article Sociatry

Wed Apr 18 23:39:34 CDT 2007

I don't know, but the 'whole of mankind' means just that.
Not to focus on that alone, but the condition of mankind is
what we face.  How that plays is - through language and theory -
reflects a quote I most love from Dr. Moreno in Sociometry, Experimental
Method and the Science of Society.  In that hard to find, rare yet very
important document Dr. Moreno identifies social forces at play in the  
human experience;
in all societies, from the earliest to the present; from the East to  
the West.  It's these
forces that interest me.  They seem to emerge within a social atom;  
within sociometry,
and often I see psychodrama as a healing of the impact of these  
forces, having emerged
within the fabric of one's social atom, multi-generational.  So for  
me, and I speak only for
myself, this forum is to address the growing edge of our own lives as  
we live this theory.

Best,

Ed
On Apr 18, 2007, at 7:58 PM, James Sacks wrote:

> Hey, you guys,
> GroupTalk is not about international politics. If we get into that it
> would deviate us well beyond the scope of our reason for being.
> People on all sides of political issues have very strong feelings
> about their  views but we as socidramatists are supposed to learn how
> to deal with such divided feelings in a group, not enter into the
> fray by fighting it out as a partisan for one side or the other on
> GroupTalk. We all have are views but we don't start telling our
> favorite recipes in a class in mathematics no matter good they taste
> and, if someone is so inappropriate as to do that, we don't argue
> back about how bad it tastes.
> Jim
>
>> I find Pinter's article a simplistic reaction and polarization of  
>> complex
>> historical issues.  I am not supporting the war, or Bush, or the  
>> US.  I see
>> much of what is happening as systemic and historical; I see a  
>> larger world
>> and evolutionary picture.  Right now US is the major player and  
>> "fighting"
>> to remain so. The long history of British colonization has  
>> probably had more
>> to with what is happening today than what the US has done  
>> historically,
>> although the US has been in the "role" for decades.  Many of the  
>> European
>> nations had historical parts in the conflicts around the world Pinter
>> mentions, eg, the middle east, a conflict whose seeds were sown in  
>> centuries
>> of European colonization and hatred.  Yet, I see all of these  
>> problems as
>> based on human evolution, and how societies have formed and  
>> functioned, and
>> have not evolved from domination world views and practices.
>>
>> Pinter's reaction is typical of social activism that only knows  
>> protest and
>> polarization to try to stop what is happening.  And is a reaction  
>> typical of
>> social activists who demonize one side over the other, making one  
>> side seem
>> the innocent victim, which also is not historically or currently  
>> accurate.
>> That is confronting the dynamics of the problem with the same  
>> dynamics; Bush
>> is demonizing, so demonize back.
>>
>> Also, I don't think it's effective.  I  have marched the marches,  
>> much in
>> the 60's and some recently.  I marched with 10's of millions of  
>> others
>> around the globe to protest the Iraq war from happening, and how  
>> effective
>> was that?  I am coming to believe that marching and protesting are  
>> pissing
>> in the wind, b/c it is attempting to address historical systemic  
>> issues with
>> polarization, when what is needed is systemic transformation, a
>> transcendence in human evolution.
>>
>> I believe there are seeds for contributing to this human  
>> transformation in
>> the sociometric concepts Moreno was forming.  We have discussed  
>> this some on
>> this list before, ie, how to apply these concepts to larger  
>> societies.  It
>> is astronomically complex.  But until the transformation of systemic
>> dynamics of historical societal structures, I don't think anything  
>> will
>> change...unless the planet is destroyed first.  No one has the  
>> answers yet,
>> but demonizing one side over the other and polarizing, although I  
>> understand
>> it emotionally, is not contributing to change.  If anything, it is  
>> the
>> status quo.
>>
>> Cynthia Gayle, CP
>> Seattle
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <edwschreiber at earthlink.net>
>> To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
>> Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 6:33 PM
>> Subject: : article
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  -- >
>>>>
>>>>  Remember we were talking about Britain....and what the heck are  
>>>> they
>>>> saying in England
>>>>  well, this article came out in England and at least some Brits are
>>>> thinking.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm? 
>>>> itemID=12453&sectionID=72
>>>> ZNet
>>>> Why George Bush is Insane
>>>> By Harold Pinter (Nobel Prize Winning Author)
>>>>
>>>> Earlier this year I had a major operation for
>>>> cancer. The operation and its after-effects
>>>> were something of a nightmare. I felt I was a
>>>> man unable to swim bobbing about under water in
>>>> a deep dark endless ocean. But I did not drown
>>>> and I am very glad to be alive.
>>>>
>>>> However, I found that to emerge from a personal
>>>> nightmare was to enter an infinitely more
>>>> pervasive public nightmare - the nightmare of
