[Dryerase] ‘A book can never be a substitute for an orgasm

[Asheville Global Report]

'A book can never be a substitute for an orgasm'

By Shawn Gaynor

"Civilization", or rather recorded history, is full of powerful men who 
bend the world to their will, to fulfill their ambitions of personal power, 
wealth, and fame.  In fact it is difficult to find a history book that 
focuses on anything other then the trials, victories and defeats of the 
powerful.  Were is the common man in this jumble of kings, where is the 
woman? Where are the carpenters, the farmers, the bar tenders? Have they 
always just sat in the background, working, marrying, dying, all the while 
acquiescing to the wishes of the powerful?
Yves Fremion's new book Orgasms of History, (AK Press) answers this 
question with a definitive No! Thought out history their have been moments 
when the world is turned upside down, when everything is drawn into 
question, and the faceless, nameless figures in the background of history 
spring to the forefront, and proclaim that they will be ruled no longer. 
Through these "orgasms", from the Roman slave uprising lead by Spartacus, 
to the French Situationists of May 1968, and beyond this book provides a 
history of people who would bow no more.
With such a broad (and relatively unexplored) subject, the book does not 
offer a comprehensive history of each uprising, or revolution.  Rather, it 
follows particular themes though out, demonstrating the repetitiveness of 
both inspirations, and mistakes.  The major underlining theme of the book 
is movements demanding self-management.  That is, an end to the power of 
bosses, judges, police, kings, presidents, generals, officers, mayors, and 
all others that seek to rule. Yes, that taboo of all taboos--anarchy.
Any what can a book teach us of this?  The author himself states, "Let no 
one kid themselves: a book is no substitute for a rifle. But it can help to 
train one's sights that bit better. A book can never be a substitute for an 
orgasm. But it can help while away the time between attacks, be they 
political, social, or amorous."
One of the great lesson that can be gleaned from this cross section of 
uprisings, is that people can and do organize themselves together, without 
hierarchy, or coercion, and provide for the basic needs of society. In none 
of the examples given does the uprising end on account of starvation.
Some warnings are also apparent in the book.  Almost every such uprising in 
the last 100 years has not been crushed by the force of capitalists, but 
rather by totalitarian Communists, or as the author blanketly refers to 
them--Stalinists.  Otherwise successful uprisings from the Ukrainian 
Maknovshchina, to the Spanish sydicalicalists, have met with tretury on 
behalf of communists who did not what self-management to succeed and there 
by threaten communism as well as capitalism.
Another point warning that recurs through out the book is that during an 
"orgasm" a moments hesitation spells failure.  Spartacus, with an army of 
70,000 freed slaves hesitated before the gates of an undefended Rome, and 
was later defeated for it.  Those who brought to life Paris Cummune, and 
drove the French government out of the capitol, failed to pressure their 
advisories, and waited until an army could be raised to defeat them. In 
some instances it was a "victory party" that spelled the unraveling of success.
A last warning is that the price of failure is high. After an uprising is 
defeated tens of thousands are butchered.  It is not that the combatants 
are punished (they are for the most part dead or in exile following 
defeat), but whole populations are "liquidated", for fear that the idea of 
self-management may survive the uprising  which it always does.
One of the books major short comings is that it does not spend sufficient 
time examining third world struggles for self-management.  There is a 
chapter on the Iroquois League which, besides standing alone as an example 
of indigenous peoples struggle, is the sole example of total success in 
implementing a self-managing model. The Mexican revolution is explored, and 
self-management movements in china, however, the book remains by-in-large a 
Euro-centric history.
This would not be a fault in the book had it been exclusively a history of 
European dissent, however, with a wider scope more could have been done to 
accommodate non European struggles. This is in no was a criticism of what 
the book contains, but perhaps a call for another volume.
A major topic not addressed in the book is the anti-globalization movement. 
With the leaders of great nations having to meet in remote fortified 
positions for fear of the people, it could be argued that the last three 
years have represented a historical "orgasm" of unparalleled proportion, 
much more far reaching and long lasting then the May 68' uprisings that, 
for the first time in history shook every corner of the world. It is 
impossible to see in the mist of such a time where such dissent will 
lead.  Will it fade, or be brutally crushed, or will it blossom into the 
world that has been envisioned and struggled for though out human history? 
It is for those who prize freedom to decide.