June 20, 2020
by Ismail Rifaat
Comments Off on Update and an interesting book to read

Update and an interesting book to read

Since I wrote last, issues relating to President Trump’s Presidency have been exacerbated day after day. His “deeds” continue to be praised by media entities such as Fox News, and presented as “misdeeds” by others such as CNN. There is not much to add other than confessing that I side with the progressive group, and suggesting some action to cope with the Trump issue.  

Political analysts indicate that 28% of the electorate are staunch supports of Trump, that nothing can be done to sway them, and that they are not going away; I agree, albeit, go away they eventually will since they are mortal like the restThose who say http://www.devensec.com/maps/devens_viewshed.pdf purchase viagra online that generic drugs are counterfeit meds are misleading people for their own benefit. of us, and hopefully their offspring will be better educated. The analysts also indicate that 35-38% of the electorate are undecided voters who could be swayed one way or the other; the remaining percentage of the electorate are presumed to vote Democratic. Well, promoting the recently released book titled “How We Prevailed, and What the Future May Hold for Us” by Jim Byrne, could help in swaying the undecided voters!?

The book touches upon most of the issues that I have addressed over the years on this website including those relating to President Trump, and covers more recent developments including the impact of the Corona Pandemic. Furthermore, the book presents additional insights about the causes of issues, addresses juicier topics such as the relations between men and women, and perhaps more importantly, it unfolds in a more readable entertaining narrative compared with my books that are featured on this site. Check it out, it is available from Amazon.com.

July 6, 2019
by Ismail Rifaat
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Update

Early in June, this site was inadvertently erased. It was partially restored but remained bungled for several weeks; apologies to those who tried to visit the site at that time. I maintained the site for over a decade, and it has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors over the years. I also authored the four books featured on the site. My main intent has been, and remains to be, to introduce the concept of tychiformation, and to promote relevant progressive views that would hopefully affect our survival and well being. I believe that the most critical of global issues including wars, terrorism, the degradation of the environment, and poverty relate to the action of certain oligarchs and to the gullibility of conservative, nationalist, and fanatic religious factions of the world population who fall for their propaganda, disinformation, and lies. For example, the grave issues relating to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent report and statements, together with allegations that the Trump Organization received hundreds of millions of investment dollars from Russian sources in the past few years suggest that president Trump was being groomed by President Putin to become a Russian puppet; by first extending investment funds to the Trump Organization, and then by interfering with US elections in support of candidate Trump. This conspiracy theory, at least explains President Trump’s unabashed stance and statements regarding Putin and Russia since he took office. Similar serious issues regarding the President’s actions arise almost on a daily basis. The main concern, in my view, is that President Trump’s political base of about 40 million voters does not give a hoot; they continue to believe whatever he says irrespective of evidence exposing what many Americans recognize as straight out lies by the President. This is specifically the issue I am writing about today.This nerve motor centre is along the side of the neck. donssite.com buy viagra online I thought that my site and books would help in addressing this serious issue. However, more recently, I realized that the critical audiences who need to change their ways for their own as well everybody else’s benefit, are neither inclined to read, nor to visit a site that promotes progressive views. Thus, it seemed to me that I have been only preaching to the choir, and that my efforts to bring about some meaningful change may have been largely spent in vain. This realization posed a quandary that I had to face. I thought, what could I possibly do to more effectively reach the audiences that directly impact the achievement of my goals? Well, I found an answer that involves alternative approaches to reaching my target audiences, and have already taken some significant steps in this vein. I will keep you posted when my efforts bear fruit. Until then, I refer the reader to the ‘factual media’ for analysis and debate of current topical issues.

October 17, 2017
by Ismail Rifaat
Comments Off on A call for rigorous tychiformation

A call for rigorous tychiformation

Like MLK, “I have a dream”. MLK’s dream was to rectify the status of African American citizens in the USA; a dream that has been largely, though not completely fulfilled. My dream has been, and continues to be, to do whatever I can to “optimize the chances of everybody’s survival and wellbeing”; irrespective of color, nationality, or creed. While my dream -shared by many- is considerably more ambitious, I am convinced that it is neither fundamentally implausible, nor totally impracticable. It simply requires the mobilization of considerable resources, and is likely to take decades to accomplish a measure of success. Above all, prerequisite efforts need to be focused, thoroughly structured, and continuous.

