Aragorn!

Announcing Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed #67

2009-03-09T12:23:54Z

This is the new site for a little magazine that I help produce. It took a day out of my weekend to build it (the site) and weeks of my life to produce it (the magazine). I am really happy with this issue as I actually -like- my writing in this issue (rather than tolerate it) and continue to hope that it (the content of the magazine) finds a home in the minds of (future) friends.

Check it out
Anarchy:A Journal of Desire Armed

At least they got the war right.

2009-02-26T05:47:38Z

You Scored as insurrectionist war-machine

As they say "the phantom of liberty always comes with a knife between its teeth." Obviously the secret is to really begin. Find some friends and lets get this insurrection to come a little sooner.

insurrectionist war-machine

70%

irrelevant leftist

35%

feral wolf child

35%

wimpy liberal calling themselves an anarchist

25%

Help wanted

2008-06-03T11:05:47Z

I have a couple new projects that I don't want to announce before they get off the ground but would like to get some help with. Asking for help has never been easy for me and trying to attract people to "spotlight" projects (like writing) has met with mixed success. I'm not sure if this method is public enough to reach all the people who might be interested or provides enough context to be appealing to who I'd like to reach but I will give it a try...

http://anarchymag.org/blogs/aragorn.php?itemid=149

Internet Privacy Document

2008-05-27T09:57:02Z

I know there aren't that many people reading this but I just want to share a new document that I have been working on. Please take a look and give me your feedback.

http://security.angrynerds.com

Sometimes you just have to do a dumb personality test...

2008-04-21T23:05:47Z

My Personality


Neuroticism	35
Extraversion	75
Openness to Experience	80
Agreeableness	5
Conscientiousness	46

You do not feel nervous in social situations, and have a good impression of what others think of you, however you feel enraged when things do not go your way. You are sensitive about being treated fairly and feel resentful and bitter if you think you are being cheated. You have a generally cheerful disposition. You tend not to express your emotions openly and are sometimes not even aware of your own feelings. You will help others if they are in need. If people ask for too much of your time you feel that they are imposing on you, however you believe that a certain amount of deception in social relationships is necessary. You are guarded in new relationships and less willing to openly reveal the whole truth about yourself. You have strong will-power and are able to overcome your reluctance to begin tasks. You are able to stay on track despite distractions.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

What have I been up to lately?

2007-10-15T20:36:19Z

Not much...

Oh, I guess a little.

What is new with Little Black Cart - October 2007

Little Black Cart continues to be a project of anarchist distribution. We carry more than a few things anarchists and their friends should find interesting. Everything we carry we enjoy, most of it we agree with and the rest we disagree with gently. We continue to be inspired by the poetry of action and the energy of our friends to stay committed to the project of transforming the world even when hope no longer holds even ironic appeal.

The past few months (since our last update) have been busy. We have picked up a few new anarchist publishers, have been to Canada, and are starting a few new projects.

We Have Your Red Hot Slingshot Organizers

We are now the most convenient way (besides moving next door) to get the pocket-sized or spiral-bound calendar that reminds you about birthdays, anniversaries, and when Emma Goldman was born. They come in crazy colors and have enough space to write in all the tasks in your busy days. http://littleblackcart.com/category/publisher/slingshot/

Our First Paper Catalog

You can download it here. Check it out. http://littleblackcart.com/static/lbccatalog.pdf

The Prisoner Literature Fund

We want the project of putting anarchist literature into the world to be explicitly connected to the project of supporting -our- prisoners. Anarchist prisoners. As time is progressing there are more and more anarchist prisoners and we believe that it is imperative for anarchists to support each other. The LBC Prisoner Literature Fund is the first way we can do that. Help us help them.

http://littleblackcart.com/category/donation/prisoners/

Abolishing the Borders from Below

Did you know that there is an anarchist magazine that covers all of Eastern Europe, from Berlin to Moscow (and beyond)? It is called Abolishing the Borders from Below and we recommend you check it out. LBC is the North American distributor of ABB and we will help you get single issues, subscriptions or bulk copies of this important magazine.

http://littleblackcart.com/category/publisher/abolishing-borders-below/

New publishers

In addition to ABB we are now carrying publications from Kerbloom, Significant Failure, Mishap, and A Longing for Collapse Press. Kerbloom is a fantastic letterpress personal zine formerly from the East Bay (Oakland-Berkeley), Significant Failure produces the modern situationist pamphlet "Gasping from out the Shallows", Mishap was a long running, high quality, anarcho-punk zine (now moved to the Internet), and A Longing for Collapse is dedicated to spreading information about animal and earth liberation, thoughts on anti-industrial/anti-civilization, updates of political prisoners/prisoners of war, indigenous/native struggles around the world, and practical skills related to direct action, animal liberation, and wilderness living.

