The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has seen a decade of remarkable growth and income convergence. Growth has been a key driver for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. It has been debated how much of this decade of growth has been driven by policy reforms and how much was due to the favorable external conditions. While external factors were supportive and relevant, the effect of domestic policies was just as relevant for explaining LAC's recent growth performance. The emphasis of domestic policy has shifted from stabilization policies to structural policies. In addition, a benchmarking exercise reveals which policy gaps will lead to the highest potential growth-payoffs for each country and helps identify potential trade-offs. The authors analyze growth in LAC using descriptive statistics and growth econometrics. The authors use these results for explaining the pattern of growth in LAC over the last decade, for looking ahead, and to identify potential policy gaps.
In October 2010, the Government of Madhya Pradesh hosted, with World Bank technical advice, a Conference on higher education reform in the State. The Governor, the Chief Minister and the Minister of Higher Education all addressed the Conference and about 150 people attended the event. Subsequently, four regional Conclaves were organized, in which a total of more than 400 people participated, representing the leadership, administrators, faculty and students at universities and colleges across the State. This represents an impressive outreach to the sector stakeholders. This report is written on the cusp of the publication of the Government of India s 12th Five Year Plan. The indications are that the Government of India intends to push ahead with some significant reforms in the higher education sector. Of particular significance for this report is the emphasis, for the first time, on the need to support the improvement of State universities and colleges. The objective of this report is to provide policy makers in Madhya Pradesh with a menu of options for improving the equity, governance and financing of the higher education system in the State. Though the primary audience is policy makers, this report could serve as part of the continued dialogue with the higher education sector on the direction for reform.
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are becoming a popular tool for alleviating short-term poverty and reducing the inter-generational transmission of poverty. More than 30 developing and transition countries have implemented these programs, providing incentives to poor households to make investments in the human capital of their children. Programs vary in scale, transfer size, conditionality's, eligibility, and implementation features. This report is structured around five chapters as follows: the first chapter gives an overview of the program, the context in which it was implemented and available evidence on the impacts of the Female School Stipend Program (FSSP) as well as other CCTs. Chapter two focuses on the questions this evaluation sets out to answer and the methods and information used to answer them. The third chapter presents the results from the analysis and is structured around three evaluation questions regarding average impact, heterogeneity of impacts, and spillover effects. Chapter four performs the robustness checks of the findings, examining whether they are sensitive to preprogram trends, measurement error, endogenous compositional changes, and crowding-out effects. Finally, the conclusion discusses the implications of the results, some limitations of this evaluation, and areas that require further work.
New data derived directly from household surveys are used to examine the effects of globalization on income distribution in poor and rich countries. The article looks at the impact of openness and of direct foreign investment on relative income shares across the entire income distribution. It finds strong evidence that at low average income levels, the income share of the poor is smaller in countries that are more open to trade. As national income levels rise, the incomes of the poor and the middle class rise relative to the income of the rich. The article explains why using the trade to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio in purchasing power parity terms, as favored by some analysts, is inappropriate in studies of the effect of trade on income distribution.
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(This post continues part 1 which just looked at the data. Part 3 on theory is here) When the Fed raises interest rates, how does inflation respond? Are there "long and variable lags" to inflation and output? There is a standard story: The Fed raises interest rates; inflation is sticky so real interest rates (interest rate - inflation) rise; higher real interest rates lower output and employment; the softer economy pushes inflation down. Each of these is a lagged effect. But despite 40 years of effort, theory struggles to substantiate that story (next post), it's had to see in the data (last post), and the empirical work is ephemeral -- this post. The vector autoregression and related local projection are today the standard empirical tools to address how monetary policy affects the economy, and have been since Chris Sims' great work in the 1970s. (See Larry Christiano's review.) I am losing faith in the method and results. We need to find new ways to learn about the effects of monetary policy. This post expands on some thoughts on this topic in "Expectations and the Neutrality of Interest Rates," several of my papers from the 1990s* and excellent recent reviews from Valerie Ramey and Emi Nakamura and Jón Steinsson, who eloquently summarize the hard identification and computation troubles of contemporary empirical work.Maybe popular wisdom is right, and economics just has to catch up. Perhaps we will. But a popular belief that does not have solid scientific theory and empirical backing, despite a 40 year effort for models and data that will provide the desired answer, must be a bit less trustworthy than one that does have such foundations. Practical people should consider that the Fed may be less powerful than traditionally thought, and that its interest rate policy has different effects than commonly thought. Whether and under what conditions high interest rates lower inflation, whether they do so with long and variable but nonetheless predictable and exploitable lags, is much less certain than you think. Here is a replication of one of the most famous monetary VARs, Christiano Eichenbaum and Evans 1999, from Valerie Ramey's 2016 review: Fig. 1 Christiano et al. (1999) identification. 1965m1–1995m6 full specification: solid black lines; 1983m1–2007m12 full specification: short dashed blue (dark gray in the print version) lines; 1983m1–2007m12, omits money and reserves: long-dashed red (gray in the print version) lines. Light gray bands are 90% confidence bands. Source: Ramey 2016. Months on x axis. The black lines plot the original specification. The top left panel plots the path of the Federal Funds rate after the Fed unexpectedly raises the interest rate. The funds rate goes up, but only for 6 months or so. Industrial production goes down and unemployment goes up, peaking at month 20. The figure plots the level of the CPI, so inflation is the slope of the lower right hand panel. You see inflation goes the "wrong" way, up, for about 6 months, and then gently declines. Interest rates indeed seem to affect the economy with long lags. This was the broad outline of consensus empirical estimates for many years. It is common to many other studies, and it is consistent with the beliefs of policy makers and analysts. It's pretty much what Friedman (1968) told us to expect. Getting contemporary models to produce something like this is much harder, but that's the next blog post. What's a VAR?I try to keep this blog accessible to nonspecialists, so I'll step back momentarily to explain how we produce graphs like these. Economists who know what a VAR is should skip to the next section heading. How do we measure the effect of monetary policy on other variables? Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz kicked it off in the Monetary History by pointing to the historical correlation of money growth with inflation and output. They knew as we do that correlation is not causation, so they pointed to the fact that money growth preceeded inflation and output growth. But as James Tobin pointed out, the cock's crow comes before, but does not cause, the sun to rise. So too people may go get out some money ahead of time when they see more future business activity on the horizon. Even correlation with a lead is not causation. What to do? Clive Granger's causality and Chris Sims' VAR, especially "Macroeconomics and Reality" gave today's answer. (And there is a reason that everybody mentioned so far has a Nobel prize.) First, we find a monetary policy "shock," a movement in the interest rate (these days; money, then) that is plausibly not a response to economic events and especially to expected future economic events. We think of the Fed setting interest rates by a response to economic data plus deviations from that response, such as interest rate = (#) output + (#) inflation + (#) other variables + disturbance. We want to isolate the "disturbance," movements in the interest rate not taken in response to economic events. (I use "shock" to mean an unpredictable variable, and "disturbance" to mean deviation from an equation like the above, but one that can persist for a while. A monetary policy "shock" is an unexpected movement in the disturbance.) The "rule" part here can be but need not be the Taylor rule, and can include other variables than output and inflation. It is what the Fed usually does given other variables, and therefore (hopefully) controls for reverse causality from expected future economic events to interest rates. Now, in any individual episode, output and inflation and inflation following a shock will be influenced by subsequent shocks to the economy, monetary and other. But those average out. So, the average value of inflation, output, employment, etc. following a monetary policy shock is a measure of how the shock affects the economy all on its own. That is what has been plotted above. VARs were one of the first big advances in the modern empirical quest to find "exogenous" variation and (somewhat) credibly find causal relationships. Mostly the huge literature varies on how one finds the "shocks." Traditional VARs use regressions of the above equations and the residual is the shock, with a big question just how many and which contemporaneous variables one adds in the regression. Romer and Romer pioneered the "narrative approach," reading the Fed minutes to isolate shocks. Some technical details at the bottom and much more discussion below. The key is finding shocks. One can just regress output and inflation on the shocks to produce the response function, which is a "local projection" not a "VAR," but I'll use "VAR" for both techniques for lack of a better encompassing word. Losing faithShocks, what shocks?What's a "shock" anyway? The concept is that the Fed considers its forecast of inflation, output and other variables it is trying to control, gauges the usual and appropriate response, and then adds 25 or 50 basis points, at random, just for the heck of it. The question VARS try to answer is the same: What happens to the economy if the Fed raises interest rates unexpectedly, for no particular reason at all? But the Fed never does this. Ask them. Read the minutes. The Fed does not roll dice. They always raise or lower interest rates for a reason, that reason is always a response to something going on in the economy, and most of the time how it affects forecasts of inflation and employment. There are no shocks as defined.I speculated here that we might get around this problem: If we knew the Fed was responding to something that had no correlation with future output, then even though that is an endogenous response, then it is a valid movement for estimating the effect of interest rates on output. My example was, what if the Fed "responds" to the weather. Well, though endogenous, it's still valid for estimating the effect on output. The Fed does respond to lots of things, including foreign exchange, financial stability issues, equity, terrorist attacks, and so forth. But I can't think of any of these in which the Fed is not thinking of these events for their effect on output and inflation, which is why I never took the idea far. Maybe you can. Shock isolation also depends on complete controls for the Fed's information. If the Fed uses any information about future output and inflation that is not captured in our regression, then information about future output and inflation remains in the "shock" series. The famous "price puzzle" is a good example. For the first few decades of VARs, interest rate shocks seemed to lead to higher inflation. It took a long specification search to get rid of this undesired result. The story was, that the Fed saw inflation coming in ways not completely controlled for by the regression. The Fed raised interest rates to try to forestall the inflation, but was a bit hesitant about it so did not cure the inflation that was coming. We see higher interest rates followed by higher inflation, though the true causal effect of interest rates goes the other way. This problem was "cured" by adding commodity prices to the interest rate rule, on the idea that fast-moving commodity prices would capture the information the Fed was using to forecast inflation. (Interestingly these days we seem to see core inflation as the best forecaster, and throw out commodity prices!) With those and some careful orthogonalization choices, the "price puzzle" was tamped down to the one year or so delay you see above. (Neo-Fisherians might object that maybe the price puzzle was trying to tell us something all these years!) Nakamura and Steinsson write of this problem: "What is being assumed is that controlling for a few lags of a few variables captures all endogenous variation in policy... This seems highly unlikely to be true in practice. The Fed bases its policy decisions on a huge amount of data. Different considerations (in some cases highly idiosyncratic) affect policy at different times. These include stress in the banking system, sharp changes in commodity prices, a recent stock market crash, a financial crisis in emerging markets, terrorist attacks, temporary investment tax credits, and the Y2K computer glitch. The list goes on and on. Each of these considerations may only affect policy in a meaningful way on a small number of dates, and the number of such influences is so large that it is not feasible to include them all in a regression. But leaving any one of them out will result in a monetary policy "shock" that the researcher views as exogenous but is in fact endogenous." Nakamura and Steinsson offer 9/11 as another example summarizing my "high frequency identification" paper with Monika Piazzesi: The Fed lowered interest rates after the terrorist attack, likely reacting to its consequences for output and inflation. But VARs register the event as an exogenous shock.Romer and Romer suggested that we use Fed Greenbook forecasts of inflation and output as controls, as those should represent the Fed's complete information set. They provide narrative evidence that Fed members trust Greenback forecasts more than you might suspect. This issue is a general Achilles heel of empirical macro and finance: Does your procedure assume agents see no more information than you have included in the model or estimate? If yes, you have a problem. Similarly, "Granger causality" answers the cock's crow-sunrise problem by saying that if unexpected x leads unexpected y then x causes y. But it's only real causality if the "expected" includes all information, as the price puzzle counterexample shows. Just what properties do we need of a shock in order to measure the response to the question, "what if the Fed raised rates for no reason?" This strikes me as a bit of an unsolved question -- or rather, one that everyone thinks is so obvious that we don't really look at it. My suggestion that the shock only need be orthogonal to the variable whose response we're estimating is informal, and I don't know of formal literature that's picked it up. Must "shocks" be unexpected, i.e. not forecastable from anything in the previous time information set? Must they surprise people? I don't think so -- it is neither necessary nor sufficient for shock to be unforecastable for it to identify the inflation and output responses. Not responding to expected values of the variable whose response you want to measure should be enough. If bond markets found out about a random funds rate rise one day ahead, it would then be an "expected" shock, but clearly just as good for macro. Romer and Romer have been criticized that their shocks are predictable, but this may not matter. The above Nakamura and Steinsson quote says leaving out any information leads to a shock that is not strictly exogenous. But strictly exogenous may not be necessary for estimating, say, the effect of interest rates on inflation. It is enough to rule out reverse causality and third effects. Either I'm missing a well known econometric literature, as is everyone else writing the VARs I've read who don't cite it, or there is a good theory paper to be written.Romer and Romer, thinking deeply about how to read "shocks" from the Fed minutes, define shocks thus to circumvent the "there are no shocks" problem:we look for times when monetary policymakers felt the economy was roughly at potential (or normal) output, but decided that the prevailing rate of inflation was too high. Policymakers then chose to cut money growth and raise interest rates, realizing that there would be (or at least could be) substantial negative consequences for aggregate output and unemployment. These criteria are designed to pick out times when policymakers essentially changed their tastes about the acceptable level of inflation. They weren't just responding to anticipated movements in the real economy and inflation. [My emphasis.] You can see the issue. This is not an "exogenous" movement in the funds rate. It is a response to inflation, and to expected inflation, with a clear eye on expected output as well. It really is a nonlinear rule, ignore inflation for a while until it gets really bad then finally get serious about it. Or, as they say, it is a change in rule, an increase in the sensitivity of the short run interest rate response to inflation, taken in response to inflation seeming to get out of control in a longer run sense. Does this identify the response to an "exogenous" interest rate increase? Not really. But maybe it doesn't matter. Are we even asking an interesting question? The whole question, what would happen if the Fed raised interest rates for no reason, is arguably besides the point. At a minimum, we should be clearer about what question we are asking, and whether the policies we analyze are implementations of that question. The question presumes a stable "rule," (e.g. \(i_t = \rho i_{t-1} + \phi_\pi \pi_t + \phi_x x_t + u_t\)) and asks what happens in response to a deviation \( +u_t \) from the rule. Is that an interesting question? The standard story for 1980-1982 is exactly not such an event. Inflation was not conquered by a big "shock," a big deviation from 1970s practice, while keeping that practice intact. Inflation was conquered (so the story goes) by a change in the rule, by a big increase in $\phi_\pi$. That change raised interest rates, but arguably without any deviation from the new rule \(u_t\) at all. Thinking in terms of the Phillips curve \( \pi_t = E_t \pi_{t+1} + \kappa x_t\), it was not a big negative \(x_t\) that brought down inflation, but the credibility of the new rule that brought down \(E_t \pi_{t+1}\). If the art of reducing inflation is to convince people that a new regime has arrived, then the response to any monetary policy "shock" orthogonal to a stable "rule" completely misses that policy. Romer and Romer are almost talking about a rule-change event. For 2022, they might be looking at the Fed's abandonment of flexible average inflation targeting and its return to a Taylor rule. However, they don't recognize the importance of the distinction, treating changes in rule as equivalent to a residual. Changing the rule changes expectations in quite different ways from a residual of a stable rule. Changes with a bigger commitment should have bigger effects, and one should standardize somehow by the size and permanence of the rule change, not necessarily the size of the interest rate rise. And, having asked "what if the Fed changes rule to be more serious about inflation," we really cannot use the analysis to estimate what happens if the Fed shocks interest rates and does not change the rule. It takes some mighty invariance result from an economic theory that a change in rule has the same effect as a shock to a given rule. There is no right and wrong, really. We just need to be more careful about what question the empirical procedure asks, if we want to ask that question, and if our policy analysis actually asks the same question. Estimating rules, Clarida Galí and Gertler. Clarida, Galí, and Gertler (2000) is a justly famous paper, and in this context for doing something totally different to evaluate monetary policy. They estimate rules, fancy versions of \(i_t = \rho i_{t-1} +\phi_\pi \pi_t + \phi_x x_t + u_t\), and they estimate how the \(\phi\) parameters change over time. They attribute the end of 1970s inflation to a change in the rule, a rise in \(\phi_\pi\) from the 1970s to the 1980s. In their model, a higher \( \phi_\pi\) results in less volatile inflation. They do not estimate any response functions. The rest of us were watching the wrong thing all along. Responses to shocks weren't the interesting quantity. Changes in the rule were the interesting quantity. Yes, I criticized the paper, but for issues that are irrelevant here. (In the new Keynesian model, the parameter that reduces inflation isn't the one they estimate.) The important point here is that they are doing something completely different, and offer us a roadmap for how else we might evaluate monetary policy if not by impulse-response functions to monetary policy shocks. Fiscal theoryThe interesting question for fiscal theory is, "What is the effect of an interest rate rise not accompanied by a change in fiscal policy?" What can the Fed do by itself? By contrast, standard models (both new and old Keynesian) include concurrent fiscal policy changes when interest rates rise. Governments tighten in present value terms, at least to pay higher interest costs on the debt and the windfall to bondholders that flows from unexpected disinflation. Experience and estimates surely include fiscal changes along with monetary tightening. Both fiscal and monetary authorities react to inflation with policy actions and reforms. Growth-oriented microeconomic reforms with fiscal consequences often follow as well -- rampant inflation may have had something to do with Carter era trucking, airline, and telecommunications reform. Yet no current estimate tries to look for a monetary shock orthogonal to fiscal policy change. The estimates we have are at best the effects of monetary policy together with whatever induced or coincident fiscal and microeconomic policy tends to happen at the same time as central banks get serious about fighting inflation. Identifying the component of a monetary policy shock orthogonal to fiscal policy, and measuring its effects is a first order question for fiscal theory of monetary policy. That's why I wrote this blog post. I set out to do it, and then started to confront how VARs are already falling apart in our hands. Just what "no change in fiscal policy" means is an important question that varies by application. (Lots more in "fiscal roots" here, fiscal theory of monetary policy here and in FTPL.) For simple calculations, I just ask what happens if interest rates change with no change in primary surplus. One might also define "no change" as no change in tax rates, automatic stabilizers, or even habitual discretionary stimulus and bailout, no disturbance \(u_t\) in a fiscal rule \(s_t = a + \theta_\pi \pi_t + \theta_x x_t + ... + u_t\). There is no right and wrong here either, there is just making sure you ask an interesting question. Long and variable lags, and persistent interest rate movementsThe first plot shows a mighty long lag between the monitor policy shock and its effect on inflation and output. That does not mean that the economy has long and variable lags. This plot is actually not representative, because in the black lines the interest rate itself quickly reverts to zero. It is common to find a more protracted interest rate response to the shock, as shown in the red and blue lines. That mirrors common sense: When the Fed starts tightening, it sets off a year or so of stair-step further increases, and then a plateau, before similar stair-step reversion. That raises the question, does the long-delayed response of output and inflation represent a delayed response to the initial monetary policy shock, or does it represent a nearly instantaneous response to the higher subsequent interest rates that the shock sets off? Another way of putting the question, is the response of inflation and output invariant to changes in the response of the funds rate itself? Do persistent and transitory funds rate changes have the same responses? If you think of the inflation and output responses as economic responses to the initial shock only, then it does not matter if interest rates revert immediately to zero, or go on a 10 year binge following the initial shock. That seems like a pretty strong assumption. If you think that a more persistent interest rate response would lead to a larger or more persistent output and inflation response, then you think some of what we see in the VARs is a quick structural response to the later higher interest rates, when they come. Back in 1988, I posed this question in "what do the VARs mean?" and showed you can read it either way. The persistent output and inflation response can represent either long economic lags to the initial shock, or much less laggy responses to interest rates when they come. I showed how to deconvolute the response function to the structural effect of interest rates on inflation and output and how persistently interest rates rise. The inflation and output responses might be the same with shorter funds rate responses, or they might be much different. Obviously (though often forgotten), whether the inflation and output responses are invariant to changes in the funds rate response needs a model. If in the economic model only unexpected interest rate movements affect output and inflation, though with lags, then the responses are as conventionally read structural responses and invariant to the interest rate path. There is no such economic model. Lucas (1972) says only unexpected money affects output, but with no lags, and expected money affects inflation. New Keynesian models have very different responses to permanent vs. transitory interest rate shocks. Interestingly, Romer and Romer do not see it this way, and regard their responses as structural long and variable lags, invariant to the interest rate response. They opine that given their reading of a positive shock in 2022, a long and variable lag to inflation reduction is baked in, no matter what the Fed does next. They argue that the Fed should stop raising interest rates. (In fairness, it doesn't look like they thought about the issue much, so this is an implicit rather than explicit assumption.) The alternative view is that effects of a shock on inflation are really effects of the subsequent rate rises on inflation, that the impulse response function to inflation is not invariant to the funds rate response, so stopping the standard tightening cycle would undo the inflation response. Argue either way, but at least recognize the important assumption behind the conclusions. Was the success of inflation reduction in the early 1980s just a long delayed response to the first few shocks? Or was the early 1980s the result of persistent large real interest rates following the initial shock? (Or, something else entirely, a coordinated fiscal-monetary reform... But I'm staying away from that and just discussing conventional narratives, not necessarily the right answer.) If the latter, which is the conventional narrative, then you think it does matter if the funds rate shock is followed by more funds rate rises (or positive deviations from a rule), that the output and inflation response functions do not directly measure long lags from the initial shock. De-convoluting the structural funds rate to inflation response and the persistent funds rate response, you would estimate much shorter structural lags. Nakamura and Steinsson are of this view: While the Volcker episode is consistent with a large amount of monetary nonneutrality, it seems less consistent with the commonly held view that monetary policy affects output with "long and variable lags." To the contrary, what makes the Volcker episode potentially compelling is that output fell and rose largely in sync with the actions [interest rates, not shocks] of the Fed. And that's a good thing too. We've done a lot of dynamic economics since Friedman's 1968 address. There is really nothing in dynamic economic theory that produces a structural long-delayed response to shocks, without the continued pressure of high interest rates. (A correspondent objects to "largely in sync" pointing out several clear months long lags between policy actions and results in 1980. It's here for the methodological point, not the historical one.) However, if the output and inflation responses are not invariant to the interest rate response, then the VAR directly measures an incredibly narrow experiment: What happens in response to a surprise interest rate rise, followed by the plotted path of interest rates? And that plotted path is usually pretty temporary, as in the above graph. What would happen if the Fed raised rates and kept them up, a la 1980? The VAR is silent on that question. You need to calibrate some model to the responses we have to infer that answer. VARs and shock responses are often misread as generic theory-free estimates of "the effects of monetary policy." They are not. At best, they tell you the effect of one specific experiment: A random increase in funds rate, on top of a stable rule, followed by the usual following path of funds rate. Any other implication requires a model, explicit or implicit. More specifically, without that clearly false invariance assumption, VARs cannot directly answer a host of important questions. Two on my mind: 1) What happens if the Fed raises interest rates permanently? Does inflation eventually rise? Does it rise in the short run? This is the "Fisherian" and "neo-Fisherian" questions, and the answer "yes" pops unexpectedly out of the standard new-Keynesian model. 