"Asian Affairs" c/o : Edwin Lue-Shing.,


untitled exert from "Dark Days in a Pool of Light"., c/o : hesq.,

And so while some raved

half mad tearing and biting

at their own brains

to find out some answers to the questions

they'd scrawled lewdly on their own walls

others would flip through

bright coloured magazines

in hair and beauty salons

mesmerized by the

turnip-urined gossip

of anorexic cunts

and plastic dripping models

And yet by some strange quirk of

our magic universe they both could

find a perfect calm

from the storm outside...

hesq.,

Do something beautiful... c/o : hesq.,

So dig a Deep Hole in the Sky,
then curl yourself up and Sleep,
to dance dream all through
darkest (pitchy black) night
and then waking up
dew damp dusty cold
and (freezing) fresh as first light
dare to believe the
day is all yours...

So do something beautiful,
like the princess who smuggled
silk worms out of China
and released the secrets of silk
to the whole (sky) wide world.

hesq.,

The Grid-Locked Dream., c/o : hesq.,

Philosophy of the "Rolling Road Block".,

Phantom traffic jams,
smooth flowing traffic suddenly comes to a halt
and the ripples spread back
cars bumper to bumper
bringing road rage - like clouds bring rain -

road rage : the stiffled frustration of sexual impotency
while imagining high speed automobile accidents
and car wrecks with all the metal eroticism which they imply.,
sexual repression as the precursor to the death fantasy,
halted snuff movies backed up for miles
listening to the traffic reports on their radios...

We are coming to a standstill. Our imaginations dreamed up super-highways with the same cold logic as the concentration camps., detention to create efficiency : we feel tragically alone but we are not, we are all locked inseperably together. We feel impotent yet secretly we know that we could turn the world on its head with one shared heart beat...

Drop the illusions, shake them from you like Shelley's lion shook off the morning dew
and never quietly accept your own defeat.

hesq.,

Enric Duran., the Catalan "Robin Hood".,

Enric Duran borrowed (through fraudulent loans mostly) nearly half a million euros from banks then used the money to support local anti-capitalist social movements and action groups as well as to print 200,000 copies of Crisi; a paper that explained why he had done this, why he never intended to repay the loans and in which he (and the others who co-wrote the peice) expressed his hope that this action would be understood in its true light. Ultimately though Duran claims the robberies as a form of social disobedience as an attack on the power of the banks.

Here is a copy of his statement :

