Europe and its problem with Fascism

The world watches in trepidation while yet another European election threatens to bring in right-wing populists – this time in Italy. It’s pretty exasperating to see this constant tussle between inept centerist parties and their far-right adversaries. Europe needs change, but its people keep looking in the wrong direction, choosing the worse over the simply bad.

Sometimes it looks like we have to either fight tooth and nail or flee, like those Russians now massing on the borders and trying to get out, because the state eventually came knocking on their doors. Or like the Israeli leftists who leave to countries where they can learn to shrug off the local politics. Or the Brits who fled Brexit, or refugees everywhere. Sometimes living in another country is simply less painful. If you live as a resident outside you native country’s borders, the army recruitment center isn’t going to come looking for you or your children. It’s true that you’ll have less power and influence, and will probably be unable to create change either in the country of your citizenship or in the country of your residency. In the conditions of today, that’s the price that you pay.

One day, in a more stable world, the purpose of nations will be to serve their citizens and safeguard the environment. Citizenship could be abolished and replaced with residency. You live in a nation of your choosing and both you and the nation enter into a contract. You pay your taxes and the nation provides you with the social services that you need. That’s the basis. On a local level there are other commitments, in order to build a sense of community, since loyalty anyway works more naturally on a local level, while “patriotism” and “nationalism” are usually encouraged artificially, by politicians, for extraneous or nefarious objectives. In the 21st century, it has become more important for everyone everywhere to pledge our alliegance to the planet than to the nations that are working together to destroy it.

Free speech

PayPal Demonetises the Daily Sceptic

… PayPal just doesn’t like free speech, which is why it has shut down the FSU [Free Speech Union] account … There are five issues in particular where it’s completely verboten to express sceptical views and if you do you can expect to be cancelled, not just by PayPal but by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.: the wisdom of the lockdown policy and associated Covid restrictions, the efficacy and safety of the mRNA vaccines, Net Zero and the ‘climate emergency’, the need to teach five year-olds that sex is a social construct and the war in Ukraine. Dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy in any of those areas is no longer permitted.

This is the new front in the ongoing war against free speech: the withdrawal of financial services from people and organisations that express dissenting opinions on those topics. And not just those who express them, but those who defend them, too, like the FSU. That‘s what makes this an escalation in the war on free speech. Until now, companies like PayPal, GoFundMe, Patreon and CrowdJustice have only demonetised individuals and groups whose views they disapprove of. Now, PayPal has closed the account of an organisation that defends people’s right to free speech, without taking sides on the issues they’re speaking about. Even that is no longer allowed, according to this Silicon Valley behemoth.

I don’t know anything about the above website, though the author’s framing of the “five issues” leads me to suspect that I might not agree with him on some of these. But I think the action taken against him should bother us. Not because our own opinions stray from the orthodox, but because we need to reserve the right to think differently and to express opinions that differ from those of the mainstream. It’s been pointed out elsewhere that there are gaps between European and US interpretations of the meaning of free speech. (For example some European states outlaw the expression of Nazi sympathies.) But here the US corporations seem to be closer in their approach to the Europeans.

In so far as Western countries differ from authoritarian regimes, it means that whereas adopting a wrong opinion on Ukraine can get you incarcerated in Russia, it can get you demonitized or demonized in the West.

Orthodoxies and the rules for enforcing them change and vary from place to place. The boundaries and the buffer zones between the acceptable and the forbidden shift, or expand and contract. It’s always more or less painful to be situated outside of the mainstream, whenever and wherever we live. But without pushing up against those boundaries, social change and reform would be impossible and societies would remain static and rigid in their orthodoxies.

The main problem with opinion is its association with identity. Defending our opinions is confused with a defence of the self, and, in the same way, people are loved or demonized for their opinions. Politicians who change their opinions are accused of expediency, though Gandhi was famous for reserving the right to inconsistancy. An anarchist friend of mine said that being able to change opinions was a sign of sanity, while holding rigidly to the same views was insane. Most of us would admit to modifying our opinions over time, often to accord with the prevailing wisdom of the times. When I was growing up, I unconsciously absorbed so many of the orthodox English working-class views of my parents and grandparents, from which I was only gradually able to liberate myself over the years. The problem is that we continue to be influenced by the false arguments of journalists and influencers, while staunchly believing in our intellectual autonomy. That’s why it’s necessary to listen to, if not learn to tolerate, divergent opinions and arguments. If our press, our financial services or our regime don’t allow them, we’re in trouble.

