Submitted by desolatesolarity in Anarchism

Hello,

I've been invited to join a reading club and we're looking for what I describe in the title. Any recommendations would be great to have. Ideally, they will be in english, or available in so form via a translation to english, as that is our main common language between the current participants.

Thanks, desolatesolarity

PS lost the password to my old account, desolarity no longer is able to be used and can be recycled for another user.

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subrosa wrote

Maybe, additionally: I like CrimethInc.'s Say You Want an Insurrection, which can be read as a complemantary critique of insurrectionary anarchism. It pushed me towards a "anarchism(s) as a toolbox" kind of approach.

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ruin wrote

Nothing new here, but I’ll pile on with those recommending Bonanno and would say Armed Joy is the ideal entry point.

Bonanno tends to be a bit all over the map in terms of his influences and interpretations, but his idiosyncratic approach also keeps him out of the weeds of ideological technicalities that can suck the joy out of anarchist texts.

I’d also second IC and Tiqqun in general, but only for folks that have some background and a fair understanding of their personal politics. I still enjoy their works all these years later, but I don’t think the world needs more communizing autonomist death cultists.

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celebratedrecluse wrote

To Our Friends by Invisible Committee, might be a good mid-level text for later on.

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MHC wrote

What do vampires do with fresh blood? Beware the undead! Get the hell out while there's blood in your veins.

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desolatesolarity OP wrote

que?

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MHC wrote

The club promotion will have lofty goals. Which the leadership ignore. Their written claim that they welcome newcomers, will turn out in practice to be "Shut up, sit still and do as you're told."! After a while, you'll realise why there are so few members.

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desolatesolarity OP wrote

...what?

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MHC wrote

In politics, things are not what they seem. People lie, in some settings compulsively. Check statements, and especially claims, for validity. Play safe.

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desolatesolarity OP wrote

Look it's just me and some friends trying to invite some casual reading with like minded people, i wouldn't even really say it's a club self-consciously, although with how we ain't big now it is de facto.

Personally, I would never do real shit with people I talk shit with. Vice versa.

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MHC wrote

Differently minded folk would better stimulate discussion. If two people are in complete agreement--one of them is redundant!

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desolatesolarity OP wrote

Sure, but that's why we're inviting people publicly. we're just not going to do a bunch of illegal shit with people we don't know

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MHC wrote

Laws are easy to enact but difficult to repeal. So statutes are way out of date from society's expectations.

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dennisfrancisblewett wrote (edited )

I recommend no texts. I just read through "illegalism," and it appears to be an ignorant philosophy.

First off, one cannot ever commit a crime. All crimes are ALLEGED. No person ever fulfills the elements of a crime. And if you think you have, then you've been brainwashed. Philosophies, such as deconstructionism, show that you linguistically can't even statutorily manage to commit a crime. Deconstructionism argues that you cannot make sense of the meaning of words. You thinking that you have made sense of words would be a faulty generalization and perhaps best written off as an epiphenomenon.

If you can't make sense of what words in a criminal statute mean, then nor should an accuser.

As an anarchist, I've taken to heart a saying by Abraham Lincoln that I will paraphrase, "It is never reasonable to break the law."

From years of reflection, that means to be prepared to deny that you have committed a crime in the situation some accuser wants to prosecute you.

Fact is, though, no one ever breaks the law. Proving innocence may be difficult in court, though, especially with prosecution making the false claim that somehow you've fulfilled elements that linguistically no one but an absolute authority should be able to make sense of.

  • Dennis Francis Blewett
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subrosa wrote

Does that change anything about illegalism as a practice? Does that change anything about insurrectionary anarchist theory?

As long as there is legal order, there is crime. It is as much a fiction as it is a reality.

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dennisfrancisblewett wrote (edited )

Yes, for illegalism. They are ignorant if they think they have done something illegal. Even with deconstructionist thought, one could argue it isn't worthwhile to read an insurrectionary text. I have increasingly come to believe one of the most anarchic things you can do is do nothing.

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subrosa wrote

They are also ignorant if they think they have not done something illegal.

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celebratedrecluse wrote

I have increasingly come to believe one of the most anarchic things you can do is do nothing.

No, that's just doing nothing.

You can't use an adjective to accurately define or describe nothingness. It's literally impossible, and this is just the fetishization of inaction and passivity, a hallmark of liberalism.

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