Any contemporary coup or revolt would be swatted like a fly, then exploited for maximum advantage by propaganda. Examples will be made to the fullest extent possible. Mcvey's executions will offer an opportunity greater than his trial. Sedition is currently not possible. Technologies, designed to fight nuclear war, have been directed internally. This might be lessened over time. Individuals may accomplish much with ever cheaper tools. The system will rot from within. Stasis is not maintainable. Let the reactionary commit suicide. Tax dollars have never been better spent: a fitting end for patriots. These people waved flags celebrating other crushing defeats. Their enthusiasm seems waning... Dinosaurs should be extinct. Avoid purges and wait. Contacts with local law enforcement may prove beneficial, including the removal of certain records...
Alternatives are not rote.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Thursday, May 19, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CONSIDERATIONS AND DIGRESSIONS Part 2.1.3
The federal government is a massive societal support system. Many benefits are incurred. The majority would suffer greatly were it to collapse. Most would never support a violent overthrow for these reasons alone. Circumstances could change in another few generations with its degeneration. A global debt-ridden economy could provide enough sentiment along regional lines. Big brother's pockets run deep, but a global depression might prove impossible to overcome. Entropy must affect all closed systems. The world population will eventually peak. Once the global economy is integrated and cannot expand, the analogous thermodynamic condition will occur. Disorder will gradually increase to crisis levels hitherto unseen. In the United States any significant militant movements will have been crushed. Their existence will be historical curiosity, except possibly lukewarm environmentalism.
[33] The willfully patient may be the only prepared. Hence, the individual might seize the moment. A few worthy allies could prove crucial.
[33] Unless debatable global warming or significant ozone depletion becomes a noticeable reality. Even propaganda might not adequately quell resentment.
[33] The willfully patient may be the only prepared. Hence, the individual might seize the moment. A few worthy allies could prove crucial.
[33] Unless debatable global warming or significant ozone depletion becomes a noticeable reality. Even propaganda might not adequately quell resentment.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CONSIDERATIONS AND DIGRESSIONS Part 2.1.2
The United States is experiencing social pressure unique and unseen in world history. Amalgamated immigrant cultures have never been observed on this scale. The traditions[27], stability, geography[28], support structure[29], industry and a massive resource base are a combination with no other parallels. Regional competitions are less intense since 1865, the last major internal war, being connected by a strong federal system. The roots are not as deep. Other world powers do not share all these advantages. Europe and Japan are small territories. Russia is cold and remote. China has been too unstable. Most countries are intellectually inbred. The U.S.A. also excels in war and destruction. The Native American population has been almost eliminated.[30] Spain was brought to its colonial knees. Germany and Japan were simultaneously crushed. Iraq was devastated during 100 days of intense bombing. The Soviet Union was checked. Defeat has only come from lack of will (not necessarily a bad thing.) The binding national concepts were primarily influenced by European thought and religions. However, it has managed to grow from others. The changing ethnic composition has threatened certain notions regarding supremacy. Opportunists have seized upon this discontent. Real and imaginary grievances have been capitalized for maximum advantage. A relatively small faction has seized the moment to appear representative of a larger whole, whereas propaganda used this stance as an excuse to eliminate all opposition. Anyone who questions is branded a racist or militia (which is associated). The far-right reactionary fringe fascist agenda is even worse than the slow grinding wheels of the machine. Unfounded fears are being whipped into a frenzy, thus driving the herd deeper into the sickening embrace of the power structure. The right is being purged similar to the left. Ironically, many had been the loudest cheering section while the same happened to others. The left was a scapegoat for cold war alarmism. The right is deeply entrenched, therefore it will be eliminated more cleanly. Military factions would be more likely to support their agenda. A small number has advocated violence. Passive resistance is not part of their world view. Hence, less time will be spent tearing them down.[31] Contrary to popular propaganda, the Oklahoma City bombing clearly demonstrates the possibility of being caught in the middle, either being willing to trample over others. The local police may be the only possible allies against both. The elected county sheriffs may be the most important. Their office is the only directly elected, able to employ force.[32] Some have been willing to prohibit or prevent state and even federal action. Their importance is under-rated. No other law enforcement arm has the same grasp of locality. The sheriffs office is less controlled by higher policies, being locally and directly accountable. Weeding the scum, the best could accomplish more than any para-military action. Alternatives may already exist, rather than extremes. A fool dogmatically writes off any potential resource.
[27] The U.S. Constitution represents the oldest surviving governing framework in the world. The United States is comprised of peoples from every corner of the globe. Immigration has been a continuous factor in its history. The frontier spirit still exists. No other nation has been this flexible.
