Four Arrows (Wahinkpe Topa) aka Dr. Don T. Jacobs (a longtime member of FM ning and cultural warrior), gives a really useful interview (video) on his work, which I see as part of fearlessness path and its connection to re-visionist (corrective) Education today and the survival of this planet's ecosystems. He says, "I want to be human"... and he defines that in a very unique way in regard to the relationship with "hope" for change of this world and its hegemonic Dominant worldview--as he offers a 'reading' of a universal Indigenous worldview (sometimes called Kinship worldview)-- as a solution to our current crises on mass scales. The Indigenous worldview is based not on a fear-based cosmology and value-system--and, that's really important to note. He talks about decolonization and Indigenization as processes of re-socialization and re-education on a mass scale and how 'turning' things around from the current status quo is near impossible but that doesn't mean we ought not do what we can to "be human" in the midst of this tragedy and rather 'hope-less' situation in terms of actual outcomes of our work to liberate ourselves and come to our Natural-based (place-based) intelligence--or what he has called "primal awareness." He also says so interesting things on hypnosis and de-hypnosis in this regard of bringing change and transformation about. 

Note: at the 1:04:00 mark in the interview. Four Arrows is talking about the "mysteriousing" of existence, rather than a noun for "god"--the former being the Indigenous way. He says, it is this in touchness with the mysteriousing that is "getting in touch with that fearlessness around death" and he concludes: "I have never met a traditional Indigenous person who has a fear of death...[or] fear of life." 

For a concise write up on Four Arrows' Indigenous-based worldview on fear and fearlessness, go to:

https://coachesevolve.com/moving-from-fear-to-fearlessness-by-four-arrows/

I have just collected this data from PRISM (online library at The University of Calgary) where my many publications and unpublished works are held and freely available as open-access to the public. I just looked up the 2006 paper I wrote on what I founded as "In Search of Fearlessness Project" and to my surprise it has been downloaded in the past few years while put up online, near 900 times. How is that possible? Why have none of the download readers contacted me, contacted the FM ning... etc. (?) I am not seeing or hearing anyone writing about this historical phenomenon as Project. I'm puzzled. But it is interesting. To read my paper "Overview of the In Search of Fearlessness Project" (click here). 

"The Uses of Beauty and Order" (a 13 pp booklet) by the founder of Re-evaluation Counseling (Harvey Jackins) came out in 1972 and talks of the "environmental crisis" facing human beings and that we are responsible to "clean up" [1] our messes... meaning, not only the physical 'garbage' we 'dump' but on the inside 'distress' ('garbage') we also hold inside our body/mind and social systems and institutions that function upon philosophical premises of oppression is 'normal' and that's the way it is. That's human nature for us to be violence, and dumping on each other, etc. Jackin's, peer-to-peer theory and praxis is a marvelous tool that I have used since the early 1980s, and am still using it as a way to not let my distress accumulate (as 'fear' patterning) in any ways, and mostly in ways that stop me from being a fully alive, creative being who is interested in beauty and order in the environment (inside and outside). That's why in this publication Jackin's argues: 

"With discharge [via peer counseling sessions] we can begin not only to realize but to act on the truth that every human being is gifted artistically, in the visual arts and in all others. In the meantime, it is perfectly possible to take a length of wire and bend it into an interesting shape, then mount this piece of wire sculpture in a prominent position. It's possible to take some torn pieces of tinted or colored paper and move them about on a sheet of cardboard until the arrangement pleases the arranger, glue them in place and, with such an 'abstract collage' mounted on the wall, be continually reminded of one's own ability to create beauty. A poem or verse which one has composed belongs in plain sight to be read and looked at. This will be another signal that one is a creative human being in charge of the environment [as a steward, and co-maker, co-participant in evolution itself]." (p. 12)

I recently am working on an art project with stones (a 1/2 dump truck load of them) which most people use only to "decorate" their landscapes and keep down weeds and grass from growing (as a suppressant). I am working with the stones in an artist residency right now to make them interesting, beautiful and even sacred... I just am learning how to do that with children at the daycare center and kindergarten school where I am artist in residence, and of course, then there is the difficult challenge to get the staff and parents and other adults around the children to 'attune' and 'resonate' with the words and direction of Jackin's (above)--and to playfull engage as part of their day in making art, and connecting with the art of the stones I am working on their premise. Mostly, the adults are quite in a "rut" from what I can see, and they can hardly gaze to the environment around them. Often they are on cell phones when they leave their car and walk to work, and often they have a preoccupied (if not worrying) mind about what they are doing and what is happening and how this or that is going to coordinate. They are managing their lives. This management paradigm is quite working in the opposite direction of a creative-artistic-aethetic paradigm.