"I am writing down this pages to announce that I have expropriated 492,000 euros to 39 banks through 68 loan deals. If we include interest on arrears, the present amount of debt is over 500,000 euros which I will not pay.
It has been an individual disobedience action towards banking that I have carried out deliberately to denounce the bank system and to use the money for supporting initiatives which alert from systemic crisis that we are starting to live and which intend to build an alternative society.
It is an action totally unconnected to any violence form, that I claim as a new way of civil disobedience, up to the height of the times we are living. When consumption financing and speculation are dominant in our society, what could be better than robbing the ones who rob us and distribute the money among the groups which are denouncing this situation and building alternatives?
How could I get such amount of money without neither properties nor bank guarantees?
After some research and attempts, in the spring of 2006, I started going ahead definitely with this idea; I was making various banks, savings banks and finantial credit establishments think that I wanted to refurbish my flat or buy a new car. In some cases, I was doing that by using a company I created with the aim of justifying certain investments as the purchase of audiovisual materials for a production company.
The advantages of asking for a loan by a company are that debts as a company, even when it is a sole shareholder company, do not get registered in your personal credit history, so you can always increase your debts indefinitely without being detected by CIRBE (information system about debts from the Bank of Spain). There are some other ways to deceive CIRBE that I will explain to anybody who want to carry out an action with a similar purpose than that to mine.
These loans were applied without any guarantee neither from another person nor from any properties, just by my signature and an invented occupation with a great false payroll that was making them believe I was earning enough money to cover the financing by far. The crux of the matter is banks have no way of checking wether the payroll one presents to them is real or not, as long as the company and the person really exist.
I also had to present them some right bank statements that I could get by circulating money from company accounts to personal accounts through payroll transfers in order to pretend some personal deposits, which banks were believing at all. In some cases, they were asking me for a job contract, Income Tax Return or work history. They were asking my companies for the quarterly VAT return and, when they were older than one year, for the Corporate Income Tax.All this can be properly presented: sometimes with real information and when it is not possible, with a printer, a photocopier, scissors and sellotape it works wonders!Sometimes, I had to buy the car I had asked the loan for and then I had to sell everything before I stopped paying so they could not seize anything and so we could have more funds to finance popular struggles.
Achieving this can be surprising, achieving 492,000 euros with no bank guarantees in an economic downturn context. It shows how the banking promotes indebtedness from families over any control or over any risks contingency plans and common sense.
In conclusion, there is a fact which can help us understanding the possibilities and opportunities that exist for this kind of action: banks need to grant loans because that is the main way for them to get benefits and, as we have already explained in a previous article, because the financial system needs to sign out more and more bank credits to create more and more money each time. It is a wheel that will not stop until the system brings to a standstill. As individuals, instead of keep on helping the wheel to roll by asking for loans for production or consumption, we have the opportunity and responsibility of making things difficult to this system, making them believe we want some loans and so they think they will create this money thanks to us. Afterwards, by not giving back these loans we make disappear this money and the one created out of the blue from the guarantee we had signed for refunding debts. This system works on the basis of trust so if we can spread mistrust by carrying on similar actions, then we will be able to abolish it (destroy it?)!
Why this action?
This crisis, that has been already explained in previous articles, was to be expexted -specially in its energy aspect. Three years ago, I heard about peak oil theories and I thought that when the crisis triggered it would be fundamental for us to be ready to face it. This could be an opportunity for social change, a time to make the most of it. But if we were not preparing ourselves for it, future could turn even worse than what we are living now, as shortage management by economic and politic authorities could lead us into new ways of fascism.
Very often, one of the problems we find nowadays when we talk about social transformation is that it is difficult to identify the main enemies. As we have seen in the article related to the finantial system, there are hidden and evil mechanisms which permit that the money creation process is controlled by a minority and, because of that, they make the economic system work according to their interests. Revealling the identities hidden in this minority, hidden in this banking system which is getting us towards environmental collapse, seemed fundamental to me and it was a clear motivation for encouraging me to carry out this action and to announce it openly.
Another convincing reason for me was the opportunity to strengthen social movements so they could be ready to face the crisis, trying out some alternatives which could turn into the example of a viable way of life when the crisis breaks out. I thought we would need more money than we could get by other normal means as, according to my experience in social movements, one of the main restrictions for transformer projects has always been the lack of enough economic capacity to run strategic projects that are ready to start when it is found convenient and to maintain them for the time it is considered necessary.
There are society alternatives which are just getting off the ground from practice and with no really stablished ideas. There are so many initiatives that, from autonomy and self-management, are starting to practice new ways of life that they consider to be alternatives to the current capitalist system. There are clear and driven efforts to get coordinatet and organized jointly through nets, to start puting into practice another society model. The path is set off, now we need to keep on going and gather strength.Where is the money?
Once the commissions, interests, notaries, taxes and various expenses related to the action but not directly related to social change were paid, there were leaving around 360,000 euros that have been assigned, amongst others, to the publication you have between your hands1. Other destinies have been various actions and initiatives addressed to raise awareness about the systemic crisis (energy, food, aconomic...) as well as, and specially, to enhance a wide social movement which promotes different ways of living in society while it is also facing present capitalist model until it can replace it.
I will not give any more concrete details in this document because it could cause some problems to the projects that have received this money without being responsible for that, but I hope that people with whom I've been sharing time lately will start the word-of-mouth which will make possible that a lot of people know for sure that the funds fate has been directed towards this sole aim.A call for action
Above all, this action aims to be an appeal for everyone to think about what can and want to do for changing the state of things within its means or even for changing what could seem impossible to change...If I have carried out this financial disobedience action, risking my own freedom to show that the economic system is more vulnerable than it seems and to obtain all this amount of money for the construction of alternatives, maybe there will be many other people who can do something else if they trust themselves, if they get to free themselves from the false fears we are deliberately educated in by the system and if they resolutely think that just through the people, from below, we can change the state of things.
