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''Tiqqun'' was a French-Italian
ultra-left The term ultra-leftism, when used among Marxist groups, is a pejorative for certain types of positions on the far-left that are extreme or uncompromising. Another definition historically refers to a particular current of Marxist communism, where ...
anarchist philosophical journal or
zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...
, produced in two issues from 1999 to 2001. Topics treated in the journal's articles include anti-capitalism, anti-statism,
Situationism The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...
,
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, and the history of late 20th century revolutionary movements, especially
May 1968 The following events occurred in May 1968: May 1, 1968 (Wednesday) * CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. * RAF Strike ...
in France, the Italian Years of Lead, and the Anti-globalization protests of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The journal's articles were written anonymously; as a result, the word "Tiqqun" is also used to name the articles' collective of authors, and other texts attributed to them. The journal came to wider attention following the
Tarnac Nine The Tarnac Nine are a French group of nine alleged anarchist saboteurs: Mathieu Burnel, Julien Coupat, Bertrand Deveaux, Manon Glibert, Gabrielle Hallez, Elsa Hauck, Yildune Lévy, Benjamin Rosoux and Aria Thomas. They were arrested on November ...
arrests of 2008, a police operation which detained nine people on suspicion of having conspired on recent sabotage of French electrical train lines. The arrested were accused of having written ''
The Coming Insurrection ''The Coming Insurrection'' is a French radical leftist, anarchist tract written by The Invisible Committee, the ''nom de plume'' of an anonymous author (or possibly authors). It hypothesizes the "imminent collapse of capitalist culture". ''T ...
'', a political tract credited to
The Invisible Committee The Invisible Committee is the of an anonymous author or authors who have written French works of literature based on far-left politics and anarchism. The identity of the Invisible Committee has been associated with the Tarnac Nine, a group o ...
, a distinct anonymous group named in the journal.
Julien Coupat Julien Coupat (born June 4, 1974 in Bordeaux) is a French political activist. As one of the Tarnac Nine, he was arrested on November 11, 2008 and accused of terrorism in connection with a plot to sabotage French train lines. Coupat spent over six m ...
, one of the arrested, was a contributor to the first issue of ''Tiqqun''. The journal's articles are
polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topic ...
s against modern capitalist society, which the authors hold in contempt. Individual articles present diagnoses of specific aspects of modern society, drawing on ideas from continental philosophy,
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
, and history. Guy Debord's concept of the
Spectacle In general, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Middle English from c. 1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from Old French ''spectacle'', itself a reflection of the ...
is used to explain how communication media and socialization processes support existing capitalist society, and Michel Foucault's concept of
biopower Biopower (or ''biopouvoir'' in French) is a term coined by French scholar, philosopher, historian, and social theorist Michel Foucault. It relates to the practice of modern nation states and their regulation of their subjects through "an expl ...
is used to explain how states and businesses manage populations via their physical needs. The journal's articles introduce terminology for their topics, freely used throughout the other articles. A "Bloom" refers to an
archetypal The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that o ...
, alienated modern person or subject, named after the character
Leopold Bloom Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/ Odysseus in Homer's epic ...
from the
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
novel '' Ulysses''. A "Young-Girl" refers to a person who participates in modern society and thereby reinforces it, exhibiting traits commonly associated with
femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered f ...
. Although a "Bloom" frequently stands for a man and a "Young-Girl" frequently stands for a woman, the authors stress that the concepts are not gendered. The word Tiqqun is an alternate spelling of
Tikkun olam ''Tikkun olam'' ( he, תִּיקּוּן עוֹלָם, , repair of the world) is a concept in Judaism, which refers to various forms of action intended to repair and improve the world. In classical rabbinic literature, the phrase referred to leg ...
, a Jewish theological concept which refers to repair or healing of the world. In the authors' context, ''Tiqqun'' refers to improvement of the human condition through the subversion of modern capitalist society. Due to their philosophical influences, political content and historical context, the ''Tiqqun'' articles have received some attention in humanities scholarship and anarchist reading circles. Selected articles have been republished in several languages.


