The Contemptuous Communique #6: The Stage Has Been Set

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the contemptuous
The Contemptuous Communique #6: The Stage Has Been Set

The Contemptuous
Communique #6
The Stage Has Been Set

Well, because we know it really gets under some people’s translucently-thin skin, a place where it might settle and fester a bit, just as we like, we’ll begin with some tasty words from the mostly misread (if read at all outside maybe a few quotes from the internet), frequently misrepresented (because everything needs to be set on the obtuse and erroneous metrics of “fascist adjacent”), and often forbidden (by actual authoritarians), Ernst Jünger (and a couple others y’all probably hate too):

“Seen politically, systems follow one another, each consuming the previous one. They live on ever-bequeathed and ever-disappointed hope, which never entirely fades. Its spark is all that survives, as it eats its way along the blasting fuse. For this spark, history is merely an occasion, never a goal.”
- Ernst Jünger

“An informed slave is never anything but a happy slave. Informing him of his misfortune always amounts to liberating him while he is still in chains. There is a whiff of stoicism behind Marxist optimism, a knowing resignation to the inevitability of an unhappy existence. There is a strange and colossal abdication on the left, in the face of the reality of submission.”
- Bernard-Henri Lévy

“Beware of those who profess a “love for humanity,” who want to “lift up mankind,” who have a hurry-call to “save the race.” They are all sentimental butchers. Deep in the perverse vats of the subconscious lie the masks of the eternal will-to-power. The meanest soapbox Fiat Luxer in Union Square dreams of a soft job under the Proletarian Regime and the loud, literate bawlers see themselves as Robespierres, Hitlers or Stalins.”
- Benjamin De Casseres

“The universe for us is divided into “Ourselves” and the “Others.” The Others are all mixed up one with the rest; like a returning bank holiday picnic, they are linked together all in a row. It is impossible to tell where one begins and the other leaves off. It is consequently impossible to differentiate.”
- Dora Marsden

“Let the anarchy-ists call themselves anarchs, a word whose first appearance — in Paradise Lost! — antedates anarchist by nine years. It’s better because, like the corresponding distinction of monarch from monarchist, it designates not what we believe in, but what we are, insofar as our power permits: powers unto ourselves.”
- Bob Black

And so, for our last communique, for now — the conclusion of our first attack, the explanation point for our preliminary intervention, and the final grinding for the sharpening of our contemptuous claws — we interrupt the performance:

On the virtual stage of the contemporary globalized metaculture, one bereft of any significant meaning or substance, one of perpetual identifying, signaling, conforming, and presenting, most people’s relationship to freedom is just about always a performative act. Given the almost complete technological slavery, the post-modern excuse-factory, and the overwhelming cultural emptiness that the world has succumb to, we should expect nothing else from the hyper-domesticated herd. At times their performances may even trivially appear as something unique and even divergent, but in actuality they mostly tend towards a general sameness beyond their surface appearances, flavors, and sassy attitudes…yawn. This is especially obvious with activists, radicals, insurrectionaries, revolutionaries, reactionaries, politicians, and yes, anarchists, which in many key respects in terms of goals and dynamics, are virtually all in the same performance.

Performative acts which mimic or substitute authentic freedom disinterest and bore us in their least intrusive and tangential forms and anger and provoke us in their most dramatic and forceful displays. This is especially true of the ham performances of most anarchists, which are usually so badly done that they do not even rise to the level of camp. These poor performers attempt to be crisis actors, but usually fail to even reach the level of LARPing. At best they are NPCs to a shoddy dungeon master. In their more benign forms, they offer nothing interesting but surrogate activity for the blind and the lame in the banality of their miserable world. In their more disturbing forms, they offer space, direction, and fuel for the confused, the brutes wanting to flex, and the opportunists.

But for those who 20th century German author and philosopher Ernst Jünger refers to as the anarch, for the rare anarchist for whom anarchy is experienced uniquely and from their own being outward and not a political practice or identity, and for the outlaw who lives on their own terms in the shadows, on margins, or in the falsely-perceived wastelands, authentic freedom is often quiet — sometimes unnoticed and even secretive — and always unique and very personal. This is for its logistical requirements, for its own sake, and for the lack of desire to slither through society’s inevitably polluting, diluting, distracting, consuming, and performative swampy muck (something we have absolutely no desire to drain, just avoid). That’s their shit.

Authentic freedom is experienced moment to moment, not presented in any grand theater, played out on some localized stage, or commented on in marginal online forums. Performative acts barely scuff the veneer and rarely penetrate into the deep well of freedom’s bittersweet and dangerously joyous nectar. This concept often sails too high above and out of reach for the contemporary anarchist (whether they honestly admit to their “social” adjective or not), perpetually seeking their next performance, whether it be in the spectacularized and almost instantaneously absorbed and consumed venue of the streets, the inherently alienated and degrading internet, or the superficial and desperate maneuvering of the scene. This does not even begin to recognize that even their lowly prescribed and predictable scripts have been, and always will be, switched on them behind their back or before their very eyes, displaying the current agendas and trends of those writing and directing each act or the ongoing progression of political situations and programs. They affix the “good guy” badge on their vests, performing a white-hat cowboy hero role. It makes no difference that they did not grow up on cheesy moralizing mid-century Hollywood westerns, the roles had already been so thoroughly internalized generations before that they have become invisible.

