General Interest

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history and conspiracy

How do conspiracies happen, how can historians use them to understand more about the past, and where do they begin and cease to be relevant to the study of history? 

Conspiracy and Democracy

How do conspiracies happen, how can historians use them to understand more about the past, and where do they begin and cease to be relevant to the study of history? Such questions were the starting point for this panel debate, in which Professor Christopher Andrew and Dr Stephen Dorril examine cases from Stalinist Russia, Harold Wilson’s government in the 1960s, and Northern Ireland in the 1970s, to name but a few. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/history-and-conspiracy#sthash.UnAMoebB.dpuf

History and conspiracy

Jonathan Haslam, Professor of the History of International Relations
The history of Russia’s Secret Services from the Revolution to the Fall of the Wall: the Military Intelligence, the codes and ciphers and the KGB. 

Near and Distant Neighbours 1917–1989

Dr Girard will describe how the “red scare” greatly varied depending on the period, the political affiliation or the country; and the main long-lasting conspiracy theory actually concerned the threat of the far-right and, to a certain extent, of the government itself. 

Conspiracy Theories in France and Italy during the Cold War and Decolonization

A Public Lecture by Conspiracy & Democracy Visiting Fellow Professor Cornel Zwierlein (Ruhr-Universität Bochum). 

It seems as if Conspiracy Theories are a particularly modern phenomenon. By relying on some examples and cases, this lecture gives a long-term overview of what they looked like and when they appeared. We possess full-fledged conspiracy theory texts only since the 16th century. While examples may have existed already in Antiquity, we do not possess any textual evidence for them. The lecture tries to develop an explanation for why conspiracy theories emerged only at this point in European history. In order to do so, it is necessary to distinguish between conjurations, any kind of revolts, conspiracies and conspiracy theories. We will show how their coming into being is linked to the emergence of the ‘Information Public Sphere’, as a by-product of the early inter-state diplomatic communication (which has, first, little to do with the later famous ‘Enlightenment Public Sphere’), and how those narratives filled in where knowledge gaps existed. In a hasty run through history, we will distinguish several phases or ‘epochs’ of Conspiracy (theory) communication. Finally, we will ask how Democracy comes in: ‘Real’ democracies were practiced rather nowhere after Ancient Europe, and were rare even during the 19th century. So, in pre-modern times, often it was ‘democracy’ or ‘democrats’ that were ‘conspiring’ against the good order of the commonwealth – not vice versa.

Cornel Zwierlein is Associate Professor at the University of Bochum, Germany. Currently, he is on leave as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. His research focuses on the intersection of political, religious and scientific knowledge. Cornel is the author of ‘Discorso und Lex Dei die Entstehung neuer Denkrahmen im 16. Jahrhundert und die Wahrnehmung der französischen Religionskriege in Italien und Deutschland’ (Göttingen, 2006), and, more recently, ‘Der gezähmte Prometheus. Feuer und Sicherheit zwischen Früher Neuzeit und Moderne’ (Göttingen, 2011). 

The Early Modern Foundations of Conspiracy & Democracy

Mr Dwight Smith Jr will speak about ‘The Mafia & Conspiracy’. Mr Smith’s paper will explore how the idea of the mafia and conspiracy emerged in America, developed and became entangled in very different contexts.

Mr Smith will describe the ideas, experiences, and events through which his book, ‘The Mafia Mystique’ (1975), took shape; the consequences of those events that have led to contemporary public understanding and use of ‘Mafia’ in the United States; and the consequences in a democracy of strategies that were developed for organized crime control. 

The Mafia & Conspiracy

Since the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, last year, the U.S. has seen the growth of a new social movement that has focused national attention on policing tactics, criminal justice, and the continued health and social inequalities confronting black Americans today. Legislation that would require states to notify the U.S. Justice Department of all police shootings, fatal and non-fatal, has been introduced. President Obama made an historic visit to a federal prison to draw attention to the need for criminal justice reform. This Forum explored these efforts and other policy shifts over the past year, looking at what has — or has not — occurred in addressing these serious problems facing black Americans in today’s policing policies, the operation of the criminal justice system, and the continued presence of inequitable health and social conditions.
This discussion built upon a February 2015 Forum production that examined the intersection of race with policing practices, neighborhood environments, educational and employment opportunities, and other factors that impact health. We reconvened that panel of public health, social justice and legal experts to further explore their recommendations and the ongoing challenges of creating policy change.