Check out each of our publishers at http://littleblackcart.com/publishers/

LBC on the road

We just returned from a successful trip to Canada and the Victoria Anarchist bookfair and will be visiting the Mid-Atlantic Radical Bookfair and the Reclaiming the Anarchist Tradition conference over the next few weeks. If your town is holding an event or is interested in having the Little Black Cart come to town drop us a line

We want to work with your local Infoshop

We now have discount rates for Infoshops and radical bookshops. Drop us a line for more information.

Until next time.

Little Black Cart

Announcing Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed #64

2007-08-22T06:26:05Z

The Fall/Winter issue of Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed is here.

Anarchists are engaged in juggling two incompatible concepts: one is a fundamental opposition to the world we live in, and the other is the need to actually live in, and we hope have an impact on, this world. We all have to find our own ways, with as much help and critical feedback as we can stand. Sometimes more.

Editorial: Capitalism means never having to say you are sorry by Leona Benten
Article: Proudhon’s Ghost by Lawrence Jarach
Review: AK Press Catalog by Bob Black

Issue 64 of Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed has as its theme that most pernicious of all enemies, Capitalism--in particular the relationship that anarchists have with capitalism; rhetorically opposed but practically ambivalent. Lawrence Jarach discusses the historical reality, and unreality, of petit-bourgeois anarchists in "Proudhon's Ghost: Petit-bourgeois anarchism, anarchist business, and the politics of effectiveness". Andy Robinson interrogates bricolage within capitalism in "Thinking from the Outside: Avoiding Recuperation". Finally, Aragorn! reflects on anarchists' reactionary attitudes about Capitalism in "To Dance with the Devil".

Reviewers in this issues include Bob Black who, in his inimitable style, targets the AK Press 2007 Catalog. Lawrence Jarach reviews Terrorism: An Introduction and the CNT in the Spanish Revolution Vol. 2 (you didn't think we would have an entire issue without any mention of the SR did you?), new reviewer A. Burkin reviews Horizontalism by Marina Sitrin, Australopithecus afarensis reviews species being and other stories by frere dupont. Media reviews include 325, A Murder of Crows, Anarchist Studies, ASR, EF!, Fervent Whispers, FE, Freedom, MRR, NY RAT, NEA, OysterCatcher, Rolling Thunder, and Warrior.

The current events section includes analysis of the Green Scare, 8 days of anarchy, and solidarity actions in Greece.

The rest of this issue includes columns like "What Others Are Saying" excerpts from the anarchist press, "The Egoist Encyclopedia", "Bad Medicine" and "Liana Doctrines", letters and a quiz.

The Anarchy website will soon have the contents of issue 62. We have grown the functionality of the aggregator of desire armed, Several AJODAists continue to update their blogs (Including Aragorn!, Leona, AAA, and Kriegspiel), and the AJODA forum continues to function. Please drop a line to webmaster@anarchymag.org if there are problems with the site.

Subscriptions
This issue will represent a break with the past. As we have mentioned, distribution for the magazine has been suffering along with the industry as a whole. Since the last issue the Post Office (USPS) has increased the rate of our shipping by nearly 20%. Several larger-than-us independent publications have completely stopped operations (including Punk Planet and Kitchen Sink) and we are looking at a major shift in our publication.

We are committed to continuing to publish Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed but we need you to subscribe. Even if you hate us (and have only read this far to fuel the flames) you should subscribe so that you know exactly how much you hate us. In the age of the Internet it may seem out of date, or archaic, to subscribe to a print magazine but our survival demands it.
We are offering a PDF version of the magazine for download. This will be a great way to check out the magazine if you are an overseas reader. This subscription will be $10 for 4 issues and will be delivered to your email box or downloadable from our website.

Also check out Little Black Cart for purchasing single copies of the magazine. In particular here is the link for Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed #64
Our hardcopy subscriptions are still only $20 for 5 issues and we really need to grow our subscription numbers. If you read Anarchy there is not cheaper way to get the magazine delivered to your door than through a subscription. If you shoplift it, only read back issues, or just read the copy that sits in the bathroom see this as a plea to help out a financially strapped project. In order not to rely so heavily on mainstream distribution channels we need more subscribers. Please consider subscribing.

Kriegspiel

2007-08-14T06:34:28Z

Hey! If you don't pay attention to the Anarchy Magazine Blog Aggregator you may not have noticed that the Anarchy Magazine strategy gaming blog has been updated by a long time contributor to the magazine. If you are into board games you will want to check out Kriegspiel blog.

Anarchists on Capitalism on Anarchism

2007-08-13T06:20:55Z

I cnp my latest blog entry here but usually I blog at the Anarchy Magazine site (http://anarchymag.org/aragorn)

We've sent AJODA 64 to the printer with an above average number of printing problems occurring in the process. The process of producing the magazine was actually a bit smoother (logistically), prior to getting it to the printer, than the past few issues. Producing the content, on the other hand, was considerably more difficult.

