(Machine Intelligence 3)Suzanne Treister
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Chao Ab Ordo(*)
CHAO AB ORDO Chao ab Ordo(*) (*) The source of the oft used Latin phrase Ordo ab Chao has its roots deeply embedded in the origin story of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the Americas. Georges M. Halpern, MD, DSc with Yves P. Huin 1 CHAO AB ORDO Antipasti “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Rob Siltanen You may never have read a single line of La Divina Commedia, and yet you’ve been influenced by it. But it’s just one line of the 14,233 that make up The Divine Comedy. The three-part epic poem published in 1320 by the Florentine bureaucrat -turned visionary storyteller- Dante Alighieri. In late 13th Century Florence, books were sold in apothecaries, a solid evidence that words on paper (or parchment) could affect minds with their ideas, as much as any drug. And what an addiction The Divine Comedy inspired: a literary work endlessly adapted, pinched from, referenced and remixed, inspiring painters and sculptors for centuries! More than the authors of the Bible itself, Dante provided us with the vision of Hell that remains with us and has been painted by Botticelli and Blake, Delacroix and Dalí, turned into sculpture by Rodin –whose The Kiss depicts Dante’s damned lovers Paolo and Francesca – and illustrated in the pages of X-Men comics by John Romita. -
On the “Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists”
Bob Black Wooden Shoes or Platform Shoes?: On the “Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists” The Anarchist Library Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists. By Nestor Makhno, Ida Mett, Pyotr Arshinov, Valevsky & Linsky. Dublin, Ireland: Workers’ Solidarity Movement, 1989. It attests to the ideological bankruptcy of the organizational anarchists to- day that they should exhume (not resurrect) a manifesto which was already obsolete when promulgated in 1926. The Organizational Platform enjoys an imperishable permanence: untimely then, untimely now, untimely forever. In- tended to persuade, it elicited attacks from almost every prominent anarchist of its time. Intended to organize, it provoked splits. Intended to restate the anar- chist alternative to Marxism, it restated the Leninist alternative to anarchism. Intended to make history, it barely made it into the history books. Why read it today? Precisely because, poor as it is, it has never been surpassed as a program- matic statement of organizationalist, workerist anarchism. Not that latter-day workies deserve to be saddled with archaism like the Platformist policy toward the peasantry, to which many words are devoted. But much of the rhetoric is familiar — so much so that the formulations in circulation apparently cannot be improved upon. The Platform may have had great influence on those who have not had great influence. In language redolent of recent rantings against “lifestyle anarchism” — right down to the disparaging quotation marks — the Platform attributes the “chronic general disorganization” of anarchists to “the lovers of assertion of ‘self,’ [who,] solely with a view to personal pleasure, obstinately cling to the chaotic state of the anarchist movement.” The absence of organizational principles and practices is the “most important” reason why anarchism is weak (11). -
Against His-Story, Against Leviathan
Against His-story, Against Leviathan Fredy Perlman 1983 1 Contents 1 4 2 13 3 23 4 35 5 44 6 51 7 55 8 59 9 66 10 72 11 79 12 85 13 89 14 97 15 108 16 115 17 124 18 133 19 140 20 153 21 162 2 22 171 23 179 24 190 3 1 And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight Where ignorant armies clash by night. (M. Arnold) Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit There is not even silence in the mountains But dry sterile thunder without rain… (T.S. Eliot) The darkling plain is here. This is the waste land: England, America, Russia, China, Israel, France… And we are here as victims, or as spectators, or as perpetrators of tortures, massacres, poisonings, manipulations, despoliations. Hic Rhodus! This is the place to jump, the place to dance! This is the wilderness! Was thereeverany other? This is savagery! Do you call it freedom? This is barbarism! The struggle for survival isright here. Haven’t we always known it? Isn’t this a public secret? Hasn’t it always been the big public secret? It remains a secret. It is publicly known but not avowed. Publicly the wilderness is elsewhere, bar- barism is abroad, savagery is on the face of the other. The dry sterile thunder without rain, the con- fused alarms of struggle and flight, are projected outward, into the great unknown, across the seas and over the mountains. We’re on the side with the angels. -
Social Ecology and Communalism
