Continued from previous posts…. These posts are collections of brief notes on society, politics, and nature. I sometimes include a few short personal notes as well.
Climate crisis renaissance
Are we in for a new renaissance? A climate crisis response renaissance? I wouldn’t be surprised, and we are already seeing the beginnings of it.
We already have the solutions. What we need is the collective will. And, as the current pandemic shows us, we have the ability to collectively turn around quickly when it’s (collectively) clear that we have to.
The only question is when it will happen and how much ecological destruction has to happen before we reach that point.
Note: It’s obviously a much wider ecological crisis and the climate crisis is just one part of it. But it seems to be the one that gets people’s attention.
Research on energy medicine
Since mainstream academia and culture doesn’t acknowledge that energy medicine works, any research that shows that it works is helpful.
Of course, there is some research, but a paradigm shift is needed in the mainstream and that requires quite a bit of research, and solid research performed by reputable institutions.
I am writing this since there is an idea in the Vortex Healing (VH) forum on Facebook that any research into the effectiveness of VH will have to cost millions of dollars (!).
This seems to be based on a quick google search someone did on how much it costs to determine the effectiveness and safety of medications. It’s true that this type of medical research is very costly. It has to go through a process of virtual testing, animal testing, small scale human testing, and large scale human testing. And that takes a great deal of time, resources, and money.
But the situation is very different for energy medicine. As mentioned above, the effectiveness of energy medicine is not accepted by the mainstream so what energy medicine needs is research done by respected institutions.
That typically means University research performed by students under supervision of professors. And that, in turn, doesn’t have to cost much at all.
The barrier is to find someone willing to do the research. (Someone willing to risk their reputation.) It’s not money.
I should mention that I have written about this in the FB forum, but it’s been dismissed. (And that, in turn, is helpful for me since it triggers an old issue of not being heard and understood and my views not taken seriously. It’s given me a chance to address it.)
March 19, 2020
Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker
I finally started watching this movie but am not sure if I’ll finish it. So far, it feels like a remake of the Return of the Jedi, just like the final trilogy feels like a remake of the original trilogy. It seems that someone hit the reset button and put them all back in the same positions as in the original trilogy. That, in itself, feels unsatisfying.
In addition, the final trilogy feels disjointed – as if there was no overall vision or overarching story. There is very little character development. Many missed opportunities. Many storylines were set up but not followed through – especially between the movies. This final movie, so far, feels like a hurried and jumbled mess. And I don’t feel that the trilogy has given me a reason to care about the characters or what happens to them.
As with the other two movies in the final trilogy, I am sure they are OK in themselves – especially if what you mainly just want is something set in the Star Wars universe – but as part of a larger established whole they all fail.
Update: I finally got through it. I am sure my experience was colored by how I already see it, and nothing much changed for me. The visuals were beautiful but that’s about it for what I liked. The recent trilogy seems disjointed and more of a not-so-exquisite exquisite corpse than a single planned out story. The second movie felt discounted. A lot of vital things were not explained in the final movie (for instance, how Palpatine came back). A lot of elements – too many – were recycled from the initial trilogy. The third trilogy didn’t do a very good job of making me care about the characters. Sudden character changes – like Kylo’s turn – wasn’t set up or explained convincingly. The acting didn’t seem very good. Dead people didn’t stay dead so the threat of death didn’t heighten the stakes much. The three core characters all seemed to have almost unlimited superpowers and without limits the story gets boring. And on that topic, central parts of the story felt more like a superhero movie than Star Wars.
March 21, 2020
Abuse of power
I am watching His Dark Materials (BBC adaption of Northern Lights / The Golden Compass), and notice I – as usual – get angry when I see abuse of power in real life or fiction. So the question then is: How do I abuse my power? In what ways do I abuse my power while not seeing or admitting to it? Can I find specific examples?
One thing I have explored recently is the part of me that’s scared of intimacy and have acted – out of that fear – in ways that have hurt others and myself. That is, in a way, abuse of power.
March 23, 2020
The US as a third world country
I read an article about a Norwegian couple in New Orleans shocked by the ineptitude in how the US have tackled the pandemic. They said it’s what they would expect from a third world country. The US is, in many way, more like a third world country than a modern industrialized country. (Lack of universal healthcare, lack of good social safety nets, lack of free higher education, big money strongly influencing policies and politics, a poorly functioning democracy, and so on.)
