scholarly journals Gothic Trouble: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and the Globalized Order

Text Matters ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 144-158
Author(s):  
Marie Liénard-Yeterian

The article explores the way American author Cormac McCarthy uses the Gothic genre in his novel The Road as a means to address what has been called “our globalized order,” in particular the way it has turned human beings into consuming or consumed entities. Some dimensions of this globalized order indeed involve the reintroduction of slavery through human trafficking, unprecedented greed and labor capitalism, surveillance and personal data gathering. Hannah Arendt notes in The Origin of Totalitarianism that the disasters of the twentieth century had proved that a globalized order might “produce barbarians from its own midst by forcing millions of people into conditions which, despite all appearances, are the conditions of savages.” The artist’s task is to find the right language and images to address the breaking of the world. French philosopher J. P. Dupuy, for example, has argued that the financial world is a way to contain (contenir) the violence of competition, placing it into acceptable (symbolic) forms away from primal physical competition. McCarthy’s graphic use of Gothic tropes—including cannibalism, the wild forest, the haunted house, the chase, the conflict between light and darkness, the blurring of boundaries between different categories—creates a shock. The article also addresses the larger question of the impact of globalization on Gothic literature, and the impact of Gothic literature on real world matters as it contributes to and reflects upon and challenges global regimes of economic, social and economic power. In other words, what is the cultural work that the Gothic does in the present?

2021 ◽  
pp. 194277862110000
Author(s):  
Sheila Margaret McGregor

This article looks at Engels’s writings to show that his ideas about the role of labour in the evolution of human beings in a dialectical relationship between human beings and nature is a crucial starting point for understanding human society and is correct in its essentials. It is important for understanding that we developed as a species on the basis of social cooperation. The way human beings produce and reproduce themselves, the method of historical materialism, provides the basis for understanding how class and women’s oppression arose and how that can explain LGBTQ oppression. Although Engels’s analysis was once widely accepted by the socialist movement, it has mainly been ignored or opposed by academic researchers and others, including geographers, and more recently by Marxist feminists. However, anthropological research from the 1960s and 1970s as well as more recent anthropological and archaeological research provide overwhelming evidence for the validity of Engels’s argument that there were egalitarian, pre-class societies without women’s oppression. However, much remains to be explained about the transition to class societies. Engels’s analysis of the impact of industrial capitalism on gender roles shows how society shapes our behaviour. Engels’s method needs to be constantly reasserted against those who would argue that we are a competitive, aggressive species who require rules to suppress our true nature, and that social development is driven by ideas, not by changes in the way we produce and reproduce ourselves.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 485
Author(s):  
Maryam Ishaku Gwangndi ◽  
Yahaya Abubakar Muhammad ◽  
Sule Musa Tagi

When natural habitats are destroyed or natural resources are depleted the environment is degraded. Environmental degradation results from factors such as urbanisation, population growth, intensification of agriculture, rising energy use and transportation, climate change, pollutions arising from many sources such as technological activities. It is explored that as a result of the dynamic interplay of socio-economic factors and technological activities amongst many other factors, these have devastating consequences on human health. Thus environmental degradation consequences affect the health and the right to health of the people. Using the doctrinal method of research, we examine the confluence of environmental degradation and health from a rights perspective. An unhealthy environment possess health hazards consequently a violation of the right to health. The article recommends that states’ obligation under international law to protect the right to health should be enforceable. Human beings are entitled to right to health even as the environment needs to be protected from activities which cause environmental degradation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
GULNAZ AYDIN RZAYEVA ◽  
AYTAKIN NAZIM IBRAHIMOVA

