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Home / Poetry / Poetry R. M. Rilke / Aphorisms       above Hradcany (Hradchin) by Martin Andrysek (2004)

    
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A cherished form of literature, the art of formulating maxims or epigrams seems to have fallen out of favour with XXth and XXIth century authors. This form of concentrated philosophy can be compared with the popular Japanese art of writing haikus.

Aphorisms have a very long history.  We still quote the Chinese Lao Tze, Sun Tzu, and Confucius, the early Hebrews, King Solomon's Proverbs [ Ecclesiastes 1:10, from the Hebrew אֵין כָּל חָדָשׁ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ (nihil novi sub sole est)], Ben Sirach's Book of wisdom (51 chapters!),  the Greeks Solon, Hippocrates (who invented the term), Pythagoras, Hesiod, Diogenes and Epictetus, the Romans Cicero, Catullus, Horace, Ovidius, Seneca, Juvenalis, Lucretius, Tacitus, Martial, the Latin grammarian Aelius Donatus who expressed his exasperation about the difficulties of being original: Perish those who have expressed our ideas before us! Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt, the Iranian Avicenna and the Cordoban Averroes,  the mediaeval scholastic writers like Thomas Acquinas and Albertus Magnus, the Renaissance writers Michel de Montaigne, Desiderius Erasmus, Blaise Pascal, Martin Luther, the Spaniards Miguel de Cervantes and Baltasar Gracián, the Dutchman Baruch Spinoza, the French Jean de la Bruyère, Jean de La Fontaine, François de La Rochefoucauld, François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), Jean Jacques Rousseau, the Germans Wolfgang von Goethe, Karl May, Wilhelm Busch, Artur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and Theodor Fontane, the Russians Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Fjodor Dostojewski, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, and Michail Turovsky, the Brits Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, John Donne, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Lord Byron, Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot, the Irish Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, the Americans Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, H.L. Mencken, Groucho Marx, the Indian Rabinsdranath Tagore, etc.
A vast wealth of aphorisms has come down to us: ethical, unethical, cynical, humorous, enlightening, excruciatingly cruel, and frequently worth more reflection than many books. Epigrams are tasty nuggets of humour, wit, irony, melancholy, "bargain basement philosophy", paradoxes, allegories, metaphors! They have even been the subject of famous paintings, including the representation of 200 Dutch proverbs and popular sayings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder in his Nederlandse Spreekwoorden (The Blue Cloak or The Topsy Turvy World, Gemäldegalerie Berlin)

Every year I publish about 100 epigrams or "impromptus" for the UN literary journal Ex Tempore. One of these days I intend to compile "One thousand and one aphorisms" and organize them by subject matter: human frailties, love, fantasies, infatuations, obsessions, the workplace, academia, nature, the animal world, paradoxes, war and peace, etc.

One of the persistent handicaps of US politics is our self-righteousness, our religious belief that we are the “good guys” and that we have a “mission” to bring democracy and human rights to the rest of the world. This is compounded by propaganda in the schools, press and media, and our overgrown sense of "patriotism", which is defined as "my country right or wrong". Would it not be more prudent to ensure that our country is objectively in the right and is not hijacked by the wrongs? In the US and Europe citizens are taught to hate "the enemy". Our "culture of hatred" leaves no room for psychology or diplomacy. We are practicing solipsists who fear every potential rival, instead of considering whether the adversary could actually be a good trade partner. Our "culture of hatred" always reminds me of Orwell's 1984 and "hate week", during which citizens of Oceania had to articulate their hatred of the enemy, without realizing that the enemy was their own government.

The “cancel culture” is nothing new. During the first world war, Germans were demonized and German culture was denigrated, so that it became inopportune to play Beethoven or Wagner. After the second world war, all Germans were considered Nazis and were held collectively guilty for Nazi atrocities. German music and literature were suspected of being metaphysically “Nazi”. After the Yugoslav wars, the Serbs became the new scapegoats and essentially replaced the Germans in the role of the “bad guys”. Even sportsmen like Novak Djokovic were made to feel this. Today the Russians and Russian culture are being cancelled – including soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev. How can a nation lift the cancellation? Only by surrendering to US and NATO commands, as Germany did under Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz.

Conscious life entails the pursuit of meaning. We are continuously learning, actively and passively, receiving input, inter-relating, assigning names to material and immaterial things, evaluating empirical data, contextualizing, sorting out personal experiences, feelings, emotions, imagining new scenarios, questioning dogmas, testing hypotheses, discarding “fake news”. Civilization entails the organization of human beings into a tribe for their mutual benefit as hunters gatherers or as specialists with a clear division of labour, establishing functions and priorities, rules of the game, a form of governance, a constitution, the UN Charter. It means administration, coordination of the yin and yang of daily existence, collaborating with our peers in the great philharmonic orchestra of society, combining work and play, doing and being, appreciating the added value of joint ventures. The happiness of the individual living in organized society depends on the development of his/her identity, nurturing a spirit that thirsts for meaning, structure, values, paradigms and justice, trusting that there is sense in what we are doing, that we are moving toward a rational destination, that our institutions function, that the world is coherent. We need contrast, ups and downs, positive and negative impulses, coming to terms with disappointment and loss, demonstrating the will to stand up after a fall, starting anew, tackling new challenges, changing course when necessary. Happiness depends on meaning, internalizing a sense of belonging, exercising our childlike instinct to smile at others. Consciousness of the miracle of life, the worth of each and every moment, delivers onto our hands a compass for survival. Pausing three times a day with the Angelus, enables us to take stock of our lives, conisider the fate of others, count our blessings. When we step out of the rat race, we suddenly feel free, palpate that we exist, that we have a purpose. Yes, we can still experience awe, yearning, desire. That is meaning! Being blasé is a form of negationism -- we can all live in well-tempered contentment – not in indifference or resignation, not in hedonism or nirvana, but in equanimity. Happiness surpasses ego, perceives the ineffable joy of sharing with our intimate milieu, experiencing the communion of love. Happiness encompasses gratitude for the beauty of the universe. For me happiness is Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony, the adagio of Mahler’s Third, the Pilgrims’ Choir in Wagner’s Tannhäuser

Let’s go out on the streets and reclaim our rights, denounce all news services that systematically engage in war propaganda and suppress dissent. Unsubscribe from warmongering sites, from fearmongering newspapers and magazines. By now we should have abandoned the illusion that we live in a benevolent democracy. We entered Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World decades ago; our mainstream media is not independent and serves as an echo chamber for Big Brother. Orwell’s Ministry of Truth blocks our access to crucial information, distorts the facts, concocts implausible narratives, nurtures fear, persecutes whistleblowers. Meanwhile the NSA relentlessly shadows us, and we even have to pay with our tax dollars for this illegal surveillance. Our governments do not consult us, do not care a hoot about our needs, but pursue instead power agendas in the service of the military-industrial-financial-digital-media establishment. Our governments have lied to us in the past, are lying to us today and will continue lying, unless we resolutley push-back. Bottom line: We must inform ourselves and act. We must read and watch Democracy Now, the Greyzone, the Real News Network, Consortium News, Counterpunch, Truthout, etc. We should learn foreign languages and consult the foreign media. And if we want to know what countries are in favour of peace and human rights, all we have to do is to study the voting record of our representatives in the Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council. The one solitary vote against a SC Resolution for peace in Gaza was the United States. The ten countries that voted against the GA resolution on peace are on the wrong side of history. Governments know very well that their peoples want peace, but politicians profit form war. In all elections coming up in 2024 we should vote for peace candidates, who are likely to be outside the mainstream, because the political machines only nominate warmongers. Forget the illusion of a two-party system. There is no genuine choice. We in the US have a uniparty system, since both Republicans and Democrats are committed to Wall Street and War. None of these candidates can make peace, none believe in multilateralism and coexistence, none is up to the task. For my part, I will vote for an independent: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The term "clash of civilizations" first used by Albert Camus, need not be violent. Better yet, we should promote the concepts of competition among civilizations, convergence of civilizations, alliance of civilizations, solidarity of civilizations. Samuel Huntington popularized the term "clash of civilizations", but his vision was one of conflict between Western values and those of other cultures. It would have been wiser to focus on the commonalities of human beings and the ontological rights of all living organisms! It is ridiculous to pretend that China is rallying the world against Western values, or has a sinister plan to destroy us. Such thinking betrays a form of paranoia, which makes it impossible to live together in harmony. China wants to craft a modus vivendi with former imperialist and colonial powers who evidently have not yet understood and internalized the universal principles of the UN Charter. Our Western "values" are valid, if they are true to the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew V, VI, VII), the humanistic values of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. What the rest of the world fears in Western "values" is our hubris, our exceptionalism, our self-righteousness, our incessant war-mongering and intransigent capitalist mindset. We should consider revisiting the 8th Century BC prophet Isaiah, whose immortal lines “They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” are carved on the Isaiah wall at First Avenue, in front of the UN Secretariat Building in New York.

Every war is unjust. Millennia of human suffering illustrate ever-changing power equations, the futility of armed conflict, the vanity of transitory domination -- sic transit gloria mundi! War is frequent, but not “normal”. It is an aberration, an outrage against civilians and soldiers alike, engendering hate for generations, colossal material and spiritual damage. Our political “elites” have not learned vital lessons from history, because what is disseminated as history is mythology, political fiction, skewed narrative. Lawyers, historians and the media concoct shameful apologetics to describe mass murder as honourable or even glorious. War is made not only acceptable but even attractive, because it supposedly reveals virtuous deeds, calamitas virtutis occssio (Seneca). Warfare becomes a source of national pride, a fountainhead of “values”; soldiers are revered for their courage in “defence” of the nation, “self-sacrifice”, and patriotism. Why do so many believe this caricature of reality? There are no “just wars” but only slaughter. The so-called “just war” theory is but a scam to justify aggression and landgrab. Only self-defence can be considered legitimate, but sometimes even those who act in self-defence are guilty of provocation. All parties become victims and perpetrators. What humanity needs is preventive mechanisms, and if war has broken out, mediation and negotiation. The only “just war” (in a rhetorical sense) is the war we should all be waging against the arrogance of power, on the mentality that considers provocation, bullying and sabre-rattling as a kind of “sport”. It is time to free ourselves from the curse of this predator animus dominandi, which inevitably leads to chaos. The Roman poet Horatius painted war in pastel colours, “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” – it is sweet and proper to die for the homeland – but why should we not instead endeavour to LIVE for the homeland, for one’s family, children, future generations, for beauty, music, and the common heritage of mankind? It is time to recognize that war is neither just nor noble. It is simply obscene, not glorious but gloomy, a wretched lose-lose proposition

International law cannot be applied selectively, à la carte. But, of course, it is. Whereas the UN Charter and international treaties bind all States and peoples, whereas human rights are juridical, justiciable and, in principle, enforceable, the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council have a track record of double-standards. The debates in the GA and HR Council are characterized by distortion of the facts and by what I would call "fake law", since many diplomats invent "the law" as they go along. If the “doctrine” of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) means anything (GA Resolution 60/1 of 24 October 2005, paragraphs 138-9), then it should have been invoked and should have prevented the tragedy unfolding since 2020 in the Armenian Republic of Artsakh, better known as Nagorno Karabakh. The illegal and devastating Blitzkrieg waged by Azerbaijan against the population of Nagorno Karabakh in 2020 was accompanied by grave violations of the Hague and Geneva Red Cross Conventions, as documented among others by Human Rights Watch. In a very real sense, it constituted a continuation of the Ottoman genocide against the Armenians (1915-23). The war crimes and crimes against humanity committed more recently during the September 2023 Azeri aggression should be duly investigated by the International Criminal Court in the Hague pursuant to articles 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute. The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev deserves being indicted and prosecuted by the ICC. This will not happen, because the ICC is notoriously biased and has a dismal record of selectivity and double-standards. Only few in the world still think that the ICC possesses authority and credibility. It is for us to demand accountability, and the GA could elevate the pertinent legal questions to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion. A Special Session of the Human Rights Council would be appropriate, since the right of self-determination of peoples is jus cogens, and the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh are being denied this right and killed in the process. The silence in the international community is deafening. The BBC interviewed me on 28 September. It was painfully obvious that the presenter wanted to downplay Azerbaijan's aggression and trivialize the crimes committed against the people of Nagorno Karabakh -- and not only now, but for many decades. Silence makes us accomplices in the crimes committed by Azerbaijan with the connivance and endorsement of Turkey's Recep Erdogan. Qui tacet consentire videtur. We must reject impunity for these gross violations of human dignity. Priorities are crucial in all human endeavour. What is on the agenda? What is being discussed, what is being deliberately ignored? Politics can and should be ethical, but most of the time it is amoral, short-sighted and falsely utilitarian. At least in democracies the electorate can demand ethics and justice, but the media will do its utmost to brainwash the public into believing fake news, fake history and fake law.

Progress and retrogression characterize the history of international law and human rights. Today the world is in chaos, but not more so than in the 18th. 19th and 20th centuries. At least we are not burning witches or massacring indigenous Hopi, Sioux and Tainos, the slave trade is abolished, colonialism is drastically reduced. We have seen a phenomenal codification of legal norms, the UN Charter, the UDHR, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the establishment of regional human rights courts. We hail the growing recognition of the rights of half the population of the planet – women, the measures taken on behalf of persons with disabilities. We welcome the gradual abolition of the cruelty of “capital punishment”. Yet, there is also significant retrogression in many fields, including the erosion of the concept of Peace as a Human Right, the backsliding from General Assembly Resolution 39/11 of 1984. Today there is scarce protection of the right to know, the right to access truthful information, the right to freedom of opinion and expression. We see censorship by governments and the private sector, the blocking of RT and Sputnik by the EU, the Orwellian new Digital Services Act, the brazen indoctrination practiced by the media, the excesses of “cancel culture”, the epidemic of self-censorship, the social acceptance of Russophobia and Sinophobia. the scourge of 25 million victims of human trafficking, including 3.4 million children. Serious retrogression becomes in the weâkened protection of family life and family values, the attacks on the concept of the family and parental authority, the denigration and ridicule of religious beliefs. Retrogression is also apparent in the practices of institutions established to protect our rights. Many institutions have been hijacked for geopolitical and ideological purposes. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who guards over the guardians? Institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council, ECHR, IACHR, OPCW are betraying their mandates, weaponizing human rights instead of devising preventive strategies and mechanisms to secure human dignity. Only we can be the guardians. While we realize that governments lie to us on a daily basis, we must push back and reclaim democracy. We do not need any Ministry of Truth as in 1984. Alas, we are already in the dystopia of Huxley’s Brave New World. Among the gravest instances of retrogression is the obsession with punishment, that self-righteousness that invites us to lapidate the adulteress, the arrogance of “lawfare”. If Christianity taught us anything, it is that we must forgive to be forgiven: et dimite nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimitimus debitoribus nostris. The mainstream ngo’s have transformed “amnesty” into a curse word. Yet, amnesties are not bad per se. Sometimes amnesties pave the way to reconciliation. The ICC is a significant step back to primitive times of lex talionis. Revenge is incompatible with the acquis of civilization. Punishment is not a civilized answer to problems. Conflict-prevention and international solidarity are.

The Ukraine end-game becomes more dangerous by the day, and many experts in the US realize that Ukraine cannot win. Nevertheless, NATO and EU escalate further at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives, sacrificed on the altar of US and NATO expansion. The Western indifference to death reminds me of Madeleine Albright’s cynical assessment that toppling Saddam Hussein was worth the lives of 500,000 Iraqi children (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tihL1lMLL0). Some in the Biden administration pretend that they can still snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. At best we can hope for a frozen conflict, which, alas, can break out into renewed hostilities. At worst, we face nuclear Apocalypse. The long-term consequences of the conflict are not limited to Ukraine. The question arises about the viability of existing international institutions like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, which have allowed themselves to be hijacked by the US for its geopolitical agenda. NATO’s policies have seriously damaged our faith in the system of international law, diplomatic law and international criminal law, which functioned – albeit with difficulties -- before the orgy of treaty-violations, sanctions regimes and blockades that have upended Rechtssicherheit, international trade, supply chains and rendered the sustainable development goals unattainable. The use of indiscriminate weapons including drones, cluster bombs and depleted uranium have done long-term damage to international humanitarian law. Another US fantasy: the piecemeal absorption of Ukraine into NATO, which Russia will counter, because it cannot allow the use of Ukrainian territory as a springboard for renewed proxy wars. It seems that the US, not Russia, has deliberately thrown the Westphalian system of law and diplomacy out of the window.

It is time to label NATO a "criminal organization" within the meaning of articles 9 and 10 of the Nuremberg Statute and judgment. NATO's raison d'être expired when the Soviet Union ended and the Warsaw Pact was dismantled. In a desperate effort to self-perpetuate, NATO invented enemies so that it could justify its continued existence. It embarked on a series of expansions aimed at encircling Russia, although Gorbachev had voluntarily withdrawn Soviet forces precisely in order to “give peace a chance”. NATO attempted to usurp the functions of the UN Security Council and its exclusive authority over the use of force under the UN Charter. NATO's eastward expansion – in flagrant violation of internationally binding commitments made in 1989, 90, 91 by George H.W. Bush and his Secretary of State James Baker – constituted since 1997 and continues to pose a threat to international peace and security within the meaning of article 39 UN Charter. Today the continuing megalomania of NATO’s leaders goes as far as pretending to expand to Asia and Africa. NATO member states have engaged in naked aggression against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, they have illegally intervened in the Middle-East, committed abhorrent war crimes and crimes against humanity hitherto in total impunity. More recently, NATO is at the source of Ukraine’s egregious violations of the Minsk Accords (as recorded by OSCE), which eventually triggered Russia’s invasion. To claim that NATO is a “defensive” alliance is preposterous – its credo is not defence, but provocation, bravado, bullying, and new-style imperialism. NATO may still throw all of humanity under the bus.

War is over, if we want it” was one of John Lennon’s best messages, next to “Imagine”. Why can't our generation see the relevance of the songs to the Ukraine war? Why can’t our leaders learn from Wilfred Owen and Erich-Maria Remarque? It is time to speak truth to power. But it seems that our leaders are hooked on war. They actually want war, not peace, because some of our “elites” in the military-industrial-financial sector are making billions in profits, and the revolving door puts the CEO's of banks and corporations into government, so that they can continue funnelling taxpayers' money into the monstruous military machine. These “elites” do not care about the lives of  the Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and civilians who are being slaughtered in the name of geopolitics and self-righteousness. The mainstream media nurtures generalized herd mentality and “groupthink”, which effectively negates our common sense and leads us to self-censorship, when we realize that we are expected to accept the propaganda or take the consequences. We find our “comfort zone” in going along with those who pretend to love Big Brother. Of course, there are many alternatives to confrontational politics and war – namely dialogue and compromise, which certainly do not entail greater risks than our present military policies that generate perpetual war. Only a climate of patience and perseverance will allow humanity to advance from anarchy to peace, from hatred to mutual respect.

Provocation is not an innocent act. It can amount to a tort or even a crime. In the UK the Public Order Act prohibits "abusive or threatening words or behaviour", specifically "to provoke the immediate use of unlawful violence”. Provocation means conduct that induces another to a violent response – out of fear, anger or outrage. Whereas in international law there is an absolute prohibition of the use of force stipulated in article 2(4) of the UN Charter, some powerful countries concoct exceptions, e.g. by postulating a non-existent right of “pre-emptive” self-defence or the so-called doctrine of “responsibility to protect”, both scams intended to circumvent Art. 2(4). Recent armed conflicts in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine document a tendency to water down the prohibition of the use of force. This is facilitated by the compliant media and "quality press" that manage facts and narrative in an attempt to “legitimize” the use of force, e.g. by the US in Iraq, or to absolve the provocateur, e.g. by downplaying NATO's egregious provocations in Ukraine and elsewhere. It is surrealistic to claim that the use of force in Iraq was legitimate: It was naked aggression and a crime against humanity. Equally extravagant is to pretend that the invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked”, although every Western politician does not miss the opportunity to refer to the Ukraine war as "unprovoked". Admittedly, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constituted a grave breach of the UN Charter. But the provocations also violated article 2(4), which prohibits not only the use of force but also the threat thereof. As Professors John Mearsheimer, Richard Falk, Jeffrey Sachs and others have pointed out, NATO expansion was perceived by Russia as a hostile attempt at encirclement, hence an existential threat. Every attempt by Russia to defuse this menace by peaceful negotiation as required by article 2(3) UN Charter was rebuffed by the US and NATO. NATO's on-going provocations in Georgia, Ukraine and elsewhere amount to geopolitical harassment in contravention of the letter and spirit of the UN Charter. It can be argued that provoking someone is more offensive that reacting aggressively to the provocation, because the provocation is deliberate, not accidental; the reaction thereof is ad hoc, lacking malice aforethought. Provoking means intentionally making someone angry, throwing down the gauntlet, inviting to a fight. Of course, retaliation should be proportional to the provocation. But we humans have this awesome tendency to overreact. Bottom line: Both the provocation and the retaliation are reprehensible. But the one who provokes bears greater moral responsibility. Provocation should be recognized as an attribute of the act of aggression and as such deemed in violation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

             Philosophy is not just the search for "the meaning of life" (like in the Monty Python movie). Philosophy is love of learning, love of wisdom, love of the quest for truth, the autodidact process of discovering our own self -- nosce te ipsum (gnothi seauton) -- as inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, knowing our needs, our priorities, our strengths and weaknesses, and striving toward proportion and equanimity ne quid nimis (meden agan), nothing in excess. Philosophy teaches us how to use our rational faculties, how to exercise the courage of our convictions, sapere aude (Kant), how to correct our own faults, and how to wage spiritual warfare against nihilism. Practical philosophy means learning how to make life meaningful for ourselves and our loved ones, for our friends and our colleagues at the office. As Cicero wrote Sapientia est ars vivendi.

Self-determination is much more than a right that has been codified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Art. 1), anchored in the UN Charter (Arts. 1, 55, Chapter XI) and in General Assembly Resolutions including 2131 and 2625 . It is part of fundamental natural law , as recognized by Francisco de Vitoria already in the 16th century. Even before we explore its natural law facets, we must acknowledge that self-determination is an inborn impulse, an instinct for freedom, a sense of identity, individualism, self-fulfilment. Far from being the source of conflict, self-determination is a condition for living together. Conflict emerges not from the exercise of the right, but from the unjust denial thereof. Far from being a form of anarchy, it constitutes a building-block of civilized governance, the fountainhead of a just society based on mutual respect and equal rights. The alternative is colonialism and exploitation – or the many manifestations of neo-colonialism. Democracy is another word for self-determination. Freedom another expression of self-determination, of the individual and collective right to shape one's future.

