tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101976222024-03-17T12:45:52.279+01:00Mirek's Blog - Passionate Reading ...This is my main blog. It is about books I read, music I listen and some other interesting things I find worth to share with you ...Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.comBlogger348125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-41097550670119389402024-01-26T08:31:00.006+01:002024-03-17T12:45:18.860+01:00Macrospherology of humans. Globes - volume two of Peter Sloterdijk's Spheres<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnV_TVVKl-jc0AxOW25jFY_wcUZ5pFVRJp7Z3w84zO2G4nX_F0acv8AhB5f6Xrt4QMH6YyAR3alpVItIEU9b7d8Mf9wuw0dC_ZV-eokA7FASiu49wnGhvDG5NihJfnIT_YXvqwthqB_YDavlqoVBWcauv29Vg4pTzxhjJaJbHcDccQgl-ZdMiu/s505/5358936716_0b6669ca6a_o.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="Oskar Schlemmer" border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="391" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnV_TVVKl-jc0AxOW25jFY_wcUZ5pFVRJp7Z3w84zO2G4nX_F0acv8AhB5f6Xrt4QMH6YyAR3alpVItIEU9b7d8Mf9wuw0dC_ZV-eokA7FASiu49wnGhvDG5NihJfnIT_YXvqwthqB_YDavlqoVBWcauv29Vg4pTzxhjJaJbHcDccQgl-ZdMiu/w248-h320/5358936716_0b6669ca6a_o.jpg" title="Oskar Schlemmer painting" width="248" /></a>I have been reading the second volume of Sloterdijk's magnum opus for a couple of months now. I still haven't found the time for a full review, or, as I have done in the past with some books, to post quotes here. However, the book is so significant that I've decided to write this post now and share a few quotes:</p><p></p><blockquote><p><i>"As a process of growing solidarity complexes, the history of homo sapiens in the time of advanced civilization is above all a battle for the integral and integrating hothouse. It is based on the attempt to provide the wider inside, the reconciling own, the more far-reaching common area with an invulnerable form, or at least a livable one that is superior to the attacks from the outside.</i></p><p><i>That this attempt is clearly still in progress, and that despite immeasurable setbacks-the struggle for ever larger</i></p><i>parts of humanity to move into ever larger communal shelters or endospheres is still being undertaken, testifies as much to its irresistible motives as to the stubborn resistance to the historical pull into the extended realm of inner security. Struggles to preserve and expand spheres form both the dramatic core of our species' history and its principle of continuity."</i></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Globes-Spheres-Macrospherology-Semiotext-Foreign/dp/1584351608 " target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Globes-Spheres-Macrospherology-Semiotext-Foreign/dp/1584351608 </a> </p><p>However, if you look around, at the world as it is today... we have more setbacks than progress...</p><p>Stay tuned ... I will put here quotes and my thoughts on that great book ...<br /><br />See this: </p><blockquote><p><i>"As the monstrous employer in the work of mourning, death is the first sphere stressor and creator of cultures. The mourning communes survive by accepting the task of taming the fury of disappearance through expanded spatial formation. It is the distancing power of the imagination, which embeds the current living space in surrounding spaces of ghosts and the dead, that spawns cultures as self-harboring spatial figments in the first place."</i></p></blockquote><p>November 12, 2023 ... </p><p>See Peter Sloterdijk's latest great lecture: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKWy4sgZRjg">Future Cities Conference 2023 | Peter Sloterdijk | The Future of Too Big Cities - YouTube</a></p><p>November 25, 2023</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Human is <b>"a natal and mortal creature"...</b></h3><p>See what is an essential thought from "Vascular Memories" chapter:<br /></p><p></p><blockquote><p><i>"Hence the human being is the animal that, together with its significant others, produces endospheres in almost every situation because it remains shaped by the memory of a different having-been-inside, and by the anticipation of a final being-enclosed. It is the natal and mortal creature that has an interior because it changes its interior. Relocation tensions are in effect in every place where humans exist; that is why their entire history is the history of walls and their metamorphoses."</i></p><div></div></blockquote><div>November 26th, 2023</div><div><br /></div><div><div>See these thoughts on "peripheral seas":<br /></div><div><blockquote><i>"With the concept of a peripheral sea, ancient cosmography established a semantic reservoir on which modern oceanic ideas could draw for it was only the Europeans of the Modern Age that understood the oceans as real global seas and world media. This lexical history mirrors the historical shift of emphasis that led potamic spaces and river cultures to fall behind Pontic-oceanic power centers."</i></blockquote><p><i></i></p></div></div><blockquote><div><div><p><i>"What is even more notable about Homer's mention of Oceanus is the reference to conceptions of the world dominated by the Great Mother, for, as an all-encompassing figure, the world boundary river Oceanus has unmistakable amniotic qualities. How else could vascular attributes be assigned to a surrounding body of water? Oceanus may be depicted on a masculine-maritime device, but his energy of form testifies to an older world context defined by the precedence of female motifs; it is characteristic of this context that it is not the solid enclosed by the liquid, but the liquid by the solid. If liquid is to be presented as giving stability, it must be accompanied by a specific container energy - a condition that is only met if the surrounding water possesses amniotic morphological powers. This world boundary thus has elements of that original life-within-life structure which, as I attempted to show above, had to provide the self-harboring of the we-groups in the endo-milieu before all architecture or metallurgy. As long as the outermost wall is imagined as a boundary of water, it absolutely possesses the properties of the living that contains the living."</i></p></div></div></blockquote><p>This sentence: <i>"building vessels-granaries in the city center and silos for deities at the center of the soul space"</i> is an ingenuous observation! See it in context:</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i>"On the threshold of advanced civilization, humans reached a lucid and almost final definition of what is necessary to survive failed harvests and wrong living conditions: grain and memories of integrity. Storing these two commodities inevitably requires building vessels-granaries in the city center and silos for deities at the center of the soul space - and because each of these commodities is somehow connected to the living principle of the group, the walls of these (built and spoken) vessels that contain such indispensable stores must be guarded with sacred attentiveness."</i></p></blockquote><p>December 3rd, 2023</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i>"The symbolic destruction of ancient Rome through the quenching of the state hearth was only possible, however, because the empire, particularly in its new headquarters, the Second Rome, had found a different integrative principle and an alternative symbol of social synthesis in the religion of Christ. And indeed, for over a millennium, the Christian lux perpetua proved eminently suitable to replace the sacred fire of ancient Rome."</i></p></blockquote><p>December 16th, 2023 </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The importance of the Ark symbolism</h3><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p><i>"Ark concept from the Latin arca, "box" (compare to arcanus,"closed, secret") - exposes the most spherologically radical spatial idea which humans on the threshold of advanced civilization were able to conceive: that the artificial, sealed inner world can, under certain circumstances, become the only possible environment for its inhabitants. This gave rise to a new kind of project: the notion of a group's self-harboring and self-surrounding in the face of an outside world that has become impossible.</i></p><p><i>The ark is the autonomous, absolute, context-free house, the building with no neighborhood; it embodies the negation of the environment by the artificial construct in exemplary fashion."</i></p></blockquote><p></p><p>and ...</p><blockquote><p><i>"One notices that the biblical ark, the paradigmatic ship in the history of human natural disasters, seems to have lacked any means of steering, as if ships whose construction has been decreed by God have no need of a bridge (this would make the ark not so much a ship as an oversized raft.)</i></p><p><i>Read from this angle, the biblical tale of Noah's Ark reproduces the first de-founding experiment. In its own way it would be unsurpassable, were it not for the fact that numerous extrabiblical, extra-European cultures are equally familiar with the motivic alliance of a flood and successfully floating endospheres.</i></p><p><i>The realization that the outer floor can be withdrawn, and must be replaced with a floating inner world's own floor, has been expressed in manifold mythological forms across the human race."</i></p></blockquote><p>and ...<br /></p><p></p><blockquote><i>"The manifold subcultures of modern social systems-whether organizations or private contexts-form colorful fleets of arks on every scale that navigate self-referentially in a flood of environmental complexity that will never sink again. But one no longer sends doves to fly from one's own scene so that they can show with a green twig in their beak that things are simple again outside. Postmodernity abandoned the dream of landing after the flood; now the flood is the land. Where only absolute houses are left, each in its own drift, returning to what was once called land has become impossible."</i></blockquote><p></p><p> December 24th, 2023 (Lodz)</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What are cities in their most profound sense?</h3><p></p><blockquote><i>"From that point on, politics, architecture and theology are merged into a shared macro-immunological project. The large-scale body politic appears as the builder of a world interior. As late as the sixteenth century, Martin Luther would formulate his reformatory battle song "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" entirely in the tradition of ancient Near Eastern and ancient European mural phantasms of immunity. In this respect, one can view the Mesopotamian city buildings-alongside the Egyptian temple complexes as the most important laboratories of the rising imperial psychology and theology: more than in any other part of the world, people experimented here over millennia, in ever new arrangements and from ever new centers, with the production of large-scale interiors with their corresponding construction forms, world picture forms, soul forms and immune structures."</i></blockquote><p></p><p>December 30th, 2023 (Lodz)</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The religion of the cities and fortresses...</h3><p></p><blockquote><p><i>"No religious person on the first level can discern the primal fact of all religion as crypto-architecture and crypto-grammar</i><i>"</i></p><div></div></blockquote><div>January 1st, 2024, Debina </div><div><br /></div><div><div></div></div><blockquote><div><div><i>"The gigantic wall supported the city residents in their attempt to overcome their soul infection through the internally understood large-scale space. The true purpose of the walls was to show their inhabitants, who were forced to adopt large-scale thought, the state of things. By looking down on the population inside them, the monumental edifices informed them that great thoughts and great dangers would henceforth be an immediate reality"</i></div></div><div></div></blockquote><div>January 14th, 2024, Lodz</div><div><br /></div><div><div></div><blockquote><div><i>"That the Roman arena could advance to a metaphor for the world stemmed from the fact that the central tenet of ancient fatalism attained concretion in its construction: no one escapes the of this world alive. Everyone in it must fulfill their destiny to the end. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>The only concession offered by this place is that, with a little luck and diligence, our failure can be postponed.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>The Roman-style theater of cruelty acted as a destiny generator in which the masses observed the last relevant difference between humans the distinction between those who die sooner and those who die later in the form of a sporting divine judgment."</i></div></blockquote><p>January 28th, 2024, Lodz </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Merdocracy ...</h3><div><div></div></div><blockquote><div><div><i>"What phenomenologists, following on from Husserl's late work, tend to describe with the term "lifeworld" should be viewed primarily as an olfactory phenomenon before the deodorizing</i></div><div><i>revolution of the last two centuries-on a scale that modern subjects lack the criteria to 'grasp.'</i></div><div><i><br />The being-with-oneself of the early groups in settlement collectives cannot be described without reference to a constant presence of ominous native vapors. Lifeworld is breathworld-nicely said, but what is the point of breath as long as the shared air of the settled lies under the spell of the sewer?"</i></div></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><blockquote><p><i>"... the systemic location of the modern mass media, in so far as they function as transporters for symbolically coded secondary smells or metaphorical vapors of large groups. Here we find an opportunity to recall the kinship, not only an etymological one, between smells [Gerüche] and rumors [Gerüchte]. The rumor is the spoken smell - it is no coincidence that rumors are imagined as winged creatures that infiltrate social biotopes with demon speed. <br />Rumor is as infectious and rapid as ill will. With the implementation of a system for the text-assisted spread of smells, the mass press' that has been successful since the nineteenth century makes a contribution to the current social synthesis that is impossible to either to overlook or oversmell."</i></p></blockquote><p><br />February 10th, 2024, Dębina </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Ontological Proof of the Orb</h3><blockquote><p><i>"In the moment of its foundation, philosophy was a purification plant for traumatized intelligence"</i></p></blockquote><p>February 11th, 2024, Dębina </p><blockquote><p><i>"Thus, in his attempt to ward off the opinion crime of atheism, <b>Plato, immunologist-in-chief of the metaphysical age</b>, laid his cards on the table: in the light of all his observations, a true doctrine of divinity, and hence also community, was now-once and for all-only possible philosophically and spherologically."</i></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><i>"In the cultural conditions of antiquity, atheists could be viewed as semantic terrorists aiming to erode social synthesis with arguments. If philosophy meant to become indispensable for the grounding of communal life, it therefore had to begin proving something it had previously seemed unnecessary to prove: the reality of the gods-and even more, the infusion of everything existent with a delayed divine presence."</i></p></blockquote><p>February 25th, 2024, New York City </p><p></p><blockquote><p><i>"In Plato, theology fully became morphology. In revealing God as the highest matter of form, it made itself possible in the first place as the art of speaking reasonably about God. With the proof that God possesses and grants the best form that is possible in the realized whole, it entered its rationalist or constructivist period; from that point on, anyone unwilling to speak of the orb would also have to remain silent about God and the gods."</i></p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><i>"... Plato's god behaves more generously in extensive terms, as he already places the morphological optimum "outside" himself with his first action. (...) Yahwe's generosity, by contrast, is more an intensive and culminating one: he begins with the crude divisions, saving the best investment till last in the form of Adam, the last-created, and his descendants. <br />It is obvious, then, that the two thus constitute radically different theologies that could be termed cosmotheism (Greek) and ethnotheism (Jewish), or perhaps morphotheism and nomotheism."</i></blockquote><p>March 2nd, 2024, Tampa </p><p></p><blockquote><p><i>"Postmodern cosmopolitanism is usually no more than the philosophical superstructure of cheap flights between European and American capitals"</i></p><p></p></blockquote><p>March 16th, 2024, Nashville</p><p></p><blockquote><p><i>"King Alfonso X of Castile, (...):<br /> 'If God had consulted me before embarking on the creation of the planets, I would have suggested a simpler system.' "</i></p><div></div></blockquote><div><div><i></i></div></div><blockquote><div><div><i>" ... the success story of Ptolemaio-Aristotelianism shows that world pictures and cosmographies, particularly those appearing as scientifically consolidated doctrines, are first of all auto-suggestive</i></div><div><i>systems of convictions that only receive widespread approval if they prove themselves in the imaginative ecosystems of their societies. </i></div><div><i>From this perspective, the shell belief of the ancient Europeans established itself as one of the most successful cognitive auto-hypnoses in the history of theory and culture. For an entire age, the ontological icons of circle and orb kept empirical astronomy in a state of pious torpor, with the silencing of research ensured most effectively by faith in the results of supposed earlier research. </i></div><div><i>It took a complete revolution in the world picture, and with it a radical reformatting of psycho-cosmic immune relationships and dynamics of faith among Europeans from the sixteenth century on, for the natural sciences and religious concepts of space to break away from the immemorial spherism."</i></div></div></blockquote><p>March 17th, 2024, Oak Ridge, Tennessee </p><div><br /></div><p></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p><br /></p></div><p></p>Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-9156778485824813822023-11-27T08:12:00.004+01:002023-11-27T08:13:53.340+01:00The most beautiful Song since Song of Songs....<h1 style="text-align: left;">Just (After Song of Songs) </h1><h2 style="text-align: left;">The song written by David Lang </h2><h3 style="text-align: left;">and beautifully sung by Trio Mediæval</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hfMnGR1PydE" width="320" youtube-src-id="hfMnGR1PydE"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your mouth</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your love</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your anointing oils</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your name</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your chambers</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your love</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my mother's sons</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my own vineyard</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my soul</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your flock</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your companions</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your kids</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your cheeks</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your neck</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your couch</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my perfume</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my breasts</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our couch</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our house</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our rafters</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your shadow</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your fruit</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your banner over me</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your left hand</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your right hand</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our wall</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my fair one</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my fair one</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my dove</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your face</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your voice</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your voice</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your face</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our vineyards</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your flock</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my bed</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my soul</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my soul</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my soul</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my soul</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my mother's house</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your sword</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your mother</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your wedding</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your heart</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your veil</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your hair</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your teeth</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your lips</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your mouth</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your cheeks</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your veil</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your neck</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your two breasts</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my bride</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my heart</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my sister</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my bride</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my heart</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your necklace</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your love</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my sister</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my bride</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your love</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your oils</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your lips</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my bride</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your tongue</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your garments</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my sister</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my bride</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your shoots</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my garden</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my garden</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my sister</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my bride</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my myrrh</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my spice</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my honeycomb</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my honey</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my wine</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my milk</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my heart</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my sister</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my dove</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my perfect one</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my head</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my locks</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my garment</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my feet</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my hand</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my heart</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my hands</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my fingers</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my soul</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your head</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your locks</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your cheeks</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your lips</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your arms</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your body</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just you legs</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your appearance</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your speech</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my friend</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your garden</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your flock</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your flock</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your hair</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your teeth</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your cheeks</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my dove</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my perfect one</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my mother</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my fancy</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my prince</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your feet</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your rounded thighs</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your navel</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your belly</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your two breasts</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your neck</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your nose</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your head</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your flowing locks</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your breasts</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your breasts</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your breath</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your kisses</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your desire</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my love</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our doors</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my mother's breast</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my mother</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my pomegranates</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your left hand</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your right hand</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your mother</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your heart</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your arm</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our sister</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my breasts</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my vineyard</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my very own</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my self</div><div style="text-align: center;">Just your voice</div><div style="text-align: center;">And my beloved</div></div><div><br /></div>Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-12365464250411856402023-08-27T06:47:00.002+02:002023-08-27T06:50:46.357+02:00Concluding reading of Sloterdijk "Bubbles" - volume I of Spheres<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTpVdZO344DJ48bzHObW6IFRGdpVYhtbPHVtz082NknkJxL9j-BqwkMTcEAc7pUlZSuElEKEteXQ8R8r_GH_Q48v_0YrrnlhmNHZC8iXiIitndlzIww547J5fk5NGStz56twn_kQeRB_L49i3-9vTOtLMXaI4MOPA6SXOf2cpaasI-jWe6_1N/s727/the-infinite-recognition-1963(1).jpg!Large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="727" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTpVdZO344DJ48bzHObW6IFRGdpVYhtbPHVtz082NknkJxL9j-BqwkMTcEAc7pUlZSuElEKEteXQ8R8r_GH_Q48v_0YrrnlhmNHZC8iXiIitndlzIww547J5fk5NGStz56twn_kQeRB_L49i3-9vTOtLMXaI4MOPA6SXOf2cpaasI-jWe6_1N/s320/the-infinite-recognition-1963(1).jpg!Large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In my busy life, it took me almost a full year to read the first volume of Peter Sloterdijk's trilogy "Spheres". The volume, titled "Bubbles", delves into all situations and places (in a metaphorical sense) where we are "In" - with others, with our mothers, lovers, friends, with music, angels, and even with God.<p></p><p>Sloterdijk's contemplation of our "In" draws from so many diverse sources, from St. Augustine to Heidegger, from the mystics who wrote about the internal life of the Holy Trinity to those who practiced psychoanalysis - it's breathtaking.