free

Harbinger
In the dawn, there is a wasteland and in the wasteland, a city and in the city, a ghetto and in the ghetto, a prison and in the
prison, a cell and in the cell, a mother and in the mother, a child and in the child, a heart and in the heart, a heartbeat: the

as the air in your lungs and Until
the song on your tongue our most fan-
tastic demands are
surface-to-air missive met, fantasy will always
be at war with reality.
to the new generation It hijacks history classes and
funerals, waylays secretaries on
4TH COMMUNIQUÉ the way to the coffee machine, turns
rails into slides and shopping malls

A ransom note regarding your life to playgrounds—it sends lives spin-

ning out of control. Movie directors
endeavor to harness it, travel agents
courtesy of the to peddle it, political parties to enlist it;
but fantasy, like the one who pursues
CrimethInc. it in earnest, can serve no employer.
Now that every continent has
Secret been conquered and every countryside
explored, nothing is more precious
Service than passages to new worlds. Mass-
manufactured faiths are haunted by
a thousand dreams of escape—and
fancy weaves better wings for flighty
youth than pragmatism ever fashioned
our forebears.
As revolutionaries, of course we
are fighting for our daydreams! When
we cannot stomach another hour of
this, we side with those moments we
surprise ourselves, flashes in which
anything feels possible, peak experi-
ences that may last only instants—and
therefore with every inhibited im-
pulse, forbidden pleasure, unexploded
dream, all the stifled songs which,
unleashed, could create an upheaval
like no one has ever seen. And when
the dust settles afterwards, we will
side with them again.
Have Call this escapist—perhaps it is;
you noticed— but what class of people is most dis-
exhortations to indulge turbed by the idea of escape? Jailers.
yourself are always followed by Right or wrong, selfless or selfish,
suggestions? Adherents of doctrines possible or impossible, we’re getting
seek footholds to claim territory within out of here.
you, salesmen grasp for handles to jerk
you around . . . from new-age prophets
to advertisers, from pornographers to They were shooting off fireworks
through the tear gas down on the wa-
radicals, everyone exhorts you to “pursue
terfront, the sky exploding in grenades
your desires,” but the question remains: of color. Whatever it is that pulls the
which ones? The “real” ones? Who decides pin, that hurls you past the boundaries
of a new dawn.

which those are? of your own life into a brief and total
This just makes it clear what’s going beauty, it is enough.
on: a war for your soul on every front.
And those much talked-about desires are
all constructed, anyway—they change,
they’re dependent on external factors,
culture, the whole context and history of
our society. We “like” fast food because
we have to hurry back to work, because
processed supermarket food doesn’t taste
much better, because the nuclear fam-
ily—for those who still have even that—is
too small and stressed to sustain much
festivity in cooking and eating. We “have
to” check our email because the dissolution
of community has taken our friends and
kindred far away, because our bosses would
rather not have to talk to us, because “time-
saving” technology has claimed the hours
once used to write letters—and killed all the
“You can see the whole wide world
passenger pigeons, besides. We “want” to from up here.”
go to work because in this society no one “Yes—and others, as well.”
looks out for those who don’t, because it’s
hard to imagine more pleasurable ways to
spend our time when everything around us The invitation to a new world may
is designed for commerce and consumption. take a lifetime or more to extend;
Every craving we feel, every conception we self-imposed outcast status may be
form, is framed in the language of the civi- established in order to receive the
lization that creates us. transmissions, to give the seeds soil in
Does this mean we would want differ- which to grow. The one who does this
is not jettisoning herself from “life”
ently in a different world? Yes, but not be-
after all, but providing its first port
cause we would be free to feel our “natural” of entry—metabolizing, invisibly, the
desires—no such things exist. Beyond the life garbage of the old world into the new
you live, you have no “true” self—you are pre- one, just as other “parasites” do.
cisely what you do and think and feel. That’s

...and Undermine.
the real tragedy about the life of the man who
spends it talking on his cell phone and attending
simply to keep abreast of reality,” in the words
of the old expatriate. The question is simply
Shout it over the rooftops: Culture
can belong to us. We can make our own
own epics, masters of our own fate.
If we are to transform ourselves,
old heritage of “renounce and struggle”
passed down from a humorless Christi-
business seminars and fidgeting with the remote whether you take responsibility for your part we must transform the world—but to anity.
music, mythology, science, technology,
control: it’s not that he denies himself his dreams, in the ongoing transformation of the cosmos, begin reconstructing the world, we To return, finally, to the original
tradition, psychology, literature, his-
necessarily, but that he makes them answer to acting deliberately and with a sense of your must reconstruct ourselves. Today all question—yes, we too are making sug�
tory, ethics, political power. Until we
reality rather than attempting the opposite. The own power—or frame your actions as reactions, of us are occupied territory. Our appe- gestions about which desires you pursue.
do, we’re stuck buying mass-produced
accountant regarded with such pity by runaway participating in unfolding events accidentally, tites and attitudes and roles have all We would be scoundrels to deny that!
movies and compact discs made by
teenage lovers may in fact be “happy”—but it is a randomly, involuntarily, as if you were purely a been molded by this world that turns But we would be scoundrels not to
corporate mercenaries, sitting faceless
different happiness than the one they experience victim of circumstance. us against ourselves and each other. make these suggestions, not to extol
and immobilized at arena rock perfor-
on the lam. If, as idealists like us insist, we can indeed How can we take and share control of freedom and self-determination in a
mances and sports events, struggling
If our desires are constructs, if we are in- create whatever world we want, then perhaps our lives, and neither fear nor falter, world that discourages them. Exhort-
with other people’s inventions and pro-
deed the products of our environment, then our it’s true that we can adapt to any world, too. when we’ve spent those lives being ing others to “think for themselves” is
grams and theories that make less sense
freedom is measured by how much control of But the former is infinitely preferable. Choosing conditioned to do the opposite? ironic—but today, refusing to oppose
to us than sorcery did to our ancestors,
these environments we have. It’s nonsense to to spend your life in reaction and adaptation, Whatever you do, don’t blame the propaganda of the missionaries and
shamefacedly accepting the judgments
say a woman is free to feel however she wants hurrying to catch up to whatever is already hap- yourself for the fragments of the old entrepreneurs and politicians simply
of priests and agony columnists and ra-
about her body when she grows up surrounded pening, means being perpetually at the mercy of order that remain within you. You means abandoning our society and spe-
dio talk show hosts, berating ourselves
by diet advertisements and posters of anorexic everything. That’s no way to go about pursuing can’t sever yourself from the chain of cies to their control. There’s no purity
for not living up to the standards set
models. It’s nonsense to say a man is free when your desires, whichever ones you choose. cause and effect that produced you— in silence. And liberty does not simply
by college entrance exams and glamour
everything he needs to do to get food, shelter, suc- So forget about whether “the” revolution not with any amount of willpower. exist in the absence of control—it is
magazines, listening to parents and
cess, and companionship is already established will ever happen—the best reason to be a revo- The trick is to find ways to indulge something we have to make together.
counselors and psychiatrists and man-
by his society, and all that remains is for him to lutionary is simply that it is a better way to live. your programming that simultane- Taking responsibility for our part in the
agers tell us we are the ones with the
choose between established options (bureaucrat It offers you a chance to lead a life that matters, ously subvert it—that create, in the ongoing metamorphoses of the world
problems, buying our whole lives from
or technician? bourgeois or bohemian? Democrat gives you a relationship to injustice so you don’t process of satisfying those desires, means not being afraid to take part in
the same specialists and entrepreneurs
or Republican?). We must make our freedom by have to deny your own grief and outrage, keeps conditions which foster new ones. the making of our society, influencing
we sell them to—and gnashing our
cutting holes in the fabric of this reality, by forging you conscious of the give and take always go- If you need to follow leaders, find and being influenced as we do.
teeth in secret fury as they cut down
new realities which will, in turn, fashion us. Putting ing on between individual and institution, self leaders who will depose themselves We make suggestions, we spread
the last trees and heroes with the cash
yourself in new situations constantly is the only and community, one and all. No institution can from the thrones in your head; if this propaganda of desire, because we
and authority we give them. These
way to ensure that you make your decisions un- offer you freedom—but you can experience it in you need to “lead” others, find equals hope by doing so to indulge our own
things aren’t inevitable, inescapable
encumbered by the inertia of habit, custom, law, challenging and reinventing institutions. When who will help you dethrone yourself; programmed passion for propaganda
tragedies—they’re consequences of the
or prejudice—and it is up to you to create these school children make up their own words to the if you have to fight against others, in a way that undermines an order that
passivity to which we have relegated
situations. Freedom only exists in the moment of songs they are taught, when people show up by find wars you can wage for everyone’s discourages all of us from playing with
ourselves. In the checkout lines of
revolution. the tens of thousands to interfere with a closed- benefit. When it comes to dodging our passions—and so to enter a world
supermarkets, on the dialing and receiv-
And those moments are not as rare as you door meeting of expert economists discussing the imperatives of your conditioning, of total liberty and diversity, where pro-
ing ends of 900 numbers, in the locker
think. Change, revolutionary change, is going on their lives, that’s what they’re up to: rediscover- you’ll find that indulge and undermine is paganda and power struggles alike are
rooms before gym classes and cafeteria
constantly and everywhere—and everyone plays ing that self-determination, like power, belongs a far more effective program than the obsolete. See you on the other side.
shifts, we long to be protagonists in our
a part in it, consciously or not. “To be radical is only to the ones who exercise it.
 your motivations? Will your words and deeds mobilize mutually beneficial whole. Like it or not, if you feel jective than any unity enforced by standardization. ings: our enemies are the conditions that make us
and enable, or immobilize and discourage? Are you that another’s tactics are ineffective or counterpro- enemies.
“Just like every coddled middle class liberal, when it comes down to it he’ll just run back trying to create a spectacle of your freedom/com- ductive, it is up to you to find and add the missing Perhaps a world entirely without enemies is not
home.” “Those lifestyle anarchists don’t care about anything but themselves. Don’t they Working in Collectives possible, or even desirable—but understand, war is
passion/erudition, ingredient that can make
Just as a band needs musicians who play differ-
understand if everyone lived like them, there would be no system to leech off?” business as usual for capitalist society: Exxon vs.
to establish your
status as a revo-
“Anyone who isn’t on both sides them effective—otherwise, all
the energy they put into their
ent instruments, healthy associations don’t restrict
Shell, U.S.A. vs. Iraq, Communists vs. Anarchists,
“If they’re not going to abide by the decisions of the spokescouncil, they the participants with “compromises” that force them
shouldn’t be here at all. I’d rather they were at home doing nothing
lutionary/leader/in-
tellectual theorist,
of the issue is obviously against efforts is not only wasted,
but turned against them and
to limit themselves to the things they have in com-
lover against lover and parent against child. Even if
we could kill every last rapist, C.E.O., head of state,
mon, but instead integrate their dissimilarities into a
than messing up our protest like this!” “How can you expect to to claim the moral me from some direction.” everyone else. Under such
whole greater than the sum of its parts. Working and
police officer, and housemate who won’t do the
dishes, that violence would remain in the world as
high ground, to win circumstances it will be much
living in such arrangements, in which every person is
____ without ____? If you really cared about ____, you’d at the childish com- easier to point fingers and lay
conscious that she is responsible for making the proj-
the venom and fury of those who survived them (not
petition of who is most oppressed (as if suffering was blame—but this accomplishes nothing. to mention the ways those murders would leave their
____! (like me)” “I don’t want to be an activist or an quantifiable!)—still seeking power and revenge in Approaches that speak clearly to some people may
ects and relationships work, helps one learn to see
mark on us)—that’s karma for you. Revolution is what
oneself as a part of the web of human
anarchist or a part of this at all if it means I have to . . .” the guise of liberation? People can tell when you are alienate others—even and especially pro-
lording yourself over them or playing a role, just as claimed activists (though, really, the
relations, rather than as an
happens when you create situations that make the old
conflicts—all that inertia of resentment and insecurity
automaton against
infighting the good fight: they can sense when you are acting out of honesty last people any given approach
and joy. They’re much more likely to respond to that, needs to reach or please
the world. Under
these circum-
and antagonism—irrelevant.
Of course warfare is necessary sometimes—we
and
Why We’re
since their lives are already filled with enough role- are people who are stanc-
have to fight all efforts to keep us at war with each other,
playing and rivalry. already radical- and for some of us this will mean violence. But, as the

