By ANDREA ZHOK*
The systematic construction of lies, through distraction, falsehood, through dissimulation, this is the true game of contemporary power.
I apologize in advance for the rant, but it is frankly unbearable to hear the umpteenth distressing or scandalized discussion about Elon Musk's outstretched arm.
It is really depressing to discover (rediscover, for the umpteenth time) that intelligentsia progressive (but not only) of the country[I] is so completely incapable of analyzing reality for what it is, of looking at current history for what it is, without projecting artificial phantoms onto it.
What Elon Musk intended to do or say with his awkward stage gesticulations is a non-issue.
Not because it's about looking for excuses, justifications or anything like that. Even if Musk had, in perfect lucidity, premeditatedly and without alterations due to psychotropic substances, decided to evoke a Roman salute with nostalgic intentions, that is a false problem.
It is truly disheartening to see the categorical poverty of a large part of the “political intelligence”, which for the millionth time demonstrates that it only becomes alert when little words from a century ago are used (“fascism”, “Nazism”, “holocaust” etc.).
For God's sake, we live in another world, in another time, with other problems, with social and material assumptions completely incompatible with those on which the dictatorships of the 1920s and 1930s arose.
How is it possible that we are still here, arguing with these cadaverous categories?
It is not possible to continue pretending to live as if it were the day after the invasion of Poland, the bombing of Guernica or the sealed carriages to Auschwitz.
History teaches many things, but the most important is that it never repeats itself.
Elon Musk is a worrying figure, but not because of his pathetic performances, nor because of his alleged or real Roman salutes. He is a worrying figure because – along with many others, from Mark Zuckerberg to Georges Soros, Bill Gates to Larry Fink, etc., etc. – he blatantly represents the metamorphosis of liberal democracies into economic-based oligarchies.
The fact that someone like Elon Musk is decisive in the supply of cutting-edge weapons systems, crucial in any conflict, should be terrifying.
The fact that the Western media and social media system – and with it access to what counts as “public truth” – is in the hands of a handful of these characters, that should be cause for anguish.
The fact that the needs of military, energy, pharmaceutical corporations, or more generally financial needs, define the destiny of our supposed and dying democracies, that is the announced tragedy in which we live.
The fact that European politics is a game of self-referential lobbies that are absolutely impervious to the interests of the people, that is the real drama.
But none of this ever really moves the disdain of official analysts, of government men and women, of “progressive” and “conservative” intellectuals. The game of the late 20th century oppositions continues to be played, with a perfectly bad conscience.
Anti-fascism is on the rise and, in the meantime, the most blatant neoliberal authoritarianism flourishes; anti-communism is on the rise and, in the meantime, the worst forms of economic scientism thrive; the genocide committed by the Nazis is celebrated and, in the meantime, genocides flourish in a worldwide broadcast in the most deafening silence.
We talk and think about something else, continuously, obstinately, to prevent, even for a minute, people from “leaving the matrix” from understanding what the real threats are, from realizing who the real enemies are.
The systematic construction of lies, through distraction, falsehood, through dissimulation, this is the true game of contemporary power.
Anyone who, having the intellectual means to understand it, does not escape it, is an accomplice.
There you go! Now you can continue playing with the low-value cards you've put in your hands, discussing whether and to what extent Elon Musk is the new face of fascist danger.
*Andrea Zhok is professor of philosophy at the University of Milan. Author, among other books, of Critique of the liberal ragione: A philosophy of current history (Meltemi). [https://amzn.to/3Sxfq0K]
Translation: Juliana Haas.
Originally posted on the author's social media.
Note
[I] This article was written in the Italian and European context.
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