#not to mention the propaganda against the undesirables in the way of that new order:

[queen-mabs-revenge]

this scene, and in particular these lines, gave me chills watching this play right at this particular moment in time

[yatorihell]

In The Darkness Chapter 76 - Afflictions

Noragami x Harry Potter AU

Words: 1,754

Summary: The trio are in the wilderness and begin to feel the effects of Dark Magic

Also available on Yatorihell AO3

Yukine swore at the tent peg he was hammering in. Whilst the weather was warm and the earth was soft, the reality of camping throughout the winter was beginning to set into Yato’s head with shadows of doubt.

They had apparated into a mossy forest. Hiyori mentioned that she had come there before with her family when she was younger but had quickly changed the subject by turfing out the tents from her bag and getting to work. Her soft chants filled the air around them.

‘Salvio Hexia, Muffliato, Protego, Finite, Obsapeo, Repello Inimicum,’ and finally, ‘Capaxo’. Protection spells, so that no one could see, hear, smell or touch them.

Yato felt for the horcrux around his neck and held it in his hand. His thumb rubbed the smooth stone, the beginning of a habit as he ignored the gravitational pull he felt towards it. They had one horcrux and another was destroyed, but the others were a mystery. At least if the Sorcerer did invade his memory, he wouldn’t have the faintest clue where they were.

The tent, thankfully, was bigger on the inside thanks to the Capaxo charm they had used at the Quidditch World Cup where the Sorcerer first attacked. How was that three years ago? Yato asked himself as he threw his backpack onto the floor and set about returning the camp beds to their normal sizes and riffling through Hiyori’s bag for the bedding.

He could hear the crackle of a radio station from outside, disembodied voices reaching him as Yukine turned the dial back and forth looking for a frequency.

By the time Yato had haphazardly threw the bedding onto the thin mattresses, he could hear the radio’s crackling voices grow nearer as Yukine and Hiyori came inside. Hiyori sat on the bed opposite Yato and Yukine placed the radio on the small bedside table, folding his arms to listen.

Yato recognised the voice, a woman who reported on the Wizarding Wireless Network, but he could tell there was something wrong. There was no report of the Ministry takeover, or the Sorcerer’s latest antics. Just pure drivel about the Muggle registration and so-called reports published by the Ministry of Magic that proved that ‘diluted blood impurified and weakened magic’. Nothing about Snatchers, compliance, or mandatory attendance of work and school. But the next words turned their hearts to ice.

“Undesirable Number One, Yaboku – also known as Yato –, is wanted in connection to the murder of Hogwarts Headmaster Professor Tenjin, and the illegal formation of a government resistance party,” the tinny voice rang out.

Yato felt his arm hair stand on end at the mention of his old name. He shot a look at Hiyori and Yukine as they continued.

“His accomplices, Yukine and Hiyori Iki, are also wanted in connection to the murder and for conspiring to depose the Minister of Magic.”

Their mouths hung open as the broadcast came to an end, leaving a quiet static noise to fill the tent.

“He’s openly hunting us,” Yukine grumbled. He dragged a hand over his face before resting his chin in his palm. “Maybe it’s a good thing we left Grimmauld Place; they’ve probably turned my house to dust by now.”

The comment made Yato prickle. He turned his gaze to Yukine. “What’s that meant to mean?”

Yukine looked at Yato, brow creased. “What’s what meant to mean?”

Yato pushed himself up with a growl, the camp bed squeaking under his force. “I’m so sorry if I’ve inconvenienced you by living in your house. Shall I call in and tell them how to find Grimmauld Place so they can blow it up too?!”

Yukine stared at him, mouth open. “I didn’t say –,”

“Shut your mouth,” Yato spat.

“Stop it.”

That cut Yato’s next insult off abruptly. Hiyori was standing, eyes narrowed at him, but the look stirred him up more. She crossed the few steps between them and held out her hand, eyes lowered to his chest.

“Take it off.”

Yato glared at her for a moment before ripping the locket off his neck. He dropped it into Hiyori’s hand after a second. He dropped back onto the bed and folded his arms over his chest.

