I was listening to the Green Dreamer podcast this morning, a conversation with Bruce Pascoe: “Respecting and falling in love with Mother Earth (Ep438).”
Bruce Pascoe is a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man and the author of Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture.
Pascoe references the national referendum on the constitutional recognition of the Aboriginal people of Australia as the first national people of the country. In this referendum, 61 per cent of Australian people voted against that constitutional recognition.
“The colony is not dead. The colony has not changed its mind. So, we have to work harder.”
…
“And everyone agreed that we had to work harder, and education was the way. We weren’t going to change the minds of those old white fascists. We had to talk to their children and grandchildren. And that's what we’re doing now.”
Yesterday, I was listening to The Sacred podcast: “Befriending the Ku Klux Klan and Dismantling Racism with Daryl Davis.”
Daryl Davis talks about how one’s perception is one’s reality. He observes that conflict escalates when attacking somebody’s reality. Instead, he practices curiosity. “Get curious, not furious.” He begins with the question, “Why do you hate me when you do not know me?”
Then, he offers better perceptions. “If they resonate with one of your perceptions, they then will change their own reality, because the perception becomes their reality.”
What happens when a nation votes overwhelmingly for fascism? The United States of America are entrenched in the colonial project, but they also deny that this project could be referred to as fascism. However, it is hard to deny when they vote for a leader who is one of those old white fascists who do not recognize the ongoing violence being perpetrated against indigenous peoples inside and outside the borders of the USA. In the same way that racists cannot define racism, fascists are unable to define fascism. It would require a deep level of introspection, awareness, and honesty.
However, the U.S. has displayed an amazing ability to lie to itself and believe its own press about its greatness, exceptionalism, and superiority, while denying white supremacy, slavery, violence, genocide, and ecocide.
I have been noticing the question, “What happened to the hashtag #resist?”
Politico reports,
“Donald Trump’s 2016 election stunner sparked a global revolt. His 2024 triumph has been met with a weary shrug.”
…
“But since Trump’s crushing victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in last Tuesday’s election, the reaction — from both Democratic voters and officials in European capitals — has been less one of fiery outrage and more muted resignation.”
I recall the aphorism, “What you resist persists. What you accept transforms.”
Our responsibility, it seems to me, is to nurture the ability to respond. The instinctual emotional and embodied response to a perceived threat is “fight, flight, freeze, fawn, or flop.” But these are not the only stress responses. There is also “tend and befriend.”
“Taylor and her group of researchers note that, when threatened or stressed, humans typically affiliate with one another instead of attacking each other. This is particularly true for females.”
“…the tend and befriend theory says that humans, particularly females, often respond to stress by tending to young ones and by seeking connection or befriending one another.”
Perhaps I can help to shift perception in favour of creating a different reality and real, lasting change.
What is fascism?
The fascia of the planet has been replaced by national borders that restrict the movement and flow of life. The flow of water is restricted by power generation and infrastructure for industries, farms, and cities.
Fascism is a form of power and violence that limits movement and flow. It wields representative democracy and corporate capitalism to direct the flow of power and currency to those at the top of the hierarchy, whether that is the CEO of a corporation or the President of a nation.
When the executive function of the body is taking most of the oxygen, nutrients, and energy, this is usually a sign of the first stages of organ failure. The body is redirecting all of its resources to the brain in an attempt to maintain the essential functions of the body. However, the agency of the body is being sacrificed for mere survival. The body is in an unconscious, inanimate state. The body loses the ability to sense, reason, feel, and act.
Fascism is a form of organ failure and paralysis that results in a fight for survival. When this happens to a global superpower, there is a risk that every nation in the world may be enlisted into a global fight for survival.
The question, then, is whether we can regain a healthy state of homeostasis, to regulate our respiration, to restore blood flow, to regain consciousness, to find equilibrium enough to move, to stand, to walk, to run and to regain function, mobility, and agency as a whole body.
The physical is a metaphor for the metaphysical.
The physical body is a metaphor for our metaphysical reality. When we shift our perceptions, we change our reality. May we tend and befriend our bodies in order to exercise our agency as autonomous living beings.
This is a powerful thought process, as always Stephen, you present so much to sit with, to feel, to explore. Thank you so much for engaging deeply. May we continue to come home to our bodies, one another, and our place in the living / loving world!
The election produced a very slight vote for the Trump presence and most people are ready for a strong response and a voice
for human rights like the people of Syria and the people of South Korea.
