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<p>Whether from within or outside the system, ‘old tools can find new uses and new tools can awaken old and forgotten knowledge’. Our Swedish partner journal <em>Glänta</em> has created a <span lang="EN-US">‘</span><a href="https://www.eurozine.com/a-conceptual-toolbox/"><span lang="EN-US">toolbox</span></a><span lang="EN-US">’ which</span><span lang="EN-US"> contains concepts for tearing down old societal structures and building new ones. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Matilda Amundsen Bergström revisits temperance:</span></p>
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</span><h4 class="py05 fw500 lh3">Virtue overcoming boundaries</h4><span>
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<p><span class="s1">Miriam Rasch encourages idiots:</span></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1">And Karl Palmås</span><span class="s1"> explores how time is suspended during crises:</span></p>
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</section><span>Gl</span><span lang="EN-US">ä</span><span lang="EN-US">nta</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s </span><span lang="EN-US">‘</span><span lang="EN-US">toolbox</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US"> contains concepts for building new and tearing down old societal structures. Thinkers from different guilds, invited to contribute a tool of their own, present the means to construct, reconstruct, deconstruct or apply whatever other operation may be needed. Among their devices are old concepts that are being revived and those whose area of use could be different from when they were originally constructed. Other concepts have been formulated during our time but still need to be put into practice. Further concepts are new inventions for new purposes.</span><span>
</span><p class="BodyA"><span lang="EN-US">In addition to the strong, almost overwhelming feeling that we need to compile an inventory of concepts available for today</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s critical activities, the idea of this toolbox is based on three statements that were given to contributors:</span></p><span>
</span><p class="BodyA"><span lang="EN-US">The first is Ludwig Wittgenstein</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s general description of language published in 1953: </span><span lang="EN-US">‘</span><span lang="EN-US">Think of the tools in a toolbox: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screwdriver, a rule, a glue-pot, nails and screws </span><span lang="EN-US">— </span><span lang="EN-US">the functions of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span></p><span>
</span><p class="BodyA"><span lang="EN-US">The second is Gilles Deleuze and F</span><span lang="EN-US">é</span><span lang="EN-US">lix Guattari</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s 1991 definition of what philosophy is: </span><span lang="EN-US">‘</span><span lang="EN-US">philosophy is the art of forming, inventing, and fabricating concepts.</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span></p><span>
</span><p class="BodyA"><span lang="EN-US">And the third statement was published by Audre Lorde in 1984: </span><span lang="EN-US">‘</span><span lang="EN-US">The master</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s tools will never dismantle the master</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s house.</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span></p><span>
</span><p class="BodyA"><span lang="EN-US">Audre Lorde</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s proclamation is often translated as a question even though she was very clear of the master</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s tools</span><span lang="EN-US">’ </span><span lang="EN-US">impotence. They </span><span lang="EN-US">‘</span><span lang="EN-US">may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s house as their only source of support.</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US"> This was, however, written in another time and another context. In 1978 she was the only black lesbian invited to a feminist conference in New York. At the venue she asked herself an only partly rhetorical question: </span><span lang="EN-US">‘</span><span lang="EN-US">What does it mean when the tools of a racist patriarchy are used to examine the fruits of the same patriarchy?</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span></p><span>
</span><p class="BodyA"><span lang="EN-US">There are those who would say that it is not only possible but rather the only thing that can actually make a difference</span><span lang="EN-US"> –</span><span lang="EN-US"> to use the tools of power in a critical way, against power. And so they do. Maybe only old tools are applicable in the time of retrotopias, in relation to all those who dream of lost empires: Trump, Xi Jinping, Erdogan, Putin. Others tend to agree with Lorde and, therefore, constantly create new tools. Still others would argue that the most reasonable approach is to constantly redefine old tools in new ways.</span></p><span>
</span><p class="BodyA"><span lang="EN-US">Lorde</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s master</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-US">s house statement could be rephrased in many ways with a question mark at the end. Is it better, more effective, to work from within or from the outside? Is it even possible to choose? Is there really an outside position from which it is possible to act critically in a useful way today, with your own tool, in relation to an inside? Maybe all of these issues can at least make better use of our tools, both old and new, with new toolboxes, tool sheds and user manuals. Because, if old weapons are not effective in fighting new enemies, it is also not so certain that new weapons will be effective in fighting old enemies. Instead, old tools can find new uses and new tools can awaken old and forgotten knowledge.</span></p><span>
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