Taking as an example the style of action I have carried out and taking into account personal and economic context of each one, some people will perhaps realize about some things they can do within their reach:
* Tenants, undergoing with the continuing increase in the costs (usually linked to the increase in purchase prices) can join together to commence a rent strike, as the one from 1930 and 1931; I am sure there are some people who are alreadythinking abou it...* If you are paying a mortgage since not too many years and you still have to work for many years in a job you do not like at all, you could maybe stop paying the mortgage and squat your flat. If you do it alone you will probably have a problem (not a bigger problem than the one you already had though, and what is more: you can consider spending your time doing what you like, consistent with your ideas and vocation) but if a lot of people does the same in an organized manner, it will be the banking the one who will have a problem...* If you are committed people and you want to collaborate with social movements, now you know there is the possibility of asking for some loans and not paying for them so you can finance the struggles, while you put obstacles to the financial system at the same time. There are some ways of doing this without getting any criminal charges for it, you just should do it in a smaller scale (related to mine) and you should not spread your action. I can give you a helping hand on this, hehe.* If you are already on the way of living with no bank accounts because you have any sentence-fine (very common nowadays) that you do not want to pay, why don't you expropriate some money to the banks before you get to the point of no having any checking accounts?
With these various options and any others you can think about you will always be delinquent accounts (or at least until this system in crisis lasts...) so it would be advisable to think about an action followed by a personal plan of living in a different manner, with neither checking accounts nor properties.
* Anyway, if you can not or you do not want to carry out any of the actions before mentioned, there are two easier things that everybody can and must do as soon as possible: not asking for any loans and taking out all the money from the banks.
By keeping loans, credit cards and checking accounts, we are an accessory to the banks which represent the heart of a capitalist system that is spreading our planet's destruction, poverty and our life's slavery all around.Taking out all your money from the banks is something that everybody can do simply by getting a little bit more organized to manage payments and earns in a different way.
And if you receive too late this call for action, because there are some debts you could not pay and you are already in the banks' delinquencies lists... why don't you contact me to set up a delinquencies union? There are more people registered in delinquencies lists than in unemployment lists...and living without checking accounts is some kind of art which deserves to be shared!What I am going to do from now on.
While writing this public document, there has not been presented any criminal charges on me; this fact proves that I have been able to carry on the action to its end without any control or any police suspicion.Anyway, according to the Spanish state's judicial system (not taking into account its ethical motivation), since I have done this confession, I should be charged with greater fraud (from 50,000 euros and over) and punishable insolvency. I can be charged from 2 to 6 years for the first accusation and from 1 to 3 years for the second one.So I have preferred to claim this action publicly as civil disobedience so everybody can know what can they do and to question the very financial system instead of hiding the action as any person who thinks first in his/her own integrity would recommend me.
But as my position is that of clear recognisement and that of moral and political defense of the facts, as I do not think that the judicial system is legitimized to judge me (as a part of a completely undemocratic political system, depending from the same economic authorities to whom I direct my action against) I have decided to accompany this public explanation of the facts with my physical disappearance. By this way, I will avoid possible reprisals against my freedom or my body which would prevent me from continue defending and explaining these facts openly. I will keep on being an active member within catalan social movements through virtual participation while I have to be phisically in some other point of the world from where I can also take part in social struggles.
Further forward, I reserve the right to come back an physically appear in catalan territory if it is proved that catalan civil society is prepared to defend freedom for the people who publically face our society's economic and political authorities.
If I was ever judged, of my own will or not, I can tell you the only verdict I will accept will be the aquittal from court as considering that my action does not constitute a crime because of its ethical motivation and because it is a gesture of solidarity against the authorities which are more damaging this society and because it is an action in favour of the common good. Apart from this, I will not negotiate any lower sentencies for avoiding serving my sentence, neither will bail nor pay a fine or negotiate the debt. If state is uncapable of getting rid of the pressure from factual powers, then everybody will be able to see it when they put a person like me into prison.
From this moment on, you can reveal my identity and contact me on the web http://www.17-s.info where you will also find further thorough information.The merger between two activist traditions
This action from Enric, even innovative, does not emerge out of the blue; historically, activists from various trends have been risking for common good over current legality either by directing actions against the banks to finance struggles, or doing public civil disobedience actions to transform something. In banking expropriations field, tradition begins at the beginning of twentieth century, in countries such as France and Italy, as well as in the Spanish state, with the spectacular robbery to the Bank of Spain in Gijón by el grupo de los solidarios, in 1923, for instance.
Mythical figures in our history such as Durruti, Quico Sabaté or Salvador Puigantich have carried out this kind of actions, which are always dangerous as they put in danger their lifes and branchs workers ones. Some other methods, safer for people but much more complicated, have been those of notes or traveller's cheques forgerying. This last action against Citybank, helped Lucio Urtubia become known all over the world. He is still alive and has recently given some talks around catalan territory to present the documentary Lucio, el anarquista irreductible.
Civil disobedience strategy begins in the ninetienth century by Henry Thoreau and gets very well-known through names like Gandhi and Martin Luther King. In the spanish state, pacific disobedience just started to get considered as a possibility after dictator Franco's death, given that in times where violence is committed by the State with total immunity, non-violent disobedience is completelly impossible. Since the 70's up to now, some of the most recognized social movements -as the successful refusal to serve in the military and the squatter movement- are based on this disobedient premise.
One of the problems for the meeting point lies in the opposite situations starting point. The first situation needs to work underground; the second one is a public action which bases its strength on its social support and its actions legitimacy. The action we are talking about now can fuse them both because it has two different parts: the direct action one (which has already been carried out and its secret nature has enabled the action success) with the civil disobedience one (which is starting today, with the confession and public defense the author does, seriously questioning banking's moral legitimacy.
If this example will still remain as an isolated action or if it will represent the seed for a new action strategy, either public or hidden, time will tell. All of us, each individual who want to change the state of affairs, have the last say. "

