Category: Articles

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One of the most notable features of capitalist domination is the nature and necessity of work. Most adults spend most of their time and energy working; selling themselves for a wage and trying to meet goals they have not chosen. Clearly the experience of work is very different depending on where someone is and what they are doing, but it always takes our time from us and often links a sense of self-worth and respectability to the efficient execution of a job. The work ethic embeds the values of the system into the stories we tell ourselves about what is good and bad; it implies that being hard working (productive; efficient; disciplined) is better than following our desires or being critically engaged with the world. Like other ideologies, it grounds people who are afraid of ambiguity and gives them something to do every day so long as they are employed. What we do “for a living” comes to define us socially as we move through life whether or not it is connected to our interests. Even when the work we do does relate to something we are passionate about, it still serves, in its daily grind, to alienate us from our enthusiasm and limit the way we are able to think about what is possible.

The work machine is more all-encompassing than the experience of working; it creates a situation where we cannot easily satisfy our physical and emotional needs without a job and limits the ways in which we are able to enjoy time off. Work and leisure are two sides of the same machine, the lived manifestation of the production-consumption engine at the heart of capitalism. Leisure activities serve as a release valve for the pressure of work, encouraging people to associate satisfaction outside of work with products created by it. Whereas discipline and productivity are encouraged at work, distraction and consumption become the easy habits of leisure. Desires for products and mediated experiences are created and satisfied while people are encouraged to forget that they might desire to escape work and leisure altogether.

Many have described this problem and tried to posit elegant solutions, from Fourier s concept of passional attraction to Black s exhortation to be playful in “The Abolition of Work”. Recognizing our domination and imagining more joyful alternatives is interesting but figuring out how to motivate ourselves in the present without falling into the habits of work and leisure is not so clear. It is easy to say that we must learn to embrace a free sense of play rather than the moribund cycle of work and leisure; to follow desires that are not addressed by the system we reject. Practically, however, it has been difficult for me to distinguish my “authentic desires” from those that have been fed to me by capitalism or to determine whether my actions conform to the cycle of work and leisure or transcend it.

When I have tried to limit my interaction with the work machine, either by taking part-time, non career oriented jobs or finding ways to extend periods of planned or unplanned joblessness, I have usually made some attempt to reject concepts that I associate with the logic of work and to prioritize and embrace the things that bring me joy. I have tried to pursue my passions, enjoy my body, connect with people and follow my thoughts wherever they go.

The problem is that some of my desires need a regular focused practice to be achieved meaningfully. Without strategies in place for overcoming obstacles, I have tended to take the path of least resistance, indulging my most easily satisfied impulses. This feels good for a while, but frequently leaves me in a place that I do not find particularly interesting; unable to get through the books I want to read or make headway on the pieces I want to write. I end up feeling adrift; unwilling to infuse meaning into my life by accepting the tenets of the system and unable to figure out how to motivate myself without structures. I do not regret seeking to satisfy sensual desires and embrace self indulgence, but without a way to focus on other kinds of projects, the conversations, stories, and sexual pursuits become dull and rather than freeing myself from the machine, I find myself more completely ensnared.

Some people avoid slipping into aimless states of leisure by applying a strong work ethic to their non-work projects. They avoid critiquing the theoretical underpinnings of the work ethic and focus instead on rejecting the system s attempt to treat unpaid endeavors less seriously. This can be successful in a way but for most people the energy needed is unsustainable and it becomes more difficult to slip out of work mode when it is time to relax. Whether we struggle to buckle down and complete projects because we have not figured out how to be productive outside the context of work or prioritize getting things done so much that we do not examine the assumed logic that drives us for fear of breaking our momentum, we are stuck.

All desire has become tainted by the logic of capital; it is impossible to exist outside of the machine. This means that making decisions about which desires we pay attention to and how we choose to pursue them is not about escaping the system of work and capital unscathed but finding a way to live defiantly in it s midst; embracing the power we have to shape the stories we tell ourselves about what is necessary and important. In this context, the story about how all the tools that we might use to motivate ourselves should be discarded because they resemble the system s methods of control is just as useless as the story about how the machine can be dismantled without questioning its logic.

