Relearning Political Community; Relearning Economic Community; Relearning Spiritual Community
-The greater potential for our well-being of political, economic & spiritual community drives Paul Crosland to stand in general elections & to write the “Relearning PCECSC trilogy“(or #PeskyTrilogy for short):Volume 1 - The Myth Of The Heartless Tory; Vol 2 - The Pioneering 108 Vagabond Custodians preparing for The Festival Of The New Society 2066; Vol 3 - Politics As A Spiritual Practice. These books will form the shares in “Refuge Tree Woods” where we gather to refine our organic plot…
Wednesday
“The Myth Of The ‘Heartless Tory’ & ‘Breaking The Mould Off UK Politics’ in the Post-Boris Era"
Saturday
Pre-Order 2022 Publication of The Myth Of The Heartless Tory
Feedback please on this latest attempt at two scene-setting opening paragraphs of “The #MythOfTheHeartlessTory”:
“As we enter #PandemicEraPolitics I contact Sally-Ann Hart, MP, to check what she’s willing to publicly say about re-using PPE* and to check that we are still on good terms. My 1st #CoronavirusPoem, “The Cruel C” it is now clear will neither be published in the Spectator or The New Statesman. I read “The People’s War” & brush-up my awareness of how Attlee served Churchill and how that in turn founded the largest religion in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, namely the National Health Service. It is Easter Day and I’m a few weeks into #DadAndSonIsolation. Chocolate eggs are as absent as hens teeth, but the resurrection spirit has arrived in “Open Democracy” having published what amounts to a manifesto for a great turning of #PandemicEraEthics; which I proceed to put into bullet points on the “St Leonards Sharing Consortium” wiki site & discuss on the phone with a friend who has sent me a postcard saying “Whoever you vote for the government always gets in”. Some weeks later he issues the first serious political death threat of my life; his mental health strained by the Pandemic in ways that were to go on to break the man who had been my wingman in #HastingsAndRyeConstituency’s 12th December 2019 general election.
Please pray for #StLeonardsLocalTreasureTonyMay leaving residential mental health care. We would both like to believe that, out of all my #politicalmessaging it was my 3rd bullet point on the leaflet delivered to all 56,400 addresses -#MoveForwardMoreTogether- that struck a chord leading to more votes than for any Independent Candidate in the history of the constituency. #TonyAndPaul went on to record a series of 6episodes of #KinderPoliticsQuestionTime & I will draw from these and the (soon to be infamous?) #3hourVaccinationConversation to hopefully open us more up to the humanity/divinity that lies across so many current divides. I don’t recommend learning lessons from the most influential, yet UK Parliamentary unsuccessful politician of recent decades, Nigel Farage. Instead I urge us all to learn the lessons that prevent numerous #FaragesOfTheThicket turning fear into political capital. My fear is that just like Primo Levi’s detailed account of the Nazi concentration camps, if this book is read with ill intent, it will serve in part as a manual for how to scupper the plans of the major parties in marginal parliamentary seats.
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* http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2020/04/sallyann1066easterdayandeastermondayppe.html
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Pre-Order my book advocating a balance of #KinderPolitics & #DeeperAccountability -The #MythOfTheHeartlessTory- the link is https://twitter.com/paulcrosland/status/1472504218762334212?s=21
“The Myth Of The Heartless Tory
- Kinder Politics, Deeper Accountability and Politics as Spiritual Practice”
The #pinnedposts to which I would appreciate responses are:
1) the #CovidQuestionTimeNow #pinnedpost on #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate’s page: https://Facebook.com/paulbasicincomecrosland;
2) the opportunity to preorder “The #MythOfTheHeartlessTory” via https://twitter.com/paulcrosland/status/1472504218762334212?s=21
Tuesday
Obama’s COP26 Speech and the best bottom up response I know
Reflecting on Obama’s Speech to COP26 I got a strong sense of how little change is going to be created by #TopDownApproaches to the #ClimateCrisis and how crucial it might be to recruit eg from @XRBuddhists and the #ExtinctionRebellion group with which I have a standing order (@XRHSL), mobile (#Nomadic) teams of #CommunityDevelopmentWorkers, acting as #CommunityBees delivering what #BorisJohnson promised in his most #ChurchillianMoment (#10thMay2020); the #MoreGenerousMoreSharing version of #GlobalBritain. It involves house to house #BuddhistDoorKnocking skills (trained by #TriratnaJayaraja?) to cross-fertilise the “Sharing and Caring” experience and create the paradigm shift encapsulated by #MikiKashtan as that from #SeparationControlScarcity to #ConnectionFlowAbundance.
