Another paragraph from the novel-in-progress Grand Meeting of Failures

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The reason art movements were prevalent during the twentieth century is because political movements were prevalent during the same period. Communism, Socialism, Anarchism, Fascism (and in a different way Capitalism and Libertarianism) each had millions of passionate, organized followers who often reformatted their lives around collective practices for bringing their chosen ideology into greater prominence. A battle as to how society should best be organized. Many of the same people who were organizing politically were also organizing artistically. Or knew the people who were organizing artistically. Avantgarde artistic forms were made and fought for in relation to avantgarde political formations. To get out ahead of current artistic practices, and to get out ahead of current political limitations, took place parallel to one another and intertwined. The removal of the Berlin Wall is often seen as a kind of marker, both in time and in relation to tail end of an ideological shift. A moment when capitalism won the so-called Cold War, and Communism was no longer generally seen as a viable option. And, it seems to me, art movements suffered a similar defeat. At the same time, I have absolutely no belief in that way of framing these events. The former Soviet Union was never Communism, or at least wasn’t from the moment Stalin took control. And Capitalism won using only dirty tricks. The dirty trick of assassinating or overthrowing any leaders who didn’t tow the line and the dirty trick of giving certain people temporary “democratic freedoms” in order to dissuade them from amassing enough collective power toward Socialism and Communism, and then removing those freedoms when they were no longer required. Don’t go over to Socialism or Communism, they said, because we have these “democratic freedoms” that make our society so much better than any other, when such freedoms were only part of a temporary propaganda campaign for Capitalism that was never meant to last. Of course, it is Capitalism that is now in decline – perhaps a victim of its own success with no other world system to keep it in check. Unfortunately, Capitalism is now rapidly being replaced by Technofeudalism, or hopefully something better if we can summon the collective political will. Art movements might return if radical politics also returns. If we can once again believe in its possibilities. Those possibilities were once based in the idea of progress, and since progress is a lie, we will need to find another basis. Things do not progress, they go in circles like the seasons. These were all thoughts and questions I had sitting in the back corner of that very large bar, watching all the people who had absolutely no interest in any plans we might be hatching. And our disagreements were also connected to an underlying agreement that something had to be done. Yet we were always arguing about the what, the approach, the strategy, the tactics. Everything was like being up against impossible odds, where the house always wins. We were trying to convince each other to fight for something. We were trying to measure how much solidarity we might spark. How much we could trust and count on one another. It was extremely unclear what our art movement might become.



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