Friday 26 May 2023

Pistis ponders plain-sight hiding‽ (weekending May 27th 2023)

 

‽istis ponders plain-sight hiding‽ (weekending May 27th 2023)

This week ‽istis has had much to ponder:

‽  BBC ‘Verify’[i] to fact-check, verify video, counter disinformation, analyse data and explain complex stories. To perhaps, possibly, maybe help us to know what is and isn’t ‘true’ or even (as ‘next-generation’ developments in AI seem to dominate the news) what is ‘real’.

 ‽ Side-hustles[ii] and unheralded ‘minor skills’ (whistling and ironing for someone ‽istis knows well!)

‽ Political parties in the UK: ‘Conservative’ – seeking to conserve what? ‘Labour’ – working or not? ‘Liberal Democrat’ – just how liberal? The ‘Green Party’ – why just one MP for the party that seems to address most directly what is perhaps, possibly, maybe one of the most significant and critical issues of the time[iii]?  Plus, potential voting reform and proportional representation. Plus, the possibility of a ‘progressive alliance’, advice for voters, co-operation on fielding the candidate most likely to win in any area, parties that might plan for a coalition aiming to be more progressive for many - rather than retrogressive, status-quosive, conservative especially for a few…?

‽ Safeguarding and the Church of England with who knew what, when and what did they do about it[iv] being key current questions continuing to spill into this week’s news

‽ Jokes: as an ‘excruciating speech’ from someone ‘seeking to be light-hearted’ apparently disrupts a ‘Crime Fest’[v]… and ‽istis thinks that if people can think or even say: ‘that’s no joke’, then (however classic-joke-formularied it may be, and however many people may laugh) perhaps it isn’t?

…and difficulty choosing what to focus on.

‽istis may return to some of these, but in the week that the death of Rolf Harris is announced publicly[vi] and a statue outside the BBC in London by Eric Gill is attacked yet again[vii], ‽istis ended up wondering whether art and creativity - and the life and behaviour of an artist or creative - can be separated‽ Can we laud the work whilst condemning the worker?[viii]

The article by Rachel Cooke from 2017 (cited in the endnote (viii) ) includes a variety of viewpoints but ‽istis wonders:

·        if we had known that, then – would work have been commissioned?

·        would patronage been extended?

·        would publicity have been given?

·        would means, materials and opportunity have been denied?

·        would the work have dried up?

·        would a living have been made?

·        would we have spoken up, rejected, ‘cancelled’, referred, investigated, prosecuted, found guilty, imprisoned…?

And as the ‘hiding in plain sight’[ix] epithet is applied to Rolf Harris and Jimmy Saville[x] these questions (above) seem critical - along with a link to last weekending’s blog[xi] when Pistis wondered where are the other voices‽ 

For where were the voices: of those who were uncomfortable with what they saw and heard, who suspected…? And especially where were the voices of those who experienced and endured…?  

Could we have heard, could we have listened better…?


Meanwhile, there are decisions to be made: what do we do now? Remove the statues, sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs, poems and novels; or contextualise; or let them stand separate as ‘art’ in their own right?

More immediately and close to home, ‽istis wonders what to do with the LP (of Rolf Harris’s comical songs, much-played in the past) and the memories (of what the whole audience seemed to think was a fine evening’s entertainment from Rolf and band a few years’ ago, of art and animal TV shows and ‘catchphrases’, of the sadness of ‘Two Little Boys’ and the laugher at ‘Jake the Peg’[xii])?

And, as ‽istis currently sorts through boxes of old teaching and training material on the topic of safeguarding, there is another decision to be made: what to do with that old VHS of artist, musician, creative and entertainer ‘Rolf’ (who ironically was not seen as a danger or a stranger in our homes and lives) in information and education mode: raising awareness about stranger danger, appropriate touch, good and bad feelings, safety and self-protection[xiii]… 

Throw it away, destroy it, bury it in a box in the loft - or put it out in plain sight – not hidden; a warning‽

©‽istis                                                                                                                    

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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  


[ii] Plenty of ideas, websites and features come across, including: https://skintdad.co.uk/side-hustles/

[viii] The blog (above) has a link to this article by Rachel Cooke from 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/09/eric-gill-the-body-ditchling-exhibition-rachel-cooke

[xii] What was that extra leg all about…?