A more useful story is one that allows us to take apart the tools of the system and use some of the pieces to build new tools for our own autonomous purposes. Abandoning the complete rejection of concepts like self discipline, efficiency and productivity is not the same as the uncritical acceptance of these things as they are used by capitalism and being serious about our passions does not exclude absurdity, joviality, enjoyment, or a sense of play.

Devoting time, energy and resources to projects outside of institutions like schools, jobs or businesses can be difficult. Some people may be able to create a solitary practice of getting shit done through sheer will but most of us need some variety of structures and deadlines (even if they are self imposed) in order to meet our goals. My big non-work projects right now usually involve reading, research and writing. Setting up or joining established reading and writing groups with other people who have similar goals is one thing that helps me develop habits of taking these things seriously. Figuring out which alternate structures will best support our enthusiasms and cultivate habits of getting stuff done without amplifying the logic of the work machine is a process of getting to know ourselves honestly and having a clear sense of what we want to do.

I am for the creation of moments worth living and dying in. I want to experience the indulgent pleasure of a vacation and the accomplishment of a productive day at work every day. Rejecting the division between work and leisure necessitates the destruction of both. Work has already taken so much of our time, the projects that interest me are the ones that do not feel like drudgery. Finding and exploiting situations where we can transcend the boredom of the machine allows us to develop practices of taking things seriously and getting stuff done that amplifies our enjoyment of and connection to the world.

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In my career as a psychologist, I have talked with hundreds of people previously diagnosed by other professionals with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, anxiety disorder and other psychiatric illnesses, and I am struck by (1) how many of those diagnosed are essentially anti-authoritarians, and (2) how those professionals who have diagnosed them are not.

Anti-authoritarians question whether an authority is a legitimate one before taking that authority seriously. Evaluating the legitimacy of authorities includes assessing whether or not authorities actually know what they are talking about, are honest, and care about those people who are respecting their authority. And when anti-authoritarians assess an authority to be illegitimate, they challenge and resist that authority — sometimes aggressively and sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes wisely and sometimes not.

Some activists lament how few anti-authoritarians there appear to be in the United States. One reason could be that many natural anti-authoritarians are now psychopathologized and medicated before they achieve political consciousness of society*s most oppressive authorities.

Why Mental Health Professionals Diagnose Anti-Authoritarians with Mental Illness

Gaining acceptance into graduate school or medical school and achieving a PhD or MD and becoming a psychologist or psychiatrist means jumping through many hoops, all of which require much behavioral and attentional compliance to authorities, even to those authorities that one lacks respect for. The selection and socialization of mental health professionals tends to breed out many anti-authoritarians. Having steered the higher-education terrain for a decade of my life, I know that degrees and credentials are primarily badges of compliance. Those with extended schooling have lived for many years in a world where one routinely conforms to the demands of authorities. Thus for many MDs and PhDs, people different from them who reject this attentional and behavioral compliance appear to be from another world — a diagnosable one.

I have found that most psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals are not only extraordinarily compliant with authorities but also unaware of the magnitude of their obedience. And it also has become clear to me that the anti-authoritarianism of their patients creates enormous anxiety for these professionals, and their anxiety fuels diagnoses and treatments.

In graduate school, I discovered that all it took to be labeled as having “issues with authority” was to not kiss up to a director of clinical training whose personality was a combination of Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, and Howard Cosell. When I was told by some faculty that I had “issues with authority,” I had mixed feelings about being so labeled. On the one hand, I found it quite amusing, because among the working-class kids whom I had grown up with, I was considered relatively compliant with authorities. After all, I had done my homework, studied, and received good grades. However, while my new “issues with authority” label made me grin because I was now being seen as a “bad boy,” it also very much concerned me about just what kind of a profession that I had entered. Specifically, if somebody such as myself was being labeled with “issues with authority,” what were they calling the kids I grew up with who paid attention to many things that they cared about but didn*t care enough about school to comply there? Well, the answer soon became clear.

