Re: <nettime> Europe and the MAGA mind virus

[Brian Holmes via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Thanks for asking Christian. I did not mean to impugn all anarchists nor
all of anarchism - I too am a fan of many authors and projects, not only
those whom you mention - but rather I was referring to the way that a lot
of people more or less affiliated with anarchism greeted the Internet with
such enthusiasm. We talked a lot about the rights and dreams of people in
the Lacondon jungle (the Zapatistas), and theirs remains a great cause, but
we failed to see (or make visible to others) the almost inevitable
consequences of accelerated commercial and cultural change, namely the
present fascist backlash. In that regard we were the useful fools of our
time.. We contributed to legitimating globalization under an "alter" guise.
I basically knew this as it was happening, but I couldn't do anything about
it.

Of course this is not a very hopeful way to look back. It's a kind of
generational regret. I regret the way things have turned out. It's not
exactly my fault, but as I did participate at my individual scale, I still
feel that regret, also through empathy with future generations. Maybe life
under capitalism is like that?

best, Brian

On Wed, Feb 19, 2025 at 3:31 AM Christian Swertz <christian@swertz.org>
wrote:

> Hi Brian,
>
> thank you for your substantial post. Really an interesting read. I just
> did not understand this one:
>
> owever, there was no audience for it and I soon ceased trying
> to make that point (shame on me). The reason why is that the internet-happy
> anarchists, with all their open-border idealism, just didn't give a damn
> about lessons of history. T
>
>
> As far as I know, there is a difference between the freedom of capital and
> the freedom of people, there is a difference between competition and
> solidarity, and there are some lessons about history that are taken into
> account in anarchist concepts, for example by Wengrow and Graeber, who
> actually argue for something that could be called open-border idealism. But
> obviously I missed something. Can you give me a hint?
>
> I only ask because I fear that hopelessness as a result of the analysis
> might have the opposite effect to what is probably intended.
>
> --
> Liebe Grüße,
>
> Christian Swertzhttp://www.swertz.at
>
>
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