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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote (edited )

Almost ten years into anarchism, I've been thinking about this more and more as my life projects become less abstract desires and more calculated and developed over multiple levels.

Balancing the need for an income, with maintaining and building resources and networks, with advancing useful skills and substantive projects, and the needs and desires of those I am in affinity with and those few loved ones I have despite the lack of affinity. In a world overcome with absolute suffering and need at incomprehensible depths. This all among my real weaknesses, failures, and limitations.

I am currently relatively hopeful (lower case 'h') for the small contributions my life will make in a decentralised mostly-local but always global set of interrelated projects that all exist to build anarchy as much as possible, always, everything all at once. My greatest joys are in the small anarchic successes built with those I am in affinity with.

I do find it exhausting but fulfilling, and flip between days of intense activity and intensive rest in patches through the week.

My half-baked guess for the next seriously-debilitating set of ecological collapse at the moment is around 20 years where I live, though the cracks grow daily as we see here in regular posts.
It is not easy knowing there is not much more I can do, and I feel my primary opponent in the endless calculated revolt against authority is Time.

I've posted a lot less on raddle this year as my local work and local knowledge-building and knowledge production has taken precedence and I don't think that the content of my engagements are well suited to this place, which despite our attempts to avoid US-centrism, hasn't managed to escape that (yes, in part because the US is the heart of empire). Of course the other and stronger reason is security culture on my part. I do miss the days when raddlers didn't know as much about me.

I am curious though, how people are relating to their own anarchy lived today and at the scale of their lifetimes.

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asterism wrote

As opposed to my professional life of anarchy?

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote

I'm reading this as a joke, but in case it isn't, I just put the word 'personal' in there for emphasis.

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asterism wrote

Sort of a half joke. The emphasis confused me but I also was trying to be funny about it.

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tuesday wrote

you could be a breadtuber making stacks with your patreon.

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asterism wrote

I was thinking about all that rioting Soros paid me to do.

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tuesday wrote

I never got my soros checks. I am hoping they credit me for those lost wages when I file my anarcho-taxes for the fiscal year, but who knows.

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moonlune wrote (edited )

I've recently joined an anarchist bookclub irl, which is pretty neat. For now we hang out and summarize our most recent readings to each other but it has potential in turning into something more.

As for personal projects, my translation of desert is nearly complete, I only have the annotations left. I haven't gotten anyone to proof-read it yet thought lol. When I'm done with the annotation and proofreading I'll try seeding it in french anarchist spaces, hopefully the french anarchist library :)

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote

I love reading groups! I'm hoping for the next ones I manage to start to also build in knowledge-production, so we're not just reading together and thinking together but producing texts as relates to those texts and the experiences of our specific context.

That's exciting about the translation work also. I'm a little surprised that Desert hasn't been translated into French already.

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moonlune wrote (edited )

I'm a little surprised that Desert hasn't been translated into French already.

Me too, but now that I'm done, I kinda hope I won't find a different translation in the wild lol

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kin wrote

Bad I guess, not much besides slacking at work and help managing a squat. My FoodNotBombs chapter is imploding as the attendance of volunteers are dimming, so I will probably dropout and instead will focus on my other personal projects.

My focus was always prefiguration (and maybe my understanding was close to relationship anarchy and other concepts I draw from Foucault biopolitics, I need to deepen on D&G and other thinkers tho), so I try to bring it to my daily life. It's hard, I became cynical and submissive to the inefable doom that is life. And I tie my philosophical journey with my mystical on, as I understand both as the same part of my psique, not going well either.

The good part is that I may have the best conditions (job stability/money and a prospect of good emotional life) in years to work on these projects..

I naturally will become more individualist I think, yo counterbalance my own personality..

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote

help managing a squat

I think facilitating anarchic space-making is probably the coolest stuff we can do, so I wouldn't say it's not much.
I'm including all kinds of spaces here, including online, since it is its own terrain.

