The Hidden Power Ed Straw and Philip Tottenham

In this special edition of The Hidden Power podcast for Democratic Yorkshire, Philip Tottenham talks with Ed Straw, and Professor Malcolm Prowle on the subject of the day and panacea England's ills - Regionalisation. 
Talking Points:
- The experience of government: consultancy, Thatcher, Blair, powerlessness at the centre of power
- Problems with centralisation. How we experience it.
- Devolved parliaments and regions. Wales, Switzerland, Germany 
- How this might look for Yorkshire. Some of the challenges and pitfalls.
- What’s the next step? Talking about it. Taking an interest. The long road ahead.
Links:
Wikipedia on Regionalism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regionalism_(politics)
Localism - a tangible route to Regionalisation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localism_(politics)#:~:text=Localism%20can%20also%20refer%20to,power%20becoming%20centralized%20over%20time.
From the time of the Scottish referendum on independence:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/17/scotland-independence-referendum-england-counties-devolution
Widely respected community action group Locality:
https://locality.org.uk/
Some links from Malcolm:
Has Devolution Worked - a 2019 Institute for Government report reflecting on the first Twenty years:
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/has-devolution-worked-essay-collection-FINAL.pdf
Some reflections on Government dysfunction (Malcolm Prowle, LinkedIn):
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7130931236369231874/
Ed Balls and others on regional inequality in the UK for the Centre for Economic Policy Research
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/how-tackle-uks-regional-economic-inequality-focus-stem-transport-and-innovation
From Ed:
Northern Independence Party:
https://www.freethenorth.co.uk/ourfuture
Charter to End Westminster Rule:
https://citizen-network.org/library/charter-to-end-westminster-rule.html
A Nation Trapped Inside England (YouTube):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=C2DFTj0Ot2o


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When we finished series 2 - Preflight Checklist - one thing was clear, any governance for Spaceship Earth going forward must put the Biosphere at the centre. Governance models from households, up through companies and countries, to international bodies must include the Biosphere as their central partner.
So far, perhaps, so obvious. We know we need to act, and in many cases, we know what we need to do. But it's not happening. We just can't seem to muster sufficient focus.
In Series 3 - Is God the Biosphere? - we interrogate this state of play.
In this episode we introduce the background and take a look a the systemic straight-jackets that contain us - politically, economically, psychologically - in a kind of trap that makes it almost impossible to avoid feeding the beast. But this is not doom and gloom, not at all. As we constantly reiterate, Change Is Possible - this is our purpose. And there can be no effective change without a frank assessment of reality, so this is where we start.
And then. As the series progresses, we will explore the tranquil jungles of possibility, armed with the question:
What, exactly, would make the Biosphere a compelling object for our attention?

Talking Points:
The attractions of Systems Thinking, and what it is
The challenge - Biodiversity Revisited
Urgency of IPCC report: what does Systems Thinking have to contribute?
Why has the biosphere not proved a compelling object for our attention?
1 - The Tragedy of The Commons: shortsightedness
2 - The Global Addiction System: The monetary system, and the Technosphere
3 - Avoidance: The doom bar, the scale of the challenge, the vast constituency of the very rich, the fantasies

Links:
Biodiversity Revisited:
https://luchoffmanninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/biodiversity-revisited-research-agenda-2020.pdf
IPCC Summary - (MIT Technology Review)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/04/1048832/un-climate-report-carbon-removal-is-now-essential/?truid=&utm_source=the_download&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_term=&utm_content=04-05-2022&mc_cid=1ab39c4971&mc_eid=24fa1486a0
Original Peter Haff article describing the Technosphere - Technology as a Geological Phenomenon: Implications for Human Well-Being:
https://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PDF/Haff%202013%20Technology%20as%20a%20Geological%20Phenomenon.pdf
Epic sweep of monetary system (book review):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-financial-system-is-supposed-to-serve-the-economy--not-harm-it/2019/12/26/59c26028-1d0c-11ea-8d58-5ac3600967a1_story.html

