{"id":175,"date":"2017-01-25T23:26:41","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T23:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=175"},"modified":"2017-01-31T14:50:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T14:50:32","slug":"postmodern-politics-post-truth-putin-and-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/01\/25\/postmodern-politics-post-truth-putin-and-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Postmodern Politics: Post-truth, Putin, and Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Under what circumstances do we think things are real?” -William James, 1950<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Postmodernism is about the break down of traditional boundaries, whether between fact\/fiction, subject\/object, high brow\/low brow, man\/woman, producer\/consumer. As Isabel Pinedo points out, “categories break down, boundaries blur, institutions fall into question, master narratives collapse, the inevitably of progress crumbles, and the master status of the universal (read: male, white, married, heterosexual) subject deteriorates.” (Recreational Terror, 18).<\/p>\n

While Pinedo goes on to explore how horror films reflect these postmodern elements, I am more interested in the postmodern horror of everyday life. Postmodernism compels us to see systems and relationships as complex and contradictory — even paradoxical in many cases — so it is important to note that while this particular exploration is focused on the negatives, there are positive aspects that emerge out of the liminal spaces that the postmodern condition makes rooms for.<\/p>\n

A particular timely postmodern horror of everyday life is the break down of shared reality and facts. As boundaries blur and our conceptions of “truth” become tenuous, we live in perpetual uncertainty — what sociologist Ulrich Beck terms the “risk regime” of everyday life.<\/p>\n

I say that this is timely due to events like Oxford Dictionaries naming “post-truth” the word of the year<\/a>\u00a0after witnessing Trump’s presidential campaign run on deceptions, half-truths, and blatant lies. Last week when the new White House released “alternative facts<\/a>” marked another slippage into the uncertain realm between truth and falsehood.<\/p>\n

Postmodern power figures are those who can manipulate reality in order to best cling to power. Putin provides an effective template by keeping Vladislav Surkov close by.\u00a0Vladislav Surkov, Deputy Prime Minister and Putin’s “grey cardinal”<\/a> actually came from a theatre and PR background and in turn, runs Russia like a political theatre.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Vladislav Surkov and Vladimir Putin in 2006 (Sergei Karpukhin\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He funds anti-fascism youth groups and then neo-Nazis<\/a> in the same day; he takes over film companies; controls TV presenters; funds anti-Putin political parties \u00a0— the difference, however, is that he does so publicly. The result is a confused populace who are never really certain of the true motives and intentions of any group or the veracity of any broadcaster or creative. This type of postmodern knowledge paralysis is extremely effective at making it difficult for any dissenting figure or group to enact change or challenge power.<\/p>\n

This presents one of the characteristic contradictions of postmodernism — perhaps some institutions do crumble. But the emergence of post-truth and Surkovian theatre politics also make it easier for powerful figures who understand how to bend and destabilize shared reality to retain indefinite power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Under what circumstances do we think things are real?” -William James, 1950 Postmodernism is about the break down of traditional boundaries, whether between fact\/fiction, subject\/object, high brow\/low brow, man\/woman, producer\/consumer. As Isabel Pinedo points out, “categories break down, boundaries blur, institutions fall into question, master narratives collapse, the inevitably of progress crumbles, and the master … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Postmodern Politics: Post-truth, Putin, and Power”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[24,20,21,25,22,23],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-b","tag-alternative-facts","tag-post-truth","tag-postmodernism","tag-pr","tag-putin","tag-surkov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}