The Future Looks Scary

Over the last few years, those who dare comment negatively online about Trump, have seen his supporters often come back with ‘you’ve just got sour grapes because your candidate didn’t win’. And now Boris Johnson has recently been returned to power with a vastly improved majority, I don’t doubt the same thing will be heard from his supporters too.

But let’s be clear here. If we hate Trump or Johnson, or Morrison or Bolsanaro or any other right-wingers who have either got power or are edging closer to gaining it, it’s not because of simply being miffed that ‘our’ candidate didn’t win.

No, it goes much, much deeper than that.

It’s because we know our quality of life, our incomes, our support systems, our physical safety and even sometimes our very lives, are at threat.

If you are working-class, poor, on welfare, homeless and/or jobless, you will be worse off under these so-called ‘leaders’.

If you are non-white, non-Christian, and/or either an immigrant or refugee, you will be worse off.

If you are gay, lesbian, bi, trans, queer, non-binary, or anything else not the conventional cis hetero, you will be worse off.

If you are autistic/neurodivergent, disabled or struggling with health issues, or trying to get help for your child in the public education system, you will be worse off.

The marginalised of all kinds (and remember that many of us fit into more than one of the above categories) will suffer. Some will even die, because of medical neglect, mistreatment, murder or, in some cases, suicide, when they give up trying.

In fact, if you are ANYTHING not firmly one hundred percent ‘mainstream’ and ‘normal’ – and sometimes even if you are – you will be worse off under these leaders.

AND WE KNOW IT.

The main group that will be better off are the already super-rich, the swaggering elite, the power-brokers and power-holders, the ‘inherited mega-money from Mummy and Daddy’ or ‘got rich by fleecing the poor and exploiting their workers’ lots. Even many of the middle-class will struggle (that is, even more than they currently are) to maintain their position, as an increasing share of the world’s money, power and resources ends up in the controlling hands of that elite.

Think I’m exaggerating? Or catastrophising? I wish I was. But it’s already happened in many places. Look at what’s been happening in the US, as so many protections, supports and basic rights and even jobs have been, and continue to be, ripped away from members of the above-mentioned groups. Look at the increased hate crimes in the US, against trans people, non-whites, gays, etc - and it’s not only happening in the US, but in Europe and the UK too. Look at Boris’s voting record on matters like health and education and welfare. Look at Australia, and the ‘religious freedom’ act being proposed there. Even in New Zealand, the current government is still struggling to undo years of neglect and damage to the social fabric done by a right-wing government. And that’s without even STARTING on what’s being done to the environment, everywhere.

So yeah, it’s not sour grapes, it’s because SO MUCH is at risk.

The reality is that the political world is not the same place it was thirty or forty years ago, when it didn’t matter that much which party you voted for, because they were all pretty ‘centrist’, it was more a matter of ‘left of centre’ or ‘right of centre’. But since the 80s the political landscape has drastically changed. This was when neo-liberalism began to rear its ugly head, and since then, a lot of countries have had at least one of their main political parties increasingly skewed to or captured by the right. And by captured, I mean they’ve gone way out there into foaming-at-the-mouth territory. Meanwhile, the previously ‘left of centre’ parties seem stuck in the old ways, semi-paralysed, often feuding with each other, and unable to offer up a convincing response to the changed landscape.

Some are blaming media bias, or interference from ‘outside forces’ or ‘fake news’ outlets, but that doesn’t fully explain how ordinary people are taken in by all these parties’ nonsense. Why so many vote against what is in their best interests, if they only stopped to think for a bit. It’s seriously enough to make me lose what little faith in humanity I have left. The only thing keeping me going is the number of good people I know.

But I have to be brutally honest here - I don’t hold out a great deal of hope for the immediate future, for people in the UK or the US or anywhere else where these types are gaining hold. Right after the election, my social media feed was full of people asking ‘can I emigrate to Canada?’ (Or New Zealand, or anywhere that looks better than where they are.) And they were only half-joking - if that.

Perhaps in the long run, more democratic forces will prevail, and a fairer, more just world will be born. But I’m not banking on it, and it’s not going to happen straight away, impeachment or no impeachment, elections or no elections.

The future looks very scary.

