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Basically, anarchism presents in the most extreme form the notion that man is essentially good, noble and altruistic but is perverted from his true nature by bad authoritarian institutions. In spite of all evidence to the contrary—not just the obvious beastliness of the bourgeoisie, officials and police but the perfidy, cowardice, treachery that would turn up even among the comrades—Kropotkin continued to believe in the goodness of man. If everyone were like him, anarchism might have a chance. But few men like Peter Kropotkin grow on the family tree of man—a fact that Kropotkin himself never realized.