E. Jean Simpson's Blog: A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA
October 7, 2023
New Beginnings?
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, I explore some changes in Canadian politics that I hope will start to help reach some positive change. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
As I said, this week, I look at some current changes in the political sphere in my home country of Canada. There are some reasons for hope in the Country and yet some hurdles for it too. First there seems a strange problem with news feed in Canada. Unfortunately I find I mostly have to find a Canadian page. I find that Yahoo is hit and miss with it being mostly missed. So, I’ve started to go to Canadian news sources. Then the secondary problem is that I cannot share it on Google related pages, such as Facebook. Facebook will not allow any links to Canadian news in their feed. VPN may allow other country access; however, it may also check DNS and GPS so it may not change anything with regard to access. Also there is suggestion that it could be used for illegal purposes https://privacycanada.net/vpns-legal-.... It can help protect privacy, but it can also be used to pirate stuff. I find stuff that is blocked and I leave the site. It isn’t true of everyone it seems. Is it good or is it bad? It depends on the use. I’m proudly Canadian. I simply use it to protect my privacy. I keep the settings for my country. The VPN can make it harder to be hacked.
There is duality in politics which is the talk about ‘Global/World Economy’ https://www.edology.com/blog/accounti... and the terms Global and World seem to be used interchangeably. According to this article it suggests that it isn’t actually in the hands of Governments but in the hands of corporations and banks. In theory it is supposed to help. However, this article https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7864/... suggests that “States with political authority over central economic nodes “…”can weaponize networks to gather information or choke off economic and information flows, discover and exploit vulnerabilities, compel policy change, and deter unwanted actions.” The problem that remains with this is who makes that decision? One of the biggest problems is banks and corporations want to make money. Thus being a business. However, this is a weakness that can be exploited. An example of the misuse of the Global/World Economy is evident in this article about truth social and the ex-US President https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/bu... and is currently being looked at in the courts. When it is exploited, it takes the power away from the people and launches it directly into the hands of the banks and corporations. Governments are left trying to please these entities. When they don’t keep these entities happy there can be sanctions. At this point, no one wins. People are left unable to complete some things, they get frustrated and angry. Then the politicians get blamed for the mess the country is in and there is unrest.
Now on the Canadian politics front, hopefully better news with the newly made changes in the Government. It is a good place to start because the Governments can rally their people and people’s money still talks. Like anything else there seems to be controversy with regard to these changes. They have been fast and evolving. Once I finally got the idea that the news was not going to be easily found, I found the news. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mps-... The first thing that happened was a debacle in which the Speaker of the House resigned (Anthony Rota) due to an ovation for a Nazi war veteran. This was pointed out causing a black eye to the Speaker’s position and the Government in general. Rota resigned. The new Speaker of the House is now MP Greg Fergus and he is the first Black Speaker of the House in Canada. It seems that one of the MP’s was rather confused as to what country he was in. Poilievre is quoted as saying (in the article) “They were the peasants and the farmers who were tired of having their crops taxed away by an impossibly cruel crown.” According to the article at the end of this quote, “most of the common people in the Canadian and Maritime colonies remained neutral and reluctant to become involved in the Revolution to the south.” https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c.... It seems agreed that Canada does not pay Taxes to the UK but there are costs https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/how-muc... , however, they also forget to take into account the trade agreements and the agreements that bring Money to Canada https://www.international.gc.ca/count.... It only shows one side of the story and not the trade agreements side. Here is where Governments can fight for transparency and better conditions. So, now it remains to be seen if the new Speaker of the House of Commons will use his experiences of being a minority in Canada to treat things with respect and dignity stated. There is some hope in this that he may. It seems the US Washington Post gives a glimpse at the US views on the new Speaker https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/.... Since it was a secret vote (done to alleviate biases), that we are seeing better things to come. I hope that the understanding of issues of this country and his experiences will lead to a better understanding of the Government and of the roles and rights of people. He is responsible for relations with other countries, so this may be a way to get things working better.
The next big move forward and an exciting one is the election of the first ever First Nations Premier Wab Kinew (NDP) for the Province of Manitoba (MB). https://apnews.com/article/first-nati.... I am interested to see what he is able to accomplish in his Province. I so hope it is a sign of better things to come. He brings with him a history, culture and understanding of issues that could make great changes in MB and encourage others in Canada. As Premier of the Province he, too is a stakeholder and carries the voices of his people with a majority Government. He knows where his area has been, where it is now and where it could be. Most hopeful to me too is that we are now seeing First Nation people stepping up and working to make changes from within. They are willing to do what it takes to bring Canada forward. “During his victory speech late Tuesday, Kinew said young Indigenous people and those of all backgrounds who are struggling can change their lives for the better.” What can give everyone more hope than those words? A struggling country needs to hear this that we can make change for everyone. He’s said a great deal to inspire people in Manitoba and elsewhere https://apnews.com/article/first-nati.... What says a better Canada more than working together toward a better future? I’m interested to see what steps they take in the Province for health care and other issues. It will be interesting to see if this increases hope and inspires change. Also, his background in economics makes him ideally suited to move forward in dealing with the economic crisis that Manitobans face and encourage Canadians to look toward making better choices. It’s impressive because voting is newer to the First Nations People and in the article it states that “It wasn’t until the 1950s and ’60s that First Nations people were allowed to vote without conditions in provincial and federal elections in Canada.” https://apnews.com/article/first-nati.... This was just one of the issues that faced First Nations people. They were not allowed the vote, not allowed a voice and kept from having a choice in their lives. So, very exciting to see what things will happen in Manitoba.
I’m not saying that it will be an easy job for Canada or Canadians. There are a lot of insecurities in Canada and things that could complicate the job. One of the issues is the current state of economic insecurity in Canada and elsewhere. There is the fact that doing things costs money. So, it will be important to balance the need for change with the need to work within a budget. There is need to balance the needs of the people of the Province with the needs of the Governmental system. These are true of any political sphere but in the case of the NDP party, they are a relative newcomer to Canadian politics being founded in 1961 https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c... https://welcometocanadianpolitics.ca/.... It seems that the NDP is encouraging more transparency in the Free Trade Agreements and less secret meetings as far back as 2020. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/free....
As Jamie Harrison is credited with saying, “With a common-sense approach, we can reduce waste, fraud and abuse, cut back on unnecessary bureaucracy and provide for the pillars of a strong economy and life in our state.” I hope we are seeing the start of a new era in Canadian Politics. I hope that the new changes in Government will be a start on getting power back in the hands of the people! Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
As I said, this week, I look at some current changes in the political sphere in my home country of Canada. There are some reasons for hope in the Country and yet some hurdles for it too. First there seems a strange problem with news feed in Canada. Unfortunately I find I mostly have to find a Canadian page. I find that Yahoo is hit and miss with it being mostly missed. So, I’ve started to go to Canadian news sources. Then the secondary problem is that I cannot share it on Google related pages, such as Facebook. Facebook will not allow any links to Canadian news in their feed. VPN may allow other country access; however, it may also check DNS and GPS so it may not change anything with regard to access. Also there is suggestion that it could be used for illegal purposes https://privacycanada.net/vpns-legal-.... It can help protect privacy, but it can also be used to pirate stuff. I find stuff that is blocked and I leave the site. It isn’t true of everyone it seems. Is it good or is it bad? It depends on the use. I’m proudly Canadian. I simply use it to protect my privacy. I keep the settings for my country. The VPN can make it harder to be hacked.
There is duality in politics which is the talk about ‘Global/World Economy’ https://www.edology.com/blog/accounti... and the terms Global and World seem to be used interchangeably. According to this article it suggests that it isn’t actually in the hands of Governments but in the hands of corporations and banks. In theory it is supposed to help. However, this article https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7864/... suggests that “States with political authority over central economic nodes “…”can weaponize networks to gather information or choke off economic and information flows, discover and exploit vulnerabilities, compel policy change, and deter unwanted actions.” The problem that remains with this is who makes that decision? One of the biggest problems is banks and corporations want to make money. Thus being a business. However, this is a weakness that can be exploited. An example of the misuse of the Global/World Economy is evident in this article about truth social and the ex-US President https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/bu... and is currently being looked at in the courts. When it is exploited, it takes the power away from the people and launches it directly into the hands of the banks and corporations. Governments are left trying to please these entities. When they don’t keep these entities happy there can be sanctions. At this point, no one wins. People are left unable to complete some things, they get frustrated and angry. Then the politicians get blamed for the mess the country is in and there is unrest.
Now on the Canadian politics front, hopefully better news with the newly made changes in the Government. It is a good place to start because the Governments can rally their people and people’s money still talks. Like anything else there seems to be controversy with regard to these changes. They have been fast and evolving. Once I finally got the idea that the news was not going to be easily found, I found the news. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mps-... The first thing that happened was a debacle in which the Speaker of the House resigned (Anthony Rota) due to an ovation for a Nazi war veteran. This was pointed out causing a black eye to the Speaker’s position and the Government in general. Rota resigned. The new Speaker of the House is now MP Greg Fergus and he is the first Black Speaker of the House in Canada. It seems that one of the MP’s was rather confused as to what country he was in. Poilievre is quoted as saying (in the article) “They were the peasants and the farmers who were tired of having their crops taxed away by an impossibly cruel crown.” According to the article at the end of this quote, “most of the common people in the Canadian and Maritime colonies remained neutral and reluctant to become involved in the Revolution to the south.” https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c.... It seems agreed that Canada does not pay Taxes to the UK but there are costs https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/how-muc... , however, they also forget to take into account the trade agreements and the agreements that bring Money to Canada https://www.international.gc.ca/count.... It only shows one side of the story and not the trade agreements side. Here is where Governments can fight for transparency and better conditions. So, now it remains to be seen if the new Speaker of the House of Commons will use his experiences of being a minority in Canada to treat things with respect and dignity stated. There is some hope in this that he may. It seems the US Washington Post gives a glimpse at the US views on the new Speaker https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/.... Since it was a secret vote (done to alleviate biases), that we are seeing better things to come. I hope that the understanding of issues of this country and his experiences will lead to a better understanding of the Government and of the roles and rights of people. He is responsible for relations with other countries, so this may be a way to get things working better.
The next big move forward and an exciting one is the election of the first ever First Nations Premier Wab Kinew (NDP) for the Province of Manitoba (MB). https://apnews.com/article/first-nati.... I am interested to see what he is able to accomplish in his Province. I so hope it is a sign of better things to come. He brings with him a history, culture and understanding of issues that could make great changes in MB and encourage others in Canada. As Premier of the Province he, too is a stakeholder and carries the voices of his people with a majority Government. He knows where his area has been, where it is now and where it could be. Most hopeful to me too is that we are now seeing First Nation people stepping up and working to make changes from within. They are willing to do what it takes to bring Canada forward. “During his victory speech late Tuesday, Kinew said young Indigenous people and those of all backgrounds who are struggling can change their lives for the better.” What can give everyone more hope than those words? A struggling country needs to hear this that we can make change for everyone. He’s said a great deal to inspire people in Manitoba and elsewhere https://apnews.com/article/first-nati.... What says a better Canada more than working together toward a better future? I’m interested to see what steps they take in the Province for health care and other issues. It will be interesting to see if this increases hope and inspires change. Also, his background in economics makes him ideally suited to move forward in dealing with the economic crisis that Manitobans face and encourage Canadians to look toward making better choices. It’s impressive because voting is newer to the First Nations People and in the article it states that “It wasn’t until the 1950s and ’60s that First Nations people were allowed to vote without conditions in provincial and federal elections in Canada.” https://apnews.com/article/first-nati.... This was just one of the issues that faced First Nations people. They were not allowed the vote, not allowed a voice and kept from having a choice in their lives. So, very exciting to see what things will happen in Manitoba.
I’m not saying that it will be an easy job for Canada or Canadians. There are a lot of insecurities in Canada and things that could complicate the job. One of the issues is the current state of economic insecurity in Canada and elsewhere. There is the fact that doing things costs money. So, it will be important to balance the need for change with the need to work within a budget. There is need to balance the needs of the people of the Province with the needs of the Governmental system. These are true of any political sphere but in the case of the NDP party, they are a relative newcomer to Canadian politics being founded in 1961 https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c... https://welcometocanadianpolitics.ca/.... It seems that the NDP is encouraging more transparency in the Free Trade Agreements and less secret meetings as far back as 2020. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/free....
As Jamie Harrison is credited with saying, “With a common-sense approach, we can reduce waste, fraud and abuse, cut back on unnecessary bureaucracy and provide for the pillars of a strong economy and life in our state.” I hope we are seeing the start of a new era in Canadian Politics. I hope that the new changes in Government will be a start on getting power back in the hands of the people! Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
September 30, 2023
Duality in the Life Cycle
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, I look at the concept of duality and life cycle issues. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
This week, I was sitting in the car and thought about something that brought to mind the topic of duality. That brought up other concepts and by the time I got home, I wanted to write something. I just tossed the following up from the top of my head onto X formerly Twitter that night. I just tossed the following up from the top of my head onto X formerly Twitter that night. Of course it got deleted the first time (accidental) and I had to do it again with some variability I’m sure. I place the short piece here as a segue to the topic of duality.
Duality
Scars & the world could change its heart
but you need toughen up dear heart
hit me with your best shot
but don't get caught
love and light
but don't give up the fight
no sin here
just pagan tears
why are you angry today
the world mixes messages every day.
The world seems filled with dualities. I remember as a student in University, there was one course I took that was a suggested one. I wasn’t interested in it. I had no talent for memorizing brain parts or other stuff like that. I wasn’t interested in the biological foundations of Psychology and was struggling with it. There were some options given. One of them was working with rats in the lab. I’d have to kill some…humanely of course was the suggestion. I should mention here I refused to take Biology in High School because I would have to cut up dead frogs. I took Chemistry and Physics instead though I was not a math person either. At one point in High School, the Physics teacher told me not to take the second part of it or I’d likely fail it. I was so angry being told I couldn’t do something; I took the second part and passed it well enough. Now, back to the University and the Biological foundations of Psychology course, I talked to the Professor about the course. The sum of the argument was you have “toughen up”. Those were two of the exact words. I was interested in the psychological aspects of human nature and not the neurological aspects. With Psychology, I loved the concepts involved and the ideas I could play with and the potential to help people. I finally went to talk to someone before the course drop out date. I asked if it was necessary that I take that course. I was happy enough when they said that I should take it, but it would not be required to get the degree. The actual decision was mostly made because I wanted to work with people and this person was telling me I had to toughen up. So, in the end, I dropped the course and took something else. The thing I took away from that and I’m sure everyone else who has a sensitive nature and gets the same talk is that it was not OK to be myself I had to be tough. The other message from High School was that other people decided what I was capable of (Physics). I should be someone who could not feel and let someone else control what I could do.
The world sends mixed messages all the time and some of them; I’m still not sure how I feel about. I am using this blog to explore one of them. Right now, it seems the world is telling women that they don’t have the capacity to make their own choices in their procreating life in some areas of the world including the USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortio.... It seems they pathologize women to a larger extent than men. Women who suffer from PMDD or PMS is a controversial topic. Why? First, what is PMDD and PMS? PMDD is premenstrual dysphoric disorder while PMS is Premenstrual Syndrome. PMDD is suggested to affect between 5-9% of women. They suggest medications usually used with depression, but try to separate why it isn’t depression. On the other hand, "It's a label that can be used by a sexist society that wants to believe that many women go crazy once a month," https://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pmdd Yet, at the same time, there seems some women who do suffer from it. They do point out, however, "Women are supposed to be cheerleaders," and "When a woman is anything but that, she and her family are quick to think something is wrong." https://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pmdd. The same article suggests based on some studies, “that PMDD sufferers have "normal functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, show biologic characteristics generally related to the serotonin system, and a genetic component unrelated to major depression." On the other hand, “By including PMDD in the DSM-IV, …, emotional displays that are considered normal in men are seen as a mental disorder in women. Any normal hormonal change in people of either sex can exacerbate migraines, thyroid problems, etc., but no one suggests calling...men's hormonal changes kinds of mental illness." https://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pmdd
This statement from another source about normal fluctuations and cultural effect was very telling to me. The study suggests that “…self-care and coping strategies were reported to have a beneficial effect on women’s moods, and their ability to control the experience and expression of negative emotion, resulting in significant reductions in premenstrual distress (Ussher and Perz 2017).” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NB... Further they state, “This form of women-centered psychological support can be effective in supporting women in the process of moving from an abject to an agentic subject position, without positioning her as needing to be managed, or her body as an unruly vessel that needs to be contained by experts (Ussher 2008a).” So, are we too sensitive, or are we influenced by factors outside of our control? Why does this matter? It matters because we need to either decide to be victims or decide to be survivors. Does it matter politically? We see what pathologizing the woman’s body is doing and it is causing political and social unrest. We see how women’s bodies are talked about as something that needs to be controlled. We can’t be trusted with our own decisions. If a man has fluctuating changes, in hormones, it is not a mental health diagnosis, but rather a physical health one. https://www.mountsinai.org/care/endoc.... From the link, I see that they treat this under the endocrinology department and not the mental health department. If PMDD and PMS are due to hormonal issues, then would it not be fair to also deal with them in endocrinology or some medical specialty? The same can be said of male menopause https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/male-me.... However, there are arguments as to whether it exists at all or not. Again, it is seen as a medical issue and not a mental health issue, though there is acknowledgement that anxiety and depression can co-exist https://www.healthline.com/health/men... and they state “It’s normal to experience a decline in your testosterone levels as you get older. For many men, the symptoms are manageable, even without treatment. If your symptoms are causing you hardship, speak to your doctor.” Meanwhile, I see menopause gets treated as a mental health disorder. https://focus.psychiatryonline.org/do... “events, and socioeconomic status were found to contribute to first-onset mood disorders during perimenopause. Treatment options include established medication regimens for psychiatric conditions…” I’m not saying problems don’t exist. I’m saying there is a disparity in the treatment of men and women. Women are seen as having a mental health condition while men are seen as having a medical condition.
