But we are not satisfied by liberalism alone or by socialism alone. Freedom without equality means that the poor and weak are less free than the rich and strong, and equality without freedom means that we are all slaves together. Freedom is not genuine if some people are too poor or too weak to enjoy it, and equality is not genuine if some people are ruled by others. The crucial contribution to political theory made by anarchists is this realization that freedom and equality are in the end the same thing.
Anarchism also departs from both liberalism and socialism in taking a different view of progress.
Liberals see history as a linear development from savagery, superstition, intolerance and tyranny to civilization, enlightenment, tolerance and emancipation. There are advances and retreats, but the true progress of humanity is from a bad past to a good future. Socialists see history as a dialectical development from savagery, through despotism, feudalism and capitalism, to the triumph of the proletariate and the abolition of the class system. There are revolutions and reactions, but the true progress of humanity is again from a bad past to a good future. We see history not as a linear or a dialectical development in one direction, but as a dualistic process.