#anarchist aragorn

[autonomoustweekazoid]

"We are not drifts of snow moving through reality. Things have happened. Choices have been made. These choices can be evaluated, not from a timeless doctrine but from a human scale. By this human scale the size, the scope, of the choices made is beyond comprehension. This being the case, and as the desire of conscious bodies is to understand, a frame of reference to begin to impact the world can be based on one of two options. Either shrink the world that you desire to understand and touch or assert yourself onto a world gone mad in such a way as to transform scale. Institutions, ideologies, systems, schools, family, capital, government and revolutionary movements have all developed beyond the body. Nihilist anarchism isn’t concerned with a social revolution that adds a new chapter to an old history but the ending of history altogether. If not revolutionaries then possibly epochanaries, for the transformation of society without a positive program."

- Aragorn!

Anarchy and Nihilism: The Consequences

[txttletale]

oh something i didn't mention about reading anticiv anarchist texts is that they're all really big on this guy who called himself 'aragorn'. embarrassing tbh

[torchwood-99]

It's funny how fans struggle so hard trying to reconcile Eowyn's great feat on the battlefield with the fact she disobeyed Theoden's orders in going to war, when you look at the story as a whole and "following orders" is never glorified or held up as a great moral good.

Eomer, Pippin, Faramir, Merry, Gandalf, multiple characters achieve stuff going against the will of the designated authority figure. Sauron's evil comes from his desire to control all. The Shire has to be scoured because it goes from a free place to a land where all is regulated by Saruman and his cronies. Aragorn, the great king, governed the realm in accordance to law, his own powers limited and kept in check.

Tolkien actually expressed anarchist leanings. J.R.R. Tolkien on anarchism – iDigress (rodbenson.com)

So how do we make sense of Eowyn's disobedience leading to a great good? Because in Tolkien's world, obedience (at least, obedience not to a divine being) is not a good in itself. Therefore, neither is disobedience moral evil.

The most improper job of any many, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity …

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamating factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.”

– J.R.R. Tolkien, letter to his son, 1943 (from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien).

I refuse to believe these are the words of a man who wrote of Eowyn going against the instructions of all to achieve great things in battle with a tut and the shake of a head.

Eowyn's disobedience, in Tolkien's eyes, I suspect endeared her to him more than all those years of obedience that preceded it.

[111seedhillroad]

My underrated anarchist reading material list:

Sascha Engel - Plant Anarchy; Breaking the Alphabet

Ramon Elani - Dark Virtue: Daoism and the Rejection of Civilization

Alejandro de Acosta - At Its' Core is Negation; Green Nihilism or Cosmic Pessimism

Jacques Camatte - The Wandering of Humanity

Aragorn! - Nihilist Animism; Locating and Indigenous Anarchism

Fera Silvain - On Subsistence and Slavery

Benjamin Weiss - Where the Wild Things Are(n't)

Seaweed - Permanent Subsistence Zones

xposted to cohost

[crimethinc]

Today marks four years since the passing of Aragorn!, a tireless polemicist and curator of anarchist infrastructure.

In this elegy, we explored the ways that his legacy challenges us, concluding with remembrances from comrades who shared some of his journey.

https://crimethinc.com/2020/02/19/aragorn-elegy-for-an-antagonist-on-hostility-and-its-limits

You can also read this interview conducted in summer 2018, in which he recounts his childhood in Grand Rapids, his youth in the hardcore scene, his introduction to anarchism, the motivations that drove him, and what it means to commit oneself to a life against the grain—traversing four decades of anarchist history.

https://crimethinc.com/2020/02/19/a-hell-of-a-mistress-the-beautiful-idea-an-interview-with-aragorn

[nihilistgf]

"For us green anarchism predates the term and is a way to talk about our politics (anarchist: no state, no exchange relationships, and a vigorous critique of daily life) and our spiritual life (green: earth-based, concerned with cycles not progress, not moral). For us green anarchism does not begin with a set of bearded European men but in the conditions of Turtle Island (North America). The turtle (Hah-nu-nah) is the earth, and is our life. A green perspective worth its name begins with the story of how humans came to this place. A place that was doing just fine without us. It begins with the stories that composed a social reality that was disrupted by visitors who have long outstayed their welcome." - Black Seed—An Old Green Anarchy by Aragorn!

