can never win. The rule is: be honest among yourselves. but deceive the enemy.
There arc at least three ways of dealing with a situation. You can neutralize, activate or destroy. Neutralize is to create space. Activate is to gain support. Destroy is to win. What’s more, it is essential to learn how to use all three simultaneously. Struggle on many levels begins with the activation of all the senses. We must be able to conceive of more than one mode of acting for a given situation. The response, i.e. method of struggle, should contain three elements: 1) a means of survival; 2) a method of exploiting splits within the enemy camp; 3) an underground strategy.
The fundamental tendency of corporate liberalism is to identify with social change while trying to contain it. Wouldn’t it be ironic (and even a relief) if we could turn the threat of cooptation into a means of survival?
The fear of cooptation often leads people to shun the challenge of the corporate liberals. Some of the purest revolutionaries prefer not to think about using the coopter for their own purposes. Too often the mentality of the “job” obscures the potential for subversion.
53
