[smygo] Anarchist Knitting Circle
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>From sfweekly.com
Originally published by SF Weekly May 21, 2003
The Anarchist Knitting Circle
Mike Benham is a young man searching for community. And
searching. And searching.
BY LESSLEY ANDERSON
mailto:lessley....@sfweekly.com
In 2000, Harvard sociology professor Robert D. Putnam
tracked the erosion of American social networks and civic
involvement in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and
Revival of American Community. Through his research on
Americans' declining participation in things like bowling
leagues, church groups, voting, and even dinner parties,
Putnam concluded that 20th-century Americans were an
alarmingly isolated bunch.
Three years after publication of Putnam's seminal book, not
much has changed. Most people don't know their neighbors'
names (much less the names of the people they work out next
to at the gym) and are still -- socially speaking -- bowling
alone. This deeply troubles 22-year-old Mike Benham of Hayes
Valley. A Georgia native who moved to the Bay Area five
years ago, Benham has devoted his life to rebuilding the
human networks he feels society has lost. And in the last
several months, Benham has unleashed a torrent of what he
calls "community-building" projects.
There's his Anarchist Knitting Circle, which meets in his
apartment on Thursday nights -- not to plot the overthrow of
governments, but to actually knit. There's the online
book-lending library he created. Most recently, he helped
coordinate a May Day celebration in Dolores Park in which
attendees were invited to share skills with each other. One
participant taught people how to repair bikes; another
demonstrated how to make and use stilts.
"I'm really into having demonstrations that actually
demonstrate something," says Benham, a lanky young man in
beat-up skateboarding high-tops. He wears a homemade
necklace of acorn caps and a long-underwear shirt under a
T-shirt, and has stopped brushing his mop of brown hair in
what looks like an optimistic attempt to create dreadlocks.
Benham is a dedicated anarchist who volunteers at the Haight
Street anarchist bookstore, Bound Together Books. For him,
the ideals of anarchy extend beyond politics into all realms
of human endeavor. Like knitting, for instance.
"A lot of people in the anarchist community have a DIY or
'do it yourself' ethos," says Benham. "Knitting is DIY."
(Since patterns and yarn-weight recommendations apparently
are too regimented for Benham's tastes, members of the
Anarchist Knitting Circle eschew written directions when
making their garments.) "You can get a sweater off the
street and unravel it and make your own," he notes.
As his propensity for making his own clothes indicates,
Benham lives on the cheap, which is fortunate since he
currently has no source of income. He dumpster-dives for
food, frequenting trash bins near produce wholesalers in the
Bayview because -- unlike grocery stores -- they throw food
away before it's rotten.
His latest community-building project -- the online library
-- came about as the result of Benham trying to further
purge himself of material possessions. However, he faltered
at ditching his precious book collection, which contains --
besides anarchist literature -- volumes on quantum physics,
computer programming, and philosophy.
"I thought, 'Well, I could turn my apartment into a
library,'" muses Benham. "But when would it be open? And how
would people hear about it?" Instead, he turned to the Web.
On his site (http://www.communitybooks.org ), Bay Area
readers can post the titles in their book collections, along
with a short description and/or review, and their e-mail
addresses. When a browser finds a book she likes, she can
e-mail the owner, agree on a length of time she'll borrow it
for, and schedule a time to pick up the book at the lender's
house. Benham also built an eBay-like rating system, through
which lenders can warn other lenders against flakes or
coffee-spillers. He recently expanded the site to include
videos.
Asked if the lending library has any potential to become a
dating service for bookworms, Benham laughs. "It doesn't
have to be a dating service, but that's the idea," he says.
"You know who has books you like, and it's good just to know
those people."
Benham's seemingly insatiable quest to start clubs and
social gatherings began during his only-child upbringing in
Atlanta. He looked forward to moving to California so he
could meet others with more liberal leanings, and applied to
and was accepted at UC Santa Cruz. He tried but failed to
get into advanced computer courses he felt he was qualified
for since he'd worked as a programmer at software companies
while in high school. Frustrated, he dropped out of college
after only one quarter.
It was 1999, and the dot-com storm swept up the talented
Benham despite his lack of a four-year degree. He was hired
by a San Francisco software company as a programmer. Like
many young computer geeks, Benham developed an interest in
security and hacking. Before he could buy a drink at a bar,
he became a hotshot Internet security expert, whom
journalists called for quotes.
But Benham was bored. Like many people, he didn't find his
job satisfying and fantasized about moving to a deserted
island. But unlike many people, Benham actually did attempt
to move to a deserted island.
He wrote on his Web site at the time that "the fight for
social and economic change in the United States was
impossible to win" and therefore he "decided to start a new
country on an uninhabited island in the Caribbean."
In late 2002, Benham and two friends identified the closest
uninhabited island to the United States -- a place called
Samana Cay, in the Bahamas -- and embarked on a scouting
expedition. After a hair-raising skiff ride over 10-foot
swells, with a boatman they suspected was a "not very nice
drug-runner," Benham and company landed on Samana Cay only
to discover a desolate place blanketed with "sharp bushes"
and mosquitoes.
"It was immediately apparent that the island was in no way
ideal," Benham deadpanned on his Web site.
In lieu of founding his island community, Benham embarked on
a three-month Kerouacian journey across the United States,
armed with a tape recorder and notepad. Among other things,
he hitchhiked to Los Angeles, lived in a squatter building
in Gainesville, Fla., and had a run-in with the police after
riding the rails through the South. Along the way, he taped
interviews with people he met about their philosophy of
life. When he returned to the Bay Area, he created an
eloquent, touching CD about his adventure, in the style of
National Public Radio's documentary show This American Life.
But the "community" he had expected to connect with around
the country had eluded him. Benham felt a bit lonely.
"Even though I met wonderful people," says Benham on his CD,
"my transience forces the relationships I build to be
shallow on some level."
Benham is a quiet and serious person, though he doesn't take
himself too seriously. He carries a scary-looking hunting
knife for protection while hitchhiking, but admits he's
unlikely to ever use it.
"You have to actually be able to stab someone if you have a
knife, and not just brandish it," he says. "But I'm not
ready to stab someone. So I'm thinking of switching to
mace."
Lately Benham has thought about putting together a cookbook
comprised of favorite recipes from his Hayes Valley
neighbors.
Such a homey idea comes at a time when Benham is on the
brink of homelessness. The money he squirreled away during
his high-flying days as a computer programmer has nearly run
out, leaving him facing a rent crisis. When his cash is
gone, Benham says calmly, he plans to squat -- "or sleep on
people's roofs."
And even if he doesn't have a kitchen, someone will. And
someone else will have a warm place to gather. And everybody
has at least two favorite recipes.
"Then you can take that one step further and have a
potluck," says Benham.
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
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News for Anarchists & Activists:
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"It's a political statement -- or, rather, an
*anti*-political statement. The symbol for *anarchy*!"
-- Batman, explaining the circle-A graffiti, in
_Detective Comics_ #608
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