The assistance of the US military in stabilizing Egypt's current governmental situation--in helping to choose Presidential candidates for the current government--has prompted me to argue that it should play a significant role in overcoming whatever deleterious effects have resulted from the Arab Spring phenomenon in the Middle East. I am saying that the impartiality of the US military could lead to end the chaos wrought through the displacement of former political leaders in those countries affected by the Arab Spring; and may even propel social change in those countries yet under monarchical hierarchy, unaffected by that governmental revolution.
The point is to dislodge political leaders from currently-held powerful positions in the Middle-East who are beholden to Western corporations and Western power-blocs aimed at controlling Mid-East politics. That's what the Arab Spring has been about. It's happened decisively in Egypt; and I believe it can resound throughout the Middle-East, leading to democratically chosen leadership representing the interests of these several countries. It is not enough to create a new constitution; leaders committed to a democratic run of governmental affairs must be identified and encouraged to participate in establishing democratic institutions. An external agency such as the US military could continue to resolve the glaring problems caused by the social upheaval of the Arab Spring.
Let the Egyptian experience be the guide to societal harmony in the Middle-East.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Chaos-Phase in the Social Change Sequence
Hegel's Schemata of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis
The German philosopher F. Hegel posed the schemata of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis which has been used ever since in analyzing social change. There's the one group--the thesis or "the point"--the conservative how things are done way of proceeding and its counterpoint (arguing for another way to do things--the antithesis; and then there's a consensus, reached perhaps through arbitration, the synthesis. But before a consensus is reached, there's argumentation and vigorous debate; and there's chaos, each side pulling for its own point of view--thesis pitted against antithesis, so to speak, when neither the side putting forth the thesis, nor the side rising in opposition, is willing to concede to its logical opposition.
I have termed that phase before the synthesis position is wrought chaos. Indeed, Hegel did not describe the logic of how from thesis and antithesis a synthesis comes about. In the real world of social change, I contend its not a logical step that leads from thesis-antithesis to synthesis, such as the conditional relation ("if...then...") or a conjunctive relation ("...and...") or an exclusive (either...or....") but an existential, catastrophic eruption during which a host of options, some of which neither proponents of thesis nor those of antithesis could ever have imagined would arise from the juxtaposition of thesis to antithesis. A boom!
Over the years, I have used Hegel's scheme with the chaos phase as an addendum to account for movements of social change. And, I make use of the schemata once again to predict the social change in the Middle East that I believe is in progress leading to a synthesis (a societal state I will also describe).
Applying the Thesis-Antithesis-Chaos-Synthesis Analytical Schemata to the Middle-East
It started many years ago. Western nations needed the oil of the Middle East. They had other interests in these lands, too, which could best be served by controlling the entire region. To make things go their way, these nations, acting in consort, set up puppet governments in lands they wished to control, so that their interests were served.
But then came the Arab Spring phenomenon, sweeping across the sand dunes of the Middle East. This phenomenon was made possible by rallying the local citizenry of the region in opposition to the governments that represented Western interests. Western influence and attempts to control particular governments in the region were from this vantage point viewed as instances of interference in the rightful exercise of citizen voice in their own affairs. The West became meddlesome interlopers: The West must be expunged from the Middle-East; They must go! Out with them!!
The country that has most represented the point of view of antithesis against the thesis of Western interference and control in matters of the Middle-East is IRAN! For decades, this country has fought off efforts to take over its government and dictate policies favorable to the West. It even captured American soldiers at one point, initiating President Reagan's attempts at the time to get the soldiers back. Though a pint-sized country, it has nevertheless become a symbol of the antithesis--the insistence that the Middle-East must be held in control by Arabs--that is, by those who live there. And even to this day, the West wants the Iranian government removed and replaced--replaced by one favorable to the West.
So, now we are in the chaos-phase of social change in the Middle-East. It is little wonder that the entire movement of antithesis has taken its thrust toward insisting upon its own self-government without outside the area interference from the uniting theme "We're Islamic!" The radical extremists of ISIS and AlQueda conceive of their Islamic message of unity as stemming from Islamic fundamentalism of the 7th Century! They want no foreign tinge upon their sacred, home-ground. It reminds me of much hatred Pol Pot demonstrated in Cambodia for those who succumbed to French, European influence in his country. These people of the Chaos-phase are loath to continue Western interference in how they conduct their affairs at home.
