by James Lindenschmidt
Gods & Radical Podcast
August 10th, 2016
This episode was a treat. I was lucky enough to interview A Peoples’ Remembrancer, Peter Linebaugh, on Bastille Day. These comments are taken from that conversation. We spoke about a lot of things, including Bastille Day; the Green and Red struggles of May Day; prisons, plantations, & the factory as locations of struggle; coal miners; the lungs as part of the nature; rewilding the cities; welfare as referring to wellness; how the magical Will is a social creation and becomes more powerful when shared collectively; and revolt as a Peoples’ Magic.
“The excitement, the joy, the emotions, and the will is
collective when it becomes powerful, and then it produces events that
are totally unthought of. Who could have possibly imagined that a wall
90 feet high, in parts 30 feet thick, surrounded by a moat deep enough
to drown in, who would have thought that such an edifice which had
remained for centuries could be brought down in the space of less than
24 hours. That’s what we’re celebrating on the 14th of July, 1789. This
edifice of tyranny, this edifice of repression, this action of people
who are rewilding it has provided inspiration for every urban revolution
that has ever taken place, and it provides us inspiration now that the
carceral archipelago, the huge military prison complex of the USA, can
be brought down in a twinkling. These are the miracles of history, but
it’s just as accurate to say these are peoples’ magic.”
