Tag Archives: peace

FTAC – “Peace Prevails When . . . .” – On the Middle East Conflict

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza Suzerain, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Politics

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Peace prevails when some lies are acknowledged and brought to a standstill. Without apprehension of the Soviet Era, historic Russian anti-Semitism (which the Soviet would go on to heavily promote in the middle east), and the KGB invention of Arafat followed by the spinning up of so many “alternative narratives”, indeed that poison will not subside for a while — but the Soviet has been gone 25 years, Moscow-Tehran aren’t looking very good in Syria, and Hamas and Hezbollah, both endorsed by the same “couple”, may be reaching the end of their argument with only corruption, kleptocracy, and death to show for it. They’re going to be “found out” by those they boasted of protecting, and that will the end of the middle east conflict.

What is yesterday still doing here?

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FTAC – Syria – Medieval vs Modern

23 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Politics

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Natural ethnolinguistic cultural separation, survival, and co-evolution should be, imho, a global standard in the understanding of the foundations of the peace. Viewed through that prism, Baloch, Hebrews, Kurds, and Pashtun have claim to the lands that bore them into being, culture and language themselves representing a People’s struggle confined to living with themselves and their ecological environment.

The politics in play in Syria have pitted the medieval worldview promoted by despots intent on keeping themselves in “absolute power” against the power-distributing and checking forces of the west in its post-Enlightenment phases. The same has also pitted as post-Soviet neo-feudal Russia against the arc of NATO or westward-moving states. The once Arab and Soviet-promoted anti-Semitism cultivated in Syria has probably contributed to impeding efforts to get in the way of the creation of the tragedy.

In fact, the good of the western world certainly do pray for Syrians. Whether by way of Judaic, Judeo-Christian, and perhaps (or soon) Judeo-Christian-Islamic “Ethical Monotheism” or by way of “Ethical Humanism” or “Secular Humanism”, western ideals involving mankind tend toward egalitarianism (none are supreme by virtue of birth) and universalism (our values and principles are accessible to all).

It is important to see Putin, Assad, and Khamenei or “Syndicate Red Brown Green” or “Post-Soviet Neo-Feudal” Russia as expressive of a medieval worldview now long superseded by arrangements attached to functioning international conventions and law and trade.

Posting to this blog has slowed quite a bit as its editor wishes not to keep saying the same things over and over and over and over . . . again.  Certain criminal behaviors involving “non-state transnational actors” and certain state leaders and their followers fit medieval concepts involving their own legitimacy and the concomitant development and sustaining of the immense power and wealth they’re able to personally amass or commandeer.  Whatever the superficial banner representing the character of the enclave of a dictator or “malignant narcissist”, the range may be better noted by scale (start with the pirate’s cove and work on up to the national socialist dictatorship) than by nominal affinity with some system of mystical belief.  The name of the eternal game for those committed to the latest fascisms: money.

On BackChannels, the concept “Syndicate Red Brown Green” reflects elements from movements within the communist / post-communist worlds, the worldview of the New Nationalists (Orban, Erdogan, among others), and, of course, that of the hipster “Islamists” so devoted to general destruction and the destruction of Israel and Jewry worldwide in particular, and it attaches to the leadership, which cleans up (makes a lot of loot) on what it can “put over” on followers and marks while maintaining vast systems of patronage.

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FTAC – Insert: Humanism

02 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Politics, Religion

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In my last note, I’ve mentioned one of the “hate-peace peace groups” that might serve as a gateway to so many others. If you want chit-chat with Greta Berlin, one of the organizers of the Gaza Flotilla, she’s around; if with my generally conservative buddies. they’re in the mix too; if a whole other set, we might get it. “Humanism” — shall I refer to Felix Adler and “Ethical Culture” — provides a common thread across religious and state boundaries; however, it would support, if we’re really going to be good about this, cultural polyphony. The Roma should not be so abused! Nor the Jews. Nor the Rohingya of Burma. Wahhabi imperialism, Islamic expansionism — especially as the “Islamists” would have it, resurgent nationalisms (which has Hungarian Jobbik relating to Iranian roots, for pete’s sake), ensure we’re going to be in trouble for a while. Even so, we may pay more attention to autonomy, degrees of freedom, human dignity, human rights, and qualities of living — physical, psychological, and spiritual, across our 6,900 or so language cultures and adjust for co-evolution.

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I’m not the only one who tires of addressing, confronting, and arguing the issues (and the facts) of the “middle east conflict” (i.e., that would be the one involving The Jews, as the others, I suppose, want for less attention).

Felix Adler (professor) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I caught my second wind 🙂 in the 1980s with my “discovery” of Abraham Maslow while working on a Masters in “Outdoor Recreation Resources Management”.  Perhaps for this venue, Maslow’s suggestion that if one is to pursue greater health (with actualization), one ought to study healthy people as much as those beset by pathology.

The radical Jews — whoever gathered in the desert more than 5,000 years ago — produced a religion in which one God had dominion over all and no man — not even Moses, not even Abraham — was like Him.

