Maximiliano Korstanje

Maximiliano E Korstanje is a cultural analyst dedicated to the study of mobilities and [...] born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 29 October 1976. His development is framed within the subfield of critical [...] studies. He serves as Senior Lecturer at Department Economics, University of Palermo, Argentina. He was Visiting Fellow at CERS University of Leeds, United Kingdom and Visiting Lecturer at University of la Habana Cuba. Formally he is part of Tourism Crisis Management Institute (University of Florida US), Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (University of Leeds), Hospitality Social Network, Critical Tourism Studies Asia-Pacific, Red de Investigación Turística RIT, International Research Committee on Disasters Bryant, Texas US and The International Society for Philosopher, hosted in Sheffield, England. Korstanje has published more than 800 pieces regarding to mobilities, tourism, risk perception, globalization and [...]. His biography was included in the index Marquis Who is Who in the World since 2009.

Life

Maximiliano E. Korstanje is born 29 Octobre of 1976 in a middle-class family in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Father Carlos Alberto Korstanje Luna and mother Ana Maria Abaca, Sister Mara Korstanje. On 7 December 2006 he married with Maria Rosa Troncoso. Now the couple has 3 children Benjamin, Olivia and Ciro. Though Korstanje earned a degree in Cultural Tourism at the University of Moron, Argentina (2003), he took countless courses in the fields of linguistic, anthropology, psychology, sociology and philosophy. Because of his prolific performance he was nominated to five honorary doctorates worldwide. Nowadays Korstanje resides in the borrough of Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He served as key note speakers in many nations and conference of his scope.

Most Important Editorial positions

From 2013 he works as editor in chief of Int. Journal of Cyber Warfare and [...]. Hershey IGI Globalhttp://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-cyber-warfare-[...]/1167 and International Journal of Safety and Security in Tourism - Hospitality.

Korstanje serves as advisory board in the following important journals.

• International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality and Management. Emerald Publishing
• Tourism Review International. Cognizant Communication.
• International Journal of Risk and Contigency Management. IGI Global.
• International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies.
• Revista Turismo y Sociedad.
• International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment.
• International Journal of Emergency Services.
• Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology.

These are only a part of 40 specialized journals where Korstanje make his contributions daily.

Selected Special Issues as Guest Editor

This represents a portion of special issues Korstanje organized as Guest editor in this prestigious journals.

• “Narratives of Risk, Security and Disaster issues in Tourism and Hospitality”. International. Journal of Tourism Anthropology.
• “Consideraciones en Torno al Terrorismo, el 11 de Septiembre y sus Efectos Colaterales”. Economía Autónoma.
• “Tourism in the XXIth Century: Approaches, Limitations and Challenges for the New Millennium”. Palermo Business Review-
• “To What a extent might sustainable tourism mitigate the impact of Global Warming?”. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT).
• “The Dialectics of Borders, Empires and Limens”. Rosa Dos Ventos.
• “Image, Aesthetic and tourism in post-modern times”. Pasos, revista de turismo y Patrimonio Cultural.
• “Cyber [...] and dark side of the Information society”. International Journal of Cyber Warfare and [...].“Cyber [...] and dark side of the Information society”. International Journal of Cyber Warfare and [...]. Volume 4, Issue 1. April 2014. IGI-Global, Pennsylvania, USA, 2014.

• “Why Tourists are important to [...]?”. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage.
• “Antropología del Turismo para el siglo XXI”. Revista de Antropología Experimental.
• “Turismo y Sociedad Global”. Aposta Digital.

Awards

• Awards for Excellence. Outstanding Reviewer. Given by International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment. University of Salford, UK & Emerald Group Publishing.
• Most Prolific author of Tourism Scholar in Argentina and Chile per Paper. P Picazo Peral y S. Moreno-Gil. Gestión Turística. Julio-Diciembre. 2012, Número 18, pp. 9–45.
• Most Prolific author for Iberoamerica in Tourism research. Per the study of Difusión de la investigación Científica Iberoamericana en Turismo entre 2006-2011. P. Picazo-Peral y S. Moreno Gil. Estudios y Perspectivas en Turismo. 2013, Volumen 22, pp. 828–853.
• In 2015 he is awarded as "founding member of Academic and Research Council" UDET. Universidad de Especialidades Turisticas. Quito Ecuador.
• Certificate of Appreciation issued by Jamba, journal of Disaster Risk Studies.

