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For the last several years, and with no particular purpose other than a desire to meander through reflection, I have taken the period between Christmas and New Years Eve to produce a summary of the slice of the year to which I paid attention through epigrams and aphorisms. It follows an end-of-year tradition I started in 2016 (for those see here), 2017 (for these see here), 2018 (for those see here), 2019 (for those see here); 2020 (for those see here); 2022 (for those see here); and 2023 (for those see here).
2023
was the year of belief, of the believer, and in the believing. It was
the year in which one could personalize truth --my truth conflated
belief in a thing with the thing itself. And it became a marker--not of
the thing itself but of faith and loyalty to the holder of this
personalized belief-truth. In 2023 it became clear that the suzerainty
of the Enlightenment was now contested even as its own nature was being
interrogated away by its feuding factions. 2023 was, in this sense, the
year of total war in the sense of conflict at virtually every level of
human relations. Nothing is now uncontested. And all of the old
prejudices, tactics, ploys, tropes, are on display as they are hurled
into the battles among those who would claim not merely the rights of
the suzerain but also that of the high priest. Yet these trajectories
appeared poisoned as well by addiction, by desire, and by the
irrational. Belief here is not merely the exercise of a rational faith,
but the eruption of passions and lusts which, in their own way, assert
the sort of control that in its 21st century manifestation is
increasingly played by our rich investment in pharmacopeia of the body and of the mind--that cornucopia
now provides the ambrosia in the service of which and in the
expectation of uninterrupted access to that sustaining elixir, some
sectors of the human collective have sworn fealty.
At the start of this year I noted, in passing on the Annual Oracle of the Ifa practitioners of Cuba, that this was to be the year of Obatala (The
Orishas Speak: The 2023 Letter of the Yoruba Association of Cuba (Letra
del Año para el 2023 de la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba) and My
Preliminary Interpretation
). "For
2023, there is something new and something old. Working through the
semiotic signification embodied in Ifa and the ruling spirits one can
translate the fundamentals of the 2023 oracle this way: Obtalá returns
as the ruling sign--but with a vengeance. " Obatala
is the essence of rationality and irrationality. Obatala represents the
highest form of rational creative potential as well as its basest forms
of dissipation. Obatala in 2023 was reinforced by Oshun, the essence of
fertility, wealth--and passion. Passion that served as an intensifier
of the positive and negative gyrations of the rational irrationality
that marked the year.
And 2023 did not
disappoint. It
was a year of the passionate and dispassionate believer; and it was the
year that belief, again, became the primary addiction of the human
collective and its social relations. However presented, in whatever
fancy dress it might be offered up. . . .and consumed by humans who
appear to have been starving for its nourishment. It was a year in which
the only belief worth having, was in the passionate/dispassion of the
believer. If the year had a credo, it might be this (with apologies for
the inelegance of the Latin text):
Quod ex fide;
Quod formare omnia potest;
Veram formationem dant desiderio meo;
Vera illa imago fidei meae communitatis est;
In quo absurditas rationis essentiam format;
et appetitus formae rationis;
Fides autem in sua transmissione est;
Credentia autem in sua logica et veritate est
I believe in one absurdity
That emerges from a faith;
That can shape all things;
That give true formation to my desire;
That is a true reflection of my community of faith;
In which absurdity forms the essence of reason;
and desire reason's form;
And faith is in its transmission;
And belief is in its logic and truth
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Links to the 2023 Year End Ruminations here:
Part 1: I believe I believe I believe;
Part 2: The Human Spirit Spirited Away
Part 3: The Masses Must be Educated!
Part 4: The (Re)(De)(Trans)(Con)volution will be Televised!
1. The myths that human create recreate both mythos and human; sometimes in the process bathos is also created.
"Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was asked at a New Hampshire town hall about the reason for the Civil War, and she didn’t mention slavery in her response. She walked back her comments hours later. Asked during Wednesday night’s town hall in Berlin what she believed had caused the war — the first shots of which were fired in her home state of South Carolina — Haley talked about the role of government, replying that it involved “the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do.” She then turned the question back to the man who had asked it. He replied that he was not the one running for president and wished instead to know her answer. After Haley went into a lengthier explanation about the role of government, individual freedom and capitalism, the questioner seemed to admonish Haley, saying, “In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word ‘slavery.’” “What do you want me to say about slavery?” Haley retorted before abruptly moving on to the next question. * * * She backpedaled on her Civil War comments 12 hours later, with her campaign disseminating a Thursday morning radio interview in which she said, “Of course the Civil War was about slavery,” something she called “a stain on America.” She went on to reiterate that “freedom matters. And individual rights and liberties matter for all people.”" (Nikki Haley doesn’t mention slavery when asked what caused the Civil War. She later walks that back)
2. Sometimes only the objectives and practice of orthodox political governance distinguishes the practices of states from that of other human collectives.
