The new film about Snowden highlight the TWO separate forms patriotism

Today I got a perfect intro to one of the new chapters I work on.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt that plays the title role in Snowden (2016), directed by Oliver Stone, says this about the film.

It shows two different kinds of patriotism - there's the one where you're allegiant to your country no matter what. You don't ask any questions.

But there's another kind of patriotism that is what I really wanted to show.

The kind that he grows into over the course of the nine years we see in this story, where he does ask questions.

From Toronto 2016: Snowden explores 'secret underworld' says Oliver Stone , Tim Masters, BBC, 10 September 2016.

Or like this. Patriotism is defined by Merriam-Webster as “love for or devotion to one's country” can in fact only be interpreted in the current Western culture as to obey your superiors.

And of course, therefore is it today – in the ongoing breakdown of the established Static ideals – extremely essential to underline that there are TWO different forms of patriotism; not one.

Perhaps it is a good idea to not use the word patriotism at all as it includes the Latin word "pater" that means father and directly refers to the idea of a hierarchical, top down, society.


See also earlier post: Homeland Teaches You – To Be Obedient – To Fear the Political Elite, 23 October 2013.

The on going (almost hidden) crisis of the West presented in the metaphor of Israel - Listen to be prepared

Torah and Tech in Israel by BBC's Assignment, produced by James Fletcher, official broadcast date 12 September 2016, is a perfect illustration of the ongoing crisis of the whole Western world if you just change the context you have it all there.

Like this.

The Orthodox is the Academic tradition that protects hidden religious rules and the young entrepreneurs wants to be free of religious ideas that prevent concrete understanding and to create the next step.

All in all this programme tells a lot of today and what we can expect to happen.

Torah and Tech, Presentation and flash/html5 version.

Download as pod/mp3 (Right click and save link as)

A perfect list of confusing stuff that happens right now

With confusing I of course address how it must be according to the usual and official Static standards of the current culture of the West.

The highly interesting list with lots of links, dated 31 August 2016,  is made by John Thackara and he calls it: The 72 most cheering things I learned on my book tour.

Careful openings in the usually impregnable fog

Brexit has open the door to discuss what earlier was impossible to talk about in public. Hopefully, the present restricted opening is just the beginning.

Like for example Merkel's Chief of Staff on Brexit “Advice from Outside Out of Place”, Ralf Neukirch, René Pfister, Der Spiegel, 4 July 2016, ends with the following statement by Peter Altmaier that was unthinkable just some months earlier.

SPIEGEL: For European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Parliament President Martin Schulz, the answer lies in more Europe. 

Altmaier: We have undergone paradoxical develop­ments in recent years: On the one hand, many in Europe are again placing value in their national identities. At the same time, globalization has led to a situation in which individual nation-states are less able to address current problems on their own. That's why we must act with prudence. Simply calling for more Europe is not enough.

Der Spiegel highlight also that the functions of the existing structures is far from the propaganda surface in Dieselgate in Europe: How Officials Ignored Years of Emissions Evidence, Markus Becker and Gerald Traufetter, Der Spiegel, 19 August 2016.

Read also: The death of neoliberalism and the crisis in western politics, Martin Jacques, The Guardian, 21 August 2016.

In the early 1980s the author was one of the first to herald the emerging dominance of neoliberalism in the west. Here he argues that this doctrine is now faltering. But what happens next?

At first I thought this article was not especially interesting as it was a collection of what is already known.

Then I slowly realized that it is in fact more or less revolutionary to make such relations public and that the stuff is published in the stuffy The Guardian that usually appear to be radical; but in fact always defend the present as their analysis never penetrate the layer of accepted political propaganda.

This article says openly that there is no official agenda. So, in a way The Guardian stays true to the ideal to promote the present political agenda;)

Don miss the many comments that highlight that the existing political perspective is dysfunctional. For example it is impossible to fit comments like this, made by Bilge, into the established perspective

Freedom to do what. ...keep working, keep buying the tat, keep paying the bills?

There is also a typical answer to my comment, to promote my stuff, that I answered.

And, remember the critique against so called Neoliberalism is not new.

Neoliberalism has brought out the worst in us, Paul Verhaeghe, The Guardian, 29 September 2014.