Anarchism and Social Ecology
!anarchism@slrpnk.net
A community about anarchy. anarchism, social ecology, and communalism for SLRPNK! Solarpunk anarchists unite!
Feel free to ask questions here. We aspire to make this space a safe space. SLRPNK.net's basic rules apply here, but generally don't be a dick and don't be an authoritarian.
Anarchism
Anarchism is a social and political theory and practice that works for a free society without domination and hierarchy.
Social Ecology
Social Ecology, developed from green anarchism, is the idea that our ecological problems have their ultimate roots in our social problems. This is because the domination of nature and our ecology by humanity has its ultimate roots in the domination humanity by humans. Therefore, the solutions to our ecological problems are found by addressing our social and ecological problems simultaneously.
Libraries
Audiobooks
- General audiobooks
- LibriVox Public domain book collection where you can find audiobooks from old communist, socialist, and anarchist authors.
- Anarchist audiobooks
- Socialist Audiobooks
- Social Ecology Audiobooks
Quotes
Poetry and imagination must be integrated with science and technology, for we have evolved beyond an innocence that can be nourished exclusively by myths and dreams.
~ Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom
People want to treat ‘we’ll figure it out by working to get there’ as some sort of rhetorical evasion instead of being a fundamental expression of trust in the power of conscious collective effort.
~Anonymous, but quoted by Mariame Kaba, We Do This 'Til We Free Us
The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.
~Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.
~Murray Bookchin, "A Politics for the Twenty-First Century"
There can be no separation of the revolutionary process from the revolutionary goal. A society based on self-administration must be achieved by means of self-administration.
~Murray Bookchin, Post Scarcity Anarchism
In modern times humans have become a wolf not only to humans, but to all nature.
The ecological question is fundamentally solved as the system is repressed and a socialist social system develops. That does not mean you cannot do something for the environment right away. On the contrary, it is necessary to combine the fight for the environment with the struggle for a general social revolution...
~Abdullah Öcalan
Social ecology advances a message that calls not only for a society free of hierarchy and hierarchical sensibilities, but for an ethics that places humanity in the natural world as an agent for rendering evolution social and natural fully self-conscious.
~ Murray Bookchin
Network
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If he is who the police claim he is, and that really is his manifesto, then I hope he manages to bring a constant and unrelenting focus on the inhumanity of the US healthcare system, as he seems to desire.
As for what I think...
Yesterday I was reading through Means and Ends by Zoe Baker, which explores the history of Anarchist movements. There's a chapter in there that goes over when Anarchists were all super into the idea of 'Propaganda of the Deed' back around the late 1800's and early 1900's. They went after everything from Industrialists to Kings, thinking it would get people all riled up and inspired to start a revolution... But the problem was, it didn't.
In fact, the overall gist I'm getting from it is it was almost entirely counterproductive. It didn't garner the sympathy of the general public, and worse, it gave ample justification for the authorities to militantly crack down on Anarchist groups and disband or imprison them, forcing them to go underground or to flee to less hostile countries, which weakened the movement overall.
The reaction in this particular instance does seem to be getting people angry about health insurance, but I don't think humans are much different from how they were back in the 1800's when similar things did not bring lasting or positive change, and unfortunately I don't think this event will be any different.
I agree. Often enough, some leader figure (even a really bad one) getting assassinated doesn't change the situation for better.
There's been a case where a high-profile assassination gave countries excuse to start a chain reaction of wars (Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip -> World War I). Arguably, they were ready to start it anyway and another spark might have lit a similar fire.
Regardless, if a woodworker from Germany contacted me through a time machine and asked for blueprints for a remote audio system (to check if a moustached dictator is holding a speech before pushing the button), I would send him schematics and wish luck. Sometimes the outcome of going straight ahead points to bloody conflict, and a pre-emptive strike against the driver of conflict is clearly justifiable even if it may not help.
Once upon a time - a rare exception to the rule - an assassination seems to have hit right and fixed things. When dictator Franco had become old and frail in Spain, most of state matters were handled by his prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco. His personal connections held many things together - he was considered irreplaceable. And his departure was accepted with relief by many:
If a remarakably evil person has become irreplaceable and most people would accept that person going with a bang, then (and likely only then) assassinating a person can achieve an outcome of changing systems. If a man is replaceable, it won't help much.