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zoom_zip wrote

i feel like i had a weird path and got lost along the way

i feel like as kids we are born anarchist. like, it’s the default. and as we grow up and our parents enforce behaviours on us and manipulate and shape us into a form that they want us to be, and as we are sent off to school and have compliance enforced on us and are shaped for the workforce—slowly it is beaten out of us. they no doubt use some metaphor about “shaping clay” to describe this, but there’s an anarchy that we are born with and is taken from us is the point i’m trying to make.

in my later teen years, maybe up to my early 20s, i considered myself an anarchist. not because i had done any anarchist reading or knew any anarchist history, but because i was in a punk band and i just wanted to smoke weed and do what i want without the overarching eyes of authority bearing down on me. very early and primitive anti-police and anti-government beliefs that i don’t think require any knowledge other than that they are just kind of my default behaviours.

it was when i joined the “workforce” that i think i lost a lot of that rebellion. i got a job. i went to work. i hated my life. i fell into a deep depression. nobody would help me. i was medicated. i sat in rooms with therapists. work destroyed my life. it all stemmed from feeling trapped in the prison of work and crushed under the pressure of surviving in the capitalist hellscape.

eventually i quit that job and found a “better” job in a more social setting, but i was far from being an anarchist at that point in my life. i don’t know what i was. just a mess of a human being. i felt really lost and alone and unrepresented. just drifting.

all my beliefs were rooted in anti-work, anti-authority, anti-capitalism, and a lot of anti-civ, but i didn’t have any words to put to that. like, i didn’t have the label of anarchy to put to it.

or actually, i did have a label; it was the label of “oppositional defiance disorder” which is a diagnosis someone tried to give me, telling me that all my anger against authority is just childish mental illness or something.

it was around this time i had decided to make the switch from vegetarianism to veganism, and i think all the reasons i decided to make that change are the same reasons i am an anarchist. so i was having long discussions with people about why i was switching to veganism and what i was essentially describing was also my anarchy.

except at the time i was really confused by all the labelling. my friends at the time kept calling me a “communist” even though that made me really uncomfortable. i guess what they meant was “anything remotely left is equal to communism”, and i tried doing some reading on communism and the whole thing made me feel really gross, with all the idolisation of state leaders and the uniforms and aesthetics and shilling for china and gulags and shit. i bounced the fuck out of that shit asap.

then i started stumbling into ancom/left unity spaces in reddit and discord and i thought they might be interesting places, and i also felt like anarcho-communism was a pretty close descriptor to my own beliefs. close enough that i was like “fine, i guess i’m an ancom.”

except i never really liked any of those people, and i didn’t really agree with most of them. and all the communism stuff didn’t fit well with me. i just had to come to the realisation that this identity crisis i was having was something i had to figure out on my own without labels.

that was probably when i found raddle. i think my first few posts here would probably show i was pretty confused back then. it was probably only a few years ago too. i knew what i believed. i believed in my own anarchy, and i always had because i think it’s the default that we are born with and it’s just a case of if we can cling onto it or if it gets beaten out of us along the way; and if it does, can we find it again. the last few years have been a process of me finding it again, and going through some weird bumps, and very quickly coming to think of my anarchy as something i do entirely alone. i’ve stopped worrying about the identity crisis of needing a label or a community to be a part of (though some communities like here and nihilist are still important to me) and i am just focusing on living my life in harmony with my anarchist beliefs. it is a constant struggle, like wading into the ocean and every two steps a great wave comes and knocks you back to shore. the waves are still knocking me back, they probably always will, but i’m still wading against them. only now i carry a surfboard or something.

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote

Sounds like you're doing a lot of growing, which is very cool. I like the surfboard image, I think a lot of us are working to build toolboxes / quivers for the work we want to do and it's a useful way to think about things.

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ChaosAnarchy wrote (edited )

one to two years into anarchy, soon I begin an apprenticeship in IT which is kind of ironic. And it's low pay as well due to the state financing it. Oh and shitty work/sleep times.

To do list:

  • Save up computer, if yes come up with concepts and ideas to create easy-to-digest theory to YouTube or/and criticizing local YouTubers in mass

  • Learn more medical and primitive skills

  • Figure out how to connect with the community as a loner

  • idk maybe printing out some 1-page pages for short theory and links to more theory and put it in school

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote (edited )

Despite programming-thinking being generally un-anarchic at fundamental levels, at least the rudimentary programming I've seen (I don't know how much differentials are used in programming, but I imagine an anarchic programming set to be differentials built on differentials upon differentials, and I don't even fully know what that means in that context), I'm increasingly thinking it worthwhile to learn towards assisting a range of projects. From helping groups build websites for their spaces, to building interactive tracking maps of assassinations to assist with strategy, to knowledge-production, uses abound just off the top of my head. I'm interested to explore whether I can learn these things to assist others who will never have the opportunity otherwise.

Seems like a good to-do list!

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kore wrote (edited )

Despite programming-thinking being generally un-anarchic at fundamental levels

what do you mean by this? and what is a "differential" in this case?

regarding knowledge production, one very interesting website is https://wiki.c2.com its very much oriented towards computers and the way people use them but there is some self reflection that is interesting https://wiki.c2.com/?WhyWikiWorks https://wiki.c2.com/?WikiIsNotWikipedia

a really cool experiment that i think is quite anarchic in its approach

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote (edited )

Despite programming-thinking being generally un-anarchic at fundamental levels

what do you mean by this?