[xartus]

Imo, as an anarchist, the best way to create change is to foster communication, understanding, and mutual interests between people. To change the mores of society from profit and individualism to community, well being, and peace.

Violence is complex and almost always begets further violence. Violence is not somehow "good" because YOUR side is doing it. Your side doesn't get an excuse for atrocities or cruelty because you morally agree with them.

Honorable war doesn't really exist in real life and if it does it look like whatever the fuck Aragorn was doing.

[nando161mando]

Anarchist Library: Gardens of Resistance, Aragorn!, Artnoose, Ariel, The Anvil Review - Insurgent Summer

"Author: Gardens of Resistance, Aragorn!, Artnoose, Ariel, The Anvil Review - Title: Insurgent Summer - Subtitle: The Anvil Review #2 special insert - Date: 2010 - Notes: Notes as they appeared in The Anvil Review #2 special insert: Insurgent Summer was an on- and off-line cooperative discussion, held during the summer of 2010, of Fredy Perlman's epistolary novel, Letters of Insurgents. These are brief notes based on those discussions. And thanks also…"

[dailyanarchistposts]

Acknowledgements & Footnotes

For over 30 years I have acted, debated and conversed with other anarchists. Throughout my life I have read the words and listened to the voices of numerous philosophers, poets, fighters, friends, and neighbors. I can’t see any use in trying to sort out exactly who said what or in trying to locate the passages in books where some of my ideas, influences and even expressions might originate from. I believe I have taken each idea and phrase and made it my own.

But there are specific people I would like to acknowledge as having contributed a great deal to the formation of my outlook, either through their writing or in conversations and friendship. So, in gratitude, thank you to Corinne Bjorge, Karl for his exceptional lucidity, John Zerzan, Wolfi Lanstreicher, Fredy Perlman, Jane Venter, Matsuki Masutani, Zig Zag, Michael William, Jason McQuinn, and David Watson.

An extra thanks is in order to Aragorn! for his many inspiring projects and the extraordinary support and recommendations he made when this collection was originally imagined. Special appreciation to JennVicious at Black Powder Press for her invaluable editing suggestions, without which this collection would have been much less. And thank you to the rest of the folks at Black Powder Press.

[1] The paragraphs on sieges came primarily from Wikipedia, as did parts of the description of the Principles ofWar.

[2] World Rainforest Movement Bulletin No. 73 August 200

[3] “This Park is No Longer Your Land: National Parks on Former Native Lands” UNESCO Courier, July, 2001, by Marcus Colchester. Special acknowledgment to Marcus Colchester this exceptional essay. It formed the basis for mine.

[4] Calgary Herald, August 20, 2000

[5] New York Times, August 14 200

[6] Colchester, 2001

[7] Great Wild Spaces: Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Provincial Park, http://www.spacesfornature.org/greatspaces/stein.html

[8] Colchester, 2001

[sossupummit]