2) Is the short-run negative response of inflation to interest rates stronger for more persistent rate rises? The long-term debt fiscal theory mechanism for a short-term inflation decline is tied to the persistence of the shock and the maturity structure of the debt. The responses to short-lived interest rate movements (top left panel) are silent on these questions. Directly is an important qualifier. It is not impossible to answer these questions, but you have to work harder to identify persistent interest rate shocks. For example, Martín Uribe identifies permanent vs. transitory interest rate shocks, and finds a positive response of inflation to permanent interest rate rises. How? You can't just pick out the interest rate rises that turned out to be permanent. You have to find shocks or components of the shock that are ex-ante predictably going to be permanent, based on other forecasting variables and the correlation of the shock with other shocks. For example, a short-term rate shock that also moves long-term rates might be more permanent than one which does not do so. (That requires the expectations hypothesis, which doesn't work, and long term interest rates move too much anyway in response to transitory funds rate shocks. So, this is not directly a suggestion, just an example of the kind of thing one must do. Uribe's model is more complex than I can summarize in a blog.) Given how small and ephemeral the shocks are already, subdividing them into those that are expected to have permanent vs. transitory effects on the federal funds rate is obviously a challenge. But it's not impossible. Monetary policy shocks account for small fractions of inflation, output and funds rate variation. Friedman thought that most recessions and inflations were due to monetary mistakes. The VARs pretty uniformly deny that result. The effects of monetary policy shocks on output and inflation add up to less than 10 percent of the variation of output and inflation. In part the shocks are small, and in part the responses to the shocks are small. Most recessions come from other shocks, not monetary mistakes. Worse, both in data and in models, most inflation variation comes from inflation shocks, most output variation comes from output shocks, etc. The cross-effects of one variable on another are small. And "inflation shock" (or "marginal cost shock"), "output shock" and so forth are just labels for our ignorance -- error terms in regressions, unforecasted movements -- not independently measured quantities. (This and old point, for example in my 1994 paper with the great title "Shocks." Technically, the variance of output is the sum of the squares of the impulse-response functions -- the plots -- times the variance of the shocks. Thus small shocks and small responses mean not much variance explained.)This is a deep point. The exquisite attention put to the effects of monetary policy in new-Keynesian models, while interesting to the Fed, are then largely beside the point if your question is what causes recessions. Comprehensive models work hard to match all of the responses, not just to monetary policy shocks. But it's not clear that the nominal rigidities that are important for the effects of monetary policy are deeply important to other (supply) shocks, and vice versa. This is not a criticism. Economics always works better if we can use small models that focus on one thing -- growth, recessions, distorting effect of taxes, effect of monetary policy -- without having to have a model of everything in which all effects interact. But, be clear we no longer have a model of everything. "Explaining recessions" and "understanding the effects of monetary policy" are somewhat separate questions. Monetary policy shocks also account for small fractions of the movement in the federal funds rate itself. Most of the funds rate movement is in the rule, the reaction to the economy term. Like much empirical economics, the quest for causal identification leads us to look at a tiny causes with tiny effects, that do little to explain much variation in the variable of interest (inflation). Well, cause is cause, and the needle is the sharpest item in the haystack. But one worries about the robustness of such tiny effects, and to what extent they summarize historical experience. To be concrete, here is a typical shock regression, 1960:1-2023:6 monthly data, standard errors in parentheses: ff(t) = a + b ff(t-1) + c[ff(t-1)-ff(t-2)] + d CPI(t) + e unemployment(t) + monetary policy shock, Where "CPI" is the percent change in the CPI (CPIAUCSL) from a year earlier. ff(t-1)ff(t-1)-ff(t-2)CPIUnempR20.970.390.032-0.0170.985(0.009)(0.07)(0.013)(0.009)The funds rate is persistent -- the lag term (0.97) is large. Recent changes matter too: Once the Fed starts a tightening cycle, it's likely to keep raising rates. And the Fed responds to CPI and unemployment. The plot shows the actual federal funds rate (blue), the model or predicted federal funds rate (red), the shock which is the difference between the two (orange) and the Romer and Romer dates (vertical lines). You can't see the difference between actual and predicted funds rate, which is the point. They are very similar and the shocks are small. They are closer horizontally than vertically, so the vertical difference plotted as shock is still visible. The shocks are much smaller than the funds rate, and smaller than the rise and fall in the funds rate in a typical tightening or loosening cycle. The shocks are bunched, with by far the biggest ones in the early 1980s. The shocks have been tiny since the 1980s. (Romer and Romer don't find any shocks!) Now, our estimates of the effect of monetary policy look at the average values of inflation, output, and employment in the 4-5 years after a shock. Really, you say, looking at the graph? That's going to be dominated by the experience of the early 1980s. And with so many positive and negative shocks close together, the average value 4 years later is going to be driven by subtle timing of when the positive or negative shocks line up with later events. Put another way, here is a plot of inflation 30 months after a shock regressed on the shock. Shock on the x axis, subsequent inflation on the y axis. The slope of the line is our estimate of the effect of the shock on inflation 30 months out (source, with details). Hmm. One more graph (I'm having fun here):This is a plot of inflation for the 4 years after each shock, times that shock. The right hand side is the same graph with an expanded y scale. The average of these histories is our impulse response function. (The big lines are the episodes which multiply the big shocks of the early 1980s. They mostly converge because, either multiplied by positive or negative shocks, inflation wend down in the 1980s.) Impulse response functions are just quantitative summaries of the lessons of history. You may be underwhelmed that history is sending a clear story. Again, welcome to causal economics -- tiny average responses to tiny but identified movements is what we estimate, not broad lessons of history. We do not estimate "what is the effect of the sustained high real interest rates of the early 1980s," for example, or "what accounts for the sharp decline of inflation in the early 1980s?" Perhaps we should, though confronting endogeneity of the interest rate responses some other way. That's my main point today. Estimates disappear after 1982Ramey's first variation in the first plot is to use data from 1983 to 2007. Her second variation is to also omit the monetary variables. Christiano Eichenbaum and Evans were still thinking in terms of money supply control, but our Fed does not control money supply. The evidence that higher interest rates lower inflation disappears after 1983, with or without money. This too is a common finding. It might be because there simply aren't any monetary policy shocks. Still, we're driving a car with a yellowed AAA road map dated 1982 on it. Monetary policy shocks still seem to affect output and employment, just not inflation. That poses a deeper problem. If there just aren't any monetary policy shocks, we would just get big standard errors on everything. That only inflation disappears points to the vanishing Phillips curve, which will be the weak point in the theory to come. It is the Phillips curve by which lower output and employment push down inflation. But without the Phillips curve, the whole standard story for interest rates to affect inflation goes away. Computing long-run responsesThe long lags of the above plot are already pretty long horizons, with interesting economics still going on at 48 months. As we get interested in long run neutrality, identification via long run sign restrictions (monetary policy should not permanently affect output), and the effect of persistent interest rate shocks, we are interested in even longer run responses. The "long run risks" literature in asset pricing is similarly crucially interested in long run properties. Intuitively, we should know this will be troublesome. There aren't all that many nonoverlapping 4 year periods after interest rate shocks to measure effects, let alone 10 year periods.VARs estimate long run responses with a parametric structure. Organize the data (output, inflation, interest rate, etc) into a vector \(x_t = [y_t \; \pi_t \; i_t \; ...]'\), then the VAR can be written \(x_{t+1} = Ax_t + u_t\). We start from zero, move \(x_1 = u_1\) in an interesting way, and then the response function just simulates forward, with \(x_j = A^j x_1\). But here an oft-forgotten lesson of 1980s econometrics pops up: It is dangerous to estimate long-run dynamics by fitting a short run model and then finding its long-run implications. Raising matrices to the 48th power \(A^{48}\) can do weird things, the 120th power (10 years) weirder things. OLS and maximum likelihood prize one step ahead \(R^2\), and will happily accept small one step ahead mis specifications that add up to big misspecification 10 years out. (I learned this lesson in the "Random walk in GNP.") Long run implications are driven by the maximum eigenvalue of the \(A\) transition matrix, and its associated eigenvector. \(A^j = Q \Lambda^j Q^{-1}\). This is a benefit and a danger. Specify and estimate the dynamics of the combination of variables with the largest eigenvector right, and lots of details can be wrong. But standard estimates aren't trying hard to get these right. The "local projection" alternative directly estimates long run responses: Run regressions of inflation in 10 years on the shock today. You can see the tradeoff: there aren't many non-overlapping 10 year intervals, so this will be imprecisely estimated. The VAR makes a strong parametric assumption about long-run dynamics. When it's right, you get better estimates. When it's wrong, you get misspecification. My experience running lots of VARs is that monthly VARs raised to large powers often give unreliable responses. Run at least a one-year VAR before you start looking at long run responses. Cointegrating vectors are the most reliable variables to include. They are typically the state variable that most reliably carries long - run responses. But pay attention to getting them right. Imposing integrating and cointegrating structure by just looking at units is a good idea. The regression of long-run returns on dividend yields is a good example. The dividend yield is a cointegrating vector, and is the slow-moving state variable. A one period VAR \[\left[ \begin{array}{c} r_{t+1} \\ dp_{t+1} \end{array} \right] = \left[ \begin{array}{cc} 0 & b_r \\ 0 & \rho \end{array}\right] \left[ \begin{array}{c} r_{t} \\ dp_{t} \end{array}\right]+ \varepsilon_{t+1}\] implies a long horizon regression \(r_{t+j} = b_r \rho^j dp_{t} +\) error. Direct regressions ("local projections") \(r_{t+j} = b_{r,j} dp_t + \) error give about the same answers, though the downward bias in \(\rho\) estimates is a bit of an issue, but with much larger standard errors. The constraint \(b_{r,j} = b_r \rho^j\) isn't bad. But it can easily go wrong. If you don't impose that dividends and price are cointegrated, or with vector other than 1 -1, if you allow a small sample to estimate \(\rho>1\), if you don't put in dividend yields at all and just a lot of short-run forecasters, it can all go badly. Forecasting bond returns was for me a good counterexample. A VAR forecasting one-year bond returns from today's yields gives very different results from taking a monthly VAR, even with several lags, and using \(A^{12}\) to infer the one-year return forecast. Small pricing errors or microstructure dominate the monthly data, which produces junk when raised to the twelfth power. (Climate regressions are having fun with the same issue. Small estimated effects of temperature on growth, raised to the 100th power, can produce nicely calamitous results. But use basic theory to think about units.) Nakamura and Steinsson (appendix) show how sensitive some standard estimates of impulse response functions are to these questions. Weak evidenceFor the current policy question, I hope you get a sense of how weak the evidence is for the "standard view" that higher interest rates reliably lower inflation, though with a long and variable lag, and the Fed has a good deal of control over inflation. Yes, many estimates look the same, but there is a pretty strong prior going in to that. Most people don't publish papers that don't conform to something like the standard view. Look how long it took from Sims (1980) to Christiano Eichenbaum and Evans (1999) to produce a response function that does conform to the standard view, what Friedman told us to expect in (1968). That took a lot of playing with different orthogonalization, variable inclusion, and other specification assumptions. This is not criticism: when you have a strong prior, it makes sense to see if the data can be squeezed in to the prior. Once authors like Ramey and Nakamura and Steinsson started to look with a critical eye, it became clearer just how weak the evidence is. Standard errors are also wide, but the variability in results due to changes in sample and specification are much larger than formal standard errors. That's why I don't stress that statistical aspect. You play with 100 models, try one variable after another to tamp down the price puzzle, and then compute standard errors as if the 100th model were written in stone. This post is already too long, but showing how results change with different specifications would have been a good addition. For example, here are a few more Ramey plots of inflation responses, replicating various previous estimatesTake your pick. What should we do instead? Well, how else should we measure the effects of monetary policy? One natural approach turns to the analysis of historical episodes and changes in regime, with specific models in mind. Romer and Romer pass on thoughts on this approach: ...some macroeconomic behavior may be fundamentally episodic in nature. Financial crises, recessions, disinflations, are all events that seem to play out in an identifiable pattern. There may be long periods where things are basically fine, that are then interrupted by short periods when they are not. If this is true, the best way to understand them may be to focus on episodes—not a cross-section proxy or a tiny sub-period. In addition, it is valuable to know when the episodes were and what happened during them. And, the identification and understanding of episodes may require using sources other than conventional data.A lot of my and others' fiscal theory writing has taken a similar view. The long quiet zero bound is a test of theories: old-Keynesian models predict a delation spiral, new-Keynesian models predicts sunspot volatility, fiscal theory is consistent with stable quiet inflation. The emergence of inflation in 2021 and its easing despite interest rates below inflation likewise validates fiscal vs. standard theories. The fiscal implications of abandoning the gold standard in 1933 plus Roosevelt's "emergency" budget make sense of that episode. The new-Keynesian reaction parameter \(\phi_\pi\) in \(i_t - \phi_\pi \pi_t\), which leads to unstable dynamics for ](\phi_\pi>1\) is not identified by time series data. So use "other sources," like plain statements on the Fed website about how they react to inflation. I already cited Clarida Galí and Gertler, for measuring the rule not the response to the shock, and explaining the implications of that rule for their model. Nakamura and Steinsson likewise summarize Mussa's (1986) classic study of what happens when countries switch from fixed to floating exchange rates: "The switch from a fixed to a flexible exchange rate is a purely monetary action. In a world where monetary policy has no real effects, such a policy change would not affect real variables like the real exchange rate. Figure 3 demonstrates dramatically that the world we live in is not such a world."Also, analysis of particular historical episodes is enlightening. But each episode has other things going on and so invites alternative explanations. 90 years later, we're still fighting about what caused the Great Depression. 1980 is the poster child for monetary disinflation, yet as Nakamura and Steinsson write, Many economists find the narrative account above and the accompanying evidence about output to be compelling evidence of large monetary nonneutrality. However, there are other possible explanations for these movements in output. There were oil shocks both in September 1979 and in February 1981.... Credit controls were instituted between March and July of 1980. Anticipation effects associated with the phased-in tax cuts of the Reagan administration may also have played a role in the 1981–1982 recession ....Studying changes in regime, such as fixed to floating or the zero bound era, help somewhat relative to studying a particular episode, in that they have some of the averaging of other shocks. But the attraction of VARs will remain. None of these produces what VARs seemed to produce, a theory-free qualitative estimate of the effects of monetary policy. Many tell you that prices are sticky, but not how prices are sticky. Are they old-Keynesian backward looking sticky or new-Keynesian rational expectations sticky? What is the dynamic response of relative inflation to a change in a pegged exchange rate? What is the dynamic response of real relative prices to productivity shocks? Observations such as Mussa's graph can help to calibrate models, but does not answer those questions directly. My observations about the zero bound or the recent inflation similarly seem (to me) decisive about one class of model vs. another, at least subject to Occam's razor about epicycles, but likewise do not provide a theory-free impulse response function. Nakamura and Steinsson write at length about other approaches; model-based moment matching and use of micro data in particular. This post is going on too long; read their paper. Of course, as we have seen, VARs only seem to offer a model-free quantitative measurement of "the effects of monetary policy," but it's hard to give up on the appearance of such an answer. VARs and impulse responses also remain very useful ways of summarizing the correlations and cross correlations of data, even without cause and effect interpretation. In the end, many ideas are successful in economics when they tell researchers what to do, when they offer a relatively clear recipe for writing papers. "Look at episodes and think hard is not such recipe." "Run a VAR is." So, as you think about how we can evaluate monetary policy, think about a better recipe as well as a good answer. (Stay tuned. This post is likely to be updated a few times!) VAR technical appendixTechnically, running VARs is very easy, at least until you start trying to smooth out responses with Bayesian and other techniques. Line up the data in a vector, i.e. \(x_t = [i_t \; \pi_t\; y_t]'\). Then run a regression of each variable on lags of the others, \[x_t = Ax_{t-1} + u_t.\] If you want more than one lag of the right hand variables, just make a bigger \(x\) vector, \(x_t = [i_t\; \pi_t \; y_t \; i_{t-1}\; \pi_{t-1} \;y_{t-1}]'.\) The residuals of such regressions \(u_t\) will be correlated, so you have to decide whether, say, the correlation between interest rate and inflation shocks means the Fed responds in the period to inflation, or inflation responds within the period to interest rates, or some combination of the two. That's the "identification" assumption issue. You can write it as a matrix \(C\) so that \(u_t = C \varepsilon_t\) and cov\((\varepsilon_t \varepsilon_t')=I\) or you can include some contemporaneous values into the right hand sides. Now, with \(x_t = Ax_{t-1} + C\varepsilon_t\), you start with \(x_0=0\), choose one series to shock, e.g. \(\varepsilon_{i,1}=1\) leaving the others alone, and just simulate forward. The resulting path of the other variables is the above plot, the "impulse response function." Alternatively you can run a regression \(x_t = \sum_{j=0}^\infty \theta_j \varepsilon_{t-j}\) and the \(\theta_j\) are (different, in sample) estimates of the same thing. That's "local projection". Since the right hand variables are all orthogonal, you can run single or multiple regressions. (See here for equations.) Either way, you have found the moving average representation, \(x_t = \theta(L)\varepsilon_t\), in the first case with \(\theta(L)=(I-AL)^{-1}C\) in the second case directly. Since the right hand variables are all orthogonal, the variance of the series is the sum of its loading on all of the shocks, \(cov(x_t) = \sum_{j=0}^\infty \theta_j \theta_j'\). This "forecast error variance decomposition" is behind my statement that small amounts of inflation variance are due to monetary policy shocks rather than shocks to other variables, and mostly inflation shocks. Update:Luis Garicano has a great tweet thread explaining the ideas with a medical analogy. Kamil Kovar has a nice follow up blog post, with emphasis on Europe. He makes a good point that I should have thought of: A monetary policy "shock" is a deviation from a "rule." So, the Fed's and ECB's failure to respond to inflation as they "usually" do in 2021-2022 counts exactly the same as a 3-5% deliberate lowering of the interest rate. Lowering interest rates for no reason, and leaving interest rates alone when the regression rule says raise rates are the same in this methodology. That "loosening" of policy was quickly followed by inflation easing, so an updated VAR should exhibit a strong "price puzzle" -- a negative shock is followed by less, not more inflation. Of course historians and practical people might object that failure to act as usual has exactly the same effects as acting. * Some Papers: Comment on Romer and Romer What ends recessions? Some "what's a shock?"Comment on Romer and Romer A new measure of monetary policy. The greenbook forecasts, and beginning thoughts that strict exogeneity is not necessary. Shocks monetary shocks explain small fractions of output variance.Comments on Hamilton, more thoughts on what a shock is.What do the VARs mean? cited above, is the response to the shock or to persistent interest rates?The Fed and Interest Rates, with Monika Piazzesi. Daily data and interest rates to identify shocks. Decomposing the yield curve with Monika Piazzesi. Starts with a great example of how small changes in specification lead to big differences in long run forecasts. Time seriesA critique of the application of unit root tests pretesting for unit roots and cointegration is a bad ideaHow big is the random walk in GNP? lessons in not using short run dynamics to infer long run properties. Permanent and transitory components of GNP and stock prices a favorite of cointegration really helps on long run propertiesTime series for macroeconomics and finance notes that never quite became a book. Explains VARs and responses.
