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ruin wrote

I’m often asked this by family and acquaintances. Being an unapologetic anarcho-pessimist-nihilist-egoist-buddhist-whateverist seems to be incongruous with being a reasonably happy partner and father of four in the estimation of most folks. Personally I don’t see the contradiction.

Anarchism in the broadest sense is a rejection of authority in both a physical (social/political) and theoretical(personal/ideological) . If you take it beyond the boring (to me at least) political implications and carry the analysis towards a nihilistic and antisocial rejection and critique of the thinking and values that created and sustain the institutions that anarchism opposes you can clear the slate. Start living and thinking for yourself.

The sooner you have a realization that contextualizing yourself in some greater social, historical, or moral sense is an utter fucking waste of time, the sooner you can start enjoying life in whatever way you choose.

The negativity isn’t a result of your engagement with anarchist analysis, but rather your trouble with reconciling it with your current conception of your position in the world itself. Let your expectations and worries of the future go (it’s an illusion anyway) and the present can be joyful.

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grey_jedi OP wrote

Thank you for your analysis!

I think you're dead-on with my trouble of reconciling anarchist analysis with my own conception of my position in the world.

Do you know of any media (books, blogs, podcasts, etc) that covers letting go of expectations or anxiety of the future, whether it's from an anarchist perspective or not?

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ruin wrote

Of course. I feel like some of my most lasting understandings regarding anarchism are a result of looking outside of the milieu.

Taosim and buddhism are a great starting point. Eastern thought has much more in common with nihilism than the monotheistic world view that pervades western politics.

For Taoism, I’d start with anything by Hakuin and the Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu as good primers.

For Tibetan Buddhism I’d start by checking out Kadampa. New Kadampa is a tradition specifically geared for a western audience and while some people might turn up there noses at it for its obvious cultural pandering, there are great teachings and lots of friendly people at the temples. They’re everywhere. You just have to set aside the Unitarian church vibes, but I’ve learned a lot about meditation at a local NKT temple and there’s usually good vegetarian food (they’re also atheist friendly).

As an aside, meditation has been super helpful, in general for me.

Nietzsche is worth engaging with if you haven’t already. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a good jumping off point.

Highly recommend Stirner’s The Unique and Its Property as well. So often name dropped but not widely read.

Getting more anarchist, I really enjoy flipping through Willful Disobedience by Wolfi Landstreicher even though I’ve read it plenty. It’s positive in its destructiveness and always gets me motivated, if that makes sense?

Definitely check out the Immediatism podcast for good anarchist texts touching on good topics related what we’re discussing. Cory also has another podcast called Pointing Texts that I would be remiss not to mention that’s more Taoist and might be helpful.

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