{"id":126,"date":"2008-09-14T15:05:48","date_gmt":"2008-09-14T20:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.dap.ro\/?p=126"},"modified":"2008-09-14T15:05:48","modified_gmt":"2008-09-14T20:05:48","slug":"from-english-egophobia-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/?p=126","title":{"rendered":"from English @ EgoPHobia #19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A philosophical inquiry and expansion on the types of the Post-modern Informational Societies and their dynamics, as presented in Andrei Marga\u2019s \u201cDignoses, articles and essays\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"right\">by Ormeny Francisc-Norbert<\/p>\n<p>In his most recent book, \u201cDiagnoses, Articles and Essays\u201d(Diagnoze, Articole \u015fi Eseuri) Professor Andrei Marga, when approaching the mediatic culture, draws our attention upon the necessity of making as clear as possible the following distinction:<br \/>\n-the society of communications<!--more--><br \/>\n-the society of cognition(also known as \u201ca society which fosters knowledge-sharing\u201d)<br \/>\n-the society of communication<br \/>\n-the society of transparency<br \/>\n-the mediatic society<br \/>\nThese five types of society re in fact, five dangerous \u201cfalse-friends\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Society of Communications is seen by Andrei Marga as a society of information; more precisely of raw data\u2026of data flowing bluntly, like a river toward the sea\/ocean. What counts here is the circulation of data(if possible, at the fastest achievable speed ). Here a consesnsus, or some other types of agreement upon the transmitted information out of the agenda.<br \/>\nIt is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals of<br \/>\ncybernetics in the civil sphere. It managed to develop a highly sophisticated and consolidated infrastructure for spreading the data. But the civilians, in the absence of some appropriate techniques for processing\/ analyzing\/using such big waves and mountains of data, see themselves in an utter impossibility of giving the slightest (real)\u201cuse-value\u201d to any of such piece of information they constantly receive. It is as if being thirsty in an ocean of water from which they are unable to drink as they lake the appropriate techniques for the desalting of ocean\/sea water.<br \/>\nHere, within such a society, communication is reduced to the very act of broadcasting news(and never goes an inch further than this). The unavoidable consequence of this is the fact that the mechanical news, as heard on tv, slowly but surely becomes but a noise \u2013 like the electrical whizzing sound produced by neon.<br \/>\nAndrei Marga\u2019s final conclusion related to this type of society is that a society of communications does not necessarily imply\/denote\/equal a communicational society (too). A communicational society is supposed to be based on the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior\u2026in short, on a real interpersonal rapport. Within a society of communication one finds only the raw circulation of data, without any concern for feed-back; for its proper assimilation; or for achieving its envisaged target. In order to obtain a real feed-back(which would be able to place you in a true society of communication), one needs, first and foremost a correct assimilation of information. That is, one cannot go\/evolve straight from a society of communications to a society of communication-he needs an intermediary phase. This intermediary and necessary phase in the transition from a society of communications to a society of communication is what Andrei Marga calls \u201ca society of cognition\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Society of Cognition<\/p>\n<p>The question arises: Why is a society of cognition needed in order for us to be able to successfully evolve from a society of communications to a society of communication? The answer is: BECAUSE, IN ORDER TO TRULY EVOLVE, FIRST AND FOREMOST, A CORRECT ANDCOMPLETE ASSIMILATION ON THE PART OF THE RECEIVER MUST TAKE PLACE. Such assimilation will find its most complete and fertile  processing within the Society of Cognition. Here I am talking about the possibility to put \u201ethe matter\u201d through the correct steps of the bestly contextualized procedure; about the possibility to prepare, treat, or convert \u201cthe matter\u201d (in order to o gain an understanding or acceptance of something; to come to ideal terms with something) by subjecting it to the most desirable process; about the possibility to perform appropriate operations on data.<br \/>\nShould we consult  The Free Dictionary by Farlex for the word \u201ccognition\u201d at the following location on the Internet http:\/\/www.thefreedictionary.com\/cognition, , we are to find the following definitions:<br \/>\n\u201c1. The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.<br \/>\n2. That which comes to be known, as through perception, reasoning, or intuition; knowledge.\u201d<br \/>\nBy simply regarding the above given definitions one could see that within cognition one no longer simply absorbes information(like a sponge); that, within cognition one also develops some techniques by means of which he filters and processes that very information. For this reason, Andrei Marga calls such societies \u201csocieties nurtured by diversity and its capacities.\u201d<br \/>\nCommunities are based on shared concepts. In Andrei Marga\u2019s vision, cognition equals a community\u2019s capacity to generate\/produce concepts:\u201dWhile the &lt;&lt;society of communications&gt;&gt; simply demanded us to further spread the infrastructure on which the information circulates, the &lt;&lt;society of cognition&gt;&gt; requires, the absorption, the spreading but also the production of cognition.\u201d  By replacing the necessity to spread knowledge with the necessity to produce knowledge(even while absorbing it), such societies gave the decisive impulse for economic and cultural developments, in the sense that such impulses found their expression in proactive politics. The proactive politics are project-based politics having as prime engine resourceful initiatives, pensiveness  as resulted from an authentic process of knowledge-sharing, and a fertile collaboration with the public interest(instead of simply subordinating it to some  immutable patterns of absorption). In Andrei Marga\u2019s view, Cognition should be regarded as the very engine behind social activities and not as some sort of auxiliary element within the equation of such actions. Professor Marga speaks of Singapore as being illustrative for the success of such a theory: in 1965 it was known as an underdeveloped country, but, by means of proactive politics targeted at cultivating abilities with high social applicability, it managed to turn itself into an emblematical country for what the idea of modern development should stand for. When all these requirements are met successfully, we nter the Society of Communication\u2026a sort of utopia in matters of fertile political feed-back.