WHAT IS LIFE?

I often find myself wondering if life is such a great idea. You are obliged and expected to regard it as a gift. That is a lousy argument unless you have loving people or pets depending on you or vice versa, who never will deceive you, abandon you and who will reciprocate the love.. 

Life is nothing but the opposite of non-life and we do not know what that means. Death only has a known impact on the living. The relation is cut short. Or, maybe not...What impact death has on the dead we know nothing about maybe is what has occupied the Homo sapiens throughout history and still does.

To compare a genuine ennui and disqualify your lack of enthusiasm with devastated, marginalized, fatally ill and war- or victims of violence and abuse is insulting to all parts.

The absurdity of the Jihadism, the destruction of Saudi Ancient Muslim Sacred sites such as the graves of the Prophet´s mother and father, as well as the grave of the nephew, the holy man of the Shia tradition, Huseyn, among so many others, are despicable and I never believed I would live to see such madness rule and spreading like a prairie fire.

From my horizon I look back and see that love is the only thing that matters and you are bound to loose it one way or another. Your are often being told that you are here to learn and the more the mistakes the more you learn accompanied by the continuous flow of obstacles and set backs you are expected to heroically combat and so on and on with exhausting and insulting challenges which seem to serve....what ? 

How ennobling  is sufferance? Isn´t it rather the opposite? Bringing forward the worst in us, with very few exceptions, in all thinkable ways? What is so enchanting with living a life of a constant mistrust or anxious anticipation of what life has in store for you and fear of what will happen next ?

I know it may be a blasphemy or a crime against some universal order to wonder why we all have to make the grand tour of being an earthling only to know we will be wiped out and die. I am not grieving for the ego but for the loved ones who made my life meaningful and who I have lost. Was I supposed to learn anything ? Except that all is but unreliable, arbitrary and absurd ?

Historically man has pondered on this, since nobody is spared and life a long chain of losses. ”If we didn´t have a God we had to invent Him” (Nietzsche).

Well, since I am believer (not religious; religions are social constructions to control people with a highly secular agenda and hardly in sync with the original spiritual ideas and leaders) I would like to understand.

Nell’ora del dolor perchè, perchè, Signor, ah, perchè me ne rimuneri così?

(Tosca; Vissi d´arte)

Just a thought

Douglas

TRAIN YOUR HEART TO BEND, NOT TO BREAK

Who´s In Charge?

We have been led to believe that media totally governs us and that we are powerless when it comes to being heard in any form other than molded by media.

That, to my great joy, is not entirely true ! ! 

We, and I mean many of us, as was evident during the Arab Spring and other structural changes, were a strong factor by opinion building on the social networks, mobile apps, YouTube and so forth. Suddenly we were presented with unedited material until it was hurriedly removed if regarded as uncomfortable for the media oligarchs only to pop up in another net context and virtually impossible to erase.

Facebook is a stunning indicator of how we are feeling collectively on an almost weekly basis. We have seen how all the cute are heart warming pictures of baby animals have had a comforting impact in horrible and threatening times, when it is easier to let your heart out to an animal than to other humans beings because we have become increasingly afraid of each other.

The last two weeks the animal factor has been upgraded dramatically. Facebook is crowded with video clips of people saving the lives of animal ranging from giving CPR to a wood pecker to cuddling a grieving elephant baby or consoling a terrified turkey. To me, this is a very distinct indication on how serious we think things are and how, subconsciously or consciously are preparing ourselves for a rough ride and encouraging each other by pointing at compassion, agape and courage.

I, for one, am encouraged and daily reminded that I am still counting and and can, one way or another, reach out to help.

Happy Valentine ! Train you heart to bend, not to break, dear friends !

Douglas

PTSD Made Invisible

LIMBO

PTSD made Invisible

To find out that you from ´societie´s  perspective are no longer cost effective is offensive to most of us. When you finally are starting to "get it", to understand the nature of your mistakes and strategies,  and with an authentic respect for your next disregarding if your ideas of existence disagree,  when you by experience know what battles to pick and you are able to "read" people better than ever, you will have put up with that your services are no longer needed.

