The article links to a few book pages scanned as PDFs and an HTML version of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Also worth mentioning is that there is a very large collection of Kropotkin's writing at the Anarchist Library[1], including an epub version of Mutual Aid[2] and his autobiography, Memoirs of a Revolutionist[3], which was also mentioned in the article.
Why hello my hacker anarchist sisters & brothers. If anyone would like to listen to Mutual Aid and many, many other FREE anarchist audio-books as you drive or workout, have got the plug for you!
Anarchism is an interesting topic, and learning about it has lead me down some interesting paths of learning and thought.
At its core, it’s the position of being against hierarchies of power where humans dominate those with less power. In simple terms, it’s being against humans dominating each other.
The big question is can we have a functioning society with less human domination and how far can we reduce it? That’s a deep question that involves everything from economics to the study of human nature.
In terms of human nature, I think people are far too quick to ascribe certain behaviors to human nature.
agreed. the human nature argument is a lazy one against something like anarchism or any other alternative system. if we can be socialized to seek money (it starts with the piggy bank when we're like 4 years old), we can be socialized to not seek those things and instead seek something else. replace "money" or "greed" with any negative way that humans behave, like power or domination.
where does the ability to mold humans to fit a certain set of standards end? incentives, culture, norms, etc. I think can shape someone's default mode of thinking and actions on the margin, but eventually you reach some point like the "New Soviet Man" where you're asking someone not to be human?
Yes, the environment we grow up in plays a huge part in our development. Everything from nutrition during development to culture, values, etc. All shape how we think.
I was learning recently about Christopher Columbus and his encounters with native peoples and it’s fascinating how differently these people thought. The natives had a hard time understanding the colonizers and their endless need for gold and things.
Eventually some of them theorized that the European’s god is actually gold lol.
As most things in life, it's just the surface meaning. The actual idea is denying that history have any power over an individual.
There's been number of historic personalities, such a Napoleon Bonapart that gave rise to a though that maybe individual have no power over historic process and history is pre-determined.
Anarchism is about denying that fatalism and branching your own fork in history where no historic processes have any power over you.
That's a leftist idea, that gave birth to anarcho-capitalism which in turn is fundamental idea in crypto-anarcho-capitalism (hello libertarians).
Really those schism and isms gone a long mile with original idea, I'd recommend reading classical thinkers and figuring out if their ideas are still relevant today.
"Anarcho"-Capitalism has nothing at all to do with the Anarchism of Pyotr Kropotkin, in the same way the "National Socialists" aren't actually Socialists.
Just a right wing group co-opting left wing terminology to try and give their abhorrent beliefs credence.
I think that anarcho-capitalism, and to a lesser degree even libertarianism, is a fundamentally flawed philosophy because of it being against hierarchies that "suppress" their followers and in support of hierarchies that bolster them. In other words capital owners down playing the state and propping up "free market economics".
Incidentally, I've just been unpacking moving boxes, and put the beautifully illuminated [1] print of Mutual Aid on my "to-read" bookshelf.
I wonder how often this particular instance of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon happens on HN, i.e. what's the intersection of regulars here and people familiar with names like Kropotkin, Makhno, etc.
I’m rather surprised he might not be not better known here.
Kropotkin is a major figure of anarchism that you’ll found revered even in some Russel's books. Surely hackernews readership red all Russel works — both color, didn’t it?
Don’t you search for a Wikipedia biography each time you cross an antonomastic street, creating it if needed?
In some countries almost every street is named after a person, so it would be too much trouble to research every street name.
We have a square named after indian city of Bangalore - the Bangalore square. I was sure for a long time that's just another (jewish?) surname. Even though I knew that city, in context of street names I simply assume surnames, it didn't occur to me to think anything else.
If anyone's unaware: famous Ukrainian anti-anti-semitist/anarchist revolutionary who lead a peasant revolt that supported farmer communes in much of Ukraine before getting crushed by both the White and Red Army
I'd say that it could be confusing, since people often "Stand in solidarity" without any actions, but "Giving mutual aid" is something active, like protesting, monetary aid, a large scope if things.
Anarchists seem to think they have a monopoly on mutual aid, but it turns out that police agencies are all about it as well. At least where I’m at, people think that mutual aid is the secret sauce they have to defeat the efforts of the state, not realizing that just in Portland they have the city, multiple counties, Metro, and several neighboring suburbs strategically sharing resources and cooperating, even across state lines.
I observe that mutual aid between well-structured and stable organizations of well-trained people is even more effective than mutual aid between lone actors and temporary self-organizing cliques.
that seems to be a crux: how to get (and utilise) well-trained people while avoiding long-lived organisations.
(to some degree, one might argue that back in the day, Silicon Valley was an example of successfully recombining groups of well-trained people, each of whose career-length might involve participation in over a dozen different hierarchal entities; in the 1970s this promiscuity was considered radical.)
