The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.
Our Being is Becoming, not stasis. Our Science is Utopia, our Reality is Eros, our Desire is Revolution.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the idea of continuous change and evolution in our lives and society, advocating for progress and transformation.
Murray Bookchin's quote captures the essence of constant change within our existence, suggesting that our very nature is to evolve rather than remain stagnant. He associates science with idealistic pursuits, reality with love and connection, and desire with the need for revolutionary change, illustrating a vision of humanity that seeks growth, improvement, and a profound connection to one another and our environments.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational seminar on personal growth, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of embracing change.
More from Murray Bookchin
All quotes βIf we recognise that every ecosystem can also be viewed as a food web, we can think of it as a circular, interlacing nexus of plant animal relationships (rather than a stratified pyramid with man at the apex)β¦ Each species, be it a form of bacteria or deer, is knitted together in a network of interdependence, however indirect the links may be.
Until society can be reclaimed by an undivided humanity that will use its collective wisdom, cultural achievements, technological innovations, scientific knowledge, and innate creativity for its own benefit and for that of the natural world, all ecological problems will have their roots in social problems.
Capitalism can no more be 'persuaded' to limit growth than a human being can be 'persuaded' to stop breathing. Attempts to 'green' capitalism, to make it 'ecological', are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth.
Similar quotes
Just as we might take Darwin as an example of the normal extraverted thinking type, the normal introverted thinking type could be represented by Kant. The one speaks with facts, the other relies on the subjective factor. Darwin ranges over the wide field of objective reality, Kant restricts himself to a critique of knowledge.
This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence.War is god.
It is out of the question that the task of socialist women's activity should be to alienate proletarian women from duties as wives and mothers; on the contrary, it must operate so this task is fulfilled better than before, precisely in the interests of the proletariat.
No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other.
What yesterday was still religion is no longer such today; and what today is atheism, tomorrow will be religion.
Wordplay hides a key to reality that the dictionary tries in vain to lock inside every free word.