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Stories, Boxes, and Things that Don’t Fit

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Christmas is full of stories and boxes, as are our lives. Every day, in every interaction, and in almost every thought, we seek to put the things we see, hear, smell, taste or feel in categorical boxes, and attach stories to them.

For a simple example think about the smells when your mum is cooking dinner – attached to that smell might be a story about the future taste and the soon-to-come experience of eating it at a table with loved ones.

We tell stories about people based on their race, religion, jobs, level of education, style of clothes, and even the suburb they live.

Why do we feel a need to box everything?

Are these boxes useful? How much truth is contained in the stories attached?

Boxes and their attached stories might give us an indication about the future, a story with a certain probability of manifestation, but a nice smelling dinner doesn’t guarantee it’s taste.

Even our life stories tend to fall into boxes. Our psyche is basically programmed to choose from the available cultural myths and live out one of them – the only difference between us is that our stories are acted out by a different set of characters and slightly varied themes and plots.

What kind of life myth boxes am I talking about? Well, for example,

The “The White Picket Fence” box is probably the most prominent myth of Western culture – where one desires to find a man/woman, get married, get a mortgage, and make babies to start a new White Picket cycle.

Then there’s the “Career-Ladder Climber”, the person dedicated to getting approval of those above them and slowly moving up corporate hierarchy.

And then there’s “The Religious Devotee” who spends their lives hoping for the approval of the divine, and eternal rewards that come with it.

There’s “The Wanderer”, the vagabonds, travellers, life-long bachelors, job-hoppers – people who commit to nothing other than their strong commitment not to commit.

And the “The Artist”, the writers, musicans, painters, etc., who spends their lives making creative statements about the actions and consequences of the boxes above.

I don’t define any of these boxes with judgment attached. Of course there are many more life-story boxes than these ones. And many people probably fit into more than one box.

Boxes – categories – come naturally to our minds. Almost without thinking we put people into one box or another, depending where we view the way they prioritise their life – on whether they seem to place a higher value in Security, Money, Success, Experience, or Art.

I feel I have, at different times in my life, experienced all of these boxes. In my teens I was a Religious Devotee; studying and working in Business I was a Career Ladder Climber; when I fell in love for the first time I aspired to the White Picket Fence (I even owned soccer mum Ralph Lauren Chinos dear oh dear); then I became a Traveller, and now I’m an aspiring Writer. Hm, I’m almost a cat – five lives down, four to go…

I don’t think these boxes are tickboxes, where you can only experience one at one time. I still carry different degrees of the other boxes with me – far more Traveller, a very different interest in religion, and almost zero interest in climbing any bureaucratic hierarchies or obtaining a white picket fence.

I’m trying to remember the point I wanted to make here…

Coming back to the Christmas gift analogy, some gifts do not fit inside a box. Maybe because they are an odd shape or size or nature. For whatever reason, not every gift should be put in a box, and I think the same for people’s life myths – our lives simply don’t always fit these molds.

McAdams believes ‘Human lives are too complex for a typological approach, and too socially inflected to support any argument that says the truth resides solely within… We do not discover ourselves in myth; we make ourselves through myth.’ [1]

In more recent times I think more and more people are jumping between boxes, creating a custom-made box combining a snippets of stories as we please.

Some women Climb the Career Ladder, skip the marriage, have a kid and continue their climb.

Some Travellers give up their roaming for a White Picket while some White Pickets bulldoze the fence to become Travellers or Artists.

Most of my school friends are married but never want to have kids.

And with today’s high rates of divorce it is normal to ask “is it your first?” when one hears another is getting married.

The Postmodern era has somewhat introduced an eclectic “Pick and Mix” approach to almost everything, including our live-stories. There are many combination of boxes one’s life story might fit. And people create new boxes all the time. We no longer have to choose one and live out the whole myth.

We can now sit and look at our lives from a hypothetical vantage point outside ourselves, see at all the available stories and combine them as we please.

Are you aware of the boxes you get put in, and the boxes you put others in? How do you box and add stories to things and experiences? What does your custom-made life-story box look like?

Photo

I bet you can’t find me in there. I’m there though… it was taken at a Church Youth Camp in 1996.

The camp’s motto “Let God Out Of The Box” is kinda ironic considering I don’t remember the camp considering the box they were putting “God” inside.

Theists (and atheists) seem to box God in the image of a Divine King on a thrown in the sky that will punish you if you are bad and reward you if you are good. Yet, at the same time, theists tend to conceive of “Him” more abstractly as the personification of an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient power… could God need to be let out of the Santa-Claus-like judge medieval box?

