Cloned Che Guevara
Some parties constitute the political platform of the existing ruling elite, others - its official opposition. Such a dual system can be represented only by two, as in the United States, or by several formally pro-government and opposition organizations, such as, for example, in Russia. But all these parties are elements of the same mechanism that ensures the retention of power by the ruling elite. Therefore, the struggle between them is not destructive - the personalities change, but the power elite remains. And the parties that really oppose her do not actually exist as a real political force. Through the efforts of special services and law enforcement agencies, they were removed from the “battlefield”: some went underground, others were small, weak or had a marginal image. However, in recent years, processes have emerged that indicate that this system is beginning to fail. The forms of their manifestation and essence are different, but the trend is obvious: the real non-systemic opposition is based on new principles. Yes, and in society, other forms of self-organization have become widespread.
One of the manifestations of these processes is the election victory of the so-called non-system politicians. The first sign is Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, followed by Alexis Tsipras in Greece and, finally, Donald Trump in the USA. Next are Marine Le Pen and Francois Fillon in France. All of them went or come to power in the existing political system, using its mechanisms. However, they are not part of it. Therefore, a distinctive feature of their activity in official status is a radical turn in domestic and foreign policy, associated not only with the removal from power of significant sections of the former elite, but also with a significant reduction in their social weight. In fact, these are bloodless revolutions. And they are accompanied by large-scale social transformations.
A more dangerous manifestation of the same processes is the “color revolutions” and popular uprisings. The new century is rich in these events, although from its beginning only 16 years have passed. So, they are no longer a result of social conflict in a single country, but are universal for this stage of civilization development. Of course, foreign special services play an important role in initiating destructive processes. But they were only detonators of social explosions, which by that time were fully matured within society. And not foreign special services initiated the processes of self-organization of society, which took place long before the Maidan. It is significant that even in Turkey during the coup, the insurgent troops, who used weapon without much restraint against government buildings and political elites, they did not dare to fully use their power against the people who came to the streets. The suddenness and transience of increasing the scale of mass demonstrations are so indicative of such social processes — so fast that even the security forces do not have time to react adequately. At the same time, there were no obvious organizing leaders who prepared the protests in advance - leaders emerged along the way. And the formal opposition leaders, including the really opposing authorities, almost all were on the sidelines of the events. The role of political structures was also insignificant - but a peculiar self-organization of protest masses was clearly visible, in which there was no place for traditional parties and movements.
Network revolutionary class
The main conclusion: today, as a response to the inefficiency and inability of classic parties and movements to reflect the real interests of the people, new forms of political organization are emerging in society.
In order to understand what an effective party of a new type can become, it is necessary to analyze the conditions of its existence and activity. And compared with those that existed at the time of the birth of the classic parties in the early twentieth century.
What then the opposition could expect in the media? At best, on a separate little article once a year in a large newspaper, but mostly on the underground press and proclamations. The communication cycle based on letters has been measured in weeks and even months. In such conditions, only a party built according to a hierarchical principle, from leaders to performers, and with a relatively rigid distribution of responsibilities, could effectively operate. The stricter the vertical and the clearer the functionality at each level, the more efficient the organization was. An example is the RSDLP (b).
What about today? The Internet provides both unprecedented communication speed, measured by seconds, and its reliability with exceptionally high secrecy. In the monstrous flow of information, it is almost impossible to open an exchange within a local group, especially if one considers that various systems constantly emerge that are more resistant to interception like WhatsApp and Viber.
The Internet provides the ability to collect any relevant data for managing a batch in real time, and is also a powerful tool for disseminating its own information. In the same row stand and cellular communication systems, which have already closed with the Internet, forming a single network. Today there is no possibility to fully control the information flows on radio and TV: the number of terrestrial, space, cable and Internet programs is huge, it is impossible to block everything. Print media remains. But even here, the situation has radically changed - compared to the beginning of the last century, the possibilities for creating typographic products have increased hundreds of times.
As a result, in modern conditions there is no need for a clearly organized party structure. Moreover, it is extremely dangerous to create it for the real opposition, which becomes very vulnerable for the special services and law enforcement agencies, traditionally prepared to fight precisely with such structures.
Another important condition that determines the appearance of an opposition party of a new type is the level of education of a part of society aimed at social transformations. One hundred years ago it was the industrial proletariat. Today, the proletariat is intellectual. By definition, it is superior to the ruling classes in generating ideas, that is, it will be extremely difficult to replay it. Secondly, unlike the industrial proletariat, it is integrated into the control system, law enforcement agencies and law enforcement agencies, more precisely, it forms their basis, starting from the average level of these systems and below. Thirdly, representatives of the intellectual proletariat, possessing significant knowledge and experience, have a personal view of social processes. Strictly speaking, the intellectual proletarian does not have an absolute leader, although there are authorities in private areas. Fourth, while remaining mentally individualists, the representatives of this class have a high organizational potential, which allows them to form structures effective in a social struggle in a very short time.
The best confirmation of this is the events in the east of Ukraine, when representatives of the intellectual proletariat formed within a few days highly efficient organizations on both sides — Kiev Nazis and the people who had risen against them. At the same time, none of the “full-time” party functionaries of the Ukrainian official opposition was among the leaders of the resistance.