Murray Bookchin Bookchin Murray $ 12,95 / £ xx,xx Social Ecology and Communalism Replace this text Murray Bookchin ocial cology Social Ecology and Communalism and Communalism Social Ecology S E and Communalism AK Press Social Ecology and Communalism Murray Bookchin Social Ecology and Communalism Bookchin, Murray Social Ecology and Communalism Library of Congress Control Number 2006933557 ISBN 978-1-904859-49-9 Published by AK Press © Eirik Eiglad and Murray Bookchin 2006 AK Press 674–A 23rd St. Oakland, CA 94612 USA www.akpress.org [email protected] AK Press UK PO Box 12766 Edinburgh, EH8 9YE Scotland (0131) 555–5165 www.akuk.com [email protected] Design and layout by Eirik Eiglad Contents An Introduction to Social Ecology and Communalism 7 What is Social Ecology? 19 Radical Politics in an Era of Advanced Capitalism 53 The Role of Social Ecology in a Period of Reaction 68 The Communalist Project 77 After Murray Bookchin 117 An Introduction to Social Ecology and Communalism We are standing at a crucial crossroads. Not only does the age- old “social question” concerning the exploitation of human labor remain unresolved, but the plundering of natural resources has reached a point where humanity is also forced to politically deal with an “ecological question.” Today, we have to make conscious choices about what direction society should take, to properly meet these challenges. At the same time, we see that our very ability to make the necessary choices are being undermined by an incessant centralization of economic and political power. Not only is there a process of centralization in most modern nation states that divests humanity of any control over social affairs, but power is also gradually being transferred to transnational institutions. -
Practical Anarchism: the Makhnovist Movement in the Ukraine, 1917Â
Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Conference, 8–10 April 2021 Zion G. Flores, Eastern Washington University, undergraduate student, “Practical Anarchism: The Makhnovist Movement in the Ukraine, 1917–1921” Abstract: Anarchism was one of the most prominent revolutionary left-wing movements in 19th and 20th century Europe, even contending as a philosophy with Marxism in many socialist circles. However, anarchism is generally believed today to be unrealistic and impractical as a political ideology. When looking at the modern historical record though, this does not always seem to be the case. I plan to explore whether the Makhnovist movement in the Ukraine from 1917-1921 provides an exception to the idea that anarchist movements are never viable. This movement, guided in large part by anarcho-communist Nestor Makhno, was one of the first to take modern anarchism from theory into practice. Although its existence was brief and its ability to fully realize anarchist ideals was limited by the circumstances of the time, the question must be asked: does the Makhnovist movement serve as an example of practical anarchism? Practical Anarchism The Makhnovist Movement in the Ukraine, 1917-1921 Zion G. Flores Eastern Washington University [email protected] Undergraduate 1 On March 2, 1917, Nestor Makhno took his first steps outside the Butyrki Prison of Moscow in over eight years. As Russia was being delivered from the chains of Tsardom, so too was Makhno delivered from his imprisonment as a part of the emancipation of prisoners during the February Revolution.1 His body emerged weak and weary from the debilitating conditions of his imprisonment.2 His commitment to anarchism, his rebellious spirit, and his fervor to emancipate toiling people from “slavery under the yoke of State and Capital” however had only grown stronger despite the seemingly hopeless prospects. -
Leaving the Left Behind 115 Post-Left Anarchy?
Anarchy after Leftism 5 Preface . 7 Introduction . 11 Chapter 1: Murray Bookchin, Grumpy Old Man . 15 Chapter 2: What is Individualist Anarchism? . 25 Chapter 3: Lifestyle Anarchism . 37 Chapter 4: On Organization . 43 Chapter 5: Murray Bookchin, Municipal Statist . 53 Chapter 6: Reason and Revolution . 61 Chapter 7: In Search of the Primitivists Part I: Pristine Angles . 71 Chapter 8: In Search of the Primitivists Part II: Primitive Affluence . 83 Chapter 9: From Primitive Affluence to Labor-Enslaving Technology . 89 Chapter 10: Shut Up, Marxist! . 95 Chapter 11: Anarchy after Leftism . 97 References . 105 Post-Left Anarchy: Leaving the Left Behind 115 Prologue to Post-Left Anarchy . 117 Introduction . 118 Leftists in the Anarchist Milieu . 120 Recuperation and the Left-Wing of Capital . 121 Anarchy as a Theory & Critique of Organization . 122 Anarchy as a Theory & Critique of Ideology . 125 Neither God, nor Master, nor Moral Order: Anarchy as Critique of Morality and Moralism . 126 Post-Left Anarchy: Neither Left, nor Right, but Autonomous . 128 Post-Left Anarchy? 131 Leftism 101 137 What is Leftism? . 139 Moderate, Radical, and Extreme Leftism . 140 Tactics and strategies . 140 Relationship to capitalists . 140 The role of the State . 141 The role of the individual . 142 A Generic Leftism? . 142 Are All Forms of Anarchism Leftism . 143 1 Anarchists, Don’t let the Left(overs) Ruin your Appetite 147 Introduction . 149 Anarchists and the International Labor Movement, Part I . 149 Interlude: Anarchists in the Mexican and Russian Revolutions . 151 Anarchists in the International Labor Movement, Part II . 154 Spain . 154 The Left . 155 The ’60s and ’70s . -
