Showing posts with label dialogue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dialogue. Show all posts

Monday 30 January 2017

This Is Not a Dialogue.


          I have always maintained that this society will always encourage you to debate anything, but punish you if you try to change things. As long as we fail to see this society as a class war with two diametrically opposed sides, and one side holds all the power levers, we are doomed to enter into an endless and pointless conversation that goes under the label of dialogue. If you are bound by the rules of your opponent, then you are not in a fair and equal dialogue. If the ground rules are shaped by your opponent, and backed up by threat, you are not in a equal dialogue. You cannot discuss capitalism into a fair and just system, that’s not how the system works. Under capitalism, the reality is that the majority will always have to struggle to get a reasonable standard of living, while the corporate bosses and their henchmen, will live in unimaginable opulence, that’s how the system functions. We can’t enter into a dialogue under such conditions, it is an illusion created by our opponents to weave passivity over society, a trick for continuity of the system. What we want is to frame the argument in our value structure, equality, justice, freedom and sustainability, realise that we can’t have those conditions under capitalism, forget the illusionary, action sapping dialogue, and organise to destroy the existing system. 
         This is not a dialogue. How could you be so naïve? A dialogue—from which some of the participants can be deported at any time? A dialogue—in which one side keeps shooting and incarcerating the other side? A dialogue—in which a few people own all the networks and radio stations and printing presses, while the rest have to make do with markers and cardboard signs? A dialogue, really?
          You’re not in a dialogue. You’re in a power struggle. All that matters is how much force you can bring to bear on your adversaries to defend yourself from them. You can bet that if you succeed, they will accuse you of breaking off the dialogue, of violating their free speech. They will try to lure you back into conversation, playing for time until they need no more stratagems to keep you passive while they put the pieces in place for tyranny.
          This isn’t a dialogue—it’s a war. They’re gambling that you won’t realize this until it’s too late. If freedom is important to you, if you care about all the people marked for death and deportation, start taking action.
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Sunday 22 July 2012

THE PARTY LINE OR HONEST DIALOGUE?


Dialogue and critique require honesty. This from Anarchist News:

        The anarchist project is one of constant dialogue and critique. Our ideas are not separate from our actions; theory is not separate from practice. Through the course of our activities it becomes necessary to re-evaluate our positions in relation to events. As anarchists we do not offer an answer or solution to the world's problems, but instead a lens through which to critique and act upon it. We should always be suspicious of those who claim to know, to have an answer or truth, especially from those who also call themselves anarchists but are not open to dialogue. This is how thoughts crystallize into ideology, into unquestionable positions. It is imperative that our ideas do not become static, that we remain dynamic in response to our environment.
       The adherence to ideologies lessens our ability to hear and be heard by one another. With the wide variety of positions anarchists take, there must be room for criticism and debate, as it allows for a sharpening of analysis and a deepening of understanding, of ourselves as anarchists and our positions in relation to each other. The following is an analysis of left anarchists' tendency to launch unfounded accusations instead of engaging in a critical dialogue. Sometimes it seems that those who question the authority of a false unity are committing an act of heresy. In response I would posit the question: what position is more appealing, that of adherent or heretic?

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