Author: Aragorn EloffTitle: Do Anarchists Dream of Emancipated Sheep?Subtitle: Contemporary Anarchism, Animal Liberation and the Implications of New PhilosophySource: Chapter from ‘Anarchism and Animal Liberation: Essays on Complementary Elements of Total Liberation’ (ISBN: 0786494573). Everything fits together, from the bird whose brood is crushed to the humans whose nest is destroyed by war. —Louise Michel In this essay I explore the relations between contemporary anarchism and animal rights/liberation through the lens of Deleuze/Guattari-inflected complex systems theory. Specifically, I look at the liberalism and normative practices endemic to the mainstream animal rights movement, engaging with some of the more salient critiques that have emerged from Leftist and radical (anti-)political milieus and exploring the ways in which the theory and practice of anarchism—including its post- and nihilist strains—suggests an alternative, possibly more effective way of conceiving of animal liberation. In mid-2010 a friend and I conducted an informal online survey of anarchists (Knoll S. and A. Eloff 2010). The survey took the form of an extended questionnaire containing around 60 questions. We were hoping that the results would provide us with a cursory sense of the composition and internal dynamics of the contemporary anarchist milieu. While the results of the survey, which was completed by around 2,500 people, were inevitably slanted due to its English language bias, mode of promotion and delivery (Anglophone anarchist internet channels) and structure (neither of us were experienced in this form of research), they are also highly suggestive; in many instances our key findings were strengthened by our subsequent meetings with anarchists from around the globe, including many from South America and various nonAnglophone European countries. One of the most striking findings, although to some extent anticipated, was the number of vegans in the anarchist milieu. While general surveys of the U.S., UK and so on usually put the number of vegans at around 0.2–1.4 percent of the general population, over 11 percent of those taking our survey described their diet/lifestyle as vegan. While to some extent this can be explained as the result of subcultural practices—rites of inclusion and exclusion forming in and out groups—the correlations between veganism and various strains within anarchism, as well as the reasons given for practicing veganism, suggests something slightly more interesting. Nineteen point six percent of self-identified anarcha-feminists, for instance, also identified as vegan, as did 19.4 percent of green anarchists. So-called ‘anarcho’-capitalists on the other hand, were only vegan 1.8 percent of the time, a percentage roughly in line with the general population. Given the intersectional work done by feminists exploring the parallels between the oppression of other animals and the oppression of women under patriarchy, the first figure is unsurprising. The negative correlations between animal agriculture and ecological destruction, as well as the way in which the subjugation of other animals within industrial society is antithetical to the free, thriving, dis-alienated life sought by green anarchists, also suggests why veganism would feature as strongly as it does for this group. The gender distribution of vegans within the anarchist milieu paints a similar picture: 7 percent of male-identi-fied participants described themselves as vegan, compared to 16.7 percent of female-identified participants and 25.7 percent of those identified as genderqueer/other (the survey had a free form gender box that we awkwardly summarized with this tentative descriptor). Finally, 76 percent of vegans surveyed saw a connection between their diet and anarchism, whereas only 24 percent of non-vegans did. Reasons given by vegans for their practice of a vegan diet/lifestyle included: “animal liberation” “total liberation,” “respect for all beings,” “no one is free while others are oppressed” “compassion establishing why we should care about equality in the first place” “veganism is an expression of anti-authoritarianism and personal empowerment through dietary choices; it directly divests from (and actively promotes an alternative to) a particularly barbarous and destructive sector of our society” “eating meat and other animal products is bad for the environment and represents another form of oppression” “extend the same ethics to non-human animals: no hierarchy, solidarity etc.,” “speciesism is another oppressive institution that we should consider and address as anarchists” and “opposition to all forms of domination requires a willingness to refuse oppression animals” Reasons given by non-vegans for their diet are equally illuminating: “I eat what I want” “anarchy is a life without structure or authority, therefore my diet follows neither of these” “I believe all things are equal and therefore anything goes” “I get sick if I don’t eat animal protein, how can I smash the state if I’m too tired to get out of bed?” “anarchism is about people; we eat what we want to eat; dictating that is fascist,” “a restrictive diet makes it very difficult to organize with community outside of the anarchist scene,” “all forms of consumption are related to the oppression of workers” “meat eating is natural and right for humans—naturalism and anarchism go hand in hand” and, notably, “I see that my diet stands in contradiction to my anarchist beliefs, and while I’m not willing to stop eating meat, I do wish to find ways to raise animals in a far more humane way than is the norm now.” ...

