Consent vs Conquest !

"How to move from an order based on conquest to one based on consent is the challenge for Rwanda today !"*1) (S. 17)

We Ethiopians too, whatever our political, cultural or regional affiliation, without an exception what soever, have to make TODAY a grave pondering on THIS; and come to the "CONSENT"! The Sooner The Better; since for sure "Tunisia" comes, at the latest to-morrow! All who knew and have survived the two former Ethiopian regimes can tell the story.

And once the wind blows, it troubles to contain it, since "the neurons wired together fire together"!*2)

Inspite of all awareness, unfortunate, God Save, but it has always happened again and again in human history!

***
*1) Mahmood Mamdani
From Conquest to Consent as the Basis of State Formation:
Reflections on Rwanda

*2) cf. Hebb’s axiom; 1949, Donald Hebb, a Canadian neuropsychologist.

The "Social Tinder Box"

“ IT ends…TO BE –or- as a Tale ...”

To conceive the "mind-set" /the psychological make-up/ of our elite, or to contain the "social tinder box" on which Ethiopia is sitting, I feel it helps a lot to add in our analysis the dimension of, what is known today as "neuro-politics"("mirror neurons" a very recent discovery, which can be related to Rene Girard's mimesis theory at the inter-personal and the cultural level) , what is well discussed in the following paper.


http://home.moravian.edu/public/polsci/pdfs/EmpathyAnd%20Neuropolitics.pdf


"The role of socio-cultural variables in influencing psychopathology (Marsella and Yamada, 2007) is now accepted, and I`m proposing here that it would be instructive to examine whether certain pathogenic cultural factors explain the etiology of what I’ve tentatively labeled a societal empathy deficit disorder (SEDD). In their well-documented discussion of psychopathy as a disorder characterized by callousness and lack of empathy, Blair and Blair (2009) discuss the existence of a population that has been subject to insufficient moral socialization. Such individuals reveal an absence of empathic response to the distress of others, an impaired reaction to “moral transgressions.” What is striking here, at least to me, is the ascription of these behaviors to a subset of outliers and not to the larger society, the implicit message being that the latter’s everyday behavior is well within the “normal” range.".

I feel that the Ethiopian Elite today are suffering more from this "SEDD" rather than the people at large, since they /the elite/ are at the far edge of the cultural body conscious of their own class/ethnic-national benefits counteracting the natural human predisposition for empathy common to all irrespective of the particular sectional affiliation, not to mention their medial and cultural complicity with the alienating "individualism" of post modernity as opposed to individual autonomy and sovereignty.

Nonetheless, even if there are a lot of facts to the contrary, what should sustain us in our strategic optimism is the fact of being hardwired for empathy as a human being: The species can’t otherwise exist in the long run!

"Given the universality of our biological predisposition toward empathy, we now have both a potent baseline and the potential for accumulating robust empirical evidence upon which to draw further conclusions about this critically important issue within neuroscience. In the process we might create environments that enhance the flourishing of empathy, the foundation of our moral sense".*1)

Let us hope; if "Tunisia" comes we can thus speculate on this fact.

Still, be IT what it be, given the following “findings”, it is important to be aware of given “constants”, which take time for transformations. With this awareness, harmonizing different perspectives for a common ground with every section happy to make a progress under its own skin and a common body, which cannot be denied since it is a given (socio-) natural reality, is not a difficult task.

“ Initial findings, including some on empathy, are intriguing and at the apex of neuroscience research. Recent studies using fMRI and magneto-ecephalography (MEG) have established that cultural constructs shape the microstructure of the brain and this culturing of the neural signature begins in early childhood and continues into adolescence and early adulthood (Choudhury, 2009; Choudhury and Kirmayer, 2009; Turner and Whitehead, 2008).”

“Thereafter the brain and mind seek to create congruence between external realities and these newly existing internal structures and there is more resistance to change”*1).

At last…It is worth noting that…"Hebb‟s rule (1949)"*1) of thumb is more than a century old :

“The neurons that fire together wire together”! *1)

*1) All quotations are from the same essay: http://home.moravian.edu/public/polsci/pdfs/EmpathyAnd%20Neuropolitics.pdf

Understanding the New Youth (II)

Interesting research papers are included in the following document; including the contemporary socio-cultural environment of AA University.

