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"Censorship is the first and the very last refuge of a hollow, schematic, slogan-dependent and rhetorically repetitious bureaucratic operator. Censorship has always been, above all, about silencing valid and informed debate, by means of stopping Thought as such. By means of labelling as 'fringe' and 'conspiracy theory' any idea that is ideologically not 'permitted' by entrenched Powers, even when such ideas readily prove to be 100% correct -- and evidence reveals that the 'entrenched Powers' simply lied and spent billions on mandating the lie." (Frater Thelemus Dissidentus, aka Satiricus, a Principled Anti-Inquisitor).
"The whole point of science is to question accepted dogmas" (Freeman Dyson) The whole point of genuine scholarship NEVER was to impose any given ideology through a crass manipulation of 'Overton Windows'. The core issue of all ages is that: "Ideas, conceptualisations and history may be shut down and cancelled by the command of the ‘masters of dogma’, but the space these intellectual vessels once occupied is still ethereally there -- to rise again in challenge ..." (Alastair Crooke, The Fabric of Reality). Any (pseudo)'Science™' claiming to be 'settled' and 'forever' has ipso facto become mere replication of dogma. Favoured, e.g., by those who have lucrative positions to defend, but nothing new to say. Genuine science (not The Science™), and genuine scholarship, are NEVER 'Settled™'. The Settled™ bit is just a agitprop by the Psych 'Engineering' industries / Mind Alteration Rackets / Guilt-and-Penance Shell-Games. Note, e.g., the 1934 Technocracy Study Course (M. King Hubbard) [1903-1998]) and all the endlessly identical Malthusian / Totalitarian talking points: “Provide a continuous inventory of all production and consumption”; “Provide a specific registration of the type, kind, etc., of all goods and services, where produced and where used”; “Provide specific registration of the consumption of each individual, plus a record and description of the individual'. Basically, Pol-Pot 1976 / Munich 1933 on ideology-steroids. 'Emergency' Powers / Commissariat (Supply) Powers / Year Zero Powers / forever ' 'War Measures Act' / social 'emergency' detention without proof or process / 'whole of society' Totaleinsatz / eternalized Военный коммунизм / Dosadi Experiment. None of is not to be debated, predictably. To resist such 'reframing' one should tactically 'do one's own research' ALWAYS, as systemic anti-Censorship revolt. As in Einstein's humorous jab at Hans Israel, Erich Ruckhaber, Rudolf Weinmann et al., Hundert Autoren gegen Einstein [One Hundred Authors Against Einstein] (Leipzig, R. Voigtländer, 1931.)? “... why did 100 [have to] get together if one that refuted with evidence what I said was already enough …?” An apt jab at typical 'Consensus' / 'Cancel Culture' agitprop. ► Oh, we forgot of course -- humour and satire [and memes] seem to be a fatal danger to all Censors. Juvenal (scrip. c. 100-127 CE) might very easily have said -- and in essence wrote -- the same. As did Marcus Valerius Martialis (c. 38-104 CE). As did Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 - c. 54 BCE). As did Procopius of Caesearea (c.500 – 565 CE). And others. Lampooning the gambit 'if real data don't comply with Party-Truth we'll just change the meaning of words and also rename things, by Royal Decree and Party Mandate -- that'll bring Reality quite in line with OUR emotional and Narrative Truth.' Be a scholar, not a dogma-bot!
"Doubt is clearly a value in the sciences [NB: And in all scholarship; here we diverge from Feynman's "Whether it (i.e. doubt) is (i..e. clearly a value) in other fields is an open question and an uncertain matter". For the PSR, there is no uncertainty regarding the perennial high value of free speech and doubt] … it is very important to doubt, and that doubt is not a fearful thing, but a thing of very great value" (Richard Feynman).
"Never worry about who will be offended if you speak the truth. Worry about who will be misled and deceived if you don’t [speak the truth].” Plus, “Ignorantia juris non excusat" ('ignorance of the Law is no excuse') they say. Thus, quite logically, "Ignorance of History is no excuse" either. Pace all hypocritical , "we did not know, we only did our best [mandate, issue peremptory decrees, track, snitch, jail, lie, sequester, send to prison camps, de-bank, 'label', ostracize, denounce, etc.] based on the imperfect information we had [while making money and smart 'career moves']." George Orwell, yet again, many years ago, expressed the deep essence of all these very ancient power games: "Real power is achieved when the ruling class [NB: or faction or ideology or 'current fad' or Greater (Public) Good Ideology or rampant bureaucracy -- it really does not matter whether it is labelled 'left', 'right', or 'centre' because the labels are just a self-declared group-ID matter of convenience, utterly meaningless or designed to deceive / manipulate / 'alter behaviour'] -- controls the material essentials of life [NB: energy, food, mobility, communications, property rights, means of exchange, and intangibles of everyday human contact {greetings, forms of address, forms of legal oath, etc.] A perfected 'Planet Prison' {ref. e.g. Frank Herbert, The Dosadi Experiment (1977)}.
