Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Quiet Brewing of Ideas

“All through school and University I had been given maps of life and knowledge on which there was hardly a trace of many of the things that I most cared about and the seemed to me to be of the greatest possible importance to the conduct of my life. I remembered that for many years my perplexity had been complete; and no interpreter had come along to help me. It remained complete until I ceased to suspect the sanity of my perceptions and began, instead, to suspect the soundness of the maps.”

E.F. Schumacher


It is indisputable that since the advent of modern civilization, a vast complex of dangerous problems has arisen never before seen in almost 5 billion years on this planet. Now we’re not talking about the natural cycles of species extinction that have been occurring since the birth of this celestial body, nor are we talking about the habitual planetary shifts of axis rotation, or spontaneous alterations in atmospheric, climatic conditions- these phenomena are governed only by the higher faculties of universal jurisdiction, beyond the control of species representing mere specks on the beautiful surface of planet Earth. No, we’re talking about the grossly atypical heating of the atmosphere caused by human industry, commercialization, and mass production; we’re talking about the unnatural elimination of life organisms because of colossal dam construction, sweeping deforestation, and expansive mineral resource excavation; we’re talking about fundamentally altering the course of entire ecosystems, conducting our lives in the most harmful, unhealthy, inefficient, purposeless, reckless (not to mention exhausting!) way than any other living organism has in the history of this planet. This system based upon exploitation, violence (albeit sometimes transparent), material wealth, overindulgence, and anthropocentricity has evolved into a savage virus – a destructive cancer that cannot possibly sustain itself without draining the world of all its life. What’s even more ominous is that our way of operating- the strategy humanity has been pursuing for the past 10,000 years- has become so deeply embedded and entrenched in our minds as the one, right way to live! Is it so inconceivable that a child might not have the desire to sit through 15 years ingesting facts and figures from some “sovereign authority” that is supposed to be telling them about the world? Economics is not the world. Politics is not the world. Children becoming depositories of information, much of which they have no inherent interest in, is not healthy. Is it so unimaginable that instead of contributing our lives to a morbid wage economy (or any economy at all), toiling away our lives for some chimerical goal of fiscal sufficiency, all we contribute as human beings is love and care for the community of life on Earth? As Derrick Jensen contemplates in his work, A Language Older Than Words:

“What if the point of life has nothing to do with the creation of an ever-expanding region of control? What if the point is not to keep at bay all those people, beings, objects, and emotions that we so needlessly fear? What if the point instead is to let go of that control? What if the point of life, the primary reason for existence, is to lie naked with your lover in a shady grove of trees? What if the point is to taste each other’s sweat and feel the delicate pressure of finger on chest, thigh on thigh, lip on cheek? What if the point is to stop, then, in your slow movements together, to listen to birdsong, to watch dragonflies hover, to look at your lover’s face, then up at the undersides of leaves moving together in the breeze? What if the point all along has been to get along, to relate, and experience things on their own terms? What if the point is to feel joy when joyous, love when loving, anger when angry, thoughtful when full of thought? What if the point from the beginning has been just to be?”

I think Jensen’s assertions are very important, because they represent a speculative shift in both our consciousness and how our views are reflected in the external world- a shift from the complicated to the simple, from what our hopes and dreams and fears project to what actually is, from an outdated mindset constantly emphasizing progress, advancement, and improvement to a worldview fostering affection and pleasure with what each individual life form is inherently comprised of.

We, as humanity, must decide what our priorities are; what is truly important to us as human beings? Is it the automated, involuntary desire to burgeon an economy, which in actuality, is just an abstract, man-invented contrivance fabricated to measure “success,” not a sensitive life form that grows and becomes strong like a child or a horse or a mountain lion. Why are the GDP and the amount of green paper in our treasuries the foregone indicators of a country’s wealth? Why are we spending $726 million on a nuclear-attack submarine when we could send 5 million Third World children to school for a year? Why are we committing $285 million to every B-1 bomber jet when we could be providing basic immunization treatments to the roughly 575 million children in the world who lack them? For what the world spends on defense every forty hours, about $4.6 billion, we could provide sanitary water for every human being who currently lacks it. What the fuck are we doing? The insanity of our senselessness and unconsciousness has become all too pervasive. Never once in the history of life on Earth has a species placed more emphasis on aggression and defense against theoretical conflict- or conflict that has no direct effect on that species’ life- than the guardianship and devotion to one’s own family. We are all part of the same community of life on this planet: the trees, birds, frogs, rivers, grass, wolves, bees, air, oceans, that fern outside your house, that ladybug strolling across the sidewalk, that squirrel clambering up the bark of a Chestnut… it’s about time that we put a priority on protecting and caring for these brothers and sisters.

