[ssba]
Szczepan Orłowski
Talismans of infinity
2: this scrap is a response to a play from acirema about a swim-scammer who takes ‘roids and gets all befuckled; a real sad story 1: and so to establish a positive atmosphere: in this episode of our political entertainment show ‘top ten genocides,’ we’ll see which one cost the most lives… 2: the genocide of native americans! 1: …in the second… 2: 100 million! 1: …half of the twentieth century; recent history only, lucinda 3: you have no idea how much genocide is taking place right now 1: I’m sure I know better than you do because I’m educated 2: so the holocaust is ancient history 1: yes we need newer things 3: not a problem 1: but not too new
3: you’re taking this too far 1: better not take it too far in the wrong direction or you’ll end up poisoned 3: they wouldn’t poison you, just give you a prize 1: depends how frank the conversation would be 2: this game stinks of fresh corpse; I like playing ‘top ten abdications’ or ‘top ten vetoes’ more 1: the subject today is late twentieth century genocides; fuck, you know it’s not me doing this 3: history will always be distorted unless they put an end to corporate genocide in the guise of civil war like the one in congo 2:that’s far away 1: and that one’s over already; still, the total might come to six million dead if you looked hard enough 3: it’s still going on; you carry them in your i-pocket a new fucking model every year 2: say what you want I prefer the holocaust because nobody wears that anymore 3: maybe you’ll live to see another one around here somewhere
2: meanwhile it’s islamophobia in the lead 1: let’s get down to business and begin: first question 3: what site is this off; I’ll google it myself and now excuse me I’d like to live a bit before they come makes for the door 1: hello we haven’t even started this yet 3 opens the door looks out and turns to the others : they’re already here 2: how come no one told us earlier 1: it’s happening so fast last week the communications department was shut down due to automation 2: I knew it would end this way 3: it ended for you a long time ago about the time you gave yourself over to the past instead of dealing with what’s going on around you 2: and you’re saying they’ll automate everything; even us 3: you know the answer to that 1: it looks like we’re in trouble but I have a revolutionary idea; listen; I mean really listen; I’ll do a play about this;
I might not know where switzerland is but I can hear them laundering money for my play right now; do you smell that art-society-technology grant; 99% for me 1% for the red cross; the only reason you haven’t heard about me yet is that you’re fucking lying in an analog ditch that dried up a long time ago 3: you’re the one who’s fucking stuck in a ditch because they’re already here; you won’t be telling anyone about automation anymore because we’re getting automated right now 1: how far away are they 3: they see us 1: I spotted them on the horizon long ago 3: they’re clearly visible now but they don’t have faces 2: I saw the rats running away 3 slams the door shut and assembles the rest: what if we cobbled up a genocide of our own 1: that’d be some event huh 2: bet there’s a record jackpot for us to break triple knock on the door | One of the players hands out cards (like cheap business cards) with a ∞ symbol on one side and the other side left blank, and asks every spectator to sign their card and hold on to it
of all the things we could be doing now we could
for instance
we could all be acting instead of just watching
we could be running in the woods we could be leaping on mountain-tops we could be making posters and learning foreign languages
we could be programming
we could be building mills or windmills
we could be making love
we could be rooting in the depths of our imaginations we could be scubadiving we could be getting lost in the wilds we could be getting to know new people for real we could be picketing we could be overthrowing parliament right now we could even be carrying on the fight in our own houses
we could be sowing
we could be kissing strangers we could be spending time with someone we love or wanting to love someone
we could stop dreaming of being with the sluts from the red carpet and simply generate ourseves the way we want to be deep down
we could be staking our claim on the web we could be taking part we could stop being cynical
we could say yes we coud be smiling sincerely and asking the right question and this immortal joy that comes from constant action and only felt in the now will keep our investigation going and this immortal joy that comes from constant action and only felt in the now will keep our investigation going
we ourselves could depict the story of how the world changed; based on a true story and not waste time on stories about (half-)baked superstars of vanity and other products of the civilization of death
we could
we can
let’s live let’s let go of the mirage and discover other solutions unmediated individually and all together
take your talismans of infinity and don’t come back |