In French you would translate solidarité and entre-aide respectively each term, so they worth having each a dedicated word.
Actually I was surprised when I wanted to find a straight forward equivalent to "entre aide". It seems that "interhelp" is sufficiently obvious for having an organization taking this name, but this apparently not an idiomatic word per se.
Solidarity usually means a specific action - e.g. joining a strike action, critical support, organizing, etc. Mutual aid usually means intra class action.
Mutual aid is right now innocuous enough to act as a pretty good left-wing shibboleth. Depending on whether a group refers to their activities as "charity", "service", or "mutual aid", you can get a pretty good idea of how left-wing the general consensus of the group is.
A friend of mine described this as "essentially the same as every conversation between anarchists and communists today", which seems largely accurate. In particular, I enjoyed one comment:
> “No, no,” Kropotkin replied, “if you and your comrades think in this way, if the power is not going to their heads, and if they feel that they will not be going in the direction of oppression by the state, then they will achieve a lot. Then the revolution is truly in good hands.”
Kropotkin would weep to what has become Jura's anarchist dream. We may have reached independance from Bern but at the cost of a parlement filled with liberals and conservatives.
Readit News
[1] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/petr-kropotk...
[2] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-mutua...
[3] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-memoi...
https://librivox.org/conquest-bread-2-by-peter-kropotkin/
https://librivox.org/anarchy-by-errico-malatesta/
https://librivox.org/god-and-the-state-by-mikhail-bakunin/
https://librivox.org/mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution-by-pet...
At its core, it’s the position of being against hierarchies of power where humans dominate those with less power. In simple terms, it’s being against humans dominating each other.
The big question is can we have a functioning society with less human domination and how far can we reduce it? That’s a deep question that involves everything from economics to the study of human nature.
In terms of human nature, I think people are far too quick to ascribe certain behaviors to human nature.
I was learning recently about Christopher Columbus and his encounters with native peoples and it’s fascinating how differently these people thought. The natives had a hard time understanding the colonizers and their endless need for gold and things.
Eventually some of them theorized that the European’s god is actually gold lol.
There's been number of historic personalities, such a Napoleon Bonapart that gave rise to a though that maybe individual have no power over historic process and history is pre-determined.
Anarchism is about denying that fatalism and branching your own fork in history where no historic processes have any power over you.
That's a leftist idea, that gave birth to anarcho-capitalism which in turn is fundamental idea in crypto-anarcho-capitalism (hello libertarians).
Really those schism and isms gone a long mile with original idea, I'd recommend reading classical thinkers and figuring out if their ideas are still relevant today.
Just a right wing group co-opting left wing terminology to try and give their abhorrent beliefs credence.
And anarcho-capitalism has nothing to do with anarchism since capitalism is a system of domination. It’s just rebranded laissez-faire capitalism.
No, not with any scale. This has been tried and tried and tried. It's a nice idea, but like most of leftism, only works on paper.
I wish the people that argue for things like the destruction of the family would instead push for universal healthcare. That's at least doable.
I wonder how often this particular instance of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon happens on HN, i.e. what's the intersection of regulars here and people familiar with names like Kropotkin, Makhno, etc.
[1] PM press edition: https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1272
Kropotkin is a major figure of anarchism that you’ll found revered even in some Russel's books. Surely hackernews readership red all Russel works — both color, didn’t it?
Don’t you search for a Wikipedia biography each time you cross an antonomastic street, creating it if needed?
We have a square named after indian city of Bangalore - the Bangalore square. I was sure for a long time that's just another (jewish?) surname. Even though I knew that city, in context of street names I simply assume surnames, it didn't occur to me to think anything else.
Dead Comment
pro-russian tankies hate him
I observe that mutual aid between well-structured and stable organizations of well-trained people is even more effective than mutual aid between lone actors and temporary self-organizing cliques.
(to some degree, one might argue that back in the day, Silicon Valley was an example of successfully recombining groups of well-trained people, each of whose career-length might involve participation in over a dozen different hierarchal entities; in the 1970s this promiscuity was considered radical.)
Actually I was surprised when I wanted to find a straight forward equivalent to "entre aide". It seems that "interhelp" is sufficiently obvious for having an organization taking this name, but this apparently not an idiomatic word per se.
https://www.lpm.org/news/2022-11-27/eastern-ky-mutual-aid-gr...
A friend of mine described this as "essentially the same as every conversation between anarchists and communists today", which seems largely accurate. In particular, I enjoyed one comment:
> “No, no,” Kropotkin replied, “if you and your comrades think in this way, if the power is not going to their heads, and if they feel that they will not be going in the direction of oppression by the state, then they will achieve a lot. Then the revolution is truly in good hands.”
Draw your own conclusions.