An uneasy silence passed over the room as Hiyori crossed back to her own bed and sat down, placing the locket on the bed beside her. From underneath the bed, she pulled the Dark Arts book. It crossed Yato’s haze of fury that she probably had something to say about his attitude, but he would continue to sulk until he had Sakura’s locket back around his neck.

Hiyori flipped the pages, Yukine stood looking over her shoulder until she stopped on a certain page and began to read a passage.

“’Horcruxes, whilst contained within the vessel of the Dark Wizards, are able to move to people who become emotionally attached to the horcrux.’” Hiyori read. “’Whilst it may not possess you, the horcrux can amplify the holder’s negative feelings; such as hate, stubbornness, jealousy.’”

Hiyori looked up at Yato pointedly. He looked away towards the canvas wall. A prick of guilt stabbed through his sullenness. The anger came so easily, so naturally, yet it was not his own emotions at play: it was the Sorcerer’s influence.

“We’ll take turns carrying it, else we might just kill each other before we can destroy it,” Yukine broke the silence.

He took the locket from the bed and tucked it in his pocket.

Yato agreed reluctantly, as if he were giving up a missing part of himself. It certainly felt like he was. But perhaps Hiyori and Yukine wouldn’t feel the effects as much as he would as they weren’t particularly close with the object that plagued him for the best part of a year.

“Sorry,” Yato mumbled.

Yukine nodded, and that was the end of it.

~

It only took a few weeks for their supplies to dwindle. By that time, they had decided to risk stopping in a sleepy Muggle town, apparating a few miles outside of it and trekking in to avoid whatever detection had led to the café ambush.

After weeks of moving every few days, packing and unpacking the tents and beds repeatedly, and trekking across vast plains of country that began to feel like wastelands, Yato could feel the tension rising.

No visions would come to him, only dreamless sleep or the odd dream punctuated by a cacophony of sights and sounds that didn’t make sense. The Sword of Gryffindor would glitter at him mockingly, and then he would wake up to another day of disappointment.

They sat around the campfire they had made a short distance away from the tent, the shadows of summer sun long faded behind the treetops and sending a chill over them on the breeze. A pot was warming soup over the flames, a meal Yato swore he would never eat again when all of this was over, as the radio’s din washed over them.

They had no way of contacting Kofuku, or anyone else without detection, nor could they be contacted. The only voices they heard were theirs and the radio updates, which did nothing to help morale as they heard about the school year starting at Hogwarts. Anyone they could’ve turned to, the Order – if it still existed after the wedding attack – or friends, were well and truly out of reach.

The Undesirable notices continued to hound them and an ever-growing list of offenders, but when their names came once again, there was a new charge.

‘Hiyori Iki, wanted in connection to the murder of former Headmaster Tenjin, conspiring to depose the Minister of Magic, and failure to provide wizarding heritage’.

They knew it was coming but it still drove a knife into her heart to hear those words. Her magic, her life with Yato and Yukine and at Hogwarts, was called a deception.

The radio frequency crackled as Yukine spun the dial around, having heard enough of this annoying, brainwashed captives voice repeating the same mindless propaganda. When no station came, Yukine hit the radio with his wand with a soft curse.

A voice burst to life, louder than what it should have been. The three of them jumped to turn it down, aware of the fear that an unknown force in the woods would hear them. Yukine threw the dial in reverse and the sound cut out, and after a glance at Yato, turned it up to a less offending volume.

“…Bringing you the latest updates on the situation. The Chief Deatheater has…”

The voice crackled in and out of range, but there was no mistaking who it was.

“Is that Kazuma?” Yukine asked incredulously.

A stream of information came from the tinny speakers; new Ministry propaganda and listing the names of those who had been ‘snatched’ or killed by Deatheaters, but there was no mistaking that voice. ‘Chief Deatheater’ was repeated again, and they assumed was a codeword for the Sorcerer.

“We’ll be back tomorrow of frequency 501 with Bishamon for our Hogwarts Tales segment, who will be recanting her Quidditch victories against Yato. Once again, stay safe, and Yato, Hiyori, Yukine, if you’re listening, we’re right behind you.”

