Microdose - Anarchism (Exclusive)
Added 2021-04-08 01:18:11 +0000 UTCIn response to your suggestions last month, Pills joins the political theory smash bros to discuss Robert Paul Wolff's "In Defense of Anarchism."
Find the article discussed free here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/robert-paul-wolff-in-defense-of-anarchism
Comments
I knew this was easily going to be the worst episode the Pod would ever have, considering both political theorists are libs who can't get beyond their own personal beliefs to give anarchism the analysis it deserves. I feel that this would have been so much better if you brought on a guest anarchist academic to defend the political position properly, a person like David Graeber, or (considering he's dead) like Zoe Baker on yt, who's currently doing a PhD on anarchist history. It would also have been so much better if actual anarchist theory was talked about, like Proudhon, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Malatesta, Alfredo Bonanno, etc etc along with actual anarchist history like revolutionary Catalonia, Makhno's territories in Ukraine, Rojava, Marinaleda, etc etc. The problem with the state is that, at best, it in itself preserves class society, which is why communism is partly defined by being stateless, even by Marx's own account. How can you achieve equality with an entity that is defined by dividing society into (a few) rulers and ruled? We'd only 'tear each other apart' if we lived in a state of scarcity, which is not the case under the modern state of technology. Also that bar analogy is terrible, because a lot of political decisions have a lot more dire consequences than going to a bar you don't like as much, with the tyranny of the majority being a major problem in pretty much every democracy that has ever existed. That was incredibly cringe. I feel that the general ignorance on anarchism in this discussion is being obfuscated by hyperabstraction. Even within anarchism there are significant differences, like the social (eg. syndicalist) vs individualist (eg. egoist) anarchist strains (who btw are critical of 'all day meetings' as well), and this didn't get touched on. Hell, more time was spent on right wing libertarian opinions like Nozick's on the state, than actual libertarian socialist ones. Right wing 'libertarianism' and 'anarcho capitalism' (a total contradiction in terms) are totally ripped off the real OG libertarian socialists, and Matt's take that the closest thing to an anarchist society is a right wing libertarian just shows, at best, an extremely limited imagination. This is very basic and I expected this to be a given with academics who specialise in political philosophy tbh. I mean, even the China argument is ludicrous. Like, most Americans believe in American essentialism, believe that they're free, that they're the greatest country in the world etc, etc, but even just a cursory look at the state of things shows that that obviously isn't the case, and arguably has never been the case. Just because state propaganda is incredibly powerful in certain states and the majority of the population buys into it, doesn't mean that you should take people's opinions seriously, just assuming that they're well-informed opinions developed through critical thinking. Suggested reading: The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin Mutual Aid by Peter Kropotkin Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism by Alexander Berkman Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman Post-Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin Armed Joy by Alfredo Bonanno Post Anarchism by Saul Newman The Abolition of Work by Bob Black
anacidcommie
2021-06-29 12:09:07 +0000 UTCRecent Postcolonial / Decolonial turns in anarchist theory and anarchist historical cannon are worth checking out. Evren Türkeli dissertation is particularly interesting in that aspect. Laura Galiàn's work on "non-self referential" anarchist experiences is worth checking too. Maia Ramnath is interesting as well with a focus on India. https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/thesis/What_is_anarchism_A_reflection_on_the_canon_and_the_constructive_potential_of_its_destruction/9467060 I'm terms of more practical oriented applications, there are a number of recent works that touch on that. There was a recent conference on anarchist theory on relation to the modern state,many participants put out some good work on the topic https://www.ph-freiburg.de/en/soziologie/veranstaltungen/conference-the-crisis-of-nation-states (some of the talks are on YouTube)
D-K
2021-04-10 11:11:08 +0000 UTC
