As Above, So Below?

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

(William Blake)

The Primordial Chaos

Out of a dark chaos

came something unknowable and unchanging;

Something silent and formless and vast,

alone and mysterious.

Because this mystery cannot be known or named,

it is called the Tao.

Words describe it as great

because it seems to go on and on,

Endlessly and forever turning with itself.

To know the world, return to the Tao.

It is the source of deepest wisdom

There are four great powers to consider:

The Tao,

The way of nature,

The workings of the world,

The affairs of people.

People conduct themselves according to the world.

The world conducts itself according to nature.

Nature conducts itself according to the Tao.

The Tao conducts itself according to itself.

(Ray Grigg)

References:

Auguries of Innocence; Willam Blake

The New Lao Tzu, Ray Grigg, 1995, Charles E Tuttle Co., Inc.

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A picture speaks a thousand words

Some things are best left unspoken.

However, please do consider the bringing into stark relief the triviality of many people’s concerns against the oft forgotten backdrop of many people’s realities.  Cultural and moral subversion at its best and so artfully achieved.  What truths lie therein?

Fantastic!

References:

Image – Lazymood: http://www.flickr.com/photos/snapping/3897124063/

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy

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A life lived lost, is nature’s way.

Wrenching heartbreak, tears of grief

Torment my loves, whilst dead I lay.

Issues rage around sacred belief,

Death, the law of life, each must obey

Poetry may soothe  sorrowful hearts,

But loss does last, for those thats left.

For death demands we must now part,

So how do I comfort those bereft

When from this world I do depart?

I yearn to ease that piercing pain,

Of not responding to my name.

In what remains, shall the remedy lie?

That twinkle perhaps, in my son’s eye?

So ponder son, did I truly die?

No dominion shall death have over me,

For in you son, my image I see.

My spirit lives on through your line,

To strengthen kin in future time.

So ponder my son, did I truly die?

For in you does my legacy lie.

No dominion shall death have over me,

For that rage you seek, I bequeathed to thee.

References:

Image – Thorsten Becker, http://www.flickr.com/photos/alternatewords/3220329125/

Poem – Inspired by Dylan Thomas; Written by R J Hogan.

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1. Dylan Thomas – “Do not go gentle…”

Do not go gentle into that good night…

Dylan & Caitlan

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

This poem needs no academic analysis to be understood.  Just heard, then felt. Its power is derived from its honest raw emotion, and Dylan’s repeated futile plea for his father to: “rage, rage, against the dying of the light”.

His anger is obvious as he urges his father to fight for life.  Dylan knows his death is inevitable.  He knows also that he’s powerless to prevent it.  Despite this, there’s still something in his words and emotion we respect: loyalty and love.  These values rouse him to resist the destruction of death, stir his heartfelt passion, and keep him proud whilst inspiring the fight against definite defeat.

This is a man’s poem.  A celebration of paternal love.  Regrettably, such love is often marginalised today.  Regularly is it dismissed as having virtually no validity within the ‘family’ law courts.  Collectively, men need to reclaim these values, and their natural paternal rights, from those political powers that shrewdly subvert them.  Like Dylan, we should be raging,  raging against this incremental deterioration of our natural rights.  I hope that Dylan’s passionate example above will encourage some men to realise that rage does have its virtue, in the right place, for the right cause, at the right time.

Let’s be aware that apathy, is often interpreted by the powerful, as consent.  Therefore, I think we should all learn to rage a little more often.

References:

Image – http://www.flickr.com/photos/41099823@N00/2083572072/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas

Related posts:

1. A father’s reply to “do not go gentle…”

The Tao

Knowing others is understanding; Knowing self is wisdom.

Force can master others, but only strength can master self.

Contentment is wealth, and serenity is treasure

Therefore,

Renounce outer force and be at ease with the world

Cultivate inner strength and trust the enduring centre

Expect a long life and die fulfilled.

This, I remember watching as an adolescent.  A  youth of the aggressive, sullen type, and full of testosterone.  I’d heard the growing fuss surrounding Torvill and Dean and eventually caved in to curiosity.  Against my peer group’s expectations, I watched.  In silence I sat, stunned, mesmerised by this dance and its music.  A performance that was both powerful and hypnotic .   I felt a deep power never before felt.  What exactly was going on?  It took time to figure this out.

