The road to digital unfreedom: how artificial intelligence is reshaping repression

The problem of freedoms and non-freedoms within the framework of a democratic regime is of interest to most researchers, since it depends on them how "correctly" each of us understands how and for whom these categories work. Of course, we are interested in the latest developments in this area, so the editors cite a study by Professor Stephen Feldstein from Boise State University. It is difficult to agree with Professor Feldstein absolutely in everything, and therefore some fragments of the article are marked with footnotes of the author of the translation. The author of the article cannot be taken away from the merit that the study of this issue requires seriousness and a close look into the future. First of all, Stephen Feldstein in his article exposes the fruits of advanced artificial intelligence as an accomplice and hotbed of an autocratic repressive regime of government. Cites the scenarios according to which modern authoritarians solve the problems of the emergence of opposition forces within the country. Draws predictive pictures that can come true if the pace of development of technologies in the field of artificial intelligence continues to grow temporally. Nevertheless, we must assume that the main premise that the author wanted to convey to us is a warning against the superpowers of artificial intelligence that China possesses and the fruits of new technologies that it is ready to share in the name, if we continue the author's thought, of a shallow hidden intention of world domination, thereby, as we can draw independent conclusions, violating similar plans of the United States. Feldstein S. The Road to Digital Unfreedom: How Artificial Intelligence is Reshaping Repression // Journal of Democracy, January 2019, Volume 30, Number 1, pp. 40-52. DOI: 10.1353/jod.2019.0003

“Moments of Mocking Cynicism”: Gaining Dignity through the Humiliation of Humiliators

The paper examines comic elements in the narratives of Jewish national movement (or Refusenik movement) in the late USSR drawing from later sources, oral and written memories, as well as from letters to the authorities and to Western public, simultaneous with the movement. Comic episodes and ironic tone turn out to be an important facet of Jewish activists’ dialogue with the authorities and are discussed as such, or as “weapon of the weak” within the symbolic resistance of Refuseniks to the repressive regime.

У каждого своя Сибирь. Годы войны и депортации в монологах Л. Т. Дорджиева и Е. С. Басановой

Introduction. The publication highlights a special period in the history of Kalmykia still insufficiently studied by anthropologists ― that of the Great Patriotic War and nation’s deportation to Siberia (1943–1956) ― introducing memories and narratives thereof. It consists of an introduction, two interviews, commentaries, and a bibliography. The presented narratives belong to individuals who had met the trials of deportation with different life experiences: front-line soldier, Lieutenant L. T. Dordzhiev ― and Elista schoolgirl, daughter of the front-line soldier E. S. Basanova. Goals. The paper seeks to identify and clarify the meanings of everyday practices, details of life that were vital for the generation of our fathers and mothers, so that they remain understandable to the generation of children and grandchildren. Another goal is to understand what construction patterns in deportation narratives can be traced, what images and plots are significant, what verbal formulas and stable expressions are used by storytellers in spontaneous narration, and what assessments of past events and what expressions they give. Materials and Methods. Both the interviews will be explored through narrative analysis. The materials are presented in the form of transcribed spontaneous interviews received by the author from L. Dordzhiev in 2005, and from E. Basanova in 2018. Textological analysis and the method of text deconstruction were employed. Results. The front-line experience of L. Dordzhiev is interesting enough not only for his individual but for his collectivist strategy too, as well as for his participation in Operation Lentil (Russ. Chechevitsa). Male strategies of resistance to a repressive regime show legal literacy and the ability to speak Bolshevik (S. Kotkin) as means of self-defense, as well as a willingness to defend their dignity physically. The woman’s interview shows how the generation of Kalmyk children indoctrinated by Soviet ideology had to live with the values of Soviet society and loyalty to Kalmyk identity. Both the interviews are concrete examples of private memories of the war and deportation years ― first-person memories. The interview texts will be of interest to all researchers of the Kalmyk Deportation and memory of this period. The discursive strategies of these two narratives speak of their positive nature (J. Alexander).

