Pravda, or not...

Today marks a pivital day in history, where after almost 80 years an intentionally skewed interpretation of "truth" has brought Europe back to the brink of war. "Pravda", meaning "truth" in Russian, was also the name of Communist Russia's main media outlet, and a powerful propoganda machine for almost 70 years. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, President Yeltsin sold the "Truth" branded media outlet to Greek business interests, which triggered some confusion and trademark disputes over the following years. A modern version of "Pravda" or "truth" is being served up by Russian leaders not only to Russians but the entire world. Canted historic views are being propagated thoughout Russian media, stirring up fear and anger against Ukrainians where no fear or anger needs to exist. Why? To support the expansionist agenda of an oligargh supported tyrant. Fear is a powerful weapon, as i've written previously on this blog. And media is a powerful carrier of messages such as these. Arguably, social media has become the most powerful carrier of information in our times, systematically used and abused by groups with all kinds of agendas. The spead of information and misinformation has never been so rapid and rampant. Think of the Canadian truckers' blockades. The incredible impact social media played in expanding their cause and methods, where the blockades were even replicated in far reaching corners of the world. Whether you agree with the pretext to these blockades or not, it was extremely successful in gaining international exposure and support. I would argue the events on the Russian-Ukrainian border are a significantly deeper and graver threat to the freedoms most of us have enjoyed since the last world war. Make no mistake, how the free world reacts Russia's provocations will dictate how these tyrants will act in the future. The slap on the wrist after incursions into Georgia and annexation of Crimea have not brought any change in behaviour, simply emboldened Putin to make larger and riskier military moves. He's become a well honed strategic chess player, with Europe as his chessboard. And CHINA IS WATCHING. How the world reacts to Putin sets the stage for how the world might react to China's geopolitical moves in the future. It's the key reason China has thrown their support behind Russia, under the guise of an imminent "security threat". The free world's politicians will slap Putin's wrists again -a bit harder than before, but as painful as it might be it will remain just a slap. So what might be a better deterrant against tyrants such as Putin? And how can we expose his skewed "Pravda" to the Russian people? Back to the truckers' blockade. What if, in addition to politicians playing high stakes tit for tat with Russia, there would be a Canadian style grass roots blockade of Russian embassies in every freedom loving nation? Something of the scale that would cause the Russian people to question the "Pravda" misinformation they're beeing served. It would certainly raise the political stakes for these expansionist tyrants, while helping expose the truth behind their words and actions. Perhaps it might be a more impactful means of securing our freedoms, with a much further reaching perspective.

The Power of Love

Love is. A short statement, to some it may seem like an incomplete statement - seemingly missing a key adjective to describe it. Rather than delve into various descriptions of love, take a moment to allow Love to embrace you. No, not as a verb or action, but perehps a bit more like an individual though not quite a living being, something you recognize as being utterly powerful and capable of enveloping life itself. God spoke to Moses, Moses asked "Who shall i say has sent me?", God replied "I AM". True, God is an individual, but God also says He IS Love. I AM.. Love IS.. OK, my goal here is not to get too abstract or to confuse anyone, but have you grapple with Love and how it envelopes us, or at least should envelop us. Today as a met with a few men for our regular morning prayer, one fellow shared how he's lost the joy of life somewhere along the way. He shared how his business, which once brought joy (and profits which he donated for the completion of the church organ) has stagnated into a tiresome and mundane activity. He also expressed sadness that the wonderful organ which his work and donations -driven by the power of Love helped complete, is finding less use as time goes on. I can relate to his sense of disapointment, as I was in a similar place over 20 years ago. Love birthed a vision to establish a youth center where young people could find a place a refuge, support and help -something I lacked in my youth as i struggled under the domestic abuse in our home. I didn't want any kid to suffer what i went through -finding no understanding or support -even within the church. Love created the vision, and the vision was a powerful driving force to bring the first youth center to life (planned where several). Of course there was opposition, there were many who failed to understand not only the vision, but the powerful Love which underlied it. Over time I became tired and weary of the relational and financial setbacks, the lack of understanding and support, and what many including myself might describe as a personal "burn out". The initially popular youth center ended up being shut down less than 4 years after its birth. Not only did the vision take a huge blow, but sapped its underlying love and joy. For years it was hard for me to walk by the building which housed the youth center. The passion to build or do anything similar again was gone. My head wanted to and said i could, but my heart no longer engaged. The pain of disappointment had sapped Love's power from within me. Scripture tells us to guard our hearts above all else. I mentioned "burn out" earlier, but what exactly causes it? Why is it that some people of vision rise above setbacks and obsticals while others -despite good intentions and great efforts, fail to. Disappointment is a powerful force. My disappointment's not so much in the failure of the youth center, but in failure of others to engage and support a vision birthed by Love. It's actually heartbreaking. Perhaps here is the key to whether we "burn out" or not. We endure much more when we're surounded by people who share the passion, vision and Love -especially after we have invested and poured out all we have. So to my friend who's heart is being broken by the empty organ seat, I hear you. Instead of great sadness, our hearts would experience joy if only others would continue to carry these visions forward through the power of Love. Love IS Love.

