Categoria: Peter’s Log

The Riddle of Time, Space and Being

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, Peter's Log, Slow Reading, thoughts on life and its philosophy

Death – or even already ageing … … there is something that is so well expressed in Michael Ende’s Never ending story: the Riddle of Time, the dependency and indeed relationality of future, presence and past. With every moment of our life we gain experiences – and gaining means filling the storage which is the past; and with the past and presence we encounter future which is then presence. However, while there is more and more past, future is decreasing.

So far the individual perspective. Now we face the question if such law can also be seen societally, here and now, claimed as orientation:

It is not only that every little helps – the tesco-slogan at some stage – but it is also that every little kills. I don’t want [and I cannot] enter deeply into this debate. But there is no doubt, that we live today, follow a lifestyle for which the future generation will have to pay – killing them softly, the piecemeal strangulation of the future (generation), literally breathing today the air, they cannot breathe anymore. Moreover, we deny not only their right but also the right of nature.

No, I am not going to be vegan from now on (and I will still not eat any sausages …). But there is some truth in what Frances always said when I wanted to help her in the kitchen. She gave me the knife, and when I approached a tomato she said, scaringly looking at me:

do you hear them screaming?

Of course [really of course?] it is not about single tomatoes, single trees…. But the genre, the “collective nature” may well have and should have rights – some countries are not only thinking about it, but have respective legislation in place.

A complicated debate, indeed. But obviously pointing out that the demonstrations and activities of the “Last Generation”, “Extension Rebellion” and others are not about the interests of activists and for instance the “general interest” or environment activists and those who are interested in free movement [and the free choice of the means of transport] or the imagined/supposed “interests of the state”. The interest of nature – life against life; or living of a few today against the sur-life of nature.

Indeed, the seemingly abstract question of death turns into a very concrete one.

Bottom line, I suppose: it is simply a paradox. Talking about life means acknowledging death as part of it; talking about death means being or becoming able to live. And death is so to say only the extreme, the final point on a scale. Final meaning absolute? Not really, as it is still part of life and living in the true sense, namely the understanding of relationality = processuality = totality.

Allowing others – or an other – taking one’s place, taking and giving part, including partialities.

Triage – one has to leave; not because there is not sufficient space but because there is “not enough to do”. In other words: not leaving means taking part which is at some stage about taking the part of somebody else, ignoring the other.

The challenge is balanced-managing and administering.

Inequality as permanent dissolution of entities. As such it is not a matter of distribution [though it appears to be “only” that]. Relationally is a matter of distribution as production, as such a matter of given and/as taking. Now the majestic equaliser emerges as an instrument of bringing production to a halt. The result is another dimension of the same paradox: permanent overproduction… of something that is useless, because it does not have any value. Sure, it has exchange value:

More years, not active years, but years that are only about maintaining life. Visiting doctors, physiotherapists, mobility exercise groups and social gaming events that are little social and not playful at all. Doing crosswords and jigsaws, … and in the extreme case it is even a brainless body … breathing, nutrition is artificially maintained.

Less extreme: the strive of old men and women to maintain whiteness, pushing then young to the edge, leaving them in the role of witnesses of decay. And even worse, forcing them to make the same mistake(s)!

Euthanasia, is for very good reasons – especially in Germany, but not only – hugely problematic, problematised and prohibited; and it is still a matter that is also problematic in the commonly/mostly forgotten way: it starts from the presumption of negativity of death [interestingly in a society that claims to be Christian, where religion suggests death being redemption].

This negativity is not least an expression of the obligation to Permanently Perform Perfectly – the basic and general pattern of PPP, reading in today’s terms Power Point Presentation, and then translated into politics: Public Private Partnership.

And of course, it is not allowed to leave, to say

I did what I wanted and could do, I am ready to leave ….

Sure, there are or can be very different reasons why somebody wants to leave; as much as there are or can be very different reasons for the want to stay [leaving aside that in both cases there can be reasons out of control of the person concerned].

The problem behind all these remarks is that the system, solely concerned with the production of worthless exchange values, is reflexive in the sense of extensively reifying itself – Andy Warhol perfectively confronting us with the jester’s mirror: design, originally used as means of presentation and advertisement, is elevated and presented as arts – Campbell sends regards. And both, arts and food alike are perverted after their death, i.e. the end of living and resurrection as commodities, the presentation of life in form of symbols. 

