The Polarization Paradigm
January 19, 2020
by Steve Beckow
I had a conversation with a friend which, at one point, led to a discussion of lightworkers’ susceptibility to memes.
In my opinion, we lightworkers are susceptible to disinformation and misinformation at every level. We rely on our sources and, if they lack integrity, we are liable to swallow disinformation.
In this particular instance, one nationality or particular social group was being descried in the literature for wanting to control the world.
That probably says more about the source of the disinformation than it does about the target.
I’d like to speak as an historian who has said that the history of Planet Earth is largely a history of warfare. And as one whose early historical career centered around studying the whole-population generalization of race. (1)
I’d also like to speak as a former human-rights decision maker with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada – what would in the U.S. be an immigration judge. (2)
For me, whenever a person starts to make negative attributions about an entire people, I begin to exercise caution with that person. I switch into discernment mode.
Jews, Muslims, Iranians, it doesn’t matter … whenever we start to hear unfavorable assertions about a whole people, time to draw back and begin to test credibility.
In human-rights tribunals, if used against the members of that nationality, religion, or particular social group, the adverse use of these stereotypes can be grounds for a refugee claim – as persecution or discrimination amounting to persecution by reason of membership in a nationality, religion, or particular social group.
I begin to ask myself what are the sources for those statements? Are the allegations improbable, implausible, impossible? Are there contradictions or inconsistencies? What is their body language, tone of voice, mood?
I think that very few individuals act from a sense of belonging to a whole people or whole religion – especially in this day of social media. People are thinking for themselves and expressing themselves. All borders and barriers are being erased due to the ease of cross-border communication and the ties that it generates.
“Whole-people” generalizations have never held up under even cursory examination. They almost always are used by demagogues themselves desiring to – well, usually, control the world.
Hitler talked in Mein Kampf about having an enemy within and an enemy without. The enemy within was the Jews, who allegedly brought about Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the enemy without was the Communists. He launched a world war in which 50 million people died, to wipe out these two enemies. He did this on the basis of his own control over Germany.
***
At the present time, America seems as deeply polarized as I’ve seen it in my lifetime – save during the era of the Civil-Rights and Vietnam-War protests.
If we lightworkers get swept into the raging waters, who’s left to steer the ship? Galea at Linda Dillon’s Saturday morning call said that passion was necessary to have something succeed. But not extreme passion or any extreme. Unbalanced reaction is seldom productive and leaves residue.
And I get the irony of me saying this – I who had to walk back from an anger problem.
In my view, we have to step outside and remain outside the polarization paradigm. And maybe this was what Michael was talking about in our Nov. 26 reading. Maybe I needed to find my own language for it.
Stepping outside that paradigm means watching what comes into our minds (garbage in, garbage out) as well as watching what we commit to.
It’s our job to stay out of the polarizing energy, whether left or right, this religion or that religion, etc.
***
In terms of our sources, they need to be credible to begin with, based on the criteria I mentioned above. (3) If not, I don’t read them.
I’m building the alternative to polarization; not arguing with polarizers. Someone needs to break away from the herd and I’m happy to do it.
What we try to give you on this blog (in this area) is what’s actually so in the world, from sources we judge to be credible.
Not only do our sources need to be credible, but we ourselves need to be unbiased, neutral, and balanced in presenting their information.
That doesn’t mean we excuse pedophilia or child trafficking or refuse to work to end it. It means we remain emotionally balanced in our approach to all problems. (I’m not there yet either so don’t worry if you’re thinking you’re not.)
Credible sources for me means credible channeled messages and here is where my ship leaves the dock, waving goodbye to many earlier colleagues.
I listen and talk to invisible entities, stepping outside the empirical-materialist paradigm, etc. Most of my colleagues leave at this station.
Polarization thrives on turmoil. We need to rob the fire of oxygen by refusing to go to extremes or be swept away by the turmoil.
Be cautious with sources that make sweeping, usually negative, statements about whole people, whole religions, etc.
Sidestepping them is a contribution to the health of the collective consciousness.
Footnotes
(1) S.M. Beckow, “Keeping British Columbia White” : Anti-Orientalism in the West, 1858-1949. Ottawa: National Film Board/National Museum of Man, 1976.
“From the Watchtowers of Patriotism: Climatic Theories of Racial Development in the Canadian Novel,” Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études canadiennes, Volume 9, Number 3, August 1974
Concepts of Anglo-Saxondom: The Ideology of Race in English Canada, 1895-1900. Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1970.
Etc.
(2) I was not a judge but a quasi-judicial adjudicator.
(3) Test for credibility:
Sources for their statements? Testimony and all evidence – improbable, implausible, impossible? Contradictions, inconsistencies? Body language, signals, tone of voice, etc….
Read the literature on the subject. Weigh all the evidence. Make a finding.
