In Dadaland, a land of the future, the artists have successfully manipulated cultural climate change so that any human who wakes up one morning and declares, "Hey! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, my wife is cooking bacon! What a great day to go out and start a war!" will find that no matter what he does, war mysteriously never results. No plunder, no pillage, no carpet bombings, no rape of twelve year old girls in front of their parents, no torture, no nukes, no nothing. He goes to the shrink.
"Doc, I am frustrated. I want to be the next Hitler, the next Pol Pot, the next Napoleon, the next Mao Tse Tung. What am I doing wrong?"
The shrink convinces him that he might consider becoming a successful vacuum cleaner salesman like neo-Nazi leader David Duke.
The International Dada Centennial Committee speculates about whether artists will try to blend in with the populace so that no frustrated vacuum cleaner salesman comes to the door, looks around as he makes his spiel, notices paint, easel, and the smell of turpentine, and detonates the suicide bomb hidden inside his sales kit.
"Take that, you...you... you ARTIST!" he screams as he flips the switch. Pieces of vacuum cleaner salesman, artist, arty wife, arty children, arty dog, arty furniture, organic food, tubes of sugar free toothpaste, tubes of paint, all go flying through the shattered walls and out into the neighborhood.
Artists in Dadaland may be well advised to not use oil paint, since the smell of turpentine is a dead giveaway. Also they may be well advised to live somewhere so remote that vacuum cleaner salesmen are unlikely to come. Do not, however dream of Jehovah's Witnesses also being unlikely to come. Rest assured that there is no such place in the Solar System.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
What is wrong with this picture?
Cultural Terrorist is beginning to conceive of the International Dada Centennial Committee as a piece of abstract art. This is fitting, since Cultural Terrorist did, after all, major in abstract art. But if the IDCC is a piece of abstract art, it is not the sort that has squiggles of paint on it. It is composed of actual abstractions...you know... the kind that can not be seen, e.g., Basic Rights, Traditional Values, Non-Basic Rights, Social Justice, Antisocial Justice, Non-Traditional Values, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, Life, Liberty, and the Capture of Happiness, Tall, Dark and Handsome, etc. That said, I will now proceed to do what artists do: look at the piece and ask, "What is wrong with this picture?"
Oh no! It is Shabbes! I am not supposed to do any creative work today! Ah, but, but, but....maybe asking the question "What is wrong with this picture?" is not making art, but merely indulging in art appreciation. Yeah, like the rabbis decided that while one must not compose music on Shabbes, it is okay to play the piano. And while one must not lift 165 pounds, on Shabbes, it is okay to jog your body of that same weight around the track in the interest of living long enough to hear your grandchildren tell you that they wish their father were as nice as you are.
So, we have been exploring the idea of artists becoming the dominant life form on Earth so that they can more effectively manipulate humans into not nuking themselves into oblivion. But, considering the universal corruptibility of Earthly sentient life, one suspects that the main motivation for the artists fostering the continued existence of humans is so that humans will continue to pay artists for their art, or, lacking anyone who wants to buy it, continue to give the artists grants to make art that no one wants to buy. Self interest, in other words.
Ah, but is there any interest that is not self interest? When I was a child, I got twenty five cents weekly allowance. I once tossed the entire quarter into the basket of a blind beggar while accompanying my mother on a shopping trip to Jamaica Avenue. It felt good to give my entire allowance to a blind beggar. So there was self interests involved....you know... making oneself feel good.
So. We are again exploring the idea of artists becoming the dominant life form on Earth. Sweet. The humans look at us and feel resentful that we, putting Dada into practice, manipulate cultural climate change so that human not only do not nuke themselves into oblivion, but actually fight no wars at all. In fact, due to the arcane work of the artist, humans no longer murder, steal, rape, torture....no longer do a great many things humans once believed to be loads of fun.
Do humans have any fun at all? Oh sure. they live much the same as middle class suburbarnites of today. They have loads of fun. In fact, they do not even notice that they are being manipulated by the artists into not committing senseless mass slaughter etc. Oh, but with six billion humans on the planet, surely one or two will notice and start kvetching. You know, like Hitler kvetched about how the Jews controlled everything. I wish. Such a non-murderous people.... don't get me started.
