Theses about global memory

Narratives, memory, ethics, identity

Collective memory takes on diverse forms. In various periods of history, certain types of memory begin to prevail. What caused these "mnemo-revolution"?

Three predominant types of activities are replaced in history: the appropriation of nature products (hunting, fishing, collecting), agricultural and industrial production, and the production of information. The transition to each new stage leads to the expansion of the image of “we”, i.e. the formation of a new form of identity. Contemporaries are aware of their community through the common past.

Memory is the foundation of identity. It does not come down to amateurism and manipulation. To reproach lovers of antiquity and “predicting back” political technologists in distorting facts is not to understand the specifics of mass ideas about the past. For memory, the correspondence of “historical reality” is not a “essential subject”. Behind the curious ideas of the unhesrum about history lies the struggle of the moral norms of dying, dominant and emerging forms of identity. The unexpressed and inseparable trinity of memory, ethics, identity is embodied in the narrative or, speaking with a scientific language, narrative. The Narrativ’s community is common to members of the community is “matter”, thanks to which the “emanations” of memory, ethics, identity are acquired by a collective character. James Verch considers the narrative as a “delegate” of collective memory in an individual consciousness. This is a skewer, called by him “deep memory”, on which the individual plants personal experience or “specific memory ” I.

The history of memory is moving a change in narration genres. Each of the three more complicated societies - appropriating, producing, informational - is characterized by the dominant narrative, which sets ethical norms for its “we”. The appropriate society is inherent in a fairy tale. Producing - heroic myth. We can only think about the narrative of the information society allegedly, based on the experience of previous eras.

A fairy tale formulates the ethical strategies of the first people whose main activities were hunting, fishing and gathering. The hero enters a mortal battle with the enemy to win prey and return home. Readiness for self -sacrifice and the desire to sacrifice the enemy are the means of achieving the goal - returning the prey. Walter Burkert noted that the progress of this “quest” - self -sacrifice, sacrifice, prey - coincides with the behavior of the rat, choosing from the hole in search of food II . A fairy tale is a translation of the biological program of a small predator to the language of culture. Based on the “rat” ethics, only the compact “we” of relatives and characteristics can occur. Through this program of behavior, the identity of not only the “cells of society”, but also many antisocial formations is built. It is no coincidence that the mafia means "family." The selfish identity of a small group determines the small - no further than the ancestor - the depth of memory. Today it is usually three generations. Since there is a lot of prey, the relationship between the closely related collectives of antiquity was of the character of a permanent war of everyone against all.

The salvation from paradise of “primitive communism” was the emergence of a state that banned non -state violence. To create crowded integrations, within which agricultural and, later, industrial production, it was necessary to create a new narrative of memory - a heroic myth. This is a modification of a fairy tale, in which a selfish motive for returning with prey is cut off. The ethical revolution of the heroic myth was that self -sacrifice remained a means, and the sacrifice of the enemy turned into a target. The thirst for prey is declared an unworthy warrior. The hero fights for the "Fatherland", which in the ancient Russian legal language meant the property of the king-priest. Contrary to the famous, by no means magical, a fairy tale for a man gets the “tops” of patriotic feelings. The "roots" of production go to General Toptygin. This manipulation of the upper reaches of the lower reaches made it possible to expand the framework of the “we” and direct violence to fight the external and internal enemies of the ruler, and in the modern era - with hostile peoples and enemies of the people.

Temporary measurement of state forms of memory exceeds the depth of family memory. The ancestor is replaced by the founder of statehood. Under the influence of the democratic trends of the New Age, a collective ancestor - “Praetnos” replaces the Person of the founder. The designers of the heroic sovereign memory, neglecting the facts, shouting ethnic sources up to the Paleolithic.

If you continue to reduce the formula for a fairy tale and remove the motive of the enemy’s sacrifice from the heroic myth, then a self -sacrifice will remain. In European culture, two texts are influential, based on sacrifice - the history of Prometheus and Christ. They save their exploits, respectively, not Greeks and not Jews, but all people. The application for the image of the world paid by the road, in which the division into Ellin and Judea loses its meaning, was premature. She has been inspiring the designers of the future for the third millennium. It does not matter that many of them have forgotten the names of the forerunners of the idea of ​​a single humanity. Authority is a secondary attribute of the production of information.

