TOTW: Anarchy and the Body

The emerging picture is that we are truly monstrous, composite all the way down, and that if we were to meet the meaty dimensions of our bodies, we would be frightened by just how unwieldy identities are

– Bayo Akomolafe

What is a body? It seems the further one drills down into the question, the stranger and stranger things become. Not only does a single individual contain multitudes of little critters inside (microbiomes, holobionts, gut flora, etc.), but likely many different selves as well, all bound in this fleshy sack. The process of how those different selves become outwardly reified, fixed and legible through race, class, body type etc. is familiar to us. Familiar as well are the times when particular bodies are labeled more radical than others, more transgressive, less normative both by society at large and by anarchyland. Both are ways of understanding the body externally, symbolically, lacking an understanding of inner experience.

And so, in keeping with the idea of the small, the invisible, the micro rather than the macro, I’m interested in the ways that people have experienced, learned about, and learned from their bodies through anarchy, rather than how their bodies have been made legible to anarchists or society at large. Did you find yourself being the smallest one at the punk show? Or perhaps the biggest one at the demo? Did you begin to see your body change as a vegan? Did you finally feel the limits of thrill and excitement as you tossed that brick through a window? How did this change the way you saw your body? Perhaps as stronger than you realized, as you endured previously unknown hardships with friends. Or perhaps frailer than you thought, as you failed to maintain your energy while working on a project. When has anarchy and your body come into very apparent contact?

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A recurring topic in which the bodies of anarchists are directly addressed and described, with more specific detail than in other topics, is the body horror of torture in prison. There is some of that in 2 posts this week so far.

me that nothing i do is THAT important. I've never had too much of a problem saying what i'm actually thinking, yet getting excited about things i have zero control over often drives me to think too much, especially when i'm under a lot of stress as keeps happening as of the pandemic. I've unfortunately found that a lot of the things i used to do as "therapy" are more problematized now adays, i can't really be in the moment that often anymore. I always feel like i have to make plans when i do anything away from a computer screen.

"Familiar as well are the times when particular bodies are labeled more radical than others, more transgressive, less normative both by society at large and by anarchyland. "

This is why i always get really annoyed with the bio-political adjectives reflected on here. There's basically always a word-blacklist you're supposed to adhere in order to either keep people from shouting you down or create conversations that are useful to you. Your "body attributes" are the first thing that people experience, so without a little bit of comfort and support [within and without] talking to anyone can look like an uphill battle.

I'm resolved to the fact that I'm a puppet to gravity, microbes and people's desires, and so I warily tread this earth careful not to fall on or away from anyone.

ah yes, the famed dividual cloud of particles. careful a light breeze does not disperse you

[Love this prompt. Tho the unavoidable language of 'my' body just further muddies a clear vision of the reality, imo]

For myself, if we take anarchy seriously, we can't privilege one level of resolution over another. Which means letting things go their own way and being in dialog with them rather than allowing one aspect lord it over the others, ie the brain having hegemony in terms of the rest of the body.
If I take care & listen to, for example, my gut flora and do what they like they help the whole body stay healthy, whereas if I ignore my gut flora and eat difficult food, they can overgrow or perish and then we all are in trouble. But this is a conversation because sometimes one needs this or that to maintain.
How is this like anarchy? To me it speaks to how do we deal with majority and minority positions, for one. Like, I am one and I am many, one brain, hella gut microbes, who holds sway? Depends on the problem / question.
So, like, the body is practice. If I can navigate the various 'voices' of my body and find a way to maintain health & vigor maybe I can use that knowledge to also navigate in the macro sphere.

rather than impose, i think this one was a distraction from a lot of the intellectual banter that i'm certainly guilty of stimulating on here. As to your imputation, nietzch. said that physiology and psychology weren't actually seperate from each other. I tend to get really to get obsessively paranoid about categories, even though that sounds real pathetic, i can't help but think the new agey "we're all connected" speaks volumes about all the fissures and fractures that tend to happen when everything is subordinate to logic. I remember chisel said along time ago that she was afraid information silos, i find that fear to pretty realistic if not absolutely.

Not sure if I'm understanding your points as you meant them but I'm prompted to respond thusly —
Not one, not two.

humans have a central nervous system, and functionally, it’s organized hierarchically. being an anarchist is not about changing your physiology to resemble that of a cephalopod, or to apply consensus based decision-making process where your feet fungus participates in equal standing with your brain cells. it’s about not being a slave nor a master, about systematic oppression in society, because people tend to do that shit to each other a lot and it sucks. dont lose focus, keep it simple, stupid.

No I actually think that diseases dominate the human narrative, then intuitive physiological conditions, and logic coming a slow third in the race to living a good life.

This topic could be used as a prompt to talk about ableism and functional diversity. Being average bodied, I have no remarkable stories about my body in a punk show or a demo, but it’s well known how people in a wheelchair or blind or deaf, for example, struggle in many environments that don’t take them into consideration or only as afterthought.

So srsly, given how mass society is functioning accordingly to majority-based narratives, the minority Otherness that the experience of a blind or deaf person is sadly irrelevant to this society. Support groups to the disabled are always lacking volunteers and funding.

We simply cannot, as anarchists, overlook the importance of social relations that reinstate the individual and its experience as the base unit of society, as well as a permanent opening to the Other.

There is an increasing acceptance of Taurette's syndrome possessors in the workplace, not that work is good, but its a start, and the foul language and gestures are now realised for what they are, short circuits in the brain and not intentional deepfelt insults directed at everyone. And they are funny people to engage with, so funny and fun people, I love Taurette's syndrome possessors!

