“The Opponents Of The System Are As Much A Function of The System As Its Defenders”
More Grant Morrison quoting:
Before you set out to destroy “the System”, however, first remember that we made it and in our own interests. We sustain it constantly, either in agreement, with our support, or in opposition with our dissent. The opponents of the System are as much a function of the System as its defenders. TheSystem is a ghost assembled in the minds of human beings operating within “the System.” It is avirtual parent we made to look after us. We made it very big and difficult to see in its entirety and we serve it and nourish it every day. Are there ever any years when no doctors or policemen are born? Why do artists rarely want to become policemen?
For every McDonald’s you blow up, “they” will build two. Instead of slapping a wad of Semtex between the Happy Meals and the plastic tray, work your way up through the ranks, take over the board of Directors and turn the company into an international laughing stock… What if “The System” isn’t our enemy after all? What if instead it’s our playground?
From here. I have always liked the “make friends with them until they beg for mercy” school of thought in terms of dealing with conflict, I have to admit. I am the enemy, etc.
“Maybe It’s Okay, Maybe You’re Just Part Of It All”
I think the co-opting is part of the process, of course. It’s not a fight, as I kept on saying. There is no fight here. It’s just a big organism with lots of little bits trying to make sense of what the fuck it’s been doing for the last 65,000 years. It’s an exchange, the whole thing’s an exchange… As soon as [everyone] saw the Matrix… they wanted to take drugs and they wanted bald heads and they wanted to fight insect monsters. They wanted our stuff, and for me that was the end of the counterculture. That was the moment when it was “okay, we’re now fucking the enemy, isn’t this interesting?”. There’s a lot things that go wrong with that, but the whole thing is about learning and changing.
and
Honest, I keep coming to: Why is it so fuckin’ Punk Rock to think it might be okay, that we might not be bastards, and everything might be okay? [Optimism is] not just unfashionable, it’s almost, like, heretical. You feel like you’ve said really bad things when you say: “maybe it’s okay, maybe you’re just part of it all, maybe you’re just too small and too short-lived to make sense of this.”
There’s something I love about both of these quotes from this interview with Grant Morrison.