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The Immorality of the State
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About the author
Mikhail Bakunin
252 books555 followersRussian anarchist and political theorist Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin, imprisoned and later exiled to Siberia for his considered revolutionary activities, escaped to London in 1861, opposed Communism of Karl Marx.
People often called Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Баку́нин), a philosopher, the father of collectivism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail...
People often called Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Баку́нин), a philosopher, the father of collectivism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 19, 2020
A brief discussion on the problems of statehood. A decent read, very informative.
February 6, 2017
"Oh, read Bakunin and you will know" sounded the advice. Now I got around to read him. I wanted to take it light. I have not picked a random writing. I wanted to agree with the guy. After all he is so important for some. And each page was the opposite of what I have expected.
A white old male, an aristocrat from a backwards country comes to the West. He was expected to be an aristocrat. Only he was an Eastern aristocrat: a slob with an obtuse thinking. I can see the fascination in the anarchist groups: he was seeped into Orthodoxy [the christian sect] and his discourse it somehow different from the Western philosophers. At the same time his outward appearance denied his aristocracy, hence he was a hip guy almost a century before hip was invented.
A three part sample of continental philosophy:
1. "Every State, whether it is of a federative or a non-federative character, must seek, under the penalty of utter ruin, to become the most powerful of States."
2. "The state then is the most flagrant negation, the most cynical and complete negation of humanity. It rends apart the universal solidarity of all men upon earth, and it unites some of them only in order to destroy, conquer, and enslave all the rest."
3. "This flagrant negation of humanity, which constitutes the very essence of the State, is from the point of view of the latter the supreme duty and the greatest virtue: it is called patriotism and it constitutes the transcendent morality of the State."
He is certainly less wordy than the German and French junk of the same era. But that is his only quality.
Besides, the text is dated and his self important intellectual hot air was contradicted by the facts. Which comes to finely illustrate Dawkins' concept of memes. And while Dawkins is quite racist and pedantic, he [Dawkins] is a far better writer and thinker.
A white old male, an aristocrat from a backwards country comes to the West. He was expected to be an aristocrat. Only he was an Eastern aristocrat: a slob with an obtuse thinking. I can see the fascination in the anarchist groups: he was seeped into Orthodoxy [the christian sect] and his discourse it somehow different from the Western philosophers. At the same time his outward appearance denied his aristocracy, hence he was a hip guy almost a century before hip was invented.
A three part sample of continental philosophy:
1. "Every State, whether it is of a federative or a non-federative character, must seek, under the penalty of utter ruin, to become the most powerful of States."
2. "The state then is the most flagrant negation, the most cynical and complete negation of humanity. It rends apart the universal solidarity of all men upon earth, and it unites some of them only in order to destroy, conquer, and enslave all the rest."
3. "This flagrant negation of humanity, which constitutes the very essence of the State, is from the point of view of the latter the supreme duty and the greatest virtue: it is called patriotism and it constitutes the transcendent morality of the State."
He is certainly less wordy than the German and French junk of the same era. But that is his only quality.
Besides, the text is dated and his self important intellectual hot air was contradicted by the facts. Which comes to finely illustrate Dawkins' concept of memes. And while Dawkins is quite racist and pedantic, he [Dawkins] is a far better writer and thinker.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews