In the recent book "Warlike, Howling Pure", the author Areion writes that 'to name oneself an anarchist is to situate oneself within an ancestral lineage, of all those who have named themselves anarchists before and those who have not but have lived anarchically nonetheless.' Areion gives the examples of Chinese millenarian movements, Roman revolutionaries and martyrs, the ancestral pacts, curses, and cycles of slavery and genocide, and the anarchists who have lived and died for "the beautiful idea."

In 'Gone to Croatan', Peter Lamborn Wilson traces a similar theme in the history of Antinomian movements in colonial America: "The nameless Antinomians of low-estate who followed Anne Hutchinson into exile were the spiritual ancestors of the rioters, farmers, sailors, soldiers, freed slaves, Irish laborers, and debtors" who "served as the matrix for extreme revolutionary tendencies within the general dissidence and the anti-Imperialist movement." PLW notes that 'Antinomianism had no center and no dogma;' They consisted of various groups including Ranters, Seekers, Levellers and Diggers, Libertines, and Quakers, and were themselves 'descendents' of medieval heretical sects such as Adamites and Brethren of the Free Spirit. Yet most adherents considered themselves active revolutionaries: "The rich would be overthrown, the poor exalted-'the world turned upside down.'"

In this 'non-biological' ancestry sense, who, if anyone, would you say your ancestors are, and what do they wish for you? Are you living up to their expectations or are they disappointed in you? Do anarchists have obligations to certain 'traditions' of anarchy in order to venerate their ancestors? What would you talk to them about or ask them if you had the chance?

Comments

anon (not verified) Mon, 11/04/2024 - 21:14

Time isn't real and ancestry is an authoritarian spook. We nihilist anarchists live in the now untethered to pissy past patriarchs and practices! Be free, brahs!

anon (not verified) Tue, 11/05/2024 - 08:09

I won't be commenting on that cheesy ridiculous book by Areon 'til it's freely available online, thanks.

Also relevant how someone's from the countryside's gotta travel to a distant big city to put their hands on a copy of an anticiv book. Personal printers are ubiquitous these days... found several good functional ones in the dumpsters.

lumpy (not verified) Wed, 11/06/2024 - 09:37

my anarchist ancestors are telling me that trump will soon remind everyone why they sometimes stop being scared of/awful to the anarchists and start asking them for big favors

Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell. All those liberals and intellectuals and smooth talkers - and all of a sudden, nobody can think of anything to say [except this is YOUR FAULT if you didn't vote lol]

anon (not verified) Wed, 11/06/2024 - 11:23

In reply to by lumpy (not verified)

Was awaiting for the highly-predictable comment from ancoms on this election... What took u so long?

The neolibs are many years behind realizing their own mistakes and shortsightedness.. but why should they be helped? Even the tankies and other radlefties sound more relevant these days with their mass revolutionary alternative.

What anarchists could instead think for the near future, tho, is how to deal with a potential democratic total collapse and establishment of a de-facto *principality* (or monarchy), which appears to have been a growing trend in other failing democracies abroad (i.e. Russia, Turkey, China, Israel Hungary, Thailand, Venezuela, etc). Mar-a-Lago now stands as the new Sultan's palace. Desperate politicians and stooges are going there to lick some Orange butt and get favors like the traditional privileged beggars going to the king's court, methinks. Likely the shitshow you'll be getting the next few years, if not already. White House to be turned into a museum or opera house I guess...

anon (not verified) Wed, 11/06/2024 - 13:47

In reply to by anon (not verified)

"What anarchists could instead think for the near future, tho, is how to ..."

Imma stop you right there, brow. Did you forget we're anarchists? Repeat after me: No future.

anon (not verified) Wed, 11/06/2024 - 14:02

In reply to by anon (not verified)

and that is why anarchists have no relevance, this inability to think practically, to think beyond the shiny rhetoric of the wannabe cool kids.

no one but you and your 3 friends are seriously planning on no future.

anon (not verified) Wed, 11/06/2024 - 15:44

In reply to by anon (not verified)

"Did you forget we're anarchists? Repeat after me: No future."

Ah yes, lol... All the theories of anarchism of the past 200 years condensed in a line by a lil edgelord called Johnny Rotten. Why even read books? Too much efforts for the braaaaiiin.

(I mean... Rotten ain't all crap, he has had a few good points but when was he not a media whore?)

anon (not verified) Wed, 11/06/2024 - 17:20

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Both ye, 15:44 & 14:02, could stand to do a little reading before spending all day commenting on an anarchist website showing your whole asses displaying zero comprehension of anarchist concepts such as "no future." If there were only a free website like a library with anarchist content about such concepts..
Be less bad at your troll lyfe, yeah?

Yes Future (not verified) Thu, 11/07/2024 - 08:21

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Ok, busy Anews troll... please kindly provide us with your sources on theories supporting the claim that "anarchy = no future" by default. Thanks!

anon (not verified) Wed, 11/06/2024 - 11:17

"Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell. "

why "now"?

we weren't already?

lumpy (not verified) Thu, 11/07/2024 - 09:29

In reply to by anon (not verified)

it's just a cute line from a movie.

but watching the huge pieces of the internet that are only just getting the memo about their beloved "democracy" is ... amusing and tedious and all the usual things.

minona (not verified) Fri, 11/08/2024 - 20:00

Spiritual ancestors and how they consider me...

- Emma Goldman: hopes for better things from me.
- Tristan Tzara: I'm more disappointed in him than he is in me.
- Nechayev: long since disowned me. "He was never my son."
- Mary Sweeny: very pleased that I smashed that window that one time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sweeny

thanks for playing...

anon (not verified) Sat, 11/09/2024 - 08:33

In reply to by minona (not verified)

my great aunt doesn't really agree with me but values my attempts and pats me on the head

emma goldman thinks i'm not in public enough

voltairine and i have been putting off long talks about the assumptions we forget to question, which will probably go well but might be exhausting.

novatore keeps trying to hand me a gun, or a pen. i can't tell which.

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