The Ministry for the Future

Enjoying this book by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s less a novel than New York 2140, or Aurora, the only other books of his that I’ve read.

A science fiction novel rooted in non-fiction

More like an amalgam of random various texts – some scientific, some philosophical, some journalistic, some anecdotal – with a bit of a storyline and a few characters to hold it together. But, in so far as presenting a possible future history of climate change, and climate action, in the mid-21st century, the formula works. And, more importantly, it fulfills the promise of serious speculative science fiction, of getting us to think about the future that we are making for ourselves, right now.

I thought about that today, when spending the afternoon with my grandchildren. I considered their own hopes and dreams, and how some of these might be stymied by the increasing devastation of the planet.

I just came back from flights overseas – flights that took me to Portugal via Belgium: looking at that absurd right-angle on the map makes me feel ridiculous. Like the times I reached Delhi via Moscow. I think in future, if I fly to Europe it will be to the city nearest to my intended destination – then overland, somehow. But, when I check the possibilities, the costs of such travel far exceeds that of plane tickets, unfortunately. In a better world, governments would be doing more to reduce the costs of overland public transport. There’s still no real way to get from Israel to Europe or the rest of Asia other than by flying. The ferries of yesteryear, that plied the routes between Palestine, Greece and Italy, are no more, and the uncertainties of travel in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan prevents passage through those countries to further east. The world is less open today, and travel is more dependent upon airplanes, than when I was young.

Links: Food

Gates-Funded ‘Green Revolution’ in Africa Has Failed, Critics Say

Critics say the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, founded in 2006 with money from the Gates and Rockefeller foundations, has promoted an industrial model of agriculture that poisons soils with chemicals and encourages farmers to go into debt by buying expensive seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. As a result of that debt, some farmers have had to sell their land or household goods like stoves and TVs, said Celestine Otieno and Anne Maina, both active with organizations in Kenya advocating for ecologically friendly practices. “I think it’s the second phase of colonization,” Otieno said.

EU wastes 153m tonnes of food a year – much more than it imports, says report | Food waste | The Guardian

Back home from Camino

We’re back home from the Camino: this time the Camino Portugues. It went well, despite mishaps. The principle mishap was getting COVID about 3 days into the walk. Both I and D got it, by turn. It wasn’t so significant – just fever and a cold for about 3 days – but it slowed us down. We mostly rested those days, and took private rooms, of course, rather than dorms, and wore masks everywhere.

So we didn’t complete the planned 200+ kilometers, and did perhaps 160. The walking was the best part. Of the towns, we enjoyed visiting the old cities. Porto’s amazing – and we spent about 3 days there – but overly touristic. Like other famous cities, it suffers badly from its popularity.

As we combined the coastal way with the traditional central route, we enjoyed both the coast and the inland areas. Inland, along the Portuguese and Spanish parts, often actually means wide river estuaries. These have been compared to the fjords of Norway.

In Porto, I was inspired by the museums, as I sometimes am. The National Museum in Porto was mostly closed for renovations, but had an amazing exhibition on Magellan – whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the world. I had never considered the singularity of his attainments and courage – virtually discovering the Pacific Ocean (which he named) and then successfully navigating across it. His expected trans-Pacific voyage of “3 or 4 days” took 3 months and 20 days. Learning about the expanse of the oceans in comparison with the size of the land areas changed human perception of the planet. Magellan’s voyage was really a leap into the unknown – more so than the voyages of Columbus, a few years earlier. I wonder if the men who sailed in those ships would have done so had they known what the voyage would entail? Of 5 ships and hundreds of men, only 18 made it around the world. The rest died of hunger, disease, in battles with indigenous peoples, or in mutinies. The men of one ship fled home earlier, escaping during the search for a passage through the straits at the bottom of Chile. Magellan himself perished in a battle in the Philippines. It was only a stroke of luck that the ship’s chronicler, an Italian by the name of Antonio Pigafetta, made it home and spread the story.

