Chris Korda: Save The Planet--Kill Yourself

CHRIS KORDA SAVE THE PLANET--KILL YOURSELF

THE LAST THING WE ACTUALLY NEED IS IDEOLOGIES. SMALL OR LARGE, SOPHISTICATED OR DISABLED SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT AND, WORSE, MOVEMENT SUBROUTINES THAT ARE RELATED TO EACH OTHER IN A WAY THAT IS AT LEAST AS UNEXPLAINED AS, IF YOU SAY, THE EARTH AND MARS.

SASHA KÖSCH

Churches have a slight advantage here. The show effect is much greater, you know straight away that something is wrong. If you start one, which is of course much easier in the states, you know straight away that you are dealing with a kindergarten of ideas and temptations that immediately double any kind of subversion with a self-imposed irony. After all, you can't just say into the camera in a pleasantly humming, sonorous voice like a newsreader: "Hey, I'm the leader of a church, I'm cool." No wonder that all attempts to set up a techno church have failed so far. Either there is a lack of ideas or the power to persuade the media or, as in the case of DR. MOTTE and his yoga assistant, both, which of course has its own, admittedly somewhat perverse, but justifiable appeal.

CHRIS KORDA, whose record "SAVE THE PLANET -- KILL YOURSELF" on GIGOLO, DJ HELLS label, seemed to everyone as if a UFO had landed, whose passengers had nothing but nonsense in their heads, in an exemplary manner, in the middle of the sacred minimalism and undifferentiated stupidity of our times, is the leader of a church. With everything that goes with it. Stickers, buttons, entry in the state register as a non-profit organization, catchy commandments, an apparition, a very cute God (Fig. 1), parades, newsgroups, disciples, website and logo. Reverend CHRIS KORDA is, as befits a church leader these days, transgender, anti-humanist, activist, complaint box ("ask Chrissy") and visionary, political troublemaker and media spectacle -- the whole litany. "CHURCH OF EUTHANASIA" is the name of his bizarre enterprise and its highest and only commandment more or less directly indicates that it is [three words missing] "THOU SHALT NOT PROCREATE" ("you must not (or do they say in church German, should, or cannot, or dare not?) reproduce"). Gulp. This man is for the decimation of the human species through effective non-reproduction. Fear. Probably a scandal, especially in the eyes of those who want to finance the pension funds. And why? Because we are destroying the planet (Earth, everyone should know that by now, on Mars a CHURCH OF EUTHANASIA would be pointless). If humans come, biodiversity will decrease by the minute, diversity will make way for global monoculture (see Burger), the desert will grow (although Wilhelm Reich would probably have come to the opposite solution to the COE), in short: CHRIS KORDAS' church would be a melting pot of technology enemies. (Neo-Luddites as the Americans would say), radical Greenpeace splinter groups, Europeans in general, Heideggerians on LSD and various Satanists.

If only this man wasn't such a prankster, if only he didn't constantly draw attention to himself with such unbelievably insane actions that would make any person with even the slightest fascist inclination immediately want to cry out in horror for the straw of clear order.

He is starting a campaign for the UNABOMBER, the terrorist who has terrified a whole country of homeowners and who has managed to become an icon of media manipulation thanks to his hip deals with Playboy and other news services. He is unveiling swastikas at Republican campaign events and proclaiming that people must vote for this Republican because he is the only hope of fascist America. This of course puts any attempt to pursue sensible, regressive politics in an unpleasant light and must be a nightmare for every campaign propagandist or campaign manager. He drags his "God", the Being, which looks like an oversized anti-smoking statue from outer space, along with an equally inflated contraceptive pill (RU486) to every procession, which is particularly popular at demonstrations for abortion, where the moderate abortion supporters, when they see an "ABORTION SURVIVOR" poster, start to wonder whether they really have to share in the responsibility. He hangs his motto: "SAVE THE PLANET ETC." on larger-than-life advertising posters for insecticides, clearly visible to anyone who sleepily drives down the highway to work in the morning, and sticks small versions of it on police cars, where he then gets caught and, as a very young lady, is treated with goodwill. In our country, the church of euthanasia would have a lifespan that would more than live up to its basic commandment. In Boston, which I still consider, for some unknown reason, to be the Venice of the United States of America, she ensures a constant shift from reality to science fiction.

