[-empyre-] from the personal to the political, a p2p confession

[magnus at ditch.org.uk]

> Perhaps the term  'collective intellectual' can be considered a synonym
> for
> "culture"?
>
> Also, the observation about times of social stress throwing up temporary
> but
> potentially disruptive power relations is important. Both the great wars
> of
> the 20th century engendered social change, in terms of class relations but
> also in regard of gender, age groups and international relations. Periods
> of
> war, revolution, plague and radical technological change are often seen to
> be associated with such social change. Generally, but not always, such
> change has been beneficial. However, in every instance many are hurt or
> disadvantaged. The question is surely how such situations are ethically
> handled? Or is it a mistake to even ask that question? Is it ethically
> unsound to ask how we ethically manage disruptive change as it implies
> somebody is in the luxurious position to ask that question? The risk is
> patronage and with that comes power and more of the same...
>

To me, these are questions concerning strategy and distribution (of power,
of information). As I understand it, these are significant to Simon
Yuill's work.

Best wishes,

Magnus

> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> On 28/07/2011 04:30, "Michel Bauwens" <michel at p2pfoundation.net> wrote:
>
>> hi magnus,
>>
>> this reminds me of a text by brian holmes I once read, where he wrote
>> that
>> today art/creation, public intellectuality,  and social engagement, are
>> 'merging', not only in a new type of individual, but as a new type of
>> 'collective intellectual'. I think this is what the p2p foundation
>> purports
>> to be, not just a vehicle for one person or 'group' with the answer, but
>> as
>> a platform for the collective intelligence of a moving social field ...
>> I'm
>> guessing that Anonymous, on a much bigger scale than us, is also a
>> similar
>> type of attempt, through their stress on anoninymity, makes it
>> different,
>>
>> I also noticed in the recent 15m mobilisations, there is a tendency of
>> at
>> least part of the movement to choose the new collectivity against any
>> individual manifestations of leadership ..
>>
>> obviously in the p2p foundation, my own personality looms large
>>
>> I'm not sure what the good solution is, but I think that a 'transcend
>> and
>> include' approach, which allows individuality to persist and be part of
>> a
>> new collective, is preferable ...
>>
>> I must admit i'm still struggling with radical non-representationality,
>> also
>> in terms of political effectiveness; it reminds me a bit of the issue of
>> tribal structures .. as far as I know the 'flat structures' and
>> governance
>> by the elders, was put on hold in times of conflict, with temporary
>> warchiefs directing the wars,but when they returned and the conflict was
>> over, their power withered ...
>>
>> It is probably when this withering away stopped occuring, that chiefdoms
>> and
>> eventually class society emerged; but while it worked, and really this
>> was
>> the longest period of human history, against which class society is a
>> mere
>> blip, there was room for individual leadership
>>
>> my feeling is that 'consensus' governance, has actually very high
>> transaction/coordination costs,
>>
>> compare anonymous to the personalized wikileaks, which outfit is the
>> most
>> politically productive?
>>
>> Michel
>>
>> Michel
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 4:13 AM, <magnus at ditch.org.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Michel,
>>>
>>> Thanks for sharing this personal background with us... the positive,
>>> sweeping view, your sense of being a 'political artist' engaged in
>>> creative and performative acts and the constructive, bringing together
>>> of
>>> varied individuals and paradigms.
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>>
>>> Magnus
>>>
>>>> I'm not much of an art expert but rather the kind of person that gets
>>>> excited about ideas and visions, but those ideas and visions are very
>>> much
>>>> alive and present in my mind .. So I thought that I'd focus my first
>>>> contribution on political aspects of our work at the p2p foundation. I
>>>> will
>>>> comment later more specifically about piracy and its
>>>> political-cultural
>>>> aspects. (well actually, after finishing this piece, it turns out I
>>>> went
>>>> in
>>>> personal confession mode, something I have actually never done outside
>>>> this
>>>> forum)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  I hope people won't feel to uncomfortable with the personal
>>>> background,
>>>> which is part of the story.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  It all begin a first time about 14 years ago, when I had a 'annus
>>>> horribilis' that really shook me to the core, I think we're talking
>>>> about
>>>> the period 1996-97. It was a year where my father died, my mother got
>>>> diagnosed with Alzheimer, the love of my life broke up, I discovered
>>>> some
>>>> of
>>>> my business associates had a criminal background and had gone off with
>>> the
>>>> business funds; a movie I had been working on for three years,
>>>> TechnoCalyps,
>>>> got stalled because of a fight between the producer and the director,
>>>> cutting off my escape from the corporate world; and I had a major row
>>> with