God, from the Jewish beginning, was “Master of the Universe”.

Many, by comparison, could barely master his own emotions.

Anti-deification and conflation with God characterizes a Jewish approach to scripture, every passage of which enjoys close reading and vigorous ethical and moral argument.  Even “The Akedah” splits between the (option one) promotion of obedience and (option two) the call to speak back to God, which we today we refer to as “speaking truth to power.”

Jewish, Christian, Islamic humanism, social humanism, atheist humanism, secular humanism, etc. all suggest that while God has plans, we are none of us God, and if we wish to live in peace, a common peace, a peace for the democratic (small “D”) man, a peace for the Pacific Islander as well as the Iraqi, we’re going to have to help one another and, perhaps, quiet some of the egotism and noise, most ambitious and inventive, coursing through our minds, the gift of languages invented to cope with survival in bounded systems.

I can never too highly recommend reading Daniel Everett’s Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes or this thoughts in Language: The Cultural Tool.

We’re a wild species, but our war technologies have exceeded many natural limitations, and they really can destroy humankind, while our advanced technologies have become comparatively fragile, “glass” plates beneath a blazing sun converting light to electricity.

We have a way to go, but, whatever we do, we’re going to go there together — and we’re not going to outwit God, nature, or the universe along the way.

Additional Reference

Linguistic Society of America | Advancing the Scientific Study of Language

World Council of Anthropological Associations – WCAA

Our Story | Esalen

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FTAC – Hamas – Gaza – Latest IDF Missile Strike

09 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Political Psychology, Politics, Regions

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The U.N. had a readied charter for Palestine in 1948. The Arab states rejected Israel’s charter, launched a war of annihilation, lost it, enhanced Israel’s defense ability, and managed to keep the issue alive for what will soon be 70 years.

Setting Fatah aside, Hamas has found itself isolated by the counterrevolution in Egypt — it had swung with the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power — and its enthusiasm for Sunni-based Islamic Jihad in Syria, bringing it into collision with Hezbollah and annoying sponsor Ayatollah Khamenei.

At the end of “Cast Lead” in 2008/2009, so has been my impression, Israel’s Defense Forces, and truly representing Israel, had promised Hamas that the next barrage of rocket fire from Gaza — there had been about 8,000 (!) launches prior to “Cast Lead” — would be met by eliminating the senior fighting leadership of Hamas. True? I don’t know. However, Hamas has been motivated to suppress the fire of the non-Hamas launching units.

The global anti-Semitic rhetoric seems sponsored — same rant where the Far Out Left meets anti-western (anti-human, imho) “Islamist” Ambition writ large — but peace has been not only always available but also pursued and evident in trade throughput, both directions, with Gaza, the acceptance of a Judenfrei Gaza (2005 evacuation of Jews from the strip, where the archaeological record of habitation reaches back 3,500 years) that proved that “land for peace” doesn’t work and won’t, and in local labor and trade, which part includes Jews and Muslims laboring side by side in peace.

At this point, I think agreements will only follow what becomes true on the ground. What’s true in Gaza today is that Hamas has found itself isolated.  As political rogues within its own zone of control threaten by proxy the existence of its senior leadership, it has chosen a path beside a cold peace.

The news inspiring the comment: IDF Targets Gaza Terrorist, Eliminates Imminent threat to Israel – 12/9/2014.

Note: I’ve slightly revised the last paragraph of the material quoted but did so in keeping with original intent.

Related: Israeli Military Launches Airstrike on Palestinian Man – 2/9/2014.

My prediction: peace will one day be more evident in Gaza and in cross-border relationships than war, and the politicians involved will have to fall all over themselves trying to catch up with it.

Alas, that day seems distant and yet a little closer too.

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The reason for staying is loyalty to approximately 500 Palestinians who are among the plant’s 1,300 employees, Birnbaum claimed. While other employees could relocate on the other side of the Green Line if the plant moved, the West Bank Palestinian workers could not, and would suffer financially, he argued.

“We will not throw our employees under the bus to promote anyone’s political agenda,” he said, adding that he “just can’t see how it would help the cause of the Palestinians if we fired them.”

SodaStream Boss Admits West Bank Plant Is ‘a Pain’ — Praises Scarlett Johansson – Forward.com – 1/28/2014.

Additional Reference

I’ve put these references in ascending chronological order as they may suggest a story, even in headlines, about fits and starts, crimes and punishments, and, in the end, behavioral change.

Hamas claims responsibility for tunnel under Gaza-Israel border – Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz – 10/21/2013.

IDF EXACTS MAJOR PRICE FROM HAMAS…FINALLY…Kills Its Military Commander…Commentary By Adina Kutnicki | Adina Kutnicki – 11/14/2014.

Hamas: Our Rockets Will Reach North of Tel Aviv – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News – 11/22/2013.

IDF soldiers fire at, hit Palestinian placing bomb on Gaza-Israel border | JPost | Israel News – 12/23/2013.

