224 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
224 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
The Lemonade Ocean & Modern Times: A Position Paper by Hakim Bey
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1. One More River to Cross
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In our _experience_ (that is, not merely in intellectual speculation
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but in everyday-life) we have found that "the Ego" can be as much of a
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_spook_ as "the Group"--or indeed, spooky as any abstraction which is
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allowed to control behavior, emotion, thought, or fate. Deeply as
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we've been influenced by Stirner/Nietzsche Tucker/Mackay, we have
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never held to any rigid ideological or psychological form of
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Individualism/Egoism. Individualist anarchism is lovely dynamite, but
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not the only ingredient in our cocktail.
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Our position, put quite simply (in the form of a truism): The autonomy
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of the individual appears to be complemented & enhanced by the
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movement of the group; while the effectiveness of the group seems to
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depend on the freedom of the individual.
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In the 1980's--thru poverty, terror, mediation, & alienation--the
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individual was more & more isolated, while all forms of "combination"
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(communes, co-ops, etc.) were eliminated or else reduced to pure
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simulation. The pleasures of the isolated ego have begun to pull as
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the "self" is gradually reduced to a comm-terminal or funnel for
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commodity-fetishes. In the 90's we will demand effective means of
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_association_ which depend neither on Capital nor any other form of
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representation. We reject the false trance of the Spectacular
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_group_--but we also reject the lonely ineffectiveness of the
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embittered hermit. Always one more illusion to overcome!
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2. Maximizing Marx
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"Type-3 anarchism" (a term coined by Bob Black) designates a radically
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non-ideological form of anarchism neither Individualist nor
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Collectivist but in a sense both at once. This current within
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anti-authoritarianism is not a new invention, however (nor has it been
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given any final form). One can find versions of it in such works as
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_bolo'bolo_, or in the writings of the Situationists. One Situ group
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("For Ourselves") went so far as to suggest a synthesis of Max Stirner
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& Karl Marx, who in real life were bitter enemies. They pointed out
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that Stirner's psychological existentialism does not necessarily
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conflict with Marx's economics. Bakunin criticized not Marx's original
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critique but rather the solution he proposed, dictatorship.
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As for us, Stirner outweighs Marx because psychology precedes
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economics in our theory of liberation--but we read Stirner in the
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light of Bakunin & the early Marx--the light of the 1st International
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& the Commune of 1870--the light of Proudhon.
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In order to clarify this position, we'll introduce two more names from
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our "family tree," Steven Pearl Andrews (1812-1886) & Charles Fourier
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(1772-1837). In a sense we find them a more congenial pair than Max
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und Marx, because they both made significant donations to the cause of
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erotic liberation (a central concern of the Mackay Society), unlike
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say the virginal Bakunin, or Marx or Proudhon--both prudes--or for
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that matter Stirner, Nietzsche, or Tucker, who all more or less
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avoided the subject. Serious historians of the Social often ignore
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Andrews & Fourier because they were "cranks"--utopianists, marginals,
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Blake-like visionaries. One needs to be something of a surrealist to
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appreciate them. But our appreciation is more than erotic, aesthetic,
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or spiritual. We also draw from them a precise picture of our own
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position in the "type-3" current of contemporary libertarianism.
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3. Lemonade Ocean
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Fourier was amazing. He lived at the same time as De Sade & Blake, &
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deserves to be remembered as their equal or even superior. Those other
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two apostles of freedom & desire had no political disciples, but in
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the middle of the 19th century literally hundreds of communes
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(phalansteries) were founded on fourierist principles in France, N.
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America, Mexico, S. America, Algeria, Yugoslavia, etc. Proudhon,
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Engels, & Kropotkin all read him with fascination, as did Andre Breton
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& Roland Barthes. But today in America he is forgotten--not one
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complete work by Fourier is in print here--a few anthologies came out
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in the 70's but have vanished--& only one work about him (a fine
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biography by Jonathan Beecher, which may serve to stir some
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enthusiasm). Fourier's own disciples suppressed some of his most
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important texts (on sexuality), which did not appear in print till
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1967. It's about time he was re-discovered again.
