Textured Voices and the Performance of Ethical Life in the Case of the Laff Box (1966)

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID McCARTHY
Keyword(s):  
Political Activity ◽  
Distinct Form ◽  
Ethical Life ◽  
Collective Voice ◽  
Musical Texture

AbstractTextured voices include both voices heard as interpolated into a musical texture and voices heard as having their own textured character, whether as a ‘voice’ with a ‘timbre’ or as a ‘collective voice’ with a ‘composite timbre’ made up of many voices, each textured itself. They have often been heard as performances of ethical life. Comparisons between these performances can be misleading because the contingencies characterizing the textured voice for a listener who listens in a particular way can make each performance irreducible. A pair of articles and cartoons in TV Guide from the summer of 1966 depict the making of a textured laugh track as a contradictory activity. Yet they seem to resolve contradictions into surface conflicts between individuated parties. Listening for textured voices in this case was itself a political activity because it was productive of more than one distinct form of ethical life.

Pattern Formation in Thin Polymer Films: A New Morphology

2000 ◽  
Vol 629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Loup Masson ◽  
Peter F. Green
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Pattern Formation ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Distinct Form ◽  
Thin Polymer Films ◽  
Intermediate Morphology ◽  
Thin Polymer ◽  
Nonwetting Liquid ◽  
Cylindrical Holes

ABSTRACTResearchers have shown that thin, nonwetting, liquid homopolymer films dewet substrates, forming patterns that reflect fluctuations in the local film thickness. These patterns have been shown to be either discrete cylindrical holes or bicontinuous “spinodal-like” patterns. In this paper we show the existence of a new morphology. During the early stage of dewetting, discrete highly asymmetric holes appear spontaneously throughout the film. The nucleation rate of these holes is faster than their growth rate. The morphology of the late stage of evolution, after 18 days, is characterized by a bicontinuous pattern, distinct form conventional spinodal dewetting patterns. This morphology has been observed for a range of film thicknesses between 7.5 and 21nm. The structural evolution of this intermediate morphology is discussed.

On Sacrifice

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Halbertal
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Life ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Hierarchical Relationship ◽  
Ritual Violence ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Political Ideal ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
Political Associations ◽  
The Relationship

The idea and practice of sacrifice play a profound role in religion, ethics, and politics. This book explores the meaning and implications of sacrifice, developing a theory of sacrifice as an offering and examining the relationship between sacrifice, ritual, violence, and love. The book also looks at the place of self-sacrifice within ethical life and at the complex role of sacrifice as both a noble and destructive political ideal. In the religious domain, Halbertal argues, sacrifice is an offering, a gift given in the context of a hierarchical relationship. As such it is vulnerable to rejection, a trauma at the root of both ritual and violence. An offering is also an ambiguous gesture torn between a genuine expression of gratitude and love and an instrument of exchange, a tension that haunts the practice of sacrifice. In the moral and political domains, sacrifice is tied to the idea of self-transcendence, in which an individual sacrifices his or her self-interest for the sake of higher values and commitments. While self-sacrifice has great potential moral value, it can also be used to justify the most brutal acts. The book attempts to unravel the relationship between self-sacrifice and violence, arguing that misguided self-sacrifice is far more problematic than exaggerated self-love. Through the book's exploration of the positive and negative dimensions of self-sacrifice, it also addresses the role of past sacrifice in obligating future generations and in creating a bond for political associations, and considers the function of the modern state as a sacrificial community.

The Influence of Modern Party System on the Development of Parliamentarism in Russia: Institutional, Political and Psychological Aspects

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 266-273
Author(s):  
Ivan S. Palitai
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Party System ◽  
Psychological Aspects ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The People ◽  
Voting System ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Opinion Polls

The article is devoted to the modern Russian party system. In the first part of the article, the author shows the historical features of the parties formation in Russia and analyzes the reasons for the low turnout in the elections to the State Duma in 2016. According to the author the institutional reasons consist in the fact that the majority of modern political parties show less and less ability to produce new ideas, and the search for meanings is conducted on the basis of the existing, previously proposed sets of options. Parties reduce the topic of self-identification in party rhetoric, narrowing it down to “branded” ideas or focusing on the image of the leader. In addition, the author shows the decrease in the overall political activity of citizens after the 2011 elections, and points out that the legislation amendments led to the reduction of the election campaigns duration and changes in the voting system itself. The second part of the article is devoted to the study of the psychological aspects of the party system. The author presents the results of the investigation of images of the parties as well as the results of the population opinion polls, held by the centers of public opinion study. On the basis of this data, the author concludes that according to the public opinion the modern party system is ineffective, and the parties don’t have real political weight, which leads to the decrease of the interest in their activities and confidence in them. The author supposes that all this may be the consequence of the people’s fatigue from the same persons in politics, but at the same time the electorate’s desire to see new participants in political processes is formulated rather vaguely, since, according to the people, this might not bring any positive changes.

«Dvudyuzhii (Sturdy) Shafarevich»

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 245-252
Author(s):  
Arkady Yu. Minakov
Keyword(s):  
Political Activity ◽  
Famous Mathematician

he article is devoted to the biography and views of the famous mathematician and dissident-Russophile I.R. Shafarevich. Since the early 1970s he was an associate of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. In the article the author analyzes the main events of Shafarevich's life and socio-political activity, as well as the ideas of his main works.

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