Harvard can be sued for distress over slave photos, Massachusetts high court rules

BY PHILIP MARCELO
ASSOCIATED PRESS

JUNE 23, 2022

BOSTON —

A Connecticut woman who says she’s descended from slaves portrayed in widely published historical photos owned by Harvard can sue the Ivy League university for emotional distress, Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Thursday.

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court partly vacated a lower court ruling that dismissed a complaint from Tamara Lanier over photos she says depict her enslaved ancestors. The images are considered some of the earliest showing enslaved people in the U.S.

The court concluded the Norwich resident and her family can plausibly make a case for suffering “negligent and indeed reckless infliction of emotional distress” from Harvard and remanded that part of their claim to the state Superior Court.

But the high court upheld the lower court’s ruling that the photos are the property of the photographer who took them and not the subject themselves.

“A descendant of someone whose likeness is reproduced in a daguerreotype would not therefore inherit any property right to that daguerreotype,” the high court wrote in its ruling.

Lanier’s attorney said Thursday’s ruling was a “historic win” that marks one of the first times a court has ruled that descendants of enslaved people can seek accountability for what their ancestors endured.

“Harvard is not the rightful owner of these photos and should not profit from them,” Josh Koskoff said in a statement. “As Tamara Lanier and her family have said for years, it is time for Harvard to let Renty and Delia come home.”

Lanier’s suit, which was filed in 2019, deals with a series of 1850 daguerreotypes depicting a South Carolina man identified as Renty Taylor and his daughter, Delia Taylor.

Both were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles in images commissioned by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, whose theories on racial difference were used to support slavery in the U.S.

Harvard spokeswoman Rachael Dane said the university is reviewing the decision. She also stressed the original daguerreotypes are in archival storage and not on display nor have they been lent out to other museums for more than 15 years because of their fragility.

“Harvard has and will continue to grapple with its historic connection to slavery and views this inquiry as part of its core academic mission,” she said in a statement. “Harvard also strives to be an ethical steward of the millions of historical objects from around the globe within its museum and library collections.”

In her lawsuit, Lanier argued that the Taylors were her ancestors and that the photos were taken against their will. She demanded the photos from Harvard, saying the school had exploited the portraits for profit.

Mass. Supreme Court Allows Emotional Distress Claim Against Harvard to Proceed in Suit Over Photos of Enslaved People

Attorneys Josh D. Koskoff, left, and Ben L. Crump, right, accompany Tamara K. Lanier on her way to a press conference after their hearing before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston in November 2021. By Raquel Coronell Uribe

By Isabella B. Cho and Brandon L. Kingdollar, Crimson Staff Writers
June 24, 2022

Massachusetts’ top court on Thursday partially revived a lawsuit filed by Tamara K. Lanier, who is suing Harvard over its possession of photographs she says depict her enslaved ancestors, ruling that Lanier has grounds to sue the school for emotional distress.

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court partially overturned a lower court decision throwing out the case. Citing Harvard’s response to Lanier’s attempts to obtain the photographs, the Court wrote Lanier’s allegations “plausibly support” her emotional distress claim.

In the decision, the Court ruled that Lanier’s allegations are sufficient grounds to pursue her original claim that Harvard negligently inflicted emotional distress, as well as the more severe civil charge of “reckless infliction of emotional distress.” The suit was dismissed by the Superior Court in March 2021, and Lanier’s attorneys since sought a second opinion from the Supreme Judicial Court.

“We are gratified by the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Tamara Lanier’s case against Harvard University for the horrible exploitation of her Black ancestors, as this ruling will give Ms. Lanier her day in court to advocate for the memory of Renty,” Lanier and her attorneys, Benjamin L. Crump and Joshua D. Koskoff, said in a joint statement Thursday.

Both Crump and Koskoff have litigated cases that have drawn national headlines. Crump has represented the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Henrietta Lacks, as well as residents of Flint, Michigan, who were affected by the contaminated water in the city.

Koskoff previously represented the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting in their successful lawsuit against Remington Arms — the manufacturer of the AR-15 — and represents families exploring legal action against gunmakers who manufactured the weapons used in the Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, mass shootings.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s decision does not, however, side with Lanier on all counts.

