Emma Goldman on Human Nature

Brainpolice2's video on human nature reminded me of this.

The video this clip originated from can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LNwb7X7qBk

AlaskanAnarchist has a lot of other great vids, so sub away: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlaskanAnarchist

"But what about human nature? Can it be changed? And if not, will it endure under Anarchism? Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of human nature. Yet, how can any one speak of it today, with every soul in a prison, with every heart fettered, wounded, and maimed? John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities? Freedom, expansion, opportunity, and, above all, peace and repose, alone can teach us the real dominant factors of human nature and all its wonderful possibilities." -- Emma Goldman, "Anarchism and Other Essays"

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[jmatrim]

Brilliant woman- personal hero.

[ddaly1]

Yes, and also, from a scientific perspective, noam chomsky has said that there is just so little known about the human brain (though that which is known is important) b/c we can't do invasive experimentation and so forth, so anyone who tells you that we are this or that by nature... "their argument is probably built on sand"

[chamm101789]

Great video! I am writing a paper on Goldman and would love to know exactly where this is in Anarchism and other essays. Your reply would be much appreciated! Thanks for sharing the great works of Goldman.

[02Blackbeard]

@eulex10 I've read her collected works. She was a genius.

[eulex10]

@02Blackbeard i dont.read her biography and you will find out how she came up with that shit.she was raped by russian soldier when she was 20.She is sick as fuk

[02Blackbeard]

@eulex10 You talk shit. There is no JEWISH scam any more than there is a Buddhist or Christian scam.

[Pokahonodas]

@eulex10 Die nazi white trash

[CosmoShidan]

She sounds like Antisthenes of Athens, or the founder of cynicism. Ancient Cynicism is the philosophy that rejected culture, customs, heath, and possessions as vice; while encouraged poverty, rhetoric, self-sufficiency, and living according to nature as virtue. Either she might be recollecting this knowledge from an ancestor or read from Dio Chrysostom. I'm aware she read from modern philosophers such as Wollstonecraft and Nietzsche; but one has to wonder if she had read from the ancients.

[eulex10]

jewish scam.

[CosmoShidan]

@vitaemecha Where do atoms fit into this?

[vitaemecha]

@JNathanK2011 not true at all, human nature evolves , to say there is no human nature, is to say we are not human.