So perhaps the prime directive of Post Human Ethics is Thou Shalt Not Let Humans Know That They Are Being Manipulated By Artists Into Not Committing Senseless Mass Slaughter Because It Will Make Them Feel Bad And Then Come To Your House To Kill You And All Of Us. Is this a sort of forbidden fruit in the middle of a sort of Garden of Eden, tended by a sort of newly created intelligent life form, just waiting for a serpent subtle enough to successfully tempt some Eve to eat and feed her Adam the forbidden fruit? To be continued.
Oh no! It is Shabbes! I am not supposed to do any creative work today! Ah, but, but, but....maybe asking the question "What is wrong with this picture?" is not making art, but merely indulging in art appreciation. Yeah, like the rabbis decided that while one must not compose music on Shabbes, it is okay to play the piano. And while one must not lift 165 pounds, on Shabbes, it is okay to jog your body of that same weight around the track in the interest of living long enough to hear your grandchildren tell you that they wish their father were as nice as you are.
So, we have been exploring the idea of artists becoming the dominant life form on Earth so that they can more effectively manipulate humans into not nuking themselves into oblivion. But, considering the universal corruptibility of Earthly sentient life, one suspects that the main motivation for the artists fostering the continued existence of humans is so that humans will continue to pay artists for their art, or, lacking anyone who wants to buy it, continue to give the artists grants to make art that no one wants to buy. Self interest, in other words.
Ah, but is there any interest that is not self interest? When I was a child, I got twenty five cents weekly allowance. I once tossed the entire quarter into the basket of a blind beggar while accompanying my mother on a shopping trip to Jamaica Avenue. It felt good to give my entire allowance to a blind beggar. So there was self interests involved....you know... making oneself feel good.
So. We are again exploring the idea of artists becoming the dominant life form on Earth. Sweet. The humans look at us and feel resentful that we, putting Dada into practice, manipulate cultural climate change so that human not only do not nuke themselves into oblivion, but actually fight no wars at all. In fact, due to the arcane work of the artist, humans no longer murder, steal, rape, torture....no longer do a great many things humans once believed to be loads of fun.
Do humans have any fun at all? Oh sure. they live much the same as middle class suburbarnites of today. They have loads of fun. In fact, they do not even notice that they are being manipulated by the artists into not committing senseless mass slaughter etc. Oh, but with six billion humans on the planet, surely one or two will notice and start kvetching. You know, like Hitler kvetched about how the Jews controlled everything. I wish. Such a non-murderous people.... don't get me started.
So perhaps the prime directive of Post Human Ethics is Thou Shalt Not Let Humans Know That They Are Being Manipulated By Artists Into Not Committing Senseless Mass Slaughter Because It Will Make Them Feel Bad And Then Come To Your House To Kill You And All Of Us. Is this a sort of forbidden fruit in the middle of a sort of Garden of Eden, tended by a sort of newly created intelligent life form, just waiting for a serpent subtle enough to successfully tempt some Eve to eat and feed her Adam the forbidden fruit? To be continued.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
"Right" and "Wrong."
The last post was entitled "Post Human Ethics." Yet it seems to not deal with the traditional subjects of ethics, which is, roughly, the ideas of "Right" and "Wrong." Instead, it seems to focus upon the problem of resentment and violence against artists who conspire to become the dominant life form on Earth so that they can more effectively continue to trick humans into not committing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields. What has this got to do with ethics?
Well. We have already established that this series of speculations arises from the celebration of the centennial of Dada, the movement that declared that art had failed in its task of civilizing Humans, as evidenced by the senseless mass slaughter on the battlefields of France in WWI. And this movement introduced the idea that artists actually have a task beyond simply getting famous and therefore rich by selling paintings and such. And that this task was to civilize humans into not committing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields. I would like to introduce the perhaps radical idea that "Right" and "Wrong" cannot be separated from "Survival." And "Survival" cannot be separated from "Death." And "Death" cannot be separated from "Senseless Mass Slaughter on Battlefields." So artists who define themselves as the civilizers of humans, by means of preventing mass slaughter on battlefields, and then find them selves in danger of being killed by from those same humans who resent being manipulated into not committing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields or off of battlefields , when asked, "Is senseless mass slaughter 'wrong?'" are very likely to answer 'You bet your ass'. I am not sure what I just said.
