Author: Jan Campbell – 21/06/2025
Digital Rights and HR in times of anthropological war
Jan Campbell
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends.
First, I would like to thank the organisers for inviting me to address you and for the opportunity of talking to some of you in private exchanging some information and ideas not only in regard to the HR.
Following a request by the organizers to keep the time I decided to offer you to read the original full paper separately in the proceedings and address you with a very short version and a few slides.
The seminar is held on the eve of epochal changes at individual, societal and civilizational level. The nighthammer of the United States struck Iran, putting a definitive end to the era of faith in international law, conventions and the workings of international organisations, and also the human rights as we know them.
We have been living in times in which an armament in history has begun which not only impoverishes us as every armament does, but also does not arm us. At the same time, it is wrong to consider war as a necessary consequence of man’s biological nature.
Last but not least, the US nighthammer attack confirmed the importance of the right timing not only for a below-the-belt strike. By this I mean not only the shortening the NATO summit to one day, the unconditional approval of five percent of GDP for defence, but also the trade war.
In short: We have been living in a new epoch, embraced in a variety of new types of war, lies produced by human being and AI, hypocrisy, ignorance, arrogance. We should avoid to be governed, managed or directed by the illusion of knowing what would happen.
There is a threefold question without an answer
Is the war a breach of peace? Or is the peace a pause in a war? What happens to human rights in times of war, which I do call an anthropological and in which the digitalization supports disinformation methods not only of the West as represented by fragmentation and decontextualization?
To answer the questions, we should accept that the political puppeteers will only tell you the part that suits them, and without context and the care of your rights, including the human rights.
On the other side we should consider the unnoticed fact that the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on June 7, 2024 declaring the 10th of June The International Day for Dialogue among Civilizations. The goal of the Day for dialogue is to replace prejudice with understanding and confrontation with cooperation.
In this sense I congratulate the organizers for selecting June for this important seminar held in the era of digital and new war technologies in a world without valid agreements between opposing states.
Anthropological war
Even though it is an officially unsettled term in the academic world and literature I have been using it in confidential papers for a few decades. Why I do speak publicly about anthropological warfare today?
Because the anthropology offers one of the easiest explanations for understanding of designations for certain types of conflicts: The clash of different cultures, values and ways of life. The conflict between the West and the East, the globalized societies against traditional ones and the human rights in the West and the East.
Even Samuel Huntington used the term war of civilizations. This is nothing more than a cultural war in which the driving forces are not nation states and ideologies, but civilizations.
As the anthropologist studies social structures their knowledge offers itself to be abused in peace and war times. We can see it in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Gaza and Iran. Anthropology is about the symbolism, ideology of human nature, the values and the answers to questions like: What is man, what is his natural identity, gender and role in society and the debates in the field of race, colonialism and human rights.
As an example of abuse may serve The Human Terrain System, or the USAID programs and programs offered by the EU. They prove that anthropology serves as an effective weapon, like the language.
The language aspect
The function, the importance of language and its archetype have been removed from educational curricula. The shift from telling truths to telling lies and bullshits results in a stupidity endangering the society. There is no more knowledge of the functions of language that we have known since the time of the existence of the Prague Linguistic Circle.
One of the key challenges stands for the English language. Why? Only a few young people and professionals perceive English as an imperialistic instrument. It is a topic for a separate seminar.
The artificial intelligence
Nearly all technological inventions are in the hands of a few entrepreneurs. They follow their own plan and interests which may not benefit everyone and the society in general. Therefore, it is not always possible to talk about sustainable progress. The digital divide and the deficits in safeguarding digital rights prove the thesis.
In general, I call the AI a multidimensional approximation and the biggest thief in human history. Why? It uses and processes all human inheritance for the profit of a few and supposingly it allows benefiting all, but at a very hight price: a total control of thinking, creating and what is very important: the freedom for doing mistakes.
Never before companies had such deep insight into people’s thoughts – and such direct influence on them – as AI providers. These do not live up to the great responsibility. It is high time to change course.
A systemic crisis of the western concept of human rights
As a result of what is happening and I have said we can observe a systemic crisis of the western concept of HR in terms of the limitation of freedom of expression, of the election procedures at state, national and personal level and the politized juridical level of the ECHR.
Similar applies to the election and appointments of elites, academicians, and professionals to participate in the public education, administration and transnational corporate activities. The West continue to promote the narrative that its values are ‘universal’ and that other civilizations are either backward or even dangerous and extremist while distorting the Confucian tradition as a symbol of authoritarianism.
Confucius, Islam and Kant
In light of the recent international conference on the dialogue of civilizations held in Malaysia on April 15th a fundamental question arises again: How much longer will the West continue to create and maintain negative stereotypes about “non-Western” civilizations?
The Western tradition of stigmatization and scandalization of both Confucianism and Islam forms the base for a long-term media and political agenda that creates the trap of civilizational clash that prevents any sincere cooperation and dialogue between different cultures.
The considerations of civilizations, moral and ethics would not be complete if we would ignore Immanuel Kant. The idea of the autonomy of the will is the one of the most important thing Kant put forward. It makes no sense to say that we can have knowledge of reality as it is independent of our minds.
Technology and geopolitics
Firstly: If technological progress is to lead to widely shared prosperity it needs to be directed there first, rather than waiting decades for an expected positive outcome. You can’t just let the market decide or rely on the genius of a few individuals and hope, that it may turn out with the luck smiling on us.
