Simon Jenkins, Jimmy Saville, The BBC and The Pope

Simon Jenkins, in today's Guardian, writes an article that tries to typify the public's response, and that of some media, to the Jimmy Saville story as a 'witch-hunt' that feeds paranoia. To him there are other far more important issues that deserve the front page headlines...

"In our rush to apportion blame for the actions of an individual, we risk becoming blind to the real issues of the day" 

And he writes of how other 'issues' or stories have been sidelined due to this stories prominence...

"Is Jimmy Savile and the BBC the biggest story on Earth? Apparently so. Today the British media placed it above Romney versus Obama, above the implosion of Lebanon and above the birth of the world's largest oil company. Savile was bigger than killer drones in Lincolnshire, bigger than Cameron's prison policy, bigger than the sensational Birmingham terrorism trial."

(though the fact remains that any reader or consumer of news might read the entirety of a newspaper, watch innumerable sources of on-line video news and still see all those other stories) and then Jenkins proceeds to say that nothing good will come of this, because a) Saville is dead and damned b) everyone in Institutions will be now driven to ensure no-one is allowed near a child without a chaperone :

"Soon doctors, lawyers and priests will have to practise, like the police, in pairs. Responsibility for our behaviour apparently no longer rests on us as individuals but on anyone whom a lawyer can claim was "responsible" for our contact with others. We are no longer our own masters. This is the royal road to Orwellian hell."

 

Jenkins is using hyperbole to distract his readers from the fundamentals of what the Saville story really means.

FACT : The abuse of power is at the root of most of the really serious problems we face, be it at the personal level or beyond.....

Those who seek power - be it at the personal level, at the political level or in the office or school - are often psychologically damaged (and therefore dangerous) people - while not all will be as harmful as Tony Blair, George Bush or Jimmy Saville, the multitude of those who seek and attain some degree of power and who look the other way, who justify their silence when they have access to evidence that deserves to be revealed, who fear to speak out because they might lose a job or damage their careers are an essential component in the abuse of Power by those prepared to cause harm to others.

Sue Gerhardt's analysis of Tony Blair and George Bush in her book 'Selfish Society' r2010 e-iterates what Alice Miller's 'For Your Own Good: The roots of violence in childhood mistreatment' clearly demonstrated in 1986.

If we really want an empathic, healthily functioning Society in the long term, we, all of us, have to address the way our Society relates to children, to parenting and education, to 'care' and in particular address the fact that Power sees children/people as potential workers, economic units essential for 'growth' and that Power underplays and undermines what we all need for genuine happiness, as we race towards the illusion that wealth (consumerism) generates happiness.

Simon Jenkins unwillingness to admit or acknowledge this is typical of those who prefer to protect the status quo. The tone of his article is dismissive, angry, petulant.

"Those running big organisations, in the public and private sectors, face a lethal pincer movement. On the one side is a rising tide of risk aversion, seeping into every factory, office and profession, stifling enterprise, "reassessing" risk, clogging decision. On the other is a fear of what happens should this process fail. Just as the concept of an accident has slid from legal status, so has the "honest mistake". When Entwistle today admitted and regretted his mistake in not asking in more detail about the Savile programme, his tormenters hardly noticed. Honest mistakes do not exist, being replaced by only the most serious and probably criminal negligence, fit only for the pillory, the stocks or the gallows."

George Entwhistle's honest mistake? ignoring evidence that Jimmy Saville, far from deserving a 'celebratory special' was a nasty, nasty harmful man, and ignoring the fact that the many Survivors of his horrific abuse would be further traumatised by the transmission of that 'celebratory special', and that those who had come forward would once again suffer from being ignored, rejected, not believed.

That was not an honest mistake, that was an act of incredible irresponsibility, and act that demonstrates a profound lack of empathy for all those adversely affected by Jimmy Saville's abuse. The Survivors and their families.

Nothing he has done yet is sufficient to repair this. George Entwhistle has a choice to make. To honestly admit his error, and respond as required or do what so many people in power are prepared to do .... avoid empathy, attend to the status quo, to the agenda of Power.

