Killing ideas or real persons?
The essence of totalitarianism in the words of killers of Giovanni Gentile, italian philosopher: "I'm killing the idea, not the person". Sign in to see full entry.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Too rationality
Sometimes many gurus belonging to disparate schools of thinking, religions, etc. crucify us with continuous warnings against an excessive use of reason, rationality, the inhumanizing role of technique and so on. Very strange: all that reason and we are still where we are! If such guys were right, we... Sign in to see full entry.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
White papers
One of the most strongly supported ambitions by totalitarians is the totally unscientific belief that human beings can be reset as much as one likes and transformed in a white paper sheet. This should assure, among other things, the road map to progress. If something like that occurred in science,... Sign in to see full entry.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Che Guevara
Another incredible example of the almost immortal feeling for totalitarianism and its representatives is given by the myth of Ernesto Guevara, better known as "Che" Guevara. Contrary to Fidel Castro, who basically was an opportunist embracing communism just because it offered him a wonderful mean to... Sign in to see full entry.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Only the future matters
In a certain sense, a totalitarian is someone who constantly lives in the future, by sacrificing the present life (and lives of other people). Again, too often this is a behavior typical of our own private lives. Sign in to see full entry.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Ukraine's Holodomor and Hebrew'Shoah
Cynically speaking, it seems that there are victims of rank A and victims of rank B [in Italy, rank A stands for first-class and rank B for second-class]. Indeed, let us consider the following. (Too) many allegedly influential representatives of engaged "high" culture (university professors,... Sign in to see full entry.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Some useful authors
As noted by Hans Albert, in social/political matters the use of irrational arguments of various kinds (emotivity, sentiments, emphasis, etc.) is, in general, greatly appreciated in contrast to sober cost/benefits reasonings et similia. Maybe a look at books by Bertrand Russell may help a bit... Sign in to see full entry.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
AIDS for mind
A crucial misunderstanding about culture is that it is often confused either with erudition or with indoctrination. The only form of culture which can help against totalitarianism is the one which enforces the reason and the critical use of it. Too often certain "high philosophical" culture,... Sign in to see full entry.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Astrology and totalitarianism
In a certain sense, stuff like astrology et similia operate like totalitarian thought: you are relieved of the responsibility of thinking autonomously, there are some simple formulas which the entire complexity of the world around us (people included) is reduced to, you have to make no efforts to... Sign in to see full entry.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Again on science and totalitarianism
As probably many of us know, a flood of (mis-)interpretation of the role of science and technique (as if they were almost the same thing) beat down on us since long time. They would be the main cause of all the evils of present-day epoch, including pejorative aspects of totalitarianism, etc. etc.... Sign in to see full entry.