Burn Money

“It’s dangerous to understand new things too quickly” — Josiah Warren, True Civilization

I started with the basic idea of attempting to make a world I wanted to live in despite the understanding that others haven’t called for it.

“The only way to support a revolution is to make your own” — Abbie Hoffman, Woodstock Nation.

Trying to run a record label makes most Class A drug habits look cheap. Since 1996 when Iron Man Records came into existence, I’ve discovered it’s cheaper to conduct ritual sacrifice and burn money than release records. I decided to do both. One, then the other. You have to be insane to try to make the world you want to live in. I’ve learnt to embrace the contradictions. If you want to do something, do it today. Ritual Sacrifice has been as much a meaningful part of running a record label, as releasing records. I’ve tried to keep a balance but it’s good to let your rational mind tip over once in a while. Tomorrow is just a word and your Insanity will do.

“Reality is not enough; we need nonsense too. Drifting into a world of fantasy is not an escape from reality but a significant education about the nature of life.” Edmund Miller, Lewis Carroll Observed

Burn #1 How to Burn Money — “This for That”
Friday 30th October 2009 Barnstaple, England: £10 — EB38 466731, a Tenner in a Phone Box, The End of Ten Quid, Ten pounds sterling, Ten Quid — British slang for monetary currency, Quid pro quo, the Latin phrase meaning “this for that”

Burn #2 How to Burn Money — “This for That” On a budget
Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Beverley, England: £5 — KA28 780253, a Fiver in a Phone Box, The End of Five Quid, Five Pounds Sterling, £5, Five Quid — British slang for monetary currency, Quid pro quo, the Latin phrase meaning “this for that”

Burn #3 How To Burn Money — “Demand World Peace”
5th November 2012, Truro, Cornwall, England: £20 — numbers yet to be found…I’ve got them somewhere…..

It’s not about the money. It’s about sending a message. And not every burning needs documenting. You are the master, you make the grass green. Do as you will.

“Cultures act to preserve the illusions of the population. They’re not interested in you, if you are an Einstein or a Jackson Pollock….unless they can fit you in to the pre-established systems of commerce and canons of aesthetic order …..and that’s called being civilised.” — Terence Mckenna

The consequences of trying to send a message can also be mind expanding. You don’t know how you are going to feel until you actually do it.

“…It’s frightening to consider that there are all sorts of entities — corporate advertising departments, certain religious organizations, politicians, major news media outlets, etc. — who are constantly disseminating messages that are intended to push our feelings or perspective in directions that are not in our best interests. They’re trying to trigger anxiety so we’ll buy their product, or convince us to subscribe to their ideology, or make us blindly patriotic so we won’t question our government’s actions, or foment strong emotions so we’ll keep watching their “breaking news” and make them more money.”

When money burns something happens. It’s not just the destruction of money, it’s something else. It’s looking into the abyss of your darkest thoughts. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you. It’s an intense experience. It’s testing the circuits to see if there’s some sense of feeling left. It’s will to action. I’ve got this thing about phone boxes, and the end of all time and space. I use phone boxes to burn money. It’s hard to explain. In my mind, in the space where I am, burning money is like cutting the still beating heart out of everything that seeks to corrupt, confuse or rearrange your priorities to suit it’s needs… and holding it up to the sun.

“I have done with society for reasons that seem good to me.……The phonebox is everything. It is a living infinity. It is the end of all time and space. Perfect peace abides here. The phonebox does not belong to despots. On the outside immoral rights can still be claimed, men can fight each other, devour each other, and carry out all the earth’s atrocities. But inside the phonebox their power ceases, their influence fades, their authority disappears. Independence is possible only here. Here I recognise no master. It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message.”

And as Robert Anton Wilson said “. . . there are periods of history when the visions of madmen and dope fiends are a better guide to reality than the common-sense interpretation of data available to the so-called normal mind. This is one such period, if you haven’t noticed already.” Burning money can make you feel like a madman and as such, that has to be a better way to be every once in a while. It stirs up the creative mind and provides a focus outside of the rational. Just don’t overthink it. “Of course I’m crazy, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”