Chomsky on Social Isolation
Noam Chomsky in this clip from a longer interview gives advice on the necessity and and possibility of maintaining resistance and of recreating social bonds in a time of social isolation.
The Weak Crumble
Netanyahu spells it out for us …
“The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong”.
This is one of my favourite quotes; not because of any particular estimation of the character of Netanyahu but because what he say is so painfully obvious and yet so obviously discounted by many who discuss politics and urge us to party political partisanship.
When people discuss why a politician acts in this or that way they most often think about the politician’s beliefs or the rights and wrongs of the issue; they don’t consider the realities and interplay of power that may be the biggest factor in any decision.
We have to recognise the reality of the way that things are. We may have to work with the structures of power, including the structures within political parties but must do so without buying in the illusion that they serve the weak ‘many’ rather than the powerful ‘few’.
If we, the ‘weak’ many, want our interests to be served then we must first look to each other. Our strength lies in our numbers and that is why established power wants to keep us divided and wants to keep us dependent by recruiting us into parties that are structures of control rather than structures of empowerment.
George Carlin understood this.
We have to recognise the reality and resist becoming increasingly divided and dependent. We have to turn to each other, learn about each other, support each other and build structures that genuinely empower us.
How do we do this? I don’t know. Perhaps you do. Certainly we should be talking it.
Test Post
Trying to clear up a WordPress problem with this site. Unfortunately it seem to be getting worse.
To be Accepted
This of course applies to party politics and politicians as much as to the press and journalists.
It is seductive to be accepted into a powerful establishment, imagining that we will be the better part of it; but it seems that, to be accepted, we always have to leave either our passion, our critical thinking or our honesty at the door.
Chomsky makes the point extremely well in this classic clip. It needs to be shared, discussed and understood.
A Doctor’s Advice on Breathing
A doctor gives a useful technique and useful information about breathing for people who have the coronavirus.
Chris Hedges: Coronavirus
I felt my intelligence and moral consciousness increase as I listened to this. Chris Hedges is a man of deep experience and of obvious integrity. These are my notes on this important interview.
Roger Hallam asks him how we should understand the CV crisis.
Chris sees the crisis as the first fatal blow against the structures of industrial neoliberalism and says that the US is going to be hit particularly badly because it, particularly, has destroyed the protections of society. The US doesn’t have an have an NHS and can’t contain the virus. Many people will not go for testing.
Already in the US the capitalist class is calling for a quick return to work to save the economy.
The agreed stimulus package is designed to help the capitalist few. It is designed to help the slum landlords not the tenants.
Unfettered capitalism commodifies everything. It is part of a triad, with imperialism and white supremacism, that is inherently racist; using force to appropriate cheap labour and resources. It is an expression of self interest that, unregulated, is destructive.
As the situation deteriorates Trump will incite violence and racism. The US has already been moving towards a corporate totalitarianism with militarised police and secret trials. The coronavirus crisis will accelerate this.
British society may be different but in America the trend is towards fascism; the Christian Right has given fascism a headstart there.
The coronaviris crisis is a precursor to the climate change crisis. The beginning of the end.
The system is not going to respond.
We have to create power outside of the system.
We need to rebel.
We must use our numbers to oppose corporate power. Through our numbers we have power to cripple the profits and the economy of the ruling elites.
This is our only hope, but we have to face the bleakness of no hope and accept that we may not succeed.
But even if we fail we create a community; we nurture life in a culture of death.
The ethic we return to needs to be an ethic that says ‘everyone eats or no one eats’.
Simha Kriya
This is worth trying. The instructions in the video are clear. I have done a number of yogic breathing exercises in the past but not this one. After listening to the video I would suggest that beginners might want to first try the easier version with fewer rounds of breath and a shorter retention. I may well incorporate this in my own practice at some time. I don’t doubt that it will enhance lung capacity.
Within the System
I have noticed a considerable amount of distress and anger in some ‘Left’ quarters that Kier Starmer has been elected Labour Party leader. Having been expelled from that party for reasons that I have discussed extensively and am willing, if asked, to discuss again I see it for what it is – a part of the establishment. For a brief moment, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn it seemed that it would become something more and aspire to change the system fundamentally rather than simply attempt to ameliorate the most predatory aspects of that system. But the Party’s own ‘immune system’ treated Corbyn and ‘Corbynism’ like a virus and produced antibodies to eradicate it. All of the leader candidates took positions indistinguishable from each other on many positions and in particular all accepted that the charges of widespread antisemitism within the party were justified and they publicly agreed to the propositions that:
1. To describe Israeli policies that have a ‘discriminatory impact’ as ‘racist’ is antisemitic.
and
2. It was a disgrace for Corbyn to suggest that it is not antisemitic to describe discriminatory Israeli policies as racist.
Once these and other propositions that are clearly contrary to both empirical and logical truth have been accepted by particular individuals then nothing of what those individuals say can be trusted. It is not just that they are wrong it is that having abandoned a commonsensical use of language it is no longer possible to engage with them in a discussion regarding whether and why they are wrong or right.
Corbyn’s leadership might be called a ‘system error’. That error has been corrected. The relationship between Power and Truth has returned to that which pertained during Blair’s era and his lead up to the Iraq atrocity.
I feel no personal stake in the outcome of the Labour Partyelections and offer these observations from a perspective of puzzlement that anyone really cares. I may of course be mistaken in my observation and I am happy to be corrected but somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Neighbours
We heard drumming outside and came out to look. Our neighbour was banging a saucepan and chanting thanks for the medics and other essential workers. Other doors opened to the street. We clapped together as she continued chanting. For a short while we were not isolated
Stop
Stop for a moment. Pausing,
Consider the absurdity
Of a reality constructed of
Illusions
Conceived by minds
Separated from Being,
Seeking consolation in Having.
Endlessly consuming bellies, expanded
Leaving little room for heart.
Immensities of love and connection
Shrunk.
The immeasurable lost
In measuring our other’s worth;
Serving our greeds before seeing their needs.
If we can do now, then do good now
If we cannot do, then stay, for now
In the numinous night, offering
None harm
But listening, learning the sacred rhythms
Of hearts beating together
To intend a brighter dawn.