Theory and work

Originally Korstanje studied widely the connection of [...] and mobilities. His thesis is that far from being economically affected by [...], modern tourism is inevitably entwined to [...]. The first anarchist immigrants who arrived to US struggled against capital-owners inasmuch they were labelled as real terrorists and many of them were exiled, jailed or killed. However, other less radical waves opted for organizing the worker unions. The process of unionization which facilitated the rise and expansion of tourism industry, was disciplined by capitalist nation-state, and in so doing, the ideological core of anarchism was adopted. While state accepted the claims of work-force in order for [...] to be faded away, its discursive core was introduced in the heart of capitalist system. Therefore, Korstanje argues that tourism is [...] by other means. Further, Korstanje started a discussion with Marc Auge respecting to the theory of non places. At a second stage, he says "airports" far from being non places represent spaces of disciplines craved by terrorists to cause political instability. Third, the term Thana Capitalism is used to refer to a new stage of capitalism where risk sets the pace to death. Since [...] has become in the commodity of media, it created an spectacle which is oriented to maximize profits. In Thana-capitalism consumers maximize their pleasure by consuming the Others` death which ranges movies, tours, and others cultural consumptions. This is a disciplinary mechanism for audience to reafirm the proper status creating a new class dubbed as death-seekers. Thana Capitalism results from an old dormant climate of social darwinism enrooted in American society where few rules the destinity of the rest.

Though Korstanje adopted different positions according to each theme, three main facets can be clearly identified. The first combines the legacy of two contrasting theories, the materialism proper of Marxism and Cultural Theory to explain further on the construction and operation of risk in modern society. Per his view, risk would be an ideological discourse in order for elite to be legitimated, which suggests that risk and economy are inevitably entwined. Secondly, Korstanje conducted an ethnography in Cromañon Republic a well-famous nightclub where 194 youth lost their life in a made-man accident. The fieldwork, which took more than 3 years in this site, influenced Korstanje to see how the notion of death structurates culture. Polemically, he says that death does not affect culture, but the latter derives from the needs of disciplining death The cultural ramifications of death derives not only from the platform of contingency, but also in the way risk is politically manipulated. Last but not least, Korstanje develops the notion of Thana-Capitalism to denote the current obsession for consuming the other death in the cultural industries. After 9/11, the society of risk passed to a new facet of production, where death situates as the main commodity. As a result of this, the labour class is reeplaced by a new one, death-seekers. Modern citizens appeal to consume tragedies and disasters in order to reaffirm the own ego. [...] offers a fertile ground to reproduce Thana-Capitalism because of two main reasons. The global audience scares for bad news or disturbing images disseminated by mass-media whereas they are obsessed for consuming them. In consequence, media enhances more profits covering [...]-containing news while paradoxically giving further credibility and visibility to terrorists. This causes a vicious circle, where the disaster is commoditized.

Conquest of Americas

Citing the contributions of Anthony Pagden who have unraveled the intersection of mobilities (Homo Viatores) and politics, Korstanje discusses to what extent Spanish conquistadors appealed to cruelty only in those places where they found precious metals while in others cases they peacefully coexisted with natives. Even, the fact is that the conquest of Americas was efficiently achieved simply because some aborigines exploited others, which facilitated the cooperation of some ethnicities with Spanish military forces. The idealized image of aboriginals as victims of hatred-filled Spanish colonisers rests on shaky foundations in some cases. Korstanje argues convincingly that Americas is essentially walled by two worlds, Anglo-Saxons and Latin Americans. While Anglo-World colonized the other in basis of exclusion pushing the natives towards the borders of civilization, the Spanish incorporated them to conform a racial pyramid which resulted in extractive institutions. This point suggests that cultural matrixes determine the differnt paths conquest followed

