The Anarchists: Episode 2 “Forking Freedom”
I’m kind of loving the series, guys. Still somewhat disappointed about the failure of the first episode to actually explain what our philosophy is, and the second episode, sadly, did not rectify that. Nonetheless, the storytelling is pretty great, and in a way watching it has been a cathartic experience, both for me personally and for the community as a whole. The online discussions have been fantastic. What’s really interesting to me is that it seems to be helping people to reframe their impressions and opinions about certain individuals in the movement, to empathize, to consider them as whole persons with flaws and strengths, rather than just as caricature heroes or villains.
Each episode so far has provided me with plenty of fodder for discussion of how we can grow as a movement, how we can learn from our earlier mistakes and put our philosophy into practice more cleanly. In the first episode, I picked up on the theme of naiveté and expressed in my review the hope that as the community matures it will cease stumbling into this pitfall.
The second episode has made me think a lot about how we deal with conflict within the community—both interpersonal and societal—and what maturity of the movement might mean in that respect. It also brought up a lot of potent memories. So I’m breaking this post into two: the first one will share some of my experiences from Anarchapulco 2017, and the second will go into some ideas about voluntary conflict resolution.
The Battle Bus
Before he went to stay at AnarCastle, Paul brought his Battle Bus (with the ATM still in it) to the place where I was staying with some friends: a large, walled house close to the beach in Bonfil. The house was of 1980s construction, had a pool and a rooftop lounge area, and reminded me of the mansions in many of the 80s-era drug kingpin movies I’ve seen.
What I remember about Paul is that he was very proud of himself for having completed his “mission.” He was amiable, but it was clear from the first moments I met him that there was something “off” with him. He had stories to tell of how he was being followed on his way down, that someone was out to get him. I do not think, as Lisa Freeman implied in one of her segments, that this was mere sleep deprivation talking. It was obvious from the start that Paul had very troubling mental health issues.
Steem
I was among the many anarchists from Anarchapulco using the crypto-based blogging platform, Steemit, to publish articles and make some extra income. Like Lily, I did pretty well and amassed what was for me a decent amount of the platform’s cryptocurrency, Steem. I also interviewed Lily as part of a series I did on Steemit nomads.
In case you’re thinking you might like to try Steemit out, don’t. The platform took a turn for the worse when its majority stake changed hands a few years ago. The community forked the Steem blockchain into Hive, which is in my opinion a much better blogging platform with a cryptocurrency that has consistently performed better. Learn more at hive.blog.
To the Moon
I was on the poor side of the economic divide among the anarchists when BitCoin “went to the moon” in 2017. I owned some cryptocurrencies, but I’d never invested enough to enjoy the largesse from that spectacular rise. I cashed out what little profits I did make to pay down some debts.
I never personally felt like this was unfair. I was happy for my friends who did strike it rich during that time, and knew that my own failure to do so was only due to my failure to properly invest in and manage my crypto portfolio. I felt the increase in wealth among some of us was going to be good for the community as a whole.
Later, in 2018, during another crypto price surge (and around the time of that year’s conference), I did experience what for me was quite the increase to my net worth (we’re talking tens of thousands, not Jeff Berwick money.) I paid for my trip to Mexico mostly in crypto that year; specifically, in Steem. Sadly, I still wasn’t that smart about portfolio management. I missed the boat on cashing out in time to enjoy any lasting wealth increase.
Vegans
2017 was the year when a number of vegans from the community decided to promote the idea that the Non-Aggression Principle extends to animals, and you can’t be an anarchist without also being vegan. I disagreed in principle, but I’m a pretty easy-going person when it comes to others’ ethical values, and I didn’t mind these ideas being given a platform at the conference.
The aforementioned house I stayed in was a vegan house. Not all of the people staying there were vegans, but the folks renting it and subletting the rooms to others were. We were not allowed to eat meat, dairy, or eggs in the house and before I was informed of that rule, I got into some trouble by keeping a container of milk in the communal fridge, lol. Three of us started to hold regular “secret meatings” where we would leave the premises and walk down to the nearest taco stand or pizza place just to get our meat fix.
And I gotta say, those tacos were amazing. Sunday was barbacoa day, and I never missed it while I was there. And the pizza place that was housed in a family’s garage down the street—what a great little eatery. The pizzas were HUGE and cheap, the toppings plentiful, and the family’s young children were employed at the restaurant, waiting and cleaning tables and running the cash register. They loved it. I don’t know about you, but I love seeing kids learn the art of entrepreneurship and a strong work ethic in a small family business. I sometimes feel sad for travelers and expats with strict dietary restrictions, because of all they miss out on in the local food economies of their host countries.
Looking back, it seems likely that at least a small part of the rift between the Freemans and Lily and John might have had to do with this difference of values—if not a cause, than at least an exacerbation of the priorly existing conflicts. The Freemans were vegans who tended to be vocal about it, and Lily and John were unabashed meat eaters, who also tended to be vocal about it. There were other differences, too, that may have seemed diametrically opposed from a certain angle. But I think the two couples always had more in common than differences, and that the rift was mostly due to hurt feelings.