I. Ethnic Identity and the Relations of Amhara, Ormo and Tigray Students at Addis Ababa
University Main Campus, By Abera Hailemariam *1)

AA University (former HSI) once the bastion of political activity with a calibre of Nationwide (All-Ethiopia) concern and international relevance; today exhibiting a dimension of ethnicity pockets, indicating the dangerous complexity of a potential volatile conflict - A dangerous social tinderbox, with far-reaching consequence for the whole Ethiopian community at large, unless the "new" youth comes up with a new spirit of nationwide consciousness towards a common Ethiopian goal of enlightenment as one large community, of course without the indusputable diversity of cultures! However, as

ETHIOPIA
THE ONE AND ALL-ENCOMPASSING
NEW DEMOCRATIC COMMUNITY!

If Ethiopia goes "Tunisia" to-morrow, with the youth as a pillar of Change??
Understanding the New Youth is crucial! The sooner the better!

*1) An Anthology of Peace and Security Research (November 2010)

http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/aethiopien/07698.pdf

Understanding the "New" Youth

Understanding the new youth: Interesting...

If you have observed some of the clips in the "Tunisian Popular Uprising" these days, the youth is its undisputed pillar, like it was no doubt four decades ago in Ethiopia - unfortunately without any prior precedence and indigenous national political experience, with the disasterous outcome as we know, for all the protagonists and the people in the final effect. When one day Ethiopia comes to the pleasure of hosting such a change towards an enlightened social order, it is of paramount significance understanding the new youth appropriately; and the sooner the better - The new youth, which has today fortunately a lot of prior experiences at its disposal (*1 albeit failures at several levels, from which it can learn and nurture its political course, if only it is ready to invest its moral and intellectual courage in the due reflections, at the latest beginning from today (2*.

The following article of "Addis Neger"
Addis Neger 15.01.2011:

የጠፋው ትውልድ [አንድ ለቅዳሜ]

is interesting in this perspective. All the more, respect for beginning the reflection, at this time, when the so-called "Ya tiwlid" is still employing its "ostrich play of hiding its head in the sand" by refraining to make an overall thorough critic of its political past, depicting the undisputed commitment of the generation and their eventual failings behind an "epic" of misleading "heroism" and instrumentalized "activism".

In this context I made some remarks in my "Notes on Identty Politics", to save the new generation from making a new "roll out" of debate on the "national question", which I believe today, in post-modern politics of Ethiopia is somehow anachronistic, unless it has the usual purpose of "utility" to employ it for the further consolidation of the ethnic based autocratic regime of Melesse. Since " the problem in my opinion is not "identity politics" or anything of that sort", but "a problem of the Ethiopian political LEFT", ......" The Left, ....has to clear all the turmoil and the mess of its past ideological infantilism, to dare and make a political RENAISSANCE to go forward into post-modernity, where a healthy and peaceful political interaction with the rest of the political spectrum in the Ethiopian state would be inaugurated. " This would only be a sign of maturity and there is nothing wrong with defining one's political position to be "leftist" in the political spectrum of the Ethiopian State, which for sure has still a tremendous room for it, with so much unresolved in the social perspective of our community.

This would be a big contribution and it could save the "New Youth" a lot of energy and intellect if this takes place ...

"...in this passion and sovereignty, it would have been a big step forward, a new beginning and a process of a political catharsis towards a modern political culture etc. if the discussion were of the following nature like:-

1. The Left as a whole made this and that mistake.
2. This or that section made this or that perceptual and conceptual errors.
3. The nationalists (ethno) are in this or that aspect by proxy counter to their own national interest.
4. The left was and is this sort of a social category historically incapable of this and that.
5. Politically conscious or not, as a matter of fact instrumentalized by these or those international social and political forces.
5. This and that pragmatic position was immature and full of insufficient reflection.
6. The military was this and that kind of social force unable to resolve this or that problem.
7. The left and the right could have been allied in this and that common interest of national caliber. etc...
8. The right political sector was and is parasitic and was doomed not to be sovereign in this and that aspect.
9. This or that social, psychological, cultural and economic foundations of these and those forces are products of this or that social evolution and …and.....
10. Specially the evolution of the "Ethiopian State" supported by facts and actors, how these mosaic of cultures and peoples could build a vibrating future under this or that form of state;
what failed and not etc.........................
11. Whither Ethiopia, suffering and coming out of the fake "internationalism" of a defunct Leninist dogma and its contemporary agency; with Ethiopia, as a victim of the globalization of the new form of colonialism; with the new one party system inaugurated after the "2010" election farce. etc. etc.. (cf. http://berhane-aymero.blogspot.com/2010/08/note-on-identity-politics.html)

*1) By far not adequate, since the "synthesis" is missing, but valuable - Prof. Bahru Zewde's Paper - "Documenting the Ethiopian Left: Workshop on Oral History of the Ethiopian Student Movement" can be an initial source of discourse.

2*) Understanding the social position of the Youth - a reflection