Tourism

Korstanje has developed a system to understand tourism as a rite of passage, which consists in three facets, breaking with ordinary rules, renovation, and re-introduction to routine. In tourism, citizens not only renovate their trust with nation-state but also plays to be "another different person" than daily lives. As dream-like nature, tourism corresponds with a mechanism of escapement which helps society to keep united. In so doing physical movement is of paramount importance in order for the subject to emulate a new role in the liminoid space tourism offers. The needs of reconciling the metaphor of lost-paradise (prosperity) with suffering seems to be the alma matter of tourism. The significance of tourism for society explains why terrorists select tourists as main targets to cause political instability. Cantallops & Cardona continued this discussion arguing that the allegory of lost-paradise not only is fundational for modern tourism but also was developed by modern marketing to produce an collective imaginary proper of Western Capitalism

Heritage

Conceiving a radical view respecting to heritage, Korstanje explores the dilemma of modern capitalism as the force that imposes an idealized image of the other through the consumption of heritage. Heritage alludes what is dead, which is stable and prefigured by the external forces of market in order to forge standardized experiences whereas citizens renovate their loyalty to nation-hood comparing their values with others. Multiculturalism reinforces ethnocentrism because tourists compare capitalist societies as the best possible respecting to third world. This ritualized consumption leads to adopt the policies drawn by status quo. While first world citizens are in quest of individual experiences, third world natives are coopted to offer their bodies as commodities. Heritage plays a vital role in order for lay-people to accept what Schumpeter dubbed creative destruction which means the needs of gazing something news at the same time, the precaritization in the conditions of work are ideologically legitimated. Heritage hides the needs of accepting values as instability, destruction, and change as positive in a global liberal market where few have accumulated further wealth at the costs of work-force.

Dean Maccannell, Tourism and Structuralism

Dean Maccannell is an American anthropologist who pivoted in the theory of tourism. He innovatively combines ideas of structuralism with Marxism and Goffmanian dramaturgy. Maccannell understands that tourism serves to mediate between citizens and their institutions in the same way totem acts in primitive organizations. In secularized societies where religion declined, totem sets the pace to tourism. Maccannell was internationally recognized and awarded by his contribution in the fields of tourism, consumption and globalization, even being one of the most cited scholars of the field.

Korstanje criticizes Dean Maccannell because his argument escapes to the conceptual basis of structuralism, applying an out-of-context method. Per Korstanje´s viewpoint, structuralism is limited to explain the difference between the myth and structure which resulted in the belief that Europe is an evolved civilization situated at the upper of the pyramid while others aboriginal organizations are at the bottom. This conception, which is enrooted in the founding parents of anthropology not only paved the ways for European ethnocentrism but also remains open today through the theory of development, where developed nations believe they are morally obliged to assist others non-aligned under-developed economies. Methodologically speaking, Levi Strauss´ thought structuralism to be applied only to aboriginal cultures, not to capitalist societies, as Maccannell insisted. Korstanje stresses that the chief goal of Claude Levi Strauss was the articulation of a periodic table with all cultures showing the commonalities between urban and primitive minds. Unlike Levi Strauss, MacCannell adamantly emphasizes on the divergence of totem and tourism which leads to a great misunderstanding. Last but not least, he ignores other forms of ancient tourism as practiced by Romans, Sumerians and Babylonians among many others. This happens because Maccannell trivializes tourism as a post-industrial form of alienation instead of focusing into its nature as cross-cultural rite of passage.

