Becoming Good Europeans? Globality, the EU and the Potential to Realize Nietzsche\u27s Idea of Europe

This dissertation takes up Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of ‘good Europeanism’ and his related idea of Europe to show how the former disposition may be cultivated to achieve the latter—a reinvigorated culture on the continent. It does so by applying his vitalist politics and power ontology (will to power hypothesis and theory of decadence) to critique European integration in the broader context of globalization. The analysis enables me to theorize how “healthy” individuals might exploit opportunities in the present to become \u27good Europeans\u27, with the aim of realizing Nietzsche’s quasi-cosmopolitan idea of Europe. It is my primary contention that Nietzsche’s diagnosis of Europe’s ailment remains relevant, as does his strategy, via a radically Dionysian affirmation of life, for overcoming the international order it has spawned. In doing so I utilize Nietzsche’s related perspectivalist epistemological stance and hermeneutical framework to build on Nietzsche\u27s genealogy of morality. This shows the West’s present “slave moral” regime to be a further intensified development of secularized Christian–Platonic values. It arose through the fusing of liberal-optimism (belief in equality, emancipation, enfranchisement, etc.) with modernity’s doctrines of universalism, humanism, secularism, progressivism and rationalism. It also coextends with the positivistic orientation of scientism to transmit a secular faith in truth, and unparadoxically an injurious relativism and cynical worldview. It is through Nietzsche’s vitalist perspectivalism that I understand the psychological-historical origins and current operation of the axiomatic narratives promulgated via the meta-discourse of ultra-liberal-modernity. The same critical framework is applied to a doxagraphical survey of theories of European integration. These theories are understood as differing perspectives conceived within and informed by the same values matrix, and critiqued in chronological order of their appearance to reflect the evolution of the field. Problems of evaluation, indeterminacy and bias, and the form of reasoning privileged by the positivistic orientation conferred by scientism are examined in terms of how they inform the conduct of social science and conceptualizations and uses of fact. Acts of theorizing are understood as indicative of a will-to-truth which can positively augment life or negatively hamper it. I consider how the mainstream of the field has tended to reiterate the ideological presuppositions of ultra-liberal-modernity. Notable exceptions include recent constructivist approaches and discourse analysis critiques. These critical perspectives are productively broadening and potentially subverting the dominant conventions of the field. This raises the possibility that good Europeans may influence the future development of the EU as counter-theorizers of it. The EU is understood as a crucial locus of the globalization complex, a primarily reactive power constellation comprised of myriad institutions, processes and forces. A ressentiment-driven project, the globalization complex functions as an ideological juggernaut to universalize ultra-liberal-modern values. It affectively implements a negative will to nothingness as nihilistic power which culminates in a hyper-decadent condition typified by resignation to its prerogatives. Its values are politically instantiated throughout the world via democratization and hegemonic capital process. I examine the spectacularized existential meanings and simulated ontological purpose provided by the globalization complex. These engage and automatize the masses by means of commercially generated, media promoted desires and an ethos of consumerism. These sustain a philistinic culture of conformity by means of which its ideological proponents, ascetic-consumerist priests of ressentiment, justify and naturalize their authority. Their influence extends a spirit of revenge against life’s radical contingency and temporality. It privileges homogenizing and ossifying modes of being to inhibit authentic becoming. However, the globalization complex cannot contain all the affective capacities its shrinking and simultaneous acceleration of the world generates. The increased interconnectivity between people that it facilitates and the reactive values matrix it imposes give rise to a changed mentality or consciousness. Life in within the globalization complex provides a few with a philosophical education that endows them with a broadened perspective on the differences between human types. They gain a profound appreciation of the need for the divergent worldviews that distinguish disparate cultures—forms of life imperiled by conventional globalization. This nurtures a reflective, historical consciousness and an acceptance of difference (entwined with their love of fate) that augments their emerging sense of globality and occasionally manifests itself in ways that escape capture. Among a few, globality fosters the skeptical-ironic disposition toward truth claims and craftiness characteristic of ‘good Europeans’. Such iconoclastic individuals may creatively challenge the legitimacy of ultra-liberal-modern values, their distinctive striving symptomatic of a positive will to creative destruction as generative power and authentic becoming-other. To foster the development of the skeptical-ironic disposition, or Weltironie, of good Europeanism I suggest a six-fold skeptical praxis. This is based on the classical Pyrrhonean skeptical notions of akatalepsia (recognition of the impossibility of certain knowledge), epoche (the suspension of belief due to the contingency of truth), ataraxia (the ancient skeptic and stoic doctrine of disciplined withdrawal toward becoming what one is), apangelia (an avowal not involving a commitment to truth or falsity), adoxastos (the disciplined effort to avoid forming convictions and feigning agreement with prevailing value standards when necessary, which corresponds with the strategic use of masks), and finally, from the ancient cynics, the concept of parrhesia (fearless speech in mocking ascetic values). These practices support the necessary perspectivalist stance toward all truth claims to radically affirm the chaos of becoming. The adherents of such an anti-essentialist discipline revel in the fundamental contingency of life. According to Nietzsche’s vision, I consider how ‘good Europeans’ might achieve their aims in light of the prevailing values of our globalizing world. Acting as comedians of ascetic ideals they engage in kynical acts that may utilize the new technologies and enhanced communications provided by science and industry (key components of the globalization complex), to lampoon the anti-human decadence and nihilism of our age. Their inherently political mockery of the prevailing social discourses arouses the passion of other healthy types. They are spurred to similarly creative experiments and life-affirming acts of defiance, and the ethos of ‘good Europeanism’ gradually spreads, thereby. Through their striving such ‘good Europeans’ (who, in our globalizing age, may appear in any geographical locale) become capable of recognizing and exploiting unanticipated, abstract potentials of globality. Afflicted with the decadence of our age, they are not the Übermenschen Nietzsche anticipated, but prevenient to them. More likely to be perceived as buffoons than as great leaders, they are neither conventional revolutionaries nor “improvers of humankind”; they endeavor to discredit the ultra-liberal-modern order instantiated through the globalization complex. By prompting it to reactively assert its prerogatives and intensify itself, they make its contradictoriness, antagonistic impetus and hostility to difference more apparent. However gradually, this will erode its legitimacy, as good Europeans exploit its vulnerabilities. According to Nietzsche’s vision, I consider the ways in which ‘good Europeans’ would likely employ the democratic, egalitarian and populist sensibilities of the globalized masses, and how the EU could be hijacked to augment their aim. This could include the crafty use of human rights, artificial intelligence and bio-engineering to hasten our enervated epoch to its expiration. Efforts to challenge the reigning ascetic-consumerist ideals are conditioning the possibility for the appearance of Übermenschlich individuals to (nomothetically) legislate an agonistic socio-political milieu predicated on a natural rank order of types. It is the hope of ‘good Europeans’ that such Übermenschen will one day inaugurate a transhuman future and create a higher culture for the flourishing of greatness that secondarily edifies the multitude with the meaning and purpose great works provide. I conclude that if humankind succeeds in transfiguring itself through the going-down of our ultra-liberal-modern epoch (the most pervasive and decadent socio-political order in recorded history) these Übermenschen, the progeny of contemporary ‘good Europeans’, will focus on the rehabilitation of the environment and preservation of the earth

