Indoctrination & Cults

I'm reading "The Running Grave" by Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling). It's a huge book, 1200 pages, all about a Cult.

Indoctrination is the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of unshakable beliefs uncritically & often irrationally. We can see evidence of indoctrination in educational institutions, the state, the arts, culture, and the media. People are indoctrinated in many ways;-

• Selective presentation: Presenting only certain facts and ideas to support specific beliefs
• One-sided arguments: Using incomplete or biased arguments
• Suppression of evidence: Deliberately withholding or falsifying evidence
• Emotional slogans: Using impassioned slogans to promote a belief
• Preaching: Using a preaching style instead of teaching

 This is achieved in a variety of ways in cults;-

• Separating new members from their families, friends, and jobs
• Forcing new members to give up their money, belongings, and bodies to the cult
• Compelling new members to marry people they just met
• Using punishment, deprivation, and other tactics to wear down new members

The more I observe what is happening in our country & the world in general, the more concerned I get that people are being manipulated & even indoctrinated by our very sophisticated technological methods of communication. The very fact that the BBC now has to have a department devoted to fact checking & the secret services have the 77th Brigade shows how unreliable the information we are presented with can be. 

I no longer take any information from news media for granted. I certainly distrust social media & the internet in general. I always try to check out my sources of information & look at several. The most important facility I have is my gut reaction to information. If it doesn't walk like a duck & quack like a duck, then it isn't a duck.

But I have the time to do all that. I am well educated & most importantly I tend towards critical disbelief of information that seems "off". The really worrying fact is that quite a lot of people will accept information, however bizarre, at face value. You only have to look at the many 2024 "conspiracy theories" to be seriously concerned;-

• Vaccine efficiency
• October 7th Denial
• Severe weather generated by bad actors
• Trumps assassination attempts a PR stunt
• False narratives about the Israel Hamas war

Worryingly indoctrination does work on some people. If that indoctrination begins in childhood via parents or schools, it can be lethal. It can be really difficult to separate truth from fiction especially for young impressionable minds. False news is everywhere. People with power, money & influence are realising just what they can achieve in our instant news era.

We all should be very aware & very afraid. We all need to value truth.  

 

 

Wishing, Desiring & Having Everything

I'm sure I could think of things my little heart desires. Human beings seem to spend a lot of time wishing they could have something else or do something else. We desire to be someone else, be somewhere else, have someone else in our lives. Seemingly we are never satisfied with what we have already got. Satisfaction seems hard to come by.

Wishing has a long & ancient history. Just think of all the fairy tales for example. Customs & rituals can be traced back to ancient cultures. People believed that wells were home to gods and that throwing coins or other tokens into the water would grant wishes. Some wells were also thought to have healing powers, and people would bathe in or drink the water. The Etruscans, believed that chickens could predict the future and that the "wishbone" of a chicken could be used to make wishes. We make a wish when we blow birthday candles out. 

I am interested in why we humans are never satisfied with what we have got. Apparently a combination of psychological factors including our natural inclination to seek new things, a tendency to compare ourselves to others, high expectations, the "hedonic adaptation" where we quickly adjust to positive changes, and a biological drive to constantly improve and evolve, which can make contentment feel stagnant and unmotivating, all play a part. Essentially, our brains are wired to always be looking for "more" rather than appreciating what we already possess. 

Shopping was the UK's favourite leisure activity. But Covid & online shopping seems to have changed that. It is still enjoyed by 70 - 80% of people according to Statistica. (I'm one of the minority who don't enjoy doing it regularly). There's very little I want that makes shopping worth the effort.

https://www.microbizmag.co.uk/ecommerce-statistics/ - interesting website.

I am tempted to try not to buy any new clothes in 2025. I'm sure I have enough to last the rest of my life, apart from possibly underwear & shoes. (Actually I've got a lot of shoes - Mental note take the ones that don't fit to the charity shop.) 

Similarly, I don't want to buy anything else for the house. I can't resist plants for the garden though.

I actually do think that I have more or less everything I want. There is nothing I really desire. On the contrary, I spend a lot of time trying to have less stuff in my life. Christmas brings this home to me every year. The sheer consumerism of it & the waste that follows from it. 

 

The most important thing about Christmas is who you spend it with. Enjoying the company of your friends & family. It seems easy to lose sight of that. It's easy to lose sight of the many people who don't have anything like everything.

 

 

Dis - Ease

I am not infected with a disease. I am infected with Dis - Ease. 

There is so much happening in my world & the wider world that I do not understand & cannot tolerate. I cannot sit back & ignore it all. I cannot be at ease. 

I have little to complain about in my current life. I am really fortunate. I can afford the cost of living & I have a comfortable home, a lovely family & good friends. 

