-
A Debate On The Merits Of Postmodernism
It seems like the postmodern milieu is very fascinated by who's taking
some particular intellectual pose, who calls something good or bad, who's
reading who, or who takes a line similar to someone else. This is tone giving
the implication that anyone who "really understands" would never
be so uncouth as to ask where it's all leading.
-
The
Emptiness Of "Culture Jamming"
The only worthwhile strategy is the realization and suppression of art -
which disolves the specialization involved in culture, whether "jammed"
or not. Situationists are naturally one good example of folks who created
work which were powerful enough to shake the organization of society - and
with a million times less resources.
-
Debate On The Trial Of Milosevic, also here;
Of course, the state itself is a criminal institution, using coercion to
deprive its residents of their liberty, property and life (when it fights
wars, as most states do). So essentially, every head of state is a criminal.
From that standpoint, Slobodan Milosevic is clearly guilty of being head of
state, and doing what any head of state would do in his place. And those persecuting
him are no less guilty, of the same infractions and then some. Yet they claim
absolute innocence and the right to judge others, as some sort of über-government.
- The
Oil Exhaustion Debate And Mike Rupert's politics (Reprint, Medium)
One of the points which I think is especially important is the question of
whether declining oil reserves are the pivitol force pushing the Bush administration
to conquest in Iraq and elsewhere.
The declining oil reserves theory is represented by retired petroleum engineer
Dale Allen Pfeiffer and Jay Kinny of dieoff.org.
I believe that this framework both incorrect and represents an ultimately
reactionary view of human existence.
-
The Institutions Of The Flame War (very short, this is the entire post)
Ah, but think! The institution of flame war is beautiful. Bagwan Shree Rajneesh
adviced his follower to not shrink from anger but hold onto anger, to become
anger. Yes, focus on that spot of rage, of anger. Just think, America is filled
with rage, this must be the most rage filled area that has ever existed just
from it's sheer horror and alienation. We must tune into that experiance,
we must honor that experiance, and if we understand the yuppies driving home
on the freeway after being laid-off from his dot-com and the ghetto-dweller
again being last hired, first fired. If we tune into all this, then, then,
we may coax, we may aim this rage in right direction, the direction of creative
destruction. So, if you are flaming out there, flame on.
- The
Elf And The Spectacle (long)
The "decentralized cell organization" of the Earth Liberation Front
is today often presented by the media and it's supporters as the most extreme,
the most "heavy", and the most radical challenge of Radicals Greens
to the dominant order. As a "front", the ELF takes a bit of the
Che Guevara image of third-world "national liberation" movements
such as the Algerian "National Liberation Front" and extends it
to a world scale. Still how many aspect of this society are ultimately challenged
by the practice of the ELF and their supporters?
-
The
Proletariat (long) Also,
the question of class
I have a question about the situationists' concept of the proletariat: In
much of their writing, they talk about how virtually everyone has been "proletarianized",
but in other places they seem to fall back on the distinction between the
proletariat and bourgeois - can anyone sort out this confusion?
- Some
Common Questions (medium)
Activism, as an ISM isn't just foolish or ineffective. It is downright counter-revolutionary,
downright a force defending the present conditions. But a pure, one-dimensional
subjective reaction to such activism actually comes out as **** ACTIVISM.
Stop it.
- The
LA riots (long)
I keep hearing the LA riots held up as exemplary revolutionary anarcho practice
or whatever jargon applies. Can somebody write me a plausible "future
history" or "virtual history" of the region, according to anarchic
theory, if by some magic the State had kept its fucking mitts off the place
[an admittedly implausible initial condition] ?
- Drugs
And Insanity and thomas szaz (short),
And More
Lithium is often prescribed for the "bipolar" diagnosis (formerly
the manic-depressive disorder). Lithium is seen as a "quick fix"
for these disorders. Peter Breggin has described the manic-depressive "thought-style"
as involving a search for quick-fixes.
-- So, in the case of Lithium, I would recommend that you attempt to heal
the underlying cause of the your condition, rather than believing that Lithium
has "fixed" whatever was "broken". Like I said, this isn't
a matter of suddenly going off the drug - DON'T do that. Rather, it's matter
of seeking a sufficiently supportive environment that you can deal with your
entire problem rather than simply masking it.
-- The metaphor that more to mind is that drugs all like fixing a deep chest
wound with duct tape. They don't solve the problem but if you just pull off
the tape, the problem gets worse, your guts spill out.
- The
Values Of The text - 'The Tyranny Of Structurelessness' (long)
The fact is that the Tyrrany Of Structurelessness is a very intellingently
argued piece which discussed the situation of feminism very directly. I would
say it took some of the weaknesses of feminist structurelessness and went
too far in an opposite direction. But to see things like that, you have to
look at the reality of things rather than tossing out abuse.
And this relates to the whole anti-orgnaization thing. I'd certainly admit
that Black skewers the Platformists on several points (false, lack of analysis,
etc). But it's got the typical Black style - "if we show these folks
are totally screwed, we need only deal slightly with the issues they raise."
The fact is that Makhno had a powerful place in one of the most far-reaching
anarchist/communist revolts that has happened so-far. If you read his essay
collection "The Struggle Against The State", he was rightly pissed
that many anarchists in the rest of Russia kind-of sat on their asses while
the Russian revolution was going on.
