Offend Digital
We have long expressed our love for physical art. The weight of it and the seriousness that is required to create a high-quality product demand a keen eye and a discerning accomplice. In a world where everything is made as quickly and as cheaply as possible, we value physical artifacts.
Digital sensibility is not concerned with aesthetic virtue, affecting multiple senses or longevity, it seeks optimal distribution, like a virus. It is a hologram, ephemeral like a dream. Interacting with it often feels like one too, when you wake from the screen projection, the experience all but disappears. Remembering the details is hard and any profundity fades as quickly as the diodes dim. No matter how good the idea, no matter how mesmerizing the art, the digital version of it makes it forgettable, which cheapens the work required to make it. The value of those fabled NFTs? Fucking nothing.
Most of the time digital goods reflect the worst of human nature, and now, dependency on the digital interface makes it ripe for manipulation. I had convinced myself that this is one of the reasons we would “Defend Analog” but it seems these days there is no difference. While we do not object to the interface, we do recognize the natural human inclination to extract profit undeservingly and to seize control wherever possible. Control over the different types of output is expressed with different mechanisms; the digital is filtered or "curated" while the physical is taxed.
I have a predisposition to question authority. My current question is, "How can one human feel entitled to dictate how other humans live?" Unfortunately, I know the answer. It starts with fear and leads to the tired promise that somewhere, someone with power and your best interests in mind can save you. Maybe it began with a real concession; we "contributed" some of our earnings to mutually fund defense against invading armies. This highly effective collective power was aimed at education and healthcare and all of that was noble and good until eventually, a few greedy humans realized there was an advantage to being a middleman.
This is not new. We are facing a big squeeze of sorts, an attempt by the few to pressure the many of society into “paying” for the comforts those few have become accustomed to. Such greed can be witnessed anywhere there is potential profit to be made; mafia coercion, political pressure, market manipulation, corporate execution of "fiduciary duties", and the ladder-climbing behavior of the bureaucratically entrenched, etc. Economies around the world are in flux, unpredictable and volatile. Whatever your economic status, it is likely to be amplified in the coming years; the fortunate will expand their fortune and the destitute will be forced further down into the lowest echelons of society.
Brexit illustrated the (unintended?) consequences of isolationist policies in a hyper-connected and interdependent era where cooperation might actually result in greater freedom, at least in a financial sense. To make up for the loss of import and export revenue, the U.K. increased tax rates and then broadened their reach to include citizens and business owners residing in foreign countries. When the authoritarian power grab associated with the pandemic triggered little resistance it emboldened governments to impose even greater financial burdens on society to fund the next line of proxy wars or pad the interests of lobbyists, politicians, and the never-ending costs associated with an obese and sick society. Increasing revenue through formal and informal taxation starts with a narrative; the food you eat needs to support climate change reduction, the cars you buy must reduce energy demands (while concealing the actual cost), and the impact of your mere existence must be offset by payments to governments or deified environmental organizations, of course. Any conversation that questions this story is ripe for demonetization and censorship because if you are permitted to question the narrative, you might also dispute the taxation that follows. Meat tax, fuel tax, petrol tax, anti-vaccine tax, Putin tax, all in the name of safety and democracy, protecting the stupid and the fearful ... but I digress. The point I want to make is microscopic compared to the larger problem.
The cost of doing business has recently taken a compounded hike. Specifically, international shipping has spiraled into an impossible-to-sustain concept for most businesses, leaving it only as an option for a few conglomerate corporations that can afford to expense it as a loss. We have tried to be fair (we don't want to profit from a service provided by someone else) and stay up to date with frequent price increases so that we can pass only the exact shipping cost on to customers who purchase the physical versions of our books and manuals. But let’s face it, we play a game that most of us are not meant to win. When combined with the new and creative ways governments cut themselves into the transactions, shipping costs have nearly doubled in the last two years. In a clever twist, governmental authorities from the European Union and the U.K. have demanded that we collect taxes on their behalf, and because we refuse to do so, they impose duties to the degree that our products appear unaffordable in those markets. We've seen evidence that such duties have nearly doubled the retail cost of our products, and that figure does not include the actual shipping costs. A foreign government is making more profit on a product than the actual maker of that product. Perhaps I would be more understanding of such charges if the money was actually used to improve the lives of citizens the government represents, but we all know that it doesn’t, and this isn’t a train we need to stay hitched to.
We make considerable concessions on profit in order to offer the highest quality product that we can. One reason we began to self-publish is to have the final say on how our product is represented but economic conditions are compelling us to bend our ideals.
Due to the current state of the world — considering inflation, rising costs of living, new wars started with no talk of resolution, and an unknowable future — we recommend that, if you live in a foreign country, you refrain from purchasing our physical goods unless you have the means to do so.
The core of our philosophy is that of personal autonomy, and this extends far beyond the merely physical. We recognize that what we sell is, in many cases, extravagant excess compared to what people need to actually live, and although I wholeheartedly believe what we write about, discuss on the podcast, and teach to our clients are principles that can improve one’s life, accessing these ideas should not put you at financial risk. Obviously, we do not give away what we ourselves value, but we have decided to offer some of our products in digital form.
As much as we appreciate our printed work and the premise of “Defend Analog”, we can also adapt. Authoritarian and fiscally irresponsible governments do not need any more funding from us than we are legally obliged to tithe, so starting with the series of RAZE zines and eventually the manuals and perhaps other works, we are making most of our written products available digitally. We have added (embedded) videos, interviews, and special content to many of these items to take advantage of the medium and we have reduced the price to reflect our lower overhead and to make our work more accessible. We will evade being pawns in the game of authority, financial exploitation, social manipulation, and increasing control over people for as long as we are able. After that, who knows?
If this is disappointing, know that we are just as disappointed. We will continue to produce high-quality analog goods albeit in reduced quantity, while keeping them affordable to those who want them. If going digital is useful to you, please help us raise the black flag and spread the word. Thank you.
Onward
Note: viewing these digital assets on our website allows access to embedded video but downloaded versions will not include these media. The files are best viewed on a desktop or large tablet.
