History is the incessant echo that continues to reflect and return in the present. “Sometimes they come back!” Nietzsche might say, a dark warning for those who believe that the dangers of the past have been overcome and have disappeared forever.
In our work on “Inglorious B@stards”, based on the crucial themes of our time, we want to raise the question: why are the parallels so evident, almost undeniable? Is it a coincidence that we live in an era of media manipulation, in which people with questionable ideas become reference figures simply through the power of their reach and their volume?
Countries such as the United States, Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland or Austria are neuralgic points where yesterday’s propaganda is reigniting in a new digital form. Fake news as the new standard.
An example: Mr. X, who strategically exploits the world of social networks for his purposes. One might think that Joseph, the master of Nazi propaganda, personally provided the blueprint. Or Mr. S., who through all media has polished his image as an “indispensable leader”, with a misogynistic and xenophobic rhetoric that evokes disturbing associations with Heinrich, the Reichsführer of the SS. And Mr. D.? A symbol of narcissism, abuse of power and corrupted decadence, just like Hermann, the pleasure-loving figure of luxury and power in the Third Reich.
These figures are not merely relics of a horrifying past. They are part of a current reality that, as Fritz von Unruh formulated, once again attempts to deprive us of our right to reflection and post-war awareness. They belong to a tradition of opportunists, chameleons who bend to power and reinterpret history for their own profit.
“Away with all this crawling vermin,” wrote von Unruh in 1948 in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. These words are just as current and burning today as they were then. It is up to us to expose hypocrisy and opportunism in every form, because today’s silence could be the beginning of a new collapse.
Our work “Inglorious B@stards” aims to be a cry of alarm, a reflection, a warning. We invite people to exchange the “autobahns of manipulation” for free self-determination and to take a stand against the specters that return again and again.
Vigilance.
Never Surrender!
Carrara 2018
