Not Really Republicans
A Facebook Exchange Between Grant and Brandon
Grant Weber
It's really terrible what democrats have done to black people and other minorities throughout history. Great reminder of all the injustice and intimidation they have faced.
Brandon WilliamsCraig
Need to ask a favor, Grant. In many ways, this kind of post is more problematic than the frantic diarrhea profanity or other bomb dropping that is so common but easier to just remove. I've been avoiding direct engagement with you, often deleting my own replies on other posts because they sound condescending to me, and because I am super-swamped at the moment. I also, however, would really like to contribute to the movement on social media, in general, toward respectful, brief (if possible) exchanges which get at important information. For us to have an honest disagreement about something, I'd really appreciate it if you would begin with a clear statement that acts as an invitation to disagree, preferably relevant to the post and accompanied by a link to something reputable which supports your position, avoiding sweeping and stereotypical generalizations. For instance, (clear statement >) [I find Beto admirable precisely because he speaks eloquently in a way that is largely a departure from the racism and classism practiced for generations by all manner of politicians and parties.] Since the video is evidence that I would like others to see what I see in that regard, how would you feel about briefly addressing either the video or my position as though it were informed by hours of study and carefully reasoned, and then provide evidence that tempts me to change my position?
Grant Weber
Hi Brandon, I will do my best to convey my position on this point although I am not as highly educated as you or eloquent a writer. As you mentioned Beto is an eloquent speaker - as was Obama. I find the democrat platform of "social justice warrior" problematic since throughout history democrats have been on the opposing side of social justice. The GOP being the original "progressive" party" hence the name "Grand Old Party" or the party of Lincoln (R) that moved to emancipate the slaves among other issues while the democrats fought to keep blacks as property. The democrat created KKK to intimidate newly freed slaves and white republicans alike (much like today's ANTIFA). The founder of the modern democratic party (Andrew Jackson) was responsible for the Indian wars and Trail of Tears. You have the Republican majority House of Representatives that passed the 15th amendment in 1869 with a majority 144 yeah's to 44 democrat nah's. The 19th amendment, women's suffrage was passed by the Republican party and greatly opposed by the democrats. Democratic President FDR and founder of the modern progressive movement was responsible for the Japanese internment camps and unlawful seizure of Japanese American's private property. Civil rights was pushed forward by the Republican party and once again opposed by the Democrats. Which leads me to the lie about the "Great Party Switch" Less than 1% of democrat politicians switched to the republican party. The same "Dixie-crats" that pushed racists agendas and fought to maintain segregation remained with the Democratic party. Even Hillary Clinton proudly proclaimed her affiliation with Gold Water. Robert Carlyle Byrd was a United States Senator from West Virginia for over 51 years and a Grand Wizard of the the KKK. From 1959 until his death in 2010, a member of the Democratic Party, Byrd previously served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959. Obama Praised Byrd as a role model and cornerstone of the modern Democratic party. There are 2 facts that mislead one into believing the "great switch" theory and that is the majority of the "Dixie-crat" south now does vote republican and the black vote switched from 15% Democrat in the 1930's to now 80% after the 1930's. This actually had nothing to do with politicians switching sides and more to do with FDR's new deal and the black population voting for the party that promised to give them more benefits and also the party with the least resistance since they were often physically threatened for voting Republican in the South. Wrapping up my point, I find it incredibly hypocritical that Democrat politicians use their own party's history of violence and racism to confuse voters. The numbers do not lie. Under Bill Clinton's Presidency Highest number of blacks imprisoned. Under Obama's Presidency highest black unemployment. Sure Beto is an eloquent speaker, but his words like every other democrat leader's words are empty. It is a distraction to mislead a well intended voter base while they continue their agenda of enslaving and segregating minorities, keeping them ever dependent on the government tit in exchange for giving up their freedom.
