this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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Anarchism and Social Ecology

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Anarchism

Anarchism is a social and political theory and practice that works for a free society without domination and hierarchy.

Social Ecology

Social Ecology, developed from green anarchism, is the idea that our ecological problems have their ultimate roots in our social problems. This is because the domination of nature and our ecology by humanity has its ultimate roots in the domination humanity by humans. Therefore, the solutions to our ecological problems are found by addressing our social and ecological problems simultaneously.

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Poetry and imagination must be integrated with science and technology, for we have evolved beyond an innocence that can be nourished exclusively by myths and dreams.

~ Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom

People want to treat ‘we’ll figure it out by working to get there’ as some sort of rhetorical evasion instead of being a fundamental expression of trust in the power of conscious collective effort.

~Anonymous, but quoted by Mariame Kaba, We Do This 'Til We Free Us

The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.

~Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.

~Murray Bookchin, "A Politics for the Twenty-First Century"

There can be no separation of the revolutionary process from the revolutionary goal. A society based on self-administration must be achieved by means of self-administration.

~Murray Bookchin, Post Scarcity Anarchism

In modern times humans have become a wolf not only to humans, but to all nature.

~Abdullah Öcalan

The ecological question is fundamentally solved as the system is repressed and a socialist social system develops. That does not mean you cannot do something for the environment right away. On the contrary, it is necessary to combine the fight for the environment with the struggle for a general social revolution...

~Abdullah Öcalan

Social ecology advances a message that calls not only for a society free of hierarchy and hierarchical sensibilities, but for an ethics that places humanity in the natural world as an agent for rendering evolution social and natural fully self-conscious.

~ Murray Bookchin

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As an anarchist, I disagree with the linked video's notion that small groups shouldn't act autonomously. That is garbage. But the rest of what it says about security culture and safety and the fact that the movie was pretty clearly made to encourage activists to compromise their security and/or hurt themselves is right-on and worth spreading to comrades everywhere.

It's again worth stressing that this has basically nothing to do with the book of the same title as the movie, and the video makes that clear.

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[–] Five 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I think Marxism Today totally missed the point of the movie. How to Blow Up a Pipeline is engaging fun you can share with your liberal friends, that also happens to challenge their notions of acceptable praxis against climate change.

It's a heist film in the Ocean's Eleven tradition, using all the classic tropes like nonlinear narrative, assembling the crew, third act twist - it's unrealistic because it is meant to be entertaining rather than informative. I watched the interview MT clipped from, and they left out the context that they consulted with the counter-terrorism expert so that they wouldn't get into legal trouble for demonstrating actual bomb-making techniques. They collaborated with a government official because wanted their film to have the widest possible release, not to help or hinder people making actual bombs.

I agree that Marxist groups have a hypocritical relationship with 'adventurism' - they only use that term if the cadre's results aren't immediately celebrated by the proletariat. If they succeed and it polls well, they call them the people's vanguard and pretend their plans were stamped at party headquarters. Stalin was a literal heist man, robbing banks for the Bolsheviks. I'm sure the guy who punched Richard Spencer consulted a committee first.

I love the reviews by army-funded Michael Bay film fan types - they all grudgingly admit it's an excellent film, and without any irony say their only demerit is that it's 'propaganda' - that's high praise. If you haven't seen it already, assemble your crew.

[–] StrayCatFrump 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fair that the video producer probably took the movie a little too seriously. People calling themselves "Marxists" tend to do shit like that. LOL. And hilariously good takes about Stalin and their notion of adventurism.

Still, I think their point about it being presented as some kind of alternative to the book (i.e. THIS is the REAL how-to guide) and not coming with good enough disclaimers is still probably a reasonable take. And sorry, but I find "collaborated with the national-security state just to make sure we don't get in legal trouble" to be extremely weak. One could collaborate with anyone familiar with handling explosives to help you figure out how to change and/or omit important enough details about bomb making (not to mention people like defense attorneys), and changed stuff that would NOT put people at direct risk if they followed the example. Not to mention the shit about collaborating with the state that was also included. These are examples of extremely dangerous misinformation that just shouldn't be included ever, and aren't necessary just to produce a bit of fun and engaging agitprop.

[–] dillekant 2 points 6 months ago

Saw it recently and couldn't have put the points better myself. High Five Five ;)