Social Anarchy Research Articles

Warlike Heroines and Anglo-German Drama in an Age of Europhobia

The Anglo-German drama, which comes to proliferate in London's patent theatres at the turn of the nineteenth century, renders ubiquitous an arms-bearing heroine whose foreign character and perceived ideological inferences render her a chief object of attack among British Europhobic commentators. Redressing the limited scholarship devoted to this pervasive Anglo-German figure, this essay foregrounds the remarkable extent to which she is implicated in the perceived social and political threats with which the German drama is freighted. The essay uses theatrical commentaries to spotlight three recurring, though not quite harmonious flaws, for which the violent German heroine is contemporaneously berated. Then, analysing performances of Joseph George Holman's The Red-Cross Knights (Haymarket, 1799) and Richard Cumberland's Joanna of Montfaucon (Covent Garden, 1800), the essay illustrates the meticulous methods employed by dramatists to mollify the subversive implications embodied by the Anglo-German Amazon and to uphold supposedly inherent distinctions between male and female conduct, and British and European females, at a moment when the blurring of such gendered and national boundaries portends the social anarchy witnessed across the Channel.

“ZEMSKY SOBOR OF ALL THE RUSSIAN LAND” IN 1917. REFLECTIONS ON THE LATEST STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF THE 1917 STATE CONFERENCE BY A.B. NIKOLAEV

The review examins the monograph by A.B. Nikolaev “State Conference of 1917: Summoning, Composition, Activities”, published in 2022. The preparation and holding of the large-scale all-Russian event in the revolutionary year of 1917 are analyzed in the context of studying parliamentarism in Russia. The Moscow State Conference of 1917 arose from an urgent necessity for the coalition Provisional Government to strengthen its prestige and A.F. Kerensky’s personal power, as well as probably to receive a “tribune”, which could be used to give prompt explanations on all issues that would arise in the event of its transformation from an advisory institution as an ersatz parliament into a body with constituent functions. In addition, the Provisional Government was looking for opportunities on a state level to reconcile revolutionary socialist democracy and bourgeois liberalism movements, which had already completely split by that time. Moscow State Conference of 1917 assumed crucial significance due to the desire to find a way out of the existing revolutionary impasse and to serve as a support for the weak and dependent dual state power. Having ensured this support, it would become a united, strong power, capable of saving the country from internal collapse. In an effort to prevail over the impending political and social anarchy, the Conference became a tense, dramatic episode of the Revolution of 1917. The observers and participants of the State Conference obviously regarded it as the “Zemsky Sobor of all the Russian Land” which met in the former capital of Russia to solve the pressing problems and give state power the physical and spiritual strength it needed. The results of the State Conference proved to be contradictory for all political forces. The Provisional Government was able to obtain majority support at the meeting, but the nature of this support indicated the extremely precarious position of the coalition. As a result of the research, the author of the reviewed monograph comes to the conclusion that the State Conference, while maintaining the coalition, did not strengthen it. Representatives of revolutionary democracy were forced to make concessions to the bourgeoisie, which subsequently led to the loss of revolutionary democracy’s authority among workers and soldiers.

A Historical Narrative of Ethnic Conflict and Social Anarchy in Shaanxi: The Muslim Uprising 1862-1873

<p>Hui rebellion (1862-1873) is depicted generally as the confrontation of Hui with the Qing state but an exploration of the background of the uprising in the Shaanxi province and a keen look into the oral histories and compilations of local narratives of the devastation reveals that the reality was much more complex. The historical account of these rebellions produced the stereotype that Manchus and Hui had been in conflict throughout whereas this paper contends that the Qing reign can be comfortably divided into two distinct phases with respect to the behavior of Manchus towards the Hui minority. The first phase is marvelously peaceful and prosperous whereas the second is equally drastic and catastrophic. How did this sweeping shift occur? The answer to this logical query involves the third and most decisive component of the whole confrontation i.e. Han gentry and militia. We propose that Han officialdom played a crucial role in creating an ambiance of confrontation of Hui with the Qing state. Were it not the ethnic riots and racial bias by the Han gentry, Hui would have never been forced to stand unanimously for the protection of their identity and rights. On the other hand, although the Qing Empire wanted to discriminate between rebels and innocent people yet its efforts remained futile as with the weakening of the central state, the axis of power shifted to local Han authorities who were adamant to exterminate Hui from the area. Thus an uprising against Han discrimination distended into a rebellion against the state on a large scale.</p>