The pillars of his church, because a church without pillars is of course very shaky (and even with pillars, but that's another topic), are the four principles of perfection that are popular with every citizen: suicide, abortion, cannibalism and sodomy. What at first sounds like a conspiracy dissident theory from the 80s, to which Chris Korda probably owes a lot, immediately reads less like "terror lurks on the Internet" (incidentally, one of the most persistent 80s ideologies, which is repeated so persistently that it's hard to think of the "Internet" as anything other than the wrong decade, which is a shame and has a few other reasons), when you gradually find out that Chris Korda is an absolute vegetarian. If you dig through the thicket of e-sermons - after all, the Church of Euthanasia is an Internet church, has some preparation tips and price lists of human fetuses behind it and considers itself to be otherwise quite refined - then the terms slowly become clearer. Chris Korda gives the Americans, who by nature initially describe everything that doesn't smile into the camera as sodomy, the priceless gift of a clarification of terms. Sodomy is any kind of sexual act that cannot lead to reproduction. Great, isn't it? Cannibalism is exactly what every person does without admitting it, who has remained calm long enough in their own ideology that eating meat is simply part of life, but at the same time, as is usual in "enlightened" societies, considers humans to be animals. (Dizzying membership growth should be anchored in every church). Abortion is the only way if you haven't committed sodomy, because otherwise you have to carry around thoughts of suicide. The Church of Euthanasia made easy. Chris Korda likes to talk, especially about himself, who is part of the problem, and even more about his church, but also about his "music."

BUZZ: Why is there only this one record of yours?

CHRIS: There is only one record because there only has to be one. It is not really an important point to be entertaining, to be successful in the music business in any long-term way, or even to make good music. The important thing is to spread the anti-humanist message of the "Church of Euthanasia" effectively through every mass medium available. In every corner of industrial society. Techno is an excellent medium because it is international, decentralized and mostly reaches young people. It is propagated by an underground network that makes something new into something valuable. If I can add something new to it, something exciting enough, then there is no limit to the subversiveness of the content. It will spread very quickly and it will cost me very little. This is in stark contrast to conventional media like magazine advertising for example, where the costs are enormous, censorship even of the content of the advertisement is considered quite normal and the actual readership is rather small. How many people read a whole magazine? Most people just browse through it and try to avoid reading it. They know it's fake news and if something important happens they'll find out about it anyway. Incidentally, that's why the only medium with any integrity is gossip. Talk shows, chat shows, etc. The tabloids don't care about being politically correct; and you can say anything as long as you don't bore people. When "Church Of Euthanasia" was taped for the Jerry Springer Show, we were impossible. I wore a sperm dress, chewed off the leg of a fake fetus and threw the head into the crowd. Vermin sprayed an attacker against Christian abortion clinics in the face with a water pistol that looks like a penis. We held up signs that said turn off your TV and think for yourself. None of that would be allowed on a serious news program where the only important topic is the weather. Before an appearance on a public TV station, I was given a list of words I was not allowed to say -- including sperm, of course -- so as not to offend the sponsor of the show. Intel, by the way, who else.

Another reason there is only one record is because it took so much energy. I spent a year of my life doing nothing but making that A-side. And then I recorded the B-side, which ironically most people think is much better, in one take with Kevin. I sent the tracks to a pressing plant in Brooklyn and when the test pressing came back it was unplayable, the frequency response was completely wrong and the needle kept flying out. That was a tough time for me. Luckily I met David Frangioni, who had put a notice up in a record store and only later found out that he was working for Aerosmith, Elton John and Paula Abduhl End. He mixed the A-side again at the front, put every single track on a DAT. And with his magic box, a shoebox-sized thing with four buttons that costs more than anything I own, he did something to the B-side and it all worked. He is a technical genius, a true artist at what he does, and I would trust him with anything.

