Memory politics in the future tense: Exceptionalism, race, and insurrection in America

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1272-1284
Author(s):  
Piotr M Szpunar
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Memory Politics ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come

The grounding myth of American collective memory is built on the idea of America as a promise, what it shall be. Crises place futures in doubt. Against these two considerations, this article examines how the future can be used to shape the past. In the American context, the future as a general promise is invoked in times of crisis to reassure a nation by way of laundering difficult pasts so as to fit a narrative of progress in spite of the continued presence and recursive nature of these pasts. In the immediate wake of the 2021 Capitol Insurrection, another crisis (itself a harbinger of crises to come), the 2000 Bush v Gore decision, was rewritten as an exemplar of American exceptionalism rather than a stain on it. Beyond displaying the intricate relationship between future and past in collective memory, the case highlights how this operation only works to further neglect the racism and unresolved pasts entrenched in the myth of exceptionalism that motivated the Capitol Riot.

Collective Memory: Between Values and Historical Knowledge

2020 ◽  
pp. 124-142
Author(s):  
VICTOR BURLACHUK
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future

At the end of the twentieth century, questions of a secondary nature suddenly became topical: what do we remember and who owns the memory? Memory as one of the mental characteristics of an individual’s activity is complemented by the concept of collective memory, which requires a different method of analysis than the activity of a separate individual. In the 1970s, a situation arose that gave rise to the so-called "historical politics" or "memory politics." If philosophical studies of memory problems of the 30’s and 40’s of the twentieth century were focused mainly on the peculiarities of perception of the past in the individual and collective consciousness and did not go beyond scientific discussions, then half a century later the situation has changed dramatically. The problem of memory has found its political sound: historians and sociologists, politicians and representatives of the media have entered the discourse on memory. Modern society, including all social, ethnic and family groups, has undergone a profound change in the traditional attitude towards the past, which has been associated with changes in the structure of government. In connection with the discrediting of the Soviet Union, the rapid decline of the Communist Party and its ideology, there was a collapse of Marxism, which provided for a certain model of time and history. The end of the revolutionary idea, a powerful vector that indicated the direction of historical time into the future, inevitably led to a rapid change in perception of the past. Three models of the future, which, according to Pierre Nora, defined the face of the past (the future as a restoration of the past, the future as progress and the future as a revolution) that existed until recently, have now lost their relevance. Today, absolute uncertainty hangs over the future. The inability to predict the future poses certain challenges to the present. The end of any teleology of history imposes on the present a debt of memory. Features of the life of memory, the specifics of its state and functioning directly affect the state of identity, both personal and collective. Distortion of memory, its incorrect work, and its ideological manipulation can give rise to an identity crisis. The memorial phenomenon is a certain political resource in a situation of severe socio-political breaks and changes. In the conditions of the economic crisis and in the absence of a real and clear program for future development, the state often seeks to turn memory into the main element of national consolidation.

scholarly journals A Sense of Presence: Mediating an American Apocalypse

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Rachel Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sense Of Presence ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come

Here I build upon Robert Orsi’s work by arguing that we can see presence—and the longing for it—at work beyond the obvious spaces of religious practice. Presence, I propose, is alive and well in mediated apocalypticism, in the intense imagination of the future that preoccupies those who consume its narratives in film, games, and role plays. Presence is a way of bringing worlds beyond into tangible form, of touching them and letting them touch you. It is, in this sense, that Michael Hoelzl and Graham Ward observe the “re-emergence” of religion with a “new visibility” that is much more than “simple re-emergence of something that has been in decline in the past but is now manifesting itself once more.” I propose that the “new awareness of religion” they posit includes the mediated worlds that enchant and empower us via deeply immersive fandoms. Whereas religious institutions today may be suspicious of presence, it lives on in the thick of media fandoms and their material manifestations, especially those forms that make ultimate promises about the world to come.

Church Time and Astrological Time in the Waning Middle Ages

2002 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
Hilary M. Carey
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Primary Qualities ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
To Come

Time, according to medieval theologians and philosophers, was experienced in radically different ways by God and by his creation. Indeed, the obligation to dwell in time, and therefore to have no sure knowledge of what was to come, was seen as one of the primary qualities which marked the post-lapsarian state. When Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden of delights, they entered a world afflicted with the changing of the seasons, in which they were obliged to work and consume themselves with the needs of the present day and the still unknown dangers of the next. Medieval concerns about the use and abuse of time were not merely confined to anxiety about the present, or awareness of seized or missed opportunities in the past. The future was equally worrying, in particular the extent to which this part of time was set aside for God alone, or whether it was permissible to seek to know the future, either through revelation and prophecy, or through science. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the scientific claims of astrology to provide a means to explain the outcome of past and future events, circumventing God’s distant authority, became more and more insistent. This paper begins by examining one skirmish in this larger battle over the control of the future.