Book Review

Book Review

Justice and Righteousness on Old Testament Prophets in Relation to Insecurity in Nigeria

This research attempts to find a solution to the incessant security challenges in Nigeria in the message of the prophets of eighth century Israel regarding justice and righteousness. During this time, the wealth of the nation was concentrated in the hands of the upper class that marginalised others, dispossessing them of their property. In their criticisms of the oppressors, the prophets predicted God’s judgment in terms of social disorder, anarchy and captivity. But all these could be averted if the leaders would uphold justice and righteousness; the warnings were not heeded and the predictions came true. As in ancient Israel, Nigeria has been witnessing many security challenges, and one major factor for this is the marginalisation of the citizenry by government and politicians. Due to corruption and negligence on the part of Nigerian leaders, society is made volatile for insecurity. One way of solving the problem of insecurity in Nigeria is by applying the principles of justice in all aspects of governance.

Vera Keller. Knowledge and the Public Interest, 1575–1725. xi + 350 pp., illus., index. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. £64.99 (cloth).

Vera Keller. <i>Knowledge and the Public Interest, 1575–1725</i>. xi + 350 pp., illus., index. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. £64.99 (cloth).

Culture Clash

Culture Clash Jacob Singer (bio) Heritage of Smoke Josip Novakovich Dzanc Books www.dzancbooks.org/our-books/heritage-of-smoke-by-josip-novakovich 240Pages; Print, $16.95 How much control do we actually have over our lives? This question binds Josip Novakovich’s latest collection of short stories Heritage of Smoke. Novakovich exerted his free will by leaving Yugoslavia to immigrate to the United States to study, write, and teach. In 2009, he moved to Canada to take a teaching position. While Novakovich has exerted control over his life, he is sensitive to those with less agency. They are the subject of this collection. Each story reveals the shallowness of safety and order in life, hinting at the turbulence swirling below the surface—be it social anarchy, mental derangement, or pure chance. Like William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954), many of the characters easily lose their self-control to participate in something uncivilized. These stories dramatize the relationship between individuals and their cultural contexts—primarily focusing on individuals from the Yugosphere. Here groups can be broken along many lines. There are Croatians, Serbians, Bosnians; Christians and Muslims; alcoholics and non-alcoholics. These are but a few of the identities that shape the characters, some who stay in the region once known as Yugoslavia; others who leave for a new life and adopt a new identity. In “Crossbar” the narrator loses himself while watching a semifinal UEFA Cup football match in Zagreb. He states, “Ordinarily I was a civilized architect, with a taste for macchiato and single malts. At the beginning of the match, I was still a civilized human, but now, by the end, I had taken off my shirt and was hollering for blood.” Later a crowd, including the narrator, jumps the fence, enters the pitch, and attacks the players and officials. The story continues to take twists and turns for the worse. But this is one example of how Novakovich dramatizes the fragility of civilization—that we are all a few pints away from barbarism. Civilization supposedly keeps humans from annihilating themselves. Law and justice keep men from attaining vengeance. The story ends with a sober narrator rediscovering his moral compass. Click for larger view View full resolution The story “Dutch Treat” opens in Manhattan’s Grand Central Station with a flower seller named Esad recognizing Martin, who doesn’t recall the salesman. As a member of the Dutch unit in the United Nations, Martin served in Srebrenica when the Serbian military searched for Muslim terrorists. While the Dutch drank and played cards, the Serbians massacred thousands. Eventually news got out and Holland withdrew their forces in shame, and Martin quit to study theology. Decades later, thousands of miles away Esad spots Martin as a recognizable face from his time in Srebrenica. After the initial interaction, Martin returns to the train station to strike up a conversation with Esad. This inciting incident pushes the two together to examine how civilization can trap someone in the brutality of war. The fall of Yugoslavia, which was always a powder keg of nationalism waiting to explode, points to another example of the fragility of statehood. The story continues with Martin offering Esad compensation for his suffering, but this act, done with the best intention, breaks the law. During the interrogation, Martin realizes how his one act indirectly ripples through the world. It points to an interconnectedness that exists unseen. In this instance, the best of intentions can have the worst consequences. The story ends with civilization using its tools to collect enough happenstances to argue for intention: “‘It’s too much of a coincidence for us to let it go unquestioned—way too many ‘coincidences.’” Here civilization, with its access to surveillance technology, works without morality; Martin directly experiences the corruption of civilization, echoing his experience while working in a corrupted division of the UN. Many of these stories shake the reader’s sense of faith in institutions and systems. “Be Patient” applies this to the world of medicine. The story opens in Daruvar, Croatia, where Nenad takes his daughter to receive an immunization for the measles. During the walk home they pass a dog that Nenad...