Germans, Europeans in general, are more open to new ideas than Americans. That's why Save the Planet Kill Yourself is so successful in Germany. In America, the record is still not ahead of its time, very few people can even spell the word "euthanasia". I pressed 1000 copies and released it in June 1994. It reached number 39 on an alternative dance chart list and did quite well in Chicago and Detroit. I spent months chasing a licensing deal and was, of course, treated like dirt. I even went to New York City and knocked on the door of every label I could think of, but nobody wanted it because it was too experimental for them. One label lied to me for months so I wouldn't get signed by someone else. What a disgusting business.

I had given up all hope when one night I met Benny Blanco at a party and he told me that DJ Hell was trying to reach me. I had been through everything and didn't expect anything, but when he called and I heard his voice, I trusted him. He was really excited about my record and that actually meant a lot to me.

Music is a good medium for the desperate last-minute warning. The Being says: If you have to kill, kill yourself, not the planet. We lose a species every 40 minutes. There is not much time left. This is also very personal. I see the destruction of the earth and feel shame and despair. The music expresses this. I feel powerless and humiliated by industrial society. I am unable to resist society other than in small, passive movements, such as not having children and not eating meat. All my skills, reading, writing, mathematics, logic, are only useful in an industrial society. I was conditioned and indoctrinated to be part of the masses, but it didn't quite work. I am still sensitive enough to know what is missing. I feel my desire for control and that scares me. I feel my separation from nature and I hate myself for it. But I am too weak.

This brings me to CONFINEMENT farming, by which I mean the practice of keeping animals in conditions of extreme confinement for food. In other words, a concentration camp. European nations are starting to regulate this a little, but in the States it is increasing. We slaughter 5 billion chickens a year, which is almost the same as the human population. When animals are bred in such concentration camps, they develop stress disorders, antisocial behaviors such as biting and cannibalism. But they do not die from this, but from anxiety and trauma. One solution is to give the animals mood-altering drugs such as Prozac, but unfortunately this changes the color of the meat. Ultimately, the limit is probably that the animals are genetically modified so that they are no longer able to feel stress or fear. They are then meat machines.

Any technology developed to domesticate animals can, in some circumstances, be used to domesticate humans. This is why the Unabomber Manifesto also states that "human beings in the future will no longer be a creation of nature or chance or, depending on the religious or philosophical opinion, a creation of God, but a manufactured product. (...) Industrial-technological society will be able to exceed the limits of human endurance by modifying humans, either by psychological or biological means or both. In the future, social systems will no longer be adapted to human needs. Humans will be adapted to the needs of the system. Once this is achieved, it will no longer be perceptible that there is any obstacle to the development of technology. It may approach its logical destiny, complete control of everything on earth, including humans and other important organisms." (from the Unabomber Manifesto).

In short, we are evil. I am not an advocate for the destruction of industrial society, although there is something sympathetic about that. I just want to make it clear to everyone that the primary activity of that society is the replacement of "wild" diversity with a domesticated monoculture of social and biological kinds. The logical consequence of this is the total assimilation of biological life into machines, or the destruction of the surface of the planet, or both. Unlike the Unabomber, however, I see tool-based action as the essence of human activity. I am ashamed of myself and my species, and long to withdraw from the population through non-reproduction and possibly suicide.

DJ HELL about the COE: I don't agree with his church. I'm only interested in the music. (Unexpectedly, DJ Hell already has the next tracks from Chris Korda: Accapella, what else.)

We, who believe that a loaf of bread can be turned into a computer and who consider the idea of artificial intelligence to be a trick question because technology and intelligence cannot be played off against each other any more than nature and technology, and who consider the saying "No farmers, no future" to be a rather threatening statement full of all-too-true and culturally pessimistic undertones, are naturally extremely critical of the Church of Euthanasia, but wish it luck in its courageous endeavor.

The preceding is a translation. The original language is here.