"mathematical construct has been shaped over centuries by science, yes, but also power, religion, capitalism and colonialism. The clock is extremely useful as a social tool that helps us coordinate ourselves around the things we care about, but it is also deeply politically charged. And like anything political, it benefits some, marginalizes others and blinds us from a true understanding of what is really going on." https://www.noemamag.com/the-tyranny-of-time/

Revolutionary system change happens in following to ashby’s law. It’s easy to see the variety of the current system being matched or exceeded in times when it is overwhelmed. Thus, the revolution must be well organized, or the current systems variety must be suppressed. We can see this very easily in the two major camps of Anarchism- syndicalists and insurrectionists. Syndicalists attempt to build infrastructure for revolution, and insurrectionists attempt to destroy the states infrastructure. The CNT/FAI is a good example of these strategies working together to for success.

@yaxu yeah, the LDS church runs it but other than that logo appearing, it doesn't mention religion otherwise. Enjoy!

@yaxu have you tried familysearch.org? I got a lot of information off of there and it's free. The ones that charge can eat my ass, it feels so wrong to paywall what should just be freely available info.

"Recent viral images of Southwest agents getting yelled at and crying have resurfaced a valuable lesson about the nature of our economic system that’s worth examining this holiday season: the deliberate, built-in ways corporate “customer service” is set up to not only shield those on the top of the ladder—executives, VPs, large shareholders—but pit low-wage workers against each other in an inherently antagonistic relationship marked by powerlessness and frustration"

https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/southwest-airlines-christmas-meltdown

@MariNemo I never studied Greek either. But that definition speaks to me deeply as someone who was brought up fundamentalist Christian, where apocalypse meant judgement and death, basically a hellish boogeyman of a concept.
Since 2020 I've been feeling this sense of unveiling, to me it parallels radicalization. All of the institutions we have built, core western thought processes like Cartesian philosophy and black-and-white thinking, are tumbling down and on the other side of the ideological destruction, as the apocalypse curtains are lifted, is something much better.
Personally, I feel that societal movement is like a murmuration of birds or fungal mycelium networks- that changes on the individual level are communicated to others and move through individuals to make a larger whole. I see larger systems and their smaller parts as interdependent- if you're familiar with the social ecological model, that sort of describes it.

@MariNemo I'm not sure what that means to you, but I'd say however it reveals itself to you, lean into it

@ItsTrainingCatsAndDogs I have special bottom of the tree ornaments that are kitty safe- all the fabric, wood or cardboard ones go down there- it's the sacrifice zone.

The word "apocalypse" in Greek means revelation or unveiling. Where cosmic secrets are disclosed, and that which could not be known becomes known.

Here's to the continuation of that unveiling. 🥂

I hope 2023 is the year of building alternative power. So far, there's been uprisings, protests, direct action here and there, some tepid mutual aid that band-aids problems (though these things are all important and good). And mostly, just a lot of internet posting.

My car died in the middle of a busy street on the way to the repair shop. A cop pulled behind me with their lights on so I wouldn't get rear ended by an inattentive driver til the tow got there. We need to be incorporating services like this that are helpful and necessary but don't always turn out positive for all people/can be downright dangerous for them under the current system, into our conception of mutual aid.

In general, people aren't going to want to attempt abolition when there aren't viable alternatives to actually providing needed services. Without alternative power, abolition would create a vacuum. We say "we take care of us", right? But do we really? Are we currently capable of it? I know there are a lot of roadblocks to this. I feel really isolated and friendless where I live right now and I feel like that has a lot to do with why we are struggling with creating altenative networks. There are some social infrastructure needs that need to be satisfied first! Where I live, pretty much the only place to freely socialize is at bars, and that is just a problem on many levels.

@stringbat I feel like a learnable lesson from this is the importance of building alternative power as a means of strengthening any call for abolition. Institutional systems provide certain necessary services, but because of the colonialist rationales underpinning their very foundation, they end up causing more harm than help most of the time. But we need organized support systems. Moving towards abolition would be so much easier if we put effort into building support systems outside of colonial institutions, like the mental health needs that the students are calling for. Otherwise abolition would create a vacuum. We can't wait for the existing, harmful institutions to pivot and change what they provide and how they do it. We have to do it completely outside of that framework.