As a fearologist and artist, what I am interested in is the role of fear/anxiety and how it shapes one's creativity, aliveness, and everything else in the environments we make, the relationship we engage in any moment in time. Too often, most all people are living lives feeling a "victim" (prisoner) of some kind, and often they are not aware they feel this but are just on 'autopilot' doing things that are functional and help to manage their day. Jackins' experience is that human beings who have been hurt and not fully allowed to heal their hurts from birth onward, are carrying distress-based (fear-based) patterning in their nervous system and memory systems, and when that accumulates there is a sense after awhile of feeling like the environment is "hostile" (more or less) and one has to try to survive within it--but for Jackins, like myself, the hostile perception (as a fear projection and defense mechanism) can become quite distorted and totalizing of one's inherent being and destroys the best part of our human nature. This is, says Jackins, due to "past fears of isolated groups of human beings in danger from weather, disease or other hostile forces" but his point is, that within a healing culture (practices) such dangers/fears can be healed through adequately so that humans do not carry around trauma (unhealed painful memories) for any length of time beyond what is necessary. The past thus, when unhealed, turns to dominate our nervous systems and thinking patterns, we 'become our distress' (i.e., our fear patterning). We feel victimized. We then justify our behaviors that come from fear-based (distress-based) sourcing. We even justify that it is okay we oppress others and accept our social oppression because that's the way it is--the world is hostile, etc. 

Fearlessness as a paradigm is quite in the opposite direction of this fear-based paradigm of victimization and oppressive patterning. Thus uses of beauty and order making (healthy creativity to enhance one's world individually and collectively) is a way to stay in "present time" reality (says Jackins), and that leads to a greater humanity and care for everything to follow from that. Arts and aesthetics, are critical to good fear management/education. 

Your thoughts? 

Notes

1. To be clear, I use "clean up" in this context within a sophisticated therapeutic philosophia (or therapia) based on many traditions but in particular I most recommend the theorizing of integral philosopher Ken Wilber on "Cleaning Up" as one of four calls to come to full consciousness and attention in the best way humans are potentially able--and, such a mode of "cleaning up" is not just some psychological clinical, homogenizing, white-washing, or purification schema of a germophobia, xenophobia, paranoia about Nature--no, I and Wilber are talking about something very different and you may wish to read his writing on "Cleaning Up" in this larger transpersonal and evolutionary perspective; see Wilber (2017), pp. 11, 75, 264-66, for e.g. (also see his writing on the analogous process of "shadow work"). Wilber, K. (2017). The religion of tomorrow: A vision for the future of the Great Traditions--more inclusive, more comprehensive, more complete. Shambhala. 

This latest video out on the "mass psychosis" of an entire population, what is also being called here "menticide" has an opening quite appropriate to concerns of the FM ning community and myself as a fearologist. The video image above has the narration of:  "Priming a population for the crime of menticide, begins with the sowing of fear."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lctpOxSR-FE

See my own video talks (4 videos) on "mass psychosis" as well, beginning with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBl735zqTco

 Note: this video is published by Academy of Ideas: Free Minds for a Free Society

There's so many books and articles about fear, and emotions, etc. So many are similar and some are different, and often they tell contradictory things about fear. That's what I have found in my researching this subject for 32 years. Okay, here's a recent book review on amazon books re: a book self-published by G. M. Murrell (2016), called "Bone's in a Box: Fear and the Drive for Human Control." I share this not because I have read this book nor approve its approach necessarily--but I share it because here is another observer of human behavior, like myself, who has pretty much seen "fear" (as motivational patterning) is below all other major behaviors, emotions etc. It is fear that acts in ways to control... so here's the book review: 