The justices affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of Lanier's claim that Harvard violated the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, as well as her property claims to photographs which according to the lawsuit depict her great-great-great-grandfather, Renty, and his daughter, Delia.

The case has been remanded to the Superior Court, which will review Lanier’s emotional distress claims in light of the decision by Massachusetts’ highest court.

“Harvard was put on notice that she would reasonably be greatly concerned about how the images — created through coercion and depicting her ancestors in a degrading, dehumanizing light — would be used, displayed, and disseminated,” the Supreme Judicial Court wrote. “Because, as alleged, Harvard did just the opposite, its actions plausibly rose to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct.”

The lawsuit, brought against the University in 2019, surrounds Harvard’s possession of daguerreotypes which are believed to be among the oldest existing photographs of enslaved people. The photographs were commissioned by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz for a research project based in polygenism — a racist pseudoscience that claims that some racial groups are genetically inferior — and are currently housed in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

A landmark report released in April by the Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery stated that Agassiz conducted “abusive ‘research’” that was “rooted in racial hierarchies of the sort marshalled by proponents of slavery.”

“In light of Harvard's complicity in the horrific actions surrounding the creation of the daguerreotypes, once Lanier communicated her understanding that the daguerreotypes depicted her ancestors and provided supporting documentation, we discern in both existing social values and customs and appropriate social policy a duty on Harvard's part to take reasonable care in responding to her,” the Court wrote.

The decision cites Harvard’s failure to inform Lanier that a photograph of Renty would be used on the cover of a book published by the University and in materials for a March 2017 conference on universities’ ties to slavery, as well as a statement by then-Peabody spokesperson Pamela Gerardi to Lanier’s local paper denying her ancestral ties to Renty.

“She’s given us nothing that directly connects her ancestor to the person in our photograph,” Gerardi said in a 2014 statement to the Norwich Bulletin. “She claims she has more evidence, but we haven’t seen it.”

According to the suit, Lanier contacted former University President Drew G. Faust in 2011, asking the University to formally review documentation connecting her to Renty and Delia, including United States Census records. In a written response, Faust wrote that Peabody staff would “be in touch” with Lanier on developments related to the daguerreotypes, though the Court notes Harvard failed to do so.

University spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote in an email that the University is reviewing the decision, but declined to provide further comment.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s decision on the Lanier case comes three weeks after The Crimson published an article with details on a draft University report that stated Harvard holds the remains of 7,000 Native Americans and 19 individuals who were likely enslaved. The report acknowledged that the collections, held principally in the Peabody, represent “the University’s engagement and complicity” with slavery and colonialism.

The University’s April report from its Legacy of Slavery initiative provided historical research on Harvard’s entanglements with slavery and recommended the University take action to remedy the harm done.

“The damage caused by Harvard’s entanglements with slavery and its legacies warrant action,” the report reads. “Harvard should take responsibility for its past, and it should leverage its strengths in the pursuit of meaningful repair

In their joint statement Thursday, Lanier and her attorneys said they look forward to continuing the fight for Harvard to redress its treatment of Lanier and her ancestors.

“It is with great pride that we continue this legal and moral battle for justice against Harvard, as we look to repair the damage and degradation that they have caused Tamara Lanier, her ancestors, and all other people of color exploited by their institution,” they wrote.

—Staff writer Isabella B. Cho can be reached at isabella.cho@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @izbcho.

—Staff writer Brandon L. Kingdollar can be reached at brandon.kingdollar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newskingdollar.

 Hamas hails churches’ condemnation of Israeli violations

World Council of Churches accused Israel of systematically discriminating against Palestinians

AA  SUNDAY, 03 JULY 2022

Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Saturday welcomed the condemnation of Israeli violations by the World Council of Churches.

“This stance is a new proof that exposes the crimes and violations committed by the Israeli occupation against our land, people, and holy sites,” Hamas said in a statement.

On Friday, the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches issued a statement in Geneva accusing Israel of "overtly and systematically discriminating Palestinians."

The statement expressed "deep concern" over the rapidly deteriorating situation regarding Israel's recent disruption of Christian religious observances in the wake of an Israeli court decision allowing settlers to expropriate church properties near the Jaffa Gate in East Jerusalem’s Old City.

There was no comment from the Israeli authorities on the council’s statement.

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of 352 churches from more than 120 countries representing over 580 million Christians worldwide.