>>>> my intellectual guru of the time, Ken Wilber (integral theory). Of
>>> course,
>>>> serious health consequences also ensued. It basically totally floored
>>>> me
>>>> and
>>>> constituted my mid-life crisis. For me this is the time when you
>>>> realize
>>>> your life is half over, and you realize that if you don't realize the
>>>> dreams
>>>> and ideals of your youth, you will die cynical and disappointed. It
>>>> was
>>>> now
>>>> or never.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  The way I saw it then, was that the major issue for me had been that
>>>> I
>>>> had
>>>> given up on my ideals for the creation of a better world, as corny as
>>> this
>>>> may sound. It seemed to me that the passionate energy involved in that
>>>> desire, had been buried and was working against me, and that if I
>>>> wanted
>>>> to
>>>> discover from the combined crisis, I had to reconnect with this source
>>>> of
>>>> energy. It was also the time when I became increasingly convinced that
>>> all
>>>> the objective indicators of human and social life, were turning
>>>> negative,
>>>> and that our civilisational model was hitting a wall.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  The first thing question then was really, but how do we change this
>>>> overall
>>>> situation as a single individual, how do we engage without actually
>>> making
>>>> the situation worse.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  As a youth, I had been a radical leftist, active within the rather
>>>> sectarian Militant tendency, then rather well-known in the UK. But
>>>> this
>>>> engagement had led nowhere, was followed by the neoliberal
>>>> counterrevolution
>>>> of the 80s, and had personally exhausted me. Since I could not change
>>>> the
>>>> world, I had concluded, by the time I was 23 and after seven years of
>>>> intense engagement, the only option was to change my 'self'. The
>>>> problem
>>>> though was that I had emotionally broken with that type of life, and
>>>> with
>>>> Marxism, but had not really gone through a rational process of
>>>> thinking
>>>> through what was wrong with it, I had rather rejected it as a whole,
>>>> even
>>>> ritually burning a suitcase full of my books (yes, I know, a crying
>>>> shame!).
>>>> Instead, I began a personal exploration that brought me in touch with,
>>>> more
>>>> or less in sequence, the human potential techniques, eastern spiritual
>>>> practices and theories, the western esoteric traditions (been a
>>>> rosicrucian,
>>>> a mason, a templar, had a alchemy teacher and drew Tarot cards),
>>>> ending
>>>> with
>>>> a 3 year period of self-study of western philosophy by the time I was
>>>> 30.
>>>> This may seem pretty fast, but I think I have a capacity of absorption
>>>> of
>>>> ideas and concepts that is probably beyond the average. My method was
>>>> really
>>>> participant observation, going into a movement fully and without
>>>> reservation, practice the injunctions, see what it did with the
>>>> bodymind
>>>> and
>>>> my personality structure, and when I thought I had absorbed its most
>>>> important core elements, move on. By my thirties then, feeling
>>>> substantially
>>>> transformed, I embarked on my business career, not because of a love
>>>> of
>>>> the
>>>> corporate world, but because I felt it was an area of cultural
>>>> dynamism,
>>>> in
>>>> which I could 'create' something and make something of my life. That
>>>> was
>>>> the
>>>> period then that ended with that big personal crisis.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  In any case, as I decide to go back to my roots and my youthful
>>>> engagement,
>>>> I felt the need to study Marx again, but at the same time, I dreaded
>>>> the
>>>> effort of going through not only the primary texts, but also the major
>>>> interpretations of where it had gone wrong. Luckily then, I stumbled
>>>> upon
>>>> Negri's Empire Š It's not that I cannot find fault with the approach,
>>>> but
>>>> here it seemed to me was at least a work with a sweeping vision, a
>>>> positive
>>>> view of the potential for change, and that had gone through a critique
>>>> of
>>>> Marx Š
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  It is after this reading experience, which took me about three months
>>>> of
>>>> internal struggles, that I decided to follow a basic intuition: that
>>>> the
>>>> isomorphism of peer to peer, which I literarally saw emerging
>>>> everywhere,
>>>> this great horizontalisation of human relationships through massive
>>>> self-aggregation around common value and affinities, was te lever of
>>>> change
>>>> I had been looking for. That civil society had now become productive,
>>>> and
>>>> was no longer a derivative of the value creation of the corporate
>>>> world,
>>>> but
>>>> rather the other way around, that social cooperation was becoming
>>>> increasingly primary, and that the older vertical institution were
>>>> living
>>>> increasingly 'off' this new productivity.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  I decided by the end of 2002, that I had to finally quit the
>>>> corporate
>>>> world, take a 90% pay cut (actually 100% at first), and try to develop
>>>> this
>>>> basic intuition in all its consequences. With hindsight, the great
>>>> crisis
>>>> of
>>>> 1996-97, when all had gone wrong that could go wrong, had been a true
>>>> 'born
>>>> again' moment in my life, which after a period of restoration and