The effect depends on volume, on momentary hyper-presence, which in the extreme contains its own destruction:

The shredding of Banky’s Girl with the Balloon, just at the moment when the hammer falls – at one end, at the other end of a kind of scale, the light installation, where one can argue about whether it is really still an original piece of art when the curator replaces the defective original neon tube with one bought at the DIY store.

And indeed the new understanding of the character of arts is symptomatic for the entire range of new lifestyles. With view on Andy Warhol, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh points out that

[t]he systematic invalidation of the hierarchies of representational functions and techniques finds a corresponding statement in Warhol’s announcement that the hierarchy of subjects worthy to be represented will someday be abolished ….

(Buchloh, Benjamin H. D. (December 1, 2001). “Andy Warhol’s One-Dimensional Art: 1956–1966”. In Michelson, Annette (ed.). Andy Warhol. The MIT Press. p. 2)

(to be continued as Only Arts? Or the art of living and leaving?)

Disappointment-the old white men, grumpy, as he lost the privileged, elitist status?

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, Peter's Log, silent revolution, Slow Reading

I knew it (though I kind of denied it, wanted not to think it would be real), as we talked while back about my “Higher Diplomas” in Ireland – I definitely should say “our HDips”, as Joe played an important role too: principal teacher and course director, though really important: the more or less small group of students, up to 15, welded together by provoked critical thinking, exploring something new – we as university staff only provided a space so that they could work, coming from very different backgrounds, more and more going very different ways (after starting with the same idea or even ambition: getting into social work studies). In a way I established myself as a kind of leader, mentor. Nowadays, there are about 60 students, now mainly online teaching – yes, I guess that is the real move: from learning to teaching/being taught.

Yes, there is some disappointment, perhaps even anger.

But, of course, there is another, much wider dimension to it.

The group, stablished at the human rights centre in Changsha, HRUG.legal, is discussing at the moment different informal structures as ubuntu, guanxi, jaan-pehchaan… all in some way seeing these network-like relations in a positive light. It is about communities, non-alienated relationships [or better: relationalities] and direct mutual support: do you want to go fast, go alone; do you want to go far, move together. It is about the we-society, where a village is needed to bring up a child…

Then, I asked Maria, looking for somebody who would be able and willing to talk about the Russian blat. Her spontaneous reaction:

It’s a dark side of the social connections, when personal [family, friendly and other] relations are used to achieve something in spite of law or/and rules violation. In popular terms I would call blood a corrupt way to use social capital.

Ah, capital …

Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait. (Balzac)

– and it is conservative saying this.

And from great capital we come to the great “equaliser”, knowing with Anatole France

La majestueuse égalité des lois interdit aux riches comme aux pauvres de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans la rue et de voler du pain.

Easy to conclude and learn : Sine ira, sine studio!

Is it true, then? There is no alternative? Education must be reduced on large-scale teaching, and going beyond the small learning-group is the only and necessary anti-elitist, and also anti-critical way, guaranteeing equality and access for everyone? And not least, calling for a new elite?

****

That is what they did, isn’t it? New generations of artists, opposing the academy… and establishing themselves as new academy …

Secession – though always in need of some kind of “accession”, Or even being a form of accessing: entering another, perhaps new, world.

Fear … Can we be sure about the access? What if we fail? Partial death!?

This partial death seems to be also motivation to join false friends, stick to communities – a bribe for tribe. Who wants to leave with dirty hands? So, one hand washes the other- mutuality, here with the advantage of feeling it – as it is the habit on the one on the horse market: not shaking hand in the way we usually do… but do we? Often amongst young people there is a greeting ceremony that includes a firm handshake, somewhat combined with a high 5, followed by a hug. Of course not possible in times of pandemics – there we still found some strange kin: “greeting with the elbows” – a sort of hooking up with each other?

Back to guanxi, then, to ubuntu …, facing, admitting the impossibility of distance… Trying spasmodically to “keep the church in the village” even here, talking about the global village…, and in law always also looking at emergency exit: discretionary leeway.

Mind, keeping always on the top the supposed justification: it is only the others where such networks are bad, questionable; whatever we do, is a sobber and clean way of negotiation.

It may be farfetched, perhaps one can even see it as depressive, though more likely one has to say that it is realistic: overcoming the attitude of the old white men – Aherns, Belusconis, Francescos, Prodis …., not being able or willing to leave the stage [and of course their female partners as the Lagardes, beginning a new career at a time where they should stop and enjoy the money they did not pay to the tax office] – will only be possible by teaching the youth about finality, death. And then, only then, we old men and women, whatever the colour of the skin, will be respected [and can be respected] as true gentlemen and gentlewomen.