Art Your Way to Anarchy
At the 2017 conference, Erika Harris and I gave a joint-speech on the side stage. Our topic: Art Your Way to Anarchy. You can find a reader-friendly version of the talk here.
This photo was taken shortly after our talk. A lot of familiar faces here. I love these folks!
Ira Belle
Nathan Freeman had helped me find affordable plane tickets to make my journey to the 2017 conference possible. Lisa was pregnant, and while we were chatting online, Nathan told me that the baby’s name was going to be Ira Belle. I loved the name. He was a very proud papa. We all thought for sure that the birth would coincide with the conference, but it didn’t, as it turned out.
Here’s a kind of embarrassing memory for you guys that is funny in retrospect.
So we’re hanging out by one of the hotel pools and my friend Erika feeds me these edibles, which were delicious, and then she says, “Oh yeah, Lisa’s blessing way is about to start!”
I was like, “Awesome, let’s go!”
For context, a blessing way is basically a baby shower with spiritual, ceremonial overtones, and the Lisa referred to here is Lisa Freeman of The Anarchists, who was very pregnant at the time with little Ira Belle.
So we made the long trek to the other side of this very long hotel. (You can see what I mean about how long it is from the aerial images in Episode 2.) During this walk, with each step I felt more and more like a potato. There were stairs to climb, which felt like heaving my lumpy potato legs upward through molasses, and an elevator ride, which gave me vertigo. By the time we arrived to the suite for the blessing way, I could feel sleep stalking me like a panther about to pounce on a molasses-covered potato.
Dimly, I was aware that this was not good. If I had been able to form a coherent thought, it might have gone something like, “I really shouldn’t attend this very important and meaningful event in my present state.” But I was completely incapable in the moment of making words mean things, and there were cushions on the floor in the suite. I tried to persuade myself, without anything resembling an actual thought, but more with internal grunts and scowls, to turn around and leave, but at that moment my knees buckled. I resolved to stay there and force myself to stay awake through this lovely gathering of women.
But, I must confess, I failed in that endeavor. We all sat on cushions in a circle on the floor and I think there was a talking feather being passed around for each woman to share her blessings and well wishes for Lisa and Ira Belle. I passed out before the feather reached me. I have no idea what happened after that, but I’m sure it involved people stepping awkwardly over my collapsed and snoring form. Erika woke me up when it was over and I made my walk of shame out of the room.
Lisa, if you ever read this, I’m very sorry I passed out at your blessing way. I like to think I was at least there in spirit.
This experience, along with a couple of others, helped me to realize that cannabis does not agree with me. Literally every time I consume it, I either eat something I shouldn’t or I immediately fall asleep in an awkward place. And that is why I no longer consume cannabis.
Anarchaforko
A decentralized anarchist conference where everyone who pays for a ticket is invited to share their own content and workshops? Freaking awesome.
I never understood why anyone thought it was in competition with Anarchapulco. It was just appealing to an overlapping audience. Almost anyone who would have gone to the Fork would have also attended the main event, and if some chose only to patronize the Fork and not the main conference, who cares? Are we free market anarchists or not?
The idea that the name “Anarchaforko” was somehow intended to spit in the face of the main conference organizers (because it kind of sounds like “Anarcha-fuck-you”), is, in my opinion, ridiculous. The name was a reflection of what was going on in the crypto world at the time, with many blockchains demonstrating the value of decentralization by “forking” the chain when there were unreconcilable differences of opinion about how to run it. Lily suggested the name on Steemit and got lots of community feedback supporting it because it was a good-sounding name.
I was really excited about the Fork when Lily announced it on Steemit. I’d had similar criticisms as Lily and John about how the major speakers at the event were mostly not actual anarchists. There were a lot of speakers in shorter slots who were anarchists from the community, and that was good, but the headliners were somewhat disappointing every year, in my opinion. Looking back, I’ve since come to a more nuanced conclusion on that, which I will share in an upcoming post. But for that reason, each year I attended, I devoted much more time to hanging out and making new friends than I did listening to the speakers. In 2018, with the expansion of Cryptopulco and the resulting influx of actual “crypto bros” (not anarchists), the anarchist-ness of the conference became so diluted that I stopped making the event a priority after that year.
I’m excited to learn that this year, Lily will be bringing back the Fork, and it will be an official part of Anarchapulco, lasting a week after the main event. I think the bridging of Anarchapulco and Agoraforko (the fork’s new name) is going to bring the perfect blend of formal learning and community collaboration. I appreciate that this is what the Freemans were trying to do by introducing a second stage in 2017 and offering more slots to no-name participants from the community, but it still lacked the decentralized flavor that the Fork offered.
More to come…
That’s it for 2017 memories. In my next post, I’ll share some ideas I’ve been developing about voluntary conflict resolution. Stay tuned.
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Memories of Moons and Forks
I have high hopes, perhaps naive and mystical ones, that there is a way to transcend the inevitable drama spiral of communities that form around principles and practices that feel both liberating and persecuted. I have Big Thoughts on it, but I’m still exploring them.
I am dying. "A panther about to pounce on a molasses-covered potato."