This event was presented October 1, 2015 in Collaboration with PRI’s The World & WGBH.

Watch the entire series from The Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at www.ForumHSPH.org.

Revisiting Race, Criminal Justice and Health: What Has — and Has Not Changed — in the U.S.

Speaker(s): Mark Canning, Dr Jurgen Haacke, Shibani Mahtani | In 2010 the world saw in Myanmar both relief and opportunity when - thirteen years after Myanmar achieved ASEAN membership - political and economic reforms began, shifting Myanmar away from isolationist military rule towards civilian government. Even while the depth and degree of these reforms remain unclear, Myanmar, one of Southeast Asia's poorest and most fragile economies, has begun to see easing in its foreign relations, and international trade and investment engagements. But just as Myanmar's history has long been troubled, with one of the world's longest-running periods of ethnic strife and civil wars, from well before military rule began in 1962, so too Myanmar since 2010 has shown a chequered and fragile landscape of continued religious and ethnic conflict. This November Myanmar goes to the polls. What will determine the outcome of those general elections? How will Myanmar achieve economic success comparable to those of its ASEAN neighbours? Mark Canning is Senior Adviser at Bell Pottinger and former UK Ambasssador to Indonesia, ASEAN, Myanmar, Malaysia and Zimbabwe. Jurgen Haacke is Associate Professor of International Relations at LSE, and Centre Associate at the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. Shibani Mahtani (@ShibaniMahtani) is Staff Reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is based in Yangon, and reports on Myanmar and the rest of Southeast Asia. Danny Quah (@DannyQuah) is Professor of Economics and International Development at LSE, and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (@LSESEAC) is an inter-disciplinary, regionally-focused academic centre within the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE. Building on the School's deep academic and historical connections with Southeast Asia, the Centre seeks to encourage the best academic and policy research, with core focus on the social context of the region.

Myanmar on the Brink [Audio]

Technological conspiracies are good conspiracies - at least from the perspective of their proponents. Understanding their dynamics, especially within the context of liberalism, may help shed light upon an apparent puzzle of twenty-first century living: why, when individual privacy is being systematically undermined by both governments and corporations, so few people seem to care. The answer, I suggest, has much to do with rapidly changing conceptions of self and society, but also a prior, fundamental commitment to imagining both self and society as quantifiable and controllable. Leading liberal theorists today tend to see the digital challenge to privacy as undermining one of the core commitments of liberalism. However, I wish to suggest that our current predicament is the result of liberalism's internal logic , a political theory that formally eschews conspiracy thinking in favour of science and modernity, yet one that manages to employ theories of good conspiracy, nonetheless. Technological conspiracies are the fulfilment of a modern, liberal dream, bringing together political power and technology so that citizens are fully known to their governments and corporations such that older concerns with privacy simply become irrelevant.

A public lecture by Professor Lawrence Quill (San Jose). 

Technological Conspiracies

Speaker(s): Shami Chakrabarti | To mark the paperback release of On Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti will be in conversation with Conor Gearty and taking questions from the audience and Twitter. You can send your questions via Twitter to @LSELaw using #LSEShami. In On Liberty Shami explores why our fundamental rights and freedoms are paramount in upholding democracy, and how they are coming under unprecedented pressure today. Since 9/11 governments have decided that human and civil rights, and the rule of law, are often too costly, and have offered an apparently simple trade-off: greater security in exchange for less freedom. Drawing on her own life and work, and on Liberty’s campaigning on issues including privacy, 42 day detention and ASBOs, Shami shows why our rights are indispensable and looks to the future. These freedoms, for which generations have fought, both protect and empower us, and curb the power of the mighty – and what’s more, Shami warns, once gone, they will be almost impossible to recover. Shami Chakrabarti is Director of the civil liberties advocacy organisation Liberty. She was a member of the panel of the Leveson Inquiry and is Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and an alumna of LSE. Conor Gearty (@conorgearty) is Director of the Institute of Public Affairs and Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE.  LSE Law (@lselaw) is an integral part of the School's mission, plays a major role in policy debates & in the education of lawyers and law teachers from around the world.

On Liberty: a conversation with Shami Chakrabarti [Audio]

Peiran Wei, a 2015 China and Globalization Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and former Bloomberg reporter, describes his country as "switching gears" – in its economy, its politics, and its culture. Wei discusses attitudes towards the rising billionaire class in China, the impact of China’s capital outflow around the globe, and the importance of social stability to the Communist Party.