Let us now consider the idea that "Right" and "Wrong" cannot be separated from "Survival."
Imagine, if you will, the statement "Abortion is wrong." Change the previous period to an exclamation mark , if you wish. Let us try to separate this idea from the idea of "Survival." I speak here only of survival of entire societies. The reason is that people who tend to say "Abortion is Wrong" tend to be the sort of people who claim that they "believe in traditional values." And the only way a value can become traditional is that it is passed on for so many generations that no one can remember when it first appeared, and the society that passes it on has managed to survive to pass it on. So it is not possible to separate "traditional values" from the survival of a society long enough for the particular value to become "traditional."
So. Back to the separation of "Abortion is Wrong" from "Survival." Time marches on. "We" witness significant numbers of societies come and go and notice that societies that hold to the traditional value "Abortion is Wrong" have a seriously tendency to disintegrate and disappear. And societies that hold to the traditional value "Abortion is Right" have a serious tendency to survive for thousands of years. What does it mean, in this context, to say "Abortion is Wrong?" It means, in part, that we are willing for our society to disintegrate and disappear. Yeah, yeah, I know, "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" is a fallacy. But I still ask the question. Get over it.
So: I am tired. I don't feel like going on with this any more.
Well. We have already established that this series of speculations arises from the celebration of the centennial of Dada, the movement that declared that art had failed in its task of civilizing Humans, as evidenced by the senseless mass slaughter on the battlefields of France in WWI. And this movement introduced the idea that artists actually have a task beyond simply getting famous and therefore rich by selling paintings and such. And that this task was to civilize humans into not committing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields. I would like to introduce the perhaps radical idea that "Right" and "Wrong" cannot be separated from "Survival." And "Survival" cannot be separated from "Death." And "Death" cannot be separated from "Senseless Mass Slaughter on Battlefields." So artists who define themselves as the civilizers of humans, by means of preventing mass slaughter on battlefields, and then find them selves in danger of being killed by from those same humans who resent being manipulated into not committing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields or off of battlefields , when asked, "Is senseless mass slaughter 'wrong?'" are very likely to answer 'You bet your ass'. I am not sure what I just said.
Let us now consider the idea that "Right" and "Wrong" cannot be separated from "Survival."
Imagine, if you will, the statement "Abortion is wrong." Change the previous period to an exclamation mark , if you wish. Let us try to separate this idea from the idea of "Survival." I speak here only of survival of entire societies. The reason is that people who tend to say "Abortion is Wrong" tend to be the sort of people who claim that they "believe in traditional values." And the only way a value can become traditional is that it is passed on for so many generations that no one can remember when it first appeared, and the society that passes it on has managed to survive to pass it on. So it is not possible to separate "traditional values" from the survival of a society long enough for the particular value to become "traditional."
So. Back to the separation of "Abortion is Wrong" from "Survival." Time marches on. "We" witness significant numbers of societies come and go and notice that societies that hold to the traditional value "Abortion is Wrong" have a seriously tendency to disintegrate and disappear. And societies that hold to the traditional value "Abortion is Right" have a serious tendency to survive for thousands of years. What does it mean, in this context, to say "Abortion is Wrong?" It means, in part, that we are willing for our society to disintegrate and disappear. Yeah, yeah, I know, "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" is a fallacy. But I still ask the question. Get over it.
So: I am tired. I don't feel like going on with this any more.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Post Human Ethics
Cultural Terrorist has apparently been hibernating. In the interim, he has realized that the very small number of people who have looked at his blog make it an excellent venue for writing things that he does not want anyone to see. I am not talking about weird sexual fantasies or anything so predictable. I am talking about Post Human Ethics.
