105 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
105 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
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The Pleasurable Revolution
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from the Wobbly Review of Books
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by
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Mike Ballard
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THE BOOK OF PLEASURES, by Raoul Vaneigem
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ISBN 0 904665 03 8
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Published by Pending Press, London, 1983
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Warning: this book will squeeze your adrenal glands. It is the
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very personal statement of a French revolutionary, who's
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organizational history and political profile can be found in the
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Situationist movement of the 1960's, a movement which carved
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its niche in history with the paving stones dug from Parisian
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streets during the heady days of May, 1968. It is a
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psychological snapshot of one, Raoul Vaneigem, circa 1979. LE
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LIVRE DES PLAISIRS was translated into English, as the BOOK OF
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PLEASURES, by John Fullerton in 1983. Its latest incarnation can
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by purchased from Left Bank Books, at 4142 Brooklyn Ave. N.E.,
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Seattle, Washington 98105. It's a fairly expensive 105
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pages--$12 in paperback-- but considering its lack of
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availability in most libraries, being able to read it is usually
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going to be limited to being able to buy or steal it; an irony,
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I'm sure, M. Vaneigem would appreciate.
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"All pleasure is creative", he writes, "if it avoids exchange.
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Loving what pleases me, I have to build a space in life as little
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exposed as possible to pollution by business, or I will not find
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the strength to bring the old world down, and the fungus among us
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will rot my dreams. While the state is in disarray, strike hard
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at business and its friends."
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Raoul Vaneigem sees the social relations and the consciousness
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which springs from them under the rule of capital, as turning the
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real world upside down. Human desires, traits, labor,
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creativity, indeed human beings themselves, come increasingly to
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be viewed as attainable in exchange for money: sexiness through
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soap commodities, joy through the purchase of brand named
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alcoholic commodities, self-esteem by buying a certain car or
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truck. This upside down (reified, if you will) world permeates
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human communication and therefore, consciousness in modern
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industrial societies. It stifles human self-awareness and blocks
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the road to social revolution, the road toward what M. Vaneigem
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describes as "universal self-management". It is culminating
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today in the almost total commodification of human relations.
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"There will be no proletarian emancipation unless we strike the
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shackles off pleasure.", Vaneigem writes. In order to crack
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one's way out of this multifaceted shell, he proposes that the
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individual worker focus first on her/ his need for pleasure and
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then to use it as the engine of psychological emancipation.
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Duty, guilt, and sacrifice-- the traditional left, liberal, and
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religious motivators-- tend to produce less than liberating
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results and in fact, according to Vaneigem, are counterproductive
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or worse, reactionary in nature.
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"Doing exactly what you feel like is pleasure's greatest weapon,
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connecting individual acts with collective practice; we all do
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it. If rejecting survival made the 1968 movement taking hold of
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life will open the era of universal self- management."
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Agree? Disagree? Curious? Pick up the BOOK OF PLEASURES.
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Follow M. Vaneigem's id though the psychological thicket of our
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collective super-egos. You may see yourself and your co-workers
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inside, suspended within this sphere of self induced repressions,
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reinforced by the admonitions of all the official authorities of
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modern ideology: religion, the State, the Economy, media
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pundits... Choose your poison. Raoul Vaneigem would have you
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choose pleasure.
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Admittedly, this can be a dangerous path and Vaneigem deals with
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many of your objections as he argues, appeals, and taunts.
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Sometimes a Freudian/Reichian map would seem helpful; but in all
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commonsense and a tuned-in critical faculty is all you really
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need. It is true that M. Vaneigem can sound pompous at times.
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His aphoristic phrasing can put one off too. His pronouncements
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pooh-poohing organization in favor of spontaneous autonomy left
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me cold after awhile. While this notion may be appealing, it
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will never satisfy the desire of those who wish for more than a
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psychic liberation from the rule of capital. Generalized
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self-management can only be realized on a societal level as a set
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of social relations based on democratic practice. Individuals
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can only go so far by themselves. A cooperative commonwealth
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requires democratic mediation of individual differences and
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individual desires. This is sometimes hard work which is not
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always immediately pleasurable. C'est la vie, non M. Vaneigem?
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I don't mean to throw cold water on the BOOK OF PLEASURES though.
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The insights which pack this book are extremely useful. They
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continually stimulate and challenge the reader. I think
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Vaneigem's observations can help us as, "we are forming the
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structures of the new society within the shell of the old."
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This review is reprinted from the April, 1993 edition of the
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"Industrial Worker", the newpaper of the Wobblies.
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subs to the "IW" can be had for a mere $10 per year. There
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are 12 issues per year. Snail mail to
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Industrial Worker
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1095 Market St. #204
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San Francisco, Ca 94103
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U.S.A.
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