da visionary report

confrontive nonviolent idea: "humor mines"

2008-12-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

Thought this might get some youthful creative juices flowing, in light of the increasingly intense situations happening in solidarity with the youth of Greece. Wrote this short creative approach in a comment on another blog and thought, hey maybe I ought to put it here!

For those who can give themselves permission to do something beyond mere reaction to authority's routine rigidized alienation. And in light of the realities of nonlethal warfare already leveled upon us all...

Imagine radicalized humor projected into such situations. This isn't to say that we allow authoritarians to trample us in other ways, by the way. But telling jokes which "bowl over" the human beings who are being tooled by their professions has an interesting and most excellently human impact.

Escaping the duality-stuck methodology of pretty much "normalized" ways of experiencing authoritarian challenge is my intent here. Why completely subordinate to so-called "tried and true" ways of movement building when it's obvious that these partially important truths are deeply lacking. And for those who believe I must be a major greenhorn, I've personally used such techniques, in a much more primitive scale, in "hairy" situations, and found surprising openings for such creativity.

The rest is up to your imagination, i.e. in how to carry such out.

My thought is, say you are faced with unleashed martial mindsets which are deploying for a sweep upon your home territory, a "humor mine" is tripped.

Someone could make such a "humor mine" that is tripped, remotely or automatically, beyond the group under direct management technique (one getting out of hand, especially). Then no author would be easily located, and such nonviolent "mines" could plague the unwitting war-minded. Including with much loudness.

Why not take this idea and run? Maybe at least play with it while you're doing your sit-ins or whatever. See how fun things can get when you use your creative imagination?!

the Visionary Report: post-election action honoring indigenous HEART

2008-11-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

Lastnight, after Barack Obama's Presendential win, I ventured out in a spontaneous silent, yet confrontive solo action to call attention to one paradigm usually silenced during election hype and hoopla: indigenous spirit, aka the people whose land we walk upon every day and whose resources and lives we have taken "legally"...

After I heard that Obama won the Presidency here in the u.s.a. I decided to do a spontaneous solo action where I walked about 2 miles around a particularly liberal neighborhood, stood at corners, and basically called attention to a paradigm beyond politics and the usual attending hype.

I did this as also a way to honor and help folks *not forget* the aboriginal-indigenous peoples of the world (including all of us as descendants of tribes and the values and ways of seeing we're usually taught not to think of as crucial).

Basically I walked around only about 2 miles (it was quite late in the evening already), first stopping in at a place I had been told that some of my two-spirit friends were watching the presidential proceedings. I thought for sure I was too late, but it turned out I had made it just before the end, and got to listen a little, and was actually moved by Obama when he echoed MLKj's words from decades ago. Making a silent presence "heard" there for awhile, I then decided to spontaneously walk around.

It was then that I felt that I should not merely walk on obediently on the sidewalk. So I began walking against traffic, knowing full well that the local cops might give me shit or worse. But I felt there was an opening more than usual, being that this was the immediate aftermath of all the giddiness of the surprise win (I think it WAS a surprise to many; I certainly was surprised).

Next I began standing for semi-long periods at various busy intersections. I was holding a prayer stick i've been making for many months now from birdfeathers I've come across on my path; this I think made a difference in distinguishing me from "some crazy drunk" to someone actually trying to "say something"; though no inquiries were made. Then again, I had my eyes closed (when I stood still) and had no sign. Only the prayer stick in my left hand and a single feather in my right.

When stopped, I kept my eyes closed as I said, and did not respond to passerby; i was actually "praying" silently to myself in a kind of meditation and paradigm-shift listening; going into an alternate paradigm, hearing the machines as though they were all lawn mowers... Fear was also with me as well as through my fears of being there and doing such a thing at all.

No one "organized" me out here; I was once again** out "in the unknown" on my own inititative...after quite a long hiatus. (**my last real actions were in 2001-2003, which you can read about at: www.angelfire.com/folk/magixnartz/flouggindex.html )

The local liberals here were driving around sounding their horns and resonating their voices, sometimes on bicycles (in one case, a parade of bikes, which I heard only, keeping my eyes closed) and on foot, all in relieved happiness (there was quite a tension around Portland,OR here as the voting day came). Lots of FEAR in the air.

While I realize that my particular spontaneous action of sorts could have been even better, creatively, I feel like it was "at least something" to possibly bring attention to those paradigms often forgotten and swept aside during "normal politics" today. Since I carried my prayerstick, with various feathers sticking outside of it, I reasoned that passerby would understand the basic thrust I was seeking to "get accross", even without words.

A better action would have been a widely coordinated one made up of singles dressed in their various indigenous regalias (Euro included), showing their serious faces all over the u.s.a. (especially in liberal enclaves). Perhaps this is something to "run with" in brainstorming ways to "possibly reach" people otherwise focused elsewhere (i.e. beyond politics). I recall the Cacaphony Society's action (as reported on in the 1990s zine "Shit Happy") where clowns were picked up at every other bus stop along a route in a large city. Imagine going further with that one!

And while I accept that this action was certainly not "radical" i still found myself, at my age in my 40s, being somewhat afraid; because I did worry about when/if the cops would show up and whether I'd be arrested or even tasered (I've read too many stories of trigger-happy taserers); so there is a fear associated with speaking up *at all* outside of the Given confines...But I resolved in my head that whatever happened it would be worth it...even though I have no real support network, or anything, really. And, anyway, what out-of-balance cop would be looking for trouble on such a night as this, anyway? Likely they had their hands full enough with angry conservatives...

I did see a cop car at one time, near an intersection I was coming to; and I actually HURRIED towards that intersection! Fearful, yet somehow emboldened.

Yes, yes, I know, I know, delusions of grandeur, and irrational glory!

But I wasn't merely standing on corners out of the roadway, or walking obediently on the sidewalk. I was actually walking *out in the street* on the street-side of parked cars! And the thought crossed my paranoid mind that I might be intentionally hit...at the same time thinking in my head that I was assisting in slowing down traffic on the two-lane, semi-busy roads, promoting late-night safety...while being a sort of presence outside of the dominant paradigm. Plus I had my yellow jacket on, with its bit of reflective tape. Though no mask (where in the past I had made one and wore it in many actions across country, along with signs and flyers I passed out).

If nothing else, the action was a weird "non-sequitor"; not "fitting in" with the "normal" Obama thing, yet not attacking such either. Merely a strange presence to folks so used to people who "fit in" to Given norms. Though I spoke up to a few passerby in the early part of the walk (about 2 miles in all), a few times about not forgetting on whose land they were walking upon and how that land was gotten, I resolved to remain silent most of the time.

At one place where I stood for at least a half hour (with my feet losing their feeling and my back starting to give me pain), a native-looking lady asked if I was alright, and the response that came from me first was that I was praying. Standing there, stoicly, eyes closed, prayer stick in left hand, raised half-way, and in my right hand, the single feather.

I half-expected cat-calls with sharpness from pained persons (reflecting them), but those who yelled out seemed mystified more than anything. A few carloads shouted encouraging whoops, and at one point the horn beeps seemed to be responding to my presence in particular.

Finally, I received a few whispers of input, visions I had been seeking. If there's any interest, I may share them, either here or on my visionary blog. re: visionaryhumanity.blogspot.com

I realize that this "action" wasn't much in terms of crucial input; but it was "something" and I just wanted to share it with you all.