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Thursday 18 May 2023

Pistis wonders where are the other voices‽ (weekending May 20th 2023)


Pistis wonders where are the other voices‽ (weekending May 20th 2023)

Recently some views and opposition to them seem particularly heightened not least from conference[i] podiums[ii] and via other media[iii]…

· ‘Twitriol’ (‘Twitter’ plus vitriol - is this a word? could it become a viral ‘#’?) has perhaps seemed at least as high as usual with plenty of daily / hourly / minutely / secondly disharmony (at best)

· ‘Qualificautionary’[iv] language has possibly been limited

· COWPATs[v] may have seemed to be in abundance

So, this weekending, ‽istis is wondering where are other voices‽

Voices (in no particular order) of:

·        compassion

·        kindness

·        acknowledgement

·        appreciation

·        reasoning

·        self-awareness

·        reasonableness

·        empathy

·        understanding complexity

·        nuance

·        regret

·        mediation

·        trauma- and pain-informed

·        bridge-building

·        condolence

·        consensus-creating

·        caution

·        those affected as much as those effecting

·        championing

·        inclusion

·        exploring cause

·        doubt

·        mitigation

·        invitation

·        aetiology

·        amelioration

·        looking for the best

·        solution-focus

·        recognition

·        humility

·        apology

·        acknowledgement that this might just be an opinion

·        evidence-informedness

·        hope

·        participation

·        people more often minoritised

·        the more usually voiceless

And ‽istis wonders where is the silence and the active listening, the 2:1 balance of ears to mouth - a possible golden ratio of communication and dialogue?

Two words from the list above have caught ‽istis’ attention in particular:

· Mitigation: ‘the act of reducing how harmful, unpleasant, or bad something is’[vi]

· Amelioration: ‘the process of making a bad or unpleasant situation better’[vii]

Two words with similar meaning and while it may be difficult to agree on ‘problem-locus’[viii], or ‘problem-analysis’, or ‘nature-and-extent-of-problem-and-for-whom analysis’, or ‘cause-of-problem analysis’ let alone ‘solution focus’[ix] - surely it could help to commit to improving the way we listen and talk to each other about all the apparently tricky and emotive stuff‽

And ‽istis wonders whether through a transformed process, we might somehow find ourselves heading just a little more towards outcomes that are just a little more transformative and positive for just a lot more of us‽

©‽istis

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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...


[i] For example: the National Conservatism Conference: https://nationalconservatism.org/natcon-uk-2023/

[ii] Should that be podia‽, before anyone starts a ‘pile on’…

[iii] For example ‘Newsnight’ towards the end of last week, actually - featuring Alistair Campbell: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bbc-newsnight-alastair-campbell-victoria-derbyshire-alex-phillips-brexit_uk_645df699e4b03e16f1a2633a

[iv] Coined in a previous blog in October 2021: https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2021/10/pistis-daydreams-manifesto-weekending.html

[v] Coined in a previous blog in June 2020: COWPATs - Constructs or Opinions Which may Present As Truth/s… https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2020/06/pistis-reclaims-cowpats-weekending-june.html

[vi] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mitigation

[vii] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/amelioration

[viii] Or should that be loci‽ (or even locuses or even locusts?)

[ix] Or should that be foci‽


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Thursday 11 May 2023

Pistis wonders: Coronation blog, the Sequel (weekending May 13th 2023)

 

‽istis wonders whether it is just me… or ‘Coronation Blog, the Sequel’‽ (weekending May 13th 2023)

Last weekend and through the extra Bank Holiday (received gratefully), all that gloriously lauded music (composed, arranged, rehearsed, played and sung) old and new (and then there was the concert!), pageantry and parading, costume and best clobber[i], ritual, catering and picnicking, liturgy, spectacle, anointing, enthusiasm, sword-holding[ii], policing and security, flag-waving, television watching and radio listening, broadcasting and commentary, social media posting, three-day community eventing, etc., etc… all that expenditure of time and money[iii], all that effort…

But the ‘feeling out of sorts’ has lasted all week. Perhaps this could be called ‘corognative dissonance’? Or maybe the diagnosis could be ‘corona(tion)virus23’ (if it weren’t to burst the bubble of what can sometimes seem like a collective amnesia about the severity of things and to recall a really difficult, hugely frightening and desperately, desperately tragic time for so many across the world)?

