The Amish Jihadist

Jamie Heckert, PhD (University of Edinburgh), is a founding member of Anarchist Studies Network, a practitioner of integral yoga, and the co-editor of Anarchism & Sexuality: Ethics, Relationships and Power (and here’s a lovely link to the introduction: read me!!). Just imagine what would have happened if Emma Goldman popped out a baby with Michel Foucault, and that kid turned out to be smarter than his parents–this should give you an idea of what kind of awesomeness is attached to this book.

He must have 'molotov cocktailed' the house (those crazy anarchists).

Heckert is an activist/scholar hell-bent on creating the kind of conversations necessary if we’re going to have any hope of talking well about issues regarding sexuality, power, and epistemology. Yep. He’s an anarchist who likes talking about sex.

My kind of guy.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH JAMIE HECKERT

1) What’s a more prominent phobia: arachnophobia or anarchophobia?

Arachnophobia, I reckon. It’s natural to be afraid of spiders, but we have to learn to be afraid of freedom.

2) Why was it important to publish Anarchism and Sexuality?

 Well, for one, anarchists also care about sexuality. It’s not just about organizing meetings, wearing black and pointing out that the state isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You know, anarchism is about a different way of relating to each other and to life. And this includes sexuality. Sadly, though, emotions and bodies and desires get put on the side sometimes to focus on so-called real politics. Maybe because they are harder to talk about or to experience. Hating the state can be easier than listening to your body. The second reason is to shake up the politics of sexuality. Lobbying for equal rights isn’t the only option. The book is full of amazing examples from social movements and literature and everyday life of how politics and sexuality can be very different from the usual images of politicians and porn. It’s got kinky sex and revolutionary love, queer parades and poetry, political theory and personal insights. Oh, I do love to share things that inspire me!

3) Does being an anarchist make one sexier? (Because, you know, if so . . . I’m in.)

Maybe, maybe. Anarchy is about learning to listen and to work things out together instead of just doing what you think you should. Ideally, sex is the same! If you’ve already decided what sex is, how you should do it, how it should feel, what sounds you should make and who you should have it with, well, where is the adventure? The mystery? The learning, growing and changing? The same goes for politics. It doesn’t really matter whether you call yourself an anarchist or not, but letting yourself be open to life’s possibilities. That’s sexy!

Foucault + Goldman = Forever (Hey Jane Seymour, could you peddle this into a much needed accessory, please?)

4) Given the historical critiques many anarchists level against capitalism (save for those anarcho-capitalist cats), should people buy or steal your new book?

I don’t want to encourage people to break the law. Nor do I want to encourage people to follow it. At the moment the book is crazily expensive, so other options are ordering it through the library or waiting for the paperback to come out next year.

5) I see that you included an interview with Judith Butler. Are you as convinced as I am that she could be the smartest person in the Western Hemisphere?

Oooooooooh, I don’t know! What about Ursula Le Guin? Or bell hooks? Or Eduardo Galeano? But, yeah, there is something about her mind, isn’t there? I got pretty self-conscious interviewing her. Would my questions be clever enough? But that didn’t really matter. She was lovely.

The question also reminds me of that beautiful quote from Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” And that’s one of the things I love about anarchism: remembering that each of us has something to contribute, each of us is beautiful in our own way. We don’t need to be smart like Judith Butler, we are already smart like ourselves. Working out what that means for each of us, well, that’s a great thing to do with a life.

SINCE THIS INTERVIEW included an anarchist, who better to round off the conversation than those lovely boys from Winnipeg, Propagandhi? (I know, I know, I use any old excuse I can to justify posting them on everything–which, as I see it, is to your good fortune.)

Only problem was knowing which song to end with (darn you, Mr. Preposition). At first, I thought it should be “And We Thought Nation-States were a Bad Idea.” I mean, that song is pure genius. And then, like an epiphany straight from the apathetic deity above (“apathetic” in the sense that Aquinas & Co. used it–know your own tradition before getting offended), it hit me.

Take it away, boys.

FOR PAST INTERVIEWS, check out Five Questions with: Brian McLaren, Amy Laura Hall, Stanley Hauerwas, L.D. Russell, Matt Litton, Jeffrey Pugh, Greg Boyd, Jamie Arpin-Ricci, and Shane Claiborne. Future interviews include: Debra Dean Murphy, Carol Adams, Marc Bekoff, Eric Bain-Selbo, Becky Garrison, Brooke Wilensky-Lanford, and many others I swindled into playing this game.