TotW: Contradictions, make peace or fight them?

We all have contradictions in our practice and our ideas. Not just anarchists, obviously, but definitely anarchists, perhaps most foundationally (at least, I like to think so).

What are the four main contradictions in your life with your anarchist ideas of how life should be (you can go meta huge, like capitalism, but probably that won't be as much fun for this topic), and what are ways that you plan to negotiate/mess with them this coming year?

For example, I help moderate some websites, and I'm anti-civ; my negotiation so far has been doing it with people who I enjoy talking to and hashing things out with (lol pun), so creating social interactions for myself in the margins, while the websites themselves are harm reduction in a world of corporate surveillance and management.

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my personal favourite is the one where ours (anarchy) is almost nothing unless it's combative in some way and yet you take a sober look at most anarchist adjacent people these days and the idea of urging them to fight or even defend themselves is a bit of a cruel joke!

i don't mean that to sound like despair or disrespect, more of a way to frame projects that would theoretically skill up and empower people until they no longer appear as the frightened children who look to clout chasing sociopaths on instagram for their marching orders. i mean ... I still sound like an asshole because i am but that doesn't make me wrong lol

if by combative you mean creative/collaborative, then ok, but i'm pretty sure it's not in folks best interest to start jaxxinating for the vaccine brawls. a combative strategy can mean a strategic consensus, a new path forward, a second circle between self and society, like tai chi but for your innermost goals - reevaluating the things you really want can be the only motivation you need to do what needs to be done to reach them. if we're on the same page, this will enhance our shared existence.

that sounds like nice hippy woo and all but no, not what I meant.

I meant combative in the literal sense, without which, anarchy doesn't amount to much ... not that interests me anyhow!

see, lumpy? you start speaking in 1st person plural and look at the kind of liberals you attract. sleep with dogs, wake up with fleas. missed me with that “we” shit

i don't see anything here but troll bullshit and the small chance of an interesting discussion. your peanut gallery antics make no difference to me ;)

Free association, also known as free association of producers, is a relationship among individuals where there is no state, social class, hierarchy, or private ownership of means of production. Once private property is abolished (DISTINCTLY NOT PERSONAL PROPERTY), individuals are no longer deprived of access to means of production, thus enabling them to freely associate without social constraint to produce and reproduce their own conditions of existence and fulfill their individual and creative needs and desires. The term is used by anarchists and Marxists and is often considered a defining feature of a fully developed communist society.

make peace! seek knowledge!

...what does any of that have to do with what I said? did you click the wrong button?

contradiction means something to overcome, not something to latch on to one side of and become a tankie type people think is a joke, a psyop, or some sort of loser accelerationist.

that's fascinating and incredibly bleak that you think anarchists can't find ways to live a combative politics without being "a tankie type, a joke, a psyop or some sort of loser accelerationist". such a perspective seems to be the success of the ultimate psyop, if you ask me!

perhaps you should attack something besides your strawman there? just try it out sometime! power belongs to those who would lower themselves to pick it up, after all. don't make me lecture you on christian slave morality, even I don't want to stoop that low. *shudder*

but the clout chasing sociopaths are urging them to fight or even defend themselves. they’re framing projects that would theoretically skill up and empower people. with their clout, they’re reaching thousands. isn’t that what you wanted?

yes .. of course I want to watch narcissistic idiots to herd everyone in to the kill zone. who doesn't want that? what could possibly go wrong? do you have any more totally sincere questions? etc

Combative tendencies are surplus to requirements as far as anarchy goes. Creativity is more important as that is a general human tendency whereas combat requires a particular psychology. Also, we don't live in the 19th century anymore where you have large scale of somatic discomfort. iPhones, pornhub and tiktok among other things gets people by. Anarchy needs to find other post and metamodern avenues.

Spoken like a bitch,
comfortable in his soft life.
While others must fight.

CC! -- I think we should ask the mods to implement a haiku-only policy for comments

You're obviously missing the point I'm making on RELATIVE comfort in contemporary times. Most people including most proles are simply not interested in any kind of contrived elective struggle and anarchy trying to derive an orientation of combat from this is a waste of time.

not that I want to directly argue with you ziggles because we all know there's no point to that BUT your dichotomy is especially bullshit here.

"most proles are simply not interested" doesn't refute the haiku (lol), it confirms it. those proles you speak of must still be just a little bit too comfortable as well. all things come to an end sooner or later.

