Preamble: I touched upon this same theme in my first writings for Islamica Magazine. This article was republished in my latest book “Understanding Life: Insights Spiritual and Worldly” available from Amazon in a chapter called “The Modern Institution as Obsessional Personality” So I have been interested in this problem for a long time. If your interest is piqued here you can look up the chapter in the book via Amazon or your local library or order it online at this same blogsite. Happy reading!

in C.J. Jung in an article entitled “Psychology and the East” made the following profound statement: “Many scientific-minded persons have even sacrificed their religious and philosophical leanings for fear of uncontrolled subjectivism.(i.e. they have succumbed to the modernist disease of Empiricism).. By way of compensation for the loss of a world that pulsed with our blood and breathed with our breath (i.e. had a spiritual dimension to it!), we have developed an enthusiasm for facts-mountains of facts far beyond any single individual’s (or group for that matter)power to survey. We have the pious(hardly pious lol) hope that this incidental accumulation of facts will form a meaningful whole” Spot on! Although this was written more than fifty years ago, the intellectual élite of our times, let alone the common people, have still not caught on?!

So, whenever there is a serious problem, our institutions launch a “study”! That is going to solve the problem ,they believe. But does it? Look at the last 50 years of history and see if that hypothesis  is true. Most of us have heard of Einstein’s definition of insanity lol: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” lol. By that definition, all of our modern institutions are insane! What else is new?

Let me give you a couple of examples close to home. I got my medical licence in 1972! At that same time the Canadian government introduced socialized medicine-Medicare if you wish. In Quebec we now call it the RAMQ -Régie de L’Assurance Maladie de Québec. Since 1972 when I first graduated ,each year has seen a decrement in service. From when I started, I could go to the E.R. and be seen in less than an hour each time (no,n ot as a doctor, as an ordinary citizen)No one waited more than an hour in a clinic and doctors were easy to find in every specialty. Now the waiting time in an E.R. in Montreal can easily go to 18 hours! Many specialties are almost totally unavailable and if you don’t call the walk-in clinic at the moment their reception services open and not a minute later, you don’t get an appointment.

But we have the solution, no? .A good study?! Studies have been done ad nauseum. Experts have been convened ,committees have ben formed over and over again by governments on all sides of the political spectrum, data -piles and piles of data -just as Jung described have been amassed. Commissions of Enquiry, even a Royal Commission(the queen of all studies) on a Federal level .Has that helped?! Not at all.

So what is going on? Are these people running these studies and Commissions just stupid?! I don’t think so. Are they simply corrupt and greedy?! May be but still doesn’t explain the phenomenon. Something is awry. The paradigm is wrong. T he M.O. of problem-solving is ineffective. Before we get into analyzing why that may be, let me give you another telling example.

In the 80’s I was still working in a large institution -the Douglas Hospital-a teaching hospital connected with McGill University. A position had been vacated and a new administrative doctor was required to fill it. It was a high-status position. And we had an ambitious candidate from the Western part of Canada who was eager to take it on and make it into a world-class research center. He came to the hospital for 1 day, met with some of the nursing and medical staff from various departments and gave us his report the next day. In that brief time he had identified most of the major problems at the hospital and had some ideas as to how we could correct them!

But the hospital was run at the time by an MBA type who was not satisfied with such a subjective approach?! So he hired a comsultation firm. After 6 months and $300,000 fees (approximately) they handed in their report-full of data ,graphs charts, demographics etc,,etc. I didn’t recognize our institution in that report! For all it said, they could have been studying any company or even the city administration. The heart of the matter had been totally missed! So what is going on here?

This  entire approach to problem-solving is defective and wrong! Reams of data ,statistical analysis and “management science” theoretical formulae will never get to the core of the matter. And this is true whether it is about the functioning of a medical institution, controlling a pandemic or countering climate change. Simply put ,it doesn’t work. We have enough evidence by now for that conclusion.

So what is the alternative?! If we go back to some of my writings on Epistemology, we will see that we need inner vision, proper ,as opposed to biased and self-interested,  hearing, insight and intuition. That is what the visiting doctor brought to the table without formulating it as such and that is what the management consultants missed.

