Philosophy Wire: Brazil, people, money...

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Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-07-04]: People in Brazil protest against the cost of the coming World Cup that the country will host. [source: BBC News] Never before was the needs of the many (who by default are governed) so incompatible with the needs of the few (who by default govern)...

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Philosophy Wire: Associated Press, illusions, freedom...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-05-15]:

Associated Press news agency accuses US government of logging the phone calls of some of its members, who were investigating a CIA operation. [source: web news] We want to believe in the freedom of Press. We want to believe in the illusion of freedom. We want to feel surprised when we read such news. I dream of a world free. A world free from "freedom" (Loci).

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Philosophy Wire: Google, ITU, UN and the popular myth of "Free Internet"...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2012-11-22]:

Google has asked web users to add their name to an online petition to support its view regarding the upcoming ITU conference on the future of Internet. "The [UN agency] International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is bringing together regulators from around the world to renegotiate a decades-old communications treaty," it wrote on its Take Action site."Some proposals could permit governments to censor legitimate speech - or even allow them to cut off internet access. Other proposals would require services like YouTube, Facebook, and Skype to pay new tolls in order to reach people across borders. This could limit access to information - particularly in emerging markets". Google added that it was concerned that "only governments have a voice at the ITU" and not companies or others who had a stake in the net, concluding that the World Conference on International Telecommunications (Wcit) was "the wrong place" to make decisions about the internet's future. [source: BBC News]

If you ask me, the Internet was and will be controlled by someone. The myth of "free Internet" is one of the greatest myths of all times. The Internet was created by a government and by a specific state. That state (US) controls the basic infrastructure of the Internet for many many years now. And that is logical. Why wouldn't you control something YOU created?!? Now Google is "concerned" because it might start loosing the control she has started gaining with its popular search engine. Google controls what we see and it surely does not want someone else pulling the strings in their field of expertise. Google, UN, US... Whatever. In the long run, someone will always control the Internet. The Internet is not "free". We just have to accept it.

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Philosophy Wire: Politics–All it takes is common sense…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2012-06-13]: European ministers have agreed upon persuading their fishermen not to throw into the sea the fish they accidentally catch – a practice which leads thousands of tons of fish to be dumped every year [source: web news]. Do not throw away the fish you fish. A rule which is indeed too difficult to think if, has been at last mastered by the EU and its leaders…

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Philosophy Wire: Greece, Common Sense…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-05-15]:

 

“No nation is required to be ingenius, but no nation can exist without common sense. And the common sense for a nation is the existence of a government”

 

Athens, 8 November 1885,

 

Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos

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Philosophy Wire: Belgium, anarchy and state philosophy illusions...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-03-31]: Belgium still has no government, breaking every record of anarchy (even that of Iraq). What happens in the country that had recently undertaken the EU Presidency is very important from a philosophical point of view: what hitherto everyone imagined as being critical (i.e. the existence of an elected government), is proved useless. In Belgium, life goes on, the caretaker government passes new laws, decides on the bombing of Libya, issued government bonds, voted the budget. Praxis often exceeds theory in a way so simple, that every philosopher would envy...

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Philosophy Wire: Libya, International Law and the limits of foreign country intervention for the protection of human rights...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-02-26]: The international community is imposing sanctions to Libya, while thoughts of NATO intervention are lingering in the "air"... In the context of "International Law", every "civilized" (western) leader is ready to intervene in a foreign country in order to defend "human rights". But what are these human rights? Is the self-determination a "human right"? Is the right to "conduct civil" war a human right of a country's peoples? Would we like our neighbor to come into our house when he hears a fight? Would we like "aliens" to intervene during the Second World War? What constitues a "war crime", that may give the right of NATO to invade legally sovereign countries? If today the international community has the "right" to intervene in Libya due to the "unjust massacre" of protesters there, we should also consider answering the question: is there a "just massacre"? How many western leaders now crying for "justice", had been going out for dinner with Gadhafi only months ago? The limits of "international law" are based on many definitions. And definitions are always subjective...

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