0 Introduction

by Joseph Matheny

The last 15 years have been a most formative time for magick. We have seen the rise and assimilation of 'technoshamanism', we have seen cyber-guerrilla and culture jamming tactics co-opted and 'rebranded' as viral marketing. Seth Godin has replaced Joey Skaggs. Is any of this bad news? No. I quote the poet Diane DiPrima, who answered a similar question I posed to her in 1992¹:

JM: It seems to me that rebellion itself has become a commodity, the media has co opted rebellions like rock-n-roll, Dada, Surrealism, poetry, the rebel figure. Do you feel that this co option has succeeded in making rebellion somewhat ineffectual?

DD: No. What your seeing is an old problem in the arts. Everything is always co opted, and as soon as possible. As Cocteau used to talk about, you have to be a kind of acrobat or a tightrope walker. Stay 3 jumps ahead of what they can figure out about what your doing, so by the time the media figures out that your writing, say, women and wolves, your on to finishing your Alchemical poems or something. It's not just a point of view of rebellion or outdoing them, or anything like that. It's more a point of view of how long can you stay with one thing. Where do you want to go? You don't want to do anything you already know or that you've already figured out. So it comes naturally to the artist to keep making those jumps, that is,if they don't fall into the old "jeez, I still don't own a microwave" programs.

JM: Do you feel that there's a somewhat centralized or conscious attempt to defuse radical art or rebellion through co option or is it just "the nature of the beast", so to speak.

DD: I think it goes back and forth. There are times when it's conscious, but not a single hierarchical conspiracy but rather a hydra headed conspiracy. Then there are other times that it doesn't need to be conscious anymore, because that 's the mold, that pattern has been set, so everyone goes right on doing things that way. I'm not quite sure which point we're at right now in history. It's so transitional and crazy that I wouldn't hazard a guess. Just check your COINTELPRO history to see an example of a conscious conspiracy to stop us. Other times it was just a repetition of what has gone on before. Like the ants going back to where the garbage used to be. (laughs)