Mobilities and Capitalism

In the fields of mobilities, Korstanje brings the figure of Max Weber to the forefront. He cites Weber`s contribution on the role played by predestination in the formation of capitalism, but observing that both capitalism and mobilities come from Norse Mythology instead of Protestantism. At a first glance, Odin-Wodan-Voden was a travelling God who traversed across the World to know further about cultures and customs. This belief not only paved the ways for the rise of Grand Tour but forged a mobile culture as Anglo-Saxons which centuries later colonized the World. Secondly, since Valkyrias know beforehand who were the warriors who will die in the battlefront, unlike other mythologies where the destiny remains open, predestination is essential for English speaking countries and for Capitalist societies. Those critical voices, who pointed Weber was in the incorrect side because Holland kept a majority of Catholics in the population, should reconsider that Weber did a correct diagnosis but he left behind that it was not Protestant Reform the key reason behind capitalism. Instead, Korstanje argues that it is necessary to see the influence of an iliterate society as Norse culture as the symbolic and cultural background of capitalism.

The theory of Non-Places

The theory of non-places was originally coined by French ethnographer Marc Augé who argues that modernity is producing spaces of anonymity where tradition declines. Per his viewpoint, examples of non places are everywhere, as airports, Train Station and Malls. Korstanje has exerted a radical criticism on this theory for the following reasons. First and foremost, airports, far from being non-places, represent spaces of discipline where travellers are socialized into the cultural values of society, which means trade (customs), mobilities (migration) and security (police). Once travellers are tested and validated, they are channeled to a hedonic bubble of consumption. Secondly, airports are real meetings charged with high emotional arousal. This is the example of expatriates meeting with their relatives, celebrations to welcome the favourite teams or celebrities, or even zones of dispute between workers of air-companies and air-carriers. Therefore, the idea of considering airports as symptoms of non-places cannot be validated from the empirical fieldwork. The sense of place is individually constructed by the meaning conferred on the soil. In the recent days, [...] has attacked international airports because these examplary centres represent symbolic platforms for the formation of state´s ideology. By vulnerating these types of spaces, the credibility of nation-state undermines. Therefore, Korstanje suggests that Auge´s ethnography on airports should at least reconsidered.

[...] and 9/11

One of the events that shocked Korstanje in his studentship was doubtless 9/11. It certainly operated within two contrasting spheres. While, on one hand, [...] instilled fear in order to accelerate substantial changes in the way geopolitics was articulated worldwide, on another, symbolically 9/11 triggered new forms of imagining the otherness. Not only, the borderlands tightened but also the other situated as a dangerous element which needs to be surveilled. Korstanje clarified that though classic [...] in 60 and 70s decades targeted important politicians, celebrities, and chief officers, now global tourists, travelers, and journalists occupied such a position. This means that 9/11 was the first success attempt Muslim [...] used mobile transport means as real weapons criminally-directed against civilian targets. This caused a great panic not only in US but in the world, because the international audience surmised that the same would happen anytime and anywhere. In this respect, 9/11 showed that it is possible to vulnerate the most powerful nation in its symbolic core exploiting public transport to cause political instability. [...] can be explained following zero-sum game. Terrorists achieve their goals looking for lowering their costs. They are success in maximizing a degree of panic, amplified by the media coverage whereas leisure-spots, tourist-destinations, transport-means and public space offer a fertile ground for next [...] hits because the flexibility in the surveillance. In fact, as Korstanje puts it, how orchestrating security in public spaces with entertainment for citizens represent a major challenge for experts in [...] in the years to come.

Fear and Exceptionalism

Based on the legacy of Geoffrey Skoll Professor Emeritus at SUNY Buffalo, who asserted United States was culturally cemented under a strong sentiment of exceptionalism which remains to date and even was exported to the world, Korstanje discusses to what extent the puritan spirit and the archetype of uphill city pivoted in the configuration of a special character that forged how Americans see the World. From its inception, Americans feel special, outstanding and very sensitive to any token of grandiloquence that validates the idea they are the chosen people. Such a discourse not only feds an ethnocentric discourse but forged historically a culture of fear and mistrust for everything and everyone who come beyond American borders. This mindset is particularly functional to the spirit of [...]. Paradoxically, more interested are Americans to proof themselves and the world how special they are, more frightening they turn.

Populism and [...]

