scholarly journals Death Cults and Dystopian Scenarios: Neo-Nazi Religion and Literature in the USA Today

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1067
Author(s):  
Geoff M. Boucher

In this article, I investigate the literary representation of the religious convictions and political strategy of neo-Nazi ideologues who are influential in rightwing authoritarian movements in the USA today. The reason that I do this is because in contemporary fascism, the novel has replaced the political manifesto, the military manual and proselytizing testimony, since fiction can evade censorship and avoid prosecution. I read William Luther Pierce’s Turner Diaries and Hunter together with his text on speculative metaphysics and religious belief, Cosmotheism. Then, I turn to Harold Covington’s Northwestern Quintet with The Brigade, reading this with Christian Identity and his own conception of Nazi religious tolerance. Finally, I look at OT Gunnarsson’s Hear the Cradle Song, reading this together with discussions of racism in Californian Odinism. I propose that what this literature shows is that the doctrinal differences between the three main strands of neo-Nazi religion—Cosmotheism, Christian Identity and Odinism—are less significant than their common ideological functions. These are twofold: (1) the sacralization of violence and (2) the sanctification of elites. The dystopian fictions of fascist literature present civil war scenarios whose white nationalist and genocidal outcome is the result of what are, strictly speaking, supremacist death cults.

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Alexander Sidorov ◽  

The introduction examines the interaction of the EU countries and their approaches to the themes of defence and security in the changed geopolitical realities (Brexit, D. Trump's rise to power in the USA, the mood of the new leadership of the EU institutions, etc.). It highlights both the difficulties in creating an independent defence pole and the opportunities that open up in connection with Brexit and an objective reduction in the potential for blocking initiatives aimed at revitalizing and implementing specific defence projects. The difficulties of creating the EU military doctrine and the implementation of a common strategic culture are revealed in the context of different goal-setting of the main participants in European defence construction, related, inter alia, to the heterogeneous development of the integration in the context of its ongoing expansion, different perception and assessment of threats and the existence of de facto unequal security zones in Europe. The nature of the interaction between the CSDP EU and NATO is shown; the role of this interaction as a catalyst for the processes of greater EU independence in the military sphere is highlighted, taking into account the specifics of the EU global approach to resolving crises of low and medium intensity on the periphery of the EU. An assessment of the feasibility of cooperation plans in the field of defence and security, initiatives at the EU and interstate levels in connection with the pandemic is given. It notes the flexibility, sustainability and multi-formatting of defence cooperation in the EU, the political mood of its main participants to continue and improve cooperation within the framework of the CSDP in order to strengthen the EU’s position as an international political actor.


Author(s):  
Alfonso Macedo Rodrí­guez

ResumenRespiración artificial (1980) no sólo es una de las grandes novelas de la narrativa argentina de la dictadura militar que controló al paí­s entre 1976 y 1983, también es un referente polí­tico insoslayable que en cada nueva lectura plantea el problema de la memoria y la escritura como espacios de resistencia social. En este artí­culo se explorarán los textos previos que anuncianla publicación de la novela, así­ como el contexto polí­tico de censura, autocensura y persecución de los opositores al régimen dictatorial. Los textos que antecedierona la novela se publicaron en la revista Punto de vista, faro intelectual y polí­tico de aquella época, y cobran relevancia estética, historiográfica y polí­tica, ya que la lectura entre lí­neas de Respiración artificial permite eludir la censura pero también produce nuevase ingeniosas formas de renovación literaria.Palabras clave: Dictadura argentina, Ricardo Piglia, Respiración artificial, texto, contexto. AbstractRespiración artificial (1980) is not just one of the greatest novels of the Argentinian narrative of the military dictatorship that took control of the country between 1976 and 1983. It is also an unavoidable political reference that, in every new reading, reappraises the problems of memory and writing as spaces of social resistance. This paper explores the previous texts that announce the publication of the novel, as well as the political context of censorship, self-censorship and prosecution of the opponents of the dictatorial regime. The previous texts were published in Punto de vista Review, intellectual and political headlight of periodical publications of that time, and they acquire aesthetic, historiographical and political relevance, because the reading between lines of Respiración artificial eludes censorship, but also produces new and ingenious ways of literary renovation. Keywords: Argentinian Dictatorship, Ricardo Piglia, Respiración artificial, text, context. [1] Doctor y Maestro en Humanidades (Teorí­a literaria) por la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa. Coordinador de Investigación y profesor investigador de la Universidad La Salle Pachuca. Autor de diversos artí­culos de investigación sobre la narrativa de Ricardo Piglia y otros escritores hispanoamericanos en revistas especializadas.


