Posts Tagged ‘peace’
The peace of the pacific
29
Apr
There are several misconceptions about peace, some were
pointed out by Kant such as pacts that hide future conflicts, the just revolt against totalitarian regimes, but there is no way to build peace without peaceful ones, the idea that you want peace, prepare for peace. war is a mistake, or with the violent, act as violent, etc. hide small and large wars.
Every exercise of power is asymmetrical, points out Byung-Chull Han (The Swarm), in the book that makes an essay exactly on the new media, and that says that there is only symmetry if there is respect.
So, respect for cultures, the diversity of opinions and ideas, of religious freedom, of different types of personal choices, of course that do not imply disrespect for the Other, is a starting point for peace, so there must be peaceful ones to build peace.
The idea of more weapons, of more aggression that can intimidate opponents hides that there is no peaceful principle in these attitudes, that there is no respect as Chul Han asks, and for those peoples, countries and nations that have peaceful principles, such as Finland and India for example. , it is worrying to see warmongering attitudes.
On the other hand, Makron’s victory in France is an encouragement mainly due to the defeat of totalitarian thinking in the country that is the source of modern republican democracy.
Peace must also be the basis of any religious thought, admitting that there is something or someone superior should strip us of the pride of judging oneself superior to someone, some people, race or gender, but history shows that it was not always like that, I remember. here the Peace of Westphalia, which was a pact so that religions would not encourage hatred between states, with this the idea of a secular state.
In several biblical passages Jesus makes the first greeting to his disciples: “Peace be with you”, of course he speaks of the peace of the peaceable, and in the verse of the beatitudes he says that they will be called “sons of God” (Mt 5,9) , that is, they are not Christians if they do not desire peace.
Also to his disciples, Jesus, who appears resurrected in his third appearance and asks Peter insistently (Jn 21:15-17): “After they had eaten, Jesus asked Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” And he said again to Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter said, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” The third time he asked Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” and Pedro gets sad and says “you know everything”.
Yes Jesus knew that even among religious it would be difficult to understand peace and unity.
Twitter, Cyberculture and Perpetual Peace
27
Apr
The purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk for $ 44 billion,
the Space X and Tesla billionaire, makes social media increasingly tied to the political field and shakes the empire of traditional media.
One of Musk’s basic ideas is to make the network less controlled (the moderator function) and with more text possibility, at launch in 2006 it was 140, in 2017 it was expanded to 280 and will probably add larger texts, Musk is the owner of the tool Revue.
NetFlix lost 200,000 subscribers (a little for 100 million subscribers, but a trend), CNN faces serious problems with an editorial discourse (7 out of 10 viewers) tries to change the focus, it is the mainstream media suffering from the advancement of new media , and everything indicates that the war in the military and ideological field will move to the cybernetic field, the drones practically retire the idea of using tanks and drones airplanes and flight autonomy, making war unequal in strength and war material more equal .
But the release of arbitrage on Twitter worries, although the open source algorithm proposal is interesting, but the big question is Musk’s ideas about war?
Of course, all this is reprehensible due to the number of civilian victims they cause, the human tragedies that develop there, also among soldiers who are on a battlefield where many would not want to be.
Kant’s Perpetual Peace proposed a precept of reason over power, but a strange saying appears in the middle of its text (we will analyze the text in the next post), which is prudent as serpents and gentle as doves, in the text Biblical (Mt 10:16) it is also possible to translate “simple as doves, but the Kantian interpretation is divergent:
“…Be wise as a serpent”; morality adds (as a limiting condition): “and without falsehood like doves” (Kant, 2008, p.34), and Kant himself points out that “the two things cannot coexist in a precept” an evident contradiction, Perpetual Peace It’s more complex, of course.
This is the problem with the new media, it is necessary to use the resource that is often used in politics of a certain “falsehood”, or dubiousness, whether to mislead opponents or to deceive the people.
There is no way to establish peace if there is no respect for conflicting cultures and values, of course within reasonable humanitarian limits, the first is life itself put in check in war and the second is enabling the survival and self-determination of peoples to decide their destiny.
Kant, I. (2008) A Paz Perpetua (Perpetual Peace). trans. Arthur Mourao. Portugal: University of Beira Interior Covilhã.
The war, Brazil and Finland
26
Apr
As the war escalates in Eastern Europe, Russian objectives become
clear, greater control over the sources of energy and material available for war, this includes the Azovstal Steel Mill, where there are civilians and the battle has intensified.
There is the alleged deception of saying that the east would make an overland corridor to the Crimea annexed in the 2014 war, but this was never a problem for Russia because of its air fleet, and it has another exclave which is Kaliningrad, and it is also That’s why Ukraine started bombing Russian oil depots.
