The (un)normal world.
During my free time I have had some loose thoughts that I will share with you. In this post, there will be a lot of mental shortcuts, be aware of that.
Given the
prevailing pandemic, it is not easy today but I think that we are living in a
more pleasant world - taken out of the inequalities of the capitalist world
described by Marx, civilization, parabolic tragedy described in the works of
Camus as well as lost and at the same time hope for man as individuals
described by Hesse. Not bad. It is still a world full of chances for great
success and a devastating defeat, chances for true love, or its substitution in
various applications and media. Easy to reach the peak of our dreams or a
valley of our fears.
1.
Machiavelli, in the Prince, writes that it is better to manage people through
fear, not love. However, he did not have the opportunity to observe the tools
that are used on a large scale today - DEINFORMATION.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.komputerswiat.pl%2Fartykuly%2Fredakcyjne%2Fnajbardziej-absurdalne-fake-newsy-na-temat-koronawirusa-w-polsce-oto-co-krazy-po%2Fmjfpveq&psig=AOvVaw2CCFdTQeMLhN-VvVHRwOzB&ust=1589830562869000&source=imag
2. We live in an era of accelerating globalization, a disappearing national identity and constantly changing main values. The word 'somehow' is commonly used before the word 'quality'. For the sake of openness and multiculturalism, we devote our tradition and language. It also has huge advantages – easier communication, learning about new cultures, or finding your place on Earth. Travel educates. Especially educated people.
3. The
strongest economies are ruled authoritatively, and those states or their
groupings (such as the EU) that bet on democracy - lose. For a simple reason -
the speed of making decisions is important in the short run. In the context of
power - more important than the speed of decision making is its accuracy and
effectiveness assessed in the long term.
4. I value
democracy and the fact that it gives me the opportunity to have a real impact
on the fate of the state. Of course, you can discuss its individual
implementations in different countries and preserve the demos kratos
principle, but this is a topic for a separate post or a book. As Churchill
said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other
forms that have been tried from time to time." So maybe, in the long-term
aspect, despite the slowness in action, the result is calculated by a majority
of votes (models known from the times of ancient Greece Drakon and her wars
with Sparta dominated by high families). Already in 1713. Bernoulli suggested
that in statistical research we can know exactly what error we are exposed to
when conclusions are based on a specific group of units extracted from the
entire population. A beautiful thing, democracy strives for the ideal.
Churchill would just laugh. And I laugh at my loose metaphor and translation of
this complicated issue.
https://twitter.com/demoskratos20
5. The
financial crisis is coming. Everyone prints cash. The mere fact of printing
cash is not synonymous with an increase in inflation (Fisher's equation: M x V
= P x Y), the speed of money circulation is also important. I am aware of
Keynes' quantitative criticism of money theory and its implications. The current
economic situation shows countries that have done their homework.
6. What do
you know about Africa? The virus is not the only of its problems. Locusts also.
Great African warfare has been going on this continent since the mid-90s, which
is compared to World War II in terms of the number of victims and the countries
involved. Why? Because each of us likes to use laptops, smartphones, and
tablets, right? Meanwhile, the stake in the war in Africa is power over Congo
and its coltan resources. Coltan is a mineral from which niobium and tantalum
are produced - and of them we make electronics.
The above
suggests to me - Everything is for people but people are not created for
everything.
QUESTIONS:
1. Which
point/thought surprised you the most and why?
2. Which of
the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you
like to find in it?
Sources:
Comments
The very first one about Machiavelli, not many still remember him, but he is some sort of a genious in his own strange way.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
The war in Africa, i do not here a lot about it. I would like to learn how the warfare goes, what weapons are used, what tactics and something about greater battles if there were some of them comparable to the ones we know from WWI and WWII history.
1. Which point/thought surprised you the most and why?
I stayed for a moment after reading points 3 and 4. Indeed, democracy has many advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes I think that if society is not aware enough, they rule people who know how things should be done but are a minority. We can for example look at people in Switzerland who seem to be very clever when it comes to making political decisions. Here I also thought about authoritarian systems - it would be great if a person to rule would be good. Then, many changes could be done, but these changes might be amazing, but also terrible. Democracy somehow limits the possibilities and the changes are slight - sometimes a bit better, sometimes a bit worse, but they are small. If we had one superior leader, changes could be gigantic. And now the question is what is the democracy for - avoiding any changes? These are only my personal thoughts about this topic.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
I would like to hear more discussions about point 2. Once I was wondering if the languages we use have much value in nowadays. Wouldn't be it easier if everybody used English? But would we be able to abandon traditions?
