Photo by Sivani Bandaru on Unsplash (a puppet is being controlled by the hand of its master)

The outstanding independent journalist and author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is publishing a series on revolutions on her Substack channel (“The Pugilist”), and, as I write this, the most recent episode is on “”Haiti, 1791: The Revolution that freed itself”

The Pugilist with Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Haiti, 1791: The Revolution That Freed Itself

How Nations Revolt is an ongoing PUGILIST series on the revolutions that remade the world — what drove ordinary people to tear down the order they were born into, how they pulled it off, and who walked away with the spoils. Each piece stands on its own and runs the same diagnostic: the five questions every revolution answers, laid out in the opening ess…

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3 days ago · 142 likes · 22 comments · Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

This articles provides a series of insights that, in my opinion, are unparalleled and should be noted - for example:

“The arithmetic of the plantation had concluded it was cheaper to work a person to death and buy another than to let that person live.”

and

“This is the maneuver to watch for in every age. When domination can no longer be held with the whip, it gets refinanced as debt. The ledger is patient. It does not need to own you outright if it can keep you forever in arrears.

When people like Donald Trump remark upon the poverty of Haiti, what they fail to mention is that it is men like Donald Trump who have forced Haiti to be poor, as punishment for refusing to be dominated in any other way.”

The Haitian revolution was different to most, as it was led by

“[t]he people forced to exist at the very bottom of the economic and social hierarchy — the enslaved, the conquered, those counted as property or not counted at all … It was made by the people who held nothing, who were counted as property, who were not supposed to be capable of making history at all. They did not merely win their freedom; they built a nation out of it — the first sovereign state in the world founded by the formerly enslaved, and the living nightmare of every slaveholding power on earth. They made the impossible look like a matter of will. And for the crime of winning that completely, the world handed them a bill that took 122 years to pay.”

(For more on these events from other sources, see The Collector, Britannica, Wikipedia; “The Counter-Revolution of 1776 Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America”, by Gerald Horne (pub. New Your University Press, New York and London, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4798-0872-4 (ebook)); and, from more recent times, “The Big Truck That Went By”, by Jonathan M. Katz, (first published in 2013 by Palgrave Macmillan® a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC - now Springer Nature Link, ISBN 978-0-230-34187-6).)

I have always considered that debt (a “finance trap”) imposed to compensate the slaveholding capitalists was utterly unconscionable, and would have been more than offset by the reparations owed for the human rights atrocities of slavery.

The author has also provided a wider, current perspective on the issue of finance traps, which I have added my broadening of perspective to - see below.

So … in addition to finance traps (which are part of consumerism - i.e., having lots of stuff, and the latest version or replacements because of planned obsolescence), time (and energy or health) traps are an issue.

This became very obvious to me in the 1980s, when I worked for a manager who I consider likely had all three of the Dark Triad of psychology - psychopathy [Note 1], Machiavellian, and narcissism. All the other nasty people in the workplace (and there were a lot) were just humans being nasty.

That particular boss went out of his way to make sure his staff were overloaded and far too busy to lodge complaints about the many abuses which occurred - and those who tried as often as not wound up out of a job.

As someone starting out in my career, in an era when everyone was expected to be self-sacrificing (and to put work before everything else) and to work without any positive feedback (only criticism), trying pointlessly to change things for the better wasn’t a good long term strategy. (Although I did try a few times - with mixed results.)

I have written elsewhere about those experiences, but for now, what I want to consider is why that psychopath committed those abuses.

He never became particularly rich (although was well off in a middle class sense) or powerful, he lost his marriage, no-one else would hire him (or if they did, he was soon enough out), he never got to pursue any of his personal interests, so … why?

Did he take a perverse pride in what he considered a form of service to something greater than himself (which would have to be described as company profit)?

Did he get pleasure out of obeying programming (social conditioning or parenting) that told him society should be a cold, hard and judgmental place?

Was he afraid of what else he could have been? Was he afraid of not being part of the abusive architecture of society?

Was he a sadist? Probably not, IMO, given the size of his ego.

Did he think he was naturally entitled to a superior position as part of being what he considered a superior person?

Maybe.

Did he have a perverse pride in a job which meant he was invisible to society?

That is something I have seen in some (generally Spiritualist) mediums, who, in effect, take great pride in suppressing their personality until they are invisible and can allow a spirit to channel through their body. (For the record, I consider such roles should be a joint partnership.)

I suspect the internal forces that controlled and compelled him to become what he was were a little of all of these.

They can be hard to understand or even notice or acknowledge - particularly when looking for the influence of the rich and/or powerful and elite, as is well described in “How I Saw the Grift Behind The Telepathy Tapes” https://esotericho.substack.com/p/how-i-saw-the-grift-behind-the-telepathy “A Story On Media Literacy and High-Control Systems” by EsotericHoe (“Deconstructing Our Conditioning. Reclaiming Our Sovereignty”):

“… here’s what makes this particularly insidious: high-control groups rarely invent entirely new lies. They co-opt existing truths and deploy them to bypass your critical thinking. Whoever defines the “truth” holds the power. In the case of The Telepathy Tapes, even if telepathy is real, the methodology utilized by the project effectively grants “Facilitators” monopoly power over the children’s voices. While proponents cite instances of independent spelling as a defense, the systemic reliance on facilitated interaction creates a dynamic where leadership defines what the children say, how they say it, and who gets to hear it. Even in a telepathic world, power dynamics still exist. And when I stepped into my role as a moderator, I didn’t see a community pursuing spiritual growth—I saw a community being sold a standardized spiritual product. (Check out the work being done by Heidi Rachel Brown on TikTok).

This matters to me personally because I honor the possibility of telepathy.”

The author then analyses the techniques used for control (and an example of how they attempted to protect themselves) - it is an excellent, and important article: please read that, and the article I linked to above. This, IMO, helps to extend what Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez wrote to groups at below national level.

From the point of view of this article of mine, these provide more specific options of analysis than the Dark Triad (and authoritarianism) character traits, but it is important, if we are to make this world a better place, that we determine why people join up to support the elites - which has a lot disparaging terms, but the one I will give it is:

traitor to humanity and decency

Those people are the enablers that make the ultra-elites domination possible - they are the foot soldiers of evil.

They have basically been vulnerable to a particularly egregious scam - which means they are vulnerable to a future, similar scam.

And that means that, for the sake of a world that is stably better, their flaws must be addressed.

This quote from Simone de Beauvoir in “The Ethics of Ambiguity” also applies, IMO:

“The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed”.

The work of people like Tad Stoermer and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez addresses the broader social scale of what needs to be done to make inhuman societies and the world into better places … I am saying don’t forget the personal flaws along the way.

I’ve advocated for some approaches to do so (teaching using critical thinking [including addressing the emotional flaws that limit use of that skill], identifying and analysing and resisting rhetoric, and emotional competence - in particular, identifying and analysing and resisting emotional manipulation), but examining the sort work in the two examples I have linked to opens up new fields of opportunity for change for the better … which I will leave to those who are better and less exhausted than I.

In the course of preparing this article, I came across the following two resources on psychopathy which seem to me to be quite good:

• Koehn, M. A., Okan, C., & Jonason, P. K. (2019). A primer on the Dark Triad traits. Australian Journal of Psychology, 71(1), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12198

• “The 4 Building Blocks of the Dark Triad” (2025) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202506/the-4-building-blocks-of-the-dark-triad “New research identifies 4 conditions favorable for growth of the dark triad” Key points: “(1)The dark triad, or D, is often regarded as reflecting immutable qualities that are inborn into personality. (2) A new study examines trends across two decades, drawing links between harsh environments and D. (3) By viewing personality as flexible, there’s hope we can build more favorable sets of qualities in all.” “The authors translated socioecological influences into the following four factors: 1. Corruption (tolerance of gaining personal benefits at the cost of others) 2. Economic inequality (unequal distribution of wealth) 3. Poverty (income index) 4. Extent of violence (death rates due to armed violence, homicides)”

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From

:

Recently I listened to a livestream on YouTube where the presenter and audience interacted over (vague claims of) cures for disabilities (Down’s syndrome and wearing glasses were discussed … ). As a chronically ill disabled person who also has a neurological difference:

(1) there are disabilities that a cure would result in an easier life for the disabled person;

(2) the motivation of many people seeking cures is, in MY experience, too often that the cure seeker wants life to be easier for them, not the disabled person - the cure seeker wants to avoid having to address their ableism and the ableist and in other ways discriminatory systems, structures, and behaviours of the world.

IMO, the bigotry and general fear of difference I described as point (2) is a form of emotional-psychological disability that requires an urgent cure - even if every other form of disability was somehow cured overnight.

A comment made at https://mazetometanoia.substack.com/p/an-a-team-for-the-orbs-no-one-for:

This is excellent, and the points are vital. In the human rights / advocacy field there is a saying: “nothing about us without us”, and I have often thought that needs to be used more widely: it would actually fit here, if the events are viewed properly - starting, as described by the article, with the person. That is easier said than done. When I worked in engineering, eventually public consultations were introduced, but initially engineers thought - arrogantly - that they could do the consultations, but, in that era, engineers were taught procedures, rather than true critical thinking, and lacked basic emotional competence (two skills I would to see taught more widely, much better, and from much younger ages), and it took a few abject failures here (in the 1990s) before they got out of the way and let the true experts in. The article mentions nurses. Here nurse training shifted to exclusively university-based a few years ago (possibly at the insistence of people like 1990s engineers?), and the human side of their training seems to me (based on my unfortunate experiences) to have been less effective, but the ability to use those skills has also been impaired by cost cutting (“efficiency “) measures. I hope that if the additional roles are implemented those who are making any decisions about resourcing have the integrity and competence to listen to and accept the recommendations of the human skills experts.

