Revival

As a social artist, I am always on the lookout for community development opportunities that create a cultural context for social renewal. While that revival might take the form of media, medicine, music, politics or style, the common attribute of generating an ambience of belonging is the essence of this art. Reinvigorating or refreshing such things as hippie culture are thus vital social projects.

Subverting Spectacle

Assuming hypocrisy and betrayal are eternal human attributes, subverting spectacle becomes increasingly more of an art than a science. As such, our creativity and imagination are as essential as our understanding of the science of mass communication.

Criteria for Solidarity

As Zapatista autonomous communities struggle to survive attacks by Mexican police and vigilantes, speakers for the Zapatista movement of liberation are reaching out to the world to prevent further massacres by the stormtroopers of Free Trade. When the choice is between assimilation or annihilation, one has to reconsider non-violent restrictions as criteria for solidarity. As privileged members of the first world, do we have a right to insist that the people of the Fourth World not defend themselves?

Zones of Survival

In his essay NoGoZone, Hakim Bey examines the state as the last spectacular locus of the world of simulation, and proposes that it will be forced to practice social triage in letting go of real control of zones that have been abandoned. Officially, he notes, the specto-state will continue to claim jurisdiction and proprietorship of these zones, but in reality these zones will have been sacrificed.

Constituting organic non-authoritarian entities, No Go Zones as real-life experiments, says Bey, will need to re-invent a spirituality of freedom. Whether we dread it or romanticize it, he asserts, the No Go Zone is on the way.

Whether we envision No Go Zones in the form of dystopia as represented in the movies Brazil or City of God, or utopia in the form of revitalized micro-nations on North American Indian reservations or in anarchic Italian social centers, creating autonomous zones of survival is fast becoming our most urgent task.

World Dominance

Watching the violent clashes worldwide between indigenous peoples and modern states, one might be inclined to wonder what’s at the root of the problem. Is it just philosophical values, control of territories and historical injustice, or is there more to it? With food riots and other uprisings becoming a regular global occurrence, it might be wise for us to step back a moment to get a grasp of what is happening in our world.

In his February 2 speech at Pennsylvania State University — School of International Affairs, Stan Goff put neoliberalism into an historical context that makes the political destabilization associated with the imperial food market comprehendable.  In The Roles of Finance Food and Force in US Foreign Policy, Goff illustrates the links between financial warfare, world dominance and the industrialization of agriculture.

If we are to be of any use to the world indigenous movement, our understanding of the context within which we work and they struggle must be clear and accurate. Toward that end, Mr. Goff has made a significant contribution.

Obama Feels No Pain

Sicking the Department of Justice on California medical marijuana dispensaries may seem like good electoral strategy to Obama, but attacking the sick and disabled could backfire on Goldman Sach’s golden boy. After all, California voters approved medical relief for people dealing with chronic pain, and Obama’s decision to unleash U.S. attorneys against pot clubs because he thinks people still hate hippies is misplaced. I mean, even Sarah Palin says pot should be legal.

Apartheid Report

A report on the status of Palestinian Bedouin by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes pervasive insecurity and instability due to administrative practices of Israeli authorities. The report warns that some Bedouin communities and culture may disintegrate and disappear altogether.