The development of new technologies also has an impact on human rights. In the previous “epochs” of global information society, it was stated that that traditional rights can be exercised online. For instance, in 2012 (and again in 2014 and 2016), the UN Human Rights Council emphasized that ‘the same rights granted to people, so to speak, in an “offline” manner, must be protected online as well’. This, in its turn, implicitly brought to the reality that the new technetronic society did not create new rights. Though, we should take into consideration that in the digital world national legislative norms that guarantee the confidentiality of personal data often do not catch up with the technological development and, thus, can’t ensure confidentiality online. Therefore, the impact of digitalization on human rights within the frames of international and national laws should be broadly analysed and studied. The article’s objective is to analyze the impact of new technologies on human rights in the context of the right to be forgotten and right to privacy. Because the development of new technologies is more closely linked to the security of personal data. With the formation of the right to be forgotten, it is the issue of ensuring the confidentiality of certain contents of personal data as a result of the influence of the time factor. The authors conclude that, the right to be forgotten was previously defended more in the context of the right to privacy. However, they cannot be considered equal rights. The right to be forgotten stems from a person’s desire to develop and continue his or her life independently without being the object of criticism for any negative actions he or she has committed in the past. If the right to privacy contains generally confidential information, the right to be forgotten is understood as the deletion of known information at a certain time and the denial of access to third parties. Thus, the right to be forgotten is not included in the right to privacy, and can be considered an independent right. The point is that the norms of the international and national documents, which establish fundamental human rights and freedoms, do not regulate issues related to the right to be forgotten. The right to be forgotten should be limited to the deletion of information from the media and Internet information resources. This is not about the complete destruction of information available in state information systems. Another conclusion of authors is that the media and Internet information resources sometimes spread false information. In this case, there will be no content of the right to be forgotten. Because the main thing is that the information that constitutes the content of the right to be forgotten must be legal, but after some time it has lost its significance. The scope of information included in the content of the right to be forgotten should not only be related to the conviction, but also to other special personal data (for example, the fact of divorce).


Author(s):  
Tamar Gvaramadze

This chapter discusses the impact of the pan-European principles of good administration on Georgian administrative law. It shows that the legal reforms and modern administrative legislation that started in Georgia in the 1990s were mostly influenced, and directed by, Western values and European principles, including core provisions of the Council of Europe. This influence has manifested itself, among other things, in the Georgian legislator giving constitutional importance to the right to a fair hearing in administrative proceedings and underlining the importance of good administration. Moreover, special parts of administrative law, such as regulation of local self-governance and personal data protection, have also not been immune to this influence, which has been strengthened by the progressive approach undertaken by Georgian courts.


2020 ◽  
pp. 119-126
Author(s):  
Yael Tamir

This chapter explores the differences between nationalists and globalists. The chapter asserts that being a nationalist or a globalist is not a constitutive state of mind; on the contrary, in light of changing circumstances, individuals locate themselves at different points along the global—national (G—N) continuum. The chapter sheds new light on the correlation among education, rationality, and the way individuals position themselves on the G—N continuum. It argues that individuals are better of if they structure their preferences in light of actual risks and opportunities. The chapter also recounts social and economic circumstances affecting a person's scheme of risks and opportunities. The chapter elaborates the discussion concerning moral luck. It also assesses the impact of Lockean proviso, in which individuals have the right to acquire as much private property as they can (mostly land in Locke's days), as long as what they leave behind for others is enough and “as good.”


2012 ◽  
Vol 260-261 ◽  
pp. 833-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Zhou ◽  
Yim Wong ◽  
Xi Juan Xu ◽  
Cha Ren Ce Chiang ◽  
Hui Cong Zhang

Low carbon road maintenance( hereinafter referred to as LCRM) technology is an important and essential part of the overall low carbon transportation policy in China. The large amount of carbon emission resulting from road maintenance needs to be determined with definitive methods and data to form a basis of measurement of the carbon emission of the road maintenance process. Various road surface maintenance technologies have different environmental impacts and dissimilar levels of carbon emission. When comparing the merits and drawbacks of the various maintenance technologies, not only factors such as the maintenance outcome, road surface quality, serviceable lifespan, costs and the impact on traffic and environment should be evaluated, but also other factors, such as carbon emission of the material used for the maintenance process, carbon emission of the machinery deployed and other amounts released during construction, have to be assessed and measured. This paper will allow for a comprehensive analysis that will help to choose the right road surface maintenance technology that produces the best road surface quality, the optimal economic benefit and the most favourable social and environmental outcome. LCRM protocol should be regulated and promoted by government legislation and through which adoption of the best practices would be encouraged.


