against community towards friendship
Against Community Building, Towards Friendship (2021) by ziq
via 9 pg kindle version from anarchist library [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ziq-against-community-building-towards-friendship]
notes/quotes:
3
The more time I spend amongst anarchists, the more I find the “anarchist community” ideal to be inherently unattainable and isolating. It seems every attempt at building an organized egalitarian community ends up enabling gross misconduct by certain members and the end result is always demoralizing burn-out for everyone involved.
as long as any form of m\a\p
The attempt to group disparate strangers who barely get along, based on an imagined affinity (typically ideology, but painted in such broad strokes so as to be rendered inconsequential) inevitably manages to crash and burn every time.
need to try imagine if we ness
how we gather in a space is huge.. need to try spaces of permission where people have nothing to prove to facil curiosity over decision making.. because the finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us.. keeping us from us..
ie: imagine if we listen to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & use that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)
Due to my experiences both managing and participating in various anarchist spaces, I’d really like to throw out the entire idea of anarchist community and re-imagine how anarchistic interactions can be manifested going forward.
the thing we’ve not yet tried/seen: the unconditional part of left to own devices ness
[‘in an undisturbed ecosystem ..the individual left to its own devices.. serves the whole’ –dana meadows]
there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental exponential labeling) to facil the seeming chaos of a global detox leap/dance.. for (blank)’s sake..
ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition
otherwise we’ll keep perpetuating the same song.. the whac-a-mole-ing ness of sea world.. of not-us ness.. of part\ial ness.. [again].. for (blank)’s sake..
Much like the related ideologically sacred institution of democracy, the whole concept of community is insidious and underhanded, an ideal seemingly designed to manipulate people into associating with bullies and dickheads by whittling away at basic human needs like autonomy, self-determination and consent.
as long as any form of m\a\p
Too many times, our dedication to building unfettered communities open to all people lowers our guard and lets cops, rapists and assorted authoritarians infiltrate our movements and inflict lasting damage to both our collective and individual psyches.
rather.. too many times (aka: not yet to date) we haven’t let go enough to try/see the thing we’ve not yet tried/seen: the unconditional part of left to own devices ness
4
There’s a word that describes how we feel when we need time to ourselves but can’t get it because we live in these vast interconnected global communities, surrounded wall-to-wall, block-to-block, nation-to-nation in every direction by other people and have no way to tune out their vociferous voices and energies. It’s the mirror image to loneliness – ‘aloneliness’. This innate state of being was surprisingly only coined recently, in 2019, by Robert Coplan, a Canadian psychologist.
If loneliness is the yearning to connect to others, being aloney is the deep-seeded need to disconnect from others and retreat into the self. This is something that becomes harder and harder as the communal collective is centered and the individual is increasingly diminished and cast as a villainous foil to the precious community ideal.
2 missing pieces.. 2 maté basic needs.. need a means to org around those two legit needs
brown belonging law.. maté trump law.. et al
5
So let’s just call it ‘friendship’, since that’s essentially all we desire from what we term an ‘anarchist community’: Trusted friends we can live with, play with, learn with. It’s a simple and effective word that only has positive connotations, and isn’t going to make anyone think of all the glaringly authoritarian communities held together by a state’s threat of violence and built and maintained by exploited workers who most often can’t even afford to live in said communities.
I think it’s important we use clear and concise language to describe our objectives as anarchists, and too many of the words we lean on when outlining our desires for a domination-free world have hierarchical baggage permanently weighing them down.
language as control/enclosure et al
Okay, now let’s rephrase the question in a way that leaves no room for misinterpretation…
if only there were a thing..
that’s why we need tech to do the thing we can’t seem to do .. ie: nonjudgmental expo labeling to facil the seeming chaos of a global detox leap
“How would I suggest you make decisions when you have disagreements with your friends over which course of action to take?”
Well, I wouldn’t suggest anything.‘
again.. if only .. (ie: rock throwing is a suggestion et al).. and again.. the thing gwe’ve not yet tried/seen:
the unconditional part of left to own devices ness
People really don’t need me or anyone to direct their interactions with their friends or dictate to them how they should define and fulfill their relationships.
If you and your friends need me to prescribe you a program to adhere to in order for your friendship to function, you’re clearly not interested in practicing anarchy.
6
We need to know our limitations. We need to stand up for each other when we see abuse and not allow the abuse to be tolerated and normalized under the guise of community, democracy and inclusivity. It’s important to set clear boundaries with people and cut ties with them when they cross those boundaries and begin to damage your mental health and sense of safety.
red flag we’re doing it/life wrong if this is an issue
There’s really no fail-proof program for human association, which is why it’s so important for each able individual to be aware of their own boundaries and be ready to enforce them.
perhaps not until now.. the dance seems a pretty fail proof ‘program’ for human association.. we just have needed a means to get/back to that.. a means for global detox
7
Systems Don’t Protect People
People protect people.
another red flag we’re doing it/life wrong.. if protection ness is an issue
The bigger a community and its bureaucracy grow, the more disconnected from people and their needs the community gets, until the point where a community becomes devastatingly isolating and dehumanizing to everyone forced to exist within its towering walls.
legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. so need to be that big/small.. so has to be sans any form of measuring, accounting, people telling other people what to do..
8
Community always seems to be the spark that ignites an inferno of hierarchy and domination. So much horrific oppression and death has been justified in the age of Leviathan by attaching it to “the good of the community”. I’ve seen so many people, including anarchists, sweep all manner of abuses under the rug in a desperate attempt to “protect the integrity of the community”. Somehow the community is always put before the people who inhabit it, as if a precarious eidolon drawn from thin air and held together by nothing but collective resolve is more sacred than life itself.
again.. brown belonging law.. maté trump law.. et al
*Friendship can’t scale up to swallow the planet. Friendship remains forever small, personal, intimate, deliberate, voluntary, decentralized. **This is a feature, not a bug. Friendship allows you to associate and disassociate with others at will, while always maintaining your individuality, the sanctuary of your headspace and the clarity of knowing who you are and what you need. The dictates of anonymous wider society and the supposed common good needn’t cloud your mind when you form friendships rather than build communities.
*love can though.. we have the means to go deeper than just who we assume we can get along with.. and again.. we have to (has to be all) for the dance to dance
pearson unconditional law et al
**rather.. a cancerous distraction is any form of m\a\p
9
So what is the purpose of building an anarchist community? If the difference between a community and a group of friends is that the community is bigger, more impersonal, more bureaucratic, more policed, with highly diverging values and a centralized concentration of power… Then what use is community to a group of people who seek to decentralize everything in their path, dismantle systems, negate authority and become as ungovernable as possible? What use is community to anarchy?
again.. need all of us for the dance to dance
I really feel we should be making friends rather than building communities
perhaps rather.. neither..
nothing to date has gotten to the root of problem
legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of measuring, accounting, people telling other people what to do
how we gather in a space is huge.. need to try spaces of permission where people have nothing to prove to facil curiosity over decision making.. because the finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us.. keeping us from us..
ie: imagine if we listen to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & use that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)
the thing we’ve not yet tried/seen: the unconditional part of left to own devices ness
[‘in an undisturbed ecosystem ..the individual left to its own devices.. serves the whole’ –dana meadows]
there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental exponential labeling) to facil the seeming chaos of a global detox leap/dance.. for (blank)’s sake..
ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition
otherwise we’ll keep perpetuating the same song.. the whac-a-mole-ing ness of sea world.. of not-us ness.. of part\ial ness.. [again].. for (blank)’s sake..
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anarch\ism ness
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be you. 