Desertion
Desertion
"Desertion brings down empires. Consider the Soviet Union, and the Eastern bloc more generally: there was no aspect of daily life that was not under strict surveillance, it was next to impossible to organize resistance, but these regimes were toppled by desertion. People left in droves, and those who stayed simply stopped working. Sloth, too, can be a good thing. It may be that the only course for altering the world lies not in revolutionary parties but in desertion." (From: Politics without the state. Ed. By Diana George and Charles T. Mudede. Seatlle Research Institute, 2002)
The above work is described as follows:
" They focus on how the current world order works affectively, rather than just economically and ideologically or cognitively. Against âthe communication of terror by a private corporate media oligopoly that functions in tandem with a state apparatusâ?, they advocate âa universal communicationâ? of invention, of joy, and of bodies. The goal that they envision is âgaining collective, participatory control over the imaginary processes through which our identities and desires are instituted.â? This means inventing new forms of sociality, imagining alternatives to global capitalism precisely at the moment when we are endlessly being told that no alternative is conceivable." (source: Seattle Research Institute website, http://www.seattleresearchinstitute.org )