Le Monde diplomatique
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October 2000
WHY DO WE ALL AGREE THE GLOBAL MARKET IS INEVITABLE?
'Do not forget ideas are also weapons'
by SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS *
The purpose of this text is to fuel the debate between right and
leftwing intellectuals. It does not attempt to explain the relation
of either with governments or changes in society.
I. Pay-per-view global domination
The world is not square, or so we learn at school, but on the brink
of the third millennium it is not round either. I do not know which
geometrical figure best represents the world in its present state
but, in an era of digital communication, we could see it as a
gigantic screen - one of those screens you can program to display
several pictures at the same time, one inside the other. In our
global world the pictures come from all over the planet - but some
are missing. Not because there is not enough room on the screen but
because someone up there selected these pictures rather than
others.
What do the pictures show? On the American continent, we see a
paramilitary group occupying the Autonomous National University of
Mexico (Unam); but the men in grey uniforms are not there to study.
Another frame shows an armoured column thundering through a native
community in Chiapas. Beside this, we see United States police
using violence to arrest a youth in a city that could be Seattle or
Washington. The pictures in Europe are just as grey.
II. A memorable omission
Intellectuals have been part of society since the dawn of humanity.
Their work is analytical and critical. They look at social facts
and analyse the evidence, for and against, looking for anything
ambiguous, that is neither one thing nor the other, revealing
anything that is not obvious - sometimes even the opposite of what
seems obvious.
These professional critics act as a sort of impertinent
consciousness for society. They are non-conformists, disagreeing
with everything - social and political forces, the state,
government, media, arts, religion and so on. Activists will just
say "we've had enough", but sceptical intellectuals will cautiously
murmur "too much" or "not enough". Intellectuals criticise
immobility, demand change and progress. They are, nevertheless,
part of a society, which is the scene of endless confrontation and
is split between those who use power to maintain the status quo and
those who fight for change.
Intellectuals must choose between their function as intellectuals
and the role that activists offer them. It is also here that we see
the split between progressive and reactionary intellectuals. They
all continue their work of critical analysis, but whereas the more
progressive persist in criticising immobility, permanence, hegemony
and homogeneity, the reactionaries focus their attacks on change,
movement, rebellion and diversity. So in fact, reactionary
intellectuals "forget" their true function and give up critical
thought. Their memory shrinks, excluding past and future to focus
only on the immediate and present. No further discussion is
possible.
III. Intellectual pragmatism
Many leading rightwing intellectuals start life as progressives.
But they soon attract the attention of the powerful, who deploy
innumerable stratagems to buy or destroy them. Progressive
intellectuals are "born" in the midst of a process of seduction and
persecution. Some resist; others, convinced that the global economy
is inevitable, look in their box of tricks and find reasons to
legitimate the existing power structure. They are awarded with a
comfortable armchair, on the right hand of the prince they once
denounced.
They can find any number of excuses for this supposedly
"inevitable" outcome: it is the end of history; money is everywhere
and all-powerful; the police have taken the place of politics; the
present is the only possible future; there is a rational
explanation for social inequality; there are even "good reasons"
for the unbridled exploitation of human beings and natural
resources, racism, intolerance and war.
In an era marked by two new paradigms - communication and the
market - rightwing intellectuals have realised that being "modern"
means obeying one rule: "Adapt or go under". They are not required
to be original, just to think like everyone else, taking their cue
from international bodies like the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund or the World Trade Organisation.
Far from indulging in original, critical thought, rightwing
intellectuals become remarkably pragmatic, echoing the advertising
slogans that flood the world's markets. In exchange for a place in
the sun and the support of certain media and governments, they cast
off their critical imagination and any form of self-criticism and
espouse the new, free market creed.
IV. Blind seers
The problem is not why the global economy is inevitable, but why
almost everyone agrees that it is. Just as the economy is becoming
increasingly global, so is culture and information. How are we to
prevent vast media and communications companies like CNN or News
Corporation, Microsoft or AT&T, from spinning their worldwide web?
In today's world economy the major corporations are essentially
media enterprises, holding up a huge mirror to show us what society
should be, not what it is. To paraphrase RTgis Debray, what is
visible is real and consequently true (1). That, by the way, is one
of the tenets of rightwing dogma. Debray also explains that the
centre of gravity of news has shifted from the written word to
visual effects, from recorded to live broadcasts, from signs to
pictures.
