Acid communism
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| Anarchism in Gylias |
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| Communism in Gylias |
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Acid communism is a variant of anarchism in Gylias that refers to the intersection of political radicalism, popular culture, and psychedelic experimentation. It was first proposed by Marie-Hélène Arnaud and Janet Randy in 1967.
Acid communism emphasises the importance of a utopian and experimental sensibility in popular culture, allied with a radical tradition of opposing capitalism and envisioning alternatives to it. It also advocates the radical and emancipatory potential of drugs and psychedelia.
It is one of Gylias' most influential schools of lifestylism, and has had a substantial impact on Gylian popular culture.
Etymology
The term comes from Marie-Hélène and Janet's book Acid Communism: A Manifesto, published in 1967. "Acid" comes from the slang term for LSD, and was used by the authors to describe an attitude of improvisation and creativity towards the world.
The term, in addition to illustrating the authors' sense of humour, also serves to align acid communism with the New Left, in opposition to the socially conservative and limited aspirations of the Old Left.
Overview
Acid communism primarily concerns itself with social and cultural issues rather than economics; it is thus considered a strand of lifestylism. It posits popular culture as a terrain of struggle against oppression and a space of popular freedom, and thus argues that capturing popular support and realising collective consciousness through the cultural sphere is an important political task.
It advocates marrying the utopian sensibility and prefigurative heritage of the Free Territories to new and innovative cultural forms, producing a "popular modernism" that would spread radical ideas and an atmosphere of optimism beneficial to the revolutionary project.
Reflected in its name, one of acid communism's most famous tenets is championing the radical and liberating potential of drugs. Emerging in the context of Project Nous and the "psychedelic revolution", Marie-Hélène and Janet present psychedelics as a potentially powerful tool to break down old prejudices, transform individual consciousness, and expand popular imagination, defeating the alienated condition attacked by Marxist humanism.
In essentially advocating the mobilisation of psychedelia for the revolutionary project, acid communism takes an enthusiastic stance towards popular culture. Marie-Hélène famously attacked the Frankfurt School's dismissal of popular culture in her "cheerfully insulting" polemic Contre les franc-faibles ("Against the Frank-weaklings" — a pun on "Frankfurt"). Its founders later elaborated on acid communism in the 1990s–2000s with their work on the solidaristic, liberating potential of dance culture and nightlife.
Impact
Acid communism is one of the most popular schools of lifestylism in Gylias, and has achieved significant influence in politics and popular culture. From the beginning, it served as a political counterpart to the "psychedelic revolution", helping foreground psychedelic music in a radical milieu.
It has been the foundation of extensive anarchist analysis and exploration of popular culture, from Marie-Hélène and Janet's analysis of how The Beaties mainstreamed the malleability of consciousness and reality with their psychedelic work, to the exploration of the socialist potential of dance culture in the late 20th–early 21st centuries. It forms part of the background that shaped the worldview of Gylian Sound, Neo-Gylian Sound, and city pop.
Acid communism was adopted as an ideology by the LSD Party, whose success led to the emergence of similar currents emphasising the revolutionary potential of other famously libertarian aspects of Gylian society, such as sex work and pornography. In the media, Radix is an influential outlet for acid communism-informed perspectives on the confluence of politics and popular culture.
Its emphasis on popular culture as a medium for transmitting revolutionary messages is credited with shaping the Gylian cyberculture, particularly its profusion of leftist internet memes.
Acid communism gained some infamy abroad as a symbol of the Golden Revolution's radicalism, and its break with the more "traditionalist" Old Left. These same aspects gained it the admiration of various Tyranian radicals and anarchists.