Sakharov not dead, and Pussy Riot forever

ONE COUNTRY ONE CHURCH ONE LAW

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22090308

[Wow, what lucky men we are (will be?) / CHE FORTUNA! ] GAIA, the future of politics- il futuro della politica [CASALEGGIO ASSOCIATES] [LOVE THE ALIEN]

                       LOVE THE ALIEN




http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianroberto_Casaleggio

http://www.casaleggio.it/thefutureofpolitics/storyboard.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM6fLBKLirc  [con sottotitoli italiani]

Gaia (the trancript)

Gaia, the future of politics.

Gaia, a New World Order, is born today, the 14 August 2054.
Racial conflicts, ideological conflicts, religious conflicts, territorial conflicts belong to the past.
Every man is a world citizen, subject to the same law.
The Internet has driven the change, spreading communication, knowledge and organization at a planetary level.

The Pyramids of Egypt, the Colosseum of Rome, the Church of the Holy Wisdom are demonstrations of power.
The Roman Empire lasts for centuries because of its road network: the “cursus publicus”.
Genghis Khan creates a network of horsemen to have real time information from everywhere in his empire, the greatest of all times, and to be able to concentrate in a few days all its military force on a single point.
Savonarola, a monk from Ferrara that anticipated Martin Luther and John Calvin, invents the “open letters”, printed in thousand of copies and distributed to the citizens of Florence.
The French Revolution walks on the legs of the ideas of the Diderot and D’Alembert’s Enciclopèdie and of the Voltaire’s Dictionnarie Philosophique.
Benito Mussolini uses the radio to communicate with the people who gather together in all the squares of Italy.
The movies of Leni Riefensthal give a great popularity to Adolf Hitler.
The first live transmission of the sessions of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom is broadcast by BBC radio in 1975.

At the beginning of the 21st century the fate of the world is still determined by masonic, religious and financial groups.
130 of the most influential personalities of the world, the Bildeberg group, have a private meeeting every year to discuss the future of the world economy.

Before the Net, communication, knowledge and organization belonged to the power. With the Net they belong to all the people.

1998 MoveOn, a political site, launches a campaign in favour of Bill Clinton with a million emails sent to the Congress of the US

1999 In Seattle thousands of activists protest against WTO thanks to the Internet.

2002 A “coup d’état” in Venezuela fails. Chavez is back as president because of the information diffused on the Internet and via SMS.

2004 Howard Dean, an unknown governor of Vermont, becomes a pretender to the White House. He creates a worldwide network of supporters with the Internet platform MeetUp and communicates with millions of persons through his blog blogforamerica.com

In many States like China, Iran, Malaysia and Singapore the Net is under control.

2007: In Italy, V Day is the biggest political event that has ever been brought together by using the Internet. It’s coordinated through the blog of the famous Italian comedian, Beppe Grillo. Two million people pour out onto the streets to demonstrate in favour of a “clean up” in Parliament.
2008 Obama wins the primary elections against Hilary Clinton. He collects more funds than any other candidate directly from the citizens using the Net

2008 Obama wins the US presidential elections

2008 At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Al Gore declares that the problems of the world, like the global warming, can be solved only by the cooperative intelligence of the people on the Internet

2018 The World is divided into two main areas. The West with direct democracy and free access to Internet. China, Russia and the Middle East with orwellian dictatorship and controlled access to the Internet

2020. Beginning of the Third world War that lasts 20 years. Destruction of the symbols of the West, Saint Peter’s Square, Notre-Dame de Reims, Sagrada Família.
Use of bacteriological weapons.
Acceleration of climate change and rising of the seas of 12 metres. Starvation.
End of the fossil fuel era.
Reduction of the world population to one billion people.

2040. The West wins. Net democracies triumph

2043. Grassroots movements emerge all over the world to manage local problems related to energy, food, environment, health. The planet is split into thousands of communities linked by the Net

2047. Everyone has his identity in a world social network, created by Google, called Earthlink. To be you must be in Earthlink, or be not. No passport is required anymore.

