Subject:  Viridian Note 00004:  Historical Awareness

Keywords:  historical awareness, radical art movements, 
guru figures, autodidacticism, risk factors

Attention Conservation Notice:  Grimly accurate, can cause 
feelings of despair; reading this could cause you to quit 
the Viridian List immediately and spare yourself many, 
many further postings

Sources:  an original document

Links:  SATYRICON by Petronius Arbiter; LIPSTICK TRACES by 
Greil Marcus; "A Modest Proposal" and GULLIVER'S TRAVELS 
by Jonathan Swift; "The Germ," fanzine of the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood; NEWS FROM NOWHERE by William 
Morris; "Fleurs du Mal" by Charles Baudelaire; PARIS IN 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Jules Verne; REVOLUTIONARY 
DREAMS: UTOPIAN VISION AND EXPERIMENTAL LIFE IN THE 
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION by Richard Stites; MIND AT THE END OF 
ITS TETHER by H. G. Wells; MANIFESTOS OF SURREALISM by 
Andre' Breton; UTOPIA OR OBLIVION by Buckminster Fuller; 
MEIN KAMPF by Adolf Hitler; GUY DEBORD: REVOLUTIONARY by 
Len Bracken; THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD by David E. 
Kaplan and Andrew Marshall, etc. etc.


Viridian Precursors List 1.0

This is an attempt to "look at the underside" of cultural 
movements.  The following is a brief descriptive list of 
various self-declared prophets, aesthetic gurus, and/or 
cultural figures, most of whom became highly influential, 
although they lacked democratic legitimacy, legal 
authority, or academic certification.  We do not by any 
means endorse the activities of these widely differing 
people.   We only note that their careers, interests, 
tactics and cultural position might be seen as 
historically analogous to the Viridian effort, and might 
offer useful lessons.  One should profit by the historical 
errors of precursors, since they were kind enough to take 
the trouble of committing them.


Petronius Arbiter:  poet, novelist, critic, courtier, 
satirist.  Self-important arbiter of taste in decadent 
Imperial Roman court.  Forced to commit suicide by Nero.

John of Lyden.  Prophet.  Anabaptist  Protestant.  
Cultural reformer.  Coup leader.  Military leader.  
Polygamist.  Gifted orator.  Apocalyptic paranoiac.   His 
leadership led almost entire population of Muenster to be 
slaughtered in a horrible siege during European religious 
wars. 

Jonathan Swift.  Author.  Poet.   Churchman.  Satirist.  
Misanthropist. Misogynist.  Laputan science critic.  Comic 
genius.  Author of modest proposal to alleviate troubling 
Malthusian population trends.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  Aesthetician.  Poet.  Painter.  
Bohemian.   Leader and primary intellectual figure in the 
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the first modern alternative 
art movement.  Alcoholic.   Chloral hydrate addict.  
Obsessed with prostitutes.   Had dead wife disinterred so 
as to retrieve a buried set of his own manuscripts.

William Morris.  Poet. Fantasy novelist.  Pre-Raphaelite.   
Bookmaker.  Orator.  Socialist agitator.  Wallpaper 
artist.  Furniture designer.  Luddite.  Crafts revival 
guru.

Charles Baudelaire.  Poet.  Translator.  Art critic.  
Photography critic.  Social critic.  Pioneer of twentieth-
century sensibility.  Depressive alcoholic, opium user, 
hashish user, paretic.

Jules Verne.   Failed playwright.  Failed stockbroker.  
Highly successful science fiction writer.  Exceptionally 
prescient techno-visionary.   Multi-term city councilman 
in minor French city of Amiens.

Oscar Wilde.  Playwright.  Poet.  Social critic.  Arbiter 
of Aesthetic Movement.  Fin de siecle dandy.  Career and 
reputation consumed by politicized sex scandal.

Gabriele D'Annunzio.  Poet.  Aesthetician.  Soldier and 
revolutionary.  Essayist.  Orator.  Aviator.  Artistic and 
hysteric dictator of city of Trieste.  Art collector.  
Proto-fascist.

Filippo Marinetti.  Futurist.  Essayist.   Techno-
enthusiast.  Aesthetician.  Artist.  Militarist.  Fascist.

Anatoly Lunacharsky.  Bolshevik Commissar of 
Enlightenment.  Avant-gardiste.  Techno-enthusiast. 
Utopian.  Mystic.  Orator.  Proletarian culturist. Social 
engineer.   Became career bureaucrat and tool of 
Stalinism.

Elbert Hubbard.  Crackerbarrel philosopher.  Journalist.  
Aesthetician.  Arts & Crafts guru.  Ran semi-utopian 
"Roycroft" art colony and design workshop.  Died on the 
Lusitania when it was torpedoed by Imperial German U-boat.

H. G. Wells.  Science fiction writer.  Novelist.   
Journalist.  Social critic.  Futurist.  Feminist.  Free 
Love activist.  Popular-science and self-education 
enthusiast.  Political activist.    Major figure in Fabian 
movement, precursor of British Labour Party.

Frank Lloyd Wright.  Architect.   Builder.  Graphic 
designer.   Futurist speculator  (Broadacres, Mile-High 
City, etc).   Writer and lecturer. Furniture designer.  
Scandalous personal life.  Exile in Japan.  Autocratic 
guru of Taliesin design schools.   Remarkably long-lived, 
especially considering his very high rate of activity.