<\/p>\n<p>The Society of Communication<br \/>\nSuch a society will, first and foremost, systematize the concord among the participants at the social dialogue ; it will make sure that such participants understand what is being said and that they filter through their own personalities the message and then re-release it into society in a Hegelian manner ( but not as they received\/absorbed it but embellished with their inner creative subjectivity).It is based on RATIONALITY, ON COMMUNICATION AND ON ARGUMENTATION. The intersecting point of these three elements should be the CONCORD among the participants at the conversational act. Such a concord will evolve on four distinct flexible (shape-shifting) patterns: \u201cintelligibility of messages, the conformity to fact or truth-on the part of the speakers, the veracity of assertions, the participants\u2019 righteous interaction to communication.\u201d  Such a vision upon human relations clearly carries the scent of Utopia, and as any Utopia, it is heavily inclined to remain a pure theoretical concept, devoid of actual substance and with no relation to reality(future\/past\/present) whatsoever.<br \/>\nIn order to make this \u201csociety of communication\u201d work for us, we must carefully and wisely purge it of Idealism while impregnating it with the most invigorating because rigorous  Pragmatism. To better illustrate this first thesis of mine, I will use Mihail Bakunin\u2019s  heavy critique of Idealism together with William James\u2019s vision on Pragmatism, as inspired from that of Charles Sanders Peirce.<br \/>\na)               Bakunin\u2019s main point in his masterpiece \u201cGod and the State\u201d is that, should one want to efficiently manipulate the masses into following his credo, what he has to do is to first and foremost impregnate those masses with Idealism, The more exuberant and juvenile the Idealism  sown in the brains of the followers, the more fluent their obedience. Religion and the State understood this principle and, in their times of absolute tyranny, they gained a tremendous amount of power by assuming their mission and persona as divine guiding lights, as absolute principles with an unquestionable authority over this life as well as over the life beyond.<br \/>\n\u015etefan Bolea in his \u201cOntology of Negation\u201d observes that \u201cIdealism (an appellation for religion and theological metaphysics) taken as a drug, is an instrument for control.\u201d<br \/>\nIn order to better illustrate his theory, Bakunin quotes Proudhon: \u201cThe ideal is but a flower, whose root lies in the material conditions of existence.\u201d<br \/>\nConcerning poets, poetry and the social implications of their art, Bakunin notes:\u201d The more sincere these believers and poets of heaven, the more dangerous they become.\u201d<br \/>\nNow, speaking of poets and literature, one can\u2019t fail to notice that the comparison between Idealism and Flowers is a technique very dear to literature; a technique more dear to literature than to philosophy:<br \/>\n&#8211; Nikos Kazantzakis in his \u201cAlexis Zorba\u201d makes a similar point: the main character, after remarking the wild beauty of a flower, asks himself vexed, why that flower needs dirt and blood and filth in order to rise and shine; why does beauty grow only out of swampy filth.<br \/>\n&#8211; Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry\u2019s flower which embellishes an entire desolated planet, still has thorns: \u201d The flowers have been growing thorns for millions of years(&#8230;)And it\u2019s not serious, trying to understand why flowers go to such trouble produce thorns that are good for nothing?(\u2026) The thorns are of no use at all. Flowers have thorns just for spite!\u201d<br \/>\nIn order to become freethinkers (the only way to evolve, or as Bakunin puts it, the only way to achieve \u201cthe development and realization of all the natural laws in the world\u201d[a long euphemism for evolution]; the only context in which a real dialogue could e established ) we must start by abolishing all forms of idealism.<br \/>\nIf we take or example nowadays radicalized terrorism and inflamed jingoism(both heavily broadcasted through media channels\u2026and even in the form of negative publicity, they can\u2019t fail to produce a strong impact ), we can\u2019t fail to see  that Idealism, ultimately results into desperate and violent behaviour, and is an excellent fuel for hatred and social maladaptation.<br \/>\nThe Society of Cognition should be a society where a healthy assimilation of concepts would take place in order to prepare the emergence of the Society of Communication. Yet, Idealism appears within this equation of assimilation as the most evil and perfidious possible catalyst: it sabotages the healthy assimilation of concepts by facilitating some mental and emotional processes while utterly inhibiting others(or dissolving them, like a solvent)  and thus manipulating the course of assimilation to the advantage of some well disguised interest groups.<br \/>\nAndrei Marga praises  RATIONALITY as the basis for COMMUNICATION AND ARGUMENTATION(argumentation being seen as a superior level within communication; a level below innovation but above the ordinary\/daily speech acts) and, he further praises these two elements(COMMUNICATION AND ARGUMENTATION) as the ultimate basis for the CONCORD among the participants at the conversational act.<br \/>\nBut without a scientifically correct and a humanely healthy assimilation of concepts, there is no  RATIONALITY.<br \/>\nThe question arises: WHY IS RATIONALISM WEAKER THAN IDEALISM?(as the Inquisition, the Totalitarian Systems and nowadays Media Manipulation have proved)<br \/>\nMy answer is the following: because humans are, first and foremost spiritual and spiritualized creatures and this translates itself into an immutable propensity for mysticism.  Ideals and Idealism (as a state of mind) are dangerous sirens\/mermaids and an overwhelming percentage of people still fall for their seductive chants. We have an inborn impulse to become lunatic when faced with a skillful rhetoric\u2026to fall for words(Adolf Hitler is maybe the best illustration in this sense). When this impulse gets combined with a taste for fancy, the overall process will fire the insanity. Within the very same psychological pattern, the endurance to madness by means of reason occupies a lower and weaker level (that is why we are fascinated by robots and we  try to create them as soon as possible &#8211; hoping that they will live at a more effective level of existence by minimizing emotions to the advantage of reason and functionality). Rationalism and judgement don\u2019t have the same energy to mobilize our spirits, as madness does. This happens because reasoning rejects the fancy and takes its refuge in a cold Cartesian equation. Thus, rationalism plays foul against itself. In order to become successful once again and in order to be able o prevail over madness, it has to be deeply re-humanized, on the basis of philosophies such as William James\u2019s.