“My communism attempts basically to create a shared society, that's all; a shared society in which individuality will flourish, along with love, and along with mutual respect.” IndividualityCommunismMutualMutual Respect Author:Murray Bookchin
“I am not a communist first and an individualist second. I am an individualist first, and I don't mean this in the shallow, purely egotistical sense of self-interest and everyone else be damned. I mean this in the true sense of enlightenment, recovery of personality, and the full development of personality.” FirstsMeanSelfInterestPersonalityDevelopmentEnlightenmentRecoveryCommunistShallowSelf InterestSense Of SelfEgotistical Author:Murray Bookchin
“I was a Stalinist in the '30s. I had come from a Russian revolutionary family who simply were elated by the fact that the Czar was overthrown by this group known as the Bolsheviks. My family identified with anybody who overthrew the Czar. So they identified themselves intuitively with Bolshevism.” FactsKnownGroupsMy FamilyRevolutionaryBolsheviksBolshevismCzars Author:Murray Bookchin
“I went through the communist children's movement at the age of nine, in 1930, and into the Young Communist League in 1936. The Spanish civil war brought me back. I'd already broken with the communists - or the Stalinists, more precisely - in 1935. But the civil war in Spain and the desire to aid the remarkable people struggling against Fascism brought me back to the Young Communist League, so that I could effectively participate, however far removed from Spain, in their struggle. By 1938 I was ready to be expelled. By 1939 I was expelled.” PeopleChildrenWarAgeYoungDesireStruggleMovementReadyBrokenAidsNineLeagueCivil WarRemarkableCommunistFascismSpain1930sSpanish Civil War Author:Murray Bookchin
“I got deeply involved with the Trotskyists. I assumed simply that my enemy's enemies were my friends.” EnemyInvolvedMy Friends Author:Murray Bookchin
“I learned that [Trotskyism] were no different from the Stalinists, and they expelled me, which is the typical Marxist-Leninist way of dealing with dissenters. From that point on, I migrated by the 1950s into anarchism, increasingly emphasizing decentralization. Also, I made the all-important step of bridging my social philosophy with ecology. I did that in 1952 and went on to write a whole series of books developing an anarcho-ecological approach.” WayWritingMadeImportantBookDifferentPhilosophyWholeSocialStepsApproachSeriesDevelopingEcologyTypicalAnarchismEcologicalMarxistDecentralization Author:Murray Bookchin
“I have a great admiration for pacifism, but I'm not a pacifist, mainly because I would defend myself if I were attacked.” IfsAdmirationPacifistPacifism Author:Murray Bookchin
“I believe that the American people should defend themselves if any attempt is made to take over the government by coup d'etat, whether by the military or the Marxists or any people who profess to be anarchists.” PeopleIfsShouldBelieveMadeGovernmentI BelieveMilitaryAnarchistMarxistCoups Author:Murray Bookchin
“I do have an intense respect for pacifists, because I believe that ultimately, if we are to have a truly humanistic as well as libertarian society, violence will have to be banished on this planet.” IfsBelieveWellsI BelieveViolencePlanetsLibertarianIntensePacifistHumanistic Author:Murray Bookchin
“I detest violence. I have a tremendous respect not only for human life but also for the animal life that I have to live with, and I believe that our destiny as human beings is to become nature-conscious as well as self-conscious, living in loving relationship and in balance and in harmony, not only with one another, but with the entire natural world.” WorldBelieveHumansWellsSelfI BelieveNaturalHuman BeingsAnimalDestinyViolenceBalanceConsciousHarmonyHuman LifeOur DestinyNatural WorldSelf ConsciousDetestAnimal LifeLoving Relationships Author:Murray Bookchin
“I will not call myself a pacifist for the very simple reason that if something like a [Francisco] Franco should arise in Spain again, or, for that matter, in America, and tried to take away whatever dwindling civil liberties and human rights we retain, I would resist them with a club if I had to. But my admiration for pacifism as an outlook and a sensibility is enormous. I just find that it gets me into contradictions, as it often gets many pacifists into contradictory positions and strategies.” IfsShouldHumansMatterReasonAmericaSimpleLibertyRightsPositionStrategyHuman RightsClubsEnormousAriseContradictionAdmirationSensibilitySpainOutlookContradictoryCivil LibertiesPacifistPacifismFrancoFrancisco Franco Author:Murray Bookchin
“I've had training in electronics engineering, of all things, and in languages. But I've never taken any degree, something I share with Lewis Mumford, I think.” ThinkingLanguageTakenShareDegreesTrainingAll ThingsEngineeringElectronics Author:Murray Bookchin
