Welcome all the immigrants

• 24 December, 2021
• culture
• perspective
• society

We're evolving much too quickly for this planet to support

People go on about climate change like it's some big problem but I feel it's extremely important to have the right perspective when it comes to climate change. Climate change is not in itself the issue. We live on a planet which is teeming with life. This goes right all the way back to one of the core mystical principles - all existence is change, all existence is relationship. This means that change and impermanence is baked into the fundamental conditions of life on this planet. Life is the experience of an environment as an individual organism. Change is climate change and also biological evolution. Both climate change and biological evolution is therefore normal behaviour for this planet.

Therefore the term 'climate change' implies that the natural environment is changing to something other than our expectations of what it should be. This I feel is a stupid way of looking at this. A much more accurate term for environmental issues stemming from human behaviour is human environmental ignorance.

In another post 'The last train to Glasgow' I came up with an analogy for the process of the 3,8 billion year process of biological evolution on this planet by equating it with the train journey from London Euston to Glasgow Central, which is 343 miles or thereabouts. Using this analogy, human beings, who have been around on this planet for around 2 million years, wouldn't even be able to catch the train because we appeared somewhere in Glasgow between Cambuslang and Glasgow Central station. Human recorded history would be entirely at Glasgow Central station. It wouldn't even cover the entire platform.

Therefore to create another analogy... Imagine going to a supermarket on a Saturday morning and claiming that the entire stock of the supermarket now belongs to you and you don't want anyone else buying anything. This is the collective human attitude to this planet and its natural resources. We have this human-centric attitude to both the planet and the universe and there's so much confusion between infinite and finite. Many people seem to think that money is finite and natural resources are somehow infinite when in fact it's the other way round.

The relationship between boundaries and space

Towards the end of another recent post titled 'The Palette of Humanity' I pointed out that human beings are the most boundary-obsessed and territorial species on the planet. When it comes to claims for territory and being divisive and abusive towards individual members of its own species, no other species on this planet comes anywhere close to the human species. Fights over territory and hierarchy are not exclusively human. Other primate species can turn nasty as well, for example, chimpanzees and gorillas, but nowhere near on the same scale as human beings. We are so nasty and so dangerous that pretty much all wild animals share a common awareness regarding the potential danger and threat of being around human beings. We are not part of the wider community of animal species and are very much the outsiders. But we chose to be that way.

I will repeat what I wrote in that post here. We cannot have it both ways. We are subject to the exact same mystical principles and so-called laws (Natural Law, Creative Law) as the universe, this planet and other species. Human being do not get a free pass or any exceptions because we're human beings. We have to live in harmony with our natural environment, and we also have to contribute something of value to the ecology of this planet. We cannot have creativity without empathy. We cannot have individuality and freedom without giving plenty of space in our relationships. We cannot take without giving something back in return. There are no exceptions and as intelligent as we think we all are, we will never be able to outsmart either our environment or Nature.

Over the past 50 years or so we have experienced a rapid development of digital technology and most of us have all gained access to the internet and social media. We have gone from a society where there was just a telephone, mail and fax to where we now have email, text, smartphones, social media, instant messenger, and a situation where we can access information and connect to one another in ways in which even back in the 1980's we couldn't even conceive. Our lives should be much, much easier because we have so much technology to create and develop strong, diverse, inclusive communities and societies with far less boundaries and divisions between us and a great deal more space and possibility in our relationships. But this is not happening because many of us want to cling to the same boundaries and maintain the same divisions as we had in the earlier part of the 20th century. Rather than giving each other more space in relationships, many of us are giving each other far less space than we did in the 20th century. As a result we've become far more divided than in the 20th century and inequality is ballooning out of all proportion.

There has got to be community

It's very simple. There has got to be community and there's got to be development of culture, constant development of culture, because culture is the only interface we have between individual human creativity and human evolution and social progress. Together with individual creativity there has got to be empathy, community, opportunity, and social security. We don't have these four things. Over the past 50 years there has been a concentration of material, spatial and financial wealth to just say 10% of society and the lives of say 70-80% of people are getting progressively harder, more of a struggle with a lot less space in relationships. There has not been any major innovation or social progress this century, only the most brutal and sociopathic are getting into positions of power and authority, and everybody else has a boot on their neck.

Decades of geopolitical engineering and manipulation aimed at redistributing wealth and resources from one part of the planet to another have brought conflict, divisions, and war - and I want to point out that war in the 21st century has become so normalized that it's just something that happens in global society - has displaced many millions of human beings. So not concent with destroying the natural habitat of other species we've now moved on to destroying the habitats of other human beings and treating that as something normal.