Brandon WilliamsCraig
I hope that this discussion will not devolve into a competition hinging on seeming more eloquent, and I truly appreciate your measured and thoughtful response. For the better part of a century, the Republican Party had reason to be proud of contributing to gains in the area of human rights, while Democrats compounded their shame. See https://www.thenation.com/.../when-republicans-really.../ for answers to most of your points. Both (all) parties continued to participate in the status quo loving cultural warfare, however, that enslaved persons of color in all but name. Then the Democrats passed the Republicans, if a racing metaphor is appropriate, in the tumble toward helping us become a more representative democracy. This continues to be pushed by the growth of voting blocks of working people struggling against voting restrictions and gerrymandering to secure even a percentage of the opportunities their white peers enjoy--both to be heard and make a living/future for their children. But, where racism is a more deeply rooted illness, the width of systemic injustice is more visible at the level of class. Working people of every description will eventually drive human rights together as we make common cause with people who do not look or sound like us but share the intentionally perpetuated suffering that supports the ultra-wealth of the very few. Also see https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../no-longer.../2015/04/08 What was at one point a party interested in a free republic is now the primary source of enslaving and segregating those now no longer in the minority, keeping them ever distracted from the unregulated corporate catheterization that government Of The People was established to resist. You are right that freedom is the cost, because "the poor" (now including what is left of what once were middle income earners) must contend with more polluted air and water, de-funded schools, imprisonment and less-than-minimum wage jobs, continually shrinking access to healthcare, and are left swinging on the front line every time there is a disaster, even when it is not obviously associated with wealth-industry-driven climate collapse and multiplied by profit-driven planning. Everyone in a seat of power (including me, and Beto O'Rourke) is responsible when the life of any being is sacrificed to increase the power of another. I believe he knows this, and will speak to the changes we need to survive as a species, which the political parties of short term gains are paid to ignore or in the habit of minimizing.thenation.comWhen the Republicans Really Were the Party…
Brandon WilliamsCraig
If you don't accept my evidence, or my obvious biases are too distracting based on what you've been told and come to believe, you might look to any of the thousands of rather loud ex-Republicans (like Tobin E Threadgill, for instance) who are not liberal softies and will be happy to return to the GOP when it is no longer tossing children on the altar of astronomical short term gains for the very few..
The Kind of Corruption That Matters - Making Americanism Great Again
Not just true of "Trump Supporters", who are not a monolithic group, but also true of those who allegedly object to but do not remove him. That widespread often subconscious agreement is why he is still operating, and may survive the felonies of which he has obviously been a part. For "traditional order" substitute "mythology" and you have a more evocative felt sense of the Belief, the #mythopsychology that leads not to "ignoring corruption so much as [being moved by] the kind that really matters" to you. That is why he has Reganesque teflon. He shrugs off rational objections because he is an avatar of the god in the pantheon of #Americanism that demand use of the word "traditional" when referring to the power over specific others that is granted by racist and sexist norms.
From the article at https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/what-trumps-supporters-think-of-corruption/568147/
"The answer may lie in how Trump and his supporters define corruption. In a forthcoming book entitled How Fascism Works, the Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley makes an intriguing claim. 'Corruption, to the fascist politician,' he suggests, 'is really about the corruption of purity rather than of the law. Officially, the fascist politician’s denunciations of corruption sound like a denunciation of political corruption. But such talk is intended to evoke corruption in the sense of the usurpation of the traditional order.'
Fox’s decision to focus on the Iowa murder rather than Cohen’s guilty plea illustrates Stanley’s point. For many Fox viewers, I suspect, the network isn’t ignoring corruption so much as highlighting the kind that really matters. When Trump instructed Cohen to pay off women with whom he had affairs, he may have been violating the law. But he was upholding traditional gender and class hierarchies. Since time immemorial, powerful men have been cheating on their wives and using their power to evade the consequences.
The Iowa murder, by contrast, signifies the inversion—the corruption—of that 'traditional order.' Throughout American history, few notions have been as sacrosanct as the belief that white women must be protected from nonwhite men. By allegedly murdering Tibbetts, Rivera did not merely violate the law. He did something more subversive: He violated America’s traditional racial and sexual norms."
#SumpDefenestration
Williamscraig Update July 2018
Greetings (soon to be "Howdy")!
For the mythopsychology geeks in the crowd
- I write at Culturesmith.com, with the more detailed and personal material protected by signing-in. Please request an account via http://culturesmith.com/account/signup or sign in, if you already have an account. I will approve and welcome you, after which you will also have access to all kinds of fascinating materials for cultural study, should that interest you.
