“We Need a Culture of Revolt Against This Revolting Culture!”
May 16, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a Revolution Club member in NYC
Look, we need a radically different kind of world, one where the culture actually lifts us up, challenges us, inspires us, enriches our hearts and minds, and fosters a whole different kind of morality, where human beings treat each other with mutual respect. Radically different from what exists today, in the main at least, with so much revolting shit: all this degradation and straight-up dehumanization of women in music and the ever more vicious pornography; all this “get mine” and “get money” bullshit mixed together with this American chauvinism... all of this resting on a foundation of the blood and bones of exploited and oppressed people of the world.
On the night of May 6, 2016, the NYC Revolution Club hosted an open mic night entitled “Future People Open Mic” with the theme of “Rebellion.” We built for it with the poem on this page. This open mic was part of fighting for that radically different ethos, or as Bob Avakian has put it, “a culture of radical opposition,” as a necessary part of building a movement for revolution. Without a real liberating culture, drawing from real-world experience, while at the same time inspiring people to imagine a world beyond what is, we will never make a revolution, and get to a communist world without all forms of exploitation and oppression. At the same time, we need to give space to people who do not necessarily agree with the need for revolution and communism, but want to contribute their artistic expressions to the movement, and work together with revolutionaries, and others, who do want a different kind of world.
The night itself put forward a vision of “future people” in an important and beginning way, really representing what is out there in society, with the youth especially, but at the same time pointing to a whole other way. A young Black student performed a poem rejecting all the ways men are trained in this society to “be a man.” A young woman, who mobilized her church congregation for Rise Up October, performed a song/poem about her own process of learning to love herself, becoming a critical thinker, and rejecting the ways women are taught to hate themselves. Two high school youths performed poems combining love with scientific terminology, which was so sweet and clever! An ex-prisoner, who spent more than half of his life in prison and came out a revolutionary, shared some personal experience and read a poem which reflected his thirst for knowledge of past revolutions, and his deep appreciation for Bob Avakian. A Revolution Club member performed an original piece called “Ahmed Muhammad,” about the youth who was arrested for building a clock. Overall, the theme of “Rebellion” was expressed in many thoughtful and diverse ways throughout the evening.
The night ended with another Revolution Club member reading two quotes by Bob Avakian on art and culture from BAsics (which appear on this page). One of the quotes gave a vision of the kind of liberating culture we could have in a revolutionary society, in contrast to today’s putrid one; and the other quote more emphasized the need to build today a culture of revolt and get it way out there in society, as part of building a movement for revolution. The club member challenged people to get more into this, to get with the Revolution Club, to be those “Future People” starting today.
The whole open mic experience, with people coming together on the basis of opposing this putrid culture and opening up, mixing it up, and embracing each other’s differences while getting exposed to a whole revolutionary outlook, marked a very important beginning. We need more!
A genuinely radical, liberating revolt—as opposed to a reactionary 'rebranding' and celebration of parasitism—must be fostered among the youth in today's conditions, a revolt within which the need is powerfully raised for a new society and a new world, which will move to eliminate the urban/suburban contradiction, and antagonism, in the context of the transformation of society, and the world, overall and the abolition of profound inequalities and divisions—opposing, overcoming and moving beyond the parasitism which is such an integral and indispensable part of the operation and dynamics of imperialism, and has reached such unprecedented heights in 'late imperial America.' In short, we need, in today's circumstances, a counter-culture that contributes to and is increasingly part of building a movement for revolution—in opposition to a counter-revolutionary culture. We need a culture of radical opposition to the essence of everything that is wrong with this society and system, and the many different manifestations of that; we need an active searching for a radically better world, within which revolution and communism is a powerful and continually growing pole of attraction.
Bob Avakian, BAsics 3:24
Let's imagine if we had a whole different art and culture. Come on, enough of this "bitches and ho's" and SWAT teams kicking down doors. Enough of this "get low" bullshit. And how come it's always the women that have to get low? We already have a situation where the masses of women and the masses of people are pushed down and held down low enough already. It's time for us to get up and get on up.
Imagine if we had a society where there was culture—yes it was lively and full of creativity and energy and yes rhythm and excitement, but at the same time, instead of degrading people, lifted us up. Imagine if it gave us a vision and a reality of what it means to make a whole different society and a whole different kind of world. Imagine if it laid out the problems for people in making this kind of world and challenged them to take up these problems. Imagine if art and culture too—movies, songs, television, everything—challenged people to think critically, to look at things differently, to see things in a different light, but all pointing toward how can we make a better world.
Imagine if the people who created art and culture were not just a handful of people but all of the masses of people, with all their creative energy unleashed, and the time were made for them to do that, and for them to join with people who are more full-time workers and creators in the realm of art and culture to bring forward something new that would challenge people, that would make them think in different ways, that would make them be able to see things critically and from a different angle, and would help them to be uplifted and help them to see their unity with each other and with people throughout the world in putting an end to all the horrors that we're taught are just the natural order of things. Imagine all that.
Bob Avakian, BAsics 2:8
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