King Ben, alias Benjamin Purnell according to American court records. He allegedly came from Australia and after a number of odysseys landed in a lakeside town (Benton Harbor) near Chicago. His face imitates the worst images of Christ; his slightly greasy hair flows down to his shoulders. He is a “good businessman” and thus it goes without saying that he handles business with “spirit,” having inherited no investment capital from his fathers.1 He calls himself “King of the House of David,” which he indeed once was and shall be again: “for the king is the seventh messenger of the congregation of the Israelites, and none shall replace him,” as he proclaims. He would have others believe in his eternal life and tells of so-called “towes” that would have to be removed from the blood in order to conquer death. Nevertheless, the time has come for him to be rejuvenated, for his hair is grey and he needs crutches to prop himself up, according to the word now spread by his disciples to drum up “sympathy” for him.
It wasn’t ideas that made him old and weary and his life successful. He found the age-old formula for exploiting the imbeciles and understood how to apply it in just the right way. He was the only one to meet with success; and this fame was largely abetted by the American press. The American press stands apart from all others in the world in its ability to conjure up celebrities out of thin air. Rudolph Valentino, the former dishwasher from Broadway, would have never made it without this press, lacking any serious talent or skill to leave a legacy to talk about. And that petite model who, somewhere on the coast, enjoyed a champagne bath in a posh nightclub for hard cash, even managing to surpass Coolidge’s popularity for a while before being forgotten just like every other headline. She was celebrated with the quiet sympathy dedicated to the victims of capitalist mass murder on Memorial Day.
In America, everything gets turned into a national affair in this way. The virtuosity of the American press is unparalleled in curtailing the views of the masses in order to uphold the capitalist mechanism. The fake nose of a world champion boxer, the haircut of some Ziegfield girl, the joy of Mrs. Coolidge upon successfully training her dog, all of this matters exclusively to the American public; it alone can arouse their enthusiasm in a way that in Germany is only seen with the campaigns to expropriate deposed princes2 and during federal elections.
For the American masses, there are no problems, no political discussions; there is only ‘bizness’ and cheap sensation. There is no time for conversation or enjoying oneself. The pursuit of the dollar is motivated not so much by pitiful greed as it is by economic necessity: it is the psychological adaptation to the law of life which values and treats the individual according to their ability to make money. The masses are forced to live such that life ends up passing them by, their existence divided entirely between work and sleep. The newspaper only manages to catch people’s interest momentarily, on their lunch break or in their spare time on the tram, or once they’re old and worn out, and hence out of work. Only in these instances do people catch things that seem to circulate outside their individual egos. People want to know what’s going on in the world, to broaden their thwarted lives at least in the imagination and the press fulfils this demand by feeding them whatever their base instincts demand. For it is the press that spreads what goes on in the world, and what it ends up spreading ranges from the cheapest sensation all the way to the most vile kitschiness; it is a cleaned-up rendition of the most painstakingly sniffed-out impropriety which earns them millions of subscribers. And the latter enjoy what they are prevented from doing; they are the small freeloaders of the big parasites.
Like everything else in this world, the intellectual level of the masses is organised in the service of “law and order.” The machinery of this level is nothing less than the gas attack carried out by tenacious policemen against striking textile workers. The ideological superstructure of the state parallels the preposterous, repugnant order of profit, which equally requires slaughtering the masses and corroding their brains. And what corrodes better than sex and religion; what could possibly present a greater hindrance to thinking? There is no better melting pot for unexploited energy that has yet to be extracted by the factory system than the church and the bordello.
The spirit of this world, journalistically inflected, results in 100 million people developing a feverish need to browse through the newspapers to hear the latest about King Ben, the “interesting criminal.” And perhaps in no other case does one sense more clearly that the crooked criminals are just as indispensable to bourgeois society as its criminal police. For a certain social layer – the criminals – have to provide the material for sensational press stories that prevent the masses from thinking. And how would the police exhibitions be able to ingratiate themselves to the public without those honest men who fill the newspaper columns from time to time, despite not being able to write.3
When the state raises its citizens in this manner, that is to say, when it arranges for them to be systematically dumbed-down, the outcome is mass ideology, a low level which one must necessarily adapt to. This is not the place for an extended analysis of the instantiations of American mass ideology. It suffices here to note that the nightly dreams of American citizens have once again been given a face. In this case, the press is especially fortunate to have both factors present which are needed for the cultivation of ideology: Purnell can be brilliantly exploited both religiously and sexually. With these kinds of assets, it is understandable that the axis of American interest would revolve around him.