[28] The United States spans a continent, enjoys a long coastline with many warm weather ports, and its overall climate is moderate. This list could be added and expanded to fill volumes.
[29] The interstate and subsidiary system has no comparison. Russia has ones rail link across Asia. Energy is cheap and plentiful. Many countries import all their oil and minerals. Etc.
[30] Only about 2% of the total populace is considered native.
[31] Also methods employed have advanced in effectiveness.
[32] One of the last true worthwhile political causes is ensuring currently appointed county sheriffs are elected.
[27] The U.S. Constitution represents the oldest surviving governing framework in the world. The United States is comprised of peoples from every corner of the globe. Immigration has been a continuous factor in its history. The frontier spirit still exists. No other nation has been this flexible.
[28] The United States spans a continent, enjoys a long coastline with many warm weather ports, and its overall climate is moderate. This list could be added and expanded to fill volumes.
[29] The interstate and subsidiary system has no comparison. Russia has ones rail link across Asia. Energy is cheap and plentiful. Many countries import all their oil and minerals. Etc.
[30] Only about 2% of the total populace is considered native.
[31] Also methods employed have advanced in effectiveness.
[32] One of the last true worthwhile political causes is ensuring currently appointed county sheriffs are elected.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CONSIDERATIONS AND DIGRESSIONS Part 2.1.1
Chapter 2
1. On the Abuse of Police Power:
Police are often portrayed as mavericks by the officially sanctioned popular culture. The hero cop routinely bends or even breaks department rules and regulations for the ultimate common good. In reality, the para-militaristic police mentality is an extension of official policy decisions. Certain exceptions exist. However, no governing entity could ever even make the pretense of official control without widespread backing of its police force. Each police unit must actually enforce policy decrees. Police brutality simply mirrors the level existent in the whole system. Apparent distance is a matter of public relations. The developed world operates in this manner. The police are more a limb than the military. What of amputation?
1. On the Abuse of Police Power:
Police are often portrayed as mavericks by the officially sanctioned popular culture. The hero cop routinely bends or even breaks department rules and regulations for the ultimate common good. In reality, the para-militaristic police mentality is an extension of official policy decisions. Certain exceptions exist. However, no governing entity could ever even make the pretense of official control without widespread backing of its police force. Each police unit must actually enforce policy decrees. Police brutality simply mirrors the level existent in the whole system. Apparent distance is a matter of public relations. The developed world operates in this manner. The police are more a limb than the military. What of amputation?
Monday, May 16, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE Part 1.10.2
The disappearance of the question denotes the onset of any dark age in thinking. Technology is too often confused with real ideas. Propagandistic semantics must be cast aside for any hope of renaissance. Myopia can be fatal. Coping skills are gradually drained by the technological society. Despite their pretenses, the power elite will be swept off the same cliff with the herd. Their doom is deserved. Some few individuals may deviate from that course by being like a child with adult experience. The remainder will regroup, and begin a new cycle. Regression will need to be consciously avoided. A single viewpoint is too limiting. Accepting the lies mean suicide. One might begin by substituting the calculator with the abacus...
End of Part 1.
End of Part 1.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE Part 1.10.1
10. Blatant totalitarianism has been discarded in the developed world. Dictatorial governing systems tend not to be self-sustaining once the central figures have died or been eliminated. More advanced and stable systems have accomplished the task, often with a kinder, gentler touch. The Soviet state was the first such successful attempt.[26] After Stalin's death it survived. Its failure was attributable to outside pressure affecting the internal. Stronger competing economic systems improved upon those techniques within their own sphere. Propaganda was tied with market concerns in the mass media. Therefore capitalistic agitation and stabilizing propaganda may be performed more efficiently. Dissent may even be allowed, provided it goes nowhere. Occasional mass movements, such as for civil rights and anti-Vietnam war, may enjoy limited concessions. However, these wane once specific issues have been addressed and co-opted by the system. Hence, the supporters believe their own strength and willingly maintain its mechanisms. Instability is alleviated through these means. Ripples exist, rather than waves. Mass media increasingly moves at a faster pace, thereby reducing the attention span of the decadent. Focus is directed toward the moment, thus erasing past and future. The herd has forgotten all that glitters is not gold. Rebellion has been reduced to a hallow shell, easily exploited and drained. Capitalistic mechanisms have again been used for maximum advantage. Reduction to the status of mere commodities trivializes expressive outlets. Only a chump would believe a rock star preaching anarchy from a limousine. The great marketplace tragedy is created by the lowest common denominator embraced by the herd. Class division may be easily maintained by pitting the haves against the have-nots. Issues become blurred and deflected toward product identification. The money spent could be used for better things, thus blunting social stagnation. Submission defines the pecking order, or the opposite through backlash resentment. Reference points have become malleable. Individual perception becomes confused through these mechanisms, and easily manipulated for opportunistic purposes. The field has been tilled. Almost anything may take root. Clarity may be only a matter of refusing to believe. The herd will not even bother, mollified by comfort and security, to achieve clarity. Brains do not imply wisdom. Penned sheep shit all over each other. Constraints do not need to be accepted. Human cultural evolution will stagnate, unless we believe this system is not the pinnacle of the possible. Efficiency, masqueraded as progress, is simply no substitute for real advancement.