As I have repeatedly expressed in my books and on this website, I never dreamt of solving the problems of the world on my own. In fact, I defined the kinds of entities that could be involved in the pursuit of my dream, such as the UN, benevolent philanthropists, and academic institutions, and did call for others to be involved, both in my writing and by directly approaching some such entities. For example, roughly twenty years ago, I approached the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the University of California at Berkley, seeking support and collaboration. In the lack of positive responses, I continued reluctantly to do what I could on my own, through writing books and maintaining this website.

A few years ago I learned about the Burggruen Institute whose expressed goals seemed to uncannily reflect the aim of tychiformarion. I also learned about their Philosophy Prize intended to recognize and reward thinkers whose work contributes to the understanding and promotion of the Institute’s cause. In fact, some members of my family, friends, and colleagues who are familiar with my work felt that it fits the Institute’s requirements for consideration for the award, and nominated me for the prize two years in a row. The Prize for 2016 and 2017 though was awarded to two prominent professors of philosophy. I urge the reader to visit the Burggruen Institute’s website and learn about its admirable efforts.

I cite this recent development because it revived my hopes for engaging others in the pursuit of tychiformation. Now, I feel a sense of urgency to more vigorously pursue “my dream”. In particular, I believe that the concept of tychiformation embodies the most effective methodology to achieve the dream, if adopted and applied by an appropriately staffed entity dedicated to the fulfillment of tychiformation’s expressed goals; as outlined in my book “Planning for Survival”. Furthermore, having contemplated inherent global issues for several decades, I am acutely aware of the most critical of these issues, and have definitive ideas about how tychiformation efforts could be structured to address them, and what types of action are likely to emerge from the rigorous application of tychiformation. Thus, I write today to renew my call for collaboration with others, in the hope that my call for collaboration will be heard by suitable likeminded parties. I also plan to approach certain institutions that I believe would be up to the task to seek their collaboration; including the Burggruen Institute.
Yes, it may feel like a lie initially for there is no ad that is in the marketing policy of branded viagra prescription http://davidfraymusic.com/buy-8015 and devoid of patent protection act.

Qualified individuals and institutions interested in my proposal are requested to Email me at irifaat@gmail.com.

 

August 26, 2017
by Ismail Rifaat
Comments Off on Tychiformation as “Neo-Enlightenment”

Tychiformation as “Neo-Enlightenment”

I recently corresponded with my dear friend Jeff Stevenson; an astute intellectual colleague. Jeff, who is familiar with my work, made an interesting observation that got me thinking. Citing the Enlightenment Movement of yore, he indicated that tychiformation perhaps reflects a contemporary parallel, which he dubs “Neo-Enlightenment”; he meant this in a positive sense, contrary to an earlier usage of the term to designate a counter enlightenment movement, also referred to as “Dark-Enlightenment”, or as Jeff labels it “Endarkenment”. Jeff cited contemporary political and societal ills, and pointed out the role of “Neo-Enlightenment” in addressing them.

The Enlightenment Movement, also referred to as “The Age of Reason”, was widely popular in Europe in the eighteenth century. It promoted personal liberty, tolerance, freedom of religion, and the separation of church and religion; among many other progressive doctrines. Most notably, the movement promoted reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy. Reading Bertrand Russell’s “History of Western Philosophy”, way back in the sixties, I learned about the work of many who contributed to the emergence of the Enlightenment Movement, such as Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, David Hume, and Adam Smith.

The conditions that prevailed in the eighteenth century have evolved considerably since then. At present, civic society reflects numerous facets that were sought then, but are well established today; such as democratic republics that elect their leaders and law makers, and judicial structures that apply the law. Albeit, in time, we constantly discover glitches in contemporary civic structures, and new issues that need to be scrutinized and addressed. Thus, “Neo-Enlightenment” is meant to designate a movement that addresses contemporary universal issues in the same spirit as the original “Enlightenment”. Today, it is reflected in the views of many, as expressed in books, newspapers and television, as well as, more recently, in the social media. As such, I appreciate Jeff Stevenson’s suggestion to include tychiformation under his notable classification.
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In addition, I wish to take this opportunity to highlight certain pertinent aspects of tychiformation. In particular, the application of a rigorous planning methodology in addressing contemporary global issues reflects two relevant points: a) it is considered to be novel, thus earning the designation “neo”, and b) it promotes and applies reasoning as the primary approach to addressing the human predicament, thus displaying affinity with the “Enlightenment Movement”.

