anthropology

“A Web of Relations & Tensions” — interview with Return Fire

These questions were completed, as requested, for the first release of No Path[1] – a project aiming to make more links between the ‘anti-civilisation’ and ‘anti-speciesist’ strands in the anarchist world. The invitation to participate was very welcome, and it seemed a good opportunity to offer critical engagement with these tendencies, as well as talk about the upcoming Return Fire book which No Path had taken interest in. However, when the ‘zine went to print, No Path wrote to say that the fifth question and answer (the one relating to the focus of their project) had been cut, citing lack of space. Here is the unabridged version of the interview. For copies of No Path #1 (which will otherwise be offline only), email them at nopath[at]riseup.net

Anarchism in Practice Is Often Radically Boring Democracy

2021: When the right gets to keep "insurrection", anarchists get to keep "tedium", and the left gets to keep "anarchy".

While an exciting idea, anarchism in practice is, well, boring. Far from what window-smashing insurrectionists are doing, it mostly takes the form of an extremely slow-moving and highly rule-bound process of collective deliberation. Anarchy, paradoxically, means more rules, not fewer, and more collective responsibility, not less.

David Graeber: The Anarchist Anthropologist-Provocateur 1961-2020

occupy everything!

From Politico By TIMOTHY NOAH 12/26/2020

The economics profession can tell you everything there is to know about money except what money is. If you want to stump an economist, or a Wall Street banker, or a Washington economic policymaker, just ask, “What is money?” You might as well ask a fish to define water.

David Graeber, who died in September at age 59, from necrotic pancreatitis, was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. It’s the job of an anthropologist to explain to a fish what water is, and in that spirit Graeber defined money as an overly precise tool to measure the debt around which all societies are organized.

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