For what it's worth...

(and WHAT DID YOU DO??? Do feel free to share here, if you like!)

one scenario of crucial nonviolence

2008-10-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

Pacifism alone appears obsolete in the face of tyranny. Yet what if pacifism is but only one form of nonviolence in a spectrum limited only by our imagination? The author looks at one scenario sure to rock your world!

(inspired in part by the art of Eric Drooker; his art of the many horns!)

scenario:
While the industrially-stuck imaginations of seemingly most "demonstrators" and others seeking to 'speak truth to terrorism called "power" are off doing the same old thing, let's say we care enough to be waiting nearby, ready to spring into our radicalized desires at a most crucial time.

Let's say that the soldiers called police are on the brink of their usual orders--to smash heads and spray their peppers, WHEN SUDDENLY a terrific NOISE turns all attentions in various directions (NOISE bouncing off buildings or whathaveyou).

The NOISE is pure, deafening NOISE reflecting our intensities too long held secret. The NOISE has no notes, no "rhythm", just pure, unadulterated NOISE. Rough, tumbling, coming from many directions when noisemakers so desire.

Then becoming alternately more articulated, perhaps. Suggestion: Michael Jackson as a kid singing "A,B,C, 1,2,3," UNTIL musicians feel like throwing in their own input (as in jazz); then perhaps a string of Highland Pipers belts out their pipes and wend into the center, flanked by a line, on each side, of HEAVY METAL (or Blues) guitarists crouching, ready to reflect the soul of batons that may be raised, and go into *it* from there.

Authority attempts to move its soldiers called cops in response formations and as they do, in a chaos of various places (remote and not-so-remote), NOISEs cacaphony (especially near places where renewed war tension threatens).

Here comedians interspersed with ___(you name it!)___ initiate some form of ecstatic mobile ceremonial celebrating for the human beings everywhere caught up in and feeling trapped in a plethora of respective reductions of ourselves. Object: a spanarchy of becoming radically beautiful RIGHT NOW towards evolution of shared mind-set.

Even in the cacaphony of NOISE, song, and jokes, such quickly wouldn't be enough (since surveillers study even this writing right now, passing it onto their "superiors"), so this scenario invites (and would invite) all's radically creative input. All, returning to the scene (or creating others everywhere?) arting themselves as they see fit!

Imagine Christian fundies and other religionists tryin to inspire more followers with their best, joined in the chaos by the refrigerator bloc, the doughnut bloc, the abstract painting bloc. People dressed as paintings (famous and unknown) and mobile bushes being picked up (and "deployed") by giant hot-air balloon trees (the helicopter pilots would've reported seeing a large floating forest descending upon the scene).

You get the ideah. Utter chaos with intention. All invited , if ya dare !

Spectacular confusion in face of threat of force and other coercion

And when/if obedient soldiers smash anyway?

Send to the 'front' the doughnut bloc! Persons dressed in real tossed-out doughnuts piled high. And let the batons smash through the cops' known frustrations in their lives (all the while perhaps audibly narrating about how cops just gotta clobber their doughnut habits!); oh, the refrigerator bloc could come in too if it liked, old and new food spilling everywhere as batons and fire hoses crush back the naughty 'citizen' peasants and their *who do they think they are*. If a lull, perhaps the granny bloc joined with the be-suited businessman bloc could try to talk some sense into the human beings reduced to mere government machines.

And how about containments and chases? Running into buildings radically changed within--hall of mirrors anyone? Or in containment measure, giant black parachute raised and ad-hoc location transformed into something completely unexpected. All the while avoiding the stupidity and same old perpetuation of alienation!

Not all of us, of course, *want* to sacrifice ourselves to the gods of soldierdumb; so take this methodology and imagine where you might play!

Angles on jump-starting our creative nonviolent intelligence

2008-10-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

Three recent art pieces to possibly inspire (all anti-copyright; if you wish to use, please merely give this blog url/address wherever you post them, thanks!):

The art at the immediate left (or above?) is a visionary illustration of a movement which might start with a critical mass of balloonists tired of the same old fare (and lack of actual community-making they might experience). Imagine communities "in the sky", tying together, even soaring (in between bike work-outs to create more heat)! And then coming down to Earth and sharing their spirits with the "ground bound".

Visionary writers, poets, welcome to expound upon this idea!

Again, at left (or above?), the idea of the "information society" has been promoted everywhere (where "we" once were "an industrial society"); the reality of such, thoughtfully "arted" is that "we" are to be an "in formation" society, where the reality of the "chain of command" which runs "our democracy" is now being peeled back (re: "privileges" watered down and rendered meaningless), now that "we" are not so needed anymore and so-called "developing" nations' peoples "are needed"--with their "rights" curtailed scientifically even more.

But don't take my word for it, listen to this indigenous wisdom keeper explain reality. (link forthcoming soon)

What to do?
I'll assume that you've already been undertaking a course of intellectual self-defense, that you already have been able to connect your intuitive dissent feelings with facts (and contexts), and that your critical faculties are either being honed to crucial finery as you practice your visions or something of that sort. And you may've already begun entertaining and envisioning scenarios of contention and confrontation in creative nonviolent strategies.

I'm skeptical, of course. Because many creative people in my experience are deeply "strategically challenged"; that is, all our lives we've been imbibed with either the well-financed propaganda system, or one of its competing "alternatives". This is where I challenge you to not merely see how corporations manipulate, or how capitalism (merely one symptom) exploits the uncomprehending. This is where I challenge you to "see others as you would like others to see you"; where we see people coerced and manipulated into systems of domination (and submission), both as "dominators" and "dominated". Where we come to a critical understanding of how implementers (such as cops) can become so hostile and alienated. Where we start to see how the very systems that people (whom once had great ideals) find themselves stuck in confines and traps in which the so-called "alternatives" have a way of perpetuating (at least on the surface; behind the scenes is another story), and in my view, actually contributing significantly to the problem rather than "solving" it.

There are various factors at work in this reality, and I'll touch on just a few. One is that all of these competing elites (as Chomsky shows) are engaged in "propaganda" aka the techniques of thought control. You can see it most plainly when you understand how "PR" (Public Relations) works. Another problem is that everyone is working in the unstated/meta context of believing they must work only within these confines. In this way, the situation is like a war. Supposedly a non-killing war, but if you happen to be a member of a group that is being officially scapegoated...then, even your death doesn't make a dent in the enforced silence. "Too much" is supposedly "at stake" for the alleged arbiters of the "alternatives" to "stick their neck out" and get the word out that could save your life.

This is the problem of politics in general. People who buy into playing politics do not want to demystify the meta game they are all playing. If you'd like to educate yourself about this topic, take a look at www.anti-politics.net. This is as far as I'll touch on this for now. (And please do challenge me on this premise of mine!)

The next question then becomes, do we realize the value of seeking to reach the hearts of those whom have been manipulated away from being in touch with their own hearts and original desires (before the institutions which tool them wrapped around them)? I'm not saying that it's "not important" to reach the hearts of the groups traditionally known as being oppressed. They/we are important, OF COURSE! Yet, in order to enact CRUCIAL challenge, we're going to have to find ways of reaching the hearts of those who are part and parcel (and help support) war in all its forms, at home and abroad; openly aggressive and covertly aggressive.

