Comments for The Anvil

Comment on Error, Counter-Error, Error by deathmetalsorcerer

deathmetalsorcerer — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:47:08 +0000

Beautiful analysis of the alienating and de-individualizing nature of the division and simplification of labor (IE civilization). I have developed a very similar critique of civilization myself. It bugs me when dissidents assume that i am attached to my negative views of civilization in an ideological sense. A critique of a particular social system does NOT carry with itself a necessary corollary of an idealization of an opposing alternative. Many, including the communists, have a very unfounded and assuming conception of freedom, when all it takes is a more rigorous application of one’s own tools of analysis. A communist mode of production is as “authoritarian” per se as a capitalist one because the division of labor itself creates necessary reliance on the Other, in this case one’s “fellow workers”; this reliance, along with egalitarian principle, necessitates compromise of individual value non-contingent on the Other, thereby castrating individuals of power over themselves. Same alienating structure, just different masters.

Comment on The Story of Crass by George Berger by SUBURBIAN

SUBURBIAN — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:42:59 +0000

interesting posting and comments in relation to x punks hippies …
from my experience in my infancy grew up in an environment heavily influenced by the hippie culture, but an authentic and original hippie culura and nothing indulgent, the decade of ’60 / 70 here in Brazil, which is far from the “label” or the stereotype or the “pop culture” which are nothing more than what media products, absorbed by the “system” and the market. They were revolutionary and confrontational in nature. At the time we lived here a terrible military dictatorship sponsored by the USA, and these “hippes” which I lived as a child fought much, fought, were imprisoned, escaped, and certainly revolutionized able to gain more freedom for all … They made their reality every day.
I was a punk kid son of a hippie, a girl who fought the system alone with two children, and made his reality with lots of attitude and idealism. It made me experience a life outside of the standard media, little life outside the common average, and I feel privileged to have trained myself surrounded by people and information showing that life can be much more than corporate mediocrity that results in all the time.
but after all, what is to be punk or hippie? Are just labels, individuals are not subject to such simplistic definition …
how to set the “Punk”? What diference does it make if Eve Libertine and Gee Vaucher glued on the forehead “hippie” or “punk”?

Comment on The Story of Crass by George Berger by SUBURBIAN

SUBURBIAN — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:39:30 +0000

interesante a postagem e os comentarios em relação a hippies x punks…
da minha vivência crescí na minha infãncia em ambiente altamente influenciado pela cultura hippie, porém, uma culura hippie autentica e original e nada comodista, da decada de ’60/70 aqui no Brazil, que está muito longe do “rótulo” ou do estereótipo, ou ainda da “cultura pop” que nada mais são do que que produtos de mídia, absorvidos pelo “sistema” e o mercado. Eram revolucionários e contestadores na essência. Na época vivíamos aqui uma terrível ditadura militar patrocinada pelos USA, e esses “hippes” que conviví quando criança lutaram muito, batalharam, foram presos, escaparam, revolucionaram e certamente conseguiram conquistar muito mais liberdade, para todos… Faziam sua realidade todos os dias.
Eu era um garoto punk filho de uma mãe hippie, uma garota que enfrentou o sistema sozinha com dois filhos, e fez sua realidade com muita atitude e idealismo. Isso me fez experimentar uma vida fora do padrão midiático, fora da vidinha média comum, e me sinto privilegiado por ter me formado cercado de pessoas e informações mostrando que a vida pode ser muito mais do que a mediocridade corporativa que nos impõe o tempo todo.
mas afinal, o que é ser punk ou hippie? São apenas rótulos, indivíduos não são passíveis de tão simplista definição…
como definir o “Punk”? Qual diference faz se Eve Libertine e Gee Vaucher colavam na testa “hippie” ou “punk”?

Comment on Robots of Repression by oingo

oingo — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:42:28 +0000

assuming such people are parasites! re: the commenter!

Comment on Text as Folk Art: a book for non-readers by anon

anon — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

the text on this article is very small, would love it if it was normal reading size.

Comment on Saying Goodbye by Mindy Block

Mindy Block — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:19:04 +0000

Thank you for this quote:

“Taking leave of the dead, before the rise of capitalism’s scientific worldview, was equal to welcoming them to a new world; afterwards, it is a final surrender to total loneliness.”

And will return to read more, in depth later.

Comment on Has the insurrection come yet? My arm is getting tired… by Slumberjack

Slumberjack — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:28:20 +0000

I think anyone who plants her or his own carrots for example could be a potential insurgent. Perhaps a role model for a type of insurgency whereby if enough people are convinced on the merits of growing their own carrots or whatever, an ordinance of some sort will be found to render the entire enterprise illegal, so that the supermarket carrots which are grown by a corporate farm might continue to enjoy popular consumption. And if the carrot growing collective insists on the right to continue thumbing their nose at the enforcers of such an ordinance, then they would ultimately have to voluntarily submit to an escalation demanding compliance, or not. And if the answer is to be an ‘or not,’ no one can be expected to make the point clear to the produce authorities except for the people who wish to continue growing their own carrots, with the exception perhaps of assistance from the renegade turnip growers, or whatever. It takes a certain flavour of complicity to to arrive at a determined ‘or not’ conclusion. But then carrots can be grown just about anywhere with the proper expertise.

Comment on Ways In and Ways Out of the Situationist Labyrinth by Steve Shilling II

Steve Shilling II — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 04:36:00 +0000

This is an extremely interesting and quite engaging format to present a book review. I would enjoy seeing more articles written in this sort of scripted play/interview style. It gives a very good sense of the reader as a third party disembodied viewer constantly floating amidst the two characters like a spectre. We engage the text and therefore the “situation” presented to us with a more personally driven opinion. I find that I was able to participate (in the realm of thoughts) with the two characters as though I was there, constantly forming opinions and then having them altered as I continued listening to the two speak, but all the while I felt secure to stray from the path of their thoughts and even mine own. I felt protected by the fact that even if I were to physically speak my thoughts, my ideas aloud such trivial attempts to contribute would fall ‘silently’ on my laptop’s monitor. Truly, for me, this is a better way to present ideas, reviews, responses, etc.

Comment on Ways In and Ways Out of the Situationist Labyrinth by McKenzie Wark

McKenzie Wark — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:05:59 +0000

Reading reviews of one’s own books is like a case of tinnitus. Like have some weird buzzing sound you can’t get out of your head. So while the standards for experiencing a review of one’s book are low, nevertheless by those standards this was a pleasure to read. The review even clarifies for me what my own intentions were on certain points. So my thanks for the gift. For my taste there’s enough in the book on Chtcheglov relative to his small but marvelous body of work. I would be curious to know what is confused in my account of Jorn’s writings. But otherwise my thanks indeed.

Comment on Anonymous: That Most Prolific of Anarchist Writers by ann o nymus

ann o nymus — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:13:31 +0000

The ability to erase “characteristic styles of writing” might be a matter worthy of some investigation.

I seem to recall a hacker noting that his ransom notes might be run through foreign language translators (esp. very dissimilar ones like english -> chinese) and then translated back again.

This should effectively remove any semblance of characteristic style.

Unfortunately it might also remove any characteristic meaning

This topic reminds me of Orwells’ Politics and the English Language only “in reverse”.