Communiques of ITS
Library.Anarhija.Net Communiques of ITS Individualists Tending toward the Wild Individualists Tending toward the Wild Communiques of ITS 2011–2013 Retrieved on March 12, 2013 from War on Society Translated from Spanish. The group’s name, Individualidades tendiendo a lo Salvaje, is difficult to translate. Individualidades more literally means ‘individualities,’ and salvaje more literally means ‘savage’… having more of the connotations of barbarous undomesticated wildness than pure pristine wilderness, and without as much racist connotation as the English ‘savage’ has. lib.anarhija.net 2011–2013 Contents Communique One (27 April 2011) 4 Communique Two (22 May 2011) 10 Communique Three (9 August 2011) 23 Communique Four (21 September 2011) 41 I ................................ 43 II ................................ 46 III ............................... 49 IV ............................... 51 V ................................ 53 VI ............................... 55 VII ............................... 57 VIII .............................. 59 IX ............................... 62 X ............................... 66 XI ............................... 67 XII ............................... 69 XIII .............................. 70 Communique Five (18 December 2011) 72 Communique Six (28 January 2012) 76 I ................................ 76 II ................................ 77 III ............................... 79 2 IV ............................... 80 V ................................ 81 VI ............................... 82 VII .............................. -
SOCIAL ANARCHISM OR LIFESTYLE ANARCHISM Murray 'Bookchin
SOCIAL ANARCHISM OR LIFESTYLE ANARCHISM AN UNB.RIDGEABLE CHASM Murray 'Bookchin AK PRESS © Copyright: 1995 Murray Bookchin Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bookchin,Murray, 1921- Social anarchism or lifestyle anarchism : the unbridgeable chasm / byMurray Bookchin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-873176-83-X (pbk.) 1. Anarchism. 2. Social problems. 3. Individualism. 4. Personalism. HX833.B635 1995 320.5'7-dc20 95-41903 CIP British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this title is available fromthe British Library . First published in 1995 by AK Press AK Press 22 Lutton Place P.O. Box 40682 Edinburgh, Scotland San Francisco, CA EH8 9PE 94140-0682 The publication of this volume was in part made possible by the generosity of Stefan Andreas Store, Chris Atton, Andy Hibbs, Stephen JohnAd ams, and the Friends of AK Press. Typeset and design donated by Freddie Baer. CONTENTS A Short Note to the Reader .......................................................... 1 Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism ................................. 4 The Left That Was: A Personal Reflection................................... ............................... 66 A NOTE TO THE READER This short work was written to deal with the fact that anarchism stands at a turning point in its long and turbulent history. At a time when popular distrust of the state has reached extraordinary proportions in many countries; when thedivision of society among a handful of opulently wealthy individuals and corporations contrasts sharply with the growing impover ishment of millions of people on a scale unprecedentedsince the Great Depression decade; when the intensity of exploitation has forced people in growing numbers to accept a work week of a length typical of the last century - anarchists have formed neither a coherent program nor a revolutionary organizationto provide a direction for the mass discontent that contemporary society is creating. -
New Political Science Anarchism Revived
This article was downloaded by: [Memorial University of Newfoundland] On: 01 August 2014, At: 13:39 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK New Political Science Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cnps20 Anarchism Revived Leonard Williams a a Manchester College Published online: 22 Aug 2007. To cite this article: Leonard Williams (2007) Anarchism Revived, New Political Science, 29:3, 297-312, DOI: 10.1080/07393140701510160 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07393140701510160 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. -
Against Leviathan! by Fredy Perlman
