Posts Tagged ‘paz’
The origin and crisis of humanism
17
Aug
The two wars and the current tension Russia x Ukraine and
China x Taiwan, which are nothing but the tension now between two types of colonial systems, capitalist imperialism and ideological imperialism, which is not just Marxist or communist, because this requires a discussion on the topic.
His proposal, according to Sloterdijk himself, were well understood by the participants, however in the reaction of the philosophers there was a “fascist” content in them, which is the genetic selection of humanity, or the induction of this change.
I also had this reaction in a first reading, in my case the criticism of Heidegger’s “Letters on Humanism”, one of the central themes that it addresses, in addition to the questioning it makes of the conception of humanism, its great contribution is in understanding the ontic relationship ontological, inverting Heidegger’s precedence of the ontological over the ontic.
In practice it means a revision of the clearing motif, as the incorporation of its natural history over the social one (Sloterdijk, 1999, p. 61), means that there is a natural dimension on the ontological.
Personally, I prefer not to submit one dimension to another, I say that they cooperate, something similar to what Henri Bergson wrote in his “Creative Evolution” (1907), but adhering to the mystical, and it is clear that this depends on a cosmovision with some religious background.
Sloterdijk’s review of Plato’s “Politics” (Sloterdijk, 1999, p. 47-56) develops the origins of humanism in Antiquity, in his view, linked to the exercise of an inhibition, that of the habit of reading capable of pacifying, to tame, to develop patience, in opposition to the frenetic amusements of the “uninhibited homo inhumanus”.
The Platonic metaphor supposes that these different natures are found in Being, that is, they are ontological, and as raw material to form the Greek citizen (the politician), there is the artifice of separating them in order to have the desired configuration for their function. in the polis.
It must be remembered that the Greeks also already spoke of areté, the exercise of virtue, to use Sloterdijk’s term “a life of exercises”, but the German philosopher’s view is that this project fails, and in our analysis that includes the mystic , means that there is an abandonment of areté.
Thus, I am not making a blind defense of Sloterdijk here, I only note that his criticism of humanism is to this “peacemaking” project of man, hence why the “rules of the human park”, his suggestion of ontic nature, do not necessarily mean manipulation. genetics.
Behind this question is the question whether man is good or bad, as the Enlightenment contractualists did when defining the role of the state, so Sloterdijk’s question proceeds.
The Silicon War and the Hedgehog
16
Aug
We have already posted the power that Taiwan is in the production of
chips, which are mostly produced from silicon, but the sand from which the silicon is taken comes from China, of course, and from other countries, but this depends on the transom of ships at sea and this is China’s strategy.
The disproportion between population and troop strength is huge, China has 1.4 billion inhabitants while Taiwan has 24.5 million inhabitants, China’s military strength is over 2 million while Taiwan is close to 170,000, in this effective the smallest disproportion is for the navy of 240,000 for China and 40,000 for Taiwan.
Thus, Taiwan’s so-called “porcupine” strategy consists of counterattacking with painful thorns, that is, instead of acquiring expensive fighter jets and submarines, it deployed mobile and hidden defensive systems, with anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles and these will be the “painful thorns”.
The sacrifice of civilian lives is inevitable, although condemnable by all kinds of war agreements, mistakes in strategy, wrong targets and even the hatred that wars generate end up reaching innocent people who barely understand the real reasons for wars and trade disputes. .
In any case, this would have a limited duration due to the disparity of forces, so they will need to act on other fronts: financial, commercial and informational (including cybernetics already underway).
While China plans to strangle and isolate the rebel island and Taipei perfects the porcupine strategy, the Americans are left in the ambiguity of trying to maintain good relations with China on the one hand and on the other hand not revealing the support they can give Taiwan in attack case, but analysts say it will.
The war in Ukraine is but a separate chapter in the ideological aspect of this issue, as Russia and China are political allies who want to destroy the forces of Western capitalism, although both have absorbed aspects of free enterprise.
There is a third force on this chessboard which are the Islamic countries, Turkey and Iran in particular, and they may represent an imbalance of forces that keeps the tension in a pre-World War II stage, where a full confrontation would lead to a nuclear crisis.
Are there forces for peace? Yes, but they seem weakened, the UN cannot play a mediating role and in some cases, such as amnesty international, there have also been ideological defections on both sides.
Humanity has always managed to get out of these civilizational snares and crises, at the moment it is difficult to find these answers, even thinkers like Edgar Morin or Peter Sloterdijk seem to be a collapse of world proportions, perhaps a force superior to what most men believe, something superhuman or supernatural.
