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Paul Goodman, Taylor Stoehr: Drawing the Line Once Again (Paperback, 2010, PM Press) 3 stars

Five years after his death in 1972, Paul Goodman was characterized by anarchist historian George …

Sharp and pragmatic (but a bit dated?)

3 stars

(em português, incluindo um artigo traduzido do livro → sol2070.in/2023/10/Princ%C3%ADpios-do-descentralismo)

"... we are in a period of excess centralization. It is demonstrable that in many functions this style is economically inefficient, technologically unnecessary and humanly damaging. Therefore we ought to adopt a political maxim: to decentralize where, how and how much is expedient." ... "It is not “anarchy.” (But of course most Anarchists, like the anarcho-syndicalists or the community-anarchists, have not been “anarchists” either, but decentralists.)" Paul Goodman (in 1964)

Ursula Le Guin was the one who led me to read Paul Goodman (1911 - 1972), referring to the American intellectual as the anarchist who most influenced her.

"Drawing the Line Once Again: Paul Goodman's Anarchist Writings" is a short book that brings together articles on topics related to anarchism. Perhaps it's not the best book to introduce the author. I felt that many of the articles were a bit dated: as they weren't originally intended as a book, they make frequent references and are even based on news stories from the time, for example.

But I really liked the sharp analysis and pragmatism. One example is the article "Some Prima Facie Objections to Decentralism", which I liked the most.

It's about a basic principle of anarchism, decentralization at (almost) all levels. Answering frequent questions from young people, Paul introduces how this could actually be implemented.