Hirzel SMCU Defense 2015 Principles of Liberty
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This document provides an overview and outline of Tabea Hirzel's doctoral research defense on principles of liberty as an a priori constitutive principle of the social in the Swiss nation story. The research uses a design-based approach to analyze how liberty is encoded in the Swiss national narrative. It discusses ontological assumptions about personhood and becoming. The methodology involves selecting data sources, preparing transcripts, coding texts, and producing a story encoding liberty through characters, events, and themes. The goal is to tell a historiographic narrative that examines how propaganda and storytelling shape concepts of the future in a society.
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Hirzel SMCU Defense 2015 Principles of Liberty
- 1. Principles of Liberty: A Design-based Research on Liberty as A Priori Constitutive Principle of the Social in the Swiss Nation Story Tabea Hirzel Doctoral student SMC University, Zug, Switzerland Faculty of Diplomacy Supervisor: Juan C. Cachanosky November 28, 2015 Barcelona, Spain Research Defense 2015
- 2. - 2 -© Tabea Hirzel 2015 1. Overview 2. Givens 3. Selection choices 4. Story encoding & weaving 5. Storytelling
- 3. - 3 - • Ontology of person based on Kantian transition gap (Plotinus) • Constitutional phenomenon is a creative act adhering meaning • Mind (nous) oriented towards completeness • Purposeful design of gaps = political constitutional power • Story creation as process for systematic re-enactment (model) 1. The Noetic Gap1. Overview
- 4. - 4 - • Propaganda the political mechanism in stories • Depends on the ideal of completeness • Dramatica’s 4 Throughlines (Main Character, Impact Character, Relationship Throughline, Overal Story Throughline) • Four cardinal points (I, You, World, Ideal) • Schweitzer’s method and theory Reverence for Life (Self, Other, World, Ideal) Impact Character Relationship Throughline You We Other World (view) Main Character Overal Story Throughline I They Self Ideal (Utopia) 2. Propaganda1. Overview
- 5. - 5 - IC M/I T Impact Character Relationship Throughline Concrete Other World (view) MC OST Main Character Overal Story Throughline Concrete Self Ideal (Utopia) Nihilism: Self – / Other – World – / Ideal – Reverence of Life (Catuskoti): Self + / Other + World + / Ideal + Autism: Other – / World + Self + / Ideal – Martyrdom: Other + / World – Self – / Ideal + 3. Tragic Optimism1. Overview
- 6. - 6 - GIVENS Babalola Adeboye Ifatoogun
- 7. - 7 -© Tabea Hirzel 2015 Data selection (2 processes) Data preparation (2 processes) Coding (5 processes) Production (6 processes) • EXPLORATION (IDEAL) • irreal • judgement supressed • extend • playing on the noetic tension • propose alternatives • “society at large” • RELATION (SELF) • possible • judgement negotiated • reconnect • mitigating noetic tension • collective decision process through a market of “visions” • community of praxis • STUDIES (OTHER) • true • judgement objectified • ground • universal ideals • learning for explanation and prediction • peers and critics • PRACTICE (WORLD) • real • subjective judgement • improve • “ultimate particulars” • “creation and intentional change” • exchange partners Empirical analysis (ways of doing) Conjunctural analysis (ways of acting) Integrational analysis (ways of relating) Categorical analysis (ways of being) Research design interfaces Dimensions (conceptual subsets) Levels of abstraction 1. Performative Inquiry1. Givens
- 8. - 8 - 2. The Common Problem • To become a person to become a society • implicit or explicit (either story first or problem first) • The logic of Propaganda: a «gap» © Tabea Hirzel 2015 1. Givens
- 9. - 9 - 3. The Sample Society • 19th Century Switzerland: transition Cast System of the Ancient Regime Modern Democratic Nation State • Today’s Switzerland within the European Community and Global Crisis • Players: doctoral student (me), jury (you) © Tabea Hirzel 2015 1. Givens Swiss National Aviation Fund. Originally published in Review of Reviews, May 1913, 457, accompanying the second part of a two-part article by Count Zeppelin on 'The conquest of the air‘, retrieved from Airminded.org on 1.8.2015.