You’re
We would do better to abandon the crusade to ized). In these venerable sage once pointed out, “if it’s you against
“convert the masses,” with all its patronizing implica- cases, it’s the world, bet on the world.” So many of us alien-
tions that others are lazy, blind, weak, victimized, in important ate ourselves so needlessly from others, eventually

Right
need of guidance. Instead—first, we ought to reach n o t t o relying on some abstraction (“the working class,”

Wrong
out to those who are in situations similar to ours, or f e e l “the imminent insurrection”) for camaraderie once
ones we have been in; these people, with whom we t o o every companion of flesh and blood is gone, or,
have the most in common, are the ones to whom our worse, concluding that cooperation is simply
perspectives can be most useful6 . Second, we can impossible—when history shows that it is pos-
find people already active in communities other than sible, just not for you, until you’re ready to be
ours with whom we share values and goals, and work more patient, considerate, humble, forgiving.
with them—this is vastly preferable to entering oth- When you can be generous enough
ers’ communities and attempting to “organize” them not to blame another for her incoherence,
Why We Can’t All according to the doctrines of outsiders7 . Third, we
approach into those of others—just as it is up to selfishness, mistakes, bad ideas, even acts
Just Get Along others to do with you. can endeavor to defend others from the encroach- of violence, you can discern what she does
Can we get along? Even for those of ments of power and ideology—and extend to them have to offer. When you can put into practice
us who would prefer to be hermits, there is whatever tools we have developed in our own a form of justice that takes responsibility for
no question today more important than this
The Capitalism of Ideas
Those who still hold that there is such a thing struggles, to apply as they see fit outside setting things aright, you can heal, rather
one—the fate of our species and planet will our agendas8 . Finally, we can find than impotently dispensing guilt and glory.
as “objective” truth generally feel a compulsion
be decided by the answer. common cause with people on the When you can be patient with impatience,
to persuade others of their truths. This is the self-
There is no shortcut around this dilemma. grounds of the “antisocial” things
perpetuating consequence of the power struggles when you can resist contemptation, when you
Any kind of capital-R Revolution, any redistribu- they are already doing and feeling:
that go on in the market of ideas; as in any economy can refrain from being self-righteous even and
tion of wealth and power, will be short-lived and theft, vandalism and graffiti, “laziness,”
based on scarcity, this market is characterized by especially with the self-righteous, you can do
irrelevant without a fundamental change in our rebelliousness, general nihilism, compas-
competition between capitalists who strive to pre- your part to liberate all of us prisoners of war.
relationships—for social structure is a manifesta- sion.
serve and increase their power over others. Doing things you enjoy will help you
tion of these relationships, not a factor external to This is the real significance of the “glorifica-
In our society, ideas function as capital in much not to take your frustrations out on others—as
them. Revolution, then, is not a single moment, but

Tow
the same way money does4 . Individuals who can get tion” of shoplifting, adultery, etc. that some radical will working with people you like, whenever it’s
a way of living: anarchy and hierarchy always coexist propaganda indulges in: not to argue that shoplifting
others to “buy in” to their ideas obtain a disproportion- possible10 . There’s nothing noble or revolutionary
in varying proportions, and the important question is itself is revolution in action (or for that matter that
gard- ate amount of control over their surroundings; large about “sacrificing yourself for the cause,” espe-
simply which you foster in your own life. one must shoplift to be radical—as if revolution was
i n g conglomerates (the Catholic Church, the Communist cially when it makes you impossible to be around.

ar
We are ill-qualified to reconstruct human rela- a commodity in a scarcity economy, only available
the best Party) can come to rule large parts of the world this At the same time, it won’t—and shouldn’t—always
tions if we can’t even get along with each other in the through certain channels!), but to establish connec-

n
way to do way, just as corporations do—indeed, there can be be possible to surround yourself with people who

ds
attempt—and nothing seems to create dissension

t
Those tions to the daily lives and resistances of individuals

io
this, and de- no entrenched political or financial power without see things the way you do: be ready to leave your
and division like those attempts. Often it seems that

No u
of us who are not yet acting out of an articulated desire for threat-

l
w
bae’r
bate them until ideological capital to back it up. Little “start-up com- comfort zone, and bring a generous heart when you
the people who know least how to relate to others cke
revolution. The radical significance of a statement is e n e d ,

o
who would the “correct” one is panies” of competing ideas enter the market to con- do.

n-D v
are the self-professed activists who set out to save oppose this scar- in the effects of making it, not in whether or not it is s i n c e y o u
selected. And so, in the test such monopolies, and sometimes one unseats es, This is dedicated to all those who have done so
them. Yet these conflicts are not an inescapable may not actually
e
al R
city system often have ivory towers, intellectuals the reigning creed to become the new dominant para- “objectively” true. o t h e r s ’ over the years, who have taken it for granted that for
consequence of human nature, but rather a pattern additional challenges to face and armchair revolutionaries debate digm; but, as in any capitalist system, power tends On the grounds of the private longings and frus- be—and to keep in
(en)o d e s i r e s all their clumsiness, people from other backgrounds

ination
of cause and effect—that can and must be altered.

m
in unlearning its conditioning. Many of us incessantly, coming no closer to consensus, devel- to flow upward to the top of a hierarchy, from which trations people feel—their hatred for busywork, the mind that with the vast must be taken and advocates of other tactics really did want to coex-
This is a starting place to consider what the chal- have come to this resistance from a place of conflict joy in transgression they find they share with teenag- diversity of lives on this planet,
lenges are in undertaking this, and why we’ve had oping more and more exclusive jargon, while the the masters, the ones qualified to employ it, decide as seriously as one’s ist and cooperate with them: to the men and women
we’ll need an equally

6
and struggle, and this sense of struggle is still im- rest of us labor to make matters for everyone else ers and anarchists, own—and this can actually al- of the working class who took the time to explain to
such a hard time to date. printed upon the way we approach all our activities. the instinctive sus- diverse arsenal of outreaches. In
something actually hap- . . . and just as in financial low an individual to be a more complete person, bourgeois activists how they were alienating them,
Having been abused, neglected, harassed, having When it comes to “under-represented” capitalism, ultimately it is picion with which other cases, approaches that seem
pen. as her companions can represent parts of herself even when the latter did not at first know how to lis-
The Scarcity Economy of Self had to fight peers, parents, teachers, bosses, police Subjectivity think- not even the ruling class they approach all “I grew up as a middle class rebel, a to contradict each other may actually
for her that she would not otherwise express. This ten; to the women who not only demanded men rec-
perspectives, remember—it’s not your role to
In a world where free, creative action is hard to to establish ourselves, we see selfhood as some- but competition itself that totalitarian sys - punk rocker. When I gave up trying to form a perfect symbiosis: as in the
ing accepts that there “represent” them, as the politicians “represent” makes sense, for everyone is ultimately a product ognize the existence and effects of their sexism, but
get away with, we all feel impoverished, cheated of thing that is obtained by fighting. We come to think is in control. In this environ- tems—a resistance push reforms through the established relationship between masked riot-
is no “the” reality, and us. Better to do your best to represent yourself, of the same world—we are all interconnected, each also acknowledged the fears and anxieties men feel;
the experiences and sensations we know should be of being radical as a war—hence the more wars we ment, anyone with a value can be established channels and began to practice direct ers and well-behaved, well-spoken
infers that any “objec- manifesting different aspects of the same interplay to the survivors of abuse who went on to give coun-
ours. We compensate as best we fight, the more and encourage others to do the same . . . for or viewpoint has to rush to that proceeds from action with others from my subculture, proponents of social change. No one
tive” reality must simply of forces. Without this insight, cooperation and com- seling to both abused and abusers. Without them, we
can, and often this compensation radical we must example, by listening to those who already are. the individual moti- in power would take heed of the lat-
serves only to preserve our desti- “With a little hard work, you be. We profess
be one subjective real-
ity institutionalized as Some people may dismiss your perspective (as
sell it to others before be-
ing run out of business. vations and stand-
I realized what a vast, untapped force
this demographic has to offer.”
ter without the former behind them
munity can only be incidental and haphazard.

would assuredly have torn each other to pieces al-
Eventually, for the individual experienced in liv- ready. It’s frightening to let your guard down, it’s hard
tution. We seek status in wealth, (imagine Martin Luther King’s non-
power, strength, beauty, reputation, can make yourself feel intentions to cre-
ate peace, but
Truth by those in pow- “middle class,” “reformist,” “extremist,” etc.),
from here
It’s hard to imagine
what a world free
points of all those
who comprise it, violence without the implicit threat of
ing communally, it becomes to swallow your pride
er. Subjectivity thinking but there is no such thing as an illegitimate possible to regard the entire (even when clinging
anything to soften the blows of
wasted days. We compensate by
alienated by anything.” the only tools
we possess are
recognizes that people perspective—it is only illegitimate to act as if
from this war of ideologies rather than the de-
mands of political
Malcolm X’s confrontational stance),
and without “respectable” support,
cosmos as one vast, albeit Perhaps the most important thing you can to it means betraying
have arrived at their would be like. Obviously, it dysfunctional, collective; the do is be there for others, help them believe in yourself)—but this is
seeking another kind of status, too: weapons. Small any perspective is not legitimate. A lot of this parties and dogmas. This is the only kind of resis- insurgents can easily be marginalized and destroyed.
particular beliefs and would have to be a world problem is simply how to the only way to help
feelings of superiority, a status in our own heads. wonder we end up fighting among ourselves. goes on, often perpetrated in the name of the tance that can rescue us from both authoritarian In these situations, all parties should remember themselves, offer real compassion—not the
behaviors as a result free from analogous wars make its workings more to others do the same.
We live in a society that teaches there is not under-represented (an easy trick!) by those (for money, power, self- power and authoritarian ideology. that others may even have to publicly disavow condescension of charity—when it is needed.
of their individual life one’s liking. This is not to say Until they can, we
enough of any valuable resource to go around, hood), too, for it’s foolish their tactics in order But there is no formula for this; mercy comes in