“It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.” (G. K. Chesterton) [we would propose, though, to change the "... to be certain we are right ..." to "... to suspect that we might be right ...". Yes, in a way, this is our revolt against the vastly solipsistic 'values' of Gen Z-ALPHA-whatever (and its all too frequent Lord of the Flies mind-set).
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” (George Orwell). Any State or politician or Magistrate -- bank or corporation or University -- arbitrating all this by lopsided 'rules', privileging 'protected' shibboleths (i.e. designated verbal / behavioural 'control-words') has consequentially picked a side and utterly failed a core test of hoinesty. Thus, it no longer possesses even minimal 'common authority'. "It is not Truth if you have not heard it from us" was in 2019-2022 a full-on declaration of would-be Despotism, so corrupt that even Empress Theodora the Bear-Keeper's daughter would blanch in utter embarrassment.
"Religion is a culture of faith (belief); Science is a culture of doubt" (Richard Feynman). Thus, whatever ideology tells one to think for oneself, to always do 'one's own research', to steadily improve one's skills and one's critical faculties, to exercise individual Rational and expertise-based doubt, and to verify and verify and verify and then re-verify again, is in fact and always has been Scientific.Ipso facto, ideologies that (a) demand that one unquestioningly believe a top-down / official / corporate / PR -agency Narrative and that (b) pin their entire view of all data and of all Reality on 'alignment' by 'believers'', and treat all contrary evidence as 'infection', a virus to be 'pre-bunked' and eradicated, are a Thought-Control Cult. Even worse if they claim that distorting (adjusting) raw data is 'transparency', and that genuine raw data may 'endanger' Public Safety, Public 'Health', 'safe and healthy' conversation. Or inflict dire 'harms' [as defined by ► whom & for what exact agitprop 'I am just having fun' goals?].
It is a betrayal of individual Thought to worship a Doctrine of Total Bureaucrat Infallibility. "... and so it went on. It was like a single equation with two unknowns. It might very well be that literally every word in the history books, even the things that one accepted without question, was pure fantasy ... Everything faded into mist. The past was erased (i.e. 'cancelled' / renamed / debanked / deplatformed / censored / 'defamiliarized'), the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth" (George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 7). NB: ponder for instance Policy Horizons Canada, The Future of Generative AI [September 2023]). Key danger, according to the PH ? “... democratization [how very subversively horrible] of high-quality content production” which may “undermine social cohesion [or legacy media profit lines?]”. I.e. the (pseudo)elite -- which in fact is neither top-qualified nor consistently capable (never has been) -- might lose its Official 'Cultural' Narrative comparative advantage (such as it is). Catastrophically. And the PSR would not shed a single fake tear for any TPTB (The Powers That Be). The Fall of the Berlin Wall comes to mind. Already the medieval French gutter bard François Villon (c. 1431-after 1463) asked the biting question: "Où sont les neiges d’antan?" So, just a duly satirical clip here to offer a footnote comment ~ Sic transit Gloria Mundi, as a Mozart-style rondo of satirical laughter ►, — А иде ж гуси?
— В камыши ушли.
— А иде ж камыши?
— Девки выжали.
— А иде ж девки си?
— Девки замуж ушли.
— А иде ж казаки?
— На войну пошли
(Very traditional East European Колода-дуда [Bagpipe Koleda], the truly culturally 'authentic' original source for "Where Are All the Flowers Gone", for ref. allusion see Mikhail Sholokhov, And Quiet Flows the Don, 1925-1940. Let's just go the MD version ►, for nostalgic but keenly aware fun.
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Welcome ~ Bem-vindo ~ Bienvenue ~ Bienvenido |
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A revista PSR deseja, a todos, saúde, veracidade, e PAZ no ano de 2025.
We promote academic liberty, plurality of thought, genuine freedom of expression, non-partisanship, candidly & fully documented scholarship. Across issues. Across disciplines. Across data sets. Without ideological 'litmus tests'. Our criteria are quality, precision, discernment, & expansion of knowledge. Open questions, open minds, open debate, open answers. Is that not what an 'Open Society' was supposed to be about, very long ago? Anything 'wrong' with honesty? Candid scholarly openness is premium. Worth the effort. Worth the risks. Even if one gets 'cancelled', or lawfared, SWATted, de-Banked, "Politi-Fact-'checked' ", Censored, 'de-monetized', or targeted by ideologically driven career destruction -- all the school-yard usual (Ye Olde 'New Normal'). Thorough, Realist, independent scholarship is vital. Right now, a Kuhnian shift of paradigms is in progress. Deep, massively overdue. A break-point. A crucial 'fork-in-the-road' -- "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth / Then took the other, as just as fair, / And having perhaps the better claim ..." :
"I shall be telling this with a sigh /
Somewhere ages and ages hence: /
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- /
took the one less traveled by, /
And that has made all the difference."