“I've worked in the factories of this land, and I've thought freely and creatively. And I think that that has greatly enriched my capacity to abstract intellectually. The experience of being with workers, my encounters with management and my recognition of its foibles, my personal encounters with American industrial efficiency, my military experience - all of these things packaged together have greatly enriched my reading and my understanding, and I've written with what I hope is a reasonable fluency of style that is much more expressive than the academic stuff.” ThinkingTogetherReadingStuffUnderstandingWrittenLandMilitaryStyleCapacityManagementWorkersRecognitionAbstractEncountersReasonableFactoriesAcademicEfficiencyExpressiveFoiblesFluencyMilitary Experience Author:Murray Bookchin
“My thinking is very flexible, and I hope that it will remain flexible and creative as long as biology permits me to think and that I will remain a rebel all my life.” ThinkingLongCreativeBiologyPermitRebelFlexible Author:Murray Bookchin
“I will never compromise - I can now say with assurance at the age of 57 - with my libertarian and my revolutionary commitments; they'll have to kill me first. They can't buy me out. I'm just not interested in what they have to offer. I've managed to stick it out, and the thing that has been the most rescuing, the most redeeming, feature of my life that has kept me alive, that has kept me more or less single-minded about my commitment to libertarian ideals once I escaped the trap of Marxist-Leninism - a childhood trap, to be sure - has been consciousness.” FirstsHas BeensI CanAgeConsciousnessAliveChildhoodOffersCommitmentIdealsSticksLibertarianCompromiseFeaturesRevolutionaryNot InterestedTrapsAssuranceKill MeMarxistRedeemingNever Compromise Author:Murray Bookchin
“Deny my individuality and I become an animal, mute, a mere creature of all the forces that act upon me.” ForceAnimalCreaturesMereIndividualityDenyMute Author:Murray Bookchin
“I will never surrender the rights of the individual - the complete rights of the individual - to any "ism" whatever.” IndividualRightsSurrenderIsmsNever Surrender Author:Murray Bookchin
“My concern is to develop a North American type of anarchism that comes out of the American tradition, or that at least can be communicated to Americans and that takes into consideration that Americans are not any longer people of European background.” PeopleTypeConcernTraditionBackgroundsConsiderationAnarchismAmerican Tradition Author:Murray Bookchin
“The only conclusion I could arrive at with the death of the workers' movement as a revolutionary force - you know the imagery of the proletarian vanguard, or proletarian hegemony - has been the community.” KnowsHas BeensForceCommunityMovementWorkersConclusionRevolutionaryImageryHegemonyVanguard Author:Murray Bookchin
“As for the workers' movement, I find that I reach workers more easily as neighbors than I do standing outside the factory despairingly giving out a leaflet telling them to take over, say the Ford plant.” GivingMovementStandingPlantWorkersNeighborFactoriesStanding Out Author:Murray Bookchin
“In some instances even certain social services that normally were supplied, or pre-empted by the state. Take the United States, the [Ronald] Reagan administration is withdrawing assistance, all kinds of welfare programs, and if people don't improvise their own resources to cope with problems of the ageing, problems of the sick, problems of the young, problems of the poor, problems of tenant rights, who will?” PeopleIfsKindStatesProblemYoungCertainSocialPoorUnitedUnited StatesRightsResourcesProgramSickAll KindsInstanceAdministrationWelfareAssistanceAgeingSocial ServiceTenantsWithdrawingWelfare Programs Author:Murray Bookchin
“New England has a strong tradition of localism. What is ordinarily called election day in most of the United States is called town meeting day in Vermont.” StatesStrongUnitedUnited StatesTraditionEnglandTownsElectionMeetingsNew EnglandElection DayVermont Author:Murray Bookchin
“New York has a tremendous number of people but the quality of its politics is unspeakable. By contrast, in a smaller township, I find there's a great deal of social awareness, less of a sense of powerlessness, less of a polarization of economic life.” PeopleSocialDealsNumbersQualityEconomicAwarenessNew YorkContrastUnspeakablePowerlessnessPolarizationSocial Awareness Author:Murray Bookchin
“My feeling is that anarchists have to think in terms of a specific. I think the dispersal of anarchists all over the place, particularly very gifted ones who can turn out periodicals and do very effective public work, and their tendency to just pick up and take off is a liability.” ThinkingFeelingsTurnsTermPicksTendenciesGiftedAnarchistLiability Author:Murray Bookchin
