Oh hey. So I want some advice on introductory books to read about #anarchism. But, like, there's two ways to learn about something with a history and I definitely prefer one of them over the other. So... please read:
I'm asking, "Where are we?" You can either answer by describing where we started and describing the path we took to get where we are. Or you can answer by describing our current location on a map and the surroundings.
I'm interested in starting with the latter and getting into the history after I have a reasonable understanding of the current state, if that makes sense?
What should I read?
@LienRag Cool. Thanks. Any particular book you think is a good start?
Actually I still have to read most of his books, so your guess is a good as mine...
@LienRag Hah! Well, thanks, anyway. I'll poke around a bit.
@benhamill In a general sense: don't read books, read web sites. The problem with that approach is that there's a lot more sites that are about whatever is happening at a given moment (including hard-to-decipher internal issues at times) than "welcome to anarchism" ones, so it's entirely possible to wind up more confused rather than less.
That said:
https://libcom.org/library/introduction-anarchist-communism
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works
(more)
@benhamill i don't think i'm an anarchist as such these days (and when i did think i was an anarchist, i don't think i knew what i was talking about), but when i think about it as a tendency and a lens on things, i started with:
- kenneth rexroth
- paul goodman
- ursula k. le guin
- emma goldman
if i knew where i was at now, i'd tell you, but that was a kind of beginning for me.
@brennen Cool, yeah. The stuff I know sounds good, but I know that I don't know much, so I want more details.
@benhamill @paulfree14 there is no "where we are now", because everyone is in a different place.
Small projects get by with very little actual organization, because all they need to agree on is to debate until all of them are happy with the result. That's anarchism in its purest form, no rulers, everyone's voice is heard, but it doesn't scale up.
Larger and older projects have organizational rules, and a history how they arrived at them, but very little will be written down.
@GyrosGeier @paulfree14 Yeah. If the map metaphor, I figure it's less like we're in a group standing in a spot and more that we're a number of groups arrayed across a region. I'm interested in the region and who is where and why, I guess.
@benhamill there are a few (hyphenated) directions.
Anarcho-Syndicalism is one of the main approaches to scaling an anarchist society by creating cooperating groups and a governance structure that allows taking decisions on a larger scale without reintroducing a state.
Anarcho-Primitivism wants to return to a simpler way of living.
Anarcho-Capitalism doesn't work.
@GyrosGeier AnCap doesn't work. 👏🏻 Perfect summary. Haha. Thanks (and not just for the ancap burn).
@benhamill @paulfree14 Books I found valuable are "The Mushroom at the End of the World" and "The Art of Not Being Governed". Both of them give a good insight on how governance structures are built, and show the interaction between self-organizing people and state structures.
There are a few books on anarchist philosophy as well, which are probably good when you debate other people a lot, but which have only little bearing on the day-to-day organization of a group of anarchists.
> Small projects get by with very little actual organization, because all they need to agree on is to debate until all of them are happy with the result....
that's false. It is true when ppl don't know how to organize in larger scale, or are biased from majority rulling process.
Would it be usefull if I'll search for a zine about organisation? ...I don't remember any by name
@paulfree14 @benhamill Five people in a room somewhere don't need scalable structures. Their project won't grow, but that needn't be a goal.
@benhamill @GyrosGeier
...ah then maybe I missunderstood you.
Yes true, not everything needs to scale.
...but also just with 5 ppl in a room it's usefull, as long the goal is not 'just' talking, to be aware of 'how to talk' (structering the conversation...etc) That's for me an important part in anarchist organisation.
@benhamill
Murray Bookchin?