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anarcho-catboyism · 4 months ago

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I've been wanting to write a longer thread about this for awhile.

If you're new to the concept of Anarchy, even if you know the basics, you most likely have never heard of Anarcho-Nihilism. If you know basic leftist Ideologies, or just scrolled Political Compass pages, you know of Anarcho Communism, and most people understand there's other branches for marginalized groups like Queer Anarchy, Anarcha Feminism, etc.

This thread will go over Anarcho-Nihilism and the basics of what it is. It will talk to the reader as if you already understand the basic concepts of Anarchy, so if you don't, I recommend reading "Life Without Law" before coming back here.

Anarcho-Nihilism: A Beginners Text To How Fucked We Are

Anarcho-Nihilism is a post-left ideology, meaning that most of the substance of its standpoint are direct criticisms of not just Anarchy, but the leftist movement as a whole, which means Anarcho-Nihilists often reject the label of "Leftist" all-together.

Anarcho-Nihilism is also directly connected to Individualism and Egoism, with more modern Anarcho-Nihilists aligning into Eco-Extremism as well.

Post-Left criticisms, which includes Anarcho-Nihilist criticisms, of the Left include but are not limited to the Lefts view on Organization, Revolution, Unity of Ideologies, Fetishism of Work and Industry, and need of Popularity Politics. We will get into these shortly.

Brief History and Moments of Inspiration

Anarcho-Nihilism takes inspiration from a wide range of people and movements in history, but the earliest "creation" of Anarcho-Nihilism starts with the "Nihilist Movement", which was a Russian movement in the 1860s which focused on attacking traditional ideas of society such as morality, authority, traditionalism, and religion. This came from the growing divide between older radicals and the younger generation who were disillusioned towards older forms of leftist organization and ideas.

Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin discussed the movement itself, stating "defined nihilism as the symbol of struggle against all forms tyranny, hypocrisy, and artificiality and for individual freedom".

Early forms of Russian Nihilist theory incorporated Egoist theory into its ideas, and saw that all morality, aesthetics, and social institutions were meaningless, but they did not see all ethics, knowledge, and human life as meaningless.

Russian Nihilism was characterized throughout Europe for being linked to Political Terrorism due to multiple assassinations and assassination attempts against politic officials, including the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Historian M. A. Gillespie concludes that Russian Nihilism was at the core of revolutionary thought in Russia throughout the lead up to the Russian Revolution.

Anarcho-Nihilism as a movement grew with voices like Kaneko Fumiko, a self identified Anarchist and Nihilist who was convicted of plotting to assassinate members of the Japanese Imperial Family.

Kaneko had many experiences from working with the notably Christian Salvation Army, to studying socialist movements and revolutionaries, anarchist theorists, and Nihilist movements. She only maintained a brief relationship with the Salvation Army, not compelled by their beliefs as well as being abandoned by a Christian friend after he felt his growing feelings towards her were threatening his beliefs. From the Salvation Army she jumped into the socialist movement, but was let down as she found Socialists would often behave in ways they directly advocated against.

Kaneko says her radical shift from Socialism to Anarchism and Nihilism came in 1922 when she met Hatsuyo Niiyama, who she considers her closet friend. Hatsuyo introduced her to thinkers like Max Stirner, Mikail Artsybashev, and Friedrich Nietzche. Kaneko also met Pak Yol, a Korean activist and anarchist who shared her belief systems.

Kaneko and Pak themselves helped continue to define a new set of Anarchism that aimed away from the common ideas of Syndicalism and Union Organizing, Kaneko herself writing about her views in a document made to the court in 1925 after she and Pak were convicted of attempted assassination, stating "formerly I said 'I negate life'... [but] my negation of all life was completely meaningless... The stronger the affirmation of life, the stronger the creation of life- negation together with rebellion. Therefore, I affirm life...Living is not synonymous with merely having movement. It is moving in accordance with one's will… one could say that with deeds, one begins to really live. Accordingly, when one moves by means of one's own will and this leads to the destruction of one's body, this is not a negation of life. It is an affirmation." Kaneko also claimed she wanted to "throw a bomb at the Emperor to show he, like everyone, will someday die" to deny his authority as all powerful.

