Our Man in Vienna

The Past and the Present in a Nutshell
from Violence Under the Guise of Art

 

Being in Third-Reich-Austria at an early age,
and then returning to my birthplace 24 years later,
afforded me a unique historical view.

In 1938 I was in my Grandmother’s apartment
in Rueppgasse when it was sacked by SA-marauders.
What I have experiences since my return to Austria
is spiritually in keeping with that event.

After all the suffering caused by theft
the murder of family members
and flight to foreign shores,
there was more in store!

I came back and became a witness.
Situations were revealed
that could only be revealed
to someone who had experienced
the Third Reich and then returned.

I have only scratched the surface.
I know there’s more to this
than meets the eye – or the ear.

I did my best to bring attention
to certain aspects
of the “cultural” scene,
but my voice was drowned out.

Here’s the rub!
I am an adversary of
Violence Under the Guise of Art.

This movement has included child abuse,
an aspect that has been juristically verified,
as well as captured on film.

My admonitions have come upon
deaf ears and closed eyes.
However, they have brought
vehement and underhanded reactions.

There are some people whose ideas
are so dangerous
that democratic means cannot be used
to counter them.

The promoters Violence Under the Guise of Art
know that they do not have a polemical leg to stand on.
Thus, the critic must be cancelled out.

I seem to be able to bring out the fascist
in self-styled anti-fascists.
All you have to do
is scratch a little.

I’ve been blocked by the “right” people.
The “wrong” people never had a chance.

I am truly amazed at what lengths
the “right” people will go
to block someone who does not agree
with their aims, which are contrary
to their professed views.
Their malice knows no bounds.

Those who allegedly oppose censorship
are precisely those who are imposing it.

Freedom of art on this piece of geography means
unlimited freedom for some
and a drastic limitation of such for others.

Cultural unity signifies the end.

The upshot is that such blocking is invariably
a confirmation and validation.

It takes true genius to execute inhumanity and brutality
with impunity under the cloak of freedom of art.
– Johannes Diethart, author and publisher

“The new fascism will not declare itself as fascism,
but rather as anti-fascism.”
– Ignazio Silone

No doubt about it. Third Reich inhumanity
was the precursor of today’s Actionist cult in the arts.

My piece bearing the title
Violence Under the Guise of Art
contains aspects of the Aftermath and Aftereffects
of the Third Reich that have not yet
been brought to the fore.

The present is a key to the past
and vice-versa.

The Aftermath and the Aftereffects
exceed being a Shadow and an Echo.

Is Actionism a follow-up
of days gone-by
that have actually
not really gone by?

Was the Brown Baton passed on?
Did the Actionists grab it
and fill the gap?

Is Actionism the old spirit
in a new garb?

I answer in the affirmative!
Violence has been integrated into the arts
and poses as a protest against violence.

Actionist anti-humanist deeds and declarations
cry out for comparisons.

Comparing today’s diction to yesteryear’s
more than makes the case.

Actionism is not a catharsis for barbarism.
It is a bona-fide ideology and mode of behavior.

The dedication to promulgating inhumanity
is unadulterated.

Actionist violence borders on crime,
and at times transcends that border.

Actionists are providers as well as doers.

The validity of an artwork is a matter of conjecture,
but crime is concrete matter.

 

– Herbert Kuhner