02/2/23

Looking at Michael Millerman’s Chapter (2022) “Heidegger, Left and Right” (Part 1 of 2)

0132 All the blogs for February 2023 at www.raziemah.com examine selected chapters from Michael Millerman’s book (2022) Inside “Putin’s Brain”: The Political Philosophy of Alexander Dugin.  Millerman has been studying Dugin’s works for over a decade.  If there is to be a truly philosophical underpinning to Eurasianism, then Dugin begins the quest.

As for this reviewer, my first endeavor to read Dugin, Comments on Alexander Dugin (2012) Fourth Political Theory, may be found at smashwords and other e-book venues.  I ask the question, “If I were to say what Dugin is saying, using triadic relations, then how would that work?”  The answer intrigues.

Obviously, I am not interested in whatever box the literati of modern political philosophy want to put Dugin in.  I am interested in the purely relational structures that Dugin reveals.

0133 So far, I reviewed chapters two and six.  In this blog, I will briefly touch on chapter nine.  Well, less that that.  I see a Greimas square in the seventh section of chapter nine.  Its title is “Theologico-Political Implications”.

In this section, Millerman hones down on the difference between the Heideggerian Left (HL) and Heideggerian Right (HR) in regards to the theological-political issue of the returning of the religious and the receding of the secular.

0134 Recall, Dugin’s formulation of “the people” associates to the following Greimas square.

Figure 01

0135 A is the focal term, “the people”.  What is the political expression of the people?  In America, the Declaration of Independence starts with “we, the people”.  So the answer is involved.  Suffice to say that, until recently, the political expression is the democratically elected representative.  Until recently?  Mailing out unsolicited ballots is unconstitutional.  It makes me wonder, what do modern intellectuals mean when they say the word, “democracy”.

B contrasts with A.  Here, the three political theories (of liberalism (1), communism (3), fascism (2) and big government (il)liberalism (1, again)) model phenomena of a prepolitical world in terms of the individual (1, 1-again), class membership (3) and citizenship and noncitizenship (2).

C contradicts B and implicates A.  Dugin uses the Russian word, “narod”, for prepolitical people that various schools of modern political philosophy regard as noumenon.  The people (A) are political.  The narod (C) is the people before being objectified by explicit political theories.  For me, the narod (C) is humanity in our current Lebenswelt.

D contrasts with C, contradicts A and implicates B.  Dugin uses the Russian word, “ethnos“.  The narod (C) comes out of the ethnos (D) and cannot return.  To me, the ethnos (D) is us in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Our current Lebenswelt (narod (C)) is not the same as the Lebenswelt that we evolved in (ethnos (D)).  The hypothesis of the fist singularity contributes an evolutionary dimension that complements Dugin’s theologico-political analysis.  

02/1/23

Looking at Michael Millerman’s Chapter (2022) “Heidegger, Left and Right” (Part 2 of 2)

0136 Dugin is an example of the Heideggerian Right (HR).  HR philosophers are few in number and for good reason.  They are considered to be the enemies of the Heideggerian Left (HL), who want to co-opt Heidegger for their theological-political convictions.

Millerman poses this question (more or less), “How does the HL view the theological-political issue of receding secularism and returning religiosity?”

0137 Here is how I associate the discussion to the Greimas square.

Figure 02

0138 According to the HL, A, democracy is under threat because…

0139 …B, democracy must be secular.

Even though secular is an adjective and democracy is a noun and therefore B contrasts with A, secular is a necessary qualifier.  A democracy cannot be a democracy unless it is secular.  Hence, when HL-friendly pundits on public-private partner television say the word, “democracy”, they actually mean “secular democracy”.

0140 C contradicts B and complements A.  C is religious.  Non-secular means religious, just as secular means “not religious”.  But, this too is wordplay, since religions are not “non-secular”, they are believers in an ultimate foundation, D.  However, from the HL Greimas square, C is nonsecular.

At this point, secular institutions take on a scientific glow.  The secular (B) use theoretical disciplinary languages to model observations and measurements of social phenomena.  Naturally, these models end up defining the options available for ballots in… um… a democracy (A).  Thus, the ultimate foundation (D) complements the secular (B) because it (D) does not exist.

