Remembering

Especially on RD, I try to remember the dishonesty of war.

I don’t believe my choice belittles the sacrifice and suffering of those good-hearted and noble citizens choosing to enlist. I don’t believe it challenges their intelligence, integrity, or motives. I don’t believe it shows a lack of gratitude for the sacrifice so many have made. I don’t believe I am disrespecting those in my family who have experienced war. I don’t believe it is unpatriotic or subversive. I do not think that it requires elimination of our forces. I don’t believe this reflection makes us vulnerable.

I am not being naive.

I simply think, as humanity, we can do better. 

To really honour those who have given so much, we should try to do better. If we truly appreciate their loss, it should become unthinkable to allow such losses to ever happen again. To truly remember the horror, pain, suffering, and loss, is to try harder than ever to ensure it doesn’t happen again. It is inevitable that such pain and loss will be experienced by our children unless we are lead but such sacrifice to learn, and grow, and become better.

To remember should be the commitment to end all war, forever.

This is no different than curing disease. This no different than the invention of the seatbelt. The idea of vaccinations. The advancement of science. The new efficiencies in the economy. Better nutrition. Better education. The pursuit of the greater good.

As beings, are we not committed to making tomorrow better than today? Shouldn’t we be diligent in our efforts to make the world better for the next generation? Isn’t our motivation for such, the remembering of previous suffering? 

Why do we allow war to continue?

I believe in my heart that humans are better than this.

I believe in my heart that humans are not naturally warring. We are gentle beings seeking peace. That those who have enlisted for war have been convinced that it is the only answer to others, evil others, who would take away their freedom and peace, is the proof of the dishonesty.

Years and years after wars have ended and lines on maps have changed, and wealth has changed hands, and oligarchs have been empowered, and arms manufacturers have been enriched, our historians tell us the truth of why we went to war. Seldom is it what the soldiers were told at the time. Seldom was freedom at risk. Seldom would anyone have agreed to pick up arms had they been told the truth. 

The first casualty of war is truth. But truth always comes out. The bigger the war, the longer it takes.

Seldom did the decision makers, those inciting war, those declaring war, suffer the losses we remember on November 11th. Seldom did those who profited from war suffer the losses that we pause and remember today. 

The kinds of losses we honour today. 

The kinds of losses we should never allow again.

There are many ways to solve disagreement. There is no way to solve greed.

The only way to have an enemy, is to be an enemy.

War is madness. We are better than this.

Today I remember the dishonesty of war.

I choose something better.

Control

Consider Power.

As you consider, examine your emotions.

Power can be strong, yet there is fear.

Power requires emotion to motivate.

Power reaches, yet there are limits to that reach.

What puts limits on power’s reach?

Power is not a thing to be amassed.

It is not an office to be pursued.

Power is not money.

Power is not armaments.

Power is not position.

Power lies not in the one that would use power.

You cannot bribe one who cares not for money.

You cannot threaten one who is not afraid to die.

You cannot hold office forever, if the people remember they put you there.

All of the power that anyone would ever use to control, influence, or seduce you, lies in your experience of your own needs.

The source of all power is some form of need.

The depth of the power is the depth of the need.

Power targets choice.

Choice resides in your mind.

Choice never goes away, though the power attempts to take it from you. 

Although the mechanisms of power may appear outside you, that power only exists in your mind.

Power, exerted over others, is experienced within their mind as control, influence or seduction.

Power attempts to control, influence, or seduce your choice by creating an emotional response within your mind.

If you can see past that emotion, you are free from the power and choice remains.

There is always Choice.

Peace.

Consider Peace.

What is Peace?

Peace is quiet.

Peace is calm.

Peace is without movement. But is not stationary. It moves outward from its source.

Peace shines.

Peace is noticeable by its contrast to the disturbances of life.

Peace ignores.

Peace allows. 

Peace forgives.

Peace knows that others will act upon, and express, their emotions. 