from scotland with love.,xx.


busking.,




Manifesto for general consumption strike, Paul Ariès

Manifesto for general consumption strike
This text can be used freely with indication of the source : http://www.casseursdepub.org/index.php?menu=doc&sousmenu=greve_conso_english
Conclusion of the book by Paul Ariès : No conso : vers la grève générale de la consommation, Golias editions, Lyon, France, october 2006.

The society of consumption is sad, unfair and impossible : 20% of the human race monopolizes 86% of the world's natural resources and this "air-conditioned hell" is not generalizable because it overshoots the regenerative capacity of ecosystems. Therefore we must end this domination of one over the other and of all over the planet to simply live as humans. This is the choice of responsible action but also of utopia : only this choice can bring meaning back to our values like liberty. We want to compare the bulimic economic logic with the goal of living with « less goods but with more relationships ». Building a political project based on « free use and expensive misuse » would allow us to solve both environmental and social issues and enable us to see the return of politics. Only the prospect of a « general consumption strike » can give power back to the weakest facing this tiny powerful minority which thrives on our bad-being and the destruction of all things.
The idea of a general labor strike runs throughout the XXth century. But who can still believe in it nowadays ? The general labor strike had many failures but it would be absurd to remember only the failures. Indeed the general labor strike actually became a myth and the essence of a myth is both allowing action and accepting the inevitable failures. Hardness of hyper-capitalism and its new means of management muzzle employees and many people are unable to go on strike because of unemployment or extreme poverty. Furthermore there's often a big difference between claims and our emancipation dreams . That's why some people now think that a consumption strike could take place.
What would be a general consumption strike ? It would be a real social movement with its collective claims against the government and employers. This strike would neither be the continuation of a simple way of life nor a well-targeted boycott but a collective way of refusing to be consumers.
The worker is chained more materially than mentally to the society of consumption. It's the prospect of the difficult (or impossible) end of the month which makes him or her go back to work, not the supposed love of labor. However hyper-capitalism has not invented yet the material structure to chain the consumer to the society of consumption. It is the false enjoyment of consumption which prevents him or her from stopping consuming and not material obligations. How could capitalism force someone to buy beyond his necessities, beyond needful consumption ? In the case of a labor strike time runs against the striker but it runs in his or her favor in case of a consumption strike. The power lost by workers who refuse to produce (this is the deep meaning of any general labor strike) can be found again by the consumers who refuse to remain consumers.
A general consumption strike would indisputably be the crowning glory of a consistent strategy of civic disobedience. First because it would infringe the absolute dictates of consuming; the most vital and sacred part of the system would then be attacked. Second because it would be a social movement against the State and employers to force out another hierarchy of legal norms based on the satisfaction of real human needs. Of course that requires preparation, mobilization, theatricalization and negotiation.
The future ex-consumers must learn to use this weapon. By celebrating each November the "buy nothing day". By organizing actions around simple claims, easily understandable, quite easily victorious. By considering general strikes with goals more difficult to perceive but fundamental to get out of capitalism. The other advantage of general consumption strike is not separating the goal from the path since getting out of the consumption sphere is both the beginning and the end of this revolution.
As long as we remain in Fordism, capitalism needs our daily compromise. The only way out of this is a general consumption strike which can restore collective force to the weakest. It would allow us to stand up as long as possible in front of this opponent who doesn't want to satisfy our desire to live a better life. At best it could unite the weakest and divide those who thrive on the domination of one over the other and of all over the planet.
Let's not delude ourselves : the system will react. It will use blackmail with employment, it will threaten with firing; the shopkeepers will cut prices and manipulate consumers. Luckily, the production system is not fluid and producing for exportation or for the opulent ones will take time. The general consumption strike, like any social movement, is fundamentally the creation of a battle of wills. Probably, it will first be defeated. It will be the hyper-consumption rush again. A seed will remain and gradually germinate. Another consumption strike will take place. We'll probably learn a lot from the failures. Objections against this strike are not appropriate, since not being sure of success never justifies giving up.
Furthermore any general strike is a collective catharsis because it discloses the intimate mechanisms of the system. That's why it is so difficult to get back to normal after this disclosing whose emancipating effects can be very important in one's life. Every strike starts, necessarily, with conventional claims but ends up quickly with un-negotiable claims. It's just a matter of giving time to an un-alienating process. The consumption strike, like any strike, will aim at social conquests but it will actually go much further. Similarly the employee who goes on strike claiming for better wages also experiences another existence. That's why it's always painful to get back to work. That's why even with success we don't know how to end a strike. Let's bet it will be as difficult to become simple "consumption convicts" again after having experienced another life.
This general consumption strike must be an action so that use defeats misuse and gratuitousness defeats venality. We'll go on strike to get free public transportation, to get free social housing, to get different pricing depending on consumption levels, to give everyone a universal existence income so all can live in dignity, we'll go on strike to have those who ruin the planet pay more, to have advertisements limited to a few spaces, to redistribute wealth according to a maximum permitted income, etc. Thinking this strike would be a hunger strike is understanding nothing about what is consumption. A consumption strike means refusing to be a consumer, the kind of human being who belongs to the system. The goal is not to threaten our lives, our hyper-consumption society does that very well without us. On the contrary the goal is to learn how to fully exist, to live as a user in control of his use and no longer as a labor and a consumption convict, no longer as a capitalist market slave.
Let's trust collective intelligence to rediscover long-forgotten use. Let's think right now of our consumption and try to consume much less adopting a minimalist way of life. However we must watch out for purists who could turn this citizen action into a religious, moralizing, or authoritarian posture. Let's trust the collective sensitivity to allow this action to grow in size and consistency.
Of course this general strike will require the boycott of some products vital for the hyper-capitalist system (not only economic products but also ideological products like TV news or most newspapers). A consumption strike wouldn't make much sense if the strikers keep shopping (even for necessities) in those capitalist temples (supermarkets).
Let's bet that soon this invitation to a general consumption strike will become popular, that it will replace the general labor strike myth. We really need it to unify our hopes and to encourage our action. This prospect forces us to realize that real power is not the pseudo power of consumers, who would vote with their wallets, but the power of citizens who refuse to be consumers, as strikers refuse to be producers to adopt a political way of life.
Paul Ariès.

