Skip to main content

Are Australians “losing their faith”?

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal Blog titled Australian’s Lose Their Faith reported that 4.8 million Aussies marked “No Religion” on last year’s census. 

Following this article I spent an afternoon analysing the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2011 Census.

The most interesting points:

  • “No Religion” 22.34% (made up of Atheists 0.27% ; Agnostics 0.16%; No Religion nfd 21.86%; Humanism 0.04% and Rationalism 0.02%).
  • “Not Stated” 8.57% (which may be because of the design of the survey form, in which the “No Religion” option was a little hidden – see article on this here).
  • “Other Religions” (Indigenous, Baha’i, Chinese, Japanese, Nature religions etc) added up to 1.45%;
  • Hinduism 1.28%; Buddhism 2.46%;
  • a range of Christianity 61% (including Uniting Church 4.96%; Catholic 25.33%; Pentecostals 1.1%; Anglican 17.14%).

There has been a constant growth in the “No Religion” category in Australia:

  • 1991 Census – 12.9% No Religion
  • 1996 Census – 16.6% No Religion
  • 2001 Census – 15.5% No Religion (maybe people got scared after 911?)
  • 2006 Census – 18.7% No Religion
  • 2011 Census – 22.34% No Religion

Some people seem surprised this statistic of 22.34% of a population to be without religion is high. Others seem shocked that 22.34% is so low – thinking it more likely to be 22.34% religious, and 77.66% non religious.  

Over 50 million Americans (16.1% of the population of the United States) ticked the same box in their latest PEW survey That is, 16.1% ticked the “Unaffiliated” box which is broken down into Atheist 1.6%, Agnostic 2.4% and Nothing in particular 12.1%.

An assumption seemingly unquestioned is the idea that having no religion means the same thing as having no faith. I beg to differ: one need not classify themselves as part of an institutionalized religion to have faith in some thing bigger than themselves. 

We have the opportunity to interpret the Holy Books of all religions in their historical context, and see how it has been written, collected, edited and interpreted for different purposes by different power-hungry men. Learn. Question. THINK!

One need not pretend they know what “God” is, and what “He” thinks. Have we not yet arrived at a stage where we can let go of this human-centred de-contextualised ignorant arrogance?

“God” is a WORD that represents something that remains a mystery.

Sure this word has been used and abused by people who attach stories to it and consider these stories as inseparable from the unknowable creative forced that the word represents.

Science admits it shortfalls, its assumptions, and strives to keep improving theories to make them closer reflections of “truth”. But it never stops questioning (at least it shouldn’t, in theory).

Religion could benefit from being more critical of itself: of it’s doctrines, its dogmas, the methods of teaching, and the consequences of their follower’s actions for the rest of the world. That being said, so could science.

It’s ok to be critical of what you have been taught. In a democratic society it’s essential that we are.

In short I think it’s wonderful that Australians are losing their religion, but I hope that we aren’t losing our faith – in the sense of trusting our intuition and living in connection with the great mystery of life that we are a part of.

 

Truth

Peace Portal

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

The Sydney Peace Foundation has posted a Peace with Justice Links page (complied by yours truly) bringing together links to resources for those interested in knowing more about peace, conflict, justice, human rights, environmental ethics and more. Visit the full page here: Peace with Justice Links. Here are some highlights and personal favourites:

Why is peace with justice important?

“Peace with justice is a way of thinking and acting which promotes nonviolent solutions to everyday problems and thereby contributes to a civil society.”

Key Concepts

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides a valuable summary of present and historical philosophical perspectives on War; on Justice; on Pacifism; on Human Rights; on Environmental Ethics and Ecology – all important intertwining issues related to moving toward more peaceful relations between humans, societies, and with our environment.

