That pamphlet is another piece of male fantasies and cyberlibertarian porn that might very well come from the Alt-Right. (Note the invocations of "fight clubs", "indigenous families" etc.)
-F -- blog: *https://pod.thing.org/people/13a6057015b90136f896525400cd8561 <https://pod.thing.org/people/13a6057015b90136f896525400cd8561>* bio: http://floriancramer.nl On Fri, Nov 9, 2018 at 5:10 PM Ian Alan Paul <ianalanp...@gmail.com> wrote: > I thought some on the list interested in infrastructural / ecological > politics might find this of interest: > > Inhabit: Instructions for Autonomy > (online: https://inhabit.global/ , español: https://es.inhabit.global/ , > français: https://fr.inhabit.global/ ) > > There are two paths: The end of the world or the beginning of the next. > > The End of The World: > > It’s over. > > Bow your head and phone scroll through the apocalypse. > > Watch as Silicon Valley replaces everything with robots. New > fundamentalist deathcults make ISIS look like child’s play. The authorities > release a geolocation app to real-time snitch on immigrants and political > dissent while metafascists crowdfund the next concentration camps. > Government services fail. Politicians turn to more draconian measures and > the left continues to bark without teeth. Meanwhile glaciers melt, > wildfires rage, Hurricane Whatever drowns another city. Ancient plagues > reemerge from thawing permafrost. Endless work as the rich benefit from > ruin. Finally, knowing we did nothing, we perish, sharing our tomb with all > life on the planet. > > The Beginning of The Next: > > Take a breath, and get ready for a new world. > > A multiplicity of people, spaces, and infrastructures lay the ground where > powerful, autonomous territories take shape. Everything for everyone. Land > is given over to common use. Technology is cracked open–everything a tool, > anything a weapon. Autonomous supply lines break the economic strangle > hold. Mesh networks provide real-time communication connecting those who > sense that a different life must be built. While governments fail, the > autonomous territories thrive with a new sense that to be free, we must be > bound to this earth and life on it. Enclaves of techno-feudalism are > plundered for their resources. We confront the dwindling forces of > counter-revolution with the option: to hell or utopia?–either answer > satisfies us. Finally, we reach the edge–we feel the danger of freedom, the > embrace of living together, the miraculous and the unknown–and know: this > is life. > > Our time is tumultuous and potent. > > Upheaval, polarization, politics as bankrupt as the financial markets–yet > under crisis lies possibility. This epoch forces us to consider how each of > us forms a kernel of potential, how individuals can follow their wildest > inclinations to gather with others who feel the call. People learn lost > skills and warriors return fire to the world. Farmers and gardeners > experiment with organic agriculture while makers and hackers reconfigure > machines. Models escape the vacant limelight and break bread with Kurdish > radicals and military veterans taking a stand for communal life. Those with > no use for politics find each other at a dinner table in Zuccotti park, > Oscar Grant Plaza, or Tahrir Square, and the barista who can barely feed > himself alone learns to cook for a thousand together. A retired welder and > a web designer learn they are neighbors at an airport occupation and commit > to read The Art of War together. An Instagram star whose anxiety usually > confines them to their apartment meets a battle-scarred elder in Ferguson, > where they are baptized in tear gas and collective strength, and begin to > feel the weight lifted from their soul. People everywhere, living through > the greatest isolation, rise together and find new modes of life. But when > these kernels grow to the surface, they are stomped out in a frenzy of > banality and fear. Openings are forcefully shuttered by riot police, > private security forces, and public relation firms. Or worse, by the lonely > ones–politically right or left–who have nothing to gain but another like on > their crappy Twitter. All this while smug politicians and CEOs hover. The > revolutionary character of our epoch cannot be denied, but we’ve yet to > overcome the hurdle between us and freedom. > > We come from somewhere broken, yet we stand. > > Our epoch’s nihilism is topological. Everywhere is without foundation. We > search for the organizational power to repair the world, and find only > institutions full of weakness and cynicism. Well-meaning activists get > digested through the spineless body of conventional politics, leaving > depressed militants or mini-politicians. Those who speak out against abuse > end up bearing witness to sad games of power playing out on social media. > Movements erupt and then implode, devoured internally by parasites. Cities > become unlivable as waters rise and governments scramble to maintain their > legitimacy. Each disaster feels more and more intimate, whether we scroll > through it or receive the dreaded text did you hear? Accidents feel like > massacres. The names of the dead, an index of a civilization in decline. > We’ve lost family and friends to addiction, poverty, and despair. We > watched the police exercise their freedom to murder, at a loss for how to > quench our rage. We held each other through it all, and remain standing. We > sense the present that has been stolen from us, imagine the future we are > fated. No one is coming to save us. We have to give ourselves the ground on > which a revolution will grow. > > We have the power to make an irreversible break. > > We wake up day after day, generation after generation, going to work in > order to recalibrate the same nightmare