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anarchist chemistry

Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

They met in a normal classroom, and the board bore an A inside a circle with a quote underneath: "I shall blow up your buildings a little more and be less open with you than I was before." -- Thomas Rainsborough.

Tyler sat on the desk, swinging his legs impatiently as he waited for students to gather.

"So this class," he said, swiping a hand over his hair, "might be where we should have started. We're going from the practice -- the nitro and Molotovs, and the stuff we'll get into in the next three weeks -- to theory." He turned to the board, tapped the symbol with his chalk. "This is not just a cool thing to draw on a leather jacket and play Sid Vicious. This symbol means anarchy, which is a social state with no state. No laws, no policemen, no congressmen or corporations. Just people with the freedom to go beyond whatever's holding them back, if they have that within themselves."

He tossed a thick packet at each student. "The question is, when do you rise up and start working for that by any means necessary. Your country is involved in a pointless, endless war: Is that enough? What if it's not only in a war, but trying to keep you down over the color of your skin: Enough?"

"What if your problem is with the way corporations are treating workers: Can you assassinate business leaders?"

"Or," he added, managing to keep his gaze off Evey ~~if she's there~~, "what if your country's being ruined by fascists? Is it time to bring down their headquarters?"

"Think about it," he finished. "I want to hear when you -- you personally, as you are now -- would take this class and put it into use." He pointed to one student at random. "You go first."

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When is a bomb an appropriate tool? Is it ever one?

Rikku stood up defiantly. "I'm Al Bhed. My eyes have spiral pupils and not round ones. None of my people believe in the religion of Yevon. I say those things here and people shrug because it doesn't matter to them, it's just words. Back home, it means my people spent a thousand years in exile: hated, abused, and killed. Our city is in ruins and many of my friends and family died, because we were different and we made an easy target. When the government needed to lie to its people, they blamed us. Everybody hated us. Hate's good at bringing people together like that."

She took a deep breath and kept going. "We took the system down. It meant killing some of the people who weren't going to listen. It meant bringing an end to the religion and its sacrifices. We were arrested and supposed to be executed for our 'crimes', which were mostly just that we knew too much. We stopped a war. We changed the world."

She was seriously, seriously talking too much, everyone was going to think she was insane, but she didn't care, this felt good to say out loud and she had a feeling the teacher would understand.

"I ... having said that, we did what we did ... as a last resort. We would have talked to people, tried to, first. Some people we could convince, others we had to take out. If planting bombs and wreaking havoc was the only way to bring change, then I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, but ... sometimes the people involved are just bystanders, just hapless people who want what's right and don't know any better. I don't want to kill any civilians that I don't have to. I'd try hard not to take out the ones that didn't deserve it. If I had to, so be it, but ... until then, I'd try."

She sat down again, flushing and fidgeting and hoping no one thought she was insane.

Tyler's eyes were sharp, but he didn't think Rikku was insane. Far from it.

"Collateral damage is always a risk you take, if you start throwing bombs around," he nodded. "So what are things like at home these days?"

She nodded back. "Yeah. It's ... I'd try not to. But if I had to ... I guess sometimes it's that or nothing. I hate to say that but ... it's true, isn't it?"

She looked away for a few seconds, frowning darkly. "I really thought we did it. Stupid, isn't it? We tore the system down and said, hey, let's just all try to get along with each other. We don't need Yevon handing out a book telling people how to live. So they tried to get Yunie -- my cousin -- to do it instead. You tell us how to live. She wouldn't. So ... they're starting it up again. New Yevon. Because look how well that worked last time. They're that afraid of change, of thinking of not hating my fucking people that they'd rather go back to something so broken they have to ignore all the duct tape on it. Is there any point!?"

She was so frustrated, so surprised that she'd let all of this come spilling out that she didn't even realize she'd slipped up and let herself swear in class.

"Damned if I know," Tyler said, surprised and impressed by the outbutst. "I could blow rainbows at you about how you just have to keep working and trying and everything will be fine at home, but ... we both know I can't know that."

