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Modern Crisis

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The essays from Bookchin, a key figure in Green philosophy and propounder of Social Ecology as a rival to Deep Ecology, are a mixed lot to say the least. The essay dealing with the replacement of capitalism's culture of egoism with the participatory practices of communitarianism is worthwhile if not exactly original. The essay on Social Ecology however is disappointing since, on close examination, it never really gets beyond a hollow rhetorical stage in laying out what should be the book's centerpiece.

The essay on market economy vs. moral economy is the compilation's strongest. Generally, Bookchin's skillful rhetoric manages to vividly contrast the misanthropy of market economy with the humanism of moral economy, laying bare the ultimate cost of placing greed before need. However - and this is an important reservation - the author's framework of commercial transaction within moral economy fails to penetrate beyond the medieval emphasis on honest dealing. Replacing market gouging with honest dealing is thin gruel indeed after some four centuries of failure. The problem with Bookchin's analysis is not his enemies. It's the recourses he offers. The dehumanizing cash nexus of market economy is a problem indeed, but the author's retreat into moral admonition represents little more than wishful thinking. Reliance on honest, profitable dealings constitutes a step backward, not forward, and likely represents the absence of genuine alternatives to planned economy and the real possibilities of modern technology which Bookchin too often appears to equate with its corrosive capitalist offspring, viz. mass marketing.

Bookchin represents much that is both creative and restrictive among the contemporary social left.