7
experiences. This has who aren’t necessarily under-represented the fascists, sexists, etc. can will live in a barren
including selfhood. People on television or in books Justice and Judgment an important bearing themselves. Don’t be intimidated—you can be to insist that “one can think Not Unity, to continue playing
go about their merry business the least predictable forms and from the most world of shields and
are held up as more important, more noble, more Scarcity thinking and the destructive insecurity their part effectively9 ;
on how we interact with sure that if you are feeling something, someone however one wants” when But Harmony and be “part of our collec- unexpected sources. Often it takes a person swords, each of us a
attractive than the rest of us. We grow up in house- it fosters have played a large part in shaping our some ways of conceptu- when this happens,
each other, especially in Any kind of “resistance move- tive”—they’d be the first ones city-state unto her-
holds where our parents don’t have enough time notions of justice2 . Passing judgment can be the else is feeling it, too, and needs to know she is “We were thrilled to discover that just there should be no who has suffered something similar to be able
our efforts to change the alizing the cosmos are ment” is going to develop conflicts to deny that, and follow it up self. Some anarchy.
for us; we are sent to schools that employ a grading ultimate compensation for one’s own shortcomings. not alone. punished by exclusion or one neighborhood over there was a hard feelings. to offer real succor to one who is suffering
world. over strategy (“violent” vs. “non-vi- with proof! But remember, Don’t be intimidat-
system that permits only a handful to excel, and are It’s easy to get self-righteous about someone else’s embargo. Those of us who group in the Hispanic community try- Certainly it can be or struggling. That’s another reason why it is
Different people olent,” etc.), as different individuals the chief argument of fascism ed by the colossal
discharged into a market that enriches a few of us mistakes, flaws, inconsistencies . . . for we all have fight for freedom from the difficult to work along-
are going to have dif- construct their own analyses and ing to do similar things, using differ- and reactionary thinking has good that we have all chosen different paths challenge of “saving
while exploiting or discarding the rest. We internalize them, and the more focused we are on the short- side people who pro-
ferent beliefs, tactics, goals. Accept this. They don’t power of gods and masters would do well to contest test them out in practice. To contest ent words for the same ideas. When always been that cooperation and suffered different things, even things that the world”; there are
the values of this system. We become used to judg- comings of others, the less we have to think about fess beliefs entirely
necessarily think differently than you do because the dictatorships of ideology—any ideology—which this diversity rather than seeking to we sat in on one of their meetings, it and autonomy are mutually as many worlds as
ing our value by what we are “better than.” We rush our own. Witch-hunters who believe that they have different from yours— seemed to isolate us—why there is a place even
they are not as smart or experienced or percep- always accompany and enable them5 . benefit from it—to snatch defeat became clear to us how much more exclusive, that people have to there are people—
to despise others, their plans and ideas and habits found a real live criminal (or racist, lifestyle anarchist, and you should never for spoiled rich kids and homeless drug addicts
tive as you—they may be your equals in all these from the jaws of victory by turn- we could be doing.” be ordered and controlled or save yours, the one
and beliefs, in order to reassure ourselves that we class traitor, etc.), just like the ones in the movies, work with others you and lovers who have lied and betrayed in this
regards, but come to different conclusions based Why People Don’t Want to ing chances to address important else they will do nothing but made up of the life
have worth of our own. When we should be looking can reassure themselves that they have isolated the fear will betray you or
on different evidence from their own lives. Respect “Join the Movement” issues into squabbles—is to wish be lazy and kill each other. struggle: for who else could relate to others in you share with ev-
for what is positive in everything, we denounce and contagion and need look no further—and the more hijack your efforts to
this, while offering whatever perspectives you can Considering the numbers of public relations everyone had the same life history The more we can demon- those difficult situations, offer them guidance eryone around you.
criticize instead—just to reassure ourselves! The vitriolic their denunciations of the enemy, the more serve their own ends. But, again, ask yourself: are
yourself—keeping in mind that the less you have in agents, televangelists, self-help gurus, and other and perspective. Teenage hoodlums are not going strate that this is untrue, the Where one flower
most insecure among us are not even able to enjoy afraid everyone else is to admit what they have in your positions significant to you as positions—pos- and hope? When you recognize how your own
common, the more you would do well to listen rather assorted fanatics and salesmen competing to con- to find the same things liberating as middle-aged less appeal their claims will can bloom, a million
movies and music, because it is so important to them common with him. sessions, status symbols, badges of identity—or as tribulations have prepared you to help others,
than speak. When hearing a person’s position on an vert them, the hesitance “the masses” show to get librarians do; but both have a stake in liberation, and have. more will follow.
that they have “refined” tastes; they don’t realize that Once again—we live in a violent world. It’s as generalizations that exist to help you create more it can make sense of experiences that seemed
issue, you don’t have to immediately begin debating involved in any kind of social movement is actually must be a part of any struggle for it. Those who
when they succeed in failing to enjoy something, no sensible to blame any one of us for being colonized fulfilling moments of life? It’s common sense to inte-
which of you is right. Instead, try to think of projects a healthy self-defense mechanism. Thus the biggest would set rules for the unruly and regulations for unjustifiable; at the same time, this may help you
one has lost more than by this violence as it is to you could undertake together that would further the challenge for those who would find common cause the irregular would
grate the differing tactics of those who share a com- War,
to see the importance of others who previously

8
they. If you’re going to
get anything out of
“Righteousness is a premium blame the oceans for be-
ing polluted. The question
interests you have in common. Whatever ideologi- with others to make revolutionary change is how to deny the complexity
mon goal; it’s more challenging, but
equally important, to put aside your
or Revolution?
appeared without worth.
cal issues need to be worked out can be worked out avoid making them defensive. not only of human We would-be revolution-
any movie or song or
interaction (so as not
currency in this post-Christian should not be whether an
individual is guilty—we all
in practice, if they can be worked out at all—they Radical politics does make people feel defen- beings but also of
compulsion to persuade everyone
else of your opinions, and work
aries so frequently frame Often we have our hands full dealing with
certainly will not be resolved by another contest of sive in the West today—this is a greater obstacle to the revolution we “When the locals began joining in the our project in martial terms: our own pain, too consumed by bitterness and
to have simply wasted society, though it refers to a are, at least of complicity— egos disguised as a debate about theory3 . social transformation than any corporate control or have to make. streetfighting, we showed them how
to create harmony between indi-
we set out to Fight Racism, confusion to be able to offer others anything,
10
Consensus-based
organizing can some-
time!), you have to but rather how to enable viduals who live in totally different
take responsibility for mythical world.” all individuals to confront
Obviously, it’s impossible for anyone to legislate
for everyone else, since
government repression. Others are al-
ways going to have
to make their shirts into masks so the worlds. That harmony might never
Smash Fascism, Destroy
Capitalism, Eat the Rich. This
least of all mercy. This means it is all the more times create unneces-
sary conflict and inter-
finding ways to enjoy and transform the violence And this is due in large part police couldn’t identify them, and how be complete—but it’s a nobler ob- critical that we not miss the opportunities we do
every life experience is to the attitudes of the ac- different approaches to use lime juice to protect themselves enables us to see ourselves ference. Organizing
and benefit from it. and ignorance within themselves. Often nothing get to be good to others—whether or not they autonomously—and
unique—nevertheless, and goals than you  9
As the black-masked corporate as noble crusaders—and
In its advanced stages, such hypercritical status- can help a person to do this more than to offer him you can offer your own “Ideology=I.D.ology” tivists themselves: many
activists have invested in do; the challenge is
from the tear gas—that’s anarchist window-smasher yelled at the law- more importantly, to have have “earned” it, whether or not we understand trying another free
seeking can combine with a spectator mentality: from forgiveness, to trust that he is interested in com- experiences and conclu- not to convert them
leadership in action, or what we have abiding liberal protester who tried to adversaries, which reassures association whenever
a distance, the critic passively votes for or against municating with you; this makes it easier for him to their activist identities as them, whether or not we think it will make a
sions, for others to do to your own strategy in place of it: sharing our skills with restrain her: “It’s not your job to stop us of our own righteousness.
one isn’t working—
the efforts of others, unable to discern that such drop his defenses and acknowledge what you have an act of compensation at me from ‘making your cause look difference. can give you the free-
with what they will (in (for who knows— others, spreading power, instead of This reassurance is appar-
things as art, activism, community are entirely what to say. This is not to say that we shouldn’t defend least as much as out of a bad,’ but to distance yourself from my dom you need not to
the words of the divine Marquis: “if you can speak genuine desire to make things happen—for them, could it be they actu- concentrating it.” ently more precious than resent others, so you
he makes of them—and that he must make some- ourselves whenever we have to, and by any means actions as much as you have to to
honestly for yourself, you will find you have spoken activism serves the same function that machismo, ally know better than keep the respect of the demographic the success in our efforts it can work well with the
thing of them himself in order to get anything out of necessary—but let’s do this for practical reasons, for others as well”). This may be seen as legislating, fashion, popularity serve for others. Activists who you what is good for you’re trying to reach! It’s my job to replaces and prevents—at least, it is so long as one ones around you. Revolution may involve learning to
them. This spectatorship reinforces the sense that not to serve a lust for revenge and superiority. by those who believe there is only one right way; but are still serving the imperatives of insecurity tend them?), but rather make something happen here so they’ll have to listen hasn’t yet tasted that success. We have to remember live and act cooperatively, but it doesn’t mean everyone
everything everyone else is doing is uninteresting or
those who attack you for offering your own perspec- to alienate others—they may even unconsciously to find ways to integrate divergent methods into a to you in the fucking first place!” in every instant that our enemies are not human be- has to be friends.
unintelligent, and thus the feeling of superiority the Objectivity vs. Subjectivity tive or analysis on the grounds that it doesn’t apply to want to alienate others, so they can stand alone as
spectator so desperately needs. You rarely encoun- Objectivity thinking, on which our scarcity-orient- them (or isn’t relevant to all people, starving mothers the virtuous vanguard. Seeing such activists in ac-
ter a genuinely active, involved person who feels ed, authoritarian civilization is based, posits that there in Somalia, the transgendered community, etc.) are tion, people who don’t have the same insecurities to
the need to proclaim her actions superior to others’; is only one truth. According to this school of reasoning, still working within the scarcity model. placate assume that activism has nothing to do with
but in the spectator’s scarcity economy of self, any
expression of selfhood, even the most generous and
those who want to explain human behavior or over- Remember—every value you hold, every deci- their own lives. I would like to be someone with whom no one would feel she had to be ashamed of any part of herself. I would like
throw capitalism should make different propositions re- sion you make, you make for yourself alone. The
positive, can be interpreted as an encroachment, an Whenever you have an idea for a “revolutionary”
scarcity-thinkers will attack you as if you are deciding project—you should ask yourself: Are you certain of to be able to regard the actions of others without feeling threatened by them or becoming defensive, even when they are
attack1 . Every achievement is something to rebel
against, assail, deride—as if we don’t all feel worth-
 2
The self-righteous activist’s sense of justice is derived for everyone—don’t fall into the trap of their think- defensive with me—to see others in the context of their lives, not my own. I would like to know how to set limits on how far I rely upon
from the same origins as the “justice system” which ing by arguing for your own methods and ideas as
less, abused, hunted enough already! feeds today’s prison-industrial complex: a Christian- 4
Ideas, like other forms of capital, are considered
people, so as not to risk losing my ability to respect them. I would like to be able to look those adversaries who should be allies in the eyes and say
universals. Simply point out that you act according
ity that emphasized “individual responsibility” over the private property, and protected by law—in the cases of Like it or not, this is who I am. This is what the world has made of me, and we must all live with the consequences. I can’t feel or believe or act differ-
to your own conscience, and hope to integrate your
1
The other expression of this same affliction is hero cause and effect of social conditions, in order to invent, plagiarism and copyright infringement, for example. ently than I do, let alone change the decades of life behind me that have wrought this. I don’t want to compete with you for moral high ground or anything else. Unless
worship, in which one projects all the qualities one finds advertise, and sell the ultimate scarce commodity—sal-
you’re prepared to kill everyone who doesn’t line up with your standards, or to endure this impasse of animosity indefinitely, you’re going to have to accept me on my own terms, as I
admirable onto others. This is similarly crippling, of vation. In a state of truly mutually-beneficial social rela- 3
In “taking sides” against others, you can forget that  5
This statement, paradoxically, rests on ideological as-
tions, such threats as incarceration and hellfire would be everyone’s positions are fluid—and forcing someone to sumptions of its own—but perhaps this kind of self-con-
hope to accept you. You are as responsible as I am for making what goes on between us positive for us both—or for the world of strife we will live in otherwise.
course, and inevitably leads back to the same hostility
and scorn—for the only thing you can do with individuals unnecessary—the threat of expulsion from the commu- act as a partisan of one “side” can trap them into identi- tradiction is the first, necessary step in the disarmament
or groups you have put on a pedestal is knock them off. nity would be dismaying enough. fying themselves with that side exclusively. of ideology.
 Life, Play
Definition of Terms a flow chart
Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Life is existence when it feels worth waking up for in

the morning. Life is written about in epic poetry, love songs,
Head for horizons . . .