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R.R. mm 46 THE MERCURY. A PHANTASY. CHARI.ES WELSEY WEISER, '01. ; 5 WO spirits floating through the air Leave their mark of passing there. The spirit of the scentless spring, And summer's scented spirit bring Their breath of life and breath of love, And wave ethereal wings above The weary brow. With soothing hand They stir to life the waiting land. The azure sky, the sun and flowers, The bursting bud of woodland bowers, The tender grass, the songsters' strain Compose for life love's sweet refrain Of fellowship. (lI 'Tis evening and the twilight gray Creeps o'er the half-forgotten way, As passing on in pensive mood, Through the ancient hemlock wood, I see beneath the massive trees, Fanned by the evening breeze, A stalwart man reposing lay Beside the lonely grassy way. Tall and brawny, noble., fair, With beaming eyes and wavy hair, He forms a picture good to see— Nature's perfect mastery Commanding all. He speaks—the tones in clarion notes Upward through the branches float. He smiles—and wins with glances bright, Fellowship's most welcome light. "Nature," says he, "perfect, strong, Note and strive for ; and prolong Your days ; and usefulness, and peace, And love, from life shall ne'er cease." I fain would speak, but wake to see 'Tis only a bright phantasy Wrought by Spring-tide on the mind, That seeks in life and love to find The perfect whole. I V* . THE MERCURY 47 "RABBI BEN EZRA." ABDEL R. WENTZ, '04. [Graeff Prize Essay.] ROBERT Browning's Rabbi Ben Ezra is a transcript from the natural experience of a human soul. The struggle between lower and higher ideals has already been fought on the battleground within the soul. The conflict between faith and doubt is over. Faith stands victorious. We have here por-trayed a picture not of action but of a soul in intellectual fer-mentation, the concomitant of action. The poet speaks from emotional imagination in expressing the wish of his soul to be in touch with the infinite. And the passion here described is one that is universal to mankind and one that is deepest and most widely felt in loving human nature. Other poets have attained the same depth of thought, a number have expressed somewhat the same ideas as are here set forth, but probably no poem stands in exactly the same relations as Rabbi Ben Ezra. We propose, therefore, to inquire briefly concerning the Rabbi and his part in the poem, to examine in a general way Brown-ing's philosophy of life as unfolded in the body of his religious poetry, to analyze the thought of this poem and see how the philosophy of life is here set forth, to ascertain what relation the poem sustains to the teachings of Christianity, and to make some observations concerning its rhetorical composition. Abraham ben Meir ben Ezra is the full name of the Rabbi to whom Browning assigns this monologue, but he is more commonly known as Ibn Ezra. Born in Toledo, Spain, about 1088, he started to travel early in life and visited all parts of western and southern Europe and northern Africa. His last days were spent in Rome and here he died in 1167. He was an earnest student of astronomy and won much fame not only as an astronomer but also as an astrologer and physician. In him the Platonic philosophy had an able advocate. Wherever he went he became distinguished for his great learning and his varied accomplishments, but his chief renown seems to have I im 48 THE MERCURY. been as grammarian, biblical commentator, and poet. But great as was the scholarship of the Rabbi, his piety was even greater. From all his writings and from the account of his life we gather that he was a man of extraordinary spiritual rectitude under the complete guidance of the word of God. Such was the man to whom Browning here attributes the philosophy of life. So thoroughly is Ibn Ezra adapted to the expression of such a philosophy and so well do the sentiments here expressed ac-cord with the writings of the Rabbi that the question has been raised whether Browning meant Rabbi Ben Ezra to serve as a statement of his own philosophy or that of Ibn Ezra. There are, indeed, a number of Jewish elements contained in the poem ; as, for instance, the abiding trust in a central righteous-ness. But Browning was specially fond of weaving such ele-ments into the woof of his thought; in fact, in his own nature, both spiritual and intellectual, he was not entirely free from cer-tain Jewish characteristics. Moreover, a great many of his il-lustrations and traditions are taken from among the Jews and no other English poet, with the single exception of Shakespeare, commands for the Jew the same admiration and compassion that Browning does. It seems only reasonable therefore that the poet in presenting his own views concerning life should draw some of his less important ideas from the writings of the Rabbi and thus weave into the poem sufficient coloring to ac-count for the idiosyncrasies of the individual whom he has chosen to give expression to those views. But the strongest proof that Rabbi Ben Ezra expresses Browning's own theory of life, lies in the fact that it is prac-tically a recapitulation of the very sentiments expressed in many of his other poems, as witness Sordello, Abt Vogeler, Saul, The Pope, A Death in the Desert, Reverie, and quite a number of others, all of which develop the same life-philosophy as Rabbi Ben Ezra does. Just as Cicero made use of the venerable Cato as his lay figure in setting forth his views on "Old Age," so Browning has used different personages to develop his philoso-phy, in each case adapting some of the incidentals to the indi- » ■ > THE MERCURY. 49 * * vidual personage. In Jochanan Hakkadosh we have another instance where Browning uses a Jew as his mouthpiece to give utterance to his theory of life. And in the poem under con-sideration he has placed this theory in the mouth of the Rabbi for no other purpose than merely to furnish it with a back-ground; for Browning himself explained of Sordello: "My stress lay on the incidents in the development of a soul; little else is worth study." Being assured then that Rabbi Ben Ezra is merely a restate-ment of Browning's theory of life, it may be well before pro-ceeding to the thought analysis of the poem to try to gain some idea concerning his philosophy of life as developed in the rest of his religious poetry. This philosophy begins in his very first publication, Pauline, where its crude outlines are to be seen; it is more carefully developed and at much greater length in his next production, Paracelsus, and then re-appears from time to time among his productions, and receives its final utterance in his very last poem, Reverie. It is a noteworthy fact that Browning formed this view of lite in his youth, and that no-thing in his life experiences gave him occasion to change it, so that traces and reiterations of it are to be seen in poems cover-ing a period of sixty years of his life. The whole trend of his philosophy might be summarized in the statement that the aspiration towards divine Power and Love is the most exalted ideal for the human soul. The intensity of the universal passion of human love reaching out towards some object which shall satisfy aspiration gives him the conception of God as infinite Love and of the future life as one in which Love incarnate shall have a place. This earthly life is merely a period of probation; man here is in constant pre-paration for another life. Past influences constitute the cri-terion by which to judge of the future, and our development here is determinative of our hereafter, either for growth or de-cay. But in this life we are surrounded by innumerable lim-itations and conditions. All our attainments are bounded by the finite. The divinity at the root of man's nature is too great for the sphere which contains him, arid yet it is this very di-vinity which gives rise to aspiration. Aspiration in turn causes ' ill i. 111 , ,., ,.j,i;iMl8M ■ 50 THE MERCURY. discontent, difficulties, and failures, and these point to infinite success and goodness. Thus we are made to realize the limi-tations and imperfections of our finite existence and to strive ever onward and upward to infinite freedom and perfection. It is precisely this imperfect nature in man which gives him the susceptibility to infinite growth and development; and this is "Man's distinctive mark alone," that which raises him higher in the scale than the brute and places him "a little lower than the angels." Only by our temporal failures are we led to see the possibility of eternal success. Internal dissatisfaction with our attainments on earth induces aspiration towards the divine. Man is "a living personality linked to the principle of restless-ness;" he must recognize his limitations and work within them, never losing sight of the infinite beyond nor ever ceasing to as-pire toward that perfection of freedom. To become content with even the highest attainable per-fection in this earthly life would mean to renounce all noble de-sires and to deny the inner light. This present state must not be regarded as an end in itself and submission to the conditions which it imposes would only result in fatal loss. To fail to recognize our imperfect nature would be to deny the possibility of spiritual growth. No, we must never be satisfied with this earth and its meagre successes; we must never rest content with this stage of imperfection. We must recognize the possi-bility of higher results than any attainable on earth and must aspire to something beyond the limits of time and space. "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" It is this very quality—this constant discontent with earthly attainments, this endless aspiration for something higher—that makes life a struggle and the earth a bivouac of strife. Man must be actuated by a constant and conscious impetuosity to-wards the divine, drawing new impulses out of each failure, ever realizing with Tennyson, that, "Men may rise on stepping-stones From their dead selves to higher things." THE MERCURY. Si Each failure should give rise to greater effort and higher aspira-tion. According to Abt Vogeler, the musician accepts the pro-longed pause as an earnest of sweet music, and the discords as an evidence of more highly-prized harmony to follow. The limitations of this life are only suggestions of the infinitude of the life beyond. These. temporal barriers shall become the doors opening to the eternal life of infinite beauty, happiness, knowledge and love. The little mountain rill, as it flows down, has many rough places to cross, many obstacles to encounter, many rocks and precipices to pass, but continually receiving new life from other streams it grows deeper and stronger until at last it becomes a great, deep river, and, undisturbed now by the huge boulders beneath its surface, it flows calmly on to join the peaceful, powerful ocean. So the soul, weak at first and prone to despair, must work within its limitations and by an endless succession of aspirations and failures, each failure stimu-lating stronger endeavor, make its way to God and to the real-ization of perfect Power and Love. Having thus gotten a view of the philosophy of life as Brown-ing held it, we will be better able to follow in analysis the thought of Rabbi Ben Ezra, where this philosophy is stated with greater conciseness, perhaps, than anywhere else in Brown-ing. But -first it must be said, by way of explanation, that Rabbi Ben Ezra is not argumentative in its character; it is merely the statement of facts of positive knowledge. Its view is intuitive and it states conclusions without employing courses of reasoning. We shall not expect, therefore, that the thought of the different stanzas will in every instance be arranged in strict logical sequence. Mellowed with years, the venerable Rabbi gives to the young man the cheerful assurance, " The best is yet to be," and in the quietude of life's evening hour proposes a retrospect of the day and a prospect to the tomorrow. Bidding us to trust in God te reveal His whole plan, he first considers youth. This is a period of hesitation and ambition, of "hopes and fears." All of youth's brief years are passed in doubt and indecision. But for this the Rabbi has no remonstrances, for this very doubt is S2 THE MERCURY. the actuating influence—the "troubling spark"—which distin-guishes us from the brute creation; brutes have their end of living in self-satisfaction, and in the gratification of sense are free from care and doubt. But man's greatest glory and that which attests his affinity with the great Provider lies in his noble desires and lofty aspirations which can never be satisfied on earth; this is the disturbing spark that proves his spiritual nature. We should therefore endure with good cheer the lim-itations that are here placed upon us, and, despite life's difficul-ties and discomforts, ever strive and learn and dare. For the seeming failures of this earthly life simply prove our suscepti-bility to the achievement of eternal success. Our aspiration to the unattainable raises us higher in the scale than the unpro-gressive brute, and he, who hopes to succeed in his flesh and to that end subordinates soul to body, can scarcely deserve the noble name of man. And yet the body is not without its use; all past experi-ences in the flesh serve to teach valuable lessons in this train-ing- school for eternity, and the heart of the Rabbi beats in sin-cere gratitude for the opportunity of living as a man, a part in the one great plan of perfect Power and Love. He trusts him-self implicitly to the will of his Creator and hopes thus to gain the victory over low ideals and ignoble desires. For the soul is prone to yield to its rosy garment of flesh in the desire for rewards commeasurable with bodily endowments and physical attainments. But we should not measure ourselves by the ground gained in spite of flesh; we should realize that while flesh and soul are both subject to limitations here on earth, yet neither is to be despised as all is for the best. Youth must have its struggles and disappointments but old age reaps rich fruit in consequence. For here if is that the complete man is produced and that the tendency to God be-gins. The Rabbi, ripe with age, awaits the fight with death, the only struggle now before him. "Fearless and unperplexed" he contemplates the battle with perfect serenity of soul, for his experiences have taught him what weapons and what armor to employ. Now that his youth is ended he is in a position to L4fc THE MERCURY. 53 pass sentence on that period of life. The fires of'youth have culled out the gold from the dross and the life-struggle can now at length be estimated at its true value. In youth all was un-certainty ; with age comes knowledge absolute. Each sunset brings its certain moment which suddenly calling the glory from the gray announces the death of the day and invites esti-mation of its worth. So the period of old age, tinted with glory and free from the strife of youth, affords the opportunity to prove the past, pronounce judgment on its errors and pro-prieties, and thereby "sustained and soothed" to face the future. And more than this is not possible for man ; his highest duty is to practice tomorrow the lessons of today, to follow intently "the great Artificer of all that moves" and thus catch hints of real handicraft, of true workmanship. Youth is the proper time for growth and aspiration, the proper time to "strive to-ward making," and though the efforts to make be uncouth and seeming failures, nevertheless they are eminently successful in that they secure for old age exemption from strife and the blessed privilege of knowledge. Death can then be awaited without fear. Here the mind is not harassed by arguments of "Doctor and Saint"'as in youth, but the knowledge of the Right and Good and Infinite is as absolute as the knowledge of the possession of one's own hand. Age vindicates youth by defining and separating "great minds from small" and by determining whether the principles of Right were properly ap-plied in youth. Thctruth is revealed and peace of soul secured. But who shall act as judge to pass the sentence? It is no easy task, for men of very similar traits and qualities hold widely different views. Who shall decide? The answer: each man must be his own arbiter; he alone understands the circum-stances of his own life struggle. For life is not to be judged by its deeds and attainments, else others could pass the sentence. "Men appraise the outward product," but this vulgar mass, so easily recognized and valued by the low world, is not the proper standard to use in making up the main account. True, our "work" is pleasing in the eyes of our fellow-men and quickly plumbed and tested by the world's coarse thumb and finger, but 54 THE MERCURY. the true reckoning of man's worth takes into account all our undeveloped instincts tor good, all our unfulfilled purposes. These no one can know but ourselves and these God weighs and considers. He finds value in our thoughts which we were not able to express in a mere act and His records contain even our fleeting fancies :— "All I could never be, All, men ignored in me, This, I was worth to God. whose wheel the pitcher shaped." These lines contain the one great lesson of the poem, the very-theme of its thought, namely, the manifestation of God's love in his dealings with man. Our doubts He overrules for faith; our failures He overrules for success. Our aspirations to the impossible become the essentials of our spiritual growth. It is on the wings of God's love that the spirit of man mounts from earth to heaven. This thought pervades the entire poem. The thought that man is the pitcher shaped by the wheel of God leads to the expanding of that beautiful metaphor of the potter and the clay, and this occupies the concluding verses of the poem. We are invited to examine the metaphor and learn why time passes away so rapidly while our souls lie passive. Hugest folly is the proposition that nothing endures and that the past has no bearing on the present or the future. All that has ever really existed, lasts forever. The wheel indeed may vary as it turns, but potter and clay endure. So life fleets and earth changes, but God and Soul remain forever. We are not mere shadowy existences destined to pass into nothingness; we are eternal realities. But the changing motion of the wheel is needful to give the clay its proper form and make it useful; no less are the buffetings and evanescent influences of this life's dance intended by the all-wise Creator to give our souls their proper bent and temper and fit them for their highest useful-ness. What matters it, so far as the usefulness of the cup is concerned, if the potter in the course of his work ceases to adorn it with the beautiful figures wrought around its base and fashions stern, grim scull-things about the rim? And what I THE MERCURY. 55 matters it if our Maker diminish our pleasures and make this temporal life less attractive? Not in the decorations however beautiful is to be found the proper use of a cup; no more is the highest usefulness of the soul to be found in the pleasures and ornaments of life. Heaven's consummate cup has no need therefore of earth's wheel; his only need is the Potter, to amend the lurking flaws and use His work. The Rabbi declares that never once in the whole dizzy course of his lite with all its im-perfections and failures—never once did he lose sight of his end as a vessel to slake his Maker's thirst. Just as in the opening stanza he expressed his firm assurance of a better life to come, aud his abiding confidence in God's goodness, "Our times are in His hand," so after maintaining this sentiment through the entire poem, he reiterates it once more in his eloquent closing prayer: "So, take and use Thy work : Amend what flaws may lurk, What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim ! My times be in Thy hand! Perfect the cup as planned ! Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same[" These noble sentiments, though expressed by a Jewish Rabbi, are entirely in accord with the teachings of Christianity. An eminent writer on ethics has pronounced Rabbi Ben Ezra to be "one of the completest descriptions of the ethical life in English literature." But it is even more than that; it is a statement of pure theism and a description of sublime religious faith. It abounds in Christian sentiment and contains numer-ous allusions to Scripture of both the Old and New Testament. If Rabbi Ben Ezra were a part ot the Bible, every sentence in the entire poem would long since have been quoted in substan-tiation of some Christian teaching. One of the salient teach-ings of the poem is that of absolute submission to the Divine will. This, one of the great teachings of our New Testament, is forcibly set forth in the poem. Moreover, Christ's mission on earth was to reveal the Father not only as Power but more specifically as Love. In the light of this fact, the sentiment 56 THE MERCURY. which the Rabbi expresses becomes quite striking, especially when he says, "I, who saw power, see now Love perfect too." L^fc, The Christian religion is preeminently a religion of love, and Rabbi Ben Ezra has its very basis on God's love for man. Then, too, Christianity is essentially a romantic religion. Literature furnishes numerous instances of Christian romance. And what can be more romantic than this idea of a future life with earthly hopes and aspirations realized and Love perfected, as developed in the poem ? This hope of future existence gives to the Chris-tian religion the very source of its life. And in Holy-Cross Day we have another instance where Browning represents this same Ben Ezra as a direct advocate of Christ and Christianity. When Rabbi Ben Ezra was first published (1864), the world stood in great need of just such a message of hope and faith as the poem conveys. That was a time when skepticism and des-pondency were rapidly growing. Matthew Arnold was busy promulgating his own unbelief. Fitzgerald had just published his'beautiful translation of Omar Khayyam, and this message o doubt was being very widely read. Epicureanism and sensualism were spreading. To all these Rabbi Ben Ezra was a check. It inculcated cheerfulness and hope, destroying doubt and set-ting up faith preeminent. Some readers of Browning find in him nothing more than what is purely humanitarian and ethical, while others narrow their vision to the romantic and Christian. In reality, Brown-ing includes both. His message is twofold : he treats both the Here and the Hereafter. An so Rabbi Ben Ezta combines the humanitarian and the ethical, on the one hand, with the roman-tic and Christian on the other, and sets forth a lofty type of Christian faith as held by a man of God. In rhetorical composition Rabbi Ben Ezra is typical of Brown-ing's religious poetry. Browning is noted for his great com-prehensiveness of meaning. Few writers have used single words with such great effect. In fact, so great is his conscise- THE MERCURY. 