Category Archives: FTAC – From The Awesome Conversation

If — in my own head — I hit a universal note just about right in Facebook or other conversation, I may simply wrench it from context and publish it here in this category as a mix of observation and, I hope, a writer’s wisdom.

FTAC – Pride in Heritage – It May Be Greater Being Humble

06 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philosophy

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato It’s okay to indulge in pride but perhaps a little less exclusively, especially in the area of knowledge and culture, and that with the idea that every culture, however great or small, cosmopolitan or isolated, represents an adjustment among a gathered people to the exigencies of place at some point in time.

I think the world is done with “uncontacted people” — isolated primitive societies — at this point. All, probably, have been observed and brought under the protection of the more proficient states whose sovereignty claims responsibility for their land base. At the moment, Homo Sapiens sapiens enjoys about 7,000 living languages and about a fair number of major religions and their dozens of subcultures, schools, and rival factions, and every one of those languages and religions developed in time, and for some the origins have been lost in the mists of time and become the subjects of academic curiosity and exploration.

http://ancientchinesedynasties.weebly.com/the-zhou…

When Cleopatra was queen, Egypt had already a history ancient even to her.

The poem “Ozymandias” has had something to say about pride in accomplishments. In the western ethos and often a part of wisdom elsewhere, humility becomes a virtue. Not only God is greater but our own appearance and development species-wide may be a thing greater than we can comprehend, however we approach such knowledge about our own existence.

The stimulus: a rightly proud statement about the world’s first degree-granting university, but presented as simply the world’s first university, i.e., a center and repository for knowledge.

Revealed by the post-statement lookup:

The University of al-Qarawiyyin or al-Karaouine (Arabic: جامعة القرويين‎) is a university located in Fes, Morocco. It is the oldest existing, continually operating and the first degree awarding educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records[5] and is sometimes referred to as the oldest university.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_al-Qarawiyyin

Posted to YouTube 11/8/2008

If we set out to brag just a little less — while accomplishing a little more, quietly — we might have more peaceful world.

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FTAC – Syria – A Terrible Puzzle

01 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Religion, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Syria

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The world has been dealt a terrible puzzle: Syndicate Red Brown Green (Shiite) has through “Red” (post-Soviet neo-feudal Russia) a nuclear armed block to its ability to impose its better nature; “Brown Green” — national socialist, Islamist (Sunni side) promotes a program unpalatable most to those whose humanity, sense of justice, and sentiment could motivate intercession despite a nuclear armed Russia and an Iran positioned to acquire a similar capability if given about a year’s lead surreptitiously. Change those politics. I think Putin-Assad-Khamenei cannot get off their track by way of their investment in a medieval world view intended to keep themselves in power to the end of time. Baghdadi is about in the same place, but others might not be.

The God (concept) intended by the Jews was thrown out beyond the universe, made greater than even the universe, and with finality separated from humans, even Moses — and not even Moses parts the waters — and this is why. Somewhere between Assad and ISIS, the middle must pioneer its way, cast off the medieval, reach for something more human, more kind, more modern, more present, more survivable, more evolving, more progressing.

Perhaps when Syrians involved in fighting perceive their jihad as one involving the middle against the extremes, they will be on their way to peace.

For this day, dependence on the medieval concentration of power in one dictator, dynasty, junta, or nobility masks off the potential for a greater future.  “Syndicate Red Brown Green” appears to be playing — by having other people die for its privileges –for the feudal mode and the perpetual war needed to keep the criminally powerful and wealthy in business for generations.

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FTAC – Soviet to Syria – Now

01 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Syria

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Blame Berezovsky (the wealthy man who effectively upgraded Putin’s political clout — http://www.thedailybeast.com/…/how-boris-berezovsky…). The Russians, as a people, and Afghanistan as a financial black hole for military expansion, managed to derail the Soviet (dissolved December 26, 1991); however, hardline privileged had already produced a plan to outlive the Soviet (reference: Karen Dawisha – http://www.miamioh.edu/…/cultural…/putins-russia/ – and the results of that today plus the Islamist stance of the opposition (Assad needed “the terrorists” for his play, “Assad vs The Terrorists”) has led to today’s mass murder and destruction in Syria.

Compression and distillation matter.

The ability of the average victims of fascist and feudal sociopaths may depend on a quick pickup on critical information — accurate, clear, complete (delivered honesty and with the highest integrity) — and the independent discernment and both personal and public political decision making it enables.

A good telegraphy should open on to new worlds, truth revealing and trustworthy.