The daily tragedies in the Ukraine war remind me of a sonnet by the British poet John Donne’s (1572-1631) : "Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." Indeed, when the mainstream media engage in blatant war propaganda (prohibited by article 20(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), when the military-industrial-financial complex continues to escalate the confict, when war profiteers sell weapons to countries at war, when we sell illegal depleted uranium weapons that cause cancers and birth malformations because of widespread radioactivity, when we tolerate illegal unilateral coercive measures, when Western States impose medieval sieges on Cuba, Gaza, Nicaragua, Syria, Venezuela, when we allow the extraterritorial application of imperialistic national legislation, when neo-colonial sanctions asphyxiate the economies of states as "collective punishment" for the audacity of defying the hegemon, we deliberately causeng death of the most vulnerable by malnutrition and lack of medicine. When will this end? When will we sit down and talk? When will we cease polluting our planet? The bells are already tolling for us and our children. Just listen to the fearsome Dies Irae trumpets of Hector Berlioz' Requiem and weep for humanity with Faure's plaintive Pie Jesu.

The unfolding tragedy in Ukraine sadly reminds me of Shakespeare’s tale of the family feud between the Capulets and the Montagues, the proud “elites” of fair Verona. I cannot help perceiving here a metaphor for today’s Europe, and in a larger sense for the restless human species, which has yet to learn how to live together in mutual respect, to strive in harmony for peace on earth -- based on justice and international solidarity: “Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.” We recall the riveting moment at the conclusion of Romeo and Juliet, when the Prince bemoans the consequences of senseless vendettas, vanities, arrogance and intransigence: “Where be these enemies? —Capulet, Montague, See what a scourge is laid upon your hate… And I, for winking at your discords too, Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.” Two households Ukraine and Russia – alike in dignity… A brace of European kinsmen has been lost, leaving behind orphans and refugees, venerable towns and villages in ruins. The misery continues – that’s what the war-profiteers expect, perpetual war, while many in the world invest in the war machine and become complicit by taking sides, delivering weapons, engaging in the sterile blaming game, instead of mediating peace. Did we not in the West “wink” at the discords? Why did we let NATO engage in senseless provocations non-stop since 1997, until a horrible response struck? WE ARE ALL PUNISHED!

Lessons not learned:
It is a sad fact that in spite of the lessons we could and should have learned from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Seneca's De Vita Beata, Juvenalis' Satires, Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly, Bartolomé de las Casas’ The Devastation of the Indies, Jean Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract, Voltaire’s Candide, Thoreau's Walden, Spengler’s The Decline of the West, Remarque’s All Quiet in the Western Front, Russell’s Power, Orwell's 1984, Galeano’s Open veins of Latin America, Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, Pilger’s Hidden Agendas, Zinn's People's History of the United States, Solomon’s War made Easy, Kinzer's Overthrow, Klein's The Shock Doctrine, Sachs' The Price of Civilization, Blum’s America’s Deadliest Export, Giriharadas' Winners Take All, and Snowden's Permanent Record – relatively little ever changes in the power equations that rule humankind. Notwithstanding the United Nations and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, social injustice prevails in most corners of the world. It seems that Thucydides’ Melian dialogue in the Peloponnesian War remains as valid today as in the 5th century BC: “The strong do as they want, and the weak suffer what they must”.

             Notwithstanding what some historians pretend, history-writing is an art, not a science, a form of literature, story-telling with good and bad guys, happiness and tragedy, fiction and nonfiction, comedy and drama. History knows many uses, the creation and expansion of national myths, hero-worship, demonization of enemies, the shaping of identities, expectations, perceptions, prejudices -- moral and immoral -- patriotic, geopolitical, economic, financial and social. History books are full of fake news that once matured into fake history and attained a level of respectability just by virtue of repetition and quotation. Indeed, once a historical canard has gained track, it is difficult to remove it from its pedestal. Historians who attempt to dismantle myths are likely to be accused of being "revisionists". But what, if not revision, is the vocation of the historian? The very essence of the profession is to search for new clues, evidences, documents, records, inscriptions, archeological finds, and then to review existing narratives, always applying the seven C's of history writing: chronology, context, comprehensiveness, causality, coherence, comparison, and "cui bono?" (Cicero, who stands to gain from a certain event, fact or omission).

Patriotism is not just applauding the leadership of our government and institutions; it also requires constructive dissent. Indeed, conscientious objection can be an important manifestation of patriotism, when our politicians stampede into war and chaos. Patriotism is more than waving flags and joining bandwagons, denouncing enemies and howling with the wolves. It is not populism, blind obedience to the government and its military machine, not just cheering “heroes” and swimming with the mainstream. Patriotism means genuine love of a country’s population and concern for everyone’s welfare, especially the most vulnerable. It entails respect for a country’s values and traditions, a commitment to truthfulness and intellectual honesty. It demands responsibility from each and every one of us, awareness of the issues and a conscious effort to contribute to the commonweal with courage and perseverance. Sometimes It may require significant economic and personal sacrifice. It should be the credo of every citizen.

What we like to call reality is composed of observations and experience, coloured by our emotions and held together by a system of assumptions, expectations and beliefs, which we inherit from family and receive throughout our lives in formal and informal education. This reality is different for each individual and often contradictory. None of us posesses all the truth and all we can hope for is to have an approximation of reality, which must be subject to change if new facts require adjustment of our perceptions. We join the dots thanks to our brain's necessity to bring meaning, order and logic into our relationships with our ever-changing environment. This faculty of interpreting facts and accommodating to them enables us to participate in civilized society and operate with a degree of predictability. An idealist tries to embellish his perception of reality with optimistic projections. An ideologue distorts reality by evaluating reality according to a subjective matrix, applying artificial rules and setting up "stop signs" or Denkverbote, so as protect the philosophical model by excluding non-conforming ideas. Big Brother and the mainstream media create their own irreality in the name of sustaining hegemony. "Grin and bear it" is the answer of most people, who do not have the time or inclination to be "odd man out" and swim against the current. For me personally a more satisfactory and reality-based recipe is to think independently, question more, challenge orthodoxies, and thus assert the right to my own opinions, and vindicate the right to be wrong.

Sustainable peace requires multilateralism and mutual respect among nations and peoples. Self-determination is much more than a right that has been codified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Art. 1), anchored in the UN Charter (Arts. 1, 55, Chapter XI) and in countless General Assembly Resolutions including 2131, 2625 and 3314. It is part of fundamental natural law, as recognized by Francisco de Vitoria already in the 16th century. Even before we explore natural law and its metaphysics, we must acknowledge that self-determination is an inborn impulse, an instinct for freedom, a sense of identity, individualism, self-fulfilment. Far from being the source of conflict, self-determination is a condition for living together. Conflict emerges not from the exercise of the right, but from the unjust denial thereof. Far from being a form of anarchy, it constitutes a building-block of civilized governance, the fountainhead of a just society based on equal rights and level playing fields. The alternative is colonialism and exploitation – or the many manifestations of neo-colonialism and 21st century imperialism. Democracy is another word for self-determination. Freedom is another expression of self-determination, of the individual and collective right to shape our future. But sometimes the mainstream media gaslights us into submission, making us deny our own feelings and instincts, brainwashing us into cognitive dissonance and loving "Big Brother". Our resolution for 2023 must be Sapere aude! Assert our rights and push-back against the media gaslighters.

The Heraclitus theory of flux has relevance to today's world disorder. "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." In his Homeric Allegories Heraclitus of Ephesus (535-475 BC) is simply confirming that nothing stays the same. As I write this, climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war are ushering in major changes in the world order -- legal, commercial, financial, philosophical -- and even moral. As slavery, serfdom, colonialism and imperialism had their day and waned, the Western "monopoly of values" our narcicistic illusion that we are "the good guys" by definition is also losing its lustre. Undoubtedly there will be a post-Ukraine world order than will not resemble the Pax Americana and will have to bring on board the perspective and convictions of other cultures, including those of the Chinese, the Indians, the Indonesians, the South Africans, the Brazilians, the Mapuches, etc. The new world will be all the richer for it.

The worst bias that many of us share is the bias that we have no biases. Only a few politicians and journalists are prepared to jump over their shadows and proactively look for missing facts, so as to be able to join the dots, piece together clues and suppressed information. Of course, we all have our biases, because we are products of our education and environment. But we can still make a conscious effort not to uncritically echo whatever nonsense we heard last night in CNN. Alas, many people who pretend to be objective, subconsciously sort out information that goes against what they believe. We all remember Simon and Garfunkel’s song The Boxer, “a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” Ukraine is a prime example. Many people are not interested in the facts or in root causes, but merely look for confirmation of their biases. The best medicine is intellectual honesty with ourselves and a readiness to listen to all views and perspectives -- audiatur et altera pars. The Ukraine narrative shows that most politicians and journalists function within their respective bubbles and just reaffirm what they already believe, regardless of the evidence and the cause/effect relationship. The US and NATO have had so many psyops on Ukraine that we will have to wait for whistleblowers or for declassification of documents to understand what is going on, Priority must be to end the bloodletting and reach a sustainable compromise. Omnia sponte fluant absint violencia rebus – as Comenius said – Let all be done peacefully, without violence or compulsion.

Intimidation and denial of freedom of expression exist not only in Russia and China, but also in European countries, where criminal codes provide that what prosecutors consider "condoning or approving a criminal offence" (Russian invasion of Ukraine) is punishable. In any country that respects the rule of law, penal legislation must be very precise and predictable. European law is full of rubber language that can be interpreted to persecute dissenters. More and more countries in Europe have "memory laws" and legislation that criminalizes the expression of nonconformist opinions.  These are terror laws like in any totalitarian country. Such opinion-terror laws are precisely intended to suppress discussion of politically sensitive issues. Admittedly, one can defend oneself and be acquitted, but at a very high cost in money and time. So most people avoid trouble by shutting up.  The phenomenon of self-censorship will eventually destroy our democracy.

The self-serving proposition that democracies do not go to war with each other or do not start wars against other states is a popular myth. Empirically it reveals itself as bargain-basement propaganda. Indeed, the US and UK, two self-styled “liberal democracies” are addicted to war. The US since its inception, from the extermination of the ten million indigenous of the Northern Hemisphere -- the First Nations of Iroquois, Algonquin, Pequots, Cherokees, Crees, Dakotas, Navajos, Sioux, Squamish, etc. to the aggressive wars against Mexico, Hawaii, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iraq -- the list is endless. See Stephen Kinzer's book Overthrow, and David Stannard's American Holocaust (Oxford University Press 1992). Throughout history the British have not been exactly paragons of peace -- from the days of Empire in India, to the infamous Opium Wars against China, to the Boer War, the Malvinas, etc.. Let us also not forget that comprehensive economic sanctions and financial blockades are hardly less lethal than military interventions. Sanctions do kill, as we know from numerous UN reports and GA resolutions. Sanctions kill like mediaeval sieges of towns, like the Nazi siege of Leningrad resulting in a million deaths through starvation and disease. Let us also reflect on the fact that the globalization that had led to greater investment and trade among states, encouraging a broad range of economic intercourse, brought us much prosperity and constructive cultural exchanges in the spirit of the UNESCO Constitution. The US and EU sanctions regimes against dozens of countries, together with the accompanying xenophobia, have now disrupted this inter-dependence of peoples -- and with it our safety and security.  

The use of force is contrary to international law, except with Security Council approval under Chapter VII and cannot be condoned except as ultima ratio in self-defence. Pre-emptive self-defence does not exist in international law and it violates the UN Charter -- no matter who practices it. Art. 2(4) UN Charter has been breached by Russia in Ukraine. Art. 51 does not apply. Alas, there are "precedents of permissibility", because the international community seems to have accepted egregious violations of Art. 2(4) by the US against Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela; by NATO countries against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yugoslavia; by Israel against all its Arab neighbours, including the Palestinians and Lebanese; by Saudi Arabia against Yemen; by Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh, by Turkey against Cyprus, etc. We must beware, because the war in Ukraine is not a fist-fight among schoolboys, here we have one nuclear power with the tacit support of another nuclear power, facing an adversary that has the support of 3 other nuclear powers. The priority is to negotiate an immediate cease fire and promote a sustainable peace agreement in good faith, leaving aside propaganda, provocations, recriminations, holier-than-thou attitudes. The planet needs a global security system. As the US would not tolerate Mexico joining a Chinese military-alliance, Russia will not tolerate Ukraine or Georgia joining NATO. This is common sense. Everything else is political "narrative" and/or propaganda for war. Ukraine must not be used by NATO as a pawn in its geopolitical games. Russian soldiers should not be killing Ukrainian soldiers or vice-versa. They all have a right to live in peace. How did we get here? Through bad faith, broken promises, provocations, coups d'état and xenophobia. I recommend that war-mongers read Wilfred Owen's poem Anthem for Doomed Youth
 
Democracy means people power through participation in the conduct of public affairs. Demophobic entities like the European Union fear people power and allow EU member states like Spain to deny their 7 million Catalan citizens the right to freedom of expression by way of referendum, although there is nothing more democratic than a referendum. Switzerland, which is not in the EU, practices semi-direct democracy. As a Swiss citizen since 2017, I have voted in every cantonal and federal referendum. This kind of hands-on democracy engenders a very Swiss sense of citizen responsibility, identity, belonging –a confident feeling that one is being taken seriously and can make a difference. Although not personally concerned with the cultural issues so important to the people of the French-speaking Jura, I welcomed the holding of a special referendum in the city of Moutier on 28 March 2021, and the decision taken by its population to leave the Canton of Bern and join the Jura Canton. This kind of democratic adjustment proves that the culture and identity of peoples are more important than mere economic considerations. What happened in a peaceful and orderly fashion within the territory of Switzerland can happen just as peacefully in other European and world regions. What counts in human rights terms are the will and the welfare of real persons, and not arbitrary geographic delimitations or other artificial constructs of politicians. The Moutier vote demonstrates that borders are not immutable and can be changed peacefully. It is time to recognize that the realization of the right of self-determination of peoples is a good recipe for local, regional and international peace. This precedent applies to the French-Canadians, the Scots, the Catalans, the Corsicans, the Southern Tyrolians, Palestinians, Sahraouis, Kurds, Yemenis, Tamils, Kashmiris, West Papuans, Ryukyuans, Rapa Nuis, Mapuches, Alaska natives, the original peoples of the overthrown Hawaiian Kingdom, etc. These real persons are all entitled to decide their own futures. UN-organized and monitored referenda would provide the best way for all peoples to exercise their right of self-determination laid down in article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The war in Ukraine demonstrates that humanity has learned nothing from the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. Some of our politicians – and media -- evidently continue thinking that there are viable military “solutions”. The "consensus" in the mainstream narrative is scary. Western politicians are still thinking in terms of "unconditional surrender" and "winner takes all". The world of 2022 is not the world of pre-Hiroshima. Moreover, no peace will ensue if we continue killing each other’s children. Only by breaking the vicious circle of violence can be hope to arrive at sustainable peace. Bob Dylan's unanswered questions remain relevant today: "How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky? How many ears must one man have, before he can hear people cry?" Are the answers just blowing in the wind? Or will the questions remain unanswered, made irrelevant by our hypocrisy, gone with our tardy vestiges of human kindness? The Orwellian destruction of language, the weaponization of ethics, the daily corporate media dis-information, wrong budgetary priorities, unpreparedness for emergencies, aggressive wars, military interventions, sanctions and blockades, censorship and self-censorship have smothered our human rights, the rule of law – and the "American dream". If we only open our eyes, we can identify the war-profiteers and vultures in the Ukraine war. How many deaths will it take 'til we know that too many people have died? Pete Seeger's ubi sunt lyrics also remain unanswered. "Where have all the flowers gone?" -- Gone to graveyards everyone. Will our leaders ever learn? Will we?

Resolutions for 2022 1. Sapere aude! (Horace/Kant): Get the facts and act thereon. 2. Demand from our governments respect for the existing “rules-based international order” -- the UN Charter. 3. Return to the spirituality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The San Francisco non-governmental organization Eleanor Lives is promoting this revival www.eleanorlives.org. 4. Demand true democracy from our governments, regular consultations, genuine choices, participation in the conduct of public affairs, referenda, people power. 5. Demand Disarmament for Development and proper funding of the Sustainable Development Goals. 6. Pushback against the hybrid war being waged by governments and the media. Demand truth from the government and the private sector. Only on the basis of correct information can citizens exercise their democratic rights. 7. Pushback against the war on whistleblowers, true human rights defenders. Demand the immediate release of Julian Assange. Recognize the contribution of Edward Snowden to the survival of American values. 8. Pushback against Orwellian newspeak and “political correctness”. Refuse to retreat into self-censorship. 9. Pushback against the military-industrial-financial complex and the obscenely extravagant Pentagon budget. 10. Demand from our governments the immediate lifting of illegal unilateral coercive measures against so many innocent populations. Remember, sanctions kill.

Society knows many ailments including fake news, fake history, fake law, fake diplomacy, fake democracy. The media writes about the “marketplace of ideas”, but do we really have an open marketplace, where all ideas can be expressed and debated, or is it more like a closed shop of controlled discussion? Do we have anything close to “freedom of expression” in the Voltairean sense, or only the freedom to express certain ideas, and a sense of apprehension when it comes to dissent? Is there “academic freedom” in the traditional sense, or freedom to conduct research in prescribed areas and a big "stop sign" if an academic dares to cross certain "red lines"? Is there a modern-day Inquisition and are there books "indexed". taken out of libraries, burned in pyres or "burned" by damnatio memoriae? Can any expert or professor publish with Oxford -- or does one need a political and/or financial sponsor? What is the real practice of publishers and bookstores when it comes to inconvenient books? Is there a “free media”, or an echo chamber of compliant corporate propagandists, and a handful of "alternative media" with little or no funding? True enough, in the Western democracies there is no official government censorship, but there are more and more laws about suppressing so-called "fake news" and "hate speech" (which has never been defined), and who is qualified to decide what is "fake news"? By now it should be obvious that there is no need for government censorship, when the private media reliably censors, and social media outlets like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter routinely close accounts and exclude inconvenient content through algorithms. How can any researcher rely on "search engines", when they all use algorithms with a slant, filtering and excluding information? Indeed, we live in the midst of an orwellian "cancel culture", which distorts our perception of reality. There is no genuine “competition”, but a rigged system. Nor is there anything like a “level playing field”, but rather a slippery slope. There is no “open society”, but a society held hostage by “political correctness”. Hence we observe the widespread phenomenon of self-censorship in all fields, because in practice there is no “right to dissent”, and the price of dissent is rising. Non-conformists are socially and economically ostracized, journalists who venture too far are fired and blackballed. Academics who want to conduct independent research or who lecture according to their professional judgment are denied tenure or simply fired. We are fed the illusion of "freedom", "democracy", "rule of law", but our minds are in chains. Democracy is much more than periodic elections – which in most countries are pro forma exercises. Whether candidate A or candidate B wins, nothing substantial ever changes. Truly democratic elections presuppose a citizenry that has not been indoctrinated and a genuine choice among several candidates and several policy options -- not just militarism or more militarism, capitalism or extreme capitalism. Nothing is easier to grasp than this simple definition: Democracy is the correlation of the will of the people and the policies that affect them, everything else is fake. Bottom line: The “rule of law” that we conjure has a very long way before it can call itself the “rule of justice”.

World religions have made a huge contribution to the concept of human dignity and have been at the source of the codification of human rights. Unfortunately, institutional operatives of world religions instrumentalize the humanist message for ulterior purposes – mainly power, control and intimidation with eternal fire. The hijacking of religion is not new. Indeed, most religions have been used and abused. In the Christian tradition we have seen many unchristian practices flourish. The Popes in the 15th and 16th centuries give us manifold examples of corruption and decadence – and a total oblivion of the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. The Czech Reformer Jan Hus was burned at the stake during the Council of Constance on 6 July 1415. Martin Luther, a Hus admirer, advanced a similar message in his 95 Theses in 1517 and fared better, partly because of the rapid dissemination of his ideas thanks to the Guttenberg printing press, and the effective support of key political leaders, notably Friedrich der Weise, Elector of Saxony. Luther’s Reformation did away with the commercialization of religion – primarily the selling of indulgences (salvation through money) and the abolition of simony, the sale of church offices. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a rich person could buy the post of Cardinal and thus significantly influence the direction of the Church (e.g. in sustaining the status quo -- letting the rich be rich and the poor stay poor). Donations of lands to the Church allowed the nobility to think themselves "righteous" and believe that they had bought "salvation". Thanks to these Indulgences the super rich could continue exploiting the peasants with a "clean conscience". As for the poor -- buying "indulgences" made them think that they could save their relatives or themselves from purgatory -- while filling the treasury of the Church in Rome. Now compare that with the emergence of "human rights" as a new religion. Of course, human rights were promptly hijacked by lobbies and instrumentalized for geopolitical, commercial and other mundane purposes. Private “philanthropists”, big pharma and transnational corporations have contributed to the emergence of a “human rights industry”, by financing ngo's and using them as operatives to advance ulterior aims. He who pays determines the agenda. Bonus: Making donations to the OHCHR, Global Fund, large human rights ngo's confer upon the "altruistic" philanthropist, transnational corporations and other donors the aura -- or sacred "halo" -- of belonging to the exclusive club of the "good guys". Such donations constitute the new instrument of control. And the donor even gets a kind of "indulgence" in the process.  Done deal:  The human rights industry blesses the donation and sprays holy water on the donor who henceforth can continue exploiting the third world and polluting the planet while claiming to be "righteous".

