Peter Lamborn Wilson
Communities of Resistance (2/6)
interview with Peter Lamborn Wilson AKA Hakim Bey in his home in May 2009 Part 1 www.youtube.com Part 2 www.youtube.com Part 3 www.youtube.com Part 4 www.youtube.com Part 5 www.youtube.com Part 6 www.youtube.com — Now why is Europe different from America in this respect, I asked many Europeans to explain it to me. The conundrum is, in America, you’ve got 50-60% of the people attend church. In Europe, it’s like 2%. Why this huge difference? So I asked, every time I had a chance to meet an intelligent European, I would ask them, and I finally got some interesting answers, which were not what I expected. I asked this French person once, I said, “Is it the cafe? Is that your social glue?” “No, not anymore, not really.” I said, “Well, what is it?” And he said, “Well, first of all, all European countries are small and they speak different languages. So if you move to a new job, you don’t move 5000 miles away like you do in America. You move 200 miles away, you can still come and see the parents on the weekend, or the cousins, whatever. So the extended family still means a lot more in Europe than it does here. In America, the extended family was broken up long ago, largely by the forces of capital. It’s easy, as someone who grew up in the academic world I know this very well, you get a job offer in North Dakota with tenure track, you go! And if you never see your family, your parents or your cousins again, pffft! That’s life. There’s always e-mail, to stay in touch with e-mail…
Communities of Resistance – Peter Lamborn Wilson Interview
Technology, the triumph of capital, what I call the technopathocracy, the rule of sick machinery, what looked like the absolute triumph of neo-conservative / neo-liberal global capitalism that suddenly, it was no longer possible to even criticize capitalism, suddenly this was just like water or air, now it’s to be a given in our society. And the internet, and other forms of modern communication technology, although most people seem to think that this increases community, in my view, it destroys it. Because community, to me, is based on physical reality, not on communication devices. And when I hear things about the internet community, it just makes me want to puke! It’s like talking about the law enforcement community, which is another favourite phrase of American journalism, as if these are all kindly neighbours lending cups of sugar to each other. This is a fucking armed occupation force! That we pay out of our own pockets — help the police, beat yourself up! And of course, America is at the forefront of this. We started the whole television-automobile-suburban culture, which its alienation, and the fact that you don’t know who you’re living next to. This is not society! This is the breakdown of society. This is atomization…