"Both geopolitical adversaries and common criminals will intensify strikes on U.S. companies to steal information and disrupt business, government security officials say. . . Chief information security officers increasngly are responding by working with the chief risk officer, general counsel, chief financial officer, and chief information officer to set cyber risk policies and processes. That collaboration is vital as the Big Four cyber adversaries of the U.S.--China, ran, North Korea, and Russia--show no signs of slowing attacks." (Cybersecurity in the Year Ahead: Think 2023 on Steroids).
3. Human autonomy extends no farther than the willingness of your neighbor to turn you in to some authority; it never has extended much beyond the management of social relations except for the briefest of periods still visible in history's rear view mirror.
"In June, Kamilla Murashova was fined 30,000 rubles, about $330, after a stranger traveling on the same train reported her to the police for the badges displayed on her backpack. . . Her offense? Disrediting the Russian military. The informer photographed Murashova sitting in the train car, her backpack perched upon her knees with the badges in full display." ('Patriotic Snitching Becomes Rampant in Putin's Russia).
4. Fidel Castro famously declared that, unlike people, ideas cannot be killed; but like people, they can certainly be possessed and imprisoned in the penitentiaries of knowledge production where they might be loaned out for the benefit of their overseers.
"The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement touching off a legal fight over generative -AI technologies with far reaching implications for the future of the news publishing business. In a complaint . . . the Times siad that the technology companies exploited its content without permission to create their artificial-intelligence products, including Open AI humalike chatbot and Microsofts's Copilot." (N.Y.Times Accuses AI Firms of Copyright Violations)5. The value of human life may be increasingly measured by the extent to which others are willing to pay for it.
"since then, the problem has metatasized into what the Biden Administration calls a national emergency. The risk of Americans being held on spurious charges by a foreign government is now so widespread that the State Department warns U.S. citizens against traveling to countries accounting for a quarter of the world's population. In diplomatic parlance, those nine nations are classified "D" for the risk of detention. Classification D is America's gathering new reality: an increasingly piratical global system where the taking and trading of foreign citizens--once the preserve of guerilla bands or fundamentalist insurgencies--has become a tactic deployed by nuclear states." (How Snatching American Citizens Turned Into a Tool of Hostile Governments: Travelers in countries representing nearly a quarter of the world’s population face a heightened risk of arrest—and of becoming pawns in a geopolitical struggle with Washington)
6. The liberation of the individual human spirit occurs only in the abstract; the spirit may not take its body along for the ride; the more expansive the expression of protection for belief, the prissier the response of human collectives to its practice .
"The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents unanimously fired UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow during a closed-door meeting Wednesday after discovering videos posted on porn websites featuring him and his wife. Gow, 63, and his wife, Carmen Wilson, are featured on several porn websites using "Sexy Happy Couple" as the account name, a moniker also used on at least two social media accounts. The couple also published two books detailing their experiences in the adult film industry, under pseudonyms. Both books and the social media accounts feature photos clearly showing Gow and Wilson. "In recent days, we learned of specific conduct by Dr. Gow that has subjected the university to significant reputational harm," UW System President Jay Rothman said. "His actions were abhorrent."UW Board of Regents President Karen Walsh said Gow showed "a reckless disregard" for his role as a UW-La Crosse leader."" (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chancellor fired for appearing in porn videos)
"Jay Rothman, the president of the University of Wisconsin System, said Mr. Gow had caused the university “significant reputational harm.”Mr. Rothman said that the current plan was for Mr. Gow, who is also a tenured professor of communication, to return to his faculty role following a paid administrative leave. But Mr. Rothman said that he had asked the university to review Mr. Gow’s tenured status and for a law firm to investigate the matter. Mr. Gow said the university is “not following their own policy on academic freedom and freedom of speech,” adding: “They also don’t seem to realize that the First Amendment would be critical in this situation.”Mr. Rothman said it was “ridiculous” for Mr. Gow to argue that the First Amendment gave him “a ‘free pass’ to say or do anything that he pleases.”" (University Chancellor Fired After Making Pornographic Videos With His Wife)
7. While the human spirit may soar within its belief world; the sacrifice of its body is necessary for the incarnation of collective belief and the realization of its desire.
