A footnote on the rcp=u$a and CIA on art.
Hexbodhi
A footnote on the rcp=u$a and CIA on art.
Quote:
[From Andrea Skybreak of the rcp=u$a] .. Even the "automatic writing"
(essentially "stream of consciousness" writing) of some of the dadaists
and early surrealists-which were, I think, valid social experiments,
testing and probing the limits of "sociality" and individuality of
artistic production and perception and fulfilling a useful function in
the destruction of old and stuffy formalism among other things-even
these writings also revealed their own methodological limitations. And
they revealed the fact that "freshness" in art is after all not
fundamentally dependent on some idealized notion of spontaneity, but on
an ability to consciously "skew" things in new and different
ways-"change the focus," alter and bend perspectives, to provide fresh
views and insights-all of which can only be aided by conscious
reflection and struggle.
Even Jackson Pollock's "drip paintings" were carefully dripped, and
conscious reflection went into the size and shape of canvas used, the
choice of colors, etc. And in a news report concerning a French artist
who produces "snail art" (allowing live snails dipped in pigments to
trace meandering color tracks on a canvas) the artist expressed
frustration at not being able to entice the snails in particular
directions with bits of lettuce!
Thus, I believe that the question of "radical rupture" involved in
proletarian art involves consciously adopting the method as well as the
overall outlook characteristic of the emerging vanguard force in
society, the revolutionary proletariat...
The above is a partial selection from the rcp=u$a draft program
available at http://rwor.org/a/v23/1110-19/1117/skybreak4.htm
Abstract expressionism, cited approvingly as an example of legitimate
social experimentation by Andrea Skybreak of the rcp=u$a, is an example
of a kind of abstract art that became a symbol and expression of
alleged Western freedom; it became an expression of the dominant
ideology of bourgeois society. The CIA and cold war art circles and
institutions like the Museum of Modern Art in New York saw in abstract
expressionism "anti-Communist ideology, the ideology of freedom, of
free enterprise. Non-figurative and politically silent it was the very
antithesis of socialist realism." (1) Despite its apparent lack of
overt political content, abstract expressionism, for example, became a
part of an imperialist culture war. Abstract expressionism was directly
used to attack socialist and socialist influenced art throughout the
world. (2)
Like so much with the crypto-Trots, much of their position on art is an
indirect attack on revolutionary Marxism, and also, the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Their position on art
(http://rwor.org/a/v23/1110-19/1117/skybreak4.htm), while quoting Mao a
couple of times, actually works to undermine the obvious implications
of Mao's position. They basically give Mao-window dressing to
essentially a liberal counter-revolutionary position. In this way, the
rcp=u$a, like the Trotskyists, try to occupy a kind of middle ground
between the Marxist position on art and a straight up liberal position.
In typical rcp=u$a doublespeak, the above claims to uphold science
while at the same time defending everything from snail paintings to CIA
art as legitimate.
Skybreak of the rcp=u$a writes of approvingly of the consciousness
behind Pollock's abstract expressionist drip paintings. There was a
consciousness at work behind abstract expressionism, and specifically
Jackson Pollock. However, the rcp=u$a is wrong in calling it
legitimate; the consciousness behind it was liberalism and even the CIA
and cold warriors controlling the Museum of Modern Art and amerikan art
circles. Abstract expressionism, and Pollock, were part of a CIA backed
culture war to undermine socialist art and socialist influenced art
from China, the Soviet Bloc, and Europe. As early as 1952, cold war
congressman Alfred Barr Jr. wrote an article in the NY Times Magazine
supporting amerikan modern art against socialist realism which he
associated with "totalitarianism." (2) It is a matter of public record
that the CIA financed and even managed the production and promotion of
some of this art which the rcp=u$a approves of. Here are some quotes
from an academic essay by Eva Cockcroft on the subject:
"Especially important was the attempt to influence intellectuals and
artists behind the 'iron curtain.' During the post-Stalin era in 1956,
when the Polish government under Gomulka became more liberal, Tadeusz
Kantor, an artist from Cracow, impressed by the work of Pollock and
other abstractionists which he had seen during an earlier trip to Paris
began to lead the movement away from socialist realism in Poland.
Irrespective of the role this art movement within the internal artistic
evolution of Polish art, this kind of development was seen as a triumph
for 'our side.' In 1961, Kantor and 14 other non-objective Polish
painters were given an exhibition at MOMA. Examples like this one
reflect the success of the political aims of the international programs
of the MOMA. " (2)
Should it really be a surprise to us that the rcp=u$a is promoting the
same art as the CIA? Pollock was used by the CIA as a tool to aid
post-Stalin revisionism in Eastern Europe. Our Chinese comrades
understood that the kind of line that the rcp=u$a promotes in art was a
direct challenge to the dictatorship of the proletariat and the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Our Chinese comrades, at the famous
art conference where Jiang Qing participated, denounced the line
rcp=u$a now holds as Trotskyist. Our Chinese comrades understood that
the life and death struggle for the revolution itself was taking place
in the super-structure. More quotes from Eva Cockcroft's essay:
"..the CIA sought to influence the foreign intellectual community and
to present a strong propaganda image for the United States as a 'free'
society as opposed to the 'regimented' communist bloc." (2)
"...CIA and MOMA cultural projects could provide the well funded and
more persuasive arguments and exhibits needed to sell the rest of the
world on the benefits of life and art under capitalism." (2)
"In the world of art, Abstract Expressionism constituted the ideal
style for those propaganda activities. It was the perfect contrast to
'the regimented, traditional, and narrow' nature of 'socialist
realism.' It was new fresh and creative." (2)
In the last citation, Eva Cockcroft quotes anti-communists writers who
parallel Skybreak's and the rcp=u$a's own anti-communist position.