(Robert Frost, 1874-1963)
• we ensure full-range, objective, non-aligned core academic publishing services • we facilitate handling of manuscripts (articles, books, raw data), with peer review • we offer full-service development of periodicals and books • we operate mainly in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French • we evaluate, of course, all submissions in Portuguese, Spanish, French, etc. ~ and we do not need any translation into English • we offer a venue for Lusophone-related scholarship 'inclusively' (thus, we do German, Italian, the Scandinavian zone, the entire Slavic zone, Finno-Ugric, etc.) • we lay out and print assorted Ancient scripts and languages, as and when needed by scholars, in body text and in complex Classic footnotes • la revue PSR et Éditions Baywolf offrent une gamme de services classiques en langue française, pour toutes monographies, anthologies d'essais, et recueils d'études savantes: (a) examen par des pairs, (b) appui rédactionnel et technique, (c) application de normes de rédaction universitaire (présentation de travaux écrits, citation de références, etc.) • in all publishing matters, contact us on-line •
Operating Advisory: The nationwide strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) severely affected deliveries of our items in November-December 2024 and into January 2025. Printed copies of the PSR have mostly been delivered by Canada Post. The PSR was not the only one affected -- ALL scholarly journals were, among those offering printed copy within Canada / across Canadian borders. University / institutional subscribers mostly specify 'lowest cost' shipping = regular mail. We are of course re-assessing our risk exposure to Canada Post, testing delivery models. Note: none of this affected delivery of any of our digital copies, through secure servers in Switzerland.
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The PSR / Baywolf Press now feature backup e-mail addresses. We have, quite logically, phased in fallback solutions for continuity of records. Use our standard psr@maproom44.com and CC your e-mail to our backups: portuguese_studies_review@protonmail.ch (Switzerland) and baywolf_press@protonmail.ch (Switzerland). We suggest seeking alternatives to Gmail -- our replies to a Gmail account may or may not be delivered. Google-side issue, not ours. One possibility is the Swiss Protonmail (there are numerous others of course, and the choice is usually costless).
Notifications: (1) The PSR / Baywolf Press apply Human (100% biological Human, not 'automated') referee / editorial scrutiny for all submitted materials -- and, we do not use a SignaScript™ autopen to sign items (we hold a historically sarcastic view -- somewhat Monty-Python -- of the dynamics of who might actually wield a Grand Seal, a Petty Seal, a Privy Seal, an 'even Pettier Seal', etc. [going back to the Middle Ages and much earlier]) [*] • (2) We advise -- unless verifiably warranted by research program on-site needs (we reserve right of scrutiny) --against presenting papers that feature one showcase 'Project Leader' and a long 'side-rack' of 'co-authors' whose role is 'unclear'; (3) We politely recommend rethinking papers that clearly 'cherrypick' data, clearly sidestep comprehensive intellectual debate, or elevate ideology far above scholarship • (4) The PSR will prudentially drop a manuscript, break off peer review and launch scrutiny, if we detect a manuscript 'co-authored' by 'Generative AI' -- in such "LLM-hallucination" cases, our position equals our utter refusal to accept any legislation, lawsuit, or judicial ruling in which 'co-authoring' by an LLM chatbot is involved [**] • (5) We endorse a return to the roots of scholarship -- not favouring any given ideology but nurturing, protecting, discussing, and archiving all of Human knowledge. Such a return is deeply antithetical to all imposed and thus always circumstantial "rebranding", '"dazzle-camouflage", or politi-'fact' "reframing" •
[*] It is necessary, given that Wiley Journals alone, for instance, allegedly 'peer-reviewed' and approved over 11,000 papers that simply were fake.
[**] A person presenting Generative AI material and claiming to have submitted an article, written a book, drafted a piece of legislation, presented a court motion, or produced an analysis, did none of those things. That person submitted nothing, wrote nothing, drafted nothing, produced nothing. A service algorithm did all the work. Just like when a human 'ghost-writer' does ALL THE WORK. The best relevant term would be -- "stolen valour".
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Forthcoming PSR / Baywolf Press Items |
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Born and Acknowledged: Baptisms ('Assentos de Batismos'), Portuguese Cathedral See of Tangier (Morocco). July 1579 -- August 1683 (Códices 1573 to 1576 from the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal). Critical, semi-diplomatic, and analytical transcription and edition of primary sources. Ills., graphics, and maps. Peterborough/Toronto: Baywolf Press, 2025, ISBN 978-0-921437-64-2. Release formats: (A) Monograph. (B) Parallel Release: Public access database (strictly pro bono publico) (free digital resource ISBN 978-0-921437-65-9 [National Library of Canada ISBN-number-block coding system]). Production status: processing nearly completed -- database coding in progress and in first tests. Monograph expected: August 2025. Online digital resource expected (depending on the usual operating checks): November 2025. ZERO funding 'attached', ZERO ideological strings 'attached' (100% Independent Research).