There's no other way to say this. We are truly in deep shit. Understand that we are in an impossible situation.

There is nowhere near enough natural resources or food or fuel to provide anywhere close to the comfortable, bourgeois Middle England lifestyle in places such as Surrey or Berkshire for everyone. How can we upgrade smartphones every year or couple of years when they require natural minerals that require thousands or even millions of years to develop? We are producing far too much heat in many of our industrial processes for the natural environment to support, and also from warfare, and there are only so many days of winter where the planet can cool and let the heat escape into outer space. It is this trapped heat which is making our summers hotter and our winters much colder. Consider that the global population has been rising to now around 8 billion. It's projected to be 9.6 billion by 2030 and over 10 billion by 2100.

Just how many human beings can this planet actually support? What do you think is going to happen when there are too many human beings, all abusing the planet and its natural resources? I mean how do you want to die? Through genocide, or through some deadly virus and another global pandemic such as COVID? This is something which I feel needs to be written down and read and understood. Most of us have survived COVID. But its also clear that most of us have not learned anything from it. Therefore you have to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, we could be just one global pandemic away from extinction. A global pandemic that can take place at any time.

This year there was a scary event for me that happened. There was a leadership contest after Boris Johnson resigned in the Conservative Party and I found myself being in somewhat agreement with one of the candidates, Penny Mordaunt, despite my vehement opposition to the Conservative Party policies. Consider that up until a couple of years ago I was out on the radical fringes of the left wing of the Green Party. I feel most people have a somewhat unrealistic perspective on the social contract, for which they cannot really be blamed because for far too long we have all been flagellated and encouraged to develop a very unrealistic expectation of the kind of material and financial comfort wee can expect from society based on the notion of perpetual socio-economic growth and prosperity. I'm very clear that the levels of poverty, inequality and destitution experienced by many in society are unacceptable. There are no excuses, no excuses whatsoever for the levels of such social issues because we are living on islands in a society which is teeming with technology, space, resources and money.

My political stance is unpopular. I'm a single issue type of politician and my single issue is social security for everyone. No ifs, no buts, no excuses, every single person in society should have access to sufficient space and resources to live comfortably without ever experiencing insecurity when it comes to food, fuel, energy, access to education or healthcare. Each and every human being on this planet should be involved in some activity which contributes something of value to their community, to society, and to the natural environment and this is what my Palette of Humanity concept is all about.

This something of value does not include, I wish to add, being single-mindedly focussed on spending your life for nothing other than the accumulated profit of material, financial and spatial resources into the hands of some organization, multinational corporation or institution. Business as usual is not anywhere on my menu. My economic theories are all bottom up, none are top down, and my economic mantra is solely focussed on the empowerment of individual human experience. This is my personal bottom line. If the individual cannot find the resources to support themselves then something needs to change until they can. Trust me, the needs of environment and needs of community and society will always have priority over the economy. There's been far too much bullshit spouted from economists, so much bullshit that I personally still regard economics as a pseudoscience with no mystical basis, and the bean counters need to shut the fuck up and go home and let the creatives and empaths take over.

Now maybe you understand why I will never become Prime Minister or even your local Member of Parliament.

Why I would personally welcome every migrant

Divisionism, and hate, is what you do when you're not prepared to face up to your own fears and insecurities. We've had more than six years of rhetoric in this country about Brexit, immigration control, and controlling our borders and I have heard nothing of sense in argument when it comes to controlling immigration or not having freedom of movement. Just as life comes with a certain amount of trauma built into it, life also involves a certain amount of fear and insecurity. There's nothing you can do to change this other than to move forward and seek change and conscious insight in your life experience. This all comes back to that fundamental mystical principle.

All existence is change, all existence is relationship.

Therefore on some fundamental level each and every migrant is attempting to move forward from whatever trauma they've experienced back home. It could be political instability. It could be environmental issues. It could be social fragmentation and cultural decline. It might even be nothing more than a desire to learn English and spend some time living in this country and making a bit of money before going back home with new skills, new language, and new insight to contribute to community or society back home. Migration is a natural behaviour which is not exclusive to human beings. Birds migrate. Wildebeest migrate. Migration is one way of seeking a better relationship with one's environment and for me needs to be recognized as a fundamental human right.

