How to deal with hostility in an anarchist society

[Cornelius Vango]

As many folks here know, I have been posted up in the squatter town of Slab City for almost three whole years, running and working on the library.

I've been through a lot of fucked up situations. People trying to steal my stuff, trespassing in my home, multiple people threatening to hurt and/or kill me, I chased down a guy that murdered two women, one of which was in front of me after he had emptied a clip in my and my friends' direction. I even went to court for a questioning time total of 15 entire hours to testify with video footage of my shit ex-neighbor making terrorist threats again me, my friends and Slab City in general (he was freed and the case was dropped and that's a whole other conversation entirely). Through all of that, I've learned different methods of handling hostile people.

Standing up for yourself and being 100% straight-up is extremely important in this environment, and taking direct-action against those that are fucking things up is a basic natural right. But the absolute most valuable thing that I have learned is to keep my nose out of other people's lives and business, especially those that I fucking hate and can't stand. If they want to be a toxic person, it's not my problem and it sure as hell isn't my job to control them.

Sometimes I hear about people doing the most fucked up shit to each other and because I have a reputation of being able to throw down, people are constantly trying to get me involved in their cause. The important thing is to recognize that unless an issue directly involves you, you're probably not going to be much help anyway.

Ask yourself these questions:

How does this issue affect me?
What will my involvement provide?
Is this taking direct action, or is it just being aggressive?

That doesn't mean to just put your fingers in your ears and hum whenever you hear of any sort of dispute. It just means to recognize your role in the situation, keep your ego in check, and ask questions.
Anarchy doesn't mean that there is no law, it means that you are your own law in the space that you occupy. So if something effects you, it's your privilege to have a hand in it, and if something doesn't effect you, it's your privilege to walk away.

Any thoughts?

 

[Cornelius Vango]

Its not easy to be a moral person or pacifist in a crazy society where few care about their neighbors. A good question is: At what point is it moral for a pacifist to temporarily drop his objection to violence? If ever?

There are definitely times when it's okay to respond with violence. I myself advocate combat and weapons training as a lifestyle. Part of being able to be non-aggressive in hostile situations is actually being able to back yourself up. If that means throwing a hay-maker at a rapist, then fucking eh right.

It doesn't mean to just throw your fists around based on your emotions.

 

[Cornelius Vango]

Yes, but do we owe defensive or retributive violence on behalf of others? Are any of us morally permitted, or even obligated... to be vigilantes/enforcers/punishers?

If somebody is actively trying to hurt and/or kill you and you don't want that, then yes.

Morals really have nothing to do with it, actually.

 

[Cornelius Vango]

But what of random evil people? Is it moral to go about cleaning up the world?

What is your definition of "evil"?

 

[Cornelius Vango]

Well, lets say we both agree rapists are bad. So, why not wander the world eliminating them?...Or murderers? Pederasts?....Or should we simply eliminate local threats? I guess the ultimate factor is, Are people redeemable or not?....Do people ever really change in a positive way? And if so, then....there are limitations on how much violence is acceptable.

That's called your personal philosophy, which you can define for yourself.

 

[Cornelius Vango]

You seem to not understand the concept of autonomy.

 

[Cornelius Vango]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw

Out here in Slabs, we have a similar practice as with any community or society when some one has "crossed the line" to the point where they are no longer welcome. That's what you are trying to address. If you personally want to go out and "take care of them" that would be your individual choice. You could also round up or join a collective of individuals with mutual interest in the matter.

Before people do that here, it is customary to give them fair warning to leave and/or volunteer to transport the person out of town and to a bus station.

If the person is willing to leave, they are allowed. If they aren't, that's when they get "green-lighted" by the community. At that point what happens is that they are forced to pretty much hide and in the event that they make waves and some one else decides to kick the shit out of them or worse, people will almost completely support the action and some folks will join in.

