ABSTRACT
Fifth Estate: What is meant by anarchism? Why talk about anarchism today? Murray Bookchin: Most people associate anarchists with traditional bomb-throwers and nonsense like that. The author has to decentralize the cities. This is an old and traditional anarchist demand and it was always seen as a dream. For the first time historically it has become not simply a dream but a necessity for human survival. The city today plays a totally regressive role. It no longer unifies people or brings them together. On the contrary, in the large cities today people are more alienated than ever before. This is an entirely new development historically. The city is no longer conceived as the arena of culture but at the arena of deculturation. The city also has been described as the arena in which human culture developed. Men were brought together, removed from the land and brought into close proximity with each other to communicate ideas.