Book Review by Kori Meltzer (Mar. 28, 2020) re: "Bones in a Box": 

I am not a psychoanalyst myself, yet I found the author’s beliefs about fear and control to be true as they pertain to various aspects of human emotions. In particular, I agree with his premise that other emotions stem from fear. If you strip our emotions down you will find at the root that fear does dictate our actions. I did not completely believe this when I first read this book. However, I started to read the book again recently in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. I now believe the author is correct. People are acting out of fear. They are hoarding supplies. They are throwing used masks and gloves in the street. Strangers are yelling at one another. Domestic violence incidents are on the rise. The realization that we cannot control this situation has caused people to behave out of fear.

There is so much valuable information in this book. The author delved into aspects of behavior and presented thought provoking and well researched cases. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in learning about how fear influences our other emotions.

****

Check out my new video on my new book "sketch" and possibilities and how I am influenced in thinking about educational philosophy in a new key--from many new perspectives (transdsciplinary) etc. See my teaching video just put up now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6H6rpQlZ60

Once again, in "Comments" on the previous blog post by Michael Eneyo, a philosopher of fear from Nigeria, FM ning readers can read his interpretation of my "Comment" on his blogposting--in particular that he posted of Ben's analysis of Eneyo's new book. 

I say once again, because Eneyo comments (critiques) my commentary respectfully, which I appreciate, yet misses central aspects of my work on a fearlessness theory (since 1989). His interpretation continues, I say, once again, to mis-interpret basics of my position. He does get some parts of my work, but major aspects he mis-interprets quite in the wrong direction and thus there is nothing to debate him on because of his insistence on his critique. 

I say once again, because our contentions have been rooted in various exchanges going back near 3 yrs or so. And a culmination of exchanges was summarized in our exchange, via Eneyo (2020) and my Response to his Rejoinder (Fisher, 2020) [1]; and, so I am not going to spend more time on the same issues Eneyo keeps reproducing about my work that skew it because of his reading of core aspects of my theory. I recommend readers interested follow-up on your own reading of our exchanges in the above journal articles. And may readers feel free to post their thoughts on the FM ning. 

Once again, in the Comment of Eneyo in this latest FM ning exchange, he repeats that I am avoiding, ignoring, or trying to go around negative fear and only want to keep positive fear, unlike his binarist position he claims that we need both to have good philosophy, theory, practice. Nothing could be further from the truth of my position which in the late 1980s began with my reading of Rinpoche Chogyam Trungpa (Tibetan Buddhist teacher) and a reading I most respected called Chapter 4 "Fear and Fearlessness" from the ancient wisdom teachings of Tibetan Buddhism--and, so I'll quote Trungpa who (like Krishnamurti) teach that any fear (whether we assign it negative or positive) is important and not to be avoided, slipped around, or to be eliminated in some absolute intervention-- rather, both they and myself teach to what is most important is to learn from fear and learn from the ways we think about it that may in fact trap us in its grip in very limiting if not pathological ways (e.g., as 'fear' patterning). I'll admit that my work has gone way beyond Trungpa and Krishnamurti in its postmodern (and post-postmodern, integral) constructions since the late 1980s [2], yet, I am assuring readers who see otherwise, that I am not at all trying to avoid fear via fearlessness or anything else. I call for a fear management/education (full curriculum from kindergarten to university level as compulsory fear education actually). So, here is Trungpa's quote, I'll leave you all with to see also where my original and core premise starts from: 

Trungpa wrote:  "Acknowledging fear is not a cause of depression or discouragement. Because we posses such fear, we also are potentially entitled to experience fearlessness. True fearlessness is not the reduction of fear, but going beyond fear." (p. 33) [3]

 Endnotes

1. Eneyo (2020) and Fisher (2020) see International Journal of Fear Studies, 2 (1) pp. 49-63. 

2. Where Trungpa and Krishnamurti and others (like Eneyo) are not thinkers in full alignment with my work, is mainly because they have not constructed in their theories anything (virtually) beyond a psychological or psycho-spiritual framework for understanding fear. I am much more a cultural theorist than they (see my teaching video on "fear is social" and fearlessness theory of late https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyKwoFJb9UE) and thus 'fear' is essential to my work, and it differentiates from fear (as normally understood in the psychological domain of knowing). Again, you can read my many works on cultural 'fear' patterning and the theory of healing, fearlessness, and transformation behind it and in counter-hegemony to 'fear' patterning (or 'Fear' Project). 