Play is what takes place when all the problems of survival have been solved and there is energy left over. Play is not constrained by external
demands—the player establishes her own goals and meanings in the course of acting. Play takes place in a condition of freedom—rather, it is the
Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets; survival is treated in condition of freedom. In play, the individual interacts with the forces around her rather than reacting to them, creates the context for her actions
In a totalitarian regime (whether it be political, like the Stalinist government of the Soviet Union, or socio-economic, like medical textbooks, urban planning reports, and ergonomics as she acts rather than passively being shaped by the situation: it is thus that self-determination is possible. You can see play today in the collages
the corporate capitalism of our day), in which the whole of human relations is regulated, fragmentary resistance to any one aspect of presentations. Life is glorious, heartbreaking, on teenagers’ walls, in the eccentric furnishing of squatted buildings, in the break between skirmishes when the insurgents dance, in the
that regime—environmental destruction, police brutality, child abuse, racism, employee ennui—can only fail. The totality itself must be extravagant. Survival, without life, is movements of lovers’ bodies together.
contested, the basic paradigms as well as their specific manifestations . . . not in order to impose another totalitarian order, but to open ridiculous, burdensome, absurd. The resources for play are available in abundance. The more one plays, the more others are enabled and
new horizons for everyone. encouraged to play; true playfulness is infectious. One can’t play at the expense of others for long—being “free” at
For this, a resistance is needed that does not standardize those who participate in it, in which individuals can help each other such a price ends up taking a lot of work, as in the case of the “successful” executive, and doesn’t lend itself
break free in the process of creating and exploring themselves. This sketch of six oppositions is not meant as a complete map of the world of to much real, spontaneous play, as the ennui typical of the trust-fund playboy demonstrates.
It’s ambiguous whether many of the things currently called “play” actually
human relations, but rather as a selection of tools for the woman or man engaged in her own analysis.
are: Is it play when a businessman goes golfing with his boss? When a group of young
-Nadia C.
men play basketball together according to a strict set of rules, with a struggle for
dominance as an ever-present subtext? How about when a young man comes
We move in spiral paths, imploding ( ) or expanding ( ), relinquishing the world to become what we hate, or finding home from work so exhausted that he doesn’t have enough energy to do
the faith to discover new worlds and loves. Alchemy is the process by which one moves from the vicious inner circle outwards . . . anything but “play” video games?
Children, on the other hand, come into this world knowing all about
play—at least until they’ve spent a few years cooped up in small
rooms with the television on. We can recapture that lost
innocence, for them and for ourselves, by approaching
Survival, Work everything we do as a game rather than a struggle or
Safety, and the Pursuit of Property responsibility—by creating environments in which we
. . . not destinations. can run wild. For the best-kept secret of capitalism
Survival is life reduced to imperatives, whether they be biological (get air to breathe! get is that play activities can also provide for our Gift
Work provides for survival, nothing more.
food to eat! get laid!) or cultural (get air conditioning, to be comfortable! get a television,
to keep up with what’s going on! get a sports car, to attract a mate!). It’s often ambiguous
It always appears as a response to necessity,
survival needs: except in extremities, work is
unnecessary.
Economics
whether it be the need for food and shelter We know everything is priceless.
which class a given mandate falls into, as in the case of the computer programmer who
and life insurance, the establishment of social
cannot feed himself without a can opener; but the essential character of these needs is that In stark contrast to exchange trading,
status, or the obligation of the Protestant work
they appear non-negotiable. gift-giving is its own reward. In a gift economy, which exists
ethic. Work answers to imperatives; play creates
Survival resources tend to be seen as scarce—there’s only so much food, water, housing, whenever anything is freely shared and no score is kept, the
its own rules.
Abundance medicine in the world; but as the famous tramp responded to the query of a bourgeois man
(“you’ve got to eat, haven’t you?”): “yeah, but not as much as you eat.”
participants receive more the more they bestow. Everyone
All of us can be rich . . . who has shared a real friendship or a morning of incredible
Our era is characterized by ever-increasing standards of survival. The minimum “stan- lovemaking knows intuitively that when the option opens,
Abundance and scarcity are not just measurements of the resources which dard of living” to participate in society is always mounting, and it’s a full time job keeping human beings return to this natural relationship.
exist to meet one’s needs—they are different ways of regarding both the resources up: getting the new format for video-viewing, learning to use the new computer program, This is a challenge to find and share the trust and respon-
and the needs themselves . . . which become reflected in the world. treating yourself with the new antidepressant . . . This constant technological and subsequent sibility it will take to reinstate this as the basis of all human
cultural acceleration is the consequence of an economic system based on competition, in to affairs, as it was before the cancer of avarice took hold.
which constant innovation is necessary both to sell new products and to keep up with every- offer
Abundant resources exceed the need for them; they may even multiply when are things no one
utilized. Most of the things which set life apart from survival—love, friendship, one who uses them.
Current anthropology suggests that people spend more time working to meet their “basic could ever earn. To as-
confidence, imagination, courage, adventure, experience—are available in sess the commercial value of
abundance: the more you partake of them, the more they are available to needs” today than ever before: prehistoric human beings spent the greater part of their days
experiences and sensations, let alone
you and everyone else as well. in creative leisure, while with all our labor-saving devices we waste most of our lives earn- trade in the very lives of the human be-
Scarce resources, on the other hand, exist in limited supply, and there ing the money to pay for them, using them to mow the lawn, waiting in ings around you with an eye for your own
may simply not be enough to go around. A scarcity economy is driven by the traffic to buy more batteries for them. And of course, the advantage, is to flatten the world for yourself
considerations necessitated by those conditions: in it, the “laws” of supply more time we spend providing for mere survival, and everyone you touch.
the less time we have to live. The machinery of exchange eats quality
and demand are imposed first of all by a shortage, real or perceived, of “My liberation, my delight,
needed goods. Ex- and shits out quantity, enslaves process to despi-
cable product, teaches that practical necessities my world itself begins where
It might seem that scarcity is simply an inescapable fact of life, but it’s
not that simple. Not all scarcities are imposed by circumstances—often,
Exchange and moments of joy and spiritual redemption alike
yours begins. Nobody can
must all be earned. There is something of the old
we impose them upon ourselves by the ways we assess and apply our Economies Christian theology of guilt and salvation in the ways command my services because
assets. In our technologically advanced, post-industrial civilization, They say everything has a price. those who hold stock in the values of exchange speak
tools and amenities which were unheard of before are plentiful, yet of hard work and entitlement. In their eyes, anything I have, of my own, pledged to
Liberty ends where economics begins. Get your money’s free is suspect at best—nothing obtained without sacri-
most of us distinctly feel there to be a shortage of the things we need.
worth—earn your keep—there’s no such thing as a free lunch12 : fice, without an exchange can be worth anything—and
give all—and gratuitously, for
This should not be surprising, for our social and economic systems
depend on there not being enough for everybody. Everyone can
exchange economics posits life as a zero-sum sport between the act of paying for things, with the compensation they that is the only way to give.”
bargainers who maneuver to outbid and outwit each other in receive for abdicating their lives, is itself more important
have a full life—but not everyone can have a full wallet. Our society order to gain control of more fragments of the world. Free trade, than anything they could buy: it is the way one buys
institutes scarcity and deprivation, by framing life as a desperate the free market—these are oxymorons: where systematized oneself out of the hell of “valuelessness” to which the
rush for limited material wealth and status. competition is free to bend all humanity to its prerogatives, tramp and the adventurer are assigned, not without a
They say the only free men are the hobo and the king. They ultimately no one is free to focus on anything else. little jealous spite. For such people, human beings do
are indeed the only ones who can claim to be lords of all they sur- Exchange-economics thinking presupposes a one-dimen- not “deserve” happiness, comfort, even existence itself,
vey—though for utterly different reasons: the former possesses the Scarcity sional scale of value, according to which everything can be
appraised: if an avocado costs a dollar, and a new sports
unless they pay for it with suffering13 . It should come as
no surprise that many workers see things this way: if
entire world by releasing it, while the latter still owns only what he . . . not all of us can be wealthy.
can conquer. Here we can see the paradigms of abundance and car costs $20,000, then a sports car must be worth exactly they didn’t, they would have to face the possibility that
twenty thousand avocados. But such equations are absurd. they have been wasting their lives.
scarcity in action as philosophies of life. Likewise, the scavenger
Can you calculate the financial value of a friendship, the ex- Likewise, those who would refuse this system of
who thrives off the excess of his society sees opportunity and ad- change rate of a clever joke for a meal tenderly prepared, the exchange are confronted with the same accusations
venture where the executive sees only hunger and destitution; the comparative worth of the sound of birds singing in the trees of valuelessness by their own bodies, when they find
non-monogamous lover sees love as something that only increases against the current market value of lumber? Those who would that they cannot get food to eat or a soft place to sleep
in richness and depth by being shared freely, while the possessive measure such things miss everything that is beautiful and unless they give up some part of themselves for it. For
husband regards it as a precarious prize obtained by sacrifice and unrepeatable about them; once one recognizes this, it becomes once some people in a society begin hoarding and
hard labor, which must be hoarded and caged; the would-be rock idol clear how pathological such calculations are in any context. As trading for their own benefit, all who interact with
or movie star needs a million anonymous fans watching his actions if one could “deserve” life in all its complexity and magnanimity them must adopt the same miserliness and self-inter-
to validate them (thus selfhood itself is subject to scarcity in a specta- in the first place—let alone good or bad fortune, the moment of est to survive—and the most ruthless ones inevitably
stillness at sunrise, the flavor of avocados, the sensation of end with the most power, just as magnanimity and
tor society), while the woman in a supportive, egalitarian community
riding in a speeding car! This is simply not the way the largesse find themselves disenfranchised. The
generally attains self-confidence and happiness to the extent that she world works—anyone who has lived and paid atten- world now waits for a new generosity which can
helps others around her do the same.
Once upon a time, humans lived in a relationship of trust with
Fear tion knows the best and worst things life has defend itself.
. . . or protect
the earth, seeing it as a wellspring of abundance11 . We ate fruit, which yourself to death.  12 Editor’s note—Ha!
grew freely around us, naturally wrapped in a biodegradable peel and Relation- glob-  13
We, on the other hand, don’t think much about “de-
containing seeds from which more fruit trees would grow after the fruit al mar-
was eaten. Today we eat candy bars, for which we must exchange our
The one who lives in fear
moves only to consolidate the pres- ships of Force ket running?
serve” anymore; we ask, instead, what would be best for
everyone, and leave it at that. Revenge doesn’t interest
labor, of which supplies are strictly limited—and when we throw away the . . . or live and die by the sword? Whether dishwash- us—being, as it is, just another from of exchange.
ent. He is not capable of free action—he is
wrappers, manufactured from plastics and chemicals foreign to nature, we ers or directors, all who
too busy reacting in advance to things that haven’t When you live in fear, the only way to approach the world cannot feel safe enough to
can be sure that we are adding to the slow accumulation of garbage that even happened yet. He can only conceive of the future—any that makes sense is with a gun in your hand. Just as the ones who create and pursue their own dreams
makes fruit trees more and more scarce. Ancient human beings lived in condi- future—as a threat. He trusts nothing to chance, and thus see scarcity everywhere they look create a world of shortages, those seek compensation in wealth, status, or
tions of feast or famine, celebrating when their cups overflowed and whistling chance cannot entrust him with more than he already has. who depend on force to relate to others create a necessity for it; and more overt forms of power over others.
through leaner times, never having to diminish their faith in their resources by It is fear that lies at the root of all violence and struggle. those born into this world of coercion inherit the cycle. Thus a mindset develops in which all human
measuring them; for us, everything is a transaction, an occasion for computation When one trusts her companions and the world around to Coercion comes in more subtle forms than rape, “peace-keep- relations are seen as a conflict between mutually exclusive
14
Walk down the street. Look around. The skin cream advertisements proposing an unreachable
and calculation. ing” bombings, economic sanctions. It comes camouflaged as body interests. It’s no wonder many people have a hard time imagin- ideal for women’s beauty, urging them to ransom their self-confidence by pouring their income into
provide, if not what she thinks she needs, at least something corporate coffers: violence. The fruits and vegetables for sale in the grocery store, which will be thrown
Abundance and scarcity are above all the manifestations of opposing approaches equally weird and wonderful, she too can be gentle and gener- image standards (which even masquerade as “health” standards), ing how human beings could live without the coercion of [what they
in locked dumpsters to rot before they are shared with the hungry a block away: violence. The taxes on the
to life: ingenuity or inertia, faith or fear. If we restructure our values and assumptions psychological pressures that influence people to repress their desires, have been taught to see as] “beneficial” forces. But competition, combat, sales of those vegetables, which pay for prisons to hold men who will slave there as their ancestors did in
ous. If she feels threatened by them, she grows defensive and laws enforced by public opinion as well as thugs in uniform. It may
about what the cosmos has to offer us, we can enter a new world of plenty. struggles of all kinds are barriers to freedom, for they impose their demands chain gangs and slave plantations, and bombs to be sent as foreign aid to governments who oppress and
aggressive, strikes out blindly, becomes possessed by resent- be disguised as a seemingly trivial argument between friends (for upon all who are subject to them, distracting and simplifying without quarter. kill their own: violence. The employees who work at the stores, so they can afford a disproportionately
ment and cruelty. Vengeance becomes her greatest motivation, anyone who seeks to establish rank, even in knowledge of trifling The terror-mongers insist that hierarchy is necessary to protect us from the small portion of the goods and services made by others like them: violence. The hospitals, insur-
more powerful than any other desire: anything to take revenge things, seeks a lever with which to exert force on his fellows), or violence inherent in our species—but hierarchy is simply the expression ance companies, psychiatrists, manufacturers of psychoactive prescription drugs, waiting
upon this world which has made her feel so unwelcome and that quiet self-mutilation which lovers and relatives sometimes use of the violence intrinsic to this system. The fact that hierarchy can be like so many circling vultures for the bodies and minds of these people to weaken and
to manipulate each other—the inverse and identical twin of macho betray them, poised to plunder their bank accounts and drive them and their
worthless. Acting on these impulses, she spreads them to absent—between friends, in moments of mass teamwork, in other
children back to work: violence. The hush in the air, the absence of friends
others like a plague. Fear, like faith, is self-perpetuating—until aggression. societies—is proof that we can live without such violence, too.
rejoicing together, of the shouts of children at play, for the children are
something breaks the cycle. Some call this a democracy—did you get a say in what the bill- Ultimately, any conflict comes down to relations of force— all at home with video games and television and no one wants to
boards you pass every morning say, what they go on repeating inside even those known, up to this point, as revolutions. Our dream be here, everyone wishes they were in a world somewhere
Ask yourself—are you living deliberately? Do you approach
your head all day, the trees they cut down by your house to make is not to win another war, but to stage a total revolution, far, far away, farther even than the palm-tree-spotted
risk willfully, or do you deny yourself because of fear? What are room for the new gas station? How about the preservatives they put a war against the condition of war, on behalf of those scenes on the billboards advertising vacation
you afraid of? What are you saving yourself for? Do you own in the food you eat, or the conditions in the factories that produce beautiful moments when people can be thankful for resorts and malt liquor . . . violence, violence.
your body? Do you own your experience? Preservation of the them? Your wages at work, or how much money the I.R.S. takes from each other’s existence. You may not see one altercation, one
body or the tender sensibilities is futile—we all die someday. you? These aren’t just inevitable “facts of life”—they are the manifes- bruise; but the feeling in the air is
the feeling of war.
The question is what happens first. tations of conflict as the system of human relations, every man for
There are two possible responses to fear. One is to cower. himself and force against us all14 . The leagues of intimidating red
The other is to follow your fear, to use it as a guide, to track it tape and the battering of women, the biased news coverage and the
out past the limits of the world you know. Don’t save yourself. inhumanity of factory farms, the jockeying for ascendance between
colleagues and countries, all these are simultaneously expressions
Don’t spare yourself. Some things can’t be written or told.
Faith Go search.
of the strife at the heart of our civilization and weapons which, used
Invest in the future . . . by factions fighting for survival on its terms, perpetuate it.
Living under the reign of coercion strips you of your faith, leaves Relationships of Love
you ready to use force on others, to treat them as the world has treat- Cooperate and celebrate . . .
One either invests oneself in the present, or the future: either ed you. It is well known that the playground bully acts out of feelings
reacts to existing circumstances and their demands, or acts to change of worthlessness, that the teenage hoodlum is moved to vandalism Love is secure, fearless, generous. Love does not make demands or judge according
them. You can spend all your energies surviving according to the terms set by insecurity and frustrated yearning; how much self-loathing to standards—love celebrates, consecrates the unique, makes beauty and beautiful. To feel
by the market economy, the expectations of parents and peers, the force of your and desperation must then be in the hearts of the love is to be grateful for the whole of the past, present, and future, to feel for a moment
11
“Paleolithic man [sic, throughout], a hunter/
own inertia—or risk everything to make those considerations obsolete. For this, though, moguls and power-brokers, whose mach- that there is meaning in one’s existence. To be in love is not to be deluded or destitute, but
gatherer who understood the value of sharing
inations it is that keep the
and mutual assistance, ‘had’ nothing—why you need a nihilist’s abandon . . . or faith. “Beauty must be defined as what we to gain a sixth sense with which to perceive the real splendor of the universe. To experience
hoard things when the whole world is yours? Faith is the opposite of superstition. Faith means believing in the boundless possibilities of the love is to be connected directly to the tragedy of existence—which is not that there is not
Later, Neolithic man, who toiled in the fields, universe—and setting out to explore them. It means knowing that if you leap off a cliff, you’re bound to are, or else the concept itself is our enemy. enough beauty in life, but that none of us has the breadth or depth of self, or the time on
sometimes produced a surplus, which he
bartered with others—and thus for him a shift land somewhere. Faith means trusting that the world is wider and richer than you could possibly see Why languish in the shadow of a standard this planet, to savor fully the magnificence the world lavishes upon us.
from this point, and therefore not feeling pressure to plan out the rest of your life from here. Better to
occurred from being in the world to having
things, mere parts of the world. The hunters sketch a route to the horizon: from there, you’ll be able to make out new vistas, and make new plans
we cannot personify, an ideal we cannot Love makes war upon any peace which in fact is war systematized and concealed, for
love is a ruthless enemy of senseless conflict and waste. It is love, of liberty when not of
and gatherers never curbed their materialistic accordingly. Heaven help the people who make long term plans today and stick to them, whose lives will live? one’s fellow beings, that makes it possible for us to coexist in pursuit of our own desires
impulses—but they never made institutions
out of them. Economic Man is a bourgeois never be greater than what they can imagine right now! To see beauty is simply to learn the pri- rather than languishing in thrall to that fat old god Discord. Those in love come to identify
construction, the result of ten thousand years Faith enables you to rely on your intuition: instead of being trapped by what you know, you do what each other’s needs with their own, ultimately making no distinction, and overcoming the
of ‘subjugation’: that is to say, etymologically you need to do. Faith gives you power over your fear. Whether you are confronting a police line or giving vate language of meaning that is another’s self/other dichotomy that is at the root of Western alienation: thus in love we find a way
speaking, living under the yoke.”–Finnegan
Bell’s Hunters and Gatherers Through the Ages
birth to a child or a song, faith is indispensable for capital-L living. life: to recognize and relish what is.” to surpass ourselves, to exalt each other and ourselves in the course of living.
 are aware of—educate yourself about you could always use an awl to punc- out of a roll of thick paper, and apply YOU CAN protect yourself from the beverage distributors in your area vine.” Exchange this information with
these. Old timers tell of a certain ‘sub- ture tires—aim for the sidewall, and be it on the street in two minutes with effects of tear gas by covering your and check out what great surplus of others—make sure not a single black- YOU CAN boil water with whole rose-
way sandwiches’ chain that gave away sure to do at least two if you want to three people—one in front, unrolling, mouth and nose with a rag soaked products is discarded every day, as berry or pear goes to waste. And don’t forget, YOU CAN quit your mary in it and soak any cuts or sores