[26] The United States began adopting these characteristics after World War II, although the framework had been laid earlier.
[26] The United States began adopting these characteristics after World War II, although the framework had been laid earlier.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE Part 1.9.3
Efficiency is the prime motivator. Maximum gain for smallest expense is demanded by doctrine for highest economic performance and profit. Progress is a strong myth. The circumstance have been exploited for maximum advantage. Checked rural populations, long out of direct reach, are simply an added bonus for the power elite. Those believing conspiracy have been led by the nose. The complex world economic order requires rising to meet demands, not futile or inefficient attempts at controlling events. All else would be waste. This deficiency is attributable to a tendency to personify the unhuman in human terms. Propaganda supplies the image and maintains the trait through repeated usage. Any opportunist may accomplish this task by these procedures. Hence, counter-propaganda is created using the same techniques and readily available avenues. Both convinces the individual of his freedom while binding him with chains. The former must be overcome, thereby loosening the latter. Most will not admit their own stupidity in these matters. Convinced in their minds, conditioned by the myth of the right answer, and believing spoon fed half-truths, these sort restricts their own potential. Very few would admit to their true state. The herd requires self-respect for the best possible grazing animal. A hundred million people declaring bankruptcy would shake the financial world and far beyond. However, most people stay in constant debt because they fear the effect discharge would have upon future credit. The worst possible consequence would be the blessing of never going into debt again. A large mass of capital forfeiture would not be easily absorbed. Clout would be negatively impacted. Hence, people must be convinced otherwise for the sake of efficiency. A hundred million signatures on the proverbial dotted line could bring real freedom from economics, but this will never happen. The herd is weak.
Friday, May 13, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE Part 1.9.2
The American West (excluding the coast) and especially Alaska have been affected to a lesser degree; generally concentrated economic strips exist along major transportation routes, or scattered pockets. These massive territories are managed more effectively than any other comparable regions in the world. The late 20th Century shows largely voluntary relocation to large population centers. The alternatives are less appealing to many: low wages including crushing poverty, or the decadent tourist industry, which produce nothing.[24 Real wealth comes from the ground. The benefits largely enrich national and multi-national corporations, while leaving the residents a few crumbs. Once the market reaches a point where smaller concerns are profitable, the bottom drops out.[25] The third world is more easily exploited.
[24] A very small percentage survive off the land, or live outside resorts collecting wages reflecting a high cost of living. Ranching operations might benefit individual families controlling interest in large tracts of land. A few small business owners prosper. Federal programs and subsidies provide a living for many. Third world conditions mostly exist on Indian Reservations (who perhaps wisely might actually like it). However, the dollar amounts are minuscule compared with the grand total.
[25] Examples include gold, silver, and especially oil.
[24] A very small percentage survive off the land, or live outside resorts collecting wages reflecting a high cost of living. Ranching operations might benefit individual families controlling interest in large tracts of land. A few small business owners prosper. Federal programs and subsidies provide a living for many. Third world conditions mostly exist on Indian Reservations (who perhaps wisely might actually like it). However, the dollar amounts are minuscule compared with the grand total.