Is it just me ‽istis wonders? What were we ‘celebrating’? What was all the fuss and bother about?

‽ One person: probably no better or no worse than most of us…

‽ One family: perhaps no less or maybe no more dysfunctional than many of ours, who scrubbed up very well (but who wouldn’t in all those uniforms, ennobled robbery or finest of finery)…

‽ One head of several nation states, historico-political boundaries with perhaps the 'motherland' made ‘Great’ at the expense of others as an Empire turns in to a seemingly diminishing Commonwealth, and some seek new governance arrangements and many may seek apologies and reparations…

‽ One God – or the divine of many ‘faiths’ (being defended but not overly represented) in whose name an anointing was done and a religious service was devised that may or may not have presented as very spiritual: a Deity who/which some in the Abbey may even believe in, but just maybe either: a) non-existent and a human construct; or b) not happy with how things are but can’t do anything about it; or c) not happy with how things are but won’t do anything about it; or (maybe worst of all) d) is content with how things are… and was e) just pleased to be there, perhaps like many in attendance… 

‽ Many armed service personnel: drilled to perfection, commanded and organised in the clearest of ranked and insigniafied[iv] hierarchies; uniforms immaculate; armed light for the day (with musical instruments the acceptable sound of preparation for war) - but still organisations predicated on the perceived need for a force to defend with force; people trained to take the life of other people (generally from another nation state), to kill directly or indirectly at gun or mortar or plane or missile or drone-bombs’ length, to attack where attack is justified as the required way to defend…  And in a palace garden the immortal cry was heard: ‘Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray’ followed by the less common: ‘Replace… headdress!’[v]

Is it just me? ‽istis wonders again before suggesting that, cost notwithstanding, a day or weekend could be held that includes the sort of things that many people seemed to think were the ‘best bits’ - perhaps none of which require a coronation:

gloriously lauded music (composed, arranged, rehearsed played and sung) old and new, pageantry and parading, costume and best clobber, ritual, catering and picnicking, liturgy (where the proof could be the product, showing that people of every faith and especially of good faith can be sacred together), spectacle, enthusiasm, flags of every hue waving, even television watching and radio listening, broadcasting and commentary, social media posting, community events, etc., etc…

What about a day or a weekend - maybe even once a year - held:

·        not in the name of a particular man from a particular family

·        not in the name of nation states - or a hyperbolically-named ‘Great’ main union of countries and a dominant and majoritised culture

·        not in the name of one God – or even the divine of many ‘faiths’

·        not supported by armed services…

What about a day or weekend held to recognise and celebrate:

·        all of us and the best in all of us - and loving relationships and nurturing families of every shape and form

·        various ways of organising ourselves socially and politically both locally and globally: to promote peace, justice and optimal well-being for as many as possible; reflecting our rich diversity of cultures; celebrating community and social and public and civil and voluntary services  

·        sacredness in all its forms and wherever it may be found – including perhaps in a recognition of the value of humanity within an extraordinary system of interconnection of all that has life and breath on this amazing planet, our mutual home, seemingly utterly unique, with no ‘Planet B’…    

…. and then the voice of the next national treasure / celebrity / commentator / interviewed-member-of-the-public (delete as appropriate) woke ‽istis up…

©‽istis                                                                                                                    

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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  


[ii] Perhaps just try typing ‘Penny Mordaunt sword’ into a search engine. ‽istis notes the following results information: ‘About 5,670,000 results (0.35 seconds)’  E.g: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65543022

[iii] ‘King Charles’ scaled-back coronation set to cost the UK up to $125 million.’  https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/05/king-charles-iiis-coronation-set-to-cost-the-uk-up-to-125-million.html

[iv] Yes, probably a  made up word…  but therefore rather like all the others that we use…?