If religious and non-religious allowed their minds space to reflect on the boxes they put “God” inside, and to consider the question: “What is this thing we call God?” I wonder what we might discover. Could “God” not be something that you either believe in, or you don’t – could “God” simply be everything that is? When we die could we return to our the “oneness with God” where we came from, that is oneness with the universe, with heaven and hell states of being here on earth? Could the boxes we have created with our language (and history’s misinterpretations and manipulations) be distracting us from an underlying truth? I digress.

As we come up to the new year I wonder: is there anything we might like to let out of the box?

References:

[1] Dan P. McAdams, The Stories We Live By : Personal Myths and the Making of the Self (New York: Guilford Press, 1996). P12-13

Truth,

Rethinking “The Pyramid” – do alternatives exist?

Written by Juliet Bennett
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I want to revisit the social, economic and political pyramid I discussed in my last post: Preserving the Pyramid- the Reason Things Are the Way They Are, sharing my evolving thoughts on the question: do alternatives exist?

While it seems overall human civilisations only really know the pyramid, if we think outside the square – could any other shapes work?

When I first considered this question I drew a number of shapes:

Could we operate in a circle, a flat line, a square, a rectangle, a diamond?

“How about a a flatter pyramid?” I asked my friend.

“That’s Communism,” he replied. “It tends to make everyone poor, and just a few mega rich.”

I nodded woefully. Over time I have looked to other sources of inspiration.

In animal kingdoms…

In nature…

In space…

Inside ourselves…

From our minds…



[1]

.

.

.

I think my favourites are 1. THE SPIRAL 2. THE WEB 3. THE HUMAN BODY

Spirals might have interesting usages but probably not in this context. It makes me think of the pyramid on steroids, kinda what we have now – with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer in a manner that is spiraling with no limits.

Webs on the other hand are an interesting idea. Could a political, economic and social structure be more like a web than a pyramid?

Does the World Wide Web already provide a platform for this? Maybe.

When it comes to the organismic shape of the human body, I have to wonder: Do the my body’s organs and cells operate in more of a pyramid organisation structure, with my brain at the top and a hierarchy of body parts below it? Or does the networking of my spine through to the individual nerves throughout my body, the connections between my body and my mind, connections between my heart and veins, between lungs through alveoli and capillaries and through to feed oxygen to the cells in the tips of my fingers- is this more like a web?

Are our brains like pharaohs, monarchs, dictators and bankers, sitting at the top enjoying the work the rest of the body does? Or are our brains, spines, hearts, lungs, nerves and senses showing us a different system? Could our society be modelled on this?


If my foot and my arm squabbled about taking over from my brain, my body wouldn’t function so well. I need my feet to walk, I need my mouth and voice box to talk, just as right now I need my fingers to type. If my stomach goes on strike, my taste buds aren’t going to have much fun. If my hand decides not to feed me, I will die. Similarly if my hand feeds me endless amounts of McDonalds and chocolate – seeking short term pleasures at the cost of long term body functions – I will also die a relatively quick death. Similarly if those up the top of the human pyramid neglect those at the bottom, it won’t take long for the whole pyramid to fall.

While my entire body seems to be an integrated web, when it’s a working system some parts do seem to have more fun than others: I’d rather be a brain than a finger, just as I’d rather be a taste bud than a stomach. I’d prefer to be rich than poor in the capitalist world. But one without the other doesn’t really work. All body parts are happier the more happy/healthy the other parts.

At the end of the day, whether we have a system based on a pyramid or a body,

What I would really like to do is draw a big circle around the pyramid and label it “ecosystem”.

Look at your $1 bill and you will see this symbol is already kind of there…

A pyramid with a circle around it.

The “All-seeing eye” – “a universal symbol representing spiritual sight, inner vision, higher knowledge”, is a Masonic symbol that is a “mystical distortion of the omniscient (all-knowing) Biblical God”[1] which goes back as far as the ancient Egyptian god Horus.

Rather than representing an omniscient God, the all-seeing-eye makes me think of the growing fascist-nature of our governments, and the rich/elite/powerful who control them.

That’s not so bad, in my mind, as long as there is that circle around it which (ironically) is already there on the $1USD note!

I think it is really important  to remember what our social, economical and political model is located inside – an environment with limits.

The great pyramid of human civilisation can outgrow itself and if our Pyramid bursts through this circle there will be no humans left to build another one.

Can the pyramid work within our planetary limits? Maybe. I think it is possible for everyone to live out their lives playing their individual roles that altogether work for the good of all. I think it’s possible for us to have different levels of power and economic wealth, so long as together we create an anatomically correct system – that is, one that fits proportionately within our ecological circle. In order to do this, population must be limited, hence poverty must be limited, the crazy wacky food production lines must be changed (I just watched Food Inc. ewwww!).

