This Weekend in Portland, OR: 5th Annual EsoZone Alternative Culture and Thought Festival
The fifth annual EsoZone Portland event will be held this weekend at p:ear, Friday evening November 18th and Saturday November 19th (see the website for schedule and location information).
EsoZone is festival celebrating alternative culture and thought. It follows a hybrid unconference/conference model, meaning that in addition to pre-programmed content, participants can propose their own sessions to share their own ideas, projects and skills with the group.
This years presentations include:
- Tom Henderson, author of the forthcoming book Punk Rock Mathematics, on illusory nature of self.
- Eric Schiller of Beyond Growth on “digital hipsterism” and the rise of anti-intellectualism in social media.
- Yoga for Slackers lead by Loren mccRory.
- Grant Writing for Artists and Other Alien Beings lead by Amanda Sledz.
- Anarcho-Sewing lead by Jillian Ordes-Finley.
Plus music and performances, and whatever sessions are proposed by this year’s participants.
Meet the Anti-Leader of Occupy Wall Street
Drake Bennett writes in Bloomberg Business:
David Graeber likes to say that he had three goals for the year: promote his book, learn to drive, and launch a worldwide revolution. The first is going well, the second has proven challenging, and the third is looking up.
Graeber is a 50-year-old anthropologist — among the brightest, some argue, of his generation — who made his name with innovative theories on exchange and value, exploring phenomena such as Iroquois wampum and the Kwakiutl potlatch. An American, he teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London. He’s also an anarchist and radical organizer, a veteran of many of the major left-wing demonstrations of the past decade: Quebec City and Genoa, the Republican National Convention protests in Philadelphia and New York, the World Economic Forum in New York in 2002, the London tuition protests earlier this year. This summer, Graeber was a key member of a small band…
Media Roots: Occupy Oakland — Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
Abby Martin of Media Roots was on the front lines of the war in the streets of Oakland during the aftermath of the Occupy Oakland general strike and shutdown of the port on November 2, 2011. Over 10,000 peaceful protesters successfully shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth largest port in the country at 8 p.m. earlier that night. About two hours later, the anarchist “Black Bloc” came to downtown, smashing windows of banks and setting trash cans on fire. The Oakland PD in full riot gear lined up and marched toward the now out of control rally. They started firing smoke grenades and tear gas into the crowd of people, to which people starting throwing bottles and other objects back to the police. After the crowd scattered, the police lined up and starting to close in and arrest the remaining protesters at the Occupy Oakland camp:
Are You An Anarchist?
Regardless of what your answer is, David Graeber’s classic essay “Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You” is food for thought regarding what is possible. Via the Anarchist Library:
Many people seem to think that anarchists are proponents of violence, chaos, and destruction, that they are against all forms of order and organization, or that they are crazed nihilists who just want to blow everything up. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Anarchists are simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to. It is really a very simple notion. But it’s one that the rich and powerful have always found extremely dangerous.
At their very simplest, anarchist beliefs turn on to two elementary assumptions. The first is that human beings are, under ordinary circumstances, about as reasonable and decent as they are allowed to be,…
So You’ve Decided To Smash The State
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
For more than three weeks, you’ve been out in the streets, raising your voices in unison to make a change. Not just a little change — there’s no law to tweek here or there that’s going to fix “the system.” Even the most right wing arch conservative republican knows that. This is why you’re demonstrating against Wall Street, against the slow corporate takeover of our government, against endless wars and endless greed. Your list of demands changes and grows. Your democratic process to make decisions beneficial to all who participate in the movement grows.
It’s beautiful.
It’s also one of the most difficult endeavors you’ll face in your entire life.
None of this will come easy.
We’ve already seen how police and other authorities have reacted to your kindred spirits in New York, Boston, LA, Seattle, and dozens of other cities. We’ve seen thousands of people arrested, beaten, gassed,…
Britain Is Only ‘Four Meals Away From Anarchy’
[Site notice: Re-posting this now (originally posted 7/19/2011) due to a timely observation (of an older post) from Disinfo.com commenter SuddenlySpam.] A blast from the past for all you newshounds. Enjoy via the Times:
Modern civilisation may not be quite as safe as we thought. Britain’s security services have been privately warning their staff that western societies are just 48 hours from anarchy. MI5’s maxim is that society is “four meals away from anarchy”. In other words, the security agency believes that Britain could be quickly reduced to large-scale disorder, including looting and rioting in the event of a catastrophe that stops the supply of food.