From

For those who don’t know, I have a blog for digital candles - an online Pagan prayer site, in a sense.

It is old, turn of the century tech, and I’m pleased my main blog is at 1.47 million views (over 19 years, albeit mostly in the last few years), and amazed that one day I had 15,000 views there (currently running at 2-5k views a day), in at least 19 nations across all continents except Antarctica and here (Australia).

My candle blog has suddenly had 51,300 views (which I am aware is much lower than modern format versions of “blogging”) in the last 24 hours, compared to normally getting 20 to 50 views.

How did that happen for such a plain, unadorned, simple old blog which has had the same candles (”prayers”) for months?

That’s ~20% of all views ever on that blog ...

I need a recovery coffee or three.

I have been writing to the Editor of the Labor Tribune again: “Far-right threat is real”, on 24th June, 2026 See https://labortribune.net.au/letters-to-the-editor/ and scroll down

nn

My reply to the note at

was:

As a kid in the 1960s the threat of nuclear war was often front of our mind (we thought the fall of the Berlin Wall would change things for the better), but then came the climate crisis and the COVID pandemic and a stack of other things … but the cold hearted callousness of neoliberalism was probably what made things noticeably worse than the 60s, IMO (I often compare the world’s response to the disaster in Biafra during the Nigerian civil war to current indifference in emails to MPs).

My adoptive parents lived through the depression (Mum had a lifelong love of bread and dripping) and WW2, events which showed a problem with cold hearted callousness in some key people/groups, but a sense of communal response - unless you were queer or coloured or disabled - seemed to help

What strikes me about all these past and present catastrophes is that the suffering is always real, but imperfectly acknowledged/known (basis of imperfection varies from one to the next), and with responses that were probably getting slightly better until some time after WW2. A couple of centuries earlier laissez faire politics was possibly similar to neoliberalism.

If we look at the scale and depth of impact, it may be that something like the bubonic plague or the multiple events in around 800 BCE (I think that was when it was - was a book written about it) were “worst”, but I think the climate crisis will match them, and how human our responses are - at all levels of society, not only government/elite - will determine how bearable or damaging it ultimately is. I don’t have much faith left in government, but I do in the majority of people - especially given the quality of analysis/thinking in places like Substack, and in the responses of those who are resisting the current wave of fascism/feudalism.

Phew. That went longer than planned. I’m gonna have a cuppa and a lie down, and then come back and see if it makes any sense.

BTW, my grandparents saw the arrival of cars and planes, and my adoptive Mum always had problems believing that humans really had been to the Moon.

Previous Noteworthy notes can be found at https://musingsofgnwmythr.substack.com/publish/posts/published?tags=062173af-c6d6-478f-8a3b-18047dc1e7d3

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated, and help me to keep writing here.

Photo by Logan Gutierrez on Unsplash (A portal like object is seen in the foreground, with scattered trees on a greyed, almost black and white, snowy slope in the background)

In the psychic world one term that gets thrown around a fair bit without explanation (or, IMO, accurate use) is “dimension”.

Now, terms that apply to the levels of reality, such as etheric, astral, causal, etc are generally better understood and used (although many people refer to astral travel when they actually mean etheric travel), but that doesn’t carry over to use of the term “dimension” - which seems, to me, to used with almost as much abandon as “quantum”.

My use of dimension favours the classical physics sort of approach, where:

• if something has length, width, and depth, it is three dimensional, although its existence through time could also be described as its fourth dimension;

• because we can - within limits - move readily back-and-forth, side-to-side, and up-and-down we can be considered to be living in three dimensions as we have easy ability to use that space, but we cannot as easily move backwards and forwards through time (I would say we can’t move at all, but our perception of the rate of passage of time varies, and I there may well be some physics experiments which question that preclusion, even if it is “only” at a subatomic scale) - if we could move as easily through time, we could, IMO, say we lived in a four dimensional world.

Other people no doubt have different views, which is OK :)

One of those is tied up with subdivisions of the levels of reality - predominantly the nonphysical levels, but maybe physical as well.

To illustrate that, consider the astral from the perspective of reincarnation:

• we are not allowed to remember everything that has happened to us before we (re)incarnated, and part of maintaining that is limiting how far into (or up, if you think in terms of frequencies) you are allowed to travel when you astral travel;

• when your incarnation ends, you usually spend some time slightly further in (or up) while you heal, and the gradually move further in (up) afterwards;

• there is also an unpleasant part of the astral referred to as the lower astral.

So there are at least three distinct zones. (This is, IMO, best described by the book “Road of Many Ways”, channelled from “John”, but that has been out-of-print for decades, and the publisher hasn’t responded to any emails.)

In some definitions of “dimension”, those are considered to be separate dimensions of the astral world.

When pushed, those advocates have - in my experience - taken the approach that the astral is a set of basic frequencies of existence, all higher than the frequencies which the physical world exists on, but lower than the frequencies that the mental, causal, etc levels of reality exist on.

I consider this flawed as the differences between levels of reality is, IMO, more like the difference between AM and FM radio, rather than just being at a different position on the radio spectrum of frequencies, but setting that aside, what I consider they are really trying to do is:

• describe a difference of discernment - i.e., some “places” within a level of reality feel qualitatively different, and those that feel “better” are described as having a higher frequency as it is the only wording they have that seems appropriate.

There are those who use the term “density”, rather than dimension, and (which I mentioned on my blog in this post), and to describe the difference of perception/discernment:

• moving through the viscous, heavy mud of a swamp is more difficult than the more fluid movement of fish etc in water, and both are more resistant than a bird flying through air, which one could use as an analogy as follows:
  (i) the swamp mud is like the physical, the water the etheric, and the air the astral,
  or
  (ii) the swamp mud is like the lower astral, the water the parts of astral accessible while incarnate, and the air the rest of the astral.
  (Side note from my field work in Queensland in the 1980s: if you can stand the … “rich organic” smell, swamp mud is an effective barrier against mossies, etc. Cleaning will take considerably more time than applying … )

I prefer using the term density as it is more accurate, and gets away from conflating/misusing the various definitions of “dimension”.

To summarise thus far:

• “dimension” has a range of meanings, with my personal preference being to leave that word to physics;

• the word “dimensions” is often used as a way to describe difference of discernment of quality of characteristics of a “place” within a specific level of reality;

• I prefer to use “density” to describe those differences of discernment.

I am going to stay away from string theory, and its multiple space-time dimensions.

There is, however, one other murky area I will briefly touch on before I flee for the safety of an off-internet coffee, and that is:

• portals between different places of physical reality.

Although I consider all parts of physical reality have the same basic frequencies of existence (I’m going to think of a better term about half way through that coffee), if we compare:

• our world, with its roughly six to twelve millennia of patriarchy, several centuries of capitalism, and a few decades of neoliberalism, all of which has led to gross inequality, distorted (ranging from unspiritual to perverted/evil) perspectives, and violence (including not only physical - emotional and psychological violence is a widespread flaw of this world),

to

• a world, or perhaps a remarkably protected (especially psychically) and isolated part of this world, with a history of decency and/or genuine (balanced positive, as I term it) attitudes,

the latter would “feel” (psychically - be discerned, in a sense) differently to the current state of our world - differently enough for many people to want to describe it as different, whether that be “a different dimension”, if that is the only word they have, or a “different (psychic/spiritual) density” if that is the term they favour.

That difference is likely to considered even more pronounced if it is accessed via some sort of portal - even if that portal is only to a shielded place elsewhere on this planet.

I can see about half a dozen other articles I could write about this and the concepts that have been triggered as I wrote this, but I am going to admit that I am not as philosophically sharp or as gifted a word smith as others here, leave this at that, and go and enjoy my coffee and a quiet Sunday.

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated, and help me to keep writing here.

Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash (A group of people are connecting to the trunk a life giving tree in a group of trees - also known as a forest)

There is a Wiradjuri word Ngumbaadyil, which means “all are one”. It’s about the essential connectedness and unity of all Life.

That also, in my opinion, applies to many of the ways that people are using to try to improve the world - political activists (such as myself), human rights activists (such as myself), experiencers (such as myself), investigative journalists, emergency service and health care workers, and so on: their work in those various areas are actually all interconnected.

But in doing that work, it is human to focus on what is important to us, but that doesn’t mean what we are doing is the most urgent / most important / of greatest benefit … and what is the most urgent / most important / of greatest benefit in each of the job categories in the preceding paragraph, and in the three criteria listed in this paragraph, will change depending on location, time, and circumstances.

However, if, in doing what we can, we compete against other categories and criteria, it is almost certain that our competition will use up resources that could be better used to address other needs that may genuinely be greater.

As examples, consider:

• the adult child who is so loud and effective as an advocate for their ill parent that resources/scheduling are changed to address that person, rather than more seriously ill patients;

• organisations that view the importance of their work so arrogantly (often confusing profit and community benefit) that they introduce non-compete and other clauses that mean skilled people cannot contribute their skills for the benefit of the community - even if that does not detract from the original company’s profit; and

• a court case a few years ago when a mechanic cut the brake cables of someone he didn’t like - a staggeringly dangerous, amathiac, and unprofessional act that I am surprised didn’t result in a jail sentence, but showed the utter blindness of some people when they are worked up (“emotional”) - for, in this case, no valid reason whatsoever.