Art connects and moves.  It cuts to your core and this is its power.  A power, like the tao, that’s subtle but strong.  Ever elusive, ever evasive, its essence skates around your senses.  This artistic performance pummeled my naive prejudice and forced me to grow up emotionally.  I rapidly learned that I was captive to culture and Art represented escape.  An escape from social roles, rigid rules, and cultural impositions.  Through Bolero, I’d glimpsed the sense of natural freedom, a freedom long forgotten, erased through the conditioned controls of contemporary society.  But, now, magically, re-awakening.

Ravel’s Bolero is mesmerising music, particularly when accompanied by the spellbinding symmetry of Torvill and Dean.  Its ethereal quality evoked, then distilled into concrete form through dance.  The ebbing and flowing of music and dance, embraced together, in sensual symmetry, a continuous flowing dialogue between Yin and Yang and a unity within duality.  That’s the tao of Bolero.

Torvill and Dean’s performance reveals an intuitive rationality; a choreographed experience that celebrates the risk within trust, grace within strength and the dynamic sexuality within us all.  Its character is naturalness and spontaneity and like the tao, it points, however momentarily, to original freedom.  The freedom that comes from the courage to be yourself and express this, naturally.  I’m so grateful I discovered so young, the liberating power of Art.

Thank you Torvill and Dean for making this possible.

References:

Torvill and Dean: ‘Bolero’, 1984 Winter Olympics, Sarajevo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravel

The New Lao Tzu, Ray Grigg, 1995, Charles E Tuttle Co., Inc.

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Angel of the North

Anthony Gormley, an English sculptor looked into the future to find a symbol for a region’s past.  He saw an angel.  Not the biblical winged servants of God that linger in the ether, but an angel arising from the crust of the earth.  Upright, grounded and proud.  For Gormley it was important that “the angel was rooted in the ground – the complete antithesis of what an angel is.”  But why was this so necessary.  Gormley tells us:

“People are always asking why an angel? The only response I can give is that no-one has ever seen one and we need to keep imagining them. The angel has three functions – firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to grasp hold of the future expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age, and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears.”

I remember local attitudes back in 1998 when this sculpture was unveiled:   ‘What a monstrosity.’ ‘Nothing  but an eyesore.’  ‘What a waste of money’.  How soon attitudes change.  Now for many locals this sculptor is an icon of the North of England.  It symbolises a proud but tough past and a humble, grounded  spirituality as it stands atop of a hill, on the altar of a long gone mine.   Northern man, a rugged angel fashioned from steel, feet firmly rooted to the ground, upright, solid and proud.   A man made from materials that will withstand all that he faces, steadfast with a spine of steel and built to last.

For Gormley, this Angel represents a region’s cultural history, its present transition and a focus for its future hopes and fears.  So what will Northern man become in the future?  Will he keep true to the values of his past, its traditions and achievements.  Or will his identity go beyond the local as we are all gradually transitioned into the global?  Hopefully, the Angel of the North can remain a symbol of collective memory, acting as a beacon guiding us through the forces that now direct our traditions.  Long live the mythology of the Northern man, for like the steel within the Angel of the North, it can fashion a man of the future also worth preserving.

Three cheers for Gormley.  Hip-Hip…!

References:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garethtp/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Gormley

http://www.angelofthenorth.org.uk/

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In 1381, the English peasantry were being taxed into destitution with the introduction of a poll tax by Richard II – a tax, for the same amount levied on the heads of both rich and poor.   So, with destitution a reality and starvation a possibility, Tyler and his countrymen were forced into an unavoidable uprising.

When compared with recent similar events, this particular peasant’s revolt suggests that the wielding of political power may have a formulaic character.  This very same method of tax, although rebranded as Community Charge, was introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s British Government  in  1990.  Once again, the public’s  reaction was one  of outrage and another uprising occured.  This time resulting in the ‘Poll Tax Riots’ or what some observers have more dramatically called the ‘Battle of Trafalgar’.  So, are these examples simply historical coincidence, or do they represent a chain of historical continuity.  I’d conclude the latter, for they illustrate how tax can be a method for wielding political power, subdueing the poor and restricting their access to vital economic resources.

These examples show how we can now begin to perceive more clearly exactly how the strategic use of money and tax empowers ruling elites.  I now understand that this is their system and we were simply born into it.  A system of invisible chains.  A system built from paper,  but paper with the weight of lead.

Additionally, it’s interesting to note that Tyler’s poll tax uprising occured under the system of feudalism.   Are there any other continuities to be perceived?  Possibly so.  Particularly when juxtaposed with he statements of former CFR member, Professor Caroll Quiglley.  In his book Tragedy and Hope (1966), Professor Quiglley declared:

“The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland; a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank… sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.”