In the field of populism, Korstanje conducted extensive research in how populism evolved and consolidated in Argentina. With basis on Kirchnerism and Kirchnerites, his outcomes reveal that at some extent populism allows a fairer wealth distribution but it runs higher costs for economies. Populist governments fail to gain the necessary trust in international market while wealth is repatriated abroad by local elite. Populists are forced to intervene in all democratic institutions to prevent disinversion. As a result of this, populism paves the ways for the rise of totalitarian governments. Depending on the ideological radicalism of the movement, as in the case of Kirchnerites, some elements in the militancy impede a permeation with reality. Unless regulated, populism and kirchnersim may very well lead to [...]. Under some conditions, kirchnerism advanced while rechanneling frustrated personalities into a coherent paranoid message where militants believed they were part of something important, a historic revolution that would change the World. It suggests that psychological frustration and populism are inevitably entwined.

Cromañón Nightclub Fire

The nightclub Republica de Cromañón is well-known for a tragedy that occurred on 30 December 2004. Geographically located in Once neighbourhood Buenos Aires, Argentina, it was operated in hands of Omar Chaban when a blaze started when a pyrotechnic flare was set on the ceiling. The materials used in the building caused a great fire which killed 194 people. Further investigations revealed that accident was provoked by a set of omissions by authorities and police officiers. Days after this event, survivors and neighbours constructed a sanctuary to honor the memory of victims as well as reminding how the nefastous consequences of corruption. This event not only placed Anibal Ibarra, former Mayor in a trial, but also jailed great part of the Band Callejeros, and Omar Chaban among others. This event was considered one of worst made-man disaster in Buenos Aires city in its history. Based on the contribution of Brosnislaw Malinowski, Korstanje investigated this tragedy combining different sources though ethnography was his primary option. He alerts that what happened in Cromañón was something else than an accident, but the convergence of contingency and culture. Korstanje suggests that Cromañón should be understood as a case of popular religiosity because of two main motives. On a closer look, victims not only were not prepared to die but they accidentally died in an incorrect date, days before the celebrations of new years. Death interrogates and neglects the sense of transcendence for survivors, in which case, its effects resonated more than expected in society. Secondly, public opinion was shocked because of the high probabilities a disaster of this calibre to be repeated again. This sentiment of impotence caused high levels of anxiety, which produced political instability. Cromañón symbolizes the human attempt not only to control death, but blame others for those forces which remain out of control. The process of demonization is necessary in order for social ties not to be disagregated. The lack of clear answers respecting to who threw the flare, led towards much deeper processes of demonization which blamed Omar Chaban and Anibal Ibarra. Korstanje adheres to the idea that Cromañon exhibits the genesis, evolution and maturation of culture, which is a counter-response to disasters. Since death will take room again anytime at a later day, survivors need from durable reminding of the potential effects of tragedy. Culture derives from the needs of making disasters more comprehensible. Korstanje`s ethnographies in Republica de Cromañón were vital to understand his work respecting to disasters and the culture of Thana-Capitalism. At this stage, he received a great influence of French philosophers Jean Baudrillard and Paul Virilio who are widely recognized in his texts.

Thana-Capitalism

Sociologists such as Ulrich Beck envisioned the society of risk as a new cultural value which saw risk as a commodity to be exchanged in globalized economies. This theory suggested that disasters and capitalist economy were inevitably entwined. Disasters allow the introduction of economic programs which otherwise would be rejected, as well as decentralizing the class structure in production. However, Korstanje coined the term Thana-Capitalism to refer to a climate of social Darwinism aimed at fostering the Survival of the Strongest. In this climate of struggle, only a few win while the rest lose. Social Darwinism is seen as a metaphor explaining our obsession with consumer news and with images related to [...] attacks, trauma-scapes, and disasters. Korstanje writes that the society of risk has gradually set the pace to a new society of Thana-Capitalism, where the main commodity is death. Not only do we consume death everywhere in the entertainment industry, newspapers, and media but in so doing we reinforce our superiority by witnessing the suffering of others. In Thana Capitalism the myth of Noah's Ark situates as a vital allegory which explains the genesis of suffering. In this mythical event, God divided the world in two parts, the victims and the witnesses. This logic of the supremacy of those who live over those who die is reinforced by Christ´s crucifixion. Today, new emergent segments in the tourist industry are oriented to travel to places where mass deaths or traumatic event have occurred. Korstanje suggests that in secularized societies death is a sign of weakness, and consuming the deaths of others revitalizes the hopes of visitors to enter "the hall of chosen peoples"

Cyber-[...] and [...]