The myth of self -sacrifice is not identical to the readiness to sacrifice life. There are often different goals behind similar actions. The bandit, going under the bullets, is trying to capture prey, i.e. Ethics of a fairy tale follows. The soldier, rising to the attack, and a terrorist exploding himself in the crowd, act on the patterns of a heroic myth in an effort to carry out the sacrifice of the enemy. The myth of self -sacrifice eliminates the motives of prey and sacrifice. His motivation is love, the goal is the benefit of others who have become their own. Death is the maximum, but not the only form of self -sacrifice. In everyday life, there are enough peaceful manifestations of altruism - to sacrifice other labor, time, money, etc.

The reduction in the number of links in ethical narratives allows you to arrange them vertically like the so -called Maslow pyramids. Between the two constructions, there is not only formal, but also semantic similarity. Ethical chain of a fairy tale: self -sacrifice, sacrifice, prey - aimed at satisfying material needs. Heroic myth: self -sacrifice, sacrifice - can be correlated with the need for safety. The myth of self -sacrifice is similar to the need for self -realization with the crowning pyramid.

Three ethical narratives have long been coexisted, dominating in turn. In the pre -state world of appropriate farm, the selfish ethics of a fairy tale dominated the economy. In the state era of the economy of the producer, the ethics of the heroic myth prevail. It combines altruism - a willingness to sacrifice itself (at first for the sake of the sovereign, in the modern era for the sake of the people), with the group egoism of "its" state. This duality is noticeable in the behavior of modern democracies. They are distinguished by a relatively humane attitude towards fellow citizens from countries with less developed population. In the foreign policy of democracy, they behave as cynically, in full accordance with the right of the strong, as the “hybrid” and frankly authoritarian regimes. The altruistic ethics of the myth of self -sacrifice considers all humanity “its”. Therefore, it is of a post -state character. Will the myth of self -sacrifice be a narrative of memory, ethics, identity of the information society that arises before our eyes?

Global nature of the information society

The transition to the information society is the most radical transformation in history. As a result of the Neolithic and industrial revolutions, labor productivity increased. The revolutionary transitions of the quantity into quality made it possible to free only a few from the extraction of bread. The vast majority was forced to spend the bulk of the time on the production of material goods as either a biological engine of manual tools or the peripheral nervous system of the machine. Modern development of technology allows you to entrust labor routine to automatic devices and free people for creativity.

The mountain world of the creators will not be like the world of the share workers and their exploiters. The objective prerequisites of obsession with material consumption will disappear. The time freed from making money is the same “free time” will significantly surpass the non -free time, spent on the extraction of food. The production of information has a feature that turns the current social balance of material and spiritual needs. There is a fundamental difference between material and spiritual production, which is brilliantly formulated in the following aphorism: “If you and I have one apple, and we will exchange them, then each of us will have one apple. If you and I have one idea, and we will exchange them with you, then each of us will have two ideas ” III . Ideas, unlike material products, are inalienable. By their nature, they cannot be the property of either one person, or an arbitrarily numerous group. Ideas should become the property of mankind, i.e. "Global property", cancel the traditional institution of property.

So far it is not. Yesterday's forms of public life with their primacy of material interest continue to bend the changeable world of spiritual values ​​for themselves. The global information society meets resistance from the T.N. Global capitalism, which is a hopeless attempt to adapt the relations of the industrial world to new realities.

Young wine breaks through the dilapidated bellows. The archaic copywriter is increasingly rejected by manufacturers of ideas. Scientists gradually establish an effective exchange of publications without mediation of the IV market. This is the first step towards the formation of an information society, a global civilization that cannot be Western or Eastern, Christian or Islamic, Chinese or Russian. The universal (global) nature of ideas will form in its image and likeness the whole complex of relations between people. The information revolution will produce, by creating the global “we”, to which human “others”, Hegelian “removal” of the phenomena of civilization, state and property do not resist the human “removal”.

The expansion of the global “we” proceeds not only in space, but also in time. You can argue who will choose the new identity with the collective Adam - Cro -Magnons or, say, Australopithecus? It can be ironic that global memory is a remake of the Fedorov resurrection of the fathers. But I do not want to.

We see that the identity: “There is a Jew, nor Yellin: there is a slave, nor freedom: there is a male gender, nor female,” - generated by the myth of self -sacrifice, coincides with the global “we” of the information society. You can also indicate similar ethical installations. The “irrelevant” competition for the material resource in the world, replacing the work of creativity, creates the prerequisites for eradicating hatred and instilling love for your neighbor. The rapprochement of the identity and ethics of the era that forms before our eyes with the altruistic narrative of self -sacrifice give reason to assume that the stories of Prometheus and Christ can become an archetype of global memory.

