastodon. 

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

 

Post No. 2,596 - Social media and damage [Content warning: mention of abuse, including of children (child soldiers), assaults, violence, war]

One of my long term projects, should I ever get to it, is about the scars that most, if not all, of us have, and the effects of that. 

This is probably most obvious with abused animals - for example, abused dogs may become extremely withdrawn or extremely aggressive. However, the effects are also obvious with human animals, and include: 

• neglect and abuse of children - which is banned in, I think, all nations ... at least to the extent that the scarred leaders/legislators of those nations are capable of understanding it - which is why activism, including education, is so essential, although the events around the Voice referendum in Australia (see posts over on my political blog) show some people are so scarred/brutalised that they are incapable of changing to be decent people in this incarnation;
• abuse and assault of adults, including slavery, bullying, workplace bullying, etc - again, to the extent that the scarred leaders/legislators of those nations are capable of understanding it - which, again, is why activism, including education, is so essential, although the events around the Voice referendum in Australia (see posts over on my political blog) show some people are so scarred/brutalised that they are incapable of changing to be decent people in this incarnation; 
• those subjected to violence - who may themselves have been warped by violence. I am thinking of some forms of military training (not all), including the brutalisation of child soldiers shown, for instance, in the movie “Blood Diamond”.
  

These more extreme forms of scarring aka brutalisation are decried by most people, with the exceptions themselves, in my experience, being such extreme victims of scarring/brutalisation they do not recognise that they are damaged - they have been brainwashed/emotionwashed by what they have been subjected to, and have form of Stockholm  Syndrome (see also here and here) directed towards violence/brutality itself. 

Less obvious is the scarring/brutalisation of the business world - which I have been writing about in my recovering from a corporate life series. 

As an examples of that, consider: 

• the extreme obsessive-compulsive addiction to “the company” shown in the late 20^th century in Japan, continuing to now and leading to an epidemic of problems including deaths, although with increasing pushback for a saner life; 
• a Project Manager I worked with who questioned everything along the lines of “how does that benefit my client?” - to the extent of effectively questioning OHS and other workplace laws against bullying/overwork/abuse/slavery, professional codes requiring CPD; and all climate crisis action!!!
  That extremely unbalanced individual (who was an extreme minority - other were OK, some struggled with their craft, and some were actually very good and helpful) needed, IMO: 
• psychological assistance; 
• to be spoken to by their managers; and 
• if needed, legal action; 
• less extreme but still concerning, the focus on profit ahead of worker wellbeing - which may also reflect the elites in upper management being out of touch with, for instance, how younger workers lived, and the aggressiveness of admin sections of companies which assume bad faith on the part of those who have .
  

The response to the abuses committed by such scarred people must, first and foremost, be to stop them doing harm to others: 

• if scarred/brutalised people are committing physical violence, call the police and get the police to stop the aggressor - and charge them if warranted, then heal the victim, then and only then consider healing of the aggressor;
• if scarred/brutalised people are committing emotional/psychological abuse, the same sequence applies: contain and/or stop the harm, get the victim(s) safe and start healing them, and then and only then consider healing of the aggressor.
  

My experience is that this is actively being played out - played out well, not so well, and sometimes badly - on most forms of social media, and that can be wearing. Most wearing is the defensiveness of bigots and people who deny (and thus defend) structural bigotry and the continuation of the bigotry/structural bigotry, with things like “reply guys”, “pile ons”, etc, but the actions of trolls and the like is also wearing, and it can all turn what is supposed to be enjoyable into something that is dreaded.

And that is why I am taking another break from social media. 

At least that will allow me more time and energy for other pursuits in life ... such as healing from decades of abuse. 

PS - there is another aspect to all this as well: self care. After decades of being focused on others - including working so I could support family, especially for health and study needs - it is difficult to focus on self care. I was meant to give a short prayer at a Peace Festival today, but health problems stopped me going. I nearly forced myself to go, but that would have been (a) unsafe for me, and (b) tainted whatever I did with nonBPM energy.

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram and Mastodon. 

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

 

Post No. 2,595 - PWR will (may) be late

Owing to other commitments and events, this week's PWR will possibly be late ... if it is, it will probably be tomorrow.

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

 

Post No. 2,594 - Some interesting reading/viewing [Content Warning - specific subjects for each link]

Here are some links that might of interest or value:

• I didn’t link to posts on my political blog last week, so here’s a bit of a catch up: 
• “The savagery of white supremacism in Australia [Content Warning - racism, white supremacism]”;   “A follow up to “The savagery of white supremacism in Australia”: Effects [Content Warning - racism, white supremacism]”;   “Some good LGBTQIASB+ news reports - some very surprising”;   “On the media”;   “From the news [Note: Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence/abuse/war. Reader discretion is advised]”;   “Some articles by a doctor in support of a Yes vote”;   ““80,000 hours” has updated their career guide”;   “From recent news on global politics [Content Warning - also for discrimination]”;   “From recent news on First People’s issues [Content Warning - discrimination]”;   “From recent news on human rights issues - particularly TGD and LGBTQIA+ [Content warning: discrimination]”;   “From recent news on [Content Warning] the climate crisis and humanitarian matters”;   “From the media on governance mistakes [Content Warning: discussion on suffering and self harm, links to articles on brutality and violence]”;   “White supremacists reach new lows”;   “An excellent response to a particularly clueless remark by an arrogant overentitled patriarchal rich person”;   “Good and TERRIBLE (unacceptable [Content Warning] threats of violence) responses to a bad comment about colonisation”;   “A media article worth particular focus: "War is not Inevitable, and Social Scientists are Finding Peace Movements more Effective"”;   “More positive news about the Voice”;   “From the news: on communication”;   “From the news: on the Voice and First Peoples matters”;   “The magnate is gone ... here’s the next magnate”;  
  
• "Global corporate power is ‘out of control’, but reports of democracy’s death are greatly exaggerated"   https://theconversation.com/global-corporate-power-is-out-of-control-but-reports-of-democracys-death-are-greatly-exaggerated-210270;
• a presentation to MUFON by Mr  Grant  Cameron on the topic of the “Skinwalker  Ranch” (see also here): https://youtu.be/FvH2Z3jIXYQ?si=-zNyhuJw2JSBFvm6;
• this week’s “afterlife report” by the  Zammits. 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram and Mastodon.

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.