</p><p>Moreover, Sloterdijk writes in a manner that appeals to both the devoutly religious and to atheists alike.</p><p>It's unfortunate that I read it during a period of my life when I was so preoccupied that I couldn’t elaborate more on this great book here.</p>Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-80635473123135294562023-04-21T21:27:00.004+02:002023-04-21T21:32:55.285+02:00Statement of the The Polish Center for Holocaust Research<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLouTUY8mLAFoEYoibqbZuluv-fcz9bvisweA5du31pOb_mwZkVHL57SXVd18BWM8Zv_fqBz6qu14Q29NO6dvGF6sNnnXKt47QrsfWbXlJY6A4h_k93x8jOdUQKdWpDmfCfdobtaHTqmkRkXndzu-iXJFNAfdsSFM_IwPLyVHINqapVBK-tQ/s1080/miniatura_muzeum_polin.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLouTUY8mLAFoEYoibqbZuluv-fcz9bvisweA5du31pOb_mwZkVHL57SXVd18BWM8Zv_fqBz6qu14Q29NO6dvGF6sNnnXKt47QrsfWbXlJY6A4h_k93x8jOdUQKdWpDmfCfdobtaHTqmkRkXndzu-iXJFNAfdsSFM_IwPLyVHINqapVBK-tQ/s320/miniatura_muzeum_polin.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Once again, we observe with great concern a situation in which government representatives and other public officials comment on scientific findings, which are the result of years of research and analysis. This time, it concerns comments on an interview with Professor Barbara Engelking, given on April 19, 2023, to Monika Olejnik in the program "Kropka nad i".<p></p><p>The subject of the interview was the fate of Jewish civilians during the uprising in the ghetto and later, as presented in the exhibition "A Sea of Fire Around Us" at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the concept of which was created by Prof. Engelking. The exhibition shows the tragedy of these fates and the heroism of the silent resistance of Jewish women and men, who recorded their experiences in hiding places and bunkers; their words often being the only trace left of them.</p><p>In preserved diaries, accounts, and memories, one can find the entire spectrum of what Jews had to face trying to survive in hiding in occupied Warsaw: fear and hope, a sense of loneliness and the formation of supportive groups, passivity and agency. There are also mentions of reluctance, lack of help, blackmail, betrayal, death at the hands of the Germans, and help, friendship, and rescue provided by other Jews and Poles.</p><p>It was about all these aspects of Jewish fate during World War II, analyzed for years by Holocaust researchers, that Prof. Engelking spoke in the interview.</p><p>However, in public statements by government representatives, including <b>Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Minister Przemysław Czarnek</b>, Prof. Engelking was attacked for presenting "unauthorized opinions" and "pseudo-historical statements" that are not supported by facts. This is especially concerning the scale of Polish help provided to Jews and the scale of phenomena such as anti-Semitism, blackmail, and denunciation.</p><p>The scientific facts presented by Prof. Engelking were described as "obscuring the truth," "lying," "anti-Polish narrative," and "insulting Poles." Professor Engelking was also accused of having made comments with a "racist character" in her previous statements.</p><p>Following these comments, Prof. Engelking was also attacked by pro-government media, including public media, where she was labeled as a "Pole-eater," and the interview was described as "inciting against Poles."</p><p><b>We firmly condemn political and ideological attempts to question scientific findings.</b> Claiming that saving Jews was a common attitude among Poles is precisely the obscuring of the truth by government representatives; an opinion, not a fact consistent with historical knowledge, resulting from years of interdisciplinary research projects (including those conducted by the Institute of National Remembrance). This also diminishes the heroism of the Righteous who helped Jews, especially those who lost their lives at the hands of the Germans for doing so.</p><p>We also remind you that politicizing history and attempts to falsify it, combined with inspiring a wave of hatred, are precisely the dangers that Marian Turski rightly warned against in his speech delivered during the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.</p><p>The team of the Center for Research on the Extermination of Jews IFiS PAN:</p><p><i>Agnieszka Haska, Marta Janczewska, Jacek Leociak, Dariusz Libionka, Justyna Majewska, Małgorzata Melchior (prof. em.), Karolina Panz, Jakub Petelewicz, Alina Skibińska, Dagmara Swałtek-Niewińska, Andrzej Żbikowski (collaborator)<br /><br />Translation from the post: </i><a href="https://www.onet.pl/informacje/onetwiadomosci/burza-po-slowach-prof-barbary-engelking-w-tvn24-jest-oswiadczenie/2h1gm04,79cfc278">Burza po słowach prof. Barbary Engelking w TVN24. Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów wydało oświadczenie - Wiadomości (onet.pl)</a></p>Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-89759566548348169642022-11-19T09:00:00.003+01:002022-11-27T08:39:21.075+01:00Spheres by Peter Sloterdijk - one of the most remarkable books of modern philosophy<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgzcsYC5etQZwXgY4J1efrioywJTl3NuxP9ZbUGRnJczYY6odo6jucF7_IBbAh9cDiVCRXP3-Yqf3KQLJAP16GzD8I_bIGsLL6fvHUXcxnIOMU8Udf-ZRm0xIRz3BDMfEUgWLh5VYitoSJxkFyneR1UB5PYYOEH20uNzu-YUmCyeYf162HxQ/s883/sloterdijk_bubles.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="654" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgzcsYC5etQZwXgY4J1efrioywJTl3NuxP9ZbUGRnJczYY6odo6jucF7_IBbAh9cDiVCRXP3-Yqf3KQLJAP16GzD8I_bIGsLL6fvHUXcxnIOMU8Udf-ZRm0xIRz3BDMfEUgWLh5VYitoSJxkFyneR1UB5PYYOEH20uNzu-YUmCyeYf162HxQ/s320/sloterdijk_bubles.png" width="237" /></a></div>I'm reading, slowly, as many books in the recent years, the Opus Vitae of the contemporary German philosopher, Peter Sloterdijk, the three volume Spheres. I will try to report my reading here, but even if I fail, I strongly recommend this great book!<div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">From "Primary Reflections":</h3><br /></div><div><i>"It is the basic neurosis of Western
culture to have to dream of a subject that watches, names and
owns everything, without letting anything contain, appoint or
own it, not even if the discreetest God offered himself as an
observer, container and client"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="PL" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">k</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="PL" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="PL" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">From "Heart Operation; Or, On Eucharistic Excess":</h3></div><div>Absolutely amazing, and, I must admit, horrifying reference to: <i>Herzmaere</i>, a novella by the poet Konrad of Wurzburg,</div><div><div><i>(1360):</i></div></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><span style="font-style: italic;">"One of its daring aspects was the parallel between erotic and Christological language games and the superelevation of sexual desire through the metaphysical idea of union. What takes place here between the lovers as the courtly love of the heart from a distance and the consumption of the heart up dose transposes the act of communion into a dimension of hybridized intersubjectivity; the knight's cooked heart forms a precise equivalent to the host over which the transforming words »hoc est corpus meum« are spoken. Instead of the altar, the kitchen becomes a place of transubstantiation. With the gift of his heart the knight, seconded by his poet, creates a heretical variation of the Eucharist."</span></div><div><i><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="PL" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px;">k</span></b></div></div><div><b><span lang="PL" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px;"><br /></span></b></div><div><br /></div><div>At the Baltic Coast, November 27th, 2022</div></i></div><div>Lodz, November 19th, 2022<br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p></div>Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-84691484071178763652021-10-18T21:31:00.006+02:002021-10-18T21:33:54.793+02:00Ryszard Legutko’s dystopian attempt do discredit democracy<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FPqL9qPJQUE/YW3Liv9M52I/AAAAAAABaj8/O4zHo1dOemM5wArf-2nye5ILRiWEhz5swCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="938" height="149" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FPqL9qPJQUE/YW3Liv9M52I/AAAAAAABaj8/O4zHo1dOemM5wArf-2nye5ILRiWEhz5swCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Polish "<a href="https://liberte.pl/" target="_blank">Liberte</a>" journal has published my review of Ryszard Legutko book: "The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies".<br />Instead of copying it here, I'm redirecting you to it: <a href="https://liberte.pl/ryszard-legutkos-dystopian-attempt-to-discredit-democracy/">Ryszard Legutko's dystopian attempt do discredit democracy - Mirek Sopek - Liberté! (liberte.pl)</a> <p></p><p> </p>Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-79675637047274374912021-10-16T18:23:00.005+02:002021-10-16T19:29:59.076+02:00Whether the mental is derived from the bodily or the bodily from the mental ...<p style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7-J2QHmVjjY/YWr9e88rYII/AAAAAAABah4/Gwkp45AJnX8Ok-8CCSctSuuauvfzaVYrQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1449" height="320" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7-J2QHmVjjY/YWr9e88rYII/AAAAAAABah4/Gwkp45AJnX8Ok-8CCSctSuuauvfzaVYrQCLcBGAsYHQ/w227-h320/image.png" width="227" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Painting by Charlie and Eddie Proudfoot</span> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>About 75 years ago, in the dark times of the II World War, Roman Ingarden, one of the greatest philosophers of the XX century wrote: </p><blockquote><p><i>"It thus appears advisable for the time being – until such time as material investigation will make possible a rational insight into the generic essence of the mental (or of consciousness) on the one hand, and of the body on the other – to refrain from judging whether the mental is derived from the bodily or the bodily from the mental, or whether they are both ultimately derived from some third factor."</i></p></blockquote><p>Despite all the progress in neuroscience, in cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence, these words have not lost their actuality and power...</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p></p><blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p>About Roman Ingarden:<br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Ingarden">Roman Ingarden - Wikipedia</a> <br /><a href="http://ingarden.center.uj.edu.pl/en/the-roman-ingarden-philosophical-research-center/">The Roman Ingarden Philosophical Research Center - Philosophical Research Centre (uj.edu.pl)</a><br /><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ingarden/">Roman Ingarden (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)</a><br /><br /><br /><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-23367621657324057312020-09-20T08:35:00.053+02:002021-11-28T07:55:13.014+01:00Modern philosophy and the scholastics<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5103Q2tbLFL._SX320_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="206" /></div>
For many years I was intrigued by the thought of Edith Stein. Of course one reason for the curiosity was her conversion from Judaism to Christianity in the times when Jewish thought flourished (take Martin Buber's thought as only one example), the second was her decision to leave her Jewish family and become Catholic nun in a very strict, contemplative order.
<br />
But it was still the most mysterious to me how she, coming from the school of Edmund Husserl, evolved into a domain of neo-scholastics...<br />
To understand this, I started to read her "Finite and Eternal Being"...<br />
<br />From the outset, I was so deeply intrigued by this book, that I decided not to comment on it, but rather to collect the thoughts and ideas I found interesting. So, this post is a collection of quotes from Edith - quotes I collected while reading it. I found it intellectually more honest than trying to comment on something I still need to understand better than I do now....<br /><br /><br />To begin, let's see her own, deeply honest admission, made in the introduction to the book:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"This (...) seems especially appropriate in the case of the author of this book: Her philosophical home is the school of Edmund Husserl, and her philosophic mother tongue is the language of the phenomenological thinkers. She therefore uses phenomenology as a starting point to find her way into the majestic temple of scholastic thought."</i></blockquote>
<br />
I'm excited to discover how does she go along that path ...<br />
<br />
First discovery is ... of the amazing clarity and objectivity Stein approaches philosophy with a deliberate distancing from faith and religion. The rigor she is applying to that distinction, comes, from St. Thomas Aquinas himself, and from many of thinkers of the "thomistic" tradition, like Jacques Maritain.<br />
<br />
When writing about the goals and functions of philosophy she says:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"It is one of the function of philosophy to elucidate the fundamental principles of all the sciences"</i></blockquote>
However, when she goes into the relation between philosophy and a religious doctrine, she remarks:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>« Whatever derives from the synthesis of theological and philosophic truth bears the imprint of this dual source of knowledge, and faith, as we are told, is a "dark light". Faith helps us to understand something, but only in order to point to something that remains for us incomprehensible. Since the ultimate ground of all existence is unfathomable, everything which is seen in this ultimate perspective moves into that "dark light" of faith, and everything intelligible is placed in a setting with an incomprehensible background. That is what Erich Przywara means when he speaks of a reductio ad mysterium.</i>»</blockquote>
The intro, and its chapter "Is there a Christian Philosophy" is an amazing proof of the author intellectual honesty. Now, to the essence ...<br />
<br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">In "Act and Potency as Modes of Being" Stein writes:</h3><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><i>«</i>My own being, as I know it and as I know myself in it, is null and void [nichtig]; I am not by myself (not a being a se and per se), and by myself I am nothing; at every moment I find myself face to face with nothingness, and from moment to moment I must be endowed and re-endowed with being. And yet this empty existence that I am is being, and at every moment I am in touch with the fullness of being.</i> »</blockquote>
and later adds:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>«Existential anxiety accompanies the unredeemed human being throughout life and in many disguises -- as fear of this or that particular thing or being. In the last analysis, however, this anxiety or dread is the fear of being no more, and it is thus the experience of anxiety which "brings people face to face with nothingness." »</i></blockquote><h4 style="text-align: left;">In "Individual and Universal Nature":</h4><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
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<![endif]--></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i></i></span></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">«As a matter of fact, that which is the ultimate ground of all intelligibility also makes possible all linguistic understanding and all linguistic communication. We therefore now conclude that all names are actually and ultimately expressions of essences.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i>»</i>
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> </span></blockquote><h4 style="text-align: left;">In §10, "Universals":<span> </span></h4><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">«</span>The knowing mind is
an individual actuality; the thing known, on the other hand, can
as such by its being known never become such an individual
actuality. It merely becomes something that is encompassed by the mind,
something pertaining to the mind. The mind encompasses it and
possesses it as transcendent. The thing known is
not "mine" in the same sense as is the knowing. My knowledge is mine
exclusively: It cannot simultaneously be the knowledge of another
human being. But what I know—and this means not only the
object of knowledge but also the known according to the manner in
which it is known (e.g., in a specific conceptual
formulation) can also be known by others. My knowing it does not withdraw it
from any other person's knowledge.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></i></p></blockquote><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">«</span>Every human being possesses his or her
own "conceptual world" which may coincide more or less not
only with the real world but also with the world of ideal concepts and
with the conceptual worlds of other human beings.</i></p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><i>
</i><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i>Because the known
nature quid is the identical element that we find in a
multiplicity of individuations, we are able to attribute to it the meaning of
universality. For the same reason it is possible to pay no heed to the
conditions of its individuation; this paying no heed is
implicit in the meaning of universality and is called </i><i>abstraction.</i></p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i>The known nature
quid is as such neither universal nor individual. It cannot be
duplicated in the realm of essential being - and this it has in
common with the individual. But it is communicable and admits of
individualizations and this distinguishes it from the individual. It cannot be
duplicated in the realm of essential being — and this it has in
common with the individual. But it is communicable and admits of
individualizations — and this distinguishes it from the individual in the full
sense of the term and makes it possible to ascribe universality
to it. </i></p><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><br /></i></p><i>
</i><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i>These last
observations show clearly that our own answer to the problem of
universals goes somewhat beyond the position of moderate realism
without, however, going as far as Platonic realism (in the traditional
interpretation). We do not ascribe to the essential quid any being in the
manner of real things. It would seem that our own point of view is
closest to that of Duns Scotus.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></i></p> </blockquote><h4 style="text-align: left;">In part IV. Essentia-Substance-Form and Matter</h4><p>
</p><i><blockquote><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">«</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span>This form-matter
relationship, as described by Aristotle, became decisive for
the understanding of the created universe and determined the
entire thinking of the Middle Ages.<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></i>
</blockquote></i><p>
</p><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">« </span>Thus for artists
there exist archetypal forms or images (Urbilder] which they must
seize and the being of which is independent and a precondition of
their workmanship. Here we are dealing with pure forms, and they may
make it possible for us to grasp the meaning of a form that is
unrelated to a particular matter.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></i></p></blockquote><p><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"></i></p><blockquote><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">«</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-align: center;">Being active or being operative is that highest degree of the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-align: center;">being of that which is, to which the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">faculties or capabilities of existents are ordained.</span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></i></i></blockquote><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">« </span></span>In the mind of the artist the idea flashes, attracts the artist, leaves the artist no rest, urges the artist on to create. And in a similar manner an "attraction" seems to issue from that which stands above the living being as its end and perfection, an attraction which directs and guides the development of the living being. This attractive force may be felt not only in the mature human being, but from the time of the first awakening of reason. And the image of what the individual is to become may be grasped more or less distinctly and the individual's free acts may-in the striving for perfection and self-education-be informed accordingly. <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></i></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></i></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">«</span></span>However, that which is before and after is grounded in something deeper which determines the entire process of evolution and leads it toward the end. And this something we have called the essential form (Wesensform). In the essential form is alive that purposively directed power to which the actualized essence owes its existence if and whenever it corresponds to the end.<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span><br /></i> </blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">« </span></span>Both worlds (pure and essential forms), rather, in accordance with their origin, point to that same primordial reality that also accounts for and makes intelligible their interrelation. <b>Comprised and incorporated in the unity of the divine logos, the pure forms are primordial prototypes of all things in the divine mind, which places them into existence and which has inscribed in them their end-structure</b> [Zielgestalt]. </i></p><p><i>In this sense we may then speak of the being of things in God, and St. Thomas calls this being in God a truer being than the one which things have in themselves. The causality of the eternal primordial archetypes is simply the creative, sustaining, and ordering efficacious action [Wirksamkeit] of God, and the actuality of these archetypes is the divine actuality or rather super-actuality.<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span><br /></i> </p></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></i></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">«</span></span>...we should then have to regard the divine essence not merely as the mover of the universe as a whole, but as linked in a specific manner with every created thing and being. This point of view makes it necessary that there be a peculiarly strong and close interrelation between the archetypal and essential forms. <b>Plato's and Aristotle's doctrines of form suffer, it seems to me, from the defect of Plato's laying undue stress on the archetypal form and of Aristotle's placing too much emphasis on the essential form.</b> </i></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><i>And the reason for this deficiency in both instances I see in the fact that to both philosophers the idea of creation and its sequel, the divine sustenance and directive governance of the created universe, remained unknown.<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></i></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></i></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">« </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Paradoxically enough, the determinateness of matter lies in its determinability.</span><b style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></i></b></span></i></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;">« </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>And where we said before that the particularity of mat</i></span><i style="font-family: Calibri;">ter was basic [grundlegend] in the structure of the whole with respect </i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">to everything in which this particularity manifests and actively as</i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">serts itself, we must now say that what is ultimately basic is the form </i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic;">which forms matter</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic;"> </span><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></i></b></p><p><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></i></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;">« </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>And finite existents lag behind the highest degree of being </i></span><i style="font-family: Calibri;">which they could potentially attain in still another respect. This sec</i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">ond lagging behind is due to the status naturae lapsae (the state of </i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">fallen nature), i.e., the general corruption of all things in the fallen </i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">state. Thus, even the splendor of “gold has been dimmed." (Lamentations 4:1) There </i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">is henceforth a split or crack (Bruch] even in the determinateness </i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">of the essences of things. They are still a mirror of divine perfec</i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">tion, but the mirror is broken. There is a discrepancy between what </i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">things essentially ought to be and what they actually are. And there </i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">is, moreover, a disproportion between what things could essentially </i><i style="font-family: Calibri;">come to be and the state to which they can actually attain. </i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></i></b></blockquote><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>Every human work was meant to be not only useful (i.e., to serve human ends) but also beautiful (i.e., to be a mirror of the eternal). <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i> </blockquote><p><i></i></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>Linguistic metaphors often express an inner relationship that exists between different genera of existents as well as a relationship between finite existents and the divine archetypal reality. <i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></i></blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WJuqSOyyaX8/YExLWa7lyXI/AAAAAAABT4s/1UAFNEBMkK8alw2g-hiVN-QP1X1bgcQ0ACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="1100" height="164" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WJuqSOyyaX8/YExLWa7lyXI/AAAAAAABT4s/1UAFNEBMkK8alw2g-hiVN-QP1X1bgcQ0ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h164/image.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></div><blockquote><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>We hold that even the lowest material structures are an inseparable unity of matter and </i><i>form (a form that molds matter, or of formed matter, i.e., a matter that is determined in its particularity). These material structures would be nothing unless they were thus determined in their quid [Was]. Their very being would be annihilated. Their being is truly one, because this oneness is conditioned by form and matter. The primordial “efficacious ontological principle” [beurirkende Seinsgrund] which they owe their being is the divine creative act, and the being of this act differs from the being of every created thing.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></div><div></div></blockquote><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></div><blockquote><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>It is my conviction that here (MS: in an awakening of life) we find ourselves face to face with the greatest of all mysteries and miracles of life. The mere fact that things which are alive cannot come from things which are dead, but only from that which is itself alive, and that life defies all to “produce" it artificially or synthetically—this fact alone is enough to arouse our awe. But what makes us see in life the mysterious revelation of the Lord of all life is the much more significant fact that all those "devices" of animate nature which aim at life do not actually produce it. They merely prepare for it and make it possible for it in each individual instance to spring, as it were, from a hidden primordial source. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></div></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>... there is in living beings a manifold of material elements held together, permeated, and molded
into an organic whole by a superior, living form-a whole which is
proportioned in accordance with the structural law of that superior
form. The superiority of the form over the matter manifests itself
in the preservation and evolution of the identical structural whole in
the continuous process of “material change" (Stoffwechsel = metabolism).