(To be continued )

Control Yourself

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in aphorisms from living in and between worlds - impressions and conversations, Peter's Log, Slow Reading, thoughts on life and its philosophy

Control Yourself

Isn’t it another paradox – or at least another formulation of various paradoxa? Being “social beings” is in itself a kind of paradox, if we consider that the social is something that is permanently changing, this making being in a strict sense impossible: Bing is having been and becoming at the very moment we are. And controlling oneself, then, means controlling how we position ourselves in and being part of change, by which, to some extent, we change.

A matter not least of HumaArtificial Intelligence: While we are, of course reacting, caught in some kind of feedback loop, we are – if we do exist in the said sense – able to leave the feedback loop, too – making this kind of intelligence human – and possibly humane – so different if compared with Kant’s/McEwan’s Adam.

And then? Capitalism in particular, perhaps society? Ageing, especially when becoming ill, fragile? When all this means, perhaps reducing life on maintaining itself, staying alive… the permanent concern of securing food, securing living under a roof …, a large roof the seize of which goes beyond (but where is the limit?) what is needed for security, for comfort; … maintaining the body and its beauty… exercises, communication, even if it is communication about communication, classifying and screening communication … Is it about personalities, that lost character, about newspapers that perpetuate news bare of information; about publishers publishing books nobody is interested in, nobody can afford … but everybody then is encouraged (and taking up the offer) to download for free; to subscribe for free… at least for three weeks, or months or so …,  having all stored on the computer, the cloud … .

Of course reading is a good thing for the individual and for humanity. But do you have to write something about what you read, which is then written about, about which legions of educated people argue, in order to subsequently document the argument and discuss the documentation in the feuilletons? (Zeh/Urban: Zwischen Welten … 32 f.)

Reducing human intelligence, even human existence… on pure being, on the very moment, without past, consequently without future, like the homo faber not being able to rest under the tree – resting needs to acknowledge movement, failing this, means failing to exist. As “always understanding what one does, means remaining unchallenged by oneself.” (Walser)

Beginning to exist is something that – from the perspective of the very individual – simply  happens, out of control … and is that the ultimate answer, the fact of being damned to live like Sisyphus?

Cui Bono

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, Peter's Log, quotes, thoughts on life and its philosophy

Who benefits? Wem nützt das?

(scroll down for English …)

Vielleicht habe ich immer gewusst, dass ich hier gebraucht werde. Vielleicht ahnte ich, dass meine Aufgabe darin bestehen würde, diesen Hof in die Zukunft zu führen. Vielleicht war Münster nur eine nette Auszeit, ein kleiner Schlenker auf dem Weg zum eigentlichen Ziel, weil die Heldin fortgehen muss, um heimkehren zu können. Wir hatten eine tolle Zeit in Münster, aber mit der Germanistik konnte ich mich, ehrlich gesagt, nie richtig anfreunden. Natürlich ist lesen ein Glück. Für den Einzelnen und für die Menschheit. Aber muss man über das Gelesene etwas schreiben, über das dann etwas geschrieben wird, über das sich Heerscharen von gebildeten Menschen streiten, um den Streit anschließend zu dokumentieren und die Dokumentation in den Feuilletons zu besprechen? Wem nützt das, wem tut das etwas Gutes?

Juli Zeh/Simon Urban, 2023: Zwischen Welten; Muenchen: Luchterhand: 52 f.

*****

Maybe I always knew that I was needed here. Maybe I suspected that my task would be to lead this farm into the future. Maybe Münster was just a nice break, a little detour on the way to the real goal, because the heroine has to leave in order to return home. We had a great time in Münster, but to be honest, I could never really get to grips with German studies. Of course, reading is a good thing. For the individual and for humanity. But do you have to write something about what you read, which is then written about, about which legions of educated people argue, in order to subsequently document the argument and discuss the documentation in the feuilletons? Who benefits from it, for whom does it do any good?

Not the Grand Finale … – … Yet

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, Peter's Log, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works

Not even in terms of work – remember Engels’ remark on labour and work, qualifying work as the activity that is paid for by wages, labour a (specific) physical activity.

Still, it is time to say another time good-bye as done earlier (and here)

 – this time from a sideline activity, I could without much exaggeration say: a kind of voluntary work, i.e. the casual teaching at a German third level institution.

