In this episode of the Brilliant, we begin by discussing briefly what made us first call ourselves anarchists: Aragorn! talks about being realistic by demanding the impossible while Bellamy almost mistakes the episode for a therapy session. We then spend a good bit of time on the Paris attacks, an effort which mutates into a discussion about how we frame analyses of distant events. Finally, we use a thoughtful and lengthy critical e-mail from a listener as a point from which to wander through the subjects of revolution, “changing the world”, pessimism versus passivity, and the meaning of joy.
0:44: A new intro by Aragorn!, so you don’t have to keep skipping past the beginning of the show
1:57: Bellamy frames the episode while and A! occupies himself by clicking and making noise in the background;
2:34: A! tells about how he became an anarchist
6:03: B tells about he became an anarchist
8:57: The call of the wild
9:10: A-News does something sweet and nice for a change
11:30: Aftermath of Paris incident
12:50: Reading from the Appelistas’ (anti-state communists) comment on Paris
13:58: Discussion of Paris attacks: humans as neurotic, caged animals; “there’s this thing called History”; people as mutually incomprehensible; the usefulness of an anti-civilization analysis for understanding the event; people performing ideological functions passively vs. actively; “[Civilization:] there’s no way to fight it other than going camping a lot”
29:50: More from the French commies
30:45: Beautiful sentiments; lived communism as something like dual power; rhetoric based on real relationships vs. abstract concepts
34:40: Response to listener e-mail: J’accuse!; the nature of human nature arguments
39:08: Wildness cannot be denied
39:30: chasm on the possibility of revolution; strategy vs. human-scale thinking
42:10: publishing as an indigenous perspective on revolution – “it looks like telling better stories”
45:20: “changing the world” as discrete vs. continuous; pessimism in the context of metaphysic of world as Becoming; anarcho-lexophilia; anarchism, anarchy, anarchist…choose carefully!; metrics of “success”; pessimism vs. passivity
54:45: Anarchy without emphasis; “You’re so fucked up! – Respond!”
57:41: Unmediated joy; joy vs. happiness; Joy is…bro-like?
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7 Comments
@Bellamy
I completely support the idea of a continuous series of conversations having a great effect. I much prefer hearing people’s thoughts ‘as they have them’, as opposed to when they’ve ‘settled’ in long-form pieces. Hence why I prefer ‘live’ conversations to ‘books’, and why I’ve never really finished my own book, though I could have (and maybe one day WILL, who knows), several times over.
But…I agree that you should ditch the anarchist label.
benett, the fact that you can listen to two engaged, interesting, thoughtful people talk about their pasts, topical events, and philosophical premises, and apparently can only continue to complain that it’s not some other thing…
makes me happy that i don’t know you. i know enough whiners.
Er, no, I said I was glad it is what it is. In the episode, they talked about the continuous nature of what they are doing, and I wrote that I supported that style of communication.
My second point is not related to the first. Bellamy said that another listener made a suggestion. I indicated I agreed. I think it does not do justice to Bellamy’s ideas and approach, which I have a lot of time for, to call it ‘anarchism’.
Actually, you know what, I think it’s pretty harsh to be labelled as a ‘whiner’ when this week I’ve tried to link my visitors to Black Seed and The Brilliant, not to mention defending The Brilliant against John Zerzan’s nasty attack.
It’s a good podcast and I will listen to it again. My only complaint is the background music is annoying when something important is being said.
@Bellamy
Off topic, Bellamy can you please inform listeners via a written post when you do interviews, or whatnot elsewhere? I just stumbled across The Unterrified podcast and had no idea that you were on a few of them until now.
Thanks
To get a better understanding of suicide terrorism, check out Andy Thomson’s lecture. It’s truly compelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuipt15s08c