The latest project of the Little Brothers is the DICTIONARY OF TECHNOLOGY, the interpretation of key concepts of the modern world in the light of the Spirit, published in the magazine Vidici (1–2), 1981.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIENTATION OF THE JOURNAL, VIDICI, AND THE NEWSPAPER STUDENT
This Report speaks of the ideological bases of the activities of a group of bicyclists associated with the journal Vidici (“Perspectives”). We use the words “ideological bases” because this is doubtless a coherent and autochthonous conceptual system whose genesis clearly indicates that the introduction of elements of a new ideology are in question, with the tendency to offer an entire and all-encompassing interpretation of reality.
It is well-known that every ideology represents a concrete articulation of atomized reality, an expression and explanation of the existing which the compartmentalized social conscious experiences as the truth. In that sense, this new ideology is no different than the earlier ones. The thing that makes up the most significant feature of this conceptual system, the diferentia specifica of the group’s teaching and public appearances, is their highly marked utilization of metaphor Aesopic language, their speech encoding. Each of the primary categories is actually a encoded; its interpreted-ideological essential meaning can be understood only if one decodes the key, if each crucial concept is “translated” and if, from the seeming shift in meaning of phrases and entire sentences, one moves beyond into the real, true reading of the texts.
Therefore, the main task of this part of the report is actually the translation and interpretation of the basic categories, more precisely the complete explication of the thoughts that must be hidden behind the code in order to survive. At today’s level of conceptual consciousness, with the modern development of social relations, in a situation when the duties of the media of informing the public are clearly defined, it seems completely incredible that, under the auspices of a journal, for two years and more, from volume to volume, from text to text, an ideology could be developed and established that is not only non-Marxist, but actually openly and aggressively anti-Marxist. This was possible precisely because of the abovementioned concealment, the linguistic camouflage, but the situation has changed completely with the most recent declarations of this ideologically like-minded group.
For the purposes of interpretation, the explanation of basic concepts, we will strictly hold to those definitions that the authors themselves gave in volume 1–2, 1981, which is called the Dictionary of Technology. This volume is actually presented in the form of a dictionary and it represents the peak of the ideological work of this group, because with it one obtains an overview of all the “projects” in earlier volumes, of all main concepts and all main ideas. Therefore this volume is of great significance for the ultimate establishment and popularization of this ideology. The Dictionary of Technology is, as the authors themselves say, “a proclamation,” in fact, the ultimate manifestation of a profoundly anti-humane and anti-socialist worldview, an open invitation to action, and the open work of those like-minded and of their collaborators. Thus, “the publication of this Dictionary testifies to the final unmasking of technology” (p. 1), thus, it is “a barbaric act of provocation,” and thus this manifesto is an invitation to the final and unconditional solution.
INTERPRETATION OF SOME OF THE BASIC CATEGORIES
Just like every other ideology, the one we are now analyzing also possesses a foundation of positive and negative categories.
The key positive categories are the following: Will, Person, Apocalypse, and the key negative categories are Technology, Mirror, and Boys:
TECHNOLOGY:
(first concept) is a leitmotif that is interwoven in all the texts and all the volumes of the journal. It is defined as “the production of forms” (p. 24). “Technology” is the New World, amnesia (forgetting) of the old, dual world, a world opposite to the world.”
Technology — society
Technology is nothing other than a false world, the world of deception, the world which lies in opposition to the real world. Technology is the entire world that has come about from Descartes (from the 17
th
century) forward (p. 8), it is the world of institutions, science, democracy, technologies, humanism, the world in which the foundations are shaped by systems: society in the social system, science in the scientific system, philosophy in the philosophical system. That world, the world of technology, is the world of evil, of hatred, of mutilated and limited people, the world of lies and deception, therefore a false world, a world opposite to the real world. It is related to the real world like a mirror:
Mirror — social-political system
MIRROR
(second key concept). Toward real life, the Mirror only reflects the truth, the mirror is an illusion, a reflection, a shadow of reality. The historical existence of technology is the Institution, “a Tower of Babylon whose walls are made of Mirrors. Within those walls, pleasantly delimited and protected, the Technologists walk about” (p.10). Thus, just as technology is a codeword for society, so mirror is a codeword for institutions, for the system, or for any other organization… Within the mirrors are all those who serve the institution or the system: the Technologists. The Technologists are hierarchical monkeys” (p. 24) — the codeword for social-political workers, “officials, philosophers, scholars, artists” (p. 17, 24, 25). A synonym for Technologists is:
BOY
(the third key category).
Boys (technologists) — officials, scholars, philosophers, artists
Why are the Technologists called Boys? Simply because they are not mature, because they are too infantile to be called people. The Technologists as Boys are eternally incapacitated human individuals, and are therefore
a lower race of people
. “Technology has been noted as the production of Boys” (p. 6) because it is precisely there that a differentiation is made between
two clearly separate kinds of people
: between the Boys and the Persons.
Person
–
a member of the group of bicyclists associated with the journal
Vidici
.
PERSON
is the first positive concept (it is quite clear that the authors of these texts consider themselves to be Persons). Persons are all those people who are outside the institutions of the system, who have “seen through” Technology (society) and who are on the other side of the Mirror (system). “Within the Institution there are no Persons, just Technologists or Boys” (p. 5) simply because “Boys respect the rules of the game imposed by the Institution” (p. 8), but “A Person does not respect the rules of the game.” The basic rules of the game are
the law and morals
. “The Law is a limitation of the Person. Life in accordance with the law affirms Technology but it destroys the Will. The Will, the Person, does not have laws in life” (p. 8). THE PERSON IS ALLOWED TO DO ANYTHING, because it can: