TOTW: Saint Luigi

Topic of the Week - I am writing a review of John H. Richardson’s 2025 Luigi: The Making and the Meaning. The back cover is a mural of him, out of London, depicting him in saintly fashion. Larger than life, solemn face, and a golden halo circling his head. The back cover also includes a quote from the book: “For a growing group of Americans who seem to be vibrating with existential anxieties, he became a screen onto which they projected their fears and dreams.” For anyone with interest in the fields of psychology , sociology, and history as applied to religion, this is nothing new

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: Determinism

Robert Sapolsky’s 2023 Detemined: A Science of Life Without Free Will is a recent major influence on me. Sapolsky, a neuroscientist, argues free will either does not exist or at best, exists at a lower rate than we like to believe. Sapolsky’s previous book, Behave states, “And [human behavior] is indeed a mess, a subject involving brain chemistry, hormones, sensory cues, prenatal environment, early experience, genes, both biological and cultural evolution, and ecological pressures, among other things.”

TOTW: Anarchism, Culture, and the Nation

A core principle of anarchism is rejection of nationalism. The view is derived from the principle that nationalism is a false ideology that divides the working classes or suppresses individual expression. But it is easier to levy critiques of dominant nations than oppressed ones. This question is not as irrelevant as many assume: it is dismissed as “it isn’t the 60s anymore” and “irrelevant for anarchists.” Palestine, Ireland, North American Land Back, Euskadi, and other movements for liberation continue. Palestine is obviously the most prominent and anarchists cannot afford to ignore it, whether from a revolutionary practice or a purely analytical perspective. But despite that, anarchists cannot just “go along” with the popular ideas of the times and must think for themselves. How can we engage in these struggles while also being honest about the logical outcome of nationalism, i.e. new states?

TOTW: Wither Theory?

Topic of the Week - In my local anarchist scene, anarchist theory and tendencies aren’t often discussed. There’s the obvious anarchist positions against capitalism, Marxism, and bigotries. But beyond that? Not much to say about theory of change, discussing the varieties of anarchist ideas, or even discussing the “big names” of anarchy: Bakunin, Kropotkin, Malatesta, Goldman, Bookchin, Aragorn!, or Zerzan. In fact, after a recent meeting, it was suggested to avoid centering particular anarchist beliefs, ie, anything beyond “capitalism, fascism, stalinism, and bigotry are bad.” This is because a statement such as “Fuck [person or idea]” may be interpreted by new folks as fact and not opinion. This is no shade on my people, I appreciate them deeply and some private context at least makes it somewhat understandable.

TOTW: On the creation of an anarchist culture

Topic of the Week - The our culture of systematic hierarchy and exploitation has permeated every aspect of our way of life to the point where one feel as though they must tread water or drown in it. The infrastructure of this machine of slavery and death is now actively implementing a new greater totalized state of centralization and control. Even within individuals these prisons are being built and rebuilt. On every level the society arounds us seeks to make us expandable pieces in its own mechanized self-perpetuation to the point where every other lifeway is foreclosed upon or recuperated into its function so that not only is going along with the program always easier feeling, but we are rapidly approaching a either such diffused spectacular culture that there are shrinkly few ways not to be a patriot or a brutal and violent reconstruction of the settler-colonial white supremacist core of the empire, at expense of all others. Each of these paths does little to mitigate the problems that spawned them. In this increasing state of normalized exceptions anarchists are pulled into the universalization of this process through the recuperation of their subcultures and the rejection of the now carved out hollow paths of subcultural divergence.

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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: Has Anarchist Muay Thai Gone Too Far? Some Questions for the movement

Guest Topic of the Week entry chosen by thecollective from Anathema Volume 11 Issue 1 Summer 2025 - Has Anarchist Muay Thai Gone Too Far? Some Questions for the movement

A quick note: Anarchist martial arts culture is a new phenomenon in the United States. It is generally a welcome one in the author’s view. Here’s a few questions the author is pondering.

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