Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 21:35:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Shawn P. Wilbur" <swilbur-AT-wcnet.org>
Subject: Re: [postanarchism] re: resist social cleansing


Andrew,

You are adopting a set of terms which define no particular
set of persons or practices. To say "the social" or the
"anti-social" alone, without substantial context, says
precisely *nothing.* The "pro-social" position is not *a*
position. Rather, it masks a variety of potentially
incompatible positions. It *is* the "fantasy frame" - and
we break through by refusing to accept the mask. In this
instance, not much more than a modicum of more careful
analysis shows that the anti-/social dichotomy does not
represent actual conditions and relationships. So we
turn to more specific engagements.

To return to the parallel case of "the Intifada," it
seems much more useful to deal with particular aims and
proposals, rather than cheer on a "side" which includes
partisans of both the destruction of Israel and of a
peaceful two-state solution.

By taking on the "anti-social" or "the intifada" in a
blanket sense, we wilfully *put on* blinders, when we
could be working to clarify particular issues and conflicts.

-shawn


On Wed, 15 Sep 2004, andrew robinson wrote:

> "As presented in the manifesto, the "anti-social"
> appears to be a sort of ill-defined or impossible
> object, so badly delimited that it's really impossible
> to be seriously "for" or "against" it. Attempting to
> "take sides" or call for "Victory!" to one side or
> another, just takes us away from actual conditions."
> (Shawn)
>
> And how are we going to get TO actual conditions,
> without breaking through the fantasy-frame of the
> distortion and misrepresentation of these conditions
> by the pro-social, in characterological instead of
> politico-social terms?
>
> And how is this breakthrough going to happen EXCEPT by
> means of a refusal of the blackmail, an embracing of
> the negative pole or at least of a hybrid space, and
> the utter refusal of the pole which constructs the
> fantasy-frame, the pole of the "pro-social"?
>
> There can be no seeing clearly until the blinkers are
> taken away.  The conditions for free association must
> be created before it can come into being.
>
>
>
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