You will see roughly the same social dynamics among the lower classes. Face it, generally speaking people don't want to be combative in daily life. This was even the case during the pre-ww1 era though there was more structural violence which brought about responses and reactions.

You sound like a Marxoid with their secular radical rapture like predictions. What's to say that as things worsen and and the US inevitably turns into Brazil things won't ultimately stay the same structurally. Party of the reason there was more resistance to capital in daily life in the old time was that ways of being were different. We live in an era of smart phones and porn from here to the global south.

I want for novelty as well(just not your stupid materialist kind) but I'm simply realistic about the psychosoma landscape. The future will probably be Travis Bickle(who don't go all punk and violent) in a cybernetic managed setting. There will still be anarchy, but in more finite temporal places. You can thing the 20th century statist corporatists for making things so pretty much.

Another commentor here. Are you thick? What applies and what Lumpy doesn't realize is that the 3rd world, like the working class, are not politically motivated enough to take actions against authority and have their precarious living conditions turned upside down based on what to them are whimsical and impossible schemes.

Different anon here. Do you also not understand the difference between "to" and "too?" Has Ziggle's grammatical stupidity seeped into your thick brain? How embarrassing.

Look at the demographic of insurrectionaries across the world, including the "3rd world," recently and throughout history. What do you notice about who is participating in them, idiot? Many people with nothing to lose and no other choice.

I'm looking at the data now in front of my naked eyes, and I'm thinking you should learn more about the difference between " coupe de at ", " riot", "military dictatorship" , "Marxist social revolution," , "evangelical frenzy", the list goes on,,,*yawns*

the discussion with the usual trollbots is tedious but the contradiction is a classic one!

material conditions and stuff! more and more people getting thrown in the street to smoke meth and plot revenge in the cold, how can it continue like this? surely capitalism will buckle under it's own barbarism any moment now! (said the marxists, every year for the last 2 centuries)

the terrain is always shifting and the will to fight is always less than it probably should be. the wild cards are things like climate apocalypse and neverending cycles of the pandemic because intellectual property law for vaccines is some big brain shit.

Okay you win by sheer persistent keyboard attendance blah blah blah!

Just what I expected, your militarist use of "terrain " supports your support of a binary warfare resolution! Resembling the "Cold War", but now renamed the "Global Warming War" or the "Covid War"!

And a reference to that Marx quote on Farce is pertinent here.

Conditions have been worsening for 50 plus years lumpy. in 1972(just before the oil crunch) a fordist career an could prop up the wife and kids on one income. THAT'S GONE. Granted it happened inside a half-century, but it happened. You know what didn't happen, revolution. This also corresponds with the whole Western world that had similar post-ww2 wealth standings so you can't just say its those non-revolutionary propertarian leaning United Stateans. Face it, worsening conditions don't predicts shit especially coming off a century of people cucked by corporatism and used to the tradeoff that that economic system brings.

At the end of the day it's the radical gradualism and insurrection of anarchy and not accelerationism or decadence theory that delivers the goods. The more anarchists understand this the more effective they will be. No materialist analysis is needed. It's all about psychology and selecting for radical solvent psychology. I've done this in regards to things like adolescent students who have to attend Prussian open air prisons for their learning. That is new radical territory to tackle. Even if it doesn't work at least it is something new.

The marxoid materialist nonsense is not new. As the Lynch Dune movie soundbite goes 'they tried and died'.

I know, I know. you wanna have your little ego battles.
answer a simple question ziggles: do you even remember having these debates already?

doesn't that freak you out? the notion that you're like, a dementia patient stuck in a loop? or a drunk who can't remember what your point was by the time you finish your sentence? so yeah, why have the same argument over and over like a broken robot? to "increase engagement" with the site would be the answer, if you're literally a bot.

so, do you remember?

“At the end of the day it's the radical gradualism and insurrection of anarchy and not accelerationism or decadence theory that delivers the goods.”

Define and defend tthese assertions, SE.

Begin with your terminology:
radical gradualism
insurrection of anarchy
the goods

If these goods have been delivered why then to you claim things are not better than your Fordist example?

Begin.

Another poster here, wow, don't you know what radical gradualism or the goods means? Try reading some books, or at least google it dude!

Unacceptable snark. Let SE define and defend his assertions instead of simping for him by literally saying nothing.

