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Category: Society
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Against the worship of warmongering
He grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., where his family still lives today. But since returning from the war, he has been moving back and forth between Washington and the South. In 2011—seven years after returning from Iraq—he finally settled in Savannah because he was afraid that there were too many Arabs on the streets in Washington or Northern Virginia. He sensed them everywhere, felt constantly surrounded by them. His past as a notorious expert in body searches and interrogations in American prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq fuels his fear that he is now threatened with retaliation from every corner.
His time as an interrogator, first at Bagram prison in Afghanistan and later, even more painfully, at Abu Ghraib—the most hellish place Damien Corsetti ever saw on earth—killed something inside him. “Abu Ghraib: If there ever was a bad place, it was that one. It was just death, fucking death. That place changed everyone who was there. Something cancerous was growing there.”
Excerpt from “War at Any Cost” by James Risen.
War at any cost, about greed, abuse of power, and the billion-dollar business of fighting terrorism.
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Statutes and bureaucracy in 1851
The Albrecht-Dürer-Verein would have risen to its zenith “if a narrow-minded adherence to bourgeois statutes, greed and envy had not always worked against free artistic development. It was recognised that these statutes were in part suitable for a local association, but by no means for a projected central art association. However, what was done to remedy the problem did not contribute to the prosperity of the whole, on the contrary, the promising bloom was destroyed; new statutes were created, some of which became even more impractical, even dangerous, and caused much confusion and annoyance. The promises made to the members could not be fulfilled, the lack of money for honorary expenses was claimed to be insufficient for such a large association, etc., without considering that the income is always in proportion to the growing number of members, and that on occasions where the honour and reputation of the association is at stake, buckling and saving can only bring harm.”
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Media Competence
We do not want war
The opposing camp bears the responsibility
The leader of the enemy is a devil
We are fighting for a good cause
The enemy fights with unauthorized weapons
The enemy commits atrocities on purpose, we only do so accidentally
Our losses are small, those of the enemy are enormous
Artists and intellectuals support our cause
Our mission is sacred
Anyone who doubts our reporting is a traitor.
Anne Morelli
Anne Morelli wrote the book Principes élémentaires de propagande de guerre in the style of Arthur Ponsonby’s classic work on propaganda research.
It is interesting to observe how some journalists are unable to publish their research and work on any topic without judgment, but rather follow the narratives. It is then frightening to observe how people with diametrically opposed views are often very quickly insulted, downgraded and shunned as a result.
None of this is actually new. What is new is the vehement claim and the sovereignty of interpretation and positioning of truth and lies (new German fake and hate speech) in the interests of those in power. The opposition and some citizens are quickly vilified. Since the Greeks and their invention of democracy 2500 years ago, it has been the task of the opposition to keep the rulers in check, as experience has shown that they are all too quick to pursue their own interests and bypass the actual sovereign in the clique.
The words “populus”, ‘people’ and “sovereignty” are closely linked in the context of politics and philosophy. They refer to the source and nature of state power.
“Populus” (Latin):
Denotes the people as a totality of people who live in a certain area and are politically organized
At school, know-it-alls were quickly frowned upon. Nowadays, adult know-it-alls have numerous tools to defame others, be it calling them Nazis or accusing them of hate speech.