‽istis ponders...: May 2021

Saturday, 29 May 2021

Pistis reclaims friends (weekending May 29th 2021)

‽istis reclaims friends… (weekending May 29^th 2021)

This week, ‽istis has been pondering friendship: a reunion (too far?)[i]; possible friendships perhaps turned sour with, maybe, something of the dish best served cold (and over several hours on national television) about it – the one after the resignation?, the one where the Emperors are revealed as decidedly underdressed?[ii]

An internet-based wander shows that much seems to have been written about friends and friendship (based on research or ‘expertise from experience’); from the positive, virtuous circle-ness:

· ‘Having friends and close peer experiences are both important predictors of life satisfaction, and satisfied individuals tend to have stronger and more intimate social relationships.’[iii] from Social relations and life satisfaction: the role of friends: Amati, Meggiolara, Rivellini and Zaccarin (colleagues, collaborators, friends?)

…to the toxic signs that someone may not really be your friend, which supposedly include:

· Friends only when they want something

· You feel bad about yourself when you’ve spent time with them

· Your relationship feels like it’s built on conditionality

· They use your secrets against you

· They bail when you need them most[iv]

On occasions such as these, ‽istis finds wisdom on a visit to The Hundred Acre Wood[v]:

· ‘A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.’

· ‘After all, one can’t complain. I have my friends.’

· ‘How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.’

The article on social relations and life satisfaction, by Amati and colleagues, ends:

‘Like all other types of personal relationships, friendships are indeed: ‘constructed-develop, modified, sustained and ended – by individuals acting in contextual setting’ (Adams and Allen 1998), which is defined by age, gender, stage of life, living arrangement, and experiences lived.’

…perhaps whether or not that process comes at an estimated $10m[vi] an episode with, towards the end of the series, $1m each binding these friends together for an average of 22-23 minutes, or is revealed by a social ‘track and trace’ system at an estimated first year cost of £23 billion[vii]

So, 2021:

‽ the one with revenge served cold?

‽ the one with the reunion?

‽ the one with a return to ‘normality’?

‽ the one with a new normal?

‽ the one where many have lost friends?

‽ the one where many continue to be unable to influence their situation?

‽ the one where friendships still have the capacity to enhance a sense of life satisfaction potentially bringing less stress, intimacy, companionship, social trust and help?[viii]

‽ the one that perhaps, possibly, maybe provides some more clues as to how things could be different?

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders

[i] https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/26/friends-reunion-how-to-watch-in-the-uk-14650007/

[ii] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/26/dominic-cummings-evidence-to-mps-on-covid-crisis-fact-checked And apparently, with perhaps, dreadful irony, a senior official once told DC: ‘You’re a mutant virus and I’m the immune system.’ – cited in a blog by Spartacus (https://spartacus-educational.com/spartacus-blogURL129.htm) and apparently originally from Some Reflections on Westminster and Whitehall Dysfunction by Dominic Cummings

[iii] Social relations and life satisfaction: the role of friends https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5937874/

[iv] From: https://www.ditchthelabel.org/are-they-really-your-friend-15-signs

[v] https://parade.com/935628/parade/winnie-the-pooh-quotes/

[vi] https://www.scoopwhoop.com/inothernews/friends-facts/

[vii] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-test-trace-dido-harding-report-b1814714.html

[viii] Social relations and life satisfaction: the role of friends https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5937874/

Sunday, 23 May 2021

Pistis reclaims neighbours (weekending May 22nd 2021

‽istis reclaims neighbours and neighbourhoods (weekending May 22nd 2021)

In a week when:

· a move from a small village seemed finalised

· when violence continued in streets and markets and amongst those who live close to each other (and perhaps not so far from here in possibility) and most held their breath, held on, wept, and hoped for the fire to cease

· when recall brings to the fore place names such as Belfast and Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Sudan, Yemen and Syria[i] and the (shamefully) many, many forgotten or missed

…‽istis ponders:

§ sectarianism

§ past events unforgotten and unforgiven

§ the exercise and demand of privileges by the majority or the multi-capitalised (financial, social, resource-full, political)

§ processes of minoritizing, demonising, blaming, excluding, exploiting or oppressing of the others

§ holding on to and highlighting more that divides than unites ‘us’.

