Subject: Richard Barbrook and Luther Blissett
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 15:09:28 +0000



In Richard Barbrook's _The Philosophy Of Fools_, Luther Blissett is mispelt
as "Luther Blisset" and described as an "Italian pro-situ group" (note 23,
at pag.38 of the draft whose photocopies are circulating in London).

First of all, being an uncontrollable multiple name, Luther Blissett is not
a "group" and cannot belong to any nationality.

Moreover, anyone stating that Luther Blissett is a 'pro-situ' is obviously
unaware of the nature of the Luther Blissett Project, which has nothing to
do with the rancorous impotence and hegelian paranoia of the poor imitators
of the SI, indeed, it has nothing to do with the SI itself. LB's mythopoeia
is absolutely in contradiction with Debord's paralysing theory of the
"spectacle". All the lexical coincidences (e.g. "psychogeography") are
just... coincidences. Soon after Guy The Bore's death, a tiny minority of
long-time multiple name bearers who had had a slightly 'situationist'
stance jettisoned the bore and the SI by writing _Guy Debord Is Really
Dead_. After that, LB didn't mention St. Guy anymore.

The most evident theoretical ascendancy over the LBP is the subterranean
stream of proletarian consciousness which runs from Marx's notion of a
"general intellect" (as sketched in the _Grundrisse..._), of which LB is a
"paradoxical antropomorphisation", through Amadeo Bordiga's comments on
that concept (as well as Bordiga's own practice of a "revolutionary
anonymity") to Jacques Camatte's definition of the "Homo Gemeinwesen"
[human community] - and far beyond.

The LBP is an experiment with "con-dividuality" as a "behavioral
prerequisite of communism", as well as a jolly variation on anonymity which
takes inspiration on the mythologies spread around such XVII-XVIII century
"folk heroes" as Captain Swing and Ned Ludd. The complexity and richness of
these theoretical references is perfectly balanced by the plainnes and
contagiousness of LB's praxis.

To sum up, the anonymous creators of LB never gave a shit about the
Situationist International, that was (and is) regarded - as camatte himself
put it - as "a very shallow and superficial group".
I hope Mr Barbrook will delete that phrase from the definitive version of
his essay. Anyway, I'm very pleased whenever someone beats the crap out of
Hakim fucking Bey.

Further info on LB's theory and mythopoeia can be found at:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/6812/ramp.html




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