Declaration

[www.eskimo.com/~telical/]

DECLARATION OF WAR
of the Virtue Resistance 31 October 1997

We, the members of the Virtue Resistance, hereby announce our
opposition to the Terror, and our intention to fight its destructive
effects with the constructive weapon of Virtue Art.

By "the Terror", we refer to the Modern era and its monster machine of
Nihilism, which has been slowly but steadily waging war against all
that is beautiful and good. This relentless machine that we call
Modernity, which was birthed by the Renaissance and came of age with
the so-called "Enlightenment" and the Industrial Revolution, rests on
the pillars of Humanism, Rationalism, Science, and Technology. This
machine is driven by a fuel called Progress, a blind progress that must
be advanced at all costs -- even the ruination of individuals,
societies, and nature itself. But perhaps the most profound effects of
this machine have been suffered at a more intangible level. For the
Terror of Modernism has undermined our very humanity. Where once we
were fallen yet beautiful creatures created in the image of God; now we
are mere animals, or perhaps even worse, machines. The machine, that
god of the Modern age, has re-created us in its own image - - indeed,
has re-created the whole world in its image -- and has subjugated us
and the rest of nature to itself. Along with our humanity, the Terror
has stolen our faith, and therefore deprived us of ultimate meaning. In
the 20th century we have found ourselves in an empty, absurd universe,
our existence devoid of purpose. We ask, Is this progress? To slowly
deconstruct all that once gave our lives significance? We think not.
The falseness of the Modern era is apparent in the destruction that it
causes, whether it be the destruction of the environment, of
traditional cultures, of simpler ways of life, of spirituality, or the
destruction of human beings in mechanized wars and genocides.

In modern art, we see this mad rush of "progress" dramatically enacted
in the rapidly evolving -- or should we say "devolving" -- world of
20th century art. Art, which before had been about Beauty, became
divorced from this most fundamental concept, and therefore plunged into
a severe identity crisis that has all but led to its suicide. In the
last century, we have seen art become increasingly reductionistic,
systematically deconstructing itself into a merely self- referential
project. Art, in short, has found itself stuck in an adolescent,
masturbatory stage, in which the social responsibility of the artist
has been all but abandoned, and in which the desire to shock has become
a higher priority than the desire to benefit others with one's work. We
assert that artists, like it or not, must accept the responsibility of
that office in our society, and it is our intention to set a positive
example in this respect by creating art that is more responsible and
mature, as well as more truly creative and constructively experimental
than much of contemporary art.

To achieve these ends, we have chosen to adopt the aesthetic theory of
Virtuism, as set forth by Robert Pearson in the Virtuist Manifesto, as
our principal philosophy of art. In adhering to this philosophy. we
believe that Art is inseparable from Beauty: and furthermore, that
beauty is inseparable from Goodness, or Virtue. It is no coincidence
that modern art has abandoned both. Our project must not be seen as
reactionary or naive -- on the contrary, Virtuism is on the other side
of realism from naivete, and aims to be more truly progressive than
most modern art. It can be said that Virtuism, unlike much of
contemporary art, is truly Post- Modern; for rather than following
Modernism to the absurdity that is its logical conclusion, we intend to
abandon the burning wreckage of Modernism altogether, and to set off in
a new, saner direction, to explore new potentialities, possibilities,
and futures for Art. And, far from being naive, Virtuism emerges on the
far side of Modernity's holocaust. We seek to rise above the ashes of
the Modern age, wherein lies all the cynicism, pessimism, nihilism,
disillusionment, and negativity of our times, and to discover a new
innocence -- a goodness and a beauty that has not been annihilated by
the machine, indeed cannot be annihilated, because it is more powerful
and more true. We choose not to give in to defeat and despair, but
rather to learn from the tragedy of Modernity a deeper appreciation for
the value of all that is good, and to reaffirm it. This affirmation of
innocence, beauty, and meaning in the face of nihilistic destruction is
a powerful and beautiful thing. We see this as the potential power and
beauty of Virtuism

The Virtue Resistance is a resistance of Virtue against Terror. This
Terror is caused by the ethic of selfishness preached by the Modern
age, which, although it proclaims freedom of the individual, actually
results in the "terrorization of the individual" (Pearson). This
Virtue, on the other hand, is rooted in the ethic of selfless love
preached by an ancient Faith, which, although derided by some as "slave
morality", actually leads to the true liberation of the individual.

We, the members of the Virtue Resistance, hereby declare war against
the Terror, and pledge to resist the advances of the machine with the
very innocence, beauty, and goodness it thinks it can destroy. We will
fight with the power of fairytales to free the slaves of Modernity, and
with the power of children's scribbled drawings and happy songs to
release the prisoners of the dark labyrinth, like a reverse pied piper.
We defy the Terror and stand for everything that it is against. We
will fight its destruction with creation, and its negation with
celebration. We will fight its cruel, nihilistic lies with the truth of
children's dreams, and its acts of desolation by planting flowers in
its wake. So, brothers and sisters of the Resistance, arm yourselves
with fairytales, happy songs, crayons, scary toys, and above all the
power of innocence -- and fight the Terror!

With love,

the members of the Virtue Resistance

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