critical-constructive

I have to admit: I'm not the big Star-Wars enthusiast, I'm more in favour of Star-Trek. Nonetheless I really like these movies as well. And I feel it as a kind of personal duty, devoting Star-Wars a tribute in this big anniversary-year.

To me it's also important mentioning, that I write this because of the „Big 40th“ and not because of "The last Jedi", that premiered some 2 weeks ago in the cinemas.

Praise to Star-Wars

The movie-series started on 25th of May 1977 is a unique phenomenon in the entertainment-industry. And to me justified.

All Star-Wars films artisan as well as in terms of theirs special-effects are just great.
But they offer much more than that, such as for example:

• A well conceived, futuristic reinterpretation of the struggle of Good versus Evil.
• Interesting, well elaborated, multi-faceted characters.
• In general a high level of complexity and diversity, also in terms of the plots, causal-relations, technology or sets.

This complexity makes the movies very exiting, even at watching them umpteen times.

In addition the fictional universe, created by George Lucas, is a prime example in terms of Marketing and Merchandising: Movies, serials, comics, books and of course computer- and video-games. In addition there are even spin-offs like the films and series about the Ewoks.
Star-Wars is also among the very best, when it comes to conventions and an enthusiastic fandom.

And it's permanent-presence – particularly of course in the time-frames around the movie-premieres – is overwhelming.

Admonition to Star-Wars

And with the overwhelming marketing- and merchandising-presence we are already at the down-sides:

To me it's really bad, that around the movie-premieres it's in fact impossible, escaping Star-Wars – unless one lives as a hermit in the wilderness.
Started at advertising-spaces, in television, many web-portals, social-networks, print-media, at restaurants, super-markets and other shops.

Even worse I estimate the fanatical cult of hardcore-fans, for whom Star-Wars seems to be a surrogate Religion. They enact or even live situations, that occurred characters in the movies or even self-invented situations. In extreme cases they escape from real-life into a fictitious and illusory world. And there are high financial expenses connected with this for befittingly playing Jedi and Stormtrooper.

Though this basically remains fully legitimate, as long as this remains in an acceptable scope.

The very worst thing in my eyes is, that fanatical Star-Wars-fans completely misjudge, that the whole series revolves around humanity forced into a horrible dictatorship and has to free from this in a very burdensome and bloody struggle.
Especially in the episodes 2 and 3, we all have seen how a Republic becomes an Empire and its Chancellor becomes the dictatorial Emperor applying the most vicious intrigues.

The parallels especially of this story-element to the present in our real-world are just as striking as bad:
Also in the here and now freedoms are abolished bit by bit and a dictatorship is built up bit by bit.
Buzz-words: Terror-laws, state of surveillance, restrictions on freedom of expression.

Consequences and final-words to 40 years Star-Wars

Star-Wars and its successors are really awesome movies, it's big fun to me even plenty fold watching them. Because they not only entertain us well and provide a great look, they contain many interesting aspects. For me above all the warning of a dictatorship respectively the scenario, how humanity has to fight back out of a totalitarian dictatorship.

Yet such great stories about the struggle against a totalitarian dictatorship may be in a fictional epos, as much I dispense with such things in real world!

I've been dealing with big sci-fi anniversaries as well as with the great ignorance of hardcore-fans about threats in reality for a long time.
In my estimation, these people have a tunnel-view, if not an addictive behaviour to the fan-universe, which can well be compared to gambling-addiction.

In case of moderate fans and non-fans, I however hope that they are going to gain essential insights and they absolutely should enjoy the great entertainment-product (and exactly this is Star-Wars).
At the same time they should also recognize these films as a reminder of and a call for preventing a dictatorship in reality.

Let's fight against surveillance and terror-laws, but for freedom and civil-rights. Let us be sceptical towards the rulers and powerful lobbies behind them, let's cooperate with other citizens and grassroots-activists in all kinds of topic, no matter of the types of organizations they engage and even they have different ideologies – especially overcoming this obnoxious Leftist-Rightist-split making!

Star-Wars is a fantastic entertainment-product, above that it encourages me dealing sceptically with developments in reality and creates the desire to shape our future in a very different way than in the famous movie-series created by George Lucas.
Unfortunately so far I seem to be pretty much the only one with this. It's high time changing this!

Another link to this topic:

Star-Wars, schizophrenia and me:
http://critical-constructive.over-blog.com/2015/12/star-wars-schizophrenia-and-me.html

An open letter to the President of the United States, Donald Trump:

Dear Mr. President Trump!

Early in the morning at 7th of April, you as President ordered to attack an airbase of the Syrian army with cruise-missiles type "Tomahawk".