One of Kaneko's main criticism of the Socialist Movement was the treatment of women, including her, in the movement itself, and this further pushed her into Anarchism and Nihilism as she believed that even these Socialist men would abuse their authority should it be granted.

Blessed is the Flame: The Anarcho-Nihilist Manifesto

"The anarcho-nihilist position is essentially that we are fucked. That the current manifestation of human society (civilization, leviathan, industrial society, global capitalism, whatever) is beyond salvation, and so our response to it should be one of unmitigated hostility. There are no demands to be made, no utopic visions to be upheld, no political programs to be followed — the path of resistance is one of pure negation." Serafinski "Blessed is the Flame"(2015)

Blessed is the Flame is considered one of if not the theory for Anarcho-Nihilism of the modern age, with its criticisms of organization and resistance during times of great tragedy.

Blessed is the Flame is a piece of text about not just Anarcho-Nihilism, but Negation through the lens of the Holocaust and Concentration Camp Resistance. The theory takes the time to explain to the reader just how bleak the reality of life was for concentration camp prisoners, and how the Nazis did everything in their power to snuff out rebellion at its core, and how people rebelled anyway, even when there was no hope to rebellion. Because of this perspective, and usage of a great tragedy, many have criticized Blessed is the Flame for romanticizing the struggles of camp prisoners, even if the author meant not to.

Blessed is the Flame, nonetheless, does the important task of putting what Anarcho-Nihilism is into digestible theory that can be spread and built upon.

Blessed is the Flame asserts that, as the quote says above, Anarcho-Nihilism is the belief that the world as we know it is fucked, to put it simply. That the current systems of domination such as white supremacy, patriarchy, colonialism, etc. have their roots too deep to be organized away, that we have reached past the point of no return for ecological destruction (Global Warming), and that we should meet this hopelessness with destruction.

Blessed is the Flame, and Anarcho-Nihilism, directly criticizes the Marxist idea of Progress. Progress, as in, the idea that Humanity overtime progresses in its worldviews and we will naturally get to a point where Humanity achieves some better world without hate or exploitation, away from the systems of domination. It is argued that history shows we do not progress up, even if we have moments things seem better, we keep crashing harder and harder as the systems of domination grow stronger and root themselves deeper into our lives and psyche. "The conception of history that came out of the Marxist tradition (dialectical materialism) dictated that the transformation of society would pass through capitalism... to transform into socialism and eventually communism. This meant that progressivism was embedded within this (the dominant) branch of socialism."

Blessed is the Flame also argues that, "This stands in direct contrast to other anarchist tendencies that place at least some emphasis on “positive programs” — aspirations to construct something ideal in the present world or to craft plans in preparation for the downfall of the current system. Anarcho-nihilism understands the positive program as “one that confuses desire with reality and extends that confusion into the future” by either making promises about what a revolutionary future might hold, or attempting to bring those conditions about from within the existing order."

To put it more plainly, Anarcho-Nihilists argue that whatever we try to build under these current systems will be co-opted, capitalized, and/or destroyed as they will be at odds with these systems. That our socialist programs, minority solidarity movements, etc. will always find their ways back to being assimilated into the death machine that is industrial civilization.

Imprisoned members of the CCF (Greek Conspiracy Cells of Fire) write, "We anarcho-nihilists ...don’t talk about ‘transformation of social relations’ towards a more liberated view, we promulgate their total destruction and absolute annihilation. Only through total destruction of the current world of power... will it be possible to build something new. The deeper we destroy, the more freely will we be able to build".

The argument is that if we meet the state with negation, with destruction, then our positive movements cannot be co-opted and destroyed. The further we dismantle the states control, the more freely we can take the time to build ways we can help each other.

