Politics

Lives of The Orange Men: A Retrospective

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As of late, I’ve been experimenting with an idea: after watching a video, reading a book (or chapter), and so on asking “what did I learn.” So as part of this experiment, I’d like to talk about “Lives of the Orange Men” by Major Waldemar Fydrych.

The book is about the Orange Alternative, an anti-communist movement in the 1980s that used surrealism, “situations,” art, and mockery against the government. Though most famous for their guerilla paintings of orange dwarves and doing protests wearing orange “dwarf hats,” they did far more. From what I can tell, historians consider them to have played a notable role in Poland’s freedom (or being free-er). So you know that a book on art, culture, protest, and surrealism is going to get my attention.

The book is not a typical historical book – being made by surrealists it’s also a surrealist piece. Written in an overblown style reminiscent of State Communist propaganda, it follows the lives of certain members of the Orange Alternative and their actions. How much is true and how much is made up? Well, that’s part of the challenge the book presents to you, even if it has some handy appendices.

The Orange Alternative also had a kind of pseudomilitary organization, which leads to both grandiose statements and even more ways to mock things. I’m not sure if some of the members are making fun of themselves or not. Maybe that’s good.

So what did I get reading this work of both history AND art? What lessons can I share?

Some Things Have To Be Experienced: Whatever I summarize here this is over half for my benefit. The way to get the full benefit of this book is to read it – and I recommend you do. This book has to be experienced.

Style Can be Substance: The parodic nature of the writing, the overblown style, actually helped me “get” the Orange Alternative intuitively. They knew how to get people, how to make an impression (and how to annoy the authorities). Style matters.

It’s A Lifestyle: The Orange Alternative members lived this stuff. Yes they had lives (which they document) but the book and some of the acts recorded within speak to this protest and movements being a lifestyle. So dive in, people.

Know the Culture: Hijack cultural elements, historical events, pop culture, etc. Understand what you are hijacking, and how it works. Culturejacking also can lend cover to your action, further confusing authorities.

Not Everything Transfers: Reading about the protests and situations set up to confuse Polish authorities, some ideas do not transfer to other situations and contexts. It became clear that certain stunts wouldn’t fly elsewhere because of cultural, economic, racial, and other issues.

Everything Is Art: You can hijack anything to be art – including the people trying to stop you. The Orange Alternative saw the world as their canvas, and it helped them think bigger. It also meant they had a mindset on co-opting things and taking control.

Kindness Is Protest: The Orange Alternative sometimes did giveaways of useful things like toilet paper and sanitary pads. That got attention, got good will, and helped people. Toss in their surrealist attitudes and they did good and confused the government agents. How do you stop guys in costumes distributing toilet paper?

Spectacle Matters: The Orange Alternative did some pretty damn colorful stuff. Fake reenacted naval battles. Marches wearing all red. Protests and writings that tried to be “more patriotic than thou” to further confound authorities. The utter silliness clearly mattered.

Persistence Matters: The Orange Alternative’s constant painting of dwarves, handing out handbills, etc. paid off. Some events were done one after the other. Protest – and art protests – need persistent activity. It also wears the bad guys out. Speaking of . . .

Wear Them Down: It’s clear the Orange Alternative knew how to exhaust the authorities. How do you track down people wearing too much red when other people might be wearing red? Why is this cross-dresser being so nice to you? Where did the cardboard battleship come from and what do you do about it? What the hell is it with all those dwarf paintings? It’s clear the Alternative knew how to exhaust authorities because it’s hard to know what they’re doing.

Destroy Dignity: How do the police address folks wearing funny hats who are handing out toilet paper? Why are you even here? The Orange Alternative had the authorities dealing with stupid situations and trying to act like they were a threat. But there was no threat, no violence, not even cruel words. Agents both obvious and secret weren’t sure how to handle these people and felt a little stupid.

Have Fun: Pretty obvious. It was clear the Orange Alternative crew was enjoying this.

So that’s my summary. I recommend you still read the book, but perhaps this will give you ideas of using art politically and socially – and what art can do. In this case, it played a role in liberating a country.

-Xenofact

Musings On The Lonely Men Who Hate Each Other

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The “Male Loneliness Epidemic” is something I see discussed a lot. Men feel lonely and isolated. Men fall under the spell of grifters. Men don’t find what they need and get bitter and angry. Being a pretty generic guy, I take interest in this for many reasons, including the fact a lot of (white) guys voted for Donald Trump who, as of this post, is sort of ruining everything.

Having lived many, many decades I get the concern about male loneliness. I also however was raised with the idea that you can find and make friends. I suspect some of this is really that I hit a sweet spot of how I was raised, role models, connective nerd culture, and region. I grew up thinking about making friends and connecting, and that it’s my job to do it. I guess some people missed that.