I'd be content with any evidence he's a real person at this point lol

the late aragorn challenged him to prove it by calling in to the talk show ages ago and he never did. even just a human answer acknowledging that he's had this same stupid, subjective argument with me about a dozen times over the years? i've changed screen names a few times but he always talks like he has a continuous antipathy with at least 2 or 3 of my troll identities.

is the @news scrivener a real live boy? hmmm?

As well as other places like post-left reddit. I have a pretty consistent stream of ideas that I've been articulating for the past 7 or so years.

yeah cuz twitter is how things become real. i'm a bit too old for that shit, friend ;)

Gradualism is simply slow change over time with peaks and plateaus much like real life. For instance having more intentional off grid communities over the course of the coming century. Not relying on either reform or revolution. Insurrection is insurrection as defined by Stirner operating on the Jesus and other societal exit models. The goods are the greater anarchic relations that come out of it.

Simple really.

Not to press you for more since you’re clearly tucking, but… this is the depth of your analysis? This snail”s pace, privileged reformism? You think this wet noodle progress model is anarchy? Cute. Stick with Twitter, kid.

Proudhon and Stirner were not revolutionaries. The trail of death and failure via revolution speaks for itself.

Look how great things have gotten since Proudhon and Stirner? Look how much closer to anarchy people are thanks to Prodhon and Stirner? Myth of progress much, Ziggy? Edgelord liberal bitch.

You have the wrong idea of my idea of anarchy. Anarchy will never rule the world, it will always be temporal, contextual and specific to given psychographic regions.

"Anarchy is not progressive or historical. You have the wrong idea of my idea of anarchy."

Phoebe was pointing out that you have no idea about anarchy. That your gradual liberal idea is synonymous with the myth of progress.

"Anarchy will never rule the world"

Phoebe never made such a claim in her dismantling of your liberal position. This misdirection of yours is a strawman.

My idea of anarchy is better then both of yours. Gradualistic ideas are not synonymous with progress. They may have started that way, but then so did most of anarchism going back to the classical era.

Improvements and breakthroughs per are not indicative of historical progress(which again I don’t believe in) Revolution and acceleration are also progress connected ideas you know.

Nah mate you got owned by a little girl.

You continue to flounder with "My idea of anarchy is better then both of yours" when there is nothing stated from either of them of their idea of anarchy. Then you continue to defend your liberal, pro progress position that is simply not anarchy.

dear zigglesbot, if you are a real person, you'd be just a fairly typical reactionary with a niche interest in a few thinkers from outside that cesspool.

your prefiguration is vague as fuck, full of hand wavy appeals to brainwashing kids in your "better" way and the rest of it is you strawmanning "cultural marxist" tropes like any other garden variety youtube blowhard who doesn't even know what half the words they're using actually mean.

as I said, not gonna bother arguing with you but just thought i'd mention how obvious all of this is.

I don't use that other bumkinish term. I actually know what I'm talking about with that lot because I've read the texts and I know what their non-anarchist agenda is. I do find myself agreeing with some of the smarter lot of that crowd like James Lyndsay who actually has done the reading on all that neo-marxist trash. My interests are perennial not niche. The likes of Bob Black, Hakim Bey and Wolfi Landstreicher are foundational lines of flight for me. You have it the niche interest backward.

I'm hardly reactionary and you obviously have lost any basic grasp of what that word means. I'm what you would call a marginal radical and by marginal I mean I devils advocate for the MAPS(yes those evil reprobate queers who were kicked out of the left wing cathedral). I represent tomorrows radical tendencies. To use a term from Dead Fred, I'm a philosopher of the future.

“I'm a philosopher of the future! -SirEinzige, Minecraft 2022

Ridiculous as ever. Miss me with your bullshit, SE. From our group chat, Apio says to tell you, “Eat my entire asshole, you gooberous goofball.” Peter just says, “Who?”

Have fun gradually achieving your “future.” Toodles.

yeah .. it's not really about what you think you think tho. it's about what you DO. the royal you.

ever notice that? i'll hear people out for awhile but then, there's always a moment to stop taking what people say at face value and look at the function of what they're saying. like, spending most of their time rationalizing reactionary politics, for example ;)

or ... other things that are even more icky... anyway, I bore of you again. buh bye sweetheart!

I'm waiting for this concrete example of me rationalizing reactionary politics. You know I'm anti-political right? I don't rationalize ANY politics let alone some right reactionary strain. But let's hear your example...if you have one(lol)

Phoebe you Marxist fishmongering peasant woman who hates all men because they say you smell bad!

