Arquivo para a ‘Politics’ Categoria
Cyber blackout and wars
22
Jul
The blackout that happened last week is one of
the biggest in history, it caused confusion in many airports (see the US Flights chart bisede), TVs, banks, hospitals and services that depend on digital communication, but it was not with military motivation, the The company CrowStrike, behind the blackout, declared Friday (19) that “this was not a cyber attack” and that the company’s team “is fully mobilized to guarantee the security and stability of the company’s customers”.
According to an interview with Rob D’Amico, a former FBI agent, despite there being no military motivation: “They may not be involved in what happened, but they are observing what happened, what the reactions were, the response times, how this has been corrected, so that if they consider an offensive cyber operation against the United States, they can map what was done”, he said in a statement to CNN.
It is worth remembering that the historic beginning of the Internet was a project with DARPA, an American department for strategic projects that envisaged network operation that did not harm communication, so the first electronic network was called Arpanet.
This is extremely strategic because a cyber failure can leave both the communication system and the defense itself defenseless, which depends on communications to be activated, extremely weakening the system that is under attack.
Ukraine has announced that it has managed to directly affect Russia’s command and defense systems, while Russia seeks to weaken Ukraine’s energy supply system and land communication channels, it also plans a railway in its domains on Ukrainian soil, revealing tactics differentiated defense and attack.
As war rhetoric and everyday political and ideological wars advance, a greater than cybernetic blackout is announced, minds and souls become increasingly cloudy and the dark horizon hides hopes, refuges and clearings.
Those who fight and desire peace lack nothing, not even what war and hatred try to take away from everyday peace, the moment of rest and leisure, not that fantasy of orgy and false freedoms that destroy a fruitful and happy life, there is always a shadow, a clearing and a pause for breath in the midst of modern acceleration.
“Even if I pass through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4) says the psalmist of the dark period of the Hebrew people, and thus those who desire and fight for peace sing joyfully.
Insecurity in Europe and attack in the USA
15
Jul
NATO decided to place American missiles in
Germany, the Tomahawk ballistic missiles, which can hit targets up to 2,500 km away and carry nuclear ammunition, there are also hypersonic weapons in development, which increase European firepower, Russia already has weapons of this type and which are already spread out in strategic locations.
The Russian reaction came through Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov “Europe is in the crosshairs of our missiles, our country is in the crosshairs of American missiles in Europe. We have already experienced this. We have enough capacity to contain these missiles, but the potential victims are the capitals of these European countries”, which would be the trigger for a 3G.
The fighting continues hard, a secret document reveals that the death toll is already immense in the war and Russia would have 750,000 soldiers killed or injured, the number in Ukraine, although unknown, must be close to this figure, and neighboring countries Poland, Latvia and Lithuania and the Scandinavians threaten to send troops if Ukraine becomes more fragile.
Former president and presidential candidate Donald Trump was attacked when he was holding a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, several shots were fired, killing one person and injuring another, Trump was hit in the ear and removed from the scene by his security guards, the shooter was killed and the FBI investigates the motivations, the first is clearly political.
Although the scenario is frightening and there is no shortage of warmongering spirits, at this moment there is a civilizing crisis installed because from the center of power to ordinary citizens there is an animosity that does not perceive the danger of intolerance, violence like this not only awakens more authoritarian spirits but also strengthens them, and should not receive applause from anyone.
The good news comes from Iran where the moderate Masoud Pezeshkian, President-elect of Iran claims to be willing to hold ‘constructive dialogue’ with the European Union, the announcement was made in an English-language newspaper bringing great hope.
Time of conflict and clearing
12
Jul
If we are in inappropriate times for thought
and intelligence, which is why artificial intelligence scares so much, it is inappropriate times for human and moral values, this will be a time of clearing too, as it will require that many consciences and men will be able to awaken and see and launch to open the clearing.
For this, a metanoia is necessary in philosophical, political, everyday and even religious thinking, remember that the true oracles and prophets were killed and ignored precisely even by intelligent and “religious” people.
The threshold of an unlimited civilizing and humanitarian crisis is close, but if we look at everyday culture, we talked about this from the very Brazilian Ariano Suassuna to the Englishman Anthony Daniels (using the pseudonym Theodore Dalrymple – Our Culture, What’s Left of It – 2005) in previous posts, also politics and thought it seems polarized between two extremes that in many values are confused, and one of them is war and the desire for power.
