wants
to
see
the
return
of
Communist
totalitarianism.
No
person
who
aims
at
a
free,
ecological
society
wants
to
see
another
Stalin.
We
need
to
find
a
way
to
eliminate
capitalism
that
not
only
avoids
dictatorship
but
creates
freedom.
We
need
an
alternative
system,
Bookchin
argued,
one
that
abolishes
both
Communist
authoritarianism
and
Capitalist
exploitation.
A
society
that
values
community
as
well
as
the
individual,
fellow-feeling
as
well
as
the
self,
and
ethics
as
well
as
the
means
of
life.
A
society
in
which
town
and
country
are
integrated,
that
exists
in
harmony
with
the
natural
world,
and
in
which
we
cooperate
with
each
other,
in
which
sexism
and
racism
and
homophobia
are
tossed
into
the
dustbin
of
history.
An
ecological
society
would
be
free
of
domination
and
exploitation,
indeed
of
hierarchy.
For
as
Bookchin
showed,
hierarchy
is
a
problem
far
more
ancient
than
class,
and
one
that
runs
much
deeper.
A
social
ecological
society
would
be
one
that
people,
as
active
citizens
rather
than
docile
taxpayers,
manage
themselves
through
face-to-face
democracy.
In
this
libertarian
polity
of
communal
self-management,
adult
citizens
would
make
decisions
about
social
life,
including
the
economy.
Every
urban
neighborhood
and
every
rural
town
would
create
a
popular
assembly
that
meets
as
often
as
the
people
chose;
the
assemblies
decisions
would
have
the
force
of
law,
because
people
would
have
taken
the
power
into
their
own
hands.
As
citizens,
people
would
make
decisions,
not
simply
to
benefit
their
selfish
desires,
but
for
the
common
good
of
their
communities.
So
empowered,
they
would
be
free
to
make
the
decisions
that
would
end
the
ecological
destruction
of
our
communities.
One
might
think
that
people
wouldnt
have
enough
time
for
such
self-governance
because
they
must
spend
large
parts
of
their
day
at
work.
Bookchin
would
answer
that
we
now
have
the
technical
means
to
do
something
unprecedented
in
human
history:
to
have
machines
perform
most
toil.
For
millennia
peoples
aspirations
to
freedom
were
suppressed
by
the
need
to
spend
their
days
engaged
in
drudgery.
Today
technology
has
made
possible
a
dramatic
reduction
of
the
workday,
if
only
we
could
agree
to
produce
that
which
we
need
and
little
more,
rather
than
wasteful
consumer
goods.
Production
for
use,
not
for
profit,
would
mean
enough
leisure
time
to
gain
control
of
our
lives.
The
overriding
task,
then,
is
to
create
an
ecological
democratic
city,
one
that
has
ended
ecological
destruction
because
it
has
ended
the
domination
of
human
by
human.
Gigantic
cities
would
be
broken
up,
so
that
our
built
environment
would
exist
on
a
manageable,
human
scale.
Manufacturing
would
be
decentralized,
into
smaller
plants
so
that
democratic
communities
could
manage
them,
and
basic
industries
municipalized.
Energy
sources
would
be
renewable,
like
solar
and
wind,
bringing
the
natural
world
back
into
urban
consciousness.
Such
a
society
may
seem
an
abstract
utopia,
but
such
is
the
urgency
of
the
ecological
crisis,
Bookchin
argued,
that
utopia
is
no
longer
a
fantasy.
It
is
a
concrete
need.
In
such
a
way
we
could
once
again
have
a
city
that
does
not
choke
us,
whose
air
once
again
would
make
us
free.
July
27,
2009