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The State, of Unity (Part 2)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

‘Homogeneity is the basis for contemporary division, it stifles uniqueness and creativity whilst entrenching utopian security, thus enabling greater homogeneity and seemingly lessening division, until of course, one comes to realize that the division is merely being narrowed, in order to create the last great, final division’.

What I set out to achieve in Part 1 of this article, was to demonstrate that we are well on our way to creating a Society that is a ‘Homogenized Unity’. There may be the occasional ‘protest’ along the way, but essentially, the ‘current’ ideological power brokers are strategically increasing their power by giving us precisely what we think we want. The ideology and the power brokers may change, but the tactics of power remain the same.

The use of division in order to create more unity, and thus the entrenchment of the prevailing status quo, is most often achieved through a process of co-option. Every major protest movement of the last 50 years, including Black Rights, Gay / Lesbian Rights, Feminism, New Ageism and Environmentalism, have all been successfully co-opted into the ‘current’ power brokers view of the World. Whilst it is obvious that many of these protest groups have gained significant improvements from their protests, the underlying power structure of Society has changed little; indeed, one could easily argue that it has worsened.

This pursuit of ‘homogenized unity’ has come at a substantial cost, most notably, to our autonomy, our capacity to make rational, informed and un-coerced decisions, within the framework of integrity and self- responsibility.

Co-option (co-optation) works to undermine and indeed eradicate autonomy. In days gone by, (or currently as in Iraq / Afghanistan) co-option was as simple as making and or carrying out a physical threat, but today, the psychological techniques in the ‘Western World’ are far more subtle and sophisticated.

In their paper; ‘A Stage Model of Social Movement Co-optation: Community Mediation in the United States,” The Sociological Quarterly 46(3): 405-435, 2005, Patrick Coy and Tim Hedeen outline a step by step approach to the co-option process.

http://www.mediate.com/pfriendly.cfm?id=2305

It is not clear yet whether the ‘Occupy’ movement will be subjected to co-option, certainly a visit to their forum confirms a lack of definite aims, confusion in relation as to ‘what is to be done next’, and a concern in some quarters as to the lack of a ‘critical mass’ from a broad cross section of Society.

http://occupytogether.com/forum/discussions

Any ‘challenging movement’ with this level of disarray, would hardly be considered as a worthwhile target for co-option (outside of the physical) by the power brokers, in this light, they will most likely allow it to ‘wane’, with the occasional ‘heavy handed’ forced eviction.

Interestingly, just one month (17/10/2011) after the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest began (17/9/2011), the elite intellectual left, including; Naomi Klein, Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano and Michael Hardt, decided to tap into the momentum seized by the protest, (or to try and rescue it) with a joint statement called, ‘United for Global Democracy’, a statement which was also supported by ‘Occupy Melbourne’ and the GAIA Foundation amongst others.

http://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?page=article_pdf&id_article=7183

This ‘Left Field’ attempt at co-option is rather enlightening. It highlights the point made in Part 1 of this article, that power brokers, of whatever flavour, are all aiming for ‘Homogenized Unity’, just as long as it is of the kind that meets with their particular ‘world power view’.

Co-option however, is not limited to the Psychological. It also frequently extends to the Financial. The statement above, published by the elite intellectual Left was backed, as noted, amongst others, by the GAIA Foundation, an organization that is funded by many ‘Philanthropic’ Organizations. Whilst it would be interesting to conduct research on all of the Organizations involved in funding the GAIA Foundation, it would extend the length of this article considerably. It is only necessary to highlight one, in order to demonstrate the pervasive nature of co-option.

The ‘Coutts Foundation’ is a funding sponsor of the GAIA Foundation. Its web site states the following:

‘Today this charitable tradition is proudly upheld. The Coutts Charitable Trust and the Coutts Foundation maximise the impact of our giving by supporting numerous good causes. On a wider level, our parent company, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, will support you if you choose to donate money to charity by matching your donation, and paying the administrative costs.’

