Upon our initial arrival some of us compared it to some old cities where canals flow around the streets like a liquid labyrinth. But there is a basic difference in the approach.
In the old cities there is the water, then a walkway or sidewalk and then houses - the water maintains a public quality by being accessible to anyone that walks by it. Here the water is hidden by the houses, and the walls around them - the liquid labyrinth is private and the houses themselves form an insurmountable barrier.
We saw it as a clear example of architectural ideology - here in Akhado there is a mentality of being closed off, of an inner group against everyone else, of protecting the private space against the encroachment of the Other - "Circle the Wagons! The barbarians are all around us.” The potential visitor is assumed to be an enemy until proven otherwise (and it is unclear what form such a proof would take.)
Several of us have a strong intuition that the hidden water is also a physical manifestation of secretly interconnected lives -
secret sexual fantasies, secret deviations, secret affairs, secret rituals - all hidden from outsiders and from the other locals. Everyone knows that everyone else has something to hide, but they don't know what it is. Or at least they will maintain the appearance of ignorance for the sake of courtesy and basic manners.
***
Photograph 1:
We see a tall palm tree overlooking a small boat covered in black plastic. The calm blue water of Akhado is in the background.
***
After many careful interviews, we have learned that the Citizens of Akhado hold a sense of absolute certainty about their own set of knowledge and beliefs. Even if their knowledge changes, even if their beliefs change, the sense of certainty remains,
traveling atop their views like an armored rider on a horse.
The locals only want to educate others but none of them want to be educated themselves. They see any sign of ignorance as a sign of weakness, so they will cling to absolute knowledge even in the face of factual contradictions. New ideas are seen with horror and revulsion, and they are rejected outright.
We have learned it is very difficult for the locals to release this sense of absolute certainty, even for a moment. If at a certain point they open up to the possibility that you or someone else may know something that they don't, they may briefly listen and learn. But the sense of certainty and knowledge will quickly return after that rare moment of openness
and it will hold within it a sense of vengeance: “you must pay for having taught me something”, “there must be something wrong with you or with your beliefs.” They will find (or imagine that they find) what is wrong with you and present it forcefully soon after in order to return to a space of proper justice, careful balance.("Nobody deserves to know more than I do.") As long as the imbalance remains, they will be uncomfortable and anxious as at that moment their inner experience clashes with their sense of justice. This imbalance must be corrected as quickly as possible.
***
Photograph 2:
We see a two-story home, surrounded by palm trees that loom over its tallest point. The windows are dark and quiet. The garden that faces the water is carefully manicured.
***
The Citizens of Akhado believe that once they have determined something rationally or linguistically, the world that surrounds them is obligated to change with them. The world must change in accordance with their own determinations, regardless of any other thoughts or opinions. It is a kind of debt that the rest of the world owes them - even if the world is not aware of it.They are in constant shock that the world doesn't automatically bend to each and every one of their inner determinations.
"Why are we still here? Why is this still happening?"
***
Photograph 3:
We see an old wrinkled brown tree. One of its branches bends towards the ground. A blue and yellow rope is tied around the bent branch, holding up a narrow swing, swaying in the breeze.
***
Excerpts from various interviews:
Citizen:
"What is wrong with you? We are not responsible. For this or for anything else. To hold such a view is plain sickness, mental degradation."
Citizen:
"It seems that you don't yet understand who we are and how we function. Let me explain. Our nature as Akhado citizens is conceptualized as a constellation of processes and practices
rather than as a discrete entity. Our nature is dynamic, relational, and operating at all times and on myriad levels.These processes and practices include basic rights, values, beliefs, perspectives and experiences purported to be commonly shared by all but which are actually only consistently afforded to us. The study of our true nature begins with the premise that our privilege exists in both traditional and modern forms, and rather than work to prove its existence, it works to reveal it. Some of us are aware of it. Most of us are not."
***
From the outside, Akhado can be described as a foreign enclave of suburbia embedded within an agricultural landscape that stands in sharp contrast to it. Akhado protects itself against this foreign territory that surrounds it on all sides. Its sense of identity has grown around this need for protection. Akhado has formed a virtual and very real circle against the Other that surrounds them and threatens to swallow them. It is a kind of sustained cultural paranoia.
***
Photograph 4:
We see the back of a one-story house. Two very small piers face the water, two small row boats are tied to wooden poles.
***
Photograph 5:
We see a long stretch of asphalt, ending on a partly open view of Akhado's blue water. A trio of tall palm trees overlooks the single-story houses along the asphalt's edge.
***
We have learned that the Citizens of Akhado will only be loyal to the extent that this loyalty is useful to them. When someone stops being useful or when a better option arises, the Citizens will find plenty of reasons to abandon their former allies, reasons they have secretly stored over time in case such a situation arises. Listing all these reasons, it will then be easy to maintain a self image of total loyalty and honesty even at the very moment of their betrayal.
