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What I Believe

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What I Believe

Written by: Emma Goldman
Narrated by: Jean Norman
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In this pamphlet, Emma Goldman outlines her beliefs on property, the church, love and marriage, and violence. She states that students of the history of progressive thought are well aware that every idea in its early stages has been misrepresented and that the adherents of such ideas have been maligned and persecuted. In conclusion, Goldman claims that only anarchism makes nonauthoritarian organization a reality, since it abolishes the existing antagonism between individuals and classes.

Public Domain (P)2018 Museum Audiobooks Political Science Politics & Government
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Understanding of the violent nature of the state, while not acknowledging the violence inherent in the destruction of private property.

Emma would know one owns oneself, but the fails to realize that this one also owns the products of their labour.

Property is an extension of ones self.

Through a the application of our faculties against the world in its state of nature, we create something new which was created by you, using your faculties and is thus an extension of your ownership of yourself to the things you create.

The application of the violence of the state however in both the definition and the enforcement of those property rights, does not then follow to be just or correct.

If I killed a fish. And there are 2 of us. You do not have an equal claim to that fish. If you were to take that fish, a primal instinct would emerge within me to stop you. This is because our property is necessary to our survival. The act of you taking the fish, may not be physical violence against my body, but it is an attack on my ability to survive. Perhaps I consumed all my energy in the acquisition or said fish. You taking that fish, will directly result in at least pain, and possibly death. The fish is mine. Should I share the fish? Probably, both morally and logically. But where the fish goes, is my choice. To deprive me of that choice, is an act off violence.

Lovely short listen however, A rich perspective. I will probably listen to it again. Recommend.

Honesty of motivation

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