#2022 November PAD Chapbook Challenge
Day 29 29.11.22
Prompt: Write a poem about truth.
Is Love Impotent? That beautiful Jew down in Palestine said to that dullard Pilate, who had never taken flight in his life, truth is how you live by the measure of love, an iteration for sure, yes, and how hard could that be, to simply love as you love , can this never be done, is love impotent? Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under Free Verse, life, love, November 2022 PAD Chapbook Challenge, Philosophy/Theology, poem
Photo: pixabay.com
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Oscar Wilde
The sea of truth is rent as a
westerly whips across the sound,
so much is indistinct as waves crash
fiercely holding but for a moment
then folding into each other,
no latitude here,
only the mollusks are indifferent,
unashamed of their resistance
to this vast body of similitude
that shapes the destiny of granite
with ease and holds the sands
in no esteem, consuming tubs
traversing meaning, skating
the peaks alone,
and I stand on the groin
seeing everything and nothing
exhausting itself, spent in anger,
so much is indistinct.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under beach, Free Verse, life, nature, philosophy, poem, quote
dVerse Poetics – Black History Month
Anmol at dVerse has invited us to write a poem focussing on Black History Month.
Photo: shutterstock.com
“I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” James Baldwin
I saw the branches of yesterdays tree
where hemp fibres once held the
beauty of humanity as if it were
merely wrapping paper
to be discarded rather than loved,
strange how truth is pigmented
in the mind, yet colonises the heart,
so easily betraying the lies
we facade for the sake of niceties
while denying a generation.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, poem, politics, prose, Uncategorized
dVerse Poets – Poetics – Black
Image: forum.slowtwitch.com
“The colour of truth is gray.” Andre Gide
Grief is incontrovertible in black,
and depression, I’m told,
barks all night
and absorbs light in the day,
while white as light
is Jekyll and Hyde
in the woods,
no telling the deception,
but grey,
now there’s a venerable colour
that speaks truth.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, mindfulness, philosophy, poem, Quadrille, quote
Augusta, the town jetty, and Blackwood River rising.
Fortunately we had raincoats and we knew the rain was coming, but nonetheless, with the wind whipping the rain along, and the cold air pressing in, we felt more than a little exposed. But, because we were prepared we enjoyed the walk. The tide was very high as predicted by the Weather Bureau. There was also a lot of flow from up-river after three major rain bearing fronts have been through and local flooding was expected. You can’t tell from the photo but the timber decking of the jetty looked as if it was floating as the water was touching the underside. We haven’t seen it like that for a while.
Weather exposure can be very serious, hypothermia or sunstroke, the risks are great if you’re not prepared. Preparation means covering up, sunblock, hats, raincoats, warm clothes, appropriate footwear. So that whatever the weather we put on what is necessary to be comfortable and to protect ourselves. However, we know not to wear winter gear in summer and vice versa, and usually we’re good at that.
We’re not so good with emotional exposure. We’re trained, or we train ourselves, to overprotect, and sometimes we wear the wrong emotional gear, like using the mask of happiness to cover depression, or the mask of confidence to cover fear. Rarely do we let others in, we become invulnerable, strong, a veritable fortress. Yet the best possible way forward, the only true way to wholeness is to trust others with our inner world. Of course, it goes without saying, you don’t grab a megaphone and announce your life to the world, but there are people in our lives we can talk to, take off our masks, and be vulnerable with.
As Brene Brown has said many times, in our society vulnerablity, to be exposed, is to be seen as weak. Brown counters this with “vulnerability is our greatest measure of courage.” Brown defines vulnerability as “uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure.” It is an opening of the self to another, whereby empathy becomes the healing counterpoint or the supportive staging point, depending on what we are going through. Brown’s research is thorough, and in it she discovered that every courageous act was underpinned by vulnerability. That tells me that we can only really flourish when we are able to speak our truth and take off our masks and be real with others, then we are whole and not just pieces or segments. The fortress life may serve us well but to really floursih we need to let the drawbridge down from time to time, otherwise we not only defend ourselves against the outsider, we imprison ourselves from the world. I’d rather be open than be a captive! Take courage.
cherry tree winter bare cold has stunted many new buds the wild branch has fruit ©Paul Cannon
Paul,
pvcann.com
Filed under Haiku, life, mindfulness, nature, psychology, quote, self-development
From the dawn of time to the Lock Ness Monster, to Joseph Goebbels, Lavrentiy Beria, the Vietnam lie, the Watergate Seven, to Weapons of Mass Destruction, to the constancy of daily lies pedalled across the world by politicians, media, businesses, rogue scientists, fundamentalist religious types (remember Jim Jones, David Koresh, Pat Robertson), or the hoax about a hoax – the radio show of Orson Wells which featured his War of the Worlds alien invasion, and which was said to have created mass panic and evacuation of New York, now proven to be an invention created from a handful of hysterical phone calls and an attack on a civic facility thought to be an alien fortress. It certainly helped Wells and the radio station maintain popularity and gain sponsors.
