INTERNET WRITINGS
1996-99
In the mid 1980’s I was system operator of a Computer Bulletin Board (BBS) called FAT for Fine Art Treatise. In the second half of the 1990’s I edited the Internet site "Dayton Ohio’s Industrial Culture Poets" as well as several other sites. Some of these writings overlap with the 33 Performance Art Pieces.
DECLARATION OF THE ARTIST
I am the one and I am not ashamed.
I am the one that stenciled my hand on the cave wall 50,000 years ago.
Yes me, and I am not ashamed.
No, I am not a descendent of the one.
I am the one.
I am the one that saw the relationships between the stones on the wall and the images in my memory.
I am the one that had that creative impulse / thought / bio-electrical connection that caused me to place my own image on the wall.
Yes, I am the one that created.
No. I was not reborn again with each generation.
I am continuous.
The math formula in my mind or genetic trait that matched the images on the wall with the images in my mind and caused me to create a new image on the wall has been continuous for 50,000 years.
I am the one and I am not ashamed.
I am one.
I am continuous.
I am the creator and I am not ashamed.
THE METHOD IS THE MESSAGE
Control, control ..... Reward ...... Give you candy in little kids school ...... Only. If you do as you are told .... You are told "Learn to Count Money".....You are told "Learn Words - Capitalism, Pacifism".... Buy stuff, buy stuff, buy stuff"......First Candy, stickers and stars .... Pavlov Dogs ..... Later you will salivate .... When the capitalist dangle products in front of you ..... You .... Just a pavlovian dog .... Taught to salivate.....Conditioned to consume .... By the control people .... The people you loved .... in little school .....You loved them because you needed them for survival ...... They used you, abused you for their survival ..... Hear the bell ...... Salivating, Salivating ..... Pavlovian Dog ..... The method was the message.
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
(1) Only a person that considers words totally worthless will ever say anything worthless enough to listen to. (2) A poets words live in such a clean abstract world that he can't smell the shit on his fingers. (3) Artist know things that have no names. They are interested in exploring these things. They are not interested in giving them labels. (4) Art is all the things that words cannot define. (5) Words are human like sounds used to define a very limited part of our environment. (6) Words are human like sounds used to define the environment that the fathers encountered. They are not necessarily the environment the children will encounter. Evolutionary law states that only those creatures suitable for the next environment will survive. Therefore, we must forever remain suspect of all words. We must rely upon our senses that are capable of perceiving in real time. These are images, tactile sensations and non-human sounds.
DESTROY THIS PAPER
There are only 450,000 words in the English language. The real absurdity of civilization is that it believes these words are adequate to explain life. They are not. Art is far better suited for truth. As long as Civilizations stress the significance of words over art we will be caught in a low ebb and will never realize our potential to get along as human beings.
Destroy all books and replace them with truth of thought.
Destroy all written laws and replace them with just actions.
Destroy all systems that rely on words for control.
Destroy these words and replace them with a piece of art.
CREATE NEW WORDS
Published in Wright State University’s Nexus, Vol 29, Fall 1993/Winter 1994
All words, in all languages, can only explain things that we already know, or things that our memory already has images or feelings for. Why do you think the kindergarten teacher showed you a red apple when she wanted you to learn the words "red" and "apple"? We were aware of the existence off the red apple but we didn’t know the words red and apple. In fact, our awareness of the red apple was far greater than the words red and/or apple taught us. We were aware of how it tasted, how it felt, how it smelled, how the juice would run down our chin when we bit into it. The conditioning of the words "red" and "apple" by our kindergarten teacher actually dumbed us up. We were a far lesser person for lowering this great juicy thing down to two stupid words called "red" and "apple". Art lets you see the world afresh. As though you were in pre-school. Without a conditioned response. Art makes us aware of all the things we have never been conditioned to accept. Art shows us these things:
Ticude spccef sussea amtdef. Guddife antonble. Picalictd asfmkd.
THE EASTER STORY
What is man's purpose? Man does not have to have a purpose. He only has to be. Therefore, being is his purpose. Notice that "his purpose" came last in the sequence. Notice that "only to be" came first. Therefore, he does not have to know that being is his purpose. He only has to be. I only am. I do not know why. I do not know why not. I do not ask why. I do not, not ask why. I only am. I have asked the question as to how I reached the point of only being and realize that I do not know the answer and realize that I do not want to seek the answer and realize that I do not want to know the answer. For, then my being would have a trivial purpose and I would be confused. By only being, there is no confusion. My being is the same as Nietzsche's prologue to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, In which, I was a child and I was conditioned to accept the norms of the civilization. I later slew the dragon of "Thou shalts" and turned into myself. I again became a child. I am now a child turned into myself. Very few people ever slay the dragon and become a child. I am unable to tell anyone how to again become the child and how to be. I can only show them the trails that I have taken, and perhaps the child will come.
