Horizontalist movements that fetishize form over results fail against hierarchy

Evidence

I hear Bifo’s remarks as a requiem for the “horizontalist” strategies that have dominated anti-capitalism since the Nineties. The problem with these strategies is not their (noble) aims — the abolition of hierarchy, the rejection of authoritarianism — but their efficacy. Hierarchy cannot be abolished by fiat, and a movement which fetishises organisational form over effectiveness concedes ground to the enemy. The dismantling of the many existing forms of stratification will be a long, arduous and attritional process; it isn’t simply a matter of eschewing (official) leaders and adopting “horizontal” forms of organisation. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1731

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with Stuart Hall’s critique of movement purity and Gramscian war-of-position politics in Essential Essays, plus the Diamond bourse materials on how institutions enforce cooperation. — connects to: Anti-hierarchical movement structures fail to integrate and educate new members; Dogmatic adherence to inherited categories prevents movements from transcending stale frameworks — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1310; Leaders and hierarchies inevitably emerge in large groups regardless of horizontalist ideals — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 901

Broader Connections

• Leaders and hierarchies inevitably emerge in large groups regardless of horizontalist ideals #corroborates (0.85) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 901
• Anti-hierarchical movement structures fail to integrate and educate new members #expands (0.82)
• Dogmatic adherence to inherited categories prevents movements from transcending stale frameworks #expands (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1310