Youth, protests and the carnival of violences: Is there a place for reasoning?

Published in Planning News, 46(3), 16.

The following is my response to the concern and interest of my colleagues overseas, in relation to the recent events in Chile (October 18-present).

It is comforting to know that we have this great network of colleagues, who care and can give meaning to these experiences (although often I fail to find it myself). It is true that these situations highlight "a sense of quickening urgency to heal, culturally and ecologically".[1] I would like to add to this mix, that society, particularly our youth, have changed in ways sometimes incomprehensible. Thus, the social crisis in Chile is far from the traditional conflict of class struggle—this is something else. This is a crisis of our democracy, which is expressed in a mix of anti-institutional reactions, social demands, and rights that find no corresponding levels of responsibilities from those calling for them, and unprecedented levels of destruction and violence.[2] Carlos Peña claims that we have a democracy in which freedom is misunderstood, where teachers praise instead of guide and those who lead imitate the young. A lack of interest in rules and norms are confused with utmost freedom that results in “anarchy and anomie”.[3]

One of the many city areas where rampant looting and burning takes place. Photo by Anthony McInneny

Groups of young people—who can afford not going to work or study for weeks and are engaged in confrontation with police, building barricades and burning buildings—stop in cafes and bars (those still operating) for a break and catching up with Instagram news on their iPhones. They are demanding social changes, allegedly not for themselves, but for the future generations, mother, grandparent, or an elusive “other”, and as a by-product terrorise everyone else through their screaming, drumming, direct physical and graphic aggression conveyed in the messages that clad street walls. They also demand a 'Constituent Assembly', the same that consolidated the perversion of democracy in countries such as Venezuela. Features of this behaviour were defined by Habermas in the 1960s as student left fascism, describing it as “unconstrained voluntarism, a triumphalism of the will, with neither ethical nor institutional limitations; a contemptuous disregard for democratic institutions and processes; and an adventurist willingness to engage in violence, precisely in order to provoke crises inimical to liberal democracy.”[4]   

One of the many posters and graffiti that cover the walls. This read something like, there is no other way but burn the police. Protestors throw Molotov cocktails to police.  

As an example of another weird aspect of the protest, a deputy from one of the most extreme left-wing parties, Pamela Jiles, calls herself a grandmother and cherishes her “grandchildren” (youth on the streets) by social media, given them Japanese anime names such as otaku or hokage, while inciting them to fight on the streets.[5] In an attempt to understand the phenomenon, which aesthetics is that of a carnival of destruction, a dystopia stirred by alcohol and drugs, some have defined the protestors as zombies,[6] Manfred Svensson described it as a gnostic revolution.[7] What is clear is that we are not facing a conventional “social explosion”, nor are these 'pacific' manifestations with clear objectives,[8] but terrorist attacks where the participation of other countries is not discounted.[9] 

Metro station and trains destroyed. Source: CIPER, https://ciperchile.cl/2019/10/24/dura-perdida-para-el-metro-no-tiene-seguros-para-estaciones-ni-trenes/

While I am aware that I am painting a negative picture, I do not deny the need for a better distribution of resources and wealth.[10] The progress between 2006 and 2017 (data from UN shows best-performing reduction in the gap between poor and rich), while improving the standard of living has not yet met the needs of the most vulnerable. The demonstrations has attracted a lot of attention while the social reforms are being delivered in the background by democratic institutions and processes. However, these reforms require finances in an economy eroded by strikes, destruction, closing businesses and as a consequence, a rising level of unemployment. Yet, young people demonstrating on the streets, many young professionals, do not accept the evidence of improvements as sufficient to curb their “contemptuous disregard for democratic institutions”  (data from UN shows best performing reduction in the gap between poor and rich).

In sum, what concerns me is that to tackle the violent demonstrations we first have to understand these groups of young people. I think that to say that it is about education alone, would fail to consider other important factors, I would try suggesting that purpose and meaning are also missing. In spite of the efforts of national philosophers, economists and other brilliant minds, who I eagerly read, I am nowhere close to comprehending the social construct and dynamics of this movement, which, according to some is a phenomenon unfortunately not unique to Chile.

Beatriz Maturana Cossio

Maturana Cossio, B. (2020). Youth, protests and the carnival of violences: Is there a place for reasoning? Planning News, 46(3), 16. 

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[1] Words of a colleague.

[2] "Así quedó el metro de Chile tras los destrozos en la red más moderna de América Latina", Infobae, (October 20, 2019), https://www.infobae.com/america/fotos/2019/10/20/asi-quedo-el-metro-de-chile-tras-los-destrozos-en-la-red-mas-moderna-de-america-latina/

[3] Carlos Peña, 'Viejas Verdades' (2019), in El Mercurio (Santiago 2019). http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2019/12/01/74396/Viejas-verdades.aspx

[4] Berman, 'From Left-Fascism to Campus Anti-Semitism: Radicalism as Reaction', Democratiya, 13 (2008).

[5] See “La campaña de Pamela Jiles hacia los jóvenes para ser la líder de las protestas”, El Libero, (November 29, 2019)  https://ellibero.cl/actualidad/la-campana-de-pamela-jiles-hacia-los-jovenes-para-ser-la-lider-de-las-protestas/.

[6] John Müller, ‘John Müller, periodista chileno: “Chile hoy es un país zombi”´, BBC, (December 2, 2019), https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nota/john-muller-periodista-chileno-chile-hoy-es-un-pais-zombi--201912285349

[7] Manfred Svensson,"Columna de Manfred Svensson: Una revolución gnóstica", The Clinic (November 25, 2019). https://www.theclinic.cl/2019/11/25/columna-de-manfred-svensson-una-revolucion-gnostica/

[8] Gonzalo Rojas,"Nos hemos engañado tanto", El Mercurio (November 20, 2019). www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2019/11/20/74118/Nos-hemos-enganado-tanto.aspx

[9] José Rodríguez Elizondo," El preocupante diagnóstico de Rodríguez Elizondo sobre el Chile actual ", La Pauta (November 3, 2019). https://www.pauta.cl/nacional/el-preocupante-diagnostico-de-rodriguez-elizondo-sobre-el-chile-actual

[10] Edwards, 'Chile’s insurgency and the end of neoliberalism' (2019), in VOX CEPR Policy Portal (2019). https://voxeu.org/article/chile-s-insurgency-and-end-neoliberalism