WSC Social Studies Czar's Horses

Putin rebuilding the glory of the Soviet UnionDuring the cold war, the Soviet Union was a top tier country, serving as a global power. In 1991, when it dissolved, Russia found itself losing relevance. Right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin became the ruler of the newly formed Russian federation. Because he wasn’t dominant and the Soviet Union basically lost the cold war. Russia’s relevance was lost and less people saw it as a global superpower. At the collapse of the USSR, Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer stationed in the East German city Dresden. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, that signaled the end of Soviet Control in Germany, crowds went to destroy the KGB headquarters in East Germany, and because Putin and his men didn’t have enough power to defend the building, they just lied to them that they had a lot of armed people inside. At that moment he felt he was watching one of the most powerful empires unravel in the most pathetic and humiliating way. During the 90’s Putin moved from the KGB to the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, and then worked at Yeltsin’s office. In 1998, when Bill Clinton called Yeltsin to tell him the US was considering airstrikes in Serbia, Yeltsin was just mad, but didn’t do anything. Putin saw how Yeltsin is not dominant, and he decided to replace him as the president. Unlike Yeltsin, Putin worked with an approach from his KGB background to always show he’s in control, so for example when Strobe Talbott, a politician, came to Russia, Putin dropped some names of Yalbotts poets he learned about in university. Also all of his workers were now with backgrounds from the KGB too, and to bring back Russia to its top tier spot, Putin turned back to history. Russia’s history was full of bloodshed and wars, but still he requested from the citizens to adore the past. He did that by adoring WW2 veterans and calling the war a patriotic one. Putin wants Russia to not feel guilty of their past, but proud of it. He uses Russian historical figures, such as Prince Vladimir, who established Rus in the 10th century, Lenin, and himself. He also tried to make his character much more appealing by having very strong and manly photos, such as riding a horse topless, or participating in a Judo competition, but his way of work is still very discrete.

Mussolini rebuilding the glory of the Roman empire in ItalyBenito Mussolini was a teacher in Italy during the 30’s, but then turned into politics, and was the first to have a fascist vision - a belief that the country is more important than the people, and that the citizens are meant to serve the country and not the other side, and lastly that the country should be constantly in war against other countries, for the dictator to not get any judgment from the media. The thing he did to make Italy fascist was to appeal to the citizen’s nostalgia to the Roman empire, and he tells the citizens of Italy that with him in power they can be as powerful as the Roman empire. He used signs such as the Fasces (from there comes the term facism), which was a symbol for the Roman empire’s military power. It talks there about Adolf Hitler, which I can guess he used the nostalgia to the era of Otto von Bismarck, the uniting of Germany, before WW1 when Germany was actually not broke, and so people loved him because like Mussolini he gave promises he’ll bring the glory of the past.

Conservatives long for three great American periodsConservatives are people who don’t believe so much in renewing stuff, and prefer religion. They are republicans in America. These republicans tend to long for three specific periods of time in American history. The first one, being the 50’s, was right after WW2 and America’s big win. It was after the Great Depression (1930s s) had ended, so now with the win every man with a high-school graduation could afford raising a family. At the time there were Republican presidents, like Richard Nixon and Eisenhower. Therefore it was the best time for Americans, and for Republicans specifically. Another period of time is the 80’s, and that’s because Ronald Reagan, a Republican president, has done a lot of tax cuts at the time, and because of the US’ win in the cold war against the USSR. The last period is November of 2016, when Donald Trump got the presidential job. All 3 are periods of time in which conservative people exist. Author David Frum researched the topic, and he doesn’t like the idea of conservatives appealing to nostalgia to the 50’s, because as a result they don’t change the world and think only of the past. He also has an opinion that unlike Robert H. Bork, that the republican great era lasted in the 1960’s too. He also thinks that from now on looking towards the future the US will become more feminist, and hopefully the conservatives will accept it. Also says that in these eras of republican greatness, he notes there are  more sexual assault cases.

