Book Review: In the Ruins of Neoliberalism by Wendy Brown

This review examines Wendy Brown's argument that neoliberalism led to the resurgence of antidemocracy in the West. It is argued that Brown's main arguments offer a valid explanation of the hard-right's appeal to conservatives in the United States. This ultimately led to an overwhelming support for Donald Trump as president of the U. S. The author exposes the antidemocratic effects of the Hayekian view of democracy, which is largely based on the support of free markets and traditional morality.

RATIONING OF THE INTIMATE LIFE OF COMMUNISTS AND KOMSOMOL MEMBERS IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE CONTROL COMMISSIONS OF THE RKP(B) IN THE 1920s (THE CASE OF PERM REGION)

The article highlights the practice of rationing the intimate life of communists and Komsomol members in the activities of the control commissions of the RKP(b) Perm region in the 1920s. It analyzes both the norms translated by Bolshevik ideologists and their application by such a significant institution as control commissions. The use of microhistorical analysis methods made it possible to make significant observations based on a relatively small circle of sources - on materials deposited in the Perm archives of the control commissions and other bodies of the RCP(b), as well as court cases. The publication deepens and concretizes the ideas about the tools for controlling private life in Soviet Russia in the 1920s. The authors come to the conclusion that the norms of intimate relations between men and women supported by the control commissions completely fit into the framework of “traditional” morality, which, in particular, was also preached by the Orthodox Church. At the same time, party ideologists and functionaries of the control commissions preferred to derive these norms from the prevailing ideologues about the "interests of the proletariat".

Namesakes in literature, or Chekhov's code in Sholokhov's novels

An allusive proper name is one of the traditional artistic devices of the Russian classics. The author examines Sholokhov's prose to find nearly a dozen names with reference to various Chekhov short stories. In most cases, there is no similarity between the characters' destinies, but the sheer ubiquity of Chekhov-inspired names can be considered as an homage to the master. On the other hand, the allusive names that Sholokhov consistently borrows from The Cherry Orchard [Vishnyoviy sad] are indicative of plot parallels between Sholokhov's novels and Chekhov's play. Notably, Sholokhov uses allusive proper names as a means of generalisation and typification of characters, from the bulwark of traditional morality, the Cossack woman Natalia Stepanovna, the ‘Russian Lucretia,' to the evercheerful soldier Lopakhin, to the family of Mikhail and Dunyasha Koshevoy as a symbol of recovery of the nation divided by the civil war, to the Gaev family as a premonition of the fate awaiting peasant Russia. Such allusions allow for treatment of Sholokhov's novels as a trilogy about the tragedies of the Russian people in the first half of the 20th c.

LAW AND MORALITY AS FACTORS OF CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT: THE MODERN CONTEXT

the article is devoted to the study of the general principles of the influence of law and morality on modern civil society. It is argued that in a crisis of moral regulation of social relations, their legal regulation will lose its effectiveness due to a number of objective and subjective factors. It is concluded that the interaction and coherence between law and traditional morality in society is the key to the effective functioning and development of civil society.

