“It has now been more than one year since the world that we have known all of our lives came screeching to a halt. And what a year’s it’s been. The collective unconscious roils in the throes of a bad acid trip, the realization seeps slow in the mind that the crisis is here to stay, and we are all along for the ride, tossed about by uncontrollable forces like a ship in a storm, trying to maintain some grace amidst all the fear and the confusion and the doubt.”
So begins Nevermore Volume One. These words were written in winter of 2021, at a time when questioning the dominant narrative around COVID-19 was tantamount to blasphemy for many Leftists. We called Nevermore “An Anarchist Journal of Heresy and thoughtcrime” because we set out to refute the orthodox groupthink regarding COVID, and because both heresy and thoughtcrime are words for dissent, now rebranded as “spreading dangerous misinformation”.
Sadly, many of our friends and comrades have accepted the logic that the threat of a killer virus justifies submission to the state. Amongst many anarchists, there has been a taboo on criticizing the authoritarian measures that the state has taken over the course of the last year.
Many are conforming to the state-sanctioned groupthink, convincing themselves that doing so is some grand act of solidarity with the most vulnerable people in our societies.
Many have set aside their core beliefs. Worse, some are twisting and contorting those beliefs in ways that are antithetical to the core principles of anarchism.
We started Nevermore to call all true anarchists home, to the warmth of the fire of freedom that burns in the heart of our tradition. It is for the sake of freedom that we fight, for within us dwells a desire to be free. For each of us to be a sovereign unto ourselves; to determine with the free will which Spirit vested in us what our lives shall be.
We started Nevermore to reach out to our comrades to call for a serious effort in political reorientation. The old world is behind us, and must discover relationship with the new one into which we have been thrust.
This strange new world is not familiar to anyone. There are none more qualified to interpret it than we are. The time has come to weave this all into a story, to imbue what is happening with meaning that can guide us towards wise action.
We must cast a new spell.
The good news that courage and inspiration are as contagious as fear and depression. It is imperative that we search within ourselves for the courage to do what we must do to ensure our survival in an increasingly tumultuous world.
The old world ain’t coming back.
We must create a new one.