So the question is how to move us *and* them in such creative ways that collective we's feel we need not any longer continue to always subordinate our intelligence to martial/war methods and ideology. How do we bridge with intensities of alienation while not getting trampled ourselves?

One way I'm envisioning is something along the lines of "anti-organization". Note that this is qualatively different from normalized ideas of traditional organization. There's a reason for this; the reason is to learn from those whom have already been pre-emptively attacked by the reality of today's politics and police methods. I'll go into this in more depth sometime (sooner if anyone speaks up).

So imagine this: varying "affinity groups" or "teams" (or individuals, even) of creative contention which "hammer" at formalized mind-sets planted within all of us, but especially those artificially separated from "the commons" by their uncritical trust in "The Way Things Is" and such.

Here we go out not only from the ghettos of "normal" methods of interaction but also of the ghettos of "normalized" ideas of contention. What does that mean? What does that entail? I'll let you percolate that in your mind for awhile! If you still don't get it, ask and we'll speak.

So imagine teams of comedians (coming away from their ghetto-like separated-away stages) and engaging folks known to be rife with severe alienation --in ways which inspire folks to come out from behind their armor and out into meaningful communications and community!

That's key: meaningful community. If we don't have something to offer human beings so that they realize the value of coming away from the war reality they've always known --(and hear me, ALL domesticated folks/most of everyone "in society" does live in various varieties of war, "low intensity" as such may be!)--why should they "risk their necks"? So we need to offer something that can INSPIRE.

(Of course, we'll have to *hear them out* just as we wish to be understood! The more creative and fun ways we can do this, the better! See, for example, the card game in the links section at right: "The Game")

Up to our imagination and courage how much sanity we birth!

Practice practice practice practice!

(And in case you poo-poo this angle on things, know that I've personally engaged varying degrees of the strategically challenged, including in potentially very dangerous situations, and yet, with this methodology, have found amazing openings! Challenge me sometime to pontificate, and I'll speak about it on live radio or TV; "Democracy Now" anyone?!)

Finally, this piece invites readers to *look behind* intensities which are launched at us informally (as opposed to formally, such as by soldiers/implements of the State who are on duty who are usually acting as they are trained/indoctrinated). When people fire out things upon us with particularly emotive invective, we need to listen to the Toltec teachings and first, "not take it personally" (unless that's your calling). Such hurlings are symptoms and if we can metaphorically "step out of the way" of such, and "take a step back", we may better see "the bigger picture".

That is, the idea that people who fire off such emotive things are seeking to make a kind of bridge! But since they/we have all usually been systematically separated from knowing how to even engage in the most basic dialogue (beyond "How are you?" "I'm fine, and you?"), thanks to our domestication, it's typical that early attempts at communications are enraged.

Listen to your favorite wisdom keeper on this. Krishnamurti, Osho, indigenous persons, who-ever; they all say similar things, I think. The question is, can we implement such consciousness in ways that are truly meaningful? Can we "run with the ball" further? Do we give ourselves permission?!?

One need not be fake about it, though; one need not be "nice". We can be enraged as well (or some grey area in between, depending on what spirit you want to perfect). We can be real. Hell, many enraged people DON'T TRUST "nice"; they see right through such!

More details to follow!

some ideas, an action, and a vision

2008-08-29T16:33:00.000-07:00

Posted at the portland.indymedia.org site:

Homeless and etc. are allies others will exploit
Man holding up line in grocery store
Flailing man on Hawthorne
An orrior-style actions

Homeless are allies others will exploit
If we don't reach out to each other in radically excellent ways, we may find that those seemingly powerless (or so-called "worthless") now could be manipulated to be given tyranny over us in the future. This of course isn't the *best* reason to reach out to our fellow people, including homeless folks, but perhaps it's a wake-up call. Where do you think fascists and tyranny gets its footsoldiers for its martial stupidity? Where do you think the 1980s "Contras" (against the Sandinistas) came from mostly?

(Do you think this sounds naive? Discuss!)

I've reached out to various folks over time, had them over, even gave them a place to sleep off and on (especially in the cold months), and while I find some to be "much too wild" for me to be around every day (in their drunkeness), these folks deeply appreciate. And i've noted that appreciation develop over time.

If we could realize the value of informally aiding homeless folks in our midst, we'd find the reflections to be surprisingly significant. Don't throw money at the formal institutions, reach out in friendship! And, if you're a neighborhood organizer type, what if various neighbors aided their fellow human beings in a *rotational* way??!

Man holding up the line
A few months ago i found myself in a line where a guy was seemingly surprised that his plastic (credit card) wasn't working. He kept trying it, and wouldn't give up. Tension was rising visibly as it appeared that the man was not only growing increasingly frustrated (and might resort to violence?) but also the management began showing up and appearing increasingly agitated (as if they were ready to aggressively escort him from the store).

Well, I was doing okay money-wise so I went up the line and asked him if I could help. No official title or anything, just another guy wanting to be fair with my fellows instead of what seemed to be about to happen. Well, it turned out that the stuff he wanted to buy totalled only $2.50, so i volunteered to buy it for him. Visible relief showed up in everyone.

(Question: what would an anarchist do and why?)

Flailing man on Hawthorne
I heard yelling over on this local road and since I was already heading there, found myself going right up to the guy and asking him what was up. No fear, and he felt that. He had been yelling at others with this: "I OWN YOU!" And they had fallen back. Was he completely irrational? i felt he was flailing from some kind of heavy stress. He was drunk and his mind was set on getting "help" in the only way he seemed to know: wait until the cops showed up and then a night in the can.

Meanwhile, not only did I interact creatively with this stressed-out guy, but another dude showed up; an older guy. He walked by the guy from behind in a kind of silly-seeming way. Asking him later, he said he had expected to get punched. Hell, i guess i half-expected it as well; but i felt like i was "defending" the community--except not in alliance with any formal authority, but in alliance with the idea of re-village-ing.

The cops did show up and that's when I left, but had the local community had in place some kind of way to reach this guy...something like a local Shanti Sena calm space to go to... (yes, I know, i sound very greenhornish idealistic...)

An action
A really fulfilling one at the Alberta Street Fair in July. Walked around with a "FREE HUGS" sign! And got so many hugs that i felt DRUNK with that energy. Someone suggested "we" start a MOVEMENT of such; i can see such being done on a rotational basis, as tho hugging strangers can be liberating, it's also a little exhausting for we not used to having such connections with folks. (Anyway, I walked down the entire way like three times, so maybe it was my feet the most!)

A vision
Imagine x-country travel (human powered?) where "FREE HUG"-ers join with many other Great Spirited folks (folks wanting to share their great informal gifts) went into backwater places and etcetera and shared their humanity. Convergences of different spirited affinity groups not seeking to "speak truth to 'power'" but "speak truth to people"!

Imagine a forest of hotair balloon Old Growth Trees accompanying.

Imagine slower and faster bicyclists riding. The fast bicyclists riding ahead and then returning to meet up with the slower bikers.

