Posts Tagged ‘paz’
The narrative of totalitarianism
06
Apr
It is not just about the war that is the apex of totalitarian action,
the attempt to submit peoples and governments to a unilateral truth, to a way of seeing the world that despises others and more than making a history of authoritarianism, it is necessary to understand its origins. and its narrative.
This is how Hannah Arendt faced the issue when she wrote in 1951 “The origins of totalitarianism”, she seemed convinced that after the end of the second world war the problem did not end there, there she talks about hell, the nightmare, the Metamorphosis of Kafda, the onion and even the ugliness of an omelet, among so many other things, when the stories of Auschwitz reached their hands.
When trying to describe the totalitarian experience, the dilemma Arendt faced was that this experience could not be explained, not by political philosophy or traditional concepts, it is not as the culmination of a process of developing something from a past.
I remember a striking sentence by Lygia Fagundes Telles, who died these days when she would have turned 99 on April 16, wrote: “There is no coherence to the mystery or logic to the absurd”, dictators and their narratives only have logic in systematic propaganda, and in a cheerleading than other fanatics who support him and identify with him.
This form of narrative that Arendt wrote found opposition in a contemporary such as Voegelin to which she replied: “I did not write a history of totalitarianism, but an analysis in historical terms of the elements that crystallized in totalitarianism” (ARENDT, 2007, p. 403) ).
He also wrote in the “Crisis of the Republic”, that the first fundamental difference between totalitarianism and the other categories present in history is the fact that totalitarian terror “turns not only against its enemies, but also against its friends and defenders”. “; a second difference would be its radicality, which makes it capable of eliminating not only the freedom of action of individuals as tyrannies did through political isolation., eliminating not only opponents but also unreliable allies, there is a clear parallel in the current war.
In her note number 81, Arendt wrote: “The total number of Russians killed during the four years of war is estimated at between 12 and 21 million. In just one year, Stalin exterminated around 8 million people in Ukraine alone. See Communism in action, U.S. Government, Washington, 1946, House Document No. 754, pp. 140-1”, again the similarity with the current War is not by chance, and after Butcha these days Mariupol (photo) will be able to live a similar drama.
The last topic of Arendt’s book is: “Ideology and terror: a new form of government”, anyone interested in avoiding totalitarianism just read it, it is likely that someone will become aware of this terror.
ARENDT, H. (2007) Origins of Totalitarianism. trans. Roberto Raposo. São Paulo, Brazil: Companhia das Letras (in portuguese).
Now the horrors of war
05
Apr
The retreat from Kiev, far from being peaceful and moving towards
a ceasefire, seems to have put more fuel in a war that is gradually returning to the horrors and barbarism of the 2nd. World War.
The photos and facts of Butcha, one of the districts around Kiev reveals scenes of civilian deaths with cruelty and genocide, leaders from all over Europe have already spoken out, and the President of Ukraine Zelensky himself went to check the mass and civilian graves on the spot. dead with their hands tied, in addition to reported cases of rape.
While international agencies speak of 280 bodies, Ukraine claims to have found 410 civilian bodies, either in mass graves or abandoned on the streets, many with their hands tied, while Russia denies these atrocities, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were “video spoofing”, however did not present any evidence to prove it.
Accusations of biolaboratories in Ukraine follow, also without evidence, if true they are also reprehensible, but they do not serve to justify the brutal death of civilians that leaves the war on another level, where agreements are more difficult and distant.
There is a new world order, or at least an attempt to implement it, the economic and political poles have shifted and a serious economic and food crisis is approaching, how to face it ?
It will be necessary to review values, if barbarism does not awaken our hopes it becomes more difficult, the pandemic itself should have already alerted us to a new wave of solidarity and concern, it is not just a virus, but attitudes that would be expected from leaders and the population, how many small wars still exist without opening to dialogue.
If we find this war and the pandemic horrifying, more horrendous are the attitudes of indifference and neglect, even the twisted ones that organize themselves or that despise the misfortune that occurs next door.
