---
title: Conflictual Wisdom
author: Ben
type: quotes
date: -001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00
draft: true
url: '/?post_type=quotes&p=6763'

---
&#8216;What does it mean to grow older as an anarchist; feeling the same discontent, yet, growing to see even more confusing challenges in not surrendering to it?&#8217;  
&#8216;&#8230;I am not fighting just to feel free in my life, but to be free&#8230;&#8217;  
&#8211; &#8220;To My Comrades&#8221; callout

&#8216;Which side of history will you die on?!&#8217;  
&#8211; &#8220;A Second Try&#8221; callout

&#8216;Capitalism isn&#8217;t winning. It already won. And anarchists are the ultimate losers and have to play [a] most tragic role in this farce.&#8217;  
&#8211; Comrade Grusha, &#8220;Hello, My Dear Comrade!&#8221;

&#8216;The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.&#8217;  
&#8211; Anonymous, &#8220;Light and Love to You Comrade&#8221;

&#8216;We spend more time reminiscing then[sic] plotting because we all know.&#8217;  
&#8211; Betty, &#8220;My Love May Be Dormant, But It Ain&#8217;t Dead&#8221;

&#8216;There are going to be times where our actions in the streets help crack open spaces where people can see a different way of relating, or they can experience, even for a moment, a feeling of freedom.&#8217;  
&#8211; Wiley, &#8220;OK Well, Enough of the Ramble&#8221;

&#8216;Probably nothing, but possibly everything.

And those are the best odds I can expect to play if I am in the habit of believing in troubling things like freedom. I might never know the results of what we do, but I have trouble thinking they could be worse than if we had done nothing at all.&#8217;  
&#8211; Pat the Bunny

&#8216;I don&#8217;t participate in anarchist struggle because I think I can save the world.&#8217;  
&#8216;I don&#8217;t participate in anarchist struggle because I think I can save the world. I fight because I know that one day the whole world will be destroyed&#8212;the earth will be consumed by the sun, leaving only ash&#8212;and when that day comes, I want the story that ends to be a story of beauty and tragedy and resistance to tyranny. I want the story we live to be a story of joy and courage. I fight becaus I know that there is no happily ever after, there is no salvation or revolution waiting for us at the end of history, there is just what we do today. That is all the beauty and meaning in the world that there will ever be.&#8217;  
&#8216;In a cyclical narrative, the question is not whether you will win, but which side you want to be on, which role you want to play.&#8217;  
&#8211; Anonymous, &#8220;In a Cyclical Narrative, the Question is Not Whether You Will Win&#8221;

&#8216;My twenty-year-old self wasn&#8217;t wrong when I concluded that an uncertain future was more desirable than the scripted life of mediocrity offered to me by success under capitalism.&#8217;  
&#8211; Anonymous, &#8220;Changes: An Organizer Reflects&#8221; (Peak Magazine, vol 53 Issue 4 Winter 2014)

&#8216;Individuals choosing the convenience of rejoining society as a traitor over prison for not cooperating humiliates our struggle, implying that it is possible to live a life in whic world as we know it after choosing to understand it for the vile authoritarian nightmare it is, and due to convenience; betraying such a position and those who share it.&#8217;  
&#8211; Anonymous, &#8220;For a Community that Can Overcome Trauma and Defeat Repression&#8221;