"I am not being disloyal, I am simply following a logical path given your actions, your mistakes, your imperfections."
***
Photograph 6:
We see the open blue water at the heart of the watery labyrinth that is Akhado. A sense of sleepiness, loneliness, forgetfulness. Most of the homes are empty, most of the small piers have fallen into disuse.
***
We have learned that they are arrogant at such a deep level that their arrogance has become invisible to them. To them, it is no longer arrogance but simply a clear vision of the way things are. It happens to be that they hold a higher place in the world, it is inherent to their being and it can't be changed. Their superficial claims of theoretical equality would seem to be contradicted by this deep perception but in this particular case the inequality is forgiven because it comes with a sense of benevolence:
"I may be superior but I will use my superiority in the service of others so there is nothing evil about it. I must deal with the burden of knowing more, of having more wisdom."
***
Photograph 7:
We see a single-story colonial style home. A bright silver pickup truck sits on the driveway.
***
The Citizens of Akhado don't realize what it means for them to be Citizens of Akhado. Whatever they believe is simply natural and good and beyond question. Whoever believes or sees things differently must be re-educated. One way or another they must be brought to see the light.
***
Photograph 8:
We see a red and white sign which displays a single clear message: "No trespassing. This area is under 24 hour live/recorded video surveillance. Violators will be prosecuted."
***
Excerpts from various interviews:
Citizen:
"Given that the study of our nature assumes what it seeks to reveal, it falls prey to circular reasoning, though we should acknowledge the modern philosophical ideas (however much they may misconstrue the nature of language, or corrode into crude historicism) which undergird its premise. But there is another fallacy at work. Our nature is reified in society. We embody the ideology of our nature and thus we will remove books from libraries because they embody our nature and take up physical space on the bookshelves. The reification proposition fails logically, and conflates the impact of our legacy with the nature of Akhado itself."
Citizen:
"We need to tighten up our gates. Let Akhado keep our superior culture and let them keep theirs, simple as that. We have worked hard to achieve what we have achieved. We will fight hard to keep it."
Citizen:
"It's just no good. No matter how much we give them, they still ask for more. They won't ever be satisfied because what they really want is to drag all of us and our entire Akhado culture to the bottom. The few real men among us won't let this happen. A war is coming and the men of Akhado historically know how to win wars. It's in our blood."
***
Photograph 9:
We see a small pier with two boats and a small sun deck. Toys are scattered over the wooden surface as it sways gently on the surface of the water.
***
Excerpts from various interviews:
Citizen:
"Are you trying to claim all cultures are equal? Our culture is clearly superior. It takes only the slightest bit of observation to ascertain that."
Citizen:
"I would most certainly judge some cultures better or worse than others and thus think it is moral to defend the values of Akhado. I do find it a superior culture to most others. I have no desire to live in the world beyond Akhado. This is my home. I will die here."
***
After several months of study, it has dawned on us that the ideology of the Citizens is the ideology of an invader - an invader army or an invader race - "we are making this our home now - but we know that the others who used to live here don't like us - so we must forever be on guard against their attack."
It is the ideology of someone who never feels quite at home- someone who always feels a sense that something is about to go wrong- because consciously or unconsciously the ugly truth cannot be erased.
"This place is actually not mine…"
"We stole this place and now occupy it."
They must constantly emphasize the rightfulness of their ownership- "this is MY LAND" - "Akhado is for us!" -as an internal bulwark against endless waves of paranoia and regret.
***
Excerpt from an interview:
Citizen:
"This is how this all happened. I will explain it to you in detail. The turning point was forty years ago. It was the end of the great war against the barbarians. The movement that started against the war just kept on going in the form of them hating us. They called us baby killers and spat on us. We were being defeated by our own tribe and they told us we were evil, so we were forced to act it out. This is a logical outgrowth of our destruction. If they cannot see our destruction and demoralization then they are blind. This is the secret to what is happening to our Akhado today. Look at that date, forty years ago, on the chart. See with your own eyes and understand who did this. It was them. They did it. Open your eyes and realize that we are lost and there is no one helping us. Just anger from these outsiders. And it will get far worse than this. Civil war? Yes, very likely. Stop destroying us Citizens of Akhado. Stop destroying our beautiful Akhado. It is really simple. We are under attack. But who is reacting to this? Who is ready to stand up and defend our land? Wake up."
***
Through our study of the Citizens, we feel the concept of "ideology" becoming more Real to us - it is becoming less intellectual or theoretical and more visceral. We still need to study more- now with a clear sense that there is something there to learn and explore, something that is very close to us but somehow has formerly escaped our grasp. It's becoming clear that we will soon be able to apply this knowledge to the world directly around us.