Source: Golden Age of Gaia
January 19, 2020
by Steve Beckow
I had a conversation with a friend which, at one point, led to a discussion of lightworkers’ susceptibility to memes.
In my opinion, we lightworkers are susceptible to disinformation and misinformation at every level. We rely on our sources and, if they lack integrity, we are liable to swallow disinformation.
In this particular instance, one nationality or particular social group was being descried in the literature for wanting to control the world.
That probably says more about the source of the disinformation than it does about the target.
I’d like to speak as an historian who has said that the history of Planet Earth is largely a history of warfare. And as one whose early historical career centered around studying the whole-population generalization of race. (1)
I’d also like to speak as a former human-rights decision maker with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada – what would in the U.S. be an immigration judge. (2)
For me, whenever a person starts to make negative attributions about an entire people, I begin to exercise caution with that person. I switch into discernment mode.
Jews, Muslims, Iranians, it doesn’t matter … whenever we start to hear unfavorable assertions about a whole people, time to draw back and begin to test credibility.
In human-rights tribunals, if used against the members of that nationality, religion, or particular social group, the adverse use of these stereotypes can be grounds for a refugee claim – as persecution or discrimination amounting to persecution by reason of membership in a nationality, religion, or particular social group.
I begin to ask myself what are the sources for those statements? Are the allegations improbable, implausible, impossible? Are there contradictions or inconsistencies? What is their body language, tone of voice, mood?
I think that very few individuals act from a sense of belonging to a whole people or whole religion – especially in this day of social media. People are thinking for themselves and expressing themselves. All borders and barriers are being erased due to the ease of cross-border communication and the ties that it generates.
“Whole-people” generalizations have never held up under even cursory examination. They almost always are used by demagogues themselves desiring to – well, usually, control the world.
Hitler talked in Mein Kampf about having an enemy within and an enemy without. The enemy within was the Jews, who allegedly brought about Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the enemy without was the Communists. He launched a world war in which 50 million people died, to wipe out these two enemies. He did this on the basis of his own control over Germany.
***
At the present time, America seems as deeply polarized as I’ve seen it in my lifetime – save during the era of the Civil-Rights and Vietnam-War protests.
If we lightworkers get swept into the raging waters, who’s left to steer the ship? Galea at Linda Dillon’s Saturday morning call said that passion was necessary to have something succeed. But not extreme passion or any extreme. Unbalanced reaction is seldom productive and leaves residue.
And I get the irony of me saying this – I who had to walk back from an anger problem.
In my view, we have to step outside and remain outside the polarization paradigm. And maybe this was what Michael was talking about in our Nov. 26 reading. Maybe I needed to find my own language for it.
Stepping outside that paradigm means watching what comes into our minds (garbage in, garbage out) as well as watching what we commit to.
It’s our job to stay out of the polarizing energy, whether left or right, this religion or that religion, etc.
***
In terms of our sources, they need to be credible to begin with, based on the criteria I mentioned above. (3) If not, I don’t read them.
I’m building the alternative to polarization; not arguing with polarizers. Someone needs to break away from the herd and I’m happy to do it.
What we try to give you on this blog (in this area) is what’s actually so in the world, from sources we judge to be credible.
Not only do our sources need to be credible, but we ourselves need to be unbiased, neutral, and balanced in presenting their information.
That doesn’t mean we excuse pedophilia or child trafficking or refuse to work to end it. It means we remain emotionally balanced in our approach to all problems. (I’m not there yet either so don’t worry if you’re thinking you’re not.)
Credible sources for me means credible channeled messages and here is where my ship leaves the dock, waving goodbye to many earlier colleagues.
I listen and talk to invisible entities, stepping outside the empirical-materialist paradigm, etc. Most of my colleagues leave at this station.
Polarization thrives on turmoil. We need to rob the fire of oxygen by refusing to go to extremes or be swept away by the turmoil.
Be cautious with sources that make sweeping, usually negative, statements about whole people, whole religions, etc.
Sidestepping them is a contribution to the health of the collective consciousness.
Footnotes
(1) S.M. Beckow, “Keeping British Columbia White” : Anti-Orientalism in the West, 1858-1949. Ottawa: National Film Board/National Museum of Man, 1976.
“From the Watchtowers of Patriotism: Climatic Theories of Racial Development in the Canadian Novel,” Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études canadiennes, Volume 9, Number 3, August 1974
Concepts of Anglo-Saxondom: The Ideology of Race in English Canada, 1895-1900. Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1970.
Etc.
(2) I was not a judge but a quasi-judicial adjudicator.
(3) Test for credibility:
Sources for their statements? Testimony and all evidence – improbable, implausible, impossible? Contradictions, inconsistencies? Body language, signals, tone of voice, etc….
Read the literature on the subject. Weigh all the evidence. Make a finding.
Source: Golden Age of Gaia
The Polarization Paradigm | Steve Beckow
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1/19/2020 11:24:00 AM
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