2050. BrainTrust, a collective social intelligence, allows people to solve complex problems in a matter of days sharing any kind of information and data on line.

2051. A world referendum is held on the Net to abolish the death penalty.

2054. First world elections on the Net. A World Government, called Gaia, is elected. Secret organizations are banned. Every human can become president and control the actions of the government through the Net.

In Gaia, parties, politics, ideologies, religions disappear.
Man is the only owner of his destiny.
Collective knowledge is the new politics.

Voice: Herbert Marshall McLuhan Avatar.
Date: 14th August 2054
Place: Nuuk, Greenland 

somewhere in '67 [GC; the happy birthday of death]

andiamo dunque avanti per la nostra strada

di fango porte chiuse carta straccia

fra le famiglie riunite dopo cena 

quiete sulle verande nient'altro

le auto che passano per i viali

silenziosi nel ricordo un poco tristi

e scoppi di luce e visioni e rimpianto

vedere dall'alto un continente intero

così in un volo senza scalo via satellite

anche gli amici rimasti indietro siamo soli

'A proposito di fiori' [1970: avevo 22 anni] [Roger Garland]

La luna si è fermata e non vuole più andare avanti. Il suo destino si è compiuto, dice, e non ha più senso continuare. In anni a venire, forse, riferiranno le radure- toccherà proprio a loro- di come, in giornate senza vento, il suo becco arrossato, le sue corna di cristallo si arrestassero in mezzo al cielo, al comando di Dio. E Shaddai chiama: Vieni. Finite le gioie giovanili, finite le illusioni; 'sono stanca'.

Non ti abbandonerò, stai sicura; su di me puoi contare. Fino alla fine del tempo ti sarò accanto, asciugherò le lacrime dal tuo volto polveroso e ti porterò in dono, cara, giorno dopo giorno, qualcuna delle mie rose terrene- me stesso.

"Leggendo 'Big Sur', Chicago 1964 [Jack Kerouac]"- da G. Conserva (Note) 1-3-2011

At high noon the sun always coming out at last, strong, beating down on my nice high porch where I sit with books and coffee and the noon I thought about the ancient Indians who must have inhabited this canyon for thousands of years, how even as far back as the 10th century this valley must have looked the same, just different trees: these ancient Indians simply the ancestors of the Indians of only recently say 1860... How they've all died and quietly buried their grievances and excitements How the creek may have been an inch deeper since logging operations of the last sixty years have removed some of the watershed in the hills back there... How the women pounded the local acorns, acorns or shmacorns, I finally found the natural nuts of the valley and they were sweet tasting -- And men hunted deer -- In fact God knows what they did because I wasn't here -- But the same valley, a thousand years of dust more or less over their footsteps of A. D. 960 -- And as far as I can see the world is too old for us to talk about it with our new words -- We will pass just as quietly through life (passing through, passing through) as the 10th century people of this valley only with a little more noise and a few bridges and dams and bombs that wont even last a million years - The world being just what it is, moving and passing through, actually alright in the long view and nothing to complain about -- Even the rocks of the valley had earlier rock ancestors, a billion billion years ago, have left no howl of complaint - Neither the bee, or the first sea urchins, or the clam, or the severed paw - All said So-Is sight of the world, right there in front of my nose as I look, - And looking at that valley in fact I also realize I have to make lunch and it wont be any different than the lunch of those olden men and besides it'll taste good -- Everything is the same, the fog says "We are fog and we fly by dissolving like ephemera, " and the leaves say "We are leaves and we jiggle in the wind, that's all, we come and go, grow and fall" - Even the paper bags in my garbage pit say "We are man transformed paper bags made out of wood pulp, we are kinda proud of being paper bags as long as that will be possible, but we'll be mush again with our sisters the leaves come rainy season" -- The tree stumps say "We are tree stumps torn out of the ground by men, sometimes by wind, we have big tendrils full of earth that drink out of the earth'... Men say "We are men, we pull out tree stumps, we make paper bags, we think wise thoughts, we make lunch, we look around, we make a great effort to realize everything is the same" -- While the sand says "We are sand, we already know, " and the sea says "We are always come and go, fall and plosh. " -- The empty blue sky of space says "All this comes back to me, then goes again, and comes back again, then goes again, and I don't care, it still belongs to me" -- The blue sky adds "Dont call me eternity, call me God if you like, all of you talkers are in paradise: the leaf is paradise, the tree stump is paradise, the paper bag is paradise, the man is paradise, the fog is paradise" -- Can you imagine a man with marvelous insights like these can go mad within a month? (Because you must admit all those talking paper bags and sands were telling the truth- But I remember seeing a mess of leaves suddenly go skittering in the wind and into the creek, then floating rapidly down the creek toward the sea, making me feel a nameless horror even then of "Oh my God, we're all being swept away to sea no matter what we know or say or do" -- And a bird who was on a crooked branch is suddenly gone without my even hearing him.

LINK : 'bankrupt Stockton, California city' [BBC News, 1 april 2013]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21997802

A judge has approved the California city of Stockton's bankruptcy filing, making it the most populous US city ever to enter bankruptcy protection.

A federal judge said without bankruptcy protection, Stockton would be unable to provide basic government services.

The city of 290,000, 90 miles (144km) east of San Francisco, saw its tax base plummet in the US housing market crash.

The ruling grants Stockton protection from creditors - who opposed the filing - while it negotiates debt repayment.

Stockton's creditors - bond holders and insurers who had financed the city's debt - argued the city had not cut spending enough nor sought a tax increase to avoid bankruptcy. With the city now in bankruptcy, they may not be repaid their full principals.

But lawyers for the city said it had slashed its budget to the bone after a 70% decline in the city's tax base.

The California city first filed for bankruptcy in June 2012 after failing to come to an agreement with its creditors. The judge came to his decision on Monday after a three-day trial.

"It's unfortunate that we have been forced to spend millions of dollars, thousands of hours and almost a year on this effort," city manager Bob Deis said, referring to the fight with creditors who opposed the bankruptcy filing.


Stockton slashed its police force even as crime rates have soared
"These are valuable resources and money that could have gone toward addressing the critical safety needs of our community, restoring services, and paying our creditors."

During the housing boom, the city developed its waterfront, with a new marina and sports complex, and negotiated generous pension and healthcare benefits for city employees.

But when the housing market crashed beginning in 2008, the city's revenue sank when a rush of home foreclosures caused a dip in property taxes and developer fees.

Officials were forced to make dramatic spending cuts to patch a budget deficit - roughly $26m (£17m) this year. The city eliminated a quarter of its police officers, one third of the fire department staff and 40% of all other employees. It also cut wages and medical benefits.

Stockton's unemployment and violent crime rates now rank among the worst in the nation.

The city's case was being watched closely by other struggling US cities and towns that may also seek bankruptcy protection.

Stockton's largest debt is $900m owed to the California Public Employees' Retirement System to cover pension promises. The city has kept up with pension payments at the expense of other debt, arguing it needs a strong pension plan to retain its workforce.

MARCO BALDINO: 'L’egualitarismo radicale detto di Babeuf' [Kasparhauser rivista, 28 marzo 2013], plus due commenti

http://www.kasparhauser.net/Communes/baldino_babeuf.html

Espressione di un egualitarismo radicale, Babeuf parla di una «religione della pura eguaglianza». L’uguaglianza è concepita come “diritto primitivo”. Tuttavia la felicità comune (o sociale) deve poi essere assicurata dalle Istituzioni — concezione giuridica che confligge con quella naturalistica del diritto “primitivo”. Che significa infatti “primitivo”? “promulgato” dalla natura, si tratta cioè di qualcosa di pre-giuridico.

La felicità del popolo si ottiene — secondo Babeuf — limitando per legge il diritto di proprietà. La proprietà è qui il grande nemico. Suoi riferimenti teorici:

1) Licurgo: nessuno può conseguire il superfluo;
2) Rousseau: la perfezione dello stato sociale è che ciascuno abbia abbastanza e nessuno troppo;
3) Robespierre: “Dichiarazione dei Diritti”;
4) Saint-Just: «Gli infelici sono le energie della terra, hanno il diritto di parlare da padroni ai governi che li trascurano».

