The dichotomy of political identity as a tool of division.

The Dichotomy of Political Identity as a Tool of Division

People really seem to need labels don't they?

I find myself constantly struggling with this fixation and constantly having to check myself with regard to the labels I accept being pinned onto myself, and the labels I pin on others. Some folk are convinced, for instance, that I am a Socialist, or Anarchist, or Conspiracy Theorist, and at times I have accepted one or more of these labels in a futile attempt to be understood by anyone but myself. I have also worn the labels of "Christian", "Junkie", "Thief", "Beggar", "Mystic" & "ET Contact Experiencer".

I habitually wear the label of "Alan".

Do any of these terms fully identify or define who or what this "I" is?

In the current geopolitical climate here on Earth it is becoming apparent that the old left-right divide is once again threatening to plunge us all into ever deeper and more destructive conflicts.

So if that dynamic were to break out into a violent struggle, would you identify with one side or the other and feel justified in picking up the gun?

If you did would that earn you the label of "freedom fighter", "terrorist" or "murderer"?

Are you a “loony lefty” or a “fascist bastard”? 

Do you have to be one or the other?

Are we all not simply humans, are we all not just people?

Let me state here and now that I do not consider myself to be someone with a political agenda. Everything I do and every struggle I engage with is, for me, completely A-Political. The big questions always are.

But what do I mean by this?

It is very simple. Questions about the nature of existence and what is right and what is wrong are actually very simple when you take the time to reflect on them with internal honesty.

Should we kill people? I would say it's an emphatic no. Nobody has the right to take another's life away. Ever.

I find it ridiculous and absurd when people talk to me about the necessity of war and offer political justifications for organised murder.

If I were to visit the home of some family and plant a bomb in it, I would be considered the worst kind of criminal. Yet this is happening in our world right now and all the while people try to politicise it. People are justifying such murderous acts with political arguments.

Should we knowingly pollute and poison our bio-sphere? Is there a political reason why such a course of action is justified? No, of course not!

If I was to go down to my local riverside park and pour gallons of lethal chemical waste into the water I would be prosecuted and reviled. And yet political arguments abound for the continued conspicuous consumption of Earth's natural resources in an unsustainable fashion along with the wilful pollution of the seas, rivers, soil, air and food on which we all rely.

Should we profit from the misery, desperation, or vulnerability of others? No.

If I was to profit from the sale of poisons and addictive substances that I know my customers neither need nor are they able to control their intake of I would become a social pariah very quickly; likewise if I was to profit from selling weapons to people with an agenda of intimidation, and exploitation. Unless of course I work for an arms company, tobacco giant or brewery!

If I then stood up in court and attempted to offer a political justification for any of these acts I would be considered ridiculous, arrogant and probably deluded. Yet this is what the political and economical institutions of this world have always been doing and are continuing to do right now.

They justify organised murder, they justify sexual oppression, they justify torture, the destruction of people's homes and the wholesale theft of people's resources, the destruction and pollution of our collective environment, the enslavement and exploitation of people and animals ... they justify all these things and more with political arguments and political rhetoric.

And it's not just the big institutions that are guilty of this politicising of the basic ethics of sentience and self awareness.....

We all shrug our shoulders or shake our heads and adopt the role of helpless bystanders in the face of such absurdities. We tolerate their arguments, we accept their lies and we resign ourselves to their actions as “inevitable”. Just the way it is.

It is the way it is because we comply, because we are not prepared to suffer any personal inconvenience or sacrifice our freedom to choose from 30 different brands of this or that poison or unnecessary plastic crap.

We will defend this illusion of freedom to the hilt. We allow our "representatives" to order the murder of children in their homes for the sake of it. We condone and support slave industries for the sake of it. We allow our seas to be fished quite literally to death for the sake of it. We allow our land and our air to be poisoned before our eyes and we do and say nothing because we know the comfort of such "freedom of  consumer choice" is at risk if we seek radical change.

We turn a blind eye to the oppression and subjection and murder of a people because of it.

The clothes you are wearing right now....do you know or care about the conditions under which they were produced?

The electricity powering your computer as you read this....any thoughts on the implications of how this is produced, distributed and monetized?

The cocaine we sniff, the cigarettes we smoke, the non-indigenous foods we enjoy, the detergents in our washing machines, the products we wash with, the vehicles we drive, the mobile phones and laptops we depend on.....ever stop to wonder what exploitation, pollution and  warfare was required to get these things in front of you?

Does it matter?

*******

I know this blog post won't make me popular but I don't care about that. Unlike some local public figures I do not feel the need to be popular. I do feel the need to be honest, with myself and with you.

I found myself this last week in the peculiar position of feeling the urge to defend the rights of right wing extremists in my city.