Revolution Impact on Drinking Water Consumption: Real Case of Tunisia

Water is considered a major social and political issue. This article stands out by its quantification of the impact of socio-political disturbances on social behavior regarding the consumption of drinking water. It also allows the monitoring of fluctuation of the economic pattern through the main economic sectors during these disturbances by the study of a revolution impact—case of the revolution in Tunisia in January 2011, on the spatial, temporal and sectorial variation of the drinking water consumption. Six water users covering the whole consumption are considered in this study: connected and non connected household users, tourism, industries, collective and various other users. Among the results, in this coastal country, the relation between drinking water consumption by tourism, the touristic activities and the national economy are clearly established. All these components are similarly affected by the socio political disturbances but longer lasting fallouts hit only the most vulnerable regions of the country. Industrial activities that used drinking water seemed to be affected only when the socio political disturbance is at its paroxysm due to strikes, sit-ins of unemployed people, job seekers protests and companies closure. The revolution impacts such as weakening of the State’s authority when facing inappropriate and illegitimate social desires, anarchy, people displacement and refugees are the major causes of non-connected household drinking water waste or over-consumption (up to 89 %) and an alarming increase of the induced breakages (+445 % in 2012 compared to 2010).

The Impact of Social Media Technologies on the Revolutions

In this paper, we analyse the impact of social media technology on the Arab spring, and how individuals and communities used Schemata of Interpretation and Human Factor (cause, justification and emotions) to support the uprising throughout the Middle East. Social Media enabled activists from different regions to use technologies to share ideas and tactics, to inspire and engage protesters aspirations and to resonate from rural areas to gather at centrally located points push the momentum. Using social media the activists were able to distribute key messages for collective action and contribute to awareness and discussion from different political factions to create social anarchy, chaos, cultural imagery and symbolisms. By creating social anarchy activists can forge mutual friendship by individuals within the group through sharing belief and culture. The Causes & Technologies framework being presented here looks at the human factor and identifies key traits and themes that are necessary for Actors within the society to form necessary uprisings.

Vagabondage et dévergondage du personnage: réflexions sur les déambulations du héros dans les contes renardiens de la France médiévale

The continual monotony and the wandering life of individuals, members of the French society of the Middle Age has been a big concern for the fox folktales tellers. They have focused on the strolls of Renart the fox, hero of Le Roman de Renart, deriving from populous tales of former France. In fact, the fox folktales tellers represent the reign of social anarchy triggered off by the decay of central power and the implementation of an asocial life grounded on the quest and conquest of an uncertain future and desperately marked by anguish and the resort to deceit means to the disdain of human being. Even the knight dignified forfeit of the social honorable and respectable manners in the past, is compelled to a roving, boredom and brutality for survive. This contribution aims to visit this central and worrying question of the Middle Age society to establish the contemporary value and show how it is dozed a potential outline of wandering whose expression comes from the absence of a controlled life and an irresponsibility of any resignation power.

