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A radical critique of the university and student activism from the Regents of the Invisible University. Dedicated to our comrades at the University of California
Thesis 0.1: The University is a Machine in the Network of Capitalism & Empire.
Does anyone still pretend that earning a degree is anything other than job training? Can professors still hide that their knowledge is commodified? Is it not clear that the university is the lap-dog of the state?
Thesis 0.2: There is No Crisis. It is all Business as Usual.
We cry for the loss of a dream that never was. The university was never ours. After shaking off the unessential it will rise from the grave merely mutated and continue to serve its master.
Thesis 0.3: The University Cannot be Saved.
Stop occupying dead space. Our demands merely echo through the empty corridors. There is nothing here for us to take-back or transform, except their administration of an infertile garden.
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Thesis 0.4: Defect to the Invisible University!
Abandon the university! Join the university! We are building a new community in the shell of the old: an universitas magistrorum et scholarium, a community of teachers and scholars.
The pretty PDFs can be downloaded from http://zinelibrary.info/four-theses-invisible-university
maybe i'm just not hip to
maybe i'm just not hip to the invisible math the kids are using these days, but what does it mean to count to 0.4? does that mean each of these little nuggets of wisdom is 1/10 of a real thesis?
1/10th of a standard
1/10th of a standard academic thesis, and yet ...
(perhaps we're valuing things incorrectly)
Would the online free school
Would the online free school idea I have blogged about fit into this paradigm of leaving the University and joining the invisible university? If there is a way to dialogue about this with the authors of this text, please let me know.
alleged "anarchists" who
alleged "anarchists" who seek to climb the ladder of capitalist society, by attending university and seeking cushy, high paying jobs, are the lowest form of scum. they affirm the division of labor, that most beloved tenet of capitalists, on the most vulgar possible level. to attend university is to enshrine everything anarchists oppose. there are no anarchists on campus, only guilty consciences attempting to assuage cognitive dissonance.
of course these alleged "anarchists" utterly refuse to recognize the division of labor as exploitative, because they don't want to do stuff like grow their own food. naturally, they'd rather explore their individuality and live life to the fullest, but in order for them to do so, someone else must take on the burden of sustaining them, which means that this other person won't be free to... (say it with me)... *explore their individuality and live life to the fullest* (very good, students!).
being self-sustaining doesn't mean having no time for such pleasures, it just means less of it for those who currently have plenty of it, and more of it for those who currently have none.
you know that modern
you know that modern machinery has created a situation whereby it only takes about 1% of the U.S. population to make all of the food we need in the U.S. right?
why does everyone have to become a farmer? that's silly.
yes, playing along in the class role of some middle class wanker white collar zombie is bad.
even when "anarchists" are doing that at university.
i'll tell you what, i go to university now, after dropping out at 16 and then getting a scholarship at 25. so i go for free, am i guilty?
oh, i also use college as a scam, which everyone should do, by taking out the maximum amount of loans. ka-ching! the revolution needs money homey, and it looks like Bonanno just got caught. so all y'all university kids, step up and draw down! put some skin in the game, as they say. i bet you'll be fighting banks harder when you owe them $80,000! celebrate the fact that there is no longer debtors prisons in the US by exercising our right to not pay anything back, ever. property belongs to those who use it, and with student loans, you can buy lots of stuff to use! (j/k)
contributing to the debt
contributing to the debt economy is revolutionary now?
anywho, in case you weren't aware, there's a world outside the u.s., where the productive jobs have been outsourced. the instant you mention a nation-state, i know i'm dealing with an idiot wearing cultural blinders. nation-states are reified abstractions. they don't exist in material reality. there's a globe, a marble, a pale blue dot, and there's 7 billion talking apes walking around on the dry parts. some of those apes think they've evolved into an advanced subspecies, and they offload all the shitty work onto the rest. but make no mistake, the same shitty work needs doing, and is being done, just as it ever was. the superspecies just doesn't see it anymore, because they don't want to.
p.s. fuck you, you fuck.
it's like you think i'm not
it's like you think i'm not an anarchst who realizes all that.
all i was saying is that as technology increased, less people had to farm in order to feed everyone, so people started specializing labor instead of all being farmers. that is not to say that those who do the work (yes, mostly the 3rd world) that others use to survive off (yes mostly the 1st world) aren't exploited, it's just to say that that relationship isn't inherent in the fact that not every single person grows their own food, it is an exploitation that is based in capitalism. there can be people who don't grow their own food and still have an egalitarian society. especially now that we can grow lots of food with a small number of people. some people like to farm, and others will be happy to barter or share their own goods in exchange for some of that food. it works out better for all involved.
