Probably one of the strongest things ever when we talk about democracy and “legimitation by procedure” – the recent decision in Brazil. And there is so much damage that will be done in the time to come.
Categoria: thoughts on life and its philosophy
old stuff …, and the summit …
Sure, it would be worthwhile to post some photos now (yes, these meetings have their most enjoyable beauty – watch from ca minute 5:32), (though I remember a more exciting performance I visited some years back, Tan Dun was the head behind some “organic compositions“) or the first reports from the Hangzhou-meetings …,
But it is usually clear in advance what happens – and critique was raised earlier.
And anyway, something else comes to mind .. and came to my mind these two days. It is so often that we talk about these big institutions, and is so often that we talk about checks and balances …, and indeed, I would not be as optimist as others when it comes to the diminishing power of the IMF … there are surely these centers of power, machine like, making individuals functioning like cogwheels (and earning pretty well by doing so). And even the big shots are very much only representatives. Or as we read in the Economic Manuscripts.
… here individuals are dealt with only in so far as they are the personifications of economic categories, embodiments of particular class-relations and class-interests. My standpoint, from which the evolution of the economic formation of society is viewed as a process of natural history, can less than any other make the individual responsible for relations whose creature he socially remains, however much he may subjectively raise himself above them.
Still, we should not forget that the power is not least with real people. Sure, there are networks, there are academics involved and there are even spaces for open debate .. but at the end it is a small number of of people who control all this. Obvious in the economy and in politics.
And there is in exactly this context something else that is interesting – and that is easily forgotten. Yes, there is all this hype about technologies, gadgets and the control by algorithms. And although we know that the control is “owned”, that there are real people making money out of it, we easily forget this over the fear, thinking about a data-octopus, being uncontrolled and gathering all the data, data then controlling themselves …, and us, selling friends. Yes,
And although the article is already from 2016, and thus many things changed, it is still worth reading, nicely showing the actual faces of the authors of Facebook … – or should I write: the faces of the actual authors of Facebook.
Yes, all these algorithms have authors, as much as all these political institutions have heads with faces and brains ….es, with complex networks, protecting their ambitions:
Even as Apple became the nation’s most profitable technology company, it avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of subsidiaries so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen, Congressional investigators disclosed on Monday.
… but that is not least something for tomorrow, back in the classroom … (as it was for yesterday)
PS: Yes, and not only Merkel made a photo with her mobile — though I am not sure if it was posted on FB 😉
Top
- but top of what? in which way?
- top – the top people, world leaders meeting in Hangzhou?
- top – the sheer audacity, ignorance and injustice?
- top – as matter of separating issues, discussing at most single issues?
- top – as matter of education, research … – all the excellence-centres, defined by extreme specialisation, which is result of division of labour and results in further division of labour?
Being modest, not talking about any top but the bits and pieces, and looking at them scattered … – and scattering may be another issue. So, off we go:
I
the apple scandal – it is the story of humankind in Christianity … – the general appeal to modesty and austereness as which it may be interpreted, was suggested to be a guiding line, guided by responsibility. And as said: claimed to be general. And many now the story of the first incidence: the rejection of the rule, and the punishment that followed.
But it seems that in the Apple-story today (see also here) things have turned around: apples made themselves to gods, not being eaten but eating … And to remain in the metaphor, it is remarkable how the US-multinational-Apple makes the Irish-snake to its priest, collecting the obulus from the people. In which way ever, and even considering the laudable EU-judgment against tax evasion, the real problem is that superpowers today are the representatives of a system that once stood up against the feudal system – then progressive in their claim for liberty, now being oppressors of any kind of freedom, clandestinely selling our friends. A more or less small thing if it would not solve the entire problem, it surely would avoid much of its emergence: Big enterprises, paying taxes, not “fair taxes”, but according to what they owe, would surely help – a point I recently ventilated elsewhere.
II
Another splinter: the same Commission that calls “against” (really against????) Ireland to act against tax evasion as it sees unfair competition, sets up a programme that is similar to the Irish on a mich larger scale:
Commission proposes €5.3 million from Globalisation Fund for former Microsoft workers in Finland
Doesn’t that propose exactly the same, factually proposing you make the profits as long as toucan make the profits …, and then you leave a desert behind, turn the back to a Dantesque calamity, leaving the clearing of the place to others?
