Ljubomir Jovanoski
From the center of the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City, a soccer ball decorated with many electronics rolled out and announced the victory of the hosts Mexico over the Republic of South Africa. The scene took me back to 1970 of the last century, when in this same stadium, the magnificent Brazil with the legendary Pele, Tostao, Jairzinho, Rivelino and the rest of the Brazilian stars, beat the mighty Italian football machinery 4-1. As children, we gathered at houses with black and white television sets, which could be counted on the fingers. There it peaked as if in a basket. The poor owners must have regretted buying expensive appliances at that time. But everything was in the name of togetherness and companionship.
Behind the happenings on the sports fields, which indisputably dominated the airwaves and the atmosphere of general satisfaction, some “side” events were happening for us in that 1970. Colonel Muammar el-Gaddafi was declared Prime Minister of the Libyan Jamahiriya. Charters banning the use of atomic weapons were ratified in Moscow, London and New York. A coup has taken place in Cambodia. General Lon Nol deposed Prince Norodom Sihanouk while he was visiting Moscow. Qatar gained independence from Britain. The Orthodox Church in America received its autocephaly from the Russian Patriarch Alexei I. In that year 1970, Communist China launched its first artificial satellite and Japan its fourth. On the music scene, The Beatles release their last album, Let It Be. The Portuguese dictator Salazar has died. His colleague Francisco Franco will rule Spain for another five years. So Europe had its dictators. The fact that four passenger planes were hijacked by Palestinian terrorists flying from Europe to the United States also shows that things are changing very little. A Pan American Boeing 747 was also set on fire in Cairo, while two Boeing 707s were blown up in Jordan. The famous James Marshall or Jimi Hendrix, one of the world’s most talented guitarists, dies, and Pope Paul VI is touring the countries of Asia. From the film industry comes “Love Story” with Ally McGraw and Ryan O’Neill, “General Patton” with George Scott and Karl Malden, “Ryan’s Daughter” by Oscar-winner David Lean with Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard and Sarah Miles and the domestic ones “Who Sings No Evil”, “Aiduchia” and “Red Spike”.
What is past and gone always has less weight than the everyday we face from morning to night. The problems of the past are nothing compared to the traumas of the present. As for beautiful things, they are pleasant both in the past and today. But since time itself brings new trends that are appropriate for the present, then we have to accept the truth that Brazil no longer plays romantically spectacularly, that others, and even the outsiders (if there are any), can give a strong resistance to the favorite because they all keep their strength silent from the training rooms, and the playing fields are too narrow for them. Today, footballers have to pay more attention to the rules, which are constantly changing, than to the game. Mass? An impressive number of 48 national teams on the world football field. Did someone mention mass that brings profit?
It seems that only two media events can fully occupy the public’s attention. It is safe to say that it is politics and sports. Apparently, the dominance seems to be on the side of football. That’s how it should be. Arno, politicians and generals do not surrender. It is sad and distasteful that an eared and very valuable being should have the attributes of a forgiving manual meekness whose scope is exclusively Amal’s engagement. That animal will have to carry its dilemma all the way. A long time ago, a clever philosopher assigned him the role of a typical example of the concept of expressing free will. It seems more like a character trait of the man. Jean Buridan is an important French philosopher of the 14th century, who in a hypothetical variant posed the paradox as a concept for the correct use of one’s will. A donkey stands like that in the middle between two bales of hay or a bale of hay and a bucket of water – existential necessities – and because of its indecision to make a reasonable decision on which option to choose, it simply dies. Jean Buridan still thinks and speaks today, doesn’t he? Assumed and somewhat naively, this paradox seems to torment today’s civilization, which struggles to decide on an option that will bring continuity of true values and a peaceful life. What is the path she should choose to avoid the self-destructive trends she has set out on? Reason and wisdom insist on an option that life will not place on the deep periphery of the ladder of true values. One should look for content that will not lower man to the lowest level of his evolutionary path. Wisdom would easily discover it. Simply, self-knowledge or consciousness should once and for all stop using mundane options to manipulate one’s own gender. The upgrading of life and life’s joys should not be reduced to the level of bare animal existence. Making reasonable decisions, decisions that will ignore the paradox of dilemma or doubt, and that lead to disastrous outcomes for all humanity, should be imperative for the great, for those of high intellectual level, of factors whether they like it or not, who carry the responsibility for the whole civilization on their backs. This in order to find reasonable solutions for the nausea of civilization as soon as possible. Strong guarantees for a lasting certainty of her secure future should be established immediately. In a word, escape from the path that offers disasters and introduces anomalies harmful to humanity.
After the meeting between Xi and Trump, a sentence uttered with profound messages by the Chinese leader and addressed to the American intriguingly set the way of interpreting the political enigma before the entire world media public. Most of the inhabitants of this planet probably do not distinguish between Mephisto and Thucydides. The creator of international relations theory and military historians, this Greek writer, strategist and philosopher is almost a demigod to all who understand him.
Yale University history professor Donald Kagan calls Thucydides’ writings a source of wisdom about the behavior of human beings in moments of high-charge situations caused by wars, epidemics and civil strife. If at one point Mr. Xi, addressing American politicians and military personnel, as well as his own, mentioned the term “Thucydides Trap”, then they should all put their finger on their foreheads and try to carefully interpret this significant message. It is likely that Mr. American President approves of the influence of the ancient Greek intellectual on his senior political and military strategists because it is a realist teaching and a word for the acceptability of realpolitik. This means that all political factors today are focused on their own interest, without emphasizing ideology or moral values. In a word, it is necessary to perceive reality and act pragmatically even in the most critical moments. In the real world, the strong and powerful do what they want, and the poor and weak suffer whatever comes their way. The Melian dialogue during the Peloponnesian Wars between Sparta and Athens insists on a series of negotiations about the betrayal of the weaker in the conflict, from which it can be concluded that right and wrong lose strength in the face of brute force.
And where are we now? Whether all world conflicts, which have multiplied to the point of insanity, will be resolved with the realpolitik of father Thucydides, the Athenian wise man, or whether it will be followed by the rule of dominance of force, is the question now. In any case, both solutions are essentially analogous and forced, but they will not be even remotely fair and true. Therefore, it is certain that with those political instruments and a little more wisdom, tragedies on a wider scale will be avoided. We may have mixed up the things that are imposed as primary in current reality, but that is our future. Gentlemen and ladies, beer in hand, peanuts, almonds or hazelnuts on the table and let’s cheer pragmatically for the best. It seems that the winner should be Thucydides.
The author is a writer