The stage has been set for all of their presentations and performative acts, so we, The Contemptuous, will exit stage right, back into the creation of our own lives and in relation with other free people of our mutually highly-selective desires, and back to the mountains and forests we are a part of. No, despite what our naive and dismissive pseudo-critics and commenters would want you to believe, we don’t live in our mom’s basement, we rarely venture online (some of us don’t even have cellphones or internet), and we are a multitude for sure, a gathering of contempt from various bioregions and generations. Before we part, however, we still have a few last words, for now.

————

But first, a brief message from

AnarchX: The Anarchist Superhero!

- For Truth, Justice, and The Globalist Way -

“Look! Out in the streets, its the disproportionately affected, it’s the single-issued activists, No, its AnarchX!”

Here to save the day once again, straight from the Sociology Department of the local university, the convoluted “safer space”, the non-profit industrial complex, the collective anarcho-communist land-project, the urban anti-cop tree-sit, or the gentrified hipster dive bar, AnarchX is on the scene, making things fair and equitable for all (and filling in a pothole or two now and then while demanding that you put that darn mask on, for everyone’s sake).

Feeling unsafe, neglected, or marginalized? Give a call-out on Signal and AnarchX will be there in a flash to help your cause, I mean, its not like they really have to work or anything…

Using their amazing superpowers of canceling, doxing, memeing, podcasting, raising money, calling for solidarity, offering vague support, regurgitating empty rhetoric, and more, AnarchX will bring meetings and justice to any marginalized group and their self-proclaimed allies, um accomplices, um, whatever. And, if the situation really calls for it, they will even gather in the streets (preferably in a safe and secure “Blue City”) to perform, ah, I mean, stand-off against the “bad guys”.

AnarchX will stop at nothing to make any space “safer” for all, including banishing mohawks, dreadlocks, and any other violently oppressive hair-styles, forms of dress, or entertainment, cleaning up the world of dangerous and harmful language, squashing those pesky critical thinking skills, monitoring all social media to protect the feelings of those too weak to defend themselves, and, of course, saving society and making it neutral for all!

AnarchX is not in it for theyself!
No, they are selfless and duty-filled and always there for you!

WARNING:
AnarchX is NOT a subsidiary of, nor to be confused with, anything resembling actual anarchy.

Side effects include, but not limited to: general lameness, a false sense of importance, strong and unidentifiable feelings of guilt, visions of revolutionary grandeur, self-righteous positioning, mob-like behavior, inability to enjoy oneself, loss of humor, long bouts of screen-time, unquestioned desires to hang out with activists, leftists, and liberals, resume-padding social work, over-simplistic and reactionary reflexes, neurotic and addictive longing for the next artificial or over-hyped social rupture, general confusion, and more. AnarchX is a communicable and degenerative condition, please seek medical, and more importantly, psychological help as soon as possible.

————

And now, back to The Contemptuous:

So, to the anarchists, we say goodbye. Do not mistake this as a farewell to anarchy. Instead it is rejection of the “ists” and a fuck you to and “isms”. We won’t be leaving the ideologues of “isms” and their simple-minded and confused sheep alone, we just will no longer speak to them as if they were potentially friends or co-conspirators. Some of us have been in the anarchist space from before many of you were born, and we are not going away. Those of us who are younger see all too clearly what is wrong, what has failed, and how these stupid games are played and we have only distain for these distractions, distortions, and infantile performances. From this moment forth, our interventions will be from outside, sometimes as gentle and playful nudges, often as critical questions, when the mood strikes as brutal mockery, and when warranted as attacks. We love anarchy and the uniqueness of freedom with all of our little black hearts, but we are finding very little in common with most anarchists these days. Our paths significantly diverge on so many points. With a varying combination of victimhood, guilt, insecurity, fear, duty, weakness of character, sterility, pseudo-rebellion, reaction, group-think, hive-like collectivity, mob mentality, ideology, and all of the rest of the mess of socialized rationales, reasons, and conditions, the typical contemporary anarchist, sadly, does not seem to act from and for themselves, as opposed to the anarch and the outlaw who live from and for their own lives and in between worlds, always centered in their own freedom and its varied relationships to others’ unique freedoms. For the performer, on the other hand, the louder the shout, the more demonstrative, the more absolute and simplistic, the more glamour and glitz and spotlight, the more predictably fabulous, the less meaningful and superficial and the more conforming.

The anarch and the outlaw, who walk primarily in the canyons and shadows (even when among others), of course also require the beautiful and nourishing pleasures of the sunshine and interactions with the elements of relation. We tend, however, to cynically, critically, and intentionally move in the light with both metaphorical and real hats, scarfs, masks, shades, and such help to thwart the cancerous tendencies and toxins which often dwell there and attempt to distract, displace, and bother.

“I am alone. Whether suffering or joyful, I am an individual. I am myself. Some one enters the room. I become masked immediately, automatically. I put on a borrowed air. Something of my innate self recedes to the dark depths. I become almost a stranger to myself. The same thing, no doubt, happens to the person who has come to see me. Two lies face one another. When I step out of a roomful of persons into the street, alone, I resume my self. The me and they are always at war. The conquering me eats they; or if they are the conquerors, which is nearly always the case, they eat me.”
- Benjamin De Casseres

Freedom in the darkness of the forest, in ourselves, and with deep relations requires fewer layers of self-protection and concealment than walking in the exposed sun. The sunshine has been boring the daylights out of us for years and the spotlight revolts us completely. In the wood, especially that of connected and lived terrain and with our kinfolk, even the dance in the wild naked wonder is often possible. While it may be viewed as sad that the anarch and outlaw may mostly be only fully exposed in these darker of places, we doubt the fawn or snake or raccoon or owl think it unfortunate. It is what it is in certain places and times and situations, and it is the rare and dangerous occasion to dance in the sunlight, and perhaps best reserved for very select, strategic, and truly meaningful of times, times whose frequency seems less and less in these days of perpetual performance, ongoing surveillance (mostly horizontal), and superficial politicized polarization. The rest of the time we may be revealed and experienced and related to in more osmotic, indirect, subversive, or magical ways. Authentic to ourselves, but perhaps obscured to others, depending on their concentric relation of meaning to us. But, sometimes, if we are feeling a certain spirited recklessness, and the moon is in a peculiar phase, and the swirling chaotic forces push and pull in some strange ways, we also might just scream in your face too.