57 ness that he is often charged with being obscure, and the num-ber of his readers is comparatively small because not many peo-ple will take the trouble to disengage the poet's real thought irom the close-plaited web of his expression. Rabbi Ben Ezra is no exception to the rule. True, it is one of the most widely known of Browning's poems and has been considered one of the easiest, but its apparent simplicity disappears before any serious effort to drain it of its meaning. The poet thinks at lightning speed and records his thoughts as they occur to him, and nothing short of an alert mind and an open spirit will suf-fice to draw from the poem its full meaning. It is recondite almost to the extreme, in places even bordering on the verge of solecism. And yet it is only natural that such" sublime, weighty thought should receive striking expression. Every sentence is pregnant with vigorous meaning. And while the poem shows in its structure no regard whatever for symmetry or proportion and no view to clearness, beauty, or nobleness of form, yet it presents the greatest consistency of teaching from first to last. This poem will be read as long as the human race endures, because it has to do with a passion that is common to all man-kind. It deals with man's growth to the infinite in a spirit of the most healthful optimism, and inspires men everywhere to high and noble thinking. Browning himself gives an estimate of the loftiness of the theme when he says in a letter to a friend: "It is a great thing—the greatest—that a human being should have passed the probation of life, and sum up its experi-ence in a witness to the power and love of God." What Long-fellow contributes to literature in his "Psalm of Life," what Ten-nyson contributes in his "In Memoriam"-—this and more Brown-ing epitomizes in his Rabbi Ben Ezra. And the late Professor Everett of Harvard pronounces it "one of the most exalted of the poems of Browning * * * * one of the most exalted in the whole range of literature." 5« THE MERCURY. RUSSIAN AGGRESSION. [Second Prize in the Inter-Collegiate Oratorical Contest] W. W. BARKXEY, '04. PASSING events in the Far East draw the eyes of the world once more toward those parts which have engaged more or less constant attention for many years. The Asiatic question with its many difficulties and complications presents the unsolved international problem of the twentieth century. How shall the equilibrium of the East and the- integrity of China be maintained? How shall the commercial powers of the world preserve the equality of trading privileges along China's inviting coast? How shall the threatening advance of Russia upon Asia be checked? Shall Anglo-Saxon civiliza-tion or the civilization of the Muscovite stamp itself upon east-ern peoples ? The last two inquiries are primary and essential, it will be admitted, in dealing with the first two. Statesmen prophets have prophesied, but struggle is no longer a thing of the future. The foretold contest is on. and it is critical. Potent energies are now at work in the Orient. Asia is evidently un-dergoing transition. Pressing circumstances must soon force a solution of the grave problem of the East and provide answers to our questions. While grim-visaged war is raging between the little island empire of the Pacific and that gigantic nation of the north, it will not be untimely to follow the course of that ceaseless, un-tiring advance which has brought Russia all the way across the Eurasian continent from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok and Port Arthur. The declaration of open hostilities between these two con-flicting nations was no surprise, but rather was expected. War was inevitable in the face of Russian aggression and dogged-ness. The current strife is only one of a series of events which have been shaping themselves for years, yes for centuries, in the history of Russia. It is the natural, logical outcome of a policy of greed and grasp which has been at the bottom of THE MERCURY. 59 every national move which Russia has made since the days of her first note-worthy monarch, "Ivan the Terrible." The real cause of the war waging today can be clearly traced to this governing policy. Insatiate Russia is not satisfied with her tight grip on Manchuria which she now practically owns and controls, but looks with a covetous eye on the independent but small empire of Korea over which Japanese influence should justly extend. In fact it was reported, previous to the outbreak with Japan, that she already had obtained large interests in the important timber regions of the Yalu Valley, and that her rep-resentative stood over the weak and pliable Emperor at Seoul with almost dictatorial power. Such is her impudence and boldness. Will Russia recede from the prominent position she has taken in northeastern China ? Never, voluntarily ! She may make clever pretensions and employ shrewd diplomatic schemes, as is her custom, but she will never withdraw from an acquisi-tion which has been the object of her ambition for three cen-turies and more, until Japan or some other power drives her back into the north from whence she came. And then she will not remain there; onward, advance, conquer and expand have been the watchwords of this aggressor of nations since the close of the Middle Ages when the terrible autocrat of the six-teenth century assumed the ambitious title of Czar and began to push the lines of his government out in all directions. When Ivan came to the throne Russia was "a semi-savage, semi-Asiatic power, so hemmed in by barbarian lands and hos-tile races as to be almost entirely cut off from intercourse with the civilized world." Since then her growth in territory and power has been marvelous and amazing. From the compara-tively small and insignificant state in Central Europe, she has gradually extended her boundaries until now she dominates about one-half of the land area of Eurasia. The Tartars were attacked and driven beyond the Ural river, and thus the entire Volga and Caspian regions were acquired. An advance was started toward the Ural mountains and the Euxine. Under the powerful and energetic despot, Petet the Qreat, the Black and Baltic sea regions were both gained; Siberia was explored and 6o THE MERCURY. conquered from the Ural mountains to Kamtschatka, and afterwards colonized; far-reaching reforms were brought about, and Russia was lifted to a place among the first-class powers of Europe. Today her dominion extends from the borders of Per-sia, Afghanistan, and India on the south to Sweden and the Arctic ocean on the north ; and from the Chinese Empire and the Pacific on the east to Germany and Austria-Hungary on the west. What giant strides she has taken in territorial devel-opment ! What a magnificent stretch of country she has been able to consolidate into one sovereign State! No other nation in the history of the world has been able to secure such abso-lute control over so large an empire and that in the compara-tively short period of four centuries. Russia's advance is steady and never ceases. Her policy is well-outlined and the goal of her ambition is clearly defined., Her real governing purpose may be deduced from her actions. Russia needs some warm water harbors on the Pacific. She proposes first to secure, if possible, these advantageous outlets without which she can never develop her almost limitless na-tural resources. Secondly, Russia evidently aims to become the arbiter and controller of the East; and, therefore, she en-deavors to stamp her order of civilization on Asia, and obtain for herself the preponderance of power in the Far East. Back of these exalted aims and ambitions is a thorough conviction among her people that the day of Russian supremacy is near at hand. "Her students everywhere claim that the world had bee?i under the Romance type of civilization and that gave way in time to the Anglo- Teutonic type under which the world is now developing and this is about to give way to Slavonic civilization to which the future belongs." Surely, if written history and current actions count for anything in judging a nation, no other than these stupenduous designs and hopes, we have briefly stated, are the basis of her aggressive spirit. Surely no other than these form the main-spring of Russia's late historical movements. Russia's political,-.commercial and industrial interests demand a more extensive seacoast, and more and better harbors. Tur-r_* r THE MERCURY. 61 key and the Powers control the Bosphorus and deny her ingress to Mediterranean waters. The Baltic is ice-bound part of the year and that seriously hinders navigation there. Port Arthur and Vladivostok also present serious obstacles to successful commerce. Where shall Russia turn, if not southward along China's coast and toward the Persian gulf, in which directions the high wave of her influence and sovereignty has been roll-ing, now slowly, now rapidly, but ever rolling for almost four hundred years ? What does the construction of her great trans-Siberian railroad mean, which now stretches across an en-tire continent, if not easier access to the Pacific ? What does a similar trunk line mean, which is now being planned to extend from the Baltic to the Arabian sea, if not a freer outlet to the world's waters ? What does her sly seizure of Manchuria, her pretended foothold on Korea, signify ? What does a war with Japan signify, if not a fixed determination to extend her power along the Chinese seaboard and gain possession of China's warm water harbors? Russia aspires to be a great sea power, but as yet she is comparatively weak along that line, as was evinced too plainly by her recent defeats at the hands of Japanese sea-warriors. In order to be prepared in time of war she must have a stronger navy, and safer inlets to harbor it. That she may develop her boundless natural resources properly, both in Europe and Siberia, and thereby increase her wealth, she must be given an opportunity to open up her industries and enlarge her trade. To hold and maintain her place among the nations, she must establish herself on the sea. Russia's prophet states-men are shrewd and wide-awake to these facts. They look far ahead, see in Russia the nation of the future, and may be ex-pected to plan their every action in accordance with their in-tense ambition to make her glorious and paramount. There is no more room for doubt. The spread of Slavonic domination in Asia is truly alarming. No observer who has followed the course of current affairs in the East will have failed to notice that glacier-like movement of Russian power over Chinese territory. England sees it; Japan resents it. It is too evident, notwithstanding her cunning diplomacy, her insincere 62 THE MERCURY. promises and agreements, and her round-about manoeuvers at times, that Russia means to retain every foot of ground she possesses and that she will never cease to advance until she has conquered and absorbed and assimilated the whole of the Chi-nese Empire, Persia, and Afghanistan; stands triumphant on the summits of the lofty Himalyas, and looks with a threaten-ing eye down upon the rich and splendid empire of India, un-less, perchance, the Anglo-Saxon shall not delay longer, but come forth to contest such wholesale occupation of Asia. Some years ago, when it was proposed to retreat from the mouth of the Amur river, Emperor Nicholas said, "Where Russia's flag is carried once, there it shall remain forever." That shows the spirit of the nation. Russia is active; Russia is greedy; Rus-sia is strong and persistent. Give her the chance she seeks to relieve her latent energies and develop her dormant resources, and she will become the most influential, the wealthiest of world powers. Give her the opportunity she covets and she will scatter broadcast over the Orient her despotic principles of autocracy with its brutality, ignorance, and oppression; force her Greek Catholicism with its error and intolerance upon the unfortunate subjects of her conquest, and carry with her a spirit of exclusiveness and selfishness deadly to the advance of pure Christian civilization everywhere ig the world. Give her the right of way and she will attain the strategic points she desires and crush out of existence the Anglo-Saxon order of civiliza-tion, which means constitutional government, the Protestant religion, liberty, equality, and education characteristic of all Anglo Saxon peoples. Stand aside, and Holy Russia will rule the world. But will the rest of the world stand aside, passive and indif ferent, and let the great Czar forward his schemes of encroach-ment and aggrandizement unhindered? Japan says No! Japan acts promptly and firmly, and all hail! to the bravp little nation who with courage stout and strong goes out to battle with this giant aggressor of the north. We admit her claims be-cause we know they are just; we glory in her victories because we know she is right; deservedly do we give her our sympathies THE MERCURY. 63 because she has put herself in line with twentieth century progress and civilization and with dignity faces an avaricious foe still moved by the customs and principles of the sixteenth century. But can she stand against such might in the ultimate contest ? Can Japan alone hold Russia in check and stop the perilous ad-vance ? It is not to be expected. If not, what will England do, England who has check-mated Russia so often in Europe, and who now has such vast commercial interests on the coast and in the heart of China, and stands guardian over such a mighty empire as India, will she allow China to be Russianized and India to be menaced ? It would seem that the final struggle must be between Russia and England. Two great orders of modern civilization have met and are ready to clash, yes they have clashed, for Japan's prototype is England, and her civil-ization is Anglo-Saxon. On the one hand, Russia, who be-lieves thoroughly that the future lies with the Slav. On the other hand, the English-speaking nations, who contend that the future rests with the Anglo-Saxon. Both stand ready to fight, if need be, for the world's supremacy. One is a supremacy of personal absolutism and oppression; the other, a supremacy of democracy with its liberty and justice. Which shall it be? Should the struggle come now, Russia would likely be crushed ;• later, after she has had time to grow and strengthen to her full proportions, who shall prophesy the end and declare which shall rule the world, Anglo-Saxon or Slav ? THE PASSION FOR SCHOLARSHIP. PROF. OSCAR G. KXINGER. THE mental attitude of a man towards his vocation is all important. Tell me this and I will tell you the degree of success which he has won or will win. Where there is a lively interest there will be also the enthusiasm and tireless energy so necessary to the perfect performance of a task. A lackadaisical spirit defeats any enterprize. The captains of in- 64 THE MERCURY. dustry have always been men with a genius for hard work. The same is true of those who have won eminence in any of the learned professions. They have mounted high because they have been in love with their vocation. To the student who aims at some notable achievement in the domain of knowledge, an absorbing passion for scholarship is the first essential. By such a passion, I mean an insatiable desire to know the truth of things at first hand. Others may be satisfied to take their information on faith. He must get at the heart of reality ; he must know things in themselves and in their relations; and to attain this he must be willing to sacrifice everything— "To scorn delights and live laborious days." Unless this passion dominate him there will be lacking the fire and enthusiasm which are necessary to prolonged effort. To think is the most difficult task a man can ever set himself. It means absorption, critical acumen, a nice balancing of facts and unerring inference; in a word, it means the analysis of a fact or truth to its ultimates and a synthesis of these ultimates into a positive thought. The process prolonged wears out the brain and exhausts the nerves. To keep it up until the end demands a will which is animated by a passion for knowledge as burning as the desire to live. Then and then only can the mind come to its full stature and utter truth which men must hear whether they will or not. This longing to know is often inborn, but may be acquired in some degree by even the dullest. The main trouble with the latter sort of student is that his mind has never been a-wakened. About his intellect a dense haze has gathered and he cannot see his way nor does he know precisely where he is. A dull ambition stirs in his heart but he cannot discover its meaning. Intelligent study is to him unknown. He tries to go through his tasks but what he gets means little to him. Often it happens that young men of naturally capable minds almost finish their course before they acquire the mental aware-ness which is the first condition of successful study. When THE MERCURY. 65 they do wake up their progress is phenomenal. Perhaps therefore, the highest function of the teacher is to awaken mind and by his helpfulness keep it awake. ' No higher reward can come to him than the consciousness that he has set one intel-lect on fire with the passion to know. Before this is possible, however, a serious obstacle must be removed. It is a motion wellnigh unusual among students and grows out of a mistaken conception of education. The student finds the college equipped with a faculty of men more or less learned who are to be his teachers in the various subjects which the curriculum offers. He expects them to set him tasks for each day's performance. In the recitations they question him on the lessons and make the necessary explanations or pffer additional information. Consequently the idea is general and perhaps inevitable that the professors educate the pupil. How-ever natural, this notion is pernicious and works incalculable harm. In the sense that the teacher acts as guide and makes easier the road to intellectual development, it is true that he is an educator ; in any other sense it is misleading. The men-tal development zvhich any man gets is always the lesult of his own specific effort. A teacher helps, stimulates, guides, "but achieves nothing without the earnest response of the pupil.' This erroneous view is largely responsible for a wrong use of the textbook. The student imagines that doing his task-work in memoriter fashion is genuine study. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Even a parrot is capable of such exercise of memory and the world has no use for human "Pollys!" A memory stored with knowledge is a great boon, but will not go far in promoting a' man's interests. Some of the greatest failures have been walking encyclopedias of facts and theories. A bookworm always has a hard time to find enough to eat. The world demands men who can think and plan and execute,—practical men who can use their knowledge to meet and solve the intricate problems of business and poli-tics. "What new truth have you to offer?" is the question asked of every graduate and on his answer depends his sta-tion. A well written article which reproduces only the •ii% 66 THE MERCURY. thoughts of other men finds its way into the editor's waste bas-ket or into the pages of the cheapest magazine. The pulpit ■which is no longer a teaching platform will face empty pews. The "dead-line" in any profession is drawn where invention dies; years have nothing to do with it. The man who keeps pace with progress and is able to interpret to others the heart of the movement will never want a hearing. Such a man is never the product of a mere textbook. For a text in any sub ject is the resume of one man's interpretation of a body of facts. Its value depends wholly on the authority of its author. At best it is only an outline. Any student, therefore, who ac-cepts the teaching without examining the facts and bringing the theory to the test of facts, is doing two things—-depriving himself of the pleasure which comes with reasoned conviction, and missing the power which such additional research confers. Either is a great mistake. The worship of the textbook induces another grievous habit which when acquired blights original work in a literary way. When a theme has been adopted as the subject of an essay the student at once searches through the library for material which when found constitutes the subject matter of his essay. Of testing, of meditation, there is little or 'none. What he says is not what the subject means to him but to another. He is like a phonograph endowed with the power of changing the form of expression without altering the thought. It were well if the saying of Isocrates were written in letters of light above every alcove: "What has been said by one is not of equal value to him who repeats it; but he seems to be the most skillful who finds in a subject topics which have escaped the notice of others." Here is the truth in a nut-shell. Let a young man determine at the outset that he will not repeat what has once been uttered except as a quotation, but will give to the world his own thought tested and tried by an appeal to things, and what he has to say on any subject will command the attention of men. Servile devotion to the textbook; re-producing the thought of others; failure to experience the truth that is presented; these are the fatal rocks on which THE MERCURY. 