Once upon a time, there was a society, in which individuals critically evaluated, scrutinised and discussed openly any and all topics of public and private life and even reflected thoroughly upon themselves. This transcended the individuals and created a society truly capable of critical thought. Then, suddenly and completely unexpectedly, this beautiful society was ripped apart by vicious debates, destroying everything.
This is of course a fairy tale, but it fits neatly in the idealised idea of a culture war, which threatens the fabric of society. Describing the current situation as culture war, implicitly assumes, there must have been a time before the current madness. Unfortunately, such a peaceful time may have never existed and if it did exist, we probably know little about it.
What we do know is the situation we are currently in and have been in for a long time. It seems, our culture cannot fathom anything beyond simple binary opposites. Good vs evil. Right vs wrong. Us against them. It is less a culture war, but more a war culture that permeates everything. A war culture, because everyone takes a side and wants to see their side win, whatever the cost, whatever the reasons for conflict and whatever genuine truth may be. That is how “we” approach everything. From a private discussion to a global emergency. One side must win, one side must be defeated. In war culture, something external, the “other”, must be ever-present, which needs to be defined as enemy. Whether that enemy is real or completely made up does not matter. The enemy may change from time to time, typically when it can be replaced by a new enemy. Here are four examples of how war culture developed in the last years:
Brexit
The entire political system and society in UK participated in the Brexit debate. Families and friendships were torn apart. Two sides crystalised, where everyone was pushed to pick a side.
- Side A: British nationalism is good and therefore Brexit is good.
- Side B: EU supra-nationalism is good and therefore Brexit is bad.
It is easy to see, that both sides are wrong. The reality is, both British nationalism and EU supra-nationalism are bad and there is no good side to the Brexit debate.
Trump
Since 2016 the political system and society in US are torn apart by the Trump debate. The two sides are:
- Side A: Trump brags about aggression towards minorities and therefore Trump is good.
- Side B: Biden doesn’t brag about aggression towards minorities and therefore Biden is good.
Trumps racism and open aggression towards minorities and women’s and trans rights are obvious. When Biden took over the presidency from Trump, many executive orders and policies remained, including for example the racist treatment of refugees and migrants at the border to Mexico. Biden is sometimes a little less racist and a little less against minorities and he does not brag about it as much as Trump does. Moreover, Biden does not openly support US fascists, while Trump does. On the other hand, both Democrats and Republicans supported fascists in many other countries for decades. There are differences, but neither side is good.
Pandemic
Unsurprisingly, two sides formed during the Covid-19 pandemic:
- Side A: There is no pandemic. Don’t trust the government, don’t trust pharmaceutical companies, instead believe any antisemitic conspiracy theory you can find.
- Side B: Vaccinations are necessary. Trust the government, trust pharmaceutical companies, don’t question anything.
Both sides are wrong. One side is completely wrong, antisemitic conspiracy theories are absolutely wrong and certainly the pandemic was real. But the other side is not right either, because there are many reasons not to trust governments and companies, even though the measures to reduce pandemic related fatalities were obviously necessary.
Ukraine
And again, two sides were established:
- Side A: Russia is good and Ukraine is run by Nazis.
- Side B: Russia is bad and there are no Nazis in Ukraine.
The reality is slightly different. Of course, there are Nazis in Ukraine and, as with all Nazis in all countries, the Nazis in Ukraine are racist criminals, too, willing and eager to commit murder. In the last years and even during the current war, Ukrainian Nazis have regularly attacked and sometimes murdered minorities, especially Roma. However, Ukraine is not governed by Nazis. No more than Germany is governed by Nazis. Russia on the other hand has many fascists, too, including a fascist regime. And Russia is currently waging a war of aggression, murdering many civilians in Ukraine and reducing entire cities to rubble. These are war crimes and there is no justification for that. It is also true, many countries, including Russia and some NATO countries, have waged or supported many wars in the last decades in many countries, killing hundreds of thousands, even millions, of civilians. The justifications given for these wars were war on terror, humanitarian interventions or nationalist or religious arguments. Looking at all these wars and their public perceptions, it seems, most people and institutions do not recognise war crimes based on what happened and if, how and how many civilians were murdered by whom but rather, if they like or dislike the perpetrators. The same is continuing for the Ukraine war. Beside wars and war crimes there are also peace crimes, like the deaths of tens of thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe or North America. The solid moral high ground some believe to have vis-à-vis Russia’s aggression turns out to be rather a quagmire when taking all these aspects into account.
