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Title: Post-Anarchism Anarchy Author: Hakim Bey Date: 1987 Language: en Topics: spirituality, Peter Lamborn Wilson Source: Retrieved on 23 November 2010 from http://www.tsuibhne.net/mt/archives/cat_articles_hakim_bey.html
The Association for Ontological Anarchy gathers in conclave, black
turbans & shimmering robes, sprawled on shirazi carpets sipping bitter
coffee, smoking long chibouk & sibsi. Question: What’s our position on
all these recent defections & desertions from anarchism (esp. in
California-Land): condemn or condone? Purge them or hail them as
advance-guard? Gnostic elite... or traitors?
Actually, we have a lot of sympathy for the deserters & their various
critiques of anarchism. Like Sinbad & the Horrible Old Man, anarchism
staggers around with the corpse of a Martyr magically stuck to its
shoulders — haunted by the legacy of failure & revolutionary masochism —
stagnant backwater of lost history.
Between tragic Past & impossible Future, anarchism seems to lack a
Present — as if afraid to ask itself, here & now, what are my true
desires? — & what can I do before it’s too late ?... Yes, imagine
yourself confronted by a sorcerer who stares you down balefully &
demands, “What is your True Desire?” Do you hem & haw, stammer, take
refuge in ideological platitudes? Do you possess both Imagination &
Will, can you both dream & dare — or are you the dupe of an impotent
fantasy?
Look in the mirror & try it...(for one of your masks is the face of a
sorcerer)...
The anarchist “movement” today contains virtually no Blacks, Hispanics,
Native Americans or children... even tho in theory such genuinely
oppressed groups stand to gain the most from any anti-authoritarian
revolt. Might it be that anarchism offers no concrete program whereby
the truly deprived might fulfill (or at least struggle realistically to
fulfill) real needs & desires?
If so, then this failure would explain not only anarchism’s lack of
appeal to the poor & marginal, but also the disaffection & desertions
from within its own ranks. Demos, picket-lines & reprints of 19^(th)
century classics don’t add up to a vital, daring conspiracy of
self-liberation. If the movement is to grow rather than shrink, a lot of
deadwood will have to be jettisoned & some risky ideas embraced.
The potential exists. Any day now, vast numbers of americans are going
to realize they’re being force-fed a load of reactionary boring
hysterical artificially-flavored crap. Vast chorus of groans, puking &
retching... angry mobs roam the malls, smashing & looting... etc., etc.
The Black Banner could provide a focus for the outrage & channel it into
an insurrection of the Imagination. We could pick up the struggle where
it was dropped by Situationism in ’68 & Autonomia in the seventies, &
carry it to the next stage. We could have revolt in our times — & in the
process, we could realize many of our True Desires, even if only for a
season, a brief Pirate Utopia, a warped free-zone in the old Space/Time
continuum.
If the A.O.A. retains its affiliation with the “movement,” we do so not
merely out of a romantic predilection for lost causes — or not entirely.
Of all “political systems,” anarchism (despite its flaws, & precisely
because it is neither political nor a system) comes closest to our
understanding of reality, ontology, the nature of being. As for the
deserters... we agree with their critiques, but note that they seem to
offer no new powerful alternatives. So for the time being we prefer to
concentrate on changing anarchism from within.
Here’s our program, comrades:
discrimination as one of the most disgusting aspects of our society.
Imaginative participation in other cultures, esp. those we live with.
Black’s pro-tem slogan): neither collectivist nor individualist. Cleanse
the temple of vain idols, get rid of the Horrible Old Men, the relics &
martyrologies.
radical & perhaps violent attack on Education & the serfdom of children.
publishing/propaganda tactics. Pornography & popular entertainment as
vehicles for radical re-education.
need a new music, totally insane but life-affirming, rhythmically subtle
yet powerful, & we need it now.
2-dimensional 19^(th) century scientism. “Higher states of
consciousness” are not mere spooks invented by evil priests. The orient,
the occult, the tribal cultures possess techniques which can be
“appropriated” in true anarchist fashion. Without “higher states of
consciousness,” anarchism ends & dries itself up into a form of misery,
a whining complaint. We need a practical kind of “mystical anarchism,”
devoid of all New Age shit-&-shinola, & inexorably heretical &
anti-clerical; avid for all new technologies of consciousness & metanoia
— a democratization of shamanism, intoxicated & serene.
the avant-pseud “post-sexuality” movement, & even more subtly by
Spectacular Recuperation in media & advertising. Time for a major step
forward in SexPol awareness, an explosive reaffirmation of the
polymorphic eros — (even & especially in the face of plague & gloom) — a
literal glorification of the senses, a doctrine of delight. Abandon all
world-hatred & shame.
Leftism. Emphasize practical, material & personal benefits of radical
networking. The times do not appear propitious for violence or
militancy, but surely a bit of sabotage & imaginative disruption is
never out of place. Plot & conspire, don’t bitch & moan. The Art World
in particular deserves a dose of “Poetic Terrorism.”
(e.g. computer networking) but can also manifest as a form of oppression
(homelessness, gentrification, architectural depersonalization, the
erasure of Nature, etc.) The communes of the sixties tried to circumvent
these forces but failed. The question of land refuses to go away. How
can we separate the concept of space from the mechanisms of control? The
territorial gangsters, the Nation/States, have hogged the entire map.
Who can invent for us a cartography of autonomy, who can draw a map that
includes our desires?
Anarchism ultimately implies anarchy — & anarchy is chaos. Chaos is the
principle of continual creation...& Chaos never died.
— A.O.A. Plenary Session
March ’87, NYC