Tag: politics

The unconsciousness or blindness of politicians:Sinful or sick?

http://imgbuddy.com/sigmund-freud-psychoanalysis-cartoon.aspPhoto0367

  • Humankind cannot bear much reality

    T S ELiot
    The poets know things before most other people do…I am sure many of us have heard of Freud and his “discovery ” that we are not conscious of many of our desires, fears and past traumas,That we may, without knowing, lie to ourselves about why we do things…[ he was not interested merely in sex]
    That nervous illnesses may be an attempt to solve such problems may be known to some… however it seems this may make life harder.
    So for example you may
    hate your mother-in-law but you do not find this0 acceptable to your ideal self image…. of the loving person you believe you are [Of course we both love and hate most people who are really close to us]
    A person in that situation might develop migrainous style headaches,agoraphobia,fear of walking on cracked pavements ,fear of driving,fear of women,obsessive cleaning etc… and so in a way they avoid the real issue… that they hate a family member.

    They don’t do this because they are stupid and they don’t choose their symptoms [ which may also be caused by perfectionism,overwork,fatigue,anguish].

    They do it partly because anger or hatred are so painful for them because of past life events or severe punishments that they are completely unable to allow the emotions out into their conscious mind.At some level we all deceive ourselves.
    I was wondering if something similar might be applied to politicians.Think of the bedroom tax,sanctioning benefit claimants leaving them starving,making people blind and mentally ill apply for work etc.
    Or ask yourself did the British Government consciously want to commit genocide in South Aftica in the Boer War when they invented Concentration Camps and filled them with Afrikaaners?

    From our perspective it seems unthinkable that governments could do such bad things with no anxiety or fear
    .
    Now,we can suffer from lack of imagination like Generals in WW1 who were horrified by trench warfare only after they saw it in the flesh.
    Or could there be a mechanism like a neurosis where they do not really know what they are doing?
    I suppose it brings us to a perrenial question:

    Is it SIN or is it SICKNESS / NEUROSIS/PSYCHOSIS?”

    [If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:8-10).
    ]

    In recent years sin has gone out of fashion as a concept and we tend more and more to call bad people sick…This implies they have no choice or free will about some of their actions whereas sin implies we have chosen our actions to some extent,, and using a stupid economic model may be sinful if enough advice has not been taken
    Just look at the American Handbook of Psychiatry where disobedient children have “oppositional defiance disorder” as opposed to normal childish ways of learning how to be a part of a family or group.. and knowing when it’s good to obey.. and when older maybe it’s not always good as adolescents learn slowly and painfully.

    Returning to discuss politicians I think it would require tremendous effort not to know what is happening to the poor here.
    Indeed I was talking about this with a taxi driver, coming back from the biopsy, who was so interested in the topic and enjoyed it so much he knocked 30% off the fare for me…
    Most of the people i know believe either the government is sinful or that the poor are sinful and deserve this punishing regime….
    But what if they do not realise? How can Ian Duncan Smith go to Mass receive Communion [Jesus’s body] having confessed his sins and done penance then carry on with his style of politics unless he is using some defence mechanism to blind himself to the effects of his works

    BTW how much have they wasted on new technology and how can they expect older unemployed people to buy computers and do everything online?
    I found it a bit daunting and I am a mathematician… or was;I have forgotten most of what I knew but I suppose there are mental habits one gets.
    I enjoy it now especially when I am ill and can’t get out or do much…. but it sometimes takes quite a lot of effort to sort things out…
    I suppose I recall Jesus’s words a lot these days.
    Father,forgive them for they know not what they do”
    I am less kind than Jesus…I’d say give them some nightmares,Lord…… maybe it will get through but if they are psychopaths they will not change.But we can attempt to vote them out… it seems hard with Labour still being Blair-ish but that’s what i am choosing after the Lib Dems lies in 2010.I likw the Greens but is it a wasted vote?

Irascible in verse

My father was very irascible…

His desires were often impossible.