<br \/>\nThe final point to be made here is inquire ourselves into the ways by means of which we could find the precise location of that fatal point-of-no-return  where a conviction degenerates into a prejudice(thing which happens most of the time because of the evil catalyst-solvent called \u201cidealism\u201d). We also have to inquire ourselves into the techniques by means of which we could recognize and later on avoid stepping into the trap of this point-of-no-return \u2026 In order to be able to do this, we\u2019ll have to regard the process of assimilation of information and building of concepts(within the society of cognition) and the process of valorization of knowledge  through dialogue and collective mobilization(within the society of communication) not with prefabricated and inherited(in the sense of taken for granted) enthusiasm and idealism BUT with a humanized rationality and with constructive criticism. The place where such humanized rationality and constructive criticism coagulate into a healthy and fluctuant pragmatism(within which valorization equals capitalization) is William James\u2019s concept of cash-value.<br \/>\nb)                   William James\u2019s pragmatism can be interpreted as a form of radical empiricism  or as a \u201cpracticalism\u201d obsessed by physical results that can reflect the value of a person, action or idea in \u201ccash\u201d terms (the cash-value concept):<br \/>\n&#8211;   \u201cThe great English way of investigating a conception is to ask yourself right off, &lt;&lt;What is it known as? In what facts does it result? What is its cash-value, in terms of particular experience? And what special difference would come into the world according as it were true or false?&gt;&gt; Thus does Locke treat the conception of personal identity\u201d.<br \/>\n&#8211;   \u201cThe cash-value of matter is our physical sensations\u201d.<br \/>\nThose who have comprehended Kant\u2019s \u201cCritic of practical reason\u201d, remained with the impression that, in Greek, there is a huge difference between the terms \u201cpraktikos\u201d and \u201cpragmatikos\u201d. This difference can be compared with the Earth\u2019s  two opposing poles.<br \/>\nJames saw efficiency as an aim in itself and made his philosophy a cult of efficiency. He managed to demonstrate that the two Greek terms are in fact not that entirely different as it was previously thought. A necessary link should exists between the two for the \u201cwhole\u201d to be able to function properly. James connected the concepts through a genial castling: within pragmatism he shifted the focus from rationality (Peirce) to perception and extreme personalization of experience. This becomes obvious if one analyses the definition of pragmatism from both sides:<br \/>\n&#8211;\tPeirce: \u201cConsider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object(\u2026)In order to ascertain the meaning of an intellectual conception one should consider what practical consequences might conceivably result by necessity from the truth of that conception; and the sum of these consequences will constitute the entire meaning of the conception.\u201d<br \/>\n&#8211;\tJames reformulating Peirce\u2019s  maxim: \u201cThus, in order to bring full clarity to our ideas upon an object we must consider the practical repercussions  that the object could include-what to expect to on what concerns perceptions and reactions. Our conception on these repercussions, be they un-mediated and delayed, constitutes for us the entire conception on the object, as far as it has a positive significance.\u201d<br \/>\nWhoever compares these two passages can quickly remark that James accentuated the role of perception as terrain for identification of the significance.<br \/>\nJames\u2019s philosophy fits itself in the pattern of Bismarck\u2019s Realpolitik: \u201cthe aim must be achieved with a maximum of efficiency, and in order to do so, one must not stumble upon issues of morals and sentimentalism\u201d. Here we enter the sphere of the Nietzschean concept of \u201cubermensch\u201d(* superman)- the man who lives beyond morality, beyond good and evil and who values the community correctly precisely because he managed to value himself firstly. James\u2019s thesis according to which the true ideas are those that function and can be verified, doesn\u2019t have to be interpreted as a thesis that excludes morality but one that is based on liberty and creativity. The latter is necessary in the individual\u2019s process of appropriation of the concepts of Good and of God. The man\u2019s relationship with God and with his Inner-Self must function as a burning torch fueled by inspiration and by the desire to know the divine beauty (unlike a mirror that merely reflects, or even worst, deforms God\u2019s image). To this end, the American philosopher has decided \u201cto construct the human spirit in the model of a torch not that of a mirror\u201d .<br \/>\nThe \u201cCash-value\u201d concept, in matter of dialogue, would express itself, at the level of the individual, in the will to read between the lines(if necessary) in order to find and to valorize the slightest element which could be somehow useful for you and for your community; in the will to replace manipulation and despotic orders with PERSUATION ; in the will to try to help an eternal \u201cother\u201d improve his communicational skills(within an honestly well-intentioned team-work \u2013 because this is precisely what James says, namely that the \u201ccash-value\u201dconcept is desirable only when it is backed by a positive\/well-intentioned\/benevolent attitude towards society and life in general) \u2013 because only when communication fluctuates freely between both sides(receiver and transmitter), will the transition from words to actual facts be an easy-achievable one(that is, only then, the putting of ideas into real-life practice will come naturally). This, I suppose, could be considered the definition of an adaptable mental equilibrium.<\/p>\n<p>The society of transparency<\/p>\n<p>Transparency should imply openness and communication. It is a metaphorical extension of the meaning used in the physical sciences: a \u201ctransparent\u201d object is one that can be seen through.<br \/>\nIn government, politics, business and law the concept of transparency must be understood as the ultimate opposite of privacy. An activity can be called \u201ctransparent\u201d only if all information about it is open to the public and, preferably &#8211; freely available.<br \/>\nThe army is by tradition the social sphere where transparency feels least at home Military men would often classify their operations and projects as secret or confidential. From the point of view of national security it could be accepted as an unpleasant but necessary must. Yet, in time, such attitudes will most surely result into malevolent secrecy and  corruption. Privacy opens an irresistible opportunity for the authorities to abuse the system in their own interest. Transparency, as a political concept, was introduced as a means of holding public officials accountable and fighting corruption.