Creating Monsters

If we want to stop terrorism and other forms of violence, be it domestic, sexual, racist, gang and so on, we need to stop cultivating the fertile soil for its growth: children in abusive environments; familial, societal, war torn.

We need to understand that sanctioned violence is still violence, warfare killing is still murder and soldiers are victims of propaganda, circumstance and political exploitation of intergenerational trauma.

Yes there are some psychopathic humans, some in powerful positions, but most violent people are created. We are not born violent nor hateful.   

Killing is never glorious, never honorable. It is a last resort to save yourself or someone else and should never be celebrated or encouraged.

 "Violence begets violence, and all violence is a confession of pain! Hurt people tend to hurt people.

Sheriff Crown, S.A. Cosby "All the Sinners Bleed"

"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich."

Peter Ustinov

Is the world being run by wounded males?

Thoughts About America from an Expat

My thoughts on the differences between Democrat politicians and Republican ones (and their counterparts world-wide).

The Democrats pay lip service to progressive ideals while supporting environmental and climate destruction, and the same ol' hierarchical setup of rich and poor. They bring nothing new, for while they claim to champion change, true structural change is what they fear.

On the other hand, Republicans come right out with their distain for progressiveness, it's an affront to family values, an evil plot by conniving globalist elites. They also fear change, (apparent in the word conservative), and have no issue saying that. In fact, a past glory is what they seek. A mythical time when men, women and children knew their place and all was good and proper.

Handmaid's Tale or two-faced, regardless of the approach, the result is the same. Neither side is relinquishing their power. They are not entertaining a world beyond capitalism. Profit will always eclipse ethics.  And to cloud over this shameful truth, fear mongering, scapegoating, ridiculing and rage baiting are employed. Deceive with populism or duplicitousness. Resort to immediate polar opposite views on issues and hype up the base to follow suit. Divide and conquer as they say!

They have no intention of changing a system that empowers them. Certainly not significant change for the better, but certainly for the worse!

This is a realization I came to long ago, as did many others. An understanding of US politics and politics world-wide that becomes more obvious and frustrating. A situation, we the people, either don't fully comprehend or accept out of a perceived powerlessness. 

But must it be so futile?

Are we such slaves to our conditioning that we can't think beyond our upbringing and environment? So emotionally immature that outrage is our immediate response? Can we not dig deeper, look farther, listen well? Feel beyond fear? If not, we will continue to be baited and captured by the powers that be. 

A party to our own demise.

 

 

A Micro History of Halloween

Bound for the New World, they boarded ships, away from Ireland, away from famine. Their belongings were scant, but their lore was plenty and Halloween arrived in America. The Celtic Festival of Samhain (sow-wen) absorbed by the church. 

All Saints' Eve, All Hallows' Eve, Halloween; Samhain is at its core. 

The end of a lunar year. 

The split between the light time and the dark. 

The thinning veil between this world and the Other. 

Samhain, three nights of ritual and revelry under a full, autumnal moon.

Turnips now pumpkins, commercialized, plasticized and much-loved, Halloween returned home as an American holiday.

WILD FOODS (a micro prose piece)

Wild Foods

We are the edible plants growing wild in fields, nettle, sorrel, patches of dark green garlic.

Do you see us?

Trapped in crates, on shelves, in aisles, there is only the ancient memory of foraging.

Apples, berries, citrus.

A bounty of colour.

Dream of woodlands and flourishing fungi! Charcoal Burner, Penny Bun, Lion’s Mane.

And too of nuts!  Walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds.

A forest garden versus the monotony of monoculture.

When did wild become a pejorative? An antonym of civilized? Savage, scary, dirty, unholy. Backwards.  A hindrance to progress?

When did wild become something other than a normal way of life?

Identity, Change and Respect

 

Human existence is partly made up of how we identify. Our likes, dislikes and talents, our allegiance to family, community, country. Patriotism. Political affiliation. Religion. It is how others see us. In short, to be human, to become self-aware is to identify with something even if that involves un-identifying with learned identities. Many identities are learned and limited to accepted societal norms.

 

Change is synonymous with life. Our existence is made up of personal and physical changes, as well as environmental. From daily changes of awake to sleepy. Angry, sad happy. To growing and aging over the years. To our world around us changing with the turn of the seasons and phases of moon and tide.

