Arquivo para April, 2017
The reasons for the 2nd. World War
28
Apr
The previous post showed the humiliation of Germany in the work of Versailles,
forced to return the territories of Alsace-Lorraine to France, in addition to other territories that were actually annexations, but this hurt the still strong German national feeling.
The world markets were divided between the world markets are spread between France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Holland, Italy, Japan and United States.
German politics with Hitler, who ascended to power in 1933, turned to Siberian coal and iron, Romanian and Caucasus oil, and Ukrainian wheat.
The growth of Nazi Germany as a way to block the Soviet Union. The invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, by German troops and planes, is not surprising, since fear was Russian expansion, but the relationship becomes dubious by Hitler’s clear desire to make further annexations.
Another humiliation unacceptable to the Germans at the end of the 1st. World War was to undo the 100,000 men demilitarizing the Rhineland (border region with France), as well as the dismantling of the fortifications located 50 km from the Rhine, an agreement dismantled by Hitler.
The world production was reduced by 40%, the reduction of iron reached 60%, that of steel 58%, that of petroleum 13% and that of coal 29%.
Thus Germany in the West and Japan in the East attempt to exploit this market weakness of its rivals and also the anti-communist treaties made with Japan (November 1936) and with Italy (January 1937), make Grow militarization in a logic that more weapons for war causes a war.
Japan in 1937, after occupying the rich Manchuria region, invaded the rest of China, triggering a long conflict in Asia, which will clash with US interests in Asia and lead the war to Alliance with Germany and Italy, forming the Axis, while another block will be the Allies, with support in many countries (map).
What is intended to be demonstrated by historical facts is that the conditions of both the growth of militarism, the crisis of markets generated by economic problems in several countries and the nationalist sentiment are the basis of these wars and there is concern about the progress of this exacerbated feeling at this moment Worldwide, we must prevent, because a war can now be catastrophic
The Reasons of the 1st. World War
27
Apr
Until about 1914 Europe exercised economic supremacy, political 
world production capacity provoked a great dispute between the world powers, in the search for new consumer markets and new sources of raw materials, grew out of this market the American and Japanese power .
European hegemony was maintained by African and Asian colonialism, remember India’s submission to Gandhi, as well as areas of influence in areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The so-called Old World was accommodated to a model that began to crumble with the Russian Revolution in 1919 and the humiliation of France in the 1870 defeat of Alsace-Lorraine (it had to yield to regions rich in coal and iron ore), then The tension Germany and France were constant.
Alongside the real blocs the Pan-Germanic and Pan-Slavic that included the dominions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire led by Russia, gives to understand the interests of today in Turkey and region of Syria; In the periphery will sprout the conflict that triggers the 1st. War, the clashes between Serbia and Austria on the Balkan peninsula, the services supported by the Russians, try to contain the expansion of Austria but this annex and Bosnia and Herzegovina, preventing Serbia from incorporating other Slavic regions.
That is why the fuse was the death in June 1914 of the Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a murder in Sarajevo, rather the region that recently exploded in Serbian-Bosnian conflicts.
Agreement that calls for the union of all Slavic Eastern European peoples, including those under the domination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, led by Russia seeking a way out to the Mediterranean.
Two alliances are formed: the Triple Entente: England and France, which opposes German expansion, and then receive the accession of Russia, and the Triple Alliance: Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy, later with US It was said attacked by Germany is forced the Treaty of Versailles laying down the new domains of the countries (see map above).
World War I sowed seeds for World War II, since militarism and nationalism did not disappear; on the contrary, new forms of totalitarianism emerged even more sweeping from the crowds, such as fascism in Italy and Nazi-fascism in Germany.
Reasons for war
26
Apr
The reasons for the first and second war were national interests, the first the 
German attempt to isolate France, joining the Austro-Hungarian empire with which cultural ties are stronger and still courted Italy, France on the other hand reacted To the isolation making a military agreement with Russia since this one had interests and indeed it did, advancing on part of Germany and Hungary.
The second is more present in the heads of all, the axis formed by ultranationalist views of the state, Germany that advanced on Austria and subdued Poland, is aligned with fascist Italy and Japan, but the interests were not other But the national economic ones.
