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23/03/2013

Political Cord with Homo Sapiens

Human Beings and Politics:
"facta quidem igitur vivendi gratia, existens autem gratia bene vivendi"
"Born with regard to life, but existing essentially with regard to the good life" (Aristotle's quotation in Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer, page 2).  
 We know and live in the World where is familiar, yet strange rhythm exposes every minute since we born and tied with something. The 'politics or politik' as a term of human being's innovative construction has been overemphasized since the Classical period. According to Aristotle, a great Greek philosoher, described the human beings, as a ' living animal with the additional capacity for political existence.' But the main problematic struggling in our world until nowadays that our constructing attempts reflected by the word or term is now converting our narration on the way of our creativity. Many people pretend the politics and state having solid relationship by putting the equation, as these two terms are casual of another one. After state has originated, the politics becomes inevitably coincidence with the narrative management and consideration on the way of living (bios). The concept of sovereignty and the "State Power" sprang the eminent roles in many aspect, in such a way, occasionally, we cannot catch up with, or, even classify the criterion surrounded ourselves. Human beings is in an awkward predicament, as if the imaginative creator had been confused with the own masterpiece and always fell asleep, until decision was made and its consequence is now returning in the other round of vital circle.

Human beings, both of man, and, especially for woman always been tied with something existing out there beyond them. As a product of politics leads to many interpretations and inquiries until now. In the traditional way of perceiving state power via the concrete lens is encoded by juridical and institutional state based. Michel Foucault, a post-structuralist pioneer, is very active during his lifetime to propose the movement of emancipation of the traditional approach, especially, the lens perceiving the politics based on juridico-institutional models. Foucault comes up with the concept of 'Bio-politic,' tried to analyse the ways of human shaping this political regime rather than looking on the existing model as a one side of view. He suggested the political "double-bind" in which it constituted by individualization and the simultaneous totalization of strucetures of modern power. In other hand, Foucault drew a distinct lines between political objectivism and individual subjectivism; the study of political techniques with which state assumes and integrates the care of the natural life of individuals into its center, and the technologies of the self by which processes of subjectivization bring the individual into bind himself to his own identity and consciousness and external power. But there are many arguments later on about how to separately focus one of specific line while separate the another one.

Besides of State and Politics, also have the neutral domains playing a role variously in the democratic organizing system. The religious, economic, cultural, legal, and scientific domain are the antitheses of political one. Politics has no definite distinction that we can tangibly measure like locale of other domains; legally just versus unjust, economic benefit and non-profit, scientific success or failed labs, or etc. The politics can be narrowly settled in some distinction between friend and enemy, this sense provides the demarcation of strange alien and internal grouping. By implicit, as Schmit stated, the phenomenon of the political can be understood only in the context of the ever present possibility of the friend-and enemy grouping, regardless of the aspects which this possibility implies for morality, aesthetics, and economics. 'War' is the existential negation of enemy as long as this divisible enemy remains valid. And war can originate internally within an organized unit as civil war, and externally armed combat between organized political entities. But it is not the aim or purpose, nor the content of the politics as well. Nevertheless, this criterion of the friend-and enemy distinction is not implies directly for the durable enemy or forever friend as state posting in the system, only possible when neutrality overcomes. Moreover, it has more complexity when other antitheses, especially, the religion, came jointly in the tendency of the political context in sophisticated hybridization or whenever the line get blurred. It exhibits the decisive friend-or-enemy constellation pursued by other antitheses intertwining.  There 'purity' become contaminated and it does not occur recently in this age of Global Capitalist World. But it has been culminated for long time, one of an example is 'Crusade War,' the longest conflicts initiated the enormous devastation at the end. The main root of this war actually originated from the divergent of religious motivation and faith of believers. But how come the religion could lead the people to combat and kill each others, there also had deep-rooted factor. For sure, we cannot one hundred said that it has no related with other domains (esp. political and balancing of power including state's interest). Politics jumped in and played a role for long time, up til now, terrorist movements become one threatened the world rather than the conventional and civil wars. I assume that there are many terrorist groups that see the state or other entities as the evil in which should be utterly destroyed, and they proud to be a God heaven knight as there strong believes. One of them, I fellow, is "Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)," a radical Islamist, operated mainly in this Southeast Asia and have connection with the al-Qaeda. This terrorist group has main object against the colonial dominance, we may see some correlations among this event and the war in the past. There are not purely one motivation to attack others. As though, the complexity seemed to be distinct one in the way that several pejorative implications or actions of human beings has articulated within the field of separatism and core division, we-ness and they-ness. The field that was obviously influenced from political interpretation, the religion as an example of loosing-pureness and was contaminated whenever political has strong intrusive power equipped new weapons and acquired the new incentives to overwhelm the other antitheses, or have strong thereto such as from linking networks and technological innovations.              
"A completely pacified globe, would be a world without the distinction of friend and enemy and hence a world without politics"(Schmit's The Concept of the Political, page 35).


