AUGUST 2021 | VOL. I
Y ENMA YENMALALIBYILA Let's Walk Together...
With Weeklies, Walkabouts, and pathways
Our Contributors NESS SONG
IS THE FOUNDER OF YEMPOWER AUSTRALIA, A YOUTH MENTORING ADVOCACY SERVICE. HER PASSIONS LIE IN HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE ON THEIR PATH TO SELFACTUALISATION.
MA TI S J EV FO FL RU EM Y E'S TT H
IS A YOUTH ADVOCATE AND FEATURED ENTREPENUER, WRITER AND YENMA FOUNDER. MATT HAS A WIDEARTICLES: RANGE OF CAREER AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCES INFORMING HIS CREATIVE APPROACH.
An Intro to Yenma
1-4 IS A DETERMINED YOUNG ACTIVIST Defending and WHO HAS A PASSION FOR WRITING. SHE IS A CO-FOUNDER OF Extending Empathy YEMPOWER AUSTRALIA, A HOST OF THE PODCAST, WHEN STRONG WOMEN TALK, IS STUDYING A Living in AND a SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICS Leadership DEGREE. SHE STRIVES IN Vacuum EVERYTHING SHE DOES TO CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER. TALLULAH WATSON-MOYLE
PHIL JEFFREY
IS A SENIOR TECHNICAL CONSULTANT AT A SOFTWARE CONSULTANCY IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. HE GRADUATED WITH A COMMERCE DEGREE FROM UNSW WALES IN 1991, AND A DEGREE IN SCIENCE FROM MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY IN 2020. HE HAS A KEEN INTEREST IN THE FIELDS OF GENETICS, NEUROSCIENCE AND HUMAN BEHAVIOUR.
Contents WARNING
1
THE SCIENTFIC METHOD: A NATURAL PROGRESSION OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
AN INTRO TO YENMA
2-4
MATT JEFFREY
THE PATHWAYS
THIS VOLUME'S FEATURED TH E WEEKLIES
17-21
PHIL JEFFREY
22
5
ARTICLES:
THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE
TO TRANSFORM
5
NESS SONG An Intro to Yenma
22-36
NESS SONG
1-4
Defending and
THE WALKABOUTS
Extending Empathy
LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP
6
OUT!
Living in a
DEFENDING AND EXTENDING
Leadership
EMPATHY
MATT Vacuum JEFFREY
VACUUM: ...AND HOW TO GET 36-45
MATT JEFFREY
6-11
IN MEMORIAM
46
CLASS AND CLASSICAL MUSIC: DANGER LOOK
MATT JEFFREY
11-16
EULOGY ADAPTATION
46-47
TALLULAH WATSON MOYLE
PAGE 1 - WARNING
Warning
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER READERS ARE ADVISED THAT THIS PUBLICATION CONTAINS IMAGES AND VOICES OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIED.
YENMA IS AN INTEREST-BASED INIATIVE OF OUR BLOC COMMUNITY STUDIO.
FOR ALL ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT:
MATTWITHOURBLOC@GMAIL.COM
PAGE 2 - AN INTRO TO YENMA
AN INTRO TO YENMA!
by Matthew Jeffrey In its beginning, it is that which requires a single step now and forward. Welcome all readers to the first volume of Yenma Yenmalalibyila. This piece is to serve as an introduction to the publication, and provide the 'why?’ behind its creation. To go for a walk can oftentimes feel hard. There are
Coupled with the perception
many comforts with you at home. Your home is your
of the evility of human nature,
home and it is a sacred, giving, and nurturing space.
this barrage of keeping you
There is bed, food, tv, and the universe of the internet
working,
all right there at home. The world could hurt if you
and working tired, lathered
step outside. You do not know for certain what will
with a sensory whiff that our
happen if you cross the threshold of your front door.
government
So sometimes to walk, to step, to throw ourselves up
systems are at a standstill
and fall and catch ourselves again, one already
would make taking a single-
walking must encourage us.
step
out
working
shameful,
and
of
societal
your
house
revolutionary. A single-step of They could be a partner, a friend, an acquaintance, a
appreciation and action could
guru, a teacher, or a post officer. They could be an
be
ancestor or a descendant.
monumentally
comprehended
as
impossible
within our hearts eye. It is Taking these first steps is a vulnerable courage. It has
currently so for many who
been beaten into us that wondering, and wandering
live
are aimless. At best wonderers and wanderers are
around the globe.
here
in
Australia
and
idealists, fools and layabouts, and at worst? Vagrants and
criminals.
With
so
much
brute
force,
and
So some of us do flock to...
subsequent subtler prisms of control, our society’s systems
can
seem
impenetrable,
forever-holding,
unchangeable, standing-still or stepping backwards, immovable,
unphaseable,
unapproachable,
illness-
ridden and stifling. These systems breaking our hearts seem too old to change or replace. So old as if they were birthed as the Earth was delivered. If with our vision and with our senses we are bombarded with non-truths of our Earth by our tellers and leaders of truth - our journos, our pollies, our managers, if they obfuscate enough, if they beam a spotlight that the nature of humanity is utterly evil, we may just start to believe they are so.
"These systems breaking our hearts seem too old to change or replace. So old, it's as if they were birthed as the Earth was delivered."
PAGE 3 - AN INTRO TO YENMA ...comforts conceded to a decreasing majority of Australians. With these passive comforts, our needs are somewhat given and some of our conditioned and unconditioned wants placate us. Some humans have received a message, a memo, their entire lives that they cannot change their hearts, their community, their state, the country they stand on or the world. For decades they have toiled in arrangements building things for others. Some fought extremely hard to win concessional needs, to end outright slavery, to bring in
a
standard
8-hour
working
day,
universal
healthcare and so forth. But still, we remain labouring
Annie Williams - Wodi-Wodi Woman
and toiling on a stolen continent, knowing deep-down that nine of the ten fruits of our creation are going to
...orate, feel, grasp and fruit a
one person, our wage owner, and one to us to feed,
healthier tree, a society totally
home and clothe ourselves and our loved ones. Deep
envisioned by us! This new path
in the pit of our hearts and stomachs we churn the
forged together out of the belly
butter understanding the immensity of the imbalance
of a young beast will see us all
occurring each hour we trade away.
thriving.
This
conversation.
will
This
take
will
take
If the totality of us flock to inner passive comforts
mediums to share messages. This
conceded to us, after this unequal energy exchange; if
will take tandeming and tangoing
we cannot move a leg and move it again to give food
with those you may feel like you
and conversation to a resident who lives a rich and
cannot or should not dance with.
wonderful life two-metres behind our beds headboard where we lay ourselves to rest each night - the
In learning to understand the
injustices
finite nature of this lifetime and
will
deepen
again.
We
will
lose
the
concessional needs that our ancestors died by and for.
the
Our descendants may know a life harsher than an
diverse families and people that
ancestor did. We ourselves may find a life harsher and
met and met again and again to
harsher in the decades we age if we do not act.
eventually create me as I know me
infinite
-
I
feel
wisdom
of
empowered
the
and
If the majority, or better yet totality of us flock to
impassioned in launching this
passion,
medium,
purpose,
regeneration,
present-moment
this
publication
for
awareness, gratitude, developing and bettering our
good. In honour of an ancestor I
relationship with past traumas, and to stepping
share with many others, for you
outside and outside ourselves - together we could
Annie
again foster a society where we feel connected, loved,
woman of the Yuin, I sense your
appreciated, and more. We could take self, family,
guidance
community, regional, state, and national collective
and write with you behind me.
decisions and actions to change the motives within
In...
the extremely young Australia state and her systems. With collective will we can all pen, sing, dance...
Williams, and
WodiWodi
encouragement,
PAGE 4 - AN INTRO TO YENMA ...honour of the Irish immigrants, Scottish immigrants, convicts
Sicillian and
immigrants,
settlers
I
British
sense
your
encouragement and write. In honour of all the families
who
emigrated,
togethered
who
were
themselves, original
who
aboriginal
peoples - you all walk with me while we write. In honour of my grandmas and grandpas, and in honour of my mum and dad, I feel your encouragement while I write. All ancestors stand here at the precipice with me, finding others to write, inspire and contribute.
...Yenma monthly
Yenmalalibyila journal
submissions.
is
a
open
Please
for
any
submissions or queries to us at: mattwithourbloc@gmail.com.au Yenma is comprised of three main sections.
"Weeklies"
explore
smaller timeframe news stories... that do not get the coverage they deserve - as well as creative pieces. "Walkabouts"
explore
and
wind
through larger cultural and societal issues. "Pathways" advocate timetied solution routes for the big picture issues facing Australia.
Grandpa Jeffrey (Sicilian-Australian) and his fruit truck. ...honour of the Irish immigrants, Scottish
"Yenma
immigrants, Sicillian immigrants, British
Yenmalalibyila.
convicts
and
settlers
I
sense
your
encouragement and write. In honour of all
Let’s Walk
the families who togethered themselves,
Together! Reader
who
emigrated,
who
were
original
aboriginal peoples - you all walk with me while we write. In honour of my grandmas and grandpas, and in honour of my mum and dad, I feel your encouragement while I write. All ancestors stand here at the precipice with me, finding others to write, inspire and contribute. Yenma Yenmalalibyila. Let’s Walk Together! Reader and Writer! Let us explore, let us restore, and let us devise what is next in store.
and Writer! Let us explore, let us restore, and let us devise what is next in store!"
PAGE 5 - TO TRANSFORM
THE WEEKLIES
Let's Walk Together...
TO TRANSFORM
by Ness Song What can we learn from the whisper of willows, Soft yet loud, quiet but powerful. I hear secrets whispered in kind, Across generations, even through time. That there is so much more to life than we’ll ever find, In a mirror so black, we leave ourselves behind. I feel the quiet whisper brush against our being, A sonnet, a song, a truth we’re not yet seeing. A hope beneath hurt, accrued over lifetimes, Flowing from ancestors, to grandparents, and parents, Flowing and pooling, like a river at your feet. It’s time to wake up and claim your keep, To recognise you are divine, And that life gives and receives in kind, To those who recognise the immutable truth, That we are each other, And each other is truth. And there is no fruit, success, or reprieve, Unless we take our bandages off and allow our wounds to breathe. In the light of truth, that we hold in each other, A shared experience of heart and wonder, The chance to see, feel, heal, and never hurt another.
PAGE 6- DEFENDING AND EXTENDING EMPATHY
THE
WALKABOUTS Let's Walk Together...
DEFENDING AND EXTENDING EMPATHY
by Matthew Jeffrey “Empathy is connecting to the emotions that underpin an experience.” - Dr. Brene Brown. When we empathise with another, we unearth: the other’s experience, story, emotions or events, a deeper, better, more rounded understanding of how to connect with other human beings, and the opportunity to unearth the happy and painful points of our own experience. Sometimes in dealing with empathy we can give too much of our own personal energy; only healing the
"Sometimes in dealing with empathy we can give too much of our own personal
other for a temporary period of time before all too
energy; only healing
soon they come back and back and back and back with
the other for a
the exact same situational experiences. The first few times we help them it feels good, we give and we receive wisdom, learnings and understandings, and leave the situation feeling empowered. The following set of eight times we converse and deeply empathise with the other in this example, however, we are giving everything and receiving nothing. When the other leaves, and as they do, we can feel like our energy has been depleted, drained, or even vampired from us. If your empathy falls into this place for...
temporary period of time."
PAGE 7 - DEFENDING AND EXTENDING EMPATHY ...certain people, you are empathising without personal boundaries. These personal boundaries can include time you give, preparation, resources you prepare, share, or seek and more. Setting
up
an
internal
framework
for
our
empathise most with, can be difficult. But in and
practising
them
we
environment
with
those
vulnerability
and
accountability.
foster
closest
society
learn
to
'boundary'
other groups of humans and animals into fenced areas of
interactions with those we love most, those we creating
Some groups of humans in their
to
us
We
an of
begin
practicing a culture, a structure of accountability and earnest vulnerability and growth. Beginning from one person to another person, family-to-
non-empathy. The rest of the farm
you
are
‘allowed’
to
empathise with. If you do not go through
a
great
unlearning
period during your lifetime, in many societies on Earth you will find
you
actually
have
a
majority of humans placed into a 'boundaried', fenced off area.
family, family-to-friend, and eventually friendto-stranger.
