Welcome to my blog “Everyone is a politician: mature or immature.”

Thank you for visiting my page. My name is Bob Walker, and this is my first attempt posting a blog. I hope you will find it interesting and meaningful enough for you to respond to me.

I am a retired professor of Public Health Education. I taught at West Virginia University (1970 – 1979), where I received my M.S. and my Doctorate in Health Education, and at Penn State University (1980 – 1993). Find more info in the “About Me” tag.

My lifelong interest and work have continued to be in the theory and practice of Liberation Education and Public Policy.

What do I mean with Liberation Education? This is a term by the educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, who developed the concept of critical pedagogy in his seminal work  Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Critical Pedagogy is the only practice of relating with each other that helps people become a mature politician. Everyone on this planet (except maybe a comatose patient) can develop a critical conscious stage, to engage as a mature politician.

Mature politicians engage to create a culture of liberty and justice for all, to survive and thrive peacefully. Immature politicians create a culture of domination, exploitation, and oppressive violence. This is a daily practice for everyone, in all relations. There is no way of not participating in one or the other. You must choose, every day, in every situation.

With my blog posts now, I want to challenge you to have the courage to be with others, to engage with my reasoning, as we go more into depth. I look forward carrying on this deliberation with you and other participants in this blog. My main objective, however, is that we all carry these thoughts with us, and have them inform our daily relations and actions. Thought – Talk – and Action! Thus we create a critical mass of Critical-Conscious, mature politicians.

Bob Walker

Education vs. Schooling

Today, I want to talk about “Education” versus “Schooling.”

First, let me recap that we are all politicians by nature:

  • No one may choose to be a politician because everyone’s natural condition of biophysics existence makes them one already.
  • Through conscious state development after birth, the biophysics nature does neither prevent a human to remain as an immature kind of politician, nor does it force a human to become a mature politician.
  • The maturity of our conscious state development is a result of other human animals helping us to learn courage and gain skill to be with others and the nonhuman surroundings, versus being dominated, exploited, and oppressed by other fearful human animals.
  • The consequence of the mature conscious state politician is a culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully. The consequence of the immature conscious state politician is a culture of violence from domination, exploitation, and oppression by unjustly distorting biophysics needs into “privileged rights” or “charity” for those that “get with the program” of the frightened dominators.

Now, let’s understand how these points above might change the thought, talk and action of the two kinds of politicians toward the “behavior problems” (Lionel Tiger & Robin Fox) in various culture roles.

IN GENERAL:

Understanding, naming, and framing issues as problems in terms of becoming fully human, and in a deliberative context about what are WE going to do, together with officials and knowledge field scholars.

Clearly discern whether nature is the cause of the problem, or whether the system of relating to each other, as the cause of the problem.

Continue to learn from the results of our actions, by posing them as a problem.

This means that all moms/dads/offspring/siblings, all teachers/ students/ classmates/administrators, all physicians/patients/clients/nurses, all clergy/ congregants, all employers/employees/board members/shareholders/customers, all elected/appointed/career officials, judges/police/attorneys, all activists, hermits, are politicians. All titles, all roles in a culture are created by politics.

Remember, the point of my blog is: We want to form a “Critical Mass of Critical Conscious Mature Politicians” to authentically put in practice “liberty and justice for all, to survive and thrive peacefully.”

IN SPECIFIC:  LET’S APPLY THIS NOW TO “EDUCATION” vs. “SCHOOLING”

During family child rearing practices, as well as in youth groups, preschools, public schools (which I like to call state compulsory attendance facilities), camps, sports, acting, music, fine arts, and other organized groups for youth such as play-dates, Internet, and children’s other media encounters, we have to ask:

Is everyone involved a teacher-student and a student-teacher practicing education?

Are all the participant politicians as big as life using law to rule relations from a Critical conscious state by everyone?

Is everyone learning from each other how to be critical and creative with reality?

