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Title: Stopping to Reflect
Author: Anonymous
Date: Summer 2019
Language: en
Topics: time, radical movement, Blatte, The Local Kids, The Local Kids #4, movements
Source: Translated for The Local Kids, Issue 4
Notes: First appeared untitled in Blatte (Sussurri e grida dal sottosuolo), Issue 2, December 2015

Anonymous

Stopping to Reflect

Stopping to reflect, now more than ever, seems a waste of time. In the

tumultuous succession of events, with which even our most up-to-date

smartphones seem unable to keep pace, the only possible watchword seems

to be: Just do it. But do what? This I still don’t understand.

If you keep an ear open, everyone seems capable of talking about

everything: an opinion on every event, a solution for every problem,

from small-time drug dealers at home to global terrorism. And I, who

ceaselessly have the feeling that I don’t understand shit, observe and

plod on. I can cope with the apathy of the many, most likely because I

have no deep relationship with the many, mainly due to my arrogance. But

“the comrades” are the ones who block my sun! The assemblies, the

fliers, the blogs, the initiatives, the rallies, the actions … the

benzodiazepines! Perhaps these are what I could truly make use of.

Yes, because there are immigrants turned back at the borders, Western

bombings over half the world, security alarms and restrictions of

individual freedom, Rojava under attack, racism, job insecurity,

repression, and a measureless list of other fronts of struggle. There’s

something for every taste and every ideology. The one who hesitates is

lost, the one who reflects too much is an intellectual, and the one who

does not throw himself into the fray is a collaborationist.

If these really are the rules of the game, for now, I’m out. I tried to

take on the role of the anarchist militant, seeking for a long time the

facet of anarchism that most suited me. I have recognized “comrades” and

done things “as comrades”. I don’t spit in the vegan plate from which I

have eaten, I simply stop for a moment, even if out there everything

proceeds straight towards catastrophe.

I see people who talk fervently of things happening on the other side of

the globe, but let crimes and abuses go on under their noses; persons

convinced that they are fighting an invisible enemy or one immeasurably

larger than them, who in the meantime behave in an authoritarian and

despicable way with those around them; people, promiscuous in expressing

solidarity to every exploited individual, who mess up relationships and

are alone or cling to a few exclusive ties; persons ever intent on

propagating better, possible societies because in fact they are deeply

dissatisfied with their existence; persons who shout at others to free

themselves from their chains, and then run back to the job, to the

family, to their jails.

I have been and still am one of these persons. I want to stop being

this!

Our lives burn fast without leaving a trace. Our gaze is turned upward

and away, while around us all becomes a void. By dint of climbing and

taking shelter at ever purer heights, the earth is finished, and we are

fighting among ourselves about who should rush down first. I’m about to

go back to the valley to reflect on what to do, perhaps I’ll even find a

(travelling) companion [compagno - fellow subversive, comrade / compagno

di viaggio - travelling companion].