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TOTW: One More Time with Feeling?

In 2020 anarchists across the world initiated, witnessed, and participated in a surprisingly large number of uprisings—some that have grown and continued without interruption into 2021.

The new year also brings with it the notion of an entirely new opportunity for anarchists to... do the exact same things as in previous years and expect different results! Of course this opportunity applies not just to the larger anarchist struggle (whatever that may mean) but also to the smaller scale of everyday life—our interactions, relationships, and our approaches to the world around us.

We believe it is still possible to rebel today ...*

Every day technology is getting increasingly efficient at providing the population a more perfect and constant analog for seemingly meaningful interaction with others—while tightening restrictions on physical gatherings and reducing the ability to have truly private conversations. As this goes on much of our ability to develop and practice creative ways of thinking and living will continue to deteriorate. Many will find themselves stuck reading the same streams of overly simplified fragments of the same dusty ideas from previous generations and emphatically parroting the same failed solutions into mediated social media bubbles and curated quarantine pods. And while there are certainly more people than ever before calling themselves anarchists... are there really more anarchists?

It is still possible to penetrate the monster with a pinprick. But we must move away from the stereotypical images of the great mass struggles, and the concept of the infinite growth of a movement that is to dominate and control everything. We must develop a more precise and detailed way of thinking. We must consider reality for what it is, not what we imagine it to be.*

Is this another year in which we've learned nothing from the mistakes of years previous? How will we avoid the trap of seeing reality not as it is but as we imagine it to be—of doing the same things over and over again expecting different results? How will the rapid advancements in technology and our reliance on its tools help or hinder our ability to develop more precise and detailed ways of thinking?

How will you approach anarchy differently in 2021?


* — Alfredo M. Bonanno. "Anarchists and Action."