that forces us to work. We hustle > to get by, feel the stress of the commute and the sleepless night, live > paycheck to paycheck or one precarious gig to the next, all just to keep > the water on. Our labor made this world and keeps it running, but not one > of us feels at home. It’s not surprising that so many people throw > themselves into anything that promises it could be better–movements, health > trends, subcultures, militias, gangs, whatever. We want a dignified life. > We desire the freedom to turn our calloused hands toward experimentation, > to become so much more than our jobs. If the potency of our time is any > indication, it’s that we’re capable of more than mere survival. The very > labor we give–our strength, creativity, and intelligence–can be our weapon. > The possibility to endure is in our capacity to strike, and in the > seduction of our shared power. Our strike will be the immediate practice of > reconfiguring how we live, without respect to our bosses, the rich, or the > robots intended to replace us. Together we have the know-how and the drive > to build a better life, a life on our own terms, and it’s up to us to > create and inhabit new worlds to replace this one. Our ingenuity, our > passion, our determination–we are the hinge on which every future rests. > > Nothing is missing, Look around you. Give it form. > > Piece by piece, we are assembling the foundation of a revolutionary force. > We are building a life in common, combating the material and spiritual > poverty imposed on us by our epoch, and opening up ourselves to immediate > experimentation with different ways of living. Our goal is to establish > autonomous territories–expanding ungovernable zones that run from sea to > shining sea. Faultlines crossing North America leading us to providence. > These autonomous territories will give way to new flows for travel and > resources, waypoints during ecological crisis, and the ground to reclaim > techniques and technology of which we’ve been disposed. We envision our > task with serenity and severity. We want territories with infrastructure > flexible to catastrophe, born of collective joy, inhabited by a courageous > and dignified way of life. Our time is different from the past, and we will > not wait for a senile radical nostalgia to catch up. We don’t have every > answer, but we share what we know to be true. Now is the time to exit this > untenable way of life. > > We've begun. > > > 1 Find Each Other > > We’ve been raised in a culture of isolation and defeat, where our > potential is reduced to meeting the economy’s demands. Buried beneath our > own personal worries, our own bills, and our own fears, we are forced to > look out only for ourselves. But we are capable of a different life. > > To begin, eliminate isolation. Cut through the bullshit. Turn to those > closest to you and say you need a life in common. Ask what it would be like > to face the world together. What do you have? What do you need? Take an > inventory of your collective skills, capacities, and connections. Make > decisions that will increase your strength. Establish the basis for a life > in common. > > Imagine a life that reaches past your individual borders. You change the > way you move through your environment to intentionally come in contact with > others. Fleeting encounters become real relationships. You wander through > your neighborhood, stopping by friends’ houses on your way to the cafe. You > meet up nightly at the park to work out. You walk each other home. You > share each other’s cars. You go camping and learn how to start a fire > together. You pool money for a collective rainy day. The concept of private > property gets blurred. You begin to understand yourselves as something more > decisive than a group of friends. > > > 2 Establish Hubs > > Hubs are points of aggregation, centers of activity. Creating a hub is the > logical next step to finding each other. We need dedicated spaces to get > organized and to give ourselves time together. Hubs bring together the > people, resources, and shared spirit necessary to create the foundation for > a life in common. > > Pool resources, target an area, and start a hub. Rent a space in the > neighborhood. Build a structure in the forest. Take over an abandoned > building or a vacant piece of land. No space is too small, or too > ambitious. Start with what’s at hand and then multiply. Use the hub to > ground all of your initiatives. > > A repurposed storefront hosts weekly dinners that turn into planning > sessions. A collectively-run cafe sets aside profits to incubate other > spaces, like a woodshop where carpenters work together to build more than > just bookshelves. In a forest outside town, a clearing serves as a > gathering spot for weekly fires and martial arts training. Nearby, a > permaculture farm slowly expands to feed those living in town. > > > 3 Become Resilient > > Our bodies are a mystery to us. Our health is out of our hands. If the > lights went out, most of us would remain in the dark. We’ve been > dispossessed of skills, passions, and knowledge. But we aren’t fragile. > When we learn new skills or overcome harsh challenges, we wrest back the > defining thresholds of our sense of possibility. We are capable of > incredible and improbable feats. > > Reclaim skills, master them through practice, and share their power. Reach > out to people who have capabilities you want everyone to have. Use hubs to > experiment. Prepare for the new normal. Learn to hunt, to code, to heal: > increase your collective strength. > > A hurricane tears through town–power’s out. FEMA is taking its sweet time. > A group establishes a hub outside of the flood zone. Cooking large dinners > together has given everyone the confidence to operate at scale. Teams