SOCIETY & POLITICS

June 30, 2022

ROE v WADE Repealed – Terminating Termination Rights …… Lives Saved or Lost?

CONSIDERING ABORTION LEGISLATION IN AMERICA

There’s an enormous amount of emotional investment in the question of fetal termination (abortion), especially in America and especially now. In 1973 The American Supreme Court decided women had the right to decide whether, or not, to carry a fetus to full term. Surprisingly, this decision was reversed in 2022. Many are celebrating this decision and many are grieving.

Without exploring the legal details, I would like to discuss the consequences of the belief that women should not, under any circumstances, have the legal right to terminate their own pregnancy. The overwhelming evidence is that those wishing to ban abortions’ only interest is in saving the fetus’ life. Let me be clear I am not saying these people don’t have aright to their own beliefs,, but what about the consequences of saving these fetus’. No one is talking about what happens to that fetus when it becomes a baby, child or grown up. No one is talking about the costs of an unwanted pregnancy, where a woman is then forced to carry that fetus to full term. And the costs are many and varied; physical, emotional and financial.

Graphic from ‘Glasbergen Cartoon Service’
Graphic from ‘Huffington Post’

Those celebrating this legislation change seem to have no interest in what happens to this saved life and or those who are impacted by this new life. And that is where my concern really kicks in. If we are passionate about saving a life, surely we should have an interest in what happens to this life we’ve insisted be saved?

If we are literally forcing someone to have a child, they don’t wish to have, surely we should also put in some protective / supportive strategies as well. In the case of the mother, a pregnancy always affects her health and quality of life. In older times, and poorer populations, child bearing was the most frequent cause of death for women, by far. So the least we could do is provide adequate health care, nutrition, help around the house, income support…….whatever is needed. Additionally, where this is an unwanted child someone is being forced to bear, some kind of emotional and/or psychological assistance should be provided. And this is only the assistance needed during the pregnancy. What about when the fetus becomes a baby by being born?

An unwanted child is beginning life well behind the starting line. The home may be less loving, less well provided with an enriched environment and the parent, or parents, less prepared for the stresses of providing for this extra human in their care. Is this legislation effectively, setting this new person up to fail from before birth?

I suggest that if we insist a woman carries, inside her own body, an unwanted life, the least we can do is everything possible to ameliorate any negative impacts on both the mother and the resulting new person in our world. Instead of leaving them to potentially become statistics that show how our community is failing our fellow citizens.

At least one option that could be offered is to have this child provided with an alternative life to that with the birth mother. Surely the biological father should figure in this story somewhere? No one seems to talk about the responsibility of the male parent in this fetus’ life, future, conception! Don’t guilt the mother who doesn’t want this child, especially if the father isn’t also held responsible.

Finally, there is the desperation of someone who feels it’s impossible to parent this new life and seeks a non medically supported termination, at the risk of their own health and life.

Alison

July 1, 2021

Not One of Us – Conflict, Hate & Sociopathic Behaviour

Let me begin by talking about sociopathic behaviour.  Dictionary.com describes a sociopath as ‘Someone whose social behavior is extremely abnormal. Sociopaths are interested only in their personal needs and desires, without concern for the effects of their behavior on others.’  I  believe a sociopath doesn’t see others as real people.  Other people are seen as objects that should respond to the sociopath’s wishes in much the same way a doll would.  (It could be argued the sociopath sees themselves as a ‘God’ in a world where there are few, if any, other Gods.) Similarly, we can behave like sociopaths when we become angry with those we  neither know nor wish to understand.  Distance allows us to hate without understanding, in ways we would never consider face to face.  Whilst understanding allows us to let go of hate.  For example  it is easy to hate another driver who gets in our way.  After all, they are only a car to us, not a real person.  In the same way, online ‘trolls’ will readily insult, degrade and threaten those they neither know nor wish to understand, because they aren’t real people to the ‘trolls’.

Historically conflict has been stoked by the concept of otherness.  People are ‘other’ if they are not part of my family, my village, my country, my race, my culture, my faith.  Once defined as ‘other’ we tend to project imagined traits onto these unknown people.  If they are ‘heroes’ or famous for some kind of success, we may project good traits.  If they are people we see as a competitor or a problem of some kind, these imagined traits are likely to be negative.  Surely the ultimate consequence of such a lack of understanding is the kind of misinformed fear that drives violence, oppression and war.