                     

16/03/2013

Scale on the Seamless Globe

Scale and Accumulation 
"Scale is the spatial dimensionality necessary for a particular kind of view, whether up close or from a distance, microscopic or planetary" (Tsing, Chapter II, p.58). 
There have many definitions and attempts to define the 'scale', but it's quite too complex to translate this term in concrete word. Then the interesting point we may focus about is the process of scale-making. Our world we lived has many fragments and frictions in multidimensional visions. The way to accumulate and try to establish the general interpretative understandings will base on the 'generalization' or the process of forming or expressing in general notions gains from the observation or even comparison of individual facts or appearances. In order to reach the universal truths also need the establishing the 'axiom of unity' and convergences among disparate forms for bridging and raising of the collaborative perception on the natural objects.      

For 'sclae-making projects' can be categorized into several layers but the main substances are local, national, regional, and global level. Because scale is not neutral frame drawing the globe, or separable between local and global only via looking the world as homogeneous lens. According to Tsing's The Economic of Appearances described on the financial conjuring in which helps readers to extend their understanding about how the globe comes into being as a culturally specific set of commitments and a set of practices. Further explaining how articulations among globalist, nationalist, and regionalist projects bring each project to life. Our world is existing in the main rhetoric of Capitalist world (in case that we are looking at the context of economic and development perspectives). By the intertwining among three layers of scale in the national (franchise cronyism), regional (frontier culture; Kalimantan frontier in Indonesia, etc.), and the global level for financial capital leads to the accumulation of the complete picture as Tsing called " The Spectacular Accumulation." In this case, Indonesia was picked up as the case study about this accumulation with the role of amazing Bre-X Canadian company echoed widely about the dramatic scene appealing many focuses especially in the investment motivation. Later, the creation of the 'Miracle Nation' forced potential frontier regions into lawless violence and abolished customary tenure, comply with many regulations for mining the gold that obligated in Canada.

This kind of spectacular accumulation reflects conversely with the 'flexible accumulation' on popular Fordism. And the conceptualized globalization by Harvey also suggest the condensation of time and space that space grow smaller and time more instantaneous and effortless. But for the case of the Bre-X and this spectacular accumulation; the space is enlarged and time is quickened in the rush of acceleration, not effortless anymore. The world is kind of complex and scaling becomes a real task to final. However, the hardest task for us may be the establishing of 'Universal Regime.' In which the global Nature cab facilitate the governance regimes, making technical standardization an international imperative, and activate the international negotiation as well. But the failure of International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) with empty concept of sustainable development reflect the confrontations and discomfort on collaborations in which these did not prove a convincing 'axiom of unity'; moreover, the 'universality' increases the harder task for us to see who is considerable imagined insider or outside genre. As in this case of ITTO that the one who knows about the problem of forestry on the ground like local foresters or spokespeople to wildlife has been excluded, left to the inquiry about what is global Nature can reach us to, facilitates or obscures worldwide collaborations in another way round.    

"Nature offers various kinds of commitment to a global scale. Global Nature can collate facts from around the world... Global Nature made the knowledge of varied localities compatible" (Tsing, Chapter III, p.111).                                 

10/03/2013

The ' Flat or Round' Amorphism

What is the shape of the world? 

The old believes about the 'flat' world had been recapped with the new innovative explanation by the scientific progression especially for the technology on travelling and exploring the world. The concept of round or spherical Earth emerged confronting with the old concept of traditional believes especially for the Thai society during the early nineteen century. King Mongkut (or Rama IV) spent his life to establish new ways of reliable knowledge on the geography and astronomy including the prediction of astrology. He wanted to set up the pattern of education in order to induce more accuracy and correction mostly on the tangible thoughtful process rather than the old fable. One of his dominant attempt as the big experiment in this region is the 1868 Wako observation in which the British and France also joined that chance. Along with later new curriculum  during 1890s offered the guideline of geography learning for the new Siamese generations, as from the Phumisat Sayam (Geography of Siamof W.G. Johnson, or Van Dyke's Phumanithet. Anyhow, Thai society did not accept totally believes from Western dominance especially in the religious perspective, we tried to inspire the new Buddhist sect and find the own standpoint, even though the Traiphum cosmology would be dismissed later on.