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celebratedrecluse wrote

Reply to comment by !deleted27649 in Reoccupy Wall Street! by Esperaux

I think it's not really the space that's important but what people do in it

Hm. That is an interesting point. However, if these things are packaged into liminal experiences which are contained strategically by the state, and which essentially produce a subculture which can then be commodified by the state and its para-state institutions (markets, online platforms, etc), then this could indeed be a reification of state stability and power, in a roundabout way.

The hinge of this, in my eyes, is what ways does this process actually build toward anarchist desires? In what ways does it contest state power? Because for me, anarchist action and activity is about contesting the state, and reducing its ability to destroy me/deprive all of the sustenance for life or any alternative to itself. To me, anarchy is not really about creating a cool group of people for me to hang out and have fun with, not directly. So, for me, having spent multiple decades in various countries as an anarchist and being through the run around with it all, I kind of am looking for something more than the building of this para-culture or sub-culture in and of itself. I'm a bit wary/suspicious of people and groups, and especially institutions, which seem to me to mainly build toward the idea of anarchist culture/mass collectivity, without a clear plan of how this actually accomplishes stuff which is worth the risk or effort (depending on whether you're talking about organizing a concert in a squat, or throwing shit at the police). And, that's common as fuck to see this sort of lack of clarity in action, in my opinion, whether you're in the more individualist anarchist spaces, or the more predominant communist ones, etc. It's just a shared issue in a lot of anarchist, and in general a lot of leftist, space.

The issue is of course, related to our society, which is a master at commodifiying not just everything in our daily lives, but indeed the very ways we revolt from it. We are a syringe, attempting to pierce an amoeba-- it just warps around our blade.

This is a difficult thing to navigate though, publicly declare one thing while aiming to achieve another.

It does seem a bit vanguardist, at least vaguely reminiscent of the ML entryist practices, but in a uniquely anarchist/decentralized/distributed way. It's peculiar, I think you are right to point that out.

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