We also visited the Seralves museum, which is on the outskirts of the city. There were several interesting exhibitions. A common theme, perhaps, was learning to see the world differently. This was true of the filmmakers shown, especially Manoel de Olveira – whose career spanned decades: he began making films in the silent era and continued till close to his death, at the age of 106. In the interviews, it was stated that he didn’t believe in the reality of the world as most of us see it. The same idea – of learning to perceive the world in new ways – was there in all the other exhibitions, including those of Rui Chaves and Maria Antonia Leite Siza. The latter was a young artist of the ’60s who died at the age of 32. The exhibition traces her drawings from the advent of her short career till close to her death. The covers of her bed, in which she enjoys to spend so much time in dreams becomes in the drawings a pupis, through which she rises like a butterfly. Agnès Varda is both a filmmaker and a photographer. In the exhibition is a work on potatoes, in which one sees this earthy vegetable transformed into an object of wonder. The images are shown in a room in which the floor is covered with actual potatoes, so that their fusty odour permeates the space.

I suppose that what art can do for us is to help us change our perception of the world, in this way. The museum is set in a beautiful park; and the park, as well as the architecture, enhances the same purpose.

For example, one of the features is a “treetop walk” that allows us to explore nature in a new way. And, back on ground level, there was a venerable chestnut tree, whose characteristic spiny fruit littered the entire surroundings like objects fallen from space. So the park, which we explored afterwards, helped to transport the inspiration gleaned from the exhibitions, outwards into nature.

Seralves Park, Porto: acorns on the ground

Diary

I’m enjoying PKD’s The Man in the High Castle. It’s one of his more coherent books – it would be a good introduction to his writing.

Links

Israeli forces raid offices of six Palestinian human rights groups | Palestinian territories | The Guardian I’m lost for words here. But Israel couldn’t get away with this sort of thing if, say, Europe actually cared. There no longer seems to be any leverage in use. It always seems to me that Israel is testing the waters in such cases. Everyone should bear in mind that it would like to do much worse. To the extent that it’s policies are ignored, it feels free to do more.

Social media keeps putting people in jail

Links

Saudi woman given 34-year prison sentence for using Twitter | Saudi Arabia | The Guardian

A Saudi student at Leeds University who had returned home to the kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists.

This is another reminder that social media is not a safe space for free expression. Posts and retweets that express sympathy for violence, sedition, support for unpopular causes or anything in the opaque category of “extremist” thinking can lead to incarceration in your own country or the denial of entry into others, even the western so-called democracies. A cursory web search will reveal arrests in the UK, Germany and France. Israel arrested 390 Palestinians last year for incitement on social media.

If it isn’t a nation state that comes down on you, it can be individual vigilantes who would like to see you dead. Having your own website like this one is probably just as likely to invoke the interest of the authorities. It no doubt depends on how dangerous it looks and the circulation it gets – but you can never know about that.

It is far safer to remain anonymous. True anonymity is tricky, because it depends on never making mistakes. In any case, you have probably already expressed yourself more freely than was wise in posts that will remain for posterity on the internet, a place that never forgives or forgets. Still, the web is humongous, and older data are buried under more recent data, so it is never too late to start taking an interest in privacy.

In my case, I figure that I’m at a stage when I’m never going to be looking for a job again or running for public office. The opinions I express may diverge from the mainstream but, in my domicile, would be unlikely to serve as grounds for arrest. My profile and risk factor are low. I may be barred from travel to some countries, but that’s something I can live with too.

Laws and conditions change. What is acceptable now may later become a crime. What seems to be private today may be in the hands of investigators tomorrow. That’s a risk we all take as soon as we open our mouths to say anything, or click on any button to post or publish to the web.