- 10. - 10 - SELECTION CHOICES Sign OutSigned in as admin Admin Area Agents Data selection 1: Potential characters for a historiographic narrative. Bibliography Data selection 2: Bibliography providing authentic texts and background information related to "agents". Transcritps Data preparation 1: Machine-readable transcript versions. Token Data preparation 2: Tokenized text. Invivo Coding step 1: Invivo coding. Hermeneutics Coding step 2: Hermeneutical coding. Character scenes Coding step 3: Dramatic encoding. Character dev. Coding step 4: Character development. Encounters Coding step 5: Dramatica’sCharacter Events Scenes. Story Production step 1: Topic selection. Characters Production step 2: Character choices. Storypoints Production step 3: Static storypoints. Story dynamics Production step 4: Overall structure. Storyweaving Production step 5: Thematic encoding. Storylines Production step 6: Story writing. Print screen of Spindle 1.1. beta by Hirzel.
- 11. - 11 - • Cohort sampling collection (Spindle) different sampling strategies • Sample validation authority code • Sample selection individual, later negotiated 1. Sampling2. Selection
- 12. - 12 - Fact Code: WeH1789 Name: Heinrich Weiss Born: 1789-00- 00 Location: Zürich, Switzerland Gender: male Profession: Teacher, Politician 256 – (1847). Beitrag zur Geschichte 265 – (1840). Etc. Documents Fiction Role: Sidekick Tye: Main Character HEINRICH 256 – 1847 ... 265 – 1840 ... Scenes Type: Pursuing Tragic triad: Death Impr. mgmt.: Self-Resolve: Throughline: OST Issue: Problem: Solution: Symptom Response Unique ability: Critical flaw: Agents Data selection 1: Potential characters for a historiographic narrative. No fiction! No women! No workers! No immigrants! No foreigners! Etc. ... Bibliography Data selection 2: Bibliography providing authentic texts and background information related to "agents". 2. Translation2. Selection
- 13. - 13 - Hermeneutics Coding step 2: Hermeneutical coding. Token sequence Token 1 [-1-] Beitrag zur Geschichte der Revolution vom 6ten September 1839. 2 gewesenem Mitgliede des zürcherschen Regierungsrathes, Impression: Account (revolution) Noetic: Guilt (beitrag) Impression: Authority (gewesenem mitglied) Impression: Justification (regierungsrat) Comment: He emphasized his participation as member of the Cantonal Council, even though he was also War Council by this time and leader of the young city guard. © Tabea Hirzel 2015 3. Interpretation2. Selection
- 14. - 14 - Encounters Coding step 5: Dramatica's Character Events Scenes. Scene id. Scene 1 EXT. BÜRKLIPLATZ, ZÜRICH - 1839-09-06 DAY The Bürkliplatz of Zürich is full of mob and city guards, all shouting. At one end of the square Bernhard Hirzel marches at the head of the mobbing crowd from the land. At the other, end, in the door of the mayor's house Heinrich Weiss searches for a good moment to cross square and go over to the post office. Scene id. Scene 3 Weiss reports his experiences participating in the Züriputsch on the government's side. Scene id. Scene 2 Hirzel justifies his participation in the Züriputsch. Encounter scenes Encounter © Tabea Hirzel 2015 Scene B Scene A Agent A Agent B 4. Integration2. Selection Historically significant or «relevant» events
- 15. - 15 - Character scenes Coding step 3: Dramatic encoding. Author Bibliogra phy Text Scene Invivo Hermen eutic Character Character scenes Character development Characters © Tabea Hirzel 2015 Fact Fiction 5. Storytelling2. Selection The scientific method (transition gap)
- 16. - 16 - STORY ENCODING & WEAVING Propaganda
- 17. - 17 - 1. Roles and Relationships3. Encoding Character dev. Coding step 4: Character development. (CC 2.0) Alan Cleaver @ Flicker: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/3405608142 © Tabea Hirzel 2015 Protagonist Antagonist Sidekick Guardian Contagonist Skeptic EmotionReason
- 18. - 18 - Characters Production step 2: Character choices. ↙ Journey1 ↘ ↙ Journey2 ↘ ↙ Journey3 ↘ Signpost1 Act1 Signpost2 Act2 Signpost3 Act3 Signpost4 OS T M/I T MC IC 2. Research Choices3. Encoding
