Post-scarcity anarchism
by Murray Bookchin · first published 1971
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Collection of essays arguing for a decentralized, ecology-minded anarchism in an age of abundance; recommended to readers curious about libertarian socialism and social ecology as a political framework.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"In this series of related essays, Murray Bookchin balances his ecological and anarchist vision with the promising opportunities of a 'post-scarcity' era. Surpassing the constraints of Marxist political economy--which was rooted in an era of material scarcity and could not forsee the sweeping changes ahead--Bookchin argues that the tools necessary for the self-administration of a complex, industrial societyhave already been developed and have greatly altered our revolutionary landscape. Technological advances were made during the 20th century which expanded production greatly, but in the pursu
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
…does sound like you align very much with anarchism in general, if you'd just give it a chance. Here are three books: * Anarchy Works: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-ana... * Post-Scarcity Anarchism: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-post... * The Democracy Project: https://b-ok.cc/md5/1BD930F7B17488F2F5BD28BE2AE4584C
on “Finnish basic income pilot improved wellbeing, study finds” ↗although people here may have an aversion to the word 'anarchy' - "Post Scarcity Anarchism" is a great book on this topic: http://www.amazon.com/Post-Scarcity-Anarchism-Working-Classi...
on “First Steps Towards Post Scarcity” ↗companies are flush with capital and desparate for labor input; wages are not stagnating in this case i'd recommend "post-scarcity anarchism" by bookchin
on “Why is every consumer startup selling me what I already own for 10x the price?” ↗…disillusionment with the '90s the anarchist scene was another." . libertarian municipalism + communalism, a kind of libertarian socialism with social ecology as the philosophy framing our situation Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971); https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-post... some use the meme of "google Murray Bookchin", because once you get into their work, so much of it makes good sense (and their…
on “The Obsolescence of Political Definitions (1991)” ↗…capitalists don’t monopolize technology, which is currently the trend. This is not some kind of simple thing by the way, this is revolutionary economics is what I’m talking about. My suggestion is to read Post-Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin
on “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)” ↗I'm fond of the communalism of Murray Bookchin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communalism_(Bookchin) their ideas of liberatory technology and post-scarcity anarchism are refreshing https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lewis-herber-murray-... https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-post... plus the Kurds & co evolved their own system from the…
on “Nitter has more working instances than before the takedowns” ↗Planned Economies, Post-scarcity anarchism. Alain Badiou, Murray Bookchin, Noam Chomsky. The only reason we're all seemingly fucked is because the U.S. DID a decent enough job to lock down knowledge and disseminate according to their time tables.…
on “The state of democratic control over surveillance in France” ↗…they provide a way of enforcing artificial scarcity in the digital realm, where scarcity does not come naturally. As someone dedicated to eliminating scarcity in the material world, (a la Bookchin's /Post-Scarcity Anarchism/, compare Doctorow's /Walkaway/), this argument does not sit well with me.
on “Tulips, Myths, and Cryptocurrencies” ↗Yes, this is extremely insightful. Our society should be, at any post-1960 tech levels, effectively post-scarcity. Murray Bookchin discussed this in [Post-Scarcity Anarchism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Scarcity_Anarchism) in 1971.
There's a great collection of essays in The Philosohy of Law (edited by Richard Dworkin), which gives a characterization of legal philosophy/thought in Western Analytic tradition, and Post-Scarcity Anarchism (Murray Bookchin), a sort of historical analysis on how the post-structuralists' thought played subnarrative to the orthogonal political philosophy of that tradition. I tend to read longform articles.…
on “Ask HN: What was the best book you read in 2013?” ↗…matter replicators, or fusion reactors, but we've had sufficient technology to reliably give every living human a comfortable and safe existence since the early 1960s at the latest (see Murray Bookchin's "Post-Scarcity Anarchism" (1968)). Tellingly, we (collectively) choose not to. Instead, we're getting Gibson's Jackpot.
on “The Tinkerbell Griftopia” ↗I leave my books on Post-scarcity Anarchism on the table when in public. I talk about Planned Economies openly in public. I decided not to pursue academia to show you what an Anarchist looks like. But a majority of society needs to feel validated…
on “Was My Life Worth Living? (1934)” ↗…called "Towards a Liberatory Technology". I believe much of the ideas overlap with this writing but that essay is a shorter version just on technology. I believe it was later combined into a book called Post-Scarcity Anarchism
on “The Ecology of Freedom (1982)” ↗