Trinity …
The third point then … bits and pieces … – splinters … shivers making us shivering …
Apple, Microsoft, and the summiters … they may let us ask how they managed. It had been said in Genesis 3
For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
So far so good, but then the story continues
they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
This is what todays summiters do not face: they see themselves beautifully dressed, not hiding between trees but on the contrary: exposing their wealth which they gained by standing on the shoulders of dwarfs …. . dwarfs as long as they believe that it had been the snake, and then the women … . As long as they did not really come to terms with the fact that
There are no supreme saviors,
Neither God, nor Caesar nor tribune;
Producers, let us save ourselves,
We decree common salvation!
So that the thief should offer us his throat
So that spirit be wrested from its cell,
Let us fan the forge’s flames ourselves
And strike while the iron is hot.
Well, there is indeed an easy answer to the question
Why the study of transnational companies should be part of the economics curriculum
It is noted — starting then next week again – trying to educate for building the right normalcy, instead of asking for restoration of one that may well be overcome.
=== PS, Having talked about the top, there is something that deserves as well attention – I read the day after having posted the entry:
The decline in unionization is strongly associated with the rise of income shares at the top.
Blurring Borders
The STOA Report on The Collaborative Economy informs that
[t]he founders of Defense Distributed are not terrorists. They are US based libertarians who support gun ownership, and found in 3D printing a means to allow ordinary people with no advanced skills to create and own a gun without having to obtain a license.
And the small print of the footnote adds:
• Under US law guns manufactured by individuals for personal use are not subject to a licensing requirement.
Of course, as a contribution on the website on 3DPrint assures
officials in every country see it as their responsibility to try and fight many new designs and new issues that someone like Wilson brings to the forefront, especially as threats of terrorism surface constantly
There is no doubt urgent need for such “protective policies” – I talked the other day to a friend who lives in a village near Brussels – she, a vivid and brave women, is afraid these days to go to Brussels, and she said many are. I do not even mention the fear of students, and their parents here in China.
There is something else that is possibly more remarkable than the technical side – and the side of the control of technology. The article from the mentioned 3DPrint-site talks about
[r]esponding to press questions regarding accessibility for terrorists with a ‘don’t really care’ attitude
and this is what “libertarians” of a certain kind do – they don’t care, to be more precise: they do care only for themselves, following one of their “great masterminds” who asked
who is society?
and replied:
There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.
Indeed, the(se) libertarians entered systematically the stage in the 17th century, in particular in England, the home land of the capitalism we have today. And it is the(se) libertarians whose activities evoke discussions, suggesting that
[i]t is not yet clear just how much this technology presents a real danger to the public
What is not clear? If we pose the question that technological advancement has to be applied to the advancement of private wealth, if we see the public as secondary, its wealth a result of
individual men and women and … families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.
to quote Thatcher again, then it is clear how much real danger there is: it is the danger of the past that as nightmare burdens our society – the nightmare of total and systematic individualism … – difficult to get back under control, as known for a very long time:
Sir, my need is sore.
Spirits that I’ve cited
My commands ignore.”To the lonely
Corner, broom!
Hear your doom.
As a spirit
When he wills, your master only
Calls you, then ‘tis time to hear it.”
And they are really not terrorists?
Und es herrscht Angst
Bereits vor meiner Abfahrt zur SOAK – der attac-Sommerakademie und dann wieder nach der Rückkehr habe ich mich dadrüber unterhalten. Das Grundthema kann vielleicht zusammengefasst werden in dem Satz: Es herrscht Angst in Europa .., und in der Welt. Nicht weil ein Gespenst umgeht in Europa, sondern weil der eigene “Geist des Kapitalismus”, der so marvelos von Weber in seiner Protestantismus-Studie herausgearbeitet wurde, unter mehrfachem Druck steht. Und es herrscht Angst hier in China unter Freunden, die sich nicht mehr so recht in den Westen wagen. Freilich ist die Unsicherheit und die Bedrohung durch Terrorismus ein Problem und die Gefahr des Fundamentalismus darf nicht unterschätzt werden. Und die Ursachen sind vielfältig – soweit sie mit dem Thema Migration zusammenhängen, haben wir dies im wissenschaftlichen Beirat in einer kleinen Arbeitsgruppe des attac-Beirates in den letzten Monaten ausführlich bearbeitet und das Resultat wird bald auf der website irgendwo veröffentlicht (eine andere, kürzere Veröffentlichung ist für die Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik vorgesehen).
