Anarchistnews Podcast 163 – 5.15.20

From Anews Podcast

Welcome to the anews podcast. This podcast is on anarchist activity, ideas, and conversations from the previous week on anarchistnews.org.

TOTW with Ariel and friend, on winning and losing and story telling

Music:
1. Big Black – Kerosene
2. Joan Baez – Here’s to you, Nicola and Bart

There are 18 Comments

The anarchist counter-narrative is the lyrics of “We’re not going to take it” by Twisted Sister. Jk, someone post better lyrics, extra points if br00tal.

well, the part about anarchists not having a counter-narrative. anarchists have always had our good posi ideas yanked and coopted, which hasn't kept anarchism from being a popular idea in the past. i think that the problem is that people are scared because shit's falling apart, and scared people do look for answers, so i agree with the guest about that. scared folks don't want to work (or don't believe their work will count for anything). it's been predictable for ages that anarchists will lose popularity with things getting harder (although this particular flavor, of people saying they're anarchist, but embracing totalitarian shit like maoism, etc). that's why books like desert (etc) have been popular in certain crowds.
at least, i like to think that's why. don't burst my bubble yo.

By their will they take control and by our lack of will we concede control to their will. What is the right of the will... whatever it takes. Be that lying, the control of money etc that is triumph of the will. So, all you egoists out there, watch and listen to how it's done.

everybody knows HItler took his cues from Nietszche (even if he likely mistinpreted him), and the latter's sister was also a proto-Nazi.

And it's not like you're making any efforts NOT explaining how your post ain't yet more neonazism in anarcho disguise.

who knows so many many things.
if hitler misinterpreted nietzsche, then by definition, he didn't "take his cues" from nietzsche (whatever the fuck that even means). nazis did misquote nietzsche, which anyone can do with any complicated thinker and make shit sound bad.
nietzsche's sister wasn't just a proto-nazi, she took nietzsche's texts and changed them after he died, so yea, he should definitely be held accountable for that total dumb mistake he made.
and your expectation that someone else needs to take responsibility to address your accusation when you haven't made any good faith effort your own self is an embarrassment to clear thinkers anywhere. i feel bad for you. as i do for so many people, really. it's exhausting.

his sister was nazi therefore philosophy man bad!

what's your sister up to right now, comrade? you should prob check in on her lest she stain your family honor

I've heard Hitler took his air from the atmosphere, his food from the earth, and his ideas from conversations with other people. As assuredly as we must disavow Nietzsche for his views that were co-opted by Hitler, so must we reject these things that have been found in common with all Nazis since. Do you still breathe, comrade? That's thinly veiled neo-Nazism! Explain yourself, as I demand of you!

There can be an ethically guided powerful will dude, don't conflate conquest with social power.

difficult to comprehend. Egoists are running the show according to their will... a union of egoists rule and it has probably been that way for thousands of years. Will versus Will.

if you read Stirner's text, those "running the show according to their will" are actually guided by external abstractions, higher purposes other than for themselves.

so Stirner wrote "Der Einzige und sein Eigentum," which was translated into English as "The Ego and Its Own," generating a philosophy known almost unanimously in the Anglosphere as Egoism or Egoist Anarchism (in spite of how unrepresentative that term may be), in which a "union of egoists" is written of and debated over as the preferred set of social relations in said philosophy, --but--
"who said anything about Stirner?" ok, thanks for the lesson, then.

Please, let's not confuse covid19 with corvids. Crows, ravens & magpies will appreciate your effort.

The conversation on counter-narrative was especially interesting.

Perhaps narrative comes with momentum. The anarchist range of motion in the US, however, is currently limited. We don’t believe in revolution, so any activities involving building towards that are out of the question. This might lead one to countercultural or dropout activities, but the cities are becoming too expensive to live in. We can live in rural or suburban areas, sure, but that doesn't yield as much opportunity for meeting others and constructing meaning through shared experience.

Contrast this with Tiqqunists who incorporate academia, owning businesses, buying land, co-opting political groups, and joining local governments into their revolutionary strategy. Their range of motion isn’t as limited (admittedly because they tend to have more resources). They have goals with somewhat clear actions they can take towards them. And listening to them talk you get a strong sense of counter-narrative. They really think they are “building the commune” as the world crumbles.

Tiqqunists deploy rhetoric and narrative as politics, anarchists' range of motion is not limited by avoiding politics, but freed from it. Building and opposing powers in an organized effort, waging politics/war, is constraining. Playing politics to win means disciplining yourself and others, showing restraint to get certain outcomes. Anarchist can opt to be unrestrained/free from outcomes. Not meaning that there are no consequences, but that the living moment and the experience is the focus, not some horizon. A good life, many good lives are anarchist stories to be retold, memorable characters, people you would have liked to meet and spend time with. Many smaller stories for many days of storytelling, not an overarching meta-narrative or plot.

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