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Title: People and monsters
Author: Alexander Volodarsky
Date: 13 September 2017
Language: en
Topics: Fascism
Source: Retrieved on 20th February 2022 from https://www.nihilist.li/2017/09/13/people-and-monsters/

Alexander Volodarsky

People and monsters

It is really easy to imagine enemies as monsters, inhumans, stupid

animals who devoid of all human virtues and embody all vices. But this

is an erroneous approach. It’s not because the dehumanization of the

enemy can lead to excessive cruelty (but it is actually, Nazi crimes

were possible precisely because they were sure their opponents weren’t

looking the same, racist ideologies have ample opportunity for this in

general).

The point is, is that a racist, a religious fanatic or conspiracy

theorist, who base their faith on irrational or quasi-scientific

calculations will never come to a contradiction. They will fit any

empirical experience in persuasion but not vice versa. It’s more

difficult for people with a critical worldview: they are forced to look

at the world with a less blinkered attitude and what they see confuses

them. If you have a closer look at the enemy, whether it’s a cop, a

fascist or an official, you can also see the humans in them. And if you

were waiting for a monster from hell — it will bewilder you.

Cops are tired people who do bad and ungrateful work; the far-right,

exception is for some soulless homicidal maniacs, they are often like

our friends till the subject of politics comes up; officials with all

their dirty work can love their families and pets tenderly; a number of

people come to religious fanaticism because of personal drama and a

difficult life. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

If you only create an enemy’s image from some primitive black and white

slogans, a person can be confused seeing all the variety of colors and

shades. It’s easy to hate monsters and much harder to hate people of

flesh and blood. Apparently, the reality doesn’t fully comply with

terrible agitational pictures and we feel frustrated and disappointed.

«We thought that the Nazis had their dogs’ heads, but they are actually

absolutely normal guys. So maybe they are not Nazis? Maybe they are on

the way of their rehabilitation or they’ve already straightened up? The

heads are definitely not dogs’, look at these lovely faces. Well, the

slogan ACAB is gross, there are wonderful policemen, I saw them myself.

My aunt goes to church so do not talk badly about Orthodox christianity

in public».

The other side of the enemy’s dehumanization is a philanthropy heresy,

sometimes it bumps into the Stockholm syndrome. It comes over when the

enemy’s painted image gives way to the present. All these stories about

«normal right-wingers» and «good cops» appear because of the inability

to understand what’s real and what’s not. As soon as we stop seeing the

monster, we begin to sympathize with the person who has been hiding

under the mask we painted.

And this is the main mistake. Because monsters do not exist in

principle.

All crimes and abominations are committed by «normal guys» who are «a

bit wrong». There are not only monsters to hate. Good, honest, sincere,

kind people sometimes deserved all this hate. When we say «all cops are

bastards», we do not indicate their personal qualities. We point to the

repressive function that they perform. And it doesn’t matter how good a

person i,s doesn’t matter how much this person loves his mother and

kittens. He will be an enemy, because of his main activity. When we

oppose the nazis, we are not against zombies in the Third Reich military

uniform, but against our neighborhood, classmates or colleagues.

We understand that not only a pair of fat bourgeois from the caricatures

of the early 20^(th) century will beneath the rubble of the state and

capital when we say we want to destroy them. Many junior ranked people

are fed by the state machinery whose lives we are about to bring down.

Not because we are evil. Just because they live off the power over us.

Yes, it’s really sad. Of course it would have been much easier with

monsters. But monsters aren’t real.