Even those who invoke peace hide interests of power, of greed for greater wealth and oppression of those they believe to protect, it is a sad scenario of little light and where men of good will who future they desire, they must have a spirit of resistance.
Looking at the etymology of the word clearing in Heidegger’s philosophy, it comes from the German word Lichtung, whose meaning, in addition to clearing in the forest (he himself lived for some years in the black forest of Germany), its root Licht is the word for light, which will mean hidden things, or entities whose truth must come to light, as some translators use as unveiling.
What a propitious time this is, and why we are approaching it, because whenever the prophetic words of thinkers and mystics who ask for a change of course in humanity have not been heard, this time of darkness approaches followed by a great clearing.
In the biblical metaphor, the clearing is the light of the good news (gospel), but the master warns “behold, I send you (Mt 10:16) “Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and simple as doves.”
This was the case at the time of the Punic wars, of little Greece fighting against the strong Persian empire and also at the time when the apostles of Jesus were sent two by two on a mission to open the clearings and minds of humanity to a more fraternal civilization and not It was a war against his empire, but his mentality.
Evil and compassion
11
Jul
Hannah Arendt, in her work The Origin of 
Totalitarianism (original 1951) criticized Kant’s theory that defended evil as the search for satisfaction through self-love, and argued that evil exists for different reasons, such as greed, greed, resentment, desire for power and cowardice.
Byung-Chul Han’s genius analyzes Heidegger’s work from the heart and affective modality, but it is not something totally original, Kant confesses in his book “Conflict of the Faculties” that “because of his flat and narrow chest, which leaves little space for the movement of the heart and lungs, I have a natural predisposition to hypochondria, which in previous years bordered on the boredom of life (Han, 2023, p. 8) and hence in Kant a “yearning expands the heart, it defines him and exhausts his strength” (Han, 2023, p. 9).
Han uses the metaphor of Heidegger’s seamstress (Näherin) who “works in proximity” and is also a circumciser of the heart” (pg 10) and there “the heart of being-there” beats in the transcendental horizon, just as Han explains, in the late Heidegger that “contrition penetrates more deeply” and being-there separates itself from the being of there: dasein (p. 11).
Analyzing the affective tones of the heart and its close connection with being-there is more than discovering the interiority and transcendence of philosophical discourse, it is “Heidegger’s heart, on the other hand [confronted with Derridá], listens to a single voice , follows the tonality and gravity of the “one, the only one that unifies”, for him it is an “ear of his heart” but there is something strong spiritual in this, more than feeling or emotion.
The resistance of the spirit, in our times, Han says that Heidegger’s speech is quite temporal in the sense of the context of the second world war, it is the speech of peace, of announcing fraternity, of overcoming hatred and differences (it will recover the “Il y a” by Lévinas, and also Derrida’s concept of différance), to go beyond conflict and Hegelian dialectics.
It is necessary to circumcise the heart, this is the origin of the Jewish term, in the reading of Deuteronomy (10:16) cited in the epigraph by Han: “Circumcise therefore your spiritual heart; removing all carnal obstructions, and stop being insubmissive and stubborn!”.
Han, B.C. (2023) Coração de Heidegger: sobre o conceito de tonalidade afetiva em Martin Heidegger (Heart of Heidegger). Trans. Rafael Rodrigues Garcia, Milton Camargo Mota. Brazil: Petrópolis: Vozes.
Resistance of the spirit and pacifism
09
Jul
What Edgar Morin defines as resistance of the
spirit, he is 103 years old yesterday, is beyond thought and political force, what is spirit for European philosophy is mediated by the idea we formulate about the world, and spirit here has to be beyond current everyday thinking.
Human beings are capable of thinking about peace in their relationships, cultivating their interiority, an exhaustive theme in Byung-Chul Han’s ontology, and delving deeper into values such as: humility, fragility and the need we have for each other, we do not live isolated.
Finally, having a true otherness, the fear of otherness is when there is difference and we “put ourselves on the defensive”, for example what is called preventive wars, guarantees of sovereignty over other peoples or other cultures, this generally starts wars and does not prevent them as intended.
