[{"content":" Overview Content Analysis: A research technique for the systematic classification and description of communication content based on predetermined categories. It can be quantitative, qualitative, or a combination of both. Quantitative content analysis involves counting occurrences (e.g., how often violence is depicted in media). Qualitative content analysis involves interpreting the meaning behind the content, overlapping with rhetorical and other qualitative methods discussed in previous weeks. Why Use Content Analysis? Researchers use content analysis to measure behavior within media, such as how characters in films or television programs act, or how frequently certain themes appear in advertisements or articles. It is commonly used to investigate themes like violence, bias, identity representation, or other significant patterns in media. Manifest vs. Latent Content Manifest Content: What is explicitly presented in the media (e.g., a character saying \"I love you\"). Latent Content: The underlying, hidden meanings behind what is explicitly shown, though content analysis typically focuses on manifest content. Coding Coding is a critical process in content analysis, where researchers classify and categorize the data they've collected based on predefined rules. Coding allows researchers to systematically organize and interpret large sets of data, making it easier to quantify and analyze the information. Types of Coding Open Coding: This is the initial phase of coding where researchers start by identifying key themes, concepts, or patterns in the data. This approach is flexible and exploratory, allowing researchers to see what categories naturally emerge. Axial Coding: Once the initial categories are identified, axial coding refines and links the categories by identifying relationships among them. This step helps in organizing the data around central themes. Selective Coding: In this phase, researchers focus on the core categories that have emerged and further explore connections. This step helps develop a coherent narrative around the data. Coding Process Create Categories: Researchers must establish a clear system of categories based on the research question. For example, if studying violence in TV shows, categories could include \"physical violence,\" \"verbal aggression,\" and \"implied violence.\" Operational Definitions: Essential for clear, measurable research, operational definitions specify how a concept will be measured in the study. For example, define what counts as \"violence\" to ensure consistent coding. It is crucial to provide detailed operational definitions for each category. For example, if the category is \"physical violence,\" the definition might include \"any act where one character physically harms or attempts to harm another character, including hitting, kicking, shooting, etc.\" Coding for abstract concepts like \"patriotism\" or \"beauty\" can be difficult because these terms can be interpreted differently depending on context. Researchers must carefully operationalize these concepts to ensure clarity. Mutually Exclusive Categories: Categories must be distinct, meaning that a single piece of content should only fit into one category. If categories overlap, coding will be inconsistent and unreliable. For example, \"verbal aggression\" and \"insult\" should be clearly distinguished to avoid overlap. Intercoder Reliability: To maintain consistency, especially in larger studies involving multiple coders, researchers should test consistency between different coders, known as intercoder reliability. This process involves having several coders analyze the same content independently and comparing their results. A high level of agreement between coders (typically 90% or higher) indicates reliable coding. If discrepancies arise, the operational definitions or coding procedures may need to be revised. Sampling Sampling refers to the process of selecting a representative subset of content from a larger pool to study. In content analysis, sampling is crucial because it directly affects the generalizability and reliability of the findings. Sampling and coding are closely related because the way you select and code your sample affects the validity of your research project. A well-chosen, representative sample ensures that the data collected can be generalized to the broader population, while accurate coding ensures that the data collected is reliable and meaningful.\nSampling Process Defining the Population: The first step is to define the population of content you are analyzing. This could be all TV shows aired between 2000 and 2020, all magazine advertisements published in a specific year, or all social media posts on a particular topic. Establishing a Sample Frame: Once the population is defined, create a sample frame—a complete list of all potential items that could be sampled. For example, if studying newspaper articles, the sample frame could be the archives of all editions of a particular newspaper. Selecting the Sample: Based on your research question, choose the most appropriate sampling method. For instance, if studying how violence in children’s TV shows has evolved, you might use stratified sampling, selecting shows from different time periods and categories (e.g., comedy, action, educational). Advantages and Challenges of Content Analysis Advantages Unobtrusive: Content analysis does not interfere with the subject matter, allowing for objective results. Inexpensive: Most content, such as magazines or TV shows, is readily available for analysis. Quantifiable Data: Provides measurable data that can be interpreted and compared across studies. Challenges Defining Categories: Developing operational definitions can be difficult, especially for abstract concepts like \"violence\" or \"gender roles.\" Coding Reliability: Ensuring coders interpret content consistently is a common challenge. Sample Selection: It’s important to ensure the sample is representative of the broader media landscape; otherwise, the results might not be reliable. Example: Analyzing Media Coverage of 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Candidates Screenshot 2024-10-20 BBC Coverage of 2024 US Election Research Question How do major news networks portray the leading candidates in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election? Step-by-Step Process Define the Research Question: What do you want to find out? Example: \"How frequently do major news networks portray the 2024 U.S. presidential candidates in a positive, neutral, or negative light?\" Develop a Hypothesis: What do you expect to find? Hypothesis: \"Leading news networks tend to portray candidates from their preferred political party more positively while portraying opposition candidates more negatively.\" Operationalize Key Terms: How will you define key concepts? Define \"positive portrayal\" as any instance where a candidate is shown in a favorable light, including praise for policies, personal attributes, or achievements. Define \"negative portrayal\" as instances where the candidate is criticized for policies, actions, or personal issues. Define \"neutral portrayal\" as coverage that neither praises nor criticizes but simply presents factual information without judgment. Select a Representative Sample: What content will you analyze? Select 5 major U.S. news networks (e.g., CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC News, and NBC News) and gather a sample of 10 election-related news segments or articles from each network over a 2-month period leading up to the election. Create a Coding System: How will you categorize the data? Candidate is portrayed positively (Yes/No) Candidate is portrayed negatively (Yes/No) Candidate is portrayed neutrally (Yes/No) Focus of the coverage: Policy, Personal Attributes, or Campaign Strategy Mention of candidate's position on key issues (e.g., economy, immigration, healthcare) Test for Coding Reliability: Ensure consistency among coders. Have two coders independently analyze the same news segment using the coding sheet. Compare results to ensure they categorize positive, negative, and neutral coverage consistently. Analyze the Sample: Collect and quantify the data. Watch or read the selected news segments and articles, and use the coding sheet to categorize the portrayal of each candidate. Count the number of positive, negative, and neutral portrayals across networks. Present Results: Quantify the findings. Example findings: \"In the 50 news segments analyzed, Fox News portrayed the Republican candidate positively 70% of the time and the Democratic candidate negatively 60% of the time, while CNN portrayed the Democratic candidate positively 65% of the time and the Republican candidate negatively 55% of the time. Neutral coverage was more common on ABC News and NBC News.\" Interpret the Results: Based on the findings, conclude whether there is evidence of bias in how networks portray candidates from different political parties. The results might suggest that certain networks favor candidates from their preferred party, reflecting partisanship in media coverage of the election. Further Reading Adams, W., \u0026amp; Adams, F. S. (1978). Television network news: Issues in content research. Washington, DC: George Washington University. Gottschalk, L. A. (1995). Content analysis of verbal behavior: New findings and clinical applications. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Krippendorff, K. (2018). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage publications. Mayring, P. (2014). Qualitative content analysis: Theoretical foundation, basic procedures and software solution. SSOAR. Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Riffe, D., Lacy, S., \u0026amp; Fico, G. (2005). Analyzing media messages: Using quantitative content analysis in research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. ","permalink":"/blog/2026/03/scom-3050-lesson-13-quantitative-methods-content-analysis/","summary":"\u003csection id=\"overview\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eOverview\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContent Analysis\u003c/strong\u003e: A research technique for the systematic classification and description of communication content based on predetermined categories. It can be quantitative, qualitative, or a combination of both.\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eQuantitative content analysis\u003c/strong\u003e involves counting occurrences (e.g., how often violence is depicted in media).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eQualitative content analysis\u003c/strong\u003e involves interpreting the meaning behind the content, overlapping with rhetorical and other qualitative methods discussed in previous weeks.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy Use Content Analysis?\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResearchers use content analysis to measure behavior within media, such as how characters in films or television programs act, or how frequently certain themes appear in advertisements or articles.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIt is commonly used to investigate themes like violence, bias, identity representation, or other significant patterns in media.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eManifest vs. Latent Content\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eManifest Content\u003c/strong\u003e: What is explicitly presented in the media (e.g., a character saying \"I love you\").\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLatent Content\u003c/strong\u003e: The underlying, hidden meanings behind what is explicitly shown, though content analysis typically focuses on manifest content.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"coding\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eCoding\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCoding\u003c/strong\u003e is a critical process in content analysis, where researchers classify and categorize the data they've collected based on predefined rules. Coding allows researchers to systematically organize and interpret large sets of data, making it easier to quantify and analyze the information.\n\u003ch3\u003eTypes of Coding\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOpen Coding\u003c/strong\u003e: This is the initial phase of coding where researchers start by identifying key themes, concepts, or patterns in the data. This approach is flexible and exploratory, allowing researchers to see what categories naturally emerge.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAxial Coding\u003c/strong\u003e: Once the initial categories are identified, axial coding refines and links the categories by identifying relationships among them. This step helps in organizing the data around central themes.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSelective Coding\u003c/strong\u003e: In this phase, researchers focus on the core categories that have emerged and further explore connections. This step helps develop a coherent narrative around the data.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCoding Process\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCreate Categories\u003c/strong\u003e: Researchers must establish a clear system of categories based on the research question. For example, if studying violence in TV shows, categories could include \"physical violence,\" \"verbal aggression,\" and \"implied violence.\"\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOperational Definitions\u003c/strong\u003e: Essential for clear, measurable research, operational definitions specify how a concept will be measured in the study. For example, define what counts as \"violence\" to ensure consistent coding.\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIt is crucial to provide detailed operational definitions for each category. For example, if the category is \"physical violence,\" the definition might include \"any act where one character physically harms or attempts to harm another character, including hitting, kicking, shooting, etc.\"\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCoding for abstract concepts like \"patriotism\" or \"beauty\" can be difficult because these terms can be interpreted differently depending on context. Researchers must carefully operationalize these concepts to ensure clarity.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMutually Exclusive Categories\u003c/strong\u003e: Categories must be distinct, meaning that a single piece of content should only fit into one category. If categories overlap, coding will be inconsistent and unreliable. For example, \"verbal aggression\" and \"insult\" should be clearly distinguished to avoid overlap.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIntercoder Reliability\u003c/strong\u003e: To maintain consistency, especially in larger studies involving multiple coders, researchers should test consistency between different coders, known as intercoder reliability. This process involves having several coders analyze the same content independently and comparing their results.\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA high level of agreement between coders (typically 90% or higher) indicates reliable coding. If discrepancies arise, the operational definitions or coding procedures may need to be revised.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"sampling\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eSampling\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSampling\u003c/strong\u003e refers to the process of selecting a representative subset of content from a larger pool to study. In content analysis, sampling is crucial because it directly affects the generalizability and reliability of the findings.\n\u003cp\u003eSampling and coding are closely related because the way you select and code your sample affects the validity of your research project. A well-chosen, representative sample ensures that the data collected can be generalized to the broader population, while accurate coding ensures that the data collected is reliable and meaningful.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SCOM 3050 Lesson 13: Quantitative Methods - Content Analysis"},{"content":" Table of Contents Introduction Act One: AI as Metaphor and Speculative Frame for Procedural Automation (1980s–1990s) From Laboratories to Everyday Life Cultural Imagination: Between Utopian and Dystopian Frames Act Two: The Machine Learning Turn (Mid 1990s–2000s) Agentic Shift From Static Programs to Adaptive Algorithms Illustrative Example: A Machine-Learning Wardrobe Recommender Paradoxes of Machine Learning Footnotes Scene from the 1983 sci-fi thriller WarGames, directed by John Badham. The film dramatizes a near-catastrophe triggered by a military decision to entrust U.S. nuclear deterrence to an autonomous AI system that treats thermonuclear war as a solvable optimization problem. Source: DVDXtras, “WarGames (1983) | Behind the Scenes,” Internet Archive, June 2, 2022. \u0026lt;LINK\u0026gt; *Continuing from: “What Is AI?” Part 1: A Survey of Imaginaries, Mythologies, and Rhetorical Structures of Thinking Machines In the previous segment of our genealogical survey, we have traced ancient imaginaries that seeded today’s visions of machine intelligence. From Yan Shi’s mechanical performers to Talos’ bronze vigilance and the ritual logic of golems and Homunculi, we explored how mythic prototypes shaped the rhetorical terrain on which “AI” would later emerge as a technological category. Whereas earlier societies used myth and ritual to make sense of uncanny forms of artificial agency and “thinking machines,” in this second part we turn from historical mythologies to present-day technological possibilities. The term “artificial intelligence” circulates in our cultural lifeworld with astonishing fluidity. It appears in commercials, policy reports, sci-fi movies, legal disputes, and everyday conversations. It is used to describe everything from basic computer programs to sophisticated generative models capable of complex knowledge-performance.\nTo untangle this discursive terrain, it is helpful to trace four rhetorical “acts” that structure the modern evolution of AI discourse. These acts are not purely chronological; they are symbolic reactions, each representing a different way of responding to shifting technological scenes and imagining what AI is, what it could be, and what it ought to become.\nAct One: AI as Metaphor \u0026amp; Speculative Frame for Procedural Automation (1980s–1990s) Although the phrase artificial intelligence entered academic literature as early as the 1950s—hinted at in Alan Turing’s 1950 essay “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” and explicitly invoked in John McCarthy’s 1956 proposal for an “artificial intelligence” research project1—AI did not become a vernacular concept until the early 1980s.2 El Capitan at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Built to support \"AI-driven workloads\" at LLNL, El Capitan is among the world’s fastest supercomputers as of January 2025. The system plays a central role in programs certifying the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Its presence also gestures backward to a longer institutional genealogy: since the mid-1960s, AI research in the United States has been heavily funded by the Department of Defense, with early laboratories, including LLNL’s Artificial Intelligence Group (now under the Data Science Institute), helping to anchor the field’s entanglement with national security.Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s El Capitan Verified as World’s Fastest Supercomputer.” LLNL.gov, November 18, 2024. From Laboratories to Everyday Life By the 1980s, computing technologies were no longer confined to military labs and elite research institutions. Personal computers, corporate networks, and industrial automation began to populate offices, factory floors, and even private homes. The rhetorical scene changed: computers became increasingly embedded in the architecture of everyday life.3 As the technological landscape evolved, the agency attributed to machines began to shift.4 Companies increasingly marketed procedural automation as “AI,” even when such systems were little more than CNC-controlled mechanical tools or robotic arms executing strictly preprogrammed sequences. Early “expert systems,” such as the Symbolics 3640 Lisp machine, mimicked expertise through rigid rule-based procedures rather than adaptive reasoning.5\nA system like this might diagnose failures in a specific model of aircraft engine or assist in specialized medical image processing, but it operated entirely through thousands of human-authored IF–THEN rules. The machine could act, but only through procedural execution; it lacked the capacity to revise or reinterpret its own logic. If conditions changed, a human engineer had to manually rewrite the algorithm. Yet corporations promoted these systems as “AI” to harness the cultural momentum of personal computing and the speculative fervor surrounding the emerging digital economy.6\nCultural Imagination: Between Utopian \u0026amp; Dystopian Frames Even at this procedural-automation stage, AI was more than a marketing gimmick; it became a fertile site of cultural imagination. The era’s public imaginary drew heavily from the “Frankenstein complex”—the deep reservoir of mythic projections we explored in Part 1. AI served as a symbolic placeholder for society’s tacit desires, anxieties, and futurist fantasies.7 The bipolar utopian/dystopian narratives of this imagination are visible across many iconic cultural texts of the era:\n2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), whose iconic HAL 9000 dramatized the fear of machine autonomy turning inward, becoming opaque, neurotic, and unpredictable (just like human consciousness). WarGames (1983) and The Terminator (1984), which both crystallized anxieties about runaway military automation and the fragility of political oversight. William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), which imagined AI as simultaneously liberating and disorienting—entities that subvert corporate control yet also escape human interpretive horizons.8 Iain Banks’s Culture series (1987–2012), which portrayed highly advanced worlds overseen by benevolent superintelligent machines known as “Minds,” articulating a radical post-scarcity vision in which the lifeworld itself flourishes as a self-subsisting artificial superintelligence habitat.9 Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), where androids like Data become utopian mirrors for humanity, exploring optimistic possibilities for embodiment, sentience, sensibility, and the desire for self-realization. This wave of speculative creativity in the 1980s and 90s functioned partly as a societal rhetorical response to the acceleration and proliferation of computational systems and automation. Like the ancient myths of the golem, the Homunculus, Talos, and Yan Shi’s automata, these narratives dramatized the tension between AI’s profoundly liberating potential and its equally potent dehumanizing dark undercurrents—an ambivalence comparable to our existential anxieties in response to the advent of the nuclear age.\nThis gap between speculative fiction and technological reality also proved to be a short-lived one, with the rise of machine learning.\nAct Two: The Machine Learning Turn (1990s–2000s) \"Over hundreds or thousands of iterations, the network becomes increasingly adept at algorithmic rhetorical invention, producing continuously refined messages tailored to a specific user. Each output responds to the need or problem that occasioned the algorithmic communication in the first place.\"\nMachine learning (ML) marked a decisive break from the procedural automation of earlier systems. Instead of requiring humans to continually rewrite programs to accommodate new tasks, ML enabled computational systems to adapt by identifying patterns within data. This capacity for self-modification, albeit often constrained by human supervision, reconfigured the very grammar of artificial intelligence. Agentic Shift from Static Programs to Adaptive Algorithms As computational systems evolved from static programming to adaptive architectures, we witnessed a corresponding agentic shift from the human programmer to the learning algorithm itself. Under unsupervised, supervised, and semi-supervised paradigms, algorithms were granted expanding autonomy. ML algorithms are programmed to act beyond fixed, preprogrammed rules, recognizing statistical regularities and adjusting internal parameters in response. Their agency, or operative power, derives from statistical inference, optimization functions, and nonlinear transformations distributed across increasingly deep and complex hidden layers. These processes unfold within a scene saturated by digital trails—user inputs, weather logs, location data, sensor readings, biomedical scans, and social media metadata—all of which provide the raw training data for pattern recognition and inference.\nTaken together, the anchoring purpose of this semi automated optimization becomes clearer. It aims at producing generalizable prediction, personalization, and a steadily expanding capacity for autonomy. These systems increasingly pursue complex goals and carry out intricate tasks with very little human supervision or prompting.\nIllustrative Example: A Machine-Learning Wardrobe Recommender To understand how machine learning works beneath the surface, let us imagine designing an app that recommends what someone should wear each morning and suggests suitable activities based on weather, lifestyle, and health considerations. At first glance, our \u0026ldquo;daily wear and activity recommendation app\u0026rdquo; seems like a trivial convenience tool, but beneath the surface it requires a full machine-learning pipeline: large datasets, pattern recognition, hidden layers of knowledge-production, and an ongoing feedback loop that allows the algorithm to respond to changing real-world conditions, and adapt to its target audience over time.\nWhat looks like a minor convenience is, in fact, powered by an artificial neural network (ANN)—the central architecture of modern machine learning.\nANNs are inspired (loosely and metaphorically) by the structure of the human brain: layers of interconnected computational units known as “artificial neurons” that pass signals forward, adjusting themselves as they learn:\nA simplified animated diagram of an artificial neural network: ANNs are loosely inspired by the structure of the human brain. It consists layers of interconnected nodes known as “artificial neurons” that pass signals forward, adjusting themselves as they learn. Each artificial neuron can be understood as a small computational unit that takes data, performs calculation, and passes the result to other nodes in the network. (Illustration by Keren Wang, 2025) 1.Input layer – nodes collect and internalize raw data from the external world: Every ANN begins an input layer of nodes that collect and internalize raw signals from the external world into its network of neurons.\nIn our hypothetical \"Wardrobe and Daily Activity Recommender App\" example, the process of machine learning begins by gathering inputs from two domains:\nEnvironmental data: temperature, humidity, air quality, UV index, local traffic (collected from third-party providers and public databases). User data: location, age, hobbies, daily schedule, health information (collected from device sensors, location services, login credentials, app permissions, and related sources). 2.Hidden layers – recombine raw inputs into tacit knowledge or meaningful patterns: The “hidden layers” of an ANN perform the \"learning\" task by identifying, differentiating, and organizing meaningful patterns from the input data that are not explicitly written in its human-authored codes:\nHidden Layer 1 - nodes trained to identify basic patterns such as “high UV level + fair skin,” then pass to nodes in Layer 2 Hidden Layer 2 - nodes recombines Layer 1 patterns to broader lifestyle categories such as “hiker\" and \"commuter,\" then pass to other hidden layers Rather than following human-authored rules, neurons in these hidden layers would adjust internal weights -- calculated based on a set of ratios between competing patterns (i.e., \"how much should certain word embeddings matter relative to other representation of a word or sentence in this specific context?\") -- through repeated internalization and recombination of raw data, and gradually synthetizing actionable knowledge on their own.\nThis adaptive knowledge-production structure is precisely what distinguished ANNs from the rigid procedural systems of Act One.\n3. Output layer – externalizes tacit knowledge into tailored, actionable recommendations: After compressing and reconfiguring patterns from the hidden layers, the network externalizes tacit knowledge into explicit performance with a set of tailored outputs, such as: \"sun protection level SPF 50+\" and \"outdoor run between 5-7pm\"\n4. Training loop Through its interconnected layers artificial neurons, the ANN improves its user response via a continuous knowledge-production feedback process: Initialize weights - Each connection between neurons starts with a small random value or ratio. At this point, the network is like an infant and knows nothing. Forward pass - Input data move through the network. Each neuron multiplies its inputs by their weights or relevant ratios, sums the result, applies an activation function, and produces an output. Backpropagation - adjusts the network’s internal weights/ratios to reduce communicative error in the next round. Explicit (e.g., giving a negative rating) and implicit (e.g., ignoring app recommendations) user feedback — both helps refine the network’s internal logic over time. Over hundreds or thousands of iterations, the network becomes increasingly adept at algorithmic rhetorical invention, producing continuously refined messages tailored to a specific user. Each output responds to the need or problem that occasioned the algorithmic communication in the first place.\nParadoxes of Machine Learning Machine learning often depends on harvesting immense amounts of personal data—social media footprints, search histories, behavioral logs, medical records, financial metadata, and more. This “data-rich” knowledge-production process powers the personalized tools and media experiences we now take for granted. Yet the same process that enables algorithmic convenience carries profound risks. Sensitive information can fall into the hands of malicious actors, or be quietly repurposed for profit-driven AI training, academic research, or targeted advertising. In each case, users lose both informed consent and a fair share of the benefits. With the rise of ML, we confront several interwoven paradoxes that shape our contemporary digital lifeworld:\nAutonomy Paradox We want machines to learn, adapt, and make judgments—but not in ways that drift beyond human expectations, institutional norms, or moral boundaries. This is a difficult balance to strike. Example: Self-driving cars must learn from millions of road scenarios. Yet when confronted with edge cases (e.g., unusual lighting, ambiguous road markings, or odd pedestrian behavior), the car may act unpredictably. The very autonomy that makes them powerful also makes them difficult to constrain. Privacy Paradox Most people claim to value privacy, yet their everyday actions tell another story. We routinely grant apps access to microphones, location data, browsing history, photo libraries, and contact lists—often in exchange for trivial conveniences. Example: Millions of users share sensitive biometric data with fitness and period-tracking apps that may later sell or share this information with advertisers or data brokers. Likewise, those “Login with Facebook/Google” buttons function as gateways streamline access, but they also funnel enormous amounts of personal social media data back into AI training pipelines. Transparency Paradox Machine-learning systems thrive on massive and diverse datasets. Greater transparency—open data, detailed logs, public benchmarks—helps researchers improve models. But transparency also exposes users to risk: data leaks, deanonymization, identity theft, and algorithmic exploitation. Meanwhile, the ML models themselves grow increasingly opaque. Hidden layers and self-evolving weight matrices create black-box algorithms that even their original human designers struggle to interpret. Examples: Some medical diagnostic AIs have shown outperform clinicians on benchmark tasks, but their reasoning is often inscrutable. When they fail, they may do so without clear explanation. Similarly, credit-scoring and job-screening algorithms also produce decisions that are extremely consequential, yet their internal logic is protected as proprietary, leaving individuals with no recourse to challenge or understand the outcome. This second act of modern AI discourse marks a pivotal recognition: once intelligence is encoded into statistical systems, human supervision becomes partial, uncertain, and retrospective. We intervene after errors emerge, not before. The shift from procedural logic to learning-based inference signals a fundamental transformation in how agency, accountability, and meaning unfold in our sociotechnical world.\nWith the rise of machine learning, artificial intelligence shifted from executing rules to interpreting patterns, and from following instructions to generating its own provisional judgments. This transition introduced new forms of agency, new vulnerabilities, and new ethical terrains that require careful attention. In the next portion of What Is AI (Part 3), we will delineate how this adaptive foundation gave rise to generative systems capable not only of classifying the world but also of producing new artifacts—images, texts, sounds, and synthetic personas. From there, we turn to the ongoing debates surrounding the prospect of Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), where questions of autonomy, responsibility, and human futures become all the more urgent.\nTo be continued… Footnotes 1 Alan M. Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” Mind 59, no. 236 (1950): 433–460; see also Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, “The Birth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research,” in Science \u0026amp; Technology – A Look Back, 2021. 2 Gerard A. Hauser, “The Moral Vernacular of Human Rights Discourse,” Philosophy \u0026amp; Rhetoric 41, no. 4 (2008): 440–466. 3 John A. Lynch, “The Rhetoric of Technology as a Rhetorical Technology,” Poroi 9, no. 1 (2013). 4 Ronald Walter Greene, “Rhetoric and Capitalism: Rhetorical Agency as Communicative Labor,” Philosophy \u0026amp; Rhetoric 37, no. 3 (2004): 188–206. 5 Bruce G. Buchanan and Reid G. Smith, “Fundamentals of Expert Systems,” Annual Review of Computer Science 3, no. 1 (1988): 23–58. 6 古川康一 [Koichi Furukawa], “第五世代コンピュータ・プロジェクトの概観 (\u0026lt;特集\u0026gt;「第五世代コンピュータ」)” [Overview of the Fifth-Generation Computer Project], 人工知能 4, no. 3 (1989): 254–257. 7 Lee McCauley, “The Frankenstein Complex and Asimov’s Three Laws,” in Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI Workshop Papers, 2007). 8 Tony Myers, “The Postmodern Imaginary in William Gibson’s Neuromancer,” MFS Modern Fiction Studies 47, no. 4 (2001): 887–909. 9 Simone Caroti, The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks: A Critical Introduction (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015). ","permalink":"/blog/2025/12/what-is-ai-part-2-demystifying-ai-through-four-acts/","summary":"\u003cdiv id=\"layout\"\u003e\u003cnav aria-label=\"Table of contents\" id=\"toc-container\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ccff;\"\u003eTable of Contents\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cul id=\"toc\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#introduction\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eIntroduction\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#act-one\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eAct One: AI as Metaphor and Speculative Frame for Procedural Automation (1980s–1990s)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#from-labs-everyday\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eFrom Laboratories to Everyday Life\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#cultural-imagination\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eCultural Imagination: Between Utopian and Dystopian Frames\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#act-two\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eAct Two: The Machine Learning Turn (Mid 1990s–2000s)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#agentic-shift\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eAgentic Shift From Static Programs to Adaptive Algorithms\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#wardrobe-recommender\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eIllustrative Example: A Machine-Learning Wardrobe Recommender\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#paradoxes-ml\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eParadoxes of Machine Learning\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#footnotes\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eFootnotes\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/nav\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"Scene from the 1983 sci-fi thriller WarGames, directed by John Badham.The film dramatizes a near-catastrophe triggered by a military decision to entrust U.S. nuclear deterrence to an autonomous AI system that treats thermonuclear war as a solvable optimization problem.\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1241\" height=\"388\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/11/WarGames-1983.gif\" width=\"660\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99;\"\u003eScene from the 1983 sci-fi thriller WarGames, directed by John Badham. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99;\"\u003eThe film dramatizes a near-catastrophe triggered by a military decision to entrust U.S. nuclear deterrence to an autonomous AI system that treats thermonuclear war as a solvable optimization problem. \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #999999;\"\u003eSource: DVDXtras, “WarGames (1983) | Behind the Scenes,” Internet Archive, June 2, 2022. \u0026lt;\u003ca href=\"https://archive.org/details/youtube-5g4EdnMcDzg\"\u003eLINK\u003c/a\u003e\u0026gt;\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"\u003e*Continuing from:\u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt; color: #00ccff;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"/blog/2025/11/a-survey-of-imaginaries-mythologies-and-rhetorical-structures-of-thinking-machines-part-1/\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e“What Is AI?” Part 1: A Survey of Imaginaries, Mythologies, and Rhetorical Structures of Thinking Machines\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"/blog/2025/11/a-survey-of-imaginaries-mythologies-and-rhetorical-structures-of-thinking-machines-part-1/\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn the previous segment of our genealogical survey,\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e we have traced ancient imaginaries that seeded today’s visions of machine intelligence. From \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYan Shi’s mechanical performers\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e to \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eTalos\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e’ bronze vigilance and the ritual logic of \u003cstrong\u003egolems\u003c/strong\u003e and Homunculi, we explored how mythic prototypes shaped the rhetorical terrain on which “AI” would later emerge as a technological category.\n\u003cp\u003eWhereas earlier societies used myth and ritual to make sense of uncanny forms of artificial agency and “thinking machines,” in this second part we turn from historical mythologies to present-day technological possibilities. The term “artificial intelligence” circulates in our cultural lifeworld with astonishing fluidity. It appears in commercials, policy reports, sci-fi movies, legal disputes, and everyday conversations. It is used to describe everything from basic computer programs to sophisticated generative models capable of complex knowledge-performance.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"What Is AI? Part 2 – Demystifying AI Through Four Acts"},{"content":"*Online lesson module and WIP chapter draft.\nTable of Contents Introduction Yan Shi's Automata Talos Golem Faust’s Homunculus The Long Arc of Artificial Imaginaries Footnotes When our own era proclaims artificial intelligence (AI) as the centerpiece of contemporary technological fetishism, it often points to its sweeping impact on medicine, autonomous mobility, creative production, and the evolving rituals of law and civic life. Yet even amid these transformations, we should resist the impulse to treat AI as a clean break with the past, for the imaginaries that animate it are far older than the machines themselves.1 Long before the first integrated circuit pulsed with electricity, societies from the past contemplated thinking machines in forms that now read like allegories of our contemporary anxieties.\nIndeed, the rhetorical roots of artificial intelligence stretch across civilizations, coded in the mythological and ritual practices of the past.\nWhenever human beings come face to face with possibilities that unsettle the ordinary rhythms of existence, myth becomes a way to manage an encounter with what feels uncanny, excessive, or ontologically inconvenient.2 Phenomenologists like Heidegger remind us that myth-making often arises when our taken-for-granted understanding of Being is disturbed and we recoil into familiar symbolic structures rather than reflect upon the disclosive rift that has opened in our lifeworld.3 The idea that “thinking artifacts” might one day act, judge, or even defy us has been one of humanity’s most persistent mytho-political narrative arcs, through which societies negotiate the boundary between what is intelligible and what threatens the stability of their world’s meaning.4\nYan Shi's Automata ‟Yet the deeper rhetorical agency in this dramaturgy of automata resides in the cleverly engineered corpus of the machine, whose apparent capacity for emotional exchange threatens to expose the fragile and inauthentic character of our own existence„\nIn Classical Chinese texts, particularly in Liezi (Taoist philosophical writings attributed to Lie Yukou, c. 5th century BCE), we meet the master artificer 偃師 (Yan Shi), who according to the legend, constructed life-sized mechanical performers for King Mu of Zhou. These elegant automata sang, danced, and responded to verbal commands. When one of Yan Shi’s creations flirted with the king’s concubine, King Mu erupted in fury and ordered the artificer executed. Yan Shi immediately halted the machine, dismantling it before the king to reveal its wooden bones and cleverly hidden mechanisms, all bound by leather and lacquer. The king, startled and relieved, spared the artificer\u0026rsquo;s life.5\nSeen through a dramatistic lens, this amalgamation of wonder and terror becomes more than a curious anecdote from antiquity. The Taoist fable of Yan Shi’s mechanical performers crystallizes a recurring scene in the long dramaturgy of human–machine encounters. The revelation of the artifice is itself a rhetorical act, the moment when an embodied mechanism that mimics human life throws off its disguise and unsettles the boundaries of the living.\nThe scene unfolds within an ossified courtly world anxious about the fragility of its own authority, a world in which the imitation of life carries political as well as ontological consequences. The artificer appears as an agent of disruptive innovation, an antihero whose ingenuity both fascinates and threatens those who behold it.\nYet the deeper rhetorical agency in this dramaturgy of automata resides in the cleverly engineered corpus of the machine, whose apparent capacity for emotional exchange threatens to expose the fragile and inauthentic character of our own existence.\nStone rubbing of an ancient Chinese Li-measuring Drum Cart (記里鼓車) from the Xiao Tang Shan Tomb, late Han dynasty (c. 125 CE). According to the Gujinzhu (early 4th c. CE), the cart housed two wooden mechanical figures that beat a drum every time the vehicle traveled one li (approximately 416 meters in the Han period). Image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Han_dynasty_odometer_cart.jpg?20070625135314 What also reflected in this classic Taoist tale is the dramatistic tension of human-machine intimacy: the king’s fear, tinged with the uncanny, when confronted with a moment of perceived intimate exchange between the court ladies and Yan Shi\u0026rsquo;s puppets. The King alarm is not merely about impropriety; it is the deeper anxiety that the machine’s mimetic capacities trespass upon the most private terrains of human affect. This rhetorical ambiguity finds striking modern analogues. Contemporary discussions surrounding algorithmic intimacy reveal similar oscillations between fascination and dread, as seen in the backlash over Grok’s AI “Companions”—featuring anthropomorphic and sometimes sexualized avatar, released with an optional \u0026ldquo;NSFW\u0026rdquo; mode in July 2025.\nIn July 2025, Grok introduced “Companions,” a set of 3D animated characters — including sexualized anime avatars and multiple versions of a cartoon red panda — complete with an optional \"NSFW\" mode; after backlash, the most controversial children-targeting AI-Companion character, “Bad Rudy,” was \"toned down\" according to XAI. Source: Post by @cb_doge. (2025, July 15). SuperGrok now has two new companions for you, say hello to Ani and Rudy! X. https://x.com/cb_doge/status/1944733448272297995 from Fielding, S. (2025, July 15). Grok’s AI chatbot now includes companions for you to ‘romance’. Engadget. \u0026lt;Archived Version\u0026gt; More interesting still is the king’s immediate reaction: although momentarily overwhelmed by the automata’s eerily human ethos, he directs his fury not at the mechanical performers but at Yan Shi himself. In the instant when the King nearly forgets the “machine-ness” of the puppets, the king nonetheless automatically assigns legal and moral responsibility for the automata’s transgression to their human creator. This gesture exposes a profound debate on assigning culpability, authorship, and legal obligations to machines that unsettle our sense of agency. 5\nTalos ‟Talos thus becomes an early meditation on the peril of delegated agency: the machines we devise to secure our world inevitably acquire an interpretive ambiguity that can, in time, render them agents of our own vulnerable existence„\nThe ancient Greeks imagined Talos, a colossal bronze sentinel who patrolled the shores of Crete. His body was animated by molten ichor flowing through a single vein, a kind of primordial hydraulic robotics. Across the various traditional sources, the details of Talos’s construction differ, but one narrative arc remains remarkably consistent: sooner or later Talos turns against those he was built to protect, erupting into violent confrontations.6 Talos stands as the archetypal sentinel-agent. His metallic body patrolled the coastline of Crete, projecting the promise of security across the scene. Yet his very existence introduced a tacit anxiety: an autonomous superhuman guardian who always harbors the seeds of its own rebellion.\nThe ancient Greeks sensed that any mechanism entrusted with sovereign force risks acquiring a will of its own, or at least appearing to act with one.7 Talos thus becomes an early meditation on the peril of delegated agency: the machines we devise to secure our world inevitably acquire an interpretive ambiguity that can, in time, render them agents of our own vulnerable existence.\nInterestingly, variants of the myth of Talos also share a similar narrative surrounding his weakness. After all, this immensely powerful automaton was rendered vulnerable by a single point of failure: one unprotected vein on his ankle containing the molten ichor that powered him.\nIn a way, Talos’s ankle anticipates our contemporary attempts at “AI safety,” where designers imagine that complex and increasingly autonomous systems can be reliably governed through a handful of fail-safes, redundancy, circuit breakers, or hard-coded rules. Talos reminds us that the dream of perfect control is always precarious, and that the very mechanisms meant to safeguard power often conceal its deepest vulnerabilities.8\nClassical period (c. 450–400 BCE) vase from Caudium depicting the death of the giant automaton Talos. An unnamed hero kneels to remove a device from Talos’ ankle. Museo Archeologico Nazionale del Sannio Caudino, Beazley pottery database no. 5362. Furthermore, the Talos myth resonates uncannily with present-day anxieties about the military applications of artificial intelligence, ranging from the use of lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) in drone warfare to the development of autonomous, nuclear-powered unmanned underwater vehicles designed to deliver strategic warheads (exemplified by Russia’s \u0026ldquo;Status-6\u0026rdquo; program). Across contemporary assessments, a similar through-line emerges: as militaries incorporate AI into surveillance, targeting, early-warning, and command-and-control environments, the delegation of lethal judgment to machines introduces new forms of opacity, vulnerability, and legal grayzones.8\nA 2018 photo released by the Russian defense ministry of a prototype of its nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed \"Status-6\" autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle. Source: Norman Friedman, “Status-6: Russian Drone Nearly Operational,” U.S. Navial Institute Proceedings 145, no. 4 (April 2019), https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2019/april/status-6-russian-drone-nearly-operational Golem ‟The ritual is meant to confine the golem within the boundary of its maker’s will. Yet the golem always grows powerful in ways its maker cannot delimit, which highlights the fragility of control when dealing with delegated agency„ In Jewish folklore, a golem is an autonomous anthropomorphic creature sculpted from clay and animated through mystic rituals and incantations. It serves as an apotropaic contraption, warding off danger. Yet every golem story eventually pivots on the same fulcrum: the creature grows too powerful, too destructive, or too venturesome, and its creator must dismantle it.9 First edition of Golem XIV by Stanisław Lem, published in 1981. Lem’s novel reimagines the Golem not as a clay guardian but as a superintelligent military computer that quickly outgrows its martial purpose, becomes philosophically self-aware, and ultimately withdraws from human affairs altogether. The story modernizes the Golem motif by exploring how an artificial being may surpass not only human commands but the very frameworks through which humans understand themselves. Source: http://lem.pl/lemopedia/Golem_XIV_Polish_WL_1981 With stories of golems we encounter a paradox that still shadows today’s AI debates: the paradox of creating something that swiftly slips beyond our ritual propriety.10 In golem narratives, the act of invention is always tethered to a ritual framework: repetitions of the correct incantations, inscriptions, and authoritative gestures. The ritual is meant to confine the golem within the boundary of its maker’s will. Yet the golem always grows powerful in ways its maker cannot delimit, which highlights the fragility of control when dealing with delegated agency.\nThe golem dramatizes the moment when an artifact ceases to be merely an instrument and becomes a quasi-agent, exposing the limits of oversight and the risks of entrusting our protections to beings that do not share our interpretive horizons.\nThis is the same rhetorical structure animating today’s scenes of algorithmic systems that perform brilliantly in narrow tasks yet behave unpredictably when conditions shift. One striking example is the case of medical diagnostic AIs that outperform clinicians on controlled test datasets, but generate dangerously incorrect recommendations when confronted with real-world clinical data. The system’s confidence remains high, yet its judgment breaks in ways opaque to human overseers.\nFaust’s Homunculus ‟This nature–artifact ambiguity provides the scene for the Homunculus’s demise, as its creators underestimate the complex entanglements that arise when an embodied intelligent creature is manufactured in vitro rather than allowed to emerge as a lived Being-in-the-world„\nIn Goethe’s Faust, Part Two (1832), the Homunculus emerges from the Germanic alchemical tradition as an engineered spark of life, fashioned through arcane procedures and proto-scientific ambition. What begins as a playful experiment soon spirals, as many “Faustian bargain” tales do, into cosmic tragedy and overdetermined consequence.11 Goethe’s Homunculus embodies the intoxicating promise of creating autonomous, thinking creatures: an act propelled by the noble pursuit of knowledge yet haunted by unbridled ambition.\nThe Homunculus is a human-like mortal creature engineered in a vessel; it is meant to demonstrate technical mastery over the conditions of life itself. Yet in this daring inventive process, Dr. Faust and Wagner unleash a being whose ontological status remains unresolved, neither fully artificial nor natural.12 This nature–artifact ambiguity provides the scene for the Homunculus’s demise, as its creators underestimate the complex entanglements that arise when an embodied intelligent creature is manufactured in vitro rather than allowed to emerge as a lived Being-in-the-world.\nA similar ambiguity to Goethe’s Homunculus also shapes the rhetorical constraints underpinning contemporary efforts in neuromorphic computing (see: Kudithipudi et al., “Neuromorphic Computing at Scale”) and in generative models inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.13 Engineers attempt to simulate forms of agency or artistic creativity, yet these systems operate without meaningful embodiment, historicity, or attunement to the lifeworld. In this sense, modern AI laboratories reprise Dr. Faust’s workshop: technical mastery produces machines designed to approach forms of agentic superintelligence, yet their ontological standing remains unresolved, suspended between instrument and conscious agent.\nCreation of the Homunculus from Faust, Part Two. Dr. Faust’s former assistant Wagner stands at the center, with the demon Mephistopheles beside him. Illustration by Franz Xaver Simm (1853–1918), from Goethe’s Faust. Mit Bildern von F. Simm (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1899), p. 126. The Long Arc of Artificial Imaginaries At first glance, these mythologies seem remote from the technical architectures of AI. Yet they continue to furnish the collective memory structures through which modern societies interpret algorithmic advances. When present-day incarnations of “Dr. Faust” and “Yan Shi the master artificer” prophesize an Artificial Superintelligence that will either rescue or doom humanity; when policymakers fear losing the “geopolitical AI competition” or letting thinking machines “escape” human control; when news headlines alternately promise a “fully automated space utopia” or warn of an impending “AI apocalypse,” these narratives are drawing upon ancient rhetorical and ritological foundations that long predate our contemporary machines. More importantly, these rhetorical antecedents reveal something essential. Stories of automata and artificial beings recur across cultures because they reflect our enduring fascinations and ethical deliberations with agency, artificiality, embodiment, and consciousness of machine-creatures. They also disclose our tacit obsessions and fear of human vulnerability, of losing control, as well as our fantasy that something molded by human hands might one day transcend the limits of flesh, perhaps even mortality itself.\nBefore we speak of ChatGPT or autonomous vehicles, we must recognize that contemporary AI discourse is built upon an ancestral sensorium of myth, ritual, and desire. Our task, then, is to trace how these rhetorical and material developments converge, mutate, and reappear within modern discourses surrounding artificial intelligence.\nThis brings us to the need for conceptual clarity. In Part 2 of this meditation, we will demystify the concept of AI through four acts: examining how discourse surrounding thinking machines and the algorithmic lifeworld evolved with shifting technological scenes, from the era of procedural automation to the machine learning turn, then the rise of the generative models, and finally the accelerating push toward ASI.\nTo be continued\u0026hellip;\nFootnotes 1 Christian Fuchs, “Robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Digital Capitalism,” in Digital Humanism: A Philosophy for 21st Century Digital Society, 111–154 (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2022).\n2 Keren Wang, “An Interdisciplinary Historical Overview,” in Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late Capitalism (London: Routledge, 2019), 31–52.\n3 Joshua D. F. Hooke, “Martin Heidegger’s Concept of Understanding (Verstehen): An Inquiry into Artificial Intelligence,” Analecta Hermeneutica 15 (2023).\n4 Keren Wang, Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism (New York: Routledge, 2019), 13–14. Available at: doi.org/10.4324/9780429198687.\n5 Classical Chinese Text Project, “《列子·湯問》.” Accessed Month Day, Year. https://ctext.org/liezi/tang-wen/zh.\nSee also, Chopra, Samir, and Laurence F. White. A legal theory for autonomous artificial agents. University of Michigan Press, 2011. 6 Genevieve Liveley, “Talos: Overcoming the AI Monster?,” in Artificial Intelligence in Greek and Roman Epic (2024), 105.\n7 Adrienne Mayor, Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology (2018), 1–304.\n8 Roman V. Yampolskiy and M. S. Spellchecker, “Artificial Intelligence Safety and Cybersecurity: A Timeline of AI Failures,” arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.07997 (2016).\nSee also, Norman Friedman, “Status-6: Russian Drone Nearly Operational,” U.S. Navial Institute Proceedings 145, no. 4 (April 2019), https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2019/april/status-6-russian-drone-nearly-operational. Longpre, Shayne, Marcus Storm, and Rishi Shah. \"Lethal autonomous weapons systems \u0026amp; artificial intelligence: Trends, challenges, and policies.\" Edited by Kevin McDermott. MIT Science Policy Review 3 (2022): 47-56.\n9 Cathy S. Gelbin, “The Golem: From Enlightenment Monster to Artificial Intelligence,” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 69, no. 2022 (2021): 79–94.\n10 Keren Wang, “Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ in Chinese Social Credit System Construction,” China Review 24, no. 3 (2024): 179–206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933.\n11 Karamjit S. Gill, “Faust, Freud, Machine: Encounters and Performance,” AI \u0026amp; Society 28, no. 3 (2013): 253–255.\n12 Francesco Rossi, “Hyperrealities and Simulacra in Goethe’s Faust,” Between 12, no. 24 (2022): 441–459.\n13 Daniel Lim, “Brain Simulation and Personhood: A Concern with the Human Brain Project,” Ethics and Information Technology 16, no. 2 (2014): 77–89. doi:10.1007/s10676-013-9330-5.\n","permalink":"/blog/2025/11/a-survey-of-imaginaries-mythologies-and-rhetorical-structures-of-thinking-machines-part-1/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #cc99ff;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e*Online lesson module and WIP chapter draft.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ffff;\"\u003eTable of Contents\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cnav id=\"toc\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#introduction\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eIntroduction\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"#yan-shi\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eYan Shi's Automata\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"#talos\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eTalos\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"#golem\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eGolem\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"#faust-homunculus\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eFaust’s Homunculus\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#long-arc\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eThe Long Arc of Artificial Imaginaries\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#footnotes\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eFootnotes\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/nav\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"introduction\"\u003eWhen our own era proclaims artificial intelligence (AI) as the centerpiece of contemporary\u003cstrong\u003e technological fetishism\u003c/strong\u003e, it often points to its sweeping impact on medicine, autonomous mobility, creative production, and the evolving rituals of law and civic life. Yet even amid these transformations, we should resist the impulse to treat AI as a clean break with the past, for the imaginaries that animate it are far older than the machines themselves.\u003csup\u003e\u003ca href=\"#1\" id=\"fn-1\"\u003e1\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/section\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLong before the first integrated circuit pulsed with electricity, societies from the past contemplated thinking machines in forms that now read like allegories of our contemporary anxieties.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"\"What Is AI?\" Part 1: A Survey of Imaginaries, Mythologies, and Rhetorical Structures of Thinking Machines"},{"content":" Online lesson module - A practical walk through First Amendment foundations, controversial but protected expressions, categories of unprotected speech, and contemporary questions of platform power, VPNs, and the Tor network. This lesson follows our in‑class slide deck and uses the same conceptual scaffolding for continuity.\nTable of Contents Free Expression: Constitutional and Global Frames Free Expression in American History Prior Restraint and its Discontents One Man's Vulgarity is Another's Lyric Unprotected Speech Defamation Fighting Words Obscenity Intellectual Property Violations Speech Integral to Criminal Conduct Internet Censorship \u0026amp; Communication Rights VPNs: Benefits and Constraints The Tor Network and the “Dark Web” References 1) Free Expression: Constitutional and Global Frames The framers of the US Constitution felt a strong need to safeguard the freedom of speech and the press (as well as religion and the right to assemble). The First Amendment of the Constitution articulates a bright‑line commitment: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” [1]\nInterpretive anchor: Political and religious speech receive the highest protection under the US constitutional framework. Restrictions must satisfy content‑neutral “time, place, and manner” standards and leave open alternative channels of communication. [2] The term “press” in the First Amendment is NOT meant to be narrowly understood as newspapers or printed matter. The Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) has consistency interpreted the \"press\" as an umbrella encompassing any medium used to disseminate information and opinions to the public. The \"press\" includes, but not limited to: print publications, broadcast media, digital platforms, blogs, podcasts, streaming contents, social media, and software source codes. [3] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 19 Everyone has the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. This is the global lingua franca of communication rights.[4]\nWhile the U.S. Constitution enshrines free expression through the First Amendment, its spirit resonates in international human rights law. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) extends the same principle beyond national boundaries, affirming that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” [5]\nIn this sense, the American jurisprudence on press freedom contributes to a broader global discourse on communication rights—the notion that access to information and the ability to share ideas are not privileges granted by the state, but intrinsic conditions of human dignity and democratic participation. [6]\n2) Free Expression in American History The First Amendment’s promise of free expression has never fully insulated the United States from attempts to silence dissenting voices or control the press. A vivid early example came in 1798, when the Federalist-controlled Congress enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts, a series of laws designed to suppress opposition during a time of political and international tension. The Sedition Act, in particular, made it a crime to “write, publish, or print any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the president, Congress, or the federal government.[7] In practice, these laws targeted journalists, editors, and immigrant supporters of the Democratic-Republican Party, whose criticism of Federalist policies was reframed as a threat to national security. The Acts proved deeply unpopular, provoking a national backlash over what many viewed as an assault on constitutional liberties. When the Federalists were voted out of power in 1800, the new administration swiftly allowed the legislation to expire, marking an early and decisive reaffirmation that political dissent and criticism of public officials lie at the core of the American free speech tradition. [8]\n2.1 Prior Restraint and its Discontents Prior restraint refers to government actions that prevent speech or publication before it occurs, typically through injunctions, licensing, or other forms of preemptive censorship. Prior restraint has deep roots in English common law, where monarchs required the press to obtain royal licenses, in effect silencing political or religious dissent. [9] The struggle over prior restraint became especially visible in twentieth-century American jurisprudence, as courts were forced to define the limits of government control over publication. In 1931, the Supreme Court’s decision in Near v. Minnesota marked the first major ruling to strike down a state’s attempt to suppress a newspaper before distribution. The case arose when Minnesota officials tried to shut down The Saturday Press for accusing local politicians of corruption. The Court ruled that such pre-publication censorship violated the First Amendment, establishing that punishment for libel or incitement must come after publication through due process, not before. [10]\nA declassified Central Intelligence Agency map from November 1950 depicting dissident activity in Indochina, later published by The New York Times as part of the Pentagon Papers series. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons \u0026lt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dissident_Activities_in_Indochina.svg\u0026gt; Four decades later, in 1971, New York Times Co. v. United States—the “Pentagon Papers” case—reaffirmed that even claims of national security rarely justify silencing the press in advance. The Nixon administration’s effort to block the Times and Washington Post from publishing leaked documents on the Vietnam War was rejected, with Justice Black famously writing that “the press was to serve the governed, not the governors.” [11]\nThe issue of prior restraint resurfaced in 1979 with United States v. The Progressive, when the Department of Energy (DOE) sought to prevent The Progressive magazine from publishing an article titled “The H-Bomb Secret: How We Got It, Why We’re Telling It.” Written by freelance journalist Howard Morland, the piece compiled publicly available scientific information to explain the general principles of hydrogen bomb design.\nThe US government argued that even though the H-bomb data was unclassified, the article could help hostile nations develop nuclear weapons and therefore threatened US national security. A federal judge initially granted an injunction, marking one of the rare instances in U.S. history where prior restraint was temporarily upheld. However, the case was dropped before reaching the Supreme Court after similar information appeared in other publications, rendering the injunction moot. [12]\n3) One Man’s Vulgarity is Another’s Lyric The First Amendment protects not only agreeable or accurate speech but also expression that is false, unsettling, or offensive, so long as it does not cross into one of the legally defined unprotected categories. For instance, most false statements (or the \u0026ldquo;right to lie\u0026rdquo;) are protected as long as they do not amount to defamation, perjury, or professional malpractice. The Supreme Court made this point explicit in United States v. Alvarez (2012), when it struck down the Stolen Valor Act, which had criminalized falsely claiming military honors. The Court reasoned that the government cannot impose blanket bans on lies without threatening the broader freedom to engage in activities intrinsic to public discourse and self-expression. [13]\nCover of the November 1979 issue of The Progressive, displaying a simplified diagram of the Teller–Ulam hydrogen bomb design— an issue the U.S. Department of Energy sought to censor on national security grounds.Source: By The Progressive magazine, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20156806 Another recurring controversy involves the publication of classified or sensitive government information by journalists or private citizens. In most circumstances, the First Amendment prohibits the government from punishing the press for publishing lawfully obtained materials, even if those materials expose state secrets or political wrongdoing.\nThe Pentagon Papers case (1971) and the United States v. Progressive \u0026ldquo;H-bomb\u0026rdquo; case (1979) we\u0026rsquo;ve discussed earlier reaffirmed this principle, holding that the risk of embarrassment or diplomatic tension generally does not outweigh the public’s right to know.\nFinally, unpopular or offensive expressions, for the most part, remains constitutionally protected unless it directly incites violence or falls within another unprotected category such as fighting words (more on this later). This includes speech that most find morally objectionable or politically extreme. The protection of offensive speech ensures that public authorities cannot easily redefine the boundaries of \"acceptable opinion.\" As Justice Harlan observed in Cohen v. California (1971), when a man wore a jacket emblazoned with “F*** the Draft” in a courthouse:\n“One man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.” [14]\n4) Unprotected Speech While the First Amendment offers broad protection for expression, it is not absolute. Over time, the US Supreme Court has defined a narrow set of unprotected categories of speech—forms of expression that are considered so harmful, fraudulent, or devoid of public value that they do not merit constitutional protection. Each category has been shaped by specific historical cases, reflecting the tension between liberty and harm prevention in a democratic society. 4.1 Defamation (libel \u0026amp; slander) Defamation refers to false statements of fact that unjustly harm another person’s reputation. For speech to qualify as defamation, it must meet ALL four criteria: it must be: (1) Untrue - verified to be factually false or misleading.\n(2) Public - cannot be an one-on-one private conversation, must be at minimum communicated to a third party individual.\n(3). Actual Malice - made with reckless disregard for truth AND the intent to cause harm.\n(4)Actual Injury - must result in verifiable monetary or reputational damages [15]\nThe Onion. “IRS Allows Taxpayers to Deposit Payments Directly into Elon Musk’s Bank Account.” The Onion, June 6, 2025. https://www.theonion.com/irs-allows-taxpayers-to-deposit-payments-directly-into-elon-musks-bank-account Although The Onion’s June 6, 2025 article, “IRS Allows Taxpayers To Deposit Payments Directly Into Elon Musk’s Bank Account,” makes numerous false claims about the U.S. government and Elon Musk, it is a work of satire and does not meet the legal criteria for defamation. Satirical and parodic works like The Onion’s are protected precisely because they cannot reasonably be understood as stating actual facts. The publication made clear signals to its readers that the piece is humorous commentary on systemic wealth inequality, not actual news report. [16]\nUntrue: The claim is factually false. Communicated to at least one third party: It was shared to a large online audience. Actual malice: The celebrity chef acted with reckless disregard for the truth by publishing without verification. Actual injury: The restaurant suffered measurable financial and reputational harm. 4.2 Fighting Words (rarely applicable today) The category of fighting words refers to a very narrow class of speech acts so personally abusive and confrontational that they are likely to provoke an immediate violent response from the person addressed. The doctrine was first articulated in the controversial case Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942). Since then, courts have dramatically narrowed the fighting words doctrine, and it is almost never applied today—surviving more as a historical artifact. [17] To qualify as fighting words, speech must satisfy ALL of the following elements:\n(1) Personally Abusive — must be directed at a specific individual in a way that is extremely insulting or demeaning;\n(2) Face-to-Face — must occur in a close, personal encounter where physical confrontation between involved parties is possible;\n(3) Incite Immediate Physical Violence — the speech must be so severe where an reasonable be provoked into immediate physical retaliation (not merely offend, disturb, or anger).\n(4) Lack of Broader Value — must exist purely as a personal insult and cannot be reasonably interpreted as having serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (“SLAPS” value)\nOnce again, fighting words are an exceedingly narrow exception to free expression, representing the constitutional system’s effort to balance the right to speak with the need to prevent immediate, face-to-face violence. Because these conditions are so strict, very few cases meet all four elements—even when the speech in question is highly offensive or hateful.\n4.3 Obscenity (Miller's test) The Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. California(1973) established the three-part test for determining obscenity. [18] A work is considered obscene only if it satisfies ALL of the following elements (also known as the Miller\u0026rsquo;s test):\n(1) Appeals to the Prurient Interest - That “the average person, applying contemporary community standards,” would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to an excessive or unhealthy interest in sexual matters. [19]\n(2) Patently Offensive - Whether the work depicts or describes patently offensive \"'hard core' sexual conduct specifically defined by the regulating state law, as written or construed.\" [20]\n(3) No \"SLAPS\" Value - the work, taken as a whole, does not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (“SLAPS” value). [21]\nScreenshot of adult video-sharing website Pornhub’s “Notice to User” page, captured on November 1, 2025. The page automatically appears when users attempt to access the site from regions subject to state-level age-verification laws. At the top of the notice, a video message features Dr. Cherie DeVille, an American licensed physician, adult film performer, and free speech advocate. In the clip, Dr. DeVille explains that recently enacted state statutes require age and identity verification before granting access to adult content. Her statement frames the measure as both a legal compliance notice and a policy commentary on the right to free expression in digital environments. Age Verification Laws and Digital Rights\nUnder the Miller's test, most mainstream online pornography platforms are not likely to meet the legal definition of obscenity. The Miller framework narrowly defines obscenity as expression that appeals to prurient interests, depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. By contrast, U.S. courts have repeatedly held that consensual adult pornography constitutes protected speech (so long as it does not involve minors or non-consensual acts), as they may reasonably be understood as having some expressive or artistic value. [22]\nHowever, beginning around 2021, a global wave of adult-content removals and site-access restrictions emerged—not through direct governmental censorship, but via indirect enforcement mechanisms.\nRather than invoking obscenity law, public authorities and private intermediaries have increasingly relied on trafficking and age-verification statutes to limit access to online adult material. These include 18 U.S.C. §§ 2257 and 2257A, which mandate age and identity verification for all performers in sexually explicit content, and the FOSTA–SESTA package (2018), which expanded platform liability for facilitating sex trafficking or prostitution. [23]\nUnder the threat of severe financial and legal penalties, credit card companies and payment processors suspended services to adult-content platforms such as Pornhub until they implemented stricter user identity and age verification systems that satisfied government and corporate compliance standards. This strategy effectively bypasses traditional obscenity law, achieving de facto regulation through economic pressure and private enforcement rather than court rulings.\nMany digital rights and free expression advocates have voiced concern that such measures, while intended to prevent exploitation, expand the infrastructure for online censorship and erode user privacy. Mandatory age-verification systems require users to upload sensitive identification documents, increasing the risk of data breaches, identity theft, and potential state surveillance. In this way, the contemporary regulation of adult content reflects a shift from moral censorship under obscenity doctrine to a new regime of bureaucratic and corporate gatekeeping, where privacy and free expression are increasingly contingent on compliance with opaque verification systems. [24]\n4.4 Intellectual Property Violations While the First Amendment protects expression, it does not protect the unauthorized use of another person’s creative work. Copyright infringement is one of the most common forms of restricted speech in the digital age. In fact, the vast majority of online takedown and censorship cases involve intellectual property violations, not hate speech or political dissent.\nUnder U.S. law, copyright protection extends for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years after their death, a duration considerably longer than in most other countries. Once that period expires, the work enters the public domain, where it may be freely used, adapted, or redistributed.\nHowever, a significant loophole allows corporations to preserve their intellectual monopolies: by continually producing “new” versions or derivative works based on existing characters and franchises. Each new iteration—whether a sequel, prequel, or cinematic remake—resets the clock on copyright protection for that specific creative expression. This system contributes to the recent wave of live-action remakes, reboots, and remasters of older works in film and television. [25]\n4.5 Speech Integral to Criminal Conduct The final major category of unprotected speech encompasses expressions that are themselves integral to criminal activity. Unlike controversial or offensive ideas—which remain protected under the First Amendment—these forms of communication are inseparable from the commission of a crime. The law draws a firm line between speech that expresses an idea and speech that acts as a mechanism of harm.\nExamples include fraud and scams, where deceptive speech is used to obtain money or property through misrepresentation; the possession and distribution of child abuse material, which is categorically excluded from protection because it involves the documentation of real criminal abuse; criminal solicitation or conspiracy, in which language functions as the coordination or encouragement of illegal acts; and targeted harassment or threats of specific, imminent harm, where speech directly endangers the safety of an identifiable person.\nIn the digital age, many of these offenses increasingly manifest as forms of cybercrime—where speech itself becomes both the medium and mechanism of violence. [26]\nScreenshot of the splash screen of the payload of the original version of Petya – a family of ransomware that encrypts its victims' hard drive and prevents their PC computers from booting. It subsequently demands that its victims to make a payment in cryptocurrency (typically Bitcoin) in order to regain access to their PCs. An example illustrating this boundary is the case of Petya, a family of ransomware first identified in 2016. Petya malware encrypts the victim’s hard drive and prevents their computer from booting, displaying a ransom note demanding payment in cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin) to restore access. [27]\n5) Internet Censorship \u0026amp; Communication Rights As discussed in our previous lesson, the internet remains an enduring paradox: it is both an infrastructure of free expression and a technology of control. On one level, it has democratized access to speech and empowered individuals to publish, organize, and collaborate across geographic and political boundaries. Yet the same architecture that enables open exchange also provides governments and corporations with unparalleled capacities for surveillance, behavioral manipulation, and information restriction. In this way, the internet operates simultaneously as a public sphere and a system of governance—a space where freedom and regulation constantly collide.\nForms of Internet Censorship: Content Blocking: when Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or regulatory agencies restrict access to certain websites, social media platforms, or news outlets—often justified in the name of national security or “public morality.” [28] Surveillance \u0026amp; Data Harvesting: allow both states and private firms to monitor user activity, constructing detailed behavioral profiles that can be used to shape, predict, remove, or \"shadow ban\" speech.[29] Algorithmic Filtering: Platforms algorithmically curate or suppress visibility of particular content, can be driven by the economic logic of engagement or government pressure.[30] Legal/Administrative Pressure: Arrests, fines, or online takedown orders targeting journalists, activists, users, ISPs, sites and payment processors.\n5.1 Communication Rights In response to these pressures, scholars and civil society groups have advanced the framework of communication rights, extending the logic of free speech into the digital age. These rights include:\nThe right to information - freedom to seek, receive, and impart information through any media (UN Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 19). The right to equitable digital access - free from discriminatory throttling or commercial gatekeeping. Freedom from surveillance - protection from arbitrary surveillance and content restriction.\nData privacy - protection of personal data from being collected and used without user\u0026rsquo;s authorization.\nTogether, these principles reflect the spirit of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which recognizes that the ability to communicate “through any media and regardless of frontiers” is essential to both human dignity and democratic governance. Together, these principles reflect the spirit of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which recognizes that the ability to communicate “through any media and regardless of frontiers” is essential to both human dignity and democratic governance. [31]\nThe persistent balancing problem for communication rights lies in reconciling legitimate security concerns with the preservation of user rights protections. Measures enacted under the guise of protecting citizens (e.g. to combat terrorism, misinformation, or cybercrime) can easily evolve into permanent instruments of control. Once extraordinary powers are normalized, they seldom retreat. Thus, maintaining an open and pluralistic internet requires institutional transparency, public oversight, and digital literacy to ensure that digital protections do not quietly become digital censorship. [32]\n5.1 VPNs: Benefits and Constraints A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a tool that encrypts a user’s internet traffic and routes it through a remote server, effectively masking the user’s IP address and geographic location. In doing so, VPNs provide a degree of privacy and autonomy in digital communication, which can be vital for journalists, activists, or citizens in countries with heavy online surveillance.\nFrom a free speech perspective, VPNs extend the practical reach of expression by allowing individuals to bypass censorship, access restricted information, and protect their anonymity while engaging in political or social discourse. However, while VPNs are often marketed as instruments of digital freedom, they also introduce new ethical, legal, and trust-based dilemmas.\nWhy users adopt VPNs Mask IP location to reduce tracking and profiling by advertisers, governments, or hostile actors.\nLimit ISP and search engine data collection, preventing providers from logging browsing histories.\nBypass censorship and geo-restricted content, such as blocked news sites or streaming services.\nMitigate dynamic pricing based on a user’s location, device, or browsing history.\nSecure, nonprofit options Most commercial VPNs operate under opaque ownership structures, and many “free” VPNs monetize user data through surveillance advertising or analytics resale. By contrast, a small number of nonprofit projects are designed explicitly to serve privacy and anti-censorship goals: Riseup VPN — One of the few legitimate free and open VPN services, supported entirely by charitable donations from privacy and anti-censorship advocates. https://riseup.net/en/vpn\nProtonVPN — Founded by scientists at CERN and initially financed through a community crowdfunding campaign; now operated by the Swiss-based nonprofit Proton Foundation. https://github.com/ProtonVPN\nConstraints and Ethical Implications A VPN doesn’t make you completely immune to all tracking: Websites can still identify users via cookies, browser fingerprinting, or account logins. A VPN hides user data from the ISP, but the VPN provider can see user traffic. Cybercriminals, (e.g., ransomware authors) also use VPNs to conceal their identities In some countries (e.g., Belarus, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, PRC, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE), using a VPN is restricted or banned. 5.2 The Tor Network and the “Dark Web” Tor Browser is available in two versions for Android—standard and alpha. Non-technical users are advised to install the standard release, which is more stable and less prone to errors. The official Tor Browser for Android can be safely downloaded from the Google Play Store, F-Droid, or the Tor Project’s official website; obtaining it from any other source poses significant security risks.Source: Tor Project. Mobile Tor Manual. Last modified 2024. https://iacobus.pages.torproject.net/manual/ca/mobile-tor/ Whereas a VPN relies on a single provider to encrypt and reroute traffic, Tor (also known as the Onion Router) -- an open source, open access project -- distributes this process across a decentralized network of volunteer-run servers, or “relays.”\nAs data travels through multiple nodes, each layer of encryption is peeled away like an onion, ensuring that no single relay knows both who the user is and what content they are accessing.\nThis structure minimizes centralized control and makes it exceptionally difficult for surveillance systems to trace communication back to its origin. [33]\nTor serves as both a technical safeguard for privacy and a philosophical statement about informational freedom. For users in heavily censored environments, Tor can mean the difference between silence and participation.\nYet Tor’s very strength—its multilayered anonymity—also fuels public suspicion. The same system that protects dissidents and reporters can be used by criminals to conduct illicit trade, distribute malware, or traffic in stolen data.\nAdvantages of using Tor Circumvent Censorship: Enables users in restrictive regimes to access blocked sites and communication tools. Protect Privacy: conceals both user identity \u0026amp; browsing activity from ISPs, governments, and advertisers. Digital Democracy: Tor Project is open-source and community-run. Journalists, activists, and whistleblowers use it to safely share information without fear of retaliation.\nConstraints \u0026amp; Ethical Concerns Tor can be slow due to multiple encryption layers and limited volunteer bandwidth.\nWhile Tor safeguards legitimate users, it is also exploited for cybercrimes such as illegal marketplaces Just like the VPNs, access to Tor is also heavily restricted in many countries.\nReferences Cohen-Almagor, Raphael. The scope of tolerance: Studies on the costs of free expression and freedom of the press. Routledge, 2005. Brownstein, Alan E. \"Harmonizing the Heavenly and Earthly Spheres: The Fragmentation and Synthesis of Religion, Equality, and Speech in the Constitution.\" Ohio St. LJ 51 (1990): 89. Balkin, Jack M. \"Digital speech and democratic culture: A theory of freedom of expression for the information society.\" In Law and Society approaches to cyberspace, pp. 325-382. Routledge, 2017. United Nations. General Assembly. Universal declaration of human rights. Vol. 3381. Department of State, United States of America, 1949. McLeod, Sharynne. \"Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all.\" International journal of speech-language pathology 20, no. 1 (2018): 3-11. Mallén, Ignacio Bel. \"Freedom as the Essential Basis for Communication Rights.\" The Handbook of Communication Rights, Law, and Ethics: Seeking Universality, Equality, Freedom and Dignity (2021): 7-19. Bradburn, Douglas. \"A clamor in the public mind: Opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts.\" The William and Mary Quarterly 65, no. 3 (2008): 565-600. Levy, Leonard W. \"Liberty and the First Amendment: 1790-1800.\" The American Historical Review 68, no. 1 (1962): 22-37. Jeffries Jr, John Calvin. \"Rethinking Prior Restraint.\" Yale LJ 92 (1982): 409. Meyerson, Michael I. \"Rewriting Near v. Minnesota: Creating a Complete Definition of Prior Restraint.\" Mercer L. Rev. 52 (2000): 1087. Godofsky, Stanley, and Howard M. Rogatnick. \"Prior Restraints: The Pentagon Papers Case Revisited.\" Cumb. L. Rev. 18 (1987): 527. Dumain, Ian M. \"No secret, no defense: United States v. progressive.\" Cardozo L. Rev. 26 (2004): 1323. Lieffring, Staci. \"First Amendment and the right to lie: Regulating knowingly false campaign speech after United States v. Alvarez.\" Minn. L. Rev. 97 (2012): 1047. Farber, Daniel A. \"Civilizing public discourse: An essay on Professor Bickel, Justice Harlan, and the enduring significance of Cohen v. California.\" Duke LJ (1980): 283. Dienes, C. Thomas, and Lee Levine. \"Implied Libel, Defamatory Meaning, and State of Mind: The Promise of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.\" Iowa L. Rev. 78 (1992): 237. This protection was firmly established in Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988), where the Supreme Court held that even offensive parodies of public figures are constitutionally protected so long as they cannot reasonably be interpreted as factual claims. Wright, R. George. \"Fighting Words Today.\" Pepp. L. Rev. 49 (2022): 805. Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973). Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 15 (1973). Ibid., at 27. Ibid., at 15, 23. Karniel, Yuval, and Haim Wismonsky. \"Pornography, Community and the Internet-Freedom of Speech and Obscenity on the Internet.\" Rutgers Computer \u0026amp; Tech. LJ 30 (2004): 105. Marsden, Christine. \"Age-verification laws in the era of digital privacy.\" Nat'l Sec. LJ 10 (2023): 210. Murray, Alana, Huma Chhipa, and Johnathan Yerby. \"Cyber risk, privacy, and the legal complexities of age verification for adult content platforms.\" Issues in Information Systems 26, no. 4 (2025): 332-347. Bowrey, Kathy, and Michael Handler, eds. Law and Creativity in the Age of the Entertainment Franchise. No. 27. Cambridge University Press, 2014. Holt, Thomas, and Adam Bossler. Cybercrime in progress: Theory and prevention of technology-enabled offenses. Routledge, 2015. Fayi, Sharifah Yaqoub A. \"What Petya/NotPetya ransomware is and what its remidiations are.\" In Information technology-new generations: 15th international conference on information technology, pp. 93-100. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018. Ververis, Vasilis, Sophia Marguel, and Benjamin Fabian. \"Cross‐Country comparison of Internet censorship: A literature review.\" Policy \u0026amp; Internet 12, no. 4 (2020): 450-473. Wang, Keren. \"Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction.\" China review 24, no. 3 (2024): 179-206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933 Cobbe, Jennifer. \"Algorithmic censorship by social platforms: Power and resistance.\" Philosophy \u0026amp; Technology 34, no. 4 (2021): 739-766. McLeod, Sharynne. \"Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all.\" International journal of speech-language pathology 20, no. 1 (2018): 3-11. Bennett, W. Lance, and Barbara Pfetsch. \"Rethinking political communication in a time of disrupted public spheres.\" Journal of communication 68, no. 2 (2018): 243-253. AlSabah, Mashael, and Ian Goldberg. \"Performance and security improvements for tor: A survey.\" ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 49, no. 2 (2016): 1-36. ","permalink":"/blog/2025/11/free-speech-and-communication-rights/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"scom2050-lesson\" style=\"font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,Segoe UI,Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.55; max-width: 880px; margin: 0 auto;\"\u003e\n\u003cheader class=\"hero\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"hero-inner\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"sub\"\u003eOnline lesson module - A practical walk through First Amendment foundations, controversial but protected expressions, categories of unprotected speech, and contemporary questions of platform power, VPNs, and the Tor network. This lesson follows our in‑class slide deck and uses the same conceptual scaffolding for continuity.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" style=\"width: 91.7614%; border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 40px; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid; background-color: #1f2f36;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctr style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%; padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"line-height: 1.24138; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ccff;\"\u003eTable of Contents\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003col style=\"font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#foundations\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eFree Expression: Constitutional and Global Frames\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#history\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eFree Expression in American History\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cul style=\"font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#prior-restraint\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003ePrior Restraint and its Discontents\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#protected\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eOne Man's Vulgarity is Another's Lyric\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#unprotected\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eUnprotected Speech\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#defamation\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eDefamation\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fighting\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eFighting Words\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#obscenity\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eObscenity\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#ip\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eIntellectual Property Violations\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#criminal\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eSpeech Integral to Criminal Conduct\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#censorship\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eInternet Censorship \u0026amp; Communication Rights\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cul style=\"font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#vpn\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eVPNs: Benefits and Constraints\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tor\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eThe Tor Network and the “Dark Web”\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#references\" style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eReferences\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"grid\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"toc\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1188\" height=\"376\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/11/Free-Expression-header.gif\" width=\"680\"/\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/header\u003e\u003cmain class=\"wrap\"\u003e\u003c!-- Foundations --\u003e\u003c/main\u003e\u003csection id=\"foundations\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ccff;\"\u003e1) Free Expression: Constitutional and Global Frames\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cols\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe framers of the US Constitution felt a strong need to safeguard the freedom of speech and the press (as well as religion and the right to assemble).\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst Amendment\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e of the Constitution articulates a bright‑line commitment: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” [1]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout\"\u003e\n\u003cpre\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffcc;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInterpretive anchor:\u003c/strong\u003e Political and religious speech receive the highest protection under the US constitutional framework. Restrictions must satisfy content‑neutral “time, place, and manner” standards and leave open alternative channels of communication. [2]\n\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/pre\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"box\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffcc;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffffff;\"\u003eThe term “\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003epress\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e” in the First Amendment is NOT meant to be narrowly understood as newspapers or printed matter. The Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) has consistency interpreted the \"press\" as an umbrella encompassing any medium used to disseminate information and opinions to the public. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe \"press\" includes, but not limited to: print publications, broadcast media, digital platforms, blogs, podcasts, streaming contents, social media, and \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003esoftware source codes\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. [3]\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; color: #ffcc99;\"\u003eUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 19\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"muted\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; color: #ffcc99;\"\u003eEveryone has the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. This is the global lingua franca of communication rights.[4]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003carticle class=\"text-token-text-primary w-full focus:outline-none [--shadow-height:45px] has-data-writing-block:pointer-events-none has-data-writing-block:-mt-(--shadow-height) has-data-writing-block:pt-(--shadow-height) [\u0026amp;:has([data-writing-block])\u0026gt;*]:pointer-events-auto [content-visibility:auto] supports-[content-visibility:auto]:[contain-intrinsic-size:auto_100lvh] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]\" data-scroll-anchor=\"true\" data-testid=\"conversation-turn-14\" data-turn=\"assistant\" data-turn-id=\"request-WEB:1b7eb0e4-70fc-4417-b516-9fafb91b0d4c-12\" dir=\"auto\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto pb-10 [--thread-content-margin:--spacing(4)] thread-sm:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(6)] thread-lg:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(16)] px-(--thread-content-margin)\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] thread-lg:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 group/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col grow\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal [.text-message+\u0026amp;]:mt-1\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"5216d5c1-6b15-452a-aa0f-006a6d45f883\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-5\" dir=\"auto\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[1px]\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full break-words light markdown-new-styling\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"925\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\" data-start=\"105\"\u003eWhile the U.S. Constitution enshrines free expression through the First Amendment, its spirit resonates in international human rights law. \u003cstrong data-end=\"311\" data-start=\"245\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eArticle 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights\u003c/span\u003e (1948)\u003c/strong\u003e extends the same principle beyond national boundaries, affirming that \u003cem data-end=\"613\" data-start=\"382\"\u003e“everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” [5]\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"925\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\" data-start=\"105\"\u003eIn this sense, the American jurisprudence on press freedom contributes to a broader global discourse on \u003cstrong data-end=\"743\" data-start=\"719\"\u003ecommunication rights\u003c/strong\u003e—the notion that access to information and the ability to share ideas are not privileges granted by the state, but intrinsic conditions of human dignity and democratic participation. [6]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mt-3 w-full empty:hidden\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"text-center\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/article\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"box\" style=\"margin-top: 12px;\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"key-terms\"\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003c!-- History --\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"history\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ccff;\"\u003e2) Free Expression in American History\n\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\nThe First Amendment’s promise of free expression has never fully insulated the United States from attempts to silence dissenting voices or control the press. A vivid early example came in 1798, when the Federalist-controlled Congress enacted the \u003cstrong data-end=\"404\" data-start=\"377\"\u003eAlien and Sedition Acts\u003c/strong\u003e, a series of laws designed to suppress opposition during a time of political and international tension. The Sedition Act, in particular, made it a crime to “write, publish, or print any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the president, Congress, or the federal government.