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subrosa wrote

It’s all naturally a bit maddening—to such an extent that we might be inclined to say, with René Furth, that “Anarchism is a permanent obstacle for the anarchist.” Or we might look at our shared history with a more jaundiced eye and suspect that anarchists are a permanent obstacle for anarchy. One alternative that I have been pursuing—across most of my various projects—has been to suggest that our various historical and traditional narratives regarding anarchism perhaps require, as a supplement, a specific account of the anarchy of our anarchisms, if we are either to make the most of them or move on to other methods of articulating anarchist ideas.

There's something in there I frequently struggle with. I would like to see a rich, diverse, anarchic anarchist 'movement' - and yet I'm out here being a pain in the ass, sticking to my positions as if trying to disagree with everyone. As if actively trying to push away everyone only to torture myself with the pushback I get, for a sort of trial-and-error approach. And of course, complaining about how frustrating anarchists can be, fully aware that I'm no exception.

There's something to the notion of 'encounter' and 'synthesis' that keeps me occupied: I tell myself that anarchists would do well to become much more comfortable with differences and disagreements, with unsolved problems, and with consciously seeking them out to better understand them. As if the 'common ground' is to be found there, in that tension rather than in consensus and sameness (that is probably more important in politics). And maybe all of that relates to "the antinomy does not resolve itself", an intriguing thought that pops up in my mind every now and then.

Was a fun ride (so far). Challenging, but that's what I signed up for. I also wanna mention that the meta-commentary (notes, conclusions) made the whole thing feel more 'alive', it's part of what kept me interested.

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humanispherian OP wrote

A desire to have better fights has really been the thing that has connected me to the anarchists I considered allies or accomplices. And "tension" is a good word, charged as it is in various ways, for what might be inescapably at the core of anarchism (with or without some reference to Bonanno's talk.)

I've ended up doing a bit of follow-up already in a Twitter thread, spurred by some annoying capitalist misreadings of anarchist history.

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