IIRC he’s mentioned in the documentary/video editorial Hypernormalisation. I think I have that.
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Yeah, he his. The name is Surkov.
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The film held up better than I remembered. I saw it a few months ago for the first time since it was out in theaters. I’ll probably read the book again some day.
I’m not sure what to make of “The Revised Boy Scout Manual.” There was an excerpt in ReSearch #4/5 which includes a bit about Deadly Orgone Radiation. Is that a tactic? A warning? Both? The further along I get through it (I hadn’t read it in about 28 years) there does not seem to be any clear line between what Burroughs advocates and what he warns against. But that’s Burroughs for you, that ol’ misogynist misanthrope. (@anon86154871 fairly much beat me to it – I think it has to do with me being farther and farther away from being this guy.)
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There’s no evidence of his ever having much success or even any experience in trying to overthrow a government. I’d have listened to Warren Zevon before him. At least he hung out with people involved in operations at one time in his life.
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Finally found it in the vid. Toward the end, naturally, around 2h23m. Vladislav Surkov, as you said.
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It had also profound effect on HER for the rest of her life and beyond.
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Definitely required viewing for understanding how we got here. I kinda see it as an addendum to Century of the Self, which has time to stretch its legs and get into the weeds. I really like that Adam Curtis sticks to history and analysis rather than getting prescriptive and/or topical, something that a lot of critical filmmakers can’t seem to get the hang of. It’s not zeitgeist making, but it stands the test of time.
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I definitely never got the impression he was interested in any kind of government, having called for the abolition of nationhood entirely. How does one transcend privilege?
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It’s just entertaining bullshit, from an era when weirdness was unusual and hard to find. The positive impact of Burroughs, over the years, has been in things like the rise of harm reduction and decline of punishment in the War on Drugs, and of course he was Out and Proud before almost anybody. We take that stuff for granted now, but his sins, crimes, and other shortcomings are all the more glaring without that kind of context.
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isn’t this what the alt-conservative press is doing already? seems like it works for corrupt governments too.
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Interesting. The book in the post is subtitled “An Electronic Revolution.” A book by that title has already been printed and the provided excerpt comes straight from it. However, the material from Re/Search, which @Gyrofrog helpfully reminded me of, is not in my copy of ER, as far as I can see. I wonder how much genuinely new material there is.
Yeah, unfortunately these counterculture ideas have been co-opted by the people in power. I think that pre-internet, these ideas were hidden in places that an alt-right type person would never bother looking, and put forth by people who would never be taken seriously by the establishment. It is possible that this disruption will ultimately lead to something positive anyway. I hope.
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Oh speaking of Borroughs, my ex-wife used to serve him and his assistant at the restaurant she worked at in Lawrence, KS.
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You’re not the boss of me! I’m making my powder as wet as I want!
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Apparently Steve Bannon has had some pretty close “degrees of Kevin Bacon” links to the Burroughs/Gysin artistic nexus for a long time. (As I believe has been pointed out by another boinger previously, can’t find the post to cite atm).
Bannon’s boss in the 80’s (when he was brought in to manage/bust-up Biosphere 2), was Ed Bass - who established the Caravan of Dreams arts center in Fort Worth. It doesn’t seem like that big of a stretch to imagine that he may in fact be drawing tactical influences from those writers ideas - he is known to name drop a lot of “edgy” “obscure” right-wing occult types like Julius Evola and Dugin.
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Yep. Ornette Coleman, as well. (That may have been the post you meant?)
(Speaking of Fort Worth, we used to wonder if the fact that Ornette, Julius Hemphill, Ronald Shannon Jackson et al all hailed from there was due to something in the water supply. Nope, they all had a hard-working band director.)
Indeed! Exactly the one, thanks for dropping that knowledge Gyrofrog.
Must have been very cool to witness a bit of that scene.
Nice, an excellent argument for properly funding our public schools.
(edited for spelling)
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Would Burroughs have voted for Trump?
I think he would have loved the demolition of the status quo.
He could even have written some of Trumps speeches.
Some people might use Ornette Coleman as an argument for defunding the public school band program… 
No. Because he at least knew the difference between reflecting the sickness of our modern world back to us and racist nihilism. We are talking about a man who married a woman to save her from the nazis…
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