Patriotism means different things to different people. For me it entails citizen solidarity in promoting justice at home and resisting official lies, apologetics, euphemisms, crime and tyranny. Patriotism requires a commitment to truth and readiness to counter « fake news » and skewed political « narratives ». Internationally, patriotism means averting harm from one’s country by pro-actively seeking dialogue and understanding so as to contribute to peace and justice – Pax et iustitia. Some adolescents and young soldiers often think that patriotism can be boiled down to the formula « my country right or wrong », and thus unwittingly risk becoming cannon fodder, victims of war-mongers and war-profiteers, who do not risk their own skins and let others die for their profits. Patriotism cannot and does not require knee-jerk « my country right or wrong », a formula that can only be described as an irresponsible cop-out, which only invites governments to abuse our trust, waste tax dollars in foreign interventions, breach our privacy through illegal surveillance, and commit any number of geopolitical crimes. A true patriot says « not in my name » and demands accountability from government so that our countries are indeed on the path to peace and justice. Horace’s noble-sounding maxim « dulce et decorum est pro patria mori » (it is sweet and appropriate to die for one’s country) must be recast in constructive terms : It is sweet to live for one’s country ! Indeed, that is what Cicero meant with caritas patriae. Who qualifies as a patriot? For me, every citizen who takes democracy seriously and demands transparency and accountability from the authorities. Among patriots in the 21st century, I count whistleblowers who uncover criminal activities by both the government and the private sector. They are gatekeepers of the social order. Surely Edward Snowden is a patriot, as he risked life and career because of his conscience. We can learn more in his riveting book Permanent Record. We all owe him a debt of gratitude. By contrast, who is not a patriot ? Every opportunist who advances his/her career at the expense of the common good, anyone who manipulates public opinion through sensationalism, evidence-free allegations, sabre-rattling and ends up dragging the country and its young soldiers into criminal wars. The security of every American has been seriously compromised by these very hawks, sometimes hailed by the media as « patriots ».          

The "good old days" is a myth we all share -- a feeling that reflects our human nature, our psychology, desires, memories, hopes and regrets. We all have a "Paradise lost" mentality, that things were really better in past decades or centuries.  We persuade ourselves that our civilization is decadent and that we must reclaim the glories of the past.  This feeling is so universal and so old that we encounter it in the Bible, in Ecclesiastes 7:10.  We read it in Cicero "O tempora, o mores" (O these times, these morals), and Horatius describes man as "Laudator temporis acti" (one who praises old times -- De arte poetica, 173).  Petrarca hankered back to the Greek and Roman animus ("our own age repels me").  Savonarola, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Keats, Ralph Waldo Emerson all entertained a romantic sense of nostalgia.  The fact is that "the good old days" were never so good, and that morals and perceptions were always in flux -- as they will continue to be.  Bottom line:  we live today, hic et nunc, and should make the best of it. Of course, we can still imagine Paradise -- which, if it ever existed, surely did not last very long.  The "added value" of the dream of Paradise is that it poetically inspires us to imagine a better world -- se non è vero, è molto ben trovato.

The most effective tyranny over society is not fascism, nazism, communism or any other "ism". It is the subtle control of a substantial majority of the population via the psychological manipulation of consciousness that results from manipulation of information by government and through the media, the Zeitgeist, the gradually imposed sense of right and wrong.  Reality is not objective reality, but the "perception" of our environment, history, values in a way that those who exist within this artificial value system do not even realize that they are in a kind of prison. They live in a bubble and fail to realize that there is something outside the immediate world which surrounds them. Such control of consciousness is Big Brother's ultimate triumph.

The country or countries that deliberately destabilize other countries bears legal, moral and historical responsibility for the chaos and suffering that ensues. Destabilization includes media disinformation, evidence-free accusations, covert financing of opposition groups and non-governmental organizations that abuse human rights as cover, imposing sanctions aimed at asphyxiating the targeted country’s economy and generating unemployment, hunger, migration flows, with the ultimate aim of enabling undemocratic regime change or resulting in civil war. Even more criminal is the direct and indirect financing of mercenaries and “insurgents”, in clear violation of UN General Assembly Resolutions 2625 and 3314. Military interventions in the 21st century in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya have caused hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, under the pretext of combatting “terrorism” and bringing “democracy” to these unfortunate peoples who just want to be left in peace. Worse of all is the deliberate subversion of the noble aims of the United Nations -- the promotion of peace, development and human rights – and the destruction of language through Orwellian neologisms. I call such geopolitical crimes that merit investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court as crimes against humanity under article 7 of the Statute of Rome.

Persons moderately informed have a vague idea of what the « deep state » means. Of course, we do not see the « deep state », but only its impacts, we see contours and extrapolate.  Deductive logic does not help in a world of secrecy and "fake news".  We can only use inductive reasoning and base ourselves on incomplete data.  That is why many persons tend to dismiss the narrative as a kind of « conspiracy theory ». We perceive the day to day functioning of our institutions as a normal routine operation, more or less following the "laws" of the marketplace or the anonymous forces of nature, not visualizing that the deep state can very well manage these forces -- and that it wears the faces of our corporate boardrooms. Closer to our skins is our social environment, the pervasive Zeitgeist with the daily indoctrination by the mainstream media, television, movies, even comic-books, which ably combine « fake news » with the suppression of crucial facts, and advance the subliminal message that we are «the good guys» and  that our governments' actions are not only « legal » but also noble and honourable. What is more disturbing is that the media engage in what some may consider "benevolent brainwashing", in fact, well-calculated hot-and-cold onslaughts, sometimes «fear mongering» against foreign « enemies », horror stories about pandemics and their origins, alternating with the dissemination of trivial «feel good» stories. The result is that public opinion is conveniently manipulated and that the phenomenon of self-censorship gradually sets in, because we want to «belong» to the «majority». Only few dare to be «odd man out». Thus, we accept the lies that are fed to us by the media -- because it is the easiest way to deal with the monstrosities that are occurring all around us.  Mundus vult decipi.  The world wants to be deceived.

Since Ecclesiastes, the Greek and Roman poets and playwrights, the medieval and renaissance scholars, we know that there are a many disparate views around, as many as there are people Quot homines, tot sententiae (Terentius, Phormio). We also instinctively know that truth is simplicity -- veritas simplex oratio (Seneca), but we also realize that sometimes frankness backfires and engenders hostility, veritas odium parit (Terentius, Andria). One wonders how best to navigate safely through troubled waters, while keeping our own opinions, knowing that most people join band wagons and instinctively suspect loners – vae soli – and unusual birds – rara avis (Horatius). Moreover, people believe what they want, quae volumus, ea libenter credimus (Caesar, De Bello Civile) – worse still, people actually like to be deceived, mundus vult decepi (St. Augustine). Thus, it is prudent to look before we leap, rescipe finem, and watch what we say when and to whom, cave quid dicis, quando et cui. There is little use in being a voice crying in the desert, vox clamantis in deserto (Matthew 3,3) or expecting recognition that may, if at all, come only after death, si post fata venit gloria, non propero (Martial). We are well advised to keep a low profile, bene vixit qui bene latuit (Ovid), and accept to lose battles as long as we don’t lose the war, vulneratus non victus, aware that often patience pays off – vincit qui patitur –while remaining vigilant against the tendency of some people to add insult to injury by blaming the victim, proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris (Tacitus). In love, we can be moderate and always keep a little distance, so as not to succumb to Ovid’s ominous paradox of not being able to live with our without the loved one, sic ego non sine te nec tecum vivere possum (Amores, 3, 11, 39). As for friends, we remember that it is in calamity that they prove their mettle, calamitas virtutis occasio. (Seneca, de Providentia 4,6). Best is to accept others as they are, including their right to be wrong. As for me, I stick to the rule « live and let live », vive et vivet, and endorse Cicero’s optimistic maxim –dum spiro, spero – as long as I am breathing, I harbour hope.  It is comforting to know that true friends and family often practice a kind of benevolent tolerance, an acceptance of my person as I am -- a complex individual who may err here and there -- but who follows his conscience. I kind of like the formula of Bernard de Clairvaux, "whoever likes me also must like my dog" -- in other words, take me as I am, with my habits and convictions – qui me amat, amat et canem meum.

We witness how fake news and fake history are instrumentalized to concoct fake law. There is a veritable war on truth and gradually we are slipping into a fake democracy. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Juvenalis, Satires) -- who will guard over the gardians ? -- when the mainstream media no longer performs the function of the watchdog, no longer alerts us to endemic -- and punctual -- governmental abuses but act more like echo-chambers of the interests of the "elites" and transnational corporations... Who will guard over the gardians, when the executive, legislative and judiciary are progressively corrupted, when institutions like the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons tampers with the evidence and suppresses crucial facts, when other supposedly objective organizations systematically dis-inform the public, disseminate fake news, suppress dissent? Only we can be the guardians -- by reclaiming democracy and our right to effective participation in public affairs, as stipulated in article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We must condemn the politicization and “weaponization” of human rights, especially when human entitlements are instrumentalized to obliterate others. We should remember that human rights are not in competition with each other, but that human rights constitute a holistic system based on our common human dignity. We know that the United Nations, the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council are all political. That’s not the problem – it is a factum that everything can be seen as "political". What is crucial is that everybody be required to play by the same rules. A problem lies in the fact that many diplomats and politicians sitting in these institutions believe neither in human rights nor in international solidarity. A problem lies in the absence of ethics in public institutions, in the double-standards used by politicians and diplomats. Indeed, quod licet Iovi non licet bovi -- what is persmissible for Jupiter (the US, UK, EU) is not permissible for a bull (the rest of us). Sure, the world needs a rules-based international order, but this international order also applies to the US, UK, EU, and they must also play the game according to the same rules. And when the US, UK, EU systematically vote in the Human Rights Council to defeat certain mandates that advance transparency and accountability, when they disregard UN decisions and resolutions, including Advisory Opinions of the International Court of Justice, they are sending a dangerous signal, giving a cynical example to developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. If we in the developed "West" want to be leaders, we must lead by good example. And when we do evil things like the savage assault on Iraq in 2003 or the persecution of "whistleblowers", we establish "precendents of permissibility" -- which others will surely follow. Das eben ist der Fluch der bösen Tat, dass sie forzeugend Böses muss gebären" (Schiller, Piccolomini) There lies the curse of evil deeds -- that they continue generating other evils. What we need is mutual respect and pluralism and not a totalitarian witch hunt against "wrongthink".

There is a political dimension to most aspects of human activity. The fact that something is considered “political” does not render it a priori suspicious, fake or even frivolous. What we criticize as “politicization” is often a mere reflection of routine debates on the pros and cons of both mundane and momentous undertakings. The recognition of the political implications of a given program, plan-of-action or pending legislation should not unduly worry us, but the distortions of reality and the corruption of language by its advocates, the subversion of rationality by intellectually dishonest political manœuvres, the assault on logic. What we object to is the unethical instrumentalization of noble ideas for selfish ends, and the suppression of anything that does not conform to the wishes of the powerful, the mobbing and intimidation that lobbies practice to impose their will on others. The curse of politicization is the loss of objectivity, of balance and proportion, the dissimulation of reason. Sometimes politicians brazenly lie to the electorate, notwithstanding obvious facts. All too often politicians, with the complicity of a compliant media, deliberately misrepresent, exaggerate, downplay foreseeable risks and the unjust consequences of their proposals. Hyperbole is rampant. Enemies are invented. Provocation and demonization become the rule. A "culture of fear" is deliberately nurtured -- fear to make us rely on Big Brother. How often have we heard words like democracy and human rights invoked -- not constructively, but as pretexts to commit aggression on geopolitical rivals? Indeed, the weaponization of human rights as all-purpose Kalashnikovs is a hallmark of our current so-called civilization. Chief Seattle had a nobler vision: "We are all children of the Great Spirit, we all belong to Mother Earth. Our planet is in great trouble and if we keep carrying old grudges and do not work together, we will all die."

The great push-back against the cosmic scam of the “Great Reset” The coronavirus upheaval justifies posing fundamental questions. Do we want to go back to “business as usual”, do we want to pick up on a dysfunctional economic model? This is a historic opportunity to demand and implement cross-cutting changes in the system, demand that our governments cease wasting our limited resources in wars, missiles, drones, military bases, false flag and other criminal interventions. This is the time to draw on the experience of top economists like Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty to reorient the economy toward a coherent human-security paradigm that leaves no one behind. We can and must demand transparency and accountability from the authorities, whose responsibility it is to convert the economy into a sustainable people-centred institution that creates jobs in the health, education and services sectors. We must push-back against the embrace of Big Brother, globalism, militarism, totalitarianism, intrusive government surveillance, conformist culture and homologation, thought police and denunciation, fake news from government and the so-called “quality press”, fake law, fake history, censorship and self-censorship. We must push-back against efforts to turn us into mere numbers, robots, or “consumers”. Inaction against the social virus of conformism and indifference means surrendering the fundamental freedoms and human rights acquis that prior generations won for themselves and for us. This is no time to cop out, deceiving ourselves that things eventually will fall into place. This is the moment to rise up to the challenge, demand reasonable budgetary priorities, laws and regulations that place people above profits, demand ethics in foreign policy, an end to the insane arms race and criminal wars. All humans have a right to live in peace – not just ourselves, but also all the peoples that our governments assault, exploit and humiliate. We demand that public institutions promote and protect our privacy and family life. Both are under attack in flagrant violation of articles 17 and 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 10 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. We must assert our individual and collective right to our culture, identity and traditions. We demand from our democratically elected officials that they do what they were elected to do, that they represent us and not only the lobbies or the corporations. The alternative to action is reckless self-deception. The Romans already knew that mundus vult decipi – the world wants to be deceived. Let us not be deceived by the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset”, the latest scam to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. Even Julius Caesar warned about our blindness and our tendency to believe what we want to believe: Quae volumus, ea credimus libenter (De bello civili, 2, 27, 2). More than ever in 2021, we must demonstrate the courage of our convictions and learn to articulate our own ideas – notwithstanding the asphyxiating “political correctness” that undermines democratic governance. We need more whistleblowers that reveal the covers-up of criminals in government service.

 

Sapere aude! A lifetime of working for human rights -- as senior lawyer with the UN, Secretary of the Human Rights Committee, Chief of Petitions, Independent Expert on International Order, President of a human rights non-governmental organization, professor of human rights law and activist author -- confirms the truism that human rights are indeed interrelated and interdependent.  Yet, the oft repeated slogan that “all rights are equal” reveals itself as a poor platitude, manifesting an absence of a sense for proportions and discernment.  Human dignity necessarily dictates priorities -- a hierarchy of human rights based on common sense and mutual respect:  First and foremost the right to live in dignity, a commitment to promote and protect the sanctity of life, which encompasses physical integrity, the right to food, water, housing, healthcare, freedom from war, a human right to peace.  Secondly the right to freely develop one’s personality i.e. the right to be who you are, the right to your identity, and as a corollary the duty to respect the rights of others, sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas, the right to set the priorities of one’s life – that essential right of self-determination, free from artificial constraints imposed by government or society. All other human rights derive from these two categories and can be subsumed thereunder.

 

Biden must do everything he can to unite the country, because the prevailing polarization could lead to further violence in an already violent society. All those who call America home want the common good for all Americans, including the First Nations of the continent, the Crees, Cherokees, Dakotas, Sioux, Navajos, who remain the "unsung victims" of the country. We must overcome the un-American hostility between Democrats and Republicans and build bridges of dialogue, because it is not about A against B, but about A in cooperation with B in order to serve us all. Effective governance means compromise and does not function on the basis of unconditional surrender, or the “winner takes all” principle. Of course, this polarity is also a result of the two party system, of the so-called “representative democracy”, which alas, does not always represent us. It is in the interest of all Americans that government evolve into a participatory democracy with enhanced responsibility borne by the electorate. We should move step by step toward multiple political parties so that the voice of all the people is heard, so that democratic pluralism unfolds, so that minority issues are also addressed. Biden should strengthen the US Constitution and the rule of law, and take appropriate measures against the “seizure of power” by techno-giants, who are engaged in a profound manipulation of public opinion that corrupts and sabotages democracy. He must reject the cognitive dissonance of the mainstream media and revive the "marketplace of ideas". We are witnessing a slow slide into an Orwellian dystopia – which we can and must stop.

 

There is nothing more democratic than a referendum. Since I became a  Swiss citizen in 2017, I have voted in every municipal and federal referendum. This kind of hands-on democracy has engendered a very Swiss sense of citizen responsibility, of  identity, of belonging, of being taken seriously, of making a difference.  Although not personally concerned with the cultural issues so important to the people of the French-speaking Jura, I welcome the holding of a special referendum in the city of Moutier on 28 March 2021 and the decision taken by its population to leave the Canton of Bern and join the Jura Canton. This kind of democratic adjustment proves that the culture and identity of peoples and regions are more important than mere economic considerations. What happened in a peaceful and orderly fashion within the territory of Switzerland can happen just as peacefully in other European and world regions.  What counts in human rights terms are the will and the welfare of real persons, and not the artificial constructs of politicians.  The Moutier vote demonstrates that borders are not immutable and can be changed peacefully. It is time to recognize that the realization of the right of self-determination of peoples is a good recipe for local, regional and international peace and security. This precedent applies to the French-Canadians, the Scots, the Catalans, the Corsicans, the Southern Tyrolians, the Sahraouis, the Kurds, the Yemenis, the Tamils, the Kashmiris, the West Papuans, the Ryukyuans, Alaskans, Hawaiians, etc. These real persons are all entitled to decide their own futures.  UN-organized and monitored referenda would provide the best way for all peoples to exercise their right of self-determination laid down in article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

 

 

Comedy helps us come to terms with the antics of politicians, with their brazen lies and implausible rationales. Laughter is indeed the best medicine against the legitimate anger that we should feel against elected "representatives" who do not represent but only grandstand. Indeed, many politicians are like Moliere's Le Tartuffe, especially when they feign morality or piety, instrumentalize ethics or religion for career advancement. Every day we see how they weaponize human rights and humanitarian law to discredit geopolitical rivals and make their schemes of enforced "regime change" in other countries appear a fulfillment of democracy instead of a vulgar violation of international law. Many politicians destroy language by calling naked aggression a form of self-defence. They corrupt the administration of justice by engaging in lawfare against whistleblowers or anyone who dares tell the truth. They name impostors and call them legtitimate democratic representatives of other countries. This would not be all that pernicious if the narrative managers of the mainstream media did not echo the ridiculous arguments, which are all too easy to rebut. Yes, we live in dysfunctional democracies, where the press fails in its "watchdog" vocation and sanctify the crimes of government, transnational corporations, private security companies and mercenaries. All of this is enough to make any of us into Misanthropes as in Molière's comedy.

Not achieving a goal on the first, second or even the third try is hardly a tragedy.  Not consummating a desire is not necessarily a failure -- but can be a promise, an invitation to persevere. Actually, disappointment motivates us to reevaluate a situation, stimulates our imagination, prolongs the joy of anticipation, the challenge of striving with a firm hope of arriving. The journey may be strenuous -- and beautiful -- and spiritually more edifying than the closure that comes with reaching the destination, for completion is not only jubilation, but also mourning. While the achievement of a task does bring a measure of satisfaction, justifying a well earned pause -- jocundi acti labores! (Cicero) -- we should never rest on our laurels. It is best to continue striving in the present and for the future, for striving is vital. Gutta cavat lapidem! Perseverance is indeed a work of piety, an expression of faith, an affirmation of Being.

 

It is a sad fact that in spite of the lessons we could and should have learned from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Seneca's De Vita Beata, Juvenalis' Satires, Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly, Bartolomé de las Casas’ The Devastation of the Indies, Jean Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract, Voltaire’s Candide, Thoreau's Walden, Spengler’s The Decline of the West, Remarque’s All Quiet in the Western Front, Russell’s Power, Orwell's 1984, Galeano’s Open veins of Latin America, Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, Pilger’s Hidden Agendas, Zinn's People's History of the United States, Solomon’s War made Easy, Kinzer's Overthrow, Klein's The Shock Doctrine, Sachs' The Price of Civilization, Blum’s America’s Deadliest Export, Giriharadas' Winners Take All, and Snowden's Permanent Record – relatively little changes in the power equations that rule mankind. Notwithstanding the United Nations and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, social injustice prevails in most corners of the world.  It seems that Thucydides’ Melian dialogue in the Peloponnesian War remains as valid today as in the 5th century BC: “The strong do as they want, and the weak suffer what they must”. And yet, we must not give up striving to improve the world around us, to influence what realistically can be influenced, to contribute to change step by step, drop by drop. I cannot abandon the hope that if we stive toward micro-justice in our immediate environment, perhaps one day macro-justice will emerge triumphant. Gutta cavat lapidem!

All US governments, whether Republican or Democratic, have advocated risk-taking with no safety-net.  Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barak Obama, Donald Trump removed stockmarket regulations, condoned casino economics and speculation -- while privatizing hospitals and defunding health care.  Now we see the consequences. Will we return to pre-Covid "business as usual"? Economists at the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation and other neo-liberal establishments have dis-informed the public and propped up the Wall Street model. Maybe the post-Covid world will place people over profits and listen to other economists including Jeffrey Sachs, Josef Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty. Whether Trump/Pence or Biden/Harris we are condemned to continue on the neo-liberal looting of the planet and of the economy. Both parties share a fundamental consensus: Wall-Street first, militarism, unilateralism, exceptionalism, imperialism.

We can all agree that addictions are bad -- whether to alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, opiates, soft drinks, chips, junk food, etc. It is not only toxic but also unwise to become hooked on something that will restrict our independence, our judgment, our sense for proportions. Amazingly enough, no one seems particularly concerned about a new kind of addiction -- an obsession for "news", a scurrilous dependence which for many constitutes a source of stress and anxiety. Indeed, many experience a sense of impotence and exasperation because of our inability to "make a difference", to change anything around us. Besides our addiction to "news" there seems to be also a craving for "fake news", sensationalist news, a prurient interest in "conspiracy theories" and a sordid pleasure in character assassination. Watching “news” means immersing ourselves in virtual reality, which for most of us is a total waste of time, unless we consciously endeavour to arrive at an approximation of truth. In principle, comprehensive knowledge of the domestic and international issues should enable us to meaningfully contribute to democratic change, but this requires familiarity with a plurality of views and drawing from multiple sources and news services, contrasting them, making a synthesis of facts and opinion. Only thus can we responsibly demand accountability from our "democratically elected" officials. Of course, watching the nightly news has some kind of entertainment value -- akin to voyeurism. Echoing the nonsense we hear in CNN or Fox is of scarce value to anyone -- except, perhaps, to the advertisers. Isn't it time we acknowledge that life is not what is reported in the news, but what we experience ourselves, how we shape our personal relationships and activities, how we manage our ambitions and phobias?  Watching “news” is mostly a waste of time, a sterile form of surrogate living inhabited by irrelevant virtual pantomines.