We see with concern the same ultranationalist models reborn, but behind this model, a little already surpassed by a globalized world, we have the war industry. A not-so-recent documentary on Why the Fight is quite enlightening, produced in the US in 2005 could be a defense of the country, but as much as national sentiment, the anti-war sentiment there is equally strong, remember the war Of Vietnam, how much protest it generated in the most enlightened sections of the population.
But the documentary does not leave aside the question of the common person: “why fight?”.
Theisdocumentary , released in January 2006 and a little later in Brazil, reviews US military investments in the last 50 years, but also brings interviews from academics and government officials to soldiers and Suffered the consequences of the war.
The document led by Eugene Jarecki, with his production and Susannah Shipman won several awards and is a sensible analysis at a time of new war possibilities.
Another important aspect of the film is its fidelity to the facts, as well as a daring analysis of everything behind the American war industry.
A good critical analysis is needed on the current problems with North Korea and Syria
United world or war
25
Apr
The fact that we are experiencing a nationalist upheaval, Trump in the US and
Brexit in the UK, now France as a real threat to break into this wave, could generate a potential global conflict, which is actually a counter to history that advances to some Form of global governance.
But the imminent danger of a conflict between the United States and North Korea sets a very dangerous precedent, as the forces must align and the reluctance of China and Russia in the conflict are worrisome.
It is contrary to history because since Adam Smith wrote “The Wealth of Nations,” in which the idea of nations was progress, in countries like Italy the defense of national unity was important in overcoming political impasses, what we now have is Cynical reason, appealing for a term by Peter Sloterdijk.
Both regional integrations and the eurozone and attempts to integrate trade in Latin America are initiatives to increase the ease of trade and integration between peoples, if there is a tension between the West and the Arab world, the Arab Spring was still very poorly analyzed , Between west and east may be more serious, for cultural and economic reasons.
What is approaching with governments without credulity and without judgment, to say a clearer word, is a world that is heading for an irrational war while it should be on the way to integration, tolerance and respect for cultural diversity.
Allez les Bleus?
24
Apr
The traditional French expression for his team to advance seems not to be the 
expression of Sunday’s election, France where the revolution that brought modern world democracy seems made willing to retreat to a worrisome conservatism, go to second round Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron.
What is at stake now is French nationalism, historically already a bit strong, but now with the Arab emigration to Africa seems to be accentuated, while economist Macron is less nationalistic and will keep France in the Eurozone if this Leave the Euro and the idea of the United Europe begins to weaken.
One of the favorites for the second round, center-right Emmanuel Macron does not have security of support fr om the defeated right with François Fillon and left with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, according to the IFOP, the French opinion polls institute, about 26% Of voters say that their decision is not final, while the electors of Le Pen 85% have no doubt, so the ground of the ultra-right candidate is solid and promises to move forward.
Preliminaries made for Sunday’s first round election gave the National Front candidate numbers: among workers (43% would vote for her, twice as much as Macron, among young people (30% in the 25-34 age bracket) ) Among less educated people (33%) and rural areas (26%).
Where Marine Le Pen is less successful are: among university students (7%), students (9%), the population as a whole in Paris (9%) and among those over 64 (14%), such as the election of Trump is on the inside and on the less enlightened people that the ultra right goes on.Macron would win against any rivals, and Le Pen would also lose against Fillon and Mélenchon, just two defeats in the first round, which makes this second round highly disputed
The actuality of the apostle Thomas
21
Apr
In both science and belief, though much science is also a form of belief, this seeing-to-believe
has become something present in our day.
But there is also a refuge in empty spiritualties and scientific methodologies, where the proof is already known before something is proved; also in faith, there is proven faith, and it alone makes practice and belief solid, free from superstition and Which is a refuge for many.
The biblical text where Thomas says that he wanted to touch the wounds to believe, even though he had followed and followed Jesus for so long, is a forceful text when he finds him among the apostles Jesus says in John 20:28: “Put your finger Here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it on my side. And do not be disbelieving but faithful, “of course it is true for those who believe.