In this same frame of argument, Anarcho-Nihilists, including the aforementioned imprisoned members of the CCF, argue that creating strict organization is "construction of a dam that tries to control the impetus of the abundant stream of Anarchy". Anarchy is fluid and will take many paths, and attempting to redirect Anarchy onto one path is undesirable.

Coming back to Post-Leftism, Anarcho-Nihilist (as well as Post-Leftism) critiques the lefts style of organization, the revolution, and a need for popularity politics. Blessed is the Flame brings up how the Nazis used this concept of "future time" to break the spirits of camp prisoners, through slogans such as "Freedom Through Work", being told they were being taken to Sweden only to end up in Auschwitz, taken to be Showered only to be stripped and put into prison clothes, told Work was Freedom only to be worked to death. The Nazis, cruelly, suspended the Prisoners in this Limbo of time between certain death and uncertain future, breaking their resolve to fight back as fighting back could cost them that possibility of freedom. The key to insurgency wasn't to open the curtain to reveal the lie of future time, as this lead to despondency and the further breaking of the soul. Blessed is the Flame argues that the key might lie between what is dubbed "Lager-Time" (future time) and Suicidal Despondency, something called "Suspension". In Suspension, there is no focus on the past nor future, but rather, the need to survive in the current moment. Breaking free of that suspension in the present, throwing away the chains of time, lead to violent uprisings and revolt even in the most hopeless of situations.

The paragraph above ties into Anarcho-Nihilisms critiques of the lefts view of the aforementioned 3, organization, revolution, and popularity politics. Anarcho-Nihilism argues that the left views organization as a non-violent house of cards that must be meticulously built up fully, no matter how many times it gets knocked down, and that our Revolution may only come after this house of cards is built. The left with also argue that this house of cards can only be built through their ideas becoming popularized, such as "workers of the world uniting", and once that happens then Revolution is an inevitable force. Leftists argue that revolution WILL happen, this precarious house of cards WILL be built, and there IS a better world and denying this is anti-revolutionary.

Anarcho-Nihilists reject this, viewing this as a form of Lager-Time, unable to act in the present because of uncertainty, or rather a false certainty, of the future. Given what was previously said about Anarcho-Nihilists view of Progress, they argue that radicals shouldn't wait for some Rapture like "revolution", that while we wait for workers to unite, fascism builds and global warming worsens and capitalism continues to evolve like an ever growing leviathan. The fact is, Anarcho-Nihilism claims, there isn't a reality where the workers of the world all wake up and unite against the common enemy. Even in socialist movements there lays bigotry against marginalized groups that chokes the life from these movements and further scatters the solidarity amongst each other.

Anarcho-Nihilists, as well as Blessed is the Flame, directly oppose the lefts modern form of organization, which is built on democratic circles and layers of policy and aesthetics. Needing to go through 3 different rings of people to do action just delays, and defangs, the action. Anarcho-Nihilism advocates for decentralized forms of organization, where the "org" is disconnected from each other except by name and motivation. If you want to do action, you just fucking do it, no bureaucracy bullshit. Examples of these modes of Organization is ELF (Earth Liberation Front), ALF (Animal Liberation Front), and the CCF (Conspiracy Cells of Fire). Each of these fronts is without leaders, without form, moving like water to serve the cause when needed. To be a part of groups like these, such as ELF and ALF, you need only to agree with the views, and that's it. You can create an ELF or ALF group right now with friends and go do shit.

At its core, the Anarcho-Nihilist critique is that of an Individualist one, of the collective vs. the individual. This critique argues that often, the will of the collective can overrule the freedom of the individual, stunting action and even self that the collective was supposed to foster (This specifically being a similar argument that Max Stirner, the "Father of Egoism", has discussed).