It is difficult to present in a note of reasonable length – difficult as reality, this part of reality is full of contradictions. I try to be reasonably correct by putting some poles in the ground, some stumbling blocks – each of them on its own more or less ‘harmless’, ‘right’, ‘correct’, good by way of harmony of its tiny part of the world. Each of these poles is linked to another pole, or some other poles, striking a balance for some time, and collapsing like a house of cards when a butterfly passes, the palace crumbling as result of the stroke of the butterfly.

What are these activities about, how can they be characterised in general terms, leaving aside that each case is different: 

* they are securing income – as such privilege and often gratefully accepted; • one may be beneficiary of a colleague’s engagement by which one (= a person like me) gets the job, • just a matter of being at the right time in then right place, e.g. an institution is recruiting people with some specific expertise, • people who like teaching, supplementing their PhD-work … 

* it is about securing teaching – one may debate how many students are really “deserving students” = curious, mostly young people – sponging knowledge from A (as in ante portas, the state when the world as we know it only existed as Big Bang) to Z (as in zombie, ultimate part of the current culture which is itself somewhat zombie-like) it is the keen interest of those who are claiming on the many shoulders of great WoMen and the too often forgotten great work of their assistants). Sure, many of the students are more or even only interested in passing exams, answering the guiding question: “What do you want to do with your life” with the succinct wish: “making money, more than I actually need” … – but what can we expect if the main self-advertisement of such institutions is about careers and higher education for the sake of developing critical thinking emerges too often as unwanted side-effect

* — this (kind of) securing third level education by casual teaching (in several cases of third level institutions of the Western educational system a matter of app[roximately] 40 to 50 % – a matter of disencumber the public budget; a budget that for instance had been temporarily ramped by measures of privatisation: selling public goods means in the long run a deprivation of sources of public income

* furthermore, this kind of new division of labour has to be seen as twofold disqualification:

  • qualified admin work is disqualified – it is suggested that no qualification is needed and everybody, including academics can do it (yes, academics, this species that is for good reason often a welcome object for cartoons presenting the absent-minded, quixotic academic
  • qualified academic thinking is disqualified as it is overburdened by activities outside of their expertise – leaving aside that it is usually additional and non-remunerated activity, it is also depending on and supporting a specific understanding of the field and we can well speak of “taskification” of the work, defining the substance of teaching in tendency as solely task-oriented – evidenced by the knowledge society being shifted to a skills society [1]

* not least, being busy – with admin work; many colleagues also busy as they are in need of chasing for another job, or we may even say task

Yes, it is said that it is easy to find a job; but probably it is more correct to say: it is easy to find work, but still difficult to find work that allows to make a living. Little payment …, or actually highly qualified, if remunerated jobs that many citizens cannot afford. The societal consequences are often disastrous as the following quote from the Berlin Tagesspiegel (Tagesspiegel Checkpoint vom Dienstag, 11.10.2022; own translation P.H.) shows

Equally disturbing are the reports from the health offices, which, according to the president of the medical association, are short of 60 doctors. The erosion is extreme in Neukölln, where the quarrel between the city councillor and the current medical officer has escalated and the social psychiatric service has practically collapsed. In addition, the public health officers are outraged by the city councillor’s idea of having the health offices run by administrative professionals instead of doctors. In Treptow-Köpenick, a lawyer (specialised in medical law) has just started as head of the office. 

* Yes, then the polis is a romping place for ruled behaviour … – everything is given, no progress, not even movement its possible anymore: legitimation is a matter of entering rule-abiding processes, an ideal field for “how-to-research”, a cemetery for “why- and-what and what- and why-research” – the place where the past is only known as nightmare.

App – the abbreviation of approximately, used earlier – is today more known as abbreviation of application: application of rules, individual orders or complex systems of standards, regulations and their implementation in single acts or “behavioural standards” – be they meaningful or not, in any case a matter of boxing humans

****

von Jhering, in bis little book on the Trinkgeld, written end of the 19th century, states

It is blamed on us Germans that we leave a stone lying quietly in the path that we bump into – everyone curses it, but no one takes the trouble to move it out of the way or, if it is too heavy for him alone, to call in others to help. … ; everyone complains about it, but everyone leaves it there (to be added: continues doing so, P.H.). The reproach which we raise against the stone is directed against ourselves; he who merely curses a bad habit, instead of helping to eliminate it for his part, accuses himself – everyone who does not have the courage to oppose it is himself jointly responsible for the existence of a bad habit. No one has the right to complain about it but he who can give himself the testimony of having done everything in his power to put an end to it.