How can this serve for those who do not believe, it is very simple, to know that there is something beyond the senses and that there is a sphere of the mind, spiritual or supernatural, as you will, what we call the Noosphere.
It was not only believers who wrote about it, a term coined by Teilhard Chardin, also Edgar Morin used it and the Brazilian philosopher Mario Ferreiras dos Santos wrote about noology, and also philosophers like Kant, Hegel and many others admitted a “phenomenology of the spirit,” Although as a Christian I do not think it corresponds to what comes from the Gospels.
If we want a consensual definition, we can say that there is “sphere of human thought”, and the phenomena that take place in it mean that there is communication of values, ideas, myths and philosophies, and everything is deeply human, like Thomas’s doubt.
Edgar Morin’s definition of noology, that is, studies in this sphere of the spirit, is thus made: “The noological sphere, constituted by phenomena, spiritual, is a very rich universe that comprises ideas, theories, philosophies, Dreams. “Can be found in Morin Method I – Nature of Nature p. 110.
Seeing to believe, therefore, although in the case of Thomas means a limitation to the senses, the world today sees itself and this has an aspect beyond the senses that is the contact with a more general sphere where even without the speech we communicate, as the post Previous, this must be our way of thinking in an era that the whole world sees, Sunday elections in France, the Trump-North Korea crisis, everything touches us and provokes us, so we must “try to think the problems of humanity in planetary age”, writted Edgar Morin.
The reconstruction of knowledge
20
Apr
We have already cited Edgar Morin’s book “Well-Faced Head” and now we
detail some aspects that will help build education for the future:
“Uniting thought will replace linear and unidirectional causality with a multireferential and circle causality; Will correct the rigidity of classical logic by the dialogue capable of conceiving notions at once complementary and antagonistic, and will complete the knowledge of the integration of the parts into a whole by the recognition of the integration of the whole within the parts. “(Morin, p. 93)
For an education that is able to focus on integrating bits of knowledge into a set of meaningful knowledge for a well-headed head should link: “the explanation to understanding, in all human phenomena. Let us repeat here the difference between explanation and understanding. “(Page 93)
But what it is to explain: “is to consider the object of knowledge only as an object and to apply to it all objective means of elucidation. So there is an explanatory knowledge that is objective, that is, that it considers the objects from which it is necessary to determine the forms, the qualities, the quantities,
And whose behavior we know from mechanical and deterministic causality. “(Idem)
It does not mean abandoning the objective explanation, usually linked to phenomena of nature: “Explanation, of course, is necessary for intellectual or objective understanding. But it is insufficient for human understanding “(idem)
Human knowledge requires the exchange of meaning between subjects, rejecting the idea of a single meaning: “of meanings between subjects. “From there, understanding involves a process of identification and projection from subject to subject” (p.93), the so-called intersubjectivity.
But this requires two efforts in opposite directions, first it is necessary for “understanding to be always intersubjective, it needs openness and generosity” (page 93), while on the other hand to combat superficiality and ignorance, that is, “we need, To be intellectually re-armed, to begin to think complexity, to face the challenges of the agony / birth of our millennia, and to try to think about the problems of humanity in the planetary age “(104), those who think they have solutions ready or already know Of everything will be out of this time and this new thought.
Edgar. A well-made head: rethinking reform, reforming thinking. Translation by Eloá Jacobina. 9. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil, 2004
(Português) Imaginário e mitologia
19
Apr
Imaginary and Mythology Outside of Christianity and, to some extent, Islam,
mythologies are reborn and a new and powerful literature that awakens, especially in the young, something fantastic, so it is called fantastic literature. Fantastic literature is a genre in which fictional narratives are centered on elements not existing or not “recognized” in reality at the time the work was written.
This is because one cannot think of Macunaíma, without thinking of the Brazilian regional symbols in Naruto, without thinking about Japanese society, nor think of Lord of the Rings without thinking of elves, elves and other figures of Celtic and Norse literature, although it was Written by JRR Tolkien, which although it is seen as English was born in South Africa.
