Last Essay:
"1967"
This is Bertrand Russell's last manuscript.
Untitled, it was annotated "1967" by Russell, at the age
of 95,
two or three years before he died. Ray Monk published it first
in The
Independent of London on the 25th anniversary of the Russell
Archives. The essay's politics are uncannily
prescient.
The time has come to review my life as a whole, and to ask whether
it has served any useful purpose or has been wholly concerned in
futility. Unfortunately, no answer is possible for anyone who does
not know the future. Modern weapons make it practically certain
that the next serious war will exterminate the human race. This is
admitted by all competent authorities, and I shall not waste time
in proving i... (From : mcmaster.ca.)
Anarchism versus Socialism By WM. C. Owen. London: Freedom Press, 1922.
Anarchism versus Socialism
---
A FOREWORD
"Anarchy versus Socialism," which FREEDOM now reissues, after it has run through its columns (1921-22), was published first some eighteen years ago. Emma Goldman was then one of the most popular lecturers in the United States, and, being questioned constantly as to the difference between the Anarchist and Socialist philosophies, felt the need of a treatise that would explain that difference. At her suggestion I undertook the task.
The title showed my conviction that between these two philosophies of life no honest alliance is possible. I considered then that both s... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Section III Anarchist Morality by Peter Kropotkin We have seen that men's actions (their deliberate and conscious actions, for we will speak afterwards of unconscious habits) all have the same origin. Those that are called virtuous and those that are designated as vicious, great devotions and petty knaveries, acts that attract and acts that repel, all spring from a common source. All are performed in answer to some need of the individual's nature. all have for their end the quest of pleasure, the desire to avoid pain. We have seen this in the last section, which is but a very succinct summary of a mass of facts that might be brought forward in support of this view. It is easy to understand how this explanation makes those still imbued with religious principles cry out. It leaves no room for the supernatural. It throws over the idea of an immortal soul. If man only acts in obedience to the needs of his nature, if he is, so to say,...
It is impossible to imagine a more dramatic and horrifying combination of scientific triumph with political and moral failure than has been shown to the world in the destruction of Hiroshima. From the scientific point of view, the atomic bomb embodies the results of a combination of genius and patience as remarkable as any in the history of mankind. Atoms are so minute that it might have seemed impossible to know as much as we do about them. A million million bundles, each containing a million million hydrogen atoms, would weigh about a gram and a half. Each hydrogen atom consists of a nucleus, and an electron going round the nucleus, as the earth goes round the sun. The distance from the nucleus to the electron is usually about a hundred-... (From : mcmaster.ca.)
THE CONQUEST OF BREAD by P. Kropotkin CHAPTER V Food I IF the coming Revolution is to be a Social Revo lution it will be distinguished from all former uprisings not only by its aim, but also by its methods. To attain a new end, new means are required. The three great popular movements which we have seen in France during the last hundred years differ from each other in many ways, but they have one common feature. In each case the people strove to overturn the old regime, and spent their heart's blood for the cause. Then, after having borne the brunt of the battle, they sank again into obscurity. A Government, composed of men more or less honest, was formed and undertook to organize--the Republic in 1793, Labor in 1848, and the Free Commune in 1871. Imbued with Jacobin ideas, this Government occ...
Source: The Memory Hole
Freethought in America was an anti-clerical, anti-Christian movement which sought to separate the church and state in order to leave religious matters to the conscience and reasoning ability of the individual involved. Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912) was prominent both as a feminist and as a freethinker. The following article, reprinted from Benjamin Tucker's periodical Liberty, was originally delivered by de Cleyre as a lecture before the Boston Secular Society. It is an excellent example of the interrelationship between the individualist-feminist view of the church and of the state. In her essay "Sex Slavery," de Cleyre reiterated this two-pronged attack. She wrote: "Let every woman ask herself, 'Why am I the ... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
The text is from my copy of Peter Kropotkin, Ethics: Origins and Development, London: George E. Harrap & Cop., LTD. Ethics: Origin and Development By Peter Kropotkin CHAPTER I The Present Need of Determining the Bases of Morality When we cast a glance upon the immense progress realized by the natural sciences in the course of the nineteenth century, and when we perceive the promises they contain for the future, we can not but feel deeply impressed by the idea that mankind is entering upon a new era of progress It has, at any rate, before it all the elements for preparing such a new era. In the course of the last one hundred years, new branches of knowledge, opening entirely new vistas upon the laws of the development of human society, have grown up under the names of anthropology prehistoric ethnology (science of the primitive social institutions), the history of reli...
God and the State by Michael Bakunin
WITH A PREFACE BY
CARLO CAFIERO AND ELISÉE RECLUS
First American Edition
Price 50 Cents
MOTHER EARTH PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
10 East 125th Street
New York City
Preface to the First French Edition
One of us is soon to tell in all its details the story of the life of Michael Bakunin, but its general features are already sufficiently familiar. Friends and enemies know that this man was great in thought, will, persistent energy; they know also with what lofty contempt he looked down upon wealth, rank, glory, all the wretched ambitions which most human beings are base enough to entertain. A Russian gentleman related by marriage to the highest nobility of the empire, he wa... (From : Anarchy Archives (The text is from Michael Bakunin....)
THE HISTORY OF A MOUNTAIN
ILLUSTRATED BY L. BENNETT
RANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1881
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by
HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
CONTENTS.
I. THE RETREAT
II. PEAKS AND VALLEYS
III. ROCKS AND CRYSTALS
IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE MOUNTAIN
V. FOSSILS
VI. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PEAKS
VII. LANDSLIPS
VIII. CLOUDS
IX. FOGS AND STORMS
X. SNOW
"XL AVALANCHES
XII. GLACIERS
XIII. MORAINES AND TORRENTS
XIV. FORESTS AND PASTURES
XV. THE ANIMALS OF THE MOUNTAIN
XVI. GRADATIONS OF CLIMATE
XVII. THE FREE MOUNTAINEER
XVIII. CRETINS
XIX. ... (From : Archive.org.)
Bakunin on Education II
[deals with natural ability etc, good for the
old lib-caps]
We have shown how, as long as there are two or
more degrees of instruction for the various
strata of society, there must, of necessity, be
classes, that is, economic and political
privilege for a small number of the contented
and slavery and misery for the lot of the
generality of men.
As members of the International Working Men's
Association (IWMA/AIT), we seek equality and,
because we seek it, we must also seek integral
education, the same education for everyone.
But if everyone is schooled who will want to
work? we hear someone ask. Our answer to that
is a simple one: everyone must work and
everyone must receive educa... (From : Anarchy Archives.)