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Title: The Futility of Struggle Author: ziq Date: November 2021 Language: en Topics: struggle, strugglismo, revolution, post-left, social movements, social war Source: https://raddle.me/wiki/struggle
To struggle is to embody the activist mentality. To struggle is to take
up the role of activism. The activist belongs to the struggle, gives
themself fully to the cause, makes it their job, their mission, their
whole existence.
Social struggle is activism, it's protest, it's empty
obsessive-compulsive ritual, it's imposing sanctimonious moral values on
others, it's collectivizing people into in-groups and out-groups so they
can better do war with each other, it's entrenched in dogmatic ideology
and personality cults, it's self-aggrandizing and endlessly
congratulatory, it's a constant push and pull between the system and
those who struggle to seize control of it to reboot it in their own
image, appointing themselves as the beloved God-given saviors of The
People™, the purveyors of fairness, equality and rational world
building.
Tearing authority apart needn't be done in the name of an epic global
struggle for the greater good or to achieve the grand master plan set
out for us by the great elders of anarchy in their uplifting manifestos
promising us a new world order dedicated to worker-led factories and
social justice for all.
Destroying authority where you see it isn't a struggle for revolution,
it doesn't need to be done in pursuit of anything bigger than a simple
personal desire to watch tangible instruments of authority burn to
embers right in front of you so they no longer blight your senses.
The actions we take don't need to be in pursuit of an amazing utopian
society dreamed up by a long-dead Russian prince or an epic battle
between good and evil of our own imagining where we cast ourselves as
the heroic protagonists in a brutal social war where victory is
everything and there can be no rest or amusement until the glorious
prophesized end goal is achieved.
An anarchist's actions don't need to be connected to anything beyond
what we see and feel right in front of us: A tangible, immediate outcome
we can perceive with our own senses in this time and space. What we do
doesn't need to be presented as part of some incredible 4D chess move to
build a new, 'better' society or government, to ignite a new age of
egalitarianism that promises to solve all of humanity's problems by
putting the right people in charge of constructing the right systems.
I can paint over a billboard or spike a tree or tear up a road or stab a
dictator or spread dandelion seeds in a wheat field without it being a
struggle to upend society to conform to my favored vision of how society
should be run. I can be an agent of chaos simply because it feels good
to be. I don't need to lie to myself or to you and claim my actions or
your actions are going to bring on a new dawn of civilization if only we
all struggle enough together.
I can deal blows to the imposing instruments of authority that surround
me just because I want to, without ever believing any of my actions will
lead to a social revolution to remake the world in my (or my God's)
image. Without ever thinking I'm a mighty warrior fighting the good
fight, a worker's Messiah sent to Earth to right all the wrongs of
humanity and lead the chosen people to anarchist Mecca.
Or in Aragorn!'s words:
(Strugglismo is) a critique of boring, stale, ineffective, ritualized
activity and, recently, has given birth to a bunch of stale, boring,
sanctimonious projects.
I can destroy the instruments of authority that work to slowly crush me
under their weight without needing to craft a meticulous plan to build
nicer replacements for them.
I destroy that which crushes me because I don't find being crushed to be
very pleasant. I don't destroy authority because I'm under the
impression I'm saving the world by preserving myself or that something
as innately crushing as mass society can even be made to be fair and
equitable.
I have no delusions of grandeur. I can't save civilization or build a
better civilization. I'm not a vessel for change, I'm not the trigger
for a new world order, I'm not the purveyor of universal justice.
What I can do is pick up a brick, and I can break the object I fling the
brick at.
Whatever rifts may or may not form from that action are beyond my
control, and I'll be too busy aiming the brick at the next grotesque
object of authority to care.
I have power over the things right in front of me that I can affect. A
brick through a windshield is an immediate cause and effect action with
no ego trip behind it to pretend the brick is bigger than it is. I'm
under no impression a brick is a symbol in the battle between good and
evil, just and unjust, left and right, prole and capital. A brick is
just a brick. A tool to achieve a measurable, immediate result.
I don't have power over things far bigger than myself, I can't force
society or economics to bend to my will. I can't control how millions or
billions of people live. I only have power over the brick in my hand and
the things I throw it at.
Struggling to affect outcomes you have no power over is a life spent in
miserable exasperation and futility. You have no ability to mount a
struggle to correct all of society's ills. Every hard-fought revolution
in history has only further entrenched structural oppression and mass
subservience.
The brick I pick up off the ground and hold in my hand has infinitely
more value to me and to anarchy than a thousand years of desperate
struggle to knock kings off their thrones and bring in new kings and new
thrones.