Mental Illness Diagnoses for Anti-Authoritarians

A 2009 Psychiatric Times article titled “ADHD & ODD: Confronting the Challenges of Disruptive Behavior ” reports that “disruptive disorders,” which include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and opposition defiant disorder (ODD), are the most common mental health problem of children and teenagers. ADHD is defined by poor attention and distractibility, poor self-control and impulsivity, and hyperactivity. ODD is defined as a “a pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior without the more serious violations of the basic rights of others that are seen in conduct disorder”; and ODD symptoms include “often actively defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules” and “often argues with adults.”

Psychologist Russell Barkley, one of mainstream mental health*s leading authorities on ADHD, says that those afflicted with ADHD have deficits in what he calls “rule-governed behavior,” as they are less responsive to rules of established authorities and less sensitive to positive or negative consequences. ODD young people, according to mainstream mental health authorities, also have these so-called deficits in rule-governed behavior, and so it is extremely common for young people to have a “duel diagnosis” of AHDH and ODD.

Do we really want to diagnose and medicate everyone with “deficits in rule-governed behavior”?

Albert Einstein, as a youth, would have likely received an ADHD diagnosis, and maybe an ODD one as well. Albert didn*t pay attention to his teachers, failed his college entrance examinations twice, and had difficulty holding jobs. However, Einstein biographer Ronald Clark (Einstein: The Life and Times) asserts that Albert*s problems did not stem from attention deficits but rather from his hatred of authoritarian, Prussian discipline in his schools. Einstein said, “The teachers in the elementary school appeared to me like sergeants and in the Gymnasium the teachers were like lieutenants.” At age 13, Einstein read Kant*s difficult Critique of Pure Reason — because Albert was interested in it. Clark also tells us Einstein refused to prepare himself for his college admissions as a rebellion against his father*s “unbearable” path of a “practical profession.” After he did enter college, one professor told Einstein, “You have one fault; one can*t tell you anything.” The very characteristics of Einstein that upset authorities so much were exactly the ones that allowed him to excel.

By today*s standards, Saul Alinsky, the legendary organizer and author of Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals, would have certainly been diagnosed with one or more disruptive disorders. Recalling his childhood, Alinsky said, “I never thought of walking on the grass until I saw a sign saying *Keep off the grass.* Then I would stomp all over it.” Alinsky also recalls a time when he was ten or eleven and his rabbi was tutoring him in Hebrew:

“One particular day I read three pages in a row without any errors in pronunciation, and suddenly a penny fell onto the Bible . . . Then the next day the rabbi turned up and he told me to start reading. And I wouldn*t; I just sat there in silence, refusing to read. He asked me why I was so quiet, and I said, *This time it*s a nickel or nothing.* He threw back his arm and slammed me across the room.”

Many people with severe anxiety and/or depression are also anti-authoritarians. Often a major pain of their lives that fuels their anxiety and/or depression is fear that their contempt for illegitimate authorities will cause them to be financially and socially marginalized; but they fear that compliance with such illegitimate authorities will cause them existential death.

I have also spent a great deal of time with people who had at one time in their lives had thoughts and behavior that were so bizarre that they were extremely frightening for their families and even themselves; they were diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychoses, but have fully recovered and have been, for many years, leading productive lives. Among this population, I have not met one person whom I would not consider a major anti-authoritarian. Once recovered, they have learned to channel their anti-authoritarianism
into more constructive political ends, including reforming mental health treatment.

Many anti-authoritarians who earlier in their lives were diagnosed with mental illness tell me that once they were labeled with a psychiatric diagnosis, they got caught in a dilemma. Authoritarians, by definition, demand unquestioning obedience, and so any resistance to their diagnosis and treatment created enormous anxiety for authoritarian mental health professionals; and professionals, feeling out of control, labeled them “noncompliant with treatment,” increased the severity of their diagnosis, and jacked up their medications. This was enraging for these anti-authoritarians, sometimes so much so that they reacted in ways that made them appear even more frightening to their families.

