Arquivo para a ‘Social Network’ Categoria
Pandemic could worsen in Brazil
20
Apr
This last Sunday’s data, still under strong influence from the previous policy,
gives an increase of 101% in the number of deaths, however you should remember (for this reason we said influence of the previous policy), that “at the time the exam is placed on the timeline , it needs to be placed on the date it was collected ”(Dr. Paulo Lotufo, USP), and this means a delay of 10 to 15 days, in addition to the infection taking more than 5 days to manifest.
Thus, the current policy, which even if dictated in an unclear way, is not to use social isolation, the fact of doing mass tests (it needs to see if there will be enough tests) means to see how much the society as a whole is being infected , gaining “immunity” (this has not yet been scientifically proven) and what “virus behavior” is in our environment, early winter and poor sanitary conditions. The health system’s responsiveness is running out, and the curve we see above still indicates far from a plateau (the number of deaths is not a projection, it is real), and still indicates a rise and there is no plateau in sight, the peak most experts say, is yet to come.
We defended #LockDown, if it comes now it will be a little late, and apparently the political climate is not favorable, the central government is against it (curiously there are those who defend military intervention, but political and not sanitary) and society feels apprehensive and insecure what can happen.
If there is an aggravation, it is not what we want because it implies lives, the response capacity is reduced, we started with preventive measures at the beginning of the pandemic, but we do not owe consequences to it, and we cannot loosen ahead of time, it will be a collapse.
Any sincere and humanistic person wants the best, wants everything to work out, but the risk of opening trade, when the number of deaths is still very high, is enormous, not very prudent.
We cannot pay to see, the cost will be high for lives and much more even economical.
It is comforting to see that in many countries that have taken tough measures, loosening can already begin to happen, do not forget that in the face of the crisis they have taken tough measures.
The pandemic and the Other
17
Apr
Although the so-called horizontal isolation received the name (in the Brazilian case)
of “social isolation”, a name that would be more proper and less aggressive would be families retreat, in other countries also called confinement, as in France.
The recognition of the Other in the family also leads to an improvement in the social relationship, except in cases of families where the family relationship was already in a situation of extreme conflict, the tendency will be to practice acts of solidarity and tolerance.
This is necessary for a good social interaction, and to find the face of the Other, which is not the same, a term widely used in philosophy, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Lévinas, Habermas, Agamben and Byung Chul Han, I certainly forget several since the theme it is present in current philosophy. The self-defense instinct, which must be coupled with a change in social behavior, can make the virus a catalyst for cultural change, that of thought is ongoing and the religious one essentially depends on what those who proclaim the faith think and who should to move from the sacredness of your thoughts to the substantiality of the world.
We will have to help people in order to help companies, work and education itself, worldwide EaD (Distance Education) tools, video conferences and chats, which from families can be re-educated, are being widely used, Brazil had an unprecedented meeting of the Federal Supreme Court by Skype, condominium meetings, etc.
Some countries like Denmark and Finland are already announcing the reopening of primary schools, but with some parents having restraint and fear of sending their children, adults will be able to cope with forms of distance education, at least for now.
As will be the religious re-education with closed temples, one pastor played sax for his faithful, another one put photos of the parishioners in his celebration, but an even bigger step needs to be taken for faith to appear beyond social solidarity (many food campaigns for the poorest) which is the act of mercy, the only one capable of showing the face of the Other without prejudice and “social isolation” from those who have a new different view of religion.
The crisis of Western thought and the pandemic
14
Apr
Old analyses still grounded in idealism, which study the state model, economic problems and
anthropocentric models do not account for the new reality, the global pandemic was caused by a virus and caught every society unprepared.
The net analyses continue with discourses about obviousness, we are one planet, the problem is everyone’s, we have to review values, etc. but those that point to the future still live in the dimness of a thought about ideals that have been exhausted, but not the discourses.
Edgar Morin, who has long been pointing to a planetary citizenship, approaching 100 years and keeping a lucid head, in an interview with the L ́Observateur of 03/18 said: “Confinement can help us detoxify our way of life”, and in the same interview points out that “this crisis shows us that globalization is an interdependence without solidarity”, and that it has produced a techno-economic unification of the planet.
In the same vein Byung Chul Han wrote in the Society of Tiredness, that we are all in active life and ignore contemplative life, however the pandemic has taken us out of activism and we still do not know what to do with the “idleness” of staying at home, there is even religious discourse that calls it a tomb, but we will talk about it when we speak of the night of God and the instrumentalized religiosity of today.
To those who do not believe in this analysis, I remember that successful programs like “reality show” are now in fact realities because each one lives in his home, and “master chef” now has to happen in practice in families because restaurants are closed.