And ‽istis is grateful for the warp and weft of the everyday, the local, the stuff of life; is grateful for the sharing of events and experiences that are joyful, painful but mostly just humdrum (the moment taken again to chat about the weather, a social lubricant whether it is raining or not!)…

Above all, ‽istis is grateful for knowing and being known by a large percentage of the small number of people ‘nearby’, in the neighbourhood and with whom a ‘space’ is shared…

And, with a promise to keep in touch and to return, ‽istis is also grateful that ‘here’, with these neighbours, we found a way - and (given their occasional curtain-twitching ways) there has not been too much to hide!

So, knowing and being known – mostly a privilege; perhaps, possibly, maybe also an antidote?

[i] https://ourworldindata.org/civil-wars

Sunday, 16 May 2021

Pistis reclaims just war (weekending May 15th 2021)

‽istis reclaims never just war, ever Just War? (weekending May 15th 2021)

This week, surprised when ‘My Sweet Lord’ playing on GLGZ Jerusalem came over the airwaves from a random multi-station radio tour of the area of conflict in the news, ‽istis pondered whether religion is a power for peace or whether it causes conflict? whether religion has helped or hindered the cause of peace? more problem than solution? balm, fig leaf or clenched fist? treatment or illness?...

A search brought up many facts and stats, opinions and views. Apparently the ‘Encyclopaedia of Wars’ (Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod) reports that of all known 1,763 recorded conflicts, 123 or 6.98% had religion as their primary cause. Matthew White in ‘The Great Big Book of Horrible Things’ lists only 11 'horrible things' under the category of ‘religious conflict’.

Led to the BBC Bitesize pages[i] for schoolchildren in England (key stage 3 c. 11-14 yr olds) the explanation is this: ‘Religious teachings tend to focus on how people can live alongside each other with love, understanding and compassion. However, there are many different religious and different beliefs, and this can sometimes lead to conflict.’

Headings for the information on the BBC pages included: The Golden Rule (see previous blog entry weekending April 10^th 2021); Pacifism; Words of Wisdom; A just war; Conflict and peace in pictures and the reader is invited to take a quiz: ‘How much do you know about religious and non-religious teachings on war and peace?’ (PS: the answer to question 1 is: ahimsa).

The ‘Words of Wisdom’ include quotations and citations from sacred texts and venerated figures:

· ‘Hatred will not cease by hatred, but by love alone. This is the ancient law.’

· ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’

· ‘I object to violence, because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.’

· ‘Do you know what is better than charity and fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations between people, as quarrels an bad feelings destroy mankind.’

· ‘Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.’

You may wish to ascribe, research and/or add…?

A video[ii] presentation considers:

· ‘rules for war’ (self-defence, fighting as a last resort, innocent people and children not to be harmed, property not to be destroyed, no plants or animal to be killed);

· a list of the reason why people may fight: rights, identities, religions, communities under threat; because they are scared; to get revenge; because they want something: more money, more land, more power, change, to control what other people do or what they believe.

And so, as the right-now death of children, families, people like you and me – death from conflict, from bombs and bullets and beatings - again find a way on to the news agenda; as images of homes and infrastructure destroyed again fill screens on TVs and phones across the world… ‽istis wonders whether war can ever be ‘just’, legitimated, acceptable, exonerable?

Apparently, in an article on ‘Just War’[iii] by James Johnson ‘most scholars agree that to be considered ‘just’, a war must meet several requirements:

· declared openly by a proper sovereign authority

· have a just cause (e.g: the defence of the common good or a response to a grave injustice)

· the warring states must have ‘just’ intentions (i.e: wage a war for justice rather than for self-interest)

· have as its aim the establishment of a just peace.