This is hardly generous of them, and the hypocrisy involved, when viewed against the so called ‘altruistic aims’ of the GAIA Foundation is patent.

When we ‘drill down’ into the funding arrangements of many of these ‘Leftist’ Organizations, it is not hard to find Neo-Conservative ‘Philanthropic’ groups behind them, it raises the obvious question as to whether there really is any difference between them. As I have previously stated, power is power, not matter what guise it hides under.

This is not to say that ‘ALL’ of those involved in the ‘Occupy Movement’ are in accordance with the Power machinations that are unfolding.

More-so, that the rabid pursuit of ‘Homogenized Unity’ of any kind immediately brings about the prospect of ‘Oppression’ for anyone that doesn’t agree with it. It simultaneously ‘sets up’ those whose passions outweigh their ignorance when it comes to understanding what is really going on behind the scenes.

What we are being given here are ‘two false choices’ and what may or may not be obvious about this, is that we are slowly but surely being backed into a corner, seemingly not one of our own conscious choosing.

If I am given only two choices, I always look for the third.

As an Anarchist, I have no desire to bring the current state of affairs ‘down’; to do so would be contrary to my beliefs. If people wish to live their lives happily ensconced under the current Social System, then it is their full and frank right to do so. If I attempt to change this right or to take it away, I not only play into the hands of the power brokers, of whatever flavour, I take away the freedom of choice, of other people.

All I can do is to ‘float’ information so that others can make ‘informed and un-coerced decisions, within the framework of integrity and self- responsibility’, through the conduct of their own research.

Of course, all of this raises the salient question, as to how one lives one’s life within a Social System that is not willing to let one live it as one wishes, a point I will address in Part 3 of this article.

Suffice to say, that ‘Occupying’ something, is not the answer.

One of the contemporary definitions of the word ‘Occupy’, is ‘to seize possession of and maintain control over by or as if by conquest.’ This ‘Occupy’ mentality is a deluded strategy that has been used by those wishing to force their perspective, by both sides of the ‘two choice’ political divide, on others.

It is not only the catalyst for further division, thus creating greater homogenized unity through eventual co-option, it also critically, reinforces the concept of ‘property’.

Only those concerned with ‘ownership’ are interested in ‘occupation’.

The only ownership you truly have is that of your own mind and actions.

The current world order is undergoing a crisis, and that crisis will unfold at its own pace. There are many out there who wish to accelerate its demise in order that they may get to see their particular ‘power base’ materialize before they die.

And, as we have seen, they are willing to get their hands on whatever dirty money they can in order to achieve this.

The ‘Third Way’, is to step beyond the machinations of Power, something I will be having more to say about in Part 3 of this article; ‘Reclaiming Your Autonomy’.

 Thomas Hink 2011

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The State, of Unity. (Part 1)

Friday, October 28, 2011

‘Left or right, the angry throngs on both sides can be managed and directed. They can be sent chasing various injustices, denouncing evil characters on Wall Street, Times Square bombers, BP executives, or whatever, worked up into slobbering outrage over Sarah Palin, and thus kept divided and working against each other for the benefit of last gasp capitalism.’ – Joe Bageant

I would argue Joe, despite your recent passing and the enormous respect I have for your writing, that this ‘divisiveness’ is in fact a means towards an end, that of, ‘Homogenized Unity’ on a Grand Scale. Power is not concerned with whether this occurs under Capitalism or any other Ideology; Power is Power. The ‘benefits’ to the power brokers may vary, but the ultimate aim remains the same.

Our mistake, therefore, becomes that of identifying Capitalism with Power, the Capitalist Ideology may well be replaced by a new Ideology, one achieved strategically by the power brokers, through our own ‘militant begging’, but the underlying Power never changes, unless we awaken to this fact.

In light of this, it is not hard to work out just why it is that highly intelligent people, like the many involved in the Worldwide ‘Occupy’ movement (and Joe), are perpetually hoodwinked by the simple psychological strategies employed by their powerful oppressors.