<br /><br />The being of the form is life, and life is the forming of
matter in the three stages of: transformation of the structural material
elements, self-formation, and reproduction.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>The specific being of living beings is distinct from both body and mind (spirit) by virtue of the fact that living beings must first acquire possession of their essence or nature. That which is alive [das Lebendige] is distinguished from purely material natures because it has a "center" of its own being, i.e., a soul or what we may call a "be-souling principle" (if we want to reserve the term soul for that personal soul which does not make its appearance until we arrive at the individuals and personally formed human totality)<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> »</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><p></p><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>The soul comes out
of nothingness and yet bears within itself the power for being:
"This is why its nature is in a peculiar manner 'unfathomable' (in the
sense of being a bottomless abyss) and "creative." According to its own
ontological ground, the soul is placed in “nothingness," and
yet, out of this same soul, the entire substance draws its being and its
selfhood."<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> »</span></span></b></i></p><i>
</i><p></p><blockquote><i></i></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><i>
</i><p style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>The particular
nature of the soul also suggests a possibility of harmonizing the
contraries of matter and mind (spirit) with the previously discussed
trichotomy of body, soul, and mind (spirit). The confrontation of
matter in the sense of that which fills space) and mind (spirit)
reveals an ultimate contrast with regard to content between two different
realms of actuality. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p> <br /></blockquote><h4 style="text-align: left;">In part V. Existents As Such (The Transcendentals)</h4><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span></i>And finally, are only material [dinglich] realities independent, autonomous existents or must independent, autonomous existence also be attributed to <i>ideal objects</i>? <i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><blockquote><p> <span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">« </span>ens, res, unum, aliquid, bonum, verum, pulchrum <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">»</span></i></span></p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span></i><i>With this latter observation (ms: of form) we believe we have grasped the real distinction between form and content (or fullness). The two belong together. Wherever we get hold of a content, we seize it together with its form. A "content" can neither be nor be intellectually conceived without some form, even if it is a form of the most general kind. The form is, as it were, the contour of the content and thus pertains to the content in the manner in which the encompassing spatial structure pertains to a material thing. The forms can be intellectually abstracted and conceptually grasped, but they have that peculiar emptiness and poverty which characterizes them forms.</i><p><i>Every existent is fullness within some form. To examine and describe the forms of existents is the task of that discipline which Husserl called formal ontology. </i><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p><p><i> </i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«... </span>there is still another "emptiness," one that is indicative of a separation from a factual (sachlich] foundation. When I speak of "some or any object," these expressions admit of a factual understanding. What is meant finds its fulfillment in the empty form of the aliquid. The expression "non-existent object," on the other hand, admits of no fulfillment. It corresponds to empty thought.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b> </i></p></blockquote><blockquote><i> </i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span></i><i>We have previously pointed out in a different context that every existent has a meaning [Sinn] or - in scholastic terminology that every existent is intelligible, i.e., something which can "enter into" a knowing intellect and can be "embraced" or "comprehended"[umgefassen] by a knowing intellect. It seems to me that this describes the nature of transcendental truth. The terms intelligere, "enter into," and "comprehend" express a mutual being-ordained [Zuordnung) of intellect and existent. </i><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i><div><br /></div></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><i> </i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span></i><i>This is why the artist, who penetrates through the purely external and factual to the primordial archetype (Urbild), can present more of the truth than the historian who remains within the limited circumference of external data. The work of the artist who succeeds in depicting the true Urbild and at the same time remaining within the bounds of tradition will be truer even in the sense of historical truth than the work of a historian who does not penetrate beyond the surface of external facts.</i><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></blockquote><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> In part V, <span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">§</span>13 "Divine Truth"</h4><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>We are here face to face with a matter-of-factness the reasons or causes of which we are unable to penetrate. And such an ultimate, impenetrable fact is for us the differentiation between necessity and contingency which we find even in the realm of essential being. </i></p><p><i>It seems to me that it indeed transcends the possibilities of natural reason to demonstrate that the cause of this differentiation lies in the divine essence. Even the attempt to harmonize the simplicity of the divine being with the manifold of the ideas bears the marks of a reason illumined by faith, a reason which impelled by the words of revealed truth seeks to grasp mysteries which defy and confound all human concepts.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><h4 style="text-align: left;">In part V, <span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">§19, "Beauty as a transcendental determination"</span></h4><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">The beautiful </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">indeed implies a relationship of a peculiar kind. It is distinct from </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">truth (understood as an accord of knowledge and existence), and </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">it is distinct from goodness (understood as an accord of striving and </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">existence), and yet it has something in common with both. </span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Like </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">truth, beauty signifies that something is known [ein Erkanntes] in a </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">large sense of knowing, and this something causes satisfaction when </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">seen (visa placent). Thus, in contradistinction to the known truth, </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">the something is not only known, but pleases (visa placent). And this </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">pleasing means for the spirit a resting in the attainment of the end, </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">as it is similarly experienced in the fulfillment of a striving. In this </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">respect, </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">then, goodness and beauty coincide. </span><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p><div></div></blockquote><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></div><blockquote><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>An existent is perfect when it is wholly what it ought to be, when nothing is wanting to it, and when it has attained to the highest measure of its being. This perfection denotes the congruity of the existent with the divine idea which is its archetype (Urbild], (Wesen-swahrheit, essential truth), and simultaneously with the divine will (We sensgutheit, essential goodness). Whatever is perfect is true, good, and beautiful. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></div></blockquote><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span></i>We meet this splendor in the world of sense in the radiance of physical light, without which all sensuous beauty would remain hidden from us. We meet it in the radiance of color and in the loveliness of physical forms and bodies. <br />But this splendor is by no means confined to the world of sense. There is spiritual beauty. There is the beauty of the human soul, whose "ways and actions are duly measured and ordered in accordance with the intellectual clarity of reason." The closer a created being is to the divine Urbild, the more perfect it is. This is why intellectual and spiritual beauty range above sensuous beauty. And because the human soul by divine grace is drawn near to the divine being in an entirely new sense, the splendor which grace pours out over a human soul surpasses all purely natural brightness and harmony. </i><i><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></i></p></blockquote><p> </p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b>Part VI. "The Meaning of Being"</b></h3><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>When we conceive of an essence [Wesenheit] or of a meaningful structure [Sinngebilde] as fulfillment of the something, the corresponding being is essential being. This latter we understood as the unmoved (non-temporal) unfolding of that which is contained in the unity of the meaning. In the case of simple essences, this unfolding is a simple being-spread-out [Hingebreitetsein] and thus a being manifest [Offenbarsein] to the understanding gaze of the spirit which comes to rest in the understanding. </i><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span>A special difficulty is presented by the concept of “nothingness" or of the nought [das Nichts), which seems to have an intelligible meaning but which is not an essence. It not only has no full meaning, but not even an empty meaning in the sense of an empty form that could be filled—as in the case of the something. In the nought we have an empty meaning that cannot be filled, and it thereby reveals its “essence-less nature" [Wesenlosigkeit]. This is why non-being pertains to the nought rather than being, and everything that can be predicated of it is in the nature of a negation.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></blockquote><p> </p><p></p><blockquote><p><i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span></i>Being, as the unfolding of a quid, denotes not only the effluence and confluence of the contents of this quid, but simultaneously the quid's being manifest (or becoming manifest [Offenbarwerden]) or its being intelligible for some knowing mind. (All being as such is true being). </i></p><p><i>Furthermore, being, as the unfolding of a quid, means that being occupies its apportioned place within the totality of all existents and thereby contributes to the perfection of this totality. (All being as such is good being.) Finally, it means that being is ordered according to a definite structural law and is thereby in accord with an ordering mind whose knowing is correspondingly or proportionately ordered. (All being as such is beautiful and rational [vernünftig] being).</i><i><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></i> <br /></p></blockquote><p></p><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>But despite these prerogatives, the being of the I is deficient and by itself null and void (nichtig). It is empty unless it is filled with content, and it receives this content from those realms—the "external" and the "internal" world—which lie "beyond" its own sphere.</i></p><p><i>Its life comes out of one darkness and moves into another darkness. </i></p><p><i>There are lacunae in it which cannot be filled, and it is sustained only from moment to moment. And thus we see that while the being of the I is separated from divine being by an infinite distance, it nevertheless owing to the fact that it is an I, i.e., a person-bears a closer resemblance to divine being than anything else that lies within the reach of our experience. If we remove from this being of the I everything that is non-being, this will make it possible for us to conceive-albeit only analogically-of divine being. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p><div></div></blockquote><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b>Part VII. "The Image of Trinity in the created world"</b></h3><h4 style="text-align: left;">§2 "Person and spirit [Geist]"</h4><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p></div><blockquote><div><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>On the other hand, where an existent is ruled by and behaves in accordance with an intelligible lawfulness which it yet cannot understand, we speak of a hidden or latent intellect. And we call a creature rational or endowed with an intellect [vernunftbegabt] when it can understand the lawfulness of its own being and can act accordingly. This requires ratio [Verstand), i.e., the gift of understanding, and liberum arbitrium [Freiheit], i.e., the gift of molding one's actions out of one's own self.</i></p></div><div><div><i>If then to being-person there pertains the gift of rationality or intelligence, the person as such must possess reason and freedom. And we thus arrive at the distinction between ego and person and are justified in saying that not every ego need be a personal ego. On the other hand, every person must be an ego. It must be inwardly aware of its own being, since this is implied in the gift of intelligence.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span></i><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></div></div></blockquote><h4>§2 "The Human "Being-Person"</h4><div><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></div></div><blockquote><div><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span>The human soul as spirit rises in its spiritual life beyond itself. But the human spirit is conditioned both from above and from below. It is immersed in a material structure which it be-souls and molds into a bodily form. The human person carries and encloses "its" body and "its" soul, but it is at the same time carried and enclosed by both. The spiritual life [geistiges Leben) of the human person rises from a dark ground. It rises like a flame that illumines, but it is a flame that is nourished by non-luminous matter. And it emits light without being light through and through. The human spirit is visible to itself without, however, being thoroughly transparent. It is capable of illuminating other things without being able to penetrate completely into their being. We have already learned a few things about the darkness of the human spirit...<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></div></div><div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>Whatever is bodily [leiblich] or of the body is never merely so. What distinguishes the body [Leib] from a mere physical body (corpus) is the fact that the body is be-souled. Where there is a body, there is also a soul. And conversely, where there is a soul, there is also a body. A physical body without a soul is nothing but a corpus [Körper) and no longer a living body [Leib]. A spiritual nature [Geist-wesen] without a corporeal body is a pure spirit, not a soul. Anyone who refuses to attribute a soul to plants should not speak of a plant body either. Rather, such a person will have to use a different name to distinguish these animate material structures from those which are inanimate or lifeless.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></div></div><div></div></blockquote><div>And this passage is deeply personal (I think I know to what it relates, but I prefer not to say it explicitly):</div><div><blockquote><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>For example, it may happen that I believe I have "overcome” some painful experience, and I have long since forgotten it. But suddenly some new experience brings it back to my memory, and the impression which this earlier experience now makes upon me as well as the thoughts which it now evokes make me realize that it has been working within me all the time and that, moreover, without it I would not be what I am today.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></div></blockquote><h4>§2 "The image of the Trinity in Non-Personal Animate Beings"</h4><div><div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></div></div><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>In plants, formation is no more than a mere forming of matter [Stofgestaltung). Plants have not yet attained to the state of "being their own selves" and thus of forming themselves from within. The animal soul has reached that stage. It continues, like the lower forms, in the spatial forming of matter, but beyond this its life is an internal movement and the forming ofa soul structure [seelische Gestalt]. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p><p> <i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>With the awakening of an inner life, an entirely new kind of image relationship to the Deity appears: a relationship which is an analogical counterpart of the duality of an inner personal life and a self-transcending forming of an external world. And this inner life bears within itself the seal of the Trinity.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><blockquote><div></div></blockquote></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>A conscious life of the soul in the depth of its interiority is, of course, possible only after the awakening of reason. At the time of this awakening the soul already bears the stamp of what has previously happened in it and to it. The soul is thus not capable of comprehending itself from the very beginning of its existence and of understanding the precise condition in which it was at the beginning. Its natural life is moreover directed from the outset toward dealing with the world and toward its active insertion in the world. This is why the natural direction of the soul life is a going-out-of-itself rather than a turning-into-itself and an abiding "in and with itself." <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>Mystical infused graces impart to the soul an experience of what faith teaches on the indwelling of God in the soul. Those who seek God guided by faith are by their own free effort setting out on the same road and are headed for the same goal to which the mystic is drawn by the grace of infused contemplation. They withdraw from the senses, from the "images" of memory, and even from the natural activities of intellect and will, into the empty loneliness of their inner life to abide there in the darkness of faith-in a simple, loving lifting up of the eyes to the hidden God, who is present under a veil. Here they will rest in deep peace because they have reached the place of their tranquility—until it may please the Lord to transform faith into vision. This, in very sketchy outline, is the "Ascent of Mount Carmel" as taught by our holy father St. John of the Cross. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>All the forms of corporeal structures are in a stage of "transition" from personal spirit to space-filling matter. They are ways or means by which the spirit forms itself into space. These forms pertain to the spirit as its products and in their ascending scale from the lower to the higher ones—they bear within themselves more and more of the nature of the spirit. Where there is found an internal individual life—such as in the animal soul-a preliminary stage of spiritual life has been attained. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>This consciousness is not an individual act, not an experiential unit. Nor is the self-conscious ego an object. This means that at this stage there are as yet no opposites of knowledge and an object known, as there are in external and internal apperception.</i></p><p><i>We mentioned before that the primordial, undivided ego-life already implies a cognitive transcending of the sphere of the pure ego. I experience my vital impulses and activities as rising from a more or less profound depth. The dark ground from which all human spiritual life arises—the soul-attains in the ego-life to the bright daylight of consciousness (without, however, becoming transparent). <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><p><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></b></i></p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span><i> And the human ego is so consti</i><i>tuted that its life rises out of the dark depth of the soul. </i><i>The illuminable darkness of the soul makes it understandable </i><i>why self-knowledge (in the sense of knowing one's own soul) must </i><i>be regarded as a gradually increasing possession. If such a gradual </i><i>acquisition is to be a real task, it must be presupposed that the even</i><i>tual possession is achieved freely. The primordial kind of conscious</i><i>ness, which is integrally associated with all ego-life, is simply given </i><i>without being initiated by an act of will. But this primordial con</i><i>sciousness may pass over into cognitive activity which as such is free. </i><i>And because it is free, the passing over into it must also have been </i><i>freely attainable from the outset.</i><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></i></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>But it is nevertheless true that only those who live collectedly in the depth of their personalities are able to see even the "little things" in their larger context, and—measured by ultimate criteria—these persons are the only ones capable of evaluating these little things correctly and of ordering and regulating their attitudes and actions correspondingly. Their souls are on the way to the ultimate formation and perfection of their being. On the other hand, in those who only occasionally enter into the depth of the soul and who habitually abide on the surface the depth remains inarticulate and cannot mold the outer layers with its forming power. <br />Moreover, it is probably that some human beings never attain to this ultimate depth. Not only do they never attain to the perfection of their being and to the thorough formation of their souls in the sense of a determinateness of the essence (Wesensbestimmtheit], but they do not even gain that “initial" or "preliminary" possession of themselves which is a presupposition for any self-possession in the full sense.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><p> </p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span>When human beings actually withdraw from all these surface activities into the interiority of their souls, they find most assuredly not nothing, but there is nonetheless an unaccustomed emptiness and quiet. Listening to “one's own heartbeat," i.e., to the inward being of the soul, cannot satisfy the vital actual impulses and urges of the ego.