- I will use this newsletter format for communicating the ways that this transition connects our inner lives with the wider world. As recommended by TinyLetter, I'll be clearing out email addresses and must ask that you opt-in again. If you haven't yet, please re-subscribe to my newsletter to continue receiving messages from me.
TSYR Yamakage Dojo Seminar w Kaicho Threadgill Fall 2018
Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin ryu (TSYR) seminar at Aikido of Berkeley with Toby Threadgill, Kaicho
Aikido of Berkeley hosts the Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin Kai dojo under the direction of Ash Morgan Sensei. The history of seminars we have hosted is below. Kaicho Threadgill's seminars are usually open to the public (and free to AiBerk, Free Aiki, and Golden Bears Aikido students) on Friday night, a morning and afternoon session on Saturday, and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon is usually a Kai-only class to cover specific areas of interest.
Most often the public seminars include the practice of jujutsu body dynamics and movement, principles of timing, connection and initiative, internal strength building (how and why), and application of Nairiki (internal structure power generation) as part of overall technique.
Upcoming 2018 Seminar - August 24-26
Full Seminar $175.00 or $60.00 per session as long as limited spaces (30 per session) remain. Register by completing the online form at https://goo.gl/forms/FqZQlFi7zOjlc7UJ2. An overnight stay in the dojo can be arranged. Your registration is guaranteed when you register, fill out our waiver at https://goo.gl/forms/yHQlWnyHmswrIH2F2, and we confirm receipt (by email) of the full amount received.
For information contact Brandon sensei@freeaiki.com
History:
November 10-12, 2017 at Aikido of Berkeley - Downtown
August 12-14, 2016 at Aikido of Berkeley - Downtown
May 17-19, 2013 at Aikido of Berkeley - Downtown
March 23-25, 2012 at Aikido of Berkeley - Downtown
September 16-18, 2010 at Aikido of Berkeley - Bay View Dojo
This website is owned by Brandon WilliamsCraig, aikido 5th dan founder and Dojo Cho of Free Aiki Dojo and Golden Bears Aikido at UC Berkeley, who became a provisional TSYR student under Eric Winters in 2014, Ash Morgan in 2015, and joined the Kai by keppan on August 15th, 2016.
Rachel Aviv - The Trauma of Facing Deportation+discussion
Thanks to Rachel Aviv - The Trauma of Facing Deportation for this essential framing of the true cost of Othering. - ed.
"In Sweden, hundreds of refugee children have fallen unconscious after being informed that their families will be expelled from the country."
Not just in Sweden. There is somatic clarity here, tremendous psychological evidence, and a colossal lack of political will on the part of adults with power around the world to do what is clearly best for children and, thus, for humanity. The Golden Rule is called that for a reason. If you were the child, the refugee, the Other in the story, fleeing a life of fear, how would you want be treated?
"For nearly two decades, a political question—What should we do about migration?—has played out through the bodies of hundreds of children. The number of new cases of apathy declined in 2006, after the Migration Board took a more lenient approach, but the illness is still being diagnosed in dozens of children. Last year, some sixty children lost the ability to move and to speak. There is now universal consensus that the children are not faking, but no one knows why the illness is particular to Sweden. I spoke with more than twenty Swedish doctors who had either treated apathetic patients or written about them, and none of them had an explanation; most were hesitant to even propose a hypothesis. Björn Axel Johansson, a child psychiatrist at Skåne University Hospital, in southern Sweden, who has treated twelve apathetic children, told me, “I’m not convinced that this is only happening in Sweden. Maybe it’s only being documented and discussed and published in Sweden?”
How Experience Works
Imagine that you are having an experience, for instance, the reading of these words. It is not possible to separate how you have the experience from the experience itself, because "experience" denotes, at least, what happened plus the way that it happened, as you remember it. It is not only possible but compelling, however, to imagine the elements of an experience as though they were separate, especially since they are variable. If you read this sitting down, for instance, it will always have been read seated, but you can imagine different ways of reading it, for instance, while standing.
