Arquivo para a ‘Social Network’ Categoria
The narrative of totalitarianism
06
Apr
It is not just about the war that is the apex of totalitarian action,
the attempt to submit peoples and governments to a unilateral truth, to a way of seeing the world that despises others and more than making a history of authoritarianism, it is necessary to understand its origins. and its narrative.
This is how Hannah Arendt faced the issue when she wrote in 1951 “The origins of totalitarianism”, she seemed convinced that after the end of the second world war the problem did not end there, there she talks about hell, the nightmare, the Metamorphosis of Kafda, the onion and even the ugliness of an omelet, among so many other things, when the stories of Auschwitz reached their hands.
When trying to describe the totalitarian experience, the dilemma Arendt faced was that this experience could not be explained, not by political philosophy or traditional concepts, it is not as the culmination of a process of developing something from a past.
I remember a striking sentence by Lygia Fagundes Telles, who died these days when she would have turned 99 on April 16, wrote: “There is no coherence to the mystery or logic to the absurd”, dictators and their narratives only have logic in systematic propaganda, and in a cheerleading than other fanatics who support him and identify with him.
This form of narrative that Arendt wrote found opposition in a contemporary such as Voegelin to which she replied: “I did not write a history of totalitarianism, but an analysis in historical terms of the elements that crystallized in totalitarianism” (ARENDT, 2007, p. 403) ).
He also wrote in the “Crisis of the Republic”, that the first fundamental difference between totalitarianism and the other categories present in history is the fact that totalitarian terror “turns not only against its enemies, but also against its friends and defenders”. “; a second difference would be its radicality, which makes it capable of eliminating not only the freedom of action of individuals as tyrannies did through political isolation., eliminating not only opponents but also unreliable allies, there is a clear parallel in the current war.
In her note number 81, Arendt wrote: “The total number of Russians killed during the four years of war is estimated at between 12 and 21 million. In just one year, Stalin exterminated around 8 million people in Ukraine alone. See Communism in action, U.S. Government, Washington, 1946, House Document No. 754, pp. 140-1”, again the similarity with the current War is not by chance, and after Butcha these days Mariupol (photo) will be able to live a similar drama.
The last topic of Arendt’s book is: “Ideology and terror: a new form of government”, anyone interested in avoiding totalitarianism just read it, it is likely that someone will become aware of this terror.
ARENDT, H. (2007) Origins of Totalitarianism. trans. Roberto Raposo. São Paulo, Brazil: Companhia das Letras (in portuguese).
Now the horrors of war
05
Apr
The retreat from Kiev, far from being peaceful and moving towards
a ceasefire, seems to have put more fuel in a war that is gradually returning to the horrors and barbarism of the 2nd. World War.
The photos and facts of Butcha, one of the districts around Kiev reveals scenes of civilian deaths with cruelty and genocide, leaders from all over Europe have already spoken out, and the President of Ukraine Zelensky himself went to check the mass and civilian graves on the spot. dead with their hands tied, in addition to reported cases of rape.
While international agencies speak of 280 bodies, Ukraine claims to have found 410 civilian bodies, either in mass graves or abandoned on the streets, many with their hands tied, while Russia denies these atrocities, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were “video spoofing”, however did not present any evidence to prove it.
Accusations of biolaboratories in Ukraine follow, also without evidence, if true they are also reprehensible, but they do not serve to justify the brutal death of civilians that leaves the war on another level, where agreements are more difficult and distant.
There is a new world order, or at least an attempt to implement it, the economic and political poles have shifted and a serious economic and food crisis is approaching, how to face it ?
It will be necessary to review values, if barbarism does not awaken our hopes it becomes more difficult, the pandemic itself should have already alerted us to a new wave of solidarity and concern, it is not just a virus, but attitudes that would be expected from leaders and the population, how many small wars still exist without opening to dialogue.
If we find this war and the pandemic horrifying, more horrendous are the attitudes of indifference and neglect, even the twisted ones that organize themselves or that despise the misfortune that occurs next door.
May the horrors of war at least serve to awaken a sincere humanism, concern and responsibility for the Other, mutual respect and dialogue, or we are heading towards an even worse reality which we have done nothing to try to avoid, or we have done little.
Peace, peace and hope, is the cry of those who look with love for humanity and for the Other.
Covid 2.0: flexibility and new care
04
Apr
Except for China, which still makes strict lock downs, even
countries that practiced confinement, such as Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, by easing protection measures, had in recent weeks a significant increase in cases by covid, even so they reopened.