As for the technological aspect pointed out by Morin we can not forget that in addition to the global news, now for work, for education and even for leisure videoconferences are now realities, there are still those who curse against them, but it is schizophrenia because they are now necessary and even to maintain trade are indispensable, online shopping are there.
The detoxification of our way of life did not come through a plan of government, nor by a great cultural change, although the pandemic suggests this, even in our homes we still seek the unrealities of contemporary life, the pandemic, however causes a change of this vision.
The East and some countries, I quote the case of Portugal, are succeeding because of a certain discipline in the #StayAtHome when Peter Sloterdijk in The rules for the human park spoke about the failure of “human domestication”, did not imagine that a virus could demonstrate its thesis, will come out of the crisis early and will have fewer dead countries with greater social discipline.
Finally, Social Networks (not to be confused with the techno media we talked about above), the dynamics of the spread of the virus follows the logic of networks, and so if these studies are taken seriously we may be more ready in the defense of lives, not by chance the infectologist Carl Latkin is one of the scientists with the greatest publication in this subject.
Social Isolation and small words
07
Apr
It has already been explained that social isolation is diferente of the #LockDown,
reducing the dynamics of physical proximity between people and social isolation, but the explanation that we are in networks, which makes a person from the outskirts of São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro move to the center, it is the fact that networks (which can communicate through media called “virtual”) in this case are physical networks.
The contact between people to be infected by a virus occurs because many people live in the so-called dormitory cities and need to travel to the big centers for work, and the essential jobs: transport, employees of health posts and markets, live in peripheries. and must return home.
In the study of Social Networks there is a phenomenon called “six degrees of separation” that was named after a play in 1990 by playwright John Guare, and a film by Fred Schepisi (see the picture), where a character says: “… everyone on this planet is separated from each other by only six other people. Six degrees of separation.
Between us and anyone else on the planet ”, these are the small worlds, each person says the character in the film“ it is a door that opens to a new world ”.
It is a profound idea, also says in the film, of the dynamics of large masses, we are going to see a form of microsociety where each one has a role and can provide a new world, a change in the worldview, and an important thing at this moment is the defense of life , perhaps the good economy.
Let’s stick to the proposal of social isolation, it slows down but does not reduce the number of infected people say experts and appeal to science, however, the science of networks shows that small worlds make this interaction possible, so a “type” of isolation vertical makes sense if we think of the small worlds.
It is not just about the elderly, a risk group, but the peripheries where contagion is arriving can cause the exponential call of contagion, due to both physical proximity conditions and sanitary conditions, this is where we put the serious problem, and no study has been done yet.
The Ministry of Health said it would do this study over the weekend, but the bad policy hurt, the small world of politics suffered a contagion, which within the government itself suffered vertical isolation, but there was already social isolation, 76% of the population it supports the Ministry of Health policy in Brazil (different vision of the president), but the analysis of expansion in the periphery was left aside.
#LockDown now
06
Apr
We have entered a decisive week of the pandemic, especially in Brazil, but
also in many parts of the world, contagion will reach poorer areas and countries, where sanitary conditions and the concentration of people can lead to the greatest human tragedy, but it is Easter week. and I have hope.
A huge #LockDown could have a fulminant effect against contagion and this would help fight the pandemic, network studies (in the sense of the relationship between two nodes, in this case it is the proximity of people) show that the network effect exists, and the only now appear in poor peoples.
The possibility of interrupting is to create clusters, isolated sectors of society and a single contact of the one node produces a viral effect.
Carl Latkin, in addition to being an eminent infectologist who works in Global health programs, is also one of the most productive researchers in Social Networks, our study of co-citations in Social Networks works demonstrated this (a PhD in progress), but a given important of this researcher is what shows the presence of HIV in African-American homosexuals.
This study carried out with a sample of 234 African American men, showed that the fact that they are in denser sexual networks, are more prone to contagion.
The analogy with COVID-19 is that peripheral populations are in denser population networks and the relationship within the family is stronger, as they are larger families, as we do not have time to do local sampling, beyond the quarantine period, we’re running a simulation and the risk is real, even the ministry team admits a Covid-19 explosion.
It turns out that workers supporting essential services: truck drivers, cleaning workers and assistants in medical centers, secretaries, etc. it comes from the periphery and displacement is already a problem, they ride on crowded buses and do not have the necessary hygiene conditions.
There is an urgent need for a #LockDown during this week of the end of Lent, not only can the holidays help, but a political attitude of frontal confrontation can help a lot.