So, am I being too sensitive? Is there disparity in treatment of women’s life cycle changes vs. men’s life cycle changes? Is it important? There always seem so many questions and yet so few solid answers. There is disagreement and yet there are things that seem to point toward one direction and others to another. I think the following quote gives the most reasonable answer. “You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality. Staying yourself is part of the battle.” attributed to Julian Seifter. Of course, this presumes illness but not necessarily mental illness. Many mental health issues have a biological basis. Treating people as human beings is an important step. As Helen Keller is credited with saying, “Women have discovered that they cannot rely on men’s chivalry to give them justice.” It seems in the political sphere this may be true. The thing we have to acknowledge and work with is that the men in our lives are the ones that can help with this transition to women’s mental health being more women’s mental wellness and less about victimization and having to be perfect little wives, mothers, daughters, etc. We need to work together to try to make the most out of wellness and stop pathologizing our life cycles. We need to change the world for the better for everyone and stop entering the bedrooms of the world. We are stronger together than we are apart. We will be able to move forward better together and determine better treatments rather than denying what is happening to ourselves. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
This week, I was sitting in the car and thought about something that brought to mind the topic of duality. That brought up other concepts and by the time I got home, I wanted to write something. I just tossed the following up from the top of my head onto X formerly Twitter that night. I just tossed the following up from the top of my head onto X formerly Twitter that night. Of course it got deleted the first time (accidental) and I had to do it again with some variability I’m sure. I place the short piece here as a segue to the topic of duality.
Duality
Scars & the world could change its heart
but you need toughen up dear heart
hit me with your best shot
but don't get caught
love and light
but don't give up the fight
no sin here
just pagan tears
why are you angry today
the world mixes messages every day.
The world seems filled with dualities. I remember as a student in University, there was one course I took that was a suggested one. I wasn’t interested in it. I had no talent for memorizing brain parts or other stuff like that. I wasn’t interested in the biological foundations of Psychology and was struggling with it. There were some options given. One of them was working with rats in the lab. I’d have to kill some…humanely of course was the suggestion. I should mention here I refused to take Biology in High School because I would have to cut up dead frogs. I took Chemistry and Physics instead though I was not a math person either. At one point in High School, the Physics teacher told me not to take the second part of it or I’d likely fail it. I was so angry being told I couldn’t do something; I took the second part and passed it well enough. Now, back to the University and the Biological foundations of Psychology course, I talked to the Professor about the course. The sum of the argument was you have “toughen up”. Those were two of the exact words. I was interested in the psychological aspects of human nature and not the neurological aspects. With Psychology, I loved the concepts involved and the ideas I could play with and the potential to help people. I finally went to talk to someone before the course drop out date. I asked if it was necessary that I take that course. I was happy enough when they said that I should take it, but it would not be required to get the degree. The actual decision was mostly made because I wanted to work with people and this person was telling me I had to toughen up. So, in the end, I dropped the course and took something else. The thing I took away from that and I’m sure everyone else who has a sensitive nature and gets the same talk is that it was not OK to be myself I had to be tough. The other message from High School was that other people decided what I was capable of (Physics). I should be someone who could not feel and let someone else control what I could do.
The world sends mixed messages all the time and some of them; I’m still not sure how I feel about. I am using this blog to explore one of them. Right now, it seems the world is telling women that they don’t have the capacity to make their own choices in their procreating life in some areas of the world including the USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortio.... It seems they pathologize women to a larger extent than men. Women who suffer from PMDD or PMS is a controversial topic. Why? First, what is PMDD and PMS? PMDD is premenstrual dysphoric disorder while PMS is Premenstrual Syndrome. PMDD is suggested to affect between 5-9% of women. They suggest medications usually used with depression, but try to separate why it isn’t depression. On the other hand, "It's a label that can be used by a sexist society that wants to believe that many women go crazy once a month," https://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pmdd Yet, at the same time, there seems some women who do suffer from it. They do point out, however, "Women are supposed to be cheerleaders," and "When a woman is anything but that, she and her family are quick to think something is wrong." https://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pmdd. The same article suggests based on some studies, “that PMDD sufferers have "normal functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, show biologic characteristics generally related to the serotonin system, and a genetic component unrelated to major depression." On the other hand, “By including PMDD in the DSM-IV, …, emotional displays that are considered normal in men are seen as a mental disorder in women. Any normal hormonal change in people of either sex can exacerbate migraines, thyroid problems, etc., but no one suggests calling...men's hormonal changes kinds of mental illness." https://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pmdd
This statement from another source about normal fluctuations and cultural effect was very telling to me. The study suggests that “…self-care and coping strategies were reported to have a beneficial effect on women’s moods, and their ability to control the experience and expression of negative emotion, resulting in significant reductions in premenstrual distress (Ussher and Perz 2017).” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NB... Further they state, “This form of women-centered psychological support can be effective in supporting women in the process of moving from an abject to an agentic subject position, without positioning her as needing to be managed, or her body as an unruly vessel that needs to be contained by experts (Ussher 2008a).” So, are we too sensitive, or are we influenced by factors outside of our control? Why does this matter? It matters because we need to either decide to be victims or decide to be survivors. Does it matter politically? We see what pathologizing the woman’s body is doing and it is causing political and social unrest. We see how women’s bodies are talked about as something that needs to be controlled. We can’t be trusted with our own decisions. If a man has fluctuating changes, in hormones, it is not a mental health diagnosis, but rather a physical health one. https://www.mountsinai.org/care/endoc.... From the link, I see that they treat this under the endocrinology department and not the mental health department. If PMDD and PMS are due to hormonal issues, then would it not be fair to also deal with them in endocrinology or some medical specialty? The same can be said of male menopause https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/male-me.... However, there are arguments as to whether it exists at all or not. Again, it is seen as a medical issue and not a mental health issue, though there is acknowledgement that anxiety and depression can co-exist https://www.healthline.com/health/men... and they state “It’s normal to experience a decline in your testosterone levels as you get older. For many men, the symptoms are manageable, even without treatment. If your symptoms are causing you hardship, speak to your doctor.” Meanwhile, I see menopause gets treated as a mental health disorder. https://focus.psychiatryonline.org/do... “events, and socioeconomic status were found to contribute to first-onset mood disorders during perimenopause. Treatment options include established medication regimens for psychiatric conditions…” I’m not saying problems don’t exist. I’m saying there is a disparity in the treatment of men and women. Women are seen as having a mental health condition while men are seen as having a medical condition.
So, am I being too sensitive? Is there disparity in treatment of women’s life cycle changes vs. men’s life cycle changes? Is it important? There always seem so many questions and yet so few solid answers. There is disagreement and yet there are things that seem to point toward one direction and others to another. I think the following quote gives the most reasonable answer. “You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality. Staying yourself is part of the battle.” attributed to Julian Seifter. Of course, this presumes illness but not necessarily mental illness. Many mental health issues have a biological basis. Treating people as human beings is an important step. As Helen Keller is credited with saying, “Women have discovered that they cannot rely on men’s chivalry to give them justice.” It seems in the political sphere this may be true. The thing we have to acknowledge and work with is that the men in our lives are the ones that can help with this transition to women’s mental health being more women’s mental wellness and less about victimization and having to be perfect little wives, mothers, daughters, etc. We need to work together to try to make the most out of wellness and stop pathologizing our life cycles. We need to change the world for the better for everyone and stop entering the bedrooms of the world. We are stronger together than we are apart. We will be able to move forward better together and determine better treatments rather than denying what is happening to ourselves. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
September 23, 2023
Feeding Frenzy
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, I talk about some phenomena that seem to be on the rise in the news. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
This week the news seems to be showing more and more the attention getting side of the news that is becoming increasingly alarming. According to https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo... “News is that part of communication that keeps us informed of the changing events, issues, and characters in the world outside. Though it may be interesting or even entertaining, the foremost value of news is as a utility to empower the informed.” I’ve found that to be less the case. While getting ready to write the draft, I came across news articles that seemed just to sensationalize things. https://ca.style.yahoo.com/ectopic-pr... which talks about someone who had lost her first baby to ectopic pregnancy and talking about her rainbow baby. At first, it gave a bit of an impression that there might be a problem with this pregnancy as well though not the topic of the article. Now, from the wide angle lens, this seems rather difficult for a mother who just had the trauma and now using her as a starting point to talk about her ectopic pregnancy in general. I think the thing that struck me most when I first started reading it, I felt … oh no, is she having trouble with this one too? It took a bit of the article to realize that she is having a healthy baby this time. They just wanted a starting point. Now that in itself doesn’t seem to be a bad thing. However, having known women who lost pregnancies, I know it isn’t all that simple. There is a lot of trauma that goes with this and I can’t imagine how difficult it is for the new mother to be. https://www.healthline.com/health/pre.... She might be OK with it. I don’t know, but she did talk about the trauma from the loss of her baby directly online. The article I found shows some issues for women in this situation. The article (https://www.healthline.com/health/pre...) does state that there is anxiety, guilt and other emotions that go with this time because of the lost baby. There are lots of different feelings for the woman in this situation. The other issue that we run into is that we cannot talk about ectopic pregnancy without triggering thoughts on the latest issues in the news. In anti-abortion states, would they allow the ectopic pregnancy to be ended? This is just a thought that we need to consider when we go into reproductive rights. It seems currently the issue of reproductive rights is being fought again. https://library.law.howard.edu/civilr.... This battle has already been fought in the 1960’s and now we’re fighting it again. Are we just going to keep repeating history? Are we endangering women and female children just to take control over their rights? How is this not a Human Rights issue? It is important for everyone to take these issues seriously. Men need to be included in this fight https://time.com/6224660/abortion-rig... . In this, it is their wives, daughters, sisters, mothers who could be negatively impacted. At the same time, why are we telling women that they have no control over their reproductive rights? Men should control them. It is fundamentally telling women that they are not competent to make their own decisions. We need better education and access to factual information.
When looking at women in the news, the following news story really failed to make the point with regard to the treatment of women. https://globalnews.ca/news/9971139/te... showed a picture of a bagged item stuck on a toilet seat and this was used in both Canadian and US news https://nationalpost.com/news/world/1.... It has similar stories on the same topic and both post a picture of a bag of presumably a cell taped to the toilet. When one looks at that picture, the story is kind of confusing. Once reading the story, you determine that the phone was actually taped to the toilet seat (no bag is mentioned) and the whole thing was rather a scary story for the girl and her family. It might behoove the various outlets to make photography on their sites a bit more appropriate to the story. At least https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/... only put a picture of the toilet seat in an airplane on. One of the things I found is that not only does the news article make a point, but the picture sets a mood and it can degrade the seriousness of the story and in this case the seriousness of what was done to this young girl. It may or may not be a purposeful action. We need to examine our own biases in these situations as well. Like it or not, we all have them. The message I’m getting across here is that one has to set a cohesive message and take women’s issues more seriously. It is your mother, sister, cousin, aunt, etc that is being affected by the way women are treated in the media. Whether or not the media likes it, they are perpetuating myths. It does not help to see a packaged up thing taped to the toilet seat and muddies the context and it degrades the story and the situation.
The importance of journalism is often shown in a statement I found most illuminating in one Journalism article (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...). It is the title of one section which is, “Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth”. Sometimes it seems it is given short shrift by those who want to present false rhetoric. Sometimes it is because of the biases that are inherent in the system. It is important “They … strive to put the public interest – and the truth – above their own self-interest or assumptions.” Further, though “Being impartial or neutral is not a core principle of journalism. Because the journalist must make decisions, he or she is not and cannot be objective. But journalistic methods are objective.” They also say that the methods need transparency and to be verifiable. People need to understand that “This discipline of verification is what separates journalism from other forms of communication such as propaganda, advertising, fiction, or entertainment.” (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...) With all these cornerstones of journalistic integrity, it seems we need to go back to the roots of journalism. Everything hinges on accuracy, reliability and integrity. I have to make it clear that there are definitely journalists and news sources that do report accurately and do it well; however it is important to keep these ideals in mind for all journalism. They are the ones people should be following. What people need now is factual information. It isn’t controversial statements, or pointing fingers at people that will win the war of intolerance, injustice and greed. It is the determined journalist out in the field who is going to bring you the factual news and who sloughs it out day by day and breaks the story as it is. The good news sources are the ones that show society as it is warts and all and makes the truth known. Yes, they still exist. They don’t make up the news and do what makes sense and try to provide back up and factual information. If it is their judgment, they say so.
I would highly recommend the article (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...) to those questioning what the news is supposed to be about nowadays. The news apparently, is not there to be disingenuous or to follow one viewpoint. “Keeping news in proportion is a cornerstone of truthfulness. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping, or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map.” (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...). We rely on the news and on articles to give evidence of what is said.
It is interesting that “People understand and accept, for instance, that doctors serve a Hippocratic Oath that requires they try to save people they may hate,…” (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...) However, I see some news sources report news one way and others another way and sometimes it seems strongly biased for some sources and not others. Some report both sides of the situation as much as possible. This can be seen in some sources, for example of our Canadian coverage of the current school controversy about gender laws on the Provincial level in Canada while the Federal level encourages diversity. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/rallie.... There are concerns about the rights of children and parents of LGBTQ2S+ in this. In it, at least both sides are given some exposure. I see some news sources like Fox seem to report using words that are more divisive. The use and choice of words matters in reporting in Women’s Issues as well as other groups. Biased reporting is neither fair to minority groups nor especially helpful in seeing the sides of the issue. It keeps issues political in nature and continues to present as though there is only one side to take in the issue. The example I have chosen comes from https://www.foxnews.com/world/uk-scho... for example, upon trying to go to two of the links in the article, one wanted me to sign into something and the other went back to a website with nothing specific to be able to link to. The issue seemed to be Diversity Week. The attitude it seemed to display is that it was enforced. It is simply a week giving advice to schools on how to celebrate tolerance and diversity if they choose to. The story narrative makes it sound like some kind of indoctrination. One of the organizations they choose had recently added resources to help faith schools (https://www.justlikeus.org/blog/2023/...) who were interested. It’s actually quite lovely to see encouragement of diversity in the school system. It is a week of encouraging inclusion and diversity and an attempt to help with another aspect. This seems also a small program considering they serve 5,000 schools across the whole UK (https://can-do.bracknell-forest.gov.u...) and having looked it up, there are actually 32,226 schools in the UK in the 2021/22 year https://www.statista.com/statistics/2.... The programs that they discuss in the article helps with education for schools and teachers that choose to participate. The group is very transparent and you can sign in to get information. https://www.justlikeus.org/blog/2023/....
