Hermes Quadruplus' Occupation Vacation

A word that's been bouncing around my skull like a slug from a .22 is RECUPERATION. Any of our Situationist friends out there may recognize this term- detournment's insidious flip-side; the assimilation of radical ideas into mainstream consciousness and their devolution into commodifiable forms. I discovered this term while researching the modern artistic phenomenon known as "social practice", and maybe it's like when you buy a Toyota Corolla and then suddenly you begin to notice how many Toyota Corolla's are actually on the road, but I'm seeing the symptoms of this sad technique everywhere. Most recently with the Occupy movement.

That verb is everywhere now. It's reached a level of levity with the millions not actively participating. OCCUPY MY PANTS I saw advertised recently. OCCUPY MORDOR, as well. We've even taken it into fictional zones. Y'know how when you say a word, I dunno, like TREE, over and over again, it eventually loses its meaning and becomes a phonic absurdity? Does everyone remember, say, HOMIE DON"T PLAY THAT? That was the pinnacle of comic expression almost twenty years ago. How about the '60s? I'm not old enough to remember it, but it was full of rose-tinted etherized long-hairs wearing tie-dye, flashing peace signs and listening to my oldies station, right? I mean, that's the image that's bombarded us in the decades since, and these days I see tie-dye adorned with sponsor logos and ornamenting groups of squares on bus-driven tours. The Powers know that the most effective way to ruin anything is to popularize it. The Powers also know that this takes little to no effort on their part. The Public will do all the work. It always does. Pop will eat itself.

We are on the verge of extraordinary times. In fact, we always are. Dick was right about the Black Iron Prison; what he didn't say was that it's imaginary. Less than imaginary - it's a rumor. How long do you think one can chip away at a wall that isn't there? Eternally? As the Occupation (Occupancy?) meets serious mediated opposition, I'd like to encourage my fellow countrymen to acts of spontaneous societal generosity. I'm sharing a link below to a video of one of my "informative performatives" carried out at Occupy Oakland and at the Federal Reserve in San Francisco. It's my nascent attempt at spagyrics, the potential for which, like those Corollas, I'm seeing everywhere. The character of a culture, I've read, is determined by how it chooses to use its excess. This is an exercise in excess behavior (not to be confused with excessive behavior). This is unheralded heraldry, entertaining above and below alike by employment of volatile energy. It is the sulphur, and I am the mercury. Why not? As a child of this earth, which with its moon is the most perfect creation, I can do no wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyKKo7kPRkI