Some will say we, the Veganarchists, will spread like a virus. Like a disease we will corrupt the minds of the gullible and weak-minded, but will eventually be stamped out by the good forces of strong will and emotional knee-jerk reactionary stagnation.
In reality, we are not the disease. We are the cure.
We are the cure for a dying cancer patient in all of us, of all of us. We are the antidote for all the ills of society, and we are evolving faster than the disease is. For we are movement, to the old stagnation; we are the education to the old ignorance. And we are the collective to the old selfish.
We do not corrupt minds; we enlighten them. Unlike the Establishment which will seek to, and already does so effortlessly, demonize or ridicule us, we do not impose our views on others. We convince them, through reasoned debate, rational argument, constructive criticism. We teach those who are not privileged to understand the world as we do, and listen to what they, the students, have to say. We teach them peer-to-peer, with humility and patience. And, eventually, they understand.
And when they understand, we arm them. Not with guns or knives, but with words and insight: things far more dangerous, profound, and capable.
And they will seek out new students, to teach them what they have learned. And so on.
And so the world shall change dramatically. Through kindness and commonality, humility and humanity. All for one, one being all.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Veganarchist Manifesto
Veganarchism.
What does this word mean? It means to be able to see clearly through the illusions and around the distractions that society has erected against its constituents. The Establishment might be regarded as a being unto its own, separate from the humans which make it up; it makes surprising attempts to survive against the inevitable waves of change and societal progression. In general, its attempts consist of stopping individuals from realizing the Truth. The Truth is that there is a struggle between their current societal Establishment and the Emergent philosophy, and that they are far better off supporting Emergence, which is Societal Progression.
Thus, it means to understand Unity of Struggle. Unity of Struggle is the understanding that the progressive cause has many fronts of struggle, many conflicts all ongoing simultaneously, and the reason progressive causes have been held off for so long is twofold. First, that people do not understand the struggle and are manipulated by the powerful Establishment into detracting from progressive causes that would benefit them and the whole society. Second, that these progressive causes do not largely unite and make a coordinated educational and advocacy effort on all fronts simultaneously. This division is fostered by the Establishment to keep the. However, bit by bit, Society has been progressing since the European Renaissance of the 1500s. Unfortunately, Establishment practices have simultaneously moved from undesirable to wildly unsustainable.
It means to understand the Establishment. The Establishment is not a conspiracy of the elite, or any individuals plotting total world domination. The Establishment is a separate entity from any human being; it is the tendency for human society to work against itself and preserve the status quo policies, practices, and worldviews, personified. It is a result of the "societal glue" of human conformism magnified to problematic levels by lack of education and awareness, combined with artificial Establishment interference.
Finally, it is to understand that societal understanding and progression is not a fixed goal. It is constantly evolving, changing to look for "the next big thing", so to speak. What I believe to be what we should strive for on the very fringe of societal struggle will, with any luck, be the reality of a future generation's world; and they will strive for further societal development that we cannot even imagine.
Is Veganarchism a worthy cause?
Yes, it is. Through planning, the awareness of Veganarchism will lead to a better world for all through Emergent philosophy's planned societal progression. Everyone will be freer, more involved in society, happier, and healthier, all by many degrees, when my personal understanding of Veganarchism is implemented.
But what is it?
Veganarchism is a philosophy of universal community of all human beings, compassion for all living things, and global solidarity against the Establishment. A few key ideas punctuate this:
How, then, may Veganarchism's ideals be implemented?
What we need is an Intellectual Assault on all fronts. We need Debate Warriors to teach and reeducated indoctrinated Establishment slaves, and turn them into an army of organized, rebellious, free-thinking radicals. To do that, we need Freedom of Association and Freedom of Speech. The Internet is the best place for free-association, debate, and organization at this point; we must defended its independence and autonomy from the Establishment at all costs. It is our greatest asset. In a broader sense, we should defend these aforementioned two freedoms with all our strength. Without them, our movements become deeply inhibited and even completely ineffectual.
The Decentralization of the Veganarchist Movement is our greatest asset and detriment. It would be prudent to use beneficial aspects of both centralized and decentralized models, whilst discarding whatever negative attributes we can from both. An excellent term for the concept I am extrapolating towards is a "Leaderless Resistance". Look it up.
The Establishment is akin to a Hydra. There is a necessity for constant refutation and struggle by as many people as possible, and the relatively simultaneous defeat of all heads at once. We cannot simply postpone one struggle until another generation; History has shown us that our time is running short. We must end this current Establishment in all its forms and end this phase of Emergent Struggle with a conscious refutation of this incarnation of the Establishment.
We live in a profound generation. We may well be the last generation of this Establishment Phase; whether we choose to move into a new age of Emergence, or completely collapse upon our outdated institutions is up for debate. To quote a favorite literary character, "We will all soon have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy,". Our comfortable childhoods, our free rides will soon end quite abruptly. We can take the reigns of responsibility for our society, or watch our Establishment slave master run all of us off the cliff, into the abyss, never to return.
What does this word mean? It means to be able to see clearly through the illusions and around the distractions that society has erected against its constituents. The Establishment might be regarded as a being unto its own, separate from the humans which make it up; it makes surprising attempts to survive against the inevitable waves of change and societal progression. In general, its attempts consist of stopping individuals from realizing the Truth. The Truth is that there is a struggle between their current societal Establishment and the Emergent philosophy, and that they are far better off supporting Emergence, which is Societal Progression.
Thus, it means to understand Unity of Struggle. Unity of Struggle is the understanding that the progressive cause has many fronts of struggle, many conflicts all ongoing simultaneously, and the reason progressive causes have been held off for so long is twofold. First, that people do not understand the struggle and are manipulated by the powerful Establishment into detracting from progressive causes that would benefit them and the whole society. Second, that these progressive causes do not largely unite and make a coordinated educational and advocacy effort on all fronts simultaneously. This division is fostered by the Establishment to keep the. However, bit by bit, Society has been progressing since the European Renaissance of the 1500s. Unfortunately, Establishment practices have simultaneously moved from undesirable to wildly unsustainable.
It means to understand the Establishment. The Establishment is not a conspiracy of the elite, or any individuals plotting total world domination. The Establishment is a separate entity from any human being; it is the tendency for human society to work against itself and preserve the status quo policies, practices, and worldviews, personified. It is a result of the "societal glue" of human conformism magnified to problematic levels by lack of education and awareness, combined with artificial Establishment interference.
Finally, it is to understand that societal understanding and progression is not a fixed goal. It is constantly evolving, changing to look for "the next big thing", so to speak. What I believe to be what we should strive for on the very fringe of societal struggle will, with any luck, be the reality of a future generation's world; and they will strive for further societal development that we cannot even imagine.
Is Veganarchism a worthy cause?
Yes, it is. Through planning, the awareness of Veganarchism will lead to a better world for all through Emergent philosophy's planned societal progression. Everyone will be freer, more involved in society, happier, and healthier, all by many degrees, when my personal understanding of Veganarchism is implemented.
But what is it?
Veganarchism is a philosophy of universal community of all human beings, compassion for all living things, and global solidarity against the Establishment. A few key ideas punctuate this:
- Unity of Five-Fold Struggle: Political, Economic, Egalitarian, Environmental, Belief. Veganarchists know these by heart: they are the Five Arenas of Struggle, all of which are interconnected. All areas of our ailing society are ill, and all deserve attention. To go into depth about why this is, would demand a book: one that I'm writing right now.
- Universal Love: It may sound "hippie", or "cliche", but that does not mean it is a stupid thing. Love everyone, forgive everything, and work to make the world a better place. Let go of all your attachments but the ones you really ought to treasure, and build new love with new people every day. Live to harbor no hate, no disdain, no despair. Life is too short.