There are anti-authoritarians who use psychiatric drugs to help them function, but they often reject psychiatric authorities* explanations for why they have difficulty functioning. So, for example, they may take Adderall (an amphetamine prescribed for ADHD), but they know that their attentional problem is not a result of a biochemical brain imbalance but rather caused by a boring job. And similarly, many anti-authoritarians in highly stressful environments will occasionally take prescribed benzodiazepines such as Xanax even though they believe it would be safer to occasionally use marijuana but can*t because of drug testing on their job.

It has been my experience that many anti-authoritarians labeled with psychiatric diagnoses usually don*t reject all authorities, simply those they*ve assessed to be illegitimate ones, which just happens to be a great deal of society*s authorities.

Maintaining the Societal Status Quo

Americans have been increasingly socialized to equate inattention, anger, anxiety, and immobilizing despair with a medical condition, and to seek medical treatment rather than political remedies. What better way to maintain the status quo than to view inattention, anger, anxiety, and depression as biochemical problems of those who are mentally ill rather than normal reactions to an increasingly authoritarian society.

The reality is that depression is highly associated with societal and financial pains. One is much more likely to be depressed if one is unemployed, underemployed, on public assistance, or in debt . And ADHD labeled kids do pay attention when they are getting paid, or when an activity is novel, interests them, or is chosen by them (documented in my book Commonsense Rebellion).

In an earlier dark age, authoritarian monarchies partnered with authoritarian religious institutions. When the world exited from this dark age and entered the Enlightenment, there was a burst of energy. Much of this revitalization had to do with risking skepticism about authoritarian and corrupt institutions and regaining confidence in one*s own mind. We are now in another dark age, only the institutions have changed. Americans desperately need anti-authoritarians to question, challenge, and resist new illegitimate authorities and regain confidence in their own common sense.

In every generation there will be authoritarians and anti-authoritarians. While it is unusual in American history for anti-authoritarians to take the kind of effective action that inspires others to successfully revolt, every once in a while a Tom Paine, Crazy Horse, or Malcolm X come along. So authoritarians financially marginalize those who buck the system, they criminalize anti-authoritarianism, they psychopathologize anti-authoritarians, and they market drugs for their “cure.”

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A few hundred people carrying a coffin and accompanied by a brass band marched through Oakland on Leap Day at a funeral for capitalism. It was a welcome break from protesting-as-usual as well as a demonstration of how the occupy scene is moving beyond single-issue politics and rejecting the whole rotten system. The procession was short on mourning and long on celebration. It stopped to scatter ashes as Chase Bank and Cigna Healthcare corporation, which is the 5th largest healthcare corporation in the US. At Cigna, a number of medical students read accounts of how the privatized healthcare system hurts patient care. From there, the funeral moved to Lake Merritt Park, where capitalism was eulogized with a diss-ology which we*re publishing, below. Then, the marchers smashed capitalism*s coffin to bits and danced wildly on its grave.

Diss-ology by Paul Dalton

We gather today not to praise capitalism, but to bury it. Rejoice, the great god greed is dead! It lived far too long, laying waste to all it touched. Its chains have been broken, its tentacles severed. The world is free to breathe again — to grow, to flourish — no longer weighed down by this most voracious monster.

Nobody knows its exact birthday. We know it was sired by mercantilism, mid-wived by banking and nurtured by imperialism. From its earliest days, it showed a mighty appetite –gorging itself on the fruits of others* labor. Quickly, it grew fat and strong. It surrounded itself with sycophants, side-kicks, body guards and nannies. Like the royalty it emulated, bards were hired to sing its praises, and historians commissioned to chronicle the glory it saw in itself.

Capitalism*s life was built upon a simple, but powerful, lie. An early acolyte, one Adam Smith, proclaimed that material wealth could be concocted by super-natural forces. Science and history be damned! The economy was not a closed system. Something could indeed be made from nothing. No longer did riches need to be stolen, pillaged, spirited away in the night. Now, through an alchemy of hoarding and investing, material wealth could indeed materialize.

