Comments: Teresa Almeida Cravo (FEUC/CES) | Moderator: Patrícia Silva (CES)

Overview

The concept of "totalitarianism" is a slippery one and should always be subject to critical scrutiny. It cannot be restricted, as Carl J. Friedrich and Hannah Arendt did already in the context of the Cold War, to the uniform characterisation of Italian fascism, German national socialism and Stalinism and their different replicas. In reality, it is much more complex than this, referring also, as Marilena Chauí understood when applying it to the global reality of neoliberalism, to the identification of a homogeneous society, which, even under formally democratic regimes devoid of censorship, tends to refuse social heterogeneity, the plurality of ways of life, the diversity of behaviours, beliefs, opinions and choices.

On the other hand, Enzo Traverso pointed to its usefulness in the field of theory and political sociology, but underlined its potentially misleading character when applied to the fields of history, philosophy and most of the social sciences. However, even considering this polysemy of meanings, the concept may also have some usefulness in characterising a time that is drawing up on our horizon in the context of the "catastrophe" - the term used by Henry Rousso to identify the sudden end, the turning point, the abrupt change capable of deeply affecting the collective - that we are currently experiencing. It may also serve to identify a dystopian possibility determined by mechanisms of control and standardisation that the pandemic context has the conditions to install as the foundations of a new, desolating and oppressive "normality".

In this 1st session of the online seminars series "Deconfined Talks II" we will try to inventory and debate some of these problems, from the perspective of understanding the past and the present, but also from the perspective of resistance to regulation.

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This activity will be accessible through the Zoom platform and will be limited to number of available places:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85700843113?pwd=THpPSTZ0a0cwUG9zN3FJOWZjOHdYUT09
ID: 857 0084 3113 | Password: 493468

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