I call it Covid 2.0, because Web 2.0 meant the arrival of the Web for everyone, yes most cases are few serious and there are many asymptomatic cases, but the virus circulates, and the number of deaths is around 200, which is the case from Brazil, means 1,400 per week, this is not a small amount.
In Europe, many countries, such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, France and Spain, had already relaxed public health policy measures, and there are already increases in Covid 2.0 cases there.
Worldwide, the number of cases has been falling, and the WHO itself is already waving a post-Covid scenario, what is worrying is that there is no policy for cases of outbreaks in certain regions and a clear policy of easing, and the number of cases small deaths, 1643 in the last few hours, contrasts with the number of infections: 777 thousand.
It is believed that the new variants will be less serious (China has already discovered a new variant), although not less infectious as BA.2 is already more infectious than the original Omicron, which explains the high number of infections.
It would be advisable to check and isolate regions with outbreaks and not fail to have some social protection, for example, distancing and masks, which is possible even with flexibility.
The hope that the new variants will be less aggressive and that the number will continue to fall is good, but not failing to take care is dangerous and now depends only on individual attitudes and giving support to needy regions that still have low vaccination rates.
On these days the HSE (Health Service Executive) – Irish public health service reported that the number of cases of hospitalizations for covid has grown again and is studying to apply the 4th. dose.
To err is human, to forgive is divine
01
Apr
Will Smith’s Oscar mistake was just a mistake.
War is the absence of dialogue, forgiveness and tolerance taken to the extreme, it is the barbarism of the human race that becomes smaller than other living species, it is naked cruelty.
Error in thinking is part of the search for truth, error in words and actions is part of poor articulation of thought, it is always possible to go back if there is a willingness to dialogue, to listen to what is contradictory and not want to submit the Other by brute force or for the offense.
We are still at the primitive level of humanity because we are not able to solve the problems that exist and need to be faced, the differences that lead to prejudice and intolerance, and the coexistence where small things can be thought and done in a different way without harm to anyone, an essential principle of humanity is needed, which is why humanism is in crisis.
The worst way to resolve war is to wage more war, seek the pax romana, the submission of what is the “other side”, for this reason the ceasefire and dialogue are fundamental for a resumption of peace.
Many want peace without actually promoting it, see the continuous weaponry of a war.
Forgiveness is the original seed of peace, where there is forgiveness, a little war does not start, and we are all wrong and we need to be forgiven, but we also need to give forgiveness to the Other.
In the origins of the Jewish people, an adulteress should be stoned in public, some Arab peoples keep this barbarity, the biblical passage is famous in which an adulterous woman is presented to Jesus to ask him if she should be “stoned”, and Jesus asks if someone has sin could throw a stone at him and they began to walk away (Jn, 9-11):
“And they, hearing what Jesus said, went out one by one, beginning with the eldest; and Jesus was left alone, with the woman who was there, in the midst of the people. Then Jesus got up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? No one condemned you?’ She replied, ‘No one, Lord.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘I do not condemn you either. You may go, and from now on sin no more.’
Error and the search for truth
30
Mar
The phrase is from the Russian writer Mikhail Saltykov-Tcherdrine,
who wrote about the pseudonym M. Nepanov (wrote Contradictions), his phrase: “whoever never sought the truth certainly never made a mistake”, much better than the popular adage: “only whoever never tries is wrong”, because even if it is innocently, something is always tried.
His sentence completes this thought: “There are times when society, seized with panic, deviates from science and seeks salvation in ignorance”, something that seems typical of our time: at first ignoring the pandemic and vaccines, then ignoring the dangers that result from it and finally try to live with it as if the disease were something natural, and the remedy is to vaccinate four, five, … times.
Folly and frivolity seem to be reactions to a crisis that is deepening, in addition to the war, a rise in prices and food shortages are looming, yes what happens for the time being seems to be circumvented and when it is no longer, what would be wise to do, it seems that few care.
I chose to speak of an unknown literary author of the 19th century, he did not live in the period of the Soviet Union, to attest to the ignorance of punishing Russian culture, science and sports, as a punishment for a war, undoubtedly unfair, but of the which the Russian people are also victims.
Even seeing the horrors happening in Ukraine, we cannot ignore the horrors of the West and the warlike escalation that may have in the near future other chapters as painful as the current ones, is an escalation that seems to have no return.
One cannot ignore the mistakes of the second war, the mistakes of the post-war period, the countless interventions in the East, Asia and Africa that caused wars and deaths that were equally reprehensible.