"If you do not go through
Once a person frees themselves from giving until
a great unlearning period
they go into an energetic, spirit and body
during your lifetime... you
oblivion, once they practice a set of personal boundaries
in
their
empathetic
ways,
they
will find you actually have a majority of humans
actually improve their ability to converse and empathise with many more people.
placed into a 'boundaried', fenced off area."
However, something deeper and more insidious can halt our ability to empathise with others. These
are
external
boundaries.
External
boundaries are named as such because they are a
A great dialectical issue arises
taught framing of the world that establishes who
here, wherein most people are
does or does not ‘deserve’ our empathy.
not taught to setup and practice personal boundaries in everyday
situations
of
empathy-
sharing, but are instead taught a set of external boundaries that they should apply to their empathy-sharing abilities. From places of great fear of the other comes educating
the of
rallying these
boundaries through...
IMG Credit: Ness Song "Apathy to Empathy" Series 1/4
and
external
PAGE 8 - DEFENDING AND EXTENDING EMPATHY
...social settings, schools, workplaces, recreational settings, and even at home. These learned external boundaries can be placed upon anything from sexuality, to class and age, to cultural
backgrounds
presentation
of
the
and
practices,
individual.
and
They
even
can
be
reinforced by the largest of institutions, say a government, or the closest of institutions like a family. By holding many external boundaries, we may begin
IMG Credit: Book Covers, Paul Bloom "Against Empathy" & Rutger Bregman "Humankind"
to spotlight those we are closest with, enabling and perhaps even eventually approving and abetting dangerous and harmful behaviours. This is the main criticism of empathy and recently many social commentators gravitate towards pushing an end to empathy altogether. However, this kind of empathy is only one its forms or zones. The aim, as I will explore, for any given society is to gravitate towards a zone of empathy, void of external boundaries and clear on personal boundaries. Within this mentioned spotlight effect, we may become excellent at practising empathy for and with our grandparents, our partners, our friends, and our role models but we may find it extremely difficult to even converse with someone who fits a ‘description and definition' of a ‘boundaried’ group of people who we then exclude from our empathy. Contact, and repeated instances of meaningful contact, is a great solution to unlearn these external boundaries we place people into. People, some credentialed, are pushing back at empathy in general. They lay at the responsibility of empathy, humanity’s greatest misdeeds. Within the last five years, there has emerged a litany of literary works,
speeches,
TEDTalks,
and
Newsmedia
opinions, all rallying behind a curtailing of our personal use of empathy. While there is a certain correctness to the notion that the spotlight zone of empathy may bring great harm, the other zones of empathy practice hold together the very fabric of social health worldwide.
“You can’t hold empathy for 7 billion
people”,
commentators
utter,
these and
murmur without evidence. They look to the Dunbar Number to arrest these kinds of comments out of the aether. The kind of empathy they are truly pushing back at are those that practise in the zone without personal boundaries and many external boundaries. In this zone, these people give all their energy to those that vampire it, and may be more likely to engage in an act of evil with them, while at the same time disparaging the beggar on the street on which they live; looking down on them as a 'boundaried', fenced off group of people who are simply not worth their time. I agree; this can be dangerous. But the claims by psychologists, psychoanalysts, and journalists that state...
PAGE 9 - DEFENDING AND EXTENDING EMPATHY that the remedy for this group of people is to stop
...engage
practising empathy altogether is altogether too
relationships of groups larger
simple and impotent. It needs to be remedied with
than 150 people. In navigating
guidance and teachings. Falling into the trapping
and
in
networks
developing
and
meaningful
of the debunked ‘Broken Window’ theory in
relationships,
discussing empathy practice is the real broken
empathy is almost a required
window. If we continue on this path of resisting,
skill;
suppressing, and removing empathy, we run it at
explicitly
our own personal perils.
practising empathy is required to
practising
something
unmentioned
by
develop
Bregman. and
If
maintain
Someone who has not developed, learned, or built
meaningful relationships, and to
a set of personal boundaries are unlikely to stop
connect well in groups larger
being empathetic to those who they give the
than 150, why does Bregman
majority of their empathy to by being asked to
continue...
stop altogether. They are unlikely to stop fencing groups of humans into the non-empathy stead by being asked to stop altogether.
"Stopping the practice
These books and speeches against practising
of empathy altogether
empathy are misguided. In humans’ practice of
heightens division,
empathy, we need to move more people to the zone of adequate personal boundaries and zero
inequities,
external boundaries (or as close to as possible).
inequalities...
Stopping heightens
the
practice
division,
of
empathy
inequities,
altogether
you name it!"
inequalities,
unsustainable practices, gossiping; you name it. In Rutger Bregman's impressive HumanKind: A Hopeful
History,
prey to the likes of psychologist
hunter-gatherer
Paul Bloom, author of an entire
societies, and therefore humans of today, could
book titled, Against Empathy.
meaningfully...
Bregman
that
graciously
humans
of
accepts
to ending empathy? He’s fallen
and
evidences
he
on to dedicate an entire chapter
echoes
Bloom,
“we
simply can’t hold empathy for seven billion people at once," “empathy is useless at scale,”, and so on. It may be true that while at any given time a human heart and mind may be unable to imagine seven billion people at
once
empathy
and for
hold every
a
deep
singular
point of human experience on the planet, the sheer beauty of
IMG Credit: Ness Song "Apathy to Empathy" Series 2/4
good in the... .
PAGE 10 - DEFENDING AND EXTENDING EMPATHY system
of
relationship
Bregman
...Indigenous Australians are
evidences, pre-agrarian humans had/have is that
the first bakers of the world.
imagining 7 billion is not necessary. As one arrives, so
They
do all eventually, they are accepted through a series
townships, planted fields, and
of
built
person-to-person
management
accountability
moments
in
had
villages
and
storehouses,
meetings of empathy and vulnerability as a new friend
constructed 18-hectare wide
or new group relative.
mega-traps, and more. Even more narrow is his view, in
I hope Rutger and Paul can empathise with me here ,
fact, that in his application of
especially
empathy practice he fails to
for
Rutger,
when
I
say
how
wildly
dangerous it is to feed into this word game. They
mention
the
practice
of
argue rational compassion is what we need more of,
empathy between a human
but this compassion is an empathy at its core; free
being and another living or
from external boundaries and with plenty of personal
non-living being; an animal...
boundaries in place. By mincing word games, their works may serve to impress on readers and TEDx watchers that empathy is bad, when in actual fact it underlies all that to which Bregman supposes allowed our evolution and ability to communicate. Bregman, by implication too, supposes that nonagrarian societies are the only examples of societies in which an individual human can hold more than 150 meaningful relationships at once. This is a narrow view
of
evidenced
humanity by
the
and many
demonstrably groups
of
false,
as
Indigenous
Australians, and in fact Indigenous peoples the world over, who have lived in agrarian civilisations for upwards of 80 thousand years. New evidence coming to light has shown that for the time being...
IMG Credits: ABC - "Old Tom and the Yuin Whalers".
plant, or earth feature like a river. The Yuin peoples of Australia individually enjoyed and continue to enjoy deep human relationships with as many as 2000 people, whilst at the same time cultivating particularly deep, symbiotic and empathetic relationships with local whales, numbering at times, in the hundreds. The Yuin too were an agrarian society for at least 60,000 years!
That
is
a
human
connected to at least 2250 living many
IMG Credit: Ness Song "Apathy to Empathy" Series 3/4
beings; as
15 living
times
as
beings
psychologists like Bloom and historians
like
conclude we can...
Bregman
PAGE 11 - CLASS AND CLASSICAL MUSIC relate with within our lifetimes. While not seven
A note from
billion in number, the Yuin’s system of social inclusion is similar to Bregman's described social inclusion systems of hunter-gatherer societies. In this, the Yuin group alone are an example of a (Western lens termed) agrarian civilisation that has the capacity to allow newcomers, live in perpetuity with the Earth, and is blessed with a generational system of oral
YEmpower is a proud partner organisation, patron & supporter of Yenma and helping her reach a wideA Note From audience.
knowledge transfer. The case for empathy is strong. Cut
down
foundational
empathy social
and
you
cut
accountability
at
the
very
instances
that
YEmpower is a youthmentoring and advocacy community designed to help young people find paths for themselves that are fulfilling, passion driven and full of love and empathy.
prevent domination and exploitation of humans, other living beings, plants, and land. Guide
the
understanding,
unlearning,
and
development of certain boundary systems in empathy practice, and you invite the enhancement, growing, and bettering of human relationships with each other, other living beings, plants, and the land.
Find out more @ www.yempower.com.au
With empathy, you quite literally change the presentday meaning of leadership and connection, and therefore change the world.
providing human ancestors the ability
to
sing
and
orate
in
different ways previously unable
CLASS & CLASSICAL MUSIC: THE
to us. Genre as noted by Cairns (1972) began orally, far, far before
MOST DANGEROUS GENRE ON
its
study
and
its
supposed
EARTH
invention by the Ancient Greeks
by Matthew Jeffrey
like Aristotle, yet its study in musicological history is centred on just 0.1% of its known time-
Introduction
frame. Genre was active orally far,
far
before
the
anglicised
In analysing the historical and sociological conditions
system of globalised music genre
that
positioning
influence
reformation
of
the a
creation,
musical
genre,
formation, we
must
and
offered
to
people
first
today. Therefore in this essay, I
understand some underlying questions at play. What
argue through a new dialectic,
is a genre? Who defines it? For what purposes is it
not that of dialectic materialism,
defined? As Cohen penned 35 years ago in History and
but one of more similar vein to
Genre, “genre has a history, and history is a genre.”
historical
Generic history is long, perhaps millions of years old,
through historical and cultural
with the biological advent of a dropped voice box
materialism that;
sociology
emerging
PAGE 12 - CLASS AND CLASSICAL MUSIC Not only is classical music as a genre term
Valentine both remarked on the
extremely dangerous,
immense power of naming or
And not only is classical music inextricably tied to
categorising. “Naming gives the
the social elite,
power to impose recognition of
but almost its entire study and discourse is at the
one’s identity upon another, the
hands of that same social elite or the aspirational
power to impose the other’s
elite social class.
identity upon them, and the
This study of classical music, music and genre in
power
general, is predicated upon the premise of ‘playing
others.” (Valentine, 1998, pp. 2,
a civilisational catch-up’ at the hands of the almost
Bourdieu 1986: pp. 480 - 481)
to
deny
names
for
obliteration of genre itself, where genre was in action (and still is) for the majority of our human history, in oral societies, And that this almost obliteration of genre history has been carried out largely by the same elite or aspirational
elite
within
written
and
usually
Western societies. And so today, we are here, too, studying genre as part of this elite or aspirational elite in a Western society that helped to destroy almost all of its history.
In the case of First Australians, this
The Core Questions and Understandings
the
introduction.
Genre
by
its
most
foundational definition in the Oxford Dictionary, is a definition of something notoriously hard to define; art. A definition is synonymous with a category or a name. French philosopher, Bourdieu and American sociologist, James
studying as part of the aspirational elite in a western society that helped to destroy almost all of its (genre) history."
be
Australian nations hold an oral history
and
present
that
informs our relationships with each other and country, most widely
known
Dreamtime.
as
Colonisation
the of
Australia resulted in four key approaches custodians;
"We are here today
cannot
understated. Most Indigenous
To begin, we will answer the core questions posed in
power
assimilation,
to
its
first
genocide, integration,
and
mass incarceration (Schimmel, 2005).
