philosophy; history, violence, autonomy, redemption
The desire for autonomy, in its many forms and kinds, is probably the single strongest throughline that connects the variable (and contradictory) kinds of anarchists. The repression of individuals' and groups' autonomy is, in and of itself, one of the largest environmental factors in pushing people towards philosophies and politics of autonomy.
Though, because of this, some interrogations and critiques of our world by anarchists fall flat. Autonomy raised above all, for fear that accepting any action as undesirable would "prove" that at least *some* kinds of people "don't deserve autonomy" or perhaps "can't handle autonomy" or at minimum "need oversight."
How quickly do the words "justice" leave the lips of an anarchist followed by a defense of the violent heart of The Worldeater; Sovereignty. Each anarchist can point to State Sovereignty as a false god, an untruth. But each tries to find the true God of Sovereignty elsewhere; oftentimes in "The People" but more often than that it's the "Localized Community." whether that means a commune, a "municipality," a neighborhood, a union, or even sometimes a worker's council, which almost all boil down to some level of Democracy, of "The People." Most often even maintaining the state relationship between the territory and the population for that democratic governance.
Autonomy is only part of the question.
The Worldeater does as it's named; its existence is predicated on the consumption of the infinite worlds of life, the infinite forms-of-life. In place of those infinite forms, it instead produces one formless mass of fluid life, which it applies processes of subject-making to via apparatuses designed to impart the desire for only its forms on that mass of fluid life. Autonomy from this process, while within this process, is necessary to overcome it, but too quickly can we reproduce it by struggling for autonomy alone.
Redemption is the other side of autonomy.
Our lives are determined by living processes of history, by the past. A law beyond any law of man.
We are struggling for the redemptive world. The world where Origin and Destruction meet. Where the past is destroyed and saved by its redemption. What is destroyed is the past as it was, and what is saved is the past that never was.
Hegel asks: Why does history take this course?
Marx answers: So that humanity may happily separate itself from the past.
philosophy; form-of-life, time, history, redemption
How do we break free from the past if we are determined by it? How do we destroy time to free us from our fate?
In previous writings I've said that "All forms-of-life create their own time."
A form-of-life creates time by it's mechanisms of coordination. A creature must coordinate it's actions, and as such, creates time, shares it between its many limbs and organs.
The form-of-life institutes time within itself. The creation of time for a form-of-life is synonymous with a consciousness of the body. A form-of-life may not be territorial, but it must be temporal.
The introduction of calendars by different regimes is to be understood this way; instituting time is the calibration of the body. The institution of history is the memory of the body. It is how the body wants to remember itself.
Walter Benjamin once said "...[W]hat is at issue is an interruption of tradition in which the past is fulfilled in thereby brought to its end once and for all..."
We cannot hope to overcome the past through the same mechanisms. And we cannot hope to overcome the condition the Worldeater has kept us in through it.
There is no justice. There is no "right." There are lives and the infinite forms they can take. The real community has no borders, but it does have enemies.
There can be no community of those who are there, community is potential. Forms-of-Life may correspond to a rule, but anyone can choose to live according to that rule.
So far, the coordination of the organs of the working class have been on the basis of bare-life, the destruction of forms-of-life into a formless mass. State society, having cleaved the world between self-interested individuals in their private life, and "the common good" through the state, and thus, having abstracted power in the form of an entity "separate and above" from society, leaves the only option for "legitimate" political action to be through it. And, through its destruction of all the various histories of the various forms-of-life that once were, has left its people with an amnesia. Only able to conceive of politics as steering the Worldeater.
But it still needs to consume our lives to make it live.
An overcoming requires us to develop forms-of-life, in their infinite ways, instituting their own time, their own rhythms, at play with one another.
What rhythm stirs you, friend?
philosophy; form-of-life, time, history, redemption
@b33rbashjawnson as far as i understand mastodon.social tends to not make these kinds of changes. but, every instance owner has the ability to edit the character count for posts on mastodon.
@exiliaex I love the rhythm of a cohabitation house despite the factual/potential problems. Even though I am too poor to not Live with roommates I was letting people stay with me at my apartment in my previous state. I don't like living alone. I don't like the atomization most society lives in. But I also don't like interaction with people who are NOT in my house. Because I am not familiar with them You have given me another idea of voluntarily doing local therapy since talking is my best skill
philosophy; form-of-life, time, history, redemption
@exiliaex question. how do you write these essays on here? is this a feature i can get on my instance or is that specific to the one you're on?