It seems that this culture has isolated and detached us from the rest of the living world; it’s almost as if we, as humans, perceive ourselves as the rulers of the universe- a superior form of life on this planet, not subject to the principles that govern the natural world. We pretend we are not animals, whereas in reality the laws of ecology apply as much to us as the rest of “God’s Creations.” We pretend we’re at the top of a great chain of being, although evolution is nonhierarchical. We pretend that death is an enemy, although it is an integral part of life. Science, politics, economics, and everyday life do not exist separately from ethics. But we act like they do. This imperious perception our culture subconsciously propagates is not difficult to understand: we pretend that anything we do not understand- anything that cannot be measured, quantified, and controlled- does not exist. We pretend that animals are resources to be conserved or consumed, when, in reality, they have purposes entirely independent of us. What gives us the right to control livestock or mass produce the crops that we choose on any land that we deem suitable for planting? Who put humans in charge of locking up animals in zoo cages away from their accustomed habitats? Why can Bechtel and Nestle claim ownership to springs and lakes and rivers, when all forms of life should be entitled to Earth’s belongings? And that’s exactly what the water, air, trees, plants, animals, rocks, and mountains are: they belong to the Earth, and so do we; it’s not the other way around. The planet is willing to share its beautiful foundations of life with all its children, and to have the sheer arrogance to claim ownership of something as rudimentarily essential for existence as water or trees or soil is desecration to the universal order.

“Say you’ve got an executive passionately committed to the idea of his own fundamental goodness. That person would have a terribly difficult time seriously entertaining the notion that the corporation for which he’s worked over the course of a lifetime, and indeed the entire corporate system of which he’s a part, is responsible for terrible destruction of humanity and in nature. To acknowledge that would be to acknowledge that he has in fact lent his talents to genocide and ecocide. Be he can’t do that- it’s a very difficult thing to do. He’s spent years building up a career. His prestige and sense of self-worth are closely tied to his success, to how much oil he has discovered or how many cars he has produced. Given all this, serious consideration of the moral status of the work would create profound conflict between his morality and his financial as well as his emotional/social needs. The money, by the way, is no small matter. It may seem in a very real sense that he has everything to lose and nothing to gain from that sort of serious examination, and so his unconscious will protect his sense of self from a very painful conflict by dismissing or ignoring any evidence that he’s participating in these atrocities.” --- David Edwards, How Shall I Live My Life

Many trends and patterns of ideology are deeply embedded into the mental processes of our culture. These cognitive tendencies are established at very young ages within members of our modern industrial civilization, and slowly metabolize into our cerebral complex as we grow and develop with the status quo- a blueprint of life that is formulated for every one of us when we are born into this culture.

(Nota Bene: It is critically important to note that the word “culture,” in this context, does not denote humanity in its entirety, but merely one way of life that exists on our Earth (and one that is savagely extinguishing all other ways of life as well). The Bushmen, Dongria Kondh, and the Guarani do not represent ethnic strands of our culture; for one, these indigenous tribes and others like them have formed inextricable bonds of reciprocity and love with their habitats for tens of thousands of years, before this culture began poisoning the Earth with industrial toxins and exterminating all sentience but itself.)

When every human is born into this culture, each being radiates the organic vitality of the universe- an infinite life energy that comprises every single molecule and cell of the cosmos. This dynamism is an omnipresent element of all existence and space, and it pervades the very flesh and bones of our fragile bodies. When I look at a child, I see a powerful life form bursting with a boundless vibrancy and passion for life and its miraculous beauty. I see a boy jumping up and down on a grass field, pounding the hard earth with his feet in euphoria and jubilation. I see a young girl gazing up at a towering oak with a certain tenderness and affection that burns a hole through her heart. I see school kids strolling down the sidewalk, without a care in the world, feeling as free and weightless as the soft cumulous floating gently overhead in the powder blue sky. What happens to this fierce love for the world, a love so vast it echoes across the heavens and within the deep fissures of Earth’s core; the same love that flows from rivers and streams, that trickles, oozes, and seeps from the bark of redwoods and sprouts up from the thick, moist soil? Why is this all-encompassing life energy repressed instead of embraced as a child grows and develops? Our culture would tell us that “growth” and “development” require children to split with their silliness and immaturity, and their juvenile, unsophisticated games. It would tell us that the elimination of this “childish naïveté” is just part of life, and part of growing up. It’s part of going to school and getting good grades; it’s part of getting into university and finding a well-paying job; it’s part of settling down, forming a family, paying bills, working nine hours a day, and battling the enervating daily grind that is, well, just part of life. And we all affirm this notion. We all conform to and uphold our culture’s framework of living, its structure and system declaring how we ought live. It’s quite a paradox that people will defend to the death a lifestyle that is crippling the very essence of living and happiness.