Much is uncertain. But it is for certain that you wanted to send a signal. And it's certain, that you play with global-peace and risk a World-War-III.

The official reason for your attack-command was a serious poison-gas incident in the Syrian city of Chan Scheichun, in which dozens of people have been killed and hundreds have been injured. However to whom the gas belonged to and who used it, that was completely unclear 1 week ago and is still unclear today!

And that's exactly why this terrible incident has to be clarified as objectively as possible, the OPCW (Organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons) is best placed to do this in my eyes.

I can understand, that you have been profoundly touched by the pictures of the killed and injured people.

I can also understand that you are under tremendous pressure from the Neo-Cons and the military-industrial complex, which in principle always want the United States wage war.

And the domestic political pressure on you by protagonists such as John McCain or Lindsey Graham is very high.

Nevertheless your games with global-peace are totally out of question - whether they take place in Syria, North-Korea or elsewhere! And this not only for factual reasons – that a 3rd World-War you are currently risking were disastrous should be clear to every human being, which is capable of reasonable thinking. No, you prior to your presidential candidacy, during your presidential candidacy and also at the beginning of your presidency, countless times emphasised, that you are against military solutions and for deals, especially for reaching a deal with Russia.

That there will also be downsides in your Presidency, always was clear to me. One for me most is your contempt and criminalization of "Whistleblowers" such as Edward Snowden, a person which I personally consider a freedom-fighter and hero.

But I valued your victory over Hillary Clinton for 1 pivotal reason as positive: Because you wanted to advocate for peaceful solutions and dialogue with Russia.

Michael Lüders, at least in the German-speaking countries an outstanding Middle-East-Expert, excellently brings the situation in Syria on the point, especially the fact that:

1. Currently it's still completely unclear who in Syria is responsible for the use of poison-gas on 04th April 2017 – and that it can only be unclear, since no investigation has taken place so far.
2. We already know this situation from 2013, that Assad was held responsible for a poison-gas attack, for which with a probability bordering on certainty other forces were responsible – which was why Barack Obama had called off an attack on Syria.

And not enough with the actions in Syria:

After the dropping of the largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan and the deployment of Troops ahead of North-Korea many people, also me, hear the alarm-bells ringing, because they fear a World-War.

Therefore, I appeal to you:

Remember your plans and promises from your election-campaign, return to the path of peace. Join forces with politicians (in the U.S., especially Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard), the media and, of course, with citizens of our mother-earth who also want to maintain peace.

Right now, just before Easter, the highest feast Christianity, you as Christian should do really everything, that we not only respect peace at Easter, but in addition to make our world a peaceful and better place - we only have this one!

With best regards from Austria,

Ulrich Lintl

The US presidential-election 2016 is now several weeks ago, but just because of the disemotionalisation related to this fact a a sober look at it's result now is possible.

And – though resulted by the fact, that I didn't have time, created my articles English version – the publication at this date very well fit's to the whole inauguration-process of Donald Trump, which will be finalized in exactly 1 week with the official ceremony.

My and Dirk Müllers short-review just in advance:

I don't know whether Donald Trump's policy will be good, but in any case he is very much more in our favour than Hillary Clinton, due to the sole reason of her brutal global-politics.
 

As Donald Trump has repeatedly announced, the fight against ISIS is on top of his agenda and a changeover of power in Syria is no priority for him. In addition he wants to reach out to Vladmir Putin and find peaceful cooperation with Russia.

Thus, there is hope for a more peaceful world.

Hillary Clinton in these elections – completely in contrast to the euphemistic image that mainstream-media painted – was THE establishment-candidate. She is a main architect of the bloody wars in Libya and Syria and through her plan to shoot down Russian airplanes in Syria she had risked a direct war mit Russia there – which could have escalated to Word-War-3.

Short-summary Republicans & Demokrats election-campaigns

• In contrast to previous elections, where with Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul 2 establishment-distant candidates dropped out pretty early in the primaries, in 2016 Bernie Sanders was in contention for nomination almost until the primarie's last round and Donald Trump even won and made the nomination as candidate at for the Republicans.

• The pre-election campaign at the Republicans was eminently dirty.
  Finally Donald Trump clearly prevailed after a variety of personal below-the-beltline attacks between the party-internal rivals.

• The situation at the Democrats for certain was not less dirty, but indeed different:
  Nomination for the presidential-race very quickly was a duel between favourite Hillary Clinton and underdog Bernie Sanders.
  And after a clear lead of Clinton at the beginning of the primaries, self-proclaimed Socialist Sanders always came closer to her in terms of convention-delegates and – only after several very dirty maneuvers from Hillary Clinton's environment and from the Democrats party-establishment – dropped out of the race.

