I still believe in the saying of this oath
Frankford School fellow traveler Marxist Valter
Benjamin who said that behind every rise of
fascism there is a failed revolution.
I think even if we strategically, I'm not
sure about it, accept this term Islam fascism
for Islamic fundamentalist, this so called
Islam fundamentalism is strictly relative
with the disintegration of secular Islamic
left, which was pretty strong in the '50s,
'60s and so on, but then began to disintegrate.
So I think we shouldn't be too fascinated
with this phenomenon.
We should rather ask what happened with the
left.
I think this phenomenon of right wing populism
are strictly the obverse of something that
did not happen.
They didn't just happen, they happened because
something else didn't happen because the left
didn't provide a proper answer.
And that's for me the true tragedy today.
On the one hand we are entering a period,
and we are already in this period for almost
ten years, where rage, discontent are exploding
everywhere, even in our Western countries,
Occupy Wall Street in Europe, the demonstrations
in France, Greece and so on.
On the other hand it is as if the left, even
if it succeeds in, sometimes not always, in
recapturing the energy of this rage cannot
really offer a new political model that would
be not only seductive enough to mobilize millions
of people, but even in itself it doesn't have
enough consistency.
What I'm saying is this, in Europe we didn't
yet fully accept the fact that the 20th century
is over.
By this I mean the following: The 20th century
left, which had basically three strengths
orientations, Stalinist communism, that's
over.
Not only it's over, in a beautiful irony where
ex-communists are still in power they are
mostly the most efficient agents of the most
ruthless new liberal global capitalism.
Do you know what I mean?
If you want to be a successful capitalist
today don't go to Western Europe, go to China
where every Chinese will tell you the main
function, almost, of the communist party is
to prevent the formation of an independent
working movement trade unions to keep workers
under control, Vietnam the same story and
so on.
So, old Stalinism is no longer operative.
Unfortunately because of the change economic
situation and so on, also we don't have new
social democracy.
Social democracy in the sense of the old welfare
state it simply belongs to another era.
It would have to be radically reinvented,
it didn't happen.
Which is why unfortunately some even right
wing analysts who claim that social democracy
where it still exists is today the greatest
conservative force.
In a way tragically they are right because
almost all the struggles of social democracy
today is to keep the old rights, you know,
no they will not take from us, I don't know,
health insurance or whatever like to stick
to the rights which were gained 30/40 years
ago.
Now of course I absolutely sympathize with
it, but so many things are happening.
Can you even imagine how our lives at all
levels were revolutionized through digitization,
through new forms of science, new forms of
liberal capitalism?
I don't think that a simple return to old
social democratic welfare state can work.
Then we have a third orientation subterranean
one, which still is popular among some people.
This idea of rejecting big state representation
mechanism, political parties, state power
and to opt for local democracy, transparent
local communities managing their affairs.
I also think that we have to drop this last
dream.
It doesn't work.
It's good when it happens but if nothing else
today's problems are global problems in a
much more radical sense.
Think about what is happening with capitalism.
I know works that are popular at least in
Europe Jeremiah Ripken, Paul Basin, this idea
which I find wonderfully attractive, although
I think they're simply fighting a little bit
too much, namely what is happening today with
digitalization, biogenetics and so on, is
almost a new beautiful example of the most
orthodox Marxism when they say with the development
of productive forces a new situation emerges
where old relationship production no longer
can cope with, isn't this happening today?
Everybody knows even, the how is that guy
called from Tesla boss Elon Musk or what,
he said recently private property will no
longer work.
We will have to introduce some kind of citizens
general income plus government; we have to
pay for it.
So everybody knows that, at least the way
we know it the model of capitalism is reaching
its limits.
On the one hand with so-called cooperative
commons, free circulation and so on, it's
over.
The market economy is approaching its limit.
Of course, there are attempts, even very successful,
to re-privatize we took over again these commons.
For example, Internet, ideal place of commons,
we all communicate and so on, but you know
you have Facebook controlling private communication,
if you want to buy books and so on all this
it's controlled intellectual exchanges by
Amazon.com, just name them, software controlled
by Microsoft and so on.
But nonetheless, it's clear that capitalism
is approaching a limit.
Okay, but I don't believe in this simplistic
answer where they say oh this is this self-organization
without central power and so on and so on.
No, I think the big task today is precisely
to reinvent large-scale very strong social
political agents structures with strong authority.
Just think, for example, about biogenetics.
Tremendous things are happening today.
We really are on the edge of creating a new
man like reconstructing through biogenetic
interventions our genetics and so on.
Who will control this?
Should these be privatized and so on?
Intellectual property.
Everybody knows it's a mess, it's ridiculous
how big companies try to control it.