Come on over to our blog and share your ideahhhs!

images to share

2008-08-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

An angle of approach to inspiring creative folks' imaginations:

A possible cover for one of my visionary angles of approach:

This early 20th Century (?) picture below show how big Old Growth trees can get. I include them here for those possibly interested in designing a hot air balloon that looks "just like" an Old Growth tree. {imagine: a forest of Old Growth hotair balloons crossing the plains and all places which have long forgotten just how big Old Growth trees can be.}

A fellow visionary allowing himself to exotically art "normalized" ways of interacting. {i took his text and molded it into the kind of regalia i thought he might wear when engaging in da Crucial Artz way}:

Anti-authoritarians created this basic outreach text and drawing. i added the bit of collage later:

Three Visionary Challenges to Challengers

2008-08-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

The following all posted recently on these various indymedia sites.

re: Seattle indy media poster, angry rant/spell/letter to prison guards:
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/268278.shtml

Be angry, yet exercise [and practice] with your intelligence towards the ends you truly want to have in this world. It is easy to be tooled by always-war-mentality.

The prison guards, like all others who buttress "the Wizards of Oz", know only truth from the narrative that has dominated them from childhood. They do not even know of the idea of solidarity with informal humanity. Their lives have been reduced to become so shallow in consciousness.

Remember the Milgram experiments; they do as they've been programmed, and know no better.

You may reach a few with your anger, yet how many might you/we reach by activating our most inspiring humanity?

Do as Chomsky has suggested for reporters in the documentary "Manufacturing Consent". Get to know the system more and learn its openings. How best to reach fellow human beings --who may *want* to help somehow, yet feel absolutely powerless?

(Like the proverbial hostage, adapting since childhood's compulsory norms, while knowing no better alternative, and begining to identify with the oppressive, severely alienated mindset--i.e. scientific models of prison "management")

We have the intelligence to reach our fellow human beings. The question is, do we learn how and when we can touch each other meaningfully enough?

re: "Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver), Kanada: Sheriff Van and Police Cruise"
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/268238.shtml

I agree that meaningful dialogue is needed, but I still see crucial truth in seeking to reach the human beings caught within the internalized values systems rather than merely attack them in these dark age "revenges".

Surely, once we get more used to thinking independently, we can activate our intelligence much more meaningfully than how alienation war has taught us so far.

For instance, take a look at the article "Good Peasant, Bad Peasant". See if you can find it. It was posted in an anarchist dialogue forum. It's a good starting off place for the uninitiated (to that form of confrontation).

Those who still choose the combative methods, I say most of you are choosing a way of so much hellish that I think you will regret such later. But we all do not have "all" the truth, so perhaps property damage ways are one way...to at least "gain" the attention (but whose will you get? It is better than nothing, you may say...) But if only many could depth together, instead of these seemingly isolated, last-ditch ways...

Felt like I had to comment.

re:
"Cannon fodder for the market"
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/268295.shtml

Good article, and great to see such depth!

Only, I don't see eye-to-eye with you about this idea you think the u.s. leaders/policy-makers have about *hating* those they move against in their routine diplomatic ways.

If there's any hatred, it's in the lower portions of the hierarchy, methinks. Those more deeply tooled, seeing their friends smashed in information without contexts.

As for those carrying out policy, closer to the top of the hierarchy, they're merely carrying out their methodology of statecraft. "Nothing personal..." as some have said from time to time. In my view such a methodology has been coercively passed "down" to them since they were in their youths, and has now solidified, as in every generation "up in age".

My inclination, in seeing that, is to somehow inspire a plethora of responses with our most creative and inspiring creativity. Along lines such as documented in the film "The Singing Revolution" I suppose, and beyond control by formal politics.

LET'S ACTIVATE OUR MOST INSPIRING HUMANITY!

psst, pass it on.

Some recent visionary art (see other two posts below also!)

2008-07-10T15:42:00.000-07:00

another image of mine (art)

2008-07-10T15:39:00.001-07:00

Hmmm, that appears to have worked, at least for the time being. Let's see if the following images work as well:

Let's try this out: an image of mine

2008-07-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

If this shows up:
This is my art, it is anti-copyright and may be published elsewhere with my permission.

Let's see if this other art, which is the rest of this larger (two pages of my sketchbook) shows up:

Possible paths towards "in-the-heart" solutions to the maze we are caught in

2007-11-16T14:16:00.000-08:00

"...Any politics we pick up and follow, they are...alien politics...[and] do not reflect the reality of who we are, but our culture and art does. ...if we are going to use [politics] then let's recognize that's what we are doing. It's a tool. It's not an identity..."--a Lakota wisdom keeper

intro:
Dear reader, I suspect that you will find this page a bit too wordy, tangent-tending, and not easy to read; I hope you will persevere, though, and at least scan/hop around for the nuggets of value which i claim are here. Composing text is not "first nature" for me...

(note: i think this is the second portion of solutions coming from a webpage that is quite hard to find.)

points to be considered here:
intellectual self-defense
informal resistance consciousness (and pros and cons of formal orgnanization)
the meta game
a new imagination, liberation of our desire and an obstacle,
Continue the war, or
understand and implement liberatory desires?
spirit liberation or psychological ju-jitsu,
crazy people,
an example, another example,
the problem of institutional fear.

Paths towards an in-the-heart solution
Intellectual self-defense and an informal resistance of consciousness towards spirit liberation.

Intellectual self-defense has been deeply articulated by the much despised luminary, Noam Chomsky. Basically, the method is to "undertake a course" (of self-instruction via Chomsky et al's *institutional analysis*) so that we may better understand how we are collectively manipulated via notable methods of thought control by major influence institutions: i.e. the mainstream media and the State.

Informal resistance consciousness
The still quite marginalized John Trudell (a Lakota Indian who has paid a heavy price for speaking his heart, including having his wife and children killed by obvious state complicity) articulated this idea in a very basic way in his *We Are Power* speech, shared with his fellow indigenous people in 1980. Basically, I see this way as a way of utilizing (tooling) the excellent values of formal resistance, while not letting the destructive sides of formal resistance tool us.

formal organiztion
Formal resistance, as the model lives in the popular imagination (and especially the imaginations of institutionally "well-educated" persons (a phrase to ask significant questions of)), brings into our imaginations certain camoflauged angles which we need to scrutinize more carefully if we are to see exactly when we become tooled and fooled.

Let's take ideology (or, rigid belief system) for a moment: One must subordinate the "serious" sides (at least) of their individualities to the Given ideology that formal organizations have chosen; usually, this seems to be the political route or program in which the organizational controllers/designers/planners have decided to follow as THE way (and no other way is possible, unless one is prepared to fight, tooth and nail, to have the way finally added someday--a microcosm to what the organiztion is seeking to do in seeking reform in the larger society!).

Formal organization also imposes a conventional imagination of confining concepts like "memberships" and "leaders", "dues" and "social ettiquette"; and a usually uncritical acceptance of the kind of orthodoxy which provides these models of formal, "reputable", or what is supposed to be "serious" organization in the first place. (Incidentally, this model has, over and over, proven disasterous to groups not yet allowed "a place at the table"--much less the 'right' to negotiate for their independent survival. It's probably disasterous also for individuals who have gotten stuck in believing that they are making some reformist gains, but let's save that, too, for another conversation).

