Reflections on Violence

Abstract

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Myth as political and social performance.

“…The artist was hero; the creator-destroyer of worlds. One influential (both Mussolini and Lenin praised it) statement of this position was that in Georges Sorel's (1970) Reflections on Violence, first published in 1908. He argues against the "equivocation" of Socialism in the face of the philistine bourgeoisie and specifically evokes the use of myth in violent political action: "Use must be made of a body of images" which, by intuition alone, and before any considered analyses are made, is capable of evoking as an undivided whole the mass of sentiments which corresponds to the different manifestations of the war undertaken by Socialism against modern society.…”

Are technology myths stalling aviation climate policy?

“…Myths thus serve specific purposes and have real consequences, though in contrast to Sorel (1941), who originally discussed myths as mechanisms instigating action, this paper focuses on the role of technology myths in stalling progress in climate policy for aviation. As outlined by Gotesky (1952: 530), the function of a myth is to keep "…going against defeat, frustration, disappointment; and … [to] preserve institutions and institutional process."…”