0141 D contrasts with C, contradicts A and complements B.  Already, I know how D complements B.  The fact that an ultimate foundation fills the slot for (D) yet does not exist, according to HL, reveals the nature of the way the ultimate foundation (D) is its own lacking.

Surely, this sounds like a contradiction in terms.  But, that is the way HL rolls.

There is no God.  There is no ethnos.  The possibility that these statements (D) are wrong contradict (A), “democracy”, which, according to HL, must be godless (B).  If these statements are incorrect, then the political system would not be a “democracy”, but a “theocracy”.

0142 Okay, HL is into wordplay.

The Heideggerian Right takes the Heideggerian Left’s wordplay at face value, producing the following remake of the HL Greimas square.

Figure 03

0143 As before, A, the focal word, is “democracy”.

0144 B contrasts with A, in the way that an adjective contrasts with a noun.  The secret handshake allows HL pundits to indicate a secular democracy when they use the word, “democracy”, and use the word, “theocracy”, when religious folk take to the ballot box.

0145 C contradicts B because the word, “radical” (C), means “rooted”, and “secular” (B) means not religious.  This implies that the radical (C) adheres to emptiness (D) with the same conviction that the religious, er… non-secular (C) adheres to an ultimate foundation (D).  No wonder the radical (C) strives to eradicate the ontological and theological facets (phenomena) of the narod.  The radical (C) creates conditions where other social phenomena (such as the individual, class membership, the roles of citizen and noncitizen) can be observed and measured by modern scientifically minded theoreticians (B).

0146 Emptiness (D) entails the absence of (1) an ultimate foundation encompassing both God and humans, (2) the ethnos, (3) what we evolved to be and (4) the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

D contrasts with C, contradicts A and complements B.

Emptiness (D) contrasts with radical (C) because it (C) is rooted in ‘something’ (however ephemeral, such as an act of will).

Emptiness (D) contradicts democracy (A) because the implementation of secular policies (B) reveals the root (C) to be a pure act of will, rather than a product of say… philosophical inquiry.

Emptiness (D) complements the secular (B) because the secular knows that its politics will undermine whatever traditions that they are rooted in (C).

0147 In sum, the HL diagram celebrates democracy (A) and the secular (B) while denying the religious (C) and the possibility of an ultimate foundation (D).  The HR view of the HL diagram positively labels the negative attitude towards religion as “radical” (C) and the denial of an ultimate foundation (D) as “emptiness”.

0148 To me, the Greimas square for the HL and for what the HR thinks of the HL’s views must be regarded as funny.  Perhaps, hilarious.

How so?

The ethnos is where our sense of humor evolves.  The narod is where people formulate jokes.  The secular is where people lose their sense of humor .  Democracy is where the comedy of the humorless plays out on the world stage.

0149 I do not know whether Heidegger’s “fourfold” or “das Geviert” can be re-articulated as a Greimas square.  It might be worth trying.  Perhaps, use of the Greimas square will allow the HL to take themselves less seriously and the HR to chuckle under their beards.  The problem, of course, is that Dugin is no longer laughing, because the ones who take themselves seriously have designated him, not as a philosopher, but as a threat.

Pray for the soul of Alexander Dugin’s daughter.

0150 My thanks to Millerman for his excellent book.  Please check out the Millerman School and dugin.com.

01/27/23

Looking at Daniel Estulin’s Book (2021) “2045 Global Projects at War” (Part 1 of 5)

0001 Daniel Estulin holds a notable resume.  He is a doctor of conceptual intelligence and a foreign policy advisor to sovereign states in Latin America and Eurasia.  He has authored many books, and hosted a Spanish language TV show on RT (formerly, Russia Today).  The subtitle of the book is “Tectonic Processes of Global Transformation”.

This look is a teaser for a more extensive examination, Comments on Daniel Estulin’s Book (2021) “2045 Global Projects At War”, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

0002 Estulin formulates the concept of global project and applies it to a number of civilizations, nations and international cabals.  His approach is intuitive and relies on his considerable experience and knowledge.  Estulin’s book is not structured in a manner that the reader learns a particular technique.  Consequently, the above-mentioned comments add value.  Perhaps, there is a method to Estulin’s approach.

0003 Certainly, the concept of global project is valuable, especially when applied, by Estulin, to the world in the present day.  Estulin is so well informed that he exercises the concept without trouble.  Does he want the rest of us to wield this tool without his years of experience, trials and reflection?