May the horrors of war at least serve to awaken a sincere humanism, concern and responsibility for the Other, mutual respect and dialogue, or we are heading towards an even worse reality which we have done nothing to try to avoid, or we have done little.
Peace, peace and hope, is the cry of those who look with love for humanity and for the Other.
Error and the search for truth
30
Mar
The phrase is from the Russian writer Mikhail Saltykov-Tcherdrine,
who wrote about the pseudonym M. Nepanov (wrote Contradictions), his phrase: “whoever never sought the truth certainly never made a mistake”, much better than the popular adage: “only whoever never tries is wrong”, because even if it is innocently, something is always tried.
His sentence completes this thought: “There are times when society, seized with panic, deviates from science and seeks salvation in ignorance”, something that seems typical of our time: at first ignoring the pandemic and vaccines, then ignoring the dangers that result from it and finally try to live with it as if the disease were something natural, and the remedy is to vaccinate four, five, … times.
Folly and frivolity seem to be reactions to a crisis that is deepening, in addition to the war, a rise in prices and food shortages are looming, yes what happens for the time being seems to be circumvented and when it is no longer, what would be wise to do, it seems that few care.
I chose to speak of an unknown literary author of the 19th century, he did not live in the period of the Soviet Union, to attest to the ignorance of punishing Russian culture, science and sports, as a punishment for a war, undoubtedly unfair, but of the which the Russian people are also victims.
Even seeing the horrors happening in Ukraine, we cannot ignore the horrors of the West and the warlike escalation that may have in the near future other chapters as painful as the current ones, is an escalation that seems to have no return.
One cannot ignore the mistakes of the second war, the mistakes of the post-war period, the countless interventions in the East, Asia and Africa that caused wars and deaths that were equally reprehensible.
It is necessary to recognize the mistakes, it is necessary to forgive the colonial period, still in progress, and it is necessary to allow peoples to live their culture, their ideals, as developed by Raymond Aron (War and Peace between Nations) and in security, the The author quotes Clausewitz in his book: “War is an act of violence, and there are no limits to the manifestation of this violence” (Aron, p. 69).
It’s a difficult time when we just point out our mistakes to others, without looking at our own.
The Battle of Kiev
29
Mar
With a disproportionate army and military forces, it was 
conceivable that the Russians’ battle in Kiev would be short-lived, but setbacks in the air and on the ground, a hostile late-winter weather and the heroism of the Ukrainian people were none of Putin’s business.
Irpin (before the war photo) is the last district before Kiev, the Ukrainian forces reported yesterday that they had retaken the district, so the Russian troops stay further away, there are reports that the Russian troops would be largely sick due to the cold and exhaustion of a month on the battlefield and with very low morale.
Just as in World War II, the battle of Saint Petersburg (Leningrad at the time) was disastrous for the Nazis, the battle of Kiev, where most of the fighting forces were sent (the famous tens of kilometers long convoy), and the air support of the feared Russian air force seem to have encountered unexpected resistance.
Several rounds of negotiation for peace are taking place these days, at this moment it is as desirable for Russia as it is for Ukraine, which in the first rounds found itself at a disadvantage with strong Russian attacks and advances, now, although the bloody battle of Mariupol follows. and air strikes that seem to be the Russians’ last resort, there is a relative military “balance”, but the lives of innocent civilians continue to be sacrificed.
Putin also seems to have lost many generals, it is not known whether only in combat or because they opposed Putin’s expansionist plans, the Russian military force also begins to be questioned as to its real capacity.
The fear remains of what is possible in the event of a humiliating defeat in Ukraine, the economic bloodshed caused by sanctions on Western companies and an untimely or appealing reaction to use lethal nuclear weapons or others prohibited by international conventions.