Now ,sometimes the solution is right in front of us. Let us go back to the first example-that of the medical system. There are medical systems that work far better than the Canadian one. The last time I looked ,Canada was second to last in the performance of our medical system. Only our neighbours to the south (remember, the exceptional ones lol) ranked lower than us! But if one looks into the U.N. reports ,the same countries are always near the top of the list-the Scandinavian ones. Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Occasionally you will see a country like Switzerland or France?! near the top but they are outliers,

So why do we not learn from them?Are our politicians with all their studies not aware of this? A public servant I once treated told me confidentially that they have all this information .Are we simply too proud?! I think that may well be part of it. Are the political calculations getting in the way? Could be. Our Prime Minister  Legault once mentioned that the Medical Syndicates were more powerful than the mafias?! So are they intimidated by them? Are they afraid it would be too expensive? Actually the Scandinavian countries are spending LESS/capita than Canada on their medical services.

Not an easy puzzle to figure out why none of this is happening. But one thing for sure. The people who are leading us are not looking at the Reality square in the face. They are not being transparent. And they often, in fact, seem confused. Their hold on reality is tenuous at best. Their only solution seems to be to throw more money at the problem.

One more anecdote from my experience with the medical system -just to show you how perverse it can be. By the 80’s when I was working as a teaching psychiatrist in one of the Douglas Hospital’s satellite clinics ,it was already obvious that there was a serious problem in our E.R,s. The Minister of Health at the time was the respected psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Camille Laurin. He decided to visit ta select group of  E.R.s in  Montreal to see what was happening. I couldn’t believe what happened next. The hospitals designated for inspection were given 48 hours notice! By the time Dr. Laurin got there, they had cleaned up the mess and there were very few people in the waiting room. Dr. Laurin concluded that everything was fine.

“There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark”‘.Dr. Laurin was no simpleton. People who worked with him said he was brilliant. So he must have known what was going on !Now we need to change the name in the famous Shakespearian quote  from Denmark to Canada lol! Something rotten in the state of Canada-or at least Quebec! Denmark has it’s medical situation more or less under control by now.

So what is the bottom line? We need to change our paradigm of problem-solving. It has to be simpler, it has to involve people and their front-line experiences, we need politicians who are courageous and visionary -real leaders not bureaucrats and manipulators and people-pleasers. We need a totally new approach! Otherwise, these problems will just increase and increase as they are doing right now and condemn us to self-destruction on a global sc ale.But I am not by any means sure that this is in the Divine plan. Especially since none of our current leaders believe in the Divine planÉ! .Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary they still believe they are in control. Witness the World Economic Forum and the Great Reset if you need more proof! May God make it easy on us because our leaders surely won’t!

Stop Objecting!

Had a dream last nite. I was in a room full of people and I noticed something special. Everyone was objecting! Ajib! Not only to what I was saying but to each other as well. Be careful,now! I can hear your psychoanalytic minds objecting already.”That’s your dream,Ibrahim.So the rest is projection onto us” Wrong! It’s an issue for everyone so hold on and hear me out. Control your objections for once lol.

So, IWW ( My least favourite acronym lol. I was wrong).The educational system does teach critical thinking or should we call it more accurately “reflex criticism thinking”! Just watch the mainstream media(CNN for example).You can see the journalists just looking for a chance to catch their interviewees on an error or a contradiction! That’s how they earn their living! You can also see this in couples and between parents and children. And sometimes even between friends-now the most protected majority. You can criticize your parents, your teachers, your politicians, your priests but don’t criticize friends. They are your true allies?! Really?!

Saw a television report a few weeks ago about a local high-school teacher who was proud of teaching “critical thinking”. When the interviewer questioned the students  ,they, too, were proud to say that they were critical of climate change deniers and vaccine-hesitant people and people who were not comfortable with the LGBTQ2 movement! That is not “critical -thinking?! That is sheep-like behaviour. The woke movement incarnate.