Is our thought, talk, and action a disposition toward knowledge that is technical, practical, and emancipation, to form a culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully, together? (Juergen Habermas)

 

The opposite scenario – which we want to overcome – is:

Everyone involved is only an instructor or a student practicing schooling.

All are either instructors or students, limited to be only as big as their knowledge field.

All use law to rule relations from a Naïve or Fanatic conscious state, to bring students into a logic of sectarian knowledge, so their thought, talk, and action will “get with The Program.”

“The Program” is merely technical or practical, but with no discussion of emancipation, let alone its application.

“The Program” forms a culture of domination, exploitation, and oppression violence by creating privilege and “charity” for a few.

Thank you for reading, and thinking about this.

I look forward to your comments.

Bob Walker

UNAVOIDABLE BIOLOGY MAKES EVERYBODY POLITICAL, IN POLITICS, AND A POLITICIAN – part two

If you are just joining my blog, please go back to my previous posts (3 posts so far), because I am picking up here, right in the argument I’ve been developing.

Now, where are we? What am I proposing? Here is the way I see it:

  • No one can choose to be political, in politics, and a politician; and no one can escape being all three, daily, in our interactions with other human animals and with our nonhuman surroundings.
  • There are only two kinds of politicians, mature and immature.
  • The fundamental difference is that mature politicians create a culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully, while immature politicians inadvertently, deceitfully, or arrogantly create a culture of domination, exploitation, and oppression violence.
  • The problem is that everybody on earth is born as an immature politician with the potential to remain in a Primal, Naïve, or guided into a Fanatic conscious state, by the inadvertent, deceitful, or arrogant domination, exploitation, and oppression of other frightened immature politicians.
  • However, everybody is also born with the potential for learning the courage to be liberated into a Critical conscious mature politician, if there is help from other mature politicians, and there are no biological impairments to the process of conscious state stages of development.
  • Natural law rules relations capriciously and amorally, but it also provides the capacity for human animals to create human law that can mitigate the natural law’s harmful impacts. Natural law makes possible and is the ultimate limit on human law ruling relations among human animals and their nonhuman surroundings.

 

Why is it important to establish that human animal biology makes everybody political, in politics, and a politician? I want you to see it in contrast to slogans, sound bites, euphemisms, habits, traditions, hearsay, or spin, and personal “expert” agendas.

Consider the five inalienable human animal biology or biophysics characteristics. Then, consider how this supports the possibility to create a critical mass of Critical conscious politicians.

Everybody uses law to rule relations, negotiating the following five requirements with everybody else as a mature or immature politician:

  1. To Establish Vital Frequency Ranges: In order to survive and thrive, all human animals must achieve certain frequency ranges of climate, sustenance, DNA replication, and physical expression, to survive and thrive, as was provided in the womb. Too fast, too slow, too abrupt a change in frequency ranges results in illness or death.
  1. To Resolve the Existential Tension: We are at once a Cosmic Orphan, and at the same time part of an aggregate, (as described by anthropologist and educator Loren Eiseley in his essay collection The Star Thrower, 1978) to establish vital frequency ranges to survive and thrive.
  1. To Reach a Critical Conscious State Stage of Development: The demand for frequency ranges to survive and thrive peacefully in the womb and after birth is always a daily negotiation using law to rule relations and will be done maturely or immaturely by the conscious state stage of development.

In the Primal Conscious State: At birth, oblivious of self and world, existence may seem magical and our negotiations are limited

In the Naïve Conscious State: Emergence from the Primal with fragile often mythical arguments toward knowledge about negotiating a reality

THEN, EITHER “HELPED” BY FRIGHTENED IMMATURE POLITICIANS

Into a Fanatic Conscious State: Distorted versions of reality through the use of fear of not “getting with the program” prescribed by the immature politician’s control to frequency ranges access

OR, HELPED BY MATURE POLITICIANS’ COURAGE TO BE WITH OTHER HUMANS AND NONHUMAN SURROUNDINGS

Into a Critical Conscious Stat­­e: Authentic courage to be with all other humans and the nonhuman world, by being critical and creative reality in a disposition toward knowledge that is technical, practical, and emancipation, to discover practices and roles needed to negotiate transforming the world together necessary to form a culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully.

