No subject

ostensibly illegitimate political and social practices, not by
attacking them, but by simply engaging in some other practice that, by
its very nature, calls the existing practices into question and,
eventually, to account."
http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=3D201

If you read social science fiction, this is wonderfully illustrated in
Ursula K. LeGuin's "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas"
and way back when I was in a rock band, we did a song called "Who
Walks Away" :-)

Basically,
the PLAY that you do undermines existing negative infrastructures BY
ITS VERY PRESENCE
Anger harms YOU more than it harms THEM.

And if you REALLY need to justify it,
then just fall back on hegemonic discourse and realize that
if you oppose them under the terms of the discourse they defined in
the first place
then you are simply serving their ends
as an opposition to be pointed out and pointed at,
and a force to be used to mobilize the System against you.

-p


On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 5:34 PM, John Hopkins <jhopkins at tech-no-mad.net> wro=
te:
> hallo Michael, Christian, John, et al...
>
>> If you take that into account, saying that there is 'no resistance' make=
s less and less sense. Perhaps some people are tired of fighting 'against c=
apital' and rather more interested in constructing what comes emerging beyo=
nd it?
>
> This has got to be a truism, Michael! -- I noted the following in Christi=
an's
> rebuttal -- where he restates the core precept of M-ism (as opposed to Y-=
ism or
> Z-ism)
>
> "The central aspect and scandal is that capital exploits wage labour and =
other
> workers and that therefore a movement against capital is needed."
>
> It hasn't worked, and moving against <<fill in the blank>> for 100+ years=
 has
> gotten us only HERE, where we are. =A0This suggests that the cumulative e=
verything
> (INCLUDING moving against) that has occurred has landed us where humanity=
 IS in
> the moment. =A0Resistance AND passivity (the creation of ANY dominant
> techno-social pathways which are followed by herds of people) have both w=
orked
> to further this advance into the future of the collective we-a-plague-spe=
cies.
>
> And please tells me what a lived-strategy on the granular level a "moveme=
nt
> against capital" means. =A0This appears to be so totally theoretical and =
academic
> that it is almost laughable were it not for the numerous fatalities that
> occurred historically under this rubric. =A0And its ultimate failure to d=
o
> anything but to bring us where we ARE NOW.
>
> The standing and largely reified models of (social) systems (X-ism, Y-ism=
 or
> Z-ism) are not the thing itself and are always reductive. =A0Their accura=
cy is
> variable and in their reification, they cannot reflect the constant chang=
e in
> indeterminate systems. =A0Clinging to them and the infinite permutations =
(of
> discourse around them) obscures the facing of the moment we are actually =
IN. =A0(I
> have stepped out of sensual life to write this.)
>
> IMHO, NOW is always the time to not just talk about constructing new path=
ways,
> but to put ourselves well on the way of thriving day-by-day upon them to =
our
> uncertain ends. =A0This means change from what has come before -- possibl=
y change
> in social relations like the disappearance of an intellectual 'class' -- =
whose
> sole purpose is, from positions of more-or-less social-security, to add w=
ords on
> words -- AND the disappearance of the social structures they inhabit whic=
h are
> simply (supporting!) sub-systems of those larger techno-social entities.
>
> And I greatly appreciate the reflective narrative that John Sobol wrote -=
- it is
> =A0exactly these kind of lived observations, awarenesses, and considerati=
ons we
> must be engaging to understand where we ARE and what potential trajectori=
es we
> are actually upon. =A0The precision of Oracle rests upon a more full awar=
eness of
> the moment.
>
> Could it be that WE have to actually change the forms and pathways of OUR=
 lives?
>
> jh
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--=20
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http://www.PaulBHartzog.org
http://www.panarchy.com
PaulBHartzog at PaulBHartzog.org
PaulBHartzog at panarchy.com
PHartzog at umich.edu
--------------------------------------------------------
The Universe is made up of stories, not atoms.
                 --Muriel Rukeyser

See differently, then you will act differently.
                 --Paul B. Hartzog
--------------------------------------------------------