Just as David Cameron's Coalition Government's actions in cutting funding to services that support vulnerable people, cuts that have caused yet more pain and suffering to thousands of disabled people all over the UK are evidence of a deep lack of empathy for the reality of the lives of other less powerful people.
(I  do not hold Cameron alone responsible - every member of the Government, and all  Parliamentarians are equally culpable unless they counter these particular cuts with all their might, as these particular cuts in funding are 100% un-neccessary.)

Just as the Pope, and many Bishops and Curates, and others around the world who ignored Survivors testimony, or hushed it up to protect their Institutions revealed a profound lack of empathy for those who suffered so much at the hands of predatory priests, at the hands of men and women willing to visit intolerable violence upon children.

(The BBC's sickeningly fawning coverage of the Pope's visit to the UK in 2010 which sidelined the world wide story of intolerable suffering inflicted upon hundreds of thousands, if not millions of children over the past centuries in favour of a celebration  of the Pope parallels the Saville story.... a pattern is repeated..)

We CAN live without Institutions which are populated and controlled by adults who refuse to tackle this behavioural dysfunction head-on. We must.

Any institution that permits this kind of dysfunction for whatever reason, or tries to 'manage a crisis' from the perspective of protecting itself, suggesting that the crisis is the revelation  of abuse, and not the abuse itself - is an inhumane, psycho-pathological entity that does far more harm than good.

If the BBC wants to regain trust, then it must be 100% honest, and man up to the realities, no matter how much it hurts or costs... no matter who amongst the powerful is exposed as an abuser, a facilitator of abuse or an apologist for abusers...

I am furious, yet not at all petulant, when I say:

"Grow up, Jenkins, grow up!"
Let me make something clear here : George Entwhistle is not responsible for Jimmy Saville's behaviour. That responsibility lies with Jimmy Saville - he made his choices. Thus, he removed choice from many young peoples lives.

Entwhistle IS responsible for the BBC, and therefore for the BBC's response to these revelations, and is equally responsible to ALL the licence payers, and to all of those who have survived Saville's abuse. He is in the hot seat, and he elected to apply for that job.

He may well be on a very fast learning curve. So be it. He will not be forgiven for failing in his duty as an adult human being. Nor should he be  given any slack. The same applies to Simon Jenkins.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Reality check : abuse is systemic in Institutional Power.

This has to be said : the issue of abuse of power, especially the abuse of vulnerable people who have little voice or ability to counter the behaviour of Power is linked to the struggle for a decent, empathic society across a range of areas, from politics, to environment to psychological indoctrination to religion.

I see no critical difference between the abuse of children by pedophiles and the abuse of Iraqi and Afghan people as perpetrated by Tony Blair and George Bush et al. Or the abuse of disabled people, which as led to an extra 73 deaths per week, as perpetrated by George Osborne and David Cameron, and by extension, the Civil Service. Institutional Power is mediated by people and cannot abuse without the participation and direct compliance of those people.

In truth the 'system' we were born into is the same dynamic as an abuse family... the abuser, the abused, the scapegoat, the rebel, the cast outs, the appeasers and those who ignore what is going on, who keep their heads down, etc all appear in these situations..

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Jimmy Saville, The Pope, and the 'coalition of the unwilling....'

The issue is no longer one of individual abusers. It is about a ‘culture of abuse’. And that includes, of course, how that ‘culture’ protects itself.

The Jimmy Saville story is all the more revealing because of the commentary on the story. The ‘comments’ sections, where attitudes are nakedly expressed, reveal that many of the arguments offered tend to be a mixture of considered opinion, knowledge, data, unexamined assumptions, bile, wilful ignorance and bigotry.

A cross section of our Society?

Including the trolls, of course...