Ultimately this kind of misinformed negativity hurts us as much as it does those we aim our negativity towards. 

I have a close friend who, raised in Canada, expected motorists to respond in the way she was used to at home, ie with help and kindness, when her car broke down.  However, what she got was only anger from frustrated motorists. Let me set the scene for you.  Back in the mists of time Camberwell Junction was an ‘uncontrolled’ intersection of 3 major roads in a thriving shopping centre, in urban Melbourne.  By ‘uncontrolled’ I mean this intersection had no traffic lights or any other means of regulating the traffic flow.  Adding to the chaos, all roads carried trams as well as the usual road traffic and pedestrians.  My friend’s car was quite old, so when it stopped working in the middle of this intersection traffic was blocked along several major thoroughfares.

    Not knowing what else to do (and remembering this is years before mobile phones) she locked the car and looked for a public phone to call assistance.  Really what else could she do?  On her return she found the, nearly 30 minute wait had made everyone much more helpful. Honestly, in what way did they think expressing anger, towards someone already dealing with the problem of a car that has broken down, helped the situation?

    Mindful of these stories, when my own, aged car stalled on a busy road and I knew it wouldn’t start (as the battery was flat) I wanted to avoid further problems.  Exiting the vehicle, I tapped on the driver’s window, of the car behind me, and apologising for the fact my car wouldn’t start, suggested they go around my car.  By making this gesture I called attention to my trouble.  The result was a number of young men arriving, pushing my car off the road and jump starting it.  I expect it helped that I was 21 at the time.  The moral is that personalising the situation led to a quick solution, that was far less stressful for all concerned.

    My point is that if we approach people with a reasonable and open attitude things are more likely to turn out well for all concerned.  That criticising and being negative about others is one option, but engaging with all this negativity helps no-one and generally makes our own lives poorer.  It’s  important to consider others as deserving of as much right to respect as we would want for ourselves (and a chance to explain themselves if necessary).  Hating often hurts us more than those we hate.  It closes our minds and causes us unnecessary suffering.  Meanwhile, the person we hate may be totally unaffected by our feelings, or unnecessarily hurt.   (I once worked with someone who seemed to dislike me on sight.  All I could do was avoid them and be polite.  I thought it would be a nightmare when we were both chosen to work in a small team on a project that would last some months.  The surprising result was an apology – for the undeserved judgement – and a friendship.)

    Let’s look to our similarities and try to understand our differences.  Generally we have far more in common than otherwise.  Everyone I’ve met wants very much the same things from life; friends and family that we live in mutual care with, good health and a world that we can enjoy.  Let’s enjoy it together.

    Alison

    October 19, 2020

    Another Thing that Frustrates me about Politicians

    I’m sure I’ve already complained about my frustration with politicians distancing themselves from responsibility for the decisions they make.  Honestly, if you want to wield power, at least take responsibility for the actions you take with that power!  If things go wrong there should be a reasonable explanation for what happened, if those actions were done correctly.  And that’s probably the core problem.  There may be no justifiable reason, in terms of the population the politicians represents, for either the action itself or for the way it was carried out (I’m talking about who was employed to carry out the actions and the method/s used).  When power outsources action,  if everything goes to hell they feel justified in blaming someone else. 

    The above behaviour is old political news.  I first noticed this trend in the 1980’s. So let’s talk about a newer bad habit we let politicians get away with.  This is when politicians dodge questions by giving prepared speeches instead of addressing the issue they were actually asked about.  Why aren’t they called out on this behaviour far more often?

    What if the interviewer finished the interview by outing politicians failures during the interview, for example summarising which questions were dodged, how many times etc.  Perhaps we won’t be able to shame politicians into changing their behaviour, because honestly how many politicians have any sense of shame left, but maybe we can encourage the public to see them more clearly?

    Similarly if a politician is blatantly lying or contradicting their own previous statements, this could be summarised at the end of an interview.  Surely the interviewer has some power to set the record straight?  I would suggest summarising after the politician has left the interview and can’t interrupt.

    Please feel free to share any of your own similar frustrations or thoughts on how we can expose this sort of behaviour.

