Bataille - Counterattack Call to Action

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Counterattack: Call to ActionAuthor(s): Georges Bataille and Annette MichelsonSource: October, Vol. 36, Georges Bataille: Writings on Laughter, Sacrifice, Nietzsche, Un-Knowing (Spring, 1986), pp. 26-27Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778544 .

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Counterattack:

Call

to

Action

What is it that

keeps capitalist society

alive?

-

Work.

What does

capitalist society

offer o

him

who

gives

his work?

-

Bones to

gnaw

on.

What,

on the other

hand,

does it

offer

o the

owners of

capital?

--All

they

want,

more

than

they

want:

ten,

a

hundred,

a

thousand

turkeys

day,

had

they

stomachs

arge

enough

And

if

they

can't

eat the

turkeys?

-

The worker s obless, dyingofhunger,and rather hangivetheturkeys

to

him,

they

throw

them into

the

sea.

Why

not

throwthe

capitalists

and

not

the

turkeys

nto

the sea?

-

Everyone

is

wondering why.

What

is

needed

in

order to

throw

the

capitalists

and

not

the

turkeys

nto

the sea?

-

To

overthrow

he

established order.

But

what

are the

organized parties

doing?

-On

January

31,

Sarraut shouts

in

the

Chamber

of

Deputies,

"I

will

maintain the established order

in

the street."

The

revolutionary

arties

)

ap-

plaud.

Have the

parties gone

mad?

-

They say they

haven't,

but

they

are

afraid of M.

de

la

Rocque.

And

who

is

this

M.

de

la

Rocque?

-

A

capitalist,

a

colonel,

and

a

count.

And

. . . ?

-A

prick.

But

how can this

prick frighten

eople?

-

Because

in

the state of

general

stupefaction,

he

is the

only

one

to

take

action

Comrades,

A

colonel

gets

excitedand shouts that

everything

as to

change;

he

is the







only

one

to

organize

forcombat and to claim that he

will

be able

to

change

it

all. He lies, but at a time when disgustwithparliamentary mpotence s at its

height,

he

is

the

only

one on the

political

scene who is not a

member of

parlia-

ment The crowd

knows thatevents must be taken

n

hand

if

he

revolting

pec-

tacle of

bourgeois

parliamentarianism

its

continuous chatter

and

unspeak-

able

hustling-

is to

be

replaced.

The

crowd

begins

to look

for a

"man,"

a

master,

someone

from utside

parliament.

And to

many

in

the

general

state of

distraction,

Colonel

de la

Rocque already

seems to

be that man.

That distractionreaches the

point

at

which this

character s seen

as

the

"master" ble to take

charge

of

events;

the

crowd sees a

"master" n

the weakest

of

"slaves,"

the slave of the

capitalist

system,

he slave of a

mode of

production

which condemns men to giganticeffortndingonlyin exhaustion,hunger,or

war

We declare that

the time

has come to act as

MASTERS.

The

masses have

nothing

to

gain

from

he

impotence

of

single

individuals.

Only

the

coming

REVOLUTION has

the

power

to take

charge

of

things,

to

impose

peace,

to

organize production

and

abundance.

1936





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