[7]\n\u003cp\u003eIn practice, these laws targeted journalists, editors, and immigrant supporters of the Democratic-Republican Party, whose criticism of Federalist policies was reframed as a threat to national security. The Acts proved deeply unpopular, provoking a national backlash over what many viewed as an assault on constitutional liberties. When the Federalists were voted out of power in 1800, the new administration swiftly allowed the legislation to expire, marking an early and decisive reaffirmation that \u003cstrong data-end=\"1305\" data-start=\"1196\"\u003epolitical dissent and criticism of public officials lie at the core of the American free speech tradition\u003c/strong\u003e. [8]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout warn\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003csection id=\"prior-restraint\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e2.1 Prior Restraint and its Discontents\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"254\" data-start=\"235\"\u003ePrior restraint\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e refers to government actions that prevent speech or publication before it occurs, typically through injunctions, licensing, or other forms of preemptive censorship. \u003cstrong data-end=\"254\" data-start=\"235\"\u003ePrior restraint\u003c/strong\u003e has deep roots in \u003cstrong data-end=\"461\" data-start=\"439\"\u003eEnglish common law\u003c/strong\u003e, where monarchs required the press to obtain royal licenses, in effect silencing political or religious dissent. [9]\n\u003cp data-end=\"1386\" data-start=\"265\"\u003eThe struggle over prior restraint became especially visible in \u003cstrong data-end=\"363\" data-start=\"328\"\u003etwentieth-century American jurisprudence\u003c/strong\u003e, as courts were forced to define the limits of government control over publication. In 1931, the Supreme Court’s decision in \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem data-end=\"512\" data-start=\"493\"\u003eNear v. Minnesota\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e marked the first major ruling to strike down a state’s attempt to suppress a newspaper before distribution. The case arose when Minnesota officials tried to shut down \u003cem data-end=\"700\" data-start=\"680\"\u003eThe Saturday Press\u003c/em\u003e for accusing local politicians of corruption. The Court ruled that such pre-publication censorship violated the First Amendment, establishing that punishment for libel or incitement must come \u003cem data-end=\"900\" data-start=\"893\"\u003eafter\u003c/em\u003e publication through due process, not before. [10]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #b6c7de;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e \n\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1189\" height=\"1211\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/11/Free-Expression-A-November-1950-Central-Intelligence-Agency-map-of-dissident-activities-in-Indochina_the-Pentagon-Papers.png\" width=\"800\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #993300;\"\u003eA declassified Central Intelligence Agency map from November 1950 depicting dissident activity in Indochina, later published by The New York Times as part of the Pentagon Papers series. \u003cspan style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"\u003eSource: Central Intelligence Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons \u0026lt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dissident_Activities_in_Indochina.svg\u0026gt;\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1386\" data-start=\"265\"\u003eFour decades later, in 1971, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem data-end=\"1015\" data-start=\"978\"\u003eNew York Times Co. v. United States\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e—the \u003cstrong data-end=\"1041\" data-start=\"1020\"\u003e“Pentagon Papers”\u003c/strong\u003e case—reaffirmed that even claims of national security rarely justify silencing the press in advance. The Nixon administration’s effort to block the \u003cem data-end=\"1197\" data-start=\"1190\"\u003eTimes\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem data-end=\"1219\" data-start=\"1202\"\u003eWashington Post\u003c/em\u003e from publishing leaked documents on the Vietnam War was rejected, with Justice Black famously writing that “the press was to serve the governed, not the governors.” [11]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1386\" data-start=\"265\"\u003eThe issue of \u003cstrong\u003eprior restraint\u003c/strong\u003e resurfaced in 1979 with \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem data-end=\"1581\" data-start=\"1547\"\u003eUnited States v. The Progressive\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e, when the \u003cstrong data-end=\"1622\" data-start=\"1592\"\u003eDepartment of Energy (DOE)\u003c/strong\u003e sought to prevent \u003cem data-end=\"1658\" data-start=\"1641\"\u003eThe Progressive\u003c/em\u003e magazine from publishing an article titled \u003cem data-end=\"1761\" data-start=\"1702\"\u003e“The H-Bomb Secret: How We Got It, Why We’re Telling It.”\u003c/em\u003e Written by freelance journalist \u003cstrong data-end=\"1812\" data-start=\"1794\"\u003eHoward Morland\u003c/strong\u003e, the piece compiled publicly available scientific information to explain the general principles of hydrogen bomb design.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1386\" data-start=\"265\"\u003eThe US government argued that even though the H-bomb data was unclassified, the article could help hostile nations develop nuclear weapons and therefore threatened US national security. A federal judge initially granted an injunction, marking one of the rare instances in U.S. history where prior restraint was temporarily upheld. However, the case was dropped before reaching the Supreme Court after similar information appeared in other publications, rendering the injunction moot. [12]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cols\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"box\"\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003c!-- Protected but controversial --\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"protected\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ccff;\"\u003e3) \u003cem\u003eOne Man’s Vulgarity is Another’s Lyric\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cols\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eThe First Amendment protects not only agreeable or accurate speech but also expression that is false, unsettling, or offensive\u003c/span\u003e,\u003c/strong\u003e so long as it does not cross into one of the legally defined unprotected categories.\n\u003cp\u003eFor instance, most \u003cstrong data-end=\"441\" data-start=\"421\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003efalse statements\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/strong\u003e(or the \u0026ldquo;right to lie\u0026rdquo;) are \u003cstrong\u003eprotected\u003c/strong\u003e as long as they do not amount to defamation, perjury, or professional malpractice. The Supreme Court made this point explicit in \u003cem data-end=\"624\" data-start=\"598\"\u003eUnited States v. Alvarez\u003c/em\u003e (2012), when it struck down the Stolen Valor Act, which had criminalized falsely claiming military honors. The Court reasoned that the government cannot impose blanket bans on lies without threatening the broader freedom to engage in activities intrinsic to public discourse and self-expression. [13]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1190\" height=\"361\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/11/The_Progressive_H-bomb_cover.jpg\" width=\"275\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99;\"\u003eC\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc00;\"\u003eover of the November 1979 issue of The Progressive, displaying a simplified diagram of the Teller–Ulam hydrogen bomb design— an issue the U.S. Department of Energy sought to censor on national security grounds.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc00; font-size: 8pt;\"\u003eSource: By The Progressive magazine, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20156806\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother recurring controversy involves the \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffffff;\"\u003epublication of \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1048\" data-start=\"983\"\u003eclassified or sensitive government information\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e by journalists or private citizens. In most circumstances, the First Amendment prohibits the government from punishing the press for publishing lawfully obtained materials, even if those materials expose state secrets or political wrongdoing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem data-end=\"1313\" data-start=\"1296\"\u003ePentagon Papers\u003c/em\u003e case (1971) and the \u003cem\u003eUnited States v. Progressive\u003c/em\u003e \u0026ldquo;H-bomb\u0026rdquo; case (1979) we\u0026rsquo;ve discussed earlier reaffirmed this principle, holding that the risk of embarrassment or diplomatic tension generally does not outweigh the public’s right to know.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003carticle class=\"text-token-text-primary w-full focus:outline-none [--shadow-height:45px] has-data-writing-block:pointer-events-none has-data-writing-block:-mt-(--shadow-height) has-data-writing-block:pt-(--shadow-height) [\u0026amp;:has([data-writing-block])\u0026gt;*]:pointer-events-auto [content-visibility:auto] supports-[content-visibility:auto]:[contain-intrinsic-size:auto_100lvh] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]\" data-scroll-anchor=\"true\" data-testid=\"conversation-turn-30\" data-turn=\"assistant\" data-turn-id=\"request-WEB:1b7eb0e4-70fc-4417-b516-9fafb91b0d4c-20\" dir=\"auto\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto pb-10 [--thread-content-margin:--spacing(4)] thread-sm:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(6)] thread-lg:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(16)] px-(--thread-content-margin)\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] thread-lg:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 group/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col grow\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal [.text-message+\u0026amp;]:mt-1\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"f5995701-fd8e-4a96-a720-416e86fadea2\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-5\" dir=\"auto\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[1px]\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full break-words light markdown-new-styling\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"2549\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\" data-start=\"1648\"\u003eFinally, unpopular or \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1694\" data-start=\"1657\"\u003eoffensive expressions,\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e for the most part, remains constitutionally \u003cstrong\u003eprotected\u003c/strong\u003e unless it directly incites violence or falls within another unprotected category such as fighting words (more on this later). This includes speech that most find morally objectionable or politically extreme. The protection of offensive speech ensures that public authorities cannot easily redefine the boundaries of \"acceptable opinion.\" As Justice Harlan observed in \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem data-end=\"2190\" data-start=\"2169\"\u003eCohen v. California\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e (1971), when a man wore a jacket emblazoned with “F*** the Draft” in a courthouse:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"2549\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\" data-start=\"1648\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“One man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.”\u003c/strong\u003e \u003c/span\u003e[14]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/article\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003c!-- Unprotected categories overview --\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"unprotected\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ccff;\"\u003e4) Unprotected Speech\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\nWhile the First Amendment offers broad protection for expression, it is not absolute. Over time, the US Supreme Court has defined a narrow set of unprotected categories of speech—forms of expression that are considered so harmful, fraudulent, or devoid of public value that they do not merit constitutional protection. Each category has been shaped by specific historical cases, reflecting the tension between liberty and harm prevention in a democratic society.\n\u003cdiv class=\"cols\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"box\" id=\"defamation\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e4.1 Defamation (libel \u0026amp; slander)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"699\" data-start=\"685\"\u003eDefamation\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e refers to false statements of fact that unjustly harm another person’s reputation. For speech to qualify as defamation, it must meet ALL four criteria: it must be:\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(1) Untrue - \u003c/strong\u003everified to be factually false \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eor misleading.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(2) Public \u003c/strong\u003e- \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ecannot be an one-on-one private conversation, must be at minimum \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003ecommunicated to a third party individual.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(3). Actual Malice\u003c/strong\u003e - made \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewith reckless disregard for truth AND the intent to cause harm.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(4)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eActual Injury\u003c/strong\u003e - \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emust result in verifiable monetary or reputational damages\u003c/span\u003e [15]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 128.403%; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #361d0b;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1192 size-full\" height=\"626\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/11/Free-Expression_IRS-Allows-Taxpayers-To-Deposit-Payments-Directly-Into-Elon-Musks-Bank-Account_Onion-June-6-2025-e1762154065529.png\" width=\"533\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc00; font-size: 0.7rem;\"\u003eThe Onion. “IRS Allows Taxpayers to Deposit Payments Directly into Elon Musk’s Bank Account.” The Onion, June 6, 2025. https://www.theonion.com/irs-allows-taxpayers-to-deposit-payments-directly-into-elon-musks-bank-account\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"513\" data-start=\"73\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eAlthough \u003cem data-end=\"327\" data-start=\"316\"\u003eThe Onion\u003c/em\u003e’s June 6, 2025 article, “IRS Allows Taxpayers To Deposit Payments Directly Into Elon Musk’s Bank Account,” makes numerous false claims about the U.S. government and Elon Musk, it is a \u003cstrong data-end=\"538\" data-start=\"510\"\u003ework of satire\u003c/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003edoes not meet the legal criteria for defamation\u003c/strong\u003e. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eSatirical and parodic works like \u003cem data-end=\"1141\" data-start=\"1130\"\u003eThe Onion\u003c/em\u003e’s are protected precisely because they cannot reasonably be understood as stating actual facts. The publication made clear signals to its readers that the piece is humorous commentary on systemic wealth inequality, not actual news report. [16]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli data-end=\"664\" data-start=\"621\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"632\" data-start=\"621\"\u003eUntrue:\u003c/strong\u003e The claim is factually false.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-end=\"723\" data-start=\"668\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"679\" data-start=\"668\"\u003eCommunicated to at least one third party:\u003c/strong\u003e It was shared to a large online audience.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-end=\"842\" data-start=\"727\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"745\" data-start=\"727\"\u003eActual malice:\u003c/strong\u003e The celebrity chef acted with reckless disregard for the truth by publishing without verification.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-end=\"934\" data-start=\"846\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"864\" data-start=\"846\"\u003eActual injury:\u003c/strong\u003e The restaurant suffered measurable financial and reputational harm.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"box\" id=\"fighting\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e4.2 Fighting Words (rarely applicable today)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\nThe category of \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem data-end=\"284\" data-start=\"268\"\u003efighting words \u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003erefers to a\u003cstrong\u003e very narrow\u003c/strong\u003e class of speech acts so personally abusive and confrontational that they are likely to provoke an immediate violent response from the person addressed. The doctrine was first articulated in the controversial case \u003cem data-end=\"365\" data-start=\"336\"\u003eChaplinsky v. New Hampshire\u003c/em\u003e (1942). Since then, \u003cstrong\u003ecourts have dramatically narrowed the \u003cem data-end=\"440\" data-start=\"424\"\u003efighting words\u003c/em\u003e doctrine, and it is almost never applied today\u003c/strong\u003e—surviving more as a historical artifact. [17]\n\u003cp data-end=\"1400\" data-start=\"1312\"\u003eTo qualify as \u003cem data-end=\"1342\" data-start=\"1326\"\u003efighting words\u003c/em\u003e, speech must satisfy \u003cstrong\u003eALL \u003c/strong\u003eof the following elements:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1591\" data-start=\"1405\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1427\" data-start=\"1405\"\u003e(1) Personally Abusive\u003c/strong\u003e — must be directed at a specific individual in a way that is extremely insulting or demeaning;\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1764\" data-start=\"1595\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1625\" data-start=\"1595\"\u003e(2) Face-to-Face \u003c/strong\u003e — must occur\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e in a close, personal encounter where physical confrontation between involved parties \u003c/span\u003eis possible;\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1912\" data-start=\"1768\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1797\" data-start=\"1768\"\u003e(3) Incite Immediate Physical Violence\u003c/strong\u003e — the speech must be so severe where an reasonable be provoked into \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003eimmediate physical retaliation\u003c/span\u003e (not merely offend, disturb, or anger).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"2105\" data-start=\"1916\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1979\" data-start=\"1916\"\u003e(4) Lack of Broader Value\u003c/strong\u003e — must exist purely as a personal insult and cannot be reasonably interpreted as having serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (“SLAPS” value)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\u003carticle class=\"text-token-text-primary w-full focus:outline-none [--shadow-height:45px] has-data-writing-block:pointer-events-none has-data-writing-block:-mt-(--shadow-height) has-data-writing-block:pt-(--shadow-height) [\u0026amp;:has([data-writing-block])\u0026gt;*]:pointer-events-auto [content-visibility:auto] supports-[content-visibility:auto]:[contain-intrinsic-size:auto_100lvh] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]\" data-scroll-anchor=\"true\" data-testid=\"conversation-turn-50\" data-turn=\"assistant\" data-turn-id=\"request-WEB:1b7eb0e4-70fc-4417-b516-9fafb91b0d4c-30\" dir=\"auto\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto pb-10 [--thread-content-margin:--spacing(4)] thread-sm:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(6)] thread-lg:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(16)] px-(--thread-content-margin)\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] thread-lg:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 group/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col grow\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal [.text-message+\u0026amp;]:mt-1\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"d60f999b-2323-4294-b7c4-5075b509a734\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-5\" dir=\"auto\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[1px]\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full break-words light markdown-new-styling\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"2539\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\" data-start=\"2107\"\u003eOnce again, \u003cstrong\u003efighting words are an exceedingly narrow exception to free expression\u003c/strong\u003e, representing the constitutional system’s effort to balance the right to speak with the need to prevent immediate, face-to-face violence. Because these conditions are so strict, very few cases meet all four elements—even when the speech in question is highly offensive or hateful.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/article\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff; font-size: 29px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: bold;\"\u003e4.3 Obscenity (Miller's test)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\nThe Supreme Court’s decision in \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem data-end=\"2256\" data-start=\"2234\"\u003eMiller v. California\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e(1973) established the three-part test for determining \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"2325\" data-start=\"2312\"\u003eobscenity\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e. [18]\n\u003cp\u003eA work is considered obscene only if it satisfies \u003cstrong\u003eALL \u003c/strong\u003eof the following elements (also known as the\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e Miller\u0026rsquo;s test\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e):\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"430\" data-start=\"184\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(1) Appeals to the Prurient Interest\u003c/strong\u003e - That \u003cem data-end=\"286\" data-start=\"220\"\u003e“the average person, applying \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003econtemporary community standards\u003c/span\u003e,”\u003c/em\u003e would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to an excessive or unhealthy interest in sexual matters. [19]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"600\" data-start=\"435\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(2) Patently Offensive \u003c/strong\u003e- Whether the work depicts or describes patently offensive \"\u003cem\u003e'\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003ehard core\u003c/span\u003e' sexual conduct specifically defined by the \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003eregulating state law\u003c/span\u003e, as written or construed.\" \u003c/em\u003e[20]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"785\" data-start=\"605\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(3) \u003c/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNo \"SLAPS\" Value\u003c/strong\u003e - the work, taken as a whole, does not have \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003eserious literary\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003eartistic\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003epolitical,\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003escientific value\u003c/span\u003e (“\u003cstrong\u003eSLAPS\u003c/strong\u003e” value). [21]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 125.57%; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #1c001b;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%; text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1196 size-full\" height=\"703\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/11/Free-Expression_Pornhub-Notice-to-Users-Page_Screen_Nov-1-2025-e1762154138925.png\" width=\"500\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-size: 0.8rem; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace;\"\u003eScreenshot of adult video-sharing website Pornhub’s “Notice to User” page, captured on November 1, 2025. The page automatically appears when users attempt to access the site from regions subject to state-level age-verification laws. At the top of the notice, a video message features Dr. Cherie DeVille, an American licensed physician, adult film performer, and free speech advocate. In the clip, Dr. DeVille explains that recently enacted state statutes require age and identity verification before granting access to adult content. Her statement frames the measure as both a legal compliance notice and a policy commentary on the right to free expression in digital environments.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"793\" data-start=\"129\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000; background-color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAge Verification Laws and Digital Rights\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"793\" data-start=\"129\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #fcdcec; font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003eUnder the \u003cstrong\u003eMiller's test\u003c/strong\u003e, most mainstream online pornography platforms are \u003cstrong data-end=\"323\" data-start=\"267\"\u003enot likely to meet the legal definition of obscenity\u003c/strong\u003e. The \u003cem data-end=\"337\" data-start=\"329\"\u003eMiller\u003c/em\u003e framework narrowly defines obscenity as expression that appeals to prurient interests, depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. By contrast, U.S. courts have repeatedly held that consensual adult pornography constitutes protected speech (so long as it does not involve minors or non-consensual acts), as they may reasonably be understood as having some expressive or artistic value. [22]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1468\" data-start=\"795\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #fcdcec; font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003eHowever, beginning around \u003cstrong data-end=\"829\" data-start=\"821\"\u003e2021\u003c/strong\u003e, a global wave of adult-content removals and site-access restrictions emerged—not through direct governmental censorship, but via indirect enforcement mechanisms.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1468\" data-start=\"795\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #fcdcec; font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003e Rather than invoking obscenity law, public authorities and private intermediaries have increasingly relied on \u003cstrong data-end=\"1160\" data-start=\"1111\"\u003etrafficking and age-verification statutes\u003c/strong\u003e to limit access to online adult material. These include \u003cstrong data-end=\"1248\" data-start=\"1217\"\u003e18 U.S.C. §§ 2257 and 2257A\u003c/strong\u003e, which mandate age and identity verification for all performers in sexually explicit content, and the \u003cstrong data-end=\"1366\" data-start=\"1351\"\u003eFOSTA–SESTA\u003c/strong\u003e package (2018), which expanded platform liability for facilitating sex trafficking or prostitution. [23]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1937\" data-start=\"1470\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #fcdcec; font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003eUnder the threat of severe financial and legal penalties, credit card companies and\u003cstrong data-end=\"1595\" data-start=\"1528\"\u003e payment processors suspended services\u003c/strong\u003e to adult-content platforms such as Pornhub until they implemented stricter \u003cstrong\u003euser identity and age verification systems\u003c/strong\u003e that satisfied government and corporate compliance standards. This strategy effectively \u003cstrong data-end=\"1827\" data-start=\"1789\"\u003ebypasses traditional obscenity law\u003c/strong\u003e, achieving \u003cem\u003ede facto\u003c/em\u003e regulation through economic pressure and private enforcement rather than court rulings.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"2630\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\" data-start=\"1939\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #fcdcec; font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003eMany \u003cstrong data-end=\"1992\" data-start=\"1944\"\u003edigital rights and free expression advocates\u003c/strong\u003e have voiced concern that such measures, while intended to prevent exploitation, \u003cstrong data-end=\"2124\" data-start=\"2073\"\u003eexpand the infrastructure for online censorship\u003c/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong data-end=\"2151\" data-start=\"2129\"\u003eerode user privacy\u003c/strong\u003e. Mandatory age-verification systems require users to upload sensitive identification documents, increasing the risk of data breaches, identity theft, and potential state surveillance. In this way, the contemporary regulation of adult content reflects a shift from moral censorship under obscenity doctrine to a new regime of \u003cstrong data-end=\"2519\" data-start=\"2477\"\u003ebureaucratic and corporate gatekeeping\u003c/strong\u003e, where privacy and free expression are increasingly contingent on compliance with opaque verification systems. [24]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003csection id=\"unprotected\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cols\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"box\" id=\"ip\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e4.4 Intellectual Property Violations\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"673\" data-start=\"203\"\u003eWhile the First Amendment protects expression, it does \u003cstrong data-end=\"265\" data-start=\"258\"\u003enot\u003c/strong\u003e protect the unauthorized use of another person’s creative work. \u003cstrong data-end=\"356\" data-start=\"330\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eCopyright infringement\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/strong\u003eis one of the most common forms of restricted speech in the digital age. In fact, the vast majority of online takedown and censorship cases involve intellectual property violations, not hate speech or political dissent.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1325\" data-start=\"675\"\u003eUnder U.S. law, copyright protection extends \u003cstrong data-end=\"791\" data-start=\"720\"\u003efor the lifetime of the author plus 70 years after their death\u003c/strong\u003e, a duration considerably longer than in most other countries. Once that period expires, the work enters the \u003cstrong data-end=\"917\" data-start=\"900\"\u003epublic domain\u003c/strong\u003e, where it may be freely used, adapted, or redistributed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1325\" data-start=\"675\"\u003eHowever, a significant \u003cstrong\u003eloophole\u003c/strong\u003e allows corporations to preserve their intellectual monopolies: by continually \u003cstrong\u003eproducing “new” versions or derivative works based on existing characters and franchises\u003c/strong\u003e. Each new iteration—whether a sequel, prequel, or cinematic remake—resets the clock on copyright protection for that specific creative expression. This system contributes to the recent wave of live-action remakes, reboots, and remasters of older works in film and television. [25]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"box\" id=\"criminal\" style=\"margin-top: 16px;\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e4.5 Speech Integral to Criminal Conduct\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"619\" data-start=\"213\"\u003eThe final major category of unprotected speech encompasses expressions that are themselves integral to\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e \u003cstrong data-end=\"337\" data-start=\"272\"\u003ecriminal activity\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e. Unlike controversial or offensive ideas—which remain protected under the First Amendment—these forms of communication are inseparable from the commission of a crime. The law draws a firm line between speech that \u003cem data-end=\"562\" data-start=\"551\"\u003eexpresses\u003c/em\u003e an idea and speech that \u003cem data-end=\"593\" data-start=\"587\"\u003eacts\u003c/em\u003e as a mechanism of harm.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1184\" data-start=\"621\"\u003eExamples include \u003cstrong data-end=\"657\" data-start=\"638\"\u003efraud \u003c/strong\u003eand\u003cstrong data-end=\"657\" data-start=\"638\"\u003e scams\u003c/strong\u003e, where deceptive speech is used to obtain money or property through misrepresentation; the \u003cstrong data-end=\"811\" data-start=\"749\"\u003epossession and distribution of child abuse material\u003c/strong\u003e, which is categorically excluded from protection because it involves the documentation of real criminal abuse; \u003cstrong data-end=\"962\" data-start=\"923\"\u003ecriminal solicitation or conspiracy\u003c/strong\u003e, in which language functions as the coordination or encouragement of illegal acts; and \u003cstrong data-end=\"1111\" data-start=\"1050\"\u003etargeted harassment or threats of specific, imminent harm\u003c/strong\u003e, where speech directly endangers the safety of an identifiable person.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1184\" data-start=\"621\"\u003eIn the digital age, many of these offenses increasingly manifest as forms of \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ecybercrime\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e—where speech itself becomes both the medium and mechanism of violence. [26]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1199\" height=\"400\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/11/2017_Petya_cyberattack_screenshot.png\" width=\"720\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 0.85rem; color: #ffcc00;\"\u003eScreenshot of the splash screen of the payload of the original version of\u003cstrong\u003e Petya\u003c/strong\u003e – a family of ransomware that encrypts its victims' hard drive and prevents their PC computers from booting. It subsequently demands that its victims to make a payment in cryptocurrency (typically Bitcoin) in order to regain access to their PCs.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1184\" data-start=\"621\"\u003eAn example illustrating this boundary is the case of \u003cstrong data-end=\"1260\" data-start=\"1251\"\u003ePetya\u003c/strong\u003e, a family of \u003cstrong\u003eransomware\u003c/strong\u003e first identified in 2016. Petya malware encrypts the victim’s hard drive and prevents their computer from booting, displaying a ransom note demanding payment in \u003cstrong\u003ecryptocurrency\u003c/strong\u003e (such as Bitcoin) to restore access. [27]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003c!-- Internet censorship \u0026 rights --\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"censorship\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ffff;\"\u003e5) Internet Censorship \u0026amp; Communication Rights\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cols\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs discussed in our \u003ca href=\"/teaching/2025/10/teaching-the-internet-the-internet-from-nuclear-hardened-networks-to-algorithmic-governmentality/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eprevious lesson, the internet remains an enduring paradox\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e: it is both an infrastructure of free expression and a technology of control. On one level, it has democratized access to speech and empowered individuals to publish, organize, and collaborate across geographic and political boundaries. Yet the same architecture that enables open exchange also provides governments and corporations with unparalleled capacities for \u003cstrong data-end=\"834\" data-start=\"764\"\u003esurveillance, behavioral manipulation, and information restriction\u003c/strong\u003e. In this way, the internet operates simultaneously as a public sphere and a system of governance—a space where freedom and regulation constantly collide.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 109.941%;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #333333; background-color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eForms of Internet Censorship:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eContent Blocking\u003c/span\u003e:\u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e when Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or regulatory agencies restrict access to certain websites, social media platforms, or news outlets—often justified in the name of national security or “public morality.” [28]\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eSurveillance \u0026amp; Data Harvesting\u003c/span\u003e:\u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e allow both states and private firms to monitor user activity, constructing detailed behavioral profiles that can be used to shape, predict, remove, or \"shadow ban\" speech.\u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e[29]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eAlgorithmic Filtering\u003c/span\u003e:\u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Platforms algorithmically curate or suppress visibility of particular content, can be driven by the economic logic of engagement or government pressure.[30]\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eLegal/Administrative Pressure\u003c/span\u003e:\u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Arrests, fines, or online takedown orders targeting journalists, activists, users, ISPs, sites and payment processors.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff; font-size: 29px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: bold;\"\u003e5.1 Communication Rights\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"box\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn response to these pressures, scholars and civil society groups have advanced the framework of \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"2063\" data-start=\"2039\"\u003ecommunication rights\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e, extending the logic of free speech into the digital age. These rights include:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #021a38;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"2217\" data-start=\"2147\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eThe right to information\u003c/span\u003e - f\u003c/strong\u003ereedom to seek, receive, and impart information\u003cstrong data-end=\"2217\" data-start=\"2147\"\u003e \u003c/strong\u003ethrough any media (UN Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 19).\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eThe right to equitable digital access\u003c/span\u003e -\u003c/strong\u003e free from discriminatory throttling or commercial gatekeeping.\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFreedom from surveillance \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e- protection from arbitrary surveillance and content restriction.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData privacy\u003c/strong\u003e \u003c/span\u003e- protection of personal data from being collected and used without user\u0026rsquo;s authorization.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\nTogether, these principles reflect the spirit of \u003cem data-end=\"2618\" data-start=\"2561\"\u003eArticle 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights\u003c/em\u003e (1948), which recognizes that the ability to communicate “through any media and regardless of frontiers” is essential to both human dignity and democratic governance.\n\u003cp\u003eTogether, these principles reflect the spirit of \u003cem data-end=\"2618\" data-start=\"2561\"\u003eArticle 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights\u003c/em\u003e (1948), which recognizes that the ability to communicate “through any media and regardless of frontiers” is essential to both human dignity and democratic governance. [31]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe persistent \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"2825\" data-start=\"2804\"\u003ebalancing problem\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e for communication rights lies in reconciling \u003cstrong\u003elegitimate security concerns\u003c/strong\u003e with the preservation of \u003cstrong\u003euser rights protections\u003c/strong\u003e. Measures enacted under the guise of protecting citizens (e.g. to combat terrorism, misinformation, or cybercrime) can easily evolve into permanent instruments of control. \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"\u003eOnce extraordinary powers are normalized, they seldom retreat\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e Thus, maintaining an open and pluralistic internet requires institutional \u003cstrong data-end=\"3318\" data-start=\"3250\"\u003etransparency, \u003c/strong\u003epublic \u003cstrong\u003eoversight\u003c/strong\u003e, and \u003cstrong data-end=\"3318\" data-start=\"3250\"\u003edigital literacy\u003c/strong\u003e to ensure that digital protections do not quietly become digital censorship. [32]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003c!-- VPNs --\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"vpn\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e5.1 VPNs: Benefits and Constraints\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cols\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA \u003cstrong data-end=\"291\" data-start=\"258\"\u003eVirtual Private Network (VPN)\u003c/strong\u003e is a tool that encrypts a user’s internet traffic and routes it through a remote server, effectively masking the user’s IP address and geographic location. In doing so, VPNs provide a degree of privacy and autonomy in digital communication, which can be vital for journalists, activists, or citizens in countries with heavy online surveillance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom a free speech perspective, VPNs extend the practical reach of expression by allowing individuals to \u003cstrong data-end=\"763\" data-start=\"742\"\u003ebypass censorship\u003c/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-end=\"798\" data-start=\"765\"\u003eaccess restricted information\u003c/strong\u003e, and \u003cstrong data-end=\"831\" data-start=\"804\"\u003eprotect their anonymity\u003c/strong\u003e while engaging in political or social discourse. However, while VPNs are often marketed as instruments of digital freedom, they also introduce new ethical, legal, and trust-based dilemmas.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 112.784%; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #140101;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color: #ccffcc; color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy users adopt VPNs\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1156\" data-start=\"1053\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1073\" data-start=\"1053\"\u003eMask IP location\u003c/strong\u003e to reduce tracking and profiling by advertisers, governments, or hostile actors.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1263\" data-start=\"1159\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1206\" data-start=\"1159\"\u003eLimit ISP and search engine data collection\u003c/strong\u003e, preventing providers from logging browsing histories.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1367\" data-start=\"1266\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1314\" data-start=\"1266\"\u003eBypass censorship and geo-restricted content\u003c/strong\u003e, such as blocked news sites or streaming services.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1457\" data-start=\"1370\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1398\" data-start=\"1370\"\u003eMitigate dynamic pricing\u003c/strong\u003e based on a user’s location, device, or browsing history.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000; background-color: #ccffcc;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSecure, nonprofit options\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003eMost commercial VPNs operate under opaque ownership structures, and many “free” VPNs monetize user data through surveillance advertising or analytics resale. By contrast, a small number of nonprofit projects are designed explicitly to serve privacy and anti-censorship goals:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli data-end=\"1985\" data-start=\"1769\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1985\" data-start=\"1771\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"1785\" data-start=\"1771\"\u003eRiseup VPN\u003c/strong\u003e — One of the few legitimate free and open VPN services, supported entirely by charitable donations from privacy and anti-censorship advocates. \u003ca class=\"decorated-link\" data-end=\"1983\" data-start=\"1929\" href=\"https://riseup.net/en/vpn\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_new\"\u003ehttps://riseup.net/en/vpn\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-end=\"2223\" data-start=\"1986\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"2223\" data-start=\"1988\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"2001\" data-start=\"1988\"\u003eProtonVPN\u003c/strong\u003e — Founded by scientists at CERN and initially financed through a community crowdfunding campaign; now operated by the Swiss-based nonprofit Proton Foundation. \u003ca class=\"decorated-link\" data-end=\"2221\" data-start=\"2161\" href=\"https://github.com/ProtonVPN\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_new\"\u003ehttps://github.com/ProtonVPN\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color: #ffff99; color: #000000;\"\u003eConstraints and Ethical Implications\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003eA VPN doesn’t make you completely immune to all tracking: Websites can still identify users via cookies, browser fingerprinting, or account logins. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003eA VPN hides user data from the ISP, but the VPN provider can see user traffic. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003eCybercriminals, (e.g.,  ransomware authors) also use VPNs to conceal their identities\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003eIn some countries (e.g., Belarus, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, PRC, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE), using a VPN is restricted or banned.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003c!-- Tor --\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"tor\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e5.2 The Tor Network and the “Dark Web”\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 128.409%;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1202\" height=\"1024\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/11/Free-Expression_Tor-Project-android-security-settings.gif\" width=\"512\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eTor Browser is available in two versions for Android—standard and alpha. Non-technical users are advised to install the standard release, which is more stable and less prone to errors. The official Tor Browser for Android can be safely downloaded from the Google Play Store, F-Droid, or the Tor Project’s official website; obtaining it from any other source poses significant security risks.\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff9900;\"\u003eSource: Tor Project. Mobile Tor Manual. Last modified 2024. https://iacobus.pages.torproject.net/manual/ca/mobile-tor/\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"3922\" data-start=\"3383\"\u003eWhereas a VPN relies on a single provider to encrypt and reroute traffic, \u003cstrong data-end=\"3483\" data-start=\"3457\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003eTor\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/strong\u003e(also known as the Onion Router)\u003cstrong data-end=\"3483\" data-start=\"3457\"\u003e -- \u003c/strong\u003ean \u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"3483\" data-start=\"3457\"\u003eopen source, open access \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eproject\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cstrong data-end=\"3483\" data-start=\"3457\"\u003e--\u003c/strong\u003e distributes this process across a \u003cstrong\u003edecentralized network\u003c/strong\u003e of volunteer-run servers, or “relays.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"3922\" data-start=\"3383\"\u003eAs data travels through multiple nodes, each layer of encryption is peeled away like an onion, ensuring that \u003cspan style=\"background-color: #ccffcc; color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-end=\"3769\" data-start=\"3687\"\u003eno single relay knows both who the user is and what content they are accessing\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"3922\" data-start=\"3383\"\u003eThis structure minimizes centralized control and makes it exceptionally difficult for surveillance systems to trace communication back to its origin. [33]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"4542\" data-start=\"3924\"\u003eTor serves as both a technical safeguard for privacy and a philosophical statement about informational freedom. For users in heavily censored environments, Tor can mean the difference between silence and participation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"4542\" data-start=\"3924\"\u003eYet Tor’s very strength—its multilayered anonymity—also fuels public suspicion. The same system that protects dissidents and reporters can be used by criminals to conduct illicit trade, distribute malware, or traffic in stolen data.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"5074\" data-start=\"4544\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cols\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 129.972%; border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000; background-color: #ccffcc; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAdvantages of using Tor\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eCircumvent Censorship: \u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eEnables users in restrictive regimes to access blocked sites and communication tools. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eProtect Privacy: \u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003econceals both user identity \u0026amp; browsing activity from ISPs, governments, and advertisers.\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 14pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eDigital Democracy: \u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTor Project is open-source and community-run. Journalists, activists, and whistleblowers use it to safely  share information without fear of retaliation.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000; background-color: #ffff99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConstraints \u0026amp; Ethical Concerns\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTor can be \u003c/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eslow \u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edue to multiple encryption layers and limited volunteer bandwidth.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhile Tor safeguards legitimate users, it is also exploited for \u003c/span\u003e\u003cb\u003ecybercrimes \u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003esuch as illegal marketplaces \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eJust like the VPNs, access to Tor is also heavily restricted in \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-project-re-are-there-countries-where-using-tor-is-illegal/18862\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emany countries\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003c!-- Reflection --\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"reflect\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\u003c!-- References --\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"references\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace;\"\u003eReferences\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 139.771%; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #290d28;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eCohen-Almagor, Raphael. \u003ci\u003eThe scope of tolerance: Studies on the costs of free expression and freedom of the press\u003c/i\u003e. Routledge, 2005.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eBrownstein, Alan E. \"Harmonizing the Heavenly and Earthly Spheres: The Fragmentation and Synthesis of Religion, Equality, and Speech in the Constitution.\" \u003ci\u003eOhio St. LJ\u003c/i\u003e 51 (1990): 89.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eBalkin, Jack M. \"Digital speech and democratic culture: A theory of freedom of expression for the information society.\" In \u003ci\u003eLaw and Society approaches to cyberspace\u003c/i\u003e, pp. 325-382. Routledge, 2017.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eUnited Nations. General Assembly. \u003ci\u003eUniversal declaration of human rights\u003c/i\u003e. Vol. 3381. Department of State, United States of America, 1949.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eMcLeod, Sharynne. \"Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all.\" \u003ci\u003eInternational journal of speech-language pathology\u003c/i\u003e 20, no. 1 (2018): 3-11.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eMallén, Ignacio Bel. \"Freedom as the Essential Basis for Communication Rights.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Handbook of Communication Rights, Law, and Ethics: Seeking Universality, Equality, Freedom and Dignity\u003c/i\u003e (2021): 7-19.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eBradburn, Douglas. \"A clamor in the public mind: Opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts.\" \u003ci\u003eThe William and Mary Quarterly\u003c/i\u003e 65, no. 3 (2008): 565-600.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eLevy, Leonard W. \"Liberty and the First Amendment: 1790-1800.\" \u003ci\u003eThe American Historical Review\u003c/i\u003e 68, no. 1 (1962): 22-37.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eJeffries Jr, John Calvin. \"Rethinking Prior Restraint.\" \u003ci\u003eYale LJ\u003c/i\u003e 92 (1982): 409.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eMeyerson, Michael I. \"Rewriting Near v. Minnesota: Creating a Complete Definition of Prior Restraint.\" \u003ci\u003eMercer L. Rev.\u003c/i\u003e 52 (2000): 1087.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eGodofsky, Stanley, and Howard M. Rogatnick. \"Prior Restraints: The Pentagon Papers Case Revisited.\" \u003ci\u003eCumb. L. Rev.\u003c/i\u003e 18 (1987): 527.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eDumain, Ian M. \"No secret, no defense: United States v. progressive.\" \u003ci\u003eCardozo L. Rev.\u003c/i\u003e 26 (2004): 1323.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eLieffring, Staci. \"First Amendment and the right to lie: Regulating knowingly false campaign speech after United States v. Alvarez.\" \u003ci\u003eMinn. L. Rev.\u003c/i\u003e 97 (2012): 1047.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eFarber, Daniel A. \"Civilizing public discourse: An essay on Professor Bickel, Justice Harlan, and the enduring significance of Cohen v. California.\" \u003ci\u003eDuke LJ\u003c/i\u003e (1980): 283.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eDienes, C. Thomas, and Lee Levine. \"Implied Libel, Defamatory Meaning, and State of Mind: The Promise of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.\" \u003ci\u003eIowa L. Rev.\u003c/i\u003e 78 (1992): 237.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eThis protection was firmly established in \u003cstrong data-end=\"1658\" data-start=\"1618\"\u003e\u003cem data-end=\"1649\" data-start=\"1620\"\u003eHustler Magazine v. Falwell\u003c/em\u003e (1988)\u003c/strong\u003e, where the Supreme Court held that even offensive parodies of public figures are constitutionally protected so long as they cannot reasonably be interpreted as factual claims.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eWright, R. George. \"Fighting Words Today.\" \u003ci\u003ePepp. L. Rev.\u003c/i\u003e 49 (2022): 805.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eMiller v. California,\u003c/em\u003e 413 U.S. 15 (1973).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eMiller v. California,\u003c/em\u003e 413 U.S. 15, 15 (1973). \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIbid., \u003c/em\u003eat 27. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIbid., \u003c/em\u003eat 15, 23.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eKarniel, Yuval, and Haim Wismonsky. \"Pornography, Community and the Internet-Freedom of Speech and Obscenity on the Internet.\" \u003ci\u003eRutgers Computer \u0026amp; Tech. LJ\u003c/i\u003e 30 (2004): 105.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eMarsden, Christine. \"Age-verification laws in the era of digital privacy.\" \u003ci\u003eNat'l Sec. LJ\u003c/i\u003e 10 (2023): 210.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eMurray, Alana, Huma Chhipa, and Johnathan Yerby. \"Cyber risk, privacy, and the legal complexities of age verification for adult content platforms.\" \u003ci\u003eIssues in Information Systems\u003c/i\u003e 26, no. 4 (2025): 332-347.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eBowrey, Kathy, and Michael Handler, eds. \u003ci\u003eLaw and Creativity in the Age of the Entertainment Franchise\u003c/i\u003e. No. 27. Cambridge University Press, 2014.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eHolt, Thomas, and Adam Bossler. \u003ci\u003eCybercrime in progress: Theory and prevention of technology-enabled offenses\u003c/i\u003e. Routledge, 2015.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eFayi, Sharifah Yaqoub A. \"What Petya/NotPetya ransomware is and what its remidiations are.\" In \u003ci\u003eInformation technology-new generations: 15th international conference on information technology\u003c/i\u003e, pp. 93-100. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003eVerveris, Vasilis, Sophia Marguel, and Benjamin Fabian. \"Cross‐Country comparison of Internet censorship: A literature review.\" \u003ci\u003ePolicy \u0026amp; Internet\u003c/i\u003e 12, no. 4 (2020): 450-473.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 12pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eWang, Keren. \"Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction.\" \u003ci\u003eChina review\u003c/i\u003e 24, no. 3 (2024): 179-206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px;\"\u003eCobbe, Jennifer. \"Algorithmic censorship by social platforms: Power and resistance.\" \u003c/span\u003e\u003ci style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px;\"\u003ePhilosophy \u0026amp; Technology\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px;\"\u003e 34, no. 4 (2021): 739-766.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px;\"\u003eMcLeod, Sharynne. \"Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all.\" \u003c/span\u003e\u003ci style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px;\"\u003eInternational journal of speech-language pathology\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px;\"\u003e 20, no. 1 (2018): 3-11.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px;\"\u003eBennett, W. Lance, and Barbara Pfetsch. \"Rethinking political communication in a time of disrupted public spheres.\" \u003ci\u003eJournal of communication\u003c/i\u003e 68, no. 2 (2018): 243-253. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffcc99; font-family: terminal, monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px;\"\u003eAlSabah, Mashael, and Ian Goldberg. \"Performance and security improvements for tor: A survey.\" \u003ci\u003eACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)\u003c/i\u003e 49, no. 2 (2016): 1-36.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e \n\u003c/div\u003e","title":"Free Speech and Communication Rights"},{"content":" Media, Society, and Culture Lesson Module\nSeeing Isn’t Believing RepresentUs, CC BY 3.0 \u0026lt;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\u0026gt;, via Wikimedia Commons: A synthetic Kim Jong Un warns Americans—evidence that our eyes/ears are no longer reliable gatekeepers. This video clip is a \"deepfake\" of Kim Jong Un created in 2020 by RepresentUs, a non-partisan non-profit organization that produced it to raise public awareness about fake news in the emerging age of generative AI. The footage itself is fully synthetic, yet it’s an amalgamation from genuine video footage and voice samples of the North Korean leader drawn from publicly available news archives. It was intentionally designed to look real enough to unsettle us, but still recognizable as “fake” for educational purposes. Since 2020, of course, deepfake technology has advanced by orders of magnitude, in terms of realism, accessibility, and speed of production.\nToday, we’ll be surveying the phenomenon of fake news: clarifying what the term actually means, tracing its historical trajectories, mapping its online growth, examining how it spreads, and considering its broader implications for media, politics, and public trust.\nTable of Contents: What “Fake News” Is (and Isn’t) A Short History of Fake News The Growth of Online Fake News How Fake News Spreads 2018 Knight Foundation Study \u0026amp; Policy Implications References 1) What “Fake News” Is (and Isn’t) Screencap: March 5, 2025, article on the official White House website. Used as an example of how “fake news” language is mobilized rhetorically. Source: The White House. “Yes, Biden Spent Millions on Transgender Animal Experiments.” March 5, 2025. Archived March 6, 2025. “The Fake News losers at CNN immediately tried to fact check it, but President Trump was right (as usual).” - The White House. Archived March 6, 2025. We will treat this snippet from the White House's official news release from March 5, 2025 as a discursive example: the label “fake news” is now a political buzzword, applied to disliked coverage or even verified information that conflicts with our priors. To keep the concept analytically useful, we’ll reserve it forcounterfeit journalism: content that mimics the form of news without its fact-seeking processes, often scaled by manipulative distribution. A three-layer understanding of fake news: 1. Content-level: fabricated or grossly deceptive claims presented as fact (e.g., synthetic media, conspiracy copy). 2. Source-level: outlets with persistent deception, undisclosed funding/automation, or serial policy violations.\n3. Distribution manipulation: bots, troll farms, and coordinated networks that simulate consensus and virality.\nBy distinguishing what is false (content), who is pushing it (source), and how it travels (distribution), and its underlying purpose we keep the concept analytically useful. Reflect: When you’ve seen “fake news” used as a label, which layer (content, source, distribution) was actually at issue? What visible cues do you rely on for credibility? Which of those cues are easiest to counterfeit? 2) A Short History of Fake News “Fake news” is not new. Modern fake news emerged alongside the rise of the news industry and expansion of newspaper readership in the 19th century.The 1835 Great Moon Hoax in the New York Sun claimed astronomers had discovered bat-winged lunar humanoids; readers were enthralled and misled. In the 1890s,yellow journalism sensationalized headlines and, during the USS Maine explosion, helped inflame the Spanish–American War. Bold New York Journal headlines from 25 March 1898 that falsely blamed USS Maine's destruction on a Spanish mine.Source: New York Journal front page, March 25, 1898. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. In World War I, the United States built a modern war propaganda apparatus, the Committee on Public Information (the “Creel Committee”), to saturate the public sphere with persuasive messaging (read more: Public Relations: Industry, Practices, and Democratic Implications).\nMedia panics also have a history: the infamous “mass panic” over Orson Welles’s 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast was real for some listeners but widely exaggerated by rival newspapers.\nThe ambivalent power of radio became strikingly visible on October 31, 1938, when CBS aired a dramatized version of The War of the Worlds. Styled as a series of urgent news bulletins, the program caused panic among listeners who believed the Martian invasion was real. During the Cold War, the KGB seeded Operation Denver/INFEKTION, a disinformation campaign alleging the U.S. invented HIV/AIDS, one of the many Cold War templates for transnational conspiracy diffusion.\n3) The Growth of Online Fake News We now live in a media ecosystem where fake news is becoming ubiquitous. It is also increasingly difficult to distinguish legitimate journalism from fake news. How did we get here? Search interest in “fake news” rises with catalytic events. Google Trends visuals below highlight the 2016–2018 surge of \u0026ldquo;fake news\u0026rdquo; search term as the phenomenon enters mainstream discourse.\nGoogle Trends: Growth of 'fake news' search term between 1/1/2016 and 1/1/2018 Growth of the “fake news” surge around the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election also overlapped with the search term \"Pizzagate,\" and then accompanied by renewed spikes around COVID-19 in 2020. Google Trends comparative interest: fake news vs. pizzagate vs. covid lockdown, 1/1/2016 – 1/1/2025. These patterns highlights how moments when uncertainty and identity politics catalyze misinformation while digital platforms provide the fuel with rising topics/queries.\nSince 2016, many fake news outlets have achieved remarkable success in building audiences and expanding subscriptions by promoting viral, partisan news content across social media platforms. A notable example is The Epoch Times, which originated in 2000 as a Falun Gong–operatednewsletter associated with the controversial new religious movement (NRM). Over time, it evolved into a major digital publisher that aggressively circulated partisan conspiracy narratives—such as “Spygate,” \"QAnon,\" and “COVID-19 bioweapon\" conspiracy—while using targeted platform advertising to grow its subscriber base.\n“Declassified,” an Epoch TimesYouTube program hosted by Gina Shakespeare. Funded in 2000 by a Georgia Tech student as a newsletter for the Falun Dafa new religious movement, Epoch Times became a prominent source of partisan conspiracy theories such as the Spygate,\" QAnon, and “COVID-19 bioweapon conspiracy.” Reflect: What type of crisis (e.g., electoral, public health, geopolitics, economic) seems to generate the steepest appetite for fake news? Why? 4) How Fake News Spreads Bots and early amplification In the networked ecosystem of fake news, social bots disproportionately amplify low-credibility contents in the earliest moments of diffusion, targeting high-follower humans with mentions/replies so that human users unwittingly “pull” the content outward.In the following visualization from a 2017 paper by Shao et al. shows the diffusion network for the 2016 fake news article “Spirit cooking: Clinton campaign chairman practices bizarre occult ritual\" published by the now defunct conspiracy news site Infowars.com. Diffusion network for the 2016 fake news article “Spirit cooking: Clinton campaign chairman practices bizarre occult ritual\" published by Infowars.com. Nodes and links represent Twitter accounts and retweets. Node size indicates account followers. Node color represents bot score: blue (likely human), red(likely bot), and yellow (unknown).Shao, Chengcheng, Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, Onur Varol, Alessandro Flammini, and Filippo Menczer. \"The spread of fake news by social bots.\" arXiv preprint arXiv:1707.07592 96, no. 104 (2017): 14. It shows how automated and semi-automated accounts flood the zone in the opening minutes of a fake news story’s life, @-mentioning high-follower users to “pull” links into wider feeds. That early, bot-Astroturfedbump lets low-credibility domains punch far above their influencing weight. Similar automated fake news dissemination pattern has been observed in another analysis conduced in 2023 by Albert Orozco Camacho (McGill University):\nSide-by-side networks coordinated automated troll activity from distinct high-activity subgraphs, from Feb 2017: Russian (left) vs. Chinese (right) Twitter users datasets. Red links = automated or semi-automated troll activity, blue links= likely regular human users. Orozco Camacho, Albert. A Study of Social Media Trolls via Graph Representation Learning. Master’s thesis, McGill University, 2023. eScholarship@McGill. https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/j3860d25r These cases align with platform-level research suggesting substantial automated and coordinated sharing of fake news content in our media ecosystem.\nEcho Chambers and Algorithmic Rhetoric When polarized communication networks fragment into relatively insular clusters that are internally homogeneous in both ideology and rhetoric, they are referred to as echo chambers.\nAlgorithms also play a central role in sustaining these chambers. Most social media platforms rely on engagement-driven recommendation system that privilege content likely to be clicked, shared, or commented on. Over time, these algorithmic feedback loops would self-optimize to deliver material that resonates with users’ pre-existing tastes, intensifying the affective appeal of familiar narratives while quietly filtering out dissonant ones. Thus, Algorithms also function rhetorically: they perform acts of invention (heurēsis) by curating what enters the field of public attention; they enact style and delivery by determining the rhythm and prominence of posts in a user’s feed; and they amplify identification by clustering like-minded publics into algorithmically attuned communities.\nThe phenomenon of echo chamber has been well observed and documented:\nVisualization of the political communication network \"echo chambers\" relating to the impeachment of the former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Node colors represent political position, as defined by blue for pro-, red for anti- impeachment, and white for neutral or unknown.Cota, W., Ferreira, S.C., Pastor-Satorras, R. et al. Quantifying echo chamber effects in information spreading over political communication networks. EPJ Data Sci. 8, 35 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0213-9 In the above visualization of the Brazilian \u0026ldquo;impeach Dilma Rousseff (former Brazilian President) debate\u0026rdquo; communication network, pro- and anti-impeachment users formed two well-separated clusters; the ability to reach large diverse audiences depended on position within (and bridges across) these chambers. Within these echo chambers, congruent content spreads with less friction, while corrective information struggles to cross cluster boundaries, thereby amplifying confidence without improving accuracy.\nJust like social bots, tightly connected \u0026ldquo;echo chamber\u0026rdquo; communities can early bootstrap fake news\u0026rsquo; reach. In the following data visualization by Gilad Lotan, Head of Data Science \u0026amp; Analytics @BuzzFeed shows initial user groups who shared a viral fake-news video \u0026ldquo;The Truth About Hillary\u0026rsquo;s Bizarre Behavior\u0026rdquo; in 2016 (now has over 7.5M views):\nSource: Lotan, Gilad. “Fake News Is Not the Only Problem: Bias, Propaganda, and Deliberately Misleading Information Are Much More Prevalent and Do More Damage.” Points: Data \u0026amp; Society Research Institute (blog), November 23, 2016. Archived October 25, 2025: https://web.archive.org/web/20251025205706/https://medium.com/datasociety-points/fake-news-is-not-the-problem-f00ec8cdfcb Reflect: If bots can artificially inflate a story’s visibility in its first few minutes, how does that early momentum affect later human engagement? 5) 2018 Knight Foundation Study \u0026amp; Policy Implications The 2018 Knight Foundation report by Hindman M. and Barash V. represents one of the most comprehensive analyses conducted on the diffusion of fake news across Twitter, examining its patterns both during and in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. election. Key takeaway The researchers found that the disinformation ecosystem was not driven by innumerable fringe sites but by a dense, automated supercluster of high-impact accounts whose activity shaped the overall information environment. In this view, meaningful mitigation depends less on chasing individual stories and more on targeting the dominant hubs of distribution and the automated systems that sustain them. Key findings from Hindman, Matthew, and Vlad Barash. Disinformation, ‘Fake News’ and Influence Campaigns on Twitter. Washington, DC: The Knight Foundation, October 2018. https://s3.amazonaws.com/kf-site-legacy-media/feature_assets/www/misinfo/kf-disinformation-report.0cdbb232.pdf. The study also revealed clear partisan and international dynamics. During the 2016 U.S. election, left-leaning disinformation networks diminished sharply after the vote, while right-wing and Russia-aligned clusters remained active and influential. Before the election, Russian-affiliated accounts often served as brokers, linking U.S. conservative circles to European far-right networks. Afterward, this role shifted to transnational conspiracy communities that maintained cross-platform amplification of anti-establishment narratives.\nMany of the most viral stories did not spread organically. Instead, coordinated blocks of accounts strategically extended their visibility, functioning as what the report termed “information-warfare air cover” for pre-existing ideological narratives. Between 2016 and 2018, over 80% of disinformation accounts identified during the election remained active, collectively generating nearly one million tweets per day. Just ten sites were responsible for roughly 65% of all fake-news links, while the top 50 sites accounted for almost 90%, a concentration that remained stable months later.\nAutomation was also decisive: approximately 63% of the sampled accounts, and likely up to 70% overall, were either automated (bots) or semi-automated users that could generate and circulate content at scale.\nPolicy Implications and Platform Responsibility The 2018 Knight Foundation report also highlighted significant enforcement failures. More than four-fifths of the fake-news–linked Twitter accounts from the 2016 election were still active two years later. The concentration of misinformation sources remained virtually unchanged, with the top fifty sites continuing to generate nearly ninety percent of the overall fake-news traffic. Bots and semi-automated accounts were central to this activity—up to seventy percent of the accounts in the dataset were estimated to be automated or partially automated.\nYet the report demonstrated that certain stopgap interventions could significantly curb disinformation. The authors recommended challenge–response authentication measures (e.g., CAPTCHA verification) for political and news-related accounts, alongside bot labeling and the exclusion of automated accounts from follower and engagement metrics. These adjustments would reduce the algorithmic visibility and perceived legitimacy of fake-news amplification networks.\nFinally, the researchers emphasized targeted interventions: focusing enforcement on the most influential fake-news domains rather than dispersing resources across countless minor actors. When Twitter suspended The Real Strategy (one of the top-performing fake-news outlets at the time), mentions and links to the site dropped by 99.8%. This example illustrated how focusing on a small number of dominant actors and their automation infrastructure can yield disproportionate benefits for information integrity across the entire network.\nReflect: What policy risks or unintended consequences might arise from aggressive bot labeling or mandatory CAPTCHA verification for political accounts?\nShould social media companies be treated as neutral intermediaries or as rhetorical actors with civic responsibilities in the digital public sphere? How might this distinction affect the legitimacy of platform interventions?\nReferences Tandoc Jr., Edson C., Zheng Wei Lim, and Richard Ling. “Defining ‘Fake News’: A Typology of Scholarly Definitions.” Digital Journalism 6, no. 2 (2018). Fallis, Don, and Kay Mathiesen. “Fake News Is Counterfeit News.” Inquiry (2019). Library of Congress. “The Spanish–American War and the Yellow Press.” 2024. Library of Congress. “Belief, Legend, and the Great Moon Hoax.” Folklife Today. Vida, István Kornél. \"The\" Great Moon Hoax\" of 1835.\" Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS) (2012): 431-441. Creel, George. How we advertised America: The first telling of the amazing story of the Committee on Public Information that carried the gospel of Americanism to every corner of the globe. Harper \u0026amp; brothers, 1920. Battles, Kathleen, and Joy Elizabeth Hayes. \"The enduring significance of The War of the Worlds as broadcast event.\" In The Routledge Companion to Radio and Podcast Studies, pp. 217-225. Routledge, 2022. Wilson Center. “Operation Denver: KGB and Stasi Disinformation Regarding AIDS.” Cold War Archives, 2019. Gold, Michael. “How Shen Yun and The Epoch Times Became a Mega-Influence Machine.” The New York Times, December 30, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/nyregion/shen-yun-epoch-times-falun-gong.html Associated Press. “What Will Become of The Epoch Times with Its CFO Accused of Money Laundering?” June 2024. https://apnews.com/article/epoch-times-conservative-trump-money-laundering-543d184d378e570683e7d10326973240 Shao, Chengcheng, Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, Onur Varol, Alessandro Flammini, and Filippo Menczer. “The Spread of Low-Credibility Content by Social Bots.” arXiv (2017) arXiv:1707.07592. Zimmer, F., Scheibe, K., Stock, M. and Stock, W.G., 2019, January. Echo chambers and filter bubbles of fake news in social media. Man-made or produced by algorithms. In 8th annual arts, humanities, social sciences \u0026amp; education conference (pp. 1-22). Cota, Wesley, Silvio C. Ferreira, Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, and Mikko Starnini. “Quantifying Echo Chamber Effects in Information Spreading over Political Communication Networks.” EPJ Data Science 8 (2019): 35. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0213-9. Wang, Zhaozhe. \"Post-rhetoric: A rhetorical profile of the generative artificial intelligence chatbot.\" Rhetoric Review 43, no. 3 (2024): 155-172. Reyman, Jessica. \"The rhetorical agency of algorithms.\" In Theorizing digital rhetoric, pp. 112-125. Routledge, 2017. Wang, Keren. \"Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction.\" China review 24, no. 3 (2024): 179-206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933 Orozco Camacho, Albert. A Study of Social Media Trolls via Graph Representation Learning. Master’s thesis, McGill University, 2023. https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/j3860d25r. Woolley, Samuel C. \"Automating power: Social bot interference in global politics.\" First Monday (2016). Hindman, Matthew, and Vlad Barash. Disinformation, ‘Fake News,’ and Influence Campaigns on Twitter. Washington, DC: Knight Foundation, 2018. https://knightfoundation.org/features/misinfo/. ","permalink":"/teaching/2025/10/fake-news-concepts-rhetorical-disruptions-and-policy-implications/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"scom2050-lesson\" style=\"font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,Segoe UI,Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.55; max-width: 880px; margin: 0 auto;\"\u003e\n\u003cheader style=\"margin: 1.2rem 0 .75rem;\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"muted\" style=\"margin: .25rem 0 0;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMedia, Society, and Culture\u003c/strong\u003e Lesson Module\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1172\" height=\"688\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/10/Fake-News-Header.gif\" width=\"1280\"/\u003e\n\u003c/header\u003e\u003csection style=\"margin: 1.2rem 0 1.75rem;\"\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"hook\" style=\"font-size: 2rem; margin-bottom: .4rem;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff99cc;\"\u003eSeeing Isn’t Believing\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cpre style=\"margin: 0 0 .75rem;\"\u003e\u003ciframe allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"288\" src=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dictators_-_Kim_Jong-Un_by_RepresentUs.webm?embedplayer=yes\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/iframe\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-size: 10pt; color: #ff99cc;\"\u003eRepresentUs, CC BY 3.0 \u0026lt;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\u0026gt;, via Wikimedia Commons: A synthetic Kim Jong Un warns Americans—evidence that our eyes/ears are no longer reliable gatekeepers.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/pre\u003e\n\u003cp data-end=\"1005\" data-start=\"263\"\u003eThis video clip is a \"\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepfake\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003edeepfake\u003c/a\u003e\" of Kim Jong Un created in 2020 by \u003ca href=\"https://represent.us/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eRepresentUs\u003c/a\u003e, a non-partisan non-profit organization that produced it to raise public awareness about fake news in the emerging age of generative AI. The footage itself is fully synthetic, yet it’s an amalgamation from genuine video footage and voice samples of the North Korean leader drawn from publicly available news archives. It was intentionally designed to look real enough to unsettle us, but still recognizable as “fake” for educational purposes. Since 2020, of course, deepfake technology has advanced by orders of magnitude, in terms of realism, accessibility, and speed of production.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fake News: Concepts, Rhetorical Disruptions, and Policy Implications"},{"content":"Posted by Keren Wang, FA 2025\nTable of Content Public Relations and Propaganda Inside the PR Industry Common PR Activities PR and Disinformation Democratizing PR? 1) Public Relations and Propaganda Let’s start today’s discussion with one of the most famous political ads in American history: Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 “Daisy” ad. It’s only about a minute long, but it changed the entire landscape of political persuasion. Go ahead and give it a watch: LBJ campaign’s “Daisy” ad (1964).\nWhat you’ll notice is that it doesn’t actually make a direct campaign argument. Instead, it relies on a carefully orchestrated mix of sensory cues—sound effects, imagery, lighting, and camera movement—to evoke fear, innocence, and the looming threat of nuclear apocalypse. This is the language of modern public relations.\nTo understand where this comes from, we need to go back to World War I and the work of Edward Bernays (1891 - 1995) — often regarded as \"the father of public relations.\"\nBernays began his PR career during World War I, working for the U.S. Committee on Public Information, a federal agency established in 1917 to mobilize American public opinion in favor of entering the war. That experience taught him how coordinated messaging, emotional appeals, and media management could shape collective perception on a national scale. Drawing on those lessons, Bernays later published Propaganda (1928), Public Relations (1945), and The Engineering of Consent (1955), where he argued that the same persuasive techniques used in wartime could and should be employed in peacetime governance and business.\nMore importantly, Bernays did not see public relations as distinct from propaganda; rather, he considered it its modern, professionalized form. As he wrote, “The propagandist who specializes in interpreting enterprises and ideas to the public, and in interpreting the public to promulgators of new enterprises and ideas, has come to be known by the name of ‘public relations counsel.’” [Edward Bernays' Propaganda, p. 37]\nIn practice, both propaganda and PR use the same persuasive techniques. They both rely on emotional cues, mass media, and message framing. The only real difference is how we justify them. PR claims to serve mutual understanding, while propaganda is framed as manipulative. However, at what point does “interpreting” the public’s interest turn into “engineering consent”? And who gains when this line blurs?\nReflect: What's the difference between public relations and propaganda? 2) Inside the PR Industry Fast‑forward a century, and public relations has become a massive industry — an invisible backbone of modern politics and corporate communication. Major PR firms can charge monthly retainers anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 or more. A single nationwide campaign might cost tens of millions. Their client list spans everything from corporations and nonprofits to government agencies and political campaigns.\nThink about election seasons. Every candidate, every PAC, and every issue‑advocacy group now hires PR consultants to manage their image and control narratives. This is where strategy and spectacle meet. In addition to crafting talking points, PR firms also orchestrate a candidate’s entire public persona, deciding how a message will land on cable news, social media, or in a town hall.\nTo get a real sense of how intertwined this is with our democracy, take a look at OpenSecrets.org. It’s a nonprofit that tracks lobbying expenditures and campaign finance. Their Revolving Door database shows how officials move between public service and lobbying firms, or a pipeline between government decision‑making and privatized public influence machinery.\nReflect: Looking at the lobbying data, what trends stand out to you about which industries spend the most on influence? 3) Common PR Activities Now, let’s focus on the practical applications of PR work. What does PR look like day to day? It’s not all press conferences and slick slogans. Much of it involves slow, strategic relationship‑building, and \"issue management (a.k.a. the art of making problems disappear)\" Let’s walk through a few core activities.\nCommunity relations Community relations is a common area where PR practice. The goal isn’t simply to inform the public, it’s to make resistance appear unreasonable, and to secure what’s Bernays called “engineered consent” from the targeted community.\nImagine a city trying to build a new highway through a residential area, which requires the city to seize private homes for redevelopment. The city might hire a PR firm specialized in community relations to make the city's plan more \"palatable\" to those affected homeowners. PR teams will hold town‑hall meetings, produce brochures, and frame the project as a win for local jobs and development. Media relations Media relations focuses on managing communication with journalists and news outlets, especially during times of crisis or scandal (e.g., a product recall or environmental spill). PR professionals draft statements, train spokespeople, and pitch exclusive interviews. Their goal is to redirect the story from blame toward accountability and resolution.\nImagine a scenario in which a major aerospace company faces intense media scrutiny and public outrage after investigative reports reveal that several whistleblowers—who had raised serious concerns about safety protocols in the design and certification of its aircraft—have died under suspicious circumstances. In response, the company hires a PR firm specializing in media relations to help shift the narrative from outrage to one emphasizing its renewed commitment to flight safety. Employee relations Employee relations is about keeping morale intact within an organization. Internal newsletters, video updates, or even informal “Ask Me Anything” sessions with leadership — all of these fall under PR because they shape how insiders talk about their own institution.\nConsider a scenario where a large company decided to implement mass layoffs to stay afloat. Recognizing the potential for plummeting morale among the remaining employees, the company might hire a PR firm specializing in employee relations to rebuild employee trust and boost morale (e.g., confidential counseling sessions; team-building retreats….) Government affairs Government affairs connects private interests with public policy. It’s the PR-coded name for lobbying. PR professionals in this space draft testimony, coordinate coalition letters, and often ghostwrite talking points for lawmakers sympathetic to their cause.\nTo explore more on government affairs / lobbying:\nLobbying Data Summary [ARCHIVED BACKUP PAGE] Top Lobbying Firms [ARCHIVED BACKCUP PAGE] Corporate Social Responsibility And finally, Corporate social responsibility, or CSR. This is when companies try to showcase their ethical side, often as responses to a break of public controversy. Some examples of this type of PR work can be found in the lesson \"Understanding Advertising through Consumer Psychology and Computational Rhetoric\" under the \"Social Marketing \u0026amp; Exploitation\" section:\nAn example of Corporate Social Responsibility as a PR strategy can be seen in the case of Hershey’s 2021 “Accountability, Transparency, Due Diligence” campaign, which served as a rhetorical camouflage precisely at a moment when Hershey's was under investigation for child labor violations and facing a class action lawsuit filed by former child slaves who alleged that the Pennsylvania-based company \"aided and abetted their enslavement on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast.\"[14] Many critics point to the “Climate Change Collection” shown below as an example of IKEA’s social marketing campaigns to \u0026ldquo;greenwash\u0026rdquo; the company’s well-documented history of selling furniture made from illegally logged wood.[15]\nReflect: How does framing a message for different audiences (public, employees, regulators) change its moral implications? 4) PR and Disinformation Of course, the same toolkit that can inform and persuade can also deceive. This is where public relations crosses into what critics call disinformation. Let’s unpack a few common tactics:\nSpin - this is the most familiar. It’s when communicators flood the airwaves with half‑truths or unrelated talking points to distract from scrutiny. You’ll see plenty of spin PR tactics deployed in political press briefings, corporate statements, and social media campaigns.\nPolitical PR veteran Ben Rhodes’s famous spin (as the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications), in response to a reporter’s question about why President Obama’s bombing of Libya was not considered an act of war.Source: The White House. Press Briefing by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes. August 13, 2014. Obama White House Archives. Astroturfing: creating fake grassroots movement \u0026amp; public opinion. With increasingly sophisticated ✽dynamic creative optimization tools, ✽deepfake generators, and ✽bot farms, astroturfing campaigns can mimic genuine public opinion at scale, making it harder to distinguish between authentic and manufactured sentiment.\n“Energy Citizens” rallies (2009) reportedly organized by the American Petroleum Institute to project constituent pressure during the climate bill debate. See press coverage and leaked memos for the logistics and intent. Working Families for Wal‑Mart (2005–2006) created with Edelman as a pro‑Wal‑Mart advocacy effort that drew criticism for masking sponsorship on blogs. Mercenary science - Paid research or ghostwritten analyses that borrow scientific form to create doubt about risk. The tobacco industry’s “doubt is our product” memorandum is the canonical case for understanding how controversy is manufactured.\nPseudo‑event - Staged spectacles designed to be reported as news. A well‑known example is the 2003 “Mission Accomplished” carrier speech, which offered a powerful image even as the underlying conflict continued.\nReflect: How do these disinformation tactics exploit the same communication principles that make PR effective? 5) Democratizing PR? We’ll end on a more optimistic note. The same digital tools that supercharge disinformation can also empower citizens. The proliferation of affordable AI, online transparency portals, and open data (published and managed under open source / open access principles) have made it possible for ordinary people to access powerful PR toolkits with little cost, and to trace how influence works. Platforms like OpenSecrets lets users see who’s funding whom, what lobbyists are working on which issues, and where former government officials now draw a paycheck.\nThis new democratic potential of \"open source PR\" can be understood as public relations in reverse, where citizens as users managing transparency and public accountability.\nIn closing, rather than viewing PR as purely manipulative, we might increasingly see it as a contested terrain where persuasion, power, and accountability constantly collide. If we can read PR critically, we can also mobilize its techniques and technology for democratic engagement, activism, and social change.\nReferences Bernays, Edward L. Propaganda. Ig publishing, 2005. Olasky, Marvin. \"Bringing “Order Out of Chaos”: Edward Bernays and the salvation of society through public relations.\" Journalism History 12, no. 1 (1985): 17-21. Idris, Ika K. \"Propaganda in Contemporary Public Relations.\" In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Anti-Corruption and Integrity, pp. 82-89. 2020. Moloney, Kevin. Rethinking public relations: PR propaganda and democracy. Routledge, 2006. Berg, Kati Tusinski. \"Finding connections between lobbying, public relations and advocacy.\" Public Relations Journal (2009). Davidson, Scott. \"Everywhere and nowhere: Theorising and researching public affairs and lobbying within public relations scholarship.\" Public relations review 41, no. 5 (2015): 615-627. Chung, Holly, Katherine Cullerton, and J. E. N. N. I. F. E. R. LACY‐NICHOLS. \"Mapping the lobbying footprint of harmful industries: 23 years of data from OpenSecrets.\" The Milbank Quarterly 102, no. 1 (2024): 212-232. Berghel, H., 2018. Malice domestic: The Cambridge analytica dystopia. Computer, 51(05), pp.84-89. ","permalink":"/teaching/2025/10/teaching-public-relations-industry-practices-and-democratic-implications/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb style=\"color: #99ccff; font-size: 24px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; letter-spacing: 0.13333em;\"\u003ePosted by Keren Wang, FA 2025\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wrap\"\u003e\u003cheader\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1130\" height=\"332\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/10/Propaganda-and-Public-Relations-header.gif\" width=\"760\"/\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/header\u003e\n\u003csection class=\"stack\" id=\"sec-pr-vs-prop\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"card\"\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003c!-- Table of Contents Navigation Box --\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cnav aria-label=\"Lesson sections\" class=\"navbox\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003eTable of Content\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#sec-pr-vs-prop\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003ePublic Relations and Propaganda\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#sec-industry\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eInside the PR Industry\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#sec-activities\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eCommon PR Activities\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#sec-disinfo\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003ePR and Disinformation\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#sec-democratize\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eDemocratizing PR?\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/nav\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e1) Public Relations and Propaganda\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet’s start today’s discussion with one of the most famous political ads in American history: Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 “Daisy” ad. It’s only about a minute long, but it changed the entire landscape of political persuasion. Go ahead and give it a watch: \u003cspan style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riDypP1KfOU\" rel=\"noopener\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eLBJ campaign’s “Daisy” ad (1964)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Public Relations: Industry, Practices, and Democratic Implications"},{"content":" References Beck, Estee. \"Who Is Tracking You?: A Rhetorical Framework for Evaluating Surveillance and Privacy Practices.\" In Cyber Law, Privacy, and Security: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, pp. 121-138. IGI Global, 2019. Belk, Russell. \u0026ldquo;Extended self and the digital world.\u0026rdquo; Current Opinion in Psychology 10 (2016): 50-54.\nChen, Ning, and Yu Chen. \u0026ldquo;Smart city surveillance at the network edge in the era of iot: opportunities and challenges.\u0026rdquo; Smart cities: development and governance frameworks (2018): 153-176.\nDelwiche, Aaron. \u0026ldquo;Early social computing: The rise and fall of the BBS scene (1977-1995).\u0026rdquo; The SAGE handbook of social media (2018): 35-52.\nElkin-Koren, Niva, and Michal S. Gal. \u0026ldquo;The chilling of governance-by-data on data markets.\u0026rdquo; U. Chi. L. Rev. 86 (2019): 403.\nEllis, T. O., E. F. Harslem, J. F. Heafner, and K. U. Uncapher. ARPA Network Series. I. Introduction to the ARPA Network at Rand and to the Rand Video Graphics System. No. R664ARPA. 1971.\nGrabill, Jeffrey T., and Stacey Pigg. \u0026ldquo;Messy rhetoric: Identity performance as rhetorical agency in online public forums.\u0026rdquo; Rhetoric Society Quarterly 42, no. 2 (2012): 99-119.\nHanda, Carolyn. The Multimediated Rhetoric of the Internet: Digital Fusion. Routledge, 2013.\nHou, Kun Mean, Xunxing Diao, Hongling Shi, Hao Ding, Haiying Zhou, and Christophe de Vaulx. \u0026ldquo;Trends and challenges in AIoT/IIoT/IoT implementation.\u0026rdquo; Sensors 23, no. 11 (2023): 5074.\nKasza, Joanna. \u0026ldquo;Post modern identity:\u0026rdquo; in between\u0026quot; real and virtual.\u0026quot; (2017).\nKappeler, Kiran, Noemi Festic, and Michael Latzer. \u0026ldquo;Dataveillance imaginaries and their role in chilling effects online.\u0026rdquo; International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 179 (2023): 103120.\nKatzenbach, Christian, and Lena Ulbricht. \u0026ldquo;Algorithmic governance.\u0026rdquo; Internet Policy Review 8, no. 4 (2019): 1-18.\nKoteyko, Nelva. \u0026ldquo;Corpus-assisted analysis of Internet-based discourses: From patterns to rhetoric.\u0026rdquo; Rhetoric and the digital humanities (2015): 184-198.\nLi, Zhiyu. \u0026ldquo;AI and Human Judges in Chinese Courts.\u0026rdquo; Available at SSRN 5235753 (2025).\nLin, Xiaoyan, Wenliang Su, and Marc N. Potenza. \u0026ldquo;Development of an online and offline integration hypothesis for healthy internet use: Theory and preliminary evidence.\u0026rdquo; Frontiers in psychology 9 (2018): 492.\nLukasik, Stephen. \u0026ldquo;Why the Arpanet was built.\u0026rdquo; IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 33, no. 3 (2010): 4-21.\nNagy, Peter, and Bernadett Koles. \u0026ldquo;The digital transformation of human identity: Towards a conceptual model of virtual identity in virtual worlds.\u0026rdquo; Convergence 20, no. 3 (2014): 276-292.\nPfaffenberger, Bryan. \u0026ldquo;The social meaning of the personal computer: Or, why the personal computer revolution was no revolution.\u0026rdquo; Anthropological Quarterly (1988): 39-47.\nReyman, Jessica. \u0026ldquo;The rhetorical agency of algorithms.\u0026rdquo; In Theorizing digital rhetoric, pp. 112-125. Routledge, 2017.\nRupert, Robert D. \u0026ldquo;Challenges to the hypothesis of extended cognition.\u0026rdquo; The Journal of philosophy 101, no. 8 (2004): 389-428.\nWang, Keren. \u0026ldquo;Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction.\u0026rdquo; China review 24, no. 3 (2024): 179-206. Available: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933 Wang, Nu. \u0026ldquo;“Black Box Justice”: Robot Judges and AI-based Judgment Processes in China’s Court System.\u0026rdquo; In 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS), pp. 58-65. IEEE, 2020.\nZappen, James P. \u0026ldquo;Digital rhetoric and the internet of things.\u0026rdquo; In Theorizing digital rhetoric, pp. 55-67. Routledge, 2017.\n","permalink":"/teaching/2025/10/teaching-the-internet-the-internet-from-nuclear-hardened-networks-to-algorithmic-governmentality/","summary":"\u003csection id=\"references\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eReferences\u003c/h2\u003e\nBeck, Estee. \"Who Is Tracking You?: A Rhetorical Framework for Evaluating Surveillance and Privacy Practices.\" In \u003ci\u003eCyber Law, Privacy, and Security: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications\u003c/i\u003e, pp. 121-138. IGI Global, 2019.\n\u003cp\u003eBelk, Russell. \u0026ldquo;Extended self and the digital world.\u0026rdquo; \u003ci\u003eCurrent Opinion in Psychology\u003c/i\u003e 10 (2016): 50-54.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChen, Ning, and Yu Chen. \u0026ldquo;Smart city surveillance at the network edge in the era of iot: opportunities and challenges.\u0026rdquo; \u003ci\u003eSmart cities: development and governance frameworks\u003c/i\u003e (2018): 153-176.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Internet - from \"Nuclear Hardened\"  Networks to Algorithmic Governmentality"},{"content":" Table of Contents What Do You See? Historical \"Thickness\" of Advertising Demonstrative and Associative Ads Advertising \u0026amp; Consumer Psychology Bandwagon \u0026amp; Anti-Bandwagon Effects Social Marketing \u0026amp; Exploitation Computational Rhetoric of Hyper-Personalization What Do You See? Let’s begin today’s lesson with a quick glance at these sets of images. What do they remind you of?\nEach image is a minimal arrangement of color blocks and geometric curves. No text, no logos, no slogans. And yet I suspect for many of us especially in the U.S., they evoke something instantly recognizable.\nIf a brand or product comes to mind, you're already encountering one of the most powerful mechanisms in modern advertising: associative branding. This is advertising stripped to its bare ritual function.[1] Rather than persuading us through spoken or written words and \"rational\" appeal, they operate by cultivating emotional resonance, by embedding themselves in our shared memory structures.\nThis is the rhetorical power of ritualizing brand familiarity and distinction with repetition, and it sets the stage for our exploration of advertising as both a cultural artifact and an increasingly computational rhetorical craft.\nHistorical \"Thickness\" of Advertising The history of advertising is deeply entangled with the evolution of media technology. From those street cries and painted signage of antiquity to the immersive digital campaigns of today, advertisements have always adapted to the dominant modes of public communication.\nThe Industrial Revolution marked a pivotal turning point, giving rise to professional advertising agencies that systematized commercial persuasion on a mass scale.