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lee_noel's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
While academically verbose, this book was an interesting critique of modern (white) anarchism, its reproduced classism masquerading as “good politics”, and the problems with dismissing “conspiracy theories”. A magical moment for me was when Lagalisse questions what separates “conspiracy theories” from “social theories” *chef’s kiss*. I got a great reading list from the bibliography too!
jomzjomzjomz's review against another edition
challenging
informative
fast-paced
2.5
Funny that the author claims her intent was to produce an accessible piece of work. The purpose of the text felt disjointed, the text itself was entirely inaccessible and very much in the style of elitist academia, and the generalizations of archetypes of people she put forth as common were altogether confusing to me. There were some bits of valuable knowledge in here, but you have to mine for it. Ultimately I enjoyed the history lesson on the roots and development of anarchism more than anything related to discussing conspiracy theories. Didn’t feel like she connected these two things well.
_tourist's review against another edition
an excellent work. highly recommend it to any anarchists, or those with overlapping interests. the final chapters were especially good.
0hn0myt0rah's review against another edition
3.0
An extremely interesting pamphlet neatly exploding the "rational" basis of Western scientific thinking, anarchism and Marxist analysis. Where this is weak is it's continual oblique references to "anti-Semitism", and its inability to level a significant critique in the purpose of anti-Judaic thinking in the Western project. This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact the author says "cabalic" a bunch without explaining what that means. As such, the nature of Western esotericism as appropriative of Jewish and Muslim theological and culture work is elided.
Worth reading though
Worth reading though
laurareads87's review
informative
medium-paced
2.0
I struggle to review this book -- there are definitely some interesting ideas here, but also some issues of execution.
In the introduction, the author describes this book as a "short, accessible book about ... a large, inaccessible topic," yet the text is far from accessible. Authors and concepts are mentioned with little to no clarification of their meaning or relevance; as a reader with multiple graduate degrees in fields that overlap with the subject areas covered here, I am not sure how a reader with less familiarity with the subject matter could possibly find this the least bit approachable. This is particularly frustrating given that the topic is, indeed, large -- the historical chapters tracing interconnections between anarchist and occult developments could've been far longer (these, I thought, were the most interesting). These sections suffer from what are to me (as someone with a background in these areas) some strange omissions and broad generalizations.
I found Lagalisse's criticisms of the insistent atheism of some anarchists to be both well stated and important. The historical chapters that precede this argument demonstrate that, as Lagalisse argues, the insistence that spirituality and radical politics cannot meaningfully coexist fails to engage with anarchism's histories *and* perpetuates colonial thinking. In my experience contemporary anarchist organizing is more perspectivally and spiritually diverse than some of the statements here suggest, but I certainly know precisely the kinds of discourses Lagalisse is critiquing here and share the many of the concerns raised.
I found the concluding section on 'conspiracy theorizing' significantly less convincing, and indeed less clearly connected to the sections that precede it.
In the introduction, the author describes this book as a "short, accessible book about ... a large, inaccessible topic," yet the text is far from accessible. Authors and concepts are mentioned with little to no clarification of their meaning or relevance; as a reader with multiple graduate degrees in fields that overlap with the subject areas covered here, I am not sure how a reader with less familiarity with the subject matter could possibly find this the least bit approachable. This is particularly frustrating given that the topic is, indeed, large -- the historical chapters tracing interconnections between anarchist and occult developments could've been far longer (these, I thought, were the most interesting). These sections suffer from what are to me (as someone with a background in these areas) some strange omissions and broad generalizations.
I found Lagalisse's criticisms of the insistent atheism of some anarchists to be both well stated and important. The historical chapters that precede this argument demonstrate that, as Lagalisse argues, the insistence that spirituality and radical politics cannot meaningfully coexist fails to engage with anarchism's histories *and* perpetuates colonial thinking. In my experience contemporary anarchist organizing is more perspectivally and spiritually diverse than some of the statements here suggest, but I certainly know precisely the kinds of discourses Lagalisse is critiquing here and share the many of the concerns raised.
I found the concluding section on 'conspiracy theorizing' significantly less convincing, and indeed less clearly connected to the sections that precede it.