It is in this sense we might, at times, also engage in our own unique versions of performative action. But our ever-changing and deviant roles are far superior actions to those of the activist or social-anarchist. We do love a cabaret, a carnival (and especially a Cabaret Voltaire). We will wear masks as appropriate whether for pure fun, to obscure, or to forge lines of escape. It might be for creation; it might be for destruction; it might be in a ritual space activating sigilized diabolical desire. But we are always aware of the mask, even when overcome by Dionysian intoxication. The cybernetic shock troopers, on the other hand, are unaware. When they try to remove their identity mask they find, like Leviathan’s armor to the flesh of a Zek, that it is now inseparably attached.

And so, The Contemptuous will take a hiatus from trudging in the anaerobic detritus of this horrifyingly disgusting world and the too often nauseating anarchist space where everything has become overwhelmingly hyper-sensitive, brittle, weak, predictable, and uncreative, like a wild animal in captivity, cut off and sequestered from all of the strengthening and living qualities inherent in the daily dynamics of their very survival. While most modern humans, and certainly most anarchists, primarily live in an artificially constructed reality, from physical to emotional to intellectual to relational, one that supplies them with every single of their perceived requirements to exist, they have been cut off from the essence of life and they have been culturally sculpted in ways like no other humans before, all while conceiving themselves as more free, more critical, and more intelligent, not to mention being the most entitled humans history can recollect. This is the saddest joke that modernity, and even more so, post-modernity, has played on people, to think they are on one end of the spectrum, but in fact being on the opposite. For identity to be pure fetish, to gather up rage by way of pure contradiction — something to fill the overwhelming emptiness. And it should also be acknowledged that we live in desperate, sad, and meaningless times for sure when anti-civilization anarchists are quickly becoming/have become outnumbered by transhumanist ones. Sad and infuriating, and deserving of brutal response.

“Whatever is beautiful in this world is the product of an individual mind. There can be no such thing as mass-beauty, crowd-beauty. What the people like may be pretty, but never beautiful. The average man is not even moved emotionally before a sunset, the moon or dawn. He likes, above all things, Fourth of July fireworks.”
- Benjamin De Casseres

Enough is enough! It is time to once again sequester ourselves in the woods, our true home and priority — to gather strength, to learn from and share with that which most humans can only abstract and consume. We will not shrink into so-called quietism, we will just be less visible, we will be less invested in the anarchist space, and we will be less distracted by these silly little games. When we do intervene, we will act without warning or ongoing explanation, as it appears most of our words have fallen on deaf ears and our thoughts and questions on those fully committed to their limited causes, moralities, and ideologies. Freedom is not to be found among the dying, the dead, and the moronic soldiers in the armies of this culture. Our temporary intervention in the contemporary anarchist space has revealed its particular emptiness and corrupted nature, and that what was once a space for the deviants, freaks, mutants, outlaws, and eccentrics, is now undifferentiated from mainstream society, and all of the banality and idiocy it is made of and continually reproduces. A few of us are starting to understand some of the reasons why ITS (if they actually existed) abandoned anarchism…read that as you will.

The true anarchist, by definition, IS a perpetual outsider, at least in terms of society (especially of the mass and global varieties, but any really), and, in our opinion, preferable to being inside or actively and intentionally part of society, or, to be more honest and accurate, it is preferable to be turning away from rather than towards society, and we don’t see very much of that going on. We greatly value the bands of gypsies, the motley crews, the gangs of misfits, the unions of egos, the deviant orgies, the leaderless cults, the tribes of feral forest dwellers, the situational aggregates of outlaws, the wolves fluctuating between pack and solitude, the lawless dervish, the eugenic mutant swamp creatures, and the chosen freak family models over any larger and more abstract and alienating conglomeration of politics and identities. Sadly, anarchism, within the complete proliferation of the techno-verse, the performance of cultural politics, and just plain laziness and conformity, has mostly lost this vital component and has essentially been reduced to just another dramatic and fashionable flavor of popular culture and/or a duty-filled role to perform, certainly not the anti-societal element it inherently demands. For too long, anarchists have acted as recruiters for their misunderstood ideas, organizers for their over-simplistic fights, promoters for their perpetual projects, justifiers of their uncritical actions, and performers of their lame politics, rather than living their anarchy here and now, on their terms, without justified explanation.

The outsider stories of rebels, tricksters, outlaws, criminals, queers, and wingnuts who were once truly inspiring and why many of us showed up to the party and got highly intoxicated on the spirits of authentic freedom, seem now to be almost completely replaced by narratives and characters which are about inclusion, equality, justice, and harm-reduction, with stories of oppression, victimization, performance, and assimilation — completely uninspiring non-anarchistic themes. Anarchism once had at least undercurrents of vibrant and dynamic critical reexamination and growth. The post-left, anti-civ, egoism, specific strains of insurrectionary anarchism, indigenous anarchy, and queer-nihilism have all added to the strengthening of anarchism over the past few decades as projects of freedom in their own unique and deepening ways, albeit, as minorities and often outcasts within the general orientation. There have also been a great number of interesting and provocative anarchist projects and activities over the past forty years, and let’s not forget the surrealists, situationists, satanists, discordians, and punks that all stirred the pot in their own interesting ways too, but it has been a long while since the type of growth and critical reassessment needed to keep anarchy alive and relevant has been a strength for anarchism. Over the past ten years or so, most anarchists have delved into, without what seems even a moment’s hesitation, oversimplification, misinterpretation, popularization, and politicization of anarchy. While we can place much fault with both technology and what it has done to people, we also make no excuses for those who let this degradation and assimilation happen to them and the anarchist space. Most new inputs and alterations have not made anarchism more interesting, nuanced, complex, or non-recuperable. Just the opposite, it has made anarchism more palatable to non-anarchists and to broader segments of society. Much of this can be attributed to the tendency of social media to flatten, recuperate, and reintegrate everything into the totality. And so, anarchism has become synonymous with radical leftism and has even self-titled itself as “anarchy-lite”. All change is not good. Without critical analysis, examined practice, complex integration of ideas, and necessary conflictual dynamics, novelty usually brings out the most superficial, and often, most detrimental of effects. We, The Contemptuous, understand the importance of looking forward and back, from the present moment, as ourselves, and for dwelling outside.

We now understand all to well that freedom and thoughtful critique is not to be found in the anarchist space as a whole, or, of course, online. We had hoped that a few of the post-left projects might be worth exploring and occasionally interacting with, but alas, we were only fooling ourselves, they too are playing their roles. As we should have expected, most comments to our communiques refused to even engage with the ideas, but instead found virtually every excuse not to, often revealing through their very responses just what we set out to criticize. For instance, the online narcissists, those who will often assume that if someone notices them that they are obsessed with them. This is often the case with anarchists, who choose to inhabit a limited subculture rather than face the harsh criticisms of those not indoctrinated. For many of them it is a criticism too far to merely not agree with them. It was also fascinating to see claims that communiques were inspired by anonymous community college adjuncts crying about novelists. Far from reality. It wasn't an inspiration, it was an example. Providing examples is standard technique in argumentation. This should not come as a mind-blowing revelation, but apparently skills in argumentation, analysis, and critical thinking are not valid traits among many anarchists.

To be transparent, The Contemptuous are an affinity group of multiple anarchists collaborating for our mutual satisfaction, and, over our mutual dissatisfaction. We are not a collective, because we have no need for meetings to collaborate, nor do we value consensus and the pale representation it constructs. Obviously we intervened in a space considered post-left because this is a tendency that we have found value in (though don't assume this is the only area these missives have appeared. Just because you don't know something doesn't make it not real.) Of course, we find value in the post-left tendency; we've all helped to define it for decades. Most of us have published zines, journals, and books in that realm. Likely, many of those who have done performative snowflake dances have some of our writings on their shelves. You should try reading them. Have we revealed too much? No, it is more important for you to know.

Some say we should fight the “real enemy”. It is presumptuous of you to think you are better than we are at determining who the real enemy is. We live in a herd-minded cybernetic totality, in which authority and control has been diffused among the populace. Everywhere we look, we see another enemy. We will fight at every point in which we encounter control. This is the war of all against all. Some of the herd have threatened us and other of our radical aristocratic friends. We don't take kindly to this, and have very good memories. And even those who don't take such actions still maintain their spectacular social role, propping up the totality we intend to collapse.

And then there are the dim-wits, the apologists, the timid-spirited, the plastic-faced cheerleaders for the cause, and the peace-keeping lithium-sucking mediators who endlessly spew their toxic positivity. While we typically steer clear of using popularized, over-used, and typically mis-used words like “toxic”, in this case, the dynamic does seem fairly poisonous and wide-spread. Toxic positivity is dysfunctional emotional management for oneself and projected onto others. It is a constructed pressure to stay upbeat no matter how dire one’s, a group’s, or everyone’s, circumstances. It prevents emotional processing, intellectual comprehension, and physical action through feeling otherwise natural emotions like anger and sadness. Toxic positivity happens when people believe that negative thoughts about anything should be avoided at all costs, even in response to events and situations which normally would evoke so-called “negative emotions” and even, dare we say, contempt. Toxic positivity is manipulatively encouraged as a means to cope, avoid, and silence, and tends to overlook and dismiss true feelings and expression. We may be biased, but we believe accepting even the harshest of emotions can make a person happier and healthier overall, not to mention honestly assessing and dealing with situations and circumstances. Positivity becomes toxic with the inability to examine oneself, relationships and situations, and dynamics at play in the world. Social media inherently hyper-exacerbates the problem. By pushing out negative emotions, toxic positivity may result in physical consequences, such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease, as well as becoming a complete lame ass who justifies all of the bullshit in this world and their “positive” actions in it. Many anarchists have become too positive in their temperament at the exclusion of any real vitriol. When we are sad or angry, we will let you know it!