The main reason, say many authors, one that is not questionable for denouncing “the open veins of Latin America” is Eduardo Galeano, who said that the big reason is the theft and the jokes of the people to be dominated, today in addition to this they are also clashing empires.
The spirit of resistance and pacifism is historically not an easy or “neutral” position, it is to avoid the humanitarian catastrophe that characterizes all wars, on a global scale this means an unprecedented civilizational crisis, since the military power today is immense .
It takes a very high, truly altruistic and missionary spirit, since current wars easily find allies, even among the simple population, both polarization and the use of the media to promote almost all biased narratives, are what give substance to the warlike thinking and spread throughout the social fabric.
Congratulations to the long-lived Edgar Morin, his resistance is visible due to his age, the lucidity he still maintains and may his words echo and civilization finds a path of resistance.
Ukraine in danger and change in Iran
08
Jul
The scenario in these two wars, among many others
that exist on the planet, had opposing points this past week, Vikton Orbán’s visit on Friday (5/07) to Moscow, and the victory of moderate president Masoud Pezeshkian in Iran, represents a breath of peace.
Vikton Orbán does not speak on behalf of the European Union and Putin is only interested in discussing the “nuances” of proposals for a ceasefire, as Russian forces are currently threatening the second largest city in the country Kharkiv with more than 1.5 million inhabitants and an important industrial center (in the photo the city hall square).
Wars always involve hatred and heinous crimes, of course they must be investigated and punished, but it is hardly clear everything that is inhumane and cruel that was done during a war, the prisoners exchanged the previous week, for example, showed signs of torture and ill-treatment in Russian prisons.
In the Middle East, Israel announces a new delegation sent to Qatar to negotiate peace with Hamas, but an operation with drones by the Israeli army left 6 dead in the West Bank, and there are still fears of a war with Hezzbollah in Lebanon.
The elections in France are also in this chessboard scenario, the right curiously supports Putin and the left allied with Makron supports Ukraine, a republican front formed at the last minute ended the elections with the largest number of seats in the French National Assembly.
In the USA, there are still fears of Biden’s defeat to Donald Trump, the American president seems to no longer enjoy good health and disposition, but there are still no options.
When the prospect of peace is small, it means that men have distanced themselves from seeing the world with a stable and sustainable future, the spirits of difference and hatred are loose, but as Edgar Morin states, it is necessary to have resistance of the spirit, to have hope.
Lebanon, elections in Iran and Eastern Europe
01
Jul
The elections in Iran have already taken place on
28/06, indicating that the correct prognosis of slight favoritism for the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, the most voted with 44.40% over the ultraconservative Saeed Jalili with 40.38%, the second round should take place the next day 07/05 and the elections mean a lot for the West and for the future of the relationship with Israel.
The elections were brought forward due to the death of former president Ebrahim Raisi in May in a helicopter crash in the north of the country, the regime is subject to a board of clerics under the command of Ayotalá Ali Khamenei, who succeeded the famous leader Khomeini and the president submits to this board of clergy.
However, the tension in the Lebanon region, where it is seen by the population and several governments as an imminent attack by Israel, is part of this chess where Iran is seen as an ally of the Hezbollah group which is based in this country, some countries have already asked the its citizens not to travel to or leave Lebanon urgently.
The possibility of a reformist government in Iran and growing pressure on Israel could help change the scenario in the region of war and escalating tension and a very dark future.
Tension in Eastern Europe is also growing, the escalation of the war has reached Crimea under the Russian government and the retaliation has hit Ukraine’s energy sources, Russia is under the tone due to the West’s growing support for Ukraine and directly accuses France of sending troops, what a declaration of war means in practice.
In the USA the pressure is also growing, in the presidential debate the topic was relevant, the elections in the country will take place at the beginning of November, and in the first debate Biden found himself worn out and now there is talk of replacing him as candidate.
Russia under the same tone, even commenting on the pathetic coup attempt in Bolivia, seen by the Kremlin as a Russian ally, but there was an exchange of 90 prisoners between the two countries (photo) in a rare moment of truce in the middle of an entire border zone under a strong military contingent.
Peace is always possible, it takes hearts and minds capable of overcoming hatred and violence.
