The Coming Insurrection

I enjoyed this weeks reading. Mostly because I could relate to many things The Coming Insurrection expressed. The first part of the book was a critique of our current system. I liked the fact that the book touched on many issues that we currently face. For example there was a lot of critique about our system of work. The book says, “we admit the necessity of getting money, regardless of the means, because it is impossible right now to do without it, but we don’t admit the necessity of working”. I feel that a lot of people have become apathetic to working in capitalism. Inequality is all around and to be working for some fast-food restaurant or as a bellboy I can imagine one becomes frustrated and in need of change.

Also the book says that we are a product of our economy. Or more specifically, “for generations we’ve been disciplined, pacified, we’ve been made into naturally productive subjects, just content to consume”. This is a clear critique of what capitalism has done to us. A lot of the population has become fixated on material possession and feels content to consume in order to create one’s identity.

I also could relate to a specific quote from the text. The book says “The proliferation of displacement and communications everywhere tears us constantly from the here and now, with the temptation of being somewhere else all the time”. We are always on our phone and using social media. Instead of being in the moment, the now, we are always some place else. The Internet and communication has allowed for this annihilation of time and space and we are never truly living in the moment but we are some place else. I find this to be a huge negative side of the progress of communication and see it as a reason for our current passivity to be active and enact change to our current system. Similar to this the book touches on another theme about the self. The book expresses that we have become alienated from our society. Specifically, “to survive the surrounding uniformity, the only option to is to reconstitute your own inner world constantly”.

I like the notion of insurrection in this book. I liked the idea to take up arms and maintain an armed presence rather than becoming a part of an armed struggle. I like this idea because it is more about instigating fear into the state. I think that this can lead the way to a revolution. Once people see that those who hold the status quo fear the masses we will be more confident to take up matters into our own hands. The book says, “ten thousand people can shake the worlds greatest economic power”. This fully means that people have the power if they come together and that gives us courage. We have seen this happen in history. However, the book does state that “there is no such thing as a peaceful insurrection”, and many times in the text violence seems to be implied as a way to meet the ends. It was also interesting to see their ideal vision of the future. Especially that their ideal society would be in communes. This is an interesting idea and I’m not completely sure how it would work out.