Red Dawn, But Reality Edition

Presenter: Claudia Mayo

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 20-21

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Sakina Bryant

Department: Philosophy

Funding Source/Sponsor: SYRCE Symposium

President's Strategic Plan Goal: Connectivity and Community Engagement

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=10auccaxA49hA8T8pKwCnbn4QoU9YKtdl

Abstract:
I will be focusing on the alternative perspective of Russia during the 1980s. I will contrast the propagandistic views of the US during late Soviet period that was generated by Russian militaristic heads, to the softer undertones of social views and pop culture that was taking place in the general population of Russia. I will be doing a deep dive into the culture of the 1980s in Soviet Russia and attempt to clear the distorted lens that America viewed Russian culture, I will be doing this through the use of Ontology. The way I will use philosophical tools to help me construct and deconstruct social views of Russian culture through a looking glass of what it was like inside the country during this time, I will be contrasting it to American social beliefs and fears that were generated through propaganda and social conditioning. I will be examining the effects of propaganda from both Russia and the US during the '80s to highlight their use of Jean Baudrillard’s ideas surrounding simulacra and simulation to showcase the manipulation of human emotion. My question for the viewer is: How did propaganda and distorted social views of Russia skew the perception and notions of what Russian culture and community was truly like under Soviet rule during the 1980s?