Luciana Marino do Nascimento & Luciano Mendes Saraiva & Simone Vieira Nieto Blanco, eds., América Latina em Revista (Collection of studies). PSR Vol. / Issue no. tentatively allocated. Initial texts received and passing through editorial inspection. Preliminary TOC to be posted soon.
Nuno Vila-Santa & Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, eds., Sebastian of Portugal: The Making of a Renaissance King [current registered title]. Collection of studies. Extensive appendices of unpublished transcribed archival documents. Illustrations, graphics, and maps Peterborough/Toronto: Baywolf Press, 2025, ISBN 978-0-921437-63-5.
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Recently Released PSR / Baywolf Press Edited Volumes |
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Bruno Martins de Castro, Sirleia Maria Arantes & Vanda Lúcia Praxedes, eds., Escravidão e liberdades na América Portuguesa e no Império do Brasil (Peterborough/Toronto: Baywolf Press, 2024). ISBN 978-0-921437-62-8. Full digital access >> available << to Lusophone Studies Association members as part of standard membership package. For printed volume purchase, click blue button.
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PSR / LSA Calls for Papers, 2025-2026 |
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The Lusophone Studies Association (LSA) Call for Papers, for its 2025 International LSA Conference: Exploring the Lusophone World Through Transcultural and Intersectional Perspectives closed in October 2024. To register for the Conference (final registration deadline for paper presenters was 15 February 2025), please visit the following link:
The PSR / Baywolf Press Our Standing General Call for Papers, 2025-2026 continues. We may also announce further specific Calls for Papers. Innovative proposals shall receive editorial priority and full support ('innovative' as to, e.g.: method, data, analytical technique, findings and cross-application, multi-level interpretation -- conventional as well as visualization-rooted [maps, exploratory visuals, complex datasets], new spatio-temporal approaches that challenge currently dominant scholarly & ideological trends (we do not care whether those trends are rhetorically 'designated' Left or Right for ideological purposes), unpublished / neglected / lost documents, transcriptions of unknown or barely publicized archival / museum / private collection / heritage fund / hitherto restricted or officially suppressed or classified [recently declassified] sources).
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LSA Endowed Prizes and Awards for Graduate Students and Post-Doctoral Scholars |
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Details of the LSA 'Best Conference Paper' Graduate Student and Post-Doctoral Prizes and Awards:
The 2023-2024 winner of the The Pedro da Silva Prize for Graduate Students:
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2022 ~ The Lusophone Studies Association (LSA) International Conference "Women, Gender and Intersectionality in the Lusophone World' took place 29 June to 2 July 2022, at Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal. The public part of the Conference site is archived and remains web-accessible as data-of-record relevant to professional profiles and development (i.e. scholarly meetings, records of academic activity and participation).
2023 ~ The Lusophone Studies Association (LSA) International Conference "The Lusophone World and its Diasporas" took place June 28 to July 1, 2023 at York University, Toronto, Canada. For a compact vignette of the Conference on YouTube™, by CMC TV (Correio da Manhã TV Canadá), see here ►. The public part of the Conference site is archived and remains web-accessible as data-of-record relevant to professional profiles and development (see here ►). LSA Members have access to archived features (video record of sessions):
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Featured Third-Party Lectures, Conferences, Events & Courses |
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• As mulheres e os códices iluminados da Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal • Curso livre • 21, 28 Mar. - 4, 10 Abr. 2025 | 10h30-13h30 | Sala de Formação | Entrada livre • Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Lisbon) • Dividido em quatro sessões, onde serão discutidos vários temas, este curso livre tem como objetivo caracterizar e dar a conhecer ao público não especialista o papel das mulheres na produção, encomenda e uso de códices iluminados nos séculos XV e XVI, com base nos testemunhos conservados no fundo da Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal • Link: As mulheres
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Camões
500 |
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• Camões: Ciclo de debates na BNP ~ Novas perspetivas sobre os estudos camonianos • 23 Abr. 2025 | 17h00 | Auditório | Entrada livre • Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Lisbon) • Link: Camões: Ciclo de debates
