I’d say this is pretty much the definitive article on anarchist collapse-optimism. It’s got Graeber. It’s got Solnit. It’s got Neurodivergence as a form of being well-adapted to the better world being born, rather than a form of being maladapted to the profoundly sick world currently dying.
I still have to read Jem Bendell’s Breaking Together, but (at least) until I do, I think you’ve nailed the most optimistic vision for collapsing gracefully that I can imagine. It’s very much what lives in my heart as well.
The apocalypse-as-war-zone is a fable told by these systems to make sure we keep upholding them, a fable that teaches us life without the systems would be worse than life with them. Because otherwise, we would never tolerate them.
I have been appreciating every one of your articles so much lately and this one especially is extremely meaningful to me. I think I am going to print it out to keep it in a special way.
Thank you for keeping on writing and sharing it with us.
“before, like some sort of deity, suicide was something that i could always count on. now, suicide is not an option. i want to live, i genuinely believe that i deserve a place in this world. and, to have such a desire to live in a world that’s actively working towards your death is a mindfuck”. What changed — from Then to Now, is finding community and actively sharing resources, holding one another, learning how to grow food, dreaming about indigenising, and strategising life beyond survival. Mindfuck aside, there is something really like awesome (not in like a gross development-orientated framework kinda way) about resilience and like what exists beyond it.
I have so much more to say and I’ll probably write a whole lot more about this in my spaces but I just wanna let you know that this non-American, literally Afrikan, trans masc comrade right here is deeply moved by what you share with the world.
Over many years, and from many audiences, I have discovered we ALL share the same nine fundamental core values - Love, Faith, Family, Honesty, Trust, Happiness, Freedom, Respect and Compassion. Or variations of them.
These values are the same no matter our culture, creed, politics, religion, gender, orientation, age or race. They are what makes is communal humans. They are the same whether we are able or disabled.
They are the things that will support us if empires fall tomorrow. Community and society will survive and find ways to thrive.
We all look for three things in life, influence, significance and meaning. The first two are obligatory but of themselves insufficient. It is only when we live according to our truly held values can we discover our personal meaning. That journey holds back our demons and the seductive sirens of suicide.
Well said, Gary. In our writing workshops over the years we've called these things the human commons. I've been trying to climb out of a hole for years now, with multiple caring and financial stress and burnout, so to be there more authentically (that is passionately) for community and creativity. Your words on top of Devon's have really helped. Each little part adds to the circle around the campfire, that feeling of shared warm food, conversation, and listening (crackles, owls, murmurs, shooting stars). Maybe that's called nurtured, that feeling. Anyway, pass me the coffee, and here's a blanket for your knees.
Hi, it's Lulu! I'm alive actually, and I thought about your message a lot and felt so bad about not replying I stopped logging into discord entirely, haha. Palestine really broke my brain in a lot of ways, and I stopped talking to everyone but my roommates for a year. Lots of stuff happened, and I'm currently in a psych ward in Germany waiting to see if I'll get deported back to the US. (Side note, the psych ward here is so not fascist its crazy, I could write a whole essay on the differences between here and back home.) Was feeling mighty sorry for myself and the unjust situation I'm in when I thought of you and your neverending supply of good ass articles and incredible takes. So sure enough I pulled up your substack and immediately found a good ass article that was relevant to my situation about combatting helplessness. Outside of the psych ward (they let me go out!) is a church, and outside of that church is a guy who hands out free food all day, and for the 15 days I've been in here I've nervously hovered around his food stand and then ran off because my German is so shit I'm afraid he won't be able to understand me if I ask him if I can help out. But reading your good ass article reminded me that the barrier of such a thing is ultimately trivial, and I'm going to actually just walk up to him and ask him tomorrow with my awful dogshit German. So thanks! I hope your life is going well.
I saw Astin's post and I've had similar meditations of thought. These past 26 days I've made so many strides to create community, because all I can think about is that I don't want to go out. My ancestors didn't go out through enslavement or segregation or underpayment. And, I've got plenty of yarn and a grasp of writing and communicating. And some handy non-weapony self defense skills if we have another January 6 like we did in DC last time.
I like how this post shows that relationships and vulnerability can be a strength rather than just what someone’s function is. Being someone who physically can’t do much at all, with hands that barely work, mostly in bed etc, it is hard to see what my worth is in this society and when I hear leftists talk about post apocalyptic worlds, they kind of forget about us disabled folks as well. We do have myriad skills that I don’t see celebrated or thought of much. I cofacilitate anti carceral peer support groups and in those groups, I see folks with so many amazing strengths. The question is how to build communities of mutual aid where our skills are valued and the abled folks are helping us not die. This also ties in with your last point about asking for help. The thing is that when you do that with most abled folks or neurotypical folks, you are looked at as a burden. I guess my final point is that there is this vast divide between the neurotypical abled and the neurodivergent and/or disabled folks. Are there enough of us to look out for each other and have our varying needs met? I hear about the community you and others have fostered and it gives me hope. Thanks as always for such a great article and it was weird to be sort of featured in it(albeit misgendered, but that’s ok).
I’d say this is pretty much the definitive article on anarchist collapse-optimism. It’s got Graeber. It’s got Solnit. It’s got Neurodivergence as a form of being well-adapted to the better world being born, rather than a form of being maladapted to the profoundly sick world currently dying.
