Hacking Politics through Participation

HaxoGreen 2010 - A hacker's summercamp

2010-03-06T21:11:00.006+01:00

After last year's initial success, the Luxembourgian Hackerspace syn₂cat and the Chaos Computer Club Lëtzebuerg, once again organize a summer-camp for hackers and technology enthusiasts from Luxembourg and its surroundings.

HaxoGreen 2010, a pun on the leetspeak term 'h4x0r3d' will take place from July 22nd till July 25th in the southern town Dudelange in Luxembourg.

Whether you want to attend lectures and workshops, hack on your projects or just share 3 midsummer nights outdoors, socializing with other hackers, artists and geeks, HaxoGreen is the place to be. No need to be a 1337 H4X0r, we welcome all inquisitive people from around the globe.

Registration for HaxoGreen is open since February 23rd and early registration is highly recommended as there's only a limited number of tickets available. The camp is a comparatively small and cosy event that lives from its visitors participation. You may submit your lecture or workshop idea on the following or other topics at the camp's Participate! page:

Green IT and Green Hacks
Virtualized Environments
Cloud Computing
Darknets and Hackerspaces
Computer Security Incident Response and Mitigation
Do-it-yourself Science
Molecular Gastronomy
Wilderness Survival Tactics
Amateur Robotics
Radio and Mobile Communications (GNURadio, etc.)
Electronic Art (vj, dj, installations etc.)
Net Neutrality, Intellectual Property and Privacy Aspects
Active/Liquid Democracy and Political Activism
Sustainable Housing and eco-friendly Living

Hope to see you there!

ÖBB - ihr freundlicher Bahn-Dienstleister

2010-02-23T22:58:00.013+01:00

Man lässt sich als Bahnreisender ja so manches gefallen und fährt dann doch spätestens zwei Monate später doch wieder mit der Bahn, weil es ja so gut wie keine Alternativen gibt, zumindest nicht für (fast) militante Autoverweigerer.

Die Bahn gibt jedoch immer noch ihr Bestes, dass die Vorbereitung aufs Reisen so nervenaufreibend wie möglich wird. Ich habe heute mal wieder versucht, der ÖBB ein Sparschienen-Ticket abzukaufen. Ok, ich muss zugeben, ein kleines Pebkac Problem hat es schon gegeben, aber wer hätte gedacht, dass man stur auf "Kreditkarte - Visa" beharren muss, auch wenn die ÖBB-Seite die Auswahl freundlicherweise wiederholt wieder auf Mastercard zurückstellt. Ja, Ausdauer und Durchsetzungskraft muss man haben.

Auf jedenfall versuche ich mich hin und wieder daneben auch als Automaten-Don-Quichote oder butlerianischer Jihadist, der gegen die Verautomatisierung der gesamten Finanz- und sonstiger Dienstleistungen antritt und bin daher mal gemütlich (sprich im Eiltempo) zum Bahnhof in die Schalterhalle gelatscht.

Ich wollte ganz unschuldig wissen wann, zwischen Donnerstag und Samstag, ich per Sparschiene am günstigsten Reisen könnte, doch die freundliche ÖBB-Angestellte hat mich darauf hingewiesen, dass ich mich für einen Tag entscheiden sollte, und das möglichst rasch, denn man schließe immerhin in 4 [sic!] Minuten. Die ÖBB scheint für ihre Mitarbeiter ein sehr flexibles System vorgesehen zu haben, bei dem man immer nur eine einzelne Fahrt abfragen kann. Da darf man sich als Kunde schon sehr glücklich schätzen, per Internet einen ganzen Tag auf einmal abfragen zu dürfen und dann auch noch per Mausklick auf einen anderen Tag zu wechseln.

Tja, liebe ÖBB, wenn man das ganze Geld für Manager-Gehälter, dubiose Immobilien-Geschäfte und die Überwachung der Mitarbeiter ausgibt, dann bleibt halt für die Mitarbeiter oder die von ihnen zu bedienende Software nicht mehr viel übrig. Dafür habe ich durchaus Verständnis. Ich habe ja auch Verständnis dafür, dass die Züge der Deutschen Bahn bei Schneefall nicht mehr fahren, schließlich hat man auch da das Geld für die Wartung der Loks wo anders gewinnbringend anlegen müssen...

