Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Friday, April 11, 2008
Hoping mechanism
Anti-Hope #1: disconnect from the internet. It’s a tool and not an end in itself. Just as electronic intel (elint) has never measured up to human intelligence gathering (humint), so too has the left morphed into a chain of electronic outlets. Four people can plan/accomplish more over coffee than websites. Less hazard from Fath3r1and S3kuriti, too.
Anti-Hope #2: ditch the self-consciousness. Rove and Cheney are miserable excuses for human beings, but they have the principle down: we’re going this way, with or over you. This isn’t sinking to their level but rising to the occasion.
My prediction is that if/when a hard-nosed drive for change gets going, there will be prominent lefties nit-picking or pointedly distancing themselves from the effort, with 5-3 odds that liberals turn state’s.
This sort of hopeless situation (oh, the irony!) has happened at least a few dozen times before. Frustration prevents me from looking for clues in the transition from the Old to New Left (sic) and just before the Progressive Era began. Fascists almost always have more money and use of government power, but they also have a more organized farm system and greater continuity. Che or Ho or Hugo would be paying attention to this. http://tinyurl.com/4glzw5
Hope I can deal with: http://tinyurl.com/5g24hk
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 04/11 at 08:09 AMMy day is brimming with hope, and I even have a clear-cut goal, now posted online:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_man_makes_it_through_dayActually things aren’t so bad, as far as my most immediate need-- paying work. Temp job starting at noon, copy editing at an ad agency which I think will be for a major pharma company… so there’ll be some sort of blood on my hands by the end of the day most likely. Or is that red ink?
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 04/11 at 08:18 AMI’m going to see the Cure at Radio City in June, and this one always seemed to conjure affirming images of hopelessness:
http://www.mp3lyrics.org/c/cure/never-enough/
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OhM2PZVJgjsI know, not exactly Rush… and there’s this tomorrow, not sure if I’ll go or not, posted with the Bad Egg Collective Meetup, figured it’s okay if I post it here (now if only I knew what an anarchist actually was...:
The Anarchist Bookfair (April 12th, http://anarchistbookfair.net )
claims to be an opportunity to “share your own experience and creativity,” yet it reproduces the debilitating social forms of the consumer-capitalist culture industry, forcing a passive role on all so-called participants: the book fair itself, another commodity-spectacle to reduce us to consumers--providing us another thing to shop for--and the “discussion” panels, where carefully-selected experts inform and entertain the ignorant mass--where everyone sits in a room and stares at one thing, without talking to each other--reducing us again to passive spectators, info-consumers of fixed options placed before us like television channels. Where is the creativity?I’d like to inject a little--as much as I can--by bringing my book-copying machine and making (and selling at cost) copies of books on CD. I will also be passing out a vaguely pro-situationist/anti-culture industry flyer (http://jerkface.net/anarchist-bookfair). I have just acquired free access to a high-speed printer and may be able to print more (e.g., http://bopsecrets.org/SI/6.everyday.htm ).
Ella suggested that this be made into a Bad Egg Collective event. In fact, I see the event is already listed on the calendar. I’ll be there all day (unless I get kicked out), but the Bad Egg event will start at 2PM. At 2:30PM there is a presentation I might want to see--you might too--on a squatter’s village called Christiania.* Stop by and copy some books, pass out propaganda (mine or yours!), stare at the spectacle, shop for new entertainment materials, and indulge me in my delusions of grandeur…
Directions Judson Memorial Church is located on the south side of Washington Square Park between Thompson and Sullivan Streets. Take the A, C, E, F trains to West 4th Street station; the R to 8th Street-NYU; or the 1 train to Christopher Street-Sheridan Square. The M1, M2, M3, M5, M6 and M8 bus lines also serve the area.
*Event Description This presentation will be describing the largest European squatter’s village, that of Christiania in the heart of Copenhagen: Established in 1971, with on average a thousand inhabitants, it is now under severe threat, following the eviction of the second largest squat in Copenhagen (Ungdomshuset) at the hand of Denmark’s equivalent of the SWAT team. Christiania, even under heavy pressure from Danish authorities still manages, thirty years after its start, to live without a hierarchy!
Jean-Manuel Traimond, a writer and museum lecturer, lived four years 1980-1984 in Christiania, and later wrote a book about it, currently the only one in print in French. He has published six books with the Atelier de Cration Libertaire, two of them translated in Italian by Eleuthera, and has also translated Paul Goodman and Colin Ward into French. He was a member of Rfractions, and, under the name Nestor Potkine, is a regular contributor to the Monde Libertaire.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 04/11 at 08:51 AMHi Everyone...Good topic Mickey...When I think of how I hear the word hope used, it is easy to hear the influence of religion, the savior will make everything right...have optimism, faith, believe. No need to do anything just believe...hope for the best and all that.
Some people I’ve heard refer to projecting positive thoughts with the idea actions will follow these positive thoughts. Makes a bit of sense. The word hope is used too loosely. I once used a wonderful brand of Tung Oil named Hope or maybe it was pronounced Hoppe?
Having hope in our socio-political system is absurd, surely blind optimism at best. If we were grounded with the earth instead of capitlism, hope might not be in our language...?