Division has long been a tool used in the management and control of the masses, and if we were somehow able to secretly film the cloistered meetings in the inner sanctums of power, we would most certainly see them rubbing their hands together with glee, laughing smugly at the child like naivety of those who never falter in their determination to continue playing in a losing game.

The key to unlocking the ‘Divisive Unification’ tactics used in political power lies in understanding the insatiable desire that Human Beings have, ‘to belong’. As Social Animals, we want to be liked and we want others to think and act and believe as we do so that we can all live harmoniously in ‘our’ particular, perfectly envisioned World. In our attempts to achieve this, we madly scurry around creating ‘like-minded groups’ filled with people with whom we can co-operate and collaborate, those who can validate our beliefs, all the while, unsuspecting that we have been indoctrinated to do this.

Our ‘hope’ here, is; ‘that if we can just convince enough people, we could, once and for all, create a wonderful world’, based on whatever image we hold to be true.

What we fail to recognize however, is that we all live under an overarching Social System, one that ‘already’ has at its core, the aim of both total domestication and homogenization, one ‘unified group’, to which the vast majority, wherever they live, more or less will ascribe, through the reproduction of their daily actions.

Whatever the various ‘protest’ groups hold to be true, under that overarching system, is slowly, but surely, being co-opted by the power brokers in order to create the last great homogenization, which will ultimately lead to a saturation of their power.

This overarching group exists precisely because of our desire to belong, our penchant for like-mindedness, and our fear of lawlessness. We may not like certain aspects of this overarching groups characteristics; for example the ‘Occupy’ movements disenchantment with the Financial System, or the ‘Feminist’ disenchantment with Patriarchal dominance, and as such, we believe that our only choice is to form yet another group within the overarching one to highlight our ‘plight’, to ‘protest’. Once this happens, we provide the power brokers with precisely what it is they need to know, to amplify the power they already have.

It is fascinating to watch how the Australian ‘State’ dealt with the recent ‘Occupy’ protests. They allowed them to continue for a period of time, long enough to entice any ‘opposing camps’ into the fray, the ‘Public Mood’ easily monitored via the Corporate Media, provided them with the ultimate barometer, a minute-by-minute insight into how the power game was being played out, the ‘angry throngs’ on the Radical Left and Right, battling it out, voraciously tapping away on their keyboards in the comments sections of the Internet Newspapers.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/protesters-arrested-as-chaos-descends-on-cbd-20111021-1mb07.html

Immediately the verbal battle began, the New South Wales and Victorian ‘States’ of the ‘State’ happily stepped in with heavy-handed tactics, only of course, ‘in the best interests of the community at large’.

‘When the existence of the Church is threatened, she is released from the commandments of morality. With unity as the end, the use of every means is sanctified, even cunning, treachery, violence, simony, prison, death. For all order is for the sake of the Community, and the individual must be sacrificed to the Common good.’

Dietrich Von Nieheim, Bishop of Verden AD 1411

Substitute the word ‘Church’ for ‘State’ and the only thing that’s occurred, is the passing of 600 years.

The ‘State’ is, just like the ‘Church’ was, the current overarching entity and it exists purely because of the people’s belief in and acceptance of it. It is highly likely that the majority of protestors in the ‘Occupy’ movement don’t want the abolition of the ‘State’ they want a new ‘State’, one more favourably aligned with their particular like-mindedness. Apparently, these protestors believe that this new ‘State of Unity’ wouldn’t be oppressive.

There is a World of difference between truly knowing what you are fighting for and fighting for what you think you are fighting for.

It is no wonder then that the ‘message’ of these ‘dissenters’, just like all of those ‘militantly begging’ is seen as being somewhat confused and they are therefore readily and easily turned into victims, frequently a role they happily adopt for themselves:

http://www.nicocoinicon.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/a-firsthand-account-of-being-arrested-for-protesting/

In this context, ‘Unity’, in whatever flavour our particular group desires, becomes a construct that we willingly accept in our own oppression. The power brokers allow us the ‘freedom’ to squabble amongst ourselves, fighting over our divided and deluded beliefs in the inane hope that we will find some form of ‘unity’ through them. And so we end up with a kind of perpetual ‘convincing match’ where opponents suck up their ‘life-times’ in a banal effort trying to get the other side to join their team.