At a very severe point, people will wait for the opportunity to form mobs and physically remove the person and steal their shit (often times they are just reclaiming stolen shit) and burn down their dwelling. Out here in the desert, if a person's dwelling space and resources are removed, they are completely fucked and have to leave or move into a friends place, which almost never happens because nobody's going to want to be associated with them at this point.

 

[Hillbilly Castro]

If the person is willing to leave, they are allowed. If they aren't, that's when they get "green-lighted" by the community. At that point what happens is that they are forced to pretty much hide and in the event that they make waves and some one else decides to kick the shit out of them or worse, people will almost completely support the action and some folks will join in.

At a very severe point, people will wait for the opportunity to form mobs and physically remove the person and steal their shit (often times they are just reclaiming stolen shit) and burn down their dwelling. Out here in the desert, if a person's dwelling space and resources are removed, they are completely fucked and have to leave or move into a friends place, which almost never happens because nobody's going to want to be associated with them at this point.

This is where things can get pretty fucking weird though, and a herd mentality kicks in. My first night in the slabs was when you were gone not last winter but the winter before, just before New Years. Some guy - Hawk, I think - was watching the library for you, you had told him not to let folks party in the library while you were away. Some other guy, call him "John", an eight-year slab veteran, was the guy who picked me up in Mecca that day and brought me to the slabs and drank with me. He rolled into the library, proceeded to bust out a bottle and act swilly, and Hawk upheld the request you'd made to keep things low key by calmly asking the guy to take it elsewhere. "John" was drunk and decided to play the seniority card, that he knew you better than anyone else, that it was his right to use the library however he wanted, and refused to leave and was aggressive and unreasonable with Hawk. Eventually he attacked Hawk, and Hawk defended himself with a well-placed punch.

The punch was so good "John" was certain that he had had a bit of metal in his hand, and, suspecting foul play, picked up a metal pipe, at which point I and another guy I had just met - a very reasonable guy from Alaska - held him back and convinced him to leave. There was no foul play on the part of Hawk - I saw it myself.

Here's where it gets good, and demonstrates how collectivism warps the human mind into truly ridiculous shapes; the next day, after this went down, "John" went to Hawk's camp, busted everything up, tied Hawk up with a rope and dropped him off at the entrance to the slabs. When I went to the internet cafe, feeling like something fucked up as all hell had occurred, I heard to my total surprise people talking about how "John" was right to do what he did! Merely because he had seniority and nothing else. When I attempted to clear it up and talk about "John's" aggression, which I had seen and personally dealt with, only a minority could listen - most people had already made up their minds and weakly sided with the one who had seniority, no matter what else there was that could be said.

To me stories like these show that hostility and reason are not usually bedfellows, and that "word on the street" very often sides with something like mob justice.

There will always be John's in the world, and quite often, their aggression and hostility will be neither understood nor brought fully into the light. The first question is, can you defend yourself against these types of people in a combat scenario? If you can't, all anarchistic visions of "freedom" are a comical and sad stillbirth. But the second question is, if your adversary is supported by a social order or norm - whether your adversary is a cop, a woman, a white man, a senior slabber, or whatever (each has their own contexts where a majority, sometimes well-armed, would support them no matter what) - how will you contend with the outside support they receive? If Hawk had stood for what was reasonable and just, and had stayed in the slabs, more conflict would have arisen, and he might have found himself outgunned and even more fucked. So he left. And so it is that while the first component of individual freedom is self-defense, the second is the wisdom to know when to get the hell out of dodge!

At the end of the day, it ain't about an "anarchist society". It's about yourself and the few who you notice set themselves apart from the mob. It ain't about what's "right" or "wrong". The only right is that which stems from force - this is not an ideal, but a fact. If someone has a gun to my head and says "give me the money," and I am unarmed, the last thing I would do is say "but it is my right to own money and property which is not yours!". I'd give him the money and keep my life, because "rights" are irrelevant at that point. Rights are a social fiction invented by the weak. I'm mostly writing this bit to nutsac.

