Re:Noam Chomsky on the cruelty of American imperialism
by rvense on Sunday September 26, 2021 @09:52AM
(#28660894)
> a philosophical tradition derives from Kropotkin rather than Marx.
Bakunin, another early anarchist, at a conference of the First Internationale in about 1870, said to Karl Marx something like "If you take the most convinced revolutionary, and give them absolute power, within a year they will be worse than the tsar himself." I think that has to qualify as one of the biggest "I told you so"s in history.
Leftist politics in general assume that most people are actually good, and society to the extent it exists is there to protect the majority of good people from the few baddies who want to hoard all the resources. Even if we take that will go power as an intrinsic feature of the world, those displaying antisocial behavior should be cast aside.
Not saying I’m 100% agreeing with this, but that optimism in the general goodness of people is a core tenet of leftist political views. And Chomsky is and has been a thought leader on the American left for the last 50 years.