[mobilefruit-gundam]

“Animism (grand, capital A) began to die as the city was being born. This does not mean the urge does, but that urge primarily moves us against ourselves and towards camping trips, Eschatology, and faith-based approaches to the sickness of this world. Our question is whether mediated experiences are the only ones we are capable of. If that is the case (as is likely), then our capacity for revelatory joy is similarly curtailed, all arguments to the contrary. If we are indeed broken are we capable of NOT being broken? As anarchist who have an interest in how the world operates- -and perhaps how we could perform as wooden shoes to it- -we are naive about what it looks like today to grind gears. We have an urge but little wisdom about the unforeseen consequences of our little strategies. This existential gap, between our desires and our capacity, is also the reason why we are so hungry for the possibility of animism.

The reason we will not solve the problem like the little special snowflakes that we are is because of exactly that, little and weak. Just as monotheism has succeeded in the deception that it represents a personal relationship between you and the almighty, parsed and mediated by priests, ministers, and the dining room table, animism needs a social fabric outside of civilization to keep warm. This social fabric isn’t as simple as playing outdoors with other children, starving for life lessons from the kitchen table where the elders sit and talk, or rituals that help you understand you are a part of something larger- -but one can imagine such simple phenomenon as things that have passed by, that few people experience today in lieu of screens. While the cell phone may itself be sacred and alive the things we see on it are mundane and ordinary and make us also mundane and ordinary.

It is on this unfertile land that spiritual practitioners attempt to live. Generally they have hardscrabble lives devoid of community or anything but scraps of information on how others did what they are trying to do. In this context it makes perfect sense that racial, silly, or fantastic elements (often the same thing) often time(s) infiltrate. It’s not that we can’t ‘go back,’ it is that doing so is just as difficult as marching into the void somewhere new. It just seems easier.

What I would propose, what a nihilist animism would entail, is an acknowledgement that a spiritual endeavor comes from a social practice. It has to pass the test of I/we. If you can find a group of people who are willing to ride the tension of being individuated, having undergone the great pain of core alienation in the modern world- -while not privileging one’s own experiences in a group- -then you could begin. Beginning would look like a long waiting- -while the traffic passes overhead, while your devices beep, bop, beep in your car, while you could be doing other things- -for the world around you to expose its language to you. This will not happen quickly. It will probably take years. This language could then shape a set of principles, a path to walk, that would make sense to your set of people.”

Relations Without End: Nihilist Animism - Aragorn!

[virtue-boy]

This book is about an epic fight for Turtle Island that is invisible to most people. It is about memory, family, and the future of a livable planet.

This book is a culmination of several years of interviews between Aragorn! and a variety of Native people who are or were in anarchist circles. Mostly the conversations are in and about the intersections of, and tensions between, indigeneity and anarchism, through stories and experiences with anarchists.

Turtle Island is the land beneath our feet and it is the imaginary place that existed before colonization and that will exist when colonization is over. It is a true myth and an impossible dream. The fight for it requires warriors, tricksters, and medicine stronger than we know. How will we learn? Who will we do it with? Can anarchists help or are they just hurting this fight?

As a place that doesn't exist (but did) Turtle Island is the type of no place usually referred to as myth. Perhaps this is true, perhaps Turtle Island is merely the fantastic story of a people who have since disappeared, or the story I'd prefer to tell about the place I live.

If I live in Turtle Island and not The United States of America, I can differentiate between my life and the life violently imposed upon me. I might be powerless to do much about it but it somehow feels important to assert that I would if I could, not an end-of-the-movie inspirational assertion about how We Are Powerful Together, but a personal declaration that I am on the side of a myth vs Manifest Destiny, that I believe in something-like-struggle if not the particulars of a specific fight, that I walk on the back of turtles and not on a spinning globe that'll be discarded as soon as the powerful are ready to leave.

[111seedhillroad]

Self-determination should be read as the desire for people who are self-organized (whether by tradition, individual choice, or inclination) to decide how they want to live with each other. This may seem like common sense, and it is, but it is also consistently violated by people who believe that their value system supersedes that of those around them. The question that anarchists of all stripes have to answer for themselves is whether they are capable of dealing with the consequences of other people living in ways they find reprehensible.