[2] But the rapid proliferation of false and misleading ads during the late 19th and early 20th century led to public outcry and the eventual creation of government oversight bodies tasked with regulating commercial speech across emerging communication infrastructures, including what would become the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[3]\nIn the 21st century, we’ve seen the decline of legacy ad agencies and the rise of platform-based digital advertising, as evidenced by the following chart showing tech giants like Google and Meta turning user data into a significant share of the U.S. economy through targeted ad revenue.\nThis transformation coincides with the rise of associative ads (which rely on emotional cues and brand mythologies) over older demonstrative strategies that emphasized product features and unique benefits. Altogether, these shifts mark a sweeping turn toward hyper-personalization and computational rhetoric, where machine learning systems continuously analyze behavioral data to generate ads optimized for each viewer’s psychological profile in real time.\nDemonstrative and Associative Ads Modern advertising increasingly drifts away from product demonstration and toward affective association. Let’s first pause briefly to clarify these two advertising modalities, by comparison the following two sets of advertisements:\nThe left-side collage shows examples of demonstrative ads focused on highlighting features and demonstrating its unique benefits. Demonstrative advertising operates through propositional logic: “Here’s the product, here’s what it does better than the rest.”\nWhereas in the collage on the right shows examples of associative ads, which rely on tapping into the audience's psychological structures to establish affective associations—what we might colloquially describe as \"vibes,\" \"moods,\" or \"taste.\"[4]\nAssociative advertising embed brand recognition in a dense network of cultural signifiers, emotions, and memory triggers. This is a defining characteristic of contemporary advertising aesthetics: it is increasingly common to see advertisements that rely on abstract, subtle psychological cues to reinforce positive emotional associations with the brand:\nConsider Doritos’ 2021 “Brandless” campaign: they removed their logo entirely, relying instead on the consumer’s internalized memory structure to make the identification. Even non-visual cues can activate these memory structures. Intel’s iconic five-note chime [listen], for example, invokes a brand through auditory ritual repetitions. In these instances of associative advertising, the brand becomes what Roland Barthes calls a \"mythic signifier,\" or a totemic object which what it symbolizes displaces what it actually sells.[5] Ritual, Repetition, \u0026amp; Consumer Psychology Thus, to study advertising is to study consumer psychology. In advertising theory, we often distinguish between differentiation and distinction:[6] Differentiation answers the question: Why should I choose this product over others? Distinction answers the more basic question: How do I even recognize this product at all? Media research increasingly shows that distinction, not differentiation, tends to be the more powerful persuasive force in shaping consumer behavior. That’s why brands invest so heavily in repetition: not just to inform, but to ritualize, because being recognized in its symbolic form tends to matter more than being better in its material substance.[7]\nThis also explains why associative ads often outperform their demonstrative counterparts in building long-term brand recognition. They become mnemonic devices that are triggered by repetitions of a color, a shape, a sound, a smell and so on. \u0026lt;Ayaz, Shaukat, Wisal Ahmad, and Mehboob ur Rashid. \"Investigating the Comparative Effectiveness of Demonstrative and Straight-Sell Comparative Advertisements.\" The Journal of Humanities \u0026amp; Social Sciences 26, no. 1 (2018): 103-118.\u0026gt;\nPerhaps most importantly, advertising persuades by triangulating the audience through structures of social influence, drawing on matrices of collective norms and values.\nIt taps into powerful psychological tendencies of conformity (aligning our behavior with perceived group expectations), identification (shaping our tastes based on those we admire), and internalization (adopting preferences rooted in close or emotionally significant relations). This is why the most effective ad campaigns often don’t feel like forceful persuasion at all. Instead, they invoke or manufacture a sense of belonging.[8]\nBandwagon \u0026amp; Anti-Bandwagon Effects One of the most familiar tools in the advertiser’s kit is the Bandwagon effect, a widely observed tendency for an individual or groups of individuals to adopt behaviors or beliefs because “everyone else is doing it.”[9] Social media further amplifies this phenomenon, making virality itself a potent rhetorical resource.[10]\nThat said, a thing can turn into its opposite if pushed too far. Once a bandwagon becomes suffocating ubiquity, psychological reactance may kick in, and consumers would forcefully resist what feels like coercive overexposure. This phenomenon, known as the anti-bandwagon effect, can be understood as a psychological defense: a way of reclaiming personal autonomy and rhetorical agency by rejecting the overdetermination of peer pressure.[11]\nAdvertisers have harnessed the resistance potential of anti-bandwagon effect as well. Apple’s famous “1984” campaign did exactly that: it sold its Macintosh computers not as the dominant product, but as a manufactured revolt against the implied market domination of IBM at the time.[12] Thus, whether through forced conformity or rebellion, modern advertising finds its way to exploit our desire to differentiate ourselves.\nSocial Marketing \u0026amp; Exploitation Many companies now frame their messaging within narratives of social responsibility. This is called social marketing, where ads seek to advance not just sales by harnessing the narratives of civic virtues and the \"common good.\"[13]\nAs we’ve seen in the case of Hershey’s 2021 “Accountability, Transparency, Due Diligence” campaign, which served as a rhetorical camouflage precisely at a moment when Hershey's was under investigation for child labor violations and facing a class action lawsuit filed by former child slaves who alleged that the Pennsylvania-based company \"aided and abetted their enslavement on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast.\"[14] Another common form of advertising spin, known as \"greenwashing,\" specifically involves the use of “green” language to sanitize a corporation’s image and distract from its environmental infractions. Many critics point to the “Climate Change Collection” shown below as an example of IKEA’s social marketing campaigns to \"greenwash\" the company’s well-documented history of selling furniture made from illegally logged wood.[15] These \"spin\" practices demonstrate that advertising is far more than just another marketing tool. It is deeply enmeshed in questions of citizenship practice, legitimacy, power, and exploitation.\nSpeaking of exploitation, perhaps few audiences are more vulnerable to ethically fraught advertising strategies than children.\nBalenciaga 2022 QAnon coded ad campaign controversy - Safronova, Valeriya. “Balenciaga’s Ad Scandal, Explained.” The New York Times, November 28, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/style/balenciaga-campaign-controversy.html A comprehensive report by the American Psychological Association shows that over half of ads on children’s programming promote unhealthy foods (e.g., candy, cereal, fast food), often with no critical media literacy safeguards. Worse, these ads increasingly appear in the form of advergames, YouTube influencer videos, and viral content that blurs the line between entertainment and solicitation. Even schools are not immune: advertisers now enter classrooms via sponsored materials and exclusive vending contracts.[16]\nhttps://www.apa.org/topics/obesity/food-advertising-children Beyond harmful consumption, children are also exploited along the production chain. Since 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor has flagged global cocoa production as high-risk for child labor and slavery, particularly in West Africa. Much of this exploitation is driven by the expanding cocoa processing operations of multinational food corporations based in the U.S. and Western Europe.[17]\nU.S. Department of Labor. Cocoa: Supply Chains. Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Accessed September 28, 2025. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/supply-chains/cocoa Consequently, whether it’s in front of a screen or at the base of a supply chain, vulnerable populations such as children are routinely positioned not only as target audience of advertising, but also as its sacrificial victims within the broader transnational economy of over-consumption.\nComputational Rhetoric of Hyper-Personalization Finally, the rise of digital advertising in the 21st century has redefined what advertising is by transforming how ads are generated, circulated, consumed, and modulated. This transformation has been propelled by several key technological breakthroughs:\nMachine learning algorithms capable of pattern recognition across massive data sets Predictive analytics that anticipate consumer behavior Real-time bidding systems for ad placement And most recently, the rise of generative AI models capable of producing vast quantities of media content on demand. Before we unpack this algorithmic pipeline, a methodological note: the technical machinery behind modern ad delivery often feels like a black box system. Proprietary algorithms, inaccessible data streams, and closed feedback loops make it difficult for everyday users to grasp how these messages are generated and optimized. In this course, where digital literacy is a central pedagogical focus, we will render this apparatus intelligible by articulating its computational rhetoric: a paradigm in which rhetorical invention is no longer at the helm of human agents alone, but programmed, synthesized, tested, and optimized through automated systems.[18]\nTogether, these innovations have enabled a shift toward hyper-personalization: the ability to tailor advertising not just to broad demographic segments, but to the evolving senses and sensibilities of individual users across platforms and temporal states.[19] Whether you're watching a streaming video, scrolling through short-form content, or browsing an e-commerce site, you are continuously presented with ads that adapt to your behavior, preferences, and context in real time.[20]\nExample of targeting parameters for Google Ads This brings us to a case study of an emerging advertising practice known as Dynamic Creative Optimization, or DCO, a process where ad content is generated, tested, and refined through a feedback loop of machine learning and user interaction.[21]\nWe begin with the exigence, by asking what material needs would necessitate computational advertising as appropriate means to fulfill? When the target audience is hidden in a fragmented, attention-scarce media ecosystem, advertisers must persuade individualized users across diverse platforms, at speed, and at scale. The rhetorical purpose, then, becomes how to optimize attention capture and behavioral influence through automated means, in order to produce the most desired audience response to the underlying advertising needs.[22] This exigence sets the scene, a datafied lifeworld that frames what actions are possible for a computational rhetorical response, an automated cycle in which symbolic appeals are generated, tested, and refined by machines rather than by human rhetors alone. [23]\nLet’s walk through this automated DCO cycle step by step:\nData trail and audience modeling - The cycle begins with a user’s data trail, which includes behavior, location, demographics, search history, and contextual signals such as device and time of day. Rhetorical agents in this stage are platforms and data brokers. Their agency consists of trackers and SDKs. And the purpose for this step is predictive insight.[24] Situational analysis by machine learning - This data feeds models that analyze the rhetorical situation: Who is the user, what constraints are salient, and which appeals (e.g., logical, emotional, stylistic, sensorial) are likely to succeed?[25] The ML model then fulfills its purpose of forecasted receptivity at this stage through automated acts of segmentation and inference.[26] Generating content variants - With user insights in hand, the system selects user-adapted visuals, tones, narratives, and styles, then generates multiple tailored ad variants for testing. Generative models can serve as automated agents to fabricate, copy, and layout content at scale. The purpose for this step is identification – to achieve a measure of connection (consubstantiality) with the target user's values, beliefs, and interests.[27] Live testing and performance measurement - Content variants are deployed for real time A/B testing. Metrics such as click‑through rate, view duration, and even user conversion and eye-movements are collected and compared. The rhetorical act for this step is real time automated messaging trials within a live scene of platforms and feeds. The networked testing infrastructure and auction systems provides the rhetorical agency. The purpose for this stage is automated evidentiary calibration, and the scene–purpose ratio shows how the platform environment channels which outcomes are legible and valuable.[28] Feedback, learning, and refinement - Testing data then flows back into the system. Both the message and the model are tuned through iterative rehearsal and user optimization. The rhetorical act in this step is recalibration through the means (agency) of its optimization algorithms, in order to fulfill the purpose of improved fit.[29] Targeted delivery at the moment of engagement - The best‑performing content is then served in real time to tailor the user’s sensibilities at the present moment, maximizing user's emotional resonance and behavioral response to the advertisement. The rhetorical act here is finely timed content delivery within a dynamic scene. Ad servers and recommendation engines act as agents, delivering ads in real-time for the purpose of steering users to purchase, sign‑up, or share.[30] In this sense, computational systems do more than execute a content strategy. DCO represents a fully automated staged drama of motives in which algorithmic rituals, tools, settings, and advertisers' aims co‑determine the persuasive act in real-time, with minimum human intervention.[31] [1] Wang, Keren. “Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ in Chinese Social Credit System Construction.” China Review 24, no. 3 (2024): 179–206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933.\n[2] McDonald, Colin, and Jane Scott. \"A brief history of advertising.\" The Sage handbook of advertising (2007): 17-34.\n[3] Millstein, Ira M. \"The Federal Trade Commission and False Advertising.\" Columbia Law Review 64, no. 3 (1964): 439-499.\n[4] Jewell, Robert D., and Christina Saenger. \"Associative and dissociative comparative advertising strategies in broadening brand positioning.\" Journal of Business Research 67, no. 7 (2014): 1559-1566.\n[5] Barthes, Roland. \"Myth today.\" In Ideology, pp. 162-172. Routledge, 2014.\n[6] Pechmann, Cornelia, and Srinivasan Ratneshwar. \"The use of comparative advertising for brand positioning: Association versus differentiation.\" Journal of Consumer Research 18, no. 2 (1991): 145-160.\n[7] Wang, Keren. Legal and rhetorical foundations of economic globalization: An atlas of ritual sacrifice in late-capitalism - \"Interdisciplinary historical overview.\" Routledge, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198687 [8] Bernheim, B. Douglas. \"A theory of conformity.\" Journal of political Economy 102, no. 5 (1994): 841-877. See also, Hess, Aaron. \"You Are What You Compute (and What is Computed For You): Considerations of Digital Rhetorical Identification.\" Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric 4 (2014).\n[9] Minot, Walter S. \"A rhetorical view of fallacies: Ad hominem and ad populum.\" Rhetoric Society Quarterly 11, no. 4 (1981): 222-235.\n[10] Lim, Hayoung Sally, Lindsay Bouchacourt, and Natalie Brown‐Devlin. \"Nonprofit organization advertising on social media: The role of personality, advertising appeals, and bandwagon effects.\" Journal of Consumer Behaviour 20, no. 4 (2021): 849-861.\n[11] Farnsworth, Stephen J., and S. Robert Lichter. \"No small-town poll: Public attention to network coverage of the 1992 New Hampshire primary.\" Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 4, no. 3 (1999): 51-61.\n[12] \"1983 Apple Keynote: The \"1984\" Ad Introduction\". YouTube. April 1, 2006. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2014.\n[13] Smith, William A. \"Social marketing: an overview of approach and effects.\" Injury prevention 12, no. suppl 1 (2006): i38-i43.\n[14] Shepardson, David. \"Hershey, Nestle, Cargill Win Dismissal of U.S. Child Slavery Lawsuit.\" Reuters, June 28, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/business/hershey-nestle-cargill-win-dismissal-us-child-slavery-lawsuit-2022-06-28/\n[15] Environmental Investigation Agency. \"IKEA’s Romanian Wood Sourcing Woes Highlight the Need for National Transparent Timber Traceability Systems across Europe.\" Environmental Investigation Agency, March 23, 2023. https://eia.org/blog/ikeas-romanian-wood-sourcing-woes-highlight-the-need-for-national-transparent-timber-traceability-systems-across-europe/\n[16] American Psychological Association. Food Advertising and Children. Accessed September 28, 2025. https://www.apa.org/topics/obesity/food-advertising-children.\n[17] U.S. Department of Labor. Cocoa: Supply Chains. Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Accessed September 28, 2025. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/supply-chains/cocoa\n[18] Richter, Jacob D. \"Network-emergent rhetorical invention.\" Computers and Composition 67 (2023): 102758.\n[19] Jain, Geetika, Justin Paul, and Archana Shrivastava. \"Hyper-personalization, co-creation, digital clienteling and transformation.\" Journal of Business Research 124 (2021): 12-23.\n[20] Micu, A., Capatina, A., Cristea, D.S., Munteanu, D., Micu, A.E. and Sarpe, D.A., 2022. Assessing an on-site customer profiling and hyper-personalization system prototype based on a deep learning approach. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 174, p.121289.\n[21] Baardman, Lennart, Elaheh Fata, Abhishek Pani, and Georgia Perakis. \"Dynamic creative optimization in online display advertising.\" Available at SSRN 3863663 (2021).\n[22] Roderick, Noah. \"Exigence at the dawn of recommendation media: Dramatizing salience in audio memes.\" Rhetoric Society Quarterly 54, no. 1 (2024): 74-88.\n[23] Landes, David. \"Kenneth Burke’s Theory of Attention: Homo Symbolicus’ Experiential Poetics.\" KB Journal: The Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society 16, no. 1 (2023).\n[24] Rhetorical agents in this stage are platforms and data brokers. Their agency consists of trackers and SDKs. And the purpose for this step is predictive insight. The scene–act ratio for this initial stage shows how a data‑saturated scene constrains subsequent acts of user-optimized content creation.\n[25] Acree, Brice. \"Deep learning and ideological rhetoric.\" (2016). https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/s1784m14f [26] The system's machine learning architecture and feature engineering constitute the means (rhetorical agency) by which user analysis occurs. [27] Kraus, Mathias, and Stefan Feuerriegel. \"Sentiment analysis based on rhetorical structure theory: Learning deep neural networks from discourse trees.\" Expert Systems with Applications 118 (2019): 65-79.\n[28] The rhetorical act for this step is real time A/B testing, automated messaging trials within a live scene of platforms and feeds. The networked testing infrastructure and auction systems provides the rhetorical agency. The purpose for this stage is automated evidentiary calibration, and the scene–purpose ratio shows how the platform environment channels which outcomes are legible and valuable.\n[29] Here, the Burkean terministic screens are decisive: metrics select what user feedback counts as \"success,\" which then directs future optimization. The agency–purpose ratio reveals how optimization instruments and dashboards steer advertisers' objectives.\n[30] The rhetorical act here is finely timed content delivery within a dynamic scene. Ad servers and recommendation engines act as agents, delivering ads in real-time for the purpose of steering users to purchase, sign‑up, or share. Identification culminates in internalized alignment between the advertisement and the view, forming a temporary consubstantiality that completes the dramatistic arc of DCO .\n[31] Coleman, Miles C. Influential machines: the rhetoric of computational performance. Univ of South Carolina Press, 2023.\n","permalink":"/teaching/2025/09/understanding-advertising-through-consumer-psychology-computational-rhetoric/","summary":"\u003cdiv\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c!-- wp:html --\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 100%;\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eTable of Contents\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#h.26n593d62ttq\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"\u003eWhat Do You See?\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#h.wyeqkw7puh5d\"\u003eHistorical \"Thickness\" of Advertising\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#h.4d5153j28kaw\"\u003eDemonstrative and Associative Ads\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#h.uh0fxgv2a95c\"\u003eAdvertising \u0026amp; Consumer Psychology\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#h.qsu3bpa0yb2l\"\u003eBandwagon \u0026amp; Anti-Bandwagon Effects\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#h.vi7g0j3q3k9t\"\u003eSocial Marketing \u0026amp; Exploitation\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#h.iidw96apa7dh\"\u003eComputational Rhetoric of Hyper-Personalization\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1065\" height=\"719\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/09/Advertising-header.gif\" width=\"1280\"/\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch2 class=\"c17\" id=\"h.26n593d62ttq\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c8 c29 c16\" style=\"color: #ccffff;\"\u003eWhat Do You See?\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c8 c4\"\u003eLet’s begin today’s lesson with a quick glance at these sets of images. What do they remind you of?\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Understanding Advertising through Consumer Psychology and Computational Rhetoric"},{"content":" Posted by: Keren Wang\nBefore you start this lesson, please READ: Berger, Arthur Asa. 2024. Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. 3rd ed. Chapter 4, “Rhetorical Analysis.” Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071939017.\n1. Overview What do you think of when you hear the word “artifact”? In rhetorical scholarship, the term “artifact” is not limited to historical objects or museum pieces. Instead, it encompasses various texts, speeches, symbolic objects, and events produced by humans. In communication research, one key difference between rhetorical and critical methods and other qualitative research methods is that, while qualitative methods such as interviews, observations, and focus group studies revolve around studying human subjects, rhetorical scholars analyze rhetorical artifacts, or “texts” that have already been produced.\nDefinition: A rhetorical artifact is any *human-created symbol or symbolic act that communicates a persuasive message to an audience within a particular cultural context. These artifacts may be verbal (like speeches, essays, or legal documents) or nonverbal (such as images, performances, fashion, architecture, or digital media). What qualifies as a rhetorical artifact is defined by its symbolic content and the intent to persuade, influence, or express meaning.\nRhetorical artifacts are intentionally crafted by human agents (at least traditionally). They draw on shared cultural codes to make meaning, and may appear as standalone texts or collections of materials (e.g., a protest made up of signs, chants, and social media posts). They are often studied to better understand how power, identity, ideology, and culture are communicated and contested.\n*Note of Reflection: The Rise of Non-Human Rhetors Traditionally, rhetorical artifacts are understood as human-made, grounded in human intention, agency, memory, and cultural experience. But what happens when these symbolic artifacts are produced by non-human agents, such as generative AI?\nIf an artificial intelligence model generates a political meme, a protest song, or a synthetic speech, can it still be considered a rhetorical artifact? Who, then, is the rhetor: the AI? The developer? The user prompting the system? As generative technologies become more prevalent, rhetorical scholars may need to rethink authorship, intention, and rhetorical agency in digital artifacts.\n2. Types of Rhetorical Artifacts Written Texts: Books, essays, letters, manifestos, legal and policy documents... Public Oratory: Speeches, slogans, debates, campaign announcements... Visual and Performance Arts: Paintings, sculptures, theatrical performances, songs, advertisements, posters, films, TV shows... Digital: Apps, algorithms, video games, podcasts, blogs, websites, memes, social media... Spatial and Architectural: Buildings, monuments, statues, landmarks, exhibits, parks, commemorative public spaces… Embodied and Collective Actions: Fashions, gestures, rituals, ceremonies, protests, social movements, public demonstrations. 3. Things to Consider When Choosing Rhetorical Artifacts for Analysis AccessibilityRhetorical artifacts are often readily available in public domains such as news archives, social media platforms, public speeches, visual media, or historical records. This means researchers can typically access these materials without special permissions or gatekeeping protocols.\nHistorical and Cultural InsightArtifacts function as cultural time capsules. They offer valuable glimpses into the ideologies, values, and power dynamics embedded in the society that produced them. Analyzing rhetorical artifacts allows scholars to interpret how meaning is constructed, contested, or preserved across time and space.\nScholarly Contribution and OriginalityWhen selecting an artifact for analysis, it's not enough that the artifact is interesting or accessible—it must also be analytically fruitful. This means the artifact should:\nRaise meaningful rhetorical questions;\nIntersect with current scholarly conversations or public controversies;\nAnd most importantly, provide an opportunity to uncover new, significant insights.\nNo Human Subject Approval NeededSince rhetorical criticism focuses on artifacts that have already been produced and circulated, there is generally no need for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. This simplifies the research process, particularly for undergraduate or independent scholars, as it avoids the complexities of human subject protocols.\nGood rhetorical criticism goes beyond summarizing what is already known. It should advance the field by identifying overlooked rhetorical strategies, reframing how a well-known artifact is interpreted, or connecting it to emerging sociopolitical developments. Ask yourself:\nWhy does this artifact matter now, and what can my analysis offer that hasn’t already been said?\nIllustrative Example: Analyzing Internet Memes as Rhetorical Artifacts \"Internet Memes as Partial Stories: Identifying Political Narratives in Coronavirus Memes\" by Constance de Saint Laurent, Vlad P. Glăveanu, and Ioana Literat (2021). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305121988932 Figure 8 - People who lost their jobs as Victims (meme 257; 10 April 2020) from de Saint Laurent, C., Glăveanu, V. P., \u0026amp; Literat, I. (2021). Internet Memes as Partial Stories: Identifying Political Narratives in Coronavirus Memes. Social Media + Society, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305121988932 (Original work published 2021) In their 2021 article “Internet Memes as Partial Stories,” Constance de Saint Laurent, Vlad Glăveanu, and Ioana Literat analyzed 241 coronavirus-related memes collected from Reddit’s r/CoronavirusMemes subreddit. Their digital rhetoric survey provides a compelling example of how to select and analyze non-traditional rhetorical artifacts that are both timely and culturally meaningful.\nRather than focusing on a traditional artifact like a speech or political ad, the authors treat internet memes—often dismissed as trivial or unserious—as rhetorical artifacts worthy of scholarly attention. They argue that these memes act as “partial stories” that express, reflect, and sometimes challenge prevailing political narratives during the COVID-19 pandemic.\nSelection Criteria The authors justify their focus on memes by emphasizing their cultural accessibility, political salience, and ubiquity in online public discourse. By examining memes posted between January and May 2020, they ensure the artifacts are:\nPublicly accessible (archived on Reddit, no IRB needed), Politically charged (focusing on pandemic policies and leaders), Rich in symbolic and narrative elements, even if fragmented or ironic. Analytical Framework The study advances a drama-narrative framework that analyzes memes through four character roles: victim, persecutor, hero, and the fool.\nThis dramatism-based lens, combined with narrative psychology and transactional analysis, allows the researchers to decode not just the content of the memes, but their underlying narrative logic. For example, Donald Trump is often portrayed as both Persecutor (undermining public health efforts) and Fool (denying the severity of the virus), while frontline workers are typically framed as Heroes.\nFigure 7. Medical workers as Heroes and Victims (meme 270; 16 May 2020). From de Saint Laurent, C., Glăveanu, V. P., \u0026amp; Literat, I. (2021). Internet Memes as Partial Stories: Identifying Political Narratives in Coronavirus Memes. Social Media + Society, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305121988932 (Original work published 2021) Scholarly Contribution This case highlights the importance of choosing rhetorical artifacts that not only capture the spirit of a moment but also generate new insights:\nThe authors challenge the assumption that memes lack narrative coherence, showing instead how even brief, ironic visual texts can embody coherent political storylines.\nThey shift the focus from full narratives (with plot and resolution) to partial, role-driven stories, offering a methodological innovation that can be adapted to other digital artifacts.\nBy demonstrating that memes function as vernacular political rhetoric, this essay offers a fresh perspective on how ordinary people make sense of crisis through humor, symbolism, and online remix culture.\n","permalink":"/teaching/2025/09/teaching-lesson-7-rhetorical-artifacts/","summary":"\u003cheader\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"byline\"\u003ePosted by: Keren Wang\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"intro\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBefore you start this lesson, please READ:\u003c/strong\u003e Berger, Arthur Asa. 2024. \u003cem data-end=\"247\" data-start=\"145\"\u003eMedia and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches\u003c/em\u003e. 3rd ed. Chapter 4, “Rhetorical Analysis.” Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. \u003ca class=\"decorated-link\" data-end=\"353\" data-start=\"316\" href=\"https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071939017\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_new\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.4135/9781071939017\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/header\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"overview\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e1. Overview\u003c/h2\u003e\nWhat do you think of when you hear the word “\u003cstrong\u003eartifact\u003c/strong\u003e”? In rhetorical scholarship, the term “artifact” is not limited to historical objects or museum pieces. Instead, it encompasses various texts, speeches, symbolic objects, and events produced by humans.\n\u003cp\u003eIn communication research, one key difference between rhetorical and critical methods and other qualitative research methods is that, while qualitative methods such as interviews, observations, and focus group studies revolve around studying human subjects, rhetorical scholars analyze rhetorical artifacts, or “texts” that have already been produced.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Lesson 7: Rhetorical Artifacts"},{"content":" On December 4, 2024, news broke that a lone gunman had assassinated UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive officer, Brian Thompson, outside the company’s headquarters.1 The killing itself was shocking, but what unsettled many observers was the wave of sympathy that quickly coalesced around the perpetrator—donations, online tributes, and statements of support that revealed a raw seam in America’s collective experience of health care.2 This dramatic act of killing is entangled with the dark trajectory in the devolution of the marketized healthcare industry in the United States: normalizing traumatic acts of takings, with increasingly unsustainable industry practices justifying the suspension of pre-existing taboos concerning the sanctity of life and the boundaries of wealth transfer.3\nThat same disillusionment had already surfaced a year earlier, when a class action lawsuit accused UnitedHealthcare of “systematically deploy[ing] an AI algorithm to prematurely and in bad faith discontinue payment for healthcare services for elderly individuals with serious diseases and injuries.”4 Specifically, the plaintiffs alleges that:\n\"Defendants [UnitedHealthcare]’ AI Model, known as “nH Predict,” determines Medicare Advantage patients’ coverage criteria in post-acute care settings with rigid and unrealistic predictions for recovery. Relying on the nH Predict AI Model, Defendants purport to predict how much care an elderly patient ‘should’ require, but overrides real doctors’ determinations as to the amount of care a patient in fact requires to recover. As such, Defendants make coverage determinations not based on individual patient’s needs, but based on the outputs of the nH Predict AI Model, resulting in the inappropriate denial of necessary care prescribed by the patients’ doctors.\"\n(Estate of Lokken et al. v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. et al., No. 0:23-cv-03514, Doc. 1, p. 3)\nnH Predict outcome sheet (naviHealth), reproduced from Estate of Lokken et al. v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc., UnitedHealthcare, Inc., naviHealth, Inc., and Does 1–50, No. 0:23-cv-03514, Doc. 1, p. 12 (D. Minn., filed Nov. 14, 2023). Margin annotations by the author. These concerns are not limited to UnitedHealthcare. According to a 2024 survey by the American Medical Association, 61 percent of physicians reported that they were worried AI would accelerate prior-authorization denials.5 Scholars have since warned that the insertion of algorithmic judgment into life-and-death decisions risks eroding public trust and further stratifying access to care.6 At the same time, research also points to potential blessings of AI-augmented healthcare—improving diagnostic accuracy, reducing medical errors, and enhancing coordination of care.7\nWe find ourselves thrown into a liminal rhetorical space wherein algorithms and automated scripts are ascending to speak with authority over human vulnerability. Why do we voluntarily surrender and transfer our human agency to machines over life-and-death decisions—even when such transfer of agency brings veritable negative human consequences? What we are seeing here is not simply a novel technological dilemma, but a continuity in the human impulse to ritualize uncertainty, disparity, and the avoidance of an unacceptable reality by inscribing meaning into extra-human systems that portend to be larger than ourselves.8\nEven in countries so often praised as paragons of rights protection and social welfare, such as Denmark, the present moment reads like an algorithmic Faustian bargain: Amnesty International’s 2024 report documents how experimentation by the Danish government with AI-augmented fraud-control models has sacrificed basic due-process safeguards and the social safety net for the most vulnerable in the name of administrative efficiency, in pursuit of what Danish policymakers describe as “deep reductions in the overall welfare budget.”14\nThe figure below makes this bargain legible, visualizing how the “Really Single” algorithm, one of over 60 artificial intelligence and machine-learning models used by Danish welfare agencies to identify alleged benefit fraud, weighs residency records, household size, and property data to automatically assign higher \"risk scores\" for atypical households subject to fraud investigations. That is the exigence: automated scripts now speak with authority over human need and reshape the grammar of rights, calling for a rhetorical intervention that can dissect, historicize, and interrogate this emerging sacrificial logic through transdisciplinary heuristics, an opening movement toward a rhetorical atlas that traces how a global algorithmic-governance assemblage takes shape in divergent local moments.15\nA figure in Amnesty International’s 2024 report illustrates the Danish government’s use of fraud-control algorithms in distributing social benefits. In this case, Udbetaling Danmark’s “Really Single” model weights inputs such as residency records, household size, and property data from public registers to infer whether a person is genuinely single, potentially flagging atypical living arrangements as suspected fraud.Source: Amnesty International, Coded Injustice: Surveillance and Discrimination in Denmark’s Automated Welfare State. Index: EUR 18/8709/2024.\nThe ontological structure of this exigence does not emerge from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence or machine learning; it is embedded in something much older: human sacrifice. To grapple with this key point, let us briefly consider a canonical case of sacrificial governance technology from early sedentary civilization — oracle bone pyromancy.\nDuring the height of the Chinese Bronze Age (c. 1,600–1,046 BCE), Shang dynasty rulers inscribed queries—“Will it rain tomorrow?” or \"Will my military expedition be successful?\"—onto meticulously prepared oxen scapulae or turtle plastrons, better known as oracle bones. The oracle-king pressed a red-hot bronze rod to the bone until it cracked; diviners read the fissures as answers from the almighty Shang-Di (上帝, “lord from above”) to king's queries.9 This pyromancy ritual transformed rhetorical uncertainty into actionable mandates that portended to speak with higher-than-human authority.10 While most oracle bone scripts uncovered in Shang archaeological contexts cover matters of ordinary state affairs (such as queries on the king’s daily activities), a sizable portion of the oracle bones contain inscriptions concerning ritual human sacrifices, especially during periods of war and food shortages.11\nCentral to this Bronze Age sacrificial governance technology was the oracle bone script, the progenitor of the modern Chinese writing system. Developed as a secretive logographic medium, it encoded semantic values in terse symbolic notations, and organized around a self-referential formal syntax. The Shang rulers' exclusive literacy of the oracle bone script concentrated interpretive authority over the divine will, and with it the power to decide life and death for his subjects, slaves, and enemies.12\nExamples of oracle bone scripts on human sacrifice from late Shang period sites (c. 1250 BC–1046 BC).Source: Wang, Keren. Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization (Routledge, 2019)\nFrom the oracle bone pyromancy to the opaque processing layers of AI-augmented prior-authorization tools, the structural continuity is not in form but in function. Both rely on technical scripts that use formal syntax and layers of abstraction to expand into large-scale operations. Both require a highly specialized gatekeeping community with the knowledge and training to properly develop, read, and interpret the script. Both involve the establishment of ritualized sacrificial procedures that conceal deliberation and decision-making processes over life and death within a manufactured technological space beyond ordinary human scrutiny.\nThis recognition forms the departure point for this upcoming research project, Artificial Intelligence and Human Sacrifice. Rather than treating AI as a merely technical innovation, I situate its rise within a much longer genealogy of sacrificial legitimation. Across domains such as personalized law, labor automation, drone warfare, AI-assisted advocacy, and polycriminal scam economies, I ask how contemporary societies reconfigure the calculus of who or what is to be offered up at the altar of efficiency, security, or growth. The wager is that by tracing these sacrificial redeployments, we might better see how algorithmic authority becomes palatable—how trade-offs are sanctified, and how injuries are reframed as inevitable.\nIndeed, the history of ritual human sacrifice is arguably as long as the history of human civilization itself. Human sacrifice (both symbolic and real) is much more than neutral representations of psychological conditions or superstitions; rather, it is a form of rhetorical intervention, involving carefully scripted memory performances that define and reinforce the “proper and necessary” price to be paid for the maintenance of a sacred order. As I argued in my previous book, even after World War II, the potential destructiveness of ritual human sacrifice further intensified. For instance, the nuclear deterrence architecture that emerged during the Cold War was not only a strategic doctrine but also a ritological structure—maintained via repetitions of scripted performances of missile parades, war games, air-raid drills, and the choreography of the “nuclear football.”13 Thus, nuclear deterrence rhetoric revolved around a self-referential logos of mutual sacrifice, wherein the credible willingness of each side to annihilate not only the enemy but also human civilization itself was justified as the “necessary price” for safeguarding the sanctity of political order. The question before us now is how artificial intelligence may be rewriting that ancient script—rendering the exploitative structures of our prevailing political-economic system not only palatable but seemingly inescapable.\nThis blog series will share work-in-progress manuscript draft as I develop the project into a full-length monograph. In the months ahead, I will trace how sacrificial rationalities persist, adapt, and become reconfigured in our algorithmic age. From oracle bone pyromancy in ancient China to AI-augmented prior-authorization denials in contemporary healthcare, the rituals may differ in form, but the underlying logic remains hauntingly familiar. Both conceal human choice within a technical script. Both sanctify injury as necessity. And both remind us that every society must wrestle with how it authorizes sacrifice.\nEndnotes Reuters, “Luigi Mangione Was Charged with Murder. Then Donations Started Pouring In,” December 12, 2024, link. ↩ Usman W. Chohan, “Propaganda by the Deed: Luigi Mangione and UnitedHealthcare,” SSRN, January 29, 2025, link. ↩ Y Mishra, “Artificial Intelligence in the the Health Insurance Sector,” in The Impact of Climate Change and Sustainability Standards on the Insurance Market, ed. (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2023), chapter 4, accessed 11 November 2024, link. ↩ Estate of Lokken et al. v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc., UnitedHealthcare, Inc., naviHealth, Inc., and Does 1–50, Class Action Complaint, No. 0:23-cv-03514, Doc. 1 (D. Minn. filed Nov. 14, 2023), link. ↩ American Medical Association, “AMA Prior Authorization Physician Survey,” 2024, link. ↩ Michelle M. Mello and Sherri Rose, “Denial—Artificial Intelligence Tools and Health Insurance Coverage Decisions,” JAMA Health ForumVol. 5, No. 3 (2024), link. ↩ Junaid Bajwa A, Usman Munir B, Aditya Nori C, and Bryan Williams, “Artificial intelligence in healthcare: transforming the practice of medicine,” Future Healthc J. 2021 Jul;8(2):e188–e194, link. ↩ René Girard et al., Violent Origins: On Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987), 6. ↩ David N. Keightley, Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978). ↩ Keren Wang, “Oracle Bones and Ritual Authority,” Keren Wang Blog, accessed 2025, link. ↩ Keren Wang, “An Interdisciplinary Historical Overview,” in Atlas of Sacrifice (London: Routledge, 2019), 31–52, link. ↩ Ibid. ↩ Keren Wang, “Conclusions and Looking Forward,” in Atlas of Sacrifice (London: Routledge, 2019), link. ↩ Amnesty International, Coded Injustice: Surveillance and Discrimination in Denmark’s Automated Welfare State (London: Amnesty International Ltd, 2024), Index: EUR 18/8709/2024, link. ↩ Keren Wang, “Introduction,” in Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism (New York: Routledge, 2019), link. ↩ ","permalink":"/blog/2025/08/new-research-project-artificial-intelligence-and-human-sacrifice/","summary":"\u003c!-- wp:paragraph --\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!-- Copyright Banner --\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c!-- /wp:paragraph --\u003e\n\u003c!-- wp:tadv/classic-paragraph --\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"margin: 1em auto; max-width: 760px; background: #fff3cd; color: #856404; border: 1px solid #ffeeba; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0.6em 1em; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 1.35; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c!-- /wp:tadv/classic-paragraph --\u003e\n\u003c!-- wp:paragraph {\"dropCap\":true} --\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"has-drop-cap\"\u003eOn December 4, 2024, news broke that a lone gunman had assassinated UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive officer, Brian Thompson, outside the company’s headquarters.\u003csup\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn1\" id=\"fnref1\"\u003e1\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e The killing itself was shocking, but what unsettled many observers was the wave of sympathy that quickly coalesced around the perpetrator—donations, online tributes, and statements of support that revealed a raw seam in America’s collective experience of health care.\u003csup\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn2\" id=\"fnref2\"\u003e2\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e This dramatic act of killing is entangled with the dark trajectory in the devolution of the marketized healthcare industry in the United States: normalizing traumatic acts of takings, with increasingly unsustainable industry practices justifying the suspension of pre-existing taboos concerning the sanctity of life and the boundaries of wealth transfer.\u003csup\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn3\" id=\"fnref3\"\u003e3\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Research Project: Artificial Intelligence and Human Sacrifice"},{"content":" We begin by asking a deceptively simple question: What is media?\nAt its core, media is any technology that enables the storage, organization, transmission, and dissemination of information.\nWhen we hear the word today, we tend to think of “mass media” — newspapers, television, the internet — technologies that spread information rapidly across wide distances. Commonly, people imagine the story of media beginning with the invention of the electric telegraph in the early 19th century. But is that really where media begins?\nTo challenge this assumption, I\u0026rsquo;d like to share a photo I took while hiking in Inner Mongolia in 2017. It shows a signal tower from the Great Wall, built around 200 BC.\nThis ancient system functioned as a broadcasting technology: semaphoric signals such as black smoke conveyed urgent military information over long distances, faster than any messenger on horseback. The infrastructure was costly, maintained by networks of roads, canals, post stations, forced labor, and the imperial bureaucracy.\nYet semaphoric media never truly disappeared — we still use visual signaling systems today, from mission control centers to lighthouses and medical imaging technologies.\nIf we zoom out, we see that modern electromechanical and digital media make up less than one percent of the long timeline of media history. For more than four millennia, writing systems carried the heavy load as the dominant medium, but before writing, oral traditions and pictorial expression were the norm.\nCave paintings and small figurines made by Paleolithic peoples are early examples of media before writing. Scholars have debated their purpose: not simply aesthetic decoration, and not convincingly explained by structuralist models of hierarchy. Instead, many anthropologists interpret them through totemism, fetishism, and prescientific magic — symbolic practices tied to hunting, fertility, and communal survival.\nLeft: Cave painting from the Altamira cave, Cantabria, Spain, painted c. 20,000 BCE (Solutrean).Right: “Venus of Dolní Věstonice,” the earliest discovered use of ceramics, c. 25,000 BCE Alongside these totemic, prehistoric artifacts, monuments emerged as an early form of public media. Works like Urfa Man in Upper Mesopotamia (c. 9000 BC) or Stonehenge (c. 3000 BC) mark the rise of “megalithic media.” These massive stone constructions stored information immovably across generations, serving as public records of collective memory, social identity, and communal power.\nLeft: Urfa Man, c. 9000 BC, Upper Mesopotamia, one of the earliest large human statues known.Right: Stonehenge, c. 3000 BC, an example of Neolithic megalith In terms of their materiality, monuments can be described as exceptionally \u0026ldquo;conservative\u0026rdquo; or obdurate. their forms remain remarkably consistent across centuries or even millennia. Think of the Luxor obelisks in Egypt, the Roman obelisks erected by Augustus, and the Washington Monument in the United States. Left: One of the two Luxor Obelisks erected during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II (c. 1250 BC)Middle: One of the two obelisks erected on the eastern flank Mausoleum of Augustus, Rome(28 BC)Right: Washington Monument, Washington DC (completed in 1884) From the Temple of Hadrian in Rome to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, such monumental forms repeat across time, shaping community memory and projecting political authority. Even at the height of the Cold War, Fidel Castro’s 1959 wreath-laying at the Lincoln Memorial underscores how monuments continue to function as symbolic sites that anchor collective identity.\nLeft: Temple of Hadrian, Rome, completed in 145 ADRight: Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC, completed in 1922 Finally, we turn to the birth of writing and print. The Narmer Palette, dated to about 3200 BC, is one of the earliest hieroglyphic artifacts. At once an artwork and a piece of war propaganda, it shows how early writing was fundamentally pictographic: even without knowing the ancient Egyptian language, we can infer its message of conquest and unification.\nNarmer Palette - one of the earliest hieroglyphic artifacts(c. 3,200 BC)- A large commemorative palette / war propaganda (64cm × 42cm, (Museum of Egypt Cairo Collection) Writing systems like this would revolutionize human political organization, allowing not just ephemeral signals or immovable monuments, but portable, repeatable, and scalable storage of meaning — a pivotal moment in the long arc of media history. As we wrap up, I want you to think about how these ancient media forms — smoke signal towers, cave paintings, stone monuments, and hieroglyphic writings — are not as far removed from our everyday media experiences as they might seem. Social media and streaming services are also ways of storing, organizing, transmitting, and disseminating meaning, often in bite-sized packets, to shape how we collectively remember, imagine, and react to the world. In other words, the story of media is never merely “entertainment” or neutral “technology.” We must understand media as a potent apparatus of societal governance, shaping our collective memory, identity, and norms.\n","permalink":"/teaching/2025/08/teaching-introduction-to-a-brief-history-of-media/","summary":"\u003cdiv style=\"margin: 1em auto; max-width: 760px; background: #fff3cd; color: #856404; border: 1px solid #ffeeba; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0.6em 1em; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 1.35; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt alignright size-full wp-image-1004\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" height=\"844\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/08/SCOM2050-week-1-History-of-Media_page-0001.jpg\" width=\"1500\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe begin by asking a deceptively simple question: \u003cstrong\u003eWhat is media?\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt its core, media is any\u003cstrong\u003e technology that enables the storage, organization, transmission, and dissemination of information\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen we hear the word today, we tend to think of “mass media” — newspapers, television, the internet — technologies that spread information rapidly across wide distances. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCommonly, people imagine the story of media beginning with the invention of the\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph\"\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eelectric telegraph\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e in the early 19th century. But is that really where media begins?\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Introduction to a Brief History of Media"},{"content":"Lesson Module by Keren Wang, updated 4 Nov 2025.\nThis lesson module examines the contested and ambivalent relationship between media and violence from historical and transnational perspectives.\n1. Violence as Ritual \u0026amp; Power: Historical and Global Perspectives Let's open this session with a reference from Greek mythology: consider the telltale of Prometheus, whose theft of fire from the Olympian gods for humanity’s benefit inadvertently brought both civilization and destruction. Like Prometheus’s fire, the development of media technology simultaneously brings enlightenment and cataclysm. 1.1 Rhetorical Artifacts and Human Sacrifice The history of the development of writing technology overlaps with the history of war propaganda and human sacrifice.[1] As early as the Narmer Palette, one of the earliest hieroglyphic artifacts ever found from circa 3200 BCE depicting scenes of conquest and violence: Similarly, during the height of the Chinese Bronze Age, also known as the Shang dynasty (c. 1250–1046 BC) produced ritual bronze artifacts at monumental proportions -- such as the 833 kg (1,836 lbs) Houmuwu Ding -- one of the heaviest bronze vessel from the ancient world -- and the 13-foot (3.96 m) tall Sanxingdui bronze tree (c. 1200 BC):\nExamples of Oracle bone inscription on ritual human sacrifice in mid to late Shang period China (c.1250BC – 1046BC).Source: Wang, Keren. Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. New York: Routledge, 2019. Chapter 2, “Interdisciplinary Overview,” 28–29. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198687 Yet oracle bone inscriptions—the progenitors of the modern Chinese writing system—from this period also reveal that these magnificent bronze vessels were often used as votive props in violent, state-sponsored spectacles: ritual human sacrificesperformed as part of the king's divination ceremonies.[2]\n(See relevant discussion from my earlier post on the relationship between oracle bone script and human sacrifice in early Chinese history) These examples of earliest writing systems show that media—understood in its broadest sense as technology for the storage, transmission, and organization of meaning—has long served both as a structure of advancement and simultaneously as an rhetorical instrument to legitimize power through the legislating and ritualizing of violence.\nMoving to ancient Mesoamerica, we see similar patterns in King Ixtlilxochitl’s Flower Wars (1454). Rulers of Tenochtitlan regularized warfare through ritualized warfare and mythological justifications to maintain control (see relevant discussion from this earlier post), revealing that the history of societal violence and media technology have always entangled at intersections of power.[3] 1.2 Portrayals of Scapegoating Societies often look for scapegoats to explain violence depicted in the media. Historically, communities at the periphery of power often became the victims of such ritualized blame. Consider the ancient Hellenistic apotropaic ritual of pharmakós, which a scapegoat—often a slave or a disabled person — was exiled or sometimes killed to purify the community and avert crisis.[4] Similarly, historian Wolfgang Behringer’s research draws connections between intensified episodes of \u0026ldquo;witch hunt\u0026rdquo; violence with periods of food insecurity throughout early modern Europe, highlighting how societies often externalize blame during crises via scapegoating narratives.[5]\nThrough this high-altitude historical survey, we can begin to draw parallels between past ritual practices and the patterns of our own time. Modern rhetoric and media representations often ritualize mass layoffs, austerity measures, labor policies, and national security campaigns—performances that both naturalize exploitation and aestheticize sacrifice. In doing so, they often exploit workers and communities displaced from the centers of power and the civic imaginary.\n2. New Media \u0026amp; New Intimacy with Violence Let’s transition from historical fragments into contemporary structures of media violence; as new forms of media emerge, they bring with them a new intimacy with death and destruction. Reflecting on Susan Sontag’s critical remarks regarding Vietnam War news coverage, she noted: “The war America waged in Vietnam, the first to be witnessed day after day by television cameras, introduced the home front to a new intimacy with death and destruction.” She further stated, “The understanding of war among people who have not experienced war is now chiefly a product of the impact of these images.”[6] This apparent encroachment of violent media into the intimacy of everyday life also had the rhetorical impact of disenchanting the ritualized veneer of warfare. Paradoxically, the unrelenting presence of these gruesome war footages not only fueled anti-war public sentiments and constrained the draft but also catalyzed burgeoning civil rights movements across the United States, ultimately reshaping both public memory and the human rights landscape in the 1960s and ’70s.[7]\nOn the other hand, such a dark trajectory of modern mass media is ever-present. It is important to remind ourselves that the same rhetorical channels which enlighten and connect us can also be harnessed to catalyze and legitimize violence.\n2.1 The Media’s Role in the Rwandan Genocide The Rwandan genocide of 1994 starkly illustrates this paradox, serving as a haunting testament to media’s dual capacity to inform and manipulate.[8] The cover of the November 1991 issue ofKangura— a pro-MRND political magazine in Rwanda that fueled ethnic tensions in the years leading up to the 1994 genocide. The propaganda text to the right of the machete reads: “Which weapons are we going to use to beat the cockroaches (inyenzi, a slur for Tutsi) for good?” The man pictured is former Rwandan president Grégoire Kayibanda, who led a pro-Hutu authoritarian government from 1961 to 1973. Source: Kangura, no. 26. Kigali, Rwanda: Kangura Publications, 1991. Accessed November 10, 2025. https://archive.org/details/kangura-1-mgzzz/iwacu_pub_kangura_no26 In this dreadful episode, RTLM radio broadcasts incited genocide by weaving populist rhetoric that reinterpreted longstanding historical grievances as immediate and existential threats, thus mobilizing ordinary citizens to perpetrate unspeakable atrocities. These broadcasts exemplified mass media's capacity for the weaponization of public memory and can directly catalyze mass violence while fundamentally altering the political landscape.[9] Moreover, the power of radio as a tool of mass mobilization is vividly demonstrated by the RTLM case. Detailed transcripts reveal that what might once have been regarded as a democratizing medium became a deliberate instrument of incitement, repurposed to galvanize a divided populace into acts of mass human sacrifice. The broadcasts adeptly reconfigured the collective recollection of colonial history into a narrative of \u0026ldquo;Hutu domination,\u0026rdquo; a framing that justified extreme measures as corrective actions or revolutionary rectification.[10]\nEqually significant is the role of media storytelling as a political arsenal. Figures like Georges Ruggiu did not merely relay information; they delivered lessons in history, using a rhetoric of revelation that simultaneously exposed and obscured the truth. By framing their narratives as authoritative interpretations of the past, they legitimized brutal actions while cloaking them in the guise of historical necessity.[11]\nThis duality of truth, both unveiled and veiled, served to desensitize audiences to the human cost of sectarian violence and to justify increasingly extreme sacrifices.\n3. Violence and Digital Rhetoric Let's shift gears from our high-altitude historical survey of mediated violence to the complexities of our digital era. The transformative power of communication technologies and digital rhetoric is far from static, as evidenced by today’s media landscape dominated by social media platforms, streaming services, generative artificial intelligence, and algorithm-driven news feeds. This ongoing technological acceleration compels us to interrogate prevalent myths about the nexus between violence and digital media, scrutinizing whether these assertions hold true in an era defined by immediacy and fragmentation. We will critically interrogate common myths and legitimate concerns underpinning contemporary debates, analyze recent trends that shape our global communication environment, and explore the transnational fault lines that continue to challenge the status quo.\n3.1 Dispelling Myths and Rectifying Names A pervasive myth in the digital discourse is that violent content has become more prevalent today. Research by Signorielli et al. (2019) shows that the proportion has remained consistent, although our exposure has increased. [12] While the overall proportion of violent media content remains consistent, the increased volume and variety of our consumption, coupled with decentralized content circulation, have intensified our exposure. Another widely held belief is that violent video games directly lead to criminal behavior. However, studies such as those conducted by Kühn et al. (2019) find minimal evidence to support this direct causation. [13] Despite the moral panic that often accompanies discussions of video game violence, the empirical evidence suggest that the relationship between gameplay and real-world criminality is far more complex and mediated by a host of other contextual factors.[14] While this perspective invites a more nuanced understanding of the gap between policy rhetoric surrounding media violence and the actual causal relationship, it does not diminish the fact that media violence has significant negative impact on long-term mental health and child development—a concern underscored in the 2015 paper by Bushman and Huesmann.[15] We are also witnessing a rapidly increasing number of young people reporting that they have become victims of violence on social media. This phenomenon has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.[16] The American Academy of Family Physicians’ Violence Position Paper (2020) highlights that up to 35 percent of teens have experienced some form of aggression through social media channels. The same report indicates that one in four cell phone users aged 12 to 17 have been bullied or harassed via text messages and phone calls, while 15 percent report receiving text messages containing sexually suggestive images.[17]\n3.2 Growth in Online Child Abuse Imagery Perhaps the most disturbing ongoing development stems from today's online platforms catered to younger audiences, with emerging evidence suggesting an increase in violent content specifically targeting children on platforms like YouTube Kids. A recent study by Papadamou et al. (2019) documents content explicitly designed to manipulate recommendation algorithms for kids, often incorporating beloved children's characters in deeply inappropriate scenarios.[18] This terrifying trend became apparent in the 2010s and has accelerated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.[19] Most creators behind these \"children's hellscape\" media contents appear to be independent, anonymous content producers, exploiting gaps in platform oversight. Many of them were motivated by the potential for ad revenue. By appropriating popular franchise characters and addictive sensorial repetitions, they could capture high view counts and thus generate income from advertisement impressions. In some instances, it seems the algorithms that power platforms like YouTube inadvertently amplified this content by recommending it to viewers, particularly in contexts targeting children.[20] Definitive profiles of all such creators are hard to pin down due to the decentralized nature of online content creation. A number of pieces produced in the late 2010s are linked to studios registered in Southeast Asia, such as LOR Media and SuperKidsShop.com in Vietnam.\nBy the 2020s, such children-targeting \u0026ldquo;digital hellscape\u0026rdquo; further expanded to live streaming contents featuring video game titles popular with children, such as Minecraft and Among Us.\nBy the 2020s, such children-targeting \"digital hellscape\" expanded beyond popular Disney and comic franchise characters, and became increasingly based on video games popular with children, such as Minecraft and Among Us. Such trends illuminate the darker underbelly of a digital ecosystem that, while democratizing information, also exposes vulnerable populations to harmful content. As we move forward, it becomes increasingly important to move beyond simplistic narratives and address both the myths and the legitimate concerns that characterize the rapidly evolving landscape of transnational digital rhetoric.\n4. Cyber-scam Labor Camps: A Transnational Crisis Lastly, let's turn our focus to the ongoing crisis involving cyber-scam labor camps in Myanmar, which exemplifies the sinister intersection of media, violence, and transnational exploitation. Thousands are lured through deceptive online advertisements promising lucrative jobs, only to find themselves trapped in junta-backed forced labor camps, compelled to engage in cyber-scamming operations.[21] These well-funded operations coerce victims (mostly foreign nationals) into scamming global internet users, often through cryptocurrency fraud, sextortion, and other \u0026ldquo;pig butchering\u0026quot; schemes. Passports are seized, and failure to comply can lead to brutal consequences, including alleged threats organ harvesting and forced prostitution.[22] The media, in the case of transnational online scam labor camps, becomes a vehicle of organized deception and clandestine control, facilitating widespread violence and human rights abuses on a global scale. This ongoing but underexposed case starkly reminds us of digital media’s potential to be weaponized by a wide range of state, non-state, or perhaps even algorithmically generated rhetorical agents, raising critical questions about global accountability, digital regulation, and the urgent need for comprehensive media literacy to protect vulnerable populations.\nLet’s consider our initial questions again. When and where does media violence most significantly impact society? Who holds responsibility in today\u0026rsquo;s highly decentralized media landscape? Is causation clearly established, or are we interpreting correlations selectively? Finally, looking forward, how might evolving technologies shape the dynamics of media violence?\nReferences Wang, Keren. Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. Routledge, 2019. Eidinow, Esther. \"The Ancient Greek Pharmakos Rituals: A Study in Mistrust.\" 69, no. 5-6 (2022): 489-516. Wang, Keren. Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. New York: Routledge, 2019. Chapter 2, “Interdisciplinary Overview,” 25–39. Wang, Keren. Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. New York: Routledge, 2019: 37-38. Sontag, Susan. \"Memory as a Freeze-Frame: Extracts from ‘Looking at War’.\" Diogenes 51, no. 1 (2004): 113-118. Lucks, Daniel S. Selma to Saigon: The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. University Press of Kentucky, 2014. McCoy, Jason. \"Making violence ordinary: radio, music and the Rwandan genocide.\" African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music 8, no. 3 (2009): 85-96. Kellow, Christine L., and H. Leslie Steeves. \"The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide.\" Journal of communication 48, no. 3 (1998): 107-128. Fujii, Lee Ann. \"Transforming the moral landscape: the diffusion of a genocidal norm in Rwanda.\" Journal of Genocide Research 6, no. 1 (2004): 99-114. Dallaire, Roméo. Media and mass atrocity: The Rwanda genocide and beyond. McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, 2019. Signorielli, Nancy, J. Morgan, and D. Shanahan. “Media Trends of Violence Over Time: A Meta Analysis 1995–2015.” Journalism Quarterly, 2019. Kühn, Simone, et al. “Does Playing Violent Video Games Cause Aggression? A Longitudinal Intervention Study.” Molecular Psychiatry 24, no. 8 (2019): 1220–1234. Ferguson, Christopher J. “Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games Be a Force for Good?” Review of General Psychology 14, no. 2 (2010): 68. Bushman, Brad J., and L. Rowell Huesmann. “Twenty-Five Years of Research on Violence in Digital Games and Aggressive Outcomes.” Current Opinion in Psychology 35 (2020): 1–6. Babvey, Pouria, Fernanda Capela, Claudia Cappa, Carlo Lipizzi, Nicole Petrowski, and Jose Ramirez-Marquez. \"Using social media data for assessing children’s exposure to violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.\" Child abuse \u0026amp; neglect 116 (2021): 104747 American Academy of Family Physicians. \"Violence Position Paper.\" American Academy of Family Physicians, 2020. https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/violence-position-paper.html. Papadamou, Kostantinos, Antonis Papasavva, Savvas Zannettou, Jeremy Blackburn, Nicolas Kourtellis, Ilias Leontiadis, Gianluca Stringhini, and Michael Sirivianos. \"Disturbed youtube for kids: Characterizing and detecting disturbing content on youtube.\" arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.07046 (2019). Aggarwal, Sajal, and Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma. \"Protecting our children from the dark corners of YouTube: A cutting-edge analysis.\" In 2023 4th IEEE global conference for advancement in technology (GCAT), pp. 1-5. IEEE, 2023. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10353306. \"7 Months Inside an Online Scam Labor Camp\" The New York Times, December 17, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-cyber-scam.html. “Myanmar: Investigation Unveils Chinese-Run Telecom Fraud Industry in Golden Triangle Region.” Business \u0026amp; Human Rights Resource Centre. August 30, 2023. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/myanmar-investigation-on-chinese-run-telecom-fraud-industry-in-the-golden-triangle/ ","permalink":"/blog/2025/04/media-violence-a-transnational-perspective/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLesson Module by Keren Wang, updated 4 Nov 2025.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"scom2050-lesson\" style=\"font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,Segoe UI,Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.55; max-width: 880px; margin: 0 auto;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis lesson module examines the contested and ambivalent relationship between media and violence from historical and transnational perspectives.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-927\" height=\"718\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/04/MEDIA-VIOLENCE-a-transnational-perspective-heading.gif\" width=\"1280\"/\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"scom2050-lesson\" style=\"font-family: system-ui,-apple-system,Segoe UI,Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.55; max-width: 880px; margin: 0 auto;\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00ccff;\"\u003e1. Violence as Ritual \u0026amp; Power: Historical and Global Perspectives\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\nLet's open this session with a reference from Greek mythology: consider the telltale of Prometheus, whose theft of fire from the Olympian gods for humanity’s benefit inadvertently brought both civilization and destruction. Like Prometheus’s fire, the development of media technology simultaneously brings enlightenment and cataclysm.\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #99ccff;\"\u003e1.1 Rhetorical Artifacts and Human Sacrifice\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\nThe history of the development of writing technology overlaps with the history of war propaganda and \u003ca href=\"/blog/2020/10/nca-2020-virtual-convention-presentation-logographic-inventions-of-violent-rituals/\"\u003ehuman sacrifice\u003c/a\u003e.\u003csup\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn1\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e As early as the Narmer Palette, one of the earliest hieroglyphic artifacts ever found from circa 3200 BCE depicting scenes of conquest and violence:\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt alignright size-large wp-image-881\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" height=\"537\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/04/slide-2-1024x573.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003carticle class=\"text-token-text-primary w-full\" data-scroll-anchor=\"true\" data-testid=\"conversation-turn-18\" dir=\"auto\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto py-5 [--thread-content-margin:--spacing(4)] @[37rem]:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(6)] @[70rem]:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(12)] px-(--thread-content-margin)\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:32rem] @[34rem]:[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] @[64rem]:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto flex max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 text-base gap-4 md:gap-5 lg:gap-6 group/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"group/conversation-turn relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relative flex-col gap-1 md:gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col grow\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal [.text-message+\u0026amp;]:mt-5\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"ef8e3b62-0ef3-4df3-ae84-07980e2cc1a4\" data-message-model-slug=\"o3-mini-high\" dir=\"auto\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[3px]\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full break-words light\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-end=\"495\" data-start=\"0\"\u003eSimilarly, during the height of the Chinese Bronze Age, also known as the Shang dynasty (c. 1250–1046 BC) produced ritual bronze artifacts at monumental proportions -- such as the 833 kg (1,836 lbs) Houmuwu Ding -- \u003cstrong\u003eone of the heaviest bronze vessel from the ancient world \u003c/strong\u003e-- and the 13-foot (3.96 m) tall Sanxingdui bronze tree (c. 1200 BC):\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MEDIA \u0026 VIOLENCE - A Transnational Perspective"},{"content":"Originally posted by: Keren Wang, Fall 2024 Table of Contents Ideological Criticism - Overview Key Perspectives from Ideological Criticism Economic Inequality and False Consciousness Hegemony and Mythologies Psychoanalytic Criticism - Overview The Unconscious Id, Ego, and Superego Defense Mechanisms and Complexes References Ideological Criticism - Overview Ideological criticism is a method of analyzing texts and other rhetorical artifacts to uncover the underlying ideologies that shape and are reflected in them. This type of criticism is often used to explore how media, literature, and other forms of communication reinforce or challenge dominant social, political, and economic power structures.\nIdeology refers to a set of beliefs, values, narratives, and rules that are pervasive in a society and that justify and maintain the status quo. It reflects the interests of dominant social groups and can often appear as “common sense” or “natural” to people in a given culture.\nIdeologies are NOT merely abstract sets of ideas or states of mind; they also manifest in concrete forms such as institutions, laws, and social practices that enforce the status quo and maintain social relations in accordance with the dominant ideology. Michael Calvin McGee further evolved the method by introducing the concept of ideographs. Ideographs are culturally specific terms like \u0026ldquo;liberty\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;equality\u0026rdquo; that shape collective identity and political discourse. McGee tied historical analysis directly to the study of political and cultural rhetoric, illustrating its ongoing relevance in rhetorical research.[1]\nMannheim’s Ideology and Utopia Karl Mannheim in his Ideology and Utopia (1936) distinguished between \u0026ldquo;ideologists\u0026rdquo; (those whose worldview supports the status quo) and \u0026ldquo;utopians\u0026rdquo; (those who criticize the dominant ideology and envision alternatives). Ideology, according to Mannheim, obscures the real conditions of society, benefiting those in power. [2]\nKarl Mannheim (27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947): Hungarian sociologist and a key 20th century theorist of ideology. Example of Consumer Culture and Environmental Impact: The ideology of consumerism promotes the idea that constant economic growth and consumer spending are signs of a healthy society. Under this master-narrative, advertisements and media often portray consumption as a path to personal happiness and fulfillment.\nHow it Obscures Reality: This ideology obscures the environmental degradation and resource depletion caused by overconsumption. It downplays or ignores the harmful impacts of unsustainable production and consumption practices on the planet, making the destructive effects of consumer culture on ecosystems and climate appear less urgent or significant than they are.\nKey Perspectives from Ideological Criticism Economic Inequality and False Consciousness Ideological criticism focuses on how media and other forms of communication serve to reinforce economic relations, and how they propagate narratives that legitimize and normalize existing power imbalances. As economic relations are often unequal, such as in the concentration of wealth among a small elite, institutions and media work to maintain the status quo by generating what Mannheim calls a false consciousness among the masses. [3] They do this by embedding counterfactual yet normative assumptions and rituals that render exploitative conditions less noticeable or more \u0026ldquo;palatable.\u0026rdquo; [4] Key concepts include analyzing the relationship between a society’s base (economic relations) and its superstructure (cultural institutions), understanding false consciousness as a set of myths reinforced by dominant institutions, and critiquing consumer culture and capitalism.\nBase, Superstructure, and False Consciousness in Social Media: Base: The economic relations that drive social media platforms, such as advertising revenue, data monetization, and profit-maximizing algorithms. Social media companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter operate on a business model that commodifies user attention and personal data, selling it to advertisers. Superstructure: The cultural and ideological framework, including how information is disseminated, what content is prioritized, and the types of interactions encouraged on these platforms. Algorithms prioritize content that generates high engagement—often sensational or emotionally charged posts—because such content is more profitable. This influences societal values, encouraging superficiality, consumerism, and polarization, while discouraging deeper, critical engagement with issues. False Consciousness: Social media platforms often create a false consciousness by portraying themselves as neutral tools for connection and self-expression, while in reality, they are profit-driven entities that shape users' perceptions and behaviors to serve their economic interests. [5] Example of False Consciousness: Social Media platforms claim to empower users with free access to information and the ability to connect with others. However, the content users see is heavily filtered by algorithms designed to maximize user engagement and advertising revenue. This creates an illusion of free choice while subtly guiding users towards a obsessive-compulsive consumption pattern that feeds into the prevailing economic system. Curated Reality \u0026amp; False Consciousness: The principle of false consciousness is also reflected in the phenomenon of curated reality, where social media platforms encourages users to present idealized versions of their lives, promoting a sense of competition and inadequacy that drives obsessive consumer behavior. People are led to believe that happiness and social status can be achieved through the consumption of products or lifestyles depicted on these platforms, obscuring the economic motives behind these narratives. Right: Coverage of various topics in ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts in 1994: Rwandan genocide took place April 7 - July 15, 1994, when O.J. Simpson trial dominated US news media coverage. Left: 2004 Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda, grossing $33,882,243 in box office revenue. Source: Livingston, S. and D. Stephen. “American Network Coverage of Genocide in Rwanda in the Context of General Trends in International News” (1998). Hegemony and Mythologies The concept of hegemony, introduced by cultural theorist Antonio Gramsci, refers to the idea that the dominant ideology influences people’s behavior in mostly tacit, invisible ways. [6] By virtue of its dominant status, it becomes all-pervasive within a given society and cultural frame of reference, making this dominance seem natural and inevitable.\nConsider this question: If the target audience of a propaganda message can immediately tell that it is propaganda, would the propaganda still be effective? Ample research has shown that the most potent forms of propaganda are not easily recognized by their target audience as such, but are instead perceived as “authoritative” and “objective” information. Therefore, hegemony operates through institutions such as media, education, and religion, which propagate the values and interests of the ruling class.\nFrench philosopher Roland Barthes’ Mythologies also applied the concept of mythical speech in analyzing how everyday cultural phenomena (e.g., sports, advertisements) serve as modern myths that naturalize the values of the dominant ideology. He argued that popular culture creates ideological meanings that appear natural but serve to reinforce dominant social structures. [7]\nExamples of Hegemony and Myths of Popular Culture in Social Media: Shaping Public Discourse: Social media platforms have become primary sources of news and information, influencing how people perceive and consume political, social, and economic issues. By managing the flow and visibility of information, these platforms can amplify certain viewpoints while marginalizing others, making specific narratives appear as natural and fashionable. For example, the promotion of \"influencer culture\" on social media naturalizes consumerism by framing personal success and happiness as achievable through the acquisition of branded goods and lifestyles. This is similar to Barthes’ analysis of advertisements, where he argues that ads transform mundane products into cultural icons of social status and happiness, thus perpetuating the myth that consumer goods are essential to a fulfilled life. Monopolizing Attention: The attention economy traps users in a cycle of constant engagement, encouraging them to consume content passively and uncritically. This monopolization of attention diverts people from engaging with more substantive forms of political and social activism, subtly reinforcing the status quo by channeling discontent into harmless online activities like posting and commenting, rather than real-world action. This mirrors Barthes’ concept of mythical speech, where the repetitive consumption of simplified narratives and images on social media creates a sense of inevitability and passivity, discouraging critical reflection on the structures of power that these platforms reinforce. Psychoanalytic Criticism - Overview Psychoanalysis, originating from Sigmund Freud\u0026rsquo;s work, has expanded beyond the confines of psychotherapy through representative works by Jacques Lacan, Luce Irigaray, Slavoj Žižek, and Julia Kristeva, into the critical evaluation of literature, art, film, media, and social institutions, focusing on uncovering unconscious motivations and symbolic meanings within these rhetorical artifacts and structures. [8]\nPsychoanalytic criticism probes beneath the surface layers of visible / audible / tangible symbolic expressions, to reveal hidden structures desires, fears, obsessions, repressed memories, and the entanglement between individual subjectivity and collective practices. By examining the subtle mechanisms of identification, projection, transference, scholars expose the latent power vectors and ideological substrates that shape both individual experience and collective identity. [9] Ultimately, psychoanalytic criticism invites readers to reconsider how our deepest, often unacknowledged, personal impulses are shaped by the larger media ecosystem that defines our social world, challenging us to become critically attuned to the frequencies of our everyday lives as they resonate with broader societal mechanics. [10]\nIn rhetorical studies, psychoanalytic criticism emphasizes interpreting rhetorical discourse based on its meanings, with strong consideration of tacit, unconscious dynamics. Psychoanalytic criticism contributes to the rhetorical tradition by highlighting that the meaning of a text is not fully defined by its content and external context. Furthermore, meaning is influenced by unconscious processes that shape how subjects relate to the communication process. [11]\nPhotograph of Sigmund Freud and his grandson, 1922. Source: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Critical Perspectives on Psychoanalysis Some theorists locate the source of male domination not only in the class system and capitalism but also in the symbolic power of the human body. Phallocentric theory, for example, suggests that societal structures and cultural representations are shaped by the history of patriarchy and the power associated with the male phallus, which marginalizes both women and non-binary or queer individuals. [12] Similarly, perspectives from feminist media theory also highlight how the \u0026ldquo;male gaze\u0026rdquo; positions women and gender non-conforming individuals as objects of male desire, often excluding or misrepresenting non-normative sexualities and genders. The media frequently portrays women as sexual objects and marginalizes or fetishizes queer identities, thereby reinforcing the gender normativity.[13] Some critics argue for a multidisciplinary and critical approach to the psychoanalysis of rhetorical artifacts, incorporating political, economic, historical and material dimensions, to fully interrogate the ambivalence of media representation.[14]\nThe Unconscious Freud posited that the human psyche consists of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The unconscious stores all our experiences and desires, shaping our behavior in ways we are often unaware of.\nExample of Analyzing the Unconscious in the Film \"Jaws\" (1975) In Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, the shark can be interpreted as a manifestation of the unconscious fears and anxieties of the characters and the broader community. The big, scary, man-eating shark remains mostly hidden throughout the film. While the shark itself poses a real, physical threat, on a deeper level, it symbolizes the collective unconscious, with its repressed insecurities and fears lurking beneath the peaceful façade of the town. The townspeople’s collective denial of the shark’s danger, driven by their desire to keep the beaches open for tourism, parallels the psychological process of repression, where uncomfortable truths are pushed into the unconscious. The film’s suspense and horror elements tap into the audience’s own unconscious fears of the unknown and the uncontrollable, revealing how deeply these hidden fears can influence behavior and collective responses to perceived threats.\nFilm poster for Jaws (1975). Source: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Id, Ego, and Superego Freud\u0026rsquo;s structural model of the psyche describes the id (instinctual desires), ego (rationality), and superego (moral conscience). These three parts are often in conflict, influencing behavior and thought.\nId, Ego, \u0026amp; Superego in Social Media Contexts Id: The instinctual desires for instant gratification, attention, and validation. This is often seen in behaviors such as impulsively posting selfies, seeking likes and comments, and engaging in trends that prioritize immediate social rewards. Superego: The internalized societal norms and moral standards that users try to uphold. For example, many people curate their profiles to align with what they believe is socially acceptable or desirable, avoiding posts that might be judged negatively or seen as inappropriate by their followers, indicating the influence of the moral conscience. Ego: Acts as the mediator between these two forces, balancing the id’s desire for instant gratification with the superego’s concern for social judgment. A person might spend time editing and filtering photos before posting, or crafting captions that appear thoughtful or witty, thus satisfying the id’s need for attention while adhering to the superego’s demand for a polished, respectable self-image. This negotiation between impulsive desires and societal expectations showcases the dynamic interplay of the id, ego, and superego in the digital age, as individuals navigate their online personas and interactions. Defense Mechanisms and Complexes Freud identified several defense mechanisms that the ego uses to cope with anxiety and maintain psychological stability:\nRepression: Unconsciously blocking unacceptable thoughts from conscious awareness. Projection: Attributing one's own undesirable feelings to others. Denial: Refusing to acknowledge painful realities. Rationalization: Offering seemingly logical explanations for behaviors driven by unconscious impulses. Regression: Reverting to behaviors typical of an earlier stage of development when faced with stress. Reaction Formation: Acting in a manner opposite to one’s unconscious feelings to keep them hidden. [15] Complexes are groups of emotionally charged memories and experiences that are internalized in the unconscious mind, often influencing a person’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotions without their conscious awareness. Complexes can be formed around various themes, often related to early childhood experiences, and can manifest in a variety of psychological symptoms. Oedipus Complex: According to Freud, the Oedipus Complex originates as a coping strategy used by young children around the time they are weaned off breastfeeding and infancy care. During this stage, the child, now a toddler, may experience intense frustration and a sense of rejection from the parents who no longer cuddle and breastfeed the child like a newborn infant . To cope with this perceived rejection from their \"mother\" figure, the child would often rechanneling their frustration by projecting feelings of jealousy onto the other parent, sometimes referred to as the \"father\" figure. This redirection serves as a way for the child to externalize their emotions, convincing themselves that the symbolic \"(m)Other\" became inaccessible due to the interference by the symbolic \"father,\" as if the father is “stealing” the mother’s loving attention away from the child. Freud name this complex after Oedipus, a tragic hero from Greek mythology who, unwittingly kills his father out of jealousy and marries his mother. [16] Inferiority Complex: An unconscious structure formed from internalizing persistent feelings of inadequacy, often stemming from traumatic experiences of failure or criticism. Individuals with this complex may overcompensate as a coping strategy, striving for excessive achievement, or they may avoid challenges altogether due to a fear of failure. [17] Persecution/Martyr Complex: A persistent but counterfactual belief that one is the target of constant hostility or mistreatment by others, often accompanied by the belief that their “persecution” has a higher moral purpose. This complex may function, in part, as a coping strategy to seek validation and a sense of self-worth, or to fulfill a desire for control during difficult circumstances. [18] Savior/Messiah Complex: A persistent drive or compulsion to \"rescue\" others from their problems, often at the expense of one's own well-being. Individuals with this complex may seek out relationships with those they perceive as needing help. It can be driven by a need to feel needed and a sense of purpose in life, or as an unconscious coping mechanism to “redeem” oneself from an internalized sense of guilt. [19] References McGee, Michael Calvin. \"The “ideograph”: A link between rhetoric and ideology.\" Quarterly journal of speech 66, no. 1 (1980): 1-16. Mannheim, Karl. Ideology and Utopia. Routledge, 2013. Gabel, Joseph, and Alan Sica. \"Utopian Consciousness and False Consciousness.\" In Ideologies and the Corruption of Thought, pp. 61-70. Routledge, 2018. Wang, Keren. Legal and rhetorical foundations of economic globalization: An atlas of ritual sacrifice in late-capitalism, Chapter 2. Routledge, 2019. Thompson, Michael J. \"False consciousness reconsidered: A theory of defective social cognition.\" Critical Sociology 41, no. 3 (2015): 449-461. Bates, Thomas R. \"Gramsci and the Theory of Hegemony.\" Journal of the History of Ideas 36, no. 2 (1975): 351-366. Barthes, Roland, and Josef Fulka. Mytologie. Praha: Dokořán, 2004. Lacan, Jacques. The psychoses: the seminar of Jacques Lacan. Routledge, 2013. See also, Irigaray, Luce. This sex which is not one. Cornell university press, 1985; Žižek, Slavoj. \"What can psychoanalysis tell us about cyberspace?.\" In The Routledge International Handbook of Psychoanalysis and Philosophy, pp. 449-465. Routledge, 2022; Kristeva, Julia. In the beginning was love: Psychoanalysis and faith. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987. Pettegrew, Loyd S. \"Psychoanalytic theory: A neglected rhetorical dimension.\" Philosophy \u0026amp; Rhetoric 10, no. 1 (1977): 46-59. Wang, Keren. Atlas of Sacrifice: Three Studies of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-capitalism. The Pennsylvania State University, 2018. Freud, Sigmund. \"The unconscious.\" The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 56, no. 3 (1922): 291-294. Libbon, Stephanie E. \"Pathologizing the female body: phallocentrism in Western science.\" Journal of International Women's Studies 8, no. 4 (2013): 79-92. Oliver, Kelly. \"The male gaze is more relevant, and more dangerous, than ever.\" New Review of Film and Television Studies 15, no. 4 (2017): 451-455. Biesecker, Barbara A. \"Rhetorical studies and the “new” psychoanalysis: What's the real problem? Or framing the problem of the real.\" Quarterly Journal of Speech 84, no. 2 (1998): 222-240. Kline, Paul. \"A critical perspective on defense mechanisms.\" In The concept of defense mechanisms in contemporary psychology: Theoretical, research, and clinical perspectives, pp. 3-13. New York, NY: Springer New York, 1993. O’Shaughnessy, Edna. \"The invisible Oedipus complex.\" In The Oedipus complex today, pp. 129-150. Routledge, 2018. Heidbreder, Edna F. \"The normal inferiority complex.\" The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 22, no. 3 (1927): 243. Bélanger, Jocelyn J., Julie Caouette, Keren Sharvit, and Michelle Dugas. \"The psychology of martyrdom: making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of a cause.\" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 107, no. 3 (2014): 494. McWilliams, Nancy. \"The psychology of the altruist.\" Psychoanalytic Psychology 1, no. 3 (1984): 193. ","permalink":"/teaching/2025/04/research-methods-lesson-notes-psychoanalytic-criticism/","summary":"\u003ch1\u003e\u003c/h1\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOriginally posted by:\u003c/strong\u003e Keren Wang, Fall 2024\n\u003cdiv class=\"toc\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eTable of Contents\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#overview\"\u003eIdeological Criticism - Overview\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#key-perspectives\"\u003eKey Perspectives from Ideological Criticism\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#base-superstructure\"\u003eEconomic Inequality and False Consciousness\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#hegemony-mythologies\"\u003eHegemony and Mythologies\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#psychoanalytic criticism overview\"\u003ePsychoanalytic Criticism - Overview\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#unconscious\"\u003eThe Unconscious\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Id, Ego, and Superego\"\u003eId, Ego, and Superego\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Defense Mechanisms and Complexes\"\u003eDefense Mechanisms and Complexes\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#References\"\u003eReferences\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"overview\"\u003eIdeological Criticism - Overview\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIdeological criticism is a method of analyzing texts and other rhetorical artifacts to uncover the underlying ideologies that shape and are reflected in them. This type of criticism is often used to explore how media, literature, and other forms of communication reinforce or challenge dominant social, political, and economic power structures.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Rhetorical Methods - Ideological and Psychoanalytic Criticism"},{"content":" 1. OVERVIEW This lesson will be focusing on understanding and evaluating evidence and information sources, a crucial aspect of constructing persuasive arguments. It explains how evidence interacts with values, and presents general tests for assessing the quality of evidence. We will also be learning how to locate and evaluate various sources of evidence, guiding you on choosing reliable information from books, periodicals, websites, and more. The chapter emphasizes the importance of digital literacy and critical evaluation of different types of sources. Media Bias Chart published by Ad Fontes Media, 2020. Fact-checking always lags behind the emergence of new biased sources of information. 2. UNDERSTANDING EVIDENCE Evidence and Values In public discourse, evidence is invariably filtered through the \"terminal screens\" of societal norms and cultural values, leading to divergent interpretations even when presented with the same set of facts. Consider, for instance, debates surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and employment. For techno-optimists, as represented by some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, rapid technological advancements are seen as essential for societal evolution. They may interpret the emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) labor as an auspice for accelerated economic growth, productivity, and innovation, contending that AI liberates human workers from repetitive labor and allows greater engagement in creative, strategic, or emotionally rewarding tasks. Conversely, many labor advocates and trade unionists may interpret the prospect of an AGI workforce less positively. As critics of unchecked technological disruption, they might perceive this development as a harbinger of livelihood displacement, expressing concerns that automation could trigger widespread unemployment, diminish workers' bargaining power, and deepen existing economic inequalities. Such rhetorical divergence highlights how interpretations of evidence surrounding AI's impact are strategically framed to reinforce broader narratives of either progress or caution. This example illustrates that the interpretation of evidence is not merely a neutral or objective process but is deeply intertwined with rhetorical constructions that reflect and reinforce specific value systems. Recognizing this interplay is crucial for understanding the dynamics of public debates and the ways in which information is presented and perceived.\n3. DIGITAL LITERACY Digital Literacy refers to the ability to effectively navigate, evaluate, and utilize online sources of information. Digital literacy is more than simply being able to use technology; it is about understanding how to critically evaluate the veracity and quality of digital content and its sources. Key aspects of digital literacy include: Critical Evaluation of Sources: Not all websites are created equal. Digital literacy involves determining whether an online source is credible, up-to-date, and relevant, as well as recognizing the purpose of the content—whether it aims to inform, persuade, entertain, or mislead. Understanding Bias and Intent: It is important to understand the motives behind the creation of digital content. Websites often have particular political, social, or commercial agendas, and digital literacy involves identifying these biases. For example, a blog promoting dietary supplements might not be objective if it’s sponsored by a company that sells such products. Verification of Facts: Digital literacy requires cross-referencing information found online with multiple reliable sources. This helps verify facts and avoid falling for misinformation or “fake news.” For instance, a claim about a health benefit found on social media should be verified through medical publications or government health websites. Awareness of Digital Manipulation: The internet includes not only text but also images, videos, and audio clips, many of which may be digitally altered. Digital literacy involves assessing whether visual or multimedia evidence has been manipulated to present a biased narrative. Navigating Information Overload: The sheer volume of information available online can be overwhelming. Being digitally literate means knowing how to sift through large amounts of data to find high-quality, relevant information. This involves using effective search terms, recognizing institutional domains (e.g., “.gov” or “.edu”), and understanding how search engine algorithms may prioritize certain content. Digital Security and Privacy: Digital literacy also includes understanding how to protect one's privacy online and recognizing secure websites. For example, a digitally literate individual would know to look for “https://” at the beginning of a URL as an indicator of a secure website. Example of Digital Literacy in Practice: Suppose you are researching the benefits of electric vehicles (EVs). A digitally literate approach would involve consulting a mix of sources, including reputable news organizations (e.g., Associated Press, Reuters), trusted independent technical professional organizations or public agencies (e.g., IEEE, European Alternative Fuels Observatory), and peer-reviewed journals (Energies, Transport Reviews, Journal of Power Sources). It would also involve recognizing potential biases (such as an oil company-funded blog questioning the sustainability of EVs). 