178 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
178 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
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Another reprint from the booklet "Radio Sermonettes" (new essays
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by Hakim Bey). Please reproduce and disseminate freely.
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The Tong
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"The mandarins draw their power from the law; the people, from the
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secret societies." (Chinese saying)
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Last winter I read a book on the Chinese Tongs (*Primitive Revolutionaries
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of China: A Study of Secret Societies in the Late Nineteenth Century*, Fei-
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Ling Davis; Honolulu, 1971-77):--maybe the first ever written by someone
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who *wasn't* a British Secret Service agent!--(in fact, she was a Chinese
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socialist who died young--this was her only book)--& for the first time I
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realized *why* I've always been attracted to the Tong: not just for the
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romanticism, the elegant decadent chinoiserie decor, as it were--but also
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for the form, the structure, the very essence of the thing.
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Some time later in an excellent interview with William Burroughs in
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*Homocore* magazine I discovered that he too has become fascinated with
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Tongs & suggests the form as a perfect mode of organization for queers,
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particularly in this present era of shitheel moralism & hysteria. I'd agree,
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& extend the recommendation to *all* marginal groups, especially ones
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whose jouissance involves illegalism (potheads, sex heretics,
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insurrectionists) or extreme eccentricity (nudists, pagans, post-avant-garde
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artists, etc., etc.).
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A Tong can perhaps be defined as a mutual benefit society for people with
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a common interest which is illegal or dangerously marginal--hence, the
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necessary *secrecy*. Many Chinese Tongs revolved around smuggling &
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tax- evasion, or clandestine self- control of certain trades (in opposition to
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State control), or insurrectionary political or religious aims (overthrow of
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the Manchus for example--several tongs collaborated with the Anarchists
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in the 1911 Revolution).
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A common purpose of the tongs was to collect & invest membership dues
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& initiation fees in insurance funds for the indigent, unemployed, widows
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& orphans of deceased members, funeral expenses, etc. In an era like
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ours when the poor are caught between the cancerous Scylla of the
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Insurance Industry & the fast-evaporating Charybdis of welfare & public
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health services, this purpose of the Secret Society might well regain its
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appeal. (Masonic lodges were organized on this basis, as were the early &
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illegal trade unions & "chivalric orders" for laborers & artisans.) Another
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universal purpose for such societies was of course conviviality, especially
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banqueting--but even this apparently innocuous pastime can acquire
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insurrectionary implications. In the various French revolutions, for
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example, dining clubs frequently took on the role of radical organizations
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when all other forms of public meeting were banned.
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Recently I talked about tongs with "P.M.," author of *bolo'bolo*
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(Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Series). I argued that secret societies are
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once again a valid possibility for groups seeking autonomy & individual
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realization. He disagreed, but not (as I expected) because of the "elitist"
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connotations of secrecy. He felt that such organizational forms work best
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for already-close-knit groups with strong economic, ethnic/regional, or
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religious ties-- conditions which do not exist (or exist only embryonically)
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in today's marginal scene. He proposed instead the establishment of
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multi-purpose neighborhood centers, with expenses to be shared by
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various special- interest groups & small-entrepreneurial concerns
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(craftspeople, coffeehouses, performance spaces, etc.). Such large centers
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would require official status (State recognition), but would obviously
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become foci for all sorts of non- official activity-- black markets,
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temporary organization for "protest" or insurrectionary action,
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uncontrolled "leisure" & unmonitored conviviality, etc.
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In response to "P.M."'s critique I have not abandoned but rather modified
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my concept of what a modern Tong might be. The intensely hierarchical
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structure of the traditional tong would obviously not work, although some
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of the forms could be saved & used in the same way titles & honors are
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used in our "free religions" (or "weird" religions, "joke" religions, anarcho-
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neo-pagan cults, etc.). Non-hierarchic organization appeals to us, but so
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too does ritual, incense, the delightful bombast of occult orders-- "Tong
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Aesthetics" you might call it--so why shouldn't we have our cake & eat it
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too?-- (especially if it's Moroccan *majoun* or *baba au absinthe*--
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something a bit *forbidden*!). Among other things, the Tong should be a
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work of art.
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The strict traditional rule of secrecy also needs modification. Nowadays
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anything which evades the idiot gaze of publicity is already *virtually*
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secret. Most modern people seem unable to believe in the reality of
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something they never see on television--therefore to escape being
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televisualized is already to be quasi-invisible. Moreover, that which is
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*seen* through the mediation of the media becomes somehow unreal, &
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loses its power (I won't bother to defend this thesis but simply refer the
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reader to a train of thought which leads from Nietzsche to Benjamin to
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Bataille to Barthes to Foucault to Baudrillard). By contrast, perhaps that
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which is *unseen* retains its reality, its rootedness in everyday life &
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therefore in the possibility of the marvelous.