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To quote Fourier out of context is to betray him. To say for example
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that he believed the ocean would turn to lemonade in the future, when
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humanity comes to live in Harmonial Association, is to make him a
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figure of fun (as Hawthorne did in _The Blythedale Romance_). To
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understand the beauty of the idea it must be seen in the context of
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Fourier's grand & brilliant cosmological speculations, rivals in
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complexity of Blake's prophecies. For Fourier the universe is composed
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of living beings, planets, & stars, who feel passion & who carry out
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sexual intercourse, so that creation itself is continual. The miseries
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of Civilization have deflected Earth & humanity from their proper
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destiny in a literal cosmic sense. _Passion_, which we have been
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taught to regard as "evil," is in fact virtually the divine principle.
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Human beings are microscopic stars, & all passions & desires
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(including "fetishes" & "perversions") are by nature not only good but
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necessary for the realization of human destiny. In Fourier's system of
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Harmony all creative activity including industry, craft, agriculture,
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etc. will arise from liberated passion--this is the famous theory of
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"attractive labor." Fourier sexualizes work itself--the life of the
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Phalanstery is a continual orgy of intense feeling, intellection, &
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activity, a society of lovers & wild enthusiasts. When the social life
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of Earth is harmonized, our planet will re-join the universe of
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Passion & undergo vast transformations, affecting human form, weather,
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animals, & plants, even the oceans.
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Passion draws humanity into _association_ just as gravity draws
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celestial bodies into orbital systems. The phalanstery is a little
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solar system revolving around the central fire of the passions. Thus,
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altho Fourier always defends the individual against the tyranny of the
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_Civilized_ groups (what we've called Spectacular groups, in the
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modern context), nevertheless for him the group in its ideal form
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takes on a quality of absoluteness. It's been jokingly said of him
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that the only _sin_ in his system is eating lunch alone. But
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"association" cannot be considered a form of collectivism or
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communism--it is not strictly "egalitarian," nor does it eliminate
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personal property or even inheritance. Moreover, all the elaborate
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titles & ranks Fourier delighted to invent for his Harmonians were
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voluntary & purely ceremonial. The Harmonian does not live with some
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1600 people under one roof because of compulsion or altruism, but
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because of the sheer pleasure of all the social, sexual, economic,
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"gastrosophic," cultural, & creative relations this _association_
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allows & encourages.
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4. The Convivial Individualist
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One of Fourier's favorite illustrations of how harmony works even in
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Civilization was the dinner party, where wine, wit, & good food are
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enjoyed according to a spontaneous order, not subject to any law or
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morality. Social Harmony would be like a never-ending party: Fourier
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envisioned people leaping out of bed at 3 a.m. to pick cherries as if
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they were rushing off to a grand ball.
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Steven Pearl Andrews (who also used the dinner-party metaphor) was not
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a fourierist, but he lived through the brief craze for phalansteries
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in America & adopted a lot of fourierist principles & practices. His
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chief mentor was Josiah Warren, first exponent of Individualist
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anarchism (or "Individual Sovereignty") in America--altho Warren in
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turn inherited much from certain strains of radical democracy &
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Protestant "spritual anarchy" which can be traced to the earliest
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Colonial period. Andrew was a system-builder, a "logothete" like
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Fourier & Blake, a maker of worlds out of words. He syncretized
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Abolitionism, Free Love, spiritual universalism, Warren, & Fourier
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into a grand utopian scheme he called the Universal Pantarchy.