During his role as editor in chief of the Int. Journal of Cyber Warfare and [...], Korstanje was in touch with theory concerning cyber-[...] from different parts of the world. He edited a book entitled Threat Mitigation and Detection of Cyber Warfare and [...] Activities where two important assumptions are placed. On a first look, English Speaking Countries are prone to develop a precautionary platform to understand the future risks because these cultures have limitations to bear uncertainness. The role played by predestination in English speaking societies paved the ways for the technological breakthrough in order for humans to control the future. Secondly, Cyber-[...] is not pretty different than [...] in the extent that both are operating from future. A climate of hyper-surveillance to anticipate the next [...] attack, adjoined to an obsession for security, undermines the institutions of check-and-balances and separations of powers. At this point, Korstanje exerts a radical criticism on liberal scholar Michael Ignatieff in view of his theory of lesser evil. Since citizens´ rights are vulnerated by the same states which are originally designed to protect them, this means that the preservation of human rights evokes the intervention of a third state. If this happens, the autonomy of states is violated which paradoxically means the transformation of international alliances in the dictatorship of human rights. The problem lies in the paradox of democracy which endorses to nation-state the monopoly of violence while authorities are ciclically renovated by elections. Under some conditions as given by [...] today, elected democratic governments may very well pass laws to violate human rights. Korstanje criticized Ignatieff glossed over that democracy does not impede human rights are vulnerated.

Criticism and Discussion

Korstanje`s work was widely cited worldwide in the fields of risk perception and [...]. Fieldworkers are interested in the intersection of tourism and [...]. Originally, he held the thesis that far from affecting tourism, [...] duplicates tourist attraction commoditing death through media engagement. However, in some cases Korstanje was criticized because his theoretical approaches cannot be empirically validated in applied-research. Muñoz de Escalona exerted a radical criticism on Korstanje because his conception of tourism as a universal social institution which is based on a need of escapement to accommodate daily frustration. de Escalona indicates that tourism, far from being an ancient institution as Korstanje precludes, stems from industrial revolution. This point escalated a discussion that today remains open. In the fields of dark tourism Korstanje has provided with a viewpoint that sheds light on specialized literature though some critiques points out he is not giving empirical evidence of his assertionsDark tourism. Some studies validate that vistors of dark sites develop are interested to know further for historic events and constructing an symbolic bridge with victims. These outcomes were obtained applying questionnaires and interviews at the sites. This leads Korstanje to answer that fieldworkers misjudge methodologically the difference between what people think and finally do. It is often clear how the application of open or closed-led questionaires contrast with daily behaviours in the extent to there is a gap between what people say and finally accomplish. This happens because fieldworkers rest on the prejudice that asking is the only way of reaching the truth. In dark tourism fields what current applied research revealed is what interviewees believe but sometimes they are unaware of their inner-worlds, or simply they lie to protect their interests. This suggests that the epistemology of dark tourism should be at least reconsidered.

Economy and theory of Development

Korstanje is a critical voice of the theory of development which is considered by him as a ideological dispositiff aimed at legitimating aborigines` dispossessions. The theory of development postulates mistakenly that there are nations which are economically active or developed whereas others are underdeveloped. This dissociation not only is far from being objective, but alludes to values created by Europe in order for imagining the rest of the world as a backward place. In a profesional book review on the book Why the Nations Fail, Korstanje stipulates that the success of capitalism rested on its ability to expand particular values and beliefs as universal. The authors of this book, Acemoglu and Robinson, Korstanje adds, fail in recognizing that there are a lot of many cultural organizations beyond capitalism, which of course are free to chose to live in another way; since there is no there is no imperative stating that all nations should be democratic to enjoy the “benefits” of modern life and a capitalist economy, at the time democracy and prosperity are enthralled as universal values this paves the ways for the rise for the european paternalism. From his viewpoint, modern ethnocentrism consists in thinking democracy and globalization as the best of possible worlds.