Links of the day

I think I’m spending too much time again reading the news. Mostly I’m reading stories that have, strictly speaking, no actual bearing on my life, so I grow agitated about matters that needn’t concern me. This is a phenomenon of the news media, though the psychological effect is similar to that of fiction: we read or watch something that is contrived in the mind of a writer or filmmaker, and our emotional reaction is almost as deep as if it were real and affected us personally. So we return to the theme of the interconnectedness of reality and fiction. On the TV news, particularly in featured stories, and in documentaries, there is the conscious effort to emulate what we are used to in watching our favourite TV series. The addition of background music, close-ups portraying the expression of emotions and other tricks of the film-trade all duplicate the experience of watching a TV drama. It’s one reason that I prefer to read the news rather than watch it.

Welcome to the freeport, where turbocapitalism tramples over British democracy | George Monbiot | The Guardian Wow, another evil scheme I didn’t know about. How do they get away with things like this?

Uproar after Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin accuses Israel of ’50 Holocausts’ | Mahmoud Abbas | The Guardian Words are wind. It’s doubtful whether any Israeli decision-maker actually cares what he says as long as he continues to do Israel’s bidding – they are not going to find a more moderate or pliable Palestinian leader. For ordinary Israeli citizens Abu Mazen just reinforces their negative stereotype of Palestinians. What Germans may be thinking is hard to guess. However in modern diplomacy outrage is usually staged. Even genuinely sickening and egregious episodes like the Khashoggi murder can be swept under the rug, if not today, then tomorrow. Israel can continue its brutal occupation without fearing reprisals. Russia can look forward to being welcomed back into the community of nations and Ukraine forgotten, as soon as it becomes economically or politically expedient.

Dystopia as a muse for fiction

There is one positive aspect of the increasing darkness we see all around us – the climate emergency; the victory of anti-democratic forces; the increasing number of refugees; the continuation of proxy wars; the smouldering animosity between nations; the expansion of hate-speech; the erosion of civil rights; the development of technologies for mass surveillance; the spread of motiveless crime; the destruction of the biosphere; the resurgence of religions; the growing gaps between rich and poor; the prevalence of modern slavery, the subservience of the state to corporations; the loss of culture and of cultural diversity and all the rest – it is a fertile bed for the imagination. Ugliness and nastiness are a perfect palate for great art. Good books and films are incubated in dark places. The horrors of World War II and the fascist regimes of the time continue to be a source of great movies. Post-apocalyptic dystopias are a recurring feature of science fiction. The horrors of the feudal era and of warring kingdoms inspire fantasy like that of George R R Martin. As things get worse, the literature gets better. Regardless of the consequences, whether, say, novels and films about climate change, are actually effective in spurring us to action, or whether imaginative fiction about dark regimes can urge the populace to vote for change, such art has a value in its own right. It keeps us engaged, entertained and enthralled, immerses us in realities that are even worse than the one we are presently suffering. The present is dark and the future may be blacker, but we live not only in reality but in our dreams, and usually these stories of wretched hyper-realities are populated by sympathetic figures and heroes who need to find their way in the darkness; either through ingenuity, by discovering their superpowers, through the exercise of compassion and humanity, or by cleaving to other hapless human beings in a similar plight.

When things get really bad, and worse, will this kind of fiction still be popular, or will we prefer to imagine better worlds – fantastic realities like the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland or Mary Poppins? Will we place a positive spin on the present? The Middle Ages, a period of poverty, rapaciousness and pillage, cultivated fantasies of chivalry and romance. The only constant is the power of the imagination to overcome the constraints of a crooked and flawed existence.

Then there’s another school of thought: we can simply own up to what is happening around us, and, without worming away from it by recourse to the imagination, acknowledge facts as facts, understand that they are part of a continuum in a reality that is full of different potential, and live in consciousness and awareness of the whole. Probably the only valuable kind of action is that in which consciousness is fully present, informed not by imagination but by the actual or potential consequences.

India’s independence day

Just as it’s hard to think of Israel’s independence day without remembering the Nakba, it’s impossible to think of India’s independence day without remembering Partition. Although it took place 75 years ago, the news media have still been able to find survivors who remain traumatized. Soon, there will be no one left to remember.

