"Our Being is Becoming, not stasis. Our Science is Utopia, our Reality is Eros, our Desire is Revolution"
Last week Murray Bookchin died. Bookchin's work fills a good portion of our library and his disappearance from this world is a profound loss.
Bookchin was a prolific author and perhaps the most distinguished American anarchist theorist. His introduction of social ecology into the philosophical landscape and political language will probably be his most lasting legacy. We think Bookchin might appreciate our suggestion that he was the great Oracle of American anarchism.
Beyond his social theory, Bookchin was also a stellar historian, writing extensively about the rise of socialist-libertarianism in Spain throughout the 19th and 20th centuries before Franco's extermination.
For those unfamiliar with his writing we recommend an interview he gave to Harbinger. And an informative tribute.
We noticed that the best compliment that the religiously capitalist libertarians at Reason Magazine could pay to Bookchin was to compare him to fucking Murray Rothbard! We created a bit of a stir with Rothbard disciples when we mocked President Bush's solutions for post-Katrina New Orleans as more a tribute to Rothbard's chaotic capitalism than FDR statesmanship. It's not that we don't appreciate Rothbard's contribution to libertarian thought and anti-authoritarianism, but ultimately the irrational faith which his brand of chaotic capitalism demands warrants the prefix "fucking" before every mention of his name (at least on this blog). There are far worse people than Rothbard to be paired with, but the Bookchin/Rothbard comparison possibly maligns Bookchin's contributions.
The differences between left anarchists and right libertarians might seem trivial to those who share little with either, but to us lefties those differences are probably irreconcilable. Bookchin didn't always think so; he may have even seen those right libertarians as possible allies in the struggle against the state. Sadly, we aren't so optimistic.