Ad The war in Africa I'd recommend you to check e.g this site: https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/coltan-and-conflict-drc as a first track :)
If you would like to wrote a fantastic book about WWI, WWII I gladly recommend you to grab Bertrand's de Jouvenel book: "On power". Cheers!
If I may add some additional thought to p.2 - personally for me it's impossible to unify so many different countries. A good example was USSR - they didn't manage.
I think this points don't surprise me too much so it is hard to choose one for me.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
I think point number five is the most interesting for me. If i would know more about it (how exactly financial crisis works) then i could find some interesting possibilities to invest money but this knowledge is so extensive.
Actually, I can`t say that some points introduced in the presentation surprised me. But some of them caused a heated discussion with my friend.
I just can mention one point that I don`t understand. It is about the disadvantages of globalization such as disappearing traditions and languages. Why do you think this is a negative factor? There is a long list of endangered languages. As for me, the more valuable problems connected with globalization are about organizing common economics and public unreadiness.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
In fact, I think that all thoughts are presented very briefly and superficially. So sometimes they are not fully explained. For example, point 3 about democracy and authoritarianism. I can say that I agree with you here, but there are a lot of aspects behind it. I also was reasoning about the disadvantages of democracy and came to the thought that maybe not everybody should have a vote on elections.
So each of the points should be discussed deeper.
2. Overall all of those points seem interesting, maybe with last one falling behind a bit, because honestly I'm not even a tiny bit interested in what happens to/in Africa. At least as long as it's no effect on our country. And since our incompetent government won't do anything by itself, if our big brother from America won't allow it, it will probably stay like that for a long time. But back to your question. Your loose thoughts, are nice brief introduction to few different topics.
If I had to pick one, then I'd probably go for 4th (with a slight touch of 3rd) point. But it's not actually about hearing more about specific topic, but about hearing more of your opinion. I like how you showed all of them without getting personal at all, maybe aside from short remark that you value democracy. But you seem like very knowledgeable, so it seems like a waste to not hear about your opinion in detail.
I for example, have always seen democracy as the worst possible system. Mostly because vote of every person is equal. In my opinion not everyone should be allowed to cast those, because they may have no idea about how government or economy works. E.g. if I recall correctly, around half of population have no idea where government money come from. I don't believe such people can choose a good government in democratic way. It will be always led with short-term, simple thinking of personal gain (let's look how easy it was to buy votes with 500+).
Then let's look on authoritarian rule. It can be good. Singapur is the best example of such dictatorship. Moreover it has few very strong advantages, from which you mentioned some of them. It can be bad as well though. In latter case we have to overthrow such rule. I have to admit now that there is one important factor, which I didn't take into account earlier. What if majority of population is alright with bad authoritarian rule, like it is in case of our very own Poland right now.
Hence I have mixed feelings about it now. On one hand, democracy is plain dumb in my view and opinion. At least in the form it has nowadays. Although if we don't overthrow bad authoritarian rule quickly, then it may have disastrous effects. Moreover the longer such rule exists, the stronger its roots will be. But we can't always judge whether something will be good or bad after just a few days, weeks or even months. So let's assume we don't have perfect democracy where truly the best are chosen nor perfect authoritarian rules where we're sure to get a good ruler, acting for people not against them. We have government chosen by masses or a single person that grew teached (yes, teached and expected to rule since childhood, not chosen in democratic way) for such position, but have no idea what he'll turn up to be. Which do you think has higher rate of success in modern times?
Can't say that any of them surprised me tbh. About the financial crisis, perhaps.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
About the misinformation. I do not agree that it did not exist at a times of Machiavelli -- it very well did. And well before that.
I was aware of most of the information put in this post. I am not sure about the
point in correlation in authoritatively rulings with strong economies. What about Switzerland which is governed in not authorative way, and still is a very strong economy and a overall wealthy country?
2.
I guess that finding a good way to detect and warn about fake news is a big challange in the coming years for computer scientists and data analysts, so it's good to be informed about that topic. Regarding the situation in Africa I think that in Poland we don't really hear much about what is going on outside our borders, and if there is some news, then it's told in a very shallow way, that doesn't show all of the sides of that matter.
