Wellness Calendar: Friday 26 December

The twenty-sixth revolution
[Awareness of things that don’t work within society; tell-tale sights of a sick world; the morality of authority]
Mrs French was a keen gardener. One day she decided to buy herself a wormery as a Christmas present. She thought this would benefit both her and the worms in her garden. She would get good compost and the worms would be able to eat her food waste and thrive in this new environment. What could be better?
Unfortunately, the wormery that Mrs French bought was either poorly designed or she had set it up wrong, for when it rained, the worms did not stay eating the food waste. Instead, they slipped down to the bottom of the tank and drowned.
Reflecting upon this sorry episode, Mrs French realised that there’ a big difference between what exists and what actually works in practice. And unless something is working, it might not be fit for purpose.
If we have got to the stage where our minds are working independently and we’re questioning a lot of what’s going on around us, we might be ready to enter a new part of the revolutionary process: to view each aspect of our world in an open-minded yet critical fashion.
Applying Mrs French’s rationale to all aspects of our society, what do you see in your current landscape as being functional – and what isn’t? Are you prepared to challenge yourself and your own role as a citizen, when it comes to un/wellness on a larger scale? Here are a few notions to get you thinking outside the box…
We were born into a world that’s already been spinning for a long time. As we grew up, we might have assumed that landing into the 21st century would be a pretty cool time period to live our lives, since the world has had a good, long chance to sort itself out. How disappointing must it be for us as citizens to slowly realise that the general dysfunctionality of the world is as great now as it was in past, riddled with hostilities, power imbalances, inequalities, wars and conflicts, alongside epic proportions of mental health problems.
To expand on this theme, below is an incomplete table, in no particular order, of some tell-tale signs that all is not well in our society.
Climate change. Environmental disasters. Pollution. Genocide. Ethnic cleansing. War. Famine. Murder. Rape. Sexual abuse. Domestic abuse. Violence. Bullying. Self-harm. Suicide. CCTV. Crime. Punishment. Addictions. Trauma. Coercion. Threats. Greed. Corruption. Lies. Torture. Suffering. Misery. Anxiety. Depression. Hunger. Hatred. Extremism. Female genital mutilation. Fundamentalism. Obesity. Weapons. Lobbying. Power over. Discrimination. Oppression. Poverty. Inequality. Racism. Prisons. Police. Mental health. Homelessness. Food banks. Pressure groups. Intolerance. Force. Gated communities. Conflict. Charity. Competition. Sweat-shops. Consumerism. Scams. Estrangement. Plastic surgery. Body-shaming. Crime. Armed forces. Psychiatrists. Psychologists, Therapists, Behaviourists. Advertisements. Guilt. Blame. Shame. Unhappiness. Private education. Private health. Processed food. Hierarchies. Hereditary wealth. Landlords. Secret services. Rendition. Sexism. Misogyny. Alienation. Deprivation. Biased and fake news. Institutionalisation. Bad housing. Tribalism. Terrorism. State-sponsored terrorism. Fear-mongering. Unemployment. Disinformation. Outrage. Divide and rule. Spin-doctoring. Corrupt/biased research. Corrupt/biased news/journalism. Pesticides. Cartels. Racketeering. Restricted freedom. Low wages. Gig economy. Instability. Persecution. Detention. Modern-day slavery. Wage slavery. Demonstrations. Protests. Hopelessness. Subjugation. Sh•t life syndrome.
Moralist Carlos Santiago Nino drew the following conclusion to his 1991 book The Ethics of Human Rights: “If a man is a moral man then laws are not needed by him. Yet it is seen that because there are a lot of immoral men then there needs to be laws and governments to make sure the laws are employed. Governing bodies have the right to govern, but man is always striving for his freedom, his independence. Governments are seen as a way of coercing immoral people to become moral by law and force and terror.”
Yet in light of the above list, does this approach actually work in practice? Can you be moral and coercive at the same time? Can you ever force your morality onto someone else? If so, then surely rape and murder would cease to exist, alongside all other societal ills? The department of Political Science at the university of Hawaii estimates that in the 20th century 262 million people were killed by their own governments. So what exactly is the point of authority if it cannot stem the flow of immorality and dysfunction within its own ranks, never mind the population?
Each of us has a choice, in whatever free time we have, as to where we invest our energy and our money. Would it be useful to deconstruct each aspect of society to understand which parts of the status quo are working and those that are not? Would it be useful to work out which parts of our world are inhibiting the progress of wellness?
“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a sick society.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti