Jonathan Glover, "The Politics and Psychology of a New World Order"

"The powerful personality does not manifest itself by trying to give everything a "personal touch" at every possible opportunity. The generation which is now growing up should, above all, again become used to the thought that "being a personality" is something that cannot be deliberately striven for and that there is only one way by which it can (perhaps!) be achieved: namely, the whole-hearted devotion to a "task" whatever it (and its derivative "demands of the hour") may be. It is poor taste to mix personal questions with specialized factual analyses. We deprive the word "vocation" of the only meaning which still retains ethical significance if we fail to carry out that specific kind of self-restraint which it requires. But whether the fashionable "cult of the personality" seeks to dominate the throne, public office or the professorial chair — its impressiveness is superficial. Intrinsically, it is very petty and it always has prejudicial consequences. Now I hope that it is not necessary for me to emphasize that the proponents of the views against which the present essay is directed can accomplish very little by this sort of cult of the "personality" for the very reason that it is "personal." In part they see the responsibilities of the professorial chair in another light, in part they have other educational ideals which I respect but do not share. For this reason we must seriously consider not only what they strive to achieve but also how the views which they legitimate by their authority influence a generation with an already extremely pronounced predisposition to overestimate its own importance." - M.Weber, The Meaning of "Ethical Neutrality" in Sociology and Economics, 1917

Richard Mosse: The Impossible Image

I have often been asked in recent days if there is any connection between my objection to the military research of the NAS [National Academy of Sciences] and to Chagnon’s election. There is indeed a strong anthropological connection, insofar as the one and the other would impose cognate versions of bourgeois individualism, taken as given and natural, on the rest of humanity.
( tālāk )

Šodien uzzināju, ka Indija ir atzinusi vaļveidīgos par non-human persons un, balstoties uz to, noteikusi delfināriju utml. izklaižu aizliegumu.

India's Ministry of Environment and Forests has advised state governments to ban dolphinariums and other commercial entertainment that involves the capture and confinement of cetacean species such as orcas and bottlenose dolphins. In a statement, the government said research had clearly established cetaceans are highly intelligent and sensitive, and that dolphins "should be seen as 'non-human persons' and as such should have their own specific rights." [...] India is the fourth country in the world to ban the capture and import of cetaceans for the purpose of commercial entertainment - along with Costa Rica, Hungary, and Chile.

"[Scott Atran] firmly positions himself within a neo-Darwinian framework, but equally firmly distances himself from the militant atheists associated with that intellectual tendency. Religion bonds groups together and this, he says, provides crucial adaptive advantage in the long history of human evolution. The first part of this claim will be familiar to anyone with nodding acquaintance of Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. The second part would be more striking if we could think of examples of human societies without either religion, or religion-like structures of ritual and value, and having identified a suitable example then found ways to trace its evolutionarily ordained decline and fall. In the absence of such examples the appeal to natural selection begins to look somewhat tautological. “Islamic terrorism” is not the product of a tightly-knit, hierarchically structured organization with a master-plan for world domination. Rather we are confronted with local clusters of enthusiasts, usually in tightly bound networks of kinship and friendship."

Talking to the Enemy

Veidemane NRA pauž satraukumu: "Par latvisko vērtību sistēmas kolapsu, par liekulību un ceļu uz nekurieni..."

Šī jezga būtu arī labs case study piemērs kā noteikti morālie uzņēmēji (moral entrepreneurs), cenšas radīt morālo paniku. Pagaidām tas vēl, šķiet, nav izdevies, bet aktivitātes pēdējā laikā liecina par sasparošanos. Un te es nedomāju tikai pro-life un Šmita domubiedrus.