• Disembarking Bernie Sander later was one main-reason for Donald Trumps victory and Hillary Clintons defeat.
  Because Sanders supporters only partially voted for Clinton. Others however gave their vote Donald Trump, or voted for Jill Stein or, particularly like Susan Sarandon, even actively supported the Green-party's nominee.
  And other others stayed away from the election.

• Not nominating Bernie Sanders in a twofold respect counter-productive.
  Not only that the party alienated so many of Sanders supporters, the Senator from Vermont generally would have had a good chance to win against Donald Trump in a general election.

Third-Parties, Independents and alternative-media

• In contrast to the picture drawn by Establishment-media not only 2, but 31 (!) candidates, 29 of them candidates of the so-called "Third Parties" and independents ran for US-presidency.
  In case you shouldn't know: "Third Parties" are parties apart from the Republicans & Democrats. And through the highly unfair majority-election-system and through the media-landscape in the United States dominated by corporate media-juggernatus so far they unfortunately play only a minor-role.

• Out of the mass of these alternative-candidates Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Jill Stein definitely protrude.
  Candidates like Republican Evan McMullin and Darrell Castle of the "Constitution Party" have also played nationwide a certain role. Further candidates were however – no matter of their level of expertise and their concepts – only had some impact in certain Federal-States.

• All of these candidates have in common that they have had almost no access to mainstream-media and it accordingly was extremely difficult for them to achieve the level of attention necessary for success.
  In 2016 things could have been totally different with a fair coverage of ALL candidates running in this elections: Because with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump the 2 so far most unpopular major-party-candidates ever ran for presidency.

• Of course Donald Trump was the main-profiteer of alternative-media coverage, this was 1 reason for his electoral victory.
  But for the 2nd part also the third-party and independent-candidates benefited of this. Though this time that had not been reflected in the elections result yet, but it's even highly likely, that Americans stronger turn to new political-forces on the regional and local-level.

• And I have to strike a blow for the election-days coverage by „Russia Today“ (RT) – to be precise of RT-Americas coverage in English language (as RT is a global & multilingual network).
  The Russian news-channel dedicated the first part of his big election-broadcast to the "Third Parties" including Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Ron Paul (former presidential-candidate for the Libertarians) and Ralph Nader (former presidential-candidate for the Greens).
  Co-host of the show and of Lindsay France was the Ex-Wrestler and Ex-Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura.

The Russian news channel has dedicated the first part of his major election broadcast the "Third Parties", including Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Ron Paul (former presidential candidate for the Libertarian) and Ralph Nader (former presidential candidate for the Green).

Co-host of the show, the Ex-Wrestler and Ex-Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura was.

Final Words

In contrast to my thoughts from 2012, this presidental-election it was not irrelevant who wins.

This in turn significantly relates to the fact, that in these primaries 2 establishment-sceptical candidates (at leas let's hope they are) were in the race for nomination almost until the very end. And 1of them not only managed to win nomination, but made it to the election-victory.
 

Time will show how serious Donald Trump's establishment-criticism really is and how much he is comitted to the interestets of the people (an not certain cliques inside the establishment). However to me he is definitely better than Hillary Clinton.

Nevertheless I had preferred one of the third-party-candidates over Trump.
 

Alternative media anyway proved it's positive potential. And that's exactly why it's on top of the Establishment's hit-list. Under the narrative „Fake News“ alternative-media is intented to be curbed.

That by no means must happen and I am going to make my contribution, strengthening alternative-media and make it better known.

On 6th June 2013 Edward Snowdens revelations about electronic mass-surveillance have been published – and have changed the world. Both the person Snowden as well as his revelations were already in 2013 highly controversial and are still today.

Why Edward Snowden is a hero for me

To me personally Snowden, as well as other important "whistleblowers" (informants), as Bradley (or Chelsea) Manning and Julian Assange (Wikileaks), is a hero. With his absolute willingness advocating for civil-rights and for freedom he has changed the world for the better.
But for that he has to pay a high price, can currently not return to his home-country USA because he has to assume a high sentence there and therefore he has to live in the Russian asylum. There however her seems to be quite fine.

That the US-American NSA with "PRISM" and its British counterpart GCHQ with "Tempora" – in conjunction primarily with US IT-companies and many Western States – monitor the global (!) data-traffic before Snowdens revelations has been deemed as conspiracy-theory. And mostly as "crude, right-wing" conspiracy-theory.