If human civilisation is to be a functioning body, we have to re-think the roles and functions of its constituents.

There must be rewards of all the roles and each should be designed to be desirable and fulfilling. Just as unemployment might be depressing, so is living 70-hours a week in a concrete prison in the sky.

I wonder what would the social/economic/political roles look like if we were living within our ecological limits?

Photos/credits

[1] http://www.crossroad.to/Books/symbols1.html

Most from google images – forgetting to take note of owners, although most have their websites on them.

That great photo of the snails is from WAPPY AL – http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackslad/502468776/

Academic, Peace, , , ,

Preserving “The Pyramid” – the reason things are the way they are…

Written by Juliet Bennett
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“Things are the way they are because they have been designed to be this way,” a friend of mine said. “It’s all about preserving The Pyramid.”

What’s The Pyramid? Let me tell you…

“The Pyramid” (according to my friend) is a method of social, economic and political organisation that is at the core of every human civilisation from the Egyptians to Hindus to Monarchies to Capitalism.

All the big political conflicts come down to one thing: The Pyramid.

Conflicts are either initiated by people on top pulling strings to preserve or expand the present Pyramid; or conflicts are initiated by revolutionaries who disagree with the structure and seek to turn The Pyramid up-side-down.

As I thought through history, I realised my friend was right. The English and Spanish Conquest of the Americas, India, China… We seize land to expand our pyramid. We seize resources to secure our pyramid. We take down any leaders who don’t agree to it’s rules. We call anyone who challenges the Pyramid a “terrorist” and “national threat”. Why? Because they really are a threat to this hierarchy – and the people at the top do not like that.

From the Egyptians:

To the Hindu caste system:

To Capitalism today…

Globalisation has seen the pyramids of once isolated civilisations join together to create an even bigger pyramid. And as the upper and middle class grows, so does the lower class, hence as our global population rapidly expands, so does The Pyramid. The rich get richer as  the poor get poorer.

In the global pyramid, the top 0.5 billion earning over $20,000 a year (of which many earn far more, and a small number earning far far more than that) while 60% of the world’s population live on less than $2 a day.

The pyramid of wealth distribution looked at in another way shows the top 1% taking 2/3rds of the US national income…

How is such inequality allowed to persist?

Through a carefully constructed system that involves a “social distribution of knowledge” [1]. We educate some (the children of the monetarily rich) to make the system work for them, and educate others (the children of the not-so-money-rich) to work for the system.

Those in power know the formula: give people a reason to live (eg through career path or religion or an ideology) and educate them enough for their societal roles. No more, no less.

The system teaches people to obey authority, not to question it. It encourages conformity, a docile acceptance of the status quo.

According to my friend’s theory, all the “evils” of the world are there for a reason: to maintain The Pyramid. This includes:

  • Poverty is there because a massive base is needed to support the weight of the top.
  • War is there because it secures the resources required to make weapons and keep the system running as those at the top require.
  • Lack-of-education is there because in the social distribution of knowledge, not everyone needs to know stuff. All you need to know is what your role requires you to know, no more, no less.
  • Religion is there because it gives people a purpose. It explains the unknowns, it controls the masses, and it gives people hope for a better life next time round – be it up in heaven or in one’s reincarnation.
  • Debt is there because it contracts a permanent slave of those people and countries who work to repay it.

The destructive cycle is this: (1) as we seek to join the upper class  or move up the middle classes (a good thing), we inadvertently (2) increase the lower class – not such a good thing if this means 12 hour work days behind a sewing machine. Then, (3) as the base of the pyramid increases, so does poverty (families have less food and less land to provide), and (4) as poverty increases, education decreases and people have more babies, causing (5) the global population continues to explode and (6) as the earth’s resources recede it seems inevitable that, at some point in the future, billions of people’s lives  are going to be lost.

Should we challenge The Pyramid? Maybe. But to be honest I’m not sure that we can.

What happens when someone challenges the authority of The Pyramid? They get taken down. Just look what they are doing to Julian Assange!

History has shown Animal Farm scenarios time and time again: revolution upon revolution. When oppressive humans are kicked off the planet and animals declare themselves equal, it’s only a matter of time before pigs (or some other animal) will rise up and become the new oppressor.

The Pyramid has been torn down and built back up by a numerous groups who then take the place of the new rich and powerful. Whoever wins the battle replicates the model’s inequalities, and rewrites history to produce a new “social distribution of knowledge.” It’s an endless cycle.

