[Noisebridge-discuss] Anarchist? Libertarian?

[Johny Radio]

Snail snailtsunami at gmail.com, Tue Jul 30 21:40:27 UTC 2013
 >I checked out the wiki & couldn't get any results on "core wiki pages" 
with words like anarchist

Snail, I believe Danny was questioning the "Libertarian" label, not 
"Anarchist".

While i cannot yet track down the page containing "Libertarian" (which 
surprised me too), I would be pretty shocked to discover that 
Noisebridge is not considered Anarchist, at least unofficially, and very 
much so.

Noisebridge founder Mitch Altman has used the term "anarchy" on-list to 
describe how NB operates: "Anarchy will take care of it". Danny O'Brien 
has been heard at meetings complaining "some people don't understand how 
Anarchy works". A google search for the terms 'noisebridge anarchist' 
turns up 9,000 results. NB has no rules and no rulers.

In his essay, "Is Noisebridge Anarchist?", Danny O'Brien penned:

    "The founders were anarchist... many of Noisebridge's constitutional
    elements -- notably, Consensus, and the largely non-privileged
    position of members...arose from a strong belief that Noisebridge
    should look to recent anarchist-with-a-capital-A-and-a-big-circle
    traditions in institution-building ...That's why we don't have
    leaders... hacker culture is distinctly anti-authoritarian...
    self-empowerment, radical decentralization, and at least some intent
    to disintegrate the bonds of power ...deeply buried tendrils that
    connect free software/free speech/free thinking hackers with the
    WTO-fighting, direct action Zapatistas... Noisebridge's own inbuilt
    cultural reticence to let itself be defined is part of that very
    congeniality to anarchist process.... there is a point of
    commonality, rather than contrast, with the anarchist project."
    http://zine.noisebridge.net/zip/ch3/zx0095%C6%92_web

i hope this does not spark a debate which i imagine NB has already been 
through. Danny argues convincingly that NB leans heavily toward Anarchy. 
If we lack the official label, it's only because we're so darned 
anarchistic.


Johny Radio

Stick It In Your Ear!

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