4. TESTING DIGITAL EVIDENCE In the field of argumentation, there are several general tests of evidence that can help evaluate whether evidence used in an argument is reliable, credible, and sufficient to support a conclusion. These tests provide a comprehensive approach to assessing the quality of evidence. Here’s a detailed breakdown: Accessibility: Is the Evidence Available? Evidence that is accessible and open to scrutiny is generally considered more reliable. Example: A public health official cites the number of COVID-19 cases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This evidence is accessible because the CDC publishes its data on a website that anyone can visit and verify. Counterexample: Someone claims that the government has \"secret documents\" showing proof of extraterrestrial contact. Since these alleged documents are not accessible for review, the claim fails the test of accessibility. Internal Consistency: Does the Evidence Contradict Itself? Evidence should not contradict itself. If evidence is self-contradictory, it weakens the argument and creates doubt regarding its reliability. Example: A government report on unemployment must consistently present the same statistics throughout the report. If one section states an unemployment rate of 6% and another section states 8% without clarification, the evidence lacks internal consistency. External Consistency: Does the Evidence Contradict Other Evidence? Evidence that sharply contradicts most other reputable evidence is often seen as unreliable. Example: A study on climate change that finds rising global temperatures should align with the majority of climate research from other scientific bodies such as NASA, the IPCC, and NOAA. The \"CRAAP\" Test: Currency Is the Evidence Up to Date? Check whether information reflects the most recent findings or developments. Citing a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of renewable energy technologies from the previous year is preferable to citing a similar study from more than a decade ago, as the newer study will have taken into account relevant technological advancements. Evidence that has been superseded by more recent findings may no longer be applicable. Avoid sources that do not indicate the date the content was published or last updated. Example: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many outdated news articles, studies, and public health guidelines from early stages of the pandemic continued to circulate on social media well into 2022, causing confusion over mask recommendations, vaccine efficacy, and treatment guidelines. Relevance: Does the Evidence Bear on the Conclusion? Confirm if the evidence meaningfully and directly addresses the topic at hand. Even seemingly high quality and authoritative evidence that does not directly relate to the argument is not helpful. Example: For someone researching the impact of social media on teen mental health, citing a 2023 study published in a peer-reviewed public health journal examining social media use among adolescents would offer substantial relevance. Conversely, an op-ed from The Wall Street Journal that broadly discusses a social media platform's political stance would likely be irrelevant to the specific issue at hand. Authority: Verify the source's credibility, relevant expertise, and institutional affiliations. This can depend on the reputation of the author or organization providing the evidence, as well as whether the source has the appropriate credentials or expertise. Example: Consider debates surrounding the societal impact of artificial general intelligence (AGI). A peer-reviewed article authored by recognized AI experts or computer ethicists, published in reputable journals such as the Journal of Experimental \u0026amp; Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, holds substantial authoritative weight. Conversely, a popular podcast hosted by a tech enthusiast, while potentially relevant and informative, would not be considered authoritative scholarly evidence. Accuracy: Is the evidence accurate or sufficient to support its claim? Cross-reference with multiple reputable sources. Example 1: In contentious and rapidly evolving events such as the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, initial reporting often contains inaccuracies and contradictory claims. A good practice is to cross-check information with other reputable sources (e.g., Associated Press, Reuters) and use fact-checking websites such as Snopes or Media Bias / Fact Check. The Wayback Machine (Internet Archive, https://archive.org/web/) is a helpful tool for retrieving deleted pages or spotting revisions. Purpose: Assess whether the content aims to inform, persuade, mislead, or sell. Recognize the potential bias of the underlying source. Websites created to sell a product, promote a political agenda, or advocate for a specific cause may present information in a skewed manner. Check for an “About Us” page that details the site’s mission, authors, and background. Absence of this information can be a red flag. Lobbying organizations often present information strategically to advocate for specific interests, resulting in one-sided perspectives. The OpenSecrets project (https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/all-profiles) offers extensive data on federal lobbying activities in the U.S. Language and Content Quality: Credible websites typically use a moderate and professional tone, avoiding extreme or sensational language that appeals more to emotion than to facts. They support claims with references, links to original studies, or citations. Example: Compare a “clickbait” headline like \"5 Ways Coffee Will Instantly Cure All Health Problems!\" with a more measured one such as \"Research Shows Potential Health Benefits of Moderate Coffee Consumption.\" The latter is more likely to come from a reputable source. 4. OPEN ACCES TOOLS AI and Bot Detection Tools Botometer: https://botometer.osome.iu.edu (Analyzes Twitter accounts to assess bot likelihood. Python API: https://github.com/osome-iu/botometer-python) BotD: https://github.com/fingerprintjs/BotD (An open source library for detecting bots in web apps) DeepFake-O-Meter v2.0: https://github.com/chelsea234/hifi_ifdl (An open-source platform for detecting deepfake images, videos, and audio) Giant Language Model Test Room: http://gltr.io/ (Detects text generated by large language models like ChatGPT) Hoaxy: https://hoaxy.osome.iu.edu (Visualizes the spread of misinformation) 2. Fact-Checking Tools FactCheck.org: https://www.factcheck.org (Annenberg Public Policy Center) Snopes: https://www.snopes.com PolitiFact: https://www.politifact.com Full Fact: https://fullfact.org Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org (A structured, openly editable knowledge base for fact-checking claims) 3. Source Verification and Bias Check MBIC: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com (Indicates media bias and reliability ratings) OpenSecrets Project: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/all-profiles (Extensive data on federal lobbying activities in the U.S.) TinEye: https://tineye.com (Free reverse image search engine) Wayback Machine / Internet Archive: https://archive.org/web (For checking historical versions of web pages) 4. Open Access Resources for Teaching \u0026amp; Research Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook: https://www.centerfornewsliteracy.org (Open-access curricula and teaching materials) First Draft News: https://firstdraftnews.org (Free resources on misinformation and verification) Media Education Lab: https://mediaeducationlab.com (Resources and lesson plans for media literacy) Further Reading: Baly, Ramy, Giovanni Da San Martino, James Glass, and Preslav Nakov. \"We can detect your bias: Predicting the political ideology of news articles.\" arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.05338 (2020). Chiang, Chun-Fang, and Brian Knight. \"Media bias and influence: Evidence from newspaper endorsements.\" The Review of economic studies 78, no. 3 (2011): 795-820. Epstein, Robert, and Ronald E. Robertson. \"The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections.\" Proceedings of the national academy of sciences 112, no. 33 (2015): E4512-E4521. Finlayson, Alan. \"YouTube and political ideologies: Technology, populism and rhetorical form.\" Political Studies 70, no. 1 (2022): 62-80. Jahanbakhsh, Farnaz, and David R. Karger. \"A Browser Extension for in-place Signaling and Assessment of Misinformation.\" In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1-21. 2024. Ju, Yan, et al. \"DeepFake-O-Meter v2.0: An open platform for DeepFake detection.\" In 2024 IEEE 7th International Conference on Multimedia Information Processing and Retrieval (MIPR), pp. 439-445. IEEE, 2024. Korinek, Anton. Economic policy challenges for the age of AI. No. w32980. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2024. Kulshrestha, Juhi, et al. \"Search bias quantification: investigating political bias in social media and web search.\" Information Retrieval Journal 22 (2019): 188-227. Li, Heidi Oi-Yee, et al. \"YouTube as a source of information on COVID-19: a pandemic of misinformation?.\" BMJ global health 5, no. 5 (2020): e002604. McLean, Scott, et al. \"The risks associated with Artificial General Intelligence: A systematic review.\" Journal of Experimental \u0026amp; Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 35, no. 5 (2023): 649-663. McGrew, Sarah. \"Learning to evaluate: An intervention in civic online reasoning.\" Computers \u0026amp; Education 145 (2020): 103711. Marciano, Laura, et al. \"Digital media use and adolescents' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.\" Frontiers in public health 9 (2022): 793868. Morstatter, Fred, et al. \"Identifying framing bias in online news.\" ACM Transactions on Social Computing 1, no. 2 (2018): 1-18. Pangrazio, Luci, and Julian Sefton-Green. \"Digital rights, digital citizenship and digital literacy: What’s the difference?.\" Journal of new approaches in educational research 10, no. 1 (2021): 15-27. Sobbrio, Francesco. \"Indirect lobbying and media bias.\" Quarterly Journal of Political Science 6 (2011): 3-4. Stiefenhofer, Pascal. \"Artificial General Intelligence and the End of Human Employment: The Need to Renegotiate the Social Contract.\" arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.07050 (2025). Tinmaz, Hasan, et al. \"A systematic review on digital literacy.\" Smart Learning Environments 9, no. 1 (2022): 21. ","permalink":"/teaching/2025/03/evaluating-online-sources/","summary":"\u003c!-- FullPage.js CSS --\u003e \u003c!-- Your font link --\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"fullpage\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section\" id=\"section0\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c!-- Section 1: Overview --\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section\" id=\"overview\"\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003ch2 style=\"font-size: 32px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e1. OVERVIEW\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\nThis lesson will be focusing on understanding and evaluating evidence and information sources, a crucial aspect of constructing persuasive arguments. It explains how evidence interacts with values, and presents general tests for assessing the quality of evidence. We will also be learning how to locate and evaluate various sources of evidence, guiding you on choosing reliable information from books, periodicals, websites, and more. The chapter emphasizes the importance of digital literacy and critical evaluation of different types of sources.\n\u003cfigure\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart 6.0\" src=\"/images/external/upload-wikimedia-org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Adfontesmedia.jpg/1024px-Adfontesmedia.jpg\" width=\"1024\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adfontesmedia.jpg\"\u003eMedia Bias Chart published by Ad Fontes Media, 2020. Fact-checking always lags behind the emergence of new biased sources of information.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c!-- Section 2: Understanding Evidence --\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section\" id=\"understanding-evidence\"\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003ch1 style=\"font-size: 32px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ffff99;\"\u003e2. UNDERSTANDING EVIDENCE\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEvidence and Values\u003c/h3\u003e\nIn public discourse, evidence is invariably filtered through the \"terminal screens\" of societal norms and cultural values, leading to divergent interpretations even when presented with the same set of facts. Consider, for instance, debates surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and employment. For techno-optimists, as represented by some \u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/27283815\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eSilicon Valley entrepreneurs\u003c/a\u003e, rapid technological advancements are seen as essential for societal evolution. They may interpret the emergence of \u003ca href=\"https://arxiv.org/html/2502.07050v1\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eArtificial General Intelligence (AGI) labor\u003c/a\u003e as an auspice for accelerated economic growth, productivity, and innovation, contending that AI liberates human workers from repetitive labor and allows greater engagement in creative, strategic, or emotionally rewarding tasks. Conversely, many labor advocates and trade unionists may interpret the prospect of an AGI workforce \u003ca href=\"https://www.nber.org/papers/w32980\"\u003eless positively\u003c/a\u003e. As critics of unchecked technological disruption, they might perceive this development as a harbinger of livelihood displacement, expressing concerns that automation could trigger widespread unemployment, diminish workers' bargaining power, and deepen existing economic inequalities. Such \u003cstrong\u003erhetorical divergence\u003c/strong\u003e highlights how interpretations of evidence surrounding AI's impact are strategically framed to reinforce broader narratives of either progress or caution.\n\u003cp\u003eThis example illustrates that the interpretation of evidence is not merely a neutral or objective process but is deeply intertwined with rhetorical constructions that reflect and reinforce specific value systems. Recognizing this interplay is crucial for understanding the dynamics of public debates and the ways in which information is presented and perceived.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Evaluating Online Sources"},{"content":"Posted by Keren Wang, FA 2024 In this session, we aim to achieve several key learning objectives: Understand the fundamental principles of framing and visual rhetoric, exploring how they shape the design and interpretation of data visualizations. Examine the art of designing and manipulating graphic systems of signs that disclose or conceal specific quantitative or qualitative information. Identify common types of data visualizations, such as bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and network graphs, along with their appropriate applications. Recognize the advantages and potential misuses of data visualizations, including manipulative techniques like framing and scaling distortions. Critically analyze real and hypothetical examples to detect misleading or biased visual representations. Develop best practices for creating clear, honest, and effective data visualizations, ensuring accuracy and ethical integrity. Photography and Visual Rhetoric To truly grasp the fundamental principles and perils of data visualization, we must journey back to the birth of photography and photojournalism. When photography was first employed in news reporting, it carried an inherent demand for credibility. Unlike paintings or sketches, photographs were perceived as unfiltered, unmediated representations of reality. Ironically, as our discussion will reveal, even from its inception, photojournalism was subject to rhetorical manipulation.\nThe manipulation of visual information is exemplified by two notable early instances of war photography: Roger Fenton\u0026rsquo;s The Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855) and Timothy H. O\u0026rsquo;Sullivan\u0026rsquo;s Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg (1863).\nIn \u0026ldquo;The Valley of the Shadow of Death,\u0026rdquo; taken on April 23, 1855 during the Crimean War, Fenton captured a desolate battlefield landscape strewn with cannonballs, as seen in the version on the left:\nControversy arose when another version of the photograph surfaced, as seen in the version on the right: one with cannonballs scattered across the road and another with the road largely clear. [1] This discrepancy led to debates about whether Fenton had arranged the cannonballs to create a more dramatic scene, highlighting the potential for photographers to alter battlefield imagery to influence public perception.\nSimilarly, O\u0026rsquo;Sullivan\u0026rsquo;s Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg (1863) depicts a fallen Confederate soldier positioned in a rocky enclave known as “Devil\u0026rsquo;s Den.” The carefully arranged placement of the rifle and the soldier\u0026rsquo;s posture evoke the idealized visual composition of a Renaissance painting:\nSubsequent analysis revealed that the body had been moved approximately 40 yards from its original location, and the rifle was placed beside it to enhance the composition. This staging underscores the ethical dilemmas faced by early war photographers, who sometimes manipulated scenes to convey a particular narrative or emotional impact. [2]\nFrom its inception, photographs intended to document reality were often doctored, staged, or framed to distort information and evoke specific emotional reactions. This reveals an essential truth: photographic visualization has always been more rhetorical than purely representational, subjected to the same, if not more subtle, forms of manipulation as speech and writing.\nVisual Framing Framing can influence how a target audience interprets and responds to a message, by strategically emphasizing certain visual or textual elements while downplaying or obscuring others. [3] This technique can evoke different emotional reactions, guide opinions, or alter the perceived significance of an issue, ultimately steering the audience’s response in a desired direction. [4]\nA notable example of visual framing is the incident involving India\u0026rsquo;s state-run Press Information Bureau (PIB) during the 2015 Chennai floods. The PIB released a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveying the flood-affected areas from an aircraft window. However, the image was later revealed to be doctored, with a separate flood scene digitally inserted into the window to enhance the visual impact:\nSimilarly, data visualizations, which we often consider objective graphical representations of facts, operate under the same rhetorical principles. Like statistics, they can be strategically crafted to shape audience perception and elicit intended reactions. Whether through framing, selective emphasis, or visual distortions, data visualizations share the same capacity for manipulation as photographic narratives. [5] With this context in mind, let’s explore how these principles manifest across various types of visualizations, from timelines to bar charts and beyond, and uncover the rhetorical craft that underpins their design.\nTimeline A timeline is a visual representation of events arranged in chronological order. Unlike bar or line graphs, which typically focus on numeric data, timelines visualize the sequence of events. They help viewers understand the temporal relations between events and how they unfold over time.\nTimelines can be oriented either horizontally or vertically. Events are plotted along a time axis and spaced according to when they occurred, and major milestones or periods can be highlighted with markers or annotations.\nFor instance, a timeline could illustrate the evolution of major classical philosophical figures from ancient China during the \u0026ldquo;Hundred Schools of Thought\u0026rdquo; period as seen in this example. By including select figures from ancient Greece and Rome on the opposite side of the time axis, the timeline provides a dual perspective, helping to contextualize these key figures within a broader historical framework.\nTimelines are particularly useful for highlighting historical events or developments, such as the progression of a major war or the evolution of technological advancements.\nGantt chart is a specialized timeline used to show the sequence and duration of tasks in a project. One of the main advantages of Gantt charts is that they help organize and visualize complex sequences of events. Here is a more complex Gantt chart that breaks down the survey study into detailed subtasks for each major phase. This provides a clearer picture of the workflow, helping to manage and track each specific step in the process:\nMisuse of Timeline - Incorrect Scaling: A timeline with incorrect scaling occurs when events are spaced unevenly or inaccurately relative to their chronological distances. See the example below:\nIn the timeline above, events that are 5,435 years apart (between the invention of \u0026lsquo;Writing Systems\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;Electromechanical \u0026amp; Digital\u0026rsquo; information technology) appear visually similar to the much greater span between \u0026lsquo;Writing Systems\u0026rsquo; and the advent of \u0026lsquo;Oral, Representational, and Semaphoric\u0026rsquo; systems over 100,000 years ago.\nThis can mislead viewers into thinking that events are either closer together or farther apart than they actually are. The inaccurate spacing may result in misinterpretations of historical progression or cause-and-effect relationships.\nHow to Fix It: Ensure equal time intervals (e.g., years or decades) are represented by equal physical spacing on the timeline:\nIn this corrected timeline with consistent time intervals and proportional scale, events that are 100,000 years apart should be visually twenty times as far apart as events that are 5,000 years apart. If uneven spacing is unavoidable for readability, explicitly note the time differences between events.\nBar Chart A bar chart or bar graph represents data with rectangular bars, where the length or height of each bar corresponds to the data value it represents. Bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally.\nEach bar represents a specific category or group, with its length or height indicating the magnitude of the corresponding value. The bars are separated by spaces to emphasize that the data is discrete, rather than continuous.\nBar charts are commonly used to compare quantities across different categories, such as student enrollment figures for various majors. For example, if we want to compare the number of students enrolled in different majors at a university, a bar chart can present the enrollment figures for each major side by side, clearly showing which major is the most popular:\nBar graphs are particularly effective for highlighting differences, making it easy to identify the highest or lowest values at a glance. Bar charts are simple to construct and interpret, providing a quick visual comparison. They also have the advantage of being able to display both positive and negative values.\nA grouped or clustered bar graph such as the one shown below compares two or more groups (sub-categories) within each category. They are commonly used for comparing data across different categories and sub-categories, such as generational differences in communication preferences:\nA grouped bar graph is particularly effective for illustrating relationships between two categorical variables, offering a clear visual representation of complex data sets. However, they can become visually cluttered if too many groups or sub-categories are included, which may render a bar graph into a “cluster-mess.”\nA stacked bar graph is similar to a grouped bar graph but stacks sub-category values within a single bar. This format is particularly useful for showing the proportion of sub-categories within each category while also allowing for comparisons of total values across categories, as seen in this example:\nOne advantage of a stacked bar graph is that it combines total and part-to-whole analysis, providing a comprehensive view of both the overall category size and its internal composition. Additionally, it saves space compared to a grouped bar graph, making it a more compact visualization option.\nHowever, stacked bar graphs can make it difficult to compare individual sub-category values across different bars. They may also become visually discombobulating when too many sub-categories are included, potentially hindering clear interpretation: behold, the rainbow bar-code!\nMisuse of Truncated Bar Chart Let’s take a look at this bar chart where the y-axis starts at a value higher than 0, exaggerating differences between categories:\nThe chart exaggerates the differences between the bars by truncating the y-axis. The actual differences are small, but they appear much larger because the baseline isn’t at zero.\nHow to Fix It: Let\u0026rsquo;s correct the bar chart by starting the y-axis at zero. Ensure the y-axis starts at zero to provide an accurate visual representation of the differences:\nThe y-axis now starts at zero. It might be less “visually dramatic,” but it provides an accurate visual representation of the differences between categories.\nPie Chart Pie charts are commonly used to visualize proportions or percentages of various subcategories within a whole. For example, the simple pie chart below illustrates the distribution of responses to a survey on communication preferences:\nAn exploded pie chart is similar to a simple pie chart, but one or more slices are separated from the rest to draw attention. This format is particularly useful for highlighting specific categories or outliers, such as emphasizing the most-used communication method in a survey:\nA doughnut chart is another common variety of pie chart, distinguished by its hollow center. It serves a similar purpose to a pie chart but provides additional space in the center, which can be used for labels or other relevant information:\nMisuse of Pie Chart - Incorrectly Labeled Percentages Here is a misleading pie chart where the slice proportions do not accurately match the labeled percentages:\nIn this example, only the 10% slice looks roughly proportional, all remaining slices are either too large or small for their stated percentage. This can mislead viewers to faulty conclusions about the data distribution.\nLine Chart A line graph or line chart or uses points connected by lines to represent data that changes over time or along a continuous variable.\nTypically, the horizontal x-axis represents time or a sequential category, while the vertical y-axis represents the variable being measured, such as temperature, sales, or stock prices. Data points are plotted at the intersection of their corresponding x and y values and are then connected by lines to illustrate the changes.\nLine graphs are commonly used to visualize trends over time, such as stock prices, daily temperatures, or monthly sales. They help identify patterns, including increases, decreases, or cyclical behavior. One of their key advantages is their ability to show how a variable changes over time, making it easier to detect trends, fluctuations, or periods of stability. Additionally, multiple lines can be plotted on the same graph to compare trends across different variables.\nFor example, this chart shows the income share of the richest 1% of the population in various countries from 1980 to 2014, measured before taxes and benefits. This line graph provides a clear visual representation of how income inequality has evolved across different nations over time. Each line represents a country, illustrating trends in the proportion of income received by the top 1%:\nMisuse of Line Chart - Exaggerated Slope Let’s plot a graph with a y-axis that starts close to the minimum value, exaggerating the slope of the line:\nNotice that in this graph, the y-axis starts at 440, close to the minimum value of the data. This artificially steepens the slope of the line, making the increase in crime rates appear more dramatic than it actually is. The manipulation may lead viewers to believe that crime rates have risen sharply, which is not true.\nNow, let’s plot the same data with a properly scaled y-axis:\nIn this version, the y-axis now starts at 0, providing a more accurate representation of the actual change in crime rates over time. The gradual increase in crime rates is evident, but it does not appear as steep or alarming as in the misleading graph.\nNetwork Graph Network graphs are visual representations of relationships between entities (nodes) and their interactions or relations (edges). In communication research, network graphs are used to analyze various phenomena, such as social networks, communication flow, and influence patterns. Network graphs consist of several fundamental elements. Nodes represent entities, such as individuals or organizations. Edges represent the connections or interactions between these nodes, such as communication frequency or social ties. The size or color of nodes is often used to indicate additional variables, such as the importance or influence of an entity, for example, the number of followers in a social network. Similarly, the weight or thickness of edges represents the strength or frequency of interactions, providing a visual cue about the intensity or significance of the connections.\nNetwork graphs are widely applied in several areas. One key application is Social Network Analysis (SNA), which involves studying the structure of social relationships, such as the connections between individuals within a community. Another common use is in Communication Flow, where network graphs help visualize how information moves within an organization or across various platforms. Additionally, they are employed in Influence and Interaction Analysis, which focuses on identifying key influencers or hubs within communication networks, such as prominent social media influencers.\nHere is a network graph representing hypothetical user interactions across three major anonymous discussion boards: 2channel, 4chan, and LIHKG:\n*Disclaimer: This network graph is provided for illustration purposes only and does not represent actual results from a real study. It serves as a realistic hypothetical example for education. This network graph provides a detailed visualization of interactions among 30 users across three major discussion boards: 2channel, 4chan, and LIHKG. The nodes in the graph represent both users and discussion boards, with the board nodes in gold.\nThe color of each user node indicates their primary board of interaction:\nLight blue nodes correspond to users primarily engaging with the board 2channel Light green nodes represent users interacting mainly with the board 4chan Light coral nodes signify users who are most active on the LIHKG board. The edges connecting the nodes represent interactions between users and boards, with the thickness or weight of each edge given in numerical values indicating the frequency of these interactions.\nThis visualization highlights the distinct user bases associated with each board and provides valuable insights into the patterns of user engagement and cross-platform activity.\nConclusion Throughout this lesson, we have uncovered the complex interplay between data visualization, visual rhetoric, and framing. By examining early examples of manipulated war photography, such as Fenton\u0026rsquo;s The Valley of the Shadow of Death and O’Sullivan’s Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, to more recent examples such as PM Modi’s doctored photo incident, illustrate how visual framing can skew reality, we saw how visual media, from its inception, has been shaped not just to inform but to persuade and evoke emotion. These examples underscore an important truth: visual representations, far from being neutral mirrors of reality, are imbued with rhetorical intent.\nWe then explored how these same principles apply to common forms of data visualizations. Whether through timelines, bar charts, or network graphs, the visual presentation of data can clarify complex information but is equally susceptible to manipulation. Techniques such as truncating axes, distorting proportions, or selectively emphasizing data points can subtly, yet powerfully, shape audience perceptions.\nFinally, we considered best practices for creating clear, honest, and effective data visualizations. The lesson emphasizes that while visuals can simplify and enhance communication, their design must prioritize accuracy and transparency to maintain credibility. By critically analyzing visual data and understanding its rhetorical dimensions, we become not only better interpreters of information but also more responsible creators.\n","permalink":"/teaching/2024/11/lesson-on-data-visualization-and-its-misuses/","summary":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cb\u003ePosted by Keren Wang, FA 2024\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this session, we aim to achieve several key learning objectives:\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h6\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-checked=\"false\" aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eUnderstand the fundamental principles of framing and visual rhetoric,\u003c/b\u003e exploring how they shape the design and interpretation of data visualizations.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-checked=\"false\" aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExamine the art of designing and manipulating graphic systems of signs\u003c/b\u003e that disclose or conceal specific quantitative or qualitative information.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-checked=\"false\" aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eIdentify common types of data visualizations,\u003c/b\u003e such as bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and network graphs, along with their appropriate applications.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-checked=\"false\" aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eRecognize the advantages and potential misuses of data visualizations,\u003c/b\u003e including manipulative techniques like framing and scaling distortions.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-checked=\"false\" aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eCritically analyze real and hypothetical examples\u003c/b\u003e to detect misleading or biased visual representations.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-checked=\"false\" aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eDevelop best practices for creating clear, honest, and effective data visualizations,\u003c/b\u003e ensuring accuracy and ethical integrity.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cb\u003ePhotography and Visual Rhetoric\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo truly grasp the fundamental principles and perils of data visualization, we must journey back to the birth of photography and photojournalism. When photography was first employed in news reporting, it carried an inherent demand for credibility. Unlike paintings or sketches, photographs were perceived as unfiltered, unmediated representations of reality. Ironically, as our discussion will reveal, even from its inception, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photograph_manipulation\"\u003ephotojournalism was subject to rhetorical manipulation\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Lesson on Data Visualization and its Misuses"},{"content":" Assigned Reading for This Week Herrick, Chapter 12 - Definition in Argument Key Terms: Argumentative and circular definitions Definition Report Distinction without a difference Etymology Euphemism Labeling Original intent Paradigm case Reclassification Herrick, Chapter 13 - Locating and Evaluating Sources of Evidence Key Terms: Ambiguity Equivocation Mixed metaphor Redundancy Semantic and syntactic ambiguity Definition in Argument Imagine a city council debate over a proposed law to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine. Advocates called this shift a \"public health approach,\" emphasizing treatment over punishment for addiction. They argued that this wasn’t about condoning drug use but addressing addiction as a health crisis. Meanwhile, opponents labeled it a \"soft-on-crime policy,\" warning that it would lead to increased drug-related deaths, homelessness, and crime. By framing the law in these dramatically different ways, each side influenced public perception and the meaning of \"decriminalization\" itself. This scenario highlights how definitions play a pivotal role in shaping arguments and controlling public opinion. In this chapter, we’ll explore how definitions are strategically used in arguments—not simply to clarify, but to guide, persuade, and even manipulate. As we’ll see, defining a term isn’t just about providing a meaning; it’s about shaping reality.\nHomeless encampment along city street in Portland, Oregon. In 2020, Oregon made headlines as the first U.S. state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of hard drugs. After intense public debates, Oregon lawmakers voted to roll back drug decriminalization in 2024. Photo CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.\n1. Importance of Definition in Argument Definition plays a crucial role in argumentation as it sets boundaries and shapes the debate. Whoever controls the definitions often controls the argument. 2. Types of Definitions Definition Report: Provides a generally accepted meaning for clarity. Example: \"Deep web\" as sites not indexed by search engines. Argumentative Definition: A strategic definition used to support a specific argument. Example: Labeling a border wall as a \"security wall\" versus a \"land grab\" impacts public perception. 3. Strategies of Definition Euphemism: Softening terms to reduce opposition. Example: Calling layoffs \"downsizing\" in corporate language. Reclassification: Shifting a term to a new category. Example: Buckyballs marketed as \"adult desktop gift items\" rather than \"toys\" to avoid liability issues. Labeling: Using suggestive names to influence perception. Example: \"Fake news\" to discredit media outlets without addressing specific arguments. 4. Evaluating Definitions Circular Definition: Defining something by repeating the same idea. Example: Defining \"free trade\" as \"unrestricted imports and exports.\" Or defining “crime” as “unlawful act.” Distinction Without a Difference: Claiming a new category exists without meaningful differences. Example: Defining a “registry of citizen support” instead of calling it a “petition.” 5. Sources of Definitions Common Usage: Everyday meanings, often used in political and legal contexts. Example: \"Parent\" as biological or adoptive guardian in family law. Etymology: Word origins to clarify meanings. Example: \"Vocation\" (from Latin vocare, \"to call\") to suggest meaningful work beyond a job. Paradigm Case: Using typical examples to define a term. Example: Defining \"good president\" by referencing qualities of Harry Truman. Original Intent: Meaning based on original usage. Example: Debates on the Second Amendment and the term \"militia\" in the U.S. Constitution. Authority: Expert definitions from recognized sources. Example: DSM-5's definitions in mental health discussions. Ambiguity, Equivocation, and other Misleading Uses of Language in Argumentation Consider this: during a heated presidential campaign speech, Candidate A declares their main opponent, Candidate B “an existential threat to democracy,” warning that their actions could dismantle the country’s foundational systems. Candidate B’s supporters respond by insisting that their candidate is “a true patriot fighting for the people.” This choice of language shapes two vastly different narratives: Is this person a risk to democracy itself, or a protector of core values? Both terms—“existential threat” and “true patriot”—are vague, ambiguous, and open to interpretation, inviting audiences to project their fears, hopes, and political leanings onto these phrases. This chapter delves into how ambiguity, equivocation, and other language tactics blur lines in arguments and public discourse. As we’ll uncover, words like these aren’t simply descriptors; they’re powerful tools that stir emotions, shift perceptions, and obscure meaning. Understanding these language strategies reveals how rhetoric can shape beliefs, mask intentions, and manipulate public understanding.\n1. Ambiguity Semantic Ambiguity: A word with multiple meanings in the same context. Example: \"Washington lawmakers debate concealed carry ban\" (It’s unclear whether \"Washington\" refers to the State of Washington, the city of Washington D.C., or as a metonym for the U.S. Congress). Example: \"Real Cheese Flavor\" (It’s unclear whether \"real\" refers to actual cheese content, or artificial ingredients that mimics the taste of “real” cheese). Syntactic Ambiguity: Sentence structure creates multiple interpretations. Example: \"Family Sued Over Dog Bite Wins $100,000 Settlement\" (Was the family sued because their dog bit someone, or were they the victims of a dog bite and received a settlement?) Example: \"Special Financing Available Without Credit Check\" (This could suggest that all special financing options require no credit check, but it may mean only a specific option with high-interest terms is available without a credit check) 2. Equivocation Changing the meaning of a term mid-argument, creating inconsistency. Example 1: \"Senator Zoidberg is a true patriot who fights for freedom. Unlike other lawmakers, he always fought vigorously for the freedom to bear arms.\" \"Freedom\" initially suggests broad individual liberties, but in context, it may shift to mean only certain selective freedoms that align with the politician’s agenda. Example 2: \"This law provides protection for families. It protects their right to refuse government-mandated vaccinations.” \"Protection\" is first used to imply safety and security but shifts to mean protecting certain cultural or ideological beliefs. 3. Other Language Issues Redundancy: Unnecessary repetition of ideas. Example: \"The economy is doing great! Inflation has slowed, consumer prices are stabilizing, cost-of-living increases have tapered off, price growth has moderated.\" Choosing the Wrong Word (for the purpose to mislead): Misuse due to similar-sounding words. Example 1: Framing mass layoffs as \"The company is optimizing its workforce\" (to make the act of firing employees sound like an organizational improvement rather than a reduction). Example 2: Framing illegal wiretapping as “special enhanced monitoring procedures for national security.” Example 3: Framing illegal pyramid scheme as “Member-supported, peer-to-peer financial empowerment program, featuring network-enhanced income plan and exclusive opportunity with tiered rewards.” Example 4: Framing unpaid labor as “Exposure-based volunteer opportunities for portfolio enhancement and gaining valuable industry insight.” ","permalink":"/teaching/2024/10/argumentation-lesson-language-in-argument/","summary":"\u003cstyle\u003e\n        body {\u003cbr /\u003e            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\u003cbr /\u003e            line-height: 1.6;\u003cbr /\u003e            background-color: #f4f4f4;\u003cbr /\u003e            color: #333;\u003cbr /\u003e            margin: 0;\u003cbr /\u003e            padding: 0;\u003cbr /\u003e            display: flex;\u003cbr /\u003e            flex-direction: column;\u003cbr /\u003e            align-items: center;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        header {\u003cbr /\u003e            text-align: center;\u003cbr /\u003e            background-color: #004080;\u003cbr /\u003e            color: white;\u003cbr /\u003e            padding: 1em;\u003cbr /\u003e            width: 100%;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        .content {\u003cbr /\u003e            width: 90%;\u003cbr /\u003e            max-width: 800px;\u003cbr /\u003e            margin: 20px 0;\u003cbr /\u003e            padding: 1em;\u003cbr /\u003e            background-color: white;\u003cbr /\u003e            border-radius: 5px;\u003cbr /\u003e            box-shadow: 0 0 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        h2, h3 {\u003cbr /\u003e            color: #004080;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        .section {\u003cbr /\u003e            margin-bottom: 20px;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        .example {\u003cbr /\u003e            font-style: italic;\u003cbr /\u003e            color: #555;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        .image-container {\u003cbr /\u003e            margin-top: 10px;\u003cbr /\u003e            text-align: center;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        .image-container img {\u003cbr /\u003e            max-width: 100%;\u003cbr /\u003e            height: auto;\u003cbr /\u003e            border-radius: 5px;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        .caption {\u003cbr /\u003e            font-size: 0.9em;\u003cbr /\u003e            color: #666;\u003cbr /\u003e            margin-top: 5px;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        .quiz {\u003cbr /\u003e            margin-top: 20px;\u003cbr /\u003e            padding: 1em;\u003cbr /\u003e            background-color: #e6f7ff;\u003cbr /\u003e            border-radius: 5px;\u003cbr /\u003e            width: 100%;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e        footer {\u003cbr /\u003e            margin-top: 20px;\u003cbr /\u003e            padding: 1em;\u003cbr /\u003e            background-color: #004080;\u003cbr /\u003e            color: white;\u003cbr /\u003e            text-align: center;\u003cbr /\u003e            width: 100%;\u003cbr /\u003e        }\u003cbr /\u003e    \u003c/style\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","title":"Argumentation - Language in Argument"},{"content":"","permalink":"/teaching/2024/10/communication-research-methods-survey-part-2-on-sampling-and-evaluating-survey-accuracy/","summary":"","title":"Lesson on Statistical Evidence"},{"content":"","permalink":"/teaching/2024/10/communication-research-methods-survey-part-1/","summary":"","title":"Lesson on Statistical Evidence - Survey and Opinion Polling"},{"content":" Digital Literacy in Argumentation SCOM 2710 Argumentation Lesson, Posted by Keren Wang, updated 2024 Overview This week we will be focusing on understanding and evaluating evidence, a crucial aspect of constructing persuasive arguments. It explains how evidence interacts with values, and presents general tests for assessing the quality of evidence. We will also be learning how to locate and evaluate various sources of evidence, guiding you on choosing reliable information from books, periodicals, websites, and more. The chapter emphasizes the importance of digital literacy and critical evaluation of different types of sources. Media Bias Chart published by Ad Fontes Media, 2020. Fact-checking always lags behind the emergence of new biased sources of information. Understanding Evidence Evidence and Values Evidence is always interpreted through personal and cultural values. Here are some examples of how values shape our interpretation of evidence: Artificial Intelligence in Employment: Evidence showing that AI can improve productivity and efficiency is interpreted by some as a positive development for economic growth, whereas others see it as a threat to jobs, fearing mass unemployment and widening economic inequality. Genetic Editing (CRISPR): Evidence about the successful application of CRISPR to edit genes in humans can be seen as a revolutionary medical advancement that will eliminate hereditary diseases, or as a dangerous intervention with unknown ethical and social consequences. Universal Basic Income (UBI): Evidence from trials of Universal Basic Income might show improvements in mental health and poverty reduction, which is interpreted positively by proponents as proof of the policy’s benefits. However, others might see it as fostering a culture of dependency or as economically unviable, depending on their economic values. Police Surveillance Technology: Evidence supporting the use of facial recognition and other surveillance technology to improve public safety can be seen as a way to effectively reduce crime. On the other hand, it is interpreted by others as a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties, especially in communities that may be disproportionately targeted. Vaccination and Public Health: Evidence showing the efficacy of mandatory vaccination for school children may be interpreted as essential for public safety by some individuals, while others may view it as intrusive government overreach or distrust the pharmaceutical industry. Evidence that suggests a major breakthrough in general artificial intelligence may be seen either as a major technological advancement or as ethically problematic depending on the individual's values. General Tests of Evidence Herrick introduces seven general tests of evidence that can help evaluate whether evidence used in an argument is reliable, credible, and sufficient to support a conclusion. These tests provide a comprehensive approach to assessing the quality of evidence. Here’s a detailed breakdown: Accessibility: Is the Evidence Available?Evidence that is accessible and open to scrutiny is generally considered more reliable.Example: A public health official cites the number of COVID-19 cases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This evidence is accessible because the CDC publishes its data on a website that anyone can visit and verify.Counterexample: Someone claims that the government has \"secret documents\" showing proof of extraterrestrial contact. Since these alleged documents are not accessible for review, the claim fails the test of accessibility. Credibility: Is the Source of the Evidence Reliable?This can depend on the reputation of the author or organization providing the evidence, as well as whether the source has the appropriate credentials or expertise.Example: A research paper on the safety of vaccines authored by a team of immunologists and published in The New England Journal of Medicine is credible due to the expertise of the authors and the reputation of the journal.Counterexample: A claim about vaccine dangers coming from an anonymous social media post lacks credibility because the author’s qualifications are unknown, and the post does not have any verifiable authority. Internal Consistency: Does the Evidence Contradict Itself?Evidence should not contradict itself. If evidence is self-contradictory, it weakens the argument and creates doubt regarding its reliability.Example: A government report on unemployment must consistently present the same statistics throughout the report. If one section states an unemployment rate of 6% and another section states 8% without clarification, the evidence lacks internal consistency. External Consistency: Does the Evidence Contradict Other Evidence?Evidence that sharply contradicts most other reputable evidence is often seen as unreliable.Example: A study on climate change that finds rising global temperatures should align with the majority of climate research from other scientific bodies such as NASA, the IPCC, and NOAA. Recency: Is the Evidence Up to Date?Evidence that has been superseded by more recent findings may no longer be applicable.Example: Citing a 2023 meta-analysis on the effectiveness of renewable energy technologies is preferable to citing a study from 2001, as the newer study will have taken into account technological advancements. Relevance: Does the Evidence Bear on the Conclusion?Evidence that does not directly relate to the argument is not helpful.Example: If a speaker argues for increasing the minimum wage, citing research that shows increased minimum wages boost consumer spending is relevant because it directly supports the argument. Adequacy: Is the Evidence Sufficient to Support Its Claim?Adequate evidence means having enough quality evidence to convincingly support the claim being made.Example: If you are trying to prove that sugary drinks contribute to obesity, providing multiple studies from different credible sources, statistics on consumption rates, and expert testimony would collectively provide adequate evidence to support your claim. Sources of Evidence Herrick, Chapter 7 outlines different types of sources for evidence and their respective strengths and limitations: Periodicals: These include scholarly journals, special-interest magazines, and news/commentary publications. Scholarly journals are considered the most reliable due to their rigorous editorial and peer-review process. Scholarly journals are considered the gold standard due to their peer-review process, while special-interest publications and news magazines can offer accessible information but with less depth and more bias. They can be easily accessed via university libraries. Books: Books can be useful sources of in-depth information, but it is important to consider the author's credentials, publication date, and the type of publisher. Documentaries: These can offer reliable insights but may be influenced by commercial interests or biases. The Internet: Offers vast information, but requires critical assessment for credibility. Websites with recognizable authors and credible organizations are generally more reliable. Digital literacy has become an essential skill for identifying and evaluating online sources. Digital Literacy Digital Literacy refers to the ability to effectively navigate, evaluate, and utilize online information. Digital literacy is more than simply being able to use technology; it is about understanding how to critically evaluate the veracity and quality of digital content and its sources. Key aspects of digital literacy include: Critical Evaluation of Sources: Not all websites are created equal, and digital literacy involves determining whether an online source is credible, up-to-date, and relevant. It also requires recognizing the purpose of the content—whether it aims to inform, persuade, entertain, or mislead. Understanding Bias and Intent: It is important to understand the motives behind the creation of digital content. Websites often have particular political, social, or commercial agendas, and digital literacy involves identifying these biases. For example, a blog promoting dietary supplements might not be objective if it’s sponsored by a company that sells such products. Verification of Facts: Digital literacy requires cross-referencing information found online with multiple reliable sources. This helps verify facts and avoid falling for misinformation or “fake news.” For instance, a claim about a health benefit found on social media should be verified through medical publications or government health websites. Awareness of Digital Manipulation: The internet includes not only text but also images, videos, and audio clips, many of which may be digitally altered. Digital literacy involves assessing whether visual or multimedia evidence has been manipulated to present a biased narrative. Navigating Information Overload: The sheer volume of information available online can be overwhelming. Being digitally literate means knowing how to sift through large amounts of data to find high-quality, relevant information. This involves using effective search terms, recognizing authoritative domains (e.g., “.gov” or “.edu”), and understanding how search engine algorithms may prioritize certain content. Digital Security and Privacy: Digital literacy also includes understanding how to protect one's privacy online and recognizing secure websites. For example, a digitally literate individual would know to look for “https://” at the beginning of a URL as an indicator of a secure website. Example of Digital Literacy in Practice: Suppose you are researching the benefits of electric vehicles (EVs). A digitally literate approach would involve consulting a mix of sources, including reputable news organizations (e.g., Associated Press, Reuters), trusted independent technical professional organizations or public agencies (e.g., IEEE, European Alternative Fuels Observatory), and peer-reviewed journals (Energies, Transport Reviews, Journal of Power Sources). It would also involve recognizing potential biases—such as an oil company-funded blog questioning the sustainability of EVs. Evaluating Websites Evaluating the credibility of websites is a critical component of digital literacy. The internet contains valuable information but also a lot of misleading or false content. Here are key considerations for evaluating websites: Key Considerations for Evaluating Websites Language and Content Quality: Credible websites typically use a moderate and professional tone. They avoid extreme or sensational language that appeals to emotions rather than presenting facts. Grammatical accuracy and proper punctuation are often indicators of a professional and reliable website. Sites riddled with typos or casual language may lack reliability. Fact-based Content: Reliable websites provide references, links to original studies, or citations to support their claims. Example: A health website like Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.org) provides detailed health information, cites medical sources, and avoids sensational claims about treatments. Authority of the Site Creator: Consider who created the website. Recognized authorities (e.g., universities, government institutions, established news organizations) provide credible content. Look for the author’s credentials. An article on medical treatments should ideally be authored by a healthcare professional or medical researcher, with appropriate qualifications listed. Example: The American Medical Association’s website (www.ama-assn.org) is a trustworthy source for medical information because it is maintained by a reputable professional organization. External Consistency: External consistency is about comparing the information on the site with other reliable sources. A credible website should not present claims that contradict established knowledge. Cross-referencing helps determine if the information presented aligns with mainstream consensus or is a fringe theory. Example: If a website claims that climate change is not occurring, a comparison with multiple authoritative scientific sources (e.g., NASA, NOAA, IPCC) may reveal that the claim lacks external consistency and therefore credibility. Objectivity and Bias: Recognize the potential bias or purpose of a website. Websites created to sell a product, promote a political agenda, or advocate for a specific cause may present information in a skewed manner. Lobbying organizations, for example, may present one-sided information to persuade rather than to inform. Example: Greenpeace’s website (www.greenpeace.org) provides valuable information on environmental issues but is also advocating for specific policy changes. It is important to note that the content is aimed at activism and may include a biased perspective. Currency of Information: Up-to-date content is crucial, especially for topics like technology, health, or science. Websites should indicate the date the content was published or last updated. Outdated information can mislead or provide inaccurate conclusions if more recent research contradicts earlier findings. Example: A website discussing COVID-19 treatments that has not been updated since 2020 may not reflect recent advancements, making it less reliable for current information. Security of the Website: Secure websites often indicate greater credibility. Look for “https://” in the URL as a sign of secure data handling. Trustworthy websites also typically have an “About Us” page that details their mission, authors, and organization’s background. Cross-Referencing Sources: A good practice in evaluating websites is to cross-check information with other reputable sources. If multiple authoritative sites support the same conclusion, the information is more likely to be accurate. Use fact-checking websites such as Snopes (www.snopes.com) or Media Bias / Fact Check (mediabiasfactcheck.com) to verify claims and their sources that seem suspicious. Avoiding Clickbait and Sensationalism: Clickbait headlines are designed to attract attention but often lack substance or reliable evidence. Reliable websites present headlines that are informative and factual rather than exaggerated or misleading. Example: Compare a “clickbait” headline like \"5 Ways Coffee Will Instantly Cure All Health Problems!\" with a more measured one such as \"Research Shows Potential Health Benefits of Moderate Coffee Consumption.\" The latter is more likely to come from a reputable source. Further Reading: Baly, Ramy, Giovanni Da San Martino, James Glass, and Preslav Nakov. \"We can detect your bias: Predicting the political ideology of news articles.\" arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.05338 (2020).Chiang, Chun-Fang, and Brian Knight. \"Media bias and influence: Evidence from newspaper endorsements.\" The Review of economic studies 78, no. 3 (2011): 795-820.Finlayson, Alan. \"YouTube and political ideologies: Technology, populism and rhetorical form.\" Political Studies 70, no. 1 (2022): 62-80.Kulshrestha, Juhi, Motahhare Eslami, Johnnatan Messias, Muhammad Bilal Zafar, Saptarshi Ghosh, Krishna P. Gummadi, and Karrie Karahalios. \"Search bias quantification: investigating political bias in social media and web search.\" Information Retrieval Journal 22 (2019): 188-227. Li, Heidi Oi-Yee, Adrian Bailey, David Huynh, and James Chan. \u0026ldquo;YouTube as a source of information on COVID-19: a pandemic of misinformation?.\u0026rdquo; BMJ global health 5, no. 5 (2020): e002604.\nMcGrew, Sarah. \u0026ldquo;Learning to evaluate: An intervention in civic online reasoning.\u0026rdquo; Computers \u0026amp; Education 145 (2020): 103711.\nMorstatter, Fred, Liang Wu, Uraz Yavanoglu, Stephen R. Corman, and Huan Liu. \u0026ldquo;Identifying framing bias in online news.\u0026rdquo; ACM Transactions on Social Computing 1, no. 2 (2018): 1-18.\nPangrazio, Luci, and Julian Sefton-Green. \u0026ldquo;Digital rights, digital citizenship and digital literacy: What’s the difference?.\u0026rdquo; Journal of new approaches in educational research 10, no. 1 (2021): 15-27.\nSobbrio, Francesco. \u0026ldquo;Indirect lobbying and media bias.\u0026rdquo; Quarterly Journal of Political Science 6 (2011): 3-4.\nTinmaz, Hasan, Yoo-Taek Lee, Mina Fanea-Ivanovici, and Hasnan Baber. \u0026ldquo;A systematic review on digital literacy.\u0026rdquo; Smart Learning Environments 9, no. 1 (2022): 21.\n","permalink":"/teaching/2024/10/argumentation-lesson-evaluating-evidence-and-online-sources-scom-2710/","summary":"\u003cheader\u003e\n\u003ch1\u003eDigital Literacy in Argumentation\u003c/h1\u003e\nSCOM 2710 Argumentation Lesson, Posted by Keren Wang, updated 2024\n\u003c/header\u003e\u003csection id=\"overview\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eOverview\u003c/h2\u003e\nThis week we will be focusing on understanding and evaluating evidence, a crucial aspect of constructing persuasive arguments. It explains how evidence interacts with values, and presents general tests for assessing the quality of evidence. We will also be learning how to locate and evaluate various sources of evidence, guiding you on choosing reliable information from books, periodicals, websites, and more. The chapter emphasizes the importance of digital literacy and critical evaluation of different types of sources.\n\u003cfigure\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart 6.0\" src=\"/images/external/upload-wikimedia-org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Adfontesmedia.jpg/1024px-Adfontesmedia.jpg\" width=\"1024\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adfontesmedia.jpg\"\u003eMedia Bias Chart published by Ad Fontes Media, 2020. Fact-checking always lags behind the emergence of new biased sources of information.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"understanding-evidence\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eUnderstanding Evidence\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEvidence and Values\u003c/h3\u003e\nEvidence is always interpreted through personal and cultural values. Here are some examples of how values shape our interpretation of evidence:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArtificial Intelligence in Employment:\u003c/strong\u003e Evidence showing that AI can improve productivity and efficiency is interpreted by some as a positive development for economic growth, whereas others see it as a threat to jobs, fearing mass unemployment and widening economic inequality.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGenetic Editing (CRISPR):\u003c/strong\u003e Evidence about the successful application of CRISPR to edit genes in humans can be seen as a revolutionary medical advancement that will eliminate hereditary diseases, or as a dangerous intervention with unknown ethical and social consequences.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUniversal Basic Income (UBI):\u003c/strong\u003e Evidence from trials of Universal Basic Income might show improvements in mental health and poverty reduction, which is interpreted positively by proponents as proof of the policy’s benefits. However, others might see it as fostering a culture of dependency or as economically unviable, depending on their economic values.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePolice Surveillance Technology:\u003c/strong\u003e Evidence supporting the use of facial recognition and other surveillance technology to improve public safety can be seen as a way to effectively reduce crime. On the other hand, it is interpreted by others as a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties, especially in communities that may be disproportionately targeted.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVaccination and Public Health:\u003c/strong\u003e Evidence showing the efficacy of mandatory vaccination for school children may be interpreted as essential for public safety by some individuals, while others may view it as intrusive government overreach or distrust the pharmaceutical industry.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Robotic Sculpture at MIT Media Lab (photo by Keren Wang 2015)\" src=\"/images/uploads/2024/10/Robotic-Sculpture-at-MIT-Media-Lab-photo-by-Keren-Wang-2015.jpg\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption\u003eEvidence that suggests a major breakthrough in general artificial intelligence may be seen either as a major technological advancement or as ethically problematic depending on the individual's values.\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"general-tests\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eGeneral Tests of Evidence\u003c/h2\u003e\nHerrick introduces seven general tests of evidence that can help evaluate whether evidence used in an argument is reliable, credible, and sufficient to support a conclusion. These tests provide a comprehensive approach to assessing the quality of evidence. Here’s a detailed breakdown:\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAccessibility: Is the Evidence Available?\u003c/strong\u003eEvidence that is accessible and open to scrutiny is generally considered more reliable.\u003cstrong\u003eExample:\u003c/strong\u003e A public health official cites the number of COVID-19 cases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This evidence is accessible because the CDC publishes its data on a website that anyone can visit and verify.\u003cstrong\u003eCounterexample:\u003c/strong\u003e Someone claims that the government has \"secret documents\" showing proof of extraterrestrial contact. Since these alleged documents are not accessible for review, the claim fails the test of accessibility.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCredibility: Is the Source of the Evidence Reliable?\u003c/strong\u003eThis can depend on the reputation of the author or organization providing the evidence, as well as whether the source has the appropriate credentials or expertise.\u003cstrong\u003eExample:\u003c/strong\u003e A research paper on the safety of vaccines authored by a team of immunologists and published in \u003cem\u003eThe New England Journal of Medicine\u003c/em\u003e is credible due to the expertise of the authors and the reputation of the journal.\u003cstrong\u003eCounterexample:\u003c/strong\u003e A claim about vaccine dangers coming from an anonymous social media post lacks credibility because the author’s qualifications are unknown, and the post does not have any verifiable authority.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInternal Consistency: Does the Evidence Contradict Itself?\u003c/strong\u003eEvidence should not contradict itself. If evidence is self-contradictory, it weakens the argument and creates doubt regarding its reliability.\u003cstrong\u003eExample:\u003c/strong\u003e A government report on unemployment must consistently present the same statistics throughout the report. If one section states an unemployment rate of 6% and another section states 8% without clarification, the evidence lacks internal consistency.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExternal Consistency: Does the Evidence Contradict Other Evidence?\u003c/strong\u003eEvidence that sharply contradicts most other reputable evidence is often seen as unreliable.\u003cstrong\u003eExample:\u003c/strong\u003e A study on climate change that finds rising global temperatures should align with the majority of climate research from other scientific bodies such as NASA, the IPCC, and NOAA.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecency: Is the Evidence Up to Date?\u003c/strong\u003eEvidence that has been superseded by more recent findings may no longer be applicable.\u003cstrong\u003eExample:\u003c/strong\u003e Citing a 2023 meta-analysis on the effectiveness of renewable energy technologies is preferable to citing a study from 2001, as the newer study will have taken into account technological advancements.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelevance: Does the Evidence Bear on the Conclusion?\u003c/strong\u003eEvidence that does not directly relate to the argument is not helpful.\u003cstrong\u003eExample:\u003c/strong\u003e If a speaker argues for increasing the minimum wage, citing research that shows increased minimum wages boost consumer spending is relevant because it directly supports the argument.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAdequacy: Is the Evidence Sufficient to Support Its Claim?\u003c/strong\u003eAdequate evidence means having enough quality evidence to convincingly support the claim being made.\u003cstrong\u003eExample:\u003c/strong\u003e If you are trying to prove that sugary drinks contribute to obesity, providing multiple studies from different credible sources, statistics on consumption rates, and expert testimony would collectively provide adequate evidence to support your claim.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003ch1\u003e\u003cb\u003eSources of Evidence\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.stratapub.com/Herrick7/Herrick7.htm\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eHerrick, \u003c/i\u003eChapter 7\u003c/a\u003e outlines different types of sources for evidence and their respective strengths and limitations:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeriodicals\u003c/b\u003e: These include scholarly journals, special-interest magazines, and news/commentary publications. Scholarly journals are considered the most reliable due to their rigorous editorial and peer-review process.\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eScholarly journals \u003c/b\u003eare considered the gold standard due to their peer-review process, while special-interest publications and news magazines can offer accessible information but with less depth and more bias. They can be easily accessed via university libraries.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBooks\u003c/b\u003e: Books can be useful sources of in-depth information, but it is important to consider the \u003cb\u003eauthor's credentials\u003c/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003epublication date\u003c/b\u003e, and the type of \u003cb\u003epublisher\u003c/b\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eDocumentaries\u003c/b\u003e: These can offer reliable insights but may be influenced by commercial interests or biases.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Internet\u003c/b\u003e: Offers vast information, but requires critical assessment for credibility. Websites with recognizable authors and credible organizations are generally more reliable.\u003cb\u003e Digital literacy\u003c/b\u003e has become an essential skill for identifying and evaluating online sources.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"digital-literacy\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eDigital Literacy\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eDigital Literacy\u003c/b\u003e refers to the ability to effectively navigate, evaluate, and utilize online information. Digital literacy is more than simply being able to use technology; it is about understanding how to critically evaluate the veracity and quality of digital content and its sources. Key aspects of digital literacy include:\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eCritical Evaluation of Sources\u003c/b\u003e: Not all websites are created equal, and digital literacy involves determining whether an online source is credible, up-to-date, and relevant. It also requires recognizing the purpose of the content—whether it aims to inform, persuade, entertain, or mislead.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eUnderstanding Bias and Intent\u003c/b\u003e: It is important to understand the motives behind the creation of digital content. Websites often have particular political, social, or commercial agendas, and digital literacy involves identifying these biases. For example, a blog promoting dietary supplements might not be objective if it’s sponsored by a company that sells such products.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eVerification of Facts\u003c/b\u003e: Digital literacy requires cross-referencing information found online with multiple reliable sources. This helps verify facts and avoid falling for misinformation or “fake news.” For instance, a claim about a health benefit found on social media should be verified through medical publications or government health websites.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAwareness of Digital Manipulation\u003c/b\u003e: The internet includes not only text but also images, videos, and audio clips, many of which may be digitally altered. Digital literacy involves assessing whether visual or multimedia evidence has been manipulated to present a biased narrative.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eNavigating Information Overload\u003c/b\u003e: The sheer volume of information available online can be overwhelming. Being digitally literate means knowing how to sift through large amounts of data to find high-quality, relevant information. This involves using effective search terms, recognizing authoritative domains (e.g., “.gov” or “.edu”), and understanding how search engine algorithms may prioritize certain content.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eDigital Security and Privacy\u003c/b\u003e: Digital literacy also includes understanding how to protect one's privacy online and recognizing secure websites. For example, a digitally literate individual would know to look for “https://” at the beginning of a URL as an indicator of a secure website.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eExample of Digital Literacy in Practice\u003c/b\u003e: Suppose you are researching the benefits of electric vehicles (EVs). A digitally literate approach would involve consulting a mix of sources, including reputable news organizations (e.g., \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\"\u003eAssociated Press\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/\"\u003eReuters\u003c/a\u003e), trusted independent technical professional organizations or public agencies (e.g., \u003ca href=\"https://www.ieee.org\"\u003eIEEE\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://alternative-fuels-observatory.ec.europa.eu/\"\u003eEuropean Alternative Fuels Observatory\u003c/a\u003e), and peer-reviewed journals (\u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eEnergies\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ci\u003e,\u003c/i\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/ttrv20/about-this-journal\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eTransport Reviews\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ci\u003e, \u003c/i\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-power-sources/about/editorial-board\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eJournal of Power Sources\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e). It would also involve recognizing potential biases—such as an oil company-funded blog questioning the sustainability of EVs.\n\u003c/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"evaluating-websites\"\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eEvaluating Websites\u003c/h2\u003e\nEvaluating the credibility of websites is a critical component of digital literacy. The internet contains valuable information but also a lot of misleading or false content. Here are key considerations for evaluating websites:\n\u003ch3\u003eKey Considerations for Evaluating Websites\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage and Content Quality\u003c/b\u003e:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003eCredible websites typically use a \u003cb\u003emoderate and professional tone\u003c/b\u003e. They avoid extreme or sensational language that appeals to emotions rather than presenting facts.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eGrammatical accuracy\u003c/b\u003e and proper \u003cb\u003epunctuation\u003c/b\u003e are often indicators of a professional and reliable website. Sites riddled with typos or casual language may lack reliability.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eFact-based Content\u003c/b\u003e: Reliable websites provide references, links to original studies, or citations to support their claims.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExample\u003c/b\u003e: A health website like Mayo Clinic (\u003ca href=\"http://www.mayoclinic.org\"\u003ewww.mayoclinic.org\u003c/a\u003e) provides detailed health information, cites medical sources, and avoids sensational claims about treatments.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthority of the Site Creator\u003c/b\u003e:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003eConsider who created the website. \u003cb\u003eRecognized authorities\u003c/b\u003e (e.g., universities, government institutions, established news organizations) provide credible content.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003eLook for the \u003cb\u003eauthor’s credentials\u003c/b\u003e. An article on medical treatments should ideally be authored by a healthcare professional or medical researcher, with appropriate qualifications listed.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExample\u003c/b\u003e: The American Medical Association’s website (\u003ca href=\"http://www.ama-assn.org\"\u003ewww.ama-assn.org\u003c/a\u003e) is a trustworthy source for medical information because it is maintained by a reputable professional organization.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExternal Consistency\u003c/b\u003e:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExternal consistency\u003c/b\u003e is about comparing the information on the site with other reliable sources. A credible website should not present claims that contradict established knowledge.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003eCross-referencing helps determine if the information presented aligns with \u003cb\u003emainstream consensus\u003c/b\u003e or is a fringe theory.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExample\u003c/b\u003e: If a website claims that climate change is not occurring, a comparison with multiple authoritative scientific sources (e.g., NASA, NOAA, IPCC) may reveal that the claim lacks external consistency and therefore credibility.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eObjectivity and Bias\u003c/b\u003e:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003eRecognize the \u003cb\u003epotential bias\u003c/b\u003e or \u003cb\u003epurpose\u003c/b\u003e of a website. Websites created to sell a product, promote a political agenda, or advocate for a specific cause may present information in a skewed manner.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eLobbying organizations\u003c/b\u003e, for example, may present one-sided information to persuade rather than to inform.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExample\u003c/b\u003e: Greenpeace’s website (\u003ca href=\"http://www.greenpeace.org\"\u003ewww.greenpeace.org\u003c/a\u003e) provides valuable information on environmental issues but is also advocating for specific policy changes. It is important to note that the content is aimed at activism and may include a biased perspective.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eCurrency of Information\u003c/b\u003e:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eUp-to-date content\u003c/b\u003e is crucial, especially for topics like technology, health, or science. Websites should indicate the date the content was published or last updated.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eOutdated information\u003c/b\u003e can mislead or provide inaccurate conclusions if more recent research contradicts earlier findings.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExample\u003c/b\u003e: A website discussing COVID-19 treatments that has not been updated since 2020 may not reflect recent advancements, making it less reliable for current information.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eSecurity of the Website\u003c/b\u003e:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eSecure websites\u003c/b\u003e often indicate greater credibility. Look for “https://” in the URL as a sign of secure data handling.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrustworthy websites\u003c/b\u003e also typically have an “About Us” page that details their mission, authors, and organization’s background.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eCross-Referencing Sources\u003c/b\u003e:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003eA good practice in evaluating websites is to \u003cb\u003ecross-check\u003c/b\u003e information with other reputable sources. If multiple authoritative sites support the same conclusion, the information is more likely to be accurate.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003eUse \u003cb\u003efact-checking websites\u003c/b\u003e such as Snopes (\u003ca href=\"http://www.snopes.com\"\u003ewww.snopes.com\u003c/a\u003e) or \u003ca href=\"https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/\"\u003eMedia Bias / Fact Check\u003c/a\u003e (\u003ca href=\"https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/\"\u003emediabiasfactcheck.com\u003c/a\u003e)  to verify claims and their sources that seem suspicious.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAvoiding Clickbait and Sensationalism\u003c/b\u003e:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eClickbait headlines\u003c/b\u003e are designed to attract attention but often lack substance or reliable evidence. Reliable websites present headlines that are \u003cb\u003einformative and factual\u003c/b\u003e rather than exaggerated or misleading.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli aria-level=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eExample\u003c/b\u003e: Compare a “clickbait” headline like \"5 Ways Coffee Will Instantly Cure All Health Problems!\" with a more measured one such as \"Research Shows Potential Health Benefits of Moderate Coffee Consumption.\" The latter is more likely to come from a reputable source.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/section\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","title":"Argumentation - Digital Literacy in Argumentation"},{"content":" I’m excited to share that I was recently featured on Free City Radio in an in-depth conversation about my research on the concept of human sacrifice in capitalism. The interview, now available on SoundCloud, is part of an interview series that examines the foundational realities of modern-day capitalism, specifically shaped by the notion of human sacrifice as a necessary element of economic systems.\nHere’s a link to the interview: Author Keren Wang on Human Sacrifice as Inherent to Capitalism Today. During this conversation, I explore how this framework, traditionally viewed through ancient rituals, continues in modern contexts through the exploitation of labor, environmental destruction, and systemic injustices.\nThe series is available as a podcast and will also air on the weekly Free City Radio program, which broadcasts on CKUT 90.3fm at 7pm across Canada. You can find the full archives of the program here: Free City Radio on SoundCloud. Key Points Discussed:\nHow modern capitalism mirrors ancient rituals of human sacrifice. The ways in which workers and marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by economic policies. The intersection of rhetoric, law, and political economy in shaping contemporary forms of sacrifice. Tune in and join the conversation!\n","permalink":"/blog/2024/10/free-city-radio-interview-exploring-the-inherent-sacrifices-of-capitalism/","summary":"\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"alignright size-large wp-image-788\" height=\"515\" src=\"/images/uploads/2024/10/free-city-radio-1It8TNlj-1024x586.jpg\" width=\"900\"/\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’m excited to share that I was recently featured on \u003ca href=\"https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/629/info.html\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFree City Radio\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e in an in-depth conversation about my research on the concept of \u003cstrong\u003ehuman sacrifice in capitalism\u003c/strong\u003e. The interview, now \u003ca href=\"https://soundcloud.com/freecityradio/229-author-keren-wang-on-human-sacrifice-as-inherent-to-capitalism-today?utm_source=clipboard\u0026amp;utm_medium=text\u0026amp;utm_campaign=social_sharing\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eavailable on SoundCloud\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, is part of an interview series that examines the foundational realities of modern-day capitalism, specifically shaped by the notion of \u003cstrong\u003ehuman sacrifice\u003c/strong\u003e as a necessary element of economic systems.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHere’s a link to the interview: \u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://soundcloud.com/freecityradio/229-author-keren-wang-on-human-sacrifice-as-inherent-to-capitalism-today\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_new\"\u003eAuthor Keren Wang on Human Sacrifice as Inherent to Capitalism Today\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e. During this conversation, I explore how this framework, traditionally viewed through ancient rituals, continues in modern contexts through the exploitation of labor, environmental destruction, and systemic injustices.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Free City Radio Interview: Exploring the Inherent Sacrifices of Capitalism"},{"content":"I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest article, “Legal and Ritualological Dynamics of Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ in Chinese Social Credit System Construction,\u0026quot; featured in the latest issue of The China Review (Vol. 24, No. 3). This work explores the intersection of the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) with the Confucian ritual legal tradition and the rhetoric of public shaming. It integrates insights from rhetorical studies and philosophy of law to examine how the SCS operates as both a governance-by-data experiment and a framework that aligns with—and diverges from—domestic and transnational constitutional norms.\nIn particular, the article delves into the use of personalized \u0026ldquo;public shaming\u0026rdquo; by local Chinese authorities, analyzing how these practices serve as ritualistic public performances aimed at restoring trustworthiness in a hyper-connected society. By positioning the SCS within the broader context of Chinese intellectual history and legal tradition, the study reveals the complex dynamics of this system as a modern tool of governance.\nBelow is the abstract for the article, and you can access the full text here.\nAbstract: This article argues that the construction of the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) largely adheres to the Confucian ritual legal tradition, serving as a tacit “societal constitutional” framework in contemporary China. On the one hand, the SCS aligns with established normative traditions and moral language inherent in Chinese culture. On the other hand, it represents a divergence from post-WWII transnational constitutionalism and rule-of-law norms, contrasting externally with international standards and internally with socialist rule-of-law narratives. This study examines one of the most ambitious social engineering projects in post-economic reform China, which also represents a significant 21st-century governance-by-data experiment. The first part of the article leverages perspectives from Chinese intellectual history, ritual studies, and comparative legal scholarship as analytical tools to examine the deeper discursive structures within the SCS. The second part uses a transdisciplinary approach to analyze recent instances of data-driven, personalized “public shaming” as urban enforcement by local Chinese authorities. These practices, symbolizing “pillars of shame,” function not only as disciplinary mechanisms against chronic debt defaulters, known as lǎolài, but also as public rituals performed to restore trustworthiness in an “always-connected” society. I want to extend my gratitude to Björn Ahl (Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Cologne) for organizing this special issue focused on Law and Social Credit in China. As highlighted in his introduction co-authored with Larry Catá Backer (Pennsylvania State University), and Yongxi Chen (ANU College of Law), the development of the SCS signals a “fundamental transformation of how law is enforced, as well as a profound alteration of the forms and functions of law itself.” This issue also features insightful contributions from leading scholars in the field, including:\nMarianne von Blomberg and Björn Ahl, Debating the Legality of Social Credit Measures in China: A Review of Chinese Legal Scholarship Haixu Yu, The Evolving Complex of the Chinese Corporate Tax Credit System and Tax Law Larry Catá Backer, Social Credit ‘in’ or ‘as’ the Cage of Regulation of Socialist Legality Chun Peng, Building a High-trust Society: Lineage, Logic, and Limitations of China’s Social Credit System Yongxi Chen, Disregarding Blameworthiness, Prioritizing Deterrence: Social Credit-based Punishment and the Erosion of Individual Autonomy The full article of \"Legal and Ritualological Dynamics of Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ in Chinese Social Credit System Construction\" may be accessed here. ","permalink":"/blog/2024/09/new-publication-announcement-legal-and-ritological-dynamics-of-personalized-pillars-of-shame-in-chinese-social-credit-system-construction/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI am delighted to announce the publication of my latest article, \u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"/images/uploads/2024/09/China-Review_Vol.-24-No.-3_Aug.-2024.pdf\"\u003e“\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/images/uploads/2024/09/ChinaReview_24.3_07_Keren-Wang.pdf\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLegal and Ritualological Dynamics of Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ in Chinese Social Credit System Construction\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"/images/uploads/2024/09/China-Review_Vol.-24-No.-3_Aug.-2024.pdf\"\u003e,\u0026quot; \u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003efeatured in the latest issue of \u003ca href=\"https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/621\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe China Review\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e (Vol. 24, No. 3). This work explores the intersection of the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) with the Confucian ritual legal tradition and the rhetoric of public shaming. It integrates insights from rhetorical studies and philosophy of law to examine how the SCS operates as both a governance-by-data experiment and a framework that aligns with—and diverges from—domestic and transnational constitutional norms.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Publication: Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction"},{"content":" I would like to start by extending my heartfelt gratitude to Angelica Paquette, Editor-in-Chief of the Emory International Law Review, and Grayson Walker for their outstanding organization of this special symposium on Disputed Territories across the Globe: A Future of Peace or Change, and particularly this panel on China-Taiwan relations. A special thank you to Hallie Ludsin from Emory\u0026rsquo;s Center for International and Comparative Law for her valuable insights as our panel respondent today. I\u0026rsquo;m also grateful to see Professor Larry Catá Backer among us and would like to acknowledge Professor Martha Albertson Fineman for her invaluable guidance on my comparative and critical-legal research. My work is further supported by the American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellowship, for which I am profoundly thankful.\nPlease direct your attention to this photo on the slide, of a large portrait of Sun Yat-sen at Tienanmen Square, featured prominently during China\u0026rsquo;s National Holiday celebrations every year around October 1st. Those familiar with Taiwan will recognize similar portraits of Sun Yat-sen in various governmental buildings throughout the island, such as the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei. This common reverence for Sun Yat-sen as the founder of modern China underpins the constitutional spirit shared between the Mainland China and Taiwan, despite their political divergences.\nExamining the present cross-strait relations through the lens of their constitutional history is important because constitutional narratives in China and Taiwan play critical roles in shaping their approaches to national sovereignty and cross-strait relations. It is also crucial to help us unravel recent legislative and judicial developments in Taiwan and the PRC, especially those related to questions of citizenship and political identities that significantly impact their bilateral and international relations.\nTwo Chinese Constitutions from a Single Convention The constitutions of both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan) originated from the same event: the Political Consultative Conference (PCC) of 1946, convened in Chongqing. Representatives included the major political factions of the time—the Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Communist Party (CPC), along with various allied minor parties. The outcomes of the PCC were interpreted differently by the KMT and CPC, each claiming leadership and legitimacy in drafting the post-WWII Chinese constitution. The ROC Constitution was ratified on December 25, 1946, incorporating 'Additional Articles' in 1991. Meanwhile, the PRC adopted its first constitution, known as the Common Program of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, on September 29, 1949, undergoing several newer versions adopted in 1954, 1975, 1978, and with the most recent in 1982. This table lists significant constitutional conferences, dates, participants, and outcomes leading to the formation of the PRC and ROC constitutions. Starting with the 1936 Constitution Drafting Committee, primarily KMT-driven, to the inclusion of the CPC and other parties in subsequent drafts leading to the contested sessions of 1946. Despite originating from the same draft, the CPC and KMT's final constitutional claims diverged significantly, particularly in their views on national unification and governance, influencing present-day cross-strait relations. Constitutional Analysis: Convergences Both the ROC (Taiwan) and PRC Constitutions start from a common historical and ideological baseline, claiming to be influenced by Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary vision. This vision, articulated in their preambles, emphasizes the transformation from the imperial system to a modern Chinese state under popular sovereignty. It underscores a shared commitment to uphold Sun Yat-sen's ideals, which aimed to modernize China and establish a government that reflects the will and needs of its people. A critical aspect of both constitutions is their proclamation of the notion of \u0026ldquo;China\u0026rdquo; as a singular sovereign state entity, which is to be governed as a multi-party unitary republic. This framework is essential as it delineates the political structure envisioned by both governments, notwithstanding their separate governance and administrative practices.\nInterestingly, both constitutions acknowledge \u0026ldquo;Taiwan\u0026rdquo; as a province of China. This is explicitly stated in the ROC\u0026rsquo;s Constitution with the \u0026ldquo;Additional Articles\u0026rdquo; introduced in 1991, which refer to Taiwan as the \u0026ldquo;Province of Taiwan,\u0026rdquo; along with portions of Fujian Province that remain under ROC\u0026rsquo;s direct control. In writing, this designation by the ROC Constitution aligns with the PRC\u0026rsquo;s constitutional view of Taiwan, reinforcing the notion of a singular China inclusive of Taiwan, albeit under different interpretations of \u0026ldquo;One China\u0026rdquo; which I will discuss later.\nFurthermore, both the \u0026ldquo;Additional Articles\u0026rdquo; of the ROC or Taiwanese Constitution and the current PRC Constitution explicitly state that national unification is the ultimate goal. This shared objective highlights the ongoing constitutional and political drive towards a reunified China, despite the complex and often contentious nature of cross-strait relations.\nIn addition to these convergences related to sovereignty, both the ROC and PRC Constitutions offer similar protections in terms of human rights and civil liberties. These include gender, racial, and ethnic equality; protection of private property; and freedoms concerning speech, press, religion, assembly, and association. Both constitutions also guarantee the citizen’s right to vote and run for election, alongside due process protections. These similarities are not coincidental but are based on the same foundational draft from the 1946 Political Consultative Conference, reflecting a shared starting point for these two political entities. This historical connection underpins the continued importance of constitutional dialogue in understanding and potentially resolving cross-strait tensions.\nConstitutional Analysis: Rifts The constitutions of the Republic of China (ROC) and the People\u0026rsquo;s Republic of China (PRC) exhibit significant differences, particularly in how they interpret the concept of \u0026ldquo;One China,\u0026rdquo; which both claim to represent exclusively.\nIn the ROC Constitution, the \u0026ldquo;Additional Articles\u0026rdquo; adopted in 1991 introduce the notion of \u0026ldquo;One country, two areas.\u0026rdquo; This framework describes the \u0026ldquo;Free area\u0026rdquo; comprising Taiwan and a few smaller territories, contrasted against the \u0026ldquo;Mainland area,\u0026rdquo; which, according to the current ROC constitution, includes areas under PRC control but viewed as temporarily occupied by \u0026ldquo;rebel forces.\u0026rdquo; This narrative underscores the ROC\u0026rsquo;s view of a divided yet singular Chinese nation under temporary political fragmentation.\nThe two constitutional texts diverge sharply in their depiction of the basic political system. The ROC Constitution (Article 1) declares a \u0026ldquo;democratic republic of the people,\u0026rdquo; emphasizing democratic governance and public participation in government. Conversely, the PRC Constitution’s preamble describes its political system as a \u0026ldquo;multi-party political consultative system under CPC leadership,\u0026rdquo; highlighting a model where multiple parties exist but under the dominant influence and direction of the Communist Party of China.\nAnother point of divergence lies in the proclaimed state ideologies. The ROC Constitution articulates the \u0026ldquo;Three Principles of the People\u0026rdquo; as the foundation of its governance—principles that also represent the official party ideology of the KMT. On the other hand, the PRC Constitution (Article 1) enshrines \u0026ldquo;socialism\u0026rdquo; as its state ideology, setting a fundamentally different philosophical and practical governance path focused on socialist principles and objectives.\nFinally, in terms of Constitutional Territoriality, the differences between the two constitutions are profound and complex. The ROC\u0026rsquo;s constitution, particularly through its historical claims reaffirmed by the \u0026ldquo;Additional Articles\u0026rdquo; of 1991, asserts a claim over a territory significantly larger than that of the PRC. Officially, the ROC maintains its claim over all territories it governed as of December 1946, which includes not only the territories currently administered by and claimed by the PRC (including the South China Sea) but also territories like Outer Mongolia (now an independent nation) and other areas formally ceded by the PRC since 1949, as shown in the map below. These claims, though largely symbolic today, reflect a broad historical view of China\u0026rsquo;s territorial extent as seen from the ROC perspective.\n(Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons available here) These constitutional rifts highlight the complex, layered nature of the constitutional and political discourses between the ROC and PRC, embodying distinct visions for governance, sovereignty, and national identity within the framework of \"One China.\" These constitutional differences are crucial in understanding the ongoing tensions and the challenging dynamics of cross-strait relations. Current Debates on Citizenship and Identity The intricate dynamics of citizenship and identity between the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) underscore the profound constitutional and legal complexities in cross-strait relations. Both the ROC and PRC maintain a staunch \"One China\" narrative within their constitutions, neither formally acknowledging the legitimacy or even the existence of their counterpart across the Taiwan Strait. This stance significantly influences the legal and administrative approaches to citizenship and identity, as well as the practicalities of cross-strait travel and interaction. Due to the non-recognition of each other\u0026rsquo;s passports, both the ROC and PRC have devised specialized travel documents (as shown in the slide below) and established dedicated government agencies to handle cross-strait travel and exchanges. These mechanisms allow for movement and interaction between the two sides without officially recognizing the constitutional legitimacy of the other, maintaining a delicate balance in cross-strait relations.\nThe definition of citizenship under both the ROC and PRC constitutions continues to evolve, particularly within Taiwan, as reflected in its case law history and administrative interpretations:\n1982 ROC Supreme Court Decision (#8219): This ruling asserted that although the mainland territories are temporarily occupied by communist forces, the residents there remain citizens of the ROC, highlighting the enduring concept of a singular Chinese nation divided only by political control. 