In a wider sense there are events in the UK that concern me & make me question if my birthplace bears any resemblance to the place I remember from my teens & twenties. Politics & politicians are not respected in the way they were, for good reason. Respect has to be earned through action in the best interests of the country & it's people. 

We seem to have had years of poor decision making in the interests of anyone but the people who vote. Currently I am incensed at our stance on the Israeli war. Keir Starmer defended Israel's "right" to totally cut power and water supplies to Palestinians in Gaza. He didn't explain how collective punishment methods, such as the withdrawal of water & aid supplies to a large urban area, could be done within international law - Completely indefensible collective punishment. I'm also appalled at the whole privatisation mess we are in with the Water companies, Justice system, NHS, Transport.....There has been profligate waste of public money & now the public are literally paying the price. So many special enquiries into lying & obfuscation over the years. So much compensation due to people who were completely let down & deceived.

I'm really not sure I'm proud to be British. However there are worse places to live. Syria for one. The latest in a long line of countries devastated by despotic, greedy, rulers who killed & maimed their own populations & who we failed. Failed because we did not speak out enough & we certainly didn't do much to stop the killing & devastation - Mealy mouthed words & not enough action. There are so many countries where the populations live in dreadful conditions & unsurprisingly want to escape. Our record on refugees & migrants isn't edifying. Suella Braverman called them an "invasion". Where is our humanity?

We don't have effective international organisations to deal with the complex & universal threats to peace & stability. We certainly don't have international organisations to deal with the existential threat of the Climate Emergency. Consensus is prevented by self interested vetos. Compromise is the name of the game.

The only way forward  is to mobilise the power of the people to do the right thing & force good decision making. I'm just not sure that we are able to do that. Human beings are inherently selfish.

Culture & Cultures

Culture - 

the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement collectively.

Cultures -

the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

I enjoy the arts - music, literature, paintings & crafts, drama. I love opera & reading & going to exhibitions. So I suppose I am cultured, but have never thought of myself in that way before. I just know these things give me immense enjoyment & develop my thinking. They broaden my horzons & make me realise how varied, creative & talented people are.

When my husband & I retired we travelled a lot to most continents & some very far flung places. My views on holidays & travel have changed now we are in a climate emergency, but I think we did it in a way that actually benefitted local communities rather than big tour companies. I gained a lot from seeing that there are different ways of living & thinking. We were lucky in that we got to interact with local people & listen to their beliefs & opinions. I learned that our way of living, our culture, is not the only one or even the best one.

Human beings are very diverse in every way, but most countries have some sort of code of belief & behaviour that recognises the sanctity of human life & allows for great individual divergence. For some that comes through religion, for others it is a simple moral code. 

For a minority they have no such guiding principle. I am truly glad that Assad has been overthrown. It is such a shame that the world stood by knowing what he was doing & did nothing to stop him. I hope that the Syrian people can rebuild the country that I visited 24 years ago. It was a country that was very tolerant of all religions. A country of history, wonderful buildings & fascinating landscapes. Assad & his father are responsible for destroying much of that. I hope that we will remember what went before, rather than the last years under criminal tyrants & their followers.

 

Ummayad mosque Damascus

Ummayad mosque Alleppo before & after

The destruction of buildings & culture is awful, but the destruction of human lives is simply dreadful. Yet again we failed. We should have done more. 

Memories

I'm a bit ambivalent about the value of memories.I'm not sure that their impact on what we do or say is entirely beneficial. Even more importantly how they can make us feel is not necessarily good. 

I've never been very good at remembering things that have happened. Friends & family can remember times we shared far better than I can. I have very few memories of my childhood & they are not very clear. I can remember a place in the countryside I could walk to & really enjoy being in very well, even how I got there. I can remember a time in primary school when I was very upset, but not why or what happened afterwards. I can remember playing in the street with other children. I can remember a huge argument about me going to the Ideal Home exhibition with a friend. I can remember practicing the piano in a very cold front room. My childhood is little random vignettes. Even having hypnotherapy didn't help me recall more.

For some reason I don't understand my mind seems to have erased a lot. It isn't a new thing, I've always had a problem with it. 

I can remember far more of my life as an adult, but even then there are lots of events that other people remember & I don't. Mostly what sticks in my mind is polarised, either very pleasurable experiences & places I've been, or the complete opposite. I can remember emotions & feelings. I can remember faces.

My feeling is that it is important to know what has gone before in our lives, but dwelling in the past isn't helpful. It's gone & can't be changed. Everyones memories will be a melange of good & bad. Few of us will sail through life on a rosy cloud. I think that we should try to live in the moment & really value where we are now, what we are doing & who we are with. Life passes by so quickly, it's easy to become a slave to routine & not take chances that are offered.  

