Re: <nettime> Anarchism, Kropotkin, Darwin, McLuhan, the Internet

[igor {AT} mi2.hr]

dear all,

> There is another link, less obvious, and I wonder if anyone in this list
> has been investigating it. Kropotkin also studied the paradigm of the
> network, combined with sustainable economies, decentralized knowledge
> sharing and co-operation. In the beginning of the century, his references
> were the growing electric and phone networks, much more decentralized than
> the railway networks that had excited most theorists in the XIX century.

If I remember correctly, he was also writing (in Mutual Aid?) about the
idea of word-processor, a device for sparing uncreatively spent time in
typing/typesetting the same document again and again.

However, the major organisational Kropotkin idea was more like
Proudhon-ish concept of confederation of small communes, and he was
insisting on it in every occasion - good example is his meeting with
Lenin, described in memories of Bonch-Bruevitch. One of the most
comprehensive (and less apologetic), however was a speech/text on the
occasion of British workers (and Bernard Shaw) visit to Soviet Union 1920,
published in Freedom lately. Lucky guess is No 375, but I wouldn't bet on
it.

And as a curiosity, present FRY prime-minister was back in the 80ies a big
fan of Kropotkin, he even translated a selection of articles, and wrote
series of articles. What might be a moral of that story?


ciao
igor





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