A WORLD CAN NOT END THAT HAS YET TO BEGIN

As the Occupy segment of our inspired mission meets its inevitable conclusion, REJOICE!, for we can now move forward into OPERATION VACATE AND DISPERSE. Then we begin WITHDRAWAL. Forgive me, but the localization of our effort was why Occupy was needed, and to avoid infiltration we should've vacated and dispersed a long time ago. I offer this perspective with visions of making proper detournment available to our movement, spontaneous acts of generous subversion, unprecedented and unheralded - ambushes of informed and informative sedition which leave no trail and promise nothing. Admittedly, the recommendation of Prof. Ted Purves's essay BLOWS AGAINST THE EMPIRE lays this idea out pretty well, so to avoid plagiarism I recommend you get your hands on it. Detournment was a word devised for acts of artistic, political or social parody, and Purves realizes that the concept will undergo modern expansion to remain viable. Acts of detournment remain acts of transgression and dissent, but must be modified to react accordingly to the nature of our current location, which is liable to change at any moment. Purves speaks of a political and economic detournment targeting the capitalist system and moving us toward a more socialized and gift-based type of economy. His vision is to create communal bonds in which human reciprocity is an artistic statement and anyone choosing to participate is an artist. This brings to mind a lecture of Joseph Campbell's in which he foretold of an era before us where there is no political or economic climate and where the artists and poets are the sages and leaders of the day. Ted is doing his part in this transmutation, and as we shed the old skins of livelihood, I will do mine, which will be founded in the principles of Art, the one Art and the Art of One. This is alchemical or magical thinking, spagyrics, essential action; separation, purification, cohobation. I am a beginning alchemist; however, I recognize its operation in my past performance works and now remain conscious of it in present ones. I will include an example of one such consciously driven piece from the Occupy sites in Oakland and San Francisco below. Visitation to these sites made me ambivalent towards its prolonged efforts - on each of my four visits to the sites while in California, I witnessed no unification amongst the inhabitants. I wanted to shout at them to DO SOMETHING! DO ANYTHING! SAY A WORD, ANY WORD! Recalling improvisational technique, one can start with even an abstract sound or movement; this is the beginning of the gift-giving process. It needn't be politically motivated. Read a favorite passage from a book aloud, for ---'s sake. Inspire a free-associative series of words or movements. Create strangeness and charm. Hijack the expected. I did see a drum circle or two. However, the individuals involved were each following their own rhythm and cacophony ensued. This is why I decided to give a little, as can be seen in the video. Here I remember Jodorowsky's explanation of what he calls the POETIC ACT: an act of convulsion which facilitates a preponderance of the unexpected. It will be this human ability for imagination that will move us not ahead but beyond. Once we disperse, we may propel ourselves through the ether and land perfectly realized back upon the earth. From there we disseminate what we know - celestial agriculture. It will be our PRESENCE, in itself a very miracle, that will sustain us along our way. This is the secret of the host. Eat, drink; be well and beware.