Friday, 31 May 2013

Emma Goldman

A century ago Emma Goldman was something of an Anarchist Superstar. These days she would be banned as a 'hate preacher'. Indeed, she was imprisoned and deported at various times, so perhaps nothing much has changed. The only difference is that, unlike the modern 'hate preachers', she wasn't working for the government. 
Here are some quotes from her:

'If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.'

'Merely external emancipation has made of modern woman an artificial being. Now woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.'

'Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colours will baby people become interested - for a while at least. The people are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day.'

'It requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.'

'Direct action is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism.'

'The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.'

'The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.'

'Since every effort in our educational life seems to be directed toward making of the child a being foreign to itself, it must of necessity produce individuals foreign to one another, and in everlasting antagonism with each other.'

'Morality and its victim, the mother - what a terrible picture! is there indeed anything more terrible, more criminal, than our glorified sacred function of motherhood?'

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