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Replica by an anonymous Hungarian Intellectual under the pseudonym "Kivül Alló" to Janos Kis' »Thoughts about the Near Future«, published in 3 parts in the previous issues of »gegenstimmen«
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Written as a theory about utopia and dystopia, this piece examines types and models of diverse Albanian and international works, aiming at a further categorization within the genre of utopia and dystopia. The author thereby addresses different manifestations of the ‘ideal world’ in philosophy, religion and literature, and notions of ideological panopticons. The piece likewise addresses the limitations of the genre, in etymological and semiotic readings focusing on themes and ideas.
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How should we understand virtualization? Why should we think virtualization? Indeed, man is homo faber and in this respect the human being is the creator of instruments par excellence. In human history, every historical phase was in a significant manner defined by the renewal invention and renovation of instruments. Isn’t this overthinking an instrumental technological development that was only to be expected from man? In this perspective, nothing is really new: the age of virtualization gains shape via the opportunities presented by this new instrument of virtualization and capitalized by the human beings and by their societal structures. However, the greatest enabler of our times is the greatest transformer and the greatest challenge. One should notice: a challenge is a more or less actualized as a threat, too. Virtualization means in our interpretation connection via assessment, measurement, a numeral way of intellective relation. Here lays the root of the threat. Virtualization is interpretable as assessment and measurement. This is at least problematic, if not dangerous. The number of visualizations, the number of clicks, the number of “likes”, such numbers are descriptions of goals in a digitalized world. Virtualization is the foundation of the world of great numbers where individuals and their alterity represent for the big data algorithms something to be corrected. Virtualization is living in the „virtualization hug box”. The numerous likes, the conformism in all forms and shapes as well as the assessable behaviour represent commercial and educational desirable outcomes via digitalized interactions. The alternative to conformism is for the individual to face indignation, outrage and marginalization – the stern exile among the ranks of “them” who are irreducibly opposed to “us”. The world of becoming, based on the human relations with hopes, imagination, personal projects is fading away. Solidarity without empathy for alterity equals conformism or hypocrisy, both in educational and in social phenomena and actions.
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That Americans face a crisis in representative democracy is a matter of common knowledge. It is daily demonstrated by the paralysis of Congress to pass important legislation. Carl Schmitt, writing during a period of similar paralysis in the Weimar Republic, argued that the crisis is inherent in the very notion of parliamentary or representative democracy. While the parliamentary principle emphasizes contending parties and reasoned debates, the democratic principle is one of unification, one where the outvoted minority submits to the majority. Doing so, the minority “know that they have mistaken the content of the general will,” which is, inherently, unitary. This leads to the fact that democracy can, following its principles, suspend itself. Thus, the members of the Reichstag who passed the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933 could say that this Act suspending parliament expressed the general will. Rule by decree rather than through parliament was, they could claim, the choice of the popular will. After examining Schmitt’s position, this article considers Arendt’s response, which involves a unique definition of political thinking. In her view, this involves the politics of public space and of public identities established by public actions. As such, it involves negotiation, compromise, and, most importantly, promises made and kept. The paper concludes by considering what it would take to overcome the current crisis in representative democracy.
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Publikuojame tekstą viešos paskaitos, kurią Mykolo Romerio universiteto profesorius Andrius Biels-kis, Aristotelio ir kritinės teorijos studijų centro direktorius, Lietuvos nacionalinės Martyno Mažvydo bibliotekos kvietimu perskaitė 2023 m. balandžio 20 d. Paskaita, skaityta autoriaus 50 metų jubiliejaus proga, – reikšmingas Profesoriaus intelektualinės autobiografijos fragmentas, brėžiantis dar vieną aka-deminio maršruto variantą.Autorius dėkoja visiems, kas dalyvavo, klausėsi, skaitė ir komentavo jo mintis, ypač šeimos na-riams – Severijai ir Nickui, atvykusiems iš Londono, Jolantai ir Samueliui Andriui, broliui Putinui, taip pat ir Nacionalinei Martyno Mažvydo bibliotekai už jos svetingumą.
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Due to the multiplicity of meanings given to the terms ‘political thought’, ‘philosophy’, and ‘polit-ical theology’, it becomes necessary to establish possible relationships between them. The text makes such an attempt based on the suggestion that, first of all, it is necessary to take into account the different meanings given to politics (under-stood as knowledge or practice) and the political (defined by the search for a common solution, and perhaps even for the common good, or by the struggles of various actors or political players to impose solutions protecting someone’s partic-ular interests). The historical background of the argument contains references to old, even ancient, approaches, but essentially, it has an introductory value, illustrating the complexity of the analysed issues.
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This article examines human vulnerability in relation to the changing socio-political context of the contemporary world, resulting from the undermining of the established international order in recent decades as a result of Russia's large-scale war against Ukraine, military actions in explosive areas such as the Middle East, and the hybrid warfare that dictatorial regimes and terrorist organizations are waging against the free world. The poles of confrontation are outlined, broadly labelled as the global ghetto versus the global city. The second part presents the two largely contradictory discourses - modern and postmodern - within which human vulnerability in the Western world is thematized. Several themes of the discourse critical of modernity are presented, such as 'structural violence'; the specific identity of minority groups and the demand for specific rights; and postcolonialism and anti-colonialism, which require policies that contradict those derived from the modern discourse and promote ghettoization both within individual societies and in the world. The hypothesis proposed in this article is that war, especially open war, clarifies dividing lines and challenges a rethinking of emphases in defining human vulnerability.
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The article considers some gnostic motives in transhumanist writers whose ideas about the future of society were denounced as an antihuman utopia. The roots of this movement are closely related to the project of modernity and the author makes efforts to reveal some aspects of the gnostic inheritance of the last three centuries. The technological growth is driven by the anthropocentric worldview and made nature just a resource store. Nature must be transformed, and human nature too: eugenics instead of ethics
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Ludwig von Mises, a prominent representative of the Austrian school, was also a radical critic of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. His criticism was deeply rooted in economic theory, particularly in his authoritative comparative analysis of socialism and capitalism and his original theory of bureaucracy. At the same time, while emphasizing the economic aspects, he ignored the distinction between the two systems, treating any major appropriation of economic power by the state as a fast track to full political and economic control. Reconstructing Mises reasoning, the article discusses in turn the fundamental issues related to the analysis of the socialist order and its relation to authoritarian orders, supplemented by considerations of bureaucracy and war, as well as questions of the importance of democracy and the right to self-determination for the well-being of society.
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This study includes the concept of democracy and evaluations on deliberative democracy, one of the most debated forms of democracy in recent times. The most widely used definition in the literature regarding the concept of democracy is “the form of government based on the government of the people by the people.” Different evaluations have been made on the concept of democracy depending on the progress levels of societies over time. Accordingly, different definitions have emerged. Many democracy types have also emerged in different countries depending on the way democracy is implemented. Among them, the concept of democratic negotiator has started to be presented as an alternative model especially by western states today. The negotiator democracy appears to be an ideal model for predicting the participation of individuals and non-governmental organizations in decision-making processes. However, this model is very unlikely to be feasible given the fundamental problems facing governments in the growing population and globalization process.
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