Originally appeared in Internationale Situationniste
No. 6 (August 1961). Unauthorised translation
taken from Smile No. 9 Pataphysics
- A Religion
In The Making Asger Jorn
The history of religion fails into
three
stages. Materialist, or natural religion,
completed the final phase of its development
in the Bronze Age. Metaphysical religion
emerged with Zoroastrianism and advanced
through Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
before maturing in the Reformation.
Pataphyslcs,
the third religious stage - set to
galvanise
human thought and action in about two
hundred
years time - emanates from Alfred Jarry's
visionary system.
It is only recently that the religious content
of Pataphysics has become apparent. Prior
to this development, Jarry's invention remained
largely unknown beyond the small circle who
published the esoteric Cahiers du College de Pataphysique. But all this changed when a special Pataphysical
number of the Evergreen Review was published in New York.
Although the Americans have now claimed
the
honour of presenting Pataphysics to
the world,
they didn't dare mention the word religion
in their journal. Nevertheless, the
enormous
success Pataphysics enjoyed last year
among
the New World intelligentsia has inaugurated
an epoch in which the essentially religious
nature of this phenomena will be carefully
analysed. You'd have to have a cold
to miss
the stink its causing! Natural religion
is
the spiritual confirmation of material
existence.
Metaphysical religion represents the
establishment
of an ever deepening rift between material
and spiritual life. The various metaphysical
religions indicate the degree to which
such
a polarisation has already taken place.
The
process by which this rift advances
is complicated,
and often retarded, by an attachment
to natural
rites - which are transformed, with
varying
degrees of success, into metaphysical
ceremonies
and myths. The stupidity of maintaining
a
metaphysical culture in an age already
overtaken
by a scientific paradigm is illustrated
by
[the] dictum Kierkegaard chose as confirmation
of the Christian system of knowledge
- that
is, that it is necessary to have faith
in
the face of absurdity. The question
that
naturally follows from this is: 'Why?'
The
answer is immediately apparent: the
secularised
authorities require a spiritual justification
of their power. This materialist argument
dates from the period in which the
critique
of all ancient mythologies was beginning.
Simultaneously to the development of
this
materialist critique, a mythology capable
of answering the new social exigencies
was
fashioned from spare parts. Surrealism,
existentialism
and lettrism all disappeared up this
metaphysical
back alley.
Indeed, the classical lettristes persevered
so nobly in their effort to reunite
all those
elements which had become irreconcilable
in the modern world, that - by working
backwards
- they ended up reviving the ideas
of the
messiah and the resurrection of the
dead;
anything and everything that guarantied
the
unilateral character of faith! Now
that politicians
possess the means of total destruction,
anyone
who concerns themself with the end
of the
world takes on the perspective of the
state.
Completely secularised, Metaphysical
opposition
to the physical world is definitively
destroyed.
The struggle terminated by total default.
The scientific paradigm is the only
victor
in any such debate.
A religion cannot be considered objectively
true if its truth conflicts with what
is
known as scientific truth; and a religion
which falls to represent the truth
is no
longer a religion. It will soon be
generally
recognised that this conflict has been
resolved
by Pataphysics. Jarry and his followers
have
placed on the level of the absolute
a basic
idea of modern science: that is to
say, the
concept of the constancy of equivalents.
The ground was prepared for the theory
of
equivalence by the Christian concept
of man's
equality before God. But it was only
with
scientific and industrial development
that
this principle was imposed on all sectors
of life; and finally arrived, via scientific
socialism, at universal social equality.
The fact that the principle of equality
could
no longer be limited to the spiritual
world
led to plans for scientific surrealism
-
as sketched out in Alfred Jarry's theories.
Here, the Kierkegaardian principle
of the
absurd has been supplemented by the
axiom
of the equivalence of absurdities (equivalence
of gods among themselves; and between
gods,
men and things). In this way a future
religion
is founded, one which is indestructible
on
its own ground: pataphysical religion
encompasses
equally all the possible and impossible
religions
of the past, present and future.
If Pataphysics had been taught anonymously,
and avoided criticism, it might have
slipped
unnoticed into the world. Had this
had happened,
the apparently insoluble problem of
Pataphysical
authority - the consecration of the
inconsecratable
- would not have occurred.
But, alas, we are only too aware that
Pataphysics
appeared in the wake of other religions
to
fulfil an identical function. And so,
Pataphysics
can't be materialised into a social
authority
without recourse to an antiPataphysical
praxis;
because to become socially recognisable
it
would have to be invested with a social
power.
Consequently, Pataphysical religion
is an
unconscious victim of its own superiority
over all prevalent metaphysical systems.
It should not be necessary to emphasise
that
no reconciliation is possible between
the
principles of superiority and equivalence.
The great merit of pataphysics is to
have
confirmed that there is no metaphysical
justification
for forcing everybody to believe in
the same
absurdity, possibilities for the absurd
and
in art are legion. The only logical
deduction
that can be made from this principle
is the
anarchist thesis: to each his own absurdities.
The negation of this principle is expressed
in the legal power of the state, which
forces
all citizens to submit to an identical
set
of political absurdities.
It must by now be apparent that once
a Pataphysical
authority is accepted, it becomes a
demagogic
weapon against the Pataphysical spirit.
Thus
the Pataphysical programme itself,
prevents
the existence of any Pataphysical organisation;
and from this fact we can deduce that
it
is impossible to form a Pataphysical
church.
The impossibility of creating a pataphysical
situation in social life also prevents
the
creation of a social situation in the
name
of Pataphysics. The reasons for this
have
already been outlined. Equivalence
entails
the complete elimination of any concept
we
might have of situations or events.
Now that Pataphysics finds itself placed
in an objective cultural situation,
the inevitable
consequence of the preceding definition
is
a split in the body of Pataphysical
believers;
between pure antisituationists and
those
who - holding to the pataphysical premise
of equivalents - still favour the development
of organised absurdities. Such absurdities
maybe referred to as games.
The game is the Pataphysical overture
to
the world. The realisation of such
games
is the creation of situations. A crisis
therefore
exists, caused by the crucial problem
which
each Pataphysical adept must resolve:
s/he
must either apply the situlogic method
and
attack the conditions of the reigning
society,
or else simply refuse to do anything
whatsoever
about the situation. It is in the latter
resolution to this problem that Pataphysics
becomes the religion best adapted to
life
in the society of the spectacle: a
religion
of passivity and pure absence.
The Situationist International, the
organisation
of antiorganisers, faces an equally
serious
choice. Whether or not it should adopt
the
Pataphysical principle as an antimetaphysical
weapon: one that is forever reinvented
in
the creation of new games. The absurdity
of superiority and absurd superiority
are
the key elements of these games. Authority
is their essential goal. If the game
is liberation,
it is best to begin by applying the
principle
of equivalents: the situation can then
be
constructed with an appearance of superiority.
On the other hand, if a metaphysical
base
is used as the starting point, the
situlogic
will be dragged down to the level of
the
spectacle: a modernised servitude.
After a long process of fermentation
the
basic elements for a new game are now
emerging
from their previously obscure existence.
Time alone will tell whether these
elements
are compatible or antagonistic.
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