The world has seen some visionary leadership at times - the changes introduced by Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1930s and his response to the savagery and aggression of World War (part) Two, the easing of the white supremacist White Australia policy here just after the war by Ben Chifley’s government and its ending and the move towards multiculturalism and other changes under Gough Whitlam, and the leadership of Mandela, Tutu and others in South Africa.
Even the intentions of Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, flawed by the naming and the compromises used to bring it in to existence, and some of the changes by Bob Hawke (and some actions by Paul Keating - such as the apology) have been admirable.
At a business level, we have seen things like the concept of servant leadership, from Robert Greenleaf, in around 1970.
But since the mid 20th Century, responnses to issues seem, in my opinion, have been simplified down to whatever is most popular amongst the powerful.
That means:
- more nuanced and/or advanced solutions have been lost because powerful decision makers
either- were so emotionally flawed that they didn’t accept what was best because they didn’t like it,
- they were intellectually unable to understand it (which is also a criticism of the communication inadequacies of those with the ideas),
- those people outside the levels of the rich and powerful who had conspiracy fantasies were encouraged and/or empowered to create havoc everywhere - especially by the backlash of limiting education to variants of what used to be termed “the three R’s”, but also the abusive shut downs of progressivism that we have seen (especially anything which is amathiacally hankering for the obliviousness of the 1950s, when domestic violence and other problems were ignored - in fact, a Great Pretence existed that such things didn’t exist); and
- the denialist backlashes to developments such as increased identification of being trans as the emotionally abusive forced suppression of the 1950s era is undone, terms such as neurodiverse are developed and as the intellectual incompetence of the 1950s era is undone and thus diagnoses improve, head-in-the-sand denialism of the improved identification of the climate crisis, and inadequate responses to new technology.
Those responses were also spiritually and morally bankrupt, which is why I have put this post on this blog.
Those responses are also cowardice incarnate.
Those responses include:
- gossip mongers and psychopaths (of any political persuasion) who think tactics such as SWATting are acceptable;
- conservative politicians who delay progressive action so they can keep the façade they like going for a few more years and people who think lying about policies is acceptable;
- police who arbitrarily abuse disabled people, people of different races, or
people of different gender identity/sexuality (especially for the pretext of maintaining their domination of people - which is inherently abusive, and often covered up with the lie of "authority");
- voters who ALLOW themselves to be duped, as happened here with the 2019 election, or who choose the evil of cynicism.
They are ALL emotionally flawed, intellectually amathiac, and spiritually & morally bankrupt ...
So ... what to do about that?
- address these faults in oneself - I am, and have been for decades;
- call out others when they drag issues down to a lazy, limited, unnuanced/Newtonian, or inadequate response - especially leaders;
- form the intent to act and live with integrity and courage; and
- remember to “take others with you” when advocating for progressivism - you cannot address only the decision makers, although you do not have to address the hard case rejectionists.
Above all else, do not passively let wrongs go uncontested - do something, the best you can, noting that may not cause a change, but it will help plant seeds (maybe help others plant seeds) for change that is necessary.
The election result in 2019 was a disaster: the policies were courageous and what was necessary. We - the progressive voters of Australia and our supporters - need to work better at bringing about change - including out-organising those, such as fascists and bigots, who oppose good change.
PS - here is an excerpt from this week’s coming news post on politics which provides some useful insight:
a series of YouTube shorts show the problems of the USA by comparison with life in Germany: “School Safety: USA v. Germany” https://m.youtube.com/shorts/IEQFpi2K0WQ Obviously Germany, as with most (not all - consider war zones) of the rest of the world, is better and “Studying USA Propaganda in Germany” https://m.youtube.com/shorts/A3iV1kNX3MI This covered current propaganda such as US (alleged) “exceptionalism”, the “Amnerican dream”, and “how US citizens have been led to have a lack of self-critical awareness to how their ideals have failed”. Details of the textbook used are included and “Money Saved by Immigrating to Germany as a U.S. American” https://m.youtube.com/shorts/krIjX1ma4Hs This highlights how backwards and third rate the US approach to health care and workers is
PPS - One of the things I have to be wary of is that my tendency towards perfectionism can result in me not getting posts up ... (and I cringe every time at the deliberate, anti-AI typo's ... although that s a good excuse to cover the accidental ones I miss during editing ... 😉 ). One of the things that my tendency towards perfectionism also does is keeping my thinking going on topics, and thus I get additional perspectives.
This is also easier now that I am retired 😁
In terms of this post, I want to add a post-publication thought which ties in a previous theme: that of too many people doing anything to evade taking the responsibility to consider something new (idea, person, nation/culture, possible cessation of colonialism/other human rights abuses ... oh, that last one isn’t new ... but it seems to be ... hmm ... ).
My new thought on the topic of this post is it is disturbing that many people seek an excuse, reason, or justification - a reason for someone having come up with a thought that was not addressed by the doubter’s original social conditioning before they will accept it (as I sometimes term it, being flummoxed by the unfamiliar [FBU] ... I could also term it the cowardice of convenience - of abdicating responsibility for thinking about one’s values and being deliberate about them to going along with everyone else / one’s parents/peers).
As an example, people saying “oh, you’re not accepting the comfort of convenience of mindlessly obeying social conditioning because you’re X [e.g., neurodiverse / different religion such as Buddhism / have experienced Y / some other excuse”, rather than thinking “oh, OK. Well, I did the best I could with the social conditioning I got from parents and peers, who were doing the best with whatever they had been programmed into, and here - for whatever reason and for however, someone has come up with something that MIGHT be better than the social conditioning I and my forebears had, so I will do my best to give it an objective, genuine reflection and consideration, a process that is not pre-committed to either rejecting [and the person proposing the idea must equally accept that possibility] or accepting the idea and is also open to the possibility that I may have some useful input to that idea, if it merits further development.”
Here are a few links which may be of use/interest:
- https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-evil-that-is-known-as-fascism.html
- https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2020/05/fbu-flummoxed-by-unfamiliar.html
- https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-newtonian-non-physical-world-view.html
- https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2023/06/patriarchy.html
- http://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2014/11/shadow-self.html
- https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2023/03/transgenocide.html
- https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2023/08/post-no-2535-trauma-content-warning.html
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.
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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”.Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024 NO AI
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