This statement shocks by naivety. Is it possible to seriously talk about altruism, when social tension, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, terrorism, environmental and demographic problems increase? I will try to show that self -sacrifice as an ethical basis of a global society is a realistic project. To do this, it is necessary to consider the interaction of three mentioned narratives of memory, ethics, identity: a fairy tale, a heroic myth, a myth of self -sacrifice.

Underground for a fairy tale

The state drives underground the rat ethics of a fairy tale: "They began to live, live, but to make good." State men are aware of the destructive nature of the selfish identity inherent in the family, family, clan. As soon as clan thinking (non -ism, kumes, etc.) begins to prevail among officials, the state falls into decay.

With the advent of primitive forms of statehood, official memory was engaged exclusively by heroic kings, the heroism of faithful tsarist servants and (mainly from the era of modern) with the exploits of folk heroes. The propaganda of the heroic myth touched on the public lower classes that continued to follow the fairy tales. Even after the elimination of mass illiteracy, the ethics of the victim to the altar of the state victory was not assimilated by everyone. The thoughts of the masses are connected not with victory, but with survival and prey.

The silent majority of the state did not give a word. This allowed the authorities and its opponents to “read” their favorite meanings in folk dumbness. The worship of the people - the subject of the national state and the bearer of the highest truth became the religion of the era of modernity. Any critical remark addressed to the new deity is regarded as blasphemy.

The massacre of two world wars discredited the state-political discourse of traditional historiography. History began to be considered from the point of view of the lower classes and minorities. The genre of the so -called "Oral History." From the habit, the great dumb broadcast broadcast the language of the heroic myth imposed by the state. The main rule of the “oral” historian is to bring down the veteran from the reproduction of a crossed plate of officialdom. If this is possible, then the so -called "Treasure Truth" with its main motive - survival. This opposite of the heroic myth is based on a fairy tale. In this case, survival is identical to prey.

It has already been said that a fairy tale is a translation of the biological program of a small predator. But animal ancestors of a person ate mainly plant foods. Walter Burkert described the hereditary program of herbivores, the traces of which were deposited in a narrative, as ancient as a fairy tale: antelopes graze peacefully in the African savannah. Lions rest nearby. The hungry kings of animals rush in the pursuit of a pointing beiftex. Antelopes run until the lions overtake an awkward sacrifice. The herd immediately stops and begins to calmly graze. The victim was brought. You can enjoy prey. In this case, by the time allotted by nature on the safe tingling of grass, while lions digest food v . In the narrative that reproduces this program of behavior, the motive of self -sacrifice disappears. There remains the prey received at the cost of someone else's life. Olga Sedakova called this narrative “anti -excess” VI .

The state manipulates two varieties of pre -state identity. When you need to mobilize the masses for war, it “calls itself the homeland”, replacing the fairy tale with a heroic myth. In domestic politics, the power is exploited by the sheep’s narrative “Anti-Scabes”, without ceasing to flatter the “God-bearer”.

If the “statesmen” manipulate “fairy tales”, then carriers of the narrative of self -sacrifice in practice prove that a person is not a rat or a sheep. Let us recall thousands of young people who at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries threw cities and went to treat and teach Russian peasants. A good example, unlike the bad, is not contagious. Nevertheless, it performs action. Many knowledge about the combustible narratives of the “lower classes” - a rat's fairy tale and sheep's “anti -skas” - this is not an occasion to despise them. High -luminous ones that are condescending to, speaking their language, “shirnarms”, themselves deserve contempt. Compassion for the “little man” made Russian literature one of the greatest property of mankind. The task of the sacrificial layer that inherits the best traditions of the Russian intelligentsia is to do everything so that as many representatives of the people as possible become people.

Domination of the heroic myth

All state forms of memory are based on a heroic myth. In antiquity and in the Middle Ages, the subject of myth was most often the ruling dynasty. In modern times, his Majesty people are placed in the center of narrative, i.e. nation.

National memory synthesizes ethnicity and politics. Since all states are multi -ethnic, the national memory frame, unlike the dominant dynastic narratives, is fraught with internal ethnic conflicts of the VII . It is directly approved or secretly implied that the ethnic majority from time immemorial created “their” national statehood. “Others”, if they did not interfere, then played an auxiliary role in the centuries -old process of creation. The construction of a national narrative capable of supporting the civil world is difficult. The memory of the ethnic majority now and then comes into conflict with the memory of minorities.

