MENTAL MASTURBATATHON #4
Mental Masturbatathon #4 by Tony Quilietti - a very socialist piece of wank material, concerns the nature of publishing, the alternative revolution and “pushing the agenda”
We exist at the precipice of a new era- leftist movements have been picked apart at and splintered by moderates who’ve unwittingly and unreliably done nothing but give a half effort (barely kinky) slap on the arse to the burgeoning right wing. Kier Starmer, in a bid to win voters who hate him, has yesterday abandoned his integrity and voter base by echoing racists from the past and somehow blaming migrants for the mass of inane-f*ckery that is the United Kingdom. The forthcoming political forecast is a grim one. You don’t have to watch Question Time to know that the status quo has shifted against our favour. People speak openly about senseless racist ideas like the great replacement theory and face little personal consequence. Passivity and “harmless resilience” against the right is worse than mental masturbation, it’s fully self-serving and ego-powered.
At the pinnacle of our problems lies our very own image. Thatcherism & Reaganism did such a sufficient job in demonising the left during the red-scare that we are still dealing with the consequences nearly half a century later. Alongside this, the bourgeois media continues to mystify and distort the image of the left in both the past and present in order to hinder the masses of the people from learning about themselves and of thinking about the alternative. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Chumbawumba and other musical outcasts share this issue with revolutionaries like Fred Hampton, Martin Luther King and even Ché Guevara - they have been filtered into faces and slogans to be sold back to us in ways untrue to their original selves - (see Pistol). This sort of publicity is the life of capitalist culture; without it, liberalism wouldn’t exist.
Capitalism dominates by forcing the majority (whom it exploits) to define their own interests as narrowly as possible. This was once achieved by deprivation (depriving people of knowledge) but is now being achieved by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable, creating an all-pervasive system of Normality. It is this that we have to attempt to confront as leftists and weirdos, despite our limited means. As it seems, the fundamental step in dismantling bourgeois media and the status quo is language, and it is imperative that we start creating unifying signs and symbols within cultural work and beyond that signal safe spaces and recognisable messages for those in the know.
Poster for Cabaret (1972) - it’s important, If you’ve not seen it then watch it, (ideally here)
Everything you have ever known or loved that isn’t a close relative has likely been advertised. Capitalists don’t spend a fortune on adverts for no reason, the most effective adverts don’t even advertise the product at all, but instead something more desirable (e.g fragrance adverts showing a scantily clad woman or a pseudo-fascistic depiction of a “Man”) which, by association, sells the product. If capitalism can sell products using such blatant deception, it should be attempted by us to make socialism and our absurd ways an attractive aim if we give it sufficient thought and effort - even with our limited means. Gigs, events, and club nights all need to have the presence of an agenda, we cannot shut the doors to the outside world and pretend that the stormtroopers aren’t going to start barging in and taking away our brothers and sisters because their genitals do not match the binary status quo - Cabaret is nearly 60 years old for f*cks sake we’ve had this premonition before, don’t let history be cyclical and pass you by like a tidal-wave to a forlorn Australian prime minister,
“There is no room for half solutions. Action and excitement are our only means of long-term survival ”
