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September 1, 2022 - 3:26pm
Faced with post-pandemic economic collapse, war in Ukraine and an unprecedented energy crisis, citizens of the UK and Europe are voicing their discontent. Via anti-government campaigns like ‘Don’t Pay’ and ‘Enough is Enough’, people previously unmotivated by radical politics are becoming more and more rebellious.
As a challenging winter approaches, is Europe about to see a mass movement of civil disobedience?
Writer and activist Thomas Fazi thinks so. He joined Freddie Sayers in the UnHerd studio to discuss citizen uprisings and how he would cure the West’s poly-crises.
Read Thomas Fazi’s article on the rise in civil disobedience here.
Thomas Fazi is an UnHerd columnist and translator. His latest book is The Covid Consensus, co-authored with Toby Green.
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SubscribeThis was a fascinating interview. I agree with some other commenters who noted that Mr. Fazi is sometimes not the most articulate speaker, nonetheless he raised some interesting issues.
If this winter is as bad as many predict regarding energy prices and availability, and if people do not protest strongly and consistently, then next year Europeans will have entered a very different world. Governments, major corporations, and the talking heads at organizations such as WTO, will have learned how far they can push people and get away with it. All they have to do the following winter is improve conditions slightly and people will think progress is being made. But the world will never be the same. Standards of living will never return to those that existed pre-pandemic; not because the resources aren’t there, but because people will not demand their fair share of the resources.
Freddie suggested that there might be a significant number of people who prefer authoritarian governance because it provides a sense of security and relieves them of the burden of looking after themselves. I suspect there’s much truth in that viewpoint. The world has become ever more complex in the past twenty years, and the average person faces a much greater challenge making a decent living. I suspect some/many are tired of the struggle and will relinquish much personal agency in return for what amounts to a guaranteed minimum income provided by the government.
I was sad to see Freddie stop Mr. Fazi when he advocated (or at least acknowledged as a possibility) civil unrest in response to shortages. I suspect Freddie was concerned that type of talk might get this episode, or perhaps Unherd itself, cancelled by youtube. He was probably right to be concerned. What a sad situation that is. I view civil unrest, including rioting, as a last resort, but there are extreme circumstances when ordinary people must take a very strong stand against an oppressive or harmfully incompetent government. I don’t know if we’ve reached that point but no one should be afraid to discuss all options at this difficult time. As an aside, I don’t remember the folks cheering on the BLM riots in 2020 worrying about being cancelled.
Great interview, Unherd. I do agree that the elites of this world endlessly expect the ordinary person to make sacrifices they are not prepared to make themselves. Let’s hope society collectively shows some backbone soon or else perhaps we deserve to become Eloi cultivated and preyed on by a bunch of Morlocks.
I did give up on the discussion towards the end because the sum of the discussion was do you want to be run by govt/big business or do you want to be run by big govt? Big govt of course being entirely in the interests of the citizens! Yawn, Fazi comes across really a bit like an earnest teenager to me.
Another socialist wanting to spend other peoples money!
While the corporations have behaved extremely poorly during the Covid scamdemic, they were in fact encouraged to do so by governments.
They worked in tandem to control us with the bluntest tools possible.
I trust neither.
Most corporations should be broken into smaller concerns. The stock market should return to it’s original purpose. Banks should just be bankers. I could go on but I think those able to think – get my drift.
And Italy is ruined by the communists and socialists, such as this man.
Exactly what we need is a coherent non socialist alternative. All this give more power to governments, because governments are managing things badly nonsense turns me off. Having said that I do think he represents a lot of people’s views. Big farmer etc are evil, which is all very convenient for halfwit political leaders.
This guy is not qualified for this talk. The section beginning 34:36 of will it all break down this winter he is spouting the most appalling ‘Modern Monetary Theory’ (MMT) where Central Bank Borrowing is just borrowing from its self, and causes no harm OR inflation in the short term. He says all money is just ones and zeros… he is utterly ignorant of finance. Dangerously ignorant. The point seems to be if there are shortages just force the Government to give everyone more stuff and energy.
Can’t afford everything? Protest till they give you everything for free. This is two year old child thinking.
Freddy jumps in to ask if what he means is every country should produce their own goods, energy, food and so on????? How? I mean, come on, is this really anything but aimless chatter? If this was so why do the Bangladeshi’s not just make all the food, energy, and stuff they want? I mean come on Guys.
The British Central bank cannot make the Congo mine copper, China to smelter and form it into useful metal, and foreign factory workers make the products so the angry British can get it all free.
This is crazy and Unherd Needs Harnwell – based in Rome he can speak on any topic – and worth listening to. Ben “MAGAlomaniac” Harnwell on Getter for interesting mad chatter, from someone who actually knows all the European Politics, and finance, war, and the rest.
UnHerd lost a great deal of credibility airing such nonsense. The guy hasn’t a clue what he is talking about – just rabble rising.
This guy is bonkers – he is agitating for large scale breaking the law. This cannot be supported in any circumstances in any democratic country. I won’t even begin to pick apart his analysis or the nudge-nudge conspiracy stuff he came out with – suffice to say it is top to bottom garbage, and dangerous garbage at that. This is clearly someone who has never actually attempted to run a business of any sort – people who have learn a large number of bitter truths, which are a great cure for this type of delusional nonsense.
What rapacious globalist corporation paid you to libel this person so stupidly and virulently ?
It was the Davos Elite. And the Bill Gates. Oh, and the Wuhan lab. And not forgetting the mile high club. And …
No, Just their money!
Well the money’s nice y’know. But I do it because I want the world to eat bugs and live in a pod.
As long as you charge an exorbitant rent for the pod, and filet mignon prices for the bugs,because, you can never have enough money!
Nice try: but it’s a ‘fail’ I’m afraid!
Probably no one. And where precisely is the “libel” you allege ? That is a defined legal term and you should be very certain before making such allegations lest Prashant takes action against you for defamation. I think you are more at risk than he is here …
I listened to as much of the interview as I could stomach (17 minutes) and have to agree with Prashant that Fazi seems to be a complete fantasist whose claims have little if any grounding in reality. Quite apart from the fact that he’s hopelessly inarticulate and a poor choice for an interview on that basis alone.
He also not only condones but encourages civil unrest and rioting.
As Prashant says, not a serious commentator. I know we need a variety of views on UnHerd, but can’t they find someone remotely professional and credible to argue this case ?
For clarity: these are my own views and no one paid me to write them. Before you ask.
”What rapacious globalist corporation paid you to libel this person so”
Because the talk above needed it, I have never heard as pointless, and wrong, and just talking without any reasoning, in a video.
Aren’t memories short? Poll tax riots? ‘don’t remember those.. miners’ strike? Nope: ‘dont remember that either.. when ordinary decent people are kicked enough they look to other possible solutions. Politics? No, that’s no good. Welfare? oops: ‘been dismantled. But there’s always the food bank right? No: it seems they’re running out of food!! But you reckon, in a democracy, civil unrest is unthinkable? For sure, one of you is delusional but I think it might be you!
Comment deleted, in case it is misinterpreted..