Thinking of Macunaíma (writted by , where we can draw aspects of the recent contemporary culture of Brazil, I think of the definitions or uncertainties given by Todorov: “The fantastic occupies the time of this uncertainty. Once one of the two answers is chosen, the terrain of the fantastic is left to enter into a neighboring genre: the strange or the wonderful. The fantastic is the hesitation experienced by a being who knows no more than natural laws, in the face of an apparently supernatural event. (Todorov 1980: pp. 15-16).
Either we go to the categories of illusion or the being actually exists, as Todorov asks. Todorov affirming that he will only give a definition at the end and does so after analyzing some of his major works such as The Passionate Devil of Cazotte, Jan Potocki’s Manuscript of Saragossa and the singular example of Aurelia de Nerval, but at the same time he anticipates a first definition: “The concept of fantastic is therefore defined in relation to the real and imaginary, and the latter deserve something more than a mere mention” (Todorov 1980: pp. 16).
What is not to be confused is this literature with the Christian fables of the “Chronicles of Narnia”, which was written by the Irish author CS Lewis, written in the 1950s, and in the case of national literature we could cite The Lady Compassion of Ariano Suassuna, chose first edition is from 1956.
The limits between mythology and the imaginary are clear, it is possible in the second case to establish a sociological analysis in which are found real social elements to which the imaginary characters.
TODOROV, Tzvetan. Introdução à literatura fantástica, Espanha: PREMIA (version digital translate to portuguese) 1980.
Because pragmatism is idealistic
18
Apr
We posed yesterday about pragmatism as politics and its consequences, now we want
to analyze its origins and demonstrate its fidelity to idealism and therefore modernity.
One of the exponents of pragmatism was John Dewey, who lived almost a century and died in 1952, exerting enormous influence to this day, his doctoral thesis was about Kant’s “psychology”, and this would suffice to prove his idealism and not practicality.
His university career has a boost when in 1884 he teaches Philosophy at the University of Michigan, and three years later he publishes his “philosophical system” in Psychology.
This philosophical system that combined the scientific study of psychology with classical German philosophy, deeply influenced by idealism, but it was William James who popularized the pragmatist conception and developed it after a great influence of the French philosophy of the time articulating it with the thought of Stuart Mill, is therefore utilitarian, although Dewey preferred the term “instrumentalist.”
At the base, Dewey never denied this, strongly influenced neo-Hegelian, but also, as in the case of the other two founding fathers being a Pierce, of empiricist and utilitarian influence.
We separate here Charles Sanders Peirce because this re-meant the term, after a re-reading of the practical anthropology of Immanuel Kant, what Dewey called psychology, after all it is known that semiotics is much more a philosophy of language than of psychology , Although they may be related but not direct.
Pragmatism gained momentum in the 1970s with thinkers such as Richard Rorty, Richard Bernstein, and Hans Jonas, influencing Putnam and Habermas as well.
Political pragmatism and democracy
17
Apr
The complex conjuncture both national and international has led to a path of ease
that is political pragmatism, and as many scholars explain, it does not fit this term an ideological separation.
Reductionism in this field leads to a similar meaning to the terms “objectivity” and “practicality,” but the emergence of a new term should also include the word “sustainability”, as the combination of terms of economic development and natural resource conservation , But it is not only this, in essence it is political activism today.
The absence of a broader reflection, and here I am not referring to the Baumanian pessimism nor to the philosophical pragmatism, it also combines well with the political, since in all sectors of human life, the natural diversity of things, and minimum rules of social coexistence, Oblige everyone, even individualists, to integrate with the community.
But what is at stake in the Brazilian case is the way out of a deep crisis to which everyone rejects paternity, but each in his own way has more or less guilt, since those who did not sin by corruptive and irresponsible action, They sinned by omission.
What can save us is a good dose of full democracy, far from the political pragmatism also expressed in the streets, but close to the questioning of structures and their consequent modification, reduction of power (not necessarily the size) of the state, and liberation of forces Economics, together with the necessary assistance to the social problem.
As for philosophical pragmatism, it is a metaphysical doctrine that argues that the idea of the meaning of life corresponds to the practical developments, that is, a good dose of voluntarism allied with a neo-empiricism, nothing more idealistic.
