CONSPIRACY THINKING IN THE DYNAMICS OF MODERN CULTURE: CHARACTERISTICS AND FEATURES OF MANIFESTATION

Problem setting. One of the distinguishing features of the modern era is the marginal and dubious nature of explanations of complex social realities. Cognitive and symbolic specifics of conspiratorial thinking, marked by a sense of predictability, regularity and explicit simplicity, contribute to the development and dissemination of political mythology. Recent research and publications analysis. In recent decades, concepts have been actively used in the body of social science works: paranoid style, conspiratorial narrative, power discourse, unstable ontologies, crisis of production of meanings, conspiratorial worldview. The latest scientific search takes place in the context of abandoning the strict framing of conspiracy theories in favor of a pluralistic approach that combines epistemic, existential and social dimensions of the subject. Paper objective. The aim of the article is to try to identify the features of conspiracy in the latest conditions of cultural development. Paper main body. The article shows the features of modern conspiracy theories in terms of its paradoxical stability, information and cognitive attractiveness. It is emphasized that the conspiracy discourse determines the peculiarities of the conspiratorial mentality, influencing, in particular, the existential aspects of human life. The consequences of the influence of conspiracy theories can be not only feelings of alienation from politics or radicalization of society, but also the blurring of semantic boundaries between conspiracy theories and more respectable forms of socio-political criticism. Such features make it possible to distinguish positive and critical understandings of conspiracy theory, as well as to outline the main vectors in further theoretical studies of conspiracy theories. Among the distinctive features of conspiratorial meaning formation are the cultural-temporal universality, the paradoxical combination of irrational and rationalist ways of perception, and others. The peculiarities of conspiratorial thinking in comparison with the radical-constructivist specifics of the explanation of the world, as well as in the communicative-narrative logic are analyzed. The difference between conspiratorial meaning formation and the picture of the world in unstable ontologies is shown. Differentiated conspiracy narrative and political imagination. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of agency in the context of a multi-vector model of social organization. Conclusions of the research. The dynamics of the multifaceted study of conspiracy correlates with the growing awareness that conspiratorial narrative tends to grow significantly and affect society and culture. The stability and success of the conspiracy narrative is ensured by the realization of the claim to "correct" understanding, which makes it quite convincing, and therefore in demand. Conspiracy theories, manifested in various ways of agent communication, range from simple conspiracy through complicity to structural prejudices and ideologies.

ON THE QUESTION OF MODERN MYTHS. POLITICAL MYTH AS APPLIED MYTHOLOGY

In this article, the author argues that philosophy is a "methodology" of understanding. Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of interpretation especially the interpretation philosophical texts. H.-G. Gadamer asserted that methodical contemplation is opposite to experience and reflection. We can reach the truth only by understanding or mastering our experience. According to H.-G. Gadamer, our understanding is not fixed but rather is changing and always indicating new perspectives. The most important thing is to unfold the nature of individual understanding. Hermeneutics is not just "art", but the methodology of "understanding." Accordingly, philosophy is the methodology of understanding and interpretation. Philosophy is a science with its own subject and object. Legal laws are not absolute, therefore they should be interpreted. It is the task of philosophy. Philosophy speaks the language of concepts and evidence. Concepts should be specific, clear, defined. Philosophical work is the formulation of concepts. On the basis of such understanding of philosophy, we will now study the question of "political myth". Scientific exploration is devoted to the study of the concept of "myth" and identifying the essential features of the "political myth". What is "political myth" of modernity? What language is he speaking? What appealed? In this intelligence proved that "political myth" is a communication system that distorts reality. It is established that every "political myth" has its own shelf life and the boundaries of its interpretation. It is confirmed that "political myth" is one of the most effective tools to meet political goals, such as achievement of power and its legitimation. It is proved that political discourse is irrational, and political speeches appeal to the argument of sensuous, not rational. "Political myth" models own "world picture", which is a simplified, taken for granted, self-evident. It is proved that the ability of critical judgment, ability to work with information and qualitative analysis from the mouth of the unbiased media and the expert environment, though not a panacea, but partially negate the "force," "political myth". Myth has an irrational basis, and controls the emotions with the help of stereotypes. The myth creates its own reality and creates the effect of solidarity of the masses. The essence of "political myth" is that he always addressed to specific audiences, takes into account the peculiarities of mentality. A dominant position in the "political myth" plays a stereotype. Any stereotype is formed on the generalizations. What is the difference between the stereotypes and myths? "A stereotype is a label", which is the context, but it there is no story. That is, the stereotype is a form, and the myth is content history. In addition, in this exploration of the role and value of such concepts as "political magic" and "political spectacle" in the context of "political mythology" as applied mythology.

Memorial Culture and Political Mythology: Politics of Memory in the Sphere of Public Administration in Russia and Post-Soviet States

The authors suggest and substantiate a typology of the state policy of remembrance implemented in post-Soviet States: the policy based on the principles of historicism, mythology domination, hybrid policy. Approaches to scientific state institutions activities in the field of modern history, as well as practices of civil society and state institutions functioning in the educational policy are analyzed.