And the word ‘just’ and the notion of ‘justice’ may, for now, perhaps have to be left for another ‘weekending’ ‽istis reclaims and wonders blog…

The article suggests that since the ‘Second World War’, three other conditions might be thought important in the declaration of a ‘just war’: having a reasonable chance of success; force used as a last resort; the expected benefits outweighing the anticipated costs.

On reviewing various attempts to develop international law and conventions relating to conflict, Johnson outlines three principles that seem to be established:

· targets should include only combatants and legitimate military and related industrial complexes

· combatants should not use unjust methods and weapons (e.g: torture or genocide)

· force should be proportionate to the end sought.

And as the news reports continue to come in this week, two sides of an imagined embossed coin come to mind - perhaps spinning as they are tossed in the air or fired and flying over territories in a state: ‘no peace without justice’, ‘no justice without peace’‽

Words from two poems[iv] in ‘101 Poems against War’ compiled and edited by Matthew Hollis and Paul Keegan will linger this week:

‘I am the victim of the map… When they slammed shut the door of my heart… When they threw up barricades… When they imposed a curfew inside me… my heart grew into an alley… My ribs became hovels... But carnations were budding… Carnations were in bud’

‘..four dead and eleven wounded… And around them in a greater circle of pain and time are scattered two hospitals and one cemetery… the young woman who was buried where she came from over a hundred kilometres away enlarges the circle greatly… And the lone man who weeps over her death in a far corner of a distant country includes the whole world in the circle… the crying of orphans that reaches to the seat of God and from there onward, making the circle without end and without God.’

And so ‽istis ponders these words; looks at the pictures; hears the words of the destitute, the bereaved, the grieving and the aggrieved, the perpetrators and victims – and is sure that it is never, ever just war… and wonders whether there has ever been, or can ever be, a Just War‽

[i] https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkdk382/articles/zhpq47h

[ii] Is religion a power for peace or does it cause conflict? – KS3 Religious Studies – BBC Bitesize - BBC Bitesize

[iii] https://www.britannica.com/topic/just-war

[iv] By Mahmoud Darwish (from ‘Poem for the Land’) and Yehuda Amichai (‘The Diameter of the Bomb’), respectively

Thursday, 6 May 2021

Pistis reclaims G7 theorems and equations (weekending May 8th 2021)

‽istis reclaims G7 theorems, equations, balance sheets and balancing acts (weekending May 8^th)

Several years’ ago, ‽istis noted a passage in ‘A Letter from the Street’ printed in the magazine of the UK section of an international human rights organisation[i]

“Suffering and success are two sides of the same coin. If you enjoy success without having suffered, it is because others have suffered before you; and if you suffer without success, it is because others will succeed after you.”

And this week, as

‽ so many of the people of India suffer in the awful flickering light of the many, many cremations and the spotlight of the media;

‽ others suffer in the shadows left by the ever-progressing (but not necessarily progressive) news cycle;

‽ others still (individuals, families, groups and communities) suffer in the darkness of the hidden corners, the closed doors, the silence and the silencing…

‽istis listens to the words of the UK’s Foreign Secretary[ii] at the start of the G7 meetings preluding a Cornish coastal summit – global challenges, international challenges; brand ‘Global Britain’ riding the waves again?

“We believe in…

· ‘keeping trade open’

· ‘standing up for open societies, for human rights and democracy’

· ‘safeguarding and protecting public goods – whether it’s the environment and tackling climate change’

· ‘but also dealing with pandemics and public health more generally. The Covax mechanism I think is so particularly important at this very sensitive time for the developing countries, the poorer countries and the most vulnerable countries around the world.’

And ‽istis looked back and wondered about the balance and the dynamics that (perhaps, possibly, maybe) have been working their way out over the past few centuries…?