- Speak Up, Out, Forward: Never keep silent when injustice is being committed. However, never hurt another being if you can help it: As a Veganarchist, you work for every person, every animal that can think or feel. You do not wish vengance, only virtue. Similarly, keep your tongue as kind and civil as is possible, to everyone. Educate firmly, but politely.
How, then, may Veganarchism's ideals be implemented?
What we need is an Intellectual Assault on all fronts. We need Debate Warriors to teach and reeducated indoctrinated Establishment slaves, and turn them into an army of organized, rebellious, free-thinking radicals. To do that, we need Freedom of Association and Freedom of Speech. The Internet is the best place for free-association, debate, and organization at this point; we must defended its independence and autonomy from the Establishment at all costs. It is our greatest asset. In a broader sense, we should defend these aforementioned two freedoms with all our strength. Without them, our movements become deeply inhibited and even completely ineffectual.
The Decentralization of the Veganarchist Movement is our greatest asset and detriment. It would be prudent to use beneficial aspects of both centralized and decentralized models, whilst discarding whatever negative attributes we can from both. An excellent term for the concept I am extrapolating towards is a "Leaderless Resistance". Look it up.
The Establishment is akin to a Hydra. There is a necessity for constant refutation and struggle by as many people as possible, and the relatively simultaneous defeat of all heads at once. We cannot simply postpone one struggle until another generation; History has shown us that our time is running short. We must end this current Establishment in all its forms and end this phase of Emergent Struggle with a conscious refutation of this incarnation of the Establishment.
We live in a profound generation. We may well be the last generation of this Establishment Phase; whether we choose to move into a new age of Emergence, or completely collapse upon our outdated institutions is up for debate. To quote a favorite literary character, "We will all soon have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy,". Our comfortable childhoods, our free rides will soon end quite abruptly. We can take the reigns of responsibility for our society, or watch our Establishment slave master run all of us off the cliff, into the abyss, never to return.
The Tragedy of Nonconformism
It is extremely hard to run an effective counter-culture that will progress society from a design standpoint.
The main issue is that people are social animals. They tend to bind themselves to a movement; this is the "social glue" that allows societies to exist and function. However, it also stops critical thinking, as there is little incentive for people to think for themselves in such a situation, except in circumstances where their established worldview is completely and obviously refuted. Even then, some, often religious or political fundamentalists, will refuse to rethink their viewpoints.
This is how an Establishment system assimilates counter-cultures; it takes the minority, sweeps them into one "scene" (the punk scene, for example) or "party" (the Democratic party, for instance), and invariably ends up controlling that group. This is usually accomplished through corrupting or installing leaders of that group (bands or politicians), and using them to manipulate their sway over the group mentality and collective actions of the group at large to take what could be an effective means of societal progression into an excellent distraction from actual progressive causes or efforts, a lure for the well-meaning and unwary progressives towards a comfortable, unchallenging, and unproductive worldview. Before anyone realizes what's happened, it's simply indistinguishable in essential characteristics from the establishment.
In addition, a peculiar mechanic that seems almost stolen from ecosystem biology takes effect. In that science, it has been found that only 10% of energy in a lower level of a food chain is passed to the immediate higher level. Essentially, there is a law of exponentially (ten-fold, to be specific) diminishing returns when it comes to passing resources (energy, in this case) from prey to predator.
In our situation at hand, this can be applied to explain the lack of "counter-counter-cultures"; reactionaries to the rebellion. It should be assumed that for all the self-identified members of a particular counter-culture, an exponentially tinier minority will be knowledgeable about and refuse to be part of both the mainstream and counter-culture.
Generally, the people who do rebuke the rebellion and the mainstream will be either Apathists or Unionists. An Apathist will be completely indifferent to the struggles around them despite being moderately aware of them and potentially their unified nature. Rarer are the Unionists, who recognize the unity of all, or at least several, areas of struggle. Even rarer than the Unionists are the Veganarchists, who recognize the unity of all struggles.
