The Virtues of a Disorganized
Resistance
Stephen DeVoy
Break Your Chains
American opposition movements have always focused on the notion of
organization. It has always been their goal to organize the people. Their hope
has been to wield the collective power of the disaffected, downtrodden, and
exploited as a single unit against the concentrated power of the ruling class.
While their hope has been noble, their methods have been foolish. Organized
resistance has many drawbacks. These drawbacks have seldom been discussed by the
opposition. We believe that the only effective resistance is a completely
disorganized, decentralized, and leaderless opposition.
While, on the face of it, this claim may impress you as absurd. Of course it
seems absurd! It is counterintuitive. Never the less, it is the ONLY method of
resistance that will work within American society. We will explain why organized
resistance has never worked in the United States. In addition, we will
promulgate a new formula for effective resistance.
Why has organized resistance failed in the United States?
There are many reasons for the failure of organized
resistance.
There are many reasons for the failure of organized resistance. The two
primary causes of failure are intimately connected to the culture of the United
States and the political system laid down by our nation's founding fathers.
The Cultural Cause
Americans, culturally, are anarchists. Few Americans realize this. Most
Americans have a false understanding of the term "anarchism." However, upon
examining the beliefs of your average American, you will find that most
Americans: do not trust leaders, do not trust government, wish to be left alone,
value their privacy, think of themselves as independent from society, do not
believe that there is a systemic solution to their problems, believe that others
should be free to do what they choose, provided they do so in private and do not
harm others
despite the political culture, most Americans choose
not to participate in it.
While it is undeniable that political culture in the United States often
speaks to the opposite of the above list, it is also undeniable that most
Americans register as neither Democrat or Republican and most Americans do not
vote. Thus, despite the political culture, most Americans choose not to
participate in it. This is not only due to their belief that the American
political system is hopeless, but also is due to the cultural clash between the
wider culture and the political culture.
Any attempt to organize large numbers of Americans into a single political
movement will fail. Any attempt to create an organization led by a strong group
of leaders will fail. Americans reject submersion into the collective. In a
sense, Americans are anti-collectivists.
The Political Cause
American political culture is not ideological. Politicians attempt to draw
ideological distinctions between the two major parties, but these distinctions
are a matter of splitting hairs. The only significant difference between the two
political parties is the degree of compassion represented by the rhetoric of the
two parties. Compassion is not a political concept. Compassion is an attitude.
Thus, the two parties differ, primarily, in attitude and not ideology.
American political parties are, for all intents and
purposes, organized crime units.
Despite this, there remain two political parties. One is prompted to ask
"why?" If each party is basically the same, with respect to ideology, why do
they not merge into one party? The answer to this question is best found in
viewing each political party according to its true nature. American political
parties are, for all intents and purposes, organized crime units. American
political parties have more in common with the Mafia than they have with their
counterparts in more democratic societies. Like Mafia, each political party
competes for control of territory in order to maximize the benefit to their
business constituency. Like Mafia, the political parties attempt to mold the
system to maintain their positions and access to resources. Like Mafia, the
political parties force the average citizen to pay "protection" under the threat
of violence (taxes). Like Mafia each political party uses the "protection" money
collected for its own advantage.
By defining our political system in terms of the "majority" and the
"opposition," our Constitution enshrines this two mafia system into law. Each
Mafia passes laws to exclude new comers from the game while focusing the rest of
its energy in destroying the other Mafia.
Thus, any resistance movement that chooses to become an organization is in
competition with these Mafiosi. The deck is stacked and the power of the state,
wielded by these organized crime units known as the Democratic and Republican
parties, will waste the time and resources of any newcomer. A newcomer can only
succeed by rejecting the political system, draining its resources, and
undermining the rule of the state.
How is disorganized resistance superior?
In American society dissidents are systematically
slandered, libeled, harassed, and villainized.
In some societies, dissidents become heroes. In American society dissidents
are systematically slandered, libeled, harassed, and villainized. If they become
successful, they are murdered (e.g. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X). In the
American experience, movements that look to leaders are decapitated. Leaders are
a liability, not an asset. Organizations can be (and are) infiltrated.
Organizations can be taxed. Organizations have legal responsibility.
Organizations have membership lists and lists are wonderful tools for the
oppressor. Organizations take on a life of their own. They struggle to exist and
their continued existence takes priority over their mission. Organizations
attract opportunists, power mongers, and attention seekers. Organizations tend
to exploit their rank and file for the benefit of their inner circle.
Disorganizations share none of these defects.
Bureaucracy cannot comprehend disorganization. Disorganization is invisible.
The asymmetry of the relationship between organization and disorganization
favors disorganization. Organization depends upon planning. Planning requires
predictability. Disorganization cannot be predicted. This leaves organization at
a disadvantage.
Organization requires a supply chain. Supply chains can be disrupted.
Disorganization depends only upon the resources of its members. Supply chains
that do not exist cannot be eliminated.
Disorganized movements rely upon swarming.
Disorganized movements rely upon swarming. Swarms are difficult to defend
against. If you cut a swarm in half, you have two swarms. If you eliminate one
of the resulting swarms, you still have a swarm. Disorganization breeds.
Organization grows. The many and dispersed are a more difficult target than the
large and concentrated.
Organizations takes their steps by design. If the design is flawed, the
organization fails. Disorganization relies not upon design but upon evolution.
The motivating notions of disorganization are memes. Memes evolve and memes
compete. This process improves the motivating notions of disorganization. This
process produces multiple courses of action. While some may fail, others are
likely to succeed. Taken as a whole, disorganization is more likely to succeed.
a movement based on disorganization will continue to
survive, evolve, and expand without cost.
The important thing to remember is that it is easier to destroy than to
create that which is designed. Thus, the cost to those who lose the
manifestation of their design outweighs by leaps and bounds the cost it takes to
destroy it. That which evolves is cheap and when an effort is created to destroy
the evolved entity, it merely mutates and evolves again, adjusting to the new
conditions. As a process that fosters evolution, a movement based on
disorganization will continue to survive, evolve, and expand without cost. The
resource constraints placed upon the designed (e.g. government and corporate)
and those absent from the evolved (a decentralized and disorganized opposition
movement), favor the later.
The limits of disorganization
We do not propose a complete absence of organization. Instead we propose a
disorganization of units. Units can be as small as a single individual, or as
complex as cell of individuals working together. Cells may be internally
organized, but they should not be statically organized cell to cell. The
movement should have no commander. It should have no central committee or
governing body. No global plans should be made. The modus operandi of each unit
should be to think globally and act locally. Ideas, strategies, and tactics
should float freely and compete as memes within the medium of the collective
conscious.
Conclusions
We need to construct a disorganized movement. You need not apply to join. In
fact, it might be better if you did not contact anyone except those with whom
you wish to form a unit. Your ideas, strategies, tactics, and lessons learned
should be spread anonymously or by word of mouth. When you act, should you
decide to act in resistance, attribute your actions to "the Resistance." The
growing din of disorganized disruption will be felt as an earthquake. There will
be trembles. There will be pre-shocks. The tension will mount and, in time,
there will be an earthquake. When that earthquake strikes, the organized edifice
of the oppressor will fall like a house of cards.
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