    Alison

    April 12, 2020

    Trump – The Man Who Would Be King

    What a terrible, ongoing disappointment becoming President of America must be for Donald J. Trump.

    Before I start, let me emphasise that I have no personal experience of political power or of any of the actual people involved in the following. All of my knowledge comes from my personal understanding of people and the distortions of social media. That said, I strongly believe that Trump never really wanted to be president. Trump wanted to be king and not just any kind of king. He wanted to have all the power and none of the boring responsibility bits.

    MAN - KING - TIME MAGAbove: Time Magazine cover of June 2018 

    https://edition.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2018/06/08/trump-time-magazine-cover-king-panel-sot-ctn.cnn

    Donald J, was ill-prepared by his previous adult life for the presidency and it’s constrictions. Trump’s pre presidential life appeared to consist mostly of self promotion; announcements full of generalised statements and vague superlatives; denying responsibility for negative outcomes; and walking away from anything that became too difficult, or had no obvious benefit to him or his business interests.

    Imagine Trump’s dismay when he became, supposedly, the most powerful man in the world and found his actions are constantly restrained by the legal checks and balances built into the governance of America. As if that weren’t bad enough the public media is far too prone to criticise their President and, adding insult to injury, quote or replay his earlier statements. (As if what he said yesterday was still relevant today!)

    Sure Trump still has adoring believers. But this darned Covid 19 virus has stopped the public rallies which gave Trump direct access to even this soul soothing pastime.

    How Trump must look across the world and envy the lives of other leaders like Vladimir Putin (Russia), Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Suadi Arabia)and especially Kim Jong-un (North Korea). The absolute leader of North Korea is feared, obeyed and publicly adored by his people, The people of North Korea would never dare to tell Kim Jong-un he was a self absorbed sociopath who had no real interest in anything other than how it impacted him personally, even if they dared to think it.

    MAN - KING - USA Fully ArmedAbove: Flag available as a ‘Keep America Great’ promotion in 2020

    https://www.dhgate.com/product/2020-trump-flag-tank-flag-digital-print-polyester/448346855.html#seo=WAP

    But never mind, I think there is a solution for Donald J.

    If only Trump would turn his interest away from the Presidency to where absolute, charismatic leaders can live the life they crave. That’s right a religious sect; look at all those television evangelists, their grandiose language and adulation filled gatherings; look at L. Ron Hubbard’s life and his rigidly controlled legacy of Scientology! Failing a publicly recognised religion, there are always cults (but I’m not sure if they attract the same legal freedoms and tax exemptions.) Not surprisingly this seems to be an idea Trump has already begun to consider, if the media are to be believed!

    MAN - KING - CHOSEN ONEAbove: Quotes and Tweets attributed to the American President in August 2019

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-second-coming-king-israel/

     

    Alison

     

    March 15, 2020

    Is Feminism out of Date?

    I’ve been hearing anti-feminist comments by younger women. These comments got me thinking that maybe feminism, as a movement, has lost much of its connection to women. So I asked myself is Feminism out of date?

    Firstly why are younger women speaking out against feminism and refusing to identify with the movement? This may be because the word feminism carries a lot of baggage, history and attached thinking for those who hear or use the word. Perhaps younger women are unaware that many of their current freedoms are based on the social changes fought for by Feminists. This is disappointing because, unknowingly, today’s young women enjoy many freedoms because of past Feminists actions. In the past women have had to fight for control over their own lives and bodies. Perhaps these women don’t know that, for centuries, Western women lived their lives as secondary citizens and or the property of their men. Women were locked up as bad or mad for going against their male relatives wishes; married without their own consent; and denied both education and careers of their own. Indeed rape laws were only introduced because a man’s property was seen to be damaged and therefore reduced in worth (eg as a way to acquire influence or possessions through marriage).

    However, the feminist fight for equality is far from over. Women are still paid less than men, retire with less superannuation and occupy far fewer of the power positions in government and business. For example there has never been a female president in America, only one female Prime Minister in Australia, and two in the UK, ever. In countries where they have had female leadership these are still far outnumbered by the many men who have held power. When I worked in the area of Equal Opportunity, about 30years ago, women made up 20% or less of the senior executives in Government and that figure has moved very little.

