“When people find themselves genuinely supported and cared for, they are able to extend this to others in ways that seemed impossible or terrifying before. When people find their bellies filled and their minds sharpened among communal kitchens and libraries, hatred for capitalist ways of life grows amid belonging and connection. […] When people begin to meet their everyday needs through neighbourhood assemblies and mutual aid, all of a sudden they are willing to fight the police and the fights deepens bonds of trust and solidarity. Joy can be contagious and dangerous.”

carla bergman and Nick Montgomery, Joyful Militancy1


According to 17th century philosopher Baruch de Spinoza, a human's goal is to become joyful, which means to increase their own power, to leave passivity behind, and to become active.2 In opposition to the way his far more influential contemporary René Descartes conceptualised the world as made up of distinct entities, where the body is subordinate to the mind, the world Spinoza describes is an interrelated one, where everything is part of one substance, which is god.3 Because everything we do affects others, and others affect us with their actions, increasing one’s own power means to empower others to become more active as well. 4

carla bergman and Nick Montgomery describe joy as “becoming capable of new things, with others”. Joy is not a feeling of bliss or happiness, but a feeling of collective agency, an ability to be affected by others and to affect others. bergman and Motgomery see mutual relationships of love, care, and trust, rather than abstract ideologies as prerequisites for joined struggle. Joy is about embodiment, about physically being part of something, about daring and experimenting, giving up control and critical distance, immersing oneself, not avoiding pain, but “struggling amidst and though it.”5 Audre Lorde also emphasises the importance of joy in organising: “The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.”6

Joy also entails moving away from our conditioned pursuit of happiness and comfort7, it is the opposite of Mark Fisher’s depressive hedonia, the constant seeking of superficial pleasures and excitements in the form of entertainment and consumption, accompanied by a feeling of resignation and powerlessness with regards to the injustices of our system.8 This resonates with Spinoza’s use of the term sadness, which describes a state of passivity, a loss in capacity to be affected, to be set in movement by things, and to affect things in turn. It is a feeling of disempowerment, of alienation and isolation, that results in aversion to change and fear of the new and unfamiliar. 9



1 bergman, carla, and Nick Montgomery. Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times. AK Press, 2017.
2 Carlisle, Clare. “Spinoza, part 6: Understanding the emotions.” The Guardian, 14 March 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/14/spinoza-understanding-emotions . Accessed 24 May 2022.
3 Carlisle, Clare. “Spinoza, part 5: On human nature.” The Guardian, 7 March 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/07/spinoza-philosophy-ethics-human-nature . Accessed 24 May 2022.
4 Carlisle, Clare. “Spinoza, part 7: On the ethics of the self.” The Guardian, 21 March 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/21/spinoza-ethics-of-the-self . Accessed 24 May 2022.
5 bergman, carla, and Nick Montgomery. Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times. AK Press, 2017.
6 Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic.” When I dare to be powerful: Women so empowered are dangerous, Penguin Books, 2020.
7 Ahmed, Sarah. The Promise of Happiness. Duke University Press, 2010.
8 Fisher, Mark. “Reflexive Impotence.” K-punk, 11 April 2006, www.k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/007656.html . Accessed 24 May 2022.
9 bergman, carla, and Nick Montgomery. Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times. AK Press, 2017.


“When people find themselves genuinely supported and cared for, they are able to extend this to others in ways that seemed impossible or terrifying before. When people find their bellies filled and their minds sharpened among communal kitchens and libraries, hatred for capitalist ways of life grows amid belonging and connection. […] When people begin to meet their everyday needs through neighbourhood assemblies and mutual aid, all of a sudden they are willing to fight the police and the fights deepens bonds of trust and solidarity. Joy can be contagious and dangerous.”

carla bergman and Nick Montgomery, Joyful Militancy1


According to 17th century philosopher Baruch de Spinoza, a human's goal is to become joyful, which means to increase their own power, to leave passivity behind, and to become active.2 In opposition to the way his far more influential contemporary René Descartes conceptualised the world as made up of distinct entities, where the body is subordinate to the mind, the world Spinoza describes is an interrelated one, where everything is part of one substance, which is god.3 Because everything we do affects others, and others affect us with their actions, increasing one’s own power means to empower others to become more active as well. 4

carla bergman and Nick Montgomery describe joy as “becoming capable of new things, with others”. Joy is not a feeling of bliss or happiness, but a feeling of collective agency, an ability to be affected by others and to affect others. bergman and Motgomery see mutual relationships of love, care, and trust, rather than abstract ideologies as prerequisites for joined struggle. Joy is about embodiment, about physically being part of something, about daring and experimenting, giving up control and critical distance, immersing oneself, not avoiding pain, but “struggling amidst and though it.”5 Audre Lorde also emphasises the importance of joy in organising: “The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.”6

Joy also entails moving away from our conditioned pursuit of happiness and comfort7, it is the opposite of Mark Fisher’s depressive hedonia, the constant seeking of superficial pleasures and excitements in the form of entertainment and consumption, accompanied by a feeling of resignation and powerlessness with regards to the injustices of our system.8 This resonates with Spinoza’s use of the term sadness, which describes a state of passivity, a loss in capacity to be affected, to be set in movement by things, and to affect things in turn. It is a feeling of disempowerment, of alienation and isolation, that results in aversion to change and fear of the new and unfamiliar. 9



1 bergman, carla, and Nick Montgomery. Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times. AK Press, 2017.
2 Carlisle, Clare. “Spinoza, part 6: Understanding the emotions.” The Guardian, 14 March 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/14/spinoza-understanding-emotions . Accessed 24 May 2022.
3 Carlisle, Clare. “Spinoza, part 5: On human nature.” The Guardian, 7 March 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/07/spinoza-philosophy-ethics-human-nature . Accessed 24 May 2022.
4 Carlisle, Clare. “Spinoza, part 7: On the ethics of the self.” The Guardian, 21 March 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/21/spinoza-ethics-of-the-self . Accessed 24 May 2022.
5 bergman, carla, and Nick Montgomery. Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times. AK Press, 2017.
6 Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic.” When I dare to be powerful: Women so empowered are dangerous, Penguin Books, 2020.
7 Ahmed, Sarah. The Promise of Happiness. Duke University Press, 2010.
8 Fisher, Mark. “Reflexive Impotence.” K-punk, 11 April 2006, www.k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/007656.html . Accessed 24 May 2022.
9 bergman, carla, and Nick Montgomery. Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times. AK Press, 2017.