In a previous post, we considered the notion that, in the distant future (the word "future," no longer in current use, may be roughly translated as "going forward") , when artists become so good at engineering cultural climate change that they consider themselves a superior life form, they then refuse to date non-artists and become thereby so genetically different from humans that they actually are a different life form, in the conventional sense of the term. That is to say they are no longer able to interbreed with humans and produce fertile offspring. We also considered the notion that humans, now feeling depressed over no longer being the most highly evolved form of life, as well as over being consistently manipulated by the artists, rebel by refusing, en masse, to reproduce at all and go extinct, leaving artists, with no one to support them, alone to learn to hunt, gather, and make their own beer. A problem I see with this is that now that I have mentioned it, the artists will try to prevent the voluntary extinction of their human benefactors by being very, very nice to them. This is the field of Post Human Ethics. It applies to that period of time before humans go extinct, and planet Earth hosts two sentient species, Homo Sapiens and Homo Artificialis, each eying the other with suspicion.
That said, the first specific instance of the problem of humans feeling depressed about being manipulated by artists via engineered cultural climate change is right here: If any non artists read this, they may feel depressed just from the speculations about their future as a sort of domesticated herd of highly intelligent beasts, roaming "Pasture Earth," getting up early, going to school and job, maintaining industrial production of enormous amounts of largely unneccesary goods and services, taking orders from idiots, and prevented from nuking each other into oblivion by their domesticaters, the all mighty artists. So Post Human Ethics must be researched and developed right away. One never knows when the humans will do something drastic after reading this, like killing off all the artists before it is too late. Stranger things have happened. And the first solution to this problem is right here: all communications about the virtual conspiracy to make artists the dominant life form on Earth must take place in venues that humans almost never look at, e.g., this blog. EUREKA!
In a previous post, we considered the notion that, in the distant future (the word "future," no longer in current use, may be roughly translated as "going forward") , when artists become so good at engineering cultural climate change that they consider themselves a superior life form, they then refuse to date non-artists and become thereby so genetically different from humans that they actually are a different life form, in the conventional sense of the term. That is to say they are no longer able to interbreed with humans and produce fertile offspring. We also considered the notion that humans, now feeling depressed over no longer being the most highly evolved form of life, as well as over being consistently manipulated by the artists, rebel by refusing, en masse, to reproduce at all and go extinct, leaving artists, with no one to support them, alone to learn to hunt, gather, and make their own beer. A problem I see with this is that now that I have mentioned it, the artists will try to prevent the voluntary extinction of their human benefactors by being very, very nice to them. This is the field of Post Human Ethics. It applies to that period of time before humans go extinct, and planet Earth hosts two sentient species, Homo Sapiens and Homo Artificialis, each eying the other with suspicion.
That said, the first specific instance of the problem of humans feeling depressed about being manipulated by artists via engineered cultural climate change is right here: If any non artists read this, they may feel depressed just from the speculations about their future as a sort of domesticated herd of highly intelligent beasts, roaming "Pasture Earth," getting up early, going to school and job, maintaining industrial production of enormous amounts of largely unneccesary goods and services, taking orders from idiots, and prevented from nuking each other into oblivion by their domesticaters, the all mighty artists. So Post Human Ethics must be researched and developed right away. One never knows when the humans will do something drastic after reading this, like killing off all the artists before it is too late. Stranger things have happened. And the first solution to this problem is right here: all communications about the virtual conspiracy to make artists the dominant life form on Earth must take place in venues that humans almost never look at, e.g., this blog. EUREKA!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
clever, clever.
Cultural Terrorist thought he was just sooooooooo clever and original when he chose to call himself Cultural Terrorist, because who in their right mind would do this and risk alerting the FBI and the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security that he calls himself a terrorist and having them show up on his doorstep with handcuffs and getting his picture on Fox News and embarrassing his daughter to the point of changing her name before she is even married.
?
But NooooooOOOOOOooooo! Turns out that when one googles "cultural terrorist," there are 6,610,000 freaking results, including people calling themselves cultural terrorists, and one calling George Bush a cultural terrorist and another calling Barack Obama a cultural terrorist. I am a firm believer in false humility, but the real kind is still not fun.
?
But NooooooOOOOOOooooo! Turns out that when one googles "cultural terrorist," there are 6,610,000 freaking results, including people calling themselves cultural terrorists, and one calling George Bush a cultural terrorist and another calling Barack Obama a cultural terrorist. I am a firm believer in false humility, but the real kind is still not fun.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The History of Dada
1. In August, 1914, the senseless mass slaughter began on the battlefields of Europe.
2. Some artists got disgusted.
3. Some disgusted artists went to neutral Switzerland to sit and drink beer.
4. They declared that art had failed in its task of civilizing humans as evidenced by the senseless mass slaughter on the battlefields.
