Recent student protests in Zagreb and Belgrade put forth the same proposition; free higher education. Not free as in freedom, as I hoped, but free as in “free beer”. Although I support the students in their protest against the society that has turned everything upside-down, I feel that there is a lack of something in students’ demands, and that has to do something with this “free as in freedom” thing that Richard M. Stallman coined for Free Software Foundation and “free as in free beer”, where the student requests mostly ended up. I do not intend to make some logical common ground between the Free Software Foundation and student protests in capitals of Croatia and Serbia, but there is a striking similarity between what happened with development of GNU (GNU’s not UNIX) as a entirely “free as in freedom” computer operating system and with the rise of Linux, as something that is similar, but not entirely what it was supposed to be, and closer to “free as in free beer” or better to say “free as in one free beer”. The level of freedom that Richard Stallman envisioned for GNU exceeds the level of freedom intended for Linux by Linus Torvalds many, many times. Due to the need to dumb the concept down to the level where it would be understood by all programmers as something viable, it was necessary to take the latter path. The whole story of GNU and Linux is explained HERE.
The demands for free education by University of Belgrade and University of Zagreb students equally stressed the fallacies of Bologna Declaration and standardization of higher education at the European level. This is true in my opinion. Recent student protests in Germany showed the same problem of turning higher education in something more similar to trade schools, trying to enroll as many students as possible to cover the expenses. But this is a question of quality, raised by Germans. The question raised by students in Balkans is the one of quantity - something where the idea of a free and open operating system is replaced by an idea of something that is supposed to run free of charge, as a combination of free and proprietary, released under various licenses, just enough to keep it running. It is a question of quantity and dispersion, rather than quality and integration. The expressed desire here is to have a free operating system of higher education that will use a very proprietary Bologna Declaration as a framework for duration of study and formal study requirements, where there will be a constant need to push students through college in order to satisfy the statistic of the “society of knowledge” paradigm – which is very corporate and proprietary in the core, connecting European higher education to corporate needs.
There is also a very obvious credentialist tendency present here, with the expressed student demand to lower the threshold for entry in graduate studies and to get master’s degrees in the undergraduate cycle of study, which initiated the student protests in Serbia a year ago. Now, this has nothing to do with free education! This is a very open abuse of the philosophy behind the free operating system of higher education. Using images from the past in mediating the reminders (mediated reminder!) from the 1968 student protests through Che Guevara t-shirts and anarchist symbolism, is the same misconception as thinking that you’re one step closer to freedom when using some of the latest Linux distributions with non-free software included. These are dead reminders, because they don't remind anyone of the essence of 1968 student struggle for humanized higher education in the world. The request should then be “education at a lower cost”, not “free education”. Czech Republic has good higher education at a low cost. If we are talking about the freedom, we are talking about the free operating system in its entirety. If you want to be free from the commercialization, refuse the Bologna Process as a process of commercialization! But how will it be possible to finish school earlier, with less work, with continuous testing and without integral oral exams after the course, and get into graduate school immediately? It will not. How will it be possible to shut up the teaching assistant, lecturer or professor with sheer ignorance, lack of interest for reading and that mean and silent threat of teacher evaluation? It will not be possible! The free operating system is free in its entirety and the teacher is free as well.
C.D. Broad said it best:
"It is to be feared that Spinoza would not have been enlightened enough to appreciate the beneficent system of the Ph.D. degree, introduced into English universities as a measure of post-war propaganda, whereby the time and energy of those who are qualified to do research are expended in supervising the work of those who never will be."
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
The Seventh Continent
The third film in the "mediated reminder" connection (now it's a connection, like the French Connection) is "The Seventh Continent" by Dusan Vukotic. It's a 1966 Yugoslav-Czechoslovakian feature film in which a group of children discover the new continent of the world, uninhabited by adults. Soon, many other children are joining them in that new paradise, leaving their parents and other adults baffled on all remaining continents. (IMDB)
This is a film with a strong message of internationalism and solidarity, not in its dialogues but in its perfect imagery in Eastmancolor, which makes it a great cinematic piece. But, there is a problem with this film. It is nowhere to be found! If Graf Oderland can't find it somewhere in NYC, I'm sentenced to living in a memory of a great movie that I saw only once in a cinema as a kid, without seeing it again. This may lead me into making all sorts of constructions and fantasies in my quest for the holy mediated reminder, and I may miss the point!
Besides making this feature presentation, Vukotic was the most significant representative of Zagreb School of Animated Film. He won many prizes, including an Oscar for best animated short in 1961 for Surogat ("Ersatz"), being the first foreigner to do so. Another of his films, Igra ("The Game"), was nominated for an Academy Award in 1964. (Wikipedia)
At least "The Surogat" and "Cow on the Moon" can be seen online:
This is a film with a strong message of internationalism and solidarity, not in its dialogues but in its perfect imagery in Eastmancolor, which makes it a great cinematic piece. But, there is a problem with this film. It is nowhere to be found! If Graf Oderland can't find it somewhere in NYC, I'm sentenced to living in a memory of a great movie that I saw only once in a cinema as a kid, without seeing it again. This may lead me into making all sorts of constructions and fantasies in my quest for the holy mediated reminder, and I may miss the point!
