PUBLIC SECRETS

Collected Skirmishes of Ken Knabb

(1970-1997)

 

THE JOY OF REVOLUTION (1997)

1. Some Facts of Life
        Utopia or bust
        Stalinist “communism” and reformist “socialism” are merely variants of capitalism
        Representative democracy versus delegate democracy
        Irrationalities of capitalism
        Some exemplary modern revolts
        Some common objections
        Increasing dominance of the spectacle  

2. Foreplay
        Personal breakthroughs
        Critical interventions
        Theory versus ideology
        Avoiding false choices and elucidating real ones
        The insurrectionary style
        Radical film
        Oppressionism versus playfulness
        The Strasbourg scandal
        The poverty of electoral politics
        Reforms and alternative institutions
        Political correctness, or equal opportunity alienation
        Drawbacks of moralism and simplistic extremism
        Advantages of boldness
        Advantages and limits of nonviolence  

3. Climaxes
        Causes of social breakthroughs
        Postwar upheavals
        Effervescence of radical situations
        Popular self-organization
        The FSM
        The situationists in May 1968
        Workerism is obsolete, but workers’ position remains pivotal
        Wildcats and sitdowns
        Consumer strikes
        What could have happened in May 1968
        Methods of confusion and cooption
        Terrorism reinforces the state
        The ultimate showdown
        Internationalism  

4. Rebirth
        Utopians fail to envision postrevolutionary diversity
        Decentralization and coordination
        Safeguards against abuses
        Consensus, majority rule and unavoidable hierarchies
        Eliminating the roots of war and crime
        Abolishing money
        Absurdity of most present-day labor
        Transforming work into play
        Technophobic objections
        Ecological issues
        The blossoming of free communities
        More interesting problems

CONFESSIONS OF A MILD-MANNERED ENEMY OF THE STATE (1997)

Part 1 (1945-1969)
        Childhood
        How I became an atheist
        Shimer College and first independent ventures
        Berkeley in the sixties
        Kenneth Rexroth
        How I evaded the draft
        How I became an anarchist  

Part 2 (1969-1977)
        How I became a situationist
        1044
        Contradiction
        A fresh start
        The “Notice” group
        The breaking of a fellowship  

Part 3 (1977-1997)
        Japan and Hong Kong
        The SI Anthology
        Rock climbing
        Rexroth again
        Zen practice
        Reading, writing, translating and music
        How this book came to be

PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS

Do We Need Snyder for Poet-Priest? (1970)
In This Theater... (1970)
Ode on the Absence of Real Poetry Here This Afternoon (1970)
Bureaucratic Comix (1971)
Critique of the New Left Movement (Contradiction, 1972):
        Antifascism and the Cybernetic Welfare State
        Yippies and Weathermen
        Communes and Collectives
        Women’s Liberation
On the Poverty of Hip Life (Contradiction, 1972)
Remarks on Contradiction and Its Failure (1973)
“Reich: How To Use” (comic poster) (1973)
Reich: How To Use (Voyer, 1971)
Discretion Is the Better Part of Value (Voyer, 1973)
Double-Reflection (1974)
Theory of Poverty, Poverty of Theory (Denevert, 1973)
To Clarify Some Aspects of the Moment (chapter 3) (Denevert, 1972)
Declaration Concerning the Center for Research on the Social Question (CRQS, 1974)
Notice Concerning the Reigning Society and Those Who Contest It (Carrión, Cooperstein, Cronin, Hammer, Knabb, Rosenberg, Shutes, 1974)
The Blind Men and the Elephant (1975)
Bureau of Public Secrets #1 (1976):
        The Society of Situationism
        Notes Toward a Situationist Manifesto (Charles & Denevert, 1975)
        Arms and the Woman (Charles, 1975)
        From Science’s End (Moinet, 1974)
        A Short Guide to the Anglo-American Situationist Image Trouble Is My Business
        Affective Détournement: A Case Study
The Realization and Suppression of Religion (1977)
Open Letter to the Tokyo “Libertaire” Group (1977)
A Radical Group in Hong Kong (1978)
The Opening in Iran (1979)
Banalities (1979)
The Relevance of Rexroth (1990):
        1. Life and Literature
        2. Magnanimity and Mysticism
        3. Society and Revolution
        Notes and Bibliography
The War and the Spectacle (1991)
On René Viénet’s Film Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (1992)
Los Angeles 1965/1992 (excerpt from SI text below) (1992)
Watts 1965: The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy (Situationist International, 1965)
Strong Lessons for Engaged Buddhists (1993)
On Guy Debord’s Film The Society of the Spectacle (1996)
Situationist Bibliography (updated)

Notes on the Texts (updated)
Selected Opinions on the BPS (updated)
Index (merged with the Index to the entire BPS website)