We All Are Unadapted
Media, politicians, neo-Nazis and even "decent people" have united in order to bring to light today's biggest threat: the unadapted. The abusive characterization has began to live its own life. It is used for denouncing anyone who is not a favorite: Roma, squatters, ravers, the poor...
The unadaptability label seems to point out something about the labeling society itself. It reveals what its principal value really is: to adapt. It want us to be obedient career makers indifferent to our environment, always ready to conform.
"Unadaptability", in fact, threatens the most important thing we have - freedom. Adaptable freedom is a contradiction in terms, we identify freedom precisely when it does not adapt.
Supposedly "unadapted" are, in fact, groups that are expected to accept their own deprivation. Roma nomadism was outlawed and now the society is shocked that Romas don't adapt to the lifestyle that has been forced on them. Rave subculture was deprived of free movement, it was dispersed while society attempted to co-opt free technivals. Squatters were deprived of their home - the clearing out of Milada, the last squat in the Czech Republic, meant that the last place dedicated to alternative housing as well as culture has ceased to exist. Not only those afflicted are deprived. These events represent acts against all who value freedom and diversity in the society.
Our resistance against labeling does not mean that we defend any kind of behavior that is so designated. Problems do exist but we have a choice: either to look for real causes and deal with them or to find supposed trespassers in order to demonize them.
We can demand our rights, issue complaints and remind others of all that we have been deprived of by the acts of repression. At the same time, we are convinced that if we achieve anything in this manner, we get it in a distorted form. The last Czechtek, for example, has become a caricature of itself. That is not what we want. We will manage our freedom ourselves: we will squat other buildings, organize other carnivals and parties.
The Czech initiative Freedom Not Fear has come to existence in reaction to a world wide action against repression. Last year it helped to organize Do It Yourself Street Parade against state repression - cameras, restrictive laws and invasion of privacy. We would like to continue these activities; this year we focus on violence not only one provoked by the state but also violence incited by the society that labels and excludes certain groups. This also arouses fear for it is people who are described as a threat, and, as a result, our freedoms are limited.
Pokud jsme nepřizpůsobiví, jsme také svobodní - Týden nepřizpůsobivosti Praha 12.-19.9.2009 from Freedom not fear on Vimeo.
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