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So the modern Tong cannot be elitist--but there's no reason it can't be
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*choosy*. Many non-authoritarian organizations have foundered on the
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dubious principle of open membership, which frequently leads to a
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preponderance of assholes, yahoos, spoilers, whining neurotics, & police
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agents. If a Tong is organized around a special interest (especially an
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illegal or risky or marginal interest) it certainly has the right to compose
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itself according to the "affinity group" principle. If secrecy means (a)
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avoiding publicity & (b) vetting possible members, the "secret society" can
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scarcely be accused of violating anarchist principles. In fact, such societies
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have a long & honorable history in the anti-authoritarian movement, from
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Proudhon's dream of re-animating the Holy Vehm as a kind of "People's
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Justice," to Bakunin's various schemes, to Durutti's "Wanderers." We ought
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not to allow marxist historians to convince us that such expedients are
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"primitive" & have therefore been left behind by "History." The
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absoluteness of "History" is at best a dubious proposition. We are not
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interested in a return to the primitive, but in a return OF the primitive,
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inasmuch as the primitive is the "repressed."
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In the old days secret societies would appear in times & spaces forbidden
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by the State, i.e. where & when people are *kept apart* by law. In our
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times people are usually not kept apart by law but by mediation &
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alienation (see Part 1, "Immediatism"). Secrecy therefore becomes an
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avoidance of mediation, while conviviality changes from a secondary to a
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primary purpose of the "secret society." Simply to meet together face- to-
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face is already an action against the forces which oppress us by isolation,
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by loneliness, by the trance of media.
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In a society which enforces a schizoid split between Work & Leisure, we
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have all experienced the trivialization of our "free time," time which is
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organized neither as work nor as leisure. ("Vacation" once meant "empty"
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time--now it signifies time which is organized & filled by the industry of
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leisure.) The "secret" purpose of conviviality in the secret society then
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becomes the self-structuring & auto-valorization of free time. Most
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parties are devoted only to loud music & too much booze, not because we
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enjoy them but because the Empire of Work has imbued us with the
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feeling that empty time is wasted time. The idea of throwing a party to,
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say, make a quilt or sing madrigals together, seems hopelessly outdated.
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But the modern Tong will find it both necessary & enjoyable to seize back
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free time from the commodity world & devote it to shared creation, to
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*play*.
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I know of several societies organized along these lines already, but I'm
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certainly not going to blow their secrecy by discussing them in print.
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There are *some* people who do not need fifteen seconds on the Evening
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News to validate their existence. Of course, the marginal press and radio
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(the only media in which this sermonette will appear) are practically
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invisible anyway--certainly still quite opaque to the gaze of Control.
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Nevertheless, there's the principle of the thing: secrets should be
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respected. Not everyone needs to know everything! What the 20th
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century lacks most--& needs most--is *tact*. We wish to replace
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democratic epistemology with "dada epistemology" (Feyerabend). Either
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you're on the bus or you're not on the bus.
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Some will call this an elitist attitude, but it is not--at least not in the C.
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Wright Mills sense of the word: that is, a small group which exercises
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power over non-insiders for its own aggrandizement. Immediatism does
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not concern itself with power-relations;-- it desires neither to be ruled nor
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to rule. The contemporary Tong therefore finds no pleasure in the
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degeneration of institutions into conspiracies. It wants power for its own
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purposes of mutuality. It is a free association of individuals who have
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chosen each other as the subjects of the group's generosity, its
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"expansiveness" (to use a sufi term). If this amounts to some kind of
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"elitism," then so be it.
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If Immediatism begins with groups of friends trying not just to overcome
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isolation but also to enhance each other's lives, soon it will want to take a
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more complex shape:-- nuclei of mutually-self-chosen allies, working
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(playing) to occupy more & more time & space outside all mediated
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structure & control. Then it will want to become a horizontal network of
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such autonomous groups--then, a "tendency"--then, a "movement"--&
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then, a kinetic web of "temporary autonomous zones." At last it will strive
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to become the kernel of a new society, giving birth to itself within the
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corrupt shell of the old. For all these purposes the secret society promises
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to provide a useful framework of protective clandestinity--a cloak of
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invisibility that will have to be dropped only in the event of some final
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showdown with the Babylon of Mediation...
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Prepare for the Tong Wars!
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"Radio Sermonettes" is available for $4 postpaid from:
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L.B.C.
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339 Lafayette St., room 202
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NYC, NY 10012
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--
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