The big no

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The big no. The dynamic and tragedy of social protest is a work by Armin Nassehi that was published in kursbuch.edition in 2020 .

content

In his book The Big No. Armin Nassehi examines the momentum and tragedy of social protest , "which function protest has in a modern society and under which conditions protest becomes more likely." Nassehi is interested in the form of the protest and abstracts from its content. He tries to depict "how protests work, how they come about, what they can do and what they are capable of."

Protest is “not the norm”, but a special “social form”. It is normal that in functionally differentiated societies conflicts in the institutions , for example in parliaments , by works councils or by lobby groups, are worked on small. The conflicts that are made visible through protest are not or too little taken into account in the routines of the institutions. Protest makes the criticism visible and is not only aimed at the institutions, but “at third parties”, at the “political public ”. "Protest is a seismograph for basic conflicts that cannot be resolved by themselves and cannot be dealt with with the usual routines."

In the age of the Internet, “a society that is unleashed by communication must civilize, make manageable, and institutionalize the no response”. Normal criticism is taken up by the institutions. The protest that Armin Nassehi analyzes is not. This is a “movement-like protest, a visible protest that demands public attention .” This protest is outside of the normal processing routines. He sees himself "as the real representative of society, [...] of the people ."

As examples of such protests, Nassehi cites the right-wing extremist Pegida and Fridays for Future to explain the “structure of the protest”. One result is "that protest [...] is socially rewarded". They are more noticed by the public than normal criticism.

Pegida's protest is directed against the system, they “question the whole thing”. “The climate protests [...] address the social authorities directly. It is not a criticism of the system, but a criticism of a way of life. ”According to Armin Nassehi, society is aware of the climate facts, but it is structurally overwhelmed by them to translate this into action. The success of Fridays for Future is based on the “ form of protest” with a charismatic Greta Thunberg .

According to Nassehi, the speaking position is expanding exponentially in today's culture. It can be seen, for example, in the various social movements : “ Labor movement , civil rights movement , women's movement , peace movement , environmental movement , homosexual movement ”. These "no statements" by the social movements are being processed in the institutions today, thereby reducing the potential for protest. But this seems to be less and less successful with the current conflicts. Today "the probability of" no "statements increases and" criticism "[becomes] a fetish of the relationship to the world". It is not a normal argumentative criticism, but a confusing, perspective-rich "criticism" that is difficult to deal with argumentatively. It is "about the ethical right to be heard", not about the exchange of arguments. The more speakers there are, the more difficult "the probability of understanding" becomes. Armin Nassehi claims that the confusion of speaker positions, "the multiplication of speakers and their visibility [...] is the general aspect of contemporary modernity". This leads to the “radical self-overtaxing of contemporary society”. There is no "stop rule for no statements". We no longer live in the book printing society, but in the Internet age with social media such as Twitter . The Internet multiplies communication in society, which now communicates almost completely symmetrically. Society is overwhelmed with this without “something like a stop rule for communication”.

In a functionally differentiated society, according to Armin Nassehi, there is no “veto player” who would be able to “ lead, stop, and determine the overall system .” There are many subsystems in society (markets, government, science, churches etc.), but none is able to determine everything. There can be “no one-stop shop”. “ Protest protests exactly against it .” For these structural reasons, protest cannot be successful. This makes the protest more and more aggressive.

In today's society, normal conflicts are worked down in the existing processing routines. According to Nassehi, there is no place for the protests of the many speakers to get attention with his topic. Protest highlights issues that they believe deserve more attention. The function of the protest is “to set topics in such a way that you can't get past them.” The tragic thing about the protest is that the topics become visible, but the topics cannot be fully processed and the goals cannot be fully achieved. The functionally differentiated society cannot “react as if from a single source”. The “ Fundis ” at the Greens have not been able to enforce their “no” statements. Today the Greens are one of the state-supporting parties. With its protest, the AFD aims to “destabilize the institutions and procedures” and not to work down problems in the institutions.