Remixing the Remix: Fannish Appropriation and the Limits of Unauthorised Use

Remixing the Remix: Fannish Appropriation and the Limits of Unauthorised Use

COMPARATIVE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: CATEGORIZING POLITICAL PHILOSOPHIES USING TWELVE ARCHETYPES

Abstract:Comparative political philosophy can be stimulated by imposing a categorization scheme on possible varieties of political philosophies. This article develops a categorization scheme using four essential features of political philosophies, resulting in twelve archetypal political philosophies. The four essential features selected are a political philosophy's views concerning human nature, the proper function of morality, the best form of society, and the highest responsibility of citizenship. The twelve archetypal political philosophies range from the communal (Rousseau), the democratic (J. S. Mill), the representative (Aristotle), the aristocratic (Plato), and the autocratic (Calvin), along with seven more archetypes: the aloof anarchy, social anarchy, contractarian, progressive, natural law, sage ruler, and tyrannical political forms. A wide variety of Western political philosophers are assigned their places within this categorization scheme to illustrate its utility and comprehensiveness.

Beyond the 'M' Word: The Tangled Web of Politics and Marriage

Marriage entered presidential politics for the first time as farce: Dan Quayle's June 1992 attack on the television character "Murphy Brown" for having a child while unmarried. In the wake of the Los Angeles riots, the then-vice president addressed the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. "The lawless social anarchy which we saw," he argued, "is directly related to the breakdown of family structure." The poverty at the root of the disorders was a "poverty of morals." At the very end of speech, he denounced "Murphy Brown" and her Hollywood creators for "mocking fatherhood," glamorizing single motherhood, and thereby encouraging family disintegration among the poor. The attack on a popular television show launched a media frenzy and a torrent of late night talk-show jokes.

Tarnished Labor: The Home, the Market, and the Boardinghouse in Antebellum America

It is growing late, and the crowd has somewhat thinned although there are still many hundreds in the street-some hurrying home to their wives ... some creeping reluctantly to their cold, narrow, bedrooms in private boardinghouses where they receive 'the comforts of a home' for five dollars a week, with breakfast and tea. So wrote George Foster, journalist and observer of urban life, in one of his best known works, New York by Gas-Light (1850).' Foster may well have rendered an accurate judgment of boardinghouse conditions. But the contrast he invoked between the welcoming conjugal home-to which one hurried-and the grave-like boardinghouse bedroom-to which one crept reluctantly- reflected a wider discourse that chronicled the disappointments, annoyances, and even danvers of boarding life. Foster was not alone. Commentators as diverse as Sarah Josepha Hale (a prolific author of domestic fiction and the editor of the genteel Godey's Lady's Book) and Walt Whitman agreed that boardinghouses were not and condemned them for precisely this reason. Far from being a mere place of residence, the home in antebellum America represented a relatively new but increasingly important cultural ideal. Preferably the private abode of the middle-class nuclear family, it furnished a refuge from a market-driven world, governed proper relations between the sexes, provided moral guidance and emotional support to its inhabitants, and upheld republican government and social order.2 Its antithesis-in theory if not in fact-was the boardinghouse, a public establishment where strangers (of both sexes) mingled freely, fueling crime, licentiousness, and social anarchy. Yet during periods of massive urban growth, city dwellers of all classes more likely lived in boardinghouses than in homes.3 Routinely described even by its detractors as an American institution, the boardinghouse, with its inhabitants and its larger social implications, remains largely unexplored by social and cultural historians. To be sure, boardinghouses show up in urban history monographs, receiving the most insightful treatment (for the antebellum period) in Elizabeth Blackmar's Manhattan for Rent. But no scholar has given boardinghouses exclusive attention, and few have fully appreciated their economic and cultural significance. Numbering in the thousands, providing for rural migrants and European immigrants, boardinghouses literally underwrote the growth of urban industry and commerce. To put it another way, what historians call the revolution could not have been accomplished in the absence of boardinghouses and the labor of those who kept them.4 Boardinghouses also performed important cultural work. As antebellum commentators of various stripes struggled to understand the meaning of home, boardinghouses provided them with a ready contrast, encompassing all that homes were not. Above all, boardinghouses were creatures of the marketplace. If the home furnished a refuge from the market-indeed if its very existence justified the ruthless pursuit of self-interest in the marketplace-what then of the boardinghouse? Paying cash for housekeeping services (and accepting cash for providing them) defied the social logic of an emerging sentimental, social ideal. In the period that enshrined the home as the foundation of moral life and simultaneously embraced the market as the overarching model for economic relations, distinguishing between home and boardinghouse provided Americans with a timely, if ultimately frustrating, lesson in political economy. It offered them one means of determining-to borrow Amy Dru Stanley's words-what was saleable and what was not.5 Women's labor stood at the heart of this social equation, for boardinghouse keeping was women's work. Even when a man owned the house or headed the household, the work of boarding fell to women. That this labor should have provoked hostility is at first surprising. …