3. Trungpa, C. (1984/2007). Shambhala: The sacred path of the warrior. Shambhala Publications.

IACAET, in collaboration with The Inspirees Institute and The Amateurs Company is proud to announce, after a long time without face-to-face activities, a great opportunity to come together and learn about subjects that have become natural experiences in our current lives: fear and creativity!

 

NOTE: These kinds of events, purporting the nature of fear as positive (at least in some way), are part of a much larger long discourse (especially in the W. worldview) that I find always existing and being promoted by some theorist or group, and of which I am always critical of because they don't define fear carefully enough and problematize their own positivism ideology of fear.  -rmf

This new video, "Taking Children to the Edge" is first in a series of "Stone Teachings" as I call them. In this video you find how I think about making the transformation from a culture of fear to a culture of fearlessness, and we'd better start doing this with how we educate and socialize children. Thus, parents, teachers, caregivers of young people may find these thought insightful or at least provoking of your own thinking. 

As for the larger audience for this video, as the citizens of this planet earth and the crises we face, I think you too will gain something from these teachings, from the stone, through me, to you ... and finally, to the children of the world. 

I have been having conversations with Dr. Teich for a few years now, off and on. Recently, we are collaborating on his SolarLunar Arts venture to create 21st century curriculum materials (e.g., movies, 3-D and virtual reality games, etc.) to enable people to understand the 'old worldview' of gender separation (which became dissociation) in many cultures, especially the W. world. This has been a disaster, he argues... and, he and I agree, it is a major dualism that brings so much unnecessary fear-based thinking into the world--and, a lot of destruction with it. He presents archetypal ancient "Twin" myths and symbols that have long been part of humanity, which emphasize the more 'harmony' of opposites via complementarity principle...

I thought I would share from his 2012 book (image above) a short excerpt (pp. 47-8)--on these two modes of consciousness: 

I highly recommend this film (watch by donation only): https://wisdomoftrauma.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI06PGvtCI8QIVuyCtBh1nYQglEAAYASAAEgLom_D_BwE

Glad to let you all know my new book with B. Maria Kumar is just published. I'll write more about it later. 

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/791530-resistances-to-fearlessness

BOOK DESCRIPTION

The current dominating worldview and its paradigms of operations are unhealthy and unsustainable. Ecological, economic, political and psychological health are at stake. As experts in a philosophy of fearism, they apply a critical perspective on the dominant Fear Paradigm as root cause of the global crises in the 21st century. They offer a worldview shift via the Fearlessness Paradigm. This is a second major book on this topic, of which the first was Fisher?s The World?s Fearlessness Teachings (2010). This follow-up book is deep, punchy and provocative. It points to the failure of the world to understand the spirit of fearlessness that has existed from the beginning of Life some four billion years ago. The authors, from diverse backgrounds, point to the resistances that work against the recognition and development of the natural ?gift? of fearlessness and the design of a Fearlessness Paradigm, both which can counter the abuses of the Fear Paradigm. With extensive research and philosophical thought, the authors dialogue in a fresh imaginative way to help readers and leaders in all walks of life to better understand what resistances they may have to escaping from what Fisher calls the ?Fear? Matrix.

Resist to FLSSNSS brochure.pdf

Book Covers:               2021                                                                    2018 

I have spent the last 5-6 years studying and writing books on two critical adult educators, also motivational "coaches" and leaders of various endeavors with ethical and emancipatory importance. I'm aware of my energetic (voluntary) devotion as I look at these two books together. It is pretty clear that I am passionate about assessing the people who catch my eye as 'outstanding' human beings, and their ways of educating and promoting agendas that would be labeled by most people as "progressive." 