Auf jeden Fall gab es dann anscheinend auch die von mir ausgewählte Verbindung (Ab 02:17) über Salzburg nicht, weil es Sparschiene Tickets ja nur für "verkehrsübliche" Strecken gibt. Mein Hinweis darauf, dass es dieses Ticket online gibt, wurde mit einem sehr zuvorkommenden "Wenn du's online sickscht, kannst du dirs ja auch da kaufen!" und "Des muss a Fehler im Internet sein." quittiert. Ich armer Tor war mir ja zu dem Zeitpunkt noch nicht bewusst, dass es die Bezahlmethode über VISA nur für besonders hartnäckige Kunden gibt.

Nun denn, ich bin jedenfalls immer wieder froh, mich einen zufriedenen Kunden der verschiedenen europäischen Bahnbetriebe nennen zu dürfen.

Optimizing mplayer for interview transcriptions

2009-11-10T14:23:00.003+01:00

Yes, transcribing interviews is a pain! But there are several thing you can do on a Unix system that can help you ease the pain.

Although there exists a software out there that is even supposed to work with a pedal: Express Scribe by Australian company NCH Software - which works natively or as a Windows binary with wine, I chose mplayer. First and foremost because scribe didn't load the WMA files produced by my voice recorder.
Interestingly enough though, NCH Software describe a couple of ways to use their software with a pedal, and even offer tips on 'DIY' foot pedal solutions and they also have a documentation on "Writing a driver for an unsupported controller" (for Windows though).

There's a couple of tweaks and treats you can do to optimize mplayer for such a task. The most obvious at first seemed to reduce the playing speed, which can be done in every mplayer installation by the default keys "[" and "]".

To keep the same pitch of the voices however, you'll have to use an audio filter, that is by now part of every standard installation: scaletempo

Which brings us to the following command:

~ $ mplayer -af scaletempo

Now there is one remaining problem, namely the left and right buttons on your keyboard, in their default confirguration, do rewind or fastforward your file by 10 seconds. That is way too far when transcribing interviews.
Luckily, this can be configured as well. What you'll have to do is create a file in your .mplayer directory that holds a new configuration for the right and left keys. I.e.:

~$ cat ~/.mplayer/transcribe
RIGHT seek +3
LEFT seek -3

Now if you start mplayer while passing it that file as input configuration, your directional keys will seek by 3 seconds instead of 10. You might want to add an alias to you bashrc that says

alias transplayer="mplayer -af scaletempo -input conf=transcribe $1"

After sourcing that file, you may then use your customized setup by invoking "transplayer" at the cli:

~ $ source ~/.bashrc
~ $ transplayer

Of course, more than just the right or left keys can be reconfigured. To get an idea of what commands and keys are available, you may use

~ $ mplayer -input cmdlist
~ $ mplayer -input keylist

For more information on customizing your mplayer setup, please RTFM ;)

What Inspiration can ArsElectronica09 be to a Hackerspace?

2009-09-08T12:39:00.031+02:00

The 5:16pm train brought me back from Linz/Upper-Austria yesterday. It also brought some blisters, exhausted legs and an innumerable array of impressions from Ars Electronica 2009, some of which I'll try to relay in this blogpost.

I bought a daypass on Sunday, which might or might not have paid off, I'm not quite sure.. 33€ is quite a lot of money, especially when the train ticket already cost you a hundred bucks. To anyone going to Ars in 2010 I suggest to buy a festival pass, spend at least 3 days on the various exhibitions and talks and prepare yourself a schedule (because theirs clearly sucked).

Ars Electronica Center (AEC)
The labs
The Ars electronica center clearly has an abundant array of interesting stuff sitting around. With their Fab-, Brain-, and Bio-labs on the -3 floor, they touch a broad variety of subjects, from cyborgs via sensor-enhanced art to 3D printers and lasercutters. This is actually somewhat like MIT's Medialab in Boston, only that this is clearly more exhibition-focused and less a working space. And clearly a lot smaller.

The picture above is a web made of wire straps.

The sculpture in the above picture does actually sense when you go near it and it reacts by moving its various "body"-parts.

Knock! Music Program (by Novmichi Tosa)
The second floor actually has some cool hands-on stuff that you can't actually touch, which is sad. But anyway, the Knock music machine is a pretty cool concept of an semi-electric music instrument. There were several components to it, the picture below is just one of them.
I actually found a couple of youtube videos of the machine in action. I just hope you understand some japanese ;) (Another resource I found is Novmichi's sketchblog.)

loopScape (by Ryota Kuwakubo)
Another great thing on the second floor was obviously loopScape. In contrast to ordinary computer games, this is one where you actually have to move around the "screen", which is made out of leds. Steering your fighter-jet with a wireless controller, your goal is to shoot down the enemy's fighter. To get all of the action, you can't stand still but have to move around to actually see everything that is happening in this fast-paced game.

