He also posted an eight-paragraph note on the book’s Amazon.com sales page, calling it “a misguided and potentially dangerous publication” and expressing his wish that the book be taken out of print.
[…] he began writing about pedagogy and conflict resolution. This led him to renounce his book and instead campaign for its withdrawal from publication. He was unable to legally stop the publication of The Anarchist Cookbook because the copyright had been issued to the original publisher Lyle Stuart, and subsequent publishers that purchased the rights have kept the title in print. Powell publicly renounced his book in a 2013 piece calling for the book to “quickly and quietly go out of print”.
I could see how he might change his opinion, and later adopt a philosophy of nonviolence. But at this point there are some valid concerns regarding global catastrophic risks that we may not be able to confront without violent action. For a deeper dive on it, consider Sophie From Mars’ video The World Is Not Ending ( on YouTube ) and How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire by Andreas Malm which confront that either we face that capitalism will kill us and collectively stop doing it, or we, as a species, perish. And the sooner we can make that change, the less stark our future will be.
And in that regard, Powell’s practical instructions might still see some proper use.
A retraction.
And from wikipedia:
I could see how he might change his opinion, and later adopt a philosophy of nonviolence. But at this point there are some valid concerns regarding global catastrophic risks that we may not be able to confront without violent action. For a deeper dive on it, consider Sophie From Mars’ video The World Is Not Ending ( on YouTube ) and How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire by Andreas Malm which confront that either we face that capitalism will kill us and collectively stop doing it, or we, as a species, perish. And the sooner we can make that change, the less stark our future will be.
And in that regard, Powell’s practical instructions might still see some proper use.
May we all become older and wiser before we have to find out.