<br \/>\nIn the social daily routine, transparency usually appears in the form of government meetings open to the press and the public. Within such meetings, where the participation of citizens and of media is allowed and even encouraged, laws, rules and decisions are open to discussion. In this way, Transparency creates an everyday participation in the political processes. This kind of participation is a basic principle within Modern Democracies, in the sense that it gave birth to collocations such as \u201cparticipative democracy\u201d \u2013 one of the most closely connected to the will of the people type of democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, as Madame Bovary(Gustave Flaubert) put it,  there is a darker and abyssal side in every achievement and reason for happiness. Every use is cursed to have an abuse. The abuse and the reversed side of Transparency is the Panopticon.<br \/>\nMass Media is involved in both the Transparency and the Panopticon.<br \/>\nIn order to be able to provide its consumers with  the most complete possible general image of truth, the media would often unethically intrude the private sphere of the individual. The State will encourage such a behaviour on the side of the Media as it hels Him to better monitor its citizens \u2013 the best example in this sense is provided by Orwell\u2019s \u201c1984\u201d, where TV monitors are ever-present in order to erase the slightest privacy(and thus possibility of freedom).<br \/>\nFoucault politicized the technological gaze(metaphorically assimilating the general concept of media to Jeremy Bentham\u2019s panopticon ) and he stated that such a gaze comes at us through the official ideologies of truth which verify the realities of everyday life. These ideologies are present in systems of discourse and centered in those institutional formation which produce truth, including the universities. Taken to new heights by the advanced technological societies, these ideologies of truth are implemented through ever more  sophisticated systems of surveillance.<br \/>\nThe ubiquitous presence of the media is realized not just through the classical mediatic channels ( TV, cinema , radio and newspapers),  but, as Norman K. Denzin observes(in his book entitled  \u201cThe Cinematic Society\u201d, London, SAGE Publications, 1995), by other smaller but not less malevolent in what concerns the nature of their usages, devices.<br \/>\nWe live in an \u201cInformation Age\u201d filled with databases, electronic spreadsheets, desk-top publishing, automated tellers, computer-assisted instruction, virtual realities and artificial intelligence. Denzin explains the phenomenon more clearly:  \u201cnot only aerial viewing and listening devices, but also radar and contact microphones, hidden transmitters, satellite monitoring systems, body microphones, data surveillance systems, computer monitors, hidden cameras, international detective agencies, wiretaps, electronic intelligence kits, intercom systems, personality tests, lip-reading, miniature surveillance devices, two-way mirrors, credit card monitoring systems, undercover agents, parabolic and shotgun microphones, photochrimic micro-images, television-eye monitoring, public opinion polls, managed news releases, subliminal suggestion methods, radio-detection and frequency probes, radioactive tagging, faked documents, scrambling and signalling devices, sniperscopes, sonic-wave devices, spectograms, super-spy devices, video-tapes, high powered telescopes, voice-prints, DNA prints, X-rays, and ultra-violet surveillance techniques.\u201d And I would add to this list the zodiac-readings, that are also a part of the strategy of total monitorization(reminiscences if not even a continuation and a persistence Marx\u2019s \u201cmaximum-security society\u201d).<br \/>\nThe citizen of such a society has internalized this type of gaze(the gaze which unveils the private and makes it public) to the point where he turns himself into an agent of surveillance; a miniaturized terminal located somewhere on the tentacles of the octopus(the maximum security society is a society which tries to embrace us all, like a Leviathan-Octopus): \u201cIn this society, each individual has interiorized the hearing and visual gaze of an &lt;&lt;&gt;objectified&gt; external, generalized, nameless, often faceless, other. This technological other is everywhere and nowhere, in hidden cameras and recording devices, in telephone answering machines, electronic mail systems and home burglar alarm systems(&#8230;) A pornography of the visible is now everywhere. Nothing is any longer hidden.\u201d<br \/>\nWe live on a broad horizon of \u201cvoyeuristic otherness\u201d, where the other\u2019s presence is variously disguised, hidden, obtrusive and taken into account and noticed: \u201cI buy gas at my local service station and watch myself on a video camera paying for my purchase, I check my E-mail and find dirty messages from an angry student\u201d(observes Denzin out of his personal daily experience)<br \/>\nDoctors, anthropologists, tourists, space-observers are, in Denzin\u2019s view, \u201cdisguised voyeurs\u201d and hidden journalists and he asserts that \u201cdisguised research is unethical\u201d<br \/>\nThe State, in implementing such a Devilish all-intrusive technological dimension, played heavily on the paranoia of its subjects ( more precisely on their fear of remaining uncovered\/unbacked in front of the unknown) and thus defeated and subjected them with their own weapons(by turning their needs[for protection] against them): \u201cGuilt connected to illicit[here Denzin speaks about the voyeur], secret looking has all but disappeared. It has been replaced and displaced by the fear that if one\u2019s personal surveillance system is not in place, he or she will be attacked by the hidden, invisible other.\u201d<br \/>\nDenzin\u2019s main thesis and conclusion is that \u201cthere is a subtle and sudden switching of surveillance codes, from Foucault\u2019s panopticon to a system of detrerrence where the person gazed upon is the person doing the gazing\u201d  &#8211;  that is, the once gazed upon one, inevitably becomes a gazer, a perfect agent of the system. The harder the \u201cre-education of the heretic\u201d, the loyal the re-educated one gets to be \u2013 as George Orwell has demonstrated with his character- Winston.<br \/>\nThe collocation \u201c a mass-mediated society\u201d makes the perfect junction between Marxism and the Media.<br \/>\nIn this context, the Western per excellence ideal and project of  an \u201cAutonomous Individual\u201d(self-initiating and self-determinig human agent) becomes highly problematic.<br \/>\nThe beautiful English first personal pronoun written with capital letter-\u201cI\u201d becomes highly questionable in matters of what it stands for nowadays\u2026should it really stand for something and not be just an abstract and weird-looking sign on the paper. The real question arises in the following terms: \u201cIs there still a sense of Individuality and Sacred Privacy lurking in the Western atmosphere, somewhere underneath  the heavy shadows filled with uranium clouds of guilt left behind by The Nazi unpardonable mistakes\u2026or, this sacred sense gets more and more  devoid of substance, wit and inventiveness, every day which passes by, approaching extinction(understood as \u201cA gradual decrease in the excitability of a nerve to a previously adequate stimulus, usually resulting in total loss of excitability\u201d ). At best and most desirable, it undergoes a process of transformation \u2013 as the German pronoun did after the Second World \u2013 War, when, because of the political pressure, it had to make room for the English and the French equivalent pronouns. This subtle aspect is brilliantly rendered by Martin Amis in his novel &#8211; \u201cTime\u2019s Arrow\u201d. In this book,  Martin Amis makes a brilliant remark on the philosophy of this first personal pronoun singular, showing us how, after what happened with Hitler, the German variant was forced to give free way to the French and to the English ones: \u201d &lt;&lt;I&gt;&gt; in English sounds noble and vertical, &lt;&lt;Je&gt;&gt; in French has a certain power and intimacy&#8230;while the German &lt;&lt;Ich&gt;&gt; resembles the sound of disgust produced by a kid when looking at his shit from the toilet.