Folklore and Dialectical Materialism. A Case Study of Ethnomusicological Research in Communist Romania

"Romanian ethnomusicology has a series of less discussed and, implicitly, less understood topics. One of them is the relatively vast literature that addresses the new folklore that appeared after the installation of the communist regime and the folk music of artistic ensembles performed on stage. Most of the texts written on these subjects display a strong political and ideological pressure. Consequently, they are either forgotten or superficially perceived as evidence of a repressive regime, adding to the general belief that the communist regime turned peasant art into an instrument of propaganda. Starting from a study signed by Ioan R. Nicola on music collected from Mărginimea Sibiului, we will try to understand the theoretical horizon and the ideological limitations that influenced the way researchers wrote about contemporary music phenomena in the second half of the twentieth century. Despite the constraints, we argue that ethnomusicologists had at hand a coherent system of analysis of the folk music, which they had to adapt to the official ideology. Keywords: new folklore, amateur artistic ensembles, folk performance, ethnomusicologic research, communist ideology"

Upaya Resistensi pada Rezim Represif melalui Sastra Drama: Telaah atas 'Opera Kecoa' karya Riantiarno dan 'Perahu Retak' karya Emha Ainun Najib (Resistance Efforts towards the Repressive Regime: Study on Riantiarno’s ‘Opera Kecoa’ and Emha Ainun Najib’s ‘Perahu Retak’)

Tulisan ini ingin membuktikan bagaimana upaya perlawanan terhadap penguasa disampaikan melalui karya sastra. Penganalisisan berfokus pada peristiwa, adegan, kalimat, dan ungkapan yang mengindikasikan upaya resistensi. Drama yang dijadikan sumber data adalah Opera Kecoa (1985) karya Riantiarno dan Perahu Retak (1992) karya Emha Ainun Najib. Kedua drama tersebut diterbitkan pada zaman pemerintahan Orde Baru yang pada saat itu membatasi kebebasan berbicara dan berpendapat. Resistensi atau perlawanan terhadap struktur yang mapan ini banyak dilakukan para sastrawan. Upaya ini merupakan bagian dari penyadaran bahwa sebenarnya kita sedang diopresi tanpa disadari. Kritik sosial yang disampaikan dalam drama --juga bentuk-bentuk kesenian-- tentu tidak gamblang karena pengarang sadar akan situasi pemerintahan. Dengan demikian, sistem komunikasi diubah sedemikian rupa agar maksud sampai pada penonton atau pembaca. Penyadaran ini juga akan menjadi kontrol terhadap jalannya suatu sistem sosial. Data dalam teks drama akan dianalisis menggunakan pendekatan new historicism. Hasil kajian ingin membuktikan bahwa sejarah sebuah bangsa dapat dibaca melalui karya sastra. New Historicism berkeyakinan bahwa selalu ada kaitan antara teks (sastra) dan sejarah. Pemikiran ini memberi persfektif bahwa “kenyataan sejarah” tidak lagi tunggal dan absolut, tetapi bisa bermacam-macam versi dan sudut pandang. Dalam konteks demikian teks sastra yang merefleksikan sejarah dapat diposisikan sebagai pembacaan sejarah dari versi yang lain. Hasil penelitian membuktikan bahwa selalu ada upaya resisten dengan berbagai cara pada penguasa yang represif.Kata kunci: resistensi, represif, penguasa, dramaABSTRACTThis paper aims to show the resistance effort towards the authorities. The analysis focuses on the events, scenes, sentences, and expressions which indicate the resistance efforts. The dramas used as the data in this research are titled Opera Kecoa ‘The Cockroach Opera’ (1985) by Riantiarno and Perahu Retak ‘The Cracked Boat’ (1992) by Emha Ainun Najib. The both of dramas were published during the New Order regime when the freedom of speech and expression were restricted. Resistance towards that established structure was mostly done by authors. This action is kind of effort to make us realized that we were actually being oppressed but did not realize it. The social criticsm delivered through the drama –as well as the form of art—of course, cannot be adequately conveyed because the authors are aware of the situation of the government. Hereafter, the communication system is changed in such a way so that the messages contained in the drama can be understood by the audiences or the readers. This awareness effort also becomes the controller for the implementation of the social system. The data in the drama text is analysed by using new historicism approach. The research results aim to show that the history of a nation can be read through the literary works. New Historicism believes that there is always connection between text (literature) and history. This thought gives perspective that “historical reality” is no longer singular or absolute, but also can be various versions with many points of view. In this context, literary texts which reflected the history can be positioned as a reading on a history from the different versions. The research results show that there are always resistance efforts towards the repressive authority with which the delivery methods are done in various ways.