Quartet
Quartet is a huge machine that produces sounds from resonating wine-glasses and golf-balls being projected onto wooden xylophone bars. I hope I managed to capture some of that motion in my still.

Höhenrausch
Höhenrausch was an exhibition above the roofs of Linz. Walking on a wooden structure, you get from exhibit to exhibit while having a grandiose view over the city. You could even take a ride in a Ferris wheel.

One exhibit was really awesome! If you stood below the sprinklers with an umbrella, you'd hear 8-bit music as produced by the frequency of the water being released. The umbrella's tissue serves as a simple membrane and produces astonishingly clear sounds.

Cyberarts Festival
Tantalum Memorial - Residue (website)
Relay station for a social phone network used by the congolese diaspora in London.
And yes, though this thing is not your most recent asterisk pbx, it actually worked and was relaying calls for people on that network. From the project's website:

"'Tantalum Memorial' is a series of telephony-based memorials by the artists group Harwood, Wright, Yokokoji, to the people who have died as a result of the “coltan wars” in the Congo. The installation is constructed out of electromagnetic Strowger switches – the basis of the first automatic telephone exchange invented in 1888. The title of the work refers to the metal tantalum, an essential component of mobile phones"

Pursuit of the unheard
One of the things that kept me awake on Sunday evening was the "Höllenmaschine", one of the first, if not THE first synthesizer ever. Built by Bob Moog for Max Brand. As it says in the brochure: "The first wiring diagrams for the Max Brand synthesizer by Bob Moog are dated 1957."

On Monday morning, I decided to check out the MIT Impetus exhibition nonetheless, even though I thought I had already seen most of it in the Medialab itself.
And oh and I was so wrong!

littleBits (website)
Again, a little excerpt from their website:

"littleBits is an opensource library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive, space-sensitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together. With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to move electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers and designers."

Various impressions from Linz

One thing that I noticed already on Sunday were these "stencils". Only, it only came to me on Monday though that these weren't your ordinary stencils. What is so uncommon here is that the stencils are actually areas that are cleaner than the area around it. So what you see here is kind of a 'cleaner's graffiti'. (No, I'm in no way affiliated to Mazda or any other automobile manufacturer)

Finally, a last picture of the "Fassadenfestival":

A couple more pictures will be made available on my soup.
(All images contained herein are subject to the CC-BY-SA license.)

Bring your tent to the C3L and syn2cat SummerCamp 2009!

2009-06-09T14:22:00.005+02:00

From July 2-5 2009, there will by the first Open Air Hacker Convention in the city of Dudelange, Luxembourg.

Whether you're a long standing hacker or have ever wondered what these geeks do, you should pack your sleeping bag and tent and come to Dudelange to enjoy four geeky days with people from all over Luxembourg and the Greater Region.

The camp will feature workshops, talks, 'Spaß am Gerät' and various other activities such as geocaching or 'foodhacking'. Come along, get to know interesting people and enjoy your beer or Club Mate in a cosy athmosphere.

More information on the camp can be found on the C3L SummerCamp Wikipage.
T-shirts can be ordered by sending an email to campshirts_AT_hackerspace_DOT_lu

A World Free of Nuclear Weapons?

2009-06-03T22:42:00.005+02:00

Ever since United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama’s speech in Prague on April 5 2009, there has been growing attention to the topic of nuclear disarmament throughout mass media. The foundations for his speech, however, where set by an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by four elder U.S. statesmen: Schultz et al. (2007) drew the academic community’s attention to a renewed vision of A WORLD FREE NUCLEAR WEAPONS . The article’s impact waves OF have since rippled through numerous institutes and think-tanks to give birth to a number of publications debating GLOBAL ZERO. Governments seem to have been caught up in this vision, as can be seen from the 6 for ATTAINABLE STEPS an eventual ban on nuclear weapons by the BRITISH FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (see Cole 2009) or JAPAN’ S MINISTER FOREIGN FOR A FFAIRS HIROFUMI NAKASONE’s (2009b) 11 to accomplish global BENCHMARKS nuclear disarmament.

[...]

In order to escape arms control dilemmas and attain a, in constructivist terms, viable solution, institutions will have to be reformed and norms created. The possibility of a world free of nuclear weapons needs to be considered under social-constructivist premises. Realist theories would have us remain in a vicious circle of power balancing and extended deterrence and cannot sufficiently explain what role norms, expectations and perceptions play in a state’s (un-)willingness to disarm.