There remains the hope that the peace negotiation rounds of these days can bear fruit, Zelensky accepts the idea of neutrality and disarmament of atomic weapons, perhaps also a reduction in its army, but Russia has pretensions in relation to the territories “taken” beyond the Donbass (Donetsk and Lugansk) also Mariupol which is a typically Ukrainian city.
Internal pressure on Putin can also help, but his temperament seems to be warlike and he believes he can go further with his pretensions, the hope is that common sense will prevail.
The desirable peace
25
Mar
Peace between peoples must come from a deep reflection on the differences and tolerance between values that are extremely diverse and that do not
necessarily mean the impossibility of peace, and when there are old scars, care must be taken to avoid them, they exist. because some peace was established without respecting the dignity of peoples.
Raymond Aron wrote “Peace and war between nations” (Paz e guerra entre nações, Martins-Fontes, 2018) thinking about this, reflecting that each people must be faithful to its ideal as a nation, not ignore a conflicting history, and, think and act with determination to do that the absence of war lasts until the moment when peace is possible and durable, imagining that that day will come.
Edgard Morin in his recent essay “The edge of the abyss” (a post has already been made here), said “one of the aspects of the tragedy is that we cannot make use of weakness and strength separately and that we are obliged to navigate between the two in a different way. uncertain”.
Above all, forgiveness is needed between peoples and nations that have lived through conflicts, as was the case with Germany, Italy and Japan, who were in the second war and managed to overcome their own scars and maintain their ideals as strong nations, which they are today.
It is necessary that they behave like the prodigal son who, upon returning home, in this case to his own territory and the healthy roots of his peoples, managed to rebuild nations under a new cloak of pacifism, tolerance and the development of their nations.
It is also necessary that the conflicting nations be open to this new beginning, in the biblical parable, the eldest brother does not understand that the father celebrates the brother who spent all the inheritance money wasting on futile and fleeting things, and now returns home, in terms of war the return to their own territory.
Such is neither the Pax Romana, of subjugating the vanquished peoples, nor the Pax eternal liberal ideal that did not lead to lasting peace.
The possible peace
24
Mar
The roman pax meant the submission of the dominated peoples to
the Roman empire and the end of resistance, which in fact is not peace because there is no end to the oppression of a people and this means that somehow there will persist some kind of revolt that will explode in new war.
Thus, some kind of reconciliation is necessary in which both parties do not feel that their dignified existence as a people or nation, a people within territorial and political limits, can go forward enjoying the freedom to express their customs and values.
The ceasefire is the end, albeit temporary, of hostilities, it is what opens the way for a possible dialogue or reconciliation, where concessions will be analyzed from both sides, when there is no clear possibility of this dialogue, the only way to establish peace is a third force that enters the conflict without the desire to antagonize any of the parties, but to stop them.
The problem is complex, because in extreme polarization there is no reliable force for peace, and it is very difficult for the two belligerent sides to accept it, and this can not only fuel the war even more, but can accelerate a process of extending it to other countries outside the conflict.
For humanitarian reasons, even if this risk exists, it is the only possible peace, running the risk of extrapolating the war beyond its limits, however putting it within the limits becomes imperative when there is a risk of hostilities so wide that they could affect the dearest human principles.
The current escalation that puts us on the brink of this abyss is the case, because the risk of an even greater wave of violence outside the limits of the three countries in conflict (Belarus is at war) is not just a possibility, Poland is starting to involve and the borders of NATO how to prepare.
The UN does not have enough political strength to be this force, it is necessary to create a somewhat “neutral” bloc (in a war this is almost impossible) that can place military forces sent to the conflict region and force a ceasefire, this it is possible peace.
Desirable peace is an agreement between conflicting parties, this seems more distant every day.
Neither plague nor war warns us
23
Mar
When the pandemic came, great global solidarity was expected, a retreat
would make us go a little beyond our own ego, review many things, including our daily lives that are always running and often meaningless.
War should alert us to the brutality, cruelty and massacre that it provides and make us less warlike and more empathetic in everyday life and solidarity with the innocent who are the first to die in the face of brutality.
