You know how people say that there’s nothing you can’t find on the internet? Well, a quick look at the page of the “Body Modification Ezine” increases the likelihood of you believing in that statement, too. And doesn’t their logo sports someone wearing handcuffs for earrings?
Archiv für den Monat Juni 2003
My Gentle Readers,
I would like to inform you that recent hardware rescue efforts have been rather successful.
As a fortunate consequence I am now able to post again. So in my next entry, I will try to explain why I – contrary to most German commentators – believe the Israeli policy to militarily weaken Hamas and other extremist groups could actually be helpful for a peace process in the Middle East, should it ever be complemented by one crucial ingredient – real hope for a real solution.
Argh!
My (main) computer is still experiencing an extreme amount of unwarranted file-system induced “strokes”. Keeping it running and online long enough to write this is as good as it gets today. Hopefully, I’ll be able to fix this tomorrow. If anyone has any idea why my system (Win98SE) suddenly crashes all the time – and certainly when copying files larger than, say, 5 Mbytes from one partition or physical drive to another – please let me know. Ah, it’s not a virus, according to AntiVir.
It’s Been A Hard Day’s
and I’m having trouble with my computer. So I won’t be exactly long winded for a change ;-).
There are many reasons for people to pursue a particular lifestyle or live in a particular culture. Some do it by choice [disregarding for practical reasons that any discussion about “choice” will sooner or later approach the “free will” dilemma], others less so – if for genetic or societal or whichever reasons. And in many instances there is no clear-cut criterion for a moral ranking of any of these lifestyles or cultures – they are incommensurable.
I have been confronted with this thought twice tonight. For the first time while I have been reading a recommendable essay by the University of Chicago’s Richard A. Shweder. It is called “Moral Maps, ‘First World’ Conceits and the New Evangelists” and deals with some problems relating to the seemingly eternal moral rivalry of “cultural relativism” and “moral universalism”.
Richard A. Shweder is an anthropologist, but as he states himself in the essay, that doesn’t actually say a lot about a person’s belief system (anymore). I very much enjoyed reading this essay although I do not agree with his final conclusion that the world’s cultures will not converge economically if cultural conversion to western values should indeed be a condition for this to happen. But read and decide for yourself.
And then – the second time – I found a practical example of the new evangelism/moral universalism Mr Shweder was alluding to – even within the geographical “west” – an article on MSNBC news about a new mission Southern Baptists (apparently a larger American evangelical denomination) have assigned themselves to –
“The Southern Baptist Convention announced a new initiative Tuesday to convince gays that they can become heterosexual if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their ‘sinful, destructive lifestyle.'”
I might disagree with Mr Shweder with respect to the question of cultures choosing less productive economic models over more productive ones in order to preserve socialised identities in the very long run (in my opinion, the real question here is, how exactly does de- and re-institutionalisation of cultural elements and their importance for individual identities work in reality – a question to which the Iraki “adventure” will probably add some observations) but I doubt the Southern Baptists will be particularly successful on their latest mission…
OK, now that was a bit longer than I thought it would be.
The Occasional Freaky Bit
You know, my gentle readers, how I am usually quite understanding of many kinds of political behavior – but then there’s the occasional bit that really freaks me out (if correct).
Paul Krugman wrote last Friday in the NYTimes that –
“after the Columbine school shootings, Mr. DeLay [the Republican House of Representatives majority leader] called a press conference in which he attributed the tragedy to the fact that students are taught the theory of evolution.”
There’s really nothing to add to that. Oh wait, maybe this.
Double-check.
And why, exactly, is it that this new Blogger version always creates two posts when I post just one?
Want A 3G Mobile Phone For Free?
Here’s how to do it – from theregister.co.uk.
The Banality Of The Good.
Sometimes I wonder how Timothy Garton Ash finds the time to talk to people given the amount of well-written, thought-provoking stuff he publishes – in “Elf” (English As Lingua Franca), to help foster a European public sphere. Today, Eamonn Fitzgerald links to his latest piece in the New Statesman. I think he is clearly more right than wrong, but I do have some objections I will share with you tonight.
Can’t Buy Me Lo-hove!
So it turns out, my vote was not needed. The Czech Eu referendum is over – 55% turnout, 77,33% said ‘yes’. Done. Welcome in the EU, guys!
Nonetheless, judging from the opinions those (not too many) Czech people held whom I talked to in Praque, a lot of the 3,48 million votes in favour of EU membership seem to have been cast not out of any European enthusiasm but due to the realisation that a small country like the Czech Republic is bound to be severely affected by whatever the EU decides – with or without any influence on the inside. Quite apart from the additional legal and political problems resulting from Czech and German politicians’ handling of the Benes-factor in the run up to the accession treaty, they expressed a lot of fear regarding the possible surrender of velvet-revolution-acquired democracy to some intransparent bureaucratic complex in Brussels.
I found this rather surprising given that most of those who shared this opinion with me are very unlikely to remember their life before the velvet revolution in colour – if they remember the revolution itself, I suppose must be a consequence of tv coverage interruppting regular kids afternoon progamming…
Thus, it is difficult for me to judge if they are really afraid of subjecting themselves to an unaccountable technocracy or if the ‘giving up what we fought for’ argument is not in fact a politically correct way of expressing nationstate-centric reservations against the European project. Clearly, the velvet revolution as well as the peaceful separation from Slovakia in 1994 has allowed young Czechs to recently develop a stronger national identity than was conceivable in the formrt pseudo-internationalist totalitarian regime. When my Prague Castle architectural tour guide, a young female history of arts student, talked about the “Czech” national revival at the end of the 19th century on Sunday morning before briefly mentioning the referendum, the subtext was obvious to everyone present – she was actually alluding to the national revival at the end of the 20th century – and the fear of losing her national and cultural identity, of being assimilated.
She voted in favour, she said – because she is hoping for EU cash for her art projects and because of – resistance-is-futile – assumed inevitability.
She, like most others I talked to this weekend, may be right about the project’s inevitability. But can this be enough for those who believe in the European cause? Hardly. They will have to continue to fight for the new members’ heart. And we all know that John Lennon, a graffiti of whom became a revolutionary rallying point in Prague, was absolutely right about this – “money can’t buy you love”.
So let’s hope that paid-for cohabitation is only the beginning. Again – welcome in the EU, guys!
Done. For The Time Being…
The EuObserver oberves that the historic EU constitution has now been approved by the European convention. Now let’s see what the governments will make out of it…