My colleagues andI have been working principally with victims of torture and warfare, nationally and internationally. We have  ardously strived to learn and keep me updated with regards to Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD), a journey with many set backs for all of us who have tried to assist the destitute victims. When finally effective techniques have moved us towards the light in the tunnel, you are promptly told that, due to the financial recession, PTSD is no longer a prioritized rehabilitation sector, the victims and the counselors are literally made invisible and a life-long suffering for the patients is a perfectly reasonable evil to tolerate according to the decisionmakers.

So here we are: with a considerably expanded capacity to treat our clients and patients but dismissed by the public and medical sector to implement our improved insights.

I find myself in free fall or in a limbo, stripped of all power to influence and to, together with my colleaques, find increasingly durable solutions, social and healthwise, to the expanding target group of PTSD victims, because finally PTSD has been accepted, not only with regards to victims of torture or oganized violence, but also victims of domestic violence, aggression, rape and even mobbing while the financial resources are being cut.

Needless to say, I turn away from this world as much as possible, except for my comfort in flora and fauna. I have left the barricades and the front line with no intention to return. And with deep regret I accept that people like us are regarded as an inconvenience. Well, at least being a nuisance gives me some pleasure....

Just a thought

Douglas Modig

2014

CAST THE FIRST STONE

In collective oriented societies the Capital Punishment in form of stoning has been existing long before the Lex Talionis, (An Eye for an Eye) was expressed in the Torah. The individual who endangered the normative reproduction pattern and thus threatening the clan, the tribe, the family or group, or hinting at any form of individualism was seen as anomalistic and deadly disloyal.

We have every reason to believe that this sinister canon (popular law) has been in existence long before 5000 years B.C. when the world was believed to have been created according to the Old Testament. Perpetual revenge and blood feuds and vendettas stretching over centuries (!) are still part of formerly nomad or transhumance cultures as found in the Balkan (Albania, Greece inter alia) to Sicily and Italy and in milder forms on the Iberia Peninsula. Crossing the Mediterranean they are in full force but for somewhat other reasons.

In a habitat with severe living and survival conditions this may be understood from a survival instinct context. One single member could jeopardize the productive unit, adapted to the ecological niche and may result in extinction. The modes of killing has been a popular field of development throughout history and the technically improved methods introduced by the Babylonians were welcomed and embraced by Europe, implemented enthusiastically by the colonialist during the expansive three decades until Reason, with roots in the 18th century, put a stop to most vulgar and horrifying execution brutalities. It has become sophisticated and now days leaves no trace thanks to the impressing torture skills developed in Latin America in the late seventies and the eighties, by assistance of physicians and psychologists.

The contemporary "stoning" in the West, possibly the oldest way of killing another human by public consent, does not mean throwing stones physically per se, but mobbing and persecution of the deviant, be it physically, mentally, emotionally or sexually. The media promoted outing of celebrities or decision makers may virtually destroy people who differ from social and political codes, although, paradoxically, people are being encouraged to develop self sufficiency, uniqueness and strive to satisfy the personal desires and blindly havoc-king to achieve personal goals according to capacity.

Stoning, as a punishment, as above mentioned, is older than most religions and, if closely scrutinized, seen paradoxically as an abomination in spite of frequent use. Starting late in the development of global religions we get a notion from the Ten Commandments which stipulates Thou shall not kill to the teachings of Jesus from Nazareth, Cast the First Stone and the numerous Asian peace oriented religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and African Lemba and many more, to the secular conventions and agreements on the Human Rights, lays the foundation on which we look with horror to what took place in Somalia a couple of years ago, when a thirteen year old girl witnessed a rape and was stoned to death by the Somali police force, resting, allegedly, on the Sharia Law, having had the audacity to tell publicly what she had witnessed a construction gradually built up by theocrats by convenient amendments and adjustments (Idjnads) after the death of the Prophet.

The adaptation of the superstructure of the developing cultures has had a deceptive impact on Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Church fathers of Christendom decided what parts of the remnants of holy scriptures which served their purposes and gospels were promptly excluded, thus altering the authentic teachings of the original oral tradition and message. During the centuries amendments in forms of endless restrictions and demands of obedience and submission in all secular matters were made in the name of God and Christ, with very little or no substance equaled in the oldest sources. The pattern of development of two of the dominant religions, Christianity and Islam, are astonishingly similar in their adaptation to secular power, be it executed by theocrats or royal houses. The flexibility of embracing pagan cosmology and rituals may have been more evident in colonialist Christendom whereas present day Islam has a vivid tradition of reflecting the society in which it is to expand regarding anything from using the Internet to dress codes.