For those with the necessary time and resources (and intellectual freedom), the Russian Section of the Library of this blog provides ample reference for seeing the Putin machinery as it worked across the president’s years in power and across the arc of the impositions of the Soviet Era.

For those horrified by the destruction wrought by Assad in Syria and determined to address it, BackChannels suggests addressing first endemic Syrian anti-Semitism and anti-westernism, which may contribute to blocking greater western intercession — actually, at the moment, any intercession — in Syria.

For a look at the Russian contribution to man’s inhumanity to man as overseen by President Putin, Oryx, a blog oriented to military tactics, provides a look through such articles as “New evidence proves Russian military directly engaging in Syrian Civil War” (August 29, 2015) and “Captured Russian spy facility reveals the extent of Russian aid to the Assad regime” (October 6, 2014) — and there’s more between those dates.

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FTAC – On Conflict and “Nominal Affiliation”

30 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology

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“Humanity” is between or in the middle in tragically real ways and should not be divided “nominal affiliation” and core moderate belief, Shiite or Sunni (eastern or western; Christian, Jewish, or Muslim; northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere). The malignantly narcissistic, whatever other adjectives and labels might apply, believe themselves born to rule — to lord over others — by birth, and in their quest to do that or sustain their positions, they refer to birth or affiliation as exclusive and privileged: and then they relentlessly manipulate their friends (flattery, pandering, patronage will do it) and subjugate and plunder their critics and rivals. In that regard, all dictators are the same. Their labels and causes matter much less than key aspects of their lost personalities. Those listed above: no compassion; no empathy; no generosity with others if not in the name of their own glory. A question naturally follows: who else?

The prompt appeared in a forum on Syria in which, as BackChannels itself might have it, Putin, Assad, and Khamenei (also Nasrallah and an illustrated figure I didn’t recognize) were presented as a Shiite axis of evil.  That realpolitik model holds.  The producers and actors have put on the play, “Assad vs The Terrorists” — but what about the opposition: does it too wish to sustain its feudal and medieval perception of others?

Let the question stand.

Bigots, bullies, cowards, and liars take note: there may be more and less in a name when it comes to carrying around contempt for others on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, or, at times, the coast, desert, mountain, plain, or valley of origin, or the name of clan, family, or tribe.

Where is the enmity located?

No one minds a little competition, but conflict on the basis of “the other”  — actually, the name of the other — appears to BackChannels to become self-destructive and self-defeating.

 

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FTAC – Conflict, Graphic Images, Social Sharing – A Comment

28 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Journalism, Notes On Reading BackChannels, Philology, Political Psychology

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All I might suggest is “cultural updating” throughout the . . . what do we want to call them? “Unmodern”? — and no modern nuclear blast will be pretty either — world plus some shift in rules of engagement, including photography and communications, in the field.

I’ve been an accidental viewer of “war porn” — not always accidental: I “clicked” to see my first beheading, firing squad, mass execution, combat helicopter footage (all on YouTube), and so on, and then as a casual blog editor — no connections, no revenue — I found myself posting forensic outrages: https://conflict-backchannels.com/…/ftac-on-war-porn…/ The start of the worst was a photo of two children hanging from rafters in a Burmese hut. I was writing about the Rohingya Muslims. That photograph, which I had downloaded and republished, changed my statistics, and I eventually deleted it from my blog’s library and provided the LiveLeak URL in its place. We’re an f-ing wild and ghoulish species, apparently. And “porn”, which I interpret loosely as “exceptional explicit display” of anything, sells. When it’s pretty and waxed, it sells cars and cameras and guitars (“guitar porn” — ask a musician). When it’s conflict and sex, countless thousands to millions want to see spilled blood and sperm.

I don’t like sensationalized conflict shock images because they’re used to mask other political, social, and psychological realities. They make us angry when we see them — those children hanging from rafters, this young man to the left, infants washing up out of the water in Libya after their attempted migration by boat fails. We know what’s happening; we need to leave the dead to the grace of God; and we need to better focus on the politics (and psychology and language behavior — if you’re like me) that produced the horror.

Prompt: a discussion about visual propaganda.

BackChannels decided some time ago to demur on reposting sensational images of death and tragedy.  If it had a photographer in the field sending live data?  Perhaps it would go with the feed . . . I don’t know; however, promoting cause with shock — humans burnt alive (seen it in stills and videos — what is done to “witches” in Africa); hangings from cranes (who hasn’t seen that obscenity from out of the Ayatollah’s Iran?); stonings (at least the Soroya movie version); chemical gassing (thanks, Assad); barrel bombing (thanks, Assad); etc. — seems to me a particularly egregious practice (look at me! look at me! look at me!) and one that should undermine the publisher’s argument and cause.