Universal Rights and Responsibilities

International declarations of fundamental values and principles useful for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century:

The Global Peace Index

The Global Peace Index (GPI) is the world’s leading measure of national peacefulness. Now in its sixth year, it ranks 158 nations according to their ‘absence of violence’. The GPI is developed by Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) under the guidance of an international panel of independent experts with data collated and calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). It is composed of 23 indicators, ranging from a nation’s level of military expenditure to its relations with neighbouring countries and the percentage of prison population. The project’s ambition is to go beyond a crude measure of wars—and systematically explore the texture of peace.

Click here for Interactive Maps, Facts and Yearly Results

Peace Research, Journals and Academic Institutes

There is now a general consensus of the importance of the interdisciplinary investigation of peace amongst scholars from a range of disciplines in and around the social sciences, as well as from many influential policymakers around the world. Peace and conflict studies is a social and political science field that crosses a number of academic disciplines including political science, geography, economics, psychology, sociology, international relations, history, anthropology, religious studies, and gender studies.

The International Peace Research Association (IPRA) provides a world-wide network for peace researchers seeking nonviolent ways to resolve conflict. Peace researchers explain how the conditions of peace can be advanced and/or the causes of war and other forms of violence be removed. This is a directory guide to peace research via an interactive map of the world (provided by IPRA)

The Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) is the sister organisation of the Sydney Peace Foundation (and where I did my Masters) at the University of Sydney.  CPACS promotes interdisciplinary research and teaching on the causes of conflict and the conditions that affect conflict resolution and peace. Research projects and other activities focus on the resolution of conflict with a view to attaining just societies.

United Nations

These United Nations websites contain comprehensive indexes to peace with justice issues, and associated UN Bodies and resources on:

Peace Education

United Nations Cyber School Bus Peace Education provides resources for Students- Learner as Teacher; and also for Teachers- Teacher as Learner. It also provides curriculum resources for teaching Peace Education: Unit 1 (8-12) – ecological thinking and respect for life Unit 2 (11-16) – tolerance and respect for dignity and identity Unit 3 (12+) – critical thinking and active non-violence Unit 4 (14+) – social justice and civic responsibility Unit 5 (14+) – leadership and global citizenship

Get Active

Communities all over the world are actively working toward more peaceful, socially just and ecologically sustainable way of being in our world. These communities can take the form of government or non-government organisations; profit, non-profits or social businesses; religious, non-religious and inter-religious charities, activist organisations, peace tourism, fair trade, and many other forms. Here are a few:

Amnesty International are a global movement of over 3 million people committed to defending those who are denied justice or freedom.

Oxfam Working with communities for more than 50 years, and Oxfam provide people with the skills and resources to help them create their own solutions to poverty. Their inspiring work can be seen in initiatives from their Fair Trade products and shops, to their Grow campaign, the latter which encourages investment in small-scale farmers with sustainable techniques (like using organic fertilisers and drip irrigation techniques) to help produce enough to feed a growing population, without pushing our climate further out of control.

The Pachamama Alliance Indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest working to preserve their lands and culture and, using insights gained from their work, educating and inspiring people around the world to bring forth a thriving, just and sustainable world. Their Changing the Dream Symposiums aim to awaken a transformed global vision: an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on this planet.

…

“Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.” – Dalai Lama, Nobel Laurent and recipient of the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal.

Please visit the Sydney Peace Foundation website for more links & resources, our peace blog, and information on upcoming events.

 

Peace

Bigger Dick Foreign Policy Theory

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

“To me war is a lot of prick waving. OK? Simple thing that’s all it is. War is a whole lot of men standing out on the field waving their pricks at one another,” said George Carlin, in his 1992 special Jammin’ in New York.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaS2bRGS86c[/youtube]

“Men are insecure about the size of their dicks and so they have to kill one another over the idea. That’s what all that asshole jack bullshit is all about. That is what all that adolescent macho-male posturing and strutting in bars and locker rooms is all about. It is called dick fear. Men are terrified that their pricks are inadequate and so they have to compete with one another to feel better about themselves and since war is the ultimate competition basically men are killing each other in order to improve their self-esteem. You do not have to be a historian or political scientist to see the bigger dick foreign policy theory at work. It sounds like this: What? They have bigger dicks?! Bomb them! And off course the bombs and the rockets and the bullets are all shaped like dicks. It is a subconscious need to project the penis into other peoples’ affairs. It is called FUCKING WITH PEOPLE!”