Peace knows that it can only be disturbed by the thoughts of the one that holds it. So, Peace holds firm, knowing that it cannot be threatened, except with permission.

Where does Peace exist?

It begins in the mind of one.

A quiet, calm, and accepting mind.

A mind that chooses not to be disturbed.

A mind that chooses to allow and forgive.

A mind that disregards the events around it, as those events are less important than the peaceful state within.

How does peace extend?

Peace moves outward from the mind of the one, into the world of the others. Perceived as calm and quiet and allowing. Differing from that which may perceived as normal. 

Sometimes this expression of Peace is recognized as Peace. 

Sometimes it is misunderstood, as it disturbs the others from their activity, grabbing their attention and provoking them. It can aggravate those who do not value Peace in the same way. Or in that moment.

Peace can disturb the minds of those who have other intentions. 

Peace can be offered.

That would be done through forgiveness and compassion.

It might then exist in the mind of the forgiver.

It may not yet exist in the mind of the forgiven.

Peace can be invited.

That would be done by calming emotion, and ceasing judgment, and accepting.

It might then only exist in the mind of the accepter.

It might not yet exist in the mind of the accepted.

Sometimes, Peace can be recognized for what it is. When recognized it can be an attractive alternative to one's present state.

Hence, Peace can only exist in the mind of one who desires it and releases that which needs releasing. Accepts that which needs accepting. And calms that which needs calming.

Peace can only exist in the mind that values it and seeks it.

But one can feel the Peace in others.

 

Peace cannot be imposed. 

That would not be peace. That is control. 

Peace allows that which is not Peace, but remains Peaceful.

Control allows very little.

That leads to the opposite of Peace.

I am not this body.

I am not this body.

This body could never contain me.

Sometimes, however, this body gets in my way.

Sometimes it distracts me with its needs and urges.

Sometimes it stops me with sickness and pain.

Sometimes it frightens me with its weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Sometimes it deludes me into only seeing other bodies.

Sometimes it controls me with illusions that baffle me.

Sometimes it is my nemesis, tricking me with the idea that I am here to protect it, rather than it being here to carry me.

Sometimes it deceives me that size, strength, colour, gender, age, things, matter.

Sometimes my eyes don't see, and my ears don't hear, and my skin does not feel, and I miss the beauty of it all.

Sometimes its insistence in holding my attention limits my awareness and being.

I am not this body.

I am mind.

Connected to all mind.

An essential part of the wholeness of mind.

Capable of awareness. 

Capable of knowledge.

Capable of choice.

Capable of creation.

Capable of compassion, forgiveness and all other forms of love.

My mind, not my body, creates my experience and gives meaning to everything.

My focus is to be on my mind, not my body.

My attention is to be upon the activities of my mind and not those of my body.

I am not this body.

I am mind, and the only true activity of mind is the choice between love and fear.

A choice when there appears to be no choice.

 

They say the first casualty of war is truth.

We have seen for the past decade that journalism does not exist anymore. No one is informing the populace by sharing facts. They are simply seeking viewers and clicks. The best source of clicks is fear. And when the fear is optimized, we are offered distraction from our fear – everything from celebrities to sports to recipes to pornography. Media, in all its forms, has become a time-consuming, attitude enforcing, addictive intoxication.

In my past life, I valued being informed. I aspired to be very informed and a source for others to be informed. I have mistakenly convinced myself that being informed is important in a world where being informed has become impossible.

Certainly, I can claim to know more than others. That may build my feelings of superiority. It will give me the chance to sound intelligent. It may allow me to condemn the others who do not engage social dynamics and label them as the problem.

But in the end, my blame and hate and condemnation are simply the tools that profiteers use to sell everything from insurance to investments to weapons. They are the thought-tools we use to convince that war can be justified.

Can you feel the fear and hatred building in you? Have you come to the conclusion that war is necessary yet? Putin convinced his people. Are you convinced yet?