“What I'd like to see developing is an American radicalism, libertarian in character, which relies, however weak, faint, and even mythic these traditions may be, on the American libertarian tradition. I don't mean right-wing libertarianism obviously.” MayMeanCharacterTraditionWeakWingsLibertarianDevelopingRelyLibertarianismRight WingRadicalism Author:Murray Bookchin
“I'm talking of the idea, basically very widespread in America, that the less government the better, which is obviously being used to the advantage of the big corporations, but none-the-less has very radical implications. The idea of a people that exercises a great deal of federalist or confederalist control, the ideal of a grass-roots type of democracy, the idea of the freedom of the individual which is not to get lost in the mazes of anarcho-egotism à la Stirner, or for that matter right-wing libertarianism.” PeopleIdeasMatterBigsGovernmentAmericaUsedIndividualLostDealsTalkingDemocracyTypeExerciseAdvantageIdealsRootsWingsRadicalCorporationsGrassLibertarianismEgotismImplicationsRight WingMazesFederalistBig Corporations Author:Murray Bookchin
“I feel that we have some opportunity in North America to go back and say the American Revolution was the real thing.” FeelsRealAmericaOpportunityRevolutionReal ThingsAmerican RevolutionNorth America Author:Murray Bookchin
“I don't want to think any longer simply in terms of the Spanish Revolution or the Russian Revolution. It doesn't make any sense to talk [Peter] Makhno to an American.” ThinkingWantTermRevolutionPeterRussian Revolution Author:Murray Bookchin
“The most important thing [anarchists] can do is educate themselves, develop a propaganda machinery in the form of books and periodicals, a literature, engage in discussion groups that are open to a community, to discuss and develop their ideas and to develop networks.” ImportantBookIdeasFormLiteratureCan DoCommunityGroupsImportant ThingsDiscussionPropagandaEducateMachineryAnarchist Author:Murray Bookchin
“I think it's terribly important that networks of anarchists establish themselves with a view toward educating people.” PeopleThinkingImportantViewsAnarchist Author:Murray Bookchin
“In my case I would emphasize anarcho-communalism, along with the ecological questions, the feminist questions, the anti-nuclear issues that exist, and along with the articulation of popular institutions in the community. I think it's terribly important for anarchists to do that because at this moment not very much is happening anywhere in North America.” ThinkingImportantMomentsAmericaCommunityCasesIssuesHappeningsInstitutionsFeministNuclearAnarchistEcologicalNorth AmericaArticulationCommunalism Author:Murray Bookchin
“My main interests right now are to publish, to write, to explicate various views which I hope have an impact on thinking people.” PeopleThinkingWritingInterestViewsRight NowImpactVariousPublish Author:Murray Bookchin
“I know one thing: that you can do a lot of things but if you don't educate people into conscious anarchism it gets frittered away.” PeopleIfsKnowsCan DoOne ThingConsciousEducateAnarchism Author:Murray Bookchin
“In the 60s there were a lot of things which were anarchistic. May-June '68 was riddled by anarchistic sentiments, dreams and ideals, but insofar as this was not strengthened organizationally and intellectually by a very effective, powerful infrastructure, then what happens is the movement becomes dissipated.” MayDreamHappensPowerfulMovementIdealsSentimentsInfrastructureJune Author:Murray Bookchin
“I'm less influenced by any of [Karl] Marx's ideas today than I've ever been in my life, and most significantly Marx's theory of historical materialism, which I think is virtually a debris of despotism.” ThinkingIdeasTodayTheoryHistoricalMaterialismDespotismDebris Author:Murray Bookchin
“I'm by no means convinced that capitalism and the development of technology has made anarchism easier.” MeanMadeTechnologyDevelopmentEasierCapitalismConvincedAnarchismDevelopment Of Technology Author:Murray Bookchin
“Here's what I do believe very strongly: that once capitalism comes into existence, once it creates this mythology of a stingy nature, then that myth has to be exorcised. In other words, we have to get out of people's heads the idea that without a market economy, without egotism, competition, rivalry and self-interest, without all the technological advances that [Karl] Marx imputed to capitalism, we have to eliminate the feeling that we would sink into some kind of barbarism.” PeopleBelieveKindIdeasSelfFeelingsInterestExistenceEconomyCapitalismCompetitionMythMythologyVery StrongTechnologicalSelf InterestEgotismRivalryBarbarismMarket EconomyStingy Author:Murray Bookchin
