We played as kids, changing roles depending on the day. The thieves who were hiding and trying to escape the guards who were looking for them to arrest them and put them in ‘prison’. The next day the opposite happened, reversing the identities. Guards because there were thieves and thieves who ran away because there were guards. Now is no longer the time for games because games are played in time, in today’s history. Cops and robbers need each other to fulfill themselves.
At the time of my service as a volunteer in the Marassi prison, this role playing appeared particularly evident to me. Ultimately, it was a matter of thanking the ‘thieves’ for what they operated on the security market, as they were the ones who guaranteed the perpetuity of the prison institution. Even more so since the roles, as in the game, appear interchangeable in the great show that is staged, between farce and drama that is repeated. This game which, in other latitudes may be called cats and mice, changes the names but not the principle. A party game. In this world of thieves, as was sung in the last century in this crazy world, efforts are being made to develop operations in three qualified sectors. the priority is that of the words that thieves know to be the most precious and sought after asset of humanity. Stealing the meaning, destiny and purpose of words means taking away the present, the past and, above all, the future of society. In fact, from words comes life and at the same time what betrays it, such as promises, oaths and beliefs. Stealing words is a horrendous crime because it is, no more and no less, a manipulation of reality. And this is exactly what the second sector is the prerogative of thieves. Taking away reality or portions of it constitutes a crime whose consequences are irreparable. The falsification of reality, that is, the substitution of truth for lies, is the most dangerous thing one can imagine. In fact, this operation has a profound impact on the credibility that adults claim on young people who try to walk on a crumbly path, without references and perspectives. Uncertainty then becomes the only acceptable prospect. Finally, obviously, the thieves take away the money and therefore the power that very often appears from them inseparable. Steal money, resources, bribe, steal funds, lend to usury, print false money and other similar operations, seems all too in keeping with the social role entrusted to thieves. The so-called ‘paradises tax’, widely accepted and recognized, are the best known symptom. Money and power, as it stands, they also seem to be playing thieves and guards. The latter also have areas, territories and situations which facilitate the realization of their vocation or mission. And it is at this point that we cannot fail to mention borders. Elsewhere, as in our area, they are one of the revealers or ‘mirrors’ of the way in which any society in the world functions and is organised. Taxes are paid for missing documents, for goods transported, for medical certificates, vaccination certificates and simply for nationality viewed with suspicion on the other side of the border. Names, routes, destinations and money are recorded they hide to avoid seizure or a permanent loan. Worse if you are a migrant because, given the traveler’s profile, everyone has the right to appropriate the travel money. Borders are dangerous even when there are no barbed wires or facial control systems because the guards live on them.
Fixed, mobile, aquatic, aerial or imaginary borders are essential to the identity of the guards. The other area favorable to the guards is the political one. There are the guardians of the temple, of the revolution, of orthodoxy, of the established truth or of that chosen at the moment. Woe to politics if they weren’t there protect a regime from the libertarian or anarchist tendencies that are always lurking. Even in unsuspecting times bodyguards and security guards ensure the functionality of the system. Even angels, sometimes, yes they act as guardians to make the lives of the faithful easier. Finally, we find the guardians of the guardians, a more refined type of numerical and digital control. In the era of cannibalistic capitalism or surveillance, it is precisely they, the guardians of the guardians, who reassure the dominant ideologies. Until, before the end, the thieves return to re-establish the order that the guards had stolen.