Angst aber ist ein schlechter Ratgeber angesichts der anstehenden Probleme – sie führt zur Abschottung und feuert an: führt zu mehr Angst: bei den sich selbst einsperrenden und bei den nun absolut ausgeschlossenen. Angst ist ein schlechter Ratgeber, denn Dialog ist angesagt, der Mut erfordert – und Stärke. Aber wie kann Stärke sich finden, wenn dieses Modell Freiheit – Freiheit ist die Freiheit, dass alle alles konsumieren können – nicht funktioniert?
Wie die Pressemeldung der Partei Die Linke (siehe auch unten) zeigt, findet nun in Kanada der “Ausschluss vom Markt” die politische Fortsetzung – den Ausschluss aus der politische Arena. Rosa Luxemburg hätte wieder Grund zu fordern:
Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden. Nicht wegen des Fanatismus der »Gerechtigkeit«, sondern weil all das Belebende, Heilsame und Reinigende der politischen Freiheit an diesem Wesen hängt und seine Wirkung versagt, wenn die »Freiheit« zum Privilegium wird.”
Aber dieser Ausschluss ist ja nur Logisch, denn nur wo Freiheit auch Freiheit des Nicht-Konsumbügers ist, kann auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden gesichert sein. Und das bedeutet auch, den gemeinsamen Weg zu suchen – darüber zu sprechen, auch wenn es schwer fällt, und Empathy zu zeigen, auch wenn es nicht schwerer ist.
====
Hier eine Meldung der PDS. Die Linke – sie macht auf eben diesem Tatbestand aufmerksam:
11. August 2016 Judith Benda
Weltsozialforum ist wichtige Plattform für internationalen
Erfahrungsaustausch
Zum in dieser Woche stattfindenden Weltsozialforum im kanadischen
Montreal erklärt Judith Benda, Mitglied im Parteivorstand der LINKEN
und der Europäischen Linken (EL) und Teil der EL-Delegation beim
Weltsozialforum:
“Eine andere Welt ist notwendig: In der aktuellen politischen Lage ist
ein Treffen progressiver und sozialer Bewegungen mit Menschen aus allen
Regionen der Erde wichtiger denn je. Wir müssen linke Antworten finden
auf die vielfältigen Herausforderungen, wie den weltweiten Hunger, die
verschärfte soziale Ungleichheit, Kriege und die voranschreitende
Militarisierung sowie das Erstarken reaktionärer Kräfte in vielen
Ländern. Das Weltsozialforum ist eine wichtige Plattform für den
internationalen Erfahrungsaustausch und zur Entwicklung von Programmatik
und gemeinsamen Aktionen”.
Die Partei der Europäischen Linken (EL) kritisiert die
Einreiseverweigerung der kanadischen Regierung für viele AktivistInnen,
insbesondere aus Afrika und Asien. “Es ist inakzeptabel, dass
AktivistInnen die Teilnahme durch eine restriktive Einreisepolitik
unmöglich gemacht wird. Das Weltsozialforum braucht ganz besonders auch
die Stimme des globalen Südens”.
Die Partei der Europäischen Linken ist an fünf Workshops vor Ort
beteiligt, auf dem Programm stehen zudem Treffen mit der Partei Quebec
solidaire sowie Anti-TTIP und CETA Initiativen.
questions are a knife
In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions. It follows, then, that the true opponent of totalitarian kitsch is the person who asks questions. A question is like a knife that slices through the stage backdrop and gives us a look at what lies hidden behind it. In fact, that was exactly how Sabina had explained the meaning of her paintings to Tereza: on the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth showing through.
But the people who struggle against what we call totalitarian regimes cannot function with queries and doubts. They, too, need certainties and simple truths to make the multitudes understand, to provoke collective tears.
….
