By Cake Boy
So this is a song that came out last year. It’s black metal, made by anarchist activists from the UK. It’s very new and what the anarchist scene communicates with the rest of the world. This is who we are, this what we are about. A Marxist philosopher said that aesthetics is more important than we often think. Maybe he’s right. Let’s first listen to the song together and watch the clip.
When we look at the comments on the song, we see that 99,999 percent of the comments are negative about it. I think this is very symbolic for current-day leftist anarchism.
Anarchists present something to the people, and 99,999 percent laugh about it.
While at the same time, these anarchists say they talk for these 99,999 percent. Something strange is going on here. Something the anarchists themselves never think about or talk about, because they are disillusioned and narcissistic
The song itself isn’t that bad, in my opinion. It’s not something I would listen to, but I like the combination of the violin with the blast beat.
So, Dawn Ray’d mixes black metal, with woke culture/cultural leftism. This is strange because black metal has always been the least PC thing in the world. Black metal often was/is made by extreme people, people with mental illness, people who are in jail, people with radical views, etc. In a way, it was outsider art. It’s a bit like punk but in a more extreme way. This was intriguing about black metal. People made it in a very dark place who could communicate something from the underworld. To hell and back, as the book of Varg Vikerness is called, the black metal artist. These black metal people dig into the dark spaces of the mind. They take long walks in the forest to communicate with nature. They get into occult material or write about what they see in their dreams. Often, black metal is a sort of personal process someone goes through. A method of communication with your inner demons. Shadowwork, as Jung called it.
Black metal was a revolt against modernity, not a celebration of it. It rejected both the neoliberal and socialist modernist concepts.
I’m not saying Dawn Rayd shouldn’t make this kind of music. Of course, they should go on with their art; I always applaud people who at least try something artistic. I’m just telling you why I think it’s a mismatch and why so many people hate it.
The cultural leftist people are not into black metal, and black metal people don’t care about your pronunciation, safe spaces, and your opinions on manspreading. So, Dawn Rayd falls between a rock and a hard space. What is typical of modern leftist anarchism? Wanting a lot, but never reaching anything. Always say the wrong thing, in the wrong moment, in the wrong way, to the wrong people.
I read a book about the Spanish anarchism. In this book, we read about how anarchism was connected to the working people there. Spanish farmers were working all day and, in their little spare time, gambled, drank, or visited prostitutes. They didn’t know much about politics, and most couldn’t read. Then, anarchism came to them, something new. The anarchist intellectuals gave the people free newspapers, and in their spare time, they read these newspapers and learned to read. This scene was imprinted in my mind, and after reading this work, I understood better what anarchism was, in the 1930s.
So, in the past, the anarchists somehow were able to connect to the regular Joe on the street. The regular guy who would, at this time, visit a metal festival and who doesn’t care about politics. It found a connection with these people. In the case of the Spanish farmer, they desired to learn to read. The anarchists could fulfill this desire. The anarchists had to offer something to get the attention of the people.
The basis of anarchism consisted of all kinds of people that modern cultural leftism would hate. All sorts of cis, white ‘vulgar’ men joined the ranks of the syndicalist/anarchist mass movement. It’s as if the people who vote for Trump would join a leftist/syndicalist organization. In this period, this is unthinkable. It’s inconceivable because the left now is a symbol of everything these people hate.
Anarchism in the past gave something. The modern pop anarchism, as I would call it doesn’t give something, it takes. It asks things from the people. The people have to listen to their performances, the people should ‘work on their internalized racism’ the people should ‘educate themselves’ the people should ‘stop mansplaining’, the people should feel special for the fact that they are allowed in ‘queer spaces’, the people should stop listening to ‘right-wing music’ the people should feel ashamed for eating meat, etc. In the past, there was a populist dimension to anarchist movements. This isn’t the case with modern pop anarchism. Just like neoliberals, the pop anarchists often loathe the middle-of-the-road working people. They don’t even want to listen to them or talk with them; sometimes, they even attack them when they, for example, vote for Trump.
I think this kind of Dawn Ray’d pop anarchism is the reason why a lot of people don’t want to call themselves anarchists, even when they are sympathetic to the idea. I think these people then join the Libertarian Party as something that’s more down to earth, boots on the ground, or Bernie Sanders or the Communist Party of America.
If I told people I’m an anarchist, then they might think I have something to do with this kind of Dawn Ray nonsense, and for me, that’s a reason not to be affiliated with the political label. However, I read a lot of anarchist hardware in the past and spent hours and hours studying it.
This was another analysis of modern-day leftist anarchism. If you want to rehabilitate anarchism, you have to look at what it was in the past, when it was serious, and what it is now.