Happiness in Durkheim's Sociological Policy of Morals

Emile Durkheim's (1858–1917) concept of society has its most succinct expression in the call to view social facts, and especially moral norms, as things, as natural facts. A moral-political purpose is to prevent anomy. Anomy spreads when people view moral norms as contingent. It contains the seed of social anarchy and the source of unhappiness because it exposes humans to the chaos and the insatiability of their individual desires. The article places Durkheim's thinking within its social historical contexts.

Selections from English Wycliffite Writings (review)

222 Short Notices Roquebert's 'Petites digressions sur le Marteau des heretiques' (pp. 85-107). The final article of the journal is by Christiane Labossiere, and it bears the title 'Societe et politique: les Ecrifs de Londres de Simone Weil' (pp. 109-25). The author cites inter alia Weil's impressions and pronouncements about medieval life and times, including heretical practices in the Midi. These were penned during her exile in London in the Second World War. I fail to see how this paper contributes to our knowledge of medieval heresy, and I wonder w h y the editors of Heresis accepted it for publication. K. V. Sinclair Canberra Hudson, Anne, ed., Selections from English Wycliffite Writings (Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching 38), Toronto/Buffalo/London, University of Toronto Press, 1997; paper; pp. x, 235; R.R.P. US$16.95. This, the latest in the series of Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching, i substantially the same as the original edition first published in 1978. Anne Hudson says 'research in the past twenty years has in many ways advanced understanding of Wyclif, his followers and opponents, and of their context; but it would be impossible to take account of that research without completely rewriting the book'. As an introduction to Wycliffite writing the book has richly informative critical apparatus: the clear introduction, imaginative selection of texts, full notes, comprehensive glossary, and select bibliography are all that could be required of a foundation text. The thirteen-page introduction gives a brief biographical account of Wyclifs life and a resume of his writings. This is followed by a lucid explanation of the substance of Wyclifs heresy and the reasons for his downfall. In the final analysis, his rejection of the Eucharistic doctrine of transubstantiation and of the priestly power of absolution challenged clerical authority. His further emphasis on the accessibility of the Bible to all and its importance as the single source of authority in the Church was considered by his contemporaries to be the prelude to social anarchy. The second half of the introduction is devoted to Wyclifs followers and to the Lollard movement which Anne Hudson firmly associates with Wyclif, though some scholars have disputed this. The twenty-seven texts are categorised under four sections: the nature of Wycliffite belief; the Lollards and the Bible; Lollard polemic; and Lollard doctrine. As the introduction suggests, many of the ideas expressed in the English writings are more fully developed in the Latin works of Wyclif and his followers. The very fact that w e have English texts which discuss theological and political topics is a testimony to the strength of their appeal to his followers and a triumph for Wyclifs support of the vernacular. Time Short Notices 223 and again copies were committed to bonfires by the authorities in England, only to be copied again and disseminated from the continent. They represent the revival of a tradition of vernacular writing which had not been used systematically in England since the days of Aelfric. To students of Lollardism the notes to the edition are a compendium of historical, theological, and literary information. For students of literature the comprehensive glossary is a bonus. The importance of Lollard texts in the development of English as a m e d i u m for literature should not be underestimated. In that respect, this re-issued edition is particularly valuable. Anne Scott Department of English University of Western Australia Kahn, Deborah, Canterbury Cathedral and its Romanesque Sculpture, London, Harvey Miller, 1991; cloth; pp. 232; 278 b/w plates, 12 colour plates; RRP£125.00. In one of the best books of its kind, Deborah Kahn has presented a wealth material on Canterbury without becoming lost in the isolation of her subject. Yet although she gives a myriad references to contemporary buildings in France and Normandy, particularly to carved capitals that might reinforce her dates, there is little of the political situation which must have profoundly affected construction at Canterbury. The civil war between Stephen and Matilda from the later 1130s to the later 1150s she passes over with 'there was a lull in building activity from 1130 until the middle of the century'. The two little churches...

