C.O.M.A. Statement


C.O.M.A. (communicatus operatio militia apokalypsis) is an organizational context that exists primarily as a theoretical construct and website (coma.mwwilson.net). c.o.m.a.'s quasi-fictional identity as a millennarian secret society is a composite of conspiratorial references that combine to explore and critique the rhetoric of apocalyptic survivalism. c.o.m.a. is a kind of "meta-practice" that works in parallel with my daily practice.

On one level, c.o.m.a. mimics the organizational structure of the right-wing militia, while exploring the cosmological constructions through which their apocalyptic themes are enacted: a blend of the racist, fringe faith called 'Identity Christianity' and a survivalism grounded in paranoid political theories. This movement embodies a militant version of the two main philosophical traditions at work in the paranoid/apocalyptic American psyche: the self-reliance/civil disobedience tradition of Emerson/Thoreau and the Puritan revivalist tradition originating with Jonathan Edwards and Cotton Mather.

On another level (and because the paranoid require an oppositional, controlling other for self-definition, c.o.m.a. represents the target of American fear: hidden (occult) control through both clandestine/terrorist means (secret societies, religious others, etc) and overt conspiracies of governments both external (a 'New World Order' engineered by the United Nations, Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg Group, etc) and internal (anti-gun forces, homosexuals, Jews, liberals, etc.). These two levels represent the fundamental impulses in American paranoia - retreats into political secrecy, militancy and religion in the face of a world-wide 'conspiracy' of its mirror image. These activities are also vitally 'communicative' in the sense that they exist almost exclusively through the faithful 'witnessing' of their adherents. The survivalist/conspiracy theorist is a carrier of the 'message' of conspiracy in much the same way the revivalist carries the 'message' of salvation. In both cases, the fate of the world is beyond our control (either God or the all-powerful 'conspiracy' controls our destiny) and the only action to be taken is one of persuasive communication: either you prepare for the end-times or perish.

c.o.m.a. attempts to merge the American 'self' and 'other' as it explores the processes of cosmology-building, the function of secrecy, and the role of overt and arcane forms of communication in constructing the object of fear as well as strategies of survival. c.o.m.a. attempts to find and/or create occult points of reference in the intersection between militant survivalism and religious apocalypticism. After identifying territory that might be transformed, a new set of languages, rituals and experimental communications were constructed using survivalist tools and revivalist enthusiasms. c.o.m.a. hopes to catalyze a mutant mixture of the more transgressive, subversive and progressive elements hidden behind these stereotypes - hoping to summon a form of 'Surrevivalism' that revivifies fragments of history and tradition as tools for transformation rather than continuing to repress such sources of shame and embarrassment. In much the same way the militia and radical Christian movements have turned to new media to organize, recruit and relay their messages to a larger audience (even as they denounce the growth of technology and prepare for a post-technological future), c.o.m.a. utilizes a variety of media in its efforts, with a focus on using new media and physical spaces that mimic 'new media' vituality. c.o.m.a. also hopes to explore the role of 'programming' (the truly 'new' aspect of new media) as a tool for understanding the 'cult-like' psychological aspects of paranoid/revivalist ideologies.