In any case, we don’t need critical thinking! We need “discerning” thinking. Being able to discern right from wrong, good from bad, truth from falsehood. That is what is required to get back on track. Not echo-chamber objections. And that ‘discerning thinking” is sorely lacking in this relativistic, individualistic consensus-driven culture.

So yes, men are men and women are women. Arabs are like this and Jews are like that , Germans are like this and Brits are like that. Canadian winters are brutally cold and Yemen is brutally hot! Get used to it. Stop objecting. That is the way God created it!

While still a Marxist?! I came across this passage in the Gospels. I  was shocked myself. ”How could a man of God possibly say this/” My mind objected! But after observing the world and all the attempts by authoritarian governments to eliminate poverty (think Soviet Union and Mao’s China) I realized that Jesus a.s. was right! Get used to it. There is wisdom therein.

Jesus Anointed at Bethany

⁶ While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, ⁷ a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

⁸ When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. ⁹ “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

¹⁰ Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ¹¹ The poor you will always have with you,^[a] but you will not always have me. ¹² When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. ¹³ Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

So, getting back to the modern world, whenever in  a group or individual setting, one person states the Truth,10 people stand up to object. Because they don’t have that idea in their own minds.  Then they justify their objections with rationality and logic(that’s a great way to get to Truth lol).Btw, why are they doing that?1 Because they want Reality to conform to how they think it should be. So ,they object-like the angels in surat al Baqara. And what does Allah answer?”I know what you know not”i.e. there is a plan and a positive purpose to everything.

Yes, everything! The young child who gets killed in the crossfire of gang-related violence( may Allah spare us such tragedy!, the Covid pandemic, the Ukraine War. It all has a purpose. Get used to it. Reality ain’t what you think it should be.

So, what do we do instead? Instead of objecting, we accept. Like when Sheikh Nazim used to ask: ”Are you accepting”. The answer is “yes, we are accepting” So try that out. Take a few situations in your life that you don’t like and practice accepting. You will be surprised at the results and the benefits.

Now, I don’t want to leave the pragmatists feeling abandoned lol,! They are the people who now ask: ”So what do we do about it? Accept AND adapt. Behave accordingly rather than disputing Reality. Canada is cold! Get a good winter jacket lol. Yemen is hot. Find shelter in thick-walled structures. Men are often unaware of the subtleties of relationships; women are often emotionally overwrought .Factor that into your behaviour.Stop the”blame, shame and humiliation”(C.F. Ed Hallowell).Adapt.Work with the Reality rather than against it. That is the way to success. May Allah be with you and remember” He knows what he is doing” lol Stop objecting to His acts. You will feel a lot better, believe me. Salaams, Ibrahim.

Have a listen to this interview with my old friend .naturopath and Sufi Rehan Zaidi

https://open.spotify.com/show/7BtgsjRTe2Ix3iQ9CwziYy

Climate Change- “The Fear Porn” Persists”
As we watch , in horror, the wildfires in Yosemite National Park and British Columbia, the record heat in Great Britain and the heat waves in Spain and Portugal, it is easy to feel desperate and overwhelmed. That is exactly what the media and the government want! The media love it because it is spectacular and makes for good ratings and the government loves it because it allows them to have more control over the population. But what is the reality?! Is it as dire as they claim?! Are we all doomed to perdition as the powers to be would like us to believe?! And perhaps most important of all “Are all these perturbations man-made?!”
Good news! More and more people are beginning to question the official narrative. There have always been dissenting voices like Henrik Svensmark, the astrophysicist from Denmark who believes climate change has more to do with Cosmic Rays and Nir Shaviv , physicist from Israel, who points out that the geological record indicates that climate has been changing up and down since the beginning of the Earth’s existence! Often changes more extreme than those we are currently experiencing. Then there is David Collum all-purpose intellectual lol from Columbia who writes an annual report for the Peak Prosperity website. These people have been questioning the narrative for a long time!
But recently two important books have come out that turn the entire narrative upside down. The first is called “Unsettled” by Steven Koonin. Dr. Koonin was a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech-one of the leading engineering schools in the country and then went on to become Undersecretary of Science in the Obama administration. So we are not talking about lightweights and conspiracy theorists here. We are talking about credible scientists who are willing to step out of their professional bubbles and echo-chambers and say ”One moment ,here! The science is by no means settled”. In fact science is never settled. There is no such thing as consensus in science. It is always being debated and always moving forward! “Consensus” is a political concept not a scientific one!.
Dr. Koonin’s book is certainly valid and well thought-out. But it is too cautious and overly-detailed to be of use to most laymen.

