Demythologising the wedge

Nine-Dragon Screen-1
Image via Wikipedia

The wedge has been used to good effect in Australian public life over the last decade. Politically, the strategy has effectively divided the community on such issues as immigration, Aborigine & Torres Strait Islanders affairs, the environment, sexual equality and, yes, public funding of school chaplaincy. The strategy is effective. Divide and conquer keeps the dominant party in the driver’s seat. Neither side of politics is coy about using it.

The best weapon against the wedge is awareness. A basic quest in the process of logic is the search for synthesis – the middle ground.  This can be tenuous, tentative and temporary, because the synthesis itself then becomes a proposition that invites a new antithesis and synthesis, and so the cycle continues. Rather than frustrate the possibility of holding a position on anything, it simply debunks the integrity of wedge strategies to be other than they are –  a means of demagogic control.

Neither does attending to the business of synthesis in public affairs necessarily trap one in an endless cycle of vacillation and fence sitting. Attention and awareness leads to greater clarity and precision in opinion forming, decision making, implementation and tweaking as the cycle progresses.

This is heavy going in public affairs where a focus on the 6pm news cycle and the opportunity to offer a doorstop “sound byte” is factored into political processes. It also appeals to a public angst that seeks immediate and simple solutions to complex problems.

Where am I heading with this? Nowhere in particular – just thinking out loud in an attempt to identify what seems to to be a growing preoccupation in many of my conversations. Naming the dragon weakens its power!

Clarifying the School Chaplaincy case before the High Court

The important debate re school chaplaincy (and Special Religious Education) in Australian schools is being waged on many fronts. Confusing the issues are political expediency and opportunism, unclear definitions, and a range of alleged apparent motivations across the religious sector. State specific situations, such as the “Ethics alternative” showdown in NSW and the administrative issues that pertain to Victoria’s arrangements add further confusion. An updated perspective on all this can be seen here.

However, it is important to know what can and cannot be achieved by the current High Court challenge relating to the National School Chaplaincy Program, a bilaterally supported Government funding initiative. And it is in one of the comments on the article by one Chrys Stevenson that clarification is to be found:

It is important that the public knows what will, and will not, be canvassed in Williams’ High Court Challenge. It is not about separation of church and state, it is not about funding for church schools, and it is not about the merits (or otherwise) of placing religious chaplains in secular state schools.

At issue is:

a) Whether expenditure on the National School Chaplaincy Program was ever properly approved by parliament.
b) Whether the contract between Scripture Union Queensland and the Commonwealth is valid.
c) Whether chaplaincy can be defined as a ‘benefit to students’ in the context of S.51 of the constitution.
d) Whether the NSCP guidelines impose a religious test for the employment of chaplains.
e) Whether chaplains can be defined as ‘officers under the Commonwealth’ in the context of S.116.

Which ever way this case is resolved, the community is going to have to come to terms somehow with a continuing interface between school and faith communities – government funded or otherwise. Is there enough maturity on either side to resolve the challenges that the debate has raised?

When the USA sneezes…

 

… the rest of the world catches a cold. This is probably why it’s difficult to find a dispassionate news report on the US debt crisis. The most objective one on my newsfeed is from the UK –  US debt crisis: markets rally as Barack Obama announces deal – Telegraph.

I had a spirited midnight discussion with my son who couldn’t understand why the richest country in the world can’t pay its debts. Not being an economics alumnus, I was hard pressed – all I could say was that nations don’t operate budgets in the same way as households. Anyhow, it seems we have steered away from the brink for the time being – even though congress is yet to take its formal vote.

The next 24 hours will tell the story.

What does it mean to cede control to the Divine Other?

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel; illustration b...
Image via Wikipedia

This is the question I didn’t address in this morning’s harangue based partly on Jacob’s nocturnal struggle with a mysterious strong man.

I would have said that Jacob didn’t cede control to the divine being with whom he wrestled all night. He managed to extort a deal – only then did he release the mysterious entity before the break of day. He demanded to know the angel’s name – but that was not forthcoming. What he earned from the encounter was a wound resulting in a chronic limp, a blessing, and a new name meaning “one who has striven with God.”