More often than not, "society" - anarchist or not - consists of a mob of jackasses who follow hearsay and vague idealism like spells from a goddamn wizard, they move blindly around in the dark and eviscerate one another over this shit and everybody pays. Society is inherently a hostile arrangement, because societies consist of settlers, who are content not only to resign themselves to one particular place and form of life, but are subsequently content to place their minds on the conveyor belts of "convention" and "justice" - however warped - and this absence of thought or care creates a colloseum culture where vultures cackle and demand more blood, any way they can get it! Hostility exists where masses form and indulge in feelings of pure self-righteousness - which you'll find anywhere there are people gathered, from the suburbs of Dayton or Dallas to prison to the office to Slab goddamn City and most every punk house. So to deal with it, learn the lesson of the solitary hobo - carry a railroad spike in your hand and when shit gets out of hand, slip away alone, or with only the closest of kin, and move along.

 

[Cornelius Vango]

This is where things can get pretty fucking weird though, and a herd mentality kicks in. My first night in the slabs was when you were ...

I didn't realize you were here when that went down. The guy who came here acting like a piece of shit is Just Josh and he was a friend of mine and I had previously told him to go shwill elsewhere because he draws a shitty crowd of kids who just want to get shwilly and they take advantage of the fact that Just Josh likes to share.

About three or more of those same kids in his posse were dipshits that had been preliminary to library crew and fucked up super bad and were told they couldn't be crew. The rest had other selfish issues with me or the library because of whatever drama they had going on. They weren't told they couldn't come to the library, they were just given stipulations for when/if they did. They got butthurt and got more angry based on their own fallacies and used their already united drunken shitty rage to come together for an unjust cause.

Indeed, mob mentality is dangerous. If even one other person had been as brave as Hawk, it would have been different. I have since spoken to Just Josh. I have the names of the crew he assembled.

None of them are in good standing with the community except Just Josh. He hasn't come here since except to offer me gifts.

 

[autumn]

Theres an old proverb about someone walking down a beach, and seeing a shitload of beached starfish. So the person starts throwin starfish back in the water. Then another person comes along and says "Whats the point? You cant save all of em". Then the starfish person says "Yea, but i can save some".

Let me save you before you drown, said the monkey carrying a fish up the tree.

 

[clockwise5000]

I'd like to steal this from ya. Any way to give you credit?

"Anarchy doesn't mean that there is no law, it means that you are your own law in the space that you occupy. So if something effects you, it's your privilege to have a hand in it, and if something doesn't effect you, it's your privilege to walk away."

 

[DrewSTNY]

well yes, but thats beside the point, isnt it? Lets say our entire community regards left handed redheads as a threat....Does that mean its open season on them? Can exterminating them be more moral than simply ignoring the fact that theyre out there doing nefarious deeds? Ultimate point: How much do we owe each other as human beings?

@zim, I think you're fucked here.

 

[DIY Nihilism]

Oh how i do really love this post!

Fully agree on this pretty much in every way possible, it's how i tend to deal with problems and other people trying to get me involved in there problems also.

I have been guilty of breaking this in the past, on both getting involved in what isn't mine to be, and getting others involved in my problems, but hey! Mistakes and shit are human.

Standing up for yourself is something that's always better than being just some pushover, even if everything in you makes you too afraid to stand up for yourself, still try to, it's better in the long run!

 

[Cornelius Vango]

I'd like to steal this from ya. Any way to give you credit?

"Anarchy doesn't mean that there is no law, it means that you are your own law in the space that you occupy. So if something effects you, it's your privilege to have a hand in it, and if something doesn't effect you, it's your privilege to walk away."

Sure thing, just pop a " - cornelius vango " afterward if you feel inclined.

 

[Venatus]

ive been waiting for you to make this kind of post. if i know anyone whos an expert on such a subject its you

 

[Cornelius Vango]

I'll make more posts like this, @Venatus

 

[Atomic Geezer]

There are Demons and Saints. There are no others and in attempting to believe there are is the "gray" area in which lies pain and suffering.