“We have to give people the freedom to choose lifestyles and material satisfactions that suit their needs, and we have to redefine need itself. We can't redefine need among ghetto people by telling them we should all give up our TV sets or automobiles: we have to tell them there's enough to go around, now let's talk about using it sensibly.” PeopleNeedsGivingShouldEnoughMaterialsTvsGiving UpSatisfactionLifestyleSuitsAutomobileGhettoFreedom To Choose Author:Murray Bookchin
“Capitalism has created a situation called scarcity. And that scarcity is not natural, it's socially induced. Along with that sense of scarcity, or feeling of scarcity, is a feeling of economic insecurity. Along with that is a feeling of deprivation... And unless we can demonstrate that that feeling is not justified technologically, we will not be able to speak intelligently to the great majority of people and reorganize our economy so that we really know what needs are rational and human and what have been created, almost fetishisticaly, by the capitalist economy.” PeopleKnowsNeedsHumansHas BeensFeelingsAbleSpeakNaturalSituationEconomyEconomicCapitalismMajorityRationalInsecurityCapitalistJustifiedScarcityDeprivationCapitalist Economy Author:Murray Bookchin
“I've been criticized by many anarchists as believing that anarchism is impossible without affluence. On the contrary, I think affluence is very destructive to anarchism. If you are absorbed by that commodity world then you're not going to move toward any radical positions, you're going to move toward a stance of protectiveness.” IfsThinkingWorldBelieveMovingImpossiblePositionContraryRadicalDestructiveCommodityAnarchismAnarchistStanceAffluenceProtectiveness Author:Murray Bookchin
“I have been criticized for pointing out that anarchism is likely to flourish more easily, at least in the western world, and to a certain extent in eastern Europe, in those areas where there is either grim need or considerable technological development.” WorldNeedsHas BeensCertainDevelopmentEuropeAreasWesternTechnologicalEasternPointingAnarchismGrimWestern WorldEastern EuropeTechnological Development Author:Murray Bookchin
“After reading The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi, I realized that capitalism did not naturally grow as [Karl] Marx would imply by his theory of historical materialism. People were dragged into capitalism screaming, shouting, and fighting all along the way, trying to resist this industrial and commercial world.” PeopleWorldWayTryingFightingReadingGrowsTheoryCapitalismTransformationHistoricalI RealizedMaterialismShouting Author:Murray Bookchin
“I'm convinced more than ever that capitalism, with its technological development, has not been an advance toward freedom but has been an enormous setback of freedom.” Has BeensDevelopmentCapitalismConvincedEnormousTechnologicalSetbackTechnological Development Author:Murray Bookchin
“In The Ecology of Freedom, my critique of what is called civilization and industrial society is massive, and my attack upon [Karl] Marx's commitment to it as a necessary stage in human progress and the domination of nature is very sharp.” HumansProgressStageCivilizationCommitmentMassiveEcologyDominationCritiqueHuman Progress Author:Murray Bookchin
“I believe that there has to be an ideal and I favour an ethical anarchism which can be cohered into an ideal.” BelieveI BelieveIdealsEthicalFavourAnarchism Author:Murray Bookchin
“I believe that it's terribly important to have a movement that is spiritual, not in the supernatural sense, but in the sense of German Geist, spirit, which combines the idea of mind together with feeling, together with intuition.” MindBelieveImportantIdeasFeelingsTogetherSpiritualSpiritI BelieveMovementIntuition Author:Murray Bookchin
“I'm sorry that some self-styled anarchists have picked up on the word spirit and have turned me into a theological ecologist, a notion which I think is crude beyond all belief.” ThinkingSelfSpiritBeliefNotionSorryI'm SorryAnarchistTheologicalCrude Author:Murray Bookchin
“I've developed my anarchism, my critique of Marxism, which has been the most advanced bourgeois ideology I know of, into a community of ideas and ultimately a common sense of responsibilities and commitments.” KnowsHas BeensIdeasCommunityCommonResponsibilityCommitmentCommon SenseIdeologyMarxismAnarchismCritiqueBourgeoisSense Of Responsibility Author:Murray Bookchin
“I don't think anarchism consists of sitting down and saying let's form a collective. I don't think it consists of saying we're all anarchists: you're an anarcho-syndicalist; you're an anarcho-communist; you're an anarcho-individualist.” ThinkingFormSittingDown AndCollectivesCommunistAnarchismAnarchistSitting Down Author:Murray Bookchin