Partisan causes — Christian missionary publications, for example; ISIS on display in the media, for another — turn death into art (like Nazis turning skin into lampshades) frequently, and I, and I hope others, abhor them for doing that to us.

Related: DiLonardo, Mary Jo.  “What are thought viruses?”  Mother Nature Network, August 27, 2015.

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FTAC – After the Obama Years

26 Wednesday Aug 2015

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I don’t feel divided or conquered; nor do I wish to demonize Obama EVEN IF he has promoted a “Peace in our times” treaty, i.e., a worthless piece of expletive deleted: I believe he has changed the structure in and around Iran in which warfare may be waged against the west. Point by point:

We have seen serious reductions in oil revenues funding the governments and national lifestyle of Russian and Iran: both have had to respond to that loss of income and the centralized power of distribution of the same (state capitalism: state patronage).

Despite the apparent failure of the “Arab Spring” (or “Persian Bloom”?), Iran’s colleges today are populated about 60 percent female! Women are going to be the educated person in the Next Iran. I’ll be surprised if those demographics don’t have an effect on the state within the next presidential term.

Speaking of which, Obama, as we say in the American colloquial mode, is “outta here” in about a year. Done. Finished. No more Barrack. He’s going to pick up his “chips” in favors owed (he could even turn out the world’s first trillionaire), but he’s going to be finished with the business of managing America’s governance, and the backlash to come is right here on Facebook in its conservative circles.

We’re going to have our guns.

Our vote is going to matter.

We’re going to get over, if we have to, “retribalization” and race, color, creed, and religion — as we have had idealized at the beginning, and that we have realized through civil war and civil rights movement and law suits and disputes across centuries.

Americans — doesn’t matter what race, color, creed, or religion, or gender preference, for that matter — are going to emerge from the Obama Years more egalitarian, ethical, just, and strong.

It could be the wine talking (with cold pizza), but at least I hope so.

The prompt had to do with the American Jewish community’s reaction to the “Nuclear Deal” with Iran.

I think “the deal” entirely bogus based on the character of the Iranian tyranny.

Period.

It’s dishonest with itself (you should visit the revision made to Wikipedia’s Iran’s Wealthiest page — something like that — and the listing of Ali and his brother commanding as much as $57 billion in personal portfolio); it’s sadistic with its critics and rivals; its “human rights” record makes sharks look like warm and fluffy pets.  On this blog, do the search for “Iran, hangings” (oh, heck, I can give you the URL).  This blog has always suggested to readers what these people — and people like them — are.

Filter that message politically (dictators), theologically (devils), or psychologically (sociopaths) and then tell me how you see them as “fathers” or “liberators” in any dimension but Hell.

Of course, I had to write on.

Some people shouldn’t “drink and drive” — I probably should not imbibe and write . . . but it made a nice BackChannels piece.

I really do believe, D., that with everything we discuss today, we have to take a broader and longer-range view of political and social realities.

I don’t believe “detente” will hold with Iran — it’s doing evil to its own people while conducting “war by proxy” against Israel, against the Syrian people (true), and against Yemen, right now, and isolating its governing powers every inch of the way.

I believe also, while I’m chatyping with wine, that Israel’s peace with Egypt will hold fast and strong, and that Muslims like N. and Jews like me need to pioneer a greater future together rather than apart. I may not be a “Jew’s Jew” by orthodox standards, or any standards at all. I am an American humanist, Diest, in alliance with nature, Emersonian and Shakespearian. My river is the Potomac, not the Jordan, but I hope my ethics and morality are, by and large, with Moses and, in this day and age, with Jewish kindness and love, just the same as gave voice to Hillel the Elder (35 BCE to 10 CE) and Christ and a fair part of Muhammad as well (“One scholar is more powerful against the devil than one thousand worshippers”). If we have immense problems with scripture and human organizations, well, that’s our immense capacity for language married to imagination and our deficits having to do with compassion and empathy.

Enough said (and I am positive about that).

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FTAC – On Feudalism and the Middle East Conflict

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Political Psychology, Politics

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The wealth tied into the feudalism that drives the middle east dispute may be difficult to imagine for most. On the Shiite side, Ali Khamenei and his brother control in private portfolio about $57 billion. Reuter’s “Assets of the Ayatollah” (easy lookup) tells how that came about. At least two of the Hamas leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal, have developed reputations as billionaires also. Basically, “the terrorists” (the leaders) are not being spoiled: they are living the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed.

