Silly Thinking

Here is the Portland Surrealist Group's Response to the War:

Imprisoned in an everyday cage, neither our bodies nor our minds are free in any real sense. We have lost our power to a parasitic society. Working for bosses, landowners, national and global elites, we have been conquered by an authoritarian structure that cannot meet the fundamental human needs of passion, peace, and freedom. The price of mere existence continues to rise, with millions homeless, and those who are not obedient guaranteed space in prison cells or cemeteries. The corporate media won’t mention it, but we have become trapped in a dichotomy of working and consuming, as the values of Christian capitalism force us to choose between survival without real life, or real life without survival.

At this moment, the United States government, under the Bush regime, seeks to literally rule the world, spreading these values by coercion, with its economic big stick and hair-trigger militarism. We are told that Islamic fascists are the enemy, but how easily governments forgive their own past and its consequences, while using the terrorist label to discredit any opposition to their own imperial plans. The greed-driven oil industry and corporate globalization demand no less.

We realize the callous stupidity of a system that allows those like Bush to rule, and advocate the complete annihilation of that system. With only our labor power to give, the working class, in its widest sense, can achieve this annihilation through collective revolt. Mass occupations of buildings, land, and essential workplaces combined with neighborhood assemblies and community self-defense alliances could make a difference. The formation of mutual aid networks could replace our dependence upon capitalism for meeting survival needs. A rent and work strike alongside an oil boycott might become dangerously motivating.

The conditions of existence must be reclaimed on every level. This includes reinventing the means of production and restoring full communication between people, the natural world, and themselves. Breaking the fangs of capitalism would open the doors for recreating everyday life, with abundant gardens and reforested cities. The elimination of corporate, religious and other social conditionings would unleash a society where desire and the imagination could help establish a poetic future. In this sincere and humane community we would be free to create and manage our own affairs, as unique beings in a collective adventure.

If the Marvelous sought by surrealism is to fully materialize, a revolt as deep as our dreams is essential. We will dream together!



NEITHER YOUR WAR NOR YOUR PEACE!


The Portland Surrealist Group

March 2003