Contents and authorship

The first issue of ''Tiqqun'' was published in February 1999 with the title (''Tiqqun, Conscious Organ of the Imaginary Party: Exercises in Critical Metaphysics''). The second issue was published in October 2001 with the title (''Tiqqun, Organ of Liaison within the Imaginary Party: Zone of Offensive Opacity''). For simplicity the two issues are commonly referred to as ''Tiqqun 1'' and ''Tiqqun 2'', respectively. Eleven articles were published in ''Tiqqun 1'', and ten major articles were published in ''Tiqqun 2''. Additionally the first issue contained a one-page spread, and the second issue contained nine smaller pieces interspersed between each of its ten main articles, two-page spreads with black borders. In all 31 pieces were published in the journal, listed below in the order they originally appeared. Due to their anonymity, ''Tiqqun's'' articles are not credited to individual authors; rather, they are simply attributed to the journal's namesake. However the first issue's back cover contained a colophon which listed the issue's
editorial board The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take. Mass media At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, ...
as Julien Boudart, Fulvia Carnevale,
Julien Coupat Julien Coupat (born June 4, 1974 in Bordeaux) is a French political activist. As one of the Tarnac Nine, he was arrested on November 11, 2008 and accused of terrorism in connection with a plot to sabotage French train lines. Coupat spent over six m ...
, Junius Frey, Joël Gayraud, Stephan Hottner and Rémy Ricordeau. The actor and philosopher Mehdi Belhaj Kacem briefly collaborated with the ''Tiqqun'' collective toward the end of its existence. In an interview, he noted that the group disbanded shortly after the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
.


Themes

''Tiqqun's'' articles pathologize modern capitalist society, introducing several terms used to describe social phenomena. The authors use the terms together to present an anti-capitalist, anti-statist
worldview A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural ...
. Because of their contempt for modern society, the authors advocate
insurrectionary anarchism Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory and tendency within the anarchist movement that emphasizes insurrection as a revolutionary practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based ...
, crime, and other methods intended to subvert it. The authors also indicate that people opposed to modern capitalist society may form meaningful community with each other based on their shared rejection of it. According to the authors, the coordination of states and private businesses gives rise to modern capitalist society (
Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
), which entails " commodity domination" of social interactions, supplanting authentic human community. This leads to several pathological sociological types: socially alienated people ( Blooms), people who fully participate in society and thereby become commodities themselves ( Young-Girls), people who criticize society without attempting to change it ( Men of the Old Regime), and subcultures which seek to preserve themselves at the expense of their members' inability to be honest with each other ( Terrible Communities). Historically, modern Western society transitioned from a period of liberal governance (the liberal hypothesis) to a period stressing social control using technology (the cybernetic hypothesis). Modern society uses two techniques to maintain its power and to reproduce itself:
biopower Biopower (or ''biopouvoir'' in French) is a term coined by French scholar, philosopher, historian, and social theorist Michel Foucault. It relates to the practice of modern nation states and their regulation of their subjects through "an expl ...
is used to manage the physical needs of the population, while the
Spectacle In general, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Middle English from c. 1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from Old French ''spectacle'', itself a reflection of the ...
is an established form of discourse which reproduces modern society through its socialization in individuals. Against this, the authors posit " critical metaphysics", an attitude which rejects modern society. Persons who reject modern society may meet in " planes of consistency", circumstances which allow like-minded people to encounter each other. Persons rejecting modern society form the Imaginary Party, an unorganized group who may coalesce around specific events of civil unrest. An example is the Black bloc, a practice—employed during anti-globalization protests and riots—of dressing in black and wearing face coverings. The authors describe " zones of offensive opacity" as places where people may meet to subvert modern society. The process through which such people meet and interact is described as '' Tiqqun''. The tone of the articles is frequently acerbic and sarcastic. The philosophers
Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...
,
Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influ ...
and
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...
are described respectively as "that moron", "that piece of shit" and "swine", due to the authors' disagreements with their views. The Italian sociologist
Antonio Negri Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic-Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political p ...
is also frequently the subject of harsh criticism, due to his involvement in activism which the authors feel is too conciliatory to existing capitalist society. The articles are illustrated with reproductions of artwork and photography of riots and demonstrations.