What are the relevant anarchic fundamentals I’m talking about?

There’s a kind of anarchic philosophy that some of us here play with, general called philosophy of difference, that begins with one major different assumption/approach to the far more common kind of philosophy (especially Western philosophy), philosophy of sameness.

This will sound weird and very obscure to most people (so good luck I guess), but what it is is a philosophy that metaphysically considers difference primary and sameness secondary. Instead of the other way around.

Philosophy of sameness: When you break the handle off of this mug, it is still the same mug, minus the handle. [They are the same, and the difference is understood as a subtraction/negation.]
Philosophy of difference: the coming into being of two separate pieces, which we as secondary process of differentiation we identify in relation to itself as ‘broken mug’. [everything is difference differing in relation to itself in an endless relational process of becoming, the thing that we have apprehended as a mug mugging is now two pieces continuing their journey of becoming. Difference is not a subtraction/negation but an addition/positive]

Doing so, it also frames things in terms of becoming rather than being, making it inherently relational, inherently a thinking-in-movement.

It turns out that this minor change in approach completely upends our whole system of thought: Philosophy of sameness is a kind of state-thinking, and philosophy of difference is the grounds for the creation of a truly unprescribed world.

How does this relate to programming?

Programming is generally a perfect example of philosophy of sameness. Variables are produced with distinct values and manipulated by very straightforward and clear processes. A value might be ’12’ or ‘one thousand’ or ‘apple’, but the value is what it is, it is not becoming.

I haven’t gotten to this part yet, but philosophy of difference makes room for creation to enter the world. Programming does not. There are inputs, processes, and outputs, determined by the pipeline-like logic of the code. The values (here understood in the general sense and also in and ethical sense) are fundamentally limited by the structure of the program. It is in this sense literally (and politically) conservative - nothing can come from outside to disrupt the system and produce something that the system does not allow. As radicals though we want to create something unprecedented and unprescribed by this world, and in this sense, a simple input-process-output system will not do it.

Hope that makes some sense.

and what is a "differential" in this case?

Like I said, I don’t fully know what this means in this context, but here we go. I’m gonna guess you have a basic sense of what differentials are in math.
Unlike variables with set values, pre-differentiated differentials can be understood in terms of becoming. They require different sets of information to be in relation to, in order to differentiate and become a stable self-same entity. But if those sets of information required are themselves differentials, we can have a system of differentials all differing in relation to each other, a system of pure difference differing.

Hope that was alright!

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote (edited )

Here’s a clearer political example than using a mug.

Philosophy of sameness grounds ideas like what it means to be a full person, but people are usually wrong about that and use their ideas of personhood to make dehumanising arguments.

In philosophy of sameness assumptions are hidden in the idea of personhood that circularly reinforce the current order.

Hidden assumptions about personhood usually imply the global north white male cishetero able-bodied subject, and people without those elements to be less than human. Here you see that sameness with a subtraction happening.

So that kind of thinking becomes the ground for colonisers and state-thinkers to understand ‘others’ as lacking in full personhood, which they use as a justification for their colonising processes.

Hopefully that’s an additional explainer to help out, u/kore.

If anybody is interested, I recently wrote up a short comment what personhood might look like from a philosophy of difference perspective, thinking of all relation in relation to everything else always.

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ukuleleclass wrote

this was really interesting to read thanks for sharing ! i always cringe at the very common “idea” that we live in, or can simulate reality but am not always good at describing why. i think your way of talking about difference as primary and sameness as secondary is a very real or “natural” process. i just read an essay called Darwin and Feminism that kind of outlines a more radical interpretation of evolutionary theory that is based on difference and repetition rather than a fixed or teleological entity.

i would be curious to know what things you’ve read that’s similar to what you’re writing about with philosophies of difference. i’m working my way to Deleuze’s Dofference and Repition but would love to read lots of different interpretations of difference ;)

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote

You are welcome.
So mainly the interesting anarchists doing this kind of play where I am are using Deleuze even in some cases they aren’t referencing him in order to develop their own anticolonial theories as separate from the white canon. Working through Deleuze is definitely a good start point, though Difference and Repetition (my favourite book of his in many ways) is probably also the toughest.

