In the course of establishing a particular dialogue it has become useful to clarify the definitions and intention behind various terms used on Song of the Cedars. This glossary acts as a frame for the discussion, ensuring both that the writings presented here remain internally consistent and that they cannot be taken out of context.
If there are any terms used on the blog which you would like to see detailed more thoroughly here, get in touch using the Contact page.
ADVENTURE
An adventure, quite simply, is anything in which the participants are in some danger of getting into trouble.
Note that this does not necessarily entail illegality, although there must be some element of risk involved.
COMMUNISM
It is a relatively simple matter to explain that the so-called “Communist” countries of the world have never been anything of the sort, but we face a more subtle task in dispelling that key historical obfuscation of the very nature of the term itself:
“Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from premises now in existence.” – Karl Marx
In other words: “communism” does not refer to a system of government or economic organization, and in fact it does not represent a product or a finished stage of something that we can point to and say, “that right there is communism in its final, purest form.” Going even further, we would suggest that the term “communist country” is oxymoronic at best!
Instead, communism is understood as an ongoing and dynamically-evolving current in the activity of human beings as they relate to each other and the world around them. We posit that the essential trend in human behavior is towards cooperation, and so we call communism the sum total of all spontaneous efforts in the direction of an undivided human community, beyond and apart from economic and political categorizations.
Communism, to put it simply, is shorthand for the raw momentum and sensuality of life breaking free from domination and moving toward cooperation.
COMMUNIST
Peter Kropotkin once wrote, “The future cannot be legislated. All that can be done is to anticipate its most important movements and to clear a path for them. That is exactly what we try to do.”
A communist is any individual who has become aware of the communist tendency in human activity. Communists recognize that history is not determined by this or that sectarian political group but rather the complex and unstable interrelationships which underpin the mechanics of our whole society. Because of this, communists seek to expand awareness and comprehension of the current period and agitate directly for the physical removal of any obstacle to the development of human community and the subjective valorization of life.
FEMINISM
Feminism: there is perhaps no other word as purposefully vilified or misunderstood on the modern Internet. And although this blog is written by a man, I still find the contributions of the feminist current to be uniquely valuable to our discourse both in terms of theoretical development and practical organizational application.
Traditional definitions of feminism can range from your average Wikipedia-style (which tends to quantify the subject in terms of its historical presence in social movements) to the more rhetorical words of Rebbeca West, “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” In practice it may be said that there are as many definitions of feminism as there are feminists, and that its adaptable nature is a credit to the versatility of its adherents and the fundamental source of its vitality, which is the fact that it represents a different worldview and way of thinking than that which most of us were brought up to take for granted.
For the purposes of this blog and its male author, feminism does not need to be defined past the idea that women’s experiences and perspectives are interesting and worth looking at in and of themselves. This may seem overly simplistic or too conservative to some, but the beauty of feminist theory and analysis is that at its best it can, merely by virtue its existence, expose the underlying assumptions of a patriarchal worldview.
The most tangible example of this I can think of is the Bechdel Test, an exercise which asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The powerful simplicity of this method of scrutiny and the way it unveils some unspoken trends in how society represents itself is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the insights offered by feminism.
Feminist analysis has often been at the cutting edge of critical social theory, and so Song of the Cedars will remain committed to giving it a platform.
GOLDEN MONKEY
Victory Golden Monkey aka “truth serum” is a Belgian-style vegan Tripel produced by the Victory Brewing Company in Downington, Pennsylvania. It’s a strong Pale Ale at 9.5% and my all-time favorite beer. Victory Brewing doesn’t pay me to say that, and in fact I don’t think I’ve ever even tried their other stuff, but dat Monkey…
It might be worth noting that I don’t typically mess with IPAs and the like, but just when the Monkey starts to get a little hoppy the flavor suddenly turns a corner into something else entirely. It’s the kind of beer that might randomly have a cult following.
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