The Savage Fruit of Alienation

New book review over at The Anvil Review:

Savage Messiah by Laura Oldfield Ford, Verso (2011). Architecture, for all its aspirations, is usually far too dated. Even for the untrained eye, it is easy to spot when most buildings were designed. And yet, after the luster of newness fades, architecture still casts its long shadow on the future. It is on each side of this phenomenology of time and structure that the Situationists and their inheritors lie. The Situationists, enraptured by rapid mid-century urbanization, tore up cobblestones to find the beach beneath the streets. But after all that work, the beach was not paradise but a desert …read more

Escape: A Talk

This following talk was presented last week at the 2012 North American Anarchist Studies Network conference. The Q/A period was perhaps more interesting than my talk. If you look around, you’ll find the videos.

Today, I will do three things:
1) Sketch a model of the State
2) Outline our terrain of struggle
and 3) Fill your arsenal with a few political weapons

This paper is a gloss of my current writing project, which is entitled Escape. Like many, I love stories of leaving it all behind, whether those are tales of fed-up employees quitting their jobs, restless romantics hitting the road, or the enraged laying waste to the civilization around them. Yet my thinking about escape originated from an academic interest that began after reading a curious comment early on in the popular book on “running to the hills,” James C Scott’s “The Art of Not Being Governed.”

a duo of holiday charm

the world did not end yesterday, and our days will slowly grow longer. i guess it’s time for us to make our own apocalypse.

after the jump is another video to get the blood flowing and help your feet move a bit faster.

The Modern State (edited)

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.

Prelude (edited)

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.

Modern State, complete

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.

A Prelude to Escape

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.

Class Hatred

As if you needed a reminder on why to hate the rich…

The Invisible Committee – Call [Audiobook]

All it took was an afternoon of margaritas for us to muster the confidence to record. Enjoy!

[Soundcloud/Wordpress.com API does not work for Chrome users. Sorry.]

The youth are waiting, day after day. They wait for their time; as do the workers, even the old. They all wait, those who are discontented and those who reflect. They are waiting for a force to arise, something they will be part of; a new kind of international that will not make the same mistakes as the previous ones. They wait for a chance to get rid of the past once and for all – for something new to begin.

WE HAVE BEGUN.

the death of the social

There will be no social solution to the present situation.