The Metaphysics of Utopia and Ideology

  Take the Advice of Angels: Settle for the Lamb of Pride In this post I will comment on the narrative that the Russian-Ukraine war is being deliberately extended by Russia. This narrative assumes that a speedy victory for Ukraine and by extension the Western alliance is for NATO and the West to exponentially increase the level of supply of weapons and munitions flowing into Ukraine. This narrative does not countenance the possibility of an inclusive peace process that includes Russia as a vested partner in a peaceful resolution. I will discuss several recent attempts by Global South countries to come up with inclusive peace plans which unfortunately don’t appear to have had much success. Ukraine is currently trying to convince some key Global South countries to accept its own peace proposals without including Russia in the discussions. At the heart of all of this is a moral dilemma confronting the parties to this war. They have a choice between continued and escalating warfa...

  Questions concerning the potency of European Union’s Code of Practice on Disinformation. In this post I will discuss the European Union’s Code of Practice on Disinformation (hereafter referred to as the Code of Practice ) and how it relates to what is termed Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) such as Twitter. In the last month or so there has been much finger pointing and moral indignation on the part of the mainstream media with respect to Twitter and its alleged disregard for the Code of Practice. Much of this narrative echoes the European Unions (EU) rhetoric concerning the consequences for Twitter if it does not comply with the voluntary Code of Practice within the context of the European Parliaments (EP) enactment of the Digital Services Act (DSA). I will attempt to untangle the rhetoric and apparent dichotomy in the narrative and answer the question of how enforceable the rules enacted under the DSA in practice. I will begin by describing how an influential reader fu...

In the mix of things is the secret ingredient of leadership sufficient? On May 23, 2023 the government funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) published an analytical piece entitled: Leadership is Ukraine's secret ingredient in war with Russia . This article is written by Major General Mick Ryan (retired); hereafter referred to as Mr. Ryan. Mr. Ryan writes his analysis in the context of the Russian-Ukraine war. In the article he describes a general theory of how civilian and military leaderships can co-operate in times of war. I will call this theory Mr. Ryan’s War Leadership Model . Mr. Ryan’s analysis is overly simple and misleading as it does not take into account the full complexity of the interactions between aspects of warfare and politics and economics that happen in war time as is the case with the Russian-Ukraine war. In my post I am going to analyse the War Leadership Model outlined by Mr. Ryan in order to judge its merits on the basis of the broader geopol...