Antichthon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Lazar Maric

AbstractThis article analyses the ‘politics of humanity’ in Cicero’s philosophical and rhetorical works, the practice of projecting and shifting the moral and political boundary that separates the ‘human’ from the ‘inhuman’, the ‘inept at being human’, and the ‘undeserving of being human’. This practice has many affinities with the relatively modern phenomenon of ‘dehumanisation’. In the first part, the emphasis is on Cicero’s humanism, in particular his ideas on human nature as they appear inDe Officiis. Here I also show the impact of this practice on Roman ideas of self-fashioning, ‘sincerity’ and social performance. In the second part, I observe the way in which Cicero’s political and legal theory fits within this ideological project. I further argue that Cicero’s humanism provided a conceptual background to the rhetorical dehumanisation of his political enemies, that is, to the claims in his invective that these men could no longer be considered as proper human beings. My final suggestion is that the goal of this practice, at least some of the time, was to make a case for excluding these individuals from the state’s legal system and thus depriving them of its protections.


Author(s):  
Ben Qara Mustafa Aisha

This study aimed to identify the international, regional and even national efforts to protect the rights and privacy of the individual from the impact of informatics, and the extent to which it succeeded in achieving this. To achieve this, the researcher used the analytical method by explaining the new technical challenges to personal data and various legal mechanisms to protect this right. The research was based on an introduction, two papers and a conclusion. The first topic was entitled "What is the privacy of informatics and the dangers it faces in the digital age", while the second topic is devoted to international and regional efforts to protect information privacy. The results of the study showed that most of the legislations, especially the Arab ones, are not able to deal with violations of personal data, and concluded that new legal rules must be enacted to protect information privacy, based on established international principles in the field of informatics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Nenad Markovic ◽  
Dalibor Pešić ◽  
Mladen Kovač ◽  
Emir Smailović

The world is paying more and more attention to the safety of vulnerable road users, and especially the safety of pedestrians. The reason for that is the large representation of vulnerable participants in the total number of victims in traffic accidents. Belgrade stood out as especially unsafe for pedestrians, because their endangerment is higher than the world average, but also higher than in the rest of Serbia. In order to increase the safety of pedestrians, appropriate management measures are applied, which are, as a rule, based on the recognized influencing factors of the occurrence of these accidents. For that reason, it is extremely important to define the real influencing factors in the right way. One of the best tools for recognizing the impact of road factors is the independent assessment of the impact of the road on accidents, which the road manager, according to the Law, is obliged to conduct in the event of a traffic accident with fatalities. The paper analyzes 59 traffic accidents with dead pedestrians, which occurred in the period from 15.05.2019. to 06/02/2021 years on the territory of the city of Belgrade and for which an independent assessment of the impact of the road was conducted. The results indicate that the road factor had an impact on the occurrence of more than half of the traffic accidents with dead pedestrians. Also, the results indicate the existence of a number of different influencing factors, which indicates the need for further implementation of these analyzes. The paper presents characteristic examples of the most commonly identified influencing factors.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Usman Khalid ◽  
Dr. Iftikhar Aalam ◽  
Dr. Abdul Razaq

In this article, it has been endeavoured to analyze the concepts of The limits of interaction and celebrations with non-Muslims in a pluralistic society. Actually, the pluralistic Religious pluralism is a combination of two words. "Religion and pluralism" follows them separately. Religion (noun) is the meaning of the way, attitude, origin and belief. The literal meaning of religion is the method or the way. The literal meaning of religion is "the road", which goes on. It is derived from the Arabic word "z-ah-b",Which means to go (walk) or pass away. After all, religion is the code of conduct by which human beings can succeed in the world and the hereafter. This way is called religion. Moreover, Greetings to non-Muslims in a pluralistic society, Exchange of gifts in a pluralistic society, Marrying a non-Muslim in a pluralistic society, Participation in non-Muslim celebrations of plural society, The slaughter of non-Muslims in a pluralistic society and its limits for Muslims, Condolences to non-Muslims in a pluralistic society and participation in funerals, Attending non-Muslim funerals in a pluralistic society, Participation in national celebrations and festivals in a pluralistic society, The problem of treatment and medicine from non-Muslims in a pluralistic society are the main issues discussed here in detail. KEY WORDS: Pluralistic, Society, Muslims, celebrations, History, philosphy, peace


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