American-Style Capitalism and Income Disparity: The Challenge of Social Anarchy

With regard to its outward manifestations, the American variant of capitalism seems healthy and vibrant. The contemporary economic indicators are essentially positive: 1. unemployment is falling, 2. inflation is low and essentially stable, 3. profits are generally high, 4. industrial production is close to capacity, and 5. future expectations by both consumers and producers are optimistic. But, on the other hand, the social indicators that describe the quality of contemporary life are almost universally morbid and depressing. By far the most significant emerging outcome inequities in the U.S. pertains to the widening economic disparity among the population. Because the US has always been among the extreme examples of consumer-driven capitalism, it is questionable how long it can maintain social order when increasing numbers of persons are left out of the banquet while a few are allowed to gorge.

The End: Modern Productions of El burlador de Sevilla , with Special Attention to Closings

The final tableaux of a play create the impression with which the audience will come away from the theater. A director approaches a play differently from a scholar in that a director must read backwards, considering first the ending, the culmination of the action, and then building toward the finale. While some modern directors have viewed El burlador de Sevilla from a traditional, Catholic perspective, others have stressed its moral ambiguity. By studying the final tableaux of five modern productions, we can begin to appreciate the wide range of interpretations to which the play lends itself. The Radiotelevisión version, directed by Gonzalo Pérez Puig, ends with a replay of the opening scene. The circular structure conveys a restoration of order, and at the same time, a warning. The camera moves slowly across the line of mourners, which includes the entire cast, thereby creating an image of cohesiveness. The message is that the entire society is caught in a circular labyrinth from which there is no escape. The production of the Escuela de Bellas Artes of the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua imbues the play with a distinctly Mexican flavor, but presents a less coherent view than Pérez Puig's. In the final tableaux the tone shifts from humorous to serious so many times that the impact of Don Juan's damnation is diluted. In contrast, the final tableaux of the production of the Escuela de Arte Teatral of the Instituto de Bellas Artes de México convey a clear censure of the social anarchy that Don Juan represents and the restoraton of order under the Catholic monarch. Throughout the play, a chorus of masked, puppet-like characters communicates the notion that Spanish society has degenerated into a farce. At the end of the play, the gesticulating, crow-like figures are gone, and the monarch occupies center stage, thereby "anchoring" society. Cuban director René Buch exploits the play's underlying themes of social decay, political corruption, and sexual deviation in the Repertorio Español production, but unlike the Spanish and Mexican versions, this interpretation offers no moral resolution. The final tableau is asymmetrical, creating the impression of an unbalanced, irrational world governed by rigid codes of conduct from which no deviation is tolerated. In such a world, Don Juan, the introspective rebel, is more a hero than a villain. In the English-language production at the Source Theater in Washington, D.C., director Joe Danno modernizes the setting, transforming Don Juan into a spoiled, bored rich kid who takes drugs and seduces women. While in traditional productions Don Juan is carried down to hell about three-fourths through the third act, in Danno's the final tableau portrays the young man lying dead in the arms of Catalinón. Then, slowly, he rises and smiles diabolically, suggesting that although Don Juan, the individual, may have been vanquished, his spirit lives on. The Source's ending implies that as long as we as a society continue to permit and applaud self-indulgent behavior, exploitation, and abuse, Don Juan will triumph. Each of the five productions offers a distinct closing that reflects not only the director's concept, but also the culture of which he is a product. These examples demonstrate the extent to which the staging of the closing of a play may reinforce or subvert the text. (BM)

