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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).
2024 was the year of transformation. If 2023 was the year in which belief matured into conflict, 2024 saw that conflict escalate and move decisively toward its end games. 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 Eleggua/Oya (The Orishas Speak: The 2024 Letter of the Year of the Yoruba Association of Cuba (Letra del Año para el 2024 de la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba) and My Preliminary Interpretation).
The Divination for 2024 appears to speak to authority and disruption, that is to revolving or revolution. The key elements are distilled from the ruling or reigning Orisha: Eleggua and Oya. The reigning Orisha provide the interpretive framework through which the specifics of the Oddu cast, and their supporting text can be interpreted. In semiotics, they serve as the grounding normative basis through which interpretation, perception and meaning that is meaningful, is possible. Ellegua and Oya are a powerful combination--powerful in the sense of the power of combustion. Things are set to explode, things, people, relationships, are coiled tight and ready to spring. There is no suppressing it, and there is no protection from or in its release.
And 2024 did not disappoint. It took the explosions that had erupted in 2023 and augmented them in every conceivable way. There was war, of course; but also the explosive transformation of war where the legal battlefields upended warfare on the ground. There was the transformation of a former American President from the object of multiple actions against him by state organs, and a faction of the political establishment, to President elect. There was a transformation in electoral politics in which the masses could no longer trust the organs of state and their apparatus enough not to lie to pollsters. Explosions everywhere and with them transformations started, in progress, or completed.
And it is in that spirit of explosion, of explosions that reveals, transforms, dissipates--in the spirit of 2024--that the epigrams and aphorisms that follow are offered. Each aphorism links to a essay or news story written during and about the events occurring during the year. This third set focuses on combat, as an object, as an idea, as a process, and as a way of interpreting forms of human interaction that are distinct in kind and effect from others, and which, at its simplest, is meant to distinguish two forms of collective interaction--one privileged, the other not. Combat denotes struggle with effects that are understood as intolerable within the conceptual parameters of the understanding of the world, the good, the the ideal. Collectives struggle against each other and against the monstrosities they sometimes create in their own image. Nonetheless, as in all things human, in the process these good intentions at infusing things and actions with meaning produce dense forests of conceptualization that serve either as facade or facilitator through elaborations of labels and the management of forms. The lines between internal demons and their external manifestations become quite thin in 2024.
Links to the 2024 Year End Ruminations here:
Part 1: The Transformative Power of Facts;
Part 3, The Subjectivity of Combat
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1. Human collectives control themselves by asserting control of the world around them; in the process they do neither, the appearance of both suffices to order human collectivity.
“This first-of-a-kind treaty will ensure that the rise of Artificial Intelligence upholds Council of Europe legal standards in human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Its finalisation by our Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) is an extraordinary achievement and should be celebrated as such. “It sets out a legal framework that covers AI systems throughout their lifecycles, from start to end. “While this treaty has been elaborated by the Council of Europe with like-minded international partners, it will be a global instrument, open to the world. After its adoption by our Committee of Ministers in the coming weeks, countries from all over the world will be eligible to join it and meet the high ethical standards it sets. “The text strikes the right regulatory balance precisely because it has benefitted from the input of governments and experts, and industry and civil society. We thank all of those partners for their contribution and delivering this seminal text. We are convinced that, once adopted, this treaty will bring everyone together in appreciation of its impact.” (Statement and announcement by Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić on the occasion of the finalisation of the Convention's ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (15 March 2024); The Soulful Machine, the Virtual Person, and the “Human” Condition (January 2024))
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2. Around combat, and often enough among its spectators, good intentions are neither.
On March 9, Radio Télévision Suisse published segments from an upcoming feature interview with the pope in which he discussed a range of issues. In one previewed sectioned, Francis was asked about global conflicts and his hopes for peace. “I believe that the stronger one is the one who sees the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage of the white flag, to negotiate,” the pope responded. “Today, for example, in the war in Ukraine, there are many that want to be mediators, no? Turkey for example. Do not be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse,” Francis said. (Pope Francis’ ‘white flag’ comments echo ‘Kremlin propagandists’ say Ukrainian Catholics)
Francis’s pontificate parallels the deterioration of moral reasoning about world politics throughout the leadership of mainline Protestant denominations. A year before the 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, judicially murdered for resisting the Nazis’ perpetration and conduct of World War II, Christian leaders throughout the West wallow in a gelatinous liberal internationalism: unable to recognize the imperative of militarily deterring aggressive regimes, bewitched by the notion that weapons cause wars, incapable of grasping that totalitarians advance with genocidal purpose. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops are an exception. They stood in a line of theological continuity with St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, Bonhoeffer and other Christian realists when, in a March 10 response to the papal call to raise the white flag, they declared that “Ukrainians cannot surrender because surrender means death.” (George Weigel, Pope Francis Waves a White Flag at Vladimir Putin (13 March 2024).
