Delivery at 100,000[,000 Dead] Poets for [Spare] Change – Oriental Theater, Denver

Posted on 28th September 2013 in Poetry, Self Determination

This, then, is the greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well

- Paolo Freire [Pedagogy of the Oppressed]

 

let it be, then, that 100 million dead poets for spare change be the voice of reason, be the prana of change breathing, conducting the winds of time, the wings of change, heralded by this beautiful disaster we’re all witnessing, that we are all unwitting participants in somehow of unknown origin and unknown destiny looking for meaning searching for a reason that makes sense or, better yet – and here’s the change people, creating meaning by guiding the great spirit with words as incantations to show our love, to show that we are responsible, to show we can handle the situation, to show our power, based in ordained responsibility, sourced in all of the virtues, intentions to steer clear of the path of the vicious, the unwise, the greedy, the oppressor, who somehow was born with a tremendous karmic debt to pay off because of the injustices served them their ancestry and their life’s mission became an orchestration of retribution instead of reconciliation, violence instead of planning and executing the foundation for the establishment of the pillars of peace, a strategic meticulous teleological trajectory of manipulation towards personal gain rather than cultivating and nurturing all of the children of this world – that would be you and I, dearies.

 

How do we go about liberating the oppressor?

 

First, of course, we find the love in our selves – through an understanding that we are all co-existing on common ground – that would be the earth, people – subjects of a collective history of trauma and conflict the source of which is, indeed, gone with the wind, but recorded in our DNA, a collective human DNA, a human genome that, somehow, functions together as one big organism conducted by little crystals of genetic material whose origins are, quite literally, a complex coalescence of light waves transformed into particles and organized into something really quite amazing that could be a source of infinite inspiration, that must become a source of infinite inspiration, rather than a vortex for disaster, abuse, violations of one’s personal integrity, a dismantling of humanity and a resultant destruction of the great mother?

 

Loving ourselves takes patience and humility. Developing patience and humility requires patience and humility so how do we source it? How do we source it when our collective history is one of dispossession. An expropriation creating a planet of the apes, a planet of refugees, a planet of slaves, a planet of victims and perpetrators. How do we source our humility and patience to cultivate humility and patience – perhaps the progenitors of all of the virtues? Well, this is an area in which we are all fortunate to be well endowed in, endowed with. We are poets? We are the agents of change? Somewhere, somehow, somewhy, sometime, we have been cursed with the blessing of insight and introspection into the exploration of our identity with the realization that there is a vast overlap of what might be our personal identity with a common human identity and that, not only do we somehow have the instructions to construct the pillars of peace but we also have the wisdom, skills and personal qualities to plan their execution and map out the intended location for their erection.

 

Poets, that would be you, and I, and anyone, as it turns out, who happens to be breathing, circulating the air between us. 7 billion poets strong we all have, recorded in our DNA, enshrined in our human genome, the tools to build these pillars of peace piece by piece. But we, the elders, are charged with the task of rebuilding our human identity, reconstructing the future, reconciling the past, repairingg the present, repaying ourkarmic debt to restore the principles and practices of the rituals of love transforming hatred fear, anger and occupation to a passionate exercise in co-habitating this asylum of Eden in a state of mutual beneficence, love, respect and fascination. Strangely, perhaps ironically, the source of all of our emotions and actions is the same, I conjecture and it is simply that we are trained to be scared of the unknown, trained to self-deprecate into despondence or elevate to arrogance, trained by those who inherited a power structure based in power over instead of power with. Somehow we learned to pick up the gun under the orders of the gun by people inculcated into a world of despair instead of picking up the violin and the spatula and filling the air with sweet sounds and savory smells. Well, enough of them have undergone an inculcation and indoctrination into this culture of occupation.

 

But we poets have in our constitution, somehow, somewhy, sometime, by the good graces of the great spirit, the rightt combination of ingredients in our identity from which emerges an transformative ability to create breaths with sounds with meanings that change peoples thoughts and emotions and, quite literally, changes their course of existence, manipulates their trajectory and changes their DNA thereby changing the human genome and, conducting it, quite literally, towards a place where you can begin to hear the full splendor of the human orchestra, taste the fullness of millenia of human cultures diversity of sustenance and medicine for the soul, witness the unfurling human identity in all its potential as a resource for a globalreconciliationn of all past injustices and, therein, thereby and therefor constructing the pillars of peace.

 

What are these pillars of peace?