The bloody founding events of India, Pakistan and Israel took place in the same years, after Britain beat a hasty retreat from its colonial failures and responsibilities. There is yet another reminder of the horrors of British colonialism in the news now, this time from Kenya: Police chief quit after abuse by British colonial troops in Kenya covered up. A new documentary titled A Very British Way of Torture, “pieces together many of the worst abuses committed by British colonial forces through survivor testimony and expert analysis from a team of British and Kenyan historians.”

The events took place in the 1950s, when the Mau Mau movement was fighting against colonial rule. Their revelation arrives in the midst of Kenya’s election, the results of which have just been announced. As in India and elsewhere, the British left behind a working functioning democracy but a harsh legacy from colonial rule, the effects of which linger on.

Al Jazeera today has a story on how India has “little to celebrate”. Just as everyone predicted, the country has been growing increasingly less democratic under Modi and the BJP’s rule.

There are some bad dreams from which one does not awaken. Arundhati Roy and now the French scholar Christophe Jaffrelot believe that these authoritarian trends are irreversible.

Roy:

The systematic indoctrination of people on the scale on which it has taken place over decades is hard to reverse. Every institution that is supposed to make up the system of checks and balances has been hollowed out, repurposed and deployed against people as a weapon of Hindu nationalism. In terms of political opposition, there are political parties that have successfully opposed the BJP at the state level in Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, but opposition is virtually non-existent at the national level.

The whole system of elections has been gamed. You can win a huge majority of seats even without anything close to a majority of actual votes. In India, we have a first-past-the-post, multi-party democracy. This means that even if you get say only 20% of the vote in a constituency, as long as its higher than your closest rival, you win. A rich party can put up spurious candidates to split the votes. But that’s just one trick in a whole bag of tricks.

And, anyway, how do you woo an indoctrinated population? By proving that you are a better, prouder Hindu? Nobody can beat the BJP at that game. And right now, that’s the only game in town. As far as mainstream politics goes.

So, no, I don’t believe the damage is reversible. I believe we will be broken and then reborn. Change will only come when and if at all an accepting, gullible, fatalistic people realize what’s being done to them. And then it will come suddenly, and from the street. Not from the system. Until then… God help us.

Jaffrelot:

Democracy, nowadays, is a notion you need to qualify when applied to India. You may say, like some scholars do, that it is an ‘illiberal democracy’.

I prefer to use the concept of ‘ethnic democracy’ that has been first used in the case of Israel. An ‘ethnic democracy’ is a regime where pillars of democracy are still practised, including elections — something populists across the globe need to retain to acquire legitimacy — but where minorities are second class citizens because of all kinds of discrimination.

You may (also) use the word ‘majoritarianism’, which designates the attempt for transforming a cultural majority into a permanent, political majority.

[The] changes under Modi may be permanent if the Hindutva forces have not only captured power, but also society — at least temporarily — and if this hegemonic position allows them to get deeply entrenched in the State apparatus, then a point of no return will be reached.

Just as countries formerly under British rule inherited that country’s flawed democratic system, they also inherited the ways it found to suspend all pretence of democracy. For example, Israel continues to renew and institute the emergency regulations put in place in the closing years of the British mandate. Administrative detention without trial was one of them and, till today, hundreds of Palestinians are incarcerated in this way.

Salman Rushdie

I read about the attempt on the author’s life and his wounding in the attack. I’ve read only one of his books – Shalimar the Clown, and a couple of short stories, which I enjoyed. Satanic Verses I once tried to read, but it didn’t hold my interest. I find something irritatingly affected about the man that keeps me at a distance. Maybe more than other authors, his personality seems to infuse itself into the writing. But my judgment is only cursory – I can’t really claim to understand Rushdie from reading one novel and listening to a few interviews. And it’s just a personal bias. Still, I obviously know him better than his would-be assassin – I suppose religion was the motivating factor and Rushdie was just a symbolic target. What an idiot, what a presumption, by an ignorant 24-year old, to harm one of the great writers of our era.

I think the irony at the heart of all religions is that real religion is not something that one can “follow”. Every religious tradition has its geniuses, but the greatness of most of them stems from the fact that they themselves weren’t followers. They were people who put their lives on the line, searched for truth, tried to go to the heart of existence and made a direct connection with the divine. In their boldness, uniqueness, and willingness to escape convention, they had more in common with Rushdie than with those who revile him and want him dead.