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights through its Business and Human Rights Section has initiated a major initiative--the establishment of a helpdesk mechanism on business and human rights.* * * The topic, and the effort, is important. The choices made in structuring this mechanism perhaps more so. This CPE analysis and input, including its suggestions and recommendations go toward the key elements of that structuring—the delicate balancing between authority and (in)formality in structures and the even more delicate balance between interpretation and instrumentalization. The fundamental question that requires some discussion is this: will the OHCHR operating perhaps through this Helpdesks mechanism seek to develop a premise that it is the supreme authority or a significant and uniquely situated but not the only authority on the UNGP, its interpretation, and the manager of the premises through which judgments about application must be measured. CPE does not suggest that either position is fatally flawed, only that either requires a measure of transparency, consultation, and perhaps the legitimizing offices of law unless the assertions and operations under any such mechanism is to remain informal. The German model certainly points in that direction. The price one pays for informal narrative management, of course, is the effective and mandatory authority of interpretation and pronouncements, the legal effects of which may vary by State. The effort to move this to a virtual space, through the concept of platforms, is a good one though, as the CPE input suggests, one that in this formative stage of its development, presents critical challenges—and choices among objectives (policy, political, structural and the like). Lastly, it remains to be seen whether or to what extent the helpdesk mechanism can overcome the large challenge of effective access. Aimed only at elite stakeholders the helpdesk mechanism will merely lard an already rich system of access. Aimed to those otherwise unable to access current may require some substantially creative thinking—with respect to which both virtual spaces and the conceptual framework of platforms can play a key role. Tied to that is the final normative element that ought to play a role in structuring—the role of data and data mining in the construction of the helpdesk system. The helpdesk system will generate a tremendous amount of data; much of it will be useful both for system quality control, but also to feed descriptive and predictive models. In a more advanced stage, that data can also serve as a baseline against which behavior changing policy measures may be adopted, adapted, and applied to the community of stakeholders. None of this is necessarily bad, but all of it ought to be considered against emerging legal and normative standards about data and its uses to manage perception and conduct. (Coalition for Peace & Ethics: Input Statement for OHCHR UNGP Helpdesk Initiative).
3. Conflict is combat; combat is the manifestation of a process of reproduction; reproduction is a process of imitation but in which everything is said to be new and improved and is not; but that is the nature of mimesis--hope as inducement to a dialectical process.
More flexibility, less dispute? For a long time, the allocation of responsibilities over asylum seekers among EU Member States has been a bone of contention in the functioning of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Unfair responsibility-allocation rules under the 'Dublin system' and lack of compliance have resulted in deteriorating trust among member states. As part of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, the recently adopted Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR) seeks to remedy the dysfunctionality of this system. Yet, it preserves the criterion of the country of first entry. At the same time, it also establishes a new mandatory but flexible solidarity mechanism. Under this new mechanism, Member States will be obligated to provide contributions either in the form of relocations, financial contributions, or in-kind contributions. Despite this innovation, questions remain as to whether it will suffice to counterbalance the disproportionate responsibilities of member states at the EU's external borders. Therefore, the fundamental political choice of keeping the Dublin system largely intact requires an equally strong political and practical commitment to implementing solidarity. Managing migration flows better. As such, the AMMR also introduces a new annual migration management cycle, defining concrete steps for determining Member States under pressure and solidarity needs, based on a comprehensive approach and assessment of migration, reception and asylum capacity. This focus on management, with a heightened role for the European Commission, reflects the EU's desire to proactively anticipate and respond to migration flows. (Press Release:Policy Study: The New European Solidarity Mechanism (2024); Report here)
Against the backdrop of America’s roiling political landscape and two raging foreign wars, a coterie of former U.S. government officials and academics on Friday opened what will be an extensive examination of the United States’ 20-year foray in Afghanistan — the nation’s longest conflict. “Today we make history,” said Shamila N. Chaudhary, co-chair of the Afghanistan War Commission. “Never before has the United States commissioned such a wide-ranging independent legislative assessment of its own decision-making in the aftermath of a conflict.” (Abigail Hauslohner, ' Afghanistan War Commission opens inquiry of America’s longest conflict:The bipartisan panel will study the conflict’s myriad failures with a mandate to recommend how the United States can avoid a repeat performance.', The Washington Post 19 July 2024)
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4. Social collectives overcome their enemies through a process of mimicry; they take on the outward forms of their enemy, and in the process express their inner form as well; that is the essence of the inter-subjectivity of combat; but the reverse is also true-one can take on the outer forms of the enemy and invert its inner forms.