67 many a promising career has been wrecked. There is, too, an ethical aspect of the case which must not be overlooked. No one has the moral right to ask another to spend time in read-ing or hearing what to him is old. Truth which concerns man is so illimitable in every direction and our knowledge of it so infinitesimal that he who repeats what is common to all is guilty of a grave wrong to his reader or hearer. This passion to know fully and at first hand, if it could be-come the dominant element in the college atmosphere, would transform college life. It would quickly bring men face to face with the mystery of things and take away the indolence, the trifling, the present tendency to follow the line of least resis-tance. The four years of effort would produce scholars whom the world would welcome and of whom the college could be proud. The spirit of the scholar can be acquired and cultivated and its possession means success, as its absence means failure, in all that is highest in life. COURTESY TO STRANGERS. H. S. DORNBERGKR, '06. A stranger,'no matter where he goes, is bound to receive a certain amount of courtesy. I will attempt to show in this essay that this amount of courtesy is increasing rather than decreasing. During all ages and especially the feudal age, every stranger was sure of receiving food and shelter if he stopped at any house or castle. This was due chiefly to the fact that hotels were not very common until our own age, nor did every village or hamlet have its hotel or inn as is now the case. Then as there were no newspapers until quite recently, a stranger was also received for the news he might bring. It might also be added that the number of travelers at that time cannot be com-pared with the number of the present time. At present this hospitality to strangers is not nearly so evi- '• J Uii. 68 THE MERCURY. dent as it was in former times. The chief cause of this is our modern hotel system. Everywhere one goes he will find some kind of a hotel, no matter what be the size of the place. It may also be stated here that travelers, in most cases, would much rather pay their hotel bills than trouble some one else with entertaining them during their sojourn in the locality. Even among friends one sees this. Very often a friend will come to your vicinity and, rather than bother you, will go to a hotel. Now let us consider whether a stranger would be welcomed did he ask for our hospitality. The ordinary beggar will serve as a good example of this. It is very difficult, indeed, for one to find a home where a beggar will not receive a good meal if he goes and asks for it. Who is so cold hearted that he would refuse anyone shelter from the'cold in winter or the rain in summer? Who would not offer his bed to a sick or wounded person at his door and strive to comfort the unfortu-nate being? In some countries a stranger was always regarded as an enemy unless he could prove himself a friend. In some in-stances it even went so far as to cause the person's death, could he not do this. As we come to more modern times this feel-ing of hostility toward strangers gradually diminished until it has passed entirely out of existence, except among semi-civi-lized peoples. Another example of the growth of courtesy toward strangers is the downfall of absolute monarchism and the rise of more democratic forms of government. This last example may be regarded as not exactly on the subject by some but as it con-sists of the regard of man for man, in my opinion it is after all nothing but courtesy. A still better example is the increase of the value of human life. At the dawn of history the life of a man was held less sacred than a mere dog's life is today. This brings up still another point. In former ages, capital punishment was the mode of exacting justice. Since that time the inflicting of capital punishment has been gradually modi- THE MERCURY. 69 fied from unspeakable tortures to the entire abandonment of this form of justice except in some few cases. The modern rules of etiquette require us to be courteous to strangers. We exert ourselves in every way to please them and try our best to make them feel at home. We even go so far as to deny ourselves comforts for their pleasure. We do not allow them to spend their money. We introduce them to our friends who try to outdo us in their courtesy toward these strangers. Take for example the visit of a noted person to a city or town. Arrangements for his reception are begun al-most as soon as the the news of his intended visit becomes known. Banquets and receptions are given in his honor. He is met at the railroad station by a committee and escorted to his stopping-place. He is cheered by the crowds that gather merely to get a glimpse of him. I believe that courtesy toward strangers is increasing rather than decreasing for we of the present day are just as hospitable toward strangers as were our brethern of former times; and I believe therefore that as the world becomes more civilized, mankind will become more courteous. da I In an up-to-datest tailor-made gown,U-pi-de-i-da The boys arc wild, and prex is, too, You never saw such a hulla-ba-loo. CHORUS. — U-pi-dee-i-dee-i-da 1 etc. Her voice is clear as a soaring lark's, And her wit Is like those trolley-car sparks I When 'cross a muddy street she flits. The boys all have conniption fits I The turn of her head turns all ours, too. There's always a strife to sit in her pew; 'Tis enough to make a parson drunk, To hear her sing old co-ca-che-lunk! The above, and three other NEW verses to U-PI-DEIi, '.'. and NEW WORDS, catchy, up-to-date, to manv fp others of the popular OLD FAMILIAR TUNES; be- ■■ ' JfflHf sides OLD FAVORITES ; and also many NEW SONGS. J*W uull S0NGS OF ALL THE COLLEGES. JjWJ Copyright, Pricei $rjo, postpaid. fa mm if IJLU HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers, New York City. ^ ft ft Schoolbooks of all publishers at one store. ff1' ■> Rupp Building, YORK, PENN'A. Watch for his Representative when he visits the College PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. Geo. E. Sparkler, PIANOS, ORGANS, MUSICAL MERCHANDISE MusiC Rooms, - York St. Telephone 181 GETTYSBURG C. B. KITZMILLE,R. DEALER IN HATS, CAPS, BOOTS AND DOUGLAS SHOE.S. McKnight Building, Baltimore St. Gettysburg, Pa. k M. AMrEMAN, Manufacturer's Agent and Jobber of Hardware, Oils, paints and (jueensware Gettysburg, Pa. THE ONLY JOBBING HOUSE IN ADAMS COUNTY W.F.Odori, ^DEALER IN^k- SPECIAL RATES TO CLUBS. mm* York Street, Gettysburg:, Pa. 1
E-COMMUNICATION AND DIGITAL CONTENTS IN THE XXI CENTURY ART MUSEUMS Resumen:El artículo busca mostrar las nuevas maneras de operar y los tipos de relación con los públicos que han generado las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la web 2.0 en tres museos de arte ubicados en Madrid. El artículo parte con una reflexión teórica sobre la cultura y la comunicación digital hasta ejemplificar de qué manera los museos han hecho uso y han aprovechado estas nuevas posibilidades para sus fines didácticos y de comunicación. Palabras clave: Cultura digital, comunicación, web 2.0, TIC, museos de arte. Abstract:This article aims to show the operation processes and types of relationships with the public that have been generated by the new information technologies and the web 2.0 in three art museums located in Madrid. The article starts with a theorical reflection about culture and digital communication until it exemplifies the way in which museums have made use of this possibilities for their didactic purposes and communication strategies. Keywords: Digital culture, communication, web 2.0, TIC, art museums * * * * * 1. Cultura digital y nuevas tecnologías Las sociedades actuales están caracterizadas por los cambios acelerados, la globalización, las migraciones, los problemas ambientales, los avances tecnológicos, las nuevas dinámicas de comunicación, las nuevas maneras de relacionarse. Estas sociedades contemporáneas, en los últimos años han pasado a conocerse como "aldeas globales", y se han convertido en contextos cambiantes, condicionadas por trasformaciones que generan nuevas necesidades y exigen diferentes maneras de operar. En este marco, surge un nuevo paradigma: las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, en donde se desarrollan otras maneras de acceso a la información dando paso a un nuevo tipo de comunicación: la cultura digital. La cultura digital es entendida como una nueva forma de relacionarse y generar conocimiento. Hugo Lewin (2014), señala que nos encontramos en la era de la comunicación digital o e-comunicación, en donde la cultura digital se posiciona en un espacio de intercambios simbólicos y el usuario se convierte en el eje de la comunicación. La cultura digital ofrece plataformas en donde la interrelación es participativa, los usuarios no solo consumen información sino que contribuyen a la construcción de la misma. Estas plataformas se han convertido es un espacio importante para el diálogo ya que "[…] presentan poderosos espacios en red para la (re)construcción de la vida social, en la cual las motivaciones sociales, políticas y culturales prevalecen frente a otras basadas en el mercado". (Aleksandra Uzelac, 2014:32). Las nuevas tecnologías han impactado notablemente en el estilo de vida de las personas, ampliando las maneras para acercarse a la información. El ámbito digital ha permitido acceder a la gente más fácilmente a la cultura, educación, salud, etc., convirtiéndose en un medio para relacionarse entre las personas y el mundo, facilitando las posibilidades de acceso a distintos ámbitos que hasta el momento no estaban disponibles para todos. Marco Urresti (2014), en su artículo "La comunicación digital y las políticas del Estado como intervención cultural", explica, refiriéndose a la cultura digital, que la realidad social actual está compuesta de circuitos informativos contenedores de mensajes para transmitir órdenes y disposiciones. Estos circuitos se convierten en recursos fundamentales para el funcionamiento de las distintas instancias que componen la realidad. Por otro lado, destaca el importante rol que han adquirido las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en el entorno digital para la gestión de cualquier institución, ya que además del alcance que tienen, acortan las distancias territoriales, ahorran tiempo de trabajo, maximizan el rendimiento de las fuerzas productivas y abaratan costos. La cultura digital e internet han modificado los modos de comunicación entre las personas y las formas de acceso a la información, convirtiéndose en un importante medio de difusión de contenidos. Sin embargo, es importante mencionar que para el acceso y uso de toda la sociedad de estas herramientas es necesario poner en marcha políticas públicas para la creación de infraestructuras para el acceso y formación de las tecnologías para todos los sectores de la sociedad. La cultura digital puede estar orientada a ser un espacio de comunicación activo y participativo. Como señala Insa Alba (2009), para explotar todas las posibilidades que ofrecen las nuevas tecnologías es necesario implementar cuatro acciones para el desarrollo de las políticas de cultura digital: - La experimentación, para posibilitar a los creadores y agentes el acceso a las prácticas artísticas colectivas. - La producción discursiva, relacionada con creadores, gestores, público, (es necesario lograr una interacción entre todos, para mejorar la comprensión de los fenómenos y procesos artísticos). - La gestión a través de plataformas y redes para aumentar la participación de los públicos. - La divulgación tecnodigital, fundamentada sobre modelos de pensamiento crítico. En este sentido, visto el alcance de las nuevas tecnologías e internet a la hora de orientar gustos, opciones y valores, es importante recalcar el aporte de estos instrumentos como medio para la difusión de la diversidad cultural y el fomento del diálogo intercultural. Para fomentar la diversidad cultural en los contenidos digitales, según el informe de la UNESCO "Comunicación y contenidos digitales. Invertir en la diversidad cultural y en el diálogo intercultural", es necesario promover políticas que contribuyan al fomento del pluralismo y la libre circulación de ideas, aprovechando las posibilidades que ofrecen los nuevos medios y la participación de los usuarios. Así, es importante comprender que: Internet tiene potencial para apoyar la democracia comunicacional por medio de una serie de iniciativas culturales innovadoras que eluden las fuentes de información predominantes: el fomento de la identidad en el seno de las diásporas, el apoyo a estructuras que defienden los intereses de culturas minoritarias, comunidades en línea, grupos militantes y personas con intereses culturales comunes. (UNESCO, 2009:20) Este nuevo marco tecnológico no ha sido ajeno al mundo de la cultura que ha reconocido el impacto positivo de las nuevas tendencias de comunicación y se han ido adaptando a los nuevos códigos y hábitos de consumo en la red, aprovechando de esta manera la oportunidad para difundir sus contenidos, la información cultural, aumentar la participación del público en sus actividades y crear nuevas audiencias, otorgando a las nuevas tecnologías un papel importante en los procesos de producción y consumo cultural. Los contenidos digitales pueden contribuir a la diversidad cultural, para esto es necesario producir contenidos innovadores para garantizar la integración de la diversidad cultural en el sector cultural, ampliar el acceso y fomentar nuevas estrategias tanto de información como de comunicación y por último, obtener una representación equilibrada de las distintas partes de la sociedad. (UNESCO, 2014) La cultura digital e internet han ofrecido a las instituciones culturales la posibilidad de actuar como plataformas en donde los procesos de experimentación y producción son participativos, dando de esta manera la posibilidad de construir cultura de una manera colectiva. Insa Alba (2009), afirma que el verdadero reto de los gestores culturales al enfrentarse a la cultura digital consiste en "despertar una sensibilidad estética que desconecte para conectar" y tener la capacidad de transformar el espacio virtual a un espacio de aprendizaje y comunicación activo. Estas nuevas tecnologías además de haber cambiado la manera tradicional en que la cultura incide en la organización social y la experiencia artística, han sacado a la luz "[…] nuevos elementos de debate sobre aspectos que han estado en el centro de la definición de las políticas culturales contemporáneas, como son el acceso a la cultura y la participación cultural de la ciudadanía, los derechos culturales o la relación entre cultura, economía y sociedad". (Martínez, 2004: 3) Las instituciones culturales han tenido que adaptarse a este cambio de escenario, -resultado del desarrollo de las nuevas tecnologías y la cultura digital-, y han ido incorporando nuevas estrategias institucionales intentando establecer un diálogo con los nuevos públicos y de esta manera responder a este nuevo paradigma. Este hecho se ha visto en una serie de acciones reflejadas en estrategias de participación, promoción, comunicación y difusión de actividades culturales o contenidos como son: la edición y publicación de páginas web, las redes sociales, los blogs, chats, listas de correo, el streaming, las visitas virtuales a colecciones y bibliotecas, las convocatorias para proyectos artísticos en red, los dispositivos móviles, las apps, el crowdfunding, entre otros, todos esos instrumentos brindan la posibilidad de interacción y ofrecen la posibilidad de acrecentar la experiencia del visitante y cubrir las necesidades del público contemporáneo. Hugo Lewin (2014) se refiere a cinco aspectos propuestos por Carlos Scolari que conforman la nueva comunicación: la digitalización de los productos culturales, la multimedialidad donde conviven en un mismo soporte medios y lenguajes, la navegación hipertextual, la reticularidad, es decir, una configuración muchos-a-muchos y por último a interactividad. Desde hace varias décadas, se ha visto una evolución de enfoques en el ámbito museológico. Los museos a lo largo de la historia se han ido adaptando a su entorno y este fenómeno no es ajeno a los nuevos contextos de la era digital. A partir de la década de los noventa, el museo se ha ido integrado al mundo digital y ha ido incorporado la tecnología como herramienta para cumplir sus objetivos de comunicación, difusión y acceso a sus contenidos a través de una serie de estrategias digitales. Las demandas del público contemporáneo han exigido a los museos generar nuevas identidades e integrarse al mundo global. En la actualidad, las nuevas tecnologías, internet y la web 2.0 han supuesto un cambio de paradigma dentro del ámbito museístico, los museos han incorporado estas nuevas estrategias virtuales y se han ido apoyando en plataformas de la web 2.0 como: flickr, youtube, vimeo, facebook, twitter, entre otros, para acceder más fácilmente al público, de esta manera asegurar una participación más activa y ofrecer una experiencia complementaria a la visita física. Las páginas web interactivas, las pantallas tecnológicas táctiles, la geolocalización, la realidad aumentada, los códigos QR, los podcast, las redes sociales, la digitalización de documentos, el crowdfunding, son estrategias que han conseguido que el museo traspase sus muros, convirtiéndolo en un lugar más social y dinámico. Con la innovación tecnológica y la web 2.0 las posibilidades de comunicación y de difusión del museo se multiplican, así como la participación del público para la interacción y la construcción de contenidos, en este sentido, la web 2.0 da la posibilidad al público además de la participación directa, generar información y ser parte del proceso informativo. Debido al alcance global y social de estas herramientas se han convertido en un medio fundamental para la comunicación, difusión de los contenidos y la participación de los públicos en los museos. Como explica Lewin: "los sistemas de comunicación actuales van más allá; aumentan la interconexión entre los usuarios y las posibilidades de modificar los objetos culturales". (2014:125) Las redes sociales reportan una serie de ventajas al sector cultural, permiten la participación directa de la sociedad civil y generan intercambios de contenidos, las instituciones culturales a través de las redes sociales pueden conocer mejor a sus usuarios, interactuar con ellos y a través de esta relación se puede obtener evaluaciones de su gestión, opiniones de las actividades propuestas, además se pueden obtener estadísticas. Las redes sociales son un tipo de marketing eficaz y mucho más económico que el tradicional, la información nos llega filtrada y a través de un "marketing de recomendación", tienen gran capacidad de convocatoria y movilización, contribuyen a una participación más accesible, incluso se han convertido en fuentes de financiación y micro-mecenazgo. El mantenimiento habitual de las redes sociales es una tarea fundamental, es importante crear una plataforma interactiva, novedosa y cercana con los usuarios para garantizar el éxito de las mismas. Uno de los problemas fundamentales a los que se enfrentan las instituciones culturales es la falta de asistencia del sector juvenil a sus actividades, en ese sentido, las redes sociales en la red constituyen una importante herramienta para atraer a las nuevas generaciones a los espacios culturales. Los museos se han ido adaptando paulatinamente a los cambios propuestos por la cultura digital e internet, varios de los museos más representativos del mundo han ido integrando la tecnología y los dispositivos para la difusión de sus contenidos. Además, han apostado por la creación de entornos de experiencia centrados en el público, direccionando su acción de acuerdo a los nuevos retos que requieren las nuevas tecnologías y las nuevas necesidades de los usuarios y públicos. Uno de los objetivos fundamentales de los museos es acercar sus contenidos a la sociedad, en ese sentido, la comunicación y difusión en el museo tiene una función primordial. Los museos en la actualidad enfocan la comunicación como parte principal en su estrategia organizativa, ellos han ido incorporando las nuevas tecnologías, internet y los nuevos modelos de relaciones para mejorar y lograr una comunicación directa con los públicos. Adaptarse a estos cambios no ha sido una tarea fácil, sin embargo; ya se han visto resultados positivos de los procesos de creación de comunidades culturales en los museos más representativos en el mundo, a través de redes como facebook, twiter, o youtube y de la incorporación de las nuevas tecnologías para la difusión de los contenidos del museo y el enriquecimiento de la visita del público. La razón fundamental para utilizar las redes sociales como estrategia comunicativa en los museos consiste en crear comunidades para compartir experiencias culturales y artísticas, como resultado de este proceso de interacción se pueden obtener "[…] dos efectos inmediatos: por una parte, compromiso y cercanía (engagement en la terminología del marketing) y por otra, difusión, más allá de lo que otros medios de comunicación son capaces de conseguir y a mucho menor precio". (De la Peña:2014:103). 