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Title: Presage Anarchy Author: sappho Date: November 10, 2022 Language: en Topics: philosophy, philosophy of anarchy, Philosophical Anarchism, mutual aid, solidarity, authority, hierarchy Source: 2022 pamphlet
What is authority? It is power that we must succumb to; a power that is
not dependent on the probability of our acceptance. This authority, real
authority, is overarching and all-encompassing. It is the force that has
determined us from the start. To this authority, to natural law or god,
we are both in resistance and harmony. To this authority, we live in a
paradoxical freedom. So what is this to law? What is this to leadership?
These are susurrous vectors of force. They filch energy to operate on
and are just as capable as all. With every formation of complexity and
with every idea the whole aspect of the universe changes. On this scale,
on our answering to authority, we stand on equal grounds. To call this
“law” or “leadership” authority is atomistic; in the sight of these
parts, we remain autonomous. For these atoms to be an authority, we
would be transformed into property. As property, we cease to be at all.
‘Authority’ is impossible.
I am held by all and it is the only condition under which I could exist.
I am held by the past and I am held by the present. I am held by the
arbitrary and symmetrical direction of time. I derive from thousands of
years of labor, overlapping and inseparable ideas, thousands of years of
evolution, and solidarity and competition. Exclusivity is no pivot. I am
the property of none and all. I am not subject to any one part, for the
whole is larger than the sum of its parts. I am autonomous.
To be held by all, God must be impersonal. To be autonomous, God must be
in harmony with what we experience as liberty. God must be the whole
aspect. The being which makes atomistic authority or property
impossible. This is to say that no object is in inherent opposition or
harmony with another. A is not black nor white, not any shade of gray,
not saturated or desaturated, and not something nor another
“What is hierarchy? For us, it is the immotile, self-perpetuating,
categorization, and designation of power to single or clusters of atoms
or actors over other characters [AI]…Hierarchy, in the raw, autonomous
world, is not the domination of an aspect over the whole, but an aspect
over another. This fails and leaves us autonomous because, as we know,
every aspect of the universe is in intimate interconnection [IA]. This
is to say, the domination of one aspect by another while necessarily
leaving all others can only be sustained through an entropy which only
trends towards an equilibrium.
What is justice without morality? Nothing but what we make of it. What
is morality without god? Nothing but the overwhelming probability of
certain reactions taking course that we inherited through a series of
evolution and spontaneously organize [GI]. What is voluntary, what is
“just,” is what is guided by feelings [IA]. I see a peony and I pick it
up. I do this because its appearance elicits my creativity, or its smell
produces conviviality and enjoyment, or it brings out memories that make
me feel good about the community in which I am engaged. This is a
voluntary action; an action guided by its consequence. Reason cannot
inspire our actions, but functions to regulate them according to the
comparative values attributed to various excitements. If every voluntary
action is performed for its consequences, then there is comparison and
judgment in every voluntary action. To bring meaning to justice is to
improve our reason. To follow the law blindly is unreasonable; to obey
‘authority’ must be an injustice [AI]. What is hierarchy? For us, it is
the immotile, self-perpetuating, categorization, and designation of
power to single or clusters of atoms or actors over other characters
[AI]. Hierarchy is an involuntary movement because it is mechanical and
it is unjust because involuntary. For, justice is based on reasoning and
the balancing of what we want to rhapsodize and the consequences ahead.
Whereas, such a system is lifeless and devoid of even an expression of
revile or an induced state of catatonia. This is an abstraction,
however. We already know that authority is itself a paradox; that
“authority” is impossible. When we look at systems of government, we
feel trapped in a contract we’ve never signed, in borders we’ve never
seen, in a scarcity of autonomy, in ideals we do not agree with, in a
god of personality [GI]. There are holes in this system. There must be
[IA]. We understand that totalizing authority, real, mechanical,
authority is experienced as freedom [AI]. We understand that the
totalizing authority of natural law, of god, is the only condition in
which we could exist [AI]. Almost methodically, we see these systems
collapse and rebuild themselves, each time realizing more liberty.
Within all of these systems, people act for themselves; they trade,
cooperate, steal or expropriate, revolt, and emblazon their lives with
religion and culture. Hierarchy, in the raw, autonomous world, is not
the domination of an aspect over the whole, but an aspect over another.
This fails and leaves us autonomous because, as we know, every aspect of
the universe is in intimate interconnection [IA]. This is to say, the
domination of one aspect by another while necessarily leaving all others
can only be sustained through an entropy that only trends towards an
equilibrium [HD!]. For, anarchy is not the end of existing authority but
the realization that there are none. As anarchists, it is our work to
free the body of property and the mind of illusion: to simply live our
lives with the understanding of our agency, to counter what latches on,
and to build a world that produces such conscious people through
solidarity and free association.
It is without a doubt that societies of solicitude are the presage to
true freedom.