[25] Examples include gold, silver, and especially oil.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE Part 1.9.1
9. On Centralized Control (strength v. weakness):
Central government control dictates agricultural, timber and mining policy. Consequently, rural populations have been made subordinate, and effectively held in check. Transportation networks have enabled access to even remote regions. Disasters, such as the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, forest fires, and flooding, have required Federal intervention to alleviate rural hardship. Economic measures have often benefited the rural populace while creating dependance on the system. Indeed, price supports and global economic strategy have favored larger operations, thus eliminating self-sufficiency. The small mining, logging or family farm operations have essentially ceased to exist. Rural electrification projects, like the Tennessee Valley Authority, have connected most rural residents to the power grid. The old-style wind vanes have almost completely disappeared from the American landscape. Hence, these people are compelled into the corporate consumer culture by exposure to mass media, such as radio and television. Electric utility sales require the bill be paid with money, rather than traditional barter methods, to power electrical appliances[22] and machinery. Heeding to the demands of efficiency, this situation has produced circumstances where entire regions are owned by a few large corporations, devoted to a single product. Any potential rural uprisings could be quelled by closing transportation hubs and waiting. People would starve from gross nutritional deficiencies in the corn fields of Nebraska (or the banana plantations of Central America). The price of unity: rural Americans have been relegated to a status similar to feudal peasantry.[23]
[22] These must be paid for as well. This requires currency obtainable only through the economic system, thus binding further. Competition with large scale operations require equipment debts. Many small midwestern farms were ruined by this cycle and foreclosed or forced to sell out to big business. Farmers mow are paid low wages to work land owned by their fathers. Resentment should be expected.
[23] Except with a few consumer goods and shiny toys.
Central government control dictates agricultural, timber and mining policy. Consequently, rural populations have been made subordinate, and effectively held in check. Transportation networks have enabled access to even remote regions. Disasters, such as the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, forest fires, and flooding, have required Federal intervention to alleviate rural hardship. Economic measures have often benefited the rural populace while creating dependance on the system. Indeed, price supports and global economic strategy have favored larger operations, thus eliminating self-sufficiency. The small mining, logging or family farm operations have essentially ceased to exist. Rural electrification projects, like the Tennessee Valley Authority, have connected most rural residents to the power grid. The old-style wind vanes have almost completely disappeared from the American landscape. Hence, these people are compelled into the corporate consumer culture by exposure to mass media, such as radio and television. Electric utility sales require the bill be paid with money, rather than traditional barter methods, to power electrical appliances[22] and machinery. Heeding to the demands of efficiency, this situation has produced circumstances where entire regions are owned by a few large corporations, devoted to a single product. Any potential rural uprisings could be quelled by closing transportation hubs and waiting. People would starve from gross nutritional deficiencies in the corn fields of Nebraska (or the banana plantations of Central America). The price of unity: rural Americans have been relegated to a status similar to feudal peasantry.[23]
[22] These must be paid for as well. This requires currency obtainable only through the economic system, thus binding further. Competition with large scale operations require equipment debts. Many small midwestern farms were ruined by this cycle and foreclosed or forced to sell out to big business. Farmers mow are paid low wages to work land owned by their fathers. Resentment should be expected.
[23] Except with a few consumer goods and shiny toys.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
The Society of the Spectacle 114-124
1-15
16-34
35-53
54-72
73-89
90-113
114
In the course of this complex and terrible evolution which has brought the era of class struggles to a new set of conditions, the proletariat of the industrial countries has lost its ability to assert its own independent perspective. In a fundamental sense, it has also lost its illusions. But it has not lost its being. The proletariat has not been eliminated. It remains irreducibly present within the intensified alienation of modern capitalism. It consists of that vast majority of workers who have lost all power over their lives and who, once they become aware of this, redefine themselves as the proletariat, the force working to negate this society from within. This proletariat is being objectively reinforced by the virtual elimination of the peasantry and by the increasing degree to which the “service” sectors and intellectual professions are being subjected to factorylike working conditions. Subjectively, however, this proletariat is still far removed from any practical class consciousness, and this goes not only for white-collar workers but also for blue-collar workers, who have yet to become aware of any perspective beyond the impotence and mystifications of the old politics. But when the proletariat discovers that its own externalized power contributes to the constant reinforcement of capitalist society, no longer only in the form of its alienated labor but also in the form of the trade unions, political parties, and state powers that it had created in the effort to liberate itself, it also discovers through concrete historical experience that it is the class that must totally oppose all rigidified externalizations and all specializations of power. It bears a revolution that cannot leave anything outside itself, a revolution embodying the permanent domination of the present over the past and a total critique of separation; and it must discover the appropriate forms of action to carry out this revolution. No quantitative amelioration of its impoverishment, no illusory participation in a hierarchized system, can provide a lasting cure for its dissatisfaction, because the proletariat cannot truly recognize itself in any particular wrong it has suffered, nor in the righting of any particular wrong. It cannot recognize itself even in the righting of many such wrongs, but only in the righting of the absolute wrong of being excluded from any real life.