 

The ingredients, dear poet, are utterances of air pushed through your vocal chords coordinated into sounds most people, including the paragon of flora and fauna, understand and resonate with. Yes, that is right, the ingredients for the pillars of peace are nothing but words. Simply, they just have to be constructed in the right shape and laid down in the proper sequence to erect these pillars of peace.

 

And what are these pillars of peace, dear friends, you’ve been asking yourselves and perhaps waiting for me to enunciate? Fortunately they are few and fortuitously simple: these pillars of peace are equality. The pillar of peace is only one thing – It is equality. It is seeing self as other and that we all have the exact same human rights and human needs. So clearly these rights and needs have been elucidated and enshrined in all of the worlds religions, in all moral philosophical discourse and inquiry, and in the charters, treatises, conventions, protocols, declarations and constitutions of those coalescent bodies of light invoked and established to conduct this infinite interplay of waves of sounds and ideas of words to establish the common ground of our humanity to inspire us towards some ideal notion of global village where, once again, we all recognize that we are the indigenous inhabitants of one world and our proud histories as individuals belonging to divergent cultures, languages, religions, attitudes,behaviors and contradictions, wills desires and expectations, sounds of songs smells of sustenance, and the full rich organismal orchestration becomes our convergent common identity wrapt in our common origin cultivating of commonomon destiny with all of the virtues as our emergent behavior and all of the vices set off to the side and referenced only to mind and maintain those pillars of peace we’ve worked so hard to put in place.

 

So, my friend sister brother, this then is the greatest historical and humanistic task that we, 100000 poets are charged with, we are the the voice of reason, the voice of revolution, the culture bearers of an entire race of beings for whom we are charged, somehow, somewhy, someway, to be the stewards of the creative prowess of human endeavor, to offer instructions to the children of mind and heart to find themselves according to the clear and concise messages we get from nature, the messages we get from our dreams, the messages we get from the great spirit who guide us to use our power responsibly so that we may seemingly violate certain conservation principles in that we proliferate all of the virtues, leaving the vices to decay and dissipate as some cruel joke of history in which we listened, somehow, somewhy and someway to the prison guard, the preacher, the law and the teacher. Now, we are the ones who will have spoken the voice of reason and we will cultivate this maelstrom into the perfect storm protecting, teaching, and empowering the children, our little orchards of electricity who collectively will bring us back to the garden.

 

 

Poem Delivered at 100,000[,000 Dead] Poets for [Spare] Change: Denver – Oriental Theater September 28, 2013:

We all have a common origin
nascent coalescence mosaic of light
straight from the source
waves dancing waves into particulars
you, me, our adversaries and lovers
nothing but light waves
dancing our roots of nothingness into
the outskirts of the infinite

we all have a common ancestry
incandescent crystalline matrix
straight from the source
self emergent, self sustaining, self regulating, self replicating
interwoven generations scaling the conflict helix
transcendent towards our higher purpose

we all have a common morality
espoused wisdoms prosaic divine
straight from the source
thoughts sprouted from the mouths
of seven billion poets enshrined
in declarations, treatises, charters protocols conventions
the constitutions of earths nations and tribes
testament
truth in fundament of the ties that bind
inseparable we have no choice

we all have a common destiny
cosmic descent radiant dispersal
straight to the source
deliverance self, divergent other – ness
other words of other worlds hitherto unknown
we find solidarity on the playground of our commonalities

where

we all have a common identity
underneath the psychic raveling
revealing the source
through a global reconciliation of
admissions, apologies, reparations
a restoration of the co-mingled
orchestrations of unity
reveling in diversity
relishing the subtleties of local languages
that through time and space diverge
into the vast neural network of brains
connected through words
conducting electricity
from mind this hive
generating all that is in this world

words are the magic of this world
words are the progenitors of emotion
in this world words are the conductors
of the Pow Wau
words are illicitor
of the great spirit’s dream
the poet the blue conduit of truth
whose words are balls

her words are balls of electricity
his breath infinite induction of
fields inducing fields
creating the vast neural network of brains
a coordinated conjunction of minds
nascent coalescent mosaic of light
calculated incantations eliciting
oppressed and oppressor towards liberation
articulated enunciations transforming our wiring
unraveling the psychic coiled chaotic matrix DNA
intrepid
vigilant
inexorable

without tongue
your words become cosmic whispers
bulging out through your lips

without lips
your whispers become a mantric om
written into the retina of your I

without eyes
your om becomes a tantric vision
sculpting the musculature of your face