The radio cut off suddenly, leaving a dull fuzz of static to surround them.

“What the hell is he playing at?” Yato murmured.

“It looks like he’s reporting what the media won’t – can’t,” Yukine corrected himself, dropping down to his camp chair. “I can’t imagine the Wizarding Wireless Network or the Daily Prophet is reporting what the Ministry is actually doing – not that we have access to the latter anyway.”

Yato and Hiyori returned to their chairs, lost in thought. Kazuma’s words rang through their ears. Whilst the prospect of being snatched had been a world away, hearing about people – classmates or not – being snatched or murdered felt like a noose around their necks, waiting to be tightened.

“At least we have a way to find out what’s happening now,” Hiyori pointed out. Firelight flickered over her face, shadowing and highlights the curves and edges of her brow, nose and jaw. She had brought her knees up to her chest on her chair, a blanket pulled around herself.

Yato couldn’t deny that the autumn chill was getting more bitter every day. Soon enough the weather would turn wet and snowy, and they would be in a winter wilderness.

But with this prick of hope bleeding through the dark night, they had a chance to find out what was happening in the world.

[orgasmiccontagion]

In light of recent events and the pouring out of despair that I’ve seen on here among the various anarchist/insurrectionists/anti-civ individuals for the inevitably reformist recuperation of the uprisings in response to police brutality and white supremacy in America, I want to highlight a passage that I read in ‘ Critique of Chrisso and Odeteo’s Barbarians” by Frére Dupont, one of the authors responsible for writing “Nihilist Communism”. It may not be something we want to hear right now in response to what is transpiring, but there are some crucial points of critique being expounded here: “On what level does the militancy that C+O (Chrisso and Odeteo) validate signify to the self yes, we feel good to come off best after an encounter with the authorities, but to the authorities themselves and beyond them, to the existing structure, what value does any instance have? A burnt-out bank is a boon for builders, cleaning companies, cops, security advisers, property developers. A riot, like a forest fire, is good for business, cleans out the old, shock and awe. Capitalism makes capital out of conflict and disaster. Rioters and insurrectionists are not the most resistant elements in society, they are perhaps the most conscious, the most confrontational but they are also the most spectacular, the most self-conscious, the most prey to delusions of ‘people power.’ The insurrectionist is fine in his moment, and so many of them fall away exhausted, but they act only for themselves, they are not creating a better world, they are not at the front. They act for themselves, the extreme acts of a few will never be a substitute for the small acts of becoming human of the many. to acknowledge this, to accept the essentially selfish and subjective nature of the ‘black block’ is not to say we must not resist. On the contrary, we must continue. It is only to say, that there is no necessary connection with the outside through our desire for it. It is likely that our resistance, in the end counts in favor of existing authority and against the possibility for revolution. All we can say with certainty is that we can recognize what is not outside.” At a first glance of course we could dismiss this as counter-insurgency misrepresentation of insurrectionist action that has no purpose but to undermine the efforts made by the anarchists really out there throwing down. However, I think what Dupont is doing here is highlighting the burnout that anarchists feel time and time again is due to their failure to acknowledge that a few intensely radical individuals simply cannot through their own will annihilate a system as all encompassing as capitalism (and by extension the state and civilization) without acknowledging the efforts needed from those who are not already radicalized. Throughout my time spent on here the last couple of weeks I see pro-insurrectionist anarchists (myself included) giddy with excitement that because of riots/looting/precincts being burned down that we were on the cusp of a true apeshit moment in America. Unfortunately, within just over a week corporations, media, and the innumerable activist/careerist/opportunist rackets captured the virulent rage spreading throughout the metropolitan areas of America and beyond in order to reform us back in line once again. Due to the fact that (as is all too obvious) the vast majority of people do not have any ideas of a world “outside” the one which has ensconced all life within its totality (insert discussions on domestication, spectacles, the hyperreal, desire etc etc), the reformists are gaining the upper hand and the radical potentials are fizzling out due to counter-insurgency propaganda and worries among leftists and centrists of “de-legitimizing the movement”. However, getting excited about violent rebellion is one thing, but the subsequent crash into the reformist rackets shouldn’t lead anarchists into disappointment and defeatism, but rather revaluating and transparent criticism. Hence, this is why I want to launch deeper into what’s being said here. For one, the beginning of the passage discusses the emotional high radicals get off of clashes directly with the state and the institutions that protect them. Of course, this is a predictable reaction and one that should inspire more and more people to embrace their rage against the state. However, if the only places where these actions take place is in a few dozen large urban territories around the country, and if only an isolated number of businesses/police stations/institutions are attacked, how can we expect that this wound sundered in the death machines of capital will not close up in the blink of an eye? @corvid420​ pointed out that cops that are resigning from large city police forces (NYPD for example) will likely move into the suburbs or smaller districts and be hired as cops there, suburbs which house the petit-bourgeois/bourgeois sectors of society (not to mention majorly white). These places have seen far less action in comparison but still encompass many of the characteristics as the big cities (shopping malls, police stations, jails, courthouses), and while these spaces of society still remain untouched there will not be any significant strides in working towards an abolition of capital.