If you imagine, in addition to reading while standing, that you are on an urban light rail car with a bunch of people around you, jostled by the car's movement, occasionally looking out the window, thinking alternatingly about what has just happened and what might happen next, you can see the tip of the proverbial iceberg of the myriad variables that are packed into "experience". All factors have an impact on the other variables, a few of which are recorded by your memory, which is far from comprehensive or exact. You will only ever be able to recall a few of the factors that you noticed and embodied as experience.
You are imagining every time you encounter anything, creating a fiction of inseparable thought, feeling, sense that becomes part of your "soma"--the biological and intangible complex that is You, and which cannot be recalled in a way that is identical with what happened, despite having been profoundly shaped by it. Precise representation is not possible, at least because comprehensive re-presentation of all relevant factors is not possible in a system as complex and dynamic as experience. Memory is notoriously unreliable and creatively dynamic, and assertions are always experimental proposals, no matter the authoritative terms in which they are couched. Just being conscious of something guarantees a selective frame through which experience will be filtered, in which meaning will be assigned and beliefs created, and on which behavior will then be based. Consciousness itself then, at least fundamentally, is a process of fictionalizing and embodying reality. Overlapping sub-categories of fictional consciousness emerge somatically, psychologically: fantasy, reasoning, narrative, and other ways of ordering experience becoming styles of selective imagining, meaning-making, and behavior.
Since experience becomes understood in particular styles, it may be difficult to parse when considered by being filtered through an unsympathetic narrative. It may cause confusion and dismay, for instance, when a group of people share an understanding that is very different from one's own, based on their imagination of shared narratives, and then believe what they imagine, perhaps even literally, and then behave and create a particular culture which presupposes that their narratives are authoritative. This dynamic is not only problematic in the religious and political realms. It colors all interactions shared by all participants in any system, because individuals are by definition both similar to and different from each other, and must make choices to navigate the pulls and pushes of resonance and dissonance.
The Scientific Method, for instance, emerges from a rational narrative in which theories (informed guesses) about reality are reduced by experimental elimination until only facts remain in the form of processes that others can verify. But no way of configuring experience can escape the system in which it operates and by which it is delimited. No matter how exhaustive, even the entire, tremendously powerful catalogue of facts derived and categorized by rational thought cannot approach the scope that consciousness as a whole encompasses: imagination turning experience into meaning by working through fictions to discern and creatively apply what is literally and metaphorically true to life.
It is helpful to think of the process of consciousness outlined above in terms of "mythology", and of "myth" as a narrative which configures consciousness as though a particular way of thinking were operational in the world to which the mythology applies. One of the essential benefits of mythological study is that it both questions and supports belief by explicitly promoting consciousness of fundamental fictionality, or mythicity. In this context, the phrase "The Myth Of Science", for instance, does not suggest that science is false, which is demonstrably not the case, but suggests that Science operates within fictions, an example of which might be the idea of its own supremacy in defining Truth. Working with Science mythically allows consciousness of a fundamental ambivalence in knowing anything, an epistemological humility which then makes the true mission of research, for instance, more likely to succeed. If one is aware just how powerfully framing a process as scientific makes all outcomes sound authoritative, then it becomes more straightforward to avoid plunging into the mire of scientism and thereby conduct scientific work authentically, dividing experience into helpful but non-ultimate categories, such as placing in opposition the reproducibly factual and the unreproducible and falsifiable, minimizing the chance of making what is unproven sound like fact.
When I began by suggesting that you imagine having an experience, I merely proposed that you become conscious of the way that you have always experienced everything. I make the proposal because the process has proved helpful to me, at least when I have been willing and able to uncover my beliefs and the ways in which they are extruded as behavior as I co-create the world of my daily life. Sometimes the narrative-belief-behavior vector is easy to uncover and influence. Most often some part of the process is more deeply complex than I can fully imagine, and requiring a more extensive frame, in this case the use of the idea "soul" or "psyche" on which "psychology" is based. Psyche-logic implies that making meaning of complexes requires the acknowledgment that "deepest" imagining is unconscious--cannot be uncovered, operates with autonomy--is a "realm" governed by its own powers, and exerts highly variable but universally extensive influence throughout humanity. This reasoning, and the behavior of writing and publishing it, reflects my belief in the mythology of depth psychology.