</i></p><p><i>The ego will therefore not tarry long in this region unless it is held fast by something else, unless the interiority of the soul is filled with and moved by something other than the external world.</i></p><p><i>And this is precisely what the masters of the inner life of every age: They were drawn into the innermost center of their being by some force stronger than the entire external world, and they thus experienced the breaking through of a new, mighty, superior life-a life supernatural and divine.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b> </i></p></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>Mystical infused graces impart to the soul an experience of what faith teaches on the indwelling of God in the soul. Those who seek God guided by faith are by their own free effort setting out on the same road and are headed for the same goal to which the mystic is drawn by the grace of infused contemplation. They withdraw from the senses, from the "images" of memory, and even from the natural activities of intellect and will, into the empty loneliness of their inner life to abide there in the darkness of faith-in a simple, loving lifting up of the eyes to the hidden God, who is present under a veil. Here they will rest in deep peace because they have reached the place of their tranquility - until it may please the Lord to transform faith into vision. This, in very sketchy outline, is the Ascent of Mount Carmel as taught by our holy father St. John of the Cross.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span>Here love, knowledge, and will do not coincide, despite the fact that love contains something of the nature of knowledge and something of the nature of the will. For love cannot be completely “blind," and love is free. As was previously stated (in following Duns Scotus), there is nothing that is freer than love, for love commands not only some individual personal urge or impulse, but the personal self in its totality.</i><p><i>Love as such assumes different modes and forms in the realm of the finite. As the love with which the lower loves the higher it is more in the nature of desire and primarily disposed to receiving.</i></p><p><i>As the love with which the higher loves the lower, it is more in the nature of a free giving out of personal superabundance. But to be love in the true sense, it must always be a self-giving (Hingabe). Therefore, a desire which looks only for personal gain without a willingness to self-giving does not merit the name of love.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;">VIII. The Meaning and Foundation of Individual Being</h3><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>On the other hand, whenever the species is divisible and communicable the indivisibility and incommunicability must have their cause in something else. And since that which determines the species is the form, the essential nature of individual being—the inner principle whereby individual things exist (principium individuationis formale) - must be sought on the side of matter. Only in the corporeal world, therefore, can there exist individual things of the same species.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span>The human soul, on the other hand, possesses this kind of independence, “because it carries (substat) the spiritual accidents as well as itself when it is separated from the body, i.e., the soul is in and by itself (subsistit)." And because of the soul's separability from the body, the second kind of independence or self-dependence—the one mentioned under (b) above-may also be attributed to it. The soul is nevertheless only imperfectly self-dependent” because “notwithstanding the fact that it has its being exclusively for itself, it is by its very nature ordained to sharing its being with some other." The soul is “complete as a substance" but "incomplete as a species," because by its nature it is a form that can be communicated to a proportionate matter and when thus communicated, it shares its being with matter..<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span>The whole “passes away" so that “out of it" may arise the part-structures. And every new structure that thus comes to be has its form, a form which contains in itself the particularity of the species. It is the meaning of the being of material substances to serve the building up of spatial structures in which the spirit creates for itself a means of expression. The thoroughly formed structures are thus the language of the spirit, and the end and aim of the forming are "expressive, meaningful structures." External influences may either work in the direction of this end or they may act as impediments.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">«</span>We thus attribute to the form the individual being of the thing. The question is whether individual being is something that accrues to the form or something which pertains to the form internally as a constitutive structural part. By saying that the essential form is incommunicable, we have already established this form as an individual "in itself." But the mere being-individual of one thing—as far as the content is concerned-differs not at all from the being individual of another thing. The being individual pertains to the empty form of the thing. If two individual things are to be distinguished as this or that, they must have something distinctive above and beyond their being individual. In the case of material things that are alike, this element of distinction is their share in matter (Stoffanteill) by which they differ spatially from each other. We shall have to ponder the question whether in the case of individual things of a different genus this share in matter is replaced by something else.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></blockquote><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>Pure geometrical structures, therefore, do not have the human intellect as a personal carrier as is the case with thinking and actual thought content (in the sense of a product of thinking). Is their personal carrier then perhaps the Spirit (Geist] of God? This is true in the sense in which it is said that all being proceeds from God and is sustained and maintained by God, and in the sense in which in particular every meaning has its home and abode in the Logos. </i></blockquote><blockquote><i>But just as things in their actuality are created and sustained by God and are yet by the act of creation placed outside the divine being and into and upon their own being, so the meaningful structures [Sinngebilde], the archetypes of actual things, are in a way placed outside of the Divine Spirit - yet nonetheless encompassed or enclosed by the Divine Spirit-as self-contained units and as a "creation anteceding creation." The human intellect discovers these meaningful structures and has to adapt its thinking to their norm. The world of things as fashioned in their image and according to their measure. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>But we have seen, moreover, that the I is not to be conceived as a mere pure ego [ein blosses reines Ich]; that the pure ego is, as it were, only the portal through which the life of the human person passes on its way from the depth of the soul to the lucidity of consciousness. And the innermost center of the soul, its most authentic and most spiritual part, is not colorless and shapeless, but has a particular form of its own. The soul feels it when it is “in its own self," when it is “self-collected." This innermost center of the soul cannot be grasped in such a manner that it could be given a universal name, nor can it be compared with anything else. It cannot be divided into properties, character traits and the like, because it is located greater depth than any of these. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>If we then feel our own essence or nature as well as the essences or natures of others to be thus constituted, and if we feel this "thus" [So] to be something "unique," then this feeling, as a special mode of primordial experience, bears within itself its own justification.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>I believe I am justified in assuming, on the basis of innermost self-consciousness and our understanding of the general form of the being-person deriving therefrom, the uniqueness of the innermost center of each human soul and therewith the entire human person, insofar as the person receives its form from this deepest interiority. <b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span></i><i>To become acutely aware of the integral unity of those more limited units of which we are members and to become conscious of our membership in them, it is of special importance that we experience their difference from other similar communities which yet strike us as foreign. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><b><i>On the other hand, to gain an acute awareness of humanity or humankind as of the totality which encompasses and sustains us, it is of signal importance for us to realize experientially that common bond which links us, notwithstanding all the differences—with peoples and individuals of every age and clime, and to be conscious of the fact that by our contacts with foreign members of the human race our own being is enriched and perfected.</i><i> <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></span></i></b></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">« </span>If it is true that the entire creation was prefigured and predesigned in the Logos, this is true in a very special sense of the human race. For it is, after all, the meaning of being human to embrace and unite heaven and earth, God and creation. The human body is composed of the material elements of the earth. It is unified and structurally formed by the soul which—as a spiritual-personal substance—is nearer to God than all nonpersonal structures and capable of being united with him. No closer and stronger union of separated natures is possible than that union in one Person as it was consummated by the incarnation of the Word.<b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">»</span></span></b></i></p></blockquote><p><i> </i></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p></p><p></p><i><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></b></i><p></p><div><p> Mirek @Słupsk & @Lodz (started on September 20th, 2020, finished on November, 28th, 2021) </p></div><p></p><p></p>Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-34134902873394250572020-07-09T08:29:00.005+02:002020-07-09T12:35:22.540+02:00Trzy dni przed wyborami | Three days before the elections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nb-TnsvWJ2M/Xwa58W8ZO1I/AAAAAAABNmQ/fVRlj9nx__As_QiWNuey_UPUMJmX0DXFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/pillars-of-democracy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="529" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nb-TnsvWJ2M/Xwa58W8ZO1I/AAAAAAABNmQ/fVRlj9nx__As_QiWNuey_UPUMJmX0DXFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/pillars-of-democracy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
==PL== <br />
Dziś jest 9 lipca 2020. Za trzy dni mamy drugą turę wyborów prezydenckich w Polsce. Jaka jest ich waga? Co jest w tym wyborze najważniejsze?<br />
<br />
Z wielu, zapewne taktycznych powodów, to co najważniejsze nie jest zbyt mocno w tej kampanii uwypuklane. Być może tak miało być, być może najważniejsze sprawy nie interesują większości wyborców...<br />
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Nie chcę o tym pisać, nie chcę pisać o kompletnie wydumanych i zastępczych "ważnych" tematach w przekazie Andrzeja Dudy. Nie chcę udowadniać, że to, o czym mówi Rafał Trzaskowski jest ważne.<br />
<br />
To, co w tej kampanii nie jest mocno dyskutowane to sama esencja demokracji w Polsce. Andrzej Duda przyłożył rękę do poważnego naruszenia jej podstaw - zasady trójpodziału władzy. Zaakceptował poddanie Trybunału Konstytucyjnego funkcjonariuszom PiS. Przyczynił się do zdemolowania Krajowej Rady Sądownictwa, do niewłaściwego wyboru prezesa Sądu Najwyższego w Polsce. Nie wspomnę już w wielu innych aktach tej władzy, jakich celem jest jedno: zakończenie w Polsce czasu Państwa Otwartego i Transparentnego. Zaakceptował niebotyczną pomoc dla Telewizji Publicznej, która od dawna jest skrajną tubą propagandową partii PiS, cyniczną do tego stopnia, że łagodne uwagi ze strony Rady Etyki Mediów kwituje jawnym kłamstwem, tak co do intencji Rady jak i swojej nieuczciwej działalności. Jest 100% pewności, że wybrany po raz drugi będzie kontynuował te działania. Nie ma co do tego żadnych wątpliwości.<br />
<br />
Wiemy z historii zbyt dobrze, do czego to może doprowadzić. Z jednej strony do gigantycznych afer, jakich nigdy nie da się odsłonić (jak np. to co się stało z KNF albo z finansowaniem zakupów przez ministerstwo finansów czy też z niewyjaśnioną do dziś sprawą Skoków, "dwu wież" i wielu innych).<br />
<br />
Ale i to nie jest nawet najgorsze w skali całego Państwa. Zdemolowane państwo, które nie szanuje zasady absolutnej niezależności filarów władz - kończy tam gdzie skończyły kiedyś w XX wieku Niemcy, Włochy czy Austria, albo, w najlepszym wypadku staje się atrapą demokracji jak Rosja za Putina, Węgry za Orbana, Turcja za Erdogana - aby już na tych tylko przykładach skończyć i nie iść za daleko.<br />
<br />
Dla tych, którzy nigdy by nie wybierali Platformy Obywatelskiej w normalnych wyborach powiem tak - rozumiem Was i szanuję, ale pomimo to proszę - zastanówcie się nad tym, co jest "powyżej" polityki. I z tego powodu, nawet jeśli macie opór przed wyborem typu "mniejsze zło" - warto nawet z takiego motywu wybrać przeciwnika Andrzeja Dudy. <br />
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Stawka w tych wyborach jest najwyższa od wyborów z 1989 roku...<br />
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==EN==<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Today is July 9th, 2020. In three days we have the second
round of presidential elections in Poland. What is their significance? What is
the most important matter in this selection?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For many, probably tactical reasons, what is most important
is not highlighted too much in the campaigns of the contenders. Perhaps it was
supposed to be like that, maybe the most important issues are not of interest
to most voters ...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I do not want to write about it, I do not want to write
about completely invented and substitute "important" topics in the
message of Andrzej Duda. I do not want to prove that what Rafał Trzaskowski is
talking about is important.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is not discussed in this campaign is the very essence
of democracy in Poland. Andrzej Duda put his hand to a serious breach of its
foundations – to the principle of the separation of powers. He accepted the
submission of the Constitutional Tribunal to PiS officers. He contributed to
the demolition of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), and to the faulty
choice of the president of the Supreme Court in Poland. I will not mention in
many other acts of the presidential power whose purpose was simple: to end the
time of Open and Transparent State of Poland. He accepted the sky-high help for
Public Television, which has long been nothing more but an extreme propaganda tube
of the PiS party, so cynical that even mild remarks on the part of the Media
Ethics Council were met with blatant lies, both about the Ethics Council's
intentions and public TV station dishonest activities. There is 100% certainty that in
his second term he would continue these activities. There is no doubt about it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We know from history too well where this can lead to. On the
one hand, to gigantic scandals that can never be revealed (such as what
happened to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority or the recent financing
of medical purchases by the Ministry of Health or the unexplained case of “Skoki”
Shadow Banks, "Two Towers" scandal in Warsaw and many others). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this is not even the worst on the whole country scale. A
demolished state that does not respect the principle of absolute independence
of the pillars of government, ends where it once ended in the 20th century
Germany, Italy or Austria, or, at best, becomes a dummy democracy like Russia under
Putin, Hungary under Orban, or Turkey under Erdogan - to end here with such
examples and not to go too far...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For those who would never choose the Civic Platform in
normal elections I will say – yes, I understand your motives and respect you,
but please - think about what is "above" the politics. And for this
reason, even if you resist choosing the "lesser evil" – in this very
elections choosing Andrzej Duda's opponent is a noble act despite the unwanted
motive. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The stakes in these elections are the highest since the 1989
when we broke with communism...<br />
<br />
(<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The picture from: https://telanganatoday.com/pillars-of-democracy-are-fraying</span>) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-52871537924040319402020-07-08T13:37:00.002+02:002020-07-08T13:48:52.733+02:00Republican voters against Trump<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGYcMFYZ1nA/XwWydPunM4I/AAAAAAABNlo/j7We1Y4GrBIpxCL4XZ58ZoK0TkEMHlhSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/trump_duda.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="566" height="110" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGYcMFYZ1nA/XwWydPunM4I/AAAAAAABNlo/j7We1Y4GrBIpxCL4XZ58ZoK0TkEMHlhSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/trump_duda.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
Polish right-wing president and his wife are surely not happy to be shown in a negative context in the Republicans Voters against Trump spot...<br />
Particularly before the elections in Poland....<br />
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<script async="" src="https://video.onnetwork.tv/embed.php?sid=MTI5LDFQQnIsMA==&cId=onn-cid-409707" type="text/javascript"></script>
</div>
From:
<br />
<div>
<a href="https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114881,26108931,nowy-spot-uderza-w-trumpa-wypowiedzia-reagana-pojawia-sie-tez.html#s=BoxOpImg1">wiadomosci.gazeta.pl</a></div>
<br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-82646212322067678222020-05-23T14:11:00.001+02:002020-05-23T14:25:44.112+02:00The court is not a premise for rent by politicians<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v3eJNWKTwX4/XskUvGo4oLI/AAAAAAABMQY/_O6EHPoIpusMSeBOe_P6piK4LUrG3G4sQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/WWrobel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="600" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v3eJNWKTwX4/XskUvGo4oLI/AAAAAAABMQY/_O6EHPoIpusMSeBOe_P6piK4LUrG3G4sQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/WWrobel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
This is Google Translated text of the Supreme Court Judge and the Professor of Jagiellonian University Włodzimierz Wróbel.<br />
The original text is <a href="https://oko.press/slowa-sedziego-wrobla-jak-wyrzut-sumienia-dla-wladzy/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<b>The court is not a premise to rent by politicians. Judge Wróbel's words vibrate like a remorse of those in power... </b><br />
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My name is Włodzimierz Wróbel, I am a judge in the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court and at the same time I teach criminal law at the Jagiellonian University. We already know that we operate outside the mode, it also turned out today that this mode will end in nothing, which is why the chairman declared that he would not exercise the constitutional competence of the body in which we were and would not vote on the resolution on the performance (as the chairman said), the President of the Republic of Poland, candidates for the first president of the Supreme Court.<br />
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If this was a normal procedure in which such candidates were to be selected, then I would probably shudderly tell you about my vision of the Supreme Court, what should be changed, what should be improved, how should it work and probably would not be here in the room or cameras, nor would anyone be interested in it.<br />
<br />
I will make this statement a little different. We think that here are the walls in this room, but this room has no walls. Thanks to the decision that we have media access, we have a transparent process, citizens are watching us. I know that my students are also watching me. During the pandemic, instead of normal lectures, we did talk about law and I know that now my seminarians - Andrzej, Kuba, Monika, Mikołaj - listen to this on Facebook. I invite you now to talk about what is happening here.<br />
<br />
A tiny constitutional body, one tiny provision<br />
<br />
We are in the hall where the general assembly of SN judges is taking place. It's a tiny constitutional body. One small constitution provision. He says that this assembly is to present the president with candidates for the post of head of the main court in this country. Of course, there are many such judgments, we can tell each other that everyone has their own powers, but we know the meaning of the Supreme Court. This is a key position. It can change any judgment of a practically different court.<br />
<br />
The head of this court also has a huge position, regardless of how he can organize the work of the Supreme Court, let us remember that he is the head of the State Tribunal, the court that judges the authorities.<br />
<br />
A tiny constitutional body, one tiny provision that says that this assembly is to present candidates. The creators of the constitution knew why this provision sounds this way.<br />
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Because they knew that every power, no matter what color it is, has a huge snatch to court, because the courts are the only independent, impartial institution that has this power to control. It is to defend the citizen against abuse of this power.<br />
<br />
And it is known that there has always been and will be tension between political power and the courts, no matter who rules.<br />
<br />
Those who wrote this constitution invented such a mechanism of mutual control, check and balance - say the English. Namely, judges cannot call their own bosses, they must present five candidates, and Mr. President cannot, according to the constitution, simply send to the Supreme Court whom he wants, a politician or a lawyer and make him the head of this institution. You have to get along. You have to communicate.<br />
<br />
What is the agreement about? And the fact that the assembly is to present, today the law says, five candidates and from them the president is to choose one and appoint as the first president of the Supreme Court. A simple provision, the act repeats.<br />
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Why is this so important? Therefore, that the Supreme Court would not become another political prey, especially when there is increasing social and political tension, such a huge temptation exists to win more independent institutions, to free them, to make them dysfunctional.<br />