In his novel Candide, Voltaire tells us to cultivate our garden.  Voltaire wants us to recast our priorities and tend to our spiritual needs,  cultivate the garden of our souls.  We should abandon the rat-race, consumerism and banal materialism. What matters is close to us—friends and family.  Fame goes by ever so quickly, sic transit gloria mundi ! That’s why Ovidius reminds us that the good life is a discrete life – bene vixit qui bene latuit (he lives well who hides best). Let us enjoy the good things of life, be thankful for every day, birdsong, trees, flowers, family and friends.

Bob Dylan's unanswered questions remain relevant today: "How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky? How many ears must one man have, before he can hear people cry?" Are the answers just blowing in the wind? Or are the answers gone with the wind and the clouds, gone with our tardy vestiges of human kindness and ethics? Media dis-information, wrong budgetary priorities, unpreparedness for emergencies, aggressive wars, military interventions, sanctions and blockades have smothered the "American dream". And as every war generates war-speculation and profiteering, natural disasters and the current Covid-19 crisis generate vultures -- pandemic vultures. How many deaths will it take 'til we know that too many people have died? Pete Seeger's ubi sunt lyrics also remain unanswered. "Where have all the flowers gone?" -- Gone to graveyards everyone. Will our leaders ever learn? Will we?

When I was growing up, I consciously looked for role models.  Frankly, I needed them, and I was grateful to have found some besides my father and older brother. It is quite necessary for young people to look up to someone, believe in something, borrow and develop a cosmology and epistemology. Now that I am a “senior”, I acknowledge that I have gradually discarded many of my earlier models, realizing that they too were only human and just as full of doubts and as capable of error as myself. I have revised, adjusted and fine-tuned my social and political stance.  I remember that as an eager-beaver teenager I found merit in the novels of Ayn Rand. It was not wrong, it appeared reasonable and heroic, but it took me many years to realize that, unfortunately, the “meritocracy” Ayn Rand imagined does not exist, because there is no level playing field and the system is rigged. Nevertheless, I have managed to hold on to a few of my earlier models – including George F. Kennan, Victor Gollancz, Ramsey Clark, Senator J. William Fulbright, my law professor Richard Baxter, Pope Paul VI, Jimmy Carter, Ron Paul and Noam Chomsky. Ultimately what matters is intellectual and emotional honesty -- with ourselves and others -- a moral compass, a faculty of empathy and a sense for proportions.

Media hype on pandemics, natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, desertification and other humanitarian crises is but vulgar voyeurism, unless accompanied by proof of international solidarity, concrete measures to help the victims, empathy and compassion.  What we need is practical ethics, honest humanitarianism as illustrated in the seven works of mercy, Matthew V, 1-9 and XXV, 35-36.  We can discard the narcissistic "philanthropy", grandstanding and ostentatious “humanitarian assistance”of some. Genuine humanitarian assistance has no ulterior purposes, no strings attached, no political or propagandistic value. In 2017 the UN Special Rapporteur on International Solidarity, Virginia Dandan, drafted a Declaration on the Human Right to International Solidarity, which the General Assembly has not yet adopted. High time to do so. We urgently need an end to economic warfare and chicanery -- concretely -- a lifting of all financial blockades and sanctions that weaken the ability of many governments to combat Covid-19 effectively. Meanwhile let us keep safe, help our neighbours, particularly the elderly -- and count our blessings.

Felix sua fata contentus (Horatius). The pursuit of happiness is not coterminous with the pursuit of pleasure. Happiness is a state of mind, a mode of being, the capacity to love and be loved, the warmth and security of family life, the trust of friends -- a gift of God. You can be happy even though you are poor and lack easy access to mundane pleasures, gadgets or paradise vacations. Happiness is a sense of gratefulness for being alive -- a consciousness of our existence, that we are part of the universe, which in itself is a miracle in its pantheistic splendour. By contrast, the recipe of hedonism is not the path to happiness.  Whether the sought-after pleasure be luxury, gourmandise, lust, sex, alcohol, drugs, sports, gaming, beautiful art, sculpture, Meissen porcelain, Bohemian chrystal, van Gogh paintings or even music and dance -- we can experience happiness only if we indulge in moderation, for there can be no sustainable joy if we know that we can have everything anytime we want it -- bottom line: we become blasé and a feeling of taedium vitae sets in. Precisely the fun part of living is in contrasts, the yin and yang, the joy of looking forward to future pleasures, welcoming the seasons, accepting surprises.  Epicurus (BC 341– 270) realized this and established his own school of philosophy, the "Garden". In the Roman Republic Lucretius (BC 99-55) championed moderation, showing compassion for nature and society, an optimistic consciousness of man’s place in the order of things. Cicero (BC 106-43) admired Lucretius’ De rerum natura (BC 60), as did Ovidius (BC 43- AD 18) in his Metamorphoses (AD 8), where we encounter not only Ovid's passion for nature but also the idea of empathy and the concept of the “white lie” (pia mendacia).  Seneca (BC 4 – 65 AD), despite being a Stoic, quotes Epicurus favourably in his Letters to Lucilius (AD 64) and achieves a reasonable synthesis of Stoicism and Epicurianism. And yet, the modern world seems to be full of narcissistic egoist hedonists -- sometimes called libertines or moral nihilists, from Casanova to Don Juan, Marquis de Sade, Rimbaud, Ernest Hemingway or even Picasso. My recipe for equanimity and longevity: there is no need to "give in" to caprices or temptation, bearing in mind that occasional abstinence cleans our bodies and minds of many toxins. Thus we can rediscover the joys of piety -- and not only during Lent. Remember, as the Stoic Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) observed "very little is needed to make a happy life." Hence, let us count our blessings rather than our afflictions. Happiness is not fame but consciousness of the good that surrounds us. Indeed, bene vixit, qui bene latuit (Ovidius)

When we are born, we are born into a world where -- it would seem -- everything has already been done before – someone had discovered fire, invented the wheel, decided that the there would be 7 days to the week, 24 hours to the day, that there would be 12 months in the year, an alphabet, a numbering system, musical notation, forks and knives, sewing needles, tennis rackets, telemark skis – even televisions, computers and artificial intelligence. We cannot reinvent these things, but should be grateful that we have them, enjoy them, build thereon. There is so much good that needs to be done in this world, so much that we can and should do --like taking on the challenge of implementing the Beatitudes (Matthew V, 1-9, Matthew XXV, 36-37)... Or, of course, we can destroy it all through hybris, injustice and nuclear weapons.

Felix culpa -happy fault. Pia fraus (pious fraud, white lie, Ovidius, Metamorphoses IX, 711), Noli desistere discere (Never stop learning). Sic ego non sine te nec tecum vivere possum (Ovidius, Amores 3, 11, 39) -- I can't live with our without you. Docendo discitur (learn by teaching). Rerum cognoscere causas (to learn the causes of things), Haec olim meminisse iuvabit (one day we will remember this with pleasure), Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant (where they make a wasteland, they call it peace), Sic transic gloria mundi(thus passes the glory of this world),
sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas (exercise your rights without hurting others) deliberando saepe perit occasio (if you deliberate too long, you lose the opportunity) nosce te ipsum (know yourself - Cicero)
Ne ad cras relinquendum quod hodie faciendum est (do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today) quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (who shall guard the guardians?) Juvenalis, Satiren, 6, 347-348 quae volumus, ea credimus libenter (we like to believe in what we want) Caesar, De bello civili 2, 27, 2 Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt! (perish those who have expressed our opinions before us!) Pecunia non olet (money does not smell) Suetonius Vita Vespasiani 23 ubi bene, ibi patria (home is where we are well) Cicero Tusculanae disputationes 5, 37, 108 Pulvis et umbra sumus (we are dust and shadow) Horatius, Odes 4, 7, 16 Nomen est omen (a name implies an omen) Plautus, Persa 625 lacrima nihil citius arescit (nothing dries sooner than tears) Cicero De Inventione 1, 56, 109 panem et circensis (bread and games) Juvenalis, Satiren 10, 81 Sapienti sat (a word to the wise suffices) Plautus, Persa 729 res ipsa loquitur (the matter speaks for itself) Cicero Pro Milone 20, 53 sumum ius summa iniuria (the strictest application of the law may be the greatest injustice) Cicero De officiis 1, 10, 33

Errare humanum est means that there is a human right to err.  Indeed, all progress follows trial and error, formulate a new hypothesis and try it out.  Hence errare aude! Have the courage to err!

Over the centuries, the Oracle at Delphi encouraged visitors to know themselves.  γνῶθι σεαυτόν. That is a big challenge, because knowing oneself requires independence of mind, confidence in one’s own judgment (sapere aude!), capacity of self-criticism, a healthy skepticism vis à vis mainstream "certainties", a grasp of our history and heritage, a sense of identity -- and the temerity to stand alone. Knowing oneself entails familiarity with our conscious and sub-conscious psyche, knowing our instincts and phobias.  This level of awareness empowers us to be individualists,  resolute about what we want, equipped with the courage to defend what we believe in, propose constructive change and demonstrate our mettle in articulating dissent.  It also presupposes a moral compass, which we learn from our parents, from religion, from an ethical upbringing. Individualism is not egoism, isolationism, seclusion, or yearning for a hermit existence of hikikomori. An individualist is ready to participate in and contribute to the community, without necessarily melting into it. Life is not just going through the motions, functioning as a robot, as a mere number among the multitude. In many Western countries, the doctrine of individualism is widely celebrated -- but seldom put into practice.  Alas, most social behaviour in our daily lives, clubs, vacation spots, school, university or the workplace manifests conformism, joining bandwagons, following fashion, observing “political correctness”, exercising self-censorship.  This does not seem to have much in common with the lip service we give to individualism.  Experience shows that genuine individualists risk harassment, ostracism, ridicule, intimidation. They are caricatured, called unpatriotic, traitors, intellectual terrorists. Thus, in an environment of inane consumerism, driven by fake news, fake history, fake law, fake diplomacy, fake democracy, it is hardly surprising that a form of fake individualism has also emerged. And yet individualism does remain a vital expression of our liberty and uniqueness.  It is a mode of Being -- of knowing ourselves. Nosce te ipsum.

-- 
Life’s worth is not measured in dollars. A person burdened with debts is not any less human than a billionaire, and may actually be happier.

There is no shame in changing one’s point of view. But it is a real  shame to persevere in error, once all evidence tells us we are wrong.

The Jesuit maxim "fortiter in re, suaviter in modo" (firm in action, gentle in manner) sounds reasonable – but try to practice it!  Most people are suaviter in re, fortiter in modo !

A purported good end does not justify any and all means. Surely when the means are evil, the achievement of the end becomes unethical.

We all know that the means utilized by the Jacobins during the French revolution were criminal. But were their ends really noble?  The means are remembered as La Terreur.  But  wasn’t the goal a form of secular absolutism, a dogmatism worse than that of the Bourbon kings and the Catholic Church?

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" – a valid maxim, even if Jefferson never said it.  Regardless of the author, we should believe it and act accordingly!

The colonization of North America by the Europeans never really ended. Unlike in Africa and Asia, there was no decolonization process. To this day indigenous peoples in North America live in a form of continued colonialism and subjugation. The Original Nations of the vast territories that became the United States and Canada were never restored to self-determination, independence and prosperity, partly because the European settlers became so numerous that the once ten million indigenous were decimated, despoiled and became minorities in their own lands. Their natural resources and fertile lands were looted, their crops were burned and their buffalo killed. The Algonquin, Cree, Dakota, Sioux, Squamish, Tlingit peoples that had given their names to the continent -- Alaska, Chicago, Kansas, Manhattan, Mississippi, Ottawa, Potomac, Toronto, Saskatchewan, Seattle, Winnipeg, Wisconsin, Yosemite -- succombed to massacres, disease, destruction of their homes and sustenance, banished into so-called "Indian reservations". This was a "clash of civilizations" like the world had rearely witnessed. History books did not describe the onslaught as genocide, but celebrated it as expansion of European culture, even if this meant ruin for the once prosperous indigenous societies. Only recently a timid awareness of the injustice is emerging, but will this consciousness stop the ongoing cultural genocide and the destruction of indigenous living space and identities´? Ward Churchill's (City Lights Books), David Stannard's (Oxford) and Tamara Starblanket's (Clarity Press) books are eye-openers.

John Donne (1572-1631) wrote "Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." And indeed, when the mainstream media engage in blatant war propaganda (prohibited by article 20(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), when the military-industrial complex continues to fuel wars all over the world, when war profiteers sell weapons to Saudi Arabia to murder more Yemeni children, when we tolerate the medieval sieges of Gaza, Cuba, Syria, Venezuela, when we allow unilateral sanctions and extraterritorial application of imperialistic national legislation, when these sanctions asphyxiate the economies of states and constitute "collective punishment", deliberately aimed at causing death by malnutrition and lack of medicine, when we continue polluting our planet -- the bells will be tolling for us and our children, and we will hear the Dies Irae trumpets of Hector Berlioz' Requiem and a slow Pie Jesu Domine. Thus, let us work for a culture of peace as envisaged in the UN Charter and the UNESCO Constitution. Let us endeavour to make our planet cooler, save our remaining rain forests, protect and restore our environment -- for us and generations to come.

 

Jorge Luis Borges imagined paradise as a vast library ("siempre imaginé que el Paraíso sería algún tipo de biblioteca"). I particularly look forward to visiting the music department of that library with high fidelity recordings of Birgit Nilsson, Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, Renée Fleming, Renata Tebaldi, angels singimg Bach cantatas and Händel oratorios, and the immortal Herbert von Karajan conducting Mozart's "exultate jubilate", Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony", Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" and Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture" (Gaudeamus igitur!).

In order to discover new horizons, it is necessary to let go of the shore, sail toward the unknown and little known, have the courage to be shipwrecked, but keep a lifevest handy and never give up the animus to start again. No one should waste time dreaming other people’s dreams, echoing what others say, following the “flavour of the month”.  It is much more rewarding – and genuine -- to follow our own instincts, think by ourselves, make our own choices, live our own lives. We can better inter-relate with others, be better friends and partners if we know who we are and what we want. Nosce te ipsum!

Conscious existence entails moving in and out of the box, questioning our “certainties”, imagining exotic scenarios, dreaming the possible and the impossible and devising strategies toconcretize our imagination.  Allegories, fiction, metaphors, parables – all enrich our reality.

As we grow up we gradually evolve from innocence and naiveté to a measure of realism and stoicism. When we are 20 we are full of adrenalin, enthusiasm, optimism and like to look up to role models, heroes, halls of fame, iconographies of courage, virtuous causes ... By the time we are 30, we begin to shed some illusions and honour fewer heroes. By the time we reach 40 we realize that most of our heroes were hardly knights in shining armour and even they had their negative facets, after all. By the time we are 50 we start asking ourselves why we ever thought that a given personality deserved our admiration, why were we so receptive to caricatures in the media and history books. By the time we make 60 we know that we have been programmed to believe in some politicians (and look down on others), manipulated to accept historical icons and certain convenient socio-economic myths (like the invisible hand of the market). By the time we are 70 we have come to terms with the fact that we have been lied to for most of our lives -- resigned to the fact that previous generations have gone through a similar process of indoctrination and disenchantment -- as probably will be the fate of succeeding generations. And if we ever survive to 80 or 90 -- we may look back at the world and smile at it all in taciturn equanimity. The Romans had a cool philosophy -- nil admirari, which would sound good to the adagio of Mahler's Third Symphony.

Desire is a manifestation of vitality, of the drive that keeps us going. An absence of desire is a form of non-being, a false nirvana, or perhaps a symptom of depression.There is something bitter-sweet about desire, yearning, longing, fantasizing. How wonderful it is to nurture these instincts and let ourselves be seduced by our imagination.


Overachievement -- even heroism -- may spring from natural talent, discipline, conscience, religious fervour -- and sometimes from indignation, a sense of duty, a commitment to redress injustice. It can also arise from a sense of vulnerability -- even from an inferiority complex. Ergo, let all persons marshal their talents and emotions, cultivate courage, a sense of human solidarity -- and also tackle their phobias to compensate as constructively and ethically as they can.

It takes temerity to escape meaningless automatisms, the soporifics of office routines, addiction to "breaking news", habits of competition instead of cooperation. Escaping from the “always busy syndrome” also means breaking with artificial expectations and constraints, "political correctness", consumerism, the induced urge to possess the latest gadgets, collect trinkets, satisfy every whim, also the headless drive toward hedonism, gourmandizing, pleasure-seeking, vanitas vanitatis. Breaking the chains of conformist behaviour means awakening to essentials, to what is important to each one of us as conscious individuals and not programmed robots – awakening to what is crucial to us as vectors in organized society, with both rights and responsibilities. We escape from tinsel and trash deliberately and in full consciousness of its implications -- returning to common sense and moderation, ne quid nimis, finding a middle way between stoicism and epicureanism. Only by escaping can we be ourselves, shape our own future, achieve our potential.

Philosophy is not just the search for "the meaning of life" -- whatever that means -- but the autodidact process of discovering our own self -- γνῶθι σεαυτόν -- as inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, knowing our needs, our priorities, our strengths and weaknesses, and striving toward proportion and equanimity μηδὲν ἄγαν, nothing in excess. Philosophy teaches us how to use our rational faculties, how to exercise the courage of our convictions, sapere aude (Kant), how to correct our own faults, and how to wage spiritual warfare against nihilism. Practical philosophy means learning how to make life meaningful for ourselves and our loved ones. as Cicero wrote Sapientia est ars vivendi.

Life is not a computer program. It is a continuum of miracles in every impulse, in every mood. It is a project of galactic scope and olympian worth -- impossible to grasp in its infinite complexity and beauty.

Truth is in the nuances

Violations of international law do not abrogate international law - they merely signal the impotence of international law against the determination of criminal aggressors.

Some human rights are more important than the right to property, the right to invest and the right to make a profit.

The mainstream narrative is remarkably simple: "socialism is a failed model". But it worked well enough in Norway, Sweden, Denmark – and in China, where tens of millions of Chinese were saved from extreme poverty?

 

The art of living entails learning how to survive in spite of all the madness that surrounds us.  The world has always been unjust, full of predators and criminals. Prudence requires taking precautionary measures, but it does not suggest that we should give up or join the predators. 
The niveau of the current media narrative is abysmal -- journalists and politicians prefer denunciation to truth, caricatures instead of facts in proper context

the media has a cavalier relationship to truth and engages mostly in name-calling instead of reasoned debate.

The narrative is not the news, the narrative is propaganda.

Monuments falsify history.


Tyche brings us cornucopia -- when we are no longer hungry.
Physiological processes have a logic that, frankly, puts our human logic to shame.


Sisyphus is a genial chap who should have earned redemption long ago; but maybe he’d be bored if deprived of the challenge of rolling the rock.


Obsession with power is basically obsession with its abuse.


Power is an end in itself.


Modern families ought to be careful not to throw the parents out together with the bath water.


Today’s problems are not caused merely by faulty economy or ecology, but even more by the “egology” of greed.


The Logos facilitates understanding Bio, Eco, Geo and Theo – and could invite Ego to some self-criticism.


We need to elaborate a new discipline of enlightened “egology”
Errare humanum est means that there is a human right to err.  Indeed, all progress follows trial and error, formulate a new hypothesis and try it out.  Hence errare aude! Have the courage to err!


We ought to summon our humility before the majesty of Planet Earth and turn away from wanting to possess it, build fences, reduce it to consumerism.  Nature is poetry and we should not spray graffiti on it.


Populists are better democrats than elites.  At least they try to listen to the people.


Politics is the art of choosing the lesser of multiple evils.


Success corrupts, failure demoralizes


The means can desecrate the ends.


Universal hate guarantees a kind of immortality.


“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” (Shakespeare) – indeed, being a politician is risky business.


A broken clock gives you the correct time twice a day.


Human beings have many commonalities, but perhaps their lowest common denominator is egoism.


In this world there are optimists and realists.


Listening to the crescendo of fake news in the mainstream media, we witness a diminuendo in their credibility.


Carpe amorem, search love, seek the occasion, seize the opportunity to love and let it happen, let love and be loved when it comes.

Human rights vandals spray graffiti on human dignity and call it “progressive”.  Some ngo’s are no better than common hoodlums, destroyers of language, destroyers of meaning, well poisoners.

Modern societies are characterized by intelectual gymnastics that remind us of Orwell’s “newspeak”. Language has been hijacked to allow the hijacking of “democracy”, “human rights” the “rule of law”.

The weaponization of human rights has transformed the individual and collective entitlement to assistance, protection, respect and solidarity -- based on our common human dignity and equality -- into a hostile arsenal to target competitors and political adversaries. In the stockpile of weaponized human rights, the technique of "naming and shaming" has become a sort of ubiquitous Kalashnikov. Experience shows, however, that naming and shaming fails to alleviate the suffering of victims and only satisfies the strategic aims of certain governments, non-governmental organizations and of a burgeoning human rights industry that instrumentalize human rights for the purpose of destabilizing others and often enough to facilitate "regime change", regardless how undemocratic that may sound and notwithstanding the customary international law principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign States. This strategy rests on the false premise that the "namer" somehow possesses moral authority and that the "named" will recognize this moral superiority and act accordingly. Theoretically this could function if the "namer" were to practice "naming and shaming" in a non-selective manner and refrain from obvious double-standards. Alas, the technique frequently backfires, because the "namer" has its own skeletons in the closet. This classical example of intellectual dishonesty usually stiffens the resistance of the "named", who will be even less inclined to take any measures to correct alleged violations. Another technique of norm-warfare is what is termed "lawfare", whereby the "law" is used to subvert the rule of law, and international criminal law is instrumentalized to demonize certain leaders and not others. A self-respecting judge would not betray the profession by playing this kind of game -- but some do, and instead of safeguarding the ethos of the rule of law these politiized judges corrupt it (remember Roland Freisler's Volksgerichtshof!) thus undermining the credibility of the entire system.

The arsenal of weaponized human rights also includes non-conventional wars such as economic wars and sanctions regimes, ostensibly justified on the alleged human rights violations of the targeted State. The result is that, far from helping the victims, entire populations are held hostage --victims not only of violations by their own governments, but also of "collective punishment" by the sanctioning State(s). This can entail crimes against humanity, when as a consequence food security is impacted, medicines and medical equipment are rendered scarce or are available only at exorbitant prices. Demonstrably, economic sanctions kill. Under certain conditions, "naming and shaming" involve further violations of human rights and the rule of law, contravening Arts. 6, 14, 17, 19 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and could reach the threshold of what is termed "hate speech" (Art. 20) .
Bottom line: "naming and shaming" is a thoroughly ineffective instrument of change. States and ngo's would do well to revisit Matthew VII, 3-5 and replace the obsolete "naming and shaming" technique by good faith proposals and constructive recommendations, accompanied by the offer of advisory services and technical assistance so as to concretely help the victims on the ground. Sowing honesty and friendship is best to reap cooperation and progress in human rights terms. What is most needed today is mature diplomacy, result-oriented negotiations, a culture of dialogue and mediation, instead of this petulant culture of grandstanding, intransigence and holier-than-thou pretense that help no one.

