the coming insurrection

sometime last fall i picked up the coming insurrection from an anarchist coffee shop in baltimore. all i had to do was read the back cover to know it would be coming home with me. and i had every intention of reading it before i left for france. you know, for context and such. (the book is associated with a group that sabotaged electrical lines on the national railways in 2008.) but for such a small book, it's a surprisingly dense read. you definitely have to be in the mood, and willing to reread sentences and paragraphs multiple times.

now that i'm back in the us of a i've finally finished it. and i'm glad i was able to get some france under my belt to know first hand about things like edf and la défense. or to see graffiti about greece and "l'insurrection qui vient" on a visit to brussels. and while, as with any extremist position, it's smart to take the whole of it with a grain of salt and pick and choose the pieces that resonate with you, it's worth the read for the many morsels of brilliance hidden inside. you can read the entire thing here.

"it's useless to wait - for a breakthrough, for the revolution, the nuclear apocalypse or a social movement. to go on waiting is madness. the catastrophe is not coming, it is here. we are already situated within the collapse of a civilization. it is within this reality that we must choose sides."