***
Photograph 10:
We see five tall palm trees overshadowing a large pier and sun deck. A ceremonial gateway is painted white and highlights a single family name written in golden letters.
***
The Citizens believe that they know not only what is good for them but also what is good for everyone else. If anyone in the world disagrees with their clear vision of righteousness and goodness, they will determine that it is due to ignorance or,
in extreme cases, to a kind of inhuman evil borne out of pure Otherness. That kind of direct metaphysical conflict can only be resolved through death and destruction.
***
Photograph 11:
We see a two-story home, gray and white. A wooden narrow balcony outside the master bedroom. A larger balcony sits outside the living room on the main floor. A trampoline gathers dust on the backyard, facing the water.
***
We have learned that they will attribute any wrongdoing on their part to a reaction against wrongdoing from another party. They may sometimes ask for forgiveness but always coached within an explanation that ultimately assigns the responsibility elsewhere. But when they do something good (something they themselves consider good) they will take all responsibility for themselves and never acknowledge any long term or short term help from the outside.
The Other can only be a cause when the effect is a problem. When the effect is welcome, the Citizens become the one and only cause.
***
Photograph 12:
We see a single green paint spill on a pockmarked sidewalk.
***
The Citizens very often embrace the statement of absolute judgment ("This is good" "This is crap") because any judgment is really not a statement about the object but about the subject (The statement "I like ice cream" says something about the "I" that is speaking and not about the "ice cream." It describes the subject rather than the Object.) In this way, whenever they speak, they speak of their favorite subject, the only subject that they truly care about: THEMSELVES.
***
Photograph 13:
Beyond Akhado, several blocks away, we see shiny electric poles. The long black cords hover over a small cluster of tract homes.
***
Excerpts from various interviews:
Citizen:
"I am not my nature. In order to awake fully into my own body for the first time as a true citizen of Akhado I must eschew fragility and begin the work of undoing my superficial nature. This I will accomplish through plumbing the depths of my unconscious mind in which a heap of implicit biases have been piling in since birth- these biases came from elsewhere but they are now multiplying within Akhado. It is time to declare war and treat this like an invasion. Time to defend our gates. Walls, bombs, land mines. This is war."
Citizen:
"They are either complacent or involved in one of the biggest betrayals in our history. We are being taken over. I could write a ten page essay on all the damage that has been caused, but here is what is important. Due to the death of the early settlers, we will soon become a lost tribe. There are many homeless people here now. Fuck off with your adding more people we can't pay for. They need to leave, fix their lives or die.
Those are the only options."
Citizen:
"My answer is war."
***
The Citizens find a sense of safety in rounding up the wagons, in building a wall around themselves to keep the outsider away - the alien, the savage, the barbarian.
But we also sense a kind of claustrophobia and growing paranoia – “we are all alone in here and sooner or later they will be coming for us.”
The strangeness of the distant Other is a quality within subjective perception - but it is no less real because of it - in some ways it is made even more real by the fantasies and fears that hide within any apparent insult.
(Even stranger to think that the Other itself can be changed by this perception, somehow becoming the very fearsome monster that has been anticipated and feared.)
***
Photograph 14:
We see a long pier that holds a single long picnic table under a plastic canopy. A black sofa sits in the sun.
***
We have come to the conclusion that they will ultimately protect their children from any discomfort, even to their own detriment.
They will constantly blame others when their children encounter obstacles or problems and they will feed their children on a constant diet of self-justification and self-pity.
Anything that goes right with the children will be thanks to their own lineage, their genes, their own individual hard work and their own careful parenting.
But anything that goes wrong is owed to someone else's mistakes or evildoing, owed to the evil influence of an Other that has managed to penetrate their carefully constructed barriers (friends, teachers, classmates, video games, music, the internet.)
When there are logical conflicts in this equation a crisis may ensue: if the child blames them for their troubles, they will either turn to self-justification and turn their arrogance against their own children or they will blame themselves in the same harsh way that they have blamed others in the past: teachers, classmates, strangers, etc. This sudden self-judgment can lead to sudden bursts of suicide, often accompanied by violence towards others.
***
Photograph 15:
We see long black iron fence separating the inner circle from the outside. One of the few stretches around Akhado that hasn't been developed. Long green grass stretches in unpredictable patterns towards the water, interrupted here and there by tall brown bushes and leaves.
***
All this that we have learned about the Citizens of Akhado may not apply to every single one of them but we believe it is important to write it down in order to remember. It will be easy for us to forget what we have seen.
***
Photograph 16:
A single sign in black and white, standing with its back to a tree, close to the water: "Keep out. No fishing. No hunting. No trespassing. Keep out."
