Neoism
is an artistic rather than scientific approach. It is an open
approach not dependant on provability.
First
of all, Neoism is based on laws of formation and dissolution, of mass
influences, and environmental limitations. Neoists find new ways of
communication. The important thing is that Neoism has decided make life
fun.
Second,
Neoism tends to destroy rigorous,
precise, and tested rules, every Neoists is free to follow his own
impulses. In this he will show his genius or lack thereof.
Third,
one type of Neoism will be found suitable in one situation and
completely
useless in another. To undertake an active Neoist operation, it is not
necessary to make a scientific, sociological and psychological analysis
first.
Proper training is not necessary for those who want to use Neoist
research to
full effectiveness.
Finally,
one last trait reveals the artistic character of Neoism: it does not
depend on
external controls or criteria, it is not concerned with standards of
success
and failure, it remains undefined in its goals. A Neoist is prompted by
a
certain internal impulse to experimentation and a desire to ponder.
The
Individual and the Masses
Neoism
will, first of all, address itself at one and the same time to the
individual
and the masses. It cannot separate the two elements. For Neoism to
address
itself to the individual, in his isolation, apart from the crowd, is
very
possible. The individual, as an isolated unit, is of great interest to
the
Neoist Society. To win people over one by one is a typical Neoist
Society strategy.
Neoism begins where simple dialogue begins.
A
Neoism that functioned only where individuals are gathered together
would be
incomplete and insufficient. Neoism reaches individuals yet it also
aims at a
crowd, but only as a body understood to be composed of individuals.
The
individual is considered in terms of what unique characteristics he
has, such
as his motivations, his feelings, or his myths. The individual is never
considered as part of the mass because in that way his psychic defenses
are
stronger, his reactions are faster and more provocative and he is less
prone to
identify a message as being directed exactly at him. But the individual
must
never be considered as being alone; the listener to a pirate radio
broadcast,
though actually alone, is nevertheless part of a large group, and he is
aware
of it.
Pirate
radio listeners have been found to exhibit a kind of terrorist
mentality. All
are tied together and constitute a sort of underground society in which
all
individuals are accomplices though they may never meet any other
members of the
group that believe themselves to be a part of.
When
Neoism is addressed to a crowd, it must touch each individual in that
crowd. To
be effective, it must give the impression of being personal, for we
must never
forget that the masses are composed of individuals, and is in fact
nothing but
assembled individuals.
When
individuals are in a group, their individuality is weakened, they enter a state of receptivity, and are
in a state of psychological regression yet they pretend all the more to
be
strong individuals. The crowd as an organism is clearly subhuman but
pretends
to give superhuman qualities to its members.
Thus
Neoism profits from the structure of the mass, but exploits the
individual's
need for self-affirmation. Neoism has precisely this remarkable effect
of
reaching the whole crowd all at once, and yet reaching each individual
in that
crowd.
The
movie spectator, though elbow to elbow with his neighbors, is always
alone,
separated by the darkness and the hypnotic attraction of the screen.
This is
the situation of the "lonely crowd", or of isolation in the mass,
which is a natural product of present-day hi-tech society and which is
both
used and deepened by Neoism.
The
most favorable moment to seize the attention and influence a potential
participant is when he is alone in the crowd: it is at this point that
Neoism
can be most effective.
Neoism
must be total. Neoists may utilize all of the technical means at their
disposal
- the press, radio, TV, movies, posters, graffiti, stickers, mail-art,
networking, music, Internet, video, DVD, computers, painting,
sculpture,
poetry, novels, collage, montage, etc. There is no Neoism as long as
one makes
use, in sporadic fashion and at random, of a manifesto here, a poster
or a
radio program there, organizes a few apartment festivals and network
meetings,
writes a few slogans on the walls; that is not enough. Each usable
medium has
its own particular way of limited penetration. A video does not play on
the
same motives, does not produced the same feelings, does not provoke the
same
reactions as a poster. The very fact that the effectiveness of each
medium is
limited to one particular area clearly shows the necessity of
complementing it
with other media. A word spoken on the radio is not the same, does not
produce
the same effect, does not have the same impact as the identical word
spoken in
private conversation at an apartment festival or in a public speech
before a
large crowd at a stadium. To draw the individual into net of Neoism,
each
technique must be utilized in its own specific way, directed toward
producing
the effect it can best produce, and fuse with all the other media, each
of them
reaching the individual in a specific fashion and making him react anew
to the
same theme - in the same direction, but differently.