The foreign policy discourse of national memory is even more “conflictogenic”. The construction of national identity started at the end of the 18th century, when the war and other types of violence were considered legitimate means of protecting group interests. It is not easy to eliminate these "birthmarks of the past" from the framework of national memory. In many cases, the national “we” today is contrasted not just “others”, but “enemies”. In a duel with the enemy "everything is allowed." Even the massacres of unarmed people declared the "enemies of the nation" are an excuse. National memory prefers to forget about such shameful cases. The basis of identity is pride in the glorious deeds of the ancestors, primarily their struggle against "historical enemies." To describe long-standing feats, descendants, depending on historical circumstances, use two interconnected varieties of a heroic myth: heroes-victorious and martyrs-enthusiastic (the so-called Victim Nationalism). The courage of the vanquished, meeting torture and executions with a proudly raised head, serves as a guarantee of future national victories.

The national memory projects into the future “examples” of the heroes-martyr who are ready to kill “enemies” for the sake of national interests. This approach is inherent in the most democratic countries. In American textbooks, Truman's decision to expose to Hiroshim and Nagasaki atomic bombing is still justified by the need to save the lives of “our soldiers” VIII . Politicians brought up on this example of national pride do not stop before the use of weapons when they see the threat of American interests at any point in the globe. Matthew Krenig, an employee of the influential council on international relations, at one time former adviser to the US Minister of Defense, suggested that a preventive impact on Iran IX , in order to establish a strong world. Similar lessons are taught in other countries. During the Russian-Ukrainian “hybrid” confrontation, the Kremlin propaganda adopted the narrative of the Great Patriotic War against German Nazism, and the Ukrainian one appealed to the memory of OUN and UPA. National narratives instill readiness for violence. They now and then convert conflict memory into foreign policy conflicts. After Hiroshima, one can and should write poetry about love, but to educate your nation with examples of hatred of strangers, it means to put the whole world under the jeopardy of destruction.

If you discard the rhetorical figures, it will be found that the national memory is not far from the archaic principles called Gottento morality: “If we took the cow, this is good. If the cow was taken from us, this is bad. ” National identity based on group, i.e. Private, interest, becomes one of the main obstacles to the approval of the values ​​of post -capitalist globalism of the information society.

The emergence of global memory

Global memory forms “we”, which includes all people. He is not opposed by human "others." New identity cannot form from the amount of national or other group narratives. From a universal point of view, private addictions and group egoism of ethnic groups, denominations, classes, etc. Lose meaning. In global identity, not group, but personal properties come to the fore. A person becomes a real measure of all things of the information society. The main crime is the violation of human dignity. Human rights are the main optics of perception of the past, present and future.

At the point of globalism, the memory “lost your temper” and begins to turn into history (M. Halbvax) X. The opposition of history and memory is the key to distinguishing global identity from other forms. Memory is an idea of ​​the past, due to the interests of various public groups. Hence the conflict, addiction and contempt for facts. History is a view of the past, which is notangled by group interests, in which any injustice is perceived as a personal insult, any sacrifice is considered ours, any crime against people and groups is regarded as a crime against humanity. The ethics of history is based on human rights, which in turn come from Prometheev pity for people and from Christian love for his neighbor.

Altruism is an integral of global identity. Like memory, it acts not only in space, but also in time. Unlike memory, it connects us not with past, but with future generations. Thus, the temporal egoism of group forms of identity is rejected: “enough for our century”, “after at least a flood”, etc. It is hardly possible to eliminate global threats, being within the framework of national memory. The ethics of self -restraint for the sake of future generations creates a practice of careful attitude to difficult to make up natural resources: flora, fauna, minerals, water, air. Environmental, demographic, nuclear and other disasters can be prevented through the altruistic consciousness of global identity.

In the interaction of global memory and altruism, the mutual transition of the “experience of experience” and “horizon of expectations” (R. Kozellek) is carried out. Altruism is driven by a global memory of the future. The core of global memory is the altruism of the past. The maximum form of altruism - self -sacrifice is the optimal narrative for experiencing global identity. It cannot be considered an arbitrary design of beautiful -hearted dreamers. This is the result of a long path of our appearance from the bestial ethics of a fairy tale to a truly human state. Altruism/self -sacrifice is the same “conscious necessity”, i.e. Freedom on Engels or Maslow Self -realization.