Nevertheless, there will come a synthesis. The Chaos-phase will crumble and dissolve yet a new stage in the social change evolution will emerge. This will come about as the Arab countries assume leadership and control of their own affairs without looking to the West for direction and succour and money.
The German philosopher F. Hegel posed the schemata of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis which has been used ever since in analyzing social change. There's the one group--the thesis or "the point"--the conservative how things are done way of proceeding and its counterpoint (arguing for another way to do things--the antithesis; and then there's a consensus, reached perhaps through arbitration, the synthesis. But before a consensus is reached, there's argumentation and vigorous debate; and there's chaos, each side pulling for its own point of view--thesis pitted against antithesis, so to speak, when neither the side putting forth the thesis, nor the side rising in opposition, is willing to concede to its logical opposition.
I have termed that phase before the synthesis position is wrought chaos. Indeed, Hegel did not describe the logic of how from thesis and antithesis a synthesis comes about. In the real world of social change, I contend its not a logical step that leads from thesis-antithesis to synthesis, such as the conditional relation ("if...then...") or a conjunctive relation ("...and...") or an exclusive (either...or....") but an existential, catastrophic eruption during which a host of options, some of which neither proponents of thesis nor those of antithesis could ever have imagined would arise from the juxtaposition of thesis to antithesis. A boom!
Over the years, I have used Hegel's scheme with the chaos phase as an addendum to account for movements of social change. And, I make use of the schemata once again to predict the social change in the Middle East that I believe is in progress leading to a synthesis (a societal state I will also describe).
Applying the Thesis-Antithesis-Chaos-Synthesis Analytical Schemata to the Middle-East
It started many years ago. Western nations needed the oil of the Middle East. They had other interests in these lands, too, which could best be served by controlling the entire region. To make things go their way, these nations, acting in consort, set up puppet governments in lands they wished to control, so that their interests were served.
But then came the Arab Spring phenomenon, sweeping across the sand dunes of the Middle East. This phenomenon was made possible by rallying the local citizenry of the region in opposition to the governments that represented Western interests. Western influence and attempts to control particular governments in the region were from this vantage point viewed as instances of interference in the rightful exercise of citizen voice in their own affairs. The West became meddlesome interlopers: The West must be expunged from the Middle-East; They must go! Out with them!!
The country that has most represented the point of view of antithesis against the thesis of Western interference and control in matters of the Middle-East is IRAN! For decades, this country has fought off efforts to take over its government and dictate policies favorable to the West. It even captured American soldiers at one point, initiating President Reagan's attempts at the time to get the soldiers back. Though a pint-sized country, it has nevertheless become a symbol of the antithesis--the insistence that the Middle-East must be held in control by Arabs--that is, by those who live there. And even to this day, the West wants the Iranian government removed and replaced--replaced by one favorable to the West.
So, now we are in the chaos-phase of social change in the Middle-East. It is little wonder that the entire movement of antithesis has taken its thrust toward insisting upon its own self-government without outside the area interference from the uniting theme "We're Islamic!" The radical extremists of ISIS and AlQueda conceive of their Islamic message of unity as stemming from Islamic fundamentalism of the 7th Century! They want no foreign tinge upon their sacred, home-ground. It reminds me of much hatred Pol Pot demonstrated in Cambodia for those who succumbed to French, European influence in his country. These people of the Chaos-phase are loath to continue Western interference in how they conduct their affairs at home.
Nevertheless, there will come a synthesis. The Chaos-phase will crumble and dissolve yet a new stage in the social change evolution will emerge. This will come about as the Arab countries assume leadership and control of their own affairs without looking to the West for direction and succour and money.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
University Prof Teaching in a CC
I am thankful for President Obama's ringing endorsement of the community colleges as institutions of higher learning, equal to the university system in stature.