March 28, 2020
Feel-good endings
I just watched the final episode of season one of Star Trek:Picard. It reminds me of different types of stories and endings, and what functions they may serve for us.
Some stories and endings are gritty and real, and have a tragic end, and show us how life can be. They can help us prepare for different possibilities and face life more as it is. They also mirror processes in us and how they can “end” if we don’t pay attention to them and support them in finding resolution.
Other stories may be equally gritty and real, and have a satisfying and feel-good ending, and these too show us how life can be. Perhaps more importantly, they mirror processes in us and remind us that – within ourselves – we can find satisfying resolutions that feel right and good.
Idealism vs realism
I talked with a Norwegian friend this morning. She used the word “idealism” for people who live in a more eco-friendly way. For me, that’s realism. Idealism is mainstream culture. It’s our current culture that set up as if natural resources and boundless and as if Earth has a limitless capacity to absorb pollution.
Realism is to intentionally adapt to ecosystems so they can keep going and evolve indefinitely. Idealism is to live as if we can live without taking ecological realities into account.
March 30, 2020
Open secrets
In a Fox News interview, Trump said explicitly what is a well known open secret: Republicans benefit from low voter numbers. The more people vote, the less likely they are to win. That’s why Republicans in general are trying to make it difficult for people – and especially poor people and minorities – to vote. It’s good that he said it openly and on record, although I am sure his advisors and Republican politicians everywhere cringed.
April 1, 2020
Media diet
Just as with food, it’s helpful to be conscious of our media diet. How much? What type? Where does it come from? How reliable is it? Do I need it? Does it give me vital information? Is it nourishing?
I haven’t watched TV news since I was a kid. Mostly, I read a few articles from sources I trust (NRK, The Guardian, BBC etc.) and I get some interesting and/or informative articles from other sources through friends on social media.
April 7, 2020
Cultural conditioning
In the Vortex Healing group on Facebook, there is an interesting thread about doing healing for Boris Johnson (the current British prime minister who is in intensive care for C19). It brings up a few things for me.
If we are drawn to doing healing for someone, then why not?
At the same time, what’s the ethics around doing healing for someone if they haven’t asked for it? Is it right to do it if they haven’t asked for it or we haven’t asked them and received permission? Is it right to do something that may go against their wishes and desires?
There are literally millions of people – and billions of beings – that need help in different ways. Why put so much emphasis on someone prominent in the media when so many others, who are largely ignored, needs help? Also, we cannot help more than a few and our priority – naturally – tend to be those close to us.
And what about the bigger picture? Do we know that Britain will be thrown into fear and chaos if he dies? (As some suggest.) Isn’t it possible that it would bring people together in a strong way? Perhaps it would help heal some of the rifts from Brexit? Do we know what would happen? Do we know what’s best?
There is a lot of cultural conditioning around death. Mainly, the idea that staying alive is somehow inherently better than dying. Do we know? Do we know what’s best in each case? Isn’t any idea of better or worse something we add to a situation?
I guess it all comes down to something very simple. We don’t know. Any ideas are just that, ideas, and they don’t reflect anything inherent in reality. All we have to go by is our own heart and guidance and what seems the most sane and right in each situation.
Norwegian media’s obsession with age
When I was little, I noticed that Norwegian newspapers almost always put the age of people in parenthesis after the name, whether it was relevant to the article or not. At the time, I thought I would understand why when I got older. But I am older and I still don’t understand…! It still seems bizarre to me. Why put in age when it has no relevance to the topic of the article? Is it just out of habit? Is it tradition? Do reporters think they have to do it because others do it?
April 12, 2020
Economy collapsing?
If the economy is collapsing because we are only buying what we need (during the pandemic), something is very wrong with the system we have. It’s one very clear sign that it’s not aligned with ecological realities. It’s built on the idea of unlimited natural resources and unlimited ability to create and dispose of waste. And neither of those are true. Neither of those are aligned with reality. They are both fantasies.
Trump re-elected?
The pandemic is throwing a wrench into the US presidential election. As usual, more people in the US support the current president in a crisis. (Which seems a bit misguided.) While the economy is going down, which is typically bad for the sitting president. And Trump is getting far more attention than Biden because of the pandemic. So who knows what the outcome will be.
I suspect he will be re-elected. Partly because the Republicans actively work to limit voting from minorities and other groups that typically vote for the Democrats. (Just look at what happened in Wisconsin.)