Secondly: The change of hegemon is the most sensitive period in international relations, when a major war is most probable. That is why politics needs an analysis based on relevant facts, which are not only true but also significant.
Significant means important, selected according to certain criteria. The criteria require knowledge, specific talent and creativity.
The current weakness of our society is not only in the knowledge of facts and mathematics, but also in philosophy, which is supposed to help analyse facts and not copying prescriptions of the liberal democracy.
What to do next
As the traditional Western narratives are in many ways exhausted and fail to find solutions, we need to look for inspiration outside the framework of Western schemes and models. Any new model should keep in mind that in the epoch of long anthropological war with a migration, economy and all societal issues the AI and automated decision-making bear risk of discrimination and politized justice.
Therefore, upholding HR western and eastern concepts in the digital epoch requires regulation and oversight with high quality moral and ethics standards, corporate accountability, digital literacy and access as privacy and protection concern together with a massive data collection by Governments and Corporations, and to be expected data breaches indicate that the right to privacy (Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of HR) and the freedom of expression and access to information (Article 19) would continue to be more theoretical than real and as the current developments and trends prove or indicate.
Dialog of civilizations
This “dialogue” is in fact a monologue that does not take into account the possibility of mutual enrichment. A typical example is the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), who managed to get closer to the Chinese environment, but his goal was always to convert the Chinese to Christianity and used Confucianism only as a means. Although there were exceptions, such as Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930), they were rather exceptions that proved the rule.
We should therefore understand and accept that no civilization or a human rights concept can dominate the others and putting one’s own opinion above is always a path to a dead end.
Therefore, a model of dialogue that is not based on confrontation, but on mutual respect arising from the tradition of openness and the experience of blending Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and folk religions could form the base for a new model of human rights.
The openness was crucial to the development of Confucian philosophy and the development of Buddhism during the Song period, but also in periods when there was a real dialogue with the Islamic community.
There are an estimated 17–25 million Muslims in China, less than 2% of the total population. Hui Muslims are the most numerous ethnic Group, which is permanently mentioned by the West for infringing its HR by the Chinese government.
In the context of this seminar, it is also advisable to consider the visions of president Xi and study the intellectual connection between two great personalities: the Confucian thinker Xunzi and the Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun. Both were looking for answers to the question of how to maintain social cohesion in times of chaos. The current globalized world is facing the same problems as in the past.
Both thinkers pointed out that no theories or ideals can replace the everyday cultivation of morality and work for social harmony.
Conclusion
1) Just as Europe fell victim to centralization by the European Union, the media also fell under the umbrella of a few publishing concerns, fully integrated into the power structures of the ruling agenda. How a true plurality of opinions should work in such an environment is for the reader to judge for himself.
2) Manipulation can also be done in an even more subtle way. The vulgar-aggressive and at the same time soulless media propaganda is beginning to reach the limit of its own destruction.
3) The time bomb is ticking in Germany and many other EU states, where the bitter reality is sold as truth to make it look better. The West does not accept, that the illusion of knowing what would happen is the biggest enemy for the society.
4) There is a specific dilemma between the pursuit of peace and the pursuit of justice within the context of HR. The roots of the dilemma reach to late antiquity, which saw peace in the closeness to God. After 1918, the concept of peace was linked to the concept of justice and security. The deficit of it is the cause of disorientation and aggressivity.
5) Modern neuroscience has shown that emotions are the result of a complex interaction between different brain regions, the hormonal system, experiences, and even the gut microbiome. There is no single emotional centre in the brain. We should talk about a neural network.
6) The first law of world politics warns: the change of hegemon is the most sensitive period in international relations. That is why politics needs an analysis based on relevant, significant and important facts, selected according to certain criteria requiring knowledge, specific talent and creativity.
7) The Memor Museum on Manhattan’s Upper East Side organized from June 3rd till July 3rd Xu’s exhibition: The Beauty of Harmony and Unity. It reflects the museum’s commitment to cultural exchange, the global presentation of contemporary Chinese art and last but not least it deals with an important question: Where is the human being in all this?
The exhibition explores and examines how art can serve as a space for reflecting on spiritual unity across time and cultural change in times in which the world is entering the situation described by Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War: I consider the truest reason, although it is the least talked about, to be the growth of Athenian power, which caused the Lacedaemonians to fear so much that they decided to go to war. Consent not needed. Thank you for your time and attention.
23rd June 2025
(speech delivered by prof. Jan Campbell at “THE 2025 CHINA – EUROPE SEMINAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS – Eurostars Madrid Congress – June 25th 2025) – Derechos Humanos en la Era Digital e intelligente – Human Rights in the Era of Digital Intelligence.)
Jan Campbell (1946) – studied construction engineering, architecture and philosophy; post-gradually also biocybernetics, Islamic banking and insurance. Professionally he was active during mid and long term in several countries including Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Malaysia, ex-USSR, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Czech Republic and Germany, of which he is a citizen. Professional activities and experiences allowed to accept positions like a Head of EC Co-ordinating for TACIS programme, personal advisor to PM and analyst of political – economic risks including issues of Science diplomacy and work designated for narrow professional and public audiences, including university students. He obtained an honorary professor’s degree at the Ural State Agrarian University. In Slovakia he was awarded the Golden Biatec for 2014 for humanizing society through publishing about the development and solutions of civilizational problems and global priorities.