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TOTW: Make it happen here!

Among trends of political polarization, "The Second American Civil War" is making rounds in mainstream media, alternative media, and public discourse as a fear-mongering rhetorical device. Is it merely a reflection of the anxieties that run deep through the roots of America's culture, that at times like these become palpable as high tension? Or does this meme also reflect alienated and desperate aspirations towards the abolition of the extant?

Circulated among the far-right more often as an explicitly stated aspiration or a desired horizon, and by the liberal left as a hopefully avoidable tragedy. Tragedy because of the great loss of life, but also because it would disrupt the business-as-usual of the technocratic management of conflict that allows for the comforts of a pacified population subject to wage-slavery. At the factory, I hear folks regularly express a desire to burn it all down, blow it up, etc. There are generalized deeply repressed desires that are touched on by the "civil war" meme. We've seen in other contexts, such as Chile recently, how bold incendiary attacks are instigators that resonate widely, instead of having a chilling effect on those with the desire to revolt. Those popular eruptions were quickly followed by the expected repression and cost of life inflicted by the state in response.

In the realm of anarchist memes, anarchists are often guilty of implying extreme acts of violence against the existing order and then backing off from the real implications. The awkward response to actions such those of Willem Von Spronsen are noteworthy in this regard. Meanwhile the far right has shown time and again to follow-up on their threats, beyond the realm of memes. Anarchists who have insurrection in their horizon know that it's indistinguishable from civil war. That the maintenance of class society requires the constant operation of counter-insurgency. That class conflict is arguably the constant state of low intensity domestic conflict a la civil war. That not every civil war is a revolution, but every revolution is a civil war. Tiqqun and The Invisible Committee have employed the language of civil war in there texts for close to two decades. These texts and projects are the subject of heated debate within the anarchist milieu. The main disagreements are curiously not along the lines of attack, but rather the communist, individualists, or nihilist affinities of the would be attackers.

Taking a break from dreading a Second American Civil War with doom and gloom, begrudgingly saying It could happen here : Let's imagine a scenario where the anarchists, far from playing the role of the firefighters quelling the flames of far right insurgency, are instead those most committed to exacerbating the underlying tensions in America to an explosive breaking point.

Let's discuss how we can make it happen here!