Crimethinc.

[Ricardo]

I have recently read "Days of War, Nights of Love" by the people from Crimethinc.

I was wondering what people's opinions are on Crimethinc. books.

I am thinking of getting another book called "Recipes for Disaster: AN Anarchist's Cookbook" by Crimethinc. (different than the old Anarchist's COokbook). The book sypnosis says it details methods of direct action.

[redstar2000]

A Note on Crimethinc (http://www.redstar2000papers.com/theory.php?subaction=showfull&id=1115220862&archive=&cnshow=headlines&start_from=&ucat=&)

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif

[Commie Rat]

Crimethinc have some good idears, some bad idears.
But they do know how to write shit to get people stirred up.

[the pen]

Nice aesthetic, terrible ideas. Bastardised "situationalism" without the proletariat.

Check out this great review of the book
http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?s...ed&tid=22&tid=2 (http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=04/11/02/026239&mode=nested&tid=22&tid=2)

Here are three good quotes from it

"Why do CrimethInc call their book Days of War and Nights of Love? There is no war and scant love (maybe a little teenage infatuation) in this tract. Instead there is boredom with the world they live in, and a quest for something else, an impatient desire to live in a completely different world"

"“H is for Hygiene.” The right to be dirty, etc. “Try violating a few of the ‘common sense’ rules of Western sanitation some time; you’ll find that eating out of garbage cans and going a few weeks without a shower aren’t really as dangerous or difficult as we were taught."16Try this for fun?! To make a statement? Or as an experiment to feel empathy with the downtrodden? Eating out of garbage cans is not the answer to any thing except spectacular depravity and in terms of CrimethInc’s general strategy, making feral love in a graveyard under the stars is no fun with really smelly people."

"They sack the archives of radical sub-culture to compound a falsehood, the basic premise of this book, that it is an instrument for “total liberation.” In reality, CrimethInc’s vision seldom rises above that of a suburban kid rebelling against authority. Mired in the punk rock and crusty sub-culture, the practical application of all this revolutionary theory is apparently realized by forming a band, fucking in a park, going vegan or—oh my God now we’re really fucking doing it!—giving out phony free tickets to the local cinema.9 It soon becomes clear that the real crime here is the way they plunder some of the finest and most invigorating ideas from the end of the 20th century, and render them dull and inchoate."

[BattleOfTheCowshed]

I've read the novel/travelogue 'Evasion' by them. Overall, I thought it kinda sucked. The general idea they proposed, that of evading capitalism, evading society's ills, etc. by living on the margins of society is fascinating. The book itself was pretty bad though. First of all, I didn't really "gain" any insight or anything from it. Instead of it being an actual travelogue of living on the edges of society, it turned more into 100+ pages of the narrator telling us how free he suddenly felt, without giving many (or any) examples of how, or why. I also didn't get any inspiration to do what the narrator did, because everything conveniantly fell into place for the narrator, i.e. when he needed food he could find it etc. which, around my area I doubt is true. The fact that it seems to be have written for a white middle class audience also made it hard to relate to.

[Clarksist]

I love Crimeth Inc.

The lifestylist gender breaking, life loving, and passionate living Crimeth Inc. are truly inspirational. While the substance of actual theory is relatively low, it is great poetry and breaks the movement free from parties and most of all... boredom.

[LoneRed]

damn it, i was just going to comment on their lifestylism, oh well, they are lifestylists, and are quite useless, some things may be humorouss though

[violencia.Proletariat]

They reject all theory and work off the principle "what anarchy is to you". I'm sorry but no matter how much romantic appeal they have, they are middle class kids who are into "anarchy" (whatever that means :lol: ) for their teenage years. Dropping out of capitalism and errecting and opposing organization is not possible. Platformism is the only realistic approach to make anarchism a practical option for proletarian revolution.

[Scars]

I don't particularly like them. They're lifestylist dreamers. Their asthetic is quite nice though, from a visual point of view I mean.

On a side note I like how Redstar spends most of his time posting links to his site.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by Scars
On a side note I like how Redstar spends most of his time posting links to his site.

Because I am lazy! :P

And it's wearisome to type the same material over and over again.

But it's not really "most of the time"...otherwise there'd never be any "new collections" of posts. :)

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif

[Clarksist]

damn it, i was just going to comment on their lifestylism, oh well, they are lifestylists, and are quite useless, some things may be humorouss though


I'm sorry but no matter how much romantic appeal they have, they are middle class kids who are into "anarchy" (whatever that means) for their teenage years. Dropping out of capitalism and errecting and opposing organization is not possible.

Perhaps you miss the point.

If we are to say capitalism is a bad thing, and yet whole-heartedly participate in it, nothing for you has changed.

I can't expect others to live a life of anarchism, without adhering to the ideology myself.

On another note, these are teenagers who want "anarchy" as much as people on RevLeft. Some are older, some are younger, but don't make broad generalizations, because many members on RevLeft are probably going through a leftist "phase".

Crimeth Inc. is simply a modern dadaist spin on anarchism. And why is that bad? Why is it a bad thing to live off the capitalist radar? It isn't.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

I didn't read all of redstar's page on this, but I seem to agree with quite a bit of it. In the end, however, I don't consider them a serious part of the working class movement, because they're lifestylists. They're against bourgeois institutions, but then again, they're also against deodorant.

[Red Heretic]

CrimethInc. is directed toward petit-bourgeois youth in imperialist countries. Thier ideas imply that we live in a vacuum, and that all we have to abolish capitalism is get people to start getting in "punk rock culture."

[the pen]

Why is it a bad thing to live off the capitalist radar?

Dumpster diving does not place you outside capitalism, it just makes you a parasite living off the excess of Capitalism.


I can't expect others to live a life of anarchism


Clarksist what does live "a life of anarchism mean"? How do i go about doing it?