That said, there is no easy label or box to put either of these two living Americans (first Four Arrows, aka Wahinkpe Topa, aka Dr. Don Trent Jacobs; and second, Marianne Williamson) --although, they are both 'radicals' of some sort, even pariahs who stir things up and make many people uncomfortable with their teachings and critiques of society. My aim in these books was not always clear but I wanted to document their contribution, in part, as important historical figures of their time--and, who I believe will have still an ongoing impact of significance in the future. Most decidedly, I took them on as "subjects" of study, in what are books above that I would best categorize as intellectual biographies, because they have articulated a focus on the Fear Problem (as I call it). 

I'm just beginning now, after finishing a few months ago the Williamson book, the comparison and contrast of them and their transformative teaching approaches. Surely, they are both holistic, both spiritual, and so on... yet, I have critiques also all the way through each of these books. Not surprising, I am critical of their partial, and under-theorized, notions of the Fear Problem and its solutions. They certainly have "advanced" tracks they've laid down to work with fear but that falls short of my expectations and my own holistic-integral framing and fearanalysis. Yet, that's all part of the dialogue I wish to have with them and their followers, and their critics--that's what learning is all about. Unfortunately, at this time, Williamson has refused to engage me in conversation about this work. Four Arrows has been gracious and we are continuing to dialogue. 

I suspect in the near future I will do more writing on comparison and contrasts of their work and their personalities that influence their leadership in education generally--but also beyond that, as they are also prophetic voices in our day that have much wisdom to guide societies everywhere towards more sanity, health and sustainability (i.e., maturity of consciousness). They both are well aware the current civilizational trajectory is collapsing and extinction on mass scales is well underway. The future is precarious, to say the least. I encourage all to have a listen to their work. They are both readily available on the Internet sources as well in my books and articles. 

Re: my recent FearTalk #12 with Four Arrows, go to:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmyYqdyCtsU

Also, I just found this video image and link of Four Arrows back in his younger days and his work with horses (whispering):

go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxzAm08731c 

New Video (3 min.) "THE EARTH IS SUFFERING" - an Indigenous worldview perspective on our current crises and how we need to change, by Indigenous activist-educator, and ecophilosopher, Four Arrows (2021) (Wahinkpe Topa aka Dr. Don T. Jacobs), who is also an FM ning long-time member and a colleague of mine [1].

NOTE: at one point near the end, he offers one of the virtues (e.g., "with respect" and others in the film) as "fearless trust in Nature" 

End Note

1. see Fisher, R. M. (2018). Fearless engagement of Four Arrows: The true story of an Indigenous-based social transformer. Peter Lang. 

 As Senior Ed., I'm proud to share with you all the latest issue of the journal Vol. 3 (1), with Guest Editors from India. They did a great job. So, check out the content @

https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/113246

NOTE: Submissions are now welcome for the next issue 3 (2) of the journal (deadline Aug. 1st or so)... no theme to the issue per se. I look forward to seeing your work. 

SO OFTEN, when I mention the word "fearlessnessness" to anyone, and I suspect when they read my writing on it as well or hear my youtube videos, there is an instant pre-constructed conditioning in people in general that I come up 'against' as if it is a wall to mis-comprehension. 

What I am saying is that people tend to predominantly preconceive what "fearlessness" is about. They turn the encounter into a mere psychological phenonmenon. Fearlessness to them is something about no fear or without fear. They are ambivalent usually as well, about if that is a good or bad thing. To have people going around being 'fearless' is not always good, and in fact it may be pathological. Even if people don't say these things out loud to me, I read it and sense it and I also know the history of the discourses of bias in the Western world (where I live). But this is not what my FM blog is about today. 

I have given you an "image" I made from an art and healing visit to my parents grave. I've been there a few times this past week. The short of the longer story is, that everything I have learned about the "path of fearlessness" and/or "search for fearlessness" since I headed down this road less traveled in 1989, is that people (souls) are just not going to go very far in their 'freedom' to develop and mature--to reach into the zone of Fearlessness and access the Fearlessness Paradigm (i.e., FMS-7 +)... because they are too attached to their "family" dynamics as part of their conditioning within socialization and education processes. "Too attached" of course would now require a much more nuanced discussion than what I can provide here. 

