[lbo-talk] Barbara Epstein & MR

wrobert at uci.edu wrobert at uci.edu
Sun Aug 2 17:21:48 PDT 2009


As someone who has been a sort of fellow traveller to the broad anarchist social milieu (its really to diffuse to be really called a social movement) I have fairly lengthy and developed issues with that milieu (as does anyone who is seriously involved in a community who isn't a propagandist), but this seems fairly reductionist. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of the folks that you place in that second category are probably fairly decent people to work with in different situations, and are probably just operating in a common sense that is alien to you. (And I might add as a moment of confessional, that probably some of those folks probably drive me around the bend as much as they do with you)

My second concern with the comment is one I suspect that you would probably wouldn't have a problem with, which is of course that I have dealt with self-proclaimed marxists and liberals (etc.) that are just as dogmatic and problematic as the problematic folks in the anarchist community (if not more so). They just do it in a different language.

robert wood
>
> // ravi wrote:
>
>> He's not really dictating -- he's giving you an if-then proposition.
>> You seem to think there are more thens. So, what does your fertile
>> imagination suggest?
>
> Anarchists (self-labelled) come in two rather distinct genera (and many
> species within each, of course). For one group it is, more or less,
> simply a way of indicating that they are anti-capitalist but don't care
> to ascribe to some versions of marxism. They make good comrades, as a
> matter of fact. The second genus, going back to the founders in the 196h
> century, are dangerous -- to friend and foe. They are splitters and
> disrupters of all attempts to organize collective resistance. In merely
> verbal contexts, such as a mail list, this dogmatic splittism shows up
> in verbal intolerance of others: Contrary views are not merely contrary
> views, to be disputed or ignored. Contrary views are seen as personal
> attacks, and they quite often lose their cool. Ignore them.
>
> Carrol
>
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