Freedom, Tolerance and Peace
12
Aug
The popular adage says: “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”,
this thought would extend to tolerance and Peace, where they cease to exist, freedom also ends up being curtailed.
Not only do the authoritarians want to limit freedom, there are also authoritarian models that try to justify themselves in the name of promises that they do not fulfill: justice, public morality and the well-being of their fellow men, for all this, it always depends on spaces for the different and the dialogue.
The first act of a war is to eliminate those who are different, the second is to establish a state of exception that allows those in power to feed the fuel of intolerance for war.
It is not a national issue, the extent of these tensions already has global contours, even Amnesty International, an exempt and generally tolerant body, already presents distortions in its actions and its reports are questionable.
The Pandemic generated a global problem, however, not even this common “enemy” made us solidarity, we could not read a great civilizing distress signal and with this others will come.
So, what is our reaction to the lack of solidarity and peace? Pinochet.
For a more just and fraternal world, not only words are needed, but actions that are in fact affirmative to implement tolerance, the right to difference and social freedom.
To those who believe, the biblical word is very clear, because an announcement of a civilization of solidarity and peace requires action, it is written in Luke (12,49-51): “I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I would like was already lit. I must receive a baptism, and how anxious I am until this is accomplished! Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? On the contrary, I say to you, I came to bring division.
It is a clear watershed between true Christians and those who think only of heavenly peace.
The idealistic model of in-tolerance
10
Aug
Modernity brought to light a model where some individuals, ideologies or
cultures would be superior to others, in the Kantian logic of the categorical imperative: “act in such a way that you are a model for others”, so this is the ideal of perfection and its ethical basis. .
The reaction we are experiencing is not the supposed ideological polarization, but a civilization that assumes that belonging to a certain group indicates greater or lesser civilization, it is not, therefore, an attitude of tolerance or “benevolence” towards the other, but imposing a model civilizing.
In a society that gave voice to almost everyone, there are still oppressions in dictatorial countries, what is a model starts to be questioned and in this sense there is a clash between models that can be called ethical, and those whose ethics are the norm of a certain sector. in the power.
The other then can be seen as inferior, abnormal, wild, uncivilized or even intolerant when a standard is imposed as being the “correct” or “civilized”, in practice it is a clash between authoritarian thoughts of two or more different hues, which do not fail to include the religious and the “culturally civilized”.
Understanding that history was written and is still dictated by political groups, editorials from culturally “civilized” sources means a possible historical, epistemological and even scientific critique of modern thought.
Conservative forces, of different shades, it is good to explain are on one side of the pressure and want the tension to remain only between them, the forces that are really contrary and that know that this tension is nothing but a dispute over the market and interests. , are the real opponents of these models, but there is little or no support from power.
Thus, war only favors the powerful and their interests, while peace is only thought of if there is an interest in those that history has neglected: the vanquished, that those peoples who historically contradicted the logic of the war of the powerful also make themselves present in the agony of a civilization in crisis.
In the map above, the concentration of the World GDP, with the USA, China, part of Europe, India and some countries in Arabia highlighted.
At the beginning of this war scenario, we dealt with the analysis of the bad agreements at the end of the first two wars, the submission of the colonized countries and now the confrontation of the powers under the cloak of political struggle, the power and control of markets is at stake.
China and Taiwan prepare for war
09
Aug
Long before the visit of the US Mayor Nancy Pelosi, on
Taiwan, the crisis of China and Taiwan grown up, we had already posted here the intensification of the Chinese struggle to regain possession of the Island of Taiwan, which since 1949, when China became communist, declared itself an independent democratic republic.
In the post at the time, we show of the countries that voted for resolution 2758 (from 1971), 35 voted for Taiwan, 76 in favor of the presence of the People’s Republic of China (mainland China) as the representative entitled to a seat at the UN, and so on. Taiwan was left without representation.
The map of the six Chinese exercise areas, wrote former Australian General Mick Ryan on his Twitter, “clearly traces where the Chinese think the main operational areas are for their strategic deterrence of Taiwan”, Mick Ryan is an adjunct member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, showing that the Chinese tactic is to strangle and isolate the rebel island.
The island with 23 million inhabitants, has consolidated itself with an increasingly independent economy, and is the leader of the world semiconductor market, currently has 54% of the market for chips made by its company TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) and this is a strong reason for dispute, as Chinese electronics companies have high growth.