Synopsis


''Tiqqun 1''

The journal's first issue included a frontispiece depicting a traditional Italian mask set against the Latin inscription SUA CUIQUE PERSONA (To each their own mask); masks are used frequently as metaphorical devices throughout the issue. The frontispiece is a detail of ''Portrait Cover with Grotesques'' t/small>, an
Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
painting of uncertain origin, commonly attributed to
Ridolfo Ghirlandaio Ridolfo di Domenico Bigordi, better known as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (14 February 1483 – 6 June 1561) was an Italian Renaissance painter active mainly in Florence. He was the son of Domenico Ghirlandaio. Biography He was born in Florence. Since ...
. The painting functioned as a practical art object, intended as a cover for a portrait painting. Although its companion is also uncertain, ''Portrait Cover'' has become associated with the portrait ''Veiled Woman'' t/small>, also attributed to Ghirlandaio. The two artworks are exhibited together at the
Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
in Florence. ''Of course you know, this means war!'' is a brief opening piece which sets out the authors' disgust with modern society, which they liken to the Situationist notion of the Spectacle, and also to the Kabbalistic notion of
Qliphoth In the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah, the ''qliphoth/qlippoth/qlifot'' or ''kelipot'' ( ''qəlīpōṯ'', originally Aramaic: ''qəlīpīn'', plural of ''qəlīpā''; literally "peels", "shells", or "husks"), are the represe ...
(shells, husks), the latter being evil forces in Jewish mysticism. Against the prevailing social order, the authors propose ''Tiqqun'', referring both to the Jewish concept of healing, and also to the journal itself. The piece is dated Venice, January 15, 1999. ''What is Critical Metaphysics?'' gives a description of its titular subject, which is opposed to "commodity domination", or commodity metaphysics. The article's title is a play on '' What is Metaphysics?'', a lecture given by Heidegger in 1929. According to the authors, critical metaphysics is an irrepressable, anti-capitalist way of perceiving reality, which consumer culture, modernity and analytic philosophy have failed to eliminate. The authors stress that the concept is not academic, but practical: "Critical Metaphysics is in everyone's guts." Persons who engage in critical metaphysics are described as critical metaphysicians. In one passage, people who join to "politicize metaphysics" represent the emergence of "the coming insurrection of the Mind"; ''The Coming Insurrection'' was the title later given to the first work by The Invisible Committee. Between articles an image of a black square was reproduced, taken from a work by the occult philosopher
Robert Fludd Robert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus (17 January 1574 – 8 September 1637), was a prominent English Paracelsian physician with both scientific and occult interests. He is remembered as an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologis ...
. For Fludd, the black square represented the
Void Void may refer to: Science, engineering, and technology * Void (astronomy), the spaces between galaxy filaments that contain no galaxies * Void (composites), a pore that remains unoccupied in a composite material * Void, synonym for vacuum, a ...
which preceded the Creation. The authors reproduced the image to illustrate surrounding themes of nothingness and night. Beginning with a quotation from the James Joyce novel ''Ulysses'', ''Theory of Bloom'' describes a phenomenon in which people become alienated from each other as a consequence of living in capitalist society. Although the term "Bloom" is used contextually throughout the issue to refer to an alienated modern subject, the authors explicitly deny this characterization as reductive, instead describing Bloom as a ''
Stimmung ''Stimmung'', for six vocalists and six microphones, is a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1968 and commissioned by the City of Cologne for the Collegium Vocale Köln. Its average length is seventy-four minutes, and it bears the work nu ...
'', or a certain "mood" of personality. According to the authors, a Bloom is "foreign to himself" in the sense that capitalist society denies him the ability to be his authentic self. Bloom is thus a kind of "mask", recalling the issue's frontispiece. Modern society therefore encourages superficial identification with various predicate labels (being a woman, being gay, being British, etc.), which the authors refer to as " poor substantiality", in an effort to prevent the socially harmful consequences of an isolated population. Since a Bloom is alienated from the modern society held in contempt by the authors, they consider that his rejection of that society can lead to violence, expressed in the murders committed by Mitchell Johnson and Kipland Kinkel, among others. ''Phenomenology of Everyday Life'' is a brief piece in which the narrator describes an "absurd" interaction with a bakery clerk, where each is expected to play the economic roles of customer and vendor. ''Theses on the Imaginary Party'' describes its title's subject as a portion of humanity who come to reject modern society. Spectacle and biopower are presented as two reinforcing aspects