5. They wrote manifestos that declared that they were going to give up on art and produce anti art instead.
6. The anti art began to sell.
7. Anti art evolved into Surrealism and this, too began to sell.
8. Meanwhile, Communists took over Russia and promised to bring eternal peace and an end to senseless mass slaughter.
9. Then the war was over.
10. The Dada artists all joined the Communist Party and forgot all about anti art and senseless mass slaughter.
11. In 2009, a blogger called Cultural Terrorist started the International Dada Centennial Committee to celebrate the birth of anti art.
12. In 2014, Cultural Terrorist was so famous from the International Dada Centennial Committee that people paid big bucks for his paintings and sculptures as fast as he and his assistants could crank them out.
13. Cultural Terrorist was, by that time, 65, and so rich that he forgot about anti art and senseless mass slaughter.
14. In 2114, the International Dada Bicentennial Committee organizes the celebration of the birth of anti art among the survivors and descendants of survivors of the senseless mass slaughter of the third World War that had been started many years before by the Korean Communist Party.
15. This time the artists decide to get serious about preventing senseless mass slaughter.
16. They research and develop methods of directly stimulating the brain to produce the sensation of seeing great art without actually looking at any great art.
17. The artists get so rich from this that they get snobby and refuse to date non artists.
18. By 3014, artists are so genetically different from humans, that they can no longer interbreed.
19. Humans realize that they are no longer the most highly evolved life form and get very depressed about this and about being controlled by the artists.
20. Humans begin to refuse to reproduce.
21. By 4014, Humans go extinct.
22. The artists are on their own. They have to learn to hunt and gather and farm and make their own beer.
23. Oh well, at least there is no senseless mass slaughter.
24. Yet.
2. Some artists got disgusted.
3. Some disgusted artists went to neutral Switzerland to sit and drink beer.
4. They declared that art had failed in its task of civilizing humans as evidenced by the senseless mass slaughter on the battlefields.
5. They wrote manifestos that declared that they were going to give up on art and produce anti art instead.
6. The anti art began to sell.
7. Anti art evolved into Surrealism and this, too began to sell.
8. Meanwhile, Communists took over Russia and promised to bring eternal peace and an end to senseless mass slaughter.
9. Then the war was over.
10. The Dada artists all joined the Communist Party and forgot all about anti art and senseless mass slaughter.
11. In 2009, a blogger called Cultural Terrorist started the International Dada Centennial Committee to celebrate the birth of anti art.
12. In 2014, Cultural Terrorist was so famous from the International Dada Centennial Committee that people paid big bucks for his paintings and sculptures as fast as he and his assistants could crank them out.
13. Cultural Terrorist was, by that time, 65, and so rich that he forgot about anti art and senseless mass slaughter.
14. In 2114, the International Dada Bicentennial Committee organizes the celebration of the birth of anti art among the survivors and descendants of survivors of the senseless mass slaughter of the third World War that had been started many years before by the Korean Communist Party.
15. This time the artists decide to get serious about preventing senseless mass slaughter.
16. They research and develop methods of directly stimulating the brain to produce the sensation of seeing great art without actually looking at any great art.
17. The artists get so rich from this that they get snobby and refuse to date non artists.
18. By 3014, artists are so genetically different from humans, that they can no longer interbreed.
19. Humans realize that they are no longer the most highly evolved life form and get very depressed about this and about being controlled by the artists.
20. Humans begin to refuse to reproduce.
21. By 4014, Humans go extinct.
22. The artists are on their own. They have to learn to hunt and gather and farm and make their own beer.
23. Oh well, at least there is no senseless mass slaughter.
24. Yet.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Cultural Terrorist lies awake at night, feeling guilty that he harbors secret wishes for a new Great War to sweep away the tired old thought and behavior patterns of the 20th century as a hundred years ago artists and intellectuals looked forward to the first Great War. People will die in this new Great War, some slowly. Cultural Terrorist is superstitious enough to think his secret wish for this new Great War will be his fault and people see his secret written on his forehead and will point fingers at him when it starts. Now that North Korea has tested its bomb, he is more worried about this than ever. He has decided to try to prevent this new Great War that sweeps away the tired old 20th century by sweeping it away himself. Hah!
