Franco “Bifo” Berardi, delivering lecture „How Will We Live?„, September 2023.

This is where I was last night. When you hear the police announce „The cries of ’stop the murder! stop the war!‘ are not allowed“ this is not a joke. This is the police force in a liberal democracy telling demonstrators they may not shout „Stop the murder! Stop the war!“

What’s even more striking is the replies to this tweet. There are dozens of people saying in more or less coarse reflexive Gleichschaltung that the police are correct, that „Stop the war!“ is anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas. Here is the stereotype of Germans being unquestioning rule-following robots come to life.

ACLU-Open-Letter-to-U.S.-College-and-University-Presidents-Embargoed-PDF

The Islamophobia today reminds me of post-9/11, but the fear in the US today is not from Iraqi Anthrax, Iraqi nuclear weapons, „the terrrorists“, but fear of other Americans, from those others, from the political and intellectual polarization which shows no sign of abating. In 2001-2003 when the US National Guard was stationed on the Golden Gate Bridge there was open discussion of people afraid to cross bridges, afraid to travel near national landmarks, for fear of The Terrorists™. I remember family members afraid to travel to central Philadelphia for fear of the Anthrax that might be sprayed by Iraqi drones launched by the Iraqi Atlantic fishing fleet prowling just off the coast. The potential threats as explained to me were absolutely laughable, however the fear was very real: a mushroom cloud might only be minutes away for many. Americans angrily and fearfully called for revenge on the Iraqis who, while perhaps not having anything to do with 9/11, seemed to hate us for our freedoms.

Today I don’t feel a German fear of Palestinians when Berlin police rip down posters, just as last night when the Kurfürstendamm was lined with police — I thought for a bit that there were more police vans than there were demonstrators until I saw the mass of largely women and younger people — the sense I get is that Germans aren’t afraid of demonstrators with Palestinian flags any more than they are afraid of college-age kids with buckets of orange paint. The flags and the paint are not approved, however, thus making their carriers other, and so fair game for attack and abuse, like the Letzte Generation young woman thrown by a policeman to the pavement on Monday.

Lashing out in fear, having a helpless population to visit rejection on, seems a way to take some sort of action as well, both in Germany and the US. Universal fears, about the destruction of the planet’s ability to sustain human civilization, fear of the out of control concentration of wealth, fear of escalating numbers of immigrants, have some outlet.

Srećko Horvat, Paul Stubbs, Dubravka Sekulić:

In other words, the stance of socialist Yugoslavia and the NAM on Israel-Palestine is a good demonstration of how one can be both against Zionism and for the existence of the state of Israel, while at the same time supporting the people of Palestine in their fight against racism, colonialism and apartheid.

This, obviously, is a point of view that is not much considered or at all welcome in Germany today. When it comes to Israel-Palestine, Germany and, indeed, the rest of the West appear to be suffering from what the Germans themselves aptly brand as “Denkverbot”, which means the prohibition to think.

Protestations of innocence, practiced naïveté, pronounced dedication to amnesia do not stop, from WMD, shock and awe, Russiagate, through to Gaza and no doubt tomorrow’s crimes and lies.

Guardian:

Prominent US figures face backlash and firings for pro-Palestinian statements

A rising number of prominent US figures have faced discipline over controversial public comments they have made about the Palestinian cause,

…

On 19 October, the top art magazine posted a letter entitled: “An open letter from the art community to cultural organizations”. The letter, signed by thousands of artists and cultural workers including Goldin, called for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid into Gaza and broader Palestinian liberation.

“We support Palestinian liberation and call for an end to the killing and harming of all civilians, an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the end of the complicity of our governing bodies in grave human rights violations and war crimes,” the letter read, in part.

Velasco was fired shortly after the letter’s publication. He had served as Artforum’s editor-in-chief for six years.

“I have no regrets,” Velasco said in an email to the New York Times. “I’m disappointed that a magazine that has always stood for freedom of speech and the voices of artists has bent to outside pressure.”

In addition to Velasco, another prominent editor was fired after making a Twitter post about Gaza.

Michael Eisen was removed as editor-in-chief of eLife, an academic science journal, Eisen confirmed in a post to X.

“I have been informed that I am being replaced as the Editor in Chief of [eLife] for retweeting a piece [from satirical US website the Onion] that calls out indifference to the lives of Palestinian civilians,” Eisen wrote.

Eisen’s dismissal was confirmed in a 24 October statement from eLife and its board.

Eisen was fired after retweeting an article from the Onion entitled: “Dying Gazans Criticized for Not Using Last Words to Condemn Hamas”.

Roberto zeigte ihm seine Lieblingsbücher, bei jedem fragte er, ob Lenz es kenne. Kannte er es nicht, so drängte er Lenz, es mitzunehmen, er müsse es unbedingt lesen. Lenz gestand, daß er längere Zeit kaum gelesen habe, jedenfalls keine Romane. Ob Lenz nicht genug Zeit dafür habe. Lenz erwiderte, er habe früher zuviel gelesen. Wie man denn zuviel lesen könne, fragte Roberto, das verstünde er nicht.

—Peter Schneider, »Lenz«, (Berlin: Rotbuch Verlag, 1973), 87.