The bubbles and the other
25
Jun
Several authors wrote about the issue of the Other,
unfortunately there is still ignorance about the term, it has been reborn (in my opinion it has always existed in Christian philosophy, patristics largely treats the term as “neighbor” and Paul Ricoeur remembers this), Habermas wrote about the Inclusion of the Other which would be the borders of communities open to all, Byung-Chul Han wrote The Expulsion of the Other, when reflecting on communication today, however Emmanuel Lévinas and Paul Ricoeur treated it with originality and richness.
We have already posted something about Lévinas read by Byung-Chul Han which recalls his concept of “il y a” in which he analyzes a functional aspect of the ethical relationship, making it transcend. It must be said that it is not Hegel’s ethics, for him the principle the exit from being to existence, passing from being to its raw state, is leaving the solitude of “il y a”, thus giving meaning to existing.
From Paul Ricoeur we post in some excerpts the relationship between the “partner” and the neighbor, the first is utilitarian and the second really “transcends”, but his seminal work is the Self as another (published in 1990, in Portuguese on Brazil in 2014 by Martins Fontes), he is careful to ensure that the self is not left aside, since it is common to see the Other eliminating the self, even though in the phenomenological relationship an “epoché” is always necessary. ”, but placed in parentheses.
But here we want to move on to the concept of bubbles in Spheres I by Peter Sloterdijk, he exposes his spherology, a way of defining and problematizing what it means to “be in the world”, since we come from a sphere that is the maternal womb, and leave to the sphere of our planet, and he creates a concept of immunology to give meaning to his idea of a social means of communication that is co-immunity. It is curious that the term came well before the pandemic.
It is curious that the author, who does not see religion as something objective, does not fail to analyze in his work concepts that come from the “culture” of Christianity when speaking, for example, of a despiritualized asceticism that applies to many religious people today, and of The Matrix in Gremio (on the mother’s lap, a clear allusion to Mary) and here we highlight the Eucharist (it is not the orthodox concept, obviously).
When talking about bubbles, a special topic is “Of Eucharistic excess”, this mutual incorporation is described in illustrative episodes that constitute the European tradition of cordiality in his view, which for us Latins could be an adjective of miseri-cordis, has a heart that humbly welcomes the heart of others, and its “excess” would be better understood.
It narrates three episodes on this topic, the first is from the period of the chivalric troubadour of the 13th century by the poet Conrad of Würzburg, in which the impossible troubadour adultery of a knight and a lady is brought to fruition only with the unconscious consummation of the boy’s heart by the girl, of course it’s about human love here.
In second example, the author also deals with the testimony of Raymond of Capua (1330-1399) that gains chorus, in which Catherine of Siena (a very wise Catholic saint) who has her heart exchanged for that of Christ himself revealed, marking the spherical communion of the human with the divine, and here we understand its adjective of “eucharistic excess”.
The third is more philosophical and takes up Plato’s classical philosophy, an adaptation made by Marcílio Ficino of Plato’s Symposium, with the influence of medieval medicine he imagines that Phaedrus penetrates, with a clear medieval adaptation, with blood vapors that came from his heart and extrapolated from their own eyes, the others of Lysias, with this inflates his heart making him fall in love with Phaedrus.
Lysias’ speech, in the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus, talks about the enchantment caused by the art of using logos beautifully, with the intention of persuading, he elaborates a beautiful and “logical” speech to say that it is more advantageous to give oneself to someone who is not in love than a lover, he exerts a phenomenon called apathê on Phaedrus.
Sloterdijk’s important point is that we are all subject to our bubbles, our preconceptions and only with this resource thought by Lísias, seeing the other non-lover and not close, as a possible delivery can we begin a process of rapprochement, in the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer the “fusion of horizons”.
What perspective do we have on the different Other and how can we carry out an “apathê” that becomes a favorable and interesting encounter, a possible communication.
Sloterdijk, P. Spheres I (2016). trans. José Oscar de Almeida Marques, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade.
The war could spread to the East
24
Jun
The inclusion of more protagonists in a war
environment encourages its escalation, and Russia’s response to the meeting in Switzerland was immediate.