Ecology, it's no longer this individualist
approach which is very intelligently supported
I hope you noted this by big companies and
state apparatuses, the way to divest us or
redirect us from really approaching the big
problems by addressing us as individuals,
responsible individuals like let's say, simply
by situation, you criticize big companies
for polluting environment and a typical ideologist
today would tell you, but what did you do?
Who are you to criticize it?
Did you recycle all your Coke cans?
Did you put all newspaper aside and so on
and so on?
And this works wonderful.
It redirects your attention to yourself and
then it makes you feel guilty, at the same
time it offers you an easy way out, redirect,
buy organic food and so on and you can go
on living the way you are.
So back to the main points so I don't lose
myself, it's clear that we are approaching
different levels a critical moment.
But the left, and this should be the natural
terrain traditionally of the left.
The left was thriving in such critical moments,
now let's be frank, it doesn't have a solution.
Let me give you a metaphor that I always like
to use for this.
I hope our viewers have seen a movie I think
about ten years ago it was popular V for Vendetta.
I will not go into the story.
The point is that at the end there is a revolution
in England, imagine England the crowd breaks
through the police barrier penetrates the
British Parliament; the people take over and
the end of the film.
My idea is that, sorry for this vulgar expression
but it expresses precisely how I feel, I would
like to see - I would sell my mother into
slavery to see a movie called V for Vendetta
Part II.
Okay guys, people took over.
What would they have done a day later?
How would they re-organize the power?
The same stage how would they restructure
the power?
This gap becomes like you could have touched
it.
It becomes so obvious with here is a government,
big populous , they want referendum.
No.
A day later as you know, literally almost
a day later they capitulated, they make a
deal with the European Union.
Now for me it's too easy to criticize them
traders; they betrayed it.
What could they have done?
Give me – accept from these empty phrases
of we need more true democracy; people's voice
should be heard, what does this mean?
This is nonsense.
Here I disagree softly with my otherwise good
friend I admire him, Yanie with his idea of
DM democratize Europe.
I always am telling him let's take these two
cases how they dealt with the European Union,
I mean the Greek state and immigrants.
But if the European Union were to be more
transparent in the sense of democratically
controlled, but in the simple sense of more
acting in accordance to the will of the majority,
refugees would have been treated in a much
worse way.
A big majority today in Europe of people,
I wouldn't say how big majority, but clearly
a majority are against any new immigrants
and so on.
In this sense I write this about in the book
how this was a very simple but efficient right
wing criticism of Angela Merkel, where is
her sense of democracy?
She invited one million immigrants to enter
Germany.
Who legitimized her in doing this?
I am on her side but in a very precise sense.
I think we should take this very painful lesson,
the majority is not automatically right.
Now, I'm not saying there should be a communist
party which is always right, I'm just saying
that a certain dose of healthy mistrust of
not democracy as such but will of the majority
is for me totally legitimate.
People quite often are not right.
And I think Angela Merkel did something that
great politicians do, you enforce a measure
knowing that the majority is against it hoping
that if you have enough time to enforce this
measure retroactively through its success
it will become acceptable to the majority,
but you have to take the risk.
So, back to my big problem, I think that the
ultimate cause of all this populism and so
on is the simple fact that we live in an era
of great dissatisfaction rage and so on, but
the left doesn't have a model, it's all empty
praises.
People should decide more through democracy,
blah, blah, blah, but what does it mean?
Like what to do?
How to re-organize the state?
Because the big problem is this one, of course,
it's still the old Fukuyama problem I claim.
You know Francis Fukuyama have forgotten today,
and I don't agree with him, but he was onto
something in that sense.
Even today the majority of the politicians,
even the leftists, are Fukuyamaists in what
sense?
They think that liberal democratic capitalism
is the ultimate form and all we can do is
to render it better, you know, more health
service, more tolerance whatever you want,
more welfare, but the basic model is accepted.
No one is asking the questions that people
were asking 40/50 years ago like is capitalism
the ultimate answer?
Can we imagine social organization beyond
state and so on and so on?
So that's for me the big problem is this let's
call it enlightened social democratic Fukuyamaism
like what Tony Blair stood for in the United
Kingdom.
Is this enough or is something more radical
needed?
I think it is, not that I believe in any communist
revolution or whatever, but simply I think
that the problems we are facing cannot be
resolved at this level.
So, that's my sad prediction.
Either a new form of the left will be reinvented
or here is my simple but I love it answer,
or look at Hollywood, I always trust Hollywood.
Hollywood is warning us all the time Hunger
Games, Elysium and so on, that's the society
we are approaching.
Twenty percent of people live in the privileged
zone, the majority is out.
That's the future.