I agree, that many governments used a situation for political reasons. But you mentioned only Eastern Europe. However, it would be nice to mention also e.g. France, India, etc :)
As I wrote above - I know that democracy is not ideal but that's a topic for another post :)
I can’t say that I am surprised at some fact that you suggested, but these facts are very interesting in fact. If you choose from all, then I would probably choose the first fact about Machiavelli. It seems to me because his management philosophy and political treatises were among the most popular and authoritative in the history of mankind. This left its mark on history. Since the fact that you described is still used by many rulers of the countries of our planet.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
Probably I would like to see more information about the impending crisis, I think that this is a global topic and everyone will be interested in it. If this is true, then the crisis will affect the whole world, so I would like to study this topic in more detail. I would like to know all the possible options, risks and the ways in which he can move, of course I would like to know how to avoid it if possible.
First and fifth. First, because disinformation (I think it was the right world under "deinformation") isn't the third thing to manage through in one line with love and fear. It's one more tool to get one or another. For example, one ancient commander had a doe, which he called "magical". When he got some messages from his scouts in the night, he didn't tell about that fact to his army in the morning but said that his doe gave him a vision from gods that soon they would have good news. And after a few such "predictions" the army believed that gods loved them and their commander was chosen by them. Love (and a bit of fear) through disinformation. And I think Machiavelli was in the know.
Fifth - because it isn't the point. The crisis is always coming, you know. Without some specific dates...
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
A lot of them because they aren't completed at all. For example, the sixth one. Who exactly is there in Africa fighting for resources? Why we don't know about their military troops like in Siria?
The second. After reading some questions here and answers to them - why it's big trouble when some nations disappear? It has already happened for hundreds or thousands of times. Your ancestors were part of different communities, that have changed, disappeared, or conquered. Do you miss them and feel the impact of this on your everyday life? I think no. Secondly, different languages and traditions never stopped countries from conquering others, it was a strange answer up here. Thirdly, why one country for the whole planet is worse than a lot of them now? Without some proof base it's too subjective.
Democracy, fall of Sparta, and domination of authoritative countries after that events are the theme for a couple of presentations with disproving of just one this line in paragraph four.
1. Ad Africa- it is also our matter as we all are using electronics :) the country which would start to rule a rare element- will rule our technological world in the same way as countries of OPEC rule the worlds of cars and fuels.
2. I also don't support buying votes but U mentioned only bad sights of 500+ and other social programs. Pay attention that this money stimulates our economy. The average person would but more food etc and as you probably now, Poland taxed foreign trade networks, thanks to which the flow of money remains inside the country (mostly). That's why we have one of the fastest increasing economics in the world (PL was nominated to the elite group of the developed countries). That's a huge success on which we as a country have worked hard for more than 20 years.
3. As far as I know, Singapore has a parliamentary representative democratic republic with a president and prime minister. The difference is that these people are well educated.
4. It seems that you wish monarchy comes back as in these times the ruler was often a child of an actual king. But you forgot that in many cases the children were not as strong and clever as their father hence after a few generations the country was ruined. I'd rather prefer a system where a natural leader is elected after a last king death. By natural leader I mean a person who has the biggest power and authority after a king, e.g. his general or advisor. For now, democracy gives us an opportunity to choose a leader that way but... it's a bit tricky because you always need to have big money for campaign.
http://statisticstimes.com/economy/projected-world-gdp-ranking.php
A better example will be Japan or Germany. But these 2 countries have specific nations- very obedient.
I agree that we are not well informed about the world's problems. Maybe because we have so many problems inside our beautiful country.
Let me please, give you an answer for the rest of your questions, in that manner:
1. Africa is a huge topic. It's enough to say the for the last 100 years there were at least 4 countries that tried to rule it: Germany, Russia (lost its impact after USRR fell), USA and for now- China.
2. Yes, I do feel the impact of past decisions of my ancestors. One example- if Poland would be as strong as the USA, then maybe we would not have a forth times weaker currency and maybe we would have a little bit bigger country.
3. Differences between countries don't stop attacking. But are a very important factor if we are talking about countries resistance to failure.
4. Why one country is worse - maybe it depends on the country? Let's put into a bucket a few ones (USA, China, Russia, India, Germany, and Poland), and now let's make a random draw to unveil our future ruler. How happy U will be to live under the China socialistic system? Have you heard about Chinese re-education camps? Or a caste system in India? That's why I value the possibility to have a choice in which country and which political system I want to live.
I'm very glad that you have your own opinion and we can discuss each point, still kindly and so differently.
I'm also aware that 500+ bring some benefits as well, but it was supposed to be just example, that people think mainly about their personal gain in short term. Idea of such programme by itself isn't bad, it's just poorly made. It isn't even hard to fix, we could make it into relief from taxes and I doubt anyone would complain about it. Well aside from people that aren't working of course ;). But in a form we have it now, I think its biggest effect is encouraging people to resign from working. Moreover you have to remember that those money aren't took out from some new unused source. They are our taxes. Most of those money would be spent anyway, just by different people. Probably less, due to people with tendencies to save money, but still. And like you said our economy growth is success of many years of hard work, not this one programme.