Sign up with whatever “down payment” fits your commitment at https://PayPal.me/RefugeTreeWoods - suggested donation £1.08 for the money poor and £108 for the money rich. #2066Timebanking donations of 10mins+ welcome from those #MoneyPoorTimeRich.
My Last Ten Years
What’s the opposite of an #AnnusHorriblis?; such was the (academic) year 2010-2011; the last time I’ve lived in a #RightLivelihoodTeam. I’ve spent 10 years since trying to recreate such a team, albeit applied to #ProgressiveEconomics embodying the #MoreGenerousMoreSharing ideal of a #TownSharingConsortium such as #StLeonardsSharingConsortium, which I founded in 2011 with three companies (of which I am a director!), with a #StLeonardsOnSea local cafe/nightspot and with the (#Mediation/#MarshallRosenberg inspired) charity “The Centre for Peaceful Solutions”.
#AspiringDrAmbedkarsOfStLeonardsOnSea (#ADAOSLOS for short) has subsequently become the title for the team of workers from the #TriratnaBuddhistCommunity that I’d hoped to attract*. Attempts between 2011-2014 failed in recruiting a team of “Community Bees” going house to house to cross-fertilise the “Sharing and Caring” experience and create the paradigm shift encapsulated by #MikiKashtan as that from #SeparationControlScarcity to #ConnectionFlowAbundance. From 2015 in moving back to Canterbury, my life refocused on providing Dad with an increasing level of care culminating in over 5 months of #DadAndSonIsolation that began on #19thMarch2020. Dad passed away on 30th August 2020 at home with me.
Thanks to a “Timely Inheritance”, in the years 2014-2020 I was fortunate to be able to become custodian too of what I named #RefugeTreeWoods, the main branch of which is in the #WildWestOfWales; the other by the #PeakDistrict, near #Sheffield. Here there are working retreat opportunities as “we” do the groundwork for the #FestivalOfTheNewSociety2066; a focus for my life’s work of hopefully assisting the #EvolutionOrExtinction & #SpiritualCommunity teachings of #UrgyenSangharakshita so that they flourish beyond the centenary of the 1967 foundation of this #NewBuddhistMovement by seeding further #RightLivelihoodProjects including bands of nomadic** #CommunityDevelopmentWorkers, living much of the year on land projects inspired by #Buddhafield.
Reasserting the importance of #StandingForGenerosity in a place I love, I once again tried to kickstart the possibilities of a #HastingsAndRyeConstituency #TeamBasedRightLivelihood (#TBRL) by standing in the 2019 General Election as #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate, which was, in the phrase beloved of the comic history book #1066AndAllThat “A Good Thing” #IMHO, but has not produced the “golden egg” of a team to carry the #AdoptANeighbour (etc) work deeper into the community, as I would have hoped.
I’m waking up to my experience of 10years as a #FreeRangeBuddhist who has been unsuccessful in asking for ordination in the #TriratnaBuddhistOrder. My failure in closening friendships and forming teams living the #RightLivelihood dream has taken it’s toll on my resilience & health and so in November 2021 I have felt it necessary to reassess and step back from my ambitions in relation to forming such a team which I’d also hoped an unfolding of various #PaulCroslandDraftAuthor publications would strongly #InfluenceAndSupport. The timetable even for bringing out Book2: “The #MythOfTheHeartlessTory; #108Quests towards #KinderPolitics & #DeeperAccountability” before the (presumed) #GeneralElection2023 I’ve now “officially” announced as “dropped”. Letting go of that which with which I identify myself so closely I am however finding to be “a difficult thing”***: http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2021/11/former-footer.html
*http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/p/triratna.html
**Mediation Support Ltd, which owns #RefugeTreeWoods,#WildWestOfWales & for which I work full time, offers such nomads(& their descendants) 28days accommodation a year for a cost of just 108hrs work (or £758 as the cash way to own 108th of the company). It is envisaged that #OrganisedHippies with Buddhafield connections can, on a similar basis offer year round bases for Nomads for much less than the cost of a Van conversion- eg £10,000 -saving you a lifetime’s rent.
*^*#PaulCroslandPlaylist: Paul Crosland Funeral Service Playlist
Sunday
Former Footer
Saturday
Extinction Rebellion Hastings And St Leonards (XRHSL) update
They claim to be “putting climate change at the heart of decision making” but are they really?