• Camões: Ciclo de debates na BNP ~ De Lisboa a Goa: o que contam as cartas de Camões • 21 Maio '25 | 17h00 | Auditório | Entrada livre • Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Lisbon) • Links: Camões: Ciclo de debates
• Camões: Ciclo de debates na BNP ~ De mão em mão: a circulação da poesia camoniana • 25 Jun. 2025 | 17h00 | Auditório | Entrada livre • Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Lisbon) • Link: Camões: Ciclo de debates
• Agenda Camões 500 anos | Jun. 2025 (Multiple Events and Conferences and Exhibits, Including in Porto, Lisbon, Coimbra, etc.) • Link: Agenda Camões 500 ~ Meio milênio
• Sanjoaninas 2025 -- 2025.06.20 a 29, em Angra do Heroísmo, Ilha Terceira, Açores (Org. Câmara Municipal de Angra do Heroísmo) |) • O maior evento dos Açores promete concertos, desfiles, gastronomia, exposições, desporto, marchas populares e tauromaquia • Link: A ilha dos Amores
• Camões 500 | 9 Jan. 2025 - 10 Jun. 2025 | Exposição CAMÕES – obras pertencentes à Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra | entrada gratuita • Link: Camões 500 ~ UC
• Camonian Commemorations (2024-2025) | Faculty of Letters, University of Porto (CITCEM – collaboration between ILC, IF and CLUP) | 9 Jan. 2025 - 10 Jun. 2025 | April 2025 ~ THE LYRIC AND THEATER OF CAMÕES ~ “No matter how much time passes” (9 Apr. 2025 / 23 Apr. 2025 / 30 Apr. 2025 | May 2025 ~ THE “LANGUAGE” OF CAMÕES ~ “Different times” | June 2025 ~ THE KNOWLEDGE OF CAMÕES ~ “Nor do I lack in life honest study / with long experience mixed” | July 2025 ~ Closing Conference ~ José Augusto Cardoso Bernardes (University of Coimbra – Center for Portuguese Literature) | “On the 'TEACHING' of Camões” • Link: Camões 500 ~ FLUP ~ CITCEM
• “Camões. Aqui e Agora” | Ciclo de debates, 9 Jan. 2025 - 10 Jun. 2025 | Sala de São Pedro, Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra • Link: Camões 500 "Aqui e Agora" ~ UC • Further Links: 1572 Edition Fornt Page ~ below • Further Links: CIEPG (Geneva), Switzerland •
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História do Mediterrâneo Islâmico e Medieval (FLUL, UE e UAlg) |
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Posted Scholarly Profiles (PSR Editorial Board) |
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PSR Associate Editor Prof. José C. Curto (CAAS Lifetime Achievement Award): Resource Page
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Our Core Editorial Policy |
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The PSR will not 'exclude', on any ideological side. What matters, in the final count, is precise, meticulous scholarship -- not lavishly funded socio-political astroturf engineering. No one cares about the latter. Meaning: no one will care about the latter 100 years or 1,000 years down the road. Regardless. Being inveterate research Realists, we simply refuse, very politely, to dictatorially (Central Committee Party :Line) favour and disfavour ideas, data, or research just because someone deeming they have 'judicial' power to define Reality 'forever' declares some kind of ideological Commissar Order. We refuse to apply mechanistic Party Line. We refuse to march in lockstep with twitchy twists of ideological wrangling. Research cannot be putty-shaped and dominated by whoever has or thirsts to have arbitrary ideological authority ('The Totalitarian Instinct'). That would not be scholarship, that would be propaganda. The twain -- scholarship and propaganda -- are not the same. We are not 'funded' by any Influencers -- actually, funded by no one at all --, and thus we defiantly stand our ground in defence of freedom of speech and research. Even if we were paid, we would still stand our ground. Defiantly. Honesty overrides the stale & shop-worn comedy of "who pays the piper calls the tune." In any case, massive Kuhnian and other paradigm changes are happening right now. The 'life expectancy' of Agitprop (agitation and propaganda) (time from 'grand-drama reveal' to abject retraction of ideological / partisan / boilerplate / 'talking-point' / Fact Checker Association fact-check) is now far less than the binary fission span of an amoeba -- if that. Perhaps that 'life expectancy' might be extended to a few days or weeks -- but that would only be with all the Censorship, secrecy, anti-'misinformation', media arm-twisting, and coercive resources of entire political systems, countries, or alliances. Tik-Tok, Tik-Tok, Tik-Tok ... (the sound of ancient clockwork, which of course can rot Human brains, like Tik-Tok can). Humans are, for better or worse, in the era of AI. Whether AI ultimately proves to support the liberty of genuine non-partisan Reason or whether it decays into yet another source of stifling schematic ideology remains to be seen. AI might just usefully coast along as a benign and helpful idiot savant (possibly dumber, at times, than any Human past or present). The worst possible scenario would be an AI-facilitated slide into full-on Orwellian speech-control, thought-control, and mass formation psychosis, praised by assorted media talking heads with remunerations of $4 million -- 45 million a year (it is not quite clear for what kind of 'champion service' ) ...