\u201d<br \/>\nThe failure of the Nazi Germany also meant the rise to power of Marxism and of other doctrines of equality. The worse consequence of this was the socialist industrialization and monitoring\/constant surveillance through technological devices(installed in order to increase[so they said] the efficiency of the Overall System; and in order to provide social safety and unmistakable and safe patterns of evolution). This constant surveillance and, more or less, forced-integration into the technological(and later computerized) society, brought about  leveling down of standards; of expectations; and induced a general and irresistible trend toward social conformism(trend which opened new horizons for manipulation).<br \/>\nBut, in the very middle of all this Argus-hysteria,    the Western society must surely have asked itself many questions among which the following: \u201cWhenever we see an ant-hill what really scares us ? The fact that they have long antennas, tens of legs, bodies covered with scales and hair, that they secrete incessantly all kinds of disgusting substances-or the total lack of individuality that reigns in there?\u201d Nobody has a personal life, each and every individual sacrifices all his life and energy for the sake of the community, a perfect communist society. Sexual difference between two warrior-ants, for the eye of an amateur is a catch 22 dilemma. It is like in a communist utopia where the woman is strongly masculinized, turned into a hard worker, a true comrade if not even a brother at arms for the man.<br \/>\nThe power of our machines assures our mastery over the natural environment. Unfortunately, they also turn our society into a programmed society where rationalization(planning, organization, automation) leave little room for independent actions and spontaneity.<br \/>\nThe concept of \u201cself\u201d has a whole history behind, is a lifelong project: for instance,  the Socratic maxim said \u201cknow yourself\u201d and Rousseau spoke of \u201camour de soi\u201d. Also, carring for the self also provided many professionals with their work: psychologists attempt to heal the self and priests want to save the self from evil influences. This also happens because the self always needs validation, nurturing and realization in order to feel itself alive.<br \/>\nNorman K. Denzin says that this problem can only be solved by means of a new pragmatism; a totally re-conceptualized pragmatism:<br \/>\n\u201cA new global politics of identity is upon us, a new  public culture that no one understands. This is the complex, global, negotiated order that post-pragmatism addresses. A radical, re-conceptualized theory of democracy, the state and society must find its way inside these gendered, culturally and ethnically complex spaces, and their international arenas and structural domains. This post-pragmatism will critically attach itself to the post-modern family, the media and popular culture, cyberspace, science, protest movements, national identities and race and gender as the critical sites for interpretative-political work. It will push harder at the boundaries and intersections of public science and the media, seeing science and the media as the dominant discourses of power and control in contemporary life .\u201d<br \/>\nDenzin\u2019s message is clear: post-pragmatism must not be regarded as a mere philosophy  but as a global project, a project above all opened to experiment and innovation so as to gain constant adaptive power\/resources. That is why he states that the new pragmatism \u201cwill be a media and communication centered pragmatism;  it will accept the proposition that the image of reality has replaced reality ; it will assume that communication is more than face-to-face interaction and no longer the natural site of cooperation and consensus. Violence, dissent and dispute are the cultural givens in today\u2019s multi-ethnic social order.\u201d<br \/>\nUnlike previous social theories , it will(or at least should) be based on \u201cfully dialogic conceptions which are simultaneously reflexive, interpretive and grounded in some sense of internal solidarity that connects the person to a larger moral community .\u201d<br \/>\nThe final irony about this transparent society is that it is not at all transparent.<\/p>\n<p>The mediatic society<br \/>\nThe above diatribe directed against the \u201copaque transparency\u201d of the transparent society is, more or less(and this, without being untrue or exaggerated in any way!!!), an example of what Andrei Marga calls an \u201cintellectual inertia\u201d, that is, an intellectual\u2019s inability to see both the pros and the cons of an issue; his painful feeble heartedness when it comes to be able to resist the temptation of an enthusiastic but very subjective and perversely narcissistic criticism(in the sense that it is a criticism constructed with a highly premeditated subtlety) in favor of an objective criticism(dedicated not only to his personal gain but to the evolution of the whole community).<br \/>\nThis aspect is rendered by Andrei Marga as well, when he states that we live  \u201cin a &lt;&lt;culture&gt;&gt; within which subjective opinions pass as veritable ideas; where moods believe themselves to be liberties; where desires are taken for concepts and where, obviously, people talk more than they read.\u201d<br \/>\nProfessor Marga goes even further with his pinch criticism:<br \/>\n\u201cHowever, it must be noticed that today, conveniences are more attractive than the pleasure of striving to include various fields of activity, and than, intellectual inertia &#8211;  are among the reasons which determine today\u2019s philosophers to remain within the sphere of limited experiences, too narrow for the pretension of their concepts. \u201c<br \/>\nIn such a dangerously confuse intellectual environment, \u201c the crumbling down of culture in the multitude of opinions without horizon(which forced, for instance, the President Of Harvard University to argue that there are many possible opinions, but not all of them represent valid perspectives! ) and the magnifying of the production of books which enlighten  nothing(in Romanian context, this phenomenon takes the shape of an ever-expanding number of authors which flatter themselves with the number of books they produced, without actually having been able to release a genuine work) leave behind bitter question marks. On the other hand, any opinion silently assumes fort itself a normative basis, a basis  resembling the nature of a  diagnosis(by way of example, one may not formulate a factual sentence &lt;&lt;x appeared as a direct consequence of y\u2019s actions&gt;&gt; within the community, without assuming something in relation to what is and should in fact be the society), even though, the dusty essay-writing and the prevailingness of the day\u2019s small\/insignificant opinion ignores this  normative basis or prefers to live it in obscurity.