Skip to content or view screen version

On terrorism and the state

trick | 18.01.2002 14:12

At the end of the seventies, Gianfranco Sanguinetti wrote 'On terrorism and the state' (Del terrorismo e dello stato), in which he exposed the role of the police and secret services in terrorist activities as the bomb on the Piazza Fontana and the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. His observations remain acute:

"... the whole population, which no longer supports the state or rises up against it, must be convinced that she at least has one enemy in common with it, against which the state protects her on the condition that it is in turn no longer disputed by anyone. The population which is in general hostile to terrorism, should therefore admit that she needs the state at least for this, that she must give the state the most far-reaching powers, so that it can forcefully take up the difficult task of protecting the community against a dark, mysterious, perfid, ruthless, in one word ghost-like enemy. Against a terrorism presented as the absolute evil, the evil in itself and for itself, all other evils move to second rank; they must even be forgotten."

trick

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. yes. Readers should also look at Victor Serge — D. Sposa -Balincom
  2. Sanguinetti on-line...and more — Harry Roberts
  3. "Such a perfect democracy..." — Guy Debord