- 19. - 19 - Characters Production step 2: Character choices. ↙ Journey1 ↘ ↙ Journey2 ↘ ↙ Journey3 ↘ Signpost1 Act1 Signpost2 Act2 Signpost3 Act3 Signpost4 OS T M/I T MC IC 3. Alternative Choices3. Encoding
- 20. - 20 - ↙ Journey1 ↘ ↙ Journey2 ↘ ↙ Journey3 ↘ Signpost1 Act1 Signpost2 Act2 Signpost3 Act3 Signpost4 OS T Doing → Obtaining → Gath. Information → Understanding M/I T Dev. a Plan → Playing a Role → Changing One’s Nature → Conceiving an Idea MC Memories → Imp. Resp. → Innermost Desire → Contemplation IC The Present → How Things are Changing → The Future → The Past Storyweaving Production step 5: Thematic encoding. 4. Research Themes3. Encoding
- 21. - 21 - ↙ Journey1 ↘ ↙ Journey2 ↘ ↙ Journey3 ↘ Signpost1 Act1 Signpost2 Act2 Signpost3 Act3 Signpost4 OS T Doing → Obtaining → Gath. Information → Understanding M/I T Dev. a Plan → Playing a Role → Changing One’s Nature → Conceiving an Idea MC Memories → Imp. Resp. → Innermost Desire → Contemplation IC The Present → How Things are Changing → The Future → The Past Storyweaving Production step 5: Thematic encoding. Memories → Imp. Resp. → Innermost Desire → Contemplation 5. Alternative Encoding3. Encoding
- 22. - 22 - ↙ Journey1 ↘ ↙ Journey2 ↘ ↙ Journey3 ↘ Signpost1 Act1 Signpost2 Act2 Signpost3 Act3 Signpost4 OS T → → → M/I T → → → MC → → → IC → → → MC resolve MC growth MC approach/style OST limit OST driver OST outcome OST judgement Decision Optionlock Success Good ChangeDo-er/ Logical Start © Tabea Hirzel 2015 Actual dilemma unisex unwilling Storyweaving Production step 5: Thematic encoding. 6. Dynamic Story Points3. Encoding
- 23. - 23 - ↙ Journey1 ↘ ↙ Journey2 ↘ ↙ Journey3 ↘ Signpost1 Act1 Signpost2 Act2 Signpost3 Act3 Signpost4 OS T → → → M/I T → → → MC → → → IC → → → MC resolve MC growth MC approach/style OST outcome Success Change Do-er/ Logical Start © Tabea Hirzel 2015 Situation Action OST limit OST driverOST goal Activity Decision Optionlock Storyweaving Production step 5: Thematic encoding. 7. Goffmanian frame3. Encoding
- 25. - 25 - 1. Research Storylines4. Telling ↙ Journey1 ↘ ↙ Journey2 ↘ ↙ Journey3 ↘ Signpost1 Act1 Signpost2 Act2 Signpost3 Act3 Signpost4 OS T Doing → Obtaining → Gath. Information → Understanding (16) (12) (13) (1) M/I T Dev. a Plan → Playing a Role → Changing One’s Nature → Conceiving an Idea (3) (4) (10) (11) MC Memories → Imp. Resp. → Innermost Desire → Contemplation (2) (8) (9) (14) IC The Present → How Things are Changing → The Future → The Past (7) (6) (15) (5) Storylines Production step 6: Story writing.
- 26. - 26 - ↙ Journey1 ↘ ↙ Journey2 ↘ ↙ Journey3 ↘ Signpost1 Act1 Signpost2 Act2 Signpost3 Act3 Signpost4 OS T Doing → Obtaining → Gath. Information → Understanding (16) (12) (13) (1) M/I T Dev. a Plan → Playing a Role → Changing One’s Nature → Conceiving an Idea (3) (4) (10) (11) MC Memories → Imp. Resp. → Innermost Desire → Contemplation (2) (8) (9) (14) IC The Present → How Things are Changing → The Future → The Past (7) (6) (15) (5) Storylines Production step 6: Story writing. 2. Chronological Storylines4. Telling
- 27. - 27 - Conflict Problem to solve Source of creation Personhood Isolated individual (Robinson) Transcendental (time, space, subjectivity) First order category (a priori) Being Becoming (liberty) Chp. 2. Ontological assumption. A priori of liberty as pure action, p. 3. To Be or To Become4. Telling
- 28. - 28 - Agents Data selection 1: Potential characters for a historiographic narrative. Author Audience 4. Author-Audience Resilience4. Telling Hanan Schlesinger & Ali Abu Awwad Benjamin Girod & Pfr. Geri Keller
- 29. - 29 - (CC 2.0) Alan Cleaver @ Flicker: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/3405608142 Author Audience Story Production step 1: Topic selection. • The «vision of the future» 5. Research Propaganda4. Telling
- 30. - 30 - THANK YOU! “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot” (Cohen, 2011; Saint-Marie, 1969)
Editor's Notes
- First of all, many thanks for being here and for the appreciation of my work. The aim of this presentation is to clarify the main points of this explorative study on liberty as a priori principle in social constituency: titled Principles of Liberty.