  1. To Fulfill a Behavior Biogrammar of Needs: (I am taking the following items directly from anthropologists Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox in The Imperial Animal, 1972) This “behavior biogrammar” has evolved from the Paleolithic era as has the way it is negotiated to be recognized and provisioned for by mature or immature politicians using natural and human law to rule relations.

Space to move about in

A share of the communal kill

Participating in the predatory activity of the whole group

A chance to rise in status through merit

Risk-taking opportunity

Experiencing a chance for exploration and novelty

The means to make deals and alliances

The sense of security derived from close association with the mother

Education geared to the realities of the life cycle

Accurate knowledge of the environment

Experiencing opportunity for bravery and to prove oneself

Acknowledgment of individual worth

A place at the triumph feast

Having children and caring for them, while enjoying the protection and security that accompany this

Recreation and free use of imagination

Support in times of stress and distress

Intensely above all, to contribute with dignity to the common unity of which one is at once a part

  1. To Use Natural and Human Law to Rule Relations: The human animal will use law to rule relations justified through Primal, Naïve, or Fanatic immature politician conscious states or the Critical mature politician state. Natural laws of brute force or submission are when we let nature take its course and Human laws in modern time of commerce, religion, science, and democracy are when we use human law to rule relations either for liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully, or domination, exploitation, and oppression violence. We must always keep in mind that Natural law does not prevent human law being created, but does limit abuse of Nature by excessive human law liberties leading to illness or end of human animals on earth.

 

Okay, this is a place to stop your “temporary suspension of resistance” to my ideas. (Remember, I had asked that of you as my “Special Request,” a couple of blog posts ago, to allow me to lay out my argument.)  Now is the time for us to provide each other with further insights, comments and questions, in the practice of mature politicians.

This way we can begin to put into place intervention strategies for short-term and long-term reflection/action practices that stop, transform, or restrict immature politicians culture of violence in all areas of our daily life.

Looking forward to hearing back from you!

Bob Walker

 

My Special Request

I realize, the authentic form of a mature politician’s cultural practices of thought, talk, and action, is what is often referred to as “being civilized.” For me and probably for you, being civilized must also be biologically feasible, or it would be a source of poor health by forcing behavior counterproductive to good health. As it turns out, mature politician relations leading to a culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully, is biologically the most favorable for health and healing, whether we are hermits, members of organizations, or simply conscious beings, anywhere on earth, regardless of age or sex.

Although the terms “political, in politics, and a politician,” are very common, I want to avoid here “immature politician” references that are based on slogans, sound bites, euphemisms, habits, traditions, hearsay, spin, or personal “expert” agendas.

That said, here is my special request:

I am not asking you to believe that anything in this blog is the truth, for the truth cannot be given to you. You must discover it. To discover it, there must be in a state of critical conscious development, in which there is “direct perception” (Jiddu Krishnamurti). This is, what I understand, must be the daily practice of a mature politician, in all relations with other human and the nonhuman surroundings.

For example, when a candidate for an official office in an organization, a parent, teacher, clergy member, or anyone says, “I believe,” a mature politician would respect their right to believe anything. A mature politician would ask: what do they understand, and how has that become known to them, and why would they want you to have that idea also? Finally, a mature politician would want to weigh with them in deliberation, how the idea contributes to liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully.

I am asking you instead: If anything I mention here is opposed to your way of understanding or belief, I ask you to temporarily suspend your resistance to what I propose. You may be right, and I may be wrong. But by suspending your belief or understanding temporarily to consider these ideas together, we practice a mature politician’s approach. Together, we try to make knowledge that is at once technical, practical, and emancipation, which is necessary for an authentic culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully.

As the Israeli journalist and novelist Amos Oz said to Jeffery Brown during a recent interview on the PBS NewsHour Bookshelf (Dec. 26, 2016), about the purpose of literature (I’m paraphrasing): Let us look one more time at things we have seen a million times, and perhaps see them afresh. This way, we can reconsider what we were sure we knew, or are convinced of.