I wanted to just indicate how my artist-self and my healing-self, if you will, are so much part of my ongoing fearwork and travel along the path of fearlessness. So, to go to this grave site, which I rarely have since my parents passed away... is an issue not about how many times I go, but what quality of encounter I enter into when I go and spend time in the place where they are buried. Doing art and ritual at the site on this occasion (see image of stone-rubbing above) was potent. I recently made a youtube teaching video on this experience going to many places geographically where I grew up in the city I live in now, because I felt I needed to do some healing and separation work from past unhealed memories. Some would say I am doing "forgiveness" work and "grief work" etc. Partially true, but I am doing so much more. I talk about that in the video. 

I'll leave you to linger perhaps with the image, and the process as you can imagine it of what I am confronting and integrating in this "death work" -- for that was a good deal of what I was absorbing for the three times I was in the cemetary and lingering and being amongst the 'dead'--all as part of death prompts (e.g., see Terror Management Theory). I was making myself experience the juxtapositioning of death/life and mortality/immortality. And, at this point, there's so much in my journaling and conversations with Barbara I have had around this work of art and the process. These are still incubating, so all I am doing here is writing a little about my processing work and how I encourage people to utilize the "arts" or what is better called the "artist's attitude" when involved in this kind of work and as involved with travel along the path of fearlessness. Truly, without an "artist's attitude" (which came to me early in life as a child/teen) the breakthroughs that I have made in philosophy, theorizing and education around the concept of "fearlessness" would likely not have been near as original and fresh as they are--at least, for the most part. To be a good critical philosopher or therapist or teacher etc., just like to be a good deep learner, requires this artistic sensibility and aesthetic development. And, with all that it requires a "separation" from family and social conditioning. Once one has really separated (if not "divorced") the social-self embeddness in the 'Fear' Matrix, then I have seen truly people transform, not just shift the furniture around in their house over and over. Most people cannot 'stomach' true separation from the social-family matrix (of the 'Fear' projection)... as the way... they cannot face into that "death" fully, as they cannot face into their parent's death fully. But, I won't go there... 

I'm open to discussing this more if anyone asks me, so make Comments here if you like. 

I'll close with the ARTIST'S ATTITUDE notion with an old quote from Thomas Mann in Rollo May's book in 1985: 

[Mann wrote] "The new humanity will be universal, and it will have the artist's attitude; that is, it will recognize that the immense value of beauty of the human being lies precisely in the fact that [s]he belongs to the two kingdoms of nature and the spirit." 

And to William Blake, along this same line: 

"Not to be an artist is to betray one's own nature." (cited in Matthew Fox, 1979) 

---

References

May, R. (1985). My quest for beauty. Saybrook Institute. 

Fox, M. (1979). A spirituality named compassion and the healing of the global village, Humpty Dumpty and us. Winston Press. 

--------

NOTE: in title of this blog I surprised myself by writing "artist in search for fearlessness" -- usually I write "in search of fearlessness" -- and, with even a brief reflection, I think this slight shift is really something worth considering. I rather prefer the claim of "in search for fearlessness" at this point of my journey. Your thoughts? 

The spiritual teacher, political activist and cultural (r)evolutionary [1] Marianne Williamson recently interviews human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who has been for over 20 yrs fighting the battle for the Ecuadorian farmers and tribal peoples of the Amazonian Basin in S. America. I highly recommend this interview not only to show two outstanding citizens in dialogue, without hatred, but with firm analysis and righteous indignation as they point out in some detail how the guts of the American judiciary branch of justice is being systematically undermined by the courts and corporatist (money/powers) of the oil industry (i.e., Texaco now bought by Chevron). The corporations, with their huge lawyer teams, belive they can out-smart and finesse their way out of their own debts to the Ecuadorian people and ecosystems, which are in law they are to pay for the damages they did back several decades ago in malpractice of their oil drilling operations. 

The importance of what Donziger, now under "house arrest" in what is likely an illegal (certainly unjust) set of circumstances in New York courts, backed by Chevron's legal team, cannot be underestimated. I particularly am impressed overall how Williamson with her use of her large following of fans and supporters, is keeping the battle going even if she is not a "politician" per se. She is showing everyone how to be a political leader in and out of the mess and corruption of so much of politics and the law these days. Of course, corruption is nothing new. This case is exemplar as to what the justice systems, law itself, has to confront with the newest maneuverings of gross injustices by legal firms and corporations ('big oil' in this case). The latter are bent on intimidating, if not destroying, human rights lawyers in general--and could just as well be investigative journalists, etc. who are out to expose the truths of the worst crimes against humanity and the earth's ecosystems at-large. Williamson has found her broadcast medium through her podcasts [2] and her independent type of journalistic-work. It is not something to be dismissed of what she is capable of, and of which I would argue makes her one of the most important adult educators and (r)evolutionary leaders of the Fearlessness Movement today. 