I don’t know whether his fame has already crossed the ocean; perhaps his time has not yet come (it may be some time before his trial), but perhaps Europe’s interest in the American “soul” is at an end after the Monkey Trial in Dayton, which really said it all already. Without knowing for certain, I am convinced that Dayton was only able to cause such a sensation in Europe because it turned the skyscrapers into a stony Janus face, with the part facing the Atlantic bearing the stamp of the Middle Ages on its forehead. It seems almost irreconcilable: America, the nation with the most advanced development of production, with all the prospects for further technological development, with economic organisation (contributing to Europe’s decline), nevertheless fraught with an ideology analogous to that of 15th century Europe. The naked, ruthless reality of politics and business––plain for all to see–– as well as all the brutality of the hasty Dollar-marathon, are counterbalanced by a slimy fog of platitudes and crudity that go far beyond the grotesque. Dayton did not manage to paint a clear picture of the wider intellectual obfuscation at play; because it was an individual case, many could still conjecture that it was separate from the broader spiritual conditions prevailing beneath the banner of Stars and Stripes. King Ben and the Dayton Trial are two images that reveal the full picture: behind the semblance of modernity––its skyscrapers and Potemkin villages––lies all the filth and disgrace.
I don’t know whether his fame has already crossed the ocean; perhaps his time has not yet come (it may be some time before his trial), but perhaps Europe’s interest in the American “soul” is at an end after the Monkey Trial in Dayton, which really said it all already. Without knowing for certain, I am convinced that Dayton was only able to cause such a sensation in Europe because it turned the skyscrapers into a stony Janus face, with the part facing the Atlantic bearing the stamp of the Middle Ages on its forehead. It seems almost irreconcilable: America, the nation with the most advanced development of production, with all the prospects for further technological development, with economic organisation (contributing to Europe’s decline), nevertheless fraught with an ideology analogous to that of 15th century Europe. The naked, ruthless reality of politics and business––plain for all to see–– as well as all the brutality of the hasty Dollar-marathon, are counterbalanced by a slimy fog of platitudes and crudity that go far beyond the grotesque. Dayton did not manage to paint a clear picture of the wider intellectual obfuscation at play; because it was an individual case, many could still conjecture that it was separate from the broader spiritual conditions prevailing beneath the banner of Stars and Stripes. King Ben and the Dayton Trial are two images that reveal the full picture: behind the semblance of modernity––its skyscrapers and Potemkin villages––lies all the filth and disgrace.
Approximately twelve years ago, Benjamin Purnell founded the “House of David” in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and with it a new religion which conveys nothing more than Christianity, although it was able to compete with the latter by making use of more evocative theatre. After Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed, there was now the rise of the new prophet Purnell, reformed and purified by the forces of the 20th century. He found disciples, believers, or victims, whatever one prefers to call them. It doesn’t take much to take control of the crowd: all over the world, the continued existence of the capitalist system proves how easy it is to train the exploited to act against their own interests. For many an impatient person incapable of comprehending the erratic development of ideologies, there remains the following enigma of mass psychology: the possibility of enthusiasm for self-slaughter in wars of competition to serve the interests of the opposing classes. Furthermore, people are capable of feeding their own personal Judas which come in the form of treacherous organisations which only serve to gauge stupidity. There is no clear parallel in the interaction of economy and ideology. The brain trudges along behind all other things to suddenly shake off centuries as if with a mighty outcry. Still burdened by the millennia-old tradition of menial labour, and having been equipped by the ruling class with an abundance of means to withstand this condition, while at the same time expressing what has until now been a helplessness, indeed a heavenly hope that someone liberate them, since history had yet to offer them a place of their own in the development of mankind––this class has been so downtrodden that it has retreated into ridiculous mysticism and heavenly deceit.
Benjamin Purnell’s goal in life was not the happiness of owning a Ford automobile; he roamed through all of America’s sects from the Mormons to the foot-washers, and after that had no desire to eke out a living as a humble preacher. He saw the proles from the iron foundries with their forlorn eyes and burnt calves; he experienced how the major wheat crisis caused the farmers to lose all faith in God and business, and he knew for certain that these tortured souls would be grateful to receive at least an advance on heaven instead of dying a wretched death merely hoping for it. Thus he founded the “Garden of Eden.” His modest eloquence sufficed to persuade the hopeless. They sold their belongings and followed him.
The congregation grew; Purnell collected the funds. But he was not one of the little ones that are hanged4; he did not personally get rich, he wanted more. His hands remained pure; he became the shepherd, the king, the god. Houses were built, “Jerusalem,” “Bethlehem,” he had a great big park built; indeed, he became more significant as a “cultural factor” than many a German mayor. He organised quite systematically; he created a small congregation completely independent from the surrounding world, with its own gas station, farms, and entertainment venues, an entire city at the periphery of the larger one. In just over a decade, the “House of David” came to be the favourite getaway destination of Chicago’s Jewish bourgeoisie. Local patriots could now boast of the “Garden of Eden,” the town as a whole was buzzing, with mock Christs hawking tickets; flowing curls and drooping beards gathered to form jazz bands, and the saxophone resounded from the land of God: “– – – Valencia – – –.”
Everything was going splendidly; there was no longer any need to argue about whether paradise was to be found in the Orient or in Germania. American efficiency created a new paradise here, forming the Millennial Empire, without the chiliastic problems that come with capitalist principles. A profitable, accumulating paradise. But that was just the façade. The internal politics for the chosen ones, who had to fork out at least 500 dollars for the admission fee, unless they had an entire fortune to sacrifice, were managed according to communistic principles of need, with the ultimate goal of achieving some sort of humanistic communitarianism. On the cultural level of the Eskimos and the Tierra del Fuego Indians, with a copy of primitive Christianity in their pocket, the people collectivised into a human zoo, sacrificed the demands of bourgeois individuality by growing long hair and beards. Needless to say, in light of lovely lamb lions, the friends of the first humans, they were all vegetarian. The devotees or victims went about their new or ordinary work, only now they turned every cent over to the settlement.
