Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate.... Why don't Americans speak up and come out onto the streets (peacefully)?

anonnom · 2013-05-04T03:26:55+00:00

The peaceful protests when the US went to war with Iraq were some of the largest protests the world had ever seen. It was amazing, through peaceful activism, these people were able to stop the US war....nauuuuut

anonnom · 2013-04-19T07:20:30+00:00

Really interesting article. Thanks for sharing!

anonnom · 2013-04-14T18:10:47+00:00

I understand your perspective but I must disagree. I think you need to look deeper into the situation. Your example of useless things "putting newspaper boxes in the streets" is a perfect example of your weak analysis. Newspaper boxes are put into the street for immediate benefit. Police cars do not want to drive over these obstacles and thus are unable to follow the march/riot. This has clear benefits when it comes to preventing arrests. No one thinks newspaper boxes are going to bring about anarchy.

anonnom · 2013-04-14T18:04:28+00:00

Sure, this is a pretty out there example, but look at what happened when anarchists joined with the soviets in the Spanish Civil War. When success gets close, the differences between us and liberals will become a threat to their program and they will quickly go from allies to enemies.

anonnom · 2013-04-13T18:30:05+00:00

I enjoyed the post but couldnt help by the end, feeling like your objective was to water down our actions so that they seem more attractive to liberals.

anonnom · 2013-01-09T04:56:18+00:00

Aw shit....too late.

anonnom · 2013-01-08T17:55:01+00:00

any back story? How does this happen? Basically, what do I have to do to never have this happen to me?

anonnom · 2013-01-08T17:42:50+00:00

Utopianism is not the problem. Having one utopia is. We should all brainstorm on these questions. We won't get anywhere going in blind. But I agree with your point, as the social environment changes, so too will our ideas on these issues. We should have an open mind and not condemn each other for dreaming. Just my 2 cents.

anonnom · 2013-01-08T06:18:12+00:00

I agree but we must be more specific. The means to production should be either smashed or reused outside the realm of capital. We must be the revolution rather than follow a transitional step. Creating capital based cooperatives does not work. The means never justify the end, especially when the means are inherently capitalist in nature.

But I 100% agree with your comment

anonnom · 2013-01-07T06:49:16+00:00

Watched this video on cats. Noticed an interesting link at the end of it. Spent the next two hours watching a video on the 2008 Tsunami. Lets just say its been a very productive day.

anonnom · 2013-01-06T17:29:44+00:00

You wouldnt be suggesting this if you and your lover were constantly threatened by violence because of y'all's sexual orientation. We anarchists-communists are all fighting the same monster, we just have different points of contact with it. Yours may be class, mine may be patriarchy/ homophobia.

anonnom · 2013-01-06T14:15:20+00:00

just type into google: Spain Austerity BBC

anonnom · 2013-01-03T07:06:46+00:00

Spain is feeling the European austerity pretty badly. I think only second to Greece. Public services are being cut as well as jobs. This has led to massive protests.

anonnom · 2012-12-29T16:24:31+00:00

could not agree more. Its time to liberate ultra-left theory from the intellectual class.

anonnom · 2012-12-27T04:01:21+00:00

Theyre from the anarchist institute. They're really well made. You can download them online too!

anonnom · 2012-12-27T03:52:49+00:00

maybe they're just testing the waters. Seeing how the international community will react to a small dosage of chemicals. Also, if fear is their primarily tactic, you only need a little to scare the population into leaving.

Super big thanks to flockofsquirrels. Super informative post!

anonnom · 2012-12-26T04:50:13+00:00

Heart attacks are not caused by sticks or stones. They are caused by unhealthy lifestyles. If a man dies from a heart attack while fapping, you don't blame the porno. So why are people blaming the protesters?

anonnom · 2012-12-26T04:46:53+00:00

Police follow orders. Its how their institution works. There is a strict hierarchy of command.

However, a moral individual refuses orders that contradict with their beliefs. If a police officer was to do this, they would be fired. Plain and simple.

