File spoon-archives/postanarchism.archive/postanarchism_2003/postanarchism.0310, message 9


Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2003 09:47:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: bryan welton <inricewesurvive-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [postanarchism] Is there anyone on this list who isn't a current or  aspi..


i agree with the case you've made against academics
assuming prominence as representatives of anarchism.
but would say that this goes hand in hand with an
anarchist critique of bureaucratic leninism to
constitutional democracy, as normative social
organizations. i would think that all of us on the
list agree that nobody can represent the whole's
interest.

i'm aware and have experienced as well the immunity
some people feel they have as an "anarchist" or
"anarchist group" from being called out on
authoritarian behavior. unfortunately i can't offer
any sort of way out, except outsiders vocally and
actively keeping those individuals in check. 

bryan

--- Richard Singer <ricinger-AT-inch.com> wrote:
> bryan welton wrote:
> 
> >if you accept bonefeld's description of the
> asymmetrical relationship of 
> capital and labor, the former being dependent on the
> latter while labor is 
> both within and against capital, then this would
> describe the possibilities 
> of rupture in the (re)productive institution. this
> is where i attribute my 
> hope to the younger generation of aspiring academics
> involved in subculture 
> and diy organizing, in their ability to resist
> integration and challenge 
> authority beyond institutional relationships.<
> 
> How does this hope differ from the hope placed in
> the much higher number of 
> self-consciously radical students who entered
> academia 30 years ago?  Was 
> that hope so well placed?
> 
> >this is not exclusive to the young, but i assume
> that a person who shares 
> affinity with anarchism already finds themselves on
> the margin of politics 
> and culture, by default, in their antagonism to the 
> authoritarian/patriarchal/consumer/wage/etc.
> dynamic.<
> 
> Ideological affinity does not always translate into
> actual behavioral 
> patterns.  I've found a lot of "unofficial"
> authoritarianism within the 
> "anarchist" movement.  Everybody wants to be a
> revolutionary...but, how 
> deep is this antagonism in most of our comrades, and
> how much can most 
> people really escape the hierarchical and/or
> authoritarian tendencies and 
> expectations so deeply ingrained in our cultural
> upbringing?  I've found 
> that many anarchist groups manifest an even greater
> amount of 
> authoritarianism than reformist political action
> groups because power in 
> anarchist groups usually remains unacknowledged (or,
> maybe the more 
> appropriate term would be "denied") and therefore
> less easily checked; 
> because a lot of people with strong ideologies can
> form rigid notions and 
> be susceptible to knee-jerk reactions (rather than
> thinking through and 
> interrogating situations with the depth and
> skepticism required for real 
> radical-democratic process); and, maybe, because a
> lot of people jump at 
> the chance to be a big fish in a little pond...while
> others look for bigger 
> fish to follow and admire.  I'd like to feel
> differently, but I feel the 
> way I do as a result of my observations and
> experiences.
> 
> 
> Richard
> 
> (Collective Book on Collective Process: 
>  http://www.geocities.com/collectivebook)
> 
> 


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