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Sunday 7 May 2023

Pistis ponders: 'mind the gap' (weekending May 6th 2023)

 

‽istis ponders: ‘mind the gap’ (weekending May 6th 2023)

This weekending, as a King is crowned and many are celebrating, queuing, alienated, straining to see, feasting, getting on with life as usual, making quiche, boo-ing, partying, indifferent, wearing red and white and blue, looking on in awe or bemusement or wonder or disgust, making banners, making placards, getting by, hostile, putting up bunting, baking, protesting, working overtime, having family round, putting up umbrellas, arrested, singing, getting drunk, cheering, playing or listening to music, meeting with friends, doing almost anything else, doing nothing else… and as ‘history’[i] is apparently being witnessed/made, etc. etc…

‽ Princess Anne suggests (in a ‘no-nonsense interview’[ii] with the sister who has the trusted role of Charles' Gold-Stick-in-Waiting at the coronation, I’m saying nothing….) that the Royal Family brings ‘long-term stability’, ‘continuity’ and ‘goodness to the UK and Commonwealth.’ Apparently laughing off the notion of a ‘slimmed-down operation’ the princess declared: “It doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I’m standing, I have to say. I’m not quite sure what else, you know, we can do.”  “The monarchy provides a degree of long-term stability that is actually quite hard to come by in any other way.”

And ‽istis thinks that some may ponder the nature, quality and quantity of the state of ‘long-term stability’ that we may have apparently achieved and maintained; stable for whom, stable where – nationally, globally, long-term ago and now?

‽ We are also exhorted (especially if we are travelling on the London underground system) by the King himself to ‘mind the gap’.[iii]  

‽istis wonders whether ‘mind the gap’ perhaps, possibly may be a perfect phrase for this Coronation day: ‘mind’ as in tend/care about, care for and seek to maintain the gap that is perhaps so obviously and symbolically on display today: between those enjoying a monopoly of power and resources, elitism, entitlement, exceptionalism, the hubris of some, the benefits of rank and hierarchies - stamped with some sort of claimed divinely ordained and anointed approval - and all that this has perhaps led to, past and present… and the rest, the others, the majority (though many may be minoritised)…

...and...

‘mind’ as in worry about and are troubled by and seek to reduce the gap that is perhaps so obviously and symbolically on display today: between those enjoying a monopoly of power and resources, elitism, entitlement, exceptionalism, the hubris of some, the benefits of rank and hierarchies - stamped with some sort of claimed divinely ordained and anointed approval - and all that this has perhaps led to, past and present... and the rest, the others, the majority (though many may be minoritised)…

‽ We are also invited (‘All who so desire, in the Abbey, and elsewhere’) to ‘make homage’ at the Coronation by participating in a ‘chorus of millions of voices’[iv] saying: “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God."

And ‽istis wonders: if homage is not paid or allegiance sworn to this or any Majesty (his/her/their heirs and successors), then to whom or to what might people pay homage or swear allegiance, if anything?

So, this weekending’s ponderings and wonderings have focussed on things to do with long-term stability[v], the gap, homage and allegiance…  and, most importantly perhaps, but if not all this…

·        Nearer home (UK)

o   The wealthiest 100 people in the UK have as much money as the poorest 18 million people, according to the Equality Trust.[vi]

o   Almost 1 in 5 people of pension age, are now living in poverty.[vii]

o   Close to 3 million emergency food parcels were distributed by food banks in the Trussell Trust network in the past 12 months — the most parcels ever distributed by the network in a year.[viii]

o   In England and Wales, more than 99% of rapes reported to police do not end in a conviction. At present, charge rates for rape vary wildly between regions, from 1.3% in Surrey to 8.2% in Durham. Cases take, on average, 817 days to reach court.[ix]

o   More than a third of people from ethnic and religious minority groups in Britain have experienced some form of racist assault.[x]

o   16.4% of adults in England, or 7.1 million people, can be described as having 'very poor literacy skills.'[xi]

o   Half a million children a year suffer abuse in the UK. In 2021/22 the NSPCC’s Helpline contacted agencies about 22,505 children to investigate concerns about abuse and neglect.  Out of the 12 million children living in England, just under 400,000 (3%) are known to the social care system at any one time. Just over 80,000 of these children are children in care.[xii]

o   3,069 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2022; 74% increase since 2010.[xiii]

o   The healthy life expectancy gap between the most and least deprived parts of the UK is 19 years. The index of multiple deprivation includes other determinants of health such as housing, employment, and education. People living in the most deprived areas of England experience a worse quality of NHS care and poorer health outcomes than people living in the least deprived areas.[xiv]

o   Public trust in politicians falls by nine percentage points in 18 months. Two-thirds of the public say politicians are “merely out for themselves”. Just 4 per cent of British people believe parliamentarians are “doing their best for the country”[xv]

 