Kitsch has its source in the categorical agreement with being.
But what is the basis of being? God? Mankind? Struggle? Love? Man? Woman?Since opinions vary, there are various kitsches: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Communist, Fascist, democratic, feminist, European, American, national, international.
….
Shit is a more onerous theological problem than is evil. Since God gave man freedom, we can, if need be, accept the idea that He is not responsible for man’s crimes. The responsibility for shit, however, rests entirely with Him, the Creator of man.
From:
“The Unbearable Lightness Of Being” by Milan Kundera
KCK – klatsch, cliché, kitsch
KLATSCH
Klatsch is a German term, though occasionally used in English. And when I first saw the headline
I admittedly clicked on it in a longing for some klatsch, gossip — distraction from the expected, though still worrying news, presenting Trump’s shocking speech of acceptance. Looking at all this development, there are three things that are specially worrying. Two are pointed out in an article in The Financial Times (17/7/2016):
This week, Republicans will endorse the first US presidential nominee since the second world war to reject America’s globalist consensus. It is hard to see beyond that stark fact. Yet it is only the second most troubling feature of Donald Trump’s rise. The bigger one is his impact on the health of American democracy. Even if Mr Trump is defeated in November, it will be hard to put the genie back into the bottle. Budding demagogues will have taken note. You can denigrate most of the people most of the time and still have a shot at the main prize.
The third point, of course not to be found even in the intelligent journals of the bourgeoisie, is that such extremes as Mr Trump make us easily forget the sound criticism of the past the “health of American democracy”? — Sure, a very sick person appears to be nearly health, of we think about the decaying corpse. But … I am not really in the American-style Moore films. Still, having recently watched the film
Capitalism, A Love Story
I really liked the beginning, forcing us to ask the question how people in 100, 1000 or more years will think about “our times”. The Trumps, Orbans and Erdogans being comparable with Nero, Cesar and hardly allowing to see the Cicero?
CLICHÉS
Glancing over the article
it showed the perfect match between reality and cliché – even in details:
While Trump family values may not be particularly honorable, they are perversely traditional. Melania Trump told the R.N.C. audience that “Donald is intensely loyal to family,” a claim belied by his own marital history — she is wife No. 3, and No. 2 was the woman with whom he cheated on No 1. Mr. Trump has children with three different women; he blames giving his wife too much responsibility in his business for his first divorce, and his wife’s wanting him to spend too much time at home with her and their daughter for his second.
Yes, hypocrites are not shrinking from slapping into their own face. I remember Milan Kundera about whom I chatted the other day with a friend:
Do you realize that people don’t know how to read Kafka simply because they want to decipher him? Instead of letting themselves be carried away by his unequaled imagination, they look for allegories — and come up with nothing but clichés: life is absurd (or it is not absurd), God is beyond reach (or within reach), etc. You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.
KITSCH
If there would not be so much bitterness coming up when thinking about recent events …, recent? Perhaps beginning in some strange way with the day when I left the French embassy in Rome: Charlie Hebdo …, a pilot crashing an aircraft with all passengers into a mountain, not being able to cope with his desperation, a “mysterious coup” in Ankara … – a friend wrote the other day that it is
not something a decent European academic can easily understand and digest
all this easily appears as kitsch – because
[i]n the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions. It follows, then, that the true opponent of totalitarian kitsch is the person who asks questions. A question is like a knife that slices through the stage backdrop and gives us a look at what lies hidden behind it.
It is
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
that comes to mind – in global politics of “the making history”, and also in the daily work of teaching, something I frequently mentioned on these pages.
And when speaking of bitterness it is also the inability of asking questions … – VERBOTEN, as a french friend would say.
REALITIES – THEATRALITIES
There seems to be a paradox when we are looking for answers – we can only find them with others, not searching alone, not moving alone, anti-totalitarian. And still
When I say totalitarian, what I mean is that everything that infringes on kitsch must be banished for life: every display of individualism (because a deviation from the collective is a spit in the eye of the smiling brotherhood); every doubt (because anyone who starts doubting details will end by doubting life itself); all irony (because in the realm of kitsch everything must be taken quite seriously) ….
as we read also in Kundera’s book.