Geez this is depressing. Where’s my Christmas spirit? Don’t get me started on Christmas… the capitalistic “Christian” tradition that is based on a pagan holiday inadvertently idolizing the “God” that declared “He” never wanted to be idolised. Ah sorry, I shouldn’t write it off like this. It is a lovely family time. I’ll try to uplift my words from here on…

If we can’t fight The Pyramid, should we embrace it? Maybe. Maybe there are ways of making it work without the above evils, I’m not sure.

Is inequality ok? Maybe. It’s impossible for everyone to be equal. And unappealing – diversity makes the world a more interesting place. And whose to say that the rich people are “rich”? Are those at the top of the pyramid “better off” than the people at the bottom? Life can be pretty boring if you have everything without the challenge. The poor might be much richer in different ways…

But it can’t be denied that it’s pretty shit that two-thirds of the world have no place to shit.

Maybe it’s best to live one’s life somewhere in the middle. Probably myself and most of you think of ourselves as somewhere in the middle (although earning more than $20k pa places us in the upper).

Even in the top segment of the pyramid if you have a mortgage and particularly if you have children, then choices become even more limited – we are culturally molded to work for the system. I wonder how many people at the very very top of The Pyramid are even consciously aware that they are creating or perpetuating it?

Is there anything wrong with being a cog in this wheel? No. I guess not – as long as you are happy. What if this happiness is just an illusion? Maybe living in an illusion is the best place to be. Should we be putting our efforts into finding ways to make the pyramid work for us? Maybe. But maybe not. Alternatives may exist, I’m not yet sure.

In sum, things are the way they are because they have been designed this way. Poverty, religion, education systems, health-related issues – all of our problems are (at least in part) designed to serve the powerful and preserve The Pyramid. If you want to address these problems in a way that is real and sustainable, then it will be useful for you to consider the power hierarchies within The Pyramid, and engage with those in decision-making positions to make changes toward more just institutions and hence a more just world.

When my friend first shared this theory I protested, now I’m coming around.

More on The Pyramid? Check out the sequel blog post Rethinking “The Pyramid” – do alternatives exist? and blog entries tagged “The Pyramid“.

Pictures:

I have a habit of grabbing pictures off Google Images and not recording the copyrights… if anyone would like me to acknowledge their work where I haven’t please do let me know.

References:

[1] The Social Construction of Reality, Berger and Luckmann 1966

 

Academic, Featured Posts, Truth, , , , , , ,

Protests and balls, another Wikileaks rally (Town Hall 530pm TODAY), and the Left-Right Paradox.

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Today the Westminster Magistrates’ Court will decide the fate of Julian Assange, well at least whether or not he will get bail. And so while I haven’t even told you much about last Friday’s rally yet, I had better briefly inform any Sydney readers that there will be another rally at 530pm, again at Town Hall, today. [1]

Professor Emeritus Stuart Rees (from Sydney Peace Foundation, and my friend and mentor) will be speaking,  so if you are Sydney, do come along. It’s sure to be informative, conducive to Assange’s case, as well as a good laugh (if anyone knows Prof. Rees’ humour, you will understand why).

…

Anyway, returning to the story of the 30 hour Peace vs Defense saga that I began to tell you about yesterday in my entry Protests, Balls, Left and Right.

In one day I attended both the first wikileak rally, and then my friend’s army ball, both held at Sydney’s Town Hall – allowing me to directly access the often polarised worldviews of Peace, and Security, and bringing me to what I will from here on refer to as the Left-Right Paradox.

Although separated by a few hours, I was one of the Lefties outside Town Hall by day, a “Hippy/Communist” as the army boys called us (appologising when I owned up); and lapping up the benefits of our capitalistic security-driven Conservative government (at my friend from the army’s end of year ball), by night.

The rally emphasised the cowardous and inexcusable way our politicians are handling Julian Assange: washing their hands of him and feeding him to the lions den, before proven guilty, is not something any citizen would hope from their country.

You would think they would learn from the case of David Hicks… what happened to being presumed innocent until proven guilty?

The rally also emphasised the citizen right to freedom of speech, freedom of media, and right to the truth.

You have probably gauged from other blog entries the value I place on the “truth” – so as you can imagine, my values were largely aligned with the rally’s speakers.

Later that day I gowned up and entered Town Hall, I also came to understand the other side.

“The information leaked put my friend’s lives at risk.” said my friend who served in Afghanistan earlier this year. “There are bigger questions that have to be asked.”

Gulp.

Let’s consider some of questions:

Should all political information be transparent?

Yes, I would like it to be.

What if this puts lives of Australian soldiers at risk?

Then no, it shouldn’t.

Do the public have a “right to know”?

YES, I think they do.

Do governments have a right to hold some information “confidential”?

Paradoxically YES, I think they do too.

Who should decide what truths should be told, and which should remain hidden?

