Anarchy Bang: Introducing Episode Three. Violence

From Anarchy Bang

Download Episode Two

A hundred people listened in to episode two. Another couple hundred downloaded it and checked it out later. Last week we talked about home (and land). This week we'll try to have an entertaining conversation about violence. Is that possible? Can we go meta enough to have a discussion about why young (and old) men think violence does much more than kick the can down the road?

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There are 17 Comments

Content for the sake of content versus content because you have something that you think is important that you really want to say... it's kinda like people who talk endlessly because they're afraid of the silence.

I like Aragorn, but he and his projects produce way too much low-quality, low-effort, nothing-really-to-say, nothing-new content at way too high of a rate. For me at least. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy much of what Aragorn has to say, but it seems like most of the time (not all) he and his projects (LBC, Anews, Anews Podcast, The Brilliant, Black Seed, Anarchy Bang) are just filling space for the sake of it, and not because the creators really have something to share. I guess it feels good to be "doing something" or something like that? The problem is that if you want people to pay attention to what you have to say, and to care, you have to respect their time just a little bit, and not ramble about the same old topics making the same old points. Really, how many times have we heard Aragorn talk about "place" or "anarchist aging" or "the internet's effect on anarchism", the list goes on...? Obviously, we should appreciate all the good content that has come out of these projects, but my goodness, what a slog, Same can be said for JZ and other regular anarchist projects. In conclusion, not trying to tell y'all what to do, but I thought by sharing the reasons for my own withering interest in your projects, it might give you a clue, if my experience is a shared one, as to why others are also not so interested.

the thing seems to be that there is a lack of prep done for all the audio projects. Most podcasts either are shoot the shit and funny which doesn't need to be prepped for if there is repartee that is enjoyable, but nobody that is hosting this show is going to do that...also it will be A!s show so nobody else coming on the show will feel enough ownership over it to truly be themselves, because that would take a lot of will on their part, plus the quality of not caring about being embarassed in public, which is something most people lack. For the brilliant and a news totw chats, it's the lack of prep. It's the lack of editing. I think the goal for a show should be like a book, produce a bunch of material and cut out the shit that doesn't work, instead A! projects are basically unedited and we are left listening to first drafts which can be fun or point at good stuff, are rarely well done. Nobody writes a first draft and publishes. But I agree with you that this phenomena is likely to be about the emphasis being on consistent output instead of quality :(

Aragorn's a General in the Internet Culture Wars. He's got troops and prospective recruits to entertain as a result! The Alex Jones of Anarchy! (With lower production effort.)

He's the center of attention at all times and that's the way -- uh huh, uh huh -- he likes it!

As another anon pointed out, that simply isn't the type of media this project is. Of course there's something to be said for high-density, infrequent publication, but that just literally isn't the goal of a call-in show. I can't speak for A!, but the reason I tune in is to listen and participate in a discourse to help develop my own ideas. Just like I don't interact with my friends purely in infrequent, relationship-changing dialogues, I don't engage with my thinking about anarchism solely in earth-shattering tomes. These ideas have nuance, and nuance requires a lot of time and interaction to figure out. If you'd rather get the cliffnotes, or just sit alone with your thoughts for months at a time, you're more than welcome to do that, and just not listen to this podcast, no?

Yeah, you ever tried to be publicly interesting when you talk, every week for years and years? Good luck!

". . . if you want people to pay attention to what you have to say, and to care, you have to respect their time just a little bit, and not ramble. . . "

TL;DR? Could you summarize your giant text wall? I don't have time to waste reading all of that. Time is precious!

jfc buncha meanies here, it’s a call in podcast, fuckin call in or tune out >:-(

ikr? This is actually pretty hilarious. At least part of the intention of the call-in show was a challenge to the peanut gallery to call in and throw down but they're still just walltexting their critiques of how the show is boring because people don't call in.

Truly, the spectacle has devoured everything! All of us, punching our computers in frustration, demanding that they fulfill us harder. WHY ISN'T MY MEDIATED SPECTACLE TRIGGERING MY DOPAMINE ANYMORE?! FUCK YOU ARAGORN AHHHHH

But what is your issue with people not calling in? That makes them paranoid!? That's contradict the reason why there are anons posting on this site in the first place. And yep that includes you, too!

First anon here. Yeah, sure, that’s fine, I probably won’t listen. Anymore, I usually don’t. I’m not complaining the Aragorn isn’t delivering the spectacle/dopamine hits I that demand. I just made the comment to express why my interest has waned. Jesus.

But you're opting to explain the wane, aren't you? Anyway, I'm just making light of everything, much like jesus would do.

Examining violence, I make a distinguishment between it and force. I don’t think peace, comfort, and security are as essential as people make them out to be. I think violence and aggression are a natural part of life and some of the most suppressed by Civilization. What the State and Capital do in the name of giving the citizen of the industrial nation peace, comfort, and security is nothing short of genocide I see conflict and confrontation as highly productive and time-conserving. Georges Sorel wrote in Reflections on Violence that the “object of force is to impose a certain social order in which the minority governs, while violence tends to the destruction of that order.” I agree with that. It is an interesting distinction to make in regards to “non-violent” protesting, too, as to eschew violence wholesale by this definition would also mean to eschew the destruction of the social order. Violence is centrifugal, it directs away from a pole, whereas force is congealing and centripetal, it seeks to assimilate. Nature in its freest, wildest forms can be frighteningly violent. I have seen wolves tear apart and devour a lone coyote in minutes. A certain amount of violence ensures a certain amount of heterogeneity of whatever kind. Always good to shake things up a bit. And there is also the connection between violence and brutality — wildness — something everyone craves at least a little of from time to time. Finally, however, consider also the words of Laozi in the Dao De Ching: “violence has a habit of returning...even the strongest force will weaken with time, and then its violence will return, and kill it.”

*smells ozone and melting plastic coming from Zhachev's brain*

"I have seen wolves tear apart and devour a lone coyote in minutes." =
"I have seen paleo-nihilists tear apart and devour a lone capitalist in minutes." ;)

"I have seen paleo-nihilists tear apart and devour a lone capitalist in minutes."

Funny fanfiction, tho that never happens. The opposite's more likely to happen... where paleo-nihilist hipsters with fantasy-grade beards get eaten by debt and work due to their highly-demanding diets at the posh paleo bar & grills. ha-ha

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