scholarly journals Ambiguity of Future in the Past in the Modern English Language

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Nikolaevna Selezneva
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Action ◽  
The Future

The article raises the question of ambiguity of Future in the Past in expressing the future tense in the modern English language. The author of the article analyzes should/would + infinitive, its grammatical status and the expressed lexical meaning. The article notes that ambiguity of Future in the Past is mainly due to the homonymy of should/would + infinitive forms with the forms of the subjunctive mood. However, Future in the Past is a part of the verb system of tenses in the modern English language and it expresses assumption, intention or obligation to perform a future action from the past position.

scholarly journals Srebrenica is not a Metaphor

2021 ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
Sarina Bakić
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Temporal Dimensions ◽  
Further Development

The author will emphasize the importance of both the existence and the further development of the Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center, in the context of the continued need to understand the genocide that took place in and around Srebrenica, from the aspect of building a culture of remembrance throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). This is necessary in order to continue fighting the ongoing genocide denial. At first glance, a culture of remembrance presupposes immobility and focus on the past to some, but it is essentially dynamic, and connects three temporal dimensions: it evokes the present, refers to the past but always deliberates over the future. In this paper, the emphasis is placed on the concept of the place of remembrance, the lieu de memoire as introduced by the historian Pierre Nora. In this sense, a place of remembrance such as the Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center is an expression of a process in which people are no longer just immersed in their past but read and analyze it in the present. Furthermore, looking to the future, they also become mediators of relations between people and communities, which in sociological theory is an important issue of social relations. The author of this paper emphasizes that collective memory in the specific case of genocide in and around Srebrenica is only possible when the social relations around the building (Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center) crystallize, which is then much more than just the content of the culture of remembrance.

scholarly journals TEMPORAL SYSTEM OF THE OSSETIAN VERB COMPARED WITH OTHER IRANIAN LANGUAGES

Kavkaz-forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Э.Б. САТЦАЕВ
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
The Past ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
Temporal System ◽  
The Future ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Almost All

Время – грамматическая категория глагола, служит временной состояния, либо события. В различных языках наличествует соответствующее количество временных форм. Индоевропейский глагол в историческом плане имел три временные системы – презенс, аорист и перфект. В Авесте засвидетельствованы формы всех индоевропейских времен, наклонений и залогов. В ней в изъявительном наклонении раз­личаются следующие времена: настоящее время, имперфект, перфект и плюсквамперфект. В презенсе авестийского глагола выделяются два типа основ. Эти основы делятся на классы, количество которых доходит до двадцати двух. Глагольная система, которая наличествует в среднеиранских языках, значительно изменилась по сравнению с древнеиранскими языками. Однако древнеиранская временная система практически во всех иранских языках данного периода сохранилась. В новоперсидском языке насчитывается восемь времен. Идентичное количество временных форм можно наблюдать также в афганском языке, представленном в восточноиранской языковой подгруппе. Среди иранских языков осетинский характеризуется скудостью временных форм. В осетинском языке можно выделить три глагольные основы, от которых образуются формы соответствующих времен. В осетинских глаголах обнаруживаются следы древнеарийских классов настоящего времени. В современных иранских языках основное противоположение лежит между прошлым и не прошлыми временами. В изъявительном наклонении осетинский язык знает три времени: настоящее, прошедшее и будущее. Наиболее интересным явлением в осетинском языке является образование будущего времени, аналогичная с осетинским языком модель образования будущего времени наблюдаются в согдийском и хорезмийском языках, ко­торые считаются наиболее близкими к осетинскому языку. Tense is a grammatical category of a verb that serves as a temporary localization of an event or state. Different languages have a different number of temporary forms. Historically, the Indo-European verb had three temporal systems – present, aorist and perfect. In the Avesta, forms of all Indo-European times, moods and pledges are attested. The following tenses are distinguished in it in the indicative mood: present, imperfect, perfect and pluperfect. There are two types of stems in the presence of the Avestan verb. These basics are divided into classes, the number of which reaches twenty-two. The verb system in the Middle Iranian languages has changed significantly compared to the ancient Iranian, however, the ancient Iranian temporal system in almost all Iranian languages of this period has been preserved. There are eight tenses in the New Persian language. Almost the same number of temporal forms is observed in Afghan, which is part of the Eastern Iranian subgroup. Among the Iranian languages, Ossetian is a scarcity of temporary forms. In the Ossetian language, three verbal stems can be distinguished, from which the forms of the corresponding tenses are formed. In Ossetian verbs, traces of the ancient Aryan classes of the present tense are found. In modern Iranian languages, the main opposition lies between the past and non-past times. In the indicative mood, the Ossetian language knows three tenses: present, past and future. The most interesting phenomenon in the Ossetian language is the formation of the future tense, a model of the formation of the future tense similar to the Ossetian language is observed in the Sogdian and Khorezm languages, which are considered the closest to the Ossetian language.

