tall_man just posted about a review he read in Book magazine about a book published by crimethInc, a left-wing anarchist group. I was curious, so I went to read more, and now I'm puzzled.

Their "Selected Primary Texts" read like something I might have written, except I'd leave out the anti-capitalist rhetoric. In short essays like "Join the Resistance: Fall in Love" and "Your Politics are Boring as Fuck", ano/pseudo-nymous writers cry out in favour of passion, of spontaneity, of refusing to worship convention for convention's sake.

"Revolution is not making everyone adopt one position, but the creation of symbiotic relationships between different unique individuals." Well, duh. This is why I got bored with Usenet, particularly HPO: too many people who thought everything would be hunky-dory if everyone bought into the same versions of the same ideals. I love my friends for their own unique weirdness and their own unique normalcy. There are people in this world who are as passionately whitebread as others are passionately strange, and I think that's great!

These writers champion every weird bit of hedonism I've enjoyed since childhood. If these people saw me juggling produce in the supermarket, or singing on the bus, or getting it on in my office late at night, or having impromptu kendo matches in parking lots, or ballroom dancing to Muzak on elevators, they would think I was one of them.

Then they'd talk to me, and they'd be completely horrified. How, they would ask, can this girl "seek a life that will constantly broaden her horizons, that will give her the experiences she needs to discern exactly what her greatest desires are" while still championing "exchange as the standard economic, social, and emotional transaction"?

"How could I not?" I'd have to tell them. "I put in so that I can take out: work and research so that I can learn, effort and creativity to make sure that my students get what they're paying for, money so that I can eat the food I like and live in a home I love and travel to exciting places, time and love and patience and understanding so that I can see my lover happy and fulfilled. Don't you?"

And they still wouldn't understand, and I'd be as disappointed as I already am.

Addendum: I just noticed the following suggestion in -1 font size text in their sidebar.

Site best viewed with Internet Explorer 5.0+, with a resolution of at least 800x600. Having Flash 5.0 is helpful as well. We try to use .png images whenever possible—fuck intellectual property! We also recommend,if you have the choice, using a Macintosh—shit just looks and works better on them

*dissolves into fit of giggles at the roiling mass of contradictions*