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Two sentences that shook the judge<br />
So what is happening now, what are we dealing with now? There are two sentences that I am asking you - and I am talking to you, my seminarians, I am talking to you here, I am talking to everyone who listens to me - I was shocked by the two sentences I heard recently.<br />
<br />
The first sentence of a prominent politician of the currently ruling party, but it could probably be that of any other politician. He said that in a moment the last bastion will fall, he thought about this event in which we participate, about the general assembly that is to choose the candidates for the first president. Of course, the whole Supreme Court was implicitly implied - this is where the last bastion will fall. But the sentence, which was even more shocking to me, is such a conversation, Mikołaj, remember, you once asked if it is worth being a judge in this country, is there sense? Do you have students, would you like to hear such a sentence from a law student, a young man?<br />
<br />
Ladies and gentlemen, what is this gathering for, why are we sitting here, why are we arguing and arguing? That is why we want this bastion to remain as a bastion of justice, and not just become - I don't know - a place to rent by politicians, a caravan where everyone can sit and spend some time. Or in which you can give away elite jobs. That's what this constitutional fuse is for.<br />
<br />
The second part of the lecture, the second part of our conversation. A recipe for how such institutions are taken over. This is a very important moment when it is worth talking to lawyers about the legal system, because these independent institutions, such as the court, what is supposed to protect citizens,<br />
<br />
that the court was not yours or ours, I go back to that phrase non-stop, only to court was an independent state, no matter what political power in this country is governed.<br />
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There will always be tension and there are always ideas on how to appropriate independent institutions. Recipe? You know him very well. What is done first? First, a film is made, judges are turned into beasts, castes, communists, thieves, judges do not have the habit of speaking, they speak with judgments. This situation in which this media attack, a political attack, surprised many. They couldn't say much. Was the justice system functioning well? Sure not. Should that justice just be plowed and say that it doesn't make sense?<br />
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Ladies and gentlemen, nothing gives such great satisfaction as the opportunity to unleash authority in the mud. This is a great mechanism. This is the first element.<br />
<br />
How is the independent state institution taken over? Procedures are invented, on which politicians mainly influence, political institutions such as the National Court Register are created, which are chosen by politicians themselves, a law is created so that the final decision is always made by a politician and lawyers are often sought, who are often with good will and good will with intention, and often without good will and good intention, they will enter this political plan.<br />
<br />
Who will such a president be?<br />
What happens next? We can still see it in this room. We are already beyond any procedure. There is a general assembly, there is a collegiate body, whether someone is being nominated politically who will be the head of this body, after all this is a presidential nomination, you can choose any person. And suddenly it turns out that this constitutional body is not the General Assembly, but the chairman of the proceedings, who decides everything, prejudges everything, says what the law looks like, issues ordinances on how we should discuss whether we will throw into the box or we can verbally ask anyone, we are out of mode.<br />
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Finally, it turns out that this procedure is also to end with nothing, it is to be torpedoed, in fact it does not come to what this procedure is to end.<br />
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So what happens next? Ladies and gentlemen, this question is the most difficult to answer. I could not explain to you, what I am saying to my seminarians. After all, it is known that nobody will trust such a court, which will be taken over by politicians. He will not be effective, he will not be able to settle disputes, because he will be our court, but not a joint court.<br />
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Who will be the president elected in such a procedure?<br />
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I do not know, we are still in a phase that has not ended, but from the chairman's statement to this wall, we are heading to this catastrophe, i.e. such an illegal procedure of presenting candidates to the president. Will the president call? I hope not, but maybe he will. And how will it end? Will I be the president of the Supreme Court whom no one will recognize or only a part will recognize? Will I the president of the Supreme Court, who will change any political change, this one, no one, today, tomorrow, in a month, in two years, in three years, in three years, and then another political power will sweep him out again.<br />
<br />
We want the first president of the Supreme Court who, when he wonders where he can go abroad, will see only one neighboring country who will be able to accept him?<br />
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I don't know, I can't answer the question, what is all this for? Maybe you will be more implied here I am talking to my students.<br />
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And the third topic, what are the meetings for, what is really going on here and who is here? Lawyers are sitting in the room. Judges with many years of experience are sitting in the hall. There are academic lecturers and judges in the room who also have such academic experience. There are now citizens outside this room who the police have IDs for. We will leave this room and you judges will have to sit at the judge's table and look into the eyes of citizens who will wonder regardless of your intentions and regardless of your belief in independence, they will wonder whose court you are. And academic lecturers will have a much more difficult role, Professor, because you will have to stand in front of students and tell what happened here.<br />
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Mikołaj, don't give up, don't give up being a judge. Don't give up being a lawyer, because it's a profession where you have to fight for others. How? Fight for community, fight for the state.<br />
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<br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-53919189124670419462020-02-02T07:59:00.001+01:002020-06-14T07:51:40.269+02:00The world worlds: Keiji Nishitani deep thought ...<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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The world worlds...<br />
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Confronted with the thought of Keiji Nishitani, I could not write anything from myself. So I decided to put here some remarkable quotes from his book "Religion and Nothingness", which contrary to the title is not about religion as we used to understand it, rather it is about our universe and being... <br />
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« Since olden times, the cognitive power of reason has been called a "natural light." But the real "natural light" is not the light of reason. It is rather, if I may so designate it, the light of each and every thing. What we call the knowing of non-knowing is, as it were, the gathering together and concentration on a single point of the light of all things. Or better still, it is a reverting to the point where things themselves are all gathered into one. All of this goes contrary to our ordinary way of thinking, and, as such, must sound strange. . » </blockquote>
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« To say that a thing is not itself means that, while continuing to be itself, it is in the home-ground of everything else. Figuratively speaking, its roots reach across into the ground of all other things and helps to hold them up and keep them standing. »</blockquote>
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« To imply that when a thing is on its own home-ground, it must at the same time be on the home-ground of all other things sounds absurd; but in fact it constitutes the "essence" of the existence of things.The being of things in themselves is essentially circuminsessional. This is what we mean by speaking of beings as "being that is in unison with emptiness," and "being on the field of emptiness." For this circuminsessional system is only possible on the field of emptiness of or sunyata. As I have already noted, if the field of sunyata be excluded, for a thing to be on its own home-ground and to be "itself" would be for it not to be in the home-ground of all other things; and, conversely, for it to be on the home-ground of other things would be for it not to be itself. In that case, there would in truth be no way for us to explain the fact that all things "are" in the "world." Only on the field of sunyata, where being is seen as being-sive-nothingness, nothingness-sive-being, is it possible for each to be itself with every other, and so, too, for each not to be itself with every other. »</blockquote>
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« Now the circuminsessional system itself, whereby each thing in its being enters into the home-ground of every other thing, is not itself and yet precisely as such (namely, as located on the field of sunyata) never ceases to be itself, is nothing other than the force that links all things together into one. It is the very force that makes the world and lets it be a world. The field of sunyata is a field oj force. The force of the world makes itself manifest in the force of each and every thing in the world. »</blockquote>
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« Even the very tiniest thing, to the extent that it "is," displays in its act of being the whole web of circuminsessional interpenetration that links all things together. In its being, we might say, the world "worlds." » </blockquote>
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« For us, this field of emptiness is something we are aware of as an absolute near side. It opens up more to the near side than we, in our ordinary consciousness, take our own self to be. It opens up, so to speak, still closer to us than what we ordinarily think of as ourselves . In other words, by turning from what we ordinarily call "self" to the field of sunyata, we become truly ourselves.»</blockquote>
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<b>«All consciousness as such is empty at its very roots: it can only become manifest on the field of emptiness. Consciousness is originally emptiness.»</b></blockquote>
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« The self is not a small, self-centered circle. Together with emptiness it is free of all outer limits . It is, so to speak, something with no circumference whatsoever. This is elemental self-awareness. As a being in unison with emptiness, then, the self is one absolute center, and, to that extent, all things are in the home-ground of the self.»</blockquote>
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« We do not simply live in time: we live time. From one moment in time to the next we are making time to be time, we are bringing time to the "fullness of time." That is the sense of what we referred to earlier as "being bottomlessly in time." »</blockquote>
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«The identity of "being" and "knowing" is more primal than traditional metaphysics has taken it to be. »</blockquote>
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<b>«To say that each thing is an absolute center means that wherever a thing is, the world worlds</b>. And this, in turn, means that each thing, by being in its own home-ground is in the home-ground of all beings; and, conversely, that in being on the home-ground of all , each is in its own home-ground. » </blockquote>
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<b>« </b>Our self in itself is most elementally "middle." It resists all explanation because it is a being in unison with emptiness; because it is a being united with emptiness in a self-awareness according to which emptiness is self; and because, by virtue of that self-awareness, which is nearer to the elemental than anything else, it precedes the world and all things.»</blockquote>
Let me repeat it in an another way: <b>OUR SELF (...) RESISTS ALL EXPLANATION BECAUSE IT IS A BEING IN UNISON WITH EMPTINESS.</b> <br />
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<b>« </b>The finitude of human existence is essentially an infinite finitude. »</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>In brief, the statement that the finite is finite, while quite valid in terms of conceptual thinking, is in error from an existential standpoint. It misses the essence of finitude, and because it is prehended from a standpoint that does not face up to existential finitude existentially, it fails truly to reveal finitude. »</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>interminable finitude »</blockquote>
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«When we persist in our pursuit of what is truly true, among the things that are true, the truly true appears in the mode of paradox or absurdity, under conditions ordinarily considered as altogether contradictory to truth. Where ratio is pushed to its true extreme, the "irrational" shows up. Where meaning is pushed to its extreme, "meaninglessness" shows up. And yet what thus appears as paradox, irrationality, or meaninglessness, is truly absolute reality . It is the living vitality of "life" itself. To say here that life as such is meaningless is to say that life is truly living itself »</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>It is the point that Meister Eckhart calls Leben obne Warum ("life without a reason why"). It is the same with the claim that paradox is the "truth" and that irrationality is the ratio. »</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>It is life in which one whiles away one's time, accepting whatever may come. »</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>The beginning of time itself is before all possible pasts. And it is likewise after all possible futures. Past events, no matter how far back they go, and future events, no matter how far ahead they reach, gather together at the home-ground of the beginning of time. Only as such do they come into being one and all. » </blockquote>
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<b>« </b>It is the Existenz of the self that lives in the world-as-time from the very beginning where time comes to the fullness of time and where the world worlds. Existenz in this sense does not differ from its essential time.» </blockquote>
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<b>« </b>At this point intolerance inevitably raises its head. Like the consciousness of being a chosen people that appeared in the religion of Israel, we have here another case of the self-centeredness on a religious dimension which T oynbee was speaking of. »</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>Intolerance here is essentially bound up with the fact that faith comes into being here on a personal standpoint: the standpoint of a personal relationship with a personal God. This is so because, in the last analysis , in religion the personal contains some sort of self-centeredness . Consequently, the faith of Christianity could not help setting off antagonisms from time to time between this self-centeredness and the other element of agape, namely, the love of neighbor. » </blockquote>
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<b>« </b>The battles for the conquest of heathendom that we see toward the end of the ancient period , throughout the Middle Ages (as in the Crusades, for instance) and the modern era, the persecution of heresy, the Inquisition, the religious wars within the Christian world-all of these and the intolerance displayed, along with the similar phenomena found in Islam, are all but absent in the history of Buddhism. » </blockquote>
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<b>« </b>In terms of its genesis, this view of history came about in resistance to the Christian faith and its intolerance. This view of history is based on trust in human reason. This emphasis on reason got its start amidst the bloody struggles within the Christian world, as the will to find a common standpoint apart from dogmatic faith. Hence, this rational standpoint was, in principle, born of a spirit of tolerance. This led, on the one hand, to the efforts of deism to reinterpret the Christian doctrines from a viewpoint of reasonableness. » </blockquote>
Sunyata and time<br />
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<b>« </b>A recurrent world process, as a cyclical movement, implies infinity to the extent that it lacks beginning or end. But to the extent that it does arrive at an end, in a sense, by going back to its beginning, its recurrent character signals a finiteness. It thus possesses, as it were, an infinite finitude, or, we might say, a finitude of a higher order. » </blockquote>
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<b>« </b>It is in the nature of time and our very existence, so to speak, that from the start both are saddled with an inexhaustible debt. It is in the nature of our existence that we are unable to sustain ourselves except through being engaged without intermission in doing something. Or put the other way around, <b>our life is such that we must work without pause to pay back the debt that lies heavy upon our shoulders</b> . »</blockquote>
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<b><b>« </b>The finite aspect of our life displays its essence as an infinite finitude.</b> (It is here, as noted before, that the original sense of the mythical notion of transmigration is to be seen.) Our existence and time appear to us here as burdens.»</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>The term "karma" expresses an awareness of existence that sees being and time as infinite burdens for us and, at the same time, an awareness of the essence of time itself. »</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>Time is at all times on the verge of vanishing, and all things show the frailty of being that keeps them ever poised on the brink of collapse. Time and being display a constant pull to nullification from beneath their very ground. That is Impermanence.»</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>Here time and nothingness as the nullification of all things signify the freedom and effortless flight of a bird gliding across the sky without a moment's hitch, unburdened. Like the bird that leaves no tracks along the path of its flight, impermanence here means the non-hindrance of being free of the encumbrances of one's past and of restrictions stemming from former lives.»</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>Lastly, we said that time only comes about in virtue of having an infinite openness at its bottom. This infinite openness also contains an ambiguity of its own. In a word, it can mean both nihility and sunyata in its original sense.(...). The true Form of time consists in the simultaneous possibility of these opposing meanings. The essential ambiguity in the meaning of time means that time is essentially the field of fundamental conversion, the field of a "change of heart" or metanoia (pravrittivijfliina).»</blockquote>
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<b>« </b>But there is more at issue here than mere chronological or vertical relationships. I have brothers , sisters , and relatives , just as my parents and their parents had. (...) My existence stands against the backdrop of such a network of relationships whose beginning and end are beyond comprehension, and comes into being from out of its midst. From this perspective, questions regarding the source of my existence remain ultimately unanswerable.»</blockquote>
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<b><b>« </b>The beginning and end of time in itself lie directly beneath the present, at its home-ground, and it is there that they are to be sought originally. </b>To look for the home-ground of time (or being) by tracing time interminably backward or pushing it interminably ahead is to fall victim to a sort of optical illusion, a confusion of dimensions. It is an error of orientation in the pursuit of the home-ground.»</blockquote>
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<b><b>« </b></b>"God is dead" means that all is dead. It means that the elemental ground of all things has turned to nihility , that the being of all things has been nullified from its elemental ground. Their unity and transcendent center lost, with no home-ground to return to, things scatter with the four winds in a time whose boundaries have been wiped away. This nullification of being transforms all things into transitoriness. At the same time, the roothold where the meaning of all existence takes hold is swept away, transforming the whole into a mass of meaninglessness.» </blockquote>
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<b><b>« </b></b>Doing determines being anew: does being; it becomes being and thereby re-creates being in time. In other words, doing renews and reestablishes being in time.» </blockquote>
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<b><b>« </b></b>The story is told of St. Francis of Assisi that, when he was about to have an infected eye cauterized, he turned and addressed the cautery: <br />
<i>My Brother Fire, noble and useful among all other creatures, be kindly to me in this hour, because formerly I have loved thee for the love of Him who created thee. But I pray our Creator who created us, that He will so temper thy heat that I may be able to sustain it.</i>And with that, he made a sign of the cross over the cauterizing iron. <br />
(...)<br />
We are reminded here of the Japanese saying, "Once you annihilate the mind, even the burning fire is cool." Of course, the fire was hot, and no doubt St. Francis did feel the physical pain . But the fire was not hot at the very point that it was hot, and the pain was not painful in its very painfulness.» </blockquote>
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<b><b>« </b></b>The same applies to equality. True equality is not simply a matter of an equality of human rights and the ownership of property. (...) True equality, on the contrary, comes about in what we might call the reciprocal interchange of absolute inequality, such that the self and the other stand simultaneously in the position of absolute master and absolute servant with regard to one another. It is an equality in love. Only on the field of emptiness does all of this become possible. Unless the thoughts and deeds of man one and all be located on such a field, the sorts of problems that beset humanity have no chance of ever really being solved. » </blockquote>