Besides making this feature presentation, Vukotic was the most significant representative of Zagreb School of Animated Film. He won many prizes, including an Oscar for best animated short in 1961 for Surogat ("Ersatz"), being the first foreigner to do so. Another of his films, Igra ("The Game"), was nominated for an Academy Award in 1964. (Wikipedia)
At least "The Surogat" and "Cow on the Moon" can be seen online:
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Call for Understanding
These days a friend of mine, German sociologist Bodo Weber, published a very important article about the looming political disaster and very possible outbreak of ethnic violence in my country. Bodo is an area expert for Balkans and a senior associate of the Democratization Policy Council - a global initiative for accountability in democracy promotion. This article is one of the few remaining calls for solidarity on a larger scale and for a joint effort to correct the errors made by international politics in Bosnia. Solidarity through understanding and awareness is what Bodo advocates, and I am grateful for a voice that tries to understand the planetary human trapped in the vicious circle of ethnic interpretation of Bosnia's problems – which is the European interpretation, and now also a part of a growing «the hell with it» sentiment in American foreign policy. It is important to see that this call for understanding has a history. Deeply rooted intellectual history, connected with the problem of Europe as whole, and Europe aware of the world.
In the 1990s Bodo was the editor of the German student magazine «Perspektiven» from Frankfurt/Main, which saw the light of day some time in 1989. It covered the topics of the emancipation movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The attempt of editors was to promote the feeling of international solidarity among students, especially for «adequate distribution of wealth».
What serves here as a reminder is the editorial from the first issue.
"So versteht sich PERSPEKTIVEN auch als Forum für eine Wiederaufnahme der Diskussion um den Internationalismus-Begriff, dessen Konturen seit den späten 70er Jahren zunehmend unscharf geworden sind. Die Arbeit der Redaktion läßt sich von der festen Überzeugung leiten, daß Chancen auf Änderung nur dann bestehen, wenn auf breiter Ebene die unmittelbaren Zusammenhänge zwischen schier grenzenlosem Wohlstand und entwürdigem Mangel bewußt gemacht und in der Folge endlich die überfälligen politischen und wirtschaftlichen Konsequenzen gezogen werden."
Which, roughly translated, is:
«Perspektiven are understood as a forum for reinstatement of discussion about the reach of internationalism, whose shapes have become blurred since the late 1970s. The editorial work is led by a belief that the chances for change exist only when the direct relationship between seemingly unlimited wealth and disgracing deficiency is made aware at a larger scale, leading eventually to political and economic consequences.»
Source: Perspektiven, Editorial 1/2 1989, 2
«...whose shapes have become blurred since the late 1970s.» This is an important meme, and there is a deeper meaning to it. Not only in terms of the paradigm change at the end of 1970s, but in terms of awareness and solidarity at a larger scale. Was it first lost in theory or in practice? This meme was a mediated reminder in 1989. It resonated back then and it resonates now. It is a part of the awareness that things were different beyond one point in time, the gestalt of which is blurred, somewhere on the horizon of history. I am still unable to find anything deeper than these mediated reminders, which I have introduced in my previous posts as a category in a lack of a better reference, but there is an entire language behind them. This is not apophenia. There is a planetary language behind this! Traces of this language are in the call that Bodo made. Is there anybody to read between the lines and recognize it? Or at least become AWARE of it?
In the 1990s Bodo was the editor of the German student magazine «Perspektiven» from Frankfurt/Main, which saw the light of day some time in 1989. It covered the topics of the emancipation movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The attempt of editors was to promote the feeling of international solidarity among students, especially for «adequate distribution of wealth».
What serves here as a reminder is the editorial from the first issue.
"So versteht sich PERSPEKTIVEN auch als Forum für eine Wiederaufnahme der Diskussion um den Internationalismus-Begriff, dessen Konturen seit den späten 70er Jahren zunehmend unscharf geworden sind. Die Arbeit der Redaktion läßt sich von der festen Überzeugung leiten, daß Chancen auf Änderung nur dann bestehen, wenn auf breiter Ebene die unmittelbaren Zusammenhänge zwischen schier grenzenlosem Wohlstand und entwürdigem Mangel bewußt gemacht und in der Folge endlich die überfälligen politischen und wirtschaftlichen Konsequenzen gezogen werden."
Which, roughly translated, is:
«Perspektiven are understood as a forum for reinstatement of discussion about the reach of internationalism, whose shapes have become blurred since the late 1970s. The editorial work is led by a belief that the chances for change exist only when the direct relationship between seemingly unlimited wealth and disgracing deficiency is made aware at a larger scale, leading eventually to political and economic consequences.»