I don’t know.

0003 All I know is that humans tend to think in the ways of purely relational structures, often without realizing that fact.  So, I read Estulin’s text with two purely relational structures in mind, the Greimas square and the category-based nested form.

I start with a Greimas square and focus on the key word of “capitalism”.  A quick introduction to the Greimas square may be found in the other blog for this month (at www.raziemah.com for January 2023).

0004 Here is the result.

Figure 01

0005 The four elements are clarified by the following statements.

A is the focal term.  A is also the social head.  A goes with economics.

B contrasts with A.  B is also the social body.  B goes with politics.

C contradicts B and complements A.  C is capital.  Capital goes with information, intelligence and conspiracy system.  Anyone who gets an investment newsletter appreciates this.  The stuff of investment letters scale up when considering prices, markets and monetary policies.  C is what the social head fixates on.  C functions as a mind-independent being.  C is what the social head thinks about.

D contrasts with C, contradicts A and complements B.  D is communion.  Communion (D) is the object that brings us together.  Communion (D) is not a mind-independent being, even though it appears to be.  It (D) is mind-dependent, in the same way that a stomach and lungs are mind dependent.  We don’t just want to eat or breath.  We want to eat and breathe well.  Communion (D) is aesthetic, while economics (A), politics (B) and conspiracy system (C) are calculating.

01/23/23

Looking at Daniel Estulin’s Book (2021) “2045 Global Projects at War” (Part 5 of 5)

0020 So, consider the cities imaged by the global project of the New Babylon.  Say “yes” to Renaissance Venice.  Say “no” to Edinburgh, ship those jobs overseas and repackage the assets.  Say “hello” to the City of London, full of intrigue, secret societies and corruption.

0021 Unfortunately, New Babylon is at war with other global projects.

In order to appreciate the drama, one must read Estulin’s own words.

0022 Nevertheless, Razie Mah’s e-work, Comments on Daniel Estulin’s Book (2021) 2045 Global Projects at War, available at smashwords and other e-book venues, adds value by providing a technique that students and educators may find beneficial.

Each global project contains all three permutations, arranged into an interscope.  An interscope is like a three layer cake. The layers are content, situation and perspective.  P1, P2 and P3 combine into three different interscopes.  These interscopes associate to global projects.

0023 This examination is only a teaser for both Estulin’s book and the corresponding commentary by Razie Mah.

The New Babylon global project is one among many.  Estulin covers almost a dozen.

So, one must be selective.

Razie Mah’s commentary develops diagrams for the global project of China.

0024 For all who are interested in the dynamics of global projects, Estulin’s book is a good place to start.  Mah’s comments offer a comprehensible technique to apply.  The latter complements the former.  I encourage intellects to play with Estulin’s approach and Mah’s diagrams.

01/20/23

Looking at Alex Jones’s Book (2022) “The Great Reset” (Part 1 of 12)

0025 Alex Jones, bubbalatory founder of the InfoWars website, is currently hounded by deep-state legal-predators.  He was recently fined an unimaginable number of dollars to pay for the psychological damage that he apparently inflicted as a bombastic, yet entertaining, provocateur who speaks fiction to fact.  Or, is it fact to fiction?

Does fact or fiction matter?  If Jones had been a provocateur for the established revolutionary spirits, there would have been no repercussions.  Take a look at Steve Colbert and Keith Olbermann, who serve as provocateurs for the diverse monocultures of big government (il)liberalism.

0026 What does matter?

Or, should I ask, “What does not matter?”

At the same time that Jones is fined a grave sum, the actual murderer, who caused the plaintiffs’ real trauma, gets sentenced to life in prison, rather than execution.  Perhaps, the second judge should have fined the murderer the same package that the first judge levied on Jones.  Which is worse, life in prison or permanent penury? 

After all, the event itself is as horrible as questioning the realness of an event.

Is it not?

0027 Of course, it is, to some.

The scholastics of the Latin Age debate this question for around 500 years (roughly, from 1100 to 1600 AD).  There are two kinds of beings: ens reale (mind-independent being) and ens rationis (mind-dependent being).  The terms are Latin.  Speak them with an Italian or French or Spanish accent.  The Latin term, “ens” is translated as “being”.

