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sophistries in history’. The interpretative question remains: how do we do justice to the contemporary – Sunningdale in its own time – and to the historical – disciplined thinking about that time in relation to subsequent events? To which one can add a further question: how does one avoid as far as possible the sin and sophistry of the political manipulation of narratives? In this context it is worth reflecting on a remark by G.K. Chesterton in his popular A Short History of England. He noted a familiar paradox: the paradox is that the past is always present but what people
deployed in the present for contemporary political goals’.4 Campbell understood contemporary Croatian national identity as a tool deployed by the HDZ to secure particular political goals. This approach unwittingly colludes with one of the central myths of Franjoism: the idea that Tuœman/HDZ and the Croatian nation were one and the same. To argue that Croatian national identity was produced by political manipulation is to reject the possibility of alternative understandings and practices of national identity. It is to accept the Franjoist claim that the Croatian nation
the most part to emphasise either the ‘political’ or the ‘cultural’ – and both terms are usually rather narrowly defined. cultural Politics Where the ‘politics’ of cultural politics is emphasised, research tends to focus on government and the military – most particularly the US government or military – or, even more narrowly, on certain American presidencies. Relatedly, such scholarship sometimes discusses ‘political’ and ‘ideological’ messages in relation to history, propaganda, and political manipulation, classification and censorship, and government agencies and
the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda. Supported by the UK, the USA targeted Sunni Islamic fundamentalist groups, initially in Afghanistan and Iraq. As I explore, the ‘War on Terror’ is subject to a legitimation crisis considering it is not a ‘traditional war’. The scholars Callie Batts and David L. Andrews write that ‘the disabled body of the Paralympic soldier/athlete holds the potential for nationalistic representation and political manipulation’. 2 That is, the soldiers’ integration into a ‘national sporting
Videodrome , with its disturbance of clear cognitive categories, makes its consumers susceptible to political manipulation (Renn is being ‘programmed’ as an assassin by having a tape inserted into his body), in eXistenZ it is designed to enable collective hallucination. While Videodrome argues for a rending of the perceptual veil, eXistenZ recognises that the technology, as
complicated by a history of political manipulation and exploitation of concepts of national and cultural identity. Even cinema itself eludes clear-cut definitions in this age of intertextuality and virtual reality. Film can no longer be regarded as a discrete practice, much less so in a national industry whose production is so dependent on television for much of its funding and exhibition. Despite these
dramatic events attested to the Middle East as an integral part of the global village in terms of its exposure to modern technology, communication networks, and Western ideas. The young generation, which had known only revolutionary-centrist regimes in the second half of the twentieth century, emerged as a social actor in the 2011 events. Many angry young people protested against restrictions on individual liberties and political manipulation and expressed frustration over the severe economic distress of the population. In the boulevards and
desire to change the nature of political power and class relations, or was it the result of political manipulation? More probing analysis, which charts and questions the strategies, claims and alliances of a diverse and at times contradictory popular movement, is remarkable by its absence. With liberal scholarship tending to undervalue the role of popular collective actors, almost all analyses of the urban movement have come from Marxist or neo-Marxist perspectives. In this line of inquiry, the central 14 Lisbon rising question has often been trying to ascertain
of conflict. Abiodun Alao, for example, points to a failure of governance in how resources are exploited and utilized within the society.13 Accordingly, it is the political manipulation of resources in elite and interest politics that can trigger or sustain conflict. Likewise, Paul Williams sees poor governance and weak leadership as crucial in determining whether resources are a blessing or a curse. And although Williams is skeptical that an abundance or scarcity of resources (other than land) is directly responsible for driving conflict, he acknowledges that
1984. 69 RRPL, Kenneth Hill Files, Box 4, Folder LAOOC, Letter, Ueberroth to Shultz, 24 May 1984. 70 ‘LAOOC, IOC helped to pay for Romanians’ trip’, Los Angeles Times, 31 July 1984. See also H. E. Wilson, ‘The golden opportunity: Romania’s political manipulation of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games’, OLYMPIKA: The International Journal of Olympic Studies, III (1994). 71 ‘Hey Russia. It’s a heck of a party’, Sports Illustrated, 6 August 1984. 72 According to journalist Frank Deford, ABC stood for ‘Always Be Cheerleaders’. See F. Deford, ‘Cheer, cheer, cheer for