If this is being British, you can count me out!

The spectacle of crowds of frenzied shoppers fighting each other at the "Black Friday" shopping sales is enough to make anyone cringe. It is in fact, a beautiful example of what has become of certain sections of our 'Great' Britain.
Okay, so not everyone is willing to crush a granny or trample a child to get their hands on a flat screen TV. But nevertheless, the spectacle does tell us something significant about where we have gone in the UK.
It is symptomatic of a crisis that is afflicting so many people. An emptiness to who they are, what they feel and what they aspire to. Of course there's nothing wrong in buying a TV, but to be willing to go to these lengths of borderline violence for the sake of saving a few pounds......we have to ask ourselves what has gone wrong. Surely this is not the Great Britain that the politicians like to talk about in their speeches! Hopefully not, anyway.

I remember when I returned to live in London after an 11 year absence in Japan, noticing how much more materialistic British society had become. It seemed that if couples or families owned less than two houses and had less than one car per person, they considered themselves on the breadline. This was back in 2008 before the 'crash',  but things have not changed for the better. If anything, they've just become more desperate, as we have seen on the appropriately named 'Black Friday'.

I have to say, it is not a good advertisement for the United Kingdom, and I'm not personally convinced that such scenes would be possible in some of the European countries that we seem to love to hate over here (and blame, by the way)!

Perhaps it is an opportunity for reflection.Why have people become so desperately materialistic? Who is responsible? Are these the values we REALLY aspire to?

The point is that such behaviour as we have seen in these instances represents the antithesis of what prosperity REALLY means.There is a very powerful 'poverty mindset' that drives this kind of desperation. We may aim to create a society of plenty, but when we see people willing to sacrifice dignity and values for these shiny things, we can be certain that we are not moving towards true prosperity.

New feminists and Taoism

Recently we have seen several high-profile individuals such as Emma Watson ‘come out’ and declare themselves as ‘feminists’. Presumably this is a gesture designed to improve the public image of feminism, and somehow make it more acceptable. However, it is by no means clear what they actually mean when they say they are ‘feminists’.One can’t help but wonder if these individuals themselves really know what they mean when they say they are feminists. Emma Watson has mentioned something about standing up for women’s rights in Africa, or elsewhere and of course this is commendable. But this not really a feminist issue, rather it is about basic human rights. Believing that men and women have equal rights is no longer a feminist issue. It is taken as read that it concerns everyone and that any other type of view is unacceptable. So what really IS a feminist? Who can be a feminist? Nobody seems to have an answer to this question but here are a few ideas:

1     A feminist is someone that believes that our world needs to move in a ‘feminine’ direction by becoming more caring, and more nurturing of the values that we associate with people that call themselves ‘women’.
2.       A feminist is someone that believes that women should have more rights and more power in society.
3.       A feminist is someone that rejects traditional stereotypes associated with male and female genders.

These definitions of feminism are quite different in various ways.  The first one is about feminine values and the type of society we want to create.  If we look at Geerd Hofstede’s index of cross-cultural distinctions we see that some societies value Femininity more than others. Examples of this typically are Scandinavian societies that appear to be more ‘caring’ in the way they are structured. On the other hand, according to Hofstede Japan scores very low on the index for feminine values. Anyone that has actual experience of Japan however would probably dispute such a result and we soon find ourselves in difficulties here: What really ARE feminine values and how do they manifest in a society? Speaking personally as someone that has lived in Japan for example, I would say that overall and with all things considered, Japan is a more’ caring’ society than the UK, which apparently contradicts Hofstede’s findings.

The other two definitions above are more similar to each other and imply a more political stance for a feminist. The second really amounts to an interest group for 50% of the population and is not really about values. It’s more about women saying “Here we are and we mean business”, which is, after all not a very feminine thing to be saying. It leads us to saying things such as: Do feminists actually want to be women or not? This implies an existential crisis behind feminist outbursts, a kind of search for an identity or re-definition of women’s role in society. Again, nobody seems to have clarity on what this means and how it can actually support the interests of women or society.

The third definition above again suggests a re-ordering of roles and relationships with regard to gender. But what this really means or what it would look like is not clear. It is also not clear whether or not it would contribute to the quality of life that people, including women experience now.

One possible solution to this confusing situation is to turn to Eastern philosophy for insight. In the Taoist principles of Yin and Yang we get a different frame on the whole issue, that moves us away from intellectualism and political posturing towards a more profound connection with what makes us who we are in this world. The genius of Eastern thought lies in its’ simplicity. Taoism takes us into the energies that govern our existence, giving us insight that resonates with quantum science at a very deep level. The principles of Yin and Yang deal with optimum balance and well-being. There is a simple clarity in the principles that go beyond the confusion that politically-oriented ‘intellectual’ western-style discourse gets us into. We are after all, essentially fields of energy moving through a universe of energies that are interacting in various ways. Taoism says that nothing is wrong. We already possess everything we need to be in balance, whole and complete on this earth. The problems begin when we confuse ourselves and get out of balance. This happens when we disconnect from our centre and identify with a false identity. Unfortunately, western civilisation is based on and continually encourages us to engage with this whole confusion rather than re-connect with the whole. Osho has pointed this out in a detailed way in his speeches as a critic of the West.

When individuals are out of balance and sick, then naturally the society will also be so. Clarity is needed to bring people towards a healthful existence so that they can truly move ahead and contribute their gifts to society. The problem is that there are too many voices giving out confusing and unhelpful messages. When people start to identify with political principles and base their life around intellectual ideas they soon get lost or mired in conflicts that in general do not bring us closer to healthy solutions.  The term ‘feminist’ has a cache of conflict and division that does not really serve the cause of unity and wholeness. Seeing and feeling beyond gender politics to a more underlying and fundamental pattern of harmony or disharmony, firstly within ourselves and then as a society, is more likely to bring people closer together in reconciliation.

Hi and welcome to this new blog. The year is 2014 and the month is August.