Palestinians ‘Are Not Animals in a Zoo’

BY RAMZY BAROUDFacebook

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Image by Snowscat.

(Dedicated to the memory of Ghassan Kanafani, an iconic Palestinian leader and engaged intellectual who was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad on July 8, 1972)

Years before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, US media introduced many new characters, promoting them as ‘experts’ who helped ratchet up US propaganda, ultimately allowing the US government to secure enough popular support for the war.

Though enthusiasm for war began dwindling in later years, the invasion of Iraq had begun with a relatively strong popular mandate that allowed US President George W Bush to claim the role of liberator of Iraq, the fighter of ‘terrorism’ and the champion of US global interests. According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted on March 24, 2003 – a few days after the invasion – seventy-two percent of Americans were in favor of the war.

Only now are we beginning to fully appreciate the massive edifice of lies, deceit and forgery involved in shaping the war narrative, and the sinister role played by mainstream media in demonizing Iraq and dehumanizing its people. Future historians will continue with the task of unpacking the war conspiracy for years to come.

Consequently, it is also important to acknowledge the role played by Iraq’s own ‘native informants’, as late professor Edward Said would describe them. The “native informant (is a) willing servant of imperialism”, according to the influential Palestinian intellectual.

Thanks to the various American invasions and military interventions, these ‘informants’ have grown in number and usefullness to the extent that, in various western intellectual and media circles, they define what is erroneously viewed as ‘facts’ concerning most Arab and Muslim countries. From Afghanistan, to Iran, to Syria, Palestine, Libya and, of course Iraq, among others, these ‘experts’ are constantly parroting messages that are tailored to fit US-western agendas.

These ‘experts’ are often depicted as political dissidents. They are recruited – whether officially via government-funded think tanks or otherwise – by western governments to provide a convenient depiction of the ‘realities’ in the Middle East – and elsewhere – as a rational, political or moral justification for war and various other forms of intervention.

Though this phenomenon is being widely understood – especially as its dangerous consequences became too apparent in the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan – another phenomenon rarely receives the necessary attention. In the second scenario, the ‘intellectual’ is not necessarily an ‘informant’, but a victim, whose message is entirely shaped by his sense of self-pity and victimhood. In the process of communicating that collective victimhood, this intellectual does his people a disfavor by presenting them as hapless and having no human agency whatsoever.

Palestine is a case in point.

The Palestine ‘victim intellectual’ is not an intellectual in any classic definition. Said refers to the intellectual as “an individual endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message, a view, an attitude, philosophy or opinion”.  Gramsci argued that intellectuals are “(those) who sustain, modify and alter modes of thinking and behavior of the masses”. He referred to them as “purveyors of consciousness”. The ‘victim intellectual’ is none of these.

In the case of Palestine, this phenomenon was not accidental. Due to the limited spaces available to Palestinian thinkers to speak openly and truly about Israeli crimes and about Palestinian resistance to military occupation and apartheid, some have strategically chosen to use whatever available margins to communicate any kind of messaging that could be nominally accepted by western media and audiences.

In other words, in order for Palestinian intellectuals to be able to operate within the margins of mainstream western society, or even within the space allocated by certain pro-Palestinian groups, they can only be ‘allowed to narrate’ as ‘purveyors’ of victimhood. Nothing more.

Those familiar with the Palestinian intellectual discourse, in general, especially following the first major Israeli war on Gaza in 2008-9, must have noticed how accepted Palestinian narratives regarding the war rarely deviate from the decontextualized and depoliticized Palestinian victim discourse. While understanding the depravity of Israel and the horrondousness of its war crimes is critical, Palestinian voices that are given a stage to address these crimes are frequently denied the chance to present their narratives in the form of strong political or geopolitical analyses, let alone denounce Israel’s Zionist ideology or proudly defend Palestinian resistance.

Much has been written about the hypocrisy of the West in handling the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war, especially when compared to the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestine or the genocidal Israeli wars in Gaza. But little has been said about the nature of the Ukrainian messaging if compared to those of Palestinians: the former demanding and entitled, while the latter mostly passive and bashful.

