Book Recommendation
Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire by David Graeber.
For those not familiar with Graeber, he’s the anarchist social anthropology professor that left Yale after the administration decided to not renew his contract or reward tenure. Seems Graeber made too much sense and presented too much of a legitimate challenge to the establishment.
He’s now at Goldsmith’s College in London and is considered by some to be “the best anthropological theorist of his generation from anywhere in the world.”
One of his finest papers, Fragments of An Anarchist Anthropology discusses outline areas of research that intellectuals might explore in creating a body of anarchist social theory and the reasons why this has been so difficult to achieve. Graeber believes academics on the radical left have gravitated toward the more “High Theory” oriented Marxism rather than the more practice-oriented anarchism. “1. Marxism has tended to be a theoretical or analytical discourse about revolutionary strategy. 2. Anarchism has tended to be an ethical discourse about revolutionary practice.” (Wiki)
I’ll take practice over theory any day. And hey, we don’t even have to “practice” anarchism. Humans have been pretty good at it for thousands of years. We’re just not so great in getting the word out!
Fragments is available on this site as a download.
In Possibilities, Graeber applies anthropological theory to capitalism and its opponents. He uses case studies from diverse communities like rural Madagascans, pre-capitalist economies and urban international protest groups to expose the cruel truth state dominated capitalist societies.
Now I realize most people in the United States are highly skeptical of anarchism and any criticism of capitalism. It’s too radical. Conjures up visions of black clad youth with hidden faces tossing molotov cocktails into businesses.
Folks, that’s not anarchism. That’s misguided violence. In fact, you can just substitute the term “grass roots democracy” for anarchism. It’s essentially the same thing, where small groups of people have a say in the affairs of their community. Participatory democracy.
And no, that’s not what we have in the United States. We have a Representative Republic that’s really little more than an oligarchy where wealthy elitists run the affairs of state and economy. Cases in point: the current financial situation and the raid on the Treasury (otherwise known as a “bailout”) and the illegal, multi-trillion dollar war in Iraq.
And no, we don’t have to totally throw capitalism out with the bath water. But we better recognize, and damn quick, that there are some serious issues with growth capitalism, and those issues are having a serious effect on the planet. Bottom line: you can’t grow infinitely in a world of finite resources. The only economy that’s sustainable is steady state, a mix of small scale capitalism and socialism bound by biological and geophysical reality.
Too utopian sounding? On a large scale, yes. Perhaps it is. But not on a smaller scale. People are creating participatory democratic groups, employee owned companies, cooperatives and small local enterprises in communities all over the world. It works, and it doesn’t have to work on some grand scale to have an impact. In fact, grand scale is what we need to move away from. Let’s start thinking more locally. Local food and energy production, local democracy.
Graeber addresses all of this, and he’s worth a listen.
“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”-Edward Abbey
Great post, I’ll have to check out this Graeber fella. Anarchism does have a reputation of disruption and obstruction when, at its best, it is participatory and community minded. Thanks,
Larry
Thanks for the recommendation! Anarchism does get a black mark unnecessarily, but like the great Chuck D says, ‘don’t believe the hype.’ If this goes into showing practical ways to exercise anarchism in the daily life, I’m there.