this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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Anarchism and Social Ecology

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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.

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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.

~Abdullah Öcalan

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

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[–] perestroika 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This is an interesting approach to the question, because it contrapositions not the ordinary "voting vs. activism", but a different pair of actions, namely "campaigning vs. activism".

A few words about voting

Voting is cheap, accessible and doesn't require much of your time either - IMHO you should always vote, but assume it accomplishes very little. I won't blame a person if they don't vote - but if a population consistently does not vote, I will say that "they had it coming". The way to anarchy likely doesn't go crashing through populism and authoritarianism, so people should bother to prevent these. Everyone can stop voting at the point when parliaments get sortitioned (drawn with a lottery).

A few words about campaigning

If you campaign for a political power that doesn't represent you well, that's putting in more effort - for a not exactly increasing return. I have assisted a socialist politician in their campaign. During the course of this work, I learned a few things that were useful, but the guy lost laughably. In my country, votes "lost" by an individual candidate still contribute to a party's success, but in your country, things may differ, so take note of what the rules are. :)

A few words about activism

Activism can get you goods directly. Both voting and campaigning are low-return activity, but if you can figure out a way to make some part of society work better without a general referendum - go for it! :)