Murray Bookchin Interview

A short bit from Murray Bookchin from the 1981 documentary Anarchism in America.

• Category

  People & Blogs

[FA8T]

I think Bookchin was largely disallusioned with what he called lifestyle anarchism, he wrote a brilliant essay on it called social anarchism vs lifestyle anarchism. It is important to maintain that he never lost his libertarian ethos and was an anti-statist to the end. In a strange way he was more libertarian than most anarchists who unfortunately end up cultish and insulated.

[Sebastian Lundh]

R.I.P. Bookchin!

[oc00011]

[continued] btw what i wrote here about security is not what the anarchist view is at all, that's just what i'd do for 'a community'. in terms of anarchism, its something like a federalised army so without central authority (one of the few major doubts i have about anarchism, coz in desperate times an army needs a central unitary command). if i'm not mistaken the only reason the anarchists of civil war spain lasted so long (not long at all) was coz of soviet money, which was their end too.

[oc00011]

religion - i think each small community would voluntarily live together because they would share the same values. i would want to live in an atheist&agnostic community that reads the abrahamic scriptures for poetry, but 'western enlightenment' thinkers for philosophy & morals, i personally think 'faith' is dangerous.

security - just some tacticians knowing bushcraft & martial arts professionally enough to ward off "gangsters" n such. but if a state power wants u gone, well, not much u can do.

[theseconddogma]

thanks for answering. Maybe I should research about the topic, anarchy. by the way. what about religion and security? Religion wouldn't probably matter in most countries since religions are not so strong these days (despite what santorum may think). I'm a pantheist/agnostic myself. But what about security? defense of the group, etc? Local militias and rules or something?

[oc00011]

i'm not judgemental. anyway, many lazy people are shockingly hard-working if they are doing what they Passionately Enjoy doing. its just a case of finding your interest. now in terms of everybody sharing rotating shifts in doing the undesirable jobs like cleaning, i bet you would do it if the alternative would be living in a pile of shit. that aside, lazy people would always do the agricultural work with vigor...if it means that its the only way that you won't starve.

[theseconddogma]

hm. I dont think I would be capable of doing it. I'm lazy, and a parasite.

[oc00011]

every single thing, Everything, comes from (literally..) the earth. our medicines, our labs, our research facilities, our factories, our water management, even our nanotechnology, can all be done "from home" - small scale communities. we have the tech for that now. trade would only be needed for raw material - copper, iron etc & this can even be mostly recycled.

i thought about this a long time, all we need to achieve Anything is the (1) manpower (2) resources & environment (3) knowledge&skills.

[oc00011]

1 thing that marx emphasised which should've been paid more attention in communist circles as well as today in general, is that we shouldn't ever idolise anyone, never turn anyone into a hero or celebrity or god. always critique someone's ideas, especially if you like their ideas. this includes bookchin.

[oc00011]

i assume that with the technology we have today, we could have "micro health centres" & water retention landscaping & renewable energy plants in the small scale to fit people's needs under a socialist system. it would be decentralised. people would control their own means of production. any technological advancement or improvements to education etc that need a large number of people to implement, would be through federal organisation as immediate follow up of smaller scale direct democracy.

[spar tacus]

Shit! how did I miss this GREAT revolutionary who trascended Stalin, Trotsky and even Marx! He is the ONE who could take us from domination , explotation , hierarchy ...Jesus Christ, what an analysis! Lenin look like a child compare to him!