From: "commie00" <commie00-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: AUT: fun ... Re: Re: Re: IMHO, You Both Are Wrong (Chris & N&L)
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 02:02:52 -0400


on the topic of fun, i just wanted to talk a little about what we just did
in west virginny.

starting yesterday at noon until today at 3.30 we staged a 27 hour "vigil"
in front of the student union at the local university. and while, in many
respects, it was fairly typical, the best part about it was getting to hang
out with and get to know the people i work with. at no point did anyone say
we should be more serious, in fact, the whole time, we were goofing off,
eating and generally curousing.

this had an incredibly positive effect on the people who came around to
discuss issues and all...with everyone hanging out, anyone who had planned
on being mean were quickly taken in, given some vegan pesto with bread and
had a great time talking and goofing off with us. even the far-right wing
(tho anti-racist) minister was laughing his arse off and being silly (as
well as having a fruitful and interesting discussion with us).

and while people may wish to insult this, and say its not serious political
work, i promise you that the people who came by yesterday and today who were
for the war left with a lot of food for thought that they might never had
been open to if we'd not been fun.

another positive aspect was that all the supporters who came by were not
only relieved to find that they were not alone, but were also drawn into
joyfully celebrating their dissent.

the model we used for all of this might be understood as a "temporary
autonomous zone", esp since it operated not only joyfully but consensually
and with no sense of ownership (everything was shared). but there was no
conscious effort to make it this, which is maybe why it was so successful.

these kind of actions build off of other things we do, such as: eating
together occasionally, just hanging out, not taking organizing meetings too
seriously, etc.

so, in a sense, i think i'm disagreeing with an aspect of what chris said:
tho it is easy for groups to become insular, they don't have to be. part of
the reason we were able to pull a lot of this off with such success was due
to the affinity we all feel for one another and our conscious ability to
bring "outsiders" in to enjoy the space and time.

the problem, i think, arises when people see themselves as activists or
militants and start, perhaps unconsciously, being vanguardist. instead its
important to keep in mind that we're just people with ideas. and so is
everyone else.

might sound kinda silly or trite, but its just true. and until we can
realize this and put it into practice... well, you know...



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