Beyond my very broad experiences, I’m not sure I can comment on the fine details of this supposed epidemic, if it is an epidemic (I don’t think so), and so on. I think what is obvious is there’s a grifty, fascistic part of Online Male Culture that uses this sense of disconnection to give vulnerable men a pathological and unsustainable role model, what one person on Tumblr called wittily the Buff Scammer.

The Buff Scammer is a sort of capitalistic/fascistic/comic book ideal of a guy as a jacked hustler always making scores and gains. You don’t actually enjoy yourself, you just have to keep up the gains and the money to show off . . . to other men. Even relations with women are ways to show off to men, meaning that you enter into the bizarrely homoerotic sphere of men thinking of men in their wooing of women. These men don’t have friends or lovers, just targets of various kinds.

What is funny is that, with my (ever-advancing age) and interest in history is I’m used to seeing far different ideals of male role models that are not the Buff Scammer.. A lot of them involved an idea of citizenship in many ways, even if there were other pathologies. The idea of a man was an idea of being engaged and part of things (even if there was plenty of toxic masculinity otherwise). It’s weird to see that in, say, 2500 year old writings, but also remember it in my youth and feel like it’s sort of been pushed aside in my lifetime.

Citizenship gives one some grounding, some sense of place – and you feel less lonely. You’re playing or seeking to play a role. Maybe it’s just me getting old, but I honestly see that completely lacking in large parts of culture, including some of the male grift-o-sphere. I meet plenty of engaged citizens who are happy, but there are zones where the idea of citizenship seems long gone.

Citizenship as an ideal leads you to not be alone and to seek connection. You have an ideal of belonging. The Buff Scammer and his ilk have none of that. That has to not just be lonely, but it resists a traditional gateway for not being lonely – the idea of being an active citizen. I mean you may not like everyone but you’re part of something.

This makes me think of the events of the first few months of the Trump administration. Trump destroyed alliances and trade deals built over decades – indeed over a century. He isolated the country in a temper tantrum, trying to look tough. He was, in short, a Buff Scammer (well, not that Buff) who has no concept of friends, of citizenship.

And then I think of the lonely men who voted for him. They have no concept of friends either. No concept of citizenship. No concept of belonging.

It’s just lonely people in a temper tantrum, disconnected, isolated, and running things, leaving them even more alone. Citizenship may be a solution, but people will have to learn to be active about it. Certainly they just found some grifter is going to make them more lonely.

-Xenofact

Art In Active Suspension

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In 2025 I have been vitally interested in the role of art in social evolution and opposing authoritarianism for the obvious reason that America made some bad decisions it quickly regretted.

Anyway, art is powerful. It’s a combination of words, symbols, colors, lyrics, music, or whatever that gets into your head. Good art is both its own little ecosystem but also is something your mind and feelings latch onto – the goal of good art is to be effective. Art is a tiny world that so connects with your mind it changes you..

When art changes you and others the world can change – and change for the better. Look how it can build social cohesion with shared symbols as well as undermine systems of control, gnawing away at oppressors. Art can inspire people to do even more art, creating a cascade of ideas no tyrant can stem both by sheer power and because most tyrants have the artist sense of blacktop.

Just take a look at history. The Orange Men, anti-fascist songs, pamphleteers, insulting songs, sarcastic essays, mocking plays. You even start wondering about non-political art – perhaps seemingly innocent creations were just subtle assaults on The System. How many revolutionary ideas have we just not noticed yet? How many changed us and we didn’t realize it?

How many ideas in art were not noticed by those who were their target until it was too late?

And that’s just art. Art-adjacent things like religion and spirituality and science also use art to change minds and inform. Look at meditation diagrams and deep symbolic representations. Look at gorgeous art from old science textbooks, drilling that knowledge into your head. Art is powerful.

These days, I think we need more revolutionary art. But in contemplating this I had a rather chilling thought.

What is art as I write about it in 2025? There’s so many ways to publish and print and record, yes, but we’re encouraged endlessly to turn it to profit. We’re asked to make art that fits what sells, that can be marketed, that can fit into certain formats and so on. The overall “art mindset” of our culture is one of making things that we can sell, and that helps bring money to the assorted services and vendors we have.

Now I’m all for people making money, but having seen obsessive attempts by people trying to find the right niche, sell the right story, I wonder. How much effort to make art goes into trying to make the “right” art? How much of our artistry is just understanding how to sell something we’re not quite as enthused about making?

There’s so much product that doesn’t feel like art.

How much of our art today is just contentmade to fit marketing specs and bring in money, not change the world. How many potential revolutionaries are making another tired novel, another just-the-same painting, another knock-off game? How many revolutions could happen that aren’t not because of oppression, but just our endless grind in pursuit of profit.

No, I’m not saying Capitalism is a deliberate attempt to crush art. I’m just noting it’s got some anti-art systems built in. Don’t even start me on so-called “AI.”

There are a lot of future revolutionaries out there, art-wise – as well as just plain good artists. I get the need to make a buck, but maybe that’s restraining them from what they can be. I wonder how we can help them because we need them – and always have.

-Xenofact