American Sports Writers and “Unruly Rooters”: The Significance of Orderly Spectating

On Sunday June 17, 1990, under the special logo and the bold headline Brits on Rampage Again, Barry Wilner of the Associated Press described how police had to use tear gas to disperse a group of about 1,000 English just before the England vs. Netherlands World Cup game.1 The article typifies American writers' fascination with what Wilner called soccer's unruly rooters during the 1990 World Cup. The juxtaposition of headlines (World Cup/Brits on Rampage) implies a firm relationship between soccer, violence, and English fans, while the emphasis Brits on Rampage Again identifies a context already firmly established in the minds of American readers. American reporters in fact constantly asserted a relationship between soccer and spectator violence. They were often drawn to statistics of violence. A running tally was kept in most newspapers of fans arrested, deported, and hospitalized, and several articles were devoted to the riots that broke out in England following their semi-final defeat by Germany and to the violent celebrations that broke out in Germany following their World Cup victory. The control and self-control of fans at sporting arenas is a vital metaphor for social order in Western cultures. Experiences and descriptions of sport spectating encode the social significances of orderly and disorderly conduct; they express, organize, and make comprehensible a society's disciplinary practices. This is particularly true of the United States, where managed and orderly sport spectacles tacitly confront widespread fears of social anarchy and urban violence, constructing codes of disciplined spectatorship that are all the more powerful for being invisibly maintained. American journalists who observed spectators of World Cup matches found these largely-unarticulated codes transgressed and exposed by fans who participated in the sports event with what seemed baffling unrestraint. Hooliganism forced writers to confront the meanings of American spectator decorums and, usually, to reconfirm their propriety. But there was another side to soccer fans and even to soccer hooligans, for their provocative and often joyous breaching of American spectator codes also called the legitimacy of those codes into question. The example of soccer fans showed by contrast what the American experience of sports lacked in terms of passion and what I shall call

Liberalism in Lockean Linguistics

Summary In the Essay concerning human understanding (1690) John Locke (1632–1704) suggests that man misunderstands the relationship between ideas, words, and things, assuming that there exists a ‘double conformity’. This assumption is at the core of our misunderstanding of our epistemological status, the misunderstanding from which Locke must free his readers if they are to grasp the foundations of human knowledge. To this extent Locke is a communicational sceptic. He believes that the linguistic communication of ideas is ‘imperfect’. Left to our natural powers to form ideas and signify them by words, we will too often fail to convey our thoughts to our hearers. The remedy to this ‘imperfection’ is for us to constrain the exercise of our linguistic powers. There is thus an interesting parallel between the structure of Locke’s discussion of language in the Essay and his discussion of political power in the Second Treatise on Government (1689). In the latter Locke then traces the roots of political norms to the individual’s sacrifice of a share of their own natural freedoms and powers to political authority, so that social anarchy can be avoided. In the same way the normative prescriptions offered in the Essay, by restricting the individual’s basic linguistic freedom, are designed to avoid the communicational anarchy that would result if all individuals exercised their linguistic freedom to express themselves as they choose. Locke thus takes communication to occur, not as a result of chance or of a pre-existing conformity between words and ideas, but rather as a result of the linguistic agent’s voluntary constraint of his/her semiotic freedom.