of modernity: the former is a control mechanism which ensures compliance with and reproduction of the society's norms, while the latter presents itself as a benevolent force providing for the needs of the population. Against these, "agents" of the Imaginary Party commit acts which are pathologized by the society as antisocial and irrational, including rioting and mass shootings. According to the authors, Blooms are prone to become members of the Imaginary Party because of their alienation from modern society. Johann Georg Elser, failed assassin of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, is described by the authors as a "model Bloom", due to his modest life. ''Silence and Beyond'' is a piece which describes the threatening power of silence when wielded by a group of rioters. The article describes the 1998 suicide of Edoardo Massari, an Italian anarchist who was jailed in Turin on suspicion of eco-terrorism against construction sites for the Italian TGV high-speed train. In response, anarchist rioters silently marched through Turin over the next several days, brandishing weapons, damaging property, and assaulting journalists. The authors praised the rioters' tactics because by refusing to make demands or to communicate in conventional ways, the rioters frustrated commentators who insisted on dialogue, instead expressing their opposition to existing society using violent direct action. ''On the Economy Considered as Black Magic'' is a criticism of modern economics. The authors reject the economic property of
fungibility In economics, fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable, and each of whose parts is indistinguishable from any other part. Fungible tokens can be exchanged or replaced; for exa ...
as dehumanizing, since it leads to the fungibility of human beings themselves; Blooms are "absolutely equivalent" with each other (as potential employees, members of society, etc.) and therefore adopt superficial traits in an effort to present individual personalities. The authors also reject what they describe as the ahistorical
retconning Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...
of modern economic theory onto all human history. As a counterexample, they cite the gift economy of the
Kula ring Kula, also known as the Kula exchange or Kula ring, is a ceremonial exchange system conducted in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The Kula ring was made famous by the father of modern anthropology, Bronisław Malinowski, who used this ...
in Papua New Guinea, as described in Bronisław Malinowski's ''
Argonauts of the Western Pacific ''Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea'' is a 1922 ethnological work by Bronisław Malinowski, which has had enormous impact on the ethnographic genre. The b ...
''. ''Preliminary Materials For a Theory of the Young-Girl'' describes "the Young-Girl" as a social archetype related to young women's femininity in modern capitalist society. The article consists of a series of glosses, including declarative statements on the characteristics of the Young-Girl and phrases taken from
women's magazines This is a list of women's magazines from around the world. These are magazines that have been published primarily for a readership of women. Currently published *'' 10 Magazine'' (UK - distributed worldwide) *''Al Jamila'' (Saudi Arabia) *'' All ...
. The archetype is complementary to Bloom: whereas Bloom is an alienated subject who threatens to harm capitalist society, the Young-Girl fully participates in, is a commodity of, and defends that society. Although the article focuses on traits and language associated with femininity, it also stresses that men can function as Young-Girls in society by participating in and upholding it, while also taking care to uphold their public image out of
vanity Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic ...
. A quotation attributed to
Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...
describes him as a male Young-Girl: "They've wounded me in what is most dear to me: my image." Building on these themes, ''Machine-Men: User's Guide'' is a feminist piece which discusses prescription drugs—especially
Viagra Sildenafil, sold under the brand name Viagra, among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is unclear if it is effective for treating sexual dysfunction in women. It is taken by ...
—as a form of
biopolitical Biopolitics refers to the political relations between the administration or regulation of the life of species and a locality's populations, where politics and law evaluate life based on perceived constants and traits. French philosopher Michel Fo ...
technology. ''The Critical Metaphysicians beneath the "Unemployed Persons' movement"'' is a brief article describing an "unemployed workers'" movement in France during 1997 and 1998, including reproductions of related protest flyers. ''A Few Scandalous Actions of the Imaginary Party'' is a series of vignettes recounting situations instigated by the authors and their associates; the piece ends with a satirical mockery of the novelist
Michel Houellebecq Michel Houellebecq (; born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1956 or 1958) is a French author, known for his novels, poems and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer ...
, an object of scorn for the authors.


