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The Pleasurable Revolution
from the Wobbly Review of Books
by
Mike Ballard
THE BOOK OF PLEASURES, by Raoul Vaneigem
ISBN 0 904665 03 8
Published by Pending Press, London, 1983
Warning: this book will squeeze your adrenal glands. It is the
very personal statement of a French revolutionary, who's
organizational history and political profile can be found in the
Situationist movement of the 1960's, a movement which carved
its niche in history with the paving stones dug from Parisian
streets during the heady days of May, 1968. It is a
psychological snapshot of one, Raoul Vaneigem, circa 1979. LE
LIVRE DES PLAISIRS was translated into English, as the BOOK OF
PLEASURES, by John Fullerton in 1983. Its latest incarnation can
by purchased from Left Bank Books, at 4142 Brooklyn Ave. N.E.,
Seattle, Washington 98105. It's a fairly expensive 105
pages--$12 in paperback-- but considering its lack of
availability in most libraries, being able to read it is usually
going to be limited to being able to buy or steal it; an irony,
I'm sure, M. Vaneigem would appreciate.
"All pleasure is creative", he writes, "if it avoids exchange.
Loving what pleases me, I have to build a space in life as little
exposed as possible to pollution by business, or I will not find
the strength to bring the old world down, and the fungus among us
will rot my dreams. While the state is in disarray, strike hard
at business and its friends."
Raoul Vaneigem sees the social relations and the consciousness
which springs from them under the rule of capital, as turning the
real world upside down. Human desires, traits, labor,
creativity, indeed human beings themselves, come increasingly to
be viewed as attainable in exchange for money: sexiness through
soap commodities, joy through the purchase of brand named
alcoholic commodities, self-esteem by buying a certain car or
truck. This upside down (reified, if you will) world permeates
human communication and therefore, consciousness in modern
industrial societies. It stifles human self-awareness and blocks
the road to social revolution, the road toward what M. Vaneigem
describes as "universal self-management". It is culminating
today in the almost total commodification of human relations.
"There will be no proletarian emancipation unless we strike the
shackles off pleasure.", Vaneigem writes. In order to crack
one's way out of this multifaceted shell, he proposes that the
individual worker focus first on her/ his need for pleasure and
then to use it as the engine of psychological emancipation.
Duty, guilt, and sacrifice-- the traditional left, liberal, and
religious motivators-- tend to produce less than liberating
results and in fact, according to Vaneigem, are counterproductive
or worse, reactionary in nature.
"Doing exactly what you feel like is pleasure's greatest weapon,
connecting individual acts with collective practice; we all do
it. If rejecting survival made the 1968 movement taking hold of
life will open the era of universal self- management."
Agree? Disagree? Curious? Pick up the BOOK OF PLEASURES.
Follow M. Vaneigem's id though the psychological thicket of our
collective super-egos. You may see yourself and your co-workers
inside, suspended within this sphere of self induced repressions,
reinforced by the admonitions of all the official authorities of
modern ideology: religion, the State, the Economy, media
pundits... Choose your poison. Raoul Vaneigem would have you
choose pleasure.
Admittedly, this can be a dangerous path and Vaneigem deals with
many of your objections as he argues, appeals, and taunts.
Sometimes a Freudian/Reichian map would seem helpful; but in all
commonsense and a tuned-in critical faculty is all you really
need. It is true that M. Vaneigem can sound pompous at times.
His aphoristic phrasing can put one off too. His pronouncements
pooh-poohing organization in favor of spontaneous autonomy left
me cold after awhile. While this notion may be appealing, it
will never satisfy the desire of those who wish for more than a
psychic liberation from the rule of capital. Generalized
self-management can only be realized on a societal level as a set
of social relations based on democratic practice. Individuals
can only go so far by themselves. A cooperative commonwealth
requires democratic mediation of individual differences and
individual desires. This is sometimes hard work which is not
always immediately pleasurable. C'est la vie, non M. Vaneigem?
I don't mean to throw cold water on the BOOK OF PLEASURES though.
The insights which pack this book are extremely useful. They
continually stimulate and challenge the reader. I think
Vaneigem's observations can help us as, "we are forming the
structures of the new society within the shell of the old."
This review is reprinted from the April, 1993 edition of the
"Industrial Worker", the newpaper of the Wobblies.
subs to the "IW" can be had for a mere $10 per year. There
are 12 issues per year. Snail mail to
Industrial Worker
1095 Market St. #204
San Francisco, Ca 94103
U.S.A.