\u201d<br \/>\nAccording to Andrei Marga, cynicism plays the heaviest role in the moral degradation of intellectuals: \u201cWe are witnessing \u2013 anyway, this is Peter Sloterdijk\u2019s diagnosis \u2013 on the very peak of  the promotion of illumination(and of that of the Enlightenment), in the era of the most complete  knowledge of nature, society and man, the expansion of cynical behavior. Instead of enlarging the solidarity among men, each and every one wants to orchestrate the other(\u2026) This type of cynicism manifests itself  strikingly in the intellectual life as well. It is not only the case of the context where, for instance, people who have obtained higher positions and who have published books proclaimed themselves &lt;&lt;intellectuals&gt;&gt;(as if being an intellectual could be reduced to this) and claim a &lt;&lt;privileged&gt;&gt; access to truth. It also about something else, deeper and with heavier consequences: the incapacity of so-called intellectuals to lay down a different opinion from those stipended at that particular moment and the inability to pierce by means of an articulated solution through the wall of  an opaque future. Everything that these self-proclaimed &lt;&lt;intellectuals&gt;&gt; can put forth is, in the end, a &lt;&lt;negative futurism&gt;&gt;: &lt;&lt;Watch out, it can get even worse!&gt;&gt;.  Constructing an articulated solution for the public problems(which is in fact the purpose of the intellectual truth) is none of their preoccupations, nor does it lie anywhere near their horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In order to be able to throw light upon such a complicated issue as the dynamics of nowadays informational societies one has to come up with an all-inclusive system of analysis:    \u201cVirtually, there can\u2019t be philosophy but there where various experiences are encompassed from one particular point of view, even though this encompassing remains burdensome.\u201d  This is just another way of saying that we, as intellectuals, need a real-time interaction among various points of view. Because, in the malevolently premeditated or not absence of such a real time interaction, democracy and liberalism have (as Andrei Marga argues)degenerated into pure proceduralism\u2026just as multiculturalism has degenerated to a simple, physical cohabitation.<\/p>\n<p>My conclusion for the transparent society was that it has a somehow cynical, or at least oxymoronic name, s it is far from being transparent in any ways\u2026 A true intellectual will try to go beyond the venomous criticism (per se ) of such a society, and he\u2019ll try to come up with solutions for the crisis that he managed to signal. A first necessary step within this process of constructive criticism is to see the causes behind such attitudes and to try to get an insight(with the sense of \u201ccapacity to discern the true nature of a situation; intellectual penetration\u201d) into the workings of such a system. Here\u2019s Andrei Marga diagnosis on the issue:<br \/>\n\u201cAfter all, what really holds back the mediatic society from becoming a society of transparency ?(\u2026)\u201d Andrei Marga proposes the following answers (analyzing the philosophy of mediatic society  from Horkheimer and Adorno to Vattimo): \u201ca) through its proceedings, the mediatic process spreads  the &lt;&lt;common denominator&gt;&gt; of facts and cultivates the &lt;&lt;leveling down&gt;&gt;(equalization) of values; b) it encourages &lt;&lt;functionality&gt;&gt; within the systems and much too little initiatives of change; c) it cultivates the intuitiveness, the fragmentariness, to the detriment of  the comprehension of the world\u2019s subtle but tenacious correlations; d) it disseminates whatever is &lt;&lt;consumable&gt;&gt; to the detriment of durable values; e) it weakens the distinctions, within the classic culture, between the necessary and the accidental, between the essential and the hazardous; between the truth and the hearsay; between authentic value and improvisation.\u201d<br \/>\nDespite all these(its huge manipulative power, its unsuspected ways of twisting the truth and the reality to its own advantage), Professor Marga insists on the fact that the mediatic society does not swallow the postmodern world- it is only a manifestation within it, and that, \u201cto regard it exclusively from a critical point of view, would be an attitude just as wrong as the one which simply refuses to acknowledge its real presence.\u201d<br \/>\nFollowing this thread, we could say that media is just another participant to the society of transparency(like any ordinary citizen), with the only difference that it has at its disposal highly sophisticated technological devices and an army of experts with which to interpret and further spread the message.  Its aim should be to make the transparent society even more visible, that is, to translate (whenever necessary) the bureaucratic language for the masses and to read between the lines\u2026that is, to help democracy remain a vivid concept. Unfortunately, a sad phenomenon happened \u2013\u201cOn the other hand, the media gains its autonomy, to such extent that it no longer remains just an instrument, but it becomes an enterprise in itself, with its own purposes.\u201d  Power nucleuses with personal economic interests come into being, which become stronger by the day, impossible to penetrate and which begin to use democracy instead of working in its service (as they should do, considering the fact that they emerged and derived their power from the democratic theories).<br \/>\nThe question arises: what can we do, when faced with such a situation.<br \/>\nLinda Hutcheon, in her \u201cPolitics of Postmodernism\u201d, provides us with an excellent answer: not to regard it from an exclusively negative point of view, but to PROBLEMATIZE it.<br \/>\nBut what means \u201cTO PROBLEMATIZE SOMETHING OR TO MAKE SOMETHING PROBLEMATIC\u201d?  Linda Hutcheon insists that every individual\u2019s postmodern moral obligation is to reflect upon those processes by which we represent ourselves and the world around us \u2013 that is, to become aware of the means used to set up the signification and to construct the order within our daily experience\/routine.<br \/>\nHutcheon claims that we live in an epoch not just dominated but simply created by media and by popular culture. That is why one can\u2019t avoid representation, and those who pretend to be able to avoid it or to simply go around it, what they do, in fact, is to avoid and to go around the settlement of their notion of representation while deliberately sticking stubbornly to a philosophy which sees representation as trans-historical and trans-cultural.<br \/>\nLinda Hutcheon in her \u201cPolitics of  Postmodernism\u201d concludes that we live in an epoch where one can\u2019t avoid representation.