Not everyone was thrilled by emergence of this hungry beast. Many saw Mr. Smith*s lie for what it was. Even as the monster gestated, signs of discontent emerged — textile workers went on strike, farmers claimed the land they worked from its lords, even some men of the churches inveighed against its excesses.

Although it grew large, it was never very healthy. Insatiable, it required ever more and more just to stay alive. Signs of its fragility came early as well- like the Tulip Mania which collapsed the Dutch economy in 1638.

Responding to each bout of illness with a greater resolve, not to mention increasing appetites- it sent its minions out to find new fields to pluck, new forests to level, new fodder for its machines. It found great success when conquering new lands, subduing or dispatching with its inhabitants, taking all it had to give.

Of all of Capitalism*s children, Industrialism deserves special note. With its machines and interchangeable labor — it took what was old and made it seem new. Although it filled the air with acrid smoke and soot, poisoned the water and ravaged the soil — it remained unperturbed — caring only for its meals, not for the ingredients which made it, or the cooks who prepared it.

As it grew larger — always acutely aware of the unsteady base it rested on — it developed great skill in the art of distraction. When it faltered in one place, it shifted to another. Love it, or hate it- one must admit it was as creative as it was destructive. It gave us our bread and our circuses. It let us eat our cake. It assigned value to things where none existed, made virtue from vice, sacrament from sin.

For a brief moment it faced off against some formidable foes. With names like Marx and Bakunin, Goldman and Luxenburg — groups of fighters emerged, shouted the truth, laid bare the lie and said we*d all be better off once we put this behemoth down. Too quickly, capitalism used brute force and ingenuity to turn those visions of liberation into a sad, frightening and sickly junior partner, a sidekick.

But today we can rejoice in Capitalism*s demise- as it finally succumbed to its own weakness and the strength of its enemies, who are legion. The lie rejected, the workers threw monkey wrenches into the gears. The farmers tended to the fields, nurturing rather than ravaging them. We all agreed to plunder Capitalism*s ill-gotten gains, and to share them fairly. We used its machines for our benefit, and dismantled those that couldn*t serve us. We knew our health came not from the endless gorging by the few, but by the nurturing sustenance of the whole.

We slew the beast and now we come to dance on its grave.

And dance we will. We have no reason to mourn, only to celebrate and revel in the joy of possibilities — of a world where monsters don*t enslave us, don*t steal our food, don*t kill us when we object too loudly or get in its way.

We have surely suffered enough, but we know Capitalism*s legacy will haunt us. But ghosts only have the power we give them, and they can be exorcized. Each following generation will benefit more than the last. Our triumph is that we have overcome, our legacy a world free of this scourge.

So, let*s dance, be merry, celebrate, rejoice! Soon we must get to work, begin rebuilding our new world in the shell of the old. Let us remain ever mindful that the germs of capitalism — greed, avarice, violence- reside within us, and must be kept at bay by the medicine of solidarity, mutual aid and love of each other and the world from which we came and which always sustained us, even under Capitalism*s relentless attack.

Let our last words to Capitalism be — you won*t be missed, nor forgotten. Killing you has made us strong and remembering your avarice will help us avoid our own downfall. May you rest forever, in OUR peace — the peace we have made by ensuring your demise. We have felled the beast, let it never rise again!

Rejoice, the great god greed and its monstrous child capitalism are dead. Let the celebration begin!

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Slingshot is an independent radical newspaper published in Berkeley since 1988.

Oppositional politics is both boring and, right now, plentiful. What is more rare is searching for a window into new values, motivations, assumptions and sources of meaning. The new world has to give us something to live for. Our alternative projects can thrive, but only when the process of building something revolutionary is as fun, nourishing and meaningful as the end result and when our projects feed our own lives. Politics without heart is just perpetuating the mainstream systems we re trying to topple.