The politicization of nostalgiaEzgi Elci is a researcher in the department of International Relations at Ozyegin University, Turkey. He researched on if nostalgia boosts populism (telling the simple people simple statements and not too complicated stuff to make them vote for them). Donald Trump used nostalgia to boost populism by stating that he will “make America great again”. Venezuelans referred to Simon Bolivar, the guy who gave their independence and a lot of other South American states as “El Libertador” in order to support the formation of a big Latin country in South America. In Turkey the “Justice and Development Party” builds their rhetoric on nostalgia to the strong Ottoman empire. In western Europe right-wing populists appeal to their voters by appealing to their nostalgia to the era before a lot of immigrants came to Europe, and the era before the unification of Europe, when their country lost sovereignty. Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban appeals to the Treaty of Trianon, that ended WW1 and gave Hungary more borders to settle in. Ezgi Elci defines nostalgia as “nost” (return home) “algia” (a painful condition), therefore nostalgia is homecoming when the condition is bad. Politicians use nostalgia in a way that they paint an image of the past in an era before the corruptions and distortions of today. They use nostalgia to create a border between the authentic us and the immoral them. It maintains a specific identity when there is a crisis of some sorts. In politics nostalgia is used to make other politicians look like enemies that need to be destroyed instead of legit rivals. Using nostalgia as the ruler will always be harder than using nostalgia as a form of criticizing the ruling power, because the ruling power can actually do stuff about it. That’s why Trump used nostalgia in the way I just said in the last bit, while Bernie Sanders, from the democrats, uses nostalgia to revive the era when workers had better working conditions. The main example in the article talks about Turkey, in which there are the Islamists, who want a religious country, unlike the Kemalists, who want a non-religious country. The Ottoman nostalgia directs resentment to the Kemalist ruling power, and the Kemalist nostalgia that is made to counter the Ottoman nostalgia is simply weaker, because Kemalism has less history than the Ottoman empire. The author conducted a survey and found out that people prefer the Ottoman empire nostalgia than the Kemalist nostalgia. Nostalgia is often washed away from bad memories, and so the author says we should look to the future more than to the past.

British Luddites breaking mechanical loomsAround 200 years ago in Britain, there was the industrial revolution. In the textile industry this led to William Lee creating a knitting machine, called a stocking frame. Because the popularization of machines led to low-quality textile stuff being sold, and not-apprenticed workers getting paid more than people who learned the natural subject for years, a group of people, called the Luddists, formed up to improve the machines by destroying the old ones and hopefully making more advanced ones, and also to bring back the credit to those who approach the textile industry in the natural way. They called themselves ‘luddists’ after a fictional character named Ned Ludd, who was their “general/ king” (for tricking the British soldiers”), who is told to be a worker who was told by his evil owner to square his needles, but Ludd instead took a hammer and flattened the entire machine. The luddites were serious about their cause, but still were really strange. For example they once protested with dresses, claiming they are general Ludd’s wives, or that they bought hammers from the same blacksmith that created the machines they intended to destroy (his name was Enoch). Britain didn’t like this at all, and so a lot of Luddites were killed or hanged for their protests. Throughout the last 200 years the meaning of the word Luddite changed a lot, and now it means just someone who generally hates technology. Sometimes though they use technology to further their cause just like Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, a terrorist that sent explosive packages to people. It also refers to people who hate or are clumsy with technology.

Anti Social New-York TeenagersLogan Lane, got a cell phone when she was in a young age, but during the pandemic she realized that the social media apps consumed her life, and after meeting Jameson Butler, another student, at a party, she made with him a promise that both won’t use a smartphone, and they started hanging out weekly. At the beginning it was extremely boring switching from a smartphone to a flip-phone, but after a while Lane was more creative and used her time better. They call the club “the luddite club”, named after the luddites from the previous paragraph . It now has 16 members, and they meet up every Sunday in prospect park and there they read books, play guitar, and do journalism stuff. Some of them changed their phone from a smartphone to a flip phone, and others still have a smartphone but come to the club to get out of the screens for a day. The club is now in a massive problem as most of its members are moving to college, and can’t stay in it. On your trip to Yale University, have your New-York day on a Sunday, and go search for these kids in Prospect Park.

Mennonites in Belize \n In the late 1950’s a group of over 3000 Canadian Mennomites, people who have the same beliefs as Amish people, but can still use electronics, although they just don’t want to, unlike Amish who are not permitted. These Canadian Mennomites immigrated from Mexico to Belize, because they wanted to be a part of a pretty closed society, and got an agreement from the Belizean government that offered them land, less taxes, and not being in the army, for getting most of their agricultural goods. Belize thrives from this deal even today. Jake Michaels, a photographer, went to 3 Mennonite towns: Little Belize, Indian Creek, and Shipyard, and there he found a christian community that doesn’t tend to use electronics, for instance they ride on horses, although in some occasions he finds a girl or a few boys using cameras from the 80’s. The people there are very nice, and unlike the Amish aren’t total anti-society people, though they still want to live in a kinda closed christian community. They still wear traditional clothes and stuff.