Do it yourself.
stamps with every purchase—seven be sure the spare won’t help. one in the middle applying the paint in vinegar or lime juice, and wearing expiration dates draw too near for job. No, really. you have to prevent infection.
stamps bought you a sandwich. Kids roller, and one in back, rolling up. swimming goggles. When not wear- them to be sent out. Sometimes the
could stand outside the franchises, You could stencil a sonnet through- ing the goggles, put them on your bounty will be more than you could YOU CAN get as many credit cards
asking if people would mind getting YOU CAN glue door locks to keep out downtown, one word on each forehead with the inside facing out, ever imagine—imagine being able as possible, run them all up to their YOU CAN organize rent strikes to YOU CAN put whole garlic (do not
stamps for them when they got their those doors shut. Try filling a syringe streetcorner—or the same image so they won’t fog up. to provide fresh juice for every single limits purchasing useful materials, make your landlord take care of the cut it) in and around genitals to help
sandwiches, and thus saving enough (minus needle) with epoxy glue mixed everywhere you go, until people person you know in your town. and then declare bankruptcy. If you problems with your plumbing, heat, with yeast and bladder infections.
d e C l a s s i fi e d s stamps up for a sandwich every half with a little alcohol—you’ll have half an know it better than any corporate wanted to, you could write them all electricity—but it would be far wiser
hour or so . . . while simultaneously hour before it hardens. You can also logo. YOU CAN mix styrofoam into gaso- letters announcing that you were to get together a circle of trustworthy
educating the consumers about their use superglue, jam in and break off as line to make it stick—this recipe has YOU CAN prepare a meal of dump- acting to avenge all the families people to invest in a communal living YOU CAN decrease the risk of blad-
own coupon options. many flat toothpicks as will fit, or try been used for the filling in molotov stered food for friends and family that whose lives have been ruined by space together. In the city, you could der infections by always urinating after
Liquid Nail, if you can find it. YOU CAN take those priority mail cocktails. still have reservations about your debt—though this might get you in use the space as a meeting place or you have sex.
stickers they give out at the post of- lifestyle. Don’t disclose its origins until trouble. Or, better: get together a center for the performing arts; in the
YOU CAN make your own ammuni- fice, stencil your own designs on them, after they’ve enjoyed it. circle of people who are committed countryside, you could grow enough
The raw awareness that you have the power that means calling in sick to work on a sunny tion that will penetrate bullet-proof YOU CAN throw an old piece of car- and put them up anywhere—in mere YOU CAN get a fire extinguisher for to supporting each other; each year vegetables to feed a lot of people. YOU CAN eat fresh ginger to ease in-
to change the world is more important than vests and light armor. Learn to load pet over barbed wire to make it easy to instants. The post office will send your house or squat easily enough one will run up massive debts paying You can organize exchange programs digestion. Sucking on ginger root can
day, starting a neighborhood garden with
ammunition through studying instruc- climb over. Two layers should suffice more of them to you on request—but from a restaurant, dormitory, hospital, YOU CAN go to college campuses for the needs of the group, and then with housing cooperatives in other also help your vocal cords heal, if they’re
any other resource—this is the hardest one to your friends, or toppling a government. You tions available in common books (ask where one doesn’t. beware, misusing them is a federal or library. Chances are they’ll notice at the end of the semester and collect declare bankruptcy. There should be cities, so you can move around if damaged—as can inhaling steam,
develop and share, and the most essential. It cannot make a revolution that distributes for books about “reloading”). Use offence, of course. it missing and replace it quickly, and incredible amounts of discarded food, enough people in the group to cover you like without having to rent from and, of course, being silent for a while.
cannot help to give your endorsement to political power equally except by learning firsthand steel-core bullets—they usually have you don’t want to be unprepared for clothes, and furnishings—and all the the years until the bankruptcy period strangers. And—if you’re ready for a
representatives, social programs, or radical how to exercise and share power—and that a green (good) or black (better) tip. YOU CAN improve your chances an emergency just because you can’t bicycles that have been abandoned of a participant is over and the process challenge—there’s always squatting.
ideologies when the fundamental problem is exercising and sharing, on any scale, is itself These can be legally purchased as of being picked up and treated well Speaking of spraypaint, when you afford one. to rust on the bike racks, if you have can be repeated. If you get nettles out on the road,
that you don’t know your own strength. the ongoing, never-concluded project of reloading components at gun shows while hitchhiking by dressing in dark see billboards that make you uncom- a good set of wire cutters. You could YOU CAN apply your own urine to
and through mail-order. If bullet proof pants and a white shirt with a tie and fortable, YOU CAN reverse the effect start a “free bikes for kids” program YOU CAN start a food co-op with your relieve itching.
Self-determination begins and ends with your revolution.
glass is on the menu, follow the above perhaps a name tag—that is, as a by adding a clever phrase or picture of When you move into a new space, with these. If you need more, dress YOU CAN put on public puppet friends and neighbors—ordering food
initiatives and actions, whether you live under a What you do today is itself the extent of instructions, and be sure to use a .308 young Mormon on mission! Pick up your own. If you can’t reach them, you YOU CAN get the plates, glasses, up and go to the local police sta- shows for children that get important in bulk for all of you will save you a lot
totalitarian regime or the canopy of a rain forest. that revolution, its limits and its triumph. caliber round or larger (.50 caliber is some free Mormon bibles at your can attach a spraypaint can to the end and silverware you need from a tion—chances are they’ve already information across to their parents as of money. YOU CAN make your own soy milk!
It must be established on a daily basis, by acting a sure thing, but expensive). nearest tabernacle for authenticity. If of a long stick and operate it by means nearby coffee shop or cafeteria. collected scores of forgotten bikes the well. You might be able to arrange to Just put soy beans in water for twelve
back on the world that acts upon you—whether anyone asks serious questions, what of a lever and pulley, or put paint in Be sure to return them when you same way you did. give educational presentations at local hours, drain the water, mix the beans
better form of cultural terrorism than a long-distance water gun (a “super leave—reduce, reuse, recycle! Try schools, too. If you know students in- YOU CAN go hitchhiking! Find the with a little water and mash them,
If you are rightly concerned about to spread a little fun misinformation? soaker”) and get your point across the same thing with airplane pillows volved in a student group on a college on-ramp of your nearest highway. cook the mashed beans with water
your firearms purchases being moni- This disguise might also help you to more simply. Try between three and and blankets if you ever have a round YOU CAN establish a “yellow bike” campus, they can probably arrange Go stand there with a clear sign (all (one liter for one hundred grams of
YOU CAN make a potato into a bat- remove. Spike as high on the tree as put buckets under the sinks and open ments. You can turn a large t-shirt tored by the government, in many get away with other things . . . five in the morning—the floodlights are trip ticket—it’ll help you travel light. program for your town: get a bunch of a speaking engagement for you that it takes is cardboard and a marker) beans), strain, cool, and drink!
tery—put a piece of copper in one possible, above head level, to avoid the exit pipes. into a tighter, smaller one by laying states YOU CAN legally purchase often off then. Imagine the flight attendants wonder- cheap bicycles, paint them all an ugly would pay a significant amount of bearing the name of your intended
side, a piece of zinc in the other, and injury to chainsaw operators, and to a shirt of the intended size upon it, any pistol or rifle from another pri- ing how a pillow could get so dirty in yellow color, and leave them around student funds—which could go to the location—or, if you’re going far, an
attach wires to each. Add more pota- make the spikes more difficult to spot tracing around the smaller shirt, cut- vate individual (i.e. not a gun-dealer) YOU CAN create a distraction in a a few hours, when you return it! Also, town at specified drop off points so worthwhile cause of your choice. intermediate stop. For a cross-conti- YOU CAN reclaim a sense of owner-
toes or other vegetables to the circuit during the initial cut. Only spike tim- Try catching rainwater in a trough hung ting away the excess, and restitching without having to fill out any forms or variety of settings by announcing that To apply paint from a distance, when you fly or travel by bus, beware people can ride them from one point nental trip, you could make a whole ship of your body by reading up on
for more power. ber being considered for a cut. Spike from your roof and redirecting the water it. Try sewing with dental floss—it’s provide any identification. This often you’ve lost a contact lens and insisting YOU CAN also fill up light bulbs or of your friends stealing your luggage to another. Voila! Public transportation book of signs in advance. Make sure how it works and learning about do-
randomly throughout the lot and be into a basin. Install a pump in the basin, tougher than thread. occurs at gun shows. State and local that everyone help you find it, or at Christmas tree ornaments with it, when you arrive—you would have to that is both free and autonomous. YOU CAN make a piñata in the form to be dropped off near a gas station or it-yourself health care, birth control,
absolutely sure to alert the forest serv- set up some piping into your kitchen laws may vary—become well-versed least stay off a given floorspace. and throw. On an entirely different collect the insurance on it. of a politician or monstrosity (such as on ramp if you need to continue hitch- medicinal alternatives. Don’t leave it
YOU CAN create a seam sealing two ice (anonymously!) and corporations area, and with a little fine tuning YOU in them before attempting said pur- subject—has it occurred to you the “free market,” the “loyal officer,” ing after your first ride. Oh—and cover up to the experts, it’s your body!
sheets of plastic together by cutting that the proposed sale is full of spiked CAN have running water. YOU CAN fix holes in your shoes with chase (a good place to start might be that the Achilles’ heel of riot gear YOU CAN walk or ride your bike etc.) and have a piñata party at which, your mohawk with a nice hat.
them with a hot razor blade—try this problem-causing trees. You can glue the rubber used for repairing holes in gunlaws.com). YOU CAN protect your home from is that the wearers need to be able YOU CAN still get almost all the instead of always driving or riding in when sufficiently beaten, the piñata
for do-it-yourself lamination. bark over the nails to further decrease bicycle tires. police dogs by laying down a thin to see out? books you need at the library, espe- cars. It may take longer, but you will spills out party favors such as candies, YOU CAN practice a variety of daily
the chances they will be detected. YOU CAN use lemon juice or urine line of cayenne pepper across each cially if you ask them to order the ones see a lot more of the world, and you little books, or invitations to the next YOU CAN cure a case of the hic- rituals to get in touch with and estab-
Spiking in the rain greatly reduces the as invisible ink—heat up the paper, For that matter, YOU CAN set up doorway. The dogs will pause to sniff they’re missing. Many libraries also might enjoy the chance to collect your special event. Try doing this in a public cups! Take large gulps of water, and, lish power over your fears: try being
For a new listening experience, YOU loud sounds generated by hammering and it appears. YOU CAN keep warm in winter by literature tables to distribute anar- it on their way in, and won’t be able to YOU CAN remove advertisements have free video borrowing, for movies. thoughts. place during times of unrest. before swallowing, press your hands naked with your friends and then
CAN play your favorite music back- nails into trees. Advanced spikers can lining the inside of your clothes with chist texts, etc. at gun shows, tattoo smell anything else for a while. (from the subway, the bus, the bus If you can’t use the internet to get free to your ears. Or, have someone rub strangers, being intimate with people
wards by taking a cassette apart with look into “pinning” trees (using drills) plastic. This will work best if you conventions, outside movie theaters stop . . .) and replace them after mak- recordings of your favorite songs, go the cuticle area of your middle finger, of the sex opposite the one you are
a screwdriver and putting the tape and using ceramic spikes (to avoid YOU CAN take the clear adhesive place the layer of plastic right next to showing mildly subversive movies (like ing subtle adjustments. You could do to a local college radio station; act like YOU CAN help your bicycle stay YOU CAN make quite an impressive, while you breathe slowly and fully (in used to touching, walking alone down
reels in backwards; better, record it metal detectors). envelopes available free at unmanned your skin—although it will make you Fight Club), anywhere no one would If you need to create a false identity something similar with the labels on you work there, and tape whatever healthy by remembering to spray arresting noise by shaking a large through the nose, out through the familiar and then unfamiliar streets
onto another tape on the third or fourth Federal Express stations everywhere sweat a lot. expect it. Try giving away dumpstered in an emergency—for example, at a food products in the grocery store. records you want. For free cassettes, the chain and joints with WD-40 oc- piece of sheet metal. These should be mouth). blindfolded, starting frank conversa-