Hakim Bey.,

"Dress up. Leave a false name. Be legendary. The best PT is against the law, but don't get caught. Art as crime; crime as art." Hakim Bey.,

Poetic Terrorism :

"WEIRD DANCING IN ALL-NIGHT computer-banking lobbies. Unauthorized pyrotechnic displays. Land-art, earth-works as bizarre alien artifacts strewn in State Parks. Burglarize houses but instead of stealing, leave Poetic-Terrorist objects. Kidnap someone & make them happy. Pick someone at random & convince them they're the heir to an enormous, useless & amazing fortune--say 5000 square miles of Antarctica, or an aging circus elephant, or an orphanage in Bombay, or a collection of alchemical mss. Later they will come to realize that for a few moments they believed in something extraordinary, & will perhaps be driven as a result to seek out some more intense mode of existence.Bolt up brass commemorative plaques in places (public or private) where you have experienced a revelation or had a particularly fulfilling sexual experience, etc.Go naked for a sign.Organize a strike in your school or workplace on the grounds that it does not satisfy your need for indolence & spiritual beauty.Grafitti-art loaned some grace to ugly subways & rigid public momuments--PT-art can also be created for public places: poems scrawled in courthouse lavatories, small fetishes abandoned in parks & restaurants, xerox-art under windshield-wipers of parked cars, Big Character Slogans pasted on playground walls, anonymous letters mailed to random or chosen recipients (mail fraud), pirate radio transmissions, wet cement...The audience reaction or aesthetic-shock produced by PT ought to be at least as strong as the emotion of terror-- powerful disgust, sexual arousal, superstitious awe, sudden intuitive breakthrough, dada-esque angst--no matter whether the PT is aimed at one person or many, no matter whether it is "signed" or anonymous, if it does not change someone's life (aside from the artist) it fails.PT is an act in a Theater of Cruelty which has no stage, no rows of seats, no tickets & no walls. In order to work at all, PT must categorically be divorced from all conventional structures for art consumption (galleries, publications, media). Even the guerilla Situationist tactics of street theater are perhaps too well known & expected now.An exquisite seduction carried out not only in the cause of mutual satisfaction but also as a conscious act in a deliberately beautiful life--may be the ultimate PT. The PTerrorist behaves like a confidence-trickster whose aim is not money but CHANGE.Don't do PT for other artists, do it for people who will not realize (at least for a few moments) that what you have done is art. Avoid recognizable art-categories, avoid politics, don't stick around to argue, don't be sentimental; be ruthless, take risks, vandalize only what must be defaced, do something children will remember all their lives--but don't be spontaneous unless the PT Muse has possessed you."

H.B.,

from the lazarus corporation - the text mixing deck., inspired by william s. burroughs infamous cut-ups.,



here is the blurb : " the lazarus corporation have provided this cut-up engine to replicate the cut-up technique used by brion gysin, william burroughs and others.
this fine piece of technology was expertly lifted from the prone body of a junkie who was discovered "on the nod" in one of the more disreputable quarters of marrakech. it was marked with the maker's name of "benway" but apart from that nothing else is known about this marvellous piece of equipment
. "









Road Poem # 2 : Salvation., c/o : jwh.,

Salvation : coughing on the light eyes all swollen pupils screaming out to be saved with one damp from sweat hand gripping wetly the 78pennies blindly looking about for a drip of salvation in amongst that glitter-ball moment all traffic sounds hurtling walking at the wrong moment swivelling giddy on heel to avoid just in time a car horn blasts deep right through inner quiet moaning shamelessly walking on out shamelessly through the chic-hipster-art-house crowds thinking fuck this fuck & obscenity you but it has now its been started to be done this whole cheating of the death thing doesn't feel too good :

but beyond
all our crazed ideals and ideologies
we all share

the forever-people memories
of running water
hot grass on face
the touches of fleshes
the tastes of tears
and a million other most beautiful {est} of things.


jwh,.

