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Welcome to the anews podcast. This is episode 58 for April 6, 2018. This podcast covers anarchist activity, ideas, and conversations from the previous week.
Editorial: Illegalist Praxis by Paul Z. Simons
TOTW: Shifting the Posts
This podcast is the effort of many people. This episode was
* sound edited by linn o’mabel
* written by jackie
* narrated by chisel and a friend
* the music is 1) William Basinski – D|P 4 2) Asbestoscape – Return 3) Hudson Mohawke – Return
* Thanks to Aragorn! and Ariel for their help with the topic of the week
* Contact us at podcast@anarchistnews.org
To learn more
Introduction to anarchism: http://anarchy101.org
Books and other anarchist material: http://littleblackcart.com
News and up to the minute commentary: https://anarchistnews.org
What’s with this false opposition between theory and action? Why can’t an “anarchism of doing” coexist with the formulation of a strong critique? If you want to “do stuff,” then go ahead and do stuff. No one is stopping you. But action for its own sake is no more inherently laudable than is theory for *its* own sake. There seems to be this assumption within the anarchist milieu that everyone is obligated to live up to everyone else’s expectations of what it means to be “doing enough” when no such obligation exists. I don’t know about anybody else, but I didn’t become an anarchist to have other people tell me what I “should” be doing. Too much action and not enough thinking is precisely why I stopped associating with leftists in the first place. If you are acting from a sense of urgency and obligation rather than from your own desire to act, then what exactly is ‘anarchistic’ about your actions?
Besides, I don’t buy the suggestion that this aversion to all things ‘academic’ has anything to do with a principled desire for action over theory. I think it has more to do with certain people’s insecurities around feeling out of their depth in a serious discussion about ideas that they find objectionable. If you don’t want to discuss Stirner, then don’t discuss Stirner. But, if you’re going to open the subject only to shrink away from it later because the discussion is too ‘theoretical’ for you, then, as far I’m concerned, you’ve already forfeited your position. Having a critique of the academy as a bureaucratic institution is one thing, but deliberate anti-intellectualism is no less than a celebration of ignorance. I’d expect this sort of thing from Trump’s loyal cult of doting neanderthals, but hearing it from anarchists is more than a little disappointing.