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Lathram

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Begin the World Over (Emergent Strategy)

by Kung Li Sun

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read in January 2024

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Lathram said: " Reading again for good measure (and medicine).

Wow.

I was recently listening to a podcast where Andrea Ritchie was talking about her new book, Practicing New Worlds, where she tries on the imagining of our next economic and social order. She reflects Reading again for good measure (and medicine).

Wow.

I was recently listening to a podcast where Andrea Ritchie was talking about her new book, Practicing New Worlds, where she tries on the imagining of our next economic and social order. She reflects on how for the majority of her organizing life, she has looked to others to do the imagining as she co-struggles towards abolition. Her new book is her public recognition that we all have a responsibility to imagine, as difficult, uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and as unskilled we may be at it. I felt that call come to life in Kung Li’s book. What do we learn by studying how different decisions throughout history would shift our current reality? What do we learn by studying imagined futures we might not be able to grasp yet? So much. I believe this is one of the most strategic intellectual practices we can try on, and Kung Li calls us into that.

This is a story of solidarity, of struggle, of betrayal, of strategy, of spirit, of love. Plantations ablaze, struggles across imposed borders, queer revolutionaries, queer revolution.

This was a wild book to read for many reasons. Perhaps the most prominent is because of my own relationship to and with South Alabama, where much of this story is set - knowing the rivers, the species, the Federal Road, the factual history of some of these characters.

A few themes I want to pull out:
The way that Red Ege views debt, and the way we witness his clarity come into focus. First, with the way he commits to repair his debt to Mary, even though others don’t see it as his own debt to repair. We also witness his understanding of debt sharpen with his mother’s wisdom – “No debt incurs for that which cannot be bought or sold,” – as he ponders his responsibility of repair at different moments throughout the book. There is a lot to hold onto here, and I appreciated the ways he moved with debt/forgiveness/repair across and beyond linear space and time.

I also want to highlight the struggle of familial relationships in the book. There were moments where kin had to diverge because of different values and ideological views, but ultimately it was values. This is most obvious amongst Sehoy, Red Eagle, and McGillivray. It is hard to imagine the degree of this reality during the 1800s, especially amidst the Creek Wars where Maskoke were deeply split on strategy, and many were killed and many were displaced. We know this is historically true of revolutionary times. As a young person living through a new era of generationally impacting choices, I found peace in Red Eagle’s final words to his uncle. The consideration of losing people you love because of your commitment to a free world is actually something to contend with, although we hope we can bring them with us.

It also feels important to highlight the way we see the leaders discern timing of actions and identify the skills needed. There is clear leadership in this story and there is a clear diversity of skill that allows this to be a successful start to a revolution. Map making, cooking, spiritual preparation, etc etc etc. And also we have to break bread together. We are all needed, and we all have gifts to offer. And we need people to lead us.

Ok, lastly, the theme of fugitivity. How to exist in free spaces in an unfree state. Is it possible? Is it worthwhile? Is it strategic? Here we see multiple sites of fugitivity - maroons, pirates, sovereign indigenous zones - move together. I’m left wondering where the sites of fugitivity are in the present. I am lucky to know and witness some. I know there are many more. What’s the next leg of revolution? And what do we need to prepare? ...more "

Sep 13, 2025 08:53PM · see review