George Carlin (1937-2008), was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, actor and writer/author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums. His commentary and criticisms about the government and media on the war in the Persian Gulf are just as “We like war… because we’re good at it. You know why we’re good at it? Because we get a lot of practice!… and it’s a good thing we are — we are not very good in anything else anymore. Can’t built a decent car; can’t make a TV set or VCR worth a fuck. Got no steel industry left; can’t educate our young people; can’t get health care for our old people; but we can bomb the shit out of your country alright! Especially if your country is full of brown people…”

Comedians are like poets, capturing in a few lines what takes other types of writers thousands of words. The irony, the absurdity, the obvious… when put in the right way makes you wonder: how does such a state of political economics continue?

“You probably noticed that I don’t feel about that war the way we were told, we were supposed to feel about that war, the way we were ordered and instructed by the USA government to feel about that war. You see, I tell you, my mind does not work that way. I got this real moron thing I do, it’s called thinking and I am not a very good American, because I like to form my own opinions! I don’t just roll over when I am told to. Sad to say most Americans just roll over on command. Not me. I have certain rules I live by.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgps85scy1g[/youtube]

“I’d like to point out things that bring us together, things that point our similarities instead of our differences cause that’s all you ever hear about: our differences. That’s all the media and the politicians are ever talking about, the things that separate us. Things that make us different from one another. That’s the way the ruling class operates in any society: they try to divide the rest of the people: they keep the middle classes fighting with each other so that they, the rich, can run off with all the fucking money. Fairly simple thing, happens to work. You know, anything different, that’s what they’re going to talk about: race, religion, ethnic and national background, jobs, income, education, social status, sexuality, anything they can do to keep us fighting with each other so they can keep going to the bank. You know how I describe the economic and social classes in this country? The upper class keeps all the money and pays none of the taxes. The middle class pay all of the taxes, does all the work. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class — keep ’em showing up to those jobs.'”

The sad but true (and slightly absurd) state of society. Twenty years have passed since Carlin spoke these words, has anything changed? Yes – the global upper, middle and lower have gotten bigger, and the gap wider. It’s an interesting state of play. These rules, that the upper class seems to set… they work for the upper class, but not really for anyone else…

Why do the masses – the middle and lower class – keep playing a game they are destined to lose? Well when one is born into a social situation it’s hard to imagine it will ever be different. But power is always shifting, constantly re-negotiated. There’s always a counter-culture and occasion they overpower the dominant one. The only truth I know is that everything will always change. In what way, only time will tell… but to be sure, whether we know it or not, we are all part of the negotiation process.

 

Truth, ,

Pussy Riots and a Government of Pussies

Written by Juliet Bennett
2 Comments

Governments bullying citizens, governments bullying governments, and pussy governments (like my own) abandoning their citizens to the hands of others. For all our so-called “development”, our institutions and some people’s mental states are appallingly archaic, fascist and cowardice. Doesn’t give me much faith in any of our political leaders or “democracy”…

It seems a terrible combination of power and fear has the leaders of our society acting worse than children in a playground. Are the school bullies of global politics so insecure about themselves that they think they must bring down and torture anyone caught calling them a name or exposing the crimes of their past?

One would hope that political leaders had grown out of their teenage insecurities and could approach conflicts in a more mature way than: ‘get-em’, ‘lock-em-away’, ‘shut-them-up’ and torture them so no one else dares to challenge their authority. Can’t we leave such barbarianism to the Dark Ages?

Is it so hard to take a look in the mirror, admit one’s shortcomings, and discuss one’s intentions and outcomes in a way that those around you can respect?