Journalism is not used to inform you. It is used to shape you and lead you to the need for war.

This is not the first war. History is filled with them. War has always resulted in significant profits for some. Have we forgotten that war is a multi trillion-dollar product and service industry?

I have decided to abstain from the war news. It brings me to fear and worry. And worse, it brings me to hate and thoughts of attack. It is fed to me to enrage and terrify me. I will not allow myself to be convinced by propaganda that any war is justified. I will not be seduced into thinking there is a way to win. I need to remember that developing strategies for attack is the sadly naïve belief there can be winners in war.

Attack thoughts are the true pandemic disease today. Attack never results in resolution. Attack is the antithesis of peace, and isn’t peace is what we all seek?

No, I will not read the war news any longer. But that does not mean I will be passive. I will not do nothing. I won’t just be distracted.

I will use the time formerly employed in the consumption of news to join in with one of the dozens and dozens of united prayer-meditation-contemplation exercises conducted all around the world as we speak.  

A simple google search will find for you, dozens of studies that have been done that show these meditations efforts have had empirically measurable and statistically significant effects in war zones.

 Here is one to consider - https://www.bmedreport.com/archives/10821

Is it propaganda? Maybe. Isn't it all propaganda anymore? 

But at least it is propaganda for peace. It does not make me hate.

I will actively use my mind to send forgiveness and peace rather than to collect propaganda that tries to convince me to be afraid and hateful.

It is impossible to be informed. It is impossible that war results in peace. It is ridiculous to discuss this in social media. None of these will accomplish anything for anyone other than the politicians and profiteers. It is a waste of my effort.

Instead, I will calm my mind and send my emotionally loving wishes and prayers for calm and reason and peace to those I would otherwise consider my enemies and attackers.

I pray you will join me.

 

 

Authority

 

Power is about choice. It is the attempt to control, influence or seduce a choice someone is about to make.

This is done through a mechanical process of needs and abilities. An actor sees a need in a subject. The Actor wants to control the choice the subject will make. So, they apply their ability to the need of the Subject and the Subject, motivated by some emotion (usually fear,) makes a choice that may be different than what they would make without the dynamic of power targeted on them.

The power does not come from the Actor but from their ability to impact the Subject’s need. In fact, if the Subject has no need, the ability of the Actor is meaningless, and no power will be felt. The source of all power comes from the needs within a Subject.

Everyone always has a need to feel safe.

We want to feel safe from the virus. We want to feel safe from the imposed solutions to the virus. We want to feel safe from violence.

If protestors are allowed to use violence, then we are afraid of them. The protestors are afraid that the government will use violence on them to stop their protest. They are also afraid of being forced to take a vaccine which they do not believe is safe. They are also afraid of a government that would control their choices. This causes them to resist the demands of government.

The fear is real for everyone. The protestors, the other citizens, the people in government – police, politicians, and bureaucrats.

The protestors have the ability to make the politicians afraid and unsure. They have the ability to make life unpleasant for the other citizens. They have the ability to refuse to comply with government mandates.

The politicians have Authority. Authority is a very different kind of ability.

Authority is the gift to the governors from the people whom they are to govern. It is given to the politicians and government officials because of our need for safe, organized and prosperous society.

That authority is particularly meaningful because it comes with the legal ability to use violence.

The protestors have tried very hard to be peaceful and avoid violence. They know that the use of violence will trigger the authorities to use violence against them. If they protest within the limits of the law – the constitution – they will not provoke the government’s legal ability to use violence on them. As long as they are not violent, they will not trigger the citizens’ willingness to permit the government to use their authority.

The thing about authority is that it comes with massive resources and those include a police force and a military which are armed and trained to be decisively violent.

The ability to use that authority, and that trained force, is only theirs because we, as people - who elected our government - have given them that ability. They know that if they use it, everyone is watching and judging.

Most opinion polls show that about 50% of the citizens of our country are sympathetic to the protestors.