Generations who lived through the war told and wrote about its horrors, including the contemporary wars in Korea and Vietnam, it’s good not to forget, but the great revolution in the 60’s was the hippies criticizing consumerism, the peace and love generation, inspired by Ghandi and in several mystics, but something insensitive is in the air: the justification of cruelty that is paradoxical.
Paradoxical because the justification is the opposite of what is done: peace, liberation, the end of oppression and other slogans that are mere propaganda, because what is done is visibly contrary to what is preached, and this is in all areas. social, from culture to warlike thinking.
UN Secretary General António Guterrez in a speech called for an end to the “absurd” war, citing the city-to-city conquest made in Ukraine and the massacre in Mariupol, where 100,000 people tried to leave and are prevented, it is like a concentration camp. no walls.
Kiev had parks, churches and walkways that are the opposite of the war images (pictured is Kalynovka park near Kiev).
The economic war waged through western sanctions will have serious consequences for the supply, not only of fuel that was already suffering on the market even before the war, but the scarcity of food can lead to the third point of the crisis of civilization: hunger.
It is always possible to resume dialogue, negotiation, to prevent the proliferation of the war industry, which moves billions of dollars in a perverse market and which is on an increasing scale in the middle of a war, not to mention the nuclear danger that is a global reality.
We must cultivate empathy and solidarity, hope and especially the love that breaks the chain of hate that surrounds the entire planet, let us begin in our daily lives to lay down our weapons.
The edge of the abyss
22
Mar
It is the new essay by the century-old philosopher and educator
Edgar Morin, lucid as ever and sensible, he says that a neutral Ukraine would be accepted by all and does not fail to condemn barbarism and the risk of a planetary war.
In his article Morin recalls the Russian missile crisis in Cuba in 1962, in which the world was also on the brink of an atomic catastrophe, he was at the time hospitalized in New York and a friend (Stanley Plastrik) informed him every day of the risk of a bomb falling on the city, until Khrushchov agreed to withdraw the missiles from Cuba.
He sees the current crisis as the same uncertainty as tomorrow, now with missiles aimed at the main capitals of Europe, and recalls the danger of agreements and more resolved issues that give a truce, but do not eliminate the possibility of parents, we have already posted about this here in World War II.
Morin recalls his article written on May 3, 2015, therefore after the 2014 Minsk agreement, that “it would be desirable for François Hollande, Laurent Fabius and Manuel Walls to become aware of the merciless increase in dangers and propose a coherent peace plan of a Federalist Ukraine, trace of union between West and East. We are no longer in the time to seek the best, we are in the time when it becomes necessary to avoid the worst”, he wrote at the time.
There was a growing evolution of NATO in Europe, but also the reconstruction of Russia as a military superpower establishing its zones of influence in Syria and Africa, in addition to the bloody reintegration of Chechnya through two wars (1994-1996 and 1999-2001) and also the military intervention in Georgia (2008) after the increasing and current pressure on Ukraine.
Will Putin stop there, a truce of war in Ukraine can demonstrate Putin’s real goals that seem to go further, Sweden, Finland and Norway are already moving suspiciously.
Morin affirms there is no doubt that the heroic resistance of President Zelensky, his government, the Ukrainians people surprised Putin and provoked our admiration, I quote because there is an attempt to deconstruct Zelensky who is Jewish as a neo-Nazi, but the war was prolonged.
Morin defends economic sanctions, noting that they also affect those who practice them, but emphasizes that “personally, I am against sanctions that affect culture, music, theater, the arts” and now even science, recently Russian scientific articles were taken from repositories, this is not to say that science is neutral, as it is not, but aims at human progress.
He makes a beautiful reflection when he states: “One of the aspects of tragedy is that we cannot make use of weakness or strength separately and that we are obliged to navigate between the two in an uncertain way”, I only remember that the weak can redeem the strong and vice versa. -versa, finally an agreement.