It is time then to say good-bye, not now and immediately; not without the famous “crying eye”, looking at those students who are really keen to study: for life and – where necessary – changing its conditions, not for a dull life of excessive self-presentation.[2]

[1] can teaching actually be booked via task rabbit – if so, the next step may be ordering it online, YouTube emerging as liferando of the educational system

[2] “… the twenty-first century is full of people who are full of themselves … a half-hour’s trawl through the online ocean of blogs, tweets … brings up thousands of individuals, fascinated by their own personalities and shouting for attention.” (Sarah Bakewell, 2010: How to live: A Life of Montaigne; London: Chatto and Windus: 1)

Deutsche Bahn, progressing and progressive?

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, Inspirations, Peter's Log, social quality, thoughts on life and its philosophy

fake news or pipe dream?

Fake News or Pipe Dream – October 4th, 2022

Dear Professor …,

I am sure that you have also been aware of the current discussions about climate change, for example due to exorbitant ‘private transport’/’use of private cars’.

Deutsche Bahn is also not unaffected by this development – and we are well aware of the role we can play to counter this development by making public transport available, easy accessible for everybody.

That is why we are adjusting the prices of the BahnCards as of 11 December 2022 to needs of environmentally friendly policy needs: and introduce the BahnCard 100, free for everybody. There will be no difference between 1st and 2nd class as we upgrade all trains to 1st class standards. The network will also be extended, joining it closely with the needs of people travelling for leisure or business purposes …

from the mail, sent by info@mail.bahncard.bahn.de

Well, the original mail is a bit different …

Dear Professor …,

I am sure that you have also been aware of the current discussions about rising prices, for example in the energy sector. Deutsche Bahn is also not unaffected by this development.

That is why we are adjusting the prices of the BahnCards as of 11 December 2022.

deals

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, Peter's Log, thoughts on life and its philosophy

I receive a mail, a friend sending me the latest news: a deal, hammered out to counter the energy problems, failed in the last minute. A problematic deal then?

The basic problem might be that it is not about deals, but about strategies, as global as possible. This also includes considering how to prevent a wildfire in Berlin’s Grunewald, which is caused by a local ammunition depot in addition to the long-lasting heat/drought. A ‘deal’ with regard to the ammunition depot may show what I mean: For years it has been controversial, the danger known and always ‘hushed up’ because a ‘good solution’ was sought. — No consolation: there are probably several such depots in Berlin’s forests, which were ‘set up’ there not so long ago (long after the end of WWII).

Did I use here at some time the term ‘Neroism’? I’ll have to work on that …. The perverted joy of watching the fall …

Nieder mit dem Koenig ….

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in Peter's Log, silent revolution, thoughts on life and its philosophy

Die Verehrung des Adels hält sich hartnäckig und ebenso seine Macht. Selbst in der EU muss man mit Verwunderung – oder doch nicht mit Verwunderung? – feststellen, dass die Könige und Königinnen noch fest im Sattel sitzen. Brexit hat verhindert, dass wir nun alle gemeinsam feiern ein tolles Jubiläum können …

Aber es gibt Widerstand – natürlich ist es das Bürgertum, das die Gefahr des Adels fuer die Geschäftswelt sieht. Und endlich beginnt der Sturz der Altvorderen – und er beginnt mit dem Sturz des König Kunden – sogar die grossen der Geschäftswelt sind in der Front der antifeudalen Kräfte vertreten, während störrische konservative Kretauren die royalistischen Rechte verteidigen wollen. Hier eine kleine Kostprobe:

Re: MediaMarkt Club Newsletter <info@club-de.mediamarkt.de>

Hallo, leider hat MediaMarkt hier keine, oder eher negative Punkte gesammelt.

1) Kauf eines Kuehlschrankes und dessen Lieferung: soweit alles OK, die beiden Kollegen, die das Geraet geliefert haben, waren ausserordentlich freundlich … doch irgendwo hat jemand ein wenig informatives Label auf die Tuer geklebt und ich bemuehe mich immer noch, die Reste stueckweise abzukratzen …