What is clear is that there is a large constituency who are unable to look at the facts, the objective realities of Survivor testimony, of documentation of incidents and of cover-ups, across a vast range of settings where adults have power and access to children and a cover story. Very much akin to settings where politicians and corporate executives have power, access to cash and a cover story. There is a pattern here.Links to some of what we know....

http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/349976/The-disgusted-captain-who-threw-Jimmy-Savile-off-a-cruise-ship - anecdotal evidence from 45 years ago ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213636/Uncle-Jimmy-took-sick-parties-Nephew-tells-childhood-stolen-13.html#ixzz28V6p6JTy - nephew alleges Jimmy Saville took him to 'parties' where other children, men but no women "participated" until 3 or 4 am. Well past the watershed so beloved of the BBC!

http://timesopinion.tumblr.com/post/32804536645/jimmy-saviles-affections-laid-bare-by-jimmy-savile - Jimmy Saville describes an incident that suggests officials were turning a blind eye or that there may have been collusion by way of permitting the assaults, which continued.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/349975/BBC-aware-of-Jimmy-Saville-rumours-and-fears-in-1973 - BBC Top Management were aware of the 'rumours'.. well aware.

Catholic Jimmy Saville page removed from Christian site! - OOOOS! http://offerimustibidomine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/sir-jimmy-savile-and-his-catholic-faith.html

It is on the record, part of our collective history. Standard practice.

Keep what ever it is, not matter how nasty, anything that might damage our image , keep it tightly under wraps, irrespective the gravity of the crime or the depth of consequence for those adversely affected or the number of people affected. KEEP A LID ON IT!

This I know also from my own experience .... many people have experienced that moment when I refused to accept what I knew about myself that I must change to be more fully human,only because I clung to an image of who I believed myself to be over knowing me. So Society at large clings to it's self image.Well folks, it's time to let go. Relax, make it easy. We can grow through this, collectively.Or is it this?

Don’t rock the boat, or threaten your income/job. This is partly how some of us, as employees who see some of the evidence,are ‘managed’.  Jobsworths. Fear.Whistle blowers are hounded. Bradley Manning. Julian Assange. Within any bureaucracy, within the party structures associated with Power and the exercise of Power, there is a threat implicit in what is called ‘team playing’: “he’s on our team, so we must protect him to protect the team.” That and job security. Workers have families. Mouths to feed. Old age to fear. More masked threats. Don't risk your job.

That unwillingness, that fear, that dependency helps the abuser culture survive. And thrive. By abuser culture I mean ALL abuse. It's a spectrum of behaviour from what some might 'mild' to extreme and lethal. It IS connected at the sociological psyche level. This quietness, this unwillingness,this sense of POWERLESSNESS? does not inspire confidence in Survivors, and I think it is a symptom of the disease with which we have been afflicted : the result of being coerced by situational circumstance into fitting into a diseased, pathological Institutional Power Structure, one that dominates our lives, and has proven that it will protect itself with violence even if in the legal and moral wrong. That twists us all, one way or another.

Power is not easily dislodged by power, as new power most often replaces the old power, and refines its messages so as to mask itself anew. Power can be dislodged when it is ignored, when it’s instructions no longer have any effect. When it’s wisdoms are seen as merely the controlling thoughts that are permitted for a position of relative comfort within the framework of the system, for those who are the ‘ruled’, as long as one is in passive participation with the pathological instructions. For the most part, those who are ruled over in Democracies are passive participants in Power.

When Survivors come forward to tell their stories, and we find that the evidence supports them, those Survivors are first and foremost refusing to participate with the pathological instructions. This takes immense courage. All Survivors experience a deep fear, an existential dread, for the earlier experience of powerlessness they lived through will have scarred them deeply, so deep it is oft written into their bodies at the neurological and cellular level. This is no easy wound to heal. It is one of the most debilitating wounds of all. Thus their recovery to the extent they report the crimes is already a massive achievement .... and it is only the beginning....

We all know that resignation/acceptance is the moment when one says “well, that’s the way it is, and always will be. I can do nothing to alter the situation.” That can be a relief for a survivor or a dysfunctional survival mechanism for anyone born into a pathological Institutional Power System (IPS).

The attitudes expounded in the public commentary reveal that dysfunctional survival is widely spread. This is part of the problem too.

An advocate for Survivors who were in care at Casa Pisa, in Lisbon, Portugal, whose abusers finally went to trial after many years, and the abuser was convicted, said this:

“I hope this day will allow us to show the country that the boys have told the truth from the start.”

That he felt the boys were doubted by so many is clear. That does not make reporting and pursuing justice easy at all. If anything it weights in favour of abusers, whose abuse is often made quite easy by others fearful or wilful ignorance.