move > out to gather food in a lawless environment, fighting off racist > opportunists who cling to an order of property which has been revoked. One > gathers medical supplies from the hospitals and pharmacies while another > opens up water tanks in apartment buildings. A park occupation brings even > more people and resources together. Someone scales a building to place a > router powered by kinetic energy. The router establishes a connection with > a mesh network to call in reinforcements from other hubs across the > territory. > > > 4 Share A Future > > The time of isolated life is over. We all share the catastrophe; we all > share the challenges our epoch poses. We can protest the uneven > distribution of medical resources all we want, but care will only be > universal and dignified once it is rendered autonomous. > > Create collective forms of care. Get organized with the next twenty years > in mind. Ask each other how your needs will change as you age, have > children, become disabled, begin to die. Make decisions based on desire. > Imagine how spaces accommodate the dynamic nature of living and fighting. > Address the most difficult questions: how to face madness, addiction, > interpersonal violence, and traumatic loss. At all costs, protect each > other from institutionalization. > > An intergenerational network forms to address the whole of living. People > think together about how to raise children, how to nurture their agency, > how to help them cope with the world as it changes. Care for the aging is > organized collectively and reverence for elders’ experiences affirms > dignity at each stage of life. Health collectives learn ancestral methods > of birth control and abortion to ensure autonomous choice. Shared emotional > intelligence aids those needing a break from the fight and those returning > to it. Partisan doctors, herbalists, and shaman make a pact to provide care > for the network. Everyone rests easier knowing that the hospital does not > have to be their first option. The need for the services of government > lessens. With a new orientation to life and to death a historical weight is > lifted. Without the anxieties and stress of this civilization, sicknesses > begin to disappear. A new capacity for care becomes a common reservoir of > strength to face the future together. > > > 5 Bring The Fight > > Our society slanders people who stand up for what’s right. We are told > nothing can change, to keep to ourselves, and, above all, to not push back. > To cultivate a fighting spirit in our time, we must follow an ethical > compass in addition to developing strategic thought and building physical > capacity. > > Become stronger. Make yourself capable of force. Learn the art of > striking, how anything can become a weapon. Learn to subvert the force of > the enemy–how a single viral punch can check the egos of fascists > everywhere, to how to collectively incapacitate the enemy by cutting off > his communication system. What stands in the path of a new way of life? How > can you overcome it, together? What strategic considerations will keep you > out of the hands of the enemy? > > A network of fight clubs connects every major city. Experienced members > teach grappling and striking alongside basic fitness and stretching. Each > club finds its space and builds ties with their community, especially those > being cast off from this world. One chapter in the Midwest mobilizes with > truckers to resist automation. Together they paralyze I-70 with the help of > a geotracking app, block the self-driving trucks, and break open their > cargo holds. What is useful is expropriated and the rest turned to ashes; > smoke blinds police cruisers already lost amidst makeshift barricades. The > cargo yields a batch of mini drones, which are sent into defensive flight > patterns, controlled by a singular reconfigured app. The hacked drones > infiltrate incoming police drones to transmit a virus that freezes their > propellers, dropping them harmlessly to the ground. Acting with the chaos, > the belligerent truckers and fight clubbers take the offensive and make > their escape. > > > 6 Expand The Network > > We do not need another organization to bring us together to talk about > problems, but ways to implement concrete practices to solve them. We need a > network that amplifies the power of each project, widens the territory, and > refuses to leave the future up to chance. > > Find each other at an expanded scale. Look for the other people who are > also getting organized. Scout out nascent intensities and communal forms > and make contact. Reach out, establish communication, visit and meet. > Exchange stories and strategies, so our network’s cultural memory and > operational intelligence grows, building a greater power between us. Create > material connections, share or trade resources. Multiply this gesture by > thousands. > > In one subversive territory, biohackers experimenting with new techniques > make innovations in water purification, a group of indigenous families > resists an energy company’s enclosure of their sacred land, and an > autonomous hub redefines its neighborhood with a patchwork of urban farms. > Regular communication between these three projects addresses their shared > needs. Water treatment techniques spread between them while autonomous food > infrastructure gives rise to abundance. The network is weaponized when the > indigenous families call for reinforcements to defend their land. Using > encrypted communication to coordinate logistics, thousands of people arrive > with resources to aid the struggle. > > > 7 Build Autonomy > > We have been made to rely on paychecks and stores for our basic existence. > We’re dependent on the capitalist system which forces us to either submit > or starve. There’s