I have found that I am comfortable juggling many tasks only if they are in a similar problem domain; for instance technical tasks. The transition of switching from one domain to another is incredibly challenging. Switching from my daily practice (which usually involves responding to emails that are logistical or technical) to writing takes at least twice, if not four times, more time than it should (given what I actually end up outputting). Maybe it's incorrect to blame the domain switching, and it's just an issue of how difficult writing is for me, but the process is brutal.

This upcoming issue is on the theme of anarchism and business.

Doing a theme issue is a pain in the ass. On the one hand you can take the scattershot approach and just print whatever comes down the pipe that is even tangentially related to the theme or you wait for the right content to tell a story. Add to this the pressure of doing this on a timeline when (seemingly) fewer and fewer anarchists appear to want to write anything at all (and who can blame them) and I'm beginning to think that theme issues have to follow the content we have on hand rather than our desire for a statement.

This issue should be interesting since the theme lives somewhere in the space between an interest in anarchists and their relationship to capitalism in theory and practice AND the question about where there is anything reclaimable about talking economics, economic theory, or the logistics of mass society at all. Again we are confronted with the question of how to live with the implications of these beautiful ideas, how to do it successfully (defined here as sustainably and without putting yourself in financial ruin), and how to make a dent in the bullets heading in our direction.

Speaking of...

The Little Black Cart project is slowly becoming a success along the lines I was hoping for. A lot of publishers are connected to one another in a way that, I think, honors them. Now to start actually getting their stuff out there! One of the big pieces to the LBC project that we just launched (and something I am really happy about) is the Prisoner Literature Fund which is a way that people can donate money to support specific prisoners continuing their reading in anarchism. I look forward to this actually being a way that people can make sure some forgotten prisoners (like Eric McDavid) can be remembered.

what have I been doing the past few months?

2007-04-02T07:54:42Z

Usually I will not repost my blogs from http://anarchymag.org/aragorn but sometimes I will.

If you haven't noticed I haven't been around much lately. When I started blogging a bit more regularly it was in the context of traveling and made a lot of sense in that context. I was doing interesting things that I wanted to share with my friends (and possible friends) and didn't want to have to tell the same story over and over again. The last two months have been filled with a lot of drudgery that I would hate to bore people with (as it usually bores me to tears) but there have been some exciting things too.

Let's start over. For about the last 4-5 years the months of January to March are filled with preparations for "the big event" of the year (for anarchists) which usually happens in March. Because of some decisions made by the organizers of this event this year was pretty different than other years (for me). I, and the projects I'm involved with, decided not to explicitly table inside the event (we still set up our "Critical Carnival" outside of it). Instead I vigorously prepared for 8 days of events for the middle of March which took no small amount of effort. We also prepared an issue of Anarchy to be published in time for the 8 days period which brought its usual amount of grief. I finished the second part of my "Anarchist Mythologies" which I shared with quite a few friends. A few of us started a new anarchist publishing project that I will talk about more when our first book is delivered from the printer (which could be any day).

Along with all this I also started one of the largest projects I have ever undertaken. It is a deceptively simple concept but beneath the simplicity lays chaos. Simply put I have begun the process of putting together an anarchist e-commerce site. This site will reflect what I consider to be the wide variety of the anarchist press and will take advantage of modern technologies and distribution methods. Hopefully it will grow into a useful addition for the anarchist press. It will be launching during April and I will talk more about it then.

On the one hand each of these projects is really exciting and I could go on and on about how awesome it is to be able to spend my time working on them, I want to be circumspect. Tempering all of these exciting things are the real tensions of working with people who are ambivalent when I am excited, who focus on what I consider to be errata instead of what I consider to be important things, and the fact that I am in the middle of building infrastructure (for lack of better language) for people who are no longer there.

The bottom line is that the anarchists appear to have left the building.

Maybe it is just me but outside of the pettiness that is endemic to radical politics is a real sense that we are on a smaller and smaller stage. We are talking to fewer people. The tone of our discussions seems a bit more shrill due to the lengthening amount before we hear the echo. Even our conflicts seem to peter out due to lack of interest far earlier than they used to. We can't even summon the energy to disagree with each other any more.

Thinking about this eats at the borders of my projects. It isn't that I feel like what I am doing is doomed but that it just may not be relevant. This isn't because the content of what anarchists are talking about is any less relevant than it used to be but that something has happened. Call it the end of post-irony, the myspacification of social formations, or the irrelevance of radical politics in affecting anything like change in the past decade (or 6) but add my name to those looking for something inspiring. Something more inspiring than the latest pretty picture on the same old boring activism, the same old incoherence defended in the name of individual freedom (dude), or of the suffocation of politics by cliques.