Is America still in an official State of Emergency.?

The "website is intended to be an easy-to-read, fully-sourced resource for Congress members, Senators, reporters, and others who wish to discover the current legal status of the United States of America."

link : http://www.constitutionally.blogspot.com/ .

Enzo Marra., "Feline Portrait".,


Enzo Marra., "Lobster man Standing".,


Enzo Marra., "Large Bird Man".,


Edwin Lue-Shing., 3 depictions of the face of Buddha...


Edwin Lue-Shing., "The return of jesus christ and the paparazzi's"


And the artist says :
"Each culture and region has its own independent celebrity system, with a hierarchy of popular film, television, and sports stars. Celebrities who are very popular might be unknown abroad, except with culturally-related groups, such as within a diaspora. In some cases, a country-level celebrity might command some attention outside their native country, but not to the degree that they can be considered a global celebrity. For example, singer Lara Fabian is widely-known in the French-speaking world, but only had a couple of Billboard hits in the U.S., whereas singer Celine Dion is well-known in both communities.
This painting is painted on a deep boxed canvas which can be mounted directly to the wall to give that modern finised, and also doubled varnished to bring the depth out of the colours.
What would happen is Jesus Christ made The second coming in this moment in time, he is known through out the world and in an ever shrinking world, it would be hard not to know of him. In this celebratory. Obsessed world and culture where everyone was hustling for a place to be the top celebrity in the world. I would think that Jesus Christ would be the No1. Celebrity of the 21st centaury and if this was the case (I would be most certain it would be!); any paparazzi worth his salt, would be hot on his trail to get that million dollar/pound/euro shot of the number one celebratory of the centaury. Shot of him. This is my depiction of Jesus coming back and the paparazzi’s flash bulbs flashing away to get shot of the number one celebratory of the century."

David Dees., "Russia".,


David Dees., "Webd".,


art from David Dees.,

In the atmosphere of created panic surrounding the financial crisis on Wall St. its too easy as the U.S. elections appraoch to forget the war crimes etc that the election of the administration ought to focus on.

Hector "hollywood" Swanson on bridges...

Hector "hollywood" Swanson says :


"If you want to take out a bridge you don't have to destroy every god forsaken brick - you just blow out the supports..."

H."H."S.

2 Essays by Hakim Bey on the T.A.Z. and P.A.Z., (Temporary Autonomous Zone and Permanent Autonomous Zone...) a master poet-philosopher...