Vargas’ dictatorial Brazilian government even flirted with Nazism, but in July 1939, on a US visit to the Chief of Staff of the Brazilian Army, General Góes Monteiro, the US government promised to cooperate with Brazil’s military and economic re-equipment. in the construction of Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (the former CSN).
At the time, Brazil was given a credit of 17 million dollars with Eximbark, and an American base was installed in Rio Grande do Norte, strategic for military flights to Europe.
Before this period, Finland also had heavy industries that could help in the war, Sweden also had and provided material for both Germany and the allies, but in 1939 Stalin, then president of the Soviet Union, decides to invade Finland.
Finland’s parliament is deciding now to join NATO, and Russia threatens retaliation, last week Maria Zarakhova, spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “We have given our warnings, both publicly and through bilateral channels. ; they (both countries) know that, so there are no surprises. They have been informed about everything, about what (an eventual NATO membership) will entail”.
This causes a new escalation in the war and also involves Sweden that wants to join NATO.
The clash between Russians and Finland, which began on November 30, 1939, called the Winter War (photo), although with an army and smaller power, the Finns resisted the war and maintained the morale of the troop, the pact had just been made. the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (ministers of Russia and Germany, respectively), where Finland would remain neutral, but would lose part of its territory, a good part of its industrial park and pledged to maintain neutrality in the war, but Russia broke with the Germany and invaded Finland.
The peace treaty was signed on March 12, 1940, ceding 10% of Finnish territory to Russia and 20% of its industrial capacity to the Soviet Union.
More military might and war industries mean that there is no end to the war, greater NATO involvement means that global escalation is approaching, but hope for peace remains through increasingly difficult agreements.
Reason, Belief and War 2
22
Apr
The relationship of science and belief in Bourdieu’s lesson: “The paradoxical
enterprise that consists in using a position of authority to speak with authority, to teach a lesson, but a lesson of freedom … would be simply inconsequential, or even self-destructive , if the very ambition to make a science of belief did not presuppose belief in science” (Bourdieu, 1994, p. 62), can be better expressed by the principle of transdisciplinarity.
Establishes the Arrábida Transdisciplinarity Charter in one of its principles: “Considering that the contemporary rupture between an increasingly cumulative knowledge and an increasingly impoverished inner being leads to the rise of a new obscurantism, whose consequences, at the individual and social level, are incalculable”. (Freitas, Morin and Barsarab, 1994)
The idea of science based on calculus (including economics) or the physics that makes it possible to advance in the mystery of the infinite universe, with wormholes, black holes and dark matter, cannot do without the mystery that is beyond what man has already conquered.
On the political side, the belief in the modern state that would replace God and could establish perpetual peace (Kant’s philosophical project) as well as science as the summit of “reason” has already shown its limits, as has the fundamentalist faith, which already was with the Pharisees in the time of life, land of Jesus, has limits of ignoring science, even wanting a science of belief, the paradox presented by Bourdieu.
Neither Kant’s perpetual peace nor advanced scientific studies made it possible to avoid war and the world is once again on the verge of a new humanitarian catastrophe, and it is also worth noting that religious fundamentalism cannot abolish it like the “Decalogue of Assisi for Peace” signed in Assisi on March 4, 2002, although they still defend it today.
The Pharisees wanted Jesus to be involved in the war against Rome, which will take place in the 70s of the Christian d.C., with the destruction of Jerusalem and its Holy Temple as predicted in the prophecies, not because Jesus wanted it, but because of the war that men wished.
After the Jewish Passover, and the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus which was our Passover, Jesus appears to the disciples and the apostle who did not believe Thomas was with them, the first greeting of Jesus is: “Peace be with you” (Mt 20, 21), breathes the Holy Spirit on them and told Thomas that he wanted material proofs of his resurrection: “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and place it in my side. And do not disbelieve, but be faithful” (Mt 20,27) and happy will say those who believe without having seen.
Kant, I. (2008) Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Project. trans. Arthur Mourao. Ed. University of Beira Interior. Portugal: Covilhã.
Freitas, L., Nicolescu, B. and Morin, E. (1994)Letter of Transdisciplinarity. Convent of Arrábida.
Reason, Belief and War
21
Apr
The evidence of two world wars, where rationality was challenged by the
barbarities of the concentration camps, the atrocities committed, and the Hiroshima bomb is also included, give evidence that it is necessary to examine in depth what built what was called the reason passing through Kant’s critique of pure reason and the critique of practical reason.
At the opening of the book “Disenchantment of the World”, Pierre Bourdieu introduces his analysis of economic and temporal structures as follows: “Those who pose the ritual question of cultural obstacles to economic development are exclusively (i.e., abstractly) interested in “rationalization”. “of conducts, economics and describe as resistances, attributable only to cultural heritage (or, worse still, to one or another of its aspects, Islam for example), all omissions towards the abstract model of “rationality” such as defines economic theory.” (Bourdieu, 1979, pp. 11).
