rock the body politic.
The election has come and gone. The tories won. Whoopee. This isn't a commentary.
But voting today has got me thinking.
This is about altererting politics. About once identifying as anarchist, pacifist, social democrat, antiracist, antiviolent, environmentalist, feminist, socialist, pseudoqueer, anticapitalist, capitalist, 'equalist', raver, punk, political 'scientist', student, what-fucking-ever.
Titles, identities, labels. I've worn them all with pride (or fear), and suddenly today, as I instinctually reached to vote for the NDP, I paused and considered my politics. Where AM I, now? What DO I believe? Am I still just a little of 'all of the above'? I'd like to think so, at the same time as I feel like I've fallen free of being able to identify with...
...much of anything. Can I be everything and feel nothing? I'm watching this...fucking automaton douchebag Stephen Harper promise us more and more lies; and I feel like I could tolerate this. Tolerate. What the FUCK has happened to me?
ok ok ok, I'm taking this, and myself, way too seriously... it's just that it feels like evidence of going 'soft in my old age', like I'm giving up. Is this what happens? That makes me sad. I used to have a fire inside, an itch to act up. Hell, I DID act up; so...what happened?
IS this what happens to people?
I say...fuck that. Who wants to get angry about stuff with me? Who wants to talk late and red wine drunk about wordy shit and flex these...thinkin' muscles of ours? I think I've been feeling a bit...numbed lately, or something. Like I need a kick in the brain. Like I could (and should) start tagging again, start messing with people's minds in tiny, personal ways. Fun pranks. Shit disturbing. I used to be SO good at it. Who's in?
Who?
Maybe it's all about love.
"Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful mould of human destiny...
"Some day men and women will rise, they will reach the mountain peak, they will meet big and strong and free, ready to receive, to partake, and to bask in the golden rays of love. What fancy, what imagination, what poetic genius can forsee even approximately the potentialities of such a force in the life of men and women. If the world is ever to give birth to true companionship and oneness...love will be the parent."
-Emma Goldman, American anarchist
But voting today has got me thinking.
This is about altererting politics. About once identifying as anarchist, pacifist, social democrat, antiracist, antiviolent, environmentalist, feminist, socialist, pseudoqueer, anticapitalist, capitalist, 'equalist', raver, punk, political 'scientist', student, what-fucking-ever.
Titles, identities, labels. I've worn them all with pride (or fear), and suddenly today, as I instinctually reached to vote for the NDP, I paused and considered my politics. Where AM I, now? What DO I believe? Am I still just a little of 'all of the above'? I'd like to think so, at the same time as I feel like I've fallen free of being able to identify with...
...much of anything. Can I be everything and feel nothing? I'm watching this...fucking automaton douchebag Stephen Harper promise us more and more lies; and I feel like I could tolerate this. Tolerate. What the FUCK has happened to me?
ok ok ok, I'm taking this, and myself, way too seriously... it's just that it feels like evidence of going 'soft in my old age', like I'm giving up. Is this what happens? That makes me sad. I used to have a fire inside, an itch to act up. Hell, I DID act up; so...what happened?
IS this what happens to people?
I say...fuck that. Who wants to get angry about stuff with me? Who wants to talk late and red wine drunk about wordy shit and flex these...thinkin' muscles of ours? I think I've been feeling a bit...numbed lately, or something. Like I need a kick in the brain. Like I could (and should) start tagging again, start messing with people's minds in tiny, personal ways. Fun pranks. Shit disturbing. I used to be SO good at it. Who's in?
Who?
Maybe it's all about love.
"Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful mould of human destiny...
"Some day men and women will rise, they will reach the mountain peak, they will meet big and strong and free, ready to receive, to partake, and to bask in the golden rays of love. What fancy, what imagination, what poetic genius can forsee even approximately the potentialities of such a force in the life of men and women. If the world is ever to give birth to true companionship and oneness...love will be the parent."
