LinesOpen

Hello Sarah! Thank you so much for doing this. I have two, interrelated questions.

It seems that the cause of much hopelessness the world over is a lack of economic opportunities. These opportunities would have the benefit of giving one a sense of purpose, in addition to being able to provide food and shelter. But in many conflict areas, these opportunities are nonexistent (or involve joining an extremist group).

So, 1: What do you think of fostering worker collectives in these areas as a possible solution? They would provide a job, naturally, and the added benefit of owning part of the company keeps a worker personally invested.

And then 2: How can this start? And what unique blocks does corruption present to this model?

Indeed, that is absolutely true. (And I think the in-your-face aspect is why so many young people feel personally affronted and turn to extremism.) I imagined worker collectives a "ground-up" way to disconnect the elite from the process of production and so on.

What are some of your solutions for disengaging / destroying the kleptocratic network?

Saw this announced last week and it's pretty great timing--I'm on the second to last chapter of Debt right now, and it's been about as enlightening for me as Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine was a few years ago. I've got a couple things I'm interested in asking you.

1. I've been on a slippery tract between anarchism and democratic socialism for a couple years now, I go back and forth. On the one hand, I think anarchism is the prime ideal--but on the other hand, I like universal health care and I like free education, both of which might encounter problems in an anarchist state. How do you see those working?

2. Reading work by people such as yourself, Chomsky, and Klein is incredibly inspiring because you each bring a focused mentality (anthropology, linguistics, journalism) to your related causes of anarchism / anti-capitalism--it lends your works more intellectual heft than they might otherwise have. However, I consider myself an artist rather than an intellectual, and have struggled to find a role for my work with that in mind. What position do you think anarchist art should take within the movement?

I very much think focusing on the Western response is what we should be doing (as Americans, anyhow). It is both our responsibility and prerogative to call our own government's policies into account.

As someone else in this thread said, the US government too has its own corruption issues. I think that addressing both our government's response to international corruption and the corruption within the US government are intertwined. For example, many US politicians benefited from corruption surrounding the Afghanistan conflict and its own corruption.

There is, indeed, a transnational corruption--one that may be harder than just addressing certain corrupt states. As the economy becomes globalized, so too do these "key nodes" in the kleptocratic network. And I am extremely fearful that fighting IS will engender our support of autocratic / kleptocratic regimes. One need look no further than Sisi in Egypt.

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time! I'm very much looking forward to the book.