You could assume that
all these colonial approaches happened
throughout
Australia’s history one after the other in a linear, chronological fashion, as it was taught to us in the New South Wales Primary School Syllabus between 20042010. This syllabus was signed off by the elite social class enacting a regime of 'bankingeducation.' It was designed to see children as 'depositories' of "raw...
PAGE 13 - CLASS AND CLASSICAL MUSIC ...materials for the creation of adults," (Freire, 1970, Walters,
2012)
subsequently
where
teachers,
syllabus of
course,
writers,
and
“accepted
the
"...it is clear to see this dangerous
veracity of the documents of the ruling class” of 20thcentury Australian state and federal leaders about the Indigenous evidence
‘’problem’’, from
“without
the
seeking
subordinate”
other
undoubtedly
tripartite of names, academia, and the
“confusing chronology with causation” in a fashion
social elite in
emblematic of the majority of Australian academia.
the term,
These efforts attempted to render the four coloniser approaches
completely
finished,
as
“an
absolute
'Classical Music'
truth... perceived as something static” in our young child hearts and minds, ultimately “satisfying the interests of the elite.” (Kennedy, pp. 17, 1989, Freire,
...names upon them like “black-
1970, Theocharis Kromydas, pp. 1-6, 2017).
dog, animal, dole-bludger”,
.
dehumanisation and for the first
What assuredly is regarded as an absolute truth is
time class formation became the
that these four approaches are all happening today,
norm. Through re-education
as are their effects. Genocide, cultural genocide,
camps on missions, Indigenous
language extermination, dispossession of land, stolen
peoples were beaten or killed if
generations,
the
disproportionate
they spoke their first language.
majority
kids
ten
Dehumanisation has been
of
overwhelmingly as
young
as
and
adults
incarcerated today, all serve as a disempowering
recognised the world over as an
cocktail.
important tactic wielded by the social elite of a given society to
In returning to the power of naming, we see that the
carry out genocides or wars. This
name given to Australia by its British colonisers, 'terra
is the inherent danger of names,
nullius', served as the basic rationalisation for a mass-
academia, and the social elite
scale genocide of many hundred classless, agrarian
class.
civilisations on this land. In returning to the term and
Over
130
Indigenous
languages
have
died
since
genre,
'Classical
Music',
it
European arrival in 1788, which is more than half of
becomes apparent that as a music
the known languages spoken on this continent for
group identifier it is an outlier.
upwards of 100 000 years.
The word classic in English means high quality, outstanding of its
This is the true power of names. In the case of
kind,
Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander peoples, names
curiously,
is
are used to live in harmony with the Earth for
education
that
millennia.
Greek
We
practised
the
action
of
genre
in
of
established
or
a
value,
subject
studies
Latin
or in
Ancient
(Western)
thousands and thousands of years of corroboree
literature. From our own English
where thousands and thousands met and still meet
definitions of the term and an
today to sing and dance. Our classless society has all
already somewhat explored case
but been replaced. In the case of the colonisers of
of the power of names, it is clear
Australia,
custodians
to see this dangerous tripartite of
recognition of itself and its harmony by destroying
names, academia, and the social
the peoples and languages, then, secondly, imposing...
elite in the term, 'Classical Music'.
firstly,
denying
the
first
PAGE 14 - CLASS AND CLASSICAL MUSIC Further, if you look at the naming, the categorisation
return on their investment.
of other music genres positioned to the globe today
The beginning of the term,
you will come to understand that 'Classical Music' is
'Classical Music,' begins with
not like the others. Hip-hop, RnB, Rock and Roll, Jazz,
an
Bluegrass, Blues, EDM; they all tell you in some way
carried out by the social elite
what is occurring in the music. In English, they are all
to
somewhat onomatopoeic, or in the case of EDM,
timely that the social elite in
directly spelt out to the individual. 'Classical Music',
the class society of Victorian
however, does not tell you. It does tell you that it is
England
seen as “valuable”.
emergence of a new class of
advertising fill
theatre
campaign seats.
enjoyed
peoples,
the
It
is
the
Mercantiles,
We have perhaps already answered the 'who' question
otherwise
known
posed earlier, but directly spelling out the 'who' will
middle-class
help us to uncover the 'why' behind its naming. What
elites, to exploit. The same
purpose is it being defined? As outlined, genres like
kind of aspirational
or
as
the
aspirational
EDM are defined purely for identifiability for the listening population. Classical Music, however, is not. The term, 'Classical Music', supposedly, today refers to 1500 years span of time; roughly stretching back to its Medieval period from 500 CE, to its Renaissance period from 1400 CE, to Baroque from 1600 CE to its Classical Period from 1750, to its Romantic period from 1830, to its modern eras from 1900. It is interesting to note that the term ‘Classical Music' first surfaced in the late 1820s in England with its first documented entry into the Oxford Dictionary in 1829. In plain terms, the Victorian England social elite were
elite Australia has that was
building many new theatres, operatic houses, and
taught
outdoor playing venues, and so forth and were in dire
Indigenous
need of ticket-buyers to
Aspirational
to
dehumanise Australians. elites
are
targeted the world over by the social elite of class-based
"The beginning of the term, 'Classical Music' begins with an
societies to enact the true elites interest, often to the extreme
detriment
of
the
aspirational. They use many different cultural marionettes to
enact
this
will,
in
advertising campaign
education, music, art, media
carried out by the
For those first aspirational
social elite to fill
England, they were hooked in
theatre seats."
century earlier in the 1700s
and news media, and sport. ticket-holders
in
Victorian
by a nostalgia for a time a that...
PAGE 15 - CLASS AND CLASSICAL MUSIC ...their families were not actually a part of. The known-the-world-over
musicians
of
Beethoven,
"Historians (usually
Mozart, and Bach did not even know they were creating 'Classical Music'. How funny that they were a
Western, aligned to
part of the most valued period, the classical period, of
the social elite)... go
the most valued and only music genre in English to have value built into its name, 'Classical Music'. Here
into the past of other
we can find its original purpose, to sway a peasantry
societies to ascribe
turned middle-class into buying-tickets as means of
where value is and
entertainment guided by superiority. Here we can uncover its further purposes.
value is not."
So why would historians go back? The immense value given to the term, 'Classical Music' spans back to 500 AD. (I mean, apart from a half-attempt to purport it, is the longest running musical genre still listened to today?) There are many reasons to retrospectively align past events. To take credit. To misplace or displace credit. To create a historical narrative of what I call ‘Western Betterment’, birthed again only from the documents of the elite.
called the Medieval Period of Classical Music, was the advent of a new universally intelligible system of music notation with the express ability to transcend language barriers. However, the inbuilt structures of this musical notation system we still use today could represent
harmonics
but
failed
to
accurately represent rhythm. Too, and bluntly, the notational system was dispersed around the world to help assist in the dispersal of Christianity and its messages. In many classless societies or societies recently class-made at this time, the expression of music were and are incredibly rhythmic. When your written
notational-system
does
recognition of self destroyed. Historian Analysis Historians, usually Western and aligned to the social elite, do not just go back into Western history to ascribe value. They go into the
One important creation from what would later be
accurately
cultural pursuits of music and
not
accurately
represent the whole of music creation, it could be argued that intended or not, when institutionalised across new societies and countries, it inherently robs some of the ability to express. If music created expressly for and from that notational system comes to be immensely valued by the social elite of classsociety, then what follows is opportunity, financial or learning is given to those who use the system. If, as in the case of many Australian Indigenous groups and indigenous peoples the world over, you are at the same time being genocided, from two angles are your
past of other societies to ascribe where value is and value is not. These historians have ascribed the valued-loaded name 'Classical Music' to other societies around the
world;
usually
to
denote
music listened to and valued by the social elite of those societies. Klasik of Afghanistan was born from the invitation of the leader of Amir Sher Ali Khan to Indian artists to play at the royal court. It
has
been
denoted
as
the
'Classical Music' of Afghanistan by English historian couple, Veronica Doubleday
and
John
Baily.
Andalusian classical music was allegedly born in the Cordoba Royal
Court,
of
present-day
Spain, by the Iraqi-born, Ziryab. It has been dubbed the 'Classical Music'
of
Andalusia
by
Carl
Davilla. Nhã nhac, the classical music of Vietnam was dubbed so by
English
ethnohistorian,
Barley Norton for its seven...
Dr
PAGE 16 - CLASS AND CLASSICAL MUSIC ...century long ties to the Vietnamese Royal Court.
'classic’. It names itself such to
The 'Classical Music' of Thailand, Piphat, is used to
appear superior, foundational,
perform self-described 'high-class' compositions and
legendary.
the genre terming continues this way. In analysing
foundational and legendary is
what historians have named in English the 'Classical
the
Music' of a society, all are from class-based societies,
practice
with 15 out of 18 being entrenched with the social
unscouted. Not the 0.01% of
elite as court music or similar. Rather, more than 83
'Classical Music' purported to
percent of music genre identified and classified as
be so by 0.01% of the world's
'classical' by mostly Western academia is deeply
population.
rooted in serving the elite social class of class-based societies. It, thus, makes sense as to why a genre like 'World Music' exists. Class-based colonialism has us ‘playing civilisational catch-up’, trying to grasp at the majority of the history of genre; our oral shared histories that it almost destroyed. Into the genre of World Music, goes all the music we have not been bothered to study, and allowed to destruct. Some of it may be lucky to be re-appropriated for social elite value, only devoid of its original meaning or purposes. The only purposes today’s classical music chases are grandeur and money. A term itself born from a marketing campaign to make more money, all concurrently rationalised by a few dozen academics and dispersed as truth. Conclusion It is from these analyses, I conclude the term “Classical Music” as the most dangerous name for a musical genre. It denies other genres the power of being
99.99%
What of
is
truly
music
genre
discounted
and
PAGE 17 - THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD generations. For example, the gene that codes for the protein
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD: A
DNA NATURAL PROGRESSION OF HUMAN
polymerase
–
which
is
involved in transcribing DNA strands – is common to every
EVOLOUTION
organism on the planet; it has
by Phil Jeffrey
been conserved in the genome since our last universal common
Evolution is the change in an organism’s genome over generations. Over long periods of time, genomes can change through a variety of ways, such as random gene mutations, horizontal gene transfer and viral infections.
Around
eight
percent
of
the
human
genome comes from ancient viruses. Genomes
are
comprised
of
genes
–
discrete
sequences of the nucleotides A, T, C and G – and the constitution of genes for a particular organism is known as its genotype. Some of the genes – “coding” genes - provide the instructions to build proteins. Proteins
perform
many
different
functions
that
comprise the phenotype – the physical manifestation of the genotype, such as blue eyes or a thick beak.
“works” – that is, what phenotypes successfully adapt the
environment.
This
is
known
as
natural
selection. How does nature select? Through death, or more
accurately,
death
before
replication
or
reproduction. Genes that result in phenotypes that cause the organism to die before it can replicate or reproduce, will not make it through to the next generation. Eventually, those genes will cease to exist in a population. Conversely, the genes that do survive through generations either produce proteins better suited to the organism’s environment, or, like the gene for eye colour, may have little effect on survival at all, and just come along for the ride.
the genotype of a particular organism is not random. The genes that comprise the genotype of an organism are
the
result
of
millions
of
years
of
reproductive success. Such genes are said to be “conserved” – they have survived through many
evolutionary
process is not simply natural selection,
but
cumulative
natural selection – subsequent generations
building
on
the
successes of their ancestors. Over hundreds of millions of years,
evolution,
cumulative
through
natural
selection,
has resulted in the organisms that we see today. Early on, genes that coded for receptor proteins,
that
allowed
organisms to sense and respond been advantageous. Much later, nature
selected
genes
that
coded for proteins that built brains to coordinate responses to
various
stimuli
–
visual,
aural, chemical, electrical, and so on. The evolution of such sensory and motor functions – and the brain to coordinate
them
organisms
–
allowed
to
start
communicating with each other using
signals
pheromones,
such
gestures,
as sonar,
and voice. Nature has decided
While genes might be subject to random mutations,
today
The
to their environment, must have
The process of evolution is that nature decides what to
ancestor.
that communication works. The essence of communication is that there are at least two organisms involved – one to communicate and the other to
PAGE 18 - THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD understand the meaning of the communication. Going
generations. In more recent
back to our discussion of evolution and cumulative
history, information can now
natural selection, we can see that the concept of
be recorded using still and
meaning, while not itself a physical concept, has
moving imagery.
evolved from the cumulative natural selection of genes that code for proteins that build the organs and
Languages,
tissues that support communication. The intangible
evolve. And words, like genes,
ability to understand is the phenotype derived from
are
the tangible “communication genes” of the organism’s
evolution. Like genes, words
genotype.
exhibit
the
like
units
organisms, of
language
cumulative
natural
selection – words that are How does the receiving organism understand the
useful
and
continue
to
meaning of a communication? Through learning –
provide meaning to human
either by communication from others, or by trial and
brains will be passed down to
error. The piece of communication might be a simple mating call of a seagull, or the more colourful display of a peacock’s train. To convey many different types of messages, humans have evolved more elaborate means
of
communication.