Over the years, his influence grew despite his identity being kept under wraps. During television interviews, he never faced the camera directly and always covered his face in public appearances. His public debut was in a 2016 video when he announced a split from Al Qaeda to create what he said was a Syria-focused anti-regime front with other local factions, called Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (the Front for the Conquest of the Levant), which later changed to Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), or the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant. “This new formation has no relation to any external party,” he said at the time, distancing it from his radical Islamist past. The split was strategic. The goal was to fend off attacks from world powers like the United States and Russia, both of which had intervened in the Syrian civil war to target Islamist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS. It was also the start of Jolani’s gradual transformation from the classic anti-West jihadist, to a more palatable revolutionary. He told PBS in 2021 that he had no desire to wage war against Western nations. In the years that followed, Jolani replaced his jihadist camo attire for a Western-style blazer and shirt, established a semi-technocratic government in Idlib, which his group held control over, and promoted himself as a viable partner in regional and Western efforts to curb Iran’s influence in the Middle East. He conducted operations against ISIS including the 2023 high-profile killing of ISIS leader Abu Hussein Al-Husseini al-Qurashi. “I believe that everyone in life goes through phases and experiences…As you grow, you learn, and you continue to learn until the very last day of your life.” he said when CNN asked about his transformation. * * * “He’s shredded all transnational ties and objectives and rooted out ISIS and Al Qaeda operatives in areas he controls,” said Dareen Khalifa, a senior advisor at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank. Soft-spoken with a well-groomed beard, the 42-year-old Jolani sat down with CNN for the first time this week wearing green military fatigue. He exuded confidence and tried to present a moderate worldview during the interview, avoiding references to jihad and repeatedly presenting his fight as a “revolution” to liberate Syria from Assad’s oppression. (Mostafa Salem, 'How Syria’s rebel leader went from radical jihadist to a blazer-wearing ‘revolutionary’, Yahoo News (6 December 2024)).
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The BRICS Summit in Kazan marked a significant milestone today with the adoption of the Kazan Declaration, a comprehensive document that reflects the collective vision and goals of the BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the declaration has been approved by all member nations and will be distributed to the United Nations as a key expression of global multipolarity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi , who participated in the closed plenary session of the summit, emphasized a people-centric approach to solving global challenges. His speech called for reformed multilateralism, underscoring the need for diplomacy and dialogue to maintain global peace and stability. "BRICS represents a key expression of global multipolarity," tweeted MEA's spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, praising the group's commitment to shaping a balanced and inclusive global order. (Press Release Kazan Declaration Adopted at BRICS Summit (24 October 2024); Kazan Declaration HERE; President Lula's speech during the open plenary session of the BRICS Summit; Full Text: Address by Chinese President Xi Jinping at 'BRICS Plus' leaders' dialogue; PM's Modi Full Speech At 16th BRICS Summit In Russia; Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa during the BRICS Summit; Disaggregating BRICS--Text of the Speeches/Remarks Delivered at the BRICS Business Forum Leaders’ Dialogue)
The Council has today formally adopted the corporate sustainability due diligence directive. This is the last step in the decision-making procedure. The directive adopted today introduces obligations for large companies regarding adverse impacts of their activities on human rights and environmental protection. It also lays down the liabilities linked to these obligations. The rules concern not only the companies’ operations, but also the activities of their subsidiaries, and those of their business partners along the companies’ chain of activities. * * *The directive requires companies to ensure that human rights and environmental obligations are respected along their chain of activities. If a violation of these obligations is identified, companies will have to take the appropriate measures to prevent, mitigate, bring to an end or minimise the adverse impacts arising from their own operations, those of their subsidiaries and those of their business partners in their chain of activities. Companies can be held liable for the damage caused and will have to provide full compensation.Companies affected by the directive will also have to adopt and put into effect a climate transition plan in line with the Paris agreement on climate change. (European Council Press Release; Directive (EU) 2024/1760 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 on corporate sustainability due diligence and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937 and Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 (CSDDD) text here).
