Murray Bookchin: Ecology

Murray Bookchin was American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on ecology.
Murray Bookchin: 48 quotes2 likes

“An anarchist society, far from being a remote ideal, has become a precondition for the practice of ecological principles.”

Murray Bookchin

Ecology and Revolutionary Thought (1965).

“The ecological principle of unity in diversity grades into a richly mediated social principle; hence my use of the term social ecology.”

Murray Bookchin

What Is Social Ecology? (1984).

“Nor do piecemeal steps however well intended, even partially resolve problems that have reached a universal, global and catastrophic character. If anything, partial 'solutions' serve merely as cosmetics to conceal the deep seated nature of the ecological crisis. They thereby deflect public attention and theoretical insight from an adequate understanding of the depth and scope of the necessary changes.”

Murray Bookchin

The Ecology of Freedom (1982)

“To speak of 'limits to growth' under a capitalistic market economy is as meaningless as to speak of limits of warfare under a warrior society. The moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists, are as naive as the moral pieties of multinationals are manipulative. Capitalism can no more be 'persuaded' to limit growth than a human being can be 'persuaded' to stop breathing. Attempts to 'green' capitalism, to make it 'ecological', are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth.”

Murray Bookchin

Remaking Society (1990).

“Without changing the most molecular relationships in society — notably, those between men and women, adults and children, whites and other ethnic groups, heterosexuals and gays (the list, in fact, is considerable) — society will be riddled by domination even in a socialistic 'classless' and 'non-exploitative' form. It would be infused by hierarchy even as it celebrated the dubious virtues of 'people's democracies,' 'socialism' and the 'public ownership' of 'natural resources.' And as long as hierarchy persists, as long as domination organises humanity around a system of elites, the project of dominating nature will continue to exist and inevitably lead our planet to ecological extinction.”

Murray Bookchin

Toward an Ecological Society (1980).