[...]

Still, this means that the norm would need to be created by a body capable of instituting, verifying and enforcing such prohibitions and giving it a legitimacy that would be recognized and respected by the international community. Although it has been suggested repeatedly that the UN and its Security Council (UN-SC) watch over nuclear disarmament, they are, by definition, not eligible for that task. One of the reasons why India went nuclear, its seeking of a shortcut to
great-power status, to becoming a permanent member of the UN-SC (Tertrais 2009, 182), is a prime illustration of the fundamental flaw vis-à-vis nuclear abolition inherent in that institution. How can an institution that rewards nuclear weapons with permanent UN-SC membership and veto rights be expected to promote and enforce nuclear disarmament? Also, the 5 de jure nuclear weapons states (P5), as the UN’s norm entrepreneurs, would almost certainly veto the
setup of a nuclear prohibition, should they fear a loss of influence.

[...]

Moreover, we have seen that nuclear disarmament must become desirable and thus a norm of the international community in order to keep states from considering cheating as a viable and fruitious alternative to abolishing their nuclear capabilities. It is therefore important to note that, even if the goal of global zero seems to unreachable under the current circumstances, “[...]
invoking the idea [of nuclear disarmament] has political value if it embeds in global consciousness an understanding of the direction in which policies and actions should move.” (Walker 2009, 16)

[...]

want to read more? (+ sources)

The Luxembourgian Blogosphere. A Landscape

2009-06-03T21:34:00.007+02:00

I've been playing around on issuecrawler.net a lot lately and one of the main issues I've been enquiring on was the Luxembourgian blogosphere (in relation to hackerspace.lu). Note the fact that this graph show only sites that have at least two incoming links, that are, so to speak, co-linked.

Besides the fact that hackerspace.lu doesn't get enough incoming links, there are more interesting things to see on this illustration. The most obvious thing being the central position of joeladami.net. If you get a close look at the sites he links at, you'll see that they're of all couleurs and various ideologies, from the extremist left to the extremist right. Ok, this is certainly not a qualitative survey of that blog's contents, but nevertheless, this seems to be a blog that keeps it all together.

Another interesting fact is also the concentration (or shall we call it 'blogrolling') of leftist and green people's blogs. Those would be schockweiler.blogspot.com, sozialrevolution.blogsport.de, pianococktail.wordpress.com and so on)

On the lower left hand site, there are more technology related blogs, including hackerspace.lu' wiki page.

I'll see whether specific issues can be determined and relationships between the blogs and their authors can be further investigated. Keep you posted.

syn2cat Hackers offering a crash-course in soldering

2009-02-27T12:09:00.000+01:00

The hackers from Luxembourgs syn2cat Hackerspace will be holding a workshop on soldering and programming microcontrollers.
The workshop is open to beginners and experts alike but will be limited to 10 participants. See the The workshop's webpage for more details on this opportunity.

Cycle de sensibilisation à la propriété intellectuelle - 12, 18, 24 et 31 mars 2009 - Luxinnovation

2009-02-24T15:18:00.000+01:00

The Luxembourgish "Society for Innovation" just sent me an invitation to their conference on intellectual property.... I could only *rofl* at that:

Luxinnovation, l'Agence nationale pour la promotion de l'innovation et de la recherche, en partenariat avec le Ministère de l'Economie et du Commerce extérieur et le Centre de Veille Technologique et Normative (CRP Henri Tudor), a le plaisir de vous inviter au cycle de sensibilisation à la propriété intellectuelle, qui se tiendra les 12, 18, 24 et 31 mars 2009 de 18h00 à 20h00 au Centre de conférences de la Chambre de Commerce Luxembourg.

In my opinion, intellectual property achieves quite the contrary to innovation, keeping people from standing on the shoulders of giants and collaborating to achieve new things.
Intellectual property not only inhibits innovation per se, it also keeps people from trying new things because they fear to infringe on someone's intellectual property.

I asked to be removed from their list... I couldn't even remember ever having asked to be on it.

The very first L.A.S.E.R.-Tagging event in Luxembourg!

2009-01-08T12:26:00.000+01:00

G.R.L. (http://www.graffitiresearchlab.lu) and syn2cat (http://www.syn2cat.lu) proudly present:

The very first L.A.S.E.R.-Tagging event in Luxembourg!

