Murray Bookchin dead at 85

July 31, 2006 12:02 PM

Social theorist Murray Bookchin died July 30th in his home in Burlington, Vermont. During a prolific activist career spanning half a century, Bookchin forged a new anti-authoritarian outlook called social ecology, which sought to reclaim local political power, by means of direct popular democracy, against the consolidation and increasing centralization of the nation state. Bookchin was a relentless critic of ideologically similar movements that he found disturbing, including the New Left's drift toward Marxism-Leninism in the late 1960s, tendencies toward mysticism and misanthropy in the radical environmental movement, and the growing focus on individualism and personal lifestyles among anarchists. He was kicked out of the Young Communist League at age 18 for openly criticizing Stalin. In 1974, he co-founded the Institute for Social Ecology. He published more than 20 books and hundreds of articles during his lifetime. A public memorial service will be held for him in Burlington, Vermont, on Sunday, August 13th. (Summarized from an email sent by Brian Tokar.)
posted by strangeleftydoublethink (18 comments total)

Sounds like my kind of guy. Thanks for the obit, I had never heard of this man before and now I plan on checking him out.
posted by Falconetti at 12:10 PM on July 31, 2006

I met him once, years ago. Thanks for the post.

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posted by jokeefe at 12:33 PM on July 31, 2006

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posted by everichon at 12:41 PM on July 31, 2006

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posted by Pseudoephedrine at 12:41 PM on July 31, 2006

Bookchin died? Whoah.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:41 PM on July 31, 2006

Aww nuts.
posted by cmonkey at 12:48 PM on July 31, 2006

Bookchin's essay, "Listen, Marxist!"

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posted by jonp72 at 12:54 PM on July 31, 2006

I'd never heard of him either, but from a quick read of those links it seems he had some very keen insights but muddied them up with Marxist ideology. I have high hopes that my ideas on self-organized or network-organized social structures can bring about the realization of his ideals.

From one of the links:

The step-by-step reorganization of municipalities, their confederation into ever-larger networks that form a dual power in opposition to the nation-state, the remaking of the constituents of republican representatives into citizens who participate in a direct democracy-all may take a considerable period of time to achieve. But in the end, they alone can potentially eliminate the domination of human by human and thereby deal with those ecological problems whose growing magnitude threatens the existence of a biosphere than can support advanced forms of life.

posted by scalefree at 12:58 PM on July 31, 2006

First heard of him when I was leading an environmental group in college. A sad thing.

At least he will be eaten by bugs.
posted by hurkle at 1:46 PM on July 31, 2006

.

Good bye, Murray!
posted by tnai at 2:34 PM on July 31, 2006

I had heard that the the ISE building had closed and was for sale (sold, I guess), this was the first I had heard that Bookchin was in ill health. Thanks for this post.
posted by jessamyn at 2:55 PM on July 31, 2006

Well written, strangeleftydoublethink. Thanks.
posted by nthdegx at 3:09 PM on July 31, 2006

Bookchin was instrumental in turning my adolescent punk rock negativity into something slightly more critical, engaged and productive. I am sad to hear he is gone.
posted by anglophiliated at 3:55 PM on July 31, 2006

Bookchin was instrumental in turning my adolescent punk rock negativity into something slightly more critical, engaged and productive. I am sad to hear he is gone.

Ditto. This news is upsetting.
posted by inoculatedcities at 4:59 PM on July 31, 2006

Bookchin's ideas totally shaped my life and work. Glad he was around for a while.
posted by salvia at 5:22 PM on July 31, 2006

Aw, Man!!!

I remember him fondly from the time he came to nurture our small anarchist group at Columbia University, back in 1979. He knew exactly why we couldn't deal any more with the freakin' Spartacists and their ilk.

and yes,
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posted by reality at 7:19 PM on July 31, 2006

Post-Scarcity Anarchism is a pretty interesting read, though I don't fully buy it.
posted by beerbajay at 2:34 AM on August 1, 2006

I met him a couple times: an interesting thinker, sorry to hear he's gone. Thanks for the post.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 8:39 PM on August 1, 2006