If the point isn’t obvious yet, ‘Unity’ is an impossible goal without considerable power, manipulation and oppression from above.

That’s why God was invented.

Bertrand Russell perhaps summed it up best when he set out to describe what lay ahead for the Human Race, a scenario that arguably, already exists:

‘Ordinary men and women will be expected to be docile, industrious, punctual, thoughtless, and contented. Of these qualities, probably contentment will be considered the most important. In order to produce it, all the researches of psycho-analysis, behaviourism, and biochemistry will be brought into play…. All the boys and girls will learn from an early age to be what is called ‘co-operative,’ i.e., to do exactly what everybody is doing. Initiative will be discouraged in these children, and insubordination, without being punished, will be scientifically trained out of them.’

If we study the Psychology that has been implemented in our Education Systems Worldwide for the past 40 Years, we get a very clear picture of how this has been occurring, right under our noses and obviously, with most people’s agreement.

What is stunning, especially when we understand this, is that the ‘Occupy’ movement, with its ‘Stone Age’ tactics, truly believes that it has the power to overthrow or change, in a few weeks or even months, a powerful and pervasive indoctrination process, that has taken place on a massive scale, for close to half a century. The naivety here is staggering.

The Psychology in question, Known as ‘Third Force Psychology’, was originally formulated by Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, William Glasser and Willian Coulson. Three of these Psychologists wholeheartedly denounced their ‘theories’ some years later, but this has not stopped those in the Governments and Education Systems, enamoured with the desire to create the ‘ultimate society’, and through it, the reinforcement of their power base.

Some of ‘Third Forces’ primary aims were, and remain to this day:

A)    That schools should recognize the children’s identity needs; that children are no longer searching for a goal, but for a role; that this is the primary need of human beings; that schools must change their function to enable the child to identify himself / herself as worthwhile.

B)   The imparting of core knowledge promotes individuality; the isolated man / woman, which is bad; whereas collaborative and cooperative involvement promotes the collective man / woman which is good.

C)   There are no right answers; that there are many alternatives to certainty and right answers.

Whilst it is obvious that this last point is in direct contradiction to the proposed ‘totality’ of this educational ideology, I digress.

Glasser, also proposed the following:

‘The (school) curriculum is intended to produce a collaborative and cooperative child willing to look to the peer group for his / her belief system, his / her social acceptance (groupthink); that the curriculum is intended to produce children who are “critical thinkers,” alienated from the tribal truths and the culture of their elders (values clarification).’

What is patent from these statements is:

A)   The question, ‘Himself or Herself worthwhile in what?’

B)   That the role of ‘child indoctrination’ has been manipulated away from Parents and Community, to the State, in line with its desire to create the ‘Ultimate Society’. (A fact clear to anyone who has raised children in the last 40 years).

C)   That ‘Social Media’ (peer group belief system) has had a profound impact in the creation of ‘Collaborative / Co-operative’ people. If one posits a challenging perspective, the antithesis of the belief system of one’s ‘liked’ peer group, one is largely ignored, and will most likely lose ‘friends’.

D)   That ‘Critical Thinking’ is only rewarded, when it validates the dominant stream of thought; either that of the peer group, or the ‘State’ that created it.

E)    That ‘individuality’ is ‘bad’.

It could be argued that the ‘Occupy’ movement is adopting an insubordinate, non-collaborative, non-co-operative stance, but as has already been suggested, if one is confused about what one is really fighting for, one is most likely wasting one’s time.

Bertrand Russell’s words provided us with a warning, one that we failed to head, and there were many others before him. Unfortunately, Human Beings suffer from an ideological time lag; they rarely start asking questions, until the ideology is well and truly established.