Listening to thunder in the silence on Tiananmen: Politics and ethics of the memory of the June Fourth Movement

‘Forgetting’ has been widely used in academic and public discourses of the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Incident. The term, however, is conceptually unclear, empirically ineffective, and ethically problematic. Conceptually, it relies on a problematic assumption that silence means forgetting. Empirically, it lumps together different states of memory: ‘don’t remember, don’t talk about, don’t know, and don’t care.’ Ethically, it allows a broad, unjust moral accusation of those who remember but remain silent for various reasons. I argue that ‘silence’ provides greater conceptual precision, more analytical subtlety, and less ethical liability. Silence does not mean forgetting. Nor does it always mean the complete absence of sound. Rather, it refers to the absence of certain discourses about the past. I propose a perspective based on different forms of silence – ‘silencing, silenced, and silent’ – and illustrate it in an analysis of the memory of Tiananmen. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the analysis shows that the Chinese state initially intended to create a ‘covert silence’ – forcing people to remember rather than forget the official stories and silencing other narratives – and then an ‘overt silence’ in which all mention of the event was absent. Even underneath overt silence, however, are various experiences with ambiguities and nuances. The term silence also recognizes individuals’ ethical-political dilemmas under a repressive regime and aims to provide a language for an equal and inclusive truth-and-reconciliation process in the future.

Targeted and Widespread Repression in Authoritarian Regimes

This chapter examines the nature of repression under authoritarian regimes. It first presents a typology of authoritarian repertoires of repression before turning to the authoritarian party systems in Egypt and Tunisia. The chapter then outlines the ruling parties in Tunisia and Egypt and what constituted the democratic opposition under the regimes of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. The opposition categories are intended to demonstrate that both countries' opposition included parties representing a wide array of political platforms across the religious–secular axis. Finally, the chapter documents the different repertoires of repression used by each regime against its democratic opposition. The divergences have important implications for the categorization of Tunisia as a widespread repressive regime and of Egypt as a targeted repressive regime.

Mauritanian Politics and the Institutionalization of Military Supremacy

Since its maiden coup in 1978, which initiated both an era of recurrent coup activity and a regime type dubbed “Mauritania of the Colonels,” the Mauritanian military, once an unassuming, apolitical institution, has been in power either directly or through a “civilianized” military regime. Since its creation in the early 1990s, the Battalion for Presidential Security (BASEP) has played a prominent role in the workings of Mauritania of the Colonels. Only during a 17-month interlude under a civilian democratically elected president, following a bungled transition marked by the underhanded interference of some military officers, did the military formally leave power—and then only formally. Whether they tried to meet them in earnest or not, the challenges of withdrawing the military from the political arena and democratizing the country have dogged all military heads of state. The challenges were complicated by Mauritania’s intractable ethnocultural rivalries subsumed under the “national question” and the related “human rights deficit.” After Colonel Ould Taya, whose lengthy and repressive regime had the deepest impact on the country and the national question in particular, the challenges were even harder for his successors to face. The latest transfer of power between one retired general and another, both of whom had conspired to overthrow Mauritania’s only democratically elected civilian president, is evidence that, as major players, Mauritania’s military leaders are well on their way to institutionalizing the Mauritania of the Colonels they assiduously fashioned for more than 40 years.

Russian Film Comedy

Soviet and Russian cinemas offer unique opportunities to investigate the role of humor as an escape from oppression and an instrument for change. This chapter follows the nation’s filmmakers from the idealistic days of revolution (Lev Kuleshov, Sergei Eisenstein, Aleksandr Medvedkin), through Stalin’s repressive regime (Grigory Aleksandrov and Ivan Pyrev) and the chills and thaws of the Cold War (Eldar Ryazanov, Leonid Gaidai, Tengiz Abuladze). It introduces lesser-known talents who made films before (Yevgeny Bauer, Boris Barnet) and after (Yuri Mamin, Kira Muratova, Valery Todorovskiy) the Soviet era. In their own ways, each of these directors contributed to a comic cinema that builds on the ironic sensibility of Chekhov, the satiric caricatures of Gogol, and the archetypes of Russia’s native folklore.