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VANGUARD OF THE APOCALYPSE

manifesto #2 - A Clarification of sorts

VANGUARD OF THE APOCALYPSE! A bold and loaded statement for anyone to make, let alone an anarchist who is supposed to be against vanguards, leadership, elitism, and other synonymous archetypes…as well as being against religion in general, Christianity in particular, and the idea of the Biblical apocalypse to be most specific. What, then, can we mean by the Vanguard of the Apocalypse, and why do we not shy away from such confounded terms?

VANGUARD – this can be defined as leader, first in line, elite, leading position in an army, momentum of a revolution or party, etc. These are definitions we understand, and to reclaim the word vanguard, liberate it from these meanings. “Vanguard”, in the apocalyptic, green anarchist sense means to be on the front lines here now, ready, and willing to confront civilization on all levels.. We are not special, unique, or elite, just tired of arguing theory and r-evolution. We don’t have a vision for the future – an overarching plan for reorganizing and restructuring societies in better ways; but we do have a vision of the future – ruins, abandonment, chaos, rebirth, bounty, and the foundations of freedom and autonomy.

OF – this is a preposition, showing that the vanguard is part of, connected to, or identified with something, in this case it is the apocalypse.

THE – this is an article, which denotes a specific, idiosyncratic thing:

APOCALYPSE – this has always had several definitions. The most popular being the Jewish and Christian religious apocalypse, or revelation about the end of the world and the unveiling of God. In the more secular usage, apocalypse simply denotes the end of the world with or without religious influence. We use the term apocalypse to refer to the end of the “world”. “World” is a cultural term, defining cultural space and ideas, not a physical place. Therefore, “world” means the civilized world – the world of domination, skyscrapers, slavery, capital, destruction, and boredom. The world of anti-nature. The apocalypse is the end of the civilized world. We also use the term because of the imagery it can conjure up – the beautiful rotting ruins of civilization, the beautiful upward reach of trees and weeds, the chaos and afterbirth.

APOCALYPSE NOW! To be sure, we’re not preaching fire and crumbling stone. We’re not prophesizing the apocalypse. It isn’t written in stone. Instead of the apocalypse being some future event – an inevitability, a final cleansing of civilization, we look at it as a goal, a relation with action, an engagement with the world. Apocalypse has been preached since the birth of civilization, and though past worlds have been replaced by ruins, others take over or sprout up, usually bigger and better than the old ones. The current doomsayers, though speaking in the form of scientific rather than supernatural babble, may be right. We can feel an end is near. All walls will fall – eventually. But just incase peak oil, self-destructive technophilia, transhumanism, zombies, and the mass produced pandemics are delayed, we’re tired of waiting. We want to see it fall now. The vanguard of the apocalypse is here now, ready and willing to help bring on the end of the world, mentally, spiritually, and physically. We don’t have a vision for the future, but of the future, and we’re ready to live there.

VANGUARDIANS? Who, exactly, are the vanguardians, and what do they do. We are anarchist boyscouts against the 3 C’s: capitalism, communism, and civilization. We are not a group, not a loose affiliation, not even a cell – just an idea. We are the opposite of inaction. We are not waiting for a collapse. We are not escaping anything. We are resistance. We are rewilding. The power of the forest and the weeds in the sidewalk cracks brings tears to our eyes. The prison of buildings around the forest and the slabs of concrete smothering the garden of greens brings rage to our hearts. If no one is going to claim the title, we are the vanguardians of the earth.