Abstract

 

J. Byford (2002).
Anchoring and objectifying ‘neocortical warfare’:
re-presentation of a biological metaphor in Serbian conspiracy literature.
Papers on Social Representations, 11, pages 3.1-3.14.
[http://www.psr.jku.at/]

 

The paper examines an aspect of the rhetoric of conspiracy theory in the
light of the social representations approach. It proposes that the theory of
social representations can complement discourse-oriented methods in the
exploration of rhetorical aspects of conspiracism. A specific example from
contemporary Serbian conspiracy culture is examined in order to suggest
that the processes of re-presentation, and more specifically anchoring and
objectification (Moscovici, 1976, 1984b) play an important role in the
continuous transformation of conspiracist ideology. The function of
representation in conspiratorial rhetoric is explored on the way in which
the metaphorical reference to ‘neocortical war’ in US military literature
on information warfare was anchored into Serbian conspiratorial
discourse, and eventually objectified, by being transformed into a literal
allusion to brain manipulation. It is suggested that, as well as altering the
meaning of the phrase ‘neocortical war’, the process of representation also
created a more convincing and plausible way of formulating the idea of
conspiratorial mass manipulation. The representation of ‘neocortical war’
is offered as an example of a more general discursive dynamic, which
contributed to the proliferation of conspiratorial explanations in Serbia in
the late 1990s. The proposed rhetorical aspect of representation is also
used to recommend, in line with the arguments set out by Billig (1993;
1988a), that rather than being reducible to individual cognitive
functioning as some social representations research suggests, anchoring
and objectification are products of discursive interaction and
communication, reflecting the broader ideological and social functions of
representation.