·        Further away:

o   The poorest in the world are often undernourished, without access to basic services such as electricity and safe drinking water; they have less access to education and suffer from much poorer health.[xvi]

o   In 2020, 74 per cent of the global population had access to safely managed drinking water services, up from 70 per cent in 2015. Still, two billion people live without safely managed drinking water services, including 1.2 billion people lacking even a basic level of service, in 2020.[xvii]

o   103million forcibly displaced people estimated worldwide; 36.5 million are children; 1.5million children born as refugees.

o   March 2022: one-quarter of humanity -- 2 billion people -- are living in conflict areas today and the world is facing the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945, when World War II ended.[xviii]

o   In the most comprehensive index to date, tracking the health of nature over 50 years, WWF and the ZSL (Zoological Society of London) Institute of Zoology, find an average 69% decline in wildlife populations around the world between 1970 and 2018.[xix]

o   Rising temperatures are fueling environmental degradation, natural disasters, weather extremes, food and water insecurity, economic disruption, conflict, and terrorism. Sea levels are rising, the Arctic is melting, coral reefs are dying, oceans are acidifying, and forests are burning.[xx]

 

·        NB: just a few points for example… and no doubt you could add your own and probably select ones that paint a rosier picture…

…then what‽

How might we better organise and conduct ourselves and manage the way we live together as part of this extraordinary ordinary place (to link to last week’s blog), this ‘blue dot’ (after Carl Sagan), this interdependent, complex environment and system of life of which we are a part for more or lesser number of years? What legacy do we wish for our heirs and successors?

So perhaps let us least recognise that possibly what we have, all this, is constructed and created, is artificial – intelligent or otherwise - just as the events and content of the coronation service and pageant might be seen as having been constructed, created, made up, an artifice. Let us also perhaps consider that what we have, all this, could be re-created and re-constructed, maybe‽

And whilst we may not wish this was our starting point (if we are going somewhere else, we certainly might not choose to start from here), let us not be deflated in to a resigned and impotent ‘it is what it is-ism'. Let us perhaps consider that the circumstances that have produced what we have - all this - has probably evolved over a long time, but could evolve further, maybe‽

‽istis has some ideas, as many various previous blogs suggest[xxi].

But for just one person (or even one person primarily with others who are alike) - with a given level of privilege and power from birth, social class, educational opportunities, race, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, age, experience - to believe that they have the answers may just perpetuate the problems and continue the dynamics of all this.

To impose an alternative would probably require the sort of authoritarianism, power, dominance, subjugation and control that is perhaps a contributory cause of current concern, that has maybe got us to all this. Time for a new process perhaps, possibly, maybe…

Perhaps the first step is to consider that all this, and the long-term stability that has brought it about and maintains it (and the gaps between us that we variously mind) is just not good enough for enough people, places, and all that has life and breath with whom we share this planet, and all with which we are inextricably linked.

Secondly, can we imagine that things could be different?

And after that we might:

·        Listen to each other, especially those whose voices have been silenced

·        Seek the most embracive common denominator of wishes and hopes and underpinning values and principles that can infuse both the process and the outcome

·        Sketch out a vision of a preferred future (perhaps within a Rawlsian ‘veil of ignorance’, which paradoxically may be an expression of great wisdom!)

·        Recognise that restorative, redistributive, reparative activity and properly levelled fields (upon which all may play, work and rest, survive and thrive) are quite likely needed. This could be very painful for some (the winners-at-others’-loss, the gainers-at-others’-expense, the over-developed-because-others’-have-been-underdeveloped, the individual-family-class-social-status-political-education-resource-capitalised-whilst-others’-have-been-asset-stripped-or-denied, etc.) but utterly liberating and life-giving for others

·        Consider, practically how we might get there, together (starting realistically from ‘here’) - proposing and developing fresh ways and means, arrangements and institutions (including social, educational, financial/economic, political, etc.) to do the necessary, to achieve the desirable, to deploy the practicable in the interests of the possible and of us all…

…for ‽istis continues to believe that better and even the ‘most best’ could be created and constructed for so many more of us - and why stop there…

©‽istis                                                                                                                    

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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  


[ii] Daily Telegraph 3.5.2023

[v] Perhaps recalling other blogs including: State of nations or nations in a state? https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2020/01/pistis-reclaims-state-of-nations-or.html; and reflections on imperial units https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2022/06/pistis-reclaims-imperial-units.html


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‽istis ponders volunteering, expertise and tapping (weekending April 27th 2024)

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