Workshops

POLITICAL PROPAGANDA

Though a word propaganda brings to mind images of dictatorships and wartime misinformation, it is still produced today by governments and institutions in massive amounts around the world. Ironically, propaganda appears to be thriving not only in totalitarian regimes, but also in an otherwise open society with freely flowing information. However, there is a significant distinction between two. In totalitarian societies, described by Orwell in his '1984', propaganda doesn't really try to control people's thoughts. Their behavior is controlled by force. Democratic societies are limited in using power against its own citizens, thus, people are allowed to speak out. With the help of propaganda government try to control what people say, in other words – what people think. Political experts are using science about language, audience dynamics, about how the mind works and they incorporate these into the framing of their political messages.
Wars, elections and other governmental activities were always fallowed by political propaganda. The aim of this workshop is disclosure of the ways governments want to persuade populaces of the justness of their actions as well as hide the failures, distract people from the truth and create new realities; to examine the differences of political manipulation in democratic and totalitarian societies.
Note: though manipulation of history itself by government for its political purposes is considered as political propaganda, it is, however, attached to 'History Writing' workshop and should be fully discussed there.

RELIGIOUS PROPAGATION

The term 'propaganda' first appeared in 1622 when Pope Gregory XV established the Sacred Congregation for Propagating the Faith (Congregatio de Propaganda Fide). But religious propaganda existed long before the 17th century, just like propagating the faith. The world's oldest, largest and most successful nongovernmental organizations are all religious. The roots of manipulating people's faith may lie in a way these organizations have employed the use of art. Religious propaganda, for instance, through art and music made the image of violent death seem compellingly attractive, execution became salvation. Vivid paintings and literary works like Dante's Divine Comedy worked as a tool for intensifying the fear of hell and thus the submission to the Church. Religious organizations justified their authority as God-given, as is representation of Christ, still used for the pope. Manipulation of religion quite often took a violent form. Each religion has its own way to perceive the world. These differences quite often lead to wars and religious distinctions between nations. Propaganda has long been used to demonize the enemy when religious conflicts take place, such as Crusades, Reformation, Jihad etc. All these subjects are the focus of attention of this workshop.

IMAGES AND STEREOTYPES

Tentions between neighbors, history wounds, syndrome of victim: how they changed through history and on what sociological conditions they belonged.

MANIPULATION OF HISTORY-WRITING

Collective memory has become an increasingly contested terrain. Historical revisionism and denialism (most famously - the denial of Holocaust), distortion of history, pseudohistory, mythological interpretations of the past, all these phenomena have influence on collective memory. Public and political functions of history, the politics of history-writing are fundamentals of this workshop.

INDOCTRINATION

When you control the education system, you can instill values and beliefs from a very young age. The Jesuits are famous for starting with the very young, with the chilling declaration 'Give me the child and I will give you the man'. Contemporary school textbooks in Russia raise a lot of discussions. The aim of this workshop is to evaluate how all kinds of manipulation, discussed in previous workshops, reflect in education system.


P.S. The last three workshop descriptions will be supplemented soon.