 

New words and concepts enter our vocabulary as society evolves (changes). With change comes resistance. Change struggles and pushes against resistance, that in turn, pushes harder against change. The more identification is oppressed, the more boldly it identifies. Like so-called weeds in a garden, they too want respect, we are also here, we also have worth. You can rip us up, but we will keep growing and fighting for the light. This struggle births the change. Change, being an inevitable part of life, will always prevail.

 

Cisgender denotes the changing perception of gender identity. It acknowledges a wider understanding of gender identification and how it operates in society and how norms limit expression not only for transgender, but all people. It seeks to break through societal norms and break open barriers.

 

Cisgender is an invitation to align with change and to show respect for all people in and outside of the current norm.

 

A prose piece in keeping with the theme of change

No Escape

It waits in the shadows. Biding its time. Prowling the periphery of countries, of counties, of cities and countryside. It knows the walls of resistance are thick and seemingly impenetrable. But it waits. For what else can it do.

Oh, they’ll create stories to keep things under control. Keep things familiar. Stories so powerful they pervade minds over millennia. But the cracks in the walls are what it seeks, that thin ray of light it can push through and widen, widen, widen.

Build the walls higher, they shout. More stories! But Change will always prevail. It and life are inseparable.

Sticks and Stones and Words: Should People Really be Free to Say Anything?

 

There is much talk these days about the freedom to say what you want. It's our inalienable right to speak our minds, they are only words, they can't hurt you.

 

In the 90s, I was in the U Fleků pub in Prague drinking a house-made beer. We had just been to the Old Jewish Cemetery and were discussing, in English, the experience while looking through the book I had purchased at the museum shop.

 

Into the crowded pub came two skinheads that sat down right next to us in the only available seats, and after glancing at the cover of the book began making disparaging and threatening comments in German about Jews. My boyfriend spoke to the waiter, in English, telling him that these guys were saying horrible things, and that, together with the glances we threw their way, let them know we could understand their words perfectly.

 

Thankfully, they left after only one drink.

 

Soon the vacant seats were filled by two American guys. We got to chatting and I told them about what had just happened. I expected them (naively in retrospect) to agree with our wish to have the skinheads confronted, or better, told to leave, but instead I got a perplexed look, well, more than perplexed, an offended look. They have a right to say what they want, it’s freedom of speech, said the guy I was talking to.

 

Despite the fact that I grew up in the US, that was my first encounter with this interpretation. Maybe it’s because I grew up on the West Coast, maybe it’s because of my upbringing, but hitherto, my notion of freedom of speech was that you could criticize those in power without fear of persecution, not spewing out hate about others with impunity.

 

And all these years later, this freedom of speech argument/excuse has grown more apparent. Found in every comment section on the internet, I am thoroughly sick of it. Freedom of speech is being misused and abused.

 

If what you’re saying has the potential to reinforce marginalization and incite violence, then keep it to yourself. This isn’t censoring or inhibiting freedom of speech. It’s not fascism or extreme political correctness, it's disabling the spread of hate.

 

It's often the people most vocal about free speech that have something bigoted or racist to say or their opinions have connections to such things. And when people react, they claim they are being cancelled or controlled. So, they want the freedom to say anything, but no one can react? But people will react and that reaction can include telling you to stop. If you want to say nasty or outright horrible things about others, don't feign surprise that the bulk of society turns against you.

 

Furthermore, if what you are saying or doing aligns with Neo-Nazis, then you need to have a deep think about your actions while, if need be, promptly and publicly disavowing their presence.

 

But there are those who never seem to do this, instead they hide behind some vague excuse of innocence, dismissing it as nothing to do with them. Nope! If Neo-Nazi’s are drawn to you, or you find their presence in circles that you frequent (online or otherwise) then something is wrong. One should never align themselves with such a mentality for any reason unless you agree with it. There is no blurred line.

 

People should feel uncomfortable to voice hateful opinions. There should be unspoken taboos about what can be said and, for a time, there were. But steadily, these taboos are being broken. I’m well aware that the US imported Nazis into the country after WW2. I’m, of course, aware of America’s home grown white supremacists, the KKK. I’ve seen the film American History X. Yet, when I was a kid it would have been unthinkable to see a brazen display of Nazi salutes in public. Worldwide, this mindset is becoming more visible online and in public.

