Days of War Nights of Love: Crimethink for Beginners

Reading this book will give you an adrenaline rush equivalent to moshing at a really good punk show or making love in some far-away rainforest, your bodies and minds erupting like a red hot volcano. It reads like a fun conversation with a modern day Abbie Hoffman or Guy Debord (with a scratchy record of Chumbawamba playing in the background). Within these pages, the institutions of work, school, church, monogamy and capitalism come under attack, urging readers to live deliberately and passionately, wildly and freely, encouraging us with every waking moment to choose between generosity or greed, liberation or domination. There is no escaping one's mortality. Therefore, what really matters most: fighting on the streets for social justice or numbing away your pain with sitcoms and processed foods,the year you spent doing peace work in Chiapas or a meaningless lifetime of routine office labor? The choice is yours.

I half expected this book to be the immature ravings of malcontents, and while they are certainly malcontents, the writing is very mature and insightful. Another worry of mine when buying the book was that it would promote diffirent yet still sheep-iss attitudes, much like those that "rebel" and look like, listen to, and puppet the same things in their "cool" group. Yet this trap was not only avoided but clearly pointed out. What most inspired and impressed me was the spiritual depth of the book. Real spirituality, in the sense that the book brought out critical points and questions related to freedom, both as an internal quality and its external manifestation of how society as a whole can foster freedom and depth of questioning. The power of the book rests in it core and fundamental simplicity...And contrary to what your told, that is a compliment!

this book does exactly what it is intended to do: introduce a political ideology to the reader. In other words, its "crimethinc for beginners". It provides the reader with basic information about anarchism, and it provides the reader with decent arguments against capitalism. The book serves its purpose.After you read this book, if you are still interested with anarchist ideas I suggest you read "anarchism and other essays" by emma goldman, "what is anarchism" by a;exander berkman, "homage to catalonia" by george orwell

Days of War, Nights of Love is undoubtedly a life-changing book for anyone lucky enough to thumb through a few pages. Really, that's part of the beauty of it. When reading, I didn't go through the 'table of discontents' (A is for Anarchy, F is for Freedom, etc.) in order, I just opened randomly and started reading. And whether you're a capitalist cheerleader or a die-hard anarchist (something which the I chapter may make you think twice about,) it has fresh ideas and perspectives for everyone. The essays are mostly random collections of personal perspectives by mysterious authors, part of a CrimethInc. collective, many of the best written by the ever-elusive Nadia C. The authors explain, in clear and inspiring language, that the modern-day bourgeuoise style of living is not only damaging to the individual, but it is pitiful compared to the potential existance each of us could posess. An important point, however, is that CrimethInc. does NOT profess to be a movement or organization destined to lead the masses of out darkness. In fact, they warn against the danger of such 'movements', or for that matter, solid ideologies for any group. Along with the writing and personal notes, there are illustrations that make their catch phrases all the more meaningful by looking like they were written by a Dada Norman Rockwell. If you have ever felt put down by any authority, especially your own consciousness, this is for YOU... but be careful, this book will not save your life....