Hoaxes, scams, fake news have all been around since Adam (a story which includes a scam). Generally they fall into two categories, harmful (weapons of mass destruction), and harmless (Loch Ness Monster). They are all fabrications, lies. It is difficult now to believe anything that is reported in mainstream news, at least until it has been checked. But then, people can be fake in their relationships, pretending to be someone or something.
Black Lives Matter, #Me Too, are also testimony to how fake news, lies, fabrications distort race, gender, and destroy individuals and relationships. In Australia the plight of indigenous children removed from families, based on cultural arrogance and self serving mythology, and the devastating findings of the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has shown how fake reputations, scams and lies enabled vulnerable children to be broken.
Yet, I remain optimistic. In my daily journey I meet many, many people who restore my belief that most people value each other at some level, that the human endeavour is still somehow linked to the golden rule (treat others as you would want to be treated), no matter how we might feel that that is tenuous, the anecdotal evidence is strong. Importantly, I remind myself that there, as the old saying goes, but for the grace of God there go I! Who am I? No one is perfect, and so we need to gentle with each other.
Lies will continue, there will be hoaxes, scams, fake news and distortions. Our response surely must be to discern the truth, but also to hold each other in the space of love, trust, healing, and above all, to listen. The power of listening can be healing in itself, and in the long term the way to truth. To listen to the vulnerable (and who is not vulnerable in some way?), the broken (and who is not broken in some way?), to listen to each other generously and deeply. That way myths come undone, lies are made plain, pain is held, anxiety understood, vanity deconstructed, fear disarmed … in the end, in a world where fake news and distrust could overpower us, we have each other, not bury our heads in activity, but to value each other, build trust, support, resilience, that will enable us to face the world together. Together we can rise above fake.
”No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when s/he looks directly into someone’s eyes.” Paul Coelho
”A lie cannot live.” Martin Luther King Jnr.
Paul,
pvcann.com
Image: techviral.net
Black, grey white hats – hacking of course!
White Hat hackers are ethical hackers, they simply use hacking techniques to test software and security systems. The Grey Hat hacker is not malicious, but occasionally violates ethical principles and laws. Black Hats are the bad guys, they are nefarious, according to law enforcement agencies and commercial interests, they infiltrate systems, wipe, steal and disrupt. Or do they?
As often happens with any fear of wrong doing or alleged crime, truth is often the first casualty. Black Hats are simply lumped in together. So consider Gary McKinnon, formerly known as Solo, who hacked ino 97 US military and NASA systems between 2001 and 2002, altering and removing data. Mckinnon claimed he was looking for information about UFOs, extraterrestials, and chemical suppression processes. Extradition to the US from Britain was attempted but in the end refused. McKinnon remained free, and in the ensuing investigations, it transpired that the sensational claims made against him were inaccurate. But then we had Kevin Poulson who committed fraud and theft using hacking skills, he was caught and sent to prison, but now works at The Daily Beast and has been an editor at Wired.
So, two different motives appear, one to find information that is being hidden from the public, the other to do the equivalent of the old bank robbery. Both are considered to be crimes, however, in my mind, McKinnon was not seeking gain, whereas Poulson’s sought financial gain through theft. I have some sympathy for Mckinnon, and none for Poulson.
Anonymous is a loose collective of what are referred to as hacktivists, they are amorphous and ever changing, and they have specialised in cyber attack, especially in matters of justice and claims to avenge corruption and injustice. It is typified by the headless man symbol – meaning there is no central leader or leadership, and in public the use of the Zorro mask is now synonymous. Many have referred to the group as a cyber Robin Hood. Their main purpose has been to temporarily shut down websites and services as a form of protest. anonymous has exposed pedophile groups, sweat shops, cheating spouses, racial profiling, racist political groups, corrupt politicians and more. They led cyber attacks on Scientology, Westboro Baptist Church, and commercial interests who have been show to behave unjustly. They have been supporters of Wikileaks, Occupy and Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.