In my opinion, we need to humbly acknowledge the Ngumbaadyil of it all - the connectedness of it all:

• the angry (and possibly performative, acting out of fear they will be judged as not being loving enough) child needs to acknowledge the equal importance of other people’s parents to their children, and that creating a world which has a social soup of competing for resources is FAR more harmful than cooperating - which, apart from anything else, frees up the time of staff for healing rather than dealing with resourcing fights and metaphorical fires, and thus also contributes to experienced staff staying (as their world is less exhausting/overwhelming/draining) and giving everyone better treatment;

• the ultra arrogant company needs to acknowledge that they are restricting the overall health of the economy, and thus the ability of potential clients to purchase their products (which was one of the reasons a car manufacturer moved to a five day working week in the first half of the 20th century: so workers would have leisure time and thus - the manufacturer predicted [correctly] - a desire to buy and use cars);

• we all need to maintain a balanced perspective, and consider that our acts of anger could harm us and, if we are, for instance, jailed for criminal acts of harm or creating danger, then our acts could harm others - including those who are financially dependent on us, and similar harm ensues from acts of hate that create a suspicious or even paranoid and hateful, exclusionary, judgmental & controlling society that denies people the opportunity to be all they can be and live lives that those harmed people consider rich (which may not involve money or wealth) and fulfilling.

Now, the inspiration for this article goes back a few years, with a number of people in the UFO/UAP field thinking the current president of the USA is somehow “good” for making promises to release information about UFOs/UAPs.

However, in my opinion, the current president of the USA is a terrible person - convicted of rape, facing credible accusations of CSA, convicted of business fraud, wildly and blatantly dishonest, and widely considered to have done massive damage to the international order (particularly humanitarian areas), and has made the USA into an internationally unreliable state - verging on a pariah state, and now also widely viewed as a fascist state,

In a word, a tyrant.

To ignore all that and view that person as good because of vague “promises” when many such promises by that person (especially in other areas of life) have been broken, the value of current releases has been questioned (the third set of releases is a bit … less bad - although they ALL miss the vital aspect of consciousness), and the whole situation has been perverted by that person into his violent xenophobic, white supremacist anti-everyone-who-isn’t-white campaign-of-hate, raises questions about the decency as human beings of those UFO/UAP people.

Are they blind - or morally inept?

Or lacking in perspective, as the releases, even if they delivered what was hoped for by some, would be meaningless and unusable in a world of abject terror and fascistic control over thought and action would enable re-institution of coverups anywhere and anytime (including in the UFO/UAP field), as opposed to a genuine democracy which reins in out-of-control actors.

Political/human rights activists / many journalists can see that current US leader is harming millions and belongs in the category that Stalin is in, and may yet become worse.

Now, tyrants sometimes can do some good - Stalin, after all, led the USSR against the invading evil power that was Germany in the 1940s, and Napoleon in the early 1800s looked after his troops better than anyone else till then even as those troops did massive harm.

But Stalin and Napoleon were still tyrants, and overall they needed to be removed from power and their harm stopped.

We need to take a moment to consider whether there is a greater need for the current leader of the USA to be voted out than there is for release of UFO/UAP information ...

I consider that there is, as we are all connected, and what is being done harms all of us and will, setting aside the vital issue of consciousness which is being missed by this evidentiary focus of people who are possibly seeking validation, make using any genuinely valuable releases more difficult.

Ngumbaadyil.

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated, and help me to keep writing here.

Now, about 15 years ago I had a go at writing rituals where both northern and southern hemispheres (or the temperate zones of each) could do a ritual which acknowledge the changes in both.

(That doesn’t [clearly] apply to the tropics, where the sun is sometimes north and sometimes south of wherever you are, and they don’t have the four European [Scottish?] seasons.)

I came up with a chant as core, and built a Correllian ritual around that. If anyone is interested, the chant is below, and the full ritual I wrote is at https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2013/12/southern-yule-northern-litha.html

Southern Hemisphere:

Rest and heal,
content that
the Unconquered Son
is coming back
for when we will be
renewed and ready
as our Northern kin,
celebrate the heights
of life.

Northern Hemisphere:

Peak of light and life,
may joy and life,
peace and prosperity,
be through all our life,
as our Southern kin,
rest and heal.

Correllians also often do these as public online events - so watch https://www.youtube.com/@MagickTv

All “Rights and Spirit” tagged posts can be found at https://musingsofgnwmythr.substack.com/publish/posts/published?tags=23f8c2ca-0fe6-4b3a-9158-bdbb993404ca

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.

Scientists have scrapped the worst‑case climate scenario – because action is making a difference https://theconversation.com/scientists-have-scrapped-the-worst-case-climate-scenario-because-action-is-making-a-difference-283675

Something else I have noticed is more good posts and notes here (on Substack) on effective forms of activism, and good resistance being shown and written about elsewhere by others (e.g., this, and this).

I am aware that me noticing that is not quantitative evidence (it is limited to my feed, after all), but it is consistent with what happened during the US regime that started in 2016.

For me (and not necessarily anyone else), these two points are encouraging, and motivate me to keep trying

All “Rights and Spirit” tagged posts can be found at https://musingsofgnwmythr.substack.com/publish/posts/published?tags=23f8c2ca-0fe6-4b3a-9158-bdbb993404ca

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.

While it is important to avoid doing harm as much as you can, and even better if you can plant a seed for good change, it is also important to ensure accountability and justice are realised - especially as that is how systems and societies take the change necessary to avoid recurrence of harms.

See https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2024/02/toxic-forgiveness.html

The stages of seed sprouting I am proposing are:

• blast - oh this is inconvenient

• oops - oh this is embarrassing

• ow - hmm … I hurt others (but still self centric)

• sorry ‘bout that - wanting & trying to patch things up personally, but still somewhat superficially

• oh sh*t - they really “get it”, and what has to be done - but still at the level of individuals interacting with each other

• oh f*ck - they really get it, and what has to be done at societal / systems level

All past Homilies can be found at https://musingsofgnwmythr.substack.com/publish/posts/published?tags=23f8c2ca-0fe6-4b3a-9158-bdbb993404ca and, for the very first of these, at https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/fb28ae54-164a-4155-838e-73b4a34edc2e

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.

Some of my (FreeForm on an iPhone mini) sketches

Some of my (pencil) sketches

Some of my poems

Previous Noteworthy notes can be found at https://musingsofgnwmythr.substack.com/publish/posts/published?tags=062173af-c6d6-478f-8a3b-18047dc1e7d3

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.

Photo by Samuel Quek on Unsplash (dead trees in the foreground are barely visible against dark ridges in the mid-ground but show against the setting sun, lighter clouds and ridges of the distance)

The most significant events since my last Rights and Spirit column have been in West Asia – I’m not going to detail the first, but the second is the general assessment that the USA has lost its Israeli-led war against Iran.

The first of these is based on disputed allegations which are currently subject to a court case. Others have discussed the matter, and there is no need or benefit in me doing so so. And, in any case, what I am concerned about is the world’s misplaced response - to the extent that I have asked:

Is the world’s moral conscience perverted??

That questions is one not only to be asked by Pagans, but by all religions, spiritual paths, and humanists/seekers/doubters/atheists everywhere.

Where is the world’s sense of perspective? What has been done, beyond a travel ban and some sanctions? (At least one government MP here has had the courage and ethics to break ranks.)

I posted on my main blog about this global inadequacy nearly a year ago – “Post No. 3,180 - moral tests of our time”, and compared the world’s current apathy against the action taken for Biafra in the 1960s Nigerian civil war (links in the linked article), and found the current world … lacking.

Others have been asking similar questions – including as the right became resurgent (on the strengths of grievances) here in Australia – and, on that, consider

· “Should we do this to MAGA? Billionaires? IDF soldiers?”

This is an important perspective, BUT the harm that has been done by MAGA and the far right has killed and done life-threatening harm to millions. This damage is not made up by a glib “oh sorry about that”: it will require an active demonstration of genuine understanding of and regret for that harm - as well as genuine humility and acknowledgement of past intellectual arrogance in the left (which I have personally also found aggressive, offensive, and dysfunctional in communication), and PROOF of change in both groups);

· and history, in general.

This problem is also shown by what has been happening in the DRC, about which I recently wrote:

In addition to the medical and societal challenges of the disease itself (outlined in the linked article) and other current challenges, one of the problems that have contributed to this outbreak being difficult to handle is the decades of conflict over who gets rich from the minerals of the lands of the eastern regions of the DRC – which is largely the western, industrialised nations (or, more accurately, some organisations and individuals in those nations) who created the technology which needs those minerals, but lacked, IMO, the ethical/human competence to realise and address the problems caused by greed - especially in the DRC and adjoining nations that had been devastated by decades of Western imperial colonialism – which is very well described in David van Reybrouk’s “Congo: The Epic History of a People” (pub. Harper Collins, 2014, ISBN 9780062200136; Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Amazon) – including the human rights atrocities before, during, and after the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which laid, IMO, western inaction/meddling clearly on the altar of shame, and subsequent, continuing violence. “Health authorities are racing to contain Ebola in the DRC and Uganda. Here’s what’s making it so challenging” https://theconversation.com/health-authorities-are-racing-to-contain-ebola-in-the-drc-and-uganda-heres-whats-making-it-so-challenging-283276 and “Why it’s been hard to detect and contain the world’s broadening Ebola crisis” https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/why-its-been-hard-to-detect-and-contain-the-worlds-broadening-ebola-crisis/ftyc7vff4 “A rare Ebola strain is spreading through the conflict-hit Democratic Republic of the Congo’s east.”

