3. Frankenstein in Frankenhausen (2001-09)

‘How long have you been on the run?’
[...] ‘I told you, ever since priests and prophets claimed a hold of my life. I fought with Müntzer and the peasants against the princes. Anabaptist in the madness that was Münster. Purveyor of divine justice with Jan Batenburg. Companion of Eloi Pruystinck among the free spirits of Antwerp. A different faith each time, always the same enemies, one defeat.’
- Luther Blissett, Q

Thomas Müntzer spoke to us, but we couldn’t understand his words. It wasn’t a blessing, but a warning.
It is impossible to disclaim the responsibility the Wu Ming collective had, at least in Italy. We were among the most zealous in urging people to go to Genoa, and helped to pull the movement into the ambush. After the bloodbath, it took quite a while – and a lot of reflection on our part – to understand our own (specific) errors in the context of the (general) errors made by the movement.
We had underestimated the enemy, and overestimated ourselves. Clearly, something had gone wrong with the practice of “mythopoesis” or “myth-making from the bottom up”, which was – and still is – at the core of our philosophy. (more…)

He keeps making that mistake. “I am neither blackmailed nor blackmailable”.
We predicted this a few months ago:

“I did not have any spicy relationships with underage girls” is a clear framing mistake, one doesn’t have to be George Lakoff to understand that. It’s a trivial truth that negating the frame re-activates the frame.
Here, we have a statement in the glorious tradition of Nixon’s “I am not a crook” (1973). Back then, the negative particle was immediately forgotten, and what stuck to the audience’s brains was an association between NIXON and CROOK.
This time around, everyone’s going to remember this cluster of concepts: BERLUSCONI – SPICY RELATIONSHIPS – UNDERAGE GIRLS.

And that’s exactly what happened.
Now he makes it again. For many years this guy has been regarded as “a great communicator”. We never believed such crap. (more…)

Ok, we all know what kind of newspaper The Daily Mail is.
Definitely, not the sort of printed stuff we’d let our children alone with.
However, Tobias Jones‘ summary of the last wave of scandals involving “Papi” is by far the best and most appropriate account published in the British press on this matter, as well as the most faithful portrait of Burlesquoni ever shown to the English-speaking public. We couldn’t have found better words.
The piece unequivocally lets you know that Italy is drowning in sleaze. We’re living in most interesting times, but we’re goin’ to need special branchiae if we have to breathe in shit.

Another useful piece appeared on the New York Times two days ago. Being unpredictable people, we offer it to you via a less known newspaper, The Malaysian Insider.

You might also enjoy another article, this time from Time Magazine.

By the way: “I did not have any spicy relationships with underage girls” is a clear framing mistake, one doesn’t have to be George Lakoff to understand that. It’s a trivial truth that negating the frame re-activates the frame.
Here, we have a statement in the glorious tradition of Nixon’s “I am not a crook” (1973). Back then, the negative particle was immediately forgotten, and what stuck to the audience’s brains was an association between NIXON and CROOK.
This time around, everyone’s going to remember this cluster of concepts: BERLUSCONI – SPICY RELATIONSHIPS – UNDERAGE GIRLS.