Final Schedule for the Seventh Annual BASTARD Conference

2007-03-02T11:42:49Z

Join the Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research & Development for their seventh annual conference on Anarchist Theory on March 18th from 10 am - 6 pm at Dwinelle Hall in Berkeley CA.

http://sfbay-anarchists.org/conference for late breaking details
http://sfbay-anarchists.org/forum for questions and discussion
http://8daysofanarchy.org This is day 6 of 8 days of anarchy

Here is our final schedule

Revolution as a Jam Session of Outlaws: All That is Guerrilla Melts into Air
Ashanti Alston
One of the fundamental characteristics of jazz is improvisation. Thinking of Black revolution as a jam session keeps the focus on flexibility, individuality, and spontaneity. Postmodernism has some ideas that are helpful in this--
rejection of the meta narrative
emphasis on intersections (race, class etc)
multiple lenses
examples of revolutionary struggles, nationalist based, yet non-statist
challenges to concepts of solidarity
Fighting the system is a cat and mouse game. Tactics and strategies have to be creative and flexible to stay unco-opted. Our answers have to be temporary and we must fight on various levels, lawful, underground, as well as on multiple fronts.

Q&A on the Spanish Revolution
Lawrence Jarach
The Spanish Revolution was both a tremendous success for anarchist ideas and practice, and the most definitive tragedy of that success and a stinging defeat for a particular form of anarchist organization. Rather than simply blaming the Stalinists or the Republicans
for that defeat, I would like to look at the various shortcomings of the CNT-FAI themselves, placing them in the context of the basic tension among anarchists: the organizational question. Come with any and all questions you have about Spain.

Going Beyond Post-Anarchism
Alan Antliff
Recently, Todd May and others have claimed there is a need for anarchists to 'go beyond' anarchism by adopting post-structuralist models of power. I will interrogate this claim, drawing on the writings of Kropotkin and others. Then I will faciliate a discussion.

Anarchists Rethinking Self-Defense
Leona and Ariel
What do the Green Scare, intimate violence, advertising, and gentrification have in common? They are ways that we are threatened as individuals and as group members. What does it mean to be under attack? How does this perspective help us to determine the best course(s) of action for ourselves and the groups that we're in? Community is a big word these days, posited as the solution to an overwhelmingly alienated and alienating world. What are the ramifications of taking community seriously, of treating it as something worthy of defense? We will be looking at self defense using an inclusive definition of self and from a variety of perspectives -- philosophical, physical and social -- for the individual, the social scene, and the small group. This will be a highly interactive workshop.

Distillation of Volatile Spirits
Dan Todd
A discussion of how a martial stance can intensify class conflict, noting types of warfare and their application to the struggel, with attention to the process by which complex reality can be rendered cartoonish to further discontent.

The Horizontalist Movement
Cindy Milstein
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signaled many literal and figurative openings. Such openings afforded space for the emergence of all sorts of new concerns, from the growing global reach of capital to the consolidation of U.S. geopolitical power to the rise of religious fundamentalisms. And yet, the cold war’s end marked a bright new beginning too. With Marxist-Leninist, social democratic, and liberal politics all discredited, many communities and social movements turned toward directly democratic models of politics. They began to experiment on the grassroots level, borrowing from the past and yet creating something fresh. They began to talk to each other, respectfully, forming horizontal networks of global solidarity and mutual aid. And now, despite all the repression and setbacks, these movements represent the most vibrant and humane alternative to a deadening and inhumane social order. This talk will explore the rise and innovative practices of these anti-authoritarian movements, focusing on their (and our) potentiality to forge a powerful challenge to the status quo, as well as some of the ways they fall short. Specifically, we’ll look at the horizontal moment through contemporary examples such as the anti-capitalist portion of the global justice movement, the self-managed enterprises of Argentina, the autonomous communities and popular assemblies of Mexico from Chiapas to Oaxaca, and the Kurdish Workers Party’s recent shift to a program advocating democratic confederalism.

Boundaries and Borders: Anarchist Critiques of Identity
Shon Meckfessel
Nations, peoples, cultures, scenes, and selves are all defined/define themselves through processes of inclusion, exclusion, enforced commonality and homogeneity. Manipulation of these methods has been synonymous with the formation of the modern State, and consequently a central cause for human suffering. And yet, a simple reversal of these methods through the abolition of boundary proves problematic: Colonizer colonizes colonized, empire replaces nation-states, pop co-opts rebellion, neurosis gives way to psychosis. What is the relation of boundaries to the kind of space they surround? What reasons are invoked by those in power for the borders they build, and how do we uproot these claims? What boundaries do we seek to establish, and how do they differ? And not incidentally, can anarchism affect a synthesis of its universalist past with the particularity of liberation struggles today?

Capitalism as Mind/Body Relationship
Red Hughs
How does the tension in our bodies reflect the ways we accept work, advertising, television and the whole of this civilization as well as the ways we resist this? Drawing on the Situationist International, Wilhelm Reich, Neurolinguistic Programming, Soma, Qigong, Taoism, and other disciplines, I wish to draw a picture of the mind-body relationships generated by today's capitalist world and by its negation. We may do some concrete mind-body awareness explorations, depending on time.