Language
has
allowed
humans to communicate love, friendship, feelings, opinions, stories, and ideas with each other. Early in human evolution, language needs were simplistic, and the brain had enough capacity to learn the concepts necessary
for
survival.
Important
concepts
were
passed down through generations, but being in oral form, the messages were susceptible to errors in translation and memory. Later, as populations grew
the next generation of brains
and communication needs became more complex,
and continue to exist in the
humans developed the ability to convey and store
language. Words that become
their messages in written form, allowing for greater
irrelevant to a generation will
accuracy in the transmission of information through
not be passed down to the next
"Languages, like organisms evolve. And words, like genes are the units
and
will
eventually
become
extinct.
Consequently, we now have words that, like the woolly mammoth of the biological world,
exist
only
in
the
history books. How amazing would today’s conversations be
if
we
still
referred
to
politicians as “snollygosters”.
of language
Like genes, words can mutate.
evolution."
different spelling or different
A
culture
can
introduce
pronunciation, which is then
a
PAGE 19 - THE SCIENIFIC METHOD passed down to the next generation. After many
inventions.
Granted,
generations and many word mutations, the language
have been some successful
has evolved a new dialect – much like descendants of
inventions
a common ancestor. And like human
discovered by pure accident –
genomes can integrate genes from viral and bacterial
the
genomes, languages can integrate words from other
Alexander Fleming’s petri dish
languages.
that had somehow blocked
that
blob
there
have
of
been
mould
in
the spread of bacteria became For humans, the simple sounds that make up words
the antibiotic penicillin. But
mean little without context. Words become sentences,
for humans to truly realise
and sentences become ideas, opinions, speeches,
the benefits of their ideas, we
stories, and conversations. In his seminal 1976 book
needed to create a formalised
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins invented the word
method
“meme” (long before it was used to describe witty
works – or what is true.
to
find
out
what
musings of a grumpy cat) to refer to these bits of information that emanate from a human brain. Much like genes are units of biological evolution, and words are the units of language evolution, memes are the units of social evolution. Memes, like genes and words, evolve through cumulative natural selection. The ideas, opinions, speeches, and stories that are most relevant to a generation will be passed down to the next. Memes that maintain popularity will be conserved through many generations. Like genes, there are memes that help us adapt to our environment. These are the idea memes that lead to inventions. How does an idea meme become a successful invention? Like the way a gene becomes a successful protein – trial and error through repetitive cycles, while building on the success of previous
Why
is
truth
Truthful
important?
information
allows
us to make decisions to better adapt
to
our
environment.
Our own senses evolved to receive multiple stimuli, and our brain evolved to process the
information
and
coordinate a response. The brain also evolved to store previous might
information
come
is
useful
that for
future decisions. As a discrete organism we respond based on the information we are given, but if our “evidence” that a piece of information is true is based solely on our own experience, bias occurs. We do the best we can – but
PAGE 20 - THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD we could respond and adapt a lot better if we had
"Unlike
more information, and more accurate information.
mathematics, In
And so, with the evolution of the organs and brain regions to support communication, we can now get a
the sciences, we
lot more information from others – but is it accurate? School
education,
parents’
wisdom,
friends’
cannot ever know
anecdotes, “old wives’ tales”, daily news – a lot of information to process, but which memes are true?
if something is
Which memes will help us adapt? Which memes
absolutely true."
should we cumulatively select to pass on to the next generation? Which memes work? Unlike mathematics, In the sciences, we cannot ever know if something is absolutely true. The word science comes from the Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge” – but how do we know? We can provide evidence that something is true - and the more overwhelming the evidence, the more likely it is to be true. But evidence of what? And how is that evidence gathered, analysed, and presented? If any discipline wanted to be taken seriously as a fountain of knowledge, it would need to formalise its process to show whether an outcome is definitive evidence that a specific hypothesis is true. And so evolved the ultimate meme of all – the scientific method. A meme to test the accuracy of other memes. A meme that, like natural selection, shows us what works.
has
contributions
evolved from
over
such
generations,
luminaries
as
with
Aristotle,
Galileo, Descartes, Isaac Newton, and more recently Karl Popper. Cumulative selection has taken the best bits of the scientific method over the centuries, to evolve into what we have today. Essentially, the scientific method, in testing memes, loosely mirrors the process nature takes in selecting genes, but with added layers of human inquiry. Scientists will initially pose a question they wish to answer. Nature doesn’t ask whether a gene mutation will work – physical forces
will
cause
the
mutation
to
mutation out there and see what happens to the population. The scientist will make observations, analyse the results, and form a conclusion.
Nature:
happen.
The
scientist will do research to find scientific studies (successful memes) related to their question, like nature accumulating successful genes in an organism over generations. The scientist will then form a hypothesis and conduct an experiment. Nature is a bit
population
less likely to survive? Conclusion: mutation probably didn’t work. Over billions of years, nature has followed a process to select genes that help an organism adapt to its environment, keeping the most successful death
genes
and,
before
eliminating
Like all memes (and words, and genes), the scientific method
more gung-ho - it will just put the
Through
reproduction,
the
the
through
deleterious.
accumulation
of
successful genes and the proteins they
encoded,
developed
nature
sensorimotor
has beings
that not only respond to external stimuli
but,
through
the
development of brains, are able to communicate with each other and give
meanings
to
those
communications. Brains allow the beings to think, contemplate, and develop ideas, or memes. The scientific method, a meme itself, is
a
formalised
whether
way
scientific
to
memes
test are
true. And now, we have come full circle
-
scientists
can
modify
genes of organisms to benefit
PAGE 21 - THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
humankind, such as improving crop yields. Nature has evolved the genes that allowed the evolution of memes that allow the modification of genes. The scientific method, whilst successful as a means of finding evidence for what is true in the universe, is not the end game for evolution, for there is still much about the universe we do not know. The process of discovery will lead to new information, new memes, and refinements to the scientific method, like any good cumulative natural selection process will do! Development of artificial intelligence may allow some parts of the scientific method to be farmed out to robotics – the human scientist will pose a question, and AI will do the research, conduct the experiment, and return a conclusion. The evolution of memes will not only increase exponentially but will be extraordinary!
PAGE 22 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE
THE
PATHWAYS
Let's Walk Together...
THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE
by Ness Song
Have you ever looked up at a tree and really taken the
routine when I was able to.
time to observe all the parts that make up its whole? Do you see the texture or peeling of its bark? A small
Without gratitude, I would be a
ant defying gravity and hurrying along the trunk’s
completely
surface? Do you see the carvings made by human
than the one I am today.
different
person
passersby? Or are you looking up at the litany of different greens that sway and bend with the wind?
We
often
don’t
pay
much
Do you feel the wind?
attention to the small things, or as I like to call them “the bits”,
If you answered no to any of the above, that is totally
often ignoring them altogether.
okay. I was never really one for observing, being still
But what of small things that
or quiet either. However, successive lockdowns, a few
make up a whole, without which
core-shaking experiences and well-placed mentors
this reality wouldn’t be as easily
were
dismissed. The seed is made up
the
best
and
sometimes
the
harshest
of
of many components, grown in
teachers, in what it means to truly live and be.
the soil made up of even more Right before the first Sydney lockdown, one of my
components and the sun that
greatest
book
shines - that the seed relies on
which spoke of the magic of gratitude. This was my
to grow and the water that
first foray into the world of the infinitely small and
holds the codes to life itself. All
mundane. Fast forward to today, a year and eight
coming together to create the
months later and I have written (give or take a few),
symphony that is life itself. We
around six thousand things I am thankful or blessed
live
for in my life. There were definitely days where I
dimension
wanted to give up, days that I missed, days where I
objective of the systems and
was too busy or sad to write, but I was kind to myself
structures of control and power
physical
teachers
recommended
a
and slowly integrated it into my morning practice and
in
a
time, whereby
place
and
the
sole
PAGE 23 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE over around us is to prevent us from being observant of the little things. Therefore preventing us from noticing the magic that exists in the mundane, the magic that also exists within us. When I try to explain the immensity of the mundane, my attempts are often met with an unconvinced or sceptical response. To which I am also thankful for because it means I have your attention! I’ve been asked “Are/Were you high?” (possibly) but I don’t believe that devalues the sensation within the core of my being that felt like every piece I’ve been putting together slowly over the last few months of my life, were starting to click into place. But I digress, because a truth felt, is not the same as a truth
able to destroy our planet and the rights of everyone else on the planet while we aren’t looking. I am working with the following
model
observed
of
I
have
interaction,
support and control between each individual structure. In the first system of control, corporations have reached a capacity
wherein
acting
they
as
governments
are
shadow (Uhlin
1988,
Ketchell 2018). The globe's
explained. I can, however, explain the circumstances that keep us blind to the truth and the magic that lies within it. I am speaking from my own lived experience here, on what I have seen, what has frustrated me and I offer solutions on how I imagine our world would look if we all took the time to get to know ourselves a little
I am speaking from my own lived experience here, on what I have seen, what has frustrated me and I offer solutions on how I imagine our world would look if we all took the time to get to know
better.
ourselves a little better.
There is an interlocked triangle of disinformation and control that lives and breathes through our systems and structures. It keeps us feeling stuck, desperately lonely and divided; fighting amongst each other whilst the beneficiaries of our conflict and distraction are
wealth
concentration
sits
squarely within the CEOs and big bosses
of
multinational
companies (Oxfam 2021) that rely on disinformation and conflict in order to thrive and exist without scrutiny.
(The
Transnational
Institute, 2014). Decisions made based on corporate greed and apathy affect the whole planet and these decisions rely upon the assistance
and
compliance
of
political operators and legislators who look the other way, whilst media
and
social
media
organisations use their platforms to distract people into conflict one another or exhaustive apathy that makes us look the other way.
IMG Credit: Ness Song
PAGE 24 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE Corporations
have
made
our
lives
easier,
more
...society to be something other
convenient, and less mobile, but at what cost? Most
than
corporations
from
capitalists, we need to empathise
environmental degradation and human exploitation to
with them and bring them onside
the
our
too). Instill different, maybe a
relationship with ourselves, our environment and the
multiple-set of present moment-
food production process.
to-moment
have
production
a
of
hand foods
in
everything
that
desecrate
money
(and
do
tell
actionable
the
and
balanced economic motives like Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental
harmony, safety,
activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and
(Vandana Shiva) anti-globalisation
author.
She
expenditure is starkly evident. speaks
about
the
importance of food in our experience of life on this planet; “food is the currency of life”. She explains how in the Vedas, everything is drawn back to food.
and our bodies. A review of 21 studies from 10 different countries “found that a healthful dietary pattern — characterized by high intakes of fruit and vegetables, was associated with a reduced risk of depression. Whereas a Western-style diet pattern involving a high intake of red and processed meats, and sweets - was associated with an increased risk of (McGrane
2021)
At
the
same
time,
spending on marketing fast foods and confectionery exceeds $5 billion a year. Marketing spending for vegetables and fruits reaches $275 million a year, 18x smaller than spending on junk foods. (UCONN Centre for Food Policy and Obesity, 2019, Statista, 2020) In Australia, the results of the drastic difference in
to
the
Australian
Divisions of General Practice (2011), 99 percent of TV Food advertisements
broadcasted
during children shows were for
Food is essential in paving the way back to ourselves
depression.”