Human rights is the basis for life and Mother Earth our dear protector.
Fascia and the Fascists
I was listening to the Green Dreamer podcast this morning, a conversation with Bruce Pascoe: “Respecting and falling in love with Mother Earth (Ep438).”
Bruce Pascoe is a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man and the author of Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture.
Pascoe references the national referendum on the constitutional recognition of the Aboriginal people of Australia as the first national people of the country. In this referendum, 61 per cent of Australian people voted against that constitutional recognition.
“The colony is not dead. The colony has not changed its mind. So, we have to work harder.”
…
“And everyone agreed that we had to work harder, and education was the way. We weren’t going to change the minds of those old white fascists. We had to talk to their children and grandchildren. And that's what we’re doing now.”
Yesterday, I was listening to The Sacred podcast: “Befriending the Ku Klux Klan and Dismantling Racism with Daryl Davis.”
Daryl Davis talks about how one’s perception is one’s reality. He observes that conflict escalates when attacking somebody’s reality. Instead, he practices curiosity. “Get curious, not furious.” He begins with the question, “Why do you hate me when you do not know me?”
Then, he offers better perceptions. “If they resonate with one of your perceptions, they then will change their own reality, because the perception becomes their reality.”
What happens when a nation votes overwhelmingly for fascism? The United States of America are entrenched in the colonial project, but they also deny that this project could be referred to as fascism. However, it is hard to deny when they vote for a leader who is one of those old white fascists who do not recognize the ongoing violence being perpetrated against indigenous peoples inside and outside the borders of the USA. In the same way that racists cannot define racism, fascists are unable to define fascism. It would require a deep level of introspection, awareness, and honesty.
However, the U.S. has displayed an amazing ability to lie to itself and believe its own press about its greatness, exceptionalism, and superiority, while denying white supremacy, slavery, violence, genocide, and ecocide.
I have been noticing the question, “What happened to the hashtag #resist?”
Politico reports,
“Donald Trump’s 2016 election stunner sparked a global revolt. His 2024 triumph has been met with a weary shrug.”
…
“But since Trump’s crushing victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in last Tuesday’s election, the reaction — from both Democratic voters and officials in European capitals — has been less one of fiery outrage and more muted resignation.”
I recall the aphorism, “What you resist persists. What you accept transforms.”
Our responsibility, it seems to me, is to nurture the ability to respond. The instinctual emotional and embodied response to a perceived threat is “fight, flight, freeze, fawn, or flop.” But these are not the only stress responses. There is also “tend and befriend.”
“Taylor and her group of researchers note that, when threatened or stressed, humans typically affiliate with one another instead of attacking each other. This is particularly true for females.”
“…the tend and befriend theory says that humans, particularly females, often respond to stress by tending to young ones and by seeking connection or befriending one another.”
Perhaps I can help to shift perception in favour of creating a different reality and real, lasting change.
What is fascism?
The fascia of the planet has been replaced by national borders that restrict the movement and flow of life. The flow of water is restricted by power generation and infrastructure for industries, farms, and cities.
Fascism is a form of power and violence that limits movement and flow. It wields representative democracy and corporate capitalism to direct the flow of power and currency to those at the top of the hierarchy, whether that is the CEO of a corporation or the President of a nation.
When the executive function of the body is taking most of the oxygen, nutrients, and energy, this is usually a sign of the first stages of organ failure. The body is redirecting all of its resources to the brain in an attempt to maintain the essential functions of the body. However, the agency of the body is being sacrificed for mere survival. The body is in an unconscious, inanimate state. The body loses the ability to sense, reason, feel, and act.
Fascism is a form of organ failure and paralysis that results in a fight for survival. When this happens to a global superpower, there is a risk that every nation in the world may be enlisted into a global fight for survival.
The question, then, is whether we can regain a healthy state of homeostasis, to regulate our respiration, to restore blood flow, to regain consciousness, to find equilibrium enough to move, to stand, to walk, to run and to regain function, mobility, and agency as a whole body.
The physical is a metaphor for the metaphysical.
The physical body is a metaphor for our metaphysical reality. When we shift our perceptions, we change our reality. May we tend and befriend our bodies in order to exercise our agency as autonomous living beings.
This is a powerful thought process, as always Stephen, you present so much to sit with, to feel, to explore. Thank you so much for engaging deeply. May we continue to come home to our bodies, one another, and our place in the living / loving world!