Now don't get me wrong. I loathe the fear-warmongering hate talk and militant nationalism of these people as much as anyone, and I dearly love living in Leicester, a city with a strong tradition and long history of multi-cultural co-existence, tolerance and socialism in action.

I read on another blog (http://www.leicestersocialists.org.uk/?p=3465) that these Britain First people thought it appropriate to try and intimidate and bully some of my friends into leaving the town centre, and for this behaviour they should rightly be condemned. Violence and intimidation should have no role to play in public political debate and those that resort to such tactics must be held to account.

However, I wonder if the actions of this week were a victory for a healthy democracy? A victory for a progressive society?

In standing up for the truth of concepts such as freedom, compassion, love and the family of sentience can we allow ourselves to give full vent to our anger and hatred towards those who do not understand or are not aware of these truths? Truths we may consider sacred and self evident?

In defending the rights of the oppressed do we justify becoming oppressors ourselves?

I'm not saying we shouldn't react when hate, fear and militarism is being espoused on our streets. We should react. But we should do so mindful of the fact that human rights are inalienable and belong to everyone, even those who would deny us our own, and this is where I know that many folk will disagree with me.

However in my heart I feel this to be the truth and let me tell you why.

For all our known and recorded history the human species, has been at war with itself. We are constantly at war with our own nature and we express this by identifying ourselves into tribal groups and then vilifying people we identify as belonging to another group. We do it with concepts such as "national identity", "racial identity", "religious identity", "gender identity" and yes "political identity" also. We assume ourselves to be right and these "others" to be wrong, thus these "others" are the problem and "we" are the remedy for that problem.

I imagine that the de-population agenda started with this kind of thinking. Certainly it is the pre-requisite for genocide.

The reality I am seeing more and more clearly is that there are no "others" that are the problem. We are all a part of the problem and we are all a part of the solution, and we need to realise this urgently before we cause our own extinction through ever increasing self destructive patterns of personal, political and ecological behaviours.

The problem is the human condition and it's propensity towards self deception, selfish gratification and mental slavery.

The problem is our conviction that "we" are anything other than "them" with a slightly different face.

No I do not feel the need to be popular. What I do need however, is a world where we, who are all just people when all is said and done, can co-exist with our differences intact but mindfully aware moment by moment of the essential sameness we all share. Aware of the pain, suffering and conflict our words and actions cause to be. When we allow ourselves to hate the haters, we are not winning any victory over them, we are simply becoming them. The language may differ, the focus may not be the same but hate is hate and it is pollution of the soul.

I won't allow hate to enter into my own being. I have no place inside for it. We will not transform this world into one where peaceful co-existence is the norm and violent oppression the aberration if we allow ourselves to continue seeing those with whom we struggle to relate as “others”.

Whatever reductionist label you limit yourself with, whatever reductionist label people identify themselves as....we are all just people and we all need, bleed, grieve and fear the same. 

There really are no “others” in this universe....There is only “Us”.

There will be no peace on Earth until we realise this.

In the words of Buddha....

“Hatred does not cease by hatred; by love alone it ceases. This is an eternal law”

Sick of Addiction

Every Single Moment

Every time I do it I celebrate.

Every single moment that I manage to deny the call

Every moment that I haven't got a cigarette hanging from my lip

Every opportunity to score a hit that I pass by

Every hour, minute, second that I share a room with an open bottle

The clock hands tick time by....

and I'm still not drinking it...

Every time I say “no thanks”

Every party where I do not snort a line

Every lie I do not tell to cover up my lies

Every indiscretion I do not choose to hide,

I celebrate.....

I pat myself on the back,

Puff out my chest and square my shoulders

Throw my head back and laugh at the heavens in joy, gratitude and wonder

Laugh with abandon at the offers and the scorn of those who do not understand

Telling myself “Well Done! You star!”

********

You might call it overcompensation for those other moments

Those moments when this sickness gets the best of me

I judge myself a winner overall

A winner on the road to full recovery

Given there are 86400 seconds to each day I count myself a winner still

I have to overcompensate or I will crack open and fall apart

I have to celebrate or I might die of a broken heart

Every single moment.

In Fear A Priority Complex

In Fear A Priority Complex

Question 1.

Are you better than me?

Well?

Are you?

Do you contain talents that I do not?

Do you command respect that I cannot?

Can you coerce people where I will not?

Are you able to purchase more shit?

Do any of these conditionalities

Of our realities

Mean you are better than me?

(Answer below)

Question 2.

Am I better than you?

Well?

Am I?

Dare I go where you do not?

Dare I do what you will not?

Have I escaped from what you cannot?

Will I face what you fear to acknowledge exists?

Do any of these conditionalities

Of our realities

Mean I am better than you?

(Answers: Question 1.No)

               Question 2.No)