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Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman Books

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“No intelligent radical can fail to realize the need of the rational education of the young. The rearing of the child must become a process of liberation by methods which shall not impose ready-made ideas, but which should aid the child's natural self-unfoldment. The purpose of such an education is not to force the child's adaptation to accepted concepts. but to give free play to his [and her] originality, initiative, and individuality. Only by freeing education from compulsion and restraint can we create the environment for the manifestation of the spontaneous interest and inner incentives on the part of the child. Only thus can we supply rational conditions favorable to the development of the child's natural tendencies and his latent emotional and mental faculties. Such methods of education, essentially aiding the child's imitative quality and ardor for knowledge, will develop a generation of healthy intellectual independence. It will produce men and women capable, in the words of Francisco Ferrer, “of evolving without stopping, of destroying and renewing their environment without cessation; of renewing themselves also; always ready to accept what is best, happy in the triumph of new ideas, aspiring to live multiple lives in one life.”

EducationChild Rearing
Author:Alexander Berkman
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“Think it over and see if it is not the law itself, the government which really creates crime by compelling people to live in conditions that make them bad. See how law and government uphold and protect the biggest crime of all, the mother of all crimes, the capitalistic wage system, and then proceeds to punish the poor criminal.”

CapitalismAnarchismWage SlaveryAnti CapitalismWage LaborAnarcho Communism
Book:Now & After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism: Enriched edition.
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“If you can see, hear, feel, and think, you should know that King Dollar rules the United States, and that the workers are robbed and exploited in this country to the heart's content of the masters.If you are not deaf, dumb, and blind, then you know that the American bourgeois democracy and capitalistic civilization are the worst enemies of labor and progress, and that instead of protecting them, you should help to fight to destroy them.”

IfsThinkingKnowsFeelsShouldHeartCountryStatesHelpingFightingUnitedEnemyUnited StatesDemocracyProgressWorstMastersKingsCivilizationLaborBlindDollarsWorkersDumbDeafBourgeoisWorst Enemy
Author:Alexander Berkman
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“The man who can face vilification and disgrace, who can stand up against the popular current, even against his friends and his country when he know he is right, who can defy those in authority over him, who can take punishment and prison and remain steadfast-that is a man of courage. The fellow whom you taunt as a 'slacker' because he refuses to turn murderer-he needs courage. But do you need much courage just to obey orders, to do as you are told and to fall in line with thousands of others to the tune of general approval and the Star Spangled Banner?”

KnowsMenNeedsWarCountryFacesOrderTurnsFallStarsLinesHe ManAuthorityFellowsPrisonCurrentsRefusePunishmentTunesAnti WarApprovalMurdererDisgraceBannerSteadfastTauntingSlacker
Book:Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism
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“War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible, that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,' like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself. War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.”

ThinkingMeanWarReasonSpiritDiesPeaceLike YouThousandHundredDestructionMurderResponsibleBlindStupidityObedienceReason WhyAnti WarDoomedManhoodIrresponsibleDegradeWantonLike YourselfTrue ManCallousnessBlind Obedience
Book:Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism
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“Are you not compelled to work for an employer? Your need compels you just as the highwayman’s gun. You must live … You can’t work for yourself … The factories, machinery, and tools belong to the employing class, so you must hire yourself out to that class in order to work and live. Whatever you work at, whoever your employer may be, it always comes to the same: you must workfor him. You can’t help yourself. You are compelled.”

NeedsMayHelpingOrderClassGunToolsFactoriesCompelledMachineryEmployersHelp YourselfEmployingHighwaymen
Book:Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism
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“...existence has become an unreasoning, wild dance around the golden calf, a mad worship of God Mammon. In that dance and in that worship man has sacrificed all his finer qualities of the heart and soul — kindness and justice, honor and manhood, compassion and sympathy with his fellowman.”

MenHeartSoulJusticeMoneyExistenceQualityCompassionKindnessHonorWorshipMadGoldenManhoodHeart And SoulCalves
Book:Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism
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