Idiology and Fear

This pandemic has brought out the best and worst in us, the human race. Stories of kindness have been replaced more and more by news filled with protests and anger. Yes, these are precarious times we live in. So much uncertaintly has enveloped us over the past two years, raising fears to levels most of us have not seen or experienced in our lifetime. Fears relating to our health or the health of our loved ones, to fears of losing our so called rights and freedoms. Many of these fears were already primed by political turmoil and polarizaion in countries once considered to be well balanced and secure, while nations which have historically been agressors are begining to show their stripes again. True, leaders use times of great uncertainty to plot political or personal gains. Nothing new under the sun, it's always been this way throughout history. Creating fear has been a key strategy used to manipuate the masses, subtly instilling or reinforcing idiologies which are often formed against something, be it a system, people or demographic. What is idiology? It has been said that idiology is the lens through which a person views the world. It envelops a person's assumptions, expectations, beliefs and values. We as humans don't like uncertainty, particularly when it relates to our own lens through which we view the world. When something we view seems unclear, our mind seeks ways to focus our lens to create some certainty. Rather than accept the uncertainty, we oftentimes make assumptions. Assumptions are like seeds, sown into our minds by ourselves and others, mostly unchecked and often unnoticed. These assumptions create expectations for something to happen. It may be something we consider positive, though more often than not it's something which creates a sense of insecurity. Whether the expectation has a factual base at this point is often no longer relevent to the mind which has created its assumptions in the context of uncertainty and fear. Expectations turn into beliefs, which form the basis for our values. And this is where idiologies clash. When something seemingly comes against our values or beliefs, we become defensive or in extreem cases offensive. Rarely does the human mind think back and analyse the source of its assumptions and expectations when they have been entrenched in its beliefs and values. So what does the mind do? In a defensive or offensive action, it looks for evidence, regardless how weak the evidence may be, to support its values and beliefs. The greater the underlying insecurity the more active it becomes to find and create a sense of security. This often leads to forceful arguments in a mostly subconscious attempt to convince themselves while inscribing their beliefs upon others, where opposing views are not given much of any consideration. And it gives a sense of empowerment to the mind which succeeds in multiplying believers of its idiology. This is often how tyrants are born. But what if our minds were more open to accept uncertainty, to question the roots of idiologies and hold our beliefs a bit more loosely instead of clenched in our fists? I'll be the first to admit that i don't much like uncertainty. I'll also admit i've fought my share of idiologistic arguments in my earlier years, with sincere certainty my beliefs were the correct ones. With age i've learned the error of my ways, along with the errors in assumptions, expectations and beliefs which brought me there. It brought me to a place where i told my wife before we married, that i'm not certain about anything in this life. And in an odd way, my lack of certainty (outside of our love for one another) brought her a sense of security, in that i view life in a more loose and wholistic manner than within a confined or rigid idiology. Our idiologies, values and beliefs need to be examined and tested. We do a disservice to ourselves and others when we don't examine the assumptions and expectations our idiology is based on, nor give consideration to alternative views. If the assumptions and expectations are truly factual, we need not fear them being challenged or tested, as they should remain standing. However, what we need to fear are idiologies, beliefs and values -foremost in our own minds, that have been skewed by assumptions which are simply not true.