It is necessary to recognize the mistakes, it is necessary to forgive the colonial period, still in progress, and it is necessary to allow peoples to live their culture, their ideals, as developed by Raymond Aron (War and Peace between Nations) and in security, the The author quotes Clausewitz in his book: “War is an act of violence, and there are no limits to the manifestation of this violence” (Aron, p. 69).
It’s a difficult time when we just point out our mistakes to others, without looking at our own.
The Battle of Kiev
29
Mar
With a disproportionate army and military forces, it was 
conceivable that the Russians’ battle in Kiev would be short-lived, but setbacks in the air and on the ground, a hostile late-winter weather and the heroism of the Ukrainian people were none of Putin’s business.
Irpin (before the war photo) is the last district before Kiev, the Ukrainian forces reported yesterday that they had retaken the district, so the Russian troops stay further away, there are reports that the Russian troops would be largely sick due to the cold and exhaustion of a month on the battlefield and with very low morale.
Just as in World War II, the battle of Saint Petersburg (Leningrad at the time) was disastrous for the Nazis, the battle of Kiev, where most of the fighting forces were sent (the famous tens of kilometers long convoy), and the air support of the feared Russian air force seem to have encountered unexpected resistance.
Several rounds of negotiation for peace are taking place these days, at this moment it is as desirable for Russia as it is for Ukraine, which in the first rounds found itself at a disadvantage with strong Russian attacks and advances, now, although the bloody battle of Mariupol follows. and air strikes that seem to be the Russians’ last resort, there is a relative military “balance”, but the lives of innocent civilians continue to be sacrificed.
Putin also seems to have lost many generals, it is not known whether only in combat or because they opposed Putin’s expansionist plans, the Russian military force also begins to be questioned as to its real capacity.
The fear remains of what is possible in the event of a humiliating defeat in Ukraine, the economic bloodshed caused by sanctions on Western companies and an untimely or appealing reaction to use lethal nuclear weapons or others prohibited by international conventions.
There remains the hope that the peace negotiation rounds of these days can bear fruit, Zelensky accepts the idea of neutrality and disarmament of atomic weapons, perhaps also a reduction in its army, but Russia has pretensions in relation to the territories “taken” beyond the Donbass (Donetsk and Lugansk) also Mariupol which is a typically Ukrainian city.
Internal pressure on Putin can also help, but his temperament seems to be warlike and he believes he can go further with his pretensions, the hope is that common sense will prevail.
Why the Pandemic Isn’t Over
28
Mar
The hypotheses that vaccines are efficient against the variants of the
Ômicron fall apart when it is observed that in the East and in Europe the variant BA.2, already called Ômicron 2.0, has a degree of infection 1.5% higher than the original strain and even where the number of deaths is falling, the degree of infection recedes at a slower rate.
In Brazil, the number of deaths is in the moving average around 250, while the number of infections is in a moving average that varies below 40 thousand and above 32 thousand, but if observed punctually, the number of infections on Thursday was 47,000 and Friday of 36,176 on Saturday, and there are still unreported cases of asymptomatic and there is no testing policy.
Imagining that the next strains may be less lethal can only be thought of in the field of hypotheses, although there are studies that even claim this, in fact, the explosion of cases in Europe and the East belies this possibility, as there are already reported deaths and low efficiency. of vaccines.
The release of protocols, it is true that not in all environments, some places continue to be more careful, but the political signaling of release leads to less care.
According to the WHO, BA.2 is associated with an increase in cases of Covid-19 in European and Eastern countries, and while at the end of January there was a drop in infections, in the period from the 14th to the 20th of this month the world body of health records an increase of 7% in infections, while the number of deaths there is a reduction of 23%, which means lower lethality of the strain.
The entity recorded 12.3 million new cases and 32,900 deaths from Covid-19 in the period.
There is undoubtedly a drop, but the greater spread of the new strain should be viewed with concern because it promotes the circulation of the virus and does not eliminate the possibility of mutations.
The desirable peace
25
Mar
Peace between peoples must come from a deep reflection on the differences and tolerance between values that are extremely diverse and that do not
necessarily mean the impossibility of peace, and when there are old scars, care must be taken to avoid them, they exist. because some peace was established without respecting the dignity of peoples.
Raymond Aron wrote “Peace and war between nations” (Paz e guerra entre nações, Martins-Fontes, 2018) thinking about this, reflecting that each people must be faithful to its ideal as a nation, not ignore a conflicting history, and, think and act with determination to do that the absence of war lasts until the moment when peace is possible and durable, imagining that that day will come.