Williamson offers several direct actions for solutions to the Donziger case, and makes it clear that even if things go in the worst way with his charges and trial on May 10th, 2021, that he will not be forgotten in his heroic efforts to bring to justice these corporate-legal entities that believe they can operate and profit from destroying the lives of lawyers as the 'weak link' when they have been shown to be guilty already in the Ecuadorian Court going back to the 2011 judgement, which Williamson speaks about with Donziger in this recent interview. Consider helping out in anyway you can. And, finally it is worth noting that although the two of them have never met, other than online, after Williamson initiated the first talk with him (this being the 2nd one)--Donziger makes his clear endorsement of Williamson that is worth writing down and reading. He says at the end, unsolicited: 

"Thank you Marianne for your leadership in our society. Your positive vision, you're an awesome person. I've watched you from afar [including during her 2020 election bid for leadership of the Democratic Party]... I just salute you for having the visiion that you do to better our society." 

In my mind, a toxic fearism, as I call it, has been the underbelly of all kinds of terrorism. Now that fearism is working its way into law big time, with corporatism and its worst sides giving us all a picture of how it will intimidate and destroy human rights lawyers, ignore the charges against it, and use money-power-law-politics to be the weapons for its own survival, meanwhile willing to destroy peoples and the ecological systems of this planet in their own selfishness. It is their deep fear/terror that they will lose control of their domination (Oil Empire)--and indeed, that battle still remains. We do have to recognize that "fighting" such sickness as we see in this case of Chevron and their law teams and the judges involved, that it is fear-based. That means it is wound-based. The way to fight them all has to be done with a good critical analysis of fearism not merely claims of injustice and crime etc. That latter concepts will not be sufficient [3] in the long run if we truly want to 'set everyone free,' even the oppressors, the criminals, those who exploit others. Everyone deserves to 'pay the price' when they are responsible for damages proven in courts. And, everyone deserves to be restored and supported to heal and transform.  

Notes

1. I have outlined in great detail her role in Fisher, R. M. (2021). The Marianne Williamson Phenomenon: Cultural (R)Evolution for a Dangerous Time. Peter Lang. 

2. Go to: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marianne-williamson-podcast-conversations-that-matter/id1536043190 

3. The holistic-integral arguments within the framework of a philosophy of fearism (as distinct from fearist-t in its toxic form), have been given in the book: Fisher, R. M., Subba, D. & Kumar, B. M. (2018). Fear, Law and Criminology: Critical Issues in Applying the Philosophy of Fearism. Xlibris. 

The "DIRECTION" to head in... is all important, if we want to liberate ourselves and truly re-build a healthy, sane and sustainable world (and Education System)... 

When you get to be my age (69), and having thought critically about "Education" as a field and as a "project" overall on this planet (for nearly 50 yrs), and in terms of how to analyze it and improve it, this is what happens at 6 am in the morning when I awoke and had the idea kernel "I DON'T WANT TO..." on my mind as the center piece of this map and then I began to sort territories ("Positive Description") on the Left and sort of a 'middle-ground' then "Negative Description") on the Right. As an educator, designer of curriculum and pedagogy, I tend to near completely side to the Negative philosophical orientation in terms of how to best approach "Education" and deconstruct it and then reconstruct it (moving more to the Positive philosophy eventually.

The direction of going to the Left and then the Right is precisely what I call an "Integral Turn" --and, in no way is that direction of flow only about "politics" (and parties, etc.). I am rather quite non-partisan in that sense, but what really comes through in the mapping is that I am "existentialist" in orientation and "conflict theorist" in orientation primarily, but I also don't see that one-side is all right (Good) and one side is all wrong (Bad)--mostly, I'm concerned as a critic that the left-side of the "Positive" (Virtues) side is a huge cover-up these days for some of the worst 'evil' going on--and, of course, those who are on that "Positive" side want to make us all thing they are virtuous, good, correct, and the only way to go. They tend to loathe the analysis and offerings of the 'other' side (the right-side). 