Do you wish to know more?
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Adagia for 2025 and Beyond |
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"Act uprightly, and despise calumny; dirt may stick to a wall, but not to polish'd marble." (Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1914 aggregate edition, no. 4, p. 11) . With full attribution, so that it could not be said that the printed words were NOT uttered so -- which is a favorite game of dime-a-dozen 'fact-checkers' who lack any qualification whatsoever, not even the proverbial cheap and universal BA + JD)..
"A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one." (Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1914 aggregate edition, no. 20, p. 12) . With full attribution, so that it could not be said that the printed words were NOT uttered so -- which is a favorite game of dime-a-dozen 'fact-checkers' who lack any qualification whatsoever, not even the proverbial cheap and universal BA + JD)..
"No workman without tools, nor lawyer without fools, can live by their rules." (Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1914 aggregate edition, no. 395, p. 40) . With full attribution, so that it could not be said that the printed words were NOT uttered so -- which is a favorite game of dime-a-dozen 'fact-checkers' who lack any qualification whatsoever, not even the proverbial cheap and universal BA + JD).
"Once Law was sitting on the bench, / And Mercy knelt a-weeping. / "Clear out!" he cried, "disordered wench! / Nor come before me creeping. / Upon your knees if you appear, / `Tis plain you have no standing here." // Then Justice came. His Honor cried: / "Your status? -- devil seize you!" / "Amica curiae," she replied --- / "Friend of the court, so please you." / "Begone!" he shouted -- "there's the door -- / I never saw your face before!" (Ambrose Bierce,The Devil's Dictionary [Cleveland & New York, The World Publishing Co., 1911], 186).
"LAWFUL, adj. -- Compatible with the will of a judge having jurisdiction." (Ambrose Bierce,The Devil's Dictionary [Cleveland & New York, The World Publishing Co., 1911], 187). There are some judges, today, who obviously cannot even internalize their own precept -- namely heeding their own reputation & credibility (as opposed to furthering a political Party theme show -- falsely touted as 'impartiality').:The Party 'theme show' is not the most 'valuable treasure' the judges possess, but about the only 'deemed', tenuous, fragile, and robe-threadbare 'quality' they still manage to contrive (if that, for now, pro tempore, and subject to challenge). Par for the course in the current era of politicized 'jurisdiction shopping' and 'judge shopping' (precisely the same as it was in the Early Modern period, when dignities, nobiliar titles, administrative functions, and jurisdictions were for rent or sale, were lavishly dispensed as favours and bribes, or passed from greasy hand to greasy hand as security for debts). François-Marie Arouet (aka 'Voltaire') had much to say about this kind of 'dynamics' already in the 1700s. Plus, do let us talk about "Anti-Federalist No. 78", and Hamilton basically being wrong, as opposed to the more functionally skeptical Judge Robert Yates?
"LAWYER, n. -- One skilled in circumventing of the law." (Ambrose Bierce,The Devil's Dictionary [Cleveland & New York, The World Publishing Co., 1911], 187).
"Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy" (Franz Kafka, 1883-1924). NB: With the 'new bureaucracy' doing its very best to morph into a 'hereditary [pseudo-elected] bureaucracy'. 'Mission creep' and 'neo-feudalism'. Like the various ministeriales of the early Middle Ages. Result? Digital Panopticon Insane Tyranny [but very Lucrative] (as discussed for instance in a very old non-digital framework by Michel Foucault in Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison [Paris: Gallimard, 1975]). Party-Line Bureaucrats (recently for the larger part on the 'left' rather than the 'right' [whatever such labels-of-convenience even remotely mean today]) utterly love the no-checks-and-balances Total Control and No Questions model. It is their fundamental raison d'être -- for they have none other. Like all the otherwise really unemployable arbitristas of the eighteenth century. What we have here is a historical hallmark of every Official(ized) 'Managing Class' -- Ministeriales Palatii, or any other historical variant of such structurally-shaped / devoted 'executives'. One might even think here in terms of a dynamic similar to the classic Mamluk & Ghulam model -- a fully alien(ated) enforcer cohort rooted in purchased / manufactured / youth-group-reared echo chamber loyalty to a Patron / Funds-Dispenser / Power-Idea and 'Cause'. One can very easily parse this in many ways. Let us run here a few candid quotations (there are tons and tons more of the same -- just mildly depends on one's linguistic agility). Thus "Plekhanov once said to me about a critic of Marxism . . . : “First, let’s stick the convict’s badge on him, and then after that we’ll examine his case.” And I think we must stick the “convict’s badge” on anyone and everyone who tries to undermine Marxism, even if we don’t go on to examine his case" (reminiscences by Николай Владиславович Валентинов, born Вольский [1890-1964], for instance in «Встречи с Лениным» [1953] and related works such as «Малознакомый Ленин»; «Ранние годы Ленина»). Which goes well wit: "There could be no life for him [a Bolshevik] outside the ranks of the Party, and he would be ready to believe that black was white, and white was black, if the Party required it. In order to become one with this great Party he would fuse himself with it, abandon his own personality, so that there was no particle left inside him which was not at one with the Party" (Георгий Леонидович Пятаков [1890, Черкасский уезд, Киевская губерния - 1 Feb. 1937, ironically enough executed, at night, for 'ideological deviationism (Trotskism)' on grounds of ст. 58-1а, 58-8, 58-9, 58-11 УК РСФСР, 'rehabilitated' in 1988 {which is sort of useless once one is shot dead}]). Which (the Pyatakov blue text) is of course not new or Revolutionary at all. Already St Ignatius of Loyola (thus the Jesuits) wrote exactly the same, word for word: "We should always be prepared, so as never to err, to hold that the white which I see is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it" (St Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises (1548, yes, 1548 CE), No. 365). Ouch. So, Pyatakov (Георгий {Юрий} Пятаков) plagiarizes St Ignatius, at a distance of 372 years? That is RICH! But then, of course: 'You don't understand! Please educate yourself It's a MUSTIE!."
