- Subversion (politics)
Subversion refers to an attempt to overthrow structures of
authority , including thestate . It is an overturning or uprooting. The word is present in all languages ofLatin origin, originally applying to such diverse events as the military defeat of a city.As early as the
14th century , it was being used in theEnglish language with reference to laws, and in the15th century came to be used with respect to the realm. The term has taken over from ‘sedition ’ as the name for illicitrebellion , though the connotations of the two words are rather different, sedition suggesting overt attacks on institutions, subversion something much more surreptitious, such as eroding the basis of belief in thestatus quo or setting people against each other.Subversive activity is the lending of aid, comfort, and moral support to individuals, groups, or organizations that advocate the overthrow of incumbent governments by force and violence. All willful acts that are intended to be detrimental to the best interests of the government and that do not fall into the categories of
treason , sedition,sabotage , orespionage are placed in the category of subversive activity.Recent writers, in the post-modern and post-structuralist traditions (including, particularly,
feminist writers) have prescribed a very broad form of subversion. It is not, directly, the governing realm which should be subverted in their view, but the predominant cultural forces, such aspatriarchy ,individualism , andscientific rationalism . This broadening of the target of subversion owes much to the ideas ofAntonio Gramsci , who stressed thatcommunist revolution required the erosion of the particular form of ‘cultural hegemony ’ in anysociety .The neoimperialist movement uses the term 'political subversion' to describe a method of taking complete control of or annexing a foreign state by gaining a majority in the foreign state's government using representatives loyal to the government of the core-state of a neoimperialistic empire.Fact|date=September 2008
Modern uses
At the turn of the millennium, anger at the invasion of public space by advertisers and corporate interests prompted a social movement to subvert corporate advertising, especially the ubiquitous corporate logos that inundate public space. "
Subvertising " involves subtly changing posters and advertisements to alter the intended meaning of corporate slogans and logos, usually in an attempt to highlight the company's unethical practices. In this context, the authority figure subverted has ceased to bethe state and has become the all-powerfulcorporation .External links
* [http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/teacherlore/C163/P15/ "Address before the National Association of Manufacturers" on the Soviet military and political threat] by
Allen Dulles (1959) - "lower-middle portion of web page"
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