paul van der walt via nettime-l on Thu, 28 Dec 2023 12:47:30 +0100 (CET)


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Re: <nettime> the silence on the rising fascism 

Hey,

Just wanted to chime in on something you said Brian, bit of a tangent maybe,

On 2023-12-27 at 23:55 -05, quoth Brian Holmes via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>:
> Humanity is something that no one simply has by nature. Humanity is something that one must strive for, recover, repair, remake in every generation. There are no "just wars" - that is a self-serving and dangerous illusion. The only dignity is to break the silence in one's own self, and use the tragic consciousness of unjust violence and murder most foul as a force for ceasefire and negotiation.

This reminds me of "The Invention of Humanity" by Siep Stuurman (which is a thick tome i admit i have only read about half of) which broadly traces the history of the genesis of the idea/awareness of "common humanity" and it's development from ancient societies through to the Renaissance.  He argues quite persuasively that, as you point out, the concept of "humanity" (and the realisation that "the other" in various contexts also is imbued with shared humanity) is anything but a "natural" state of affairs.  I guess that strengthens the argument that a populace should be provided a strong grounding in civics, since it's hard work indeed, to achieve a state of humanity.
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