Multiverse Minutiae

Situationism calls attention to the priority of real life, real live activity, which continually experiments and corrects itself, instead of just constantly reiterating a few supposedly eternal truths like the ideologies of Trotskyism, Leninism, or Maoism. Static ideologies, however true they may be, tend, like everything else in capitalist society, to rigidify and become fetishised, just one more thing to passively consume. Partly as a result of this, Situationist ideas are notoriously difficult to explain, and open to a wide degree of interpretation. However, a few facts can be stated. Most introductions to the Situationists focus on their cultural ideas, particularly in relation to detournement (subverting elements of popular culture) but the roots of Situationist ideas are in Marxism. Libertarian Marxism, closer to anarchism than authoritarian strands of traditional Marxism, with the central idea that workers are systematically exploited in capitali...

Much myth surrounds Shangri-La, a hidden paradise in mountainous Tibet. The Theosophists believed Tibet to be the abode of the Mahatmas (Great Souls), keepers of the wisdom of Atlantis who congregated in a secret region of Tibet to escape the increasing levels of magnetism pro­duced by civilization; they believed as well that the Tibetans were unaware of the Mahatmas' presence in their land.  In James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon, what makes Shangri-La invaluable is not the indigenous knowledge of the indigenous people, but that over the centuries of his long life, a Belgian Catholic missionary had gathered all that was good in European culture­. They lived in the lamasery of Shangri-La, which towered physically and symbolically above the Valley of the Blue Moon, where the happy Tibetans lived their simple lives. For centuries many of Tibet's devotees have most valued not the people who live there but the treasures it preserves. China had been a particular...

Autonomism, Situationism, Associationalism Autonomism is a set of anti-authoritarian left-wing political and social movements and theories. As a theoretical system, it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerist communism. Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendencies became significant after influence from the Situationists.  The forms of autonomous movements saying that "In contrast to the centralized decisions and hierarchical authority structures of modern institutions, autonomous social movements involve people directly in decisions affecting their everyday lives. They seek to expand democracy and to help individuals break free of political structures and behavior patterns imposed from the outside". Autonomy, in this sense, is not independence. While independence refers to an autarchic kind of life, separated from the community, autonomy refers to life in society but by one's own rule. Situationists advocate organizational self-management and wo...

This growing trend of technocratic control started during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Replacing politicians with scientists and engineers was proposed as a solution to fix the dire economic dilemmas of the time, and was likely the inspiration for Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel,  Brave New World . But are fears of Technocracy unfounded?    Could this portend a technocratic resurgence today?  There is a rising tide of technocratic influence and control in our society and this can be seen on either end of the political spectrum. What would this progressive-libertarian alliance look like?  Technolibertarianism is a political philosophy with roots in the internet's early hacker cypherpunk culture in Silicon Valley in the early 1990s and in American progressivism and libertarianism. The philosophy focuses on minimizing government regulation, censorship or anything else in the way of a "free" Internet culture. Techn...

The Little Red Book  Anarcho-Maoism combines anarchist and Maoist ideals. It is particularly inspired by the Cultural Revolution when revolt against all organized society was encouraged. The ideas of anarcho-maoism can best be summed up with the phrase "to rebel is justified.” Anarchomaoism emphasizes the chaotic aspects of Maoist revolution in opposition to status quo and established order. Anarchomaoism is influenced by elements of direct democracy, anarchism, and spontaneous order. Anarcho-Maoism emphasizes egalitarianism over established order. The term “Mao-spontex” designates a political movement at the turn of Marxism and libertarian movements in Western Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. This neologism is a portmanteau derived from "Maoist" and "spontaneity.” Mao’s voluntarism- his belief that revolution depended not on objective conditions but on heroic acts of will- was well suited to the youthful insurrectionary exuberance of French students i...

All anarchists are utopian because they believe that it is possible to create an alternative society where the present-day social, economic and political evils have been diminished and humans can realize their full potential. This ideal society rests on anarchism’s optimistic view that humankind’s capacity for development, and the creation of a harmonious social order, can be nurtured in the absence of the state. Almost every type of anarchist utopia is a decentralised society, based on free association and self-regulation, where people govern and organize themselves. For anarchists, this type of social arrangement maximises liberty, equality and solidarity. Having said this, different strands of anarchism offer different visions of an ideal society. Collectivist anarchism, and anarcho-communists, call for a new utopian system that removes capitalism and the state, and introduces new social arrangements based on common ownership, mutual aid, economic equality and freely-form...