A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #6-26 - If it's not the butler, it's the anarchist. The seductive anarchist trail (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"Only two things are certain in life: death and taxes." Even in light of 
recent news events, this famous phrase definitely needs updating: the 
list of facts considered indisputable is missing the usual and eternally 
current "anarchist trail," a timeless classic that goes with everything 
and never goes out of style, perfectly suited to both public ceremonies 
like street demonstrations and more exclusive events like train 
malfunctions.

In the vast supermarket of disinformation, front-page headlines, mass 
media editorials, and large-scale newspaper reports are always eager to 
thaw out pre-packaged, ready-to-use products; and among these, for some 
mysterious reason, the so-called anarchist origin of every incident has 
always been one of the most sought-after, with the longest shelf life 
and strictly no expiration date.

Given the extreme, widespread, and widespread presence of these phantom 
anarchist troops, capable, thanks to their exorbitant numbers and their 
innate ability to participate in and influence every event so 
decisively, one wonders how borders, armies, private property, 
authorities, and states can still exist.

History, unfortunately, is an endless stream of blame shifted onto 
innocent anarchists to cover up the real culprits and unsuspecting 
instigators of terrible events and massacres: suffice it to recall, to 
name just a few, Sacco and Vanzetti, Pinelli, the Chicago martyrs, 
Ferrer i Guàrdia, and the Baracca Five.

It would be all too easy, and not entirely inappropriate, to wallow in 
petty victimhood, indulge in the rhetoric of martyrdom, and retreat into 
a sort of "Calimero syndrome." But this, in addition to failing to do 
justice to those who paid with their lives defending their ideas and 
fighting for a better world, would risk obscuring the full extent of the 
underlying mechanisms of this type of suspicion, which is readily 
brought up whenever those in power feel the need to close ranks, rally 
together, defend their interests, and conceal their own inadequacies.

At this point, it is legitimate, and necessary, to ask ourselves why the 
so-called anarchist path has become so seductive, to the point of being, 
invariably, the preferred option to be fed to public opinion.

The first reason seems obvious enough: it's the well-known principle of 
the art of illusion applied to politics: just as the magician tricks the 
spectator into looking where nothing is happening so that he or she 
doesn't see where everything is happening, so power shifts attention 
from its own inadequacies, failures, broken promises, inefficiencies, 
and failures and, with a dramatic twist, turns the spotlight elsewhere, 
distracting the "spectator" who, very often, as in conjuring tricks, 
doesn't want to know the truth but rather wants to be deceived.

This applies both to specific and circumscribed areas: inefficiencies in 
public order, transportation delays, critical issues in healthcare and 
education, environmental protection, the housing crisis, and prison 
conditions; and to more general policies: the war economy, positioning 
in the international risk game, immigration, subservience to large 
multinationals and economic power.

Added to this, of course, is the expedient of creating an internal 
enemy, personified by those who "do not wish the country's good"; who 
dare to challenge the core principles on which "civil subjection" is 
based; who do not borrow anyone's mind to elaborate their thoughts; who 
hold opinions different from those "legitimately approved"; who, to 
quote Benni, do not submit to the invitation "be the majority," 
understood here not in a parliamentary but in an existential sense.

In turn, the creation and identification of this internal enemy, its 
media pillorying and public ridicule, provides the impeccable and 
"democratically necessary" rationale for a whole series of restrictive 
and public safety measures that selectively target everything "other" 
than the official narrative. With every manifestation of dissent, 
criticism, protest, and alternative behavior effectively 
prevented-automatically declared illegal, prohibited, and 
repressed-those who refuse to accept the impossibility of expressing and 
advancing their ideas return to being the infamous and beloved 
"evildoers" we call "criminals," in a self-perpetuating short circuit.

The internal enemy also plays a more subtle, yet simultaneously more 
impactful, role in taming the public and enlisting it as the primary 
defender of power, to the detriment of both its own personal and 
collective interests: dissent and protest are demonized and made to 
appear as the cause of evil, without analyzing, much less eliminating, 
the causes of the unrest and the real conditions that led to the 
protests. As always, the preference is to address the "symptoms" and 
leave the disease untreated. Victims are transformed into executioners, 
those violated (by the system) into violent individuals, the oppressed 
into oppressors, or, much more simply and cynically, they are chosen not 
to see them, to make them disappear, to transform them into untouchable 
pariahs.

