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subrosa wrote (edited )

I'll save it for later cause it's just a bit too demanding for a post-midnight reading, but I have a feeling this should be a useful clarification. In at least some contexts. If nothing else, I can tell the author is careful with the words and concepts pulled in.

My first year of answering questions on r/anarchy101 (as a way of figuring shit out for myself), half the time I relied on exploiting the ambiguity in "authorize."

Proudhon probably wasn't all that consistently negative with "authority" either, there's the occasional clarification like:

I wrote in 1840 that profession of political faith, as remarkable for its brevity as its energy: I am an anarchist. I posited with that word the negation, or rather the insufficiency of the principle of authority…

and in other places, authority initiates and affirms, while liberty critiques, reflects and concludes. The two need and complete each other, at least in the abstract. Which complicates the whole "against authority" thing we like to do, at least a little. Probably not unlike the "against power" position.

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[deleted] wrote (edited )

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subrosa wrote

I think the parent-child and teacher-student dynamics can be egalitarian despite differences in power and authority (as Bertolo seems to use the terms). The potential of becoming egalitarian sorta implies a "not fully human" dynamic that I would wanna avoid, where the justification for domination, rule, archy, (and ideas of what constitutes power and authority) is naturalized, made necessary.

Chomskyist justified hierarchy territory, potentially. Which has me conclude that the move to domination doesn't necessarily untie the knot, but rather presents new challenges in translating common frameworks and analyses — from anti-governmentalism, anti-absolutism, anti-authoritarianism, etc.,etc. — to an opposition to domination. With similar strengths and weaknesses.

Aight, I'll finish reading the text now. Maybe things will clear up a bit more.

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