What is the world’s problem?

The lack of empathy which has been identified multiple times as the root of evil?

Of late that sort of callous lack of character is shown in Australia by how homeless people are treated – with 14 dying every year in public parks or countryside, homeless people being ROBBED of their belongings by Councils, people being warned by doctors they could die without safe housing and then discharged to live on the streets – in a culture derived from the squattocracy which fails to have the more mature attitude towards so-called “forever renting” of other nations …

Again: what is the world’s problem?

The glamour and other allure of power?

Is that based on wanting to compensate for an inner emptiness or inadequacy by external actions, possibly seeking accolades or glory? If so, it is likely to backfire spectacularly – as has been shown the second item I started this column with:

the egregious failure of the Israeli-USA war against Iran, which has left Iran able to control the world’s economy through the fear of what is can do to the Straits of Hormuz, according to a former advisor to (and office manager for) Netanyahu.

Again: what is the world’s problem?

Gutlessness, as alleged in my nation – with actions curiously suggesting either internal divisions or cognitive dissonance? Or whatever led to a situation that has 50,000 people in the USA at risk, a nation that – even before the current fascist regime – had form for grossly irresponsible cost cutting on safety and environmental matters.

Or is the world’s problem greed and a desire to have more/”higher” social status than others, which, IMO, is the starting point for inequity and bigotry everywhere …

The truth is, “the world’s problem” is a little of all of these - which manifests as other problems (including, these last few weeks, allegations of secret bombing raids by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, an increasingly one-sided enquiry into unchecked antisemitism in Australia, a war between fast and legitimate, structural eugenics and wars on dissent and ideas in the USA [and Somalia … and democracy and decency {using hate} in Australia – and Ireland and social media]).

IMO, this started when politicians started arguing for (selfish) interests, rather than governance principles - a plague which became noticeably worse under neoliberalism, as it favours those with power consolidating and gaining even more power, but is also aided by forgetting history for the shortsightedness of dealing with what is right before your nose now, and who cares about how others (including our kids and grand-kids!!!) are affected.

What is the solution?

Moral courage – but decent, progressive moral courage, based on inclusion, equity, and the absence of unbalanced elites.

Moral courage that must start with us and our lives, until we create such a groundswell of decency and moral courage that anything else is unthinkable.

All “Rights and Spirit” tagged posts can be found at https://musingsofgnwmythr.substack.com/publish/posts/published?tags=23f8c2ca-0fe6-4b3a-9158-bdbb993404ca

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.

(I MIGHT try to find some of the older ones, but I suspect that will be too difficult, given Substack lumps reports in with original notes)

19th May, 2026 - URL https://substack.com/@kayleengnwmythr/note/c-261430190

“Globally speaking, one of the biggest vulnerabilities to political corruption or susceptibility to influence is the need for money to run realistic election campaigns.

To minimise that, how about candidates nominate on the basis of serving just one term, then have the next term back in civvie life before standing again (which is the approach Chile takes with their President - see en.wikipedia.org/w/inde….

That won’t eliminate the problem, as money will still be needed for election, but the incumbent will be less attractive to those trying to buy influence.

Exemptions would be needed, IMO, for those who are Ministers or senior in government, perhaps, but … imagine if every single electorate got used to choosing someone and their policies (they might still be part of a political party) afresh for each election …

This might also reduce the wear and tear on the families of MPs/Senators.”

(Also, consider “Post No. 3,422 - Restoring trust in (more) Australian politicians”gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2… )

https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2026/04/post-no-3422-restoring-trust-in-more.html

19th May - https://substack.com/@kayleengnwmythr/note/c-261238631

“Engineers Australia have welcomed “Federal Budget initiatives to bolster productivity, lift housing supply and slash red tape”.

Yes, we definitely need more houses - which, IMO, is largely because of:

• the evil of those who developed neoliberalism,

• the amathia and emotional competence of those who agreed to be willing tools of that evil and push it and unqualified/inappropriate faith in markets despite the growing evidence of the problem of the profit-motive (bias towards most profitable housing units, which doesn’t favour those that are affordable),

• the greed, selfishness, shortsightedness, and hate of community of those those who became part of the landlordism plague,

• every politician who had at least one residential investment property but was still allowed - unethically, IMO (but not theirs - I have asked) - by Parliament to take part in housing affordability debates despite what I (but not them) consider the egregious conflict of interest since around the 1960s, and

• every person who hid or failed to make known the growing unaffordability of housing over the last three decades - especially the ones motivated by greed and hate of community (i.e., to “maintain housing value” - which, IMO, comes with a plethora of deplorable, anti-community local planning rules).

There’s another issue here: the climate crisis

On current Australian housing:

• “Australia’s poor housing contributing to cold-related deaths”architectureau.com/arti… “A medical study has found Australians are almost twice as likely to die from cold weather than the Swedes. Australian experts blame the high rate on the country’s poor housing and they say over 1,000 lives could be saved if Australian housing was better constructed and better insulated.”

• “Australia’s still building 4 in every 5 new houses to no more than the minimum energy standard” theconversation.com/aus…

• From 2022: “New research shows Australians want more efficient housing”renew.org.au/advocacy/n…

• “Australian houses are getting larger. For a more sustainable future, our houses can’t be the space for everything”eveningreport.nz/2025/0…

In fact, Australian houses have been described as functionally little better than tents. I once worked for a few weeks in Mongolia, where, with winter temperatures down to -30°C, a colleague of mine there commented that the coldest he had ever felt was in a house in Australia.

So, given that, will the new houses be suitable for the future, as well as being allowed to be small enough/simple enough to be affordable and more sustainable/energy & cost efficient?”

https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/news-and-media/2026/05/engineers-australia-welcomes-federal-budget-initiatives-bolster-productivity

17th May, 2026 - URL https://substack.com/@kayleengnwmythr/note/c-260483739

“I just started a chat with this:

“Recently I found the excellent Breaking the Silence project, and that tied in very well with the trend in the UAP/UFO/ET field in recent years (in my experience) to publicly acknowledge that much of this field is really about raising/broadening/deepening humanity’s consciousness.

That is all good, but I am also stumbling back into the areas that drove me away from this field for quite a while: the physical evidence based, conspiracy-suspecting people who, as pointed out by the BTS people, are, out of the pain inflicted by abuse and unfounded/unreasonable/excessive scepticism (there is a healthy form & amount of scepticism) seeking validation in the wrong way/place.

This also reminds me of the spiritual bypassing and wilful disengagement of “spiritual”/higher consciousness people/groups/movements that drove me out of the “spiritual”/higher consciousness area.

Unlike the UAP/UFO/ET field, the latter seem to me to still need to learn about applied spirituality - you cannot be spiritual/of a higher consciousness/loving if you do nothing about the homeless in your neighbourhood, or poverty and other global problems, or being anti-bigotry, including of structural/systemic bigotry (in its myriad forms and manifestations). If you don’t do anything about those, you are risking doing nothing but (possibly high [over] priced) escapism (while noting that some people genuinely need recovery time/withdrawal for healing/refining/developing their skills).

I had similar concerns about most politics in these decades of neoliberalism, but many voters now understand that they were scammed, and that neoliberal capitalism and other problems such as corporate and other forms of capture of political parties is ultimately harmful of everyone and everything. In places that have been savaged the most, such as the formerly democratic USA, awareness and resistance are improving and developing apace. Even here, where the first of the two main political parties is in the final stages of destroying itself (mostly over climate denialism, but also various forms of bigotry) and the second is bouncing around between the same sort of self destructive path and some belated attempts at making life better, awareness is improving - although attempts to change things for the better are lagging.

The thing is, these things are not separate: consciousness frames our worldview, and those both shape what we do/say/think or don’t do/say/think.

Consciousness frames spirituality and religion ... which, in our current poor world state, are often viewed as entirely separate or at best with a minor overlap, which is a reflection of the extent that dogma and ideology have captured religions - many, if not most or all, of which started as societal revolutions. A question I have often used - and I know others do as well, so this is not something I came up with (it predates this current life of mine by a few millennia) - is: how is the person and the world better for having a particular religious/spiritual faith/worldview? Are there fewer homeless in your neighbourhood/poor people in the world, or better inclusion of minorities & better anti-bigotry measures to protect those minorities, or better politicians in your electorates, as a result of you having your religious/spiritual faith/worldview? (Or are you trying to hold on to social status/privilege, including patriarchal lies that infantilise and limit women or lock people into being tools of the power elites?) If not, I would suggest you have missed what should be the main point of your having a particular religious/spiritual faith/worldview: agape style (spiritual) love - something which improves with improved consciousness, something the world would benefit from more politicians and others with social-political-economic-social power/coercive influence having as well (so they can dismantle patriarchy and our various current destructive hierarchies).

If your religious/spiritual faith/worldview, whether it includes UAPs/UFOs/ETs or not, does that, then great - pat yourself on the back, and please continue.

If not, please reconsider ...””

