Commentary

An Inhuman Possibility: Nietzsche once wrote that every first nature was once a second nature. In a world where creatures are technologically manufactured, we must wonder what second nature, what animal instinct or inhuman drive, has become our primary nature. [more]

The Mere Life of Consumption: And what form of humanity best exemplifies our collective transformation into standing reserve? It is the consumer immersed in the virtual world of the television – that human-animal whose sole meaning is the consumption of beings and the corresponding production of a consumer identity awaiting exploitation by marketing researchers tasked with expanding consumption. [more]

Mindful Militancy: A wise philosopher once wrote that before we can act ethically we must first learn to think. He claimed the dichotomy between theory and action is a false one and that in our age thought is the action needed most. His is a conclusion most activists resist. [more]

Cultivating Revolutionary Events: The activist with dreams of the revolutionary should turn to Nietzsche, Foucault and Deleuze for a philosophy that strengthens their ability to act in a way that will have the most damage on the State and the conceptual systems that form a symbiotic relationship with the State. [more]

Using Information for Life: A reading of Nietzsche's "On the uses and disadvantages of history for life" aids the movement in formulating a critique of the consumption of information. This essay challenges several core assumptions concerning the utility of relying on historical knowledge to formulate the movement's objectives. [more]

Kant, Hegel and Deleuze on War: In my own view, war is the result of philosophies that attempt to impose a rational, uniform order on the world. I agree with Hegel’s assessment that the state will always create an enemy. However, I think that Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari draw attention to a way to exist outside of the state. I think that this "nomadic thought" exists in opposition to colonization and that what is remarkable about nomadic thought is that it is able to devise new tactics of resisting the State. [more]

Arriving: Writing an Ethnography of Resistance: The role of the ethnographer should be to document how difference can be bridged through solidarity. An ethnography of resistance would convey how solidarity is cultivated in various situations. Having described their arrival and evaluated their success in integrating into the community the ethnographer will have conveyed what is most important: how to join a struggle in progress. [more]

Towards a Practice of Theory as Epitomized by the ISM: In experiencing the height of institutionalized military oppression, the ISMer is given access to the raw experiences necessary to pierce practical and theoretical blockages. The ISM is inherently revolutionary because the experiences that are gained strengthen what Nietzsche called “the plastic power” of an individual. [more]

Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?: If the dense and moralist cigar-smoking reactionary bourgeois can transform him- or herself into a free-floating agnostic bohemian, moving opinions, capital, and networks from one end of the planet to the other without attachment, why would he or she not be able to absorb the most sophisticated tools of deconstruction, social construction, discourse analysis, postmodernism, postology? [more]

'Outside Thought' in Willy Wonka's Chocalate Factory: 'Because the less people take thought seriously, the more they think in conformity with the what the State wants' we must think in a model based in the antithesis of the state's controlled flows – one of pure nomadic, deterritorialization. [more]

Review: War in 'A Thousand Plateaus': Nietzsche's thesis that the State was created at the moment a noble race appeared as if by fate and occupied a nomadic people is complicated by D/G. Although the State expresses war, this is not the only thing created by the “war machine” nor is it the first. [more]

Review: Long Overdue: Shutting Down the SOA: The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation formerly known as the School of the Americas is a federally funded training camp supposedly teaching “proper” international relations. In truth, students of the school learn techniques for various forms of torture and gorilla warfare.Graduates from the school have been connected with the rise of several of the despots that have plagued various South and Latin American countries. Sometimes the graduates even become the despotic rulers. [more]

Origin of the Vampire Myth: The vampire originated as a political metaphor used to critique tyranny. In 1725 and 1732, two villages in the occupied territories of Serbia suffered an outbreak of a vampire that spurned the threat of a mass nonviolent uprising and a collective demand for respect of their cultural practices. [more]

Eye Witness Account: Thoughts on Liberation in the London Fog: It had not really occurred to me that many Iraqis ever believed they were in Operation Liberate Iraq. But as I listened to people, I heard this disappointment. They did not know everything we knew. [more]

'Twin Towers' and Small Town Sports: "The Baruch College Intercollegiate Athletics newsletter, for instance, recently sloganned Sime Marnika's and Gary Etienne's unstoppable power on the court in terms of death, in an article titled "The Queens Twin Towers". It is important to note that while pre-911 occurrences of the Twin Towers as nicknames were somewhat innocent of contemporary American fascinations with death, this is no longer the case." [more]

Eye Witness Account: So Much Pain: He asked for underwear, and a woman soldier brought him women’s underwear to put on. He protested again, that in Islam, it is haram (taboo) for a man to wear any article of women’s clothes (I don’t think the soldier was trying to encourage trans liberation in the Iraqi Muslim community, but if she was, her timing was pretty lousy). [more]