And, we suppose the consequence for our contemptuous activity and ideas led to the suppressive subterfuge of burying our previous piece (Communique #5: A Void Full of Mirrors) in the forum section of ANews, where few people venture, a middle position between posting it and not. Just about what is to be expected these days, handwringing and hedge-betting. We did not believe that “the slower pace of the forums would help provoke some meaningful commentary” (as ANews claimed in an email to us), but it did take the communique off the radar and left their hands a little bit cleaner. It is obviously their choice, it is their project, but we do find it a bit strange and telling that the communique got buried on a back page while Its Going Down’s super-relevant analysis about Trump's indictment(!) and how it "changes the political landscape" and the endless other non-anarchist, marginally-anarchist, and boring as fuck posts get highlighted, so to speak....What's happened to ANews and its critical edge? Lost, perhaps to these miserably mediocre meta-verse times. Even Waldorf and Statler would be at a loss for words to describe how bad it has all gotten. If ANews is truly trying to “create the anarchy we'd like to see in the world”, as their subtitle proclaims, we want very different worlds, and ours begins within each of our uniqueness, rather than blending a bunch of useless shit together. There are even bad clones of us and trolls using our name to post comments, but whatever, we kind of appreciate the mini-micro-dosed effort and chaos, and the real world is our priority anyway, offline.

So, alas, we must leave. We know, we know, we will not be missed by most. We have witnessed the accelerated retardation of anarchism over the past decade, we have watched the individual be systematically pushed out in favor of lowest-common-denominator collectivity, and we have experienced the most uncritical, humorless, and downright authoritarian of situations in the anarchist space. The conversations, activities, and forums of anarchists have become vacuous as all nod their heads in agreement and point their fingers in coordinated unison at the barbarians outside. It is an indication of pathological groupthink, extreme shallowness, ideological echo-chambers, cultural homogenization, engrained binary thinking, general sterility, and cowardice. We want an anarchy where people violently disagree with each other, and maybe still have a beer together later (or maybe not). To be alive is to be in conflict. To grow stronger and more resilient is to learn from those conflicts. Without conflict, stagnation becomes like concrete. Shaking up the stagnation and solidification is a natural and understandable response, we know that we’ve done more than our share, as The Contemptuous, in countless previous projects, and in each of our own individual lives, but too often at this point in anarchism’s orbit it seems that conflict will mostly be met with a more crystalized herd-like behavior and blind adherence to the group and its ideology (whether recognized or not) rather than any sort of authentic consideration, questioning, or even thoughtful aggressive push-back.

At this point, it seems that we may be further strengthening their constructed wall by tossing our contemptuous bricks at it. It is time, for now, to temporarily recede on our terms, to be like water. We will be back when you least expect as a tsunami. We feel it is probably more strategic and more fulfilling at this time to move along to more fertile terrain, possibly with some occasional direct and explicit words tossed from outside contemporary anarchism’s virtue-signaling masked-up safer spaces, and leaving a few nasty stink bombs along the way. We choose to associate with more interesting, dynamic, and anarchic folk. We leave with a touch of sorrow and much anger as anarchism has now almost fully shed all of its anarchy. Another beautiful idea, perhaps the most beautiful, severely and possibly terminally eroded and disfigured by the “ism”, by society — desiccated by the thirsty displaced crowd. But we also leave with an unrestrained, perpetual, and honest enthusiasm and with reinvigorated air under our dark wings… the spirit of freedom, life, and anarchy!

“Individuality is character. Personality is artificial. Character is inherent, and, I believe… unalterable. Character is difference. The development of character is generally away from standardized and conventional patterns. Communism, Socialism and all authoritarian programmes aim at the destruction of character and the creation of a mass-personality. Whatever exists tends naturally to individualize itself. The Ideal — which is always anti-biological — tends to destroy this natural law. It substitutes You ought for I will! Unless the Ought is self-evolved, I smash it, and reiterate in the face of all opposition, to the extent of my power and courage, I will!”
- Benjamin De Casseres

“I can expect to find authoritarian actions, opinions and personalities among anarchists as elsewhere. “Comrades” are not my comrades — nor am I, at my worst, my own comrade — insofar as they or I behave like “the real enemy”. There is no real enemy apart from human agency.”
- Bob Black

“We believe that the individuals of the future, if they are worth anything at all, will be as well able to look after themselves, as we are to look after ourselves. In short there may be glorious and radiant individuals in the dim future as there have been in the past: but they are no concern of ours. Our joy is not in them: their beauty is not ours.”
- Dora Marsden

“If I love freedom above all else, then any commitment becomes a metaphor, a symbol. This touches on the difference between the forest fleer and the partisan: this distinction is not qualitative but essential in nature. The anarch is closer to Being. The partisan moves within the social or national party structure, the anarch is outside of it.”
- Ernst Jünger

When they bring anarchism inside,
It is time to go live anarchy outside
The Contemptuous
contemptuous@riseup.net

————

Misery Is The River Of The World

The higher that the monkey can climb
The more he shows his tail
Call no man happy till he dies
There's no milk at the bottom of the pail

God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel
Like the thistles that are growing round the trunk of a tree
All the good in the world you can put inside a thimble
And still have room for you and me

If there's one thing you can say about mankind
There's nothing kind about man
You can drive out nature with a pitchfork
But it always comes roaring back again

Misery's the river of the world
Misery's the river of the world
Misery's the river of the world

The higher that the monkey can climb
The more he shows his tail
Call no man happy till he dies
There's no milk at the bottom of the pail

God tempers all the ruins for the new shorn lambs
The devil knows the Bible like the back of his hand
All the good in the world you can put inside a thimble
And still have room for you and me

Misery Is The River Of The World
Misery Is The River Of The World
Everybody Row

Misery Is The River Of The World
Misery Is The River Of The World
Everybody Row

- Tom Waits from Blood Money

————

A Sadness

A sadness whirls in floods of tears
across this Earth.

There is no hiding this deep anguish
from those who truly feel.
But numbness has become a common
human disease, a genuine
anti-emotional pandemic.

