Antifa Astroturf vs. Real Brusfires of the Mind

Photo by Daphne Iona.

It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. –Samuel Adams

Antifa and their destructive distractions

The mainstream media has devoted a fair amount of attention to the violent clashes and even riots that have broken out during the past year or so in Berkeley, Philadelphia, and most recently Portland, among other places in the States. These seem to me little more than destructive displays of the stupidity of a select few. Still, those who control the media must find them useful, or they wouldn’t give them so much press. At the least they serve to boost viewership ratings, but I think it’s deeper than that. These events, although perpetrated by a small minority, seem well staged and promoted to keep a much greater mass of the people divided and distracted.

Photo by Jonathan Petersson.
I think this is more of a game, staged on Astroturf, than a real grassroots movement that can set brushfires in thinking minds. Astroturf may melt and smolder when lit, but it doesn't burn very well.

Hoodlums, not Heroes

The only hope these hoodlums and their backers have is to convince enough people that they’re heroes, rather than hoodlums. Heroes, including martyrs, can do wonders to motivate people who are bound by some common sense of identity, and better yet of suffering. Recent research shows that shared feelings of pain and suffering can motivate extreme self sacrifice for one’s group, including suicide bombings. But, can these antifa hoodlums inspire a sufficiently large number of people to take real risks to join them?

Although many Americans are disgusted and fed up with politicians and the media –and rightly so-- most people also have too much to lose. Furthermore, I don’t think most Americans feel solidarity with antifa or “share their pain”. It’s not in the interest of responsible people to support such empty-headed destruction. Still, mob mentality is real, and it’s worth considering that large groups may behave in unexpected ways.

Photo by Marc Nozell

Taleb’s Minority Rule

Recently I’ve very much enjoyed Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s latest book, Skin in the Game. He builds on his previous works to make the important point that complex systems, including human populations, can behave in ways that are not obvious from any understanding of their individual members. This is because the interactions of many individuals are at least as important as individual behavior. Hence the structure of the system, by setting the rules for those interactions, can play a much more important role than the individuals themselves. He cites examples of how inflexible or intolerant minorities can in fact end up determining what kinds of products are mass produced (say, Kosher softdrinks), what kinds of politicians are elected, and the prevalence of non-smoking sections.

Are they Intolerant Enough to be Important?

Are these groups sufficiently determined in their violent intolerance to have a real impact? This relates to the following famous quote above by Samuel Adams, one of the men who put some of his own skin in the game of founding the United States of America.

Why I’m hopeful

My gut feeling is that these people who go out to fight and riot are neither tough enough nor sufficiently well organized to dominate the majority. If they had any genuine sense of personal responsibility, they wouldn’t be acting as they do. In contrast, most people who have friends, families, mortgages, and other real world concerns will not get so carried away with this stupidity. In other words, as Taleb might put it, they have skin in their own games, unlike the irresponsible few who incite violence.

But what do you think?

Feel free to comment below.

S. Lan Smith

Kamakura, Japan

July 9, 2018

Thanks to all those who made their artwork freely available for use herein.