Eye Witness Account: Cops of the World?: My mouth dropped open. I said, “Are you telling me that Iraqi police just massacred 12 women, and a U.S. policeman stood and watched them?” Yes, she said, he said he didn’t have their trust to be able to stop it. [more]

Democratizing America: No longer must the citizen feign to buy into a system when their political opponents refuse to give them a voice within the system. By the very principles preached by this government, we are obligated to institute democracy and topple the system that controls us. [more]

Review: Reading ‘An End to Evil’: An End to Evil is blunt propaganda that Random House claims “will define the conservative point of view on foreign policy for a new generation—and shape the agenda for the 2004 presidential-election year and beyond.” Having finished the 280-page book in a night of furious reading, I can only agree. An End to Evil is propaganda at its most crude, most deceptive, and most damaging. [more]

Bush’s Desolate Imperium: Bernard Chazelle is a professor at Princeton University who teaches computer science and complexity theory — a cutting edge interdisplinary approach that seeks to understand how stable social systems emerge from seemingly chaotic conditions. Here he offers a thorough analysis of Bush’s foreign policy. He is careful to note that the consensus to go to war was in no way limited to the Right — he explores how the positions of right-wing hawks are mirrored by those of “liberal imperialists.” The “humanitarian” impulse of the “White Man’s Burden” may have reemerged as the “Superpowerman’s Burden,” but it seems to have kept the same trappings of domination and racism. [more]

Tracking CNN Web Scrubbing: Like the web scrubbing going on at the White House, CNN has manipulated an online Associated Press article in moderate response to the pro-American ideology it indicates. Subtle choices in news rhetoric have followed the widely-covered French ban on head scarves in public schools and hospitals. [more]

The Fatwa and Revolutionary Islamic Movements: In light of the capture of Saddam Husayn of Iraq, it is illustrative to look at the cheering of the media. Illustrative precisely because the public celebration betrays America’s total ignorance of the domestic political movements of non-American states, especially Iraq. Even highly educated Americans hardly have access to the actual words and speeches of the “enemy”. Instead, snippets are doled out, quotes are shortened, and the words are effectively destroyed. [more]

The Resistance is Real: While the capture of Saddam Hussein gives Bush a domestic push in the polls, it will do little to stem the tide of Iraqi resistance borne out of the US occupation. Because most of the movements in Iraq are motivated by religious leaders and a desire for Iraqi rule, the United States will be increasingly confronted with both political resistance and violence. [more]

Challenging Patriarchy Within the Movement: Tali Pocket, a street medic, organizer, and writer, discusses the existence of patriarchal violence within the anti-war movement. She argues that conceptions of a matriarchy are framed solely within a patriarchal context, and continue to perpetuate violence against female leaders. [more]

Electronic Civil Disobedience: Exposing Corporate Control: "I hope that the Diebold memos will help people to see just how much control corporations and the elite have over our supposedly 'democratic' government, and that voting only serves to legitimize a failed system." [more]

Electronic Civil Disobedience: A Democratic Necessity: "The right to vote is at the heart of what it ought to mean to be an American, living in a free society run by a democratic government. Whenever people try to limit that, we must be wary. When people outright subvert it out of carelessness, stupidity and corruption for personal gain, we ought to be outraged." [more]

Electronic Civil Disobedience: A Fundamental Right: "More fundamental than the right to vote is the right to a free and fair election. It is a necessity that forms the center of democracy. Without fair elections the state loses its legitimacy and democracy crumbles." [more]

A Reflection on Time: Our lives are now thrown not in the spectacular of the terrorist act but in the scandals of the neo-fascist elite. Fifteen sexual-harassment suits, accusations of admiring Hitler; nothing can hinder a well funded campaign. [more]

Two Years of War and Uncertainty Remains: After two years of the "war on terrorism," American victories are tenuous at best: Two destabalized countries, no culprits in hand, and a widely-shared feeling that the world is less safe than when we began. [more]

Iraq War a Six-Year-Old Project by Neo-Conservatives: Imagine what would happen if Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Steve Forbes, Dan Quayle, Henry S. Rowen, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Robert Kagan and everyone’s favorite, Francis Fukuyama, among others, sat down six years ago and drafted a plan dictating America’s role in the next century. Then imagine if they actually came into power and implemented it. [more]

Separation of Press and State: Why is CNN censoring objective coverage of American bombings in Afghanistan? Why is Rick Davis imposing a pro-American language on alleged impartial coverage? Why cannot mass media choose objectivity over the objectives of American foreign policy? Why do all the networks comply with Condoleeza Rice's demands for censorship? Why must David Westin be forced to take back the very creed of journalism — detachment from the object on which it reports? And why, finally, are the subject and the object confounded? [more]

Transcript: Discussing the Anti-War Position: Transcript from a panel discussion at Clark University held on Sep. 10, 2002. [more]

Review: Securing Their Legitimacy: Why the current state of American journalism is good for media corporations, good for politicians, and bad for democracy. [more]