Feminist theorists like Saidiya Hartman and Sara Ahmed and anticolonial theorists Glissant and Mbembe are seamlessly bringing Deleuzian thinking into their work. In my own spaces you might find texts like this one which will speak directly to what I am thinking with.

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ukuleleclass wrote

oooo ty ! i actually printed out and bound a physical copy of that text you linked ! i’m very adhd so always get distracted with different things to read haha thanks for all the suggestions <3

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Majrelende wrote

I have never heard of sameness and difference before, but now I know a good word for the kind of thinking that infuriates me to no end!-- and is a simple way of describing it.

Fukuoka wrote of "relativity" which I suppose might be something like sameness-- that is, treating things relatively, often relatively to human desire and modern culture-- that they believe in strong and weak, harmful and beneficial, life and death, past and future-- so on. But the absolute way of seeing, is to see each thing as perfect, and that we might fix the damage inflicted that brings things away from nature, so that they can all begin to find their proper (and entirely unknowable) ways. It is a different approach though.

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kore wrote

thank you for such a thoughtful response

I've actually never heard of the terms philosophy of sameness or philosophy of difference but i think I am familiar with the concept from studying buddhism and daoism.

I see what you're getting at with the argument about programming. But I think it doesn't take into account the defining aspect of computers: they are reprogrammable, and they also operate in the dimension of time. One can change the inputs, processes, and outputs, and programs which change the inputs, processes, and outputs of other programs can also be constructed. In this sense, long running, very flexible programs are always in a process of becoming. Smalltalk systems are perhaps a good real world example of this.

You also may be interested in something like amorphous computing, a quote from the homepage:

How do we obtain coherent behavior from the cooperation of large numbers of unreliable parts that are interconnected in unknown, irregular, and time-varying ways?

notice especially the use of the word "coherent" rather than something like "fixed" or "repeatable"

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ChaosAnarchy wrote

haha exactly I'm only not reluctantly to it mostly due to it being useful for the future when the state increases surveillance and well apparently you can be very flexible and earn lots of money. Gotta be useful for the summer.

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Majrelende wrote

Self-sufficiency is starting to fall into place better, because I am starting to intuitively understand the ecology of the landscape and make decisions about harvesting/not-harvesting that increase diversity and abundance, and the cycles of life and death, and which plants and plant varieties are best suited to the garden and landscape. (Unsurprisingly, I find that ancient native varieties, and naturalised wild plants and cultivated relatives, are the most vital.) It is a demanding process, and does not seem to show any signs of becoming less so.

I am beginning to involve myself in village projects like seed sharing, where I hope to be able to contribute, and to gain better connections and create resilience through the ecological difficulties in the coming years. I feel that feeding (and clothing) ourselves, directly, is the easiest direction for me, but I also realise that it is all extremely fragile without the anarchy of the mind.

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_caspar_ wrote

although Ive enjoyed online study groups for the past couple years, I feel spending much more time offline is needed. along with internet fatigue, this is also due to relocating and wanting a deeper engagement with the place Im in, and to meet folks face to face.

with help, strategy, and luck, I havent had to work a job or pay rent for awhile. its going to catch up with me at some point, but for now and the near future Im enjoying taking it easy, learning new methods for making and mending, and taking steps to live rent-free as long as possible. hoping to get back to writing more soon, and actually getting projects off the ground instead of just dreaming and talking about it.

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote

Posting this in part because I think u/ziq gave a version of an answer to this earlier in a recent post and I'd been thinking about it.

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kano wrote (edited )

It's going well for me, I live in an anarchist housing project, we have bought a cheap abandoned house in the countryside and are currently renovating the place to provide dirt cheap housing and a social centre. We are trying to a join a housing syndicate in our country who will split ownership with us 50 50 to prevent speculation on the house. I will update later with more Infos, but we have been there for a year and a half and have nearly finished the renovation of the top floor, which should be private living space. Then we will do the ground floor which will be the public area of the house.

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Tequila_Wolf OP wrote

bought a cheap abandoned house in the countryside and are currently renovating the place to provide dirt cheap housing and a social centre.

That sounds exciting, I'd be interested to hear more as things develop.

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kano wrote

It's super interesting and fun to live there. I've learned so much practical stuff since I've come there. It's also helped me a lot because I'm a foreigner in the country and living with a bunch of locals is really helping me to learn the language. The part of the country we are in is full of fascists and we want to provide an alternative space for the youth who live here so they can get exposed to radical politics which aren't fascist because around here it's really easy to just grow up and only be around and enter far right circles.

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RatifyGuy1776 wrote (edited )

Everyone thinks I'm an idiot, especially other anarchists.

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