Etiam si omnes, ego non: radicalism and recklessness
Exposition of revolutionary anarchism (E.R.A) ERAnarchy
September 21, 2023
Oh, the stones are soft wax, the stands are harder than stones.The stone is silent, it does no evil;But the stands speak cruellyPeople can be doomed to death.—William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus
After the war began, some Russians who disapproved of the Russian Federation’s actions began to support more radical ideas, learn about radical methods of resistance, or join radical organizations.
Those who are in the “partisan” environment have probably seen many times statements that it is necessary to act right now, that the revolution will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, that the Kremlin has already begun to fall to pieces and everyone who does not want to pick up a self-propelled gun rusty pipes and without preparation to burn iron boxes under the cover of darkness, in the Beautiful Russia of the Future they will be counted among the caste of untouchables. With all my support for loud and radical actions, it would be a sin not to smile while reading loud words quietly written on the wall of an empty room. However, when reckless statements go hand in hand with reckless actions, it becomes less funny.
Imagine that a strange stranger in a public chat calls on participants to immediately start a revolution, accuses everyone of inaction and, in response to criticism, attacks you with insults. It is unlikely that anyone will take his words seriously. But the situation changes if this person is a representative of an organization known to you: even in partisan and anarchist circles, people are looking for authorities, which I have noticed more than once even in chatting with me. And the situation especially changes when this person, who, it would seem, should be an example of reason and prudence, insults and provokes you in personal correspondence.
This is where, in my opinion, the line between radicalism and outright recklessness lies. For clarity, I am attaching a screenshot from a recent post by “Black Bridge”:
Honestly, I really liked this post, and I especially liked the words about “sofas” and “boobs”. Three months ago, after Prigozhin’s march, it was funny for me to read on the channel of the “Right of Force” movement (https://t.me/rdpsru/136) calls for an immediate revolution for monetary rewards with proof of one’s radicalism in the form of a video, which must be filmed according to certain rules. I (to be fair, not without mockery) asked several questions about this post, and received a response with the same words about balabols and sofas. It’s nice to notice such small but interesting details. I am attaching screenshots:
Provocations like “ If you can’t do this, then we have questions for you ”, “ where have you been all this time and what have you been doing ”, “ unlike you, we see results from them ” or “ who is useful in fighting the regime “they don’t work for me, and I just laughed at them, as well as at the mentions of certain “babblers” in the next two posts on the channel. But I want to draw your attention to something else: I would not have these screenshots if I had initially introduced myself as a member of a partisan organization. They talked to me the way they would talk to any person if he asked the same questions. And there are no guarantees that provocations would not work on another person.
The fact that a well-known and, in some sense, respected organization allows itself to talk like this with people who are “not radical enough” in their opinion, to provoke them, accuse them of inaction and show arrogance, raises questions. And this is a serious problem that is relevant not only for a specific organization, but for the entire partisan movement as a whole.
The war has been going on for more than a year and a half, and it will not end tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. The regime in Russia has been blossoming and smelling for many decades, and despite admiration for the actions of the partisans and the boundless courage of the activists, it is useless to expect an early revolution without strong support from the outside and without careful and lengthy preparation within the country. We must not forget that, no matter how much we consider ourselves to be political movements, organizations and movements, we all remain people first and foremost. And in conditions of constant stress, all the problems that a person had before participating in the opposition movement – radical or “insufficient”, partisan or public, one-time or permanent participation – are felt more acutely. Much sharper.A person will not think about the effectiveness of radical resistance when he radically wants to hang himself .”
It is absolutely normal that in the nineteenth month of the war, activists become burnt out, begin to doubt, pay more attention to personal problems and are less interested in the guerrilla movement. Nineteen months of daily paranoia, the need to hide, fear for your life and the lives of your loved ones and friends is no joke, and it hits you hard. It is not normal to condemn someone for this, to provoke a person to take radical actions when he directly makes it clear that he does not want or cannot do this, and to blame him for not doing enough. Imposing a feeling of guilt, at best, will hit a person morally, and at worst, it will force him to go to an action without preparation, without a plan and without a cool head in order to prove to himself his importance. The outcome is obvious: prison or death.
No one, even the most determined people, can be expected to have one hundred percent and successful results, complete involvement in life-threatening activities, constant caution and readiness to act at any time and in any place. If a person says that he doesn’t want to, can’t, doubts safety and your intentions, worries about his life and the lives of other people, feels that he can’t cope, doubts the result or doesn’t see the point in such activity, and you respond accuse him of passivity and lack of ideas, force him to work for money, or guarantee a piece of the “ skin of a dead bear ” after “ dismantling the regime ” – you are either trash or a reckless clinical idiot.
To everyone else: please think about your safety before agreeing to such offers. The most successful action is not worth your life and your freedom. If they try to impose on you a feeling of guilt for insufficient actions, if the interlocutor is too emotional and irrational, if you are promised easy money, it is better to tell your interlocutor three letters and remember the question from childhood: “If others go to jump from the roof, will you go too? “ “
Even if everyone says that there is a soft feather bed underneath, do not jump until you personally put twenty layers of feather beds on the ground and have a parachute behind your back. “ Etiam si omnes, ego non.” »