What I’ve seen this week is that it isn’t just what you report, but how you report it that can have a huge impact on people and their decisions with regard to ‘hot’ topics. The ones I choose are just a few as I cannot pick out all of them. False information, misinformation, myth and outrage can create a perfect storm and harm a portion of the population. We see it in the news all the time. Sometimes we even see it in the form of comments that vilify a certain group based on race, religion, orientation or even disability attached to the news stories. How can we even think there is a chance for world peace and a better world, if we can’t even let our children learn love and tolerance rather than hate and dissent? We are horrified by all the crimes caused by children and to children, yet we preach not in our neighbourhood, not in our school, not in our life. Many deny that it is happening. No, the discrimination isn’t happening here they say. Sorry, yes, the discrimination is happening here. It’s in the news stories sometimes. It’s in the comments often. It’s out there and it is killing people. If we want that better world, then we have to be that better world. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
This week the news seems to be showing more and more the attention getting side of the news that is becoming increasingly alarming. According to https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo... “News is that part of communication that keeps us informed of the changing events, issues, and characters in the world outside. Though it may be interesting or even entertaining, the foremost value of news is as a utility to empower the informed.” I’ve found that to be less the case. While getting ready to write the draft, I came across news articles that seemed just to sensationalize things. https://ca.style.yahoo.com/ectopic-pr... which talks about someone who had lost her first baby to ectopic pregnancy and talking about her rainbow baby. At first, it gave a bit of an impression that there might be a problem with this pregnancy as well though not the topic of the article. Now, from the wide angle lens, this seems rather difficult for a mother who just had the trauma and now using her as a starting point to talk about her ectopic pregnancy in general. I think the thing that struck me most when I first started reading it, I felt … oh no, is she having trouble with this one too? It took a bit of the article to realize that she is having a healthy baby this time. They just wanted a starting point. Now that in itself doesn’t seem to be a bad thing. However, having known women who lost pregnancies, I know it isn’t all that simple. There is a lot of trauma that goes with this and I can’t imagine how difficult it is for the new mother to be. https://www.healthline.com/health/pre.... She might be OK with it. I don’t know, but she did talk about the trauma from the loss of her baby directly online. The article I found shows some issues for women in this situation. The article (https://www.healthline.com/health/pre...) does state that there is anxiety, guilt and other emotions that go with this time because of the lost baby. There are lots of different feelings for the woman in this situation. The other issue that we run into is that we cannot talk about ectopic pregnancy without triggering thoughts on the latest issues in the news. In anti-abortion states, would they allow the ectopic pregnancy to be ended? This is just a thought that we need to consider when we go into reproductive rights. It seems currently the issue of reproductive rights is being fought again. https://library.law.howard.edu/civilr.... This battle has already been fought in the 1960’s and now we’re fighting it again. Are we just going to keep repeating history? Are we endangering women and female children just to take control over their rights? How is this not a Human Rights issue? It is important for everyone to take these issues seriously. Men need to be included in this fight https://time.com/6224660/abortion-rig... . In this, it is their wives, daughters, sisters, mothers who could be negatively impacted. At the same time, why are we telling women that they have no control over their reproductive rights? Men should control them. It is fundamentally telling women that they are not competent to make their own decisions. We need better education and access to factual information.
When looking at women in the news, the following news story really failed to make the point with regard to the treatment of women. https://globalnews.ca/news/9971139/te... showed a picture of a bagged item stuck on a toilet seat and this was used in both Canadian and US news https://nationalpost.com/news/world/1.... It has similar stories on the same topic and both post a picture of a bag of presumably a cell taped to the toilet. When one looks at that picture, the story is kind of confusing. Once reading the story, you determine that the phone was actually taped to the toilet seat (no bag is mentioned) and the whole thing was rather a scary story for the girl and her family. It might behoove the various outlets to make photography on their sites a bit more appropriate to the story. At least https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/... only put a picture of the toilet seat in an airplane on. One of the things I found is that not only does the news article make a point, but the picture sets a mood and it can degrade the seriousness of the story and in this case the seriousness of what was done to this young girl. It may or may not be a purposeful action. We need to examine our own biases in these situations as well. Like it or not, we all have them. The message I’m getting across here is that one has to set a cohesive message and take women’s issues more seriously. It is your mother, sister, cousin, aunt, etc that is being affected by the way women are treated in the media. Whether or not the media likes it, they are perpetuating myths. It does not help to see a packaged up thing taped to the toilet seat and muddies the context and it degrades the story and the situation.
The importance of journalism is often shown in a statement I found most illuminating in one Journalism article (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...). It is the title of one section which is, “Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth”. Sometimes it seems it is given short shrift by those who want to present false rhetoric. Sometimes it is because of the biases that are inherent in the system. It is important “They … strive to put the public interest – and the truth – above their own self-interest or assumptions.” Further, though “Being impartial or neutral is not a core principle of journalism. Because the journalist must make decisions, he or she is not and cannot be objective. But journalistic methods are objective.” They also say that the methods need transparency and to be verifiable. People need to understand that “This discipline of verification is what separates journalism from other forms of communication such as propaganda, advertising, fiction, or entertainment.” (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...) With all these cornerstones of journalistic integrity, it seems we need to go back to the roots of journalism. Everything hinges on accuracy, reliability and integrity. I have to make it clear that there are definitely journalists and news sources that do report accurately and do it well; however it is important to keep these ideals in mind for all journalism. They are the ones people should be following. What people need now is factual information. It isn’t controversial statements, or pointing fingers at people that will win the war of intolerance, injustice and greed. It is the determined journalist out in the field who is going to bring you the factual news and who sloughs it out day by day and breaks the story as it is. The good news sources are the ones that show society as it is warts and all and makes the truth known. Yes, they still exist. They don’t make up the news and do what makes sense and try to provide back up and factual information. If it is their judgment, they say so.
I would highly recommend the article (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...) to those questioning what the news is supposed to be about nowadays. The news apparently, is not there to be disingenuous or to follow one viewpoint. “Keeping news in proportion is a cornerstone of truthfulness. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping, or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map.” (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...). We rely on the news and on articles to give evidence of what is said.
It is interesting that “People understand and accept, for instance, that doctors serve a Hippocratic Oath that requires they try to save people they may hate,…” (https://americanpressinstitute.org/jo...) However, I see some news sources report news one way and others another way and sometimes it seems strongly biased for some sources and not others. Some report both sides of the situation as much as possible. This can be seen in some sources, for example of our Canadian coverage of the current school controversy about gender laws on the Provincial level in Canada while the Federal level encourages diversity. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/rallie.... There are concerns about the rights of children and parents of LGBTQ2S+ in this. In it, at least both sides are given some exposure. I see some news sources like Fox seem to report using words that are more divisive. The use and choice of words matters in reporting in Women’s Issues as well as other groups. Biased reporting is neither fair to minority groups nor especially helpful in seeing the sides of the issue. It keeps issues political in nature and continues to present as though there is only one side to take in the issue. The example I have chosen comes from https://www.foxnews.com/world/uk-scho... for example, upon trying to go to two of the links in the article, one wanted me to sign into something and the other went back to a website with nothing specific to be able to link to. The issue seemed to be Diversity Week. The attitude it seemed to display is that it was enforced. It is simply a week giving advice to schools on how to celebrate tolerance and diversity if they choose to. The story narrative makes it sound like some kind of indoctrination. One of the organizations they choose had recently added resources to help faith schools (https://www.justlikeus.org/blog/2023/...) who were interested. It’s actually quite lovely to see encouragement of diversity in the school system. It is a week of encouraging inclusion and diversity and an attempt to help with another aspect. This seems also a small program considering they serve 5,000 schools across the whole UK (https://can-do.bracknell-forest.gov.u...) and having looked it up, there are actually 32,226 schools in the UK in the 2021/22 year https://www.statista.com/statistics/2.... The programs that they discuss in the article helps with education for schools and teachers that choose to participate. The group is very transparent and you can sign in to get information. https://www.justlikeus.org/blog/2023/....
What I’ve seen this week is that it isn’t just what you report, but how you report it that can have a huge impact on people and their decisions with regard to ‘hot’ topics. The ones I choose are just a few as I cannot pick out all of them. False information, misinformation, myth and outrage can create a perfect storm and harm a portion of the population. We see it in the news all the time. Sometimes we even see it in the form of comments that vilify a certain group based on race, religion, orientation or even disability attached to the news stories. How can we even think there is a chance for world peace and a better world, if we can’t even let our children learn love and tolerance rather than hate and dissent? We are horrified by all the crimes caused by children and to children, yet we preach not in our neighbourhood, not in our school, not in our life. Many deny that it is happening. No, the discrimination isn’t happening here they say. Sorry, yes, the discrimination is happening here. It’s in the news stories sometimes. It’s in the comments often. It’s out there and it is killing people. If we want that better world, then we have to be that better world. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
September 16, 2023
Evolution of the Hurricane
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, I look at the evolution of the hurricane. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
We are currently sitting in an age where they are announcing Hurricane Lee which has alternated between various grades and watches and warnings. There were tons of different models on computer of it. Yet with all the models, we cannot pin down nature. It’s still a developing story. We get different models. All the models cannot tell them how bad it will be when it hits and we can still only go with computer models. This just goes to prove that Nature is not as predictable as we think it is. Neither are a lot of things in life. Some things we think we know could have deeper meaning than we think. Delving further into some well-used terms reveals some interesting information from the eye of the hurricane.
Of course, the weather is not the only storm and ports in the storm are sometimes hard to find. We are faced with choices that we have to make every day. Do we speak out, do we keep the status quo? What should we choose to support or not support? For this concept, I look at something that grabbed my attention with regard to media. The term is ‘cancel culture’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancel_.... The interesting factor according to Wikipedia is “The term "cancel culture" is predominantly used when these responses are to right-wing actions or speech, but is rare when the responses are to left-wing actions or speech.” Also, “The expression "cancel culture" came in circulation in the late 2010s and early 2020s and has mostly negative connotations,[8] often used polemically by self-described advocates for free speech and against censorship.” So, given these two quotes, is cancel culture something that is being used to punish people for having views toward tolerance by manipulating people into thinking that they are being negative toward the right wing? Is it an attempt to silence people from expressing views supporting the minority groups?
More interestingly there is another term that isn’t used as much. This term is "Call-out culture" which seems to be more in tune with another concept that I am familiar with which is Karma. Karma, at least in the simplest form is essentially logical consequences for actions. This quick definition is a bit of an oversimplification however this article will give more info for those wanting to learn more on the concept https://www.healthline.com/health/law... . For example, as the article states, “Additionally, the Black Lives Matter Movement, which seeks to highlight inequalities, racism and discrimination in the black community, repeatedly called out black men being killed by police.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancel_.... So, it seems that there is a general view of words that is harder to tease apart than one might think. When it comes to terms, the more you know the easier it is to decide things or is it? Information is easily made misleading. Is it right to cancel people is the next idea. A study by “Norris also mentions that the spiral of silence theory may be a contributing factor as to why people are hesitant to voice their own minority views on social media sites in fear that their views and opinions, specifically political opinions, will be chastised because their views violate the majority group's norms and understanding.” So, it appears at first glance that we may be supporting the status quo by being afraid of ‘cancel culture’. Is it a media manipulation, is it an important concept that we should be wary of? The one thing I do know is that there is no agreement on it. My take on the concept is that people should say what they think and feel. They need to understand that there is nothing you can say that may not have consequences. The most difficult consequences seem to be toward minority groups. It seems that with most statements, I see comments going either direction. On almost any post I find statements for, against and totally unrelated to the post. So, who is right? Maybe no one is right. I would rather err on the side of tolerance for my fellow humans than on the side of intolerance.
It seems that those who try to ‘stay out of it’ can end up having it backfire on them. https://hbr.org/2022/08/when-staying-.... What they found, according to this article they: “consistently found that people tend to be more suspicious and less trusting of coworkers, managers, and public figures who decline to take sides than of those who openly express an opinion — even if it’s an opinion with which they disagree.” The factor that is interesting in this article is that they also have some real life examples. They end the article with the following suggestion: “In an increasingly polarized workplace and world, building trust hinges on finding ways to discuss our beliefs and values, even (and especially) with people who disagree. So if someone asks for your opinion, be considerate, thoughtful, and respectful — but don’t be afraid to take a side.” So, it seems that to say something might or might not get you in trouble. Say what you mean and mean what you say because people are watching. At the same time, there are times when there is no good answer. That’s what makes it difficult. Sometimes it is better not to react than react. This does not mean that you enable others, nor does it mean that you have to use cruelty to make your point. This is where people get confused. With the background in Psychology, it was definitely a requirement of the area of study to state things tentatively. The training includes many red marks on papers and rewrites because they keep telling one that there is no absolute. Standardization is king and I got a huge lecture on messing with a study’s question after they were constructed when in my Masters. So, as a result, I got used to stating things tentatively. The thing people need to consider is that new information becomes available daily and psychology is not a field that we talk in absolutes. I try to balance the fact that I could be wrong, some information might not be accurate and it might change somewhat over time. It’s not a dithering component to my information. It’s an acknowledgement that information can be fallible. Since information comes from people, information can change over time. We’ve seen it in history with Tudor England. We see it from different perspectives. Women’s perspectives on the historical period help to see it from different viewpoints. To some it is annoying and often I find myself explaining psychological studies because they state something but not with a definite. Sadly, it creates angst with the general public and confusion and misinterpretation of study results. Meanwhile in business, they tend to state things more specifically and more determinedly. It is quite different to say the information could change with more data than saying here is data I have. Now I’m just going to change it.
The other side of the coin seems to be clearer with the term “Woke”. Interestingly enough the definition is given as: “Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination".[1][2] Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and LGBT rights.” Further, “Among American conservatives and some centrists, woke has come to be used primarily as an insult.[4][29][43] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke. If you look at it from the left political side, it is seen as a compliment. It seems that the terms are created to appeal to political ideals. Strangely enough, this has created more issues than it has resolved. We now have ambiguous language that makes the terms undeniably used and misused at the same time. As early as 1985, Murray Edelman states that “those who focus specifically political language are chiefly concerned with its capacity to reflect ideology, mystify and distort.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/418800.
When one discusses these political concepts, we are discussing words specifically chosen by political people on whichever side of the argument. Perhaps if we decided to discuss things in a more direct way we might be able to see the problems more clearly. The personal becomes political and the words are changed to be used in whatever way suits the wind directionality in the political sphere. Are they lying, not really, they are dissembling (conceal one's true motives, feelings, or beliefs. (Oxford Languages dictionary) and making it harder to get at the main issues. They can direct the discourse. They can control how people see the situation and polarize us against each other. The major thing that everyone needs to understand is that each one of us has to live with each other in this world as well as with political decisions. Edelman states that “it challenges us to examine the complex link between language and meaning and simplifying language might not be the only factor.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/418800.
“The phrase "the personal is political" was popularized by second-wave feminism in the late 1960s and was also important in the civil rights movement, student movement, and black power movement. It underscored the connections between personal experience and larger social and political structures.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_per.... Sadly, we are still fighting the same battles within the political sphere that we were fighting for the past 60+ years and longer. As H. L. Mencken is credited with saying, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” Is this why things aren’t being accomplished in the political sphere? It’s up to us to decide. There’s a hurricane coming and we need to be ready to make our ideas clear in our own minds or we will continue to be fooled. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM:
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
We are currently sitting in an age where they are announcing Hurricane Lee which has alternated between various grades and watches and warnings. There were tons of different models on computer of it. Yet with all the models, we cannot pin down nature. It’s still a developing story. We get different models. All the models cannot tell them how bad it will be when it hits and we can still only go with computer models. This just goes to prove that Nature is not as predictable as we think it is. Neither are a lot of things in life. Some things we think we know could have deeper meaning than we think. Delving further into some well-used terms reveals some interesting information from the eye of the hurricane.
Of course, the weather is not the only storm and ports in the storm are sometimes hard to find. We are faced with choices that we have to make every day. Do we speak out, do we keep the status quo? What should we choose to support or not support? For this concept, I look at something that grabbed my attention with regard to media. The term is ‘cancel culture’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancel_.... The interesting factor according to Wikipedia is “The term "cancel culture" is predominantly used when these responses are to right-wing actions or speech, but is rare when the responses are to left-wing actions or speech.” Also, “The expression "cancel culture" came in circulation in the late 2010s and early 2020s and has mostly negative connotations,[8] often used polemically by self-described advocates for free speech and against censorship.” So, given these two quotes, is cancel culture something that is being used to punish people for having views toward tolerance by manipulating people into thinking that they are being negative toward the right wing? Is it an attempt to silence people from expressing views supporting the minority groups?
More interestingly there is another term that isn’t used as much. This term is "Call-out culture" which seems to be more in tune with another concept that I am familiar with which is Karma. Karma, at least in the simplest form is essentially logical consequences for actions. This quick definition is a bit of an oversimplification however this article will give more info for those wanting to learn more on the concept https://www.healthline.com/health/law... . For example, as the article states, “Additionally, the Black Lives Matter Movement, which seeks to highlight inequalities, racism and discrimination in the black community, repeatedly called out black men being killed by police.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancel_.... So, it seems that there is a general view of words that is harder to tease apart than one might think. When it comes to terms, the more you know the easier it is to decide things or is it? Information is easily made misleading. Is it right to cancel people is the next idea. A study by “Norris also mentions that the spiral of silence theory may be a contributing factor as to why people are hesitant to voice their own minority views on social media sites in fear that their views and opinions, specifically political opinions, will be chastised because their views violate the majority group's norms and understanding.” So, it appears at first glance that we may be supporting the status quo by being afraid of ‘cancel culture’. Is it a media manipulation, is it an important concept that we should be wary of? The one thing I do know is that there is no agreement on it. My take on the concept is that people should say what they think and feel. They need to understand that there is nothing you can say that may not have consequences. The most difficult consequences seem to be toward minority groups. It seems that with most statements, I see comments going either direction. On almost any post I find statements for, against and totally unrelated to the post. So, who is right? Maybe no one is right. I would rather err on the side of tolerance for my fellow humans than on the side of intolerance.