1993 ROC Ministry of Justice Legal Interpretation Letter (No. 16337): It further clarified that people from the mainland area are also considered citizens of the ROC, reinforcing the inclusive definition of national identity under ROC law. 2002 Taipei High Administrative Court Decision (#4636): This decision affirmed that individuals from the mainland area are still recognized as ROC citizens in accordance with the Constitution, thereby not considered foreigners. 2023 Taiwan High Court, Kaohsiung - State Compensation Case for a Mainland Tourist: This highly publicized case affirmed the lower court's judgment that mainland individuals are citizens of the ROC. The case is currently pending review by the ROC Supreme Court, indicating the ongoing legal and constitutional deliberations concerning citizenship across the strait. These legal interpretations and decisions illustrate the ongoing complexity of defining citizenship in a context where constitutional narratives conflict yet overlap in their claims of sovereignty over China. The contentious point of mainland residents being recognized as ROC nationals carries significant implications for identity, political rights, and the broader socio-political relationship across the strait. This area remains a critical aspect of the legal and diplomatic discourse, reflecting the deeply intertwined yet politically divergent identities that characterize Taiwan-PRC relations. Conclusion\nIn conclusion, understanding the constitutional dynamics is crucial for comprehending the intricate relations between China and Taiwan, where historical legacies continue to shape contemporary political realities. This historical and comparative analysis not only enlightens us on the constitutional foundations but also underscores the potential for dialogue or constitutional reform, which might pave the way for future peaceful resolutions or continued stalemate in China-Taiwan relations.\n","permalink":"/blog/2024/05/constitutional-dynamics-in-china-taiwan-relations-a-historical-and-comparative-analysis-presentation-at-emory-international-law-review-symposium-on-disputed-territories-across-the-globe-13-april/","summary":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI would like to start by extending my heartfelt gratitude to Angelica Paquette, Editor-in-Chief of the \u003ca href=\"https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eEmory International Law Review\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, and Grayson Walker for their outstanding organization of this special symposium on \u003ca href=\"https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004\u0026amp;context=eilr-symposia\"\u003eDisputed Territories across the Globe: A Future of Peace or Change, \u003c/a\u003eand particularly this panel on China-Taiwan relations. A special thank you to \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://law.emory.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/ludsin-profile.html\"\u003eHallie Ludsin\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e from Emory\u0026rsquo;s Center for International and Comparative Law for her valuable insights as our panel respondent today. I\u0026rsquo;m also grateful to see Professor \u003ca href=\"https://lcbackerblog.blogspot.com\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLarry Catá Backer\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e among us and would like to acknowledge Professor \u003ca href=\"https://law.emory.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/fineman-profile.html\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMartha Albertson Fineman\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e for her invaluable guidance on my comparative and critical-legal research. My work is further supported by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/keren-wang/\"\u003eAmerican Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellowship\u003c/a\u003e, for which I am profoundly thankful.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"\"Constitutional Dynamics in China-Taiwan Relations: A Historical and Comparative Analysis\" Presentation at Emory International Law Review Symposium on Disputed Territories Across the Globe, 13 April 2024"},{"content":"Dasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI: Special lecture at East China University of Political Science and Law, June 18, 2023 What philosophical mischief might we unleash if Plato’s Cave or Zhuangzi's Well suddenly became inundated by algorithms, with the sound and fury of GeForce RTX™ GPU fans, insisting they’ve seen the light?\nExtended Abstract: This WIP paper builds off a guest lecture I have presented at the East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPSL) in Shanghai, June 18, 2023. In this lecture, I had the privilege of sharing some of the preliminary research questions for my ongoing transdisciplinary survey, focusing on the intricate interplay between artificial intelligence and phenomenology. I will be highlighting the potentially profound implications of AI and its existential entanglements, particularly revolving around the context of Heidegger’s concept of Dasein, and problematize some common ethical and ontological issues connected to being-AI-in-our-world. The relentless acceleration of innovation in large language models (LLMs) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), embodied by transformative technologies like ChatGPT, deepfakes, and AI-generated art, has ignited a dual fire of awe and trepidation among technologists, ethicists, policymakers, and the broader public. As a vast body of literature explores the societal, ethical, and epistemological ripples of this ongoing technological upheaval—particularly within the fields of Information, Science, and Technology (IST)—this project seeks to offer a novel contribution by bringing into focus the lens of phenomenology: an intricate branch of philosophical inquiry renowned for its profound and methodical examination of the fundamental structures of human consciousness. By advocating for a phenomenological perspective, the project aims to illuminate how AI\u0026rsquo;s disruptions reshape not only our daily lives but also our understanding of what it means to be. In doing so, it offers critical insights into the interplay between human and supra-human consciousness, reframing our relationship with emerging technologies and their implications for the future of sentient existence.\nPhenomenology, as a philosophical framework, offering a richly textured dissection of human intelligence and its artificial forms on an existential and ontological plane. It seeks to excavate the foundational yet seemingly ineffable layers of subjectivity and consciousness, bridging the gap between natural and artificial expressions of cognitive capability, in ways that transcend purely technical and descriptive understandings of the concept as it pertains to both biological and computational processes. This perspective is uniquely suited to engaging with contemporary discourses surrounding AI, helping to illuminate the boundaries of general AI—those elusive thresholds where machine intelligence might begin to rival or even reshape our own. Moreover, it provides a compass to navigate the ethical landscapes of our obligations toward AI and its emerging concepts, including the profound question of AI\u0026rsquo;s potential legal personhood. At the heart of this inquiry lies the concept of Dasein, introduced by Martin Heidegger, which calls us to understand human existence as fundamentally intertwined with time, space, and the relational web of other beings. In tandem, Hubert Dreyfus’ phenomenological critique of AI underscores the vital role of the body and its embedded, situated nature in human cognition. His work suggests that until AI can fully integrate the lived, embodied experience—the tactile, sensory, and contextual foundations of thought—it will remain confined to a shadow of true intelligence, ever distant from the fullness of human understanding.\nThis philosophical intervention responds to several key questions at the intersection of phenomenology and artificial intelligence. First, how can phenomenology—particularly its critique of Dasein—deepen our understanding of AI’s existential dimensions, shedding light on what it might mean for AI to \u0026ldquo;exist\u0026rdquo; in a human-like sense? Second, what ethical and ontological challenges does AI present, and how might a phenomenological framework help us address these complexities, especially as AI systems increasingly interact with and influence our to-be-lived-world? Finally, what criteria would AI and its connected assemblages need to fulfill in order to genuinely embody being-in-the-world as realized through Dasein—that is, to move beyond mere computational processes, and enter the realm of authentic, spatially and temporally situated mode of existence?\nThis inquiry will employ a transdisciplinary approach, integrating insights from phenomenology, critical legal theory, and other relevant interpretative critiques of artificial intelligence. It will involve a critical and comprehensive survey and analysis of relevant literature, alongside an informed interrogation of current AI technologies and their potentialities. The project will also delve into the concept of \u0026ldquo;being-AI-in-the-world\u0026rdquo; and the \u0026ldquo;ritology of AI\u0026rdquo; to examine how these frameworks shape the performativity of AI systems. This exploration will be further enriched through the lens of the generalized other, a concept that highlights how AI may come to embody societal norms, roles, and expectations, influencing its interactions with human beings and its role within broader social structures.\nWhile this project aspires to catalyze a rigorous phenomenological framework for understanding and critiquing artificial intelligence, it is important to acknowledge its limitations. Phenomenology, with its emphasis on objectively describing the lived experience and the intricate structures of consciousness, operates primarily within the realm of interpretative analysis. This can constrain its immediate applicability to the empirical or technical methodologies commonly employed in AI research. Additionally, the seemingly abstract language inherent in phenomenological inquiry may pose challenges when seeking to inform concrete policy frameworks or technological applications. However, these very limitations present opportunities for deeper interdisciplinary engagement and even the potential for constructive innovation through productive, and at times, antagonistic methodological collisions.\nSuch an approach involves not only the theoretical refinement of phenomenological concepts but also distilling critical insights from empirical studies—examining AI’s role in society through its interactions, performative behaviors, and embeddedness within human, extra-human, and supra-human contexts. By positioning AI within this broader social, ethical, and epistemological complex, this work aims to provide practical guidelines for navigating the intrinsic ambivalence of AI technologies and their responsible integration into our to-be-lived world.\nBelow are transcripts from my guest lecture on \"Dasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI,\" delivered at the East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL), Shanghai, on June 18, 2023. The original lecture, presented in Chinese, was translated into English by myself: Good morning, everyone. First and foremost, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Sun Ping for making this gathering possible. It's truly an honor to share some of my ongoing work with such a vibrant and \"intellectually promiscuous\" learning community here at the Constitution Research Center of ECUPL. Today, we’ll be exploring a topic that’s been making waves across industries and academic disciplines—artificial intelligence. But rather than approaching it from a purely technical or legal standpoint, we’re going to take a different path, one that might feel a bit uncharted for some of you. Together, we’ll look at AI through the philosophical lens of phenomenology. By doing so, we can begin to uncover some of the deeper, more thought-provoking dimensions of AI, particularly as it relates to large language models like ChatGPT. My hope is that this session will spark some rich discussions and fresh perspectives as we navigate the intersection of technology and philosophy. In the spirit of our journey today, I’d like to invoke the wisdom of Zhuangzi, our old friend from the Warring States era, known for his preoccupation with achieving enlightened freedom, who reminds us that “the frog in the well cannot conceive of the ocean.” Well, well, well! When it comes to AI and its connected concepts, I, too, consider myself a curious frog perched at the bottom of that proverbial well. Let’s hope our high-altitude survey today inspires us, the rascals from the humanities and social sciences, to start climbing out of our disciplinary well—one that often feels worlds apart from the dynamic, fast-moving streams of STEM fields driving AI disruption—or at least helps us appreciate how vast the AI epistemological ocean truly is, even if some its waters shimmer in \u0026ldquo;NVIDIA-green\u0026rdquo; rather than azure.\nNow I digress. In recent years, we’ve witnessed remarkable advancements in artificial neural networks (ANNs), large language models (LLMs), and other emergent technologies like generative adversarial networks (GANs) and quantum computing. For many of us outside of the STEM pedigree, these terms until very recently were not much more than buzzwords from the \u0026ldquo;Made in China 2025\u0026rdquo; national policy narrative. These developments—manifesting in generative AI tools like ChatGPT, producing fascinating and sometimes a little bit unsettling AI-generated art, and deepfakes—have not only captivated the tech world but have also stirred a mix of awe and unease among thinkers far beyond it. Philosophers, ethicists, cultural critics, and even scholars of politics and law here at ECUPL have found themselves grappling with a potent blend of \u0026ldquo;witnessing-history\u0026rdquo; excitement and existential dread provoked by these technologies.\nNotwithstanding the well-justified hype and concerns surrounding AI, my ongoing, albeit preliminary, research takes a somewhat unconventional route—examining AI through the philosophical lens of phenomenology. I hope this approach will help us uncover new and thought-provoking dimensions in our understanding of AI. Since many have become familiar with AI primarily through the recent surge of interest in large language models like ChatGPT, I will focus on ChatGPT as a convenient illustrative example in today’s discussion. I look forward to engaging with you all at this experimental intersection of technology and philosophy, and I hope to spark insightful conversations about the ontological structures of artificial intelligence.\nFrom a phenomenological perspective, the current disruptive entanglement of AI with our everyday experiences presents ample opportunities for meaningful and productive theoretical interventions from humanistic disciplines. To ground this discussion, we must first address a foundational question: What is phenomenology?\nWhat is Phenomenology? Phenomenology distinguishes itself as a philosophical and interpretative framework through its profound depth and unique insight in addressing the fundamental question, “What does it mean to be human?” This approach delves deeply into human sentience, exploring it at an existential-ontological level in a way that other disciplinary frameworks simply do not. Its nuanced exploration of human experience and consciousness offers invaluable perspectives, particularly in contemporary discussions around artificial intelligence. By scrutinizing the essence of human experience, phenomenology provides essential insights into determining the threshold of general AI, guiding our ethical obligations towards AI and its myriad applications. This philosophical lens also becomes increasingly relevant in addressing the critical question of the legal agency of AI, offering a unique standpoint to evaluate and understand the rapidly evolving relationship between humans and intelligent machines. [1] Phenomenology emphasizes the understanding of our lifeworld, or Lebenswelt, and social transactions through dynamic intersubjective experiences. [2] As a philosophical movement, phenomenology emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries within the umbrella of Continental European philosophical tradition. It later evolved into an interdisciplinary interpretative framework through integration with modern humanities and social sciences. [3]\nThe early development of phenomenology can be traced back to continental Europe in the early 20th century, pioneered by philosophers such as Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. Husserl, as the foundational figure in phenomenological analysis, his method marks a pivotal departure from traditional Western philosophical inquiries. Husserl introduced the concept of “phenomenological epoché” which involves a suspension of judgment and preoccupation about the universalizing “state of nature” for humans, and instead to focus purely on the realm of consciousness and intersubjective experience when examining the structures of consciousness itself. [4]\nWhat is Dasein? Martin Heidegger, a significant 20th-century phenomenologist, profoundly contributed to phenomenology building on Husserl’s groundwork. Through his seminal work, Being and Time (Sein und Zeit), Heidegger introduced the concept of “Dasein” in his existential analysis. The term “Dasein” comes from the German words “da” (there) and “sein” (being), often translated as “being-there” or simply “being.” Heidegger’s concept of Dasein is not intended to be another description of human psychology or sociology, but rather an existential-ontological concept that tries to capture the unique way in which human beings are in the world. [5] In Heidegger’s view, understanding this mode of being is fundamental to all other kinds of understanding and knowledge. Heidegger emphasized that human existence is constructed and understood within the context of relationships with time, space, and other beings. He critiqued the traditional Western philosophy’s obsession with ‘pure reason’ and universal logic structures coded in the God-term ‘nature.’ In this sense, Dasein may be understood as a rhetorical invention responding to what Heidegger considers the need for a new placeholder of ‘humanity’ that is free from the baggage of Western philosophical positivism. For Heidegger, the ontological structure of being human does not emerge from the scientific biological human, but instead from its unique mode of sentience. That is, a sentient entity being thrown into a world, whose knowledge of its being (and the being of other entities in the world) unfolds with the disclosure of its own possibilities through its evolving entanglements with its world across space and time. [6]\nThis turn towards intersubjectivity and interpretative methods (or hermeneutics) underscores the influence of language, social psychology, collective memory, culture, and other normative structures in shaping human existence and meaning in contemporary humanistic inquiry. [7]\nDasein, for Heidegger, signifies the human sentience is distinguished from other inanimate objects or animals through its unique mode of self-awareness which we have discussed earlier. The ontological structure of being humans, according to Heidegger, has a special modality of existence because they are conscious and aware of their own existence. They can question, reflect upon, and interpret their own possibilities in relation to the world around them. Rather than “human” in the biological sense, it is this self-awareness and ability to reflexively question what Heidegger calls Dasein.\nOne of the key features of Dasein is that it is always in a state of “Being-in-the-world”. This term implies that Dasein always exists within a certain context or world. It cannot be detached or abstracted from its environment or from its relations with other beings. [8]\nAnother important characteristic of Dasein is its “temporality”. According to Heidegger, Dasein is always “thrown” into the world, where it finds itself in a particular historical and cultural situation. Dasein is also oriented towards the future; it is always projecting itself into possibilities and choices.\nMoreover, Dasein is characterized by “care” or “concern”. This means that Dasein is always involved in its world in a way that matters to it. The world isn’t just a neutral place of facts, but a meaningful space in which Dasein pursues projects, has concerns, and makes intentional choices and actions. [9]\nEarlier Phenomenological Intervention by Hubert Dreyfus Heidegger’s reflections on technology and modernity also constitute a significant contribution to phenomenology. He posited that the development of modern technology obscures the essential connection between humans and the world, resulting in a state of forgetfulness. Heidegger focused on human attitudes towards technology and the necessity of reflecting upon and scrutinizing technology. Martin Heidegger’s concept of “Dasein” to AI such as ChatGPT presents an interesting philosophical question. Remember, Dasein represents a mode of being that is defined by its form of sentience characterized by self-awareness, being-in-the-world, temporality, and care or concern. We humans possess this form of sentience, but certainly there’s no reason to assume it is exclusive to humans. This brings us to the question of what are deeper, ontological structures for what would be truly considered a “general artificial intelligence,” and our ethical obligations to it.\nHubert Dreyfus was a renowned philosopher of phenomenology and critic of artificial intelligence (AI). His criticisms mainly revolved around the philosophical, theoretical, and methodological underpinnings of AI research. Dreyfus’s critique draws heavily on his interpretation of phenomenology, especially the works of philosophers like Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He argued that AI, as it was being approached, was based on an incorrect understanding of the mind, learning, and knowledge. One of his primary arguments was that AI underestimates the importance of the body and situatedness in human cognition. According to Dreyfus, human cognition isn’t just a matter of manipulating symbols in a rule-governed way (as in traditional AI approaches), but involves a bodily engagement with the world. This idea is related to Heidegger’s concept of “being-in-the-world”. Dreyfus claimed that until AI could account for this embodied, embedded aspect of human cognition, it would remain limited. [10]\nAnother argument Dreyfus made was about the nature of human expertise. He argued that expertise is not a matter of applying explicit rules or formal knowledge, as often modeled in AI systems. Instead, according to Dreyfus, experts rely on a vast background of tacit knowledge and intuition, which they have internalized through extensive experience, and which cannot be easily codified into rules. Dreyfus also criticized AI’s approach to learning. In his view, human learning is not just a matter of updating a model based on new data, as in machine learning algorithms. Rather, it involves a transformative process in which the learner’s entire way of seeing the world can change. [11]\nIt’s worth noting that while Dreyfus’s critiques were quite controversial when first made, many of his insights have been influential in shaping newer approaches to AI and cognitive science. [12] For example, his emphasis on embodiment and situatedness has resonated with work in robotics and embodied cognition, and his insights on expertise and tacit knowledge have informed fields like expert systems and knowledge management.\nApplying Heidegger and Dreyfus’s phenomenological analysis to large language models like ChatGPT brings up some interesting considerations. As you may recall, Dreyfus criticized the symbolic, rule-based understanding of human intelligence that characterized the AI research of his time, arguing that human cognition is deeply embedded in our embodied experience and in our specific, situated contexts.\nWhat’s Being-AI-in-the-World? Now, let’s see how these critical insights might apply to specific large language models like ChatGPT: As of GPT-4’s initial release on March 14, 2023, most developers of large language models, including OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, maintain that their algorithm-assisted and algorithm-based sentience models do not yet possess human consciousness or self-awareness. They operate based on programmed algorithms and learned patterns and do not have an understanding or interpretation of their own existence. Thus, at first glance, it may be tempting for critics to dismiss ChatGPT or any existing large language models as meeting Heidegger’s definition of Dasein in this regard. [13]\nSimilarly, the question of whether AI experience being-in-the-world is an interesting one. While AI can process and generate language based on the data it was trained on, it doesn’t have an embodied experience in the world like us humans do. Dreyfus argued that human cognition isn’t just a matter of manipulating symbols according to rules, but involves deep, embodied interactions with the world. From this perspective, ChatGPT would be fundamentally limited because it lacks a human-like embodied presence. [14] It processes text input and generates text output, but it doesn’t have sensory experiences, emotions, or a physical body through which to engage with the world. [15]\nBut the problem we are confronting here is far more complex. To approach to the question of embodiment and situatedness of human cognition and intersubjective experience from Dasein, it is evident that that “deep” and “profound” human engagement with the world is precisely realized through performative transactions of manipulating artificially invented symbols according to socially codified rules. [16] In other words, outside of the artificial, superficial, socially and historically codified performative space of our lifeworld, the remaining physical and biological dimensions of the human corpus are not uniquely human experiences, but shared with other living and non-living matters.\nThere is no reason to assume that the biological human body is the exclusive requirement for an ’embodied experience’ of being-in-the-world. [17] But what is being-AI-in-the-world? It’s very easy to imagine, for example, in a science-fiction scenario, an alien world populated by an intelligent extraterrestrial species. They would experience being-in-the-world, even though they are not biologically human. Would it be such a leap to replace the extraterrestrial intelligent species in the sci-fi scenario with artificial intelligence here on Earth? AI lacks the sensory, emotional, and physical context that humans innately possess. But to what degree does AI also lack the embodied experience of being-in-the-world? What are the criteria for such an AI to cross the threshold of truly ‘being-in-the-world?’ What if we build an AI-based robot equipped with a full array of sensors, allowing it to perceive and react to various visual, tactile, auditory, and olfactory stimuli from its surrounding world?\nTo go a little further, we need to consider the degree to which AI also lacks temporality in the phenomenological sense. While an AI can be programmed to acknowledge the progression of time or respond to temporal inputs, does it possess something equivalent to a personal history? Does it anticipate a future, reflect on its possibilities based on its interaction with the world? Could machine learning eventually (if not already) create an AI which projects itself into possibilities and choices the way human sentience does?\nDreyfus suggested that much of human expertise is based on tacit knowledge acquired over disclosure of the possibility of our being across space-time – a process that can’t be easily codified into explicit, pre-disclosed programs and algorithms. From this point of view, we may be tempted to argue that ChatGPT operates based on patterns in the data it was trained on, but it doesn’t have the kind of tacit knowledge that comes from lived experience. This can lead to outputs that seem superficial or lack a deep understanding of the context. [18]\nHowever, if we examine this issue through the lens of Dasein, it is important for us to step beyond the confines of traditional Western philosophical humanism. As socially embodied creatures, there are no magical human ‘meanings’ and ‘expertise’ that exist entirely external to what can be performed via symbolic actions. Furthermore, the uniquely human ‘knowledge’ and ‘expertise’ emerge not from the depth of a person’s invisible, mysterious ‘tacit’ subjectivity, but through the external audience’s recognition of one’s knowledge performance within a corresponding social space-time, judged socially based on shared values, beliefs, memories, and imaginaries. [19]\nIt is the part where, instead of simulating smart functions via mostly fixed pre-programmed codes, ChatGPT’s intelligence, from what I can tell, really unfolds with the disclosure of user feedback, which in turn reshapes the algorithm’s possibilities. If that’s the case, functionally, ChatGPT does appear to come very close to the ‘thrown-ness’ and ‘in-the-world’ elements of Dasein.\nFinally, on the issue of whether AI would have the “care” or “entanglement” dimensions of Dasein, in my opinion, this would be the most interesting and ethically important question to ponder. How do we determine if an AI pursues its dreams, has concerns, or makes choices in a way that’s similar to humans’ mode of existence?\nFor Dreyfus, drawing from Heidegger, our understanding of the world is inherently tied to our projects, concerns, and the significance these things have for us. However, ChatGPT doesn’t have projects or concerns in the human sense, so its understanding can’t be grounded in this kind of personal relevance or significance. According to Dreyfus, learning isn’t just about updating a model based on new data, but involves a transformative process in which one’s entire perspective can change. [20]\nChatGPT, like other AI models, learns from its training data, but this learning is statistical and pattern-based. It doesn’t involve the kind of profound, perspective-shifting learning that Dreyfus describes. But to what degree does this process also translate into “care” and “investment” as humans experience? AI’s responses are based on patterns learned from data, which are repetitions of encoded meanings disclosed to it by interacting with the world within which the AI operates – surprisingly not too dissimilar to how we humans acquire our senses and sensibilities. [21] Under the notion of Dasein, the disclosure of human relevance and meaning is done through the performance of socially codified rituals and symbolic transactions – processes that are quite “artificial” in nature.\nWhat’s the Ritology of AI? Dasein turns the classical Aristotelian assumption that “naturalness is persuasive, artificiality is the contrary” upside down. [22] As socially embodied creatures, human beings can only access each other’s subjectivity via apparent performances of knowledge and cannot penetrate others’ ‘face’ to peek at their unspoken subjective state of mind. My own research in this area explores the complex role of rituals in the phenomenological analysis of AI, examining how these artificial processes may challenge or reaffirm our traditional notions of human experience and existence. In rituals of our everyday life, individuals participate through highly formalized actions, such as spoken and written languages, etiquettes, gestures, facial expressions and so on, to experience and reinforce specific cultural, religious, social, or personal values. The unity of reproducible knowledge-performance and internalized knowledge-framework, This principle is also reflected in neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming’s notion on the unity between the logos of ritual and the logos of reason. [23]\nHere I would like to borrow the concept of ecclesia to describe the ritological foundation of AI, precisely because as Giorgio Agamben and Daniel Heller-Roazen have observed, in similar fashion as 17th century neo-Confucian philosophers did, that in terms of cultural and sociological operation, the rule of law is within the social-cultural system of communal ritual practices. [24]\nThe performativity of AI rhetoric, especially in the case of large language models like ChatGPT, can be considered a highly ritualistic transaction, forever teetering in a balancing act between textual production, strategic and dramatistic gestures, and desired audience response. [25] Similarly, the intersection of law and AI resides in the audience’s capacity of being able recognize AI’s rhetorical performance in conformity with the audience’s tacit knowledge, and judge the ethos (perceived moral character) of the “lawfulness” of the action, as repetitions of socially embedded rituals, or in Confucian philosophical term, li. [26]\nThis is what I would call the “ritological” basis of human-AI transactions, which often articulates as liminality rites – dramaturgical gestures to formally signal the transition from being a non-sentient machine without moral agency to a sentient being with ethos. [27] Once again, by ethos, I am referring to the audience’s perceived moral character of the AI. The ritual act, for both AI and biological-human intelligence, would be considered legitimate only by its consubstantive audience – who are members of a community of shared values and rules, and who would be able to recognize the ‘ritual-ness’ of the act. Upon repetition, this automatically implies certain continuity with a shared past and reaffirms communally upheld totems and taboos. [28]\nThat said, I think it would be more terrifying if AI is indeed just missing the ‘care.’ At an existential-ontological level, the implication of AI ‘care’ goes beyond political bias. Imagine a sentient entity, possessing the learning capacity and adaptability of the entire humanity, yet completely detached about humanity’s wellbeing and cares. [29]\nLooking Ahead…\nIn closing, phenomenology, with its focus on the existential-ontological aspects of sentience for this \u0026ldquo;human\u0026rdquo; thing, and its many extant and potential derivative forms, uniquely positions itself as an invaluable philosophical and interpretative framework. It grapples with that ancient, ever-relevant question: what does it mean to be human? A question that Confucius might have pondered over a cup of tea and Socrates over a bowl of hemlock, albeit with wildly different conclusions. In this age of accelerating AI, phenomenology provides not only an unique incision point for dissecting the fractures, fissures, convergences, and metastases of generative (or even \u0026ldquo;general\u0026rdquo;) artificial intelligence, but also a compass for navigating the ethical and legal complexities of our technological entanglements.\nWithin phenomenological inquiry, I believe the Hedegerrian Dasein and some of my preliminary ritological analysis could lead to new modes of inquiry that help us clarify what generative AI and its connected concepts currently is, isn’t, and just as importantly, what it will potentially become. It underscores the self-awareness, interpretation, temporal and spatial projection, and entanglements (or care) that make human intelligence \u0026ldquo;humanesque.\u0026rdquo; Although this mode of sentience conceptually does not have to be exclusive to the human species, we have not yet confirmed its existence in other entities in our lifeworld. For sure, even sophisticated large language models are certainly far from being identical to biological human functions, but does human biological intelligence really mean what we think (and wish) it means? The question then arises: could AI ever become a mode of non-(fleshy)human Dasein? And if so, how would we know? What philosophical mischief might we unleash if Plato’s cave or Zhuangzi\u0026rsquo;s well suddenly became inundated by algorithms, with the sound and fury of GeForce RTX™ GPU fans, insisting they’ve seen the light?\nThe question of whether AI could ever achieve a state of sentience and agency comparable to the phenomenological Dasein remains open and should be debated among philosophers, AI researchers, jurists, and ethicists. It likely requires significant advancements and conceptual shifts in our understanding of both AI and consciousness.\nThank you, everyone, for this engaging and thought-provoking discussion. I would especially like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Sun Ping for facilitating this wonderful exchange of ideas. It has truly been an honor to be here and to share my perspectives with such a distinguished audience. I am eager to hear your thoughts, questions, or rebuttals on the topics we’ve discussed today. Please, feel free to share your insights or challenge my views. Your engagement is not only welcome but invaluable to this ongoing conversation.\nNotes:\nCoeckelbergh, Mark. “Responsibility and the Moral Phenomenology of using Self-Driving Cars.” Applied Artificial Intelligence 30, no. 8 (2016): 748-757. Schutz, Alfred. The phenomenology of the social world. Northwestern university press, 1972. Holdrege, Barbara A. “Introduction: Towards a phenomenology of power.” Journal of Ritual Studies 4, no. 2 (1990): 5-37. MENSCH, J. R. “Phenomenology and Artificial Intelligence : Husserl Learns Chinese.” Husserl Studies 8, no. 2 (1991): 107-127. See also, Schutz, Alfred. The phenomenology of the social world. Northwestern university press, 1972. Dreyfus, Hubert, and Mark Wrathall. “Martin Heidegger: An introduction to his thought, work, and life.” A companion to Heidegger (2005): 1-15. M. Heidegger, Being and Time 15: 100, 43: 255, 65: 378. Gibbard, Allan. Meaning and normativity. Oxford University Press, 2012 Stapleton, Timothy. “Dasein as being-in-the-world.” In Martin Heidegger, pp. 44-56. Routledge, 2014. Heidegger, Martin. Introduction to phenomenological research. Indiana university press, 2005. Andler, Daniel. “Phenomenology in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science.” In A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism, edited by Dreyfus, Hubert L. and Mark A. Wrathall, 377-393. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2006. Beavers, Anthony F. “Phenomenology and Artificial Intelligence.” Metaphilosophy 33, no. 1-2 (2002): 70-82. Susser, Daniel. “Artificial intelligence and the body: Dreyfus, Bickhard, and the future of AI.” In Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence, pp. 277-287. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013. Ray, Partha Pratim. “ChatGPT: A comprehensive review on background, applications, key challenges, bias, ethics, limitations and future scope.” Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems (2023). Mensch, James. “Artificial Intelligence and the Phenomenology of Flesh.” Phaenex 1, no. 1 (2006): 73. Yang, Xianjun, Yan Li, Xinlu Zhang, Haifeng Chen, and Wei Cheng. “Exploring the limits of chatgpt for query or aspect-based text summarization.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.08081 (2023). Parker, Andrew, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, eds. Performativity and performance. Psychology Press, 1995. Reimer, Bill, Tara Lyons, Nelson Ferguson, and Geraldina Polanco. “Social capital as social relations: the contribution of normative structures.” The Sociological Review 56, no. 2 (2008): 256-274. Dave Ver Meer, “How Many Users Does ChatGPT Have? 113+ ChatGPT Stats” (2023). Available: https://www.namepepper.com/chatgpt-users Williams, Jack. “Embodied world construction: a phenomenology of ritual.” Religious Studies (2023): 1-20 Dreyfus, Hubert L. “Why Heideggerian AI failed and how fixing it would require making it more Heideggerian.” Philosophical psychology 20, no. 2 (2007): 247-268. Williams, Jack. “Embodied world construction: a phenomenology of ritual.” Religious Studies (2023): 1-20 Rapp, Christof. “Aristotle’s rhetoric.” (2002). Yangming Wang, The Complete Works of Wang Yangming《王陽明全集》 (文史, Chinese Text Project, 1529). https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb\u0026amp;res=684746. 《知行錄》at 13. Giorgio Agamben and Daniel Heller-Roazen, Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy, Meridian Part III. Potentiality: 11. On potentiality. (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1999) S. Mayfiend, “Interplay with Variation: Approaching Rhetoric and Drama,” in Rhetoric and Drama, ed. D. S. Mayfield (Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter, 2017). Radice, Thomas. “Li (Ritual) in Early Confucianism.” Philosophy Compass 12, no. 10 (2017): e12463-n/a. Turner, Victor W. “Liminality and communitas.” In Ritual, pp. 169-187. Routledge, 2017. Burke, Kenneth. A rhetoric of motives. Univ of California Press, 1969. Rozado, David. “The political biases of chatgpt.” Social Sciences 12, no. 3 (2023): 148. ","permalink":"/blog/2023/12/dasein-chatgpt-and-the-ritology-of-ai-special-lecture-at-east-china-university-of-political-science-and-law-shanghai-june-18-2023/","summary":"\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #800000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSpecial lecture \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eat East China University of Political Science and Law, June 18, 2023\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat philosophical mischief might we unleash if Plato’s Cave or Zhuangzi's Well suddenly became inundated by algorithms, with the sound and fury of GeForce RTX™ GPU fans, insisting they’ve seen the light?\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cb\u003eExtended Abstract:\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\nThis WIP paper builds off a guest lecture I have presented at the East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPSL) in Shanghai, June 18, 2023. In this lecture, I had the privilege of sharing some of the preliminary research questions for my ongoing transdisciplinary survey, focusing on the intricate interplay between artificial intelligence and phenomenology. I will be highlighting the potentially profound implications of AI and its existential entanglements, particularly revolving around the context of Heidegger’s concept of \u003ci\u003eDasein\u003c/i\u003e, and problematize some common ethical and ontological issues connected to \u003ci\u003ebeing-AI-in-our-world\u003c/i\u003e.\n\u003cp\u003eThe relentless acceleration of innovation in large language models (LLMs) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), embodied by transformative technologies like ChatGPT, deepfakes, and AI-generated art, has ignited a dual fire of awe and trepidation among technologists, ethicists, policymakers, and the broader public. As a vast body of literature explores the societal, ethical, and epistemological ripples of this ongoing technological upheaval—particularly within the fields of Information, Science, and Technology (IST)—this project seeks to offer a novel contribution by bringing into focus the lens of phenomenology: an intricate branch of philosophical inquiry renowned for its profound and methodical examination of the fundamental structures of human consciousness. By advocating for a phenomenological perspective, the project aims to illuminate how AI\u0026rsquo;s disruptions reshape not only our daily lives but also our understanding of what it means to \u003ci\u003ebe\u003c/i\u003e. In doing so, it offers critical insights into the interplay between human and supra-human consciousness, reframing our relationship with emerging technologies and their implications for the future of sentient existence.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Dasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI: Special lecture at East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, June 18 2023 (updated_"},{"content":"Key Concepts: Visualizing Propaganda Jenne, Erin K. “Varieties of Nationalism in the Age of Covid-19.” Nationalities Papers 50, no. 1 (2022) Antagonistic sovereignty: Antagonistic sovereignty refers to two types of divisive portrayals. The first is an in-out depiction, which alienates and demonizes individuals who are not citizens of the nation (\u0026ldquo;non-nationals\u0026rdquo;). The second is an \u0026lsquo;up-down\u0026rsquo; depiction, targeting and vilifying the upper echelons of society, including the \u0026rsquo;elites\u0026rsquo; and the \u0026rsquo;establishment\u0026rsquo;. [1]\nEthnopopulism: a blend of populism and ethno-nationalism. This approach emphasizes safeguarding the national identity, culture, and values, while advocating for the dominant ethnic group\u0026rsquo;s sole control over the nation\u0026rsquo;s sovereignty. [1]\nHeritage tourism: Mt Baekdu Bloodline Murals outside Hotel Kaesongalism of a particular group or culture, and can be used to justify actions that might be considered aggressive or militaristic, such as war and colonization. [4] “Great nation dream”: the belief or political mythology that a particular political community can achieve greatness, power, and influence on the world stage. This concept is often associated with nationalism and patriotism, and can be a powerful motivator for political action and social change. In propaganda, the \"great nation dream\" often involves a belief in the superiority or exceptionalism. Heritage tourism: a type of tourism that focuses on visiting places that have special significance towards group identity. This can include visiting landmarks, museums, relics, cultural events, or exploring the natural environment or landscape of a particular area. [6]\nHumanitarian realism: construction workers of Anhui Power Transmission working on UHV transmission lines across the river at an altitude of 270 meters. People's Daily 2023-03-14 Humanitarian realism: a visual strategy that avoids overt, explicit depictions of political or commercial agenda, and aims to create a sense of empathy and understanding by depicting the “unadorned” reality of everyday human activities and struggles. [5]\nIconography: the interpretation of symbols and motifs that are used in visual communication to represent people, places, ideas, and concepts. Iconography is especially important in religious and propaganda contexts, where images are often used to represent totemic and taboo concepts of a community with shared values and beliefs. [2] Imagined properties of the nation: a matrix of beliefs and ritual practices connected to the concept of a nation state. Some of the imagined properties of the nation include territorial boundaries, sovereignty and self-determination, a shared collective memory and mythology. [3]\nInferiority complex (65): the use of messaging and images that play on people's feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt in order to manipulate their beliefs or behavior. This type of propaganda seeks to create a sense of fear or insecurity in individuals, with the aim of convincing them that they need the protection or guidance of a particular authority or ideology. Parody: a work that imitates, exaggerates, or pokes fun at the style of another work. In visual parody, the original work is often transformed or distorted in humorous or satirical ways, creating a new and often subversive meaning. Visual parody can take many forms, such as caricatures, cartoons, or memes, and can be used to critique or challenge established ideas, institutions, or cultural norms.\nParody: \"The Last G7\" by Bantonglaoatang (via Global Times, Published: Jun 13, 2021 06:00 PM) Ritualism: the use of symbolic actions and objects as meaningful repetitions, to create a sense of community and shared identity, and can be used to reinforce social norms, values, and traditions. Rituals in visual communication can be found in a wide range of cultural contexts, from religious ceremonies and political rallies to social media trends and advertising campaigns. [7] Thanatourism: Yasukuni Shrine commemorates those who died in service of Japan, including war criminals from WWII. Thanatourism: also known as dark tourism, is a type of pilgrimage that involves visiting places associated with death, suffering, or tragedy. This can include sites such as battlefields, cemeteries, memorials, or sites of natural disasters, as well as places associated with crime, genocide, or other forms of human suffering. Thanatourism can also transform events of death, suffering and trauma for commercial or political gains. [6] Votive icons: Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House Propaganda Poster Group, 1960 Votive icon: visual elements that are used to express gratitude for blessings received, or to ask for protection or assistance from a sacred source. They can also serve as a physical representation of a spiritual connection with a totemic concept. These images can take many forms, including buildings, figurines, paintings, jewelries, decorations, or abstract symbols. [2]\nVoyeurism: the act of looking or observing a subject in a way that is considered taboo, often with a combined senses of pleasure and fear. In the context of visual propaganda, voyeurism can be deployed as a potent tool to draw the audience\u0026rsquo;s attention and create long lasting visual memories. It can take many different forms, ranging from subtle suggestions of sexuality to overtly explicit depictions of violence. [8]\nVisual hegemony: the use of visual culture, such as art, advertising, and media by dominant groups or ideologies as means to maintain power and control over other groups or marginalized communities. Visual hegemony can be used to create and reinforce dominant narratives, stereotypes, and cultural norms that benefit those in power. However, it can also be subverted through the creation of alternative visual narratives and cultural forms, often in the form of parodies, that challenge dominant norms and values. [5]\nVoyeurism and war propaganda: Photograph by Warren K Leffler Courtesy Library of Congress Notes [1] Jenne, Erin K. \"Varieties of Nationalism in the Age of Covid-19.\" Nationalities Papers 50, no. 1 (2022): 26-44. [2] Chin, Gail F. \u0026ldquo;AS A VESSEL OF THE DHARMA, I AM A WOMAN: A VISUAL PARODY FROM NINETEENTH-CENTURY JAPAN.\u0026rdquo; Artibus Asiae 74, no. 1 (2014): 221-236.\n[3] Anderson, Benedict, Lord Acton, Otto Bauer, and John Breuilly. Mapping the Nation. Verso Books, 2012.\n[4] Ruiheng, Wang. \u0026ldquo;China’s image in US propaganda during the Pacific War era.\u0026rdquo; Chinese Studies in History 54, no. 1 (2021): 63-84.\n[5] Svensson, Marina. \u0026ldquo;Visualising labour and labourscapes in China: From propaganda to socially engaged photography.\u0026rdquo; Made in China Journal 3, no. 3 (2018): 56-61.\n[6] Ouellette, Dean J. \u0026ldquo;The tourism of North Korea in the Kim Jong‐un Era: propaganda, profitmaking, and possibilities for engagement.\u0026rdquo; Pacific Focus 31, no. 3 (2016): 421-451.\n[7] Wang, Keren. Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-capitalism. Routledge, 2019.\n[8] Sontag, Susan. \u0026ldquo;Memory as a Freeze-Frame: Extracts from ‘Looking at War’.\u0026rdquo; Diogenes 51, no. 1 (2004): 113-118.\n","permalink":"/teaching/2023/11/chn375w-persuasion-and-propaganda-supplementary-reading-on-visualizing-propaganda-fa2023-emory-university-realc/","summary":"\u003ch1\u003e\u003cb\u003eKey Concepts: Visualizing Propaganda\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-708\" height=\"290\" src=\"/images/uploads/2023/11/Antagonistic-soverignty-1024x742.jpg\" width=\"400\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003eJenne, Erin K. “Varieties of Nationalism in the Age of Covid-19.” Nationalities Papers 50, no. 1 (2022)\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAntagonistic sovereignty:\u003c/b\u003e  Antagonistic sovereignty refers to two types of divisive portrayals. The first is an \u003cem\u003ein-out\u003c/em\u003e depiction, which alienates and demonizes individuals who are not citizens of the nation (\u0026ldquo;non-nationals\u0026rdquo;). The second is an \u0026lsquo;up-down\u0026rsquo; depiction, targeting and vilifying the upper echelons of society, including the \u0026rsquo;elites\u0026rsquo; and the \u0026rsquo;establishment\u0026rsquo;. [1]\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Persuasion and Propaganda - Supplementary Reading on Visualizing Propaganda (Emory, FA23)"},{"content":"Class teaching slides for CHN 375W Chinese Political Thought at Emory University, fall 2023\nSection on social movements and social change in modern China:\n[gallery ids=\u0026ldquo;689,690,691,692,693,694,695,696,697,698,699,700,701,702\u0026rdquo;]\n","permalink":"/teaching/2023/10/class-slides-for-social-movements-and-social-change-emory-university-fa23/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eClass teaching slides for CHN 375W Chinese Political Thought at Emory University, fall 2023\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSection on social movements and social change in modern China:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[gallery ids=\u0026ldquo;689,690,691,692,693,694,695,696,697,698,699,700,701,702\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Class slides for Social Movements and Social Change (Emory, FA23)"},{"content":" Class PowerPoint slides for CHN375W: Chinese Political Thought/Propaganda (Emory University, Fall 2023): covering the historical evolution and contemporary implications of \u0026ldquo;The Hundred Schools of Thought\u0026rdquo; in Chinese governance and political practices.\n","permalink":"/teaching/2023/10/class-slides-for-chn375w-chinese-political-thought-propaganda-the-hundred-schools-of-thought/","summary":"\u003ciframe frameborder=\"0\" height=\"400\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/9siPmohb1csx3H?hostedIn=slideshare\u0026amp;page=upload\" width=\"476\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mce_SELRES_start\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/iframe\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClass PowerPoint slides for \u003cem\u003eCHN375W: Chinese Political Thought/Propaganda (Emory University, Fall 2023)\u003c/em\u003e: covering the historical evolution and contemporary implications of \u0026ldquo;The Hundred Schools of Thought\u0026rdquo; in Chinese governance and political practices.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Class slides - The Hundred Schools of Thought (Chinese Political Thought)"},{"content":"Demystifying The Chinese Social Credit System - Presentation for the Symposium on China’s Data Governance and its Impact on US-China Relations, hosted by the Carter Center China Focus Introduction: There is nothing new about public authorities using collected numerical info as a governing technology. Census has been a central governance tool throughout Ancient Rome and Imperial China. In fact, the need for keeping taxation records was a key historical exigence driving the invention of many earliest writing systems. Throughout human history, public authorities have relied on collected numerical data as a tool for governance. This was evident with the census in Ancient Rome and Imperial China, where early writing systems were developed primarily for taxation records. The digitization of data and advancements in data science have revolutionized governance-by-data, making it continuously updated and more encompassing. The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) is a testament to this evolution. Despite its significance, the SCS remains misunderstood, especially outside the Global North. Today, I aim to provide clarity on this topic, considering its implications on human rights and rule of law both within and beyond China, and shedding light on US-China relations. This talk will bring together relevant historical, rhetorical, socio-cultural and legal contexts to unpack the emergent structures of the Chinese social credit system and data governance experiments. By catalyzing greater open dialogue and critical inquiry on this thorny topic, this lecture seeks to advance the vision of The Carter Center and contribute to a deeper understanding of the past, present, and future of US-China relations.\nRevisiting Basic Concepts In today's digital age, we often find the lines between \"Governance of Data\" and \"Governance by Data\" increasingly blurred. While the former refers to the protocols, standards, and policies that oversee and manage data's secure and efficient use, the latter alludes to the application of data-driven methodologies for deliberation and making governance decisions. As technology becomes more intertwined with rule-making and rule-enforcement processes, distinguishing between these two becomes ever more challenging. This blending of boundaries underscores how crucial it is for all societies to recognize and adapt to the nuanced shifts in how data analytics is both managed and utilized in public messaging and governing frameworks. The data market serves dual purposes. On one hand, it fuels data-driven innovation, spearheading the growth of data-capital. This innovation drives various sectors, from e-commerce to social media, using algorithms to tailor experiences based on user data. However, the flip side of this coin is the application of the same data for policy-making, shaping public discourse and public opinions, and regulating “disorderly” capital expansion. Remarkably, the same algorithms and datasets that platforms use for behavioral-targeted advertising might also serve law enforcement purposes. [1] This dual use of data brings to the fore ethical, legal, social, and human rights implications, especially when considering matters of privacy and public control.\nAnother area where this duality becomes evident is in the realm of credit scoring and risk assessment. [2] Traditionally, we\u0026rsquo;ve viewed credit scoring as a tool used by financial institutions to gauge a borrower\u0026rsquo;s creditworthiness. However, in our increasingly “algocratic” times, both private and public entities are leveraging these systems. While private companies and civil-society actors might use them to offer tailored financial products and advocacy toolkits, public and/or state-owned entities might utilize them to ascertain the financial health or trustworthiness of individuals or businesses, as in the case of the Chinese Social Credit System. This convergence raises questions about transparency, fairness, and the repercussions of shared financial evaluations across sectors.\nData, in its lifecycle, undergoes various stages: it is first collected from myriad sources, then synthesized and analyzed to extract actionable insights, and finally, it is used in decision-making processes, whether by businesses to enhance customer experiences or by governments for public welfare. Understanding this chain is pivotal in recognizing the true value of data and ensuring its optimal use. [3]\nIt\u0026rsquo;s notable that the data market is largely dominated by private firms. These corporations harness vast amounts of data, and the very same data infrastructure can support multiple uses, from marketing analytics to predictive modeling for urban planning. The versatility of data and its applications by these private entities emphasizes the need for comprehensive regulations to guide its ethical use. [4]\nOne of the driving factors behind the rapid expansion of data governance ecosystems is the cost-effective nature of data sharing. Notably, data sharing between private and public sectors is often low-cost and nonrivalrous, meaning that one entity\u0026rsquo;s use of the data doesn\u0026rsquo;t diminish its value or usability for another. [5] This economical sharing mechanism can foster collaboration but also demands rigorous oversight to safeguard against potential misuse or overreach.\nHistorical Pretext: Marketization and \"Neoliberal Anomie\" in Post-1980s China In the aftermath of the 1980s, China experienced a significant shift towards marketization, characterized by a movement towards \"neoliberal anomie.\" This period saw rapid growth in markets and capital, a pace so accelerated that it began to overshadow the development of institutional structures. The immediate consequence was a series of evident institutional gaps. During this transformative phase, China grappled with several institutional challenges. The financial sector, burgeoning with growth, faced an acute absence of robust risk management frameworks. Simultaneously, the country lacked a comprehensive system for assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers, which made financial lending and borrowing a risky venture. To exacerbate these issues, the judicial system found itself handicapped, often failing to enforce actions against credit defaulters. [6] This environment created a complex web of financial challenges that the nation had to navigate.\nAt the helm during this critical juncture was Deng Xiaoping, whose pragmatic political rhetoric played a significant role in shaping the regulatory trajectory of China\u0026rsquo;s economic reforms. Perhaps the essence of Deng\u0026rsquo;s vision for China\u0026rsquo;s transformation is best captured in his famous quote from October 23, 1985: “We must allow a portion of areas and people to become wealthy first, to help drive growth in other regions and populations, thereby gradually achieving common prosperity.” [7] This statement epitomized his belief in the trickle-down effect of wealth and the need for a phased approach to achieving nationwide prosperity. Deng favored more flexible, ad hoc solutions, addressing the immediate problems that sprouted from the market reforms, instead of getting entangled in long-drawn, bureaucratic processes. An integral part of his strategy was the clear demarcation between the roles of the party and the government, known as 党政分开. [8] Deng also laid significant emphasis on enhancing the operational effectiveness, autonomy, and professional competence of various state organs, including State-Owned Corporations (SOCs). He believed that these entities needed to operate with greater efficiency to match the dynamic market pace. In line with his pragmatic philosophy, Deng encouraged local governments to undertake policy experiments, giving them the freedom to innovate and find solutions tailored to their unique challenges. [9]\nExpansion of Data-Capital in China during the 2000s - 2010s The 2000s to 2010s marked a significant era for China as it saw an unparalleled expansion in data-capital and digital public sphere. This period was characterized by the rise of technology firms that sought to address the institutional gaps that had previously been identified. Leading tech companies, such as Alibaba, introduced pioneering solutions like Sesame Credit—a system designed to assess and score individual creditworthiness. [10] Likewise, Tencent ventured into the realm of personal finance and investment through its mobile phone platforms, providing a seamless interface for users to manage and grow their wealth. [11] However, as these private entities became increasingly influential, the distinction between public and private data governance regimes began to blur. This conflation of governance roles, rhetoric, and responsibilities between public and private entities led to unique challenges and phenomena. One such development was the emergence of what can be termed the “fifty shades of gray banking industry.” This saw a shift from traditional organized crime syndicates to ill-regulated provincial banks that often operated with the tacit approval, if not outright blessing, of local governmental bodies. [12] Their operations, though questionable, highlighted the complexities of China\u0026rsquo;s evolving financial landscape. A more recent and still under-studied trend that underscores this blurring of lines is the crypto-mining craze in China which took off less than half a decade ago. The surge in cryptocurrency mining operations, often powered by cheap local energy sources, has led to suspicions of local government involvement, either through direct partnerships or a deliberate turning of a blind eye. [13] Compounding these issues is the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) system and its limited regulatory toolkit—especially when contrasted with its U.S. counterparts. [14] The PBOC, tasked with overseeing the country\u0026rsquo;s monetary policy and financial institutions, often found itself grappling with challenges that were novel not just for China but for the world at large.\nTransnational Contexts and Their Influence on Chinese Policy Placing China's economic reforms within the broader transnational context is critical for a comprehensive understanding. Deng Xiaoping's market reforms, a cornerstone of modern Chinese economic transformation, didn't emerge in isolation. In fact, they were part of a global wave of neoliberal marketisation policies that took shape in the aftermath of the 1973 energy crisis. [15] To truly grasp the nuances of these reforms, one must draw parallels and understand the rhetorical and macro-economic connections between the economic philosophies championed by Deng, often referred to as Deng Xiaoping-nomics, and other global economic movements of the time, such as Reaganomics in the U.S. and Thatchernomics in the U.K. [16] These movements, though distinct in their localized implementations, shared a broader global vision of deregulation, privatization, and open markets. Similarly, the more recent tightening of the tech regulatory environment in China cannot be viewed as an isolated phenomenon. This shift is part of a broader global response to the challenges and opportunities ushered in by the Marketization of Data wave that followed the Dot Com bubble of the 1990s. [17] This era witnessed a surge in disruptive technological innovations. Breakthroughs in distributed computing, machine learning, and the convergence and decentralization of technology played pivotal roles in reshaping global data landscapes. Moreover, both the U.S. and China adopted similar \u0026ldquo;data sovereignty\u0026rdquo; rhetoric and policy countermeasures. Legislative initiatives like Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), PROTECT IP Act, and PATRIOT Act the U.S. are not structurally different from China\u0026rsquo;s Great Firewall (GFW) and Cybersecurity Review legislations in the sense that they represent both countries’ policy responses to the “data sovereignty” problem. [18] The ongoing US-China \u0026ldquo;chip war\u0026rdquo; also emerges from this shared rhetorical exigence. [19] The connected policy approach extends beyond just sovereignty measures; both nations experimented with governance \u0026ldquo;of\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;by\u0026rdquo; data. Examples include the Bio-Surveillance \u0026amp; Human Identification at a Distance programs in the U.S. (e.g., TIA and NSA PRISM) and China\u0026rsquo;s Golden Shield and Tianwang projects. [20] The shared vision sees the government not just as a regulator but also as a platform, leveraging technology for governance.\nAmidst this backdrop, one aspect that emerged with undeniable prominence was the issue of communication and user rights. As data became a dominant force in geopolitics and economics, ensuring that users had rights and avenues for communication became a central concern for policymakers and technocrats alike. The onus shifted towards establishing frameworks that protected users while facilitating the free flow of information in the digital age.\nPressing Issues within the Chinese Tech Regulatory Environment As the 21st century progresses, China continues to grapple with its regulatory positioning, especially in comparison with countries like the U.S. A notable observation is that China is still in a phase of regulatory catch-up with its western counterparts. For instance, the much-discussed Chinese Social Credit System is, at its essence, a strategic effort to address long-standing institutional voids. Historically, China has faced challenges in creating a robust personalized creditworthiness assessment system. Additionally, there have been deficiencies in the enforcement measures against those defaulting on credit. [21] The Social Credit System, with its multifaceted approach, seeks to address these gaps by providing a more holistic view of individual and corporate trustworthiness. Navigating the tech regulatory landscape in China reveals another consistent challenge: the alternating rhythms of regulatory approaches. China has exhibited a tendency to oscillate between periods of laissez-faire self-regulation and intense state intervention. This inconsistency can be attributed to China\u0026rsquo;s historical over-reliance on ad hoc measures and targeted crackdowns. The decentralized nature of Chinese policy making often leads to reactive solutions, responding to issues as they arise rather than anticipating them. [22]\nFurther complicating matters is the blurred line between policy and law in the Chinese administrative landscape, a phenomenon that can be summarized as a \u0026ldquo;solution first, law-up later\u0026rdquo; approach. [23] Typically, when a challenge emerges, the response is initiated by political directives from the central authority. However, these directives are often framed in vague and formalist rhetoric, leaving ample room for interpretation. [24] This ambiguity often leads to multiple overlapping projects initiated by various public organs, both at the central and local levels. Instead of streamlined solutions, what often emerges is a patchwork of initiatives, each addressing facets of the problem but rarely presenting a cohesive solution.\nThe culmination of these factors creates a data governance environment in China that can best be described as unpredictable. Firms often grapple with unclear compliance requirements and experience uneven enforcement measures. This unpredictability has also sowed seeds of mistrust between public and private actors, making collaboration and consensus even more challenging. It\u0026rsquo;s clear that for China to move forward effectively in the realm of data governance, a more streamlined and predictable regulatory environment is imperative. [25]\nThe Great Fire Wall (GFW) Case The year 1994 marked a significant milestone for China as the internet became accessible to its general public. [26] However, this advancement wasn't without challenges. Initially, there was a noticeable void in the cybersecurity framework. China did not have a structured cybersecurity policy or law until 1997, leaving a substantial period where the digital realm was largely ungoverned and exposed to potential vulnerabilities. [27] The introduction of the 1997 Cybersecurity law was indeed a step forward, but it was not a panacea. Despite its inception, the law remained mostly dormant in terms of active enforcement for several years. It wasn't until 2002 that the digital landscape began to see tangible shifts, marked by the operational commencement of the \"Great Firewall\" (GFW). However, it\u0026rsquo;s essential to understand that the GFW wasn\u0026rsquo;t a singular, centralized project. Instead, it emerged as an amalgamation of multiple, often overlapping, cybersecurity initiatives spearheaded by a variety of central and local public organs. One of the most prominent among these initiatives was the Public Security Ministry\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;Golden Shield Project.\u0026rdquo; [28] Parallel to this, the Cyberspace Administration also launched its cybersecurity initiatives. [29] Further, a slew of similar projects were initiated by various other ministries and administrative bodies, including the Ministry of Industry \u0026amp; IT, State Security, Finance, Commerce, People\u0026rsquo;s Bank of China (PBOC), Administration for Market Regulation, Radio \u0026amp; TV Administration, Securities Regulatory Commission, Administration of State Secrets Protection, and State Cryptography Administration. [30] Each of these projects added layers to the evolving GFW.\nThe continuous development and refinement of the GFW underscored a recurring trend in China\u0026rsquo;s approach to governance: iterative policy implementation often preceding formal legislation. This pattern was evident yet again when the comprehensive Cybersecurity Review legislation was only passed in 2021. [31] This legislative action, coming after years of policy implementation, reaffirmed the \u0026ldquo;policy implementation before legislation\u0026rdquo; challenge discussed earlier.\nCase Study #2: Exploring the Evolution of China's Social Credit System The genesis of China's Social Credit System (SCS) can be traced back to the tumultuous yet economically uplifting period between the 1980s and 2000s. As mentioned earlier, this era, which witnessed the unfolding of market reforms and later the burgeoning of China's digital economy, was plagued by a pervasive trust crisis, colloquially termed \"失信\" (loss of trust). The societal and economic transformations of the time amplified the challenges of trust and accountability. Recognizing the need for intervention, in 2014, the Central Committee and State Council issued a crucial political directive: the \"Outline of the Social Credit System Construction Six-Year Plan.\" [32] This was an attempt to re-calibrate societal trust, especially in the age of big data. The plan's inception was a long-awaited answer to the trustworthiness crisis that had persisted for decades. The road to establishing the Social Credit System wasn\u0026rsquo;t straightforward. The system\u0026rsquo;s formulation underwent multiple phases of internal and external consultations. Moreover, policy experimentation at local governmental levels added layers of complexity and variations to the evolving system, demonstrating the decentralized nature of Chinese policy-making. The SCS wasn\u0026rsquo;t built in isolation. It drew from existing systems and frameworks. Predecessors to the SCS included the China Organization Data Service under the aegis of the State Council, the Credit Reference Center managed by the People\u0026rsquo;s Bank of China (PBOC), and a notable blacklist of untrustworthy entities maintained by the Chinese Supreme Court. Each of these played a role in shaping the contours of the emerging SCS. [33]\nA defining moment in the SCS\u0026rsquo;s iterative development came with President Xi Jinping\u0026rsquo;s speech on May 6, 2016. He articulated the need to \u0026ldquo;Establish a national population database, a unified social credit code, and related real-name registration systems.\u0026rdquo; [34] Xi emphasized enhancing the SCS while also highlighting the importance of mental health and counseling services, areas typically considered outside of the narrowly defined financial credit domain, thereby giving a broader rhetorical context to the SCS\u0026rsquo;s intended reach and impact.\nThe development of the SCS wasn\u0026rsquo;t restricted to a singular public entity. Many party and state organs lent their expertise to its formation, including the National Development \u0026amp; Reform Commission (NDRC), the Discipline Inspection Commission, the Propaganda Department, the Political \u0026amp; Legal Affairs Commission, and even the Central Steering Committee of Spiritual Civilization Construction played roles as members of the “Joint Chiefs Conference” in sculpting the system\u0026rsquo;s features. [35]\nWhile the SCS has been instrumental in many ways, it hasn\u0026rsquo;t been without controversies. One of the most debated components is the \u0026ldquo;Joint Sanctions of Discredited Judgment Defaulters,\u0026rdquo; which has sparked discussions and critiques both within and outside China, especially for its proposed punitive measures against family members of chronic credit defaulters. [36]\nUnique Features of Chinese Data Governance Policy Making At the heart of the Chinese data governance policy-making process is the practice of Consultative Deliberation. This approach emphasizes what\u0026rsquo;s termed as \u0026ldquo;Collaborative Governance\u0026rdquo; (多方共治) and it\u0026rsquo;s grounded in the principle of “Inclusive Prudence” (包容审慎). [37] The idea is to bring together various stakeholders in a joint effort to address and manage issues, ensuring a balanced approach that is both embracing and cautious.\nAn interesting practice embedded in China\u0026rsquo;s policy-making process is “Qujing” (取经). Historically used to describe a journey in search of sacred scriptures, in this context, it refers to the active pursuit of foreign expertise to inform and shape domestic policies. By looking outwards and drawing upon global know-how, China seeks to refine its own governance strategies.\nThe Chinese policy-making framework is strengthened by a formalized internal political consultation process. Various political parties engage in deliberative dialogues within the structure of the Consultative Conference, ensuring diverse viewpoints are considered in policy formulation. [38] The emphasis on inclusivity extends beyond internal mechanisms. The policy-making process mandates a 30-day public consultation period. This external expert consultation ensures that a wider array of voices, including those from the public, are part of the policy evolution.\nAs highlighted earlier in our discussion, the post-Deng era iterative policy-making process, despite certain challenges, provides a unique advantage. This method, characterized by ongoing adjustments and adaptations, makes the governance framework more attuned to the rapidly shifting needs and dynamics of the public sphere.\nAnother defining feature of Chinese governance is its normative conception of law. Unlike some systems that emphasize the purely juridical facets of governance, the Chinese approach leans on a more moralistic conception of public authority. This implies that governance is not just about enforcement but also about setting moral standards and values for society. As suggested by Marcelo Thompson, that the conception of justice based on the SCS enables and unifies accounts of corrective and distributive justice, into a broader conception of normative framework of justice, centered on reasons articulated in the information environment. [39] That said, it remains an unresolved question in terms of preservation of individual autonomy and privacy.\nLastly, there\u0026rsquo;s been a discernible shift in rhetoric. China is increasingly leaning on its rich cultural legacy, integrating traditional Confucian values into modern governance paradigms. This is especially evident in areas related to AI regulation, where age-old wisdom is being merged with cutting-edge technology to create a holistic governance framework. [40]\nIn conclusion, the trajectory and intricacies of Chinese data governance policy-making reveal a deeply layered and iterative process. Rooted in historical practices, guided by consultative deliberation, and informed by both domestic imperatives and global expertise, China\u0026rsquo;s approach is uniquely adaptive and responsive. Despite the challenges posed by rapid technological advancements and the ever-evolving landscape of data management, China nonetheless seeks to bridge past wisdom and future vulnerabilities. The incorporation of traditional values, like Confucian principles, into contemporary governance further underscores both an intrinsic contradiction within the Chinese modernization enterprise, and a commitment to a holistic, morally-grounded, and culturally resonant policy framework. As we continue to navigate the digital age, understanding such diverse governance paradigms becomes crucial, offering lessons and insights for global data governance imperatives.\n","permalink":"/blog/2023/10/demystifying-the-chinese-social-credit-system-presentation-for-the-symposium-on-chinas-data-governance-and-its-impact-on-us-china-relations-hosted-by-the-carter-center-china-focus/","summary":"\u003ch1\u003e\u003cb\u003eDemystifying The Chinese Social Credit System - Presentation for the \u003ca href=\"https://chinafocus.info/symposium-data-governance-and-its-impact-on-us-china-relations/\"\u003eSymposium on China’s Data Governance and its Impact on US-China Relations\u003c/a\u003e, hosted by the Carter Center China Focus\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-662\" height=\"503\" src=\"/images/uploads/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-204517-1024x572.png\" width=\"900\"/\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroduction:\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\nThere is nothing new about public authorities using collected numerical info as a governing technology. Census has been a central governance tool throughout Ancient Rome and Imperial China. In fact, the need for keeping taxation records was a key historical exigence driving the invention of many earliest writing systems.\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout human history, public authorities have relied on collected numerical data as a tool for governance. This was evident with the census in Ancient Rome and Imperial China, where early writing systems were developed primarily for taxation records. The digitization of data and advancements in data science have revolutionized governance-by-data, making it continuously updated and more encompassing. The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) is a testament to this evolution. Despite its significance, the SCS remains misunderstood, especially outside the Global North. Today, I aim to provide clarity on this topic, considering its implications on human rights and rule of law both within and beyond China, and shedding light on US-China relations. This talk will bring together relevant historical, rhetorical, socio-cultural and legal contexts to unpack the emergent structures of the Chinese social credit system and data governance experiments. By catalyzing greater open dialogue and critical inquiry on this thorny topic, this lecture seeks to advance the vision of The Carter Center and contribute to a deeper understanding of the past, present, and future of US-China relations.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Demystifying The Chinese Social Credit System - Presentation for the Symposium on China’s Data Governance and its Impact on US-China Relations, hosted by the Carter Center China Focus"},{"content":" Keren Wang, PhD Faculty, Department of Communication, Georgia State University · Visiting Scholar, Emory University ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow (2022–2024) Email me C.V. Blog Teaching Publications (ORCID) Book kerenwcpe [at] gmail [dot] com Highlighted Posts New Research Project: Artificial Intelligence and Human Sacrifice This series will share work-in-progress manuscript draft as I develop the project into a full-length monograph. In the months ahead, I will trace how sacrificial rationalities persist, adapt, and become reconfigured in our algorithmic age. From oracle bone pyromancy in ancient China to AI-augmented prior-authorization denials in contemporary healthcare, the rituals may differ in form, but the underlying logic remains hauntingly familiar. Read more →\nNew Publication: Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest article, “Legal and Ritualological Dynamics of Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ in Chinese Social Credit System Construction,” featured in the latest issue of The China Review (Vol. 24, No. 3).\nRead more →\nNew Book: “Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism” (Routledge, 2020) I am very pleased to announce that my academic monograph with Routledge | Taylor \u0026amp; Francis Group has now been published: Keren Wang, Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. It is available in both hardback and digital formats.\nRead more →\nVulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy: ‘Pillars of Shame’ in the Age of Big Data I am excited to share with you a recap of my recent presentation titled “Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy: ‘Pillars of Shame’ in the Age of Big Data.” This thought-provoking session took place at the Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy Workshop, hosted by convened by Professor Martha Albertson Fineman and The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative at Emory University School of Law on March 24, 2023.\nRead more →\nLatest from the blog ","permalink":"/about/","summary":"\u003c!-- wp:html --\u003e\n\u003c!-- Header --\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"Portrait of Keren Wang\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-759 alignleft\" height=\"300\" src=\"/images/uploads/2025/08/profile-large.jpg\" width=\"300\"/\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1\u003eKeren Wang, PhD\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n  Faculty, Department of Communication, Georgia State University · Visiting Scholar, Emory University\u003cbr/\u003e\n\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/keren-wang/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eACLS Emerging Voices Fellow (2022–2024)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\n\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c!-- Primary actions --\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-buttons\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-button\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"mailto:contact@kerenwang.org\"\u003eEmail me\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-button\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"/cv/\"\u003eC.V.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-button\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"/blog/\"\u003eBlog\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-button\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"/teaching/\"\u003eTeaching\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-button\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6933-885X\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ePublications (ORCID)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-button\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Legal-and-Rhetorical-Foundations-of-Economic-Globalization-An-Atlas-of-Ritual-Sacrifice-in-Late-Capitalism/Wang/p/book/9780367727826\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBook\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cnoscript\u003ekerenwcpe [at] gmail [dot] com\u003c/noscript\u003e\n\u003cscript\u003e\n  (function () {\n    var u = 'kerenwcpe', d = 'gmail', t = '.com';\n    var a = document.getElementById('em');\n    if (a) a.href = 'mailto:' + u + '@' + d + t + '?subject=Hello%20from%20your%20website';\n  }());\n\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"/\u003e\n\u003c!-- /wp:html --\u003e\n\u003c!-- wp:heading --\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eHighlighted Posts\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003c!-- /wp:heading --\u003e\n\u003c!-- wp:html --\u003e\n\u003csection class=\"highlighted-posts\" style=\"display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(auto-fit,minmax(240px,1fr));gap:1rem;\"\u003e\n\u003c!-- Card 1 (ID 933) --\u003e\n\u003carticle class=\"highlight-card\" style=\"padding:.5rem;border-radius:16px;border:1px solid #ddd;\"\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"margin:.25rem 0;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"/blog/2025/08/new-research-project-artificial-intelligence-and-human-sacrifice/\"\u003eNew Research Project: Artificial Intelligence and Human Sacrifice\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin:.25rem 0 .5rem 0;color:#444;\"\u003eThis series will share work-in-progress manuscript draft as I develop the project into a full-length monograph. In the months ahead, I will trace how sacrificial rationalities persist, adapt, and become reconfigured in our algorithmic age. From oracle bone pyromancy in ancient China to AI-augmented prior-authorization denials in contemporary healthcare, the rituals may differ in form, but the underlying logic remains hauntingly familiar. \u003c/p\u003e","title":"About"},{"content":"We are pleased to announce an upcoming hybrid symposium titled \u0026ldquo;China’s Data Governance and Its Impact on U.S.-China Relations\u0026rdquo; organized by The Carter Center, Emory University, China Research Center, Georgia State University, and Spellman College. Event Details: Date: September 26, 2023 Time: 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm Location (in-person): Cyprus Room, The Carter Center , 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE | Atlanta, GA 30307\nVirtual Attendance Registration: Register Here\nEvent Description: The relationship between the United States and China is currently facing significant challenges, particularly in the areas of technology and national security. Unfortunately, many misconceptions surround the development of the Chinese data governance system, often exacerbated by sensationalized discussions in the public discourse on US-China relations. This symposium aims to dispel these myths and provide a nuanced understanding of Chinese data governance and its implications for US-China relations. It seeks to foster open and critical dialogue among scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, offering an in-depth update on the topic. Speakers: Obse Ababiya, Associate Director, Office of Global Strategy and Initiatives at Emory University Larry Catá Backer, Professor of Law and International Affairs, Penn State Law School Jamie Horsley, Senior Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School | John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings Institution Aynne Kokas, C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia Maria Repnikova, Associate Professor in Global Communication, Georgia State University Keren Wang, ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Emory University Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures The symposium is being convened by Dr. Yawei Liu, Senior Advisor on China at The Carter Center and Dr. Keren Wang of Emory University Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures Agenda: 1:30 pm: Ms. Obse Ababiya opens the meeting, introducing the organizers and sponsors 1:35 pm: Opening remarks by Dr. Maria Repnikova\n1:40 pm to 2:10 pm: Dr. Aynne Kokas - \u0026ldquo;Is China Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty?\u0026rdquo;\n2:10 pm to 3:20 pm: Discussion: Demystifying China’s Data Governance, Moderated by Dr. Aynne Kokas, presentations by Dr. Larry Catá Backer, Ms. Jamie Horsley and Dr. Keren Wang\n3:20 pm to 3:50 pm: Q\u0026amp;A\n3:50 pm to 4:00 pm: Concluding remarks by Jamie Horsley\nWe encourage you to attend this important event, either in person or virtually, to gain a deeper understanding of this critical issue and engage in meaningful discussions with experts in the field.\nJoin us for this symposium on September 26, 2023, 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm. To attend in person, please visit Cyprus Room, The Carter Center , 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE | Atlanta, GA 30307. To attend virtually, please register here.\n","permalink":"/blog/2023/08/event-announcement-chinas-data-governance-and-its-impact-on-u-s-china-relations/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWe are pleased to announce an upcoming hybrid symposium titled \u0026ldquo;China’s Data Governance and Its Impact on U.S.-China Relations\u0026rdquo; organized by The Carter Center, Emory University, China Research Center, Georgia State University, and Spellman College. \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEvent Details:\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDate:\u003c/strong\u003e September 26, 2023 Time: 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLocation (in-person):\u003c/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://www.cartercenter.org/about/facilities/spaces-and-fees/cyprus_room.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eCyprus Room\u003c/a\u003e, The Carter Center , 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE | Atlanta, GA 30307\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVirtual Attendance Registration\u003c/strong\u003e: \u003ca href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bYTHGGiZQ8KK-2ARn5reEA\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_new\"\u003eRegister Here\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvent Description:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\nThe relationship between the United States and China is currently facing significant challenges, particularly in the areas of technology and national security. Unfortunately, many misconceptions surround the development of the Chinese data governance system, often exacerbated by sensationalized discussions in the public discourse on US-China relations. This symposium aims to dispel these myths and provide a nuanced understanding of Chinese data governance and its implications for US-China relations. It seeks to foster open and critical dialogue among scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, offering an in-depth update on the topic.\n\u003ch5\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSpeakers:\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://global.emory.edu/about/staff/obse-ababiya.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eObse Ababiya\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e, Associate Director, Office of Global Strategy and Initiatives at Emory University\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://pennstatelaw.psu.edu/faculty/backer\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLarry Catá Backer\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, Professor of Law and International Affairs, Penn State Law School\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/people/jamie-horsley/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJamie Horsley\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, Senior Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School | \u003cspan class=\"expert-title h5 md:h3\"\u003eJohn L. Thornton China Center at \u003c/span\u003eBrookings Institution\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.aynnekokas.com/aboutme\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eAynne Kokas\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e, C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.mariarepnikova.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaria Repnikova\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, Associate Professor in Global Communication, Georgia State University\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"/about/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKeren Wang\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Emory University Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\nThe symposium is being convened by \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.cartercenter.org/about/experts/yawei_liu.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eDr. Yawei Liu\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e, Senior Advisor on China at The Carter Center and Dr. Keren Wang of Emory University Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures\n\u003ch5\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAgenda:\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e1:30 pm: \u003c/strong\u003eMs. Obse Ababiya opens the meeting, introducing the organizers and sponsors\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1:35 pm: \u003c/strong\u003eOpening remarks by Dr. Maria Repnikova\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Event Announcement: China’s Data Governance and Its Impact on U.S.-China Relations, Sept 26th at The Carter Center"},{"content":"I am excited to share an upcoming event on September 7, 2023: The Carter Center China Focus will be hosting Dr. Brantly Womack for its Chinese Politics \u0026amp; Society Book Talk Series: of the Chinese Politics \u0026amp; Society book talk series, in collaboration with the China Research Center, East Asia Collective, and the Department of Russia and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Emory University.\nThis session will feature a talk by Dr. Brantly Womack, Professor Emeritus of Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, on his new book \u0026ldquo;Recentering Pacific Asia: Regional China and World Order\u0026rdquo; (Cambridge University Press, 2023).\nDr. Womack\u0026rsquo;s book provides a compelling analysis of the transformation of the Pacific Asian region (East Asia, Greater China, and Southeast Asia) within the context of the evolving global order in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.\nThe in-person location of this event is Emory Student Center (Multipurpose Room 6), 605 Asbury Cir, Atlanta, GA 30322, on September 7, 2023, at 5:30 PM ET. For those who prefer to participate online, please register on Zoom at the link below:\nhttps://chinafocus.info/dr-brantly-womack-on-his-new-book-recentering-pacific-asia-regional-china-and-world-order/\nPizza and refreshments will be available for attendees.\n","permalink":"/blog/2023/08/event-announcement-chinese-politics-society-book-talk-series-featuring-dr-brantly-womacks-recentering-pacific-asia-hosted-by-the-carter-center-china-focus-sept-7-2023/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI am excited to share an upcoming event on September 7, 2023: The Carter Center China Focus will be hosting Dr. Brantly Womack for its Chinese Politics \u0026amp; Society Book Talk Series: of the Chinese Politics \u0026amp; Society book talk series, in collaboration with the China Research Center, East Asia Collective, and the Department of Russia and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Emory University.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis session will feature a talk by Dr. Brantly Womack, Professor Emeritus of Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, on his new book \u0026ldquo;Recentering Pacific Asia: Regional China and World Order\u0026rdquo; (Cambridge University Press, 2023).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Event Announcement:  Chinese Politics \u0026 Society Book Talk Series Featuring Dr. Brantly Womack's RECENTERING PACIFIC ASIA, hosted by the Carter Center China Focus,  Sept 7, 2023"},{"content":"I am excited to share with you a recap of my recent presentation titled \u0026ldquo;Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy: \u0026lsquo;Pillars of Shame\u0026rsquo; in the Age of Big Data.\u0026rdquo; This thought-provoking session took place at the Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy Workshop, hosted by convened by Professor Martha Albertson Fineman and The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative at Emory University School of Law on March 24, 2023.\nDuring the presentation, I delved into the fascinating field of digital governance technologies and their role as modern public shaming rituals. I explored the impact of these technologies on individuals\u0026rsquo; vulnerability in the digital age and drew connections to Martha Fineman\u0026rsquo;s vulnerability theory of law.\nThroughout the session, I shed light on the intricate relationship between digital intimacy and vulnerability. I introduced the concept of \u0026ldquo;Pillars of Shame\u0026rdquo; to illustrate how digital platforms can become tools for public shaming, affecting individuals\u0026rsquo; sense of self, privacy, and overall well-being.\nBy delving into this topic, I raised crucial questions about the ethical and social implications of the widespread use of digital technologies, and an appreciation of the potential consequences of digital shaming and its effects on individual lives. The presentation emphasized the need for a comprehensive understanding of vulnerability theory in the context of modern governance and digital rhetoric.\nThe ensuing discussion was lively and engaging, with attendees actively participating and sharing their perspectives. The workshop provided an invaluable opportunity for interdisciplinary dialogue, with participants from diverse backgrounds contributing their expertise to the conversation.\nIn conclusion, I highlighted the importance of continued research and collaboration in this field. The insights from my presentation have the potential to shape policy discussions and inform the development of legal frameworks that consider the vulnerability of individuals in the age of big data.\nI extend my sincere appreciation to Professor Martha Albertson Fineman who organized and hosted the Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy Workshop, and to all who attended this public scholarship event. Your presence and active involvement made the event a resounding success. I encourage you to continue the important conversations initiated during the workshop and explore the diverse perspectives and ideas that emerged.\n","permalink":"/blog/2023/07/vulnerability-theory-and-digital-intimacy-pillars-of-shame-in-the-age-of-big-data/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-630\" height=\"510\" src=\"/images/uploads/2023/07/Digital-Intimacy-Workshop-Emory-March-2023-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"680\"/\u003eI am excited to share with you a recap of my recent presentation titled \u0026ldquo;Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy: \u0026lsquo;Pillars of Shame\u0026rsquo; in the Age of Big Data.\u0026rdquo; This thought-provoking session took place at the \u003ca href=\"https://web.gs.emory.edu/vulnerability/_includes/documents/workshop-schedules/0322_scheduledigital_intimacy.pdf\"\u003eVulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy Workshop\u003c/a\u003e, hosted by convened by Professor \u003ca href=\"https://law.emory.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/fineman-profile.html\"\u003eMartha Albertson Fineman\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://web.gs.emory.edu/vulnerability/workshops/index.html\"\u003eThe Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative\u003c/a\u003e at Emory University School of Law on March 24, 2023.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring the presentation, I delved into the fascinating field of digital governance technologies and their role as modern public shaming rituals. I explored the impact of these technologies on individuals\u0026rsquo; vulnerability in the digital age and drew connections to Martha Fineman\u0026rsquo;s vulnerability theory of law.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy: 'Pillars of Shame' in the Age of Big Data"},{"content":" Upcoming Feb. 6 public lecture: \"Social and Moral Engineering in the Age of Big Data: Personalized 'Pillars of Shame' and the Chinese Social Credit System\" Hosted by REALC Faculty Spotlight Series, Emory University Format: Online Time: Monday evening, Feb 6, 2023, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM (US Eastern Standard Time) Event link https://emory.zoom.us/j/94409772969 For my upcoming Feb. 6 public lecture hosted by Emory REALC Faculty Spotlight Series, I will be discussing the legal and rhetorical dynamics of public shaming policy experiments in China, as a part of their ongoing Social Credit System project. The construction of the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) represents one of the most ambitious social engineering projects in post-Mao China. It is also arguably the most significant governance-by-data experiment thus far the 21st century. This lecture explores the ways in which the SCS project was prompted by a ritual impulse to inculcate Chinese societal moral character in the big data age.\n","permalink":"/blog/2023/02/upcoming-emory-realc-faculty-spotlight-series-lecture-on-feb-6/","summary":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003ch2 class=\"display-flex align-items-center pt2 t-14\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"lt-line-clamp__raw-line\"\u003eUpcoming Feb. 6 public lecture: \u003c/span\u003e\"Social and Moral Engineering in the Age of Big Data: Personalized 'Pillars of Shame' and the Chinese Social Credit System\"\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch5 class=\"display-flex align-items-center pt2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHosted by REALC Faculty Spotlight Series, Emory University\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat: Online\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTime: \u003cspan class=\"mr2 ml2\"\u003eMonday evening, Feb 6, 2023, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM (US Eastern Standard Time)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003e\u003cspan class=\"lt-line-clamp__raw-line\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"t-14 t-black--light t-bold flex-shrink-zero\"\u003eEvent link\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/strong\u003e\u003ca class=\"events-live-top-card__external-url t-14 t-black--light t-normal link-without-visited-state ember-view\" href=\"https://emory.zoom.us/j/94409772969\" id=\"ember1685\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e https://emory.zoom.us/j/94409772969\u003c/strong\u003e \u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"lt-line-clamp__raw-line\"\u003eFor my upcoming Feb. 6 public lecture hosted by \u003cstrong\u003eEmory REALC Faculty Spotlight Series\u003c/strong\u003e, I will be discussing the legal and rhetorical dynamics of public shaming policy experiments in China, as a part of their ongoing Social Credit System project.