Things I Don't Understand - Number Six

I don't understand prejudice. I really don't get why someone thinks they are better than another, because of their race, religion, sect, gender, sexuality, nationality, tribe, language, culture, sub-culture, educational qualifications, social class, neurology, degree of able-bodiedness, or whatever. So nor, consequently, can I understand or support all the 'isms' that arise out of such prejudice, when one group gets power over another.

Sure, people vary in their size, their physical strength, intelligence, education, wealth, etc. Another person's culture, language or appearance can be very different, and seem strange. They may do things you don't approve of. They may even have 'isms' of their own within that culture you'd like to see eliminated, such as women being oppressed. But to say that because of that, the members of that group/culture/etc are somehow 'inferior', and deserve a lesser status than you and/or the group/culture/etc that you belong to, is nonsensical.

I've somehow known all my life, long before I was able to put it into words (and I'm not sure I can totally do so even now), that every human being is essentially equal. Not exactly the same - we differ of course, as I said above. But beneath all that, is something, a spark, a common thread, a 'human-ness', whatever it is that forms the nucleus of our being. I tend to call it the human spirit or soul, but others will call it by other names. And we all have it, without exception. Even the ones thought 'unreachable', or 'too damaged', the ones who seem a threat, or 'too different to understand'. I've looked into the eyes of many considered 'other' or 'undesirables', and it's there. (I've also looked into the eyes of the dead, and seen that essential spark gone, but that's another matter.)

Perhaps it's the aspie in me - from just a young child, I paid little attention to such 'unimportant' things like peoples' status or position. There were undoubtedly tons of little signals which I missed, and which helped others to locate themselves in the social matrix, to know who they had to kowtow to, and who they could lord it over. Children, especially girl children from families of no great social status like myself, were pretty near the bottom of that matrix. I was oblivious to all that. I protested the privileges my brothers and father got. I couldn't for the life of me understand why everyone thought boys were so wonderful. I didn't think it remarkable that some of my cousins and schoolfriends were Maori, or think they were somehow 'lesser' human beings for it. And while I understood that adults had power over children, and knowledge and experience I lacked, I didn't see them as intrinsically superior to me because of it. And so on. I have met many other aspies/auties who share the same lack of awareness of social distinctions, the same lack of prejudice.

Or perhaps it's because I'm of the post-war generation. Growing up, the Holocaust and its horrors were very recent history to me, a glaring example of racism gone mad, and of how thinking oneself 'superhuman' actually made people behave in subhuman ways. I'm also old enough - just - to remember President Kennedy, how wonderful everyone thought he was, the hope for a new world he engendered, and the shock of his assassination, which reached us even here in little ole 'Godzone' at the bottom of the world. The 'revolutionary' events and phenomena of the 60s - the Vietnam War and anti-war protests, the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King's assassination, and even the music of pop groups like the Beatles, were the background to my childhood, while events like Watergate and movements like feminism and gay rights and the 'flower power' of the hippies influenced my adolescence. When I was about fifteen or sixteen, I wanted nothing more than to grow up to be a hippie, and when my father sneered at my 'tatty' jeans, I didn't get why. The prevailing idea was that our generation was breaking down old structures, and creating a 'brave new world'. Prejudice was anathema, to be discarded along with other 'old fogey' ideas and social structures.

Or perhaps it's both of these factors acting together - or neither, but simply something that's part of me, of who I am. There are plenty in my age group, and younger, who didn't get the memo about the revolution, and who are as racist, sexist, homophobic, etc, as any of the older generation were. And I know that there are aspies/auties out there who are prejudiced, and who spout that prejudice at any opportunity. I've met some online (thankfully only a few, in a forum I no longer visit) who rant about Obama and immigrants and blacks, or see being gay as a 'sin', etc, etc. They do exist.

So I don't know why it is, exactly, I lack any ability to feel prejudice. All I do know is, I don't understand it, I don't understand anyone thinking themselves a superior type of human being, and I will never, ever, ever support it or knowingly perpetuate it. Ever.

God, Religion, and Atheism

I have some trepidation writing this, as I fear I may offend some, but recent events, as I’ve said, have compelled me to lay out plainly what I believe. In no way am I trying to ‘convert’ anyone here, or ‘dis’ anyone for believing what I cannot.

