I have been reading “Unlearning Shame: How Rejecting Self-Blame Culture Gives Us Real Power” by Devon Price (Hachette, Kobo, Apple Books, Amazon), and found the following from that book quite interesting - this certainly hit home with me quite strongly:
“Ashamed people typically feel demotivated, withdrawn from others, and powerless. They’re usually low in energy and focus, much like we would expect a depressed or severely burnt-out person to be, and may require increased rest and social support in order to slowly rebuild a sense of themselves as worthwhile and lovable.”
However, the problem is not solely personal, but also societal:
“Shame tells us that we are bad, which itself is an incredibly terrible feeling. But Systemic Shame teaches that entire groups of people are bad, ... When we blame ourselves as individuals for failing to do “enough” to combat injustices like transphobia, racism, labor exploitation, global climate change, or health epidemics, Systemic Shame extracts a heavy emotional toll from us as well. ... Systemic Shame is a lingering emotional wound. But it’s also an ideology about how the world works—a deeply damaging one that keeps us distracted and unhappy. It is closely linked to the Puritanical belief that morality is simple and absolute”
Both areas are grounds for valid work - personal-spiritual, and societal(political)-spiritual.
(See also this post of mine https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2024/10/post-no-2903-recovering-from-corporate.html for comments on another Devon Price book.)
The world of politics (excluding wars and human rights abuses/crimes against humanity) this week has shown some simplistic, Newtonian worldview attitudes that have enormous potential to actively cause harm, including:
- in Queensland (Australia), with an election campaign proposal for mandatory isolation for jailed children who assault jailers, which will simply compound many, many, many problems for the jailed children, the authoritarian jailers, and societal attitudes - which are too often warped by “disinformation”/“misinformation” (these flawed attitudes are also apparent in the national neoliberal’s proposed housing plan”) and stay Newtonian owing to a lack of quality/spirituality/courage of aspirants to political leadership (which Robert Reich has commented on in the USA - specifically, that several billionaires have surrendered all claim to leadership (moral authority?) in that nation over their cowardly refusal to comment against fascist rapist Trump).
On that, the Yoorrook Justice Commission is “beyond disappointment” over my home state's limited response to their initial report on actions to address racism. This is important, as (a) trust on both sides will be essential in the coming negotiations for a Treaty, (b) the actions are genuinely needed to address generations of transmitted, accumulated, and added to disadvantage from racism (on which I also recently came across this older article on the national neoliberals, which opines that he is being overtly racist), and (c) they can summon the Ministers who were contrite the first time to account for their apparent failure to act with the required urgency.
This is also an exercise in political courage and leadership, which is also needed in other areas - such as the state government dealing effectively with n_o-n_z_s in my home city, and the world stopping putting off/allowing to be put off action to realistically deal with the climate crisis;
- troubling dismissiveness about BRICS; and in the USA, experts have warned that christian nationalists’ rhetoric may spur violence.
There has also been a white colonialist, misogynist attempt to control a Blak Woman Senator (and the conservative response has been superficial/pointless and ignores [or is oblivious to] the key issue of who MP oaths should be to), and the rich white beneficiaries of centuries of imperialism do not want to share any of the goodies they stole - nor even apologise ...
These are all also grounds for valid societal(political)-spiritual work (the need for social change as well as legislative change is shown by this), as are the ongoing mass crimes against humanity in Gaza and Palestine generally and Lebanon, Sudan, and Ukraine.
That works needs, as always, to be a combination of clearing away the nonBPM, and strengthening the BPM - never discount the possibility of a change of heart amongst many of those who are nonBPM: the change of attitude of Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Rabin led to moments of genuine hope in West Asia. Of course, there are people like Netanyahu, Putin, and Trump who I do not hold any hope for change ... in this lifetime. Their souls will not be extinguished, and every bit of clearing of the nonBPM will bring their eventual transformation closer (albeit, that is still likely several lifetimes away).
And if you hate them, you are simply feeding them (or their controllers) more nonBPM energy/units to use ... they have to be stopped, and that will be done more quickly if you can stay as neutral as you can about them as sentient beings - which continuing to be validly horrified at their evil actions.
It is also absolutely vital that all people doing this ensure they are BPM protected - including use of BPM undetectability.
Going back to society, societal problems have also been shown by a podcast on a con artists who created a fake “assassination market” site to hire violent criminals (see URL [Content warning!!!] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/19/the-podcast-kill-list-doesnt-reflect-badly-on-the-internet-it-reflects-badly-on-us) which showed the challenges of safely getting the potential victims to accept what had happened (and the risks - one person tried to commit the “assassination” themself), and “... is a reminder of how technology holds up a mirror to human nature ... During the early years of the web, when there was a moral panic about online pornography, I naively suggested that perhaps the prevalence of porn might be telling us something useful about human nature; after all, pornographers are not philanthropists, so there must be a market for their stuff. (Readers were not impressed by this view.) Similarly, the horrendous torrents of misogyny on social media tell us something useful about men.” As do the horrifying details of a prolonged gang rape in France which is currently being tried there.