    GENDER TASKS

    Reasons for this persisting inequality, between men and women’s roles, seem to be partly based in traditional habits of child rearing and familial care being female roles. Of course child bearing biologically lies within a female body. However, emerging body and gender flexibility attitudes may impact some of this traditional thinking about automatic gendering of roles.

    EQUALITY - DIVERSE BUT NEUTRAL

    I would like to re-emphasise the need for widespread gender equality. I have previously spoken about the need for a broadening of roles for men as well as for women. For example, men are generally not encouraged to stay home and care for children, dress flamboyantly or be ‘too’ sensitive. What we really need is the opportunity for any gender, or non-binary individuals, to perform any of the social, economic etc roles on offer (providing they are suited to them)and be rewarded according to their worth. Perhaps we could call this new movement Gender Fluidity.

    EQUALITY - PENGUIN

    At the very least we can consider what may happen if we forget the lessons from history. For example Russia’s government passed laws to grant equality of rights to women in 1917. (Although an emphasis on women’s roles as mother may have helped to keep traditional values alive during the Soviet era.) When Russia’s government enforced equality ended in the 1990’s it took almost no time to revert to more traditional gender roles, violence against women increased as did gendered pay inequality (Soviet era women earned 70% of men’s salary, this has fallen to about 40%).

    We need to be careful what we remember and what we forget from history, lest our current rights and freedoms are eroded too.

     

    Alison

    July 23, 2019

    Some Thoughts about What Leads to Negative Body Image and Eating Disorders

    When did food become my enemy? I, along with many others, am deeply conflicted over food and eating. I classify many foods as good or bad and my consumption of such foods in the same way (therefore my behaviour is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ too). And these categories are heavily weighted by their impact on my weight rather than nutritional value (although nutrition does enter into it.) In fact I can only think of one of my friends who categorises food according to good or bad by its nutritional benefits alone.

    Of course my food consumption issues are driven by a sense of what I should look like. The media encourages us to judge and compare ourselves to the impossible images they present. Such media images are often manipulated to ‘improve’ even these ‘beautiful’ people. A wise woman once told me that she advised her daughters to compare themselves to women in the supermarket, ie to real people, rather than these false media images,.

    Adverts for delicious food as well as slender, fit figures are everywhere in the media, the former making it even harder to attain the latter. We are encouraged to become ‘addicted’ to foods, both by advertising and their ingredients. Foods often comprise a clever mixture of chemicals, salts and sugars that encourage us to eat past the feeling of fullness or need for energy. And unlike other addictions we can’t actually give up eating without consequences worse than the addiction. We must negotiate the temptations all around us and develop habits that allow us to eat in a way that supports a healthy body.

    EATING DISORDER - My Friend

    I imagine the young are particularly at risk as we are so unsure of who we are, what we want and what will actually make us happy when we are developing. Research (For example The Famine Within, a Canadian documentary, directed by Katherine Gilday) has already shown that many of us rate being slim as the thing most likely to make us happy, above such things as a successful relationship or career! It’s therefore no wonder that many of us mistake control over our body size for the road to success/happiness and focus on this area of our lives.

    We usually try to control our body shape and size through one, or a combination, of the following ways: Exercise; Diet; Surgery. As we are surrounded by such pervasive and contradictory messages, It’s hardly surprising that many of us negatively impact our health or even put our lives at risk by developing unhealthy eating habits etc..

    Let’s consider those who wish to be slim enough to put their lives at risk. Imagine the focus needed to control every calorie consumed or expended. Of narrowing your world view to the close scrutiny of every milligram of weight exhibited by your body, even counting bone density. Of being so underweight that you perceive needing to be hospitalised, to keep you alive, as a victory, as well as a threat to that control. Of hearing someone’s comment that you are looking ‘well’ as looking ‘fat’.

    EATING DISORDER - PARAMETERS

    I find using an‘addiction’ comparison a useful way of understanding eating and body image disorders. Like substance addictions, being extremely underweight changes our body chemistry and distorts how we experience the world. When we are extremely underweight the brain’s chemistry is altered so that ‘normal’ thought processes are suspended. As a result our ability for empathy or interest in the world, outside our own need to control our body, is drastically reduced. Maybe this is literally survival mode thinking. Maybe at this functional level the brain has no energy left to consider anything other than our well rehearsed thoughts and habits associated with the eating disorder.