''Tiqqun 2''

''Introduction to Civil War'' expands the concept of
civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
to become a philosophical category explaining human interactions. According to the authors, individuals have various inclinations, which are forms of life. Because humans have differing inclinations and share the same world, they exist in a state of civil war with each other—their conflicts are not those of states in conventional warfare, and although not necessary, the possibility of violence is never excluded. States and modern society developed as mechanisms which sought to neutralize the
natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
state of civil war; against this, the authors propose natural civil war as the preferable state for humanity, which they liken to ''Tiqqun''. ''The Cybernetic Hypothesis'' describes the rise of cybernetics in the years following
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, a modern paradigm of control mechanisms which supplanted the "liberal hypothesis". The liberal hypothesis refers to the dominance of
liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
—and the ideal of rational self-interest—from the early 19th through the early 20th centuries, until societal control was sought for its own sake. Cybernetics was developed with military applications: Norbert Wiener developed an automated, predictive anti-aircraft system, and the need to develop a decentered communication system in the event of nuclear war gave rise to the
internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. Since cybernetic systems seek control and equilibrium, the authors advocate their defeat by creating unmanagable situations. The article was illustrated by various images depicting technology, including works by
H.R. Giger Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...
suggesting its disturbing aspects. ''Theses on the Terrible Community'' describes pathological communities which arise in modern society. Although such communities may include
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
s, they can also include mainstream communities, such as modern corporations. Terrible communities seek to preserve themselves at the cost of the inability of their members to speak honestly with each other, referred to in the article as
parrhesia In rhetoric, parrhesia is a figure of speech described as "speak ngcandidly or ... ask ngforgiveness for so speaking". This Ancient Greek word has three different forms, as related by Michel Foucault. ''Parrhesia'' is a noun, meaning "free speec ...
. The authors seek to replace terrible communities with authentic communities whose members can be honest with each other. ''The Problem of the Head'' is a criticism of
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
groups in revolutionary politics and the arts, which present themselves as the "heads" of their corresponding movements. "The Problem of the Head" also refers to the questions of societal leadership (a king, a president, a business, etc.), and the form of leadership in a society (monarchy, democracy, oligarchy, etc.). The authors claim that the liberal hypothesis was a previous answer to the problem, eventually replaced by the cybernetic hypothesis. The inter-war period from 1914 to 1945 was a time of instability, and this is what allowed avant-garde movements—such as Surrealism and
Bolshevism Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, ...
—to flourish. However, avant-garde movements tend to become preoccupied with their own culture and internal issues, to the detriment of the broader issues that they claim to represent, and are therefore likened to terrible communities. A note indicates that in June 2000, the piece was read aloud at a retrospective exhibit of modern art in Venice, upsetting two of the participating artists. ''"A critical metaphysics could emerge as a science of apparatuses..."'' is presented as the founding text of the SACS, the Society for the Advancement of Criminal Science. The authors describe modern society as a series of control mechanisms, or apparatuses; examples include highways, store security, and turnstiles. For the authors, the "science of apparatuses" is thus simply the science of crime, techniques for circumventing and defeating control apparatuses. The authors therefore promote the collection and dissemination of criminal techniques intended to undermine capitalist society. ''Report to the S.A.C.S. Concerning an Imperial Apparatus'' is a critical account of Bluewater, a shopping mall outside London, newly completed at the time of writing. The authors compare the modern shopping mall to 19th-century historical precursors, including the French arcades and
The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around th ...
. They also describe shopping malls using terms taken from the '' Project on the City'', a book series on urban planning just mentioned by name—and derided—in the previous article. The article describes the 1956 opening of the
Southdale Center Southdale Center is a shopping mall located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. It opened in 1956 and is both the first and the oldest fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States. Southdale Center has of le ...
—the world's first enclosed, air-conditioned shopping mall—
air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
itself, and
artificial plants Artificial plants are imitations of natural plants used for commercial or residential decoration. They are sometimes made for scientific purposes (the collection of glass flowers at Harvard University, for example, illustrates the flora of th ...
, referred to as "Replascape". Articles on all three topics appear in the volumes ''Mutations'' and ''Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping''. ''The Little Game of the Man of the Old Regime'' is a critique of a
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
social archetype, described as an older person who withdraws from society while criticizing it, presenting themselves as above or outside social conflict. The authors describe the Man of the Old Regime as a specific type of Bloom whose critique of society is impotent; they also attribute several negative traits to the archetype, including
false consciousness In Marxist theory, false consciousness is a term describing the ways in which material, ideological, and institutional processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other class actors within capitalist societies, concealing the ...
. In the original issue the article was followed by ''You're Never Too Old to Ditch Out'', a small piece which encouraged older people to withdraw from mainstream society and instead seek authentic community with others, as opposed to isolation. ''Sonogram of a Potential'' is a feminist article treating sonograms, abortion, and women's history during the Italian Years of Lead in the 1970s. The authors use the
Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...
shory story " Bartleby, the Scrivener" and its protagonist's phrase "I would prefer not to" as devices to explore the concepts of general strike and
sex strike A sex strike (sex boycott), or more formally known as Lysistratic nonaction, is a method of nonviolent resistance in which one or more persons refrain from or refuse sex with partners until policy or social demands are met. It is a form of tem ...
s. ''This Is Not a Program'' describes the Years of Lead in detail, contrasting the Italian "Creeping May" of 1977 with the French protests of May 1968. During the period of civil unrest, several left wing factions competed with each other and with the Italian state. The established Left consisted of the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
(PCI), labor unions and worker's movements, while a more radical faction—the Autonomists—rejected organizational hierarchy and work itself. In the context of anarchist movements, the authors describe the Imaginary Party as a "plane of consistency" where individuals who seek to subvert modern society can find each other and form alliances. ''How Is It to Be Done?'' is a brief lyrical piece summarizing the issue's themes, its title a play on
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
's work '' What Is to Be Done?''. Referring to the issue's subtitle, the authors seek to inhabit "zones of offensive opacity"—akin to no-go zones—as points from which to begin an assault on modern capitalist society. In order to maintain opacity, the authors encourage the rejection of predicate labels associated with
identity politics Identity politics is a political approach wherein people of a particular race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, social class, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon these i ...
because authorities might use them to more easily identify individuals. The piece ends with a call to insurrection.