Protest movements have the problem that they have to protest over a long period of time in order to be successful. But they are not traditional organizations like parties and associations . In order to strengthen cohesion, protest movements need symbols , poses or charismatic elements. Elements from pop culture are adopted to relieve the burden of reflections . Fridays for Future and Pegida use “the weekly repetition of charismatic situations”.

Protest contains a “logic of increase”, since the protests cannot be fully successful. On the one hand, it is an increase through increasingly violent choice of words and more extreme diagnoses of the undesirable condition. On the other hand, an increase in violence , although many speak out in favor of non-violence .

Armin Nassehi writes that protests still need a physical presence in public. In the internet, the possibility of giving "no statements" is low-threshold and develops greater momentum. In real communication, face to face, communication is not so uncontrolled. On the Internet, “the elements of oral interaction and written communication are combined.” This leads to changes in communication in contemporary society. It is faster and there are no stopping rules. “It is precisely the verbal form of this communication that creates an explosive environment”. Nassehi goes on to say that social networks are a "medium of protest". The YouTube -Video The destruction of the CDU of Rezo is an example. The CDU reacted as always, "but not media-savvy". It is an example that "the medium is the message ".

According to Nassehi, protest is a "generator of democracy" and possibly also a "threat to democracy". There is a "power cycle" in the state between society and the state. Laws must be enforced with power , with legitimation , by the state. If possible, not with sanctions, but with the understanding of society. In absolute monarchies, rules are enforced with drastic measures. In functionally differentiated societies it is no longer possible because the interests are too diverse. "The power cycle between political actors / state and the political audience then creates a permanent process of adjustment that leads to a somewhat manageable form of political program that does not produce too much disappointment." How does the state or society create collectively binding decisions, how does democracy manage to gain legitimacy in the power cycle? Democracy succeeds in that criticism or protest from outside influences society; it can “stage the unity of rulers and ruled as a difference.” In protest the cycle of power becomes visible and protest wants and can interrupt the cycle of power and forces the ruler to comment on it. Protests can also endanger democracy, they "are also self-empowerment without a democratically acquired mandate."

The book, the big no. appeared before the COVID-19 pandemic . On April 13, 2020, Armin Nassehi wrote in the Monday block of the course book, approx. 4 weeks after the start of the lockdown , that “it is actually astonishing how willing the population is to support the massive measures”. At that time the first thoughts on easing the lockdown began and he predicts an exponentially increasing potential for protest, there will be “an epidemic of no statements” because the “opposition will be too little opposition”. Four weeks later, Nassehi wrote in the Monday block that "you can observe how protests arise fairly precisely and in real time". What the protesters articulate does not have to be correct, but "their concerns are not adequately taken into account in the institutionalized no statements in parliamentary opposition or in court proceedings or by other decision-makers".

criticism

Ralf Julke criticizes in the Leipziger Internet Zeitung that Nassehi “sees 'capitalism' more as a fighting formula in protest than as a real economic system” and that “in creating an ever faster protest [...] actually the role of the media in the Representation and strengthening of protest quite unlit [remains]. "

literature

  • Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . kursbuch.edition, Hamburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-96196-128-3 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 5
  2. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 6
  3. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 8
  4. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 9 and p. 11
  5. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 10
  6. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 25
  7. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 26
  8. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 27
  9. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 28
  10. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 28
  11. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 33
  12. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 35
  13. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 34
  14. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 40
  15. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 50
  16. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 51
  17. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 52
  18. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 61
  19. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 61
  20. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 58
  21. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 65
  22. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 68
  23. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 69
  24. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 70
  25. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 82
  26. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 82
  27. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 90
  28. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 107
  29. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 118
  30. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 214
  31. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 127
  32. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 130
  33. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 139
  34. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 145
  35. ↑ Armin Nassehi: The big no. Dynamic and tragedy of social protest . P. 149
  36. ↑ Armin Nassehi: Monday block / 105 , April 13, 2020
  37. ↑ Armin Nassehi: Monday block / 107 , May 11, 2020
  38. ↑ Ralf Julke: The big no: Why a democracy without protest movements would turn into a tired official administration , Leipziger Internet Zeitung, May 24, 2020