The age of banners
Beyond personal opinions, beyond individual life choices, beyond the wonderful condition of being complex, contradictory and fluid beings, it seems that in our times, what is important is the banner that we will hasten to unfurl and the camp that we will choose to support on a whim. It is clear that the “person” is of little interest, as a concept accepted by philosophy, theology and psychoanalysis. What is primarily important is the mask we hold in front of us.
As we move towards a difficult winter, perhaps the most difficult of the post-junta era (according to the cliches of journalism), it has already become clear that the pressure exerted on society as a whole will increasingly strengthen the perception of sweeping divisions and generalizations.
In this climate, which unfortunately seems likely to affect the time until the elections in a way that is already causing mental fatigue, it seems that pockets of tension (of various causes) are being artificially and deliberately cultivated. The common element is a rhetoric of war that unites complexes and repressed emotions in a language that is easy to understand, incendiary and socially penetrating, and the goal will gradually become clearer.
What is unfolding before us in Greek society is not foreign to what is happening globally. It is part of an international upheaval that appears on the surface as a product of a political crisis or the result of a crisis of values, but which reveals enormous movements within society – movements that are often unpredictable and therefore cryptic, possibly offering the possibility of surprise.
The unpredictability of future developments can be seen by anyone in their own social circle, as we may all have been taken aback by the otherwise composed and quiet friend who emphatically – and to our surprise – formulates novel theories about the “New World Order.”
The age of banners provides the possibility to “escape” to a new social map, which will allow, more or less, new alignments, with a color-coded banners, with denouncements and exclusions. The crisis deepens as time goes on. And the crisis is mainly a crisis of conscience. It seems that we are entering a new phase of multifactorial “system erosion,” so a new divisive trend will try to become the norm.
