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I can't get over the flag itself… It's a black flag. Not a British flag, not a white flag,… A BLACK flag. Historically, the black flag is strongly associated w
by Simulacra 5mo ago
I can't get over the flag itself… It's a black flag. Not a British flag, not a white flag,… A BLACK flag.
Historically, the black flag is strongly associated with anarchism, anti-state politics, revolt, and rejection of national authority.
Had he colored it in the union jack, then I would've said it was nationalism, and the person is blinded by nationalism.
But. This is Banksy, black-and-white Banksy, so there may be no symbolism behind the black flag, but it's just very interesting. I can't accept that he would not have considered the color of the flag.
- mindslight 5mo agoI think it's about being slightly more subtle than a frontal attack on a specific flag. But from an American perspective a guy wearing a suit while carrying an "anarchist" flag wouldn't be inappropriate, either.
- Ancapistani 5mo agoWhy not? We anarchists with careers do in fact exist. There are probably dozens of us outside of tech, even!
- mindslight 5mo agoHow would you say your numbers compare to the amount of business leaders who are marketing themselves with messages of liberation, but actually want to usher in an era of unfettered corporate authoritarianism? I was not saying an anarchist wearing a suit cannot exist. Rather I was pointing out the current pop culture abuse of the concepts of anarchism/libertarianism.
- Ancapistani 5mo agoI’m not sure; lots of people self-identify as anarchists while holding beliefs that are diametrically opposed to my own, and lots of people who are much closer to my own beliefs call themselves other things because they’re either afraid of the word “anarchism” or understand it to mean something else. If I had to ballpark it, I’d guess something like 1:5 people in tech are broadly aligned with me politically (meaning “less extreme, but directionally similar”) while maybe 1:100 would self-identify as an anarchist and 1:500 both self-identify and align fully with me. Does that help?
- mindslight 5mo agoNot really, as you keep missing my larger point about authoritarianism marketing itself as anarchism/libertarianism. And that dynamic seems to be quite prevalent in Surveillance Valley.
- Ancapistani 5mo ago> lots of people self-identify as anarchists while holding beliefs that are diametrically opposed to my own
- Simulacra 5mo agoBut what is the anarchist flag?
- Ancapistani 5mo agoIt’s Banksy. He uses color to highlight things or where the color is important. Here, I assume the flag is intentionally indistinguishable.
- runarberg 5mo agoBlack flags are never depicted being wielded in this way. The stance and the clothes of the person carrying the flag are two more artistic shorthands that makes it very clear that this is a national flag, not a black flag of solidarity.
- danparsonson 5mo agoIt's styled after other bronze statues that are all one colour because of the material. Given the context in which he put this up, it's a pretty clear commentary on nationalism in general, so using a specific country's flag wouldn't work.
- Simulacra 5mo agoI get the unifying color, but I still think there's a hidden meaning
- jamesmccann 5mo agoIt's a monochrome artwork so there is no colour assigned to the flag, rather than it being specifically black.
- kelnos 5mo agoMy take is that it's not specifically black; that's just the monochrome nature of the artwork. The fact that it has no design or color on it means that it can be a stand-in for anything, depending on who's looking.