Modern Dissent in Central Europe: The Art of Defeat - 002

Totalitarian ideologies used in European political discourse in the twentieth century to explain major historical changes have altered forever the relationship between the state and its citizens. The aspiration of authoritarian regimes to acquire total control over individual lives through the control of education, employment, health systems, media and, later, also entertainment has succeeded beyond anything perceived possible until then in any political regime after European Enlightenment. Nazism and Communism have mobilized irrationally motivated mass support and won power in very short time. Their success was partially based on mass propaganda, using fear as a primary instinctive argument against a picture of both external and internal enemies.

The major focus of the course will be oriented towards topics trying to explain the reasons for mass support of totalitarian ideologies and states on the basis of an individual’s psychology. We will examine psychological explanations of self-victimization, the roles of victim and perpetrator, obedience mechanisms, majority society response to mass human rights abuses and the abusive past. Against this background the phenomenon of political and cultural dissent will be introduced and discussed. The role of electronic mass media in the changes in political culture, the theory of post-modern dictatorships, antiglobalisation movements and global terrorism are discussed as possible modern vehicles of totalitarian tendencies and reactions against them. The course will be a mixture of lecture, discussion and first hand experience. Students will be expected to write two research papers and consult their readings.