The protestors, save a very few individuals, have been very peaceful. They have been respectful and kind to the police and others. The police do not feel threatened, so they have no need to resort to their authority. That is why we have not seen violence so far.

Authority is power by consent. We consent that a group of people shall have, at our discretion, the ability to activate a significant force of police and soldiers to legally use violence for our general benefit. Security, safety, stability, are all meaningful goals for a society and are purposes we would consent to our government using force to protect.

We consent to who gets to make those decisions by who we vote for. We assign those abilities through our constitution. It is the highest form of law and represents our highest values as a citizenry. Everyone of us has the ability to consent.

Right now, only half of our country – or less – consents to this use of violence. Before you consent to the use of this violence - which our Prime Minister has proposed - we should make sure we know, as best we can, what is actually happening in Ottawa.

This past weekend we have had dozens of journalists go and visit Ottawa to see for themselves. I have read five such reports in different news sources. They all report back that the protestors are peaceful, yet obnoxiously and disruptively noisy.

To be in a democracy requires a great deal of mental and emotional effort and strength on everyone’s part. We need to allow people to disagree with us. We need to allow crazy people to speak what ever they like. We need to keep ourselves informed and aware of the facts. We need to remember our collective humanity and always be on guard for those who would abuse their authority.

These are all hard to do. But freedom requires that we do it.

Freedom is not something given to us by government. Freedom is our right by birth. There are those who might take our freedom away and we should resist those people. But the good news is that in our practical day to day lives, Freedom is the gift we give each other. It is all around us. We have witnessed it over and over in our lives. It is beautiful and it is precious.

Respect and peace are our mutual gifts. We give them because we want them. We give them because we know that is how we protect them. We give them because we can see in each other the integrity and humanity we see in ourselves – regardless of our significant differences of opinion.

Authority is something we consent to. Those in authority have no power, nor permission, to use violence without our consent. Authority should be seen as a responsibility to serve all those who gave you that authority. Not as a power to be wielded by virtue of your office.

Until the Prime Minister sits down with these people as human beings, respectful of all Canadians regardless of their opinions, and uses all peaceful means to bring this protest to an end, I do not give my consent to his extraordinary use of his authority which I gave him.

Authority must be held in check, always. Otherwise, it is no longer a democracy.

 

Rules of Engagement

 

I want to offer some ideas into the cyberscape.

I seek not to change minds. I really don’t care if you agree or disagree. Agreement is not really a worthwhile goal in my opinion. It only takes a little examination of history, or even your present surroundings, to show that there has been a lot of agreement that has led us astray. Agreement has been used to justify all manner of hurtful things. For centuries we agreed that women were not equal to men. And those who spoke otherwise were crazy, seditious, and spreading misinformation. They needed to be censored or better yet, jailed. 

For the whole of the history of humanity we seem to agree that the right response to anything new is fear.

Agreement is not a goal for discourse. Agreement provides no progress. Agreement does not move us forward. In fact, agreement results in the immediate cessation of progress. Agreement closes our minds to new ideas. It brings a false sense of security. It brings us to the conclusion of a process that should never end. Agreement should never be the goal. I believe all discourse, regardless of its perceived expertise, can and will shed light through constant questioning.

Answers do not create growth. Questions do.

Disagreement engenders consideration, inquiry, discussion and exploration. All of those endeavors create awareness and knowledge – which is the only true answer to fear. That is a good goal of open free speech – the never-ending release from fear.

My point is a simple one - Neither agreement nor disagreement should ever be a reason to hate.

I am shaken that good people are advocating harm to other good people because they have come to different conclusions about a situation. I care that people are formulating opinions based on select facts and then judging others as less than human because they disagree.

Maybe it is my age or my advanced ability to say and do dumb things, but I have reached the point where I question my own ideas. I am sure that I should not be so sure. I am aware of the limits of what I know, and I am witness to the outcome of weaponizing my own ignorance.

