“What solidarity we do find exists despite the society, against all its realities, as an unending struggle between the innate decency of man and the innate indecency of the society. Can we imagine how men would behave if this decency could find full release, if society earned the respect, even the love of the individual?” IfsMenRealityIndividualStruggleImagineActivismDespiteReleaseBehaveSolidarityInnateDecencyUnending Book:The Murray Bookchin Reader Source: The Murray Bookchin Reader
“People who resist authority, who defend the rights of the individual, who try in a period of increasing totalitarianism and centralization to reclaim these rights - this is the true left in the United States.” PeopleTryingStatesIndividualLeftUnitedUnited StatesRightsPeriodsAuthorityTotalitarianismCentralization Author:Murray Bookchin
“Whether they [left in America are] anarcho-communists, anarcho-syndicalists, or libertarians who believe in free enterprise, I regard theirs as the real legacy of the left, and I feel much closer, ideologically, to such individuals than I do to the totalitarian liberals and Marxist-Leninists of today.” FeelsBelieveRealTodayAmericaIndividualLeftRegardLibertarianLegacyEnterpriseCommunistMarxistFree Enterprise Author:Murray Bookchin
“I don't feel the individualist anarchists, particularly in the American tradition, including the Transcendental tradition of New England, in any way deserve the derogatory comments that are often made about them by the left. When one gets down to it ultimately, my anarcho-communism stems from a commitment to true individuality. My attempt to recover the power and the right of the individual to control his or her life and destiny is the basis to my anarcho-communism.” WayFeelsMadeIndividualLeftDestinyDeserveCommitmentTraditionBasesEnglandIncludingIndividualityCommunismCommentStemAnarchistTranscendentalNew EnglandAmerican TraditionDerogatoryLife And Destiny Author:Murray Bookchin
“If anarcho-communism served to regiment the population in the name of libertarian unity, if it served in any way through collectivist measures to deny the rights of the individual instead of reconciling the rights of the individual with the collective, I would definitely stand completely on the side of the individualist who is trying to rescue above all that most precious thing that makes us human - consciousness and personality.” IfsWayTryingHumansNamesIndividualSidesConsciousnessRightsPersonalityUnityPopulationDenyLibertarianCommunismCollectivesRescueHuman ConsciousnessPrecious Things Author:Murray Bookchin
“Wherever people defend the rights of the individual, I stand with them above all, over and beyond any wishes relating to how an economy should be managed or how people should govern themselves. This is a very strong commitment on my part.” PeopleShouldIndividualStrongWishEconomyRightsCommitmentVery Strong 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
“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
“Terms that are related to individuals like Marxist, or Hegelian, or Bakuninist, or Kropotkinist, are completely outside my intellectual and emotional horizon. I'm a follower of no one.” IndividualTermEmotionalIntellectualRelatedHorizonFollowersMarxist Author:Murray Bookchin
“Power to the people' can only be put into practice when the power exercised by social elites is dissolved into the people. Each individual can then take control of his daily life. If 'Power to the people' means nothing more than power to the 'leaders' of the people, then the people remain an undifferentiated, manipulatable mass, as powerless after the revolution as they were before. In the last analysis, the people can never have power until they disappear as a 'people.” PeopleIfsMeanLastsIndividualSocialLeaderPracticeRevolutionMassDisappearAnalysisDaily LifeElitesPowerlessTake Control Author:Murray Bookchin
