Re: FW: [not terribly pious]

Jeff Bone (jbone@activerse.com)
Fri, 23 Jul 1999 23:56:04 -0500


> Like DUH, Jeff.

Um. Maybe I was too vague, sorry. I was pointing out in my oh-so-terse
mode that true anarchists in general would probably object to being
labeled according to some agenda or particular ideology, and certainly
one like "class struggle." Anarchy, at least in my mind, is sort of the
ultimate rejection of the value of "archy" --- hierarchy, bureaucracy,
structure, category, ontological classification --- in all its forms.
"Class struggle anarchists" seems kind of like a misuse of the term.
Perhaps better terms for this ideology would be "radical
antiauthoritarians," or better (since we aren't really talking about
authority, but rather simply financial and social success, i.e. "the
establishment") "radical disestablishmentarians."

In fact, "class struggle anarchy" is literally a contradiction in terms
--- if "anarchy" is the rejection of (among other things) social
layering as a valid notion, and "class struggle" is implicitly an
admission that "class" and social layering exists, then strictly
speaking "class struggle anarchy" is an oxymoron. "Revolutionary" is
probably a better term.

It's kind of sad that we've indoctrinated ourselves with the notion that
anarchists are all these wild-eyed radical nutcakes who are just pissed
off at the status quo and anyone who has more than they do. Anarchy can
be a (semi- ;-) rational, well-developed, philosophically grounded
stance, and doesn't necessarily imply anything with respect to class
struggle. Anarchy, in some pure sense, is simply about flat,
totally-connected networks... webs of people and their direct
relationships. I suspect that true anarchists would be sort of pissed
to get lumped in with the whiny armchair revolutionaries in that
article.

For what it's worth, the only thing that pisses me off about the whole
JFK Jr. thing is that (a) we collectively funded (yes, through taxes)
this whole big search / recovery thing when similar effort and funds
wouldn't have been expended for non-prominent persons, and (b) within 24
hours of pulling his rotting corpse out of the water, his cremated
remains were buried back in it not far from the recovery site. Damn
waste of time and money... at least the fish would've gotten some
benefit if we'd just left him in there. OTOH, I have no beef with the
superwealthy...

$0.02,

jb