Communication by a Tabloid Journalist

Joe Kelly

From the Raven 12,

As I am writing this, the small flickering screen in the corner of my room is
telling me that an American space probe has just passed behind the planet Venus.
I mention that fact simply to put what I am about to say in some kind of
perspective.
So often when anarchists talk about communication, it's communication in the
form of leaflets,of pamphlets and small groups huddled in bar room corners.
It's not surprising we anarchists see ourselves as a desperate minority. there
days we've been maligned as never before. The very word anarchy has passed into
common usage as a pseudonym for any form of chaos and disorder.
And if we are to believe everything we hear,see and read in the media we've also
been busier than ever before.
There's anarchy underpinning the Poll Tax riots, there's anarchy breaking out in
the Eastern Bloc countries, in the Middle East,South America, in our Health
Service,on the roads, in football grounds, at the local jumble sale.
Somewhere along the line there has been a serious breakdown in communication. Is
it really possible that our more illustrious predecessors struggled over the
centuries hammering out a philosophy that today is simply a journalist's byword
for any kind of disorder?
There is undoubtedly something inherent in our beliefs that leads us to shun the
media. Perhaps a century ago newspapers and books were still being printed with
the noble aim of education. In today's world of sexual titillation and scandal
we're wholly justified in feeling we don't wish to belong.
But this stance raises on of the great dilemmas that most political
philosophies, and anarchists in particular,encounter at some point - the thorny
question of participation for change
Over the years there's been a consensus of opinion that anarchists will not be
fielding MPs writing leader notes in the sunday Times or talking to Sun
reporters.
Instead the various shades of anarchist opinion have huddled themselves together
in small groups,publishing lengthy monologues for their colleagues on everything
from "The dynamics of post syndicalist utopian communities" to"What really
happened in the Spanish Civil War"
There may be some relevance in all of this eulogising. I would'nt question the
sincerity of its authors, but I've been watching the newsreel of the Venus
satellite, and I can't help feeling that, somewhere along the line the world has
moved on.
You do have to admire the materialists, the financiers, the rational scientists,
the bankers, stock brokers, factory owners and double glazing salesmen.
They share a communal belief in the moral justification of commerce, of
competition, of 'wealth for all'.
It's been but a few hundred years since this new breed emerged from the swamps
of human endeavour. In that short space of time they've changed the way we
perceive our entire world. An the pace has become relentless, as daily we are
bombarded with an ever increasing flow of highly manipulative and apparently
irresistible images of wealth,happiness and material achievement.
It would be easy for me to say we anarchist are to blame for our lack of
influence on this catastrophic trend. We've often been so poorly
organised,poorly financed, and simply too concerned about each others welfare to
run with the flock. I would'nt feel ashamed with that admission,but equally I'm
none too happy about the outcome.
These days it seems we spend so long deciding exactly where we are going to
pitch our political arguments, that the parade has already passed before we've
reached any agreement on our part in it.
The sad fact at the end of the day is simply that your average citizen knows
perfectly well that 'Madonna was bonking Warren Beatty' and that 'Anarchists
want to blow everything up.'
We live in an age of increasing unreality, of mass produced
fantasies,misinformation and delusion. After decades of getting the product just
right, we're now fed on a daily diet of garbage that very cleverly keeps us just
discontented enough to want to work, to earn more money, to fulfil the dreams
that mean we won't have to work any more.
How can you blame us for being such fools? After watching the omnibus edition of
Brookside, of Coronation St, neighbours, Home and Away,the Young Doctors, and
Eastenders,(then there's scandal and bingo in the tabloids,most of the news -
which means nothing anyway 'cos it's happening somewhere else to someone else) -
they've got it just about right, havent they?
This may sound a trifle negative, but I'm hoping to make an important point. Out
there on the streets is a full-scale,full-time menace, feeding fodder to the
masses. it's efficient,effective, and it's going to be around for a very long
time to come.
Those who influence the way of the world have really got the present stitched
up. They've bought up our destiny and created a whole new lifestyle that
obviously favours their philosophy,that guarantees their positions of power.
Maybe the purists are right. Maybe, if we keep struggling on with our leaflets
and pamphlets, a day will come when the disillusioned masses will seek us out.
But rather I suspect that we will simply remain an endanged species, a small
body of eccentric men and woman arguing for something nobody wants - however
much they may need it.