A pandemic without the fire of fever,
but rather gray and cold
with the chill of mediocrity.

Can those few of us who still truly feel

whirl our tears together

with the flames of a wild and passionate love
for the ferocity of genuine living?

A mad and magical fusion

of water and fire

in an amour beyond the limits

of the “possible”?

I burn with the flames of a maelstrom,
a tornado of water and fire whirling
up to the heavens!

St. Elmo’s demonic fire!

The passionate embrace of

two fierce fluid elements

whose conflict is
their love.

This, THIS is the dance

that must flow through the hearts

of the few who truly live.

Through our hearts and from our hearts
out across the Earth

in a tragic Dionysian feast!

Mediocrity has nor more place

on this planet.

The human world has shown
that it can do no better than that.
So let the Monsters arise

and howl and roar

and orgy in the streets

as cities burn!

Let the floods of sadness flame
with raging ecstasies

of wild, mad love.

There are those content

to go out with a whimper ...

But who is ready to join me

and go out in a supernova

of joyful Dionysian

tragic ecstasy

that will flash a brilliant flame
across galaxies,

kissing the boundless heavens
endlessly?

anon (not verified)
au revoir!

ugh, this is another wall of text that says NOTHING to me. how disappointing.

one thing is clear from the contemptuous experiment: their clinging to the position of "outsider" and obsession with judging their own actions as "authentic" (and the use of any/all disagreement to bolster this masturbatory self-perception) tells me all I need to know.

they also said bye like six times in this piece lol so, they showed up, supplied a mostly reactionary, unnuanced, and boring critique of current anarchists, and this is their rambling, empty swan song. they're consistent, I guess!

I think it'd be most appropriate to grant them the outsider status they desperately crave and not publish this crap. not as a form of censorship or because it's dangerous in any way--quite the opposite. if they believe a word they wrote, they'd see it's in line with their point: to shut up and leave the conversation they've outgrown and claim to hate (but keep returning to because maybe they have nowhere else to go?). Things/words/ideas are worth fighting for, sure, but this is just passive bitching about the rain while writing poetry about the sun behind the clouds. Sitting at your typewriter after guzzling down a bottle of wine doesn't make you Faulkner, no matter how much you feel it in the moment. That's not a dagger in your hand, it's a pencil dulled from your attempt at purple prose.

I even chuckled at the AnarchX bit, but it quickly went the way of grumpy, overly verbose curmudgeon again (who's in love with their own exile and nostalgic for anarchy of yesteryear--ironically a time when they presumably "fit in" better with other anarchists). too bad.

Contemptuous (since I know you're reading), I genuinely think you've failed yourselves and have only added to the collective noise on the internet. welcome to the inside you thought you had escaped (sorry, you never left). In fact you're haunted by it. I suggest accepting the challenge of silence for a change. The literary form is an obvious crutch for your not-having-anything-to-actually-say.

If all the anarchists are talking, it's time to shut the fuck up!

anon (not verified)
"authentic freedom is often

"authentic freedom is often quiet — sometimes unnoticed and even secretive — and always unique and very personal. This is for its logistical requirements, for its own sake, and for the lack of desire to slither through society’s inevitably polluting, diluting, distracting, consuming, and performative swampy muck (something we have absolutely no desire to drain, just avoid). That’s their shit."
Omg, this is sooo true, it really describes my anarch journey, <3

David Anarchborough (not verified)
"Some say we should fight the

"Some say we should fight the “real enemy”. It is presumptuous of you to think you are better than we are at determining who the real enemy is. We live in a herd-minded cybernetic totality, in which authority and control has been diffused among the populace. Everywhere we look, we see another enemy. We will fight at every point in which we encounter control. This is the war of all against all. Some of the herd have threatened us and other of our radical aristocratic friends. We don't take kindly to this, and have very good memories. And even those who don't take such actions still maintain their spectacular social role, propping up the totality we intend to collapse."
This is exactly what I've been saying about the herd condition and why Jünger is the dude!

anon (not verified)
“Everywhere we look, we see

“Everywhere we look, we see another enemy.” Sounds like a you problem- the very definition of edginess…

anon (not verified)
sounds like they actually

sounds like they actually understand the totality of civilization and don't have their heads in the sand like most here.

anon (not verified)
Sounds like they, and maybe

Sounds like they, and maybe you, are en route to a psychotic break

SirEinzige
Some good quotes here guys

BDC is a individualist boss.

anon (not verified)
I'd never heard of BDC until

I'd never heard of BDC until I read his quote. He's described the modern peril so well "destruction of character and the creation of a mass-personality" and "you ought over I will".

SirEinzige
Mass-personality=Identity

What’s ironic is these identitarian retards who are trying to individualize and personalize ID via things like self-ID(lol)

One is will the other is representation idiots.

anon (not verified)
Yes, the idiots lack

Yes, the idiots lack authenticity, they can't even see the falsity of their identity impersonation. Sure, there are Elvis impersonators, that's entertainment folks, it's for fun, it's parody, but omg, wanting to be a socially selected stereotypical clone *gasp*, their neglected daseins have obviously fled the building!

anon (not verified)
Uh. Let's be merciful for all

Uh. Let's be merciful for all these poor-ass NPCs... they're just looking for a soul as they likely never had one, or was crushed early in their youths by the hyperparanoid technocratic system that promotes cultural flattening and internalized repression of sexuality. Maybe with more COMPASSION their minds can open up to higher dimensions of the universe, so they'll be saved from endless yoga schools and other Neo-New Age dogshit esotericism...

