On the Ground
Everyday Revolution
ushering in the promised era of peace & shared prosperity
Initially, many will find the new liberationist essays which aim to incite revolution across the globe, difficult, and in some circumstances impossible to read and understand. Nonetheless, with or without an audience, the new breed of social and economic activists, persist, calling for reform of political, moral, production and distribution structures to usher in the long foretold ‘Millennium’ of peace and prosperity – A New Earth established by installing the laws of Heaven on Earth.
Still, it would be a grave mistake to overlook or attempt to cover-up the many and various extreme eccentricities many modern reformers often wear as badges of honour. Many among them have no qualms making up words to express the kinds of reforms they believe are needed to bring about the conditions able to birth and sustain real change to people and planet. Akin to social activists and commentators such as Raoul Vaneigem, Hakim Bey, Herbert Marcuse and Murray Bookchin, the vast majority have no issue running two or even more names and terms together to grant title and description to concepts and proposed structures that either do not as yet exist; or can and will exist, once envisioned, invented, or otherwise restructured or created anew.
The audacity of these riotous creatures – believing they have licence to break every rule of grammar and sentence structure that has existed for thousands of years. Blatant language law-breakers they are; and yet not one of them in any way shape or form, is apologetic to their audiences. The utter liberty taken with language is beyond scandalous – shocking. Yet perhaps that is the entire point. The revolution to end all revolutions, quite likely requires the invention of a whole new language in order to raise the masses from the ashes of the current coma of complacency.
Installing Liberty As Actuality
The task of rattling the cages of those already captured within urban and rural near-slums of the so-called first-world has somehow fallen to radical poets and anarchists such as Bey and others of the same political and moral persuasion. Rallying the masses has already begun in earnest. Thousands of everyday ordinary people are taking to social and environmental activism, inspired by old and new poets, thinker-dreamer-doers like never before.
On the street and through the various social media platforms, in every corner of the globe, citizens of every nation, creed and colour are talking up the right to quality of life and liberty for people, animals and the planet to millions who are now mobilized, due mainly to the increasing encroachment by corporate-backed puppet governments on civil liberties. The compound of ‘forced vaccination, tracking and tracing, censorship across social-media and public speech, as well as, major restrictions placed on entitlements to earn a living, buy food and clothing, attend school & university, or visit with family and friends,’ has caused millions to lift out of their armchairs and literally ‘take to the streets in protest’.
It appears those who have been at ‘inciting revolution’ for decades – sounding alarm bells while proposing alternatives to capitalist conscription, are now reaching those ready, willing and able to break the chains that bind them to all that imprisons, separates, or else demands that the most important and critical dialogues and discussions, remain unspoken.
The term-tag sandwich, ‘comm-terminal’ is but one ‘made-up’ word-blend used by Hakim Bey as a strategy to expose the serious delusions ‘we the people’ suffer and carry with us throughout everyday life. Worst still is the realisation that societies actually hand this debilitating mental illness down from generation to generation.
It is no easy feat getting our heads around Bey’s many and various word-crashes. Still, if one perseveres, eventually it becomes easy enough to see that he means to describe a situation where “the pleasures of ‘isolated ego’ begin to pull as ‘self’ gradually reducing us to ‘a comm-terminal’ – a funnel that channels our inclines toward commodity-fetishes.”
Once we grasp ‘comm-terminal’ to mean something similar to a conduit of sorts, it becomes clear that Bey is determination to open the way for us to comprehend the complexities of the isolate ‘ego’ and how it effects our natural ability to ‘rationalise’. Bey’s points out that ‘natural rationality’ can only function within the frame and balance of associations that are larger than ourselves. In essence, Bey claims that ‘ungrounded’ ego that is walled-off from the refinement of fellowship with others, soon becomes disorientated and disturbed. Disassociated from interaction, along with placement and purpose that is naturally rendered and transferred by larger circles of association, ultimately results in ‘the isolated self’ suffering hellish insecurity that causes him or her to seek relief from anxiety in any form – be it self-destructive, or even deadly.
Once lured to this unnatural setting, the one so incensed or de-sensed by way of being cut off from association with diversely balanced secure and supportive association, becomes easy prey for profiteers promising if you buy this or that, it will take away the pain and ‘make everything alright.’ The isolated and insecure will always and forever seek comfort and consolation in commodities – it is an easy sell. Anything to prop up the puffed-up defensive ‘ego’ that is forced to keep up the pretence that something – some innate object will defend it from disintegration.
‘Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,’ in the end, that is all any of us amount to, if and when we fail to make the effort to evolve beyond separatist egos.