Minor pieces

Nine minor pieces appeared in ''Tiqqun 2'', which included reproductions of flyers posted publicly, or for dissemination at demonstrations. ''Final Warning to the Imaginary Party'' is a sarcastic list of articles concerning the proper use of public space—for leisure and consumption as opposed to protest or "abnormal behavior"—written from the point of view of governments and businesses. The piece was reproduced as photographs of the printed list, posted in public and subsequently defaced and marked with criticisms. ''The Conquerors had Conquered Without Trouble'' is a prose vignette describing gatherings of silent, masked people in the world's cities, to the disturbance of the cities' original "conquerors". The old conquerors blamed the phenomenon on an "Invisible Committee", and the piece invoked the phrase used as an author's credit in the later eponymous texts: The ''Untitled Notes on Citizenship Papers'' are remarks on a social movement demanding citizen documentation for all persons; the authors observed that such a movement could be tactically useful to abolish the concept of
citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
as such, in the sense that granting citizenship documentation to all persons would defeat the exclusive character of citizenship itself. ''Progress doesn't want Those that don't want Progress'' is another sarcastic flyer, admonishing the residents of the Paris suburb Montreuil to accept
gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
and the re-election of mayor Jean-Pierre Brard, or else leave. ''Stop DomestiCAFion!'' is a flyer concerning the demeaning aspects of applying for welfare, describing inspections made by social workers with regard to income and social life as intrusive. This was immediately followed by a quotation from Robert Walser describing a flame igniting on a stage during a performance, which the audience initially believed to be part of the show, but which then frightened the performers and finally the audience once they understood the fire to be a real danger. ''Notes on the Local'' is a series of remarks on the fragmentation of the built environment into spaces with distinct functions. According to the authors, places like highways, supermarkets and public benches are transient locations that their users are expected to pass through in a timely fashion. To cope with this regimented use of real space, virtual spaces (television, internet, video games) are provided to people to give an illusion of freedom. ''You're Never Too Old to Ditch Out'' is a piece which exhorted the elderly to deny capitalist society their further participation in it, instead using their savings for
self-reliance "Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false con ...
and to seek authentic community with others. ''Hello!'' is a piece which criticized the activist group ATTAC for what the authors described as its recuperation into conventional capitalist society. ''Ma noi ci saremo (But We'll Be Here)'' is a series of remarks on the then-recent anti-globalization protests which occurred in
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
,
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
, and
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
.


