I had a conversation with a friend which, at one point, led to a discussion of lightworkers’ susceptibility to memes. I’d like to import some of that discussion here. Nothing bad.
In my opinion, we lightworkers are as susceptible to disinformation and misinformation at every level as anyone else.
We rely on our sources and, if they turn out to lack integrity, we risk swallowing 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 to whole-people generalizations as an historian whose early historical career centered around studying theories of racial supremacy. (1)
I’d also like to speak to it as a former human-rights decision maker with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
In human-rights tribunals, the detrimental use of stereotypes against the members of a nationality, religion, or particular social group can be grounds for a refugee claim – if it amounts to persecution or discrimination reaching the level of persecution by reason of membership in a nationality, religion, or particular social group.
For me, whenever a person starts to make negative attributions about an entire people – Jews, Muslims, Iranians, it doesn’t matter who – I begin to exercise caution with that person. I switch into discernment mode and start to test for credibility.
I begin to ask myself who are their sources for their statements? Are the allegations improbable, implausible, impossible? Are there contradictions or inconsistencies?
I think that very few individuals act from a sense of belonging to a whole people or whole religion in this day of social media. Though they may feel proud of their origins, I believe people are now more apt to think for themselves and express themselves.
And all borders and barriers are being erased by the ease of cross-border communication and the ties it generates. The sense of belonging we used to get from our nation or religion we now get from online sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Moreover, whole-people generalizations have never held up under even cursory examination. They almost always are used by demagogues themselves desiring to – well, usually, control people.
Hitler talked in Mein Kampf about having an enemy within and an enemy without. The enemy within were the Jews, who allegedly brought about Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the enemy without were 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 control over Germany, he who swore to protect the nation from those who wanted to control it.
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At the present time, America seems as deeply polarized as at any time I’ve seen it since the Civil-Rights era and the 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, she said. 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.
Marianne Williamson’s video, which Kathleen posted earlier, is so relevant to this subject that I repost it here:
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I’m participating in 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 we hope is actually going on 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, keeping our heads in the sand. We don’t choose to be willfully blind or resistant.
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 mean credible channeled messages and here’s where my train leaves the station.
I listen and talk to invisible entities, stepping outside the empirical-materialist paradigm, etc. Most of my colleagues get off the train 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 ourselves.
I recommend being cautious with sources that make sweeping, usually negative, statements about whole peoples, whole religions, etc.
Sidestepping them is a contribution to the health of the collective consciousness.
Footnotes
(1) For example, 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.
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