Often times riveting, at other times, polemical one of the most influential thinkers of our time provides a compact overview of the tenets underlying anarchism or libertarian socialism or anachrosyndicalism (as appropriate). With particular focus on the works and philosophy of Michael Bakunin, George Orwell and Wilhelm Von Humboldt, Chomsky proceeds to highlight the basic essence and vital synthesis embodying an act of anarchism – the amelioration of the human creed by putting paid to the hopes of vile expropriators and their speculative expropriations.
Setting out in detail the genesis as well as the unfortunate demise of the Spanish Revolution or the ‘Franco Rebellion’ that stirred the hopes of a whole Planet in 1936 and 1937, Chomsky ascribes to anarchy the power of liberation, the boon of self realisation and the goal of equal recognition. Although some of the more nuanced concepts such as the linkage between the freedom of language and liberty are couched in enough complexity to induce a torpor for the uninitiated, the work nonetheless evokes a voluntary awakening towards the beliefs underlying anarchy.
On Anarchism – an exhausting read.