“I know we’re creating a scene, but creating a scene is not illegal. You were born free, you will live free, you will die free. You’re allowed to scream for joy, you’re allowed to complain, you’re allowed to cry, you’re allowed to love people, you’re allowed to hug people. We’re starting to live in a world where we’re starting to feel scared, we’re starting to forget just how divine and special we are as human beings. Every single one of you is the ONLY example of you that will ever exist, and there’s not a single authority in this world who can tell you how to behave at any time, any place, anywhere.”
--- Everything is OK, youtube.com

We live in a police state designed and fabricated to instill fear in every human being that lives in this “developed” mode of existence- an artificial matrix in which arbitrary laws, edicts, and statutes are instituted by politicians and corporate lobbyists to fuel and sustain a destructive culture that only benefits the top 2% of anthro-society. How can anyone dictate how you behave on this planet except you? Each human being is a complex, sentient life form that is composed of the same molecules and atoms that shape and comprise the bark of a maple tree and the surging froth of a flowing river. Could any living entity possibly tell a deer how to live? Could any species authorize a certain way of life?


A group of blind people encounters an elephant for the first time. One grabs the tail and says, “An elephant is like a snake!” Another grabs a leg and says, “An elephant is like a tree!” A third grabs an ear and says, “An elephant is like a big leaf!” To the materialist, the fable shows how misinformed all three blind people are, for a sighted person can plainly see how the “snake,” “tree,” and “big leaf” connect together into an elephant. To the idealist, the fable says that we all have our ideological blindness, and that there is no fully sighted person who can see the whole elephant- that we are all blind people wildly grasping at the illusive truth of the world.
→ Michael Mayerfeld Bell, “An Invitation to Environmental Sociology”

What we believe depends on what we see and feel, and what we see and feel depends on what we believe. The world is a vast, wonderfully extraordinary place, and it would be foolish to presume that we, as humanity, can fully understand and comprehend the remarkable ecological dynamics that comprise the universe, let alone Planet Earth. It is a paradox that in the elitist sphere of academia, any knowledge or carnal enlightenment that isn’t derived from scientific, peer-reviewed material from the lens of anthro-empirical vanity is not viably credible in terms of developing our intrinsic cognition and perceptions of the external world. It would be foolish heresy in our culture to believe one knows anything about Earth’s natural creations without having studied biology, physics, chemistry, etc. in an educational system, which, frankly, is from the perspective of a destructively self-centered species. The Bushmen of South Africa can’t tell you the biochemical makeup of chloroplast in various eukaryotes; the Kayapo of Brazil won’t be able to outline the genetic DNA sequences of mammalian reptiles; nor would the Kutia Kondh be capable of defining the thermodynamic structures of volcanic formations. But these indigenous peoples could communicate the world to you in a way modern science, technology, and culture will never be able to express. They feel the Earth’s everlasting rhythm pulsing energetically through every vein, every strand of warm flesh. Ask a nomadic Tuareg tribesman, and he’ll truly tell you about the world, how the trees and rivers and stones and birds speak to him, and how he listens, as he is one with the universally boundless life energy that invigorates every living cell in the cosmos, and that unites the community of all life on Earth. The only thing systematic scientific and empirical approaches to learning have resulted in is humanity’s detachment and isolation from the rest of the natural world. We have used science to commodify every living thing on this planet, putting a price tag on any thing that would be productive to our economies, and our annihilative lifestyles. The CEO of Weyerhauser could tell you how many redwood trees would need to be uprooted from the soil to construct a military base, but assuredly he has never gazed up in awe at the tallest living species on Earth, breathing into his lungs the crisp, pristine scent of Sequoia bark, filled with an undying unity and devotion toward the tree, just as the tree is willing to give its undying love and sanctity to him, only if he’d let her.

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