The surrounding saga yields context and meaning to this particular encounter in Jacob’s journey, but it gives pause to consider what is meant by “letting go and letting God.” Is this oft heard injunction the most helpful to grow by?

Jacob needed release from the tentacles of deception of self and others if he was to thrive. He needed to confront his wound, acknowledge and accommodate it in order for it to become an internal resource by which he would understand a new way of perceiving himself and others. This kind of release can only come with pain and struggle – and it was a long one that lasted all through the night. What if Jacob had “let go and let God” or otherwise ceded control? I wager the result might have been quite different – he could have remained as wimpy and as deceitful as before.

Just asking!

AFK

I love these mysterious acronyms. They initiate us cyber-literati into a secret language known only amongst ourselves. We get to chortle at somebody’s mother who mistook LOL for “Lots of Love” instead of “Laughing out Loud”. All this is to say that today’s post is almost not a post because I have been AFK – Away From Keyboard! See you tomorrow. 🙂

Oh – and here’s a handy glossary for cyber-newbies and veterans alike.

Distraction Free Writing | The Daily Post at WordPress.com

WordPress, the patron of those of us who consented to be locked into writing something on our blogs everyday for 2011, suggests a range of tools that help prevent being disturbed while writing: Distraction Free Writing | The Daily Post at WordPress.com.

I confess my distractions are not of the nature described in the article – buzzes and tweets and visual clutter on the desktop, whether virtual or “real life”- this external clutter I can deal with (usually by just ignoring it).  I’m more likely to stray from the task when a fleeting thought invites me to follow it through the labyrinthine caves of my right hemisphere, which is replete with other inviting thoughts and images – so that even my internal distractions are interrupted with more of their kind. This makes concentration a continuing challenge and it’s one of the reasons the daily post presents itself as a quest – an internal discipline that is different from the other task-oriented disciplines that my daily work calls from me.

Critically reading back over some recent posts I can see the results of the above described phenomena of chasing interrupted distractions. I can hear my Form 8 English teacher saying “Ryle, you’ve got to develop your ideas more and provide a proper ending!” Funny thing is, I seem to be able to attend to this need in the didactic and exhortational tasks I’m professionally trained for, but not when I’m in free fall.

On the other hand, some of my wild distractions have led to some amazing and instructive places which have turned out to be grist for the mill for other writing and presentation tasks! (And here I will finish, thus annoying my internal Form 8 teacher no end.)

Celebrating the Cornish Pasty

A Cornish pasty made by Warrens cut in half. T...
Image via Wikipedia

It’s wet and windy in Perth today – good Cornish pasty weather for this bloke with some Cousin Jack in his veins. I saw a news blip that says that in the EU the name “Cornish pasty” can now only be given to pasties created in Cornwall. This made me wonder what alternative nomenclature could be given to pasties made to the same recipe beyond the boundaries of that southern part of the UK.

My current supplier (apart from when my beloved makes them) is a little café not far from here, certainly half a world away from Cornwall and 2000km from Australia’s own “Little Cornwall” where my forebears arrived in  1853. Nothing but the name “Cornish pasty” evokes the taste, texture and satisfaction of this sumptuous savoury.

One enjoys not only the eating, but the legend of the miner’s “edible lunchbox”, complete with throwaway handle. Some versions of the pasty even contained two courses – the traditional meat and veg at one end and stewed apples and custard at the other!

Now I’ve talked myself into one – can’t wait for lunch!

Empathy in Norway – Eureka Street

Empathy in Norway – Eureka Street.

As the shock of the Norway massacre begins to wear off, we look for discussion that is reflective rather than knee-jerkingly reactive.  I’ve found this essay a helpful place to begin – as much for the comments section as the main piece. The burden of the discourse carries a warning of what happens when ideologies of any kind create generalisations that negate the particularity of each human being. We turn people into objects of admiration or vilification. Either is an action that dehumanises, reduces and devalues the uniqueness of one another. The discussion carries both a warning and a call to something better.