The Commitments: Listen Up Chaotes!
We’re not Chaos Marxists. Fact is, they wouldn’t have us, we’re far too ‘lifestylist’ (and proud of it!). But that is not to say that we are not fighting for the same thing. In the words of Renzo Novatore…
History, materialism, monism, positivism, and all the “isms” of this world are old and rusty tools which I don’t need or mind anymore. My principle is life, my end is death. I wish to live my life intensely for to embrace my life tragically.
You are waiting for the revolution? My own began a long time ago! When you will be ready (God, what an endless wait!) I won’t mind going along with you for awhile. But when you’ll stop, I shall continue on my insane and triumphal way toward the great and sublime conquest of the nothing! Any society that you build will have its limits. And outside the limits of any society the unruly and heroic tramps will wander, with their wild & virgin thoughts–they who cannot live without planning ever new and dreadful outbursts of rebellion!
I shall be among them!
And after me, as before me, there will be those saying to their fellows: “So turn to yourselves rather than to your Gods or to your idols. Find what hides in yourselves; bring it to light; show yourselves!”
Because every person; who, searching his own inwardness, extracts what was mysteriously hidden therein; is a shadow eclipsing any form of society which can exist under the sun! All societies tremble when the scornful aristocracy of the tramps, the inaccessibles, the uniques, the rulers over the ideal, and the conquerors of the nothing resolutely advances.
So, come on iconoclasts, forward!
“Already the foreboding sky grows dark and silent!”
Renzo Novatore, Arcola, Italy, 1920: quoted in Hakim Bey’s ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’
The ammended version of Chaos Marxism’s ‘Commitments’ has much to offer the socially aware discordian. So here it is…
The One Key and Nine Commitments of Chaos Marxism (amended draft)
We can sum up in one word the core of the Chaos Marxist approach. Mindfulness. Or, if you prefer, consciousness, or even Gramsci’s good sense. Or Gurdjieff’s “Remember yourself”. The Sufi tradition, Buddhism and modern cognitive-behavioural therapy agree – being able to step back from compulsive thoughts and the compulsive feelings they evoke, to recognize them as not real, is the essence of psychic health and enlightenment. And Marxist theories of ideology insist that the way our rulers impose their control over us is by reification – mistaking illusion for reality, social relations for concrete things, narratives or memes for actual laws of existence. You can’t live without an ego any more than you can live without money, but you must remember that it’s not real, it’s a convention, it only exists if you and others believe in it, and that it’s a great servant but a hideous master.
On the micro-level, Chaos Marxism stands for the ruthless “obedience training” of the ego. Imagine that your ego is a badly trained dog – it barks when not necessary, it requires far more attention than it really needs, it humps your leg or otherwise annoys you when you’re trying to do something. But you don’t need to take it out and shoot it, you just need to teach it that its perceptions are not reality and it should submit to rationality and discipline. You’ll all be happier that way. Indeed, your ego is the way it is because it evolved to help you survive in capitalism as it is; and one of the main ways that capitalism makes money in this day and age (and fosters obedience) is by selling pre-fab ego-identities to people. The ego cannot change “what is” because it has adapted to work with “what is”. The “Greater Work” of Chaos Marxism, therefore, consists of the following commitments:
- to learn how your ego works, and how it fits in with the broader culture, the media-industrial complex, the “identity industry” and mechanisms of social control;
- to discover what your own physical, mental and spiritual needs and joys are, independent of the ego’s needs, and to learn to provide for those needs;
- to commit yourself to the service of Something Greater than your ego – humanity, the biosphere, God however defined, etc.
- to bring the ego to the service of this Something Greater by discipline and rationality, rejecting all irrational beliefs, compulsions and pre-packaged identities as a snare and a delusion for the ego;
- to “tune up” the ego so that the needs of Something Greater and your own personal needs can both be served. (If they appear to conflict, then you have misconceived one or both of them.)
On the macro-level, Chaos Marxism acknowledges that capitalism pollutes the cultural/information space, and therefore the psyche of all those subject to it, just as badly as it poisons the ecosphere and thus our physical health. Therefore, we encourage any and all social or political activity which increases consciousness of objective reality and dispels illusions. We suggest that would-be social activists combine their activism with the work of disciplining their own ego. Only that way can you get actual real objective knowledge of the World-As-Is, and what needs to be done, rather than prejudices reflected back off the inside of your skull. And also, only that way can you teach people by example that their own egos are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. This “Lesser Work” consists of a commitment to:
- serving the Something Greater, as above, by concrete action for a better world where it will be easier for everyone to live free of illusion and slavery, physical, mental and spiritual;
- practicing compassion for all living things, including yourself, by helping whoever wants to be helped in whatever way you can;
- putting the lessons learned in the Greater Work into practice, by creating propaganda, art, and magick however defined that calls to awaken the “good sense” of the broad mass of people over the top of the “common sense” of ego and the cultural-ideological apparatus of oppression;
- keeping the ego out of this Lesser Work by refusing the role of “guru”, “leader”, or in any other way trying to submit other wills to your own rather than liberate them on their own path to Something Greater.