It seems that those who try to ‘stay out of it’ can end up having it backfire on them. https://hbr.org/2022/08/when-staying-.... What they found, according to this article they: “consistently found that people tend to be more suspicious and less trusting of coworkers, managers, and public figures who decline to take sides than of those who openly express an opinion — even if it’s an opinion with which they disagree.” The factor that is interesting in this article is that they also have some real life examples. They end the article with the following suggestion: “In an increasingly polarized workplace and world, building trust hinges on finding ways to discuss our beliefs and values, even (and especially) with people who disagree. So if someone asks for your opinion, be considerate, thoughtful, and respectful — but don’t be afraid to take a side.” So, it seems that to say something might or might not get you in trouble. Say what you mean and mean what you say because people are watching. At the same time, there are times when there is no good answer. That’s what makes it difficult. Sometimes it is better not to react than react. This does not mean that you enable others, nor does it mean that you have to use cruelty to make your point. This is where people get confused. With the background in Psychology, it was definitely a requirement of the area of study to state things tentatively. The training includes many red marks on papers and rewrites because they keep telling one that there is no absolute. Standardization is king and I got a huge lecture on messing with a study’s question after they were constructed when in my Masters. So, as a result, I got used to stating things tentatively. The thing people need to consider is that new information becomes available daily and psychology is not a field that we talk in absolutes. I try to balance the fact that I could be wrong, some information might not be accurate and it might change somewhat over time. It’s not a dithering component to my information. It’s an acknowledgement that information can be fallible. Since information comes from people, information can change over time. We’ve seen it in history with Tudor England. We see it from different perspectives. Women’s perspectives on the historical period help to see it from different viewpoints. To some it is annoying and often I find myself explaining psychological studies because they state something but not with a definite. Sadly, it creates angst with the general public and confusion and misinterpretation of study results. Meanwhile in business, they tend to state things more specifically and more determinedly. It is quite different to say the information could change with more data than saying here is data I have. Now I’m just going to change it.
The other side of the coin seems to be clearer with the term “Woke”. Interestingly enough the definition is given as: “Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination".[1][2] Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and LGBT rights.” Further, “Among American conservatives and some centrists, woke has come to be used primarily as an insult.[4][29][43] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke. If you look at it from the left political side, it is seen as a compliment. It seems that the terms are created to appeal to political ideals. Strangely enough, this has created more issues than it has resolved. We now have ambiguous language that makes the terms undeniably used and misused at the same time. As early as 1985, Murray Edelman states that “those who focus specifically political language are chiefly concerned with its capacity to reflect ideology, mystify and distort.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/418800.
When one discusses these political concepts, we are discussing words specifically chosen by political people on whichever side of the argument. Perhaps if we decided to discuss things in a more direct way we might be able to see the problems more clearly. The personal becomes political and the words are changed to be used in whatever way suits the wind directionality in the political sphere. Are they lying, not really, they are dissembling (conceal one's true motives, feelings, or beliefs. (Oxford Languages dictionary) and making it harder to get at the main issues. They can direct the discourse. They can control how people see the situation and polarize us against each other. The major thing that everyone needs to understand is that each one of us has to live with each other in this world as well as with political decisions. Edelman states that “it challenges us to examine the complex link between language and meaning and simplifying language might not be the only factor.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/418800.
“The phrase "the personal is political" was popularized by second-wave feminism in the late 1960s and was also important in the civil rights movement, student movement, and black power movement. It underscored the connections between personal experience and larger social and political structures.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_per.... Sadly, we are still fighting the same battles within the political sphere that we were fighting for the past 60+ years and longer. As H. L. Mencken is credited with saying, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” Is this why things aren’t being accomplished in the political sphere? It’s up to us to decide. There’s a hurricane coming and we need to be ready to make our ideas clear in our own minds or we will continue to be fooled. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM:
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
September 9, 2023
Nobody Told Me…
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, I take a walk down a musically inspired memory lane while putting my spin on things and uncovering meaning behind the songs. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
To be honest, when I started this it was a lot longer. Then I looked up and realized that you can’t just quote from songs without copyright. This is the main lesson on this blog post and podcast. Even with the best of intentions, you can be misusing artists. Be sure that what you are doing isn’t part of the problem. I did a last minute rewrite after a double check because I looked up the last piece of information that suddenly popped into my mind. You can love your artists, but be careful not to misuse them. Their official sites are the best place to access their music.
I have been thinking a lot about John Lennon’s song these days, “Nobody Told Me” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_.... It is classical and yet it is still sadly very relevant today. We are still fighting the same battles. There is still political unrest, intolerance and political extremists creating battles. The song itself was released in the 1980’s. From a different viewpoint, does it also predict the internet revolution we are now battling with and the age of information, misinformation and disinformation? We are in an age where videos are widely available, different viewpoints and people leaving emoticons with tears.
Other 1980’s songs describe the similar sorts of issues. In Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” the theme appears to be intolerance and lack of respect for each other. Yet, we’re still fighting those same battles of intolerance and lack of respect for each other and some of us are finding that it is impossible to keep ourselves both informed and accurate and authentic and it is driving us out of our minds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_T....
Still other bands talk about the need to stand up to other people and be who you are. This can be seen in the treatment in the media of minority groups and politicians trying to ‘suck up’ to groups who may not be standing up for the greater good. This is suggestive of the current trends we see of certain political and media groups setting out to vilify minorities to score political points and none of it is based on science or fact. "Karma Chameleon" by the Culture Club points to, and I quote from the Wiki article, "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have the fear of standing up for one thing. It's about trying to suck up to everybody.” In sucking up to the right wing groups, people are being alienated and set up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_C.... The song was released in 1983 and to me suggests that society is alienating itself by not accurately portraying who they are and passing misinformation by people who seem to have a following sucking up to them. It alienates those who wish to see a better world and creates dissent and danger to minority groups. I add that the biggest purveyors of misinformation seem to be at the helm of many political causes. The need that people seem to have for pleasing everyone seems in my humble opinion to be more enabling and less about compassion. When out of balance on the world stage, it creates the sort of political situation we see going on today. The contradiction being sold in this case is societal morals that seem to try to sell intolerance and encourage fear of anyone or anything different.
When looking at the area of socially conscious music, one cannot skip the influence of John Fogerty who has been making political statements since I was a child. I choose the 1969 release of Fortunate Son which was a statement on the unfairness of class. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortuna... . This has been used as an anthem against elitism and is still relevant today. This section gives the idea that the elite (high class) can avoid being made to fight in the wars and get different treatment based on class. In his own words, from the Wiki article, “You'd hear about the son of this senator or that congressman who was given a deferment from the military or a choice position in the military.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortuna.... The song was more an understanding that there was preferential treatment based on class. A more recent musical addition by John Fogerty is “Weeping in the Promised Land” which makes commentary on Black Lives Matter and references George Floyd’s case. It clearly shows the disparity in treatment of people in the USA. It speaks to a wider social issue as well. It clearly depicts disparity of treatment of people based on some arbitrary man made construct and racism as well as medical advice being given short shrift.
Another famous band, has taken on another social issue. KISS in 1974 released Cold Gin. Though there is talk of it having been about an abusive relationship that idea was dispelled and is talked about in the Wiki article in which it is stated that “Cold Gin" is about a person suffering from poverty, loneliness, and alcoholism.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Gin
Cher’s hit released in 1971, Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves takes on serious issues which we still see today. The Wiki article states that “It contains themes of racism, teenage pregnancy and prostitution” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsys,... and is told from the viewpoint of the young Romani girl.
Whitesnake released Here I Go again in 1982 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_I_.... One article quotes “Here I Go Again” as being “all about going one’s own way. Maybe love will find you and offer you a respite from the dreary journey. But no matter what, you’re alone in your search in life.” https://americansongwriter.com/behind... As the writer of the article points out, “It’s encouraging to hear such honesty, vulnerability, and, well, wisdom.” I myself would have to agree. Even with all the people you have in your life, the search for truth is one that you have to come to alone to have it strong in your belief. https://americansongwriter.com/behind.... The song gives hope that one can move forward on their own journey and find their own truth. When you look at this blog post and podcast isn’t that what I’m doing…finding meaning in old songs and pointing out their relevance to today? I am finding my own meaning and my own truth. I show that the meaning in them remains completely relevant today. However, we, sadly have yet to reach these promises.
The last but not least of the artists whose music I explore for social activism is that of Tom Cochrane who talks of a variety of serious issues in his music. The song I am choosing talks of racism, “Lunatic Fringe”. The song was written in 1970’s but released in 1981 by Red Rider. It was written from concerns about antisemitism. The song has been released a few times and still remains relevant today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunatic.... The sad thing about it still being relevant is that we’re still seeing the same sort of rhetoric that was seen in 1970 when Tom Cochrane started to write it. We are still living the same concerns. We still see antisemitic rhetoric in our news feed. It is still resulting in harm. He was exploring war time information.
One thing that music has always done is help us in our quest to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. It’s why they choose music for various events etc. It’s why each generation has their own musical heroes. It widens our understanding of general principles and gives a launching pad for people to consider serious issues. It allows us to be inspired to continue the fight. It allows us to read into it and join with it. It allows us to dream and to understand that there are others out there that are struggling with the same issues that the world has been facing and still faces. Music of the 1960’s, 70’s 80’s and 90’s is still being listened to because it is still relevant. It also happens to be the sort of music I listened to and grew up with. Newer artists also add to our knowledge data base. To understand music is to also understand history and our future depends on our understanding of the issues. It is an understanding of our past, present and hopefully will come forward into the future. Artists of all sorts are interested in their world around them and show us in a multitude of ways that we can have a better future and can point out what we need to be cognizant of. It’s up to each of us to learn the lessons or we will continue to repeat the hate and intolerance that has plagued our world and continues to do so. It is up to all of us to try to make this a better and different world. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM:
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
To be honest, when I started this it was a lot longer. Then I looked up and realized that you can’t just quote from songs without copyright. This is the main lesson on this blog post and podcast. Even with the best of intentions, you can be misusing artists. Be sure that what you are doing isn’t part of the problem. I did a last minute rewrite after a double check because I looked up the last piece of information that suddenly popped into my mind. You can love your artists, but be careful not to misuse them. Their official sites are the best place to access their music.
I have been thinking a lot about John Lennon’s song these days, “Nobody Told Me” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_.... It is classical and yet it is still sadly very relevant today. We are still fighting the same battles. There is still political unrest, intolerance and political extremists creating battles. The song itself was released in the 1980’s. From a different viewpoint, does it also predict the internet revolution we are now battling with and the age of information, misinformation and disinformation? We are in an age where videos are widely available, different viewpoints and people leaving emoticons with tears.
Other 1980’s songs describe the similar sorts of issues. In Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” the theme appears to be intolerance and lack of respect for each other. Yet, we’re still fighting those same battles of intolerance and lack of respect for each other and some of us are finding that it is impossible to keep ourselves both informed and accurate and authentic and it is driving us out of our minds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_T....
Still other bands talk about the need to stand up to other people and be who you are. This can be seen in the treatment in the media of minority groups and politicians trying to ‘suck up’ to groups who may not be standing up for the greater good. This is suggestive of the current trends we see of certain political and media groups setting out to vilify minorities to score political points and none of it is based on science or fact. "Karma Chameleon" by the Culture Club points to, and I quote from the Wiki article, "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have the fear of standing up for one thing. It's about trying to suck up to everybody.” In sucking up to the right wing groups, people are being alienated and set up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_C.... The song was released in 1983 and to me suggests that society is alienating itself by not accurately portraying who they are and passing misinformation by people who seem to have a following sucking up to them. It alienates those who wish to see a better world and creates dissent and danger to minority groups. I add that the biggest purveyors of misinformation seem to be at the helm of many political causes. The need that people seem to have for pleasing everyone seems in my humble opinion to be more enabling and less about compassion. When out of balance on the world stage, it creates the sort of political situation we see going on today. The contradiction being sold in this case is societal morals that seem to try to sell intolerance and encourage fear of anyone or anything different.
When looking at the area of socially conscious music, one cannot skip the influence of John Fogerty who has been making political statements since I was a child. I choose the 1969 release of Fortunate Son which was a statement on the unfairness of class. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortuna... . This has been used as an anthem against elitism and is still relevant today. This section gives the idea that the elite (high class) can avoid being made to fight in the wars and get different treatment based on class. In his own words, from the Wiki article, “You'd hear about the son of this senator or that congressman who was given a deferment from the military or a choice position in the military.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortuna.... The song was more an understanding that there was preferential treatment based on class. A more recent musical addition by John Fogerty is “Weeping in the Promised Land” which makes commentary on Black Lives Matter and references George Floyd’s case. It clearly shows the disparity in treatment of people in the USA. It speaks to a wider social issue as well. It clearly depicts disparity of treatment of people based on some arbitrary man made construct and racism as well as medical advice being given short shrift.
Another famous band, has taken on another social issue. KISS in 1974 released Cold Gin. Though there is talk of it having been about an abusive relationship that idea was dispelled and is talked about in the Wiki article in which it is stated that “Cold Gin" is about a person suffering from poverty, loneliness, and alcoholism.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Gin
Cher’s hit released in 1971, Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves takes on serious issues which we still see today. The Wiki article states that “It contains themes of racism, teenage pregnancy and prostitution” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsys,... and is told from the viewpoint of the young Romani girl.
Whitesnake released Here I Go again in 1982 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_I_.... One article quotes “Here I Go Again” as being “all about going one’s own way. Maybe love will find you and offer you a respite from the dreary journey. But no matter what, you’re alone in your search in life.” https://americansongwriter.com/behind... As the writer of the article points out, “It’s encouraging to hear such honesty, vulnerability, and, well, wisdom.” I myself would have to agree. Even with all the people you have in your life, the search for truth is one that you have to come to alone to have it strong in your belief. https://americansongwriter.com/behind.... The song gives hope that one can move forward on their own journey and find their own truth. When you look at this blog post and podcast isn’t that what I’m doing…finding meaning in old songs and pointing out their relevance to today? I am finding my own meaning and my own truth. I show that the meaning in them remains completely relevant today. However, we, sadly have yet to reach these promises.
The last but not least of the artists whose music I explore for social activism is that of Tom Cochrane who talks of a variety of serious issues in his music. The song I am choosing talks of racism, “Lunatic Fringe”. The song was written in 1970’s but released in 1981 by Red Rider. It was written from concerns about antisemitism. The song has been released a few times and still remains relevant today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunatic.... The sad thing about it still being relevant is that we’re still seeing the same sort of rhetoric that was seen in 1970 when Tom Cochrane started to write it. We are still living the same concerns. We still see antisemitic rhetoric in our news feed. It is still resulting in harm. He was exploring war time information.
One thing that music has always done is help us in our quest to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. It’s why they choose music for various events etc. It’s why each generation has their own musical heroes. It widens our understanding of general principles and gives a launching pad for people to consider serious issues. It allows us to be inspired to continue the fight. It allows us to read into it and join with it. It allows us to dream and to understand that there are others out there that are struggling with the same issues that the world has been facing and still faces. Music of the 1960’s, 70’s 80’s and 90’s is still being listened to because it is still relevant. It also happens to be the sort of music I listened to and grew up with. Newer artists also add to our knowledge data base. To understand music is to also understand history and our future depends on our understanding of the issues. It is an understanding of our past, present and hopefully will come forward into the future. Artists of all sorts are interested in their world around them and show us in a multitude of ways that we can have a better future and can point out what we need to be cognizant of. It’s up to each of us to learn the lessons or we will continue to repeat the hate and intolerance that has plagued our world and continues to do so. It is up to all of us to try to make this a better and different world. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM:
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Spotify for Podcasters formerly Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
September 2, 2023
Seasons Change but Can We?