Related texts

Other texts not appearing in the original journal have been associated with ''Tiqqun'' and the Invisible Committee. ''The Great Game of Civil War'' is a brief piece describing the difficulty of leaving modern society, using sarcastic language similar to that found in ''Tiqqun's'' flyers and a ten-point format similar to ''Final Warning to the Imaginary Party''. In 2004, the postscript to an Italian edition of ''Theory of Bloom'' announced the forthcoming publication of ''Call'' (''Appel''), an anonymous tract which proposed secession from mainstream capitalist society. ''Call'' used vocabulary and rhetoric common to both ''Tiqqun'' and the Invisible Committee (e.g. Spectacle and biopower, an imperative to form communes). ''Call'' was later criticized on the Left for its suggestion that actors can unilaterally withdraw from capitalist society on their own terms. According to the critic, capitalism continues to inform relations of production throughout society, a situation from which potential defectors cannot immediately escape.


Reception

''Tiqqun'' came to wider attention in the English-speaking world through its association with the Invisible Committee, whose book ''The Coming Insurrection'' was denounced (and thereby popularized) by the American conservative commentator Glenn Beck following the Tarnac Nine arrests. Due to its popularization following the arrests, the journal's articles have received attention in humanities scholarship and anarchist reading circles, generating a body of critical literature. Some authors have analyzed the articles' historical background, while others have used them to underline points in original research. Criticisms range from perceived
misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practice ...
(in the ''Young-Girl'' article) to the commercial success of ''The Coming Insurrection'' itself. Jason E. Smith detailed the history of civil unrest in 1970s Italy, providing historical background for Tiqqun's subject matter in ''This is Not a Program''. He underlined the division within the Italian Left between established, labor-focused organizations (including the Italian Communist Party and worker's unions) and more radical, autonomist groups who refused the employment relation altogether, using autoreduction as a coercive tactic to appropriate goods and services at lower prices, including the looting of supermarkets. Smith argued that ''Tiqqun's'' articles advocate a politics of incivility, informed by the latter autonomist tendency in the Italian Left. Alexander R. Galloway cited ''The Cybernetic Hypothesis'' in an essay treating the conceptual history of the
black box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...
, likening black bloc demonstrators to "a black box" in the sense that each has internal dynamics opaque to outisiders. Andrew Culp discussed Michel Foucault's studies on war, politics and insurrection as precursors of ''Tiqqun's'' martial discourse; he also described the Invisible Committee as a group which splintered from the personnel involved with creating the journal. In two related articles, Jackie Wang cited ''The Cybernetic Hypothesis'' to describe policing as a form of social control. One piece detailed the real example of PredPol, predictive policing software adopted by several American police departments throughout the 2010s; the second was a personal reflection on the fictional example of RoboCop as a cybernetic cop. In response to the emergence of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
and the practice of wearing face masks intended to slow the spread of the disease, Philippe Theophanidis essayed the cultural significance of masks, using ''Portrait Cover with Grotesques'' as a device to explore the topic. He noted the painting's invocation in ''Tiqqun'', and also noted with irony that although face coverings had recently been banned in France due to their use by demonstrators and Muslim women as part of niqab, the French government later mandated face coverings in response to the pandemic. Reg Johanson decried an ableist tendency which he observed in both ''Tiqqun'' and the Invisible Committee. According to Johanson, both collectives are suspicious of people suffering from serious illness or disabilities because their status renders them dependent on—and necessarily complicit with—the society sustaining their lives, which the authors seek to subvert. He also noted that the collective placed a premium on mobility, suggesting the members' possible youth, wealth, or lack of family life. ''Preliminary Materials For a Theory of the Young-Girl'' consists of a series of passages characterizing "the Young-Girl", frequently in sexist terms. Representative examples include "The Young-Girl is a lie, the apogee of which is her face." and "The Young-Girl's ass is a
global village Global village describes the phenomenon of the entire world becoming more interconnected as the result of the propagation of media technologies throughout the world. The term was coined by Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan in his books ' ...
." Critics of the text agree that its ostensible purpose is not to insult women, but rather to denounce a capitalist process of socialization which produces "the Young-Girl" as a pathological archetype which is harmful to real women. While acknowledging this premise, Moira Weigel and Mal Ahern criticized the text as misogynistic, suggesting that its anonymity and irony were used as covers to pre-emptively deflect accusations of sexism; Weigel and Ahern's article was itself criticized in later articles. Catherine Driscoll noted that the device of the "Young-Girl" does not suggest the authors' dissatisfaction with society from a woman's point of view, but was instead chosen as one subordinate facet of a larger political philosophical project. Translator Ariana Reines noted that although she later came to appreciate the text, the process of reading and translating it made her sick—not in the metaphorical sense of finding the rhetoric disagreeable, but in the literal sense that she experienced nausea and migranes while preparing her translation. ''Tiqqun'' has also been criticized in anarchist reading circles, frequently in connection with the Invisible Committee. One article traced the journal's philosophical influences, focusing on Heidegger, nihilism and the Jewish messianic figures of
Sabbatai Zevi Sabbatai Zevi (; August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, Sabbatai Zvi, and ''Sabetay Sevi'' in Turkish, was a Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turk ...
and
Jacob Frank Jacob Joseph Frank ( he, יעקב פרנק; pl, Jakub Józef Frank; born Jakub Lejbowicz; 1726 – December 10, 1791) was a Polish-Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626 ...
, ultimately rejecting the journal itself as philosophically insignificant. Another article criticized ''This is Not a Program'', claiming that the latter gave a revisonist account of the Years of Lead. Others instead focused on works by the Invisible Committee (though mentioning ''Tiqqun'' in passing), arguing that the former group marketed its books as fashionable consumer products following the Tarnac Nine arrests, contrary to their purported anti-capitalist views. Common to all these articles is the observation that the texts under examination—whether by ''Tiqqun'' or the Invisible Committee—have a tendency to contradict themselves; the criticisms also use polemical language comparable to that used in ''Tiqqun'' itself. A pair of critical works discussed ''Tiqqun'' and the Invisible Committee in more sympathetic terms. Pedro José Mariblanca Corrales treated ''Tiqqun's'' concept of Bloom by way of the journal's vocabulary (see the below glossary), elaborating the latter to explain the social causes giving rise to the former. Alden Wood wrote a series of academic articles collected in a single volume, exploring aspects of the two group's writings by reading them together with others. Wood compared the groups' use of musical metaphor with the
atonal Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a ...
compositions of Arnold Schoenberg, their invocations of nihilism with
George Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, a ...
, and detailed the influence of Heidegger on ''Tiqqun's'' project, noted by others.


