RAT Immediatism

[Gabriele <gaby@ratconference.com>]

Before every Rat Conference, I go through the same push-pull in my head.  I
want to go because I want, again, the thrilling experience of that
intangible something that happens at every conference to a lesser or
greater extent.  IT is hard to explain, except as being the kernel, the
essence of why I encourage and pursue creative endeavors at all.  And I
don't want to go, because I know I'll be annoyed and cranky at various
points, the points at which Rat turns inevitably into The Same Old Shit (a
Theatre Conference), and I'll have no clue how to hinder that in myself
even, much less in the Whole.  I always then yearn for that moment in
space-time, after hours, so to speak, when all formality is dropped and
magically we rediscover the hope that makes co-conspirators, friends, giddy
lovers of us all for a short while and then sends us refreshed back into
our daily life. 

I don't know how to make that happen.   There's no short-cut to it.  I just
know I have to take my chances and go.  The key lies not in agenda, but in
simply being there - "face-to-face, body-to-body, breath-to-breath
(literally a conspiracy) -- the game of Im-mediate-ism... must be corporeal
rather than abstract, fleshless, mediated by machine or by authority or by
simulation."

Below is some writing by Hakim Bey that most closely articulates what might
be a personal Rat manifesto and keeps me trying to will it into existence.

See you soon,
Gaby

------------
For the whole collection of which this essay is a part, go to:
http://www.elnet.com/~lrobin/frames/bey/default3.htm

Immediatism vs. Capitalism

Many monsters stand between us & the realization of Immediatist goals. For
instance our own ingrained unconscious alienation might all too easily be
mistaken for a virtue, especially when contrasted with crypto-authoritarian
pap passed off as "community," or with various upscale versions of
"leisure." Isn't it natural to take the dandyism noir of curmudgeonly
hermits for some kind of heroic Individualism, when the only visible
contrast is Club Med commodity socialism, or the gemutlich masochism of the
Victim Cults? To be doomed & cool naturally appeals more to noble souls
than to be saved & cozy.

Immediatism means to enhance individuals by providing a matrix of
friendship, not to belittle them by sacrificing their "ownness" to
group-think, leftist self-abnegation, or New Age clone-values. What must be
overcome is not individuality per se, but rather the addiction to bitter
loneliness which characterizes consciousness in the 20th century (which is
by & large not much more than a re-run of the 19th).

Far more dangerous than any inner monster of (what might be called)
"negative selfishness," however, is the outward, very real & utterly
objective monster of too-Late Capitalism. The marxists (R.I.P.) had their
own version of how this worked, but here we are not concerned with
abstract/dialectical analyses of labor-value or class structure (even
though these may still require analysis, & even more so since the "death"
or "disappearance" of Communism). Instead we'd like to point out specific
tactical dangers facing any Immediatist project.

1. Capitalism only supports certain kinds of groups, the nuclear family for
example, or "the people I know at my job," because such groups are already
self-alienated & hooked into the Work/Consume/Die structure. Other kinds of
groups may be allowed, but will lack all support from the societal
structure, & thus find themselves facing grotesque challenges &
difficulties which appear under the guise of "bad luck."

The first & most innocent-seeming obstacle to any Immediatist project will
be the "busyness" or "need to make a living" faced by each of its
associates. However there is no real innocence here--only our profound
ignorance of the ways in which Capitalism itself is organized to prevent
all genuine conviviality.

No sooner have a group of friends begun to visualize immediate goals
realizable only thru solidarity & cooperation, then suddenly one of them
will be offered a "good" job in Cincinnati or teaching English in
Taiwan--or else have to move back to California to care for a dying
parent--or else they'll lose the "good" job they already have & be reduced
to a state of misery which precludes their very enjoyment of the group's
project or goals (i.e. they'll become "depressed" ). At the most
mundane-seeming level, the group will fail to agree on a day of the week
for meetings because everyone is "busy." But this is not mundane. It's
sheer cosmic evil. We whip ourselves into froths of indignation over
"oppression" & "unjust laws" when in fact these abstractions have little
impact on our daily lives--while that which really makes us miserable goes
unnoticed, written off to "busyness" or "distraction" or even to the nature
of reality itself ("Well, I can't live without a job!").

Yes, perhaps it's true we can't "live" without a job--although I hope we're
grown-up enough to know the difference between life & the accumulation of a
bunch of fucking gadgets. Still, we must constantly remind ourselves (since
our culture won't do it for us) that this monster called WORK remains the
precise & exact target of our rebellious wrath, the one single most
oppressive reality we face (& we must learn also to recognize Work when
it's disguised as "leisure").