He gave a tiny shrug. "Sorry."

"Yeah," she said, shaking her head. "S-sorry. I'm just not even sure what I believe in any more. Right now, the collateral damage is sounding better and better. I know I'm not supposed to give in and hate and be like them, but wow, it gets tiring, you know?"

Tyler came very, very close to Rikku's desk then, looked into her eyes. "Rikku."

"Anger. Is an energy. Use it."

Re: Discussion [6/05]

the_merriest - 2008-06-06 01:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Discussion [6/05]

tyler_gone - 2008-06-06 01:27 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Discussion [6/05]

the_merriest - 2008-06-06 03:01 (UTC) - Expand

Sokka chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Well, obviously killing people and blowing stuff up is always a last resort, when nothing else works. But sometimes you have to, because nothing else DOES work. And, you know, sometimes there's a war. And kings suck. And laws suck."

He stared at the packet in his hands and thought of his dad. "But... you can't just not have rules. I mean, if you do that, the bullies will just beat people up and take control. Things have to be fair."

...Which begged the question: After they'd assassinated Firelord Ozai, what then? A Fire Nation in chaos might be worse...

"That's the objection a lot of people have," Tyler nodded. "And anarchy does tip into fascism at the speed of a blink."

"So what can you do about the bullies?"

Sokka shrugged. "I dunno. First you have to be bigger, stronger, and have more people than them, or else you don't have a chance. And you have to protect all the weaker people, too. After that -- I guess be fair without being cruel? Get them to respect you?"

"You," Tyler told Sokka, "have the basics of military tactics down, from what I can tell."

"You need to keep the power from corrupting you, too."

"Who, me?" Sokka asked. "No, I've got a heart of pure goodness and light. Entirely uncorruptible, over here."

He grinned at Tyler. "Tactics is what I do. I'm sort of the 'idea guy'. Just naturally gifted, I guess. Plus, I took Kerrigan's class, twice."

Tyler smirked at Sokka. "Somehow I think your sister will keep you in line," he decided. "I didn't get to meet Kerrigan. Good to hear she did you some good."

Re: Discussion [6/05]

sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com - 2008-06-06 01:00 (UTC) - Expand

"It's not," Katara said, her arms crossed. "It'll hurt innocent people and can't be controlled. My country is fighting a war. For the past hundred years." She shot a quick glance at Sokka. "But we're not going to sink to the level of the Fire Nation and kill innocents."

"Not INNOCENTS, no!" Sokka protested.

"Good," Katara said, glaring at him. "There's not going to be any blowing up of the Fire Nation."

"Of the Fire Nation civilians," Sokka insisted. "The palace? Fair game."

"Have you heard of Hiroshima or Dresden?" Tyler asked neutrally. "This country -- or the country we're in when we aren't island-hopping -- dropped bombs killing thousands of civilians." He shrugged. "Some historians will tell you it was the only way to end the war. Maybe America's just another Fire Nation."

"Did they spend the next hundred years trying to enslave the people there?" she asked.

"No, we were over the enslaving part of our history," Tyler said. "We demanded some pretty extreme concessions, though." Tyler thought. History was not his best subject. "Is the slave thing what happened at home?"

Katara shrugged. "Sometimes. Not at my home, the Water Tribes fought them off mostly, kinda. But parts of the Earth Kingdom they did. And all the Air Nomads were killed."

"Bombs are always appropriate," Deidara said, crossing his arms over his chest. "But an explosion that accomplishes something is always more beautiful than one that simply burns."

Finally, someone who wasn't moralizing all over class. Tyler grinned at Deidara. "And what might you want to accomplish with an explosion?"

"Art," Deidara said simply. Morals? Nah, he didn't bother with those too often. "And, well, if I happen to take out an annoying enemy, that makes the Boss happy." He grinned back at Tyler. "Art is only art because it's fleeting, something that can't last. That is why art is a blast."

This was clearly a good answer.

"What's especially fun," Tyler said, going on a tangent, "is when your art takes out some annoying piece of corporate art. Destruction and beautification, at once."

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