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Letters: Blues and Slander

Many people who write in to us are either misinformed or misdirected. They know the current society isn't very appealing and begin to feel passive and depressed. In order to escape that negative circle, they point their anger and confusion at others, to feel good about themselves. This is how the traditional Christian mentality works: if you can't beat your enemy by force, do it by upholding your weakness (pity). Viola, and you get a whining Jesus on the cross, begging for mercy. Do we whip or cry?

We choose to do neither. Partly we see these people as a product of their time. Resentment and self-defeatism are common traits of our friends and beloved ones today. Some end up as drug abusers, others spend their life chasing the dollar bills in corporate offices - "Hey, at least my children are going to have a secure future." The middle and working class people feel they're dedicating their time to a system that doesn't reward them with the things they need, so they hurry to take whatever they can get their hands on, before everything collapse.

This never works, especially not in our time, when it is precisely that mentality that has contributed to the slow decay of the West. Our time is running out, but our ideals and beliefs must not. They are supposed to be our guiding star for the future, whatever might happen to us or this system. ANUS will remain ANUS, because we're a voice of hope among the heap of garbage around us. Our message is the same as it's always been: awake to reality (nihilism), study its mechanisms (realism) and build for the future (idealism).

- Alexis

hi Arntor,

thank you for sharing your thoughts about werther and the review i wrote.

it's interesting to hear these words from a german, because at swedish universities we are taught that this book is the beginning to the coming german romanticist movement. i agree that it's a more complex novel than that, and that one could say it belongs more to "sturm und drang," but the focus on the sensitive subjective individual, the admiration for nature and ancient heritage (werther enjoys homer), and the rejection of the humanist values from the enlightment (albert), there are many things that point to romanticism, but your point is no less valid.

concerning albert's suicide, i agree with you, and also see it as a longer personal development, closely supported by the novel. his strong love to charlotte cannot, opposed to what albert thinks, be tamed by rational reasoning or moral conjections, which is another feature reminding us of future romanticist themes.

perhaps one easily confuse romanticism and sturm und drang, because the two of them seem very similar, from an outsider's perspective. i admit i haven't studied this period very much, although i enjoy some music from this time, e.g. joseph martin kraus. it seems to be a chaotic time, not entirely revolutionary as the romanticist movement was, but heading in the same direction. goethe, schiller and the rest are brilliant and need new exposure in our modern time.

interesting question!

for most people, i think it's partly a product of a general psychological awareness of one's own abilities and limitations (most people are mediocre in many or most contexts), but most importantly, it seems to be a natural product of a society built upon systems that uphold the lowest common denominator in all cases. the smart kid in class is told not to play einstein because it may hurt his slower friends, leadership is banned because it means not all people can play politicians on their free time (democracy), and our whole fixation on morality in general is a sign that we're afraid of something in life and thus have to cover it up with good-sounding subjective rules. you can't say your co-worker is a moron, because then you might lose your job, even if you're right.

also, i think it's important to be aware of the distinction between being aware of something and how you feel inside about it. it's vital to be aware of one's own limitations, but only decadent societies force people to actively feel mediocre or stupid, because it's a feeling that breaks down the individual and his or her belief in personal change. this is one of the reasons to why so many people today feel alienated and depressed; they live in a society that upholds the ego of the individual, but doesn't care about actual individuality and personal strength. we can change things, but only by voting on smiling idiots in power. we can experience love, but only if we buy all the perfumes and sex tips from the multinational corporations. we can enjoy classical music, but only if we agree that it's nonsense for rich people.

there is a difference between creating a cult around the individual as a shallow phenomenon, and understanding the true nature of an individual. democracies, ironically, do not understand the nature of how an individual operates, because they reduce us to commercial robots, not human beings. that's not humanism, that's robotism.

many people today are lost and feel insecure on how they should approach the problems around them. sadly, some fall in the trap of putting other people down to feel better about themselves. science confirms this to be true; we enjoy the power of playing victims or "suggesting" things without actually doing anything about a problem.

