Bookchin v. "lifesyle anarchism"

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Mon May 7 16:03:31 PDT 2001



>Gordon Fitch wrote:
>
> > Is Bookchin is associated with any praxis whatever? Does anyone
> > know? I know he talks a good fight, but I haven't heard that
> > he has involved himself in, say, union organizing or local
> > electoral politics, which his theories seem to call for.
>
>He's a very old man at this point, but he was an activist back in the 60s
>and
>70s. His big suggestion is that more attention be paid to New England style
>town
>meetings.

More attention should be paid to New England-style everything, in my humble, regionally chauvinistic (being a Massachusetts native) opinion ;-) I just watched a C-span discussion on Emerson and Thoreau (part of a new series on American authors) and was struck again by how fresh, vigorous and accessible their thinking was and is.

America's cult of the individual has today devolved into a retrograde celebration of selfishness. But I believe that the New England Transcendentalist tradition, in which E and T were so prominent, offers a way to tap into the appeal of individualism yet avoid the constrictive narcissism that characterizes so much of US society today. Renewed attention to Transcendentalism could, I think, help to replenish a sense of basic community and even help to re-legitimize the concept of socialism as a worthy aim.

Carl _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com



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