Julian Assange is now at the crux of a political standoff between the United Kingdom and Ecuador, while Australia sits cowardly watching from the sidelines. The Australian government’s lack of care for Assange is like a parent watching his child being beaten up by the teacher, and the child’s friend stepping in to help while the parent looks the other way.

Stuart Rees, Chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation (who awarded a “Gold Medal” to Assange last year [1a]) states clearly what is needed:

In terms of justice for Julian Assange and for any other advocates of free speech and freedom of the press, the following issues need to be aired by the media.

1. Assange has provided a  massive public service by, among other things, revealing truths about murders by US military. His challenge to governments’  secrecy explains their desire for revenge.

2. So called British justice put Assange under house arrest for almost two years when he had been charged with no offence. No other defendant suspected of alleged similar offences has been treated in this way.  Cowardly governments have made the alleged sex offences in Sweden into a major issue, not Assange.

3. For centuries, powerful governments have behaved as though they can do what they like, even if they call this ‘ the rule of law.’ In this watershed case, a small government Ecuador has challenged the bully boy tactics  – witness the UK threats – that have lasted for so long but now should end.

4. All citizens who believe in freedom of the press, freedom of speech and the values associated with diplomatic immunity, can insist that the Ecuadorian decision to give asylum to Assange should override any other consideration and no amount of quibbling by so called legal experts to support the governments of the UK, Sweden and the USA should be heeded.

5. Here is a massive opportunity for the Australian government to show its determination to stand up for the right of an Australian citizen.[1b]

Will the UK (who may themselves feel bullied by the US) breach Ecuador’s sovereignty in order to get Assange? How can all this fuss be made with the cover of alleged sexual assault charges in Sweden made by a girl who spent the following day and evening with him? [2]

As the SMH pointed out this morning, Foreign Affairs and Trade Department documents show that ‘Australian diplomats have no doubt the United States is intent on pursuing Julian Assange’.[4])

What a brave act of Ecuador—the Ecuadorian government and Ecuadorian people—in standing up for this Australian’s basic human rights. Why isn’t the Australian government doing more to resolve this issue???

Maybe they can learn something from the definitely NOT COWARDICE Pussy Riot (a Russian feminist punk-rock musical collective) who have been sentenced to gaol for two years for singing a “punk prayer” that condemned ‘the Church’s open support for the state and called on the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out” of power.'[5]

The court ruled: ‘Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, stood watching in handcuffs in a glass cage as the court delivered its verdict… “Tolokonnikova, Samutsevich and Alyokhina committed an act of hooliganism, a gross violation of public order showing obvious disrespect for society,” the judge said. “The girls’ actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church’s rules.”‘[5]

The Pussy Riot and the Australian government demonstrate two very opposite uses of the word “Pussy”. I must say I know the usage I’d like to see more of.

P.S.

Julian Assange first public statement since entering Ecuador’s London embassy on 19th August followed by statements of support from around the world:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVKa6IG8aoY[/youtube]

Including the wonderfully flamboyant fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (who I met back in my Paris modelling days – an unsuccessful but memorable casting) made a show of support for Assange with a representative reading her statement: “Through WikiLeaks, Julian Assange continues to expose the lies and distortions of the authorities. His fight is our fight. It is a fight for freedom. Freedom for information. We are Julian Assange. I am Julian Assange. With love, from Vivienne.” 

Love it when worlds of my past and present collide.

References:

Assange/Ecuador:

[1a] http://sydneypeacefoundation.org.au/peace-medal-julian-assange/

[1b] http://sydneypeacefoundation.org.au/brave-and-principled-ecuador/# (Press Release from Stuart Rees)

[2] http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/07/19/3549280.htm (Four Corners’ fantastic feature on Assange)

[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19303189

[4] http://www.smh.com.au/national/us-intends-to-chase-assange-cables-show-20120817-24e1l.html (Sydney Morning Herald today)

Pussy Riots:

[5] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-17/judge-finds-pussy-riot-guilty-of-hooliganism/4207014

[6] http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/201281610563073589.html

Picture:

http://www.zdnet.com/russia-today-hit-by-ddos-as-anti-wikileaks-group-claims-responsibility-7000002794/

 

 

Peace,

There IS something new under the sun…

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

“There is nothing new under the sun,” I said to Jonny, my housemate and a source of much inspiration these days.