Carl Latkin, Cui Yang, Karin Tobin, Typhanye Penniman, Jocelyn Patterson, Pilgrim Spikes, “Differences in the Social Networks of African American Men Who Have Sex With Men Only and Those Who Have Sex With Men and Women”, American Journal of Public Health 101, no. 10 (October 1, 2011): pp. e18-e23.
The sign of Lazarus and the pandemic
27
Mar
The pandemic came to warn us that it is not life that matters the economy anymore,
we posted this week that it is not the oeconomicus of home and agriculture (of food we would say today, because food processing is already part of history), it is that of speculation by banks and exchanges.
Now it is life that governs the economy and not the other way around, maybe an economic Darwinism could say in the beginning it was money and then man came, nothing more unreasonable, but it is clear that if an economy goes to ruin, the maintenance of life is in the limit, it stays like this in wars, comes the famine.
But the sign of the pandemic is still poorly read even by economists, and even more lost by some leaders and even religious is the sign of Lazarus (his tomb in side), more than half a million infected and death coming is not enough reason for the even stronger economy on the planet want to stop.
A careful reading of the bible reveals that Jesus knew of Lazarus’ death (John 11: 4-7) and it was not before because the Jews were reluctant to change the lifestyle of “law” and tradition, and wanted to stone him, however. Jesus explains to the disciples that they did not want to return to Judea out of fear, that this should happen so that the people there understood that a change was necessary.
What change the world expects, yes, if we win the pandemic, but the global effort, the idea of stopping and reviving the domestic economy that includes the relationship and well-being of those close to us requires a “conversion”, a change in cultural attitude , taking care of what is beside us and taking care not to be “infected”, the sign of Lazarus is that death comes, but the cure will also come.
The important thing is what we will do next so that a new crisis does not set in, we already had influenza and in Brazil vaccination is beginning, but will we be prepared for another pandemic, without understanding that hospitals and the economic health of the people, in particular, of the simple people is essential, we will not understand anything.
Lazarus did not rise (he later died of a natural death), he just revived and Jesus said that this disease “does not kill”, that is, humanity will not be exterminated, but the hard lesson must be learned is the life that governs the economy and not the other way around, and let’s do our part #FicarEmCasa and applaud the health workers
Co-immunity: healing
24
Mar
We are waiting for a miracle, those who do not believe or ignore science, now
hope that scientists will find the vaccine, while vaccines for the old flu infections are beginning to be available at health centers in Brazil.
The lesson from the medical point of view is that this disease that has taken on aspects of the pandemic teaches us is already definitive, that people’s health is more important than the disease, that we can all help each other if each does our part well, and that no one will do our part for us, the government and health authorities can raise awareness, but depend on individual, cultural attitudes.
The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk worked in a broader sense on the idea of immonology and co-immunity, the idea that we cannot get rid of all the viruses and microorganisms that have always been part of life, and that now are attacked and worked on by society as a whole may have their effects reduced, although they seem more and more aggressive, influenza a few years ago looks like a common flu close to the corona virus and its range and aggressiveness.
Heir to phenomenology, but mixed with Nietzsche, and co-heir of Heidegger with Byung Chul Han, he created a surprising new anthropology beyond the human, by defining homo sapiens as the result of an unfinished and infinite autopoiesis (auto is self and poiesis, creation), so we go on each clash with nature, self “creating” and reviewing.
The revision of this moment is interesting and will be unfinished because the results for the economy and the future social structure itself will be undefined and dependent on decisions, but the joint fight of peoples and nations in the pandemic creates a new “joint action”, which Sloterdijk calls co-immunity, that is, creating joint defenses and an immunology beyond the human.
In relation to Heidegger, it goes beyond being-there to being-with, not only because it creates an anthropological view of the human relationship, but that shows the efficiency of joint action where each does its part, and the immunity of the whole, depends on the rearrangement network of each individual part.
In response to a question asked in 2018, he (from the frontiers of thought program) explains his immunology as follows: “Let’s not forget: the word “immunology ”is a metaphor borrowed by lawyers from biologists. I take it a step further, extending the concept of immunis (which in Latin means “free from duties”) to the religious dimension.
Comparing his system with Luhmann’s, he stated: “While for Niklas Luhmann the legal system would be the immune system of the social system, ballpoint states that religion is society’s original immune system”, and this would be anthropology beyond the human, entering a dimension of religious transcendence.
When relating the problem of immunology with ecology, he elaborates it in relation to nature:
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A dark night of humanity
20
Mar
One night falls on mankind, but it must be noted that this night the virus that 
has hit the whole planet has been happening is a catalyst and despite being lethal and bringing a lot of care can wake us up from a night that was happening: night of culture, night of God, night of science reduced to questionable specialties and methods and mainly night of man.
