STATEMENT OF ANTIPURPOSE
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Andrew Davis
In vain do fundamentalist blowhards and honest people scared by the acceleration of human history follow the "ant" purpose. They wear their purpose on their backs like sacks of wine from which they feed throughout the day. The ant"I"purpose is about following the "I" to its own ends. We are witnessing today the depletion of all individual meaning. The idle chat on television is taken at face value -- there is no desire to find personal meaning in this new collective subconscious. There are many pseudonoble pursuits in life, but the suppression of "I" is only to confirm the "we" in ant pursuits. The chemical trails they follow lack all individual expressive urgency. There should be doubts in any faith or belief system. The Antipurpose does not necessarily run counter to these belief systems in that it counters each belief, but by sheer force of individual will. Others fill their pockets with the golden maggots of commerce. We are driven by physical and emotional pain, while these others seek to detach themselves from it. They let go of pain because their belief system tells them that the pain was caused for the common good of human activity. It is not because of weakness that we reject this kind of suppression. It is because we refuse to file weary and beaten in a line to meet a fate administered by the powers that be. We prize dearly our doubts, as dearly as our lives. We break free of the muddy wave of formulas and styles. Any purpose in life is as good as any other.
The Antipurpose is not a new purpose, but the recognition of individual purposes within collective human activity. The need for a new purpose and romanticism of old moral standards presupposes an ultimate moral good. Just as absorption of a different culture is the pleasure of tourism, the absorption of the individual is the pleasure of religion. For the individual to awaken daily to intentions that originate wholly from oneself is a test. We are not mad scientists, but results may vary. It is this variability that makes our pursuits more noble than our chemical trail following brothers and sisters.
The Oath of Antipurpose
1) Create your own chemicals or use already existing ones.
2) Have five cats or have none.
3) Watch the sun rise or sleep in.
4) Fight or make love.
5) We must repeat.
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