Pistis reclaims Black from Red (weekending 30th November 2019)

‽istis reclaims Black from Red (weekending 30^th November 2019)

‽istis sat, finger-poised in the moment: bargain to right of me, bargain to left of me, prices slashed from the sabre-stroke of enticement - when can their glory fade? 

‽ perhaps the difference between a need and a want is no longer visible at half a league?

‽ possibly a perfectly judged bid would win all that was left of them?

‽ maybe those who had fought so well had indeed come through to the front of the queue? 

Bargain in front of me, boldly I clicked and well. 


Forward into Monday and the valley of products silicon, ready to charge. Plunged in the battery smoke, all the world warmed, shatter’d and sunder’d…   But, stopping to reason why and wishing not to do and die, ‽istis wondered: perhaps, possibly, maybe someone had blunder’d.


© Pistis (with apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Pistis reclaims a distrust of 'Great Men' (weekending 23rd November 2019)

‽istis reclaims a distrust of ‘Great Men’ (weekending 23rd November 2019)

Hot from yoga and a TV streaming channel documentary; lukewarm from a political debate perhaps short of a full set of credible candidates; cold from a televised/possibly ill-advised interview, and neutral at the appointment of a ‘special one’, ‽istis pondered the lives of so-called ‘Great Men’.

‽ perhaps the publication of the 12^th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica did not end the view (after Thomas Carlyle) that the history of the world is the biography of great men[i];

‽ possibly Herbert Spencer underestimated the way that power and patronage, self-publicity, money, title, or tweetings could influence, persuade, coerce or control the narrative, the news (fake or otherwise) and lives – when suggesting that attributing historical events to the decisions of individuals was ‘a hopelessly primitive, childish and unscientific position’[ii];  

‽ what if Tolstoy’s football-punditry-style comment maybe brings some balance: ‘All these great talents, the Goethes, the Shakespeares, the Beethovens, the Michelangelos, created, side by side with their masterpieces, works not merely mediocre, but quite simply frightful.’[iii]

And, bemused at an apparent lack of gender representation across a spectrum (of proponents and critics alike) and wishing desperately for the hushing of hubris and a drawing back of the curtains surrounding the self-proclaimed great and unmatched wisdom of ‘wizards’ (past, present or yet to come; in Oz, or in and amongst us)...

‽istis reclaimed Kierkegaard’s sentiment for great people everywhere who may consider themselves slaves of history and cannot imagine their greatness. 
Those who, despite their circumstances (and perhaps, possibly, maybe despite the hegemonic dominance of so-called ‘Great Men’ and the consequences of their words and deeds) are: ‘able to fall down in such a way that the same second looks as if one were standing and walking’; who can ‘transform the leap of life into a walk’ and who just sometimes are able both ‘absolutely to express the sublime in the pedestrian.’[iv]

Great people of the world (though perhaps, sadly, you don’t know who you are), we salute you! 
    
© Pistis
  

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[i] https://www.azquotes.com/author/2488-Thomas_Carlyle/tag/history

[ii] https://infogalactic.com/info/Great_Man_theory

[iii] http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Notes_on_the_Auteur_Theory  /  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46272/46272-h/46272-h.htm

[iv]  https://quotes.yourdictionary.com/author/quotes/574581

Pistis reclaims Intolerance - possibly, perhaps, maybe... (weekending 16th November 2019)

‽istis reclaims Intolerance – possibly, perhaps, maybe… (weekending 16th November 2019)

‽istis wasn’t sure whether to speak boldly, to whisper or to remain silent to mark UN resolution 51/95[i] and the International Day for Tolerance.[ii]  

‽ what if, maybe, both sides of a story were convincing in a universe of quantum morality?

‽ what if, possibly, I am the person that they come for first?[iii]

‽ what if, perhaps, intolerance is the only thing that shouldn’t be tolerated?

‽ what if society is not civil and there is no peace?

And just possibly, perhaps, maybe what if a recognition of the complexity of knowing when, where, why and how to draw a line was acknowledged and we sought to see things from each other’s perspective? Would we find more or less in common and might we have a clearer, shared idea about what exactly is intolerable to us, when it might no longer be tolerated, and what to do about it?
   
© Pistis

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[i]  https://undocs.org/A/RES/51/95

[ii] https://www.un.org/en/events/toleranceday/

[iii] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Niemöller

Pistis reclaims White Poppies and makes a first foray into the world of Charity Expenditure (weekending 9th November 2019)

‽istis reclaims White Poppies and makes a first foray into the world of Charity Expenditure (weekending 9th November 2019)

‽istis stood in silence, the lone white poppy wearer, at the local memorial. ‽istis remembered… and thought about… 

‽ the fallen, from here – family names that live on and those where the family line stopped at the front line; the fallen from there, from everywhere…

‽ ‘those who are serving or who have served in the armed forces’[i] including those living with stress linked to experiencing trauma, those living with mental illness, those who are homeless, those who are in prison – those reliant on charity

‽ those affected by all wars and conflict of every nationality, on every ‘side’; the much larger number of civilians who are killed[ii], the millions made sick or homeless, families torn apart, those killed or imprisoned for refusing to fight or resisting war[iii]

‽ Eleanor Barton and the women of the Co-operative Women’s Guild who had lost husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and friends, were apparently worried at the growing militarisation of remembrance events by 1933 and who sought to renew a commitment “to that ‘Never Again’ spirit that was strong in 1918 but seems to grow weaker as years go by”, who wore the white poppy[iv]

And after the bugle had fallen silent and the lamppost poppies had been taken down (and people had wondered if they and the cable ties could actually be recycled or whether there was room to store them for another year), ‽istis found the Charity Commission website and started to search, noting the very varied proportionate expenditure (across the c.160,000 charities in England and Wales) by ‘income generation and governance’ and by ‘charitable spending’[v]; and ‽istis knew that quite possibly, perhaps, maybe this needed further exploration…    


© Pistis   

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[i] From the Royal British Legion webpage: https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are  and the Charity Commission description

[ii] For example see a comparison of apparent civilian and military deaths across the Allied and Axis countries in WWII: https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/civilian-casualties-of-world-war-two/ and the Peace Pledge Union claim that ‘today over 90% of people killed in warfare are civilians’ https://ppu.org.uk/remembrance-white-poppies

[iii] https://www.ppu.org.uk/remembrance-white-poppies

[iv] https://ppu.org.uk/remembrance/white-poppies-frequently-asked-questions

[v] E.g:

·         The Royal British Legion: Income generation and governance: 25%; Charitable spending: 75%

·         SSAFA: Income generation and governance: 6%; Charitable spending: 92%

·         Combat Stress: Income generation and governance: 14%; Charitable spending: 84%

·         Help for Heroes: Income generation and governance: 30%; Charitable spending: 70%

·         Invictus Games Foundation: Income generation and governance: 8%; Charitable spending: 72%