I guess as a democracy this is the people’s decision, enacted through the government we elect to consider the facts and (hopefully) make decisions like this, hence controlling the information we see, for our own benefit.

While I think Wikileaks is a great resource for accessing the truth of the political, economic and social world we are a part of, in my opinion there are limits to what should be published. Namely nothing that puts the lives of fellow Australians at risk.

What if this puts lives of people from other countries at risk?

It is here we return to the Left-Right Paradox – the dicotomy that positions global peace against national security.

If I prioritise the lives of people from other countries, I can jeopardise the lives of people in my own country. In the political games we presently play, sending our troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and beyond, information is a weapon crucial to our winning or losing the game. So long as we are playing a global game of chess, can we really afford to tell our opponents our next moves?

There are two sides (or more) to every story, and this complicated debate is not going to end any time soon.

There are no easy answers, and there are an endless number of questions:

Are Australia, America, Britain actually democracies, or does the power of the intimate connections between media, politicians, and corporate elites nullify the ideal?

Can the Australian public TRUST their government?

Will the government one day point their finger at someone like me and yell “witch”, just for asking questions?

I hope Australia is a democracy with a government that can be trusted, who respect our questioning and always put the interests and freedoms of their citizens first.

In my opinion, government information should be as transparent as possible and it is nothing but bureaucratic bullshit if the public is held in the dark while institutions we don’t even know about pull the strings.

If I were to discuss this topic with a particularly wealthy and wise friend of mine, his response would be: “It’s all about maintaining The Pyramid.“

THE PYRAMID is a very illuminating idea – that all civilisations are based on a pyramid structure, with powerful rich at the top, and the poor workers at the bottom. Connected to the idea of maintaining The Pyramid, is the game of chess that those in power are playing with many other’s lives. So the question we must ask is:

Are we happy being pawns in a giant game of chess, or do we want to change the game, for example, from from chess to sex.

I don’t have the answers but I do have hope – hope that with collective creative ingenuity we humans can write some new rules, and start playing a game where both parties win.

In conclusion I wish to quote one of the army boys from the ball:

“Everyone just has to chill – chill out! Have a beer, talk about their issues, and then the solutions will appear.”

Cheers to that!

Thanks for listening to my rant… I’m sure everyone has an opinion and I’d love to hear your thoughts if you care to leave a comment below.

References

[1] http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/12/13/sydney-rally-for-wikileaks-on-14-december/

Some links

This entry is continued from – https://julietbennett.com/2010/12/13/protests-and-balls-left-and-right/

My older entries on this topic that might be of interest:

Human Rights or a Collective Future – the Problem with Definitions

Am I a Leftist Idealist or Right Conservative, or BOTH?

A balanced article I quite liked – http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/42140.html

A little video I shot on the day of Lee Rhiannon of the Greens (NSW Senator Elect).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS3pqtAbS2k[/youtube]

Wikileaks video and site – http://213.251.145.96/video.html

Academic, Peace, ,

Protests and balls, left and right…

Written by Juliet Bennett
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There are two sides to every story. We all know this, even if we choose to only see our side. Seeing the side of others takes empathy, a virtue that (unlike patience and many other virtues)  I think I’m not half-bad at. Lucky so, given the nature of my recent social life.

On Friday night I updated my facebook status: Pro wikileaks rally outside town hall by day, dining inside town hall with army boys by night. Oh the irony!

The irony, in my mind, stemmed from the stark contrast in world-views between Peace and Security, between Left and Right. It’s a contrast that I find strange given both are ultimately (in my opinion) trying to achieve the same thing (improving the lives of themselves and the ones they love) – the difference being the way they believe this might be achieved.

The contrast was emphasised my a few of my friend’s friend’s friend (also an army boy) at a party the night before. In the span of 30-hours I went from left to right, back to left, back to right, finally returning to where I am now: relatively left with an appreciation for the right. Confused? That’s ok, so am I.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I have a few friends from the Australian army which with my Peace Studies tends to make for interesting conversations. But my friend’s friend’s friend was a little different.

So this story begins on Thursday night at what was supposed to be some quiet farewell drinks.

“Have you ever killed someone?” my friend’s friend’s friend asked, the look of horror from his killings still in his eyes. “Then you don’t know anything.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“You peace people, you f’ing hippies, you protest against us, you spit on us during Anzac day parades,” He continued. “You live in Paddington with your straight white teeth… you don’t have a clue.”

Do I turn and leave? Cry? Or try to see what’s beneath his resentment? I chose the latter option, although after too many drinks I may later done a little of the second, and eventually a friend enforced the first option. But that’s beside the point.