On the cynical bright side, it is still business as usual. Countries and companies all over the world are hectically weighing their options and scrambling to take action. Because they know: Every crisis is an opportunity. Many will die, some will get richer and more powerful. Everyone wants to get the most out of this crisis.
US and UK could be on a trajectory to leave NATO behind in order to avoid being held back by the deadweight of Europe. The consolidation of the military pact with Australia, AUKUS, is a continuation of Trump’s politics of reducing the importance of NATO, facing the EU as competitor and focusing on China as number one enemy. The Ukraine war is for these governments a welcome justification to speed up this process, to build new weapon systems and to increase war budgets.
What many in Germany want to get out of this crisis, is the rehabilitation and glorification of German militarism and nationalistic sacrifices. The same nationalistic and aggressive rhetoric, glorifying the sacrificial death for one’s country, that led to the butchery of World War I is now returning big style. German Nazis and fascists were taken by surprise by the current wave of nationalism, which they didn’t instigate. Instead, this time it came from the political centre. Surely, they will adapt. In Germany and other European countries violence against minorities will almost certainly increase soon. For decades many Germans wanted to get rid of the label of being responsible for the worst crimes in human history. They are intrigued by the opportunity to pass this on to another country, despite the obvious historical falsehood involved. With a militarily emboldened Germany, relieved of its historic burden, and with less attention from US and UK, Europe’s future is bleak.
War culture is not constant, it is developing. In the Brexit and Trump debates, societies were split in half. A society split in half becomes paralysed, as happened to UK and US. The pandemic debate created a split that included a larger majority and a smaller minority, which allowed governments to take effective measures against the pandemic. Now with the Ukraine war we can see in many western countries overwhelming majorities for one side. Having united such an overwhelming majority means society is capable of acting quickly, decisively and violently against the “other”, those designated as enemies. Society is once again ready for war.
And now?
This discussion comes with a caveat. It is not always wrong to wage war. As we have seen in World War II, once German Nazism was in power and was waging genocidal war, there was no alternative to waging war against Nazism in response. Furthermore, given the experience of fighting Nazis and fascists even during peace times, it is self-evident, that counter violence and self-defence against them are justified. Instead of submitting to war culture, more efforts are needed to counter Nazis and fascists, to prevent them from coming to power in the first place or, where necessary, to remove them from power. The less power they have the better. And the less power their lies have the better.
Truth is considered to be the first casualty of war. Another casualty of war seems to be the capacity for remembering. Currently, many have lost their historic memory. Debates on TV and articles in newspapers claim the Ukraine war is the first war in Europe since World War II. All other wars in Europe since World War II are forgotten. Massacres are called the worst massacres in history. The Shoah and all other genocides and massacres are forgotten. Russia’s claim of de-nazifying Ukraine aims to destroy the remembrance of actual Nazi crimes and their victims and tries to rewrite history. For the Russian regime, anti-fascism is a much-hated political strategy. Many anti-fascists in Russia have been imprisoned or killed in the last years. Mimicking anti-fascism as justification for the Ukraine war is an attempt to exploit the credulousness of some in Russia, but is also the attempt to discredit and destroy anti-fascism itself. As anti-fascists we must counter all this.
Anti-fascism must be founded on actual history, on historical truth. Our historic memory needs to be based on the memory of the Shoah – the Nazi genocide against Jews -, the Nazi genocide against Roma, the Nazi genocidal war that unfolded during World War II and the defeat of the Nazis due to the actions taken by Allied countries, anti-fascist and other organisations and uncounted numbers of individuals. Only on the basis of historic memory can we understand current situations and develop our strategies and tactics. And anti-fascism must always be accompanied by a radical humanism, which rejects any attempts of justifying the murder of civilian populations or minorities.
Denouncing Nazis and fascists in other countries is necessary albeit insufficient. It seems easy for many to just fall in line with one’s own country’s objectives and society’s madness, oblivious to history, reality and the fact that these countries and societies are not at all based on radical humanism let alone anti-fascism. By contrast, as anti-fascists we need to pay attention to what is going on around us, too. Rephrasing that dusty old citation:
Our main enemies are the Nazis, the fascists and their enablers in our own country.
A friend of CM in UK
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(P.S.: Instead of war culture, we need a culture of critical discussions, based on anti-fascism and radical humanism. This text is meant as a contribution to this discussion.)
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