To build off the previous point, insurrectionists run the risk of spectaclizing their efforts as we have already seen the media continue to use the rioting/looting argument to discredit the most angry portions of the revolt. The ontological problem of “becoming-imperceptible” in an age of smart phones, mass surveillance and police helicopters continues to pose an immense obstacle in struggles such as these. Isolated incidents of a burned AutoZone or shoe stores being looted in New York make it easy to highlight and demonize a subset of “unlawful individuals” who are “not paying honor to the legacy” of the state sanctioned murders of black people in America. More importantly, due to the ways in which people in capitalist society create identities based on brands and commodities, they will empathize with business that have suffered from the riots and looting first. They will mostly ignore the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19 that is influencing a lot of this action in the first place (and even if this devastating crisis wasn’t occurring, why should we care if we deny the surplus value from corporations and engage in our own excess?). Insurrection needs to be treated as an all or nothing affair, otherwise its integration into the spectacle is only a matter of time. Of course, as Dupont points out later in this passage, he doesn’t want the banks to stop burning, but rather wishes to point out that smaller actions against the logic of capital by the majority will do far more than a few insurrectionists trashing a Target (or other similar large displays of disobedience). Fortunately, I have seen more and more anarchists highlighting the importance of this lately on here as of late, although at times like these those suggestions get buried under the desire to go out and break shit (I’m guilty of this as well).

Finally, and perhaps the most controversial portion of this excerpt, is Dupont’s discussion on the insurrectionist’s position in the overall revolutionary potential against capitalism. They highlight the individualistic nature of insurrectionists, and how in the moment they act mostly for their own desires. They are not, as Dupont argues, the “most resistance group” among those that suffer under capitalism, but rather the “most conscious”. This consciousness is perhaps the greatest strength insurrectionists have, in that these anarchists will embrace the most violent and extreme measures to go to in order for the current order to collapse. However, it is what also leads anarchists to feeling burnout when revolts and protests continue to get recuperated. This is where I agree the most with Dupont and see this passage as mostly coming across from a point of empathy rather than contempt. However, wanting to attack the state/capitalism/civilization from an individualist perspective is a necessary means to act within the context of the current struggle. This I think is a misunderstanding on Dupont’s part. The individualist tendencies of insurrectionary anarchists does not stop at the singular level but creates trajectories toward molecular forms. Through individuals enunciating their own struggles in the various spaces of the capitalist world, we can found relationships unmediated by the haunting specters of civilized life and use each other to the advantage of all. However, to the credit of Dupont, the desires of most people do not align with a revolutionary trajectory and therefore those individualistic tendencies can come across as impotent and ineffective. This of course is where future struggles and crises will have to compound on each other in order to make a push toward a different direction. The sobering observation of the crisis still being out of sight for most of those around us does not mean it can always be pushed to the periphery forever. Insurrectionists cannot be at a “front” because simply put there is nothing to be in front of, and they cannot create a better world because it isn’t up to them alone to create it. This is the real struggle not just for anarchists but anyone who rejects the current state of things. It is the struggle to form a movement, a revolutionary trajectory, when at the present there is hardly anything to mobilize. 

