Tag Archive: revolution: Social Memory Complex

The revolution will not be phenomenal

Marat
these cells of the inner self 
are worse than the deepest stone dungeon 
and as long as they are locked 
all your revolution remains 
only a prison mutiny 
to be put down
by corrupted fellow prisoners

The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, by Peter Weiss, Athenium. 1965

Thoughts on Revolution

Art, Hypocrisy, and Violence in Perspective

A friend gave the pamphlet The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand to a friend of his, passing along his reactions to me. This essay is an attempt to answer some of his concerns, which I am not publishing here. However, I think it stands reasonably well on its own as a meditation on genuine change and its propensity for resulting in some kind of suffering. The friend began by asking,

With whom, economically and culturally, should or does the contemporary poet or artist identify?

I appreciate the question. My personal opinion is that I see no difference between the answer to this question and the answer to the question, "With whom should anybody identify?" You either see an unjust system as acceptable or not. How honest you are with yourself about the actual decision you're making is the real matter, and I don't think anybody scores perfectly in that area.

Read more...