Posted by joe of maine on from 04/11 at 09:44 AMMorning Mick, Zen, James and Joe-Joe—Florida has been good for my spirit—I have been in N Ft Myers—for a week ... sun and seafood—and lots of Freddy and Connie’s home cookin—getting lots done while MN is still in the icebox .. oh well....HOPE FLOATS ETERNAL....if u have faith and BELIEVE ...—http://myspace.com/richiedeadhead—
Posted by richie on from ft myers FL..at least 4 2 day 04/11 at 10:13 AMHello Expendables...from overcast Astoria. So many great links to peruse here today. If I was Keanu, I’d likely say Whoa...
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/11 at 02:23 PMWhy even bother with the Daily Kos?
They have HOPE in the Democratic Party.
Then again, I once heard KOS call himself a libertarian.
They are a joke!
Posted by Tommy on from I live by the River 04/11 at 03:19 PMI just can’t help myself, Tommy. It’s a guilty pleasure.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/11 at 03:20 PMPeople—a lil’ tune from johnny cash—from his daze of hopelesness while servin’ time in the joint.. http://youtube.com/1eOEQlQXoEo hope it works
Posted by richie on from n ft myers, FL 04/11 at 04:04 PMopps.... try this tinyurl for johhny cash—http://tinyurl.com/5elavf—richie
Posted by richie on from n ft myers, FL 04/11 at 04:15 PMThat’s what I was trying to prompt you to say with last weeks last question btw. Freaking great article ! High five Expendables.
xoxo
Posted by Maxwell Black on from Arlington VA 04/11 at 04:36 PM#### HOPE! I often have that particular thought as well, Mickey - even after the Australians got rid of an excessively authoritarian government last November. Unfortunately our new Labor government is not that much better, especially when it comes to a very obsequious attitude towards the Bush administration. Our new PM Kevin Rudd visited DC last week.
Hi, Zen Prole, James (I have actually visited Christiania), Joe of Maine, richie, Tommy and Maxwell Black from a cool and wet Daylesford. We badly need the rain, though.
I’ll be off to Melbourne again tomorrow (to buy some stuff one can’t get in Daylesford) but shall be back on Wednesday night.
Have a good weeekend, all of you!
Helga
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 04/11 at 04:48 PMHi all...Great article, Mickey. Hope keeps an entire nation, maybe even the entire planet, living in a delusion. If hope worked, one could go out in a rain storm and hope to not get wet. Better to use an umbrella and leave hope to the delusional.
Posted by RMJ on from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 04/11 at 05:42 PMHello again, everyone…
You gotta love comments like this one I got at Infoshop (about the hope article):
This whole post, despite its purported anti-authoritarianism, just seems like vestigial leninism to me - revolutionary maximalism, all or nothing, with no appreciation of the slow changes that often happen despite ourselves.
Ain’t revolution swell?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/11 at 06:57 PMsorry Mickey, I didn’t mean for that to sound like a shot at you.
vestigial leninism?
didn’t they play CBGB’s back in the day?Posted by Tommy on from I live by the River 04/11 at 07:28 PMTommy: No harm, no foul...and I always thought vestigial leninism was something you get after eating too much candy.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/11 at 07:33 PMtransmission from the working class, 5:57a.m.: what is “vestigial leninism” for whatever’s sake? I will say, this “revolutionary MAXimalism--all or nothing--sounds fab. Sleep tight butter cups!
heart
Posted by Maxwell Black on from Arlington VA 04/12 at 05:04 AMRMJ..13..I like your commentary...I also enjoy a good quality umbrella. I think they’re neat...thought of building my own umbrella at one time, lost ambition. I thought it would be more helpful to learn about seasonal changes and how animal and plantlife change their behavior patterns with the changes, what are most appropriate foods to eat during various seasons, where is the best place to acquire water for brewing specific teas, how much activity is most appropriate, what is best time of day for good conversations and for petting the cats or walking to the stream to hear the water trickling over rocks or branches.
Posted by joe of maine on from 04/12 at 09:56 AM#14: “no appreciation of the slow changes that often happen despite ourselves” - that’s just great! Removing human agency from the political environment can only help. Isn’t that how lots of bad things happen, from “natural” trends and not greedy ####ers gaming the system?
(stands up at virtual meeting) “My name is Zen Prole and I’ve been an Expendable all my life.” Great turnout lately.
Maxwell, you’ve got a sharp turn of phrase.
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 04/12 at 10:15 AMhello all…
“Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.”
Nietzsche
I was absolutely lambasted last night at dinner with my family for calling their hopes for an Obama presidency absolutely foolish. I declared my vote for Nader and brought near screams of horror from the crowd.
I rose my arms and said, “Bring on the hatred!”
I will never vote on false hopes again.
Posted by JOS on from Oak Park 04/12 at 11:22 AMHello Expendables...from warm, somewhat humid Astoria.
I just put up a new post. Now I’m headed out to see if I can get some kind of lotion for this bad case of vestigial leninism.
P.S. Props to JOS for the sadly underused word: “lambasting.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/12 at 11:53 AMI liked Derrick Jensen’s observation on Pandora’s Box - that Hope was as bad as all the other evils in the box and deserved to be in there to start with.
If Pandora hadn’t released Hope, she would have had to get up of here arse, hunt down all the bad things in the world and stick them back in the box.Posted by Chris on from new Zealand 04/17 at 08:36 PM
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