IDF observing Hamas strides to deter Gaza rocket fire | JPost | Israel News – 1/12/2014.

Hamas deploys forces near Gaza-Israel border to stop rocket fire – Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz – 1/21/2014.

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FTAC – More Than 7,000 Ways of Addressing the World

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in A Little Wisdom, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philology, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion

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In the arts, we may refer to a certain state in performance as contained and connected and that with God, nature, and the universe.  — put together some observations in psychology — Ecstasy: a Study of Some Secular and Religious Experiences (1961). I happen to think our Homo sapiens sapiens is as wild a species as any but with a large brain and a phenomenal mouth, and one has proven capable of great creativity and intuition and the other of aiding the invention of languages (of which there are more than 7,000 separable extant as I type in just one) and language culture, each of the thousands embracing and entertaining one form of divinity or another.

Mine (edited lightly).

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In my teaching career I authored eight books and numerous articles in social ethics and religion. After over thirty years of academic work — in Germany, India, and South Africa as well as in the United States — I wanted to turn my hand to writing that was more poetic and expressive. I also wanted a more viable balance between my work with words and my work with wood, especially furniture for worship settings.

William J. Everett’s Blog | Reflections on Writing, Woodworking, and Ethics

Human life (actually for those bedding down on Siberian ledges to watch the sunset, bear life too) entails, whether we or the bears like it or not, an aesthetic and spiritual emotional and emotive experience.

That’s life.

The wonder is how many approaches have been adopted, created, discovered, embraced, invented, and modified in service to those experiences.

Betwixt and between, then and now, but then I turned a first graduate degree toward facets of the experience of leisure time — boredom, ecstasy,flow, motivation, peak experiences, self-concept, self-as-entertainer, etc. — and among the predicates were youth, mountains, and music.

Not much has changed about me, but my views have been broadened, and here in the blogland of “conflict, culture, language, and psychology”, it may be worth taking a moment while fighting rages in Syria, Iran struggles to obtain The Bomb, and terror drips into everyday life somewhere in Iraq and Pakistan on a daily to weekly basis that our humanity is of just one species and that species, about 7.124 billion in number, communicates by way of more than 7,000 languages, each addressing the aesthetic and spiritual percepts of its speakers.

We should not be fighting.

We should be awed.

Briefest Introductory Reference

Abraham Maslow

Daniel Everett

Ethnologue

Joseph Campbell

Marghanita Laski

William James

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A Page for the In-House Library

29 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Journal, Library

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Reference: BackChannels Library Page

My library contains about 2,000 volumes.

Should I ever get it into a house (life’s not looking so good for that at the moment), I should like to have it in one room or continuously spanning one serious load bearing wall.  Here in the apartment they’re arrayed over the studs one to three bookcases along sections of wall.

So far, so good.

I’ve gone to Kindle, which is not bad for curiosity but awfully bad for the disposition of even a small (the smallest) estate in books, and I may revert to collecting hardcovers.

While I mull that, I thought I would share here with readers a portion of what’s been imported in areas relevant to light commentary on politics.  Were the funds available, say through a big fat fairy tale of a grant (but maybe there are angels), I would have an assistant work up cards and key them for a while.  As it is, if I add a few volumes a week, just a couple at a time, that might do as well.

While items listed are here, not everything listed has been read (the infamous  “RAT” is still sitting stealthily on a speaker cabinet beside the television), and not everything read has been remembered; however, I have out of necessity become more careful about quality time with books, the distractions posed by the Internet, especially Facebook, having become so fragmenting and time consuming.

In fact, I have here the habits of a way of life, but it’s a scrambling and scrapping information-bound way of life, shifting gears always between the academic and the personal, the chatyping session on the social network and the research-and-typing session that turns out a post, and the concerns of an author (would-be, wannabe, maybe is) and those of the guy who lives in “real space” after all.  Apart from the nifty act of hauling a cogent quote onto a blog or into online chat, I’ve always found reading among the most calming and focusing of activities.

With a library in the home — not a lonesome bookcase in the squire’s office but rather 20 bookcases packed and packed along from grade school to graduate school (and sprinkled with inheritance: my father’s Durant and Le Carre collections are here, for example) and assembled for a dime on the dollar from thrift shops — it’s good not to always have too much burden in the way of other distractions and indulgences.

There’s not too much on the page as I type here this Tuesday afternoon in late January, only mention of five volumes, but there’s more where they came from.

READING NOW

Servadio, Gaia.  Mafioso.New York: Stein and Day, 1976.

Collection

Political Psychology

Fromm, Erich.  The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness.  New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1973.

Post, Jerrold M.  Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World: The Psychology of Political Behavior.  Forward by Alexander L. George.  Ithica: Cornell Universty Press, 2004.

Regions and States

CENTRAL ASIA

Cohen, Stephen Philip.  The Idea of Pakistan.  Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2004.

Rashid, Ahmed.  Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.  New York: Viking, 2008.