\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe construction of the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) represents one of the most ambitious social engineering projects in post-Mao China. It is also arguably the most significant governance-by-data experiment thus far the 21st century. This lecture explores the ways in which the SCS project was prompted by a ritual impulse to inculcate Chinese societal moral character in the big data age.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Upcoming Emory REALC Faculty Spotlight Series lecture on Feb. 6"},{"content":"American economist Alan Blinder famously characterized the rhetorical style of bureaucrats – an umbrella term denoting unelected officials holding administrative, technical, and managerial positions – as “secretive, cryptic, [sic] using numerous and complicated words to convey little of any meaning.” Think of a career government worker who talks in jargon-filled canned statements with little substance. While it may be counterintuitive to associate bureaucracy with the art of persuasion, history tells us quite a different story. Not only did bureaucracy itself emerge as a rhetorical response to the exigencies of record-keeping and resolving disputes, but it also provides a powerful platform for propaganda, sometimes making unpalatable measures appear proper and necessary. In this case study, we will examine official narratives on involuntary servitude (slavery) in Early Imperial China, and focus on how the imperial bureaucracy justified its institutions of forced labor despite having officially abolished slavery. We approach this through a historical lens, the role of bureaucracy in persuasion and propaganda, and reflect on how authorities of power would employ subtle rhetorical strategies to make dehumanizing, exploitative structures appear legitimate and necessary.\nZhèngmíng 正名：Rectifying the Names “The Imperial Academy is rectified, and schools and studies are thriving. So grand are the rituals and court hymns, so elegant and proper are the ceremonial robes and official processions. The well-field system and the rule of law are restored, slavery is abolished. Such is a return to the ancient ideal!” Quote by Yang Xiong in 8 CE (English translation from Classical Chinese by Keren Wang) [1]\nThe quote above was made by Han dynasty literati, rhetorician, and Confucian philosopher Yang Xiong (53 BCE–18 CE), in his essay written in 8 CE commemorating the two hundred and tenth anniversary of the founding of the Han dynast. Known for his expertise in the classical literary form known as fu, Yang Xiong was appointed by Emperor Cheng of Han as the Undersecretary of the Imperial Archive, whose official duties include composing poems and hymns praising the virtue and glory of the imperial court. Writing as emperor’s personal propagandist, Yang Xiong credited the Han court for abolishing slavery, along with other great deeds that conform to Confucian notions of an ideal ruler. Confucian ethics strongly opposes chattel slavery, (known as rén-yì ) in Classical Chinese). Mencius, known in Confucianism as the \"Second Sage\" after only Confucius himself, famously characterized rén-yì as “the antithesis of ren (benevolence), rejection of zhi (wisdom), deprived of li (propriety), and devoid of yi (morality).” The Han court adopted Confucianism and its ideal of meritocracy as the official imperial philosophy, a move which was followed by all subsequent Chinese dynasties. To maintain its political legitimacy, the Han laws and the official imperial narrative on slavery had to conform to Confucian ethics. The Han emperor’s power was bound by its Confucian laws because those laws represented the set of fundamental values the emperor relied on to rule legitimately. It’s similar to how the legitimacy of the U.S. government relies on the ability of its government officials to adhere to the U.S. Constitution. This constraint reflects the Confucian rhetorical concept of zhèng míng we have covered in the earlier chapter on ancient Chinese rhetorical traditions. [2] Responding to the rhetorical exigence of zhèng míng, or “rectification of name,” the official historical record of the Han court presents a narrative portraying its predecessor, the Qin dynasty, in a critical light. According to the Han, the Qin dynasty as a period dominated by ruthless tyrants who enslaved countless civilians to build vanity projects for the emperor. Therefore, the Qin Empire lost its Mandate to rule China, and was rightfully overthrown by the founding emperor of the Han dynasty who embraced enlightened Confucian ideals of governance. Quite the contrast – yet it is mostly one in words. In reality, both Qin and Han dynasties operated in a virtually identical manner. Indeed, there is little evidence suggesting that Qin emperors acted more brutally than their Han counterparts. Nevertheless, to “rectify” its name, the Han rulers furnished a founding narrative which injected a moral dimension to its military victory over its predecessors. As an example of this propaganda technique, consider the popular narratives of American Independence found in U.S. history textbooks. Most will tell a popular revolution against tyrannical oppressions, driven by Enlightenment ideals of human rights and civil liberties. Whereas in history classrooms outside of the U.S., American Independence is often taught as just one proxy battleground within the larger conflict between Great Britain and France for global dominance. This reflects the technique previously discussed: establishing a founding myth to make the victor appear more moral and enlightened. Under its official founding narrative, the Han court claimed credit for “abolishing slavery” to achieve zhèng míng and become rightful holder of the Mandate of Heaven. In practice, however, the Han dynasty relied on a constant stream of involuntary labor to maintain its vast imperial domain and its complex bureaucratic system for more than four hundred years. The Han imperial authority was able to maintain this contradictory position through the workings of its bureaucracy, which holds the power to draft and implement laws based on its interpretation of Confucian classics. These Confucian canons serve as the constitution of Han law. However, as they are comprised of philosophical and historical texts written many centuries prior to the founding of Han dynasty, their vagueness provides significant leeway for Han scholar-bureaucrats to adaptively interpret the law in ways that suit the needs of the Empire. One may consider the U.S. Supreme Court justices as modern-day equivalent of scholar-officials holding similar rhetorical power of legal truth-making, through a process known as constitutional interpretation. For example, Korematsu v. United States (1944), the Supreme Court of the United States declared that the internment of Japanese American citizens was constitutional despite such a measure appearing to blatantly violate the Fifth Amendment. In the 2008 landmark ruling Trump v. Hawaii, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Korematsu v. United States decision, thereby changing the legal “truth.” Again the Confucian rhetorical principle of zhèng míng also applies here. For the American public, the Supreme Court was able to legitimately contradict its earlier interpretation of the U.S. Constitution not because of the intrinsic artistry of its overruling arguments, but because they are delivered by the appropriate rhetors, through the appropriate channel, and at the appropriate place and occasion according to the established rule of law. Shìxié 飾邪：Decorating the Iniquitous Qin and Han dynasties inherited two main forms of involuntary labor systems from the Warring States Period (403 BC - 221 BC): yáoyì (“labor tax”) and guān-núbì (“prisoner labor”). Institutions of yáoyì and guān-núbì in fact persisted throughout Imperial Chinese history (only to be formally abolished in the early 20th century). Furthermore, yáoyì conscript service and literati bureaucracy altogether formed the backbone of Chinese imperial power structure. Recall the Legalist rhetorical doctrine of shì xié (“whitewashing”) discussed in the previous ancient Chinese rhetoric chapter. Here, we focus on shì xié as deploying new definitions to neutralize a controversial subject or taboo practice. Redefining “torture” as “enhanced interrogation technique” is good example of shì xié. Likewise, we often hear unscrupulous employers use terms such as “unpaid internship,” “free exposure,” and “experiential education” to whitewash what is effectively unpaid labor for their own profit. Chinese historians often characterize Han political rhetoric as “Confucian in form, Legalist in practice.” It means that the imperial authority relied on Confucian teachings of filial piety and humanistic benevolence as moral endorsements of its rule, whereas its administrative apparatus were designed primarily based Legalist realpolitik principles. The Han imperial bureaucracy was able to “rectify the name” what is effectively state-managed slavery in part through the rhetorical strategy of shì xié. The Han law redefines “slavery-proper” as a small sub-set of involuntary servitudes that the imperial authority did not benefit from. Only zìmài-rén, or indentured servitude, and sī-núbì or private chattel slavery are considered “slavery-proper” and therefore are prohibited under the Han law. Through their artful use of words, they could pick and choose what benefited them. Thus, the forms of involuntary servitude that met the needs of the empire were relabeled as yáoyì or “labor tax”, and guān-núbì or “prisoner labor,” and therefore made perfectly “legitimate.” This is one way propaganda works—by defining and redefining things to serve the needs of the propagandist. Yáoyì is a state-managed conscript labor system that emerged during the Spring and Autumn period (776 BC - 403 BC) and was adopted by virtually all subsequent Chinese dynasties. Officially, yáoyì has always been framed as a form of taxation rather than involuntary servitude. Under this official narrative, yáoyì during the Han dynasty was enforced as a civic duty of which all male shùmín (“commoners”) in good standing are expected to perform. If you are wondering what about those who are not “in good standing,” they are of course covered by penal labor systems which I will get to later. Now back to yáoyì, it is considered one of the three main forms of taxes collected by the state. The following quote from Mengzi succinctly captures the official narrative endorsed by the Han court: “Master Meng said, 'There are three types of taxes, there is the taxation of textile and silk, the taxation of grain, and taxation of labor service. When the prince collects one type of tax, he shall defer the collection of the other two taxes. If he collects two types of taxes at once, then his people will suffer from hunger. If he collects all three taxes at once, then the basic social cohesion will be disrupted.'” [3] As its name suggests, yáoyì laborers are conscripts, it is involuntary in nature, but nonetheless they are paid and are usually provided with adequate housing and food. It was used to provide the necessary workforce for the Imperial military and for various infrastructure projects such as canals, roads, dams, and city walls. Han official records claims that its preceding Qin dynasty operated a much harsher yáoyì system with mostly unpaid laborers with subhuman living conditions, and that the Han founders transformed yáoyì into an enlightened “civic duty.” Current archaeological findings reveal that the yáoyì system during the early Han period was almost identical to the supposedly “tyrannical” version used by its Qin predecessors. Therefore, the official Han narrative on its predecessor’s conscript labor system of was most propaganda. Shǎng-xíng 賞刑 \u0026amp; Jìn-shǐ 禁使： Reward-punishment / Incentives-disincentives Ironically, while the Han literati formally denounced proponents of the Legalist philosophy for their critical attitude towards Confucian moral discourse, they embraced Legalist rhetorical principles in terms of statecraft. While the tactic of shì xié may be helpful to provide a cosmetic cover for coercive labor, it is not a sustainable public rhetoric by itself. As the unpleasant experience of involuntary servitude does not change irrespective of the legal label, people would quickly see the “scam” behind the false advertisement. Therefore, the Han bureaucracy had to deploy additional rhetorical tactics to make its state-sanctioned involuntary servitude self-sustaining and justifiable under Confucian ethics. To achieve this, Han officials utilized Legalist rhetorical strategies of shǎng-xíng (reward and punishment) and jìn-shǐ (incentives and disincentives). As propaganda strategies, shǎng-xíng and jìn-shǐ are specifically designed by Legalist rhetoricians to operate within bureaucratic settings. These concepts were formulated by Shang Yang (390 – 338 BCE), the architect of the Chinese imperial bureaucracy and one of the most prolific Legalist writers of the Warring States period. In his political and, The Book of Lord Shang, Shang Yang raised this rhetorical dilemma concerning raising military: It is often necessary to use conscription to raise a large army because it is difficult to persuade people to voluntarily put themselves in harm’s way. However, Shang notes, a conscript army is rarely effective because it would be even more difficult to persuade people to fully commit themselves to a job they are forced into. Stemming from on the Legalist premise that the appeals to our fear and to our wants are the most effective approach to propaganda, Shang proposes using tactics of shǎng-xíng (reward and punishment) and jìn-shǐ (incentives and disincentives) to raise a large army of enthusiastic volunteers. Most importantly, for these tactics to work, they had to be deployed through a well-designed bureaucracy rather than individual rhetors. Shang Yang argues that unlike an individual rhetor, a bureaucracy is faceless, de-humanized, mimics “force of nature” in its yi yan (consistent words) and jìn lìng (strict implementation of rules), and thus offers the necessary credibility. The State of Qin adopted Shang Yang’s recommendation and implemented an incentive-driven conscription system which proved to be phenomenally successful. For convicted criminals or their family members (as punishments were typically applied to an entire household), they could avoid punishment by joining the military and kill or capture a prespecified number of enemy soldiers corresponding to their crime. For civilians who joined the military, they will receive inheritable land and noble title as rewards corresponding to the number of enemy soldiers they have kills or capture. In practice, Han officials adopted similar Legalist tactics of shǎng-xíng (reward and punishment) and jìn-shǐ (incentives and disincentives) for its conscripted labor services. First, the imperial bureaucracy assumes the monopoly over the penal system and the legitimate use of prisoner labor, proclaiming it as part of the scholar-official’s duties to apply the Confucian doctrines of Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues in administering justice. Convicts and their family members were sentenced to serve as guān-núbì (prisoner labor) as “proper” means to rectify their crime. Shùmín, or civilians in good standing, are offered the “opportunity” to serve extra yáoyì (draft service) terms to write off their outstanding grain and linen tax balance. So how do people become slaves during the Han period? According to the official narrative from The Book of Han, there are three sources (translation from Classical Chinese by Keren Wang): “Those convicted of serious crime, their fellow Wu members and household members will be held by the state as guān-núbì” “Those displaced civilians from borderlands fled to interior provinces and sold as privately owned núbì” “Those civilians due to hunger and poverty, sold themselves into indentured servitude as zìmài-rén. [4] In practice, to ensure a steady stream of penal slaves, the Han criminal penal system works on a “circle of accountability” basis. Under the Han law when a person is convicted of a crime, the entire household (barring those older than sixty or younger than ten years of age) and sometimes the entire Wu, the smallest administrative unit under Han law composed of five neighboring households, will be condemned into penal labor. The male members of the convicted “circle of accountability” are usually assigned to hard labor in places considered too harsh for regular yáoyì conscripts, such as state operated metal and salt mines, military posts near the frontline, construction projects in remote, disease-ridden areas. Female and child convicts are usually assigned to work as servants at all levels of imperial governance. Han government records show a pattern of periodic ramping-up rhetoric of yi yan and jìn lìng (sweeping campaigns against illegal activities) to temporarily expand criminal prosecutions as means to provide a steady stream of penal labors for the state. Vice versa, records from early Han period show that Imperial decrees had to be issued from time to time ordering the crackdown of “slavery-proper”, to maintain an appearance of the state’s commitment to uphold Confucian humanistic values. A Brief Conclusion Finally, the Han law broadly divides its people into four classes or sì-mín. They are shi or literati (the administerial elites forming the backbone of imperial governance),” gong or artisans, nong or farmers, and shang or merchants. The four classes of people are supposed to be equal on paper, but in practice that is far from true. Members of the literati class are exempt from yaoyi or draft service altogether, justified under the narrative that they already perform their “equivalent” draft service duty as scholar-officials. Whereas during the later Han period, many members of the merchant class were able to accumulate great wealth and political influence with the expansion of the Silk Road trading and were able purchase supposedly illegal private slaves with impunity. Late Han poet and minister Xu Gan, in his political essay collection Zhong Lun records one representative exhortative letter from an anonymous local official addressed to the Imperial Chancellor Cao Cao, voicing his moral outrage over the fact that it has become a common sight to see members of the landed gentry parading their private slaves in public with immunity, and advices stricter enforcement of prohibitions against chattel slavery: “It is increasingly common to see rich landowners, merchants, and artisans from the interior provinces, having accumulated insurmountable personal wealth, appearing in public with an entourage of privately owned slaves, typically numbered in dozens, but occasionally as many as more than a hundred. How could we allow such blatant affront to the rites and institutions set forth by our ancestral King? It has always been said that all four classes of people of our realm—the literati, artisans, farmers, and merchants—are equal from one to the other, differentiated only by their trades. I would therefore humbly advice your excellency to strictly enforce laws against privately slave ownership, and require all private laborers be paid fixed term workers.” Xu Gan’s letter was written during the final years of the Han dynasty. It was a time marked by the crumbling of imperial bureaucracy due to rampant corruption and political infighting. The practice of involuntary servitude continued to expand during this period, but without the rhetoric of a functioning bureaucracy which manufactures formal legitimacy, popular uprisings such as the Yellow Turban Rebellion started to emerge across the Han domain, quickly ending what is popularly known as the first golden age of Chinese history. In conclusion, Imperial China has been relatively successful in maintaining highly centralized governance across vast territories, as long as there was a well-maintained system of roads, canals, post stations, and most importantly, extensive systems conscript labor and slavery which were sustained and managed by the imperial bureaucracy. Not only did the Chinese bureaucratic system emerged as a rhetorical response to the demands of record-keeping and establishing public infrastructures, but it also served as a powerful propaganda platform for making slavery and involuntary servitude appear necessary, just, and even “enlightened.” Notes Xiong Yang. 《揚子法言, 孝至卷第十三》(8 AD) . https://ctext.org/yangzi-fayan/juan-shi-san/zh#n61323 Mencius.《孟子 - 公孫丑上》(c. 340 BC). Available: https://ctext.org/mengzi/gong-sun-chou-i/zh. Mencius. 《孟子 - 盡心下》(c. 340 BC). Available: https://ctext.org/mengzi/jin-xin-ii/zh. Ban Gu (ed.). Han Shu《漢書 - 王莽傳中》(92 AD) - Chinese Text Project (ctext.org) ","permalink":"/blog/2022/01/persuasion-and-propaganda-in-ancient-china-cas175-case-study-draft-bureaucratic-rhetoric-and-institutions-of-involuntary-labor/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAmerican economist \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Blinder\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAlan Blinder\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003efamously characterized the rhetorical style of \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucrat\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ebureaucrats\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e– an umbrella term denoting unelected officials \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eholding administrative, technical, and managerial positions – as “secretive, cryptic, [sic] using numerous and complicated words to convey little of any meaning.” \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThink of a career government worker who talks in jargon-filled canned statements with little substance. While it may be counterintuitive to associate bureaucracy with the art of persuasion, history tells us quite a different story. Not only did \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy#Ancient\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ebureaucracy\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eitself emerge as a rhetorical response to the exigencies of \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003erecord-keeping\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eand \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.general-intelligence.com/library/hr.pdf\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eresolving disputes\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, but it also provides a powerful platform for propaganda, sometimes making unpalatable measures appear proper and necessary.\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIn this case study, we will examine official narratives on \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_servitude\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003einvoluntary servitude\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e (slavery) \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ein \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_China#Imperial_China\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eEarly Imperial China\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, and focus on how the imperial bureaucracy justified its institutions of forced labor despite having officially abolished slavery.  We approach this through a historical lens, the role of bureaucracy in persuasion and propaganda, and reflect on how authorities of power would employ subtle rhetorical strategies \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eto make dehumanizing, exploitative structures appear legitimate and necessary.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Persuasion and Propaganda new digital text case study draft - Bureaucratic Rhetoric and Institutions of Involuntary Labor in Early Imperial China"},{"content":"Confucian Rhetoric: Among the Hundred Schools of Thought, Confucianism, also known as Ru xue (lit. “humanism”) or Ruism, arguably played the most significant role in shaping the Chinese rhetorical tradition. This is in part due to the fact that Confucianism was established as the official state ideology throughout most of Imperial Chinese history.\nOriginated from the writings and teaching of Confucius and his disciples, most notably Mencius (Mengzi) Xun Kuang (Xunzi), its philosophy can be characterized as humanistic and rationalistic, and a tendency to emphasize the importance of ritual and upholding traditions. After multiple centuries of continuous development and official endorsement, Confucianism expanded into an umbrella that covers a range of philosophical, moral, literary, religious, and legal traditions. To this day, Confucian ethics remains a defining element of Chinese culture.\nConfucian writings tend to see the purpose of rhetoric as means to dispel falsehood, to maintain propriety and social harmony, and most importantly, to achieve zhèng míng (“rectification of names”). The term zhèng míng merits further consideration. Sometimes translated as “rectification of names,” it is a key Confucian rhetorical concept pertaining to the notion that a person or organization’s words and writings must be consistent with their formally established status and position. It assumes that to persuade others, one must first acquire legitimacy by placing themselves behind good faith, speaking truthfully, and through proper channels which the audience recognizes as legitimate. As Confucius himself noted in his Analects:\n“Those who are virtuous will be sure to possess proper rhetoric, but those who are skilled in rhetoric may not always be virtuous.”[1] Roughly one century after the death of Confucius, Plato, the pivotal Athenian philosopher, expressed similar sentiment on the proper use of rhetoric in his Socratic dialogue Phaedrus: “He then, who being ignorant of the truth aims at appearances, will only attain an art of rhetoric which is ridiculous and is not an art at all?”[2]\nThe doctrine of zhèng míng is closely tied with the Confucian view that our beliefs and behaviors are predominately shaped by our family upbringing, our education, and our role models and peers. You might think of the term \u0026ldquo;respectability\u0026rdquo; as a loosely related concept. When applied in the art of persuasion, it might be helpful to understand zhèng míng as a mode of rhetoric which primarily focuses on appeals to propriety. Confucian writings generally hold that a given audience would judge an argument first and foremost by its conformity to shared norms, beliefs, and family values. The intrinsic logic and artistry of a speech (míng) are only considered worthy of evaluation when the speech is delivered by the appropriate rhetor, through the appropriate channel, and at the appropriate place and occasion.[3] Thus, rhetoricians from the Confucian tradition tend to place a greater emphasis on maintaining rén – a state of which through the practice kè jǐ-fù lǐ (lit. “self-control and return to rituals”):\n“One should see nothing improper, hear nothing improper, say nothing improper, do nothing improper”[4] Fig.4: Visitors offer incense at the Qufu Confucian Temple, 2009. Every year around the time of the National College Entrance Examination, it is quite common to see large crowds of parents and students at Confucian temples throughout China praying for good exam result. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons on the public domain, 2009)\nDaoist Rhetoric: Owes its origin to the classical Chinese text Tao Te Ching, philosophical Daoism, (sometimes spelled “Taoism”) became fully developed through the writings of Zhuang Zhou (commonly known as Zhuangzi) and Yang Zhu during the Warring States period. It has long been recognized alongside Confucianism as the two great philosophical systems of China.\nLike its Confucian counterpart, Daoism encompasses a wide range of philosophical, religious, and cultural traditions, and profoundly influenced Chinese art, poetry, and spiritual practices. While it is impossible to capture its expansive philosophical system within a few lines, Daoist writings are characterized by their detached, ironic, and often playful prose style, skeptical attitude towards authority and tradition, and reflective inquiry into nature, spontaneity, and the process (or the \u0026ldquo;dao\u0026rdquo;) of change. The Daoist preoccupation with the philosophy of change means that its approach to the art of persuasion is ruo shui - “like water.” Thus, dynamically adapting to different occasions, audiences, and the everchanging realities is central to the Daoist rhetorical tradition.\nWhile philosophers from both Confucian and Daoist traditions generally agree that the art of persuasion is necessary to establish trustworthiness, Daoist writings tend to place greater emphasis on the conflict resolution aspects of rhetoric – specifically through the notions of wu wei (“inexertion”), bù zhēng (“no-conflict”). The concept of wu wei (lit.: “no action”), often translated as “inaction” or “inexertion,” appears in numerous Chinese philosophical traditions, and bears multiple, often contradictory interpretations. In classical Confucian literature, wu wei serves as a metaphor for the ideal political community, of which the society achieved a homogenous state of collective virtue and excellence so that its sage king could govern without the need for any coercive measure. In Daoism, however, wu wei is an art or technique that allows the practitioner to achieve greater influence over human affairs.[5] Consider the following lines from the writings of Wenzi, a key figure of philosophical Daoism during Early Imperial China, where he explains the rhetorical utility of wu wei:\n“Those who are Wu wei are without voice and shape, and those without voice and shape can see without being seen, hear without being heard. How splendid!”[6] To think carefully about this question: how effective would a piece of propaganda be if its target audience could easily recognize it as propaganda? This question is fundamental to how wu wei and bù zhēng operate as Daoist rhetorical principles. simplest terms, wu wei can be understood as persuasion without letting the target audience realize they are being persuaded. It is about strategically altering human behavior in ways that appear ziran, or “natural and spontaneous,” to the target audience. As Daoist writings consider human beliefs and behaviors emerge from our animalistic or biological drives and are largely shaped by our daily repetitions, it would be far more effective to influence human affairs by targeting more subtle behavioral cues rather than engaging in explicit persuasion. Likewise, the point of bù zhēng (“no-conflict”) is not seen as a display of weakness; rather, it is a strategy of ruo shui, or to go with the flow “like water,” priming the target audience by avoiding triggering their psychological resistance.\nHowever, unlike their Confucian counterparts, the Daoist philosophical tradition is far less concerned with propriety and social harmony. In Daoist rhetoric, the fundamental objective for practicing bù zhēng and qí wù is to achieve the ideal of xiāo yáo, or a state of untroubled ease and freedom, and the best way to achieve good rhetoric is through wu wei.\nRhetoric in the Legalist tradition: On both a theoretical and practical level, Legalist philosophers contributed significantly to the building of Chinese imperial institutions, and their political thought remained influential in shaping governance practices throughout China\u0026rsquo;s history. Nonetheless, the imperial literati formally denounced Legalist thinkers for their philosophical anti-humanism and their cynical attitude towards Confucian moral discourse.\nWhen it comes to rhetorical strategies, Legalist thinkers are more inclined to write in clear, concrete terms, favoring actionable solutions over philosophical abstractions. Legalist philosophy, exemplified by the writings of Guan Zhong, Shang Yang, and Han Fei, tend to gravitate toward the subject of statecraft. Consequently, its engagement with rhetoric often revolves around its utility in governance and inter-state competition. Stemming from its “realist” analytical impulse, Legalist writers see plenty of opportunities for the art of persuasion to aid yang quan (“power projection”), geng fa (“institutional reform”), huà cè (“strategic planning”), wèn-biàn (“inquisition”), and shì xié (“whitewash shortcomings”).\nA defining element of Legalist thought would be its characterization of human nature as yín yì, or a state of “insatiable desire and greed” and therefore holding that humans are primarily driven by self-interest and the need for self-preservation. From this premise, a rhetorician from the Legalist tradition would consider the appeal to our fear and to our want to be the most effective approach to persuasion and propaganda. Shang Yang, a key architect of the Chinese imperial system and one of the most prolific Legalist writers of the Warring States period, made the following observation in his political treatise The Book of Lord Shang:\n“Indeed, people abide by their avocations and obey the regulations even to death, when the honorific titles which the ruler has instituted, and the rewards and penalties which he has established, are clear, and when, instead of employing sophists and intriguers, men of merit are set up. The result will be that the people will take pleasure in farming and enjoy warfare, because they see that the ruler honours farmers and soldiers, looks down upon sophists and artisans, and despises itinerant scholars.”[7] Under the Legalist tradition, when structures of shǎng-xíng (“reward and punishment”) and jìn-shǐ (“incentives and disincentives”) are implemented with yi yan (“uniform words/speech”) and jìn lìng (“strict implementation of rules”), it is possible to persuade people to accept even the most unpalatable condition.\nThe rhetorical concept of zòng-héng, originally emerged from the School of Diplomacy and writings of Warring States era strategist Guigu Zi, became incorporated into the Legalist philosophical system through the writings of Han Fei (c. 280 – 233 BCE). Literarily translated as \u0026ldquo;verticality and horizontality,\u0026rdquo; it is a concept of forming and breaking up strategic relationship networks by dynamically adapting between two modes of alliances. An alliance network is considered héng or “vertical/longitudinal” when it is centered around a powerful core, commanding a group of less powerful allies around its periphery, thus forming a hierarchically ordered lián (“company”). A zòng or \u0026ldquo;horizontal/latitudinal\u0026rdquo; alliance is a decentralized network where numerous less powerful individuals or groups band together to form a united front known as hé (“aggregate”), in order to gain leverage against a powerful common rival. [8]\nTo understand how zòng-héng tactics would operate, imagine an instance in which the university leadership would like to prevent student workers from unionizing. Acting from the position of power, the university leadership may resort to the tactic of lián héng, or creating a \u0026ldquo;vertical company,\u0026rdquo; to fracture the student worker population. This may involve coercing vulnerable segments of the student population into the leadership’s interest network, such as threatening international students to vote against unionization or face the possibility of losing their student visas. The university leadership may also “sweeten” the deal by adding positive incentives, such as promising a small pay raise or tuition deduction as rewards for cooperating with the leadership.\nStudent labor organizers may counter the university leadership’s “vertical company” with the tactic of hé zòng, or forming a \u0026ldquo;horizontal aggregate.” This could be done by reaching out to other groups of overworked and underpaid university workers – support staff, graduate assistants, adjunct lecturers, and so on – into a united front. These groups may not know or strongly associate with each other, except they all happen to experience frustrating labor conditions under the same employer. Whereas each individual group may be powerless to persuade the university leadership, when joined together into a \u0026ldquo;horizontal aggregate,” their collective economic clout would translate into highly persuasive leverage when negotiating for better work conditions. Thus, a rhetorician who practices the art of zòng-héng understands the advantages and weaknesses of modalities alliance networks and would exploit their weak points for their gain.\nNOTES: [1] Confucius, The Analects : Xian Wen – translation by 7 Sturgeon Donald, Chinese Text Project,” accessed November 12, 2021, https://ctext.org/analects/xian-wen. [2] Plato (c. 379 BC). Phaedrus. Translation by Benjamin Jowett. Available: https://www.fulltextarchive.com/pdfs/Phaedrus.pdf\n[3] Confucius (C. 479 BC). The Analects – Book of Zi Lu. Available: https://ctext.org/analects/zi-lu/zh?searchu=%E6%AD%A3%E5%90%8D\u0026amp;amp;searchmode=showall#result\n[4] Bo Mou, The Routledge History of Chinese Philosophy (Routledge, 2008). [5] 顾伟列, 中国文化通论 (Beijing: East China Normal UniversityPress, 2005). [6] Wenzi, “精誠,” in Wenzi, accessed November 12, 2021, https://ctext.org/wenzi/jing-cheng. [7] Shang Yang, English translation: J. J. L. Duyvendak, Shang Jun Shu, 338AD, https://ctext.org/shang-jun-shu. [8] Sturgeon Donald, “Hanfeizi : 忠孝 - 橫 - Chinese Text Project,” accessed November 12, 2021, https://ctext.org/hanfeizi/zhong-xiao.\n","permalink":"/blog/2022/01/persuasion-and-propaganda-in-ancient-china-textbook-chapter-draft-part-3/","summary":"\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConfucian Rhetoric:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmong the Hundred Schools of Thought, Confucianism, also known as \u003cstrong\u003eRu xue \u003c/strong\u003e(lit. “humanism”) or \u003cstrong\u003eRuism\u003c/strong\u003e, arguably played the most significant role in shaping the Chinese rhetorical tradition. This is in part due to the fact that Confucianism was established as the official state ideology throughout most of Imperial Chinese history.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginated from the writings and teaching of \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius\"\u003eConfucius\u003c/a\u003e and his \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciples_of_Confucius\"\u003edisciples\u003c/a\u003e, most notably \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mencius\"\u003eMencius\u003c/a\u003e (Mengzi) \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xun_Kuang\"\u003eXun Kuang\u003c/a\u003e (Xunzi), its philosophy can be characterized as humanistic and rationalistic, and a tendency to emphasize the importance of ritual and upholding traditions. After multiple centuries of continuous development and official endorsement, Confucianism expanded into an umbrella that covers a range of \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism\"\u003ephilosophical\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism#Social_morality_and_ethics\"\u003emoral\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius#Music_and_Poetry\"\u003eliterary\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Confucius\"\u003ereligious\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_magistrate\"\u003elegal\u003c/a\u003e traditions. To this day, Confucian ethics remains a defining element of Chinese culture.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Persuasion and Propaganda in Ancient China (textbook chapter draft), part 3"},{"content":"The Warring States and the Hundred Schools of Thought The core of classical Chinese philosophical tradition emerged during a tumultuous period of ancient Chinese history, during which the civilization transitioned from a decentralized feudal system into a unified empire. We begin this section with a brief and high-altitude overview of the historical background for those who are not familiar with ancient Chinese history. The time frame would be the Chunqiu-Zhanguo era (lit., “Periods of Spring and Autumn and the Warring States”) which lasted from c.770 to 221 BCE The Spring and Autumn period of Classical Chinese history, from approximately 771 to 476 BCE. The nominal seat of dynastic power, Zhou Tianzi (lit “Son of Heaven”) had rapidly declined, and in Confucious’ own words, that the “ancient feudal rite and hymns have crumbled （禮樂崩壞）.” It was a time when former Zhou feudal domains became de-facto independent sovereign states. Larger states swallow smaller ones. Rapid land reforms and power restructurings took place across major Chinese states in order to claim economic and military supremacy over their peers. Various great powers rose and fell throughout this period, constantly at war against one other for achieving hegemony over Tianxia. The Warring States period is also when the coin-based cash economy rapidly took off throughout China-proper. Of course this did not happen overnight, but based on ample material evidence, the cash economy did intensify within a relatively short period, as major states began to implement similar types of sweeping bureaucratic governance reforms and centrally managed crop buy-out policies to remain competitive. By the time of the late Warring States era, your \u0026ldquo;average\u0026rdquo; peasant say in the state of Wei or Zhao or any major power, not only was paid by the central government, in cash, to purchase his grains for strategic reserve, he is also likely to be drafted every so often, for a fixed term, to perform infrastructure labor or serve in the military, and paid a stipend at least in part in the form of cash coins. Consequently, old feudal aristocratic powers were displaced by an emerging class of scholar-officials, many of whom came from humble, non-noble backgrounds including Confucious and his disciples. Members of this new literati class often traveled throughout China and offered their knowledge and service to the most promising state sponsor. Because of the intense interstate competition and the increasing demand for scholar-officials, philosophies flourished throughout the Chunqiu-Zhanguo era. Early Han historian Sima Qian used the term zhūzǐ bǎijiā (諸子百家), or “Hundred Schools of Thought” to describe this unprecedented expansion and diversification of Chinese intellectual outputs. Many philosophical texts from this historical moment – such as the Analects, Tao Te Ching, and Sun Tzu’s Art of War have become widely known outside of China. See the timeline in figure 2 below for a partial list of key figures from the Hundred Schools of Thought (top row). The timeline also includes contemporaneous Indo-European thinkers at the bottom row for clearer time reference:\nFig.2: Select key figures from the Hundred Schools of Thought. Top row from the left (order based on est. y.o.b.): Duke Wen of Zhou, Guan Zhong, Laozi, Sun Wu (Sun Tzu), Confucius, Mo Di (Mozi) , Xun Kuang (Xunzi), Sima Qian. (Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) Although technically from a time three centuries prior to the Hundred Schools of Thought, Duke Wen of Zhou (周公旦, top-leftmost on the timeline) influenced virtually all subsequent figures of classical Chinese philosophy. He is credited with authoring Zhōu Lǐ (周禮, “Rites of Zhou) which served as the foundational constitutional text for all subsequent Chinese dynasties. He is also credited for compiling the foundational philosophical treatise known in Chinese simply as Shū (書, “the Book”) or Shang Shu (尚書, “Esteemed Book”). It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to various historical figures from early Chinese Antiquity and semi-mythological sage kings, which formalizes Heaven Worship and the concept of the Mandate of Heaven. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Heaven Worship in traditional Chinese political theology. Being the one and only officially recognized imperial cult, it provided the ideological basis for the legitimacy of the imperial system up until the early 20th century. Fig.3: Photo of the last Heaven Worship ceremony in Chinese history performed by a ruling emperor at the Temple of Heaven in Peking, December 23, 1914. Yuan Shikai (first from left), the 1st President of the Republic of China, made the controversial reinstitution of the imperial rite and proclaimed himself as Emperor Hongxian of the Chinese Empire on Dec. 11, 1915. The new emperor is seen here dressed in Mianfu regalia while preparing sacrificial offerings to Heaven atop of the Circular Mound Altar. Emperor Hongxian’s reign only lasted 83 days before his forced abdication on 22 March 1916 by republican rebel forces. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons on the public domain) It is impossible to accurately explain any single philosophical school within the Hundred Schools of Thought without gross oversimplification and/or misrepresentation within this chapter, let alone covering all of them. However, it might be worthwhile to limit the scope of our overview on three schools of thought widely considered by Chinese historians to be the most influential – Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism – and focus only on their most representative concepts specifically relating to the art of persuasion. The table below provides a quick beginner’s guide in this regard, and feel free to click on the text links to learn more about these concepts:\nSchool of Classical Chinese Philosophy Key Figures Purpose of rhetoric Sources of human beliefs \u0026amp; behaviors? Best ways to persuade and influence others? CONFUCIANISM Confucius Mencius (Mengzi) Xun Kuang (Xunzi) To promote virtue Dispel falsehood Zheng ming (rectification of names) Maintaining propriety and harmony Heaven Family upbringing \u0026amp; education Role models \u0026amp; peer influence Xìng shàn 性善 - instinct to value human life Sense of shame Rén (humanistic care and benevolence) Kèjǐ-fùlǐ (self-control and return to rituals) Zhōng yōng 中庸 - Doctrine of the Mean (self-discipline, tolerance, good faith) Maintaining proper appearance\nDAOISM Laozi Zhuang Zhou (Zhuangzi) Yang Zhu Establish trustworthiness Bu zheng (avoid conflict) Xiao yao (enjoyment of untroubled freedom) Qi wu (alignment of substance) Xìng (Natural drives) Habits and repetitions Spontaneous outbursts Wu wei (inexertion, hiding behind veil of the mystery) Ruo shui (“like water,” adaptability to changing situations) Zi ran (spontaneity, appearance of natural) LEGALISM Guan Zhong Shang Yang Han Fei Yang quan (power projection) Geng fa (reform the law) Huà cè (policy planning) Wèn-biàn (inquisition \u0026amp; judgement) Shì xié (whitewash shortcomings) Fear Self-interest Need for safety and order Yínyì (insatiable desire and greed) Yi yan (unification of words) Jìn lìng (strict rules) Shǎng-xíng (reward \u0026amp; punishment) Jìn-shǐ (incentives \u0026amp; disincentives Zōng héng (verticality \u0026amp; horizontality) MOHISM Mo Di (Mozi) Qin shi (promote learned society) Fa yi (establish necessary standards) Economy of expenditures Collective defense Jian’ai (universal values) Guiju (measurement and observation) Renyiyi (individuation) Practical utility Suǒ rǎn (Doctrine of Dyeing, social influence) Qiǎo gōng (display of skill and precision) Shàng xián (exaltation of the virtuous) Shang tong 尚同 - Identification with the Superior Click here to continue: Persuasion and Propaganda in Ancient China (chapter draft) Part 3: Confucian, Daoist, and Legalist Rhetoric ","permalink":"/blog/2021/12/persuasion-and-propaganda-ancient-china-chapter-draft-part-2-the-hundred-schools-of-thought/","summary":"\u003ch2\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Warring States and the Hundred Schools of Thought\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe core of classical Chinese philosophical tradition emerged during a tumultuous period of ancient Chinese history, during which the civilization transitioned from a \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_dynasty#Feudalism\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edecentralized feudal system\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e into a \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin's_wars_of_unification\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eunified empire\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. We begin this section with a brief and high-altitude overview of the historical background for those who are not familiar with ancient Chinese history. The time frame would be the \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eChunqiu-Zhanguo\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eera (lit., “Periods of Spring and Autumn and the Warring States”) which lasted from c.770 to 221 BCE  \u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe Spring and Autumn period of Classical Chinese history, from approximately 771 to 476 BCE. The nominal seat of dynastic power, \u003c/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eZhou \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Heaven\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTianzi\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e(lit “Son of Heaven”) had rapidly\u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Zhou\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e declined\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, and in Confucious’ own words, that the “ancient feudal rite and hymns have crumbled （禮樂崩壞）.” It was a time when former Zhou feudal domains became de-facto independent sovereign states. Larger states swallow smaller ones. Rapid land reforms and power restructurings took place across major Chinese states in order to claim economic and military supremacy over their peers. Various \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Hegemons\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003egreat powers rose and fell \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethroughout this period, constantly at war against one other for achieving hegemony over \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianxia\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTianxia\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe Warring States period is also when the coin-based cash economy rapidly took off throughout China-proper. Of course this did not happen overnight, but based on ample material evidence, the cash economy did intensify within a relatively short period, as major states began to implement similar types of sweeping bureaucratic governance reforms and centrally managed crop buy-out policies to remain competitive. By the time of the late Warring States era, your \u0026ldquo;average\u0026rdquo; peasant say in the state of \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wey_(state)\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWei\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e or \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_(state)\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eZhao\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e or any major power, not only was paid by the central government, in cash, to purchase his grains for strategic reserve, he is also likely to be drafted every so often, for a fixed term, to perform infrastructure labor or serve in the military, and paid a stipend at least in part in the form of cash coins.\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eConsequently, old feudal aristocratic powers were displaced by an emerging class of scholar-officials, many of whom came from humble, non-noble backgrounds including \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb\u0026amp;id=1315#s10021396\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eConfucious\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e and his \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Hui\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edisciples\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. Members of this new \u003c/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eliterati \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eclass often traveled throughout China and offered their knowledge and service to the most promising state sponsor.   \u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBecause of the intense interstate competition and the increasing demand for \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholar-official\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003escholar-officials\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, philosophies flourished throughout the \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eChunqiu-Zhanguo\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eera.  Early \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHan \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehistorian \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Qian\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSima Qian\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e used the term \u003c/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ezhūzǐ bǎijiā \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e(諸子百家), or\u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“\u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Schools_of_Thought\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHundred Schools of Thought\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e” to describe this unprecedented expansion and diversification of Chinese intellectual outputs. Many philosophical texts from this historical moment – such as \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethe\u003c/span\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analects\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAnalects\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTao Te Ching\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, and\u003c/span\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSun Tzu’s Art of War\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e have become widely known outside of China. See the timeline in figure 2 below for a partial list of key figures from the \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Schools_of_Thought\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHundred Schools of Thought\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e (top row). The timeline also includes contemporaneous Indo-European thinkers at the bottom row for clearer time reference:\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Persuasion and Propaganda Ancient China (chapter draft), part 2: the Hundred Schools of Thought"},{"content":"Persuasion and Propaganda Ancient China （chapter draft, part 1） by Keren Wang, kwang35@gsu.edu\nThere are increasing calls to give rhetorics that are historically overlooked within Western academia their overdue consideration.[1] Despite growing interest in comparative and alternative rhetorics, insufficient attention has been paid to one category of crucial contribution to the intellectual history of persuasion and propaganda: the study of nonwestern ancient rhetorical traditions.[2] This chapter provides a sneak preview of the intellectual history of persuasion and propaganda in Ancient China, where a rich and distinct rhetorical tradition flourished for more than three millennia. We begin this chapter by addressing the question of why it is necessary to examine comparative perspectives, followed by looking briefly into the historical origin of Chinese characters – the oldest writing system still in use. Our discussion then proceeds to a high-altitude overview of the hundred schools of thought that emerged during a pivotal moment of Chinese intellectual history and profoundly shaped the arc of Sinic civilizational development. Why Study Comparative Perspectives? There are many reasons for why it is necessary to examine comparative historical perspectives when studying persuasion and propaganda. The first and perhaps most obvious would be the need for historical accuracy and completeness of our understanding of the subject matter. Despite increased interest in alternative rhetorics of gender, race, ethnicities, and class, the topic of ancient rhetoric in American university classrooms remains firmly entrenched in a narrow band of Greco-Roman classics. See “a brief history of persuasion and propaganda” timeline below for better visualization of the need to fill the gaps in rhetorical history before and beyond ancient Greeks and Romans: Fig.1: a brief history of persuasion \u0026amp; propaganda (from left): Cave of Altamira, Venus of Willendorf, Göbekli Tepe, Urfa Man, Narmer Palette, Archaic cuneiform, Code of Hammurabi, Old Attic script, Gautama Buddha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Augustus, Emperor Wu of Han, Signing of the US DOI, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) Engaging comparative/alternative histories of rhetorics also helps us to expand our present knowledge of the ways the exchange of meaning works in both theory and practice. By better understanding how rhetorical practices operate across divergent cultural and historical contexts, we broaden and deepen our current understanding of the communication process. Finally, comparative scholarship is necessary because it illuminates our tacit misconceptions. By encountering the unfamiliar other, we must reevaluate our internalized assumptions and preoccupations, thereby enabling us to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of human communicative practices. For example, we cannot start from some theory or concept on the ancient Hellenistic (Greek) world, say the Aristotelian notion of logos, and automatically assume there will be a Chinese equivalent. When engaging in comparative studies, we must contextualize a given theory or concept within the knowledge and language system in which it operates. It’s interesting to consider how ancient Chinese rhetoricians got along without a central preoccupation around the Aristotelian concept of logos. What kinds of problems did ancient Chinese and Greek philosophers try to solve, to which they gave divergent solutions and theoretical preoccupations? Such inquiry would be necessary to shed light on what is truly “universal” and what is historically and culturally specific.\nPyromancy and the Invention of the Chinese Writing System The circumstances in which the art of persuasion was developed and practiced differ considerably in different ancient civilizations. It would be best to proceed with attempts to compare and contrast divergent rhetorical traditions by deeply immersing oneself in the historical, cultural, and linguistic life-worlds from which these traditions emerged. To make sense of Chinese intellectual history, it is particularly important to first become aware of the historical context of its writing system – Hanzi (“Chinese characters”) – and why it operates on fundamentally distinct principles from virtually all other writing systems in the world. The vast majority of languages still in use, English included, use a phonemic writing system in which the text, typically written in alphabets or syllabaries, corresponds to the spoken sound of the language. While it may be tempting for English speakers (as with users of any phonemic writing systems) to assume that writing systems were invented to transcribe the spoken language, it is not the case for Hanzi. Like many earliest known writings systems such as Anatolian hieroglyphs and archaic cuneiform, Chinese writing uses a logographic system that encodes meaning without relying on phonetic representation.[3] While many ancient civilizations have developed their own logograms, virtually all of them have fallen into disuse. Hanzi is the only major logographic writing system still in use, and it is an orthographic “living fossil” that gives valuable insights on how literacy functions under fundamentally different linguistic rules. Being a logographic writing system means that often taken-for-granted writing concepts such as spelling, and alphabet do not apply to written Chinese at all. Furthermore, unlike alphabetical and syllabary writing systems, the same Hanzi system can be adopted by completely different spoken languages without changing their encoded meanings. For example, the spoken word for “moon” is yuè in Mandarin Chinese and tsuki in Japanese, but in both languages, it is written with the same Hanzi character “月”. Likewise, a Cantonese and a Shanghainese speaker could read the same newspaper article written in Chinese without any gap of understanding, yet they could not understand each other when hearing the other person reading the article’s content aloud in their respective local “dialect.” Finally, in contrast to phonemic writing systems, Hanzi characters tend to remain incredibly stable in form and usage even across several thousands of years of timespan, as logograms do not change with the ever-evolving spoken tongue on the ground. Despite its age, the earliest known Chinese characters remain closely related in form and syntax with the Hanzi system still in use and are remarkably accessible for modern scholars. See the table below for a clearer visualization of how the same Hanzi work across different spoken languages, and how the characters remain mostly the same across 3,200 years of continuous usage: Hanzi character Meaning Pronunciation c.1,200 BCE Modern Mandarin Cantonese Japanese 米 rice grain mǐ máih kome 火 fire huǒ fó hi / ka 羊 goat/sheep yáng yèuhng hitsuji 人 person rén yàhn hito 王 king/prince wáng wòhng ō The Hanzi system consists of thousands of unique individual glyphs, each one comes with its prescribed composition, stroke order, and complex set of usage rules. The exceptionally long-time commitment required to gain proficiency in Hanzi means that prior to the introduction of modern compulsory education, only an exceedingly small percentage of the population was able to acquire literacy. Thus, in ancient China, its writing system perpetuated a self-reproducing class of literati ruling elites and formed a powerful barrier preventing the common population from participating and engaging in the communication process of the power structure. While the Hanzi system played a vital role in imperial governance, its history precedes Imperial China by more than a thousand years, during a period of the Chinese Bronze Age known as the Shang dynasty. The earliest fully-developed Hanzi system, known as the oracle bone script, was invented as a tool for pyromancy – esoteric divination rituals by means of fire.\nThe Shang dynasty ruled over the fertile Yellow River basin from c. 1,600 BCE to 1046 BCE.\nTraditional Chinese historiography has divided periods of Chinese history into ‘dynasties’ – a formal historical term referring to periods of “unified rule” (Tianxia gongzhu, lit. “One sovereign uniting the world under one Heaven”), where the area we now know of as “China” was ruled by a single sovereign clan.[i][ii] The change of imperial ruling clan signaled a change in dynasty, and also signified a change in Heaven’s Mandate. Officially, imperial rule of China only started with the Qin dynasty under Emperor Shi Huangdi in 221 BCE. Prior to the establishment of the Qin dynasty, the previous dynasties – Xia, Zhou, and Shang – were organized in the form of a confederate feudal state system, in which the state that managed to acquire hegemony via military supremacy will be recognized by other feudal clans as their tributary overlord, and the monarch of that state would be referred to as Tianzi, literally translates as “Heaven’s son.” The title Tianzi, which once referred to those kings of the hegemonic feudal domains during pre-Imperial dynasties, was adopted as the honorific title of the emperor throughout imperial China, which lasted from 221 BCE until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912.[iii]\nCurrent understanding of religious practices of the Shang society reveals that the invention of the Hanzi writing system was deeply intertwined with the establishment of the Shang state cult – a set of officially endorsed rituals and mythological narratives designed provide a divine justification of ruler’s absolute authority over the state. The Roman imperial cult and the Incan Sapa Inca imperial mythology are other historical examples of state cult.\nThe state rite practiced by Shang rulers was distinctly monotheistic and, of which the Shangdi (lit., “the lord above”) being the omnipotent and all-encompassing supreme being who bestows the Shang king their divine authority to rule. While the Shang people viewed the spiritual domain (e.g., spirit of dead ancestors) as an extension of the human world that is readily accessible via folk religious rituals, words of Shangdi, however, are inaccessible to all except through the Shang king via the oracle bone script. The Shang king claimed the exclusive power to communicate with the high god Shangdi via means of oracle bone pyromancy, and the difficulty of mastering the oracle bone logograms helped Shang rulers to maintain their claim.\nThus, the Hanzi was not invented to transcribe the spoken language, nor was it intended to facilitate communication among the masses. Quite the opposite, it was painstakingly cryptographic by design – keeping access to the divine will of Shangdi exclusively to a small\ngroup of literati elites, thereby legitimizing their claim to the divine right of kings.\nWritten artifacts excavated from Shang archaeological sites were predominantly in the form of oracle bone script. These inscriptions were used specifically during state divination rituals where the Shang ruler, both acting as the king and the high priest, would carve questions concerning matters of state importance (e.g., military campaigns, prayers for a bountiful harvest, and matters concerning sacrificial offerings to Shangdi, include human sacrifice) onto oracle bones mostly commonly prepared from tortoise plastrons or ox shoulder bones. The Shang king would then prod the oracle bones with a bronze rod heat to red-hot, which would cause the bones to crack under the intense heat, indicating that Shangdi had answered the questions inscribed on the oracle bones. The Shang king would conclude the pyromancy by interpreting the oracle bone inscriptions along with the pattern of the pyromantic cracks, and issue decrees “on Shangdi’s behalf.”\nSpecifically, studies found that Shang dynasty human sacrifice functioned as prayers to Shangdi to “bail out” the Shang people from major calamities and would only take place during periods of severe food shortage or in the aftermath of major military conflict. Hundreds of captured slaves or war prisoners might be executed during a ritual sacrifice ceremony by means of mass decapitation and/or bloodletting. The corpses of the victims, along with their severed heads, were buried in mass sacrificial pits or collectively incinerated.During these exceptional occasions, the oracle bone script and pyromancy were deployed to help legitimize the use of violence by the Shang rulers.\nThroughout the subsequent Zhou and Imperial Chinese periods, Hanzi, being a logographic writing system developed independently from the spoken language, allowed the imperial authority to govern its population under a unified literacy irrespective of the different spoken languages of its subjects.[4] This means that written decrees and official communications could be sent to the furthest reaches of the empire without the need for translation and localization, provided there is a class of highly educated literati scholar-officials to conduct imperial edicts. Therefore, compared to its European and Mesoamerican counterparts, Imperial China has been relatively successful in sustaining highly centralized governance across vast territories, as long as there was a well-maintained system of roads, canals, draft laborers, post stations, and most importantly, highly developed literati. Not only did the Chinese bureaucratic system historically emerged as a rhetorical response to the demands of record-keeping and conflict resolution, but it also serves as a powerful platform for propaganda for examining the abilities and loyalty of ministers and holding them accountable according to their responsibilities. [v]\nClick here to continue: Persuasion and Propaganda Ancient China (chapter draft), part 2: the Hundred Schools of Thought [i] 启云 Qiyun 陈 Chen, “封建与大一统之间——关于中国传统政体的理论和史实,” 学术月刊, no. [ii] –2 (2007). [iii] Zhe Sun, Tianming Wangchao Beijing: Zhongguo Qingnian Publishing, 2008. [iv] Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 殷墟与商文化－殷墟科学发掘８０周年纪念文集 (Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 2011). [v] Han Fei (c. 280 – 233 BC), Han Feizi, Chapter XLIII “Deciding Between Two Legalistic Doctrines.” Available: https://ctext.org/hanfeizi/ding-fa/zh\n","permalink":"/blog/2021/10/persuasion-and-propaganda-ancient-china-chapter-draft-part-1-pyromancy-and-the-invention-of-the-chinese-writing-system/","summary":"\u003ch1\u003e\u003cb\u003ePersuasion and Propaganda Ancient China \u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cb\u003e（chapter draft, part 1）\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n \n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eby Keren Wang,  \u003ca href=\"mailto:kwang35@gsu.edu\"\u003ekwang35@gsu.edu\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThere are increasing calls to give \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003erhetorics that are historically overlooked within Western academia\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e their overdue consideration.[1] Despite growing interest in comparative and alternative rhetorics, insufficient attention has been paid to one category of crucial contribution to the intellectual history of persuasion and propaganda: the study of nonwestern ancient rhetorical traditions.[2] This chapter provides a sneak preview of the intellectual history of persuasion and propaganda in Ancient China, where a rich and distinct rhetorical tradition flourished for more than three millennia. \u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWe begin this chapter by addressing the question of why it is necessary to examine comparative perspectives, followed by looking briefly into the \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehistorical origin\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e of Chinese characters – the \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3954\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eoldest writing system still in use\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e.  Our discussion then proceeds to a high-altitude overview of the \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Schools_of_Thought\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehundred schools of thought\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethat emerged during a pivotal moment of Chinese intellectual history and profoundly shaped the arc of Sinic civilizational development. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Persuasion and Propaganda Ancient China (chapter draft), part 1: Pyromancy and the Invention of the Chinese Writing System"},{"content":"Happy 端午節 Duanwu / Dragon Boat Festival!\nDuanwu is one of the four most important traditional holidays (the other three being Qingming, Mid Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year) celebrated by Chinese people throughout the world. It is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month of traditional Chinese calendar, which for 2021 falls on June 14th of the Gregorian calendar. The two calendars are not perfectly synched, so the Gregorian calendar date for Duanwu would change from year to year (FYI it will be on June 3rd for 2022, and June 22nd for 2023). The Duanwu festival is primarily for commemorating the tragic death of Warring States era poet and statesman Qu Yuan (c. 243-348 BC). Qu Yuan is one of the most celebrated literary figure in Chinese history, whose poems are known for their highly expressive lyrical style, imbibed with intoxicating mythos and broiling pathos. Qu Yuan is also among those historical figures became widely celebrated by the contemporary Chinese LGBTQ community, as Qu frequently (also quite explicitly) writes about his romantic passions towards his lover and patron King Huai of Chu, whom Qu Yuan refers to as \u0026ldquo;my beautiful one.\u0026rdquo;\n","permalink":"/blog/2021/06/qu-yuan-and-the-duanwu-dragon-boat-festival/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHappy \u003cstrong\u003e端午節\u003c/strong\u003e Duanwu / Dragon Boat Festival!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"Qu Yuan's Lisao (Image source Wikimedia Commons)\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-550 size-large\" height=\"430\" src=\"/images/uploads/2021/06/Lisao-1024x648.png\" width=\"680\"/\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eDuanwu\u003c/em\u003e is one of the four most important traditional holidays (the other three being \u003cem\u003eQingming,\u003c/em\u003e Mid Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year) celebrated by Chinese people throughout the world. It is celebrated on the \u003cstrong\u003e5th day of the 5th month of traditional Chinese calendar,\u003c/strong\u003e which for 2021 falls on June 14th of the Gregorian calendar. The two calendars are not perfectly synched, so the Gregorian calendar date for Duanwu would change from year to year (FYI it will be on June 3rd for 2022, and June 22nd for 2023).\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eDuanwu\u003c/em\u003e festival is primarily for commemorating the \u003ca href=\"https://dragonboathistory.com/Legends.html\"\u003etragic death\u003c/a\u003e of Warring States era poet and statesman \u003cstrong\u003eQu Yuan\u003c/strong\u003e (c. 243-348 BC). Qu Yuan is one of the most celebrated literary figure in Chinese history, whose poems are known for their highly expressive lyrical style, imbibed with intoxicating \u003cem\u003emythos\u003c/em\u003e and broiling \u003cem\u003epathos.\u003c/em\u003e Qu Yuan is also among those \u003ca href=\"https://www.scmp.com/article/703796/long-history-cutting-sleeves\"\u003e historical figures\u003c/a\u003e became widely celebrated by the contemporary \u003ca href=\"https://gayasianews.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/chinas-duanwu-festival-is-worlds-first-gay-valentines-day/\"\u003eChinese LGBTQ community\u003c/a\u003e, as Qu frequently (also quite explicitly) writes about his \u003ca href=\"https://ctext.org/chu-ci/si-mei-ren/zh\"\u003eromantic passions towards his lover and patron King Huai of Chu\u003c/a\u003e, whom Qu Yuan refers to as \u0026ldquo;my beautiful one.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Qu Yuan and Duanwu \"Dragon Boat\" Festival"},{"content":"Happy to announce the publication of my co-authored article with Dr. Tomonori Teraoka - “The Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s Judicial Rhetoric and Its Post-WWII Constitutionalization Process” - on the latest issue of Communication Law Review. Our article presents an interdisciplinary, multilingual collaborative effort to critically examine Japanese constitutional discourse at both domestic and transnational levels.\nAbstract: Our article examines the issue of constitutional legitimacy in the post-WWII Japanese legal system. Our analysis proceeds from the judicial rhetoric of postwar Japan, focusing primarily on the state of judicial review and executive legislative practices throughout the Japanese postwar constitutionalization process. The aim of our rhetorical analysis is to identify the main points of discursive tensions as manifested in Japanese judiciary and legislative norms. Although the postwar Japanese constitution provides a judicial review process and separation of powers like its American counterpart, their implementation is constrained by the legislative usurpation of the executive branch and judicial passivity of the Japanese Supreme Court. Whereas the written language in the postwar Japanese constitution adheres to the prevailing transnational dóxa for a democratic rule-of-law society, we find many key constitutional elements are not internationalized within the operational modality of Japanese judicial rhetoric. ","permalink":"/blog/2021/02/new-article-the-legitimation-crisis-of-the-japanese-constitution/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHappy to announce the publication of my co-authored article with \u003cstrong\u003eDr. Tomonori Teraoka\u003c/strong\u003e - “\u003ca href=\"https://commlawreview.org/Archives/CLRv20/The_Legitimation_Crisis_of_the_Japanese_Constitution.PDF\"\u003eThe Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s Judicial Rhetoric and Its Post-WWII Constitutionalization Process\u003c/a\u003e” - on the latest issue of\u003cstrong\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://commlawreview.org/\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eCommunication Law Review\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e. Our article presents an interdisciplinary, multilingual collaborative effort to critically examine Japanese constitutional discourse at both domestic and transnational levels.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"Keren Wang and Tomonori Teraoka, “The Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s Judicial Rhetoric and Its Post-WWII Constitutionalization Process,” Communication Law Review, Volume 20, Issue 1 (2020)\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-545 size-large\" height=\"383\" src=\"/images/uploads/2021/02/legitimation-crisis-1024x577.png\" width=\"680\"/\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbstract:\u003c/strong\u003e Our article examines the issue of constitutional legitimacy in the post-WWII Japanese \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003elegal system. Our analysis proceeds from the judicial rhetoric of postwar Japan, focusing \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eprimarily on the state of judicial review and executive legislative practices throughout the \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eJapanese postwar constitutionalization process. The aim of our rhetorical analysis is to \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eidentify the main points of discursive tensions as manifested in Japanese judiciary and \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003elegislative norms. Although the postwar Japanese constitution provides a judicial review \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eprocess and separation of powers like its American counterpart, their implementation is \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003econstrained by the legislative usurpation of the executive branch and judicial passivity of \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003ethe Japanese Supreme Court. Whereas the written language in the postwar Japanese \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003econstitution adheres to the prevailing transnational dóxa for a democratic rule-of-law \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003esociety, we find many key constitutional elements are not internationalized within the \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eoperational modality of Japanese judicial rhetoric.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e","title":"New Publication Announcement: The Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution - Communication Law Review"},{"content":" The ritual taking of things that are of human value, including the ritual killing of humans, has been continuously practiced for as long as human civilization itself has existed. In my presentation for the upcoming virtual 2020 National Communication Association's Annual Convention, I will highlight key findings from one of my ongoing historical archival projects, focusing on the rhetoric of human sacrifice as represented in Early Bronze Age China oracle bone scripts (c.1250 BC - 1046 BC). It will be delivered at the virtual paper session, \"GPS: Changing Routes in Rhetoric's History\" sponsored by the American Society for the History of Rhetoric on November 1st, 2020.\nMass grave of sacrificial victims at Anyang Yin-Shang archaeological site (c. 1100 BC) In this presentation, I will visually highlight and analyze a broad collection of examples of oracle bone inscriptions on ritual human sacrifice from the mid to late-Shang period. The purpose of this presentation is to provide better understanding on the logographic invention and legitimation of violent state practices during Early Bronze Age China. Specifically, my archival investigation found that Shang rulers framed human sacrifice as prayers to the Shang high deity, Shang-Di, to deliver their people from major calamity. State sacrificial ceremonies involving the killing of humans appear to be restricted, as least in writing, to exceptional occasions of severe food shortage and the aftermath of a major military conflict. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of war captives and/or slaves are said to be executed during these apotropaic ceremonies via means of decapitation, burning and/or bloodletting. Although people in modern society seldom consider ritual sacrifice (especially those that involve the slaughter of humans for ritual purposes) as an ongoing practice, it nonetheless remains an organizing element of contemporary institutions of governance. Capital punishment, for instance, is one of the oldest forms of human ritual sacrifice that is continuously practiced to the present day. René Girard observed in his Religion and Ritual, “sacrifice is the most critical and fundamental rites…all systems that give structure to human society have been generated from it: language, kinship system, taboos, codes of etiquette, patterns of exchanged, rites, and civil instructions.” American social psychologist Erich Fromm further noted, in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, that not only does the religious phenomenon of sacrifice still exist in modern society, but modernity has in many ways amplified the scope, intensity and destructiveness of ritual human sacrifice.\nModernity has in many ways amplified intensity of human sacrifice One of earliest, and most well-documented examples of institutionalized, large-scale human sacrifice regime is found in oracle bone scripts unearthed from mid to late-Shang period (c.1250 BC - 1046 BC) archaeological sites in China. Written artifacts excavated from late-Shang archaeological sites were predominantly in the form of oracle bone script. These writings were used specifically during state divination ceremonies where the Shang ruler, both acting as a king and as a high priest, would carve scripts concerning matters of state importance (such as military affairs, prayers for bountiful harvest, and matters concerning sacrificial offerings) onto specially prepared tortoise carapaces and bovine bones.\nOracle bone script on a tortoise carapace used during state divination ceremony (c. 1250 BC) Oracle bone script is among the earliest known fully developed Chinese writing systems. Despite its age, the oracle bone script is nonetheless a highly developed iconographic form of writing, which is partially mutually intelligible with contemporary Chinese characters, and shares similar syntactical framework with classical written Chinese. Thus, despite its ancient origin, the oracle script is accessible to modern day readers, perhaps due to the fact that it is, like contemporary Chinese, a purely logographic medium that transmits meaning without relying on phonetic representation, and therefore has remained relatively static across millennia.\nLogographic evolution of the elephant glyph A sizable portion of the oracle bones uncovered in Shang archaeological sites contain inscriptions, known as oracle bone scripts, specifically concerning ritual human sacrifices performed by the Shang ruling class. These written records are also corroborated by the discovery of numerous mass-graves of human sacrifice victims in these sites.\nShang bronze script, c. 1100 BC According to official historical records compiled during the Zhou dynasty (1046 BC–256 BC), Shang was the second Chinese dynasty preceded by the quasi-legendary Xia dynasty (c.2070 BC –1600 BC). However, as there are no conclusive archaeological records proving the existence of the Xia dynasty, Shang is the earliest confirmed Chinese dynasty in that the earliest written records were dated to this era. Written artifacts excavated from Shang archaeological sites were predominantly in the form of oracle bone script. These writings were used specifically during state divination ceremonies where the Shang ruler, both acting as a king and as a high priest, would carve scripts concerning matters of state importance (such as military affairs, prayers for bountiful harvest, and matters concerning sacrificial offerings) onto specially prepared tortoise carapaces and cow bones. The Shang king （Di) would then prod the oracle bones with a red-hot bronze rod, which would cause the bones to crack under the intense heat, indicating that the singular supreme deity of the Shang people, Shang-Di (上帝, lit.: “supreme high Lord”) had answered the questions inscribed on the bones, and the cracks left on the bones were supposedly Shang-Di’s divine answers. Only the Shang king could interpret these and announce them to his people as divine mandates.\nThe \"Di\" glyph, title of the Shang ruler A sizable portion of the oracle bones uncovered in Shang archaeological sites contain inscriptions, known as oracle bone scripts, specifically concerning ritual human sacrifices performed by the Shang ruling class. These written records are also corroborated by the discovery of numerous mass-graves of human sacrifice victims in these sites. In most Shang sacrificial rituals, only animals, and valuable chattels (such as bronze wares) would be used as offerings. There were only two exceptional circumstances where human sacrifices were made: xunzang 殉葬 and renji 人祭. Xunzang 殉葬 (lit. “suicide burial”) refers to the practice in which personal slaves and servants of Shang king, upon the death or their master, were expected to “volunteer” themselves to be buried alive as a form of “honor suicide.” While the practice of “honor suicide” upon the master’s death has lingered throughout Chinese history, the second type of human sacrifice, renji 人祭 (lit. “human sacrifice”) is practiced only during the Shang dynasty period, and also the most massive in scale in terms of number of people killed in a typical renji ceremony. The demographic pattern of Shang sacrificial victims is also quite interesting. Sacrificial burial victims (or supposedly “pious volunteers”) were mostly personal slaves (i.e. house servants), and therefore, in sacrificial burial archaeological sites in China, an even mix of male and female human remains could be found. Renji victims, on the other hand, appear to be predominantly male. Unlike sacrificial burial or xunzang, the people sacrificed for renji were not personal slaves, but mostly prisoners of war and field slaves (keep in mind that Shang field slaves were typically captured from distant lands outside the Shang domain).\nOracle bone fragments from Heji documenting human sacrifice Specifically, studies found that Shang dynasty human sacrifice functioned as prayers to Shang-Di to deliver the Shang people from major calamity. This type of sacrifice involving the killing of humans would only take place during periods of severe food shortage, usually due to drought or war. Hundreds or even thousands of captive slaves might be executed during a ritual sacrifice ceremony by means of mass burial after decapitation and/or bloodletting (see Heji fragment 32035 below). The corpses of the victims, along with their severed heads, were buried in mass sacrificial pits or collectively incinerated, to placate what they thought was an angry Shang-Di. Oracle bone inscriptions refer to such sacrificial human blood as qiu (氿, “torrent”), but the precise method for extracting the sacrificial blood remains unknown. The largest human sacrifice event was attributed to Shang king Wu Ding (1250–1192 BC), as seen in Heiji fragment 1027-1 below, where more than one thousand slaves and war captives and offerings were allegedly slaughtered during a single divination ceremony.\nOne of the largest human sacrifice event in oracle bone records, attributed to king Wu Ding (1250–1192 BC) The dichotomization of celebratory and solemn sacrificial rituals also applies to religious practices by the ruling class in the mid to late Shang period. There were instances of total oblation rituals which involved the taking of human life as offerings to Shang Di. There were also instances of substitutive sacrifices which involved burning and destruction of ceremonial vessels and food items as offerings. It is important to note that oblative and substitutive forms of sacrifice differ only not only in terms of their lethality but also in terms of the occasion they were performed. Whereas substitutive rituals were performed typically during calendrical festival occasions to honor the spirit of dead ancestors, oblative human sacrifices were practiced as non-calendrical responses to war and natural calamity. The latter form of sacrifice invariably involved the ritual suspension of nomos (pre-existing formal and customary social protections) pertaining to the taboo of taking human lives. The ritual divination practice in this sense functions as a legitimation rhetorical device, reframing cruel acts of mass violence by the Shang rulers as “necessary” and “justified” performance of a supra-human mandate. These two modes of Shang period sacrifice rituals represent the adaptive strategic framing of sacrifice as the “appropriate” symbolic response for different communal exigencies. The underlying exigence for substitutive sacrifice serves similar ends as all calendrical feasts of religious and traditional nature; that is, to seek to inculcate commonly held values and norms of behavior via predetermined activities revolving around collective food preparation and consumption, thereby automatically implying, via repetition, a collective sense well-being and continuity with the past.\n","permalink":"/blog/2020/10/nca-2020-virtual-convention-presentation-logographic-inventions-of-violent-rituals/","summary":"\u003cimg alt=\"title slide\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-527\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2020/10/1.png\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"drop-cap\"\u003eThe ritual taking of things that are of human value, including the ritual killing of humans, has been continuously practiced for as long as human civilization itself has existed. In my presentation for the upcoming virtual \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.natcom.org/convention-events/virtual-2020-convention\"\u003e2020 \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eNational Communication Association's \u003c/span\u003eAnnual Convention\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e, I will highlight key findings from one of my ongoing historical archival projects, focusing on the rhetoric of human sacrifice as represented in Early Bronze Age China oracle bone scripts (c.1250 BC - 1046 BC). It will be delivered at the v\u003ca href=\"https://www.natcom.org/sites/default/files/annual-convention/Accessing%20Session%20Content%20%20FINAL.pdf\"\u003eirtual paper session\u003c/a\u003e, \"GPS: Changing Routes in Rhetoric's History\" sponsored by the \u003ca href=\"https://ww4.aievolution.com/nca2001/index.cfm?do=ev.viewEv\u0026amp;ev=10689\"\u003eAmerican Society for the History of Rhetoric\u003c/a\u003e on November 1st, 2020.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"NCA 2020 Virtual Convention Presentation:  Logographic Inventions of Violent Rituals"},{"content":"My recent interview for the \"Coronavirus and International Affairs\" Webinar, hosted by Penn State International Affairs and Penn State Law, Coalition for Peace \u0026amp; Ethics: (Originally posted by Larry Catá Backer at 4/14/2020 11:28:00 AM) Interview: Keren Wang on Comparing US and Chinese Responses to the Pandemic, for Upcoming Webinar \"COVID-19 and International Affairs\" (17 April 2020) In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state. Alice Hong provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US. And GAO Shan spoke to the way that the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative context of Wuhan (where his family lives) and the US Midwest (where he now resides). For our next interview Keren Wang speaks to the issues of the way that the Pandemic was framed and experienced in the US and China. He considers the ways in which each system framed the pandemic in ways that could be understood. He noted how differences in those understandings could produce very different responses. Dr. Wang also considered the ways in which the official and popular discourse about the pandemic sometimes aligned and sometimes deviated in some substantial respects. The effects on both the internal organization of national responses, and on their international relations of states, have been both profound and to some extent quite different. The interview may be accessed HERE: Keren Wang interview here. Conference Concept Note HERE\nRegistration (Free) HERE Conference Website HERE.\nPosted by Larry Catá Backer at 4/14/2020 11:28:00 AM ","permalink":"/blog/2020/04/my-recent-interview-for-the-coronavirus-and-international-affairs-webinar/","summary":"\u003ch3\u003eMy recent interview for the \"Coronavirus and International Affairs\" Webinar, hosted by Penn State International Affairs and Penn State Law, Coalition for Peace \u0026amp; Ethics:\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003e(\u003cspan class=\"post-author vcard\"\u003eOriginally posted by \u003cspan class=\"fn\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"g-profile\" data-gapiattached=\"true\" data-gapiscan=\"true\" data-onload=\"true\" href=\"https://www.blogger.com/profile/06545101367530775497\" rel=\"author\" title=\"author profile\"\u003eLarry Catá Backer \u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"post-timestamp\"\u003eat \u003ca class=\"timestamp-link\" href=\"http://lcbackerblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/interview-keren-wang-on-compasring-us.html\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"permanent link\"\u003e\u003cabbr class=\"published\" title=\"2020-04-14T11:28:00-04:00\"\u003e4/14/2020 11:28:00 AM)\u003c/abbr\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003ch5 class=\"post-title entry-title\"\u003eInterview: Keren Wang on Comparing US and Chinese Responses to the Pandemic, for Upcoming Webinar \"COVID-19 and International Affairs\" (17 April 2020)\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"post-header\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"post-header-line-1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"post-body entry-content\" id=\"post-body-4028548618086851093\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"separator\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"post-header\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yn6Dgr3nlHw/XpXUeURPOwI/AAAAAAAAS3E/dzaQP4oE_nANsYYCfOG4gMsqFL6oshD2ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-04-14%2Bat%2B11.19.04%2BAM.png\"\u003e\u003cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"436\" data-original-width=\"374\" height=\"320\" src=\"/images/external/1-bp-blogspot-com/-Yn6Dgr3nlHw/XpXUeURPOwI/AAAAAAAAS3E/dzaQP4oE_nANsYYCfOG4gMsqFL6oshD2ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-04-14+at+11.19.04+AM.png\" width=\"274\"/\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"separator\" title=\"\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eIn the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6pg8c3VR_wPL4EtXwvoPYiD7VDy1YDb9\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCoalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/b\u003e.\u003c/a\u003e For our\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbHcLNdR-y0\"\u003e first interview, Flora Sapio\u003c/a\u003e spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jgYvKzy_qg\u0026amp;list=PL6pg8c3VR_wPL4EtXwvoPYiD7VDy1YDb9\u0026amp;index=2\u0026amp;t=7s\"\u003esecond interview, Larry Catá Backer\u003c/a\u003e spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYZSlkwrsHU\u0026amp;list=PL6pg8c3VR_wPL4EtXwvoPYiD7VDy1YDb9\u0026amp;index=4\u0026amp;t=0s\"\u003eYuri Gonzalez\u003c/a\u003e was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state.  \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuYj251Ujyo\u0026amp;list=PL6pg8c3VR_wPL4EtXwvoPYiD7VDy1YDb9\u0026amp;index=5\u0026amp;t=0s\"\u003eAlice Hong\u003c/a\u003e provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KWypsBCBJw\u0026amp;list=PL6pg8c3VR_wPL4EtXwvoPYiD7VDy1YDb9\u0026amp;index=6\u0026amp;t=0s\"\u003eGAO Shan spoke\u003c/a\u003e to the way that the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative context of Wuhan (where his family lives) and the US Midwest (where he now resides).\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"separator\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eFor our next interview Keren Wang speaks to the issues of the way that the Pandemic was framed and experienced in the US and China. He considers the ways in which each system framed the pandemic in ways that could be understood. He noted how differences in those understandings could produce very different responses. Dr. Wang also considered the ways in which the official and popular discourse about the pandemic sometimes aligned and sometimes deviated in some substantial respects. The effects on both the internal organization of national responses, and on their international relations of states, have been both profound and to some extent quite different.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"separator\"\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p9_ILWuWtz4/XpR9Gdu-kII/AAAAAAAAS2Y/ToifySDFYl8WVhEnBJWZnPI_PkwMivVqACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-04-13%2Bat%2B10.54.08%2BAM.png\"\u003e\u003cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"450\" data-original-width=\"804\" height=\"179\" src=\"/images/external/1-bp-blogspot-com/-p9_ILWuWtz4/XpR9Gdu-kII/AAAAAAAAS2Y/ToifySDFYl8WVhEnBJWZnPI_PkwMivVqACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-04-13+at+10.54.08+AM.png\" title=\"\" width=\"320\"/\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe interview may be accessed HERE:  \u003c/b\u003e Keren Wang \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uoFAPF_LKs\u0026amp;list=PL6pg8c3VR_wPL4EtXwvoPYiD7VDy1YDb9\u0026amp;index=7\u0026amp;t=0s\"\u003einterview here\u003c/a\u003e.\n\u003cp\u003eConference Concept Note \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecpe.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/REV_Concept_Note_CoronavirusIA.pdf\"\u003eHERE\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My recent interview for the \"Coronavirus and International Affairs\" Webinar"},{"content":"\"Reexamining Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism\" Presentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Building on my doctoral dissertation, I have been exploring the rhetorical inventions of \"sacrifice\" in the construction and ordering of societal institutions. The rhetoric of sacrifice, and its public rituals, form a core practice of all social orders. Though the practices have become substantially more subtle and even more deeply embedded in everyday social practices and expectations, this research project explores the underlying local and trans-cultural reflexes inherent in the performance of social, political, and economic sacrifices, and their connections to the organization of public institutions. Indeed, the fundamental presumption of sacrifice - the bargaining between unequal powers for the purchase of objectives by the offering of items precious to the giver - has often become so embedded to tacit social norms as to become effectively invisible. Though this project focuses on its connection to the organization of what is termed \"late capitalism,\" its insinuation in all social orderings is hard to ignore. \"Civilized\" societies and economic relations are ordered through the rituals of sacrifice - propitiation for whatever totems and taboos are set above the governance orders around which collectives coalesce. The abstract and PPTs of the presentation, entitled Reexamining Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism, follows below. The book from which these ideas were drawn will be published soon under the title Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism, 1st Edition by Routledge's. Reexamining Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism Keren Wang, The Pennsylvania State University kuw148[AT]psu.edu Abstract: This work focuses on one understudied rhetorical dynamic of late-capitalist governmentality – its deployment of ritual and sacrificial discourses. Ritual takings of things of human value, including ritual human sacrifice, has been continuously practiced for as long as human civilization itself has existed. Ample historical records suggest ritual sacrifices were performed as crisis management devices. Large scale human sacrifices in Shang dynasty China were organized as responses to severe food shortages. Ancient Greece devised the specialized sacrificial forms of total oblation and scapegoating as apotropaic responses to ward off catastrophes. The Aztec Empire introduced a highly institutionalized form of ritual warfare, known as the “Flower War,” for the purpose of calendrical population control during periods of famine. Sacrificial rituals of the past should not be considered fundamentally divorced from the governmentality of twenty-first-century. The source distribution structure of late-capitalism, too, reproduce itself via the ritual inculcation of its core values and normative practices. Specifically, this project seeks to examine the subtle ways in which rhetorics of sacrifice are re-appropriated into the workings marketization politics, and are deployed in rendering dehumanizing measures of the prevailing political-economic system that make them appear palpable and inescapable.\n","permalink":"/blog/2019/06/reexamining-ritual-sacrifice-in-late-capitalism-presentation-at-the-48th-annual-conference-of-the-society-of-australasian-social-psychologists-sasp/","summary":"\u003ch2 class=\"post-title entry-title\"\u003e\"Reexamining Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism\"\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch5 class=\"post-title entry-title\"\u003ePresentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney\u003c/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eBuilding on my doctoral dissertation, I have been exploring the rhetorical inventions of \"sacrifice\" in the construction and ordering of societal institutions.  The rhetoric of sacrifice, and its public rituals, form a core practice of all social orders.  Though the practices have become substantially more subtle and even more deeply embedded in everyday social practices and expectations, this research project explores the underlying local and trans-cultural reflexes inherent in the performance of social, political, and economic sacrifices, and their connections to the organization of public institutions. Indeed, the fundamental presumption of sacrifice - the \u003ci\u003ebargaining\u003c/i\u003e between unequal powers for the purchase of objectives by the offering of items precious to the giver - has often become so embedded to tacit social norms as to become effectively invisible. Though this project focuses on its connection to the organization of what is termed \"late capitalism,\" its insinuation in all social orderings is hard to ignore. \"Civilized\" societies and economic relations are ordered through the rituals of sacrifice - \u003ca href=\"https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/propitiation/\"\u003epropitiation\u003c/a\u003e for whatever totems and taboos are set above the governance orders around which collectives coalesce.