Archive – The Local Kids

Issue 7

Posted on 2021/09/11 by The Local Kids

Population management is now supposedly the responsibility of everyone. Obedience to the state has been dressed up as solidarity. More surveillance is called freedom. All in the name of a return to normal life that appears as a mirage in the desert. Should we rehash for the umpteenth time a comparison to 1984? Its author might have thought that it takes a continuous and considerate effort to see what’s right in front of your nose; can we truly say that? Is it difficult to see what’s going on? Or is it that we speak different languages and will find no common understanding of life?

We could jump into the fray, unveil their lies, battle for the real meaning of words, uphold a correct perception of reality. But then we would be entering the realm of politics where we can only fight with words without radically changing the narrative. A stubbornness that can have its value to demonstrate the absurdism of society. But only by refusing to do politics can we challenge the power of this system over our lives. That also means that we cannot pretend to have solutions at hand for the crises we’re passing through. The existence of capitalism is based in the progressive destruction of the living conditions of all living beings.

The blackmail has always been the same; we should do as they say or our own survival is at stake. We’re held hostages in the name of the economy, the nation, and now public health. Our health is instrumentalised in their disgusting game of politics – the legitimisation for an expansive surveillance; tracing whom we met, where we have been, where we will go to. Expanding control to a level where it becomes normal that going to the movies necessitates carrying the right certificates and surrendering our data. Triggering the most basic of fears – the fear of death, of loss – they mobilize obedience to fulfil their dirty dreams of authority: lockdowns, curfews, border closures.

Seeing this summer which is marked by extreme weather, wildfires and floods – products of the exploitation of the planet – this will be more and more the reality of this society. There are no pragmatic proposals to be made. The wager stays the same, to refuse their game (false choices between quick and superficial fixes to real crises), to be lucid and sabotage the vicious cycle of domination.

Summer 2021

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Issue 6

Posted on 2020/10/20 by The Local Kids

The last months we saw different shades of curfew being imposed throughout the world. Apparently in this highly developed society (in the sense of the multiplication of institutions and technologies that penetrate every aspect of life) a pandemic can only be dealt with through the most blunt weapon of repression. To come together, to see eye-to-eye, is branded irresponsible and forcibly disbanded, with a glaring exception for profit-making, exploitative relations. Physical intimacy and tenderness suddenly become something threatening with deadly consequences. Meetings and physical contact are declared to be something abnormal and forbidden. Don’t kiss, don’t hug, don’t touch. Yes but touch the screens. The physical is banned from our real world and replaced by the virtual. The situation serves as an ideal opportunity to push ahead the total digitalization of all aspects of life. This is the definition of this society of a human life; work and consume, preferably without leaving the confinements of the home and permanently accompanied by a fear of potential infection which puts one in a constant state of anxiety.

Levels of fear went through the roof not only because of the unknown risks of a potentially deadly virus, but also because of the violence unleashed against perceived potential transmitters. Everyone who doesn’t display the good behaviour of the responsible citizen, is deemed suspect. The understanding of solidarity and responsibility was deformed and equated with obedience and trust in the state. Though not everyone went along with this narrative, the streets and squares did empty. Interaction moved to the internet, a space inherently linked to surveillance (data gathering) and shaped by unknown or misunderstood parameters (algorithms). Some might accept this (self-)imposed separation and isolation, others are starting to doubt if they want to live a life devoid of encounters that are not ruled by capitalist logic. The flow of goods will continue, the economy will be kept alive, the transfer of all aspects of life to the digital will be guaranteed. Thus creating an unstable construct of infrastructure where mobile phone antennas, fibre optic cables and the supply by trucks, trains etc. are more and more important. Could this mean possibilities to sabotage their apparent security at their sensitive points? By experimenting with these possibilities, can we perhaps feel, sense and touch life a little more?

Autumn 2020

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Issue 5

Posted on 2019/11/13 by The Local Kids

Over the last decade we have been made witness to the naked brutality of power. In the four corners of the earth domination has displayed its capacity to wreck devastation without hesitation. Those who were just holding on to their last lines of dignity have been dragged down in the mud. Those who rose up to regain their dignity and fight for freedom, have been smothered and massacred. Not content with the daily administration of oppression, it seemed as if the rulers were aiming for a decisive victory by escalating their repressive violence.

They were mistaken. Instead of resignation, we are witnessing the resilience of those who want to live against all odds. The ruins that power left behind, as monuments to its scorched earth tactics and as a warning for the future, are in our hands the first stones of a new life. The cynical calculations of politicians, who are willing to sacrifice whole generations to uphold their political reign or their economical dogmas, have been erased by the unforeseen. An invisible line has been crossed; beyond this line humiliation is no longer tolerated. Where this line is drawn, and why there, is to remain unknown till it has been crossed. That there is a line is a certainty that the dominant forces wished to ignore.

Many take a passive attitude due to the unpredictable character of that moment, when the social order is not only confronted by a few rebels but by a full-on rebellion. But for anarchists the knowledge of this resilience of people should warm our hearts and nourish our determination that any instance of rebellion has the potential of overflowing.