William Blake
Lou
An exploation of the thought of William Blake through what he is explicitly AGAINST. This includes: Empire, The Industrial Revolution, God, Religion, The State, Patriarchy, Capitalist Globalization, and Education
I will introduce each of these topics and then read short selections of Blake's poetry, hopefully accompanied by cello or violin.

Fighting Anarchists
Jeff Monson & Mike E
Jeff Monson (professional MMA fighter) and Mike E (Suigetsukan Dojo) talk about anarchy and martial arts.

The Really Really Free Market Movement
Kirsten Brydum
The Really Really Free Market is a concept and eclectic event (monthly in San Francisco) where participants bring objects, skills, performances, services or anything else with the intention of giving for the sake of giving. It is a practice in community solidarity building, mutual aid, recycling, sharing resources, and caring for one another. It is a demonstration of a fruitful alternative to the capitalist system of buying, selling, commodification, waste, exploitation and alienation. A helpful metaphor is a giant potluck, made up of ideas, food, music, books, skills, games and many other resources that we as a community can come together and share. It is a chance to live outside of the constraints of a money-mediated reality, and experience the alternative. Everything is free. yes, really really free. no money, no bartering, no advertising, just free. The workshop will include a description of the current movement in San Francisco, the enormous potential and implications for creating a more just, sacred and sustainable world, the principles of anarchy in action, and will provide resources for individuals and groups to create RRFMs in their own communities.

How to Have your Cake and Eat It Too: How I Deserted the Military
Ben Ross
I was in the Navy for a year and some change, and in April of 2006 I deserted and spent 6 months as a fugitive. I turned myself in and after two months and two days was released on 12/27 with an other than honorable discharge. I would like to talk about my experiences, things that happened throughout my time in the military, on the run, in confinement, anti-war, things like that, and how I became radicalized and when and why I turned to anarchism and how the military and the police, etc. are not insurmountable obstacles. I want to tell as many people as i can about my experience now, while it's fresh, and not let it go to waste.

Contemporary Anti-Capitalist Struggles: The 2005 San Francisco Transit Fare Strike
Dave Carr and friends
First-hand accounts of the 2005 Fare Strike from various anti-capitalist perspectives (i.e. class struggle anarchist and anti-state communist) with explanation of the historical background to the event. Our accounts will detail our class struggle approach and how this affected our interactions with drivers, as well as working class participants who were radicalized in the process of fare striking. It will also include a critical analysis of the theoretical underpinnings, comparing them with a dynamic praxis reflecting changing reality on the ground as the event unfolded. Questions and answers will deal with all aspects of the Strike, including controversial myths and distortions that have been disseminated through mass media and on the internet.

Bare-fisted Atheism: Sade, Stirner and Nietzsche
Wolfi Landstreicher
Sade, Stirner and Nietzsche expressed a fiercely bare-fisted atheism with no attempt to salvage any idea of a universal moral order or a general “greater good”. I find this fierce, bare-fisted atheism to be a far stronger weapon against religion than the calm reason and self-justification of velvet-gloved moral atheists, and so want to present, compare and contrast the ideas of these three thinkers in order to draw tools that anarchists can use in their fight against religious absurdity, a battle of some importance in our times of repressive, bellicose faith.

The AJODA Workshop
AJODA members
Come and talk to us about your take on Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. Let us know what you'd like to see more of, what you can't stand and how you think the transition to the Bay Area has gone. Hear about why we have made some of the decisions we've made.

First Annual Paul Avrich Memorial Anarchist History Anti-Trivia Tournament
Amaze yourself and your friends with your vast anarchist knowledge.

Individuals or affinity groups may participate. Affinity groups can have up to four members. Choosing a team name is highly encouraged.
Teams answer questions based on a random method of determining who goes first; the next team will then be asked based on seating order.
Questions will be by category (see below) and scored for level of difficulty (10, 15, and 25 points). Team chooses category and level.
Each question will have four possible answers, but only one correct answer.
Team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.
http://sfbay-anarchists.org/conference

Announcing 8 Days of Anarchy - 2007 edition

2007-01-29T08:39:31Z

What are 8 days of anarchy? They are a series of events coordinated around the BASTARD conference of anarchist theory in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. This year the events include: several discussions, an anarchist martial arts seminar, strategy gaming, a movie, a conference, and an all day derive (on Friday).

On Saturday we are featuring the opportunity for people to spend time in a seminar with Jeff Monson. Anarchist Mixed Martial Arts fighter who has recently fought for the heavyweight title of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). He will also be giving a presentation at the BASTARD conference on Sunday.

Check out the site at http://8daysofanarchy.org for more information and look forward to seeing many of you there.

A Call for Workshops - Seventh Annual BASTARD conference

2007-01-06T04:59:33Z

It is that time of the year again. The Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research and Development are holding their seventh annual conference. The conference will take place at the University of California, Berkeley campus on Sunday March 18th, 2007 from 10am to 6pm. This year there will not have a specific theme but there will be two keynote addresses that you are not going to want to miss! There will also be an anarchist trivia contest at the end of the day. This will be day six of 8 days of anarchy (http://8daysofanarchy.org)

Submit your Proposal!