Aragorn! Locating an Indigenous Anarchism

[crimethinc]

Today, it has been three years since Aragorn! passed away—a tireless polemicist and a fierce partisan of anarchist infrastructure. His absence still haunts us. https://crimethinc.com/Aragorn Please read Leona's and Klee's eulogies and Aragorn!'s text "Locating An Indigenous Anarchism," all here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/various-authors-black-seed-issue-8

[catsnuggler]

Interrogator: You say you are an anarchist? Me: Yes. Yes, I am. I proudly, fervently, say, with conviction, that I am an anarchist. I oppose all centralized authority as tyrannical, be it fascist or liberal. Interrogator: And yet you would DIE - you would give YOUR life - for Aragorn, High King of Gondor? Me: *whimpers* You just don't UNDERSTAND. You just don't UNDERSTAND. Yes. YES! Yes, Gods... *cries*... "for all that you hold dear, I bid you: Stand, Men of the West!" *pulls sword out of my pant leg, which was somehow totally hidden, not forming any kind of outline in my pants*

[hate-the-am-hate-the-pm]

previously: kaitogeijutsu

for myself:

-> #private: thing for myself i wanna remember

-> #personal: anything related to me or anything i want to keep for some reason

-> #stories: self explanatory

-> #e: miscellaneous stuff hfjwhdjd

-> #classic posts: classics lmao

-> #beatdown: when people are just getting absolutely beatdown in arguments its funny or just something/someone getting a beatdown

-> #life: just. yknow. stuff abt being alive and making life as good as you can and enjoying yourseld ans loving yourself and loving others and yknow living

-> #long post: looooong boy posts heh

-> #nsfw: anythin nsfw

-> #heritage posts: heritage posts fjjsjd

law and political stuff:

-> #law: stuff related to law

-> #court: stuff related to court

-> #politics(?): stuff i think??? is sorta related to politics maybe??

books/show/anything else literary:

-> #sherlock holmes: sherlock holmes stuff

-> #writing: stuff that's original work or something

-> #analysis: analysis stuff, jokey or otherwise

-> #poetry and quotes: self explanatory

-> #oda: anythin related to oda that isn't really like really really related to one piece

#op: ONE PIECE STUFF! i love one piece with such a burning passion but yes anything one piece related

#strawhats: the strawhats fjjdkfkqkq or anyone in the strawhats

#heart pirates: anythin heart pirates related

-> #honor among thieves, #dndhat, #hat, #dnd movie: the dnd honor among thieves movie stuff jdnakkdjs

#xenk yendar, #xenk: anything related to this hot ass paladin that i love with my whole entire being my gods

#edgin darvis, #edgin, #ed: edgin my beloved bard??? rogue??????? anyways he's somethin alright

#kira darvis, #kira: the child

#holga kilgore, #holga: gods ifbkadjskjdkfjwkjsjfjwjsj hot mommy

#doric: MY BELOVED TIEFLING DRUID JRJSKDJDKA

#simon aumar, #simon: simon hehe

-> #marvel: marvel stuff

#spiderman: anythin spiderman related

#atsv: across the spiderverse stuff

#hobie brown, #hobie, #spiderpunk: HOBIE BROWN MY BELOVED MY ANARCHIST MY EVERYTHINGJDKSKDD

#miguel o'hara, #miguel, #spiderman2099: the truamatized old latino man that i am absolutely feral for

#miles morales, #miles: miles sweetheart i love him hes so bby

#gwen stacy, #gwen: gwen the drummer my beloved also

#pavitr prabhakar, #pavitr, #pav: pav my bby boy i loooove him heheh

#miles 42, #prowler: MILES 42 HHDKSKDJE I LOVE LOVE LOVE

#peter b. parker, #peter: tired man whos' sexual appeal i get cause he be hot man😩

#mayday parker, #mayday: MAYDAY BBY SHES SO TEENSY SO CUTE MY BBY ARAÑA

#mj watson, #mj: my wife.

