(from that wonderful crew RTMark)
After meeting Iain Sinclair, the author of ‘Hackney that Rose-Red Empire’ at a reading in a book shop in Brick Lane the other day, It rekindled my fledgling interest in Psychogeography. Some years back, I used to be a flaneur (if one can admit to being such a thing). And being a flaneur was the major impetus behind the work Milkbar.com.au :Globalisation and the Everyday City. But that was in Melbourne and Melbourne is a lot more bourgeoisie than the East End of London. So Psychogeography it is! In fact, I was out globe-city-trotting today and found a book on the subject by Mervin Coventry, called Psychogeography (well, admittedly I was in the Saatchi Gallery on the King’s Road checking out the contemporary Muslim art exhibition). And a URL in the back led me to this group called ‘Momocular Times’. And they have published a manifesto from another group called Decadent Action. And it is hilarious in light of the ‘Credit Crunch’ (or what ever crass populist term you want to call it). I think that they have got it right!
They are not around any more, but here is an entry about them on Wikipedia (link).
And here is the Manifesto:
Decadent Action are the man and woman sitting next to you at the cocktail bar, they have money in their pockets and mischief on their minds.
Decadent Action are a High Street anarchist-guerrilla organisation whose main aim is to destroy the capitalist system by a leisurely campaign of good living and overspending. We plan to achieve our aims by making capitalism fall on it’ s own sword. If you neglect and ignore capitalism it will not go away, but feed it to excess for long enough and it will eventually burst.
We use the simple economic principles of supply and demand with their intrinsic link to inflation to establish our theories. The state must control these factors to run the economy efficiently; throw in the wild card of massive irrational overspending on seemingly random luxury goods and the government is unable to take control. This will lead to hyper inflation and large scale social unrest, leading to the collapse of the monetary system and disintegration of the state apparatus.
So how can you get involved in this conspiracy to otherthrow the government without making too much effort or getting your hands dirty? Well the answer is to spend, spend, spend! Get money, spend it, it’s as simple as that. Below we set out ten pointers to help you to become truly decadent and to destroy the monetary system at your leisure.
1. Savings are for losers, when the monetary system collapses your few pounds in the bank will become worthless. Get them out and blow the lot on a night out. We can recommend The Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park Corner in London, The Stannary in Tavistock (Devon) or just choose the best place nearest to you and hit the vintage champagne.
2. Shopping is fun, and you can never have enough designer labels, buy that dress you’ ve been lusting after. The words ‘dry clean only’ are what we look out for, and good quality clothing is available in all major towns and cities. Stylish clothes can get you into all the right (and wrong) places and can help you convince others of your wealth in order to pull a fast one.
3. Government sponsorship is always a nice way to fund a spending spree. This comes in many forms – dole money, business start up grants, blackmail and bribery are all money for nothing. Try seeing how quickly you can blow your dole cheque in a cocktail bar.
4. Never, ever eat chocolate of less than 60% cocoa solids. Ackermans or Green and Blacks is what you should be eating.
5. Credit is the decadent’s friend. It is inflationary, it is free money, it is fun to spend. Credit cards are best, yours or someone else’s. Available now from high street banks, all you have to do is convince them that you can pay it back, piece of piss. When the monetary system collapses your bill will simply disappear. Keep several with you at all times.
6. Shopping without money is an essential part of our plan. See it, like it, have it. Never take no for an answer.
7. Pass on the decadent message at all possible opportunities. We recommend writing, rubber stamping or scalding on bank notes with appropriate pro- consumer slogans such as ‘spend, spend, spend’ and ‘shop now, riot later’.
8. Terrorism and violence against the state can be fun but make sure you get the right tools for the job. Sawn off shot guns are crude and could snag your clothes. In short, if you’re going to shoot a cop – make sure you use a nice gun.
9. Guilt and the morals of the Christian Right have no place in our plans. Get yourself out and buy some smut, get down to your local perve shop and kit out your dungeon.
10. Sort out the right heroes and influences – take a tip from us and spend the day of the next general election in bed with a jug of your favourite cocktail, a Combustible Edison soundtrack and read up on Baader, Meinhoff, Chomsky, Susie Bright, Harry Roberts, Valerie Solanas, Viv Nicholson and troublemakers the world over. The odd few pence on a meagre minimum wage is not our concern when we want to bring the whole system crashing down
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