"Don’t pay attention to ‘authorities,’ think for yourself" (Richard Feynman) If one is NOT allowed to question something, or disagree with it, and is forced to undergo "mandatory re-education" or "correction" to "hamonize" or "fully align" with "normalized mandates", one is being brutalized by Idiocratists claiming to be Experts. Trust cannot be imposed -- it has to be EARNED, the hard and very long way.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary [funding, gravy, progress through the ranks, officer stripes, vacation, cottage-in-the-country (dacha), Party 'validation', medals, awards, 'incentive points', 'affirmation', your-photo-on-the-bulletin-board, company/Party vehicle, Great Star Order of the Achieving Achievement of Achievement in Congruence with Party Messaging and PoliOptics as Approved by the Latest Revision of the Approved Ideology and its Eternal Classics at the Umpteenth General Party Assembly] depends on his not understanding it." (Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor, and How I Got Licked in 1934 (see James Gregory. ed., Upton Sinclair's "I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked" [ Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994]) (Purported 'straw man' argument according to 'fact-checkers' [Snopes etc., of course], etc., etc., etc., etc. , etc. Whatever -- Left, Right, Left, Right, Centre, Shmenter, and ALL The Rest. Applies right aross The Socio-Historical Spectrum and then some. No comment required. Just imagine! Horrible! If one loses the 'equity perks of 'allyship' and automaton allegiance and "consensus" and Oath of Conformity and Ideological Litmus Tests', it is "doubleplusungood" [George Orwell]. Sheer "social economics" and CW [Cognitive Warfare 3D]).
"We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which furious Party cries will be raised against anybody who says that cows have horns, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green.” (G. K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News, 14 Aug. 1926 [CW34:144-145]). (Usefully paired with: "They said that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics." ["The Ethics of Elfland," in Delphi Works of G. K. Chesterton]. One presumably should add something like ... lost my old childlike faith in Judges, Justices of the Peace, So-Called 'Law', Attorneys General, Governors, 'Representatives', Unions, Universities, Faculty Associations, Deans, NKVD Officers, 'The Party' ('mandated' Democratic Centralism), Public Health 'Officers', 'Human Resources', Fact-Checker 'Experts-for-Hire-Without-Credible-Expertise', 'The Police', Philanthropy, Banks, 'Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel LLC, Barristers and Solicitors', Disney, etc., etc., etc.)
