Let us admit that we have attended parties where for one brief night a republic of gratified desires was attained. Shall we not confess that the politics of that night have more reality and force for us than those of, say, the entire U.S. Government? Some of the "parties" we've mentioned lasted for two or three years. Is this something worth imagining, worth fighting for? Let us study invisibility, webworking, psychic nomadism--and who knows what we might attain?

if i can't dance

I have a button given to me by my wonderful friend Abby. On it is pictured the anarchist/feminist activist & writer--and TAZ heroine--"Red" Emma Goldman. Above it are her words to live by: If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution. No idle statement--Goldman wrote an early critique of the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution.

Sacrificing pleasure in the name of ideology would repulse Bey; he speaks against killjoys & bluenoses of all natures. Peter Pan's enclave of lost boys would, I think, make a good TAZ, but a better one would be Donkey Island, where Pinocchio finds out what happens to bad little boys. Bey doesn't give a damn about donkey ears, original sin, or pornography's objectification of wo/men. He's just out to have fun.

at play in the fields

This foregrounding of pleasure (jouissance? jubilation, after Bey's use of the word "jubilee"?) is central to an understanding of Bey's philosophy. The Tong does not exist to overthrow the government, per se. The Tong exists to provide enjoyment for its members; Bey's thesis is that the mere attempt participate in unmediated and media-unfriendly enjoyment is a revolutionary act in (too-)late capitalist America.

Sex 'n' drugs 'n' rock 'n' roll, or even just meeting for homemade dinner with friends once a week is to participate in an act of defiance against a society that says (Puritan-like) that fun is not good for the soul and (Big Brother-like) that if one must participate in "fun," one shall do a sanctioned "fun thing." Thus the media attention paid to--the spectaclization of--underground art, drugs, etc. Are we doing your part to the revolution? Are we having fun yet?