Scythes, Kingsnorth and Dark Mountains

[biffvernon]

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/ ... ticle/7277

[UndercoverElephant]

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/ ... ticle/7277

I’m writing this on a laptop computer, by the way. It has a broadband connection and all sorts of fancy capabilities I have never tried or wanted to use. I mainly use it for typing. You might think this makes me a hypocrite, and you might be right, but there is a more interesting observation you could make. This, says Kaczynski, is where we all find ourselves, until and unless we choose to break out. In his own case, he explains, he had to go through a personal psychological collapse as a young man before he could escape what he saw as his chains. He explained this in a letter in 2003:

I knew what I wanted: To go and live in some wild place. But I didn’t know how to do so. . . . I did not know even one person who would have understood why I wanted to do such a thing. So, deep in my heart, I felt convinced that I would never be able to escape from civilization. Because I found modern life absolutely unacceptable, I grew increasingly hopeless until, at the age of 24, I arrived at a kind of crisis: I felt so miserable that I didn’t care whether I lived or died. But when I reached that point a sudden change took place: I realized that if I didn’t care whether I lived or died, then I didn’t need to fear the consequences of anything I might do. Therefore I could do anything I wanted. I was free!

I could have written those exact words (Kaczynski) apart from I would change 24 to 21.

Is it possible to read the words of someone like Theodore Kaczynski and be convinced by the case he makes, even as you reject what he did with the knowledge? Is it possible to look at human cultural evolution as a series of progress traps, the latest of which you are caught in like a fly on a sundew, with no means of escape? Is it possible to observe the unfolding human attack on nature with horror, be determined to do whatever you can to stop it, and at the same time know that much of it cannot be stopped, whatever you do? Is it possible to see the future as dark and darkening further; to reject false hope and desperate pseudo-optimism without collapsing into despair?

I don't think so. Not without going through the aforementioned procedure of personal crisis leading to acceptance of the total loss of hope.

It’s going to have to be, because it’s where I am right now. But where do I go next? What do I do? Between Kaczynski and Kareiva, what can I find to alight on that will still hold my weight?

I’m not sure I know the answer.

There is no answer.

And so I ask myself: what, at this moment in history, would not be a waste of my time? And I arrive at five tentative answers:

One: Withdrawing. If you do this, a lot of people will call you a “defeatist” or a “doomer,” or claim you are “burnt out.” They will tell you that you have an obligation to work for climate justice or world peace or the end of bad things everywhere, and that “fighting” is always better than “quitting.” Ignore them, and take part in a very ancient practical and spiritual tradition: withdrawing from the fray. Withdraw not with cynicism, but with a questing mind.

Or with both. Cynicism is not so easily avoided.

Two: Preserving nonhuman life. The revisionists will continue to tell us that wildness is dead, nature is for people, and Progress is God, and they will continue to be wrong. There is still much remaining of the earth’s wild diversity, but it may not remain for much longer. The human empire is the greatest threat to what remains of life on earth, and you are part of it. What can you do—really do, at a practical level—about this?

Yes.

Three: Getting your hands dirty. Root yourself in something: some practical work, some place, some way of doing.

Yes.

Four: Insisting that nature has a value beyond utility. And telling everyone.

Yes.

Five: Building refuges. The coming decades are likely to challenge much of what we think we know about what progress is, and about who we are in relation to the rest of nature. Advanced technologies will challenge our sense of what it means to be human at the same time as the tide of extinction rolls on. The ongoing collapse of social and economic infrastructures, and of the web of life itself, will kill off much of what we value. In this context, ask yourself: what power do you have to preserve what is of value—creatures, skills, things, places? Can you work, with others or alone, to create places or networks that act as refuges from the unfolding storm? Can you think, or act, like the librarian of a monastery through the Dark Ages, guarding the old books as empires rise and fall outside?

He's been reading my mind.

Great stuff. Shame none of the people who need to read it will ever go near it.

[snow hope]

Very thought-provoking UE.

[UndercoverElephant]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=101 ... =2&theater

[Little John]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=101 ... =2&theater

Unfortunately, doing what you love does not necessarily allow you to put a roof over your head, put food on the table or prepare for an old age when you won't be able to do much of anything.

For all of the above, in an industrialized world of seven billion with no access to land or other primary resources necessary for the satisfaction of basic human needs for existence, you need money.

And for money, most people most of the time need to work in a job that they almost certainly don't love, most probably don't like that much and possibly even hate.

There is no escape from the matrix.

[biffvernon]

Yes, but I guess what Paul Kingsnorth is saying is that what is necessary for the satisfaction of basic human needs for existence is not an industrialized world of seven billion with no access to land or other primary resources.

Without access to land there is no opportunity to use the scythe.

[mobbsey]

I’VE RECENTLY BEEN reading the collected writings of Theodore Kaczynski. I’m worried that it may change my life.

Yeah, I put Kaczynski's magnum opus on my web site in the late 90s.

Unfortunately the text can be interpreted in different ways, especially in those culturally bankrupt states in which it is considered politically unacceptable to try and prevent people walking into schools, workplaces and other public places with firearms and killing people.