115
New signs of negation are proliferating in the most economically advanced countries. Although these signs are misunderstood and falsified by the spectacle, they are sufficient proof that a new period has begun. We have already seen the failure of the first proletarian assault against capitalism; now we are witnessing the failure of capitalist abundance. On one hand, anti-union struggles of Western workers are being repressed first of all by the unions; on the other, rebellious youth are raising new protests, protests which are still vague and confused but which clearly imply a rejection of art, of everyday life, and of the old specialized politics. These are two sides of a new spontaneous struggle that is at first taking on a criminal appearance. They foreshadow a second proletarian assault against class society. As the lost children of this as yet immobile army reappear on this battleground — a battleground which has changed and yet remains the same — they are following a new “General Ludd” who, this time, urges them to attack the machinery of permitted consumption.
116
“The long-sought political form through which the working class could carry out its own economic liberation” has taken on a clear shape in this century, in the form of revolutionary workers councils which assume all decisionmaking and executive powers and which federate with each other by means of delegates who are answerable to their base and revocable at any moment. The councils that have actually emerged have as yet provided no more than a rough hint of their possibilities because they have immediately been opposed and defeated by class society’s various defensive forces, among which their own false consciousness must often be included. As Pannekoek rightly stressed, opting for the power of workers councils “poses problems” rather than providing a solution. But it is precisely within this form of social organization that the problems of proletarian revolution can find their real solution. This is the terrain where the objective preconditions of historical consciousness are brought together — the terrain where active direct communication is realized, marking the end of specialization, hierarchy and separation, and the transformation of existing conditions into “conditions of unity.” In this process proletarian subjects can emerge from their struggle against their contemplative position; their consciousness is equal to the practical organization they have chosen for themselves because this consciousness has become inseparable from coherent intervention in history.
117
With the power of the councils — a power that must internationally supplant all other forms of power — the proletarian movement becomes its own product. This product is nothing other than the producers themselves, whose goal has become nothing other than their own fulfillment. Only in this way can the spectacle’s negation of life be negated in its turn.
118
The appearance of workers councils during the first quarter of this century was the most advanced expression of the old proletarian movement, but it went unnoticed, except in travestied forms, because it was repressed and destroyed along with all the rest of the movement. Now, from the vantage point of the new stage of proletarian critique, the councils can be seen in their true light as the only undefeated aspect of a defeated movement. The historical consciousness that recognizes that the councils are the only terrain in which it can thrive can now see that they are no longer at the periphery of a movement that is subsiding, but at the center of a movement that is rising.
119
A revolutionary organization that exists before the establishment of the power of workers councils must discover its own appropriate form through struggle; but all these historical experiences have already made it clear that it cannot claim to represent the working class. Its task, rather, is to embody a radical separation from the world of separation.
120
Revolutionary organization is the coherent expression of the theory of praxis entering into two-way communication with practical struggles, in the process of becoming practical theory. Its own practice is to foster the communication and coherence of these struggles. At the revolutionary moment when social separations are dissolved, the organization must dissolve itself as a separate organization.
121
A revolutionary organization must constitute an integral critique of society, that is, it must make a comprehensive critique of all aspects of alienated social life while refusing to compromise with any form of separate power anywhere in the world. In the organization’s struggle with class society, the combattants themselves are the fundamental weapons: a revolutionary organization must thus see to it that the dominant society’s conditions of separation and hierarchy are not reproduced within itself. It must constantly struggle against its deformation by the ruling spectacle. The only limit to participation in its total democracy is that each of its members must have recognized and appropriated the coherence of the organization’s critique — a coherence that must be demonstrated both in the critical theory as such and in the relation between that theory and practical activity.
122
As capitalism’s ever-intensifying imposition of alienation at all levels makes it increasingly hard for workers to recognize and name their own impoverishment, putting them in the position of having to reject that impoverishment in its totality or not at all, revolutionary organization has had to learn that it can no longer combat alienation by means of alienated forms of struggle.
123
Proletarian revolution depends entirely on the condition that, for the first time, theory as understanding of human practice be recognized and lived by the masses. It requires that workers become dialecticians and put their thought into practice. It thus demands of its “people without qualities” more than the bourgeois revolution demanded of the qualified individuals it delegated to carry out its tasks (because the partial ideological consciousness created by a segment of the bourgeois class was based on the economy, that central part of social life in which that class was already in power). The development of class society to the stage of the spectacular organization of nonlife is thus leading the revolutionary project to become visibly what it has always been in essence.
124
Revolutionary theory is now the enemy of all revolutionary ideology, and it knows it.
