A new philosophy of total revolution: KALKINISM

1. You have been enslaved, in a number of ways, and you probably don’t even realise it. Our world has been plunged into a dark night of greed, crisis, destruction and despair, while the possibility of a new dawn hangs in the balance. There is still a slim opportunity to make a better world, but we must seize it. If we do nothing, this will not end well.

A radical revolutionary calls for total renewal, for the abandonment of all that is against true progress, all that is flawed or corrupt. We must no longer tolerate that which preys on simple decency for the benefit of a few. We need a new beginning. A new future. The first step toward this future is liberation.

The 25th and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu is known as Kalkin. Kalkin is the embodiment of stern judgment upon an unjust world, where countries are ruled by “thieves and robbers”, and of the transition from a dark age of selfish materialism into a new era of justice and possibility. This idea is purely a poetic and rhetorical device – we make no religious or metaphysical claims whatsoever.

This concept suits our sentiment perfectly, so the new philosophy of radical renewal is known as Kalkinism. A person who answers the revolutionary call of Kalkinism is known as a Kalkinist.

2. You have been enslaved in the world of material things.

You work hard to make someone else rich. You are encouraged to buy things you don’t need, and often don’t want. You may only live, work, or play within boundaries established by generations of powerful people, and if you try to cross the line you must be ready to fight. Most people can’t even see the lines, don’t even realise they exist, let alone effectively prepare to cross them.

Freedom in the world of material things may only be achieved through organised resistance. Systems of control rely upon blind obedience and conformity. In order to reject that path you must identify a target, form a goal, connect with others, carefully prepare, and act.

3. You have been enslaved in the worlds of imagination and emotion.

Our wildest imaginings are repackaged to conform to the requirements of a mass entertainment industry. Our highest popular idols are the most extreme conformists. Games and Spectacle channel natural aggressive, tribal tendencies into irrelevance, rather than let them fuel any sense of true communal identity or resistance.

Many people can no longer dream of anything but authorised trinkets such as money or status symbols. Money and status are fictions – systems of rules and signs which control your life. You have been enslaved by fictions.

Even your emotional and perceptual life is not your own. Movies, soap operas, talk shows, and newspapers use cheap psychological tricks to make you cry when they tell you to, laugh when they tell you to, buy when they tell you to.

Freedom in the worlds of imagination and emotion may be achieved through creative self-assertion. The goal is not to reject imagination or emotionality, but to assert new, personal, alternative forms. Where organised resistance creates freedom on the ground, we must also work to create new alternatives to paradigms such as money and the authoritarian State itself.

4. You have been enslaved in the worlds of identity and understanding.

From the moment you were born, your fate was sealed. Your DNA, your upbringing, even your name are all aspects of a personality beyond your control. As you grow, you are taught to identify and defend these things as your own. Identity breeds goals and predetermined courses in life, so an identity not chosen leads inevitably to a life not chosen.

Systems of control recognise that people cannot be allowed too much say in their own identity, because that which cannot be easily categorised cannot be easily controlled. Without reliably uniform systems of identification, people are allowed the options of creativity and resistance.

Freedom in the worlds of identity and understanding may be achieved through a combination of Philosophies of Awakening (e.g. Buddhism), technological development of the human condition (as advocated by Transhumanism), and compassionate identification with the Other.

This last is both a way of bringing about mutual empathy and comprehension – “stepping into someone else’s shoes” – and a way to transcend conditioned ideas of self. Step outside of your self, and find some other identity; preferably one that strikes you as ridiculous or fictional. Become that identity, so that when you say “I” you speak for it, not the self you have known. Then you will be free of control, free to do what you will, and free to observe unthinking behavior in a detached way.

- Amon Zero, 02-10-11

PS. I am also the founder of a group called Zero State (http://zerostate.net) which is compatible with Kalkinism – You may wish to take a look. It’s very new, but developing fast. ZS & Kalkinism are independent currents, in that a person may agree or identify with one and not the other (e.g. just as a person may be a Socialist or Anarchist Zero Stater, being a Zero Stater does not imply that you are a Socialist or Anarchist). Personally, I identify strongly with both aspects, and so am a Kalkinist Zero Stater.