By Simone Bandini
“Rebellious is anyone who is placed, by the law of their own nature, in relation to freedom: a relationship that, over time, draws them to a revolt against automatism and a refusal to accept its ethical consequence, namely fatalism.”
Ernst Jünger, “Treatise on the Rebel”, 1951.
To appear prophetic, I could cite my winter 2024/25 editorial, which I brilliantly titled ‘Trump(oline),‘ suggesting a situation of political hyperbole and acceleration, with potentially revolutionary – and therefore necessarily irrational – outcomes. More superficial readers might have ended up thinking I wanted to magnify the turbo-capitalist despotism of the American magnate. Those who know me or have followed me for a while, however, will not have missed the decidedly critical, beyond-system nuance.
“In this transitional situation, for the first time and in earnest, the absolute fetish of the ‘market’ – the Manichean deity of capitalism – no longer appears as a perfect, untouchable entity, but its attributes become conditioned by the mediation of the State, which rediscovers its ‘metaphysical’ authority and its constitutive and foundational values.” – allow me this self-citation; it was precisely here that I intuited how Made in USA sovereignism would end up fostering a completely unprecedented statalism, with the annulment of intermediate bodies and the mediation of public opinion, rendered irrelevant if not systematically ridiculed.
“It is not so much what Donald Trump declares that is decisive, but what he embodies that transcends his mere political function: the reformist thought of capitalism is already among us, and in him, it has found a possible vehicle of expression. Will he lead the necessary reform process of capitalism?” – I also asked. And this question of mine finds, a couple of years later, a decidedly affirmative answer today. Those who underestimated the tycoon’s typically Yankee approximation sinned through complacency and made a serious misjudgement.
Be beyond the system! Don’t fall for the game of roles they serve you in turn, the parliamentary comedy and the democratic charade, international and domestic. With war at our doorstep, rampant inflation, gasoline soaring towards 2.50 euros, cultural relativism, Ceuta-style migratory invasions, and the lowest birth rate in the world – one certainly cannot sleep soundly. Doubt the current old and new Punchinellos, but especially be rebels and pure, because the building is collapsing, and it will be important to stand on solid foundations.
As well described by Plato – someone who understood idealism and foundational values – in Book VIII of “The Republic”, democracy converts into tyranny when the excess of freedom generates chaos and pushes the people to seek an authoritarian leader. Do you notice any similarities with our times?
It could be objected that there are no prominent personalities today, especially in the Western world, capable of embodying credible absolutisms. I agree.
But that despotism is now impersonal in its essence is a fact. Think of the global internet network or artificial intelligence, electronic identity, and the thousand virtual devilries that plague your existences and no longer allow you to be free. There will be no escape unless there is a return to a principle of ‘truth and presence.’ Return to loving your freedom, be rebels.
Recommended Listening: ‘Scream (Funk My Life Up),’ Paolo Nutini