(The most pointed examples of this disasterousness for groups not yet allowed "a place at the table"/social appearances of acceptance, has been the continuing havoc wreaked by legal and illegal official covert action upon formal organizations since at least the 1950s; as well as the strange, yet systematic pattern of ignorant naivity of "well-educated" organizers and leaders in these organizations. The best lessons may be gleaned from the f.b.i.'s illegal COINTEL Program; for those into reading, try the websites booklist, or explore William Kunstler's autobiography (_My Life As A Radical Lawyer_) as well as one by Philip Agee (_On The Run_); see also the anarchist critique of formal organization, via such luminaries as Feral Faun; contact the editor of a certain crucial anarchist publication at www.anarchymag.org)

Informal self-organization
Informal resistance, on the other hand, offers much more room, at least as far as the informal member's individual imagination may be "allowed" to go, either by chance, spiritual path, or error. With no one to coerce or manipulate a member's ideological conformity or keep them from going into "dangerously" independent inquiry, or even simply escaping the list of tasks given by organizational functionaries, informal resisters have much more freedom to explore areas that interest them.

This especially rings true when we see that informal resistance motions are usually made up of individuals who are oriented to working/playing on their own, or with small groups of friends or "affinity groups". They may come together in order to carry out direct actions, but most of their time is spent doing activities they, individually, are enamored to. They remain focused on the activities they're interested in, whereas in formal organizations, they may become *burnt out* by tasks which run far from their original desires (re: fund-raising, newsletter editing and mailing, and other secretarial duties). They can still take advantage of peer critique or support, when they ask, but the interaction remains much more oriented to directness, and has less of a chance to be clouded over by the need to conform ideologically, and remain "in good standing" in the formal group.

Further, when we organize ourselves informally, we are also not limited by ideological demands about what sources we may make use of. In fact, we may utilize a broad variety of resources. This is what has been called creative self-mobilization... Myself, i've found much value in insights found in methodological anarchy and situationism, as well as from Reader's Digest and other places one wouldn't normally expect to find gems. The trick is *reading between the lines* and keeping one's ability to compare and try out, intact; this comes back to critical thought and intellectual self-defense.

the meta game
Depending on how meaningfully deep one has allowed themselves to delve, one may begin to see a pattern of similarity between ALL the vast, seemingly terribly complicated and divergent views and beliefs we have as individuals. Notably, we all are similar, it's just that we've been socialized/programmed/enculturated into a seemingly huge diversity of rigid difference. This kind of realization is typically not allowed by formal, ideologically-challenged organization, which seems to need to keep a rigid dichotomy between "us" and "Them". The reason for this I haven't yet been able to put my finger on, but perhaps there is insight to be found in the *meta game* as played by the elites of every formalized group (i.e. every group articulating itself towards being better understood and seeking "reform"/assimilation or "revolution"/changing of the boss). As R.D. Laing says:

"...I discover there is a meta-road...[Society] is playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play their game, of not seeing the game."--R.D.Laing, in a biography called A Divided Self p.151

We see this meta game all throughout the imagination called society and culture, and as well, formalized concepts of organization and resistance. Parents and other conscious adults play it upon persons called children. Teachers play it upon parents and kids. Administrators play it upon implementers of policy called teachers. Elite policy makers play this meta game upon elite implementers. All throughout our imagination we are neatly corralled and confined within something like Oz, though for me, a more exacting insight is to call this prevailing and imposed imagination *Is*. **The Wizards of Is** keep us "properly" subordinated, unthreatening, tooled, and mentally confined. We are modern-day peasants with neon. "Dark ages with neon glasses" as John Trudell would say.

Why this happens, why this meta game has to be played at all, probably has something to do with our "information society" being one completely subordinated to the needs and values of *propaganda* (see J. Ellul). All institutions and their public relations aparatuses utilize propaganda--manipulation--as THE method of choice for getting mass audiences/"consumers" to pay attention. Since we are basically a WAR-oriented culture, the war of propaganda comes with the territory. And thus the game that "must" be played while not speaking of the game; and those who do, being viewed as a danger because they might ruin a particular aspect of the propaganda that "MUST" rein.

a new imagination
The only way out that i can see, beyond continuing to naively strengthen that (including propaganda) which systematically attacks all of us in continually rotating ways (continually finding new differences amongst us to exploit our fears and keep us alienated and/or against each other), is by escaping the heart of the situation, and bringing forth a new imagination.

My study and experience leads me to the conclusion that FEAR, followed closely by severe alienation, is the heart of our challenge as humans at this juncture.

We need to liberate ourselves from this imagination which has been imposed upon ALL of us (including elite policy makers) from times when war was viewed as the only option (as in the history of all so-called "civilized" organization (popularly, it is also believed that pre-"civilized" groups, like the American indigenous folks, were committed to senseless violence; yet I maintain that there is a context to that which cannot be easily understood by domesticated man's severely confined imagination)).

Liberation of our desires and an obstacle
We can see already where our desires tend to want to escape to, when we think of young children of age 3 or 5. Their spirit is still full of the "spirit of discovery" and the love of life, and the misery of "Reality" has not yet been imposed upon them (via our social norms). The lucky few (those who see this anyway) that find time to walk down paths with them and notice things that otherwise would be missed, says oodles about this all too private joy, alone.

Parents have regularly spoken fondly of "being able" to "revisit childhood" through their youngchildren. Through this imagination we call "childhood" we experience a renewing of our own spirits, and this is to be celebrated; yet, at the same time, due to our alienated conditionining, this way has turned into a way which we *mine* for our own nursings, while allowing little vitality to escape to where our children may grow and become stronger.

In our single-minded, severely alienated interests, we've turned the youngpersons moving through us into objects. An object similar to what John Holt characterized, in his book _Escape From Childhood_, a "superpet". A youngperson not allowed to be viewed as fully human alongside us (thanks to the work of the convenient, and the systematically superficial analysis of the highly political, state-subordinated, social sciences).

Probably because of this value that we find in this somewhat natural time of life, the whole realm of "childhood" has become a highly sentimentalized time of all-too-escapist entertainment, aloof play, unthreatening fantasy, industry and business, keeping the very *objects* we claim to so avidly cherish and wish to "protect" locked up in a 'prison garden called childhood' (John Holt; see also: Paul Goodman: _Growing Up Absurd_ and Gerald Farson: _Birthrights_). We think nothing of this, until, for whatever reason, we finally allow ourselves to step back and look at a bigger picture. (Perhaps we are moved by youth liberationists of yesteryear or today, or remember our own feelings as kids)

Continue the war, or understand and implement liberatory desires?
The trick, then, is to not allow our severely alienated desires to get the best of us. (Perhaps this is where the danger of "ego" crops up, though I wonder at the validity of this characterization; is it too simplified? Reducing too quickly? I prefer a word which sheds light on the context of our resorting to all shades of allegedly bad selfishness.) This is the juncture where liberation may be had, or where struggle/war may continue (even inarticulately, as we see with so many kids now being labeled "oppositionally defiant disordered" and so on).

Liberation is the situation in which people learn the value of shirking off confined imaginations about themselves and others. Liberation is when many many people start to let their imaginations freer than ever thought "possible" before. The 1960s/early 70s was such a time of liberation (called a "crisis" by the ruling war order). Quite suddenly (all too quickly for the war powers), due to the example of a heightening black civil rights and anti-war movement, all sorts of groups and individuals were starting to think that they might be able to be heard if they dared to speak up about their intutions and awareness about the plight of themselves and those they'd been moved by.