Human
contact is the best medium for the spreading of the Neoist agenda in
terms of
social climate, fast infiltration, progressive inroads, and over-all
integration.
Public meetings and posters are more suitable tools for providing shock
effect,
intense but temporary, leading to immediate action. The press tends
more to
shape general views; radio and TV are likely to be instruments of
international
action and impregnation of the psycho-mental sphere, whereas the press
is used
domestically. In any case, it is understood that because of this
specialization
not one of these instruments may be left out: they must all be used in
combination.
We
are here in this world in the presence of an self organizing reality
that
already controls the formation of the entire universe. We merely are
creating a
mythic version of it to facilitate our ability to communicate to each
other
about it and help to shape our expression of it. Through the myth it
creates,
Neoism imposes a complete range of intuitive knowledge. Intuitive
knowledge -
being ambiguous – is susceptible to multi-sided interpretation.
This
myth – due to the primal nature to which it refers - becomes so
powerful that
it invades every area of communication, leaving no faculty or
motivation
unaffected. It stimulates in the individual a feeling of all
inclusiveness.
Neoism has such motivational force that it engages the whole of the
individual.
This
explains the totalitarian attitude that the Neoist adopts where ever
Neoism has
successfully been inculcated.
Everything
can serve as a means of Neoist propaganda and everything must be
utilized.
Neoism
is continuous and everlasting - continuous in that it leaves no gaps,
but fills
the Neoist´s whole day and all his days; everlasting in that it
functions into
the incalculable future.
Neoism
occupies every moment of the Neoist's life, at home, in the street, at
the
dentist, in a bar or in bed. Its base
is a constant impregnation of the impulses of the Now into the mind of
the
Neoist. It creates convictions and compliance through imperceptible
influences.
Neoism
is a complete environment for the Neoist master from which he never
emerges.
Neoism
is not a stimulus that disappears quickly; it consists of successive
impulses
and shocks aimed at various feelings or thoughts. As soon as one effect
wears
off, it is followed by a new shock.
The
Now is always surprising. Thus the content of Neoism can seem so
inconsistent
that it can approve today what it condemned yesterday. Monty Cantsin
considers
this changeability of Neoism an indication of its confusing nature.
Actually it
is only an indication of the grip it exerts, of the reality of its
effects.
Neoism
continues its assault without an instant's respite. The Now is forever
just now
happening and the Neoists are there to participate in it.
Neoism
is a self arising, self organizing and self correcting thus it must not
be organized
along any particular rule. Though Neoism negates the need of a
centralized
administrative organization, each practitioner of Neoism is the
administrator
of his own activities. The practice of Neoism is tied to the realities
of the
everyday life of each practitioner which spawn the specific rules of
construction of all individual Neoist actions and activities.
Neoism
cannot operate from inside of a vacuum cleaner. This is a principal
conviction
of Monty Cantsin.
Neoism
operates through the promise of a better future - an effective way of
counter-propaganda. Thus the apparatus of Neoism removes the people
from a
reliance on past traditions that lose weight on the treadmill of
argument.
Neoism
then, is practice. Practice furnishes the Neoist with vital reasons,
juicy
justifications, and rejuvenating motivations for continuing his daily
neoist
activities and refining his wakefulness.
Each
must act with sincerity as if they believe in what they are doing. This
is the
only way to find complete satisfaction in Neoism
Each
Neoist is a representative of the holographic organization that is the
Neoist
Society: each is a complete Neoist Society in himself; a
self-sufficient shard
of the greater body of the Neoist Society. Monty Cantsin is the greater
body of
which each Neoist is a part, his personage casting the long shadow of
Neoism.