-Emma Goldman, American anarchist
posted by Eli at 12:08 AM
5 Comments:
I like the idea that love can help people reach their full potential. That the combination of two compatible people can make each more extraordinary than either of them would be alone.
And I think that there is still a fire inside you even if it isn't blazing out of control as it might have been when you were younger. You ARE a force that inspires -- take yesterday as an example; how many people voted BECAUSE you convinced them that it was important?
Glowing embers keep the fire going longer than the wild flames of mere paper burning.
maybe i'm dumb and missing the joke but it's sort of weird to me that that photo, the 'anarchy is for lovers' one, seems to endorse and perpetuate a heteronormative and heterosexist stance on coupling...
...just a thought.
yeah it's tricky i think. like, sometimes i wonder about the whole "going soft in my old age" thing too, but then i usually end up thinking that i just have a different analysis now. things are less black or white, it's less about us vs. them. i don't buy that whole "you're either part of the problem or part of the solution" thing. like, it's so much more complicated you know? take graffitti for example (since you mentioned tagging), while i think there is totally subversive potential there, depending where you tag, who's gonna end up having to clean it up? probably a non-unionized person of colour, likely a woman, who's employed as janitorial staff and making shit wages. so yeah, i don't know. my final verdict is: it's just tricky.
ps - that's a good point about the anarchy is for lovers image. but aww, it's still cute.
I don’t think that people really “get soft” in their old age, I think that people forget to stop caring. Youth affords an individual more time and less cynicism, allowing for optimism and passion. As people age, they start filling their lives with baggage: bills, work, relationships, family, getting “stuff”…..Which in turn occupies a lot of time, throughout all of this, we endure combinations of heartache, loss, success, pain etc., these chip away at youthful optimism and passion.
Most adults use their free time spending their money on “stuff”, or, they are so consumed with obligations that the time is needed for maintenance of all things “stuff” related. Point is, people forget to care about things that are there everyday such as, poverty, capitalism, hardcore drug use, discrimination or perhaps, environmental/societal rape by the companies that “allow” for us to consume.
There are not enough people passionate enough, that are able and interested in inspiring others as to the existence of injustices. Change comes from education, passion is contagious. I think that if you have a message that does not “hate” then spread it, whatever means you think is appropriate. Sing, Dance, Tag, Create art, Write, Stand up and Be Heard, INSPIRE.
As to worrying about who is going to clean up the tag, honestly I think that argument addresses different issues unrelated to taggin and near-dead fires.
I say we up the passion and “yes-I-can-attude”. The world is kind-of a shit-hole, but it can be changed.
i came across this poem and it made me think of this entry...
I want to be different, like everybody else I want to be like.
I want to be just like all the different people.
I have no further interest in being the same, because I have seen difference
all around,
and now I know that that's what I want.
I don't want to blend in and be indistinguishable,
I want to be a part of the different crowd,
and assert my individuality along with others
who are different like me.
I don't want to be identical to anyone or anything.
I don't even want to be identical to myself.
I want to look in the mirror and wonder,
"Who is that person? I've never seen that person before.
I've never seen anyone like that before."
I want to call into question the very idea that identity can be attached.
I want a floating, shifting, ever-changing persona.
Invisibility and obscurity,
detatchment from the ego and all of its pursuits.
Unity is useless.
Conformity is competitive and division and leads only to stagnation and death.
If what I'm saying doesn't make any sense,
that's because sense can't be made.
It's something that must be sensed.
And I, for one, am incensed by all this complacency.
Why oppose war only when there's a war?
Why defend the clinics only when they're attacked?
Why support the squats and the parks only when the police come to close
them down?
Why are we always reactive?
Let's activate something.
Let's fuck shit up.
Whatever happened to revolution for the hell of it?
Whatever happened to protesting nothing in particular, just protesting 'cause
it's
Saturday and there's nothing else to do?
- Tom S. Hall
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