Post No. 2,951 - a commentary on a (violent) streaming service police procedural [Content Warning - discussionon violence, links to articles on SA]

As a first point, I’m not going to name the series that triggered this post, as it is but a fairly recent one in a long series of such series and movies. 

My main point is that the series is being, in my opinion, deliberately and blatantly (although many others will/may miss that) emotionally manipulative towards a viewpoint that violence is the “only”/s way to “solve”/s problems / keep people & things “safe”/s / “heal”/s emotions / etc. 

That is utter amathiac rubbish. 

At most, violence is a short term response, sometimes necessary to ensure safety (e.g., police using violence to restrain or stop [including kill, if necessary] a shooter), and I note the line in “The Imitation Game” to the effect that people like violence because it makes them “feel good”, but, in a longer term, violence: 

• creates powerful ties of hate/resentment at being humiliated/desire to “get even” (i.e., revenge/vengeance) that can and does last through multiple lives (and that includes people who are subjected to the death penalty, which does NOTHING to address the problems/flaws of character of any person genuinely convicted [many aren’t] of a crime that led to it being imposed); 

• exemplifies and normalises (aka desensitises) harm both as a concept and as a practicality, which is a warping of individuals’ and groups’ souls;
  

• reinforces existing systems and societal expectations/“norms”, etc (including patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and internalised sexism/victim blaming) that is extremely harmful to all caught up in it.

There is evidence of how much more effective nonviolence is in the political arena, the costs of wars and human rights violations have been documented, and spiritual movements have been talking about and promoting peace for millennia (although sometimes that is tainted by problems such as spiritual bypassing).

Violence is not only wrong (except when genuinely BPM protecting others), it is in the long term ineffective and actively harmful/regressive - even if used to protect people (which means taking people alive will result in a better outcomes over multiple lives, if that can be done).

But entertainment industries are failing to point that out ... 

To be clear: depiction of violence is likely going to be necessary at times to illustrate the harm of violence, but how that is done is vital (as an example, consider the comparative discussion on how two series handle [Content Warning] violent depictions of SA here, here, here, and here).

/s - tone tag for sarcasm

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. 

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).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and   

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024     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. 393 - More Sunday thoughts ...

I've taken a break from my reading, and watched - or tried to watch - the Nicholas Cage film "Season of the Witch".

Bother.

Well, the discrimination and vitriol towards followers of the Old Religion (i.e. witchcraft, which underlies much of what is now termed paganism [I refuse to use the term "Neo-Pagan until Christians accept that they are as equally Neo-Christians], or - to some extent - Wicca) that led to the Burning Times (note: the Wikipedia article is, in my view, slightly wrong - in particular, the term applies to earlier periods than the article claims ... Wikipedia has, sadly, been going slightly "off" of late ... ) is all there, and SOME of what happened in the Crusades is there (the film actually waters that down a bit: I think "The Kingdom of Heaven" does better on that count, but it is worth looking up Wikipedia [and I have a few thoughts here, here, here and here ... and maybe also look up here and here] ... I'm just incredibly thankful that the lifetimes we [meaning, I and my parallels or soul parts] had seemed to have all missed out on the insanity that was the Crusades).

The fear and vilification of wolves (one of my allies - "power animals", as they tend to be referred to now) is there as well. (I refuse to refer to the rune "Wolfsangel" - shown to the right - as that, as what the hooks this rune was named after did, when they were used to capture wolves, was anything but angelic: I deliberately mispronounce this as "Wolfsangle" ... but it is a very powerful and useful rune, and actually one of my favourites)

One thing the film did get right is the possibility of negative influence from various forms of spirits or discarnate entities. Of course, it is mostly earthbound entities, and much is not intended maliciously - but harmful for all that. I've forgotten which source I've read that is good on the draining influence of earthbound entities - I'll look that up.

More significantly, there is, at times, what I consider a dangerous naiveté that the absence of malice means things will be alright. That isn't necessarily so - energies can be, quite simply, incompatible. Disharmonious, if you prefer that word - which is where I think what we term all sorts of things right up to and including "evil" originally came from. Well, more accurately, it came from a failure to have a constructive, or at the very least tolerant, attitude towards difference.

There are entities that are discarnate and can have a negative influence, just as there are entities who are incarnate who can have a negative influence, and entities who are incarnate and discarnate who can have a positive influence - I've written about this previously (here, for instance).

What do you do about that?

Develop your nonphysical strength - which is where some of the New Age notions, much of the pagan notions and possibly my workshop material can be of use (see here). More seriously, what you find helpful is what is helpful - just be as flexible as you can in considering all this.

Going back to the film, it does fall into the trap of thinking that there are special formulae - and hence this special book - which must be said exactly correctly to work. Well, my training is that it is INTENT which matters, not the actual words. Mind you, I do practice the words so I can focus on the intent as I say the words, without having to put mental energy into the words rather than my intent.

Of course, I do believe - no, I KNOW that books can be invaluable as a source of knowledge, and that is more likely to be the significance of such a book in those times ... especially if people could actually read, which most couldn't in those days.

Still, overall, the film was reasonably well made (in my non-expert opinion), and entertaining - a suitable diversion for a cold Sunday morning :)

Basic/Underlying Concepts for this Topic:

• history is not necessarily as it has been written down; 
• social mores and norms are taught, and can pass on discriminatory prejudices and biases that become ubiquitous; 
•  there is more to reality than just the physical: there is a nonphysical component as well;
• the physical and non-physical can interact, and this can be brought under conscious awareness/control; 
• just as we have a physical health, strength and wellbeing, so too do we have a non-physical health, strength and wellbeing,and we can work on improving the non-physical as well as the physical;
• cats do not want me to write posts on Sundays, or any other day they want pats or cuddles - sorry, that was a litle bit of physical world influence :)

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear") 
My "blogiography" is here. 
May the world of commerce & business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people. 
A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others. 
The International Labour Organisation's definition of "full employment" is wrong, useless and misleading. 
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." on one side, and perspicacity on the other.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. EDMUND BURKE

 Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Tags: attitudes, discrimination, misconceptions, paganism, society, Wicca,

First published: Sunnudagr, 15th July, 2012

Last edited: Sunday, 15th July, 2012