Burning women, especially intellectually gifted ones, at the stake, a plague which spread epidemically over the Old World principally during the 17th century as a result of the contagious Jesuit Inquisition exterminating everything that did not match the dogma, spilling over to the various Creeds of Christendom is yet another proof of religion going overboard and perverting the core of the initial messages or gospels. I strongly believe that we can be convinced that the Nazarene never expected that He would be called upon while colonialist staged genocide in all parts of the world in His name.

Buddha sayings give no indications of permission to turn out the light of life, nor do any of the many faceted syncretist religions of the Middle East and Asia Minor. Obviously there is no automatic connection between religion and the secular modes of reproduction, which makes it confusing. By using the dialectic method of understanding the dynamics of development of the austere and severe misuse of power in the name of God even makes "sense", seen from a scientific point of view, but Buddhism, inter alia, proves otherwise.

A theocracy, such as contemporary Iran, is a construction beyond our comprehension but was present in the Old World until the 18th century when secularism gained acceptance. The obvious strive to control people mentally, politically and socially by calling upon God was as much a reality in Europe and predominant normative mindset of the early Middle Ages enforced by the expanding hunger for power by the Papists and not unknown to the icy reformers such as Calvin.. To legalize killing by referring to the Divine Being still justifies coldblooded murder whether it is on an electric chair in the US or a possible stoning in Iran, Somalia or Sudan. Death Penalty still exists, although God has been substituted by the Government and the State in leading "democratic" power centers and not erased in the normative mindset of ordinary people at all.

Structural violence as seen repeatedly where domestic laws allow authorities to use deadly violence against their own countrymen are constantly on the agenda. Killing Tunisian rebels running amok in the streets of Tunis will have no punitive repercussions. The measures taken by "states" and "nations" when questioned or openly defied are regarded as national affairs unless a third nations interest is at stake. Then benevolently the third part and its allies may arrive with well armed troops to "pacify" and indulge themselves in the general turmoil. Thus civilians, whether rebellious or not, will die, be it in Thailand, while we are sunbathing at the beaches or in Haiti when hunger generated riots occur. It has become so commonplace, in spite of Humanitarian Laws protecting civilians, that we raise no eyebrows at killings on a massive scale.

Nobody can be indicted unless a scapegoat must be found to appease the opponents once the turbulence has slowed down. We regard it as a phenomenon of poverty and oppression and rest assured that this will never take place in our part of the world. Twenty years have gone by since Yugoslavia was torn to pieces. Inside the federate Russia, between her hostile neighbors and Belarus killings of civilians take place on a daily basis. We do not intervene. We are installing cameras in every possible corner or doorway in our private war against terrorism. And we are all within our rights. The fundamentalists are acting on a Holy Mission (Jihad) and so are we but without God on our side, since he was expelled from Reason and Know How several decades ago.

The right to execute any human being, no matter what the pretexts may be, has become so perverted and as a phenomenon so commonplace that we hardly have the guts or the energy to react. The atrocity by which the Jihadists such as Boku Haram, ISIS, Al.Qaeda, Al Shabaab and other madmen practice are being described the Old testament and long before. Mercy, grace, forgiveness and compassion have been known equally long.

  Islam, which is pro forma an expansionist religion gives itself the right to take over what does not belong to it. Islam, however, do not recognize nations and are expected to expand until the whole world is a global Umma is a sharíalegal order which cannot be regarded as anything else but threatening. I do not care much for the defense from pious and peaceful Muslims because if they remain peaceful they will be equally attacked and butchered by their fellow Muslims, whether it be sunni or shia. 

Well, once thy´re done with us, they´ll turn on each other. The demolition of Muslim holy sites by Muslims shows that the self inflicted Armageddon will stop at nothing.

I was brought up to respect all creeds. What Muslim Jihadists are presently engaged in has nothing with respect to do. Fear. Let fear rule the world. What a lovely message...

Douglas 2015

BORE YOURSELF STIFF AND FIND TIME AND A NEW LIFE

BORING BLISS

Health Promoting Boredom to Balance Our Concept of Time

Time flies when you are happy !! That´s what we have been told but, sadly, noting much of the other side of the coin. Time also flies when you are stressed out without any possibility to pause, when you are daily struggling with trying to live up to all the demands, the expectations and the must-do´s while exhausting yourself to look fresh, well exercised, with uberdefined muscles, fit and collected like nothing in the world could move your balance, aging process or a general and increasing ignorence of your worldly accomplishments. No matter how intense the speed, the seconds, somehow, have turned into nanoseconds and an hour is felt like ten hasty minutes....