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<i>This post started during February of 2020 in New York City, ended in June of 2020 in Debina on the coast of Baltic sea in Poland....</i><br />
<br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-83815717988659909122020-01-01T16:41:00.001+01:002020-01-01T16:50:30.466+01:00A politician's book that goes far beyond politics...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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During the last holidays of 2nd decade of XXI century I was reading, with bated breath, the book <i>"Sincerely"</i> written by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk" target="_blank">Donald Tusk</a>, who, for the last five years, was the president of the European Council. He was also the prime minister of Poland for seven years - the longest term in free Poland ever. As for now, he is the president of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_People%27s_Party" target="_blank">European People's Party</a> (the largest transnational political party). <br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">Let me quote the short note about the book from its publisher (<a href="http://wydawnictwoagora.pl/donald-tusk-szczerze/" target="_blank">Agora</a>): </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">"In this extraordinary personal diary, we follow in Tusk’s footsteps from his first to his last day in his role as EC president, we see what has been happening backstage in European politics, and we follow the most dramatic events of the recent past, including the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, the refugee crisis, the murder of the mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, and the endless Brexit negotiations. Here we will find complex and surprising portraits of the major figures in world politics, from Barack Obama and Angela Merkel to Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.<br /><br />But <i>"Sincerely"</i> is about far more than what goes on in the corridors of power. Written in a lively, accessible tone, it also expounds Donald Tusk’s political credo, presents his account of the Europe of his dreams – and reveals the bitter disappointment of its present politics."</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">What I love the book for is its autor's rectitude and simplicity paired with a great passion for better Europe and better Poland. The language of the book is, taken as a piece of literature, not the best, but - that only proves there was no ghost writer behind (as it often happens with politicians), and, in many ways, this special kind of simple language makes it even better.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">I wish it was translated to English....</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">Mirek@Słupsk </span></div>
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<br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-48260113679196464852019-12-07T18:54:00.002+01:002019-12-11T08:03:46.407+01:00Holiday of literature!<br />
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<b>Olga Tokarczuk - Nobel Prize in Literature</b></h2>
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<b>The lecture: <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2019/12/tokarczuk-lecture-english.pdf" target="_blank">Polish</a>, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2019/12/tokarczuk-lecture-english.pdf" target="_blank">English</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvZAXL28K2E" target="_blank">Video</a>.</b><br />
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<b>Nobel Prize Banquet Speech:</b> </div>
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(will write more soon)<b><br /></b><br />
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<br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-35532271572067940582019-10-26T00:53:00.002+02:002019-10-26T02:01:01.305+02:00Kaczynski has reversed Lenin's paradigm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This text was originally published in Polish under the title "<a href="https://wiadomo.co/prof-roman-kuzniar-kaczynski-odwrocil-paradygmat-lenina/" target="_blank">Kaczyński odwrócił paradygmat Lenina</a>", and was translated by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/marcin.karpinski.9678" target="_blank">Marcin Karpiński</a>. <br /><br />It is an interview with Prof. Roman Kuźniar.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Until now, a large number of commentators believed that PiS is a party that wants to do well, but maybe the principles they operate on are not good, maybe they can't or err, but all in all they have good intentions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />I think that this is wrong thinking - says prof. Roman Kuźniar, political scientist from the University of Warsaw, diplomat, former adviser to President Bronisław Komorowski. - From the beginning it was obvious that they are dangerously leaning towards Leninist obsession with power. They did not want the normal kind of power that every government needs to convey good politics for the country or for society. They wanted a power that would allow them to remain in charge forever. This it what demolishing the foundations of a democratic state of law was needed for. They want to secure unlimited, unpunished and indefinite power by all possible means - including non-constitutional ones. These are the three attributes of the power they want, he adds. - The Banaś case (curent chairman of Supreme Chamber of Control, involved in the scandal of renting rooms for hours right after taking his office - ed. translator) perfectly reveals the nature and level of this party - no honor, no ethos, no shame. Banaś with his downfall of ethos is emblematic for them, but that's the quintessence of PiS - he emphasizes.</span><br />
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<b>JUSTYNA KOĆ: Turkey and Kurds like two small children - you have to let them fight and then separate - said US President Donald Trump a few days ago. Has the American sandbox not been mistaken for international politics?</b><br />
PROF. ROMAN KUŹNIAR: Most of his comments, which he shoots like fireworks, regarding the Turkish operation indicate a thorough infantilism of his thinking about the world and international relations. He also testifies to this. Anyway, this should not come as a surprise, because he quickly got used to it. This, of course, may be more difficult for us and this part of Europe to accept - mainly because in Poland most public opinion and the ruling party are enthusiastic about Trump.<br />
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THOSE WORDS COMING FROM THE MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT ARE NOT ONLY STUPID, BUT ALSO DANGEROUS. LUCKILY TRUMP IS NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT CONSTITUTES TO OVERALL US VIEW ON THESE MATTERS.<br />
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As has been the case many times before, his administration, vice president and ministers are trying somehow to tone down and defend America and the world against his mistakes and the consequences of his statements. However, if you look only at his words, they look ominous to American allies, especially to countries such as Poland.<br />
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<b>Should Poland learn lessons from the Kurdish people? This is a picture of how Trump can leave his allies at the mercy of fate?</b><br />
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Of course, this cannot be directly compared, but the logic is the same here: we leave our allies without trying to explain (even falsely) such behavior. Or what's even worse by giving translations that make the hair bristle, e.g. "because it doesn't pay off".<br />
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Of course, we are in a better position than Kurds, because we have our own state (which by the way is becoming weaker under the current rule in terms of its defense capabilities, but it is still a state). Today, rather, this is not how countries are attacked, this form of conflict is "out of use" for many reasons. Fortunately, Poland is not only an ally of the United States, but of the North Atlantic Alliance, where there are a number of other states, which means that our security is much higher. There are also various connections with other NATO members.<br />
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Unfortunately, it must be mentioned here that Trump has repeatedly criticized the alliance and even considered with his advisers how to lead the United States out of NATO. It's only Congress - the lower and upper house - that issued resolutions urging him to refrain from this kind of thinking. Poland should analyze all this and observe it and not believe that Trump loved Poland especially and we can count on him.<br />
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WE CAN'T COUNT ON TRUMP, MORE ON AMERICA. BUT THEREFORE, YOU NEED TO CAREFULLY, CAREFULLY SHAPE SECURITY POLICY AND SEEK SAFETY IN ALLOCATIONS AND COOPERATION THAT IS NOT LIMITED TO STATES.<br />
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<b>Poland relies heavily on Trump, as the Polish government and president love the American president. And this policy probably seems to be favored by the public, because during recent the elections the government got another mandate for the next 4 years.</b><br />
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Indeed so, but this time it's much weaker. I would not call it a victory at all, since the conditions of the game were very uneven. Never in the elections since 89 has there been such unequal conditions for campaigning. The opposition "Solidarity" in spring 1989 had better conditions in this respect than today's opposition parties. At least, it was not as defamated and intimidated as compared to what as PiS did to his opponents during it's four years of ruling.<br />
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It is true that PiS got an extension of the mandate, but it is also known that it was counting on more. Kaczyński is not stupid, "only" evil (in a political sense) and understands that this mandate is weak - he lost the Senate. Despite such massive measures, from using the taxpayer's money to buy a part of the electorate in a coarse way, Kaczyński understands that there is no such support. He never really had it. It's an electoral system that gave them sole power.<br />
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IN PiS, THERE IS NO INTELLECTUAL POTENTIAL TO UNDERSTAND THE ISSUES IN THE FIELD OF INTERNATIONAL POLICY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS. SECONDLY, I BELIEVE THAT THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT POLAND'S INTEREST. INTERESTS OF AUTHORITIES ARE OVERARCHING TO COUNTRY INTERESTS.<br />
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Therefore, we cannot have great expectations regarding foreign policy. Moreover what has happened so far does not even qualify for the academic definition of foreign policy. Maybe there will be at least no continuation - at least not with impetus we had so far - of demolishing the Polish state and its ability to function (also in matters connected with security).<br />
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<b>You write in the latest Newsweek that PiS is aware of the damage it is doing to Poland, and despite this awareness they are doing everything to maintain power. These are serious accusations.</b><br />
From the very beginning I had no doubts about it, although until now, a large number of commentators believed that PiS is a party that wants to do well, but maybe the principles they operate on are not good, maybe they can't or err, but all in all they have good intentions.<br />
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I think that this is wrong thinking - says prof. Roman Kuźniar, political scientist from the University of Warsaw, diplomat, former adviser to President Bronisław Komorowski. - From the beginning it was obvious that they are dangerously leaning towards Leninist obsession with power. They did not want the normal kind of power that every government needs to convey good politics for the country, for society. They wanted a power that would allow them to remain in charge forever. This it what demolishing the foundations of a democratic state of law was needed for. They want to secure unlimited, unpunished and indefinite power by all possible means, including non-constitutional. These are the three attributes of the power they want, he adds. - The Banaś case (curent chairman of Supreme Chamber of Control, involved in the scandal of renting rooms for hours right after taking his office - ed. translator) perfectly reveals the nature and level of this party - no honor, no ethos, no shame. Banaś with his downfall of ethos is emblematic for them, but that's the quintessence of PiS - he emphasizes.<br />
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YOU CAN SAY THAT KACZYŃSKI REVERSED THE LENIN'S PARADIGM. WHEREAS LENIN NEEDED A FULL AUTHORITY TO BUILD A SPECIFIC SOCIAL SYSTEM, KACZYŃSKI AND HIS PARTY ARE TRYING TO BUILD A SOCIAL SYSTEM IN ORDER TO OBTAIN FULL AUTHORITY. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS TO POLAND.<br />
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<b>Did Marian Banaś really stand up to Kaczyński and return to the chair of the head of the Supreme Chamber of Control (Supreme Audit Office) or is this a theater for the public and everything has been staged?</b><br />
The latter hypothesis seems more likely. The very case of Banaś reveals perfectly the nature and level of this party - no honor, no ethos, no shame. Banaś with his downfall of ethos is emblematic for them, but that's the quintessence of PiS. Seemingly they are trying to cancel it, but they can't because it is constitutionally irrevocable. They also want to change the constitution so that the nation cannot recall them. It is in the interest of PiS that the trustee and his person remain as the head of the Supreme Audit Office. He has a specific role to play, especially when it comes to controlling power - the Supreme Audit Office should show all iniquities or inefficiencies of power. Someone like Banaś will not properly perform this function in a state that has come under the control and in the service of one party, his party. Of course, I'm not sure if this hypothesis is correct, but taking into account PiS's cunning, I indeed focus on this variant.<br />
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<b>What is the significance of recovering of the Senate by the opposition?</b><br />
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PiS still does not lay down their weapons. This is of great psychological significance, because it showed that PiS can be overcome. I do not think that it was possible in the Parliament elections - here I differ from those who thought that it was possible to win these elections. As I said before:<br />
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Given this massive scale of lies, bribery and intimidation, it was only possible to achieve a little better result without equal opportunities, but not to win.<br />
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Anyway, what we are observing at the moment in the main opposition party shows a certain immaturity. Returning to your questions - if the opposition does not start shooting at each other or kicking on the ankles (and this is likely in Polish conditions) then the Senate can play a very important role, greater than that stated in the constitution. If the Senate remains united, it will be able to stop PiS from various madness and further corruption of the state. It will also force the president to at least explain himself to the public. E.g. from signing of laws in the middle of the night without even reflecting on them.<br />
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<b>Who should be the opposition's presidential candidate?</b><br />
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In my opinion, a lot of opposition's people can relatively successfully play the role of president, but not all of them can win elections with someone like Andrzej Duda. I know that what I will say can be perceived as a subjective statement, but I believe that President Komorowski did his duty very well, in spite of him not winning the election for the second time. That's why is why the ability to carry out the duties of the president, like representing the dignity of the Republic of Poland, is something very different than the ability to win the presidential election. Look at the example of Mr. Duda - I must admit that he had a very good campaign and with (what also should be noted) rather poor campaign of his opponent (Komorowski), he won the election. Not long after though - he turned out to be the president, whose littleness and dependence is breathtaking. And I am not talking only about the latest joke the President gave at AGH, but about the fact that he humiliates the dignity of Poland in more serious, constitutional situations. So these are two different things.<br />
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THE OPPOSITION SHOULD LOOK FOR A CANDIDATE WHO WILL HAVE THE ABILITY OF BEATING THE CURRENT PRESIDENT, AND LATER THE ABILITY TO PERFORM THE FUNCTION. IN THE OPPOSITION, THERE ARE MANY POLITICIANS WHO ARE MORE THAN COMPETENT FOR THIS FUNCTION. SURE BETTER THAN THE CURRENT PRESIDENT, HOWEVER not everyone has the ability to beat him.<br />
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<b>And has Poland matured enough to have a woman president?</b><br />
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This is not the issue. Poland is mature in many aspects. Sometimes some media try to set us up in such a way that we have not matured for something. I don't think this is a gender issue anyway. Poles will accept both - a woman and a man - provided he or she will be good. I wish Poland the best and it indeed does not matter whether it is a woman or a man. It was said once that America was not mature enough to have a black president, then it turned out that the black candidate significantly won the election in a country that still deals with a lot f racial issues. Hillary Clinton did not become president (though it is worth noting that she got significantly more votes from Trump) not because she was a woman, but not a good candidate at that time. It is not a matter of gender or orientation that will determine it, but the candidate's political potential.Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-57307801770080811412019-06-14T08:25:00.002+02:002019-06-14T13:21:31.257+02:00Three Pillars of MakoLab - my speech at XXX anniversary of MakoLab creationThis is in Polish and English, intertwined...<br />
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<h2>
Szanowni Państwo, Drodzy Partnerzy, Przyjaciele i Współpracownicy</h2>
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Jesteśmy razem już od trzydziestu lat. W tym czasie niektórym udaje się wychować całkiem samodzielnych, dorosłych ludzi! To całe pokolenie ukształtowanych jednostek, indywidualności, charakterów, mających za sobą sukcesy i porażki, wzloty i upadki. Nasze dorosłe już dziecko, Makolab, również ma za sobą niezliczone dobre i złe dni, mniejsze i większe wygrane, chwile radości i optymizmu, ale i chwile zwątpienia. <br />
Na szczęście od samego początku istnienia Makolab ma coś, czego niektórzy inni nie mają - solidne podstawy, fundamenty, na których oparliśmy filozofię i kulturę firmy; odnośniki, które pomagają nam kształtować postawy, zdobywać nowe rynki, wdrażać przełomowe rozwiązania i - przede wszystkim - wciąż iść naprzód. Kreować trendy (zamiast jedynie za nimi podążać), otwierać okna (tam, gdzie zastajemy zamknięte drzwi), i łamać zasady (po to, by tworzyć nową i lepszą rzeczywistość). <br />
Jak to osiągnęliśmy? Dzięki wierności trzem filarom, które jak Filary Ziemi Kena Folleta pozwoliły nam nakreślić architekturę świata takim, jakim sami chcemy go widzieć. Zbudowaliśmy Makolab na trzech filarach, tak jak on zbudował swoją epicką powieść o jakże wymownym dla nas tytule.<br />
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<h2>
Dear Guests, Partners, Friends and MakoLab employees,</h2>
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We have been together for thirty years! During these years some of us succeeded in raising children into quite independent adults - a whole generation of well-formed individuals with their own characters who have experienced successes, failures, highs and lows.<br />
MakoLab, the individual we raised from child to adult, leaves behind an uncountable number of days good and bad, triumphs big and small, moments of doubt and despair, but also moments of joy and optimism.<br />
From the very beginning of its existence, MakoLab has something that most other companies lack – firm fundamental beliefs upon which we have built our philosophy and company culture, points of reference which help us shape our attitudes, conquer new markets, implement new solutions, and – perhaps most important of all - always keep moving forward…<br />
These beliefs help us create new trends (not just follow existing ones), open windows to places which doors are kept closed, and to break rules in order to create new, better realities.<br />
How did we get here? It was all possible because we believe in three basic pillars, which, like in Ken Follet’s novel “Pillars of the Earth”, helped us to sketch the architecture of the world as we wanted to see it. In a similar way to Follet’s epic novel with its meaningful title, we have built MakoLab on three pillars.<br />
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<br />Pierwszym z nich jest nieustanna innowacja i poszukiwanie.</h3>
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Poszukiwanie to dla nas koncepcja o szerokim spektrum. Nie mówimy wyłącznie o badaniach i rozwoju w znaczeniu technologicznym. Poszukujemy także wtedy, gdy zastanawiamy się nad organizacją pracy, urządzeniem biura, nad wszystkim tym, co stanowi codzienność firmy.<br />
Każdy, kto nas zna, wie, że nieustannie szukamy najlepszych rozwiązań i największej efektywności. To oczywiście nie zawsze się udaje. Czasami zapewne nie udaje się wcale, ale naszym wyróżnikiem jest niesamowita motywacja, odważne pomysły i chęć tworzenia. Spoglądamy w gwiazdy, równocześnie mocno stojąc na ziemi. Nie zatrzymujemy się. Wnikliwie analizujemy porażki – patrzymy na błędy z przeszłości, uczymy się na nich, ale wciąż idziemy do przodu.<br />
Innowacja w MakoLab ma też wymiar dosłowny. Nie byłoby nas zapewne w największej firmie samochodowej z Francji, gdybyśmy lata temu nie wymyślili najdziwniejszego systemu CMS, jaki świat widział – systemu, który nie potrzebował Internetu, aby działać. Nie byłoby nas w bankach, jakie pomagają ludziom kupować samochody, gdybyśmy nie stworzyli wizji działania symulacji finansowych. Nie byłoby nas w jednej z najważniejszych firm samochodowych w Niemczech, gdybyśmy nie spróbowali sobie wyobrazić, co może zrobić całkiem realny pojazd mechaniczny, gdy połączymy go ze światem cyfrowym. Nie moglibyśmy tworzyć aplikacji dla lotnictwa, gdybyśmy nie proponowali innowacyjnych rozwiązań. Nie byłoby nas w wielu amerykańskich firmach, gdybyśmy nie wymyślali rozwiązań, o jakich im się nawet nie śniło. Kreatywność naszych artystów spotykała się z innowacyjnością techniczną naszych programistów w niezliczonych projektach. <br />
