This past weekend I attended the North American Anarchist Conference, held at Steelworkers Hall in Toronto. While not fully aligning myself as an Anarchist, I believe in many of their principles and willingly choose to live out many of their alternative economy and self-subsisting community principles on a day to day basis.
There was much talk about being arrested, being spurred on by anger and "fuck the state" mentality that came from Punk music and culture, and overall there was a spirit of anger and frustration and injustice that fuelled most people in the room that day, it seemed.
All the while, my best friend Mark and I sat in the crowd making stickers that said things like "talk about your feelings" (which i put on the back of a firetruck later) and "bring snacks", "take your tupperware" and "Romance yourself", which we then put up around the neighbourhood.
I realized in that moment that I was coming from a distinctly different perspective than many of my peers in the room that day. I was not living my anarchist principles in an attempt to smash the state or due to my hatred of law enforcement. This is, I know, in part because I have lived in a privileged position of never having negative confrontational situations with cops, but even so, I COULD decide to align myself with the anger of others who have, and find it does not lead to healthy perspectives overall.
Instead, I willingly choose to live my life out of a love and joy of community, REAL food, mental and emotional well being and honest and real enjoyment of the natural world. These things lead me to a life that is similar to those that align as anarchists, but without the anger.
For those who are fuelled by anger and outrage, this might seem like naivety, but to them I would say that anyone who has ever done beautiful, unprecedented, society-altering things in the world have always been thought to be naive, no? Despite the pain and the suffering and the injustice and the cops who live their lives also fuelled by anger, there must be those who love with reckless naive abandon and who force beauty into a world that is seeking to destroy it on all fronts.
Why not leave the hatred, the fear, the loathing that eats one from the inside out until you are just a shell of a person, for the cops and the border guards?
I know I am not the only one who feels this, but I wish more of us could live out of love, which sometimes facilitates anger, but more often dissolves it.
To hold one another's hands, we have to unclench our fists first.
In solidarity,
In solidarity,
Natalie