Time is a feeling.

Yes, I know that it furthermore is a lot of scientifically determined phenomena, all of them correct (so far ) and yet, it says so little about the inner cosmos which we experience apart from the other one....By looking at a star you know that you are looking at something that is no more and, yet, there it is. I mean what we can perceive with our senses are the optimal criteria for rationalism concretisized and a proof of existence. Poor Schopenhauer....What a dilemma.

Sense and Sensibility...Do they ever concur?

In the seventies when the idea that time did not exist or the idea that everything was taking place in the same moment, we entertained the idea that we were alive and kicking while the Mammuths were majestically roaming the tundra, Jesus is preaching in the temple, Alexander the Great is quarreling with his mother Queen Olympias in an icy palace in Macedonia and Gaia, the earth mother, is fully occupied with molding the Italian peninsula and separating Pangea, the mega continent into various parts.

I am still entertaining that hypothesis to a degree and have not found anyone who gave anything remotely intelligent to say to contradict me. Maybe I am surrounded by idiots or I simply am the stubborn mega idiot myself. That thought does not disturb me however. Before I am run over by all quant physicists and what not, I hastily (timegenerated) swift to the subject of how I experienced a sleepless night with my firstborn screaming at the top of his lungs from nine in the evening until eight in the morning. Timewise, I mean. How do I perceive time in this context?

And what happened between this incident and her first night out with an acne spotted young akward man driving off in an old Dodge to, God only knows, what horrors until she safely returned before two o´clock in the morning? What happened in between? And did we really spend endless time on our first night out ? Why, when comparing, do I find that my own first night out happened but yesterday and that nowdays professional public servants looking fourteen politely ask me if I am entitled to retirement benefits when buying a ticket on the local bus ???

If I avoid my glasses and dare to look into a mirror I do not look a day older than fortyfour and, thank Heavens, I seldom find my glasses, my eyesight is getting poorer, and I can continue to laugh at Botoxaddicts but some part, deeply repressed in the inner me is fearing the lines  which soon will define me.  I know, because of the growing ageism, that I will be at the bottom of the ladder....That is not a very pleasant place to be. But then again, if you fall it is not that far to hit the ground...A consolation since we all will have to ground sooner or later..

One strategy to cope with the stampeeding time is to turn off all gadgets and audiovisual devices and get a good lenghty bore.

When skillfully executed you get a comforting feeling of being totally uninteresting, even to yourself, mysteriously eternal and floating and that time is an illusion. Stay put as long as possible, totally freed of any kind of distraction, positive or negative, and time is sure to transcend into another dimension. After staring into an off-white wall without any decorations for initially an hour, you will find washing the dishes an amazingly interesting chore and giving you a sense of purpose in life..And you have started your journey to experience a day as generous in terms of time.

Teach your children to be bored and watch them grow in personality, creativity and common sense even with the initial mayhem accompaning such radical parental or grandparental pedagogical interventions!  Fantasy and creativity are triggered off in a young and an old brain, and, yes, knowing that this is a safe and reliable technique to speed up cerebral growth and plasticity the sky is no longer a limit.

"Live fast ! Don´t last" is a mantra which belongs to the James Dean and Jack Kerouac era and that was quiete a long time ago....

Bore yourself stiff and you may even find your obnoxious neighbour surprisingly interesting and may be genuinely eager to listen to why your aunt´s varicosus are a perfectly suitable topic of conversation on Thanksgiving or Sunday family dinner.

Repeatedly introduce recurrent short intervals of the silent game in social life and you will be amazed by the decibels when the ten minutes of holding tongues are over. People seem even prepared to listen to whom they are talking to, freed from the stressful akwardsness of social demands of oozing charm and entertainment skills every second by the chlorine stinking poolside with a glass of poisonous Mojitos in your meticously manicured hand.

Take a twelve months leave of Restylane fillers and Botox and learn to recognise each other by personality and not by which Plastic Surgeon you consult, men and women alike.

Discover a life without hairextensions ! Experience and savour the time consumed when you only need a quick combing through and some lip stick or applying a masculine deodorant and skipping the tie.