What is “being”?

Being has presence, just like things.  But, things are grounded in the material and being includes the immaterial as well as the material.  A being may be a purely relational structure.

0028 So, what of the crime that Alex Jones contested?

Clearly, the event of the crime is ens reale.

Also, the skeptical questions that Alex Jones raises are ens rationis.

0029 Ens reale is not the same as ens rationis.

This poses a difficulty for those schoolmen.

0030 Fast forward to the previous century, where a literature-oriented structuralist, Algirdas Julien Greimas (1917-1992 AD), adds a twist.  He proposes that a spoken word (or term) generates a purely relational field of contrasting and contradicting elements, according to a particular style.  The result is the Greimas square, pictured below.

Figure 01

0031 Here is how the Greimas square works (more or less).

A is the item in focus.

B contrasts with A.

C speaks against (or contradicts) B and complements (or implicates) A.

D contrasts with C, contradicts A and implicates B.

0032 Now, I associate these slots to the scholastic business about mind-independent (A) and mind-dependent (B) being.

Figure 02

0033 Well, I already can see why medieval academic debates take so many bizarre turns.  The Greimas square has two items that are not labeled.

Not labeled?

Look and see.

I suspect that experts on those scholastic debates can provide the appropriate Latin terms.

0034 Today, I offer labels for C and D.

An illusion (C) is a mind-independent being that is regarded as mind-dependent.

For example, a ten-dollar bill is a mind-independent being that is regarded as a mind-dependent tool for purchasing something.  Here is an illusion that functions on a day to day basis.

A delusion (D) is a mind-dependent being that is regarded as mind-independent.

For example, confidence in the value of a ten-dollarbill is a mind-dependent being that is regarded as mind-independent.  Inflation erodes confidence.

01/4/23

Looking at Alex Jones’s Book (2022) “The Great Reset” (Part 12 of 12)

0124 Does the bombastic, entertaining, yet earnest Alex Jones speak fiction to fact?  Or fact to fiction?  Or both?  Or neither?

0125 This look at his most recent book suggests that the terms, “fact” and “fiction”, are inadequate.  Terms that are much older, yet still explicit abstractions, are preferable.

To me, the Latin terms, “ens reale” (mind-independent being) and “ens rationis” (mind dependent being), apply.

0126 I will not be the first to falsely accuse Alex Jones of being what he is not, when I say that Jones works in the vineyards of scholastic thought.  He intuitively senses and exposes illusion and delusion.  Plus, he strives to identify a nomenclature to describe how Klaus Schwab casts his sorcerer’s spell in an act of persuasion, just like that serpent in the third chapter of Genesis.

The scholastic world of the high middle ages (roughly 1100 to 1600 AD) rocks with controversies concerning how to distinguish (and perhaps, separate) ens reale and ens rationis.  The schoolmen struggle against manipulative influences that bring these two types together, alchemically mixing them, in order to precipitate novel (mind-dependent) mind-independent beings (D).  D can become the next A.  Such is the nature of original sin.

0127 The Greimas square is an act of persuasion that does not fit what anyone currently imagines is an act of persuasion.  Yet, Alex Jones smells it.  He sniffs out a rhetorical pattern that seems credible, yet defies practical reason.  This is his charism.

0128 A little philosophy goes a long way.

Indeed, this look at The Great Reset may seem to be a revelation.

Not unlike Jones’s book.

05/13/22

Looking at Thomas Michaud’s Essay (2021) “Anatomy of the Progressive Revolution” (Part 1 of 9)

0001 The article under consideration appears in a special issue of Studia Gilsoniana (volume 10(5), pages 1107-1120), covering economics and politics.

I downloaded the article from academia.edu.

The article addresses issues raised in How To Define the Word “Religion”, as well as in contributions to the Intimations of Political Philosophy series.

0002 The structure of Michaud’s argument follows Greek textual structure.  Greek textual structure seeks certainty by eliminating possibilities.  

Here, Michaud presents two options: (A) the traditional view of religion as the foundation of morality and culture and (B) the Progressive view, where politics transforms culture by imposing revolutionary ideological social justice through a collectivist economy.  Then, Michaud questions the Progressive stance (B) by considering one implication, the integrity of the individual as a person.  This leaves (A) as the only viable option.

