About Peter S and his Anarchism
From: Tarjei Straume
Date: Sat Dec 13, 2003 10:09 am
Subject: about Peter S and his anarchism
I've been exploring some websites connected
to Peter Staudenmaier:
http://www.social-ecology.org/
From the faculty info:
Peter Staudenmaier has been
active in anarchist and ecological movements in Germany and the
United States since the 1980s. Mr. Staudenmaier works with several
worker- and resident-managed cooperatives in Madison, Wisconsin,
including Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative. He writes and lectures
on history, economics, and political theory, and is coauthor,
with Janet Biehl, of Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience.
This guy seems to have a foot inside the international
Anarchist Movement. Personally, I do not believe that anarchism
can be political. It is the manifesto of individualistic autonomy.
Anarchism negates any endeavor to manipulate or control the thoughts,
opinions, or behavior of one's fellow human beings. It is, in
other words, anti-political through and through. This is precisely
why Rudolf Steiner was so attracted to individualistic anarchism
that he actually identified himself with it when he wrote the
PoF.
http://www.attackthesystem.com/ppa.html
Peter Staudenmeier, in a workshop
on cooperatives at Ann Arbor, referred to such alternative forms
of organization as "social counter-power." Social counterpower
takes the concrete forms of "prefigurative politics"
and "counterinstitutions."
The recent Ann Arbor event Oct 31-Nov 2 in
Ann Arbor was a 2003 NASCO INSTITUE event, sponsored by The North
American Students of Cooperation ( http://www.umich.edu/~nasco/index.html
)
PS travels extensively giving interviews,
making presentations, recruiting converts to the cause of:
Worker Co-operatives
Housing Co-operatives
Self-employment
LETS schemes
Alternative Currencies
Mutual Banking
Credit Unions
Tenants committees
Food Co-operatives
Allotments
Voluntary organizations
Peaceful protest and non-violent direct action
There is NO demonstration anywhere in the
world against a corporation or business that NASCO or an affiliate
group does not have a hand in organizing. They call it anarchist
activity that build the elements of a new society.
This reminds me of something significant pointed
out by Cato Schiøtz - a Norwegian Supreme Court Attorney
and a member of the AS who has also commented Staudenmaier: http://www.uncletaz.com/cato/engcato.html
- that when it comes to progressive alternative movements and
initiatives, from non-capitalist banking to communes and schools
and so on - the anthroposophists appear like fast rabbits. Wherever
the political Left goes, and everywhere it arrives, this anthroposophical
rabbit is already sitting there, having arrived long before anybody
else.
This must be a frustrating and infuriating
experience for left-wing *atheists* who want to be the ones leading
the way. Take another glance at the above list of causes that
Peter S. is involved in. The Anthroposophical Movement, with
its Camphill Movement, non-profit banking, peaceful and anti-militaristic
approach and so on - this Movement represents a danger, a threat,
to these Marx-inspired latter-day political anarchists. It wouldn't
surprise me if Staudenmaier should have borrowed extensively
from Steiner's social and political ideas, for instance with
regard to alternative currencies. Let's wait and see. I bet he
has read "World Economy" (Nationalökonomischer
Kurs, GA 340).
The dangerous New World Order is that of the
Bush administration, started by the incumbent president's father.
Staudenmaier's New World Order, which may have a hidden Marxist
agenda, may also be dangerous, but it's not an immediate threat
like the former. And it may be part of his agenda that in order
to realize his political ambitions, he needs to get Anthroposophy
out of the way, because it's undermining his influence among
the greenies on the political left by being too much of a competition.
Staudenmaier and his agenda is a cancer on
the body of the Anarchist Movement. Let's not give that body
a death sentence by crucifying it. King Harald of Norway had
his bladder removed on Monday because it was cancerous, and he
is recovering very rapidly indeed, and the doctors say he'll
be OK. The Anarchist Movement, which carries the germ of liberty
for the future, needs to rid itself of such a venomous influence.
We should treat this Movement like royalty. And I would like
to see this movement get a spiritualized kick, a redemption from
the ditch of materialism in the direction of true individual
liberty.
The uncanny thing about Marxism is that it
promises liberty and delivers slavery. And there may indeed be
an attempt by Marxists to capture the Anarchist Movement and
impose upon it a political agenda based upon dialectical materialism.
This may evolve into the social order that Ahriman might like
to perfect when he arrives in the flesh.
Cheers,
Tarjei
http://uncletaz.com/
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