Skybreak's words (http://rwor.org/a/v23/1110-19/1117/skybreak4.htm) are
almost straight out of the CIA playbook on art. Like the CIA, the
implication running throughout her work is that the proletarian art of
the Soviet Union and China was too narrow and regimented. Then, to top
it all off, she cites approvingly of an artist and style that was in
fact directly a part of the CIA's own culture war. Is the rcp=u$a, like
the CIA, consciously promoting a counter-revolutionary line in art? Or,
did they just blunder their way to their counter revolutionary line and
overt support for CIA artists? Does it matter? This is yet again what
we have been saying, that it is simply impossible to distinguish the
rcp=u$a from the pigs.
(1) Frances Stonor Saunders. "Who Paid the Piper: The CIA and the
Cultural Cold War," Granta Books: 2000 p. 254
(2) Eva Cockcroft. "Abstract Expressionism, Weapon in the Cold War"
from the anthology edited by Francis Frascia. Pollock and After: The
Critical Debate 2nd ed. Routledge NY, NY USA: 2000. p 150-154
Rev Carter
This is a fascinating topic...I've read Saunders' book (cited at the
end of the article).
A key player in this whole mess is Gregory Bateson...ask purple about
him and you'll unleash the floodgates of poo....
I HIGHLY reccommend the Cultural Cold War book, as well as some
additional Church Committee reading as well (pretty easy to find).
-Rev Carter
purple
Bateson is in the W. I. Thompson (1918-45) quadrant of my chart. I knew
Gregory - good guy. I'm still in touch with his daughter.
W.I.T. (Lindisfarne) is cool, too.
But I'm also a friend of Mark Stahlman - the man who gave LaRouche the
MKULTRA/BATESON/LSD/GRATEFUL DEAD riff in the mid-Seventies.
The gap is where the action is!!
The GREAT Bob Dobbs
Rev Carter
A simple cautionary note...
I know who you are...you don't know who i am.
-Rev Carter
Rev. 11D Meow!
"Rev Carter" <rex_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1139375023....@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
teslacoils2006
Hexbodhi
I peruse those gaps occasionally.
It was much to my surprise that my greatest stumbling block to using
the LaRouche organization was my own peers who often snitched on my
reading and internet activities to the higher ups.
The only other approximate allies in my pursuits were 3 youths whose
names were Stanley, Lewis and Peck.
However Lewis became a megalomaniac, Peck ditched town and Stanley is
in a prison known as the outer offices (They retaliated against him for
his rebellious nature)
The one who I thought was my closest friend has been completely changed
and if ever I were thought that the organization were a cult I would
see it in his eyes for they took a bisexual black and graceful witty
internet savvy youth from Philadelphia and turned him into a LaRouchean
automaton in the wasteland known as Detroit.He has completely backed
down on his associations with me and I believe that Steinberg possibly
has something to do with it, as you can remember I became a "Muslim"
for my own personal gain at that time and all the Jewish members of the
LaRouche organization were highly irritated by me because I was
straining there very self-conception of being in that organization.As
rough and un-tactful at times I was in the organization, I did notice
the unsually helpless mind of these youths who would blurt out the most
inappropriate things at the worst time in our field work.I remember a
youth discussing with a Washington, D.C. black professional about the
importance of a classical culture "revolution" then this youth in the
middle of the conversation said the most idiotic and ignorant thing
about Martin Luther King's history as a civil rights leader. I looked
in horror as the continued assault from this barbarous child and
watched the black man storm off in frustration with the complete
asinine rigidity of the kid.
What I noticed about these predatory youth was that they would act
precisely as the personalities that LaRouche explicitly wrote not to be
like i.e. Hobbes, de Maistre, Strauss, Schmitt etc.
I myself thought these kids were simply inverting their hatred of their
lost cause inside the organization and venting it out on the new
members for their personal gain.
What I have learned later is that these tactics are ingrained into the
organizers as a part of a reward system.
What I have noticed is that the most incapable and immoral characters
were given the postitions of authority.
Since learning all this, I have a great aversion to purple talking down
at me like a school child about so-called important "gaps" in classical
education and writers.
Especially when I know the LaRouche-Thompson gap best of all!
My mother being born 34 years before me, half of my family having Latin
(LaRouchean) European heritage and my Grandfathers (the maternal being
a Rosicrucian and the paternal being an English teacher)
I was in raised by Maharishi culture fanatics (my mother became a zen
buddhist after being a Roman Catholic in her teenage years)
How could I not see the LaRouchean-Thompson gap all around me?
My mother's husband was an Italian who taught Karate and named their
first 3 children Ichiban, Niban, and Sanban!
The true "Boomergeddon" is precisely this "LaRouche-Thompson" gap!.
That is the 1968 generation for you!
So what does someone turn into after they have thoroughly rejected both
the LaRouchean and Thompson memes?
As well as the the McLuhan and Kroker memes?
Yep, that is right the Dobbs meme! you said it yourself.
I only dig up the dead bodies (LaRouche, McLuhan, Thompson and Kroker)
when I need to tweak one of my chakras for a particular accomplishment.
I fragment all that shit now, I am going to keep on fragmenting until
the "Hexadic" environment comes in.
Right now I am being "Jewish" about it.
purple
You go, boy!!
The GREAT Bob Dobbs