Ethics – Page 290 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/03/242011/03/24

Syrian Domino Teeters….

05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Peace Intelligence

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad faces most serious unrest of his tenure

By Leila Fadel, Thursday, March 24

Washington Post

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing the most serious unrest of his 11-year tenure Thursday as anti-government protests in a southwestern city threatened to escalate after a deadly crackdown.

. . . . . . .

On Wednesday, security forces launched a pre-dawn raid in the city in which dozens of people were killed, according to witnesses and activists. Precise estimates of the death toll range from 15 to 51.

On Thursday, witnesses said, thousands of people gathered in the city to bury the dead, chanting, “Syria! Freedom!”

Click on Image to Enlarge

Phi Beta Iota: “Freedom” is neither a partisan term, nor one that can be bought by Lockheed Martin or discounted by Goldman Sachs. Young, freedom, and the autonomous Internet. Not at all what the “elite” had planned. Most interestingly, the dominos falling to non-violent public will are in sharp contrast to the published plan of the neo-conservatives to take down the Middle East by force–nuclear if necessary.

Reflections on Revolution, Information & Civil Affairs

2011/03/222011/03/22

Reference: Religion, Science, & Philosophy

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Religion & Politics of Religion, Science & Politics of Science

IO Cube Clean — Click on Image to Enlarge

2012 is a year of awakening, and a year of convergence. Inspired by two books by Capt Doug Johnston, USN (Ret), Religion, The Missing Dimension of Statecraft (1995) and Faith-Based Diplomacy–Trumping Realpolitik (2003), our collective concept of public intelligence has treated faith as essential and integral to the advanced Information Operations (IO) Cube.

Ref A: Albert Einstein Four Essays on Religion and Science (1930-1948)

Web Stack

Phi Beta Iota: Integrity is the core concept. religions that demand absolute obedience to dogma are just as bad as sciences that fabricate results, or politicians that lie. Just as we have found that there is no conflict between the intelligence profession and the craft of politics provided they both keep their integrity, so also do we believe it possible for religions and the sciences to be brought together by the humanities (philosophy et al) in order to achieve integral consciousness as individuals, as communities, and as a species.

Selected Books on Religion & Science, Religion & Philosophy

Continue reading “Reference: Religion, Science, & Philosophy”

2011/03/222011/03/22

Catholic Church Getting Serious About “Truth”

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, History, InfoOps (IO), Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Strategy

VATICAN-PHILOSOPHY Mar-22-2011 (360 words) With photos. xxxi

Vatican says church philosophy studies must combat suspicion of truth

Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski talks about new norms for the ecclesiastical studies of philosophy. (CNS/Alessandro Serrano, Catholic Press Photo)

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When training priests and educating students in philosophy, the Catholic Church must combat a widespread sensation that there really is no such thing as permanent, objective truths, a new Vatican document said.

Because so many students are influenced by the cultural suspicion of truth, the Vatican said it will require an extra year of study before a student can earn a church-recognized bachelor's degree in philosophy.

Read complete Vatican story….

Phi Beta Iota: Something very important is happening within the Catholic Church. The Most Holy Father Benedict XVI is a “convergence Pope” and moving on multiple fronts. He is seeking to reconcile religion with science; philosophy with theology; logic with pastoral direction. In short, His Holiness is deepening and elaborating on initiatives begun by Pope John Paul II, to include pro-active inter-faith and pro-active science and religion summits. Faith matters. History matters. Science matters. There is something happening here that is potentially a revolution in global human evolutionary psychology.

2011/03/212011/03/21

“I Am” A Documentary on What We Can Do…

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Gift Intelligence, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence, Worth A Look

Dear All:

A really uplifting new documentary, “I AM”, has just hit theaters featuring my dear friend, Marc Barasch. This film, based in significant part on Marc's insights into empathy, altruism and social healing from his seminal book, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life is taking off. A previous DVD by Marc, The Compassionate Life: Walking the Path of Kindness, is available online.

It made the top ten list of indie films this week and last, after a successful launch on the coasts. It will also be shown at the Conference on World Affairs in Boulder next month.

Tom Shadyac, Jim Carey director and the film¹s creator, has been touring with the film, as noted in indieWIREŒs profile of the film's strategy earlier this week. The film takes on Washington next weekend followed by Boston before expanding to other markets.

