creativity

here is an interesting article about the power of creating new worlds through acting in the world.

George Bush and many other movers and shakers have learnt a lot from Marx: that whilst the philosophers have interpreted the world, the point is to change it. By changing and acting on the world, you alter reality (often in unexpected ways).

But (perhaps) in contrast to Marx, the basis of Bush's success was to recognise that logic is relatively unimportant in shaping human aspirations and understanding of the world (maybe i'll take that back- actually... Marx was quite an artist- it was his followers who were ultra-rationalist).

In many ways, the intellectual tools needed for living and acting in the world are quite different to what the enlightenment logic toolbox equips us with. In terms of global power relationships, surrealist theatre can sometimes depict a recognisable reality better than empirical analysis.

Most human thinking is associative rather than rational. And that's not necessarily bad. Most people's motivations for doing things are not primarily rational- usually people act because of their relationships with other people, their gut reactions, or because of a common consciousness. Yet this doesn't mean such motivations are non-valid. They just need to be grounded from time to time with feedback and evidence.

Effective activists can be like ARTISTS in many ways- deepening or interrogating peoples' associative frameworks (making them better connected to the world), and creating the imaginative and practical infrastructure needed for possible futures. This is where utopian thinking has played a role in the past...

One example is a collective of activists who see themselves as artists (in their role in developing peoples' associative logic) : the group "Platform London".

A.