Political parties survive because people have a psychological need to believe in something and to look up to someone, a need that is then directed to the political leadership. Remarkably enoughm peple continue believing even when they have seen that politicians shamelessly lie and do not deserve their trust.

Hope creates a form of irreality that persists in spite of all evidence.

Hope trumps reality and sustains a dreamworld that dies hard.

The much cited and frequently ignored principle audiatur et altera pars (all sides must be heard) is more than a stale Latin principle of penal law, more than a mere procedural rule, more than just dialectics.  It is a fundamental methodology necessary for every scholarly, scientific, political, journalistic activity, applicable to lawyers, politicians, historians, journalists, sociologists, psychologists, psychologists, mathematicians or even physicists.  It is impossible to arrive at an understanding of the nature of things, to reveal the root causes of phenomena, unless the judge, researcher, observer, commentator takes all pertinent factors into account in a dispassionate and objective manner, sine ira et studio (without hate or zeal,Tacitus, Annals 1,1).
It is impossible to understand Marxism, Communism, Trotskyism, Fascism, Nazism, Maoism, Trumpism -- unless one examines the plurality of views, listens to arguments on all sides and accepts that there is good in the bad and bad in the good.  Black-and-white caricatures of ideologies or historical movements are unhelpful. A priori demonization of the adversary renders discussion futile.  Moreover, it is important to diligently uncover hidden facts, and attempt to grasp them in their context and implications, to listen to the spectrum of opinions – the plausible and the improbable ones.  What is crucial is neutrality in evaluating both the facts and multiple possible interpretations. There are  intelligible reasons why otherwise reasonable people may be drawn toward what we would consider abhorrent philosophies or movements.  Simple explanations and pejorative labels only confuse us further.  We must beware of shortcuts, popular neologisms, and appeals to the emotions, aware that popular narratives are plagued by brazen and subliminal intellectual dishonesty.
In brief: the principle audiatur et altera pars serves as a fundamental instrument of fairness, a concrete demonstration of respect for the humanity of others, an acknowledgement that there is a human right to truth, which requires honest truth-seeking and not dogmatism.   Indeed, audiatur el altera pars merits recognition as rule of ethics and civilised existence, because refusal to listen to others undermines credibility, revealing an undemocratic bearing of arrogance, bad faith, insolence, intransigence, even aggression --  in deliberate contravention of the universal principles of equality, justice and human dignity

Falling in love just happens -- inadvertently -- as we become "victims" of our own fantasies, idealizations, illusions, infatuations, passions. Sometimes we really go out of our way to seek out temptation, showing a good measure of temerity. What follows is that bitter-sweet stadium -- commonly diagnosed as "being in love," an ambiguous and unstable state -- marked by elation, euphoria, mild confusion, even gloom. Mercifully this capricious state is transitory. Loving as a state of being transcends instincts and automatism – requires daily cultivation, listening, forgiving, respecting – and, yes, unlike in the famous film and song -- it also improves by saying "I'm sorry" -- and meaning it! Staying in love gives meaning to life -- day after day -- and renders incomparable rewards.

"Getting away with it" does not render blatant aggression any less criminal. The prevailing impunity of the powerful does not legalize their crimes. Fake news and fake law ultimately will not prevail. Geopolitical crimes such as economic sanctions that cause the death of children from malnutrition or of adults from lack of medicines are really crimes against humanity. The intellectually dishonest practice of invoking "humanitarian intervention" as a pretext to impose regime change does not generate any legal precedent -- ex injuria non oritur jus-- nor make military aggression somehow "legitimate". Of course, the rule of law and international order are wounded -- but they are not killed. Punishment still awaits the offenders whenever the International Criminal Court is prepared to take the Rome statute seriously and to prosecute the big fish and not just defeated enemies or ousted politicians. Neither "exceptionalism" nor "legal black holes" are compatible with the international human rights treaty regime. Aggression remains the ultimate crime, because it leads to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yet, the merchants of death in the military-industrial-financial complex love their wars and their profits.

“Fake news” is a widespread phenomenon – not only in Europe and the United States, but all over the planet. “Fake news” are invented and disseminated by governments, supposedly “independent journalists”, private media, social media. So emerges “fragmented truth” and no one really knows what truth is, everyone clings to his own views, refusing to consider alternative versions of the facts. Only reluctantly will we acknowledge that “fake news” have always been around, the difference being that in the past only governments were purveyors of fake news, only governments could manipulate public opinion, whereas today anybody with access to the internet can also weigh in.  This in turn has generated “fake history”, which feeds into the steady flow of fake news.  But why is no one talking  about “fake law”? Indeed, politicians and journalists frequently “invent” law, contending that what some lobby or interest group invokes as law actually has legal force, as if law and legal obligations could spontaneously arise, without the drafting, negotiation and adoption of a treaty, convention, or without a specific legislative act by Parliament. We must beware of the loose use of legal terms, which undermine the authority and credibility of the law.  Not every massacre constitutes “genocide”, not every bombardment of a military objective falls into the category of a “war crime”, not every form of sexual harassment can be considered “rape”.  Nor is every jailed politician a “political prisoner”, nor every migrant a “refugee” under the Geneva Refugee Convention.  And yet, much hyperbole and political agitation play out on this pseudo-legal arena, much political blackmail is practiced on the basis of fake “law”, much propaganda is actually believed by average citizens.  All too often we are confronted by a combination of fake news, fake history and fake law, a very toxic cocktail for any democracy.  Alas, fake law has become a favourite weapon of demagogues and fake “experts” and “diplomats” who gleefully engage in what may be termed “fake diplomacy”, as the goal is not to reach a reasonable negotiated settlement, but rather to score points on the gladiator arena of power-politics, with the dutiful collusion of a sold-out and fickle media. Thus continues the game of sabre-rattling and many make fortunes in the process, since nothing is as lucrative as the arms business. Is there a solution? Demagogues would establish an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth”, others would criminalize “fake news” (but only inconvenient "fake news"), others would pretend to filter facts and opinion using self-made tools to determine what is true and what isn’t.  No one needs this kind of Inquisition and censorship, because neither governments nor the private sector can be gatekeepers of the truth. The only solution is ensuring access to pluralistic information and open debate.  Society must demand greater transparency at all levels and proactively seek the truth by consulting multiple sources and making a new synthesis, which will not be “revealed truth” or “immutable truth”, but a constantly evolving truth that incorporates the complexity and nuances of reality on the ground.

The best rule of thumb is the Delphian oracle Παν μέτρον άριστον

Holding on to political loyalties is a bit like reaffirming religious faith, a kind of pious fanaticism, which in itself is harmless, as long as it does not go beyond simple rooting for a sporting club or team. All of us need to believe in something, and we try to hang on to a political credo for as long as we can, until we experience an epiphany, followed by disappointment, anger and finally equanimity. Whatever we do, we should endeavour to keep a sense for proportions, what the Greeks at Delphos knew as Παν μέτρον άριστον.

Libertinism is not freedom. Hedonism is not happiness. Populism is not democracy -- neither is elitism. Competition is not the mother of progress.  Only competition in alliance with conscious cooperation can achieve results, otherwise what could be progress might ultimately result in regression, as philanthropy can be misanthropic, and productivity can degenerate into the tyranny of agendas and deadlines at the expense of spontaneity. The faster we go, the more of life we waste. Being -- just being -- is so much more important than doing!

Objectivity means neutrality at the outset, rigorous methodology, honest effort to listen to all sides, practicing audiatur et altera pars, seeking pluralistic and reliable sources, double-checking of facts, consulting experts with different opinions, accepting unsuspected, inconvenient truths, challenging mainstream "certainties", weighing all evidence in good faith, arriving at a balanced conclusion, having the courage to publicly express that conclusion, notwithstanding insults, defamation, humiliation, always committed to a notion of veritas as a frank approximation of truth, not selective truth, but truth in context and perspective, offered for discussion in humility and equanimity.

“Fake news” is a widespread phenomenon – not only in Europe and the United States, but all over the planet. “Fake news” are invented and disseminated by governments, supposedly “independent journalists”, private media, social media. So emerges “fragmented truth” and no one really knows what truth is, everyone clings to his own views, refusing to consider alternative versions of the facts. Only reluctantly will we acknowledge that “fake news” have always been around, the difference being that in the past only governments were purveyors of fake news, only governments could manipulate public opinion, whereas today anybody with access to the internet can also weigh in.  This in turn has generated “fake history”, which feeds into the steady flow of fake news.  But why is no one talking  about “fake law”? Indeed, politicians and journalists frequently “invent” law, contending that what some lobby or interest group invokes as law actually has legal force, as if law and legal obligations could spontaneously arise, without the drafting, negotiation and adoption of a treaty, convention, or without a specific legislative act by Parliament. We must beware of the loose use of legal terms, which undermine the authority and credibility of the law.  Not every massacre constitutes “genocide”, not every bombardment of a military objective falls into the category of a “war crime”, not every form of sexual harassment can be considered “rape”.  Nor is every jailed politician a “political prisoner”, nor every migrant a “refugee” under the Geneva Refugee Convention.  And yet, much hyperbole and political agitation play out on this pseudo-legal arena, much political blackmail is practiced on the basis of fake “law”, much propaganda is actually believed by average citizens.  All too often we are confronted by a combination of fake news, fake history and fake law, a very toxic cocktail for any democracy.  Alas, fake law has become a favourite weapon of demagogues and fake “experts” and “diplomats” who gleefully engage in what may be termed “fake diplomacy”, as the goal is not to reach a reasonable negotiated settlement, but rather to score points in the fickle media, continue the game of sabre-rattling and make money in the process. Is there a solution? Certainly NOT the establishment of an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth”, nor the criminalization of “fake news”, nor the hopeless undertaking to filter facts and determine what is true and what isn’t.  No one needs this kind of Inquisition and censorship, because neither governments nor the private sector can be gatekeepers of the truth. The only solution is ensuring access to pluralistic information and open debate.  Society must demand greater transparency at all levels and proactively seek the truth by consulting multiple sources and making a new synthesis, which will not be “revealed truth” or “immutable truth”, but a constantly evolving truth that incorporates the complexity and nuances of reality on the ground.

Human rights condottieri abound, filling the ranks of national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations, universities, think tanks, ministries, United Nations, European, American, African human rights commissions and committees. A vast human rights industry has emerged and expanded, attracting not only those persons genuinely committed to the promotion of human dignity, equity, justice, social peace, solidarity -- but also some who are interested in well-paying jobs and the non-monetary remuneration of club-membership in a synergy of operatives who nurture the illusion of belonging to the avant-garde, the club of “progressives”, the “enlightened”, the “good guys”.  Over my 45 years experience in  human rights ngo’s, universities and United Nations institutions,  I have met too many mercenaries who do not practice what they preach, who behave like intolerant ideologues and actually mob their peers, intimidate, humiliate and show contempt for those who do aim at the practical application of human rights.  As in any business, there is considerable pressure toward conformism, to go along with what donors demand, to bow to the wishes of lobbies, join "band wagons" and “the flavor of the month”. Those who disagree or simply are reluctant to "pull the rope" must pay a price, choose between self-censorship, ostracism, or perseverance in a Quixotic drive to truth.  Hypocrisy is not a 21st century invention -- it has been part of the human condition since time immemorial. Notwithstanding the above, there are genuine human rights advocates -- in national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations, universities, think tanks, ministries and expert commissions. These unsung heroes for humanity deserve our solidarity and respect. I remember fondly my UN chiefs Jakob Möller, Theo van Boven, Kurt Herndl, Jan Martenson, Jose Ayala Lasso, Bertie Ramcharan -- I learned much from them, especially that human rights must never be instrumentalized as weapons against others. The moment that human rights cease to be seen as positive entitlements and constructive impulses but become instead tools to dismantle political enemies, the whole philosophy of human dignity and solidarity is undermined. Our resolution for 2018: demonstrate on a daily basis the 3 p's for human rights: patience, perseverance and passion.

The rule of law is a pillar of stability, predictability and democratic ethos. Its object and purpose is to serve the human person and progressively achieve human dignity in larger freedom.

However, because law reflects power imbalances, we must ensure that the ideal of the rule of law is not instrumentalized simply to enforce the status quo, maintain privilege, and the exploitation of one group over another. The rule of law must be a rule that allows flexibility and welcomes continuous democratic dialogue to devise and implement those reforms required by an evolving society. It must be a rule of conscience and of listening.
Throughout history law has been all too frequently manipulated by political power, becoming a kind of dictatorship of law, where people are robbed of their individual and collective rights, and the law itself becomes the instrument of their disenfranchisement. Experience has taught us that law is not coterminous with justice and that laws can be adopted and enforced to perpetuate abuse and cement injustice. Accordingly, any appeal to the rule of law should be contextualized within a human-rights-based framework.
Already in Sophocles' Antigone we saw the clash between the arbitrary law of King Creon and the unwritten law of humanity. Enforcing Creon's unjust law brought misery to all. In roman times the maxim dura lex sed lex (the law is hard but it is the law) was mellowed by Cicero's wise reminder that summum jus summa injuria (highest law is highest injustice, de Officiis 1, 10, 33), i.e. blind application of the law may cause great injustice.  The argument that "the law must be obeyed" has been challenged by human rights heroes for thousands of years. Spartacus fought against the Roman slave laws and paid with his life. Slavery remained constitutional and legal until the nineteenth century; colonialism was constitutional and legal until the decolonization of the 1950's and 60's; the Nuremberg laws of 1935 were constitutional and legal;Apartheid was constitutional and legal; segregation in the US was constitutional and legal (see, for instance, the US Supreme Court judgment Plessy v. Ferguson).  Civil disobedience by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mohamed Bouozizi were legitimate and necessary to initiate reforms -- but they all suffered the consequences of opposing blind positivism, the fetishism of the rule of law. 
Democracy in the 21st century requires that the rule of law cease being the rule of the elites, the rule that might makes right. The rule of law must evolve into the rule of justice.

“Progressive” is an over-used adjective with many positive connotations. Now, does it always entail the promotion of Progress? In contemporary “newspeak” the label progressive has mutated into an all-purpose tag to describe certain drifts and fashions, which actually entail regression to the pre-civilized state of non-law, non-values, “anything goes”. Truly progressive politics mean socially-responsible strategies which make use of science and technology to advance the well-being of mankind, to promote equity and peace. Yet, the label “progressive” is being used to imply acceptance of socially destructive practices, including legalized pornography, sex “education” of minors, easy access to soft- and hard-drugs, nudity, exhibitionism, voyeurism, promiscuity, adultery, same-sex “marriage”, and abortion ad libitum. Regression to Sodom and Gomorrah, Dionysian orgies, and Palaeolithic infanticide are currently promoted as a form of “liberation” from moral constraints in the name of “modernity” or even “progress”. Civilization, however, is precisely the recognition that ethics, moderation, proportion and self-restraint are necessary: Μέτρον άριστον. Because light is an allegory of truth, true progress must be illuminated by the light of truth and not overshadowed by transitory lust and avarice.

International human rights treaty law mandates inter alia the protection of human life, the promotion of the family and respect for religious convictions.  Notwithstanding these clear norms of hard law, some governments are busy curtailing pro-life, pro-family and pro-religion activities under the pretext of advancing (imposing) secularism and enforcing the catch-all goal of “non-discrimination”.  This is done through arbitrary interpretations of the norms, sometimes in an unreasonably restrictive, other times in an unimaginably expansive manner, essentially corrupting the language of the norms so that the words lose their intended meaning.  The result undermines the object and purpose of treaty provisions and erodes the State's duty to respect the sanctity of life. The proposed "newspeak" promotes abortion under the contradictory rubric "reproductive rights", same-sex unions as a form of "marriage" (which is specifically defined in article 23 ICCPR as the union of a man and a woman), and even penalizes the teaching the Bible (a grave violation of religious freedom, guaranteed in article 18 ICCPR). In a scenario of cognitive dissonance, pro-life, pro-family and pro-religion are even defamed in a bizarre way as contrary to human rights.  But what human rights are here at issue?  There is no human right to abortion (which in some instances is a euphemism for infanticide), nor any human right to adopt children (article 24 ICCPR and the convention on the rights of the child place the interests of the child -- not of the "parents" -- as paramount, including the right of the child to have a safe childhood with affective links to a mother and a father, and free of potentially traumatic stress).These are not only matters of morals, but of the sanctity of life and of the dignity of the human person.  Hence each State must legislate in accordance with established human rights obligations laid down in the ICCPR and ICESCR.  Although persecuting religious persons for their beliefs and traditional values undoubtedly contravenes human rights law, in some countries so-called “hate speech” laws are actually being instrumentalized to restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of a significant part of the population.  Such restrictions are incompatible with articles 17, 18, 19, 23 and 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  Moreover, accusing practicing Christians of preaching “hate speech” constitutes in itself a form of “hate speech” against Christians, who are being discriminated in a manner that also violates their rights under article 26 ICCPR.   

Multiculturalism must begin with knowledge of one’s own values, heritage, history and identity.  Only thus can we understand and appreciate other cultures.  The kind of enforced multiculturalism being promoted by some so-called “progressive” politicians and echoed by the mainstream media is something entirely different – it is the new culture of homologation through bullying and intimidation, a recipe for misanthropic negationism:  the denial of one’s identity, discarding one’s own culture as somehow obsolete, and the suggestion to replace it by n’importe quoi, often some transient fashion, “flavor of the month”, or worse, by submission to a new “faith”, which upon analysis may be a cop-out. a sect or a cult of nihilism. Human dignity is identity, the right to be ourselves, the right to live out our culture, our religion, our transcendence. UNESCO defends this right of each and every one of us to be who we are and not to be subjected to cultural imperialism. The only kind of multiculturalism that works is the multiculturalism of free peoples, e.g. in Switzerland, where 26 cantons are populated by urban and rural peoples speaking German, French, Italian and rheto-romanche, living side by side, each canton cultivating its own traditions while respecting the customs and practices of its neighbours. This multicultural society has had no problem welcoming a limited number of Tamils, Serbs, Albanians, Kosovars, Êritreans — and helping them participate in Swiss traditions. The much praised American “melting pot” is not a success story of integration, but rather an enormous supermarket or consumer cooperative– a hybrid society of elite universities, widespread homelessness and trigger-happy cops.  It has produced Rock and Roll and  MacDo — but thus far no Beethoven in sight.

Monogamy has many rewards. True partnership in marriage flourishes when two competing "I's" converge into one continuously completing "we", replacing selfish jealousy, sterile reproach and do ut des syndromes by the more congenial habits of respect, trust, moral support, and that felicitous conjugal passion of understanding in serenity. Couples in love listen to each other, exercise day-to-day empathy, patience, learn to anticipate each other's wishes, instinctively saying what needs to be said and sensing when it is more beautiful just to keep silent. A wink, a smile, a good measure of humour improve the recipe for living two in one. Sharing is the key -- talking, singing, praying, cooking, gardening, cycling, hiking, skiing, swimming -- together! It is fun to build a conjugal cosmos that engenders its own music -- and more. Who does not admire the albatross for its constancy and fidelity? Prophets of the new gender ideology fail to see that they are travelling an uncharted road that ultimately may lead to manifestations of misogyny and misanthropy -- an artificial and bizarrely insensitive path away from the natural joys of living one's identity in diversity. Vive la différence!

Music is often an expression of love, passion, compassion, yearning, awe, rhythm. It can also be a celebration of national identity and a protest against foreign aggression, intervention, domination. Tschaikovsky's 1812 Overture is a hymn of defiance against the Napoleonic invasion, so too Prokofiev's Opera War and Peace, based on Leo Tolstoy's epic. Sibelius' Finlandia is a reaffirmation of Finnish identity to counteract Tsar Nicholas' abolition of Finnish autonomy in 1899. Smetana's Vltava (the Moldau) from the suite Ma Vlast was a pure product of the Czech 19th century cultural Renaissance. Wagner's Meistersinger celebrates traditional German culture and values, a positive patriotism that laughts at human foibles and makes an earnest warning about losing the values consecrated in art. "Spirituals" and "Soul" are eloquent expressions of the self-determination and vigour of the oppressed African-Americans. So too indigenous songs of the Sioux, Cree and Mapuche.

"Fake news" and "post-truth" are popular neologisms -- but they have actually been part of the political landscape for long.  What is far more worrisome is the phenomenon that there are "real facts" that cry out for action, e.g. massive tax evasion, corporate bribery, economic exploitation, ecocide, extreme poverty, exorbitant military expenses, primitive war-mongering, aggression, unilateral sanctions, social exclusion -- and yet these facts are largely ignored or trivialized by politicians and media alike, because they are somehow “inconvenient”.  Sooner or later, however, these “facts without consequences" will engender an imbalance and a destabilizing sense of incoherence.  When important facts are deliberately kept out of the political narrative, this quite naturally generates "populism", because, as Spinoza wrote in his Ethics, “nature abhors a vacuum”.  No wonder that when the elites ignore facts, the vacuum is filled by populists. The phenomenon of selective indignation and application of the law à la carte predictably subverts the system of governance and makes societies lose faith in the rule of law, or at least in the "establishment". The attempt to deal with "fake news" through censorship and “hate speech” legislation is futile and will only lead to totalitarianism. What is needed is easier access to all pertinent information and pluralistic views, more open debate -- not less!  The internet must remain free of political controls - whether by government or the private sector. There must not be "filters" to test the truth of digital exchanges. The only legitimate controls are those to suppress pornography, racketeering and other scams -- not to suppress the dissemination of factual information that the mainstream media deliberately ignore, nor to suppress an alternative interpretation of facts.  What we need is a “culture of civilized dissent” – where everyone can express his/her opinions without the threat of career death and social ostracism.  We need to reaffirm the right to be wrong -- because only by preserving the possibility to err do we remain independent. Artistic, scientific, sociological progress depends on the freedom to postulate hypothesis, different models, different perspectives -- which sometimes will be correct and sometimes not. But a failed hypothesis cannot be criminalized. The alternative is stagntion in homologation, robotization, Orwellian dystopia. The conformism of the current Zeitgeist is unworthy of democratic societies.  It is up to us to vindicate the right to know and the right to dissent.  That is the freedom we want.