Hospitality

Well-famous philosopher Jacques Derrida offers a model to understand hospitality disocciating unconditional from conditional subtypes. Over the centuries, philosophers have devoted considerable attention to the problem of hospitality. However, it creates a paradoxical situation since strangers often are rejected by nation-states. Korstanje received the influence of Anthony Pagden who described how hospitality was politically manipulated to legitimate the conquest of Americas. Korstanje argues that hospitality is a inter-tribal pact in which groups agree on self-defence in times of war and an exchange of goods and merchandise in peacetime. Since the inception of the nation-state, the western concept of hospitality has been proposed as the main criteria for the free circulation and mobility of people and the main cultural value of modern capitalism. Hospitality depends on the giving-while-receiving process which is the touchstone of social bonds. Hospitality and religion are also inextricably entwined. In the same way that the soul is protected by gods of the hereafter, strangers should be assisted while travelling. Failure to care for strangers is punished by the gods, who send calamities, earthquakes and other types of disaster. A lack of hospitality may be seen to predict the triumph of evil. In legends, myths and horror-movies, rogues often violate their guests, concealing their real intentions and then seizing them when sleeping. The guest-host meeting necessarily engenders high levels of vulnerability and risk, which are mitigated by the sacred law of hospitality where both agree not to attack the other while under the same roof. In view of the advance of secularization, the practice of unconditional hospitality has given way to a new sort of hospitality only for those who can pay for it. The action of [...] is undermining the Western ratioality where hospitality lies. This happens because hospitality is the symbolic touchstone of Western civilization. As a result of this, [...] poses a real threat for Occident in the long term.

The Archetype of Lucifer and Evilness

One of the most polemic works of Korstanje, doubtless, was his examination of evilness and its real effects in medieval and modern economy. He delves in the figure of Lucifer as the archetype constructed by West to understand evilness. Confronting with Slavoj Zizek, he contends that the rise of Lucifer as rebel derives from the impossibility of God to kill him. Unlike other mythologies, where Gods (or fathers) attempted to assassinate their offspring if political disputes emerged, in Abrahamic tradition God is hand-tied to efface Lucifer who is his first son. Instead, he is disciplined and exiled outside heaven in which case God renovates his trust with humankind. In Judaic tradition exile replaced “other capital punishments” which characterized the Mediterranean World. In this way, cultures that come from Abrahamic tradition developed a particular fear for the death of children. In fact, the presence of witchcraft in Middle East alludes to problems of fertility which impedes the correct good-circulation. Those women who were trialed and executed not only had not offspring, many of them were rich or inherited a fortune which cannot be passed to sons. In a patriarchal order, these types of economic glitches were often corrected by the use of violence, disciplining some women who were opposite to status quo or had accumulated great portion of wealth. Korstanje polemically writes that there is substantial evidence in different ethnographies respecting to the belief that economy and evilness are inextricably intertwined. Not only Slavoj Zizek misunderstands the roots of evilness in Abrahamic tradition but also glosses over the figure of Lucifer to expand his understanding of the issue. Though Christianity has particular traits which were widely discussed in Zizekian studies, the figure of Paul seems not to be relevant to the study of modern capitalism. The sense of evilness is activated at the time children die or serious disasters hit the community in order to renovate the trust between its members and authorities. Furthermore, two additional myths (unnoticed in Zizek`s argument) should be seriously examined: the rebellion of Lucifer and the Noah`s Ark. One of the aspects of Capitalism, which stems from Abrahamic tradition depends on the neglect of death and the needs to live forever. Both discourses operated historically in the acceleration of secularization. The rise of Thana-Capitalism resulted finally from the combination of fear to death, and the adoption of social darwinism which is proper from puritanism.