Believe the narrative and agenda being Trumpeted with each twit
Give up shock, "surely not", and "it's just politics." Believe the narrative and agenda being #Trumpeted with each twit. This administration is the opposite of American, uses tactics which are illegal and immoral, does not represent conservatives, and this phase in our civic life must end. Now. We must not build this darkest world, culture, and future.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/06/04/trumps-ambassador-to-germany-is-making-a-fool-out-of-himself-and-the-u-s/ - Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post
Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, just told Breitbart News. “There are a lot of conservatives throughout Europe who have contacted me to say they are feeling there is a resurgence going on,” he said. “I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders. I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left.” Note the context: Grenell was speaking to Breitbart, the website whose comment section was the original breeding ground for alt-right white nationalism. Grenell was very clear that the kinds of “conservatives” he admires are not the ones in Angela Merkel’s centrist Christian Democratic party, which is currently ruling Germany in a coalition with centrist social democrats (authors, presumably, of the “failed policies of the left,” the same policies that have made Germany the strongest economy in Europe). On the contrary, the one politician he named — “I’m a big fan” — is Sebastian Kurz, a center-right politician who has criticized Merkel, borrowed language from the radical right and currently rules Austria in coalition with the Freedom Party, a nativist, pro-Russian and anti-pluralist party.
* Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
Goodbye California
The Short Version
I will be ending my work as an instructor of graduate students at Pacifica Graduate Institute and Communications Director at Ragged Wing Ensemble, so that we may move back to Texas. We will be moving back to Dallas at the first of August to be with my mother, who turns 80 this year. Lisa is very happy to begin teaching for White Rock Montessori School, and we are in the midst of grieving, packing, spending time with friends, and feeling overwhelmed by logistics, endings, and the tremendous potential associated with this move. I am going back to the land of my birth, and plan to provide executive leadership, speak publicly, teach all ages of students, and write, as I devote more time to loving my family and taking in the beauty of being alive in the world.
Please contact me right away to schedule anything that needs to happen in June or July, including time together, so that I may attempt to follow up and make arrangements. There are many things with which we could use some help, given capacity and availability. If we don't make contact before August, I will also look forward to seeing you when next we meet, wherever that may be. If you’d like updates about Peace Practices, Conflict Done Well, and my other adventures in teamwork and social justice, please be sure to subscribe at http://abcglobal.net/Find_Us and follow https://www.facebook.com/brandonwilliamscraig/.
There is more to all of this, obviously. If you want to connect with me, move the work I do forward, or read more and deeply into what is happening now, I cannot ask sincerely enough that you stay within my circle of friends:
- I'll be writing more at Culturesmith.com, with the more detailed and personal material protected by signing-in. Please request an account via http://culturesmith.com/account/signup or sign in, if you already have an account. I will approve and welcome you, after which you will also have access to all kinds of fascinating materials for cultural study, should that interest you.
- I will use the newsletter here (Subscribe to my newsletter) for communicating the ways that this transition connects our inner lives with the wider world. There will be various gatherings to say goodbye, and I'll use that list to let you know about them.
Please re/subscribe now, during this time of profound transition, so we may stay connected, even if at a distance.
Love,
B
Given time and interest, for the full version of this post please click here.
This probably won't surprise anybody...
http://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/46-of-people-living-in-bay-area-plan-to-leave-in-next-few-years/1217518902
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) - "Forty-six percent of people living in the Bay Area say they plan to leave it in the next few years,...according to a survey from the Bay Area Council. Last year, that number was 40 percent. People say housing costs and traffic are the reasons they want to leave...24 percent said they would move within California, and 61 percent said they would leave the state altogether."
Fauxs - The Rise of Fake People
This is the door to the dystopian sci-fi soon-to-be reality (available on every screen around you) in which actual humans are reduced to irrelevance, the juice of life is electric and for sale at an increasing price, and attention is drawn only by habit to what is fake and flashing. Why would anyone want a shift that dramatically increases the influence of faux people, perhaps until they are the model of what everyone tries to be like? Those are the very traits that [are] so attractive to companies: “They’re much easier to control...It’s a more efficient way of controlling the message" and, I would argue, "their target audiences."
"[Those] of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their [fauxs], not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships." - Aristophanes
For more, sign in to check out FAUXS - Fake Human Influencers - Artificial Yes - Intelligence No.