channel of a four track recorder, then and put them up on the walls of city bagels or donuts as well. hospital, when you have no money or For a more advanced project, try this write to Christian evangelical groups casionally. easy to find unattended at construc- tions with strangers, climbing ladders
listen to the other side of the second YOU CAN carry out guerrilla plant- streets, corporate elevators, gas insurance—YOU CAN simply make with the name plates on business- asking for listening material. tion sites. on water towers—nothing can multiply
tape. ings of kudzu and other fast-growing, station bathrooms, etc. with secret YOU CAN make a pocket hand- up a name and give your social se- men’s desks or professors’ doors, YOU CAN give your friends mas- your capabilities like confronting the
indestructible ‘weeds’ in public parks, instructions or maps to buried treas- warmer by filling a cloth bag with If you are looking to stay warm and curity number with the first five digits or the commemorative plaques at If YOU CAN get a password from a sages on a regular basis. This will limitations you have set for yourself.
around buildings that are unattended ure inside. dry beans, plus rice or corn, and have fun over the coming winter, as they really appear but the last four historic sites. For post-graduate work, If you are a high school student in student, you should be able to use the YOU CAN blow fire by holding a help everyone stay relaxed and feel
YOU CAN clean and refresh old, dirty for a few weeks, etc. to give nature microwaving it. It should retain heat YOU CAN learn everything you need changed. If you offer a distant false try kidnapping time capsules from the United States, chances are YOU computers at the local university for torch (an old 100% cotton t-shirt close.
bass guitar strings by boiling them. a hand in revitalizing cities and sub- for a couple hours. If you get hungry, to know at http://www.earthliberation- home address, it will take longer for corporate skyscrapers or universi- CAN get your school to pay for you everything from email to printing out wrapped around a bent coat hanger) YOU CAN take advantage of thou-
urbs. By putting a weight at the bottom, you can always cook and eat your front.com/library/elf_manual300.pdf them to find out you have played a ties and replacing the contents with to take college classes, if the classes fliers. If you can borrow a student’s and spitting a cloud of paraffin lamp sands of different attempts people
YOU CAN insure that the big banner hand-warmer. trick on them. information about what it was really aren’t available there. You can also meal plan card, you can go into a oil through it. Be sure not to swallow If your lover is a woman, YOU CAN have already made to establish com-
YOU CAN entertain everyone by you drop from a building or freeway like way back when. steal the attendance book, arrange college cafeteria with a backpack and it, and have both water on hand to find her g-spot by putting your fingers munity—neighborhood associations,
putting soap or laundry detergent in YOU CAN use BB guns to shoot out won’t blow in the wind. If you want to make a movie or docu- to take over the intercom system to come out with enough food to feed wash out your mouth and a towel to inside of her with your palm facing up punk rock scenes, bowling leagues,
public fountains. lights that are otherwise difficult to YOU CAN keep a little warmer on mentary for free, YOU CAN buy an YOU CAN give your friends tattoos make an important announcement, yourself and some companions for a keep your face dry so you won’t blow and moving them in a beckoning mo- Alcoholics Anonymous meetings,
reach, if you need to act under cover those cold, cold nights by eating foods expensive electronic video camera with a clean safety pin and India ink. YOU CAN make projection devices or lock alarm clocks set to go off at few days. Hell, you might be able to yourself up. tion exerting light pressure towards church choirs, high school clubs,
of darkness. If you want to make a banner particu- high in fats an hour or so before you from a distributor with a liberal return For branding, heat a shaped piece of to project messages or images onto random times in unused lockers. Re- sneak in, anyway—if just walking in her belly. If he is a man, try the same student organizations, knitting circles,
YOU CAN compile a monthly calen- larly difficult to take down, YOU CAN go to sleep. It may also help to switch policy, and shoot all your footage and coat hanger with a small blowtorch. the sides of big buildings, and get a member, you can get away with a lot purposefully (to retrieve your forgotten thing a few inches further back! hobby groups—as starting points for
dar of events that include free food suspend it from helium balloons tied the layers of your clothing, so the one download it onto a computer before point across without actually touching before you’re legally an adult. backpack, of course) doesn’t work, try YOU CAN brighten others’ lives by working towards larger, more radical,
(art openings, city council extrava- YOU CAN put glass etching solution to a power line. beside your skin is not damp with the return deadline. You can do the them. A smaller scale, subtler applica- looking for the handicapped access passing out notes reading “you are a durable, ambitious communities.
ganzas, etc.) and circulate it to hungry (hydrofluoric acid) on the windows perspiration. same thing with fancy musical equip- YOU CAN steal the low-wattage tion of a similar concept would be to elevator, the emergency exit, or the beautiful person” or “you deserve to YOU CAN make love by whispering
people. of corporations or agencies that you ment for a few days of recording, or solar panels sometimes used to keep remove the “WALK/DON’T WALK” YOU CAN set up your own library, employee entrance. be happy” or “you can do it!” to total fantasies, dancing together or for
think need a wake-up call, if a brick YOU CAN make massive inflatable with . . . billboards illuminated at night and use screens from crosswalk signs and making all the books and magazines strangers. each other, concentrating on parts YOU CAN travel across the globe,
would attract too much attention; if you structures out of thin plastic sheeting. If you are travelling and need water, them yourself, to power just about replace them with your own message and records and videos and clothes of the body or libido that often go hiking or skateboarding or hopping
YOU CAN sleep outside. Laying out want to make it clear why you’re doing Try making them from painters’ tarps, YOU CAN open the outside spigots anything you want. screens. you and your friends already have YOU CAN get a job working for a ignored, or in any number of other trains or driving cars for cross-country
cardboard when you sleep in fields, it, try applying the solution through a 2-4 millimeter thickness, available at at most gas stations and many other YOU CAN get free press passes to available for everyone, so no one company you don’t respect that has a YOU CAN use the personal ads at wonderful ways you never see in the
delivery services or working as the
alleys, etc. will help you stay warm stencil expressing your message! If any hardware store; use packaging buildings with a good wrench. These attend concerts and similar events has to buy their own copies anymore. resource you need (photocopies, film the back of the local newspaper for movies—and that can’t get you sick
saxophonist on a cruise ship, and eve-
and dry. In bad weather, look for an all- a brick is called for, you can dress up tape to close up the seams. These spigots generally have one of two simply by approaching the promot- YOU CAN make paper maché (for YOU CAN set up short-range pirate Whenever a band comes to your town developing, food, information, art sup- a novel recruiting tactic: “Capitalism or pregnant.
ers as a representative of the media. puppets, or uncommissioned public radio stations by key intersections, to play, have a part of the door money plies . . .) and hold it as long as it takes sucking the life out of you? BiWF, 27, rywhere you go you will find people
night bus terminal (they’re less likely nice, carry it in your purse, and apply it will fold up to a small size convenient kinds of handles which can be at-
You’ll probably get more privileged sculptures, or . . .) by heating three broadcasting site-specific messages go to buying a copy of their record for to smuggle out what you want. A circle non-monogamous, seeks lovers of looking for holes in the fabric of this
to kick you out for napping than the without ever having to take it out. for smuggling into unexpected envi- tached to them for operation; you
ronments. Even if you couldn’t sneak treatment than any of the paying cus- parts water and two parts corn starch on popular frequencies around the the community to share. of friends could do this together, each life and liberty to form a revolution- YOU CAN ease menstrual cramps so-called reality. Together, you can
24-hour diner), or investigate whether could carry both handles with you, for
there are any rooms or closets to wait a fan in, you could still spice up a sure-fire access to water, if you hap- tomers. A press pass might also help until it becomes thick. Let it cool a bit, clock, without attracting the attention a supplying a different resource. ary organization. Only those serious by applying hot water bottles, having cut these holes—by masterminding
in until the public library closes. YOU CAN really wreak some havoc street demonstration or public event pened to find them unremoved. you get past security, or could bolster and apply it to newspaper to make it citywide pirate radio station would. about playing need apply.” orgasms, doing yoga, stretches, ex- unexpected street festivals, carrying
on videotapes in noxious corporate by stretching one over a hot air vent your cover story if you need to cross stick together. YOU CAN hold skill share workshops, ercise, anything that increases blood out occupations and permanent rent
rental stores, etc. with a powerful on a city street—presto, a sixty foot national borders in an emergency. to trade knowledge in your areas of YOU CAN get free items from nefari- circulation to that region of your body. strikes, playing music that blows the
YOU CAN approach restaurants and magnet. The same goes for comput- missile silo towers over the Inaugural YOU CAN get drinks at fast food On a big day of political action, YOU expertise with your friends, and make ous corporate chain stores—slightly YOU CAN spice up a first date by Or, try drinking a combination of pep-
roof off the world, seizing chances
grocery stores as a representative of ers, of course. Parade. restaurants by retrieving a cup from YOU CAN make wheat paste by mix- CAN draw the police away from other knowledge freely available to every- damage them, take them to the return resolving to get in trouble with the permint/chamomile tea.
to leap up and shout out truths no
a charity group, asking for their lefto- the trash and asking for a refill. YOU CAN keep an extra pair of ing three parts wheat flour and one events by spreading the word about one regardless of their background desk and ask for a refund, and when authorities for something dreadfully
shoes stashed in a secret place to part corn starch, boiling that in water your demonstration (which turns out or resources. they refuse (on the grounds that you embarrassing by the end of the night. one dares to express, charging off
vers. You should be able to gather
use for ‘night work’; this will prevent (at proportions of two parts starch to be in a district far from the action, didn’t bring the receipt, etc.), you’ll Don’t tell your date, of course. YOU CAN use cloth rags or sea into the unknown on wild, unheard-of
enough food this way to provide for YOU CAN short-circuit any electric YOU CAN carry a marker in your
pocket and get in the pleasurable the inevitable footprints from being to three parts water), and cooking attended by a handful or less of well- have to take them back home with sponges instead of tampons or adventures . . .
a number of people—perhaps a free or electronic machine by introducing If quitting your job leaves you with
grocery program for a poor neighbor- salt water into it. Once upon a time habit of altering your environment more time on your hands than you used against you in court. Wear extra it down to a paste. Hurry to stick up behaved citizens), perhaps even ap- YOU CAN start a reading/discussion you. Alternatively—damage the items, pads—or steal organic all cotton
hood, or a weekly communal meal in vandals would do this to soda vending everywhere you go—by adding know what to do with, YOU CAN try socks so you can wear the shoes a posters everywhere with it before it plying for a permit for it. group with friends in order to get more leave them, and check their garbage If you have to work, YOU CAN organ- tampons. Never pay for hygiene!
a public place. machines, causing them to spit out “capitalism:” at the top of DEAD END baby-sitting nights for single moth- few sizes too big. dries. Some hold that corn starch is out of just about anything you might later. ize a union with your fellow employees
free soda and change. You can also signs, for example, or “LIES” across ers—there are thousands of them not entirely necessary—try variations read. You may find it easier to give to gain a little leverage over your YOU C A N r u b l a v e n d e r o i l
put stripped-down fireworks in the coin the display window of corporate news- longing for a chance to go out and of the recipe until you find a personal YOU CAN set up a fake activist web voice to your thoughts in this environ- workplace. Once you pull off a sudden into your temples to relieve ten-
YOU CAN establish a community slot to achieve a similar (or perhaps paper vending machines, or “ballot have a good time. If you have a circle YOU CAN use cotton work gloves to favorite. The more paste you slop page for the F.B.I., to keep them ment than in traditional classroom YOU CAN figure out which trees and strike, or get support from a larger un- sion and pounding headaches.
garden, with plots open for people even more fantastic) result. box” on trash cans during an election. of dependable volunteers, you could keep your fingerprints off of places on, the better it will stick, so be sure busy and misinformed; during highly- settings. bushes around your town produce ion organization, the management will
to grow their own food, or volunteer You can make your own ineffaceable organize an alternative day care col- they don’t belong. Leather gloves to prepare at least a gallon for a seri- surveilled demonstrations, you can edible goodies and “feast from the be forced to take you seriously.
programs for them to participate and graffiti marker by combining 80% lective—there’s a real shortage of should be avoided, as they leave their ous night of pasting. Don’t be afraid leave unmarked boxes and bags all
