[lbo-talk] More on Robert Paul Wolff

Chuck Grimes c123grimes at att.net
Tue Oct 5 09:25:47 PDT 2010


They fear exactly what RPW pointed to in his essay "The Conflict Between Autonomy and Authority"; that more will realize there is no duty to obey the law as law. That philosophical anarchism grips the masses and becomes a material force. The collective performativity of freedom.

Ian

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Well, I sure know the plan for that one. Walk out and don't go back. A few pounds of rice, beans, flour, lard, salted meat, some wine and kerosene, like camping out. A grubstake for revolution.

The general idea is to cut your labor off from the economy. Don't pay rent, don't pay morgage, don't pay fines, don't pay bills. Fuck'm. General strike.

I've actually seen this for a few days around the old people's park week or so. Business, government, buses, the whole bullshit just stopped. It was spontaneous and accidental. Nobody was doing what they were supposed to. The powers that be, got really scared. Reagan lifted marshal law, evacuated the national guard, the university completely stopped their building plans, since the city government was returned to power, they kept the local police from doing much, the city council was more or less in continuous session...

That short few days were great. Just get up in the morning and go see what's doing around town. Others went to work, and then kind of wondered off around noon.

There is a magic something that takes hold. You just don't give damn about whatever They say. They say you got to do this, They say you got to do that. It all blurrs into bullshit. You realize you are just fine.

This attitude or state of being is what They call anarchy, except it isn't anarchy. Nothing explodes. Nothing really happens. The whole idea we carry of authority just evaporates.

So, Hobbes was deeply mistaken while Roussaux and Kant were probably closer in some sense with their ideas of human nature. I don't know...got think that through.

Anyway, the point is to put the social contract into question. Here is the essay you mention:

http://orangeanarchist.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/wolff-the-conflict-between-authority-and-autonomy/

Haven't read it yet. Some errands, like go pay a parking ticket and buy a damned permit.

CG



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