Evidence that the ethics of altruism masters the masses is a volunteer movement. It begins in the XIX century. Over time, its scope grows. For example, in modern Great Britain, volunteers according to various estimates are from 20 to 40% of the XI population.

Among numerous areas of volunteering, international training and treatment programs occupy an important place. Young people from developed countries help people around the world. There are analogies with the walking into the people of the Russian intelligentsia of the distant past. The new "populism" crossed the national framework and acquired a global character. For modern altruists, all of humanity is its people. This is an important prerequisite for the formation of global identity. The volunteer community is the notorious "driving force" of the information society. While it is a "thing in itself." The formation of adequate self -awareness among volunteers is one of the most important tasks of global memory designers.

Interaction of global and national memories

In the transition to the information society, the same people can peer into the past from both the national and global points of view. The global identity based on the ethics of human rights conflicts with the identity of the national, which is based on the mentioned "Gottentine morality." The interaction of the dying and emerging identities is bizarre in collective memory and sometimes leads to “cognitive dissonance” even in educated people.

The identity of the global “we”, rooted in the memory of the origin from the Paleolithic ancestors, makes the whole world story “ours”. The heroic-martyr narrative is the righteous struggle of “their own” with malicious “others”-unacceptable in the global context, where “enemies” are absent. The limited “we” contrasts the everlasting peacefulness and justice of the actions of “our” inescapable fault of “others”. Egoism and irresponsibility - distinguish the international segment of national memory. Global memory, identical to universal history, in relations with national memory based on pride “their own” and accusing “strangers”, proceeds from opposite ethical principles - shame and adoption of responsibility.

Global memory is not exhausted. She has her own martyrs - fighters for human rights, as well as this is very important - “cultural heroes” - true geniuses of all times and peoples. The admiration of them forms an optimistic mood of the media of global identity. But in the interaction with national memory, Global Memory is, first of all, the memory of historical responsibility.

The identity of modern humanity is largely based on the memory of the Second World War. The most important phenomena of global memory were formed around the prerequisites, strokes and consequences of this tragic event.

National memory of all countries cling to power over the minds, continuing to sow enmity between peoples. Nevertheless, we observe positive shifts. Global culture of repentance is gradually formed.

It is hoped that the influence of global memory, first of all, the spread of the culture of repentance for the crimes of the past, will contribute to the healing of the world and national moral climate. Global memory belongs an important place in counteracting wars and other forms of political violence, as well as global threats of ecology and demography. By combining efforts, academic researchers, journalists, cultural figures of different countries can turn memory into an effective tool for the formation of collective identity, based on historical responsibility and ethics of human rights. The task is supercomplicated. But if you do not try, it will remain insoluble.

Notes

I Wertssch JW Collective Memory // Memory in Mind and Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2009. P. 120, 128-132.

II Burkert W. Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Relygions. Cambridge; Massachusetts, London: Harvard University Press, 1996. P. 58–63.

III is unreasonably attributed to Bernard show. See: URL: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/12/13/swap-ideas/

IV vivid example is the world's largest scientific publications with free access to many materials: URL: https://www.academia.edu/

V Burkert W. Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Relygions. Cambridge; Massachusetts, London: Harvard University Press, 1996. P. 81.

VI Sedakova Father “ Repentance ” and “ Leviathan ”. Interviews for “Gifter” (questions of Alexander Markov and Irina Chechel) // Gifter. 2015. 28 January.Url: http://gefter.ru/archive/14108.

VII Mann M. The Dark Side of Democracy. Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Cambridge University Press, 2005. P. 2.

VIII CRAWFORD K.​ Re-Visiting Hiroshima: The Role of Us and Japanese History Textbooks in the Construction of National Memory // Asia Pacific Education Review. 2003. Vol. 4. No.. 1. P. 108-117.

IX Kroenig M. Time to Attack Iran. Who a strike is the Least Bad Option // Foreign Affairs. 2012. No. 1. URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/midle-east/2012-01-01/time-ttack-iran.

X Halbvax M. Social framework of memory / Per. with fr. And entered. Article S.N. Zenkina. M .: New Publishing House , 2007. P. 20.

XI Rochester C. , Paine Ae ., Howlett S. , Zimmeck M. Volunteering and Society in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. P. 38.