That it is possible to avoid a nuclear disaster not only through war, but there are nuclear plants in the region (pictured is the abandoned city Pripyat of Chernobyl).
What harm did they do?
18
Mar
Amid the pandemic and a war that, although it was in a region,
is becoming planetary, by the measures and positions, now from the Hague court that asks for an immediate ceasefire.
The ideological argument does not justify acts of barbarism neither the right nor the left, the growing polarization creates a climate of war where even humanitarian attitudes, and this includes the Pandemic, cannot be neglected, otherwise we will prolong its effects.
All humanitarian thinking wants a return to normality, which should be one that no longer takes us to the hustle and bustle of everyday life, unconcerned with injustices and calamities, including the Burnout Syndrome that Byung Chul Han talks about in his book.
It is also not about procrastinating people and society, since there are social and economic problems that require an attitude of work and community effort.
The misguided reasoning: “here it is done and here it is paid”, hides the cruelty behind attitudes that do not respect the humanitarian and health values necessary for a safe return to what is in fact a regenerated humanism as we try to develop in this week’s posts (in photo Mariupol´s Theatre).
This reasoning is also common in the religious environment, someone is rewarded because “it is good” and “punished” because it is bad, what the children and civilians in Ukraine did badly, the elderly people, doctors and nurses who died in the Pandemic and finally those who are still dying.
For those who make this reasoning that is not religious, God favored or punished someone, I remember the passage in which the Galileans go to Jesus saying that Pilate had killed people and mixed their blood with the sacrifices that were offered to false gods.
Seeing the reasoning “God punished them”, Jesus answers them (Lk 13:2): “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such a thing? 3I tell you no. But if you do not convert, you will all die in the same way”, to say that cruelty and sin can spread cruelty throughout the world.
He cites the tragedy known at the time, the death of workers who worked in the Tower of Siloam and explains that they were victims of the tragedy and were just workers.
Condemning cruelty, preventing health and humanitarian attitudes with actions is to avoid these evils.
There will be humanism after barbarism
17
Mar
Wars, plague (pandemic) and famine (crisis in the economy and supply)
all seem to indicate imminent chaos, and in fatigue people want to return to routine (the old normal) and resume life.
It is, however, necessary to be careful, review the way of living, in fact the true “Society of Burnout” that we lived before the Pandemic, treat the problems that emerge and not give in to hate.
It is hatred, wars and little concern for life that feeds those who have lost a true humanist perspective, authoritarian power, force and disrespect. Life is not human, nor does it really mean “normality”.
Athens survived the war narrated in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, probably part of it is mythical, and this was an important language of the time, but the power of the Persians did not prevail, the small Athens united with the warriors of Sparta won and it was they who gave rise to Western civilization (picture), not by chance called the Hellenistic period, already Paris, Trojan prince desired Helen, daughter of Zeus and queen of Sparta, and this would be the reason for the war.
We survived the Black Death and the Spanish Flu, it’s true not without a lot of death and in the midst of wars, but humanity found its way, in fact it was the humanism of the Renaissance that gave rise to modernity, today in crisis along with Western civilization.
There is the nuclear danger and without a doubt it threatens the entire planet, it is not just Ukraine but an entire civilization in check, and the only alternatives seem to be total war, but we will survive.
More than the resolutions taken in the midst of conflicts that gave rise to two wars, it is now necessary to present a new civilization, a new humanism capable of uniting the human family and surpassing anthropocentrism and respecting diversity, as Morin says in search of the “ Lost Paradigm: human nature”.
Mahatma Ghandi, the Hindu leader who peacefully led freedom in India from the British Empire, said of the 7 sins that cause social injustice: “The seven sins are: wealth without work; unscrupulous pleasures; knowledge without wisdom; commerce without morals; politics without idealism; religion without sacrifice and science without humanism”.
Humanity has always found paths in the midst of eminent barbarism, it will now find it too, not all have given in to hatred, indifference and unscrupulous power.