Wikileaks is a group that operates a website and who post hacked or leaked material, mainly suppressed material from around the globe, it has also set up a research wing looking at the material it posts. It was founded by Julian Assange, who has been the subject of an extradition battle by the US. Although it has had a controversial history thus far, and some alleged nefarious dealings with Russian interests, Wikileaks has also exposed commercial and government lies, duplicity, and deception around the globe. Wikileaks has exposed nuclear dsiasters, environmental abuses,government corruption, military attacks on civilians, plots and threats, and police corruption. Basically taking up the role of an independent watchdog.
These groups are indeed nefarious, but the one’s I really don’t like are those that are just common thieves. The rest, while motives are mixed, and methods questionable, at least they have sought a way to make governments and commercial interests accountable. in my view it is laughable when western government agencies protest about the crimes of hacktivists and in particular the shady methods they use, I see that as the kettle calling the pot black. So it all depends on where you are standing as to how you might see this issue, but I for one see a glimmer of good in the work of Anonymous and Wikileaks. Governments become arrogant, and as has been shown by hacktivists, they lie to the people, even to themselves, and that means power has been corrupted.
The US and its allies speak of hacktivists as terrorists. I beg to differ, it’s a little childish to exaggerate the issue. Besides, in my view these people have done exactly what Mark Felt, Daniel Elsberg and others before them have done, but in a global and accessible way using the internet. In that sense, hacktivists are whistleblowing. We may not like their methods or their attitude, but just look at some of the results.
For me, the work of the hacktivists is more about getting to the truth and preserving freedom of speech. While truth is relative, freedom of speech is sacrosanct and should be defended no matter what. How did keeping the Iran nuclear leak in 2009 suppressed protect national security? It didn’t. Freedom of speech is far more important than someone’s opinion that government should be protected at all costs.
Some related quotes I like:
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” Harry Truman speaking to Congress August 8, 1950.
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell
Speak your truth!
Paul,
pvcann.com
Filed under history, life, Philosophy/Theology, politics, quote, Whistleblowing
Daniel Ellsberg.
Last week I watched the movie “The Post”, it has a stellar cast with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, Spielberg directing. For me the technical side of the movie was irelevant, because what was more important in this movie was the story itself, the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
Ellsberg, who had served in the marines in the late 50s, joined the Rand Corporation as a strategic analyst focussing on nuclear strategy. He completed his PhD in economics in 1962, and then in 1964 went to work at the Pentagon as assistant to John McNaughton. He then went to Vietnam for two years, working for general Lansdale through the State Dept. It was while in Vietnam that Ellsberg began to question the US involvement in the war.
When Ellsberg returned from Vietnam he returned to the Rand Corporation, and in 67 he contributed to the top-secret study on the Vietnam war commissioned by McNamara. This study was completed in 1968 and titled The Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg now understood the war to be one of US aggression and not one of support for a legitimate govt. under attack, and was therefore an illigitimate war under the UN Charter. Ellsberg could see from the study that from Kenedy to Johnson to Nixon the US Administration had known they would never win the war the way they were fighting it, so they were simply face saving and condemning a generation of young men to death while destroying another country. Ellsberg with help from a colleague, made secret copies of the Papers. In 1970 he tried to persuade selected US senators to bring them to the senate floor as evidence. This failed, and in 1971 he sent a copy to the NY Times correspondent Neil Sheehan, who published an excerpt with teh promise of a serial. The Nixon Administration sought a court injunction, and succeeded. Ellsberg then gave the papers to The Washington Post, and several other newspapers, who printed them. Another injunction was sought, but the Administration lost and the ruling allowed freedom to print, and they did.
As an aside, Nixon aide Erlichman authorised the formation of “The Whitehouse Plumbers”, Hunt and Liddy, as they were infamously known, to break into Ellsberg’s Psychiatrist’s office and get his files, they did but found nothing worth using against Ellsberg. This action was recorded on tape, and was the undoing of the Administration’s attempt to convict Ellsberg. Notably, shortly after this, the “Plumbers” raided the Watergate office of the Democrat Party, and so Nixon’s fate was then sealed.
The publication of the Pentagon Papers were deemed by the US Supreme Court to be a right of free speech and this ruling was seen as a landmark case. The publication damaged the war effort and was part of the turning of the tide, it shocked a nation that they had been so blatantly lied to by successive administrations. The truth had been a casualty, the truth had disappeared.
But then, isn’t that the story of politics?
The truth has disappeared in politics, and when truth disappears we should be concerned to restore the truth. I do not believe that governments have any right to hold documents in secret. The argument that secrecy protects the government and security is clearly an oxymoron. Secrecy in government is about staying in power and hiding unethical and criminal behaviour, as a series of whistleblowers have shown over the decades.