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Sometimes the sacrifice is undertaken to devour the spirit of the enemy or to instill fear; belief in the symbolic power of women to enhance this desire multiplies its effect on belief."In one photo, a burned body appears to project anguish. In another, a woman lies naked from the waist down, her underwear hanging from her leg. In interviews, first responders haltingly describe finding naked female corpses tied to beds and survivors recount witnessing a gang rape at the music festival. All of this is part of a mounting body of evidence of the gender-based crimes carried out by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7."">Over the last several weeks, NBC News has reviewed five interrogations of capturedfighters, an Arabic-language document that instructed Hamas how to pronounce “Take off your pants” in Hebrew, six images of naked or partially naked deceased female bodies, seven eyewitness accounts of sexual violence including both rape and mutilation, 11 testimonies of first responders, and two accounts from workers in morgues who handled the bodies of women after they were recovered from the massacre." (Their bodies tell their stories. They’re not alive to speak for themselves)
Sometimes as a blood offering to manifest a greater blood sacrifice of an opponent.
Ukrainian military analyst Kostiantyn Mashovets examines the overall situation on the frontline, where Russia has managed to achieve tactical progress at the expense of intense loss of human life in “meat grinder assaults,” and suggests a way forward. Ukraine’s command should focus on improving the quality of artillery and, above all, infantry. * * * Mashovets believes Ukraine must find ways to force the enemy to stop. This can only happen if Russian losses of personnel multiply, exceeding the rate at which reserves are brought in. Technology-wise, Ukraine cannot yet cause such dramatic casualties among Russian forces. With limited stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, Ukraine has to seek battlefield solutions, Mashovets argues. (Expert: Ukraine must radically boost infantry to counter Russia’s “meat grinder” tactics)
Sometimes one must sacrifice the thing one prizes dearly; a dead hero is worth much more than an uncontrollable lieutenant.
Russian authorities confirmed the death of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, putting to rest any doubts about whether the wily mercenary leader turned mutineer was on a plane that crashed killing everyone on board. * * * Peter Eltsov, associate professor at the US National Defense University, said conspiracy theories about Prigozhin still being alive say a lot about how big a figure the Wagner Group chief was in Russia. “He is becoming this iconic hero for a lot of his followers,” Eltsov told Al Jazeera. Two months ago, Prigozhin, 62, mounted a daylong mutiny against Russia’s military, leading his mercenaries from Ukraine toward Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin decried the act as “treason” and vowed punishment for those involved. (Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin confirmed dead in crash).
The greatest sacrifice of the body for the spirit--the bodies of one's own believers--for the incarnation of an idea that becomes an object of worship among a community of believers; and always, always directed or applausded by those adept at avoiding their own sacrifice.
In an audio recording released by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), a member of the military intelligence directorate’ can be heard calling a Palestinian man in Gaza to persuade him and his family to flee south towards Khan Younis. But the recipient of the call complains that it is hard to comply with the Israeli warning because Hamas is blocking roads on the route south, and “just sending people back home”. The man adds that Hamas is shooting at Palestinians attempting to leave the area. The audio is just one of numerous pieces of alleged evidence released by the IDF to support its claims that Hamas uses the civilian population of Gaza as human shields or operates in a way that shows flagrant disregard for civilian safety. * * * Hamas’s attitude towards civilians during conflict in Gaza often appears cynical at best. After five conflicts with Israel since 2008, Hamas is well aware of the high potential for civilian deaths in fighting with Israeli forces – and has instrumentalised those fatalities in its messaging to the world. That, however, does not absolve Israel from responsibility for the force it usesin areas where civilian deaths might be expected. In statements over the years Hamas has made clear it sees the civilian death toll as inevitable and useful. In 2014, the Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhari told al-Aqsa TV: “Hamas despises those defeatist Palestinians who criticise the high number of civilian casualties. The resistance praises our people … we lead our people to death … I mean, to war.” (Guardian, "What is a human shield and how has Hamas been accused of using them?").
8. The human spirit thrives on inversion; yet that inversion is merely a form of contemporary burlesque, and its performers the stock characters of classical commedia dell'arte; and nothing says inversion better in 2023 than than the theater that is the transformation of of a significant object of genocide in the 21st century into its architect in the next.
"South Africa has filed an application at the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings over allegations of genocide against Israel for its war against Hamas in Gaza, the court said on Friday. South Africa accuses Israel of being “in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention” in its application and argues that “acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” according to the ICJ.. . Israel has rejected South Africa’s claims and application to the world court." (South Africa files genocide case against Israel at International Court of Justice over Gaza war)
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