The intellectual proletariat organizes itself in the so-called functional network groups, where people who are interested in a specific field of activity communicate. They have their own authorities, which are by no means constant: they can be pushed aside by others who demonstrate a higher level of qualification, although in fact it is rather the ability to properly file oneself.
Law enforcement structures are not able to control functional network groups. They have neither technical, nor organizational, nor legal possibilities.
With regard to the use of force, the most striking example is the experience of the suppression of the Turkish putsch in the summer of 2016. The main conclusion here is that the troops alone, without broad civilian support, cannot withstand the truly massive protest actions. If the demonstration will be many times superior to the troops against it, the latter will rather go over to the side of unarmed protesters than shoot at them. And this is due to the fact that the personnel very well feel their connection with the people, often entering the same groups in social networks, while the power is perceived as something far-away and unattainable, sometimes not understanding the interests of the siloviki themselves. In addition, being faced with the need to shoot at an unarmed crowd, most do not dare to do so. The result is a refusal to execute the order, the troops are demoralized and are retreating under the pressure of the demonstrators.
Finally, it is impossible not to mention the sacredness, the given above, power in the eyes of the layers that subsequently formed the main driving force of the revolutions of the last century — the industrial proletariat and the peasantry. In the great empires - Russian, Ottoman, Germanic, she was at the height; few of the common people doubted God's chosen people of the emperors and the sultan. Today, in the eyes of the absolute majority of the intellectual proletariat, the personalities of a higher power do not possess any sacrality, but are considered as ordinary citizens, invested with power only by virtue of circumstances. Once they poorly perform their work, they should only be replaced by others.
Day to create a party
Judging by the fact that no major social upheavals have occurred in the leading countries of the world, it can be assumed that non-systemic parties of a new type have not yet been formed. And to draw conclusions about what could be a non-system party of the new type, at least, to be ready to fight it. This is especially true for Russia, since, like a hundred years ago, it may be a weak link in the chain.
We need to start by defining the qualities that such an organization should possess in order to be capable of large-scale social transformations in the current realities. Here it should be especially noted that no one specifically develops these requirements and does not create parties for them. In the information environment of the intellectual proletariat, this happens by natural selection: of the multitude of functional groups, they survive, transforming into politically capable structures, only those that meet social needs.
When countering special services, the first most important condition for the success of a non-system party of a new type is secrecy. In modern conditions, it is achieved only by dispersing political activity in the information environment across a large number of functional groups in combination with imitating activities under the innocuous “women's gossip.”
The first quality is related to the second: resistance to various destabilizing factors. Achieved by the presence of a multitude of authorities in local areas - functional groups, each of which seems to the authorities to be a harmless talker on private matters. But at the same time, the spheres of interests of the authorities intersect, creating a continuous coverage of the information space.
The third most important quality of a new type of non-system party is organization. This refers to the ability to carry out targeted actions in accordance with a single scenario, to jointly respond to changes in the situation. This quality can be developed on the basis of a distributed management system without an expressed single leader, when no one gives out direct commands, and the community of authorities gives a non-binding, very neutral opinion, which nevertheless is a pretext for actions both informational and practical. An example is carrying out massive flash mobs, albeit on the most innocuous occasions.
The fourth most important quality is the intellectual potential, which consists in the ability of the political movement to obtain complete and reliable information about the situation, to adequately predict the development of the situation and develop appropriate solutions. Thus, the party preempts competitors in the political struggle, imposes its will on them, gaining superiority through this. This quality arises as a result of the integrated information activity of all members of functional groups with the leading role of private authorities.
The fifth is the ideological base, which consists in the presence of a coherent system of ideological views, a clear understanding of the final goal, ways to achieve it and a program for solving the tasks of the current stage. In the emerging network integral political movement in the overwhelming majority of functional groups and its components, relatively stable perceptions and assessments of the main components of ideology circulate. This may be one of the signs of unmasking.
The sixth quality that determines the potential of the party is its mass character. With regard to the structures under consideration, these are actually all people participating in interconnected network functional groups - those who are not interested in this correspondence, naturally disappear.
The seventh is the influence in government agencies, which allows the network organization to directly influence the direction of political processes in the country. This quality occurs when employees of government institutions and law enforcement agencies, representatives of law enforcement agencies and their family members are included in network groups.
The above indicates that the most likely way for a non-system party of a new type to emerge will be simply the active participation of ordinary citizens in network functional groups, where their authorities will gradually emerge. In the future, these groups will begin to unite into some informal communities in which their common ideas about society and its development directions will be formed. It may give the impression that the process is quite long. However, life shows that at critical moments, when consolidation of society accelerates tens and hundreds of times, such organizations can arise and begin to act within a few days.
According to the experience of Egypt and other countries that survived the “Arab Spring”, it is known that turning off the Internet and cellular communication does not significantly affect the activity of the active core of new type parties. They, as a rule, there are many ways of information exchange, which naturally arose in the course of communication in previous periods.
The methods adopted today to counter extremism and non-systemic political groupings are virtually impossible to solve the problem of neutralizing such network structures. Fundamentally new approaches are needed. They need to be developed urgently.
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