Putin met with the president of North Korea, one of the most closed and warlike countries in the world, and then went to North Vietnam in search of cooperation for the war in Ukraine, South Korea’s reaction was immediate, the South president -Korean Yoon Suk-Yeol stated: “It is absurd that two parties with a history of launching invasion wars, the Korean War and the war in Ukraine, now promise mutual military cooperation based on the premise of a preemptive strike by the commonwealth. international situation that will never happen”, however it is a clear threat.
The document called the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty” has the same spirit as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which provides assistance from the entire bloc to any attack that a member suffers, Russia already has the partnership of Belarus, and This is how the alliances that preceded the second war seem to have been formed, at the time the Axis was Germany, Italy and Japan, and later Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia (Finland, which did not participate) also joined forces. Stalin of Russia even agreed to the agreement and then, betrayed, he became an enemy of the Axis and joined the Alliance that was fighting them (USA, France and United Kingdom).
One can imagine that this climate was absurd, people who lived in peace allied themselves in this way, but if we look at our daily lives today it is no different, if we look at the almost always polarized vision and creating narratives for wars we can understand how this climate installs, wanting peace is also an option and few think so, at this moment the Korean president highlights in his speech the clear idea that the country sees no reason for war, but does not rule out sending aid to Ukraine and thus a new pole of conflict comes up.
Reacting passively in a conflict does not mean omitting oneself or otherwise, it is the toughest position because it shows that there are mistakes whenever the resource is war, reading a narrative is not the narration, as stated by Byung-Chul Han and Walter Benjamin (The narrator), remember that the story told by Herodotus of King Psammenit “serves as an example of his art of narration” (Han, 2023, p. 21).
In it the Egyptian king Psammenit when defeated in war by the Persian king Cambyses, a after seeing her daughter reduced to a servant and her son being taken to be executed, she remains with her eyes to the ground, but upon seeing among her servants prisoners, an elderly and frail man “hit her head with his fists and expressed deep sadness” (Han, 2023, p. 22) because perhaps I would prefer to be in that poor man’s place, war destroys our deepest humanity, the narrative distorts and dehumanizes history.
Therefore, a sensible, serene narration is needed, the current war potential of the world can lead us to the most serious civilizational crisis far beyond barbarism and could reach extermination or an insurmountable limit of hatred and violence, we have hope for peace if there are still peaceful people. The biblical reading says: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God!” (Mt 5, 9).
Han, Byung-Chul (2023). A crise da narração. Translate: Daniel Guilhermino. Brazil, Petrópolis: ed. Vozes.
The Just and reconciliation
20
Jun
Justice practiced only in a legalistic way and
without any mercy is only human and does not presuppose social peace, it incites hatred between adversaries.
The social contract established in modernity, actually comes from the idea of Absolute by the first contractualist John Hobbes (1588-1679) and also from the idea of Machiavelli’s The Prince, in fact transfers all rights and justice to the State and this does not mean that he does not practice injustice, in modernity we know that he does.
Also at the height of idealism, Hegel (1770-1831) developed a teleological idea of the Absolute, which is an abstract figure even though he characterizes it as a “substantial power”, which at the moment of its subjectivity and singularity of this concept manifests itself as a universal substance, which through its abstraction If it is effective as a kind of singular self-awareness, replacing the idea of essence of Ontology, it is something abstract indeed.
The idea of justice translated in the Just by Paul Ricoeur, Habermas and other authors is the idea that it is not the singularity of a substance, but must be embodied in something concrete which is the Just, this potentially can and should develop within what is moral and ethical, in classical antiquity the philosophers, in particular Plato who sought education for citizens, he should have the virtues, aretê, which in its most precise meaning means excellence, and Aristotle develops it as phronesis, which is the politician.
It seems like a lot of abstract theory, in our view Hegelian idealism really is, but the virtues and political excellence of each person is not abstract, it means the ability of each person to exercise politics considering the rights of the other and the ethical responsibility towards social goods, in particular, the common good.
Reconciliation is always that conflict situation where it is possible to review each person’s social responsibilities and the different ethics of social positioning, if someone commits a serious or minor offense, it is always possible to find the Just, that point at which the parties involved can establish a type of private social contract, minimizing damage or loss to the parties involved.
The biblical reading says if you do not reconcile with your brother, he will take you to the judge, the judge to the court and from there you will go to prison, so it is better to reconcile first.
