Public Banking

A recent talk by Ellen Brown on Novemebr 22, reported here 
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Exploring-the-Public-Bank-by-Ellen-Brown-121208-629.html
emcourages the view of a bank as the custodian of the essential infrastructure of the economy rather than a private commercial concern. The example of North Dakota is quoted, with recommendations for Scotland.
Other recent articles have pointed out the inevitability of a move towards public banking
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/What-We-Could-Accomplish-i-by-Richard-Clark-121206-16.html

and
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Public-Banking--The-Linch-by-Rob-Kall-121206-706.html
Money is a commons which needs to be protected so that we can have more control over where the energy of money is focused.
Comments welcome.
Anna

Gaza dialogue with Occupy Manchester

I think inner instability is a good place to be, since it means that we don't kid ourselves that we know the answers. We are more likely to be open to listening, to both sides, which is the prerequisite of justice. But this cannot happen while people are killing each other. Peace is not the aim. It is the necessary condition for finding a settlement that is acceptable to both sides, -which may or may not be just according to your perspective.

Once we give ourselves the space to listen to each other with respect, (as we are now doing here) we can find the commonalities among the differences, which no longer need to divide us. We can recognise every person as our brother and sister. That is the first step, the challenge for each one of us in these times, to overcome the rage at the crimes that are happening, and recognise the other as ourselves. This may feel like surrender, like becoming enslaved to power and corruption. Actually that is our state, we are complicit in all the mess and destruction which is happening in the world. To realise that is so heartbreaking, so intolerable, rather than face it, we accuse - see what they are doing, we are not like that, in order to dissociate ourselves from the heinous crimes that are being committed in our name.

That is where we started this dialogue - 'they are the Nazis'.

While we are in that state of dissociation, we disempower ourselves, we feel like victims/slaves and see all the power residing in the other. That impotence feeds our rage, and it becomes a vicious circle feeding on itself. That is what has fed into the 64 years of stagnation.

To reclaim our power we need to recognise the other in all it's guises as ourselves, and acknowledge our complicity. What is our complicity? In simplistic terms every money transaction we make supports this global system of violence.

It seems we are trapped, and that appears to be a hopeless state. What is different is our awareness. We still want to protest the tax evasion, the austerity cuts, the nuclear power, the persecution of Gaza, but our consciousness is different. It is not fuelled by hate or rage. It can protest but it can still hear the other side.

I offer this as a possibility.

BBC news sinks to new low

Was anyone else shocked, as I was, by the broadcast on Friday November 30th 6pm news, of a recording of a Russian prisoner being tortured by prison officers? The news was that the prison officers had been prosecuted and sentenced. But then we were subject to a detailed description of exactly what was done to this prisoner, while handcuffed, and then an actual recording of the screams of pain and the shouts of the torturers. We do have videos of extreme violence on the net and in films, to illustrate for example police violence, or war, but now this graphic violence is judged as news in itself.

It seems there is an attempt to immune us to the sense of outrage and physical repulsion which is the natural reaction when seeing violence perpetrated. And it seems to be working since I have not heard of any other objections to this broadcast.

AMOUR

Yesterday I saw the film 'Amour' http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/may/20/amour-haneke-film-review

It is a disturbing film, especially for one approaching old age. It left me feeling the terror of being unable to communicate my needs, being cared for by people who don't care.

Pondering what resources I have to cope with such a situation, what struck me was the title of the film 'Love'. This couple had an apparently blissful marriage, no lack of money, and a rich cultural environment. They had shared interests, and had been good companions. He still found her attractive. This is what stands for 'love' in our society. When these elements are taken away they find not only their love fades, but, even more crucially, they have nothing to live for.

 The film appears to be a dispassionate look at losing physical faculties, the terror of illness and growing old. Death is seen as a welcome relief from suffering. But it is actually an indictment of what we take to be 'love' – the idea that finding happiness in loving another can obviate the need to develop our own understanding of what life means to us.

So for a while I connected with that experience of the emptiness of life, identifying with the couple, and feeling the terror at the possibility of losing my physical capacities. What would I have if I couldn't move my limbs, dress myself, feed myself, or express my needs. Could I rely on my loving daughter to provide for me? Supposing I was stuck in a hospital with staff too busy to respond to my needs.

What saved me from this paranoid fantasy was coming into the Now. Bringing myself back to where I am, with the insight that I have no idea what the next moment will bring, re-instates the adventure of life. Thinking I know something about the future or the past is the most deadening thing.