Many, if not all, of these considerations seem so obvious that listing 
and highlighting them seems almost pointless. However, one wonders why, 
given their obvious simplicity, the mechanisms described above remain so 
resilient, effective, and active, yet seemingly hidden and so difficult 
to understand. A more than significant role in this dynamic is 
undoubtedly played by the mass media and, more generally, by what would 
once have been called the intelligentsia or cultural elite; by 
intellectual elaboration, analysis of reality, and criticism 
increasingly subject to market rules; by the climate it helps create in 
the "paying public," and by the almost total, almost irreconcilable, 
detachment from the real situation of the masses.

It would be impossible to even sketchily address the above-mentioned 
issues here; suffice it to mention that we are immersed in an 
increasingly virtual world, dominated by appearances and 
self-referentiality; simultaneously increasingly digitally connected and 
irremediably disconnected from a "flesh-and-blood" community. A world in 
which every piece of news becomes a commodity and acquires value solely 
based on its marketability; where speed becomes essential to the 
detriment of reflection and careful analysis; where the endless 
production and unlimited access to every type of news translates into 
"no news"; where every fact, whether real or invented, is evaluated 
based on the reactions it provokes and the consensus it inspires; where 
the impression created is the only important effect, and therefore the 
method of communication becomes crucial rather than what is 
communicated. A world where the line between reality and (artificially 
constructed) fiction is increasingly blurred and less and less relevant. 
In this sense, the constant repetition of the words "anarchists" or 
"antagonists" and "attack," "explosives," "clashes," "accidents," 
"riots"-precisely because of the superficiality of the information 
provided; the constant and hypnotic bombardment of terms; the 
ostentatious addition of bloody and violent images, often taken out of 
context; of the constant, incessant, and obsessive reiteration of the 
"us and them" dichotomy: all of this contributes to the creation of a 
climate of paternalistic populism congenial to the cultivation of 
individuals ready to rally to the defense of those who actually 
subjugate and exploit them, or, at most, to remain indifferent, to 
isolate themselves, to try to survive without complications, to consider 
the status quo unchangeable.

In this sense, participation in the creation of a climate of open 
hostility toward "disturbers of the public peace" is equally shared by 
the entire spectrum of institutional politics, be it government or 
opposition.

In fact, both are fighting to capture shares of the "market consensus," 
playing the part that the common script dictates: the former defenders 
of legality against any disruptive element; the latter supporters of any 
form of "civilly" expressed protest. Both are aligned in defense of the 
system they help perpetuate, both are ready to sacrifice in defense of 
their privileges those who, not being a market target to whom they can 
sell their lies in exchange for votes, are expendable.

Although the accusations against anarchists are, and always have been, 
primarily instrumental and come from those who support and abet economic 
exploitation, the authoritarian, hierarchical, and arbitrary power of 
one class over another, wars between states, and domestic and 
international indifference, there remains a certain frustration in 
seeing a movement, an idea, and individuals who have always fought, 
struggled, rebelled, and lived to create a fully free society aimed at 
the complete realization of everyone's aspirations, a society where 
coexistence, mutual support, and autonomy are guaranteed not by the 
arrogance of law arbitrarily imposed by an authority, but by the 
spontaneous agreement of free individuals, continually trivialized and 
reduced to a sort of caricature.

This is why we do not believe that "our freedom ends where that of 
others begins." We do not see others as a limitation; we are not 
competing to grab a larger share of freedom at the expense of others.

We see the freedom of our peers as an essential element in increasing 
our own freedom; we are individuals, but we become free only 
collectively: "our freedom is such and develops only thanks to the 
freedom of others." As Bakunin argued, uniting idea and action: "No man 
can emancipate himself except by emancipating with him all the men 
around him."

Alessandro Fini

https://umanitanova.org/se-non-e-il-maggiordomo-e-lanarchico-la-seducente-pista-anarchica/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en