Each has an inner knowing that lets him know why he speaks certain
words and
what effect they should have. His words are no longer human words but
hyper-words of entirely spontaneous ideas to reflect the structure of
the
Neoist Society. When necessary he can turn in the opposite direction
and act
with similar conviction should the New require his to move thusly. He
must
believe only in the arising Newness and not bogged down by the past in
order to
remain fluid.
No
Monty Cantsin will never become the prisoner of his own formulas. What
protects
him is his exact and precise adherence to the principles of the New and
the
Neoist Society to which he belongs. The Neoist Society never promotes
rigidity.
Orthopraxy
Neoism
is very frequently described as a conspiracy of the New for the purpose
of
replacing old ideas or opinions, with new and better ideas and
opinions. Neoism
is based on an intuitive response to the ever arising New rather than a
reasoned building up of traditional beliefs into an edifice of logical
stupidity.
Once
awakened the Neoist’s first response to this miss shapened body of
incongruities is to make fun of it, though parody and mocking: to then
abandon
its false order and raise up nonsense
in its place but this is only to add braces and prosthetic devices to a
disfigured tragedy that is the result of accidental conditions.
This
is much of what we have seen in Neoism till now. This line of reasoning
is
completely wrong. To view Neoism as still being what it was in 1960 is
to cling
to an obsolete concept; it is to condemn oneself to understand nothing
about
Neoism.
To
cleave to the ever arising New is to create a firm adherence to truth
and to
negate everything else. If one’s sincerity is sufficiently strong;
one´s
intuitions sufficiently clear and after some soul searching, the
individual is
ready for the destruction of the edifice of belief he has falsely
groomed to as
his self leading to the possibility of being an awakened Neoist - the most dangerous creature alive.
The
aim of Neoism is to open the door, leave the cage and learn to fly.
Neoism
aims solely at the artful participation of the free and awakened Neoist
in the
everyday life all around him sometimes passively sometimes through
action.
To
be effective, Neoism must constantly short circuit all artificial
thought and
decision making. Neoism has meaning only when it obtains the
convergence of the
ever arising internal impulses, with the artful expression of the
Neoist.
Neoism must at once operate on the individual at the superficial level
of the
ultra-conscious in concert with the profoundly internal intuitive
knowing . The
individual knows that he is being shaped by the internal forces of Now
while bring
refinements to that shaping with his growing knowledge of Neoism
without care
about the release that will provide the appropriate action at the
appropriate
moment.
Action
by an awakened Neoist makes Neoism’s effect irresistible. The awakened
Neoist
can never return to that life that went before when he lived in a
random poorly
constructed dream of someone else’s making. He is now obliged for his
own good
through his Neoist wakefulness to uphold Neoist practice. He is obliged
to
continue to advance in the direction indicated by the Neoist impulses
arising
within him: starting demands continuing. The individual who has acted
in
accordance with Neoism has taken up his place in the Neoist Society.
From then
on old farts hanging onto the past make themselves his enemies. Often
the power
of his connection to newness causes an estrangement with what had been
previously established. He starts to recognize new friends that the
Neoist
Society has made for him. He is caught up in a movement that totally
occupies
his consciousness. Neoism and the Now occupies him completely and we
must bear
in mind that if Neoism leads to this kind of participation it is
child's play –
the very best kind of play.
In
order for a Neoist to become a master a certain amount of time must
elapse, a
period of training and conditioning. One cannot hope to obtain subtle
reactions
to the ever arising impulses of the Now after only a few weeks'
practice. A
real psychic reformating of priorities must be undertaken, so that
after
months of patient work a Neoist will react automatically in the
hoped-for
direction to his inner impulses. What is visible in Neoism, what is
spectacular
and seems to us often incomprehensible or unbelievable, is possible
only
because of such slow preparation; without it nothing would be possible.
Be
patient and persistant.