“The middle and working classes no longer think of the present society as structured around classes. Current opinion holds that the rich are deserving and the poor are not, while an incalculable number of people linger between the categories. A huge section of public opinion in the Western world tends to regard oppression and exploitation as residual abuses, not inherent features of a specific social order. The prevailing society is neither rationally analyzed nor forcefully challenged; it is prudently psychoanalyzed and politely coaxed, as though social problems emerge from erratic individual behavior.” SocietyCapitalismInequalityModern SocietyClassesClass Society Book:The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy Source: The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy
“A moral economy is either a moral enterprise that is guided by a genuine spiritual desire to create one, even at the expense of strictly economic considerations, or it will degenerate into another profit-oriented and exploitative use of resources. Citizens who are not prepared to pay higher prices to support such an economy and volunteer their own efforts on its behalf are not likely to be prepared for self-governance in any form. Hence the need for a new municipal politics to become an intensely educational and participatory experience at every level of civic life.” SpiritualityEconomyMoralityCapitalismResourcesCitizenshipParticipationPolitical SystemCivic Engagement Book:Urbanization without cities: the rise and decline of citizenship Source: Urbanization without cities: the rise and decline of citizenship
“There's a sense in which Marx does contribute to the fund of human knowledge, and we can no more dismiss him than we can [George] Hegel or [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau or [Baruch] Spinoza or [Charles] Darwin; you don't have to be a Darwinian to appreciate Darwin's views, and I don't have to be a Marxist to appreciate what is valid in a number of [Karl] Marx's writings-and Marx would call that a form of simple commodity production rather than capitalism.” WritingHumansDoeFormSimpleViewsNumbersCapitalismAppreciateProductionsFundCommodityMarxistHegelHuman KnowledgeSpinozaJean Jacques RousseauJacques Rousseau Author:Murray Bookchin
“I have no quarrel with libertarians who advance the concept of capitalism . I believe that people will decide for themselves what they want to do. The all-important thing is that they be free to make that decision and that they do not stand in the way of communities that wish to make other decisions.” PeopleWayWantBelieveImportantI BelieveWishCommunityDecisionConceptsCapitalismImportant ThingsLibertarianQuarrels 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
“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
“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
“Capitalism can no more be 'persuaded' to limit growth than a human being can be 'persuaded' to stop breathing. Attempts to 'green' capitalism, to make it 'ecological', are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth.” HumansGrowthHuman BeingsLimitsCapitalismGreenEndlessBreathingAnarchyDoomedEcologicalMarket EconomyManipulativeMultinationals Author:Murray Bookchin
“To speak of ‘limits to growth’ under a capitalistic market economy is as meaningless as to speak of limits of warfare under a warrior society. The moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists, are as naive as the moral pieties of multinationals are manipulative. Capitalism can no more be ‘persuaded’ to limit growth than a human being can be ‘persuaded’ to stop breathing. Attempts to ‘green’ capitalism, to make it ‘ecological’, are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth.” HumansWellsTodaySpeakGrowthNatureHuman BeingsMoralEconomySocietyLimitsCapitalismGreenEnvironmentalBreatheEndlessWarriorBreathingMeaninglessWarfareDoomedEcologyPersuasionNaiveAttemptingPietyEcologicalEnvironmentalistMarket EconomyManipulativeMultinationalsNaivetyNaivete Author:Murray Bookchin
“Capitalism is a social cancer. It has always been a social cancer. It is the disease of society. It is the malignancy of society.” SocialDiseaseCapitalismCancerMalignancy Author:Murray Bookchin
“The plundering of the human spirit by the market place is paralleled by the plundering of the earth by capital.” HumansEarthSpiritCapitalismLibertarianHuman SpiritMarketplaceAnarchistPlunder Author:Murray Bookchin