Ozimandias — Review: Against His-story! Against Leviathan! by Fredy Perlman RB 1991 Contents Rock of Stages ................................ 3 Stage Fright .................................. 5 Fredy vs. Fred ................................ 5 2 Review: Against His-story! Against Leviathan! by Fredy Perlman, Black & Red, Detroit 1983. Against His-story! is an attempt to take opposition to Progress to its logical con- clusion. So is this belated review. Perlman summarises the whole history of Civilisation from the viewpoint of its victims: we, the “zeks”, free people who were enslaved then taught to identify with the enslaving monster: Leviathan. Rock of Stages Civilisation, the antithesis of community, is only 5,000 years old. Communities existed in the New World for thousands of years without either “giving rise to” or becoming part of, the Civilisations of the Aztecs and Incas, which shrank. Civilisa- tions did not arise inevitably because of the development of the productive forces. People have always tried to fight Civilization. So why did it arise, how did it spread and dominate the world, and why didn’t communities stop it? The minority which created Civilisation did so initially, not in a place where the productive forces were rich, but where they were poor, and where Nature was harsh: Mesopotamia. The Sumerians had to build waterworks, so expertise and eventually kings developed. When the waterworks of Lagash overflowed into those of Ur, the king of Ur, or Lugal, persuaded his people to attack Lagash, and basically ended up enslaving its inhabitants and forcing them to rebuild both sets of waterworks, by now a full-time activity. Communities try to resist Civilisation in various ways. -
Technology Is Capital: Fifth Estate's Critique of the Megamachine
4 Steve Millett Technology is capital: Fifth Estate’s critique of the megamachine Introduction ‘How do we begin to discuss something as immense as technology?’, writes T. Fulano at the beginning of his essay ‘Against the megamachine’ (1981a: 4). Indeed, the degree to which the technological apparatus penetrates all elements of contemporary society does make such an undertaking a daunting one. Nevertheless, it is an undertaking that the US journal and collective Fifth Estate has attempted. In so doing, it has developed arguably the most sophisticated and challenging anarchist approach to technology currently available.1 Starting from the late 1970s, the Fifth Estate (hereafter FE) began to put forward the argument that the technologies of capitalism cannot be separated from the socioeconomic system itself. Inspired and influenced by a number of writers, including Karl Marx, Jacques Ellul and Jacques Camatte, it began to conceptualise modern technology as constituting a system of domination itself, one which interlinks and interacts with the economic processes of capitalism to create a new social form, a ‘megamachine’ which integrates not only capitalism and technology, but also State, bureaucracy and military. For the FE, technology and capital, although not identical, are more similar than different, and cannot be separated into an ‘evil’ capitalism and an essentially neutral technology. Any critique of capitalism and the State must recognise the importance of contem- porary technology and the crucial role it plays in the development of new forms of domination, oppression and exploitation. Concepts of ‘capital’ and ‘mega- machine’ are also explored later in this chapter. The Fifth Estate The FE began in Detroit in 1965, started by seventeen-year-old high-school student Harvey Ovshinsky. -
Against Leviathan! by Fredy Perlman
Library.Anarhija.Net Ozimandias — Review: Against His-story! Against Leviathan! by Fredy Perlman RB RB Ozimandias — Review: Against His-story! Against Leviathan! by Fredy Perlman 1991 Retrieved on Febuary 1, 2010 from libcom.org from Wildcat (UK) lib.anarhija.net 1991 Contents Rock of Stages ........................ 3 Stage Fright .......................... 6 Fredy vs. Fred ........................ 7 2 Review: Against His-story! Against Leviathan! by Fredy Perlman, Black & Red, Detroit 1983. Against His-story! is an attempt to take opposition to Progress to its logical conclusion. So is this belated review. Perlman summarises the whole history of Civilisation from the viewpoint of its victims: we, the “zeks”, free people who were enslaved then taught to identify with the enslaving monster: Leviathan. Rock of Stages Civilisation, the antithesis of community, is only 5,000 years old. Communities existed in the New World for thousands of years with- out either “giving rise to” or becoming part of, the Civilisations of the Aztecs and Incas, which shrank. Civilisations did not arise in- evitably because of the development of the productive forces. Peo- ple have always tried to fight Civilization. So why did it arise, how did it spread and dominate the world, and why didn’t communities stop it? The minority which created Civilisation did so initially, notina place where the productive forces were rich, but where they were poor, and where Nature was harsh: Mesopotamia. The Sumerians had to build waterworks, so expertise and eventually kings devel- oped. When the waterworks of Lagash overflowed into those of Ur, the king of Ur, or Lugal, persuaded his people to attack Lagash, and basically ended up enslaving its inhabitants and forcing them to rebuild both sets of waterworks, by now a full-time activity.