- In the following, I will give a brief overview to re-mind the main points of this research and, then, directly present the application of the Alternate Reality Game, as narrative re-enactment, starting from the Givens, through the Selection choices, over the Story encoding and the Story weaving towards the final Storytelling process.
- The heart of this research was the idea that the ontology of the person relied on the Kantian transition gap, the logical gap between the empirical and the ideal, between body or matter and mind (as nous); in short between what is known (epistemology) and what becomes constituted in existence (ontology). It was assumed, that the method to leap this gap was a genuine creative act, the adherence of meaning to objects, including one’s own body. Thus, in a certain sense the mind was a device oriented towards completeness, which as such did not exist in the real world. Incompleteness as a trigger for personal action could, then, also be used purposefully to motivate, direct and manipulate the actions of Others, by designing them intentionally. This was the key mechanism of politically constitutional power. The creation of a Nation story, served as model for such a constitutional process which could be systematicall re-enacted in order to explore this phenomenon.
- Within the terminology of Phillips and Huntley’s Theory of Story named Dramatica, the intentional design of gaps with the purpose to stimulate the direction of an Other’s mind, the Audience, was defined as Propaganda. As already mentioned before, in order to function, Propaganda required the ideal of completeness. Dramatica defined this by the presence of four perspectives, the four Throughlines, and the diligent encoding of all these perspectives throughout a story. These 4 Throughlines were overlapping with the four possible cardinal points in the different theories of social constitution analyzed in here; the «I», «you», «we» and «they» perspectives in Alfred Schütz, Laín Entralgo and Frankl. Schweitzer, in his Reverence for Life, offered a method for analyzing different societies according to their degree of being ethical, in which these cardinal points were described as simultaneous affirmation of the «Self», the «Other», the «world» and the «ideal».
- According to Schweitzer, the challenge was to orient one’s actions towards the Reverence of Life. This implied that all the for cardinal points should be affirmed in the largest degree possible. The practical challenge of this, in contrast to the more commonly known «golden mean» or «middle way», was that no trade off’s could be made to justify actions. It was equally bad to sacrifice the Self for the Other, than to sacrifice the Other for oneself, nor was it acceptable to destroy the world for an ideal, or to give up one’s ideals in order to embrace the world. Obviousely, this was a logically impossible position, a tetralemma, which could not be logically solved, yet was performed in the daily world of social life. Insisting in this orientation was called «tragic optimism».
- Schweitzer based his Reverence for Life on a conventional, representative, comparative methodology. In this research, true to the performative character of the phenomenon of social constituency, a non-representational performative inquiry was suggested. For this purpose, Schweitzer’s fourfold orientation was re-enacted in a kind of Alternate Reality Game (ARG). This methodology was strongly inspired by the traditional Storytelling as political re-enactment in the Yoruba society, firstly described in the academic context by Babalola Adeboye Ifatoogun, and further made known by the Nigerian contemporary philosopher Akin Moses Makinde. Similar performative approaches were also found in Brazil’s syncretic culture and the Congado, or in the Ancient Australian Aboriginal tradition of the Alcherringa, also translated as the «Dreaming». I will concentrate, in the following, on the speficic – admittedly unconventional - application of the performative inquiry developed by this study.
- The research process comprised four phases: (1) the selection, (2) the preparation, (3) the coding and the (4) production of data. Each of the four research phases was approached in four ways, at four different levels of abstraction: (1) the conventional/empirical, (2) the conjunctural/critical, (3) the integrational/manipulative, and (4) the categorical/relational level. Even though, it was not necessary to follow strictly this order, it represents the overall flow of data throughout the performance. I will start with the givens and consecutively explain the steps in relation to the game’s main mechanim; Dramatica’s Propaganda.
- In line with other approaches in collaborative self-guided learning, also known as community learning, the whole process started with a common problem. In this case, the focuse lied on a universal problem, the becoming of the person as co-generetive with the constitution of the community, or society, it belonged to. From this rather abstract problem, more concrete, real-life issues emaneted and were either implicitly or explicitly manifested. If they were implicit, i.e. rather unconsious, the process would start with the story first, probabely an already existing story. In the other case, the process started with the definition of the problem, which had largely been developed in the theoretical part of this study. The problem of social constituency was reduced to the need of a specific task, a creative act which could fulfill the impossible and leap the Kantian transition gap, also known as the noetic gap in Franklian psychology. This was the origin, or a priori, of the logical gap, through wich the effect of Propaganda was created, accroding Dramatica. It was signalled on the slides with a little yellow sun where it applied.