Overall, I find Dupont’s insights to be valuable at a time like this, despite some of the points I found a bit off. Using this passage as a way to focus on the response to not only what’s going on now but the inevitable crises of tomorrow will allow some necessary reflections on how things went down undesirably. I welcome any positive or negative feedback/commentary to this response and how it fits with the unrest going on currently in the United States and abroad. I do not wish to speak on behalf of anyone else, only from my own perspective and how I see the current movement unfolding and how other anarchists around me (who have much more experience in this than I) are reacting.

[why-we-fight-analysis]

The Dismantlement of Religion

This segment illustrates how each Axis Power dismantled religion and replaced it with institutionalized worship of the leader and the sate. The narrator divulges how Germany, Italy, and Japan eliminated fair court systems, labor unions, freedom of the press, controlled all forms of media and cultural events, and assassinated, imprisoned, or sent dissenters away to concentration camps. To the Axis Powers, there was “Only one obstacle left”, religion, and “the word of God and the word of fuhrers cannot be reconciled. Then God must go!”(16:30) (A brick is thrown through a stained-glass window to reveal a poster of Hitler as Hurston shouts this line) This segment does mention the prosecution of the Jewish people, but does so after Protestants and Catholics, as if they were all being persecuted equally, as if Jewish communities weren’t being specifically targeted. Out of the six newspaper headlines that are presented here, three describe persecution of Catholics, two of Protestants, and one of Jewish persecution.

“God must go!”

 “Nazis Vent Rage on Jews; Mobs All Over Germany; Mobs Kill, Loot, and Burn”(17:44)

I was confused watching this the first time. Growing up and learning about the Holoucast and the U.S. entry into WWII, I never learned the date the Allies found out about the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people. I thought the reason the U.S. entered the war was 1) the attack on Pearl Harbor (because it was an attack on U.S. occupied land) and 2) because the U.S. government and the public were aware of the the crimes against humanity being committed by the Nazis and had resolved to aid the existing Allies in putting an end to it. I thought that the Allies were aware of the Kristallnacht and the Nuremberg Laws and the rapid transformation of concentration camps (to imprison “enemies of the state”: communists and socialist) into extermination camps (which included anyone the Nazi’s determined to be undesirable in society: Jehova’s Witnesses, Queer individuals, Roma, and of course, Jewish people). How could they not be? And if the government did know why did they not inform the U.S. public in this film? How could they know and not take action?

As I’ve watched this film again and again the ultimate goal of this film becomes clearer: The U.S. government needed to justify the billions of dollars spent on the war effort by convincing the U.S. public that the Axis Powers were planning on destroying the American way of life. However, the film puts enormous emphasis on religious freedom as the foundation of that way of life. This segment positions the Axis Powers as the enemy of religious freedom and therefore the enemy of American virtues and prosperity. To opt out of the war would be to sacrifice these virtues and prosperity. 

The U.S. government also needed to justify the draft. In the section just before the dismantlement of religions, the narrator describes how the Axis Powers “established a system of forced labor… under the pretext of patriotism”(14:08) But how is the draft, instituted in September of 1940, much different? The people were told their way of life was threatened and would disappear if they did not fight for their nation. The forced labor under the pretext of patriotism I’m discussing here, of course, excludes the forced labor in the concentration camps. I think the film sets up the “free world” and the “slave world” in direct opposition with one another, however, when you dig beneath the simplified and cartoonish representation of these worlds, they share many similarities in agenda (preserving wealth, economic growth, and access to resources) and techniques (dispatching propaganda campaigns in order to coerce the public into allegiance to the state).

12. “Types of Camps.” Concentration Camps – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for Schools, www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-camps/types-of-camps/concentration-camps/.

13. “Oppression.” Kristallnacht – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for Schools, www.theholocaustexplained.org/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/oppression/kristallnacht/.

14. “Research Starters: The Draft and World War II: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/draft-and-wwii.