On a recent carpool ride to the monastery, an acquaintance suggested that Dean Spade's anarchist organizing manual held some advice relevant to the growth of our budding community. Unfortunately, while there are some useful suggestions about dealing with conflict in groups, this book is mostly aimed at a completely different type of group. Turns out, a monastery is not a mutual aid organization, at least in the sense Spade intends.
The book is really discussing how to organize groups like Black Lives Matters, or the other types of protest groups that appeared in the wake of the murder of George Floyd or more recently in opposition to ICE deportations. This probably accounts for the militant and millenialist tone Spade uses throughout. He sees these organizations as the last line of defense in a life or death survival struggle. In some of these cases, of course, he's absolutely right. The problem comes when he begins to suggest that the type of organizations created in a last ditch effort to protect people against state sponsored terrorism should expand to become the normal mode of societal organization. Without getting into an endless debate about the extent to which anarchist self-organization can solve all our problems, I don't think that we should treat every situation as a war against the state. Perhaps this is a very relevant lens through which to see questions of community law enforcement, but is it actually a way to fix, say, our broken healthcare system? It seems to me that there are different types of problems, for which different organizational structures are suited. Spade's enduring emnity towards hierarchy prevents him from seeing that it is also a completely normal phenomena that has evolved over and over again in both social and evolutionary contexts. That doesn't mean it's always healthy; but perhaps it's not **always** evil?
I didn't enjoy the hyperbolic writing style, nor did I find the book a compelling argument for anarchism (despite considering myself an anarchist sympathizer) or a particularly insightful guide for organizing. But instead of leaving it a two star review on my highly influential blog, I think I should simply say that I'm not the relevant target audience. I'm not involved in any organization like this, so how can I judge the effectiveness of these ideas for running one. And while some of the same organizational questions do come up in the construction of a new Thai Forest Monastery, the frame in which they are understood and the process thorough which they are resolved are not so ... militant.
The book is really discussing how to organize groups like Black Lives Matters, or the other types of protest groups that appeared in the wake of the murder of George Floyd or more recently in opposition to ICE deportations. This probably accounts for the militant and millenialist tone Spade uses throughout. He sees these organizations as the last line of defense in a life or death survival struggle. In some of these cases, of course, he's absolutely right. The problem comes when he begins to suggest that the type of organizations created in a last ditch effort to protect people against state sponsored terrorism should expand to become the normal mode of societal organization. Without getting into an endless debate about the extent to which anarchist self-organization can solve all our problems, I don't think that we should treat every situation as a war against the state. Perhaps this is a very relevant lens through which to see questions of community law enforcement, but is it actually a way to fix, say, our broken healthcare system? It seems to me that there are different types of problems, for which different organizational structures are suited. Spade's enduring emnity towards hierarchy prevents him from seeing that it is also a completely normal phenomena that has evolved over and over again in both social and evolutionary contexts. That doesn't mean it's always healthy; but perhaps it's not **always** evil?
I didn't enjoy the hyperbolic writing style, nor did I find the book a compelling argument for anarchism (despite considering myself an anarchist sympathizer) or a particularly insightful guide for organizing. But instead of leaving it a two star review on my highly influential blog, I think I should simply say that I'm not the relevant target audience. I'm not involved in any organization like this, so how can I judge the effectiveness of these ideas for running one. And while some of the same organizational questions do come up in the construction of a new Thai Forest Monastery, the frame in which they are understood and the process thorough which they are resolved are not so ... militant.
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