Facts without consequendes are that category of reality -- known to politicians and media alike -- available in the internet and acknowledged -- but only under the tacit condition that no action may follow thereon. It is worse than a conspiracy of silence. It is a conspiracy of irresponsibility.

Electoral extravaganzas, “bandwagon” politics, “populist” competition, “amusement park” catering, “bargain basement” deals, “change for the sake of change”, “lobby democracy”, “team loyalty”, and “the lesser of two evils” ballot-box syndrome are not very likely to deliver democratic governance.  A pluralistic media and full access to information will allow citizens to formulate their own opinions on all issues from taxation to foreign adventures.  Genuine democracy is not “manufactured consent”, but the correlation between the will of the people and the policies that affect them. The power of initiative and the possibility to call referenda on various issues are the best tools of democracy.

Government lawyers should not be "escapist actors" but facilitators of law enforcement domestically and internationally. They should devote their efforts to translating international commitments into concrete action and crafting the necessary measures to comply with treaties and rules of international judicial bodies. Alas, many government lawyers mistake their vocation for that of defense lawyers paid to get their guilty clients off the hook, no matter by what means... It is really not their function to look for ways to dodge responsibility by concocting specious interpretations of the law, making bogus distinctions or inventing loopholes. Would it not be a lot more sensible if lawyers would endeavour to make human rights law implementable -- and not constantly try to drill holes into the vessel of human dignity?

Let us resolve to work together so that the year 2017 breathes life into that elusive concept of human dignity -- and brings the planet a measure of peace and reconciliation – instead of continued terrorism, anxiety, mass surveillance, cheap consumerism and more injustice. Let us address the root causes of our local and global problems -- instead of trying to fix things temporarily by applying band-aids here and there. Let us talk freely without fear of saying something "policically incorrect". The very essence of freedom is that freedom to think and say what we believe, that temerity to be wrong rather than just silent – as long as we are in good faith and as long as we are capable of learning and changing for the better. Let us not just echo the media and "condemn" all the bad things of the world -- let us instead work affirmatively for the good things -- in international solidarity.

The New Year may perhaps continue the sterile debate over “hate speech” and laws designed to ban it, without, however, endeavouring to understand the sources of social phobias.  Punishment is an ineffective preventive strategy. The easy temptation to penalize dissenting opinions as so-called codes for hate speech ignores pertinent historical precedents.  Back in the days of the Inquisition, heresy was seen as a kind of “hate speech” against God and the established order, and heretics were tried and burned at the stake, like the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno in the year 1600 at Rome’s Campo di Fiori.  During the French Revolution, the Comité de Salut Public imposed La Terreur -- Robespiere's totalitarian rule that led to the persecution and guillotining of dissenters, including poets like André Chenier (immortalized in the opera by Umberto Giordano) and the scientist Antone de Lavoisier in the name of liberté, egalité, fraternité. The Comité also ordered the devastation of the recalcitrant population of the Vendée, which rebelled against the persecution and killing of their parish priests. The infamous Vendée genocide of 1793-94 took no less than 200,000 innocent lives. During the Spanish Civil War 1936-39 some 8,000 priests, monks, seminarians, brothers, nuns and other religious were murdered, including 13 bishops (immortalized in Paul Claudel’s poem Aux martyrs espagnols).  It seems that their religious convictions and ministry constituted a kind of “hate speech” against “progressive” republican dogmas.  It is just a small step from “hate speech” legislation to censorship, self-censorship and Orwellian dystopia. Similarly, the current hysteria about “fake news” and “post-truth” is proving toxic to democracy and freedom of expression. Moreover, who is going to determine what is “fake news”? Will this entail the setting up of a special institution -- a kind of “Ministry of Truth”? Indeed a slippery road to Stalinist totalitarianism. Here the purported medicine would be decidedly worse than the disease.  

Demophobia – the fear of and hostility toward the people -- is a phenomenon that occurs in oligarchies and is increasingly reflected in the mainstream media. Fatigued democracies are those where governments no longer trust the demos and fear the people’s right of initiative and their right to express themselves by way of referendum. While elites give lip service to “democracy”, they reject the concept of direct democracy, and insist on the so-called “representative democracy” model, which they can better manipulate.  Indeed, in many Parliaments, the senators, Congressmen, Congresswomen, and other “elected” representatives do not represent the demos but the lobbies, the donors, the military-industrial-financial complex. Such non-representative forms of government depend on a subservient MSM that colludes with power to try to create an illusion of consensus or “manufactured consent” (Noam Chomsky),  More and more we witness government where those who are elected do not govern and those who do govern are not elected.

Civilization does not mean expanding GDPs, ever-growing consumption, aggressive exploitation of natural resources -- but respect for human and animal life, sustainable management of the environment, local, regional and international solidarity, social justice and a culture of peace. Civilization does not entail building ever-higher skyscrapers, producing more gadgets, accumulating material goods, but affirming one's identity, uniqueness and history, while celebrating diversity and the common heritage of mankind, demonstrating a sense for proportions and creating beauty for future generations -- in literature, art, music.

Modern art is like fast-food:  you consume it quickly and go on with your life – until the whim again takes you, and you give in to the temptation of indulging in fast-art sculpture, fast-art painting, throw-away abstractions not meant to last but only to entertain hic et nunc. I would call this kind of art epidermic, superficial, decerebrated, opportunistic art. By contrast -- Velazquez Surrender of Breda is slow-art, sustainable art, so too Vermeers Delft and Michelangelo’s Pieta. Absent a world war or other eschatological cataclysm, they will remain for millennia as Fedelino, the Greco-Roman Hellenistic bronze sculpture of a boy removing a thorn (now at the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome) or the runners of the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

Governments, Parliaments and Courts have a responsibility to act in the public interest and in the interests of justice.  Their commitment to the “rule of law” is not coterminous with legalism or blind positivism. It does not mean submission to manifestly unjust or tyrannical law – ISIS legality, Taliban legality, Hitler legality,  Pinochet legality, Pol Pot legality -- or the "laws of the market". The rule of law is the normative framework that enables life in a civilized society and protects human dignity; it means the rule of justice and ethics based on natural law. Throughout history utilitarian positivism has allowed the slave trade, slavery, colonialism, exploitation, apartheid, segregation, and unequal remuneration for equal work performance.  Positivism has led to grave injustices, as Cicero already noted in De Officis I, 10 33, summum jus, summa injuria (excessive legalism is the height of injustice).  Indeed, the letter of the law is not equivalent with justice, especially because the letter of the law can and often is instrumentalized for other agendas and manipulated to subvert the spirit of the law.  It is the spirit of the law (Montesquieu) and the general principle of bona fides (good faith) that must permeate all human activity, in particular the administration of justice, in order to advance civilized existence and protect the common heritage of mankind. There are many legal "doctrines" that undermine law itself -- one of them being the notorious "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware) warning, which pretends to legitimize bad faith in business dealings and puts an undue burden on the buyer rather than imposing due diligence on the seller. It is, however, a pillar of mercantilism -- which in the 21st century should be discarded as incompatible with civilized values and human rights.  

Instead of striving toward more direct democracy, transparency and rule of law, European central governance has moved from the ideal government of the people, by the people and for the people, into corporate management for the elites only -- where enterprises and lobbies dictate to compliant Brussels bureaucrats how public policy should be and what human rights in the "brave new world" should mean. Like in Kafka's Metamorphosis, the EU has morphed ever-so-slowly from a sensible free-trade and free-movement of capital organization into a monstrous entity that strips democratic governments of their sovereignty and citizens of their rights while attempting to micromage them. No wonder that increasingly more people find the EU undemocratic, unrepresentative, intrusive and abusive. Brexit is only a symptom of the general malaise.

The United Nations Human Rights Council should become the international arena where governments compete to show how to implement human rights most effectively, how to strengthen the rule of law, how to achieve social justice, where they display their best practices to the world.  Competition in human rights performance is a noble goal.  Hence the Council should become the preeminent forum where governments elucidate what they themselves have done and are doing to deliver on human rights, in good-faith implementation of pledges, in adherence to a generous culture of human rights characterized by expansive interpretation of human rights treaties and a commitment to the inclusion of all stakeholders.  In short, the Council should be the ”catwalk of human rights innovation”. What the Council must not be is a politicized arena where gladiators use human rights as weapons to defeat their political adversaries and where human rights are undermined through “side shows”, the “flavor of the month” or “legal black holes.” UN reform is possible. See my Youtube interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEkI6FALU-s

The human right to beauty is a natural emanation of human dignity – the source of all human rights. It is an affirmation of the right to life, peace, truth.  As John Keats intimated in Ode to a Grecian Urn, “beauty is truth, truth beauty”. Indeed, there is Beauty in mercy, forgiveness, sharing, healing, and doing justice. Beauty means living in harmony with ourselves and our environment, with persons and landscapes, with animals and plants.  It is not static nirvana, fusion with an impersonal cosmos, no dead-end of anonymity, but a dynamic work-in-progress, a continuing process toward completion, happiness, identity – and light.

Disappointments free us from illusions, allowing us to undertake new beginnings with clearer vision and concrete experience. The lessons we draw from disappointment are more valuable than those we think we learn from success.

Dreams are good for all of us, but life is a provocation that does not correspond to our dreams or our expectations of persons or events. It is better to live in truth than in falsehood.

Governments should embrace a new Olympic discipline and compete with other governments in human rights achievements -- The Human Rights Council should cease being the preferred arena where legal gladiators wield human rights as weapons against political adversaries. Government lawyers should devote their juridical skills to devising user-friendly means of enforcing human rights treaties and the rulings of human rights bodies, e.g. by making international human rights treaties part of directly enforceable domestic law, by enacting "enabling laws" that would give domestic legal status to international human rights rulings, or by accommodating a "half-way house", whereby rulings of international bodies would be received by the Foreign Ministry and immediately referred to a standing committee of Ministers to determine which Ministry should be entrusted with implementation. To claim that international law is not "self-executing" is a poor cop-out. It is precisely the responsibility of government -- and its lawyers -- to set up the legal and social mechanisms so that human rights and human dignity can be promoted, protected and fulfilled. Alas, experience shows that government lawyers often understand their role as finding ways to "justify the unjustifiable" -- always looking for technical points, escape clauses, loopholes or inventing abstruse interpretations of treaties and rulings of international bodies so as to weasel out of their legal -- and ethical -- obligations. Law schools would do well to teach prospective government lawyers that they have a sacred trust to work for justice, and that justice cannot be de-coupled from human rights. The "name of the game" is not how to make plausible the indefensible, how to get their governments "off the hook" or how to "beat the system". The common goal is to devise simple and pragmatic methods of good faith implementation. Chauvinistic and jingoistic lawyers do a disservice to the world -- and to their own governments.

The so-called "fragmentation of international law" is a red herring, a convenient excuse for the powerful to impose the wrong priorities.

Too much self-awareness is a form of narcissism.  Consciousness of the self of others in their inter-relationship with us is what makes life worth living.  But we have no monopoly over self-awareness, as ethological studies prove that apes, dolphins, Eurasian magpies and dogs also have a level of self-consciousness.  The whole body language of a dog tells us that he/she knows who he/she is and who we are.

Traditions like Advent, Christmas and Epiphany are expressions of a continuum with past and future generations, a spiritual communion with transcendental values of family, home, heritage, identity, Heimat, reflected in symbols and sounds such as nativity scenes, carol singing, midnight Mass. Reenacting these rites has added value - touching base with ourselves, exercising that most fundamental human right to our identity, to be just who we are. This holiday season can and must be more than just gourmet meals, gadgets, kitsch, consumerism (buy more stuff!) and sterile materialism. Let's make it sacred and truly ours as a celebration of our human nature and our sense of belonging to a community, living in solidarity and Geborgenheit. It may be permitted to propose a shift in thinking models to discard the Zeitgeist-imposed "flavour of the month" and the artificial division of human rights into categories of first, second and third generation rights — with their skewed value judgements. Rights should henceforth be redefined in functional terms, recognizing human dignity as the source of all rights, whether individual or collective. This functional paradigm reveals the interrelatedness of all rights, the convergence of enabling rights (such as the rights to peace, food, health, homeland and environment), inherent/immanent rights (such as equality and non-discrimination), procedural rights (such as access to information, freedom of expression and due process) and what could be called outcome rights, that is, the practical realization of human dignity in the form of the right to identity with its corollaries: the rights to privacy, home and family, to our personality, to achieve our potential and to be just who we are, free to live our transcendence, practice our faith, enjoy our own culture, preferences and opinions, without intimidation, surveillance or pressures to behave in a prescribed “politically correct” mode or endure self-censorship. The entire edifice of human rights promotion and protection is there in order to ensure the enjoyment of the right to our identity. The absence of this right to our personality and self-respect is reflected in much of the strife we see in the world today. Pax vobiscum! (see A/68/284, para. 68).

Relaxation is hardly a waste of time, but rather a wise investment. After all, creative ideas often emerge in the silence of contemplation, in the quiet of leisure, in the fertility of empty time.  Satius est enim otiosum esse – quam nihil agere. (Plinius Minor, Epistula 1 ,9,8). Hence my new year's resolution: follow Cicero's advice in the ethical pursuit of Otium cum dignitate.

Infatuation with superficial beauty often engenders bitter-sweet expectations that wane in disillusionment. Beauty is perception, but also memory and imagination that should be marshaled with equanimity, enjoying it when we experience it, as when the cherry blossoms charm us with their exquisite transient glory. Let us be thankful for all beauty in its ephemeral transcendence.

Maturity liberates us from many spiritual and virtual chains, including certain historical myths we grow up with, those caricatures, illusions, legends and simplifications we take for “certainties” and cling on to -- because we ontologically need to believe. Indeed, who among us would have the temerity to believe in nothing? Most mature persons eventually dismantle mythologies, stone by stone, myth by myth, before they can erect a personalized history, a pertinent history based on empirical observation and logical analysis.  This personalized history never coagulates --isn't carved in stone – but continues to evolve day by day as new experiences and new information complete our ever-changing picture of reality. And yet, there are wonders that escape us, miracles we cannot explain. Even mature persons remain in awe of the vastness and beauty of creation, retain an intimation of spirituality, a measure of optimism, persevere in that ineffable hope that the world makes sense -- after all.

Trivia is a treasure that flavours life
and facilitates perspective while entertaining us.
Without trivia and some kitsch, life might be more focused and sober, but we would lose the poetry of the ephemeral, the quaintness of detail, the comical of the ridiculous. Pepper and salt are very good in moderation.

When world politics go insane, politicians persist in insulting our intelligence, comedians are not funny but gross, meaningless bureaucracy engulfs us, trifles are made into tragedies and genuine tragedies and grave injustices are accepted as "part of the game", it is time to turn to nature for recalibration – to gaze upon the infinity of the sea, watch a windsurfer glide, a kite surfer skim the waves, absorb sunrise and sunset, explore the sky full of galaxies, the moon in all its moods and shapes, the play of clouds, go for a morning stroll in the forest,  hike for hours in the mountains, observe a butterfly, listen to merels sing, take pleasure in small things, fly a kite – only thus can we regain our equanimity, restore our sense of proportions, reaffirm our values.  

 

The brave new world of unregulated capitalism promises endless progress and seduces many through virtual pleasures, a festival of consumerism, digital gadgets galore, fast lanes and fast tracks to everywhere and nowhere, the illusion of doing more with less.  One day we may wake up with a heavy spiritual hang-over, realizing we have entered the dystopian age of mass surveillance, of vital self-censorship, burdened by a sense of not coping with those things that really matter, by a paralyzing meaninglessness, unable to escape, condemned to the perpetual panem et circensis of conformist society.  We can check out anytime and become social misfits and vagabonds, but we can no longer leave the New World Hotel -- because there is nowhere else to go.    

Territorial integrity is an important principle of international law – but it is not an absolute norm that trumps all other norms, since throughout history frontiers have always shifted in all regions of the world, often through unjust wars, ethnic cleansing, gneocide and land-grab, resulting in artificial lines that are not sacred -- and never were.  At best the principle of territorial integrity reflects a legitimate desire for stability, an attempt to preserve the status quo, and in this sense it serves the noble purpose of keeping the peace among nations.  At worst it entails a form of continuing aggression by the insistence to keep what has been unjustly obtained, and may even constitute a threat to international peace and security if an occupier or neo-colonial State irresponsibly refuses to negotiate as stipulated in article 2(3) of the UN Charter.  Intransigence is not a right recognized in international law. Territorial and other disputes should always be settled peacefully in accordance with the right of self-determination of peoples and in a manner that serves human rights and international solidarity.

“Homicidal words” are tools or short-cuts to dispense of discussion by defaming the adversary as fascist, racist, terrorist, crypto-nazi, anti-semite, islamophobe, xenophobe, homophobe, etc. – no need to prove anything.  The accusation suffices.  Words do kill.

Notwithstanding the optimistic perspective of the slogan "the truth shall set you free" (Gospel of St. John, 8:32), this promise is not self-executing. Alas, truth will not come like a white knight to rescue us from the bad dragon, no outside force will suddenly solve our problems, no Deus in machina will ensure a happy end. No. We ourselves must proactively seek truth, separate it from the daily lies and misconceptions, disseminate truth, liberate the word, use it as a sword to cut through pretense and manipulation. Truth will reveal the degree of control to which we are all subjected in modern society, the brainwashing, the robotization of our lives, the self-censorship of political conrrectness. Truth can and should enable us to develop a survival strategy to counter Big Brother in his multiple manifestations, refute political canards and expose opportunism. In any event, we must not give up faith. Even if we will never succeed in knowing all the truth all the time, we must make a decent effort to approach it, and thus vindicate truth as more than just a placebo, a red herring, an empty promise, an illusion.

The Neingesang of intransigence does not stop the world from continuing its course. The dogs may bark while the traffic rushes by.

"Empty time" is anything but empty -- it is the window of opportunity for free thinking, innovation, synthesis, poetry. If we believe in progress, we must also believe in the utilitarianism of "empty" time.

To understand evil it is useless to demonize it or exorcise it, because evil then becomes artificial, trivial, a caricature.  The key to understanding lies in the particular context, nuances, personal psychology.  In our complex universe there is good in the bad and bad in the good, a natural amalgam, which we must take into account when looking at subjective perceptions and priorities.  It is not eccentric to infer that many “bad guys” never see themselves as doing “evil”, but justify their actions on the grounds of “necessity”, “force majeure”, “defence of country”, “outside threats”, “civic duty”, or the all-purpose Machiavellian cop-out -- the noble end that justifies the evil means.  Of course, with 20/20 hindsight we can say that Bolshevism and Nazism were evil and criminal. But can we extrapolate and categorically say that all of their aspects and ramifications were evil?  Or that all the people who lived through them necessarily understood what was going on or condoned it?  Assuming arguendo that most people do things because they think they are doing something positive, it is not outlandish to surmise that Lenin, Stalin, Mao and even Pol Pot saw themselves as advancing some kind of "good", some humanistic aspects of communism – notwithstanding the “regrettable errors” committed in implementation. Some people consider that Attila the Hun, Pope Innocent III, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Pope Alexander VI, Cesare Borgia, Richard III, Henry VIII, Cortes, Pizarro, Jeffrey Amherst, Jan van Leiden, Gustavus Adolphus, Louis XIV, Marquis de Sade, Robespierre, Napoleon, William Tecumseh Sherman, Enver Pasha, Talaat Pasha, Georges Clemenceau, Hitler, Mussolini, Pierre Laval, Josef Mengele, Churchill, Arthur Harris, Paul Tibbets, Eduard Benes, Videla, Pinochet, Verwoerd, Milosevich, Tudjman, Sharon, Bin Laden, Donald Rumsfeld, George Walker Bush, Tony Blair, Joseph Kony, Abubakar Shekau did many evil things.  But were they subjectively conscious that some of their acts were profoundly “evil” and not justifiable under any ethical or value-system?  This consideration is neither a “praise of folly” nor a capitulation to relativism – it is a sober recognition that the human capacity for self-deception is immense.  It is better to reaffirm ethical values, condemn evil acts and evil policies and dispense with unhelpful labels upon the instruments of evil.

As youth needs to believe in role models, adults also need to believe in the coming generations. The cycle of life is fuelled by such faith – sometimes even faith in illusions – an inner voice that keeps alive the vital fire, that optimistic light of hope in the future. I always liked a quote (apocryphally) attributed to Luther: even if I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.

In rich, developed countries individualism, consumerism and materialism have gone so far that the sense of community and heritage have been lost. No wonder that young people who have received no values other than money-making and who have not been taught the role of ethics and solidarity in human affairs -- are on the lookout precisely for such values. Alas, some of them think they have found them in sects, fundamentalist religions or even djihads.  Hence it is up to us -- who are aware that the social fabric binding people together has been torn -- to try to mend it by propagating a sense of belonging and working together for the common good. Each one of us can and should take up the challenge.

Modern Realpolitik has learned how to instrumentalize human rights rhetoric to pursue traditional geopolitics.

Life at its infancy is sprightly, funny, cuddly, cute, spontaneous, surprising, delightful – whether puppy, kitten or child.  Eventually all this magic mutates into us.

What distinguishes human beings from animals is not just that humans know how to make tools (some animals use tools also!) or that they engage in sports (cats play too!) but that humans know how to create art and how to transform ideas, emotions, feelings into canvas, sculpture, music.

Music is neither a liturgy of sounds nor a  litany of notes -- not empty ritual, but epiphany, a sacrament capable to redeem the soul. On angels' wings waft melodies of melancholy, merriment, of yearning, reveries, elation, vivat crescat floreat -- while human hearts beat to the rhythm of ethereal hymns.

The rule of law applies both the letter and the spirit of the law, since it aims at achieving justice in its nuanced complexity. The rule of positivism only knows the letter of the law, which when applied bureaucratically often results in injustice.

The rule of law is meant to progressively achieve justice, which requires flexibility and fine-tuning. If law were mathematics – one would use computers and could dispense of judges!  The rule of positivism or dura lex sed lex is just blind bureaucracy.

Positivism should not be confused with the rule of law – for it is only the rule of the elites.