1.1 Museos de arte, nuevas tecnologías y web 2.0 El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Reina Sofía (MNCARS)[1] de Madrid constituye uno de los ejemplos paradigmáticos en cuanto a buenas prácticas en el uso los nuevos contenidos digitales, la estrategia de comunicación propuesta para las redes sociales y el uso de su página web como plataforma de distribución de los contenidos del Museo. El Museo Reina Sofía en lo que tiene que ver con el uso de las nuevas tecnologías y la presencia en la red ha planteado a través del Plan General de actuación 2014-2017, los siguientes objetivos y proyectos: - Dinamizar el diálogo entre el Museo y sus públicos a través de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones, a través de la investigación y desarrollo de aplicaciones (apps) para dispositivos móviles y otras tecnologías de comunicación, que ofrezcan acceso a contenidos del Museo y el aumento de la presencia del Museo en las redes sociales y de su capacidad de interacción y expansión, desarrollo de programas online, web, y otras herramientas digitales. - Fomentar la edición y distribución digital de las publicaciones para ampliar y facilitar su difusión. - Desarrollar un programa de acción educativa para los diversos públicos con discapacidad, y mejora de la accesibilidad teniendo en cuenta los nuevos recursos tecnológicos. El Museo desde el 2004 con la aparición de las redes sociales ha buscado diversificar su acción online y responder a las necesidades de los usuarios y los nuevos públicos, obteniendo resultados positivos, en primer lugar ha logrado crear una potente comunidad en la red y en segundo lugar ha logrado un importante acercamiento e interacción con el público. Para el contacto en red con los usuarios el Museo utiliza las redes de facebook y twiter, a través de su cuenta propone las distintas actividades que organiza el museo, como inauguraciones de exposiciones, información sobre talleres, las conferencias se suelen transmitir en directo a través de twiter, de esta manera ofrece la posibilidad de producir un feedback entre el conferenciante, el público virtual y presencial. La cuenta de facebook del Museo, es una página activa, en donde se ofrece información y se debate sobre la actividad del Museo, la comunidad es participativa y se percibe una constante interrelación entre el público y la institución. La página cuenta con más de 37.000 seguidores. Además, el Museo usa las plataformas de twiter, delicious y flircks. Los nuevos canales de comunicación del museo han conseguido cubrir sus propósitos logrando establecer una plataforma virtual en donde convergen la comunicación y la participación activa del público. Esta comunicación interactiva y cercana se convierte en una ventaja para el Museo ya que el aporte de "Los nuevos sistemas de recomendación de contenidos culturales basados en la satisfacción real de anteriores visitas permitirán a los gestores culturales recomendar visitas de forma muy personalizada ya que conocerán las afinidades reales de sus clientes, así como el grado de satisfacción de las mismas". (Dosdoce.com Museos en la era digital, 2013:4) El Museo del Prado de Madrid[2] en su Plan estratégico 2013-2016, cuenta con el apartado "Prado online" en donde se proponen los lineamientos para el desarrollo de los recursos web y de los canales digitales del Museo. El Plan propone las líneas de actuación para el desarrollo de los canales y plataformas digitales para el cumplimiento de los siguientes objetivos: incrementar el conocimiento sobre la Colección y las actividades del Museo a través de internet; optimizar y facilitar el acceso online a contenidos e información sobre el Museo independientemente del lugar, dispositivo y plataforma de acceso y crear comunidad a través de las redes sociales participando en el diálogo actual sobre arte y museos. Las líneas de actuación se ejecutarán a partir de tres programas: el primero es el "Prado Web", consiste en incrementar el acceso, utilidad y conocimiento de la colección a través de su página web, para esto propone un nuevo diseño, estructura y funcionalidad de la página web a través de la reestructuración y ampliación de los contenidos del canal y la actualización tecnológica, otra propuesta dentro de este programa es la creación del nuevo website del canal Prado database por el cual se podrán acceder al catálogo actualizado y completo de la base de datos documentales de la colección del Museo; el segundo programa es el "Prado mobile" que tiene como objetivo la ampliación de la disponibilidad on line para el visitante y el usuario de contenidos multimedia. Una de las acciones prioritarias en este programa consiste en la creación de un programa para el desarrollo de las apps específicas para diferentes usos y públicos, diversos dispositivos y plataformas, el último programa propuesto es el "Prado. Redes Sociales", el programa tiene el objetivo de ampliar la presencia del museo en las redes sociales para ampliar la comunicación, cooperación e interacción del museo con los usuarios e instituciones interesadas. El Museo propone un plan de coordinación de las actividades de las distintas áreas del museo para los gestores de las redes sociales orientado a la difusión diaria de la actividad y los contenidos científicos y educativos de la institución y para promover la implicación de los usuarios con la institución por medio de concursos, encuentros on line, etc. Por último, el Museo del Prado hace la evaluación constante de la pertinencia en el uso de las redes sociales, el perfeccionamiento de las estrategias de comunicación on line y el monitoreo de las nuevas tendencias en redes sociales. El Museo del Prado tiene un apartado en su página web para el acceso directo a las páginas de las redes de facebook, twiter, instagran, pinterest, spotify y los canales rrss desde donde destaca las noticias más relevantes de las redes. De la Peña, explica en su artículo la importancia de las redes sociales para crear, financiar, impulsar y dar futuro a la cultura, al mismo tiempo señala sobre la creación de la cultura en las sociedades actuales que: La creación cultural ha de diseñarse tomando en cuenta esta nueva realidad, sabiendo que existe una cultura digital en la que confluir para encontrarse con su público más activo. Hay que abrir la cultura a esta nueva cultura digital y al mismo tiempo aprovechar lo que puede aportar y el ahorro que puede suponer en todo lo que suponga difusión. Hacerlo bien precisa de estrategia, de objetivos claros y de medición constante. (De la Peña, 2014:104). En cuanto a los contenidos digitales el Prado cuenta con la página web que potencia la interactividad directa y participativa con los usuarios y permite abarcar la actividad educativa, investigativa y científica el Museo, las aplicaciones para teléfonos celulares y tablets: La guía del Prado que proporciona información acerca de los contenidos del Museo y fomenta la interacividad. "Second cavas" que ofrece un estudio detallado de 14 obras en formato gigapixel de la colección del Museo, además ofrece radiografías e infrarrojos de los cuadros. Por último, tenemos a la aplicación "Photo Prado" es una aplicación de realidad aumentada que permite la realización de fotografías, el dispositivo reconoce puntos específicos y se crea una foto entre los visitantes y las obras, superando de esta manera los límites del Museo. Como hemos visto, además de las redes sociales los Museos se han decantado por incorporar a su estrategia de comunicación y educación las aplicaciones digitales para los dispositivos móviles conocidas como las "apps", disponibles por lo general para los smartphones y las tablets. Estos recursos se han convertido en una de las tendencias más importantes dentro de la comunicación y difusión del museo debido a las posibilidades que ofrecen para enriquecer la visita del público y por la facilidad que brindan para acceder a los contenidos desde cualquier parte del mundo. En los últimos años los museos se han ido posicionando como importantes espacios de cultura y aprendizaje, son espacios en los que han surgido proyectos que han significado verdaderas revoluciones didácticas. El área educativa de los Museos no ha desaprovechado la oportunidad que ofrecen los recursos digitales y la web, han surgido varios propuestas didácticas on line aportando varios proyectos educativos innovadores. Una iniciativa interesante para atraer la atención de los nuevos públicos de la red es a través de la gamificación, este es un recurso que toma los planteamientos de los juegos para involucrar a los usuarios, varios museos han realizado esta práctica con éxito, algunos de ellos han compartido los juegos en las redes sociales para acrecentar la difusión de la colección o las exposiciones temporales, el crecimiento de la comunidad y aumentar de interés de los "fans" por el mundo del arte. Existen varias propuestas del uso de este recurso en los museos españoles, el Museo del Prado cuenta con la sección llamada "Mi Prado", en este canal se pueden diseñar recorridos temáticos potenciado las cualidades curatoriales de los usuarios, de la misma manera están disponibles juegos que tienen el propósito de presentar las obras de colección a los usuarios a través de técnicas lúdicas. El Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza[3] de Madrid ha realizado una verdadera innovación tecnológica experimentando nuevas formas de transmitir conocimiento a través de las diferentes posibilidades que aportan las nuevas tecnologías e incorporado los recursos de la red y de la web 2.0 con fines educativos. En este sentido el Museo ha propuesto un programa de educación conocido como Educathyssen, es un proyecto del área de educación que cuenta con su propio espacio virtual, y a su vez está conectado con la página web principal. En esta página encontraremos los diferentes programas educativos y las acciones de apoyo interpretativo, divulgativo y de mediación entre el público y el Museo. El programa debido a su carácter innovador se ha convertido en uno de los referentes metodológicos en educación a nivel Iberoamericano. Educathyssen.org[4], es un portal que usa las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación como recurso educativo, está concebido como un espacio de reflexión y encuentro para el aprendizaje, el disfrute del arte y el intercambio del conocimiento de los contenidos del Museo a través de las nuevas tecnologías y las posibilidades que ofrece la red y los diferentes canales. En esta página web, que en si constituye un recurso didáctico, encontramos varios proyectos educativos que usan las tecnologías de la información y comunicación como medio y herramienta de apoyo para el aprendizaje, como son los juegos y los videos educativos e informativos. Dentro del área de los juegos tenemos a uno de los más importantes proyectos de la estrategia digital propuesta por el área de educación, se trata de Nubla, es un juego estudiado y cuidado metodológicamente por especialistas, con el propósito de desarrollar acciones educativas en torno a la tecnología y los videojuegos. El videojuego es un laboratorio de innovación que tiene el objetivo de potenciar la creatividad de los usuarios por medio del arte y de acercarlos al Museo a través de la tecnología. El juego consiste en descubrir el pasado y la relación con las obras de arte, de un personaje que vive en el interior de los cuadros a través de diferentes rompecabezas. Estos rompecabezas tienen que ver con conceptos como el arte, la conservación, en un contexto de diferentes disciplinas. El juego ha sido diseñado por un equipo multidisciplinar de jóvenes programadores, diseñadores, ilustradores, historiadores, entre otros. Cuenta con disponibilidad además de la web, para dispositivos móviles con apps compatibles para tablets y smartphones. Como recursos educativos, además del área de juegos podemos encontrar propuestas como: Viaje al Oeste, es un viaje interactivo protagonizado por pintores amantes de la aventura, especialmente los norteamericanos del siglo XIX, es una experiencia que a través de los relatos de los artistas nos permite conocer sus biografías y los mapas de contexto. Experiment now!, a través de la participación lúdica de los participantes da a conocer las obras más importantes del Museo y las exposiciones temporales a través de un punto de vista didáctico. Publicaciones educativas "Quiosco Thyssen", son publicaciones digitales con carácter educativo. Itinerarios artísticos: son cuatro itinerarios propuestos para conocer la evolución del espacio en la pintura y la historia de las técnicas artísticas. En cuanto a los recursos de la web 2.0 para la comunicación y difusión de las actividades, el Museo cuenta con un canal en youtube donde publica toda la información de las actividades en formato video, el registro fotográfico de todas las actividades del Museo se puede encontrar en la cuenta de flickr, la presencia en las redes sociales y en la web 2.0 la encontramos en el perfil de twiter y la cuenta de facebook, que es usada con carácter sobretodo informativo. Todos estos canales han tenido gran aceptación y cuentan con un número importante de participación en Iberoamérica. Como hemos visto, la cultura digital y las nuevas tecnologías ofrecen numerosas posibilidades para enriquecer la comunicación, la investigación y la educación en un museo. Los resultados de la investigación del equipo de Dosdoce.com realizado en el año 2013, "Los Museos en la era digital. Uso de nuevas tecnologías Antes, Durante y Después de visitar un museo, centro cultural o galería de arte", muestran que existe un alto porcentaje de acceso por parte del público a las redes sociales y a los dispositivos móviles antes de la exposición, sin embargo; el nivel va disminuyendo durante la visita y después de la visita los índices son bajos por lo que recomienda potenciar las actividades y propiciar la interacción para el momento y después de la exposición. Por otro lado, la investigación antes citada, sugiere una serie de acciones para optimizar el desarrollo de las estrategias de comunicación y difusión de las colecciones y actividades de los museos como establecer una retroalimentación entre las acciones analógicas y digitales para enriquecer la experiencia del visitante, relacionar la estrategia digital a la estrategia global de la organización y extenderse a todos los departamentos de la institución para la captación de nuevas audiencias. Por último destaca que tanto la experiencia virtual como la analógica se complementan mutuamente. Conclusión Los Museos se han ido adaptando a las posibilidades que brindan las nuevas tecnologías, además de lograr una integración de una comunidad para los fines del museo, han incorporado las tecnologías 2.0 como pilares fundamentales para el desarrollo de las estrategias de comunicación, difusión, educación e investigación de las instituciones. Las herramientas de las redes sociales y los recursos digitales han contribuido a lograr una participación del público más accesible y han permitido que la experiencia de la visita al museo se convierta en una interacción comunitaria. Varios estudios han constatado que el impacto del uso de las nuevas tecnologías y las redes sociales en los Museos ha sido positivo, por esta razón, consideramos que es importante adaptarse y hacer uso de las posibilidades que nos brindan las nuevas tecnologías y la web 2.0 pero sin perder la esencia del Museo. [1] Página web del Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Reina Sofía (España), disponible en: http://www.museoreinasofia.es/en[2] Página web del Museo del Prado (España), disponible en: https://www.museodelprado.es/en[3] Página web disponible en: http://www.museothyssen.org/thyssen/home[4] Página web disponible en: http://www.educathyssen.org/
El género ensayístico, cultivado como vehículo exclusivo de expresión literaria, tiene larga tradición en nuestro continente. El Uruguay ha dado a las letras nada menos que un maestro del estilo como es sin duda alguna José Enrique Rodó, y más contemporáneamente al ensayista por excelencia —estudioso de Rodó y del propio ensayo en cuanto estructura de expresión literaria— que se llamó Carlos Real de Azúa.En el concierto de su promoción, la conocida como "del 45", Real fue el ensayista puro y casi único, sin olvidarnos del estimable caso de Washington Lockhart (con intereses y alcances más acotados). Bordeó la crítica literaria, pero trascendiéndola por la brillantez de estilo y la amplitud de miras conceptuales que nunca descuidaron lo sociológico, lo filosófico y lo ético. Se internó en la historiografía, sin dejarse atrapar por el canto de sirenas de tan estimulante especialidad. Recaló por fin en la ciencia política, pero la aridez de la misma no pudo aminorar la vitalidad tan personal de su estructura textual.La cabal condición "ensayística" de la escritura de Real de Azúa es de unánime consenso crítico. Ángel Rama sintetiza esto cuando afirma, a propósito de su muerte —ocurrida en l977, en medio del vergonzante silencio que impuso la Dictadura en torno a su nombre— que: ". fue uno de los ensayistas claves de América Latina, a pesar de que su nombre trascendió poco las fronteras de su país y de que sólo mediada su carrera extendió a otras áreas del continente la investigación histórica y estética que había concentrado sobre la región platense a la que perteneció raigalmente". Podríamos afirmar, sin desmesura, que encontró en este género un modo de expresión único, al punto que son ensayo en sentido estricto hasta sus larguísimas cartas en tantas polémicas en las cuales participara con apasionamiento, y hasta su hablar —matizado por un tartamudeo peculiar— tenía la respiración estilística, el regodeo, la morosa delectación propia de esa forma literaria.Real, dotado como bien se ha dicho para ser un cultor eficaz de otras direcciones de las letras, y sin duda probablemente en más de una especialidad, encontró sin embargo en el ensayo mucho más que un mero vehículo de expresión: la cabal tonalidad para la manifestación de su espíritu rico y complejo. Por eso pudo llegar a desarrollarlo con una libertad y rigor infrecuentes. De "arborescente" calificó a su estilo Rodríguez Monegal; en él la digresión y el "entre paréntesis" son elementos usuales y hasta a veces esenciales. Muchos han marcado la condición difícil y hasta laberíntica de su decir, en el cual las extensas notas al pie de página son una recurrencia. Preocupado por el matiz y por la variedad, Real es sin embargo minucioso en la precisión de conceptos o ideas. Esto establece una curiosa dialéctica: como una oscilación se podría decir, que nos lleva siempre en sus reflexiones de lo delineado con preocupación científica a la ambigüedad lúdica, o viceversa.Para quien no lo ha leído, vale advertir que esta condición proteica, múltiple, nada convencional de la escritura de Real, no la vuelve en absoluto críptica como algunos han considerado, sino que comprendiendo y aceptando su lógica peculiar —que prefiere rodear los asuntos que trata, y llegar hasta ellos por vías originales— comienza el libre disfrute de esa "alegría de ser inteligente" (que con acierto atribuyera a su persona la profesora Mercedes Ramírez). Detrás de las adensadas y multiplicadas referencias, hijas de una amplísima y universal cultura, se esconde en sus escritos algo no común en la ensayística: la posibilidad del estricto goce, aún para lectores no particularmente interesados en el tema; aunque sí requieren de una cierta formación en quien los lee, para saber apreciar las a veces demasiado sutiles alusiones, los deliberados sobreentendidos, la multiplicidad de analogías en diferentes planos.Los variados caminos "reales"El primero de sus libros data de l943 y se titula España de cerca y de lejos. Obra de juventud, significó más que nada un balance personal y cierre de cuentas crítico con su precoz fervor falangista en tiempos de la Guerra Civil Española, a propósito de un viaje a la España de Franco y a un riguroso cotejo de las idealidades con los crudos hechos. Lo más interesante en él es que —en perspectiva de tiempo— se trata de un texto en el cual ya estaban germinando aquellas ideas e inquietudes que luego iría desarrollando a lo largo de su vida, sobre todo en lo que tiene que ver con su peculiar perspectiva sobre el Nacionalismo, las relaciones entre lo político-social y lo ético, así como también la vinculación entre la praxis concreta y ciertos arquetipos ideales a los que será —soterrada pero decididamente— fiel, más allá de las contingencias y avatares de su propia personal y zigzagueante peripecia en el campo político (que pasó por cierta zona del coloradismo, se volcó luego a la experiencia ruralista de Benito Nardone, y derivó por fin en cierta izquierda nacionalista y en el Frente Amplio). En puridad, nunca dejó de ser un conservador atípico, transitando caminos no usuales y problemáticos, desmoronando con agudo sentido crítico lo aceptado, lo institucionalizado por rutina o pereza. Su óptica tangencial, marginal en el más fecundo de los sentidos, acompañará su quehacer en todos los campos que con inusual intensidad va a transitar.El minucioso análisis literarioSu reflexión en materia literaria y estética —paralela a la docencia, desde muy joven llevada a cabo en la primera disciplina y luego a nivel de formación de profesores en la segunda— se encuentra desperdigada en revistas y periódicos, en prólogos y hasta en noticias acerca de autores (en un destino que ha sido similar en toda la ensayística Latinoamericana, gran parte de la cual se pierde en la precariedad e inmediatez del soporte periodístico). Sobre todo va a ser a través del semanario Marcha, de tanta importancia intelectual en el Río de la Plata y también en todo el Continente, que logrará su expansión adecuada la pluma de Real de Azúa; aún a costa de "huelgas" de tipógrafos en relación concretamente a sus colaboraciones, las que solían crecer a más del doble en el proceso de corrección, con el agregado de profusas notas al pie, todo esto realizado a último momento y en las propias pruebas de galera. En Marcha quedó plasmada, casi siempre en dos o más páginas bien colmadas, su voraz y multiplicada inquietud literaria, asentada sobre todo en Iberoamérica y más que nada en la zona platense.Dentro de sus proteicos intereses en tal sentido, la presencia de Rodó fue una constante: desde un juvenil trabajo de l936 a su último prólogo a los Motivos de Proteo (1), ya avanzados los setenta. Entre tanto, hay otro prólogo a la misma obra —de l953— para una edición del Ministerio de Instrucción Pública; está el prólogo a El mirador de Próspero, de l965 y en la misma colección estatal; tenemos el trabajo titulado El problema de la valoración de Rodó (2) y otros como Rodó en sus papeles: a propósito de la exposición (3), Rodó y Zorrilla de San Martín (4), José Enrique Rodó (5), Rodó y su pensamiento (6). Real explicitó muchas veces que no le entusiasmaba especialmente el autor de Ariel, pero este volver durante años a su obra —más allá de casuales circunstancias de compromiso que no todo lo explican— tiene seguramente su razón profunda. Rodó fue nuestro ensayista más puro en el inmediato pasado, y Real de Azúa no sólo un brillante cultor del género sino y a la postre su teórico más lúcido por aquí. Rodó encarnaba a su vez lo sacralizado culturalmente —"hay que dinamitar, o por lo menos dinamizar los monolitos literarios", declaraba nuestro autor—, y a su vez y por eso mismo resultaba en el fondo un estereotipo que encerraba un enigma para la mayoría, y que requería como tarea cultural impostergable una relectura crítica, un rescate de sus vigencias y un desglose de todo aquello ya periclitado en sus páginas. A través de Rodó y de lo que éste simbolizaba, Real desmenuzó importantes rasgos de la misma estructura cultural oficial uruguaya posterior al Novecientos.Pero la inquietud en cuanto al análisis literario ha sido en él —dada su universal, múltiple avidez intelectual— amplísima. En lo nacional, en rápida mirada a sus textos principales, comprobamos que se ha interesado por Gustavo Gallinal, por Raúl Montero Bustamante (a propósito de su muerte), por Zorrilla, por el Mario Benedetti de los comienzos, y por el ensayo en su conjunto siempre, y por la relación entre pensamiento y literatura en el siglo XIX particularmente, y la eclosión cultural de comienzos de éste lo tuvo —con su imprescindible Ambiente espiritual del Novecientos (7)— entre sus más lúcidos y penetrantes intérpretes. En lo que hace a Latinoamérica en las letras, le interesaron desde Ezequiel Martínez Estrada hasta Eduardo Mallea, de Beatriz Guido a José Vasconcelos, de Manuel Gálvez a Ricardo Latchman, y como temas generales el Modernismo y sus vértices ideológicos, y también los perfiles básicos de la novela del continente.No sería gratuito, para redondear el bosquejo del extenso mapa abarcado en su reflexión sobre el