“Ok, I agree – I don’t have a clue. I would never spit on you, I assure you of that.” I began diplomatically. “I might be a bit left but as you said, I live in Paddington and I do very much appreciate my way of life – and I know the connection between this and what you do. I may not agree with violence but I enjoy the economic and physical benefits of it – from oil to our relationships with the US.”

I think he was at least a little suprised by my honesty. I asked what motivates him to fight, and why he joined.

“My family. Protecting the people I love. Protecting my country.” he replied. “And I have to admit, I was pretty stoked when I bought my first Beemer.”

The conversation continued to deeper territories.

“We generally try not to kill women and children but if it’s a choice between them or me, I have done it. And once you do it, you can’t take it back.” It was plain to me the saddness and resentment that was attached. “I’ve fought in East Timor, in Afghanistan, in many other places. After a while you enjoy it. Do you hear me? I have enjoyed killing people.”

I knew he was trying to intimidate me.

“I hear you. And I also know that if I were born in your body and your situation, I’d be doing the exact same thing.” I shrugged.

I don’t take killing lightly, and I definitely don’t condone it, but my empathy does allow me to understand. I can hardly begin to imagine the psychological processes within one’s mind in order to deal with taking another’s life.

In the psychological drama of killing people and then operating in a society where no one knows what that’s like and people ignorantly criticise the war you fight, of course you would need to find stories that justify it; attaching confident feelings to the actions; and transform oneself into the hero of the story.

Are today’s soldiers heroes?

In the minds of many of the people of their country, yes they are.

Are they murderers?

In the minds of the victim’s family, yes they are.

Are they necessary?

In the global game of chess our politicians are currently playing, yes they are.

Ultimately our politicians play the game that supports the way the majority want them to play it. And at the moment our objective is security: economic security and physical security.

Peace activists might protest against soldiers, showing their dismay for the victims of war and displaying their disapproval for the way our politicians are playing the game, but until the game changes, our politicians choices are limited.

“We pay you to protect us, and that’s what you do. That’s also why people like me are of more value than you think. When we’re not spitting at you during parades… ” I laughed, “And when we’re finished making our daisy chains, we are analyzing the causes of the war in the first place. We are looking for non-violent ways to secure the same things you are trying to secure.”

If I had been referring to the chess game I might have said: we are questioning the game and trying to see if there’s another way we can play it.

At the end of that evening, when my friend told me to go home to bed, the army boy turned to me, looked me in the eyes and said, “Thank you…” he shook his head, “this has been a really good conversation, thank you.”

It was a pretty hard core conversation but it had been worthwhile. It had opened windows for understanding, on both sides.

While the above rant is just the beginning of my 30-hour Left vs Right epic, this entry is getting long so I’ll tell the rest of the story tomorrow.

Peace,

Flying like ducks

Written by Juliet Bennett
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All my life I have had a tendency to “go with the wind” so to say. It hasn’t been a completely submissive relationship. It sounds strange to say but the wind has tended to listen to my requests.  It blows me around a little but eventually it tends to deliver me to my desired destination.

This clip of these cute little ducks reminded me of my journey.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEBLt6Kd9EY[/youtube]

At times these ducks get so knocked around that you worry the wind could kill them. But it’s gentle enough. The ducklings fall down and roll around, but they do (eventually) get back up again.

That has been my experience with the wind of life too. Sometimes it is so rough that you think you’re outta here. But then it stops throwing you around and like the mother duck leads, a door opens or a light goes on, and you continue on your way.

Truth

Support Wikileaks Protest – Sydney Town Hall Tomorrow

Written by Juliet Bennett
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I’ve never been much of a hands-on activist. While I support many causes, I tend to action my support in different ways. But tomorrow’s protest is different. Tomorrow is about making a stand for our fundamental freedoms, for democracy, free media and free speech. The more people who turn up the more this voice will be heard. So if you are in Sydney then come with me to the Support WikiLeaks Rally at 1pm at TOWN HALL tomorrow (Friday the 10th December). Otherwise sign the petition here – http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/?vl

I haven’t got time to put the WikiLeaks situation into my own words so below are words taken from a Ricken Patel – Avaaz.org email and Antony Loewenstein’s Press Release.

“Ever wonder why the media so rarely gives the full story of what happens behind the scenes? This is why – because when they do, governments can be vicious in their response. And when that happens, it’s up to the public to stand up for our democratic rights to a free press and freedom of expression. Never has there been a more vital time for us to do so.

Legal experts say WikiLeaks has likely broken no laws. Yet top US politicians have called it a terrorist group and commentators have urged assassination of its staff. The organization has come under massive government and corporate attack, but WikiLeaks is only publishing information provided by a whistleblower. And it has partnered with the world’s leading newspapers (NYT, Guardian, Spiegel etc) to carefully vet the information it publishes.

