Hats off to Kropotkin!!

In the discourse of the libertarian left, there is a general aversion to what is called the "great man" theory of history, the interpretation of history in terms of the decisive actions of great leaders. You might say that there is an exception made for Kropotkin, the great white bearded Saint (as described by Oscar Wilde).

 

Born into privelege as the son of a minor landlord in Russia, Kropotkin would eventually assume the role of class traitor, moving over the course of a lifetime from the Tzar's court to the Tzar's prison. His memoirs of a revolutionist paint a picture of a modest man pushed to acts worthy of a Grecian hero by a simple insistence on the dignity of all people.

 

Kropotkin's influence was not contained within the boounds of politics, at a time when misreading of Darwin were stoking the fires of the eugenics movement, Kropotkin's Mutual Aid painted a more cooperative image of living systems and broadened the possibilities for human societies beyond the mindless drive for profit.

 

Kropotkin did not invent mutual aid, the type of society he outlined and advocated had been practiced by indigenous people's for millenia. His writings aided in translation these ideals into modern parlance to provide those fighting the harsh logic of social darwinism at a time when authoritarian and racist ideas were in ascendence. For this we say hats off to Kropotkin on his 178th birthday.