BASTARD Conference 2021

The Berkeley Anarchist Study Group will hold the 2021 BASTARD Conference at 12pm on Saturday, November 13th at The Long Haul Infoshop in Berkeley, CA. BASTARD is an annual gathering of informal, autodidactic conversations and presentations about anarchy now in its 20th year. It functions as a forum for participants in the study group as well as guests from around the world to share their interests and pursuits. We took the year off in 2020 for obvious reasons, but we’re back this year for an afternoon of discussions around the theme of Excess.

Anarchy considered as a continual going beyond: beyond the constraints of power, the limits of the imagination, beyond morality, identity, metaphysics. Anarchism as exceeding the progressive, managerial impulses of politics towards new anti-political horizons. Accursed share, decadence, transgression, waste. William Blake reminds us that, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom; for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.” That is precisely what we’d like to consider this year: what is more than enough?

We hope to see you November 13th for another afternoon of discussing the beautiful idea!