THE DECEMBRIST MANIFESTO: Declaration Of A New Culture Of Hope And Freedom

DECEMBER 12, 2000:

In the last month of the 20th Century, a new culture

rises from the final death rattle of American

"democracy." We, the Decembrists, in solidarity with

those in struggle everywhere, raise the red flag over

the ideological ruins in Washington. We are the Third

Millennium.



THE REVOLUTION WAS NOT TELEVISED

The revolution is over, and the left has won. It is in

the mind, not in the streets, and there is no possibility

of retreat, not for those who plant and nurture the

flowers of democracy, even less for those who stomp

them out.

There is nothing left to do but construct the new

counterculture, and sieze the day.



THE NEW COUNTERCULTURE

On December 12, 2000, the final chapter in the right-

wing coup was written, when the Supreme Court

abandoned all last illusion of democracy in the United

States. We find this heinous partisan act of the Court

to be an evil without redemption, against the laws of

both Man and Nature. While we are citizens of this

once-great nation, and debatably owe certain minimal

allegiance to its institutions, we are first and foremost

citizens of the world and the human race, and we

therefore exercise our inalienable right to renounce

this court decision, and the culture of greed and

hypocrisy that created it.

The very existence of the United States of America

implies the right to dissolve political ties. While this

may be impossible right at this moment, the new

counterculture dissolves ideological ties. We hereby

resign from any further participation in the lunatic

frenzy that is Demopublican government, and begin

its replacement.

The new counterculture is first of joy. We celebrate

our humanity, regained by casting off the obsolete

rules and structures of The Corporate Century. We

reject the propaganda that makes us hate our bodies

and financial status. Today, we enact, or more

accurately cite, the first immutable law: that beauty

affirms life and joy, and that all humans are

inherently beautiful, thus having an implicit right to

become more so, unmolested by the brain thieves.

The new conterculture is also one of solidarity and

strength. We reject the corporate logic that sets one

economic class above another, and we fight it,

nonviolently but resolutely, at all costs.

Finally, the new counterculture is one of reason. We

take back the English language, the words used by

Shakespeare and other great poets and thinkers.

Ruthlessly, we strip away the layers of jargon and

buzzwords that the post-modern right has created to

obscure the beautiful logic beneath. We create art

that is artistic, music that is musical, beauty that is

beautiful.

There will be struggles. There will be setbacks in the

coming confrontation. These are to be welcomed as

the forge of greatness. The new counterculture will

prevail against the organized evils of greed,

corruption, and war.

A great nation is laid low by its own contradictions.

A new one is born. The 21st century begins.

Los Angeles, California, USA

12/12/00