The power brokers already fully understand precisely what it is that will ‘keep us contented’, the lifestyles we have; signify that that battle, if there ever was one, was lost long ago.

Over the past 40 years, the ‘Scientific Management of the People’ towards the creation of the ‘Ultimate Society’, has been rapidly evolving, a fact that most have little or no understanding of at all.

A fact, no doubt, that pleases the power brokers, enormously.

In all our strivings for like-mindedness, perhaps we would be better served if we pondered carefully over the words of Nicolas Berdiaeff:

‘Utopias seem much more attainable than one may have previously thought. And we are now faced with a much more frightening thought; how do we prevent their permanent fulfillment? Utopias are attainable. The way of life points towards them. But perhaps a new Century will begin, a Century in which intellectuals and the educated classes will find means of preventing Utopias, and will return to a non-utopian society, which may be less perfect, but will offer more freedom.’

Thomas Hink, 2011

Part 2, coming soon.

 

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‘Occupy Everything’

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Are you still driving your car? Do you have money in a Bank Account? Are you earning more than $10,000 per year?

If you are or do, then you are participating fully in the oppression you claim to be fighting against. The video’s and all the other false media being emotionally pumped out at present, are all about the ladder of greed, and it erroneously suggests that this ladder contains only two rungs, the 1% and the 99%, when in actual fact, it has far more.

This ‘marketing oversight’ is purposeful, it is designed to lure the populace in with its deceptive security, helping to reify the belief, ‘that we’re all on the same side’.

Placing blame on the big guys, enables us to conveniently hide from the enormous power that our own self responsible actions would have. Individual power that, through our own considered daily actions, would bring an end to the rungs above and below.

But the deceptive marketing is so much more, what can we say, ‘comforting’.

The people protesting in ‘Occupy Everything’ are, in actual fact, fearful of self responsibility, which is why they are ‘militantly begging’.

In doing so, they are blindly reinforcing the very system that oppresses them, reinforcing the psychology that maintains their bondage.

By ‘protesting’ or, more accurately, ‘militantly begging’, these people are actually acknowledging that a higher power exists, and reinforcing the notion that they are less powerful than the higher power. They do this whilst simultaneously ignoring their role as a higher power over 75% of the Worlds population.

This process leads to a kind of frenzied banality, somewhat akin to frothing at the mouth togetherness.

What we are REALLY witnessing here, like all the other ‘revolutionary times’, is a process of providing those in power, with all the answers they need, to become ever smarter at how they control and ignore the protestors, which will, in turn, provide the protestors with the answers they need to become ever smarter at how they control and ignore the 75%. 

The public is often fooled through its fear and greed, believing that it is breaking chains, when they are achieving nothing more than the creation of longer ones. A chain is a chain, no matter how long it may be.

I have only one short life. I wish to achieve true freedom before I die. Yet each day that passes, I see my sisters and brothers willfully creating more chains, longer ones, that grow not only in length, but also ambiguity.

I will come and go with having achieved only a small fraction of the true freedom I was born with, because for each chain I break, my brothers and sisters create a multitude more, without even the remotest knowledge that they are doing so………… Alas, there is great sadness there………….

Thomas Hink 2011

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The Capitalist Veil……

Saturday, September 17, 2011

‘The task of capitalist ideology is to maintain the veil which keeps people from seeing that their own activities reproduce the form of their daily life (and therefore their role in Climate Change); and that the task of critical theory is to unveil the activities of daily life (and the role they play in Climate Change), to render them transparent, to make the reproduction of the social form of capitalist activity (and its destructiveness) visible within people’s daily activities.’ (Words in parenthesis are the Editors, the rest, are Fredy Perlman’s from ‘The Reproduction of Daily Life’)

In saying this, it would seem to me that you are suggesting that the capitalist system maintains this veil against transparency, by educating and employing the masses who are ignorant to it, in roles that help maintain their ignorance.