They had no private interests; they owned nothing aside from the right to a helping from the community kitchen. They worked as capitalists and ate as communists. Even though they allegedly no longer had any private needs, they continued to be privately exploited. They were short-changed, since the community of the 20th century had to be regulated according to communist production principles. Nor did they have any further experience of direct hardship; they were less exposed to the bitter contingencies of existence, and they no longer had to rack their brains to keep their bodies intact. The organisation relieved them of all that; it spared them from having to struggle. Such a situation was ideal for the bourgeoisie as well. What a marvellous way to keep the willing elements in the same frame of mind all the time. Providing barracks for the proletariat, rationing out the goods necessary to reproduce the workforce, a life in jail without bars–what a superb way to equalise class differences. May it be heartily recommended to all democratic states.
But for those craven ones who, looking to escape from the world, had built this paradise with their own sweat and money, it was more than just the democratic form that offered satisfaction. Purnell would not have been able to content himself with this alone. For gone are the days when people would plot to usurp the pope’s throne with poison, gone is that era of Napoleon: within the realm of capitalist “divide and conquer”, today’s “adventurer” finds that the “contingencies” that once made up “great men” have been reduced to pale imitations of their former qualities. Purnell was content; he had crowned himself king, successor to David, and improvised when extolling the latter’s glory. He was the only person within the community who led a distinguished existence in every respect. He stuffed his face, wrapping himself in fabulous garments, precious oriental fabrics and cuts, with an enormously impressive official gown. He was a true descendant of David, and his harem was in no way inferior to that of his predecessor. His penis—the divine christening—fertilised like the son of the gods without inflicting harm. Mysterious hidden doors, ventriloquism, and sleight of hand furnished him, as did spiritualism in general, with the ability to use spirit to create matter. He used this trifling hocus-pocus to impregnate all there was to impregnate. His taste became more refined, and the “House of David” became a children’s bordello. And in turn, the victims, the respectable farmers, the Misses who believed in witches, brought him their 14- and 15-year-old daughters so that he could take his pick.
Purnell was undoubtedly the luckiest king on the planet; he possessed everything, everything that a human being can possibly digest. Until four years ago, when three young girls started to talk, when the church and other competing sects brought charges against him. Investigations uncovered the most unbelievable things, and it was with a heavy heart that the good sheriff had to start considering making an arrest. But by that time, there was not a single trace of Benjamin Purnell. Like Elijah, he had rushed off to his father in a chariot of fire to cast an exalted and divine look from the pinnacles of “Jerusalem” down upon those vermin otherwise known as the Pinkertons.
Benjamin remained king for some time. Benjamin continued to walk in the “Garden of Eden,” and as early as 1903, his closest followers, speaking in tongues, had divulged prophecies that one day their king would be falsely accused by women.
Finally, after four years, King Ben was arrested during a raid on the House of David. There was a local sheriff’s election and it probably only succeeded because of that. The same day, he was released on a bail of $120,000 and now awaits his trial, from which he will undoubtedly emerge a happy man. His case is not a private affair – it concerns the organisation of the American state, which arranges sectarianism in such a way as to maintain social order, which means less money has to be spent on the police and the judiciary, etc.
In no other country in the world do religion and sectarianism play as big of a role as they do here. The Constitution of the United States of America speaks of freedom of religion, which it elevates to a private affair (the church is not supported by the state), but don’t you dare believe in it, don’t you dare speak against such “private” institutions, you certainly wouldn’t fare well, you’d wind up in jail. The sects control their followers, and most of the time their functionaries are also factory bosses, so anyone seeking refuge from the contingency of the labour market hardly has a choice but to comply with all of this.
The sects’ methods for profiteering borders on the unbelievable. Only those who have witnessed it could ever believe the cynicism which lures money out of the pockets of those who have worked their fingers to the bone, or the degree of stupidity at play in all of this. With a brash look on their face, rat-faced con men claim that appendicitis, in fact all diseases, can be cured through prayer, that as a true Christian, one must refuse any sort of medical or surgical treatment.
The faith healers still find enough would-be suicides willing to pay handsome sums to those that inspire them, and whoever tried to make these people harmless would likewise commit suicide. It is not for nothing that this stupidity is a means of suppressing progress on par with the police. As such, it remains sacrosanct in the face of all criticism, immune to all written laws; as such, Benjamin Purnell will remain a king in the middle of the republic. And all this will only be destroyed once the ideology of mankind is forced to adapt itself to the economic reality, when the leap from hollow phrases must be made in order to create not paradise – but the best possible social order.
(August 1928)
Originally published in: Kampfruf, Organ der Allgemeinen Arbeiter-Union (Revolutionäre Betriebs-Organisation), 9. jg. no. 41,