“What about this table?” he asked.

“And this plant? and you? and me? There is no other table like this, or plant, and no other person who are us…” he continued.

“But tables are nothing new,” I answered. “Your table is awesome, and unique and special, but it builds on things from the past: the idea of a ‘table’ for one, the idea of ‘electricity’ for another, the idea of circles, and florescent colours—these things that are not exactly new…”

“But is there another table just like this? Or a plant exactly like that? Or another person exactly as you are?”

Jonny was right. His table is his, and there is not one other table that is the same (though he also made a red version, but again – it’s not exactly the same.)

“I suppose there is something new under the sun!” I cheered.

It depends on your perspective: in a way there is nothing new, and yet in another way everything is new.

In a way the same stuff is happening today as it was two-thousand years ago, yet each experience of it is unique and wonderful and new.

Maybe Ecclesiastes had it wrong. There are many things new under the sun, if you care to take notice of it.

 

Random Life Stuff

COURSERA: Technology + Education = Peaceful Revolution

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

On the hunt for a TED Talk for our next “Three Fork” session I came across Stanford Professor Daphne Koller sharing an online education platform set to change the world…

You must visit the page: https://www.coursera.org/ – so impressive! A massive network of FREE education from 16 of the world’s best universities.

 

Courses go for 6-10 weeks, include weekly videos to watch, homework, assignments and sometimes exams – but tailored to your needs, and all developed by 16 of the world’s top universities… what a gift to the world:
  • life-long education,
  • development of critical thinking skills,
  • encouraging and inspiring creative solutions to the world’s problems…

There are presently 116 courses, from Calculus to Social Network Analysis to Quantum Mechanics, Astronomy, History, Psychology and Photography.

This Introduction to Philosophy course looks interesting, starting in January 2013: https://www.coursera.org/course/introphil

At the moment there are 16 categories:

..

While it’s exciting to see this platform it seems there are still many gaps:

1. getting technology (internet, computers/smart phones, etc) into the hands of people who lack access to the education

2. develop a much larger range of courses (language courses, writing courses, basic accounting, business, and others that would open the world market for all)… that will be most useful to those lacking education

3. increasing the interest, time availability and perceived value of these education services to those who might benefit from them

Barriers and pending challenges aside, it’s exciting to imagine how technology + education may lead to the evolution of a more peaceful and sustainable global society 🙂

 

 

 

Peace,

Left, Right, and Identity

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment
Trey Parker and Matt Stone

During the Three Fork discussions (see this morning’s post, which I didn’t want to be longer than it already was) I began to relate the tension between left and right to the tension between the two parts of our “self” in time, that Paul Ricoeur refers to as the ipse and the idem.

  • The ipse is the “selfhood” – the you that was living in a moment sitting at school listening (or not) to a teacher talk, the you that is living in the moment right now reading these words, and the you that will be in the moment in ten years, twenty years, thirty years on in your future. This is the part of you that is constantly changing, defined by the separation, living in the present within a continuum of time. In accounting terms this might be seen as the Balance Sheet at any single point in time.
  • The idem is the “Sameness” – the part of you that was you at ten, and is still you at sixty. It is the long-term trajectory of one entity in time. In accounting terms it’s the Profit and Loss Statement – observed through it’s changing values during a defined period.
  • Ricoeur posits that the idem and the ipse are joined through narrative.
  • Aspects of narratives communication include:
    • promises (to which an idem works to hold the two separate ipse’s accountable for),
    • convictions (the motivation for working to fulfil a promise),
    • memories (one cannot fulfil a promise that they do not remember making),
    • forgiveness (the ability to promise contains the ability to reverse that promise, and part of life living is the freedom of future idems),
    • and finally the forgetting (the letting go, the moving on, the closure and space for new beginnings).