I restacked this with the following comment:

“My reflections on the Breaking the Silence project have confirmed to me that the UAP/UFO/ET field actually should aim to broaden humanity’s consciousness. However, I have concerns about those who seek validation through physical evidence, often due to trauma including from others’ excessive skepticism. This also reflects a disconnect in “spiritual” movements that fail to engage with real-world issues such as poverty and bigotry, instead practicing escapism. I critique neoliberal politics and the self-destructive paths of major political parties, noting that growing awareness is necessary, and arguing that consciousness shapes spirituality and our worldview, and questioning the societal impact of religious beliefs on issues such as homelessness, minority inclusion, and political integrity. Ultimately, the note emphasises that genuine spiritual practice should manifest in improved consciousness and social responsibility, and urges reflection on the true purpose of one’s beliefs.”

17th May, 2026 - URL https://substack.com/@kayleengnwmythr/note/c-260192757

“I recently did an interview with a UFO experiencer group (I’ll post a link when the interview is ready to be posted - which will be on on YouTube), and that was just after a recent sighting. That seems to have helped strengthen my connection with my BPM Guides and my Deities of Tutelage and Service as well as the ETs that I work regularly with. I have been working at recovering from 15 years of damage from neoliberal workplaces over the last few years, and I feel very much that these two recent events have led to a bit of a personal reset - with flow on effects including a change to how I use my air filter and thus better management of one of my health problems, and working out a safe way to have one curtain open so I can see the night outside, which has improved my sleep, equanimity, and various health matters (I love the clear night sky, but I’ll take what city night sky I can get 😁). When I rejoined the Correllian tradition a bit over a year ago, I felt I had returned to a group of “my people”; I am getting that sensation again - more strongly - with the experiencer group. I have come home, in a sense.

You can see this note with the links as the “PPS” at https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2026/05/post-no-3449-couple-of-thoughts.html”

Photo by Marco Grosso on Unsplash (beyond a light green ridge sloping from left to right in the foreground is a parallel ridge, with darker grass and two trees communing with each other against white clouds)

In the 1980s I got on quite well with one of the managers above me in the hierarchy - he was, in fact, one of the better ones I worked for in the course of my nearly half century career, someone I had a workplace friendship with (a few of these became friendships, but some never did - they were just weird out of the workplace).

He would, from time to time, get my opinion on various matters - not always technical issues, often systems, etc. On one occasion, he asked me to drop into his office, and, after I sat down, he passed over a pad of stick-it notes (the generally yellow notes that used to get plastered everywhere before personal PCs, and still get used fairly often - even [perhaps somewhat ironically] on whiteboards), and said “Give this a bit of a try and let me know what you think of it”.

Now, in those days I tried very hard not to be psychic at work (the last 15 years of work under the evil of neoliberalism caused so much psychic damage I no longer had to try) - I aim to shut down what abilities I had, largely as part of protecting myself against the tension, despair, anger, and sundry other assorted unpleasant experiences of a high pressure workplace.

But in this particular case, because we were friendly, if not friends, I could practically feel, let alone hear (subjectively, not objectively), him willing me to also find that: the note lost its stickiness after being used once - and these things are supposed to stick in multiple locations.

So, in a moment of weakness, I reached over to the pad that had he passed over, picked off the top note (they were a lovely lilac, rather than the bright yellow of most), stuck it down on the desk, picked it up, repeated, and then said, “Yeah, you’re right, it loses it’s stickiness”.

To say the least, he was quite ... nonplussed at this. So we wound up having a decent length yarn about Psychism 101 and Telepathy 101 and Psychic Ethics 101 and Me Trying Not to be Psychic 101, and especially that I tried to say shut down as much as possible at work, but he was actively broadcasting very strongly because he wanted to get the message through.

Incidentally, that’s something that I’ve found with a lot of people: if they don’t want to do something or say something but want that to happen anyway, they will broadcast a wish, a very, very STRONG “wish”, that I (or whoever they’re aiming this attempt at negative psychic control at) do or not do something in order that they be relieved of (normal adult) responsibility.

Anyway, we agreed that I would take one pad of the notes and pretend to discover its flaw by “normal” means, so he could then have the basis for saying, “Well, look, you know, Kayleen took it away and she’s found this flaw”.

Unfortunately a few weeks later, obviously discomfited by this incident (when I asked a third party, they said he had left a message that I would know why) , he left the company, which was quite a blow to me.

That emphasised to me the importance - particularly in a competitive and often cruel industry where you needed allies - of staying shut down, and hiding any psychic ability, beyond just not using it: actively hiding it, not because it could be actively harmful (think angry people with pitchforks), but there could be pitchfork-free adverse consequences as well.

This incident came to mind recently when watching one of Steve Neill’s (of Breaking the Silence) Conversations with a guest where telepathy was discussed, including in the context of what Whitley Streiber has been writing about it - which I have not yet read.

Photo by Samuel Yongbo Kwon on Unsplash (a distressed woman is covering her head, as if to protect her thoughts from others nearby, perhaps)

This week I am going to write about what I will term performative pretentions – acting or gesturing or posturing or speaking in ways intended to convey the seeming likeness of something, but which are illusions – or at least questionable.

I’ll begin with one that is far too common, in my opinion:

Performative pretentions of familial love

My concerns with public displays of this sort of behaviour are usually triggered by abhorrent crimes which lead to public displays of anger (with some justification on some aspects) and threats of physical violence, rather than grief, which seem to me to be performative protestations of love – but … thou dost protest too much, me thinks.

Also, such displays have been used by people later convicted of the very crime they pretend to be reacting to …

These sorts of performative pretentions of familial love have also been seen by me in private, where I think it is something that has been trained in to people – i.e., “if you don’t _ , no-one will think you care”, which is wrong as it presumes everyone reacts / expresses emotions in the same way.

It also becomes controlling of other people, which is inherently an act of evil.

Performative pretentions also crop up in politics as it is acted out these days, and also in personal (intimate) relationships where it can cause social pressure leading to people being in relationships or even having children when they don’t want either.

Sometimes managing that means stopping your singing the praises of something you love, or avoiding manipulative phrases along the lines of “I can’t understand how … “.

If you can’t understand and it is upsetting you, go get the psychiatric help you clearly need – and zip your lips until then.

We also need to teach children to think critically, be competent with emotions, and know how to explore finding/having or living without a purpose/meaning – ESPECIALLY PURPOSES / MEANINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT TO THOSE OF THEIR PARENTS / PEERS / FRIENDS.

There’s a phrase for the effect of these performative pretensions, manipulations, etc: social conditioning.

Social conditioning is one of the major causes of discrimination (with loss of social status in the social status hierarchy being a major trigger of civil wars), with the six to ten millennia long social conditioning of patriarchy having caused appalling misogynistic abuses and abominable coverups and despicable hypocrisy now being – in part – recognised under the term “manosphere”, but one of the worst agents of transmission of that evil is now showing some encouraging signs of progressivism.

Unfortunately evil is still flourishing, including in West Asia, where the Israeli army chief has said “West Bank troops ‘killing like we haven’t killed since 1967’”, the crisis caused by the Israeli-USA war against Iran is putting aid, food, and fuel even further out of reach for millions (and there have been dire, but credible warnings about how bad this will get), the UAE has left OPEC, and Australia’s Bondi massacre Royal Commission is proceeding, with an interim report released, but grave criticisms of the process.

And on criticisms, there has been a warning against what is being published by the US government regarding UFOs/UAPs, which warning I consider well merited.

Also on the US government, an excellent independent investigative journalist has linked the Epstein files to the current US leader, and to Russia, where Putin has reportedly been able to wrest the blackmail power of Epstein’s activities away from Israel – or perhaps jointly hold it. Meanwhile, although 36 doctors are reported to have “pulled a Schlesinger”, much as General Mark Milley is reported to have done under the previous regime of the orange leader, a noted historian is describing what the USA is doing – i.e., allowing Israel (or, perhaps more accurately, Netanyahu) to lead it by the nose into a disastrous war with Iran that every other president over the last two or three decades had the political competence to avoid – as superpower suicide.

In my opinion, democracy in the USA is undergoing a death struggle, but the USA’s international status and power is dead. Russia, where Putin killed democracy long ago, is also dying internationally, and China, a largely totalitarian dictatorship for around ¾ of a century is, despite one opinion arguing (without adequate consideration of its internal markets) it is in trouble, the last superpower standing.

Democracy, with its recently identified benefits for brains, is struggling – including here, in Australia, where democracy is eroding as mainstream parties decline and a far right extremist party is effectively the opposition and racism, which, in its (incompetent) xenophobic form raises question about whether / how we can make sure Australia is a “good” nation – and is being resisted even by family members of racists, continues to be a particular plague … along with anti-LGBTQIASB+ hate, the arrogant Dunning-Keller type incompetence against disabled people, and the end state market limits of the actions of neoliberals – who are, IMO, the Sith of politics.

And ALL of it is due to the character flaws of those in power – people who had those opportunities, in the long term from a spiritual point of view, as a test of their character, and who failed morally … not only from the point of view of Paganism, but almost every religion and code of behaviour through human history.

Humanity needs to teach (anti-discrimination) decency, kindness, and critical thinking to every single child, in order that we may survive … and, maybe, one day, move on to thriving …

And … do we start choosing who to vote for on the basis of their (real) character, rather than – or on an equal basis with - their policies?