While top Ukrainian officials often tweet such statements that western officials can “go f**k yourselves”, Palestinian officials are constantly begging and pleading. The irony is that Ukrainian officials are attacking the very nations that have supplied them with billions of dollars of ‘lethal weapons’, while Palestinian officials are careful not to offend the same nations that support Israel with the very weapons used to kill Palestinian civilians.

One may argue that Palestinians are tailoring their language to accommodate whichever political and media spaces that are available to them. This, however, hardly explains why many Palestinians, even within ‘friendly’ political and academic environments, can only see their people as victims and nothing else.

This is hardly a new phenomenon. It goes back to the early years of the Israeli war on the Palestinian people. Palestinian leftist intellectual Ghassan Kanafani, like others, was aware of this dichotomy.

Kanafani contributed to the intellectual awareness among various revolutionary societies in the Global South during a critical era for national liberation struggles everywhere. He was the posthumous recipient of the Afro-Asia Writers’ Conference’s Lotus Prize for Literature in 1975, three years after he was assassinated by Israel in Beirut, in July 1972.

Like others in his generation, Kanafani was adamant in presenting Palestinian victimization as part and parcel of a complex political reality of Israeli military occupation, western colonialism and US-led imperialism. A famous story is often told about how he met his wife, Anni, in South Lebanon. When Anni, a Danish journalist, arrived in Lebanon in 1961, she asked Kanafani if she could visit the Palestinian refugee camps. “My people are not animals in a zoo,” Kanafani replied, adding, “You must have a good background about them before you go and visit.” The same logic can be applied to Gaza, to Sheikh Jarrah and Jenin.”

The Palestinian struggle cannot be reduced to a conversation about poverty or the horrors of war, but must be expanded to include wider political contexts that led to the current tragedies in the first place. The role of the Palestinian intellectual cannot stop at conveying the victimization of the people of Palestine, leaving the much more consequential – and intellectually demanding – role of unpacking historical, political and geopolitical facts to others, some of whom often speak on behalf of Palestinians.

It is quite uplifting and rewarding to finally see more Palestinian voices included in the discussion about Palestine. In some cases, Palestinians are even taking center stage in these conversations. However, for the Palestinian narrative to be truly relevant, Palestinians must assume the role of the Gramscian intellectual, as “purveyors of consciousness” and abandon the role of the ‘victim intellectual’ altogether. Indeed, the Palestinian people are not ‘animals in a zoo’ but a nation with political agency, capable of articulating, resisting and, ultimately, winning their freedom, as part of a much greater fight for justice and liberation throughout the world.

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

 Palestinian woman dies in Israeli detention

230 Palestinians have died while in Israeli detention, according to Palestinian figures

AA  SUNDAY , 03 JULY 2022

A Palestinian woman died Saturday in Israeli detention, according to a local NGO.

Saadia Farajallah, 68, breathed her last in the Israeli Dimon prison near Haifa in northern Israel, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement.

The circumstances of her death, however, were not yet clear.

Farajallah, a mother of eight from the town of Idna in the occupied West Bank, was detained by Israeli forces in December 2021 while she was near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron city.

The Palestinian Authority held Israel responsible for the death of the Palestinian detainee.

Farajallah’s death “was the latest episode in the racist crimes committed against our detainees and female prisoners,” Qadri Abu Baker, the head of the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and ex-Detainees, said in a statement.

He said the silence of the international community “allows the Israeli occupation to commit more crimes against our prisoners.”

At least 230 Palestinians have died while in Israeli detention, according to Palestinian figures. Farajallah was one of 29 female prisoners held in the Damon prison.

According to Palestinian estimates, there are 4,600 Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities.

Türkiye joined NATO to survive and will leave it to thrive when time is right

YUSUF KAPLAN, MONDAY, 04 JULY 2022

The phenomenon that determines our forms of belonging is alliances and enmities, the forms of belonging built through ethnic and cultural or civilization identity. Or, geography still determines people’s destiny. Though Lyotard talks about “the end of geography,” though borders are visibly being eliminated, this is the case.

The burden geography places on humanity's shoulders sometimes becomes a civilizational obligation. Of course, civilization awareness is not limited to geography. To put it in a different way: Civilization awareness and belonging supersedes the actual geography, and reaches all the way to mental and cultural spheres, becoming complex and enriched.