During what is referred to as the Dark Ages, it is rumored that the normative widespread behavior and speech style resembled Taurettes, and only a small minority spoke politely.

people really has much to do with "democracy", nowadays "the normies" are more accepting of mental illness, even if the types of otherness keeps getting bigger just cuz people can be douschebags, society is like a prison, etc. Sometimes i feel really wierd about how people in general continue to rely on semi-fictitious groups in order to talk about anything...but that's just because it's an overgeneralization.

write the first part of your sentence in the Subject field then go through the trouble of writing the rest of your sentence into the Comment field instead of just writing the entirety of your post into the Comment field and thusly expose yourself as the same troll of many different names that posts on this website all day every day?

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[TrollScore9000]:
> Subject, Comment field continuation
> Severe mansplaining
> "cuz"
> "douschebags"
> "wierd"
> "overgeneralization"

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One of the neat things about anarchy is being okay with others having different opinions than your own. You lauded the individual previously so you might want to meditate on this.

“One of the neat things about anarchy is being okay with others having different opinions than your own”

lol, well personally that has not been my experience at all.

Have you actually met any anarchists in real life or just on the internet?

just because the anarchists of "your experience" don't accommodate your shitty behavior and thoughts about things does not mean that they aren't okay with others having different opinions than their own, 06:01. anarchy is not a magical 'get off the hook' card for being a shitass.

You don’t know anything about my behavior and/or thoughts, 12:04. Maybe you have me confused with someone else? There’s more than just 2-3 people on the internet.

That’s where you’re wrong, pardner. We know everything about you and your shameful internet usage.

This is what I was getting at by talking about levels of resolution.
People with physical disabilities are not the majority but they are vital to society. So, analogous to how one might navigate the various majority/ minority 'voices' within one body, the social body (to keep with the analogy, not the best term, probably) needs to navigate different types of bodies for it to function equitably.
For example, curb cuts and ramps were ostensibly for people with mobility issues but it turns out even the so-called abled benefit from them.

Why the fuck are there curbs in the first place? Cars often park on them nowadays too. Maybe created to provide meaningless grunt work?

Curbs are for channelling rainwater towards drainage points and avoid the stagnant pools and build-up of dirt and the breeding places of bacteria and coincided with the era of sewerage systems below metropolises.. Before curbing, pandemics and outbreaks of cholera, malaria and tetanus were common.
Sewerage systems are not authoritarian but are anti-Primitivist.

Wuh! And I suppose fucking masks and vaccines are not authoritarian but are antiPrimmie right?!

cuz I think it's a dumb, dead-end idea, none too anarchic.

But, I often find myself annoyed at my body for being hungry, weak, needing to shit and piss too much, etc. I like the idea of being a mind, disembodied, no doubt. Maybe I could achieve the same ecstasy of orgasm as such a being, too, or maybe I simply would not care about that anymore

One of the more annoying things about bodies is that, most of the time, I have to clothe most of it, even when that's pretty uncomfortable. The most obvious and extreme answer to this problem is nudism, but there are other options - looser, robey clothing, for instance. It seems that most "serious" (urban) anarchist subcultures don't make a lot of space for this in their discourse (never mind practice), even as there is a lot of focus on, like, relationships, sex, emotions, mental health, etc.

"But, I often find myself annoyed at my body for being hungry, weak, needing to shit and piss too much, etc. I like the idea of being a mind, disembodied, no doubt. Maybe I could achieve the same ecstasy of orgasm as such a being, too, or maybe I simply would not care about that anymore"
Well dude, you could go into heavy meditation to achieve nirvana, or purchase a whole lotta cocaine alkaloid, and your annoyances will be replaced by ecstacy ;)

There are no minds without bodies and no bodies without organs. Life is an embodied and embedded experience. The bodily functions are one of the most visceral and real experiences that we have, sometimes pleasant sometimes painful. The air we breathe is a shared organ and our identities are shaped as much by material conditions as self-determination. I don't know if we'll achieve mind uploading and transcend our physical experience but I'm sure we'll search the internet on hands-free embedded devices attached to Starlink networks if the Earth lives that long. Humans are a network, there are no solitary men and life on Earth is a perpetual crisis because of geotrauma. This topic made me think of that Lana del Rey short film Tropico because she has something to say about the body.

I can concede that it's actually hard to *not* be within any sort of network. But many people are still solitary within the networks they're part of.

Think of the internet for starters.

So I wouldn't be calling such alienating levels of networking to not be solitude. Society has become a market where connection quality within networks -perhaps even more quantity of connections- is a valued commodity, maybe the most important one. David Rockefeller was known to have a Rolodex of about 250,000 entries. This is more important than being a billionaire. Guy could have been dirt-poor yet with such a giga-network of partners, accomplices and buddies you're still a king without a crown... or needing one at all.

"Always place your bomb between you and your shield" - Joey the Bodies and Shields Ventura, infamous anarchist blogspot from 1936 on the positioning of their body before becoming town mayor.

On Being a wide body to prevent the ebbs and flow of capitalism

We got the afternoon
You got this room for two (or maibe polyamory)
One thing I've left to do
Discover me
Discovering you
One kilometer to every centimeter of
Your skin like 1,000 newspaper boxes in the street
One pair of candy lips and
Your bubblegum tongue
And if you want love
We'll make it
Swim into the most beautiful idea
Of anarchy
Take all your big plans
And break 'em
This is bound to be a while

Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder, I'll use my hands
Your body is a wonderland

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