Luca Sofri
WITTGENSTEIN
November 25th, 2019
A few different things on the same theme. Republic announces today a hate column. He calls it“anti hate”. It is difficult not to relate it to a promotional campaign of the new version of the newspaper whose slogan was “Raises voice“: a slogan directed to a progressive readership audience whose best part had been said until a moment before the evils of the country were attributable to the information too shouted, right-wing politics noisy and aggressive; an audience that demanded moderation, and exhibited literary citations about the art of silence and reflection, and that had thought different from all this, leaving to the right and their newspapers– Fact including– the most greedy and exhibited power of hatred and resentment (while concurring to the building of indignation but with more indirect, more hypocritical and less claimed ways). Enough, end, end of diversity: Raise your voice. The indignation, and then the hate, as commercial products. Will follow merchandising.
And it is difficult not to share all this with the grillization of communicative and political approaches on the left that has been noted in past years. Raise your voice, fuck off, hate board, etcetera. Followed by hate columns (“anti hate”) dedicated to each newspaper, and then TV shows, talent, merchandising.
The other thing I want to mention is a report in the same Republic two weeks ago, about the prosecution of a lady who had written horrible and ferocious things against the President rolling rolling on a social network.
"Prosecutor Gery Ferrara asks you: “Why did I?”. Answer, on the record: “It was a very hot time, when tempers were overheated by some Members of the Five Stars of whom I was sympathetic. I was foolishly infected by these facts.[…] In his interrogation he recalled that in that period there was Grillo shouting on one side, Di Battista on the other. They said: “Let’s get ready to take to the streets. Let’s bring down the whole government”. It was really a tremendous tam tam tam”."
The lady may be trying to unload the blame in her own predicament. But it may also be that what he says and what he has done are concrete proof that the main problem is not“haters”, this human category that we even call to feel different from us, foreign, dark and distant, but“hate” (I keep the term despite not thinking that“hate” is the right word to define a violence that often does not fit with hatred): the most powerful and influential models of the country are deliberately building a climate“an environment that has changed, and every day it seems normal to push it a little further. And if you point it out they’ll tell you“is the country that is so”, ignoring its responsibility to make it so or not to take it elsewhere: a little bit like in the old Indian chief’s joke.
Then there’s the usual Orwell, which is often pulled for the jacket out of place, but in fact.
"In a moment of lucidity, Winston realized he was screaming like everyone else. The horrific thing about Two Minutes of Hate was that no one was forced to act. To avoid getting involved was impossible. A hideous ecstasy, induced by a mixture of fear and deaf resentment, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces with hammers, seemed to cross like an electric current all the people there gathered, transforming the individual, even against his will, into a screaming madman, the face altered by grimaces. And yet, the anger that everyone felt was an abstract, indirect emotion that could be moved from one object to another like a blowtorch."
https://www.wittgenstein.it/2019/11/25/i-due-minuti-dodio/
How polling and election analysis work
(old Indian chief’s joke)
27 May 2014
At the fort the general called a soldier and told him: «Soldier, go to the woods to make firewood for winter». The soldier comes and goes with a load of firewood. Well, will it be enough for this winter? Will it be cold or very cold? On the mountain there is an old Indian chief who knows how to predict how cold winter will be, go and ask him!».
The soldier climbs the mountain from the old Indian and asks him how cold the next winter will be. «augh! Wait…» the Indian puts his hand on his forehead and looks far away, then says: «This winter… it will be very cold». The soldier returns to the fort and reports to the general that he then orders the soldier to go to make an additional supply of wood in the wood. The soldier comes and goes with a further load of firewood. All right, but are we sure it will be enough for this cold winter? Run to the old Indian and ask him if it will be very cold indeed». The soldier returns to the old Indian and asks the question again. The Indian puts his hand back on his forehead and looks away, then says:
«This winter will be very cold indeed».
The soldier returns to the fort to report. The general then orders him to go again to the wood to collect more wood. After another load of firewood the soldier returns to the fort. But the general is not yet convinced that it is enough, if it really will be so cold. So order the soldier to go back to the old Indian and ask him if it’s going to be really cold or cold that he’s never seen. The soldier returns again to the old Indian on the mountain and asks him the same question.
The Indian clasps his eyes, moves his gaze around him, and replies: «This year will be a cold that has never been felt before!». The soldier returns to report to the impressed General, who this time asks him: But how does the Indian chief know if it will be so cold? I want you to go ask him».
The soldier then goes, goes up the mountain again, and tells the Indian chief the question of the general: «How do you know how cold it will be?». And the Indian replied: «Ah, I have no idea, but I see that down at the fort they are collecting lots of wood!».
https://www.wittgenstein.it/2014/05/27/come-funzionano-sondaggi-e-analisi-elettorali/
