by thecollective Dec 23, 2024
alt

Only that which has become lives; only those who, in their present and reality, understand past and future as one, only those who take themselves, as they are truly and whole, with them on the journey to their promised land – Gustav Landauer

Few traditions are as long-standing, actively maintained, and poetically charged as our predilection for transformative journey. Pilgrimage is a cosmopolitan affair with a practiced history spanning millennia across Abrahamic, Dharmic, and secular traditions: Muslims trek to Mecca; Buddhists visit the Bodhi Tree; Xtian’s have the Camino de Santiago; modern Jews subsidize a controversial birthrite; even Enlightened aristocrats pulled from the tradition of pilgrimage to invent tourism for their learned sons as a rite of passage.

Anarchists—a much more recent diaspora of (non-)believers—take a frenzied and experimental approach in their wanderlust: they go summit- and train-hopping, attend bookfairs and coital convergences, crash RNCs and DNCs alike, return to jail through recidivism, and dropout at places like Dreamtime Village, Skatetopia, Slab City, and Radical Faerie communes. Some anarchists pursue “meaningful” non-profit work as a calling, venture to environmental disaster sites during crisis, ascend the ivory tower of academia, or embark on life-altering psychedelic trips without ever taking a step. For many, their journey is an Odyssey-in-reverse: a path toward war rather than a return from it.

What are notable pilgrimages for anarchists, both literal and metaphoric? How can the periodic and rhythmic return to significant places be of particular importance to anarchism’s (negative) tradition? Can returning to the same ol’ places bring us somewhere new?

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Comments

anon (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 07:29

No.

CalvinSmith (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 08:29

this is such a great TOTW. We aren't discussing what to do with your anus, penis, butthole, or vagina, where "no" is of course a refine response.

CalvinSmith (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 08:36

I lived in Spain for a few months.

"Pilgrimage" is probably the last remaining appealing idea to me from the religions you discuss there, because the normal appeal of religion (an excuse to spend time with others) is absolutely not sexy to me.

I'd have to conclude that my current pilgrimages tend to take on a pagan (earth-worshiping) and fully individualist characteristic, and engage in theme regularly. I've already spent enough time going to anarchist bookfairs and engaging in stupid teenage activism to lose interest in that.

anon (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 10:29

"places like Dreamtime Village, Skatetopia, Slab City"

Tell us your watch way too many online (outsider) documentaries and don't know much about actual anarchist destinations like, Exarcheia, so-called Barc€lona, so-called M0ntreal, Rocinha, so-called $antiago, Midian, Mos Eisley, without explicitly saying it.

The Spectacle has got you. Evacuate!

anon (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 13:42

how about you say why your list of anarchist spaces is so much more awesome and anarchist than the given list of anarchist spaces?

or is your criteria supposed to be universal and obvious to all? (duh)

CalvinSmith (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 14:04

Mentality is that they know the "more obscure and badass" version of a thing, and the more popular and well known versions of a thing are for posers. I've been using the internet since the year 2000, and audiogalaxy (a music pirating site with a zero-moderation comment section for each band) and the person you are responding sounded like 80% of the people using the website to talk about music.

CalvinSmith (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 14:46

person who questioned you was understandably confused that you were promoting something -- promoting some nowhere fixed ideal with edgy spellings -- yet providing no explanations to support your arguments.

Plus. you're a hypocritical asshole who criticizes video-watches but uses computers for the sole purpose of getting them to talk to you. It doesn't take any effort to criticize someone like you, that's how pathetic you are! Reasonable anarchists would rather kill you than put up with your psychological abuse.

Scientist (not verified) Wed, 12/25/2024 - 09:53

Did it physically hurt you when you realized that your, "i am not arguing for authority as you seem to think," made zero sense and had zero context to what was being discussed and to what you replied energetically to? This could be a symptom of a larger problem.

It would still be worth you earnestly explaining how you came to "i am not arguing for authority as you seem to think" from the comment you were replying to. Perhaps a persecution complex? Please do try to honestly explain. For science.

lumpy (not verified) Wed, 12/25/2024 - 11:18

whoooa, are you calvin's therapist? i'm so sorry... i've been asking him about you over the years

did he ask to have the sessions here now? is this medically advisable for him?