This blatant classist misogyny is rude and untrue.

This topic as written is difficult to understand. Was it machine translated? The last run-on paragraph, for example, is not a complete thought.

The anarchist is one whom lives without contradiction or compromise. She makes no grammar mistakes, no websites, has no social media, and no smartphone. Everything in her is wholly absorbed in the single thought and the single passion for anarchy.

Big talk from someone who doesn't know that who is a subject and whom is an object. "An anarchist is one WHO..." ffs

"WHO" ?

An anarchist is one World Health Organization?

Acronyms are capitalist.

I am soooo tired of the categorical imperatives thrown around, like what an anarchist should or shouldn't do, when it reall comes down to just being yourself and just going with the flow of the situations that this self-awareness throws one into, like a cork in a turgid ocean.

Calling yourself an anticiv anarchist while moderating websites is like calling yourself a vegan while eating meat.

That's pretty ridiculous. We critique constantly what we are within.

If “Elon Musk” is an odd code for “someone who knows that dropping out of civilization (or capitalism or whatever) isn’t feasible and engagements with systems we despise are inevitable for almost all of us” then yes, it is I.

Different anon here.

Calling yourself an anarchist while being the richest person on earth is like calling yourself anticiv while writing software for banks.

The vegan point is apt.
apt-get anticiv-anarchist-bitcoin-wallet

I myself am anti-capitalist but only wear Nikes and get all the latest Apple products because we live in a society.

Calling yourself an anarchist while moderating websites is like calling yourself a anarchist while being hall monitor.

Calling yourself an anarchist while being a citizen in a city is like calling yourself an anarchist while being candidate for mayor of the city.

Calling yourself an anticiv anarchist while moderating websites is like being a prison abolitionist for everyone except for the criminals.

there’s no contradiction in anarchism as a critique of the existent that poses no solutions or idealist utopias. there is no contradiction in suffering this world for what it is. if anarchy would be its impossible conceptual opposite, it does not place the impossible exigency, on those who ponder it, to bring it about.

"listen to bataille and nietzsche!"

Bataille and Nietzsche were both utterly miserable in life, but you can call them happy and fulfilled if you like, OP. Words are meaningless.

More anarchists should listen to dead, white, miserable non-anarchist men from ages past while trying to navigate life. This is surely the way to achieve anarchy and an enjoyable existence. Right?

My contradiction is that I am a Augustinian pacifist but secretly beat up drifters to the brink of death and rob them of their money.

How true is it that:

“Anarchism, with its flawed legacy, is dynamic enough to actually become a stronger position through the scrutiny; this is primarily due to the matter that as a tension of tensions against domination, anarchism has the unique character of resisting urges towards intransigence. It has been developed and redeveloped as a dynamic position that strengthens with its contortions. Anarchists have constantly looked inward and convulsed with (and even celebrated) their contradictions.”

from https://anarchistnews.org/content/unknowable-against-indigenous-anarchis...

I really enjoyed Klee's writing, there's some anti-ideology handgrenades thrown in there. good stuff!

just not really sure where to engage with it, since the writer's whole point seems to be uh ... an ellipsis of fraught or elusive conclusions. not that this would be a criticism? something something prefiguration, something something transforms consciousness to the point that we can't understand except by living very differently? i dunno ... what do i know?

“I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.”
― Georges Bataille,
“One is fruitful only at the cost of being rich in contradictions.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

so, nietzsche, bataille, and klee, sittin' in a tree...

Lol. Fun!

“The people heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary.” ― Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth

"These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink” ― George Orwell, 1984

“Logic is the art of non-contradictory identification. A contradiction cannot exist. No concept man forms is valid unless he integrates it without contradiction into the total sum of his knowledge. To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one’s thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one’s mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality” ― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

What do I win?

not-anarchist prize?
not because none of the people quoted are anarchists (or not), but because the point is that anarchists acknowledge (may even celebrate) contradictions...

probably not connected to anarchism for anyone else, but one of my contradictions (that i consider anarchist) is that i only speak one language. i think that knowing multiple languages is important for the deep understanding of how different languages frame reality differently. i'm learning italian, but it's taking a long time. maybe this year i'll find someone to practice with.

