very substantial social changes (are) in order, and anarchists ought to be thinking about it. thinking about it doesn't just mean i'd like to have a free and just society; that's not thinking about it. we have to make a distinction if we want to be effective. that's the question: if we want to be effective, we have to make a distinction between what you might call proposals and advocacy. i mean, you can propose that everybody ought to live in peace, love each other, we shouldn't have any hierarchy, everyone should cooperate, and so on. okay? it's a nice proposal, okay for an academic seminar somewhere. advocacy requires more than just proposal. it means setting up your goals (proposal), but also sketching out a path from here to there -- that's advocacy. and the path from here to there almost invariably requires small steps. it requires recognition of social and economic reality as it exists, and ideas about how to build the institutions of the future within the existing society, to quote bakunin, but also to modify the existing society. that means steps have to be taken that accommodate reality, that don't deny it's existence ("since i don't like it, i'm not going to accommodate it"). these are the only ways to be effective// noam chomsky, 03.12.10, reddit blog
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