To retain their legitimacy, today's rightwing intellectuals must
fulfil their role in a visual era, opting for what is immediate and
direct, switching from signs to images, from thought to TV
commentary.
V. Future past
In Mexico, leftwing intellectuals are very influential. Their crime
is that they get in the way. Well, one of their crimes, because
they also support the Zapatistas in their struggle: "The Zapatista
uprising heralds the start of a new era in which native movements
will emerge as players in the fight against the neoliberal global
economy" (2). But we are neither unique nor perfect. Just look at
the natives of Ecuador and Chile, and the demonstrations in
Seattle, Washington, Prague - and those that will follow. We are
just one of the pictures that deform the giant screen of the world
economy.
The prince has consequently issued orders: "Attack them! I shall
supply the army and media. You come up with the ideas". So
rightwing intellectuals spend their time insulting their leftwing
counterparts, and because of the Zapatista movement's international
impact, they are now busy rewriting our story to suit the demands
of the prince.
VI. Neoliberal fascists
In one of his books Umberto Eco provides some pointers as to why
fascism is still latent (3). He starts by warning us that fascism
is a diffuse form of totalitarianism, then defines its
characteristics: refusal of the advance of knowledge, disregard of
rational principles, distrust of culture, fear of difference,
racism, individual or social frustration, xenophobia, aristocratic
elitism, machismo, individual sacrifice for the benefit of the
cause, televised populism and use of Newspeak with its limited
words and rudimentary syntax.
These are the values that rightwing intellectuals defend. Take
another look at the giant screen. All that grey is a response to
disorder, reflected in demands for law and order from all around
us. But is Europe once more the prey of fascism? We may well see
skinheads, with their swastikas, on the screen, but the commentator
is quick to reassure us that they are only minority groups, already
under control. But it may also take other, more sinister forms (see
the articles by Christian Semler and Brigitte PStzold in this
issue).
After the fall of the Berlin wall both sides of the political
spectrum in Europe rushed to occupy the centre. This was all too
obvious with the traditional left, but it was also the case with
the far right (4). It went out of its way to acquire a new image,
well removed from its violent, authoritarian past, enthusiastically
espousing neoliberal dogma.
VII. Sceptically hopeful
The task of progressive thinkers - to remain sceptically hopeful -
is not an easy one. They have understood how things work and,
noblesse oblige, they must reveal what they know, dissect it,
denounce it and pass it on to others. But to do this, they must
also confront neoliberal dogma, backed by the media, banks, major
corporations, army and police.
What is more, we live in a visual age - and so, to their
considerable disadvantage, progressive thinkers must fight the
power of the image with nothing but words. But their scepticism
will get them out of that trap, and if they are equally sceptical
in their critical analysis, they will be able to see through the
virtual beauty to the real misery it conceals. So perhaps there is
reason to hope.
There is a story that when Michelangelo sculpted his statue of
David, he had to work on a "second-hand" piece of marble that
already had holes in it. It is a mark of his talent that he was
able to create a figure that took account of these limitations. The
world we want to transform has already been worked on by history
and is largely hollow. We must nevertheless be inventive enough to
change it and build a new world.
Take care and do not forget that ideas are also weapons.
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* Leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, Chiapas, Mexico
(excerpted from "La droite intellectuelle et le fascisme libTral"
which appeared Le Monde diplomatique in French in August 2000; theo
full version of this text is available on our internet site in
French, as is a longer version in Spanish)
1.
2. Croire, voir, faire, Odile Jacob, Paris, 1999.
3. Yvon Le Bot, "Los indfgenas contra el neoliberalismo", La Jornada,
6 March 2000.
4. Umberto Eco, Cinque scritti morali, Bompiani, Milan, 1997.
5. See Emiliano Fruta, "La nueva derecha europea", and Hern�n R.
Moheno, "M�s all� de la vieja izquierda y la nueva derecha", in
Urbi et Orbi, Itam, Mexico, April 2000.
Translated by Harry Forster
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED * 1997-2000 Le Monde diplomatique
<http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/10/13marcos>