It is time to travel to very distanced vacation resorts with inadequate or virtually no infrastructure, no exceptions for the tourists with regards to religious rules, strict dress code and social decorum and you will return with another outlook on life no matter if you were bored stiff for three weeks. You may have gotten used to the silence, the pace and the void of distractions and even be overcome by the mayhem of sounds and sights on the return that keep you in check from rushing the closest shopping maul to mingle with strangers and buy what you probably will have forgotten a week later.

Let us take giant step and compare, by own experience or learning by documentals, the life of the Hunter and Gatherers in the Amazon Basin and the pace of life where some 70 percent of the time is spent in braided hammocks, chit chatting, giggling, sleeping, digesting, telling stories or simply shutting up, or the seemingly endlessly timeconsuming preparations of simple food and the laid back hunting and fishing techniqus which will suffice to feed the family and the village. How boring can it get ?

Why are they so prone to laughter and why do they take every chance to tardy ritual dancing with monotonous chanting and movements for hours on end ? When asked about their life span they often answer that they live long lives. Still, the life expectancy may be forty plus. Well, since hurrying is virtually non-existing, forty years may be highly sufficient and not a tragedy....The afterworld is not questioned so the general concept is a cross over to the ancestors who have passed on and time no longer matters.

Time totally looses any sense from our point of view when it comes to the Australian Aboriginals. They genuinly live in more dimensions without being psychotic. Death is a fantasy to them since they experience they can cross the border and return to life on a daily basis. Idiots ? I think not.

”Time Is On My Side” sang the Rolling Stones with an implicit warning to the older generation if it were going to try to stop the new Occidental youth-oriented "revolution". Sadly, after a decade of no norms at all they hastily returned to Armani suits, Yuppie Gucci briefcases and Le Corbusier copied homes and, if they still are alive, I am very sure they have become a generation of grumpy old women and men...

Already at fifty many start to ponder on where the time between twenty and fifty has gone. Still waiting to take the leap of faith decided at twenty to do something truly radical, adventurous and magnificent that was repeatadly postponed. Just couldn´t find the time. How come ? The time was there ! All the time. We made choices, no matter our excuses. Or choices were made for us. And time went by.....

Only scientists and the savants-wannabe´s dryly find it painstakingly obvious that the star which twinkles in our bewildered eyes at night does not exist. It does. Because I see it.

Take a break ! Have a bore ! Find out that life becomes more alive  and colorful after a bout of boredom!

Just a thought

Love

Douglas

RATIONALISM OCH RELATIVISM

Ratio eller roten, d v s föreställningen om ett oantastligt förnuft vars slutledningar genom olika tankeprocesser representerar den materiella och den icke-materiella världen precist är lika påverkad av de ekonomiska faktorer som styr den samtid den anses råda över. Den anser sig stå över "hönan eller ägget" men kan inte ge en rationell förklaring till hur problemet kan förstås. Följaktligen ignorerar den enkla filosofiska frågor vars svar inte matematikens ekvationer finner en lösning på.

Andlighet och metafysik är en större utmaning för rationalismen. Richard Dawkins "själviska gen", ett don Quixote projekt i förnuftets korståg som en påhittig förklaring till varför den ortodoxa utvecklingsläran slirar in på "medmänskliga och kärleksfulla" beteenden som på något sätt måste rationaliserars in i den enda godtagbara utvecklingsteorin om "survival of the fittest" som, enkelt uttryckt, endast premierar den starkaste och mest aggressiva, numera utbytt mot de mest anpassbara.

Att fira jul och minnas kristendomen väcker stort obehag medan vi omsorgsfullt under ett decennium idogt tränats i att förstå islamiskt tankegods och traditioner i humanismens namn. Nå, denna politiskt korrekta process har med förfäran kommit av sig på grund av emiratsträvanden, IS, Al Shabaab, Boku Haram m.fl. Till och med Guillou håller tyst.

Detta svärmeri för religionsfrihet vekar inte omfatta inte kristendomen som avfärdas som vidskepelse även bland samtidens största tänkare. Detta visar på hur diskursen styrs av en relativism som styrs av andra faktorer än rent oförvitligt och självständigt tankegods..