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We left off at the end of the last episode wondering what might make the Biosphere a compelling object for our attention; this in the context of the all-too-human reality of our challenges - the tragedy of the commons, the addiction system, the psychological imperative of avoidance.
In listening back over this episode, I'm reminded of two things: one, Edmund in King Lear - "Thou, Nature, art my Goddess!" And the other, Fidel Castro: if he was to go through the revolution again, he said, he would select just twelve highly committed comrades - echoing, no doubt, the twelve disciples of Christian mythology.
In this episode we start to feel our way into our relationship with the Biosphere. In particular Ed takes a cue from Lynne White, who argued in the 1960's that Western religion was a root cause of environmental degradation, but - controversial! - a religious way of thinking might be the way out.
Talking Points -
Context: the Tragedy of the Commons, the Addiction System, Avoidance etc
We are an emergent property: nature is an absolute, there's no escape
But the relationship has broken down. How can we restore it?
Lynne White and Environmental Ethics, Human Ecology and Beliefs
What is religion?
Was there a good idea behind Christianity?
Earth Mother as a mind-set
Purpose and fly-fishing on the Danube
Nature as a hedonistic giver
Biophilic design
What should we give to nature? The two way relationship
Biomes
Purpose and change in organisations

Links
Article on Lynne White in Nature:
https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/14041-the-long-reach-of-lynn-white-jr-s-the-historical-roots-of-our-ecologic-crisis
Original (pdf):
https://www.cmu.ca/faculty/gmatties/lynnwhiterootsofcrisis.pdf
Jesus - a Buddhist Monk - YouTube/ BBC
https://youtu.be/FsN4zE2yilo
Kindness is the opposite of stress (Dr. David R. Hamilton)
https://drdavidhamilton.com/kindness-is-the-opposite-of-stress/
And podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-scientists-case-for-woo-woo/id1081584611?i=1000548804097-

Biophilic design -
Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biophilic_design
Video 8 mins- sound cuts out between 0:45 and 2:05, but still interesting:
https://youtu.be/MJ6fbYz-x04

Fly-fishing on the Danube (BBC):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015qj3/earths-great-rivers-ii-series-1-2-danube

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What are we talking about, when we talk about God? There's no doubt that something has been lost with the pervasive decline of religion in the modern world. Society is fractured. We lack a shared framework. We're tired of trying to work everything out. It's easier just to avoid thinking at all.
Which is in some ways the point of religion - to avoid having to reinvent the wheel when it comes to purpose and morality. In its absence, we are adrift.
Here at the Hidden Power Podcast one thing has been clear all along: we need to put the Biosphere at the centre of our governance models, and as Lynne White proposed over Fifty years ago - religion may be the key. What is a governance model, if not the prioritising of what is important?
In this episode, Ed sets out various ideas about God, laying them against the Biosphere like a series of well-formed suits.

Talking points:
Context of this episode: nature in its maternal aspect
What are we talking about when we talk about God
Some theologies - Scott Littleton, Monotheism, Carl Jung
Worship is for the Worshipper
Gods as forces of nature, as the highest thing
Explanation - God vs Science
God as unifying moral compass
The symbol of human value
Spirit - team spirit
Faith - God as purpose, God as love
Accountability - God, People
Communication - the golden rule and the biosphere
God the fixer and the prime minister of Australia
Deism vs Pantheism
What is God? Why can't He be the biosphere?

Links
Erasmus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus#The_first_translation

Scott Littleton on God
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deity
Carl Jung
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung
- read by Alan Watts, shortly after Jung's passing in 1961 (YouTube)
https://youtu.be/15pjQRA80bs
Accountability buddies (NY Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/well/live/habits-health.html
A workable version of pantheism (podcast):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7w2IJE332ztKAnglGjxohf?si=iFn5qW9eQO68jr-IC150VA&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A6NOJ6IkTb2GWMj1RpmtnxP
Water and God (The Compass - podcast)
https://www.airr.io/episode/605aae14439f559d6a5c52f0