But I'm not a purist I'm a firm believer in getting my hands dirty. Our society
is in a pretty awful mess and we've got to start reversing the rot somewhere.
And I think we have to begin by taking the very great risk of actually mixing
with those whom we so much deride.
It is after all a very weak philosophy that dare not test its metal on the open
market for which it was created.
I'm a journalist, a tabloid journalist, on a regional paper that is all too
often full of SATANIC SEX RINGS EAT FOETUSES stories.
Everyone knows I'm an anarchist, and my colleagues know what anarchism is. It's
not an adjective they would use these days to describe 'chaos and disorder'.
for me it used to very self-gratifying to write long monologues for obscure
pamphlets that needed a 150,000 w ord dictionary and a six months headache to
decipher,but I gradually came to the conclusion that if the nation ain't reading
it, then nobody's reading it!
Most of us in this country may see the media as a Tory led big-business
propaganda machine. Maybe it has a latent slant in that direction, but I don't
think that the likes of John Profumo,Cecil Parkinson or Nick Ridley would
entirely agree.
It may not be a very good press, but it's there,it can have teeth, and it still
has a role to play. However biased it may be, it is the only place left where
any of us have a chance of taking on the powers-that-be, an actually winning on
the odd occasion.
In the main I write features about people and their achievements. A person who
overcomes a disability,or group who raise enough money to buy new medical
equipment. Light and readable, it is also a highly political exercise, because
it's about people doing things for themselves, together - organisation without
coercion.
It occurs to me that amongst ourselves there's far too much insistence on
anarchy as a title, rather than as a way of life. protestors taking on the might
of a local council to save their allotments don't have to call themselves
anarchists to be doing something anarchistic.
Truth is,I believe that most people are passive anarchists - we just alienate
them by thrusting a dull and often dogmatic philosophy down their throats.
The best way to communicate anarchist ideas is by simple example ,by
participation. for god's sake, if this ideology is about people, then we should
be mixing with them, all of them - interacting, educating.
The world actually is, at this moment in history,more loaded with possibilities
than it has ever been . the various forms of the media represent a kind of gloss
, a sickly top coat over what's really happening in society. Your average sun
reader may like his or her 'scandal and bingo', but that's just escapism, and at
heart we're all aware that we're being sold short. Our daily reality remains
firmly rooted on the factory floor,behind the desk, the staff canteen or the
nursery.
I'm pleased to say that there's a change in mood these days, a restlessness with
the idea of a national psyche, and an ever deepening need for individual
opportunity,for a sense of place community, kinship.
We do seem to be entering an age that, if we have the vision to seize the
initiative, is all but anarchistic in its aspirations.
This is the era of the community newsletter, the residents' association,
community radio. New local papers are springing up everywhere in response to a
new found interest in local affairs. Television companies are falling over each
other these days to improve their 'local' coverage.
Perhaps at long last society is moving inexorably towards a reinstatement of the
importance of the individual. The Greens, the Christians,even the good ole'
Tories themselves are all jumping on the 'one world - one community' bandwagon.
What was for so long seen as 'minority interest' is now a fervent and
fashionable obsession
Most significant of all, the advent of satellite and local cable television has
the potential to offer boundless opportunities to all of us.
Here at home my simple computer is linked to the phone line, used to send
material to where I work. But I have also taught myself to use this technology
to dial up anarchist bulletin boards in Chicago,Amsterdam,Sydney,everywhere.
With this technology you can send the entire text of this book you are now
reading to a thousand different locations around the world in a matter of
minutes. If that isn't spreading the word,I don't know what is!
This may of course seem like an obscure,expensive and self indulgent elitism to
many anarchists - it is none of those things. And it's no more than utilising
the same systems that commerce uses every day to conduct its business. A century
ago some anarchists were probably frowning at the new fangled 'telephone'
device. I do hope we don't take another century to recognise the potential of
this 'space-age' technology.
As I have said, I dwell very much on the fringes of convention and sometimes I
do wonder if I'm falling foul of the horrors of corruption. But that's the price
we must all be prepared to pay if we are to come down from our lonely cells and
interact with our fellows. In that process we should learn a lot more about
their reality, and ensure that our fellows learn a lot more about ours.
If we can achieve that we have succeeded in as much as we can hope to succeed,
because anarchism is above all else about COMMUNICATION,EDUCATION and
DEVELOPMENT. 