The US government is currently pursuing all legal avenues to stop WikiLeaks from publishing more cables, but the laws of democracies protect freedom of the press. The US and other governments may not like the laws that protect our freedom of expression, but that’s exactly why it’s so important that we have them, and why only a democratic process can change them.

Reasonable people can disagree on whether WikiLeaks and the leading newspapers it’s partnered with are releasing more information than the public should see. Whether the releases undermine diplomatic confidentiality and whether that’s a good thing. Whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has the personal character of a hero or a villain. BUT none of this justifies a vicious campaign of intimidation to silence a legal media outlet by governments and corporations.

The massive extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks is an attack on democracy. We urgently need a public outcry for freedom of the press and expression.” [1]

Sign the petition to stop the crackdown:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/?vl

Forward this message to everyone — let’s get to 1 million voices!”

If you are in Sydney then show your support at the “Support WikiLeaks Rally” – TOMORROW (Friday the 10th December) at 1pm at TOWN HALL:

“MEDIA RELEASE — MEDIA RELEASE — MEDIA RELEASE — Support Wikileaks rally called

Supporters of the website Wikileaks will mobilise on Friday (10/12/10) to protest against the backlash it has faced for its release of more than 250,000 US government cables.

The protest will hear from independent journalist Antony Loewenstein, award-winning author of My Israel Question. Pirate Party spokesperson Simon Frew will also speak. Other speakers will be announced soon.

The rally date coincides with International Human Rights Day. Rally organisers say the Australian government has failed to uphold the human rights of Wikileaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange.

“The Australian government should be ashamed for its attacks on Wikileaks, which has been charged with no crime”, spokesperson Simon Butler said.

“Australia should not join the campaign to censor Wikileaks. Wikileaks has released evidence of government lies and duplicity — information that, as citizens, we have a right to know.

“We want the Gillard government to make sure Julian Assange has the same basic rights as every other Australian citizen. Threats have been made against Assange’s life, the Australian government has a duty to protect him, not threaten him.”

Butler said community support for Wikileaks was very high. “We expect a good turnout to the rally. There is a great deal of anger at what’s happening. The bid to silence Wikileaks threatens the rights of everyone.” [2]

The email from Ricken Patel – Avaaz.org includes these SOURCES:

Law experts say WikiLeaks in the clear (ABC)
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s3086781.htm

WikiLeaks are a bunch of terrorists, says leading U.S. congressman (Mail Online)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333879/WikiLeaks-terrorists-says-leading-US-congressman-Peter-King.html

Cyber guerrillas can help US (Financial Times)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d3dd7c40-ff15-11df-956b-00144feab49a.html#axzz17QvQ4Ht5

Amazon drops WikiLeaks under political pressure (Yahoo)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101201/tc_afp/usdiplomacyinternetwikileakscongressamazon

“WikiLeaks avenged by hacktivists” (PC World):
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/212701/operation_payback_wikileaks_avenged_by_hacktivists.html

US Gov shows true control over Internet with WikiLeaks containment (Tippett.org)
http://www.tippett.org/2010/12/us-gov-shows-true-control-over-internet-with-wikileaks-containment/

US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike Huckabee (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/us-embassy-cables-executed-mike-huckabee

WikiLeaks ditched by MasterCard, Visa. Who’s next? (The Christian Science Monitor)
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/1207/WikiLeaks-ditched-by-MasterCard-Visa.-Who-s-next

Assange’s Interpol Warrant Is for Having Sex Without a Condom (The Slatest)
http://slatest.slate.com/id/2276690/

My sources:

[1]
Avaaz.org is a 6.4-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decision-making. (“Avaaz” means “voice” or “song” in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. To contact Avaaz, go to www.avaaz.org/en/contact.

[2]

Antony Loewenstein is a Sydney-based independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian, photographer and blogger.

http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/12/07/wikileaks-support-protest-in-sydney-on-friday

The rally will take place at Sydney Town Hall @ 1pm, Friday December 10.

Rally information: Kylie Gilbert 0451 827 693

Media contact: Simon Butler 0421 231 011

Peace, Truth,

Yoga – always a good decision

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Tonight I had a decision to make: dinner with mum, PeaceBeliever Tribute to John Lennon at Oxford Arts Factory, bed (I was up late blogging last night), try to keep awake and study, or go to a yoga class. My body craved the hot room, long stretches, mental relaxation of yoga – but it would be at the cost of all the other options, and the bother of driving and parking. All of this I could be avoided if I just sit on my ass and don’t go. But I did. And I was reminded (once again) that yoga is always a good decision.