16-34
35-53
54-72
73-89
90-113
114
In the course of this complex and terrible evolution which has brought the era of class struggles to a new set of conditions, the proletariat of the industrial countries has lost its ability to assert its own independent perspective. In a fundamental sense, it has also lost its illusions. But it has not lost its being. The proletariat has not been eliminated. It remains irreducibly present within the intensified alienation of modern capitalism. It consists of that vast majority of workers who have lost all power over their lives and who, once they become aware of this, redefine themselves as the proletariat, the force working to negate this society from within. This proletariat is being objectively reinforced by the virtual elimination of the peasantry and by the increasing degree to which the “service” sectors and intellectual professions are being subjected to factorylike working conditions. Subjectively, however, this proletariat is still far removed from any practical class consciousness, and this goes not only for white-collar workers but also for blue-collar workers, who have yet to become aware of any perspective beyond the impotence and mystifications of the old politics. But when the proletariat discovers that its own externalized power contributes to the constant reinforcement of capitalist society, no longer only in the form of its alienated labor but also in the form of the trade unions, political parties, and state powers that it had created in the effort to liberate itself, it also discovers through concrete historical experience that it is the class that must totally oppose all rigidified externalizations and all specializations of power. It bears a revolution that cannot leave anything outside itself, a revolution embodying the permanent domination of the present over the past and a total critique of separation; and it must discover the appropriate forms of action to carry out this revolution. No quantitative amelioration of its impoverishment, no illusory participation in a hierarchized system, can provide a lasting cure for its dissatisfaction, because the proletariat cannot truly recognize itself in any particular wrong it has suffered, nor in the righting of any particular wrong. It cannot recognize itself even in the righting of many such wrongs, but only in the righting of the absolute wrong of being excluded from any real life.
115
New signs of negation are proliferating in the most economically advanced countries. Although these signs are misunderstood and falsified by the spectacle, they are sufficient proof that a new period has begun. We have already seen the failure of the first proletarian assault against capitalism; now we are witnessing the failure of capitalist abundance. On one hand, anti-union struggles of Western workers are being repressed first of all by the unions; on the other, rebellious youth are raising new protests, protests which are still vague and confused but which clearly imply a rejection of art, of everyday life, and of the old specialized politics. These are two sides of a new spontaneous struggle that is at first taking on a criminal appearance. They foreshadow a second proletarian assault against class society. As the lost children of this as yet immobile army reappear on this battleground — a battleground which has changed and yet remains the same — they are following a new “General Ludd” who, this time, urges them to attack the machinery of permitted consumption.
116
“The long-sought political form through which the working class could carry out its own economic liberation” has taken on a clear shape in this century, in the form of revolutionary workers councils which assume all decisionmaking and executive powers and which federate with each other by means of delegates who are answerable to their base and revocable at any moment. The councils that have actually emerged have as yet provided no more than a rough hint of their possibilities because they have immediately been opposed and defeated by class society’s various defensive forces, among which their own false consciousness must often be included. As Pannekoek rightly stressed, opting for the power of workers councils “poses problems” rather than providing a solution. But it is precisely within this form of social organization that the problems of proletarian revolution can find their real solution. This is the terrain where the objective preconditions of historical consciousness are brought together — the terrain where active direct communication is realized, marking the end of specialization, hierarchy and separation, and the transformation of existing conditions into “conditions of unity.” In this process proletarian subjects can emerge from their struggle against their contemplative position; their consciousness is equal to the practical organization they have chosen for themselves because this consciousness has become inseparable from coherent intervention in history.
117
With the power of the councils — a power that must internationally supplant all other forms of power — the proletarian movement becomes its own product. This product is nothing other than the producers themselves, whose goal has become nothing other than their own fulfillment. Only in this way can the spectacle’s negation of life be negated in its turn.
118
The appearance of workers councils during the first quarter of this century was the most advanced expression of the old proletarian movement, but it went unnoticed, except in travestied forms, because it was repressed and destroyed along with all the rest of the movement. Now, from the vantage point of the new stage of proletarian critique, the councils can be seen in their true light as the only undefeated aspect of a defeated movement. The historical consciousness that recognizes that the councils are the only terrain in which it can thrive can now see that they are no longer at the periphery of a movement that is subsiding, but at the center of a movement that is rising.
119
A revolutionary organization that exists before the establishment of the power of workers councils must discover its own appropriate form through struggle; but all these historical experiences have already made it clear that it cannot claim to represent the working class. Its task, rather, is to embody a radical separation from the world of separation.
120
Revolutionary organization is the coherent expression of the theory of praxis entering into two-way communication with practical struggles, in the process of becoming practical theory. Its own practice is to foster the communication and coherence of these struggles. At the revolutionary moment when social separations are dissolved, the organization must dissolve itself as a separate organization.