We are now accepting proposals along any theoretical theme that anarchists might find interesting. The form is available at http://sfbay-anarchists.org/conference/ (bottom of the page) or you may email proposals to the conference email (conference@sfbay-anarchists.org), or send us your proposals and a little background info about yourself (and a SASE) to ASG c/o Long Haul 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley CA 94705.

Finally

As always the goal of the BASTARD conference is to hear from the multiplicity of people who are working with anarchist theory. We recognize that there are many different ways to understand anarchism. Each of these approaches has valid points that are worth examining. Please share your approach at the conference.

thearagorn @ 2006-08-15T02:00:00

2006-08-15T09:01:08Z

I will continue to post ridiculous shit on this blog. Like this

What Kind of Pirate are Ye? (*Pix*)
</a>
Cut Throat Pirate
Aye Aye Captain! You have the attitude to rule the Seven Seas! You like to take charge in life and consider all of your Crew Members as brothers. Your dreams are as endless as the stars in the sky. You share your booty with the ones you trust...which may only be a few. But when it comes to living, you know how to do it right!

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!</center>

thearagorn @ 2006-05-22T23:25:00

2006-05-23T03:27:56Z

I am blogging on my trip (including pictures!) at the Anarchy Mag website. I have added an entry on the two days of the Montreal Bookfair.

thearagorn @ 2006-05-16T03:26:00

2006-05-16T10:21:37Z

I am not quite sure yet of how I am going to differentiate them but I am going to do most of my future blogging over at the Anarchy Magazine website. You are welcome to see my recent photo-blog of the Anarchy Magazine benefit that happened over the weekend.

http://anarchymag.org/aragorn

Help me set up a speaking tour this summer (Anarchy on Tour!)

2006-04-04T22:50:05Z

I am one of the collective that puts out Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. I am planning on coming out to the Midwest between late May (for the Our Lives Ahead conference) and (tentatively) early July (for the Mid-Atlantic Radical Bookfair). It is my plan to try to travel to Infoshops and anarchist communities throughout the region speaking and listening to what people are doing outside the West Coast.

I am hoping that you can organize an event for me during the month of June in your town. I have written about and given presentations on Post-left anarchy, Second wave anarchy, Nihilism and Anarchy, Indigenous Anarchism, Non European Anarchism (and APOC), the future of Green Anarchy, Bolo Bolo, Anarchy and Strategy, /Anarchy/ magazine, Anarchy & community, the Situationists, Nietzsche, and Elise Reclus (an anarchist geologist contemporary of ..... whose work is relevant to today's green anarchy tendency). My writings are in widely-available pamphlets, /Anarchy/, and /Green Anarchy/. My presentations have mostly been at the conference that I help organize in the Bay Area (the BASTARD conference http://sfbay-anarchists.org/conference) but also at other anarchist events and conferences. I will also bring a variety of media if the venue is more appropriate for showing movies (mostly documentaries) that could inspire discussion (or if it makes sense for me to stay several days in the same town).

I am originally from Michigan so I will plan on spending some time there during June but would like to hear from any of you that are interested as soon as possible so that I can finalize my itinerary. Motivation for this trip is to get the word out about the magazine, some interesting anarchist projects & to start or further dialogues with communities, to learn how our magazine can serve them better (given its pre-existing constraints). Ideally some (or many) of these events can cover the expense of driving around the Midwest but I will also bring our catalogue of magazines, pamphlets, and whatnot for display.

Contact me at: aragorn@anarchymag.org

Check out

http://sfbay-anarchists.org
http://anarchymag.org
http://anarchistnews.org

Cheers.

Aragorn!

BSG Geekery

2006-03-13T05:00:40Z

As anyone who knows me personally knows, I am a very serious SF person. This is kind of self-evident given that I was born with the name that I was but at the age of 5 I started my own journey into SF. The first books I read (at age 5) were Isaac Asimov's 'Lucky Starr' series. I read a lot into my teen years and then I picked up the pace. I can say that for at least 5 years during my twenties I read approximately one book a day, almost entirely SF. This was assisted by the fact that I worked night shift at a hotel at the time but it would not be an exaggeration to say that I have read a lot of SF.

I'd go further and say that I would not be an anarchist if it were not for SF. I am not a huge fan of a lot of 'political' SF (I have never really enjoyed UKL's Dispossessed for instance) but the idea of speculation on the scale of most SF still inspires my politics.