What does it mean to be a Veganarchist? It means to have, first and foremost, lucidity. It means to take charge of your own ability to see through all the illusions and distract-tactics of the establishment to realize the broadness of the progressive struggle. This gives you strength, for without illusions the Establishment Society is weak and at a newly Progressive Humanity's mercy and service, as is right and natural and, unfortunately, as it has never been.
The conflicts you see as a Veganarchist are as follows.
First, the general conflict between Centralization and Decentralization. There is a balance that must be struck here, with egalitarian and democratic ideals being achieved simultaneously by complementing, instead of infringing upon, each other. This is the ages-old balance between "civil rights" and "majority rule"; in another sense, it is between anarchy and ochlocracy; and in other, it is between individualism and fascism.
Second, that equally broad struggle between Establishmentarianism and Emergence. There is a general struggle between comfortable stagnation and societal progression. Establishments rule the world today, and we see their effects in needless death and misery across the world, most obviously in physical terms but also in mental and psychological trauma that affects practically every single human being that is part of present-day society. While this provides excellent material for Salinger novels, it makes for poor societal planning and the mass execution of a great crime against humanity: wasting lives.
Third, those all of the battlefields on which this war is waged. This means all of these: the Political, the Economic, the Religious, the Sexual, the Egalitarian, and the Environmental struggles. The Political struggle is one for democratic participation in society by all able human beings, equally; it is complemented by the Egalitarian struggle. The Economic struggle is one of bringing freedom from labor and equality in abundance to all human beings, and to a similar extent non-human animals. The Religious struggle is one of throwing off the harmful yoke of Theism, which is constantly an endorsement of the lie of a benevolent chauvanistic absolute dictatorship. This is a superstition that holds society back from the inevitable progress propelling it forward not unlike a dog being hung by a collar by a cruel human master; it will kill us if we do not release ourselves from the hand that chokes us. Perhaps at one time, the master was necessary to provide guidance in morality and a comforting, petting hand. But now there is absolutely no reason society cannot function on its own guidance, and every individual discover a far more fulfilling solace in the love of their community and scientific understanding of the universe.
The next struggle is the Sexual struggle. This is that of providing sexual equality and liberty to every adult human being, regardless of sexual inclination or gender. This comes from an understanding that what happens between consenting adults is no business of society at large, and in fact should be supported, if anything. This is related heavily to the Egalitarian struggle. The Egalitarian struggle is the struggle for the equality and freedom of all animal beings, in particular humans. The Sexual struggle is a subdivision thereof, and it is heavily related to the Political struggle. The Environmental struggle is that of maintaining a sustainable human society in terms of both internal societal dynamics and externally in terms of functioning without conflict in the greater biosphere.
The task of the Veganarchist is vast. And, because of the seeming impossible nature of their mission, many who would otherwise understand the struggle are Apathists instead, dissuaded by this. Even among the Veganarchists, extremely few have created or understood a remotely complete model of a new society and formulated or understood a plan on how to achieve that.
Fortunately, you're talking to one right now.
The main issue is that people are social animals. They tend to bind themselves to a movement; this is the "social glue" that allows societies to exist and function. However, it also stops critical thinking, as there is little incentive for people to think for themselves in such a situation, except in circumstances where their established worldview is completely and obviously refuted. Even then, some, often religious or political fundamentalists, will refuse to rethink their viewpoints.
This is how an Establishment system assimilates counter-cultures; it takes the minority, sweeps them into one "scene" (the punk scene, for example) or "party" (the Democratic party, for instance), and invariably ends up controlling that group. This is usually accomplished through corrupting or installing leaders of that group (bands or politicians), and using them to manipulate their sway over the group mentality and collective actions of the group at large to take what could be an effective means of societal progression into an excellent distraction from actual progressive causes or efforts, a lure for the well-meaning and unwary progressives towards a comfortable, unchallenging, and unproductive worldview. Before anyone realizes what's happened, it's simply indistinguishable in essential characteristics from the establishment.