    Authors: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC & Crystal Karges, MS, RDN, IBCLC published the article: ‘Eating Disorders and Addiction: Why We Continue to Engage in Self-Destructive Behaviors’ on their website EatingDisorderHope.com.

     Following are extracts from the above article; ‘… the American Society of Addiction Medicine now holds a wider definition of addiction to include not only drugs and alcohol, but also “process” addictions, such as food.  This is mostly due to the effect that all of these substances and behaviors have on the brain……. For example ‘The reward centers of our brain can also be activated by artificial means through the use of drugs, alcohol, and food abuse…….Since stimulation of the reward center of the brain acts in blocking undesirable feelings and emotions, an addictive cycle is created’

    However, the authors also remind us that the issues driving any disorder must be addressed as well as the symptoms. All at the right time and with assistance that suits the person with the disorder.

    ‘In addition to stopping the addictive behaviors, it is helpful to address the root causes of addictive disorders to promote healing and establish the ability to cope with unsettling emotions.’

    A possible benefit of having an eating disorder is avoiding life issues we may not know how to solve. Certainly whatever is driving the disorder is overlooked by those around us as they struggle with the need to keep their loved one at a healthy weight.

    For those of us concerned with helping those with an eating disorder we have a difficult road to walk with them. We must assist them to extinguish self destructive habits before they can get to a place where they can address what’s driving these behaviours. In other words, their symptoms need to be dealt with before the cause can be uncovered and treated. It might be useful to think of this as having to treat the physical harm inflicted by a suicide attempt before looking at why this person wanted to end their life.

    (In future posts I plan to talk about how we help our loved ones recover.)

     

    Alison

    May 7, 2019

    Voting, Democracies and How we Choose our Governments

    It recently occurred to me that we select our government using a popularity pole. Much like voting for the winner of a Beauty contest, we vote for the ‘most attractive’ politician. Even when we pay more attention to what they’re selling rather than how they say it, the process of selecting our future governors is little better than that of a job interview. That is to say someone presents their best side in short, artificial interactions and we have to decide whether to give them the job or not based on how they interview, rather than how they do the job.

    GOVERNING - KEEP VOTING

    The result is very much the same as for job interviews. We may be able to check some things about what they tell us, we can look them up ‘online’ and may contact people who can talk about them (though why we would trust their nominated referees I’m not sure). What we get is someone who is good at interviews not necessarily at doing the job they’re being interviewed for. (And research has proven that interviews are not good predictors of capacity to actually do the job!)

    GOVERNING - AVOID SPEECHES

    Of course sometimes the candidates have done the job before, so we have their track record to look at, for at least some of the candidates. But even then we’re usually comparing them to an unknown competitor. So how do we decide who will do the best job and who is telling us some kind of truth about what they plan to do and if they can actually do it?

    Currently we choose politicians according to the brief advertising like messages they try to sell us about themselves and what they think we want to hear. We often get promises about our personal finances, education and health. But, more than anything else we get politicians telling us what they think we want to hear and placing the pursuit of power over any personal beliefs they may have.  Most politicians need for power is so important to them that they will stretch and change the truth trying to find whatever message will convince voters to keep them in power.

    GOVERNING - HONEST POLI

    Winston Churchill famously said that Democracy is a terrible system of government, but better than any other system on offer (http://www.wisdomtoinspire.com/t/winston-churchill/41XI2ZXK). Perhaps we just aren’t able to create a better system. I’ve often thought a benign and enlightened monarchy would provide better government. Unlike our current crop of politicians (who believe it’s only the next election, and their personal hold on power, that matters) at least a monarch plans to be around to reap the consequences of any decisions made.

    GOVERNING - PASSING THE BUCK.jpg

     

     

    Of course not all nations use the same method of government.

    Below: A world Map of Government Methods

    GOVERNING - MAP

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forms_of_government.svg   (2006)

    So why do we stick with this terrible system? And what is it we actually want or need from a governing politician?

    Primarily we need people of vision, who can see the real, long term impact of policies on our countries future, as well as the short term impacts on our everyday lives. We need government to guide our country to future prosperity, health, equality and mutual respect. Over riding all this, as inhabiters of this planet, we are facing a number of major challenges if we wish to survive and live here comfortably. I think we need our government to start by addressing the biggest threats and work backwards from there.