«Дизайнерские дети» как профилактика инвалидизации общества

Медикализация человеческой жизни расширяет свои возможности и права в сферах, которые были/есть табу в координатах традиционной морали. В статье анализируется проблема конструирования будущего общества через создание «дизайнерских детей», в том числе для предотвращения инвалидизации населения с помощью биомедицинских ГМ-технологий. В отличие от ученых общественное мнение пока не готово к прогнозированию последствий, рассматривая биомедицину только как эффективный способ борьбы с болезнями. На уровне обыденного сознания нет предубеждений к исследованиям в данном направлении, лишь незначительная часть населения задумывается об отдаленных медицинских и социальных последствиях данных операций. В мире всегда существовали «ученые-еретики», работающие вне границ академий и институтов. Сегодня среди них могут быть и «биохакеры», чьи исследования финансируются частными лицами, заинтересованными в результатах для решения собственных целей и проконтролировать их работу не в силах ни один закон, ни одно государство, Среди ученых всегда были люди, готовые рискнуть всем ради нового слова в науке. В средние века они шли на костер, тем более не остановит научный прогресс наказание в несколько лет тюремного срока сегодня. Изменив этические границы для себя, они будут изменять мораль большинства. Пассивность общества сегодня спровоцирует политиков завтра на принятие решений, способствующих дальнейшей десакрализации человеческого тела в самых разных направлениях. The medicalization of human life expands its capabilities and rights in areas that were / are taboo in the coordinates of traditional morality. The article analyzes the problem of constructing a future society through the creation of “designer children”, including prevention of disability of the population with the help of biomedical GM-technologies. Unlike scientists, public opinion is not yet ready to predict the consequences, considering biomedicine only as an effective way to fight diseases. At the level of everyday consciousness, there are no prejudices towards research in this direction, only a small part of the population thinks about the long-term medical and social consequences of these operations. There have always been “heretic scientists” in the world who work outside the boundaries of academies and institutions. Today, there may be “biohackers” among them, whose research is funded by private individuals interested in the results to achieve their own goals and not a single law, not a single state can control their work. Among scientists there have always been people who are ready to risk everything for a new word in science. In the Middle Ages, they went to the stake, so even less the punishment of several years in prison today can stop scientific progress. By changing ethical boundaries for themselves, they will change the morality of the majority. The passivity of society today will provoke politicians tomorrow to make decisions that contribute to the further desacralization of the human body in various directions.

Escuela austríaca de economía y principios de antropología cristiana

The election of Pope Francis reanimated the intellectual debate about capitalism and socialism in the Catholic Church. This paper starts from this discus­ sion in order to analyze the economic thinking of the Austrian School in relation to Christian anthropology. It defends capitalism considering the fundamental principles of a free society and the institutional poliarchy. Following Hayek this paper refutes the critics of socialism toward traditional morality. Finally, it defends the point of view that Christianism and socialism are incompatible. Keywords: capitalism, socialism, dynamic efficiency, Catholic Social Teaching, morality. JEL Classification: B53, H11, P17, Z12 Resumen: Con la elección del papa Francisco se ha reavivado el debate intelec­ tual sobre capitalismo y socialismo en el seno de la Iglesia Católica. El presente artículo parte de esta discusión para analizar el pensamiento económico de la Escuela Austríaca en relación con la antropología cristiana. Defiende el capita­ lismo teniendo en cuenta los principios fundamentales de una sociedad libre y la poliarquía institucional. Asimismo —siguiendo a Hayek— refuta la crítica del socialismo a la moral tradicional. Finalmente defiende la incompatibilidad del cristianismo con el socialismo. Palabras clave: capitalismo, socialismo, eficiencia dinámica, Doctrina Social de la Iglesia, moral. Clasificación JEL: B53, H11, P17, Z12.

The Possessed: Dostoevsky’s Conscientious Monarchy

In the mock apocalypse of The Possessed, Fyodor Dostoevsky references biblical imagery to advocate for a conscientious monarchy as the ideal government to lead the Russian masses from deception. While Varvara Petrovna Stavrogin’s oppression of Stepan Trofimovich Verhovensky is similar to the Babylonian kings’ exploitation of the Jews in Daniel, the love between them and Dostoevsky’s eventual glorification of Stepan Trofimovich as the Russian prophet suggest the longevity of a conscientious monarchy, one in which the monarch takes responsibility for the welfare of its subjects and enforces Christian morality. Additionally, Dostoevsky’s description of the young anarchist revolutionaries, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch Stavrogin and Pyotr Stepanovich Verhovensky, echos imagery of the beast and harlot in Revelation. Through the parent-child relationship between the monarchists and revolutionaries, Dostoevsky argues that the revolutionaries take root in the traditional social hierarchy yet betray it. This paper analyzes how Dostoevsky uses the biblical parallelisms in The Possessed to foreshadow the end to nihilism and defend traditional morality and the tsar as Russia’s God-ordained ruler.