This couple had lost touch with the Now. But they had lost it years before. They never became conscious of needing it because they had each other. There is a telling little cameo when they are sitting to a meal, and he holds up the saltcellar and says-there is no salt. She doesn't respond so he fills it himself. She would normally have jumped up to fill it, and at that moment he realises something is wrong. 

That is what their 'Love' was based on, their routines, their shared interests, their culture, and their money.  But when it comes to the crunch these things are not enough. If my life is inherently meaningless to me then all the add-ons do not significantly alter the result.  If my life is zero, then no matter how many zeros I add the result is still zero. However if my life is 1 then all the add-ons – in themselves of no value, ie 0, will contribute to the richness of my life, ie 1 plus 0000 ad infinitum.

Anna

Beautiful Film of Greek struggle

http://roarmag.org/2012/11/utopia-horizon-documentary-greek-crisis-syntagma/

Building the Alternative

We have the beginning here of building the alternative economy. The websites brought together here  http://gen.ecovillage.org/, http://mapunto.net/, http://opensourceecology.org/  together with bitcoin http://bitcoin.org/  and  http://www.ehow.com/ give us all the data we need to get started. The Occupy Sandy set up in NYC is a great example of what can happen in response to a catastrophe. ZAD in France shows what can come together in an emergency protest situation. These positive developments tend to get lost in the discussion about dates for strikes and protest marches.

Things are already happening. We are preparing for a clash, but we don’t know what form it will take. The next step would be to establish locations with communities which are committed to providing food, shelter, and basic necessities, for people who are temporarily or permanently opting out of the system. There must be many cooperatives, farmers who have land, individuals and groups who share the same values. The most difficult will be in urban areas. But opening our doors to strangers in need will not be easy.

What might help is to forsee the coming struggle and upheaval and so be prepared in some way. Many have said ‘things cannot go on like this’, but they do, and as yet there is no real indication of breakdown here in developed coutries. Scandals and corruption revealed, but everything continues as ‘normal’ on the surface. So it is likely that when the crash comes it will come very suddenly, with no warning. Focussing on preparation now may be the most positive contribution we can make.
Anna

What course of action might enable us to discover who we are​.

First thing is to trust, trust that the process is already happening: To begin to understand that there is something in us which is longing to be discovered, call it truth, call it reality, call it love. It is who we are, and it's desire to be known is far stronger than our desire to know it. It is what life is about, even though appearances would seem to say something completely different.

Often at times of difficulty we think everything is against us, feel desperate and alone. It is very difficult then to trust that the process is happening. We talk about the 'dark night of the soul', when there appears to be nothing and no-one to turn to. I myself went through a 'breakdown' like that, when for six months I felt dead inside, unable to eat or sleep, or take part in any social activities. I was locked in a dark hole with no light, no way out that I could see. Unfortunately many at that point end up in mental hospitals, drugged to suppress the symptoms. (R D Laing is still relevant here) I was fortunate that my sister took me in and let me sit in the garden, doing nothing, just letting the process happen. Which it did. Now I can look back and see with some understanding how a shell that I had erected around me to cope with wartime situations when I was young, was breaking down and allowing me to get in touch with parts of myself I had shut out. I became more whole but it was a painful process.

The masters tell stories to illustrate this process. There is a well known one about the footsteps in the sand, initially two pairs walking side by side, then one pair on its own, then two pairs again. And the question 'why did you abandon me then', and the answer comes 'I was carrying you'.

So I would say first 'trust' that it is already happening. That doesn't mean there is nothing for us to do. But we can only discover our part by connecting with who we really are. When we are in tune then the rest follows. What do you do to make trust happen? There is no ready made formula, it takes a lifetime.

Then take a deep breath, and feel how sweet that breath is that is provided freely with every moment. When we come from anxiety about the future, then we create more fear. The anxiety is understandable but it will take us away from the love which sustains us. This poem by Hafiz talks about that love:

Even
After
All this time
The sun never
says to the earth,
"You owe Me."

Look
What happens
With a love like that.

It lights up the
Whole
Sky.

I think this is the point about Jesus and Buddha not behaving in a way 'so that' something would follow.  Unfortunately these precepts have been used by religion, particularly when associated with the state, and given a different interpretation. The whole notion of the Golden Rule was a later interpretation I would guess, and used to try to control people by rulers, 'princes', etc. not something spoken about by Jesus or Buddha,

I'm not saying 'it's just no use trying to talk spirituality in secular language.' In fact just the opposite. Let's use our everyday experience to become 'mindful' of who we are.

 I'm not telling you anything you don't know. This is common religious doctrine, 'trust god, have faith in god'. But the meaning needs to be rediscovered.