• therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 hours ago

    I almost forgot that we’re not allowed to do or think anything without first running it past a Beardy McDeadguy that hasn’t been around for almost a hundred years.

  • SailorFuzz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    17 hours ago

    I did buy the book tho… it’s with all the other books… I’ll read them at some point…

    • Zombie@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      16 hours ago

      Most leftist books are complicated and boring, this one is simpler and more engaging. Maybe give it a try before tackling the dry tomes.

      Berkman’s work explains anarchist philosophy in terms that uninitiated readers can understand. The book’s chapters are brief, and many of them begin with questions (e.g., “Is Anarchism Violence?”, “Will Communist Anarchism Work?”). A number of the ideas he discusses are similar to those proposed in The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin, whom Berkman cites throughout. Berkman avoids the sort of jargon and technical language that is often used by political writers in favour of plain language. As he writes in his foreword:

      Anarchist books, with few exceptions, are not accessible to the understanding of the average reader. It is the common failing of most works dealing with social questions that they are written on the assumption that the reader is already familiar to a considerable extent with the subject, which is generally not the case at all. As a result there are very few books treating of social problems in a sufficiently simple and intelligible manner. For the above reason I consider a restatement of the Anarchist position very much needed at this time—a restatement in the plainest and clearest terms which can be understood by every one. That is, an ABC of Anarchism.[11]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_and_After

      Available to read for free, here.