Along with Marc's truly inspiring segments, it features Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, David Suzuki, Lynn McTaggert, Ray Anderson and other luminaries. The “through-line” of this entertaining documentary is
Shadayac personal journey, following a serious accident, to discover “what's wrong with the world and what we can do about it” — a quest which he has said was triggered, in part, by Marc's own literary and life pilgrimage.

Here are some links that might be of interest:
* a review of the film in the Huffington Post
* YouTube film trailer about universal connection being “the emerging story.”
* a podcast (audio) of Tom and Marc on Terrence McNally's show on KPFK in L.A

Continue reading ““I Am” A Documentary on What We Can Do…”

2011/03/192011/03/19

German Approach to Cyber-Security

Advanced Cyber/IO, Ethics, Government, Law Enforcement

News Article

20 Page Report

Phi Beta Iota: The German approach differs substantially from that of the US in that it avoids offensive capabilities and the expense of vaporware and sock puppets; it recognizes the importance of cyber-security across all normal elements of government, not just the “national security” zone; it places a very high priority on educated personnel (instead of shutting down USB ports); and it recognizes that cyber-security is impossible to achieve in the absence of trusted hardware and software (at the code level, which is a foreign language to the US cyber-mandarins).

See Also:

Graphic: Cyber-Threat 101

Continue reading “German Approach to Cyber-Security”

2011/03/192011/03/19

Education, Intelligence, & Research: Academic Trends

03 Economy, 04 Education, 10 Security, 11 Society, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government

Research and Markets: Global Trends 2010 Trend Report: Shapers & Influencers – Academic Institutions

May 2010 newly offered 18 March 2011

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Global Trends 2010 Trend Report: Shapers & Influencers – Academic Institutions” report to their offering.

The world's next generation of young adults will not only be the largest ever, but also have received more schooling than any before.

The quantity, quality and focus of education will strongly influence future global development. There will be rising needs for trained teachers. Advances in communication and information technologies will quicken the dissemination of knowledge globally, giving rise to opportunities for cross-border education, as well as a greater need for lifelong learning to maintain a competitive edge in skills and knowledge.

A further influence on education will be the rise of collective versus individual intelligence as people worldwide seize the potential to tap into diverse sources of learning and knowledge simultaneously across the world, through both formal and informal networks. In this environment, the balance of influence of national curriculum boards and governments on education will decrease, while that of educational providers, parents, learners, learning channels and networks and global thinkers will increase.

Announcement and Contents

Order Report (Euro 199.00)

Phi Beta Iota: Emphasis added. The trend not yet visible to others is the inevitable convergence of education, intelligence (decision-support) and research into one coherent openly-managed network that optimizes multinational (multilingual) multiagency multidisciplinary multidomain information-sharing and sense-making (M4IS2).

2011/03/192011/03/19

Officer’s Comment on Education vs. Sock Puppetry

Advanced Cyber/IO, Corruption, Ethics, IO Impotency

Pre-quel

America’s absurd stab at systematising sock puppetry

Promising mid-career officer's comments:

Have you seen this? Passing off DoD-sponsored “sock puppets” as Information Operations (IO) is ridiculous on its face, as it is a waste of time, tax-payer dollars, and once again represents a one-off, niche contractor hardware/software solution that will show not only no ROI, but is likely to hurt our engagement efforts from the mere mention of this article in some foreign venues.

It ticks me off that DoD is investing in these types of programs instead of actually educating and training its personnel/forces on international conditions and realities through open media avenues. If done properly and consistently such an effort could well produce a cadre of ad-hoc IO proponents who may be inclined to engage foreigners via social media on a variety of hot-button issues (among which extremism is likely to be a part, although not necessarily the primary issue) as the natural outgrowth of their developing awareness and own
personal concern, not as part of some elaborate, pre-planned information campaign.

In fact, I am willing to bet such an investment in our folks would produce more straightforward and meaningful dialog that would contribute to future stability, peace, and trend towards understanding and shared ideals — vice trying to manipulate foreign media through fake personas managed by remote operators.

I mean really, who comes up with this stuff?

Phi Beta Iota: It breaks our heart to see the new two and three star generals following in the “go along to get along” careerist footpaths of the four-star generals and their predecessors who created this mess in the first place by not listening in the 1990's when the independent of mind had this nailed. We wish every happiness for these young generals–they are at a fork in the road: be all you can be, or not. Education and culture, multinational open source everything, are the key. To ignore that is to betray every young American, in uniform or not.

See Also:

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