The maxim will provoke debate over whether MI5 is over-egging the threat, partly to justify its rapidly growing budget. It also opens a wider question as to whether civilised societies could so quickly revert to primitive behaviour. MI5 — whose motto is “regnum defende”, defend the…
Hi, I’m the Anti-Christ
Hi, I’m the Anti-Christ:
My name is R. Talmadge Lacy and I was born on 12/13/1979. (12 = number of Apostles + Jesus = 13) // (1+2+1+3+1+9+7+9=33) 33 is called the Christ vibration for reasons that are mysterious and weird. On top of all that my dad was a carpenter and my mom’s name is Virginia: (Virgin)ia.
Now what exactly makes me the “Anti”-Christ? Well according to mainstream Christianity, Christ is something separate from yourself; an external authority figure one must submit to in order to be saved. I, however, do not believe in this model of Christ. You might even say I believe the exact opposite is true. Now I’m not the first or only person to hold this point of view — from Jewish mystics to gnostic Christians, many have associated the Messiah (the morning star) with our personal consciousness. Thereby by the light of consciousness every man & every woman was likened…
Can You Be An Anarchist And Business Owner?
Photo: revolution cycle (CC)
This article in the Washington Post raises a very interesting question:
A meeting of anarchists, progressives, a self-described “surly feminist” and others on the far left of the political spectrum is underway. They’re young and radical. They’re organizing intently. The matter at hand could be oppression, or the police state, or revolution.
But it’s not. It’s walking dogs.
They sit in a circle in the living room of a Petworth group house and tick off their “route updates,” which mostly consist of details about the new canine clients they’ve signed up.
That’s because business is booming.
The seven people present belong to Brighter Days, a dog walkers’ collective founded on anarchist principles. Last year, the five-year-old business grossed more than $250,000. Its members have equal ownership and make business decisions by reaching consensus during weekly meetings such as this one. Any of them can block any decision. They split their earnings evenly, have…
Agents Provocateurs in London and Pittsburgh
From so_very_doomed (LiveJournal):
Note: The truth is the last thing anyone wants to hear. I’m expecting to get abuse for this, if certain people end up reading it.
The march 26th demonstration was … interesting: Very dull, very boring but very neccesary. There was a desperate, depressed atmosphere in the crowd. They were led along, often corralling themselves behind arbitrary barriers in the road. Several times I went into the unoccupied side of the road as it was becoming dangerously overcrowded in the main march. They were just so depressing.
Then there were the anarchists. At first I liked the cut of their jib as they had a bit more life to them; while the criminal damage seemed fairly minor and tokenistic, but then after I got home I saw the footage. I noticed, not for the first time, the way the so-called Black Bloc were always surrounded by camera crews and strangely inactive…
Freedom of Information Act Does Not Apply to ‘Known Anarchists’
Photo: Kashfi Halford (CC)
Site editor’s note: This post from D.J. Pangburn originally appeared on death + taxes.
Mo Karn, alias of a ‘known anarchist,’ filed a Freedom of Information Act requrest with the Richmond, Virginia police. The department delivered the documents, now they want them back.
Karn (a member of Richmond Copwatch) and others filed under the Freedom of Information Act to learn police procedures during protests, so that they could better plan and coordinate their efforts in direct action. According to Karn’s (she is a member of the anarchist collective The Wingnut), the group “wanted to get copies of the police protocols so we could know when the police are breaking their own rules.”
Perfectly legal, it would seem. We should all know when police are breaking their own rules or the law.
However, the documents weren’t merely standard police protocols but homeland security and crowd control guides. Essentially a how-to manual on how…
Against Tourism: The Art Of Traveling
Dante’s Inferno provides us with what is perhaps the most apt picture of tourism to date. More specifically, it is in the first layer of Hell, Limbo, that Dante depicts the circumstances that contextualize tourism and the individual who undertakes it, i.e. the tourist.
Like the unbaptized and virtuous Pagans whose torture is the inability to imagine something greater than their rational minds can conceive, the tourist never ventures beyond the predetermined image of the places they visit. The tourist deals only in images, whether it is the image of the Grand Canyon that was promised to him by the travel agent, or the image he must make of it (by snapping a picture) in order for it to become real. The tourist cannot know the mystery or grandeur of the Grand Canyon as it stretches across the horizon, she can only seen it in comparison to the image she was promised.…
Italian Anarchists Hark Back to Forgotten 1970s Terrorists
Recently VICE magazine published a story that was nostalgic for forgotten terrorist groups from the 1970s, to the point of eulogizing them in an age of far more deadly and insidious Islamist attacks around the world. Could it be that the cowards behind the Rome embassy attacks this week sensed the moment was ripe for a return to letter bombs and misguided anarchist idealism? TIME takes a look at the perps:
The Italian anarchists who have claimed responsibility for the letter bombs that exploded in the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome Thursday want to make it clear that they consider themselves part of something bigger. “We’ve decided to make our voice heard once again, with words and with deeds,” read a note written in Italian found in the remains of a crude bomb that exploded in the Chilean embassy. “We will destroy the system of domination.”