After centuries of university dominance as the only institution of higher learning, it was indeed a marked innovation of the University of Chicago to found this new approach to meld vocational training with the aims of higher learning in the early years of the Twentieth Century in Joliet, Illinois. The university regarded at that time this new fangled learning institution it supported within the university system as providing remedial education that could prepare students who attended it for the University of Chicago main campus in two years, having been acculturated to the basic array of university training at its local "junior college" in Joliet.
Well, the community college movement in higher education has come a long way, since its inception. It has significantly established itself as maintaining institutions of higher learning once it accepted the proposition that learners who enter its doors can benefit business, trade and commerce from the higher education that is proffered, an intentional path carved out by educational leaders in the movement but frequently ignored in the traditional university setting.
I taught some 5 years in the university environment till I switched over to the community college (formerly termed "the junior college") in 1970. I was attracted by the salary scale, considerably higher than for humanity professors in universities. But then I devoted 8 years to make its structure redound as truly institutions of higher learning--in the ambience of a neighborhood setting equipped to provide students with the tools of critical analysis of traditional and present-day technology and for creative designing of manifold conceptual alternatives--localized in situ where its students feel most comfortably at home.
I found that working with professors of universities, I was able to identify many courses in the philosophy curriculum at universities that could be suitable for offering at the community college. Specifically, students who took such courses at The College of DuPage, where I taught, could transfer the credits earned to four-year institutions. No problem.
At the time I taught at DuPage College, instructors (un-ranked status in the community college) found it difficult to get published in the research journals or by distinguished, academic book-publishing houses. That difficulty has been largely overcome, I believe.
The task I had set for myself was to integrate the faculties of the community colleges--some teachers who came from public schools, with those from universities, to get them altogether focused on the tasks of establishing student learning as conducted heretofore in universities only--involving questioning and critical analysis of materials studied. Indeed, the community college setting wherein the training in the methodologies of higher learning takes place should have little relevance to the mission of the community college in promoting the values of higher education in any particular community. Significantly, community college teachers must always benefit from academic freedom, essential to higher education, and defended by every one of its institutions.
After centuries of university dominance as the only institution of higher learning, it was indeed a marked innovation of the University of Chicago to found this new approach to meld vocational training with the aims of higher learning in the early years of the Twentieth Century in Joliet, Illinois. The university regarded at that time this new fangled learning institution it supported within the university system as providing remedial education that could prepare students who attended it for the University of Chicago main campus in two years, having been acculturated to the basic array of university training at its local "junior college" in Joliet.
Well, the community college movement in higher education has come a long way, since its inception. It has significantly established itself as maintaining institutions of higher learning once it accepted the proposition that learners who enter its doors can benefit business, trade and commerce from the higher education that is proffered, an intentional path carved out by educational leaders in the movement but frequently ignored in the traditional university setting.
I taught some 5 years in the university environment till I switched over to the community college (formerly termed "the junior college") in 1970. I was attracted by the salary scale, considerably higher than for humanity professors in universities. But then I devoted 8 years to make its structure redound as truly institutions of higher learning--in the ambience of a neighborhood setting equipped to provide students with the tools of critical analysis of traditional and present-day technology and for creative designing of manifold conceptual alternatives--localized in situ where its students feel most comfortably at home.
I found that working with professors of universities, I was able to identify many courses in the philosophy curriculum at universities that could be suitable for offering at the community college. Specifically, students who took such courses at The College of DuPage, where I taught, could transfer the credits earned to four-year institutions. No problem.
At the time I taught at DuPage College, instructors (un-ranked status in the community college) found it difficult to get published in the research journals or by distinguished, academic book-publishing houses. That difficulty has been largely overcome, I believe.
The task I had set for myself was to integrate the faculties of the community colleges--some teachers who came from public schools, with those from universities, to get them altogether focused on the tasks of establishing student learning as conducted heretofore in universities only--involving questioning and critical analysis of materials studied. Indeed, the community college setting wherein the training in the methodologies of higher learning takes place should have little relevance to the mission of the community college in promoting the values of higher education in any particular community. Significantly, community college teachers must always benefit from academic freedom, essential to higher education, and defended by every one of its institutions.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
The Gulf in US between Primary Care and Specialty Care
Because of having to attend to a life-threatening experience, I came to realize there's a gulf between the primary physician's activities on behalf of the patient--me--and the specialist's.