CalvinSmith (not verified)
i doubt anyone can actually be saved

But yeah i agree that compassion is a lot more conducive to avoiding new age dog shit with skepticism than the same insults and mockery this comment section generates. Supposedly, emptyness is banned around here, LMFAO

anon (not verified)
can you expand on this? not

can you expand on this? not sure i get what you are trying to express

anon (not verified)
REad sOme HeidEggEr dUde!

REad sOme HeidEggEr dUde!

anon (not verified)
Different anon here. I am a

Different anon here. I am a tenured professor of philosophy and a Heidegger scholar. What does Heidegger's work have to do with your strange rant above? I do not see it.

anon (not verified)
"WhEn mY bAby lEft mE, I hAd

"WhEn mY bAby lEft mE, I hAd nO plAce tO gO", *leaves building*

anon (not verified)
What's funny is that this was

What's funny is that this was initiated by SIrEinzige's misunderstanding of Schopenhauer, a position he obviously explored no further than the title of a book he probably say and thought, "hey that's a based title I will troll Anews with some screechy feces that utilizes it" and then the above SpongeBob text is the depth of his execution. I'm not surprised.

anon (not verified)
Don't yoU hAve a pOetic

Don't yoU hAve a pOetic grOOve brAh, or Is it All idEolOgy wIth yoU? FInd yOur dAsein brAh!
-Barnacle Bill

SirEinzige
My misunderstanding?

Care to elaborate?

I haven’t read WAW&R and I don’t consider myself a Schopenhauerean but I do know the gist of his post-Kantian project.

I use the basic idea to take down faux individualist pseudo self identity.

anon (not verified)
"I haven’t read WAW&R ... but

"I haven’t read WAW&R ... but ... I use the basic idea to take down faux individualist pseudo self identity." ~SirEinzige

Jesus Fucking Christ. This, right here, explains EVERYTHING about Ziggy's Twitterlectual position on EVERYTHING he defecates his opinion onto.

tl;dr: everything SE says is fake news.

"Everybody knows this." ~Master Gillis

anon (not verified)
SirEinzige,

SirEinzige,
Obviously the only way for you to save face is to defend your assertion that:

Mass-personality=Identity

What’s ironic is these identitarian retards who are trying to individualize and personalize ID via things like self-ID(lol)

One is will the other is representation idiots.

1. Mass-personality=Identity
2. trying to individualize and personalize ID via things like self-ID
3. One is will the other is representation

Begin. 500 words or more. You will be graded.

SirEinzige
I don’t need 500 words

Just go google the definition. ID entails sameness and the characteristics can are usually tied to collective representations. That doesn’t mean there isn't an individual element beyond mass personality. But the overall point still stands.

The Will is that which is beyond selfsame representation.

anon (not verified)
*dies*

*dies*

anon (not verified)
(*dies* because it's true

(*dies* because it's true that you ARE that ignorant)

SirEinzige
HAHAHA that’s how you 2 tap out huh

No elaboration as usual.

I mean, you’re not just going up against me, you’re going up against the very definition of identity itself.

anon (not verified)
Good job, SirEinzige. You

Good job, SirEinzige. You CLEARLY grasp identity, the Will, AND Representation as only a true Schopenhauerisn could with only having ever having read the title of the book. Thank god for Google and Wikipedia!

I declare you the victor.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
PS. You might want to actually look at Schopenhauer's concepts of Will and Idea a little more closely, however ;-)

anon (not verified)
Oh well, at least you're

Oh well, at least you're honest, your trolling failed, YOU have nooOoo iDEa about what even a representation of identity even means. Sir E is the gloriously humble winner. Now go away and sEaRch for yoUR dAsein!

anon (not verified)
C-

C-

Attempting to validate assertions by making more assertions is invalid.

Show your work.

anon (not verified)
it’s individualists who love

it’s individualists who love the bosses most of all.

anon (not verified)
how is that???

how is that???

anon (not verified)
^^A herdist troll who has

^^A herdist troll who has nooOoo idEa about autonomy and ontologically derived self-awareness!,^^

anon (not verified)
"stagnation becomes like concrete"

metaphor becomes like mixed

writing becomes like bad

trollglobetrotter (not verified)
troll dunk becomes like BAM

troll dunk becomes like BAM

anon (not verified)
i get exactly what they are

i get exactly what they are saying here, sorry teacher if it breaks your rules.

anon (not verified)
She calls me Goliath and I

She calls me Goliath and I wear the David mask
I guess the stones are coming too fast for her now
You know I'd like to believe this nervousness will pass
All the stones that are thrown are building up the wall
I have become cumbersome to this world
I have become cumbersome to my girl

I'd like to believe we could reconcile the past
Resurrect those bridges with an ancient glance
But my old stone face can't seem to break her down
She remembers bridges, burns them to the ground.
I have become cumbersome to this world
I have become cumbersome to my girl

Too heavy, too light
Too black or too white
Too wrong or too right
Today or tonight
Cumbersome
Too rich or too poor
She's wanting me less and I'm wanting her more
A bitter taste is cumbersome

There is a balance between two worlds
One with an arrow and a cross
Regardless of the balance
Life has become cumbersome

Too heavy, too light
Too black or too white
Too wrong or too right
Today or tonight
Cumbersome
Too rich or too poor
She's wanting me less and I'm wanting her more
A bitter taste is cumbersome

Your life has become cumbersome

-Seven Mary Three from American Standard

anon (not verified)
Those who are constantly

Those who are constantly complaining about how something smells like shit are usually the last to realize, it’s on their shoe…

Those who feel compelled to write a half dozen blog posts bloviating about it, will likely not realize this even when they are tracking it everywhere they go. They’ve learned to love the stink and they tell themselves that the way others recoil from them is confirmation of their superiority, the only thing they really cared to assert in the first place.

anon (not verified)
actually, those who don't

actually, those who don't complain about the smell of the shit are the ones who don't mind it in the first place, no, actually who love it, like most leftists, activists, and now, anarchists.

