Cosmic Enlightenment

Author(s):  
Victoria Smolkin

This chapter examines how science, and more specifically the real and symbolic force of Soviet space programs, was harnessed as a weapon in Soviet atheist work. In the 1960s, as cosmonauts and astronauts raced to space, the USSR sought to channel cosmic enthusiasm into atheist work, believing that science could deal the final blow to religion. The chapter first considers the explosion of cosmic enthusiasm after successful Soviet space missions before discussing the use of the Moscow Planetarium as a base for natural scientific and scientific atheist propaganda. It also explores state efforts to spread scientific atheism and shows that the Soviets capitalized on Soviet space firsts to proclaim the truth of scientific materialism. However, scientific miracles and cosmic conquests failed to convert the masses to atheism and exposed the ideological blind spots of Marxism–Leninism.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elias Garcia-Pelegrin ◽  
Clive Wilkins ◽  
Nicola Clayton

Abstract The use of magic effects to investigate the blind spots in the attention and perception and roadblocks in the cognition of the spectator has yielded thought-provoking results elucidating how these techniques operate. However, little is known about the interplay between experience practising magic and being deceived by magic effects. In this study, we performed two common sleight of hand effects and their real transfer counterparts to non-magicians, and to magicians with a diverse range of experience practising magic. Although, as a group, magicians identified the sleights of hand as deceptive actions significantly more than non-magicians; this ability was only evidenced in magicians with more than 5 years in the craft. However, unlike the rest of the participants, experienced magicians had difficulty correctly pinpointing the location of the coin in one of the real transfers presented. We hypothesise that this might be due to the inherent ambiguity of this transfer, in which, contrary to the other real transfer performed, no clear perceptive clue is given about the location of the coin. We suggest that extensive time practising magic might have primed experienced magicians to anticipate foul play when observing ambiguous movements, even when the actions observed are genuine.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-219
Author(s):  
S.Yu. Favorov

We show that if points of supports of two discrete ”not very thick” Fourier transformable measures on locally compact abelian (LCA) groups tend to one another at infinity and the same is true for the masses at these points, then these measures coincide. The result is valid for discrete almost periodic measures on LCA groups too. Also, we show that the result is false for some discrete ”thick” measures. To do this, we construct a discrete almost periodic measure on the real axis, whose masses at the points of support tend to zero as these points approach infinity.


1965 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Sklar

There are three basic contradictions in the Nigerian political system. They may be stated briefly at the outset. First, the machinery of government is basically regionalised, but the party machinery—the organisation of the masses—retains a strong trans-regional and anti-regional tendency. Secondly, the main opposition party has relied upon the support of a class-conscious regional power group in its drive against the system of regional power. Depending upon a regional section of the political class to effect a shift in the class content of power, it was really asking that section to commit suicide. This contradiction produced a crisis in the Western Region which might easily be repeated elsewhere. Thirdly, the constitutional allocation of power is inconsistent with the real distribution of power in society. The constitution gives dominant power to the numerical majority—i.e., under existing conditions, to the north—but the real distribution of power is determined by technological development, in which respect the south is superior.


Author(s):  
Michael Suk-Young Chwe

This chapter examines African American folktales that teach the importance of strategic thinking and argues that they informed the tactics of the 1960s civil rights movement. It analyzes a number of stories where characters who do not think strategically are mocked and punished by events while revered figures skillfully anticipate others' future actions. It starts with the tale of a new slave who asks his master why he does nothing while the slave has to work all the time, even as he demonstrates his own strategic understanding. It then considers the tale of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, along with “Malitis,” which tackles the problem of how the slaves could keep the meat and eat it openly. These and other folktales teach how inferiors can exploit the cluelessness of status-obsessed superiors, a strategy that can come in handy. The chapter also discusses the real-world applications of these folktales' insights.


1964 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick W. Mote

Sinology, and the case for the integrity of it: the one key word in that phrase has been as hard to define as the other has been to achieve in practice. If we can scarcely define it, and if there is no hope of achieving it for the masses, why then talk about it at all in the year 1964?I believe we can try to define Sinology, and we can point to some who have achieved it in practice. It might have seemed wisest to ask someone who has at least come close to achieving the Sinological ideal to be its spokesman on this panel. And, in fact, I urged that course upon Mr. Skinner when he first asked me to participate. He ruled that out, not so much perhaps for fear that we'd have to import one, or that such a one could be expected to speak in an unintelligible accent and would read footnotes in seven languages from original sources only—but perhaps, anomalous as it is, from the justifiable fear that the real Sinologist might speak in a way that would confuse his own green and well-worked fields with the entire province, or his own home province with the whole realm. And integrity is what we are here to talk about. For it is that integrality of the whole realm, or world, of Chinese studies that I think should define Sinology. Therefore, let someone who thinks he sees a meaningful and universal ideal, but who does not expect the ideal to be judged by himself, discuss it with the freedom that can come from having nothing personal to defend. Otherwise, it would be indeed presumptuous for me to appear here as the spokesman for Sinology; this dilemma of the spokesman vis-à-vis his subject today clearly is one that does not afflict my colleagues on this panel (for reasons at least partially nattering to them all).