About Singapore, sorry, I wasn't specific. I meant times when Lee Kuan Yew was politically active, and yes it is officially democratic country. But can we really call a country in which there is only one ruling party ever since it regained its independence, and where one person was responsible for its decisions a democratic one :)? I'm not sure how it looks now, but I think everything is left up to his son decisions. Either way success of Singapore was made with authoritarian rule.
Lastly, I don't really wish for monarchy to come back. It was faulty. Like most of the systems. For the best result, I think we'd need a new system. The easiest thing to do, that would help achieve desired results, would be the one mentioned by you. Slightly aligned democracy with addition of tests and some other restrictions. But like you also mentioned, who would make such tests and decide what's supposed to be there. Because of same problem, two ideological systems, which I'd really love to see in Poland, will be impossible to achieve. Namely meritocracy, where people are chosen based on talent, education and achievements (but how to measure those and who'd do it) and technocracy, where people are chosen based on their skills (again, how to measure...).
On a little side note, we have more than one type of monarchy. Succession isn't just meant for children. We had elective monarchy for a long time. In our case it allowed too big influence of foreign countries though, and we all know what was final of this story.
2. The one mention above. It actually encouraged me to look for more information about the situation in Congo around those resources. It’s awful that poor, African country can’t just make money from selling their resources in a normal way and instead has to banish people from their homes, with silent approval of western civilizations which want to use it. It makes me wonder if rich countries would still be rich if they didn’t make use of the weaker ones.
It is hard to choose only one. One of them which surprised me is the second one. It is about globalization, there are a lot of disadvantages of it, which you have mentioned in the paragraph about losing traditions. It is really dangerous, but we can teach our children what is important in life and still continue cultivating it.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
I would like to hear more about democracy and politics. In my opinion people should read about what our government is doing, moreover they should be interested and active, because we have chosen somebody to rule in the country and after 4 years we should judge them. I think that most of people don’t know what is our government doing and how they are changing the surroundings.
2. I'm too tired to hear more about how this world is... let's say doomed.
Good to hear that we have the same opinion about our tradition. Yes, we can teach our children everything :) I like the film 'Capitan Fantastic'. The movie is about a family that lives in a forest and a father taught his children everything himself. They are growing up as very wise people but, not a very social one.
Thought no 1. makes a very loose connection between Machiavelli’s philosophy and the problem of disinformation. Disinformation exists since humans started talking to each other. I would say that it was easier to fool someone before the Internet came about. It used to be much easier for people to have a monopoly on information, certainly in Machiavellian times.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
Inflation has a direct impact on our lives. I would be interested to find out more about the economic theories of Keynes and Fisher. It would also be useful to know which countries you mean when you say they ‘have done their homework'.
I think point 3 surprised me at most. You have interesting point of view. I don’t agree with that. On the Internet I have found that United Kingdom has the strongest economy, a France is on second place. I think some of yours thoughts are good and logical.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
I think I would hear more about DESINFORMATION. I know that it’s a powerful weapon. I would to know about countries, people who used this tool to win a fight, change a decision. Next I would hear much more about situation in Africa. I know that this country have many problems.
2. Yeah, as I can see in comments some people are also interested in topic of disinformation. You know, our fellow ukrainians also lost their brains and dignity towards TV. There was a campaign of anti-propaganda against former president Poroshenko, who was actually the best since Ukraine's independency. Arguably, same kind of disinformation was used against citizens of UK, that decided that EU is bad.
It's fun how excess of information actually corrupts one's brain instead of making him smarter.
2. I think I would like to get to know more about the war in Africa, because somehow my education in this subject is very modest and and on a daily basis I try to keep up with the world news. I would like to fully understand this conflict and be aware of the current situation.
2.Mark my words - it won't be all good if we will wear masks in public places. RECESSION is the next big wave coming to this capitalistic world, and right after it is the CLIMATE CHANGE. Oh we gonna suffer (hopefully I won't - your pain is better than mine ;)).
3.I would love to hear more about upcoming financial crisis, maybe we will talk it over someday.
Coming back to your thoughts about recession and climate - these two things are, sadly, quite badly correlated - I'm afraid that the upcoming crisis will stop climate preserving projects like electrical car evolution, etc.