Don't Panic: China's Just Switching Gears | PolicyCast

Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, will speak about ‘Holocaust Denial: A Flat Earth Theory or a Clear and Present Danger?’

Holocaust denial, the attempt to deny that the Third Reich engaged in the annihilation of approximately six million Jews, has been depicted as a serious threat to historical truth. Others have dismissed it as the equivalent of the theory that the earth is flat, i.e. absurd, illogical, and unworthy of serious consideration. In this presentation Professor Lipstadt will explore these two contradictory perspectives on Holocaust denial. In addition, she will explore the difference between “hardcore” or traditional Holocaust denial and the more recent phenomenon of “soft core” denial. 

Holocaust Denial: A Flat Earth Theory or a Clear and Present Danger?

Good morning on today's show, Carol Anderson, (@ProfCAnderson) the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy joins us. Carol Anderson's&nbsp;One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy&nbsp;explores the history of voting and its struggle to make democracy real through the 15th amendment. Anderson examines previous examples of voter suppression&nbsp;like the poll tax and literacy test in the 19th century as points where black voters and poor voters were kept from the polls in southern states. In modern times, voter ID laws have become the hot legislation to disenfranchise citizens from voting.&nbsp;Anderson cites Indiana's 2005 voter ID law as a particularly absurd measure which was enacted in a state that had never charged a citizen with voter fraud. Anderson argues that the 14th and 15th amendment have been stripped of their legal protections by cases brought to the Supreme Court. Anderson argues that Reagan's southern strategy and the migration of the Dixiecrats to the Republican party helped drive the GOP further to the right and are now doubling down on a white ethnic identity party funded by special corporate interest. So what's next? Anderson insists that non-partisan redistricting commissions come to the forefront, beyond that we must elect politicians whose commitment to the Voting Rights Act is unquestionable. And in the Fun Half: Climate catastrophe, Brett Stephens' bad faith climate argument, fascist regimes will fail to protect their constituents, the Teamster UPS contract dispute, Michael goes in on the idea of "anti-corruption" political campaigns citing last night's election in Brazil, Mitch McConnell's career dedication to the ultra-elite is unmatched in American history, Orin Hatch dismisses female protestors in the most unsavory way, it's Dinesh Dsouza revisionist history hours on Fox &amp; Friends, Taylor Swift is voting Democratic and Charlie Kirk is crushed, plus your calls and IMs! Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com Get 10% off fair trade coffee, tea or chocolate with coupon code "Majority" at justcoffee.coop Newsvoice: Get a personalized newsfeed featuring a mixture of mainstream, international, and independent sources with Newsvoice’s free app (iOS or Android) at https://newsvoice.com/majority Check out The Michael Brooks Show at patreon.com/tmbs,&nbsp;and the new TMBS YouTube channel for all short TMBS clips Check out Matt’s podcast, Literary Hangover, at Patreon.com/LiteraryHangover or on iTunes Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada, at patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at youtube.com/theantifada Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @majorityfm @SamSeder @_michaelbrooks @MattLech @jamie_elizabeth @Bf1nn

1943 - One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy w/ Carol Anderson

Adam and Chet welcome comedian Olivia Haidar to talk about the 2013 court ruling that led to a wave of voter suppression that's still happening in America

Good Luck, America

How Voter Suppression Works

How do conspiracies happen, how can historians use them to understand more about the past, and where do they begin and cease to be relevant to the study of history? Such questions were the starting point for this panel debate, in which Professor Christopher Andrew and Dr Stephen Dorril examine cases from Stalinist Russia, Harold Wilson’s government in the 1960s, and Northern Ireland in the 1970s, to name but a few.

History and Conspiracy

This week, we're talking Voter Suppression and how to power through it, this coming November.

Episode 179: Voter Suppression Is Real

Disagreements within parties have shifted the terms of debate, forced new agendas onto the political stage, even birthed new parties altogether. So in this episode of BackStory. Peter, Ed, and Brian peer inside our political parties and explore some of the influential factions that have left a mark on the American political landscape – from the Radical Republicans after the Civil War, to the Dixiecrats after World War II. Plus, they look back to the early Republic and a time before the formation of party organizations, when “faction” was the only game in town.

Technological Conspiracies

University of Cambridge