1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. B. Du Bois

When one hears that the vote of the socialistic party of Germany rose from 312,000 in 1881 to 1,725,000 at the last election of the Reichstag, the question naturally arises, What is the true significance of this? How far have the economic theories of Socialism really penetrated the masses of Germany? Such questions are apart from the more usual inquiries as to the scientific soundness of the official manifestoes of this party, or the personal aims of Bebel, Liebknecht or von Vollmar. Nevertheless, the inquiry into the real economics beliefs of the nearly two million German voters usually classed as “socialists,” is certainly of deep interest to the sociologist and statesman.


2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Cauwe ◽  
Stijn Vanheule ◽  
Mattias Desmet

Transference implies the actualization of the analyst in the analytic encounter. Lacan developed this idea through the syntagm presence of the analyst. In the course of his seminars, however, two completely different presences emerge, with major implications for how the treatment is directed. In the light of Lacan’s idea that the transference is constituted in Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary dimensions, it can be seen how in his early work the analyst’s presence is a phenomenon at the crossroads between signifiers and images. From the 1960s onward, however, the analyst’s presence comes to necessarily involve the Real. This means it points to the moment at which symbolization reaches its limits. The clinical implications of this later interpretation of the presence of the analyst as incorporating the Real are manifold and affect psychoanalytic practice with regard to the position and the interventions of the analyst. Specifically, interventions targeted at provoking changes in defenses against experiences of excess or senselessness are discussed and illustrated with case vignettes and a published case. With transference considered “the navel of the treatment,” the necessity that traumatic material will emerge in relation to the analyst becomes clear.


Author(s):  
Tadeusz Miczka

"WE LIVE IN THE WORLD LACKING IDEA ON ITSELF: KRZYSZTOF KIEŚLOWSKI's ART OF FILM" OUR "little stabilization" -- this ironic phrase by Tadeusz Różewicz, the poet and playwright, rightly characterized the low living standards of Poles and the state of apathy of the society in the 1960s. It also reflected well the situation of the Polish culture which, at that time, was put under strong political pressure and, except for very few instances, half- truths and newspeak replaced the clear dichotomy of truth and falsity. However, it finds its strongest expression if seen against the background of the Polish cinema of that time, since the cinema was, so to say, the "light in the eyes" of the Workers' Party activists devoutly building the 'real socialism' state. After the period of the political thaw which, among other things, brought to life artistically courageous works of the 'Polish film school', the...


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-62
Author(s):  
SVETLANA Ya. SHCHEBROVA ◽  

The article studies the Soviet identity, which fell into a crisis in the context of globalization and ethnic localization, gradually intensifying after the collapse of the USSR. In response to the decay of the Soviet mentality, it is necessary to understand how to overcome the split in society and make the process of cultural transformation under modernization conditions less painful for people. One of the mechanisms of forming the cultural identity of peoples is an appeal to the positive experience in common history. Simply copying the previous forms and means of forming cultural identity is impossible, since socio-economic foundations change; therefore, the problem needs a different solution. Exploring the Soviet past, one can understand which ideological values contributed to the consolidation of society in order to use this experience in construction of Russian civilizational identity. The purpose of the article is to study the films by Elyor Ishmukhamedov Tenderness (1966) and Lovers (1969) as “texts” that construct Soviet identity by dint of the recognition and acceptance of the ideal life model by the society. Since humans transform themselves and the world around them through an imitation, the main research questions are as follows: what social interaction features can be identified in these films? What is the appeal of the Soviet discourse and how is it transmitted in such seemingly “non-ideological” films? Ishmukhamedov’s films were studied as a semiotic system, in which the main myths and archetypes were revealed that had a manipulative and mobilizing influence on the viewer, thereby creating an image of a Soviet person which is attractive to the masses. The everyday life captured in these films symbolizes the stability and reliability of living in the USSR and Central Asia in the 1960s. After analyzing the figurative system of the Soviet-time everyday life in Ishmukhamedov’s films, the author finds out that identity is a system consisting of ethnic, cultural, age, natural, social, professional, mental, artifact identities, as well as the identity of the genus and small groups, which set the models and patterns of behavior for a Soviet person, which patterns were accepted and copied by the people.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xixi Wang

The object of patriotism education is the people, who are the creators of the spirit of patriotism and constantly add new connotations to it. Historical activities are the activities of the masses, with the deepening of historical activities, it will be the expansion of the masses. Patriotism education is an important part of ideological and political education activities, and it is the stage that cannot be crossed to realize the real community.


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