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, since it is going to be the first week of school, I am discussing change and its implications. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
I’ve never had children of my own. I once thought I would, but it never materialized. So, much of my understanding of children comes from cousins, my own childhood and being educated. The one thing I always knew was that, from being a child, if you give a child your time and love, they will have far less opportunity to get into difficulties and they tend to come to you with problems, happy thoughts and many other magical things. So, as the start of the school season begins, I urge parents to find time to be with their kids. Spend some time with them. Even as a child, my busy working Mother would make sure that we each got special time alone with her. I would help with the dishes and we would have talks then. She would spend another time with my sibling. We both got some of her time no matter how busy she was. Sometimes she would read to us both at night and sometimes to the whole family when we were kids. Did I mention she also took courses toward a degree as training requirements started to change while she was teaching? So, I knew from that, spending time with your kids was paramount and she managed it all. I knew she loved me and him and if I had something I didn’t know how to deal with, I could ask her. That is the first lesson of family dynamic I learned.
As Henry Cloud has suggested, “Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something's time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings.” This is an amazing metaphor for a lot of what is going on in today’s world. With all the intolerance, hate, murder and reliance on a flawed system it seems that no one can agree on what laws to implement. With the tendency to go back and forth depending on the political party in power at any given time, we are sorely in need of understanding that there is from the quote above, “something’s time has passed” and we need to “be able to move on to the next season.” From what I have seen in the news, it is impossible to continue the way things are going. There is too much corruption and too much politics being used to score political points using law. Law and justice should be separate from the voting and the political system. However, it appears that most authorities somewhat disagree with this idea or see it in a different light.
Some authorities assume the stance that Rule of Law “If considered not solely an instrument of the government but as a rule to which the entire society, including the government, is bound, the rule of law is fundamental in advancing democracy.” https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/artic... . Further, The Rule of Law is supposed to lift law above politics whereas “Rule by law, in contrast, connotes the instrumental use of law as a tool of political power” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ru.... This in itself is a very important distinction. Currently, it seems we have still been seeing it as something to use as a tool of political power rather than the theoretically perfect use of it to advance democracy. It currently feels like it is being weaponized. So, in that way, we need to find some way to separate the political power from the Rule OF Law rather than using Rule BY law.
The weaponization of Law by politics is very visible in much of US politics and many other countries as well. There are some theoretical glitches with this concept because unfortunately, Governments change. Often the change instituted by one Government is often clawed back by another. Then there are laws that are intended for the public good which are defeated as well based on political agendas. Because I’m Canadian, I will use an example from Canada. In Canada alone, we have a PM that talks about tolerance and weaponizing intolerance for political gain (https://ca.style.yahoo.com/trudeau-sa...) while Provincially Governments have been trying to institute restrictive covenants on the protection of LGBTQ2S+ youth. There are news stories on it and I include only a couple of them (https://globalnews.ca/news/9778957/ne..., https://www.reuters.com/world/america... ). Sadly, there are more. So, where on a Federal level, they want to protect children on the Provincial level they are passing laws which counter that. I assume Federal law has to do with scientific reasoning which has shown that children who are from LGBTQ2S+ groups are more likely to be abused https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... and thus their safety should be paramount. In this case alone, we are seeing the disparity between Rule OF Law and Rule BY Law and it sets a battle ground under which some children may well face abuse for being a member of a minority. In Canada we have recourse to Human Rights which is already beginning and there are other cases https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canad... . Which do we want to teach our children? These mixed messages are creating confusion aren’t they? Rule BY Law is one of the things that literally can make it unacceptable for minority kids to have a say in their own life, they are not respected and it is part of the Stochastic Terrorism https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sto... hierarchy by making these kids more vulnerable and forcing teachers to police the students. When did we make teachers into police? You see the effects in all spheres of the race, religion, orientation, etc battles going on around the world. The laws are being made by Rule BY Law (political points to score and taken on the backs of various minorities) rather than Rule OF Law toward which would be aimed at making life better and laws to fit for a better and safer democracy. Instead of protecting people, we are exposing them to potential abuse. This is one of the downsides to trusting in the process of the Rule Of Law being met. Sometimes the Rule By Law is what happens and we’re left going through Human Rights process. There needs to be more educated and informed work by the powers that be and not cave to the pressure of the political group of the moment.
As Confucius is suggested to have said, “To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men [all humans]; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.” The political systems have been developed in harmony with perfect theoretical concepts. As with all theoretical concepts, the reality is flawed, misused and made into something that we no longer recognize when it becomes solely the realm of the humans, political and earthly spheres. The purity of the concept becomes muddied by the myriad of different voices trying to change it to fit their personal agendas. It becomes Rule By Law rather than Rule Of Law. How do we change it? Do people change? Is it time to have a seasonal change so that we can teach our children to see a better future and a better world? What will this change look like and how can we make it happen? How do we get to that point of Rule Of Law rather than Rule By Law? Well, this is where it gets to be complicated; there are limited options for what you can do. One of the things is provide proper and well thought out information. Another is do your civic duty and vote. Use your voice to speak for those who are not given a voice. Respect each other and others. If politically minded, get into politics and change it from the inside. These are things that I leave you with listeners and readers. I only know that we can’t change it alone and the world will have to work in harmony to reach this place. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
I’ve never had children of my own. I once thought I would, but it never materialized. So, much of my understanding of children comes from cousins, my own childhood and being educated. The one thing I always knew was that, from being a child, if you give a child your time and love, they will have far less opportunity to get into difficulties and they tend to come to you with problems, happy thoughts and many other magical things. So, as the start of the school season begins, I urge parents to find time to be with their kids. Spend some time with them. Even as a child, my busy working Mother would make sure that we each got special time alone with her. I would help with the dishes and we would have talks then. She would spend another time with my sibling. We both got some of her time no matter how busy she was. Sometimes she would read to us both at night and sometimes to the whole family when we were kids. Did I mention she also took courses toward a degree as training requirements started to change while she was teaching? So, I knew from that, spending time with your kids was paramount and she managed it all. I knew she loved me and him and if I had something I didn’t know how to deal with, I could ask her. That is the first lesson of family dynamic I learned.
As Henry Cloud has suggested, “Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something's time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings.” This is an amazing metaphor for a lot of what is going on in today’s world. With all the intolerance, hate, murder and reliance on a flawed system it seems that no one can agree on what laws to implement. With the tendency to go back and forth depending on the political party in power at any given time, we are sorely in need of understanding that there is from the quote above, “something’s time has passed” and we need to “be able to move on to the next season.” From what I have seen in the news, it is impossible to continue the way things are going. There is too much corruption and too much politics being used to score political points using law. Law and justice should be separate from the voting and the political system. However, it appears that most authorities somewhat disagree with this idea or see it in a different light.
Some authorities assume the stance that Rule of Law “If considered not solely an instrument of the government but as a rule to which the entire society, including the government, is bound, the rule of law is fundamental in advancing democracy.” https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/artic... . Further, The Rule of Law is supposed to lift law above politics whereas “Rule by law, in contrast, connotes the instrumental use of law as a tool of political power” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ru.... This in itself is a very important distinction. Currently, it seems we have still been seeing it as something to use as a tool of political power rather than the theoretically perfect use of it to advance democracy. It currently feels like it is being weaponized. So, in that way, we need to find some way to separate the political power from the Rule OF Law rather than using Rule BY law.
The weaponization of Law by politics is very visible in much of US politics and many other countries as well. There are some theoretical glitches with this concept because unfortunately, Governments change. Often the change instituted by one Government is often clawed back by another. Then there are laws that are intended for the public good which are defeated as well based on political agendas. Because I’m Canadian, I will use an example from Canada. In Canada alone, we have a PM that talks about tolerance and weaponizing intolerance for political gain (https://ca.style.yahoo.com/trudeau-sa...) while Provincially Governments have been trying to institute restrictive covenants on the protection of LGBTQ2S+ youth. There are news stories on it and I include only a couple of them (https://globalnews.ca/news/9778957/ne..., https://www.reuters.com/world/america... ). Sadly, there are more. So, where on a Federal level, they want to protect children on the Provincial level they are passing laws which counter that. I assume Federal law has to do with scientific reasoning which has shown that children who are from LGBTQ2S+ groups are more likely to be abused https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... and thus their safety should be paramount. In this case alone, we are seeing the disparity between Rule OF Law and Rule BY Law and it sets a battle ground under which some children may well face abuse for being a member of a minority. In Canada we have recourse to Human Rights which is already beginning and there are other cases https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canad... . Which do we want to teach our children? These mixed messages are creating confusion aren’t they? Rule BY Law is one of the things that literally can make it unacceptable for minority kids to have a say in their own life, they are not respected and it is part of the Stochastic Terrorism https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sto... hierarchy by making these kids more vulnerable and forcing teachers to police the students. When did we make teachers into police? You see the effects in all spheres of the race, religion, orientation, etc battles going on around the world. The laws are being made by Rule BY Law (political points to score and taken on the backs of various minorities) rather than Rule OF Law toward which would be aimed at making life better and laws to fit for a better and safer democracy. Instead of protecting people, we are exposing them to potential abuse. This is one of the downsides to trusting in the process of the Rule Of Law being met. Sometimes the Rule By Law is what happens and we’re left going through Human Rights process. There needs to be more educated and informed work by the powers that be and not cave to the pressure of the political group of the moment.
As Confucius is suggested to have said, “To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men [all humans]; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.” The political systems have been developed in harmony with perfect theoretical concepts. As with all theoretical concepts, the reality is flawed, misused and made into something that we no longer recognize when it becomes solely the realm of the humans, political and earthly spheres. The purity of the concept becomes muddied by the myriad of different voices trying to change it to fit their personal agendas. It becomes Rule By Law rather than Rule Of Law. How do we change it? Do people change? Is it time to have a seasonal change so that we can teach our children to see a better future and a better world? What will this change look like and how can we make it happen? How do we get to that point of Rule Of Law rather than Rule By Law? Well, this is where it gets to be complicated; there are limited options for what you can do. One of the things is provide proper and well thought out information. Another is do your civic duty and vote. Use your voice to speak for those who are not given a voice. Respect each other and others. If politically minded, get into politics and change it from the inside. These are things that I leave you with listeners and readers. I only know that we can’t change it alone and the world will have to work in harmony to reach this place. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
August 26, 2023
Walking with Facts and Tips
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I share some thoughts and useful facts and tips. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
For my post this week, I look through my newsfeed. Some of it is unbelievable. Some things I thought were bad jokes. I’m always caught by surprise by what people will think when available evidence says differently. Let’s look at one such example. In 2020, psychologist and neuroscientist Wei Ji Ma summarized the state of research on women in chess as "there is currently zero evidence for biological differences in chess ability between the genders" but added "that does not mean that there are certainly no such differences." Now for those of you not in the know about psychological research…one of the things in my day was that things had to be stated tentatively and replication is needed to confirm the findings. So, the added stuff is just psychological babble that is deemed necessary by the profession, but for the layperson muddies the waters. In other words, what she says is our study shows zero difference between biological differences in chess ability and gender but someone else might do another study and find something more. They do find some female gender differences but they disappear when played against men in double blind studies. So, would it make a difference whether transgender people played chess? Well, the science suggests not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_i...
Now moving on to another fact that I’ve had to look up to share a link over and over ad nauseam because it comes up constantly and it is the answer to a very dangerous piece of misinformation. “…researchers have taken different approaches, but have similarly failed to find a connection between homosexuality and child molestation.” So, the statements made online trying to make such connections are false but some still try to find a connection and dig deep for it. Then any supposed proof is blown to the winds like so many dandelion seeds without evidence. A secondary one with this regard is another dangerous piece of misinformation. It is important to know what LGBTQ2S+ means (I found the following, but not complete the 2S in Canada stands for 2 Spirit which adds to the following definition. Remember different countries may have different acronyms), “LGBTQ is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning and/or queer. The community has been wrongfully associated with pedophiles in the past. It has been widely reported that this link is untrue…” https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-fa.... Of course the words “this link” refers to the misinformation of LGBTQ2S connected to pedophiles. Even with all this information, misinformation is still passed around to damage this group. On the other hand, sexual minority children are more likely to be victims. In other words LGBTQ2S+ children are more likely to suffer many forms of abuse including sexual. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti.... Some studies exist that suggest some inappropriate things. So, the other thing about psychological studies is that some can have flawed procedures so if you are going to bandy about studies, maybe check out the feedback on it from their peers as most will have opinions and replicate which also can disprove poorly done studies. Yes, replication is doing the same study over again to see if you get the same or different results. You’ll be able to find that too. Not every study is golden.
Always having been a curious person, when I see something that seems intolerant, I tend to check it out and try to find the science behind it. I think some of the most damaging misinformation out there surrounds the LGBTQ2S+ community and it is literally killing people including people just supporting inclusion (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/storeown... ) tells the sad story of a person being murdered for being a supporter. “False claims of protecting children against LGBTQ2S+ people are fueling anti-transgender legislation.” This quote does not give the whole problem but the article does. Not only has this been used by some religions to argue that children need to be protected against Transgender people, but also that they need to protect children against gay and lesbian people etc too. They have restricted rights for sexual minorities and made them unable to work with children. It has been used as a whole sale argument to talk about recruitment. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outloo... . This brings me to another piece of poorly researched information…the recruitment fallacy. I cannot even begin to count the times I have felt the need to say, they’re not recruiting…because the rant makes it sound like there is some kind of recruitment drive going on. This is not factual nor is it useful. “These conspiracy theories are based on earlier antisemitic conspiracy theories and posit that the LGBT movement is an instrument of foreign control and domination.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-LG.... The argument is also made that the transitioning of Transgender kids is being done on young children and again this is discussed to be false in the Washington Post article above.
My new vocabulary for the week comes from an article shared by Mr. George Takei and it is Stochastic terrorism. It was the first time I ever saw Stochastic terrorism used. This article talks about the term https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/.... I had not heard the word Stochastic prior and it seems a relative newcomer to the discussion of human rights in modern times. Actually the term appears to be a relative newcomer only being used since 2018 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochas... . Sorry, I don’t always keep up with the latest terms. This one explains a truly frightening phenomenon. It is a word we need to understand and to be aware of. We also need to understand the huge harm done by scapegoating activities toward all minorities.
Another bit of misinformation that has been passed around for centuries is in the area of religious intolerance. The false rhetoric around one religion is that of Wicca. Detractors emphatically state that it is not a religion, that they worship the devil, do evil and maybe even kill small animals. This article explains how false it is https://www.livescience.com/39119-myt... . Admittedly, I did have a Druid cousin who did sacrifice a pumpkin years ago…and other stuff that got some bad publicity at that time. It brought a lot of attention and he slowly drifted out of the limelight https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loca.... No one quite knew what to think of it at the time as many don’t know what to think about it now. However as with the ‘pagan’ religions, Wicca is simply nature based and some meet with others and some are solitary. Being Solitary does not mean that one is undecided, but that they can practice within their own experience. Beliefs are varied and there are many different sorts. Solitary Wiccans often make their own path using their ethics. No one wants to accept that there are different religions and different ideologies. They figure you’re just unfocused and will come around if they present enough religious options to you or maybe drive you away from it to a ‘real’ religion. Religious intolerance has been going on for centuries. Always the ‘accepted’ religion of the area is the one that decides what it should be. We seem to have gone backwards in time in this regard on a lot of things. Even now there are people spewing hate against Jewish people. There is also hatred between various sects within the various religions. People are using religion as a weapon rather than as a spiritual comfort. Personally, I don’t care what religion you are. My philosophy is that as long as you don’t spew “Love one another as I have loved you” and then add provisos, I’m fine with you. I’m not recruiting and I’m not interested in being recruited. I’m not a leader and I’m not a follower in this regard.
This next idea is a big one. People go around saying that they have the right to free speech. Their free speech isn’t hurting anyone. Many organizations around the world suggest differently. UNESCO itself has a statement and some resources if you want to know more https://www.unesco.org/en/countering-.... According to this article, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/hate... there is more to the idea. The thing we need to guard against is allowing free speech to degenerate into hate speech and Stochastic terrorism. This idea includes hate speech creating the perfect storm to encourage violent acts. So, one thing we may need to look at is what the difference between free speech and hate speech is. It is possible that there is a problem in the USA because There is no legal definition of "hate speech" under U.S. law” but they do go on to state, “Generally, however, hate speech is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin” https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreed.... It makes me wonder if it is so easily summed up, why is tolerance lacking in some American politics and in the world in general, would a change or addition to the law make a difference?
Some research has been done in the area of social inclusion. For example, “Therborn (2007) posits that all individuals need to be physically present in a society and have a voice that is respected.” https://www.researchgate.net/profile/.... They find there are benefits to this, but many complications and no society yet has perfected inclusion. There is also suggestion that minority groups are prone to exclusion and it has negative effects “A recent iteration of the term social exclusion has its roots in the European Union where it has been described as a relational process that interferes with social cohesion or the ability of groups to accept diversity and tolerate difference (O’Connor, 1998).” https://www.researchgate.net/profile/.... What this suggests is that lack of inclusion creates problems with social cohesion. This means we separate into groups and the ‘devalued’ minority groups are excluded and this leads to problems. Without addressing this aspect, we will remain a society fragmented and forward momentum will be stalled. This makes it important to stop devaluing groups based on race, religion, orientation, age, etc.