Doesn’t this mean that we need a radical rewriting of the scenario, instead of the US-lead and Hungarian-regionalist applauded tightening of the reactionary course? A socio-political course that is based on criminal offenses (watch here from the docu The Corporation.), executed by psychopaths (watch here from the docu The Corporation), the political “clowns” only their executors and implementers as we saw it earlier in history.
Attempts and Contributions
My modest contribution to a DIEM-meeting in Greece these days:
The Europe we know is dead – and it worked for a long time to forge the weapon that would work first to dig the grave and then to kill the ambitions. — The ambitions? We have to be careful: the ambitions, as ideas, had beens surely valuable and meant to establish a “good society”. But especially here in Greece, the home-country of Aristotle, we know what a good society really is: he Aristotle juxtaposes chrematistike and oikonomia, only the latter being concerned with a truly integrated system, and with this he refused moneymaking as end in itself.
Talking about oikonomia meant as well to accept the limits of growth.
Europe today – and it did not learn from Greece, not from BREXIT, Nice nor Ankara – is still based on the acceptance of what we may call Capitaloscene. And the following, written by Jason Moore, can capture it:
Talking about oikonomia meant as well to accept the limits of growth.
Europe today – and it did not learn from Greece, not from BREXIT, Nice nor Ankara – is still based on the acceptance of what we may call Capitaloscene. And the following, written by Jason Moore, can capture it:
The decisive historical expression of Cheap Nature in the modern era is the Four Cheaps of labor- power, food, energy, and raw materials. These Four Cheaps are the major way that capital prevents the mass of capital from rising too fast in relation to the mass of appropriated cheap nature – when the delivery of such cheap natures approaches the average value composition of world commodity production, the world-ecological surplus falls and the pace of accumulation slackens. The centrality of cheap nature in the endless of capital can, then, be adequately interpreted only through a post- Cartesian frame that understands value as a way of organizing nature. In this, the law of value is co- produced through the web of life. We cannot make sense of value through a Cartesian sorting of “labor and nature” – commonplace in left green thought (e.g. Clark and York, 2005). Rather, be- cause value relations encompass a contradictory unity of exploitation and appropriation heedless of a Cartesian divide, only an analysis that proceeds from essential unity of humanity-in-nature can move us forward. The present argument, then, is a brief for such a post-Cartesian – I would call it world-ecological – reading of value. The goal is to focus our attention on the relations of the oikeios that form and re-form capitalism’s successive contradictory unities of the exploitation of labor- power (paid work) and the appropriation of a global zone of reproduction (unpaid work) from the family to the biosphere.
And furthermore this capitaloscene is about unpaid labour – only that made paid labour possible. …
Indeed, we need an antroponomic shift: a shift that is not a revival of the old idea. As said, this Europe is dead and we should be ready to burry it. There is a valuable heritage of ideas though and we have to select carefully And we have to make use of the heritage of an enormous wealth that is available, though not used for the people and projects we need. We have too make “cheaps” a source for the future, valuable and to be paid for. And to accept the limits of growth means that the corpse of the most competitive Europe, celebrated 2000 in Lisbon, has to bear the child of a most cooperative partner in a world that serves the global citizen.
Europe is dead – long live Europe.
Congratulations
Congratulations Mr Trump …. , while living in interesting times, it is a good occasion to remember
“Remember, remember the fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.”
These are the first words, at beginning of the synopsis of the film V for Vendetta:
The film opens with a recitation of these words as a flashback sequence brings us to early 1600’s England. Guy Fawkes is captured and executed for his attempt to blow up Parliament, a plan he hoped would restore Catholic rule to a Protestant throne. …
It is worthwhile to remember ad to watch, indeed even if Mr Trump is not in Britain …
“Interesting times” we may say …
“Interesting times” we may say …
… and we may say that “probably every generation, every era was in its own terms an interesting time” …
but in any case we, at least not all of us can dance it away:
“Frankly speaking I am a bit afraid”
“Ich weiss nicht, wie es weither geht”
“Ho paura!”