In the case of Climate Change for example, you are suggesting that those, like the ‘environmental groups’ and the ‘behavioural change managers’, are helping to preserve the daily reproduction of the capitalist system, whilst tinkering at the edges in order to protect the system from its own worst tendencies.

If this veil was lifted, if the masses truly understood your words, we would need to confront the reality of our urgent need to respond to the circumstances developing around us and therefore give birth to a new societal structure. 

This of course would ‘not suit’ the ‘power brokers’ or their ‘courtesans one little bit……….

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‘Kozzie’

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

It was not that long ago, when I joyously moved into a Mud Brick Cottage on a small acreage on the fringes of a tiny Central Victorian Town.

Six months had passed at least, before I finally met the little stocky man I had seen many times across the paddock. He was about 5′ 9″, had no neck and one eyebrow and a ‘comb-over’ that flapped voraciously in the wind. From what I could observe, he spent most of his time scurrying around on his ride-on mower, busily carting water to his precious grape vines or mowing non existent grass, the latter, a pursuit that succeeded in little more than creating dust storms.

But the day finally came where I would meet the Man known as ‘Kozzie’. The meeting was anything but casual, a sign of things to come. Working, as I often did on the acreage surrounding my house, I one day became acutely aware of a deep gravelly voice crying for help. I turned to see my stocky neighbor making various gesture’s to me from just beyond our fence line. I made my way, slowly and purposefully towards him, my deliberate approach was not without reason, for he was holding a size-able Shot-Gun. My ‘take’ was correct, there was little for him to be so alarmed over. He had stepped on a rather large Brown Snake, just outside his back door. The snake, perhaps more alarmed than he, had bitten his door frame numerous times before hastily retreating into an outside shed. His cries were aimed at getting my assistance to hunt down the intruder.

After a brief introduction, we quickly made our way into the shed that supposedly housed the offending creature. He handed me the ‘cannon’ he had been carrying, an armament that I later discovered was an early 1900′s single barrel shotgun. I had heard this beast being discharged on numerous occasions during the previous six months, its purposefully tapered bore creating a massive amount of power and noise. I declined his offer, letting off this blunderbuss in a shed of less than 3 meters by 3 meters would have been extremely dangerous, but I was at that time, not aware of the dangers this man had previously faced. The elusive Brown Snake was merely a means towards an end.

After a short search and no bounty, we retired to his kitchen, where we drank a few ales and shared our stories.

The friendship grew and before long I was spending a good deal of time at Kozzies, helping him in various ways around his property. We’d start early. He was Austrian, and deeply accustomed to a Liqueur or two with breakfast, which consisted of Bacon and Eggs, Salami, Several slices of Toast with lashings of butter. We’d then work physically hard for a few hours before heading back inside for the next round of nourishment and alcoholic warmth. This schedule continued throughout the day, and at least once per week, it saw me staggering back home, wondering just how it was that I would negotiate the strands of the barbed wire fence that divided the properties.

One night however, things changed. We had worked hard from early morning to late evening and, following a hearty feast, we had continued to consume our fill of homemade Ales and Liqueur’s. Kozzie, slumped over his glass, poured forth a story I will never forget.

At 16 years of age he had attempted to escape from Austria with his best friend. The Russian Communists had invaded and they both believed that their lives were in great danger. Their plans however were foiled, and as a result, they were both captured. Two sixteen year old boys then faced what very few people will ever have to face. Kozzies best friend was given a revolver and ordered to shoot a six year old Girl in the Head, or face being shot himself. He refused, and so, he was shot, right in front of his best mate. The gun was then passed to Kozzie with the same command, this time, Kozzie shot the girl.

It is hard to relate, because it is impossible to relate Kozzies emotions at this point of his story. He broke down in tears and sobbed with a depth of pain I have never before, nor will I ever see again. This man, at 70 years of age, had lived with this memory for 54 years, it had eaten away at him, squashed him, and filled him with such remorse that he simply wished nothing more than to die. I sat in front of him, as if a stone statue, my complete and utter lack of understanding, turning me mute.