121
A revolutionary organization must constitute an integral critique of society, that is, it must make a comprehensive critique of all aspects of alienated social life while refusing to compromise with any form of separate power anywhere in the world. In the organization’s struggle with class society, the combattants themselves are the fundamental weapons: a revolutionary organization must thus see to it that the dominant society’s conditions of separation and hierarchy are not reproduced within itself. It must constantly struggle against its deformation by the ruling spectacle. The only limit to participation in its total democracy is that each of its members must have recognized and appropriated the coherence of the organization’s critique — a coherence that must be demonstrated both in the critical theory as such and in the relation between that theory and practical activity.
122
As capitalism’s ever-intensifying imposition of alienation at all levels makes it increasingly hard for workers to recognize and name their own impoverishment, putting them in the position of having to reject that impoverishment in its totality or not at all, revolutionary organization has had to learn that it can no longer combat alienation by means of alienated forms of struggle.
123
Proletarian revolution depends entirely on the condition that, for the first time, theory as understanding of human practice be recognized and lived by the masses. It requires that workers become dialecticians and put their thought into practice. It thus demands of its “people without qualities” more than the bourgeois revolution demanded of the qualified individuals it delegated to carry out its tasks (because the partial ideological consciousness created by a segment of the bourgeois class was based on the economy, that central part of social life in which that class was already in power). The development of class society to the stage of the spectacular organization of nonlife is thus leading the revolutionary project to become visibly what it has always been in essence.
124
Revolutionary theory is now the enemy of all revolutionary ideology, and it knows it.
Monday, May 09, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE Part 1.8.0
8. On Capital:
Money changes hands in return for an actual commodity. Money is no longer representative of any standard. Currency cannot be undermined by world financial markets. Indeed, stateless capital has even appeared.[21] Money has changed its meaning. Rather than based upon gold, money is based upon a combination of factors, broadly termed clout. Perception is a basis for clout. Obviously, sheer national economic strength is the deciding component. The US, Great Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland and Japan all enjoy relatively stable economies reflected in their respective currencies. These each can erode the others through clout. Lesser parties could accomplish the same by convincing the masses of a devaluation. Indeed, rumors can sometimes negatively impact entire economies. Bank runs, stock and bond markets crashes have been influenced in this manner. Often some will profit at the expense of others. This position could prove an achilles heel, especially where the motivation is not profit. An unforeseen mitigating crisis could bring down the whole house of cards. Of course, this could occur by accident. Credit and its accompanying debt may be the key. The devices of modern accounting may accomplish more than guns or bombs...
Money changes hands in return for an actual commodity. Money is no longer representative of any standard. Currency cannot be undermined by world financial markets. Indeed, stateless capital has even appeared.[21] Money has changed its meaning. Rather than based upon gold, money is based upon a combination of factors, broadly termed clout. Perception is a basis for clout. Obviously, sheer national economic strength is the deciding component. The US, Great Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland and Japan all enjoy relatively stable economies reflected in their respective currencies. These each can erode the others through clout. Lesser parties could accomplish the same by convincing the masses of a devaluation. Indeed, rumors can sometimes negatively impact entire economies. Bank runs, stock and bond markets crashes have been influenced in this manner. Often some will profit at the expense of others. This position could prove an achilles heel, especially where the motivation is not profit. An unforeseen mitigating crisis could bring down the whole house of cards. Of course, this could occur by accident. Credit and its accompanying debt may be the key. The devices of modern accounting may accomplish more than guns or bombs...
Saturday, May 07, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE Part 1.7.0
7. On Crackdowns, Cold War and Capitalism:
Crackdowns are ultimately self-defeating by diverting long range interests toward myopic power requirements. The drug war may primarily shoulder the responsibility for the massive U.S. national debt. Even bastard capitalism, practiced in the United States, requires profit for survival. The drug trade will always exist. This money represents an ever increasing unregulated and untaxed economic sector in the multi-billion dollar range. Perhaps, the drug trade is the last true bastion of capitalism -- a natural system prompting survival at the expense of others. Altruism rarely has any place in this scheme not unlike the food chain. However, true capitalism would actually more equitably distribute wealth by ensuring the continual circulation of funds. The drug crackdown, in response to a national health crisis, has come at the expense of the government's own coffers. The remedial solutions employing property confiscation will not make any sizable difference, only inflame passions by allowing tangible symbols for focus. Incarcerated individuals have been put to work, but will prove less economically productive than regular unskilled workers. No incentives exist. The cold war has seen many undiscussed casualties. Society has suffered from the industrial military mentality.[19] The same power structure capable of awesome destruction has been weakest domestically. Fifty years of war produced many unsustainable high-wage jobs. Military equipment must be used or sold for any return. Nuclear weapons are not suitable for either. Once the rationale for these weapons was no longer sustainable, the associated employment opportunities quickly faded. Economic recession followed the downturn. Dissent was certainly voiced, but prosperity rectified much potential damage. Only minor concessions were ever granted.[20] The drug war is just another example of agitation propaganda applied inward. Before the militia movement, the hysteria was focused elsewhere. Ethics is completely lacking in this moral society. Therefore, new co-targets may be added to the list, such as firearms. Prohibition does not work, but its enforcement mechanisms can be redirected. Drugs may become legal and taxed for medical treatment of addiction. The DARE program will say no to something else. Public disapproval is easily induced. Hitler proved similar propaganda tactics work effectively. The myopic power elite have learned from previous examples of their enemies. Decadence has been harnessed to accomplish the task. Those socially isolated will usually react to supplied stimuli, and not know better from lacking relevant experience. Imposed stasis will lead to decay. A great hope: the filth will liquidate themselves.
