88 lines
5.5 KiB
Plaintext
88 lines
5.5 KiB
Plaintext
The Liberation of Motion Through Space
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Feral Faun
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Time is a system of measurement, which is to say, a ruler, and
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authority. There is a reason why, during many insurrections, clocks have
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been smashed and calendars burned. There was a semi-conscious
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recognition on the part of the insurgents that these devices represented
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the authority against which they rebelled as much as did the kings or
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presidents, the cops or soldiers. But it never took long for new clocks and
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calendars to be created, because inside the heads of the insurgents the
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concept of time still ruled.
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Time is a social construction which is used to measure motion through
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space in order to control it and bind it to a social context. Whether it
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be the motions of the sun, moon, stars and planets across the skies, the
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motions of individuals over the terrains they wander, or the motions of
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events across the artifices know as days, weeks, months and years, time
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is the means by which these motions are bound to social utility. The
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destruction of time is essential to the liberation of individuals from the
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social context, to the liberation of individuals as conscious, autonomous
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creators of their own lives.
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The revolt against time is nothing if it is not a revolt against the
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domination of time in one's daily life. It calls for a transformation of
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the ways in which one moves through the spaces one encounters. Time
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dominates our motion through space by means of "necessary" destinations,
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schedules and appointments. As long as the social context which produced
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time as a means of social control continues to exist, it is doubtful that
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any of us will be able to completely eradicate destinations, schedules or
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appointments from our lives. But on examination of how these modes of
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interaction affect the ways one moves through space could help one create
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a more conscious motion. The most notable effect of having to get
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somewhere (destination), especially when one has to be there by a certain
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time (schedule/appointment), is a lack of awareness of the terrain over
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which one is moving. Such motion tends to be a sort of sleep-walking
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from which the individual creates nothing, since the destination and the
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schedule pre-exist the journey and define it. One is only conscious of here
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surroundings and how they are affecting her to the minimal extent
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necessary to get where she is going. I don't deny that many of the
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environments through which one may move, especially in an urban setting,
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can be disturbingly ugly, making such unconsciousness aesthetically
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appealing, but this lack of consciousness causes one to miss many chances
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for subversion and play that might otherwise be created.
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Subverting one's motion through space, making it one's own, freed from
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the bondage to time, is a matter of creating this motion as nomadic
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motion rather than self-transportation. Nomadic motion makes a playful
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(though often serious) exploration of the terrain over which one is passing
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the essential aspect of the journey. The wanderer interacts with the
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places through which she passes, consciously changing and being changed
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by them. Destination, even when it exists, is of little importance, since
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it too will be a place though which one passes. As this form of motion
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through space becomes one's usual way, it may enhance one's wits,
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allowing one to become less and less dependent upon destinations,
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appointments, schedules and the other fetters that enforce the rule of
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time over our motions. Part of this enhancement of the nomad's wits
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within the present time dominated context is learning to create ways to
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play around time, subverting it and using it against itself to enhance one's
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free wandering.
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A radically different way of experiencing living occurs when we are
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consciously creating time for ourselves. Due to the limits of a language
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developed within this time-dominated social context, this way of
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experiencing life is often spoken of in temporal terms as well, but as a
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subjective "time", as in: "The time when I was climbing Mount Hood..." But
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I'd rather not refer to this as subjective "time" since it has no shared
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purpose with social time. I prefer to call it "nomadic experience". Within
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nomadic experience, the peaks, the valleys and the plateaus are not
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created in steady, measurable cycles. They are passionate interactions of
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the sort which may make one moment an eternity and the next several
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weeks a mere eye-blink. On this passionate journey, the sun still rises
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and sets, the moon still waxes and wanes, plants still flower and bear
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fruit and wither, but not as measurable cycles. Instead, one experiences
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these events in terms of one's passionate and creative interactions with
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them. Without any destination to define one's motion through space, linear
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time becomes meaningless as well. Nomadic experience is outside of
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time, not in a mystical sense, but in the recognition that time is the
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mystification of motion through space and, like all mystifications, usurps
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our ability to create ourselves.
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A conscious, playful, exploratory creation of our own motions through
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space, of our own interactions with the places we pass through, is the
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necessary practice of the revolt against time - nothing less than creating
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events and their language. Until we begin to transform ourselves into
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nomadic creators of this sort in the way we live our lives, every smashed
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clock and every burned calendar will simply be replaced, because time
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will continue to dominate the way we live.
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