Så märkligt. Varför är den milde snickaren från Nazaret så hotande? Varför är tanken på ett medvetande efter döden så fasansfullt upprörande för intelligentsian? Trehundra år efter upplysningstidens tankegods? Varför är Gudstanken i alla dess variationer utdömd som svagtänkta fantasier? Är den moderna människan drabbad av dominanta och maktfullkomliga präster ? Har den några egentliga föreställningar om korstågen och jesuiternas framfart i andra världsdelar där man redan förrättade människooffer innan man "befriades" av katolicismen ? Är alla religioner redskap för kontroll och underkastelse ? Yannaiterna? Som inte ens får trampa på en myra ? Olika asiatiska religioner som är de mest fridsamma man kan tänka sig. Animistiska metafysiska föreställningar som de återfinns bland egalitära jägare- och samlarsamhällen ? 

Vi kanske inte ska stirra oss blinda på det kristna prästerskapets göranden under århundraden och hoppa över Paulus. Vad är det i Jesus lära som är så förkastligt och obegåvat? 

Litet insikter i det egna kulturarvet.. Dina tankar om mänskliga rättigheter som du bär på och en förnuftig sanvaro med allt levande vilar på ett arv från upplysningstiden. Deras tankar var långt ifrån nya även om det ofta framställs så. De var nya i Europa. Men historiskt har de funnits levande 10.000 år i tiden för att inspirera de Abrahamiska religionerna innan de förvrängs och blir till intolerans och med en föreställningar om monopol och ensamrätt. Kanske vi ibland ska tänka på varifrån vår normativa idévärld vuxit fram...

Så fasansfullt upprörande är inte tanken..

Bara en fundering...

Douglas Modig

2015

Scared or Phobic ? When does fear spill over to Phobia ?

SCARED OR PHOBIC ?

We are all scared but when do we become victims of Phobias ?

Phobias, which can develop into severly dysfunctional perceptions, deductions and behavioral disorders, shall be dealt with skillfully without moralism or "von oben" arrogant contempt whether it shows it's ugly and threatening Medusa face in forms of a spider or in a crowded elevator. The psychological and physical reactions tell you that you genuinely are in a life threatening situation. The normal and rational thing any individual would do is to try to escape, thus often gradually developing an exhausting avoidance conduct with extensive limitations of the individual´s lifestyle in a number of fields and bringing family or loved ones into the dire dilemma.

With different techniques such as the fashionable Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), and the various sprouts of therapies resting on this somewhat overrated branch, you gradually are being exposed for what scares you irrationally silly and forces you into an everyday life filled with anxiety relieving rituals or simply never to leave your home at all.

Confrontation therapy often is successful but explains nothing. If the underlying fear is not addressed there is always a risk for a relapse in one form or another.

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder, (GAD), far more widespread than what we are taught to believe, often develops to a handcapping stigma because of a sense of shame and guilt for the seemingly trivial reasons which trigger of severe attacks of stressrelated mobilization of the whole organism. Your narrowing world has an increasingly irritating and exhausting impact on friends and family who are obliged to become co-phobians, much like the loved one of an alcoholic, or give upon you and alienate themselves.

To be scared is a reasonable reaction when it comes to an almost infinite variety of situations which may include a real or an imagined exposure to what may be potentially dangerous to you. The only ones who are never scared will either be immensly stupid or psychopats. But when your fright starts to take over your life and cornering you into a poor existence, we consider it either as phobic or as a paranoia, the latter usually with a psychiatric diagnosis tag to follow..

Social phobia, the intense sense of feeling discomfort with meeting or moving around in social contexts, may often be a result of depressive exhaustion or serious mobbing during early and even adult life as two examples of the manyfold reasons. I, for one, have experienced it with abundance. The different avoidance strategies may seem creative and witty but will soon imprison you until you are incapable of getting through the day without a chronic stress mobilisation and wearing out your bodily organs in the process. There are numerous different reactions but gastrointestinal problems (BOW), exhausting tension related aches in your head, neck, shoulders, limbs and the whole muscular system, sleep deprivation, virtigo, (dizzy spells), fatigue, tachychardia with speedy heart palpitations, sweating, muscular migrating pains and many more which primarily serve as our biologically inherited psychological and bodily mobilisation of our defense strategies to  either escape or attack which have, for various reasons, become chronically alerted, whether the situation calls for it, or not. 

