TOTW: Nothing Ever Happens

Does it ever feel like nothing ever happens? You may have ever heard the phrase before, which is a bit of a meme now. But the basic idea is that there are no global events that fundamentally change the world order. Current events occur, horrible (Palestine, Sudan, some shitty election) and great (Luigi Mangione, the recent string of arsons) things do happen, but the premise is that the power balance of the world, either between classes or states, fundamentally remains the same or reflects those of recent history.

TotW: when to confront, what to confront, and not

So someone says something outrageous at a party, like "sometimes snitching is ok." Or "if you don't have anything to hide, why worry about encryption." Or any of the other things that we forget people think because who hangs out with them.

TOTW: Persistence or Purity? The Mirror of Non-State Power

What does it say about anarchism that it so often chooses immediacy, aversion to form, and radical transparency—does it desire to win, or merely to remain pure while disappearing?

Zeal for insurrection burns bright and dies young.

However, if there is anything to be learned from formations like Hezbollah or the Houthis, it is not their ideology but their refusal of immediacy—their stubborn commitment to duration.

As they did not erupt fully formed, they sedimented. Layer by layer, year by year, they became difficult to uproot.

TotW: Meaningful OpSec

MEANINGFUL OPSEC; OR, NOW, YOU DON’T HAVE A PERSONAL FBI AGENT I’ve been considering operational security and security culture a lot since the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF) case broke. For such a small group, about seven people, two were feds (well, one was a paid informant, the other was an FBI agent).

ToTW: Work! What is it and do we have to do it!?

Working for the man, working on myself, this relationship is work, this relationship is working, working on this or that, this is my body of work, that is just what i do for work, work work work. It's a word we seem to use for every sort of action or arrangement that requires any effort, but what does it really mean? Many anarchists are anti-work but scrape themselves raw on tasks or endeavors that could be called work.

TotW: Fear and its Discontents

How do we, how do you, deal with fear? 

I want to do things that I am scared to do. By this I mean many things. I want to do things that scare me for personal growth, because dealing with fear makes me more capable and also more interesting to myself. I want to do things that scare me because I think that those things are challenges to the fucked up society that I live in. I want to do things that scare me because confronting fear with other people is a bonding exercise. 

TotW: Dissolving Power, Not Replacing It

Power structures persist because power itself becomes the game. Even attempts to redistribute power often reinforce its logic rather than dismantling it. Can anarchism go beyond shifting power and instead make it something that naturally dissipates?

TOTW: Gardens, part II

Here in this part of the world, spring has almost arrived. Outside, the sun is hiding behind some clouds as it has for most of the winter and the snow on the ground continues to accumulate. This week we’re digging up the earth to talk about growing plants and hear about your upcoming plans or how the garden was over the year.

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