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The late Ken Robinson, in one of his TED talks, tells the story of a child who was drawing with wild strokes. The teacher asked - What are you drawing? And the child replied "God". The teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." And the child said, "Well. They will in a minute." Badum Tshhhh.
Last week we explored what people are talking about when the talk about gods. But for most people, this is a secondary aspect of religion - the primary aspect being the rituals. So what are rituals, and why are they so powerful?
In this episode we look at some rituals, religious, secular, useful, destructive, and start to imagine what rituals might help us to place the biosphere at the pinnacle of our aspirations.
Talking Points:
Listener Email - A moral revolution is possible
Rituals. What are they?
Ablutions, Jewish weddings, Christian signs of peace
Conscious and unconscious rituals in daily life: focus and distraction
Positioning the biosphere and political will
Rituals of nurturing and kindness
Waste is an affront to nature, not wasting feels good
Gods - conscious and unconscious
Addiction and deification
Human power - like a bull in a china shop
Possible futures
Possible rituals - the 12 step recovery process as a route out of the addiction system
When things change, we'll be happier!
Habits as the b-side of ritual - and their power
Getting past the Doom Bar - learning to love stress

Links:
Peter Oborne - the Triumph of the Political Class (review/Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/sep/30/politics
Water and religion ( incl Ablutions) - BBC podcast "How Water Shaped Us" -
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5NURa5GgoD7PxTzJQNrjzG?si=0hgb5f6hQkuo4Oc_XbleqA
The 12 Step Program (Wikipedia) - main points:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program
Dr Alia Crum on mindsets
Excellent paper on the subject:
https://mbl.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj9941/f/2014_mindful_stress_chpt_crumlyddy_handbook_of_mindfulness.pdf
And podcast on mindsets in general,( 1:04:50 - The three step process: 1 Acknowledge; 2 Welcome; 3 Utilise):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ELdxrMTQum8E4ulpMSb2J?si=HGPXTCRiR9ykMy-UOdn2qw&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A79CkJF3UJTHFV8Dse3Oy0P
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Wikipedia summary):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People


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It is no secret that the various tribes and bubbles of our world have wildly differing beliefs about things. Why can't people just accept the truth? But the truth is so contentious. And framing is so contentious. And all these people seem to have the most outlandish superstitions.
An abiding feature of these podcasts, as we've highlighted many times, is this thing called Systems Thinking, and while this is a broad enough discipline to be fairly tribal in its own right, one key feature of this Systems Thinking is thinking about your thinking.
In this episode we review some of the things in normal western life that have the character of superstition, and explore to what extent our innate capacity for gullibility and naïvity might be used to our advantage, in evolving a more constructive mindset; in connecting better with Nature, and specifically in nurturing the health of our habitat.

Talking Points:
An experience with a palm reader
The power of belief and ritual in performance
Listener comments - a bishop, a yogi, and a reflection on who we are
Some superstitions - recognisable, and hidden
Like Science - eg impact of false HRT Study warning cancer
To what extent are your superstitions working for you?
Heuristics and humility regarding knowledge
Good and bad fairy-tales
What you do and what you think about it
Whatever gets you through the night
We all need superstitions
Faith as an alternative to cynicism
Faith in your own human system
Faith in our project of a viable habitat
The Good Place - it's impossible to be "Good"
The system is fundamentally bad
The challenge is bigger than all of us
And that is why we need faith in a higher power to sustain us
Links:
Fundamentalism as a superstition about text:
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/a/armstrong-battle.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
On the placebo effect:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
On a scientific Truth that turned out to be untrue - HRT and cancer -
https://www.nursingtimes.net/clinical-archive/cancer-clinical-archive/study-linking-hrt-to-breast-cancer-was-wrong-26-01-2012/
William James (Philosopher and psychologist)
On pragmatism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James#Pragmatism_and_%22cash_value%22
On the Variety of Religious Experience (Wikipedia preçis)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James#Philosophy_of_religion
Timothy Morton:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Morton#Ecological_theory

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