without face
your vision becomes the ecstatic dream
scriptures of a liberation theology

without words
your breath becomes the incantation of your purest intention
transforming trauma to prana

with courage
you face all adversity
to ensure equality
restore justice
and establish a lasting peace

with patience
you transform your attitude
to cultivate a mutually beneficent behavior
overcoming the inherent contradictions
transmitted in the mixed messages
of those internal and external forces
keeping us from our core temperament
transcending the occupation of our identity
so we may once again be co-habitants
indigenous to this land

with humility
we transcend the distorted projections
through imperfect lenses
of our own subjective dispositions
quelling desire and expectation
aligning our will toward
unbound respect, appreciation, love and affection
guiding our intention to become
stewards of self, the paragon of animals, and all life on earth

with empathy
we blur the distinction between self and other
invoking a new world order
whose firmament is trust
whose power is responsibility to nurture
procure invoke and cultivate
all of the virtues

with love
we heal our ancestry
through a dialogical conscientization
rebuilding our individual, communal and collective identities
so, as adults, we can focus on what really matters
the children
whose breath is an orchard of electricity
our offering
a manifest dream of a past that never happened according to plan
our instructions
imparting the wisdom, skills and qualities
grand unification
liberation of the next 7 generations
so their words will become
the balls of electricity
breaking down the walls
of this enchanted prison
garden asylum Eden

this, then, habibi
is our greatest historical and humanistic task
to liberate our oppressors
so we can liberate ourselves

 

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Ring Theory: A Tool for Conflict Analysis and the Design, Monitoring and Evaluation of Peace Initiatives

Posted on 12th July 2013 in Peace, Peace Pedagogy, Self Determination, Theory

Abstract­: There are many tools for conflict analysis and the design, monitoring and evaluation of peace initiatives. Each of these tools has its advantages and limitations in a given context. Several of these tools used in conjunction with one another can give a relatively complete means for evaluating conflicts and designing processes to transform conflicts. Ring Theory is yet another tool for conflict analysis and the design, monitoring and evaluation of peace initiatives. Ring theory offers a more streamlined means for visualizing the complexity of conflicts and transformation processes than some of the other tools for conflict analysis and the design monitoring and evaluation of peace initiatives because it considers all interactions between all stakeholders across all levels and sectors of society. Ring Theory, used in in conjunction with other tools can yield a more complete and, therefore, accurate assessment of a conflict or transformation process. In so doing, it can increase the likelihood for success of peace initiatives. Ring Theory also has potential as an early warning tool for conflict prevention.

 

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[Edited version coming soon]

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Aspects of the Neoconservative Agenda through the lens of Dahrendorf’s Social Conflict Model

Posted on 8th July 2013 in Articles, Theory, World Peace Academy Reflection Papers

I. Introduction:

Trying to reduce a complex social interaction to a general theory, as Dahrendorf states, leads to empty generalizations or to empirically unjustifiable oversimplifications. With this in mind I limit this discussion of social conflict in the United States, specifically from the beginning of the Bush Jr. Administration, noting that an analysis based on Huntington’s theory – largely the disposition of the Neoconservative agenda, which I will discuss in more detail – would make for an interesting discussion. As I hope to show, the social structure of the US closely resonates with the key points highlighted in Dahrendorf. Additionally, while I do believe there is valuable information to be obtained through a psycho-social analysis of this, or any social structure, I think Dahrendorf’s limitation on endogenous conflicts as “the task of sociology to derive conflicts from specific social structures” points out most of the main functional relationships of the two dichotomous models of society along with the principle of authority and authority structures. These aspects of the Conflict Theory model and, what I would call the general tendency toward a neo-totalitarian state are the main points of my argument.

An important aspect, and precondition, of the Conflict Theory model is that it is intended to be ‘crafted’ to suit the needs of a particular conflict and therefore avoids generalizations and oversimplifications. Further, it considers the trajectory of the system and therefore,  through empirical research, attempts to establish a reasonable set, or multiplicity, of parameters to evaluate the system and the relative intensity of each parameter in the specific context. As Dahrendorf points out, “it is erroneous to assume that a description of how elements of a structure are put together in a stable whole offers, as such, a point of departure for structure analysis of conflict and change .” Such an approach can tends to eliminate many of the assumed structural and functional relationships that may lead to incorrect interpretations of empirical data and eliminates the difficulties of distinguishing between intended and unintended outcomes and relies more on the scientific method of matching empirical evidence with stated hypotheses.