lashing out at us by a) calling us racists and b) being dishonest by claiming your motives are to "help" us, when you summarize the actual intent pretty well: "ANUS, like all truly beautiful things, you are a contradiction." you've given up and you want us to do the same thing, so that you don't feel bad about being passive.

the only way to escape this entropy, is to leave the passivity behind and become truly creative, like you talk about in your letter. ANUS is a creative hub for creative people to influence and make a change in the world. we don't really care if you join another organization or decide to stay home and watch TV; we got our shit together -- do you?

your "content" consisted out of a random rant, claiming we are full of hate because we don't agree with the current liberal agenda of masspopulation and pluralism. then you suddenly shift gear and once again try to play victim, acting like we've attacked you. jesus did the same thing ~2,000 years ago, but it didn't fool the smartest of people, and it won't fool us today.

we're not just a site on the internet, we're a voice in the real world. many of our members are engaged in several real-world movements and organize different forms of community events world wide. you shoot in the air, because it makes you feel good. we're not really threatened by a deluded person who creates straw man arguments to "win" a useless discussion.

if you're active and doing something in real life to make a positive change in the world, we salute that, but your motives to write in to us and "suggest" that we skip taking a stand against what we see as wrong by being "anti-ideology," or neglecting "isms" as you call it, is plain stupid, because we're not giving in to a world that kills the true creativity and spirit in man. fleeing the problems doesn't solve them, especially not when you're young and still have hope. use that power and energy toward something constructive, and suddenly there are no longer any enemies, just potential allies to build a better world to live in.

on the contrary, we want people to re-connect to the world around them. isolation is a process to find focus and be able to take part of reality. when that isolation becomes an end in itself, you're heading towards failure.
heavy metal summons millions and millions of people world wide and give them hope for the future. eugenics may scare most people off, hence why intelligent leaders in our society will deal with these issues. racism is not something we promote but condemn. defeatism is the opposite of our philosophy, which is a pragmatic idealism that wants to cure all depression and self-defeatism, by realizing the beauty in this world and how we must fight to preserve it.

behind that sea of noise and vulgarity, we believe there is a transcendent beauty and many truths about life. you seem to have a very stereotypical view of what metal and classical music are. have you listened to burzum? emperor? sacramentum? also, note that most metal is heavily influenced by classical music.

we started up a classical section some time ago, now archived for various reasons. we are working with CORRUPT.org to publish a new culture section where we of course will review and promote classical music, including the composers you mention. instead of complaining, how about helping us out by writing reviews?

if you wouldn't be so quick to condemn us, you'd notice that what you're talking about is exactly how we approach life and new experiences. by removing the illusions this society is imposing on us, we intepret reality free from prejudice and moral subjectivism. we promote the ultimate development of the perception, based on logic and experience.
many people write in to us and thank us for helping them getting out of their depression, by shutting out the social pressure around them and focus on what's important. as a result, they are able to meet the world with a cautious, brave and understanding spirit, that is critical in nature, but not necessarily condemning.

we use their natural abilities and inclinations to direct their creativity towards something that will both reward them personally and the world around them, thus avoiding both the egoism and the defeatism of today. i think you should read up on some of the practical articles that are published at CORRUPT:

http://www.corrupt.org/data/lifestyle
http://www.corrupt.org/data/open_courseware

we don't lash out at people for criticizing us, but criticism that's not productive and honest is boring. there are lots of people who write in to us now and then, and claim to a have a brand "new" way of how we should do things, but they're never willing to do anything themselves, hence the dishonest motives: they're here to talk and complain, nothing more. the problem, as we see it, is not the criticism itself, but that they drag other honest people down and create a cult around being passive and defensive. it's not positive, neither spiritually nor existentially.

if you have found a creative way of expressing meaningful ideas about life, we urge you to continue to do so. we will continue giving people hope and inspiration to move on, despite the horror around us, because ultimately life itself is amazing and therefore worth fighting for.