share in the harvest. Many people YOU CAN save the “postage paid by Rustoleum and 20% mineral spirits those these days. own unique fingerprints. Latex gloves to use a lot of paste on each poster, around town, to keep the bomb squad YOU CAN find food, flowers, furni-
already have yards that go untended,
and there’s always those abandoned
addressee” envelopes you get in junk
mail to send back stuffed with more
in a shoe polish applicator or similar
device—how about a deodorant con-
are good for light work, but they
leave perfect prints on the inside—so
both between it and the wall and on
top of it. Be sure corners and edges
busy and entertained—better yet, put
little letters in the bags for them, or
ture, clothes, building supplies, and
more precious things left out on the
You can get together with a handful of friends and
lots . . . junk mail—or, better, with love letters
to whomever opens them, begging
tainer with a dry eraser inside? If you have more food, shelter, time,
energy, love than you need for your-
be very careful how you dispose of
them. Burning them might be your
best option.
are all secure and flat. Plastic gallon
orange juice jugs work well, just leave
the cap for off quick application—or,
fragments that all together spell out
a message.
street in front of houses in the sub-
urbs, or in dumpsters. You might have
more luck finding building supplies at
discover that you have the power to create history.
them to seek a better life. self and the ones who depend on
Many towns have a time where there
are very few police on patrol and
YOU CAN make those paper stickers
you scam from the local copy shop
you, YOU CAN find others to share
with. If you have a room empty in your
keep your wheat paste warm and wet
longer in winter by carrying it around In street warfare, it might be useful
construction sites at night, though—or
just wheeling them out the back door
Everything depends on this.
even fewer people on the street; in YOU CAN soak the ink off some more weatherproof by covering them house now that your daughter has YOU CAN use a small and easily in a drink cooler. to know that YOU CAN easily set the of a corporate “home repair” chain
most towns of under 500,000, this cancelled stamps with alcohol—bet- with clear packing tape. gone to college, you could lend it to concealable pair of tin snips (available dumpsters outside of bars on fire—the on a cart. You might be able to return
at all hardware stores) to cut all types bottles and cans inside all have the some of the items you rescue from the
happens after the bars close at 2 ter, cover the stamps with a thin layer a homeless writer or travelling activ-
of barbed wire, razor wire, and chain YOU CAN encourage strangers to residue of alcohol on them, after all. trash—such as food that has passed
You can write to this address, sending a donation for postage if possible, to get more reading material—or more copies of this publi-
a.m. Imagine all the things YOU CAN of soap or water-soluble glue before ist, for example—or if you have more cation to give to your friends, slip into newspapers in vending machines, leave in public bathrooms, put on the magazine rack at the gas
do with the streets to yourself—paint mailing; the addressee can soak off YOU CAN go to stores that sell house sources of free bread than your team link fences. share their brilliant ideas with you and Just douse the inside with a bottle of the expiration date—for money or
everyone else (and make public space whisky or similar substance, push a store credit.
station where you work, read over the air during your radio show, plagiarize and modify to your own needs:
umlauts over all the vowels on the the soap or glue. paint and get mis-mixed buckets for of urban hunter-gatherers can pos-
street signs, for example. little to no cost. Think of all the things sibly take advantage of, you should more interesting!) by wheatpasting couple of them where they need to
you can do with paint. Make woodcuts see if you can get in touch with striking YOU CAN put a blue filter on your fliers with wheatpaste recipes on be, and throw in a smoke bomb for
YOU CAN fill a five gallon bucket with with potato stampers, or linoleum, for union workers. flashlight: this will enable you to use it them all around your city—along with ignition. YOU CAN take fruit that is about to go
YOU CAN prevent the destruction of sawdust to serve as a toilet. example—or make a stamp out of in the dark without ruining your night a headline reading “call for submis- rotten and freeze it to make smooth-
the last of our forests. Tree spiking shoelace with wire through it, shaped vision, and with much less chance of sions.” YOU CAN make puppets for street ies, or mash it up to make fruit crisps CrimethInc. Agents Provocateurs CrimethInc. Far East Cell
can be an extremely effective way into a word or line image. YOU CAN write to companies inform- being seen by others. YOU CAN make stencils out of demonstrations that double as shields or pie filling.
cardboard or clear plastic acetate for self-defence by reinforcing them— 2695 Rangewood Drive PO Box 1963
to interfere with the market value of To make compost, reduce garbage, ing them that you really enjoy their
timber—and thus discourage logging. or fertilize your gardening projects, product, or that you were shocked to YOU CAN disable cars and trucks and spraypaint your own artwork and with an internal fiberglass base, for Atlanta GA 30345 Olympia WA 98507
Basic spiking involves a big hammer YOU CAN dig a four foot hole in the YOU CAN find fabric (napkins, table- find you had purchased a defective quickly and easily by using a large raw ideas everywhere. You might have example. Cut in half, the larger-sized YOU CAN seek out the food and
potato to plug the exhaust pipe. Use luck finding the acetate in the trash cylindrical traffic cones might be
U.S.A. U.S.A.
and large nails—a usual carpenter’s ground and dump your biodegradable cloths, etc.) for making patches, ban- item. They’ll probably send you free
hammer isn’t enough. A “60 penny” waste in it. ners, etc. in the laundry bins behind coupons. a stick to force the plug further in and of companies that do lamination—like useful for this, and they are freely
nail (app. 6.5” long) will do the trick; restaurants. YOU CAN steal coupons from cor- out of sight. This technique can baffle office supply or photocopying chains. available.
no more than one per tree is neces- YOU CAN build a greywater system porate stores, or copy them (this may even skilled mechanics, and once the You can also apply house paint
sary. Drive the nail almost all the way (greywater: any water that has been work best if the coupons have a bar potato is removed, the automobile will through the stencils with rollers. You or visit us in cyberia @ www.crimethinc.com
into the tree, use bolt cutters to cut used in the home except in toilets) so YOU CAN knit your own clothes in code on them already). If the coupons work again. If you can pry off the gas could make a “handicapped” stencil
off the head, and finally drive it the the water you do use is used more the time it would take you to earn the need a stamp to be valid, just steal cap with a crow bar and pour sugar and make all the parking spaces at the
rest of the way in to make it more dif- efficiently—for example, to irrigate money to buy them prefabricated, the stamp. Many chains have coupon in the gas tank, you can create more mall handicapped spaces. You could These texts collectively plagiarized and presented by the CrimethInc. Black Writers’ Bloc; no authors are credited or dis-
ficult to spot and nearly impossible to your garden. For a simple start, just and in much more pleasant environ- systems in place that few consumers permanent problems. Or, of course, make a stencil a hundred feet long credited. Anything composed in any language is obviously the handiwork of the millions who developed the words and ideas
that constitute it, not the geniuses who rearrange them. We urge you to reproduce, translate, and adjust at will, with or without
reference to your source, in all circumstances.
L e s t y o u s e r i o u s o n e s f o r g e t — t h e s e p o s s i b i l i t i e s a r e “ f o r e n t e r t a i n m e n t p u r p o s e s o n l y ” !
T T
he old man lives in a city filled with factories. The factories roar away morn- he Sultan is omnipotent in his desert empire because he controls the water
ing, noon, and night; it is well-nigh impossible to hear anything over them. supply. He rations it strictly: for women, a teaspoon a day; for great, stout
The people of the city must shout at the tops of their lungs when they men, a tablespoon; for infants and elders, a thimble-full. No one dares protest,
speak to each other, and even when they are alone making grocery lists or reflecting for to drink any less would be fatal. Priests baptize babies with spit from their drough-
on the lost afternoons of childhood. They blast their music, which is necessarily ted mouths; wives collect the sweat off their husbands’ brows to bathe in. The subjects
cacophonous and overbearing, at the maximum volume their stereo speakers can make do as best they can, and take great pains not to displease their ruler.
deliver; they buy alarm clocks louder than bombs. There is not a single space or One day, an incredibly beautiful maiden appears from far away. She is the Sultan’s new
moment free from the incessant ear-splitting din. wife, fresh from the monsoon country. Her long, black hair flows and ripples like a
Only the old man, who was a young boy before the factories were built, can remember river; her voice is the song of a laughing brook; looking into her dark eyes, one finds
what it was to walk, think, linger in silence. He tries to tell the others about it, but oneself floating in a summer sea. The very air around her drips nectar.
they cannot hear his soft voice. He tries to ponder what to do about the noise, but The Sultan’s stable boy falls in love with her. He languishes for months, living only for
cannot clear his throbbing head to begin. He stuffs his ears with cotton and wax, the rustle of her skirts, the glimpse of her moist skin. Unbeknownst to him, she too is
presses pillows over his head—nothing helps. Finally, driven mad by the constant watching him—she likes his faraway air, his shy seriousness, the depth of feeling in his
bangings and clangings of the machines, the wails of sirens, honks of horns, screams knitted brow. One morning, while the Sultan and his henchmen are away on business,
and guffaws and whistles of his neighbors, he grabs a sledgehammer and sets out the stable boy sneaks into her chamber. She is bathing in a magnificent pool.
for the center of the city, where the greatest of the factories thunders. He clambers The poor boy stands mute before her. All he has longed for his whole life, the years of
over the barbed wire fence, shredding his fingers and thighs, and charges through parched throat, cracked lips, arid isolation, is personified in her—and he is a simple
the stockyard to a back door. It is unlocked, and he enters; but security guards spy stable boy, intruding upon her. In the recklessness of desperation, he opens his mouth:
him, and hurry after. a torrent of adoration pours out. It becomes a deluge; then, a psalm. She is moved; it
He finds himself in the entrails of the machinery. The blows of its hammer rhythm has been a long time since anyone has spoken to her honestly, let alone beautifully, in
are deafening. Pounded by shockwaves, almost overwhelmed, he struggles forward this barren land. She tells him to come to her after sundown.
to a vulnerable pipe and raises his weapon to deliver a crippling blow. At that mo- That night, after everyone else is asleep and the moon is high in the clear sky, the stable
ment the security guards, horrible in their matching uniforms boy leaves his tent and creeps to the tower in which the Sultan keeps his
and ear protection, overtake him and drag him away. wife. The door is locked, and soldiers stand guard inside, so the
He is sent to a prison. The halls there echo all day boy scales the dry brick of the wall to her window. She
and night with the hoots and yells of prisoners, opens it and helps him in. Hours later, the Sultan is
the ringing of bells, the slamming of doors awakened by sounds of passion from his young
and the jingling of keys, but for once wife’s bedchamber.
he is not disturbed by the clamor: His soldiers stamp up the stairs,
the moments he spent in the but it is too late. From their lovemak-
factory have deafened him. ing flows a river so deep and so
In this new-found peace, wide that all the Sultan’s horses
he writes a manifesto and men are unable to cross
of silence that will be “All this is like a dream, and I never dream.” it to punish the enraptured
read by millions and couple. In a rage, the Sultan
whispered from “Like the king who never had any dreams orders that a mountain of
until the wizard made him sleep in a pigsty.”
ear to ear. dust be piled up so that
Scarcity, propriety, cruelty, routine—these things seem like laws of nature, until you his subjects will not
experience otherwise. You can’t blame those who cannot imagine more—only show them see the new body of
it exists. water. It is done,
And so our charge is to be alchemists. Just as the alchemists of bygone days strove and none of them
to change lead into gold, we must make fortune from misfortune and magic of the do; but the hot
mundane. Alchemy is the art of reinventing the world, of rearranging existing elements sun shines over-
to create new possibilities. The alchemist understands it is the forces that count, the re- head, and soon
lationships, not the materials, not the things in the world. Any situation, every situation, the gypsies in the
can be revolutionized—you simply have to enter knowing your life is at stake. countryside are
Our contest is with gravity, with the weight of inertia. It is up to us to shake it off—or
crooning a new
turn it to our advantage. For the slothful man, gravity is a force to be feared, a hated
master; he finds in it an argument against motion, action, life itself. But for the dancer, folk song: you can
gravity is indispensable, beloved even. Without it, she would have nothing to play outlaw the rain,
against, no counterpoint for her strength and skill. She flies all the more gracefully for they sing, but we
being born without wings. all see the clouds are
We must dance with our apprehensions, our agonies, our histories, or be paralyzed gathering.
by them. With lightness of foot, we can transform our centuries-long history of destruc-
tion and disappointment into a mere prologue, the tragic overture before a beautiful
symphony—justifying and absolving ourselves, and the world we know, in the process.
If there is anyone foolish enough to want this world the way it is, then let him have
it—let him have it!!—and perish with it. For the rest of us, alchemy is our only hope.