Anyway, I have always been a fan of SF in print but never a real fan of it in visual media. I enjoy some of the big SF movies (Aliens, Starship Troopers, etc) but they aren't particularly SF, or even speculative, to my eyes. I have absolutely hated the major SF TV shows (Star Trek being a particular offense IMO) with the possible exception of Babylon 5. With trepidation I started d/l and watching the new and improved Battle Star Galactaca series. I never really like the first show, although was a bit young, and really only remember the Henson puppet vividly so the bar was set pretty low, particularly because the SciFi channel has been a pretty consistant pile of shit (with the tentative exception of their redoing of the Dune series).

BattleStar Galactaca has far exceeded expectations and given another strong season or two will superceed B5 as the best SF series of all time (as far as I am concerned). I just finished watching the finale of 'season 3' (really season 2) and it was fucking great. The best thing about it... They were not shy about moving the narrative forward in time in service to the plot. Fucking great! Plus next season will be a combination of the best of V, B5 (with the internal conflicts w/i the Cyclon coming to fore) and BSG. Finally there are good times for the TV watching BSG fan (even if they just d/l it a week later...).

Early Sunday

2006-03-05T16:53:52Z

Usually I go to sleep late and wake up super early. Not today. I've changed the oil on my mc by 8:30 am. I kind of wish I could do this all the time.

I just put up a new poll on Anarchist News and one of the early favorites is 'Against Hierarchy' (the Q: Best definition of Anarchy?). I have always wondered about this definition of Anarchism since it seems to be the one most plagued with nitpicking (Isn't your skill at X, like, a kind of hierarchy?) and most ressentiment. I'll post more about this later into the poll but it fascinates me that people would define themselves by a political perspective and then define that perspective in such a way as to be downright toothless. What exactly is hierarchy?

More information about 8 days...

2006-03-01T16:45:06Z

Many of the people who are subscribed to my blog find it because of anarchist shite so I'll give a few more thoughts about the '8 days of Anarchy' events some of us are organizing during the week of the bookfair...

Last year I was fucking exhausted after organizing 4 big events during the so-called Unleft Anarchy Week and said to myself 'Never again'. As a result we have organized twice as many events this year...

The big difference is that all of them (in particular the ones that I am the most concerned with) are really low key. Two reading groups, a movie, some board games, a couple days of meetings, a benefit show at Gilman and the conference. It actually sounds like a lot but it should be a lot less stressful than last year.

That said I am also trying to finish an enormous pile of writing & prepare for a workshop for the conference...

Blah.

This time of year

2006-02-25T12:09:51Z

For the past few years (including this one) I have had to privilege to set aside worldly concerns and treat the first 2 months of the year like an extended holiday. This isn't to say that I haven't worked or done the things that are necessary to live but that I have had the change to work a little less and spend the bulk of my free time preparing for one thing. The Anarchist Bookfair.

The San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair is celebrating its 11th year this year and really only serves as an excuse for anarchists from up and down the west coast to come to the City and visit. I'm not even particularly excited about the Bookfair itself. It completely reflects a set of values and a clique that I am not a part of. The speakers (on the occasion that I can catch one) are just about the same ones that speak every year (and represent the inclinations of the clique) with very few exceptions. And I (honestly) don't begrudge the clique their party.

But I also think it is important to recognize that not all of us party the same way.

This will be the second year that I organize a series of 'counter' events that should provide some entertainment. I am sure some/many of you will see some internet chatter on these events later in the week. I am also working on some writing to share with my friends during the fair. I am excited about all of this.

The nice thing, for me, is that this gets to be my holiday. I have long since stopped having any feelings about the bank or religious holidays that represent values different than my own. This week of friends, food, meetings, and play does represent those values. I am not sure I could handle doing this sort of stuff all the time (before the fall) but I sure would like to try.

Personal shit

2006-02-09T17:26:32Z

I had a friend say something to me the other day that I am still thinking about. When referring to the conflict that I am in right now he made some mention, or implied, that it was hard to take seriously because every couple of years I am in another major shit storm "This time is is about your collective workplace, next time it is about..." and even though it is true, and I have made the choice to 'problem solve' in the way that I do I am given reason for pause.

Here is an excerpt from a letter I am sending to friends on the issue.

The reason that friends should not do business with each other is not because it doesn't work, but because when there are problems (and there are always problems) you don't prepare for them ahead of time because you trust that things will 'just work out'. It is a lot easier to 'wing it' when you are talking about the sums of money represented by a phone bill than by the amount that it takes years to save up.

Yum.

2006-01-20T10:07:40Z

I am back from the East Coast and instead of engaging in the drama that is happening here (which is considerable and acute) I'll talk about my impressions.

Veganism
It is easier to be vegan along the NYC-Philly axis than it is to be vegan in the Bay Area. This seems hard to believe given the 'health' consciousness of the Bay Area but what it really means is that it is easier to be a certain kind of vegan (let's call it the wheatgerm and granola vegan) than the kind that I most resemble (which would be the facetiously titled meat-and-potato vegan). Given that I am from the Midwest and was raised on a diet of casseroles, chili, and hamburgers it should come as no surprise that I have never really been taken with California cuisine. Big plates are fine, but the fucking portions!