Composing himself, he continued. Following his release, he had made his way to South Africa and then to Australia. He has not seen any of his family since he left Austria at 16 years of age. He worked, initially, as a bodyguard for a Jewish Family in Melbourne, and during this tenure, was shot in the leg during an attempted Robbery of his employer in a Public Toilet. He made his way into the Telecommunications Industry, got married and had a daughter. Some years later, after a Transformer Power Surge threw him against a concrete wall, breaking his back, he was provided with a compensation package and transferred into a new Job, working as a Security Agent for Government Officials . His marriage eventually dissolved and so he left Melbourne and bought a small acreage in Central Victoria where he decided to grow Grapes and make Wine.

In 1985, a massive Bushfire swept through Central Victoria. It wiped out everything that Kozzie had built and grown. Refusing Government Aid, he spent the next three years living in a three meter square corrugated iron shed, (the same one the snake had raced into), bathing in his dam, and eating what he caught, shot or could grow. Slowly clawing his way back, he began building a House and Shed out of Local Stone, ‘see these massive walls Andy’ he would often  proudly announce, ‘never will they be taken by that Bastard Fire’.

He had moved into the Stone Shed after its completion and in comparison to the corrugated Hut he had been living in, this was a palace. He shared his Kitchen, Bathroom and Bedroom space with his Ride-on Mower, Tools, Wine Making Equipment and Agricultural Supplies. The House, to this day, remains unfinished.

The walls had gone up and you could sense that this was all that mattered. Confirming this, was the 24,000 Volt Electric Fence that lined the perimeter of his property, seemingly irrelevant for a Man who had no livestock.

Deep down inside I think I sensed that the day would come, as it did, when Kozzie would end our Friendship. It was a trivial matter, because that was all he could find, but in his mind, it was critical that he did. Because of this perceived indiscretion, he no longer ‘trusted me’, a projection that he knew but couldn’t admit to, of the deep distrust he had of himself whenever anyone, ‘got too close’.

I left the property some six months later. In that time, he refused to recognize my waves from afar and never once said a word to me. I have seen him on and off since but only in passing, me on my pushbike and he driving his car.I wave, but perhaps he doesn’t see me. As one who has always believed that we are only responsible for our own feelings, that no-one else can ‘make us’ feel anything we don’t want to, I will always leave my door open for Kozzie to sit down with me and once again share an ale.

Kozzies story, like so many others, has been forgotten by this World dominated by ‘positivism’, no-one knows because no-one wants to know, the vincible ignorance is floating on a sea of comfort and excess.

I cannot possibly understand the horrendous experiences that Kozzie went through, but I can strive to seek understanding and I can then do everything in my power to create a very different World, a World where the ‘Rulers’, who realize their power through the crimes committed in the name of ‘our freedom’, will cease to exist.

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It’s Pawn-Ography!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Published in ‘The Anarchist Savants Monthly’ June 2008.

‘There seems to be no agent more effective than another person in bringing a world for oneself alive, or, by a glance, a gesture, or remark, shrivelling up the reality in which one is lodged.’ (1)

‘The physical environment unremittingly offers us possibilities of experience, or curtails them. The fundamental human significance of architecture stems from this. The glory of Athens, as Pericles so lucidly stated, and the horror of so many features of the modern megalopolis is that the former enhanced and the latter constricts humankind’s consciousness.’ (2)

Within these two quotations, there are some incredibly insightful points that enable us, if we open our minds to the richness of their meaning, to understand the Bill Henson Art issue beyond the bounds of a highly charged, simplistic, moral stance.

It is hard to believe, when one looks at the level of technical sophistication in our society, just how it is that this very society continues to relish the exact same scapegoat routine that it has for centuries. Hetty Johnson’s self-proclaimed Judge and Jury role, in combination with the ‘Jack Boot’ tactics of the NSW’s Police Force, created a farcical public response in some quarters, that was reminiscent of the ‘Killing of the Witch’ scene from Monty Python’s satire, the Holy Grail, set in Medieval England.

