Project Proposal 2024-878: "Die Gedanken sind frei"
Title: Die Gedanken sind frei1
Material Requirements:
- A sound illusion ritual (already in my possession)
- A visual illusion ritual (already in my possession)
- No less than ten liters of goat blood
- A recording of the 1842 German folk song "Die Gedanken sind Frei" (or other older songs about freedom of speech created under oppresive governments, though the title of the piece would have to change accordingly)
- Several small throwable round objects, e.g. marbles
Abstract: The goat blood will be used in a ritual to apply both an auditory and visual illusion to the marbles, so that they display a holographic sequence about 2 meters in diameter which will in, in sequence, display the logos of several prominent fascist movements and governments. It will start with the Roman Vexillum and move on to display the Fasces, the Rising Sun, a Swastika and finally, the logo of the Global Occult Coalition. All the while, the German folk song "Die Gedanken sind frei" will play at a noise comparable to an industry-standard Bluetooth speaker at maximum volume, alerting a lot of passerbies.
I will spare the exact details of either ritual. They both require an object for the spell and a good chunk of goat blood. Multiple of these marbles will be created and spread throughout major cities in the world - Dehli, Shanghai, New York, Berlin, Paris. The more people this reaches, the better.
Intent: In high school, I began noticing a trend in human history - an oppressive government will tell its citizens lies and frame themselves as heroes, and in every single instance, at some point down the road, they will believe it themselves. They may not believe it at first, saying they're not heroes but a "necessary evil" — a phrase I've grown to utterly despise, because the person telling it will always be a powerhungry liar — but eventually, this perception of the self shifts. Eventually, and without exception, they will view themselves as the heroes they make themselves out to be.
And the Global Occult Coalition is no different. After graduating high school I started studying at a Mages Academy - the RWMH Aachen. Literal weeks after graduating with an M.M.2 in Applied Thaumaturgy and Illusionary Magic, I was apprehended and interrogated, and my kidnappers got their message across very clearly - join the Global Occult Coalition in their quest to "bring normalcy to the world", or become an enemy of normalcy and die in its name. I admit, in that moment, I agreed to join them. Wouldn't be here now if I didn't. They apparently didn't do their research on me though, as I managed to slip through their cracks using illusion spells a mere day later and flee to Sjhlfels, where I'm now stuck.
The worst thing about these fascistoid pricks is that, like everyone that came before them, they believe themselves to be 100% in the right. And I detest that. What's the reason we sit in history class and learn about fascist after fascist, only to allow more fascists to exist? Only for more people to think that this time it's exactly what the world needs? What the fuck even is "normalcy"? The anomalous has always and will always exist, it came to be at the same time as this godforsaken universe did, and yet, because in this current age a majority of humanity is unaware of it all, genocide is actually the answer and completely justified. What a sick joke.
So, considering I'm an artist, how do I deal with this? How do I vent my frustrations at the world, at the injustices of life? Well, with art, of course. Now, given my unfortunate position being stuck in the beautiful yet smaller than I anticipated Nexus of Sjhlfels, I'm only able to get the finished product out to other people who'll then spread and use it. Though considering the Protectorate exists, I have little doubt that this will spread.
Once it falls into civillian hands, they may not recognise the GOC logo, though given the impression made by all logos that come prior, it should leave a strong enough impression on anyone that by the time the veil finally breaks (which is only a matter of time given the GOC / Protectorate war getting increasingly heated by the day) they'll know the truth. Should it fall onto GOC hands, let's be real, they will label it "Abnormal Propaganda" and throw it all away. It mainly exists to get the GOC logo into civillians brains and make them associate it with other fascist imagery. I guess should the veil never break against all odds, this whole thing was a gigantic waste of my time. I'll get back to you with more Anti-GOC art in the future.
This is probably also the place to let you know that I have actually directly attacked the GOC before. Their database, to be more precise. These transphobic pieces of shit insisted on deadnaming a former friend of mine, so I saw myself forced to obscure all mentions of it using an illusion ritual. This isn't my first time harming the GOC, both internally and externally, and it will absolutely not be my last.
- Alex Michalsky