    As with Maslow’s hierarchies of need we should start with food and shelter needs before looking at comfort, social, emotional and spiritual needs. It doesn’t matter what you earn if there’s nowhere to live. It doesn’t matter who’s in power if there’s not enough water or arable land to sustain life for the country’s population. (Remember – We can only go without breathable air for minutes, without drinkable water for days and without edible food for weeks.)

    Below: A Diagram showing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human NeedsGOVERNING - MASLOW

    Underpinning this vision we need people who understand how to actually put these visions into practice. We need people who can run the country successfully, whilst paying attention to all the necessary implementation details implied by the visions.

    I’m not saying it’s an easy job, but it will never get done if our politicians are so distracted by the need to retain their own power they are unable to focus on achieving the job we elect them for!

    Below: A final comment from Winston ChurchillCHURCHILL - MY OWN HISTORY

     

    Alison

    February 22, 2019

    Worshipping False Gods or Cutting off Your Nose to Spite Your Face

    We’ve always been warned against worshipping false Gods. In our current society I feel this idea is more relevant than ever before.

    FALSE GODS - INTERN

    What I want to talk about today is the people we idolise, the people whose ‘fans’ we become. We seem to expect these people to be better than us, not just more talented in the field where we admire them (music, art, science, intellect, charisma, or just being beautiful), but better in every way.

    Below: An example of today’s IdolsFALSE GODS - PARIS HILTON

    Why do we expect this ‘perfection’ from our idols? Well principally for the reason that, like Gods, they are ‘idols’ not people we actually know. Therefore we can project onto our idols whatever other traits we wish them to have. We assume they are better in every way so we can comfortably ‘worship’ them.

    I find Elton John’s ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ comes to mind to demonstrate the problem with believing our idols are ‘better’ than us. These lyrics seem to me like a simple but perfect illustration of how we expect our idols to be something they aren’t, and how disillusioned we are when we find they are just like anyone else, with both faults and good points. “I was playing rock’n’roll and you were just a fan, but my guitar couldn’t hold you so I split the band”. It’s like what attracted the fan to the player became the thing that got in the way of their relationship in the end.

    When we say, “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face” we mean we shouldn’t hurt ourselves to ‘win’, as we lose something then, even if we win. A similar popular saying being “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” roughly translated as just because you don’t want something doesn’t mean there aren’t things about it that are worth keeping. Yet we seem to feel betrayed when we find out our idols are ordinary people, outside their specific area of talent or genius. And this sense of betrayal can make us very vindictive indeed. Ultimately destroying or spurning their works as well as the individual producing the work.

    Below: In this political cartoon we see all the things that would really help to produce fruitful talks being thrown overboardFALSE GODS - OVERBOARD

    The reason I want to look at this issue is because of the recent increase in famous people being exposed and scorned for their predatory behaviour towards those less powerful. For example actor Kevin Spacey has had a number of young men come forward and say Spacey’s behaviour was aggressively and unwontedly sexual towards them. I have no wish to condone his behaviour, or indeed anyone’s disrespectful behaviour towards another. However, I don’t believe his behaviour has been specifically pinpointed to his workplace. So, did he deserve to lose his job because of his behaviour? His talent isn’t diminished by his bad behaviour. If he was a good actor yesterday, doesn’t he remain one today, regardless of his other behaviour. (Also what of all the other people whose employment is impacted by Spacey’s fall from grace with series cancelled, sales fall etc. ?) In the same way Ralph Harris’s conviction for predatory behaviour towards young women and girls led to his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II has been returned. The portrait hasn’t altered, only our perception of the artist.

    FALSE GODS - DEATH

    I am totally in favour of predators being condemned and their behaviour stopped, but fail to see how this lessens their works or the genius that created the products we admire.

    If we closely examined the ‘great men’ of history I wonder how many of them would pass modern standards of decent behaviour. If we discovered Leonardo Da Vinci were a paedophile would it diminish his genius, would his works be taken out of galleries and their value drop? Similarly, following WW II, many of Nazi Germany’s scientists were taken into ‘Allied’ countries industries where they contributed significantly to developments in those countries. Should we negate their contributions to our current knowledge base because of their poor moral history?