Where the 1960s/70s liberation movement went wrong, in my view, is that they got stuck up in the game that their consciously political "leaders" played. Reformist-oriented or "revolutionary", the same underlying "Us vs. Them" dichotomy was (and continues to be) as rigid and **unempathetic** as the established mindset (and this goes for all the anarchists as well, even if they are not ideologically-oriented). Of course, most of those who thought nothing of following along, didn't see this. They didn't see that they were being manipulated against each other; tooled. For the needs and interests of their even more severely alienated "leaders" and owners and puppeteers.

Spirit liberation or psychological ju-jitsu
Spirit liberation is the uniqueness of our individuality which we had in spades and flying colors when we were less programmed/socialized/conditioned/indoctrinated into imposed "Reality"/death culture/misery/severe alienation we collectively view as "Reality". That is, to come back to this again, *when we were "kids"*. The time when we still could allow ourselves to look upon the reality all around us and come up with our OWN individual ideas; and not be completely encircled by others' imaginations.

"There are two ways of thinking. One can either accept current ideas and associations of ideas, just as they are or else undertake, on his own account, new associations or, what is rarer, original disassociations. The intelligence capable of such efforts is...a creative intelligence."--Remy de Gourmont (1899)

Thus, spirit liberation is the action and conscious (as well as unconscious) reverting to times when we come back under control of our own imaginations/culture/desired reality. i've talked about kids being naturals at this. Another group has not been mentioned: the "crazy" ones.

Crazy people
"Crazy" people, are, really, people whom've found a way, a self-taught folk way, to deal with their mental nilness resulting from living in the "norms" all around. The "norms" imposed and coerced by other persons so severely alienated and lost that they cannot allow the "crazy" people to explore their own path as they would like to explore it. This is saying things simplistically, but i see that it boils down to this. The more the severely alienated "carers" try to impose their designs/beliefs as an arbitrary remedey, the more the "crazy" person naturally seeks further escape--sometimes way too deep into the chaotic seas of "schizophrenia". Naturally, they tend to seek the ways that resonate with them the most.

Our severely alienated society wants them to "adjust" and "adapt" to the imposed "Norms", and anyone in their *right mind* will naturally rebell, even if they're not articulate to their rebellion!

Where the spirit liberationist can learn from "crazy" people should be obvious by now. "Craziness" is not "sick"; it is a way we can become when we must find depth. If we can become articulate and more conscious of our needs to "let things all hang out", or otherwise openly challenge social "norms" in ways not yet mapped by the political forms we can now imagine, while avoiding the pit-falls of inarticulate "craziness", we can learn to tool this folk method, just as we may learn to tool the methodology of youngpeople!

Does this make sense to you yet?

In liberating ourselves and each other so that we tap back into the ways of our original, individual selves--creating culture and community which realizes the value of such an endeavor--we merely dare to bring out the artways which we've buried (often under heavy armor) deep inside of us, or may've forgotten (and may still be remembered, via examples of informal, spontaneous realness)!

That is, for example, we tool "craziness" and "pre-socialization" ("childhood") in order to help us informally liberate ourselves from the Imposed Norms.

An example
An example of this is to enter into "an emotional break down" consciously, like I did lastnight (note: years ago now). I was depressed and wished to *go into* my depression and take it by the horns. For years I had avoided going into its fearful depths. But i was feeling at the end of my rope. i was unsure, in a really heavy way, as to whether i wanted to continue "living" in this reality, on this planet, in this dimension. So, i took matters into my own hands (i didn't seek the alleged insight of the array of professionals around me, nor the models of "support groups"; nor the same old 'friend' interactions of 'how are you?' 'i'm fine, and you?' crap).

i feared living. And i was fearing living for too long. But i also feared death (by my own hand as well as another's). So i dared to jump into this fear almost full-throttle, via my alleged "addiction" to ganja, and kept my screaming cries muffled just enough to avoid someone calling the police from outside my home (my home is not your "normal" lifestyle at all). And then i proceeded to make calls to all those i intuit have "hearts of gold"--or, enough "gold" in their hearts that they send beautifulness off in ways that i need and want. (the "heart of gold" thing comes from a favorite country song of mine, where a father is talking about his daughter) i dared to be open and direct with everyone, to make a longer story short. i dared to say what i meant and get it across emotionally as well.

And i lived through that. And i found some stability and insight, some informal spiritual/spirit liberation. A way for me to continue on and to come back here and try finishing this composition for the possible benefit of other humans.

Notably, this foray escaped the "normal" ideological grip, in that i dared to move into "my addiction", instead of avoid it as "conventional wisdom" would pressure. The same ideas which tell us that if *things are going "bad"--i.e. "bad trip"--then it's 'best' to avoid them and continue living like "shiney happy people holding hands" (remember that from a song?)*. Fakeness. Lostness. Lack of depth. Lack of realness. Lack of sharing in time of need.

Another example
Another example would be the essay i wrote called "Good Peasant, Bad Peasant" (see this blog, same date). Basically, it is a situation in which a group of people, such as in a neighborhood ghetto which is not being *openly* warred upon (i.e. wouldn't work in WWII Jewish ghettos), is having trouble with a "public servant" of some sort, and they decide something must be done. But, at the same time, they hold no confidence in "traditional" modes of rectifying the situation. My example was individual police officers whom are not acting with enough respect/professionalism towards people, and how we, the peasantry, can apply a type of crucial classical conditioning upon those whom are out of line yet remain regularly within the ghetto community.

This is certainly a bad seague here, but I don't have the time to rectify this: Notably, we don't completely "throw out" the wisdom learned from our ventures in the imposed, "traditional", and now dominant imagination. We utilize what we find liberating and valid, while *continuing* a critical awareness of WHEN such are most liberating and valid. At the same time, neither do we completely subordinate ourselves/society to the inexperience (in this world) and alleged chaos of persons called children or called crazy.

We seek the excellent **heart** and beautiful energy of people called children and people called crazy; not as yet another resource to commodify and exploit, but as a method or way of doing things which brings out our indepth needs and desires!

the problem of the institutional fear
Now, having said all this, there remains the test of the hardest challenge. My testing has been on myself and the observation of my fellow beings (humans, etc.) My testing has also touched on heavy situations (like direct emotional/nervous breakdown). Next to the direct imposition of the state (and all institutions, formal and informal, which automatically subordinate to it), there enters the problem of daring to articulate myself versus mindsets which do not value such, and see no form of rebellion as an option.

If pressed (or perceiving a threat), the human beings whom have subordinated their "professional" lives to the meta game of the state/ruling order, cannot allow themselves, it seems to me, to allow for too many people becoming of independent mind, and will (as history shows) work to see that such nonconformity becomes corralled in the smallest, unthreatening terms possible. Thus we have tiny academic circles exploring Polanyi, Kuhn, and Feyerabend. Or tiny, yet highly mystified, groups of cyberneticians. Or small groups of elite vanguardists keeping their 'single issue' reform measures intact at all costs (via such things as formal organization). Or 'indigenous' peoples remaining aloof from non-indigenous commonfolks.

Yet, this is the ultimate beauty of resistance consciousness. It remains informal. It remains "underground". It remains as a tool to be utilized when direct actions are desired, and can only be blocked when the whole society openly loses its freedom. The beauty of this form of resistance, also, is that it remains seeing the value of nonviolent interaction towards bridging.

But, alas, not every oppressed person (across the spectrum of left, right, center, and beyond) sees the value of nonviolent interaction *towards mutually beneficial outcomes*.