Realpolitik in the 21st century has learned how to instrumentalize human rights rhetoric to pursue traditional geopolitical and hegemonial agendas -- hitherto with remarkable success, since broad sectors of civil society actually fall for the propaganda disseminated by a well orchestrated corporate media and supported by an accommodating "human rights industry", too often compliant and complicit with the business enterprises that dish out donations and engender long-term dependencies. Just watch them deploy their multiple campaigns to join human rights bandwagons, fashions, "the flavour of the month", while exercising self-censorship on weightier human rights problems such as abject poverty, lack of clean water and minimal health care!

This industry has a convenient fig-leaf function and serves to advance those human rights that are business-friendly and likely to generate profits -- notwithstanding the misery of millions of human beings who lack everything, those "unsung victims" of the irrelevant "third world". This widespread approach builds on the "trickle-down" phantasy, according to which if the rich become richer, then some excess wealth eventually will make its way down to the poor. Alas, this hypothesis is but a rip-off system that only aggravates the situation and negates any and all hope of human solidarity. But there is enough pious opium for the masses, pathos for adolescents -- and panem et circensis for the rest of us.

Manufactured consent corrupts democracies into populist entities that easily mutate into predator democracies both domestically and internationally.

A consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights against a population negates the legitimacy of the exercise of governmental power. In case of unrest, dialogue must first be engaged in the hope of redressing grievances. States may not first provoke the population through grave human rights abuses and then pretend to invoke the right of self-defence in justification of the use of force against them. That would violate the principle of estoppel (ex injuria non oritur jus), a general principle of law recognized by the ICJ. Although all States have the right of self-defence from armed attack (Art. 51 UN Charter) they also have the responsibility to protect the life and security of all persons under their jurisdiction. No doctrine, neither that of territorial integrity nor that of self-determination, justifies massacres. Neither doctrine can derogate from the right to life. Norms are not mathematics and must be applied with flexibility and a sense for proportionality in order to prevent and reduce chaos and death.

The slogan "truth will make you free" is nothing more than a placebo, a red herring, an empty promise, an illusion. It contaIns multiple fallacies, including the assumption of automatism, that truth will come like a white knight to rescue us from the bad dragon, than an outside force will solve our problems, that a Deus in machina will ensure a happy end, that truth alone will be self-executing. No. We ourselves must proactively seek truth, separate it from the daily lies and misconceptions, disseminate truth, liberate the word, use truth as a sword to cut through pretense and manipulation. Truth will reveal the degree of control to which we are all subjected in modern society, the brainwashing, the robotization of our lives, the self-censorship of political conrrectness. Truth will enable us to develop a survival strategy and targeted tactics to counter Big Brother in his multiple manifestations, refute political canards and expose opportunism.

Time is a precious resource, and its allocation deserves reflection.  Since competitors for our attention are many, priority-setting is of the essence. To whom should we devote our limited time? The choice is ours, but the seducers are clever. Subliminal propaganda is everywhere, flashed on TV, on our PCs, etc.  An electronic war over our attention is also under way.  The greater the number of internet clicks, the broader the internet presence, the higher the visibility attained. This eventually attracts attention, even if it is trivia.  Social media enhances the illusion of self-importance and the associated hope of gaining fame and fortune – or just the narcissistic satisfaction of a moment in the limelight.  Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas. (Ecclesiastes I,2)  Of course, electronic clicks can be artificially generated, as there is no “quality control” over clicks.  Visibility in the virtual world seems to offer an Ersatz for real meaning, especially to those who rely on the internet for their impulses – instead of drawing knowledge and understanding from the good advice of friends, from critical dialogue, from books.  Good judgment is shown in the way we allocate our limited time and attention.    

Human beings are peculiar animals with an omnivorous appetite for discovering things, experimenting, improvising, playing, dreaming.... They  invent tools, organise, collect things, build museums, create art, write philosophical treatises, practise doxology, revel in philocaly, set up orchestras, look endlessly into the sunset humming Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, play chess, watch football, paint graffiti on subway walls.

Representative democracy deserves the predicate "democratic" only if and when parliamentarians genuinely represent their constituents. An elected Congressman(woman) or Senator administers a sacred trust and must proactively inform the electorate of relevant developments that impact on decision-making.  He/she must be committed to inquire into what the voters need and want.  In other words, a representative is accountable to the citizens, must act transparently and regularly consult, since he/she is not a plenipotentiary, or even a delegate with a blank check.  A representative represents, since he/she is a servant -- not a master -- with a mandate limited in time and scope, which he/she must administer in good faith and not in usurpation of power.

Nil admirari (Cicero, Horace, Seneca). Roman thinkers already knew the wisdom of keeping a certain distance, the rewards of equanimity and the advantages of not being surprised by people or events. However, young people do need role models and should not be prematurely blasé. Youth should feel the rush of adrenalin that accompanies enthusiasm, the excitement of discovery, the euphoria of falling in love, the infatuation with infatuation, the illusion of heroism that floods the heart with joy. Youth has a right to be in awe of Olympic achievements and individual achievers, should endeavour to imitate them, not be afraid of asking questions, testing established customs, making personal experiences -- both good and bad -- and most importantly, they should believe in something! Of course, as we all mature, we learn to temper our enthusiasm, to discern between semblance and reality, to accept disappointment. The Roman maxim nil admirari is for post-adolescents only.

Although we all live in the real world with all its beauty, complexity, nuances, physical laws and objective facts, we operate in artificially limited worlds, in contexts governed by teleological rules, red lines, stop signs, taboos – and enforced certainties.  These separate epistemological systems are subject to man-made rules with their own internal logic and mathematics, where 2 plus 2 does not necessarily result in 4, because the building blocks are weighted according to extraneous factors of perceived political or social necessity, where essential elements and crucial facts that do not fit the equation can be negated if their logical consequences and implications counter the socially imposed “truths” which determine not only the outcome but also the process of deliberation.  There are many local, regional and larger contexts where the law is not applied uniformly, but à la carte, because what does not fit the paradigm must be ignored.  What is politically undesirable loses its objective character, mutates into non-fact. Lapses in logic and obvious fallacies are tolerated in respectful silence.   Thus, for survival in our post-modern societies, we must demonstrate intellectual and emotional versatility, always bearing in mind that besides a real world of universal logic and objectivity, there are other, restricted worlds of directed behaviour – and it is only in these truncated worlds that we are allowed to function, anxious about not behaving in the socially desired way, hesitating under an undefined threat of adverse consequences if we venture beyond, numbed by a vague apprehension that engenders both censorship and self-censorship.  Wherefore – in this world of subtle and not so subtle intimidation, cognitive dissonance, capricious dialectics, false analogies, skewed empirical data, doublethink, double standards and selective indignation – we have to keep our eyes wide open and our moral compass operational so as to navigate through the troubled waters.  Overcoming these challenges is a full-time job, but worth it -- if we want to keep our identity and our sanity.  

Human beings of all cultures and colours share a common physiognomy, basic functions, needs and aspirations.  Over thousands of years they have built diverse civilizations in which individual members have shown virtue and vice, generosity and greed, astounding creativity, musicality, gastronomy ....  Collectively, however, no civilization was ever all good or all bad, all constructive or all destructive, all innocent or all guilty – these are unhistorical categories.  From the perspective of the 21st century, we can observe the progress and retrogression of peoples and detect a growing consciousness of the need for human solidarity and proactive bridge-building, in the name of survival of the species. Global challenges demand global solutions -- ensuring global participation in decision-making. Perhaps we will someday learn to build on our 99% commonalities, instead of fighting over the 1% that separates us. Pax optima rerum!

Peace is not an eschatological phenomenon but continuous work-in-progress.

Celebrating the myriad good things of life, dwelling on nature's generous bounty, grasping those transcendental moments of genuine elation is decidedly more fun than keeping book on the faults and frailties of human beings, noticing the imperfections, counting the wrinkles or worrying about what might go wrong. This Advent season, let us enjoy the good things and sing them songs. Sursum corda!

We are who we are and ought to be comfortable with our identity, conscious of our heritage and serenely proud of the achievements of our ancestors.  Just happy to exist hic et nunc.  Each one of us has the faculty to extend our horizons, learn, build, evolve, modify our opinions as often as necessary -- as we gain experience and perhaps perspective and a measure of wisdom.  We should exercise the freedoms we have to ask questions, seek to understand our dynamic surroundings, continuously push the limits, but always in harmony with our roots and our identity. An Aborigine need not desire to be European.  A Bolivian need not aspire to be Brazilian. A German need not wish to be American.  Let the Aborigine be proud of being Aborigine, the African to be African, the American to be American – as long as such pride is tempered by self-criticism and respect for others.  There is nothing wrong with patriotism – only with egoism, exceptionalism, chauvinism.  The key to personal happiness is a sense of belonging, of harmony and familiarity with one’s environment, a combination of enthusiasm and melancholy, of love and equanimity, of being snug in one’s skin.  Love of oneself and respect for one’s heritage must not to be confused with narcissism or xenophobia.  On the contrary: it is a prerequisite for creativity and a dependable foundation to love and inter-relate with others.  We all have a pluralistic identity which is always in flux like a river (Heraclitus) and manifests not only a collective dimension in its dynamics of flow, in liturgies and rituals, but also an individualistic dimension defined by our personal choices.


Profession of faith in the wisdom of the Nuremberg Trials does not resolve certain inherent paradoxes and contradictions.


An excess of common virtues frustrates the higher virtues of moderation and proportion.


Youth is sometimes wasted on the young (George Bernard Shaw), as history can be wasted on historians, notably politically-correct historians, and ideologies on ideologues-- who are notorious for losing all sense for proportion.

Education should teach young people how to think independently, how to put things into context, compare, imagine, invent.  Alas, only few teachers bother to instill curiosity in their pupils or teach them how to think outside the box, how to dare.  What is mostly taught in high schools and colleges is how to adjust oneself to the spirit of the times, how to be a loyal fan of a given sports club, how to function within a system of political correctness, and how to respect the many red lines imposed by society to maintain the status quo.

Blithe spirits bringing a myriad colours to our gardens, magic, ephemeral wings -- butterflies -- with short life-spans of a week to a few months. But why such an unpoetic name for a delicate daughter of nature? The Germans call them Schmetterlinge (even less onomatopoetic), the Russians call them бабочка (not to be confused with Бабушка, which means grandmother), the Greek πεταλουδα (which makes you think of petals), the French call them papillons (which is closer to the Latin papilio). Perhaps the more congenial, smoother descriptions are the Spanish mariposa and the delicate Dutch vlinder.

The practice of naming and shaming has relatively little effect because it rests on multiple fallacies:  first, that the party doing the naming has nothing to be ashamed of and possesses moral authority to shame the other; second, that the impugned party is generally open to criticism; third, that the target of the naming and shaming acknowledges the legitimacy of the namer to act as judge. Experience shows that the namer frequently has a closet full of skeletons and that therefore the target of the naming and shaming has no inclination to bow to the namer's pretense to moral superiority or justification to hurl the first stone at the adulteress. Instead of raising fingers and pointing at others, it would be better if those States and ngo's who claim moral superiority would instead consider offering advisory services and technical assistance so as to enable impugned States to improve their human rights practices and infrastructures.
What we urgently need is good faith, more mirrors of self-criticism, more focus on root causes and prevention, greater readiness to dialogue without preconditions, patience and perseverance -- and much less eagerness to verbally condemn or judicially punish -- above all, we need more compassion toward the victims and a commitment to redress the wrongs in international solidarity.
The all-too-frequent instrumentalization of human rights for political purposes and the abuse of the concept of human rights as a selective weapon against others demonstrates how little politicians and media care for the essence of human dignity -- which entails respect for the other person's identity, diversity and his/her right to hold different opinions. We need neutral brokers, not polemics nor rhetoric with the pervasive geopolitical after-taste. We need intellectual honesty -- not international law à la carte.

To become an apostate from the Zeitgeist, from the "consensus", from the bandwagon is an act of intellectual liberation – and maturity. It presupposes the capacity to think outside systems, escape indoctrination and relentless media brainwashing, arrive at new syntheses, remaining open to new inputs, patient with colleagues and friends who lag behind, never abandoning hope in the power of reason over force, of the λόγος over chaos and nihilism.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are perpetrated by ordinary people inspired by the philosophy “the end justifies the means”, and indoctrinated into believing that the envisaged end is noble, duty, divinely ordained, or inevitable. Deviation from this conviction is perceived by the powerful as “unpatriotic” or even “treacherous”.

History writing and teaching have always been co-opted by the elites in order to legitimize and consolidate their continued exercise of power. Yet, whoever has the temerity to do independent research into the past, visits the archives, analyzes documents, compares primary and secondary sources, meets doers and diplomats, interviews witnesses who may still be alive -- discovers crucial facts, deliberately omitted by the court historians, new perspectives, dimensions, nuances that fundamentally change our understanding of events and differ substantially from media caricatures, popular misconceptions and Zeitgeist. I do not pretend to think that we can arrive at the "truth" in all of its manifestations, but surely a better approximation is possible and necessary.

Living on the edge is a youthful ideal of glorified danger with attendant adrenaline rushes. Living more toward the centre is the preferred location for those who, like me, are no longer youngsters and embrace the philosophy of Buen Vivir, which entails being satisfied to have just enough, not too much, and to practice the Delphian Γνώθι Σεαυτόν and Μηδὲν ἄγαν.

***

Blithe spirits bringing a myriad colours to our gardens, magic, ephemeral wings -- butterflies -- with short life-spans of a week to a few months. But why such an unpoetic name for a delicate daughter of nature? The Germans call them Schmetterlinge (even less onomatopoetic), the Russians call them бабочка (not to be confused with Бабушка, which means grandmother), the Greek πεταλουδα (which makes you think of petals), the French call them papillons (which is closer to the Latin papilio). Perhaps the more congenial, smoother descriptions are the Spanish mariposa and the delicate Dutch vlinder.

Rhetoric has little to do with truth or sincerity, for it is a form of seduction through eloquence. Indeed, impressive rhetoric all too often proves empty if not downright false, as we know from some virtuosi of political debate. Similarly, beauty is scarcely related to goodness or generosity, for it is essentially a manifestation of aesthetics. Alas, a handsome face does not always announce a merciful heart.

War is not a given in life, but rather a crime willed by megalomaniacs, organized by bureaucrats, sold by media propaganda and suffered by soldiers and civilians alike. There are no "good wars", for all are bloody, dehumanizing, nasty, unjust and eminently avoidable.

The rule of law is more than a platitude, and much more than mere positivism.  It entails predictability, uniformity of application, absence of arbitrariness.  Most importantly the rule of law must be the rule of justice.  Laws that perpetuate privilege and injustice must be abrogated and replaced by laws that advance human well-being and human dignity.  Some countries pay lip service to the rule of law while practicing the antediluvian might is right paradigm.

Democracy is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the sacred promises of human dignity, justice and peace. Democracy is not just the ballot box, nor is it mere majority rule. It is a form of government based on respect and solidarity with other members of society. It is a Covenant to listen to all members of the demos.

Civilization is the long journey from predator behavior to interdependence, rule of law and caritas.

Neither can we ski like the pros, nor can we sing like Met soloists, but we can sense the divine in their prowess and vicariously partake in that transcendental humanness.  They too, Olympic champions and opera singers, are members of our species, have two eyes, two ears, one mouth -- and though their achievements will also pass, we prolong them by internalizing them.

Fantasies are invigorating for the spirit, but their magic escapes if we try to concretize them.  Living out our fantasies hic et nunc is dangerous business.

Poetry resides in us all, but only the passionate few can reveal the magic. 

Civilization is the gradual transformation of the human predator into a social being endowed with a moral conscience and an awareness of both rights and duties. Alas, there are still too many antediluvian predators roaming Planet Earth. How can we teach ethics, peace and solidarity to these slow learners? That's a worthy challenge for 2013!

Human dignity has nothing to do with “justiciability” and less with positivism.  Dignity derives from the essence of the human person, and justice reflects equilibrium and harmony as an expression of the intrinsic nature of things. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 certainly did not invent the rights there proclaimed, nor for that matter la Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen of 1789.  These are but incomplete compilations of some human entitlements, for surely the rights predated their codification.  It is a poor excuse to say that a right does not exist (e.g. the right to the homeland, the right to peace, the right to a sustainable environment) or that it is not “justiciable”, just because it has not been specifically codified. Lawyers have a responsibility to complete the task of codification and politicians must establish enforcement mechanisms that ensure real remedies.

Art evokes a transcendental meaning, transmits a vital spark. It is not chaos, it is not n’importe quoi. So-called modern opera productions delight in reversing aesthetic values and reject -- quite deliberately -- the hitherto attainable synthesis of art forms (music, libretto, singing, acting, staging, costumes), a concept that Wagner termed Gesamtkunstwerk or total work of art. The current fashion of so-called “director’s theater” (Regietheater) is to allow opera directors to supplant the composer and librettist and experiment with a kind of surrealistic parallelism – on the one side an unchanged musical score and libretto, on the other a different plot, a dream, a time-machine transposition. Instead of coordinating the staging to the music and libretto, a “spectacle” is played-out, admittedly with some tenuous links to the original message of the opera. The problem is that the effect is short-lived, only to become artificial, forced, boring, even ludicrous. Thus, for instance, the new, thoroughly unconvincing production of Lohengrin at La Scala fails miserably, notwithstanding the superlative voices. This production reminds me of what the Germans call a Schnappsidee – i.e. a wet idea that may seem intelligible under the influence of alcohol (Schnapps), but distinctly less so if you are in full use of your mental faculties. The asymmetries of Regietheater thus condemn it to be a temporary fad, a parody of culture, not a long-term dismantlement of art. And yet, the fad is not without consequences. Perhaps the greatest harm perpetrated by these art polluters (who evidently enjoy spraying graffiti on genius (Elisabeth Schwartzkopf)) is endured by the young. My generation was privileged to experience inspiring opera productions conducted by Karl Bohm, Herbert von Karajan etc. with intelligent staging by Schneider-Siemssen and others. Our younger generation of melomanes is being deprived of the opportunity of being seduced by a true Eva in Meistersinger or Marie-Thérèse in Rosenkavalier. What a shame, since modern technology and light effects would render the staging of opera much easier than in the past. "Modernity" does not have to mean parody -- or demolition. Art is the perfection of music, staging and dance -- for instance the 2007 Mariinsky Ballet production of Swan Lake in St. Petersburg, with Uliana Lopatkina (Odile) and Danila Korsuntsev (Prince Siegfried), conducted by Valery Gergiev, in the Ross MacGibbon production.

Humour delights in paradox, irony, unexpected turns, serendipity ... It entails that felicitous faculty of seeing a funny side in all human endeavour, recognizing ourselves in other peoples' foibles, sensing the ephemeral in vanity, jealousy, pettiness, taking distance, putting things in perspective --always with a sense for proportion-- laughing at awkward situations, including laughing at our own idiosyncrasies. Humour is an attitude quite unlike cynicism or hubris. It manifests an optimistic mindset, an exultation of spirit, an affirmation of joie de vivre.

When contemplating history, it is best to put aside labels, ideologies and nationalities, because they invariably cloud our vision, and what we think are short-cuts frequently turn out to be obstacles. What really matters is the personal integrity and courage, the nobility and heroism of individuals. Generalizations about peoples or even civilizations are artificial and all too often dehumanizing. Surely there were good Neanderthals and good Cro Magnons, good Israelis and Philistines, good Greeks and Persians, good Athenians and Spartans, good Romans and Carthaginians, good Crusaders and Fatimids, good Protestants and Papists, good French revolutionaries and royalists, good Unionists and Confederates, good Marxists and capitalists. There are heroes and scoundrels in every human conflict, for reality is never black and white, as in the good there is always an admixture of bad, and even in the bad some good. We should therefore celebrate the human being in all his complexity and contradictions, we shoud honour his good deeds -- not the Zeitgeist-caricature of humanity, nor the ideological "flavour of the month".

Belief is identity and raison d'être, as human nature requires an emotional map, reference points, defined goals -- no vacuum, no black hole ... For our own well-being we need to believe in something –the actual belief being somewhat less important.  Crucial is the readiness to have faith in ourselves and in humanity, in our culture, in human dignity, in the values of our nation -- not chauvinistically, not blindly "my country right or wrong", but consciously for the good of our community -- to believe in a cause bigger than ourselves, to serve a higher goal, even if we cannot reach it. And when we die, we can say, we have believed, and our yearning and striving has given meaning to our lives. Wer immer strebend sich bemüht, den können wir erlösen (Goethe, Faust II, 11936–11937). The temerity to believe in nothing may be a modern pseudo-philosophy, but it is neither heroic nor healthy, not even funny, but instead a manifestation of misanthropy, an insipid form of nihilism, a petulant mood devoid of fire, devoid of cheer. Thus, let us celebrate the rite of spring and the music of flowers -- and people -- around us. Fe y adelante!

Learning how to love ourselves, how to forgive ourselves is undoubtedly an important lesson for a good and healthy life. While evil and guilt do exist, they can and must be marshalled. A guilt fixation or obsession is in itself a fault, a sin. Guilt must be tempered by mercy and by a sense for proportion. How else can we love others, if we do not respect oneselves first. It should be obvious to everyone that if we are to love others as we love ourselves (golden rule), we must also know and accept our own wrinkles, sins and imperfections. Admittedly, we neither love nor condone sin, but we must exercise the faculty to rise above sin and to continue testing our conduct against universal ethical principles day by day. Only thus can we develop a life strategy how to deal with the reality of evil, evil which predated our birth, evil and injustice which existed even before Adam and Eve. We must reject the paradigm of original sin and embrace instead the paradigm of grace and forgiveness through the Cross and Resurrection. Sursum corda!

Every one knows the Latin maxim: si vis pacem, para bellum -- if you want peace, prepare war (Livius VI, 18,7; Vegetius, 'Epitome rei militaris' 3, prologue)). Surely it would be better to propose: si vis pacem, cole justitiam. If you want peace, cultivate justice ! This enlightened maxim greets you at the Peace Palace in The Hague and at the ILO headquarters in Geneva (ILO was awarded the Nobel peace price 1969). Policy-makers and civil society take note!

***


Although, in principle, history-writing should observe the five C's of chronology, context, causality, consequences and comparison, many contemporary historians seem to delight in anachronisms, ignoring the context and root causes of events, indulging in post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacies and teleological conclusions, making truly ludicrous comparisons -- frequently to satisfy the capricious Zeitgeist.

****

Retirement is too big a word; what we basically want is withdrawal from bureaucracy,  so that we are free to do what we feel is really important.  Better old outside and young inside, than young outside and hopelessly decrepit inside.