I end this blog post with the following quote by Bernard Baruch “Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” This is the main point of the blog post and podcast. We need to deal in facts and science and not keep society at a standstill. Self research can be important, but more important is factual information. There is so much misinformation/disinformation and hate that exists around marginalized groups that we need to take special care to make sure we have the proper facts. We owe this to our fellow humans. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
For my post this week, I look through my newsfeed. Some of it is unbelievable. Some things I thought were bad jokes. I’m always caught by surprise by what people will think when available evidence says differently. Let’s look at one such example. In 2020, psychologist and neuroscientist Wei Ji Ma summarized the state of research on women in chess as "there is currently zero evidence for biological differences in chess ability between the genders" but added "that does not mean that there are certainly no such differences." Now for those of you not in the know about psychological research…one of the things in my day was that things had to be stated tentatively and replication is needed to confirm the findings. So, the added stuff is just psychological babble that is deemed necessary by the profession, but for the layperson muddies the waters. In other words, what she says is our study shows zero difference between biological differences in chess ability and gender but someone else might do another study and find something more. They do find some female gender differences but they disappear when played against men in double blind studies. So, would it make a difference whether transgender people played chess? Well, the science suggests not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_i...
Now moving on to another fact that I’ve had to look up to share a link over and over ad nauseam because it comes up constantly and it is the answer to a very dangerous piece of misinformation. “…researchers have taken different approaches, but have similarly failed to find a connection between homosexuality and child molestation.” So, the statements made online trying to make such connections are false but some still try to find a connection and dig deep for it. Then any supposed proof is blown to the winds like so many dandelion seeds without evidence. A secondary one with this regard is another dangerous piece of misinformation. It is important to know what LGBTQ2S+ means (I found the following, but not complete the 2S in Canada stands for 2 Spirit which adds to the following definition. Remember different countries may have different acronyms), “LGBTQ is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning and/or queer. The community has been wrongfully associated with pedophiles in the past. It has been widely reported that this link is untrue…” https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-fa.... Of course the words “this link” refers to the misinformation of LGBTQ2S connected to pedophiles. Even with all this information, misinformation is still passed around to damage this group. On the other hand, sexual minority children are more likely to be victims. In other words LGBTQ2S+ children are more likely to suffer many forms of abuse including sexual. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti.... Some studies exist that suggest some inappropriate things. So, the other thing about psychological studies is that some can have flawed procedures so if you are going to bandy about studies, maybe check out the feedback on it from their peers as most will have opinions and replicate which also can disprove poorly done studies. Yes, replication is doing the same study over again to see if you get the same or different results. You’ll be able to find that too. Not every study is golden.
Always having been a curious person, when I see something that seems intolerant, I tend to check it out and try to find the science behind it. I think some of the most damaging misinformation out there surrounds the LGBTQ2S+ community and it is literally killing people including people just supporting inclusion (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/storeown... ) tells the sad story of a person being murdered for being a supporter. “False claims of protecting children against LGBTQ2S+ people are fueling anti-transgender legislation.” This quote does not give the whole problem but the article does. Not only has this been used by some religions to argue that children need to be protected against Transgender people, but also that they need to protect children against gay and lesbian people etc too. They have restricted rights for sexual minorities and made them unable to work with children. It has been used as a whole sale argument to talk about recruitment. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outloo... . This brings me to another piece of poorly researched information…the recruitment fallacy. I cannot even begin to count the times I have felt the need to say, they’re not recruiting…because the rant makes it sound like there is some kind of recruitment drive going on. This is not factual nor is it useful. “These conspiracy theories are based on earlier antisemitic conspiracy theories and posit that the LGBT movement is an instrument of foreign control and domination.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-LG.... The argument is also made that the transitioning of Transgender kids is being done on young children and again this is discussed to be false in the Washington Post article above.
My new vocabulary for the week comes from an article shared by Mr. George Takei and it is Stochastic terrorism. It was the first time I ever saw Stochastic terrorism used. This article talks about the term https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/.... I had not heard the word Stochastic prior and it seems a relative newcomer to the discussion of human rights in modern times. Actually the term appears to be a relative newcomer only being used since 2018 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochas... . Sorry, I don’t always keep up with the latest terms. This one explains a truly frightening phenomenon. It is a word we need to understand and to be aware of. We also need to understand the huge harm done by scapegoating activities toward all minorities.
Another bit of misinformation that has been passed around for centuries is in the area of religious intolerance. The false rhetoric around one religion is that of Wicca. Detractors emphatically state that it is not a religion, that they worship the devil, do evil and maybe even kill small animals. This article explains how false it is https://www.livescience.com/39119-myt... . Admittedly, I did have a Druid cousin who did sacrifice a pumpkin years ago…and other stuff that got some bad publicity at that time. It brought a lot of attention and he slowly drifted out of the limelight https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loca.... No one quite knew what to think of it at the time as many don’t know what to think about it now. However as with the ‘pagan’ religions, Wicca is simply nature based and some meet with others and some are solitary. Being Solitary does not mean that one is undecided, but that they can practice within their own experience. Beliefs are varied and there are many different sorts. Solitary Wiccans often make their own path using their ethics. No one wants to accept that there are different religions and different ideologies. They figure you’re just unfocused and will come around if they present enough religious options to you or maybe drive you away from it to a ‘real’ religion. Religious intolerance has been going on for centuries. Always the ‘accepted’ religion of the area is the one that decides what it should be. We seem to have gone backwards in time in this regard on a lot of things. Even now there are people spewing hate against Jewish people. There is also hatred between various sects within the various religions. People are using religion as a weapon rather than as a spiritual comfort. Personally, I don’t care what religion you are. My philosophy is that as long as you don’t spew “Love one another as I have loved you” and then add provisos, I’m fine with you. I’m not recruiting and I’m not interested in being recruited. I’m not a leader and I’m not a follower in this regard.
This next idea is a big one. People go around saying that they have the right to free speech. Their free speech isn’t hurting anyone. Many organizations around the world suggest differently. UNESCO itself has a statement and some resources if you want to know more https://www.unesco.org/en/countering-.... According to this article, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/hate... there is more to the idea. The thing we need to guard against is allowing free speech to degenerate into hate speech and Stochastic terrorism. This idea includes hate speech creating the perfect storm to encourage violent acts. So, one thing we may need to look at is what the difference between free speech and hate speech is. It is possible that there is a problem in the USA because There is no legal definition of "hate speech" under U.S. law” but they do go on to state, “Generally, however, hate speech is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin” https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreed.... It makes me wonder if it is so easily summed up, why is tolerance lacking in some American politics and in the world in general, would a change or addition to the law make a difference?
Some research has been done in the area of social inclusion. For example, “Therborn (2007) posits that all individuals need to be physically present in a society and have a voice that is respected.” https://www.researchgate.net/profile/.... They find there are benefits to this, but many complications and no society yet has perfected inclusion. There is also suggestion that minority groups are prone to exclusion and it has negative effects “A recent iteration of the term social exclusion has its roots in the European Union where it has been described as a relational process that interferes with social cohesion or the ability of groups to accept diversity and tolerate difference (O’Connor, 1998).” https://www.researchgate.net/profile/.... What this suggests is that lack of inclusion creates problems with social cohesion. This means we separate into groups and the ‘devalued’ minority groups are excluded and this leads to problems. Without addressing this aspect, we will remain a society fragmented and forward momentum will be stalled. This makes it important to stop devaluing groups based on race, religion, orientation, age, etc.
I end this blog post with the following quote by Bernard Baruch “Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” This is the main point of the blog post and podcast. We need to deal in facts and science and not keep society at a standstill. Self research can be important, but more important is factual information. There is so much misinformation/disinformation and hate that exists around marginalized groups that we need to take special care to make sure we have the proper facts. We owe this to our fellow humans. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
August 19, 2023
Dracula and Nightmares
*Spoiler alert this week if you haven’t read Bram Stoker’s Dracula at least 60%, and might want to…this blog post and podcast may spoil it for you. I don’t spill the ending.
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I write about various things using a stream of consciousness exploring Bram Stoker’s Dracula. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
Lately I’ve been taking some time to sit out in our screen porch to enjoy some night air. I alternate between reading and watching stuff on my tablet. My latest thing is reading Dracula by Bram Stoker which in itself seems a weird thing to decide to read at night, but it hasn’t stopped me yet. I have read it before and watched various versions of it in movie form. Some have been somewhat more sympathetic to Dracula and some less. Like with any other literature, we can find a lot of society of the time and lessons to learn for society now. In studying English literature, there is no lack of material in any form of literature (child, adult, classical). You need only to look. People seem to be selective in thinking that adult literature is the only place and there is also a lot of the same to be found in children’s literature. However, that is another story for another day.
Reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula I can see the monster outside and the monster inside. There is a duality and a multi-prong universe that lived then and still lives now. They show a society that binds women to certain occupations and certain outlooks. It is also the society that binds men to certain roles and certain expectations. They show a society that has expectations on what they should look like, how they should feel and how they should comport themselves. Yet, under all that is the Nosferatu, the "Undead" Dracula who changes his looks using the lives of others to do it and who is the monster on the outside which represents the expectations of society at its worst. Dracula takes the youth and innocence from people. Now when we look at this; it is about Victorian morals, Victorian times and a comment on that society, but when we look harder…it seems a lot of the same themes repeat in our current day world. In today’s world, we see the hate given to various groups and how it takes away innocence from people and makes them look to conform to some standard. It happens every day on a variety of levels. There is a lot of social pressure to have a certain look, be a certain age, or for some there is the must be ‘just like the rest of us’. If you are different you are the problem. It seems that society has two camps now. There are the conservative in all things and the liberal in all things. It seems that there is an existential struggle, an existential crisis where neither meets and there is no willingness to develop tolerance for anyone different. There is a price to be paid; Lucy (one of the first of Dracula’s main character victims in London) pays the ultimate price. The essence of Dracula for our day and age are societal expectations that want everyone to be the same sort of person and have the same sort of look, same sort of orientation etc. Dracula (or societal expectations) sucks the life out of those who refuse to conform as they struggle to show a different world. Looking at it, we now have people with expectations on orientation, race, religion, age, etc and they all put people in roles that they are expected to carry out. How is old literature not relevant to us today when we see that perspective from it? How can we save the innocence of the world from being crushed under the yoke of oppression represented by Dracula.
There are various potential analytic impacts even for Dracula including a political one. The following article https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Politi... talks about Dracula as someone moving into trying to take over new territory and trying to take over beyond their own realm. This was very progressive ideology for the time considering the slave trade and the First Nations people and the continued presence of abuses toward many minority groups of that time and the conquering of other countries. The book was written in 1897 and today in 2023 we are still seeing the ramifications of this situation. If people wonder why my brain can go through so many options, is it because of my background with the first degree in English? It required us to think about things. It helps one to realize that there are a variety of ways to analyze things. To understand that there are a variety of things you can see in literature and in the everyday world is both freeing and constricting. Freeing in that you can see a multitude of ways to look at things, but constricting in that sometimes the very simplest things may not occur to you.
The one thing I can say about University for me is that it fed my need to question everything to figure out where I stood on things and I kept learning and expanding my knowledge from subsequent ones after my first degree. Was it imperative? We’ll never know. It gave me wider access to things that small towns might not give the luxury to be exposed to. I don’t necessarily agree with everything I see. I am flexible to thinking through things. Sometimes I have to shut down when there is too much input for me to process. There are political, economic, moralistic and various other aspects that one can use to look at things. You can have a new lens on the same issue and come up with different thoughts on the same subject. They may not be completely different, but may be variations on a theme. So, one is left wondering whether there is a chicken or egg situation going on here for me. Though not everyone who goes to University benefits and there are those who never go far in school who also think deeply, in my case, what I mean is did I go to University hoping to expand my horizons or did I already want to question things and learn about new ways to develop my ideas in a tangible and focused way? Would I have come across my path without it? Would I have brought myself to where I am now? Good secondary education can only provide you with training and with an overview, at least for the first degree. It simply shows you what is available and encourages thinking past the boundaries of the visible and look at the invisible. It can also be the difference of looking at the ordinary and finding the magical. For some of us it is our magic and for some it is constricting.
“Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!” Dracula says to Jonathan Harker. Is this not the thing we do when we set ourselves up to the expectations of the rest of the world and forget to take our own self-hood into consideration? We put ourselves into the clutches of the ever hungering, ever deadly monster that is Count Dracula (social expectations and conformity)…we put ourselves at risk of becoming the “Undead”, the Nosferatu, or the blind follower of what is expected. We need always be wary that we do not just accept what society tells us we should be and think about the ethics and ramifications of our thoughts. Instead we need to look at becoming who we are and accept ourselves at all stages. No one is perfect. But, if we are, as some belief systems suggest, created in the image of Higher Power(s) or some omnipotent being, how can we then say that some are created more or less equal? How can we be ourselves while being held thrall to expectations of society which disregards what is different? How can we be free or expect to see tolerance if we have little tolerance for ourselves and others? We need to question ourselves, understand our triggers, and learn to feel safe and comfortable in our own skins. We cannot accept only one part of ourselves, but also the baggage we carry and look at our attitudes. It is the eternal struggle of humanity against nature, themselves, society and the elements that sets us upon stormy seas.
Even in this one piece of literature there are many different pages of analysis of the story and you can Google them. There are so many lessons that can be learned from it. There are lessons like the need for people of diverse groups needing to join together to end the tyranny of the ruling chaos. There is the angle where people still need to believe in good triumph over a deadly adversary. There is the loss of innocence when Lucy dies and the slow degeneration into the vampire. Then there is the release from the bonds of slavery when Van Helsing with Arthur’s help frees Lucy by ending the vampire existence. The important question when it comes to society is was this character ever free to begin with? Even before Dracula came on the scene, Lucy was, in every way, a victim of stereotypical life and in bondage under the yoke of expectations of gender role. There is denying of sexuality and roles and anything different has societal terrorism applied to diverse groups to try to get them to all fit the same cookie cutter image of success, beauty, acceptability and diverse other things. What you find in the book is a good story of the time. It is also a good story of this time. It is important to understand that we are only limited, in this life, by what we see and by being able and willing to accept ourselves and our limitations and others and theirs as being part of the human condition.
Another quote from Bram Stoker’s Dracula that I will finish up with is, "There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights." So, when you are put under pressure to be someone who is not in keeping with your best self, when it seems that the only way forward is to cave to society and its struggle against all things rather than allowing for the beautiful, this is the best lesson to come out of Dracula. Even in a society where there is so much wrong and so many things that can go wrong, there is always a light and each of us is the ‘light of all lights”. Don’t let someone change your light without total foresight and informed choice. Messing with Dracula can have dire consequences. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I write about various things using a stream of consciousness exploring Bram Stoker’s Dracula. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
Lately I’ve been taking some time to sit out in our screen porch to enjoy some night air. I alternate between reading and watching stuff on my tablet. My latest thing is reading Dracula by Bram Stoker which in itself seems a weird thing to decide to read at night, but it hasn’t stopped me yet. I have read it before and watched various versions of it in movie form. Some have been somewhat more sympathetic to Dracula and some less. Like with any other literature, we can find a lot of society of the time and lessons to learn for society now. In studying English literature, there is no lack of material in any form of literature (child, adult, classical). You need only to look. People seem to be selective in thinking that adult literature is the only place and there is also a lot of the same to be found in children’s literature. However, that is another story for another day.
Reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula I can see the monster outside and the monster inside. There is a duality and a multi-prong universe that lived then and still lives now. They show a society that binds women to certain occupations and certain outlooks. It is also the society that binds men to certain roles and certain expectations. They show a society that has expectations on what they should look like, how they should feel and how they should comport themselves. Yet, under all that is the Nosferatu, the "Undead" Dracula who changes his looks using the lives of others to do it and who is the monster on the outside which represents the expectations of society at its worst. Dracula takes the youth and innocence from people. Now when we look at this; it is about Victorian morals, Victorian times and a comment on that society, but when we look harder…it seems a lot of the same themes repeat in our current day world. In today’s world, we see the hate given to various groups and how it takes away innocence from people and makes them look to conform to some standard. It happens every day on a variety of levels. There is a lot of social pressure to have a certain look, be a certain age, or for some there is the must be ‘just like the rest of us’. If you are different you are the problem. It seems that society has two camps now. There are the conservative in all things and the liberal in all things. It seems that there is an existential struggle, an existential crisis where neither meets and there is no willingness to develop tolerance for anyone different. There is a price to be paid; Lucy (one of the first of Dracula’s main character victims in London) pays the ultimate price. The essence of Dracula for our day and age are societal expectations that want everyone to be the same sort of person and have the same sort of look, same sort of orientation etc. Dracula (or societal expectations) sucks the life out of those who refuse to conform as they struggle to show a different world. Looking at it, we now have people with expectations on orientation, race, religion, age, etc and they all put people in roles that they are expected to carry out. How is old literature not relevant to us today when we see that perspective from it? How can we save the innocence of the world from being crushed under the yoke of oppression represented by Dracula.