We also cannot always assume that migrants want to take something from us. This is where I feel people are projecting their fears and insecurities onto these fellow human beings trying to come into the country. We don't know why they want to come here into this country because we don't know anything about them or their lives. From what I understand about migration and immigration the vast majority of migrants want to contribute something to our society, our communities and our economy. I do community work in my local community, both with Qultura and elsewhere, and people coming from different backgrounds, some of them immigrants themselves, are invariably involved in community. Immigration gives us far more than it takes. We have a very well developed infrastructure in the UK and much of the development of that infrastructure has come from migrant labour and migrant creativity.

Why are such divisions and boundaries so important for you?

This is where I'm going to turn the question round back on you, and I suggest this is something you could think about. Can you not see the creation and maintenance and establishment of boundaries, not to mention control, is not exclusive to immigration? It's very clear that our politicians are not in control. Not even close. This Government is not in control, neither was the previous one, nor the one before that, or the one before that. I'm not expecting the next Government to be in control either, or the one after that. In fact I would go as far to say that nobody is in control. Nobody really knows or understands what's going on. This becomes very clear if you spend enough time on a social media site such as Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit.

But it's like we're going round and round and round in circles, seeking control and seeking security through all our divisions and boundaries and finding neither. Instead we're finding more and more divisions, more and more hate, more and more societal and ideological conflicts. The targets of our hate and animosity change with each passing news cycle, immigrants, the wealthy, the LGBT community, the black community, Muslims, socialists, conservatives, trans women, the poor, people with disabilities, young people, old people, Brexiteers, Remainers, striking workers, environmental activists. There's so many targets out there, isn't there?

I mean take a look at our politicians. Think about them. Listen to what they're actually saying. Can you not see and hear the constant establishment and maintenance of boundaries, ideological and political divisions, with very little space in the relationships and opportunities for either consensus or agreement? For much of 2022 there's been a war being fought between Russia and the Ukraine. The word 'peace' seems to have become as much taboo in political circles as both 'fun' and 'enjoyment'. I mean can you remember a political leader suggesting that you enjoy life or go out and have some fun? I can't. It's almost like the war in the Ukraine has become normal. We have a fuel crisis, an energy crisis, a cost of living crisis to the degree that each time you visit a supermarket the prices are different. Many people are shit scared of turning the heating on. Yet the political boundaries and divisions remain very much in place with no attempt and no motion to try and reach agreement or consensus.

There's a place in your heart and I know that it is love
And this place could be much brighter than tomorrow
And if you really try you'll find there's no need to cry
In this place you'll feel there's no hurt or sorrow
There are ways to get there if you care enough for the living
Make a little space, make a better place

Heal the world, make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race
There are people dying, if you care enough for the living
Make a better place for you and for me

Michael Jackson, 'Heal the world'

Now I could claim that our politicians are being deliberately obstinate, divisive, confrontational and uncooperative but every time I go onto social media these days I find the same obstinacy, divisions, confrontations and lack of willingness to reach agreement or consensus between most people. It's why I walked away from politics a few years ago. I got tired of having to talk about the same issues, repeating myself, and either being put down, told I was stupid, disagreed with, mocked, ignored, or verbally attacked or insulted. For me attending a political party meeting is a bit like attending group therapy without the therapists. You discuss stuff which isn't really relevant to the lives of most people and a lot of the so-called solutions are half-baked at best. So yeah, even more boundaries and divisions with no real room or space to dig deeper or reach or find consensus. It makes you wonder what the point is in voting or indeed in having elections.

Yet the social, economic and environmental issues are piling up, and they're piling up much faster than a week of unwashed crockery and cutlery, pots and pans in a house shared by students. Any one of these issues is complex and needs a lot of discussion from different perspectives. But we are now being affected by hundreds of such issues. Please don't ask me what the solution is. I'm pretty much in the same position as you. I don't know even where to begin as well.

But this much I will say. All these boundaries and divisions are not helping anybody and until we change our thinking and start coming together into community and giving each other space in relationship we will continue declining and become more and more divided until whatever worst case scenario we can think of becomes our reality. When that happens, trust me, it's going to be too late for anything.

As a final suggestion, instead of waiting for someone else to come up with change, how about you come up with something? Worth a try?

We could fly so high that our spirits never die
In my heart I feel you are all my brothers
Create a world with no fear, together we'll cry happy tears
See the nations turn their swords into plowshares
We could get there if you cared enough for the living
Make a little space to make a better place

Heal the world, make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race
There are people dying, if you care enough for the living
Make a better place for you and for me

Michael Jackson, 'Heal the world'