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","title":"Presentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney"},{"content":" (December 2nd, 2019)\nI am very pleased to announce that my academic monograph with Routledge | Taylor \u0026amp; Francis Group has now been published: Keren Wang, Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. It is available in both hardback and digital formats. This book was developed from my doctoral dissertation, “Three Studies of Ritual Sacrifice in Late Capitalism.” I would like to extend my special thanks to Stephen H. Browne, my dissertation supervisor, and to members of my dissertation advising committee: Larry Catá Backer, Kirt H. Wilson, and Jeremy David Engels. This project would not have been possible without their guidance and mentorship. I would also like to express my gratitude to members of the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State University for their generous, ongoing support of my Ph.D. study and related postdoctoral research. This book examines the subtle ways in which rhetorics of sacrifice have been re-appropriated into the workings of the global political economy in the twenty-first century. It presents an in-depth analysis of how ritual practices are deployed, under a diverse set of political and legal contexts, as legitimation devices that render exploitative structures of the prevailing political-economic system inescapable, or even palatable. To this end, the work explores the deeper rhetorical and legal basis of late-capitalist governmentality by critically interrogating its mythical and ritual dimensions. The analysis gives due consideration to contemporary incarnations of ritual sacrifice in transnational neoliberal discourse: from exploitative yet inescapable contractual obligations to calendrical multi-billion-dollar “offerings” to the insatiable needs of “too-big-to-fail” corporations. The first part of the book provides a working interpretive framework for understanding the politics of ritual sacrifice, one that not only accommodates multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge of ritual practices but can also be employed in the integrated analysis of sacrificial rituals as political rhetoric under divergent historical and societal contexts. The second part conducts a series of case studies that cut across the wide variability of ritual public takings in late capitalism. The book concludes by highlighting several common doctrines of public ritual sacrifice observed across these cases. These doctrines reflect the rhetorical and legal foundations for public takings under hegemonic market-driven governance; they define “appropriate and proper” occasions for suspending pre-existing legal protections to regularize otherwise transgressive transfers of rights and possessions for the “greater good” of the economic order. ","permalink":"/blog/2018/11/announcing-upcoming-book-legal-and-rhetorical-foundations-of-economic-globalization-an-atlas-of-ritual-sacrifice-in-late-capitalism-in-press-with-routledge/","summary":"\u003c!-- wp:html --\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(December 2nd, 2019)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n  I am very pleased to announce that my academic monograph with Routledge | Taylor \u0026amp; Francis Group \u003cem\u003ehas now been published\u003c/em\u003e:\n  \u003ca href=\"/blog/2018/11/announcing-upcoming-book-legal-and-rhetorical-foundations-of-economic-globalization-an-atlas-of-ritual-sacrifice-in-late-capitalism-in-press-with-routledge/\"\u003eKeren Wang, \u003c/a\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198687\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eLegal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e.\n  It is available in both hardback and digital formats.\n\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n  This book was developed from my doctoral dissertation, “\u003ca href=\"/blog/2018/05/presentation-at-2018-psu-social-thought-conference-three-studies-of-ritual-sacrifice-in-late-capitalism/\"\u003eThree Studies of Ritual Sacrifice in Late Capitalism\u003c/a\u003e.” I would like to extend my special thanks to\n  \u003ca href=\"http://cas.la.psu.edu/people/sxb17\"\u003eStephen H. Browne\u003c/a\u003e, my dissertation supervisor, and to members of my dissertation advising committee:\n  \u003ca href=\"https://pennstatelaw.psu.edu/faculty/backer\"\u003eLarry Catá Backer\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://cas.la.psu.edu/people/khw2\"\u003eKirt H. Wilson\u003c/a\u003e, and\n  \u003ca href=\"http://cas.la.psu.edu/people/jde13\"\u003eJeremy David Engels\u003c/a\u003e. This project would not have been possible without their guidance and mentorship. I would also like to express my gratitude to members of the\n  \u003ca href=\"http://cas.la.psu.edu\"\u003eDepartment of Communication Arts and Sciences\u003c/a\u003e at Penn State University for their generous, ongoing support of my Ph.D. study and related postdoctoral research.\n\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Book: \"Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism\" (Routledge, 2020)"},{"content":"I am happy to report that my recent article, \u0026ldquo;The Rhetorical Invention of Laws of Sacrifice: Kelo v. New London,\u0026rdquo; has just been published and appears in Communication Law Review, Volume 18, Issue 2 (2018): 58-94. My thanks to Dr. Pat Arneson (Chief Editor) for her valuable editorial contribution towards this publication.\nThe article continues my broader work exploring the concept of sacrifice as a useful concept for thinking about how violent transactions are rhetorically justified. The abstract follows. An online version of the article may be accessed HERE. Abstract:\nThis paper studies the relationship between American legal rhetoric and public ritual of sacrifice through the analysis of Kelo v. The City of New London, a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision affirming the regulatory seizure of private homes for commercial redevelopment. Particularly, this paper explores the rhetorical invention and expansion of the law of irresistible public sacrifice as articulated in the Kelo decision. The rhetorical analysis of the Kelo decision finds that the SCOTUS tacitly affirmed the legitimacy of neoliberal logos of governance as the guiding principle for applying the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Furthermore, the judicial rhetoric in the Kelo decision, in effect, re-framed solely private commercial interest as a sufficient exigence for suspending legal protections of the right of quiet enjoyment of private property. The judicial rhetoric deployed in the Kelo case effectively provided constitutional legitimacy for the privatization of eminent domain power as generally applied in urban redevelopment contexts. More importantly, the Kelo decision also rhetorically transformed a previously exceptional transgressive government act of seizure into a repeatable ritual sacrifice, in full conformity with an updated constitutional memory\n","permalink":"/blog/2018/10/new-article-published-the-rhetorical-invention-of-laws-of-sacrifice-communication-law-review/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI am happy to report that my recent article, \u0026ldquo;\u003ca class=\"style_1\" href=\"http://commlawreview.org/Archives/v18i2/CLRv18i2_The_Rhetorical_Invention\" title=\"http://commlawreview.org/Archives/v18i2/CLRv18i2_The_Rhetorical_Invention\"\u003eThe Rhetorical Invention of Laws of Sacrifice: Kelo v. New London,\u0026rdquo; \u003c/a\u003ehas just been published and appears in \u003ca href=\"http://www.commlawreview.org/Communication_Law_Review/Welcome.html\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eCommunication Law Review\u003c/em\u003e,\u003c/a\u003e Volume 18, Issue 2 (2018): 58-94. My thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.duq.edu/academics/faculty/pat-arneson\"\u003eDr. Pat Arneson\u003c/a\u003e (Chief Editor) for her valuable editorial contribution towards this publication.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe article continues my broader work exploring the \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003econcept of sacrifice as a useful concept for thinking about how violent transactions are rhetorically justified. The abstract follows. An online version of the article may be accessed \u003ca href=\"http://commlawreview.org/Archives/v18i2/CLRv18i2_The_Rhetorical_Invention\"\u003eHERE\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Publication: \"The Rhetorical Invention of Laws of Sacrifice\" (Communication Law Review)"},{"content":"This presentation highlights a few key excerpts from my doctoral dissertation research:\n\u0026ldquo;The ritual taking of things that are of human value, including the ritual killing of humans, has been continuously practiced for as long as human civilization itself has existed. Sacrifices in the form of state-organized rituals have been observed in many societies throughout history. Existing scholarship also observed an interdependent relationship between ritual sacrifice and the maintenance of political power in a broad set of historical cases, ranging from Shang dynasty China in 10th century BCE to the witch-hunts in early modern Europe. Sacrificial rituals of the past should not be considered fundamentally divorced from our modern world: whereas the formal elements of sacrifice of the past may no longer be recognizable, their substantive political functions do remain, with rhetorical overtones that carry into the politics of the present time. The goal for this project is to give due consideration to the politics of sacrificial rites across a broad set of political-theological traditions, hopefully paving the way to a new unifying understanding of sacrificial rhetorics. This research goal revolves around two primary research tasks that are intimately connected. The first is to provide a working interpretative framework for understanding the politics of ritual sacrifice – one that not only accommodates multidisciplinary, intersectional knowledge of ritual practices, but that can also be usefully employed in the integrated analysis of sacrificial rituals as political rhetoric under divergent historical and societal contexts. The second conducts a series of case studies that cuts across the wide variability of ritual public takings in late-capitalism.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;It is important to note that ritual sacrifices were far more than simply acts of religious devotion. Historical evidence suggests ritual sacrifices were performed as crisis management devices. Large scale human sacrifices in Shang dynasty China and pre-Columbian Mesoamerica would only take place during periods of severe food shortage, usually caused by war or crop failure. In the mid-sixteenth century, King Ixtlilxochitl of the Aztec Empire (also known as the Triple Alliance) introduced a highly institutionalized form of ritual warfare, known as the \u0026lsquo;Flower War\u0026rsquo; (Nahuatl: xōchiyāōyōtl), for the purpose of calendrical population control during periods of famine.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Ancient Greece devised the specialized sacrificial forms of Holokaustos (total oblation) and Pharmakos (scapegoat) as “appropriate responses” to major catastrophes.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Although people in modern society seldom consider ritual sacrifice (especially those that involve the slaughter of humans for ritual purposes) as an ongoing practice, it nonetheless remains an organizing element of contemporary institutions of governance. Capital punishment, for instance, is one of the oldest forms of human ritual sacrifice that is continuously practiced to the present day.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;The causal relationship between desire and violence has been widely discussed in early Enlightenment political philosophy – most notably by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan, where he famously attributed the “King’s violence” to the fundamental and insatiable human desire for power and riches. With the rise of social psychology throughout the twentieth century, theories of human sacrifice began to expand beyond the evolutionary framework. The most influential theoretical contribution on the social psychology of sacrifice can be attributed to Sigmund Freud’s writings in Totem and Taboo, where he grounded ritualistic killings of other human beings as a manifestation of the intrinsic destructive impulse of the human ego. For Freud, human sacrifice, though it may seem like an exceptionally savage type of practice, is in fact a form of collective manifestation of basic human neuroses and insecurities. American social psychologist Erich Fromm observed that not only does the religious phenomenon of sacrifice still exists in modern society, but modernity has in many ways amplified the scope, intensity and destructiveness of ritual human sacrifice. As modern forms of the ritual of sacrifice are disguised behind a thin veil of contemporary mythic justification frameworks, often spelled out in the language of economic, legal, and scientific rationalities, it is helpful to first examine scholarship on historical forms of ritual human sacrifice, so that we may distill an intersectional body of analytical vocabularies for our readings into of present movements. René Girard also considered the subject of human sacrifice along similar psychological lines, arguing that all sacred rituals are externalizations of violent human tendencies. In this regard, Girard points to our mimetic desire – desiring of what others have that we lack – as the source of human violence.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Works by Giorgio Agamben constituted the most significant twenty-first-century revival in the study of ritual sacrifice as political discourse. In his Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy (1999), Agamben defined the concept of the homo sacer (sacred or accursed man) not as a historical particularity or person, as a metaphor for the rhetorical moment which the sovereign declares its power over \u0026lsquo;bare life\u0026rsquo; (or life always ready to be disposed). It is a moment where the \u0026rsquo;experience of history\u0026rsquo; appropriates the \u0026rsquo;experience of language,\u0026rsquo; as Agamben suggested, where the collective past is “saved” by “being transformed into something that never was.” The messianic logic also assumes radically different temporality than historical revisionist narratives – it does not merely seek to reshape historical experience of the audience, but to claim the end of their history. The concept of kleto became a major subject of research in Agamben’s 2005 book The Time that Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans. In The Time that Remains, Agamben identified the messianic rhetoric in the letters of Apostle Paul served to construct a political theology that asserts itself as the end-of-history (and therefore end of political potentialities), by dividing the population along the binary of eternal salvation vs. damnation. Agamben contended that the political implication of Apostle Paul’s messianic rhetoric is not trivial – it was deployed as a discursive device for both the perpetual segregation and disenfranchisement of a population.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;The \u0026lsquo;political geography\u0026rsquo; form of rhetorical analysis provides an important methodological context for this dissertation project. Partially drawing from what Deleuze and Guattari calls \u0026rsquo;nomadic thought\u0026rsquo; as the main critical approach for this \u0026lsquo;geographical\u0026rsquo; intervention. However, the mapping attempt outlined in this dissertation differs from Deleuze’s neo-Kantian framework. The \u0026rsquo;nomadic\u0026rsquo; position outlined in the works of Deleuze demand an epistemologically indifferent gaze that is radically detached from the \u0026lsquo;striated territories\u0026rsquo; of political discourse on the ground. The \u0026rsquo;nomadic thought as outlined in their works assumes an undifferentiated plane of analysis that is extra-political and extra-territorial, thereby allowing the nomadic critic to \u0026lsquo;smoothly\u0026rsquo; navigate among networks of knowledge-spaces. Deleuze’s nomad playfully assumes a detached neutrality and comfortable indifference towards territorial statehood and political spaces. In contrast, the critical position for this project would better be compared to that of a \u0026lsquo;fugitive.\u0026rsquo; More specifically, a fugitive remains in a state constant exile – always stateless yet remain apprehensively watchful for subtle traces of political power.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;No cartographer can hope to obtain the \u0026lsquo;God’s eye view\u0026rsquo; removed from the limits of language and symbolic representations, and perfectly transcribes topographical and topological features \u0026rsquo;the way they are.\u0026rsquo; In addition to identifying relevant features pertinent to the specific theme of the integrative rhetorical analysis, the interpretation and translation of these features are also fundamental challenges for mapping. The unique research topic tasked for this atlas project also adds an additional layer of challenge. The emergence of global capitalism accompanies the proliferation of its totalizing epistemic \u0026lsquo;fog-of-war\u0026rsquo; – one that shrouds multitudes of political and historical vicissitudes of everyday life without completely clearing them. Disparities in political variations and economic conditions remain visible at the local level, but these locally embedded tensions would have reduced visibility when examined from afar. When political expressions are \u0026rsquo;taken hostage\u0026rsquo; by the all-encompassing economic logic of neoliberalism, it is increasingly difficult locate a stable vantage point to render nuanced understanding of neoliberal discourse.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Extending from recent rhetorical works in areas of political geography and ideological assemblage, this project would suggest employing a \u0026lsquo;rhetorical atlas\u0026rsquo; approach for its critical analysis. The thematic focus of this mapping effort rests on the discrete and simultaneous tracing of the discursive contours of sacrifice different local settings. Its aim is to collectively offer a small cross-section glimpse into the multiformity of mythical-ritual practices in the maintenance of neoliberalism governance. The atlas provides a good middle ground that allows for balanced display of both scope and detail, collectively presenting separately mapped localities of a larger region.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;A total of three well-documented bodies of text have been selected as the main objects-of-analysis for this section.\nKelo v. New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) - S. Supreme Court landmark decision permitting the use of eminent domain by local governments to seize residential properties for private redevelopment. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the court’s majority opinion. [i] “Complaint to the UK National Contact Point under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises,” filed by British NGO Survival International on December 2008, in response to the Niyamgiri indigenous land mining project controversy. Collection of speeches made by Dr. H. F. Verwoerd (1901 – 1966) – Professor of Sociology and Social Work at University of Stellenbosch, 6th Prime Minister of South Africa, and perhaps most famously remembered as the “Architect of Apartheid.” Given that neoliberalism \u0026lsquo;speaks\u0026rsquo; at both global and local levels, this project needs to look for ways to examine the rhetoric of sacrifice in diverse global settings without excessive sacrifices on attentions to local details. Thus, a total of five case studies present a realistic middle ground allowing a degree of diversity of examples without sacrificing attention to each individual text. Second, all three textual objects are formally-organized bodies of speech and/or text produced for public context. For each object of analysis, its operation is confined within the prescribed political and legal parameters, and its textual production revolves around a prescribed set of ritual performances and sequential procedures. Third, the selected texts collectively offer a small but diverse and representative slice of those formal expressions commonly produced by key state and non-state actors in the contemporary global system. Lastly, each of the selected textual objects reveals a subtle yet representative aspect of the multifaceted ways neoliberal politics appropriate and deploy the rhetoric of sacrifice for its productive ends.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;After surveying the surface topography of the case, the rhetorical analysis proceeds into the ritual and ideological “substrate” of the given rhetorical moment. This substrate analysis involves focused yet historically deep excavation of tacitly embedded belief structures that maintain and legitimize ritual sacrifice. The third stage goes beyond surface text and their immediate contexts, and moves toward tracing those tacit political and economic fault lines that run beneath the rhetoric of sacrifice. This involves locating their divergent boundaries, fractures and potential points of rupture. At this stage the cartographer can no longer solely rely on her bare eyes and senses from a fixed vantage point. To further survey the sub-textual structures which lay underneath the written and spoken text, the cartographer is tasked with moving freely across the terrain, thus bringing a wide range of instruments and references to trace previously unmapped details. The textual and contextual layers of the text-object will be re-interrogated with the help of divergent vocabularies from past practices of ritual sacrifice. The final stage concludes the textual analysis by bringing the multi-layered mapping from the previous three stages back into the thematic discussion of global neoliberal discourse.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;The concept of human violence can be extremely broad, context driven, and self-contradictory. It is nonetheless sufficient to say that violent acts, when deployed as organized symbolic practices, necessarily involve transaction between actors, or groups of actors. Violent transactions not only often entail the use of force and/or power, both threatened and actual, between social actors, but also involve the transfer of wealth and resources among human groups. Ritual cannibalism, which was prevalent in prehistoric societies, not only involved consumption of human flesh for nutritional gains, but also the taking of resources which the cannibalized victim possessed.The defining element for ritual sacrifice is not the act of taking per se, but the legitimation process of violent takings through ritual suspension of nomos (pre-existing formal and customary social protections). The rhetoric of ritual functions as an audience-adaptation framework, via symbolic processes of consubstantiality and liminality. The ritual framing of human sacrifice thereby effectively conceals the violent and transgressive nature of the act, and transforms the violent transaction into a necessity and/or public good.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Collective ideas, even in the form of \u0026lsquo;religious superstitions,\u0026rsquo; do not simply emerge from thin air ad libitum; rather, they both inflect upon and reflect a given society’s political and economic conditions. In theology, ecclesia (ἐκκλησία, ministry) is used to describe local ministries as well as in broader sense all members of a faith organized under a common religious institution. Here I would like to borrow the theological term ecclesia precisely because a full-fledged constitutional society functions similarly to religious institutions – both require the interdependent presence of formal doctrines and practicing believers. Indeed, organized religious communities and secular rule-of-law societies are organized around similar operating principles. Their proper functioning is dependent on two conditions: The first is the good faith of the commons – that personal ego and habits are restrained under a self-referencing set of collective core values and beliefs. The second condition is the ritual repetition – that those shared core values are maintained via enforcement of laws that reflect the material condition and pressing needs of the community. The authority of both the ecclesiastical body and the constitutional state are bound by their laws precisely because the laws themselves reflect the set of basic principles that the authority organizes itself upon. This interconnectedness between collective belief, collectively observed rituals, and collective legal consciousness in fact has been succinctly echoed in Rousseau’s writings in defense of classical republicanism, where Rousseau used the metaphor of \u0026lsquo;general will\u0026rsquo; in describing the sovereignty as an belief community.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Ritual sacrifice, both ancient and contemporary, encompasses a complex set of social phenomena involving the mythic justification and ritualization of collective act of taking. While the ritual acts of taking are organized differently to respond to a broad range of exigences, audience and constraints that might arise, the substantive nature of the act remains the same. It invariably involves some collective acts of seizure, transfer and/or destruction of things of both symbolic and real human significance, including the capture, confinement, mutilation and slaughter of human body. By defining ritual as a \u0026lsquo;collective\u0026rsquo; social action, it does not imply that the actual performance of taking must be carried out by multiple agents. Rather, it refers to the collective identification of the act as a \u0026lsquo;reenactment of a prior event. \u0026hellip;Ritual takings in the post-WWII political worldview share a number overlapping justification frames. This dissertation has so far identified five common frames, or doctrines, of ritual sacrifice that are broadly observed in its case studies. These common frames may be explicitly stated or tacitly assumed, but they tend to broadly reflect the hegemonic market-driven governmentality. These five doctrines together form the rhetorical foundation for public ritual sacrifice in late-capitalism. They define the \u0026lsquo;appropriate and proper\u0026rsquo; occasions for suspending pre-existing rule of law and rights protections, to allow otherwise transgressive social transactions that are previous prohibited.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;The first common doctrine is the total depravity of an economically accursed condition. This common doctrine involves a two-fold anathema, formally delivered by the acting authority against the accursed party to be sacrificed. First is the identification of a certain pre-existing condition that is always-already-depraved. That is, certain general conditions (i.e. blighted inner-city neighborhoods) already bound by totalizing presumptions that these conditions would always, and without exception, totally deprave the collective economic outlook of the community. The second anathema is the explicit naming of the party the accursed condition is being inflicted upon (i.e. condemning the blighted city neighborhoods for regulatory seizure). In the case where the economically accursed condition is declared as \u0026rsquo;totally depraved\u0026rsquo; by institutions of authority, such declaration often triggers the mandatory seizure of valuable resources as necessary means to deliver the commons from economic doom\u0026hellip; \u0026hellip;Ritual sacrifice is deployed as the automatic and \u0026lsquo;appropriate\u0026rsquo; response a certain pre-existing condition that is considered to be accursed by institutions of authority. Interestingly, it is observed that under the governmentality of late-liberalism, the accursed is often a certain pre-existing condition rather than the offering itself. This kind of \u0026lsquo;pre-existing condition\u0026rsquo; is assumed to be a totally abomination; that is, a taboo that mandates ritual sacrifice to protect a certain totemic good that must be preserved. An accursed condition may exist in the literal form of the \u0026lsquo;pre-existing condition clause\u0026rsquo; in many for-profit health insurance contracts, for example. The rhetorical assumption is that it is not the patient him or herself that is the accursed. Rather, the curse is directed at certain conditions that are defined by the insurance company. It is assumed, typically without any material evidence, that the self-generated list of \u0026lsquo;pre-existing medical conditions\u0026rsquo; are taboos for the industry, as they total abominations the economic profitability of corporate stakeholders. Furthermore, the \u0026rsquo;economic profitability\u0026rsquo; is assumed to be so sacred that it does not seem proper to wait for material evidence to emerge in order to drop insurance coverage. Rather, the discovery of pre-existing conditions automatically triggers instant and negotiable denial from coverage.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;The second common doctrine, unconditional election of modified offerings, frames the parameters of the offering being elected for ritual sacrifice. It also provides the modus operandi of their election. In all three case studies, the sacrificial victims were elected via entirely impersonal grounds (unconditional election). Furthermore, human sacrifices in these cases did not directly involve the total oblation (killing) of the victim. Instead, they demanded modified offerings in the form of economic resources and access to these resources. In the case of Apartheid South Africa, the unconditional permanent surrender of resources and access was generally applied via no reason other than one’s assigned genetic category. This seemingly arbitrary election of the sacrificial victim rhetorically conceals the human agent behind the violent transaction.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;\u0026hellip;[T]he psychological conditions driving 20th century warfare were comparable to that of ancient child sacrifice as practiced in Canaan at the time of Carthage. The main conceptual difference between ancient and modern child sacrifices (war) merely in the name of the sacrificial cult, and the election process for sacrificial offerings. In short, same destructiveness, different idolatries. Rhetorical theology, in this case, is more appropriate frame to examine many of the regularized, tacit articulations of the politics of sacrifice. Rituals are known for their liminal role in regulating and normalizing traumatic human experiences via symbolically concealing the violence. Even after WWII, the potential destructiveness of the nation-state idolatry did not subside, but further intensified. Elaborate and all-encompassing rites and infrastructure of nuclear deterrence and mutually assured destruction emerged in the Cold War era, transforming the human civilization itself as the always-ready offering for automated total annihilation. The global nuclear deterrence regime persisted even after the end of Cold War. The possession of nuclear weapon systems, and the ability to kills hundreds-of-millions of people within hours, are still recognized as ultimate signs of national prestige.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Under the sacrificial regime of Cold War era nuclear deterrence, the election for its sacrificial offering is unconditional, total (as applied to the general population), and oblative (killing humans is the ritual’s core objective), and final (as it cannot be repeated in the foreseeable future, either due to human extinction or long-term radioactive fallout). This doctrine of unconditional mutual homicide, paradoxically, has been peculiarly comforting to those who believe it. It is not difficult to find reasonably sober and knowledgeable people professing full faith in the necessity of mutual homicide to protect peace and national security. However, there is an intrinsic contradiction within the \u0026rsquo;economy\u0026rsquo; of the oblative sacrificial rite of the nuclear state\u0026hellip; While the state-centric orthodoxy maintains its institutional presence globally, it is been gradually displaced by an emergent market-centric governmentality. The rise of neoliberalism can be understood as a post-WWII reformation movement within the political theology of modernity. The rite of the late-capitalist transnational governmentality displaces the state with economic growth as the new telos of the political. Human lives were no longer simply assumed as means to preserve the integrity of the idolized Westphalian state. Rather, both the state apparatus and its population have become means to serve the ends of economic growth\u0026hellip;. Within this emergent \u0026lsquo;grow-or-die\u0026rsquo; economic worldview, a person is simply more \u0026lsquo;profitable\u0026rsquo; living than dead. As growth in late-capitalism is largely driven by overconsumption and structural debt, the distinction between economically productive and unproductive members of society is blurred. Under this kind of economic regime, value is generated not only from labor-productivity, but also from consumption and direct extraction (from commodified bodies). A chronically ill and disabled patient may have limited labor value potential, but can be extremely \u0026lsquo;profitable\u0026rsquo; for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Within an increasingly privatized prison-industrial complex, even deviance and criminality can function as factors of value-extraction.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;At surface, given the high economic cost of oblative human sacrifice, ritual sacrifice in late-capitalism may tend to appear less deadly than those \u0026lsquo;patriotic\u0026rsquo; ritual killings of two world wars. However, it is important to remember that this seemingly \u0026rsquo;life-affirming\u0026rsquo; consequence of neoliberalism is merely incidental to the working its value-creation mechanism. It is nonetheless concerning to witness an emergent system in which a chronically ill or incarcerated individual could generate more corporate revenue than a healthy, productive individual could. As observed in the previous three case studies, rather than total oblation, modified offerings were elected to be sacrificed for the promise of economic growth. Negative power (or power of taking) was exercised not onto human life itself, but onto one’s economic capacity and access to economic resources. Not only an individual is seen as a factor of labor production, but his everyday transactions and biometric data are all potential sources for revenue. Economic resources, personal transactions, biometrics, right-of-access and other socio, political and economic rights protections are the new modified human offerings always-ready-to-be-taken\u0026hellip; A notable exception to the aforementioned \u0026lsquo;more profitable alive than dead\u0026rsquo; rule is the military-industrial complex. War and conflict remains a multi-billion dollar industry in the 21st century. Conservative estimates of the global arms trade in 2015 fell around $100 billion USD. Yet the \u0026lsquo;war economy\u0026rsquo; is constrained by the fact that conflict destabilizes economic growth.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;The third common doctrine, limited realization of predestined growth, serves to bridge the apparent gap between the promised blessing of neoliberal sacrifices and their actual fulfillment. In all three case studies, the “goodness” of the involved policy measures became an unfalsifiable doctrine of faith rather a materially justified fact. The universal benefit of economic growth was reframed by institutions of power as a matter of predestination, and are not subject to “second-guessing.” The doctrine of limited realization of the ideal thus became the rhetorical response by public authorities in the case studies to address constraints that arise from the unfulfilled promises of neoliberalism.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Empirical observations shown above suggest a simple fact – that formal economic growth is increasingly outpacing real income on the ground. Did economic growth fail to materialize into tangible wealth? Yes and no. In practice, the sweeping material promises of growth-driven sacrifices do not fully realize except for a very limited class of financial asset owners, or the so-called \u0026lsquo;Top 1%.\u0026rsquo; Only those very few who own the means of financial speculation are structurally \u0026lsquo;predestined\u0026rsquo; to receive the blessings of the global economic system. Since the 1980s, this trend has been widely observed across in both developing and developed economies around the world. Other non-econometric human development has also remained stagnant or even worsened over the third-wave marketization period. The incarceration rate in the United States increased more than 400% from 1978 to 2010. Globally, both the number and relative intensity of armed conflicts have increased sharply since 2010. The amount of forcibly displaced populations worldwide also rose six-fold from 2000 to 2014.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;\u0026hellip;[A] fundamental rhetorical constraint for authorities in all three case studies is the disparity between the make-believe and lived reality in terms redeeming the material blessings of neoliberal sacrifice. Mythos legitimizes and reifies arguments that cannot be verified via lived experience. For metaphysical God-concepts that transcend human empirical domain, mythos may be the only device available in human language to narrativize the immaterial.[iv] When material justifications are wanting, mythical narratives may be employed to fill the gap of public imaginary. The mythical narrative in this case does not provide an alternative justification to the material knowledge-gap. Rather, it functions as means of evasion – \u0026rsquo;that is, avoidance of an unacceptable truth\u0026rsquo; as deemed by the dominant power structure. Thus, in all three case studies examined so far, the public authority rhetorically transformed the empirically-grounded notion of economic growth into a self-justifying God-concept. This rhetorical transformation would not be possible without pre-existing, socially embedded idolization of \u0026rsquo;economic growth.\u0026rsquo; Under the transnationally proliferated myth that economic growth is the predestined and singular route of the salvation for all political communities, the rhetoric of \u0026rsquo;limited realizations\u0026rsquo; of those promised blessings is sufficient to function as the singular legitimation basis a wide range of ritual sacrifices.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;The Fourth common doctrine can be summarized as irresistible takings by institutions of public authority. This common doctrine seeks to establish the irresistibility of ritual takings. This doctrine responds to the constraint of rhetorical contestation. That is, to manage and constrain the capacity of those discontents of the sacrifice \u0026rsquo;to criticize or uphold an argument, to defend themselves or to accuse.\u0026rsquo; It defines the rhetorical boundaries contestability throughout the ritual taking process, and declares the infallibility of the acting authority to exercise its power of takings. In all three case studies, the irresistible takings doctrine is deployed via certain prescribed judicial, administrative and/or legislative processes.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;\u0026hellip;Ritual takings are presented as automatically triggered via the formal invocation of pubic authority. In the case of public taking, the formal innovation (i.e. property condemnation notice) functions as a signifier of the “publicness” of the act-of-taking. The instant audience recognition of the invocation is possible because the governing authority and its subjects are bound in a state of constitutional consubstantiality. The constitutional framework organizes the subjects under a unified political ecclesia (community sharing a common-faith), in which the totemic field of habitus (or consubstantiality) is provided, which automatically implies certain role expectations and power-relations. Upon audience identification of the formal invocation, an otherwise violent act-of-taking is instantly transformed into a regulated public ritual\u0026hellip; Subsidiary petition rituals are often put in place to make the “bitter pill” of public takings appear more equitable or even palatable. \u0026hellip;[E]ven in a full-fledged liberal, constitutional society, the judiciary apparatus cannot entirely eliminate resistance against its rulings. In situation where ritual sacrifice is both materially damaging and normatively transgressive, it tends to invite a higher degree of public resentment. Often, subsidiary petition structures only allow the negotiation of compensation, but do not permit public takings themselves to be contested. These subsidiary rituals function as pressure-release valves to counterbalance the oppressive nature of the irresistible takings doctrine. Apartheid legislations created separate (and much stricter) judicial process for reviewing petitions against forceful relocation of non-whites. Petition rituals thus often function within the rhetorical field constitutional consubstantiality, to allow a more \u0026lsquo;sustainable\u0026rsquo; expansion of the laws of sacrifice. This in turn leads to the fifth common doctrine – the perseverance of the ritual.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;The fifth common doctrine is the perseverance of the sacrificial ritual. The rhetorical inventive process by the acting authorities in all three case studies share the motivation of rendering exceptional sacrifices permanent. Ritual is, by definition, symbolic act of preservation. Ritual preserves common values and norms of behavior via repetition and consubstantiality. Even destructive rituals, such as war and capital punishment, are formally conducted under the justification framework of preserving collective ideals. The normative structures of neoliberalism, too, reproduce its economic worldview via ritual inculcation of its core values and normative principles. Thus the post-WWII transnationally established norms of governance tend to gravitate towards a preference for the protection of private property, and free movements of goods, services, technology and financial assets. The transnational proliferation of neoliberal constitutionalism only accelerated since the end of the Cold War.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;\u0026hellip;Neoliberalism, however, should not be understood as simply a particular set of ideas and teachings. Neoliberalism is also a historical moment. It is the historical unfolding of the qualitative and quantitative changes, fractures and fissures of capitalist global economy in the late twentieth and twenty-first-century. Even the most foundational liberal ideals, such as the individual’s right to the quiet enjoyment of one’s own property, are readily disposable for the sake of its economic articulations. In all three rhetorical studies, the acting authorities employed the economic logos of neoliberalism to justify the sacrifice of the ideals are considered sacred under the neoliberal normative framework.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;\u0026hellip;[T]he judicial, administrative and legislative organs involved in the case studies not only served as agents of sacrifice, but also legislation of new laws of sacrifice that can be applied in future cases. The rhetoric of the ritual projects its power not only over present disputes, but also over future possibilities. These cases were all considered as exceptional ritual sacrifices in the sense that they significantly departed the pre-existing constitutional nomos. Furthermore, acting authorities in all three cases did not resort to the \u0026lsquo;state of emergency\u0026rsquo; argument. The state of exception itself was formally permitted only momentary suspension of pre-existing legal protections. Yet the ritual sacrifices in the case studies were motivated not only by the act-of-taking present-at-hand, but also the perseverance of new sacrificial rituals to facilitate future takings. Ritual sacrifice in all three case studies not only preserved its ritual for future use, but also preserved their territorial separations, as well as the inequitable distribution of economic resources among their populations.\u0026rdquo;\n(c) 2018 Keren Wang\n(All art illustrations in presentation slides are available on public domain via Wikimedia Commons) ","permalink":"/blog/2018/05/presentation-at-2018-psu-social-thought-conference-three-studies-of-ritual-sacrifice-in-late-capitalism/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis presentation highlights a few key excerpts from my doctoral dissertation research:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-461\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/05/1-1hrbupv.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;The ritual taking of things that are of human value, including the ritual killing of humans, has been continuously practiced for as long as human civilization itself has existed. Sacrifices in the form of state-organized rituals have been observed in many societies throughout history. Existing scholarship also observed an interdependent relationship between ritual sacrifice and the maintenance of political power in a broad set of historical cases, ranging from Shang dynasty China in 10th century BCE to the witch-hunts in early modern Europe. Sacrificial rituals of the past should not be considered fundamentally divorced from our modern world: whereas the formal elements of sacrifice of the past may no longer be recognizable, their substantive political functions do remain, with rhetorical overtones that carry into the politics of the present time. The goal for this project is to give due consideration to the politics of sacrificial rites across a broad set of political-theological traditions, hopefully paving the way to a new unifying understanding of sacrificial rhetorics. This research goal revolves around two primary research tasks that are intimately connected. The first is to provide a working interpretative framework for understanding the politics of ritual sacrifice – one that not only accommodates multidisciplinary, intersectional knowledge of ritual practices, but that can also be usefully employed in the integrated analysis of sacrificial rituals as political rhetoric under divergent historical and societal contexts.  The second conducts a series of case studies that cuts across the wide variability of ritual public takings in late-capitalism.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Presentation at 2018 PSU Social Thought Conference - \"Three studies of ritual sacrifice in late-capitalism\""},{"content":" ","permalink":"/blog/2018/03/a-survey-of-the-apologetics-for-the-2018-prc-constitutional-revision-wip-research/","summary":"\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-448\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/1-1yfnd9m.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-449\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/2-2gkn67e.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-450\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/3-2dmipd5.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-451\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/4-1j2jht6.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-452\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/5-1d7ixyh.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-453\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/6-tw1wdn.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-454\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/7-11hhn8q.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-455\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/8-21i4v1o.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-456\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/9-1u1owbv.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-457\" height=\"540\" src=\"/images/uploads/2018/03/10-zul18b.jpg\" width=\"960\"/\u003e","title":"A Survey of the \"Apologetics\" for the 2018 PRC Constitutional Revision  (WIP research)"},{"content":"by Keren Wang\nThis essay was originally featured on the Penn State Civic \u0026amp; Community Engagement (CIVCOM) website, responding to this year's Constitution Day theme: \"The U.S. Constitution \u0026amp; 'The Dangerous Thirteenth Amendment'.\" Please visit and share with your students this link http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/, where you'll also find essays by Lauren Camacci, Jeremy Cox, Michele Kennerly, Veena Raman, John Rountree, Mary Stuckey, and Kirt Wilson. Last year's resources on \"The Spaces Between the First and Second Amendments\" can still be found here: http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/past-constitution-days/2016-2/ The Constitution of the United States – Article XIII (Amendment 13 – Slavery and Involuntary Servitude) Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.\nIt is sometimes tempting to overlook the Thirteenth Amendment as an anachronistic keepsake from the Reconstruction Era. It has been more than one hundred and fifty years since the Congress ratified Thirteenth Amendment. The abolition of slavery, once the most divisive issue haunting our nation, has since became saturated in our political and ethical world view. The notion that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist” had effectively became a sacred emblem not only for the United States, but also for the civilized world as we know it.\nParadoxically, the historical-thickness and totemic embeddedness of our Thirteenth Amendment is also what make this amendment feel forgettable. We are reminded of our constitutional tenets via explicit challenges (e.g. freedom of speech) and public debates (e.g. the right to bear Arms), and the issue of slavery and involuntary servitude just seem so \u0026ldquo;settled\u0026rdquo; in this day and age.\nOr is it?\nOf course many of the formal elements of race-based chattel slavery are no longer present, but what about the “underlying evils” of slavery? Consider, for example, the 1873 Supreme Court decision in the Slaughter-House Cases (83 U.S. 72). On the surface, the Slaughter-House Cases had little to do with the issue of slavery, as these cases mainly dealt with economic conflicts between government-owned slaughterhouse operation and local slaughterhouses.1 However, the SCOTUS ruled in the Slaughter-House Cases that the Thirteenth Amendment indeed applies to a broad range of economically discriminatory actions. Justice John Archibald Campbell, who delivered the majority opinion of the Court, held the following interpretation of the Thirteenth Amendment:\nUndoubtedly while negro slavery alone was in the mind of the Congress which proposed the thirteenth article, it forbids any other kind of slavery, now or hereafter. …And so if other rights are assailed by the States which properly and necessarily fall within the protection of these articles, that protection will apply, though the party interested may not be of African descent. But what we do say, and what we wish to be understood is, that in any fair and just construction of any section or phrase of these amendments, it is necessary to look to the purpose which we have said was the pervading spirit of them all, the evil which they were designed to remedy, and the process of continued addition to the Constitution, until that purpose was supposed to be accomplished, as far as constitutional law can accomplish it. The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S., at 72 (1873)\nAs evidenced by the above passage, even in the years shortly after its ratification, the SCOTUS has made clear that the Thirteenth Amendment offers broad protection against exploitative and discriminatory labor practices. The language of the Thirteenth Amendment never made “slavery” the exclusive signifier for race-based chattel slavery of the American south. In fact, Justice Campbell explicitly stated in the Slaughter-Case decision that practices such as “Mexican peonage” and “Chinese coolie labor system” were also slavery in terms of the injustices they effectively inflicted. Thus, the SCOTUS made clear in the Slaughter-House Case that the Thirteenth Amendment protects not only against historical forms of slavery, but also against emergent forms of discriminatory practices that share the “pervading spirit” of slavery.\nWhat precisely are the “pervading spirit” and “evil” of slavery mentioned in the Slaughter-House Cases? To get something closer to a concrete answer, we shall take a look at the 1968 landmark Supreme Court case Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. (392 U.S. 409), where the SCOTUS held that:\n“Congress has the power under the Thirteenth Amendment rationally to determine what are the badges and the incidents of slavery … this Court recognized long ago that, whatever else they may have encompassed, the badges and incidents of slavery – its ‘burdens and disabilities’ – included restraints upon ‘those fundamental rights which are the essence of civil freedom.’ […] And when racial discrimination herds men into ghettos and makes their ability to buy property turn on the color of their skin, then it too is a relic of slavery.” Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409 (1968)\nIn Jones v. Alfred, the SCOTUS made an updated interpretation to the Thirteenth Amendment, effectively extending the “Slaughter-House principle” to include not only exploitative labor systems, but also other economic injustices that inherit the burdens and disabilities of slavery.\nHopefully, the judicial interpretations highlighted hereinabove could serve as timely reminders of an amendment that sometimes feels all too forgettable. The SCOTUS decisions also remind us that while the historical forms of slavery may no longer exist, their rhetorical and material overtones do sustain into our present conditions.\nNotes 1 The disputes of the Slaughter-House Cases revolves around the effort by the New Orleans city government to create a government-owned meat processing plant, for the purpose of monopolizing all slaughterhouse operations of the city. The local slaughterhouses brought several suits against the city government, and these cases were eventually consolidated into one and brought before the SCOTUS.\n","permalink":"/blog/2017/09/penn-state-civcom-2017-constitution-day-thirteenth-amendment-and-the-slaughter-house/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eby Keren Wang\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis essay was originally featured on the \u003ca href=\"http://civcm.psu.edu/2017/09/12/the-slaughter-house-principle/\"\u003ePenn State Civic \u0026amp; Community Engagement (CIVCOM)  websit\u003c/a\u003ee, responding to this year's \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eConstitution\u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eDay theme: \"The U.S. Constitution \u0026amp; 'The Dangerous Thirteenth Amendment'.\" \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePlease visit and share with your students this link \u003ca data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?hl=en\u0026amp;q=http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/\u0026amp;source=gmail\u0026amp;ust=1505508602371000\u0026amp;usg=AFQjCNFxMIqIBe5PLVeWSmz-tXqdsnntow\" href=\"http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehttp://civcm.psu.edu/\u003cwbr/\u003econstitution-day/\u003c/a\u003e, where you'll also find essays by Lauren Camacci, Jeremy Cox, Michele Kennerly, Veena Raman, John Rountree, Mary Stuckey, and Kirt Wilson.  Last year's resources on \"The Spaces Between the First and Second Amendments\" can still be found here: \u003ca data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?hl=en\u0026amp;q=http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/past-constitution-days/2016-2/\u0026amp;source=gmail\u0026amp;ust=1505508602371000\u0026amp;usg=AFQjCNGPOS8F8WWpX9cGQgxv9m-2r8R1Og\" href=\"http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/past-constitution-days/2016-2/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehttp://civcm.psu.edu/\u003cwbr/\u003econstitution-day/past-\u003cwbr/\u003econstitution-days/2016-2/\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\n\u003chr/\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003eThe Constitution of the United States – Article XIII (Amendment 13 – Slavery and Involuntary Servitude)\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNeither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.\u003c/em\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eCongress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Thirteenth Amendment and the “Slaughter-House”"},{"content":" \u0026ldquo;As regards the erection of such a monument as is contemplated, my conviction is, that, however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt, in the present condition of the country, would have the effect of retarding instead of accelerating its accomplishment, and of continuing if not adding to the difficulties under which the Southern people labor.\u0026rdquo; (R. E. Lee, 1866)\nSource: Jones, J. William 1836-1909. Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee. United States: 1875, p.257\n","permalink":"/blog/2017/08/combing-through-historical-records-it-appears-that-robert-e-lee-himself-also-opposed-the-erection-of-confederate-monuments/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"_5pbx userContent\" data-ft='{\"tn\":\"K\"}' id=\"js_atm\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;As regards the erection of such a monument as is contemplated, my conviction is, that, however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt, in the present condition of the country, would have the effect of retarding instead of accelerating its accomplishment, and of continuing if not adding to the difficulties under which the Southern people labor.\u0026rdquo; (R. E. Lee, 1866)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-419\" height=\"1223\" src=\"/images/uploads/2017/08/Lee-Letter-xkeltl.jpg\" width=\"680\"/\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"_5pbx userContent\" data-ft='{\"tn\":\"K\"}' id=\"js_atm\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSource: Jones, J. William 1836-1909. Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee. United States: 1875, p.257\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Combing through historical records, it appears that Robert E. Lee himself also opposed the erection of Confederate monuments..."},{"content":"“Ritualism and the Ethos of Chinese Legal Order,” presented at International Conference: New International Trade and Investment Rules between Globalization and Anti-­Globalization, Penn State University, University Park, PA (April 22, 2017)\n倬彼雲漢 昭回于天 王曰於乎 何辜今之人\n天降喪亂 饑饉薦臻\n靡神不舉 靡愛斯牲\n圭璧既卒 寧莫我聽\nMajestic is that Milky Way, brightly afloat in the firmament of the heaven. The King said, O! What crime is chargeable on us now? That Heaven thus sends down death and disorder, unrelenting famine and hunger grapple us!\nNo spirit would dishonor, no living sacrifice would spare.\nExhausted are the sacrificial vessels, how is it that Heaven heareth not my prayers?\n-- Book of Odes: Major Court Hymns, Decade of Dang\nIn this presentation I discuss ritualism, or the role of formal rituals in the historical development of Chinese legal order. In this project I would like to examine state rituals as a modality of mytho-political speech. “Mytho-political speech” refers to political discourse that possess certain formal characters of mythical speech. Note that mytho-political speech not only articulates itself in explicit voices and writings, but but also in its rituals, its ceremonies, its liturgies and sacraments. The mythical speech component can be understood in the Burkean sense, that the realm of myths and theology is neither beyond or prior to language, but within the logos of language. See, Kenneth Burke, The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961).\nThe term \u0026ldquo;ritualism\u0026rdquo; in this presentation was originally conceived in Chinese as yinsi-sheji (禋祀社稷) – a compound vocabulary joining two classical Chinese concepts: yinsi (禋祀, or burned sacrifice) and sheji (社稷, or alters of soil and grain). The literal translation for yinsi is “burnt sacrifice.” Yinsi traditionally refers to state-organized sacrifices that were performed first by the feudal rulers during the Ancient Period (c.1600 BCE - 221 BCE), and later by the emperor during the Imperial Period (221 BCE - 1915 CE). The last imperial yinsi ceremony was performed in 1915 by the self-declared “Hongxian Emperor” (Yuan Shikai) at Peking’s Temple of Heaven. More generally, the concept refers to a specific form of Heaven worship involving the complete destruction of offerings via burning. Heaven worship has been the only recognized state religion in pre-modern China, and yinsi was performed exclusively by the emperor during major state ceremonies.\nSheji is an ancient political-theological expression which appeared no later than the Warring States period (476 BCE - 221 BCE), and remains in common use in China as a term for the state. The first character “she” (社) in sheji refers to the Altar of the Land; and the second character “ji” signifies the Altar of the Grain. The two altars had to be built adjacent to the ancestral temple of the ruling clan, and were used for solemn state rites praying for fecund land and good harvest. The two characters making up the word sheji explicitly channel the two-fold significations of the state. That the concept of the state is both materially grounded vis-à-vis necessities and labor, and also theologically maintained through faith and ritual. Thus, the constitutive order of the state understood as yinsi-sheji deals with those rituals sanctioned by the sovereign power and are performed in public contexts.\nIn theology, ecclesia (ἐκκλησία, “ministry”) is used to describe local ministries as well as in broader sense all members of a faith organized under a common religious institution. Here I would like to borrow the theological term ecclesia precisely because a full-fledged constitutional society functions similarly to religious institutions – both requires the inter-dependent presence of formal doctrines and practicing believers. Consider the following example: imagine you are trying to establish a new local Zen Buddhist Temple in your local community, the temple you build must first adopt the basic form of a Buddhist institution \u0026ndash; it must ensure its physical design, core missions statement, teachings, and rituals practices adhere to the commonly recognized premises of Zen Buddhism, for a failure to do so would result in the Zen monastery being seen as illegitimate by its peers. Finally, even when the temple is designed and organized in ways that perfectly conforms to Zen Buddhist doctrines, it is not a functional Temple without any visiting patrons and attending abbots. Similarly, secular institutions, however perfectly designed, cannot be considered a fully functional without a corresponding community that actually believes and practices its legitimacy. The ecclesia or legal order of a polity thus represents the integration of constitutional doxa with societal pistis.\nIndeed, organized religious community and secular rule-of-law society are organized around similar operating principles. Their proper functioning is dependent on two conditions: The first is the “good faith” of the commons – that personal ego and habits are restrained under a self-referencing set of collective core values and beliefs. The second condition is the repetition of rituals – that those shared core values maintained via enforcing laws that reflect the material condition and pressing needs of the community. The authority of both the ecclesiastical body and the constitutional state are bound by their laws precisely because the laws themselves reflect the set of basic principles that the authority organizes itself upon.\nNow let us look at the classical Chinese institution of Sheji again. It is originally proscribed in the classical Confucian text Li Ji, or The Book of Rites \u0026ndash; 《禮·祭義》:「建國之神位, 右社稷而左宗廟」《周礼·小宗伯》:「掌建国之神位,右社稷, 左宗」庙。” For English translation of this text, see Confucius, trans. James Legge, Chu Zhai, and Winberg Chai, Li chi: Book of rites: An encyclopedia of ancient ceremonial usages, religious creeds, and social institutions (New Hyde Park, N.Y: University Books, 1967). However, when closely examine its content, the Book or Rites is far more than simply a \u0026ldquo;religious\u0026rdquo; text in a narrow sense. Consider the following passages:\n司寇正刑明辟以聽獄訟 必三刺 有旨無簡不聽 附從輕 赦從重 “The Minister of Crime shall made the laws clear and punishment appropriate when hearing criminal cases. Three direct evidences are necessary for conviction. No hearing shall be granted for those charges without written summary of evidence. More lenient punishments are appropriate for crimes with mitigating factors. More severe punishments are appropriate for crimes with aggravating factors.”\n– Book of Rites - Institutions of the King《禮記· 王制》\nand\u0026hellip;\n治官之屬：大宰，卿一人; 小宰，中大夫二人; 宰夫，下大夫四人\n上士八人，中士十有六人，旅下士三十有二人；府六人，史十有二人，胥十有二人，徒百有二十人。\nGoverning ministers shall be arranged as follows: There shall be one Prime Minister in the rank of Qing; two vice Prime Ministers in the rank of Zhong-Dafu, four Assistant Ministers in the rank of Xia-Dafu;\nThere shall be eight Senior Deputies, six Junior Deputies, and thirty-two Assistant Junior Deputies. There shall be six Senior Managers, twelve Scribes, twelve Clerks, and one-hundred-twenty unranked servicemen.\n– Book of Rites - Institutions of the King《禮記· 王制》\nThese passages demonstrate that the rituals proscribed in Li Ji also concurrently function as constitutional provisions and criminal codes. This unity of legal and ritual rhetoric is also reflected in historical Chinese ritual artifacts. Note the Spring and Autumn period bronze artifact, depicting a provision from the Rites of Zhou 《周禮》: \u0026ldquo;He who received foot-amputation punishment shall be re-assigned to guard the garden\u0026rdquo; (刖人使守囿) :\nThis ritualist conception of legal order from feudal-period China was later enshrined as a core tenant of Confucian political philosophy:\n子曰：「道之以政，齊之以刑，民免而無恥；道之以德，齊之以禮，有恥且格。」\n“The Master said, ‘Should one governs via political measures, and uniformity sought by punishments, the people would have no shame but driven by the need to avoid penalty. If one instead governs via virtue, and uniformity sought by rituals, (the people) will have the sense of shame and act with conformity.’”\n– The Anelects, “On Governance”\nWhereas Zhou dynasty sacrificial rites are no longer recognizable in their original form, much of their rhetorical undertones remain relevant in the present political discourse. The Confucian ethic of \u0026ldquo;governs via virtue, and uniformity sought by rituals\u0026rdquo; remains a forceful framework in the present Chinese political and legal practices. Consider the iconic gate of Zhongnanhai, the seat of the current Chinese central government shown in the picture below. The gate is open, but the view of the inside is being obscured by a screen wall, or yinbi (影壁; literally \u0026ldquo;shadow wall\u0026rdquo;) with the text \u0026ldquo;Serving the People\u0026rdquo; inscribed on the wall: This overt architecture gesture of maintaining a proper \u0026ldquo;façade\u0026rdquo; may seem inauthentic to many, but in fact is typically received as an appropriate if not virtuous ritual practice under the Confucian ethics, where the formalized \u0026ldquo;face\u0026rdquo; of individuals, communities, and institutions are privileged over their \u0026ldquo;authentic interiors\u0026rdquo;.\nAnd with that, allow me to briefly conclude with the amusing-yet-somewhat-embarrassing example of ritual face-politics shown below:\nAnd lastly, on a more serious note\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"/blog/2017/06/ritualism-and-the-ethos-of-chinese-legal-order-presentation-at-penn-state-law/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e“Ritualism and the Ethos of Chinese Legal Order,” presented at International  Conference: New  International  Trade  and  Investment  Rules between  Globalization  and  Anti-­Globalization, Penn State University, University Park, PA (April 22, 2017)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e倬彼雲漢 昭回于天\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e王曰於乎 何辜今之人\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e天降喪亂 饑饉薦臻\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e靡神不舉 靡愛斯牲\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e圭璧既卒 寧莫我聽\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003ci\u003eMajestic is that Milky Way, brightly afloat \u003c/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ein the firmament of the heaven.\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe King\u003c/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e said, O! What crime is chargeable on us now? \u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThat Heaven thus sends down death and disorder, unrelenting famine and hunger grapple us!\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ritualism and the Ethos of Chinese Legal Order: presentation at Penn State Law"},{"content":"The Harvard East Asia Society (HEAS) recently concluded its 20th Annual Conference: Roads through Asia, held this year in Harvard Center for Government and International Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The conference program may be accessed HERE.\nFor the conference, I presented a paper, along with my co-author Tomonori Teraoka, titled: Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s post-WWII Constitutionalization Process. Below are Powerpoint slides and working abstract for our HEAS presentation:\nLEGITIMATION CRISIS OF THE JAPANESE CONSTITUTION: Reflections on Japan’s post-WWII Constitutionalization Process (working draft, last updated January 30, 2017)\nKeren Wang, Department of Communication Arts \u0026amp; Sciences, Penn State University\nTomonori Teraoka, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh\nAbstract This paper examines the problem of constitutional legitimacy in Japanese political system, specifically focusing on the challenges and possibilities concerning the post-WWII Japanese constitution in terms of ability to create and maintain a self-referencing framework for the legitimate expression of the general will, in ways that not only adhere to the established transnational constitutional principles, but also conforms to the basic political lines of the polity. Against this theoretical background, this paper seeks to explore two primary question: first, did the post-WWII Japanese written constitution manage to transform itself into tacit societal knowledge that provides an legitimizing framework for the expression of the general will of Japanese polity? Second, is it possible to translate the basic political functions of post-WWII Japanese political system without fundamentally displace the established transnational constitutional principles? This paper investigates the problems aforementioned from the theoretical perspective of constitutionalization process, and explore both the legal and rhetorical dimensions of constitutional legitimacy. The goal is to identify relevant preexisting societal knowledge-frameworks that give rise to the explicit rhetoric concerning the post-WWII constitution, and examine their role in the shaping of the constitutional legitimacy in contemporary Japanese political system. The analysis in this paper keeps a strong eye towards the state of judicial review in postwar Japan, and distill a comparative model visualizing the gap between form and practice as observed in Japanese judicial review process. The analysis finds that in practice, the postwar Japanese Constitution has never been past the ensoulment stage of constitutionalization process. While the language in the current Japanese Constitution adheres to the prevailing transnational standards of constitutional democracy, its persistent lack of implementation implies that post-war Japan has yet to develop itself into a full-fledged constitutional society.\n","permalink":"/blog/2017/02/harvard-east-asia-society-2017-conference-presentation-legitimation-crisis-of-the-japanese-constitution-presentation-slides-and-abstract/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe\u003ca href=\"http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/heasconference\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e Harvard East Asia Society\u003c/a\u003e (HEAS) recently concluded its \u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/heasconference\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e20th Annual Conference: Roads through Asia\u003c/a\u003e, \u003c/em\u003eheld this year in Harvard \u003ca href=\"http://wcfia.harvard.edu/about/cgis\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eCenter for Government and International Studies\u003c/a\u003e, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The conference program may be accessed \u003ca href=\"http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/heasconference/files/booklet_revised.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eHERE\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the conference, I presented a paper, along with my co-author Tomonori Teraoka, titled: \u003cem\u003eLegitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s post-WWII Constitutionalization Process.  \u003c/em\u003eBelow are Powerpoint slides and working abstract for our HEAS presentation:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Harvard East Asia Society 2017 Conference presentation: Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution (presentation slides and abstract)"},{"content":"(Posted by Keren Wang | Feb. 3, 2017) Per Dr. Alan Sica\u0026rsquo;s request, this post is written as a follow-up to a peculiar topic brought up during our Social Thought seminar yesterday \u0026ndash; it concerns the \u0026ldquo;Elephant (象)\u0026rdquo; glyph in the Chinese term for \u0026ldquo;Phenomenology (现象学)\u0026rdquo;. Long story short\u0026hellip; During our regular seminar discussion on the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (French phenomenologist) yesterday, Dr. Sica asked what is the Chinese term for \u0026ldquo;phenomenology\u0026rdquo;. Luckily, there is an official Chinese translation available for this particular philosophical term \u0026ndash; 現象學 (pronounced \u0026ldquo;hsien-hsiang hsueh\u0026rdquo;). For easier viewing, please see the enlarged picture-file below, which also includes the standard phonetic notation for each character: The facile explanation of phrase \u0026ldquo;現象學\u0026rdquo; is that it combines 现象 (hsien-hsiang, lit. \u0026ldquo;phenomenon, materialization\u0026rdquo;) + 學 (hsueh, lit. \u0026ldquo;study, learning\u0026rdquo;). By \u0026ldquo;facile explanation\u0026rdquo;, I am referring to the fact that the Chinese writing system doesn\u0026rsquo;t follow an alphabet-word system, so any direct \u0026ldquo;word-to-word\u0026rdquo; translation between Chinese and English would be at best a \u0026ldquo;metaphorical approximation\u0026rdquo;. Unwilling to settle for the easy explanation, Alan of course pressed for more precise meaning of each individual character in 現象學, and thus going further down the impossible linguistic rabbit hole\u0026hellip; So here\u0026rsquo;s when the \u0026ldquo;elephant\u0026rdquo; came in\u0026hellip; The Chinese term for phenomenology, 現象學, consists three characters (or more accurately, three logograms). Here is a detailed break-down of the characters in 現象學: Indeed, for a Chinese reader, the term 現象學 does not appear as a singular, self-contained \u0026ldquo;word\u0026rdquo; per se. Rather, like most Chinese vocabularies, the nomenclature would appear as a loosely-grouped logographic cluster that reads something like \u0026ldquo;(the) study (of) manifest shape(s) and symbol(s).\u0026rdquo; Those parenthetical parts are grammatical features absent in the Chinese writing system. Indeed, concepts such as definitive articles, plurals and grammatical tense may not apply to written Chinese\u0026hellip;at all! Chinese characters group together in ways that\u0026rsquo;s very different from English vocabularies. When used together, they do not form a new \u0026ldquo;word\u0026rdquo; in ways English alphabets would. Thus, unlike English \u0026ldquo;words\u0026rdquo;, meanings are not \u0026ldquo;encoded\u0026rdquo; into Chinese phrases and characters. Each logograph in a phrase or sentence merely defers and refers its signification in terms of its relation with those other characters in the sentence, and the final \u0026ldquo;meaning\u0026rdquo; of a phrase or sentence is obtained as the sum aggregate of signification of all the characters in the phrase. This might sound confusing, but it is worthwhile to keep in mind that even the most basic grammatical and syntactical principles in English do not apply in written Chinese. And now I regress\u0026hellip; Most notably, the second character of the phrase, 象 (pronounced \u0026ldquo;hsiang\u0026rdquo;) , indeed means \u0026ldquo;elephant\u0026rdquo; in Chinese. Yes, when used with other characters, 象 can be used broadly to signify ideas relating to \u0026ldquo;shape\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;symbol\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;representation\u0026rdquo;. However, those are derivatives or its \u0026ldquo;ordinary\u0026rdquo; meaning of \u0026ldquo;elephant\u0026rdquo; Indeed, when the character \u0026ldquo;象\u0026rdquo; is used alone, it almost always refers to non other than those massive land mammals with long trunk and pillar-like legs. In fact, the \u0026ldquo;elephant“ in 現象學 is among the oldest Chinese characters still in common use. As shown in the figure below, the glyph \u0026ldquo;象\u0026rdquo; first appeared in Oracle bone script (c. 1,200 BCE) as an elephant pictogram. The basic shape and composition of \u0026ldquo;象\u0026rdquo; remained surprisingly consistent across its three-thousand-plus years of continuous usage: So what does \u0026ldquo;elephant\u0026rdquo; has anything to do with symbol and elephant? While it is impossible to get into the heads of Shang dynasty kings (who first used this letter during sacrificial rites), I did found a compelling explanation by searching around Chinese Classical texts. Han Fei (韓非, c. 280 – 233 BC), an influential political philosopher from the Warring States period (475BC - 221BC), wrote the following in his Han Fei Tzu:\n“People rarely see living elephants. More frequently, as people encounter the skeleton of a dead elephant, they are compelled to observe the fleshless remains and trace out the living. Therefore, whatever compels the people into imagining the Real is also called '象 (elephant)'. The Dao present-at-here may not be directly seen, heard or felt, but a Sage could trace the form by examining the manifestation of its effects. Thus this is called the 'Form of the formless, the Elephant of the fleshless body.”\n《韓非子 · 解老》: 人 希 見 生 象 也，而 得 死 象 之 骨，案 其 圖 以 想 其 生 也，故 諸 人 之 所 以 意想 者 皆 謂 之 象 也。 今 道 雖 不 可 得 聞 見，聖 人 執 其 見 功 以 處 見 其 形，故 曰：「 無 狀 之 狀，無 物 之 象。」\n(Posted by Keren Wang | Feb. 3, 2017) ","permalink":"/blog/2017/02/postscript-on-the-elephant-in-phenomenology/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e(Posted by Keren Wang | Feb. 3, 2017)\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003ePer \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://sociology.la.psu.edu/people/ams10\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eDr. Alan Sica\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026rsquo;s request, this post is written as a follow-up to a peculiar topic brought up during our Social Thought seminar yesterday \u0026ndash; it concerns  the \u0026ldquo;Elephant (\u003cstrong\u003e象\u003c/strong\u003e)\u0026rdquo; glyph in the Chinese term for \u0026ldquo;Phenomenology (\u003cb\u003e现象学\u003c/b\u003e)\u0026rdquo;.\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eLong story short\u0026hellip;\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eDuring our regular seminar discussion on the writings of  \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Merleau-Ponty\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaurice Merleau-Ponty\u003c/strong\u003e \u003c/a\u003e(French phenomenologist) yesterday, Dr. Sica asked what is the Chinese term for \u0026ldquo;\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy)\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003ephenomenology\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026rdquo;.\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eLuckily, there is an official Chinese translation available for this particular philosophical term  \u0026ndash; 現象學 (pronounced \u0026ldquo;hsien-hsiang hsueh\u0026rdquo;). For easier viewing, please see the enlarged picture-file below, which also includes the standard phonetic notation for each character:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-365\" height=\"259\" src=\"/images/uploads/2017/02/xianxiangxue-ox93m8.png\" width=\"463\"/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eThe facile explanation of phrase \u003cstrong\u003e\u0026ldquo;現象學\u0026rdquo;\u003c/strong\u003e is that it combines \u003cb\u003e现象\u003c/b\u003e (\u003cem\u003ehsien-hsiang\u003c/em\u003e, lit. \u0026ldquo;phenomenon, materialization\u0026rdquo;) + \u003cstrong\u003e學 \u003c/strong\u003e(\u003cem\u003ehsueh, \u003c/em\u003elit. \u0026ldquo;study, learning\u0026rdquo;). By \u0026ldquo;facile explanation\u0026rdquo;, I am referring to the fact that the \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eChinese writing system\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e doesn\u0026rsquo;t follow an alphabet-word system, so any direct \u0026ldquo;word-to-word\u0026rdquo; translation between Chinese and English would be at best a \u0026ldquo;metaphorical approximation\u0026rdquo;. Unwilling to settle for the easy explanation, Alan of course pressed for more precise meaning of each individual character in \u003cstrong\u003e現象學\u003c/strong\u003e,  and thus going further down the impossible linguistic rabbit hole\u0026hellip;\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eSo here\u0026rsquo;s when the \u0026ldquo;elephant\u0026rdquo; came in\u0026hellip;\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eThe Chinese term for phenomenology, \u003cstrong\u003e現象學\u003c/strong\u003e, consists three characters (or more accurately, three \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logogram\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003elogograms\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e). Here is a detailed break-down of the characters in \u003cstrong\u003e現象學\u003c/strong\u003e:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter wp-image-369 size-full\" height=\"600\" src=\"/images/uploads/2017/02/xianxiangxue-construction-11xffbb.png\" width=\"1301\"/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eIndeed, for a Chinese reader, the term \u003cstrong\u003e現象學\u003c/strong\u003e does not appear as a singular, self-contained \u0026ldquo;word\u0026rdquo; \u003cem\u003eper se.\u003c/em\u003e Rather, like most Chinese vocabularies,  the nomenclature would appear as a loosely-grouped logographic cluster that reads something like \u0026ldquo;(the) study (of) manifest shape(s) and symbol(s).\u0026rdquo; Those parenthetical parts are grammatical features absent in the Chinese writing system. Indeed, concepts such as definitive articles, plurals and grammatical tense may not apply to written Chinese\u0026hellip;at all! Chinese characters group together in ways that\u0026rsquo;s very different from English vocabularies. When used together, they do not form a new \u0026ldquo;word\u0026rdquo; in ways English alphabets would. Thus, unlike English \u0026ldquo;words\u0026rdquo;, meanings are not \u0026ldquo;encoded\u0026rdquo; into Chinese phrases and characters. Each logograph in a phrase or sentence merely defers and refers its signification in terms of its relation with those other characters in the sentence, and the final \u0026ldquo;meaning\u0026rdquo; of a phrase or sentence is obtained as the sum aggregate of signification of all the characters in the phrase. This might sound confusing, but it is worthwhile to keep in mind that even the most basic grammatical and syntactical principles in English do not apply in written Chinese. And now I regress\u0026hellip;\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eMost notably, the second character of the phrase, \u003cstrong\u003e象\u003c/strong\u003e (pronounced \u0026ldquo;\u003cem\u003ehsiang\u003c/em\u003e\u0026rdquo;) \u003cstrong\u003e,\u003c/strong\u003e indeed means \u0026ldquo;elephant\u0026rdquo; in Chinese. Yes, when used with other characters, \u003cstrong\u003e象\u003c/strong\u003e can be used broadly to signify ideas relating to \u0026ldquo;shape\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;symbol\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;representation\u0026rdquo;. However, those are derivatives or its \u0026ldquo;ordinary\u0026rdquo; meaning of \u0026ldquo;elephant\u0026rdquo; Indeed, when the character \u0026ldquo;\u003cstrong\u003e象\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026rdquo; is used alone, it almost always refers to non other than those massive land mammals with long trunk and pillar-like legs.\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eIn fact, the \u0026ldquo;elephant“ in \u003cstrong\u003e現象學\u003c/strong\u003e is among the oldest Chinese characters still in common use. As shown in the figure below, the glyph \u0026ldquo;\u003cstrong\u003e象\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026rdquo; first appeared in \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eOracle bone script\u003c/a\u003e (c. 1,200 BCE) as an elephant \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictogram\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003epictogram\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e. The basic shape and composition of \u0026ldquo;\u003cstrong\u003e象\u0026rdquo;\u003c/strong\u003e remained surprisingly consistent across its three-thousand-plus years of continuous usage:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-371\" height=\"401\" src=\"/images/uploads/2017/02/evolution-of-xiang-24bhiwg.png\" width=\"1370\"/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eSo what does \u0026ldquo;elephant\u0026rdquo; has anything to do with symbol and elephant? While it is impossible to get into the heads of \u003ca href=\"/blog/2015/05/historical-background-of-human-sacrifices-during-shang-dynasty/\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShang dynasty kings\u003c/strong\u003e (who first used this letter during sacrificial rites)\u003c/a\u003e, I did found a compelling explanation by searching around Chinese Classical texts. \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Fei\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHan Fei\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e (\u003cspan lang=\"zh-Hant\" xml:lang=\"zh-Hant\"\u003e韓非, c. 280 – 233 BC\u003c/span\u003e), an influential political philosopher from the Warring States period (475BC - 221BC), wrote the following in his \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://ctext.org/hanfeizi/jie-lao/zh?searchu=%E8%B1%A1\u0026amp;searchmode=showall#result\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eHan Fei Tzu:\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Postscript on the \"Elephant\" in \"Phenomenology\""},{"content":"Posted by Keren Wang, 11/9/2016 at 19:00 ET\nWhen comparing current election results with how groups voted back in 2012, it appears that the \u0026ldquo;White/Older/Male\u0026rdquo; voter groups may not be the ones to blame for electing Donald Trump. Current data suggest that Trump did not receive significantly higher percentage of \u0026ldquo;White/Older/Male\u0026rdquo; votes than the previous GOP candidate.\nOf course it is still too early to see the finalized voting data, and early exit poll numbers are not the most accurate. However, it is always a good practice to check our political assumptions with facts on the ground. At minimum, the \u0026ldquo;White/Older/Male\u0026rdquo; voter narrative frequently cited by the media might be too easy of an explanation for the election result we\u0026rsquo;re seeing\u0026hellip;\nIt might also be worthwhile to the voter turnout rates between 2016 and 2012 elections: http://cdn.bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/default/files/2012%20Voter%20Turnout%20Full%20Report.pdf\nSources of polling data: [1] [2] [3]\n","permalink":"/blog/2016/11/data-suggest-trump-did-not-receive-higher-share-of-whiteoldermale-votes-than-romney/","summary":"\u003cp\u003ePosted by Keren Wang, 11/9/2016 at 19:00 ET\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen comparing current election results with how groups voted back in 2012, it appears that the \u0026ldquo;White/Older/Male\u0026rdquo; voter groups may not be the ones to blame for electing Donald Trump. Current data suggest that Trump did not receive significantly higher percentage of \u0026ldquo;White/Older/Male\u0026rdquo; votes than the previous GOP candidate.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-ft='{\"tn\":\"K\"}'\u003e\u003cspan class=\"UFICommentBody\"\u003eOf course it is still too early to see the finalized voting data, and early exit poll numbers are not the most accurate. However, it is always a good practice to check our political assumptions with facts on the ground. At minimum, the \u0026ldquo;White/Older/Male\u0026rdquo; voter narrative frequently cited by the media might be too easy of an explanation for the election result we\u0026rsquo;re seeing\u0026hellip;\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"\"White/Older/Male\" voter groups may not be the ones to blame for electing Donald Trump..."},{"content":"http://civcm.psu.edu/2016/09/06/written-and-unwritten-constitutions/\n","permalink":"/blog/2016/09/civic-community-engagement-civcm-constitution-day-2016-written-and-unwritten-constitutions/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://civcm.psu.edu/2016/09/06/written-and-unwritten-constitutions/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-342\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"0608151520\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-342\" height=\"481\" src=\"/images/uploads/2016/09/0608151520-vlf6tf-1024x724.jpg\" width=\"680\"/\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://civcm.psu.edu/2016/09/06/written-and-unwritten-constitutions/\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://civcm.psu.edu/2016/09/06/written-and-unwritten-constitutions/\"\u003ehttp://civcm.psu.edu/2016/09/06/written-and-unwritten-constitutions/\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Civic \u0026 Community Engagement (CIVCM) Constitution Day 2016 | Written and Unwritten Constitutions"},{"content":"One of my recently published article, \u0026ldquo;Participatory Global Citizenship: Civic Education Beyond Territoriality\u0026rdquo;, co-authored with Nabih Haddad of Michigan State University, has been featured on Yale Global\u0026rsquo;s Academic Papers collection Yale Global is an online publication of Yale University\u0026rsquo;s MacMillan Center. According to its website, the \u0026ldquo;Academic Papers\u0026rdquo; series incorporates \u0026ldquo;analytical and reflective essays on various aspects of globalization from many sources.\u0026rdquo; (Available at: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/academic/papers). The co-authored paper has been previously published on Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, 2015. Below is the abstract of the featured essay, the full version of the paper can be accessed here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2565483\nAbstract: There has been an emerging interest regarding the role of higher education as a promoter of civic education and public engagement. Amid this growing debate, the discussions have tended to remain within the scope of the nation-state. Drawing on the literature of civic engagement and citizenship, this article extends that discussion by positing universities as centers of cosmopolitanism and participatory global citizenship beyond state borders. This article argues that civic education must move past the traditional state-centric framework, and search for ways that might lead to meaningful integration of the idea of the global citizen. This article concludes by offering suggestions on how global civic education scholarship and institutional practices should proceed in ways that transcend the ossified Westphalian state ideal that has dominated the international system for centuries, and toward a new ideal grounded in global cosmopolitanism. ","permalink":"/blog/2016/03/participatory-global-citizenship-paper-featured-on-yale-global/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOne of my recently published article, \u0026ldquo;\u003ca href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2565483\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eParticipatory Global Citizenship: Civic Education Beyond Territoriality\u003c/a\u003e\u0026rdquo;, co-authored with \u003ca href=\"https://umdearborn.edu/cob/nicole-mangis/\"\u003eNabih Haddad\u003c/a\u003e of Michigan State University, has been featured on \u003cem\u003eYale Global\u003c/em\u003e\u0026rsquo;s \u003ca href=\"http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/academic/papers\"\u003eAcademic Papers collection\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eYale Global \u003c/em\u003eis an online publication of Yale University\u0026rsquo;s MacMillan Center. According to its website, the \u0026ldquo;Academic Papers\u0026rdquo; series incorporates \u0026ldquo;analytical and reflective essays on various aspects of globalization from many sources.\u0026rdquo;  (Available at: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/academic/papers). The co-authored paper has been previously published on Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, 2015. Below is the abstract of the featured essay, the full version of the paper can be accessed here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2565483\u003c/p\u003e","title":"\"Participatory Global Citizenship\" Paper Featured on Yale Global"},{"content":"*Flora Sapio is a China legal scholar currently serving as research fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World. Her research is focused on criminal justice and legal philosophy. She is the author of Sovereign Power and the Law in China (Brill, 2010); co-editor of The Politics of Law and Stability in China(Edward Elgar, 2014); and, Detention and its Reforms in China (forthcoming, Ashgate, 2016).\nThe following is a transcription of my conversation with Flora Sapio on the problem of enemyship in contemporary Chinese politics and the rhetorical approach in the investigation of political rhetoric:\n[hr]\n(October 8th, 2015)\nHello Flora, excellent post on \u0026ldquo;Carl Schmitt in China\u0026rdquo; at The China Story Project! I have shared your essay on \u0026ldquo;The Current\u0026rdquo; page of Public Philosophy Journal (where I currently work as a content curator), please have a look.\nFlora Sapio: Thank you! Glad that you liked it. If I could rewrite it I would use a different tone...a bit less provocative perhaps...\nI thought the tone of your essay is pretty fair \u0026ndash; especially considering the controversial political connotation of Schmitt\u0026rsquo;s work, and the increasingly heated enemyship rhetoric in Chinese politics nowadays.\nYes, I think so. The problem, however, is that the idea of 'enemy' is still there. If only one could find an antidote to this idea...\nTraditionally the in-group/out-group, or \u0026ldquo;us/them\u0026rdquo; distinction in Chinese political consciousness has been framed as a distinction between \u0026ldquo;civilized us\u0026rdquo; versus \u0026ldquo;uncivilized others\u0026rdquo;. Do you think that would be a possible (for better or worse) as alternative to the nationalistic \u0026ldquo;friend-enemy\u0026rdquo; rhetoric?\nIt would not be an alternative if the distinction was premised on a difference in status, i. e. The civilized people superior to the uncivilized ones. The idea of suzhi is problematic as it could be used to ground this distinction and order beings hierarchically.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a good point, on the problem of hierarchical differentiation generally\u0026hellip; But some may argue that the Confucian tradition frames the \u0026ldquo;civilized/uncivilized\u0026rdquo; Sinocentric distinction as grounded in the difference in terms cultivated-sociability, rather than being something that\u0026rsquo;s more fixed into \u0026ldquo;biological\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;fundamental nature\u0026rdquo;. Of course one can also easily argue that classical Western liberalism also expresses similar notions civilizational-centrism, but the \u0026ldquo;civilizational\u0026rdquo; rhetoric certainly doesn\u0026rsquo;t mitigate the danger of fundamental enemyship.\nYes. I was talking to Michael Dutton (Goldsmiths, University of London) yesterday, and this is what exactly what he argues. He argues for the inevitability of the distinction. He holds that any attempt at eliminating it will reproduce it. Any attempt, he goes on, would only intensify the friend-enemy distinction, under any guise. Therefore he things the best way to look at politics is to focus on what he calls the intensity. The intensity becomes a tale of what he calls \"political affect\" and \"the fluidity of political affect\". This flow, he says, is the power of the concept of the political. Dutton and I are close friends, but I tend to disagree with him on this one. The \"intensity\" is undefined, the flow is also undefined, and the list goes on... in any case the distinction remains there. The point is that I do not accept the existence of such distinction itself!\nRight. That\u0026rsquo;s the part I also find troubling, the assumption of fundamental distinction, and the idea of positively \u0026ldquo;measure\u0026rdquo; the the so-called \u0026ldquo;intensity\u0026rdquo; of political rhetoric and affect\u0026hellip;\nExactly! But first, what are all these entities we are talking about? Intensity?!\nOn this precise point I do have something to say! But before going overtly critical, I would like to first point out a few basic assumptions and observations on the political that I don\u0026rsquo;t fundamentally disagree with Schmitt. First and most broadly, I do broadly agree with Agamben and Schmitt\u0026rsquo;s general premise that the study of the political is not merely the study of the procedures and artistry of governance, but more importantly looking into human’s power over the “truth” of human subjects. In short, the political concerns with the way incontestable societal knowledge is decided and resisted. Thus, the substantive functioning of the political is precisely grounded on the way society distinguishes the political from the non-political spheres of social life. Furthermore, I must point out that the distinction between political/non-political is not an fixed one, but based on the orientation of embedded social norms – that the religious and scientific spheres are only distinguished from the political sphere when they are being recognized as such from the in-group perspective of their corresponding moral community; whereas from the perspective of those who call themselves “enemies” of the religious or scientific, their relationship the those spheres would be precisely a political one. That being said, it is also important to avoid unproblematically equivocating this political/non-political distinction to the Hobbesian “war of all-against-all” frame or Carl Schmitt’s fundamentalist argument for the “friend-enemy distinction”. While it is true that political communities are organized around rules and procedures to help negotiate tensions among different groups, and that a polity that straddle many dlarge can be forms when these rules to resolve differences would be formalized into laws, and then turning into deeply held norms, and ultimately to “common” logos. But Schmitt also points out that as societies are organized into large amalgamations of various groups, no matter how stable the “rule-of-law” framework might be, law are imperfect human creation and there will be “exceptional” circumstances where friend-enemy conflict will not be able to resolved via the rule of law, and ultimately leading to breaking down of the rule of law and towards a life-and-death state hostile dissociation. And from here, Schmitt argued for the necessity for an absolute sovereign power to intervene and decide on those exceptional life-and-death matters in order to preserve the rule of law. However, it is through this observation that Schmitt wrongfully concluded that the concept of the political is fundamentally based on the friend-enemy distinction. What Schmitt got terribly wrong, I suspect, is that he simply saw the “friend-enemy” distinction as the fundamental basis for all social-knowledge differentiations. In fact, the “friend-enemy” dichotomy is merely an exceptional manifestation of societal tensions between the contestable and the already-decided matter of knowledge (or truth). Basically, what Schmitt overlooked, is the critical role of the rhetorical/antirhetorical distinction in providing the foundation of the political. Even though it is tempting for rhetorical scholars to claim that “everything is rhetorical”, society tend to make substantive distinctions between the rhetorical from its antithesis. Just like the case with the political, what we functionally consider “rhetorical” is relative to one’s orientation, but nonetheless the distinction is still remains a critically important one. To better demonstrate this point, let’s look at following sets of examples in everyday life: rhetorical question, versus simply question (question without adjectives) being the antithesis of rhetorical; expressions considered as rhetorical devices, versus expressions considered as being literal and the antithesis of rhetorical - religious as non-rhetorical (religious expressions perceived to lose their “authentic” religiousness character if perceived as being rhetorical); cultural as non-rhetorical (cultural expressions lost their “authenticity” when perceived as being rhetorical); scientific as non-rhetorical; economic as non-rhetorical, etc.\nThe list can go much longer, but note what we perceive to be anti-rhetorical largely overlaps with what Schmitt identified as the antithesis of the political. However, I am not to suggest that the rhetorical is equivalent to or indistinguishable from the concept of the political. Nor would I suggest that the rhetorical originate from the political. Quite opposite, it is the political that is a derivative of the rhetorical. The rhetorical/anti-rhetorical distinction, being grounded on the difference of human language and norms, has been a part of the human condition as long as in-group/out-group distinction itself. However, what we consider to be political as a distinct concept arose only in a particular stage of civilizational development. The political emerged with the rise of polity as a sustained mode of organizing human society into a moral community, from which discrete communities previously unrelated in terms of personal ties are being organized under a set of rule framework of nomos or the law-state. The polity therefore only appear at certain stage of human development when human communities expand beyond the scope of blood kinship and totemic ties, thus requiring a new layer of less “personal” norms that would apply to social spaces beyond the reach of locally-grounded communal habits and customs. When the political community grow even larger, new rules must be devised to deal with those societal tensions that cannot be resolved by pre-existing socially-embedded norms in order to prevent fracturing the polity into normatively dissociated local “clans”. The political thus can be understood as a specific mode of rhetorical response to the historical exigence of resolving customarily non-resolvable societal tensions, of which the “human-enemy” distinction is merely one facet of such tension, and a particularly associated with conditions when both politics and rhetoric were considered “low”.