What the right side is to the left side of the brain, the ipse is to the idem of a personal identity.

Selfhood within Sameness. Separation within Connection. Conflict within Conformity.

Neither side of the brain can operate without the other. Some doses and mixtures of either part can be destructive, while other doses and mixtures of the two can be creative.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone[1]

We face these tensions in our daily life: one ipse’s decides to lose five kilos, yet one’s future ipse may decide to eat a block of chocolate.

The long-term state of a person relies on the short-term decisions that person makes.

Similarly the long-term state of a society relies on the short-term decisions of its citizens.

Peace or violence?

In a way this tension between Right and Left, the tension of the Collective and the Individualist, the tension between “you” and the “you-in-this-moment”, and also relates to the tension between Structure and Agency (that is, the power of the collective institutions and processes Vs the power of individuals who act and react within those systems).

A life led by the right side of the brain = peace in the short-term, bliss in the moment of feeling united and at one; but without the left it leads to self indulgence, vulnerable to the violent side-effects of conformity when it is not matched with some conflict – critical thinking, questioning the context, separation from the norm.

A life led by the left side of the brain = violence in the short term, even simply the act of being separated, standing alone, in fear of death, in a struggle to survive, with violent effects that the pursuit of individual self-interest can cause.

By and large I think the left side is more painful – as it is defined by the separation; and the right side is more blissful – as it is defined by the connection. Yet bliss and pain are temporary states, felt inside a moment. If one wanted only to create peace in the world for a moment, the right side of the brain would be the key.

But if one wants to decrease violence and increase peace in the long-term, looking to the right side for solutions is a waste of time. In the case of Jill Bolte Taylor, had her brain not returned to the left side periodically she wouldn’t have managed to call for help. The right side, the bliss, may have been great – but it wasn’t going to help save her life.

The same can be said about drugs or even meditation – they may bring about states of nirvana and bliss, but these states are temporary and hence must be used in conjunction with what the left side of our brain has to offer.

The Right and Left together can = peace or violence in the long term. It depends on the dialogue and relationship between the two.

Capitalism defines the relationship in economic terms, applying Right (politically) principles of individualism, privatisation, self-ownership as the path to harmonious market-driven futures that are also better for the whole.

Marxism defines a relationship that considers revolution, the Left (politically) undertaking largely violent conflict to take over the Right and force Leftist principles of shared ownership etc onto the world for the better of the whole.

Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx developed their theories in hope of bettering society, making it more peaceful, yet neither theory seems to get there. The side effects and long term trajectory of both are pretty depressing.

What’s the solution? I have no idea except to say I think there’s something worthy in continuing the process of seeking it. Do you?

[1] From the YouTube clip with audio of Alan Watts and South Park animators Trey Parker and Matt Stone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXi_ldNRNtM

Peace, Truth

“Three Fork”: conversation beyond the norm

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

Last Wednesday was the pilot launch of “Three Fork”, a cafe/bar that aims to stimulate “Free Thought”, conversation beyond the norm.

The plan: Three D’s

  • Drinks 730pm
  • Dinner 8pm (& TED Talk)
  • Discussion 830pm

The night couldn’t have been more successful.

Over Drinks the nine people who were selectively and spontaneously invited about an hour before the event, informal introduced themselves standing/sitting around the bar.

Next everyone was encouraged to help themselves to the slow cooked lamb hotpot and take a seat to watch A Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor – a TV/TED Dinner:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU[/youtube]

Then started the best bit of the night: Discussions.

It started as a group – one person making a comment, then another adding to their thoughts. Sometimes in agreeance, sometimes in conflict, either way we bounced off each other to challenge and develop ideas.

