If we take the net as a metaphor for that global society then it’s inevitable that Coca-Cola and Disney World will take over. Because that is the one world – if the net retains its anarchic quality, its egalitarianism, its horizontal structure, as opposed to its pyramidical structure, then a plurality of different personhoods are possible. True communicativeness, not so much communication as communicativeness, a quality of communication not just a spectacle of communication, with a deep heart to heart or what Sufi called a ‘breast to breast.’ It’s possible the net could be a tool for this, and that is why I have retained some interest in it, though I have become more and more cynical and pessimistic. In as much that the net will be taken over by the Coca-Cola culture, it’s just going to be another medium like all other media. If the net can resist the centralization of capital and the centralization of militarism then it could fight against false globalism for a real solidarity of peoples, but is this going to happen I don’t know.
Hakim Bey
Interview With Peter Lamborn Wilson
Against Multiculturalism
Sometimes i wish Peter Lamborn Wilson didn’t sound so right. But looking around at the state of many societys today this essay still rings very true.
The USA was always supposed to be a “melting pot.” Canada, by contrast, calls itself a “mosaic”, which may explain thy Canadians seem to suffer a kind of long-drawn-out and perpetual identity crisis. What does it mean to be “Canadian” as opposed to (or as well as) Quebecois, Celt, or Native?
In the 1950s the USA was supposed to be immune to such headaches. All cultures would “melt” and fuse into the American character, the main stream. In truth, however, this “consensus” culture was simply English colonial culture with amnesia, and a faded patina of frontier bluster.
Immigrant cultures which resisted meltdown were considered simply abnormal; the Irish, for example, were viewed as savage recalcitrants until quite recently. Of course it was hard to tell if certain cultures remained “outside” because they wanted to or because they were excluded. In the 1960s blacks were identified as an unfairly excluded culture, and steps were taken to absorb them into the mainstream (through school integration for example). Native Americans were still excluded by law, which defines them by blood rather than by culture, and maintains “segregation” by the reservation system. Jews, Hispanics, Asians, each followed their own trajectory toward assimilation or resistance.
By the late 1970s or early 1980s it became obvious that the Melting Pot had somehow failed. Black culture, the test case, now appeared impossible to absorb. The “consensus” was in danger. The Right, with its schizophrenic attitudes toward race and culture, had faltered. A new “liberal” consensus was proposed. It was called multiculturalism.
Cybernetics & Entheogenics: From Cyberspace to Neurospace
Another great essay by Peter Lamborn Wilson in which he attempts to bridge the divide between cyberspace and neruo space accelerated with the use of hallucinogenic drugs.
The term “Neurospace” I learned from the Kiev artist Vladimir Muzehesky, through Geert Lovink. What I immediately thought he meant by it was a comparison of that space which is posited as belonging to the computer with the neural space or the inner-body experience, that comes, for most of us, largely through psychedelic drugs–neurospace as the space of hallucinations, for example. I would like to compare and contrast, as they used to say in school, cyberspace and neurospace. There are similarities and differences.
I remember some years ago, when virtual reality suddenly appeared with a big whizbang on the scene, going to a conference in New York where Timothy Leary, God bless him, appeared with Jaron Lanier and couple of other cybernauts. Tim was wearing the goggles, he was on stage and he said, “Oooh, I have been here before.” So right from the start there was this connection set up between virtual reality and the LSD experience–or as some us prefer to call it “the entheogenic experience,” which is just a fancy way of not using the word psychedelic because it alerts the police. Actually, “entheogenic” means the birth of the “Divine Within.” I am able to use this term that is meaningful for me even though I am not a theist in the strict sense of the word. I dont think you have to believe in God to understand that there can be an experience of the Divine Becoming Within.
Link: Cybernetics & Entheogenics: From Cyberspace to Neurospace
Hakim Bey / Peter Lamborn Wilson Video
Seduction of the Cyber Zombies
The following is a great essay on the internet by Hakim Bey :
The implied question:—does the Net further the purpose of communicativeness, and can it be used as a tool to “maximize the potential of the emergence” of convivial situations? Or does there exist a “paradoxical counterproductive effect” (as Illich would say)? In other words: the sociology of institutions shows that certain systems (e.g. education, medicine) attain a monopolistic rigidity and begin to produce the opposite of their intended effect (education stupefies, medicine sickens). Media can also be analyzed in this way. The mass media, considered as a paradoxical entity, has approached the limit of total image-enclosure—a crisis of the stasis of the image—and of the complete disappearance of communicativeness. The unique structure of the InterNet was considered to be its “many-to-many” patterns, the implication being the possibility of an electronic popular democracy. The Net is an institution, at least in the loose sense of the word. Does it serve its “original” purpose, or is there a paradoxical counter-effect?
Temporary Autonomous Zone by Hakim Bey
The following link is to a full essay called Temporary Autonomous Zone by Hakim Bey aka Peter Lamborn Wilson. Here is the description from wikipedia :
The Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) describes the socio-political tactic of creating temporary space that eludes formal structures of control. The essay uses various historical and philosophical examples, all of which attempt to lead the reader to the conclusion that the best way to create a non-hierarchical system of social relationships is to concentrate on the present and on releasing one’s own mind from the controlling mechanisms that have been imposed on it.
In the formation of a TAZ, Bey argues that information becomes a key tool that sneaks into the cracks of formal procedures. A new territory of the moment is created that is on the boundary line of established regions. Any attempt at permanence, that goes beyond the moment, deteriorates to a structured system that inevitably stifles individual creativity. It is this chance at creativity that is real empowerment.
This is probalbly Hakim Beys best known work and is well worth taking the time out to read.
A intersting side note is that according to wikipedia an audio CD was produced by Bill Laswell of Peter Lamborn Wilson reading excerpts from the book with the music said to feature none other than frequent Laswell collaborator Buckethead.