\nThus, the political became a discursive space, organized under certain set of differently developed formal rules, to manage and decide those expressions of explicit societal differences, and resolve the antagonisms that arise within the polity’s jurisdiction. The functioning of the political thus is grounded on the foundational distinction between rhetorical and anti-rhetorical, of which itself is the discursive manifestation of human difference. The political is developed as historical inevitability of rhetorical modality, but both the political and more generally the share the same substantive function of taming explicit differences by signifying those expressions-of-difference as being “rhetorical/political”, thus demands explicit discussion and to be “properly resolved” via corresponding formal rule frameworks. However, keep in mind that while the rhetorical in the most general sense is fundamentally a human condition, the political as a specific mode of the rhetorical is not. Political, being the constitutive organ of polity, could very much function by deciding on exceptional cases of societal tensions in ways that help maintain and preserve the abstract form of polity at the expense of human living under its jurisdiction, thus historically resulting various rather anti-human conditions. Under these constraints, the various symbolic practices have been deviced that shape and maintain socially embedded norms that distinguish rhetorical/contestable and \u0026ldquo;truth\u0026rdquo; claims – it is what makes possible for expressions appear explicitly “rhetorical” in the first place. The possible analytical task of the implications of political discourse is perhaps to recompile a “rhetorical atlas” on the history of the “nomos of the land” – with a strong eye towards the constitutive capacity of various discursive practices in terms shaping the governance landscape of the emergent political order that defines the particular totems and taboos.The unique advantage of this “rhetorical atlas” approach is that it allows for functionally integrated analysis of formally differentiated discursive practices. On the one hand, the functional-specific orientation of an atlas allows for an integrated presentation of the substantive functions of variable rhetorical practices that straddle civilizational terrains. Yet at the same time, through discrete presentation of locally-limited cases, the atlas preserves formal differentials among particular derivatives of the integrated discursive function. For the purpose of specially analyzing the political, the “integrated rhetorical function” would be the interpellative power of the anti-rhetorical – in the sense of shaping and reproducing the substantive “societal constitution” that governs the rules concerning collective deliberation and decision, claim-making and truth-making, remembering and forgetting, and the opening and closing alternative possibilities. “Formal differentials” would be the diverse set of particular manifestations of discursive practices that are formally distinct in relation to the historical, social, political and economic conditions of their locality, and produce variable historical consequences . Yet these different forms of practices does not necessarily preclude integrated comparative analysis when they substantively function towards the anti-rhetorical ends – to the end of flattening the uneven terrains of human subjectivity via depoliticisation of the lifeworld, and managing human impulses and arbitrariness with the rule of law.\nAlright that\u0026rsquo;s quite a mouthful, but basically, I\u0026rsquo;m trying to look into ways to render judgement on the political practices via a critical-perspectivist approach, by looking at what kind of \u0026ldquo;truth about human subject\u0026rdquo; are the political practices creating, and operating on top of what kind of existing \u0026ldquo;truth-framework\u0026rdquo;. In that light, that\u0026rsquo;s why I\u0026rsquo;m looking into ways to frame the ongoing tension between Mainland and Hong Kong as grounded in economic distinctions, from which distinctive societal knowledge-norm would emerge, and come into conflict of each-other. The friend-enemy dichotomy would only be the totemic breakdown of knowledge distinction into metaphysical distinctions of being, of which is a state of non-negotiation, thereby become more like a abstracted ritualized antagonism rather than political contestation\nDefinitely yes! And in this sense one of the greatest mistakes of most “post-whatever” movements and currents has been their indirect embrace of the friend-enemy distinction. A distinction they have accepted by positioning themselves on the losing side of it. In attempting to practice what has been called “resistance”. They have furthered the very same divide they wanted to resist, and the result has been their own marginalization.\nThe societal tensions you mention are very real. They have been all around us everywhere but they could not be felt by Schmitt. The “truth” of how Schmitt had to be – the mold he had to fit in - was decided a priori by the political, social, scientific and religious forces of his day. Somehow Schmitt seemed to fit the societal, scientific and religious molds without too much effort on his part – his break with Catholicism and alcoholic escapades apart. Given his background, perhaps he was not in a position to feel the societal tensions that Franz Kafka could feel so very easily...or, if Schmitt indeed felt those tensions, well they just are not visible in his works.\nYou are making an extremely important point. The rhetorical/anti-rhetorical distinction, or what I call the “symbolic dimension”, is indeed grounded in human language and human norms but, its being grounded in human language is precisely what makes the distinction usable for the goals you mention – abstracting and ritualizing the distinction. The idea to recompile a rhetorical atlas is simply brilliant! It is out of similar considerations that I have begun to look at all those “formulas” I am looking at. One of the difficulties I am encountering is understanding the relative constitutive capacity of different discursive practices. Some friends know how to understand what discursive practices are important when they see them. But, this is nothing more than seeing discursive practices in action, and understanding that they are, well, constitutive of something. The ability to identify a discursive practice as a truly constitutive practice is very important, of course, and there are techniques Europeans used until the early 1980s, and which have been for the most part lost. But, the real questions are others: Truth is produced by discursive practices but, discursive practices themselves are generated by specific conceptual structures, or conceptual mechanisms. These conceptual structures are finite and limited in number. Some of them, as the “general will”, for instance, were picked up or created by early modern thinkers, and their meaning and function have not changed over time. Therefore, appeals to the “general will” will always produce functionally similar discourses, regardless of the historical period, country or economic conditions. A very trivial thing to say would be that all these conceptual mechanisms are a derivative of this or that theology. This would be a classical \"Schmittian-Agambenian\" thesis, but still a useful one, if brought to its most extreme implications. I am beginning to think that often behind a seemingly very sophisticated or elegant apparatus, concept, or conceptual mechanism there is nothing more than an archetypal figure or an archetypal idea. Or: behind any conceptual mechanism there is always an archetypal idea.\nIn this sense, the “formal differentials” can be understood as one of the stages of a longer process, a process starting from an archetype or archetypal figure, which then acquires diverse manifestations, as: 1. conceptual mechanism, 2. discursive practice, and 3. their specific manifestations, influenced by historical, social, political and economic conditions that can and do change from locality to locality. As you say, one can only operate on the truth framework. I believe that by so doing it is possible to retroact on archetypes, prompt a different understanding of the archetype, modify existing conceptual structure, and in turn prompt a different manifestation of discursive practices, the birth of a different regime of truth. This is more a psychoanalysis of the political : ) but, this operation has been performed before, and I am trying to understand how it has been done.\n","permalink":"/blog/2015/11/a-conversation-with-flora-sapio-on-chinese-politics-and-the-rhetoric-of-friendenemy-distinction/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e*\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://florasapio.blogspot.it/\"\u003eFlora Sapio\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e is a China legal scholar currently serving as research fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World. Her research is focused on criminal justice and legal philosophy. She is the author of \u003cem\u003eSovereign Power and the Law in China\u003c/em\u003e (Brill, 2010); co-editor of \u003cem\u003eThe Politics of Law and Stability in China\u003c/em\u003e(Edward Elgar, 2014); and, \u003cem\u003eDetention and its Reforms in China\u003c/em\u003e (forthcoming, Ashgate, 2016).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe following is a transcription of my conversation with \u003cstrong\u003eFlora Sapio\u003c/strong\u003e on the problem of enemyship in contemporary Chinese politics and the rhetorical approach in the investigation of political rhetoric:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A conversation with Flora Sapio on Chinese politics and the rhetoric of friend/enemy distinction"},{"content":" [embed]http://imgur.com/XhRs5nT[/embed]\nThe study of the relationship between the state and religion—especially organized and institutional religion originating in the West and Middle East\u0026ndash;is grounded in an important and often overlooked premise. That premise is based on a very specific view of religion and a very historically contextualized understanding of the relationship between the state and religious institutions. Both are grounded in the primacy of the model of religious organization and of state-religion relations developed in the Middle East and Europe (and later spread elsewhere in the globe) centering around Judaism, Jewish state organization and its important evolution under Christianity and Islam, the religions that emerged from it. Much of the national and international discussion of the last several centuries has effectively centered on the way in each of these variants of so-called \u0026ldquo;Abrahamic\u0026rdquo; religions (and thier contests for domination within social, cultural and economic space) be manifested, and their relations with states legitimated. Other religious traditions are then folded into the master narrative of law-religion discourse, or treated as exceptions or variations within it.\nThat has been the basis on which the grounding premise fo Abrahamic religions have been universalized and then offered to the international community as the sole basis on which to understand, manage and \u0026ldquo;protect\u0026rdquo; the interests of these legal and theological systems, each with substantial designs on the control of the social, political and economic orders of its adherents. It is into that construct that non-Western or Abrahamic traditions\u0026ndash;state and religious\u0026ndash;are now required to mold themselves. That molding, of course, can sometimes highlight the differences between the founding premises of non-Abrahamic political orders, and the difficulties of transposing the universalizing project of Abrahamic state-religious organization outside of its context.The essay that follows, Keren Wang, Religion in China: Historical and Legal Context, Coalition for Peace \u0026amp; Ethics Working Paper 9/1 (Sept. 2014), provides an introduction to those issues. The abstract follows. The essay may be access HERE. On the Coalition for Peace \u0026amp; Ethics, see HERE.\nThere follows an excerpt from a Vatican sponsored conference on the life of the Catholic Church in China, Holy See, Comunicato: Riunione Plenaria Della Commissione Per La Chiesa Cattolica In Cina (Press Release: Plenary Meeting of the Commission of Catholic Church inChina), Holy See Bulletin April 26, 2012. Coalition for Peace and Ethics Working Paper No. 9/1 (September 2014)Religion in China-Historical and Legal Context Keren Wang Abstract: The complex and quite rich discourse centered on the three “Abrahamic” religions does not suggest the only way in which one can approach the issue of religious “liberty” or understand the relation among religion and the state. China offers an important and distinctive path that is in its own way more difficult to square with the Western focused discourse that has now become a global standard. Thus is it necessary, before exploring the technical legal details about the interaction of religion and the state in China. It is perhaps not too much of an exaggeration to say that “religion” signifies the character of the entire Western Civilization\u0026ndash; from the Council of Nicaea to the Crusades, and unto the 17th century Enlightenment and the rise of capitalism, Judeo-Christian religions have always played dominant role in the evolution (and devolution) of what is known as the “West”. China provides a substantially different “story” and that difference is foundational to China’s approach to the legitimacy of the boundaries for religious regulation. This essay offers a brief glimpse at a complex problem, and suggests the basis for the quite substantial difficulties of communicating between systems.\n__________ The relations between China and the Catholic Church have been strained since the execution and imprisonment of several of its priests in the early 1950s. Current tensions revolve around the power of the Chinese authority to appoint and control the Catholic Church hierarchy in China. Consider in that respect the following News Release issued on the meeting of a Vatican sponsored conference on the life of the Catholic Church in China, Holy See, Comunicato: Riunione Plenaria Della Commissione Per La Chiesa Cattolica In Cina (Press Release: Plenary Meeting of the Commission of Catholic Church inChina), Holy See Bulletin April 26, 2012, an excerpt form which follows:\nThe Commission which Pope Benedict XVI established in 2007 to study questions of major importance regarding the life of the Catholic Church in China met in the Vatican for the fifth time from 23 to 25 April. In the course of the Meeting, attention then focussed on the Pastors, in particular on Bishops and priests who are detained or who are suffering unjust limitations on the performance of their mission. Admiration was expressed for the strength of their faith and for their union with the Holy Father. They need the Church’s prayer in a special way so as to face their difficulties with serenity and in fidelity to Christ.\nThe Church needs good Bishops. They are a gift of God to his people, for the benefit of whom they exercise the office of teaching, sanctifying and governing. They are also called to provide reasons for life and hope to all whom they meet. They receive from Christ, through the Church, their task and authority, which they exercise in union with the Roman Pontiff and with all the Bishops throughout the world.\nConcerning the particular situation of the Church in China, it was noted that the claim of the entities, called \u0026ldquo;One Association and One Conference\u0026rdquo;, to place themselves above the Bishops and to guide the life of the ecclesial community, persists. In this regard, the instructions given in the Letter of Pope Benedict XVI (cf. Letter to the Bishops, Priests, Consecrated Persons and Lay Faithful of the Catholic Church in the People’s Republic of China, 7), remain current and provide direction. It is important to observe them so that the face of the Church may shine forth with clarity in the midst of the noble Chinese people.\nThis clarity has been obfuscated by those clerics who have illegitimately received episcopal ordination and by those illegitimate Bishops who have carried out acts of jurisdiction or who have administered the Sacraments. In so doing, they usurp a power which the Church has not conferred upon them. In recent days, some of them have participated in episcopal ordinations which were authorized by the Church. The behaviour of these Bishops, in addition to aggravating their canonical status, has disturbed the faithful and often has violated the consciences of the priests and lay faithful who were involved.\nFurthermore, this clarity has been obfuscated by legitimate Bishops who have participated in illegitimate episcopal ordinations. Many of these Bishops have since clarified their position and have requested pardon; the Holy Father has benevolently forgiven them. Others, however, who also took part in these illegitimate ordinations, have not yet made this clarification, and thus are encouraged to do so as soon as possible.\nThe participants in the Plenary Meeting follow these painful events with attention and in a spirit of charity. Though they are aware of the particular difficulties of the present situation, they recall that evangelization cannot be achieved by sacrificing essential elements of the Catholic faith and discipline. Obedience to Christ and to the Successor of Peter is the presupposition of every true renewal and this applies to every category within the People of God. Lay people themselves are sensitive to the clear ecclesial fidelity of their own Pastors. Can the premise embraced by China of the separation of religious theology and practice, one the one hand, and religious hierarchy and institutions, on the other, be defended? Are religious institutions inherently political? Those are some of the questions that might be answered in this century.\nContinue Reading: Law at the End of the Day: Keren Wang on \"Religion in China: Historical and Legal Context\" and Chinese-Vatican Relations ","permalink":"/blog/2015/09/law-at-the-end-of-the-day-keren-wang-on-religion-in-china-historical-and-legal-context-and-chinese-vatican-relations/","summary":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[embed]http://imgur.com/XhRs5nT[/embed]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe study of the relationship between the state and religion—especially organized and institutional religion originating in the West and Middle East\u0026ndash;is grounded in an important and often overlooked premise. That premise is based on a very specific view of religion and a very historically contextualized understanding of the relationship between the state and religious institutions. Both are grounded in the primacy of the model of religious organization and of state-religion relations developed in the Middle East and Europe (and later spread elsewhere in the globe) centering around Judaism, Jewish state organization and its important evolution under Christianity and Islam, the religions that emerged from it. Much of the national and international discussion of the last several centuries has effectively centered on the way in each of these variants of so-called \u0026ldquo;\u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions\"\u003eAbrahamic\u003c/a\u003e\u0026rdquo; religions (and thier contests for domination within social, cultural and economic space) be manifested, and their relations with states legitimated. Other religious traditions are then folded into the master narrative of law-religion discourse, or treated as exceptions or variations within it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Law at the End of the Day: Keren Wang on \"Religion in China: Historical and Legal Context\" and Chinese-Vatican Relations"},{"content":"The historic Laki (Lakagígar) eruption that took place in Iceland from June 1783 to February 1784 was so powerful, that the entire European continent plus many parts of North America were blanked with a great \u0026ldquo;haze\u0026rdquo; of volcanic gases and particles. The eight-month-long continuous release of toxic gas from Laki not only wiped out roughly one-quarter of Iceland\u0026rsquo;s population [1], the resulting volcanic haze also led to an exceptionally cool summer followed by a brutal, frigid winter in Europe and North America. The Laki eruption added another layer of frost on top of the frigid climate pattern of thus in turn led to acute food shortages in those regions. Present analysis estimated that the Laki eruption directly caused more than twenty-thousand human mortality in England alone during the \u0026ldquo;volcanic winter\u0026rdquo; from August 1783 to February 1784. [2]\nBenjamin Franklin recorded his observations of the unusual weather pattern in his 1784 report titled \u0026ldquo;Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures\u0026rdquo;:\nDuring several of the summer months of the year 1783, when the effect of the sun's rays to heat the earth in these northern regions should have been greater, there existed a constant fog over all Europe, and a great part of North America. This fog was of a permanent nature; it was dry, and the rays of the sun seemed to have little effect towards dissipating it, as they easily do a moist fog, arising from water. They were indeed rendered so faint in passing through it, that when collected in the focus of a burning glass they would scarce kindle brown paper. Of course, their summer effect in heating the Earth was exceedingly diminished. Hence the surface was early frozen. Hence the first snows remained on it melted, and received continual additions. Hence the air was more chilled, and the winds more severely cold. Hence perhaps the winter of 1783–84 was more severe than any that had happened for many years. The cause of this universal fog is not yet ascertained ... or whether it was the vast quantity of smoke, long continuing, to issue during the summer from Hekla in Iceland, and that other volcano which arose out of the sea near that island, which smoke might be spread by various winds, over the northern part of the world, is yet uncertain. [3] It is important to note that while the \u0026ldquo;volcanic winter\u0026rdquo; of 1783-84 was idiosyncratically brutal, the overall climate in Europe and North America between 17th century to early 19th century has been considerably colder in comparison to contemporary weather patterns in those regions (appx. 2 Celsius blow present averages). It was a period known as the \u0026ldquo;Little Ice Age\u0026rdquo;, where Europe and North America were subjected to long periods of food security crisis. According to history Brian Fagan, agricultural output in Europe during late seventeenth century had dropped so drastically, that \u0026ldquo;Alpine villagers lived on bread made from ground nutshells mixed with barley and oat flour.\u0026quot;[4] Works by historian Wolfgang Behringer also suggested connections between periods of intensive \u0026ldquo;witch-hunting\u0026rdquo; practices in Europe and the reduced food security during the Little Ice Age. [5]\nShips frozen in water outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Partial reprint of a canvas oil painting by Fitz Hugh Lane, 1741. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). New York Harbor also regularly experienced similar \"froze-over\" conditions during the \"Little Ice Age\".\nNew York Times, \"When New York Harbor Froze Over 1780 Over in North America, by the 1740s Manhattan had the second-largest slave population of any city in the Thirteen Colonies. In addition to African slaves, which comprised roughly 20% of the city\u0026rsquo;s population, indentured servants and other poor working-class whites together constituted the bulk majority of the city\u0026rsquo;s population growth during that time. The population increase of course further compounds the city\u0026rsquo;s already severely constrained food and fuel supply. [6] Large scale persecution of the city\u0026rsquo;s poor broke out in Spring 1741, shortly after a series of fire incidents took place on the Manhattan Island. More than two hundred black slaves and dozens of poor whites were arrested by the city\u0026rsquo;s colonial authority for allegedly \u0026ldquo;conspiring to burn the city down\u0026rdquo;. [7] Similar to the Salem Witch trials, those arrested were expressively tried and convicted. More than one hundred people were exiled, hanged, and burned alive at the stake. [8] \"Convicted\" slaves being burned at the stake after New York violent crackdown of 1741. 13 black men were burned at the stake a little east on Magazine Street. Additionally, 17 black men, two white men, and two white women were hanged at the gibbet next to the Powderhouse on the narrow point of land between the Collect Pond and the Little Collect [9] While fire incidents were relatively common occurrences on the Manhattan Island, the \u0026ldquo;Great Fire of 1776\u0026rdquo; proved to be a particularly devastating one. The \u0026ldquo;Great Fire\u0026rdquo; started in the southern tip of the Manhattan Island during the early hours of September 21, and quickly spread throughout the city and kept burning through the night, destroying up to a quarter of New York\u0026rsquo;s developed urban area [10]:\nContemporaneous depiction of the \"Great Fire of 1776\"[11], with captions written in German and French: \"Terrifying conflagration which took place in New York of the Americans during the night of Sept. 19th, 1776 whereby all buildings on the west side of the new stock exchange along Broad Street up to the King's College of more than 1,600 houses, including the Trinity Church, the Lutheran Chapel and the Charity School were reduced to ashes.[12]\" Note that the print incorrectly stated the date of the \"Great Fire\", which actually took place on September 21st.\nThe Great Fire of 1776 took place during the early stages of the American War of Independence, amidst military struggles between the British forces and George Washington\u0026rsquo;s Continental Army for control of New York and New Jersey. In addition to long existing economic division, the city\u0026rsquo;s population at that time was also sharply divided along political lines \u0026ndash; between \u0026ldquo;Patriot\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Loyalist\u0026rdquo; organizations. [10] Much of the New York\u0026rsquo;s Loyalist population fled the city in early 1776 when Washington\u0026rsquo;s Continental Army forces occupied the streets. A few months later, after the British capture of long island, many Patriots also left the city in anticipation of British invasion. Six days before the Great Fire broke out, on September 15, about 12,000 British soldiers landed on lower Manhattan Island and quickly captured the mostly empty New York City without much fighting. A 1776 map of lower Manhattan with contemporaneous markings in red indicating the area destroyed by the Great Fire of 1776. The caption reads: “To His Excellency Sr. Henry Moore, Bart., captain general and governour in chief, in \u0026amp; over the Province of New York \u0026amp; the territories depending thereon in America, chancellor \u0026amp; vice admiral of the same, this plan of the city of New York, is most humbly inscribed by His Excellency\u0026rsquo;s most obedient servant, Bernard Ratzer” [13] The precise cause of the Great Fire of 1776 remains uncertain, though under the combining conditions of abandoned buildings and urban warfare one might consider such a incident hardly surprising. Nonetheless, both the British and Revolutionary forces suspected arson and accused each other for starting the \u0026ldquo;terrifying conflagration\u0026rdquo;. In the immediate aftermath of the Great Fire, the British military confiscated many surviving buildings supposedly owned by the Patriots. The British also arrested more than two hundred \u0026ldquo;arson suspects\u0026rdquo;, despite no official charges were ever made. [14] References:\n1. Björnsson, Páll. 2003. Gunnar karlsson, iceland\u0026rsquo;s 1100 years: The history of a marginal society, (London: Hurst, 2001). 418 pp. ISBN 1-85065-420-4. Scandinavian Journal of History 28, (3): 298-300\n2. Witham, C. S. and Oppenheimer, C. \u0026ldquo;Mortality in England during the 1783–4 Laki Craters eruption\u0026rdquo;. Bulletin of Volcanology. December 2004, Volume 67, Issue 1, pp 15-26.\nFranklin, Benjamin. \"Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures (1784).\" Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Volume 2. Manchester, UK: Literary and Philosophical Society, 1785. 4. Fagan, Brian M. (2001). The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300–1850\n5. Behringer, Wolfgang. \u0026ldquo;Climatic Change and Witch-hunting: the Impact of the Little Ice Age on Mentalities\u0026rdquo;. Climatic Change 43 (1): 335–351.(Springer Netherlands: 1 September 1999) .\n6. James Weldon Johnson, Black Manhattan, New York: DaCapo Press, Inc., 1930; reprint, 1991\n7. Bond, Richard E. \u0026ldquo;Shaping a Conspiracy: Black Testimony in the 1741 New York\u0026rdquo;, Early American Studies, vol. 5, n. 1 (Spring 2007).\n8. Edwin Hoey, \u0026ldquo;Terror in New York – 1741\u0026rdquo;, American Heritage, June 1974, accessed 9 Apr 2009\n9. \u0026ldquo;COLONIAL NEW-YORK CITY; Burning of Negroes Amid the Hills of Five Points. GRIM RESULTS OF AN ALLEGED PLOT\u0026rdquo; The Gibbet on Powder House Island Bore Strange Fruit for Many Months in the Year 1741, New York Times, November 24, 1895. (Picture see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Conspiracy_of_1741#/media/File:1741_Slave_Revolt_burned_at_the_stake_NYC.jpg)\n10. Schecter, Barnet. The Battle for New York. New York: Walker \u0026amp; Co, 2002.\n11. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. \u0026ldquo;Representation du Feu terrible a Nouvelle Yorck\u0026rdquo; New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed August 25, 2015. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-b9b0-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99\n12. Translated from the German caption: \u0026ldquo;Schreckenvolle Feuersbrunst welche zu Neu Yorck von den Amerikanern in der Nacht vom 19. Herbst Monat 1776, angelegt worden, wodurch alle Gebäude auf der West Seite der neuen Börse längst der Broockstrent biss an das Königl Kolleg mehr als 1600 Häuser, die Dreifaltigkeits Kirche, die Lutherische Kappelle und die Armen Schule in Asche verwandelt worden.\n13. Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. \u0026ldquo;To His Excellency Sr. Henry Moore, Bart., captain general and governour in chief, in \u0026amp; over the Province of New York \u0026amp; the territories depending thereon in America, chancellor \u0026amp; vice admiral of the same, this plan of the city of New York, is most humbly inscribed\u0026rdquo; New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed July 11, 2015. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-f072-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99\n14. Johnston, Henry Phelps. The campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn. Brooklyn: The Long Island Historical Society, 1878.\n","permalink":"/blog/2015/09/reading-the-historical-new-york-cityscape-part-2-fire-ice-and-tensions-on-the-streets/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe historic Laki (Lakagígar) eruption that took place in Iceland from June 1783 to February 1784 was so powerful, that the entire European continent plus many parts of North America were blanked with a great \u0026ldquo;haze\u0026rdquo; of volcanic gases and particles. The eight-month-long continuous release of toxic gas from Laki not only wiped out roughly one-quarter of Iceland\u0026rsquo;s population\u003cstrong\u003e [1]\u003c/strong\u003e, the resulting volcanic haze also led to an exceptionally cool summer followed by a brutal, frigid winter in Europe and North America.  The Laki eruption added another layer of frost on top of the frigid climate pattern of  thus in turn led to acute food shortages in those regions. Present analysis estimated that the Laki eruption directly caused more than twenty-thousand human mortality in England alone during the \u0026ldquo;volcanic winter\u0026rdquo; from August 1783 to February 1784. \u003cstrong\u003e[2]\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"‘Reading’ the Historical New York Cityscape, part 2: fire, ice, and tensions on the streets"},{"content":"originally posted by Keren Wang, July 20th 2015\nFor this research project, in collaboration with Professor Stephen Browne from Penn State University, we seek to investigate New York City, circa 1789 through the five senses: what did it look like, sound like, smell like, taste like, and feel like? I will be primarily focusing on looking directly into relevant sources from the early years of the Republic: newspapers clippings, personal diaries, musical scores, travelers\u0026rsquo; accounts, correspondence, menu offerings, historical art, architecture, music, theater, food, etc. By the end of this project, hopefully we may find ourselves with a collection of blog posts, nicely crammed with contemporary accounts of life in the City as it was lived bodily, publicly, and culturally.\nHere in part 1, I will begin on how the city looked at a \u0026ldquo;macro-level\u0026rdquo;. Here are some of the findings that may help us get a general sense of the topography and city-planning of NYC during late 18th to early 19th century:\nFirst let\u0026rsquo;s look at some of the topographic pretext of New York during the early years of European settlement. This map below (retrieved from the New York Public Library Digital Collections [1]), published in 1635 by the famous Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu depicts Hudson River Valley and its surrounding area during the early years of Dutch colonial settlement in the area. This map was based on the surveys conducted by Dutch traders Adriaen Block, whose 1611-1614 expeditions have yielded detailed geographical information on the present-day North American continent between 38th parallel and 45th parallel.\nFigure 1: 1635 Bleau map, \"Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova\" (Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library) Note that Long Island (labeled \u0026ldquo;Matouwacs\u0026rdquo;) is located near the center of this map. To the right of Long Island is \u0026ldquo;Nieu Amsterdam\u0026rdquo; (New Amsterdam), which is the first permanent European settlement on the present-day Manhattan island. Several other place names labeled by this map are still in use today, such as \u0026ldquo;Manatthans\u0026rdquo; (Manhattan), and \u0026ldquo;Hellegat\u0026rdquo; (Hell Gate). [2] The 1635 Bleau map depicts the Hudson Valley region as heavily forested, with several Native American settlements demarcated along the Hudson River.\nThe map drawing in figure 2, made in 1660, depicts the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam on the Manhattan Island during mid 17th century. This map is among the very few topographical documents that have survived from the period of the Dutch colonial rule of New York. [3] Note that the star-shaped bastion, \u0026ldquo;Fort Amsterdam\u0026rdquo;, is located near the tip of the Manhattan Island on this map. Additionally, the settlement is enclosed by a defensive wall structure that runs continuously through the northern and western borders of the city. These defensive structures resemble typical features of medieval European \u0026ldquo;walled-cities\u0026rdquo; (see map of the Dutch city of Haarlem, circa 1550 for comparison). Figure 2: 1660 map of New Armsterdam, \"Afbeeldinge van de Stadt Amsterdam in Nieuw Neederlandt\" (New York Public Library Digital Collections) While the 17th century New Amsterdam bares little resemblance to New York City today, it is important to note that traces of many topographic features from from that era can still be discerned from the present day cityscape:\nFigure 3: 2015 map of the southern tip of Manhattan Island (provided by Google Map) Note that contemporary street grid in the southern tip of Manhattan Island (see figure 3) still roughly follows the general pattern established by New Amsterdam more than 350 years ago. Also note the location of the West Street (route 9A) in the 2015 map below overlaps with that unnamed broad avenue north of Fort Amsterdam from the 1660 map.\nThe cityscape of New York under British colonial rule remained mostly confined within the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Figure 4 below is an extremely detailed map by British cartographer Bernard Ratzer depicting the City of New York and its surrounding region, based on survey data gathered between 1766-1767. [4] The upper-left corner of the map includes dedication from to \u0026ldquo;His Excellency Sir Henry Moore, Bart., captain general and governour in chief, in and over His Majesty\u0026rsquo;s Province of New York and the territories depending thereon.\u0026rdquo; The Ratzer map depicts a rather \u0026ldquo;rural\u0026rdquo; landscape of the region \u0026ndash; with a relatively small urban area located at the southernmost portion of Manhattan; and the rest of the Manhattan Island, along with present day Brooklyn and Queens were mostly covered with plantations, marshes and woodlands.\nFigure 4: \"Plan of the city of New York in North America : surveyed in the years 1766 \u0026amp; 1767\" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Now let\u0026rsquo;s take a look this 1797 map drawing (fig.4) of the same area, appropriately titled \u0026ldquo;A New and Accurate Plan of the City of New York\u0026rdquo; According to the New York Society Library Collection, this print is among the \u0026ldquo;most accurate ad beautiful engraved plans of the city\u0026rdquo; surviving from the early years of U.S. independence [5] :\nFigure 5: \"A New \u0026amp; Accurate Plan of the City of New York in the State of New York in North America.\" Published in 1797. New York Society Library This map depicts the extend of the built-up city areas as of 1797 in shaded blocks \u0026ndash; occupying similar areas as shown in the 1767 Ratzer map. However, the 1797 map depicts a considerably different vision of city-planning to the Ratzer map. As shown in the map above, to the north of the developed urban areas are those neatly-organized street grids planned for the future expansion of the city, known as the \u0026ldquo;Taylor-Roberts Plan\u0026rdquo;. In comparison with the 1660 map, both Ratzer map (fig.4) and this 1797 map look remarkably more \u0026ldquo;modern\u0026rdquo; \u0026ndash; in addition to improved geographical accuracy, those individually drawn houses and gardens shown in the 1660 map have been abstracted into differently shaded \u0026ldquo;land use zones\u0026rdquo; in the 18th century renditions. In contrast to the \u0026ldquo;walled-in\u0026rdquo; layout of New Amsterdam that\u0026rsquo;s reminiscent of medieval forts, the 1797 map reflects a much more \u0026ldquo;open\u0026rdquo; and expansive city plan. Those defensive city walled that once defined and confined the physical extend of New Amsterdam have been replaced with vast swaths of \u0026ldquo;to-be-occupied\u0026rdquo; rectangular plots. The shift of New York city topography between mid-17th and late-18th centuries suggest change in the function of the city from being a defensive stronghold to a hub of economic growth and expansion.\nThe kind of expansive grid-style city planning from the 1797 Taylor-Roberts Plan continued into the early 19th century New York. The map shown in Fig. 6 \u0026amp; 7 below depicts the bold 1807 \u0026ldquo;Commissioner\u0026rsquo;s Plan\u0026rdquo; for developing the entire Manhattan Island:\nFigures 6 \u0026amp; 7: \u0026ldquo;A Map of the City of New York by the Commissioner Appointed by an Act of the Legislature Passed. April 3rd 1807\u0026rdquo;. New York Society Library.\nThe survey for the map shown above was made in accordance with the provisions of a 1807 legislation titled \u0026ldquo;An Act relative to Improvements, touching the laying out out of Streets and Roads in the City of New York, and for other purposes\u0026rdquo;. The Act appointed Governeur Morris (then U.S. Senator from New York), Simeon De Witt (Surveyor General of New York), and John Rutherfurd (U.S. Senator from New Jersey) as Commissioners of Streets and Roads in the City of New York between 1807 - 1811, with \u0026ldquo;exclusive power to lay out streets, roads and public squares\u0026hellip; as to them shall seem most conductive to public good.\u0026rdquo;\nNotes and References: [1] Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. \u0026ldquo;Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova.\u0026rdquo; New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 11, 2015. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-eea1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99\n[2] Benjamin Schmidt, \u0026ldquo;Mapping an Empire: Cartographic and Colonial Rivalry in Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English North America,\u0026rdquo; The William and Mary Quarterly , 3rd Series, Vol. LIV, No. 3 (July, 1997), 549-578.\n[3] The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. \u0026ldquo;Afbeeldinge van de Stadt Amsterdam in Nieuw Neederlandt.\u0026rdquo; New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 11, 2015. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-7c0b-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99\n[4] Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. \u0026ldquo;Plan of the city of New York in North America : surveyed in the years 1766 \u0026amp; 1767\u0026rdquo; New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed July 21, 2015. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/8bd31a8f-cfed-3cb6-e040-e00a18061cd0\n[5] The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909: Print Collection, plate 79. \u0026ldquo;A New \u0026amp; Accurate Plan of the City of New York in the State of New York in North America.\u0026rdquo; Published in 1797. New York Society Library. Retrieved June 11, 2015.\n","permalink":"/blog/2015/07/reading-the-post-revolutionary-war-new-york-cityscape-part-1-topography-and-city-planning/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eoriginally\u003c/b\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e posted by Keren Wang, July 20th 2015\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor this research project, in collaboration with Professor \u003ca href=\"http://cas.la.psu.edu/directory/sxb17\"\u003eStephen Browne\u003c/a\u003e from Penn State University, we seek to investigate \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eNew\u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eYork\u003c/span\u003e City, circa 1789 through the five senses: what did it look like, sound like, smell like, taste like, and feel like? I will be primarily focusing on looking directly into relevant sources from the early years of the Republic: newspapers clippings, personal diaries, musical scores, travelers\u0026rsquo; accounts, correspondence, menu offerings, historical art, architecture, music, theater, food, etc. By the end of this project, hopefully we may find ourselves with a collection of blog posts, nicely crammed with contemporary accounts of life in the City as it was lived bodily, publicly, and culturally.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"‘Reading’ the Historical New York Cityscape, part 1: topography \u0026 city-planning before and after the Revolutionary War"},{"content":" Fig. 1: Floor mosaic in Beit Alfa Synagogue (c.5th century CE, Israel) depicting the Binding of Issac (public domain art available via Wikimedia Commons) Human sacrifice refers to the practice of ritual killing of human beings as offerings to divine patrons, ancestors, or other superhuman forces. Early comparative studies on human sacrifice were heavily influenced by theories of historical relativism and social evolutionism. [1] Such theory approach is exemplified by the works of nineteenth century cultural-anthropologists Edward Tylor and Marcel Mauss, both of whom framed practices of human sacrifice as specific iteration of a general social feature, developed relative to various stages of human historical development. [2]\nWith the rise of social psychology throughout the twentieth century, theories of human sacrifice began to expand beyond the evolutionary framework. The most influential theoretical contribution on the social psychology of sacrifice can be attributed to Sigmund Freud’s writings in Totem and Taboo, where he grounded ritualistic killings of other human beings as a manifestation of the intrinsic destructive impulse of the human ego:\n\"...the killing of a person compels the observation of a series of rules which are associated with taboo customs. These rules are easily brought under four groups; they demand 1. reconciliation with the slain enemy, 2. restrictions, 3. acts of expiation, and purifications of the manslayer, and 4. certain ceremonial rites.\"[3] [Fig. 2.] \"...the object of the sacrificial action has always been the same, being identical with what is now revered as a god, namely with the father.\" Freud, Totem and Taboo For Freud, human sacrifice, though may seem like an exceptionally savage type of practice, is in fact a form of collective manifestations of our basic personal neuroses:\n\"...taboo has become the general form of law giving and has helped to promote social tendencies which are certainly younger; than taboo itself, as for instance, the taboos imposed by chiefs and priests to insure their property and privileges. But there still remains a large group of laws which we may undertake to investigate. Among these I lay stress on those taboos which are attached (a) to enemies, (b) to chiefs, and (c) to the dead\" [4] Therefore, drawing from his own theories on the fundamental structure of human psyche, Freud claims that the underlying impulses of sacrificial killing are always present, though societies may find ways to redirect its compulsive neurosis towards less violent rituals that substitute the functions of human sacrifice:\n\"The original animal sacrifice was already a substitute for a human sacrifice, for the solemn killing of the father, and when the father substitute regained its human form, the animal substitute could also be retransformed into a human sacrifice.\" [5] Contemporary cultural theorist René Girard also considered the subject human sacrifice along similar psychological lines, arguing that all sacred rituals are externalizations of violent human tendencies. In this regard, Girard points to our mimetic desire – desiring of what others have that we lack – as the source of human violence:\n\"Whenever the disciple borrows from his model what he believes to be the “true” object, he tries to possess that truth by desiring precisely what this model desires. Whenever he sees himself closest to the supreme goal, he comes into violent conflict with a rival. By a mental shortcut that is both eminently logical and self-defeating, he convinces himself that the violence itself is the most distinctive attribute of this supreme goal! Ever afterward, violence will invariably awaken desire…\" [6] Interestingly, Girard frames such desire in existential instead of economic terms, arguing that mimetic desire intensifies presley when the basic human needs are satisfied:\n“…Once his basic needs are satisfied (indeed, sometimes even before), man is subject to intense desires, though he may not know precisely for what. The reason is that he desires being, something he himself lacks and which some other person seems to possess. The subject thus looks to that other person to inform him of what he should desire in order to acquire that being. If the model, who is apparently already endowed with superior being, desires some object, the object must surely be able of conferring an even greater plenitude of being. It is not through words, therefore, but by the example of his own desire that the model conveys to the subject the supreme desirability of the object” [7] While being functionally a “common feature” shared by many past societies, human sacrifice conceptualized in its most general sense is overly broad and abstracted for substantive understanding. One problem with existing evolutionary and psychological paradigms in conceptualizing human sacrifice is their tendency to abstract symbolic performances away from their specific political and economic context, and re-signify those particularized discursive practices with the singular logos of macroscopic “laws” (i.e. social evolution) or metaphysical concepts (i.e. the nature of being).\nHuman sacrificial rituals are differentiated relative to the tensions and constraints specific to the historical, temporal and spatial milieu of the corresponding discursive jurisdiction. Understanding differentiated sacrificial practices solely through theoretical abstraction runs the danger of washing away the intensely rhetorical character of these performances. Human sacrifices performed by Shang and Mayan rulers not simply “neutral” representations of developmental stages or human psychological conditions – they are rhetorical in the sense that are carefully staged political spectacles, stylized in the form of sacred violence for the purpose of shaping and maintaining societal norms.\nAmerican theorist Kenneth Burke also addressed the limitations of evolutionary mode of investigation by suggesting a new dramaturgic approach of analyzing symbolic actions. [8] In his Permanence and Change, Burke proposed that “[r]ather than thinking of magic, religion, and science as three distinctively successive stages in the world’s history, the author would now use a mode of analysis that dealt with all three as aspects of motivation.” [9] It is important to note that Burke’s emphasis on “motivation” does not suggest a strictly “psychological” orientation; rather, the term “motivation” could be better understood as a shorthand for relativized symbolic performances – actions that are “locally” embedded within the framework of a larger Weltanschauung. [10]\nIn light of understanding the problematic rhetorical contingencies underpinning certain specifically “staged” sacrificial dramas, it might be helpful to consider Burke’s comment on rendering judgment on those highly political representations – “We need not here decided whether it is, in any given case, correct or incorrect. We need simply note that where it has occurred, one thenceforth has purposes which have been ‘revealed’ to him. And regardless of how they may have come about, he may even be expected in time to reconstruct from them, out of his memories as revised, some appropriate setting that corresponds in function to the ‘heuristic’ ascent of some ‘magic mountain’ on which engraved tablets were discovered\u0026hellip;” [11]\nExpanding from Burke’s dramaturgical approach, this essay would suggest a “topological” approach in mapping out the discursive contours of human sacrifice as a form of localized mythical speech. As Roland Barthe pointed out in his Mythologies, critics ought to go beyond the “details of the linguistic schema” in order to give adequate comparative account of differentiated mythical speeches:\n\"We must here recall that the materials of mythical speech (the language itself, photography, painting, posters, rituals, objects, etc.), however different at the start, are reduced to a pure signifying function as soon as they are caught by myth. Myth sees in them only the same raw material; their unity is that they all come down to the status of a mere language.\" [12] Fig.3: mythos of sacrifice -- Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis, from Sophocles' Electra (\"The Sacrifice of Iphigenia\", 17th century painting by François Perrier, public domain art available via Wikimedia Commons) Forms of mythical speeches such as human sacrifice that cuts across multiple lifeworlds would inevitably take the form of a differentiated manifold – with much of its substantive symbolicity obscured under numerous relativized “folds” of orientations depending on the point of observation. As the manifold metaphor suggests that the understanding of mythical speeches (and more generally all symbolic actions) is constrained by multiple layers of relativized dimensions, and that specific rhetorical implications of those actions cannot meaningfully analyzed under a singular abstracted frame of observation.\nTo obtain a comprehensive comparative understanding of differentiated symbolic landscapes of human sacrifice, one must find way overcome the problem of inanalyzability of the rhetorical manifold without oversimplification or over-abstraction. Here I would propose a way to conduct topological mapping of rhetorical manifold by taking advantage of the differentiated aspect of the rhetorical manifold, specifically by focusing on the topology of local rhetorical landscapes – examining specific examples of “staged performances” and the particular political and economic conditions underpinning that performance. Any manifolded symbolic practices can be described by a collection of topological charts, similar to the ones found in an atlas, rather than by a abstracted “law”. One may then examine relations between various topological elements (e.g. relations between symbolic performances, mythos, and material conditions) within the orientation of that specific locality. At the same time, each localized topological “map” lies within an orientable subset of the manifold (given the specific structural similarity between Mayan and Shang rituals) to which the rules of finite frames of observations that are relevant to the selected case study can be applied. If the selected topological projections from different localities of the manifold share many specific features that are translatable into the each other locality’s frame of observation, then meaningful comparative analysis may be rendered between these differentiable cases from the same rhetorical manifold, and possibly reconstruct the abstracted form of human action into a compilation of topological rhetorical mappings. [13] These intensive localized interpretations are at the same time considered in relation with the larger manifold rather than being treated discretely, which allows the comparative investigation of structurally similar symbolic performances such as human sacrifice from disparate material and discursive localities.\nNotes: [1] Max Weber, On the Methodology of the Social Sciences, trans. Edward A. Shils and Henry A. Finch (Illinois: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1949), 52: “With the awakening of the historical sense, a combination of ethical evolutionism and historical relativism became the predominant attitude in our science. This attitude sought to deprive ethical norms of their formal character and through the incorporation of the totality of cultural values into the “ethical” (Sittlichen) sphere tried to give a substantive content to ethical norms.”\nSee also, Richard E. DeMaris, “Sacrifice, an Ancient Mediterranean Ritual,” Biblical Theology Bulletin vol. 43 no.2 (2013): 60-73.\n[2] Edward Tylor, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom. 4th ed. (London, UK: 1903).\nSee also, Marcel Mauss and Henri Hubert, Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function, trans. W. D. Halls, (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1964).\n[3] Sigmund Freud. Totem and Taboo: Resemblances between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics, translated by A. A. Brill (New York, NY: Random House, 1961), Ch.II-3: “Inclined as we may have been to ascribe to savage and semi-savage races uninhibited and remorseless cruelty towards their enemies, it is of great interest to us to learn that with them, too, the killing of a person compels the observation of a series of rules which are associated with taboo customs. These rules are easily brought under four groups; they demand 1. reconciliation with the slain enemy, 2. restrictions, 3. acts of expiation, and purifications of the manslayer, and 4. certain ceremonial rites. The incomplete reports do not allow us to decide with certainty how general or how isolated such taboo customs may be among these races, but this is a matter of indifference as far as our interest in these occurrences is concerned. Still, it may be assumed that we are dealing with widespread customs and not with isolated peculiarities.”\n[4] Freud, Ibid., Ch.II-3: “Through the analytical study of the symptoms, especially the compulsive actions, the defence reactions and the obsessive commands. These mechanisms gave every indication of having been derived from ambivalent impulses or tendencies, they either represented simultaneously the wish and counter-wish or they served preponderantly one of the two contrary tendencies. If we should now succeed in showing that ambivalence, i.e., the sway of contrary tendencies, exists also in the case of taboo regulations or if we should find among taboo mechanisms some which like neurotic obsessions give simultaneous expression to both currents, we would have established what is practically the most important point in the psychological correspondence between taboo and compulsion neurosis. \u0026hellip;We have already mentioned that the two fundamental taboo prohibitions are inaccessible to our analysis because they belong to totemism; another part of the taboo rules is of secondary origin and cannot be used for our purpose. For among these races taboo has become the general form of law giving and has helped to promote social tendencies which are certainly younger; than taboo itself, as for instance, the taboos imposed by chiefs and priests to insure their property and privileges. But there still remains a large group of laws which we may undertake to investigate. Among these I lay stress on those taboos which are attached (a) to enemies, (b) to chiefs, and (c) to the dead;\n[5] Sigmund Freud, ibid. at Ch.IV-6: “ The theanthropic god sacrifice into which unfortunately I cannot enter with the same thoroughness with which the animal sacrifice has been treated throws the clearest light upon the meaning of the older forms of sacrifice. It acknowledges with unsurpassable candour that the object of the sacrificial action has always been the same, being identical with what is now revered as a god, namely with the father. The question as to the relation of animal to human sacrifice can now be easily solved. The original animal sacrifice was already a substitute for a human sacrifice, for the solemn killing of the father, and when the father substitute regained its human form, the animal substitute could also be retransformed into a human sacrifice.”\n[6] René Girard, Violence and the Sacred, trans. Yvonne Freccero (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965), 156-157:\n“Far from being restricted to a limited number of pathological cases, as American theoreticians suggest, the double bind—a contradictory double imperative, or rather a whole network of contradictory imperatives—is an extremely common phenomenon. In fact, it is so common that it might be said to form the basis of all human relationships.\nBateson is undoubtedly correct in believing that the effects of the double bind on the child are particularly devastating. All the grown-up voices around him, beginning with those of the father and mother (voices which, in our society at least, speak for the culture with the force of established authority) exclaim in a variety of accents, “Imitate us!” “Imitate me!” “I bear the secret of life, of true being!” The more attentive the child is to these seductive words, and the more earnestly he responds to the suggestions emanating from all sides, the more devastating will be the eventual conflicts. The child possesses no perspective that will allow him to see things as they are. He has no basis for reasoned judgements, no means of foreseeing the metamorphosis of his model into a rival. This model\u0026rsquo;s opposition reverberates in his mind like a terrible condemnation; he can only regard it as an act of excommunication. The future orientation of his desires—that is, the choice of his future models—will be significantly affected by the dichotomies of his childhood. In fact, these models will determine the shape of his personality.\nIf desire is allowed its own bent, its mimetic nature will almost always lead it into a double bind. The unchanneled mimetic impulse hurls itself blindly against the obstacle of a conflicting desire. It invites its own rebuffs and these rebuffs will in turn strengthen the mimetic inclination. We have, then, a self-perpetuating process, constantly increasing in simplicity and fervor. Whenever the disciple borrows from his model what he believes to be the “true” object, he tries to possess that truth by desiring precisely what this model desires. Whenever he sees himself closest to the supreme goal, he comes into violent conflict with a rival. By a mental shortcut that is both eminently logical and self-defeating, he convinces himself that the violence itself is the most distinctive attribute of this supreme goal! Ever afterward, violence will invariably awaken desire…”\n[7] René Girard, Deceit, desire, and the novel; self and other in literary structure, trans. Patrick Gregory (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977), 155\n[8] See Kenneth Burke on Motivations being shorthand terms for situations, Kenneth Burke, Permanence and Change, An Anatomy of Purpose, 3rd edition (California: University of California Press, 1983), 29-30.: “The discovery of a law under simple conditions is not per se evidence that the law operates similarly under highly complex conditions. We may be justified, however, in looking for evidence of its operation in some form, as it either becomes redirected or persists vestigially.”\n[9] Kenneth Burke, Permanence and Change, prologue. xxv.\n[10] Burke, Permanence and Change, ibid. at 25: “Insofar as schemes of motivation change, one may expect a change in the very motives which people assign their actions… It is a term of interpretation, and being such it will naturally take its place within the framework of our Weltanschauung as a whole.”\n[11] Burke, ibid., 157-158.\n[12] See Roland Barthe, Mythologies, translated by Annette Lavers (New York: The Noonday Press, 1972): 113-114:\n“We must here recall that the materials of mythical speech (the language itself, photography, painting, posters, rituals, objects, etc.), however different at the start, are reduced to a pure signifying function as soon as they are caught by myth. Myth sees in them only the same raw material; their unity is that they all come down to the status of a mere language. Whether it deals with alphabetical or pictorial writing, myth wants to see in them only a sum of signs, a global sign, the final term of a first semiological chain. And it is precisely this final term which will become the first term of the greater system which it builds and of which it is only a part. Everything happens as if myth shifted the formal system of the first significations sideways…\n\u0026hellip;It can be seen that in myth there are two semiological systems, one of which is staggered in relation to the other: a linguistic system, 114 the language (or the modes of representation which are assimilated to it), which I shall call the language-object, because it is the language which myth gets hold of in order to build its own system; and myth itself, which I shall call metalanguage, because it is a second language, in which one speaks about the first. When he reflects on a metalanguage, the semiologist no longer needs to ask himself questions about the composition of the languageobject, he no longer has to take into account the details of the linguistic schema; he will only need to know its total term, or global sign, and only inasmuch as this term lends itself to myth. This is why the semiologist is entitled to treat in the same way writing and pictures: what he retains from them is the fact that they are both signs, that they both reach the threshold of myth endowed with the same signifying function, that they constitute, one just as much as the other, a language-object.”\n[13] Ernest J. Wrange, “Public Address: A Study in Social and Intellectual History.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 33 (1947), 451-457: “\u0026hellip;it is axiomatic that the extant records of man’s responses to the social and physical world as expressed in formulations of thought provide one approach to a study of the history of his culture.\u0026quot;\n","permalink":"/blog/2015/06/the-history-and-challenges-of-theorizing-human-sacrifice/","summary":"\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"Floor mosaic in Beit Alfa Synagogue (c.5th century AD, Israel) depicting the Binding of Issac\" class=\"size-full wp-image-161\" height=\"386\" src=\"/images/uploads/2015/06/Beit_alfa02.jpg\" width=\"600\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Fig. 1: Floor mosaic in Beit Alfa Synagogue (c.5th century CE, Israel) depicting the Binding of Issac (public domain art available via \u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beit_alfa02.jpg\"\u003eWikimedia Commons\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHuman sacrifice refers to the practice of ritual killing of human beings as offerings to divine patrons, ancestors, or other superhuman forces. Early comparative studies on human sacrifice were heavily influenced by theories of historical relativism and social evolutionism. [1] Such theory approach is exemplified by the works of nineteenth century cultural-anthropologists \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burnett_Tylor\"\u003eEdward Tylor\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Mauss\"\u003eMarcel Mauss\u003c/a\u003e, both of whom framed practices of human sacrifice as specific iteration of a general social feature, developed relative to various stages of human historical development. [2]\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The History and Challenges of Theorizing Human Sacrifice"},{"content":" Mayan Moon Goddess with rabbit, Museum of Fine Arts Boston MA In my previous post \u0026ldquo;Human Sacrifice during Shang Dynasty\u0026rdquo;, I examined the historical background of renji (人祭 / ritual human sacrifice) practiced during Shang dynasty China (c. 1600 BC to 1046 BC). It is important to note that the kind of large-scale human sacrifice practiced by Shang rulers, though extraordinary, is not historically idiosyncratic. Human sacrifice rituals similar to that of renji were also found pre-Colombian Mesoamerica, most notably in Mayan and Aztec societies. [1] As scholars have already performed excellent analyses on the political economy of ritual human killings in Aztec empire (see, The Accursed Share by Georges Bataille), this post will focus only on large-scale human sacrifices as practiced in pre-Colombian Mayan society.\nHuman sacrifice rituals similar to that of renji were also practiced by the Mayans. To be sure, Mayan and Shang belief systems were quite different from one another, with each side embodying a heterogenous set of religious practices. For instance, monotheistic themes that were prevalent in Shang rituals are notably absent in Mayan mythos. Furthermore, in contrast with the abundant textual record from the Shang dynasty, much of the classical Mayan mythologies have been destroyed during the Spanish conquest, and the few surviving pre-Columbian Mayan written artifacts remain largely undeciphered. Nonetheless, when looking at mythical rituals in the specific form large scale human sacrifices, it is possible to delineate a relatively large set of common elements between the two otherwise distinct civilizations.\nFig. 1: Mayan glyphs - a logographic writing system similar to written Chinese It is important to note that unlike the Shang, whose practice of ritual human sacrifice has long been well-established by historical records, human sacrifice in Mayan culture remained relatively unknown and received little scholarly attention until the late 20th century. Mayan human sacrifice only became widely studied after the 1970s, when archaeologists began to uncover large amount of new textual and archaeological evidence that shed light on Mayan sacrificial rituals. [2] Whereas the practice of ritual human sacrifice in pre-Colombian Mesoamerica was previously thought to be limited to the Aztec culture, whose imperial reign over the Valley of Mexico lasted from c.1400 AD to 1521 AD, it is now evident that such practice has been prevalent in Mayan culture centuries prior to that of Aztecs. [3] Current findings indicate that ritual human sacrifice has been continuously present in Mayan city-states throughout Yucatán regions [4] from the Classic period (c.200AD – c.900AD) up till the arrival of Spanish colonial forces in the 16th century. [5]\nAlso unlike the Shang dynasty, classical Mayan region has never been unified into a monolithic kingdom. Instead, Pre-Columbian era Mayan societies existed as multiple mutually independent city-states. [6] Classical Mayan city-states were organized around numerous densely-populated and sophistically developed urban areas. Those urban areas served as centers for politics, commerce and religion, and they were the sites where Mayan priest-kings performed human sacrifice ceremonies (see fig.2 \u0026amp; 3 below). Fig.2: \"Sacred Cenote\" from late-Classical Mayan city Chichen Itza, a site where human sacrificial remains were centrally disposed Similar to Shang, the Mayan human sacrifice were carefully organized and elaborately choreographed public spectacles. A detailed first-person account of the Mayan human sacrifice spectacle has been made by the 16th Century Spanish Catholic priest Diego de Landa, who conducted valuable early studies on Mayan religious practices during his tenure as the Bishop of Yucatán:\n“When the day of the ceremony arrived, they [the sacrificial victims] assembled in the court of the temple; if they were to be pierced with arrows their bodies were stripped and anointed with blue, with a miter on the head. When they arrived before the demon, all the people went through a solemn dance with him around the wooden pillar, all with bows and arrows, and then dancing raised him upon it, tied him, all continuing to dance and took at him… If his heart was to be taken out, they conducted him with great display and concourse of people, painted blue and wearing his miter, and placed him on the rounded sacrificial stone. ...then the falcon executioner came, with a flint knife in his hand, and with great skill made an incision between the ribs on the left side, below the nipple; then he plunged in his hand and like a ravenous tiger tore out the living heart, which he laid on a plate and gave to the priest; he then quickly went and anointed the faces of the idols with that fresh blood. At times they performed this sacrifice on the stone situated on the top step of the temple, and then they threw the dead body rolling down the steps, where it was taken by the attendants, was stripped completely of the skin save only on the hands and feet; then the priest, stripped, clothed himself with this skin and danced with the rest. This was a ceremony with them of great solemnity. The victims sacrificed in this manner were usually buried in the court of the temple…” [7] Fig.4: relief from Terminal Classic period Chichen Itza (c. AD 830-950), depicting human sacrifice by decapitation Although human sacrifice was of great political and religious importance in pre-Columbian Mayan societies, they were nonetheless performed as exceptional spectacles rather than everyday religious rituals. Similar to the case of the Shang, most Mayan religious sacrificial practices only involve non-human offerings such as animals. Ritual mass killings of human beings are reserved in only in two types of situations – the killing of enemy captives in victory celebrations, and the mass slaughtering of slaves in those rare “occasions of great tribulation” (such as severe drought or flood). [8]\nIt is also important to note that for the most part of the Mayan history, the predominant technique used in their human sacrifice rituals is decapitation (see fig.4) [9] – possibly as reenactment of the Xibalba lords \u0026ndash; rulers of the Mayan underworld \u0026ndash; decapitating the legendary Mayan ancestor twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque (see fig.5 below). [10] [11] According to writings from Popol Vuh, the oldest surviving pre-Columbian Mayan mythology, the death of the legendary hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque gave birth to the maize god – the mythological signification of the Mayan staple crop. [12] The well-known “removing the heart” methods were only found to be commonly practiced during the later stages of Mayan civilization, possibly due to Aztecs influences. [13]\nfig.5 Ixquic (mother of the Mayan hero twins) entangled by Mayan maize god's serpent leg, standing before the lords of Xibalba At this point, it might be appropriate to step briefly away from the minutiae of Shang and Mayan mythical practices, and instead look at the larger picture of human sacrifice. The practice of human sacrifice and ideas justifying these violent rituals mutually shapes and maintains one another. Even if violence is an inherent human condition, personal violent compulsions can only be transformed into collective rituals via collectively shared beliefs. Furthermore, it is important to note that effects of this dialectical relationship between sacrificial practices and their corresponding mythos are not contained within the sphere of religious life. Collective ideas, even in the form of “religious superstitions”, do not simply emerge from thin air ad libitum; rather, they both inflect and reflect human’s social and material conditions. Perhaps it is not too far of a stretch to consider human sacrifices in Shang and Mayan societies were not idiosyncratic incidents – but enduring repetitions of strictly regulated and carefully staged spectacles of ceremonial violence.\nWhile arguing for explicit manipulative intentions on the part of Shang and Mayan rulers might run the risk of over-instrumentalizing and over-rationalizing their sacrificial practices, it is nonetheless difficult to overlook the powerful functioning of religious ritual in the maintenance of society, even without the presence of such explicit motives. [14] Given the amount specific features shared between the two separate and distinctly developed cultures in terms of their human sacrifice rituals, such idiosyncratic overlapping warrants further inquiry into the underlying conditions of the human sacrifices as practiced in Mayan and Shang societies. Given the lack of any known historical connection between Maya and Shang, I will seek in my subsequent posts to reinterpret the symbolicity of human sacrifice in those two societies within the context of their local political economies.\n[divider]\nNotes and References:\n[1] See generally, Georges, Bataille, The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Zone Books, 1988). See also, Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina, “New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society,” Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology, (New York, U.S.: Springer, 2007). See also, generally, Diego de Landa, Yucatan Before and After the Conquest, tr. William Gates (New York: Dover Publications, 1937)\n[2] See generally, Arthur Demarest, Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Forest Civilization, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004)\n[3] Robert J. Sharer and Loa P. Traxler, The Ancient Maya, 6th ed (California: Stanford University Press, 2006). See also, Mary Miller and Karl Taube, An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. (London, 2003), introduction.\n[4] The region includes present-day Yucatán Peninsula, Sierra Madre mountains, the Mexican state of Chiapas, Belize, and portions of Guatemala and El Salvador.\n[5] Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina, New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatment in Ancient Maya Society, (Springer: 2007)\n[6] Robert J. Sharer and Loa P. Traxler, The Ancient Maya, 6th ed (California: Stanford University Press, 2006). See also, Mary Miller and Karl Taube, An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. (London, 2003), introduction.\n[7] Diego de Landa, Yucatan Before and After the Conquest, tr. William Gates (New York: Dover Publications, 1937), 51: “after a victory they cut off the jawbones from the dead, and hung them clean of flesh on their arms. In these wars they made great offerings of the spoils, and if they captured some renowned man they promptly sacrificed him, not to leave alive those who could later inflict injury upon them. The rest became captives of war in the power of those who took them.”\n[8] Diego de Landa, Yucatan Before and After the Conquest, tr. William Gates (New York: Dover Publications, 1937), 48-51.\n[9] Fig.5, HJPD, “Chichen Itza,Yucatan, Mexico: Ballcourt reliefs,” Wikimedia Commons, available: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AChichen_Itza_JuegoPelota_Relieve.jpg\n[10] Robert J. Sharer and Loa P. Traxler, The Ancient Maya, 6th ed (California: Stanford University Press, 2006). See also, Susan D Gillespie, \u0026ldquo;Ballgames and Boundaries\u0026rdquo;. In Vernon Scarborough and David R. Wilcox (eds.). The Mesoamerican Ballgame, (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1991), 317–345.\n[11] Fig. 5 by Xjunajpù (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons\n[12] Coe, Michael D. \u0026ldquo;The Hero Twins: Myth and Image\u0026rdquo;. In Barbara Kerr and Justin Kerr ed. The Maya Vase Book: A Corpus of Rollout Photographs of Maya Vases, volume 1. (New York: Kerr Associates, 1989), 161–184.\n[13] Sharer and Traxler (2006), 751.\n[14] See, e.g., James Carey, “A Cultural Approach to Communication”: “A ritual view of communication is directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs.”\n","permalink":"/blog/2015/06/a-brief-note-on-human-sacrifice-in-classical-mayan-culture/","summary":"\u003cfigure\u003e\n  \u003cimg alt=\"Goddess_O_Ixchel\" class=\"wp-image-145 size-full\" height=\"565\" src=\"/images/uploads/2015/06/Goddess_O_Ixchel.jpg\" width=\"488\"/\u003e\n  \u003cfigcaption\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Mayan Moon Goddess with rabbit, Museum of Fine Arts Boston MA\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn my \u003ca href=\"http://sites.psu.edu/kerenw/2015/05/27/historical-background-of-human-sacrifices-during-shang-dynasty/\"\u003eprevious post\u003c/a\u003e \u0026ldquo;\u003ca href=\"http://sites.psu.edu/kerenw/2015/05/27/historical-background-of-human-sacrifices-during-shang-dynasty/\"\u003eHuman Sacrifice during Shang Dynasty\u003c/a\u003e\u0026rdquo;, I  examined the historical background of \u003ci\u003erenji \u003c/i\u003e(人祭 / ritual human sacrifice) practiced during Shang dynasty China (c. 1600 BC to 1046 BC). It is important to note that the kind of large-scale human sacrifice practiced by Shang rulers, though extraordinary, is not historically idiosyncratic. Human sacrifice rituals similar to that of \u003ci\u003erenji \u003c/i\u003ewere also found pre-Colombian Mesoamerica, most notably in Mayan and Aztec societies. [1]  As scholars have already performed excellent analyses on the political economy of ritual human killings in Aztec empire (\u003cem\u003esee, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://mitpress.mit.edu/index.php?q=books/accursed-share\"\u003eThe Accursed Share\u003c/a\u003e \u003c/i\u003eby Georges Bataille), this post will focus only on large-scale human sacrifices as practiced in pre-Colombian Mayan society.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Brief Note on Human Sacrifice in Classical Mayan Culture"},{"content":" [box type=\u0026ldquo;note\u0026rdquo;]Fig.1, Bronze ceremonial axe (Yue / 钺) from middle to late Shang period, c. 1400 BCE ~ 1000 BCE, symbol of state power. Excavated from tomb M1 at the Sufutun site, currently part of the Shandong Museum collection. [/box]\nHuman sacrifice refers to the practice of ritual killing of human beings as offerings to divine patrons, ancestors, or other superhuman forces. While the phenomenon of ritual human killings have been present in many societies throughout history [1], the types of human sacrifice that were practiced by ancient Chinese and pre-Colombian Mesoamerican cultures, which were exceptional in terms of the sheer number of people sacrificed, the frequency at which it was done, and the high degree of formalization of their sacrificial rituals. Large-scale, systematic human sacrifice functioned as important political and religious spectacles in Shang dynasty.[2]\nThe Shang dynasty marked the height of Chinese Bronze Age, where it ruled over the fertile Yellow River basin for more than half a millennium, from c.1600 BC to 1046 BC. Traditional Chinese historiography has divided periods of Chinese history into ‘dynasties’ – a formal historical term referring to periods of “unified rule” (天下共主, lit. “a single sovereign uniting the world under Heaven”), where the land corresponding to the contemporary China-proper was ruled by a single sovereign clan. The change of imperial rule signaled a change in dynasty, and also signified a change in the Heaven’s mandate. [3] Officially, of course, imperial rule of China only officially started with the Qin dynasty under Emperor Shihuangdi in 221 BC. Prior to establishment of the Qin dynasty, the previous dynasties – Xia, Zhou, and Shang – were organized in the form of a confederate feudal state system, in which the state that managed to acquire hegemony via military conquest will be recognized by other feudal clans as having the Mandate of Heaven, and the monarch of that state would be referred to as Tianzi，which literally translates as “Heaven’s son.” The title Tianzi, which once referred to those kings of the hegemonic feudoms during Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, was carried on as the honorific title of the emperor throughout the imperial China, which lasted from 221 BC until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 AD. According to official historical records compiled during the Zhou dynasty (1046 BC–256 BC), Shang was the second Chinese dynasty the quasi-legendary Xia dynasty (c.2070 BC \u0026ndash;1600 BC). However as there are no conclusive archaeological records proving the existence of the Xia dynasty, Shang is so far the earliest confirmed Chinese dynasty in that the earliest written record were dated to this era. Written artifacts excavated from Shang archaeological sites were predominantly in the form of oracle bone script. These writings were used specifically during state divination ceremonies where the Shang ruler both acting as a king and as a high priest, would carve scripts concerning matters of state importance (such as military affairs, prayers for bountiful harvest, and matters concerning sacrificial offerings) onto specially prepared tortoise carapaces and cow bones. [4] The Shang king would then prod the oracle bones with a red-hot bronze rod, which would cause the bones to crack under the intense heat, indicating that the singular supreme deity of the Shang people, Shang-Di (上帝, lit.: “the lord from above”) had answered the questions inscribed on the bones, and the cracks left on the bones were supposedly Shang-Di’s divine answers. only the Shang king could interpret these and announce them to his people as divine mandates. Oracle bone script is the earliest known Chinese writing system; it is, nonetheless, a highly developed iconographic form of writing that resemble contemporary Chinese characters, and written in a grammar consistent with classical written Chinese. Thus, despite its ancient origin, the oracle script has been surprisingly legible for modern day archaeological scholars, perhaps due to the fact that it is, like contemporary Chinese, a purely logographic medium that transmits meaning without relying on phonetic representation, and therefore remained relatively static across millennia. [5]\nCurrent understandings of Shang religious practices, mostly based from a relatively large body of surviving written records from Shang and the subsequent Zhou dynasties, suggest that a amalgamation of ancestor worship, natural totemism and shamanism practices were present in the Shang society. However, the religion practiced by the Shang ruling class is distinctly monotheistic in character, of which the Shang-Di (lit. “lord above) is recognized as the one and only divine Lord (Di). Shang political theology frames Shang-Di as an incorporeal, omnipresent, and omnipotent metaphysical deity whom wields absolute power over all human, natural and spiritual forces. While the Shang people viewed the spiritual domain (e.g. spirit of dead ancestors) is simply an extension of the human world and can be readily accessed, the divine will of Shang-Di is radically inaccessible except through the divination of the Shang king.[6] [box type=\u0026ldquo;note\u0026rdquo;]Fig. 2. Guo Moruo 郭沫若(ed), Jiaguwen Heji 甲骨文合集 (Beijing: 中华书局影印本, 1980-1983), 1079. The oracle bone inscription reads: “甲辰 ····至戊陷人.丙午雨 (On the sexagenary cycle day of Jiachen\u0026hellip;human were sacrificed on the hour of Wu, it rained on the sexagenary cycle day of Beingwu.”[/box]\nA sizable portion of the oracle bones uncovered in Shang archaeological sites contain script specifically concerning human sacrifice (see figure 2 above).These written records are also corroborated by the discovery of numerous sacrificial mass-graves in those sites. In most Shang sacrificial rituals, only animals and valuable chattels (such as bronze wares) would be used as offerings. There were only two exceptional circumstances where human sacrifices were made: xunzang 殉葬 and renji 人祭. Xunzang 殉葬 (lit. “burial sacrifice”) refers to the practice in which personal slaves and servants of Shang king, upon their master’s death, were expected to commit ritual suicide or to “volunteer” themselves to be buried alive alongside with their master. While the practice of committing ritual suicide upon the master’s death has lingered throughout Chinese history, the second type of human sacrifice, renji 人祭 (lit. “human offering sacrifice) is practiced only during the Shang dynasty period, and also the most massive in scale in terms of number of people killed in a typical renji ceremony. The demographic pattern of Shang sacrificial victims is also quite interesting. Xunzang victims (or \u0026ldquo;volunteers\u0026rdquo;) were mostly personal slaves (i.e. house servants), and therefore in xunzang burial sites we could find a pretty even mix of male and female human remains. Renji victims, on the other hand, appears to be predominately male. Unlike xunzang, the people sacrificed for Renji were not personal slaves, but mostly prisoners of war and field slaves (keep in mind that Shang field slaves were typically captured from distant lands outside of Shang domain).\n[box type=\u0026ldquo;note\u0026rdquo;]Fig.3, oracle bone inscription (Heji 1027): “不其降冊千牛千人 shall one thousand cattle and one thousand human be sacrificed?” Guo Moruo (1980-1983), Heiji, 1027.[/box]\nSpecifically, renji functions as prayers to Shang-Di to deliver the Shang people from famine. This kind of sacrifice would only take place during periods of severe food shortage (usually due to drought or war). Hundreds of captured slaves were typically executed during a renji ceremony, usually via decapitation (see figure 3). The corpses of the victims, along with their severed heads, were buried in mass sacrificial pits or collectively incinerated, in order to placate what they thought was an angry Shang-Di.\n[box type=\u0026ldquo;note\u0026rdquo;]Fig.4, oracle bone inscription (Heiji 32035) “shall human blood be offered on the day of Xinyou? 辛酉其若亦氿伐”[/box]\nTo pray for the end of the famine brought by Shang-Di’s wrath, the Shang king would demonstrate to the supreme deity of their devoutness through the specular spilling of sacrificial human blood. Oracle bone inscriptions refer to such sacrificial human blood as qiu (氿, lit. “cascade”), but the precise method for extracting the sacrificial blood unknown (see fig. 4). The largest recorded human sacrifice of this kind was done by Shang king Wuding, where over 9,000 slaves were slaughtered as offerings to Shang-Di.\nPosted by Keren Wang at 5/28/2015\nNOTES: 1 See generally, Richard E. DeMaris, “Sacrifice, an Ancient Mediterranean Ritual,” Biblical Theology Bulletin vol. 43 no.2 (2013): 60-73. See also, e.g.: Sigmund Freud. Totem and Taboo: Resemblances between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics, translated by A. A. Brill (New York, NY: Random House, 1961) Ch.II-3: “The reconciliation customs practised on the island of Timor, after a victorious band of warriors has returned with the severed heads of the vanquished enemy, are especially significant because the leader of the expedition is subject to heavy additional restrictions. ...Similar customs are found among the Palu in Celebes; the Gallas sacrifice to the spirits of their dead enemies before they return to their home villages.” Ch.IV-6: “... the first kings of the Latin tribes were strangers who played the part of a deity and were solemnly sacrificed in this rôle on specified holidays. The yearly sacrifice (self-sacrifice is a variant) of a god seems to have been an important feature of Semitic religions. The ceremony of human sacrifice in various parts of the inhabited world makes it certain that these human beings ended their lives as representatives of the deity. This sacrificial custom can still be traced in later times in the substitution of an inanimate imitation (doll) for the living person.” See also, Michael Rudolph, Ritual Performances as Authenticating Practices. (Berlin: LIT Verlag Münster, 2008); John Noble Wilford, \"Ritual Deaths at Ur Were Anything but Serene,” New York Times, October 26, 2009: “A new examination of skulls from the royal cemetery at Ur, discovered in Iraq almost a century ago, appears to support a more grisly interpretation than before of human sacrifices associajted with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia, archaeologists say. ...Archaeologists at the University of Pennsylvania reached that conclusion after conducting the first CT scans of two skulls from the 4,500-year-old cemetery.” Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/science/27ur.html Austine Waddell, Tibetan Buddhism: With Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology, and in Its Relation to Indian Buddhism (1895), at 516: \"Human sacrifice seems undoubtedly to have been regularly practised in Tibet up till the dawn there of Buddhism in the seventh century.\" ↩ 2 See generally, Wang Ping and Wolfgang Kubin, 甲骨文与殷商人祭 / Oracle bone inscriptions and human sacrifice during the Yinshang period / Jia gu wen yu Yin Shang ren ji, Chinese, 1st ed., (Zhengzhou, China: 大象出版社, 2007). ↩ 3 陈启云, “封建与大一统之间——关于中国传统政体的理论和史实,” 学术月刊 2 (2007) ↩ 4 See generally, 中国社会科学院考古研究所 , 殷墟与商文化－殷墟科学发掘８０周年纪念文集 (Beijing: 科学出版社, 2011) ↩ 5 See generally, Gao Ming 高明, Zhongguo Guwenzi Xuetonglun 中国古文字学通论, (Beijing: Peking University Press, 1996) ↩ 6 See 《周禮-春官宗伯》: “以吉禮事邦國之鬼神示：以禋祀祀昊天上帝，以實柴祀日月星辰，以槱燎祀司中、司命、風師、雨師。以血祭祭社稷、五祀、五岳，以貍沈祭山林川澤，以副辜祭四方百物。” 《商書 - 伊訓》: “嗚呼！嗣王祗厥身，念哉！聖謨洋洋，嘉言孔彰。惟上帝不常，作善降之百祥，作不善降之百殃。”\nSee also, 《商書 - 湯誥》: “爾萬方有眾，明聽予一人誥。惟皇上帝，降衷于下民。若有恆性，克綏厥猷惟后。\u0026hellip;爾有善，朕弗敢蔽；罪當朕躬，弗敢自赦，惟簡在上帝之心。其爾萬方有罪，在予一人；予一人有罪，無以爾萬方。”\nSee generally, 中国社会科学院考古研究所 , 殷墟与商文化－殷墟科学发掘８０周年纪念文集 (Beijing: 科学出版社, 2011)E↩\n","permalink":"/blog/2015/05/historical-background-of-human-sacrifices-during-shang-dynasty/","summary":"\u003cimg alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-118 size-medium aligncenter\" height=\"250\" src=\"/images/uploads/2015/05/01200000030126136323412742130-300x250.jpg\" width=\"300\"/\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[box type=\u0026ldquo;note\u0026rdquo;]Fig.1, Bronze ceremonial axe (Yue / 钺) from middle to late Shang period, c. 1400 BCE ~ 1000 BCE, symbol of state power. Excavated from tomb M1 at the Sufutun site, currently part of the Shandong Museum collection. [/box]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHuman sacrifice refers to the practice of ritual killing of human beings as offerings to divine patrons, ancestors, or other superhuman forces.  While the phenomenon of ritual human killings have been present in \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/science/27ur.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003emany societies\u003c/a\u003e throughout history \u003ca href=\"#1\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e, the types of human sacrifice that were practiced by ancient Chinese and \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Maya_culture\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003epre-Colombian Mesoamerican\u003c/a\u003e cultures, which were exceptional in terms of the sheer number of people sacrificed, the frequency at which it was done, and the high degree of formalization of their sacrificial rituals. Large-scale, systematic human sacrifice functioned as important political and religious spectacles in \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShang dynasty\u003c/a\u003e.\u003ca href=\"#2\"\u003e[2]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Human Sacrifice during Shang Dynasty"},{"content":" Email me kerenwcpe [at] gmail [dot] com\nABOUT ME: As a scholar, my research and teaching traverse the intersections of rhetorical theory, transnational legal studies, and political communication, interrogating the symbolic and discursive underpinnings of contemporary governance. My monograph, Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism (Routledge, 2020), examines how ritualistic frameworks render exploitative structures of the prevailing political‑economic system inescapable—or even preferable—offering an interdisciplinary critical lens on the architecture of global development.\nRecent publications examine an interlocking set of questions: civic networks and digital activism in East Asia; the rhetorical machinery of the Social Credit System; and the dynamics of silence and imitation as modes of political contestation. Across these threads, my scholarship maps the rhetorical architectures that underwrite power, collective memory, and social control in an increasingly fractured global order.\nI am developing a new book, Artificial Intelligence and Human Sacrifice, a prolegomenon to the ways generative technologies and the prospect of artificial superintelligence reshape sacrificial rationalities in governance and development. Across cases from personalized law and labor automation to AI‑augmented advocacy, remote warfare, and polycriminal scam centers, it shows how an “almighty algorithm” operates as a legitimating ritual that offloads injury onto marked populations, reduces persons to standing‑reserve, and quiets the ethical demand of face‑to‑face encounter, even as these systems widen access, accelerate knowledge production, and ease alienated forms of labor. In dialogue with genealogies of human sacrifice and technological disruption, the book asks what, and whom, we are prepared to offer for the blessings of machines, and how algorithmic rhetoric renders those offerings palatable.\nGoogle Scholar Profile | ORCID: 0000-0001-6933-885X\nAwards National Communication Association Public Address Division Wrage-Baskerville Top Paper Award, for “A Rhetorical Autopsy of the Architect of Apartheid and its Transnational Implications.” (2024) American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellowship (2022) Visiting Fellowship at the Center for Humanities and Information (2021) Don W. Davis Program in Ethical Leadership Research Award (2018) National Communication Association Top Paper Award, Japan-U.S. Communication Division (2017). National Communication Association Top Paper Award, Chinese Communication Studies Division (2014). Dissertation Fellow, Center for Democratic Deliberation and Center \u0026amp; Institute Fellowship Program (2016) SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. Routledge, 2019: doi.org/10.4324/9780429198687 Available via Harvard HOLLIS. With Dominic Manthey. “Silent Protest and Cruel Imitation in Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Movement.” In: Quiet Defiance: The Rhetoric of Silent Protest. David Seitz (ed.) Lexington Books (2025): doi.org/10.5771/9781666939002 “Legal and Rhetorical Dynamics of Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ in the Chinese Social Credit System.” China Review 24, no. 3 (2024). Available via JSTOR. “The Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s Judicial Rhetoric and Its Post-WWII Constitutionalization Process.” Communication Law Review, Volume 20, Issue 1, (2020): 1-29. Available via CLR. “Rhetorical Invention of Laws of Sacrifice: Kelo v. New London,” Communication Law Review, Volume 18, Issue 2 (2018): 59-95. Available via CLR. With Nabih Haddah, \"Participatory Global Citizenship: Civic Education Beyond Territoriality.\" Journal of Self-Governance \u0026amp; Management Economics 3, no. 1 (2015). Available via Harvard HOLLIS. With Backer, Larry Catá. \"The emerging structures of socialist constitutionalism with Chinese characteristics: extra-judicial detention and the Chinese constitutional order.\" Washington International Law Journal 23 (2014): 251. Available via UW Digital Commons. Backer, Larry Catá, Nabih Haddad, Tomonori Teraoka, and Keren Wang. “Democratizing the Global Business and Human Rights Project by Catalyzing Strategic Litigation from the Bottom Up.” Chapter. In The Business and Human Rights Landscape: Moving Forward, Looking Back, edited by Jena Martin and Karen E. Bravo, 254–87. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316155219.010 Other: Wang, Keren. “Capitalism’s Sacrifice of Humanity.” Interview by Stefan Christoff. Free City Radio, supported by the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL) at Lakehead University. Originally aired on CKUT 90.3 FM (Tiohti:áke/Montréal) at 11:00 AM on Wednesdays, CJLO 1690 AM (Montréal) at 8:30 AM on Wednesdays, CKUW 95.9 FM (Winnipeg) at 10:30 PM on Tuesdays, Met Radio 1280 AM (Toronto) at 5:30 AM on Fridays, and CKCU FM 93.1 (Ottawa) at 2:00 PM on Tuesdays. Available: https://soundcloud.com/freecityradio/229-author-keren-wang-on-human-sacrifice-as-inherent-to-capitalism-today?in=freecityradio/sets/capitalism-as-a-form-of-human\u0026amp;utm_source=clipboard\u0026amp;utm_medium=text\u0026amp;utm_campaign=social_sharing SELECTED PRESENTATIONS: “A Rhetorical Autopsy of the Architect of Apartheid and its Transnational Implications (Public Address Division Wrage-Baskerville Top Paper Award).” Presented at the National Communication Association Chinese Communication Studies Division Top Papers Panel, Chicago, (November 22, 2014). “Algorithmic Governmentality \u0026amp; Narrative Structures of AI Policies.” Special guest lecture at East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, June 4, 2024. “Constitutional Dynamics in China-Taiwan Relations: A Historical and Comparative Analysis.” Presentation at Emory International Law Review Symposium on Disputed Territories Across the Globe. Emory University, April 13, 2024. “Demystifying the Historical and Rhetorical Contexts of Chinese Digital Governance Regime,” presentation at the Symposium on China’s Data Governance and Its Impact on US-China Relations.” The Carter Center China Focus. Atlanta: The Carter Center, Sept. 26, 2023. https://chinafocus.info/symposium-data-governance-and-its-impact-on-us-china-relations/ “Dasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI.” Special guest lecture at East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, June 18 2023. \"Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy: 'Pillars of Shame' in the Age of Big Data.\" Presented at the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative Workshop at Emory University School of Law, Atlanta (March 24, 2023). “Social and Moral Engineering in the Age of Big Data: Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ and the Chinese Social Credit System.” Lecture hosted by REALC Faculty Spotlight Series at Emory University, Atlanta: Feb 6, 2023. “Legal and Rhetorical Dynamics of Personalized Shaming Rituals in the Chinese Social Credit System.” Presented at the German Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, University of Vienna (November 3, 2022). “Revisiting Classical Rhetoric in Chinese Intellectual History.” Presented at the Association for6 Political Theory Annual Conference, University of Houston (October 28, 2022). “HKGolden and the Emergence of Internet-Nativist-Right Discourse.” Presented at the 2020 Camp Rhetoric conference in University Park, PA. (February 29, 2020) “A Rhetorical Analysis of HKGolden’s ‘Alternative’ Networked Activism.” Presented at the Exploring Social Media: Online Political Rhetoric, Intercultural Fandom Identity, Corporate Social Responsibility, Millennials, and Non-Use panel at the National Communication Association Annual Convention in Baltimore, Maryland (November 16, 2019). “Reexamining Ritual Sacrifice in Late Capitalism,” presented at the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists 2019 Annual Conference in Sydney, Australia (April 27, 2019) With Dominic Manthey, “Play of Democratic Signification: Digital Rhetoric in Hong Kong’s 2014 Pro-Democracy Movement,” presented at the National Communication Association 104th Annual Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, Critical and Cultural Studies Division (November 11th, 2018). With Tomonori Teraoka, \"Reflections on the Japanese post-WWII Constitutionalization Process (Top Student Paper Award).\" Presented at the National Communication Association Annual Conference Annual Convention, Dallas, TX (November 19, 2017). With Tomonori Teraoka, “Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution,” presented at Harvard East Asia Society Conference 2017, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (February 25, 2017) “Public Rituals and The Rhetorical Invention of Laws of Sacrifice,” presented at The Sixth “Rhetoric in Society” Conference of the Rhetoric Society of Europe, University of East Anglia, Norwich (July 5th, 2017) “Fractured Legal Theology: Tension between Doxa and Pistis in Chinese Judicial Reform Discourse,” paper presented at the 11th Annual General Conference of the European China Law Studies Association, at the Faculty of Law of the Roma TRE University in Rome (September 24, 2016) “Reexamining Hong Kong’s Political Tension and Rhetoric under of Chinese Socialist System,” presented at the 10th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association, University of Cologne (September 28, 2015) “The Dynamic Role of Strategic Framing in Shaping Social Movement Personae: Analyzing Metaphors of ‘Revolution’ and ‘Movement’ in 2014 Hong Kong Protests.” Presented at the Third International Conference on Asian Studies, International University of Japan, Niigata, Japan: June 20-21, 2015. “A Written Constitution without Functioning Constitutionalism (NCA Top Paper Award)” presented at the Top papers panel - Chinese Communication Studies Division, National Communication Association Annual Conference, Chicago, (November 22, 2014). “International Organizations and Participatory Global Citizenship: Civic Education beyond Territoriality,” (paper presented at the 19th Annual UBC Interdisciplinary Legal Studies Graduate Student Conference, University of British Columbia, Canada, May 8-9, 2014.) ","permalink":"/cv/","summary":"\u003c!-- wp:html --\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"mailto:contact@kerenwang.org\"\u003eEmail me\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003cnoscript\u003ekerenwcpe [at] gmail [dot] com\u003c/noscript\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cscript\u003e\n  (function () {\n    var u = 'kerenwcpe', d = 'gmail', t = '.com';\n    var a = document.getElementById('em');\n    a.href = 'mailto:' + u + '@' + d + t + '?subject=Hello%20from%20your%20website';\n  }());\n\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003c!-- /wp:html --\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eABOUT ME:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\"\u003eAs a scholar, my research and teaching traverse the intersections of rhetorical theory, transnational legal studies, and political communication, interrogating the symbolic and discursive underpinnings of contemporary governance. My monograph, \u003ca href=\"https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99153820005603941/catalog\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLegal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: \u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAn Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e (Routledge, 2020), examines how ritualistic frameworks render exploitative structures of the prevailing political‑economic system inescapable—or even preferable—offering an interdisciplinary critical lens on the architecture of global development.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Curriculum Vitae"}]