Also from @kursdistanrev:
--------------------
Identity of the fallen of Paris released

According to the current status, three people have died in the attack in Paris. According to the daily newspaper Yeni Özgür Politika, the persons involved are Evîn Goyî, Mîr Perwer and Abdurrahman Kızıl.

🌹 Evîn Goyî (Emine Kara) has been active for the Kurdish freedom movement for many years and was most recently a representative of the Kurdish women's movement in Europe, she was a driving force in the Kurdish women's liberation struggle, one of those who captured the spirit of Jin Jiyan Azadî with her fight for freedom carried and fulfilled.

✌️ Abdurrahman Kızıl was a Kurd who was close to his homeland and who also worked in the diaspora for the interests of the Kurdish people.

🪕 Mîr Perwer was a Kurdish musician who was known and appreciated in the diaspora for his songs and belonged to the cultural movement TEV-ÇAND.

We offer our deepest condolences to the friends and family of those who were martyred.

The fallen are immortal.🌹🔥
--------------------

@dennisthepeasant someone posted this article the other day that pretty much agrees with you, in a historical evidence kind of way: https://crimethinc.com/2019/04/08/against-the-logic-of-the-guillotine-why-the-paris-commune-burned-the-guillotine-and-we-should-too

@ImanChristopher true true. I think I just infodumped because I wanted to just put that info out there into the fediverse at large, not just saying it to you :)

The Woodland Women's Group is an elder-led group of women on my reservation who offer cultural education, crafting circles, mutual aid and more. They began as a support group for trauma survivors and other projects blossomed from the group's mutual care and concern. They are finally on the verge of securing a much-needed physical space and need to raise $10K more to do it. Can anyone help? https://www.gofundme.com/f/maeqtekuahkihkiw-metaemohsak-woodland-women

Like it or not, it should no longer be assumed that "volunteers" are running your instances.

The Mask Group, which now runs three large instances "has raised over US$50 million from private and institutional backers"—their words not mine.

@PippinMoonchild I'm a sconnie and I want to go here... where is this?

@ImanChristopher @ImanChristopher thanks for sharing! if you look into the history of western school systems, you'll realize they exist not for the sake of learning, but to train children for certain roles and produce workers that fulfill specific economic goals. Most of the study I personally did during my masters program (it felt so ironic to critique the exact thing I was doing!) was on the higher ed system, not so much focused on K12, but it's very similar. Because the very foundation of the systems lies in this, it will take abolition rather than reform to fix the issues: coercion, capitalist curriculum standards and limits in curricular freedom, violent structural hierarchies, abuse of disabled learners, etc etc. Most people have a hard time envisioning abolition because there would be a perceived gap in services, a power vacuum as well. Same thing happened with police abolition naysayers (what will we do with murderers etc?). These examples point to the importance of building dual power- places for people to turn to as alternatives to the needs these insitutions are puroprted to fill. Once people actually get a taste of having their needs met better outside of the existing institution, then their obsolescence becomes tangible and abolition feels doable. You satiated your curiosities and desire to learn outside of the institution- there were some alternatives (like, so much teaching is happening on youtube!!) though, the issues you faced seemed to be that it was always self-teaching- that outside of schools, our culture seems to be lacking in groups where people learn together for fun, bouncing ideas off each other and supporting others where they struggle. The whole social aspect is missing. Many other cultures have different forms of mentorship- meeting with elders to practice certain skills, etc. That's where I see a lot of potential to really disrupt the colonial educational institution, that hasn't really been explored in leftist circles.

I'm really excited for someday, somehow, the concept of abolition of school systems to take off the way that the idea of abolition of prisons and policing has. I think we're sort of getting there with recognizing the parallels of prison/police violence with that of the social work/family policing systems. I hope that schools are the next frontier.

Too many people conflate school systems with learning, as if we were to abolish forced institutionalized capitalist schooling systems that there would no longer be any impetus to learn or teach, that forced schooling is an antidote to anti-intellectualism. I was kind of in that boat until I thought my way out of it, ngl.

This wouldn't mean there would be no organized teaching or learning, that everyone would have to homeschool/unschool. Having been friends with homeschoolers in my childhood, I know that other forms of harm can come out of that.

What would non-coercive, community-led learning and teaching/mentoring look like to you? If you want to share examples of schooling trauma as things that need to go buh-bye, feel free(with a cw).
#abolition