The energy of the manifesto is drawn from expressions in the here and now of alternate possibilities for life. Music is just one territory of cultural production in which such expressions of the possible manifest, in all their messy contradictions: "Our music foretells our future. Let us lend it an ear."[1]

This text flows from our listening to – or (shall we admit it?), our fictionalizing of – a strain of contemporary Canadian indie music. We, like many others, have been moved first by the sounds and, soon after, by the concept of a "Soft Revolution" as annunciated by Stars. No single group could, however, stake a proprietary claim on any soft revolution worthy of the name.

The Arcade Fire, Black Mountain, Constantines, the Dears, Destroyer, Femme Generation, Final Fantasy, the Hidden Cameras, k-os, Metric, Ninja High School, Republic of Safety, the Weakerthans, Wolf Parade...

Soft revolutions are manifesting across diverse worlds of cultural production in Canada and beyond, with the writings, situations, and actions of Adrian Blackwell, Diane Borsato, Darren O'Donnell, Kirsten Forkert, Hadley + Maxwell, Luis Jacob, John Marriott, Norma, Lisa Robertson and the Office for Soft Architecture, Kika Thorne...

These are just some in a band of bands – a cacophonous pack, not an identity – whose creative activities are this text's active force. "When moving without aim in a gang, the swarm, the team, moves the individual. Decisions and choices are made by a mysterious non-system of suggestions, questions, nudges, movements...never a vote or an order from above."

"Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!" The prefix "soft" is not code for meekness in the face of whatever reactive forces we confront. "Call your targets out by name."

"Soft" evokes disenchantment with certain assumptions we inherit with the word revolution. Soft revolutions take leave of the push-button fantasy of the single, absolute, revolutionary "break," after which a friction-free utopia is supposed to appear. "They're waiting for something that'll never arrive." Soft revolutions don't consign hope to a vanguard ideal. "Seeking out a living free of the postures of politics." Soft revolutions do not publish blueprints. "It never comes off like you planned it." Soft revolutions do not seek to organize experience. "Discomfort = confusion; with no confusion no learning, no discomfort no learning."[2]

"Do you think this is easy?"

Such political intelligence is a product of centuries of struggle, from that of feminists to that of autonomists and heretics.

Heart and affirmation: two manifestations of soft revolution. To these we clap our hands and say "yeah!"

Soft revolutions are propelled by an affirmative impulse. "Fight off the lethargy." Cynicism is asked to answer for itself. "And listen, about those bitter songs you sing? They're not helping anything." Refusal connects with creation. "Let our hatred and affection march in the same line." Imagine what one is striving for. "After changing everything, they couldn't tell we couldn't sing." Be untimely. "This is our time!" Expand capacities; actualize potential. "Come on, Alex, you can do it!" Joy. Prepare to greet reactive forces. "I am fast, but you are quick." "What alliances might be forged while under siege?"[3] Inquire. "Force is a language they understand; and force we will use." Active forces open horizons radically other to the inevitable. "If sanctuary still exists, it's among the shaking fists." Unleash the bliss of action. "Offer the love of freedom instead of the hope of rewards."[4] New compositions are possible. "Get your horses back! Get your resources back!" New compositions exist.[5] "Don't be saddened. Just look around, love." Think; or open thought to new possibilities for life. "But the fact is we are not using our minds the way we should be. So sad." "We say thought's object is not knowledge but living. We do not like it elsewhere."

"How does the brain compare with the heart?" Soft revolution is a percept: so the heart – the cultural skin of love – is its icon. "There's something wrong in the heart of man." "Sad passions" – cynicism, fear, paranoia, precarity – are wrong: they diminish a body's capacity to act affirmatively.[6] "Don't run our hearts around. Don't hit 'em to the ground." Confront coldness and cruelty. "You take it from your heart and put it in your hand!" Set to work on yourself. "Loosen your heart." Create social aggregations. "Pause. Pose. Participate."[7] Strive, but forgive. "I gave what I gave." Enter encounters; become intimate. "Negotiate the streets with palms as eyes."[8] Decompose the Man in you: fire "the General in you!"[9] Over and over. "This heart's on fire." Hearts affirm love, where love is the production and protection of generative bonds – bonds that are created because they are needed; and last as long as needed. Soft revolutions end, and begin again. "Walk while getting rid of something."[10] "Disrupt the world's disorder just by virtue of your grace."

Reactive forces, sediment as structures, amplify sadness. Maybe soft revolutions are constituent in relation to the "hard" ones. "Graceless we'll lose the battle." Proceed without manifesto, without a fixed measure of success, without method. "Unfettered and fearless conversation between strangers is fundamental to freedom."

Pop–music–inspired anthem penned by naive listeners? "We are here to take the blame, to take the taunts, and live the shame." Let the concrete situation be our teacher. "The war machine keeps on rolling."

Notes

[1] Jacques Attali, Noise: Political Economy of Music, trans. Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985), 15.

[2] Darren O'Donnell, See his essay "Theatre, Embarrassment and Commodification: An Aesthetic of Civic Engagement," C Magazine, 90, 2006, 31.

[3] Adrian Blackwell and Kika Thorne, "1:1 over 1:300," Public 29: Localities. Eds. Liinamaa, Marchessault, Shaw. (Toronto: Public Access, 2004), 209.

[4] Spinoza. Political Treatise. In The Collected Works of Spinoza, Volume I. Ed. Edwin Curley. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), Chapter X, 8.

[5] Blocks Recording Club.

[6] Spinoza, The Ethics. In The Collected Works of Spinoza, Volume I. Ed. Edwin Curley. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), III, 2.

[7] John Marriott, Incidental Park Zones (performance intervention), April 14 to 28, 2003, Artspeak gallery, Vancouver.

[8] Diane Borsato, Touching 1000 People (performance intervention), October, 1999, Montreal.

[9] Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus. Trans. Brian Massumi. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987), 25.

[10] Kirsten Forkert, Walking and Getting Rid of Something (participatory public performance), March 1, 2003, Fado Performance Inc., Toronto.