Here is a good little quote from the book to give you a flavor for this guy:
Primitive man may have thought it very right -- that is, useful to the race-- to eat his aged parents when they became a charge upon the community--a very heavy charge in the main. He may have also thought it useful to the community to kill his new-born children, and only to keep two or three in each family, so that the mother could suckle them until they were three years old and lavish more of her tenderness upon them."
Touching. You see Kropotkin is an "atheist, scientist and evolutionary moralist". ALL forms of control MUST be removed before the flower of human nature can truly blossom. Only the foolish or the "oppressors" believe in God, the state, or laws of any sort. All man needs for a perfect society is "the quest for pleasure". It is the only natural motivation that there is, and if we simply return to it, we will have a "just", "fair", and "equal" society -- oh yes, and of course all private property has to be abolished.
We can prove with a wealth of examples how in the animal and human worlds the law of mutual aid is the law of progress, and how mutual aid with the courage and individual initiative which follow from it secures victory to the species most capable of practicing it.
Well, I guess that is "proven" then. It is so odd that the "inevitable" and ONLY way for a species to survive (anarchy / mutual aid) hasn't caught on more. Thinking of the bees -- I could swear that they had defined roles like worker, queen, drone, etc and that each did what they were required to do or the other bees stung them to death. But I must be wrong. Ever see a pack of housecats hunting? It is a thing to behold -- it is hard to beat cats for hands down mutal aid of each other -- and why not? No question that their species would not have made it if not for that ever present feline mutual aid!
The socialists and communists have a lot of support for guys like this. I'd expect that BO would find many of his arguments about capitalism, private property, classes, oppression, etc to be very convincing. Of course BO kind of likes power, so I think the "abolish the state" would be a bridge too far. If there isn't any government, you don't have a big plane to scare the folks in Manhatten with, nor the money to go up for the big date with the missus!
Reading a book like this while on a business trip to a convention being held at the Disney Dolphin hotel is strange. I grew up listening to folks in my family bray about "the big shots" and how there was "no hope for the little guy". Now I have to admit that BO is hard at work making sure that middle class folks fall to poverty and the bottom of the "wealthy" fall to lower middle, but for the last 30 years, opportunity has been great.
I went out for a nice walk tonight around an area called The Boardwalk and over to the gates of Epcot Center. As a young man, my family never made it to Disney, an ocean, a mountain, or anywhere outside the upper midwest. I remember my aunt, a nurse telling about seeing the Magic Kingdom on CA, Alaska, or Yellowstone. My uncle in Rockford worked and a screw plant, and they were "rich" as well -- they went on vacations to places like Disney, mountains, etc.
For thousands of years, families would take many generations to make any movement at all on the economic ladder, then all of a sudden, along came America and the opportunity was there. So now I've been to Disney multiple times with my kids, on cruises and on trips all over the US as have millions of others. That opportunity was provided because failure WAS an option -- those that failed to invest in education, markets, property or just plain failed to take the risks of moving to where a decent job was or zillion other things would OFTEN fail!
The beautiful resorts, accessible by a huge majority of Americans, were built on the idea that "not everyone makes it" -- int0 the NBA, on to the stage at Carneigie Hall, or not even to Disney. The fact that failure WAS an option enabled so many more to gain so much, and to raise the standard of living and the potential for all. Is that over now??
I hope not, but I fear that it hangs by a weaker thread than it did in the late 70's. Class warfare has been ignited, but I suspect very few of the folks walking around at these resorts realize that it is them on whom that war has been declared.
Oh, and unless you just want to get mad at "oppression" or just have no brain, this book is way to painful to read to recommend to anyone.
