ANARCHISM- from Dennis Cooper

"Spirituality and anarchism can be quite friendly. Anarchism is all about the power working through us. That's fundamental to it. When I've spoken about anarchism here, that has always been at core of what I've said. Why and how this blog exists and works the way it does owes almost everything to anarchism, and it's one working model to consider. Resisting institutional forms of power is way down the line of the trajectory of anarchist thought, and writers who latch onto that sound bite, and they often do, are missing the point. People who are intent on constructing broad based systems that consolidate their particular ideas about power like Foucault, for instance, tend to give anarchism a berth in their thinking as though it had a solid, marketable premise a la Marxism or post-structuralism when it defies that kind of codification by its very nature. The fact that it resists that kind of codification is not tantamount to anarchism not doing enough. That resistance is one of the many things it does. Chomsky writes unusually wisely and cogently about anarchism, and I think his entrance is a decent one. But most writing about anarchism by the know-it-all thinkers and explainers is massively reductive and simply manipulates cherry picked ideas from among its ideas in order to sideline a sticky issue and rush to consolidate the power behind their intellectual thrones. I hope all the above doesn't sound angry or attacking because it's not at all. It's just that I've thought about -- and tried to live in the light of -- anarchism for most of my adult life, and I can get passionate when I think it's being mischaracterized, you know? Gosh, at the risk of sounding like a backwoods trapper, I say you'll find your center when you stop listening so reverently to all those know-it-all guys lay out their supposed answers to everything, but I'm an anarchist so of course I'd say that, and you might want to add a grain of salt to that opinion."

Some nice thought from a smart man...

For me, if people could unplug their Blackberries and default on living their lives in a state of perpetual info overload and scatteredness, there might be enough clear-mindedness to actually achieve space to conceive of a great motivational thought, emotionally attaching cause or- the recognition of a Great Leader without the shameful and weak desire to take refuge in less than our baser selves- to actually seek confort from the distracting pettiness of our political, spiritual and social discourse. And so it should be... and- i.e. anarchy = the soil of Freedom