How to sweep away the tired old thought and behavior patterns of the 20th century: These tired old patterns are all around us. They are like pyramids of oranges at a produce stand that depend on no obnoxious little boys sneaking up and knocking the bottom corner orange off and sending the whole thing crashing to the ground. Given enough time, the obnoxious little boy will come along. The fruit vendor is a nervous wreck because he knows this.
One of my favorite tired old ideas is Equality. Equality is a pyramid of oranges dependent on everyone pretending that they do not know what they all know. What they all know is this: Equality Sucks. How do we know that they know this? We simply remember the old cartoon in Playboy where the naked guy in bed with two naked girls kissing him is saying into the telephone, "Of course I love you. I love everybody." No one would agree to wedding vows that promise to love each other equally with all 6 billion other human beings. And children whose parents treat them equally with all other children will grow up to be mass murderers.
Equality Sucks. Tolerance Sucks. I hate tolerance. Intolerance makes me feel alive. I am intolerant of many things. I am intolerant of Rapists. I am intolerant of Nazis. I am intolerant Cruelty to Animals. I am intolerant of people who would tolerate me if I were a Nazi rapist who throws cats off the roof. Tolerance is a pyramid of oranges. I hope we can sweep it away without a new Great War.
Equality Sucks. Tolerance Sucks. Social Justice Sucks. Social Justice is the basic right to other people's stuff. It is a pyramid of oranges, just trembling in its boots for fear that some one in the room will point this out.
Equality Sucks, Tolerance Sucks, Social Justice Sucks, and Jobs Suck. Jobs are a pyramid of oranges. The whole civilization is dependent on no one pointing out that a job is where you get up when you want to be in bed, you produce goods and services that no one really needs and you take orders from idiots. No one really wants a job. They claim they want a job and some claim they actually have a right to a job, but the truth is we all hate jobs. We are made to hunt and gather and sit on the beach with a cold beer.
To be continued, hopefully on a day when Cultural Terrorist got up on the right side of the bed.
How to sweep away the tired old thought and behavior patterns of the 20th century: These tired old patterns are all around us. They are like pyramids of oranges at a produce stand that depend on no obnoxious little boys sneaking up and knocking the bottom corner orange off and sending the whole thing crashing to the ground. Given enough time, the obnoxious little boy will come along. The fruit vendor is a nervous wreck because he knows this.
One of my favorite tired old ideas is Equality. Equality is a pyramid of oranges dependent on everyone pretending that they do not know what they all know. What they all know is this: Equality Sucks. How do we know that they know this? We simply remember the old cartoon in Playboy where the naked guy in bed with two naked girls kissing him is saying into the telephone, "Of course I love you. I love everybody." No one would agree to wedding vows that promise to love each other equally with all 6 billion other human beings. And children whose parents treat them equally with all other children will grow up to be mass murderers.
Equality Sucks. Tolerance Sucks. I hate tolerance. Intolerance makes me feel alive. I am intolerant of many things. I am intolerant of Rapists. I am intolerant of Nazis. I am intolerant Cruelty to Animals. I am intolerant of people who would tolerate me if I were a Nazi rapist who throws cats off the roof. Tolerance is a pyramid of oranges. I hope we can sweep it away without a new Great War.
Equality Sucks. Tolerance Sucks. Social Justice Sucks. Social Justice is the basic right to other people's stuff. It is a pyramid of oranges, just trembling in its boots for fear that some one in the room will point this out.
Equality Sucks, Tolerance Sucks, Social Justice Sucks, and Jobs Suck. Jobs are a pyramid of oranges. The whole civilization is dependent on no one pointing out that a job is where you get up when you want to be in bed, you produce goods and services that no one really needs and you take orders from idiots. No one really wants a job. They claim they want a job and some claim they actually have a right to a job, but the truth is we all hate jobs. We are made to hunt and gather and sit on the beach with a cold beer.
To be continued, hopefully on a day when Cultural Terrorist got up on the right side of the bed.
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