Glossary

''Tiqqun's'' articles introduce several items of
jargon Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...
which are freely used throughout the journal's other articles. Major terms are described here.


Notes


Bibliography


Original French sources

* Original French edition of ''Tiqqun 1''. * Original French edition of ''Tiqqun 2''.


English translations

* Translation of the article which originally appeared in ''Tiqqun 2''. * Translation of the titular article, and also of "How Is It to Be Done?", which both originally appeared in ''Tiqqun 2''. * Translation of a revised version of the article which originally appeared in ''Tiqqun 1''. * Translation of the article which originally appeared in ''Tiqqun 1''. * Translation of the titular article, and also of "A critical metaphysics could emerge as a science of apparatuses...", which both originally appeared in ''Tiqqun 2''. * Unofficial English translation of ''Tiqqun 1''.


References


Further reading

* * Ceccaldi, Jérôme.
Rions un peu avec Tiqqun
" ''Multitudes'' 8 (2002): pp. 239–242. *


External links


The Anarchist Library
Contains selected texts from ''Tiqqun'', and also several essays critical of the journal and its association with ''The Coming Insurrection''.
bloom0101.org
(Archived). Dedicated to the free diffusion of ''Tiqqun'' texts, including their translations into several languages.
clairefontaine.ws
Website of an art collective including Fulvia Carnavale, former ''Tiqqun'' contributor.
tiqqun.jottit.com
(Archived). Work of Tiqqunista, an anonymous translator, providing texts from ''Tiqqun'' in English. {{Authority control Autonomism Philosophy journals