Principles & Practices of REVOLUTION
Over the past thirty years, many across the globe have become conscious of this colossal dupe by the many and varied capitalist fiends who have shown us that they will stop at nothing to feed their insatiable appetite for power and profit.
Amongst others, Bey shows us a path; a way to mount the ultimate and final revolt to defeat our captors. ‘Don’t play the enemy’s game.’ He insists, it’s that simple. ‘Don’t allow the ego to be tormented by television news and adverts that tell us what we are not – which is; deficient in anything other than association. Turn the enemy’s propaganda machine off and leave it off.
As changemakers we have much better and brighter things to focus on; such as advancing toward social equality and developing clean-green ‘common wealth’ cooperative enterprise associations that share power and equitably ensure access to life-sustaining provisions such as food, clothing, housing, transport, health services, education and leisure.
Enacting the Revolution of Association
The crux of the changemaker revolution that is well underway across the globe is constituted on a foundation of courage grown from an amendment of perception regarding our true place and purpose in the world. ‘We the people’ are needed, if for no other reason than to wake from the capitalist delusion – to save people and planet, animals and air from total catastrophic obliteration.
For Bey, social reform cannot be divorced from critical economic reform. ‘Demand effective means of association which depend neither on Capital, nor any other form of representation. Reject the false trance of the Spectacular group – and also reject the lonely ineffectiveness of the embittered hermit.’
For now, changemaker revolutionaries must focus on the main task of clearing away the fog – overcoming the illusions and trance that stand in the way of each and every one of us, claiming our birth-right to place, purpose and privilege to all that makes life worth living.
Through willingness to move out of our comfort zone – meet new people, give and receive, overcome the inbred historic and generational incline toward ‘sloth’ – laziness, inertia, withdrawal, pessimism and apathy can be cured. Via efforts to ‘associate’ – to come together, to trust, to share, to care and to love, collectively we can and will reverse the hypnotism that causes us to believe, and thereby act as if ‘there is no world beyond capitalism’ – beyond some having while others have not even the basics to sustain life, liberty, security or an ounce of happiness.
If and when we allow apathy to rule the roost, naturally, we continue to blindly consume – seeking always and forever to ‘fill the void’ created by returning each day to isolated little boxes and trying to be content with that little.
Devoid of deep community associations capable of surrounding us with natural affection; emotional, physical and economic support and stimulation underpinned by a sense of place, purpose and promise – no one cares how we suffer the injustice of living in captivity – as beasts of burden, as slaves – our labour given over to profit those with economic privilege beyond decency. Pick your drug of choice – alcohol, prescription drugs, over indulgence in food, shopping, video games – whatever, the capitalist wins – breaks us and steals our birth-right and inheritance.
Hope Is The Revolution
As changemaker revolutionists, we know our most vital victory is won each and every day, when we do not lose sight of the long-foretold era when perpetual peace and shared prosperity will reign. Hope is the revolution. When we fight ‘the good fight’ to see our dreams of peace and security realised via evolved living and loving, we make an everyday contribution to the defeat of destructive, cruel Capitalism. No doubt, Egyptian, Roman and even the more recent Colonial Empires within Europe and America, fell to their demise via the persistence of those enslaved, to ‘dream the impossible dream’ of freedom, equity and justice for all.
Inarguably slave rebellions reach back to antiquity. Many accounts have been lost entirely, while others remain etched into the very fabric of our culture, customs and constitutions. The story of the Israelite rebellion led by the ousted would-be king, Moses, is but one of many representations of early revolutionary strategies and tactics to bring about socio-economic reform via acts of civil disobedience, boycotts and ultimately ‘walking off the job.’
The book of Exodus narrates the organisation of bands of unrelated clans and tribes into a 2 million-strong, well-educated legion of freedom fighters determined to throw off the shackles of slavery, and along with it, the deprivation of liberty that would be carried down to future generations. Yet of course there were many others before and after Moses who led rebellions against enslavement. There has never been an era of recorded history devoid of uprisings against slavery and tyranny.
Today there are freedom fighters still fighting to free sex-slaves, sweatshop slaves and exploited workers across every nation. First-world or Third-world, economic, domestic and sex slavery is deplorably flourishing and tragically effecting many millions of men, women and mere children.
In this context, it is true to say that every race, colour and creed of peoples who remain outside the clutches of capitalist conscription by forming associations constituted on the evolved ethical principles and practices of ‘share all with all’, holds ground to usher in the promised era of perpetual peace and shared prosperity
