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If we can look objectively to the likely necessary events or possible causes, what would the resulting conditions be and what would influence them?


edited by dot to fix tags
by (2.0k points)
edited by
i think this is an interesting question, one that people either make serious assumptions about, or don't think about at all...
it's worth considering partly because as anarchists we are likely to be in regular conversation with people who take certain things for granted (being-in-anarchy will require masses of people to consciously choose anarchy, or being-in-anarchy will require a system rupture enabling people to get out from under the surveillance of the state, etc)... and partly because it is good for us to stretch our imaginations outside of simple knee-jerk reaction.
the point is not to think that we will be right about what might make this huge shift happen/possible, but to exercise our imaginations, to test our ideas about the world we want interacting with the world we understand ourselves to be in.
(yes, here i go about bolo'bolo again... lol... but also desert is an example of this.)

1 Answer

0 votes
Change happens in fits and starts.  Some kind of shit has to hit some kind of fan.  Beyond that, the details don't matter.  Attempting to "engineer" this state of affairs is probably impossible and almost certainly unwise.  Better to prepare to seize such an opportunity preparing for the fact that the aftermath will be factionalized (and unfortunately, probably violent).  Consistent pressure is more important than intense pressure.  When things get unstuck (and I guarantee you won't see it coming), you want the resultant vector of social pressures to point in a favorable direction.  That is how to classify alliances as constructive or counterproductive.

Look to the p2p movement for "game changing technologies."
by (160 points)
Interesting.
I agree with a lot of this.  I disagree with a lot of this.  (And it is mostly the same shit - aaghh.)

I agree that obsessing about paths and plans is largely pointless, we don't have the influence to direct outcomes and ... (something else that slipped my mind...)  Which is why 'resultant vectors of social pressures' makes my skin crawl - the usual vector results in anarchists getting shot in the back of the head by the secret police (after the fascists and the maoists have made some deal.)  
"Consistent pressure is more important than intense pressure" - hmm, when capitalism is in ascendency, our pressure, consistent or intense, is barely an irritant to the system; since modern capitalism is largely a system of participatory mass-delusion, when the participants believe it works then no attack will shake their faith nor shudder its foundations; but when capitalism is in crisis, and the delusion is thin and frayed, then a series of attacks may deepen the crisis and further fray the delusion.
The wind blows and the wind gusts, not either or...?
...