Israel’s medical ethic, which stems from the Hippocratic Oath, has been always to leave the politics at the door and attend to the needs of the injured and sick. I think that ability to separate issues and focus on challenges in separate dimensions may be expressive of the modern mind as the medieval appears less able to set abstract and just boundaries.

The feudal mode in thought and governance may also dominate Sunni politics, which is complex. Erdogan, the Turkish leader, has moved into his immense “White Palace” and proven reluctant to destroy ISIS at this time. He appears to prefer beating back Kurdish hopes for independence to stalling the ISIS project. He would (I believe) align with “Putin-Assad-Khamenei” if not for his Sunni identification. Still, overarching Putin, Assad, Khamenei, Erdogan, and some others is the devotion to “political absolutism” or the concentration of “absolute power” in a single leader. As much works against the democratic and humanist distribution of power throughout populations.

Stimulus: Israeli doctors have been treating an Hamas terrorist recently, and the poster had asked whether the modern workspace was luxurious enough to spoil him.

🙂

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FTAC – Margins and Shadows

06 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Journalism, Political Spychology, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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The Machiavellian “behind the curtains” has been supplanted by “in the shadows” and into the shadows may be where mainstream media fears to tread.

Both the Bond movies and Le Carre novels, and I’ve enjoyed both in series, have reflected in fiction the issues (as well as atmosphere) of their day, each work of art in essence packaging up the look and spirit of a part of a decade using the secret world as its window. For the writers, intuitive exploration may turn out more secure than looking into essentially powerful secret societies.  In fact, the possession of private power and wealth may be inseparable today from the control of political influence and movement in the mirrors of criminal and lawful worlds and the feudal and democratic ones in which the bad guys work in secrecy and the good guys do as well but, perhaps, differently.

http://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2013/04/23/mad-spy-vs-spy-prints-for-sale

In real life, someone leads an organization that kidnaps an Israeli Olympic team at the event — and someone else leads another organization that quietly hunts down the miscreants.

Must the journalists know all? And when?  As history?  As now?

Many stories emerge over time.

I haven’t yet watched _Kill the Messenger_ but from description it appears that it will fit with a stack of nonfiction histories about the security services of states. Whatever happened may be done, but the processes may not be done, and that’s where the public becomes curious in its own interest. However, journalism has also a politics of discretion belied by the terms of art “on the record” and “off the record” and the public may never know what has been imparted “off the record”, much less what has been sealed in the minds of agents and the vaults of the KGB/FSB and others.

I’m more inclined to trust The Washington Post than, say, Alex Jones 🙂 , but one may suspect that the Post must also keeps secrets.

With conventional warfare somewhat nulled by the immense firepower developed by would-be adversaries, the twists that are “low-intensity conflict”, “hybrid warfare”, “war by proxy” and so on depend on mafia-type arrangements and relationships to produce activity (or perhaps as much has been always the way of the street in which conflicts are conceived and worked into reality).

Posted to YouTube 12/1/2014.

In books available through Amazon and in videos on YouTube, there’s a surfeit of material covering the history of spying, from The Bible, no less, and forward.  One has only to look.  Of historic interest and, perhaps, contemporary curiosity, may be the depth of control and integration a state has with its people along this axis.  From the 20th Century experience, the mere mention of “Gestapo”, “STASI”, and “KGB” summon the vision of totalitarian police states operated by political elites with security forces sufficiently populated to reach down through their societies to the extent that even children are made into informants.

The prompt for this post was Diane Weber Bederman’s recent piece in the Canadian Press, “Media dereliction of duty to the citizenry” (August 6, 2015) about the film Kill The Messenger (which I have not yet seen, but I like IMDB’s quotation of the tag line: “Can you keep a national secret?”).

When Mr. Putin and company set out to preserve the privileges of the Soviet without the Soviet (reference: Karen Dawisha’s book, Putin’s Kleptocracy), the drive appears to have been developed precisely for interest already established within the KGB and Party to preserve power and wealth and the ability to distribute the same to similar favored elites.  As a king to knights and lords, so has Putin been to his “new nobility” (another title in the Russian Section of this blog’s library).

Do the services of western powers mirror the security systems that maintain Russia’s neo-feudal governance (yes/no?) and, if so, democracy by democracy, how?  What’s similar? What’s different?

I’d rather imagine the answers and work in fiction — and may, for this lonesome blogger is not The Washington Post or The New York Times, and even the “best and brightest” in those companies may choose — or have long chosen — to exercise discretion.

Who’s to know?

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