So the book I would like to focus on is that by the geologist Gregory Wrightstone. called “Inconvenient Facts” IMHO equally authoritative to the other scientists previously mentioned but more succinct and to the point. All of his points are derived from credible scientific and institutional sources. I will organize them in bullet-point fashion to make it as user-friendly as possible
• Carbon Dioxide is NOT the primary greenhouse gas. Water vapour is. It determines 60-90 % of the greenhouse effect!
• CO2 is absolutely necessary for plant growth. Its reduction is much more dangerous than its increase!
• Our current geological period has the lowest CO2 levels in the history of the Earth.
• Michael Mann’s hockey-stick graph so promoted by Al Gore’s documentaries is bogus! ”We now know that the hockey-stick is fraudulent” Dr. Micheal Fox, Professor of Chemistry at Idaho State University. ”Michael Mann’s hockey stick has indeed been substantially discredited” Dr. Hamish Campbell ,New Zealand Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences.
• The Medieval Warming period (1000-1400 A.D). reached temperatures considerably higher than present days!
• The current warming trend began in the mid-!7th century at least 200 years before any contribution of man to the carbon imprint!
• Temperatures have been changing for 800,000 years! The periods of glaciation last for 70,000- 125,000 years. The interglacial warming periods last for 10-15,000 years. We are currently 11,000 years into an interglacial ;period. We could enter an ice Age at any point. And that would be far more catastrophic than any warming trend.(I have heard Dr. Svensmark say the same thing as well as other scientists who have been denounced for pointing these things out!)
• The last interglacial period(about 120,000 years ago ) was 8 degrees C warmer than currently. The polar bears survived and the Greenland ice cap was only reduced by 25%)
• For 6,100 of the last 10,000 years, it was warmer than today!
• For most of the Earth’s history it was 10 degrees C warmer than today!
• The 97 % consensus of scientists mentioned by John Cook in his 2013 article entitled “Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature” is bogus and fraudulent. He manipulated and misrepresented the data to further his climate activism. David Legates in a 2015 paper in Science Education reviewed the data and came to the conclusion that only 0.3% of the abstracts endorsed man-made global warming as they defined it.From 97% to 0.3% ?! If anyone still believes in scientific objectivity they need to seriously re-examine their convictions lol,.
• The Earth over the last 25 years has been growing greener! 25-50% of the Earth’s surface has been showing significant greening while only 4% has been browning This according to NASA satellite data!
• Hurricane frequency has been declining for 250 years!
• There are more polar bears now than we have had for 50 years! And they are thriving-even in areas where the ice is diminishing!
• Antartica has 90% of the worlds land-based ice mass. Most of the continent is cooling and its ice-mass is increasing!(bet you never heard that one lol)
• And so much more…..Have a look at the book ”Inconvenient Facts” for more information and supporting data
• So what is happening? How could this be?! We are being manipulated on so many levels. Just like the ever-oft repeated mantra “Vaccines are safe and effective” about the Covid vaccine. The other mantra we hear is “Climate change is due to man-made effects from burning fossil fuels’. I don’t beiieve that any more! I consider it fear-mongering and the policies it is engendering by governments are largely counter-productive and harmful.
• Personally, I do believe we are experiencing climate change. But it is mostly a natural occurrence due to the change in the energy of the sun! And ultimately due to our Lord.It is human hubris, yes pride, to believe we can be so powerful! What to do?!Get right with your Lord.He will take care of it if you do.! There is absolutely no way our governments are going to solve this problem! Especially when they are working with the wrong diagnosis?!

Salaams,Ibrahim