I'm always amused by those who claim that anarchism is not viable because mankind is too, take your pick, selfish, violent, stupid, to exist in a world of voluntary restraint and mutual aid. But in this country, every two and four years, somehow we barely functioning, seething and ignorant degenerates are courted to vote for persons who will rule over us by coercion, or Kropotkin says so eloquently,"...by those same masses of mortals which are supposed to be endowed with all stupidity in their mutual relations but become wisdom itself when they have to elect their masters." Kropotkin makes cogent arguments "that the best of men is made essentially bad by the exercise of authority" and that the State, with its orbiting minions of law and law enforcement, the church and capitalism, exists solely to subjugate the 99% by the 1%. "When we ask for the abolition of the State and its organs we are always told that we dream of a society composed of men better than they are in reality. But no; a thousand times, no. All we ask is that men should not be made worse than they are, by such institutions!" He speaks of the common denominators: alliances based upon block and street and neighborhood and community, workers themselves controlling their workplaces, and where basic needs of food and shelter are met. While recognizing that there will be individuals of personal violence and disregard of the rights of others, he postulates, rightly, that this must, and will be dealt with but that direct State violence, as well as indirect but condoned violence of the oligarchs, has and will far surpass the other. Does Kropotkin offer blueprints, vast flow charts? No. Kropotkin and Bakunin's anarchism is a profound statement of hope, belief in the essential mutual goodness of uncoerced man and the courage to say, "Let's break these chains that benefit so few and imprison so many and see what happens!"