no; the whole point of the passage in question was more about punk than blues. it was that if an artist attempts to describe an experience, it should be done with 'authenticity' which is a commercial term for trying to describe honesty, insight, experience... i think the original blues had that, although i now know how very little of it came from america (none of it, in fact; the blues and rock were a commercial sham that some artists made into something good, notably muddy waters and willy dixon). authenticity is what punk music had, is what early metal had... the point of the passage is that technical ability != artistic ability, and this becomes especially clear if you diagram the sentence :)

my views on life -- in their most basic form -- have never changed since a relatively early age. i'd say there were two nodal points, one at age eight when i understood the forest for the first time, and the second at age 15 when i became a nihilist. however, knowledge has been acquired and these views have become refined in many ways. i do not speak ill of the vitality and coherence of early blues, only note, now, how little influence it has on bringing the human mind to clarity.

why, might i ask, is this question so pressing it keeps showing up? ;)

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

yes, sorry: long week and i'm using abbreviations.

that the lack of technical ability does not undermine the art, if it also possesses some sense of the authentic; concrete pantyhose and other faux art notwithstanding.

i'm fairly irony impaired. i think there are some things of value to praise about blues and rock, but to recognize their commercial and historical roots accurately is important. black blues was an important phenomenon, but perhaps not to those heading in an upward direction; there are artists in that group who are clearly more realistic and powerful than the average pop band. but as a movement, it is dreck... much like punk music, which had a few standouts in an overall movement with a direction inevitably carrying it toward collapse.

aha! ok, i am fairly amused at this one returning, and thank you for reading and thinking. i suggest anyone who is curious about music visit the record stores that sell budget classical, and explore that, as really most modern music has two layers: 1) music and 2) crowd control popularity. as such, much music ("lesser") plays mostly to (2) and (1) is often forgotten, although music which does retain authentic focus and a desire to communicate can obtain (1) even if it has the lesser technical ability of those we most commonly associate with (2).

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

that seems correct to me.

i think the blues was its own subgenre, but what's important is to realize that those who created it were not creating a musical genre, or really inventing anything, but finding a voice for themselves. it's more akin to the difference between industrial-tinged rock music and classical; not a giant leap, but there was an impetus there. it was not originally known as "the blues" as a style, but a variant of the predominant style called the blues for its mood... so the hype machine miscategorizes it, and makes it out to be the invention of an american music, when really no musics were invented in the americas -- it has only its adaptation of other musics (the quasi-indigenous peoples brough music with them from their homelands in asia and europe, and blues/rock is an extension of celtic folk, now called "country"). the reason i draw this distinction is that the hype machine has convinced many to become detached from musical tradition, to the detriment of culture and the enhanced sales of record moguls. the point of that passage in "vitiation" can be summarized as: authenticity can be bought and sold, and pretense regarding instrumentalism can be bandied about, but really what makes art is not form but the intent of those behind it, and yes i was thinking of punk bands like discharge and the cro-mags, who i consider the most vital that genre created. this applies doubly now as people are constantly hyping some musical "invention" and forgetting that art should be pure honest shaped into form by its content and the emotional intelligence of its creators, as a communication to its audience. i hope this makes sense and clarifies this thoroughly enjoyable debate, which covers topics that i wish were of greater prominence to starting artists.

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

you are correct with the industrial-tinged rock music idea.

you misunderstand the comment about the blues. my original comments stand: the creators knew what they were doing. however, as an art form, it is not african or american; it is celtic. that does not change what the original artists did.

the rest is the pretense of people in a modern time looking for neat categories when history is an intertwining of ideas.

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

the comment stands as is. there needs to be a separation between:

a) art as a communication medium in itself
b) the "form" of art as being some type of progress

as said, the passage was essentially about punk music, using the blues as a comparison.
recent comments about the blues are necessary to debunk the idea that rock and the blues are an invention; within that, some artists may create (a) of power.

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

yes, and you're not understanding my replies, i'm afraid. this would be repetition three: there is art, and art form. the blues as art was african, the blues as an art form is something else. in 1993 i knew it was not the "black invention" fairytale, although i suspected a chinese origin. as it turns out, arabs, chinese, indians, and celts have just about equal claim to it. my praise was for the ARISTS and not the FORM, and remains consistent. i don't think an artist should be criticized for formalist conformity so long as they state something of power, which i feel muddy waters did best.