"There is no other way of guarding oneself from flatterers except letting men understand that to tell you the truth does not offend you" (Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513 [1532]) (Very many people, today, fail to comprehend this -- instead, they wish to deploy the full force of utterly corrupt partisan-stacked Law to ensure they will only hear what they demand to hear: endless dopamine-fix 'validation'. No comment. As to all other things, we have just one answer -- and it is not 'rude speech': the answer simply is 'Galileo's Middle Finger' -- the middle finger of his right hand (yes, the finger that one also uses to 'flip a birdie'), in an ornate receptacle at the Museo Galileo, Firenze, Italy)
"The amount of energy necessary to refute BS is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it [i.e. the BS] " (Alberto Brandolini) (The BS Asymmetry Principle. NB: The required amount of personal and financial energy, we would argue, grows by several orders of magnitude if the producers of the relevant (or rather irrelevant) BS are socially anointed 'prophets', officially deified 'Experts' or 'Voices', 'trusted sources' (anonymous, of course), Talk Show hosts, System- / Party-beholden 'influencers' and 'webfluencers' and 'journalists', and those with friends who are so fabulously rich that they could buy entire other Planets or Orbital Fabricaria if there were some on bargain-basement sale, nearby. Of course, the deified 'Voices' deem that they can simply 'terminate' a 'conversation' that is "not respectful" (i.e. not servile and obedient ) by walking out, switching off the Zoom / cute SkyEye Viewscreen, sending in Order-Enforcers, or activating Punitive Drone Swarms. In the long run, this it NOT going to work. Simply, NOT. Neither in SciFi, nor in Reality. Should one pity those willing to elevate BS over sober historical, source-based, tactical, strategic, technical, etc., knowledge (we did not say analysis -- analysis these days is for PR-sale)? We are not going to comment. We wish to add, though, of course borrowing and Satirically redirecting a quotation, thus: precision, rationality, and apolitical exactness are "a game-changer, like the Archimedean fulcrum, with the potential to shift ... [un]logics ... to ... functional praxes of [exactness]-affirming care for ... [non-tampered data], human others, and planetary co-habitants [even though they might be execrably 'deplorable' 'Other'-thinkers and thus deniers and Heretics and no-trial-required 'thought-criminals'"]. Yes we signalled we are redirecting -- but such redirecting has become so ubiquitous today that we might be legitimately excused for doing one itty bitty of that (people even get full-on PhDs for doing the exact same on a massive scale, and then progress to very exalted ideological and University and political positions).]
"Do you teach 'Rhetoric'? O Vettius, what a mind of iron / You need, when a crowded class slays ‘the cruel tyrant!’ / For, whatever they’ve just read, sitting, each in turn / Replicates standing, chants the same thing in identical lines. / Such stale Greens are simply DEATHLY SUFFERING for the poor teacher." (Decimus Junius Juvenalis [c. 55 CE (fl. before 100 CE)-ex. after 127-138 CE] [banished and exiled poet, 'cancelled' by the decrepit Imperial Cancel Culture], The Satires, Book 3, Satire VII: 150-215: 'Nor Do Teachers Of Rhetoric'). ("Mr. Bauer realized how topical Juvenal was, how he dealt at length with such phenomena as arbitrary government, tyranny, corruption, the degradation of public morals, the decline of the Republican ideal and the terrorizing acts of the Praetorian Guards. (...) In a second-hand bookshop I found an 1838 translation of Juvenal with an extensive commentary, twice the length of the translated text itself, written at the height of the Romantic period. Though its price was more than I could really afford, I bought it. I read all of it very intensely, as if it was a detective novel. It was one of the few books to which I persistently held on throughout the war [WWII] and beyond, even when most of my other books were lost or sold on the black market" [Heinrich Theodor Böll, (1917–1985), What's to Become of the Boy? -- Or, Something to Do with Books [(orig. 1981), trans. Leila Vennewitz (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984)]
"On juge mieux de certains faits et de certains principes quand on les voit en dehors du cadre où ils se meuvent habituellement sous nos yeux ; le changement du point optique terrifie parfois les regards ! " ([Maurice Joly], Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu, [Geneva, 15 October 1864] [Brussels: Mertens et Fils, 1864]). Funny how ANCIENT all that 2024 'Generative Lens' pseudo-sophisticated rhetoric actually is. This is a shoe that pinches on the Left as well as on the Right. The power of a 'reframing' ("changement du point optique") is basically a ''physical phenomenon' -- it is NOT a politically monopolizeable property. That is why 'meme-inverting' as well as 'slogan-inverting' fundamentally works, as biting satire. This why politicians and ideologists are so afraid of so-called 'disinformation super-spreader memes', so afraid that they put people behind bars for 'committing satire', with million-dollar fines and jail sentences longer than those that many criminals get for the vilest murder.
"The Seeker after Truth [i.e. politically reviled 'Truther'] does not put his faith in any Consensus, however venerable or widespread. Instead he questions what he has learned of it, applying to it his hard-won scientific knowledge, and he inspects and inquires and investigates and checks and checks and checks again. The road to the truth is long and hard, but that is the road we must follow” (Abū 'Alī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham, c. 965 – c. 1040 CE) (Islamic author of the seven-part Kitāb al-Manāẓir [Latin version, 1572, 'Opticae thesaurus': Alhazeni Arabis libri septem, nunc primum editi & eiusdem liber 'De crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus'], a sober pioneering empiricist, experimental-method, confirmable-test treatise on biological and instrumental optics. Like other such pioneers, Abū 'Alī al-Ḥasan teaches us that the task of research is not to 'validate' or 'align with' or be in 'allyship with' Narratives or 'trusted sources'. The task is to find out, keenly, like with a finely honed surgical scalpel, the flaws of Narratives).
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Escravidão e liberdades na América Portuguesa e no Império do Brasil, edited by Bruno Martins de Castro, Sirleia Maria Arantes & Vanda Lúcia Praxedes