So he kicked the poor cat

And tore  up its mat.

A  small feline scapegoat alas-ible.

Losing one’s patience is  commonplace

As the strong hit the weak  in their space.

And research now shows

That  giving a  hard  blows

Increases our rage and disgrace

Irascible has  Latin  roots

Dies irae   is  of the same  suit,

It seems apposite

With the shocking French sights,

Murder spreads to destroy   our doubts.

Irascibility  is less than enraged

Sometimes our patience is strained

But  our dearest ones know

We are not often so.

With a  good rest, our patience’s regained.

If rage has taken over our lives

Then virtue will never   thrive

Annihilation is our fear

And  we feel it is near.

We fear we may not long survive

Why we had fights in the UK on Black Friday

In Britain there is an hugely increasing gap between the rich,the professional and the poor.Postmen now have a zero hours contract.Coal mines have shut as have shipyards.There is not much work for the people who were once essential to the country’s economy.They are treated ever worse.
They see tbe same adverts and see how others live.The only ways they can emulate it are by borrowing or by shopping in Sales.The rest of us can choose whether to get a new TV or even a new car.They can’t.Moreover they are attacked as lazy.
Secondly the shops are doing very badly and urgently need to sell more stock.It’s been warm and so winter clothes are unsold and the recession is still not over [another one may be starting].Everyone would like a tablet and children at school are expected to have a computer at home.What do you do if you are poor?
We also have more mothers working.People don’t entertain at home much as it is too much effort.They meet in a coffee shop and most are in or near the Mall.We have immigrants from Europe who tend to go there and not the pub which is where men used to go to.
They see the shops and want some of what they see.
Some of us can avoid Sales as we can buy at normal prices or save our money.
I am certain the Mall can’t do what a Church and a community once did.But it’s a meeting place.Old folk can sit there and watch the world go by or meet a friend
Also there are security guards so women feel safer alone.
There is a place called Brent Cross… a huge mall not far from Golders Green.Many people love it
I saw a joke:A Jewish lady wants to be buried at Brent Cross…. because then her daughters will visit her every week..
.I would like to see fewer class problems and less snobbery.And to see the poor treated well.But there’s little chance of that.And we pay much less income tax now
yet want the NHS to offer expensive drugs….
It’s a crazy society.
I saw the judge in the Mitchell case thought the policeman was too dim to have invented the plebs remark……so even there he is reinforcing the idea what lower paid people are thick,stupid and gormless.
Black Friday was advertised to let the shops sell and stop them going broke…. but leave it for those wwho really need it…
Otherwise for the rest of us it’s almost psychotic to behave that way…what next?

To win, we need to lose

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As days of war now seen to be the norm
And watching bombs be dropped seens like  a game..
We need to think about the  long term harm.
Yet morally most of our world seems lame.

We see,because we have new tools to use,
Dead children gathered into shopping bags.
The horrors and the violence all bemuse
The burials are in grey and bombed out crags.

This is not a movie made for fun…
We must accept it’s real and kills or harms.
Whatever  way its consequences run
I see we repeat today the ancient forms

Can Imagination lead to wider  views?
Can we accept to win we need to lose?

In honor of Paul Tillich

Paul Tillich gave our spirit proper place.

He showed us courage as a  space to dwell.

He wrote for us and left us with   his  grace

With hope he might speak and he might tell.

So many people ignored Fascist speech

And lived with mind cut off from  their own soul

With pen in hand he wrote to reach

And touch us as we strive towards the whole.

Expelled from his own country, he wrote on

Continuing during  tortuous war long years

He lived, he loved ,he wrote, he died and then

His books continue to dispatch our fears.

For many men have lived and have destroyed.