    FALSE GODS - NO HEROES

    I think the fundamental problem here is that we are unable to separate the cult of personality from genius. Being great at one thing doesn’t necessarily make this person better than others. What it does show is how we value certain abilities above others.

    Wouldn’t it be better for all if we could value what talents every individual has and try to extinguish the behaviours that are antisocial? Separate the individual from their talents? Surely this would produce a better outcome for both those who are being valued as well as the community in general. Win win?

     

    Alison

    October 25, 2018

    Solving the Israel / Palestine / Middle East Issue

    No of course I can’t really solve the complex issues pertaining to the Middle East and the Israeli / Palestinian conflict, to say nothing of all the other people who want a piece of Jerusalem. But what if we hadn’t created the problem in the first place? If I could turn back time? If I could influence those who decided to make reparation to the Jewish community for the atrocities of WW2 by handing over someone else’s home to the survivors?

    Below: Historical cartoon satirising Israel / Palestine/ Middle East decisionsMIDDLE EAST - WRITING ON THE WALL

    At the conclusion of the Second World War, what if they had carved up the country responsible for the persecution of this people, instead of a section of the Middle East? What if they had given part of Germany to the Jewish people to have as their permanent homeland? Sure a lot of the same problems would arise, but at least it would be easier to understand that there was some real justification for handing over this particular piece of real estate. The country that would then be being divided to give the Jewish people a permanent homeland was the one that had so cruelly disadvantaged them in the first place. And lets face it; many of the people being resettled had lived in Europe all their own lives and often for generations beforehand.

    Below: Recent cartoons concerning the Israel / Palestine / Middle East conflict

     

    Below: Some Historical images concerning Israel / Palestine / Middle EastMIDDLE EAST - HOLY LAND HISTORYMIDDLE EAST - DISAPPEARING PALESTINE

    Realistically, it may be that history has created such deep divisions in this area that there is no ‘solution’ without time travel. And if we could time travel, maybe we could have avoided the initial atrocities all together!

    Alison

     

    October 6, 2018

    Power To The People

    POWER TO THE PEOPLE - NOTHING TO SEE

    What if we really gave ‘power to the people’ and allowed everyone to decide how we are governed on all important issues? Too expensive to have referendums, where everyone votes, all the time you say? But what if we sacked all the politicians? Sure keep the public servants. We need public servants to actually do stuff. But sack all the politicians (or self promoting narcissists) living off the public purse whilst in office and for, oh so many, years after. Just think of the enormous sums that would be saved! Money that could then be used on giving people an actual say in how our country is run! One thing’s for sure, we would be discussing issues and their impact on us more, and maybe we would even want to be better informed about those issues, and their real impact, now and into the future. (But maybe many of us still wouldn’t care enough)

    WHATS REALITY

    I understand there could be complications if public servants have all that power. Public servants could become almost permanent demigods ruling their own small kingdoms. So maybe we do need some elected representatives? Just so we can vote them out of power. But could those representatives be kept to an absolute minimum? Maybe we don’t need political parties but partisan representatives of each of our states and a prime minister to run a united approach on behalf of the entire country. That would make about 8 elected officials for the country, a number of people we could actually afford to pay well. (And maybe we could keep the locally elected representatives too. Which would drastically increase the total number of paid officials in my revised world.)

    POWER TO THE PEOPLE - SCAPEGOAT

    Of course I have no idea how this could be accomplished, or what all the complex issues to be ironed out could be. However, I do feel sure that politicians are never going to vote themselves out of power. As we see all too often they will regularly sacrifice their beliefs and morals on the fire of their ambition to be ‘in power’. Look at almost any political system in the world and it does seem to be true that ‘power corrupts’ and should never be given to anyone who actually wants it.

    POWER TO THE PEOPLE - TOOLS

    Sometimes I wonder if an inherited system is best! At least these people understand that they will be around to deal with any fallout from the decisions they make and that they are ultimately responsible for what they do. (Even if they tend to think God gave them the right to rule.) One thing I’m sure of, no-one has created a really good system of governing a country yet. There isn’t a system of government that will thoughtfully lead it’s people into a future that addresses all the people’s real needs One that is able to combat personal ambition and undue influence from those who only want their own best interests addressed.

     

    Alison