Today I try to measure my ideas not only on evidence and logic, but on how they align with my humanity.

Do my ideas advocate for attack on others? Then no matter the facts, I am wrong. Do my ideas promote interaction, communication, compassion and life? Then even when not totally accurate or completely irrefutable, they are pointed in the right direction.

The only purpose in learning and questioning is to improve my life and the good of all. And I believe that the motivations of even the most outrageous advocate are based in decency and seek to promote the highest ideals of life as they see them.

Opinions are every where. Like belly buttons, everybody has one and most of them are funny looking.

I see opinions as logical conclusions from a limited set of facts at any given time. The puzzle of truth is always missing pieces. So, if my knowledge is never any thing but incomplete, then my opinions can be nothing but temporary. I need to be open for the next round of meaningful considerations brought to my attention.

I am not weakening or demeaning myself by being open minded and changing my opinion from time to time.

Temporary conclusions voiced as opinions are always based on an incomplete understanding. Learning never ends. If I am to ever be right, I must allow myself to adjust as the evidence accumulates. It is always accumulating. I am always learning. I don’t always like what I find out. I am upset by a discovery that makes me incorrect. But that does not matter in the quest to do the right thing.

Under these terms, it is clear to me that there is no opinion that can justify hatred.

I am comfortable listening to people I do not agree with. Even those whose ideas I consider illogical, uninformed, or irrational. I believe if I want to have the freedom to express myself, I must defend another's right to do so. Not because their words are harmless, but because to try to silence them is evil. A right is an absolute thing – or it is not a right but a privilege. We restrict privileges to those who comply with the imposed rules. There is nothing free about that.

To try to censor someone is to reduce a brother or sister to nothing more than an idea that is to be suppressed or silenced. They are so much more than that. They may be misinformed from my perspective, but I am smarter and stronger than that. I do not need to silence them.

I return to writing because I see the power dynamics and they cause me concern. I seek to create a pause in our thinking. To consider that people are more than their opinions and we must honor their humanity if we wish to have our humanity so honored.

You are not alone if the present state of discourse causes you to wonder what is right. You are not alone if this exchange of attacks causes you to fear for our future. You are not alone. The increasing volume of the discussion is evidence of the deep fear everyone is experiencing. For two years and more I have retreated into the safety of silence. My opinions on the politics of it all are constantly changing. What is not changing is my fear for our society. I am as unsure of the correct path as anyone should be. The facts as they emerge are contradictory and “experts” seek to overwhelm my reason and substitute their opinions for my own.

When I read media, both traditional and social, I am shocked by the perversion of journalism from factual information to hyperbolic postulation with no interest in informing public opinion only in enflaming public outcry.

There are many opinions about social media. The only thing everyone agrees is that it is highly profitable.

Let’s willingly identify our opinions without thinking those opinions define who we are. When possible, let’s share, in a rational and helpful way, the best evidence we can find. Let’s acknowledge the limits of our knowledge at any given time. Finally, lets embrace the idea that opinions are meant to be temporary things. We collect information as best we can. We apply that information to our version of logic, and we form a conclusion. That conclusion needs to be temporary because the information base is always growing.

Please be aware that the artificial intelligence of your news feed is giving you more of the same and less of the competing information. You may need to actively find the information that could contradict your temporary opinion. This could cause you to be less angry and recognize the fear and concern behind the shrill cries of those you disagree with. We are all afraid. When a child is fearful you do not criticize their fear and condemn them to isolation. You do not attack them, label them and dismiss them.

Be aware that all the noise you are listening to is about the control, influence, and seduction of your choice. Your choices are being shaped by forces outside yourself making you angry and fearful. Be aware of the emotions attached to your opinions.

You can get a human to do just about anything if you can make them afraid enough.

If we still need to find some agreement, let's agree that we are all afraid. We are all suffering. We are all seeking and learning. We are all equal and entitled to freedom and love.

Let's agree that hatred will not solve any problem.