academiccompositionab
Empowerment Equalizer
SSaragian
Ann Sterzinger
Rodney
RJ
busterjames
cainusmaxus
Craig FitzGerald
David Heleniak
Caity & Dan Greene
keirmartland
Keith Preston
Bill the Butcher
ljp711
MRDA
Jack Donovan
Rachel Haywire
comrade hermit
Michael
Vince
robertstark2014
Noonan
S E Pearson
Rachel Haywire
Nexus X Humectress
Review by Alex von Goldstein
Imagine, if you will, a classroom at a community college in the contemporary United States. The make-up of the students offers a sense of true diversity: you have a few Somali Muslims with sympathies towards Radical Islam, a National Socialist or two, a member of the Hell’s Angels, a transgendered sex worker, an accountant who believes capitalism can solve any problem, a comic book artist who feels the same way about heroin, three or four Communists, two Traditionalist Catholics, and an Orthodox Jew.
To anyone with a bit of sense and a knowledge of history, a cursory glance of this roster would lead one to believe that any attempt at a rational conversation in this classroom would offer nothing short of immediate chaos.
In the eyes of Keith Preston, this need not be the case.
While it may be difficult to understand what the common enemy of such a scrambled group of people could be, once one understands that they are all aiming for power (or at least a lack of persecution) within the same system the answer becomes obvious: The State.
Yes, The State. It is hard for many to imagine a world without her, as she operates with a sense of profound legitimacy, almost to the point where any criticism of The State as an institution is met with confusion by most common folk. For your average person, The State simply is “what is” and the act of making life a better experience for the people trapped within her bounds is the act of reformation, legislation, and a more efficient bureaucracy. Even for those with more extreme world views, The State is seen as negative, but the act of removing her impossible, as The State is simply too powerful and there is always that Progressive View of History, you know, things will get better if we all become nice or something…
But in the eyes of Keith Preston, this need not be the case. Change is possible. Radical, Real Change.
Drawing from Nietzsche and Junger, Preston demolishes both the linear view of history presented by Hegel and Abrahamic religions and the Universalism presented by the Enlightenment and the aforementioned religious practices. Drawing from Proudhon and Bakunin, Preston shows how proletariat movements would greatly benefit by embracing Anarchism over Marxism. Drawing from William Lind’s theory of Fourth Generation War, Preston shows how this State Behemoth could actually be defeated with armed conflict.
Throughout the aptly titled “Attack The System”, Preston deconstructs the false Left-Right dichotomy presented by the State. Those on the Far Right are encouraged to view their racial struggle through economic terms by the work of Noam Chomsky, while those on the Far Left are encouraged to doubt their sacred cows of democracy and “progressivism” by reading the work of Alain de Benoist.
Reading “Attack The System” is a must for any politically minded person. It is a challenging read, not in terms of the prose, which is constructed carefully and clearly by Preston, but rather in terms of methodology: “Attack The System” will change your worldview. It will force you to surrender your most cherished mantras, whether you be a Communist or a Capitalist, by putting not only your ideology, but your personhood into a greater perspective.
You only need one mantra: This is the world you live in. You live in The System. Let’s destroy it together.
Attack the System
Categories: Anarchism/Anti-State