Author(s):  
Volodymyr Fisanov

The article is devoted to little-known aspects of the political and military developments in the Middle East during the Cold War – from the division of Palestine into two states and until the mid-1950s. The focus is on the confrontation between the two superpowers of the United States and the USSR for their influence on Arab countries. This article uses little-known documentary material, as well as the display of some of the described international events in contemporary film documentaries. It was clarified that in the investigated period the first steps of the policy of large foreign military aid and cooperation on development issues in the Middle East were carried out, first of all, on the part of the USSR and the USA. It was emphasized in particular that then two international coalitions were formed – the monarchical Arab regimes and Israel were supported by the official Washington, and the national revolutionary regimes, where the military forces came to power (Egypt, Syria), cooperated with Moscow. Keywords: Middle East, Great Britain, USA, USSR, Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Cold War, supply of weapons, digital cinema collections


Author(s):  
Giulia Riccò

The novel K. Relato de uma busca, whose publication coincided with the Brazilian National Truth Commission, has proven remarkably more effective in producing a public and institutional reckoning with the crimes of the military regime than any of the institutional mechanisms implemented by the government or any other testimonial novel previously written about the abuses of the military regime. Its appeal, in part, has to do with Kucinski’s usage of various discourses—fiction, testimonial, epistolary—that successfully challenge the authoritative, and non-dialogic discourse of the military regime. This essay argues that in this novel, politics and fiction are inverted: instead of having a law that fictionalizes the memory of the violence perpetrated by the dictatorship, we have a work of fiction that, by memorializing the struggle of a father in search of his disappeared daughter, brings the crimes committed by the military back into the political discourse.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-203
Author(s):  
Malika Sharipovna Tovsultanova ◽  
Rustam Alhazurovich Tovsultanov ◽  
Lilia Nadipovna Galimova

The paper examines the confrontation between the army, which supported the inviolability of the principles of a secular state, and the supporters of the Islamic way of development. The authors provide a short course on the history of the military coups of 1960, 1971 and 1980. Based on the analysis of actions and public statements of the event participants themselves, researchers come to a conclusion that the fight against clerical tendencies played a role in the preparation of military coups no less than the fight against left radicals. The 1970s in the history of Turkey is an extremely unstable political period when weak coalition governments were in power. Aggravated by the end of the 1970s party contradictions gave the military a pretext for another coup, which led to the fall of the Second and the formation of the Third Republic in the political history of Turkey. By the end of the 20th century Islamic proponents, having accumulated vast experience of confrontation with the army elite, had developed a new political strategy, becoming the locomotive of the struggle for democratic changes, which allowed them to win elections in 1996 and then in 2002. Having finally taken power in the country, the Islamic Justice and Development Party began largescale reforms of the army, which are still ongoing.


Author(s):  
Kathy E. Ferguson

This paper explores the activities of The No-Conscription League in the U.S. in order to analyse the conceptual logic and the political strategy of the movement. The grounds of the anarchists’ opposition were not based on pacifism, but on the right to choose what to fight for. Contrary to contemporary images of anarchists as isolated extremists, the anarchists forged an effective coalition with socialists and other progressives. The connected their opposition to militarism and to capitalism with their support for birth control, because all three issues have to do with freedom to control one’s own body. They questioned conscription from the theoretical position of internationalism, as well as appealing to the rights of Americans to protect their liberties. They also critiqued the militarization of American society as a greater danger than those the war was intended to fight.


Napredak ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Radovan Radinović

Yugoslavia was destroyed through the concerted effort of domestic forces of the seceding republics and foreign factors, embodied by the entirety of the Western world. Although the USA undoubtedly supported the West, in the early stages of the process, they favored the preservation of Yugoslavia. The country with the leading role in the destruction of Yugoslavia was Germany. The causes of the disappearance of Yugoslavia from the political map of Europe and the world were numerous: economic, social, political, geopolitical, etc. In this article we focus on the military component, that is, the role of the Yugoslav People's Army in the destruction process. We consider various factors which brought to the situation in which the YPA proved itself utterly unsuccessful and ineffective in defending itself from destruction from the inside. We also look at the opportunities with which the YPA was presented, which it failed to seize. These choices lead the country and its citizens into a bloody civil war with countless victims and great destruction. The YPA itself was finally pilloried for its ultimately disastrous attempts to protect the state from aggressive forces within.


1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Darren Kew

In many respects, the least important part of the 1999 elections were the elections themselves. From the beginning of General Abdusalam Abubakar’s transition program in mid-1998, most Nigerians who were not part of the wealthy “political class” of elites—which is to say, most Nigerians— adopted their usual politically savvy perspective of siddon look (sit and look). They waited with cautious optimism to see what sort of new arrangement the military would allow the civilian politicians to struggle over, and what in turn the civilians would offer the public. No one had any illusions that anything but high-stakes bargaining within the military and the political class would determine the structures of power in the civilian government. Elections would influence this process to the extent that the crowd influences a soccer match.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-145
Author(s):  
İsmail Güllü