SMOKE – 1996
Scent in the dark forest…different…not like the flowers…not like the fruits…not like the berries…different.
A million years had passed….A hundred thousand was yet to come…My fathers, fathers picked up the fire…and became men…different.
If the Bible had been written BC…It would have been different…A ball of fire would fall…Fall from the tree of knowledge…My fathers fathers…picked up the fire…and became men….different.
Now…No more scent of smoke in the air…No apple…No red fire ball…Now "I"…I hold time in my hand…My children’s, children will be Gods…Different.
The Best and the Worst Stand Up Poet of our Century
Great Stand up poetry is probably not at all what you have been conditioned to believe it is.
Somehow people think great poets are word mathematicians and/or give you a good feeling by playing on your sentimentality.
First we will see what Plato says about the great poet
He says that an ideal state (like there is such a thing) is to follow these instructions when it bans a dangerous (great) poet.
"If any such man will come to us to show us his art, we shall kneel down before him as a rare and holy and delectable being: but we shall not permit his to stay. We will anoint him with myrrh and set a garland of wool upon his head, and send him away to another city."
Plato goes on to say that all great evil comes from a fullness of nature and not an emptiness as we would believe. He defines mediocrity as the evil force in the world.
Who would fit Plato’s definition of the great poet? Jim Jones. He used words so eloquently that he convinced 600 people to commit suicide with him.
We can also define, as a great poet, Cola di Rienzo , a Roman, in the middle of the fourteenth century. He was arrested by the rebels that were about to kill him. He asked for a hearing. He began to sway the people with his speech. An Artisan was afraid of his eloquent speech. Words coming from him were like magic. They were going to sway the rioters to spare him. The Artisan quickly thrust a sword into his stomach. He apparently was not a great enough poet to convince them all to spare him. Still Great he was. Great enough to convince many and scare the Artisan into killing him before he could convince more.
So what is a great poet? One that can use words or other sounds to move the masses or the individual. He is only good if he is dangerous. He somehow understands the psychology of the individual and the group and can use it to make them do as he wishes.
Now does the great poet have to do things that harm the audience or individual? No, and he normally will not. (It actually is only a value judgment based on Christian morals/ethics that Jim Jones hurt his people when talking them into suicide).
The great poet has the capacity to do good or evil (Again good and evil are merely contemporary Christian moral/ethical judgments). In a state of anarchy good and evil will define themselves.
In the end a great poet is a full, rich member of the species. One that is learned enough (knowledge gained through words, sight, touch, smell, taste) to understand his fellow being. He then can use the sound part of our species and environmental influence to manipulate the species.
The greatest poet of our century? Jim Jones.
To better understand a stand up poet we can also ask who is the greatest non poet of our century? There is no question that it is Harry S. Truman. Whereas, Jim Jones killed 600 people with their consent (They actually killed themselves but contemporary culture says Jim Jones killed them) Harry S. Truman vaporized 20,000 plus at Hiroshima and another 20,000 plus a Nagasaki. He did not do it with eye to eye contact. He did not do it with words to the participants (the Hiroshima citizens). He did it with threats of force. (The makers and delivers of the atomic bomb would have been imprisoned or executed had they not done as Truman ordered). He did not do it openly. He used total deceit in communicating with his citizens and the citizens of Hiroshima.
Harry S. Truman was the greatest non poet of our time or might we say the least poet.
ICON OF EVIL
The Swastika reoccurs in my web pages because I was amazed the first time I used it. People had a strong emotional reaction to it. They reacted to this icon in a more powerful way than they reacted to the crucifix or any other icon. I saw it as just representing Jim Jones (the preacher that convinced 600 people to commit suicide in Jonestown Guyana) and his pretending he was Hitler while growing up in Lynn Indiana. I then started asking why? Why such a powerful reaction?
I realized that it was a conditioned response. I realized this because I was not conditioned. I had all the knowledge that the others had about the swastika but I didn't have the powerful emotional reaction. To me it had just represented Nazi Germany during the 30's and 40's.
If this powerful emotional reaction (I actually have seen several people move back away from it when they encountered it unexpectedly) is conditioned into the people then I ask what else is conditioned? There is no need for others to react any differently than I do when confronted with the swastika. Yet they do. It would be absurd not to realize that if we had lost the war then the Stars and Stripes would be the Icon of Evil. You may say, but we did nothing as bad as the Nazi's. Wrong! We, as a governing group of people, perpetrated the single most evil act known to the species. We vaporized 20,000 plus people in an instant at Hiroshima. In an instant! And as though we couldn't believe what we did we vaporized another 20,000 plus at Nagasaki. I concluded that there is far more emotional conditioning by governing forces than we would ever suspect. Our emotions are controlled by governing forces and we don't even realize it. Since I now know how powerful the conditioning is when associated with the visual image of the swastika I use it frequently in my performance pieces to get this hate/disgust reaction from my audience.