[UndercoverElephant]

Yes, but I guess what Paul Kingsnorth is saying is that what is necessary for the satisfaction of basic human needs for existence is not an industrialized world of seven billion with no access to land or other primary resources..

I don't think he's even saying that. He's not talking about the satisfaction of basic human needs of seven billion people. He's talking about what one does to prevent oneself from falling into permanent and total despair once you've fully accepted that the environmental movement has failed. He's talking about how to live an authentic life without going insane. At least that's what it looks like to me.

[emordnilap]

Fascinating writing.

they are telling this civilization what it wants to hear. What it wants to hear is that the progress trap in which our civilization is caught can be escaped from by inflating a green tech bubble on which we can sail merrily into the future, happy as gods and equally in control.

Quite.

[Snail]

Yes, but I guess what Paul Kingsnorth is saying is that what is necessary for the satisfaction of basic human needs for existence is not an industrialized world of seven billion with no access to land or other primary resources..

I don't think he's even saying that. He's not talking about the satisfaction of basic human needs of seven billion people. He's talking about what one does to prevent oneself from falling into permanent and total despair once you've fully accepted that the environmental movement has failed. He's talking about how to live an authentic life without going insane. At least that's what it looks like to me.

It must be a very fine thing to get so good at an activity that you no longer think about how.

To experience yourself getting better and better at something. Becoming an expert, and then a master; never achieving complete mastery of course.

Something which stops you thinking for a time.

[UndercoverElephant]

Yes, but I guess what Paul Kingsnorth is saying is that what is necessary for the satisfaction of basic human needs for existence is not an industrialized world of seven billion with no access to land or other primary resources..

I don't think he's even saying that. He's not talking about the satisfaction of basic human needs of seven billion people. He's talking about what one does to prevent oneself from falling into permanent and total despair once you've fully accepted that the environmental movement has failed. He's talking about how to live an authentic life without going insane. At least that's what it looks like to me.

It must be a very fine thing to get so good at an activity that you no longer think about how.

To experience yourself getting better and better at something. Becoming an expert, and then a master; never achieving complete mastery of course.

I presume you are talking about what Alan Watts was saying in that short film.

I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to try to do what Watts is suggesting. Steve is of course right, and for most young people today "not caring about the money" isn't a realistic option. I only ended up in a position where I could stop thinking about money because I bought and sold property - I was carried along with the banker/property scam and ended up with enough money in the bank to devote my entire time to learning about fungi, unpaid, just for the hell of it. I had no idea I would end up being paid good money to teach other people about fungi.

And yes it is very rewarding just to keep learning. Since I started doing it as a job, I've been visiting places I would not otherwise have visited and finding things I wouldn't otherwise have found. I'm still learning all the time, and every new species I find and identify brings more satisfaction.

My only problem is that it is seasonal. For three months of the year, I'm in hog heaven. For most of the other nine, I'm back to feeling unemployable and hating the society I belong to, and wanting to escape from the matrix.

[Little John]

Yes, but I guess what Paul Kingsnorth is saying is that what is necessary for the satisfaction of basic human needs for existence is not an industrialized world of seven billion with no access to land or other primary resources..

I don't think he's even saying that. He's not talking about the satisfaction of basic human needs of seven billion people. He's talking about what one does to prevent oneself from falling into permanent and total despair once you've fully accepted that the environmental movement has failed. He's talking about how to live an authentic life without going insane. At least that's what it looks like to me.

Yes, I agree, that is what he is saying and I'm saying an authentic life, for the vast majority of humanity, is impossible. It's the reason why people do go insane and mow down kids in schools.

I know you fundamentally agree with the above UE. It's just so bloody depressing. For myself, I keep the despair at bay with little victories. Victories that are, in the grand scheme of things, meaningless. But, nonetheless, give meaning to me. For example, I bought a knackered old Singer treadle sewing machine just before Christmas for a tenner. I took it apart, fixed it up and made myself an old-fashioned full-body union-suit pair of long-johns with it over the Christmas holiday for when I'm working outdoors.

Little victories.....

[clv101]

It's the reason why people do go insane and mow down kids in schools.

People don't do that! One in 300 million, once every few years is about as rare an event as humanity can even imagine. I think it's far more interesting to consider why it doesn't happen all the time, we've created an environment (in America at least) where anyone can buy half a dozen assault rifles, many folk do - and yet events like Sandy Hook are extremely rare.

[emordnilap]

It's the reason why people do go insane and mow down kids in schools.

People don't do that! One in 300 million, once every few years is about as rare an event as humanity can even imagine. I think it's far more interesting to consider why it doesn't happen all the time, we've created an environment (in America at least) where anyone can buy half a dozen assault rifles, many folk do - and yet events like Sandy Hook are extremely rare.

There are plenty of rarer examples.

[Snail]

UE: i'm not in a 3g area, so can't watch the video.

I was thinking a combination of the scythe, your own expertise, and finding ways to stay sane.

I have interests and various likes, but no passions really. Nor anything I'm particularly good at. So, because I can't lose myself in anything, I find it very hard to stop thinking sometimes.

I believe the Tea Ceremony became popular during Japan's warring-states period, as a way to stop becoming as crazy inside as out. Tea Cermony, learning the way of the scythe, master wooden rake-maker, sculptor, studying fungi, fixing and making something, etc.