Time is running very short. We know that the systems of local government makes the task of an appropriate response very hard, and that it might even feel impossible. But when there is a will there’s a way- so we demand to see that will in action. We demand our leaders and representatives rise to this emergency with the level of bravery it calls for. There is no choice. There is no Planet B ...
So we will be taking action on Wednesday 13th October …
Please join us between 12 noon – 5.00pm for our Crisis Talks table outside Muriel Matters House, Hastings (next to roundabout at Pelham Place) to raise public awareness, and put our concerns to council representatives going in and out of the building.
HBC want to “develop an engagement and communication plan, which supports and encourages local organisations, businesses and communities to act to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”
Please come and answer their call: tell the council what you want them to do!
At 5.30pm we will be performing a die-in on the pavement outside Muriel Matters House. Councillors will be invited to join us or to witness the powerful moment of contemplation created by mass action reflecting the fears and frustration of their local constituents. If you can join for no other part then please join for this.
We will finish at 5.45pm with the full council meeting starting at 6pm. None of these events will be unlawful in any way.
Further actions designed to hold our representatives to account will follow, and everyone is welcome to join us. As always, ExtinctionRebellion(XR) acts in peace.”
#KinderPoliticsQTpodcast now available too
Monday
Friday
Another MythOfTheHeartlessTory opening
“Amber Rudd’s majority over Labour candidate Peter Chowney at the 2017 general election was just 346. The three other candidates, Nick Perry of the Liberal Democrats, Michael Sheridan of UKIP and independent Nicholas Wilson all lost their deposits.The Lib Dems as unrepentant Remainers and UKIP as belligerent No Dealers had clearly differentiated programmes from both main parties in that election. Mr Wilson, however, was a paid-up member of the Labour party. He said he had joined it “to vote for Jeremy Corbyn” but was standing separately on an “anti-corruption” ticket. As he polled 412 votes, and Cllr Chowney lost by a lesser margin, it is hardly surprising that Labour held him substantially responsible for their shortfall.Could history repeat itself two years on? For here comes another independent candidate, Paul Crosland, on the 2019 ballot – not, as far as is known, a recalcitrant Labour member, but one who is espousing radical causes that seem likely to attract more fringe Labour voters than Conservatives.”
- How #KinderPolitics might produce #DeeperAccountability & more #InfluenceNotControl
- How Independent Candidates, without needing to be elected, may become the mediators and influencers of seismic "Welfare Initiatives" way beyond the extension of free school meals during the Covid19 crisis. (I picture the creation of a new political consensus (like after WW2) to the extent that any political party seeking substantial numbers of MPs being elected could only achieve their electoral goal if they supported at least an experimental trial in the area of "UniversalBasicIncome" or lowering the pension age (#PensionsAt30?) as a step towards the “BasicIncome culture-shift”.)
- a #DeeperLegitimacyParliament and route towards #ConvergentPolitics without compromising "A Democracy of Met Needs".
Wednesday
10point GrassrootsManifesto to help establish Convergent Constituency Manifesto
Four Quotes relevant to my “Myth of The Heartless Tory” writing
I offer 4 quotes below, which don’t amount to a summary of the (difficult to complete) "Myth of The Heartless Tory" (forthcoming book; perhaps 2022):
A) "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
B) The popular myth is that #WinstonChurchill said:
"If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain."
C)
"An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”"
D)
"There's something wrong with democracy when we aren't in healthy communication between:
1) the collectivist
2) the individualist
3) our sense of a #3rdOrderOfConsciousness with a #TouchOf the Transcendental.
My advice is to find friends who embody the three key energies that we might progress with integrating these energies more deeply in the heart of each of us:
A) The “Creative Hippy” -distinct from the “Reactive (& pleasure-seeking, bohemian) Hippy”
B) the #CreativeClassicalist
C) the #CreativePunk
The creative tension between these energies has been developed in talks over a number of decades on “Free Buddhist Audio”*; based on the 1990s observations of Reginald Ray, of the history of Buddhism in South East Asia & the respective roles of:
a) the lay (which I equate with Hippy)
b) the #settledmonastic (Classicalist)
c) the #ForestRenunciant" (CreativePunk)
(#PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate)
*I particularly recommend the way that Vajragupta has carried forward the themes, eg around integrating our idealism with our experience without falling into (the trap of) doubt, especially from 40 minutes into the 2010 talk: Being Radical - 40 Years of The New Society & his 2021 talks on #BuddhismAndPolitics