The idea of “the impossible community” is that the community of solidarity and liberation appears as an impossibility within the confines of these structures of domination. So, the only viable alternative is to create—here and now—those impossible communities. We need to stop demanding the impossiJPC: Change can only happen now. That’s when we ble and simply do what is impossible. The strongest evidence for the possibility of something, including do all our living, thinking and acting. So, we need the impossible, is its actual existence. So, to begin to focus on how we can be most effective in creatwith, we have to do some serious anarchaeology, ing forms of social transformation now. We need uncovering the rich history of free community that to rethink the temporality of change and also the lies under layers of domination and the ideology of spatiality of change. This means rethinking the old domination. But, above all, we have to get in touch cliché “think globally, act locally.” The challenge is with the practice of free community that is very to think and act locally and globally at the same time. In fact, we can’t avoid acting locally and glob- much alive today, so that these living traditions can be nurtured and realized further. ally simultaneously, since global phenomena are largely made up of local ones and the magnitude I have in mind, historically, the enormous legacy of of the global impacts of local action are constantly increasing. But there’s another crucial dimension to cooperative community, including many tribal traditions, the caring labor of women and traditional this issue. peoples, historical practices of local direct democWe need to continue to occupy, in the sense of truly racy, movements for workers’ self-management, the liberating putatively public spaces, but we also have vast history of intentional community, and the multitude of experiments in cooperative production, to consider carefully the ways in which we are occupied, in the sense of being dominated. To change distribution, consumption, and living. This history continues today, especially on the margins of and in the dominant structures, we need to find a way to break free from their dominance, which is not only the gaps within the system of domination, and thus provides the “ethical substantiality,” the realized and institutional, but also ideological, imaginary, and embodied social good, that is our best source of practical. Our lives are determined powerfully by our shared systems of ideas, our collective fantasies, hope, guidance, and inspiration. and our common forms of social practice, or ethos. Occupy is part of the process that I am describing. The only effective way to short circuit this order of I devoted a lot of time to Occupy, and believe that, determination is to create, and then live, momentto-moment, other institutional, ideological, imagi- whatever its limitations, it has been enormously significant in engaging large numbers of people at nary, and practical realities—realities that embody freedom, justice and solidarity. To be effective, this the grassroots level, and giving them experience in participatory, directly democratic and consensual must take place above all on the level of our most forms of decision-making. This kind of experience basic, primary communities. is invaluable to the kind of libertarian communitarAS: Are you suggesting that social transformation can happen now, without waiting for radical change in the dominant political structure? Do you see “the impossible community” as a viable next phase in the evolution of the OCCUPY movement?
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