A genome triplication associated with early diversification of the core eudicots

Background: Although it is agreed that a major polyploidy event, gamma, occurred within the eudicots, the phylogenetic placement of the event remains unclear. Results: To determine when this polyploidization occurred relative to speciation events in angiosperm history, we employed a phylogenomic approach to investigate the timing of gene set duplications located on syntenic gamma blocks. We populated 769 putative gene families with large sets of homologs obtained from public transcriptomes of basal angiosperms, magnoliids, asterids, and more than 91.8 gigabases of new next-generation transcriptome sequences of non-grass monocots and basal eudicots. The overwhelming majority (95%) of well-resolved gamma duplications was placed before the separation of rosids and asterids and after the split of monocots and eudicots, providing strong evidence that the gamma polyploidy event occurred early in eudicot evolution. Further, the majority of gene duplications was placed after the divergence of the Ranunculales and core eudicots, indicating that the gamma appears to be restricted to core eudicots. Molecular dating estimates indicate that the duplication events were intensely concentrated around 117 million years ago. Conclusions: The rapid radiation of core eudicot lineages that gave rise to nearly 75% of angiosperm species appears to have occurred coincidentally or shortly following the gamma triplication event. Reconciliation of gene trees with a species phylogeny can elucidate the timing of major events in genome evolution, even when genome sequences are only available for a subset of species represented in the gene trees. Comprehensive transcriptome datasets are valuable complements to genome sequences for high-resolution phylogenomic analysis