Nasze podejście do innowacji widać także tam, gdzie wszyscy innowacji oczekujemy – czyli w naszej działalności R&D. Stworzyliśmy nowy rodzaj Blockchain’a. Zrobiliśmy też pierwsze kroki w kierunku Blockchain’a kwantowego. Jeden z nas zarządza największą i najważniejszą ontologią dla świata finansów, inni budują słowniki dla Komisji Europejskiej, pomagające w zapobieganiu kryzysom finansowym. To globalne sukcesy na miarę największych, międzynarodowych graczy. Dlatego tym bardziej, muszę przyznać, cieszy mnie dzisiejsza uroczystość. Mamy szansę powspominać - z autentycznym niedowierzaniem przyprawiającym o zawrót głowy - to, jak zaczynaliśmy. Te czasy, kiedy drukowaliśmy matryce do produkcji skądinąd profesjonalnych książek i czasopism na byle drukarkach, zupełnie do tego nieprzystosowanych, czy na kalce technicznej, kompletnie się do tego nie nadającej. Czasy kiedy ja, wtedy jeszcze naukowiec, pisałem programy na kartach perforowanych…<br />
Dziś pracujemy nad sztuczną inteligencją, nad samochodami, które za chwilę będą same jeździć. Lada moment będziemy programować komputery kwantowe, które wywrócą świat do góry nogami. Makolab jest i będzie częścią tej nowej, ekscytującej rzeczywistości, bo nasza wyobraźnia i chęć eksploracji nie znają granic.<br />
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The first pillar: enduring innovation and research</h3>
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For us, research is an extensive concept. We do not limit research and development to technology. “Research” includes improving the organization in every way, arranging – and rearranging – our office space and the ways we work. “Research” is everything that informs even the day-to-day existence of MakoLab.<br />
Those who know us know that we endlessly search for the best solutions and maximum efficiency. This, of course, is not always easy to achieve. Sometimes, perhaps, we fail in this, but our strength lies in being driven, having brave ideas, and in an everlasting willingness to create. We look into the stars with our feet firm on the ground. We analyse our failures, examine past mistakes, and thus gain more knowledge and, in turn, move forward.<br />
“Research and Innovation” in MakoLab also have a more literal meaning. <br />
We would not have worked for many years with the largest French car manufacturer, if, long ago, we hadn’t invented the strangest CMS system the world had ever seen: a system which did not need the Internet to operate! We would not be working with banks which help people buy cars, if we had not created a vision for financial simulators at a time when no bank used them. We would not be present at one of the largest German automotive businesses, if we had not imagined what a car could do when we connected it to a grid of data. We would not make apps for connected aircraft if we did not innovate how to make them better and more efficient. We would not be working for many American companies if we could not fulfil their dreams about digital tools. In countless projects like these the creativity of our artists met – and meets – with the technical innovation of our developers. <br />
Our approach to innovation is particularly prominent in the activity we naturally expect to be most innovative in – our R&D efforts. We have created a new kind of Blockchain. We have made the first steps toward Quantum Blockchain. One of our people manages the development of the largest and most important ontologies for the financial industry. Part of our team is building vocabularies for the European Commission with the use of Machine Learning and semantics, with the fundamental goal of preventing any future financial crisis. These global achievements would be a source of pride for the largest international players! All the more reason why I’m full of happiness this evening. We have an incredible chance to reminisce – with a bit disbelief – about our beginnings 30 years ago. The times when we made money on printing offset plates for books and newspapers using primitive printers and plain tracing paper! The years when I, still a young scientist, wrote our software on perforated cards. <br />
Today we work on AI, on cars that will soon drive themselves. In the near future we will program quantum computers which will turn the world upside down. MakoLab is and will be part of this exciting reality because our imagination and will to explore has no limits.<br />
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Drugim ważnym dla nas filarem jest absolutne i radykalne pierwszeństwo klienta.</h3>
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Od samego początku istnienia MakoLab’u rządzi nami zasada „customer sovereignty” – zwierzchność klienta nad nami. Adam Smith, tworząc podstawy kapitalizmu, pisał „the consumer is king”. Ta reguła, sprawdzona i sprawdzana nadal we wszystkich zdrowych systemach ekonomicznych, jest równie ważna w codziennym funkcjonowaniu Makolabu. Wszystko co robimy, robimy dla naszych klientów.<br />
Tak, wiem co powiecie - to truizmy i slogany. Nieprawda. Pilnujemy tej zasady. Wierzymy w nią, choć czasem to naprawdę bardzo trudne. Powiem wam w sekrecie, że czasem mamy wątpliwości. Czasem nawet oceniamy i marudzimy - ten klient nie wie czego chce, tamten nie rozumie...Każdy kto kiedykolwiek funkcjonował w środowisku biznesowym doskonale wie o czym mówię. Ale my w Makolabie od 30 lat robimy wszystko - czasami (choć na szczęście rzadko) aż do działań na granicy opłacalności – aby nasz klient był zadowolony. Nie, nie zadowolony - zachwycony! Oczarowany! Przekonany do nas i przekonany o wartości tego, co mu dostarczyliśmy. Bo to, co dostarczamy JEST najwyższej jakości.<br />
W zwierzchności klienta kryje się istota kapitalizmu – tego polskiego, który budowaliśmy od 1989 roku, i tego europejskiego, i światowego. Jesteśmy jego częścią choćby poprzez fakt, że 80% obrotu osiągamy zagranicą.<br />
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<br />The second important pillar: radical customer sovereignty.</h3>
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From the dawn of our existence there is a rule that has absolute importance for us – customer sovereignty – the authority of the client over us. Adam Smith, creating the foundations of capitalism, said: “The consumer is king”. That rule has proved to work in all healthy economies and is equally important to us here at MakoLab. Ultimately, everything we do focuses on our clients.<br />
Sure, one could say, “this is simply a catchphrase”. It’s not. We believe in it wholeheartedly – even if, at times, it is very difficult. Just between you and me, I admit that we sometimes have doubts. Sometimes we are judgemental: one client doesn’t really know what he wants, another one doesn’t understand what we do… Those who have been in business long enough know these sentiments well. However, from our beginnings 30 years ago, we in MakoLab have been striving – sometimes dangerously close to the limit of profitability – for our clients’ satisfaction. Wait, did I say satisfaction? No, I meant absolute delight. We want our clients to be overwhelmingly convinced by our talents and certain about the value of our products, because what we deliver must be of the highest quality.<br />
Customer sovereignty lies at the heart of all capitalism – be it global, European, or the Polish capitalism we have been building since 1989. We are part of that global system now, especially given that 80% of our revenue comes from abroad.<br />
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Trzeciem filarem na którym oparliśmy filozofię Makolabu jest WOLNOŚĆ.</h3>
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Ja wiem, że na tego rodzaju uroczystościach wypada przytaczać spektakularne case studies, pokazywać realizacje i mówić o sukcesach. To ważne i motywujące. Ale tak naprawdę Makolab powstał na bazie konkretnej potrzeby - potrzeby wolności, którą odczuwałem dokładnie wtedy, kiedy odczuwała ją cała Polska. W czerwcu 1989 roku, którego rocznicę tak pięknie świętujemy!<br />
Głód wolności był na początku bardzo konkretny i materialny – chodziło o wolność do godnego życia i godnego utrzymania rodziny. Z czasem ta sama potrzeba zdominowała filozofię firmy i pozwoliła jej rozwinąć skrzydła. To wszystko działo się na przestrzeni wielu lat - patrząc z perspektywy czasu właściwie dekad! W 2007 roku aktem wielkiej odwagi i głębokiej wolności była decyzja o wejściu na giełdę – pomimo tego jak niewielką byliśmy wtedy firmą. Nie istniała wówczas jednak żadna inna metoda finansowania rozwoju, która dałaby nam tyle swobody i wolności, ile chcieliśmy mieć.<br />
W 2008 roku z kolei potrzeba wolności przełożyła się we mnie na powierzenie sterów firmy Wojtkowi – po to, abym odzyskał wolność do innowacji i poszukiwań. Właśnie wtedy zaczęliśmy odnosić sukcesy poza granicami Polski i zajęliśmy się protoplastą sztucznej inteligencji, czyli sieciami semantycznymi. Zadebiutowaliśmy w Anglii, we Francji, a wreszcie - za oceanem. <br />
Zastanawiacie się, co nam dała ta wolność, jaka jest jej wymierna wartość? Odpowiem prostym i bardzo aktualnym przykładem; istniała niedawno wielka pokusa dla udziałowców spółki, aby sprzedać firmę. To etap decydujący dla wielu organizacji biznesowych. My jednak oceniliśmy, że taki krok odebrałby nam wolność, którą tak sobie cenimy. Zamiast tego wprowadziliśmy program akcji pracowniczych, dzięki któremu kilku z Was powiększyło grono współwłaścicieli firmy.<br />
Praktykowanie wolności w warunkach firmowych nie jest proste. Wymaga odwagi i determinacji. Wymaga zaciskania zębów. Trudno czasami tę wolność dostrzec w organizacji mocno hierarchicznej i można powiedzieć – niedemokratycznej. Paradoksalnie jednak my rozumiemy wolność nie jako ucieczkę od czegoś, lecz jako możliwość wyboru. Nie jesteśmy “wolni od” lecz “wolni by móc”...<br />
Czasem zdarza się, że pracownicy odchodzą. To także świetny przykład na to jak Makolab rozumie wolność. Ci, którzy nas zostawiają, podejmują świadomy wybór, ale my dbamy o to, by wszystko działo się w przyjaźni. Chcemy by każdy czuł się wolny w swoich decyzjach, jednocześnie wiedząc, że ma w nich nasze wsparcie. Staramy się rozstawać z ludźmi w taki sposób, by nie stać na drodze do ich wolności i jednocześnie umożliwiać powroty. Mamy dziś na sali wielu byłych pracowników – cieszę się, że jesteście dziś z nami i świętujecie sukces, którego sami byliście ważną częścią.<br />
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The third pillar which forms our philosophy: FREEDOM.</h3>
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I know perfectly well that during ceremonies like this one it is normal - and expected - to show spectacular case studies, point out our greatest achievements and celebrate our successes. All of that is important and motivating. But… the truth is that MakoLab has been created out of a concrete need: the need for freedom. Together with all other Poles, I felt this deeply in June 1989, the year of freedom and solidarity which we celebrate this year across the country with so much joy and pride. <br />
In the beginning, the desire for freedom was very down to earth – it was all about the freedom to live a dignified life and to provide for our families. Over time, the same desire for freedom dominated the company culture and allowed us to spread our wings. <br />
All that happened over many years, or, to be precise, over decades. Despite the small size of our company at that time, our 2007 IPO was an act of bravery based on that deep sense of freedom. Floating this company on the stock market was the best way to finance company growth and give us even more freedom.<br />
In 2008, it was out of that same desire for freedom that I asked Wojtek to become the new guardian of the MakoLab ‘child’. At the time I was seeking freedom to innovate and to develop new ideas. Shortly after, we started to work on larger projects outside Poland and initiated works on the precursor of Artificial Intelligence and on semantic technologies. We debuted in France, UK and finally in the US.<br />
Do you want to know what that freedom gave us? What was its measurable value? I will tell you this using a simple and very recent example. Not long ago our company shareholders were tempted to sell the company. This is usually a decisive step for many business organizations. However, we realized that such a step would take away the freedom we cherish so much. Instead we initiated an Employee Shareholder Program and now several of our newest shareholders are our employees!<br />
Practising freedom in the company environment is far from trivial. It requires courage and determination. Sometimes it really is a “grin and bear it” way of life. It is difficult to see true freedom in a highly hierarchical and, shall we say, undemocratic environment. Paradoxically perhaps, we understand freedom not as an escape from duties, but as a liberty of choice. We are not “free from” we are “free to”.<br />
It sometimes happens that company employees leave. In this realm we also practice freedom. Those who leave us make a conscious choice, but if that moment comes, we always nurture an atmosphere of friendship. We want all to feel free in their choices and all to feel our support. We strive to part in such a way that those who leave may also feel free to return. We have many former employees of Makolab here – I’m so happy you are with us today and can celebrate the success you were part of.<br />
<br />
I hope that our “Pillars of the Earth” – Innovation, Customer Sovereignty, and Freedom – are, and will remain, as close to you all as they are to me.<br />
I wish the same for all of us and for our now 30-year-old grown-up child – MakoLab!<br />
<br />
Mam nadzieję, że nasze Filary Ziemi - Innowacja, Pierwszeństwo Klienta i Wolność - są i pozostaną tak samo bliskie Wam, jak i mnie. <br />
Tego życzę sobie, Wam i naszemu dorosłemu dziś dziecku, 30-letniemu Makolabowi!Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-54145289202226446562019-05-02T12:36:00.002+02:002019-05-02T12:39:07.470+02:00Prime Minister Morawiecki, lying and denigrating Polish judges, crossed all boundariesThe author is a lawyer, a co-founder of the initiative # WolneSądy. He is a candidate for the European Parliament from the list of the European Coalition.<br />
<br />
The words of Prime Minister Morawiecki comparing Polish judges to Nazi collaborators are shameful and unacceptable. As a lawyer and as a representative of civil society, who for 3.5 has been demanding respect for the rule of law in Poland and is opposed to destroying the independence of the Polish judiciary, I say: enough!<br />
<br />
The Polish prime minister goes to the United States and announces publicly that Polish courts are inefficient and corrupt, and the judges of the communist regime that are ruling in them are like collaborators from Vichy who should be rid of. With this comparison, the Prime Minister exceeded all possible limits acceptable even in the most severe political struggle. He insulted the entire judiciary environment. Ten thousand people who constitute the third, constitutionally equal power in Poland.<br />
<br />
And as an example of corruption and corruption, there are still a few of the same examples: a stolen drill, pendrive and sausage. To publicize this, state-owned companies have spent millions on campaigns throughout the country. How does this relate to the whole of the judicial environment? To this crowd of people, excellent lawyers who carry out their work diligently on a daily basis? It is pure demagogy and conscious, populist manipulation.<br />
<br />
The same applies to the regime, communist past of judges. The average age of Polish judges is 41 years. So they could not have ruled before 1989 for obvious biological reasons. Like 12 or 13-year-olds, they did not actively participate in the underground struggle of the opposition. Anyway, if the authorities really wanted to eliminate from the justice of anyone who in the 1970s or 1980s had even issued one political sentence, a condemning oppositionist, would write such a formulated law. It's easy. But that's not the intention. The intention is only to subordinate courts and make them offices in which obedient judges-officials make decisions in line with the government's expectations.<br />
<br />
In the end, the prime minister repeats what we have heard many times: in the European Union they do not know what is happening here, they have no idea about Polish law and the system of justice. Another absurdity. For several years I have had the opportunity to talk, meet and discuss the Polish rule of law with representatives of the EU institutions. I have personally talked with Frans Timmermens and his officials from the Commission personally, I have participated in debates in the Parliament. I stood before the CJEU due to the pre-trial inquiry regarding the National Court Register and the Disciplinary Chamber. So, based on my own experience, I can assess what the prime minister apparently did not notice or what he deliberately misrepresented. The level of professionalism and knowledge of lawyers and EU politicians who take care of Polish matter, I will not mention the competences in this field of the judges of the Tribunal, is the highest possible. Incomparable to legal knowledge presented by some representatives of the government.<br />
<br />
Finally, it is necessary to say "enough" to the constant abandonment of the name of the Polish judiciary. The more so because there are legal grounds for this. On December 20, 2017, when taking Poland, for the first time in the history of the Union, the procedure under art. 7 of the EU Treaty, the European Commission, in its recommendations, ordered the rulers in Poland to refrain from actions and public statements that undermine the legitimacy of the administration of justice.<br />
<br />
Prime Minister Morawiecki began his office by attacking the Polish judiciary in an article in the Washington Examineer, so as an initiative # FreeWe have protested, publishing a replica in the same newspaper.<br />
<br />
Then similar defamations fell from the lips of the prime minister in the European Parliament or in the pages of "Le Figaro", there was an organized crime group, etc. The last American accent Morawiecki finally crossed the limits of any decency. This should be met with joint support from all Polish legal circles.<br />
<br />
Google Translate after: <a href="http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,24696006,premier-morawiecki-klamiac-i-oczerniajac-polskich-sedziow.html" target="_blank">http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,24696006,premier-morawiecki-klamiac-i-oczerniajac-polskich-sedziow.html </a> Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-42191205144871592382019-02-23T03:08:00.001+01:002019-02-23T03:08:10.427+01:00Johann Jakob Balmer<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system,system-ui,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue","Fira Sans",Ubuntu,Oxygen,"Oxygen Sans",Cantarell,"Droid Sans","Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Lucida Grande",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
We (physicists) have special place in our minds for Johann Balmer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Jakob_Balmer). </div>
<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system,system-ui,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue","Fira Sans",Ubuntu,Oxygen,"Oxygen Sans",Cantarell,"Droid Sans","Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Lucida Grande",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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I just read a very funny sentence: </div>
<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system,system-ui,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue","Fira Sans",Ubuntu,Oxygen,"Oxygen Sans",Cantarell,"Droid Sans","Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Lucida Grande",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div>
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"Balmer, incidentally, wrote only three physics papers in his life. The first two made him immortal; the third was wrong." </div>
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<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div>
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(Abraham Pais, "Inward Bound")</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-75312701926390216302019-01-25T04:19:00.000+01:002019-01-25T04:24:13.455+01:00Political pressure on Polish public TV<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i5tSjh19cHg/XEp_szWAkoI/AAAAAAAA2VQ/NODD2dtmb2IhkCXcKYC-IppouRhY-rx3ACLcBGAs/s1600/tvp.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="891" data-original-width="1346" height="131" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i5tSjh19cHg/XEp_szWAkoI/AAAAAAAA2VQ/NODD2dtmb2IhkCXcKYC-IppouRhY-rx3ACLcBGAs/s200/tvp.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
The text is in Polish. I'm going to make a summary in English for this slide deck.<br />
The PDF (in Polish) is <a href="http://sopek.net/files/tvp.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-64581328993351553102018-07-22T16:57:00.001+02:002018-07-22T16:58:16.260+02:00You who wronged<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PfkOZegkS6U/W1Sa3_7HnDI/AAAAAAAAw7A/9VBlzaxb8U4CqFrSfzabrBFbA7OobqOXQCLcBGAs/s1600/Dawid%2BWiniarski.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="300" height="183" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PfkOZegkS6U/W1Sa3_7HnDI/AAAAAAAAw7A/9VBlzaxb8U4CqFrSfzabrBFbA7OobqOXQCLcBGAs/s200/Dawid%2BWiniarski.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dawid Winiarski.<br />
Beaten by Polish police during protest<br />
against taking over of courts... </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
You who wronged a simple man<br />
Bursting into laughter at the crime,<br />
And kept a pack of fools around you<br />
To mix good and evil, to blur the line,<br />
Though everyone bowed down before you,<br />
Saying virtue and wisdom lit your way,<br />
Striking gold medals in your honor,<br />
Glad to have survived another day,<br />
Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.<br />
<br />
You can kill one, but another is born.<br />
The words are written down, the deed, the date. […]<br />
<br />
[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czesław_Miłosz" target="_blank">Czesław Miłosz</a> - Translated by Richard Lourie]<br />
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-52050934294442508572018-03-20T00:16:00.001+01:002018-03-20T00:16:21.909+01:00#WeDisagree - the recorded protest of Polish lawyers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-77686106752552023512018-03-10T06:13:00.001+01:002018-03-10T06:27:31.542+01:00We are writing to you from Poland...<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W61-8MF9Puw/WqNpYWDWjZI/AAAAAAAApG0/Q4Zizes4UW4btD6f37nyYX2MgOrWSWLlQCLcBGAs/s1600/solidarity-768x313.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="768" height="130" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W61-8MF9Puw/WqNpYWDWjZI/AAAAAAAApG0/Q4Zizes4UW4btD6f37nyYX2MgOrWSWLlQCLcBGAs/s320/solidarity-768x313.png" width="320" /></a></div>
And from many other places
in the world, where we live, study and work. We, the Poles, who do not
agree with how current policy casts a pall over the Polish-Jewish
relations developed over the years. We write to all of you who look at
Poland today with disbelief, sadness or anger.<br />
<br />
We write because
we want you to know that regardless of how radical and inappropriate
the positions of Polish authorities or certain groups are, these are not
the positions and views of us all. We ask that you keep current
politics in perspective, although we know how difficult this may be.