Good peasant, bad peasant: some ideas for interacting with tyranny

2007-11-16T14:12:00.000-08:00

(The following was originally written as a letter to respond to a reader of Anarchy, A Journal of Desire Armed #43.

I'd like to respond to the view that seems to be quite uncritically prevalent in left and Anarchist circles these days: The idea that there can only be a limited view of what "militancy" means in order to be "successfully" "revolutionary". And, along with that, the idea of what kind of thinking and action constitutes "realistic" responses to official injustice.

"Imagine not stepping into the traps of group hatred and arbitrary persecution. Imagine finding serious ways to "build bridges" to the individual instinct of the spectrum of human beings."

To give some background, i've had a somewhat diverse set of direct and indirect experiences with official power. i typically do not enjoy interacting with representatives of such power in any capacity, having learned to realize that probably everything they do falls in with their training to "control" society's "deviants". However, tho i am "paranoid" of their power and do despise it, i am still drawn by a desire to understand exactly how their mind-set manifests itself and can continue virtually unchallenged.

This kind of thinking seems to be alien to most people who have similar experiences. It seems that few let themselves squirm free of the rationale that *we* are "forced" to promote or provoke the killing of "enemies" (be they servants of the state or other despised groups). This, i think, is just as bad as the authoritarians we are purported to be against. The worst thing is that it only feeds the long-blind flames of human stupidity and remains far from solving the problem at its roots.

"If 'revolutionary' visionaries and warriors really want to solve the problem at its root, we've got to wake up not only to our own hypocrisy about authoritarian destructiveness, but to the tactics power uses to play us right into their various traps."

Laure Akai (whose letter in Anarchy #43 I was principly responding to) and others who espouse this "traditional" view certainly must be coming directly from heavy duty direct experience; and it may be true that in some circumstances equitable retaliation of official violence may be the only option; but most of the time it seems to me to be way too politically expedient, as well as awfully suspicious in the way it too often plays right into the hands of provacateurs and a much better prepared officialdom.

If "revolutionary" visionaries and warriors really want to solve the problem at its root, we've got to wake up not only to our own hypocrisy about authoritarian destructiveness, but to the tactics power uses to play us right into their various traps. That's why i say we must learn to realize that police, soldiers, and others serving coercive authority are not our real enemies; they are but duped and exploited pawns who are to serve as decoys, while powerful bigots continue their usual games, pretty much unscathed. Note that i said "powerful bigots".

So, what i think we need to do is to figure out how to undermine this perpetual program of bigotry (from both sides), on the one hand, and then how to solve the root of the problem, on the other.

It doesn't take too much imagination to realize that most people who form the ranks of both the servants and even the managers of the coercive authority model are really only people like so many others who happened to be born into their particular norm, conditioned to conform to it, and take a role based on their trust in those they've been conditioned, from day one, to look up to and believe in. Nor does it take too much imagination to see that every echelon of the coercive authority model deals with consequences for its arbitrary formulation of "what is certain" and "what must be done." For police, that means being used as a diversion--or middleman--on which social "deviants" can be allowed to vent their frustration to varying degrees. For managers and owners that means backing oneself up into a corner whereupon the "stupid masses" (as they call us) "must" be dealt with in certain ways--thereby crystalyzing an inability to empathize or understand. And with such systematic non-understanding dealt by the rulers comes the inivetable--having such horror meted upon them when they lose power (as in a "coupe" or "revolution" or simply when they become elderly).

The catch word is non-understanding (or bigotry) and the "mind-set" that leads people to come up with such rationales as those man-made constructions above.

So, i think it is high time we try to go beyond such bigotry. Thus, instead of forever allowing ourselves to contribute to the insanity of smashing such human beings whose bigoted mindsets create havoc for their weaker contemporaries, we need to learn to go beyond it.

If we continue coercing any group against their will--via measures that destroy our common humanity, we'll continue to see that each replacement mind-set has changed little from previous ones. That makes sense since no one really learned how to sanely deal with the hardest issues in the first place. It's like getting rid of a physically abusive parent, but still not understanding why a toddler is acting the way she/he is. Incapable of understanding the phenomenon ourselves, we're apt to institute yet another oppression.

Let's fast-forward from here a bit. Say we're already in the midst of forming anarchist communities in a formal sense. How do we go from point A --smashing and crushing "enemies" (as anarchist rhetoric now promotes)--to point B --genuinely forming "cooperative society" oriented to "mutual aid", "genuine community" and "egalitarian ethos"?

We cannot! We find, that without dealing with our misunderstanding right now, without living up to our rhetoric--without systematically practicing our "propaganda" (so it seems to me) in the worst of times--we end up being just as "strategically challenged" as the oppressors we took power from. The only way to create our visionary society is to practice it now, and to realize the stupidity and destructiveness of our "traditional" non-understanding past orientations.

Laure realizes that mass segments of society are dying to see something happen. Whether they'll get involved or only largely spectate is anyone's guess; what is probable is that fear will get the best of most of these segments of society when "traditional" anarchist methods are promoted; most would rather survive than struggle violently as we can see in every police state in the world ( i.e. 200,000 dead--since 1975--in E.Timor, i suspect, is only a minority of the entire population). Most would rather graze acceptable pastures since the risk of the other given alternative--violence--is just too heavy.

So, we need to find a way that will not only interest and inspire the masses, but undermine the efforts of the ever-fearful powerful. In my view it will have to be something that can include all of the diversity of the masses. Something that they can easily see themselves doing and is "inside" their experience. Something that operates around joy instead of non-understanding, fear, and the perpetuation of human stupidity. i think it will have to also include a deep commitment to non-ideolgical-oriented demystification.

Now, let's fast-forward again. Imagine a time where system challengers (or "subversives") have not only played in their heads with these issues, but have been trained to work such out in actual confrontations with strategically challenged opponents.

i can easily imagine anarchist "knitting" and "bowling" leagues who've been taught the Crucial Arts of , say, Chomskydo "intellectual self-defense" or Saul Alynsky "Mass Ju-Jitsu" (along with any number of sub-"moves" (i.e. the Grace Llewellyn Unschool-Two-Step Throw). A time where direct actionists work or play out their individual imaginations without "moral" boundaries in order first to tire the strategically challenged violent opponent, then to seek a communication style that allows them to respond genuinely, and finally, as in classic nonviolent strategy, to make friends with the "enemy".

Sound interesting? Well, i think that the seeds for such a future potential are all around us now, if only we have the intelligence to see their importance!

For example, in the few books that were published by and about Saul Alynsky, you can get a sense of an approach that really, it turns out, is still pretty much in its infancy. "Going outside the experience of our viewed opponents but inside our allies' experience" is the gist of Saul's theories of creative nonviolent confrontation. The actual kinds of tactics that he promoted for use by oppressed minorities and strikers are pretty amazing in their joy-orientation--yet were still big on results.

One of them used ordinary beans as the main ingredient for attack. A large group of direct actionists ate lots of beans and then descended upon their quarry while they sat at an enclosed public concert hall. Farting through-out the show, and certainly utilizing some kind of technique to communicate their intent, they succeeded in forcing their helpless opponents to the negotiating table, via peer pressure! ("John, you've got to do something about those people! It ruined our evening!")