The idea that contradictions are "bad" or "wrong" fits a very totalitarian way of viewing the world. A contradiction is a point of differentiation, non-conformity, individuating and so seems very desirable, if totalitarianism is undesirable, which I'd say it is.

If the point of this TOTW is to question whether or not "contradicting anarchist ideology" is considered acceptable, then I'd say there is a rank personal-purity moral-superiority quality to the question. Not every anarchist's praxis has to fit the normative standard and those who have The-Way are often the shittiest examples of anarchists.

This may be difficult for intolerant folk to grasp, but the whole of life is a contradiction between the emotive and physical existence. The alternating feelings of pain and pleasure will inevitably produce contrary responses and positive/negative overlapping in our everyday encounters.
These contradictions, only if they impose unbearable pressure upon oneself, may have to be fought in a self-defensive manner, or avoided, but most can be ignored, humored or ridiculed.

Spooky dualisms, LePerp. Such binary thinking.

"The alternating feelings of pain and pleasure will inevitably produce contrary responses"

The masochist would beg to differ. These are not "alternating feelings" with "contrary responses." They are certainly not "inevitable" by any stretch.

When you are hungry, and your stomach pains for food, Hunger and satiation are not in a binary relationship, they belong to the same set of elements, namely ---senses---.
Making peace or fighting are all about ones ---emotions--- alternating between contrasting expressions and outcomes. Peace and war are not dualisms but outcomes. Good and evil are dualisms.
A person may not eat for 1 month and experience pain, and if fasting continues, death would be inevitable.

Now you're just flailing with nonsense. Admit defeat at the hand of Miley, Perp. Let it go you've been bested.

---Contradiction--- the word is morally loaded with its ambiguous paradoxical meaning. I believe that property, debt and the State are false constructs, yet live within it, and pay rent and purchase food, I am not contradicting my beliefs, I am merely being tolerant of the unfortunate conditions because I love my own fate and tend my own garden.
An atheist who goes to church is not always a contradiction. I have in the past sought assistance from the Vincent de Paul charities, and even sung along various hymns to fit in, but I am a chameleon anarch, a Machiavellian survivor.

Makes me reconsider my position, even though contadictory of course, as reading you guys during my daily 15 minutes break before I go to sleep on the office floor is remining me I have better duties to prepare us for a Type 1 civ...

I'm selling all the stocks tomorrow and will send NFT dividends to nuke plant charities. Follow upcoming developments on Twitter, thanks.

Fight if they won't leave you and those you care about alone, make peace with those.who do not choose to attack you.

Strategy is basic-keep fighting until they quit or you are defeated. Make it expensive for anyone to atrack, but easy for those who are merely different to make peace. Soon you won't have to fight so often.

Hell,that's how I made that 2018 gtand jury withdraw their subpeona. When I burned it in front of the courthouse w 20 supporters behind me, they got the message and threw in the towel. With fire in my eyes and in my hands, I "front-loaded" the fight to.show just how expensive it would be for them (regardless of my fate) if they continued their attack.

From Nazis to queerbashers to grand juries, same basic idea: make war too expensive and they will buy less of it.

---make war too expensive and they will buy less of it---
Umm dude, baseball bats or shivs are cheap, just be careful of the neo-Nazis lurking around the corner, tactics means camouflage and not being seen by the monsters, mmkay?

that's the tactic of somebody who's too weak to fight? nothing wrong with that, it's good to be aware of relative strength but it's not "what tactics means". it's just the tactic of evading a stronger enemy.

I appreciate your reply and your treating me as not a troll but rather a critical thinker, cheers. But back to the definition of ---tactics--- .yes, you make a good point, and the stronger enemy being the entire corporate/capitalist global hegemony, methinks the most logical tactic would be a retreat and a tending of ones own individual garden, and a paradigm shift in ones ethical compasses.
Can we be friends;)?

No. I have no friends here. Don't be ridiculous.
Also, "the most logical tactic" changes constantly, relative to the shifting terrain.

Terrain doesn't fit a Crypto-Monetary Corporate A.I. Techno-Data Management State.
Its like you are using the term ---terrain---, which is a vague geographical trajectory with militarist overtones, to apply to a multi-faceted industrialized lifestyle fashion accessory. Its about the human soul and individual dreams been given tools which they can either dig themselves out of dreary existence with, or else languish in bitter lonely ressentiment, as you seem to be doing.

