[veggieWHITES]

Graeber died suddenly from necrotic pancreatitis on September 2, 2020, while on vacation with his wife and friends in Venice. Graeber died during the COVID-19 pandemic and instead of a funeral, his family organized an "Intergalactic Memorial Carnival" of livestreamed events that took place in October 2020. His wife, Nika, attributed the pancreatitis to COVID-19, pointing to his prior good health, strange symptoms they both had for months beforehand, and the connection scientists have found between COVID-19 and pancreatitis. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Graeber#Death

[thinkingemote]

Did he speak about the pandemic much? I think the responses to the pandemic from anarchists are interesting. They seem to range the entire spectrum: from the anti government conspiracy theorist to the enthusiastic state coercion supporter. Maybe the academic theorists were more level headed? He seemed to be saying "lets see what good can come from it afterwards", but I'm curious if there's more he said.

I did see a paper he wrote in 2020: https://davidgraeber.org/articles/the-museum-of-care-reimagi...

"Imagine that the experience of lockdown and economic collapse actually allows us to see the world as it really is and we acknowledge that what’s referred to as “an economy” is simply the way we collectively keep each other alive, provision each other with the things we need and generally take care of one another. Say we also reject the notion of social control."

[piloto_ciego]

So, as a bit of an “anarcho-pragmatist” myself I found that the pandemic really challenged me in this regard. Ultimately, the conclusion I reached was that the ideal anarchist would mask up, stay home, and wash his or her f-ing hands, not because someone told them too, but because they had an ethical obligation to care for the weak and immunocompromised, but the state had no right to impose restrictions requiring this sort of thing or anything else. That’s tough I know, and practically presents challenges, but there’s a different between how things “are” and how they “ought” to be and the widespread terrible behavior during the pandemic was a result of poor education, selfishness, and bad manners. I tried to contextualize it with other “not necessarily illegal but rude” behavior.

Basically, “look Randy, it’s not illegal to scream racial slurs here on this public sidewalk, and the state doesn’t have the right to stop you, but you’re being an asshole and you should shut up.” We should all aspire to do the right thing, but not everyone is going to. I imagine 10-20% of any group is filled with jackasses, so trying to build society around those people neglects the other 80-90%.

[WJW]

> Say we also reject the notion of social control.

This is like writing a physics paper that starts with "assume humans could jump to the moon" or an international relations paper with "say we could all just get along". You can write anything you want if you start off with assumptions like that.

[TotalCrackpot]

Most anarchists were indeed social distancing, masking etc. so I have no idea what you are talking about. Maybe you are mistaking somehow anarcho-capitalism for anarchism, even though it's not anarchism?

[thinkingemote]

Did he write much about the pandemic? I could only find one paper. Did other anarchists? What was their view on the state, use of violence, social control, lockdowns, forced closures of services and shops, travel restrictions, forced vaccinations, freedom and anarchism? I imagine like with non anarchists that there was a wide range of views ranging from the pro-freedom to the pro-lockdown.

The only bit of evidence from Graeber apart from the linked paper was that he did go on vacation in 2020 around the time when many people might not have left their house, and when many people were forced by the state not to travel. This was of course before the vaccination issue. The paper seemed to indicate he viewed it as temporary and one that would provide lessons to people. Do anarchists hold the latter view now? What are these lessons? Is there reflection on the range of views and any conflicts it showed?

I find the range of responses given at the time when it was going on interesting and reflect the conflict between collective responsibility and freedom.