Imagine the joy of fighting with a tool that the oppressor could not legally respond to! Imagine the chance to progress activism beyond our centuries of the utter waste of the diversity of human potential.

If those promoting the ideals of anarchist belief really want to concretely formulate its sketchy visages of a sane society AND get the serious attention of these vast segments of society which are becoming more and more frustrated in their powerlessness, it must go beyond its traditional limitations of defense and reaction; it must go proactive within the strength of its visions!

Now let's go back to that human group that i despise and fear so much: those representing and running coercive authority, such as cops. What if we were to engage them in the methodology of classic Eskimo punshiment? The Inuit and Aleut people are supposed to have engaged in a community punishment where the punished would be totally ignored for a duration of time. So what if, for example, a ghetto community, largely angered and frustrated by police brutality, endeavored to use such a tactic on all the police, including street cops, desk jockeys, and those of the higher ranks?

What if gas attendants, waitresses, postal employees, and everyone who came into contact with them acted (within the limits of their profession) to deny a friendly, interested, or otherwise human interaction, until a time when, quite informally, people decided to change their action or nonaction based on a conscious decision that they might share with the particular cops.

John Trudell (past American Indian Movement activist) spoke about this basic idea. He called it "resistance consciousness". He said that people should develop some kind of a resistance that cannot easily by subverted and that can be passed on.

i think these ideas have merit; but they need a strong and going-to-the-root way of being utilized in order to really make a difference. My idea is to use these ideas towards a 'positive reinforcement' conditioning tool where the humanity(ability to empathize, etc.) of irresponsible persons is promoted.

Deeply police-brutalized communities would deny police, en masse, any bastion of normal human interaction as part of a mode "resistance consciousness" for irresponsible and nonempathetic behavior, while endeavoring to express large amounts of humanity and interest (which all enjoy receiving themselves) when officers exhibit any form of constructiveness individually or as an independent group. Methods to promote humanity might include boquets of flowers (perhaps gotten free in dumpsters, or from the coutryside) or home-made foods being annonymously delivered to police. Or, imagine holding joy-centered demonstrations for cops who have made serious "attitude adjustments". People could be dancing, singing, and having an all-around party for the cops...a tool that would blow the cops' "superiors" right out of the water, especially if it was coupled with creative attempts to educate.

Thus, imagine that some usually isolated and deeply feared cop has made somewhat of an adjustment of his attitude. He may receive some kind of an award from a number of individuals; an award that commends his more positive activity, but which also comes with some information that gives him knowledge that he probably has not seen before--information unrelated to the topic, but normally hard to come by within mainstream culture; something that he and his family could use (i.e. something about describing the myth of "learning disabilities"). An analysis of cops used as decoys and grunts of power might come later, when a more open communication has been pioneered.

The idea is to promote human interaction with individual "civil servants", to melt the mystical barriers that separate us, and to promote the common humanity we all have, however beaten down by "pragmatism" and cynicism.

In this way, there is the greatly heightened potential of creating bridges to a police officer's human qualities. The brutally oppressed community does not kiss ass, nor does it attack the group (made up of individuals--all of whom would feel wronged if attacked violently-- no matter what the context). In fact, the brutally oppressed community's original "resistance consciousness" remains quite intact. Police will be rewarded for behaving decently and responsibly, and psychologically challenged for bigoted, brutal or illegal acts.

The beauty of this "good peasant, bad peasant" approach (as opposed to "good cop, bad cop") is that it gives ample room for creative exploration and expression of diverse individualistic interest to communicate reality. And, as the tactic becomes more and more successful, the more a brutalized people become capable of seeing themselves leading change--instead of remaining passive while "leaders" do everything.

Dealing with cops' destructive behavior, of course, wouldn't be the end of it all. We'd have to seek the root of the problem, such as the mind-set that trains cops to interact inhumanly (While it is true that cops are directly affected by their "superiors", we'd also have to deeply scrutinize the society that molded them). Brutalized communities would have to learn to go out of their way to insist on the cops' superiors gaining more humane understandings. They might have to start all over again with each section of psychologically armored servants of the inhuman state, but the chance of increased understanding and attitude adjustment would be well worth it.

So, you've got a basic picture of this crucial art form of tactics. What might an actual creative direct action manifest itself as? Say you want to organize a demonstration at the headquarters of an area precinct. What if legions of people, educated in varying degrees of "intellectual self- defense" did "pot-luck-ins" weekly (or more, depending on the severity of the problem).

Flooding the immediate vicinity of the station in a kind of civil disobedience, the direct actionists would not only share their food (and friendly sports or games), but their serious, yet spontaneous desire to openly discuss, in a human-oriented way, some of the officers'/bosses' problems and how they may have come to be. The mood would not be oriented to talking at or down to cops and their bosses, but with them, towards a better understanding.

Okay, maybe such a tactic doesn't adequately identify the root of these officials' mindset. So, what does? Is there anything that can touch them? Are they "untouchable" as human beings? Are they so pathological that there is not way that their humanity can be reached? (the idealistic psychiatric critics, R.D. Laing and Peter Breggin would disagree; they knew that love and empathy could break through to even the hardest "schizophrenic" cases).

At first glance all this must sound foolish to the seasoned activists amongst you. I'm sorry for those who cannot allow themselves to rise beyond such a mind-set. I'm sorry that they are so beaten down already that they cannot access their own humanity--and the emotions and hopes for "getting along" that drove them to anarchist ideals in the first place. If enough people could overcome such "pragmatism" and pursue some kind of more mutually beneficial outcome, it might be possible to instill a new way of looking at the challenges we face.

Imagine promoting creative brainstorming as a serious alternative to "traditional" forms of "normal" anarchist direct and indirect action. Imagine challenging power in ways that leap beyond everything that it is used to and fully prepared for. Imagine not stepping into the traps of group hatred and arbitrary persecution. Imagine finding serious ways to "build bridges" to the individual instinct of human beings. To not allow oneself to imagine and create anarchist ideals for all--including one's "enemies"--is to allow "traditional" modes of bigotry (on all sides) to continue unchallenged, and in my view, to continue making the same mistakes over and over again.

Welcome

2007-11-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to a space where "radical's radical" visionary seeing is finally possible!

This blog's intention is to include possibly many visionaries' seeing and sharing.

a little background to the title
What i mean by "radical's radical"? Well, the ideah iz beyond the same old again of colonization as usual. That means seeing (*and remembering*) beyond the confines of "normal" corrals where creatives are kept (usually unbeknownst to them); kept so that their visions remain contained in order to serve the interests of those whom colonize.

We are all colonized. That means we have been programmed/trained/organized --socially, politically, etcetera, in such a way as to be "of use" to an abstract called "society" --and its values of getting creative people to help implement the policies of the state/corporate nexus.

Of course, we are *taught* that "society" is all of us; yet increasingly, more and more groups of (and individual) folks (not only the usually marginalized and demonized) are getting their toes stepped on and even their feet stomped --via various forms of what is called "authority". More and more folks, then, are getting slapped with reality; the same reality which many other groups have been experiencing for a very long time.

For example:
www.streamreel.com/archives/aim/aim_gentle.htm
(this is a short video documenting state-fomented terrorism used quite recently against indigenous canadians)

Need i say more?

Educate yourself to such realities more:
www.anti-politics.net
www.indymedia.us
americanindianmovement.org