All those sonorous phrases about making mankind progress, while at the same time the progress-makers stand aloof from those whom they pretend to push onwards, are mere sophisms made up by minds anxious to shake off a fretting contradiction.
Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin: “All those sonorous phrases about making mankind progress, while at the same time the progress-makers stand aloof from…”
Editor's note · Context
He critiques the disconnect between those who claim to promote progress and the people they neglect, calling it a contradiction.
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Altogether, the worker is much more at the mercy of the dealer or the employer, and the employer is at the mercy of the wholesale dealer.
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And wherever the village-community spirit is maintained, the small industries persist, while no effort is spared to bring the small plots under higher culture.
As to the honest longing for more technical education--surely let us all have as much of it as possible: it will be a boon for humanity; for humanity, of course--not for a single nation, because knowledge cannot be cultivated for home use…