A good guide to religion and ideology is that wherever there are attempts to trap us in prescribed practices and ritual, such as prayer or meditation at regular intervals, we need to reject them. Whenever they take away our power to think for ourselves, require us to differentiate ourselves from others, wear identifying clothing or symbols, we should reject them. True religion is about freedom of mind and vision: we can’t understand any of the secrets at the heart of existence as long as we subscribe to set rules of behaviour or thinking.

It’s a funny thing; the religious geniuses were themselves, by the standards of ordinary 21st century society, crazy fanatics – they had to be – it’s just that they weren’t followers.

George R. R. Martin

Having finished reading all five volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire now, I began to read a bit about the author. Apparently he composed all his books – at least up to 2011 and maybe till today – on a DOS computer and in WordStar. There’s something inspiring about that simple fact: One of the most successful and prolific writers of our time requires nothing more than what most people regard as antequated software. He evidently rejected all the bells and whistles of modern word processors in favor of an old and trusted tool. As to technique, he says that he writes in a sort of daydream, though obviously he needs to be extremely systematic in order to keep all the threads of his epic together. I wonder how he compiles and catalogues the enormous amount data that he is working with? Software also as simple as WordStar? OrgMode could naturally handle both the writing and the data collection, and would be a perfect tool. When I write my epic, that’s what I’ll use.

Animals

There are two or three cats that pass at every hour by the pateo screen door, on what look like regular patrols. Their pace is unhurried, as if they have all the time in the world. If the door is open behind the screen, they take a moment or two to peer in; no doubt if they could enter they would do so. I don’t want to discourage their patrols. One day on the path we found a dead snake; perhaps that was their doing.

Reflecting on their manner of living I compared my life to theirs. Animals seem never to question the purpose of their existence. As far as we know, they never wonder if they are making any kind of contribution, whether they are being lazy or over-zealous, kind or mean. They just exist.

When humans exhibit the same behaviour, I’m the first to grow judgmental, and I try to watch my own, worrying that I too am just a burden on the earth, despite my decidedly low-key way of living.

Yet the existence of human beings is much more expensive to the planet, in terms of resource use, than that of animals. Maybe there is a reason to look at the time spent as if we are here on an expensive scholarship?

But I’ve got it all wrong. A vagabond who sleep-walks through life does less damage to the earth than an accomplished technocrat. A person who achieves nothing beyond procreating and taking out the garbage is much less of a drain on resources than a wealthy stockbroker. In fact, the poorer and simpler our lives, the better for the planet and the future of humanity. If we could just live like those cats…

Links

In PaleMoon, a browser not noted for the range or quality of its extensions, I found one that can take a web page and convert the URL and title into OrgMode syntax, for import into my blog. Perfect!

The high price of a Sri Lankan family’s bid to flee crisis | Reuters

They tried to leave in a fishing boat to Australia, but were caught, sent back and face financial ruin.

Dozens feared dead as migrant boat sinks off the coast of Greece | Greece | The Guardian

Approximately 3.7 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey. The influx of Europe-bound migrants to Greece has dropped dramatically over the past year but this week’s crossing is a reminder of the lengths people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa are willing to endure to find refuge in the west.”

EU under pressure to ban Russian tourists from Europe | Europe holidays | The Guardian

“The EU has been urged to introduce a travel ban on Russian tourists with some member states saying visiting Europe was “a privilege, not a human right” for holidaymakers.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with the Washington Post that the “most important sanction” was to “close the borders, because the Russians are taking away someone else’s land”. Russians should “live in their own world until they change their philosophy”, he said.

Yeah well, if that’s true, the EU should close the border also to Israelis, on the same grounds. And Ukraine supported Israel in its latest military operation.

I’m actually not so sure that citizens should be punished for the crimes of their governments, especially when the cost of disagreeing is often to be put in jail. Even when it is true that the majority of a population supports the actions of the government, ordinary people should be presumed innocent of the crimes of their countries, or at least seen independently and treated with respect.