On a relevant note: Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and UN brokered a deal to allow the transport of Ukrainian wheat from the Black Sea just a few minutes ago [0], this is a relief as space for the new harvest had to be made or it was likely 2 harvests worth of wheat would be lost over this myopic invasion and cause severe famine: mainly in the under-developed World, specifically Turkey who has suffered immense inflation, and could look like Sri Lanka pretty soon.
Kropotkin's work still stands to this day, when the invasion in Ukraine happened it was volunteers who set up all those relef centers in Poland, not the government. It was the people who setup care packages of food, and offered to transport them and house them. It's rare... but this is what guides me in my darkest moments, these glimpses of what Humanity can be if it allows itself to look beyond the vapid, and often shallow existence most are forced into that leads so many into depression and sorrow. I don't believe in communism, but their is something integral about Humans in which we are often capable of becoming our best self when tragedy strikes, I just wish their was a way to sustain that when not under great duress.
Victor Hugo also was motivated by an encounter that touched him so much to include the plight of a young man being imprisoned for stealing bread in one of his novels [1].
I read the book, which was fascinating but a little disorganized and repetitive, coming back to the same subject again in different chapters. This is a good summary.