The rampant and often meaningless life, the search for efficiency and productivity, the idea that economic growth brings happiness and especially the exclusion of the Other, now seem to be inverted with the need to stay at home: #StayAtHome.
Tonight provoked a collective blindness, culture is anything goes, scribbles and blots became art, purely genital expressions without any affectivity of sex, and the religious culture that helped people find peace of mind became pure superstition, appeal wealth and money, or mere poverty on the other hand without anything to make you understand the deep sense of detachment and living in the essence of life.
The religious night or night of God is an attachment of men to their closed circles now, if they are prudent, also prevented from meeting, gross manipulation, fundamentalist reading of the Bible, which are the worst contemporary blindness, also reduces man to being-for-death and not being-for-life.
Contemplate the mystery of the universe beyond what we already know, we know little of the mass and dark energy that makes up 94% of the universe, and that it may still have one beyond its “bubble”, it can open the eyes of those who think they know everything because they learned science, or because they read the Bible with their eyes of cultural blindness and their closed and petty circle of “elect”.
When Jesus heals the blind man, he scares the Pharisees who want the blind man to shut up, science helped a little this abandonment of superstitions and helped to illuminate human intelligence, also put to the test by the virus, in the biblical passage we read in John 9: 7- 9:
And [Jesus after putting clay in his eye] said to him: “Go and wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (which means: Sent). The blind man went, washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who used to see the blind man – because he was a beggar – said: Isn’t he the one who kept begging? Some said: “Yes, it’s him!” Others said: “It is not him, but someone like him”.
However, he said: “It is me!”, And the religious wanted to forbid him to speak.
The changes of the 20th century
13
Mar
The changes of the last century, but whose social and economic structures are still 
present, were marked by the end of economic liberalism but which was supported by great empires, in addition to the colonial ones in Africa and Asia (the end of the empire in India, for example), also social and economic customs were changing and are still present in the 19th century.
It would be more opportune to talk about the economic, at a time when the financial empires seem to be melting on the Stock Exchanges, the so-called Bear market, of fear managing business, but on March 8, which was women’s day, we chose to talk about the issue .
Since Ibsen’s romance in the 19th century, the Doll´s house, where the affable and liberal structure of a marriage hid her husband’s machismo, by the way the moment he takes over an Investment Bank, the oppression of wife.
We also pointed out the development of the female issue through Doris Lessing Nobel Prize for Literature and who had a balanced but tough position, far from fads and the politically correct, she lived and pointed out the issue of women, even though white women suffered in South Africa with the issue of racism for defending blacks.
We arrived at the “Commons” economy of Elinor Ostrom, ignored by the left for not being against capital, and ignored by the right because it affirmed that the governance of common goods can be productive and well managed, contrary to what the “Tragedy of Commons” provides ”.
The change in posture and culture, it is true that we need laws and policies to combat machismo, but cultural change defends the view of women, now independent, in the job market but still suffering the consequences of her emancipation.
Although the religious view is said to be sexist, and often is, it is not what Bible presents in the New Testament, remembering that the Jewish culture of the time was sexist and the Old Testament reflects this, however Jesus’ position on women were different.
Thus, it appears in the text of John (Jn 4, 8-9): “The disciples had gone to the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman then said to Jesus: “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me to drink that I am a Samaritan woman? “, And the text clarifies that the Jews did not get along with the Samaritans, and the position of the woman was inferior, accepted by them.
The first woman Nobel in economics
12
Mar
Elinor Ostrom was the first woman economist to receive the Nobel Prize in
Economic Sciences together with Oliver E. Williamson, in 2009, for “her analysis of economic governance, especially with common goods”, the so-called “Commons” that now also dominate the world of scientific dissemination, such as Creative Commons, where copyright is maintained with permission to use.
But, of course, Elinor’s theory is much more general, and aimed mainly to disprove the idea that was then “enshrined” in the “Tragedy of Commons”, which became known for the article written by the American philosopher and biologist Garret Hardin in 1968.
The modern concept that Elinor explored from “Commons” is universal common goods such as water, oceans, rivers, fish stocks, roads and highways (privatized almost worldwide), and even an office refrigerator or space shared audience.
Elinor Ostrom demonstrated in her book “Governing of Commons” giving an example of communities that self-managed whether top-down regulations or privatizations, with economic success.
In 1973 she founded the Theories and Political Analysis Workshop at Indiana University with her husband Vincent Ostrom, and one of her last activities was the preparation for the Rio + 20 conference at the head of the Planet Under Pression scientific committee, which had a strong influence at the conference, although Elinor died in 2012.
His latest book Working together: Collective Action, The Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice, written in conjunction with A. Poteete and M.A. Janssen, gives practical lessons in collective action that can enhance work around “common goods”.