Taiwan’s defense tactics are not clearly exposed, apparently the Chinese provocation did not trigger the island’s alarms and sirens, the island’s defense strategy entitled “Porcupine” is not clearly exposed, but unlike the Ukraine war it may attack areas China’s internal affairs, which according to this strategy would have long and painful “inflammation” periods.
The archipelago of Taiwan has several small islands and on one of them, the tips aviadas to avoid landings are the ones that most resemble the quills of pigs.
The difference in military contingent and armament is huge, but the Americans promise direct help to the small island, of course this whole scenario is regrettable and not very desirable for world peace.
Japan had part of its maritime area invaded and protested with energy promising to respond, in short, it is an increasingly dangerous scenario and it is necessary for the peacekeeping forces to be mobilized.
The threatened peace is increasingly a civilizing distress call open to humanitarian forces.
People who resisted empires
04
Aug
The great Persian empire expanded from Cyrus the Great in the
year 558 BC, and dominated the Medes and took all of Mesopotamia, Cyrus respected the culture and customs of his enemies, but expanded his empire to Egypt, and advanced over the Greeks, but was defeated by Athens.
After Darius I, Xerxes I and his son Artaxerxes also tried to conquer Greece and failed, in the year 332 BC. Emperor Alexander of Macedonia the Great organized an invincible army and ended up taking Greece and eventually winning the Persians, establishing a new empire, Macedonian.
Alexander’s death from typhoid fever or malaria (the poisoning hypothesis is not accepted by historians) the dispute between generals ended up weakening the empire and starting a decline.
The period established between the starting point of the Classical Era is pointed out with the first record of the poetry of the Greek Homer, in the 7th-8th centuries BC. and will extend to the period from 300 to 600 A.D. which is called Late Antiquity, when the Middle Ages begin.
In this interregnum between the Macedonian Empire and the Roman/Byzantine Empire, Greek culture developed in classical antiquity, which is deeply influential to this day with the so-called Western culture.
Greek culture and language were for that time what the English language is today, great developments were made from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, names in several areas of knowledge stood out: Hippocrates in medicine, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides in theater , Apelles in painting, Phidias in sculpture, Archimedes in mathematics, Aristarchus, Erastothenes and Hipparchus in astronomy, are some important names that still influence our culture today.
This small nation was a great founder of concepts and thoughts that reached our days: the Organon and the Ethics of Aristotle, the Geometry of Euclid and Thales of Miletus and Pythagoras in mathematics.
They won battles uniting the city-states, but they were a small people with a strong culture and humanistic values that are remembered to this day, although they can be modified and updated.
People who changed the course of history
03
Aug
For centuries in the Iranian plain the Semitic and Akkadian
peoples dominated and established their civilization there, the Medes and Persians settled later and until the period between 500 BC. and 448 BC. the Persians established a domain and started conflicts with the Greeks, the so-called Medical Wars.
The city-states of Greece came together and managed to impose their cultural and society model on the peoples and started a new cultural process called Classical Antiquity, the Greek polis, art and the civilizing model would be established, including a cultural return in a later period. called renaissance.
These empires disappeared without leaving any traces and only historical records, the marks of cruelty, decadence and impiety of the warlike forces of these empires disappeared.
In times of civilizational crisis, it is good that peoples who had not only a great military force, but also a great cultural appeal, managed to change the course of history and strengthen the civilizing process in a broader democratic and cultural direction.
Great empires such as the Persians, the Roman, the Mongol empire (picture) and more recently the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires also went into crisis and succumbed, unfortunately not without wars and with great loss of civilian life and a critical analysis of wars is always important. .
Part of this story, forces that mobilize peace and dialogue took humanity from even greater scourges that could occur and if we cannot avoid wars, we can maximize efforts so that civilian human lives are spared.
History also teaches that peoples that were not empires and even numerous can and should influence the course of history from a civilizational experience, like the Greek polis and the world today lacks models that can unite humanity in a solidary effort for peace. .
War: current affairs and possible scenarios
02
Aug
The release of a grain ship from Ukraine is an important symbolic
factor, although Ukraine bombed Russia’s HQ in Crimea while Russia killed Oleksly Vadatursky, founder and owner of one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural companies.
The symbolism is important and it is a relief because the confiscation of grain could cause a cascading price surge that would affect the price of food around the world.
