English-language translation of "Declaration of War," statement concerning John Zerzan's visit to Montreal.

Declaration of War

French original:
http://www.hors-doeuvre.org/dis/2008-05-15.pdf
English translation
http://www.notbored.org/coalition-for-progress.html

The adventure of progress in the anarchist milieu is an arduous fight. Many tendencies have, with the aid of vain theories, disfigured the social project with which we identify ourselves. Political liberalism is not a desirable solution for our problems with coherence. We are persuaded that debate is indispensable for resolving the crisis, that anarchism still cannot be "everything and anything" at the risk of seeing its community make itself definitively directed by the system. The attitude that is refractory to all critique, when coming from a milieu that claims to be critique, constitutes a brake upon progress.

Anarchism is a revolutionary doctrine that has as its objective changing the course of history. Of course we would like a just society that is composed or free and equal beings, a society exempt from alienation and likely to reach happiness in the end. But to adopt a theoretical position of this sort is insufficient when it is a question of a socially acceptable, plastic posture. In this sense, we think that it is inappropriate to present demands to the population without a concrete political programme.

Therefore, bearing in mind socially unfavorable circumstances, the writing of a serious platform seems premature to us. The objective of the Coalition is much more modest than this: to promote progress[1] and reason by ceaselessly attacking the fraudulent ideologies that put obstacles in the way of an efficacious strategy. This necessarily places us in an advantageous position, because our enemies have absolutely no viable objective.

We know from experience that lifestyle[2] contestatory practice is limited in space and time, between private life and carpe diem. The dominant ideology influences all the members of society, and the anarchist milieu is not spared. It flirts with certain ideas that are ready to be sold on the university market. The victims come from the dilated youths, who without friction integrate the rhetorical commodities blowing in the wind. The arrivals are constant. Vegetarianism, Zen, hedonism, consensus, pacificism, question marks. The function of the new indulgences of the free market is the integration of the tranquil revolutionaries via the promotion of the fantasy of autonomy. The individualist must admit that "the distance that one takes with respect to the cog-like movements of the system represents a luxury that is only possible as a product of the system itself."[3]

By declaring war on History and the Left, John Zerzan designates himself as a legitimate target. Like all gurus of sects, he paints an apocalyptic tableau of current society so as to hammer out his edenic thesis, according to which real [la belle] humanity was Paleolithic. His erring ways are visible upon first reading, because his texts stink of intellectual bad faith. Zerzan the individual loves to utilize great authors at his convenience, without regard for what they have actually said and thought. One witnesses a superabundance of citations taken out of context, which allows him to say whatever he wants. We will spare you the details concerning the innumerable errors of formal logic, the occultation of competing sources, and the fallacious interpretations of expert thinkers, without forgetting his esoteric commentaries on the subject of extrasensory awareness of the homo habilis.[4] Johnny the Primitive is an impostor.

The split between theory and practice in the life of Zerzan the individual is terrifying in that no practice can escape from civilization; the weapons of his critique are the product of this very civilization. A lecturer who is opposed to language, a primitivist who takes airplanes, a successful writer against reification. . . . There is much to laugh about. John is only a common bookseller. His production team maintains a cult of personality around him. The cover of his most recent book is significant in this respect: his portrait, retouched by a computer.

In the last instance, it is upon the libertarian community that the responsibility for judging one's threshold of tolerance rests. The relative inertia of the milieu demands a declaration of war, and whack! Here is a unique occasion to define what we are and what we do not want to be. We, anarchists for progress, are in favor of the freedom of association and we refuse to be united in any manner with individualists, primitivists and post-Leftists. Ideological exclusion constitutes the only weapon of any political community founded on reason. We invite you to take a position in your respective groups and act accordingly, notably within the Collecif du Salon du livre, the ultimate anarcho-liberal clique in Montreal.

The war for freedom must be fought with anger![5]

[signed]
The Coalition for Progress in the Anarchist Milieu
[15 May 2008]

[1] The Coalition is aware that the chaotic development of technology in class society is intrinsically that of domination. The bourgeoisie profits from the means of production as it pleases. Each stage of capitalist progress thus reinforces oppression and exploitation, and thus threatens to transform progress into its opposite, that is to say, planned barbarity. Nevertheless, our mistrust of progress is not neurotically at the point of neurotically becoming the fear of Kultur, because we think that humanity is in a position to improve its lot. The proletariat can and must make the communist revolution. That is how the bad days will end. Post-modern intellectuals love to think that henceforth we will live in the age of despair and popular nihilism. [And that] happiness is no longer possible, give up you poor cunts.

[2] Translator: English in original.

[3] Theodor W. Adorno (1951), Minima Moralia: Reflection on Mutilated Life. Editions Payot & Rivages (2003), p. 27.

[4] "One can also consider the shamanistic practice of the ritual to be a regression with respect to the stage in which everyone shares an awareness that today one calls extrasensory." John Zerzan (1994), Future Primitive. Editions L'Insomniaque (1999), p. 54

[5] Translator: quote from Saint-Just, sometimes used by the Situationist International.

(Published in French by Hors d'Oeuvre. Translated by NOT BORED! 19 May 2008. Footnotes by the author[s] except as noted.)