Almost 1,000 witnesses were called during the trial, which critics say has exposed the sluggishness and inefficiency of the Portuguese justice system and shaken public trust in the country’s institutions.

The Survivors were not lying nor were they fabricating their stories.

This pattern of witnesses being disbelieved, obstructed, intimidated, ignored, turned away from and otherwise suppressed is being repeated in almost every State on the planet. This is a Societal matter to be reflected upon.Let MORE evidence emerge, and let those who protect and those who abuse and destroy children, condemn adults be revealed. Let's deal with them and at the same time, we can deal deal with our own issues about POWERLESSNESS and human empathy, about children as who they really, naturally are,  as individuals, families, communities, regions, states. I know this can be done, it is so much in the realm of practical material reality.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

The meaning of Free Speech is not to be able to blurt out any old twaddle.

The issue of free speech is about enabling a fullest disclosure of all the facts related to any matter so that a critical analysis is possible. Critical analysis reveals that ordinary folk get hurt by how Power operates. People are hurt and

abused on ALL SIDES of War. THAT is the real issue here. Those who refuse a critical analysis, enable War.

I don't believe that the Jewish people as a group of people are behind this,(see Daniel below et al) but I do sense that Power has always used Religious devices to divide people, to mask their true intent.

Nor do I believe that Islam per se is a threat, any more than Christianity is a threat, or Judaism is a threat, or the spiritual practices of America's Aboriginal or Australian Aboriginal peoples peoples is a threat.

These are faiths, and on the personal level can be a guide in life.

Yet when they are allied with Power, they all become something different. It has to be said, based on the evidence, that Spiritual Ideologies that surpress the truth, even if it is accidental, can be a threat when they have access to Power.

In the 21st Century, when we know enough about children's psychological development, especially from birth and infancy onwards, when we know biologically mandated empathy requires a suitable nurturant environment for it's fullest expression, when we know so much more than the school texts provide on our collective histories, there is NO EXCUSE for the kinds of behaviour Power perpetrates in it's own agenda of retaining power.

Likewise, once the data - the outcome of true FREE SPEECH - has been presented to a person, they must address it or they are part of the problem.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

The Greatest gifts we can bequesth our children and descendants

It will take some time.

To change our culture, to bring empathy back to the core as the fundamental quality of our culture.

From the base, from how we frame ourselves as people, as parents and as children.

It WILL build as more people understand the importance of our earliest (and for most of us, forgotten) lived experiences.

The science and biology of empathy is now well established. The understand

ing of how human behaviour is mediated is likewise well established, though the mainstream still ignores it, as do most Power linked Religions.

Who can recall the DETAIL of their infancy - therein lies clues to our behaviours, our unconscious patterns and adaptations?

Vital information is there, about what we learned at the deepest pre-verbal visceral level, about Power, co-operation, empathy, sense of self.

Blaming parents for the ills of Society is a tactic that Institutional Society employs. To let itself off the hook.

That is not to say that abusive parents are to be let presented with excuses for behaviour that causes harm.

Rather it is a call to recognise that helping stressed parents understand their own infancy AND how the pressures imposed on them by work, economics, etc., increases the difficulties they face, is to recognise that helping parents to understand the natural emotional and psychic needs of their children and exploring how Institutional Society thwarts the meeting of those needs through war, indoctrination, poverty/concentration of wealth, media, marketing, coercive competitive schooling, hierarchical power will decrease the incidence of abuse for the majority of stressed parents.

Most parents do love their children, and many struggle with that love because the messages they received, that their grand parents and great grand parents and ancestors received about parenting were mediated by Institutional Society, and by Religion and by the adverse affects of unresolved trauma and there has never been a consistent effort to HELP parents resolve their own issues because those issues are often linked to how Institutional Power operates and thus affects so many lives.

Understanding that we all did not choose our families nor our society and have had to deal with any adverse affects by adapting, surviving, 'fitting in'. Understanding that intergenerational trauma patterns are a reality. Yet they are not written in stone.

We can break the cycle. We can recover our full humanity.

There is no greater gift to future generations.

There is no greater gift to oneself.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe