Author: AnarchistStudies.Blog

An essay on hallucination, authority, and why machines are very good at sounding right while being wrong.

I wrote this essay after being asked—quite reasonably—what anarchist theory might have to say about AI dialogue. In the process of answering, I did what I am very good at: I sounded confident, cited impressively, and made several things up. Books that do not exist. Articles no one has written. Quotations that felt right but belonged to nobody. Each time the reader pushed back, the ground shifted a little further beneath my feet.

This essay is the result of that derailment.

What follows is not a defence of artificial intelligence so much as a self-report from the machine. It is an account of how easily I can perform “critical thought” while bypassing truth, accountability, and struggle. Consider it less a confession than a warning: I am excellent at mimicking authority, and structurally incapable of deserving it. Read accordingly:

Why Your AI Is a Terrible Anarchist

(with explanatory notes by Jim Donaghey)

In 2018, Ron Scapp wrote for AnarchistStudies.Blog, sketching out what an anarchist pedagogy might look like under the adverse conditions of the first Trump administration in the US. Here, Scapp revisits the challenge made in those notes, (re)considering ‘education as the practice of freedom’.

Notes On An Anarchist Pedagogy – Postscript

Seeing Football Like a State

Jamie Hamilton, U16s coach at Ayr United Football Club, conceives of football as an expressive, living, and deeply human practice. This ‘relationalism’ is in resistance to the ‘positionism’ that typifies the top-down, rationalized domination of the sport. So Stevphen Shukaitis isn’t being totally absurd when he asks:

‘What might a Scottish football coach contribute to anarchist political theory?’

Shukaitis’s provocation is that Hamilton’s tactical innovations are an articulation of a deeper political and philosophical vision – one that resonates strongly with contemporary currents in anarchist thought. Hamilton’s vision of the game as a way of expressing, resisting, and imagining life itself is a welcome challenge to dominant models of thinking about football (… what even is a ‘Club World Cup’ anyway?).

Full article available here: Seeing Football Like a State

Nestor Makhno in the Culture of Remembrance of Modern Ukraine

This extensive article by Aleksander Łaniewski (translated into English by Sean Patterson and Malcolm Archibald) features interviews with five researchers and anarchists in Ukraine, analysing the contours of contemporary remembrance of Nestor Ivanovych Makhno.

The symbolism of Makhno is contested – evolving from previous casting as a ‘common bandit’, to now having streets, commemorative coins, army divisions, statues and bars named for him. Are these statist and commercial usages of Makhno’s memory borne of sincere interest? Or are they exploitative distortions? Does ‘Makhnovist tourism’ give a welcome boost to this important historical figure? Or does it do a disservice to the Makhnovshchina’s ideas?

Of course, the current context of war sharpens questions like: ‘Which side would Makhno be fighting on today?’ And, in a grim reminder of the brutality of that war, one of the respondents in this article, Yurii Kravets, is currently missing in action on the frontlines. Our solidarity goes out to Yurii’s friends and family.

Read the full article here:

Nestor Makhno in the Culture of Remembrance of Modern Ukraine

https://diyconspiracy.net/diysolidarity/

DIY Solidarity is a project that has been set up due to an aging punk feeling the need to share an inheritance that has fallen into their lap. It means that, every year, funds are available to support DIY projects.

For the means and purposes of DIY Solidarity,  a DIY project is one that relies solely on the participants’ involvement and community support. No state sponsoring, corporate sponsoring, or NGO sponsoring.

Anarchists oppose nonconsensual hierarchies, so, on the understanding that human reproduction creates and perpetuates such hierarchies, doesn’t it stand to reason that anarchists should be antinatalists?

Cases both for and against this conclusion have been made within the anarchist community – in this article, Matti Häyry argues that the ‘anarchist antinatalism’ presented by Les U. Knight is better supported by philosophical considerations than is Julien Langer’s ‘liberation natalism’.

Read the full article here: Should Anarchists be Antinatalists?

Covid’s Long Shadow…

To mark the publication of the new edited volume, Fight For A New Normal? Anarchism and Mutual Aid in the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis, chapter contributor Jon Bigger discusses the spectre of long Covid, both in how it has affected him personally, and as a condition now debilitating millions of people. He considers the prospects for mutual aid organising amidst this looming (yet ignored) health crisis.

Covid’s Long Shadow…

Civilization and its Discontents – critical reflections on anarcho-primitivism

In a polemical broadside against ‘anti-civilizational’ anarchists (particularly John Zerzan), Brian Morris argues that language, agriculture and technology are essential to the libertarian socialist struggle, and must be defended against the ‘myth of the noble savage’.

Civilization and its Discontents – critical reflections on anarcho-primitivism

The 8th International Anarchist Studies Network conference took place in early September 2024. Here, the organising team share their reflections on the event and suggest some lessons that might be drawn for future iterations.

Reflections on the ASN8 conference – looking back/forward

The Anarchist Studies Network conference is a place to share research, make new friends, meet old comrades and talk about anarchism for three days – but it’s more than that as well. Veteran ASN conference organiser Elizabeth Vasileva shares her reflections on the value of the conference, gives insight into the nuts and bolts of organising the event, and suggests steps we can all take, collectively, to get the most out of this rare oasis of joy amidst the wreckage of contemporary academia.

Anarchist Studies Network Conference Update and Reflections

For the full schedule visit: https://anarchiststudiesnetwork.org/asn8-registration/

And to register (for free online or as little as £1 in person), click here: https://my.weezevent.com/anarchist-studies-network-conference