"...think back to 2012 when the CEO of an Italian nuclear power company was shot in the kneecap by two anarcho-nihilists who claimed the attack under the banner of the FAI. After the attack (which was partly inspired by the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima), the pair released a communique pointing to the various atrocities committed in the name of nuclear power and calling for an all-out attack on the nuclear industry. In response to that action, the Anarchist Federation in Italy (a formal Marxist organization with no relationship to the FAI) issued a response that condemned such a renegade action: “... we strongly criticize individualist and vanguardist tactics that do not come out of a broad-based class-struggle movement. We condemn actions that put workers in danger without their knowledge...” According to this perspective, the individual acting without the validation of a formal collective, and without respect for working class solidarity, has no place in an anarchist movement. In counter-response to this (and other condemnations), insurrectionary and nihilist keyboards ignited with scathing indictments of this breed of “civil anarchism” that tries to restrain individual attacks behind the “working class” banner." Blessed is the Flame.

So, if we are fucked, and Leftist modes of organization can strangle action, what is there to do? Why fight back?

Hope Is Not A Plan: Jouissance and Insurgency

Jouissance is a French word for "enjoyment" but can have connotations related to "uncivilized desire".

"Jouissance is an ecstatic energy, felt but never captured, that pushes us away from any form of domination, representation, or restraint, and compels us towards fierce wildness and unmitigated recalcitrance. It is “the process that momentarily sets us free from our fear of death” and which manifests as a “blissful enjoyment of the present,” or a “joy which we cannot name.”[110] Jouissance is the richness of life evoked by resistance, the spirit that allowed Mária Jakobovics to continue her acts of sabotage despite the sting of the club or the threat of the noose, and the spirit that perhaps allows many of us to lead lives of resistance in absolutely overwhelming circumstances. It is the visceral experience of negation as ecstatic liberation." Blessed is the Flame

Jouissance, for Nihilists, is the core of Anarchism. The need, no, the Joy of resistance to keep us alive and going. Not fighting because we might win, not fighting because we might lose, but fighting because we can and we fucking will. "Inmates who physically confronted their oppressors were not engaged in a “rational political struggle for a better future,” but rather understood the futility of their situations and chose to fight back regardless."

Said from the CCF, "what really counts is the strength we feel every time we don’t bow our heads, every time we destroy the false idols of civilization, every time our eyes meet those of our comrades along illegal paths, every time that our hands set fire to the symbols of Power. In those moments we don’t ask ourselves: ‘Will we win? Will we lose?’ In those moments we just fight." Anarcho-Nihilists favor Insurgency and Insurrection, not Revolution. Anarcho-Nihilists are for short bursts of violent energy, of humans taking up arms not for some convoluted idea of politics, but for the goal of rebelling. Like the burning of the Minneapolis Precinct in 2020, letting the rage and rebellion of those of us still living shining through and proving we still have fight in us, we won't die quietly in the night. These short bursts of violent energy encouraging humans to negate the will of the systems of domination, and encouraging more radical action and eventual destruction of these systems entirely, because what else is there? We live under these impossible systems, we fight and possibly die or we don't fight and we DO die.

"The active nihilist sees in the unknown future and despair at our current situation, a call to arms. Meaning is found in approaching the void rather than in the false knowledge of what is on the other side of it." —Attentat

Embracing the Void: How We Can Use This

On a real level, I don't expect you to read this and instantly agree we are fucked. Embracing this idea that our world is gone is a difficult one, and a depressing one.

Instead we can focus on what Anarcho-Nihilism brings to the table regarding its critiques and ideas.

We can begin to embrace decentralized modes of organizing, instead of searching for some Vanguard party to get swallowed up into. When you have an idea, do it. Get with friends or peers and go out into the world.

We can embrace negating the system when at all possible, illegalism as a tactic.

We can embrace the uncertainty of the future and, instead of waiting for things to get better, we can take action NOW, in the present, outside of suspension to do what we can because we can. Our nihilism does not have to paralyze us, it can instead energize us.

Anarcho-Nihilism Reading List

Blessed is the Flame

Blessed is the Flame (Audiobook)

Desert

Desert (Audiobook)

The Insurrectional Project

The Economy is Suffering, Let it Die!

Uncivilized

Say You want an Insurrection

Anarchy: Civil or Subversive?

Armed Joy

Notes on Post-Left Anarchism