· if ‘Global Britain’ had not been quite so global…

· if trade was more equitable and had not included the buying, selling and traffic of people…

· if the accumulation of wealth and profit and all that it bought (for some individuals, families, groups and communities still so evident around us) had not been built on terms of seeming exploitation, inequality, inequity, injustice, unfairness…

· if open societies were open to all and people, groups and communities minoritised no longer…

· if public goods were not at risk from private profit…

· if climate change had not seemingly been caused substantially by the ‘now-developed’ and rapidly-developing nations…

· if the poorer and the most vulnerable countries were not essentially defined by their comparison with those countries who had perhaps helped create that very poverty and vulnerability...

…Well, how different would we all have had to be? And how different might we still yet have to be – to balance or re-balance, and to work out the current and future questions, problems and tests that the 'GAll' and we all face?

[i] Sadly, further detail of who, when and in what circumstances this was penned are lost…

[ii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyWBUTbgd6A

Saturday, 1 May 2021

Pistis reclaims inference and many kinds of ...duction (weekending May 1st 2021)

‽istis reclaims inference and many kinds of …duction (weekending May 1st 2021)

This week when: in the UK the on-going issue of the personal, professional and political integrity of the Prime Minister seems to be under a spotlight (or should that be under tasteful interior designer lighting) again; in Russia the integrity of the system of government and its leadership is seemingly challenged again from the precariousness of a courtroom; in the US the integrity of the office of the President seems perhaps somewhat restored in a speech to Congress; in India earlier decisions and seeming triumphalism about tackling the pandemic are questioned and the evidence of the impact is devastating … (and you may add your own examples from wherever you may be, including perhaps from within our own, far less scrutinised lives)…

‽istis wonders about inference and various ‘…ductions’ (an intro-duction to some not very well formulated thoughts, perhaps?)

Three types of inference perhaps dominate the discussion and the definitions – all prefixing …duction from the Latin: ‘ducere’ - to lead:

· De-/lead from: deduction deriving from generally accepted statements or ‘facts’ - from idea to observation to ‘evidence’, and inference…

· In-/lead to: induction leading to a generalisation - from observation to idea, and inference…

· Ab-/lead away: taking away the best explanation - extension from ‘evidence’ to further probable conclusion, and inference…

And ‽istis wonders whether inferences and how they are formed; how they link to other apparent things such as heuristics, maxims and principles; and what they may lead to on a personal, interpersonal, social, political and cultural level in terms of behaviour, practice and policy – and the related outcomes - might bear and perhaps require some greater scrutiny and light?

Meanwhile another train of thought begins to pick up steam – wonderings about other …ductions and ways to lead or perhaps mislead:

‽ pro-duction (the means or the art?)

‽ re-duction (the specific sale or the general diminishment?)

‽ con-duction (the orchestration and the management - or the dissipation of, for example, heat?)

‽ e-ducation (not enough, not available, lost or inequitably distributed - leading to apparent errors and typos?)

‽ no-duction (agreement and nodding through without scrutiny?)

‽ quo-duction (going along with things, like ‘everyone else’ or to maintain things as they are – by those who are favoured, or those who think they benefit, or those just do not have the energy for change, or those who perhaps just can’t be bothered?)

‽ se-duction (wooed, beguiled or tricked into go along with?)

‽ alco/wee-duction (led whilst under the influence?)

‽ oo-duction (basing one’s life on the ways of the Ood, or being enslaved and led - see ‘Dr Who’: ‘A hive-minded, peaceful race of alien telepaths, who due to their docile nature are often farmed and enslaved by humans.’ ?[i]) – or should that be ou-duction (basing one’s life on ideas formed while meditating to the sound of an oud being played?)

‽ Te-duction (following the apparent lessons from inspirational TED talks?[ii])

…and then it was time to take ‽istis’s dog for a walk, or perhaps, possibly, maybe it was time to be taken for a walk by ‽istis’s dog? Now where is that lead…?

[i] For example: https://www.doctorwho.tv/explore/ood/

[ii] https://www.ted.com/talks