July 31, 2017
by Ismail Rifaat
Comments Off on A Possible Blessing in Disguise!?

A Possible Blessing in Disguise!?

The election of Mr. Trump as president about eight months ago, spurred the media on TV and news papers to engage in analyzing this unexpected development, expressing either elation or lamentation about his election. After six months of his assuming power, the con voices seem to be overwhelming the pro faction supporting the president, and the con camp seems to be continuously gaining more ground in negatively painting his actions; as amply demonstrated in recent polls of his presidency.

Many of the President’s detractors dwell on criticizing his unorthodox style in conducting state affairs; which is in fact appreciated by his followers. Others deride his position regarding global environmental and trade issues. Others yet are concerned about his promise to ‘make America great again’ by increasing ‘defense’ spending, cutting the government’s contributions to heath care, and reducing taxes on corporations and the wealthiest of Americans. The criticism goes on and on with scant impact on the President’s ardent supporters.

For my part, while critical of the president’s posture, and suspicious of his intentions, I believe that certain extremely positive conditions could potentially ensue from his election as president. 

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To begin with, one positive development which appears to be emerging as I write is that the Republican Party and their supporters seem to have come to grips with the folly of their strategies in recent years in supporting movements such as the Tea Party, and encouraging hate and adversity as their main method of winning elections. They now seem to realize that their strategies can, and have backfired; thus, they are beginning to reconsider their failed strategy. Furthermore, the wisdom of the founding fathers in instituting checks and balances between the three branches of government appears to be kicking in to check executive branch excesses, and to draw Republicans in Congress to work with their Democrat colleagues. This might bring an end to the stifling polarization of political parties, and is evidenced in the current deliberations regarding healthcare in Congress.

Another potential positive development of at least equal significance, relates to the general public’s attitudes towards elections. Candidate Trump made numerous campaign promises. Apart from building “the wall” and banning Moslems and other ‘undesirable’ immigrants from entering or residing in the country, his most significant promise related to addressing the legitimate plight of the poor and the middle class in America. I certainly wish him all the best in fulfilling this particular promise, and his success would constitute a positive development. Alternatively, judging from his background and actions in business, I strongly doubt that he will ultimately come through with meaningful action to address this issue; on the contrary, I believe that he will continue the trend of making the rich wealthier at the detriment of the working class. In this case, he would be revealing his true colors to the segment of the electorate that have supported him -who I might add, elected President G. W. Bush for a second term in spite of his track record in his first term in office- thus leading them to eventually come around to electing candidates based on their credentials and tract record in assisting the disadvantaged, rather than on their personal emotional impulses. This, in my view, would not only bode well for US citizens, but for global developments at large. It would halt the trend initiated by President Regan and PM Thatcher which, several decades ago, reversed the movement of the working people towards making a reasonable living.  

April 27, 2017
by Ismail Rifaat
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Updates

Website

The content of the site was edited and reorganized to better explain the evolution and intent of tychiformation.  

Also, the site was initially conceived to allow interactive communication about global issues in democratic fashion as envisioned in my first book. Due to limited resources, this ambitious idea was abandoned. However, a link to communicate with me -below my photo on the top left- has been now provided for interested visitors who wish to participate in the discussion of the topics presented on the site. Links to social media, will be soon added as well to spread the word.

How come update now!? The site expresses views recognized as “progressive”. They promote globalization and working together to attain common goals. For some years we seemed to be moving in progressive directions. Alas however, the word “progressive” and what it denotes have recently fallen out of favor internationally, in the UK, the US, France and around the world, whereby sentiments are moving in an opposite conservative direction; for example, compare the Obama administration with the current administration of President Trump! In my view, this is happening due to several factors. Paramount among those is concerted action by conservatives, who on the whole tend to promote their egocentric agendas, but also, due to misunderstanding of progressive ideas. Therefore, I decided to do what I can to revive and restore the import of the progressive cause expressed on this site.        

Views

My views are literally ‘an open book’; since I have expressed them in four books that are available to all. I cannot deny them! However, following is a summary that affirms, clarifies, and modifies some of my stated positions.

Philosophical Position / Democracy

I am a relativist who believes that “my value judgments are subjective and potentially variable”. This statement itself reflects a value judgment. I could have alternatively opted to adopt: “my value judgments are objective and final”; a position that I dubbed “absolutism”. Thus, to be consistent, I elected way back to say “I now tend to believe that value judgments are subjective”. Today, I wish to confirm that for 50 years, I never found any reason to alter my belief in relativism.