- The sample society for this research, and its current problem, was defined by the 19th Century Swiss transition from the Medieval Cast System towards the Modern Democratic Nation State, as given through the current discourse in present Switzerland, its present controverse role as potential member of the European Community, and its positioning under the threats of the global financial and geopolitical crisis. This case was chosen only for examplification of the gaming process. In a real Alternate Reality gaming, amoung the persons present, here and now, we would probabely chose a different population for our story. Once the givens were clear, the next step was to negotiate our common Nation story, and the implicite effects of Propaganda in different the steps of selection, analysis and production.
- The key tool for data collection and data selection was the interactive database, programmed in PHP/MySql for this research, named Spindle. It consisted mainly out of relational tables, through which data could be manipulated in a controlled way, and the process of manipulation and data maturity could be traced back to its original empirical source in every moment. This meant, that the creative process was objectively monitored throughout the whole game. The Spindle offered the possibility to compare each step with external standards, as for example international authority codes for names, bibliographic documents, places and semantic units. For a better orientation, in the following, the relevant tables were signaled on the slide at the upper right corner. The colours refer to the different phases of the process.
- The collection method of the samples was a cohort sampling, which followed different sampling strategies according to the different levels of abstraction throught the research phases. As such the sample collection was never closed but an ongoing, organic process which was part of the negotiation.
- First, historical characters, which could later serve as characters in the story, had to be selected and evaluated. Their purposeful selection was a well known Propaganda device in historiography. As such the scientific method itself excluded fictional characters, as for example Willhelm Tell. Further, the liberal movement in Switzerland had strategically eliminated the formerly well known femal personalities, and hesitated to include workers, immigrants and foreign voices – the object of exclusion was culturally bound, but such exclusions were compulsive. What was even more relevant, at this point, was the problematics of history as a science, which relied on necessarily incomplete data. The intrinsic Propaganda effect, i.e. the «gap», could neither be avoided – by abstaining from narrative approaches - nor eluded – by limiting a historical narration on the known facts. The reason for this was, that any data required a translation process, in which they were transposed from their original context into the current context of the researcher or narrator and its audience.
- A large part of historical investigation could be automatized, this included foremost data collection through crawlers, transcription through OCR-programmes and scanning of names, data and words for an automatic in vivo coding. Yet, what was of major concern for this research was - once data consistency was assured, and purposeful distortion was excluded - there remained still a significant divergence among the possible interpretations of such original texts. This phenomenon was the well known reason for hermeneutics. It was not the purpose, here, to discusse the credibility of a specific interpretation, but rather to make the interpretative process traceable and anchor it theoretically, in order to enhance the scientific validation of the manipulative process. In other words, through linking a hermeneutic process with the bare data and to position it within the narrative or rhetorical structure, it was assumed to become easier detected and compared. For the theoretical grounding, Goffmans frame analysis, especially impression management in combination with the Franklian categories of the «tragic problem», was proposed. In the example on the slide, I wondered why Weiss emphasized his participation as member of the Cantonal Council, even though he was also War Council, by this time, and leader of the young city guard. I considered, that he might have desired to give authority to his speach and a justification of his participation in the conflict, while de-emphasizing the aggresive character of his role as military leader. Certainly, another player, any of you, might interpret this in a different way.
- Once we find more or less agreement on the best, the most credible, interpretation of the data, they had to be contextualized into a new story, the one written by us. This was done by translating the self-expression from the autobiographical texts into a third person perspective, as character scenes, and to combine it with another’s autobiographical text into the so-called encounter scenes, the actual scenes of our story. On this slide, an example was given combining Weiss’ experience at the climax of the 1839 Putsch in Zürich with that one of Hirzel from the opposing party, a classical approach in historiography known from many battle reports. It should be observed, here, that the choice of the «climax» itself, the moments of significant encounters, was already a manipulative act.
- Finally, the aim of any Storytelling was the creation of logical and aesthetic unity, out of incomplete information, forming character scenes. In contrast, the aim of empirics was to associate data with material signs (artifacts or texts in the largest sense), independent of their meaning or completeness. As such, historiography as a discipline leaped not only the gap between science and creative writing, but, foremost, between the material, factual and the always fictional, ideal of theory. Up to a certain degree, this approach, intrinsic to all scientific representation, became problematic in history due to its characteristics as time-transcendent message which had the power to create a «vision of the future», through the interpretation, or re-interpretation of the givens of the past. As learnt from Makinde, there lied an intrinsic political force in history writing.
