Going back and re-reading a lot of the stuff that Ran Prieur has said in the last couple of months. One thing I like is his current interest in the idea of Core Civilised, Core Primitive, and Edge Civilised & Edge Primitive. You can see what he has got to say on his blog, but basically he's pointing out that the edge, the place of contention between civilised and primitive is the ugliest place, with the core civilised being more or less nice folks (the people we know who wouldn't have the constitution for gung-ho Conquistadore nonsense) and the core primitives really having their shit together, but being very fragile.
Ran has talked about it before, but I think we might really be innoculating ourselves here from this wetiko disease. (To borrow from Jensen borrowing from Jack Forbes.) Perhaps we are now learning to face the abuse to which we have been subjected, as a culture, so that we can finally learn to stand up strong against the abuser. People who have never seen real abuse before may not even be able to recognise it, may not know how to fight it. If you raise a person in that context, it will paralyse them. But people are waking up, they are smelling the coffee and sharpening the knives.
Maybe we will learn how to spot the wetiko disease. As a gay guy, I generally find it pretty easy to spot a closet case--the say and do (and often think) all the same bullshit I said and did and thought when I was engaged in a multiple-year frenzy of self denial and lying. The nonwild mindset isn't all that different--it is a programme of denial and rationalisation and fear. Perhaps this will be our lot--we have borne this painful yoke, and now we know how to fight it, for we have fought it in ourselves. Proselytisation is not uncalled for--without outreach, I doubt I would have the sort of perspective I do now. We must be careful not to hide up in comfortable radical enclaves where everyone agrees--we must maintain friendships with people who disagree, and we must (for the sakes of both parties involved) be willing to be open and honest.
Ultimatley, as Ran has intimated, I think we can be hopeful that we might, once and for all, start to really understand the real magnitude of anthropogenic devastation. Our society has enough historical memory and scientific knowledge and raw power that our capacity for destruction is all but obvious, and certainly massive. If we play our cards right, we could make this the last time we are all afflicted with the wetiko plague. (And, like all things civilised, that is what it is.) We can learn that deforestation to build an empire is a bad idea, as is the destruction of topsoil and all available energy resources.
Or we could fail, and the cycle will continue, on a lower but no less tragically absurd level, indefinitely. I'd like to see this particular cycle broken, and replaced with one more stable, more rooted in the world, more constructive to life and wild nature and humankind. I want to die out of a better world than I was born into.
Ran has talked about it before, but I think we might really be innoculating ourselves here from this wetiko disease. (To borrow from Jensen borrowing from Jack Forbes.) Perhaps we are now learning to face the abuse to which we have been subjected, as a culture, so that we can finally learn to stand up strong against the abuser. People who have never seen real abuse before may not even be able to recognise it, may not know how to fight it. If you raise a person in that context, it will paralyse them. But people are waking up, they are smelling the coffee and sharpening the knives.
Maybe we will learn how to spot the wetiko disease. As a gay guy, I generally find it pretty easy to spot a closet case--the say and do (and often think) all the same bullshit I said and did and thought when I was engaged in a multiple-year frenzy of self denial and lying. The nonwild mindset isn't all that different--it is a programme of denial and rationalisation and fear. Perhaps this will be our lot--we have borne this painful yoke, and now we know how to fight it, for we have fought it in ourselves. Proselytisation is not uncalled for--without outreach, I doubt I would have the sort of perspective I do now. We must be careful not to hide up in comfortable radical enclaves where everyone agrees--we must maintain friendships with people who disagree, and we must (for the sakes of both parties involved) be willing to be open and honest.
Ultimatley, as Ran has intimated, I think we can be hopeful that we might, once and for all, start to really understand the real magnitude of anthropogenic devastation. Our society has enough historical memory and scientific knowledge and raw power that our capacity for destruction is all but obvious, and certainly massive. If we play our cards right, we could make this the last time we are all afflicted with the wetiko plague. (And, like all things civilised, that is what it is.) We can learn that deforestation to build an empire is a bad idea, as is the destruction of topsoil and all available energy resources.
Or we could fail, and the cycle will continue, on a lower but no less tragically absurd level, indefinitely. I'd like to see this particular cycle broken, and replaced with one more stable, more rooted in the world, more constructive to life and wild nature and humankind. I want to die out of a better world than I was born into.
posted by SBG at 1:16 PM
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