Witness the tragic condition of Russia. The methods of State centralization have paralysed individual initiative and effort; the tyranny of the dictatorship has cowed the people into slavish submission and all but extinguished the fires of liberty; organized terrorism has depraved and brutalized the masses and stifled every idealistic aspiration; institutionalized murder has cheapened human life, and all sense of the dignity of man and the value of life has been eliminated; coercion at every step has made effort bitter, labour a punishment, has turned the whole of existence into a scheme of mutual deceit, and has revived the lowest and most brutal instincts of man. A sorry heritage to begin a new life of freedom and brotherhood.
Anarchist Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia (1923), after she had traveled to the new Soviet Union and then returned.
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Emma Goldman
1 reply on “Emma Goldman”
Curious as to whether she modified her philosophy, when she saw the difference between her cherished theory and its actual execution. Or was she like the modern Democrat party faithful and the lost millennials? Trying to cherry pick the idealistic parts out of a regimen that has forever and always killed the best individuals and human initiative.