S T
h e b r o t h e r
he lives
and sister have
in a world
grown up to-
of abso- She takes my hand and leads me breathless from the ruins. “Life is not retrospective,”
she confides. “Let’s not be, either.” gether; everything they
lutely regulated
are, they have become
time. In the board-
as a pair. They have sur-
ing school, every mo-
vived the same challenges,
ment is strictly regi-
heartaches, illnesses; they have
mented: rise at six o’clock,
treasured the same meanings in
wash until ten after, dress by
songs and poems and chilly sunrises.
twenty after, breakfast at six
If one prefers the crusts of bread, it
thirty, and so on; likewise Tues-
is because the other favors the soft core.
day night is laundry night, Thursday
Whenever one feels, suffers, triumphs, it is
is soccer day, and every other Saturday
for them both.
evening, a movie at ten on the dot. The nuns
A day comes when they decide to part and seek
meet every morning at five thirty to synchronize
their separate fortunes; between the two of them, they reason,
their watches by the great tolling belltower. They teach
they can chart the world, and share it when they meet again. The sister
that time is ordained by God: He has created it in all its precision
sets out with a simple pack on her back, and doesn’t stop to sleep until she is many
to show that He is universal, that His creation is flawless and uniform, that there
leagues from their childhood home. She continues this way for many weeks, entering
are no exceptions. Bells ring to announce every movement of students and faculty.
regions vastly different from their homeland. There, she encounters wondrous animals,
Clocks and watches tick tick tick tick in unison in every room. Every semester
witnesses new cultures, strange customs, exotic religions and value systems. She learns
includes exactly 1200 hours of sleep, 100 hours of mathematics homework, and 10
to charm cobras, to dance flamenco, to speak a few of the infinite languages in which
hours of visiting time.
the grandeur of the cosmos is written.
The young student is secretly terrified by this timekeeping mania. She lies awake
Years later, as agreed, she returns home to meet her sibling. The two embrace,
in bed when everyone is supposed to be asleep, counting down the seconds to her
and sit down before a warm fire. The sister relates all her adventures, all the wonders
death. It seems to her it is lunacy to calibrate life this way—as if subdividing time
she has experienced, one by one. Her brother listens pensively, hesitates, finally
made more of it!—but whatever it could be she would prefer, she cannot imagine.
speaks.
She comes up with a plan. The next day, she and a few rebellious students are ten
He explains that all the marvels she has seen are little better than illusions:
minutes late to each class; she has calculated that they can gain a few minutes more
that there is only one thing in the world worthy of contemplation. He relates how he,
free time this way, in relation to the detention time their tardiness will occasion. It
too, set out from home, and stopped the first night at a monastery. When the monks
is strange and new to have these few minutes to do with what they please; but they
inquired about the purpose of his journey, he told them of how he and his sister had
still have to keep an eye on the clock, for arriving at class more than ten minutes
pledged to chart the corners of creation together. The abbot informed him that they
late draws much longer periods of detention.
could assist in his quest, and brought out their holy book: a book which, the elderly
After a couple days, she is the only one still playing this game; the others are already
man declared, held the truth about everything in the world, down to the last blade of
in too much trouble with the administration for their tastes. That’s it for your little
grass.
insurrection, she thinks bitterly to herself—and then, possessed by frustration and
The brother recounts how he spent the following years deep in study with the monks,
defiance at being abandoned by her classmates, no, it’s not. She tears off her watch,
and found that the whole of the world, all that can be felt or known or pondered, was
tosses it away, and stomps into the forest.
indeed contained in this book. It became clear to him that further traveling was un-
There, everything is wholly different. Time, as she has known it, stops completely;
necessary; instead, he isolated himself entirely and spent every waking instant poring
in its place is a profound and beautiful stillness, like nothing she has felt before.
over the book, memorizing every word, learning to fit every detail of life, even the ones
Here, there is no need to fear death, for she can linger in the eternity of the moment,
that seemed not to fit, into the system it contained.
absorbing and savoring it. The birds twitter overhead, the sun moves slowly across
Her brother concludes his story and implores his sibling to return with him to the
the sky; eventually the moon ascends, the darkness thickens, and she reluctantly
monastery. But she politely takes her leave, and sets out again across the earth. She will
concedes to herself that she must go back, since she is not yet ready to live alone
find the single unaccounted-for blade of grass, the irreplaceable note from a french
in the woods.
horn, the one recalcitrant turtledove that will break the book’s grip on her brother, so
Upon her return, she is immediately apprehended by a stern hall monitor, who seizes
he will again be free to recognize the universe in all its diverse splendors—to perceive
her arm and drags her to the office of Mother Superior. She receives her talking-to
that the world is too big and too beautiful to fit in one million such books.
in stoic silence, and doesn’t flinch when the woman threatens severe punishment.
The next morning before dawn she rises and advances on the great belltower with
a book of matches. She knows her freedom depends on whether she can wrest
everyone from the rhythm of the bells.