#post leftism

Zines for a mutual aid fair.

still, i notice many fellow anarchists and post-leftists turn to the very aesthetic and ideology of oppression and hopelessness. i'm talking, of course, about nihilists.

serafinski, one of the main autors in the contemporary anarcho-individualist and nihilist movement, starts his truly wonderful book, 'blessed is the flame', talking about a jewish rebellion in a nazi concentration camp; how the insurrectionists had no hope of success whatsoever - yet they chose to fight, to be free and reaffirm their will and dignity even for a few moments. serafinski argues that any act of subversion is worth it, that the very act of rebellion, of taking up arms, is an act of affirming one's freedom. bonano makes a similar argument in his book 'armed joy'.

all of this is true and beautiful, very dionysian, and definitely the way to tackle hopeless situations.

however. most of us are NOT locked up in a concentration camp. i myself am insanely privileged; the fucked up systems and ideologies that oppress all of us hover over my head like a dark cloud, but overall i don't have any particularly serious problems. it would be a travesty, an act of utter disrespect to the suffering of others, if i were to leave all hope for a better life behind and cosplay as a jaded, hopeless insurrectionist!

any of us who have the mental capacity should definitely hold on to hope - not to silly ideas such as a hegemonic world revolution and a better world for all (we can't help those who don't want to help themselves and cling to repressive ideologies!). but to the little efforts we make every day to make our local world marginally better (i think the new year will bring flowers because i'm planting flowers right now). to the possibility of effectively organizing with other people in the here and now as well as in the future, to build something good, something sustainable, of course always ready to reconstruct or dissolve 'unions of egoists' that no longer serve us, to reconstruct and reconfigure ourselves, so we're as indestructible as a mycellium network, as a deleuzian rhizome. a gritty, senseless, stubborn, illogical utopianism in the face of capitalist realism!

I am not a “consumer” or a “citizen” or a “man.” I do not want to press 0 to speak to a customer service representative. I do not want to open a can, a box, a wrapper, or go through a drive through to eat. I do not want to find my “community” behind a screen. I do not want to stay off the grass. I do not want to fill out and return this form. I do not want my ethnicity to be used as a weapon. I do not want my water to come from a bottle or a faucet. I do not want my understanding of the world to come from what someone inside a box or wearing a lab coat tells me. I do not want to do what I’m told. I do not want to live in a way that kills everything around me. I do not want to wipe my ass with the rainforest. I do not want to live among that which is produced and consumed. I want to hug you. I want you and I to be able to love one another without fear, reservation, or pretense. I want to eat food directly from the earth and act directly from my heart. I want to live and laugh and cry and love in a community the way our ancestors did for millions of years. I want you to be there with me. I want us to stop destroying everything. I need you. You need me. We don’t need any of the rest of this shit that we manufacture, and produce, and throw away. Beneath the concrete, and alcohol, and uppers, and downers, and anti-depressants, beneath the fashion trends, and social networks, and cell phones, and TV shows, and gender roles, and street lights, and gas stations, deep within this cage we call civilization you are still wild. I am still wild. Inside of me beats the feral heart of the animal that I am. I am flesh and bone, blood and spirit, earth and light. I long to be a part of the earth on which I live, to drink from clean rivers, and breathe clean air. I don’t want to be a cog in a machine. I want to dismantle the machine. I am a human being and I want to live as one. As such, civilization is my enemy and this is my battle cry. If it is yours as well, then let us go about creating the world we want to live in.

Until the Earth is Wild Again,

Bobby Whittenberg-James

And you can't tell me that not letting physically disabled people have the technology that actively helps them in day to day life /isn't/ ableist.

This isn't to mention the same arguments being made about Anprim not being transphobic either