- Thus, for the consious manipulation of this political engagment, the software Dramatica Pro, designed by the authors of the Dramatica theory, Phillips & Huntley, was suggested. It was developed as a tool for a self-guided creative writing process and it was integrated into the Spindle in order to ground the creative process of story writing on the historical data sources.
- In a first place, the characters had to be developed and arranged in relation to each other. The meaning of a story changed significantly, not only according to the character selection, but also due to their roles and relationships.
- As such, I proposed Katharina Morel as the Protagonist. You can see her, here, as Main Character in the framework of the 4 Throughlines described by Dramatica.
- In turn, the Swiss historian Thomas Maissen’s favorite character, as Main Character and Protagonist, was probabely Alfred Escher. At least, this could be derived from several of his historiographic writings and his contribution to the most recent filmic version of Swiss history Die Schweizer.
- Further, the different phases in the character development were thematically encoded.
- Even if you would choose the same characters as I, you might probabely want to challenge some of my thematic allocation. This would further have consequences on the dynamic structure of the story. From a scientific perspective, the assignation of themes to historical characters was probabely the most subjective step in the whole process, which became traceable and comparable through the Spindle.
- In order to test a Nation story against the universal of Scheitzer’s ethics, the attitude of «tragic optimism» had to be present in Dramatica. This was found in its Story Dynamics. On the one side, it was reflected in the encoding of the story as «actual dilemma»; combining a succesful outcome with the demand of a personal transformation, or change, for the Main Character, and its evaluation as «good». If this narrative orientation, defined as ethical, was also reflected in a socity’s daily life could, now, be tested by a larger comparative research.
- What became directly visible through this structural approach to stories was the interdependence between the situation and the individual action in a Goffmanian sense, on which could be played deliberatly.
- The political potential of stories had already been mentioned, in here, and it was diligently applied since ancestral times. In some cases, it was even integrated into a modern Constitution, as in the example of the present dual Constitution of Ghana. Historiography as scientific discipline could be understood as such an intent of integration in Western Cultures. In this context, the relevant characteristics of stories was not so much the fact, that they are told, but that they are re-told.
- In a last step, Story scenes had to be sequenced into a Storyline. Rather than subjetive, this was a culturally dependent process, mainly depending on the culture’s time-perception.
- A classical chronological sequening was not less Propaganda than any other, due to the fact that temporal coincidences and sequences could give an impression of causal relationships were they did not necessarily apply.
- Remember, at the center of the theoretical approach lied the ontological turn. Applied to Hoppe’s argumentation ethics this had far reaching consequences. A) Whereas, for Hoppe, discursiveness was merely a tool for the validation of epistemological knowledge and rules. In here, the person was defined and actualized ontologically by the discursive relation to other persons. B) Due to this ontological turn, the isolated individual could not longer be uphold, for the person was not only a time and space transcendent phenomenon, but also a subject transcendent entity, and as such co-emergent with the phenomenon of society. The assumed constitutional universal was that the person and society emerged from liberty as pure potentiality or acting - liberty being the a priori, not a value. C) This concluded in probabely the most relevant implication for political science. As already learnt from Christie, conflicts were not simply a problem that needed to be solved, but a source for the further perpetuation, or development of the person’s becoming.
- By negotiating our common story - without the need to agree on all practical terms - it was possible to enter into a manifold peacefull but agonistic author-audience relationships, in which our own being could be affirmed and actualized, without the threat to anihilate the Other. Two examples for such a process of resilience were the recent project of Ali Abu Awwad & Hanan Schlesinger at Palestinian Institute of Non-Violence, on the one side, and Benjamin Girod’s efforts to promote the Swiss Reconciliation with Amish and Mennonites, (in collaboration with Parson Geri Keller,) on the other side.
- Following, through the intersubjective character of storytelling, and the re-definition of past conflicts which echo in our today’s lives, most spectacular, we self become part of the story; adding to the historiographic narration a time transcendent dimension through which we can reach out and create a constructive and politically powerful «vision of the future». Did you find the hidden Propaganda as awareness in my text? Right! It’s the idea that Switzerland could serve as a model for anything.
- (As aesthetical resume of this almost mystical process, in which the mind becomes manifest in existence as body, I proposed Leonard Cohen’s mantra «God is alive, magic is afoot». ) I hope, you enjoyed this and many thanks for listening. Please, feel free to make your questions.