I know people who hold grudges, who misguidedly think that everything was better in the past, who hold onto sadness & anger. Lives filled with those sort of memories are not happy. We all need joy in our lives & we need to actively try to create good new memories. 

Now is what is important & what we do with it. 

Memory

Here I sit at my PC losing my mind & minding my loss. As I think I have mentioned before, there is plenty of data in my brain, it's retrieval that's the problem. 

I have just realised that I completely forgot to do my volunteer stint at the community centre last week. Normally it would be on the wipe clean weekly calendar on my fridge, in the paper calendar on my desk & in the calendar on my smart phone. Alexa would then remind me becase she is synched to my phone, as is my computer calendar. None of that happened, so I blithely went on with my day - in the wrong place.

The good side of that is no one needs to worry about me repeating gossip, I won't remember it. I may well not remember that I have told you something though & repeat it. (Please do tell me if I do). I may also completely forget that you have asked me to do something, so you may wait a long time to see it done. 

I am a compulsive note maker in my smartphone - but it isn't infallible because I may forget to look at Notes. Even more likely I won't remember what the cryptic note means!

In common with a lot of my friends I can set off to do something & be distracted & completely forget what it was I was going to do. I can almost feel a thought drifting out of my head. It's no good trying to remember what it was, but it might creep up on me if I ignore it.

All of this can be a bit frustrating, but there is nothing more I can do to counteract the loss of short term memory. I have known several people who had Alzheimers or vascular dementia & I'm reasonably sure I haven't got that, thank goodness. I'm just a bit unreliable. But I know I am & actually it really doesn't worry me much. I don't feel any compulsion to be perfectly reliable & organised anymore.

I think that along with so many physical & mental changes that take place in old age you have to go with the flow. Acceptance is a blessing. 

Just so long as you don't give up or bang on about it!

Christmas Waste

My book club had a clothes swap last night. Great fun & a really good way to recycle unloved clothes, especially when it's the Christmas season & we all need a nice outfit for Christmas day. Fast fashion comes into it's own at this time of year. I know people who buy a new outfit for Christmas every year. Often the clothes will only be worn a handful of times. Nothing I will be wearing is less than a few years old & some items have been in my wardrobe over a decade. I love them & I'm comfortable wearing them.

Christmas must be the worst period for food waste. Sprouts & Christmas pudding are probably the most "marmite" foods we eat at Christmas. I love both, but lots of people don't & a great deal ends up in the green food waste bin. I tried making sprout soup one year, but it wasn't a success. How many people actually use all the left over bits of turkey to make a fricassee for example? Even less people I imagine use the turkey bones to make a wonderful soup. The art of cooking from scratch & not wasting good food has been replaced by the big 5 supermarkets Christmas food.

Then there are the Christmas cards. I stopped sending them years ago & send email greetings & give the money saved on the cards & stamps to charity. I see little point in sending cards to people I can actually wish Happy Christmas to in person. The waste of paper, whatever the source including trees, or even if it's recycled paper, really isn't acceptable to me. My time is valuable, so I send the cards electronically in batches to different groups. Writing individual cards by hand just isn't a good use of my time. If I get cards I do cut up appropriate ones to make gift tags, but I still think it's a waste of finite resources.

Wrapping paper is even worse. I am rubbish at wrapping gifts & doing it causes me repetetive strain pain. I try to take wrapping paper off carefully to re use it, but actually it rarely works. When you see the over loaded recycling bins after Christmas it gives you a small idea of how much waste there is.

The decorations & Christmas tree take quite a lot of effort & money. Goodness knows how many real trees are chopped down every year & growing them must take up land that could be used for food production or re-foresting with deciduous trees. It has become fashionable to change your christmas tree decorations on a regular basis according to the current fashion. I'm pleased to say that my daughter has all my tree decorations & some were her grandmothers. I gave her my artificial tree too. The sales, often starting before Christmas are full of reduced christmas decorations , wreaths & lights. 

Finally, the presents. Many will end up in landfill, charity shops or the "present drawer". I have come to the conclusion that really presents are only appropriate for children. I'm not a scrooge or a grump, but the time spent trying to think of & find presents people will actually want or need is often wasted. I do really enjoy seeing someone open a present that it's obvious they are delighted with, but that isn't easy to achieve. Much of the time people feign pleasure & to be honest what is wonderful about socks, ties, jumpers, nightwear or slippers. Surely we all buy those for ourselves?

https://www.asustainablelife.co.uk/12-not-so-fun-festive-facts/

It's a mad repetetive cycle. We consume & consume & in doing so waste so much. It's completely unsustainable. What are we thinking?

Obviously we aren't!