Yes, every generation …
- 80 years ago the beginning of the Spanish war
- Today the State of Emergency becoming in France the new normal
- And tomorrow? A Trump in the West (interestingly enough the frequent term used in connection with his victory is that ‘he was crowned the Republican presidential candidate’, and the New Prince is so frightening that we nearly want back what we condemned earlier) and a new Sultan – be his name that of the present dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, already a public enemy for some time and not using the events to tighten his ‘permanent putschist strive’, so that the country is ‘loosing its checked and balances‘ further; or Fethullah Gülen – on the other side?
- And throughout all these times? A specific permanent emergency ruling – at times dormant, at times ,manifest: the subordination of people’s and peoples’ interest under the supposed commonwealth – we showed not forget that the vicimc France showed the meaning of emergency ruling right now in its true meaning, as ruling against the French working classes.
****
It may appear to be about details – and these are forgotten, overlooked details – and they are details by way of being
As such they are part of the long history of imperialism, colonialism ….
Today it is for instance visible in the fact that the 6 richest countries of the world host only 9 % of all refugees.
Old colonialism went fro a kind of crusades, violently occupying foreign territory; the new colonialism presenting itself as “humane” by closing borders; like the old fascism, gasifying people in concentration camps, compared with its modern form of gasifying populations as we learn from the FT-Brussels briefing, Duncan Robinson stating on the 20th of July:
A conspiracy that started in a “cosy hotel” in Brussels ended in the EU’s biggest cartel fine, after the European Commission handed five truck makers a €2.9bn bill. Senior managers from Iveco, DAF, Volvo/Renault, Daimler and MAN fixed prices and delayed the introduction of emissions-reducing technology. MAN’s decision to blow the whistle was the best financial decision the German group has made in years: it dodged a €1.2bn bill as a result.
Back to the obvious colonialisation in its new dress. Indeed, as the OXFAM-media briefing contends
This crisis is far too big for any one country to solve alone. To save and protect lives, governments worldwide must act together and responsibly. In a couple of months the United Nations and US President Obama are holding back-to-back summits in New York to address this unprecedented situation. These summits are opportunities for rich countries to commit to offering refuge to far more refugees than almost all have done to date, and for all countries to improve the way people forced to flee are treated, and provide them with a dignified future.
Thinking about this, we surely have to go beyond the sole “distribution of surplus”, moving as close as possible to production. And though Imagining a New Bretton Woods, is still not much more than a Modest Proposal, it may be one of the first steps towards radicalisaiton …
Furthermore, and importantly mind: … the concrete is part of the solidarity against this system of global exploitation – the weak showing their strength by “giving more than they have themselves”
Community Doctors: A look inside Cuba’s medical scholarship program
****
The idea of inner colonialisation is usually seen in close connection with Rosa Luxemburg – it is, in a nutshell, the idea of the permanent and ongoing “primitive” or “original accumulation” as we know it from instance from Smith and Marx.
And we may think about it by recalling the occupation of the Americas by the White Settlers – the harsh reality that stood behind the kitschy and euphemistic images of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, presented by Karl May – and looking today at their conservative successors – peacefully dumb (sorry for ads – the clip itself is German/English); and aggressively taking over power (sorry for ads – the clip itself is German/English)
****
“Frankly speaking I am a bit afraid”
“Ich weiss nicht, wie es weither geht”
“Ho paura!”
– And there are enough who have good reasons to be afraid – for instance Erdal. Or Thuli Madonsela
And there still is something we, in the jobs of teachers and researchers have to do, resisting the permanent and ongoing inner colonialisation: We cannot take the fear away, but we have to teach about the conditions under which fear develops, searching together for ways to change this reality …
… living trustfulness as matter of accepting the other and supporting confidence – as condition for being active, for resisting
… as matter of Dreaming of a Butterfly becoming possible and true, rising against eagles and vultures …
… this way we may be searching and finding together with others – colleagues and students valuable people, truly acknowledging the value of people.
Value of People
The worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside oneself, to exist in and for other people.
(Milan Kundera)
It is great meeting them at least occasionally …, and feeling to be allowed to be a human being in this sense …
It is like a good piece of music, coming together…., the experience of play in its truest sense, as we know it from Schiller’s letters –
For …man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays
.
COMMEDIA DELLA VITA OR PÁNTA RÊI'S FIRM GROUND 