Activism comes in waves. There are those wild moments when you think you can somehow win. San Cristobal 1994. Paris 1995. Seattle 1999. Porto Alegre 2001. Buenos Aires 2001-2002. Venezuela for the past 7 years. Bolivia next December 18 (think of them and hope for the better).
In those moments the movement is everything. Don't worry that the others have a hard time understanding. Because so many people get it right. And more are streaming in. The main thing is to keep the momentum, feed the energy. All you can do is try to be the wave you're riding. Until it crashes on the shore.
Then what? Fall back, take a reality check, put away the gas masks and start creating culture.
Resistance is cultural. It's about ideas, it's about feelings. Texts and objects and gestures are a way to keep them alive, suspended animation, secret free. Nothing can be presupposed: it has to be anonymous, impersonal, available. What happens when the other looks you in the eye? Resistance takes place in that space between two gazes.
Our societies are pathological. Thanaturgic. Death-dealing. It's not easy to survive amid organized blindness. Consensual cynicism. Orchestrated degradation. Resistance is counted in time spans. How long you hold out is the measure. But also the quality - the usefulness - of what you emit. Who could have predicted what Peter Lamborn Wilson's crazy rants would inspire?
The last wave needed technology. Computers. A way to communicate, to welcome all those people streaming into the circles. Digital activism. Interactive arts. No copyright. Then the wave crashed onto the shore. And the people holding onto their computers found themselves with less communication, less interaction, more career.
So what? Is it really any different? Let your resistance flow through the keyboard. Create culture, create tools, create latency. It's measured in time spans. It has to be impersonal, freely available. It only works when it's useful. Those who want to watch, watch; those want to listen, listen. Meanwhile, go to secret meetings. Change countries, keep a line into wilder places. Produce culture, create latency, pay attention to process, keep the free spaces free. The next wave is gathering. Que ondas? Life comes in oscillations. Culture holds the rising curve.