About disinformation - I know how deeply Russia impacts every source of Ukrainian information. That's really bad :/
I will try to reveal more info about disinformation and Africa in a separate post, maybe in a private message. You can also read a lot from previous posts.
I would recommend you to start from 'A Little History of Economics'. Ad homework - there were a few different tactics, pls check out what Island did :) Short story long - they allow companies to fell which was good to refresh the market because only the strongest one survived. On the other hand, the USA which helped General Motors and the majority of the mos important companies. Another point is the disadvantage of printing dollars by the USA, but this is a different topic.
None of them surprised me all that much but I like the Churchill's quote on democracy and I definitely agree with it. Democracy looks great on paper but as we can see on the example of today's Poland, it does not mean that the country is ruled righteously. Democracy is supposed to be the country ruled by the people but what if the people are brainwashed by extremists who control the media?
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
I am very interested in learning more about how the news are verified and how the media sometimes misinform us or control the information. I think that it is relatively easy to control the public opinion by a number of devices and I would like to learn more about the legal aspects of it.
I was not aware about this kind of mineral.
And that we are able to import it from Congo.
That’s strange, because the demand for it is so big because of the growing popularity and availability of electronic devices. I haven't herd about it before!
2. African country are not able to make money from nothing, for example sharing their resources in a proper way.
2. I would definitely like to deepen my knowledge of the current situation in Africa. This region is so plunged into crisis, hunger, wars, disease, and chaos and poverty in general. It is such a large continent, rich in nature in equatorial forests, savannah deserts and animals inhabited there. It's such a beautiful place, but immersed in darkness. It's very sad, but unfortunately true.
2. I would definitely want to hear more about this situation in Africa. I would like to find some information about possible solutions of this problem.
2 / Since I read some information about 4 question. I would love to study this topic and revise several articles on the topic of democracy, then and in our time. As well as the opinions of other people.
Since modern liberal democracy is based on capitalist relations, it is considered almost an axiom that a market system and free competition provide the best conditions and opportunities for productivity growth and stimulation of individual initiative. It is assumed that the greatest successes in such a society are achieved by the most capable and enterprising. Income inequality under such a system is considered more just than with other types of social structure, since it is not justified by tradition and origin, but by the difference in merit and ability.
2. I would like to hear more about financial crisis described in point 5 as of the whole large topic, but also the Africa problem really interested me, and I would like to know how many things about life there I don’t know.
I would need more time to be suprised by such a complex thing like this but it is really interesting thing.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
To me point five becouse it can help me and other handle with a common pitfalls with the way we do things during the crisis
2. Machiavelli for sure. I am interested in politics and Machaivelli didn't see how his thoughts evolved and the way they are used in practical politics everyday. Machiavelizm is dangerous because politicians can explain everything with Machaivelli's motto.
The fifth surprised me a lot, I didnt know that inflation depends on printed cash. Maybe because i am not the economist.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
I would like to know the fifth about the cash. Its very interesting that the more cash money in the world exists the more money we need to pay to each product.
None of the above; ) but I can't agree with point 2.
Country-specific GDP figures do not support this thesis.
Authoritarian states lead to poverty and wars and in the final stages to victims in the form of millions of lives. History has repeated itself so many times that only regret has remained that we are also dealing with authoritarian systems in the modern world.
However, I can agree that democracy can lead to the formation of such systems where populists take over power and step by step turn democracy into authoritarianism. Unfortunately, in modern democracy everyone's voice is counted the same, so they bribe the poorest, and usually also the most susceptible to manipulation parts of society, which leads to a tragedy that will sooner or later be felt by everyone. I can only cite here the best-known version of Martin Niemöller's confession:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
Point 2. There is no doubt that nowadays there is a great access to other cultures, in particular uncomplicated travel procedures. As a person who likes traveling a lot, I would like to read more about how you can use holiday travel to get to know the culture of the place where you came as much as possible.
I think "surprised" is a bad word to use here. I am rather more or less interested in particular points above. For example I am familiar with Machiavelli statement about dealing with masses by causing them fear rather than love. Of course it's clearly dictatorial approach also not very humane if you think abou it. I am not quite sure thought, what is exactly the direct connection between his convictions and nowadays deinformation. I personally think these are two different kinds of manipulation.
2. Which of the points you would like to hear more about and what information would you like to find in it?
As I said the point about Machiavelli is interesting to me. Expanding knowledge in the fields of psychology of manipulation and influence on a mass scale has always been extremely important part of human existance. I'm sure it is not only something interesting to read about. It's also essential knowlage for a member of such a community that can be exposed to it on daily basis.