On the other hand, there have also been some good things, including:
- steps towards ensuring pets are NOT used against domestic violence survivor-victims, although experts have also called for assessment of pets’ reactions to people to ensure they go to those who genuinely love the animals;
- NSW is slowly learning from its decades of anti-LGBTQIASB+ hate, and has - decades after other states - established a, LGBTIQ+ Advisory Council;
- that saying no to having children is slowly becoming acceptable;
- a way to use copyright laws to contain nonBPM publicity - which, incidentally, is why I do not name (see the “no notoriety” campaign) mass/serial killers nor violent extremists (nor give the latter the satisfaction of being referred to as t_r_rr_sts);
- an apology by the USA for its First Nations boarding schools; and
- that Australia will finally “review all 66 military export permits to Israel approved before Gaza conflict” ... I suppose belatedly withdrawing from complicity in a genocide is better than nothing ...
And, remembering the activist saying “nothing about us without us”, a research project showed that, in the situations examined (“New research reveals men pay little heed to women in mixed-sex teams”), sex discrimination wasn’t ended until women were in charge.
It is important that this is also remembered for psychic and spiritual groups (see also my post here https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2024/10/post-no-2904-reflections-on-past-week.html ), lest they also be subjected to the same flaws as the societies which they grew out of - as, sadly, has happened throughout much (not all) of history ...
And, on change, note this quote, from “The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House” by Ben Rhodes (Kobo, Penguin, Apple Books, Amazon):
““It’s interesting,” he said, “that individual human beings didn’t benefit much from the agricultural revolution. Life was actually better for hunters and gatherers.” Some of the people in the helicopter looked a little confused, but I knew that he’d rewritten the speech to pose questions about whether the march of technology would inexorably lead to the destruction of humankind. His tangent made a certain kind of sense. “Why?” I asked, knowing I had to keep this conversation going. “Because of feudalism?” “No,” he said. “That was part of it, but it was also because for most of the early agricultural revolution, people focused on grain. Grain is not as nutritious and balanced as eating a diet with proteins, fruits, and nuts. Hunters and gatherers lived in small units—ten to twelve people—and agriculture required people to have more children, which led to disease and infant mortality. Life actually got worse.””
I note that the Peruvian priest who believed that the Roman Catholic Church had a political duty to end poverty and originated liberation theology has passed.
Finally, a few personal notes.
Firstly, my recovery from a corporate “life” has got to the stage where, for the first time in around two decades, I am enjoying and looking forward to food preparation - which is hard to do when your workload is severe. (I don’t consider that worth another post in my recovering from a corporate “life” series.)
And secondly, I came across this quote recently when re-reading “The Cicero Trilogy” by Robert Harris:
“Given the gravity of his problems, I was puzzled at the time by his behaviour. Now I realise, of course, that he was working, only in the way that a poet works: he was clearing his mind, and hoping for inspiration.”
I relate to that.
And here are some llinks that might of interest or value:
- “Are Witches Misogynistic?” https://youtu.be/MlWfI0p7C14 Examines the antisemitic (the connection between the stereotypical witches hat and a Judenhut caught my attention, but so did the antisemitic aspects of other witch stereotypes) and misogynistic aspects of the persecution of witches (under neochristianity), and the more positive portrayals in recent years (some of which is relative to the context of those times) with regard to misogyny ... but not antisemitism
- this week’s “afterlife report” by the Zammits:
https://www.victorzammit.com/October25th2024/
- also from YouTube:
- this YouTube short includes an analysis of the UAP shape which would explain the optics of what is being seen, but it looks more like a creature than what we humans would normally expect a presumed flying vehicle/space vehicle to look like - which is fascinating: “The Leaked #UFO Footage From 1994” https://youtube.com/shorts/flJEl4f-Q_U
- from YouTube and elsewhere on neurodivergence:
- “Why We Should All Know the Name Grunya Sukhareva” https://aureliaundertheradar.wordpress.com/2024/10/20/why-we-should-all-know-the-name-grunya-sukhareva/ This female researcher in the USSR researched autism in the 1920s, but also equally included girls, identifying what is now known as masking, and “Besides being more gender-inclusive, Sukhareva’s patients also skewed away from the STEM-minded stereotype that was popularized by the likes of Asperger. These kids were drawn to art, writing, and music. Sukhareva is also the only scientist in early autism studies to note an active imagination or extensive fantasy world among autistic people. ... Imagine if her findings reached popularity in the West at the same time that they were circulating in Soviet Russia. The stereotypical idea of autism would be abstract, creative, emotional, and quite possibly female, and the trainspotting, non-fantasizing boys would be the anomalous ones.”
- One of my favourite YouTube channels, Autistamatic, has another interesting video: “Young, Gifted & Lost (Is "GIFTED" offensive now?)” https://youtu.be/5neooLdOJ2E This has excellent commentary on social and parental attitudes over the last few decades
- “What's REALLY Going on with Autism, IQ and Intellectual Disabilities?” https://youtu.be/rioKiKDAOdQ A good overview of the history and nuances
- “Signs of ADHD” https://youtube.com/shorts/hDAteISjcDk including feeling relief, not pride, after completing a task - even if done well, and a very striking example of habits not being formed for ADHD people and “This exhaustion can not be fixed with sleep/rest” https://youtube.com/shorts/EyHCgEjk4Rw
- “9 Weird Autistic Traits (You Didn’t Realise Were Signs of Autism!)” https://youtu.be/ocje_VeIkFE
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Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here.
(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)
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)..jpg)