Whistleblowing is a dangerous role in any society, and one where any govenrment can cast you as the enemy, but one that some people take seriously as the only action they can take for the good of the people. Ellsberg, Felt, Bukovsky, Ponting, Silkwood, Wright, Vanunu, Serpico, Gun, Manning, Asange, Snowdon, and dozens more have surrendered their own safety and rights to expose the lies that governments and corporations (sometimes colluding) concoct for their own puposes. Sadly, while many western governments have legislated to give some protection of whistleblowers, it usually falls short of full protection and such legislation is still prejudiced in favour of governments and corporations.
Daniel Ellsberg set up “The Truth-Telling Project in the early 2000s, but that is now defunct (though other groups now use that name for other puposes). He spends time writing about the importance of whistleblowing, and supporting those who take that step.
The Pentagon Papers release and whistlebowing in general reminds me of that famous dictum of Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good (men – sic) people do nothing.” And that beautiful quote from Ann Frank: “How wonderful is it that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
Let’s not be ostriches, let’s be truth tellers where we are, let’s make truth reappear.
Paul,
pvcann.com
Filed under community, life, politics, quote, Uncategorized, Whistleblowing
Looking down the beach just below Cosy Corner along the Leeuwin/Naturaliste Cape. Cosy Corner is hardly cozy, it is an open and wind swept scape, and its waves are persistent and strong. The irony is that just behind me is another bay called Foul Bay which is quite cosy. I suppose it depends on the person and the day as to how names are appended (naming children for example). I guess it also depends, equally, how we judge others. The double irony of judging the judgement of others, a constant cycle of outwitting ourselves, telling ourselves that we’re somehow better, more right, more deserving. I say just let life be the irony it is. Cosy Corner and Foul Bay are what they are, and perhaps the misnaming is helpful in that, by default, it accentuates the truth. A bit like Picasso’s comment that those who copied his works were not to be feared because they pointed to him anyway. Truth will out, eventually.
Paul,
pvcann.com
Filed under bush walking, Country, life, nature
So many possible angles on this. What is critical? Trump vs North Korea? Turnbull vs his own political party (even himself)? Or, have you thought about restorative justice, now that’s a critical issue? Or, are you responding to climate change with solid critical thinking (dividing the truth, reasoning)?
But from a contemplative point of view, critical, or critical thinking (or processing), is deductive vs inductive thinking (or processing). Inductive reasoning involves inquiry, exploration, trial and error. Whereas deductive reasoning involves establishing a truth and supporting it. Inductive reasoning has helped us to grow and explore in every field of learning, whereas deductive learning has kept us corralled in a particular moment of learning.
Inductive learning helps us to think and respond critically to ideas, processes, facts, learning, discovery, emotions, and feelings. In theology and politics (and other fields of learning too) deductive learning is usually associated with closed thinking, even fundamentalism(s). Whereas inductive learning is exponential, it keeps on keeping on, because it recognises our potential to never fully know, but to be always engaged with learning new aspects of a truth or an experience. Inductive learning is not about black or white, right or wrong, who’s in or who’s out, it is about how do we move forward with each revelation, and how do I integrate that learning and contribute to it too? Deductive learning has its place, but its more about what we agree to be set truths and paths to learning, and of which there are few.
I’m for trial and error, its more forgiving, more fun, and opens up a myriad of possibilities every time. but it really depends on how you look at life, are you open to new ideas and paths at each turn, or do you yearn for set ideas and paths? The great thinkers of each generation have been inductive thinkers and teachers.
pvcann.com
Filed under life, Philosophy/Theology
¡Gracias por pasarte! :)
Easiest GF DF recipes that ANYONE can prepare. No BS.
Gonna fill this page with breathings of my heart 💞
Welcome to my personal blog site. I see myself as a free thinker, life explorer, and wisdom collector. Some of my favorite subjects are psychology, philosophy, relationships, society, reading, writing, technology, and lifestyle.
Climate Change
this love fairy fell in love with her ghost
A Love Affair With The Past
Writing, blogging, journaling
Tales from the Life of a Lost Soul
¡Gracias por pasarte! :)
Easiest GF DF recipes that ANYONE can prepare. No BS.
Gonna fill this page with breathings of my heart 💞
Welcome to my personal blog site. I see myself as a free thinker, life explorer, and wisdom collector. Some of my favorite subjects are psychology, philosophy, relationships, society, reading, writing, technology, and lifestyle.
Climate Change
this love fairy fell in love with her ghost
A Love Affair With The Past
Writing, blogging, journaling
Tales from the Life of a Lost Soul
parallax 