#spidernoir: my malewife.

#peni parker, peni: sweetest girl, she deserves the world

-> #cod: anythin call of duty

#price, #john price, #captain price: anythin price relateddd

#soap, #john mactavish, #johnny: johnnyyyyyy my bby

#ghost, #simon riley: ghost my mofo beloved gods id die for him

#gaz, #kyle garrick: the prettiest fuckin man i've done laid eyes on

-> #dc: dc stuff!!!

#batman: the batman stuff or batman comics stuff so also the robins and shit

#robin: robin stuff!

#superman: superman stuff!!

#wonder woman: the queen the absolute boss the best the man the myth the legend wonder womannnnn

-> #tolkien: anythin tolkien related that isn't really lotr or the hobbit (or i cant tell which is which jdkadfkak)

#lotr: lord of the rings

#aragon elessar, #aragorn -> aragorn

#gimli -> gimli

#legolas greenleaf, #legolas -> legolas

#thranduil oropherion, #thranduil -> thranduil

#the hobbit: the hobbit

#bard -> bard omg i love the man hes so fjqbkdndnd

#kili -> kili my sweetheart my beloved

#legolas greenleaf, #legolas -> legolas

#thorin oakenshield, #thorin -> thorin

#thranduil oropherion, #thranduil -> thranduil

-> #lok: legend of korra

#asami -> asami sato

-> #star wars: star wars duh

#anakins -> the anakins

-> #classic lit: literature considered classics ig

#shakespeare -> shakespeare?? obv??

-> #fanfics: fanfic stuff fjandj

-> #mythology: mythology

#greek myths -> greek mythology/stories

#aztec myths -> aztec mythology/stories

#mayan myths -> mayan mythology/stories

#egyptian myths -> egyptian mythology/stories

#norse myths -> norse mythology/stories

-> #movies: any movies, films, short films

-> #drama: anything drama related (think like live stage productions)

-> #musicals: musical related stuff!!

-> #anime: anything anime hfjajdj

-> #comics: anything comic related honestlt

-> #books: books! all kinds any kinds!

anthropology/archaeology/paleontology/other sciences and history:

-> #environment: stuff related to earth, the sun, positionings, nature, etc etc.

#ocean: anything ocean-related or ocean-based

#forest: anything forest-related or forest-based

#air; anything air-related or air-based

#earth: just everything nature in general

-> #animals: animals but like informative and like cool facts and stuff

-> #aminals: animals but like the dump posts not infortmative jdjahd

-> #plants: plants fkhajsja

-> #prehistoric creatures: self explanatory

#dinosaurs: DINOS!!!

-> #humans: self explanatory

-> #paleo: paleontology stuffsssss

-> #anthro: also human stuff but recent

-> #archaeo: human stuff but like looooong ago

-> #bio: biology stuff

-> #astronomy: planets! stars! more stars! galaxies!

-> #invasive species: invasive species!

-> #history: more modern history of science and so like archeo/paleo and others but... like... younger

-> #social issues: just stuff going on around the world and issues that've happened and also anything related to that

-> environmental issues: issues that involve the environment and stuff

-> #languages: languages! and posts that involve the use of languages!

-> #religion: anything about/on religion

-> #science: literally just anything science related jdksjf

arts:

-> #art: just art stuff

#modern art, #contemporary art -> modern art

#classic art -> art from like other periods in time like the renaissance and stuff

#my art -> my art if i ever post it

-> #music: anythin music related

-> #fashion: fashion stuff! includes dresses, suits, etc. but also jewelery!

games:

-> #ttrpg: tabletop rpg stuff!

#dm, #gm: dungeon/game master stuff (tips and tricks)

#campaigns: campaigns! all types!

#dnd: dnd related stuff

#pf: pathfinder related stuff

sports:

-> #sports: sports stuff

#vball: anythin volleyball related

#bball: anythin bball related

resources for stuff:

-> #resources: resources (art, history, etc.)