NATO’S IDENTITY: A CIVILIZATION’S WAR MACHINE

The first thing you need to know is that NATO is a civilization project. They say it is Western civilization’s “defense shield,” but this definition camouflages the truth.

Then, what is NATO?

NATO is a war machine utilized by the Western civilization-built global capitalist system’s military tyranny order. It is its armed shield. As Noam Chomsky would say, “It is a destruction mechanism used by global tyrants to terrorize the world.”

As for Fernand Braudel, he would identify it as, “The armed peace order’s war and defense device,” because it is the most fundamental defense organization of Pax Americana, which he considers the continuation of the Roman Empire, the founder of the order called Pax Romana.

Friendships and strategic alliances between countries also primarily take shape through forms of cultural belonging. Of course, interests are more determining at first glance. However, what determined “interests” is, in fact, the forms of belonging: Forms of belonging based on culture, faith, civilization, and region.

The horrific difference between the way the Ukrainians who fled their country to escape the destruction of war upon Russia’s invasion were received in the West, and the way Syrians or migrants from outside of Western civilization were received, shows clearly that interests are determined by the forms of cultural belonging.

Besides the attitude toward migrants, we clearly see the discriminatory, marginalizing, and trivializing attitudes developed through forms of cultural belonging in the problems, wars, and massacres in various parts of the world.

PERCEPTION OF THREAT, IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ‘EVIL OTHER’, SILENT RISE OF ‘GREAT EAST’

Let alone, NATO itself is legitimizing its presence through its development of an other, a threat, an antagonization, and perception. Very much the way the West builds its own identity through the other, and in fact, the “evil other.”

It is the idea and perception of an enemy that legitimizes NATO. During the Cold War period, the enemy was Communism. In post-Cold War, as of the 1990s, it was Islam, which was fought against under the guise of terrorism and from outside through proxy wars, inside through post-modern perception wars. Now, Russia has been added to the list of enemies, and China will be added in the future.

All measures are being taken (you can interpret this as, “all sorts of evil is being plotted”) to prevent a China-India-Islam alliance or bloc from emerging.

The question of why China would oppress the Muslims in East Turkestan so much in such an atmosphere is a strategically very important question that needs to be answered.

What about the massacre of Muslims in India, the terrorization throughout India against Muslims in order to drive Muslims out of India in the form of masses, while the world watches along the sidelines?

In the upcoming half- or one-century medium and long term, China, India, Russia, and the Islamic world will join their strategic priorities and interests against the West, and act together. It is difficult to collapse the Western world’s hegemony any other way.

Türkiye will have a key role here. The NATO summit in Madrid proved this once more.

The lords of the global system had Samuel P. Huntington write the “Clash of Civilizations” (first as a paper, later as a book), because they can see this future alliance. A China, Russia, India, and – Türkiye-led – Islam bloc will eventually form in the East against the West bloc.

The lords of the global system saw this. They are taking measures to prevent this from happening by first trying to bring to its knees the Islamic world in the post-Cold War period, and now by attempting to make Russia surrender.

In the meantime, they are working towards souring India and China’s relations as much as possible to drown this alliance before it is even born. Indians are already craving this, as are the Chinese in a way.

However, the burning fact that nobody sees – or does not want to see – is that the British are fueling, preparing, and provoking the anti-Islam sentiment in India, the war against Islam and Muslims. Something similar might happen in China, but we need concrete data regarding this matter: It is very difficult to get concrete, reliable information from China in this regard.


TÜRKİYE’S PLACE IN NATO: CONTROLLED ENMITY ALLIANCE

Türkiye is one of NATO’s oldest members. The main reason Türkiye was included in NATO was the dire need for Türkiye as an “outpost”.

Otherwise, Türkiye wasn’t fully accepted into NATO; the West could not fully digest Türkiye as a NATO member. It became both a NATO member, in other words, an “ally” of the Western alliance and also an arch but covert enemy. Not only were all the coups that took place in Türkiye planned by NATO, but NATO is the one networking and arming the terrorist organizations seeking to divide Türkiye!

What sort of alliance is this?

A theoretical, mind-opening definition and conceptualization of this would lead one to the conclusion that both sides are trying to take control over one another’s enmity by building an alliance picture. In other words, the alliance between NATO and Türkiye is never an alliance of friendship, but rather a “controlled enmity alliance.”