Evaluation Research and Institutional Pressures: Challenges in Public-Nonprofit Contracting

This article examines the connection between program evaluation research and decision-making by public managers. Drawing on neo-institutional theory, a framework is presented for diagnosing the pressures and conditions that lead alternatively toward or away the rational use of evaluation research. Three cases of public-nonprofit contracting for the delivery of major programs are presented to clarify the way coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures interfere with a sound connection being made between research and implementation. The article concludes by considering how public managers can respond to the isomorphic pressures in their environment that make it hard to act on data relating to program performance.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 23. The Hauser Center Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000. The Series enables the Hauser Center to share with a broad audience important works-in-progress written by Hauser Center scholars and researchers

Stretching the spines of gymnasts: a review

Gymnastics is noted for involving highly specialized strength, power, agility and flexibility. Flexibility is perhaps the single greatest discriminator of gymnastics from other sports. The extreme ranges of motion achieved by gymnasts require long periods of training, often occupying more than a decade. Gymnasts also start training at an early age (particularly female gymnasts), and the effect of gymnastics training on these young athletes is poorly understood. One of the concerns of many gymnastics professionals is the training of the spine in hyperextension-the ubiquitous 'arch' seen in many gymnastics positions and movements. Training in spine hyperextension usually begins in early childhood through performance of a skill known as a back-bend. Does practising a back-bend and other hyperextension exercises harm young gymnasts? Current information on spine stretching among gymnasts indicates that, within reason, spine stretching does not appear to be an unusual threat to gymnasts' health. However, the paucity of information demands that further study be undertaken

Met-Independent Hepatocyte Growth Factor-mediated regulation of cell adhesion in human prostate cancer cells

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer cells communicate reciprocally with the stromal cells surrounding them, inside the prostate, and after metastasis, within the bone. Each tissue secretes factors for interpretation by the other. One stromally-derived factor, Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), was found twenty years ago to regulate invasion and growth of carcinoma cells. Working with the LNCaP prostate cancer progression model, we found that these cells could respond to HGF stimulation, even in the absence of Met, the only known HGF receptor. The new HGF binding partner we find on the cell surface may help to clarify conflicts in the past literature about Met expression and HGF response in cancer cells. METHODS: We searched for Met or any HGF binding partner on the cells of the PC3 and LNCaP prostate cancer cell models, using HGF immobilized on agarose beads. By using mass spectrometry analyses and sequencing we have identified nucleolin protein as a novel HGF binding partner. Antibodies against nucleolin (or HGF) were able to ameliorate the stimulatory effects of HGF on met-negative prostate cancer cells. Western blots, RT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry were used to assess nucleolin levels during prostate cancer progression in both LNCaP and PC3 models. RESULTS: We have identified HGF as a major signaling component of prostate stromal-conditioned media (SCM) and have implicated the protein nucleolin in HGF signal reception by the LNCaP model prostate cancer cells. Antibodies that silence either HGF (in SCM) or nucleolin (on the cell surfaces) eliminate the adhesion-stimulatory effects of the SCM. Likewise, addition of purified HGF to control media mimics the action of SCM. C4-2, an LNCaP lineage-derived, androgen-independent human prostate cancer cell line, responds to HGF in a concentration-dependent manner by increasing its adhesion and reducing its migration on laminin substratum. These HGF effects are not due to shifts in the expression levels of laminin-binding integrins, nor can they be linked to expression of the known HGF receptor Met, as neither LNCaP nor clonally-derived C4-2 sub-line contain any detectable Met protein. Even in the absence of Met, small GTPases are activated, linking HGF stimulation to membrane protrusion and integrin activation. Membrane-localized nucelolin levels increase during cancer progression, as modeled by both the PC3 and LNCaP prostate cancer progression cell lines. CONCLUSION: We propose that cell surface localized nucleolin protein may function in these cells as a novel HGF receptor. Membrane localized nucleolin binds heparin-bound growth factors (including HGF) and appears upregulated during prostate cancer progression. Antibodies against nucleolin are able to ameliorate the stimulatory effects of HGF on met-negative prostate cancer cells. HGF-nucleolin interactions could be partially responsible for the complexity of HGF responses and met expression reported in the literature

Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 in adults referred to COVID recovery clinic services in an integrated health system in Texas

The epidemiology and organ-specific sequelae following acute illness due to COVID-19 and prompting patients to seek COVID recovery care are not yet well characterized. This cross-sectional study reviewed data on 200 adult patients with prolonged symptoms of COVID-19 (>14 days after symptom onset) not resolved by usual primary care or specialist care who were referred for COVID-specific follow-up. Most patients sought COVID recovery clinic visits within the first 2 months of initial onset of symptoms (median 37 days), with some seeking care for sequelae persisting up to 10 months (median 82 days). At the time of telehealth evaluation, 13% of patients were using home oxygen, and 10% of patients had been unable to return to work due to persistent fatigue and/or subjective cognitive dysfunction ("brain fog"). The prominent specific symptom sequelae prompting patients to seek COVID-specific evaluation beyond usual primary care and specialist referrals were dyspnea, fatigue/weakness, and subjective cognitive dysfunction, irrespective of whether patients had required hospitalization or time since COVID-19 symptom onset

Symptom Clusters Seen in Adult COVID-19 Recovery Clinic Care Seekers

BackgroundCOVID-19 symptom reports describe varying levels of disease severity with differing periods of recovery and symptom trajectories. Thus, there are a multitude of disease and symptom characteristics clinicians must navigate and interpret to guide care.ObjectiveTo find natural groups of patients with similar constellations of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) symptoms.DesignCohort SETTING: Outpatient COVID-19 recovery clinic with patient referrals from 160 primary care clinics serving 36 counties in Texas.PatientsAdult patients seeking COVID-19 recovery clinic care between November 15, 2020, and July 31, 2021, with laboratory-confirmed mild (not hospitalized), moderate (hospitalized), or severe (hospitalized with critical care) COVID-19.Main measuresDemographics, COVID illness onset, and duration of persistent PASC symptoms via semi-structured medical assessments.Key resultsFour hundred forty-one patients (mean age 51.5 years; 295 [66.9%] women; 99 [22%] Hispanic, and 170 [38.5%] non-White, racial minority) met inclusion criteria. Using a k-medoids algorithm, we found that PASC symptoms cluster into two distinct groups: neuropsychiatric (N = 186) (e.g., subjective cognitive dysfunction) and pulmonary (N = 255) (e.g., dyspnea, cough). The neuropsychiatric cluster had significantly higher incidences of otolaryngologic (X2 = 14.3, p < 0.001), gastrointestinal (X2 = 6.90, p = 0.009), neurologic (X2 = 441, p < 0.001), and psychiatric sequelae (X2 = 40.6, p < 0.001) with more female (X2 = 5.44, p = 0.020) and younger age (t = 2.39, p = 0.017) patients experiencing longer durations of PASC symptoms before seeking care (t = 2.44, p = 0.015). Patients in the pulmonary cluster were more often hospitalized for COVID-19 (X2 = 3.98, p = 0.046) and had significantly higher comorbidity burden (U = 20800, p = 0.019) and pulmonary sequelae (X2 = 13.2, p < 0.001).ConclusionsHealth services clinic data from a large integrated health system offers insights into the post-COVID symptoms associated with care seeking for sequelae that are not adequately managed by usual care pathways (self-management and primary care clinic visits). These findings can inform machine learning algorithms, primary care management, and selection of patients for earlier COVID-19 recovery referral.Trial registrationN/A

McKainetal_2016_Agavoideae_Convergergent_Evolution

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