Faced with the resurrection of anti-democratic thought

One hundred years have passed since the birth of fascism in Europe.

Today we are witnessing his resurrection throughout the world.

Despite its defeat by arms in World War II

.

Winston Churchill

said that the difference between politics and war is that in war you only die once.

In politics the resurrection is frequent.

Where does fascism nest?

Many will say that it nests in the emotions of a people disappointed by the political system, particularly the democratic one.

I propose another hypothesis:

.

It's a certain kind of polarizing reasoning, reasoning that works with simple us/them oppositions.

Its abstract form is computation, the 0/1 “bits” of any algorithmic computation.

Structural linguistics distinguishes between paradigmatic relations and syntagmatic relations.

The first are functional contrasts.

The semiotic method includes the identification of polar or binary semantic oppositions, for example “friend/foe,” “public/private,” etc.

In political thought, the most notable case is found in a book published in 1927 by Carl Schmitt under the title of The Concept of the Political, in which he maintains that all political relations can be reduced to the opposition "friend/enemy."

Schmitt tries to find a series of distinctions that can serve as criteria for considering a political problem.

They are binary, that is, paradigmatic.

Schmitt was celebrated as the theoretician of German National Socialism.

His conception of politics reduces it to a relationship of force, and

, which is the essence of democracy.

The political enemy "is simply the other, the stranger, and to determine his essence it is enough that he is existentially different and strange in a particularly intensive sense."

Such a conception is clearly distinguished from the reflection of another theoretician, Norberto Bobbio, for whom the great contribution of Western thought is the idea of ​​democracy as a form of government

, beyond struggle and domination.

It is a conception of the political associated with peace, inclusion and human rights.

For a fascist,

.

Action takes precedence over all reasoning.

The poet Antonio Machado captured this attitude well in the Spain of his time (the fascist one): "Of ten heads, nine attack and one thinks."

Of the same Spain Borges said: "They speak with the poise of those who do not know the doubt."

The priority of action has led to

.

Umberto Eco wrote that suspicion towards the intellectual world has always been a symptom of proto-fascism (“sandals yes, books no”).

However, there is a method behind the apparent madness, and it is called binary reasoning, or "subjective reason" that today is widespread on the small screens of the iPhone and its applications.

It enables fast, thoughtless computation in a world increasingly dependent on artificial intelligence.

Social networks make frequent use of simple opposites.

In semiotic terms they reject the phrase (linear and sometimes complex sentences) in favor of simple paradigms.

The linguist Roman Jakobson called such a characteristic (presence/absence of an element) marking.

Fascist discourse makes frequent use of marking a distinctive characteristic to a previously unmarked signifier.

For example, before the outbreak of Nazism in Germany, the cultural assimilation of the Jews meant that Judaism was unmarked.

The Nazis carried out an intense marking campaign (Jew/non-Jew opposition) to mobilize the people against this group and promote their persecution and extermination.

The

.

Today the operation spreads through social networks.

It is about “hanging up the little sign” of discrimination and rejecting what is marked as “chameleon-like” or “weak.”

All ambiguity is reduced to strong marking with opposite terms.

The "cut to the chase" is increasingly the way of doing politics.

They are worth seizing power and eliminating the enemy.

Sovereignty is equal to coup and dictatorship.

Anti-democratic reasoning has some of its roots in the widespread use of binary oppositions and in the action mediated by the algorithms of our daily walk.

The political corollary is not rosy.

True reflection seems to be marginalized in increasingly reduced environments.

Today Ortega's “mass man” is a hyper-informed being but incapable of thinking deeply and calmly.

But let's not despair.

.

Fascism meets resistance and makes mistakes.

There is even a glimmer of hope in artificial intelligence, until today based on binary calculus.

We are at the threshold of

.

For now, let's put the little screens to rest, let's suspend the binary matrix and cultivate doubt.

Let's not let future aliens consider us remote-controlled apes.

Sociologist.

Emeritus Professor at New York University, USA.

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