 

II. Critical Evaluation of Key Points

I will highlight the key points of Dahrendorf’s Social Conflict Model as presented in lecture at the World Peace Academy by Dr. Jürgen Endres.1 Beginning with dichotomous models of Integration and Conflict, as listed in Table 1, it is important to note that these
two contrasting models form what I would consider to be a canonical set of mutually induct and mutually restrictive pairs. This is to say that these two aspects of society are, in the case of the Unites States at least, intertwined and are the impetus for change itself.
There is always a very progressive element of society which is met with a more conservative element and the more, for example, the indicators of Conflict become dominant, the more their tends to be a reaction by the more conservative elements of society. This explains the oscillation from Democratic to Republican parties controlling the three branches of government. However, there is an added layer which, according to Dahrendorf, would be the real progenitor of the social dynamic – namely, that the real holders of authority in the United States take advantage of the Conflict/Integration dichotomy as a strategy to divide and conquer the US population while the laws and regulating freedom, liberty and justice are slowly manipulated and normalized into totalitarian state.

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NON VIOLENT Movement #1 in G(ene) Sharp: The Fifth American Revolution (Dedicated to Gene Sharp)

Posted on 29th June 2013 in Peace, Reflections, Self Determination, World Peace Academy Reflection Papers

Prelude:
In the very short amount of time that modern weaponry has existed, humankind has witnessed a tragic escalation in violent military conflicts. These conflicts have shifted from inter-state military actions of both offensive and defensive natures to  humanitarian interventions’ and intra-state military actions. In one sense – the case of interstate warring – the world has become a  less violent place; though the means for the total obliteration of life on earth (roughly) exist, they do not pose as great a threat to peace, security, health and the welfare of humankind as much as things like access to and availability of potable water, street drugs, cancer, civilian related gun deaths, choking on pretzels and falling asleep while driving.

In places where there is no relative peace, work can be done to foster relative peace through the means elaborated and elucidated by  many ‘experts’ who work in the field (Galtung, Gandhi, Sharp, Olberg, Johansen, et. al.). Where there is peace, work can be done to  foster community and creativity as well as a sense of charity to those in need. Charity  an come in many forms and, in its essence –  whatever the form,  is an act of solidarity. An example of this would be OTПOP ‘members’ working with movements in the Arab Spring; this is a direct form of charity, solidarity and peace building through the statistically proven effective method of non-violent actions  and interactions. Perhaps that is the differentiating factor – where there is relative violence, non-violent actions can take place. Where there is relative peace, peace promoting actions can take place.

The intent of non violent or peace promoting actions is to change the dynamics of the system in question. The system in question here is the the structure and function of a tyrannical regime, as opposed to the dynamics of trade union disputes, interpersonal  relationships such as marriage, or saving endangered species from the threat of environmental degradation and destruction. In terms of promoting democracy (the ideal and principle of one person one vote – not it’s practical manifestation) there are a number of  aspects we must consider with respect to the the structure and function of governments: how the government gets its money; how the system maintains the status quo in terms of the work force necessary to keep the state functioning; the military; the police; civil obedience , and the bureaucracy of governmental institutions and its proxies. Two dynamical models should be considered and applied and will be recurring themes throughout the movement: 1.) viewing the six items listed above as pillars for dismantling; 2.) viewing the six items listed above in terms of fulcrums that will act as the pivot for displacing or shifting structure and authority in a direction away from the status quo.

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Toward a Pedagogy of Liberation: Holotivity and the Internal Arts in Peace Education

Posted on 9th June 2013 in Peace, Peace Pedagogy, Self Determination, Theory

Abstract: The evolutionary trajectory of many fields of discourse teleologically suggest a pedagogy for peace studies with an analogous trajectory towards a holistic inclusivity, an understanding of complexity, and an epistemological understanding that the rational limits of knowledge acquired through western intellectual discourse and deductive reasoning, or positivism,1 are not the actual limits of knowledge; rather, they can be considered as the boundaries for the nascent spaces and phases of the metaphysical and transcendental. Drawing from the fields of the natural sciences, philosophy, psychology, the internal arts, futures studies and peace studies I elucidate a concurrent trajectory of these respective fields as an argument for incorporating the internal healing arts into the pedagogy of a peace studies discipline.