8, Ball,! (not verified)
Nio fiockoing weay I loike

Nio fiockoing weay I loike terh fuovkiung snmell oif shjiyt!, ! I idenmtufy asd a fyuckinbg huillbuilly fuivking nihiolisdt, NOIT a fyuxkimg Lreftyist !, I AM NIOT A FYUCKOING LEWFTYIST MMM FUICKUNG KAYU!.,? ,imnma hillbikl.y nihiolidst, a a pre-Marxcisdt fyucjkinf nuianced tribaloistic identity prewceeduing wersterng fuoclking IDfPoiloticds!.,!

CalvinSmith (not verified)
i did enjoy the performance, but i

started to space at

"And now, back to The Contemptuous"

So far my favorite text from you folks, don't get distracted from all of anarchist culture's "isms". Unfortunately, the anarchy web prefers name calling and discipline to critical thinking, cheers! More entertainment requested, nice quotes.

anon (not verified)
The CalvinSmith? Quite the

The CalvinSmith? Quite the endorsement for the Contemptuous!

CalvinSmith (not verified)
yeah, even if its probably not a 100%

Acurrate analysis, they are great writers and i feel that this one is a pretty spot on perspective on what it tends to mean to be an anarcho-activist and/or an anarchist internet user. The text reminds me of a lot of the writings that got me into anarchism and also books (funny enough, i actually hated reading before i found some of those individualist anarchist writings from LBC)

pathetic (not verified)
shameless self-praise

you wrote this yourself, didn't you, and most of these comments as well

CalvinSmith (not verified)
i would be pretty proud of myself if i did.

it would be some pretty advanced and dedicated trolling. I'd be really happy with my writing abilities if i wrote #6, but honestly i'm just not a good writer, which is part of the reason why i haven't self-published the one book i wrote online. To me just chatting people up is a lot more therapeutic.

anon (not verified)
rare, but i'd generally agree

rare, but i'd generally agree with CalvinSmith on this one.

sad to see y'all go...

CalvinSmith (not verified)
i took the time the other day to

Read and reflect on this whole thing...i agree that anarchism/anarchy is a better practice in obscurity and darkness than a form of activist control. I don't understand why people think asserting progressive values is comptible with skepticism towards bureaucracy/hierarchy/authority: "...you fascist..", "...you whatevetist/aphobe...", "we must protect the marginalized", even if relating to others like that is a legit form of anarchism or anti-fa, i want phase of my life to be over where i tried to bring people over to a camp.

I also don't think the "anarchy they want to see in the world" on anews really makes any sense as a form of opposition to nation states, hierarchy, or authority. So many of these articles just recycle boring scenester politics and assumptions.

However, i do NOT believe i am a "true anarchist" or that i am superior to "the masses", which is the implied theme in the contemptuous essays. May your anarch adventures inspire you, and i hope any arrogance you express is just a playful joke.

anon (not verified)
I agree with CalvinSmith,

I agree with CalvinSmith, that at its base, The Contemptuous are expressing a more authentic vision of anarchy than what is typically expressed here on anews or in the world at large. maybe that is why its was treated with such disdain, because people are not used to it or have forgotten. but, i would add, that their perceived arrogance is more than warranted given the fact that most anarchists today are virtually indistinguishable from the herd. how much are anarchists supposed to put up with, accept, or make room for before it becomes meaningless?

lumpy (not verified)
the only point you've managed

the only point you've managed to make here, is that "authenticity" is a very murky, subjectivity

anon (not verified)
Well they also CLEARLY proved

Well they also CLEARLY proved that they are ToOoooTALLY NOT the Contemptuous ;-)

anon (not verified)
Oh anon, you don’t even

Oh anon, you don’t even realize. I’ve been tracking the symbology of all contemptuous communiques. Through this research I’ve uncovered that not only are they responsible for 75% of all anonymous comments on this site, but also 33% of all anonymous comments on the internet. Furthermore, further cross comparisons have shown that The Contemptuous are behind LBC, AK press, Highlights magazine, and Anarcho-syndicalism review. The final kicker: the Freemasons are behind the contemptuous.

anon (not verified)
that's a gross

that's a gross oversimplification of what they are saying.

CalvinSmith (not verified)
i personally don't think arrogance is

ever really deserved or warranted, that may seem humorless or wimpy of me, but that is how i have come to think: humans are not impressive, we are ugly creatures, and while i do give praise when someone pleases me...i would find it really silly if i ever caught myself thinking i was better than anyone else. When i have done that before it led to a sense of entitlement.

I appreciate that in this essay describes what they want in terms of anarchism in lieu of what they don't like about it...but the descriptions should always be as specific as possible, and it's still not very specific.

Fred Hovel (not verified)
Lumpy's Epistimology

is flawed. He sees things in milk terms. Even if everything that comes out of the Contemptuous pipeline is utter bullshit, it can all exist simultaneously: a crumb in the loaf of industry, making life without identity, on the river island of eternity!

lumpy (not verified)
yep! ya got me. large

yep! ya got me. large language model says oink boink sproink

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