Andre' Breton.  Poet.  Art critic.  Psychologist.  
Philosopher.  Exile.  Surrealist bent on undermining and 
destroying bourgeois perception of reality. Never fully 
recovered from Nazi occupation of his favorite cafes.

Buckminster Fuller.  Engineer.  Prophet.  Futurist 
speculator.  Architecture and transportation enthusiast.  
Language theorist.  Crank.

Le Corbusier.  Painter.  Architect.  Urban planner.   
Aesthetician.  Furniture designer.  Radical modernist 
zealot.

Lewis Mumford.  Literary critic.  Author.  Urban design 
enthusiast.  Technocultural historian.  Anti-capitalist, 
decentralization enthusiast.  Humanist Luddite.

Huey P. Long.  Southern-fried demagogue.   Gifted orator.  
Visionary national-socialist.     One of the rare American 
politicians who was a scourge of oil companies.   Shot by 
a doctor whose family he had maligned in a racist slur.

Adolf Hitler.   Graphic designer.  Art student.  Painter.   
Viennese bohemian.  Architect.  Highly gifted public 
speaker.  Military hero.   Munich  political organizer.  
Paramilitary street fighter and terrorist.   Vegetarian.  
Mystic.   Tactical and strategic military theorist.      
Political prisoner.  Author.  Media theorist, film 
enthusiast, radio personality.  Automotive designer.  
Fascist.   Anti-semite.   Eugenicist.   Thousand-year 
long-term futurist.  Aesthetic censor, cultural activist.  
Set designer.  Paramilitary and military couturier.   
Political campaigner.  Purge master.   Parliamentary 
maneuverer.   Chancellor of Germany.   Fuhrer of Third 
Reich.  Prominent art collector, by any means necessary.  
Genocidal maniac.  Drug addict.   Rocketry zealot.  
Connoisseur of advanced military technology.  Hysteric 
apocalypticist.  Met personal Gotterdammerung with closest 
followers in armed compound.  A central figure in 20th 
century ideology, warfare and international relations.

Joseph Goebbels.  Failed novelist.  Highly gifted Minister 
of Propaganda for Nazi regime.  Film producer.  Orator.

Thea von Harbou.  Novelist.  Science fiction screenwriter.  
Wrote urban design and techno-forecasting classic 
"Metropolis."  Became ardent Nazi after husband Fritz Lang 
fled for America.

George Orwell.  Journalist.  Science fiction writer.  
Language theorist.  Media analyst.  Cassandra figure.

Raymond Loewy.  Fashion illustrator.  Industrial designer.  
Product stylist.  Prophet of streamlining.  High-tech 
corporate consultant.

Henry Dreyfuss.  Theatrical set designer.  Industrial 
designer.  Author.  Anthropometricist.  Corporate 
consultant.  Radically changed the appearance and 
properties of mass consumer items in mid-twentieth 
century.

Petra Kelly.  German Green Party founder and leader.  
Peacenik.  Ecologist.  Feminist.  Human rights activist.  
Author.  Orator.  Parliamentarian.   Anti-nuclear 
campaigner.  Children's health advocate.  Died in weird  
murder-suicide with her elderly boyfriend, a retired Major 
General.

Guy Debord.  French Situationist, social critic, guru of 
1958 student uprisings, urban design critic, filmmaker.  
Alcoholic.  Shot himself.

L. Ron Hubbard.  Science fiction writer.  Amateur 
psychologist.  Mystic.  Cult leader.  Multimillionaire.  
Spent declining years in exile, closeted on a boat with 
worshipful followers.

David Koresh.  Cult leader.  Texan.  Arms dealer.  
Polygamist.   Musician.  Briefly prominent television 
personality.   Died in apocalyptic gotterdamerung in armed 
compound.   Apparently did not read much science fiction, 
except for the Book of Revelations. 

Timothy Leary.  Ivy League psychologist.  Medical 
experimenter.  Prophet of inner space and psychedelic 
power.   Author.  Lecturer.  Stand-up comic.  Mystic.  
Revolutionary conspirator.   Political prisoner.  
Alcoholic and chain smoker.    Celebrity and television 
personality.  Computer entrepreneur.  Internet enthusiast.   
Cyberpunk devotee.

Charles Manson.  Cult leader.  Hipster.  Musician.  Drug 
user.  Serial killer.  Obsessed with science fiction novel 
"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein.  
Currently in prison.

Shoko Asahara.  Yoga teacher. Cultist.  Apocalyptic 
prophet.  Polygamist.  Biological warfare enthusiast.  
Serial killer and mass murderer.  Pope-Emperor of Japanese 
cult, attempted a coup d'etat.  Obsessed with science 
fiction novels "The Foundation Trilogy" by Isaac Asimov.  
(Manson and Asahara do not properly belong on a historical 
list as they are not dead yet, but the chances of their 
ever seeing daylight again are basically nil.)

Bruce Sterling.  Science fiction writer.  Journalist.  
Media historian. Most technically innovative American 
beatnik writer of the 1950s. Gay heroin addict, shot wife 
in head in a Mexican bar.    (Oh wait -- that must have 
been William Burroughs.)

Bruce Sterling (bruces@well.com)