A Call To Action: How the Movement Can Win: "My goal here is to speak to those individuals who have already come to realize the something must be done. My goal is to urge you, in your own way, to begin to work towards creating a period of great global change. This is a war that the peace movement can win. I am confident that we can defeat the Islamic fundamentalism of bin Laden and the Christian/capatalist fundamentalism of Bush." [more]

The Governmentality of Tolerance: Tolerance discourse does not only govern subjects, it does not only still potential civic conflict or social unrest, it also shores up the legitimacy of the state and in so doing shores up and expands state power that would otherwise be eroding. [B]oth state and non-state deployments of tolerance serve important strengthening and legitimating functions for states suffering from weakened sovereignty and exposed partiality. Tolerance discourse will also turn out to be perversely important in legitimating certain kinds of state violence. [more]

Ideology, Corporations and War: It is most productive not to interpret this war as a demonstration to the world of America's might. This necessarily implies a level of restraint on the part of our government. As if demonstrations are just a show of power, not a real act of aggression. No, instead this war literally is America testing out whether it can not only be the world's only superpower — capable of destroying nations that are multiple times larger than America — but whether it can also suppress all dissent directed against America. [more]

Transcript: We Would Not Have Bombed Italy: Transcript from a panel discussion at Swarthmore College held in early December 2001. [more]

Transcript: An 'Expanded' Look at Terrorism and Sept. 11: Transcript from a panel discussion at Swarthmore College held in early December 2001. [more]

1–38 of 38 records found matching your criteria.

Features

Bates Troy Noisy Neighbor: In a campaign endorsed by Why War?, Binghamton, NY residents have joined together to silence the noise pollution of Bates Troy Dry Cleaning located 151 Laurel Ave. They are calling their campaign, Bates Troy Noisy Neighbor and they have launched a companion site called Bates Troy Noise Polluters, Inc and another named Bates Troy Dirty Neighbor. Read more... [more]

John Zerzan on Radio Not Bombs: John Zerzan gives a concise description of anti-civilization and green anarchist thought. He is interviewed by Radio Not Bombs! a student radio show at Binghamton University.

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John Zerzan Speaks at Binghamton University: John Zerzan, the leading theorist of the anti-civilization movement, spoke recently at Binghamton University. The talk was organized by Why War? members and a video of the talk is now available online. [more]

Al-Qa’ida on al-Qa’ida: Al-Qa’ida is neither irrational nor unable to intelligently articulate their objectives. The American government is able to disseminate propaganda globally while suppressing al-Qa’ida’s response. Thus, the English speaking world is forced to trust the analysis of al-Qa’ida provided by those who have shown themselves willing to lie in their pursuit of an unjust war. If the American public had been able to read al-Qa'ida documents they would have known that al-Qa’ida was explicit about their joy in America’s overthrow of Saddam Husayn. [more]

Protesting the Republican National Convention: We have witnessed two unjust wars — at least one American life lost each day overseas — a depressed economy, $87 billion to boost war profiteering, an environment open to exploitation, the demonization of queer Americans, a health-care crisis, the indefinite detention of immigrants, an attack on women’s right to choose, millions of children being left behind, and now this. We say, “Enough!” [more]

Ink: The Work of Anna Hook: Influenced by Dore, the American Thomas Nast, and the French Daumier, Anna Hook's inks on paper are astute political observations designed to provoke contemplation. Why War? has chosen Anna's work as an example of the emerging intelligent, critical movement. [more]

Soviet Origins of Colliding Airplanes and Skyscrapers: "The two objects are now not simply objects within the scene of representation but firmly donate something of their cultural function and symbolism to the representational mode itself. Thus the eye of the airplane and skyscraper is employed to see the airplane and skyscraper." [more]

Neocons and the Crash of the Event: The end of history, the strike of events, the lost faith in meta-narratives, and the declared end of the individual all preceded neocons' total return wrapped-up in the alleged re-birth of the event itself — the “mother of all events,” as Baudrillard put it — on September 11th. [more]

Film: Its Eyes: The first film to be released by Why War? treats surveillance cameras as a biological organism slowly taking control of our urban space. Filmed on location in Chelsea and Harlem, we capture the diversity of surveillance cameras in New York City. [more]

Targeting Diebold with Electronic Civil Disobedience: Defending the right of a fair, democratic election, Why War? is rejecting Diebold Elections Systems’ cease and desist orders and initiating a legal electronic civil disobedience campaign that will ensure permanent public access to the controversial leaked memos. [more]

This website is a tribute to Why War?, one of the nation's first and most innovative post-9/11 student antiwar organizations. Born on October 22, 2001 at Swarthmore College, we were a handful of freshmen and sophmores who vocally opposed the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. And now, seven years later, we are retiring this website as we focus our efforts on new directions. We hope that it continues to serve future activists and we remain confident that humanity is on the verge birthing a better world.