According
fast food and junk food. Meanwhile, only one percent of food
advertisements
vegetables
or
fruits.
featured In
our
current global system, food that increases the prevalence of lifethreatening
mental
health
conditions and decreases our quality
of
life
is
valued
monetarily 18x more than food that decreases the prevalence of
life-threatening
mental
health conditions and increases our quality of life. The Cartesian manner in which we think about
PAGE 25 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE our body and our mind, our existence and our soul is
that
could
no longer sustainable or feasible for our futures or the
generations
future of our planet.
infinite
We as individuals are looking for freedom; freedom to
world’s
live
currently
lives
in
the
way
we
want
to.
Our
into
a
future realm
possibilities
futures. our
lead
The
way
of and
that
the
Governments
are
operating
is
understanding of freedom as it currently stands is
something I like to call politics.
purely atomistic and materialistic. Freedoms like
As someone who has worked at
ordering an Uber when you need one are great, but
almost
freedoms like not being able to choose from hundreds
Government,
of takeout options while other human beings on the
obsession
other side of the globe starve because they don’t have
power and politics that often
every I
with
level
of
observed
an
the
of
game
enough food to eat, is not my idea of freedom. Is freedom truly freedom, if the chance birth you have been blessed with is what grants you that freedom? What is deep freedom and what does it mean in a truly interconnected world? Are we content with the tiny freedoms that distract us from self-actualisation, our true nature and communitarianism? Freedoms that are fed to us by corporations, approved by politicians and cold-dripped into our minds from almost every source of media we turn to. led to the blatant disregard for I make the very important differentiation between
the
politics as it currently operates and systems and
representatives were there to
structures of Government that are designed to help
represent, serve and “hold the
people and sustain life on this planet. Governments
best interests of. I bought into
have the ability to be truly representative, to create
the game. I write this with little
sustainable social change and environmental change ”.
judgement
people
that
elected
because
I
understand how the allure of respect, gainful
external
validation,
employment
changemakers completely
and
guise
reconfigure
a can
your
values system if you exist for long enough in a low vibrational plane of living and surviving. Of which I spent my fair share of time in. I got involved in politics because I wanted to be a part of a
community
that
made
a
difference. Unbeknownst to me at the time the baggage I was carrying into it was incredibly heavy on me and those around
PAGE 26 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE me, and it included an incredibly unstable home life
to create change both in their
and accompanying insecure living conditions. Which
own
was only exacerbated by the systematic inefficacies of
communities.
the political game that led me to seriously struggle
we place value on as a society
with substance and alcohol abuse and a very serious
are incredibly skewed - we
relapse in an eating disorder I had developed in high
place
school. I was stuck in shame and silenced by my own
monetary success and gain,
fear of being seen. According to compassion fatigue
power
expert Francoise Mathieu (2012), as much as 85%
control.
percent
to
compassion, community and
someone with unrecognised or unprocessed trauma
empathy are considered “too
can experience vicarious or secondary trauma. I was
feminine”
surrounded by traumatised individuals and my own
strongly for but we need to
trauma but I had no way of truly knowing or
have
identifying that until my mid-twenties.
discourse about our values
of
people
with
long-term
exposure
I wanted to help others but I was truly lost and operating out of my most traumatised self; my hurt inner child, and I was hurting others more than I was
lives
and
so
in
The
priorities
much
and
value
brute
Other
on
force
values
to
a
their
like
advocate
frank
and
bold
I was surrounded by traumatised individuals and my own trauma
helping. Leaving politics was the best thing I was able
but I had no way of
to do for myself, even though I couldn’t see it at the
truly knowing or
time.
identifying that until So many of us are operating out of our most hurt
my mid-twenties.
selves and the current global context reflects the overall status of our collective unresolved pain and trauma. We are a global community of hurt people,
and our future and what we
hurting each other and being led by even more hurt
want
people. We are facing so many global crises, our
includes shifting the profit-
oceans are rising, inequality is rife in every corner of
based motive that underpins
our planet and people feel less empowered than ever
almost
it
to
look
every
structure
like.
This
system
in
our
and global
society. It also includes a conversation about
the
attached
to
connotations masculine
and
feminine traits. I encourage you to see the ‘traditionally feminine’
softness
gentleness greatest
as
one
strengths
and of
the
we
can
foster in the world at the moment.
It
takes
more
strength to soften in the face
PAGE 27 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUDANE of ego, conflict or hurt than to respond with the same
corporations maximize profit. The
frequency of reactive energy, (Moore, 2015, Liu, 2015).
labour
of
cultural
exploited Trauma is one of the most insidiously unaddressed
for
workers
private
is
gain.”
(Mirrlees, 2012)
realities of our society. The need for trauma informed schools and education, health systems, therapy and
To begin to illustrate just how
psychology frameworks, and penal systems is glaringly
concentrated
obvious when analysing each system and the flaws
(that
inherent
newspapers, radio stations and TV
in
each.
Flaws
that
serve
to
further
traumatise individuals and therefore uphold apathetic
is
traditional
physical
media
and
digital
stations) is in Australia, I have
In 2011, Australian democracy ranked third worst in the world for traditional media concentration and press freedom, (Evershed, 2020).
included
Media Interest Snapshot - ACMA (2020) and damaging systems, through unconsciousness and unawareness. Whilst it may seem like Everest, it is not impossible and this journey is one we need to take as a global community if we are to survive as a human race. If we are to succeed on this journey, we need to break
free
from
the
blindness,
conflict
and
disorganisation that the media thrives on, by snaking its tendrils of misinformation, sensationalism and relentless churning of its negative portrayal of our world. We need to imagine a better future because the Murdochs and tech giants of the world won’t do it for us. The humans (kind) at the centre of creation in this system are played a foul-hand by media corporations. As Tanner Mirrless points out (2012), “cultural workers sell their labour to media firms for set periods of time in exchange for a wage or salary. By paying cultural workers less than the total amount of money they accumulate through the sale... media
ACMA’s
“Media
Snapshot” - which features just 11 key players. In
reality,
the
concentration
media
picture
in
Australia is even smaller than what
is
portrayed
here.
Traditional media, as in daily or weekly
newspapers
“set
the
story agenda” (Carson 2016) for repetition on television, radio and increasingly social media. In the state of QLD, Murdoch owns more than 90 percent of print and digital newspapers. Traditional media players like Murdoch’s
News
Corp.
and
SkyNews have extended their reach
into
the
social
media
sphere as well. As of December 2020, videos on SkyNews,
PAGE 28 - THE IMMESNITY OF THE MUNDANE Youtube Channel had been viewed “500 million times,
that
more than any other Australian media organisation.”
supported
(Wilson, 2020).
public broadcaster to not just stay
“Just three corporations – News Corp, Nine, and
90%
of
Australians
funding
level,
but
for
to
the
actually
increase.
Seven Media Holdings — collect 80% of Australian free-to-air and subscription TV revenues, with News
In 2011, Australian democracy
Corp picking up 40%, almost double that of channel
ranked third worst in the world
Nine.” (Minter, 2021)
for
traditional
concentration Murdoch received $30 million from the Federal Government
for
Foxtel
programming
in
media
and
press
freedom, (Evershed, 2020).
2020,
meanwhile, his Newscorp posted record profits in 2020, and just this August it launched a 24/7 news channel on regional free-to-air-TV. This station is unrivalled in the free-to-air landscape, save for the public broadcaster that our Federal Government is cutting $1 billion dollars from over the next three years. (IA, 2020 , Minter, 2021) In 2020, the MEAA carried out a survey to ascertain the Australian public’s opinion of media concentration in Australia. They found that “more than 92% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that Australia’s media ownership is too highly concentrated, and 94% agreed or strongly agreed that this was bad for democracy.” (Press Freedom,
2021).
In
a
sharp
contrast
to
the
Government’s view of the ABC, the survey also found
Since 2011, the global context has
simply
worsened
and
I
believe media concentration is a key causal factor. It is not just media powers, but current
government
powers
rendering journalism ineffective
Around the world in 2020, the United Nations tracked 331 killings of human rights defenders in 32
- with AFP raids on journalists houses, and secret trials for those who exposed war crimes of the Federal Government, all
countries and territories, an 18%
helping foster a coerced apathy
increase since 2019. A total of 62
community.
journalists were killed in 2020.
within the Australian journalist
Around the world in 2020, the United killings
Nations of
tracked
human
331
rights
defenders in 32 countries and territories, since
2019.
an A
18% total
increase of
62
journalists were killed in 2020.
PAGE 29 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE This centralisation of media power and influence is a
black mirrors?
core inefficacy of our modern democracy. How can we truly be democratic when the majority of the voting
I believe social media has the
public is being lied to, blinded, confused, misinformed
ability to be used for good,
and misdirected? And those who try to inform us or
and
warn us are forcibly disappeared or killed.
communities use social media
in
many
cases
to stay connected. Charities Knowledge is power and the only way to salvage our
can use it to speak about their
democracies
transparency,
causes, and awareness can be
accountability and impartial reporting on reality, not
raised via platforms, you can
politics. Political polarisation is at an all time high, it
also mark yourself safe during
has become clear that politics is not something that
a natural disaster.
is
to
demand
we will be able to organise around or agree on. The conversation now has to be centered around the following
question:
“What
are
some
However, more often than
irrefutable
universal truths we can agree on?”. I believe some good suggestions to be Truth (veritas), Equality, Empathy and Ecological and personal freedom. Social media is a failed exercise in ‘globalisation’. Rather than connecting the citizens of this planet to one another, it has operated under a profit motive that ensures each citizen is able to create their own self-affirming version of reality and ensuing collective
How much are we consuming, intentionally and unintentionally? Is the content we are consuming benefiting us as a collective or sensationalist in nature? How reliable is what we are seeing on our black mirrors?
chaos. Nobody can agree on anything and more often than not, even that is contentious. As digital and global citizens we need to ask ourselves a few
not, you have to sift through
questions: How much are we consuming, intentionally
advertisements,
and unintentionally? Is the content we are consuming
tailored
benefiting us as a collective or sensationalist in
states
nature? How reliable is what we are seeing on our
questions about the efficacy
posts of
hyperand
altered
reality.
Raising
of our information and our efforts when the content we are served and the causes we care about are so inherently linked and related. (Zhang & Lin, 2018) If we draw the discussion
back
to
our
universal truths and decide whether
or
not
the
information we are delivered fits within what we can agree on, we might be able to make inroads. Each platform has its own
PAGE 30 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE intention and motives. Facebook was created as a hook-up circle jerk and most other
I
am
therefore
proposing
the
ensuing platforms are created to cater to the
alternate tri-intersecting circles of
ever-fleeting attention span of the human
freedom and sovereignty :
mind and it’s need for dopamine rewards. Where else can we find the community and dopamine we seek from platforms that often end up exploiting us, our information and attention in return? We
could
create
our
own
social
media
platforms, or
IMG Credit: Circles of Freedom - Ness Song The
traditional
human nationalise existing platforms. We can also change the algorithm’s motives and incentives to peel back from a profit based motive and create one that serves humanity (Ndegwa,
understandings
motivation
Abraham
as
Maslow
of
ascribed
by
1943
are
in
undeniably tried, tested, outdated and in
fact
stolen
framework.
A
from
an
large
Indigenous
part
of
the
2021).
solutions and ideas we are proposing
There are wonderful functions of social media
draw upon the wisdom and knowledge;
in this and future issues of Yenma,
that exist, the ability to platform communities and causes, creatives, and content creators, and the ability to connect with people from across the globe. However, we need to take a serious look at the ways in which we rely on these platforms and tech giants to live and survive and develop alternative pathways and methods to counter the empathy deficit being bred into our consciousness at every level of control.
