Never Underestimate The Power Of Stupid People In Large Groups
Shit is brewing this side of the Alps. Weeks ago pengovsky wrote about a group of neo-Nazi wannabes who wanted to call a referendum on Croatian NATO entry, citing Croatian occupation of sacred Slovene soil. The bid failed spectacularely, but during a particularly daft exchange with Blaž Babič, one of the proponents of the referendum, it emerged that hooded and skin-headed youth were members of Hervardi, a supposedly patriotic organisation with a clear superiority agenda.
Skinhead kids attacking a cameraman at the Faculty of Philosophy. (Source: 24ur.com)
Days ago, however, students of Faculty of Philosophy held a round table discussion on rise of hate-speech, nationalism and neo-fascism in Slovenia. Present among the public was also a group of skin-headed kids whose aim obviously was to stir up shit. They claimed that they’re not neo-Nazis but rather a group of patriotic national socialists (imagine!). However, they got really nervous when cameras were turned on and swiftly vacated the premises, but not before attacking the cameraman.
This, however, appears only to have been a prelude to a real outburst of nationalistic, religious and racial hatred which is scheduled for 27 April. Exactly two weeks from now a rally against building a mosque in Ljubljana will apparently be held in downtown Ljubljana. Choice of date is not coincidental. 27 April marks the start of uprising against Nazi occupation of Slovenia during World War II. Hervardi group, whose president is doing time for attempted murder, called the rally on that particular date to point out the “true occupators” and to revive the “true meaning of 27 April”.
Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth. 27 April tells a story about how a group of few good men knew what is right and what is wrong and fought for their ideals of a free nation with a better future against all odds. What Hervardi want to say today is that people of Islamic faith should not be allowed to worship their god, because they are occupators of Slovenia and are somehow inferior. Which basically constitutes a neo-Nazi agenda.
Personally, I expect the protest to fizzle out into a show of impotent rage, making the protesters an object of mockery. After all, as you can see from the linked video above, Slovenian neo-Nazis are a bunch of pussies, worried that their mothers will find out what they’re up to. They are also cowards for trying to hide their dirty deeds under a cloak of a well respected anniversary and even falsely claiming that The President supports them. And while their cowardice will expose them for spineless twats that they are, they will also have to worry about criminal charges which were filed by Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković for inflammatory speech used on the leaflets announcing the rally. Oh, an there is a counter-rally organised as well, aimed at preventing abuse of the anniversary and (by extention) in support of the mosque.
Pengovsky will always remember the story about how Slovenian Blood&Honour organisation applied for membership in Neo-Nazi International but got turned down on the grounds that Slavs are a lower race. But the real problem is not that Slovenian “patriotic” groups are a bunch of stupid pansies who mistook politics for a psychoanalyst’s couch. The problem is that they are slowly but surely becoming more and more visible with their rhetoric steadily becoming an integral part of mainstream politics.
One must never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Before I rant, I have to admit this is something of a real sore point to me, having encountered them right wing, racist baldies one too many times, which spoiled something that I hold dear.
Anyway, cowards or not, spineless or not, I’ve been warning people in Slovenija about this for a couple of years now. The main reply I used ot get was ‘Oh, it doesn’t mean anything; they’re harmless’. My standard reply : ‘For now, maybe, but one day you’ll wake up and realize they’re all but harmless anymore.’ The reasons I gave were along the lines of your last paragraph and sentence, coming from what I’ve experienced over here, then coming to Slovenija and seeing an increasing number of those Boneheads (that’s the name of their subcategory within skinhead culture; never forget skinheads were working class lefties and Jamaican to boot in origin) popping up in the streets of the greater LJ area. It fell on deaf ears and I was told I was seeing ghosts…
April 14th, 2009 at 9:10 am
It is really unbelievable how persistent the opinion can be that people talking race and dominance are basically harmless… I was shocked a few years ago when visiting Eastern Germany: their local NPD put up posters for the upcoming election and they all showed ugly, fat old women, with the slogan underneath saying something like “Do come shopping to our country/We don’t mind tourists, but afterwards, get out!” The locals told me these posters didn’t mean what I thought. Well.That must be why they voted for NPD in such large numbers.
In 2009, NPD had to declare bankruptcy and has to pay a huge fine for having butchered their accounts into something illegal.
That’s the other side of being stupid and trying to rise above the others. You may soon have to pay for your stupidity.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:24 am
@dr. Arf: Well, if they’re ghosts, Slovenia is becoming a haunted house. I imagine that with the economic crisis yet to deliver its full blow we will see more and more of this.