Important consequences of Snowden's revelations

Since then a lot has changed and most of it for the better:

• After anonymous search-engine such as Ixquick or Duckduckgo already in 2012 (according to Google's aggravation of it's data policy) had seen a little "boom", as from mid-2013 their user-figures further spiralled up.
• Countries outside the Western-block have waken up about the risks being surveilled by USA & Co and undertake great efforts to become as independent of Western hardware and software as possible.
  Especially Russia pursues ambitious, own projects in almost all areas of IT: Linux-distribution of its own, processor of its own, smartphone operating-system of its own (including suitable apps).
• Authorities and politicians have come under enormous pressure, because they are suspected having conducted or at the very least tolerated mass-surveillance. Most of all cornered by surveillance-revelations has been the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her political appendix. She is not only blamed for having promised a no-spy-agreement with the USA against her better judgement, she is also suspected of connivance for German BNDs (German federal intelligence) transmission of data to the USA.
• The most recent, very positive development is the replacement of the very restrictive surveillance-law "Patriot Act" by the – at least for US citizens – significantly alleviated "Freedom Act".
  Despite persistent efforts of hard-liners to continue the monitoring of the mass – not least because of Edward Snowdens commitment – responsible forces have achieved a victory and have made at least 1 step into the right direction.
• Also the film "Citizenfour", that primarily shows the crucial interviews from Edward Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel-room with Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and other about the US surveillance-activities, has found broad appreciation.
  Citizenfour has been awarded an Oscar as best documentary movie 2015.

Further opportunities & risks for freedom

Despite all the positive developments, there are still big threats and strong establishment-forces, who want to continue the curtailing of freedom – in terms of information-technology and beyond.

The failure of Patriot-Acts extension was scarce. And the establishment's propagandists see coming the "end of civilization" without mass-surveillance.
And they will reach some people, but more and more people see their personal freedom more and more restricted as the mainstream-media's credibility. A lot of credit they have already lost with their highly unilateral, Russia-hostile media-coverage of Ukraine.

But exactly this is an opportunity for alternative-media, that are persistently increasing their popularity.
And that among other things with Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul two outspoken objectors of surveillance are seeking candidacy for US-Presidency, is pleasing anyway, too.

Unfortunately there are also people, especially from the political left spectrum (at least in Europe), that undermine the united front of all, forces fighting against mass-surveillance and for civil-rights.

Final words

Thank you Edward Snowden!
We can only do justice to his sacrifice when we actively participate on the political-level, as well as we change our personal habits.
So, we should elect only such parties and candidates, that are advocating civil-rights.
And instead of using commercial IT-services we should use privacy-search-engines and in general open-source systems.

Obama against Romney - this has not been a choice but pure show. And the big winners of the United States presidential-election have had been certain long before election day: Goldman Sachs and the high-finance. 

Graphically it can’t be expressed any better than by Ben Garrison’s cartoon.

The so-called "third party candidates", the candidates who are neither Republicans nor Democrats, remain largely sidelined in the mass-medias coverage.

But it’s exactly them who introduce essential content into the election campaign and above that who are making politics in the sense of the people.

According to Wikipedia at total 417 persons have sought for the candidacy in the presidential election, most of them in vain.

Following 5 third-party presidential candidates have managed the candidacy in several States:

• Gary Johnson - Libertarian Party
• Jill Stein - Green Party
• Virgil Good - Constitution Party
• Rocky Anderson - Justice Party
• Roseanne Barr (the well known actress) - Peace and Freedom Party

They have claimed for civil-rights, which have been trampled under foot by all Republican and Democratic Presidents in the last 30 years.

They have criticized the aggressive U.S. foreign policy, for example the support of jihadists in Syria.

And they have brought many more points into the debate, such as advocating for renewable energy or for a fair election-system.

It also has to be mentioned that even inside Republicans and Democrats there are capable people that have not achieved candidacy within their parties, for example Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich.

What in the United States - as well as in Austria and other countries – is needed most urgently is to change the election-system.

Not only this system in the US is completely antiquated, going back to the 18th century. You can spend almost unlimited money for the election campaign via back doors. That heavily favours the 2 major-parties establishment-candidates and marginalizes all other candidates already before starting.

But at any crisis there is also a chance.

And as one economic-crisis’ consequence things could come on the move, when either the election system will be changed or upright candidates – at least in Congress – will be elected more often even within the existing system.

Update 08th November 2017:

This blog-post receiving a comment ~5 years after being published is a good opportunity for a little rework.
So I have adapted the font-size to my blog's current standard, corrected a name orginially mentioned incorrect and to hint for my 2016 US-election-analysis:

http://critical-constructive.over-blog.com/2017/01/trump-clinton-third-parties-more-austrian-us-election-2016-review.html