The Garbage Disposal Unit
9th October 2010, 07:04
Neither reform, nor revolution. Rupture.
Neither right, nor left. Exit.
Neither apathy, nor activism. Insurrection.
Basically I need quotations, thoughts, etc. on the theme above, ideally in such a way as to tie in to any of the individual terms. For example:
A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all; and if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire . . .
Works really well with (nor) revolution. Or, a thought:
I'm drawn to the term rupture because there is no corresponding identity attached to it - a person can be a revolutionary or a reformist, but there's no rupturist, only a realization in immediate practice.
This, of course, would fit with rupture.
The pairings, within the neither/nor, of course, are arranged in such a way that the obvious shit-option is first. I'm sure most of the folk on the board will agree the political right, reformism, and apathy are all dead ends. The left, and revolution, I recognize are much closer to peoples' hearts, and I'd like to pre-empt the shit-show: I want to speak about revolution as baggage we've inhereted from the realization of capitalism and the modern state - to understand revolutions as they have happened (and their results - France, America, The Soviet Union, China, and many other examples of something less than communism) instead of ideologically (the revolution that will be different than any of the others that have come before). Similarly, the left as the exists-in-practice left wing of capital, and activism as the extraparliamentary practice of those same Politics. If you want to argue the validity of this understanding, I mean, that's fine, but it probably won't help me with what I'm trying to write.
Thanks!
Neither right, nor left. Exit.
Neither apathy, nor activism. Insurrection.
Basically I need quotations, thoughts, etc. on the theme above, ideally in such a way as to tie in to any of the individual terms. For example:
A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all; and if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire . . .
Works really well with (nor) revolution. Or, a thought:
I'm drawn to the term rupture because there is no corresponding identity attached to it - a person can be a revolutionary or a reformist, but there's no rupturist, only a realization in immediate practice.
This, of course, would fit with rupture.
The pairings, within the neither/nor, of course, are arranged in such a way that the obvious shit-option is first. I'm sure most of the folk on the board will agree the political right, reformism, and apathy are all dead ends. The left, and revolution, I recognize are much closer to peoples' hearts, and I'd like to pre-empt the shit-show: I want to speak about revolution as baggage we've inhereted from the realization of capitalism and the modern state - to understand revolutions as they have happened (and their results - France, America, The Soviet Union, China, and many other examples of something less than communism) instead of ideologically (the revolution that will be different than any of the others that have come before). Similarly, the left as the exists-in-practice left wing of capital, and activism as the extraparliamentary practice of those same Politics. If you want to argue the validity of this understanding, I mean, that's fine, but it probably won't help me with what I'm trying to write.
Thanks!