{"id":33817,"date":"2013-04-15T12:11:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T02:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=33817"},"modified":"2013-04-15T16:31:47","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T06:31:47","slug":"why-im-not-joining-socialist-alternative-foreword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=33817","title":{"rendered":"Why I’m NOT joining Socialist Alternative [Foreword]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

An innocuous building
\nfor so monumental
\na task!
\nbehind iron gates
\n& anonymous
\nwindows
\ntechnicians
\nin white smocks
\ntoil like
\nbusy
\nlittle
\nbees
\ninvestigating
\nin electromicroscopic
\ndetail
\nthe vinegrated cerebrums
\nof late soviet luminaries
\nto determine
\nwhat made
\ntheir heads
\ntick
\nthis is
\ntheir mission
\nin its 67th
\n& final year
\nlong rumored
\nnow uncovered in
\nRoom 19 at the
\nBrain Institute
\nof Moscow
\nformer reputed
\ncapital
\nof Marxism-Leninism
\nhistorical materialism
\n& militant atheism<\/p>\n

Row upon row
\nof bowls of
\npickled gray
\nmatter
\nthe cranial
\nentrails of
\nLenin<\/a>
\nSergei Eisenstein
\nMaxim Gorky
\nVladimir Mayakovsky
\nKirov
\nKalinin
\nthe famous Pavlov
\nbut not his celebrated
\ndog
\nvarious generals of
\nthe Red Army &
\nforgotten members
\nof the Central
\nCommittee
\ntheir noodles
\nexcavated under the
\norders of
\nthe boss
\nof all bosses
\nJoseph Djugashvili
\nwho tells \u2018em
\nin the cerebellums
\nthe secret to
\nthe data:
\nmind is matter
\nideology is
\nphrenology
\nshe is no witch
\nwho
\ntied with rocks
\nsinks<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the theoretical premise
\nof the Brain Institute
\nfrom the organ
\nitself
\nits flesh
\nits cells
\ncan be deduced
\nthe source of
\npolitical clarity
\nartistic creativity
\nmilitary technique
\nwill &
\ngenius
\nwhich if found
\ncould be reproduced
\ntested &
\ningested
\nthus advancing the
\nformation of the
\nnew soviet man
\nby leaps & bounds
\nespecially at the
\npinnacle of
\ncollective social life
\nforgetting
\nhowever
\nLenin declared
\nwith that
\nnot as yet fully
\nparalyzed brain
\nof his still
\nfunctioning:
\n\u201cStalin
\nhaving become
\nGeneral Secretary
\nhas concentrated
\nenormous power
\nin his hands
\n& I am not sure
\nthat he always
\nknows how to
\nuse that
\npower
\nwith sufficient
\ncaution.
\nI propose to
\nthe comrades
\nto find a way
\nto remove Stalin
\nfrom that position
\n& appoint
\nanother man
\nmore loyal
\nmore courteous
\n& more considerate
\nto comrades
\nless capricious, etc\u201d
\nOr that
\nthe last act
\nof Mayakovsky\u2019s
\ntortured noggin
\nwas to
\npull its plug
\nrather than submit to
\nthe muse
\nof police art
\nunaware that it would
\nfloat in a jar of
\nthe people\u2019s formaldehyde
\nfor six decades
\nscrutinized under
\nadvanced
\ndetection methods
\nsibling to
\nastrology
\nvitalism
\nnumerology
\naka existing socialism<\/p>\n

Watch them
\nbustle & scurry
\neach night
\nsealing
\nthe locked doors of
\nRoom 19 & its
\nvaulted booty
\nwith paraffin
\ncarefully eyed
\nby dutiful
\ndisciplined
\nLydia Malofeyeva
\ncomrade chief deputy
\nof brainkeeping
\nno peeking
\nno sneaking
\nwatch them put chunks
\nof the tissue into a
\nblock of wax
\nthen sealing off
\na patina of brain
\nwith a motorized
\nrazorblade
\na veg-o-matic
\ntype device
\nto finely slice
\nthe subject of slides
\nhundreds of thousands of
\nslides
\nof head cheese
\nfor the big cheese
\nunder the close &
\nquiet supervision of
\nthe latest & last
\nincarnation of the
\nCentral Committee
\nGensec &
\nKGB
\ntheir ultimate act
\nof skullduggery
\nstill fresh in
\nbrine
\nscooped
\nfrom Sakharov\u2019s
\nlate pate
\n(the technicians
\nunsure which morsel
\nis his
\nengage in polemics
\nsimultaneously
\npiling up shavings
\nsince they are paid
\npiecework)
\n30,000 slides
\nalone of
\nLenin\u2019s brain
\n30,000!
\nhow many cases
\nof carpal
\ntunnel
\nsyndrome &
\nother
\nrepetitive
\nmotion
\ninfirmities
\nbefell
\nthe unionized
\nworkers
\nat the Brain Institutes
\nto get Lenin\u2019s
\nkey
\norgan
\nreduced to its
\nphysiological essence?
\neach synapse
\nindividually wrapped
\nhere is what
\nis to be done
\nthere is state &
\nrevolution & the
\nright of oppressed
\nnations to
\nself-determination
\nall obviously assimilated
\nby comrades
\nas indicated by
\nrecent events<\/p>\n

In 67 years
\nof rigorous
\nscientific inquiry
\nthe earnest cadres
\ndiscovered
\nthey had absolutely
\nnothing to learn
\nat all
\n\u201cThey
\nthought maybe
\nthe political figures
\nwould have some type
\nof specific
\nbrain structure\u201d
\nLeonid Khaspekov
\nvicedirector of the
\nBrain Institute
\nsays of the commissars
\n\u201cthat their brains
\nwould differ greatly
\nfrom those of
\nother people
\nbut of course
\nthat\u2019s hardly possible\u201d<\/p>\n

The narcotic
\nmonotony of
\nthe tasks
\nthe automatic lullaby
\nof the machine
\nthe routine
\nexponential
\naccumulation of cells on
\nglass
\nthe fixed aroma of
\nthe crypt
\nmeasured the
\nseemingly immutable
\natmosphere
\nits fog
\nobscuring
\nthe historical
\nu-turn
\nthe reverse of
\nthe pendulum
\nthe dystrophic
\nconquests of the
\napparently eternal
\npolitbureau & its
\nperennial catechism:
\nthey thought
\nthat maybe
\nthe political
\nfigures
\nwould have
\nsome type
\nof specific
\nbrain
\nstructure
\nthat their
\nbrains
\nwould differ
\ngreatly from
\nother
\npeople
\nbut
\nof course
\nthat\u2019s hardly
\npossible<\/p>\n

But
\nof course
\nthat\u2019s
\nalways been
\nthe
\nwhole
\npoint
\ncomrades<\/p>\n

~ Jon Hillson, ‘Room 19’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An innocuous building for so monumental a task! behind iron gates & anonymous windows technicians in white smocks toil like busy little bees investigating in electromicroscopic detail the vinegrated cerebrums of late soviet luminaries to determine what made their heads … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,7,9,17,13],"tags":[1584,813,1585,1583,1527,2182],"class_list":["post-33817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-poetry","category-state","category-student-movement","category-trot-guide","tag-jon-hillson","tag-lenin","tag-lenins-branes","tag-room-19","tag-socialist-alternative","tag-trot-guide"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-8Nr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33817"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33831,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33817\/revisions\/33831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}