L’Union européenne entre crise de légitimité et crise d’identité. Le rôle du mythe et de l’identité culturelle dans le processus d’intégration européenne

The paper explores the origins of the EU’s legitimacy crisis and highlights the im­portance of cultural identity as a foundation and as a unifying factor for Europe. Despite the economical and political progress of European integration, the emo­tional dimension of the union is almost absent, so that the Europeans’ sense of be­longing remains mainly national. The process of European integration has used a certain political mythology in order to generate a sense of identification and to le­gitimate itself. Nevertheless, the emotional impact of this mythology has not been able to compete with national ones. The European institutions recently launched initiatives aimed at promoting cultural integration and at giving rise to a new narra­tive for Europe, which should strengthen the sense of belonging and bridge the le­gitimacy gap. We are then facing the beginnings of a new phase of European inte­gration, centred on enhancing the cultural dimension of the union.

SOCIAL IDENTITY OF “POWER CITIES” IN MODERN RUSSIA: BASIC SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES

The article analyzes domestic theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of administrative centers of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The author states a wide application of the concept of "capital city" in relation to the regional administrative centers, which are described by researchers as points of concentration of regional (or federal) ruling elites, dominating over the controlled and dependent on them "peripheral" territory of the region in political, economic and cultural relations, having access to global or federal financial flows, providing the population of the city and the region with social chances and access to a variety of services, creating and centralizing information and communication flows on the territory under their control, as well as cultural and symbolic foundations of regional identity. It is noted that there are opposing approaches to the analysis of regional and urban territorial identities in the research: essentialist one, based on the identification of "territories of belonging" and "territorial spaces" as objects of social identification of the population and symbolic formation of territorial identity politics with the self-consciousness of the region and its capital; and constructivist approach, focusing on the activity and interest of regional elites in the production of their capital identities. Culturalization is characterized as the predominant frame for the study of urban identity in contemporary Russia, with less pronounced attention to the civic component of urban identity, which is based on a sense of responsibility for the city and local civic activism. Among the distinctive characteristics of the capital cities identity of the republics within the Russian Federation, domestic researchers refer to the tendency to its "ethnicization" and absorption of republican identity through the reduction of cultural and symbolic components to cultural symbols and performative (including socio-political) practices, attributed by regional elites to the ethno-national identity of "titular" ethnic communities of the republics. Nevertheless, almost the same parameters of identity - local symbols, regional and capital cities’ "political mythology", its heroes and narratives, public events are considered as "natural" or constructed bases of capital city identity in the studies devoted to both the capitals of the republics and other subjects of the Russian Federation.

Migration as a Reality and a Part of Political Mythology

The article is focused on the mythologized photos of the global migration phenomena circulating in the ordinary consciousness and in the media. Authors consider deconstruction of this mythology important for two reasons. Firstly, the reproduction of negative stereotypes about migration allows the right-wing populist parties and movements to accumulate political capital, provoking new waves of anti-migration sentiments and creating a vicious circle. Secondly, these sentiments directly or indirectly influence the decision-makers. As a result, decision-making process in the field of migration regulation become influenced by irrational factors. Turning to common misconceptions about international migration, authors show that: a) the mechanical extrapolation of modern demographic trends into the distant future and causal relationship between demographic indicators and migration processes are not scientifically justified; b) there is no direct correlation between the size of the population in less developed regions and the intensity of migration flows from these regions to industrialized countries; c) international migration is by no means a one-way South - North process; d) perception of North countries migration policies, as charity, is fundamentally wrong because it doesnt take into account the complex interdependence of modern world. In addition, authors demonstrate inadequacy of the image of a migratory tsunami threatening to flood Europe.

Katechontic Democracy? Carl Schmitt and the Restraining Mediation of Popular Power

This chapter analyses how Carl Schmitt’s apocalyptic political mythology can provide a critical form for grasping contemporary challenges to the tradition of popular democratic rule. Schmitt’s conception of an ‘illiberal’ democracy is based on seemingly contradictory elements of both ‘populism’ and ‘technocratic elitism’, attempting as it does to wed the popular enthusiasm of mass democracy to a concrete order through the principle of a shared homogeneous identity and the somewhat paradoxical idea of a ‘charismatic bureaucracy’. This amalgamation of authoritarianism and popular sovereignty emanates from what can be described as Schmitt’s ‘katechontic impulse’, a name derived from a Biblical figure introduced by St Paul. The Katechon is the principle or the person that restrains lawlessness or ‘the lawless one’, often interpreted as Antichrist and his reign before the end of days. The chapter shows how Schmitt’s apocalyptic imagery of an ordered popular sovereignty can be illustrated by this politico-theological mytheme and further investigates the implications thereof for contemporary democratic politics.