By the way, the brain benefits of democracy are outlined in:

“Democracy is about people: Are we paying enough attention to the brain?” https://www.idea.int/node/161115 “In a new 34-country mega-study just published in Nature Medicine, weaker democratic institutions were associated with accelerated brain aging. In the context of global population aging and democracy decline, this study clearly suggests that democracy scholars and public authorities have an opportunity to engage to support healthier brain aging trajectories at both the individual and population levels. As we seek to move beyond the common diagnoses of the declines in democracy and look for a solution, a new connection between the emerging field of brain capital research and democracy has the potential to allow us to take the big step needed to arrest the decline and treat the causes. Brain capital is a complex concept that takes into account an individual’s knowledge, skills, and brain health. It recognizes that mental health, cognitive and emotional skills, and lifelong learning drive economic, social, and democratic resilience. Unlike traditional human capital, which emphasizes productivity, brain capital places mental well-being and creative capacity at the core of the economy.”

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.

Photo by Rajiv Perera on Unsplash (people from several generations being together)

I have been re-watching the TV (now streaming) series “Babylon Five”, and, in particular, I noted the comments (in Season 4, Episode 6 “Into The Fire”) made by Lorien, the first and last of the First Ones (see https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/Lorien and https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/First_Ones), to the Shadows and Vorlons about letting go and moving on so the younger races can be independent, responsible adults.

What was said reminded me of comments I have written elsewhere, to the effect that I have noted that, whenever there is a major change of technology (e.g., the invention of the printing press, or PCs, or the Internet) or a major advancement of knowledge (such as advances in scientific knowledge, philosophy, and human rights/ethics), past knowledge needs to be re-presented in a way that

(a) addresses or accounts for additional knowledge (even if that is “only” to explain why it does not pertain to metaphysics), and

(b) is more comprehensible to the current generation (the changes in all languages with time is another example of that need - few English speakers alive today could read something written in Middle or Old English).

This not a trite reclaiming out of a sense of ... current fashions - or, at least, not ALL due to that, though some is (out of intergenerational irritation - often, IMO, triggered by us older lot being judgemental and grumpy), and some is due to ongoing problems common to ALL generations such as ego and/or greed. Some of the people I follow are engaged in exactly that sort of re-presenting - and they can be, when I am being impatient, frustrating, but ... given time, they do seem to largely sort out any problems/mistakes (and yes, young ones: you, as with us, are not infallible and CAN and DO sometimes make mistakes ... and, yes, sometimes we do know things you don’t).

A very important example of updating knowledge in response to learning is, IMO, the change in focus of the UFO/UAP/ET field from the focus on physical evidence (largely associated, in my experience, with older researchers / those with questionable associations with officialdom) to the importance of consciousness (often associated with younger researchers - but also experiencers of all ages who come to the realisation that this is what it is all about).

(Some people fit on both sides of this sort of situation.)

There is another aspect to this, which is the importance of older people recognising when it is time for them to move on, or move out of roles. This was examined brilliantly by the series “Archetypal Character Arcs: Transformative Stories for the Modern World” by the excellent YouTube channel “Betwixt: The Story of You” (which I mentioned in this blog post).

This does NOT mean the older generation stops doing, or is sidelined, or is shuffled off the scene, but it does lead to a possible change in how their (our 😊 ) work is done in order to be relevant / useful.

The following is from my lived experience presentation on older workers:

… “With respect to older workers, that continuum of age effects may also include:

• What to do with acquired and still relevant knowledge (some knowledge will no longer be relevant, but knowing what has and hasn’t worked before sets important context for new developments);

• Management of attitudes related to ageing, including:

• Bias against older workers / lack of change (i.e., by having and acting out of a desire for exciting [aka new] things no matter their merit or lack of merit) / established or proven matters;

• Bias of older workers against younger workers / change/ new matters;”

...

“However, older knowledge that could be potentially be of value (from the construction field) could be:

• ...

• Trials that did not work. Successes tend to be recorded, but negative results are also important – especially if working on implementation of new processes (something technical periodicals for peer reviewed articles need to remember and include).”

…

“I have also heard people advocate for the knowledge of human behaviour/characteristics of older people, but I consider that is a misperception:

• That comment tends to be based on human characteristics that the older person (or advocate) likes or is comfortable with, which may be characteristics that are no longer appropriate (e.g., the personal characteristics that enable being a horse whisperer, given that commercial use of horses is now extremely limited in most places … more commonly, I’ve come across such comments as a backlash to modern technology);

• The ability to assess human characteristics tends to be a specific skill that is not dependent on age. Instead, factors such as the following may be more relevant:

• Predisposition towards human sciences;

• Lived experience that made the ability to assess people important – e.g., being a member of a minority group (or several);

• Contact with people with formal training in counselling, etc – such as relatives, friends, or a work environment that included multiple skillsets.

However, what might be useful is knowledge of how to cope with the frustrations, setbacks, and demands of that profession (e.g., “how to flounder gracefully when you make a mistake in front of a client” [don’t lie or cover up; be aware that there are often two sets of emotions – one professional such as disappointment/annoyance at not having provided work to the desired standard, embarrassment, the other the fear most humans have of human aggression and fear about consequences for career, etc; be precise and realistic in any stated or inferred commitments – be as open as possible about phone calls etc to resolve the problem).”

...

“Recognising knowledge that can be useful is not always clearcut – especially if it was not mentioned in University qualifications.

This point applies to older workers as well, some of whom may have difficulty moving past a lifetime invested in a particular aspect/type/specialisation of work.”

…

All food for thought, perhaps.

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.

I have a limited supply of spoons, and must prioritise …

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
(an office worker is writing on paper)

One of my other activities is “lived experience” presentations – including one on autism, which is available for sale at https://ko-fi.com/s/2a7bb77b77 , and includes the following:

“Next, accountability. While social norms may be misunderstood, sensory overloads and reactions such as meltdowns are beyond the control of autists, and there are variations in personality of autists, deliberate harm of others or illegal actions are still unacceptable, and autists should be held to account for those.

This particularly applies to prominent figures suddenly claiming to be autistic and trying to use that as an excuse for assaults or abuse of others or other wrongdoing – behaviours which are not part of the normal behaviours of autistic adults.”

In light of that, I have no problems agreeing with the judge’s comments in the following report:

“Southport attack inquiry blames ‘catastrophic’ failures by agencies and killer’s ‘irresponsible’ parents” https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/13/southport-attack-blamed-on-catastrophic-failures-by-agencies-and-killers-irresponsible-parents “Official report says system ‘completely failed’ because some form of violence by Axel Rudakubana had been ‘unambiguously signposted over many years’” “Fulford also criticised a repeated tendency of professionals to “excuse” Rudakubana’s increasingly violent and unpredictable behaviour on the basis of his suspected, and later confirmed, autism. “This was both unacceptable and superficial,” he said. … But Fulford said there was a “fundamental failure” by any organisation to take ownership of the risk Rudakubana posed. He added: “Numerous systems that should have provided oversight, assessment and protection were ineffective or inadequately used. Some failed outright. The consequences were catastrophic.” ... The inquiry chair said he had “profound concerns” about the “misguided and irresponsible” actions of Rudakubana’s parents, Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzayire, who discovered in the weeks before the attack that their son was building a lethal arsenal of weapons but failed to report it to police for fear he would be arrested or taken into care.”

But accountability includes other authorities with coercive power as well.

After reading “Exclusive: 13-year-old pinned down and thrown by police officer on train speaks out” https://nit.com.au/17-04-2026/23765/exclusive-13-year-old-pinned-down-and-thrown-by-police-officer-on-train-speaks-out , I would expect the following obvious questions to be answered promptly:

1. Will the officer to be investigated for possible excessive force also be investigated for possibly being an accessory after the fact (or enabling, if he took no action despite an awareness of the alleged events) and/or covering up an offence up with regard to the alleged public harassment and theft of personal property?
If not, why not?

2. Will the officer also be investigated for possible sexual assault?
If not, why not?

There are broader concerns associated with this incident, and they are best assessed by a National Indigenous Times editorial – which is better than anything I could write - from that edition:

“Editorial: Two standards, one police force” https://nit.com.au/17-04-2026/23769/editorial-two-standards-one-police-force

Having power is always a moral test. What are you going to do with that power? Are you going to serve the cause of community wellbeing, as Pagans and some other religions and humanists do, or are you going to surrender to greed and short term gains?

On that, there have been other morally concerning events in Australia this fortnight as well – beginning with political duplicity by a conservative party preferencing a party of vague hate, a state Premier with concerning ties to lobbyists doubling down when caught out attacking democracy, a gun lobby claiming their USA-style position and actions against public safety “isn’t personal” (it is to the families and surviving victims of the massacre that led to those laws, and is based on their personal likes, so that claim is highly disputable), more ethical concerns (“The key ethical problems in algorithmic decision-making relate to opacity, discretion and accountability”) about the use of computerised decision making in the provision of government services, razor gang cut backs, reduced eligibility, and vague but alarmist allegations by police of organised crime involvement (which taints and undermines the entirety of the scheme, and is so vague that will be applied by others to the entirety of the scheme – which the police either know, or are incompetent about) about Australia’s disability support scheme (but, on the other hand, some protection of whistleblowers), delaying – on a flimsy pretext - acting on recommendations to manage bigotry, and resistance (due to corporate capture?) to providing fairer (for the Australian community) taxation on extractive resources.

What is wrong with Australia’s political class and public services?

More importantly, how do we fix it – beginning with how do we eliminate the human capital, infrastructure capital, and environmental capital destroying neoliberalism philosophy that appears to have infested and warped those groups?