So, if you look within the map you'll also see LOVE, FEAR, and FEARLESSNESS ... as my own special area of interest in how that trialectic operates [1], although, that's a much more complex 'story' than this 'map' (theory) above can show in nuance. Oh, and the abbreviations that came out in orange circles, they are at the crux of my counter-education theorizing and curricular (r)evolutionizing:  CME - conflict management/education (my invention), TMT - terror management theory (not my own invention), and FME -fear management/education (my invention). Other abbrev. worth noting: COC - culture of conflict and COF - culture of fear. The red ink "Contemplation" is there because of my reading a colleague, an educator, on "meditative inquiry" in research/education and the foregrounding there of contemplation in education--or spirituality in education. And, this spurred me on to think about my view of that initiative and so I woke up in the morning due to this prompting to situate "contemplation" and problematized it as well.  

I am in color highlighter very intrigued with "Fear of Loss" (aka "Death") at the center along with my original idea-kernel of "I DON'T WANT TO..." and I am pretty certain now that strategically this is the focal pivotal point for any real educational transformation that will be emancipatory. If we educators miss this...well, the consequences of our current direction of global crisis/collapse will continue unabated. I have no doubt we are already in the Anthropocene era of collapse of all systems, and much destruction will be inevitable (aka death will be inevitable)--and it will continue for many years if not decades. The world will never be the same. However, in that collapse we have all the real potential of making these shifts that I have indicated in the mapping. I believe the whole process going on is best looked at as "sacred correction" (call it self-system regulation or healing, or whatever)--we can get through this as a collective of living organisms and putting all our intelligences together integrally--but IF humanism tries again to rule, using technologism and scientific arrogance alone--we'll likely do ourselves in and sufficiently destroy the carrying capacity for most Life on this planet for millenium. 

Just some bright and not so bright words from the unconscious to the conscious of the morning air and light... let's breath, create and grow in 'a good way' (a fearlessness way). 

Note

1. Fisher, R. M. (2017). Radical love—is it radical enough? International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 8(1), 261-81.

IN a recent interview (Mar. 12, 2020)... I heard this 80+ year old man, scientist, environmental activist, say some really important things. As powerful as he has been in his career (e.g., The Nature of Things, and The David Suzuki Foundation)--helping bring science to education and political policy, etc., he told CBC interviewer Anna Marie Tremonti [1] that he's always been controlled during his career as a scientist and as host of the show and a dignitary of a foundation, etc... THAT "I've been constrained" by those who run those organizations and programs, as they would tell him "...'oh, you can't say that'...you have to couch everything, with 'oh, well, there's this hope...there's this opportunity' and people have never really confronted the reality...seriously enough...", he said. 

Now as an elder not under anyone's thumb and their fear that the consequences of him speaking the truth would have been not politically correct, or pissed off funders, etc., David is coming out full blast these days and saying what now fear has controlled in him and others. Some of his truths he spoke in this interview: 

- we have less than 10 years to 'turn around' total chaos (e.g., with global warming, climate change, migrations and economy collapsing etc.)

- we have to get beyond sugar-coating and hope-mongering strategies and get to the raw 'truth' and don't wait for politicians to act on it "it's going to be too late" when they actually do some really big things to help

- "We just have no idea what is coming" and current hope in "geo-engineering" and "science" solutions are going to really make things even worse 

- "This the great fear I have. We're at a point where we have a very limited amoutn of time, in which we can actually do something to prevent total chaos." 

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The whole point of my blogs on fear and politics of late, is to also speak as an elder (albeit, only age 69)--there is no use anymore to hold back and sugar-coat reality, and yes, the facts of science included--and, yes, there is FEAR controlling almost everything in this world and the ways we 'talk about problems and crises' on a global scale--and, politically, etc. This is going to really be our downfall, and rather soon... as Suzuki, like myself and many others are saying ... I have always promoted FEARLESSNESS over HOPE... because things are that serious. 

Note

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOnUW-3EQ2w