Re: <nettime> what if we were all right but all wrong?

[Jaromil <jaromil@dyne.org>]

dear Andreas, John, Armin

On Tue, 01 Sep 2015, Andreas Broeckmann wrote:

> to act on these systems is not a matter of clicking like-buttons, and
> it cannot be done in innocently white t-shirts on the streets of a
> shopping mall in vienna. (you may need a tie, or worse...) it may
> mean, for instance, to protest and work to dismantle not only TTIP,
> but also all the trade agreements that the EU has struck or wants to
> strike with 'weaker' countries... :

All your disenchantment looking at a demonstration of 30k people in
Vienna and more all over Austria sounds like seasoned wisdom speaking.

But please do not ignore the fact that this is all new and it may be a
powerful beginning. After living for more than 4 years in Austria as a
strange sort of EU migrant seeking asylum, I can only be surprised
counting these numbers and thinking of how many people I know in .at
that feel isolated when thinking of these political issues.

This is all new: past demonstrations I've joined in Vienna for the
rights of migrants back 13 years ago counted at max a desolating 300
people behind banners in embarassment. If the consciousness on how to
consolidate such a popular sentiment in political action is still
lacking, that is just a signal for new opportunities for transversal
narratives to emerge and march towards some of the horizons that Alex
tries to sketch.

The momentum is there. In 2001 in Genova it was repressed in violence
and that sort of prevarication was a the negative political differential
that marginalized and at the same time united the people present, the
majority being a very similar sort of good-doers Armin mentions. After
the teargas and the beatings we ended up carrying for years the strong
delusion for something that was not made possible to grow.
These now may be different times, lets try to imagine it.

I was also in London on the day Armin mentions, for the anti-war
demonstration: it was 2M people and the voice of Harold Pinter at Hyde
Park resonated through the hearts and minds of many, may he rest in
peace, that good man. On the same day, in Rome, 3M people were on the
streets, incredibly enough without big clashes to distract the media
from the real focus of the event. What was still missing was the big
German speaking critical mass we are observing now.

It may be a slow and naive process in the eyes of pre-millennials, there
may be hoops and hopefully no more Mexican-style mattanzas, but all in
all I read a progression for the last 20 years and there are open doors
for a new political season opening now which we can only fuel with hope
and wisdom, less with disillusion, more with an analysis which is aware
of history and of overall conservative liberal-left vs
individualist-right polarized politics. Long live realistical utopias.
Let's fight to give all migrants a voice - and perhaps an opportunity to
vote.

ciao

-- 
Denis "Jaromil" Roio, Dyne.org Think (& Do) Tank
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