0003 Of course, I oversimplify.

Why am I interested in this essay?

Features in Michaud’s argument may be re-conceptualized as category-based nested forms.

See A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form and A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction, available at smashwords and other e-book vendors under the author, Razie Mah.

05/12/22

Looking at Thomas Michaud’s Article (2021) “Anatomy of the Progressive Revolution” (Part 2 of 9)

0004 In the twilight of the Age of Ideas, a traditionalist slogan captures the order of social things.  Politics is downstream of culture.  Culture is downstream of religion.  To that, Michaud adds two more.  Morality flows from religion.  Economics goes with politics.

Surely, America’s founders, living in the heyday of the Age of Ideas, would sympathize with this snapshot, which may be encapsulated in a hierarchical diagram.

Figure 01

0005 How does the following flow diagram associate to a category-based nested form?

Religion is the normal context3.  A normal context3 belongs Peirce’s category of thirdness.  Thirdness brings secondness into relation with firstness.

Morality and culture are both actual2.  Actuality2 belongs to the dyadic category of secondness.  Secondness consists in two contiguous real elements.  Here, the two real elements are morality and culture.  I can write the actuality2 as morality [contiguity] culture2.

0006 What label describes the contiguity?

This is a great question.  It is at the heart of a series titled, “Peirce’s Secondness and Aristotle’s Hylomorphism”.  I could label the contiguity, “substantiates”.  But, here, I will use a less technical term, “sustains”.

0007 Finally, the possibilities inherent in ‘politics and economics’ underlie culture.

0008 Thus, I arrive at the following category-based nested form.

Figure 02
05/11/22

Looking at Thomas Michaud’s Essay (2021) “Anatomy of the Progressive Revolution” (Part 3 of 9)

0009 Where does the individual fit into this category-based nested form?

The individual resides on a lower form.  Looking up, “he” sees a relational dynamic within the social paradigm.

Figure 03

0010 The hierarchical flow in the traditional slogan becomes a double dynamic, where the normal context3 flows into one dyadic actuality2 and the potential1 rises into the other dyadic actuality2.  The category-based nested form displays its own transcategorical flows.  Religion3 motivates morality2.  Politics and economics1 enlivens culture2.

What does this imply?

The traditional slogan depicts a flow down a hierarchy.  This flow conveys an aura of determinism.In contrast, the corresponding category-based nested form presents two transcategorical flows.  One flows “down” from normal context3 to actuality2.  The other flows “up” from potential1 to actuality2.  These flows convey a picture of dynamism.

05/10/22

Looking at Thomas Michaud’s Essay (2021) “Anatomy of the Progressive Revolution” (Part 4 of 9)

0011 The progressive agenda showcases a similar hierarchical flow diagram.

Figure 04

0012 Politics3 can change a culture and save it from itself.

How?

In the normal context of politics3, economic interventions2 transform the culture… or rather… its morality into one that conforms to the ideological ideals of an educated, judicious and articulate cadre of enlightened, “woke” and true believers1.

Here is a picture.

Figure 05

0013 Michaud elaborates nine points.

First and second, the Progressive’s devotion to political ideologies exhibits a type of religious zeal.  Yet, the progressiveself-identifies as “not religious”.  Progressive political movements3 are thus “not religious” religious enterprises3.

Third, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth, economics is a tool for progressive revolutionary politics.  Economic interventionis a lever that transforms culture.  This requires the use of sovereign power.

Today’s progressives desire to identify and privilege groups who are victims of past and present exploitation, both real and imagined.  This fortifies allegiance of such groups (remember, this is democratic politics) and encourages individuals to identify as members of a victim group.  State education, the justice system and corporate media serve as ideological apparatuses that convey moral and cultural information to acolytes.

Fifth, the morality of social justice does not conform to traditional morality, because, in both theory and perception, people following traditional morals victimize(d) now-privileged groups.

Ninth, the progressive agenda is a permanent revolution.

0014 These nine points suggest that there are levels in the progressive agenda that are not envisioned in the traditional flow diagram.

Politics3 belongs to the situation level.

Social justice and permanent revolution are located above the situation level.

Progressive affiliation, victim group, individual, and identity reside below the situation level.

Figure 06