Who Does No Work, Shall Not Eat

kelley kwalker2 at gte.net
Sun Jan 20 18:49:53 PST 2002


At 09:33 PM 1/20/02 -0500, Chuck0 wrote:
>kelley wrote:
> >
> > At 04:14 PM 1/20/02 -0500, Joe R. Golowka wrote:
> >
> > >Nah, at worst we'd just stop sharing our stuff with you.
> >
> > another gun!
>
>I believe Joe makes the mistake of assuming that there would be
>anarchist enclaves and non-anarchist enclaves after the revolution. This
>is of course, not a goal. Anarchists have been pointing out for some
>time that the human species has incredible tendencies towards mutual aid
>and cooperation. The goal of an anarchist revolution is not to create a
>society of anarchists. It's to get rid of government, capitalism, and
>other coercive stuff so that the each person has control over their
>lives.

power exists in judgments on others--the enforcement of informal norms. basic principle of social life. the sooner we figure that out, the better. and, the sooner we figure out that we can't live without norms, the better. either extreme puts any movement toward our goals in peril, i believe.

for instance, i could tell you that your.sig is a violation of all kinds of rules the internet community once created when bandwidth was an issue. i could point out that if all of use were to use such .sigs at 1k per byte transfered then we'd be overloading the system. would you get rid of your .sig or would you tell me to fuck off and die and give me some reasonable arguments to show that my claims are contestable.

how do we negotiate those dilemmas?

power inevitably comes into play, especially as human beings form alliances to pursue the ends they desire in such arguments. will it all evaporate, as Ted seems to wish (and I share that wish, along with Garth and Miles)? i'm not so sure sometimes. I don't feel comfortable making sweeping generalizations. I especially don't feel comfortable with them because i see how they get used with regard to the sexism that some exhibit toward work and other issues: when _current_ sexist practices among the left are mentioned, it often gets swept aside with a gesture at how it will all disappear after the revo.

i'm not comforted.

kelley



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