There are millions of people in our country for whom the Polish-Jewish
dialogue and the truth about common history are important. We write to
you as friends to friends, so that you may know that we are there, in
Poland and the times that history and heritage bound us, and that we are
also bound together in daily life and the future.<br />
The Holocaust
was an unimaginable tragedy of the Jewish people – a great failure of
humanity. Today, instead of maintaining humility and respect for its
victims, attempts are being made to divide us, Jews and Poles.<br />
A
law has been ratified by the Polish parliament, which provides
imprisonment for speech, statements are being made that seek to
whitewash Poles’ involvement in the Holocaust, thoughtless actions are
being taken by politicians that arouse anti-Semitic sentiment – all this
is not being done in our name. There are more of us, people who think
like us, who, seeing what is happening now, feel anger.<br />
<br />
We
may feel bitterness, we may feel sadness, we may feel rage, but all
together we want to say: enough of the silence and divisiveness. We will
not allow the years of reconciliation to be destroyed. Only complete
truth and solidarity can be the foundation of our co-existence.<br />
Truth,
because the pride in those Poles who heroically helped the Jews will
not obscure the wrongs that Jews confronted in Poland, including from
citizens of our country. We want the whole truth about the Holocaust,
however painful it may be. Remembrance of millions of Jews, citizens of
Poland, murdered during the war, teaches us to learn from the past.<br />
As
in years past, today is also about solidarity. It is about solidarity
in seeking the truth, solidarity with the descendants of Holocaust
victims, solidarity with the people expelled from home in 1968, and
solidarity in the face of anti-Semitism.<br />
We are united by more
than a thousand years of common history; Jews are and have been Poles
for hundreds of years. They created and continue to create our common
country. Anti-Semitism is also aimed at us because it is aimed at people
and freedom of speech. That is why we want to say it loud and firmly –
NO TO ANTISEMITISM. No to misrepresenting history. That is why we should
all unite at this particular time around the truth about those terrible
times. So that they may never be repeated. Truth and solidarity are the
only ways we can return together to the path of reconciliation so
needed by both our nations.<br />
<br />
Signed by NGOs:<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>A Million<br />Akcja Demokracja<br />Archiwum Osiatyńskiego<br />Autonomia<br />Berliński Kongres Kobiet<br />Bydgoskie Forum Obywatelskie<br />Centrum Pomocy Prawnej im. Haliny Nieć<br />Demokracja Siemiatycze<br />Dziewuchy Dziewuchom Węgorzewo<br />FARSA Londyn<br />Femini Berlin Polska<br />Forum Dialogu<br />Forum Kraków<br />Front Gorzów FG 2018<br />Fundacja ClientEarth<br />Fundacja im. Bronisława Geremka<br />Fundacja Liberte!<br />Fundacja Idealna Gmina<br />Fundacja im. Kazimierza Łyszczyńskiego<br />Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego<br />Fundacja Judaica Centrum Kultury Żydowskiej Kraków<br />Fundacja Krystyny Jandy na rzecz Kultury<br />Fundacja Lege Pharmaciae<br />Fundacja Obserwatorium Żywej Kultury – Sieć Badawcza<br />Fundacja Ośrodek Kontroli Obywatelskiej “OKO”<br />Fundacja Pole Dialogu<br />Fundacja Szkoła Liderów<br />Gildia Polskich Reżyserów Dokumentalnych<br />Gildia Polskich Reżyserów i Reżyserek Teatralnych<br />Gildia Reżyserów Polskich<br />Grupa Artystyczna Teraz Poliż<br />Helsińska Fundacja Praw Człowieka<br />Inicjatywa #WolneSądy<br />Inicjatywa “Nie w moim imieniu”<br />INPRIS – Instytut Prawa i Społeczeństwa<br />Instytut Spraw Publicznych<br />Klub Inteligencji Katolickiej<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Dolnośląski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Kujawsko-Pomorski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Lubelski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Lubuski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Łódzki<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Małopolski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Mazowiecki<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Opolski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Podkarpacki<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Podlaski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Pomorski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Śląski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Świętokrzyski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Warmińsko-Mazurski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Wielkopolski<br />Komitet Obrony Demokracji Region Zachodniopomorski<br />Krytyka Polityczna<br />Kultura Liberalna<br />Kultura Niepodległa<br />Lęborskie Dziewuchy<br />Manifest Wolnej Polki<br />Obywatele Kultury<br />Obywatele Nauki<br />Obywatele Solidarnie w Akcji<br />Obywatele RP<br />Obywatele Dla Edukacji<br />Ogólnopolska Federacja Organizacji Pozarządowych<br />Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet<br />Ogólnopolski
Strajk Kobiet: Gryfino, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Jelenia
Góra, Katowice, Kielce, Kraków, Koszalin, Lublin, Opole, Piła, Piotrków
Trybunalski, Poznań, Puławy, Sanok, Sławno, Świnoujście, Warszawa,
Węgorzewo, Wrocław, Zajęczniki, Zgorzelec, Zielona Góra<br />Polski PEN Club<br />Polskie Stowarzyszenie im. Janusza Korczaka<br />Poznań Wolny Od Nienawiści<br />Pracowania Badań i Innowacji Społecznych STOCZNIA<br />Projekt:Polska<br />Protest Kobiet<br />Radomianie Dla Demokracji<br />Radomska Inicjatywa Kobieca<br />Sieć Obywatelska Watchdog Polska<br />Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej<br />Stowarzyszenie im. Jana Karskiego, Kielce.<br />Stowarzyszenie im. prof. Zbigniewa Hołdy<br />Stowarzyszenie im. Janusza Korczaka<br />Stowarzyszenie Klon/Jawor<br />Stowarzyszenie Kongres Kobiet<br />Stowarzyszenie na Rzecz Kultury Niepodległej<br />Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich<br />Stowarzyszenie Otwarta Rzeczpospolita<br />Stowarzyszenie Obserwatorium Żywej Kultury – Sieć Badawcza<br />Stowarzyszenie Stop Stereotypom<br />Stowarzyszenie Śląskie Perły Rybnik<br />Studencki Komitet Antyfaszystowski<br />Toruńskie Dziewuchy<br />Towarzystwo Dziennikarskie<br />Unia Polskich Teatrów<br />Warszawskie Dziewuchy Dziewuchom<br />Wspólna Zielona Góra</i><br />
<br />
Suported by Lech Wałęsa.<br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><i></i><br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-42353569968460201732018-02-18T23:42:00.000+01:002018-02-19T06:40:07.035+01:00Can we (safely) adopt the key traits of the minds of snipers in our business and private lives?<br />
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This is my review of David Amerland „The Sniper Mind. Eliminate Fear, Deal with Uncertainty and Make Better Decisions”. (<a href="https://davidamerland.com/the-sniper-mind.html">https://davidamerland.com/the-sniper-mind.html</a>) </div>
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As I know the author in person and feel honoured by our relation – I started reading his new book soon as it was published. I valued his technical books high and one of them (“Google Semantic Search”) was already a great source for inspiration for myself and my co-workers and a confirmation that our investment of time and energy into Semantic Technologies was not a misplaced effort.<br />
<br />
Since then, and despite two more books in the general area of the social media and SEO domains, David started to evolve toward more fundamental matters that have impact on the life of businesses in the digital era and us – as the pillars of these businesses. His “The Tribe That Discovered Trust” touched the most vital feature of the business in the digital world – the trust – and how to create and regain if it was lost.</div>
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“The Sniper Mind” goes even further and marks David’s entry into an area that could perhaps be called business self-help books (what is in some sense corroborated by its subtitle), although I’m afraid to apply such a classification to that outstanding book…</div>
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Before I go to the essence of the book, I must admit I was initially deeply concerned if I ever would like it! My fear came straight from David’s choice to choose snipers and their minds as a source of inspiration! My convictions, beliefs and everything I value in life is based on the foundation of the utmost importance of human life. I really believe that killing a person is to kill the entire universe with its meaning – because the meaning of the universe, the world, societies and the nations comes, to me, only from the representation of the reality in and by our minds. To be clear, I’m not solipsists of any kind – I just am sure that everything we attribute to the concept of MEANING comes from and only from human consciousness and human spirit embedded into, or emerging from, our brains and bodies. <br />
Whatever side they take, the side we find as “our” or even morally justified – the role of the snipers is to kill. This is just a fact we can’t deny. Of course, I’m old and experienced enough not to subscribe to idealistic pacifism at all cost, and I understand that in too many cases today, when we have people whose goal is to kill and destroy – there is often no other way than to kill them before they kill us and our beloved. I understand it. Nonetheless, there was a huge barrier inside myself to accept lightly David’s choice…<br />
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So it took me long time and tens of turns of the pages from its more than 400 leaves tome to cope with my resistance…<br />
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That time came with the help of the author, who suddenly explained it all: </div>
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<i>“Sniper skills are next to useless to us, of course, unless we can metaphorically bottle them and transfer elsewhere”</i><br />
<br />
Later, long into the book he makes it even clearer: <br />
<br />
<i>"The aim of this book is not so much to uncover the overlaps between all the different activities people engage in and then connect the dots between them to draw a picture of the mind's ability to perform at seemingly unhuman levels. That would be pointless. Everything uncovered, documented, itemized, and explained is designed to give us a chapter-by-chapter skill set to work upon, improving our own capabilities, acquiring new ones, changing our mind-set so that we are no longer ruled by circumstance, we are no longer blindly reacting to events around us and are capable of taking positive action to make our own decisions and control our own destiny"</i><br />
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<br />
So here we are, reading about the snipers’ experiences in their battlefields. We are able to know many by name (like famous John Ethan Place, Craig Harrison or Simo Häyhä and many more), some of others remained anonymous.</div>
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David Amerland deeply analyses the most important skills of great snipers to find that what makes them great is not only related to the military training – in many ways the more important is their ability to control filings and emotions, and act in constructive way in situations where most of us would be, at least, demotivated. We discover, through their experience, that it is impossible to draw a boundary between the mind and the body – the lesson frequently forget today…<br />
<br />
All this has lots to do with the working of our brains. The book is full of references to neuroscience and psychology (can’t forget great references to the works of Amy Cuddy or David Eagleman). What I liked the most are the references to the meditation techniques, Zen and Vedic Sanskrit teaching (including the great: <i>“Yad bhavam tad bhavati” – “You become. As you think”</i>). In one of the Appendixes to the book the author gives the simple, yet effective lesson of meditation. We are frequently reminded in the book about the “other” dimension of our consciousness: <i>“I listened to the silence of my mind”</i> – comes from one former SEAL sniper.<br />
<br />
All this relates to our, “normal” lives. I specifically made the word quoted, as in today’s business (and frequently – our private life) environments, nothing is normal anymore - and what we need, is exactly the strength of character and an ability to focus to the absolute maximum – to empower ourselves and the others – to create <i>“a motivational platform”</i> upon which we can build and grow and avoid <i>“excessive worries”</i> and <i>“negative outcomes”</i>. (Now I quote the concept from the book and syndromes it helps to dispel). <br />
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The book has interesting and repetitive structure, which helps to understand how a given facet of snipers’ experiences translates to a “Business Cases” and which skills of the snipers form an “Acquisition List” we could apply to our business activities.<br />
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There is a sentence in the book that perhaps makes this review complete:<br />
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<i>"Because of the complexity of each of us as individuals is a microcosm of the world around us, the first battle we fight which we need to win is always with ourselves"</i><br />
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And with this quote, which so beautifully summarizes the central David’s Amerland message, I end my review. <br />
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I strongly recommend the book to all who understand how difficult is to be active in business today and who need support, guidance and examples …</div>
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<i>Amazon.com: <a href="https://davidamerland.com/">DAVID AMERLAND</a> helps multi-national clients and start-ups to organize their SEO and Social Media strategies. He is a business journalist, author and international speaker. He blogs about social media and search engine optimization, writes for a number of prominent websites including Forbes, and advises corporations on their social media crisis management techniques. His books on SEO, Social Media and web trends demystify the complexity of the subjects they cover for readers around the world.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i>Mirek Sopek</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i>Lodz, Poland, February 18, 2018</i></span></div>
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Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-13079343152587846212018-01-09T22:18:00.000+01:002018-01-10T07:19:24.160+01:00Alternative reality of (some) young people in Poland ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Not long time ago I got into a fierce arguments with some young men and
women on Facebook. The dialog was in English, because it started from my
comment about the <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/455040/eurocrat-attacks-anti-pluralist-polish-government-hypocritical" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">article</span></a> on the wall of some prominent
Eurosceptic who, for a while, was an advisor to some Eurosceptic minister
for foreign affairs of Poland.<br />
<br />
One young man, in a typical manner to many young people, called me
moron, uneducated and an enemy of Poland. He used mudslinging
language to speak about many Polish politicians and journalists.<br />
<br />
Normally, I should stop answering and ignore the hothead. However, in
the course of the discussion he used arguments that are so frequently used
today by the right-wing populist government to justify their crackdown on the
democratic institutions in Poland, that I decided to refute some of them. <br />
<br />
I do not expect these hotheads to change their mind - my experience tells me
that once they fall into the false realm and the alternative reality - they
stay there. However, I feel moral obligation to refute the crazy fallacies.
Perhaps my silent voice will be noticed by some people …<br />
<br />
<b>Fallacy No 1</b> - The majority of judges (14/15) of the previous
Constitutional Tribunal (before the unconstitutional changes made by PiS (Law and Justice - ruling right-wing party) in
December 2015) were "appointed by PO". Liberal "PO",
The Civic Platform was in power for 8 years in Poland, now is in
opposition.<br />
<br />
First, Constitutional Tribunal Judges are appointed by Polish Parliament.
The legal system does not allow any other bodies to appoint judges (in some
other jurisdiction such possibilities exist). So a political party can not
appoint them. However, as the judges are recommended by the MPs and the
MPs belong to specific parties or parliamentary clubs, if someone wants to
prove that a judge is political, the one can find who recommended him
(which group or club) and use the recommendation as a surrogate of "the
appointment". This is of course a very twisted argument. <br />
So, if we want to dig deeper, the only remaining resource to corroborate
the suspected judge's "affiliation" is to look into the voting on
that judge and see if she/he was appointed by the parliamentary majority or
indeed only by the party or a coalition that recommended her/him.<br />
<br />
Following the <a href="https://blogobywatelskiegorozwoju.pl/kto-wybieral-sedziow-trybunalu-konstytucyjnego/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">resource</span></a>, I have computed the
percentages of votes that were cast for some selected prominent judges of the
previous court:<br />
Prof. Leon Kieres - 79%<br />
Prof. Andrzej Wróbel - 56%<br />
Prof. Małgorzata Pyziak-Szafnicka - 58%<br />
Stanisław Rymar - 47%<br />
Prof. Marek Zubik - 47%<br />
Prof. Piotr Tuleja - 81%<br />
Prof. Sławomirę Wronkowską-Jaśkiewicz - 97%<br />
Prof. Stanisław Biernat - 63%<br />
Prof. Andrzej Rzepliński - 52%<br />
<br />
What is important in my calculation is that I computed the percentages of
the approving votes to the total number of MPs (while, perhaps, I should
use the number of voting MPs in any given voting - what would result in much
higher scores - I just wanted to minimise the bias)<br />
<br />
So what we see, is that in only two of nine cases, the judges were elected
with the percentages of votes below 50% of all MPs.<br />
<br />
One could ask - so where was the argument of these sceptics coming
from? As I wrote above, their first fallacy is to substitute "recommendation"
by "appointment". <br />
<br />
However, what they also forgot to tell is that the current majority (PiS)
was basically not recommending judges to Tribunal even when they could. They
started doing so only after they changed the law and allowed for
non-constitutional changes of the Tribunal rule... Why they did not do so - I
do not know. Perhaps they did not have "loyal" judges or whom they
had was like Mrs. Julia Przyłębska (who passed her exams low and was (in
2001) negatively recommended for a position at a local court)? To the
horror of many, such undereducated judge became later the ... president of the
Constitutional Court...<br />
<br />
<b>Fallacy No 2. </b>The judges were corrupt and were exonerating each
other.<br />
<br />
This fallacy was officially presented by Mr. Morawiecki - Polish Prime
Minister and was already rejected by the Supreme Court after the accusations
by the minister. I translated it already to English and published <a href="http://sopekmir.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-statement-of-polands-supreme-court.html%20%C2%A0" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>. Despite the call by judges, Mr.
Morawiecki did not make any substance to this claims. Well, it was always
possible, that some isolated judges or persecutors were corrupt. It happens
everywhere. However, Poland was known to fight the corruption on all levels of
the system, including the judiciary. As I'm seasoned businessman and scientist
here for the last almost 30 years, I witnessed how gradually the
corruption was going away from our life. We made remarkable progress, and it is
visible in the constant growth of indexes of <a href="https://www.transparency.org/country/POL" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">transparency</span></a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Fallacy No. 3</b> - around 75% of all Polish media outlets are
owned by Germans.<br />
<br />
This argument is now more and more often risen in the official media.
To me it is a signal that the ruling party will attempt the crackdown on the
free media, and it is easy to "sell" such a step saying "75% is
owned by Germans". <br />
<br />
<b>What is the reality then?</b> <br />
<br />
When we speak about television, we have no German owner in any of the
10 most important outlets. The market is divided into Polish and American
capital (with Scripps Networks Interactive as the most important non-polish
player owning 4 out of 10 outlets). However, if you calculate the percentage of
viewers - you get the number close to 30% of the audience watching "American
owned" outlets. And I do not even need to tell to reasonable
people, that they do not really represent "American interests"
in their messages ...<br />
<br />
When we analyse the press, first come daily
newspapers. Here, after polish owned press (55%) we
indeed have German-Swiss capital with... 43% of the titles' readers. When we
analyse weekly journals, the majority (80%) is in polish hands, with only
Newsweek (20%) belongs to German-Swiss owners.<br />
<br />
Now, comes The Radio....<br />
Here, only one family (RMF) is in "German hands" with about 26% of
the listeners. About 15% is in "French hands" and all the rest in
"Polish hands"...<br />
<br />
Finally let's see the digital media (internet portals). Here we have
about 44% in "German" and "German-swiss" hands, and
everything else is shared between polish (40%) and American owners
(16%) .<br />
<br />
So, where the claim about "75% of media outlets" comes from?<br />
It is just a pure fantasy...<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion</b><br />
<br />
There are many people, who are totally blind to the facts and the reality.
They became so anti-EU that it sounds really dangerous. <br />
<br />
In one totally amazing case, a young woman wrote that "EU gave us
Biedronka" (Biedronka /The Ladybird - is the low cost stores network), and
forgot about the open boarders, ability to do business all across Europe, free
travels and ability to leave, invest, learn and teach in so many
countries... <br />
<br />
I marvel how totally blind are those people.<br />
<br />
In another case, I had a person who (I mentioned him above here) who was a
consultant to the Polish ministry of Foreign affairs... Can you
imagine that? In this case I think it is not just stupidity and empty naivety.
This is just open hostility and hatred to the brave Polish people, disguised as
the "truth telling" agent ... BTW, this minister was just dismissed
by its own political friends, so that guy I refer to is no more than a laughing
stock now...<br />
<br />
Enough. God: have mercy on us…<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Sources</b><br />
<br />
https://www.money.pl/gospodarka/wiadomosci/artykul/media-w-polsce-do-kogo-nalezy-prasa-,138,3,1988746.html
<br />
<br />
https://blogobywatelskiegorozwoju.pl/kto-wybieral-sedziow-trybunalu-konstytucyjnego/<br />
<br />
http://trybunal.gov.pl/en/ <br />
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Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10197622.post-10206075189931911382017-12-31T14:58:00.003+01:002018-01-07T14:55:37.112+01:00Hundreds against several - the open letter of more than 2500 polish scientists against 15 supporters of the government ...The original Polish & English translation can be find here: <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/slpnp2016/">https://sites.google.com/site/slpnp2016/</a> <br />
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"Recently, 15 Polish scientists have written a letter to Frans Timmermans, criticizing triggering Article 7
against the Polish government. <br />
We respect anyone's right to voice their opinion. We also respect those
who signed the letter—many are our colleagues and teachers. However, we find the key claims of the letter
unfounded and its language deeply divisive, even offensive. The purpose of the present statement is to make
clear that a significant part of the Polish academic world rejects the accusations and innuendos contained in
the letter, as well as its hostile tenor.
The main claim of the letter is that European Union is trying to "overthrow our democratically elected
government" , in order to destroy the strong Polish democracy, so as to be able to govern Poles and other
European nations, using "a totalitarian social engineering" of political correctness and to keep supporting a
host of "domestic and international thieves". Another reason is Polish government's refusal to admit refugees
and, especially, the Polish "freedom of beliefs perhaps the most hated by the EU officials" .
These grave charges were made with virtually no justification. They are supported only by sweeping statements like "our current judiciary system represented nothing but a self-protecting postcommunist organization". At the same time, the authors implore their "friends from academia and beyond" (in a letter addressed
to Mr. Timmermans) to "think whether you have some serious grounds to believe your media. What if they
lie?". In reality, there are absolutely no grounds to believe the main statements of the letter. The claim
that the EU hates Polish freedom of belief and is trying to destroy it is preposterous. The opening criticism
"It is strange by itself, that these EU personalities, themselves just appointed - not elected, love so much
democracy" is an attempt at irony but comes out as a clumsy insult. The authors present no legal arguments or expertise, beyond a vague statement that "the proposed changes in our judiciary system are the same or
are very similar to those, which exist in other Western countries systems for decades".
In view of the international political situation, and of the Polish geographical position, it is of utmost
importance for Poland to remain one of the key EU states, and for this it is imperative to treat the statements
by the EU authorities seriously. We regret to conclude that our colleagues decided to put their signatures
under a letter of dubious quality, containing standard propaganda slogans instead of arguments, written
tenuously, inaccurately and aggresively. We want to make clear that we do not support its contents, its
hostility or its awkward style. Statements on important political subjects should be argued carefully and
we are supporting the idea of such a discussion. Making arbitrary accusations, regardless of one's political
views, is harmful for the community, for Poland and for Europe."<br />
<br />
I have also signed the letter.<br />
<i>Mirek Sopek</i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">PS. The photo I used here was made by AFP Photo/Wojtek Radwanski (from https://www.yahoo.com/news/thousands-protest-against-polish-government-control-state-media-164547203.html)</span><br />
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<br />Mirek Sopekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12963740104952528135noreply@blogger.com0