"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
#Andrewism opens early in his latest video essay as follows:
"When people recognize the failures of the current status quo…at least the radically inclined usually attribute the blame for this state of affairs to squarely on the shoulders of the capitalists, and by extension the capitalist state. Anarchists, on the other hand, see that the source of our people and our planet's exploitation goes much deeper than the economic system."
Up to this point, #anarchism & #lumpentheory are in agreement.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Which brings us to those seven words.
"a constantly changing natural and human environment"
Such a daily lived experience would be a violation of every unfulfilled retrofuture promise.
It would be, indeed, a violation of promises—qua promises—insofar as promises are rendered legible under hegemonic techne.
The last thing those who are not prepared to mourn unfulfilled retrofuture promises want is to do the work to defend—participate in a defense of—the violation of those unmourned promises.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
An anarchist society will only be possible via a dynamic balance of mētis & techne.
A population inculcated in the idea that learning is hard and—more often than not, a waste of time—who speak of experiences of uncertainty as "impostor syndrome", in a society wherein the answer to domination by the hubristic overconfidence of mediocre white men is for everyone else to lean in & be more confident, be more certain...
Such a society, before mētis, must first learn to sit uncomfortably with doubt.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
But let's set this up. #Andrewism continues:
"OTOH, there's techne…which is expressed precisely in hard-and-fast rules, principles, & propositions, that are applicable universally. Techne differs from mētis quite radically…a recurrent theme in Western philosophy and science of attempting to reformulate knowledge systems to eliminate all uncertainty."
Recall "little confidence…in the skills, intelligence, & experience of ordinary people" above. Confidence is sought, just not in ordinary people.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Anarchism requires work. Participation is necessary. Being without separation ain't sufficient.
Anarchism sees the barrier to that work as being "our perceived potential…limiting our actual potential". That is, our perception of ourselves.
Folk—who have been inculcated in high-modernist promise of daily certainty, through simplified, legible experience—we are to trust will "fight to defend [anarchist] freedom", which entails "a constantly changing natural and human environment".
Uncertainty.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
#Lumpentheory is not anarchism.
Lumpentheory begins with the understanding that to be invested in the unfulfilled retrofuture promises of #RentierSociety is to be committed to a profoundly limiting idea that certainty is virtuous and uncertainty is failure.
That is, it is not our perceived potential that limits us. It is our confidence in our own power to vanquish and dispel uncertainty—so as to preserve the simplified, legible experience promised by daily lived experience of hegemonic techne.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Quoting Scott again:
"What is perhaps most striking about high-modernist schemes...is how little confidence they repose in the skills, intelligence, & experience of ordinary people."
Confidence is a key word here. We're getting quite close now.
After more Mishnory road, including extensive synathroesmus from Proudhon (subject of Poverty of Philosophy), we get a proscription that leans into:
"[I]t's important to trust that people...will, of their own volition, fight to defend that freedom." 🤔
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
#Andrewism continues:
"You see, participation in society is necessary as a consequence of our mutual interdependence, and in a society where a particular form of organization is predominant, individuals tend to adopt the values associated with that form of organization."
We're so close to #lumpentheory one can taste it. The key is to avoid the trap of reading the above ahistorically.
To instead read the above in context of individuals who adopted values under an "incapacitated civil society".
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
"So if anarchic forms of organization were predominant, then anarchic values must be predominant…"
Well before this, #Andrewism states "[t]he state's existence has been 'justified', 'naturalized', & 'legitimized' through various means, including…the social contract…"
Yet the above is an ahistoricization worthy of Rawls—asserting what "must be predominant" for abstracted forms of organization free of any lived histories of previously adopted values—let alone "powers, drives, and consciousness".
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
#Andrewism comes back to Scott:
"[H]ow seeing like a state blinds us to the role of mētis, a form of knowledge that would serve a critical role in anarchic society organization."
Now we're getting there. #Andrewism now quotes Scott's definition of mētis:
"a wide range of practical skills and acquired intelligence in responding to a constantly changing natural and human environment."
That's the ballgame. This is where #lumpentheory is not anarchism—everything hinges on those last seven words.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Further into the video:
"Just as capitalism alienates us from control over our labor, the state alienates us from control over our society. Without the separation of superiors and inferiors, we would all be able to develop the powers, drives, and consciousness necessary to recognize our mutual interdependence and cooperate to get things done as equals."
Would be able to, yes. This is where #anarchist praxis shines.
Recall however earlier caveat. Being without such separation ain't sufficient.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Reflect on this in terms of toots above:
"What's more, the very structure of the modern state and its underlying high-modernist ideology⋯attempts to impose a simplified, legible order on our complex, diverse, and organic social reality. This isn't to say that certain forms of knowledge about the world don't require a narrowing of vision to study and make sense of, but that simplification in service of the state operates for its benefit first and foremost⋯"
An order simplified, legible to whom?
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Here, #Andrewism quotes from Scott:
"[Many] state activities aim at transforming the population⋯under their jurisdiction into closed systems that offer no surprises⋯Thus categories that may have begun as the artificial inventions of cadastral surveyors, census takers, judges, or police officers can end by becoming categories that organize people's daily experience⋯"
Above, noted that not-an-anarchist Scott would be important.
People's daily, simplified, legible experience. This is important.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
We come to Scott's concept of High Modernist Ideology:
"High modernism is characterized by intense confidence in progress based entirely on the expertise of bureaucrats & intellectuals⋯attempts to simplify complex environments & social dynamics⋯This was arguably the dominant ideology during the Cold War⋯forms of the state that⋯upon an incapacitated civil society, to bring their high modernist designs into being."
Over half of Usians lived some part of their lives during the Cold War. Relevant.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
#Andrewism expands further:
"We instead find the source of our exploitation, and thus the target of in the principal of hierarchical power, which manifests in capitalism, yes, but also in every permutation of statecraft…and enduring institutions and ideologies like patriarchy, colonialism, and more."
And this is where #lumpentheory diverges from #anarchism.
For this analysis, rather than going deeper, goes categorically higher. It subsumes "capitalism" yet nonetheless orients to same horizon.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
#Andrewism then launches into a discussion of how a "state" is defined, clarifying how anarchists use the word differently from Marxists.
His analysis is informed by multiple figures and titles, including See Like A State and Against the Grain, both by James C. Scott, although Andrewism clarifies "I've taken it a bit further than Scott himself would, as he isn't an anarchist."
This is important for what follows.
Much of the video is then Mishnory road critique of the state. None of it untrue.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
We are given an important caveat:
"The predominance of stateless societies does not imply the predominance of egalitarian or even anarchic societies. There's a lot we just don't know about our prehistory, but we do know that not every stateless society is inherently anarchist, because there's more to anarchism than the absence of a state."
Anarchism is not a fait accompli. It requires work.
#Lumpentheory looks to anarchist praxis for this reason, even as lumpentheory is not itself anarchism.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Analysis comes very close to #lumpentheory here:
"Our alienation from the practice of control over our lives and spaces, causes us to lack practice in controlling our lives & spaces which reinforces our dependence on the hierarchies that deprive us of that ability. Our powers, drives, and consciousness all reinforce each other, so when we're subject to hierarchical power structures, our perceived potential ends up limiting our actual potential."
Lumpentheory differs on just what is perceived.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Thus, #lumpentheory is not anarchism.
Because lumpentheory does not trust that those unprepared to do the work of #mourning, the collective work of mourning, unfulfilled retrofuture promises—those without the tools to sit uncomfortably with doubt and be okay with not being okay, with not being confident, with not being certain—will do the necessary work to "develop the powers, drives, and consciousness necessary to recognize our mutual interdependence & cooperate to get things done as equals."
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Instead, #lumpentheory begins with the recognition that before we can do the work of balancing mētis and techne, we must do the work of #mourning techne as hegemon, certainty as promised, confidence as given.
We can do the praxis of #anarchism without first doing this work of collective mourning.
But to realize a society where "anarchic forms of organization are predominant", we must first mourn the unfulfilled retrofuture promises of this society—which anarchic forms must necessarily violate.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
Top of this thread, assert that anarchism doesn't go deeper than anti-capitalism, but instead categorically higher.
Both remain discourses of external loci of control, beseeching us to seize our own inherently internal loci of control, but always as a call to arms against existential kaiju towering above.
#Lumpentheory offers no such narrative of external threat to be vanquished. The hero determined not to leave comfort of the known… will fight no monsters.
Depths reside within, not without.
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
@Shivviness Gonna say that "intelligence" is a highly problematic construct in this context. That said, in #RentierSociety—where one's autobiographical history of choices made underwrites #EgoValue—educational achievement (oft conflated with intelligence) does tend to be correlated with certainty.
Introspection, OTOH, is arguably near synonymous with doubt, in that introspection entails not taking one's own phenomenology as given. Very act of self-examination begins with questions, not answers.
Andrew
@beadsland
I agree, educational achievement is invariably regarded as being the same as "intelligence", utterly unhelpfully. There are simply so many forms of intelligence, from emotional intelligence through to artistic, and the ability to soak up information and regurgitate it onto a university exam paper is, well, myopic, to use that word again
"You do you" is Eu-gen-ics.
@Shivviness Let me be more explicit in my rebuke. Your framing of:
"whereas the more intelligent…"
Is ableist, and thus unhelpful. Even if not in response to a toot discussing factors of culture and society. Doubling down with allusion to Gardnerian neuromyth only serves as deflection.
Moreover, although my choice had been not to comment on it directly on our last exchange, yet here you've selected to hang a lantern upon it, your usage of the word "myopic" as invective is likewise ableist.
Andrew
@beadsland
I've found, the ignorant and myopic are invariably full of surety about things, whereas the more intelligent, introspective, open minded souls are beset with doubt.
Living with a healthy amount of doubt is only to be encouraged.
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