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5. If a collective cannot breed its own soldiers it will look elsewhere; and where better to create the soldiers of tomorrow but from the children of your enemy.
Today, the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab released a new report detailing evidence of Russia’s system of coerced deportation and naturalization, reeducation, fostering, and adoption of Ukrainian children. The researchers at the Humanitarian Research Lab – which uses open-source information to document humanitarian crises throughout the world – drew on a variety of sources, including commercially available satellite imagery, verified open-source media, Russia’s own child placement databases, and Russian government documents and communications. Based on this information, the researchers identified 314 individual Ukrainian children that Russian officials transferred from Ukraine to Russia for coerced adoption and fostering, acts that constitute grave violations of international law. (New Report Documents Russia’s Systematic Program of Coerced Adoption and Fostering of Ukraine’s Children, Just Security 3 December 2024 )
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6. Techno-bureaucracies serve themselves first--a combat of a different sort; from their perspective bureaucratic solidarity the population to be served are consumables necessary for the production of bureaucratic output: data gathering, reports, and assessments of the extent to which the population has been bent to the objectives toward which the bureaucracy is itself assessed; this applied with greater force when public and private techno-bureaucracies are intertwined.
Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel earlier this month, was charged on Thursday with federal crimes of murder, stalking and weapon offenses, in addition to his previous indictment on state charges. During a brief afternoon hearing at a Lower Manhattan court, Judge Katharine Parker read the four federal counts against the 26-year-old Mangione, which were unsealed in newly filed court documents earlier Thursday. He was extradited from Pennsylvania to New York for the hearing. Judge Parker ruled that Mangione will remain detained until his next hearing in mid-January and that he will not be granted bail, the Associated Press reported. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg described Thompson's death as "a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation." The words "deny," "delay," and "depose" — language often used to critique the tactics health care insurance companies — were found written on some of the shell casings discovered at the crime scene. New York police had focused on the casings as evidence of a possible motive. (Emma Bowman, Federal murder charge against Mangione could mean death penalty in CEO killing NPR (19 December 2024)).
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7. “It is said that the Devil has all the best tunes. This is broadly true. But Heaven has the best choreographers” (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (William Morrow, 2006 reprint)); in American presidential politics in 2024 it was unclear who was sing and who was choreographing the dance.
"In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there was a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.Over the next six months, I will be focused on doing my job as president." (President Biden delivered remarks from the Oval Office on Wednesday on his decision to abandon his bid for re-election. The following is a transcript of his speech, as recorded by The New York Times; On the Semiotics of Perception II: Text of the Remarks of President Biden to the Nation).
So tonight, whether you’ve supported me in the past or not, I hope you will support me in the future, because I will bring back the American dream. That’s what we’re going to do. You don’t even hear about the American dream anymore. With great humility, I am asking you to be excited about the future of our country. Be excited. Be excited. (Donald Trump Nomination Speech (19 July 2024);Mr. Trump's Second Term: Brief Reflections on a Successful Campaign by or Around the President Elect)
. . . & to all those weak and pathetic RHINOS, radical left Democrats, Socialists, Marxists, and and Communists who are killing our Nation, remember, we will be back! (Donald Trump, Easter Greetings 2023 Tweet Message (9 April 2023).
Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences — but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. Consider — consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election. Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes. When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the U.S. Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite — he fanned the flames. And now, for an entirely different set of crimes, he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans, and separately — and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse. And consider, consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol. His explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy. His explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens. Consider, consider the power he will have, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States. Not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself. And we know, and we know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisers. And its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back. (Full Transcript of Kamala Harris’s Democratic Convention Speech;Avatars, Icons, and Adversaries--Full Text of Vice President's Harris's Remarks at the Democratic National Convention)
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