The New Republic piece is pretty snotty and condescending towards anarchists, many of whom are working class and pretty intelligent. But this article is perhaps the best overview of contemporary anarchism that I have read in the last month. I guess it proves the adage that you have to understand your opponent before you can effectively criticize them.
While Foer picks up on the important shift towards making protest fun again--something traditional Left groups still don't get--he ignores the healthy anarchist intellectual culture. There are anarchist bookstores and infoshops in many cities, and anarchist projects and collectives in many more. True, there are some street punk anarchists who are anti-intellectual, but many other can be found with a Chomsky or Zinn book in their rucksack.
The Left has been mired in a rut for many reasons. The lack of a fun "culture of resistance" is one of them. Leftists spend so much time educating people and not enough time partying with them. Many of us are fans of historical literature and songs from those "cultures of resistance" that have passed into the history books. The IWW is alive an kicking, but many people are more familiar with its culture from the early 20th century. You know, all those cool Wobbly songs and visual.
The challenge before us is to invent new forms of creative resistance and maintain our intellectual critique of the system, so that we can finally start reaching the hearts of the people. We are getting there, if my reading of the nasty name-calling printed in this week's Wall Street Journal is correct.
-- << Chuck0 >>
This was the year *everything* changed.
-- Commander Ivanova, 2261
Mid-Atlantic Infoshop -> http://www.infoshop.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/
Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/
"A society is a healthy society only to the degree that it exhibits anarchistic traits."
- Jens Bjørneboe