[19] In fact, President and former Five Star General Dwight D. Eisenhower did warn against the eventuality during his farewell address in 1960, while coining the term "military industrial complex."
[20] Although, mountains can always be made of mole hills. Is true equality defined by equal opportunities to be exploited by capital?
Crackdowns are ultimately self-defeating by diverting long range interests toward myopic power requirements. The drug war may primarily shoulder the responsibility for the massive U.S. national debt. Even bastard capitalism, practiced in the United States, requires profit for survival. The drug trade will always exist. This money represents an ever increasing unregulated and untaxed economic sector in the multi-billion dollar range. Perhaps, the drug trade is the last true bastion of capitalism -- a natural system prompting survival at the expense of others. Altruism rarely has any place in this scheme not unlike the food chain. However, true capitalism would actually more equitably distribute wealth by ensuring the continual circulation of funds. The drug crackdown, in response to a national health crisis, has come at the expense of the government's own coffers. The remedial solutions employing property confiscation will not make any sizable difference, only inflame passions by allowing tangible symbols for focus. Incarcerated individuals have been put to work, but will prove less economically productive than regular unskilled workers. No incentives exist. The cold war has seen many undiscussed casualties. Society has suffered from the industrial military mentality.[19] The same power structure capable of awesome destruction has been weakest domestically. Fifty years of war produced many unsustainable high-wage jobs. Military equipment must be used or sold for any return. Nuclear weapons are not suitable for either. Once the rationale for these weapons was no longer sustainable, the associated employment opportunities quickly faded. Economic recession followed the downturn. Dissent was certainly voiced, but prosperity rectified much potential damage. Only minor concessions were ever granted.[20] The drug war is just another example of agitation propaganda applied inward. Before the militia movement, the hysteria was focused elsewhere. Ethics is completely lacking in this moral society. Therefore, new co-targets may be added to the list, such as firearms. Prohibition does not work, but its enforcement mechanisms can be redirected. Drugs may become legal and taxed for medical treatment of addiction. The DARE program will say no to something else. Public disapproval is easily induced. Hitler proved similar propaganda tactics work effectively. The myopic power elite have learned from previous examples of their enemies. Decadence has been harnessed to accomplish the task. Those socially isolated will usually react to supplied stimuli, and not know better from lacking relevant experience. Imposed stasis will lead to decay. A great hope: the filth will liquidate themselves.
[19] In fact, President and former Five Star General Dwight D. Eisenhower did warn against the eventuality during his farewell address in 1960, while coining the term "military industrial complex."
[20] Although, mountains can always be made of mole hills. Is true equality defined by equal opportunities to be exploited by capital?
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Sunday, May 01, 2005
NTGNTP (6th Draft): CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE Part 1.6.0
6. The coming decades will be a time of increasing unrest driven by mainly economic factors. Indicators exist across the social spectrum. Natural instincts have been driven toward the decadent and nihilistic. The young have become disillusioned before their time, making their outlook old and tiresome. Among the desensitized, apathy is resultant and widespread. Energy is channeled toward entertainment, not survival. Self-destruction has taken many forms, and may be accomplished at different rates for the same end result. Many ignore these trends, or dream unworkable solutions that do not tackle real causes. Topical ointment will not heal a wound to the belly. Survival requires sight, preparation and desire. This civilization has largely dulled these instincts in favor of comfort and security. These people will die with the herd. Like the fabled Lemming, the human species may possess instinctual mechanisms to check overpopulation. The big brain requires more stimulus to render the job, than merely marching over cliffs. Of course, the real difficulty may lie in a natural impulse operating in the anti-natural technological world. Suicide should be cleaner...
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