In order to survive we all adapt to a certain extent to the daily lot of humiliations that are part of authoritarian societies. But surviving isn’t enough and another line crossed can be one too many. These lines cannot be imposed by ideology or some kind of universal truth. And in a sense they are random, but that doesn’t make them meaningless. On the contrary, they are the starting point of an existence that matters; one that rebels against its subjugation.

Autumn 2019

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Issue 4

Posted on 2019/08/21 by The Local Kids

At what point can one speak in the plural? When one is plus one, or should it at least be a few, or many more? Some will consider it a failure to speak as a lone voice; for others it’s the most valued stage to speak from. Determined to not be alone, putting forward questions, should one be satisfied by any response? The outcome of the encounter can be so tasteless and banal that the effort seems senseless. Determined to speak up, are there still questions left unanswered? At times the continuous affirmation of the I becomes nauseating; it’s unclear if anyone is still supposed to be listening. The persistence of the individual to carry on can be admirable, but isn’t it suspicious – this avoidance of the complications that are others? And what is left of the expansive potentials of the we when it’s used as a camouflage strategy for the I to dissolve into the background?

Probably only few anarchist projects happen in splendid isolation, I don’t know of a single one. Generally, if they don’t already start from a constellation, they can count on a helping hand here and there, at the least a curious glance with questions and suggestions. That doesn’t constitute an I, neither a we. Mostly there is an attraction towards one of both. Based on preferences or circumstances? Common sense which sees a chronological order between outlining a position and getting involved can be discarded, unless one wants to hang on to a reductionist two-step educational programme for life. Things are messy, artificial separations are not helpful (anymore).

Often when anarchists ponder on who to conspire with, affinity has been the answer. The trickiness there is that it is answering a question with a question. And the latter cannot resemble a questionnaire, somewhere affects come into the equation.

Summer 2019

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Issue 3

Posted on 2019/02/25 by The Local Kids

Life is separated into different phases; as you pass through the years, you are supposed to move on, to progress. One part of life is dedicated to education and exploration, inspired by the naivety and idealism of the inexperienced. Another is about application and comfort, framed by the maturity and pragmatism of the learned. Eventually you arrive at accomplishment and can reap the rewards of a fulfilled life. Only maybe temporarily upset by some (un)desired reskilling and the uncertainty that the future holds. At least that’s how it should be. Or should it?

The progress you make seems often nothing more than a narrative structure imposed on loosely related events. That destabilizing thought sometimes flickers through the activities of everyday life. But forget that thought, because you have already invested your time and you want the results. Stubbornly we hold on to the story of achievement and merit. In the meantime we become attached to the perpetuation of this social reality because we don’t want to lose everything.

What if we let go of the linear construct of time to mold our perspective on life? Not to not apply ourselves anymore or to live from impulse to impulse. But to avoid the rigidity of (supposed) wisdom, the certainty of the past and the arrogance of the entitled. Life goes in waves, or the circles of a spiral, or some other image that fits a fragmented whole. Of course this goes against the logic of society, and thus the guiding lines of many people around us. We are not traveling along the same paths; our lives are discordant. This is a radical difference that at times makes it hard even to communicate, to find common ground. Nonetheless we shouldn’t banish the unforeseen and have the confidence to hold on to ourselves while we turn this world inside out.

Winter 2019

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Issue 2

Posted on 2018/11/13 by The Local Kids

It occurs, sometimes, this feeling of being in the right spot. Then someone says or does something that upsets the perceived balance of things, and the moment evaporates. For only a moment it was. And it begs the question; can belonging in a place be part of an anarchist life? Resisting to go with the flow of this society, contradicting hierarchical relationships, refusing to take part in cliches. Not exactly characteristics that go well with the seemingly effortless fitting in that this age of selfies advertises. Feeling estranged, sensing a distance with your surroundings is recurrent. And at times so chronic that leaving becomes a first, necessary step to being present again somewhere (else). But mostly one holds on to a place because besides all that repulses there is still more that attracts. Then the art is to not smother its contradictions in indifference or to smooth them out in illusions of unity, but to turn them in open confrontation based on the proposal for a different, liberated life. And maybe it is in these subversive relationships, that one can find a place.

Autumn 2018

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Issue 1

Posted on 2018/07/03 by The Local Kids

The year is 2018. Our living environment is increasingly interconnected and transparent. This is obvious for the digital reality but is also true for the physical – if the distinction between the two hasn’t already become too artificial. These tendencies have reinforced the validation of the self through affiliation to a group and subjugation to its norms. Before our eyes identities are being constructed, clashes erupt in the scramble for a space to carve out and claim. A bonus for its members is that the enforcing of the norms now is horizontally distributed. As society becomes more totalitarian, the main feeling becomes anxiety. Will for one more day our imperfections pass unnoticed, or maybe just tolerated? And while we invest everything in this socially acceptable image of ourselves we have created, we become the role we were only playing. Is this life?

No, it is a defeat, and we should refuse it. To acknowledge the richness of our desires, to explore them, to feel the power in developing them. Nothing will make us repent of the choice for full life, the substance of which is autonomy, individual and collective. So we move towards the subversion of social relations.

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Contact

Posted on 2018/07/03 by The Local Kids

the local kids at autistici org

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