Yet Tillich showed  us how to face the  void

Oxford Holy Riddle

OXFORD HOLY RIDDLE
Gold stone from Cotswold quarries men brought
And built into a way of life for those who bought
Their lives so cheaply.And did not see
The children’s eyes,the ball,the game, the tree
Of life that grew in small backyards and gave
All to those who lithely climbed into its arms,
Why should this not be you?
O Eden, I see that you are nearer now,
In lowly homes where love is free
Than in the temple ,grove and softset brow
Of those who worship God,in churches built of gold
Now  this is simple to behold
When sun is setting, and escapes the ashes
Thrown up and floating in the watches
Of the days of voters’ eyes cast up to skies
And wondering, fearful, what will come
When all the secret deals are done.
So take the gold of Life and let it fall
Into your children’s growing souls,
And let this Cotswold town and spires
Melt into sunset’s glowing orange fires.

A new writer/thinker:C Fred Alford

7451351_b4ccf55226_thttp://www.salon.com/2013/06/10/expert_whistleblowers_tend_to_be_conservative/

I am reading two books by C Fred Alford about Evil.He is a very good writer and scholar with a wonderful mind.He is also influenced greatly by Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion.

In fact I am really delighted because he talks quite a lot about thought and what makes us thoughtless and how thinking is related to emotions.And how breaking linkages in our minds is a defence which stops us from feeling painful emotion at the cost of deadness inside

This article is about Whistleblowers like Edward Snowden because it’s good and also I cannot find any articles about Alford’s life.

Here is a review of his new book but we can’t get it in the UK
http://www.upne.com/0819566020.html

It is about Emmanuel Levinas and the Frankfurt School.

 

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Judgment is not measurable in numbers,so it does not exist!

 

A public demonstration of aerobic exercises
A public demonstration of aerobic exercises (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photo1745Well.I read the Times,The Guardian and The Independent yesterday.And all I remember is that pink coats and pnted trousers are in fashion  and that the USA has read all my posts and emails including myriads of love letters or love mails.Joan Collins was raped on a date at 17 and later married the man.Very mysterious.I read the I on S today and did half a crossword before doing aerobic exercise whilst lying  on my bed.Meanwhile the sun shines and my joints ache.It’s correlation ,not causation.Just because you fell downstairs  doesn’t mean that’s why your leg broke.It was a coincidence….this is philosophy of science!

And the biggest issue for some of us that staff  in hospitals are worried  the facilities  in  the NHS are already over stretched before winter has started.So if I get chest pain I shall all not go there;I’ll just pass over quietly.Since when is it good for me to lie on a trolly for 13 hours in a noisy corridor and be given morphine after the pain has gone better?Then when you do need it they won’t give it to you.I felt it was like Alice in Wonderland.Blunderland?They treat you by a rubric not by assessing your actual condition… that’s my view.
I think it’s for legal reasons.Judgment may be left out as it’s not measurable it does not exist

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Fascism: A Precursor to Postmodernism – The Imaginative Conservative

Armani PoMo
Armani PoMo (Photo credit: failing_angel)

Fascism: A Precursor to Postmodernism – The Imaginative Conservative.

This is worth reading for a broad picture of National Socialism

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A very full review of “The Jewish Writings” by Hannah Arendt

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n09/judith-butler/i-merely-belong-to-them

This broad ranging review  gives a very good account  of Arendt’s political views on Jews and on Israel.I learned a lot and have sympathy for her position.I am fearful of the current state of the middle east in  general

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Where the world collapsed into an arch


I wonder who this stranger is,
Who read my poem and walked away,
But never  weeping
On a nuclear power station in Japan

His eyes were on Libya
But he stopped here,and read and then passed
On across what was once a green English metaphor,
Garlanded with daisies.My hero,my Odysseus.
The metaphors were made for you.
The web was woven and unwoven,so
Wherefore art thou,Antonio?

Do not go gentle into that dark night
Send me an email
I’ll wash you with the grit of shells from Dover Beach,
Where the world collapsed into an arch
Across nothingness into zero itself,the sun,the moon.
All shrank into this diamond.
I give it to you,stranger.

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