TWO CHEERS FOR ANARCHISM - JAMES C. SCOTT

Dope little book. I’ve read AGAINST THE GRAIN as well as parts of 2 other Scott books which were quite long and pretty academic (he is a Yale professor after all) so I was expecting something long and intense so this breezy less-than-200 page ditty was a welcomed surprise. The book doesn’t seek to map out or create a broader “anarchist perspective” or solve all sorts of complicated political conundrum. Instead, it deploys what Scott calls an “Anarchist squint” to see some issues in the world differently. He doesn’t stick with a topic too long, the book itself is organized into both loose chapters as well as smaller “fragments” which are typically a few pages long and make a quick point without overstaying their welcome. He touches on some cool stuff, I particularly like the idea of “anarchist calestheics” where you ignore small stupid rules to keep up the practice of being free. There’s stuff about war deserters and playground design. There’s a particularly interesting chapter on the petit bourgeois that defends them in a way that is uncommon on the left. I’ve been thinking alot about the professional managerial class w/r/t and in relation to the small business owning class, and how this division maps onto the current political climate and Scott brings a lot to this thinking, especially with his anarchist emphasis on freedom and autonomy. Perhaps my favorite section had to do with the way we measure and collect data on complex social issues. I’ve written before about how much I hate this aspect of modern life and this book had a much more articulate explanation of this rage. I’ve been in so many organizations that do things like reduce teaching to testing data or reduce behavioral issues to a short “assessment.” As he puts it, “a measure colonizes behavior” and you end up with nonsense like the sort of “teaching to a test” approach I had to put up with in high school. Beyond that I also enjoyed his point about how, “Organizations, contrary to the usal view, do not generally precipitate protest movements. In fact, it is more correct to say that protest movements precipitate organizations, which in turn usually attempts to tame protests and turn it into institutional channels.” which has been good to keep in mind w/r/t my experiences at the CHOP. Either way, this was a pretty light and easy book I’d recommend if you’re new to the idea of anarchy. 2 Stateless people