Substantielle Sittlichkeit

The context in which the author places the concept of substantial morality (Sittlichkeit) is the history of Athens from about 490 to 430 B.C. This facilitates the understanding of a (political) way of life that is quite foreign to us in modern times. This also makes the concept of modern post-traditional morality, which plays a central role in the discussion of Hegel today, easier to understand. The concept of morality as a political category of social interaction thus becomes more vivid. As knowledge in historical and classical philological research has advanced, not every statement of Hegel's remains as meaningful and usable. A language of one's own, which does not just shimmy from Hegel quotation to Hegel quotation, facilitates understanding.

Art Communities at Risk: On Slovenia

“Art Communities At Risk: Slovenia” talks about how it is somehow easier to take a moral than a political position in times of crisis today—and how political manipulations often hide under seemingly moral attitudes. The author analyzes these issues against the background of growing authoritarian forces in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Slovenia, which saw the rise of covid-19 and Janez Janša as prime minister at the same time. Janša's government systematically ignores professional competencies in cultural institutions as well as in science, especially in relation to the epidemic.The voice of experts in the field of culture is ignored, and this is precisely because their specialized knowledge is not neutral. In a time when the space for free speech is shrinking, the need for a clear positioning becomes even more pressing. The author discusses the exhibition Bigger than Myself / Heroic Voices from Ex-Yugoslavia, which she curated for Rome's MAXXI museum last summer. The work shown there addressed Yugoslav emancipatory histories in relation to the issues of particular urgency today: global capitalism, the posthuman condition, and the return of authoritarianism, in particular. The Slovenian authorities took a hostile attitude towards the exhibition, not only because it presented critical voices from the region but also because artists from the former Yugoslavia were presented there, who, according to Slovenian right-wingers, are no longer worthy of participating in national cultural projects. Concerning the example of what is happening in Slovenia today, the essay asks why there has been such a strong turn to the right in Central and Eastern Europe, which is reviving “traditional” morality, patriarchy, and nationalism and engaging in political interference in cultural institutions. The current governments of Slovenia and other countries in the region want to get rid of the critical voices of left-wing experts in culture by favoring ostensibly neutral experts. It removes from important positions all those it considers to be leftists and replaces them with its own people in order to seemingly strike a balance between the various political options. This balancing act and new “neutrality,” however, are just one of the modern disguises of acute authoritarianism in Eastern Europe.

Feminism as Epistemic Disobedience and Transformative Knowledge: Exploration of an Alternative Educational Centre

Living under the threat of demonising feminism along with its de-politicisation and commodification in an age of “postfeminist sensibility” (Gill, 2007), and the reduction of women’s/gender studies programmes worldwide is more than a reason to revisit the feminist politics of knowledge here and now. Since the neoliberal trend is impregnated “with old-fashioned academic design that counts on (neo)conservativism” (Kašić, 2016), retrograde claims and (neo)traditional morality, one challenge is how to respond to the sexist, androcentric, anti-gender and racist assumptions that are deepening inequality and fostering social exclusion and discrimination as well as to disrupting the mainstream knowledge of scientificity (Pereira, 2017). By using the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb as an example, the paper argues that an alternative form of education outside mainstream academic institutions, despite various obstacles and inner problems, can ensure a freeing up from hegemonic and misogynist knowledge more than a university education by creating a powerful space toward feminism as an epistemic disobedience and activist theory, and by providing the political subjectivisation of both teachers and students. In this regard, three topics are of analytical interest here: feminism as subversive knowledge; critical pedagogy from the perspective of “epistemology of discomfort”; and the potential held by feminism as an engaged (activist) theory. The questions and themes proposed are not new but continue on previous epistemic dilemmas and disputes both around feminism and progressive ideas around education, and coming to terms with feminist urgency and ethical responsibility (Spivak, 2012).