On World Mental Health Day

Last year on World Mental Health Day, nearly a year after my mother's death, I wrote a letter of protest to the Deans at Plymouth University which was also a request for help.

Comment Massagement

Me, Pat and Steve on 25/09/11
Mum died on 21/10/11.

It's a long while since I've had any time for blogging.  Moving across the world gets you like that but I'm here to post a comment that was left on a blog that claims to be about humanism, although it's hard, given the vitriol and closed-mindedness in evidence there, so see what that might be that is of any use to anyone. I'm posting the comment here simply because three quarters of it was deleted, with the express intention of reputation destruction. (My comment policy is at the end of this post).

Free Speech vs Hate Speech

Alicia's hateful speech with no right of reply

I've been re-examining my attitude to free-speech in the light of recent court rulings regarding very offensive statements in the public eye.

Whilst fighting a battle to get the recognition of discrimination in the expulsion of my kids from a dratted Steiner School, the opposite critics have turned on us and mauled us savagely on several occasions.  This arose simply from one person, Melanie Byng proposing initiatives that she was unable to take responsibility for and she has then allowed those personal things to bleed into the area of "Steiner criticism", using the social confirmation bias of her friends, to our detriment and also noticably to the detriment of the British campaign to halt State-funding.

Bullying Comparitors - thanks very much!

Bullying is big in the news.  From “Bully” the movie, to tit for tat about who owns our uteri, and whether rape can ever be legitimate,  it would be hard to say that bullying isn't a feminist issue.

Power-over-others is certain under the microscope, yet it seems hard to get on even ground in even discussing any of these areas.

A Skeptic's Guide to Bystanding

by·stand·er noun \ˈbī-ˌstan-dər\ Definition of BYSTANDER : one present but not taking part in a situation or event : a chance spectator

PTSD and Bullying

When I left University I joined local Theatre in Education company Theatre Alibi, and toured around Devon with a show called "No Heroes No Cowards", about a soldier in the First World War, shot for desertion.  That was in the 80s but it took until 2008 for soldiers shot for "desertion" in WW1 were given a full pardon in recognition of the fact that they were, in fact, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Even once there was an understanding that traumatic events can effect people in this way, the term PTSD was still used exclusively to refer to a single traumatising event evoking “intense fear, helplessness, or horror”, and which continues to cause distress, flashbacks and other symptoms.

Anthroposophical Plants

There's something wonderful about plants grown with the full force of life-affirming quackery running through them, they look the same, maybe a bit posher, but they taste like something can taste only when is has been thoroughly steeped in esoteric dogma.

But until now Anthroposophical Plants haven’t been flagged up as much of a problem.

welcome to anarchangel's blog

Hello world. This is my first blog post.  I've kept two blogs before.  The first one was a private blog when I was in the neo-natal intensive care unit with my extreme premie.  The second one is public and follows the story of what happened to us when we moved to New Zealand and went to a Steiner school.  Oh no! It was a horrible experience of bullying, mismanagement, dishonesty and mobbing and we're still, believe it or not, dealing with the fallout years later.