There are various potential analytic impacts even for Dracula including a political one. The following article https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Politi... talks about Dracula as someone moving into trying to take over new territory and trying to take over beyond their own realm. This was very progressive ideology for the time considering the slave trade and the First Nations people and the continued presence of abuses toward many minority groups of that time and the conquering of other countries. The book was written in 1897 and today in 2023 we are still seeing the ramifications of this situation. If people wonder why my brain can go through so many options, is it because of my background with the first degree in English? It required us to think about things. It helps one to realize that there are a variety of ways to analyze things. To understand that there are a variety of things you can see in literature and in the everyday world is both freeing and constricting. Freeing in that you can see a multitude of ways to look at things, but constricting in that sometimes the very simplest things may not occur to you.
The one thing I can say about University for me is that it fed my need to question everything to figure out where I stood on things and I kept learning and expanding my knowledge from subsequent ones after my first degree. Was it imperative? We’ll never know. It gave me wider access to things that small towns might not give the luxury to be exposed to. I don’t necessarily agree with everything I see. I am flexible to thinking through things. Sometimes I have to shut down when there is too much input for me to process. There are political, economic, moralistic and various other aspects that one can use to look at things. You can have a new lens on the same issue and come up with different thoughts on the same subject. They may not be completely different, but may be variations on a theme. So, one is left wondering whether there is a chicken or egg situation going on here for me. Though not everyone who goes to University benefits and there are those who never go far in school who also think deeply, in my case, what I mean is did I go to University hoping to expand my horizons or did I already want to question things and learn about new ways to develop my ideas in a tangible and focused way? Would I have come across my path without it? Would I have brought myself to where I am now? Good secondary education can only provide you with training and with an overview, at least for the first degree. It simply shows you what is available and encourages thinking past the boundaries of the visible and look at the invisible. It can also be the difference of looking at the ordinary and finding the magical. For some of us it is our magic and for some it is constricting.
“Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!” Dracula says to Jonathan Harker. Is this not the thing we do when we set ourselves up to the expectations of the rest of the world and forget to take our own self-hood into consideration? We put ourselves into the clutches of the ever hungering, ever deadly monster that is Count Dracula (social expectations and conformity)…we put ourselves at risk of becoming the “Undead”, the Nosferatu, or the blind follower of what is expected. We need always be wary that we do not just accept what society tells us we should be and think about the ethics and ramifications of our thoughts. Instead we need to look at becoming who we are and accept ourselves at all stages. No one is perfect. But, if we are, as some belief systems suggest, created in the image of Higher Power(s) or some omnipotent being, how can we then say that some are created more or less equal? How can we be ourselves while being held thrall to expectations of society which disregards what is different? How can we be free or expect to see tolerance if we have little tolerance for ourselves and others? We need to question ourselves, understand our triggers, and learn to feel safe and comfortable in our own skins. We cannot accept only one part of ourselves, but also the baggage we carry and look at our attitudes. It is the eternal struggle of humanity against nature, themselves, society and the elements that sets us upon stormy seas.
Even in this one piece of literature there are many different pages of analysis of the story and you can Google them. There are so many lessons that can be learned from it. There are lessons like the need for people of diverse groups needing to join together to end the tyranny of the ruling chaos. There is the angle where people still need to believe in good triumph over a deadly adversary. There is the loss of innocence when Lucy dies and the slow degeneration into the vampire. Then there is the release from the bonds of slavery when Van Helsing with Arthur’s help frees Lucy by ending the vampire existence. The important question when it comes to society is was this character ever free to begin with? Even before Dracula came on the scene, Lucy was, in every way, a victim of stereotypical life and in bondage under the yoke of expectations of gender role. There is denying of sexuality and roles and anything different has societal terrorism applied to diverse groups to try to get them to all fit the same cookie cutter image of success, beauty, acceptability and diverse other things. What you find in the book is a good story of the time. It is also a good story of this time. It is important to understand that we are only limited, in this life, by what we see and by being able and willing to accept ourselves and our limitations and others and theirs as being part of the human condition.
Another quote from Bram Stoker’s Dracula that I will finish up with is, "There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights." So, when you are put under pressure to be someone who is not in keeping with your best self, when it seems that the only way forward is to cave to society and its struggle against all things rather than allowing for the beautiful, this is the best lesson to come out of Dracula. Even in a society where there is so much wrong and so many things that can go wrong, there is always a light and each of us is the ‘light of all lights”. Don’t let someone change your light without total foresight and informed choice. Messing with Dracula can have dire consequences. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
August 12, 2023
Makes the World Go Round?
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I write about some things I have noticed as a general trend. Is it good or bad? If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
I had seen a post not very long ago that had some people suggesting that they were making money which was I think posted to shut down some ‘haters’. I honestly didn’t bother to listen to the video post. It confused me that this would be the main thing to impress upon people to try to show that they had worth. Not their worth as human beings or in their content or how they react to their followers, but their ability to make money on some forum. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is good to be able to make money. I don’t question that. It wasn’t based on jealousy for me either. I honestly don’t make a cent from anything I do online but if nothing else, I think my time spent is worthwhile. I’m not saying that to complain either. My husband’s woodwork projects are the only things that make us any money as far as money goes. I think what confused me is why making money was seen as being the most important and first stated thing to their argument for worth. Not their content, not what they did which might have been covered in the video. That being the first thing they said more or less turned me off so I didn’t bother to keep looking. If it continued in that vein, I suspect I would have said something unhelpful. Some issues, with everything in the world going on, don’t need to be examined thoroughly. Some things I do want to know and others I’m willing to bypass.
I saw a post not long ago and it made me think on a related aspect of the problem because it pointed out the issue quite well. It seems that when someone dislikes something about another person…or a particular behaviour, they tend to make it about the person and it gets to become a personal attack. They don’t just describe the behaviour they don’t like. There is an important distinction here. When you make the attack on the person rather than on the behaviour, it tends to drive people off. It tends to polarize people. It makes it less likely for people to want to have a discussion and more likely to just react. We focus on the person rather than the problem. I admit to a certain amount of naiveté. I’ve refused to give that up. It is the one thing that I can totally own, that lets me sit on a swing in the screen tent, close my eyes when it is raining and dream. It is the one thing I have that I can’t and won’t allow myself to lose. It is that which makes my love and respect for nature and for humans stay alive despite every reason to let it die a horrible agonizing death by just looking at the news stories out there. It makes me consider what I want to address and what issues are worth fighting. Strangely, in this day and age, naiveté/naivety seems to carry negative baggage. One of the definitions being “a lack of experience of life, knowledge or good judgment that makes you willing to believe that people always tell you the truth” https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionarie... Of course, I know that people don’t always tell the truth. But naiveté seems one of those words that many see filled with negativity as in she/he/they is/are so naïve. When we look at what it takes to keep caring in a world seemingly gone mad, doesn’t it seem to be what it takes? One has the choice either of retaining some naiveté or descending into complete and utter madness. On the other side, there does seem to be a more positive aspect to the word in the same dictionary “the quality of being innocent and simple in character or behaviour.” Most people possibly prefer the term innocent to naïve, yet it is the same state, just different words. What makes one word seen as more negative than the other? As William Shakespeare is quoted with saying in Hamlet, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. At the same time, it likely makes you somewhat of a target for people who think they can manipulate you. As Anatole France is credited with saying, “It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.” So, as much as I’m naïve, I am also distrustful of some things. So, perhaps a way to survive is to know one thing and be able to feel another and bring the two together. This is the duality of my path and of life. Much like there is light and darkness, there is thinking and feeling, ying and yang as part of the eternal struggle.
As Amy Adams is credited with saying, “I think a lot of times we don't pay enough attention to people with a positive attitude because we assume they are naive or stupid or unschooled.” An unrelated quote gives the best answer to that. Dolly Parton is quoted with saying, “I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde.” So, at some point, you have to accept that not everyone is going to accept you for who you are. They are going to try to find ‘problems’ or ‘faults’ with you. Everyone has problems. You aren’t immune to them by being naïve; however, if you mix a little naiveté with a little mindfulness, you may be able to make a change for someone even if it is just for yourself. You may also help someone move forward and understand that they too have that little bit of charming naiveté mixed with the understanding that the world is not entirely good and at the same time, neither is it entirely bad. The Universe creates balance and we too have our place in this. If you want a better world, then you have to be that better world. If you want to see kindness in the world, then you have to be that kindness. Yes, there are those that will treat you like dirt, but you don’t have to keep letting them mentally beat you up, nor do you have to keep them in your life. The better world will not come out of the clouds; it comes out of you and each of us. We are the creator of our future. You can manifest what it is that you want even if it is only in your own little corner. If you manage well with that little spark of innocence, then don’t let people tell you it isn’t good enough. Find some like-minded people or some way to feed your soul. You don’t have to be perfect as there isn’t any such thing as a perfect person…even Mary Poppins had her weak points which they glossed over. All you need to be is human and humane. Should you grow up? Absolutely, but keep what works for you and what fits for you and your life. Be who you are meant to be. We all continue to grow up in some form while we are living. We learn daily and change daily. Life is about change and about finding our path.
What is the use of this innocence or naiveté you ask? Well, it takes many shapes and forms. For example, Ruby Bridges is quoted with saying, “Racism is a form of hate. We pass it on to our young people. When we do that, we are robbing children of their innocence.” Perhaps it seems a trivial thought or quote for some, but in fact, when we look at it, it is incredibly important. What we do when we teach/preach hate and intolerance is take away the innocence from people. It doesn’t matter who the hate is directed to, it removes innocence and we feel a bit more jaded and distrustful. Some of us feel pain every time we see these expressions of hate toward someone whether it be race, religion, orientation or what have you. We see it, and yet somehow with all the hate, anger, intolerance and lack of judgment we see every day and in the news feeds, we fight with everything we have to not let that stop us from celebrating the differences between us and hoping and working toward making this a better world. It doesn’t matter what religion, race or orientation people have. People are people. If we cannot respect ourselves and each other, how are we to form a cohesive and healthy world? Life is not about battling each other, but supporting and uplifting each other to make for a better future. There’s already enough hate out there.
I have always found myself drawn to people who seem to have kept that little spark of innocence. They have kept it no matter what the obstacles and they keep getting up when life tosses them to the ground. Sometimes they forget as we all can. However, their spark glows like a firefly in the night. It is a beacon to others in this cold and weary planet full of distress and disorder. As Eartha Kitt is credited with saying, “Innocence is one of the most exciting things in the world.” Of course, I often feel it is the most undervalued thing as well. The secret is finding the balance that allows you to see the good, understand the bad and keep a clear conscience and heart. If you think it is easy, then you won’t understand the question nor the answer. It requires being able to be humble, to question yourself and the world around you while still wanting to find the world to be a better place and believing that it can be.
The reality of this spark I talk about being an important aspect was acknowledged by Albert Schweitzer who is credited with saying, “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” What is that flame made up of? At least I like to think it is part kindness, part pure humanitarian love, part innocence/naiveté and part wanting to make a difference for another human being in this rocky ocean we call earth. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
Quotes:
William Shakespeare
Amy Adams
Dolly Parton
Ruby Bridges
Eartha Kitt
Albert Schweitzer
Articles:
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionarie...
I had seen a post not very long ago that had some people suggesting that they were making money which was I think posted to shut down some ‘haters’. I honestly didn’t bother to listen to the video post. It confused me that this would be the main thing to impress upon people to try to show that they had worth. Not their worth as human beings or in their content or how they react to their followers, but their ability to make money on some forum. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is good to be able to make money. I don’t question that. It wasn’t based on jealousy for me either. I honestly don’t make a cent from anything I do online but if nothing else, I think my time spent is worthwhile. I’m not saying that to complain either. My husband’s woodwork projects are the only things that make us any money as far as money goes. I think what confused me is why making money was seen as being the most important and first stated thing to their argument for worth. Not their content, not what they did which might have been covered in the video. That being the first thing they said more or less turned me off so I didn’t bother to keep looking. If it continued in that vein, I suspect I would have said something unhelpful. Some issues, with everything in the world going on, don’t need to be examined thoroughly. Some things I do want to know and others I’m willing to bypass.
I saw a post not long ago and it made me think on a related aspect of the problem because it pointed out the issue quite well. It seems that when someone dislikes something about another person…or a particular behaviour, they tend to make it about the person and it gets to become a personal attack. They don’t just describe the behaviour they don’t like. There is an important distinction here. When you make the attack on the person rather than on the behaviour, it tends to drive people off. It tends to polarize people. It makes it less likely for people to want to have a discussion and more likely to just react. We focus on the person rather than the problem. I admit to a certain amount of naiveté. I’ve refused to give that up. It is the one thing that I can totally own, that lets me sit on a swing in the screen tent, close my eyes when it is raining and dream. It is the one thing I have that I can’t and won’t allow myself to lose. It is that which makes my love and respect for nature and for humans stay alive despite every reason to let it die a horrible agonizing death by just looking at the news stories out there. It makes me consider what I want to address and what issues are worth fighting. Strangely, in this day and age, naiveté/naivety seems to carry negative baggage. One of the definitions being “a lack of experience of life, knowledge or good judgment that makes you willing to believe that people always tell you the truth” https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionarie... Of course, I know that people don’t always tell the truth. But naiveté seems one of those words that many see filled with negativity as in she/he/they is/are so naïve. When we look at what it takes to keep caring in a world seemingly gone mad, doesn’t it seem to be what it takes? One has the choice either of retaining some naiveté or descending into complete and utter madness. On the other side, there does seem to be a more positive aspect to the word in the same dictionary “the quality of being innocent and simple in character or behaviour.” Most people possibly prefer the term innocent to naïve, yet it is the same state, just different words. What makes one word seen as more negative than the other? As William Shakespeare is quoted with saying in Hamlet, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. At the same time, it likely makes you somewhat of a target for people who think they can manipulate you. As Anatole France is credited with saying, “It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.” So, as much as I’m naïve, I am also distrustful of some things. So, perhaps a way to survive is to know one thing and be able to feel another and bring the two together. This is the duality of my path and of life. Much like there is light and darkness, there is thinking and feeling, ying and yang as part of the eternal struggle.
As Amy Adams is credited with saying, “I think a lot of times we don't pay enough attention to people with a positive attitude because we assume they are naive or stupid or unschooled.” An unrelated quote gives the best answer to that. Dolly Parton is quoted with saying, “I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde.” So, at some point, you have to accept that not everyone is going to accept you for who you are. They are going to try to find ‘problems’ or ‘faults’ with you. Everyone has problems. You aren’t immune to them by being naïve; however, if you mix a little naiveté with a little mindfulness, you may be able to make a change for someone even if it is just for yourself. You may also help someone move forward and understand that they too have that little bit of charming naiveté mixed with the understanding that the world is not entirely good and at the same time, neither is it entirely bad. The Universe creates balance and we too have our place in this. If you want a better world, then you have to be that better world. If you want to see kindness in the world, then you have to be that kindness. Yes, there are those that will treat you like dirt, but you don’t have to keep letting them mentally beat you up, nor do you have to keep them in your life. The better world will not come out of the clouds; it comes out of you and each of us. We are the creator of our future. You can manifest what it is that you want even if it is only in your own little corner. If you manage well with that little spark of innocence, then don’t let people tell you it isn’t good enough. Find some like-minded people or some way to feed your soul. You don’t have to be perfect as there isn’t any such thing as a perfect person…even Mary Poppins had her weak points which they glossed over. All you need to be is human and humane. Should you grow up? Absolutely, but keep what works for you and what fits for you and your life. Be who you are meant to be. We all continue to grow up in some form while we are living. We learn daily and change daily. Life is about change and about finding our path.
What is the use of this innocence or naiveté you ask? Well, it takes many shapes and forms. For example, Ruby Bridges is quoted with saying, “Racism is a form of hate. We pass it on to our young people. When we do that, we are robbing children of their innocence.” Perhaps it seems a trivial thought or quote for some, but in fact, when we look at it, it is incredibly important. What we do when we teach/preach hate and intolerance is take away the innocence from people. It doesn’t matter who the hate is directed to, it removes innocence and we feel a bit more jaded and distrustful. Some of us feel pain every time we see these expressions of hate toward someone whether it be race, religion, orientation or what have you. We see it, and yet somehow with all the hate, anger, intolerance and lack of judgment we see every day and in the news feeds, we fight with everything we have to not let that stop us from celebrating the differences between us and hoping and working toward making this a better world. It doesn’t matter what religion, race or orientation people have. People are people. If we cannot respect ourselves and each other, how are we to form a cohesive and healthy world? Life is not about battling each other, but supporting and uplifting each other to make for a better future. There’s already enough hate out there.