2) Kauf eines Mobiltelefon und die Datenuebertragung von dem alten Geraet auf das neue: Soweit alles in Ordnung bis zu dem Punkt, wo ich die SIM-Karten in das neue Geraet einlegte – zunaechst gab es (und gibt es noch) Erkennungsprobleme; wohl mein Fehler, denn ich habe, so wie ich es sehe, die Nummern/Slots falsch attribuiert; den Versuch einer Korrektur habe ich nach kurzem Bemühen aufgegebe, denn ich musste feststellen, das bestimmte, fuer mich essentielle, Apps nicht einmal vorhanden sind, geschweige denn, dass die Daten allgemein übertragen wurden: andere APPS sind installiert, aber die log-Dateien fehlen; nebenbei wurden noch bestehende Accounts (z.B. google) mit einem neuen Sicherheitswort versehen … – dafuer habe ich dann 39 Euro bezahlt und am naechsten Tag, als ich nochmals in der Filiale zwecks Beschwerde auftauchte, wurde mir – nunmehr von einem anderen Mitarbeiter – mitgeteilt, dass bestimmte Daten/APPS nicht übertragbar seien, und (aha …!!!) der Kollege mir das hätte mitteilen müssen. Nun mag und wird es so sein, dass das irgendwo auf dem von mir unterzeichneten Auftragsdocument ein entsprechender Hinweis steht. Aber falls mir solche Spitzfindigkeiten entgegnet werden sollten, kann ich Sie nur bitten, sich einmal DIN 5008 anzuschauen – u.a. dort ist die Leistung von Unterschriften geregelt und soweit ich mich erinnere …

Ich weiss, es tut Ihnen schrecklich leid, dass MediaMarkt die Leistung nicht zu meiner Zufriedenheit erbracht hat; ebenso und vor allem bin ich mir darueber im Klaren, dass Sie weder fuer das eine noch das andere verantwortlich sind – da sitzen wir fast gemeinsam im Boot, sie paddeln, ich fülle die Kassen Ihrer Chefs und erledige einen Teil der Arbeit selbst und … naja, die Moral von der Geschichte ….

Ich erspare mir dies und werde ‘mal sehen, ob auf dieses Schreiben, welches morgen als offener Brief online geht, anderen etwas einfällt.

Gruesse von Peter Herrmann

Il giorno 22 giu 2022, alle ore 15:40, MediaMarkt Club Newsletter <info@club-de.mediamarkt.de> ha scritto:


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War …

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in general, Peter's Log, thoughts on life and its philosophy

… it is an ongoing issue, though some people like to make us think in a reduced way about it … – and see it only as matter international law.

Here another take:

Something from The Economist’s e-newsletter, received on the 26th of May, a headline saying

Why America should make it harder to buy guns
In many states, it is easier to own a gun than a dog. That is absurd

Then the charts:

Guns are the things most likely to kill young people in America.

And the former US-president Trump boldly demanding a further escalation, making it easier (still possible?) to buy a weapon, allowing (not to say encouraging) teachers to use weapons ….

… and undermining public debates in a weird way: accepting and promoting and even celebrating what fits into the scheme, rejecting and even criminalising what does not:

from: https://9gag.com/gag/aqKYMqP

… and paradoxically resulting in a kind of binary code: if you are not in support of me, you are against me. Let’s afce the truth: as much as MZ may well be a criminal, there is something about Facebook that we may consider as being valuable; and as much as JA acted in the name of freedom, there is something about “unspecified freedom” (not to say unqualified freedom) that is more than problematic. – Perhaps we may have to talk more about responsibility and look for a serious way to accept the series and unending string of challenges.

crocodiles tears

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in general, Inspirations, Peter's Log, thoughts on life and its philosophy

Of course, it is easy to get it wrong – especially as we all tend to look for the confirmation of what we know and think … – so, this blog post surely is in danger of being born out of …, well, let me say hesitation to accept the US role as world gendarme, securing peace and democracy.

Be it as it is, and surely not accepting war as means of conflict resolution (which does nit say anything about the conflict as such):

Up to recently, there had been only very limited security at and around the Russian embassy in Berlin – just 2 cops walking up and down and having a good or not so good day. Since the outbreak of the war against Ukraine this changed, and in the meantime several police guards are standing there and the area is secured by security fences.

It is worthwhile to compare this with the US-embassy, since years the areas has something of a fortress, an entire road blocked by heave iron bulwarks, only cyclists and pedestrians being allowed to pass, permanently observed by quite a number of guards, not only on that street but also in the surrounding and elsewhere.

This marks the situation today, and even historically it says a lot — doesn’t it make the talk of the Traenenpalast (palace of tears) a matter of showing crocodiles tears? (btw. also forgetting those who indeed travelled freely … – “forgotten” parts of history).