CalvinSmith (not verified) Sat, 12/28/2024 - 06:16

do you consistently refuse to psychoanalyze conversations before joining them, if you are such a mentally stable and intelligent troll?

The TOTW was about pilgrimages, and it didn't explicity ask any of these dumb trolls "which is the superior anarchist hang out, because that is really what we should be talking about!", yet somehow im desperately afriad of carbon monoxide poisoning in my house!

Yes, I am the crazy person, you guys are the sane, hard working anarchists, working for the True Class Revolution. But thank you for once again teaching me how to expertly troll any publicly available online hangout, lumpy! Just ignore all context, and post! It's such an intelligent way to deal with any situation.

Oh, yes, and a hearty medal to those who bravely delete comments, that is so sane compared to all of my "terrible posts" on here!

CalvinSmith (not verified) Sat, 12/28/2024 - 07:12

person would conclude that there is an objective "good" or "bad" in anarchist troll spaces. That mentality certainly goes beyond anti-fa, it's probably a mixture of petite bourgeoisie reasoning (which is mostly concerned with reputation, appearance, and the defensive, hand-waving protection of infrastructure) with some other poorly reasoned bullshit.

However, I'm glad that we are all finally questioning the basis of "anarchist trolling", and whether that can ever possibly lead to anarchists finally maintaining anti-hierarchical societies. Given that the state probably already trolls this website, the answer is probably no. If anything online can be believed, Jack Dorsey basically failed in tandem with thecollective with this approach.

anon (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 14:11

Alright, my desperate-for-meaningless-online-engagement guy with little-to-no-real-world experience: ahem. "Dreamtime Village, Skatetopia, Slab City" are NOT "anarchist spaces". OoOooOOkay?

anon (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 18:11

Peek-a-boo!

MoreDeadCEOs (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2024 - 14:22

I like to annually hitchhike to Haymarket Square and reconnect with my anarchist ancestors in reflection on what awaits we anarchists in these times. They whisper to me, "how many CEOs have you assassinated today?", and I ashamedly reply, "not enough". Then we weep and watch a porno.

anon (not verified) Tue, 12/24/2024 - 08:41

Hmmm this comment section has been moderated heavily in comparison to other threads of late and the above discussion is noticeably of lower quality. Perhaps the mods are slowly recognizing the correlation between open debate and enjoyable participation with interesting discourse?

thecollective Thu, 12/26/2024 - 10:10

What are you talking about? Without a doubt you're just making stuff up, which is frustrating. Here are some actual facts about this comment thread: before your comment there were three very brief comments that were unpublished because the thread was started by a known troll whose content is unpublished 100% of the time for various reasons. So that one comment from a very unfriendly-humorless-life-is-suffering troll was taken off and then Calvin responded to the thread and then another anonymous comment.

I usually don't take the time to respond to these sorts of comments, because it's often a waste of time and with that it would mean that the trolls are winning, but here I am proving you absolutely wrong and that your constant lying and crying wolf behaviour is terrible.
-thecollective_1.8

anon (not verified) Tue, 12/24/2024 - 15:31

A good anarchist pilgrimage site, in my opinion, is the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument in the Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. Located nearby that are the gravesites of Emma Goldman, Voltairine de Cleyre and Lucy Parsons. Also nearby, in Chicago itself, is the Haymarket Memorial in Haymarket Square.

CalvinSmith (not verified) Wed, 12/25/2024 - 12:06

Means burning down the buildings though which they were hatefully raised: pretty balsy, pretty much impossible, yet this should be the mirriam webster (codified and permanent) definition of an anarchist pilgrimage!

Happy recuperation, folks! Reinvent the wheel: masturbate, cum, give birth to revolutaries of nakedness!

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/27/2024 - 11:17

I do enjoy a trip to the local infoshop or radical bookstore when I’m in a city that’s cool enough to have one. Something about knowing the anarchists of the city go to the location I’m visiting makes me feel at home. Second is the local food co-op, while not anarchist, they do often share some vaguely left-libertarian ethos that can provide a similar homey feeling. I’m not one for visiting historical sites (boring!) since nothing is typically happening there. Like the OP said, slab city, or an old hippie commune can be fun to visit, but, similar to the food co-op, these typically aren’t anarchist in the slightest.

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