group dynamic?

On reading of another deadline passing in which to prevent catastrophic climate change I began to consider the possibility that our collective structures evolve at an alarmingly slow rate in relation to the minds of their constituent members, this being the case, we must consider that groups intelligence is not in fact an amplification of individual will/wills, but rather a separate consciousness and one possessing alarmingly infantile tendencies: violent self interest, inability to empathise and lack of foresight to name just a few.


Has this been the problem for transcendent systems that require a maturity not only on the part of the individual but on the part of the group; is it possible that the failure of the last centuries revolutions was due not to a deficit between political aspiration and individual self interest but an immaturity on the part of the state itself? An immaturity that then fed down to the individual, a feedback that aggravated the counter revolutionary tendencies already present; the cynical gap between propaganda and truth is thus eroded, individuals utilize the most simplistic reading of revolutionary doctrine (reading not easily refuted: as complexity itself is seen as bourgeois).


This brings us to the persistence of capitalism; how is it that we remain tied to a system even though aware that it is dangerously flawed: promoting inequality and destroying the ability of the planet to support humanity? We are often told that capitalism is the most accurate reflection of human nature, is this not again the feedback from a collective mind still in its infancy? We now have the technology to create a genuinely progressive state but we are constantly told that transcendent politics leads to brutal dictatorship, the truth is that while we have individually matured to the degree that we can perceive the problems we face, collectively we are still trapped in an infantile matrix, what is more due to the advanced nature of communications the feedback from our collective self is now eroding the very ability of individuals to transcend our condition. There has always been paradigmatic space between the collective body and the individual, perversely the danger arises when we see the state as accurately reflecting our will; for at this point our aspirations have reduced to the simplistic self interest of the juvenile group mindset.

on unfair exchange

on hearing the news that isreal was to exchange 1000 palestinian prisoners for a single i.d.f soldier i must confess my first reaction was: my god what an uneven exchange how unlike the isreali administration we have come to know and love. indeed the rhetoric surrounding the exchange alludes to something akin to an outburst of groundbreaking benevolence and long term pragmatism for so long absent from this arena, could this be the kick start the peace process requires and has thus far been so lacking? it was not long however before i found myself cynically searching for an underlying motive in this unexpected turn of events; the conclusion i have reached is that the true purpose of the exchange is the radical devaluing of not only the palestinian state but more ominously the very humanity of the individual palestinian. the first thing to appreciate is that this exchange was inevitable; politically the corrosive effect of abandoned soldiers is highly undesirable for the administration and a boon for the kidnappers, that being the case the question then becomes how to resolve the issue without losing too much political capital. perversely an even exchange would set up by far the most dangerous precedent as it creates a rational basis for the capture and release of soldiers: once established such a framework is incredibly difficult and costly to dismantle. the second option that of an uneven exchange of a magnitude of 2/1,3/1... would lead to accusations of weakness on the part of the administration and could also maybe begin to set another precedent as above. having accepted these points and the necessity of the making some form of trade the isreali government cannily opted for an almost ridiculous ratio, one that cannot be seen to set a precedent as non would expect any isreali government to repeat an exchange on this level, thereby to some degree nullifying the value of further hostage taking by declaring its response to be arbitrary and unpredictable. a useful byproduct of this action is the international adulation that has accompanied this; isreal has long proved itself adept at managing the discourse in relation to the occupied territories and in this instance the celebratory mood in gaza actually plays into the hands of those on the right of the isreali administration.

for these reasons far from being an act of benevolence the release, represents the cynical maximization of emotional and political capital and the regressive dehumanization of the palestinian subject. this dehumanization is explicit in the qualitative value placed on an individual palestinian life: put simply 1 isreali is worth 1000 palestinians. this is the value in exchange and by inference this is the value in life should a palestinian kill an isreali. such dispropotionality is cosistanly employed in the occupied terrotories and in this extraordinary exchange of prisoners; the isreali state has further normalized a diminution of human worth as regards the citizens of palestine