Per Babeuf tutto ciò che un membro del corpo sociale possiede al di sopra della sufficienza è il risultato di un furto ai danni degli altri coassociati; bisogna che le Istituzioni sociali tolgano ad ogni individuo la speranza stessa di divenire più ricco, più potente, più ragguardevole, «per i suoi lumi», cioè in virtù delle sue doti, della sua intelligenza, della sua stessa applicazione.

Pars construens
L’egualitarismo di Babeuf si presenta come il sogno orrifico di un sistema livellatore attraverso la legge. Dinanzi alla maestà del principio supremo dell’eguaglianza ogni altra cosa deve essere tenuta nel più totale dispregio. Babeuf cerca di immaginare una forma sociale in cui sia sbarrata a tutti ogni possibile via d’ottenere oltre lo stretto necessario (la famosa “quota-parte”). Qui Babeuf rischia però di confondersi con il suo contrario: è il mondo borghese — come osserva Bataille (Il limite dell’utile, Adelphi 2000, p. 61) — ad essere intimamente mosso da questo orrore per il superfluo, per lo spreco, per il sacrificio, per tutto ciò che eccede l’utile e lo è proprio contro l’Ancien régime, contro la società della gloria e della tragedia. In questo senso la dottrina di Babeuf è identica a quella dei puritani americani del XVII secolo: ciò che sta nelle premesse del capitalismo sta anche nelle premesse del socialismo, sia utopistico che scientifico.

Pars destruens
Il discorso di Babeuf si presenta altresì come un’aperta presa di partito per la vittima assoluta: «tutti i mali sono al culmine — scrive Babeuf — ad essi non si può porre rimedio che con un sovvertimento totale!». Egli ammette pertanto, contro coloro che lo accusano di fomentare l’odio, la necessità di una guerra civile, la guerra delle vittime, degli sventurati, di coloro che mancano di tutto, contro i loro assassini; «la discordia — egli sostiene — è meglio d’una orribile concordia in cui si strozza la fame». Babeuf manifesta qui ciò che Nietzsche ha chiamato “esistenza catilinaria” (Crepuscolo degli idoli): un cupo rantolo si leva dal profondo della provincia francese e si incarna in questo auspicio: tutto si confonda, tutto si imbrogli, tutto si mescoli e si scontri, tutto rientri nel caos… solo così potrà sorgere un mondo nuovo, rigenerato. Tutto ciò determina una “grande paura”, ma, a ben vedere, esso esprimeva solo un gemito di dolore: «cambiamo, dopo mille anni, queste leggi incivili» — questa la stupenda perorazione con cui si chiude il Manifesto dei plebei.

La frase di Saint-Just a cui Babeuf si lega va pertanto compresa in questo contesto catilinario, laddove il “Manifesto” prende partito per i reietti. In questo senso l’egualitarismo radicale di Babeuf non è altro che un’estrema fantasia di vendetta, un’estrema ansia di riscatto: ridurre tutti alla pura eguaglianza. 




2 commenti al testo originale:

Marco Baldino: Ho scritto questo appunto nel 2005. Ero indeciso se pubblicarlo ora, perché penso che in questa fase sia necessario uno sforzo riequilibratore. Il pezzo ha però anche il senso dello 'smascheramento', non tanto del comunismo (oggi non è certo necessario prendersela con il comunismo ) ma di certi depositi ideologici disseminati qui e là, negli sfondi di molte posizioni politiche. [Pezzo senza troppe pretese].

Giacomo Conserva: molto leggendo camus ultimamente. dice qualcosa che mi pare molto simile in 'l'homme revoltè' (e forse pure Canetti, in 'masse e potere'). sono argomenti che prendo molto sul serio. (fra parentesi, sono VERAMENTE allucinanti gli attacchi di jeanson e sartre contro camus al tempo della rottura).