Re: [-empyre-] what is to be done?

[Henry Warwick <henry.warwick@sbcglobal.net>]

This is the basic question of our time.

What is to be done?

A provocation:

I have pointed out this issue before, on this forum. I have also  
discussed what I see as the most significant problems facing humanity.

Over the past several years I have been doing a great deal of  
research into these issues. One of the first things to be shown the  
door is "Art", and in our present circumstance, this comes as no  
surprise, as Art is little more than the Intellectual Wing of the  
Entertainment Industry. It has very little credibility, and people  
only keep it around because it can be amusing. It has always been a  
plaything of the wealthier classes, and it continues to be so. The  
20th century tried to make it a religion for a secular society, and  
failed. It was never designed to do that. The impulse toward the  
"sublime" is simply the latest manifestation of the same historical  
trend.

The Gallery/Museum Industrial Complex has its own star system and  
patronage patterns. Artists are urged to mythologise themselves,  
create a back-story, with all the other accoutrements of post Lucas  
Public Relations. It's a crummy racket, and everyone in the industry  
knows it. To borrow and distort from Hunter S Thompson: The Art  
business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some  
kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of  
contemporary culture - a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps  
run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.

And, yes, there is a down side. Because as it has decayed over the  
past several decades, beauty became the property of the bourgeoisie.  
"Art" became the badge of political balkanisation and the refuge of  
every third-rate hack imaginable. So, no - there is nowhere for Art  
to go. It has run its course, and is now in the realm of historical  
and commodity fetishists.

The only effective art is that which is done without hope.

This does not mean one should give in to hopelessness and despair. No  
- it is more a reflection of a deeper social and cultural insight.  
Think of such a state as an awareness of duty - something greater  
than happiness. Think of it as a maturity of composure, where that  
which is completely uncertain is allowed to manifest without fear - a  
dynamic openness to Being in Time. And if your actions conform to  
localised notions of beauty, all the more useful to extend the reach  
of your actions and notions.

What is needed to happen before we do what must be done is a sense of  
acceptance and a rejection of denial. Hope requires a desire for an  
outcome. The grass bends in the wind and requires no hope. At the  
same time it tenaciously holds its ground - it does so out of duty  
and self-actualisation, not out of stubborn pettiness an spite. We  
need to organise our communities - our neighbours, as much as we find  
them peculiar and stupid - we need to work with them and in so doing  
bring ourselves to them - we are someone else's weird neighbours.

To borrow and distort from Spinrad: we should ignore and give up on  
the art world. Don't participate. Look to your neighbours and friends  
for inspiration and Art.

The deepest problems facing humanity are, in order of immensity:

1. over-population
2. resource depletion
3. climate change

There are too many of us. We are destroying the earth to sustain our  
numbers. We are using up all the resources, and are condemning the  
tenth or hundredth generation (if there is one) to a neolithic  
existence. Our effect on the planet's various biospheres are dramatic  
and destructive, and the climate is changing rapidly, and in such a  
way that we won't be able to properly adjust given the resource  
depletion we are facing and the immensity of our numbers.

What is to be done?

1. reduce population
2. conserve resources, radically
3. move to higher ground...

What is to be done?

1. Wake up.
2. Get with the program.
3. Organise.

Eno:

I was just a broken head
I stole the world that others plundered
Now I stumble through the garbage
Slide and tumble, slide and stumble.

Thompson:

Thieves and pimps running free.

I stole the world that others plundered.

Fine. Live in denial. And watch your world die.

Art? Who needs THAT?

BUT BUT BUT...

In this age of grand delusion, Denial is the only rational choice for  
the many who insist on hope.

We have a choice: Die Down - at home, surrounded by friends and  
family at the end of a long and productive life or DIE OFF at a young  
age of starvation and pneumonia in some transit camp in Oregon.

Happy new year.

best and kindest regards to all on this esteemed list,

Henry Warwick