The populist Politicians headed by Kevin Rudd, aided by some in the profit hungry media, knew exactly how to exploit this highly charged issue, pulling the strings in their own sordid game of ‘Pawn-ography’.

Unfortunately, this simplistic moralist approach is what our politicians want, it is what some in the media want, and it’s what business wants, for one very simple reason; it sells. For politicians it sells popularity, the media more advertising and for business the consumption goods that ‘make us happy’, providing us with a convenient diversion when we reach the point of having to seriously confront the ‘disturbing realities’ of our world.

And for those occasions when our conscience really does catch up with us, why confront the ‘disturbing realities’, like those of pedophilia and child abuse in their own right, why spend time and committed effort in reaching an understanding of the deep complexity of these issues, when it’s much easier to link them to a suitable scapegoat, someone like Henson that we can project our own lack of insight onto. After all, lynch mobs aren’t concerned with complexity, apart from the expert needed for the knot, and afterwards we can all get back to consuming.

Of course our politicians have become highly skilled in understanding exactly how this psychology works, they’re as happy as can be that Bill Henson, Dr Haneef and The Tampa were all ripe for the picking.

When our so called ‘leaders’, the politicians charged with addressing the true causes of the ‘disturbing realities’ of our world, are doing nothing more than perpetually exploiting those issues for their own benefit, we the public have an obligation to ask, ‘where does the true sickness lie in our Society?’

Spending our time pursuing those questions instead of chasing witches, would rapidly help us to begin seeing that our Society and its Politicians are stuck in a web of deceit of their own making. This deceit has one primary purpose and that is to keep the focus off the true insanity and the disturbing realities that that insanity causes.

‘In order to rationalize our industrial-military complex, we have to destroy our capacity to see clearly any more what is in front of,  and to imagine what is beyond our noses. Long before a nuclear war can come about, we have had to lay waste our own sanity. We begin with the children. It is imperative to catch them in time. Without the most thorough and rapid brainwashing their dirty minds would see through our dirty tricks. Children are not yet fools, but we shall turn them into imbeciles like ourselves, with high IQ’s if possible.’(3)

In uncovering the true insanity, we are able to see perhaps for the first time, the extraordinary lengths we are prepared to go to in order to keep it hidden.

‘From the moment of birth, when the stone-age baby confronts the twentieth-century mother, the baby is subjected to these forces of violence, called love, as it’s mother and father have been, and their parents and their parents before them. These forces are mainly concerned with destroying most of its (the babies) potentialities. This enterprise is on the whole successful. By the time the new human being is fifteen or so, we are left with a being like ourselves. A half-crazed creature, more or less adjusted to a mad world. This is normality in our present age.’(4)

Only when we understand what we are hiding from and why, can we reach an understanding of what Bill Henson is perhaps trying to capture, the Teenager’s inner conflict between their own purity and the torment we put them through in our efforts to adapt them to the insanity of our world. Why is it that we are not questioning the cause of that torment and insanity and our role in it? Why is it that we persist instead with simplistic moralism and witches? What are we ultimately afraid of facing? If we honestly confronted ourselves with those questions and found the answers, we may find that what we are really afraid of is love in its purest form, in particular, the risks and insecurities that go with it.

‘Love and violence, properly speaking, are polar opposites. Love lets the other be, but without affection and concern. Violence attempts to constrain the other’s freedom, to force him / her to act in the way we desire, but with ultimate lack of concern, with indifference to the other’s own existence of destiny.’(5)

We are each personally responsible for gaining a deeper understanding of the world we inhabit, but in a world that is highly manipulated in order to keep us from that understanding at all costs, the biggest question left unanswered is just what it is going to take to finally shrivel up the insane reality in which we are lodged.

(1) Erving Goffman; Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961, Page 41.)

(2,3,4,5) R.D. Laing; ‘The Politics of Experience’ (London: Penguin, 1967) Pages 28, 29, 49 & 50.)

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