"Consider now the plausible hypothesis that democratic institutions and freedoms are viable only when supported by an economic affluence that is achievable regionally but impossible globally. If this hypothesis is correct, democracy and freedom in the First World will not be able to survive a thoroughgoing globalization of the labor market. So the rich democracies face a choice between perpetuating their own democratic institutions and traditions and dealing justly with the Third World. Doing justice to the Third World would require exporting capital and jobs until everything is leveled out – until an honest day’s work, in a ditch or at a computer, earns no higher a wage in Cincinnati or Paris than in a small town in Botswana. But then, it can plausibly be argued, there will be no money to support free public libraries, competing newspapers and networks, widely available liberal arts education, and all the other institutions that are necessary to produce enlightened public opinion, and thus to keep governments more or less democratic."

- Richard Rorty, Justice as a larger loyalty

"The proposition that existence stands higher than a just existence is false and ignominious, if existence is to mean nothing other than mere life."

- Walter Benjamin, Critique of Violence

Kā Inese Saulīte ienāca pilsētā un kļuva par postmodernismu. Ētika un teritorialitāte.

Šī gadsmita pirmajā piecgadē parādījās un ieverību ieguva grupa Svešie. Slavenā preses konference klubā Grands un vairākas muzikālas kompozīcijas garantēja grupai atpazīstamību, kas šobrīd tai nodrošina ja ne kulta, tad tuvu tam, statusu. "Es neesmu tava lelle, šeit grupa Svešie, himikalī!", skandēja harizmātiskie mākslinieki. Iespējams, viens no viņu veiksmes un sekojošās atpazīstamības un panākumu apstākļiem ir harizma. Tā pavīd nepieradinātā un kaut kādā pirmatnējā atklātībā, un ievainojamībā, piešķirot jocīgu, pulsējošu un mākslinieciski tiešu spēku.
Pārceļamies turpat 10 gadus vēlāk, mūsdienās, kur Rīgā savu jauno video filmē Inese Saulīte. Pirmo reizi Latvijas sabiedrība par dziedātāju uzzināja no  televizoru ekrāniem, kad viņa uzstājās kā ansambļa Kombuļi dalībniece. Nosaukums norāda uz ģeogrāfisku vietu, Krāslavas novada Kombuļiem. Zināmā kontekstā to sauc par laukiem, pretstatā urbānai videi.

Autentiskums un mākslinieciskums ir centrāli raksturlielumi Inese Saulītes performatīvajā fenomenā. Tā kā vērtēšana un bauda skatītājam ir inherenta, es gribētu apgalvot, ka autentiskums šeit noteiktā kontekstā tiek vērtēts augstāk par mākslinieciskumu. Ciktāl tie ir daļa no otra un pārklājas, to var skaidrot funkcionāli, kur dziedātājas radošā darbība komunicē autentiskumu. Ar radošo darbību es domāju visu publiskās darbības kopumu.
Fotogrāfijas no jaunākā klipa filmēšanas, kas notiek sadarbībā ar līdzīgu žanra mākslinieku un zināmu popularitāti ieguvušo Sandi Kiopu (sk. video "Pīlādžoga"), epitomizē šo mākslas - autentiskuma dinamiku. Atkailinātais Ineses Saulītes ķermenis pilsētas Rīga vidē ir uz mirkli dekontekstualizēts no "laukiem", radot Hauzerisku atmosfēru. Kamēr māksliniece žonglē mākslu un nesamākslotību gan pārnestā, gan tiešā nozīmē, skatītāji nododas vērtēšanai. Ētiskie apsvērumi par šo darbošanos un iespējamajām sekām, piemēram, dziedātājas bērniem, kā arī morālie spriedumi par 'tiesībām būt' kļūst atkarīgi no skatītāju - vērtētāju un mākslinieces teritoriālās pārvirzes starp pilsētu un laukiem, stilu un bezgaumību, labo un slikto, jēdzīgo un bezjēdzīgo utt.  Dziedātāja, gluži kā savulaik grupa Svešie, arī tika ielūgta un uzstājās LMA karnevālā. Mākslas standartu un akadēmisku interpretāciju šūpulī šī uzstāšanās var tikt aplūkota kā antitēzes meklējumi tai kulturālajai hegemonijai, kas ir atrodama postmodernisma autokritikas fokusā.