I say ‘cannot’, because though I have never been and never will be an atheist, I find more and more that I am largely in agreement with them on many points. Most especially, on the absurdities just about all religions would have us accept as ‘Truth’. Anyone expecting me to believe in such blatant nonsense as virgin births or the world being created in seven days (no-one’s ever explained to me why The Almighty was in such a tearing hurry), will have their work cut out. I believe in evolution, rationality, the workings of reason, and the findings of science. And no, I certainly don’t see that as incompatible with my bone-deep spirituality.

Now some would have us believe a lot of this nonsense simply because “it’s in the Bible” (or some other Holy Book), and that that document is ‘God-given’, Sacred Word Never To Be Questioned. Sorry, but no. Though the Bible (the religious book I am best acquainted with, and yes, I have read it, all the way through) has many lyrical and spiritually moving passages, it also has plenty that is, well, less than inspiring (all those boring begats), or even violent. It’s a human document, and even the most inspired passages have had to be filtered through human minds, with all the prejudices and limitations of their times, and written down by human hands, in language they felt others would understand. Not to mention it’s now known to have had several ‘revisions’. It can be beautiful, but it’s not perfect. Not even close.

I see no more reason to believe in these ancient Jewish myths of creation, etc, or whatever stories the early Christian leaders dreamed up to ‘prove’ the divinity of Jesus, than I would literally believe the Maori legend that Maui fished up the North Island, or in mythical Chinese dragons, or Irish tales about Finn McCool. If I ever did subscribe to such fabulist tales, I outgrew them along with the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus. I can understand people believing in those things in a more credulous and superstitious age, but surely nowadays we know better.

On the other hand, my feeling is that when atheists discard God along with religious ideas and concepts of God, they’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Forget, for example, that antiquated image of an Old Man with a long white beard, sitting on a throne on a cloud, up in some mythical heaven, waiting to thunder down retribution on those who ‘sin’. The Infinite Power is so much more than such limited, prejudice- and dogma-ridden ideas.

I find it hard to delineate exactly how I perceive God, as there are no limits on Its nature. It’s the underpinning of the Universe, the Matrix that holds it together, the Source of All Things, the Energy that runs through us all, and the True Nature of all of us. We all come from this Source, and will return to it in the end. A spark of it is in each of us, usually slumbering, sometimes burning bright, often seeking, though for what, the seeker often doesn’t know. God is present in mountains and trees, birds and fishes, oceans and stars, in everything and even in the spaces between. God is present in you and me. God is.

God is Infinite Love. Unconditional, immense, limitless love. Most people have no idea how huge that love is. I have touched the merest fringe of it, just a few times, and each time it blew me away. I had always ‘believed’ before, from then on I knew. God is also Infinite Wisdom, lovingly guiding us and supporting us through the trials of our lives, in ways we usually don’t see. God can be seen as impersonal, a Force or Power, or in a more personal way, as the Perfect Father or Mother (The Infinite is beyond gender), the most wonderfully supporting Best Friend, or whatever else you want. And The Infinite will wait for you until you’re ready. There’s no hurry. (I also believe in reincarnation and karma, so I know we don’t have to rush to ‘get it all done’ in this lifetime.)

Moreover, I believe that God doesn’t judge. Humans judge, humans define ‘sin’, usually to suit themselves, and set themselves up as judge, jury and executioner for those who ‘transgress’. They forget that God is Love, and make all sorts of claims to ‘knowing’ what God wants or thinks eg, ‘God hates homosexuals’, which subsequently sees them descend into morasses of twisted, hate-ridden thinking and even violence. Such people are as far from truly being ‘one with God’ as a worm is from the sky. The Infinite may see some of our actions (most especially those that hurt ourselves or other people) as less than perfect, but It created each of us exactly as we are, and loves us just as we are. Without condition. God created me aspie, female, gay, creative, Kiwi, spiritual, and just a little bit geeky. I’m content with that, it’s a pity so many don’t accept what the Divine Power intended me/us to be.

Some people may decide, after having read the above, that I am ‘anti-religion’, or anti ‘their’ religion. Let me make myself clear. The only things I am ‘anti’ are hatred, bigotry, prejudice, persecution, abuse, oppression, violence and deliberate stupidity. (By which I don’t mean the intellectually disabled, but the attitudes of those who have a fully functional brain and don’t use it, preferring instead to spout reactionary prejudices, regurgitated dogma, or the latest ‘party line’.)

There’s much more I could say, but I think this post is long enough!! Perhaps I’ll say more another day.