Notions

   "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." Franklin D. Roosevelt Coincidence, serendipity, and seriality - as described by the coincidence collector Paul Kammerer - do not explain politics. Nor do they explain the media. Several articles were published regarding an earthquake that hit Iran on October 5 and theories as to whether that was actually a nuclear test run by Iran. An earthquake, measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale, was recorded in Aradan County in Semnan Province. The timing of the seismic activity and the location "made people link it to Iran's nuclear programme and ask if the Islamic country was close to getting its own nuclear weapon" as per media articles. Although earthquakes are normal in that geographical area, the timing of the natural phenomena was put at doubt by a skeptic, conspiratorial,  and weary media coverage. CIA Director William Burns said yesterday that there was no evidence that

  Since October 7, 2023, epistemicide by the media and online influencers has been on the rise. Epistemicide, which is the systematic destruction of rival forms of knowledge, is evident. The mass-murder of Gazans, and the destruction of their livelihoods, schools, communities, universities, heath centers, and cultural and religious centers all contribute to the death of Gazans as spokespeople and knowledge producers of their own history and being. Coupled with radical, misinformed social media influencers, attempting to both justify the Israeli aggression and negating any Gazan narrative, the process is gradual, but guaranteed. The process of denying existence as a nation, as a people, as a community with a distinguished and proper culture and history, and right to exist. It is a process that aims to eradicate the concept of non-citizen, as Gazans have been since 1948, where, in Tendayi Bloom’s words, the absence of citizenship and the livelihood of people despite the system are also

Strategy, according to Liddell Hart, as inspired by Sun Tzu, is the art of distributing and employing military means to fulfill the ends of policy. The ends of policy were not a military responsibility but rather handed down from the level of grand strategy, where all instruments of policy were weighed, one against the other, and where it was necessary to look beyond the war to the subsequent peace. It remains unclear what the exact policy that Israeli policy makers are championing, as it shifts and reorganizes professed priorities continuously. Yet, what appears to the average spectator is that 15,000 deaths and 45,000 casualties is collateral damage Israel is willing to accept as part of its policy, its strategy, and end goal. Of what and why? To free hostages? Rid Gazans from tyrants? Achieve security in the immediate vicinity? Crush "human animals" and nuke them? Which is it? The conflicting statements by Israeli officials and the brutal actions taken by the military fee

That is what Satan said, when he (presumably) stood undaunted and remained a dedicated opponent to the tyranny of Heaven. Reigning, irrespective of the underlying conditions, is the essence of sovereignty, which still echoes loudly in most parts of the world. No level of economic distress or isolation could dilute its intensity. Poverty can be and is endured, if not even embraced, by many nations that do not fear an empty belly.  On September 22, China offered to help reconstruct Syria with he formation of a strategic partnership. Chinese leader Xi Jinping's diction was carefully selected: “China supports Syria’s opposition to foreign interference, unilateral bullying … and will support Syria’s reconstruction.” Western sanctions on Syria have been steadily tightened since the beginning of the a civil war in 2011 with a crackdown on protests and went on to kill hundreds of thousands of people and displace millions. Essentially,  the 2020 Caesar Act freezes the assets of anyone deali

Tunisian voters began casting their votes in a second round of parliamentary elections that took place last month.  The mayhem and political turmoil that Tunisia has been through do not promise a safe retraction to democracy. The new parliament will have very few powers, as it cannot, for example, dismiss the president or hold him accountable. The president has priority in proposing bills. The new constitution does not require that the government appointed by the president obtain the confidence of parliament. The participation rate is the main measure of the success of the election, which the opposition boycotts in light of the political and economic crisis afflicting the country. The electoral campaign appeared lackluster, as a limited number of electoral banners hung in the streets and on the roads presenting candidates, most of whom are unknown to the Tunisian public. In an attempt to introduce them in a better way, the Independent High Authority for Elections sought to organize deb

In philosophy, freedom is usually examined as a property of the will. It is as an ethical ideal or normative principle, perhaps as the most vital such principle. In its simplest sense, freedom means to do as one wishes or act as one chooses. As John Locke defined it, it is the freedom to life, freedom, and property. Only anarchists, who reject all forms of political authority as unnecessary and undesirable, are prepared to endorse unlimited freedom. A license is agreed as a necessary vice. The question remains is regarding which freedoms are we willing to approve, and which ones are we justified in curtailing. John Stuart Mill departed from utilitarianism and recognized individuality, proposing a clear distinction between ‘self-regarding’ actions and ‘other regarding’ actions. When harm is involved, then a license is necessary. Which begs the question: what is harm? Physical or moral? It is argued that governments should similarly be restricted to a ‘minimal’ role, amounting in p

  Politics is power. Quite simply, power is politics, politics is power. As Ball notes, `power is arguably the single most important organising concept in social and political theory'. The concept of power links it to the ability to achieve a desired outcome, sometimes referred to as power to. The concept of power has long been studied by political thinkers: For Machiavelli, power is an end in itself, and whatever means are necessary for a prince to acquire and maintain political power are justified. Thomas Hobbes however saw that competition for goods of life becomes a struggle for power because without power one cannot retain what one has acquired. One cannot retain power without acquiring more power. German sociologist Max Webber linked power of authority and rules, and focused on structures and bureaucracy. Robert Dahl continues Weber’s approach, both in the definition of power and in the attribution of it to a concrete human factor.   In “The Concept of Power” (1957), Dahl d