>>>> American hysteria, ignorance, arrogance,
>>>> stupidity and belligerence; the most powerful
>>>> nation the world has ever known effectively
>>>> waging war against the rest of the world. "If
>>>> you are not with us you are against us"
>>>> President Bush has said. He has also said "We
>>>> will not allow the world's worst weapons to
>>>> remain in the hands of the world's worst
>>>> leaders". Quite right. Look in the mirror chum.
>>>> That's you.
>>>>
>>>> The US is at this moment developing advanced
>>>> systems of "weapons of mass destruction" and it
>>>> prepared to use them where it sees fit. It has
>>>> more of them than the rest of the world put
>>>> together. It has walked away from international
>>>> agreements on biological and chemical weapons,
>>>> refusing to allow inspection of its own
>>>> factories. The hypocrisy behind its public
>>>> declarations and its own actions is almost a
>>>> joke.
>>>>
>>>> The United States believes that the three
>>>> thousand deaths in New York are the only deaths
>>>> that count, the only deaths that matter. They
>>>> are American deaths. Other deaths are unreal,
>>>> abstract, of no consequence.
>>>>
>>>> The three thousand deaths in Afghanistan are
>>>> never referred to.
>>>>
>>>> The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children
>>>> dead through US and British sanctions which
>>>> have deprived them of essential medicines are
>>>> never referred to.
>>>>
>>>> The effect of depleted uranium, used by America
>>>> in the Gulf War, is never referred to.
>>>> Radiation levels in Iraq are appallingly high.
>>>> Babies are born with no brain, no eyes, no
>>>> genitals. Where they do have ears, mouths or
>>>> rectums, all that issues from these orifices is
>>>> blood.
>>>>
>>>> The two hundred thousand deaths in East Timor
>>>> in 1975 brought about by the Indonesian
>>>> government but inspired and supported by the
>>>> United States are never referred to.
>>>>
>>>> The half a million deaths in Guatemala, Chile,
>>>> El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Argentina and
>>>> Haiti, in actions supported and subsidised by
>>>> the United States are never referred to.
>>>>
>>>> The millions of deaths in Vietnam, Laos and
>>>> Cambodia are no longer referred to.
>>>>
>>>> The desperate plight of the Palestinian people,
>>>> the central factor in world unrest, is hardly
>>>> referred to.
>>>>
>>>> But what a misjudgement of the present and what
>>>> a misreading of history this is.
>>>>
>>>> People do not forget. They do not forget the
>>>> death of their fellows, they do not forget
>>>> torture and mutilation, they do not forget
>>>> injustice, they do not forget oppression, they
>>>> do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers.
>>>> They not only don't forget. They strike back.
>>>>
>>>> The atrocity in New York was predictable and
>>>> inevitable. It was an act of retaliation
>>>> against constant and systematic manifestations
>>>> of state terrorism on the part of the United
>>>> States over many years, in all parts of the
>>>> world.
>>>>
>>>> In Britain the public is now being warned to be
>>>> "vigilant" in preparation for potential
>>>> terrorist acts. The language is in itself
>>>> preposterous.
>>>>
>>>> How will - or can - public vigilance be
>>>> embodied? Wearing a scarf over your mouth to
>>>> keep out poison gas? However, terrorist attacks
>>>> are quite likely, the inevitable result of our
>>>> Prime Minister's contemptible and shameful
>>>> subservience to the United States. Apparently,
>>>> a terrorist poison gas attack on the London
>>>> Underground system was recently prevented. But
>>>> such an act may indeed take place. Thousands of
>>>> school children travel on the London
>>>> Underground every day. If there is a poison gas
>>>> attack from which they die, the responsibility
>>>> will rest entirely on the shoulders of our
>>>> Prime Minister. Needless to say, the Prime
>>>> Minister does not travel on the underground
>>>> himself.
>>>>
>>>> The planned war against Iraq is in fact a plan
>>>> for premeditated murder of thousands of
>>>> civilians in order, apparently, to rescue them
>>>> from their dictator.
>>>>
>>>> The United States and Britain are pursuing a
>>>> course which can lead only to an escalation of
>>>> violence throughout the world and finally to
>>>> catastrophe.
>>>>
>>>> It is obvious, however, that the United States
>>>> is bursting at the seams to attack Iran. I
>>>> believe that it will do this - not just to take
>>>> control of Iraqi oil - but because the US
>>>> administration is now a bloodthirsty wild
>>>> animal. Bombs are its only vocabulary. Many
>>>> Americans, we know, are horrified by the
>>>> posture of their government but seem to be
>>>> helpless.
>>>>
>>>> Unless Europe finds the solidarity,
>>>> intelligence, courage and will to challenge and
>>>> resist US power Europe itself will deserve
>>>> Alexander Herzen's definition (as quoted in the
>>>> Guardian newspaper in London recently) "We are
>>>> not the doctors. We are the disease".
>>>>
>>>> Harold Pinter
>>>>
>>>> The Assassinated Press
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  --------
>>>> See what's free at AOL.com.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ___________________________________________________________________ 
>>>> _____
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>>>> =0
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