#post structural

[jamabushi]

Dark Deleuze UW Talk 6/25/15

"Dark Deleuze: The Powers of the Outside," a talk given by Andrew Culp and hosted by the University of Washington's Department of Urban Design & Planning.

The Task: Destroy Worlds, Not Create Conceptions

[blogimaginingpeaceposts]

Photos taken from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pablo-barbera/tweeting-the-revolution-s_b_4831104.html  and http://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/2014/06/daily-brief-june-21/pro-russian-separitists/

The first image displays a lone protestor in Independence Square, Ukraine. Violent protests erupted in late 2013 after former president Viktor Yanukovych rejected the idea of closer European integration. 

The second image is a band of pro-Russian rebels lined up in Donetsk during a call for a ceasefire on June 21, 2014. 

While the situation has escalated to war in Donetsk, the idea of peace lingers. For the pro-Russian rebels and Russian soldiers looking to claim the land from Ukraine, peace would be described as Russia having control over the land, rejecting it from joining the rest of Ukraine and its desire to join the EU. This rejection of Western ideals and federation would follow along the lines of a post structural idea of peace. 

As for the Ukrainians, their idea of peace would be more liberal in the sense that joining the EU and its federation of states is their end goal. If Ukraine was successful in joining the EU, it would be under the protection of its federation, as well as NATO. Peace would mean that Russia and its soldiers would leave the land, even if they have claimed to not have set foot within Ukraine’s borders, and accept Ukraine as a sovereign nation that is not a territory to be claimed as a bargaining chip. 

[blogimaginingpeaceposts]

Matisyahu | One Day 

This song describes a man’s dream of one day having everyone say they don’t wish to fight or wage war anymore. While it might seem like a realist vision of peace, as a simple absence of war and conflict, if you look at the lyrics more closely, Matisyhau says, “it's not about, win or lose,” eliminating the idea of a victor’s peace. I believe this song takes a more post structural vision of peace because it states, “one day we'll all be free, and proud to be, under the same sun,” reflecting the idea of accepting differences and becoming an inclusive society, just as post structural theory describes. It also tells the public to reject the hegemony’s desire to constantly wage war, another value of post structural theory. 

[blogimaginingpeaceposts]

Response 4

Question: What is your definition of peace?

Response: When people come together and learn to understand and appreciate each other. Everyone supports one another in order to make society work.

School of thought: Post Structural

Reasoning: Post Structural theory is all about accepting and understanding differences. According to Richmond, it is a more inclusive form of peace (47) because it includes women and children, actors who are often forgotten in the other theories. It also takes into a account the fact that actors may have multiple identities. A society that is understanding and supportive of this falls under the post structural idea of peace. This definition is probably my favorite vision of peace because it talks about cooperation, understanding, and appreciation; elements I believe all are essential for peace to happen.

[blogimaginingpeaceposts]

Response 2

Question: What is your definition of peace?

Response: Accepting other's differences

School of Thought: Post Structural

Reasoning: Post Structural theory lays emphasis on accepting differences between individuals and rejecting any form of hegemony.

[spoonandstick-blog]

Down in the dirt

The more I think about the post-structural critique of anarchy, the less convinced I am. There is a very real separation between the world of ideas and the physical reality around us. This isn’t to say that the critique is invalid. I think there is a real problem with the place of power for anarchists. But this problem won’t be solved in a book. It will be solved with praxis, reflection, and empiricism. Deleuze, Guattari, Stirner, and Newman certainly have much to offer.  But sometimes I forget that what I read doesn’t need to direct what I do.  Stirner writes as if he has discovered a death sentence for anarchism in his analysis of a few century+ old texts. But the world we live in isn’t a world of ideas. We live in the pit, sludging through the mud where ideals, ideas, and forms are brought down from the clouds and given form. Not everything we humans do is logical, expected, or follows intuition or common sense. There have been societies which provided desirable alternatives to authoritarianism. Maybe they disperse the place of power. Maybe they consider and interact with it in a vastly different way than we do. I’m not sure. But what I am sure of is that they were the same human beings we are – different maybe but not in an irreconcilable way. We will find our way.

                Post anarchy is interesting to think about and it certainly has created some interesting questions for me. It’s led me to think about things in a different way and has certainly changed my ideas. But its aloofness makes it, in some ways, irrelevant. Its theorizing isn’t tied to the lives of those who crave and work towards anarchy. Post anarchy is tied to the world of academia. Saul Newman certainly does a good job of explaining the work of impenetrables like Lacan and Deleuze and Guattari but the text is not one meant to be digested by the rest of us. It is for a small enclave of academics. Post anarchy may give us some tools and methods, insight and awareness but (I) I am not convinced it provides a damning critique of anarchism. It may provide a damning critique of a limited reading of Kropotkin/Bakunin’s logic. Anarchism has changed in the last few hundred years though and it will continue to change. And lest we forget the logic of the text is not the logic of our lives. Theory and praxis are different for a reason. (II) I do not believe post anarchy has filtered down from the academics to the people on the streets. I certainly would like to see what those people have to say about it.

                Something I need to remind myself of is that experiment, discussion, and reflection will guide us out of the darkness. There is much outside the text.