From
profit-at-all-costs
driven
corporations, to do-first-ask-later politicism, and hyper sensationalism and misinformation from
our
systems
of
media
and
communications. We need to shift and we need to do it now.
the cultural perpetuity of Indigenous cultures
and
systems
that
were
successful prior to colonisation. The basis of this model has been derived from the ‘Tipi’ model of the Blackfoot Tribe, an Indigenous tribe native to the Saskatchewan Saskatchewan
River in
Valley
Canada,
and
of the
upper plains of the United States. Of which Maslow stole his ‘hierarchy of needs’ and shifted the needs truest to our human nature to ones that better supported consumerism. Self actualisation sat at the
PAGE 31 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE bottom of the Tipi model. The amendment I have
have services and products for
made to this model includes a de-prioritisation of
this end that they rely on to
each intrinsic need because in this current global
feed
climate, I believe all are crucial to achieve true and
citizens into low paid, insecure
deep freedom and human sovereignty over themselves
working conditions. The work is
and the forces that seek to control them.
cut out for us.
Corporations are working actively to hinder the
A
personal and spiritual freedoms of individuals and the
bodies, our souls, has driven a
collective at large. Whether that be through the food
disconnect
that they are mass-producing, harming us with and
According
wasting at sickening rates or the maze of small
trauma
individual freedoms they use to distract individuals
Mate, this is the marker of
from the broader truth of themselves at hand.
collective trauma. He elucidates
Conscious global citizens who are happy and content
the treatment of the Earth to a
with their inner worlds and spiritually fulfilled, are
hatred
largely not as profitable as unconscious unhappy
reflection
citizens who struggle with self-esteem, seek external
inflicted by hurt people who
validation through material objects or who blame
hurt other people and therefore
their unhappiness on their unhappy neighbours. We
the Earth around us.
unhappy
and
disconnection
from
from to
our
our Earth.
physician
specialist
of
divided
‘The of
Dr.
and Gabor
Mother’, the
a
trauma
are a society that operates largely out of our egomind, and whilst our ego is vital in protecting us at times, we live in an age of ego-exploitation, whereby corporations have learned to hack our insecurities, our shame, and our egos. Unhappy citizens find the auto-pilot function easy to continue on a cycle of numbing, consuming, and external validation. All of the globe’s corporations
I have spent plenty of time as an unhappy
citizen,
before
my
journey into self-actualisation. I am
slowly
working
towards
becoming the truest version of myself; the knower and observer of my thoughts and impulses, habits and behaviours, and the appreciative magician of my own reality.
I
am
committed
to
constantly learning, relearning, adapting and flowing with the truest version of who I know myself to be. It is something
PAGE 32 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE that I will be doing for the rest of my life. It doesn’t
everything is made up of “the
have to be huge drastic changes in your life, twenty
bits”. From the smallest things
minutes here and there to start off with - and if you’re
to
anything like me, you’ll get addicted to the true
metaphysical concepts.
the
most
intangible
happiness that emanates from the centre of your being.
Self
realisation
according
to
Paramahansa Yogananda is “the The real and only work lies in self-actualisation and
knowing in all parts of the body,
realisation. Some of us realise before our death that
mind and soul that you are now
what we’re here to do isn’t necessarily the cookie
in
cutter memo set out for us by generations of unhappy
kingdom of God. That you do
citizens (through no fault of their own). Yemi Penn in
not have to pray for it to come
her book titled “Did you get the Memo (because I
to you; that God’s omnipresence
fucking didn’t)” says “Perfect is an urban legend
is your omnipresence; and that
created to confuse the masses - From a sweet little
all
the
possession
of
the
family to having a satisfying job, to owning the latest gadgets, the idea of perfection is constantly drilled into our heads”. She goes further and calls it “the
Yemi Penn in her book
status quo of our times. It offers a rigid and stifling
titled, 'Did you get the
inheritance of this unproven memo called life”.
Memo (because I fucking
I have come to realise that matter is the tangible,
didn’t)', says “perfect is
microbes, amoebas, atoms and molecules. That all that
an urban legend created
surrounds us is built on levels of all of these things. This is something I have been able to fully appreciate
to confuse the masses."
through gratitude, But what of the space in between matter? What of our energetic body? The substance of our soul? You will often hear me exclaim excitedly about “all the bits” that make up everything. It excites me because through the understanding of feeling, both the good and the bad, I have come to realise that
you need to do is improve your knowing”. I am well aware of the attachments that
and
are
associations
tied
to
the
understanding and acceptance of God, particularly thanks to the
efforts
religions
of
most
in
major
creating
geographical and metaphysical distance between humans and God. Thankfully, humans are masters of language, with 97% of the human
brain
dedicated
to
understanding language. In this context,
I
ask
individuals
reading this piece to choose whichever word they feel most comfortable with and
PAGE 33 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE apply it to the quote above. Some people say Source,
Stay with me here.
the Universe, the Divine, energy. Many religions have their different names, but at its core it is the same
Our interconnectedness can be
energy, the same omnipresence that exists in all things and in the space between all things.
Take time to
An equal respect for all things is founded in the re-
watch, observe,
sacralisation of ourselves and the nature and habitat that surrounds us. Lockdown provides a chance to
listen, feel with all
become intimately acquainted with the local flora and fauna in your neighbourhood. Take time to watch,
your senses and all your being.
based in this understanding that we are all Divine consciousness undergoing
a
human
experience;
However
furthermore to that I would like to raise the theory that we are refractions of that same Divine consciousness, convinced of our observe, listen, feel with all your senses and all your
separateness. A large part of
being.
this actualisation process is the joy
and
enjoyment
of
the
The reality is the way back to ourselves and it needs
journey of coming back home to
to be re-sacralised. We need to realise that even the
ourselves. Coming home to each
smallest of events or actions we take can be made
other.
sacred. Eating or preparing food, waking up in the morning, stretching, having a shower, taking a walk,
The syntax of coming home to
observing nature in all her immensity. To do so is to
each other is coming back to
create space for the Divine within us and around us
what most of us truly yearn for,
and realise the freedom that is available in the
the support, love, guidance and
mundane, available to us right now. That we have
nurturing of a community. It is
always been worthy of unconditional love, we were
why so many of us seek out the
never unworthy, like some religions would have you
communities of family, friends,
believe, and above all, life is not a test to get into
religion and some of us, even
some higher place. This is the higher place.
politics. It is so inherent to our human
needs,
desire
and
We live in Wonderland surrounded by magic and
survival. To be looked after and
magnificence, down to the smallest microbe. We are
to look after one another, to
Divine energy incarnate in human form here to
share; interests, conversations,
experience the mundane, the small, and the infinite in
values and food.
it all. We are ultimately an experience of ourselves.
PAGE 34 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE I am proposing a new understanding of community,
achieved through the truth, the
one
whole truth and nothing but the
that
is
geographical
not
bound
location,
or
predicated
religion,
diaspora,
upon gender
truth.
identity or even interest, a global understanding. There is a place for some of these specifications, but
The
the broader global community is a mindset shift we all
proposed model is based on the
need to make for the survival and sustainability of the
Blackfoot’s
Tipi
human race and it needs to be one that is considered
cultural
perpetuity,
with deep ecological freedom at the center of this
extending it further to include a
shift. During the 2010 Earthquake and Tsunami in
modern
Talcahuano, a port city and commune in the Biobio
information
Region
happens faster than most of us
of
Chile,
organisation,
local
resilience
capacities,
knowledge,
social
including
third
principle
lens
of
the
concept
of
of but
media
and
exchange
that
networks,
cooperation, trust and participation were crucial to cope. Despite the destruction, community actions revealed not only the power of people to deal with natural disasters but also the inherent resilience capacity in existing communities, (Moreno, 2018). The reality is, that as the global situation worsens, the need for strong communities will only continue to grow. The self actualisation journey of each and every
can keep track of. It means
individual
a
creating a consistency of truth,
sustainable and strong global community that is built
a shared history that is based
on the consensus and harmony of irrefutable universal
on reality and facts, not the
truths we all choose to value as human beings, as a
politics of who wins and who
collective consciousness. A statement of Who We
gets to write the victor’s tale.
Truly Are and who we want to be. This can only be
This
is
the
catalyst
to
the
creation
of
trickles
down
to
an
educational level, where we are committed
to
educating
our
children on the whole story and
There are more species of
allowing them to be the judge of
fungi, bacteria and protozoa
themselves, so we don’t keep
in a single scoop of soil than there are species of plant
what future they choose for repeating the same mistakes of the past.
and vertebrate animals in all
We
of North America, according
a profit based motive and write
to Paul Stamets in Mycelium Running (2005).
need
to
write
healthy
algorithms that peel back from algorithms
that
serve
humanity’s goals based on the universal truths we mutually agree on. If this can’t be done, then nationalising the existing
PAGE 35 - THE IMMENSITY OF THE MUNDANE platforms and giving the global collective control of what the platforms are designed to do.
almost
This coupled with a greater balance between the collation of quantitative and qualitative data and construction of methodology and communication strategies.
Encouraging
a
broad
spectrum
of
storytelling and sharing in the same vein that oral story
sharing
is
implemented
by
context, the political circle is
Indigenous
traditions around the world and through history.
and
entirely
supplementing
subsisting
circle,
the
the
corporate
media
supplementing
circle
the
political
circle. Separating the three and dismembering within
the
them
structures
structures
into
smaller
and
providing
alternatives for each is the path
Nature and Mother Gaia as a Divine being has so many more answers and abundance than we care to attribute to her. There are more species of fungi, bacteria and protozoa in a single scoop of soil than
forward. model
Much
like
proposed,
the
the
first
second
model can be built up from the “bits”. Organising these
there are species of plant and vertebrate animals in all of North America, according to Paul Stamets in Mycelium Running (2005). He speaks of the shift
Take time to start
from random selection as the dominant force for human evolution, to the political, economic and
noticing the little
biotechnological policies that determine our future.
things and the magic of
If current trends continue, some forecasts claim that half of the current species could disappear in
the Universe will
the next hundred years. Communitarianist action,
unfold right before
self actualisation and veritas is my proposed path to a
sustainable
future
and
you.
collective
interconnectedness. The first model for control and power over as it exists in the world, can be broken down into “the bits”.
Systems
of
control
are
reliant
on
the
existence of the other circles to continue to exist. In an Australian
efforts communitarily is the path forward, understanding and selfactualising other
is
Committing
yourself the to
and
path the
each
forward. truth,
the
whole truth and nothing but the truth is the path forward. Commit to yourself, invest your free locked-down time to your Self-Actualisation and long term growth. Fight the maze of shortterm gratification that leaves us lost, confused, hurt and angry with one another. A little bit of gratitude everyday also goes a long
way.
Take
time
noticing the little things
to
start
PAGE 36 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM (or “the bits” that make up everything) and the magic of the Universe will unfold right before you. Ness Song is the Founder of YEmpower Australia, a youth mentoring organisation dedicated to helping young Australians aged 17-27 find paths for themselves that are fulfilling, passion driven and full of love and empathy. Her passion lies in helping young people on their path to Self-Actualisation.
Support Yenma; Support Community Media Share us with your networks and get them to read our work - encourage them to contribute!
LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM: TRAUMA, EMPATHY AND HOW TO GET OUT!
by Matthew Jeffrey (This piece was written in response to George Megalogenis' Quarterly Essay, 'Exit Strategy: Politics after the Pandemic', but, unfortunately, was not selected for submission.)
mentions value systems and the beholden of the political parties of Australia; the why and the who
We are living in an empathy vacuum, where good is
behind our society’s machinations.
hoovered up by a Dyson designed with a built-in
The strategy (or lack thereof), and
expiration date that we put on it. What is to expire is
the innovators, implementers, and
us, unless we decide differently - and now.
exploiters
pushing
us
toward
realising many different existential Despite this, your essay, George, only briefly
threats at the same time.
