Economy -- the domination of survival over life
-- is essential for the
maintenance of all other forms of
domination. Without the threat of
scarcity, it would be difficult to coerce
people into obedience to the
daily routine of work and pay. We were born into
an economized world. The
social institution of property has made scarcity
a daily threat. Property,
whether private or communal, seperates the
individual from the world,
creating a situation in which, rather than simply
taking what one wants or
needs, one is supposed to ask permission,
a permission generally only
granted in the form of economic exchange. In this
way, different levels of
poverty are guaranteed to everyone, even the rich,
because under the rule
of social property what one is not permitted to
have far exceeds what one
is permitted to have. The domination of survival
over life is maintained.
Those of us who desire to create our lives as our
own recognize that this
domination, so essential to the maintainence of
society, is an enemy we
must attack and destroy. With this understanding,
theft and squatting can
take on significance as part
of an insurgent life project. Welfare
scamming, eating at charity feeds, dumpster diving
and begging may allow
one to survive without a regular job, but they do not
in any way attack the
economy; they are within the economy. Theft and
squatting are also often
merely survival tactics. Squatters who demand the
"right to a home" or try
to legalize their squats, thieves who work
their "jobs" like any other
worker, only in order to accumulate more worthless
commodities -- these
people have no interest in destroying the economy...they
merely want a fair
share of its goods. But those who squat and steal
as part of an insurgeent
life, do so in defiance of the logic of
economic property. Refusing to
accept the scarcity imposed by this logic or to
bow to the demands of a
world they did not create, such insurgents take
what they desire without
asking anyone's permission whenever
the possibility arises. In this
defiance of society's economic rule, one takes
back the abundance of the
world as one's own -- and this is an act
of insurrection. In order to
maintain social control, the lives of individuals
have to be stolen away.
In their place, we received economic survival,
the tedious existence of
work and pay. We cannot buy our lives back, nor
can we beg them back. Our
lives will only be our own when we steal them back --
and that means taking
what we want without asking permission.
From Willfull Disobedience #2