Baltipink reviewed The Accumulation of Freedom by Deric Shannon
Review of 'The Accumulation of Freedom' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
This is going to be a bit of a rant. I think I'm mostly mad at myself for finishing it.
As I've said many many times, I despise academic writing. I especially despise it from anarchists. We are supposed to be about tearing down walls, not erecting them. Academia writes like that to create barriers. Who is this book for anyway? It's not for anarchists who have heard most, if not all, of this before. It's not an intro. It's not for the vast majority of ppl who would never read a book like this. It often felt like some dudes who were in their feelings because they weren't part of the Marx/Smith economist jack off and wanted to bring Proudhon into the circle jerk. What are there like two women essayists? And of course they are the ones who wrote about things ppl are actually doing or have done. …
This is going to be a bit of a rant. I think I'm mostly mad at myself for finishing it.
As I've said many many times, I despise academic writing. I especially despise it from anarchists. We are supposed to be about tearing down walls, not erecting them. Academia writes like that to create barriers. Who is this book for anyway? It's not for anarchists who have heard most, if not all, of this before. It's not an intro. It's not for the vast majority of ppl who would never read a book like this. It often felt like some dudes who were in their feelings because they weren't part of the Marx/Smith economist jack off and wanted to bring Proudhon into the circle jerk. What are there like two women essayists? And of course they are the ones who wrote about things ppl are actually doing or have done. It's not like there are no interesting essays. But it's mostly a slog with little point. Side note: I could have accepted the introduction just dismissing mutualism as fringe and not to be discussed if Deric Shannon didn't go on to spend an enter chapter going after Kevin Carson. Kevin really got up your butt, huh Deric?
The problem with economics and Marx and all the other dudes (and they are mostly dudes) who spend all their time on this is that they seem accept the capitalist/industrialist contention that production is the foundation when actually CARE is. If y'all could spend 1/10 of the time on how we care for each other rather than what we produce, we might really get somewhere.