<br \/>\nThe Poststructuralists also had a similar vision, but on the subject of the language: they spoke of the \u201clanguage as prison\u201d saying that we live in an \u201cinescapable textuality\u201d, in a vicious circle of the language(immediately after one had stopped thinking in a language, he starts thinking in another one). Leaving the sphere of a language ultimately leads to entering the sphere of another one, we cannot live outside language.<br \/>\nNot being able to avoid representation, we\u2019ll surely fail to be able to avoid media either. But what we can do, is to filter and personalize(instead of just taking for granted ), to apply a philosophical critical method to everything that we are offered \u2013 a method that excludes the previous unconditioned confidence and which makes everything problematic(\u201cA great man once said there\u2019s no such thing as a stupid question.\u201d).<br \/>\nHutcheon says that we can do this by simply reflecting upon the circumstances\/the context in which the representation was produced and thus we\u2019ll discover the aims behind its broadcasting. In fact, Hutcheon\u2019s message is to actually start  using the media. But, she insists, you can only do this if you stop letting yourself be used by it. Today we live in an era when one finds information everywhere, hanging up on every fence: the issue is no longer to find it but to select it and to process it to your advantage.<br \/>\nBut how can you select and process the information that you need, how can you let yourself impregnated only with that information which suits you best?<br \/>\nTHE ANSWER IS: USING HUMBOLDT THEORY OF COMMUNICATION.<br \/>\nHumboldt shows how language, representation and politics should function in a sincerely-interested-in-evolution society: he said that language, far from limiting us, it enriches us. Humboldt proposed the metaphor of communication seen as a sexual act: when two people communicate, they leave in each other a GERMINATIVE content which will further develop into a real \u201cfoetus.\u201d This foetus stands for the incipient stage of  future great and complex idea . He also stressed that, when communication is not staged or politically biased, when it is sincerely and passionately carried out, this \u201cfoetus\u201d will evolve in the person receiving those ideas without shattering the initial personality of the receiver. On the contrary, it will evolve by enriching and expanding it(the personality of the receiver) to new and unexpected dimensions.<br \/>\nConsidering all of the above as patterned of Humboldt\u2019 s theory of communication, one must, in order to conceive a viable theory able to give an appropriate form to the contemporary conscience, carefully select and filter the informational -\u201cspermatozoa\u201d which get to penetrate and fertilize his brain.  He has to do this, in order to avoid the reduction of his sapience  to raw information\/data.<\/p>\n<p>Bibliography:<br \/>\n1)   Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008<br \/>\n2)    Andrei Marga, Filosofia American\u0103 clasic\u0103 , vol.1, editura All Educational, Bucure\u015fti 2000<br \/>\n3)   \u015etefan Bolea Ontology of Negation, ed. Casa C\u0103r\u0163ii de \u015etiin\u0163\u0103, Cluj-Napoca, 2004<br \/>\n4)  Paul Kurtz, American Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, a Sourcebook from pragmatism to philosophical analysis, published by The Macmillan Company Collier-Macmillan, USA, 1969.<br \/>\n5)   Henry Samuel Levinson , The religious investigations of William James, University of North Carolina Press, Chapell hill, 1981.<br \/>\n6)   Norman K. Denzin, The Cinematic Society, London, SAGE Publications, 1995<br \/>\n7)    David Brin, The Transparent Society (1998).<br \/>\n8)   Linda Hutcheon Politica Postmodernismului, translated by Mircea Deac, Ed. Univers, Bucharest, 1997<br \/>\n9)   Cornel V\u00eelcu unpuiblished course in Linguistics for the 4th year English majors 2006 UBB Faculty of Letter Cluj<br \/>\n10)   Vasile Voiculescu  Lostri\u0163a(The Huck)<br \/>\n11)   Stanislaw Lem\u2019s  The Cyberiad , Harvest Books; 1 edition (December 16, 2002)<\/p>\n<p>Internet Sources:<br \/>\n1)http:\/\/www.thefreedictionary.com<br \/>\n2) Mihail Bakunin God and the State, on-line edition at http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/reference\/archive\/bakunin\/works\/godstate\/ch01.htm<br \/>\n3) http:\/\/www.generationterrorists.com\/quotes\/the_little_prince.html<br \/>\n4) http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pragmatic_maxim,<br \/>\n5) http:\/\/encarta.msn.com\/dictionary_701708528\/panopticon.html<\/p>\n<p>Notes:  The speed you can achieve in the actual practice of transmitting data is called \u201ceffective speed\u201d. It deviates from the maximum achievable speed.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.thefreedictionary.com\/cognition, consulted on the 1st of September, 2008, 16:02 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, p.47<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, p.52, my translation<\/p>\n<p>\u015etefan Bolea Ontology of Negation, ed. Casa C\u0103r\u0163ii de \u015etiin\u0163\u0103, Cluj-Napoca, 2004, p.102, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Mihail Bakunin God and the State, on-line edition at http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/reference\/archive\/bakunin\/works\/godstate\/ch01.htm , Chapter I consulted on the 16th of May 2008, 12:04.a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Bakunin, op. cit, Chapter III<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.generationterrorists.com\/quotes\/the_little_prince.html, consulted on the 16th of May 2008, 12:04.a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Empiricism, is the view that experience, especially of the senses is the only source of knowledge. The theory that all concepts emanate from experience and that all statements claiming to express knowledge must be based on experience rather than on theory.<\/p>\n<p>William James, \u201cPhilosophical conceptions and practical results\u201d, p 117, taken from Paul Kurtz, \u201cAmerican Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, a Sourcebook from pragmatism to philosophical analysis\u201d, published by The Macmillan Company Collier-Macmillan, USA, 1969.<\/p>\n<p>Ibid. p.117.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pragmatic_maxim, consulted on the 16th of May, 2008, 15:28 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga \u2013\u201cFilosofia American\u0103 clasic\u0103\u201d , vol.1, editura All Educational, Bucure\u015fti 2000, p.148. \u201c Pentru a aduce astfel deplin\u0103 claritate \u00een ideile noastre asupra unui obiect trebuie doar s\u0103 chibzuim ce repercursiuni practice poate include acest obiect. &#8211; la ce s\u0103 ne a\u015fteptam \u00een ceea ce prive\u015fte percep\u0163iile \u015fi la ce reac\u0163ii trebuie s\u0103 ne a\u015ftept\u0103m. Concep\u0163ia noastr\u0103 asupra acestor repercursiuni , fie ele nemijlocite, fie \u00eent\u00e2rziate, constituie atunci pentru noi \u00eentreaga concep\u0163ie a obiectului, \u00een m\u0103sura \u00een care aceast\u0103 concep\u0163ie are \u00een general o semnifica\u0163ie pozitiv\u0103.