For Immediate Release: Print and Distribute Widely
Manifesto of the Cultural Liberation Front
We have been waiting for "The Revolution"; this was (and still is) a fundamental error. There is no waiting period. We were waiting for tomorrow for Life to begin, and nearly missed out of Life completely. A true revolution--"a revolution of everyday life"--must begin with the realization that either revolutionary consciousness is activated here and now, or it simply is not active at all. We become in ourselves the changes that we want to see in the world around us.
The distinction between Life and Survival is paramount. The world in which we were raised, and the world in which we must live and against which we must fight, is a world single-mindedly dedicated to Survival. "Survive!" at all costs, no matter who pays the lion's share of the burden. And if the people who shoulder the cost of Survival have no voice, so much the better. Or at least so speak the slaves at the top of the heap--the managers, the experts, the pundits.
A revolutionary should, I think, be a disciple of Life, and this requires an unwavering rejection of the imperatrves of Survival. The role of culture must be very different for the disciples of Life and the slaves of Survival. For the slaves of Survival, culture is merely a garnish, applied as needed, to wash away the pain and the boredom. For the disciples of Life, culture is an expression of everything vital, valuable, true, beautiful . . . .
if culture is to be wrestled away from the most affluent slaves (and oppressors are as enslaved to a system of oppression as are the opppressed) and put in the service of genuinely human needs and desires, it should be based on the understanding that "creativity, love, and play are to life what nourishment and shelter are to survival".