This serves the interests of both sides, but only for the time being, for a certain period. By keeping Türkiye as a NATO member, NATO is stopping it from shifting in a different direction, and from establishing its own Islamic orbit. As for Türkiye, by remaining a NATO member, it is protecting itself from being NATO’s open target. Yet, Türkiye knows NATO plotted the coups, that it supports terrorism, and NATO knows that Türkiye knows all this.

In short, we joined NATO to survive. But when the time and place is right, we will leave to thrive and build a new world. We are undergoing a period of suffering to reemerge stronger.

Are we on the verge of a global hot war?

SÜLEYMAN SEYFI ÖĞÜN,  AA  MONDAY, 04 JULY 2022

The last NATO Summit made our public more interested in terms of Türkiye's reservations about Sweden and Finland's membership applications and it’s perfectly understandable since this was one of the most critical items on the table at the NATO Summit. However, NATO's conceptual shift was overshadowed by this issue.

I'm not going to go into details. But it seems that after Biden came to power, the world was set on a dangerous course. With the slogan "America is back", Democrats in the U.S. rolled up their sleeves and got to work. NATO, which was weakened during the Trump era, was brought back into focus. Russia and China were subjected to comprehensive policies of hostility. Dissenting voices from the EU have been suppressed. Using the Russia-Ukraine war as an excuse, the EU joined NATO with the help of the current shortsighted political elites. At the last NATO Summit, this process has been deepened by large-scale armament programs involving Pacific powers such as Japan and Australia. According to some, the world has come back to the conditions of 1914. Many observers say that a new Cold War climate has been ushered in. Actually, this finding doesn't seem all that accurate. The Cold War was built on its own norms and codes in order to mutually eliminate the risk of a possible hot war. What is happening today, on the contrary, represents a rapid departure to a hot war.

In my previous columns, I pointed out that this was the necessary result of a systemic crisis linked directly to capitalism. This systemic crisis spans the whole world, starting from the U.S. and including China. The question is: Will the world find a solution to this problem? Let's ask it another way: Will the will of human beings be able to stop this course despite the imposition of deepening material necessities?

Now let's ask the following question: In terms of material conditions, the present state of the world can be compared to 1914. Can we say the same things in terms of non-material conditions?

Christopher Clarke's famous book “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914” explains humanity being in a state of denial as it grapples with the somnambulism syndrome as the war is raging. Against such a possibility; This is the state of semi-consciousness called "Nope, no it cannot be". Before the Russia-Ukraine war, he asked Ukrainians in the street, “Will there be a war?” The majority who were asked the question by reports answered, “No, how can such a thing happen? We and the Russians are brothers”. And then we saw what happened next.

The state of sleepwalking in the face of the possibility of war can be explained by the reflex of dismissing this possibility from the mind. This reflex indicates that humanity has no desire to fight. But it's also a childlike reflex. Just as it is childish to believe that when things go wrong in the economy, the "invisible hand will step in" to eliminate imbalances, it is just as childish to believe that when the possibility of war arises, invisible logic will step in and eliminate this possibility.

The lords of the militaristic economy and military strategies are, of course, always prepared for war. Political strategists, on the other hand, are two-sided. On the one hand, they are prepared for war; On the other, they make an effort to avoid this possibility. The sleepwalking public, on the other hand, does not believe that war will break out easily in their daily hustle and bustle. But one spark is enough to turn everything upside down.

What is frightening today is that the political spheres, strangely enough, do not care about commenting on the possibility of war and excluding it. The recent NATO Summit makes this clear. What has been done develops on the axis of preparation for war, simply by adding fuel to the fire. It's a purely political eclipse. In 1914, the global left had developed a right-wing anti-militarism. Today, the left is experiencing the most disgraceful phase in its history. Its ties with the working classes are severed. Leftist ideas work as a "middle-class opium." It is consoled by cultural and environmental issues, which they have turned into an object of pity, and detached themselves from their social and economic contexts. These disconnections of context eventually resulted in warmongering in the Greens. Considering the current loss of rationality, I can say that the war has broken out forty times so far. The only reason that stops this is the looming threat of nuclear weapons. I'm not so sure about that anymore. The most advanced stage of insanity is the state of utter madness. The latest NATO Summit indicates that we are on the verge of something quite similar…