The war, however, is far from having an announcement of peace and denunciations of atrocities by Ukraine (a video of the castration of a Ukrainian soldier by Russians was removed from twitter) and Russia, which protested the attack on the Crimea HQ.
There is controversy among experts about the future of 20% of Ukraine’s territory that is already occupied by Russia, most consider it impossible to retake these areas without civilian deaths and this would be a turning point for Ukraine in its narrative of placing Russia as ruthless and cruel.
In the middle of European summer, the European Union achieves a 15% reduction in gas consumption, to try to guarantee a stock for the winter, but Russia’s dependents will be more vulnerable from the end of October, the gas pipelines are simpler than the transport of liquefied gas which even makes it more expensive, in Germany, for example, the demand is great.
In the most worrying future scenario, the 10th will start again. Review Conference on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Agreement, yesterday Biden made a statement hoping that there would be “good faith” to carry out the agreement, clarifying that even in the cold war there was never a rupture of talks and the scenario of the war now worries more deep.
According to May 2019 data from the World Nuclear Association (WNA), there are 447 nuclear reactors in operation in the world and they are in 30 countries, each of which is also a nuclear hazard, either by disaster. natural as in Fukushima in March 2011, or due to operating errors like Chernobyl in April 1986.
It is worth remembering that each plant is also a potential bomb and could be bombed in a war, it is likely that the new nuclear agreement will include this aspect.
Our daily bread
27
Jul
I read last year that China told the people to stock up on food,
it seemed that it was due to the Pandemic, but at the end of the year that the Pandemic was already showing signs of retreat, the news remained, this time in greater prominence appearing on visible channels, such as CNN.
When the war in Ukraine started, it seemed something more evident, and the impact on the economy is great, because something called market commoditization occurs, that is, the main reference becomes various commodities, such as fertilizers, for example, that Russia is a major producer, in addition to food as stronger references than currencies.
To understand the war from the point of view of the market, we have already posted that the worst origin is xenophobia, which means the hatred fomented between peoples, let’s look at the world’s largest food producers, China was by far the world’s largest agricultural producer in 2020 , India is the second largest producer in terms of population, its production in 2020 was estimated at US$ 403.5 billion, followed by the United States.
Brazil and Russia follow closely behind what has ensured the significant increase and diversification of field production in recent decades, we have already posted (the previous post) the importance of Ukraine and the strangulation of these markets by war is a growing concern, which explains why For example, Russia’s interest in Black Sea ports and NATO now in the already admitted entry of Finland and Sweden into the bloc.
Drone spraying, the use of remote sensing and machines with sophisticated digital controls such as GPS and various sensors, increase the so-called digital agriculture, but this will not prevent countries with low production and dependent on exports from suffering.
It is already inevitable that poor countries dependent on food exports suffer, we have moved from the culture of solidarity to help them, to that of survival due to war, they are the invisible scourges of war, the poor peoples and populations of the planet.
War and famine
26
Jul
War is not just a dispute over markets and measuring “ideals”,
it is above all an atrocity on a scale, if murder is reprehensible why wouldn’t it be a war? during the Serbia/Bosnia war I asked a Serbian activist why she wanted to destroy Bosnia, she told me that they were historical factors that would be difficult to explain, but she said that her country was a “victim” of bombings that had no justification.
Such is hatred, intolerance and the absence of dialogue, often concealed with docile words to win public opinion, but every war has as its principle some atrocity, some unjustifiable hatred and some cultural intolerance (it can be of many types), not there is no other way to go back other than repentance (on both sides of course) and acknowledging that they chose the worst way, of course, and then sitting down at the table.
One of the consequences, already inevitable, even if there is an agreement for Ukraine’s grain exports, will be the lack of grains on the world market, as shown in the chart above, the country at war is responsible for 42% of sunflower oil in global exports. , 16% of corn, 10% of barley and 9% of wheat (2019 data, see graph) as Russia exports fertilizer and gas to Europe.
There was an agreement mediated by Turkey, but due to the war it is a fact that part of the production was lost and the price of food has already risen worldwide, the current crop will be exported, but little or nothing can be said about future crops, good part of the population left Ukraine, including in rural areas.
It is difficult for a process of regression, apparently throughout the world the confrontation and cultural and social hatred has spread, even among those who should proclaim peace.
Last week we explained the importance of friendship and empathy between men for a true spirituality, which can help civilization in this difficult process.
There is only one way, to change the climate of empathy, peace and solidarity among people, so that politicians and leaders who grow up around hatred may lose ground.