And how do we go back to bold and enduring reform?

As a Pagan, I consider genuine caring for this world, which includes the physical environment and all Sentient Life (including, but not limited to, humans) would be a good start – in other words: better character. Artemis flight around the moon has been inspiring and shown signs of the “overview effect”, but even with that, there are moral questions about what we are going to do regarding the Moon (note: the article I linked to favours Indigenous approaches).

These issues attributable to poor or “bad” character (in the genuine sense, not the pretext version of character used by bureaucrats, police, etc) are particularly noticeable online – although at least one small step towards accountability / change have been taken.

They are also particularly noticeable internationally – with the online “rape academy”, pandering to climate denying fantasists, another call for accountability over the Epstein files, concerns over a “government within a government” in the UK that is beyond ministerial control, development finance drying up and concentration of hunger in ten conflict-affected nations, and the ongoing nightmares in West Asia (e.g., this, about death by self harm) and Sudan (e.g., this).

At least Chad is sending troops to try to combat gang violence in Haiti, the UN is trying to get fertiliser flowing, Italy has stood up to Israel, Palestinians have voted in limited elections, and an anti-protest law in an Australian state has been struck down.

Can the good examples be used to pressure indifferent politicians into being better people and/or politicians? Maybe …

It is a contest of powers and visions: short term greed and addiction to power vs selflessness and caring for the community – which are politically unfashionable in too many places.

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Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash (a conference room with wooden table and beige chairs, photo of a city on the wall to the left and view across the city through the windows at back, is ready for a meeting)

Some places I worked in before retiring from my day job seemed like shelter homes for misogynists and man-babies/boy-babies.

It was no wonder they had low retention rates for female staff (we were never told of any legal cases about discrimination - this was in the days before NDAs were banned [in this Australian state] in such situations).

There were quite a few problems which caused this (in both the workplaces and the profession - which seemed to be run by clueless people for much of my career [it got less bad in later years] - in those days, at least), but one of those problems was the flawed hiring processes.

I’ve been part of those processes (in a technical field), and been frustrated and angered by the persistent refusal to listen when I answer questions about what is needed for a role (my reply was generally about types of experience) rather than give the hiring department a simple “they need this University degree” (which is of limited value, as Uni degrees in my field were more significant as an entry permit and licence to start learning than as a guarantor of technical ability).

When we finally got to interview candidates, much of it was - in effect - asking candidates to verbally state what they had written. A bit like:

Interviewer: “What is your University qualification?”

Candidate: “Degree W”

Interviewer: “Ah yes, I see that from your CV.”

Candidate: (stews in silence behind a polite smile)

But then we would get to exploring matters a little further:

Interviewer A: “And what do you think of your degree?”

Candidate: “It was good”

Interviewer A: “Ah, yes - that’s good”

Interviewer B: “I see from your CV you had a four day break which hasn’t been explained. Could you explain that, please?”

Candidate: “Yes, all of my family and friends were kidnapped and I had to help find and rescue them from twelve different nations”

Interviewer B: “Ah yes, well … I suppose those circumstances were a little unusual … although we try to discourage taking off too much time for personal matters.”

Candidate: (stews in silence behind a polite smile)

Obviously, the above is a little farce, and nothing in real life has ever gone anywhere near to that level of shittiness, but a lot of interviews have been … less than perfect.

In general, meeting the technical requirements is not really a problem; what makes it seem like a problem is that people and companies are fixated - arrogantly - on “the best”.

It doesn’t matter that someone who genuinely is the best in a field may be more needed - for overall community benefit - in another workplace, and that their skills and expertise will not be fully utilised in that company: the greater glory of the boss’s ego demands that he accumulates “the best” so he (most likely a he, but not always) can display little trophies in his mind space of “best secretary”, “best floor sweeper”, “best technical expert in N”, “best accountant for minimising tax”, etc.

I’ve written elsewhere about this problem (and do not have the time, energy or inclination to try to find any of those blog posts, but if I do, I’ll add them here), and, in summary:

• anyone who is the best is going to be courted by others, and may decide to take one of those offers - especially if their skills are not being fully utilised;

• anyone who is NOT the best is more likely, in my experience, to be grateful at having been given a chance, and thus be more loyal and more actively contribute a little extra.

So … in a nutshell, there is not, in my opinion, a strong need to focus heavily - let alone exclusively - on technical aspects in most job interviews (based on my experience - some jobs will require that focus).

That means job interviews can also devote a little time to … oh, I dunno, maybe checking what people are REALLY like on DEI matters, perhaps?

In my current frustration, which is founded on past situations that may have changed for the better (as happened in some workplaces I was at) and persistent racism/white supremacism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry in workplaces, and atrocities such as the Epstein crimes against humanity and the online rape academy, I am tempted to go so far as to want to hire actors to play - badly - the role of, for instance, a newly transitioned trans person (I don’t want to expose actual trans people to the potential risks of abuse - or being identified by transphobes … and this would require security in the room) and others who will trigger any hatreds (bigotries) that the candidate wants to hide.

If the candidate has a problem with any of these people, they have shown - in my opinion - that there is a major risk that they will breach internal standards regarding professional behaviour (which is what DEI policies are), and may also do so with some clients, and thus they are unsuited to that workplace.

Of course, this will depend on local laws (and here in Australia, particularly my adopted home state of Victoria, those laws are better than, say, the USA), but the points that

(a) DEI is about good management, and

(b) how well candidates will treat their colleagues & your clients (aka “fit” workplace culture) is a key part of suitability to that workplace/job,

are valid everywhere, and SHOULD, IMO, be examined as part of hiring interviews - with a genuine & serious, if not strenuous, effort.

In my current frustration, I feel that the only way women and other minority (with regard to social power) groups will be able to contribute all their skills and have a reasonable change of a decent career is if we start making that possible by hiring better (with regard to character) people.

Anyway, I’ll leave this at that for now, and hop off my soap box.

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Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash
(a sign calling for justice and change being held by one of several blurry protestors in the foreground, with blurred trees in the background)

Eventually, all tyrants fall - although that may well require the fall of successors, since just removing the one person at the top will simply allow someone else to step into the vacancy in the power STRUCTURE, and keep exercising and directing the powers of that system.

But even so, eventually the world will come to a point where the current fascist-Epstein class rulership of the USA loses sufficient power and/or coherence to be replaced (and what replaces it is an entirely different set of considerations), and the issue of justice will arise, and I would like to make a few non-legal comments, as a non-legal someone outside the USA (I am Australian), on that.

To begin with, it will NOT be like the military Nuremberg trial: the USA will most likely not have fallen to a set of foreign powers who can impose whatever justice they wish, possibly under the guidance of benevolent or semi-benevolent leaders (e.g., Franklin D Roosevelt). On that, I know of no leaders who could exert the sort of visionary judicial leadership and/or inspiration that would be needed - I consider leaders such as Canada’s Mark Carney bastions of resistance leadership, but that is different. And, although there are people who should, in my opinion, be committed to trial at the ICC, even after destroying the world and itself, I doubt the USA would agree to the sort of international trials that SHOULD happen - which will leave the issue of reparations from the USA open.

But to return to the USA and trial of people from the current fascist-Epstein class rulership, I consider the historical example that I know of which would be closest to what will have to happen in the USA is the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials in Germany from 1963 to 1968 (the lead up to these trials was dramatised in “Labyrinth of Lies”).

Consider: those trials were held under the laws which applied within Germany at the time of the offences, whereas the initial, famous and subsequent Nuremberg trials and the Polish Auschwitz trial were held under a combination of international law (including the innovation of holding individuals responsible, and aggression, which had been viewed as wrong for centuries and delegitimised after World War One, but was still viewed by some as imposed retroactively in those trials), and war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Similarly, at the times of the trials which the USA will need to hold, a new system is unlikely to have been developed, discussed/amended, agreed/ratified/adopted, and in place, so the laws which apply now will most likely need to be the basis for those trials.

That is why I consider the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials the best example of what will need to be held - and it will likely include the same sort of internal obstructionism, opposition, and coverups that those trials were subject to as well.

I note that some state trials have started already. Such trials are free of the problem of Executive clemency that trials under US Federal law would involve, although they will involve greater effort to ensure justice is achieved across the entirety of the USA.

On that, the issue of momentum is going to be important: any case that is badly handled, or subject to any foolish missteps (such as relationships between prosecutorial staff, etc) could be damaging - including giving the active opposition (organised in part by those at risk of being tried – a motivation being seen on the world stage now, IMO) encouragement.

So ... go carefully, ensuring you build a basis for further trials by being exemplary in the perhaps smaller trials that you can win initially. (There is a great line in the film “All the President’s Men” about that, to the effect of building a case against a conspiracy from the outside in.)

But as the existing trials are about murder, are there worse crimes than murder? Yes - organising deaths and suffering on a large scale - as has happened with things like abolishing U.S. A.I.D., and the mass deportations which have seen multiple deaths in detention.

And ultimately, these trials should be aiming at wresting back the funds and resources which have been stolen on a massive, industrial scale, funds which should be used for reparations/compensation, rebuilding & restoration - including outside the USA.

These trials - not only now, but in the future - will require enormous courage and commitment to justice - and an acknowledgement that no (genuine) crime is too small to pursue, and imposing penalties for traffic violations by I C E is, IMO, an area that could eventually prove to be beneficial to other cases. (I also wonder whether ICE’s policies & procedures and training have been formally amended to cover everything that ICE staff [I question describing them as agents] do, but surely someone would have initiated legal action if that was the case ... and done whatever legally was necessary to find that out ... or does it not fall with state judiciaries limits? Even if state resources are being used?)