 

I. Introduction:

This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. – Paulo Freire

In this paper I propose a rationale and justification for a pedagogy for peace workers to incorporate practices and principles from the internal healing arts. Drawing from many diverse fields of the natural sciences, transitional justice, philosophy, psychology and future’s studies I will elucidate the analogous trajectories of these fields converging on a holist dialogical2 conscientization3, or re-
indigenization (Nelson, 2006), towards empathy and the ‘self-actualization’4 of the peace worker which is very closely related to the goal and role of the Shaman – or internal healing artist. This lends to the notion that we should potentiate any and all possibilities for expanding the knowledge, skills and personal qualities of peace workers.

 

Two working assumptions for the following discourse are: 1. The broader and deeper a peace worker’s knowledge and skill set are, the greater will be their effectiveness in helping others transform from a state of internal and external conflict to a state of internal and external peace, and 2. the effectiveness in a peace workers ability to transform others from a state of internal and external conflict to a state of internal and external peace is greater when that peace worker has undergone an internal transformation towards self-actualization.
As I shall argue in this paper, there is not one working definition of such terms as peace, peaceworker, transitional justice, shamanism, or intervention. However, for the sake of establishing some of the positivist limits imposed upon such terms I shall introduce some working definitions for this paper. Later I will introduce the idea of ‘spectral composition’, providing several examples, to indicate that we need not limit ourselves to rigid ideas but, rather, we can incorporate a more inclusive, albeit more loosely defined, set of definitions expanding both the meaning of the language used to describe such peace praxes and, therefore, the praxes themselves.

 

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Magic Hat: A Rabbit and a Gun

Posted on 7th December 2012 in Notes, Reflections, Theory

“This one’s for you.” – anonymous

Probability is always just around the corner. Step out into the street, and only certain things will probably happen to you. You may be run over by a car, but you will not likely be kissed by a frog 30,000 kilometers away from you. You can’t, really, because it is not in the mix of probabilities. It is very much like a magic hat that has only a limited selection of things you can pull out of it; maybe it is only a partially magic hat. You can’t retrieve or conjure what is not there and what it can not produce. From a quantum mechanical perspective, the probabilities for spectral composition of wave to particle are limited in scope – your canvas is not unlimited in potential. However, it is possible to add ingredients to the probability mixture and increase the number of items that you can pull out of the vortex of the mad hatters wares.

Arguably, my alleged axiom applies to all circumstances and all situations. This is good. It can be a proving ground for that thing some of you call hope. It can be a breeding ground for what some of you call fate. It will be, should you accept that there is a world of infinite probabilities for dreamers, healers, meta-physicists and magicians, an opportunity for the highly improbable to manifest.

This should come as no surprise, really, since the history of so called human progress is nothing less than the visions of dreams and dreamers becoming common place such that we take it all for granted. I can’t think of one thing that was made by the hands of human, that does not fit into this category (other than things like beer and cheese- which, by the way, happen on their own but required human acknowledgment to become fully orchestrated).

Certainly, the idea for and of god didn’t just pop out of the sky. The torque wrench is certainly a creation of magic that works magic – someone understanding the forces of nature and how to conjure and manipulate the long arm of influence to seemingly static objects. The atomic bomb and the breast pump, both – forms of magic – may be catalyst for the end of humankind on Earth (it is difficult to say at this point) and the oud and timpani definitely hold high ranks in the manipulation of mind over matter tending towards balancing the dramatic effects of climate change and the warring amongst sons, fathers and brothers.

If you believe any of this then you have freed yourself from the enchanted prison of ideas and ideologies. You accept and understand that you are free to dream, free to live in your dreams, free to pursue your dreams, because each time you do this you add to the probability mix of things that can happen. Once your dreams become thoughts become words become a part of the common knowledge and, potentially, the common wisdom of the culture of inhabitants of planet Earth – the common ground for all of humanity where our differences become a source of inspiration rather than a source of conflict, trauma, and the cycle and culture of violence, your thoughts become waves in the matrix of matter, accessible to any and all who surf the network.

I am told that my brothers and sisters in Syria, and I suppose this means parts and aspects of Arab culture in general, do not really have the ideas of non-violent means of armed resistance in their probability mix. Shall we acknowledge this and move on, complain, become polarized by this fact? Can we introduce these ideas into the probability mix; infuse the notions into the atmosphere; inject a new ideology under the skin of a culture steeped in violent resorts?

Of course. According to the axiom it is pointless not to.

It is time, dear friends, for the Jasmine Revolution >>

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