The recent history of our civilizational process develops the physical (and therefore only material) aspect and mathematical calculation, in particular the rationalizations of economic structures, when quoting Max Weber, the author explains: “the very character of the capitalist epoch [writes Max Weber] and – one at the root of the other – the importance of the theory of marginal utility (as well as of the whole theory of value) for the understanding of this epoch consists in that. just as the economic history of countless epochs in the past) has rightly been called “the history of the non-economic”. In the present conditions of life, the approximation of this theory and life was, is, and asks to judge, it will be bigger and bigger and will have to determine the destiny of more and more ample strata of humanity.” (Bourdieu, 1979, pp. 17).
His analysis is too extensive and almost complete (I will explain later) to be summarized here, but the aspect that interests us of the “non-economic” cultural cosmovision, which is that of belief and can be explained in a sentence of his about how he sees the relationship of science and belief: “The paradoxical enterprise that consists in using a position of authority to speak with authority, to teach a lesson, but a lesson in freedom … would be simply inconsequential, or even self-destructive, if ambition itself of making a science of belief did not presuppose belief in science” (Bourdieu, (1994, p. 62), which means that it is necessary to combine reason and belief.
The current war involves these economic (and ideological beliefs, which include religious beliefs), and it is thus neither a practical nor a theoretical reason, peace is possible if we limit beliefs to the common principle of defending peace for the civilizing process (already that the concept of progress is also a belief in a certain sense of “economic history”).
Bourdieu, P. (1979) O desencantamento do mundo: as estruturas econômicas e estruturas temporais. Trad. Silvia Mazza. Brazil, São Paulo: Editora perspectiva.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1994). Lições de aula. (Lessons from the class). Brazil_ São Paulo: Ática, 1994.
Crab Footsteps and War
20
Apr
Umberto Eco’s book: “A Passo de Caraguejo: Hot Wars and 
Media Populism” (first Portuguese edition of 2012) is from more than a decade ago, but very current, Eco died on February 19, 2016, but if he were alive he would have had a lot to say. because his vision is prophetic.
He spoke of the global regression, this is the step of the crab, the resurgence of creationism, the iPod radio (now in disuse), he saw the rebirth of nations not as an affirmative period of cultural identities, but “after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the political geography of Europe and Asia changed radically, making it clear that we were moving backwards. Atlas editors saw forces … to draw inspiration from the old pre-1914 models, like their Serbia, their Montenegro, their Baltics States and so on” (Eco, 2022).
He also saw the rebirth of creationism and so many other absurd worldviews in a process of going backwards like “the steps of the crab”, and when we least expect the war and the new models of expansionism and colonization, and he already warned of media populism, today more evident.
However, in a deeper vision, Max Weber already pointed at the beginning of the last century “the disenchantment of the world”, forced to an excessively rational vision, where he saw the social model: “not what weighs on individuals, but what is transmitted between them”. ”, so what seems outside the objective world, the world of ideas is the one that is transmitted among men.
Pierre Bourdieu returns to “disenchantment” (Bourdieu, 1979) to analyze the assumptions of the Enlightenment and of Kant as a starting point for these ideas, the idea that is in scientific knowledge, consolidated by the French Revolution and its models of state that combined with the technique, would provide a drastic change in human lifestyle, bringing lasting peace.
However, in addition to the ignored colonial wars, two world wars were also triggered, and the bad agreements at the end of each one of them led to others, which delineates now is a repetition of errors, where the reason of each state wants to prevail over the other. , and soulless (and disenchanted) rationalism shows us a world of horror, hatred and intolerance.
Bourdieu warned that the mechanism of direct democracy should not become an element of symbolic oppression, and that most of the words we have for the social are between euphemism and insult, it is like wanting to perpetuate the current state of segregation and oppression.
Bourdieu, P. (1979). O desencantamento do mundo: as estruturas econômicas e estruturas temporais. Trad. Silvia Mazza, Brazil, São Paulo: Editora perspectiva.
Eco, U. (2022) O passo do caranguejo: guerras quentes e populismo midiático. Trad. Sérgio Mauro. Brazil, São Paulo: Record.
Weber, M. (2004) A ética protestante e o “espírito” do capitalismo. Trad. José Marcos M. de Macedo. Brazil, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
War can follow an escalation
19
Apr
While humanitarian forces cultivate hope, the escalation of the
war seems to follow an ever-increasing course and with “unpredictable” consequences, in Putin’s words in response to the US armament of Ukraine, the voices of peace seem to have little echo among rulers.
The deployment of new Russian troops, now the northern region and the American shipment of more weapons to Ukraine show that the escalation of the war in the region is far from over, negotiations are increasingly difficult as Russia wants to establish new territories within Ukraine, in addition to the Crimea already annexed in the previous conflict of 2014.