Does the USA have adequate numbers of adequately principled legal officers, and the other necessary resources, to do this?

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Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash
(one tree stands out as more frost coated than the surrounding frosted forest)

A lot of situations are reduced (by legacy corporate media, certainly, but also by some of those people who have not been adequately taught critical thinking) to “us and them” – two sides, a problem which may then be exacerbated by the curse of “bothsidesism”, or reduction to unnuanced opposites.

There is an example of this at the moment, where the leadership of Israel and the USA are portraying their war against Iran as an us vs. them episode – which, militarily, it is, but from a human rights perspective, NONE of the “sides” is particularly good.

Iran is a despotic regime (effectively created as an outcome [after three decades of abusive governance] of the US-UK overthrow of a democratic Iranian government in the 1950s), and is continuing to hang protestors (in fact, more last year than any year since 1989) as the current war continues; Israel is subject to a prima facie finding by the ICJ of a risk it is committing genocide (the court case is yet to be concluded, but this allows provisional orders to be made); and the current US regime is widely considered fascist (see Democracy Now [Dec 2025], Fascism Clock [Jan 2026], The Root [Jan 2026], The Atlantic [Jan 2026]. The Guardian [Mar 2026] – and note that the dates of assessments are significant – earlier assessments may have been less certain), the cause of global human rights atrocities (e.g., Boston University tracker, Harvard TH Chan school, Center for Global Development), and is also criticised within its own borders for human rights abuses (e.g., see USA Today [Jan 2026], The Guardian [Feb 2026], Human Rights Watch [Feb 2026]) including degradation of the environment and feeding the climate crisis (see, for instance, Time [Jan 2026], Earth.Org [Jan 2026], Amnesty International [Jan 2026], NPR [Feb 2026], Inside Climate News [April 2026], [US] ABC News [April 2026]).

As a Pagan who works with nuance as a result of working with multiple Deities and who reveres all sentient life (and the environment), all three are appalling – and, in addition to the regional human rights atrocities, there is global humanitarian and human rights harm, and massive environmental and climate damage.

From the news this week, a week described as the most significant since 1945, the USA threatened genocidal destruction, Israel violently ignored a ceasefire that the USA and Iran considered also included Lebanon, and, after Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution, Iran ignored international law and the ceasefire to mine (or claimed to had) another nation’s waters to exert a choking control over the Strait of Hormuz.

And ironically, there is a distinct possibility that the USA sought a ceasefire, in part, because of the way the war had crippled its neoliberalism limited military capabilities ...

There are many causes to this situation, but I wish to consider two, in particular.

The first is the poor character of the leaders of these (and other, including mine) nations.

In many cases, this is some form of toxic masculinity (see also Clementine Ford on SubStack, and here, on my [main] blog), also referred to as the manosphere, or, in the case of women, toxic femininity (see also YouTube on “Benevolent Sexism”)) – both of which are tools of patriarchy, IMO.

Now, there has been some good news in terms of voters choosing better leaders – for instance, Orbán has been ousted, and Gen Z protestors have achieved promising results in Nepal and had an impact in Madagascar (but not Bangladesh or Morocco) – and need to build stable, viable political alternatives, but more needs to be done.

I consider a dangerous angle that hasn’t been used yet but may be necessary is to do some proper checking of the characters of candidates.

I have written about that on my main blog, and from “Post No. 3,422 - Restoring trust in (more) Australian politicians” https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2026/04/post-no-3422-restoring-trust-in-more.html

“... what I consider candidates for ... election(s) ... should consider to demonstrate to voters that - IRRESPECTIVE of their policies - they are decent and worthwhile candidates.

These are IN ADDITION TO existing legal electoral and party requirements, NOT instead of or as a substitute for.

1. Do online surveys (or get a professional psychological assessment) on the strength of the candidate’s propensity towards psychology’s “Dark Triad” characteristics of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellism, and authoritarianism, and publish the results (a genuine summary would be OK) on a website where they will be available throughout the election process.

Similarly, unmanaged unconscious bias - which we all have, but many authoritarians refuse to acknowledge that, making them more likely to be bigots, and those with Dark Triad problems would seek to misuse those characteristics - particularly in others.

The intention here is to show what people are actually like - there is a lot of gaslighting BS about “character checks” that, in reality, are only detection-of-found-and-publicly-punished*-criminality checks - which say NOTHING about whether the person would be a bigot, or a power hungry manipulator, or has any of the anti-democratic tendencies of authoritarians.

This would require an explanation on all those websites, written by a psychologist who both understands the shortcomings of those surveys/assessments and the preconceptions/misconceptions/predilections towards unfair biases of the general public, and the vitally important need to find a way to demonstrate quality of character that is OUTSIDE the existing systems.

Where characteristics are present to a concerning extent, prepare and publish a plan for managing those characteristics.

This MUST ONLY EVER BE VOLUNTARY.

* some convictions are not recorded

2. To minimise vulnerability to lobbying influences and public passions of the day, commit to serve only for one term.

This means good candidates would not serve consecutive terms, would not get Parliamentary pensions, etc, but I doubt there is only one decent person is each electorate who is interested in running for Parliament.

(I would accept an exception to this if the candidate becomes a government Minister.)

3. Show respect for the personal agency of voters by giving them (at ALL stages of life - in schools, and as adults) the tools (particularly critical thinking and an understanding of rhetoric) to avoid scams, identify misinformation/disinformation in the media, better manage AI slop, and be better able to assess political messaging.

4. Avoid conflicts of interest by not debating or voting on any housing affordability/availability matter if the candidate has an investment residential property, and seek to prevent others doing so.”

I describe this as dangerous because:

a) There is a chance that some fool will try to make this compulsory, which would:

(i) dissuade some good people who should stand as candidates but may have valid reasons for not doing this; and

(ii) restrict discussion on this approach and possibly bias discussion on the problem it is intended to address;

b) Further use of this in other areas would need to be carefully considered. For instance:

(i) I consider either recruits into forces with coercive power (military, emergency services, police) or trainers / key decision makers in those organisations (and maybe the public service?) could usefully be tested for these characteristics, but, in that instance, making the information public available could hinder those people doing their work, and it should only be made available to those making decisions about hiring or promoting;

(ii) There may be a case for shareholders/Board members to have similar information about CEOs/key managers in large companies, but there are other techniques (such as conducting interviews more rigorously with regard to DEI) which may be more appropriate and/or more effective;

c) Trying to push this into areas where the problems are normal personality clashes or politics would be an abuse.

In Pagan situations, there are technical (knowledge) requirements before initiation into a Priestess/Priest role, and there are better character expectations (because of the requirement to care for environment as well as people in most Pagan groups) which err towards having better people in those roles – or, if they’re not, fewer people will go to them, as there is no cult of fear and exclusion for not slavishly being part of a specific group.

This has been an influence in me developing the idea of testing actual character.

I am also aware that Elders in First Peoples groups become so as a result of consensus, after proving their ability to serve their community well and effectively for some decades.

The next factor in these situations that has been revealed is the poor, often deeply flawed governance systems – including the post World War Two international order. What has happened in the USA has shown the devastating weakness of many political conventions and systems when strenuously tested (and I have held similar concerns about Australian political conventions [as with other verbal contracts, “they’re not worth the paper they’re written on”] for decades – especially when they are “defended” by a Prime Manager who does not know that greed was a key driver towards federation of the UK’s Australian colonies into the UK’s Australian “nation”), and the evils that can result from corporate capture/capture by the ideology of “we have to have power to do anything” to political parties of all persuasion.

These political problems have, as mentioned previously, made existing problems – such as the persistent underfunding of humanitarian aid, the killing of aid workers, scams, the abuses of developing nations, human rights and media abuses [including human trafficking], authoritarian heavy-handedness, and climate crisis issues such as rising sea levels and unsurvivable heatwaves – far worse.

Some work by an author, which led to a meeting with the Pope, head of the Catholic Church, has shown the power structures and the abuses of power those structures enable – but has also hinted at the accountability – starting at the top - and changes needed to address those problems.

“He spent years investigating Opus Dei, a Catholic group accused of a vast conspiracy of abuse. Then Pope Leo asked to meet” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/06/opus-dei-gareth-gore-pope-leo “Gareth Gore’s 2024 book Opus alleges decades of manipulation, which the group has denied. He believes the pope wanted to send a clear message”

Other news reports that help illustrate this are a claim by the Australian Greens that they can use ‘progressive populism’ to win voters deserting major parties for far right groups and parties, and that one far right Senator will leave Parliament after only one term as he has, in his opinion “failed” to attain his goals – suggesting Australian voters have a better insight than some of us fear.

Because of limited health, time, and energy, I am going to leave this edition of this column at that for now.

In future, to better manage what I can do, this column will likely be fortnightly – which I hope will also give me the opportunity to better craft these.

And yes, further to this column, I will stay here for now.

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.

I haven’t made a decision yet - I think the writing I do here has a different … flavour, and is not as well suited to my main blog, but I have to … rationalise somewhere - or just cut back how I aim to do.

Anyway, the post I am referring to is:

“Post No. 3,429 - And another writing platform turns out to be ... flawed” https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2026/04/post-no-3429-and-another-writing.html

PS - I will stay here for now

If you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.