 

Alas, this is a no win situation. Because if you “censure” people, it makes them likely want to say it more, empowering them with a sense of righteousness.

 

When does this "freedom of speech" become lies and slander? When does it become propaganda? When is it responsible for violence?

 

The version of the saying “Sticks and Stones” that I learned as a child ended with, 'but words will never hurt me'. I disagree. Imbued with the feeling of the speaker, words are mighty and can leave deep wounds and long lasting scars.

 

No matter how you learned that saying, either ending in words can or cannot hurt you, the question is, when do hateful words lead to sticks and stones?

 

And when will the speakers of these words admit to the hurt and potential violence they can cause. Be they potent innuendos or blatant hate.

Sun Migrants

When a white, especially English-speaking person, decides to live in another country (usually a hot one), they are pleasantly referred to as ex-pats (at the very least, they should be called sun-migrants). And though they might, to a degree, annoy the locals, they are generally accepted. Everyone else who moves to another country, especially those of darker hues, is referred to as migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers, classifications that create immediate visions of job-stealing, system-abusing, terror-inducing, thieving, uneducated, dangerous people. People who will arrive in hordes upon hordes, if you let them.

When we first moved to Ireland, although we arrived without money, degrees or job prospects, we were fully accepted. 

And I appreciate that. 

Our landlady welcomed us with a cake and a warm range. We were invited to the pub, where her family placed pints of Guinness before us with encouraging smiles. And they kept coming. A long line of stout built up that we struggled to finish and failed. Perfectly poured pints of Guinness were sadly wasted that day. It's a lovely memory. And this welcome is not out of character for the Irish.

But I do wonder if we had held different passports and had different accents and skin color, would that have happened? I doubt it.

Having said that, although anti-refugee sentiment is sadly growing louder in Ireland, the majority of Irish are welcoming and charitable towards them. (2024:situation worsening)

It's painfully obvious the internet is not helping matters.

Pre-pandemic, I visited LA. I was amazed and disturbed when a nice guy I was speaking to informed me that in Dublin, African refugees were attacking Dubliners. I immediately refuted this by saying that if that were true, I would have heard about this on the news. He said, no, because they don't want you to know.  I said, well if that were true, I would have heard it through the grapevine. Yet, he repeatedly insisted it was true because he had read it online.

Our perception of strangers is not usually based on reality. And our propensity towards stereotyping is further compounded by the lies and exaggeration found on the internet.

As said, when we came to Ireland we were, heartily, welcomed by the locals. They bought us drinks, invited us over for tea and sandwiches placing us in the best seats before the roaring fires. They might have found us a bit odd, but an oddness that was interesting and entertaining. Because they had no negative prejudice against us they were able to get to know us as people and vice versa. We were all able to mutually enrich each other’s lives to a certain extent. We were harmless to them and that is the key.

But why were we considered harmless? We were two young people without money or jobs, we brought no wealth into the country and therefore could have been seen as a threat to the employment opportunities which were and are again scarce. Surely, our skin color played a part in our harmlessness. If we had been African, even rich Africans, I doubt we would have been received in the same, easy-going manner. They felt comfortable with us because we were from countries they understood.

I am not saying there is absolutely no truth in stereotypes. But it is based on a very limited truth. And worse, it is a perception that ignores the reasons behind certain negative stereotypes. Usually the people who have the most insistent criticisms, dislikes and outright hatred towards another race, belong to a race whose historical actions caused trauma for the race they despise. And that trauma can sometimes fuel negative behavior that reinforces the negative stereotyping. An ongoing cycle of discrimination causing trauma, compounded by a hierarchal setup that presents some as ex-pats and others as migrants etc.  

Our brains need to slot everybody into manageable files, that's how we operate. And we must remain alert to this dangerous trap.

We are more than what our brains can handle.

A note to any Irish going down the road of intolerance.

Having been victims of oppression and discrimination the Irish should be the first to empathize and in turn embrace refugees. Were not famine ships filled with Irish asylum seekers. Even back in the day, it seems to me the Irish should have been siding with American Indians and the enslaved instead of lapping up the culture of the colonizer.