Permanent TAZs by Hakim Bey

TAZ-theory tries to concern itself with existing or emerging situations rather than with pure utopianism. All over the world people are leaving or "disappearing" themselves from the Grid of Alienation and seeking ways to restore human contact. An interesting example of this--on the level of "urban folk culture"--can be found in the proliferation of hobby networks and conferences. Recently I discovered the zines of two such groups, Crown Jewels of the High Wire (devoted to the collection of glass electrical insulators) and a journal on cucurbitology (The Gourd). A vast amount of creativity goes into these obsessions. The various periodic gatherings of fellow-maniacs amount to genuine face-to-face (unmediated) festivals of eccentricity. It's not just the "counter-culture" which seeks its TAZs, its nomad encampments and nights of liberation from the Consensus. Self-organized and autonomous groups are springing up amongst every "class" and "sub-culture". Vast tracts of the Babylonian Empire are now virtually empty, populated only by the spooks of MassMedia, and a few psychotic policemen.
TAZ-theory realizes that THIS IS HAPPENING--we're not talking about "should" or "will be"--we're talking about an already-existing movement. Our use of various thought-experiments, utopian poetics, paranoia criticism, etc., aims at helping to clarify this complex and still largely undocumented movement, to give it some theoretical focus and self-awareness, and to suggest tactics based on coherent integral strategies--to act the midwife or the panegyrist, not the "vanguard"!
And so we've had to consider the fact that not all existing autonomous zones are "temporary". Some are (at least by intention) more-or-less "permanent". Certain cracks in the Babylonian Monolith appear so vacant that whole groups can move into them and settle down. Certain theories, such as "Permaculture", have been developed to deal with this situation and make the most of it. "Villages", "communes", "communities", even "arcologies" and "biospheres" (or other utopian-city forms) are being experimented with and implemented. Even here however TAZ-theory may offer some useful thought-tools and clarifications.
What about a poetique (a "way of making") and a politique (a "way of living-together) for the "permanent" TAZ (or "PAZ")? What about the actual relation between temporariness and permanence? And how can the PAZ renew and refresh itself periodically with the "festival" aspect of the TAZ?
The Question of Publicity
Recent events in the US and Europe have shown that self-organized/autonomous groups strike fear into the heart of the State. MOVE in Philadelphia, the Koreshites of Waco, Deadheads, Rainbow Tribes, computer-hackers, squatters, etc., have been targeted for varying intensity-levels of extermination. And yet other autonomous groups go unnoticed, or at least unpersecuted. What makes the difference? One factor may be the malign effect of publicity or mediation. The Media experience a vampiric thirst for the shadow-Passion play of "Terrorism", Babylon's public ritual of expiation, scapegoating, and blood-sacrifice. Once any autonomous group allows this particular "gaze" to fall upon it, the shit hits the fan:--the Media will try to arrange a mini-armageddon to satisfy its junk-sickness for spectacle and death.
Now, the PAZ makes a fine sitting target for such a Media smart-bomb. Besieged inside its "con-pound", the self-organized group can only succumb to some sort of cheap pre-determined martyrdom. Presumably this role appeals only to neurotic masochists??? In any case, most groups will want to live out their natural span or trajectory in peace and quiet. A good tactic here might be to avoid publicity from the Mass Media as if it were the plague. A bit of natural paranoia comes in handy, so long as it doesn't become an end in itself. One must be cunning in order to get away with being bold. A touch of camouflage, a flair for invisibility, a sense of tact as a tactic . . . might be as useful to a PAZ as a TAZ. Humble suggestions:--Use only "intimate media" (zines, phonetrees, BBSs, free radio and mini-FM, public-access cable, etc.)--avoid blustering-macho-confrontationist attitude--you don't need five seconds on the Evening News ("Police Raid Cultists") to validate your existence. Our slogan might be:--"Get a life, not a life-style."
Access
People probably ought to choose the people they live with. ''Open-membership" communes invariably end up swamped with freeloaders and sex-starved pathetic creeps. PAZs must choose their own membership mutually--this has nothing to do with "elitism". The PAZ may exercise a temporarily open function--such as hosting festivals or giving away free food, etc.--but it need not be permanently open to any self-proclaimed sympathizer who wanders by.
The Emergence of a Genuinely Alternative Economy
Once again, this is already happening--but it still needs a huge amount of work before it comes into focus. The sub-economies of "lavoro nero", untaxed transactions, barter, etc., tend to be severely limited and localized. BBSs and other networking systems could be used to link up these regional/marginal aeconomies ("household managements") into a viable alternative economy of some magnitude. "P.M." has already outlined something like this in bolo'bolo--in fact a number of possible systems already exist, in theory anyway. The problem is:--how to construct a true alternative economy, i.e. a complete economy, without attracting the IRS and other capitalist runningdogs? How can I exchange my skills as, say, a plumber or moonshiner, for the food, books, shelter, and psychoactive plants I want--without paying taxes, or even without using any State-forged money? How can I live a comfortable (even luxurious) life free of all interactions and transactions with CommodityWorld? If we took all the energy the Leftists put into "demos", and all the energy the Libertarians put into playing futile little 3rd-party games, and if we redirected all that power into the construction of a real underground economy, we would already have accomplished "the Revolution" long ago.
The "World" Came to an End in 1972
The hollowed-out effigy of the Absolute State finally toppled in "1989". The last ideology, Capitalism, is no more than a skin-disease of the Very Late Neolithic. It's a desiring-machine running on empty. I'm hoping to see it deliquesce in my lifetime, like one of Dali's mindscapes. And I want to have somewhere to "go" when the shit comes down. Of course the death of Capitalism needn't entail the Godzilla-like destruction of all human culture; this scenario is merely a terror-image propagated by Capitalism itself. Nevertheless it stands to reason that the dreaming corpse will spasm violently before rigor mortis sets in--and New York or LA may not be the smartest places to wait out the storm. (And the storm may already have begun.) [On the other hand NYC and LA might not be the worst places to create the New World; one can imagine whole squatted neighborhoods, gangs transformed into Peoples' Militias, etc.] Now, the gypsy-RV way of life may be one way to deal with the on-going melt-down of Too-Late Capitalism--but as for me, I'd prefer a nice anarchist monastery somewhere--a typical place for "scholars" to sit out the "Dark Ages". The more we organize this NOW the less hassle we'll have to face later. I'm not talking about "survival"--I'm not interested in mere survival. I want to thrive. Back to utopia.
Festivals
The PAZ serves a vital function as a node in the TAZ-web, a meetingplace for a wide circle of friends and allies who may not actually live full-time on the "farm" or in the "village". Ancient villages held fairs which brought wealth to the community, provided markets for travelers, and created festal time/space for all participants. Nowadays the festival is emerging as one of the most important forms for the TAZ itself, but can also provide renewal and fresh energy for the PAZ. I remember reading somewhere that in the Middle Ages there were one hundred and eleven holidays a year; we should take this as our "utopian minimum" and strive to do even better. [Note: the utopian minima proposed by C. Fourier consisted of more food and sex than the average 18th century French aristocrat enjoyed; B. Fuller proposed the term "bare minimum" for a similar concept]
The Living Earth
I believe that there exist plenty of good selfish reasons for desiring the "organic" (it's sexier), the "natural" (it tastes better), the "green" (it's more beautiful), the Wild(er)ness (it's more exciting). Communitas (as P. Goodman called it) and conviviality (as I. Illich called it) are more pleasurable than their opposites. The living earth need not exclude the organic city--the small but intense conglomeration of humanity devoted to the arts and slightly decadent joys of a civilization purged of all its gigantism and enforced loneliness--but even those of us who enjoy cities can see immediate and hedonic motives for fighting for the "environment". We are militant biophiles. Deep ecology, social ecology, permaculture, appropriate tech . . we're not too picky about ideologies. Let 1000 flowers bloom.
PAZ Typology
A "weird religion" or a rebel art movement can become a kind of non-local PAZ, like a more intense and all-consuming hobby network. The Secret Society (like the Chinese Tong) also provides a model for a PAZ without geographic limits. But the "perfect case scenario" involves a free space that extends into free time. The essence of the PAZ must be the long-drawn-out intensification of the joys--and risks--of the TAZ. And the intensification of the PAZ will be . . . Utopia Now.
Hakim Bey August 1993

