DEEP SCRATCH

Tag: Peace

  • Victory? Winner?

    Victory? Winner?

    Victory! Winner?

    It’s VE day (Victory In Europe) and agreeably a time for reflection, and paying tribute or doing whatever it is you do, or saying whatever it is you wish to say. Let me take this opportunity to reflect a little from my limited perspective.

    What would your grandad or dad, or grandmother, or mother, sister, brother, son or daughter say? If they were alive now, what clea message do YOU think they would say? Let that percolate, and I’ll give you my best answer. 

    I have not personally seen, tasted or smelt the horrors of any war zone, not like many soldiers, reporters, journalists (like Chris Hedges) and poor innocent civilians. I have read books and watched films, documentaries about war, and in particular World War II, an extremely popular subject matter on a lot of very popular platforms like, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Netflix and thousands of independent(ish) channels. You would think we would all be experts by now on the subject of war, on Hitler and on the Nazis. What happened, how, why, and most importantly how to ensure that it NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!

    My instinct tells me that anybody who has seen the horrors of war, killing, mutilation and terror, no matter what the outcome, would not be doing a jig in celebration of victory. No, that was for the people back home who only saw what the media showed them, and read about what the newspapers told them. Any celebrations might be reserved until they were sure the Nazi’s and the violent aggressors were completely destroyed, never again able to take root in a country and stir up nationalistic hatred for out-groups using lies, distortion and violent propaganda.

    War, and World War II in particular was a noticeable presence in my childhood, from playing army down the woods, probably inspired by war films, to dressing up as a World War II child refugee and taking part in WWII themed day out organized by the school, where we visited RAF Cosford. Naturally this interest in War, ignited by playing war games with other children for fun, not to take a neighbours house or occupy their garden, destroy anything. These were imaginary games of harmless fun. And so it is with the spirit of play and what I hope is harmless fun, that I reflect on WWII, Nazis, and war in a general sense. My way of paying respect. Attempting honesty, and brevity.

    My Grandad Jim served and fought in WWII, and my Grandma Mae, with Jim, lived through the pre-war, war time and post war periods. Yes, fighting was the ultimate sacrifice, but for many the struggle was consistent throughout the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Let’s also remember and give thanks to those who stayed human and kind and resilient when surrounded by violence, hatred and horror. To have not joined up with the local fascist racist political party at home, and helped forward their slow burn populist agenda. That alone is worthy of praise and respect. And lend a thought to the generations of ancestors before you who sacrificed, endured and escaped death by various means to produce YOU! Human. 

    I’ve been brazenly shouting “Look, Nazis!” for quite a while now, bolstered by the rise of the Republican son of the CIA, George Bush Jnr. After a moderate amount of reading into the Nazi CIA Tsarist alliance, featuring General Reinhardt Ghelen, James Jesus Angleton, Brothers Dulles and a gang of so called ex-nazis who gained employment with the United States government and intelligence and technology firms, oh, and some banking business too, I was only slightly worried they..were back again in a new mask. Sprinkle in some Mafia connections, some secret exclusively white male member secret societies, and all manner of religious maniacs who’d trade a toddlers lunch for a bullet, if it meant victory for their side, and you are close to what I thought was going on.

    What is their side? Who are they? I mentioned a lot just now. Can’t we just call them the dead Nazis of WWII, and forget about the rest? Surely, those enacting eugenics based laws, deporting foreign people without legal permission, supporting the genocide of an entire people, trading weapons with known agressors and genocidal maniacs, surely these are not Nazis! They’re all dead, I saw the documentary on Youtube.

    So it begins, what is your interpretation of events, the current battle space and the way we got here? How would you describe the marker points on your Nazi-ometer, or your fascist-ometer? How do you compare, what is your method and by what measure? Logic, reason, suspicion, fact, feeling, opinion, axiomatic? I wasn’t even close, it turns out that the fictional works of Robert Anton Wilson are closer to the current reality I perceive, (insane Trump / Vance / Putin / Theil), than his non-fiction work. We seem to be all living in an episode of Illuminatus! Trilogy (co-authored with Robert Shea). Terrifyingly absurd, dangerously dicing with extinction.  

    I’ve laid my theories out over the last two decades, in blogs and books and albums, for anybody to go back and look at, compare, judge, analyse, rebound back at me. In a nutshell, I’ve been warning about the rise of far-right populism, ideology and anti-science for a while, admittedly for the most part powered by and bolstered by the writing of Robert Anton Wilson. Read him. What Bob says. He does not mistake the symptom for a cause. Wilson lays out all the choices, both collectively (Fuller, McLuhan) and as self-owning individuals, without sounding preachy or self-righteous or in any way dictatorial. Take a look at my afterword to his book TSOG for a condensed answer to the above questions.

    What is to be done? Breathe properly, be good to yourself and others. Take it one step at a time. Listen more than you speak. All that good stuff is obvious right? Right. Meditate, turn compassion and empathy into a martial art. Transform patience into a deadly species of Kung Fu. While at the same time, strengthen your community bonds, friendships and relationships, check in often, try to engage with parts of culture you would not usually choose, dip your toe in, never be afraid to try new things. Make it new.