I have always found myself drawn to people who seem to have kept that little spark of innocence. They have kept it no matter what the obstacles and they keep getting up when life tosses them to the ground. Sometimes they forget as we all can. However, their spark glows like a firefly in the night. It is a beacon to others in this cold and weary planet full of distress and disorder. As Eartha Kitt is credited with saying, “Innocence is one of the most exciting things in the world.” Of course, I often feel it is the most undervalued thing as well. The secret is finding the balance that allows you to see the good, understand the bad and keep a clear conscience and heart. If you think it is easy, then you won’t understand the question nor the answer. It requires being able to be humble, to question yourself and the world around you while still wanting to find the world to be a better place and believing that it can be.
The reality of this spark I talk about being an important aspect was acknowledged by Albert Schweitzer who is credited with saying, “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” What is that flame made up of? At least I like to think it is part kindness, part pure humanitarian love, part innocence/naiveté and part wanting to make a difference for another human being in this rocky ocean we call earth. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
Quotes:
William Shakespeare
Amy Adams
Dolly Parton
Ruby Bridges
Eartha Kitt
Albert Schweitzer
Articles:
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionarie...
August 5, 2023
What in the World?
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I write about things in the news and some observations I have made over time. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
There is always something in the news or something going on that makes me shake my head. The latest one is the Trump saga. It seems mostly to be a litany of charges for potential crimes. I use potential because it has to be legally entrenched which it has yet to be. At the same time, there seems to be very little action. It makes me wonder how many things someone in the USA can do and nothing happens. I think most people, if they had a list of charges, there would be some activity. So, is it political or is it being rich that makes for the strangely uncomfortable situation? Now, I have to admit, I am not a citizen of the States, I’m Canadian. My knowledge of politics in my own country is not very extensive and my understanding of other country politics is next to non-existent except for what I see in the news. So, maybe there is something I’m missing in the whole thing. Just seems to me for the amount of really bad sounding stuff that they are talking about, it’s amazing to me that he is still not facing any serious consequences. They are already jailing people from the Jan 6 riots. Of course this is just opinion and conjecture on my part with little to no real knowledge of how these things actually work. I don’t really have the political science interest in order to better educate myself on the topic except minimally. The following article gives an update on the whole situation https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-can.... I suppose the factor of innocent until proven guilty is a thing. I suppose that they want to make sure to follow all the process in hopes that they can make a solid case. So, there might be a process involved. At the same time, some articles have suggested that there is a political aspect to this and differentiate between high profile people and the regular populace https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion.... This seems to suggest a weakness in the judicial system if people are treated differently because of their status. This, in itself suggests a bit of a disparity in legal representation and legal consequences. In a country that prides itself on equal protection under the law how this affects the outcome of cases such as the current charges faced by Trump remains to be seen https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitut.... This also brings into question how some of the States can outlaw some fundamental rights. It is definitely something to consider. Though, as I say, I have no real understanding of US legal process. It leaves me wondering why there is not a lot of legal battling and who gets to decide what fundamental rights are negotiable. Sometimes I think it would be better to have legal and political spheres kept separate. The law should be able to think clearly beyond the needs of politics and toward the lives of the people it serves. One could equally argue the very same thing with regard to politics. So, there is where we are.
The next thing that I find somewhat frightening is that Performers are now being attacked on stage. They don’t call it that, but people are literally throwing drinks (https://www.npr.org/2023/07/31/119115...) and other things including one person’s dead Mother (https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz...) at performers. I had not been aware, but some performers have been literally injured (requiring stitches) by these acts and the Cardi B article states this most specifically. Performers are not meant to be doing battle with their fans and it starts to feel that way when you see the actions of a few ‘fans’. It does not set up a healthy atmosphere for performers nor for their fans. The other thing that people need to consider is if this was your family member up on stage, would you feel comfortable seeing people tossing stuff at them? I think what it will end up doing is having concerts increase safety measures and separate the fans from the performer. It will also leave performers feeling less safe and affect the overall performance of the entertainers. So, please, consider the overall effect of such thoughtless acts. These actions not only ruin it for the performer, but also for the fans. Don’t be that person.
Now, I’d discuss X (formerly Twitter) but apparently someone is feeling a tad litigious at this time. I did find the article interesting about a law suit against a non-profit institution publishing research. https://apnews.com/article/x-twitter-.... It will be interesting to see the outcome of this. Research and tracking didn’t focus simply on the particular forum but on types of interactions. It isn’t just this research forum that has concerns about these topics. It is something that should be a concern in my humble opinion https://apnews.com/article/technology.... So, is this an attempt to shut down researchers in social interaction or is there something more at play here? It also brings up the question about the acceptance of free speech and the safety of research and researchers. It brings up ugly questions like is it safe to question social constructs and societal issues against the far right agenda?
After having given more thought to last week’s blog post and podcast, I have been thinking a little more on achieving peace in the modern age which was last week’s topic. I sometimes wonder if there isn’t so much focus on achieving and maintaining it and being ‘it’ that we lose what ‘it’ actually is. Are we putting too much pressure on ourselves to maintain a state of bliss? Is this a state that should be constant? This gets to be a complicated question by itself. Some people think we should always attempt to achieve and it is the only thing. Then there is also the fact that people are human. This is the thing in life that makes things more complicated. What we need to achieve is balance. In other words, it is OK to feel things. It’s OK to feel terrible about something. It’s OK to feel happy about something. It’s OK to feel. It’s not OK to harm others or oneself because of feelings…but this gets into belief system arguments. No one is perfect and no one will achieve happiness nor peace every single minute of every single day. If you’ve had a difficult time or are going through something, it isn’t going to go away and achieve over night peace. It isn’t going to be constant. With all the stuff going on in the world, some things will trigger feelings that aren’t very peaceful.
So, toward the end of inner peace, here is what you want to do. Start out small. Find one thing, one moment that you feel calm or happy. Learn what it feels like first. Having 60 years on this earth, I can tell you there were times I was supremely miserable. Know what you are feeling. Sometimes things suck. Sometimes things hurt. Most important, don’t imagine anything positive or negative will last forever. It doesn’t and things can change which might not be bad or good. If it has lasting impact and unchanged negative, then consult with a medical doctor. Medication sometimes can bring one to a place of being able to deal with life and sometimes it is as necessary as insulin for coping with longer term issues. I say this because no one would deny someone with diabetes the importance of insulin but mental health meds sometimes people lose all perspective. Find one thing in one day that can make things a little less hard. Find one thing that makes you feel happy or almost happy. I find that in nature I can go for a walk and see some butterflies playing and that always cheers me. I can watch a bird fly. I can see a beautiful flower. I can also find peace in reading. Peace may also be a form of focus. Some work on art work and it takes them out of themselves for a time. It is something that you can focus on just to get a breath in.
Sleeping can be a difficult issue for some and lack of sleep can make things so much worse. At night, I find the sound of the ocean (ambient sound) calming. I had mistakenly thought it might not be accepted overall, however, I find that there are mixed reviews on it. I can attest that my brain is an active critter and focusing on the ocean sounds is calming at least for me https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders.... The article gives a bit of explanation. The ocean may or may not work for you, but as the article suggests, different ambient sounds can be found online and there are apps. Some even like white noise…like static on a TV type sound or fans. It’s a matter of finding what works for you. I have a clock radio that has Ocean sound. After a short time, the ocean sounds help me to relax and find some calm and sleep. There are other methods of reaching peace, including Yoga and meditation, art, music etc. This too is not a one size fits all situation.
Finding inner peace is not an instant gratification type of thing and it is different for different people. It is more like a journey where you can find what works for you. Inner Peace can also be a sort of focus that helps you gain some serenity in your mind. Many people get frustrated and tired trying to find it when it is as simple as a walk in the park, watching butterflies play, doing art or listening to music that you feel speaks to you and helps you find a calming influence. Once you find that feeling, you can work on being able to reach it when you are feeling stressed and for longer periods. It doesn’t take away the reality of human life or emotion. The first and most important step is actually finding that feeling. You’ll know it when you feel it. Even an instant of calm reflection will help you achieve the ability to know the feeling. People think it is a state to reach and it’ll come to you one day. You have to work at it. It is somewhat true. It is a state that you can reach. The modern world makes it more challenging, yet there are more tools to reach it. It’s not impossible. It can be challenging especially if you expect it to just kind of come to you one day out of nowhere. How can you experience something you have no frame of reference for? When you find the feeling, then you can repeat it. You can learn to unlock that magical part of you that can find peace, focus, and calm. It isn’t going to come over night and it isn’t going to magically appear. You will have to find it. This week, I have found two quotes that speak to me with this regard. One is “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” by John F. Kennedy. The other one is attributed to Lyndon B Johnson, “Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.” Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
There is always something in the news or something going on that makes me shake my head. The latest one is the Trump saga. It seems mostly to be a litany of charges for potential crimes. I use potential because it has to be legally entrenched which it has yet to be. At the same time, there seems to be very little action. It makes me wonder how many things someone in the USA can do and nothing happens. I think most people, if they had a list of charges, there would be some activity. So, is it political or is it being rich that makes for the strangely uncomfortable situation? Now, I have to admit, I am not a citizen of the States, I’m Canadian. My knowledge of politics in my own country is not very extensive and my understanding of other country politics is next to non-existent except for what I see in the news. So, maybe there is something I’m missing in the whole thing. Just seems to me for the amount of really bad sounding stuff that they are talking about, it’s amazing to me that he is still not facing any serious consequences. They are already jailing people from the Jan 6 riots. Of course this is just opinion and conjecture on my part with little to no real knowledge of how these things actually work. I don’t really have the political science interest in order to better educate myself on the topic except minimally. The following article gives an update on the whole situation https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-can.... I suppose the factor of innocent until proven guilty is a thing. I suppose that they want to make sure to follow all the process in hopes that they can make a solid case. So, there might be a process involved. At the same time, some articles have suggested that there is a political aspect to this and differentiate between high profile people and the regular populace https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion.... This seems to suggest a weakness in the judicial system if people are treated differently because of their status. This, in itself suggests a bit of a disparity in legal representation and legal consequences. In a country that prides itself on equal protection under the law how this affects the outcome of cases such as the current charges faced by Trump remains to be seen https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitut.... This also brings into question how some of the States can outlaw some fundamental rights. It is definitely something to consider. Though, as I say, I have no real understanding of US legal process. It leaves me wondering why there is not a lot of legal battling and who gets to decide what fundamental rights are negotiable. Sometimes I think it would be better to have legal and political spheres kept separate. The law should be able to think clearly beyond the needs of politics and toward the lives of the people it serves. One could equally argue the very same thing with regard to politics. So, there is where we are.
The next thing that I find somewhat frightening is that Performers are now being attacked on stage. They don’t call it that, but people are literally throwing drinks (https://www.npr.org/2023/07/31/119115...) and other things including one person’s dead Mother (https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz...) at performers. I had not been aware, but some performers have been literally injured (requiring stitches) by these acts and the Cardi B article states this most specifically. Performers are not meant to be doing battle with their fans and it starts to feel that way when you see the actions of a few ‘fans’. It does not set up a healthy atmosphere for performers nor for their fans. The other thing that people need to consider is if this was your family member up on stage, would you feel comfortable seeing people tossing stuff at them? I think what it will end up doing is having concerts increase safety measures and separate the fans from the performer. It will also leave performers feeling less safe and affect the overall performance of the entertainers. So, please, consider the overall effect of such thoughtless acts. These actions not only ruin it for the performer, but also for the fans. Don’t be that person.
Now, I’d discuss X (formerly Twitter) but apparently someone is feeling a tad litigious at this time. I did find the article interesting about a law suit against a non-profit institution publishing research. https://apnews.com/article/x-twitter-.... It will be interesting to see the outcome of this. Research and tracking didn’t focus simply on the particular forum but on types of interactions. It isn’t just this research forum that has concerns about these topics. It is something that should be a concern in my humble opinion https://apnews.com/article/technology.... So, is this an attempt to shut down researchers in social interaction or is there something more at play here? It also brings up the question about the acceptance of free speech and the safety of research and researchers. It brings up ugly questions like is it safe to question social constructs and societal issues against the far right agenda?
After having given more thought to last week’s blog post and podcast, I have been thinking a little more on achieving peace in the modern age which was last week’s topic. I sometimes wonder if there isn’t so much focus on achieving and maintaining it and being ‘it’ that we lose what ‘it’ actually is. Are we putting too much pressure on ourselves to maintain a state of bliss? Is this a state that should be constant? This gets to be a complicated question by itself. Some people think we should always attempt to achieve and it is the only thing. Then there is also the fact that people are human. This is the thing in life that makes things more complicated. What we need to achieve is balance. In other words, it is OK to feel things. It’s OK to feel terrible about something. It’s OK to feel happy about something. It’s OK to feel. It’s not OK to harm others or oneself because of feelings…but this gets into belief system arguments. No one is perfect and no one will achieve happiness nor peace every single minute of every single day. If you’ve had a difficult time or are going through something, it isn’t going to go away and achieve over night peace. It isn’t going to be constant. With all the stuff going on in the world, some things will trigger feelings that aren’t very peaceful.
So, toward the end of inner peace, here is what you want to do. Start out small. Find one thing, one moment that you feel calm or happy. Learn what it feels like first. Having 60 years on this earth, I can tell you there were times I was supremely miserable. Know what you are feeling. Sometimes things suck. Sometimes things hurt. Most important, don’t imagine anything positive or negative will last forever. It doesn’t and things can change which might not be bad or good. If it has lasting impact and unchanged negative, then consult with a medical doctor. Medication sometimes can bring one to a place of being able to deal with life and sometimes it is as necessary as insulin for coping with longer term issues. I say this because no one would deny someone with diabetes the importance of insulin but mental health meds sometimes people lose all perspective. Find one thing in one day that can make things a little less hard. Find one thing that makes you feel happy or almost happy. I find that in nature I can go for a walk and see some butterflies playing and that always cheers me. I can watch a bird fly. I can see a beautiful flower. I can also find peace in reading. Peace may also be a form of focus. Some work on art work and it takes them out of themselves for a time. It is something that you can focus on just to get a breath in.
Sleeping can be a difficult issue for some and lack of sleep can make things so much worse. At night, I find the sound of the ocean (ambient sound) calming. I had mistakenly thought it might not be accepted overall, however, I find that there are mixed reviews on it. I can attest that my brain is an active critter and focusing on the ocean sounds is calming at least for me https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders.... The article gives a bit of explanation. The ocean may or may not work for you, but as the article suggests, different ambient sounds can be found online and there are apps. Some even like white noise…like static on a TV type sound or fans. It’s a matter of finding what works for you. I have a clock radio that has Ocean sound. After a short time, the ocean sounds help me to relax and find some calm and sleep. There are other methods of reaching peace, including Yoga and meditation, art, music etc. This too is not a one size fits all situation.
Finding inner peace is not an instant gratification type of thing and it is different for different people. It is more like a journey where you can find what works for you. Inner Peace can also be a sort of focus that helps you gain some serenity in your mind. Many people get frustrated and tired trying to find it when it is as simple as a walk in the park, watching butterflies play, doing art or listening to music that you feel speaks to you and helps you find a calming influence. Once you find that feeling, you can work on being able to reach it when you are feeling stressed and for longer periods. It doesn’t take away the reality of human life or emotion. The first and most important step is actually finding that feeling. You’ll know it when you feel it. Even an instant of calm reflection will help you achieve the ability to know the feeling. People think it is a state to reach and it’ll come to you one day. You have to work at it. It is somewhat true. It is a state that you can reach. The modern world makes it more challenging, yet there are more tools to reach it. It’s not impossible. It can be challenging especially if you expect it to just kind of come to you one day out of nowhere. How can you experience something you have no frame of reference for? When you find the feeling, then you can repeat it. You can learn to unlock that magical part of you that can find peace, focus, and calm. It isn’t going to come over night and it isn’t going to magically appear. You will have to find it. This week, I have found two quotes that speak to me with this regard. One is “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” by John F. Kennedy. The other one is attributed to Lyndon B Johnson, “Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.” Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA
A & J PEI Treasures is located on Prince Edward Island, Canada. We are a husband and wife team and our companion animals. There are a number of things that drew us to the Island…one of which was the n
...more
- E. Jean Simpson's profile
- 2 followers