So, there you have it, as stated by the official historian of the Council on Foreign Relations.  The powers of financial capitalism deploy purposeful intervention, manipulation and domination in market economies, human economic activity and political decision making.  So, money and taxation are the means, control is the end.  So simple, yet secretly so sophisticated.

Consequently, as taxpayers today across the globe are forced to pick up the tab for failed banks, a policy decided upon without our consent by governing politicians, please consider whose interests do these politicians truly represent?  Ask yourself, how is it that I must pick up the bill for the failures of these stewards of financial capitalism.  What powers permit a politician to impose this obligation on me?  I think the time has now come that such questions force us to take a closer look.  Don’t you?

References:

Image – The Rebels Return Wood Sculptures.  Wat Tyler Country Park, Basildon, Essex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Tyler

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/wat_tyler.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2530000/2530763.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_Tax_Riots

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General Smedley Butler was a brave man.  Brave in times of war undoubtedly, but far braver in times of peace in my opinion.  In common with most dissenting voices, voices that vibrate through the foundations of the architecture propping up powerful elites, you have to  dig deep into the annals of history to find  him.

Fortunately, there are still those with memory that make those of us belonging to later generations aware of such a principled man.  To hear these words from a career military man, inspires and brings hope.  It demonstrates men of distinguished mlitary rank were once  capable of honest reflection, and moral judgement.  So, despite the military’s characteristic appeals to patriotism, tribal emblems, and regimental histories, reason can still prevail; for General Smedley Butler makes explicit what his true ‘military’ role was: ‘a gangster for capitalism’.

That was the description he gave to his role back in 1933.  Consider, has the role of the Western military changed today?   Are members of Western militaries still nothing more than mercenaries?  Young, often unthinking and unflective individuals, are hired to promote specific corporate interests which hide stealthily behind the banner of a national flag?  Fortunately, General Smedley Butler figured this out.  I’m sure many more would, if only this voice of principled military dissent, was to be heard more widely.

If his book ‘War is a Racket’ was required reading in high school, I doubt that so many young people would be willing to sign up and go kill ‘them over there’.  So, has the role of the military changed since 1933?  Probably not.  However, we can take heart from the knowledge that there are still those within the military elite of more modern times that are prepared to voice dissent.  Such a voice is that of Ben Griffin, a former SAS trooper within the British Army whom served in Iraq recently.

I only hope that General Smedley Butler’s example, will encourage others with military connections to reflect on whose agenda they uncritically promote.   So, please spread old Smedley’s words far and wide for they foreshadowed President Eiesenhower’s 1961 ‘Farewell Address’ by 28 years and as such are words to the wise indeed.

References:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1512767/I-didnt-join-the-British-Army-to-conduct-American-foreign-policy.html

http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865

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Side Gallery
Solo Exhibition – Homeland/Marine Wedding
July 4 2009 – August 22, 2009
Newcastle, England

What words can be said about 911 that haven’t been said. What responses can be considered that haven’t been given.  For many, looking back at 911 is time wasted. We were told who did it, we were told who wreaked the violence, and we were told it required a mission to respond to it. So, why reflect given such certainties?

Well, because there are some that doubt, including me! Many people, such as thosed affiliated or sympathetic to the so called ‘911 Truth Movement’, doubt the collective global reactions, responses and rationales since 911. And many are uneasy with the explosive debris that still continues to fall. One such doubter is Nina Berman.

Nina, a photographer from New York, has observed, framed and captured arresting images of a culture in transition. A transition galvanised by the power of paranoia. Not a paranoia born from the collective, but from the powerful few. A paranoia promoted amongst the people, paradoxically by those duty bound to protect the people.  Nina’s recent photographic exhibition at Newcastle’s Side Gallery, gave us all an insight into the blind passion which paranoia can incite.

‘Homeland’ and ‘Marine Wedding’ were the descriptive terms Nina used. Terms describing a series of images that document the contrast between a public’s naive passion for militainment and its associated fantasy, with the private pain of horrific disfigurement, lost love, and the brutal social isolation that the reality of war engenders.

These images are powerful. I only hope they trigger their viewer to question the purpose and morality of war and the culture it creates, then reflect on the nature of those powerful people that promote and profit from it. An exhibition, that was truly a spectacle; a transformation for both subjects and viewers.

References:

http://www.ninaberman.com

http://www.1854.eu/2008/09/nina_bermans_homeland_usa_seri.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_Truth_movement

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1294008.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3886348.ece

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_contact&task=view&contact_id=437&type=gallery&Itemid=

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