Why do I continue to participate in the pro-revolutionary milieu despite the profound pessimism, despite realizing that this milieu is unable to do what it wants to do (create revolution)? Thinking about it right now four things come to mind: friendship, intellectual loneliness, lack of creativity, and an unrealized desire to attack the Left.
Posted January 17, 2012 at 1:35pm in communism dupont poets of nowhere else to go revolution communist nihilism
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There’s actually a concrete, genealogical connection between punk and Situationism. Malcolm McLaren, the English producer who effectively invented the Sex Pistols, and hence the punk movement, had been involved in a
Situationist splinter group and Sex Pistols’ artist Jamie Reid used Situationist
principles to design their cover art and general aesthetic. Whether McLaren was serious or not…Situationist principles have become firmly ensconced in the punk philosophy-particularly among the hundreds of smaller, explicitly anarchist punk bands that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s (Crass, Conflict, the Exploited, the Dead Kennedys). Catchy lines from Vaneigem endlessly recur in song lyrics, and Situationist literature is widely available in any anarchist infoshop or book store, along with their contemporary, Cornelius Castoriadis and other members of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group, and historical material on the French near revolution of ‘68. Notably missing in most such bookstores is any significant space for most of what in France has come to be referred to as ”’68 thought”: Deleuze, Foucault, or Baudrillard-those authors seen as representing radical French thought in the academy. Essentially, punks and revolutionaries are still reading French theory from immediately before ‘68, the academics are mainly reading theory from immediately afterwards, much of which consists of a prolonged reflection on what went wrong, most often, concluding that revolutionary dreams are impossible.
Situationist splinter group and Sex Pistols’ artist Jamie Reid used Situationist
principles to design their cover art and general aesthetic. Whether McLaren was serious or not…Situationist principles have become firmly ensconced in the punk philosophy-particularly among the hundreds of smaller, explicitly anarchist punk bands that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s (Crass, Conflict, the Exploited, the Dead Kennedys). Catchy lines from Vaneigem endlessly recur in song lyrics, and Situationist literature is widely available in any anarchist infoshop or book store, along with their contemporary, Cornelius Castoriadis and other members of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group, and historical material on the French near revolution of ‘68. Notably missing in most such bookstores is any significant space for most of what in France has come to be referred to as ”’68 thought”: Deleuze, Foucault, or Baudrillard-those authors seen as representing radical French thought in the academy. Essentially, punks and revolutionaries are still reading French theory from immediately before ‘68, the academics are mainly reading theory from immediately afterwards, much of which consists of a prolonged reflection on what went wrong, most often, concluding that revolutionary dreams are impossible.
— David Graeber, Direct Action (2009)
Posted September 5, 2011 at 10:09pm in praxis revolution two kinds of french people punk situationism
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“From his youth he was nourished with the milk of eloquence; a good grammarian, a better rhetorician, well versed in the writings of authors…Oh, how often would he say, ‘Where are those good Romans? Where is their supreme justice? Shall I ever behold such times as those in which they flourished?’ He was a handsome man…It happened that a brother of his was slain, and no retribution was made for his death: he could not help him; long did he ponder how to avenge his brother’s blood; long did he ponder how to direct the ill guided state of Rome.”
Posted April 29, 2011 at 6:00pm in edward bulwer-lytton painting propaganda richard wagner rienzi william holman hunt revenge revolution
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