The new ways of living we re creating transcend the consuming and owning we re used to and bring us closer to a way of living that s ecologically sustainable — tracking the rhythms of the seasons and our own hearts, not 60 megahertz computer circuitry. We are forced into straight lines and easy-to-follow storylines, but when life is really important and intense, it is usually random, taking wild and absurd twists and turns. Some of the wild times we all go through is reflected in some of the pages that follow.

And another thing. Given the increasingly strange weather recently — tangible evidence that human emissions of greenhouse gases are disrupting the earth s climate — shouldn t there be riots in the streets or blockades of oil refineries and coal mines, or some hint that folks are worried and demanding a transition away from fossil fuel dependence? Instead, private industry is leading a massive oil, gas and coal investment boom while efforts to build solar or wind alternatives are declaring bankruptcy. The market won t save us, and in fact its increasing domination is bringing ecological collapse.

The will to fight like our life depended on it comes from giving a shit about the people and eco-systems around us and the simple pleasure of being alive to enjoy a warm afternoon. What s it gonna be?

• • •

This issue we debated a proposal to get a Slingshot twitter and facebook account. We have not been first-adopters of new technology because most of the time the newest thing is just another tool used to make us dependent and numb. We re committed to doing as much as we can to emphasize human beings, human needs and human passion. This means being engaged with ourselves, face-to-face with others around us, and with the earth. We ve noticed that always staring into a screen doesn t make us feel happy. . . .

It is hard to figure out the right balance in the modern world. We don t want to be forced to rely on each new gadget, but the point is to enrich our lives and empower people, not mindlessly strive to be some kind of techno-purist. At what point are tools so integrated into society and so helpful that avoiding their use is just silly?

Some folks in the collective argued that if you hate malls, you don t want to open a store in one — it gives credibility to the mall. After going around and around, we decided against facebook, but for getting a twitter account as an experiment to see if it helps us communicate in new ways. Let us know what you think or how we should use these tools.

• • •

The center poster depicts a tree-being escaping from the splint of state conditioning proclaiming the splendor of an eternal struggle — à la the Arab Spring and beyond. Revolution never stops.

Slingshot is always looking for new writers, artists, editors, photographers, translators, distributors, etc. to make this paper. If you send something written, please be open to editing.

Editorial decisions are made by the Slingshot Collective but not all the articles reflect the opinions of all collectives members. We welcome debate and constructive criticism.

Thanks to the people who made this: Angie, Ben, Claire, Darin, Eggplant, Gina, Holiday, Jesse, Joey, Jonathon, Kathryn, Kazoo, Kermit, Nuclear Winter, Solomon and all the authors and artists.

Slingshot New Volunteer Meeting

Volunteers interested in getting involved with Slingshot can come to the new volunteer meeting on Sunday August 26, 2012 at 4 p.m. at the Long Haul in Berkeley (see below.)

Article Deadline & Next Issue Date

Submit your articles for issue 111 by September 15, 2012 at 3 p.m.

Volume 1, Number 110, Circulation 19,000

Printed April 13, 2012

Slingshot Newspaper

A publication of Long Haul

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Mailing: PO Box 3051, Berkeley, CA 94703

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Circulation Information

Subscriptions to Slingshot are free to prisoners, low income and anyone in the USA with a Slingshot Organizer, or $1 per issue or back issue. International $3 per issue. Outside the Bay Area we ll mail you a free stack of copies if you give them out for free. Each envelope is one lb. (8 copies) — let us know how many envelopes you want. In the Bay Area, pick up copies at Long Haul or Bound Together Books in SF.

Other Slingshot Free stuff

We ll send you a random assortment of back issues of Slingshot for the cost of postage: Send $3 for 2 lbs. Free if you re an infoshop or library. Also, our full-color coffee table book about People s Park is free or by sliding scale donation: send $1 – $25 for a copy. We also have surplus copies of the 2012 Organizer available free to a good home. Email or call us: slingshot@tao.ca / Box 3051 Berkeley, 94703.