scholarly journals UGA SEBAGAI MEMORY KOLEKTIF MASYARAKAT SUNDA (Uga Sunda Community as a Collective Memory)

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Nandang Rusnandar
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future

Uga merupakan salah satu tradisi lisan masyarakat Sunda, di dalamnya terkumpul segenap memori kolektif. Analisis terhadap uga meliputi nilai-nilai dalam bentuk simbol yang tersirat di dalamnya. Uga mampu meramalkan perubahan sosial sesuai dengan zamannya. Apabila dilihat dari orientasi waktu, uga dapat  menunjukkan: (1) tercipta dan dituturkan pada masa lampau; (2) dituturkan pada masa lampau dan terjadi pada waktu lalu; (3) dituturkan pada masa lampau dan sekarang (sedang terjadi); (4) dituturkan pada masa lampau, ramalan untuk masa yang akan datang. Fungsi uga di samping memprediksi ia juga harus dijadikan sebagai alat antisipasi tentang sesuatu yang bakal terjadi di waktu yang akan datang.Abstract:Uga is one of Sundanese oral tradition containing most collective memory. Analysis of the Uga includes the values in the form of symbols that implied in it. It  is able to predict social change in accordance with its time when viewed from the orientation of time. It  can  show that (1) it could be created and spoken in the past; (2) it was spoken and taken place in the past;(3) it was spoken in the past and is still being used now; (4)  it was spoken in the past and predictions for the future. Besides its functions to predict the social change, it  can serve as a tool in anticipation of something that might happen in the future.

Savoring Polishness: History and Tradition in Contemporary Polish Food Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542110634
Author(s):  
Agata Bachórz ◽  
Fabio Parasecoli
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
The West ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
Food Media

This article examines the future-oriented use of the culinary past in Poland’s food discourse through a qualitative analysis of popular food media (printed magazines and TV). We analyze how interpretations of food and culinary practices from the past are connected to contemporary debates. We contend that media representations of the culinary past co-create projects of Polish modernization in which diverse voices vie for hegemony by embracing different forms of engagement with the West and by imagining the future shape of the community. We distinguish between a pragmatic and a foodie type of culinary capital and focus on how they differently and at times paradoxically frame cultural memory and tradition. We observe the dynamics of collective memory and oblivion, and assess how interpretations of specific periods in Poland’s past are negotiated in the present through representations of material culture and practices revolving around food, generating not only contrasting evaluations of the past but also diverging economies of the future. Finally, we explore tradition as a set of present-day values, attitudes, and practices that are connected with the past, but respond to current concerns and visions of the future.

Recovering Futurity: Theorizing the End and the End of Theory

2018 ◽  
pp. 293-312
Author(s):  
Elliot R. Wolfson
Keyword(s):  
Martin Heidegger ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Way

This chapter addresses the co-dependence of people's conceptions of end and of beginning. To comprehend the beginning, one must think of it from the perspective of futurity, from the perspective, that is, of the ultimate end. Consequently, the beginning lies not in the past but, rather, in the future. The chapter then relates this mode of philosophizing with the way people understand Jewish eschatology, which lies at the center of Jewish theorization about time. In Jewish eschatology, what is yet to come is understood as what has already happened, whereas what has happened is derived from what is yet to come. Martin Heidegger has dismissed Judaism as a religion that by its very nature cannot experience temporality authentically. Yet his own understanding of temporality accords well with rabbinic conceptions of temporality and later kabbalistic eschatologies.

Definition, Typology and Patterns of Victimization

Cyber Crime ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 1016-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debarati Halder ◽  
K. Jaishankar
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Qualitative Case Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Cyber Crimes ◽  
Crimes Against Women ◽  
To Come

In this chapter, an attempt is made to operationally define cyber crimes against women, as we have found that the definitions of cyber crimes have changed in the past decade and we presume that even this will change in the future decades to come. In addition, the current definitions do not specifically fit in to the nitty-gritty issues of cyber crimes against women and a succinct operational definition is provided. A new set of typology is made with regard to the cyber crimes against women as not all type of crimes fit to the category of cyber crimes against women. The patterns of victimization of women in cyberspace are dealt by qualitative case studies along with the typology.

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