 

BIOLOGY MAKES YOU POLITICAL, IN POLITICS, AND A POLITICIAN

So, here is what is going on, to the best of current knowledge. At birth, all human animals start with a Primal conscious state stage of development. At this stage, they are oblivious to a self, others, and their surroundings. Natural law rules human animal behavioral relations, thought, and expression, with other human animals and non-human surroundings, uninformed by Human law.

In my next blog post, I will pick up here and explore this theory in depth.

Bob Walker

Conscious State Stages – part one

Personal or public policy, law, and practices are formed from human conscious state stages of mature or immature development. Let me suggest what this means, again relying on Paulo Freire .

All humans at birth are biologically in a Primal conscious state stage, oblivious to self and any nonhuman surroundings. With the help of other humans or on our own, we begin to transform into a Naïve conscious state stage with fragile arguments about cause and effect. Before birth, we had lived in the microclimate of the womb and, I should add, usually with very little effort on our part, with some exceptions. It was very copacetic; although, it was getting a little cramped toward the end or our stay when suddenly all hell broke loose, and we were born. More about that in the next episode.

Back to the Naïve conscious state stage. This is a tricky stage of development. The “fragile arguments” leave us vulnerable to influence by mature or immature politicians such as teachers, parents, elected/appointed/career officials, clergy, employers, peers or siblings, and any other human culture role having influence on our interpretation we might make as our “reality”. The mature politician practices being critical and creative, posing all cause and effect interpretations with us as a problem, in a disposition toward knowledge that is technical, practical, and emancipation (Juergen Habermas), in order that we will discover how to transform the reality together. While the immature politician practices by dehumanizing us, by “helping” us to adapt to a sectarian knowledge about cause and effect, so we will “get with their prescribed program”.

The mature politician helps transform our conscious state of development from the Naïve to the Critical conscious state, converting any fear about relating with other humans and the nonhuman surroundings. Together with the mature politician, we can gain a mutually discovered understanding, toward the risks and benefits of an authentic culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully. – By contrast, the immature politician “helps” us through domination, exploitation, and oppressive violence, to transform our Naïve conscious state into the Fanatic conscious state of ourselves and into a distorted version of the culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully.

I know this is a skeleton of conscious state stages of development. But try to think of examples of your daily relations with other human animals and the nonhuman surroundings in these terms.

With my next post (in a day or two), let’s consider, in brief format, the five interrelated biological imperatives that make you political, in politics, and a politician.

Bob Walker

My first blog post

Thank you for visiting my page. My name is Bob Walker, and this is my first attempt posting a blog. I hope you will find it interesting and meaningful enough for you to respond to me.

I am a retired professor of Public Health Education. My lifelong interest and work has continued to be in the biological theory and practice of Liberation Education as a basis for Public Policy.

What do I mean with Liberation Education? This is a term by the educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, who developed the concept of critical pedagogy in his seminal work  Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Critical Pedagogy is the only practice of relating with each other that helps people become a mature politician. Everyone on this planet (except maybe a comatose patient) can develop a Critical conscious state world view, to engage as a mature politician. Nobody can “choose” to be a politician; and nobody can escape being one.

Mature politicians engage with other humans, and the non-human world, to create a culture of liberty and justice for all, to survive and thrive peacefully. Immature politicians create a culture of domination, exploitation, and oppressive violence. This is a daily practice for everyone, in all relations. There is no way of not participating in one or the other. You will choose, every day, in every situation.

With my blog posts now, I want to challenge you to have the courage to be with others, to engage with my reasoning, as I will with yours, to go more into depth. I look forward carrying on this deliberation with you and other participants in this blog. My main objective, however, is that we all carry these thoughts with us, and have them inform our daily relations and actions. Thought – Talk – and Action! Thus creating a critical mass of Critical-Conscious, mature politicians with other humans and the non-human surroundings regardless of age, sex, global geography.