Editing Murray Bookchin (section)

=== General sociological and psychological views ===
Bookchin was critical of class-centered analysis of Marxism and simplistic anti-state forms of libertarianism and liberalism and wished to present what he saw as a more complex view of societies. In ''The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy,'' he says that:

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My use of the word [[hierarchy]] in the subtitle of this work is meant to be provocative. There is a strong theoretical need to contrast hierarchy with the more widespread use of the words class and State; careless use of these terms can produce a dangerous simplification of social reality. To use the words hierarchy, class, and State interchangeably, as many social theorists do, is insidious and obscurantist. This practice, in the name of a "classless" or "libertarian" society, could easily conceal the existence of hierarchical relationships and a hierarchical sensibility, both of which—even in the absence of economic exploitation or political coercion—would serve to perpetuate unfreedom.<ref>Murray Bookchin. ''The Ecology of Freedom: the emergence and dissolution of Hierarchy''. Cheshire Books: Palo Alto. 1982. p. 3 {{ISBN?}}</ref>
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Bookchin also points to an accumulation of hierarchical systems throughout history that has occurred up to contemporary societies which tends to determine the human collective and individual [[Psyche (psychology)|psyche]]:

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The objective history of the social structure becomes internalized as a subjective history of the psychic structure. Heinous as my view may be to modern [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]]ians, it is not the discipline of work but the discipline of rule that demands the repression of internal nature. This repression then extends outward to external nature as a mere object of rule and later of exploitation. This mentality permeates our individual psyches in a cumulative form up to the present day—not merely as capitalism but as the vast history of hierarchical society from its inception.<ref>Murray Bookchin. ''The Ecology of Freedom: the emergence and dissolution of Hierarchy''. Cheshire Books: Palo Alto. 1982. p. 8 {{ISBN?}}</ref>
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Bookchin argued that both [[Marxism]] and [[syndicalism]] had focused too narrowly on appealing to workers and workplace issues.
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Yes, class struggles still exist, but they occur farther and farther below the threshold of class war. Workers, as I can attest from my own experience as a foundryman and as an autoworker for General Motors, do not regard themselves as mindless adjuncts to machines or as factory dwellers or even as "instruments of history," as Marxists might put it. They regard themselves as living human beings: as fathers and mothers, as sons and daughters, as people with dreams and visions, as members of communities—not only of trade unions.{{sfn|Bookchin|2015}}
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