The note was signed by the Informal…
Congress Refuses an Article V Convention — Has Our Government Been Hijacked?
Signing of the Constitution. Painting by Howard Chandler Christy.
Article V is the only part of the US Constitution that tells how we can change the Constitution. The states, not Congress, propose amendments at an Article V Convention. An Article V Symposium was held at Cooley Law School on September 17, 2010 in Lansing, Michigan. Bill Walker, cofounder of Friends of the Article V Convention, shared how he filed two federal lawsuits stating that Congress was obligated to call an Article V Convention. The latter lawsuit (Walker v. the Members of Congress in 2004) was appealed to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court declared, as it had in three other separate decisions, that Congress must call for an Article V Convention. But Congress has simply refused in violation of the US Constitution.
To listen to Bill Walker’s speech and to the other scholars at the symposium, who all argue that we should want,…
Bad Religion’s Professor Explains Anarchy Evolution
Greg Graffin, the lead singer of Bad Religion, also teaches evolution at UCLA and is the author of a new book, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God. He tells CNN’s Gabe LaMonica about his naturalist beliefs:
LaMonica: Voltaire said, “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” Is that not your view of nature?
Graffin: *laughs* No, I don’t think so. See that implies there’s a design and of course Voltaire was a deist and a famous one at that and I think he thought that there was some design but I would say that there is no design to nature.
LaMonica: But you certainly have a pedantic sense of humor. You say, “As far as I’m concerned, if a philosopher or theologian wants to interpret scientific data as divine, he or she has a right to do so. (Maybe they can write…
Portland Police Provocation at Anarchist Coffee Shop
From Nick Pell at Red Star Times.
For those who have far better things to worry about, a recap: Recently, at a worker-owned Portland anarchist cafe, Red And Black, a police officer was asked to leave by a co-owner. A local blogger was outraged (enough so to revisit the subject), the insipid Portland hipster yuppie press picks it up and the national media has a field day yukking it up over the bizarre notion that some people don’t think cops are acceptable in polite company.
Meanwhile, no one (except Infoshop News in their roundabout, “let’s pretend we’re trying to be objective to avoid the political fight” identity politics-laden “anarchist” sort of way) asks the crucial question: Why is a police officer going into an anarchist cafe in the first place?
National Anarchists at Folsom Street Fair
From Nick Pell at Red Star Times
I was contacted this morning by Bay Area National Anarchists founder Andrew Yeoman. He felt that I had unfairly maligned his group in my recent article on radical traditionalist website Alternative Right. I don’t really want to get into the specifics of our exchange, however, I would now like to present the videos I referenced (but did not post) in my previous article. The event they are protesting is the Folsom Street Fair, which is a leather / BDSM event, not explicitly a gay pride event.
I stand by my claim that harassment takes place on these videos and that the demonstration attempts to target homosexuals. Indeed, Folsom Street Fair is largely (if not predominantly) an event for the gay leather / BDSM community.
Right-Wing Blog Watch: Alternative Right
From Nick Pell at Red Star Times
Welcome to a new feature on Red Star Times, right-wing blog watch. I am introducing this feature for the sake of keeping a close eye on right-wing blogs, ranging from hardline conservative to outright fascist. My first subject of study is Alternative Right, a particularly noxious website that brands itself as “radical traditionalist.” For those who aren’t familiar with the term, radical traditionalist is a term used by hipsters, goths and faux-erudite who espouse fascist ideology but want a term with more intellectual cache.
Radical traditionalist favorites include Oswald Spengler, Julius Evola and Alain de Benoist. Associated (allegedly) political movements include Eurasianism, metapolitics, third positionism and national anarchism. Alternative right is an exemplar of radical traditionalism and fascism in as much as it begins with hatred of minorities, women and the working class and proceeds to construct a bizarre mish-mash of gobbledygook as “ideology” after…
Machines Designed to Change Humans
I remember how my mom used to yell at my dad because he was always trying to explain how we’re being farmed.
The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab creates insight into how computing products — from websites to mobile phone software — can be designed to change what people believe and what they do.
Yes, this can be a scary topic: machines designed to influence human beliefs and behaviors. But there’s good news. We believe that much like human persuaders, persuasive technologies can bring about positive changes in many domains, including health, business, safety, and education. We also believe that new advances in technology can help promote world peace in 30 years. With such positive ends in mind, we are creating a body of expertise in the design, theory, and analysis of persuasive technologies, an area called “captology.”
By arriving at this page, you’ve reached the main website for our research lab, directed by Dr.…
