Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of self-thinking individuals.
Interpretation
Anarchists emphasize the need for education before societal change, valuing self-thought over political campaigning.
In this quote, Lucy Parsons highlights the belief that significant and lasting changes in society require a deep level of education and critical thinking among individuals rather than mere participation in political processes. Anarchists advocate for the cultivation of self-thinking individuals who can challenge the status quo and drive meaningful change from the ground up, rather than relying on traditional political methods that may not lead to genuine transformation.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the importance of education in social movements.
Concentrated power can be always wielded in the interest of the few and at the expense of the many. Government in its last analysis is this power reduced to a science. Governments never lead; they follow progress. When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then.
If every woman who's had an abortion took tomorrow off in protest, America would grind to a halt. And that would be symbolic: because women grind to a halt if they are not in control of their fertility.
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
It is only through disruptions and confusion that we grow, jarred out of ourselves by the collision of someone else's private world with our own.
Change isn't made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.
I represent a party which does not yet exist: the party Revolution-Civilization. This party will make the twentieth century. There will issue from it first the United States of Europe, then the United States of the World.
The former colonies, in Latin America in particular, have a better chance than ever before to overcome centuries of subjugation, violence and foreign intervention, which they have so far survived as dependencies with islands of luxury in a sea of misery.
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