Wonder or Wander

German Jewish political theorist (1906-1975). I just read the preface of Men in Dark Times (1968). It is condense and deep. She mentions that persons throughout the history have one common thing: they hardly knew each other. The realities of the dark times, which she calls the first twentieth century, were covered up by 'efficient talk' and 'double-talk' by official representatives who hid certain facts and justified certain actions, she argues. She introduces the realities by borrowing the poem, "To Posteristy," by Brecht. She develops the idea of talk by tapping into Heidegger's notion of 'mere talk.' She paraphrases his description of human existence and existential condition: the power of 'mere talk' annihilates authenticity of every day life and meaningful sense for the future and all this obfuscation is performed in public realm. Finally she propses her idea on this dark times. She believes the power of ordinary people's resisten...

Keck, M. & Sikkink, K. (1998). Cornell University Press. The authors focused on networks in order to conceive transformative and mobilizing actions to the international political system and named networks of activists formed on the basis of common values and discourse--notably human rights, women right, and enviromental issues--'transnational advocacy networks'. The core of the relations among actors in the network is information exchange. The quickness and accuracy of generaing information and the effectiveness of the deployment are the most important factor for the network. The network works such that boundaries between domestic social/political struggles and those at the international level are blurred through colletive pressure applied at a domestic level. This mechanism is called boomerang effect, "which curves around local state indifference and repression to put foreign pressure on local policy elites"(p.200). In other words, when state repression is too st...