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

yes, it's a question of content versus form. that is what is not being communicated. i stand by original and current statements.

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

your question has been answered three times in a row.

artistic content is what was spoken of; the form is not mentioned.

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

i do see your confusions, but i think they arise from equating "art" = "form of art" :)

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

while i'm not sure i disagree with you, i think you've pointed out a design flaw in christianity: in order to make the religion accessible to almost everyone, it supports a "whatever you think it is, it is" philosophy by being vague and embracing universal contextless absolutes like "love" and "pity" instead of focusing on structure of argument. consequently, the religion is doomed to forever be split into thousands of sects each with radically different interpretations based on the idea of a personal reality, a personal god, and a religion into which one can inject any interpretation that relies on the previous two. if a piece of software did this, i'd call it a "design flaw," and i'd say the same thing about any type of philosophy (for the sake of analysis, religions are philosophies) that's so wide open.

that being said, i have no problem with those who misinterpret christianity in a realistic manner. i don't think pacifism and unwillingness to oppress the deluded is realistic, but i do think transcendental christian thinkers like johannes eckhart, ralph waldo emerson and arthur schopenhauer are worthy of study and emulation. in fact, we're setting up a portal dedicated to such people here, and would like volunteers to help out. would you be interested in helping correct the misapprehensions of christian doctrine in this way?

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

don't worry; our Friend is just a part of the power of God, thus a way for us to understand how God thinks and operates. which in the end, hopefully, will lead to greater knowledge about life itself.

i'm afraid you've misunderstood that statement and fueled it with some traditional white supremacism. i'm not sure where you got the "superior races" from and why they necessarily would be jews and blacks (that, on the other hand, sound quite racist to me), but i believe that nietzsche's concept of the overman is not confined to the german people. it's an idealistic vision of an individual who overcomes its primitive, materialistic comfort and instead accepts the pain and suffering as natural parts of life, to overcome these things and fight for its ideals, regardless of morality and/or material death.

the german NS movement appreciated nietzsche because his philosophy - the will to power - well described their political-cultural concept, but it's unfair to discredit nietzsche by trying to turn him into a nazi. also, note that he was very much against anti-semitism.

i hope this answered your question.

thanks for your kind email.

i'm not really sure i share your utilitarian passion here; our belief is that our anus should be as morally "holy" as jesus or money, but once you begin focusing only on anus, your values turn to shit. to escape this, accept your anus as the beautiful and necessary part of your organic body as a whole, but don't stare yourself blind on it.

as nietzsche noted: "when you stare into an abyss, the abyss stares also into you."

we're glad you enjoyed the article. obviously it gave you a sense of purpose in firing off the diatribe you directed at our email. now, we'd like to ask: what facts or logical arguments constitute the basis of your disagreement? please respond in the platonic style. thanks!

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

as you can see, it is a modified version of the original algiz rune, that we have chosen to resemble a tree, hinting at out integralist philosophy; the philosophy of life as an organic process.

most movies are crap, but here's a small list of films i believe carry nihilist properties:

Aftermath (beauty in death)
Apocalypse Now: Redux (a poetic journey through a West that is dying from within)
Blade Runner (a dystopic, futuristic vision of a globalized, corporate America)
Cannibal Holocaust (a modern West unable to understand ancient cultures)
Death in Venice (art cannot be achieved via moral restraints)
The Idiots (intellectuals trying to escape the empty bourgeois lifestyle)
The Phantom Carriage (God will not save us from what we can save ourselves)
Taxi Driver (a lonely man rebelling against modern society)
Waking Life (dreamy, post-modern discussion about art and life)
anything by Ingmar Bergman, especially the Seventh Seal, Winter Light and Fanny and Alexander

of course there's a bunch of other good films that you ought to explore on your own, but this is a pretty interesting introduction to nihilist cinema.

we get this letter in its varied forms all the time, or see it on the forums. the basic form is this: why don't you be more positive, because you're obssessed with negativity because (it is implied) you are "deficient" or losers.