To be "too busy" for the Immediatist project is to miss the very essence of
Immediatism. To struggle to come together every Monday night (or whatever),
in the teeth of the gale of busyness, or family, or invitations to stupid
parties--that struggle is already Immediatism itself. Succeed in actually
physically meeting face-to-face with a group which is not your
spouse-&-kids, or the "guys from my job," or your 12-Step Program--& you
have already achieved virtually everything Immediatism yearns for. An
actual project will arise almost spontaneously out of this successful
slap-in-the-face of the social norm of alienated boredom. Outwardly, of
course, the project will seem to be the group' s purpose, its motive for
coming together--but in fact the opposite is true. We're not kidding or
indulging in hyperbole when we insist that meeting face-to-face is already
"the revolution." Attain it & the creativity part comes naturally; like
"the kingdom of heaven" it will be added unto you. Of course it will be
horribly difficult--why else would we have spent the last decade trying to
construct our "bohemia in the mail," if it were easy to have it in some
quartier latin or rural commune? The rat-bastard Capitalist scum who are
telling you to "reach out and touch someone" with a telephone or "be
there!" (where? alone in front of a goddam television??)--these lovecrafty
suckers are trying to turn you into a scrunched-up blood-drained pathetic
crippled little cog in the death-machine of the human soul (& let' s not
have any theological quibbles about what we mean by "soul!"). Fight
them--by meeting with friends, not to consume or produce, but to enjoy
friendship-- & you will have triumphed (at least for a moment) over the
most pernicious conspiracy in EuroAmerican society today--the conspiracy to
turn you into a living corpse galvanized by prosthesis & the terror of
scarcity--to turn you into a
spook haunting your own brain. This is not a petty matter! This is a
question of failure or triumph!

2. If busyness & fissipation are the first potential failures of
Immediatism, we cannot say that its triumph should be equated with
"success." The second major threat to our project can quite simply be
described as the tragic success of the project itself. Let's say we've
overcome physical alienation & have actually met, developed our project, &
created something (a quilt, a banquet, a play, a bit of eco-sabotage,
etc.). Unless we keep it an absolute secret--which is probably impossible &
in any case would constitute a somewhat poisonous selfishness--other people
will hear of it (other people from hell, to paraphrase the
existentialists)--& among these other people, some will be agents
(conscious or unconscious, it doesn't matter) of too-Late Capitalism. The
Spectacle-- or whatever has replaced it since 1968--is above all empty. It
fuels itself by the constant Moloch-like gulping-down of everyone's
creative powers & ideas. It's more desperate for your "radical
subjectivity" than any vampire or cop for your blood. It wants your
creativity much more even than you want it yourself. It would die unless
you desired it, & you will only desire it if it seems to offer you the very
desires you dreamed, alone in your lonely genius, disguised & sold back to
you as commodities. Ah, the metaphysical shenanigans of objects! (or words
to that effect, Marx cited by Benjamin).

Suddenly it will appear to you (as if a demon had whispered it in your ear)
that the Immediatist art you've created is so good, so fresh, so original,
so strong compared to all the crap on the "market"--so pure--that you could
water it down & sell it, & make a living at it, so you could all knock off
WORK, buy a farm in the country, & do art together forever after. And
perhaps it's true. You could . . . after all, you're geniuses. But it'd be
better to fly to Hawaii & throw yourself into a live volcano. Sure, you
could have success; you could even have 15 seconds on the Evening News-- or
a PBS documentary made on your life. Yes indeedy.

3. But this is where the last major monster steps in, crashes thru the
living room wall, & snuffs you (if Success itself hasn't already "spoiled"
you, that is).

Because in order to succeed you must first be "seen." And if you are seen,
you will be perceived as wrong, illegal, immoral--different. The
Spectacle's main sources of creative energy are all in prison. If you're
not a nuclear family or a guided tour of the Republican Party, then why are
you meeting every Monday evening? To do drugs? illicit sex? income tax
evasion? satanism?

And of course the chances are good that your Immediatist group is engaged
in something illegal--since almost everything enjoyable is in fact illegal.
Babylon hates it when anyone actually enjoys life, rather than merely
spends money in a vain attempt to buy the illusion of enjoyment.
Dissipation, gluttony, bulimic overconsumption-- these are not only legal
but mandatory. If you don't waste yourself on the emptiness of commodities
you are obviously queer & must by definition be breaking some law. True
pleasure in this society is more dangerous than bank robbery. At least bank
robbers share Massa's respect for Massa's money. But you, you perverts,
clearly deserve to be burned at the stake--& here come the peasants with
their torches, eager to do the State's bidding without even being asked.
Now you are the monsters, & your little gothic castle of Immediatism is
engulfed in flames. Suddenly cops are swarming out of the woodwork. Are
your papers in order? Do you have a permit to exist?

Immediatism is a picnic--but it's not easy. Immediatism is the most natural
path for free humans imaginable--& therefore the most unnatural abomination
in the eyes of Capital. Immediatism will triumph, but only at the cost of
self-organization of power, of clandestinity, & of  insurrection.
Immediatism is our delight, Immediatism is dangerous.