In addition, a peculiar mechanic that seems almost stolen from ecosystem biology takes effect. In that science, it has been found that only 10% of energy in a lower level of a food chain is passed to the immediate higher level. Essentially, there is a law of exponentially (ten-fold, to be specific) diminishing returns when it comes to passing resources (energy, in this case) from prey to predator.
In our situation at hand, this can be applied to explain the lack of "counter-counter-cultures"; reactionaries to the rebellion. It should be assumed that for all the self-identified members of a particular counter-culture, an exponentially tinier minority will be knowledgeable about and refuse to be part of both the mainstream and counter-culture.
Generally, the people who do rebuke the rebellion and the mainstream will be either Apathists or Unionists. An Apathist will be completely indifferent to the struggles around them despite being moderately aware of them and potentially their unified nature. Rarer are the Unionists, who recognize the unity of all, or at least several, areas of struggle. Even rarer than the Unionists are the Veganarchists, who recognize the unity of all struggles.
What does it mean to be a Veganarchist? It means to have, first and foremost, lucidity. It means to take charge of your own ability to see through all the illusions and distract-tactics of the establishment to realize the broadness of the progressive struggle. This gives you strength, for without illusions the Establishment Society is weak and at a newly Progressive Humanity's mercy and service, as is right and natural and, unfortunately, as it has never been.
The conflicts you see as a Veganarchist are as follows.
First, the general conflict between Centralization and Decentralization. There is a balance that must be struck here, with egalitarian and democratic ideals being achieved simultaneously by complementing, instead of infringing upon, each other. This is the ages-old balance between "civil rights" and "majority rule"; in another sense, it is between anarchy and ochlocracy; and in other, it is between individualism and fascism.
Second, that equally broad struggle between Establishmentarianism and Emergence. There is a general struggle between comfortable stagnation and societal progression. Establishments rule the world today, and we see their effects in needless death and misery across the world, most obviously in physical terms but also in mental and psychological trauma that affects practically every single human being that is part of present-day society. While this provides excellent material for Salinger novels, it makes for poor societal planning and the mass execution of a great crime against humanity: wasting lives.
Third, those all of the battlefields on which this war is waged. This means all of these: the Political, the Economic, the Religious, the Sexual, the Egalitarian, and the Environmental struggles. The Political struggle is one for democratic participation in society by all able human beings, equally; it is complemented by the Egalitarian struggle. The Economic struggle is one of bringing freedom from labor and equality in abundance to all human beings, and to a similar extent non-human animals. The Religious struggle is one of throwing off the harmful yoke of Theism, which is constantly an endorsement of the lie of a benevolent chauvanistic absolute dictatorship. This is a superstition that holds society back from the inevitable progress propelling it forward not unlike a dog being hung by a collar by a cruel human master; it will kill us if we do not release ourselves from the hand that chokes us. Perhaps at one time, the master was necessary to provide guidance in morality and a comforting, petting hand. But now there is absolutely no reason society cannot function on its own guidance, and every individual discover a far more fulfilling solace in the love of their community and scientific understanding of the universe.
The next struggle is the Sexual struggle. This is that of providing sexual equality and liberty to every adult human being, regardless of sexual inclination or gender. This comes from an understanding that what happens between consenting adults is no business of society at large, and in fact should be supported, if anything. This is related heavily to the Egalitarian struggle. The Egalitarian struggle is the struggle for the equality and freedom of all animal beings, in particular humans. The Sexual struggle is a subdivision thereof, and it is heavily related to the Political struggle. The Environmental struggle is that of maintaining a sustainable human society in terms of both internal societal dynamics and externally in terms of functioning without conflict in the greater biosphere.
The task of the Veganarchist is vast. And, because of the seeming impossible nature of their mission, many who would otherwise understand the struggle are Apathists instead, dissuaded by this. Even among the Veganarchists, extremely few have created or understood a remotely complete model of a new society and formulated or understood a plan on how to achieve that.
Fortunately, you're talking to one right now.
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