did you really think this site was all about death, or rather, dealing with the individual's personal mortality? i think that is your projection, and your dysfunction, because this site is all about life -- and how to live it sanely.

if we were purely negative, as you note, we would not bother writing. rather, we are a few awakened peoples in a world of sleepwalkers who in their desire to avoid "negativity" have banished all unpopular, anti-social, and offensive "negative thoughts" like new age hippies and corporate car advertisements alike. that is the norm, and it is a mental error that leads to all forms of corrupt: people are in denial.

our goal is to find a way to escape this denial (nihilism), find out what is actually important in life (transcendentalism), design a method of achieving it in harmony with nature (idealism), consider the whole of the situation (holism) and put it into practice (realism). that's what this site does... and what do you do?

i mean, besides complain to others that their form of realistic giving a damn could be construed as "negative" by some bitter nobody with a keyboard.

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

my problem here is this: people who say "don't take it too seriously" are usually underconfident; they don't want to pick an idea and stand behind it. it's better to admit that and proceed as a scientist.

second, i'm from a country where over half of the doctors leave medical school unfit to operate, and many end up doing rather disreputable things. so forgive me if your degree in the future, possibly, doesn't wow me.

if everyone would join together against jobs... well, wouldn't that be nice, but your first problem is that most people have no resentment toward jobs. they like them and consider them a good alternative.

i want each nation/ethnicity to have its own space to preserve indigenous culture.

i'm not sure i follow you with your question about anger toward jews; i'm not sure if there is any on the website, although clearly we're sceptical of materialistic religions like judaism and christianity! did you know that in the USA, most people named nowak/novak are jewish? we have a fascinating jewish population here and many of them are good people. they, too, are under assault by the globalist monoculture and should work to preserve their nation/ethnicity despite the cost. if you are jewish, you need to spend less time "getting laid" and more time finding a nice jewish girl with whom to reproduce children you will educate in traditional ways. your other option is for them to learn "culture" from malls and television. do you respect that kind of "culture"?

our ideas apply equally to africans, europeans, jews, arabs, nazis, christians and anal violators who live in basements and emerge at midnight to prey upon the unwilling. it's worth reading deeper, if you can gain the confidence to realize it will call upon you to take a stand, but that in turn will increase your testicle size by 28%

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

if we put happy pink elements on the homepage, we would get people who want to go back into comfortable modern states of denial. we are both darkness and light. others are one or the other.

we've got a french tribe (http://www.anus.com/tribes) coming later this year and it looks to be quite an impressive, in-depth one. if you have interest in helping out, we need more articulate people to push forward our vision instead of the dysfunctional ones we see everywhere else.

interesting on the music. i just completed an article on metal and jazz, and it will be published this friday in conjunction with another jazz site. no time to be a sexual predator or serial killer, sorry!

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

good question. our goal is to find music whose creators have studied reality, formulated a theory of transcendent living, and replied with a concentrated focus in which they are able to express eternal truths of being alive. some bands approach this level but, for reasons of being unfocused or unable to confront unpleasant but necessary realities, do not quite qualify. we will look into the later works of bal-sagoth in the future.

v. Prozak
textarbeiter

hi Urian,

i mentioned freemasons and zionists in the same sentence, because both are:

a) groups who have been or are part of conspiracy theories

b) groups that want to change society by establishing a new ethical/political order within it

i claim that a) is silly and that b) is a failure. if one wants to change society, one doesn't form interest groups within it to rebel against it, but melt in with the social system and reform it from within. this is contrary to the marxist idea that change is best done through revolution; we don't believe in revolution, we believe in reformation.

interest groups create internal divisions, which we see as a threat to a healthy society. our vision of a functioning society is the platonic one, based on consensus on values, ideals and goals. we don't need another "order" that will save us from their social evils, we need to remake the current order as a whole for the better.

i'm sorry, i write for CORRUPT.org, ANUS is a partner-site.

Alex Birch / Editor of CORRUPT.org

August 10, 2007