My belief in relativism had certain consequences. Mainly, it affected the way I tended to express my views as my own, rather than claiming objective validity to my ideas. However, family and friends whom I ran my thoughts by invariably advised me to reduce the use of “I” in my writing: “do not say ’I believe we could do such and such’ in every statement, instead say ‘we should do such and such’”. Besides, their advice reflects the way discourse is generally presented and accepted. Well, I took their advice and relaxed my rigid rule of being philosophically consistent; which is evident in some of my writing. Here, and now, I ask that my work be construed as an expression of my own subjective views. This being said however, I stay firm in advocating the courses of action that I suggested, and am proud to have conceived them by earnestly applying my knowledge and expertise in a rational and systematic manner.

The proverbial philosopher king, if an absolutist, would think that he knows what is good and bad for his subjects and would act as he sees fit irrespective of how they felt. A relativist philosopher king on the other hand, would think: since I do not believe that it is possible for me to ascertain what is good or bad for my people, I might as well ask them about what they want. This reflects an argument in support of democracy that I expressed in my first book as clearly reflected in its title. My subsequent work proceeds from, and builds on the premises laid out in the book.    

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Global Issues

My practice as an urban planner convinced me that a rigorous planning methodology is a powerful tool to solving problems. In my second book “Planning for Survival” I applied this methodology to address global issues. This resulted in recognizing that the most critical of global issues relate to insuring our collective survival and wellbeing.

Threats to survival and wellbeing are classified into two categories: a) natural, including aging and disease, and hazardous aspects of the natural environment, both relating to the dynamic nature of earth, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, and those relating to cosmic occurrences such gamma ray bursts, the sun becoming a red giant, and the bombardment of earth by meteors and comets, and b) what I term “the hazardous aspects of human nature” such as aggression and greed. The natural threats to our survival are well documented, and efforts are underway to address them; albeit not to an extent commensurate with their ominous significance. On the other hand, addressing “the hazardous aspects of human nature” which affects both our survival and wellbeing has been relatively neglected.

Historically, religions, monotheist and otherwise, have attempted to address “the hazardous aspects of human nature” with some success. However, greed and aggression continue to prevail, and often, use religion itself as a vehicle of expression. Furthermore, greed and aggression have also relied on heightening nationalistic sentiments in a similar fashion. My unwavering position is that literal interpretation of scriptures and radical belief in any religion be it Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism, together with nationalistic fervor lie at the roots of the most critical of global problems. This is evident, in particular, in contemporary developments in the USA and the Middle East over the past 50 years. Due to this conviction, my third book “For the People by the People” addresses relevant issues in the USA, and the fourth “The Crisis of Islamism” addresses pertinent issues in the Middle East.  

In all my work I made sure not to stop at the stages of analysis and identification of issues and proceeded by suggesting action to address identified issues. Generally, it is suggested to abandon nationalism and religious radicalism, and for the peoples of the world to work together and focus their attention on addressing the threats to human survival and wellbeing.

Here, I wish to clarify that, being fully cognizant of the deep rootedness of the issues I identified, I never thought for a moment that I am embarking on solving the problems of the world. I actually believe that addressing most critical issues could take one or two generations to bring about some tangible results; i.e. 50 to 100 years. Rather, my aim is to reduce the time it will take for what I consider as positive results to materialize. Furthermore, from day one, recognizing the magnitude of the efforts needed, I was convinced that others of similar views, as well as substantial financial resources are needed to bring about meaningful change. Therefore, I will continue to call for likeminded individuals and entities to step up to the task. 

One last clarification: in the introduction of “The Crisis of Islamism”, I blatantly praised the ‘coupe d’état’ in Egypt; otherwise referred to as ‘the second Egyptian revolution’. I was elated about this event because the reign of the Moslem Brotherhood, in my considered view, would have meant the end of any prospects for democracy in Egypt. Although they were elected to assume power, the Islamic scriptures which form the core of the beliefs of the Moslem Brotherhood promote rule by an oligarchy of imams -Moslem clerics- and not by the people! In fact, developments in Egypt were moving in this direction in a way similar to what transpired in Iran. Thus, I stand firm about my position regarding a second popular revolution in Egypt. However, it seems that my blatant support of a ‘coupe d’état’ -a no-no for many- seems to have put off many a progressive thinker from reading my book. I regret that.