I don’t know how I let myself forget – how weeks go by with my prioritising social events or even whatever TV series I’m working through at the time – instead of making it to class.

This class – at Body Mind Life, in Surry Hills – is particularly great. To make things even better, tonight this amazing (and perfect bodied, dreadlocked) yoga dude brought a guitar and he and the female instructor sang some chants.

It is quite an incredible feeling to be in a room full of around 50 people humming “om” together (the vibration of the universe) and singing about “shanti” (which means peace). So I might not have made the Lennon Peace Tribute but I did I return home feeling once again “at peace”.

I had forgotten how great that feeling is.

To be honest I had been starting to wonder if “Peace” was an outdated word – with all the baggage that seems to be attached to it. Peace seemed to bring to mind fairly boring images of nothingness while and Conflict brought to mind images of adventure and excitement. The definition of Peace (or “Positive Peace” to be more exact) in Peace and Conflict Studies is a Peace that values Conflict but not at the expense of Violence or Injustice. So… in the pursuit of Peace by this definition, I was starting to think that maybe we needed a more exciting new term.

After tonight I see Peace differently.

Tonight I am reminded that while we need Conflict to have Peace, we also need Peace to have Conflict. We need BOTH. While Conflict can be great, it does need some moments of Peace to balance it out.

Tonight I feel calm but energised, alive without-a-worry-in-the-world. Feeling at peace with oneself is a very good feeling. So if your life is as fast-changing and competitive as mine then I recommend that an hour or two of pure nothingness (which is not the same as watching a tv show) is always a good decision.

Peace,

Hypatia, my new heroine

Written by Juliet Bennett
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It was the burgeoning of the Dark Ages – a time where a blog like mine that questioned the “truth” would have me (like my new heroine the philosopher Hypatia was) called a witch, stripped naked, skinned alive, torn into pieces and burned.

Tonight I saw Agora, a movie with Rachel Weisz set in Roman Egypt in the 4th century AD, around the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire. It is based on the book The Rise and Fall of Alexandria (2007) and was a pretty good film that (for better or worse) reminded me of those earlier dark dark periods of human history.

Of course Hypatia wasn’t the only one to experience the wrath of brainwashed barbarians (I need not mention the witch hunts, inquisitions and crusades that followed) but after two hours of admiring this curious and courageous thinker, it wasn’t the most satisfying ending to the epic. Don’t worry, they don’t actually skin her on screen – this was my post-movie research discoveries.

Geez humanity sucks.

“It’s the pyramid,” said my friend as we left the cinema. He’s a touch more cynical than me. “There will always be horrors and injustices, it takes different forms but it’s always there – it’s simply human nature. It’s the way we organise our societies, it’s the way those with power control the masses.”

Not least of the horrors of the movie was the reminder of the oppression of women, when a beloved student of the philosophy teacher is read a bible verse that says a woman is not allowed to have influence over a man.

That being said there are some great quotes, my favourite two:

1. When accused of believing “in nothing,” Hypatia says strongly, “I believe in philosophy”.

2. When her student tries to persuade her to get baptised she explains, “Synesius, you don’t question what you believe, or you cannot… But I must.“

It is worth noting that while the movie is positioned around the burning of the Alexandria Library, my quick googling did reveal a little controversy surrounding the exact historical location of the event. Some blame Caesar 400 years earlier (even though books from the library were recorded to have existed after this date), and others (an anti-Muslim) blame Omar (a Muslim)… I guess everyone wants a scape goat. I definitely wouldn’t want to have the burning of knowledge attached to my name.

Either way the cycle of book burnings, of re-writing history, and of the (ab)use of religion in the name of power, is a story that seems to repeat itself periodically as the next empire rises and falls.

I wonder if next time, now with our growing library of knowledge on the internet, are we more safe or less? Will the fire be replaced with a virus that wipes history from our memory?

What baffles me the most of about such history, is that it happened such a short time ago. 370 AD is less than 18 of my Opa’s lifetimes and the Dark Ages finished only around four of my Opa’s life times ago! So while all this might be classified as “ancient history”, it is really not long ago at all. The deep-seeded collective memories this movie retells reminds us of where we have come from and the psychological issues that have probably been passed onto us and may still be living on today.

I guess the biggest irony of it all is that we stupid humans still allow and go out to fight barbaric wars with guns and bombs and innocent lives being ruined, all of which is convinced to us still under some kind of manipulative fear-driven ideological or religious banner.

All I can say is that I hope my friend’s comments on human nature are wrong. I hope that somehow we humans can smarten up, learn from the past, get over our fears, and reclaim the curious and courageous humanity that Hypatia presents.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTZZHPR5kEo[/youtube]

Truth,