There used to be a place in Berkeley that, while I never really liked (probably because of the cult-y feel to the place), exemplified the m&p approach. It was called Micheal's and it closed 3 or 4 years ago. There is another place in the heart of Telegraph ave called Smart Alec's but it has gone from being entirely vegetarian to serving cow and chicken patties on the same conveyor belt as the soy patties which makes it pretty repulsive to most vegans. Their fries can be very good (they are air baked) but usually they aren't (limp would be the usual description). I stopped going there (as a rule that I have broken) after they added beef to their menu.

In the NYC-P axis I had (just to count the m&p vegan items): several types of soy cheese and analog-meat pizzas, fake cheese steak sandwiches, a Millennium quality (at about 2/3 the price) seitan smorgasboard that included 'steak' and several casserole-esque items, and at least 4 different kinds of BBQ chicken wings. This was in a 2 week stay and did not include the fucking incredible desserts (Philly has 2 or 3 active vegan bakeries!) including Peanut Butter Bomb, many types of cheesecakes, fucking vegan cannoli, angel food cake, etc, etc.

It also does not include the great Ethiopian food I had in Philly (in the top 3 I have ever had), great Chinese in NYC (although I expected nothing less), and vegan SOUL FOOD which rules the vegan meat and potatoes universe. There is nothing better than that.

I'll talk about the gloom in sunlight, crushing burden of the cost-of-living, and intense insularity later. I think right now I have to go find me a snack!!!

Request for Worshops - 2006 BASTARD conference

2006-01-11T04:43:17Z

The BASTARDs (Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research and Development) are proud to announce the Sixth Annual Anarchist Theory Conference. The conference will take place at the University of California, Berkeley campus on Sunday March 19th, 2006 from 10am to 6pm. This year we will have a panel discussion on "The New Anarchisms"* plus a Spelling Bee. We would like to solicit workshop proposals for any topic in anarchist theory. Workshop proposals are available online at the BASTARD site.

*for example: Primitivism, Second Wave, Nietzschean, Green, Post(-structuralist), Social ecology and some old-new: Neo-platformism, Pro-unionism, Insurrectionary

thearagorn @ 2006-01-06T03:16:00

2006-01-06T08:19:59Z

    Yesterday I took a long walk from Chelsea down to battery park (the far southern tip of Manhattan). The big highlight of the trip was that I walked all the way around so-called Ground Zero. The striking thing about GZ isn't the high security fence, plaques, or the side devoted to being a 'commerce free zone' but the fact that really what it is is a huge fucking hole in the middle of a city that is so fucking developed that the micro small parking lots I walked by today had fucking individual lifts so that two cars could park in the spot of one.

    To see an enormous hole in the middle of that gave me pause and made me grin. Viscerally it is just satisfying to see this wound even though I realize that it didn't particularly harm Empire or that it isn't exactly a point for us working people against the powers-that-be or any such thing. Watching the somber faced suburban dads keep the kids in line to honor and respect isn't the kind of irony I get to see everyday and coupled with the stark nothing of the hole in the ground... Reminds me of a rant that I wrote about this constellation of feelings a couple of years ago.

     This blog posted some thoughts about the new AJODA that are worth examining. The fact that I am even doing this has already inspired one of the other collective members to scorn my so-called "ecumenical nature" but I think that there are some worthwhile points to address and some larger questions about how to communicate with other radicals.

    The gist of the post was that the issue (#60 on Democracy) was flawed because it only addressed its criticisms towards Democracy under capitalism and not capitalism in general. It follows this with this quote

Seriously, because the whole notion that democracy can never work under capitalism and that therefore people shouldn't participate in democracy, elections, or in agitating for greater democracy, is probably the most misguided thing that could be done right now while the Bush administration is aiming at taking that very democracy away. It calls up memories of the RCP's Bob Avakian, who penned a book called "Democracy, can't we do better?" which made the similar case that because democracy in capitalism is bourgeois democracy that therefore Revolutionary Communists shouldn't work to extend democracy but should work for its overthrow, along with that of capitalism, in the hope that, like magic, true socialist democracy would materialize the second capitalism had been overthrown, without any need for building or organizing.

    Which if I were to summarize just along the line of the biases that are most striking to me...
1) That somehow democracy should not bear the weight of criticism but of questioning-through-participation
2) Democracy has something to do with voting
3) That the Bush administration is qualitatively more dangerous or anti-anarchist than another administration
4) That by criticizing Democracy there is an (implicit) advocation of 'maximalist' strategy

    I will come back to this another time but I believe it clearly demonstrates the gulf in the anarchist milieu when you have a wing that actually argues for greater participation in the current system in the name of 'greater democracy' complaining that a magazine, by criticizing their actions, is in league with Bob Avakian. Here is the kernel of exactly the kind of infighting and sectarian politics that is the worst of radical politics. I agree with the people who take one look at this and run the other direction.