Edgard Morin in his recent essay “The edge of the abyss” (a post has already been made here), said “one of the aspects of the tragedy is that we cannot make use of weakness and strength separately and that we are obliged to navigate between the two in a different way. uncertain”.
Above all, forgiveness is needed between peoples and nations that have lived through conflicts, as was the case with Germany, Italy and Japan, who were in the second war and managed to overcome their own scars and maintain their ideals as strong nations, which they are today.
It is necessary that they behave like the prodigal son who, upon returning home, in this case to his own territory and the healthy roots of his peoples, managed to rebuild nations under a new cloak of pacifism, tolerance and the development of their nations.
It is also necessary that the conflicting nations be open to this new beginning, in the biblical parable, the eldest brother does not understand that the father celebrates the brother who spent all the inheritance money wasting on futile and fleeting things, and now returns home, in terms of war the return to their own territory.
Such is neither the Pax Romana, of subjugating the vanquished peoples, nor the Pax eternal liberal ideal that did not lead to lasting peace.
The possible peace
24
Mar
The roman pax meant the submission of the dominated peoples to
the Roman empire and the end of resistance, which in fact is not peace because there is no end to the oppression of a people and this means that somehow there will persist some kind of revolt that will explode in new war.
Thus, some kind of reconciliation is necessary in which both parties do not feel that their dignified existence as a people or nation, a people within territorial and political limits, can go forward enjoying the freedom to express their customs and values.
The ceasefire is the end, albeit temporary, of hostilities, it is what opens the way for a possible dialogue or reconciliation, where concessions will be analyzed from both sides, when there is no clear possibility of this dialogue, the only way to establish peace is a third force that enters the conflict without the desire to antagonize any of the parties, but to stop them.
The problem is complex, because in extreme polarization there is no reliable force for peace, and it is very difficult for the two belligerent sides to accept it, and this can not only fuel the war even more, but can accelerate a process of extending it to other countries outside the conflict.
For humanitarian reasons, even if this risk exists, it is the only possible peace, running the risk of extrapolating the war beyond its limits, however putting it within the limits becomes imperative when there is a risk of hostilities so wide that they could affect the dearest human principles.
The current escalation that puts us on the brink of this abyss is the case, because the risk of an even greater wave of violence outside the limits of the three countries in conflict (Belarus is at war) is not just a possibility, Poland is starting to involve and the borders of NATO how to prepare.
The UN does not have enough political strength to be this force, it is necessary to create a somewhat “neutral” bloc (in a war this is almost impossible) that can place military forces sent to the conflict region and force a ceasefire, this it is possible peace.
Desirable peace is an agreement between conflicting parties, this seems more distant every day.
Neither plague nor war warns us
23
Mar
When the pandemic came, great global solidarity was expected, a retreat
would make us go a little beyond our own ego, review many things, including our daily lives that are always running and often meaningless.
War should alert us to the brutality, cruelty and massacre that it provides and make us less warlike and more empathetic in everyday life and solidarity with the innocent who are the first to die in the face of brutality.
Generations who lived through the war told and wrote about its horrors, including the contemporary wars in Korea and Vietnam, it’s good not to forget, but the great revolution in the 60’s was the hippies criticizing consumerism, the peace and love generation, inspired by Ghandi and in several mystics, but something insensitive is in the air: the justification of cruelty that is paradoxical.
Paradoxical because the justification is the opposite of what is done: peace, liberation, the end of oppression and other slogans that are mere propaganda, because what is done is visibly contrary to what is preached, and this is in all areas. social, from culture to warlike thinking.
UN Secretary General António Guterrez in a speech called for an end to the “absurd” war, citing the city-to-city conquest made in Ukraine and the massacre in Mariupol, where 100,000 people tried to leave and are prevented, it is like a concentration camp. no walls.
Kiev had parks, churches and walkways that are the opposite of the war images (pictured is Kalynovka park near Kiev).
The economic war waged through western sanctions will have serious consequences for the supply, not only of fuel that was already suffering on the market even before the war, but the scarcity of food can lead to the third point of the crisis of civilization: hunger.
It is always possible to resume dialogue, negotiation, to prevent the proliferation of the war industry, which moves billions of dollars in a perverse market and which is on an increasing scale in the middle of a war, not to mention the nuclear danger that is a global reality.
We must cultivate empathy and solidarity, hope and especially the love that breaks the chain of hate that surrounds the entire planet, let us begin in our daily lives to lay down our weapons.