I still have to read Jem Bendell’s Breaking Together, but (at least) until I do, I think you’ve nailed the most optimistic vision for collapsing gracefully that I can imagine. It’s very much what lives in my heart as well.
... and it's already happened so we just need to catch up...
“The future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed” ~ William Gibson
The apocalypse-as-war-zone is a fable told by these systems to make sure we keep upholding them, a fable that teaches us life without the systems would be worse than life with them. Because otherwise, we would never tolerate them.
I really needed this article right now, thank you so much for putting this into words and giving me some hope ❤️
I have been appreciating every one of your articles so much lately and this one especially is extremely meaningful to me. I think I am going to print it out to keep it in a special way.
Thank you for keeping on writing and sharing it with us.
tw / mention of suicide
I wrote, on my private IG story on the 10th,
“before, like some sort of deity, suicide was something that i could always count on. now, suicide is not an option. i want to live, i genuinely believe that i deserve a place in this world. and, to have such a desire to live in a world that’s actively working towards your death is a mindfuck”. What changed — from Then to Now, is finding community and actively sharing resources, holding one another, learning how to grow food, dreaming about indigenising, and strategising life beyond survival. Mindfuck aside, there is something really like awesome (not in like a gross development-orientated framework kinda way) about resilience and like what exists beyond it.
I have so much more to say and I’ll probably write a whole lot more about this in my spaces but I just wanna let you know that this non-American, literally Afrikan, trans masc comrade right here is deeply moved by what you share with the world.
Thank you so much for your comment. And for choosing to be here to help us all build a new world.
Yes! ✊💚 and behind the scenes, your messy personal self makes your public self more awesome! Thank you for your words.
Thank you so much for writing this, Devon. There is so much I will be returning to.
Thank you for this.
❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Devon,
Thank you.
Over many years, and from many audiences, I have discovered we ALL share the same nine fundamental core values - Love, Faith, Family, Honesty, Trust, Happiness, Freedom, Respect and Compassion. Or variations of them.
These values are the same no matter our culture, creed, politics, religion, gender, orientation, age or race. They are what makes is communal humans. They are the same whether we are able or disabled.
They are the things that will support us if empires fall tomorrow. Community and society will survive and find ways to thrive.
We all look for three things in life, influence, significance and meaning. The first two are obligatory but of themselves insufficient. It is only when we live according to our truly held values can we discover our personal meaning. That journey holds back our demons and the seductive sirens of suicide.
Keep this up!
Best wishes
Gary
Well said, Gary. In our writing workshops over the years we've called these things the human commons. I've been trying to climb out of a hole for years now, with multiple caring and financial stress and burnout, so to be there more authentically (that is passionately) for community and creativity. Your words on top of Devon's have really helped. Each little part adds to the circle around the campfire, that feeling of shared warm food, conversation, and listening (crackles, owls, murmurs, shooting stars). Maybe that's called nurtured, that feeling. Anyway, pass me the coffee, and here's a blanket for your knees.
With so many people feeling like they want to die now would be a great time to organize a die-in.
This is great
💜
Hi, it's Lulu! I'm alive actually, and I thought about your message a lot and felt so bad about not replying I stopped logging into discord entirely, haha. Palestine really broke my brain in a lot of ways, and I stopped talking to everyone but my roommates for a year. Lots of stuff happened, and I'm currently in a psych ward in Germany waiting to see if I'll get deported back to the US. (Side note, the psych ward here is so not fascist its crazy, I could write a whole essay on the differences between here and back home.) Was feeling mighty sorry for myself and the unjust situation I'm in when I thought of you and your neverending supply of good ass articles and incredible takes. So sure enough I pulled up your substack and immediately found a good ass article that was relevant to my situation about combatting helplessness. Outside of the psych ward (they let me go out!) is a church, and outside of that church is a guy who hands out free food all day, and for the 15 days I've been in here I've nervously hovered around his food stand and then ran off because my German is so shit I'm afraid he won't be able to understand me if I ask him if I can help out. But reading your good ass article reminded me that the barrier of such a thing is ultimately trivial, and I'm going to actually just walk up to him and ask him tomorrow with my awful dogshit German. So thanks! I hope your life is going well.
I saw Astin's post and I've had similar meditations of thought. These past 26 days I've made so many strides to create community, because all I can think about is that I don't want to go out. My ancestors didn't go out through enslavement or segregation or underpayment. And, I've got plenty of yarn and a grasp of writing and communicating. And some handy non-weapony self defense skills if we have another January 6 like we did in DC last time.
I like how this post shows that relationships and vulnerability can be a strength rather than just what someone’s function is. Being someone who physically can’t do much at all, with hands that barely work, mostly in bed etc, it is hard to see what my worth is in this society and when I hear leftists talk about post apocalyptic worlds, they kind of forget about us disabled folks as well. We do have myriad skills that I don’t see celebrated or thought of much. I cofacilitate anti carceral peer support groups and in those groups, I see folks with so many amazing strengths. The question is how to build communities of mutual aid where our skills are valued and the abled folks are helping us not die. This also ties in with your last point about asking for help. The thing is that when you do that with most abled folks or neurotypical folks, you are looked at as a burden. I guess my final point is that there is this vast divide between the neurotypical abled and the neurodivergent and/or disabled folks. Are there enough of us to look out for each other and have our varying needs met? I hear about the community you and others have fostered and it gives me hope. Thanks as always for such a great article and it was weird to be sort of featured in it(albeit misgendered, but that’s ok).