CoL49 - anarchy

[Joseph Tracy]

Anarchists are a pretty good source on anarchy. Surprisingly, JRR Tolkien said he favored anarchism as a sociali/political ideal. Couple of my favorites are Peter Kropotkin and David Graeber who has some excellent articles online. He died recently , pretty young , after co-writing an excellent  book called The Dawn of Everything, which looks at the remarkable diversity of  early human communities , based on research from recent archeology . It starts with  a wonderful examination of the non- hierarchical Wendat( Wyandot) tribe of northeastern North America and a spokesman of theirs named Kandioronk. Turns out there were quite a few non hierarchical societies all around the world and some still exist.  

I think nonviolent is not the best term, non-coercive is probably more universally accepted.  Self defense is allowed and personal martial skills are often respected and taught. Humans living in practical cooperative societies are not so purist; the boundaries vary.  

> On Jun 19, 2024, at 8:07 PM, J K Van Nort via Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
> 
> There are two ways to look at anarchy, as has been pointed out by several posts. The bomb-throwing, black clad anarchist of the Porky Pig cartoon being a caricature of the anarchists that assassinated and bombed (or didn't, as the history of the Hay Market bombing reveals). This is the image of anarchy that the state and the corporate world wish to portray. Pynchon treats Web Traverse & family as noble dynamiters in AtD.
> The other side of anarchy follows more what David described: a non-violent, consensus-based, voluntary action/organization of independent participants that relies on democratic processes and mutual aid. W.A.S.T.E may be an example of the 2nd, but the Zone in GR also represents the non-violent attempt to set up an alternative society.
> The Occupy Wall Street encampment attempted to prefigure an alternative means of cooperation and community. It had failings, but it was smothered by the politicians before it could coalesce further.
> While the majority of characters in the book seem to fear anarchy, they represent the portion of the population cowed by the threat of violence from which the police “protect” us.
> In solidarity,
> James
> 
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
> --
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