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He was instrumental in founding several "intentional communities,"
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including the "Brownstone Utopia" on 14th St. in New York, & "Modern
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Times" in Brentwood, Long Island. The latter became as famous as the
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best-known fourierist communes (Brook Farm in Massachusetts & the
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North American Phalanx in New Jersey)--in fact, Modern Times became
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downright notorious (for "Free Love") & finally foundered under a wave
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of scandalous publicity. Andrews (& Victoria Woodhull) were members of
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the infamous Section 12 of the 1st International, expelled by Marx for
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its anarchist, feminist, & spiritualist tendencies.
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Like Fourier, Andrews created a "religion" to replace all the corrupt
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authoritarian cults of Civilization. We admit that this mystical
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tendency in both thinkers interests us a great deal, & again rouses
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our sympathies more than the cold atheism (or "fundamental
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materialism") of a Stirner of Marx. Type-3 anarchism includes for us
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the heritage of the Ranters, Antinomians, & Family of Love, as well as
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radical forms of buddhism, taoism, & sufism.
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Like Blake, Fourier & Pearl Andrews built systems of their own so as
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not to be slaves to someone else's--& these grand structures included
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psychological, sexual, & spritual dimensions missing from mere
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ideological or philosophical systems. The structural details of
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Harmony & Pantarchy are fascinating & inspiring, but for us their
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deepest value lies in the daring of their total "radical
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subjectivity." Fourier & Pearl Andrews created _poetics of life_, not
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merely politics or economics, & it is this aspect of their work we
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most admire & wish to emulate.
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5. Universal Pantarchy & North American Phalanx
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In a more immediate sense, however, we find that Fourier & Pearl
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Andrews offer useful arguments & practical hints for the establishment
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of a kind of association which seems even more desirable now than
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before the age of Late Capitalism, Dead Communism, pure Spectacle, &
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the eerie alienation of credit cards & answering machines, polls &
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surveys, computer viruses, & immune-system breakdowns. In the 1980's
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even the anti-authoritarian "Margin" fell into a spooky state of
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communication via the mail, BBSs, xerography, & tape. Physical
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separateness can never be overcome by electronics, but only by
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"conviviality," by "living together" in the most literal physical
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sense. The physically divided are also the conquered & Controlled.
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"True desires"--erotic, gustatory, olfactory, musical, aesthetic,
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psychic, & spiritual--are best attained in a context of freedom of
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self & other in physical proximity & mutual aid. Everything else is at
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best a sort of representation. The entire revolt against Civilization
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can be seen (at least from one point of view) as an attempt to
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recreate the autonomous intimacy of the band, the _free association of
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individuals_.
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Morbid loneliness is no better than the engineered consensus of the
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New World Order--in fact the two are but opposite sides of the coin,
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like homelessness & rent: false individualism vs. false collectivism.
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In the face of this illusory dichotomy we will continue to propagate
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Individual Sovereignty--but at the same time proclaim that our first &
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most urgent research of the decade must concern the nature of
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association.
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Thus we announce our intention to revive & amalgamate both the
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Universal Pantarchy & the North American Phalanx, the local (NY area)
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manifestations of Andrews' & Fourier's systems. The new Universal
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Pantarchy & North American Phalanx (UP/NAP) will be first a society of
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appreciation & research (more musty-dusty 19th century obscure
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crackpots to venerate & imitate!)--but also & perhaps more importantly
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it may become a _nucleus of association_. We plan to make field trips
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to the original sites of Modern Times & the Phalanx; we intend to
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revive the fourierist tradition of banquets; we plan to construct a
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shrine to Fourier & the Pantarch; we may even go so far as to produce
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another newsletter!
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And perhaps our research will actually lead to further experiments in
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the creation of temporary autonomous zones, free times & spaces
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excavated in the walls of Babylon--creative autonomy & comradeship in
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the no-go areas where power has "disappeared"--& who knows? even in
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our lifetimes, the _mutation_..."A crank? Yes, I'm a crank: a little
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device that causes revolutions!" (E.F. Schumacher).
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Long live Individual Sovereignty! Long live the Pantarchy! Long live
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Harmony!
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--April 7 (Fourier's birthday) 1991
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NYC
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