no way around this fact: the material organization of > the present world is the problem we must overcome. > > Deepen the reach of autonomous initiatives. Build the infrastructure > necessary to remove territory from the economy. Answer questions of > collective, material power: how to feed each other, house each other, heal > each other. Leverage data and design without falling into the trap that the > internet will save us. Form collectives and cooperatives that achieve > strategic goals without buying into a vacuous economy. Develop scalable > solutions to the problems of energy, distribution, communication and > logistics. > > A local food distribution hub opens a cooperative grocery on the other > side of town. Needing to expand capacity, the nearby farm that grows their > vegetables integrates into a bioregional network looking to share a world > as well as fresh food. A group of designers and engineers who hate their > jobs team up to create an app that coordinates a flexible supply chain > among the farms and distribution points. These efforts lead to an > autonomous trade corridor. The growth of the network’s force, and the utter > disregard for regulations leaves the authorities helpess, as food and > people circulate freely along with the spirit of rebellion. > > > 8 Destitute Infrastructure > > We don’t want to improve life just for a select few–this is a mass exodus > from this world. That means addressing the infrastructure that underpins > this civilization and repurposing things as we see fit. Some systems will > have to be dismantled, like oil pipelines and nuclear plants, while others > can be broken open to serve autonomy. > > Hack everything. Go from solving problems the current infrastructure > cannot address to requisitioning existing institutions and radically > changing their use. Occupy deadening spaces–city halls, schools, shopping > malls–breathe new life into them. Anticipate and intensify strategic > fractures. Redirect communications systems. Commandeer supply lines. Seize > power without governing. > > The proliferation of autonomous health clinics begins to influence the > world of medicine on all fronts. Nurses, doctors, and administrators work > together to clandestinely siphon hospital supplies to these clinics. When > veterans’ hospitals are federally defunded, the autonomous clinics join up > with patients and health care providers to occupy VA offices around the > country. Brutal repression at one occupation sends dozens to a nearby > state-run hospital, but when the police attempt to enter urgent care to > arrest the injured veterans, they are repelled by the surgeons and nurses. > Autonomous groups are joined by forces overflowing from the occupations and > the hospital, and vital resources are seized for the unfolding insurgency. > > > 9 Become Ungovernable > > Revolution is a line we trace in the present. It means building autonomy > here and now, making government and the economy superfluous. Breaking out > of being governed will mean more than winning battle after battle, > outmaneuvering political foes. It will rest on our ability to create the > lasting foundation for life in common. > > Spread secession to all areas of life. Go on permanent strike, slowly but > surely, and take everyone with you. Refuse to be managed, or to manage > anyone in turn. Drive a wedge down the center of society. Disavow a > lifetime’s worth of cynicism and resentment. Believe that it is all > possible. > > Strikes persist, and the dull weight of debt disintegrates as finance > capital collapses under growing hostility. Neighborhood assemblies decide > how to act in the state of emergency, rebellious soldiers refuse to fire on > their own neighborhoods, and “crime” is now relegated to raids on the > governed zones. In cities, everyday is like a block party. Confiscated > cookouts on crowded streets herald a time soon beyond these remnants of > economic life, when shops are primed for a new use in common. At night, > bonfires illuminate the distance and the stars in their wisdom reappear to > protect us. In the suburbs, a Walmart is now a hub for goods and getting > organized. Truckers and first responders meet to coordinate aid to a > flooded territory. In the West, technologists outfit weather balloons with > transceivers to amplify the autonomous internet. Labor freed from the > economy increases the yield of autonomous farms, and children again learn > how to be loyal to the earth. > > > Now. > > There is no future emergency for which we must prepare. > > We are already here–with every dystopian element, every means of > revolution. The horrific consequences of our time and its beautiful > potential are unfolding everywhere. We are resisting the end of the world > by proliferating new worlds. We are becoming ungovernable–unbeholden to > their merciless law, their crumbling infrastructure, their vile economy, > and their spiritually broken culture. > > We violently stake a claim in happiness– that life resides in our material > power, in our refusal to be managed, in our ability to inhabit the earth, > in our care for each other, and in our encounters with all forms of life > that share these ethical truths. > > We need fighters, makers, thinkers— creativity, and ingenuity. > We need builders, healers, farmers, designers, and engineers. > > They tell us to wait as our lives > pass us by, hardly touching the > surface of what we could become. > > They tell us to be peaceful while declaring > war on the earth, on our bodies, on > the very possibility of happiness. > > They tell us heroism is dead, when > nothing is more disputed by our century. > > For Clark For the Earth For Freedom > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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