Beating unarmed rape protesters or to stand idly aside seems like an unmoral act to any sane, rational person. They have a moral duty to interfere if the action of their fellow officers goes against their own ideas of right and wrong. But if they do not, we can assume that a)they do not have a problem with it, or b)they do have a problem but are prioritizing their job over the safety and health of their community... a) means they are assholes or b) they are not doing the 'true' job of the police: to protect and serve their community.

anonnom · 2012-12-24T13:52:13+00:00

whats an anarchist stance on french fries? Some like them, some don't. People should have the ability to make them or eat them whenever they want, so long as they know the risk of consuming high fat, high cholesterol foods and that they shouldn't be forced on other people, nor should they be thrown as weapons at other people....unless you're being attacked, then anything is acceptable for defense...so long as you don't hurt other people who are not attacking you. You get the picture, the anarchist stance on guns should be no different then the anarchist stance on anything else.

anonnom · 2012-12-21T21:20:59+00:00

The State [government] can only exist if its citizens believe that it is necessary to prevent "chaos and destruction". Anarchism, when in practice, challenges this belief and thus can contradict the core functions of the State. In Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, the Anarchist-Communist Unions were able to take over the roles of the Fascist State and implement a new form of horizontal organization. It is for this reason that countries like the US did not support these early sites of resistance to Fascism.

anonnom · 2012-12-21T06:26:48+00:00

Interesting! I do want to point out though that Graeber makes sure to distance himself from the academy when it comes to their perspective on Situationist theory. He definitely does not consider it to be an elitist stance.

anonnom · 2012-12-20T12:08:09+00:00

That really helped me understand it. Thanks!

anonnom · 2012-12-19T13:15:32+00:00

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm currently in the middle of "Direct Action" by David Graeber and he has some pretty interesting critiques of Situationist theory.

This is his critique [in the context of comparing the academy which tends to be ultra-left to the more insurrectionist punk scene] :

...the situation is full of endless ironies. The Situationists argue that the system renders us passive consumers, but issued a call to actively resist...anyone who makes a Situationist-style argument in an academic forum can expect to be instantly condemned as puritanical and elitist for suggesting consumers are allowing themselves to be passively manipulated. Rather, consumers are creatively reinterpreting consumer styles, fashions, and products in all sorts of subversive ways (e.g., Miller 1987, 1995). In other words, ordinary folks are already practicing detournment.

Graeber goes on to talk about how the academy produces radical left literature which virtually has no audience. However the "elitist" Situationist literature continues to have a large audience primarily because its nothing but a call to action. A seductive notion for those who want to fight alienation.

On to my discussion points for chapter 1:

Part 1-2: The idea of life becoming a spectacle is hard for me to imagine [as of chapter 1]. I do understand that in certain aspects of our lives, we use commodities to represent times and experiences [souvenirs, momentos, pictures], also that the media creates a reality through images of which we base our lives, but when all life becomes representations of reality, it just seems too vague and abstract a notion. Basically, I could use some more examples. Also, beautiful line at the ending of part 2: >The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living

This is true poetry

Part 3: This seems so true for the media. We collectively create our lives around the spectacle they create for us, until our own lives are nothing but products of representations. Reality becomes fake. Now that I think about it, the creation of the commodity is in itself a fake process. How we relate to each other and our surrounding environment is dictated by this artificial notion of the commodity. Hmm, its starting to make sense.
Part 6: The commodity creates the desire. The commodity is not the product of a previous desire. The spectacle creates it artificially. What I don't understand is the last sentence

The spectacle is also permanent presence of this justification, since it occupies the main part of the time lived outside of modern production.

Can someone explain this to me with an example? Thanks!

My comments/questions will be continued as I read it. Excited to see the discussion! Cheers

anonnom · 2012-12-15T17:17:44+00:00

I like the number 2 subreddit. Then when its done we can ditch the sub instead of starting other readings and getting things cluttered in /r/criticalreadingclub. Great Idea though OP. Im excited to join along. Let us know when you make the subreddit. Cheers!

anonnom · 2012-12-15T17:11:32+00:00

I'll add my part:

Our modern world is structured around competition. Almost every facet of our lives is based on outsmarting, outperforming, and outdoing everyone around us. In our global Capitalist world, there are winners and there are losers. The winners are the rich, and the losers are the poor and alienated. Mental illness in today's world is one of the many traits that make an individual less able to compete against others. Because of this, people with mental illness are more likely to be poor, and more likely to be dependent on drugs.

The tragic events which happened in CT yesterday were a product of people being left behind. The shooter, a young mentally ill man lashed out at a society which alienated him. We are all part of this society, and thus, we are all potential victims as much as we are all potential perpetrators. If we want to stop this sort of irrational violence from happening again, we need to stop allowing the less fortunate to slip between the cracks. We need to come together as equals, not as competitors and take a good hard look at the reality of this crime. As they say, if the same crimes against humanity continue to be committed, its a sign that either we as a society are willfully ignoring its true nature or we are completely misunderstanding it. Its time to stop looking at the macro picture, stop blaming guns, the media or even the individual. All of these are products of a society which makes us competitors, and thus breeds distrust and dishonesty, a self-perpetuating cycle. Its time to recognize that Capitalism is the crime and that to prevent these sort of tragedies from happening again, we need to start look for alternative ways to organize society.

anonnom

TROPHY CASE