A major theme was the tension between the left and the right sides of the brain, and the pattern of tension that one can see in politics, economics, spirituality, career and personality. Let me try to map out these patterns:

LEFT side of body/politics (right side of brain)

RIGHT side of body/politics (left side of brain)

Artists/music/hippies

Maths/business/suits

All-is-one

All-is-many

Spiritual

Material

Collective

Individual

Goo

Prickles

Conformity

Conflict

Structure

Agency

Present

Past and Future

Peace in ST; Violence in LT

Violence in ST; Peace in LT

IDEM/Sameness

IPSE/Selfhood

As Jill described:

  • the right side of the brain (controlling the left side of your body), sees everything as energy and connected
  • the left side of the brain on the other hand (controlling the right side of your body), sees your body as a being made of matter that is separate from the entities and environment around it

I find it easier to think of the right side of the brain as Left and the left side as Right because of the pattern that I see in society:

  • the right-brain-dominant people are often the artists, Collectivist, the Left of politics, seeing the connections, the spirituality of life itself, and the need to care for others and the planet;
  • the left-brain-dominant are often the MBA’s running the world, Individualist, is the Right of politics, preferring religions that are about rules and books, seeing things as separate, different, numbers to be counted.

Today there seems to be a big disconnection between the Right and the Left, especially in the political sense. The Left in politics sees the Right as violent, materialistic, individualists to the cost of the wider society and environment. And the Right in politics sees the Left as hippy comms who are self-indulgent and without long term visions for security and realistic futures.

Of course this is terribly generalistic and simplified to the extreme, but a useful continuum of left to right, collectivist to individualist, goo to prickles, from which we can map the tensions and dynamics.

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

Alan Watts describes two personality types:

  • the “Prickles” as those who see atoms, differences, and conflicts.
  • the “Goo” as those who see waves, similarities and conformity.

While we may have a tendency toward being Gooey or Prickly, most of us are Prickly Goo and Gooey Prickles.

Another theme that I picked up on at Three Fork was a sense of the internal struggle between conformity and conflict that many of us seemed to share:

  • a struggle to conform to material society, to be part of that culture which we have been born into and hence is a nature desire;
  • the care for social justice and relationship to the environment which involves a certain amount of conflict, putting yourself on a ledge, sticking up for the good guy, standing up to the norm.

Many feel a disjunction between our cultural values and our humanitarian and environmental ones. Our concerns for our individual self, and our care for the collective other. I could hear a subtext loud and clear: a deep sense of knowing that some of the “Western” nation’s “wealth” has involved destructive material consequences for people of the “East” and people “Indigenous” to “our” lands.

I relate this disjunction to the Left and Right – the conformity being a tendency of over-emphasise on the collective (the right-brained / left-politics), and the conflict coming from over emphasis on the individual (the left-brained / right-politics).

Both the conflict seen by the left-side of the brain, and the conformity seen by the right-side, can cause violence or peace.

Future Three Forks:

  • To occur once a month
  • Starting time could come forward an hour
  • Request $10 donations p.p. for food, and $2-3 per drink
  • Record the audio so it can be shared as a podcast

 

Peace

Willowy and Wanting

Written by Juliet Bennett
Leave a Comment

“JULIET”

Willowy and wanting

to experiment

by stretching to the time

of high expectations,

which the contented and closed

would never wish to see,

you are a beautiful model

of curious discontent

who like a magnet draws

the lively and the lustful.

 

Willowy and wanting

to realize the promise

of so many customs,

you mix the ingredients

of epicureans and hedonists,

cartwheel through life’s carnivals

yet know the need

to trim the sails,

feel for the wind

and tack towards the still harbour.

 

Willowy and wanting

to resist the claims

of those who might insist

that security begets success,

you show the philosopher’s touchstone –

the humour of humanity

the colours of your choosing

and each day your giving

an indispensable

spontaneity in kissing and hugging.

 

Such a reward to laugh with you

and what a fortune

for those who love you !

 

by Stuart Rees

A tribute to your 30th from the Norwegian coast… for July 6th, 2012.

 

 

See more of Stuart Rees poems on the Sydney Peace Foundation website – click here.

Adventure, Featured Posts