PAGE 37 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM To begin, we will look at how humans cooperated to
"...you could say
evolve, learn and move. We hold many intelligences as humans, but none as sharp as our social intelligence -
this empathy
our ability to understand, our ability to empathise. Among primates, our memory intelligence, reasoning
deficit is already
intelligence, and all others are half as sharp as our
being wilfully
social ability. Humans through social learning of a given culture develop varying degrees of skill in
enacted at a mass
practicing empathy. There could be many thousands
scale."
of tiny zones of empathetic understanding, but I have identified four. To brief this next section, I will also point out that people have two main boundary systems - external and internal. External boundaries are groups of people locked off from an individual's
...fenced off-group and begins
empathy practice due to external cultural
to repeatedly insult them in
conditioning. Internal boundary systems describe the
class
measures an individual takes to honour themselves
account of their accent and
and what they do to ensure they have the spirit and
appearance,
energy to continue developing their empathy muscle.
transferring hurt. If not a soul
week-after-week
on
they
are
empathises with this friend’s rage and tries to hold them 1. Sociopathy/Apathy - a person who shows a
civilly accountable - they may
complete disregard for other humans - with almost
choose
total unawareness of boundary systems.
hurt to at the same level or
2. Narcissism/Egoic Empathy - almost entirely self-
to
worse,
continue
choose
a
spread
cascading
focused, with a great number of external
downward and inward set of
boundaries, and some amount of internal
more
boundaries
traumatising responses that
more
fray
a
society
external boundaries and moderate internal
unchecked.
If
these
boundary system
people are growing in number
3. Group-Inclined Empathy - moderate amount of
4. Unbounded Empathy - no external boundaries and an expanding internal boundary system
will
hurtful,
very
due to a myriad of unjust factors and a lack of empathy and
Those who practice empathy between zone three and
if
boundary
education,
reaching such a number that
four, those free of external boundaries and adequate
they
elevate
in internal boundaries are best placed to help heal
leadership
polarisation, manufactured consent, division, and
unsustainability
hurt, as well as to teach healing. Empathy also has the
and begins the running of a
added benefit of improving trust. Nurture empathy
very
and you nurture betterment. However, our empathy
indeed.
high
one
to
position can
empathy
a -
ensue deficit
muscle may atrophy if we choose different trauma and experience responses.
To further this, you could say this empathy deficit is already
If someone in a zone heavy with external boundaries
being wilfully enacted at a
and amiss with internal boundaries, say a friend of
mass scale. There are multi-
yours in high school has placed someone into a...
property landowners...
PAGE 38 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM ...capital-builders,
billionaires,
media
and
tech
...society to be something other
moguls, and middleman platform monopolies as far as
than
the eye and heart can see. This small subsect group of
capitalists, we need to empathise
people that own the largest share in a set of an
with them and bring them onside
imaginary thing are currently receiving the greatest
too). Instill different, maybe a
wealth-redistribution of this thing to them the world
multiple-set of present moment-
has ever seen. Money, a thing imagined individual to
to-moment
individual,
balanced economic motives like
then
nation-to-nation
is
collectively
decided to be so valuable as to override living. What
money
(and
do
tell
actionable
the
and
harmony, safety,
its uses are, and how it is used is also devised by
"I ask those in the class of capital, don't you want to live to make money another day?
Wealth Inequality (Statista, 2017)
curiosity,
development,
and
individuals and small subsect groups of humans. This
love. Economy is itself derived
is an important distinction those in this tiny class of
from the Greek Oeconomicus;
people omit or ignore. We can change the collective
the management of the family.
decision on the value of money. I ask those in this class of capital, don’t you want to live to make money
Yet, inverse to western, (and
another day?
more
specifically,
Murdoch)
propaganda, what you find is If you keep at it like this, there will not be a world for
most
family
management
humans to have your jobs and your countries to have
practices
GDP. If humans perish, so too does this belief that
‘everyday collaboration’, born of
money is more valuable than life - and therefore all
motives of love, development,
the money you exploited in your life will be worth
and trust for each other.
zero.
We
need
to
push
a
shift
in
our
are
a
form
of
value
understanding. We must decide before that point of
The Australian constitution was
zero - for without action, that pointy end is coming
written, policies and platforms,
sooner than you might anticipate.
with
some
accountability,
mechanisms some
of of
We could also decide to move out of the debate of the
generosity and of trust were
value of a currency itself George and change the
decided, but decided they were
collective decision of the most valuable thing in...
with coercively the thing that we imagined as the...
PAGE 39 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM ...omnipotent, company-saving CEO sitting in the
...barely fumbles to be a gig-to-
back with his hand to society’s phone line. Money.
gig
What little empathy was borne into Australian
handsoff-ism.
khakistocratic
cronyist
Federation and has been breathed into it since by its peoples is dissipating quick-smart quick-dumb to
Underlying a political strategy or
keep the stream of life flowing into the redistribution
a potential exit strategy from
of energy and money to the already wealthiest
neoliberalism, it is important to
couple dozen humans on Earth. The mechanisms and
discuss how almost all human
conventions
being
societies have moved from either
whittled away at the behest of this great individualist
balanced or matriarchal systems
redistribution to the few who own transnational
of
corporations. Indeed, as Ted Wheelwright penned 33
patriarchal systems.
of
Australian
democracy
are
governance
to
hyper-
years ago, "the Australian nation-state" has been rendered
totally
"stateless"
at
the
hands
of
"Value extraction has
extraction and profit before globalised capitalism. Capitalism, while an important small step away from feudalism and fiefdom, is finding better methods to mask its return to these very systems of total oppression and subjugation - and is many steps away from the balanced or matriarchal systems we have
increasingly shifted away from markets and onto digital platforms, which no longer operate like oligopolistic firms, but rather like private fiefdoms or estates"-
lived in for the absolute majority of the time we have
Varoufakis 2021
lived as humans. Look to our own backyard, to the modern-day
slavery
conditions
many
immigrant
peoples face on Australian farms - some receiving as
It is my supposition that the
little as 9 dollars a day in verified homeless positions.
hormonal shock males receive
Further, our economic and governance system bears
every two hours of every day
but a grain of resemblance to the capitalism of the
compared
past three centuries; so far removed is it that it...
during each day for females is an
to
important
a
single
factor
at
time play
contributing to the formation of society,
"Capitalism, while an important small step
culture,
and
today’s
gamut of vacuous and capitious political strategy. When
males
get
hit
with
away from feudalism
testosterone, it doesn’t come
and fiefdom, is finding
the hit become more likely to be
better methods to
Males who have higher levels of
mask its return to
In zooming out, I believe the
these very systems."
flatly, it comes sharply. Males at physically aggressive and angry. testosterone are even more so. people of the time of matriarchy and
balance
had
a
strategy that fostered...
political
PAGE 40 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM ...empathy, so the males who were subjected to this hormonal jab recognised it in pattern as it happened and helped other males with it in their group too.
"...the LNP do boldly
Thus as means to prevent the sharing of testosterone-
go to where they have
fueled hurt and further trauma. Here I suppose is the root of today’s political apathy. Here lay the root of
gone many times
the
before, complete
following
oppressor
balancer/matriarch
switch.
The
patriarch
to
patriarch
latched
onto
imagined things of title and of money after dealing
apathy and disinterest
with so much trauma, attempting to jam shut the gate
for other humans."
of empathy, repressing and transmitting pain. From this switch spawns a culture of boys will be boys that rough-house and traumatise others well into
...exploit,
adulthood, except today these boys play with toys of
profit and mask, a party formed
mass life destruction. Look no further than to our
on meeting and whim of Menzies
Prime
an
and Rupert Murdoch’s father; the
to
LNP do boldly go to where they
Australia, pan-shafting 100 billion taxpayer dollars to
have gone many times before -
a botched defense strategy consisting of outdated
complete apathy and disinterest
overseas submarines and jet fighters. This is an
for other humans.
Ministers’
American-style
fixation
on
transplanting
military-industrial
complex
extract,
short-term
incredible demonstration of the nose-dive descent of strategic thought in the neoliberal camp. We are at
It sure is strange George when
the point in our Rousseauin ‘elective aristocratic’
you suppose the fault of neo-
system, that the ruling party of an almost entirely
liberalism
patriarchal sociopathic duopoly is failing to get its
parliament with the misogynist
most fundamental promise of ‘security’ of us from the
Abbott in 2013 was in part due to
other right.
the
parading
“shortened
into
media-attention
span of the consumer” when your
Where in the past an empire could sway its land-
very employer and the owner of
bound peasantry with the promise of protection from
The Australian, Rupert Murodch
a neighbouring state - the neo-liberal Coalition here
began
in Australia instead intentionally distributes fear and
his monopoly, buying up regional
apathy amongst its population that a land-based war
papers and shutting them down
with our neighbour and largest trading-partner is
along with thousands of jobs and
imminent (4 out of 10 believing so), sending out
made the decision for his papers
parliamentarians to spout these very lines on radio
to
whilst concurrently holding no strategy in both the
humanely designed algorithms of
new security arena of economic and (environmental)
social media with the increasing
management and the old of armed protection. In what
conflation
narrow frame the LNP hallmark as the 12 pillars of a
journalism.
great economy - in the last 10 years they have only
Nine, the ABC, and the rest of
ascribed to improve upon a single pillar, corporate
traditional media decided to cosy
profit. The LNP have scored only 8.3% on their own
up with this inhumane artificial
test of a ‘balanced’ capitalist economy - delivering
intelligence that is guided by the
interminably
same
less
than
the
NAPLAN
pupils
they
criticise. So with no strategies excepting a model of...
vigorously
complement
of
consolidating
the
most
opinion
Murdoch,
principle
of
in-
over Fairfax,
profit
and
extraction as the LNP and the...
PAGE 41 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM ...system
of
capitalism.
of
...originally adopted planks into
extraction of traditional physical or mental labor,
its national platform in direct
traditional media decided to play with algorithms in
opposition
extracting
Our
planks were calling for “the
attention spans have certainly not shortened, and in
nationalisation of all sources of
fact, compared to a serf of the 14th century, in some
wealth,
ways, we are worse off. Our attention is extracted
producing
more
weath”
and
and
This
demanding
more.
We
time,
instead
human-attention.
are
crippled
by
both
a
to
and
capital.
all and
(as
These
means
of
exchanging
evidenced
in
bombardment of work that seems to be demanding
Australia Welfare History). This
more and more of our time outside of our signed
would entail banks too - an idea
work-hours just so that we can eat and a supposed
subsequent federal and state
‘tool’ of social media and smartphones designed by
Labor leaders Lang and...
teams of psychologists that extract our remaining mental labor during the periods of the day we are allowed to rest. Perhaps it would be fairer to attribute this kind of deadening driftwood of public policy debate
you
mention,
this
neoliberalism
turned
cronyism sphere of political strategy to the movers and shakers who first adopted the 24 Hour News cycle in the ‘80s, to the media giants who co-signed onto algorithms designed by humans to extract human attention
fluffing
the
news
with
an
Australian worker deaths under capitalism - Safe Work Australia (2018)
increasing
centralised opinion base - to those giants truly
...Whitlam would try to realise
responsible for killing your coworkers’ livelihoods
to no avail. “In less than a year
from 2013 onwards, complete with a political class of
however,
nothing more than disinterested rollover. We do
nationalisation were withdrawn
entrust our media giants and politicians to tell us the
from the platform…” and the
truth about the state and capital.
