“New names, same ideas”: The British National Vanguard

The BNV is a new British group. It is very interesting and worrying the use of the term “Martyrs” in their propaganda aimed to drive a sympathiser from contemplation to action. The similarities between groups from the far-right and Jihadists is ironically striking.

Political protagonism, and the desire to make one's “truth” triumph at any price in the face of the hostility of the “system”, are motivations to make the perfect “political soldier” to risk his life and to "sacrifice" it. This extreme gesture is not only understandable as a desperate reaction to a political context characterised by violence; it is also a gesture that, starting from this violent context, finds its “reason to be” within a particular dispositional and motivational configuration, activated by specific conceptions of "sacredness" and transcendence, as well as by a particular idea of the relationship between body and spirit. The symbol of the Phoenix here is significant indicating Renovation and Redemption.