Thursday, February 5th 2009, from 7 p.m.
@ the "Fëschmaart", Luxembourg-City

Everyone is welcome to draw freely on the MNHA's facade, using our LAZOR!
Watch out for more graffiti research and OpenSource street art!

Step 1 of 4

2009-01-05T12:45:00.002+01:00

Good day everyone,

By now, most of us should have left Berlin and its deadly freezing climate for a warm shelter and, most importantly, a permanent internet connection  ;) 

As announced in my previous mail, being toughened by our experience at 25C3 and the C-base, we're about to embark for the final steps in building our hackerspace.
We will do this one step at a time, each step having the current weekend as a deadline. I.e. the deadline for this step is Sunday, January 11th @ 11:59 pm. Step 2 will then, depending on the outcome of the previous step, be announced on Monday 12th.

The first step is to finalize the Non-Profit-Organisation's statutes.
There's already been some discussion going on and a number of changes have been made to the text. Everyone should read through the document and the comments once again to see if he agrees and then discuss what he likes or dislikes on the wiki talk page or the hackerspace mailing list.

You can also still become a founding member if you haven't said so already.

Here's the link: https://www.hackerspace.lu/wiki/Association
Happy text hacking!

25C3: Nothing to hide ... and nothing to loose

2008-12-30T16:59:00.000+01:00

Well yes, I'm tired and so is almost everyone... the 25C3 unfortunately is close to its end. So that I'll try to give a short round-up on what the syn2cat HackerSpace did and achieved at the conference and beyond.

First of all, it would be an absolute understatement to say that I'm very proud of the Lightening Talk Steve gave on day 3 of the conference, the act of which was very courageous and its content absolutely entertaining. I'm convinced that all of you who actually watched the stream felt the same, some expressing their satisfaction on the C3L #irc channel.

I'd also like to thank Caveman who wholeheartedly represented us vis-à-vis the hackerspaces.org people when neither Steve nor me were where we should've been. In the same breath I'd like to mention that Pst bravely held out with us at the C-Base on Monday evening / Tuesday morning until half past 4 (when we had already been there to the Phenoelit party 'til 4am the previous evening) and very actively helped building bridges with other Hackerspaces and their members. At that time, syn2cat was barking with the big dogs, participating in a call-in of all the Member HackerSpaces of hackerspaces.org. Yet again, Steve was doing a great job here, introducing our hackerspace initiative to the rest of the world, and this, regardless of the time of the day, in a supreme "her majesty's best english".
Moreover, we had a nice chat with c-base's T in the call-in's aftermath. He strongly encouraged us to simply find a first space, no matter how small or temporary and also supplied us with his expertise on an awesome number of questions and doubts we had.

All in all, I'd like to express my thanks to each and everyone from syn2cat for their unparalled efforts in promoting our Hackerspace.

All during the conference we weren't only gathering intel that will hopefully be of crucial help in our ongoing projects, but we were also tagging the bcc with our stickers, posters and flyers.

Expect quite a couple of emails over the next few days, explaining what we learned and detailing our very immediate plans and next steps. I will only do as much as hint at a contest coming up and some coordinated actions we're about to take.

Long time no see...

2008-12-12T17:55:00.000+01:00

I feel I have to write something to appear in the newly set up RSS planet

We're heading towards... the hackerspace

2008-10-08T10:40:00.000+02:00

The hackerspace I've been writing about in an earlier post is taking shape. I'm not talking about the building (unfortunately), but there's an ever growing community claiming to be interested in our initiative.

Some of our posters are already getting attention around the city and the letters to important people were posted yesterday.

We've also got a proper name now: SYN2cat

If you live around Luxembourg, don't hesitate to have a look at www.hackerspace.lu and get in touch with us.

Building a Hackerspace in Luxembourg

2008-09-08T20:12:00.000+02:00

We're currently trying to build a Hackerspace in Luxembourg.
And we're looking for many many people to join us in our effort and, if all goes well, in the Hackerspace. So go there now: www.hackerspace.lu

Offener Brief an Jósef Niewiadomski und Christian Zeitz

2008-02-01T18:40:00.000+01:00

"Ganz im Gegenteil ist die Ächtung der Gewalt überwiegend eine Kulturleistung des Christentums, denn nur die emotionale Verankerung der ungeheuerlichen Unzumutbarkeit der Feindesliebe und der Aufforderung, auch 'die andere Backe hinzuhalten' hat das dauerhafte Streben nach gewaltfreien Problemlösungsmechanisem in den kulturellen Code der westlichen Zivilisation eingepflanzt" (Christian Zeitz: Das Kreuz mit dem Islam; in: Der Standard, 30.01.08, S.35)