Cognitive Behavior Therapy is the most applauded of a wide range of therapeutic schools, partly because it graphically often results in visible evidence based improvements which is interpreted as a ”truth” by the adherents. CBT, however, never dedicates much time to analyse why an individual develop seemingly ridiculous phobias and the follow up is often poor. The phobia may return but resting of another agent of fear. You can feel relaxed in company of spiders but suddenly go half bonkers when you see a bird.

What is a phobia ? When does fear spill over into a phobia with extensive emotional, political, religious and social consequences ?

It has been stated that man is the only animal who can feel compassion, empathy and develop advanced physical, emotional and social strategies to show it and come to the rescue of, for instance, total strangers, risking her /his own life. That, however, is a myth, because the same conduct can be seen in different primates and many other species previously thought to only house instincts to satisfy hunger, safety, aggressiveness and sexuality, basta.

Today discussions about the massive waves of internet hate in social medias caused me to reflect on other phobias known as, for instance, xenophobia and homophobia. Taken aback by the almost infinite numbers of daily "haters" I must confess I start to seriously worry. Why all this hate ? Yes, I believe it has something to do with the "unreliable", confusing global state of affairs and pandemics. But not as the sole explanations.

If we choose among social theories and start with a fuctional explanation we would have to go back to where we once started, namely as a small, tightly united flock of humans amounting to a number of > 15 inividuals. The deviant, that is, a flock member going her or his own way, may instantly become a danger to the whole flock and will be aborted without mercy. If a total stranger appears, behaving by displaying gestures and bodily language which can not be interpreted within the conductural frame of reference, the flock will react acoordingly as to how threatening or absurd they find the unknown stranger. Experiences of violence, attacks, ambush, hostility etc, trigger off an alarm and emergency preparedness to deal with the situation, in early highly organized forms. Strangers, evidently, are more risky than the flock. And yet, wihtout them, we would die from in-breed and the embryo of balanced social inter-action is starting to grow.

The strongest sense of security is being felt when we, as an individual, feel a satisfying sense of participation, meaningfullness and emotional and social togetherness. We need to be a we and in order to achieve that we must be aware of a them.

When phobia extends to social or cultural conglomerates of a diffuse identity, number and content we, however, have lost the tools to deal with a comprehensible situation and start to attack on a massive scale: xenophobia, homophobia etc.

What do we fear on such an enormous scale ?? That every homosexual will be contagious or out to predate on your children ? That every Muslim from Indonesia to West Africa is compelled to slaughter you in the most beastly form possible ?What happens with the Amish youngster who decides to live”English” a little bit too long and and to be expelled for life ? Are they contagious? Will they turn the Amish upside down with novel lusts for Cadillacs, Internet porn and lavish interior decors ? A Cadillac would be no match for genuine faith, creed and piety..Or?

 I never truly understood the religious squabbles until I found out that holy women and men were being ursurped to legalize secular greed and hunger for power.

If you feel secure and convinced in your creed I can see no reason to attack other creeds. To what avail ?  Do you not trust your own religion or ideology? I believe that truly spiritual or highly rational beings do not attack at all except for in defense when somebody is shamelessly threatened, or maybe not even then.

”Thou shall not kill” of the three Abrahamic religions and in all other known creeds as well must be the single most abused comandement or recommendation of them all.

I find it hard to understand that a reasonably well off, happily married woman and mother, living with her husband and well provided for children in reasonable harmony far out in the Swedish countryside can become a ferocious viper and spit venom at, for instance, homosexual love and family raising. They cry out to protect their God...Or they may not care about religion at all, yet their reaction is phobic. I cannot remember Jesus of Nazareth ever mentioning homosexuality. Paul did. But he said a lot of other nonsense. He never met Jesus. He was brought up and educated in a Greek context. His attitudes had been formed by where he once was a child and young adult. Love, without malice or force, is that not divine love ? The highly pious muslim Mali woman grinding her corn and being the pillar in her extended family, is she also a scary threat to the world ?

To each his own. Those of you who will feel offended and rush to the aide of God have every right to do so. But I do believe that Providence is greater than all our opinions, creeds and mindsets together. 

Every now and then I have been accused of being an ”anti-American”. Is it humanly possible to be anti every individual living in the United States ? I do not know them, each and every one of them. How could I be anti something I have no knowledge about ? To belong to a we, a comprehensible togetherness, lessens fright and opens up for tolerance without having to accept everything. The latter is as dangerous as the outings....

Douglas