You know it's true. Otherwise, why does everyone cringe when you say
the word? Why has attendance at your anarcho-communist theory
discussion
group meetings fallen to an all-time low? Why has the oppressed
proletariat
not come to its senses and joined you in your fight for world
liberation?
Perhaps, after years of struggling to educate them about their
victimhood,
you have come to blame them for their condition. They must want
to be
ground under the heel of capitalist imperialism; otherwise, why
do they
show no interest in your political causes? Why haven't they
joined you
yet in chaining yourself to mahogany furniture, chanting slogans
at carefully
planned and orchestrated protests, and frequenting anarchist
bookshops?
Why haven't they sat down and learned all the terminology
necessary for
a genuine understanding of the complexities of Marxist economic
theory?
The truth is, your politics are boring to them because they
really are
irrelevant. They know that your antiquated styles of
protest—your marches,
hand held signs, and gatherings—are now powerless to effect real
change
because they have become such a predictable part of the status
quo. They
know that your post-Marxist jargon is off-putting because it
really is
a language of mere academic dispute, not a weapon capable of
undermining
systems of control. They know that your infighting, your
splinter groups
and endless quarrels over ephemeral theories can never effect
any real
change in the world they experience from day to day. They know
that no
matter who is in office, what laws are on the books, what "ism"s
the intellectuals
march under, the content of their lives will remain the same.
They—we—know
that our boredom is proof that these "politics" are not the key
to any
real transformation of life. For our lives are boring enough
already!
And you know it too. For how many of you is politics a
responsibility?
Something you engage in because you feel you should, when in
your heart
of hearts there are a million things you would rather be doing?
Your volunteer
work—is it your most favorite pastime, or do you do it out of a
sense
of obligation? Why do you think it is so hard to motivate others
to volunteer
as you do? Could it be that it is, above all, a feeling of guilt
that
drives you to fulfill your "duty" to be politically active?
Perhaps you
spice up your "work" by trying (consciously or not) to get in
trouble
with the authorities, to get arrested: not because it will
practically
serve your cause, but to make things more exciting, to recapture
a little
of the romance of turbulent times now long past. Have you ever
felt that
you were participating in a ritual, a long-established tradition
of fringe
protest, that really serves only to strengthen the position of
the mainstream?
Have you ever secretly longed to escape from the stagnation and
boredom
of your political "responsibilities"?
It's no wonder that no one has joined you in your political
endeavors.
Perhaps you tell yourself that it's tough, thankless work, but
somebody's
got to do it. The answer is, well, NO.
You actually do us all a real disservice with your tiresome,
tedious
politics. For in fact, there is nothing more important than
politics.
NOT the politics of American "democracy" and law, of who is
elected state
legislator to sign the same bills and perpetuate the same
system. Not
the politics of the "I got involved with the radical left
because I enjoy
quibbling over trivial details and writing rhetorically about an
unreachable
utopia" anarchist. Not the politics of any leader or ideology
that demands
that you make sacrifices for "the cause." But the politics of
our everyday
lives. When you separate politics from the immediate, everyday
experiences
of individual men and women, it becomes completely irrelevant.
Indeed,
it becomes the private domain of wealthy, comfortable
intellectuals, who
can trouble themselves with such dreary, theoretical things.
When you
involve yourself in politics out of a sense of obligation, and
make political
action into a dull responsibility rather than an exciting game
that is
worthwhile for its own sake, you scare away people whose lives
are already
far too dull for any more tedium. When you make politics into a
lifeless
thing, a joyless thing, a dreadful responsibility, it becomes
just another
weight upon people, rather than a means to lift weight from
people. And
thus you ruin the idea of politics for the people to whom it
should be
most important. For everyone has a stake in considering their
lives, in
asking themselves what they want out of life and how they can
get it.
But you make politics look to them like a miserable,
self-referential,
pointless middle class/bohemian game, a game with no relevance
to the
real lives they are living out.
What should be political? Whether we enjoy what we do to get
food and
shelter. Whether we feel like our daily interactions with our
friends,
neighbors, and coworkers are fulfilling. Whether we have the
opportunity
to live each day the way we desire to. And "politics" should
consist not
of merely discussing these questions, but of acting directly to
improve
our lives in the immediate present. Acting in a way that is
itself entertaining,
exciting, joyous—because political action that is tedious,
tiresome, and
oppressive can only perpetuate tedium, fatigue, and oppression
in our
lives. No more time should be wasted debating over issues that
will be
irrelevant when we must go to work again the next day. No more
predictable
ritual protests that the authorities know all too well how to
deal with;
no more boring ritual protests which will not sound like a
thrilling way
to spend a Saturday afternoon to potential volunteers—clearly,
those won't
get us anywhere. Never again shall we "sacrifice ourselves for
the cause."
For we ourselves, happiness in our own lives and the lives of
our fellows,
must be our cause!
After we make politics relevant and exciting, the rest will
follow.
But from a dreary, merely theoretical and/or ritualized
politics, nothing
valuable can follow. This is not to say that we should show no
interest
in the welfare of humans, animals, or ecosystems that do not
contact us
directly in our day to day existence. But the foundation of our
politics
must be concrete: it must be immediate, it must be obvious to
everyone
why it is worth the effort, it must be fun in itself. How can we
do positive
things for others if we ourselves do not enjoy our own lives?
To make this concrete for a moment: an afternoon of collecting
food from
businesses that would have thrown it away and serving it to
hungry people
and people who are tired of working to pay for food—that is good
political
action, but only if you enjoy it. If you do it with your
friends, if you
meet new friends while you're doing it, if you fall in love or
trade funny
stories or just feel proud to have helped a woman by easing her
financial
needs, that's good political action. On the other hand, if you
spend the
afternoon typing an angry letter to an obscure leftist tabloid
objecting
to a columnist's use of the term "anarcho-syndicalist," that's
not going
to accomplish shit, and you know it.
Perhaps it is time for a new word for "politics," since you
have made
such a swear word out of the old one. For no one should be put
off when
we talk about acting together to improve our lives. And so we
present
to you our demands, which are non-negotiable, and must be met as
soon
as possible—because we're not going to live forever, are we?
1. Make politics relevant to our everyday experience of life
again.
The farther away the object of our political concern, the less
it will
mean to us, the less real and pressing it will seem to us, and
the more
wearisome politics will be.
2. All political activity must be joyous and exciting in
itself. You
cannot escape from dreariness with more dreariness.
3. To accomplish those first two steps, entirely new political
approaches
and methods must be created. The old ones are outdated,
outmoded. Perhaps
they were NEVER any good, and that's why our world is the way it
is now.
4. Enjoy yourselves! There is never any excuse for being bored
. . . or
boring!
Join us in making the "revolution" a game; a game played for
the highest
stakes of all, but a joyous, carefree game nonetheless!
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