"Alle Dogmen würden in Frage gestellt, Traditionen und Verbindlichkeiten ausgehöhlt. Schließlich werde der Konsum zum Kult. Werte wie Solidarität mit Schwächeren oder Schutz für Arme spielen bei den 'neuen Atheisten' keine Rolle" (vergl. Jósef Niewiadomski; zit. n. Steffen Arora: Der neue Atheismus; in: 20er, 12.07 & 01.08, S. 9)

Sehr geehrte Herren Zeitz und Niewiadomski,

ihre Ansichten über die christliche Religion in allen Ehren, aber ihr Euphemismus schlägt teilweise dann doch über jegliche Stränge. Ich möchte mich sicher nicht gegen Weber oder Elias stellen, wenn ich behaupte, dass die westliche Zivilisation sehr wohl eine Leistung der christlichen Tradition ist, dies aber ganz und gar nicht ausschließlich positiv sehe.
Diese feine "Zivilisierung" der Menschen des Mittelalters hat ganz nebenbei friedliche Matriarchate, die unverklemmte und gesunde Sexualität sowie den einfachen Bürger unterdrückt.

Dass dabei ein "Produkt Mensch" entstanden ist, das sich Messer und Gabel bedient, und nunmehr die Langzeitfolgen seiner Taten abschätzt, bevor es seinen Mitstreiter niedersticht, ist zwar nicht von der Hand zu weisen, aber ich halte es für maßlos, diese "Erfolge" einzig als Leistung der Kirche hervorzustreichen und die Vergangenheit der Menschen, vor diesem moralischen Retter, als barbarisch und unmenschlich zu charikieren.

Ihre Meinung, meine Herren, die christliche Tradition sei das Maß aller Dinge wenn es um Moral und Ethik geht, ist ihrerseits in der jahrhundertealten Tradition der Bevormundung der Menschen zu sehen. Moral und Ethik, das Wissen darum, was gut und was schlecht ist, ist alles andere als eine Erleuchtung, die einem mit dem Glauben zuteil wird. Der unmündige, illiterate und "unzivilisierte" Mensch, der sich durch die gesamte sozioökonomische Bandbreite zieht, dem Mann den Zinseszins und den Sündenerlass aufbürgen konnte und dem man mit der Vorstellung der Unterwelt das Gehorsam lehrte, stellt wahrlich eine gute Basis für Macht dar.

Vielmehr ist diese Unterscheidung, und das Eingeständnis, dass es neben Weiß und Schwarz auch noch etliche Grautöne geben mag, eine Leistung, die ein Mensch mit ausreichend Bildung und mittelmäßiger Sozialisation (auch unter Atheisten und Taufchristen) problemlos erbringen kann. Vorausgesetzt, er ist gewillt diese intellektuelle Leistung zu erbringen und fühlt sich dazu im Stande. Daher ist es umso wichtiger, die Menschen zu unabhängigen, mündigen Bürgern zu er-, und dem Einfluß einer moralisierenden Institution zu entziehen.

Ich verstehe auch nicht, woher sich die Herren das Recht nehmen, im Kontext Atheismus von Entsolidarisierung und Sozialdarwinismus zu reden, oder so unverblümt über den Islam her zu ziehen, wenn sich in der Vergangenheit der so hoch gelobten eigenen Glaubensrichtung solche Schandflecke und Mahnmale! wie die Inquisition oder die Kreuzzüge finden. Diese Ereignisse, deren Ausgang sich in der Angst vor dem eigenen Machtverlusst suchen und finden lassen, führten zu den schlimmsten Verfolgungen, Verleumndungen und Fachismen, die sich, mit Ausnahme des Holocaust, in der Geschichte Europas finden lassen.

Die Menschen sind heute zunehmend in der Lage, die Komplexität und Wunder der Welt auch ohne eine trivialisierende übergeordnete Ebene zu erkennen, zu verstehen und zu begreifen.

Ich weiß nicht, wen Sie, Herr Niewiadomski, zu überzeugen versuchen, Richard Dawkins sei mit Stalin zu vergleichen, oder wer Ihnen, Herr Zeitz, abnimmt, die Menschenrechte seien ein christliches Säkularisationsprodukt... ich für meinen Teil Glaube das sicher nicht.

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2007-09-26T11:39:00.000+02:00

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