***

 

Law is a tool to bring order into chaos. As such, it is a means, not an end. As a normative manifestation of power, law expresses the will, the priorites and sometimes the values of the sovereign. Law is not coterminous with justice; in fact, it may and is frequently used to maintain and legitimize an unjust social order, a system of exploitation, an uequal distribution of resources. The maxim "might is right" reflects the power equation, not any moral or categorical imperative (Kant) dictated by reason or deontology. It is for the philosophers -- and poets -- to infuse ethics into power ! It is for civil society to demand it.

 

A shockingly new idea, a controversial new prespective, an uncomfortable new paradigm first meets with fierce opposition, then with marginalization and silence, finally it is accepted as self-evident.

The two-party system is, alas, only twice as democratic as the one-party system.

***

The war on terror is a rhetorical war just like the war on poverty, and, alas, poverty won.

***

Education entails the faculty to think independently, apply criteria and arrive at individual judgment, even when different from consensus. It should awaken curiosity, discard taboos, formulate new questions, seek different perspectives, engage logic and coherence, strengthen ethics and intellectual honesty vis á vis others - and ourselves. This faculty of independent thinking, which is the very core of education, remains true even when we forget factual knowledge. Indoctrination, which thrives on uncritical repetition, deference to authority and peer pressure, has nothing to do with education..

Our goal can be somewhat less than trying to change the world. Helping a couple of people is fine too.

The legitimacy and credibility of law rests on its uniform application. Thus, there must not be any favouritism, because in law "one size fits all". The rule of law means the rule of non-arbitrariness, which knows no service à la carte. More fundamentally, although justice is not identical with law, justice requires that law be consistent with ethical values. Law should not follow politics, but it is politics that must follow law.

Societies can be animistic, pantheistic, atheistic, polytheistic, monotheistic -- or, like ours -- moneytheistic.

Civilization, as we know it, developed when nomads settled down, domesticated animals, invented the plow, grew wheat and vine, started baking bread and fermentig grape juice into wine ... O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Agricolas! Quibus ipsa procul discordibus armis fundit humo facilem victum iustissima tellus.(Vergilius, Georgics, ii, 458).

A “failed State” is not just a State with a troubled economy or with a dysfunctional administration. It is also a State that cannot live in peace with its neighbours.

If we take more time to enjoy what we do have, we will have that less time to belly-ache about what we still lack.

Serendipity goes beyond carpe diem, carpe noctem, beyond grasping at fortuity.. It means winning the game and holding on, remaining alert to fortune's many moods.

Tomorrow is one day more – and one less.

Good governance is more than mere alliteration -- it entails applying Logos rather than legalism, practicing proportion rather than perfection, preferring peace and pluralism over populism, promoting justice instead of jealousy -- and in budget matters employing more mathematics and less metaphors.

Politicians and generals go into history books. Musicians go into the hearts of generations of grateful listeners. Wellington, Blücher, Grant, Eisenhower, Motgommery, de Gaule, Zhukov are long dead. Beethoven lives!

Fortunately for mankind, glory is ephemeral and fame fades fast. Otherwise even more megalomaniacs would enter the fray and plague the rest of us in the process.

Peace is not just the absence of war. It means abandoning the aggressive animus and the will to exploit other nations and peoples. It requires closing down the criminal arms industry that fuels conflict throughout the world. More than that, peace implies the presence of something positive -- not just an absence of evil. It entails the presence of good will, a striving for harmony, the exercise of solidarity, the quest for justice -- that possible dream we once read about in the Sermon on the Mount.

Good politicians are pessimists in analysis but optimists in action.

Progress depends on tempered enthusiasm rather than on hot tempers. Met drift kom je nergens, met geestdrift overal.

Collateral benefit is a form of serendipity – the joy of finding something unexpected when one is busy looking for something else

Human dignity transcends quantification and knows no competition, for respect is due to rich and poor alike. The dignitas humana has no room for privilege and exploitation; all victims deserve solidarity, recognition and rehabilitation without discrimination. Justice is not a beauty contest, but a conscious vindication of human dignity

There is no clash of civilizations, but rather the clash of narrow-minded politicians who pretend that theirs is the only civilization.

Hero worship is for adolescents, convenient mythologies for adults, caricatures for the elites, instrumentalized trivia for the hoi polloi -- quite a circus of institutionalized self-deception for one and all.

The Manichaean world view lacks the poetry of nuances, of the good within the bad, the bad within the good, the poetry of ambiguity.

Collateral benefit is a form of serendipity – the joy of finding something unexpected when one was busy looking for something else.

Objectivity does not exclude poetry.

Creation is divine -- and very much human: from writing a love poem, to composing a symphony, to inventing a flower arrangement, to baking a cheese cake, to singing Panis angelicus.

Truth is in the nuances.
Hero worship is for adolescents, convenient mythology for adults, caricature for the elites, instrumentalized trivia for the hoi polloi -- quite a circus of institutionalized self-deception for one and all.

Doing always the right thing does not automatically yield the good result.

Coping with great misfortune is sometimes easier than accepting banal inconveniences.

Failure is not per se punishment, nor does it entail guilt. Often enough it is the guilty who are successful and the innocent who lose.

Integrity entails living in the midst of lies and not falling for them, facing adversity without losing one’s sense of proportion.

Self-respect often requires stoic perseverance -- even when there are no followers.

Self-preservation takes precedence over revenge.

Some politicians indulge more in science fiction than in government.

A politician should be pessimistic in analysis but optimistic in action.

Cognitive dissonance occurs not only in politics, but also in human relations. How often does a lover pursue the shadow of his own infatuation? There are many Don Quijotes still yearning for their own imaginary Dulcineas.

War is the great destroyer – not only of human beings, but also of values.
“Clash of civilizations” is an euphemism for the animus to aggress others.

Human dignity transcends quantification and knows no competition.

Justice is not a beauty contest, but a conscious vindication of human dignity

There were good guys on all sides of the Peloponnesian war, the Punic wars, Julius Caesar’s campaigns, the “Reconquista”, the French revolution, the American Civil War, the Bolshevist revolution, the Spanish Civil War, at Verdun and at Stalingrad. There is never a monopoly of good or evil in any human conflict.

The essential homo sapiens evolves slowly. I bet that Neanderthal children threw snowballs at each other with as much gusto as 21st century lads.

The habits and expectations of modern man are scarcely conducive to happiness. Whereas everything good that happens to us is perceived as natural and we take it for granted, we are surprised and frustrated over every stone in our path. We would be happier if we would only learn to count our blessings.

When you take a nation’s past away, you also destroy its future

God obviously prefers carnivores to vegetarians, otherwise he would have given the same attention to Cain’s veggies as to Abel’s lamb offerings.

Mankind is not peaceful by nature. Violence was with us from the start – four human beings and already one murder!

God is not an advocate of an eye-for-an eye: Cain was banished, not killed because of murdering his brother.

It is easier to endure long misfortune than to prolong a state of happiness.

Good men do not always get what they deserve. Nor do the bad.

Commercial rivalries cause even more wars than religious differences.

Rulers can afford to be generous and enlightened after they have suppressed or even exterminated the opposition.

Morality lessons are easy to impart after a position of force has been secured, usually by immoral means.

Academic work is both drudgery and passion.

Not every philosopher has worthy disciples. Socrates lucked out with Plato, Plato with Aristotle. But Socrates failed to instill modesty and measure on his pupil Alcibiades, an egomaniac cheat, who never understood the meaning of moderation (meden agan, metron ariston), while Aristotle had the disappointment of tutoring Alexander (for some “the Great”), who started as a megalomaniac and grew into a genocidal killer – and drunkard.

Man is born into a culture and religion and has a limited number of roles to play.
While perfectly coherent within a given epistemology, outside this specific cultural or religions context, man’s actions may appear illogical or even irrational. Thus, while St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas were doubtless brilliant thinkers, their legacy is not accessible outside the Christian faith. For non-believers, much of Aquinas’ reasoning may appear circular; to a traditional Christian, Muhammad remains inaccessible.

True scholarship is free of loyalties.

The scholar does not root for a team but remains aloof of the media fray.

Insisting on justice often only prolongs the pain. Experience teaches you to cut your losses and turn the page.

Dogs show immediate enthusiasm for other dogs and socialize with them readily – size, race or colour notwithstanding. Why don’t humans get more enthused over other humans ?

Imperialism, whether military or economic, was never benign.

Imperialism -- whether American, British, French, German, Ancient Greek, Roman or Persian – never endeared the masters to their subjects.

Realpolitik is more akin to opportunism than to patriotism.

Patriotism means very different things to different people. You may call it a cocktail of self-deception and bravado, a form of mental masturbation, rooting for a political party as you root for a football team, a readiness to rape.

Heroism is a cocktail of brazenness and patriotism. For some, a manifestation of stubbornness – fighting unto death for a personal conviction or even for a caprice.

Genuine patriotism entails a striving for political and social justice. It is not “my country right or wrong”, but “let’s work to make this country just”.
The cult of heroism is a totalitarian tool.

Every totalitarian regime has its saints.

Christianity has done many bad things such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Pope Alexander VI’s Bull Inter Cetera. But it has also done glorious things -- immeasurably enriched us by inventing musical notation (the monk Guido of Arezzo!), inspired Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, gave outlet to all forms of artistic expression -- from the poetry of the Gothic Cathedral to the humanity of Michelangelo’s Pieta. The Beatitudes will always be an antidote to despair, consolation in mourning, hope in hope.

Religion is awe of nature plus a moral code.

Religion is more than rituals and sacraments, but belief in cosmic justice and commitment to truth -- helping other human beings – or at least not hurting them!

Pseudo-religion is the instrumentalization of fear for purposes of power.

The sun shines on the just and unjust alike. In its light, justice can be seen by all who have eyes, but some would hide justice in the shadow of their own agendas.

Competition does not exclude caritas.

Lessons learned are all too quickly unlearned.

Asymmetrical love lasts longer

Freedom of thought means freedom from mental models and the temerity to think the unthinkable.

Post-Cartesian logic:
Cogito libere, ergo ego sum. (I think independently, therefore I am myself).
Liber sum, ergo possum cogitare. (I am free, therefore I can think).

Axiom: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
-- Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies, 1927
Corollary: “Popular myths are not necessarily facts”

Retributive justice is hardly justice when it only reflects the top-dog/underdog syndrome. Restorative justice offers greater credibility and sustainability if it is based on the recognition of root causes, the mutual acknowledgment of errors, and is future-oriented, inspired by a genuine reconciliation paradigm.

Even those who have no future do have a human right to dream.

No one has the “right” to be a billionaire. Great fortunes are made thanks to the existence of a market – which is not an individual achievement, but rather the result of collective action by society at large. Whoever benefits from the marketplace owes it to the rest of society to share the profit with the collectivity. This is done by philanthropy -- and progressive taxation. Wealth is just and respectable as the merited reward for incentive. Taking a greater share of the pie than one deserves is but vulgar greed.

Property is a legal fiction to describe certain powers of disposition over material things
Property in rem is subject to taxation; property in personam is chattel slavery. "Ownership" is ephemeral, since we can exchange, dispose of or otherwise lose property, and after death we "can't take it with us!". Even in our lifetime, the idea that a human being “owns” a tree appears rather implausible. One may carve a sweetheart's name on a oak, one may chop down a conifer and make a chair out of it, but one never really owns the tree.

Freedom of expression is meaningful if one has an opinion to express.  Opinion is based on factual knowledge and an appreciation of the various points of view.  Freedom of expression would have little value if it only meant the right to echo what one receives from the media. More important is the right to think freely and to exchange views so as to develop one’s own conception of things. Thus, the manipulation of information is just as dangerous when it is done by the private sector (CNN, Fox) as when it is imposed by governmental authority.  The crucial test is whether the people have the information needed to formulate opinions and take decisions thereon, or whether they are just victims of manipulation.

 

An art lover who internalizes a painting has more ownership of it than a person who buys it and hangs it in his living room.

Tolerance is good, but frequently patronizing. Respect entails more: the acceptance of the other's right to be, even his right to be wrong.

It is relatively easy to find confirmation for a pet theory or hypothesis. What is crucial is to test the logic of competing theories and conscientiously look for refutation.

Being is immesurably more than doing

Freedom is the choice to swim with or against the current. Swimming only with the current misses out on a world of other possibilities. Freedom means adventure, even at the risk of drowning.

It is more important to deepen than to lengthen life, more existential to pause than to rush by.

Millennia ago there was neither politics nor law.  Humans were hunters and gatherers and survived from hand to mouth, from day to day.  Primitive politics manifested itself as brute force, but soon the chiefs themselves recognized the necessity to legitimize their rule and secure a degree of social stability by enacting commandments, laws and ultimately constitutions that conferred primacy to the ”rule of law” and were administered by a higher caste of lawyers and  judges.  Gradually a more sophisticated system of checks and balances emerged.  Today the clock cannot be turned back and no politician is legibus solutus or above the law

.

Theft is not only robbing a bank or burglarizing a jewellery shop.  It is also looting enterprises through abusively high salaries, unearned bonuses, luxury expense accounts, overpaid consultancies and golden handshakes, plundering stock markets through insider trading, playing casino at commodity markets, pilfering a nation's natural wealth through "privatization", adamantly keeping the booty of centuries of imperialism, pretending it is tabula rasa for theft, exploiting the weak through new forms of economic colonialism, keeping bonuses and tax breaks given to TNCs as incentives to open businesses and then relocating elsewhere where labour costs are lower, extorting interest from poor nations once induced to take unnecessary loans they could never repay. 



In his Sonnets to Orpheus Rilke gave wings to his feeling that: “Gesang ist Dasein” which approximately translates as “singing is being”.  Maybe the converse is even truer:  Being is serenade, symphony, opera, rhythm, dance!

 

 

1-2-3 Impromptus

Jeux de mots do not always find the mot juste .

Marriage functions best after you learn your partner's mode d'emploi .

Gender equality will be achieved when the Peter Principle applies equally to men and women.

To be lonely and to be left alone are distinct states of being.

Mankind's faith in progress is but a residue of the child's striving for growth.

The child's first lesson in Latin philosophy: lacrimo ergo sum.

The child is always part of the adult. Being adult entails hiding that child.

Pathos is for adolescents.

Talking just happens. Thinking takes brains.

A suspicion of guilt radiates more guilt than undisputed culpability.

A relic is a hyper-concentration of memory.

Conspicuous absence highlights one's presence.

Politics is a form of religion with its own secular demons and deities.

Camus imagined Sisyphus a happy man, because, after all, he had a goal in life. By contrast, one could imagine Prometheus woefully bored in his chains, notwithstanding Shelley's romanticising him as proudly defiant and confident of the ultimate triumph of his cause.

Too much of a good thing is just about right.

Development and decline can be measured empirically. Political pundits make a living out of manipulating empirical facts into dogma.

Consciousness of death enhances the sense and the immediacy of life.

Chaos never generates art, but art can tame chaos into form and beauty.

Yearning for immortality is thirst for an unending, ever-evolving melody.

Vanity ages badly.

Going on a diet is like taking farewell from our youth in the hope of regaining it.

It takes many decades to take farewell from youth.

Power is its own justification, but it will invoke philosophy – any philosophy – to sound more respectable.

Mundane philosophies are necessary for getting a grasp on life. Fancier philosophies can be amusing mental gymnastics until they become the excuse for power.

When the reporting of news events becomes entertainment, truth frequently loses out.

“Yes” and “no” are absolute categories. “Maybe” is a third, more sympathetic option.

Selfish persons have little time to gossip about others.

Happily married couples have learned the art of harmonious fighting.

Jealousy is a nasty, vulgar emotion. Yet, for the theatre and the opera, it has been a notable generator of art since antiquity.

Self-confidence entails believing in your abilities even beyond what your best friend would.

New spelling rules are the editor's aphrodisiac.

To be forgiven is not quite as gratifying as to forgive.

Some of the largest social gatherings take place in “Hermitages”.

Whoever has taken the New York subway finds merit in becoming a hermit.

It is clever not to display one's cleverness.

It takes expertise to make believe one is just a beginner.

I cherish many errors I have made.

It is better to judge and to err in good faith than not to judge at all.

Revolutionaries evolve into conservatives as soon as they have usurped power.

The dead are quickly forgotten by other mortals who soon after join them in oblivion. Only the names of a few artists and politicians attain a vague form of immortality, and the memory that remains seldom corresponds with their true achievements .

Feelings are ultimately more decisive than logic.

A bad conscience is often the source of good deeds.

Having it all is a curse.

Moses had such a rough time bringing the Jewish people across the Red Sea because half of them were busy picking up pretty shells.

Lucky people enjoy good health and a bad memory.

A bachelor's vocation is to look and not to find.

Boredom generates amusement.

Art should not just imitate life, but transform it.

Quantity and quality are mutually exclusive.

Love requires respect. Passion doesn't.

The past is finite. The now timeless. The future infinite..

As the future will become present and past, better move with the now.

Only in youth do you think you understand the world.

A child needs to see things as good or bad; an adolescent thinks he knows the difference; an adult experiences more trouble with black and white categories and in concrete cases often cannot even decide who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.

Love can be exhausting. Respect is a more comfortable attitude (adapted from Sir Peter Ustinov on 7 November 2002 at the Palais des Nations).

Humour is the voice of paradox.

If you are not in possession of yourself, you can hardly pretend to give yourself to someone else.

Pure truth, like pure light, can blind.

A day without emails or faxes, without phones or newspapers …What a garden of Eden! If it could only last!

Change in little doses is delightful.

Identity is knowledge of the stable core of the evolving soul.

Identity is consciousness of the self.

Home is ultimately one's language.

Poisonous mushrooms and venomous humans frequently appear quite harmless.

It takes consummate diplomacy to point out the obvious to an imposed superior who ought to know better and doesn't.

Creation needs silence.

Even Paradise gets boring at times.

Art can germinate in apparent lethargy.

Only the goddess of fate makes a bright person a brilliant comet.

Since life is a moving target, you'd better stop and aim calmly before shooting.

Longing with hope of fulfilment is better than fulfilment with fear of loss.

Wisdom entails living with injustice and coping with it.

Comparison is good for the soul: upward for challenge, downward for consolation.

One should measure one's fate not only against the blissful but also against the wretched of the earth.

One should not die encumbered by thoughts unsaid.

Silence, space and solitude are necessary solace to the urban soul.

The wise man knows when to quit, lest perseverance lead him to disaster.

A sound defeat may ultimately be more productive than a transitory victory.

The question before us is not why there is injustice, but how to deal with it.

Absent persons live quietly in our memories, waiting to be called -- deceased persons live on in our memories, restlessly, and call on us when least expected.

Not showing emotion can be a sign of respect.

It's the residual value, not the added value, that determines the worth of an individual.

Invoking fate is a way to avoid addressing the question why.

Sometimes it is wiser not to know.

Life never cared for the merit system.

If you do not have an umbrella, it's not the rain's fault that you get wet

A friend is a guardian of one's solitude.

Duelling is not honour. War is not glory – only waste.

A good conscience is better than a brilliant reputation.

Spectatoring political events without being able to influence them stresses the soul.

Post-traumatic stress disorder manifests itself after lost elections.

To be understood by others one must understand them first.

The good news of the gospel is not “you must” but rather “you can”.

As deep joy and sorrow eventually mellow into nebulous memory, so will new emotions arise and fade again – unless time kills us first.

It may take an elaborate strategy to attain fame, but a single tactical error suffices to lose it.

No one with sound judgment would aspire to fame.

The memory of the fragrance of hyacinth fields in April, like a sensuous caress, helps us relive dormant fancies.

Head wind on the dunes, sheep peacefully gracing, rabbits springing in the sun, a careless pheasant in the fields – and a golden fox around … ephemeral memories of cycling through Holland.

Animals tend to reciprocate friendship better than humans.

One must imagine heaven as a vast spectrum of colours and sounds, not as some nebulous nirvana, rather a continuation of life with its smiles and tears, ecstasy and melancholy, dissonance and resolution.

Beauty, like life, is naturally ephemeral, and it is precisely this cycle of blooming and fading that renders both life and beauty so eminently human, so stimulating, so worth living.

Even wise men have a history of errors.

The path to wisdom is littered with foolish mistakes.

Who needs Panem et circenses (bread and circus games), when we have “freedom fries” and bombs over Bhagdad on CNN ?

Aggression remains aggression, as murder remains murder, irrespective of the arrest and punishment of the perpetrator. Calling the operation “liberation” ist just another item in the growing list of political obscenities of the 2lst century.

State terrorism is worse than private terrorism, since the State's raison d'être is to uphold the law -- not to break it.

A patriot is not a chauvinist who shouts “my country right or wrong” but an honest citizen who wants to be proud of his country, and having a conscience and a sense of proportions, acts to do justice and speaks out when government is being unjust.

To protest is a democratic duty. Remaining silent only encourages futher abuse.

The right to peace and the right to identity are higher values than a claim to foreign riches.

The “New World Order” is 1984- light .

If hypocrisy is the homage that vice renders to virtue (La Rochefoucauld), then cynicism is the tribute that the itellectual dandy pays to Zeitgeist values.

Cynicism is often truth spiced up with malice.

Cynicism can ultimately be a cry for help.

True Christianity has no use for fire and brimstone, for it lives for compassion, forgiveness and love.

God needs no bribes.

Law resembles mathematics in that it has rules, principles and logic. An important difference, however, is that law is often broken with impunity, particularly international law.

A breach of law cannot the source of new law.

Justice and law have never been synonymous.

Law is a half-way house between justice and chaos.

Lethargic persons can hardly be evil, for it takes stamina to be unjust, and even more energy to do serious injustice to others.

A just person is one who can be unjust with impunity but deliberately abstains.

Not every one gets the opportunity to be unjust.

A true scoundrel is blissfully free of such things as conscience – good or bad.

Embarrassing the arrogant can be an ecological exercise.

Humiliating enemies is a sport that may be practised with gusto , but should be enjoyed in due moderation.

The right to be wrong is non-derogable.

Aphorisms are a bargain-basement form of philosophy.

© AdeZ

and now some of my favourite borrowed aphorisms:

H.L. Mencken once observed: "Patriotims is not only the last refuge of scoundrels; it is their nursery and breeding pen."

Copyright ©2004-2019 Alfred de Zayas. All contents are copyrighted and may not be used without the author's permission. This page was created by Nick Ionascu.