Preface
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19971997

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Author : Bob Black

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Preface

 
Leaving the twentieth century, leftism of every stripe is in disarray and
defeat — anarcho-leftism included. And Murray Bookchin’s Social Ecology
is certainly no exception to this trend.

Bookchin, one of the best known of contemporary North American anarchists,
has spent much of his life staking out his own personal eco-anarchist
ideological territory under the banners of Social Ecology and Libertarian
Municipalism. He is the author of a steady stream of books from the sixties
to the present, including his classic collection of essays titled
Post-Scarcity Anarchism published in 1971, his excellent volume on the
history of the Spanish anarchist movement written in the seventies, and his
failed attempt in the eighties at constructing a philosophical magnum opus
in The Ecology of Freedom.

Bookchin has never been content with merely constructing one more radical
ideology in competition with all the others. His dream has always been to
lead a coherent left-wing ecological radical grouping into a serious
contest with the powers that be. However, his attempts at constructing such
a grouping (from the Anarchos journal group in the New York of the sixties
to the recent Left Green Network within the Greens milieu) have never met
with much success.

In his latest book, Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism, Bookchin aims
to pin the blame for his lifetime of frustration (despite his decades of
valiant effort!) on an evil anti-socialist conspiracy which has subverted
his dreams at every turn: the dreaded specter of “Lifestyle Anarchism.”
For Bookchin, lifestyle anarchism is a contemporary manifestation of the
individualist anarchist currents which have always bedeviled the world
anarchist movement proper. The fact that the anarchist “movement”
itself has always been more of a polymorphous insurrectionary milieu
encompassing everything from anarcho-syndicalists, anarcho-communists and
anarcho-futurists to anarchist feminists, anarchist primitivists and
anarcho-situationists doesn’t really matter to him. The important thing
is that he has finally been able to name the anti-organizational cabal
which opposes him and to explain the esoteric links between its often
seemingly unrelated or even mutually contradictory efforts!

Enter Bob Black.

Now a lot of people don’t like Bob Black. Many anarchists would be
alarmed if he moved in next door. Anyone with good sense would probably be
upset if he started dating her younger sister. Most everyone is loathe to
provoke his anger or face it head on.

And not without reason. Bob may be a brilliant critic and hilarious wit,
but he’s not a nice guy. His infamous reputation isn’t built on fair
play or good sportsmanship.

Maybe this is why Murray Bookchin’s latest rant, Social Anarchism or
Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, never criticizes Bob Black
directly. In fact it never so much as mentions Bob’s name. Even though
it’s obvious from the book’s contents that by all rights Bob should
have received the same type of attempted (though ultimately feeble)
thrashing Bookchin reserved for George Bradford, John Zerzan, Hakim Bey, et
al.

Obviously, Murray knows better than to challenge Bob to a duel, even a
rhetorical one. But that hasn’t stopped Bob, in an uncharacteristically
generous spirit, from giving Bookchin his due anyway.

Bob’s defense of anarchy in Anarchy after Leftism isn’t meant to
express solidarity with those targeted in the latest attacks framed by
Bookchin’s pidgin dialectics. Nor is Bob really interested in rescuing
anarchist ideology from itself. He just wants to set the record straight by
clearing away worse than useless polemics. Defending the potential for
anarchy is merely an unpleasant task of menial anti-ideological labor that
Bob has performed because no one else volunteered to wash these particular
dirty dishes, [1] while he wants to get on with cooking another meal.

But that’s by no means all that’s going on here. Disposing of Murray
Bookchin’s ideological and rhetorical rubbish gives Bob the chance to
develop the grounds for a more general attack on the remaining vestiges of
leftism while he’s at it. Cleaning house of leftism is a much bigger task
than dealing with one man’s leftist career. So in one sense, by drawing
attention to his ineffectual polemic, Bookchin has made himself an excuse
for the beginning of a much larger process of critique, a process that will
undoubtedly continue to unfold with increasing militance into the coming
century. It will require awareness and effort from all of us to finish this
task, but it will be done.

Bob’s double critique in Anarchy after Leftism only gains incisiveness
from the attitude of lumpen noblesse oblige he has adopted for his task.
Rather than letting his own sordid past (and present) get in the way, the
lack of any revenge motive (seemingly Bob’s favorite muse) allows him to
unleash his pen with just as much wit, but with fewer red herrings, obscure
put-downs and tortured self-justifications than ever. The result is a
modest feast made up of consistently entertaining prose, an immanent
critique of a would-be eminent social critic, and one more nail in the
coffin of obsolete leftism, anarchist-style.

You might not want to invite Bob into your house. I certainly wouldn’t.
But at least thank him for doing the dishes. And let’s get on with the
next feast!




     From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org

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     Preface -- Publication : November 30, 1996

     Preface -- Added : November 29, 2020

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