Freedom Press have published some interesting titles,
but unfortunately they have a tendency to publish simply for the sake of
publishing, a kind of "primitive accumulation of bad books". This
slim volume is one example of this policy. (Or do they just want to make a
profit, like everyone else?)
"Deep Ecology and Anarchism" consists of leftovers from the journal The Raven, issue 17. A couple of articles of mostly bad quality which didn't make it into the journal, have been put into this little book instead. What could be simpler? Unfortunately, only Brian Morris' criticism of Arne Naess is worth reading (I haven't bothered with Chris Wilbert's article on apples, but I did read the rest).
Still, a somewhat flippant person might nevertheless be weirdly entertained by some aspects of this work. The editors decided to include a rambling and quite bad criticism of Murray Bookchin. Of course, since Bookchin was the high pope of anarchism, pardon, libertarian municipalism, Freedom Press felt forced to invite him to respond...in the same issue. (They even call him "our comrade".) Bookchin's response to the unfortunate critic, one Graham Purchase, is...well, you can imagine. The gloves were off, as usual when Murray wanted to slash-and-burn some unfortunate opponent. Finally, Freedom have actually included a short essay by a true blue (or is it green?) deep ecologist, Rodney Aitchey, who says all the things Social Ecologists love to hate, even to the point of mentioning the Tao Te Ching and (here it comes, here it comes!)...P.D. Ouspensky. Bookchin didn't see fit to respond.
Perhaps it was just as good that this wasn't included in The Raven.
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