    So coming back to the question I started with, more or less, what would your ancestors say? What would the spirit of those who died fighting in wars say?

    Never Again Is Never Enough. Eternal Flower Power. Perpetual Vigilance. Solidarity With All Oppressed People Suffering Anywhere On Earth. Be The Change You Wish To See.                            

    Love, respect.

    –Steve Fly.
    Amsterdam, Europe.
    08/05/2025 (VE Day)

  • Where are the love preachers?

    Where are the love preachers?

    Hi, well not you, and you and you. This is for the greater public to chew on. Where are the love preachers, the fully qualified and respected religious and non religious humans demonstrating all around the world love, tolerance and compassion. Any leads?

    Oh yeah, well there are loving Buddhists. Some but not all Buddhists demonstrate such perpetual positive love vibes that I am hinting at. Yes, I agree. To play devil’s advocate, however I ask, outside the buddhist center, where do I tune into love preaching and practice, made to reach all the divided people? Yes, sure, everybody should take a look at basic Buddhist doctrine and adopt and learn from their well versed practical systems, which include attention to mind body speech, and techniques to train and relax. To work to attain clarity of beingness, all the good stuff. Yes. If you can turn Netflix off, and get away from Instagram and snapchat, Buddhist teachings teach and preach love. I answered my own question, but remain unsatisfied when I look around at the chaos and division, the ideology and entrenched positions. The lack of willingness to accept new data, instead, preferring to stand solid like a rock, unmoving.       

    The unfortunate truth that I deduce in the land of Trump and Brexit, reflects an atmosphere of nihilism. A case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. What I see as a new combination of groupthink and nihilism, “it’s all fucked”, “All politicians are the same”, “All religions are crazy” “All poor people are stupid”, “all bankers are criminals”. The hopeless require love, crushing fierce love that sneaks upon their being, gifting them with understanding, a two-way conversation in the interests of peace throughout the nation.

    All convictions make convicts. I digress, here I’m trying to refine my theme, where are the love preachers (in popular culture) these days. Some might say Russell Brand, and I agree that from a UK perspective, he fits the role. If we can overlook his history, check our ignorance, Big Brother, and Ms. Perry, I can agree that yes, Rusty Rockets demonstrates a consistent compassion in his public facing, often independently crafted communiques. Plus he preaches in some sense, he’s not afraid to speak with an instructive tone and authority, which I feel is important here. He’s not a performance poet, yet still exhibits a playful prose. Kudos. Besides Russell Brand, then, who and where are the UK love preachers, and where is the support, the resources and the platforms for such needed love preaching training? We need a planning committee for huge future love preach events at this critical moment in UK history. I call for a new love-in, a new trans-love energy field. Fight tight fists with open arms, fight lies and coercion with relative truths and invitations to think. Leaving and arriving is a part of the process.   

    I’m talking about Curtis Mayfield love, about unconditional love for all sentient beings, Rumi love, the love and forgiveness and understanding often ascribed to angels, but clear and present and without doubt, dancing on the tip of the tongue of our leaders, and public intellectuals and representatives. We need love training camps, love to mean understanding and tolerance, a love rehabilitation movement from coast to coast, continent to continent. As Bill Hicks said, “love all the people”. Teach them by example, love to mean acceptance, love to mean fierce blessing and passionate expression. We need trans love energies in all our hearts and bodies and minds.

    And where possible, scientific love, exploration of synonyms for love and the introduction of love’s sibling, peace. All words that connect positive actions, all the ways of othering. Know thyself, love others when you find intellect.

    My own feelings, due to my model agnostic outlook, and willingness to adopt and even believe (temporarily) almost anything, religious ideas like infallibility, spiritual practices like meditation, falsification theory and scientific reasoning, suspension of judgement. The joy of philosophy for me, and the study of consciousness, and social psychology and art and poetry, and music, is to discover new ideas, new arguments, new data. I maybe overly afflicted with forces of neophilus, and less willing than most to adopt a conservative attitude. However, any path forward for the unity of people and cultures divided by political matters, must include othering. We must be able to listen, at least, to the other point of view. And this may require some very clever, smart and collaborative intelligence from independently minded, everyday compassionate people. What I’m calling love preachers.

    I am willing to go that extra few yards here, and remind you that loving thy enemy can be fun and in fact, at its most potent thrives on comedy, laughter, and mockery of the opposite, and opposing forces of love, and peace. To mean, prejudice, racism, xenophobia, and homophobia are targets for any love preacher, serious about contributing something useful to society now. Today. Unlike many other religious organizations and government departments, who continue to make grande claims about moral and ethical superiority, and use the same words such as love, peace, justice, but in a different context, the new love preacher stands dogma free. The love preacher avoids absolutes, and communicates in a probability informed language of nuance, and prose.  

    Get out there and preach love, man, get up in the face of the people with unusual understanding and examples of tolerance. In love you will find optimism, in optimism, love. Speak truth to power, sing sweet to sour, sing songs of sunshine during an unexpected April shower.

    –Steve Fly