Source: Perspektiven, Editorial 1/2 1989, 2
«...whose shapes have become blurred since the late 1970s.» This is an important meme, and there is a deeper meaning to it. Not only in terms of the paradigm change at the end of 1970s, but in terms of awareness and solidarity at a larger scale. Was it first lost in theory or in practice? This meme was a mediated reminder in 1989. It resonated back then and it resonates now. It is a part of the awareness that things were different beyond one point in time, the gestalt of which is blurred, somewhere on the horizon of history. I am still unable to find anything deeper than these mediated reminders, which I have introduced in my previous posts as a category in a lack of a better reference, but there is an entire language behind them. This is not apophenia. There is a planetary language behind this! Traces of this language are in the call that Bodo made. Is there anybody to read between the lines and recognize it? Or at least become AWARE of it?
Deep, Intense Flashes of Meaning
Returning to Graf Oderland's post on Colin Wilson and «peak experiences», I am followed by some deep sense of continuity underlying the blog topics. My recent posts were a sort of reminder for achieving the peak experience. As Wilson puts it, this is a "deep, intense flash of meaning that is easily forgotten the next morning." And it is the case that many of my flashes have faded over night. This I can attribute to layers of factual and historical knowledge in which I oppose the notion of the underlying structure of pure life. Life as an idea, complete in itself. I am aware of this when I think of my factual and historical completeness in the passage of time. It is as if there are two separate individuals, of which one is always the same, and the other one succumbs to the creation of factual and historical superstructures. I do not mean this as assuming some existentialist pose, but more as an awareness of the possibility to return to the actual state of happiness. Individual happiness! This is a mental process, if I understand Wilson, that can be induced voluntarily and can act as a reminder of real, ahistorical life. However, this did not come to my mind until I posted recently on "That Man from Rio" and "Contempt" films. This I understand as a "mediated reminder" for the peak experiences. Another role for the work of art relating to the underlying structure that helps us understand the completeness of being. And this is when it does not fade over night! This understanding comes from a universal language, which I am growingly eager to learn, but more importantly, which I am not afraid to acknowledge, despite my factual and historical self.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
More from the 1960s
It's like Nietzsche said, books will fall off the shelves into your hands. After the last post, I remembered Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film "Le Mepris" (Contempt). Contempt was shot partly at Casa Malaparte in Capri, designed and owned by Italian writer Curzio Malaparte, which is more a sundeck than a house. Casa Malaparte is the object of artistic worship and it is no wonder that you can find the abundance of data about it. But, there is rarely an opportunity to experience the experience of the Casa Malaparte that happened at one particular moment in time. There's a YouTube video that somebody made, with exactly those moments in the movie when Brigitte Bardot walks on the sundeck, with the roof lines stretching to the blue horizon of this cineastic structuralist plain extending above the Gulf of Salerno. Like with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Brasilia, in these sequences the moment in time with the work of art will outlast the work of art itself. This intention is obvious in the film. Were the 1960s more patient with their moments or was it something that was found back then, the underlying structures that were supposed to connect the world into a single experience of the planetary human and extend to the horizon?
Casa Malaparte was abandoned and neglected, later renovated. Regardless of its previous or current state, there is one permanent state of that architectural marvel that will never change, and that is the state of its moment in this cineastic human time that stretches indefinitely. This is the feature of one particular era where the film camera had an eye for it, there was a special lens - some strange naïveté towards the structure. Open and uncritical of the existence of something underlying the time and space of the planetary human.
Casa Malaparte was abandoned and neglected, later renovated. Regardless of its previous or current state, there is one permanent state of that architectural marvel that will never change, and that is the state of its moment in this cineastic human time that stretches indefinitely. This is the feature of one particular era where the film camera had an eye for it, there was a special lens - some strange naïveté towards the structure. Open and uncritical of the existence of something underlying the time and space of the planetary human.
Nascent Brasilia
My God, I can't believe that Oscar Niemeyer is still alive and still involved in diverse projects! He was born in 1907! One can say that the glory of the work of art outlasts the glory of the artist. But in the case of Brasilia, as the capital work of art of Kubitschek, Niemeyer and Lucio Costa, situation is somewhat different. The vision of human in artist's mind at that particular point in history, which are the wonderful structuralist 1960s, will outlast the work of art. A sequence of scenes in 1964 movie "That Man From Rio" with Jean-Paul Belmondo was shot in Brasilia, and the perfect photography in that movie captured the movement of the human body through the architecture like never before and never after! Editing played its role, but there is something in the movie that brings that strange feeling of nostalgia for large-scale human projects. The socialist city is still there to remind me of the roads less travelled. "That Man From Rio" is one of my childhood favorites, but more as a proof in favor of Baudrillard's claim that only the child knows that there is no childhood. What I know now I knew back then! I want to run on the great structuralist plains in the City of the Sun.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
It's been a while
Back on this blog after more than a year! I apologize to my co-blogger for missing that last post from September last year. Technology confuses me a little, and I tend to get totally distracted by something that's new and interesting. I began tweeting on Twitter early this year, and later turned to FaceBook, because that's where the action is. However, that does not mean that I have to totally disappear. Graf Oderland showed some of his fabulous writings here. To honor that, I will continue posting. My co-blogger is blogging elsewhere, but we'll surely meet again here.
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