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Born a Russian prince, Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) rejected his title and wealth to spend his life in pursuit of social justice and equality. His last major work, The Conquest of Bread, surveys economic methods for the satisfaction of human needs. The 1892 treatise also outlines the revolutionary path to his vision of utopia: an anarchist communist society. Kropotkin criticizes the effects of feudalism and capitalism, noting that both systems exacerbate poverty and promote privilege, even in times of abundance. Citing the human propensity toward voluntary cooperation, he proposes the establishment of free, self-sufficient anarchic communesand outlines practical considerations of production and distribution. The author supports his theories with examples from the French rebellions of 1789, 1848, and 1871, and his reasoning anticipates aspects of twentieth-century revolutions in Russia, Germany, and Spain. At a time when many thinkers employed the new Darwinian concept of "survival of the fittest" to justify their capitalist and imperialist goals, Kropotkin pointed out the historic patterns of humanity's best success under cooperative circumstances. A century later, his economic analysis remains fresh and relevant.… (more)
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Kropotkin advocates a unique ideology, which might now be classified as 'anarcho-communism'. This combination was jarring, from my biased American viewpoint, especially
After this, he constructs his new ideal society with loving detail, moving from the basic necessities (food, clothing, shelter), to wages and the structure and distribution of goods, and education. He avoids much hard economic detail, and this book is made for mass discussion.
Now I find myself in agreement with him in more areas that I would have thought. Mechanization, technology, and planning have made many previously awful jobs much more reasonable and efficient. Women need to be brought out and made equal, of course, of course. Cooperation has worked in some fields, particularly with modern technology and the internet. I could go on about crowd-sourcing, the public domain, GNU, Creative Commons Licenses, and so forth. I agree that happy and autonomous workers are best, in terms of production, and happiness. Not to mention that there has been an empirically shown biological imperative for altruism. (see: Stephen Jay Gould's essay for further detail)
However, I confess I am distrustful that people will willingly buy into such ideas, what after the spread of the idea of rugged individualism. Or whether if people are simply good enough to willingly move over to communes, or participate in group or community thinking. Or if any moneyed interests will conspire to make such a society impossible. And this is coming from an avowed idealist/optimist. Although I'd much prefer this society to a Social Darwinist 'every man for himself' arena. Only too often have I seen evolution, a wonderful biological theory, tarnished by being used as a justification for societal misfortunes and inequalities.
Will such a utopia work? Perhaps. I'm not really sure. My inner empirical scientist wants to say 'try it out and let's see'. Perhaps that's the only way to be sure.
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