Someone on Twitter recommended Murray Bookchin videos, and I'm on my second or third one. I will link to the videos I've seen down below. For now, here is what this post will cover.
- When I began a path of studying anarchy
- Who is Murray Bookchin?
- Why Bookchin loves decentralized social and biological systems
- Links to Bookchin's lectures and books.
My anarchist beginnings
I was mostly conservative as far as issues went preferring that individuals rights were protected. But when my parents split, I got an early taste of decentralized authority.
All of a sudden, in the place where I had a father, there were many father-figures I looked to for how to make decisions in life. I attended a church and this gathering place allowed me to see that there are so many ways one can be a father even to those who aren't their biological kids.
When Edward Snowden revealed the mass surveillance happening in the US government, I was outraged. My basic assumption privacy was violated without my permission or vote. I marched in a "restore the fourth" protest in Boston and hundreds of others joined me as well.
Since then, I've read literature, attended conferences, and listen to talks that tease out what it looks like to have aspects of our lives be more decentralized without harming or taking away from others rights.
Who is Murray Bookchin?
Bookchin comes as refreshing breath of fresh air where so many people today are being manipulated into having a binary political stance. Red or Blue has become how people classify thoughts and sometimes entire states in some cases. I was going on a trip to the south and someone jokingly asked me if I was going to a Trump rally?!?!
Bookchin was born in NYC in 1921 from Russian Jewish immigrant parents. He has written over a couple dozen books about ecology, politics, philosophy, and history. He passed away in 2006 when he was 85.
Bookchin and decentralized life
Bookchin believed decentralized or diverse thinking needs to penetrate every area of life.
His reason for this is that diversity and balance is the only way to allow inclusive environments where all types of peoples, plants, and creatures can have value.
From gardening to politics to social circles to education. Every aspect of life that has a hierarchy can benefit from decentralization.
He makes the point that anarchy for the sake of anarchy is childish and often emphasizes that the goal of anarchy should be harmony. Harmony in relationships and careers. Harmony with family and friends. Harmony with agriculture, animals, and the land where we grow food and live.
In some talks, he says diversity and balance is the lesson or main take away when we consider how nature sustains itself. Having an excess of predator or prey is an imbalance that throws off the entire food chain.
He also says the end goal of anarchy is all about the individual. The expression and growth of a person is front and center and having a community that thinks in this way can benefit within and without.
I feel that those who love Hive will appreciate listening to Bookchin because this is a decentralized platform. Even as I browsed my Hive feed today and was upvoting post, I found myself amazed at the amount of unique content I saw. From photography to cooking.... from free writing prompts to essays... I had such a delightfully unpredictable spread before me.
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Bookchin
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bookchin/bio1.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Murray-Bookchin
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/murray-bookchin