A Very Brief What-I-Got from Anarchist Anthropology

A few things, that, however previously known, were driven home in my experience (this is not necessarily to say this is what the class was about):

-There is no difference between 'primitive' and 'modern' man. While certainly some societies are better or worse at doing things, like maintaining high standards of living, preventing the formation of states and other institutions of excessive power (all of which Western societies are awful at), it is essential to break down this false distinction to understand our own societies and what to do now.
-On this vein, capitalism (that is the form of society where production is the primary value, and is maximized and integrated into every aspect of life), and maybe civilization is about enforced scarcity, about enforced dependence, and any movement against oppression must have both an analysis and a solution to this problem. An interesting idea here is the notion of a "gift economy" which define many societies, and even much of our own. Of course this should NOT be confused in any way with pure altruism.
-Society must be built out of relationships. Charity, philanthropy, etc, are band aids that seek to cover up how money is generally acquired...i.e. through fucking over shitloads of people, often everyone, or by refusing to enter into relationships with other people, "love thy neighbor as thyself...but don't meet your neighbor, dear God, why'd you want to do that?". This points to the general falseness of Christian notions of how to get to equality, and the related notions of love, charity, etc: society will be changed by building society, not by regulating, channeling, etc, the independent action of atomized individuals.
-Revolution, insofar as the word should even be used, is a moral task, a break with the previous moral/societal/economic framework that restructures relationships and redefines needs/desires. In a world with more production than ever before we have a higher percentage of poverty than ever before. This is almost unspeakably obscene. The revolution will not give everyone a car, a big house, two tvs, a washing machine, and a big useless lawn. Precisely finding how we can live in paradise AT PRESENT, and how to perpetuate such paradise is the revolutionary task that must be organized.
-Any change beneficial change happens through organization, and organizations have a unique and essential role, however much we want to promote networks as a way that is more easily non-hierarchical. Networks bring people together for projects, but organizations are groups that are already able, experienced, directed towards doing things, and therefore remain the core of getting things done. Moreover, we need both organizations, that is collections of people who work on certain tasks, networks, ways of connecting people, identities, ways of considering people as having common humanity, and communities, which are people who are brought together both by identity and networks, but also by relationships, lifestyle, and a more holistic culture generally. Now to create such things...

I'm sure there is more but that's all for now.

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