Tag Archives: revolution

Political Parables – Education as a Revolution

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Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire was an educational revolutionary who saw that the poor, marginalised and oppressed in Brasil, took on the world view (or “social construct of reality”) of those who were their oppressors. More than this he described how the educational system was used like a “banking system” to deposit the world view of the dominant class, (with their wealth, power and privilege), into the hearts and minds of the lower social classes, therefore maintaining the status quo.

He spent loads of time with the “peasant classes”, (after a financial crisis in his own family left them very poor) and learnt that they were certainly not unintelligent and although illiterate, had an incredible language of their own. He went on to devise an educational program which enabled these “peasants” to learn rather than to be taught and in so doing released them to begin a revolution in which the powers were challenged, the presumed ‘ways of being’ were shaken and new freedom was found. Unfortunately, this was crushed by the military coup of 1964, but it left Freire never again to “underestimate the vested interest of political powers in controlling the production and distribution of knowledge through their system of schooling” (see amazing work on his by William R. Herzog II in Parables as Subversive Speech).

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William R. Herzog II

Herzog goes on to draw some extraordinary parallels between Paulo Freire and Jesus Christ, whom he asserts both hugely confront the power paradigms of the day and in so doing bring good news to the poor, freedom for those held captive to oppressive systems, sight for those who had been blinded by the worldview of the ‘mighty’ and light for those living in darkness.

Walter Brueggemann

Walter Brueggemann

Mitchell, in his book, “Church, Gospel and Empire’ demonstrates how Jesus directly challenges the Imperial System of Rome. Brueggemann (in “The Prophetic Imagination”) contends that Jesus (as a prophet and much more than just a prophet) is fulfilling the prophetic tradition of those who have gone before, criticising the oppressive systems and energising a fresh imagination of how radically different a future built on the foundations of (God’s) love could be.

I wonder how many teachers these days see it as their role to teach and train their pupils in the ‘national curriculum’ and the ‘social constructs of reality’ to which we all subscribe? And how many see their role as revolutionaries who dare to allow our children to believe that the world we live in can be radically different in the future; where instead of an economics of affluence, we have an economics of equity, instead of a politics of oppression, we have one of justice and compassion, and instead of a religion of immanence and law, we have one of true freedom (again, see Brueggemann) – I don’t know, but if you’re out there – please keep going!

Democracy Day?

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UnknownSo yesterday was BBC Democracy Day. Maybe it was a wistful longing for what might have been. Democracy? The rule/power of the people in a day when the richest 1% own 99% of the world’s wealth? When the 50 richest corporations now hold more wealth than the 50 richest nation states? When we hear of unbelievable governmental cover-ups across Europe? When the vox populi is increasingly silenced and the powerful elite rule through a feudalistic system of land ownership and the ‘rights’ to resources.

Democracy is only a veneer. It is the icing on a cake, which is mouldy to its middle. It is, as my friend Roger Mitchell so clearly highlights, just enough multiplied sovereignty to make us believe we have power when in fact we have very little. Rather, we have an increasingly oppressive and sinister system of domination and control, held together through a strong alliance of economic debt, military violence and law (truly enforced by the State of Exception – Giorgio Agamben).images

And we are waking up to this. This is why we see the political turmoil stirring throughout Europe. And the politicians cannot understand it. There is no doubt, that we will see a kick back and a reaction towards the extremes of left and right. But this is not the answer.

I quite admire the Australian system in that they have to vote. But I especially like the option to vote for ‘none of the above’. I don’t hold hope in any of the political parties, because the system itself is utterly broken, corrupt to its core and does not serve the future of humanity and the planet.

But if we do see a shaking, and the political systems we have known become shattered and changed, with a new type of economics coming to the fore, what is it that we can imagine? With power comes responsibility. What would we dream of and what would we do differently? How would we stop exactly the same thing happening again or stop our selfish motivations from plummeting us into war? What would be our ‘new politics’?

There are some exciting conversations emerging. We do not have to spiral into years of violence and war. A revolution of love is possible. I believe it is in the very heart of God for human beings to love one another and to prefer each others needs. To embrace and to be changed by ‘the other’. Our current politics is one based on fear. Fear of the other. Fear of lack. But love drives out fear and those who live in love, live in God. Fear enslaves us but love sets us free.

imgresMaybe we will see a ‘kenocracy’ emerge? A rule of love? To find this would be to align ourselves with the story of God through the ages. Love poured out for others, daring to embrace those different from ourselves and together finding hope and peace. Fear enslaves us but love sets us free.

Have a read of ‘Discovering Kenarchy’ – available from amazon. Once our imaginations are alive with possibility, nothing is impossible.Unknown

The Powers

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This last week I was sat in a meeting with several maternity service users and a splattering of health professionals and managers of varying sorts. We were talking about the enormous deficit that is in our health budget and therefore some of the difficult options that are ahead of us. The government likes to call these options “efficiency savings”, everybody else knows that we are talking about cuts to services.

I always start my presentations by talking about the difficulty we find ourselves in, how we got here (a massive national debt, which all nations are in because our entire economic system is built on debt and none of it is real and they just keep on printing more money to solve it, made far worse by people who get massive bonuses and a >£2billion reorganisation of the NHS that no one wanted or asked for, which had we not had, we would now not be needing to make so many cuts!) and what our options now are.

I then offer a revolution, and other than a few smiles and the odd chortle, no one seems to think this a realistic or viable option….But, if we didn’t reinvest in Trident, or if we did charge greedy corporations appropriate levels of tax, then we wouldn’t need to cut services in the NHS.

Anyhow, I then talk about the fact that no decisions have been made and that we are genuinely in a process of listening (something the government really didn’t do before inflicting this reorganisation on us) and wanting to come to a place of collaborative agreement. But I am fast learning two things. The first is that nobody wants the thing they really care about to be cut or refashioned in any manner. They understand that safeguarding their piece of the pie means that others will miss out, but they don’t actually want to make any sacrifices – I understand that. I also understand more clearly that isolated health budgeting doesn’t work……more on this anon….

The second and starkest realisation I’ve had though is just how dreadful the new legislation voted in by parliament really is.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26531807

You see, the Secretary of State for Health now has new powers, never had before to close any services or hospital he/she deems fit, not if they are performing badly, but if it makes better financial sense to do so…..And this is where the rubber hits the road in our public consultations and discussions with patients and service users. If we don’t come up with a solution to cut our services (oh sorry, I mean make efficiency savings – memo to self – stop referring to “efficiency savings” as “cuts”), with the public in some sort of agreement (although they won’t be, because who wants their services cut?!), then what will happen is the government will simply do the following:

They will tell us our sums do not add up, they will tell us that savings/cuts must be made, they will get rid of those of us who are trying to reach a point of agreement with our service users and they will bring in their own board aka Monitor. Monitor do not have to consult with anybody, they will simply cut/burn/slash whatever is deemed necessary and their decision cannot be challenged or overturned!

This is nothing other than bullying. It is what Georgio Agamben talks about when he refers to ‘The State of the Exception’ and with this grim stick of threat held up behind us, it makes our work of trying to reach a collaborative agreement on the redesign of services completely impossible. What are we to do? The challenge is here: how do we subvert the system, making it absolutely clear that we do not play this game, and yet submit back into the system so as to allow love to win the day.

The Powers have shown their strong arm. But they have forgotten that there is a power far more ancient and far more beautiful…….life laid down love……love always wins and it will win in the end in the face of all oppression.