“policy
all
that
references
emerged
to
was
statism and populism shorn of The Labor Party, the other side of this duopoly...
any socialism”. “Big capitalism would develop” and the ALP
""Big capitalism would develop", and the ALP recoiled into serving it in our current duopoly, providing only "temporary respite" to the working class."
recoiled into serving it in our current duopoly, providing only ‘’temporary working
respite”
class
in
to the
the class
conflict. The ALP do know how to pull the levers of capitalism, but are increasingly being shut out of governance, and are the only party of the two with ideas. Analysis
of
national
party
platforms for the last twentyone years shows that:
PAGE 42 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM
For 7670 days, the LNP have formulated and are guided by 16 pages of national policy and vision (written in 2002) - rounding out to be about 0.0021
"The LNP reactionarily
pages of vision per day. Or 1 page every 467 days
build out their policy in
(about 15 months.) Mind, the pages are not required to
response to...an ever-
have words on them.
decreasing amount of
For 7670 days, the ALP have formulated and are
voices holding ever
guided by 2077 pages of national policy and vision rounding out to be about 0.27 pages of vision per day.
increasing amounts of
Or 1 page every 4 days. All the while allowing
capital."
submissions from ALP rank-and-file members. This means that for every single page of vision the LNP produces, the ALP produces 123 times more. A ratio of 1-to-123! Election policy is harder to track down - but the ALP derive their election policy from the national platform prepared almost every election cycle (usually once every three years), whilst the LNP reactionarily build out their election policies in either a response to Labors ideas or in response to who they are beholden to, an ever-decreasing amount of voices holding an ever-increasing amount of capital.
Beneath the hubbub of political donations - the ALP receive peanuts compared to the LNP’s lobsters.
Going
straight
to
representation, the ALP of the duopoly
is
very
tenuously
beholden to unions comprised of
workers
and
sometimes
intervenes for the welfare of and on their behalf (the majority of people) to keep the localised form of the global...
PAGE 43 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM ...capital system limping along while the LNP is mostly
genocide millions of life forms, or
beholden to certain industry players and persons, and
further, to end all life on the
almost exclusively intervenes for the welfare of and
planet on a continued whim of
on their behalf (the minority of people).
systems, hormone injection, invention, economy, or person.
Further, to your case in point George, the event to which you may suppose is the beginning of the Exit of
How rich is it too - that we
neoliberalism, the advent of Jobkeeper, was originally
discard and write the
architected by former Labor MP and trade unionist
overwhelming majority of human
George Combet and current ACTU Secretary Sally
"How rich is it that we discard and write off the overwhelming majority of human history off, relegating its learnings to an inaccessible cobwebbed hall within the National Archive?" IMG Credit: Jim Pavlidis history
and
McManus, with support from Christian Porter. These
strategy
off
implementers were strangely not presented by you.
relegating its learnings to an inaccessible
human as
political
‘pre-history’,
cobwebbed
hall
From the balancer society to a hyper-patriarchal
within the National Archive, or
society resolute in its unresolving of trauma, we too
a
get a reinforcement of gender roles. Anything from
primary
absolute political-strategic gems like ‘empathy is a
history’ societies were and are a
woman's job’ to the dishevelling and degradation of
part
accountability entertainment
standards media.
within
Look
again
to
five-minute
of
snippet
school? the
These
fabric
of
in ‘prethe
news
and
environment. What is said by
the
abject
many historians (like Bregman)
treatment of women in workplaces, politics, and at
that
Parliament
their
societies were hunter-gatherers
credibility, livelihoods, and even lives meanwhile an
is now known to be evidently
alleged
paid
false as well. Many indigenous
mental-health leave, a better career switch, and a
Australian societies were, and
media megaphone to play the ‘real’ victim while
are agrarian civilisations - less
enjoying the hyper-patriarchal spoils.
the
House
perpetrator
itself. will
How be
victims
rewarded
lose with
all
these
frenzied
pre-history
death-spiral
obsession with imagined things Moving
to
other
harsh
truths,
today’s
political
of title and money. There was
strategy stakes are vastly different compared to ‘pre-
no money or currency as we
history’. Human societies never had the ability to
like to know it today.
PAGE 44 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM The currency was collective work events and play events
with
collaboration.
each The
other. currency
The was
currency
was
learning.
The
"Any political exit
currency was passing knowledge on. The currency is
strategy from
the Dreamtime stories. Indigenous Australians choose
neoliberalism must
enthusiasm and empathy. One of my ancestral lines, the Yuin for example, cultivated empathetic and deep
include a reformation
symbiotic relationships with other species of animals
of our core values and
- particularly whales to hunt together for food subsequently eating and cleaning together, reducing
what should motivate
the total number of hunted animals. A political
our society."
strategy of undiluted empathy and interest in another - to the point it extends well beyond just humans. They had and have different motives underpinning
by-design” and more. Therefore,
their oeconomicus, similar to the extended-families
any political exit strategy from
and communities of Ancient Greece.
neoliberalism discussion
These
economic
development,
love,
motives
of
sustainability
understanding, and
knowledge-
core
must
and
values
include
a
reformation
of
and
what
should
motivate our society.
sharing have thus been sent to retreat further and further inward all the way back into a nuclear family,
To bring a final point to political
all at a time where we now face a cacophony of
leadership and core values, Jared
societal existential threats, (not the least many the
Diamond,
fault
the
anthropologist who analysed 48
potential to end our million-year long symbiotic
studies of ‘pre-history’ societies
habitation with the Earth. We are currently choosing
found that to be selected as a
to run massive empathy deficits in our Western
leader “you had to be: generous,
democracies at the worst possible time, or rather,
brave,
choosing to nurture a culture of apathy. A society of
impartial, reliable, tactful, strong,
lack of interest in one another, of lack of enthusiasm,
and humble.” Dr. Brene Brown,
of lack of concern, and of lack of love. What else could
who
describe the ripping of a father, mother and their
studying people today found the
children from their Australian home to live on an
seven key elements of trust and
island prison not fit with adequate medical care at the
empathy as boundaries, reliability,
cost of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on
accountability, vaulting, integrity,
their lonesome? As stated in the Liberals 2002
nonjudgement,
national platform, they believe “the family is the
She found the strongest people
primary institution for fostering the values on which a
are
cohesive society is built.’’ Their 1930’s beliefs are
framework of internal boundaries.
struggling to be congruent with their actions are they
She found the most humilitious
not? What values are they fostering in families today,
people are those who empathise
save for desperation? They assail the concessional
and then achieve with others. She
wins of the Australian working and non-working
found the most tactful, the most
populations (i.e the empathy of unions), in our super,
creative - were those who lean
medicare, the disability support pension, humanities,
and live into vulnerability and
and arts within the educational system (critical
empathy.
of
transnational
capitalism),
all
thinking and creativity), keeping wages low
with
an
wise,
has
those
American
charismatic,
given
and with
decades
fair,
to
generosity. the
best
PAGE 45 - LIVING IN A LEADERSHIP VACCUM You know George, despite decades of an intensifying Western propaganda model, attention-extraction, and other distractions, people today are still drawn in their majority to trust in the leader with the same qualities that people living hundreds of thousands of years ago did. The marketing mask seems to be fraying off Mr. Morrison now, with business leaders in his leadership vacuum turning to Rudd to secure more vaccines for Australia. Even Murdoch seems to be catching a whiff. Some of us also have access to new technology and platforms to disperse honesty as well. So it is a race George - between the majority of the class and the minority. Somehow it's hard to reckon 120
years
of
federated
profit-defined
Australian
indoctrination will be a match for millions of years of a selective evolution based on a system of best-match - a system of collaboration and empathy, but with algorithmic machine learning on the side of capital, we must steer a conversation of value change within our society. We must hear the Uluru Statement: From the Heart. We must seek to return to a balanced leadership system of governance.
PAGE 46 - IN MEMORIAM
IN
MEMORIAM
Lindsay ‘Bill’ Gordon Crossley Moyle 1930 - 2021 Bill Moyle was born in Burnie, EULOGY ADAPTATION
Tasmania in 1930. One of five
by Tallulah Watson Moyle
kids in the Depression, he saw how hard the world can be. When I interviewed Grandpa for
"Life is mostly froth and bubble,
a university assignment, I asked
Two things stand like stone,
him
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Depression
Courage in your own."
said it made him want to change
if
living
through
changed
him.
the He
the world; gave him a drive to That is an excerpt from a poem written by Adam
reform things. And so, he joined
Lindsay Gordon and was very dear to Lindsay ‘Bill’
the Commonwealth Bank when
Gordon Crossley Moyle, my Grandfather. He would
he was 17 years old. Through
recite it to me whenever he got the chance; over his
literally creating roles out of
cornflakes that he would cover in spoon after spoon
thin air for himself, he worked
of sugar, in his seat on the chesterfield looking out
his way up to become the CEO
the window with tears in his eyes, or when we were
of the State Bank of Victoria.
taking in the expanse of salty blue, sand in our toes.
After he retired, he received an
Those words, I carry with me. I can hear him saying
AM; something that little me
them even now, with such reverence in his voice.
was bursting with pride about.
This sentiment was not something that Grandpa
As my Mum so aptly put it, it
simply mused; he lived it. When I oh so traumatically
was in his last years of life that
found out about Santa Clause’s inexistence, the first
Grandpa believed he made the
person my-kid-self called was Grandpa. And he took
most
me seriously, never made a joke, never laughed at my
to the world. His life was an
reaction, and sat on the phone to me for what was
example of reconciliation, itself,
probably way too long, talking me through it. That’s
said
what he was always like. No matter what, he was
tracking
always there for me. Always there for those he loved.
family history, he decided to go
Mulling over their issues, even after the conversation
to university and learn about
had finished.
the world in a way he never had
meaningful
Mum.
before.
After
and
contribution
successfully
recording
our
PAGE 47 - IN MEMORIAM He
completed
a
Bachelors
and
Honours
as
an
octogenarian. It was very impressive; a fact that was not lost on Grandpa. ~~~~~ That was taken from the eulogy I wrote for my Grandpa’s funeral. Grandpa would have been so supportive of the creation of Yenma. He would have been so absorbed by it; possibly writing several emails or thought pieces on his many ideas he would have inevitably had. He loved discussion about the world
"Once it was
and consistently supported pushing the envelope;
explained to me
something that Yenma intends to do. For this reason, when Yenma’s chief editor and founder reached out to
that Yenma is partly
me about adding memoriam for my Grandpa in the
about honouring
first edition, I was deeply honoured. Grandpa would be honoured too. Once it was explained to me that Yenma is partly
our ancestors, it became clear how
about honouring our ancestors, it became clear how
fitting this is.
fitting this is. Grandpa lived a rich and interesting life;
Grandpa lived a rich
one that cannot be succinctly summed up by anything I write. But that does not mean that I will not try. I
and interesting life;
will tell my Grandpa’s story evermore.
one that cannot be
A wholehearted thank you to Matthew for having such
succinctly summed
a personal piece in the first edition of Yenma. It
up by anything I
means so much to me. I want to also extend this thank you to Ness, a Yenma contributor and much more, for
write. But that does
supporting my every move in this time since my
not mean that I will
Grandpa’s passing. You both have been such a strong support. My Grandpa was a testament to the importance of family love. His family was the most significant influence in his life, and he continually paid respect to our ancestors. My Grandpa is now watching over me and I am comforted to know I have him as a spirit guide. Hug your elders tight when you have the chance. Life is so beautiful but so fleeting.
not try. I will tell my Grandpa’s story evermore."
Credit: Ness Song "Apathy to Empathy" Medium: canva collage
GRATITUDES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
by Matt Jeffrey I would like to personally thank all who contributed to seeing the realisation and actualisation of this publication. The contributors, those who gave their words, arts, ideas and time to this project. I would also like to extend gratitude to you the reader and supporter of Yenma and its vision.
In the spirit of reconciliation and voice Our Bloc
acknowledges the
Traditional Custodians of country of the land in which this publication is produced, the Gadigal Peoples of the Eora Nation. We also extend this acknowledgement to
all
traditional
custodians
throughout Australia and recognise
I share my gratitude to those mentors and guides in our lives that inspired this work for good.
their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and
I would also like to thank my partner Ness Song, and my house-mate and friend Tallulah Watson-Moyle for dedicating hours to editing and formatting. Here's to many more volumes of us all walking together! Published 19.08.2021 by Our Bloc.
Torres Strait islanders today. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded. We acknowledge the Uluru Statement: From the Heart. Always was, always will be.