It's not increase in
It's not increase in technology alone which created the ability for mechanized agriculture to require that 1 farmer feed 128 people, it's the availability of cheap oil to power that technology. Without cheap oil, mechanized agriculture goes away quick, and we're back to 1940, which is about when most farmers switched over to mechanical tractors run on internal combustion engines. The percentage of the population involved in agriculture will probably go back up to at least that in 1940, and there'll be a corresponding drop in numbers of people doing university work (research, teaching, writing papers), especially in the liberal arts and "soft sciences" (like sociology, anthropology, political science, gender and ethnic studies, and the like).
you're right about that. but
you're right about that.
but even in the 1940s (which is post-inanimate energy introduction by about 30 years, but this is a fine year to look at anyway...) the number of people engaged in farming was only around 18% of the population (ref: "A History of American Agriculture 1776-1990" on about dot com ).
for a good analysis of farming economies and subsidies, etc.. check out this article:
google search: "food first farming subsidies" and it'll be the first link.
it's kinda geared toward countering advocates of free-market agricultural policies, but it is good in general anyway as far as how agriculture economies work.
One quick gripe: the US is
One quick gripe: the US is one of the top exporters of basic foodstuffs in the world, and most of the others are also first world nations. Yes, outsourcing is making third world countries support the first world in a lot of industries. No, agriculture isn't really one of them.
You're right on one count; I
You're right on one count; I don't want to grow my own food. I'm no good at it and don't enjoy it. And there are people in my local community who are great at it and enjoy doing it, whereas there are other skills like construction they might be bad at and/or not enjoy, that I'm relatively skilled at and enjoy doing. But, I suppose even in a gift economy situation wherein the community (rather than the individual) was fully self-sufficient, it would be totally exploitative for us to do the things we like to do and are good at. Clearly, forcing each person to operate as an island apart from the community and condemning to death those who just aren't good enough at all the skills necessary for full self-sufficiency is the truly liberating route.
Oh, and yes, I went to college and got a degree. And now I'm a low-end manual laborer, because these days a bachelor's is required for just about any job not involving french fries. So...yeah. You can shut up anytime.
"Clearly, forcing each
"Clearly, forcing each person to operate as an island apart from the community and condemning to death those who just aren't good enough at all the skills necessary for full self-sufficiency is the truly liberating route."
it's like saying "Pol Pot will live forever!!!" ha!
good point dear commenter, thanks!
we are all part of this
we are all part of this system, whether one goes to a university of not, it makes no difference. setting up a certain criteria for anarchists is ridiculous, oh scorn the students they could never be pious anarchists like the working class !!!!!
You have sort of a
You have sort of a condescending, elitist attitude in your commentary that force me to not take your commentary seriously. You're putting everyone who goes to university in a little box and aren't really looking at the big picture. It is thoroughly possible for an anarchist to go to university in order to receive a structured and challenging education in order to afterward do good in this world and work to improve the lives of those people who "won't be free to... (say it with me)... *explore their individuality and live life to the fullest*".
Just because someone who identifies as Anarchist receives higher education does not mean they are on the path to becoming corporate wage slaves, CEOs and politicians.
That being said, education should be free, but we shouldn't have to deny ourselves it out of some ridiculous, impossibly attainable ethical code. I'm certain one could structure a reasonable and valid argument against University education, but YOUR argument doesn't touch on anything but snark and misinformation.
I don't like being told that my education is invalid by someone who hasn't the foggiest idea of what they're yammering about.
I left university when I
I left university when I realised it was a faction of the state.
dude, that's why i left
dude, that's why i left work, and civilization!
But a total escape is only
But a total escape is only gained after the transition,in which the masse is now engaged .Only a mythical yeti-beast can completely leave civilisation.
so why did you pick leaving
so why did you pick leaving the university over, say, leaving work, or leaving the city?
it all takes masses to accomplish, and to judge others for not leaving the university is dumb in that context.
i feel like i've seen more
i feel like i've seen more or less this exact comment already and all i have to say is fuck this isolationist-purist-lifestylist bullshit. have fun growing your own food and making lots of stupid assumptions about how people are surviving and struggling out in the capitalist world that you dont give a fuck about.
but srsly gfy
since when are four
since when are four sentences a critique?
start using arguments instead of aphorisms
As soon as folks are willing
As soon as folks are willing to read 10,000 word academic pappers!
srsly what a worthless post!
srsly what a worthless post!
borrring
borrring
well--maybe it's boring to
well--maybe it's boring to you. so don't go to the free university. some people like to teach/learn/discuss/exchange ideas, even about growing things and even using the bit of oil that will be reserved for farming and transport. (can't see much use for it other than that.) being an actual anarchist (rather than an authoritarian one who has EVERYTHING figured out and can now dictate to everyone else--gee, some anarchy), i applaud the students on or off campus who are trying to either convert the existing campus from a corporate model to an anarchist one or trying to make a new university altogether. right on. and those who aren't students but are trying to make anarchist workplaces and those who are trying to reclaim land for indigenous, protect wild places, liberate animals, stop biotech, end patriarchy, end heterosexism, end empire, end war, etc., right on to you as well. anarchism: a., b., c., or d. all of the above? answer: d.