According to Russian Defense Minister Igor Konashenkov, the Russian army carried out 315 attacks from Sunday to Monday in the regions of Kharkiv, Zaporizhshia (where there is a nuclear power plant), Donestsk and Dnipropetrovsk and the port of Myloslayv, regions already with Russian advances.
Yesterday several ballistic missile attacks were made, with targets in Kiev and Lviv.
The eyes now turn to other regions, Russian military maneuvers in the North and in the airspace China is also moving, one thing already understood by the president who was an agent of the KGB in the Soviet period, is that he misleads by pointing out false objectives and targets, but not bluff.
So it is true that while talking about the problem of Bosnia (part of the former Yugoslavia that broke up into several countries, and had a recent bloody war with Serbia), he turns his eyes (and possible targets) to Finland and Norway, while trying to keep the control of the Kuril Islands claimed by Japan, which lost them in the partition between the allies in World War II.
China began to patrol its Pacific coast with its military fighter jets while Russia maintains anti-aircraft missiles on the islands, which had an extension of possession in 1855 (Treaty of Shimoda) and 1945 (World War II) (see map above)
.
Horrors of war succeed each other
12
Apr
A country already enormously devastated, which suffered
bombings in hospital buildings, schools and even hospices, still lives with narratives saying that the objective was not to take power in Kiev, although the number of military casualties on both sides is enormous, it is to frighten this kind of vision of war, which in itself is unjustifiable and inhumane.
An even bigger battle is brewing in Mariupol, where civilians were trapped without being able to receive humanitarian aid, and even Red Cross convoys were prevented from moving forward, the few who live and resist in the region are without strength, without food and trapped (there is now suspicion of chemical warfare).
The aim is to say that something has been won, and being situated to the east, the port city of Mariupol can represent a trophy of consolation for those who the aim of war is conquest and power, thus the whole eastern region from the Donbass to the Crimea that already is Russian territory, would be taken.
But what military analysts fear is that this encouraged the Russian government to move forward, and countries like Sweden, Finland, Romania and Moldova are on standby, it would be an escalation that would make clear the expansionist objective with many similarities to World War II.
There is an economic side, without a doubt, and at this point the Russian currency, the ruble, did not fall as sanctions expected, while the dollar is falling, there is a desire on both sides for a new world order, and this requires a deeper analysis, economists and strategists.
The increasing escalation of arms creates and accelerates global polarization, with numerous local influences, France is again polarized between the extreme right of Marine Le Penn and the center left of Emmanuel Macron, and this will surely spread across the planet.
So there is no peace if you don’t cultivate peace, if you don’t work and ask for it, in the middle of Holy Week in which the Passion of Christ is lived, the passion of human civilization seems more evident than ever, a food crisis in sight , a growing radicalization and polarization, far from peace.
It is difficult to ask for common sense, to ask for fewer weapons and more dialogue, to look at the nuclear danger that now sends a shiver down our spines, unfortunately not for everyone.
Yes, a deeper analysis of the war is needed, but as Hannah Arendt stated, totalitarianism about choices made outside the historical context, that is, without any common sense.
For those who believe in something, it remains to ask that it be possible to “take this cup away” and that would be divine.
Innocent lives matter too
07
Apr
The war of all horrors and inhumanities has its cruelest face in
the death of innocents, for this reason the death of civilians is condemned, although war itself must be condemned, there is no just war, the only just opposition to war is peace.
As much as this is a fact, it is important to think about the death of the innocent, where there is always a certain dose of intentionality, to foresee possible developments and alert to more horrors, when it comes to totalitarianisms (see the previous post) there is always a horizon gloomy and worrisome.
For this reason, the death of innocent people must be investigated and punished, it is a totalitarian, absurd act.
If we think about the war in Vietnam, where the Napalm firebombs were used (photo), where something close to 1 million people died (there are estimates that speak of up to 3 million people), and also 300 thousand Combojans and more than 20 thousand Laotians, then in the West too, it counts the lives of innocents.
Also the war in Iraq, the crisis in the Middle East and the African wars must be seen.
The death and bombing of hospitals, maternity hospitals and even asylums in Ukraine, it is clear that these data must be proven, they indicate the cruelty of this current war, and this is important not only for a trial in war courts, but for thinking about the possible ramifications.
In a climate of the end of the pandemic, a probable food shortage, the imbalance of military forces with technologies and the use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is very worrying.
However, this is also observed in the micro-cosmos, in social and individual actions, the absence of feeling and compassion for the helpless, the lack of true humanism and the neglect of life, because the pandemic is not over and various types of denialism are growing.
A sincere look at a humanity that suffers and sees itself threatened by an even harder future is the obligation of every sincere humanism, and a special look towards the innocent is more necessary.
Without a great humanity that looks to the Other who suffers, we will not have a promising future.
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).