tópico literario, apuntar su acercamiento al poeta anglo-norteamericano T. S. Eliot —sobre quien escribiera en Marcha y Tribuna Católica, en el año l949— , además de una sostenida atención en torno a los aspectos críticos de la literatura anglosajona. También, su preocupación en torno a los autores que tocaron el tema de la Iglesia Católica y su crítica, como es el caso de Peyrefitte (al que dedicó dos entregas en Marcha, en l956).La vocación historiográficaSi la producción de Real hubiera quedado en este inteligente, original, personalísimo encare del hecho literario, ocuparía sin duda y de todos modos un lugar destacado en la ensayística de su generación. Sin embargo, cuando se manifestaba ya plenamente en él ese intelectual dotado de amplísima cultura, interesado y al día sin descuidar lo permanente, capaz —por su visión penetrante de los contextos históricos, sociológicos y culturales— de trascender la crítica literaria y pasar a la teoría (a la cual se acercó en cuanto docente, y sobre la que dejaría mucho texto inédito), el centro de sus preocupaciones se derivó decididamente hacia la historia, o "historia de las ideas" siendo más estrictos. No fue algo sorpresivo, sino que ya cohabitaban distintos intereses en sus escritos, como se puede bien corroborar chequeando sus diversas colaboraciones. Lo nuevo fue su entusiasta, definido pasarse al campo historiográfico desde fines de los años cincuenta.En esta área, donde desplegó tan profusa como variada y lúcida tarea —extendida además en polémicas diversas que se proyectaron incluso a la década del setenta (como la sostenida, impublicable en ese año 75, con José Pedro Barrán, a través de sendas cartas públicas expuestas en la cartelera de la Editorial Banda Oriental) — resultan decisivos sus libros El patriciado uruguayo (8), y El impulso y su freno: tres décadas de Batllismo y las raíces de la crisis uruguaya (9). En el primero Real vivisecciona la clase alta más tradicional en el país casi desde dentro —ya que provenía de una familia de tales características— pero logrando en la demanda la adecuada distancia para el análisis comprensivo pero no menos riguroso. Ello no le impide momentos, muy bien logrados, donde no oculta sino que devela su complicidad personal con ese sector, cuando recuerda por ejemplo que: "En el Montevideo de los diez, de los veinte, de los treinta, en sus casas de la Ciudad Vieja cada vez más amenazadas por la piqueta y la oficina pública, en sus quintas del Prado, en sus decrecientes estancias, todavía la vieja clase siguió marcando un melancólico magisterio de modales, un invisible canon del gusto". Su acercamiento al tema es estricto en los datos históricos, fundamentado en lo sociológico, pero centrado más en las personalidades decisivas, en sus realizaciones y errores, que en los aconteceres corporativos o en los avatares de conjunto. Culmina este ensayo, recordando el origen patricio de los dos grandes conductores cívicos de raigambre popular en los partidos tradicionales durante la primera mitad del siglo pasado: José Batlle y Ordóñez y Luis Alberto de Herrera.Al peculiar país que logró plasmar el primero está dedicado El impulso y su freno. En síntesis, es el más logrado diagnóstico acerca de las potencialidades y carencias del fenómeno social y político que colmó las primeras décadas del siglo XX; a pesar de su perspectiva de base anti-batllista —por su catolicismo, Real de Azúa simpatizaba en forma más natural con el coloradismo independiente, al que había apoyado incluso años antes en la figura de Pablo Blanco Acevedo— mantiene una saludable distancia de ese lugar común de la diatriba, mostrando comprensión y penetración en el balance que ya era posible en los sesenta en cuanto a lo que había sido el país batllista.Con estas obras, Real se afilia a la corriente historiográfica revisionista, entonces en auge en ambas márgenes del Plata, aunque lo hace de un modo matizado, con su habitual sutileza, sin los extremos a veces caricaturescos y maniqueos de otros autores. Por cierto que su pensar histórico no queda aquí, sino que se extenderá hacia otros horizontes: el Federalismo artiguista; la figura paradojal y atractiva de Bernardo Berro, a quien calificara de manera certera como "el puritano en la tormenta"; el período Militarista en el siglo XIX; la Defensa de Paysandú; la polémica figura de Herrera. También le despertaron interés reiterado los escritos de viajeros que recalaban en el Montevideo del 800, y aún los de esta centuria.La política como objeto de estudioY otra vez, cuando ahora —cerca del año 70— la nutrida y valiosa pléyade de los nuevos historiadores veía en Real de Azúa a uno de los suyos, tal vez el que estaba destinado a profundizar la invalorable obra muchas veces de equipo que se estaba concretando entonces, nuevamente el ensayista hace lo que en forma gráfica calificaríamos de "mutis por el foro". Su inquietud, su casi nerviosismo cultural, le conducen a precipitarse en una línea de trabajo que ya venía abriéndose paso en su producción: la Ciencia Política y aledaños, en la que se embarcaría de modo constante hasta su muerte.Ese ámbito, que sugestivamente había inaugurado su primigenio España de cerca y de lejos, se desarrolló luego a partir de su libro Tercera posición, Nacionalismo revolucionario y Tercer Mundo (10), pasando por trabajos tales como Elites y desarrollo en América Latina (11), o El poder de la cúspide: élites, sectores dirigentes, clase dominante (de l970), encontrando su definido tono en Política, poder y partidos en el Uruguay de hoy (12). Luego vino la etapa de su obra más especializada en el tema —la que no obstante, a pesar de las referencias, apoyaturas y términos técnicos, no por ello pierde su raigal "vis" ensayística— integrada por títulos como La teoría política latinoamericana: una actividad cuestionada (13), Una sociedad amortiguadora (de l973), y El clivaje mundial euro- centro periferia (14).Por supuesto que en su obra de Ciencia Política, la preocupación por un destino más amplio que el de la comarca se vuelve más recurrente y explícita. Aparece cuando se refiere a las élites en América Latina, de la teoría política tal como se la encara en esta zona del mundo, y en sus agudas observaciones acerca de la relación entre el Sur periférico y la zona eurocéntrica desarrollada. Más allá de todo esto, es interesante comprobar cómo su inquietud por el destino común —histórico y futuro— de estos pueblos, se filtra en tantas páginas, acotaciones, trabajos, referidos en su temática central al Uruguay.Leyéndolo con cuidado, comprenderemos que fue un pragmático, sí, pero que nunca dejó de lado la entonación moral —en el mejor de los sentidos— para "iluminar" los múltiples asuntos que le ocuparon intelectualmente. Le interesó más, en ciencia política por ejemplo, el análisis del poder y de los grupos vinculados a él —la anatomía de los mismos— que el conflicto y la dinámica de las clases sociales, el que por otra parte no negaba.En este importante y definitivo sector de su producción, es donde podemos seguir el proceso —ya marcado en la dimensión histórica de su tarea— de su reflexión latinoamericanista, la cual no es posible disociar de su concepción del Nacionalismo y de su idea en cuanto a la Tercera Posición (tan en boga en el universo intelectual de los años cincuenta y sesenta). Es también en esta zona de su escritura, aunque la posibilidad es grande en lo historiográfico, donde sí es factible rastrear sus basamentos filosófico-ideológicos. Se ha apuntado bien que para este autor personalidades claves del pensar contemporáneo, fundantes diríamos, como Freud y Marx, no solamente no influyeron en él sino que tampoco le interesaron especialmente como tópico. Si bien al último le dedicó un trabajo donde dice que: "Si bien Marx y sus seguidores no realizaron ninguna aportación deliberada al tema de las élites o de la clase gobernante o dirigente, no existe un sólo planteo de estas categorías que no haya estado imantado por las posiciones marxistas; que no las tenga en cuenta, polémicamente —aún en forma tácita, oculta— en cada uno de los pasos de su argumentación". Una de las influencias decisivas en el estudio de los temas sociales la tuvo en mitad de la década del cuarenta, a partir de la lectura de Max Weber, con el cual es filiable directamente, aunque mantuvo un constante arraigo a sus orígenes, ese cristianismo peculiar que aunaba en confesión explícita la línea aristotélico-tomista (valorando en ella su condición de antídoto contra el peligro de "idealismo") pero además cierto existencialismo.El estudioso de la Estética, el teórico del ensayo, el original antólogoSin duda, el Real de Azúa más conocido es el vinculado a la historiografía, y en segundo lugar el de los últimos años dedicados casi a pleno a las cuestiones de la ciencia política (área dentro de la cual habría podido llegar a completar una obra única en este medio —por sus características: cabalgando entre el estilo depurado y el rigor científico— , que lo hubiera llevado incluso a bordear la "filosofía de la historia" como bien se ha sostenido, a no ser porque la muerte vino a clausurar un proceso productivo que estaba lejos de agotarse). Pero existe otro Real, menos público, más especializado, del que disfrutaron por ejemplo sus alumnos del IPA.Hay un texto titulado Conocimiento y goce, de larga ineditez como tantos otros suyos, cuya datación es ubicable en los primeros años sesenta. En él aprovecha a establecer la crítica "historicismo y estética", o "conceptualismo e inefabilidad". Se basa en el uso adecuado de un concierto de citas que apuntalan su propio discurso, algo que logra hacer como pocos, con esa limpidez y buen criterio propios que dejan entrever vastas pero bien asimiladas lecturas. De entrada, se acerca a la antinomia más frecuente en los estudios literarios: la de crítica y creación, que es nada menos la que hace a la viabilidad de la misma crítica. "Se enfrentan así por un lado" -dice- "un tipo de experiencia intelectualmente borrosa, hedonística, radicalmente sensorial, gozosamente y confesadamente irracional. Por el otro reclaman sus fueros la lucidez, la inteligencia, la aspiración a un pleno calibrar lo que gustamos". Y avala su propia opinión al respecto de un modo indirecto, apelando a una cita de T. S. Eliot, que en su parte final establece: "Es cierto que no gozamos completamente de un poema a menos que lo entendamos y, por otro lado, es igualmente cierto que no lo entendemos completamente si no gozamos de él".Luego, avanzando el trabajo concluirá en la proposición primaria y básica: para que haya pleno goce debe haber como condición previa conocimiento, lo que después va reafirmando y especificando. Por fin concluye en que: "El conocimiento literario en todo lo que implica de abstracción de lo individual, generalización de experiencias singulares es la única vía de enseñanza, el único medio con que es posible poner al sujeto no entrenado en el camino de realizar por sí mismo una serie ilimitada de informadas experiencias literarias. En suma: que el enseñar es en cierto modo poner al enseñado en unos andadores que son la formación de criterios de dilucidación y valoración". "Que esos andadores deban después abandonarse es tan cierto como que, prologalmente, son imprescindibles".Es lástima que Real no haya dedicado a esta vertiente de sus inquietudes un mayor, más extenso y profundo desarrollo, pero, contemporáneamente a la escritura de estas páginas ya había prendido en él la pasión historiográfica, impulsándolo a dejar por el camino —no en sus clases, pero sí en el texto— el tópico literario.Junto al germinal teórico de la estética que recién procuramos mostrar, vale destacar al teórico del ensayo, rol en el cual es único entre nosotros. Todo surgió al encomendársele por parte de la Universidad de la República, en l964, la concreción de la Antología del Ensayo Uruguayo Contemporáneo; como era su característica más acentuada, el prólogo fue un torrencial, brillante, disfrutable ensayo acerca del ensayo, donde tienta incluso una teoría sobre el género.Su tarea de antólogo en este caso interesa de por sí, desde el momento que las notas informativas en relación a los autores incluidos —a veces largas— son una de las partes más disfrutables de esos dos tomos (sin desmerecer muchos de los bien elegidos fragmentos de la mayoría de los antologados). Incluye en la selección a gente que comenzó a publicar a partir del año l9l5, extendiéndola hasta casi el momento de la edición, logrando agrupar cuarenta y un ensayistas de un período de cincuenta años. Siendo estrictos, debemos admitir que el prólogo de Real de Azúa y muchas de sus notas son lo mejor de estos dos volúmenes, dejando algo que desear quizá algunas de las inclusiones, así como también unas —pocas— ausencias. No se puede negar la originalidad del antólogo, riguroso por un lado al tomar como punto de partida una delimitación estricta de los márgenes de su labor, pero a la vez capaz de mezclar armoniosamente autores en sí disímiles.Hace suyo en este caso el feliz hallazgo de Alfonso Reyes, cuando define al ensayo como "agencia verbal del espíritu", destacando su vocación de estilo definida (sin la cual un texto no es tal), su alejamiento de las especializaciones (filosóficas, científicas, históricas, de crítica artística en el sentido más convencional). Pone el énfasis en el carácter no sistemático y libre del ensayo, que muchas veces roza la divagación para acercarse así desde un ángulo inédito al tema que trata. Lo vislumbra tan equidistante del especialista intelectual en cualquier rama como así del periodismo en lo que éste tiene de bien característico, es decir su caducidad rápida e irremediable. Recién a partir de un bosquejo claro, inconfundible, de lo que es realmente lo ensayístico, es que Real pasa a justificar su concreta selección.Latinoamérica en el pensamiento de Real de AzúaEntre uno de sus posibles tópicos constantes estuvo la reflexión sobre el país —la patria chica uruguaya— y también América Latina, a la cual sentía auténticamente como Patria Grande. Esta le preocupó, en Literatura, en sendos trabajos acerca de la novelística continental, en cuanto al Modernismo (como es sabido, nuestra "vanguardia" más genuina). Con perspectiva cultural más amplia, en José Vasconcelos: la revolución y sus bemoles (15), y sobre todo en Historia invisible e historia esotérica: personajes y claves del debate latinoamericano (16).En Ambiente espiritual del 900, Real apunta con su acostumbrada lucidez:"Diversos libros —algunos de ellos ejemplares, como la Historia de la Cultura en la América Hispánica de Pedro Henríquez Ureña— nos han mostrado el proceso cultural americano en una organización formal que, si no es falsa, resulta, por lo menos, una sola de las dos caras o planos de la rica evolución de nuestro espíritu. Se ha dado, y se da, en estos países, el proceso cultural como lógica secuencia personal, y grupal de creaciones, de empresas y de actitudes. Neoclasicismo, tiene, según esta perspectiva (que es también un método) su etapa de lucha, sus hombres y obras representativas, sus planos de pasaje y agotamiento. Pero en Hispanoamérica, mucho más acendradamente que en Europa, tales procesos no agotan la realidad de la cultura como vigencia objetiva de cada medio y época, como sistema actuante de convicciones de vastos sectores letrados y semiletrados, verdaderos protagonistas de la vida del continente".Con similar precisión, en un tema ya socio-económico y político —al delinear las clases altas en Latinoamérica, tierra de oligarquía — dice: "Inmensurable es el impacto del fenómeno imperialista en el proceso social latinoamericano pero sobre todo lo es en el de la conformación, cambio y robustecimiento de sus sectores superiores. Si el hecho general de éste, características específicas adquirió en los casos nacionales en que una economía de enclave —esto es, sin conexiones sustanciales con el ámbito circundante y sí, en cambio, con el centro de la economía dominante—, cobró vuelo hasta significar lo que alguien ha llamado un poder externo, fuera de los alcances del sistema político nacional e incluso más fuerte que él". En este trabajo Real de Azúa analiza, de manera impecable y sintética, el acontecer histórico que llevó a gran parte de las élites de poder del continente a oficiar como sector gerencial de los intereses imperiales, desmitificando en la demanda el concepto recurrido de "burguesía nacional".En relación a la perspectiva uruguaya, y a la contraposición de la misma con la posible en otros puntos de América Latina, observa, en Uruguay: el ensayo y las ideas en l957 que fuera publicado en la revista argentina Ficción: "El tema del país, la toma de conciencia de la circunstancia, es la gran piedra de toque de la ensayística americana. Es también la gran pobreza de la nuestra". Y más adelante: "Aquí, como en otras claves, nuestra condición periférica en América, nuestra situación distante de los más típicos desniveles y dramatismos del continente, ha determinado que el tema americano sea —más quietamente, más puramente— una inquietud, una nostalgia, un remordimiento sin formas operantes". Y en otra parte del mismo texto, bosquejando lo que entendía como una fidelidad a lo nacional, vivenciado auténticamente, lo definía —en casi ars vitae de su propio camino— así: "aceptar la circunstancia (mundial, sudamericana, uruguaya y hasta montevideana). Asumir, sufriéndola, la fealdad, el desorden, la injusticia del mundo que nos rodea. Buscar, desde ellas, las maneras de una actitud: el sereno deber, a la manera clásica, o el asco patético, o la furia desmelenada (que todas caben). En suma: los caminos de acción o de contemplación, de descripción o de ventura, que Dios nos señale".En este hurgar al vuelo en la múltiple obra de Real de Azúa, es interesante detenerse también, siempre en lo que hace al tema latinoamericanista, en la síntesis que realiza en relación a las equívocas influencias del pensamiento rodoniano en el continente: "El discurso de Rodó promovió, al margen y a contrapelo del propio autor, demasiado equilibrado para recargar las tintas de su cuadro, cierto vacuo orgullo, cierta engolada presunción de lo hispanoamericano. Ese orgullo descansó invariablemente en la grosera antítesis del norte y el sur, de lo sajón y lo latino, como oposición de materia y espíritu, de Calibán y Ariel.No tengo espacio ahora para destacar que esta posición significó siempre una irresponsable caricatura, que no apoyó casi nunca la crítica solvente y ello desde el más inmediato l900 hasta casi nuestros días. Ni entonces la suscribieron Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Francisco García Calderón, Juan Carlos Blanco, José de la Riva Agüero o Juan Valera, ni lo hicieron después Ramiro de Maeztu, Zaldumbide, Alfredo Colmo o Juan Larrea" (17).El latinoamericanismo de Real, a su vez, se corresponde armónicamente a la riqueza, profundidad, e incluso vastedad de su cultura: por ende no es dicotómico, ni telurista, sino bien uruguayo en su impronta; no comulga, no obstante, con ninguna de las rémoras de la visión insular del país que el Batllismo dejó entre los ingredientes de su difusa ideología (en esto fue más atípico que la mayoría de sus pares intelectuales, no negando en la instancia su raíz patricia, su arraigo en la más genuina tradición nacionalista, su cristianismo incluso que lo vacunaba de esos extremos esterilizados y tartufescos del laicismo vernáculo). Hay en este autor una compleja dialéctica entre la fidelidad a algunas ideas entrañables y fundantes de su pensamiento, y su permanente actualización, pesquisable para quien siga su producción cronológicamente; también, una ambivalencia que no deja de ser equilibrada, que hace a la complejidad de su pensar, entre el cosmopolitismo y el localismo. En suma: es la suya una interpretación de lo latinoamericano, que sin eludir la problematicidad y dramatismo coyuntural de los momentos de su mayor creatividad —años cincuenta, sesenta y setenta— proyecta hacia un futuro (que es hoy) puntas fermentales, líneas que algún día deberán continuarse. Por la cuidada mesura en sus esbozos de teoría, lejos está de lo postulado apenas una generación atrás. Lo de Real es, en este tema como en tantos otros que desarrolló, parafraseando a Umberto Eco una "obra abierta", que incita, que invita, que permite pensar a partir de una lectura que abre puertas a lo que vendrá.A modo de culminaciónSe apuntó con acierto alguna vez la paradojal situación de este escritor: tan leído y valorado —porque lo era, a pesar de las múltiples quejas ante la supuesta dificultad de su estilo— en aquellos años de plenitud de trabajo que van desde mediados de los cincuenta hasta pasado el setenta, y tan soterradamente dejado de lado —más allá de citas y referencias— luego de su muerte. Si bien el tiempo oscuro de los años setenta colaboró a echar sobre su obra un grueso manto de silenciamiento, eso no explica del todo las causas de la extensión de tal anomalía mucho después, con la excepción del momento del décimo aniversario de su desaparición. Estamos ante un autor que las nuevas generaciones tienen dificultad en ubicar, o directamente desconocen, y que otros mayores han cuasi olvidado. El desafío tal vez radique en revalorar en su totalidad este corpus textual vasto y complejo, variado y atractivo, dentro del cual hay tanto para ayudarnos a pensar este presente problemático y el confuso futuro que se avecina, así como para mejorar en mucho nuestra vida cultural y nuestra vida a secas. Hay aquí intensa labor para editores, críticos, investigadores, estudiosos, y sobretodo nuevos ensayistas. *Poeta, narrador, ensayista, periodista cultural, investigador y autor de numerosas obras de crítica literaria,docente de Facultad de Comunicación, Universidad ORT. REFERENCIAS1- Ediciones Biblioteca Ayacucho, de Venezuela.2- Cuadernos de Marcha, l967.3- Escritura, l947.4- Tribuna Católica, l950.5- Almanaque del Banco de Seguros, l952.6- Marcha, l954.7- Publicado originalmente por la revista Número en l950, y reeditado en l984 por Arca.8- Publicado por Asir, en l96l.9- Bajo el sello de EBO, en l964.10- Escrito en l963, e inédito por décadas.11- En La sociología subdesarrollante, volumen colectivo de l969 publicado por Aportes.12- Siglo XXI, Buenos Aires, l97l.13- Columbia University, Nueva York, l973.14- Cuadernos del Ciesu, l976.15- Publicado por el Departamento de Literatura Hispanoamericana de Facultad de Humanidades, en l966.16- Arca-Calicanto, l975, donde se reúnen varios de sus ensayos.17- Es fragmento de Rodó y Zorrilla de San Martín: tres momentos de un diálogo intelectual, publicado en agosto de l950 en la revista montevideana Tribuna Católica.
CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF RACISM IN DJANGO UNCHAINED MOVIE Tiara Magda Amelia English Literature Study Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Surabaya State University Tyara_46@hotmail.com Widyastuti, S.S., M.Pd. English Literature Study Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Surabaya State University Wid_unesa@yahoo.com Abstrak Rasisme masih muncul seperti halnya membandingakan antara ras orang jawa dan ras cina. Rasisme muncul karena dalam masyrakat, ada yang memiliki kekuasaan banyak ataupun sedikit. Jadi, dalam jurnal yang berjudul "Analisa Wacana Kritis Rasisme pada film Django Unchained" akan berfokus pada (1) tipe rasisme apa yang muncul pada pengucapan orang kulit putih sebagai grup yang dominan dan (2) bagaimana kekuasaan bisa mengontrol masyarakat yang di lakukan oleh orang kulit putih sebagai grup dominan. Analisa Wacana Kritis mempunyai hubungan istilah dengan kekuasaan, kesinambungan dan dominasi. Jadi, Analisa Wacana Kritis merupakan teori yang tepat untuk menganalisa tutur kata. Jurnal ini menggunakan metode qualitative untuk memberi penjelasan yang lebih jelas melalui teory Van Djik. Jurnal ini berfokus pada rasisme di film Django Unchained. "Django Unchained" berisi tentang rasisme yang dilakuakan orang kulit putih sebagi dominan grup. Jurnal ini berfokus pada tutur kata rasis yang dilakukan oleh orang kulit putih. Hasil dari jurnal ini yaitu ditemukan tutur kata yang mengandung representative, expressive, commisive and directives. Orang kulit putih menggunakan dasar kekuasaan mereka dan juga menggunakan kekuasaan akses dan discourse, dan pengontrol pikiran untuk mengontrol masyarakat. Selain menggunakan kekuasaan, orang kulit putih juga sosial dan kesadaran manipulasi untuk memanipulasi masyarakat. Keywords: rasisme, analisa wacana kritis, kontrol, kekuasaan dan manipulasi Abstract Racism still appears such as comparing race between javanesse and chinesse people. Racism appears because of having less or more power in society. So, this journal which title "Critical Discourse Analysis of Racism in Django Unchained Movie" will be focused on (1) in what way white people as dominant group show their racism and (2) how power can control society which is done by white people as dominant group. Critical Discourse Analysis has a great deal with the names of power, inequality and dominant. So, Critical Discourse Analysis is a good scholar to analyse the utterances. This study uses qualitative method in order to get clearer explanation through Van Djik's theory. This study focuses on racism in society in "Django Unchained" movie. "Django Unchained" movie contains of racism which is done by white people as dominant group. Thus, this data focuses on the utterances of dominant group as exerciser of racism. Here, the result of this study is white people as the dominant group utter racism in representative, expressive, commisive and directives. They also use the base of power rosurces, access and discourse and mind control to control over society. Besides using power, they also use social and cognition manipulation to manipulate society. Kata Kunci: racism, critical discourse analysis, control, power and manipulation INTRODUCTION Racism is not abstract systems of social inequality and dominance. Power abuse can be defined as dominance, for example in terms of the violation of norms and human social rights. Racist can be defined as ideology of racial thinking of people who have more power to do their belief in society. Fiske (1994) says racist discourse is in the media consists of a list of words, images and texts that threaded together, produce an understanding of the world and position and status of people of color in that world. Changing nature is the most complex aspect in racist. The racist behaviour can see by insulting, harrasing each other in the school, workplace or in public, doing racial graffiti, and similar aggressive anti-social acts. However, the beliefs and behaviours of social deviants are not limited in individual racism. Racism can be seen by how people act each other by their behaviour and talk. For example mocking, saying bad thing to other people, threatening or the other else by using their utterances. Yule (1996) says speech act is action which is done via utterances. According to Searle (1979) there are five kinds of classification speech act, they are : Declaration Declaration is the word which can change the world by using utterance. In declaration usually use expression of "I bet", " I declare", "I resign". For example : " I baptise this boy Michel Meyer". Representative Representative is type of speech act which is contain of believe. The statement consist of assertions (someone who say something clearly without any hestitation), conclusions (someone who has say everything all of the conversation, he or she conclude his conversation by saying "so" or "it means that" or "it can be said"), and description (someone who wants to describe something for example describe person, personality, events, news etc). Expressive Expressive is type of speech act which is about speaker's feel. The statement is like pleasure (someone who feels happy or exciting, joy ), pain ( someone who feels hurt by somebody else, the words which are usually used "hurt" and "sick" "pain"), like (someone who love or pond of something) , dislike (someone who does not like something and the words are usually used "dislike", "hate", "can not stand", "can not bear"), or sorrow (someone who is in bad condition or uncomfort zone ). The word of expressive such as: happy, sad, upset, love, like, hate, fear, and so on. For example "being rich is wonderful". Directives Directive is type of speech act which want to someone do something. Usually the word of directives contains of requesting, (using question words such as who, what, why, which, whose, and how), commanding is about how to people give a command to someone to do something, usually in imperative sentence like "open the door!"), inviting (a person who wants to invite someone to join or attend his or her event), forbiding (usually to ask someone not to do the harm thing), suggesting (the word, usually use in suggesting is should or ought to). Commisive Commisive is type of speech act which speaker wants to commit himself to some future actions. Like promising (the word which is used in promising is "promise", "will"), threatening (threatening is like someone who wants to say something rude and harm to person, it has impact to the future), refusing (the word which is usually appeared in refusing sentence is "no", it is like person who does not want to do something of accept a thing). For example : "I will pick up you tomorrow". Critical Discourse Analysis Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) deals with social power abuse, dominance, inequality and the way these are reproduced by the social group member through text and talk (Van Djik, 1998a). Wodak and Meyer (2001) say that Critical Discourse Analysis is the term of language as social practice. CDA focuses on between discourse and society, the social problem is about rising inequality in the society. Moreover Fairclough (1941) explains more about CDA that CDA not only shows how to investigate language which has relationship with power , but also shows the discursive nature of much contemporary social and cultural change.In CDA, language is not the most powerful part but language can reach power which is done by powerful people who use power to maintain society for their interest. That is why CDA often chooses the perspective of those who suffer (powerless group), and critically analyses the language use of those in power, who are responsible for the existence of inequalities. Power Critical Discourse Analysis deals with power abuse. The meaning of power is, according to Max Webber in Empowerment and Community Planning, power as probability that someone follow somebody's will, eventhough his will resistance to it in social relationship. In addition, Robert Dahl (1961) argues that power is exercised which done by individuals who are prevented from doing what they want prefer to do in community. Access and Discourse The dominance can control society because they have the base resources. These are the base resources of power such as wealth, income, good job, status, knowledge and education. Social power has relation with access and discourse. In this case the language users or communicator or speaker can have more or less in the use special discourse or may be in specific communicative events and contexts. It means that the speaker have more or less to control and access the discourse. Mind Control Influencing mind, somehow influence readers and hearers in news report, political propaganda, advertising, religious sermons, corporate directives or scholarly articles. They influence by knowledge, affecting opinion or changing attitudes. In specific context, the hearers or reader who given knowledge and belief reject, disbelieve, or otherwise mentally act in opposition to the intentions of powerful speaker or writer. The powerful speakers or writers have relative freedom to use discourse in their own interest. There are points of discursive mind control is a form of power and dominance if such control is in the interest of the powerful and if the recipients have 'no alternatives', i.e., no other sources (speakers, writers), no other discourses, no other option but to listen or read, and no relevant other beliefs to evaluate such discourses. Eventhough, the speaker or writer has many freedom, in other hand in the recepients are many coercion. The status of powerful writer and speaker is the function of properties of text and talk. The powerful speaker may be lied to, manipulated, persuaded to influence in their interest. The "victims" who have lack of knowledge or lack of power resources, they can not detect lies and manipulation from powerful people. For example journalist or writers have enough experience to influence society by message in their mind idea. They know how to change opinion and knowledge of readers. It is notion of changing people's mind. They change opinion and knowledge by emphasizing specific topic (headline and summaries in newspaper). They may influence mental model structure include discourse comprehension. Manipulation Influencing people's mind by controlling their action and attitudes needs persuasion and manipulation way to do it. But in Critical Discourse Analysis, manipulation needed to require as further theoritical analysis (Van Djik, 2006). Besides using power to control society, some speakers do manipulation to affect people's opinion and belief. Manipulation is a form of talk in conversation or interaction among people, manipulation deals with power abuse. Manipulation is illegitimate notion because, manipulation not only consist of power but also power abuse which is done by dominance. Thus, manipulation has negative sense rather than persuasion. Pictures, photo, movie or other media are exercised of manipulation by influencing the "victim". Manipulation in Society Power dimension in society takes apart to involve control people who exercise over other. In exercising control over other, manipulation needs social actor to satisfy personal and social criteria which can influence other. The group membership can define their power by their position, profession, and material. For example, parent can manipulate their children because of their power and authority in the family and professors can manipulate their student because of position and their knowledge. Everyday, in society, people may practice the kind of social manipulation in their group rather than personal Cognition Manipulation Manipulating people, it can be called manipulating their mind. People's mind is about people's belief like their knowledge, opinion and ideology which reflect to their actions. The mind is very complex process. So, it needs real time and action to apply it efficiently. The manipulator will decrease understanding their explanation while speaking, by speaking faster, less clearly and speaking with complex sentence, difficult word and confused topic. So, the hearer will get no idea what manipulator say or get a weak understanding from manipulator. In the one hand, the dominant group will facilitate their understanding with their interest in their information while doing manipulation. It is mean that the context model of the speaker has a clear plan to hamper the understanding. This research uses 2 research questions. They are in what type of speech act white people as dominant people show their racist utterances and how white people control society by using their power. the puposes of this study is to describe and show white people do racism and to describe how white people control society by using their power. all of the research questions are about in "Django Unchained" movie. METODE This research uses descriptive qualitative. The differentiate qualitative and quantitative is qualitative concerned with how and why something is, while quantitative focused on how much or how many (Litosseliti, 2010). The use of qualitative method is to analyse in what type utterances which contain of racism utter by white people as dominant group, second to analyse how white people as dominant group control society by using their power. The data is taken from the movie of "Django Unchained", the source of data is taken from utterances in "Django Unchained" movie. The data is movie which contain of racism. The movie is directed by Quentin Taratino. Data collection techniques are done by observation. In this case, the writer using non-participation technique in which the writer observes the data through taking notes of the object and without making interview or questionnaire as what Wray, Trott, Bloomer, Reay, & Butler (1998) had said that observing data is consisting of recordings, transcriptions, and notes relating to your subject's behaviour and language (spoken and or written). In this study, the data are from the utterances which contain of racism and power in "Django Unchained" movie will be observed. By doing observation, the use of transcription is important to support the utterances of data. According to Miles and Huberman, they defined analysis as consisting of three current flows of activity: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing or verification (1994). In this data analysis, the writer also uses these three activities. Data Reduction. In this research, the writer reduced the data that she does not focused on and need. There are so many conversations that produced by the characters in this "Django Unchained" movie. In this case the writer reduced the conversation which does not contain of power and racism. Data Display After reducing the data, analysing will be the next step. The analysis will be display as in data display. The data is displayed by using two tables in first and second research question. The tables are used when collecting the data. The first (1) contains of scene, utterances, utterances of racism and types of speech act. The writer identifies the appearing racism in that movie. The racism utterances are like how white people behave to black people with racism behaviour such as mocking insulting, harrasing each other, doing racial act, and similar aggressive anti-social acts. After indentifying the writer will analyze appearing racism by using what types of speech act which related to utterances of the conversation. The table (2) contains of scene, utterances, power and manipulation. The writer tries to analyze how white people as dominant group controls society. The dominance group is white people who have more power than black people. So, the dominance group's conversation will analyze in concept how power can control society. After knowing conversation which contain of power, the writer will analyze how and which power of white people use to control the society. After that analyze the power by using manipulation way is taken from Van Djik. Table 3.1 Speech act of racism utterances by white people. No. Scene Utterances Utterances of Racism Types of Speech act Table 3.2 The use of power and manipulation by white people. No. Scene Utterances Power Manipulation Conclusion Drawing and Verification No. RACISM KIND OF SPEECH ACT R1 Poor devils Representative In data analysis technique, the data are obtained through several steps based on the research questions. Finally, after doing reducing and displaying data, the researcher can be drawn and verified by using theory which used are power and manipulation, racism by Van Djik. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table of Racism R2 It's against the law for niggers to ride horses in this territory. Representative R3 They ain't never seen no nigger on a horse before. Expressive R4 Not on my property. Not around my niggers, he can't. Expressive R5 your fancy-pants nigger Expressive R6 Get that nigger outta here Directives R7 your loveliest black creatures Directives Table of Power No. UTTERANCES POWER MANIPULATION P1 Mr. Bennet : You and your Jimmie rode from Texas to Tennessee to buy one of my nigger gals? No appointment, no nothin'? Access and dsicourse - P2 Mr. Bennet : Betina, sugar, could you take Django there and take him around the grounds here and show him all the pretty stuff. Betina : As you please, Big Daddy. Access and dsicourse - P3 Mr. Monsieur Candie : - No, no, no, no, no. no beggin'. No playin' on my soft heart. I done paid $500 for you. When I pay $500, then I expectto get five fights out of a nigger, - 'fore he roll over and play dead. Black people : sir. . Mr. Monsieur Candie : Mr. Stonesipher?, Let Marsha and her bitches, send D'Artagnan to nigger heaven. Access and dsicourse - P4 Mr. Monsieur Candie : One more moment, doctor! Dr. King Schultz : What? Mr. Monsieur Candie : It's a custom here in the South. once a business deal is concluded that the two parties shake hands. It implies good faith. Dr. King Schultz : - I'm not from the South. Mr. Monsieur Candie : - But you are. in my house, doctor. - So I'm afraid I must insist. Dr. King Schultz : -insist. On what? That I shake your hand? Access and dsicourse Social Manipulation and Cognition manipulation P5 Dr. King Schultz : Is there one amongst you who was formerly a resident of the Carrucan plantation? Djanggo : I'm from the Carrucan plantation. Dr. King Schultz : Who said that? What's your name? Django : Django Mind control - Based on the result, the data proved that racism appear in "Django Unchained" movie. Racism is kind of belief that ignoring people who have different color of skin and the status of them. In this case, white people are drawn as the dominant group who has more power than black people. The dominant appear in society because of having differences power. Having differences of power reproduces inequality. Reproducing inequality in society can make racism, as in "Django Unchained" movie. Appearing racism is because of having inequality of power in the movie. Because of inequality, white people in "Django Unchained" do power abuse in order to they want to control black people and society in their interest. White people do power abuse, because they have more power than black people and white people has more than one in the base power resources like money, status, and job. Thus, they have more access to control black people and society. The word inequality and power abuse make a deal with the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis (Van Djik, 1998a). CDA tents to power, inequality and dominant. In this case, the function of CDA is to improve the way of thinking of society through "Django Unchained" movie. "Django Unchained" movie contains of racism. Van Djik (1995) adds that CDA focuses on text and talk especially in discourse and society. Text and talk contain of words and utterances. Utterances have relationship with study of speech act. According to Yule (1996) speech act contains of action which is done by utterances. Deborah (1994) adds that specch act is basicly concerned with what people "do" with language. So, people can do act by using language via utterances. There are many utterances appear in "Django Unchained" movie. So, in this case, speech act takes apart in analysis utterances. The use of speech act is to describe the conversation of the actors in "Django Uncahined" movie. Why describing conversation through speech act, because speech act can explain the action of the speaker through utterances. According to Yule (1996) people do not only produce utterances which contain of grammartical structure and words, but also show their action through utterances. Searle (1979) adds that people express their feeling and attitude, and they do all of them via utternaces. Speakers will emphasize what they want to speak by using the clearer words. According to Searle (1979), he does classification speech act into five, they are declaration, representative, expressive, commisive, and directives. By using classification of speech act, the reseacher can analyse the type utterances of speech act which white people as dominant group do racism. Thus, as the examples of classification of speech act, in R1 shows that the utterances contain of racism in representative speech act. Like, white people mock black people with uncommon utterances, as in R1 the white people called black people with "poor devil". The word "poor devil" in this utterance means that black people as poor people, because job of black people is only as slave. White people are always under or lower than white people, so white people mock black people as a poor. The word "devil" is a part of the satan who never does a good thing in their life. White people describe the life of black people as a devil. The others example of racism in the data is like R8, racism appear in the rules of law, the law forbids the black riding a horse, the reason is the status of black people, and only white people can ride a horse. In the R1 and R2, show racism through the status between white people and white people. The status between them makes an inequality in society. From the data R1 and R2, those are the prove that racism show by doing discrimination which done by white people. According to Essed (1991) racism is done by discrimantion through intimidation minority group and law. Pendakurs (1995) adds that racism can do by insulting, harrasing minority group. Those can happend because dominanted group use their power to do power abuse. According to Van Djik (1998a), inequality in society appear because a group or people who have more power than other group do power abuse. It implies that the dominanted group can control other group in order to follow the interest of dominanted group. Like in P3, white poeple who have the base resources of power show such as money, job, and status acn control society by using their the base of power resources. The conversation shows that Mr. Candie has more money to pay the black people. The status of black people is lower than Mr. Candie because Mr. Candie is the boss of black people. Having all of the power white people do power abuse. Besides having the base of power, white people have power of access and discourse and mind control in order to get good way to control society. Here in P1 conversation shows that Mr. Bennet as the owner of plantation has the base resources of power. He has higher status than others, because he is the boss of the plantation. Absolutely, he has a good job than others. It means his financial is better than others. P1 shows, Mr. Bennet as the owner of plantation, he can do many things in his plantation because he has access in his own plantation to control his plantation and society around the plantation. In P5, Dr. Schultz do mind control by changing his attitude in good attitude in order to Django will do what he wants, usually white poeple do bad thing in black people but in this case white people do a good thing in order to get his interest. Besides controlling by using the base resources of power and, access and discourse and mind control, white people use social manipulation and cognition to manipulate society by using good actor in order to society can not detect the lie from the white people. Doing manipulation, according to Van Djik (2006) that manipulators make others believe do things that are in the interest of the manipulatorinterests of the manipulated. It can againts the interest of the victim of manipulation. Lacking of knowledge can make manipulator do his manipulation well. Because the "victim" has no choice to belief or accept the knowledge itself. Like in P4 Mr. Candie do social and cognition manipulation, he does manipulation to his interlocutor follow his will. Mr. Candie is good social to do manipulation, because he succes does manipulation, he also use their knowledge to manipulate his interlocutor, it supports by his interlocutor does not about custom knowledge in South, so his interlocutor has no choice to reject what Mr. Candie wants. The term of racism can not be separated from power. People who use racism will deal with power. They use power in order to control society, controling society has purpose is to get their will through society. CDA is the key to know how power, inequality and dominant take apart in this movie. After discussing how power works in "Django Unchained" movie, people know how to use power in order to avoid power abuse around society. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS Conclusion This study reveals the relationship between racism and power. Those can not be separated because racism appear because of having more or less power between each group society. White people abuse their power to do bad thing in black people. Thus, CDA is a term to take deeper analysis in order to get improvement among society through text and talk. Text and talk which contain of words and utterances can define what people act. It is term of speech act which scholar analises act through utterances. So, people can know how people act through their utterances. Based on the results of the study, there are some proves that the movie contains of racism utterances. The racism shows through utterances. The white people do racism by mocking them, the way they mock black people are using kind of speech act such as directives, expressive, commisive and representative. White people do racism because they ignore the kind of thing which is different with them like color of skin, status, job and wealth. Inequality in society reproduces racism. Racism contains of power and manipulation. The inequality in society appears because each group has more or less power, for example the base resources of power are job, status, and wealth and also access and discourse power, and mind control. Inequality itself reproduce dominant among society. In addition white people do manipulation instead of using power to get easier to control and manipulate society. Suggestions As sugesstion for the future researcher, needs to take a deep analysis racism in others mass media. In this study the researcher takes a movie as her data. Movie is one of the member of mass media. So, the next researcher ca take others mass media like news, magazine, newspaper, radio, news televison etc. Another suggestion is from the area in Critical Discourse Analysis. Critical Discourse Analysis has many areas such as politic and society. In this data the researcher takes society. It means that next researcher can take other area In CDA. In addition, the way of analysis is so widely in the data. 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