LETTER FROM LUTHER BLISSETT OF 29/5/95 TO FREEDOM

Your correspondent Michel Prigent implies in a letter published in Freedom that a Neoist Alliance activist recently wrote to you as Karen Eliot. This is not true, we have no idea who wrote the letter but it certainly wasn't us. Prigent wrongly assumes that we are the only people who have criticisms to make of Debord and appears completely ignorant of Roberto Bui's brilliant tract Guy The Bore which created a sensation in Italy a month or two ago. Not only is Prigent unfamiliar with the ideas and activities of those he pretends to criticise, he doesn't understand either dialectics or satire as weapons of criticism. His assertions about Green & Brown Anarchist are even more idiotic than those Karl Popper makes about Hegel in The Open Society And Its Enemies. Utilising dialectics means looking at an issue from every angle, it is absurd to suggest that those who do so agree with the results they come up with during every stage of this process.

Likewise, Prigent warbles about the supersession of art without realising that by simply Hegelianising the critique of the institution of art made by Dada and Surrealism, Debord failed to move this debate forward. Debord was incapable of stepping outside the frame of reference provided by the institution of art, and instead theorised his way back to a one-sided understanding of the Hegel. It is perfectly clear from both The Philosophical Propaedeutic (The Science of the Concept, Third Section, The Pure Exhibition of Spirit theses 203 to 207) and the Philosophy Of Mind: Being Part Three of the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences (Section Three &endash; Absolute Mind theses 553 to 571) that within the Hegelian system the supersession of art is in fact found in revealed religion.

Since among the more advanced sections of the 'bourgeoisie,' 'art' had by Debord's day come to replace revealed religion, the Situationists were forced to skip this particular Hegelian inversion, and instead jump forward to philosophy which represents the highest achievement of 'absolute mind' in Hegel's system. In line with the young Marx, Debord viewed the proletariat as the subject that would realise philosophy, The Situationist conception of the supersession of art is also filtered through the ideas of August von Cieszkowski, whose 1838 tome Prolegomena zur Historiosophie was dedicated to the notion that 'the deed and social activity will now overcome (supersede) philosophy.' It was this source that provided the Situationists with the material to complete their false 'sublation,' allowing them to arrive back at the final category of romantic art within the Hegelian system, that is to say poetry. It should go without saying that the Neoist Alliance has advanced way beyond banalities such as these.

In a series of idiotic moves similar to Prigent's, various members of Green Anarchist decided that they wished to engage the Neoist Alliance in 'debate'. Since it is clear from what GA have to say that they do not understand our position, it is hardly surprising that their 'arguments' quickly degenerated into a series of lies about us and our activists. In Green Anarchist 37 it was suggested that a member of the Neoist Alliance claimed in the Independent that Green Anarchist was still associated with Richard Hunt. It goes without saying that this was a complete fabrication, as was everything that followed in the same editorial. Neither the Neoist Alliance, nor any of its activists working in either an individual capacity or under the banner of the Neoist Alliance, have ever disputed that Green Anarchist has broken with Richard Hunt as an individual. Our problem with Green Anarchist is that they are still committed to Hunt's ideas about the creation of small communities, ideas which necessarily entail a massive decrease in the size of the population. Green Anarchist do not explain how this reduction in the size of the population is to be brought about but we can be fairly certain that the process will not be pleasant for those who would die if GA made a serious attempt to realise this 'dream'.

The lies being spread about the Neoist Alliance and its activists by the likes of Prigent and Green Anarchist are a clear case of scape-goating. Prigent asserts that we are 'inhuman', members of Green Anarchist claim the cities 'are seized with a kind of madness'. In the eyes of Prigent and Green Anarchist our activists are 'aliens' and history teaches us that this type of name calling always proceeds attempts at genocide. Fortunately, it is highly unlikely that either Prigent or Green Anarchist will ever be in a position to set up death camps where they could rubber stamp death warrants.

Yours sincerely, Luther Blissett (in this instance aka Stewart Home).

Feuds

Prigent as shithead

Prigent as fool

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