I also thought you meant your comment in a literal sense. Communication is extremely important in affiliations such as ours, and I think it's important that you understand that communicating badly and then placing blame on those who misunderstand you is a sad act from one who clearly does not have the courage to recognize their own faults.

Have a nice life! :)

Your terrain is stuck in the materialistic realm where it functions with activism and physical abuse. My terrain is the new post-left psycho-therapeutically derived arena of equilibrium, where all desires are provided, if attainable.

yup! I'm "stuck" in my material analysis ... in reality ... where actual things happen and/or exist. Ya got me.

He still believes in a singular modern constructed reality.

Can we shows him how we transcend singular constructed reality as multi-dimensional god-tier, anarchs, master? Can we shows them all??

Behold the tragedy of the common Western masculine imperative to challenge and make strife with reality!

Let's look at J6 and the fash after the events of a year ago: the J6 fash have been whimpering snitches with no solidarity. They plead guilty and do time. Nothing happens in response but empty threats on Twitter and rallies at the DC Jail and US Capitol-even with defendents actually doing time. They are chumps and even Biden knows it. In short, they let their guns write checks their courage could not cash.

Now consider the effect of indicting Trump and his top henchmen: in this scenaro many fear civil war, so we hear endless talk of arresting Trump but nobody ever tries to follow through. As I am typing this it has been a full year minus 14 hours. They lock up the mice while the Big Cheese(Trump) walks away laughing. That my friends, means the Dept of Injustice is a deterrable actor. It also means someone has judged that the real threat comes from the shadows and not those who were visible at the Capitol last year. Otherwise they would not fear to lock Trump up along with all his friends.

WTHell is the purpose of your vehement activism anyway? In the a way the J6 did the most humanly empathic and logical response by doing time. In and out for 3 days, get the inevitable over and done with and move on. You're probably imagining me as a weak whining snitch because of my pacifist ideals, but I been through the mill, done time,,, infact, your exploits are petty and childish compared to my former actions, not ---activism---but rather emotional passionate actions not based on idealogically acquired values and morals. I only have my own self to blame.

Oh I suppose you mean that incessant daily trolling u been doing here... for years? I guess agents get passionate about their paychecks, and that's the main thing driving them apart than maybe a misguided sense of "justice"... like you know with cops.

Back in 1981-82, Ronald Reagan attempted to bring back the draft for his dirty war in El Salvador. Then and now I consider conscription slavery.

Then I found out what Reagan wanted to DO in El Salvador: keep 14 rich families on top to lord it over the Indigrnous majority.In other words, another US Indian War. Given my heritage I had np choice but to explicitly sjde with the insurgency against the US backed regime there.

That gave me a good look at what imperialaim and corporate capitalism are truly about. For all the NVCD used here by the antiwar movement, to expect the FMLN to mee drath squads with oeace and love would never have worked.

BTW, suppose for the Weather Underground and all those groups that bombed, burned, or raided just under 400 draft boards plus the Whitehall Induction Center had not existed. Suppose the broad spearshaft of oppositiom to the Vietnam War had not had that hard spearhead of opposition willing to "bring the War home" and give those responsible fir.the war a taste of their own medicine? I am convinced that the draft wod NOT have been ended until the end of the cold war and might still exist today. Draft registatikn does, although indictments for refusing ended in 1985 orr 86.

In 1988, a storm of protests halted a Reagan-ordered troop buildup in Honduras aimed at an invasiom of Nicaragua. Too destablizimg at home it was, so the invasion was called off and the troops brought home.

I was one of those who publicly refused ro register, though bring in a big city I was protected from priosecution. In 1985 an intercepted memorandum showed Selective Service had asked DOJ ro avoid prosecutions in or near any major city for fear of "the antinuclear movement." Then and there I learned that Reagan's own "peace through strength" slogan also applied to fighting HIM and US colonilism/imperialism.

Meanwhile, as I explored other issues, I found learning the true history of not just the US but nation states in general plus corporate capitalism was like a tour of a sewer in a glass bottom boat.

Contradiction is the essential element of revolt. To live in contradiction to this society, to our surrounding, to the hand that feeds us. So: contradictions are basically a positive thing. You know, what else would the prefix "a" signify than a contradiction?

> our
> positive

contradiction is not negation.
negation is that "essential element," that "a".

contradiction is a reaction to.
negation is an action against.

a round square is a contradiction.
a false truth is a contradiction.

the resigned "live in contradiction to this society."
the anarchist-nihilist lives in negation of this society.

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