@alcessa: Which is sort of sad, isn’t it? That despite all the proclamations of defending democracy and wows to “never let it happen again” a country has to pull a stunt like that to put right-wing hardliners out of the picture… I know it worked for Al Capone, but still…
April 14th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I do not want to sound paranoid, but this is quite a dangerous point in time. And we have to talk about this issue before it is too late. Today I heard that the Jelinčič party (SNS) is gaining popularity (they are now 3rd!!!). It is really incredible how Jelinčič managed to evolve (not mentally, just in polls) from an obscure political option to the main stream politics. Even if these Boneheads are not taken seriously it makes Jelinčič (and similar morons) look kind of normal compared to them. And this should never happen!
So thanks pengovsky for writing about this topic, let us hope i am just being paranoid :).
April 14th, 2009 at 9:42 am
@Uros: Good point about SNS becoming mainstream. This proves that, unfortunately, you’re not being paranoid.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:54 am
I hope Uroš is just being paranoid but considering the number of “patriotic” slogans and swastikas I’ve been seeing sprayed around town along with menacing shaved head boys clomping down Trubarjeva, I already feel more than a little nervous. While I can handle one little coward with a spray can who is out past his curfew so he can “spread the word” on an empty wall on Aškerčeva, a whole angry drunken gang of them is a whole lotta BAD. I however fear that any sort of huge CLAMP DOWN might have the opposite effect of boosting their numbers. Not sure what is most effective besides education and services for these wayward kids and their (probably even more wayward) parents.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:02 am
@camille: There is no need for a huge clampdown, because “patriots” are not swarming around in huge numbers. I don’t know how much you know about their immediate history, but they all but disappeared when after a bloody fight with punks during an anti-Haider rally in downtown Ljubljana some years ago, when they found themselves on the receiving end of some serious asswhooping.
So - to put it in cynical terms - all there’s needed is some well directed police brutality and they will go into hiding for another ten years.
But it has to be done now.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:38 am
I recognize the sentiment in the comments here. I have many times asked people why no one seeks out slo nazis when they have their protests. Hopefully things might change now. I’m of the opinion that it needs to be really hard to be a nazi. The option to become a young bonehead in slovenia is way to easy..
I have for a while been expecting some sort of violence that would put slovene nazis more in media focus. As a problem, that is. Hopefully this might be enough to start people thinking of them as a problem.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:59 am
qui tacet consentire videtur
Tolerance of racist behaviour amplifies it by giving it silent support. So speak out, for crying out loud!
In times of trouble, people are even more keen on finding a suitable scapegoat to slaughter in a bloody ritual.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
@ g : I really hope so, because you REALLY don’t want to see this country infected with covert B&H gatherings like we have in Belgium. Politicians and police are powerless and/or ignorant (especially in the case of the politicians), so these boneheads can just go on spreading their hatred. Don’t let it come to this in Slovenija. As dr. fil puts it : speak out against them; the more often, the better. The irony is that tolerant people have to be intolerant to the intolerant to counter this kind of ideology, but it’s the only way…
April 15th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Arf: I agree. I’m from sweden and I remember when this happened there in the early 90s. We had our little racist-populist party that got into parliament, economic crisis and nazis just started to have protests in public, honouring old dead heros. I also remember that there was a general consensus among political/editorial elite, that if you ignore them, they’ll go away. And that was the wrong attitude. It took some nasty streetclashes, and some quite serious violence on the nazis side before it became what it is today: a general, serious negative attitude towards boneheads and a society that puts effort into knowing where they are and what they are doing.
But i remember when they were down by Josko waving flags and I asked people (Mainly punks) why no one was there to tell them that they’re wrong and i got the mah-its-just-stupid-farmers answer. It actually shocked me a bit at the time..
April 16th, 2009 at 10:43 am
[…] sex and politics Never Underestimate The Power Of Stupid People In Large Groups […]
April 18th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
“But the real problem is not that Slovenian “patriotic” groups are a bunch of stupid pansies who mistook politics for a psychoanalyst’s couch.”
To pa nisi dobro zadel Pengovsky. Sploh mi ni všeč. Stupidnost in psihoanaliza ne gresta skupaj. Prej politika in stupidnost.
Je pa napisano tako za pejt u rt, da pravzaprav sploh ne razumem tega stavka in prosim za pojasnilo.
LP, Arbi
April 29th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
[…] it, which shows that they are a bunch of big-mouthed inept bozos. Pengovsky already warned against stupid people in large groups. On Monday Aleš Gulič, former MP echoed that, saying that “in 1920’s no one took […]
July 7th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
[…] incidents, nationalistic anti-Croatian rallies with a clear superiority agenda, boneheads trying to intimidate a round-table event on intolerance or a (called but cancelled) fascist rally in downtown Ljubljana, modus operandi […]
July 21st, 2009 at 10:05 am
[…] which is bound to emerge during the lifetime of this committee (pengovsky often warns about stupid people in large groups), I can hardly wait for remakes of “mortadella” […]