Ecology and Revolutionary Thought

by Murray Bookchin

By Murray Bookchin - "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought" and "Toward a Revolutionary Ecology" ; By Ecology Action East - "The Power to Destroy - The Power to Create" and two leaflets "Buy Now...Die Later" & "The Funeral of Garbage".

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Ecology, Anarchism

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Murray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics, philosophy, history, and urban affairs as well as ecology. In the late 1990s he became disenchanted with the strategy of political Anarchism and founded his own libertarian socialist ideology called Communalism.

Bookchin was an anti-capitalist and vocal advocate of the decentralisation of society along ecological and democratic lines. His writings on libertarian municipalism, a theory of face-to-face, assembly democracy, had an influence on the Green movement and anti-capitalist direct action groups such as Reclaim the Streets.

Reviews

[Marike · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This rejection of the prevailing state of affairs accounts, I think, for the explosive growth of intuitive anarchism among young people today. Their love of nature is a reaction against the highly synthetic qualities of our urban environment and its shabby products. Their informality of dress and manners is a reaction against the formalized, standardized nature of modern institutionalized living. Their predisposition for direct action is a reaction against the bureaucratization and centralization of society. Their tendency to drop out, to avoid toil and the rat-race, reflects a growing anger toward the mindless industrial routine bred by modern mass manufacture in the factory, the office, or the university. Their intense individualism is, in its own elemental way, a de facto decentralization of social life — a personal abdication from mass society."

[Ursula Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book presupposes that you understand the ethics and morality that frames anarchist thought, so this book isn't going making a strong case for anarchism at it's core. There are plenty of other books that can do that.

However, in all my time reading and absorbing anarchist theory I have never come across someone who shared a vision of the future with me quite as thoroughly as Murry Bookchin. I often find myself the odd one out among radicals due to my believe that the power of technology can and should be harnessed by leftists, because not all of the principles used in technology are just mechanics of capitalism - there is real revolutionary power in technology. As Bookchin puts it: "The anarchist movement, more than any other, must explore this promise in depth. It must thoroughly assimilate this technology — master its development, possibilities, and applications and reveal its promise in humanistic terms. The world is already beset with mechanical “utopias” that more closely resemble Huxley’s brave new world and Orwell’s 1984 than the organic utopias of Thomas More and William Morris — the humanistic trend in utopian thinking. Only anarchism can infuse the promise of modern technology with an organic perspective, with a man-oriented direction."

Maybe I just think that's brilliant because it just more elegantly states what I've been shouting for years.

No matter, I'm the only true anarchist anyway.

[Alexander Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of: this book assumes at least basic understanding of the anarchist philosophy. It will not use its few pages to try and convince the reader of the value and necessity of anarchist thought.

A great short read about the connection between ecology and anarchy and how you can't talk about the one without the other, even more fitting in this day and age of late stage capitalism and brutal climate change.

I couldn't give it 5 stars as I disagree with one key point of Bookchin; the necessity of small communities and anti-urbanisation. I think it's partly because it's a book of its time (50 years old) and technology has advanced, but partly it's the romanticized view Bookchin seems to hold about smaller communities.

While I myself find myself more attracted to smaller communities myself, I don't hold the view that they are a necessity. One could even argue more densely urbanized communities are an important part of green anarchy. Bookchins lack of acknowledgment on this can be seen as oversight.

What this short text hoever does deliver, what I believe a lot of ecological text miss, is an inherent hopeful and convinced tone. Again, something that is very necessary these days

[隻眼簽到 · Rating 3 out of 5]

生態學與革命思潮。Murray Bookchin。
有一些人，想在退休後過過田耕生活。有一些人，想開間咖啡館，閒時與三五好友聊天。我不知道這樣的願望與無政府主義距離多遠。但在我想來，厭惡城市的擁擠或其他什麼的，與支持生態學「革命」或無政府主義也不是同一回事。生態學者和無政府主義者都強調「自發性」，強調解放人類的潛能，強調社區團結發展。這一切都意謂著參與其中的民眾必須付出更大的努力。但如果，我只想安靜的打遊戲或我只想當一條鹹魚呢？至少，所謂的直接民主或全民參與公共政策之類的，很多人是沒有意願的吧？作者說：「資產階級社會不單把人放在互相敵對的地位，更把整個人類和大自然放在敵對地位；正如人被變成商品一樣，大自然的每一部份都被變成商品，被看作為製成品和貿易的資源。......『成長』、『工業社會』和『都市的敗壞』，無論他們怎樣說，整個現象的根源都在於人對人的支配。」是的。在我看來，無論生態學者或無政府主義者描繪的願景多麼美好，都消滅不了人對人支配的欲望。作者看到了事實，卻懷抱不切實際的希望，「革命」者錯估了人性，終究只是好夢一場(或只是人對人支配欲望的另一種形式)。

[moonprincess · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet and short text about the connections between people systems and the practice of ecology. Contextualises itself with the assumption that you, the reader, has existing knowledge about the ethics and goals of anarchism thought and does not waste its precious pages, it is more so about her theories/observations. Beautiful writing and delightfully sentimental.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fossil of mid-century environmentalism that falsely supposes that anarchism is incompatible with cities and that decentralized living patterns are needed to achieve ecological sustainability, the exact opposite of reality.

[AttackGirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm

“human parasitism disrupts more than the atmosphere, climate, water resources, soil, flora and fauna of a region: it upsets virtually all the basic cycles of nature and threatens to undermine the stability of the environment on a worldwide scale.”

[cassady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeahhh this hits. thanks audibleanarchist on youtube .

ecologists & anarchists both embrace spontaneity and differentiation in building strong systems: variation of energy sources, of industry, employment; diverse human experiences foster stability, resilience, and immunity in just the ways that biodiversity, soil richness, etc. serve ecosystems. 1964!