I was given of hint of this gulf, when I registered at the Internal Medicine Clinic where my specialist has an office for processing his patients. The registration form had no obvious section for entering the Primary Care's Physician and place of business. Moreover, when I journeyed to the Primary Care Facility, La Fe Clinic here in downtown El Paso, I noticed the Provider Xeroxing the list of medicines prescribed by the Medical Internist. And while she talked about the items on the list with me, she did not bother to write down who she could call at the Internal Clinic to learn further about my case and to establish communication with my specialist! It was of no concern to her! That was further suggested by her lack of interest in what tests he had conducted. Indeed, when I mentioned to her nurse that I had given my permission to the Internal Specialist to make use of the blood samples taken at La Fe the week before, he had probed for my reasons to prompt such a hand-over.
The point being that with the lack of communication between primary care physician and specialist, there is no sense of a unified team approach to my condition and its amelioration during my care in their hands. I felt that there were two approaches, two hands-on duplicating tests, and the writing of opinions, which may have few points of convergence in their analyses; and an incredible reduplication of effort. I think this physical hiatus is the reason the Mayo Clinic stresses among its providers to "travel together" in attending to each patient's list of maladies--at least they'll get the story straight among them.
I was given of hint of this gulf, when I registered at the Internal Medicine Clinic where my specialist has an office for processing his patients. The registration form had no obvious section for entering the Primary Care's Physician and place of business. Moreover, when I journeyed to the Primary Care Facility, La Fe Clinic here in downtown El Paso, I noticed the Provider Xeroxing the list of medicines prescribed by the Medical Internist. And while she talked about the items on the list with me, she did not bother to write down who she could call at the Internal Clinic to learn further about my case and to establish communication with my specialist! It was of no concern to her! That was further suggested by her lack of interest in what tests he had conducted. Indeed, when I mentioned to her nurse that I had given my permission to the Internal Specialist to make use of the blood samples taken at La Fe the week before, he had probed for my reasons to prompt such a hand-over.
The point being that with the lack of communication between primary care physician and specialist, there is no sense of a unified team approach to my condition and its amelioration during my care in their hands. I felt that there were two approaches, two hands-on duplicating tests, and the writing of opinions, which may have few points of convergence in their analyses; and an incredible reduplication of effort. I think this physical hiatus is the reason the Mayo Clinic stresses among its providers to "travel together" in attending to each patient's list of maladies--at least they'll get the story straight among them.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Welcome, East Ukraine into Federation of Independent States
Governments in the Ukrainian Territory Today
Russia took the Crimea away from the Ukraine. Now, East Ukraine, with the help of Russia, is declaring itself independent from Kiev.
There is precedence within the Russian Federation of Independent States for such a declaration. The Russian Georgians did so a few years back. And before that in Moldva, a segment of the country became independent from the rest.
I assume that the same adjustments will be made between the Ukraine and the East Ukraine that have been applied in these other changes in governmental rule, now stabilized over time. Importantly, while it is obvious that the new government of East Ukraine has no debts, the fact that the Ukraine's borders have been redefined implies the government in Kiev is not responsible for obligations and understandings that applied when the country was whole. So it, too, is debt-free at this moment in its primordial history of boundary instability.
The above means that there is no reason for the IMF to loan money to the Ukrainian government, when by treaty and by force the Ukraine ruled from Kiev has only just recently been circumscribed and its boundaries drawn. Any debts and obligations done before today are not the province of the Ukrainian government, since its jurisdiction had not been stabilized.
And we know that plenty of governments have gone bankrupt through the ages.
Russia's Commitment to the Russian Federation of Independent States
If Russia is truly committed to enforcing the provisions of the Constitution of the Federation, I would expect that it will immediately withdraw forces from Islamic provinces within its jurisdiction and permit thereby the establishment of an Islamic Independent State in the Federation from territory that is now under its control.
Russia took the Crimea away from the Ukraine. Now, East Ukraine, with the help of Russia, is declaring itself independent from Kiev.
There is precedence within the Russian Federation of Independent States for such a declaration. The Russian Georgians did so a few years back. And before that in Moldva, a segment of the country became independent from the rest.
I assume that the same adjustments will be made between the Ukraine and the East Ukraine that have been applied in these other changes in governmental rule, now stabilized over time. Importantly, while it is obvious that the new government of East Ukraine has no debts, the fact that the Ukraine's borders have been redefined implies the government in Kiev is not responsible for obligations and understandings that applied when the country was whole. So it, too, is debt-free at this moment in its primordial history of boundary instability.
The above means that there is no reason for the IMF to loan money to the Ukrainian government, when by treaty and by force the Ukraine ruled from Kiev has only just recently been circumscribed and its boundaries drawn. Any debts and obligations done before today are not the province of the Ukrainian government, since its jurisdiction had not been stabilized.
And we know that plenty of governments have gone bankrupt through the ages.
Russia's Commitment to the Russian Federation of Independent States
If Russia is truly committed to enforcing the provisions of the Constitution of the Federation, I would expect that it will immediately withdraw forces from Islamic provinces within its jurisdiction and permit thereby the establishment of an Islamic Independent State in the Federation from territory that is now under its control.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Pres. Obama's Plan for the Near East
Nearly every commentator on international politics has weighed in on the question of how to rid Syria and Iraq of the apparently Sunni-sponsored terrorists, so here's my two cents!
I think President Obama's plan is excellent; and if it does succeed, he really will firm up his claim to being a Great US President!
That said, I want to stress that the US ought not to take sides (any longer!) in the Sunni-Shite civil war in Iraq. As is well known and was exactly predicted, Iran has taken control of the politics in Southern Iraq. I think areas in northern Iraq should remain in the hands of the Kurds, but I also think that the rest of northern Iraq should be controlled by the Sunnis. How this is possible when the Bagdad government is Shite dominated, I don't know. It can be readily fixed, no doubt.
The important point I wish to emphasize is that the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff must be in charge. This is a very delicate position for the US to maintain: no boots on the ground and ultimately, a diplomatic resolution to the Syrian-Iraq upheavals once the terrorists are brought under check. The US never abandoned its concerns for the well-being of Syria.
P.S. There's been little news, but how is the Taliban areas of Afghanistan being brought into the Kabul government--whose control of Afghanistan is to Kabul's city limits!
I think President Obama's plan is excellent; and if it does succeed, he really will firm up his claim to being a Great US President!
That said, I want to stress that the US ought not to take sides (any longer!) in the Sunni-Shite civil war in Iraq. As is well known and was exactly predicted, Iran has taken control of the politics in Southern Iraq. I think areas in northern Iraq should remain in the hands of the Kurds, but I also think that the rest of northern Iraq should be controlled by the Sunnis. How this is possible when the Bagdad government is Shite dominated, I don't know. It can be readily fixed, no doubt.
The important point I wish to emphasize is that the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff must be in charge. This is a very delicate position for the US to maintain: no boots on the ground and ultimately, a diplomatic resolution to the Syrian-Iraq upheavals once the terrorists are brought under check. The US never abandoned its concerns for the well-being of Syria.
P.S. There's been little news, but how is the Taliban areas of Afghanistan being brought into the Kabul government--whose control of Afghanistan is to Kabul's city limits!
Kashmir needs flood control technology implemented
For the past 20 years I've been urging a resolution to the conflict between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir. Each side has its own somewhat pervasive arguments, but the one that I think that would decide the territory's integrity is that of which country claiming it is able to assist it in implementing technological methods to control the rivers' flooding the plains.
This new communications network I've been privileged to use has enabled me to get the Kashmir point of view! They are plagued with water flooding not just its farmlands but its cities. Why has not some nation come to the aid of this precious province?
I say no country deserves to rule that land unless it is able to solve Kashmir's flood problem.
This new communications network I've been privileged to use has enabled me to get the Kashmir point of view! They are plagued with water flooding not just its farmlands but its cities. Why has not some nation come to the aid of this precious province?
I say no country deserves to rule that land unless it is able to solve Kashmir's flood problem.
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