And.,

PIRATE EUTOPIAS.,

" . . . this time however I come as the victorious Dionysus, who will turn the world into a holiday . . . Not that I have much time . . . "
--Nietzsche (from his last "insane" letter to Cosima Wagner)

Pirate Utopias


THE SEA-ROVERS AND CORSAIRS of the 18th century created an "information network" that spanned the globe: primitive and devoted primarily to grim business, the net nevertheless functioned admirably. Scattered throughout the net were islands, remote hideouts where ships could be watered and provisioned, booty traded for luxuries and necessities. Some of these islands supported "intentional communities," whole mini-societies living consciously outside the law and determined to keep it up, even if only for a short but merry life.
Some years ago I looked through a lot of secondary material on piracy hoping to find a study of these enclaves--but it appeared as if no historian has yet found them worthy of analysis. (William Burroughs has mentioned the subject, as did the late British anarchist Larry Law--but no systematic research has been carried out.) I retreated to primary sources and constructed my own theory, some aspects of which will be discussed in this essay. I called the settlements "Pirate Utopias."
Recently Bruce Sterling, one of the leading exponents of Cyberpunk science fiction, published a near-future romance based on the assumption that the decay of political systems will lead to a decentralized proliferation of experiments in living: giant worker-owned corporations, independent enclaves devoted to "data piracy," Green-Social-Democrat enclaves, Zerowork enclaves, anarchist liberated zones, etc. The information economy which supports this diversity is called the Net; the enclaves (and the book's title) are in the Net
The medieval Assassins founded a "State" which consisted of a network of remote mountain valleys and castles, separated by thousands of miles, strategically invulnerable to invasion, connected by the information flow of secret agents, at war with all governments, and devoted only to knowledge. Modern technology, culminating in the spy satellite, makes this kind of autonomy a romantic dream. No more pirate islands! In the future the same technology--freed from all political control--could make possible an entire world of zones But for now the concept remains precisely science fiction--pure speculation.
Are we who live in the present doomed never to experience autonomy, never to stand for one moment on a bit of land ruled only by freedom? Are we reduced either to nostalgia for the past or nostalgia for the future? Must we wait until the entire world is freed of political control before even one of us can claim to know freedom? Logic and emotion unite to condemn such a supposition. Reason demands that one cannot struggle for what one does not know; and the heart revolts at a universe so cruel as to visit such injustices on our generation alone of humankind.
To say that "I will not be free till all humans (or all sentient creatures) are free" is simply to cave in to a kind of nirvana-stupor, to abdicate our humanity, to define ourselves as losers.
I believe that by extrapolating from past and future stories about "islands in the net" we may collect evidence to suggest that a certain kind of "free enclave" is not only possible in our time but also existent. All my research and speculation has crystallized around the concept of the TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE (hereafter abbreviated TAZ). Despite its synthesizing force for my own thinking, however, I don't intend the TAZ to be taken as more than an essay ("attempt"), a suggestion, almost a poetic fancy. Despite the occasional Ranterish enthusiasm of my language I am not trying to construct political dogma. In fact I have deliberately refrained from defining the TAZ--I circle around the subject, firing off exploratory beams. In the end the TAZ is almost self-explanatory. If the phrase became current it would be understood without difficulty . . . understood in action.

Link to a Site with the Complete T.A.Z. (including Communiques of the Association for Ontological Anarchy) by Hakim Bey : http://www.left-bank.org/bey/default2.htm .