“I think that people who believe in limited government would benefit greatly by studying the logic in government itself and the role of power as a corruptive mechanism in leading finally to unlimited government.” PeopleThinkingBelieveGovernmentRolesStudyBenefitsLogicMechanismUnlimitedLimited Government Author:Murray Bookchin
“I feel that if people investigate the emergence of government, of State power - if they examine the logic of State power historically, and more specifically in the United States - they will find that the concept of limited government is not tenable once they adopt some type of libertarian principle.” PeopleIfsFeelsStatesGovernmentUnitedPrinciplesUnited StatesTypeConceptsLogicLibertarianLimited GovernmentEmergence Author:Murray Bookchin
“If the State does not enjoy a monopoly of violence, which then gives it the power to order people's lives and to compel them to obey decisions over which they have no control, or just limited control, then I think you have a consistently libertarian society.” PeopleIfsThinkingGivingDoeStatesOrderEnjoyDecisionViolenceLibertarianConsistentlyMonopoly Author:Murray Bookchin
“The State is a professional apparatus that sets itself apart from the people and apart from the institutions that the people themselves create. It's a monopoly on violence that manages and institutionalizes social activities. The people are perfectly capable of managing themselves and creating their own institutions.” PeopleStatesSocialViolenceActivityCreatingCapableInstitutionsManageMonopoly Author:Murray Bookchin
“I find it perfectly consistent for libertarians to operate on the municipal or county level, where they are close to the people and where they may have a party or a federation that is made up of the social institutions, the residual social institutions that still remain, over and beyond what the State has managed to preempt and absorb.” PeopleMayMadeStillsStatesSocialLevelsPartyInstitutionsLibertarianConsistentCountyFederationSocial InstitutionsResidual Author:Murray Bookchin
“I say this ironically, not because I favor the State, but because people are not in the state of mind right now where they feel that they can manage themselves. We have to go through an educational process - which does not involve, in my opinion, compromises with the State. But if the State disappeared tomorrow by accident, and the police disappeared and the army disappeared and the government agencies disappeared, the ironical situation is that people would suddenly feel denuded.” PeopleIfsFeelsMindDoeStatesGovernmentProcessSituationOpinionTomorrowRight NowArmyPoliceEducationalAccidentsFavorsManageCompromiseAgencyState Of MindGovernment Agencies Author:Murray Bookchin
“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
“There are people, of course, who profess to be libertarian Marxists. I believe they mean very well, and I even write in their periodicals; but I write very militantly that I regard Marxism as a very subtle form of what I would call the totalitarian ideology - all the more subtle because it professes to advance the notions of freedom.” PeopleWritingBelieveWellsMeanFormCoursesI BelieveRegardNotionLibertarianIdeologySubtleMarxismMarxist Author:Murray Bookchin
“My feeling is that whatever people elect to do, insofar as they don't deny the rights of others, every effort should be made to defend their right to do it.” PeopleShouldMadeFeelingsEffortRightsDeny 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 am concerned that people who admire [Ayn] Rand are not often critical enough of the extent to which she has abridged the implications of [her] novels.” PeopleEnoughNovelConcernedCriticalAdmireImplications Author:Murray Bookchin
“I would agree that much with people who accept private property - that conscription is an unpardonable transgression, whether it be "corrupt" or not. The Spanish anarchists opposed conscription during the civil war in Spain as a gross expropriation of property, the most precious property that we have, our own physical beings themselves.” PeopleWarAcceptingAgreePropertyCivil WarSpainGrossAnarchistPrivate PropertyTransgressionConscriptionDuring The Civil War 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 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 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
“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
“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 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
“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 think it's terribly important that networks of anarchists establish themselves with a view toward educating people.” PeopleThinkingImportantViewsAnarchist 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
“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
“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
“We should try to become better people, ethically speaking, reflect upon ourselves and our very limited existences and develop a sense of tolerance for each other, as well as for other anarchist groups with which we may disagree. But we're not committed to toeing a line called anarchism; there are many different anarchisms.” PeopleShouldTryingWellsMayDifferentLinesExistenceGroupsCommittedToleranceDisagreeAnarchismAnarchist Author:Murray Bookchin
“I would like to see a critical mass of very gifted anarchists come together in an appropriate place in order to do highly productive work. That's it. I don't know why that can't be done except for the fact that I think that people mistrust their own ideals today. I don't think that they don't believe in them; I think they mistrust the viability of them. They're afraid to commit themselves to their ideals.” PeopleThinkingKnowsBelieveDoneFactsTodayTogetherOrderMassIdealsDon't BelieveCriticalCommitProductiveAppropriateGiftedAnarchistMistrustCritical MassProductive Work Author:Murray Bookchin
“I am puzzled by people today who, after moralizing about the need for cooperation and goodwill and love-thy-neighbor-as-thyself, suddenly invoke the most primitive, barbarous motivations for any kind of progress.” PeopleNeedsKindTodayMotivationProgressAnd LoveNeighborCooperationPrimitiveThyselfGoodwillInvokePuzzledLove Thy NeighborMoralizing 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
