DeepSummary
The episode features a discussion with Anarch, who creates YouTube video essays on anarchism, about the political concept of prefiguration - building the new in the shell of the old by creating institutions, spaces, and cultures that typify the desired future society in the present. They explore the importance of unifying means and ends, avoiding revolutionary procrastination, and combining economic decommodification, mutual aid, and direct democracy.
Anarch emphasizes the need to build dual power structures that challenge hierarchies and accumulate power for the people. This involves creating councils, cooperatives, defense groups, and intelligence agencies organized horizontally through consensus. Historical examples like the CNT-FAI in Spain, Zapatistas in Mexico, and Rojava in Syria are discussed.
The conversation touches on challenges like preventing informal hierarchies, ensuring delegated authority remains accountable, dealing with external suppression, and integrating diverse perspectives. Anarch offers suggestions for taking first steps through consciousness-raising, prefigurative economic projects, and addressing local oppressions through direct action and organization.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Prefiguration involves creating the societal institutions and relations one wishes to see in the future within the present conditions.
- Building dual power through economic cooperatives, democratic assemblies, self-defense groups, and participatory intelligence is key.
- Unifying means and ends is crucial - the methods used must align with and facilitate the desired goals.
- Informal hierarchies and power imbalances must be guarded against within prefigurative movements.
- Small steps like consciousness-raising, direct action, and satisfying immediate needs can initiate wider change.
- Historical examples like the Zapatistas and Rojava demonstrate both the potential and challenges of prefigurative politics.
- Patience, experimentation and mass appeal are needed to grow prefigurative movements and accumulate counter-power.
- The ultimate aim is to proliferate horizontal, decentralized, and self-governing structures across society.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Essentially, what's happening if you make this mistake, is that you have now in this one place where rebellion might take place, where actual revolutionary attitudes might grow, you have allowed the enemy system to now colonize this space as well, to now get you to build its structure within the place where you are supposed to be building its negation.“ by Anarch
- “We have a responsibility to build in the here and now, the institutions, spaces and cultures that would typify the society that we want to create to the highest degree possible.“ by Aaron
- “People are conditioned by their cycles of actions. People are not these closed atoms. They are in feedback with the rest of society perpetually. And they are being formed. As society acts back upon them. And as their environment changes around them. So when you act in a particular way. The actions that you do. You generally don't want to think are bad things, right?“ by Anarch
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Episode Information
Srsly Wrong
Srsly Wrong
11/5/21