Kosovo 1989: The (Ab)use of the Kosovo Myth in Media and Popular Culture

Vučetić, Radina

doi:10.1515/soeu-2021-0043

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The largest included over one million Serbs to Kosovo Polje, the sacred Field of Kosovo, on 28 June 1989, the 600 th Anniversary of the Kosovo Battle. At this politicized religious commemoration, Milošević was notoriously elevated to a Serb savior and thereby solidified the ultranationalist coalition that executed the so-called Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution from 1988 to 1989, which removed non-Serb socialists from government offices (Vučetić, 2021). During Kiper's fieldwork, numerous survivors and former combatants of the Yugoslav Wars talked about the elevation of Milošević to a savior-like status at the 600 th Anniversary of the Kosovo Battle and subsequent rallies as a turning point in the growing coalition's power.…”

Section: Coalitional Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rituals, Propaganda, and Social Regulation: Totalism as a Quasi-Religious System

Kiper¹,

Sosis²

2022

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Recent scholarship on mass mobilization and totalism has approached propaganda as a solution to political cooperation, whereby inflammatory speeches, mis-or dis-information, and rumors function not to persuade audiences but rather to coordinate coalitions. Propaganda, it has been argued, aligns the attention of individuals already disposed to conflict. However, propaganda does not operate in a vacuum. Here we argue that movements and regimes that contend for total political power do so by employing a combination of propaganda and ritual. Rituals function to sanctify, connect individuals, and signal commitments. Further, rituals bind individuals into emerging social orders that enable the very communication of propaganda as a means of coordinating coalitions and instantiating methods for coercing behaviors. By examining historical case studies of totalism, we provide an exploration of ritual in totalist regimes and thereby argue that totalism is a quasi-religious system that employs elements of religion in an attempt to regulate social behavior. In describing totalism as a quasi-religious system, we outline five phases in the life course of totalist movements: preformation, cadre formation, coalitional building, collective power, and breakdown. Totalism ultimately results in considerable negative effects on the population, such as loss of health, material resources, and social trust, and closes important channels for socioecological feedback, which are essential for the proper functioning of any system. Accordingly, unlike most religious systems, totalism over-sanctifies power, overregulates meanings, and fails to achieve cooperation and coordination beyond cadres or coalitions of enthusiasts. Consequently, totalist movements are relatively short-lived compared to successful religions.

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Section: Coalitional Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%