Submitted by An_Old_Big_Tree in CritiqueThis (edited )

It’s common to hear people say that Marxists and anarchists have the same end goal; full communism, the stateless, moneyless society. Except, they say, the difference is in how they propose we get there!

But that difference itself, the how we get there, is anarchism. Anarchism, with its task of creating the new world in the shell of the old, creating new sets of sociopolitical logics outside of authoritarian ones, has effectively nothing to do with destinations.

Anarchism is a lived ethic in the here and now, one that seeks always to unmake coercive relationships of all kinds, based on a calculated, situated praxis rooted in our needs and desires.

Anarchism has no destination except more anarchism. There is no such thing as “after the revolution” for anarchists, except in the vague sense that there might be a time when state-capitalism is fully dissolved from this world. But even then, anarchists would live their lives in opposition to authority and hierarchising tendencies everywhere. Our stagnancy would mean their rebirth, since anarchism is a kind of becoming, it is movement.

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An_Old_Big_Tree OP wrote

Similarly, prefiguration is not the process of acting like we would act "after the revolution" - that would mean acting as if classes, race, binary gender and all other forms of hierarchy did not exist. Which makes no sense, though it is useful sometimes as a heuristic for people.

Prefiguration is just the instantiation of anarchist values and logics in the here and now, fully attuned to the details of our very specific contexts.

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ziq wrote

You've been on a big prefiguration kick lately, which I like. It's always confused me how it's gotten a bad rep.

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d4rk wrote

Prefiguration was the brand of our collective and I totally agree with the entire argument but there is a nuance left under this idea that we must counter with the main text. Because

Anarchism has no destination except more anarchism. There is no such thing as “after the revolution” for anarchists, except in the vague sense that there might be a time when state-capitalism is fully dissolved from this world. But even then, anarchists would live their lives in opposition to authority and hierarchising tendencies everywhere. Our stagnancy would mean their rebirth, since anarchism is a kind of becoming, it is movement.

...alone is similar to ideas of Zero Acceleration which is not as bad as Neoreaction. However it is honestly quite based in a way when stripped of the inescapability component.

This is where Prefiguration can be used as the wire stripper to expose the copper, expose it to static electric arcs, Deleuzian lines of flight, and accelerates the becoming property something Capitalism can never achieve.

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celebratedrecluse wrote

all organizations, regardless of professed political goals, have an inherent self interest in perpetuating the context in which that organization can survive.

authoritarian communist orgs, and even anarchist orgs, are liable to slip into bourgeois sentimentality and cognition because of the material condition of their own futurity. If there is not a context in which a relationship can survive into the future, the relationship will incentivize participants to delay that future by reifying the present relationships of power, regardless of their symbolic politics.

this is the strongest argument that I can articulate for the importance of individualist and illegalist praxis and positionality, however don't think that's a silver bullet either.

The challenge for anarchists moving forward into the new decade will be how to instantiate rhizomatic conceptions of futurity that do not rely on the reification of 20th century modernism, and all the toxic elements of ourselves which are bound up with it.

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celebratedrecluse wrote

Well, this aged like wine I think.

The lack of a distinct and coherent anarchist reply to the logic of lockdown and quarantine, and the attempts at resurgence of neoliberalism and assertion of the political center, are warning signs for our travelers

The uprisings in many parts of the world, and looming debt crises adding fuel to a tinderbox of economic resenttiment, simultaneously present a welcoming party heralding in a new era of heightened conflict and shifting possibilities.

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ziq wrote

I can't really critique this since I wholeheartedly agree. I hope we can get this idea to gain traction so people stop buying into ML propaganda that sees them as only slightly different from anarchists.

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confusedarchist wrote

I would say the destination is more important than the method. Achieving the communist society is more important than the journey you take to reach the communist society. It's elitist / sectarian to say the exact path you take is more important than the act of getting there.

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nadir wrote (edited )

I would say the destination is more important than the method. Achieving the communist society is more important than the journey you take to reach the communist society.

So are you saying that not only do you agree with marxism, but you're fine with things like posadism too?

sectarian

What is wrong with anarchists disagreeing with something that goes against anarchism? How does keeping quite serve anarchists? And to what extent do we have to keep quite? Do we have to support Marxists? Liberals? Posadists? Fascists?

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confusedarchist wrote

I think beliving we need aliens to save society is a little strange but it's still a leftist ideology.

It's wrong because you're deciding for all of us what's "against anarchism" like people are even downvoting me for saying I don't want to exclude democratic socialists from anarchism even though they're libertarians.

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celebratedrecluse wrote

I don't want to exclude democratic socialists from anarchism even though they're libertarians.

Hold up

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cronal wrote (edited )

How to critique this? plz explain

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[deleted] wrote

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cronal wrote

Well the thread asks me to "critique this!", so I don't really know how to critique it, as it pretty much makes sense... Marxists are the enemy of anarchy. They don't even hide it.

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