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Henry Samuel Levinson , \u2018 The religious investigations of William James\u2019, University of North Carolina Press, Chapell hill, 1981.<\/p>\n<p>Specialized studies claimed that there is a difference between manipulation and persuasion. Namely, that the persuaded social actor(in the sense of participant) is aware of an well informed on the intentions and aims of the one who tries to convince him&#8230;while the manipulated social actor is unaware and even unsuspicious of such subversive intentions. Unfortunately, what the nowadays Media is after, is to melt into a single technique both manipulation and persuasion, to create a all-embracing nebula with\/in which and to blind people and from where(on the background of ths general state of blindness purposely induced by no one else than they themselves) they could project themselves as the a Light-Giving Star(Sun), as the Guiding Light: \u201d Believe me.The sun always shines on t.v.\u201d, the way A-HA put it in their lyrics. But it\u2019s an evil light, like Vasile Voiculescu\u2019s underwater deep lights mentioned in Lostri\u0163The Huck): \u201elumini\u0163a care p\u00e2lp\u00e2ie \u00een beznele nop\u0163ii \u015fi trage pe c\u0103l\u0103torul r\u0103t\u0103cit la ad\u00e2nc\u201d(The twinkle which flickers in night\u2019s waves of darkness and which soaks the lost traveler deep down into the dark waters); or like Stanislaw Lem\u2019s Gaurozauron \u2013 the most cunning and artful star, the star with shifty, inconstant and versatile flickering which would often mislead the caravans towards the Black Waste.(Gaurozauron is the star mentioned by Lem in his The Cyberiad)<\/p>\n<p>The panopticon is A prison so contructed that the inspector can see each of the prisoners at all times, without being seen; high-surveillance prison; a prison with cell blocks situated around a central area, ensuring that prisoners could be viewed at all times, http:\/\/encarta.msn.com\/dictionary_701708528\/panopticon.html, consulted on the 9th of May 2008, 18:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Norman K. Denzin, The Cinematic Society, London, SAGE Publications, 1995, p. 191<\/p>\n<p>Norman K. Denzin, The Cinematic Society, London, SAGE Publications, 1995, p.204<\/p>\n<p>Norman K. Denzin, The Cinematic Society, London, SAGE Publications, 1995, p.191<\/p>\n<p>Norman K. Denzin, The Cinematic Society, London, SAGE Publications, 1995 p.9<\/p>\n<p>Taken from http:\/\/www.thefreedictionary.com\/extinction, consulted on the 5th of September, 2008, 16: 07 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>My Bold<\/p>\n<p>Norman K. Denzin, The Cinematic Society, London, SAGE Publications, 1995, pp.216-217<\/p>\n<p>My Bold<\/p>\n<p>The unfortunate reality according to which media channels generate reality instead of reflecting it or of analyzing it (as their mission within the democratic equation says that they should do) is also depicted by Professor Andrei Marga when he brings into discussion Horkheimer and Adorno\u2019s famous masterpiece \u201cDialektik der Aufkl\u00e4rung\u201d(Amsterdam 1946) : \u201done enters the era of &lt;&lt;cultural industry&gt;&gt; which changes the very foundations and infrastructure of previous public communication and leaves behind serious inquiries: can it be the case that ever-since the Media entered the political game as a major player, one can no longer speak about serving democracy but rather of subjecting it to personal interests?; can it be the case that the desire to faithfully represent reality was replaced, in the process, with a rat-race for the creation of  that very reality? \u201c(Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, p.51, my translation)<\/p>\n<p>Denzin, op.cit, 215<\/p>\n<p>The reality according to which the Self had become a haunted animal; an animal on the verge of global extinction\/annihilation through phagocytosis in the informational systems (a phagocytosis carried out by the amoeba disguised under the name of \u201cmulti-media societies\u201d ) is also discussed in David Brin\u2019s book &#8211; \u201cThe Transparent Society\u201d (1998).<\/p>\n<p>Brin deplores the erosion of privacy in the hands(or, better said, TENTACLES) of the surveillance, communication and database technology. He explores, in highly catchy manners and narrative techniques, how important some degree of privacy is for most human beings (in the sense that it allows them moments of intimacy within which to exchange confidences and to prepare &#8211; in some security and necessary mental equilibrium &#8211; for the competitive world).<\/p>\n<p>Brin\u2019s main thesis is that \u201ctrue privacy\u201d will ultimately be lost in a \u201ctransparent society\u201d but, he still regards the transparency as a necessary evil, as a must in the fight against corruption and abuses of power(\u201cmost dangerous and corrupt abuses of power go hand-in-hand with a lack of accountability and transparency\u201d) and in the struggle\/need on the part of the individual to adapt to this shape-shifting and constantly overcrowded world .<\/p>\n<p>His solution is that Governments should provide equal in the sense of perfectly reciprocal  surveillance for all: the public has to have the same access\/right(no more no less) as those in power \u2013 when it comes to obtaining personal gain out of the use of such technological devices.<\/p>\n<p>My Bold<\/p>\n<p>Denzin, op.cit, p.215<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, p.11, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, pp.6-7, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, p.23, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, pp.24-25, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, p.7, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, p.52, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, pp52-53, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Andrei Marga, Diagnoses, Articles and Essays, Ed. Eikon, Cluj-Napoca 2008, p.51, my translation<\/p>\n<p>Linda Hutcheon \u201cPolitica Postmodernismului\u201d, translated by Mircea Deac, Ed. Univers, Bucharest, 1997, p.58.<\/p>\n<p>Cornel V\u00eelcu unpublished course in Linguistics for the 4th year English majors 2006 UBB Faculty of Letter Cluj, mimeos<\/p>\n<p>As an off the record fact, Kant, the German philosopher buttoned up to the very last button (of the spirit, of course!!!ha! ha!), when hearing about such a daring approach, said firmly and with a vexed German pride in morality and manners:\u201dOut of the Question!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A philosophical inquiry and expansion on the types of the Post-modern Informational Societies and their dynamics, as presented in Andrei Marga\u2019s \u201cDignoses, articles and essays\u201d by Ormeny Francisc-Norbert In his most recent book, \u201cDiagnoses, Articles and Essays\u201d(Diagnoze, Articole \u015fi Eseuri) Professor Andrei Marga, when approaching the mediatic culture, draws our attention upon the necessity of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-19"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}