- Workers'
Councils Versus Unions(medium)
Hmm, well I'm finally starting to read much Situationist lit, and I'm wondering,
how do you differentiate between Worker's Councils and Unions, and what would
be some concrete examples of the two?
- Utopian
And Dialectical Thinking (long)
The predominant attitude of just about every ideology is that we should be
working towards some kind of society where things are better and then everything
will be great. The ideologues of anarchism are no exception, perceiving anarchy
as a utopia that we'll have to just hope for, and reality as a state of "becoming."
I think, in particular, the insurrectionist strand of anarchism has been a
much-needed antidote to this millenarian, teleological nonsense, though occasionally
utopian rhetoric finds its way into their writings. I think we really need
to look into the complete rejection of dialectics in favor of a more spontaneous
approach to anarchy that makes puts its attainment within our reach. To me,
anarchy exists when we are doing our most to make it real, and authority exists
so far as we let it happen. What do y'all think? - Ryan
- Bob
Black And Revolutionary Coherence (medium)
Having a Bob Black page is hardly a recommendation, eigh?. Black is indeed
the funniest anarchist police snitch in the movement. But to admire him is
to simply admit the "movement" has such a lack of cleaverness that
at least intelligent opportunistic scumbags are better than stupid ones. Gosh,
aim higher than that.
- Terrorism
And Publicity (Medium)
FTM: They have proved themselves to effective according to their goals, whether
you agree w/ this sort of direct action or not.
ASAN: I'd just note that this is a kind of bureaucrat language that strips
the politics from consideration here. I wouldn't restrict my position to either
agreeing or disagreeing with "this sort of direct action". There
is more to the ELF ideology than the tactic of sabotage, which isn't all that
new.
- New
Ageism? (Medium)
Like "PC," "New Age" is term of abuse for a lot of people.
On the weight of all that has presented itself as new age, this dislike is
justified. This isn't because all ideas put forward are bad. The thing is
that new age is the product of folks who expect to buy or sell their spirituality.
Rather obviously, the various new age theories justify their position in society
using their theories. The average working or poor person can sense this pretty
easily.
Now, the last thing that new agists could say is that their physical condition,
of being upper-class consumers, is having profound effect on their intellectual
theories.
It's notable that philosophical idealism, the framework that theories evolve
out of nothing or out of good intentions, is perhaps the heart of every modern
spirituality. But you couldn't change this problem by tweaking the theories.
The new age sector would still exist, it would still opperate by it's own
natural dynamic.
- A
picture of the world's elite (Short)
I spent a week in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. I was awarded
a special pass which allowed me full access to not only the entire official
meeting, but also private dinners with the likes the head of the Saudi Secret
Police, presidents of various insundry countries, your Fortune 500 CEOS and
the leaders of the most important NGOs in the world. This was not typical
press access. It was full-on, unfettered, class A hobnobbing.
- Animating
The Dead (Short)
Well, there are a lot leftists who seem to channeling Joseph Stalin. You could
ask them how they do it. Also, George Bush certainly looks a lot like a corpse
that's been dead for a couple weeks. Maybe Chaney would know something. Personally,
I'm more into de-animating the dead and animating the living.
- The Gift
Economy
I really like the idea of the gift economy. I tried explaining this to a friend
of mine, an economics major, but he couldn't understand it at all. He believes
that we "just need to reform capitalism here & there" and everything
will be just fine. Well, I don't agree.
- Crimethinc
Critique - Good though I'm only barely involved (Medium)
CrimethInc. As a Movement: This is the aspect that I find most
troublesome, especially since some of the CrimethInc. Collective has addressed
it directly, although in a rather naïve manner. (see ‘Is CrimethInc
a Movement?’, pgs. 168-172, Days of War, Nights of Love.) NietzsChe remarks,
“A Movement is based on an ideological construct: not a convergence of
unique desires, but a standard for what those desires should be,- or, at best,
a set model for how to integrate different desires. (pg. 16 ” I feel
that NietzsChe has summed up a working definition for Movement rather well,
but I don’t see why CrimethInc doesn’t fit into this definition.
- The Emptiness
Of Crimethinc (Long)
In this context it may be easier for people in the USA to have a "romanticized"
view of engaging in a struggle, since they have the privilege to be so, unlike
in third world dictatorships where the reality of struggle (economic hardships,
threat to personal safety and freedom, personal frustrations, etc.) manifests
itself on an everyday basis.
- Good
Debate on Unions And Organizing (Medium)
My mother works at a diesel engine plant. She was telling me about how the
United Auto Workers were trying to organize a union at the plant. The workers
there were hostile to the organizers there because they feel that they are
treated well by the company and didn't want a union there (I think it's more
because they didn't want unions to disrupt the "good" treatment
by the company, which goes back to power relations). It should be noted that
this plant is contracted with the government and military and manufacture
parts for tanks, Army jeeps, etc. This means, especially now, that plenty
of money is being pumped into places like these.
-
Debate On The Politics of The Magazine "Onward" (Long)
Prairie Fire Organizing Commitee is portrayed blandly here as an "anti-imperialist
solidarity group" yet it actually a Stalinist Party descended from the
Weather Underground. It is relevant that such euphemism are essentially lies
- specificially Stalinist lies. This is not isolated instance but par for
Onward's course.