Yarım aşırı aşan bir geçmişe sahip Almanya’ya göç olgusu beraberinde önemli bir edebi birikimi (Migrantenliteratur) de getirmiştir. Farklı adlandırmalar ile anılan bu edebi birikim, kendi içinde de farklı renkleri de barındıran bir özelliğe sahiptir. Edebi yazını besleyen en önemli kaynaklardan biri toplumdur. Yazarın içinde yaşadığı toplumsal yapı ve problemler üstü kapalı veya açık bir şekilde onun yazılarına yansımaktadır. Bu bağlamda araştırma, 50’li yaşlarında Almanya’ya giden ve ömrünün sonuna kadar orada yaşayan, birçok edebi ve düşünsel çalışması ile Türk edebiyatında önemli bir isim olan Fakir Baykurt’un “Koca Ren” ve Yüksek Fırınlar” adlı romanları ile birlikte Duisburg Üçlemesi’nin son kitabı olan “Yarım Ekmek” romanında ele aldığı konu ve roman kahramanları üzerinden din ve gelenek olgusu sosyolojik bir yaklaşımla ele alınmaktadır. Toplumcu-gerçekçi çizgide yer alan yazarın, uzun yıllar yaşadığı Türkiye’deki siyasi ve ideolojik geçmişi bu romanda kullandığı dil ve kurguladığı kahramanlarda kendini göstermektedir. Romanda Almanya’nın Duisburg şehrinde yaşayan Türklerin yeni kültürel ortamda yaşadıkları çatışma, kültürel şok, arada kalmışlık, iki kültürlülük temaları ön plandadır. Yazar romanda sadece Almanya’daki Türkleri ele almamakta, aynı zamanda Türkiye ile hatta başka ülkeler ile de ilişkilendirmeler yaparak bireysel ve toplumsal konuları ele almaktadır. Araştırmada, romanda yer alan dini ve geleneksel unsurlar sosyolojik olarak analiz edilmiştir. Genel anlamda bir göç romanı olma özelliği yanında Yarım Ekmek romanında dini, siyasi ve ideolojik birçok yorum ve tartışma söz konusudur. Romandaki bu veriler, inanç, ritüel, siyaset ve toplumsal boyutlarda kategorize edilerek ele alınmıştır.  ENGLISH ABSTRACTReligion and identity reflections in literature of immigrant: Religion and Tradition in Fakir Baykurt’s novel Yarım EkmekThe immigration fact which has nearly half century in Germany have brought a significant literal accumulation (Migrantenliteratur) in its wake. This literal accumulation, which is named as several denominations, has a feature including different colours in itself. One of the most important source snourishing literature is society. Societal structure and problems that the writer lives inside, directly or indirectly reflect on his/her compositions. In this context, the matter of religion and tradition by way of the issue and fictious characters in the novel of Fakir Baykurt who went to Germany in her 50’s and lived in there till his death and who is a considerable name in Turkish literature with his several literal and intellectual workings; “Yarım Ekmek” which is the third novel of Duisburg Trilogy with “Koca Ren” and “Yüksek Fırınlar” are discussed sociologically in the study. The political and ideological past of the socialist realist lined writer in Turkey where he spent his life for a long time, manifest itself on the speech and fictious characters of novel. In the novel, themes of new Turks’ conflict, cultural shock, being in the middle, bi culturalism in their new cultural nature in Duisburg which is the city they live in. The writer not only deals with Turks in Germany but also personal and social subjects via comparing them to Turkey and even other countries. In the study, religious and traditional elements analyzed sociologically. Besides the speciality of being a migration novel in general, there are a lot of religious, political and ideological interpretations and discussions in the novel. These datum in the novel are examinated in the context of belief, ritual, politics and social categorisation. 


Somatechnics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Natalie Kouri-Towe

In 2015, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Toronto (QuAIA Toronto) announced that it was retiring. This article examines the challenges of queer solidarity through a reflection on the dynamics between desire, attachment and adaptation in political activism. Tracing the origins and sites of contestation over QuAIA Toronto's participation in the Toronto Pride parade, I ask: what does it mean for a group to fashion its own end? Throughout, I interrogate how gestures of solidarity risk reinforcing the very systems that activists desire to resist. I begin by situating contemporary queer activism in the ideological and temporal frameworks of neoliberalism and homonationalism. Next, I turn to the attempts to ban QuAIA Toronto and the term ‘Israeli apartheid’ from the Pride parade to examine the relationship between nationalism and sexual citizenship. Lastly, I examine how the terms of sexual rights discourse require visible sexual subjects to make individual rights claims, and weighing this risk against political strategy, I highlight how queer solidarities are caught in a paradox symptomatic of our times: neoliberalism has commodified human rights discourses and instrumentalised sexualities to serve the interests of hegemonic power and obfuscate state violence. Thinking through the strategies that worked and failed in QuAIA Toronto's seven years of organising, I frame the paper though a proposal to consider political death as a productive possibility for social movement survival in the 21stcentury.


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