>>>> maturation, led to the decision to create an autonomous life around a
>>> core
>>>> belief and intuition. Lucky for me, I had by then met my new thai
>>>> wife, a
>>>> continual source of domestic happiness, and when I asked her if she'd
>>>> agree
>>>> with moving back to her home country, answered: don't worry, we will
>>>> always
>>>> have food and shelter, what else do we need Š This was the final go
>>> ahead,
>>>> I
>>>> decided to quit my job by October 2002, taking my wife, new son, my
>>> mother
>>>> with Alzheimer, to Thailand.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  I took a two year sabbatical, consisting of six months of travel
>>>> within
>>>> Europe, six months of studying Thai history and culture at the local
>>>> university and one year of full-time reading, focusing on the long
>>>> haul
>>> of
>>>> history and in particular the phase transition at the end of the Roman
>>>> Empire .. (and finally getting to read the postmodern authors I had
>>> always
>>>> missed out on). In 2005, I wrote my first manuscript on peer to peer;
>>>> by
>>>> 2006, I started the online ecology, gradually introducing the wiki,
>>>> the
>>>> blog, the social bookmarking Š Somehow, though it is not at all
>>>> financially
>>>> sustainable, it seems to have been the good decision, and as the world
>>>> continued to evolve, p2p emerged as more than a marginal effect,
>>>> people
>>>> were
>>>> slowly attracted to the basic ideas of the p2p foundation, and I could
>>>> build
>>>> a community of some type, and this year, a cooperative to achieve some
>>>> type
>>>> of sustainable livelyhood for the precarious researchers which hover
>>>> around
>>>> us Š At home, the experience of my thai extented family, the
>>>> magical-mythical forms of consciousness overlayered with a whiff of
>>>> postmodern capitalism, the 19 cats, 3 dogs, porcupine, birds and fish,
>>> the
>>>> occasional visting monkey ; together with the online network, the
>>>> equipotential cooperation and the lecture tours, give me a quite
>>>> extraordinary relational wealth, not bad for a single child of two
>>>> orphan
>>>> parents Š In some way, I feel like a 'political artist', not that I'm
>>>> particularly creative culturally and artistically, but I have to live,
>>>> from
>>>> my 'creations', sell my performances, and go through the precarity
>>>> that
>>> is
>>>> the lot of most artists and creators ..
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  Anyway, what then, is the p2p foundation, it is really nothing else
>>>> than
>>>> the ambitious attempt to create a new vehicle for the world
>>>> revolution,
>>>> not
>>>> the only one, but hopefully one that can be a positive factor; a
>>> pluralist
>>>> organisation, that does not know the 'answers' but facilitates the
>>> ongoing
>>>> dialogue around those answers, bringing very varied sorts of people
>>>> together
>>>> Š Precisely because of my convoluted past, having touched many
>>>> different
>>>> ideological and lifeworlds, I can bring together on the same table, a
>>>> 'zionic' social economy mormon, a conservative catholic distributist,
>>>> a
>>>> deep
>>>> ecological permaculturist, a unrepentent marxist, a anti-capitalist
>>> 'freed
>>>> market' mutualist, and many other strange manifestations of the human
>>>> desire
>>>> for change. Rather than looking for universal answers, we are looking
>>>> for
>>>> commonality of desire. But this ongoing effort is helped by the
>>>> 'objective'
>>>> changes in society, and by the new class realities of knowledge
>>>> workers.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  I cannot help but be truly convinced that ³p2p² is the chaotic
>>>> attractor
>>>> that we need to reformulate the emancipatory vision that is
>>>> appropriate
>>>> for
>>>> the 21st century. Technology is NOT the change, but it enables
>>>> struggling
>>>> creative minorities to find new ways to outsmart the forces that are
>>>> against
>>>> emancipation and that are presently literally and physically,
>>>> destroying
>>>> our
>>>> biosphere. As the system will increasingly go in crisis mode, these
>>>> struggling minorities will be joined by the desperate majorities, who
>>> turn
>>>> to p2p solutions not out of any idealism, but as the necessary tool
>>>> for
>>>> resilience and survival. The key question then becomes, how do create
>>>> a
>>>> synergy between the new p2p thinking, the construction of new ways of
>>>> life,
>>>> and the mass mobilisations that are the inevitable result of the
>>>> breaking
>>>> of
>>>> the social contracts on which capitalist life was based until now?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  -
>>> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>>>
>>>> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
>>>> http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
>>>>
>>>> Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
>>>> http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> empyre forum
>>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> empyre forum
>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Simon Biggs | simon at littlepig.org.uk | www.littlepig.org.uk
>
> new work email address from August 1 is s.biggs at ed.ac.uk
>
> s.biggs at eca.ac.uk | Edinburgh College of Art
> www.eca.ac.uk/circle | www.elmcip.net | www.movingtargets.co.uk
>
>
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