Rewilding
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The concept of Rewilding may be understood as one which undertakes to show what healthy, as opposed to diseased, relationships between all things in Nature, including humankind, would look like. It is something of a rage on many college campuses & among both moderate & radical environmentalists, entails a growing body of theory & literature, & deserves to be taken seriously not just as a notion, but also as a practice - for indeed, it is a concept created to be practiced with all the arts & fervor presently devoted to war & other means of destruction, such as global capitalism.
Before Darwin most westerners believed that humans were a special creation, & thus, though in Nature, not of Nature. Many people still believe this, but only a small percentage of educated people ignore the elegance & satisfactoriness of Evolution, which since the discovery of the double helix has been fully outfitted with the mechanism that makes it indisputably true, DNA. Humanity is in & of Nature. What we did throughout all of our past, & are presently doing & in the future will do, is altogether natural.
Species differ from one another. The species humankind, too, differs from other life forms. Among our differences is an ability to recognize, name & act upon alternatives that we know will shape the future of a substance, a thing, a place, & of our minds. We are beings who generate values. In brief, a value is a preferred end enjoined to one or more preferred means that pursue, enable or secure said end. Values evolve as the circumstances in which they are lived by change. For reasons not pertinent to the immediate discussion, values change more slowly than do circumstances. In many cases, values, such as ones occasioned by & concomitant with religious & economic beliefs, are notably resistant to change. For instance, although grotesque overpopulation is strongly contributing to the ever increasing poverty, misery, explosive social disorder & possible extinction of our kind, Islamic, Christian & Jewish institutions persist in regarding birth control & all abortions as anathema.
The world's scientific community is sufficiently convinced that the present century is an apocalyptic one. Unlike religious fanatics who pathologically wish for death rather than life (we are all in degree increasingly maddened by what our history has begot), the scientists wish for continued life. A few economists also wish for life, along with a few intellectuals, journalists, professors, students & some of the rest of us. Of the world's great politicians, prelates & oligarchs, there are none with us. Whether they consciously know it or not, they are in the oppression business - in the 'law & order' mindset - as they have been since agricultural arts made cities, the management of large groups of persons & the consequent acquisition of unequal wealth possible.
I am all for preserving Civilization, but not in the form in which it came into being 10,000 years ago & has remained in down to this moment. Boom & Bust must finally end in absolute, irresolvable Bust. I do not want that for me, nor for humankind.
In its better envisioning, Rewilding has little or nothing to do with primitivism. True Rewilders have much more important things to do than take to the woods, kill rabbits & light fires by rubbing wood sticks together. There are states of mind, economic theories & practical methodologies to be designed & achieved. Bows, arrows & clubs will not get us there. Nor will mere violence. If there must be violence, it must be informed by our minds, not just our guts & hearts. Revolutions can be intelligent, & a few have been. A small few have even been largely peaceful.
A lot of us are not going to survive what is coming, no matter how we try - the Earth is burning, & so are several billion of us. But it is our nature, is it not, to try? To accept suffering & death as a price of glory? To finally refuse to surrender, to lie down & be trampled upon, spit on, raped & robbed by tyrants?
Dare to denounce What Is & adventure for what could be. Stop treating What Is as though it were an implacable monster before which any of us need kneel. Extinguish rather than toady to what is no good. If what once seemed useful became a boomerang that turned on you - as, for instance, your bank, Obama, senator or congressperson - withdraw all of your money & support, & beg your neighbors to see the wisdom of this. Quit your political party. Examine the several fascinating alternatives to capitalism. Vote only for politicians who acknowledge the existence of & swear loyalty to humane economies, & above all speak well of & extend support only to politicians who take no payola or any services from corporations, oligarchs & lobbyists they say they oppose. Do not attend any church that preaches this is a god's business, not yours. File lawsuits against every corporation that offends you, & do not be ashamed of filing mere nuisance suits. Pay not in coin or respect to the masters of this world what the masters crookedly assert is theirs. Complain loudly, brazenly & incessantly, as a bear screams if its self, mate or cub is insulted. Join public protests, but do not just stand on corners - march to the doorways of newspapers, broadcasters, government offices, corporations, churches & every place that practices deceits to mislead, misinform or maltreat us ... & get in there if possible, & convert rather than just confront thy offenders. Rewild thyself, & thereby save us all.
Rewilding
View Large
The concept of Rewilding may be understood as one which undertakes to show what healthy, as opposed to diseased, relationships between all things in Nature, including humankind, would look like. It is something of a rage on many college campuses & among both moderate & radical environmentalists, entails a growing body of theory & literature, & deserves to be taken seriously not just as a notion, but also as a practice - for indeed, it is a concept created to be practiced with all the arts & fervor presently devoted to war & other means of destruction, such as global capitalism.
Before Darwin most westerners believed that humans were a special creation, & thus, though in Nature, not of Nature. Many people still believe this, but only a small percentage of educated people ignore the elegance & satisfactoriness of Evolution, which since the discovery of the double helix has been fully outfitted with the mechanism that makes it indisputably true, DNA. Humanity is in & of Nature. What we did throughout all of our past, & are presently doing & in the future will do, is altogether natural.
Species differ from one another. The species humankind, too, differs from other life forms. Among our differences is an ability to recognize, name & act upon alternatives that we know will shape the future of a substance, a thing, a place, & of our minds. We are beings who generate values. In brief, a value is a preferred end enjoined to one or more preferred means that pursue, enable or secure said end. Values evolve as the circumstances in which they are lived by change. For reasons not pertinent to the immediate discussion, values change more slowly than do circumstances. In many cases, values, such as ones occasioned by & concomitant with religious & economic beliefs, are notably resistant to change. For instance, although grotesque overpopulation is strongly contributing to the ever increasing poverty, misery, explosive social disorder & possible extinction of our kind, Islamic, Christian & Jewish institutions persist in regarding birth control & all abortions as anathema.
The world's scientific community is sufficiently convinced that the present century is an apocalyptic one. Unlike religious fanatics who pathologically wish for death rather than life (we are all in degree increasingly maddened by what our history has begot), the scientists wish for continued life. A few economists also wish for life, along with a few intellectuals, journalists, professors, students & some of the rest of us. Of the world's great politicians, prelates & oligarchs, there are none with us. Whether they consciously know it or not, they are in the oppression business - in the 'law & order' mindset - as they have been since agricultural arts made cities, the management of large groups of persons & the consequent acquisition of unequal wealth possible.
I am all for preserving Civilization, but not in the form in which it came into being 10,000 years ago & has remained in down to this moment. Boom & Bust must finally end in absolute, irresolvable Bust. I do not want that for me, nor for humankind.
In its better envisioning, Rewilding has little or nothing to do with primitivism. True Rewilders have much more important things to do than take to the woods, kill rabbits & light fires by rubbing wood sticks together. There are states of mind, economic theories & practical methodologies to be designed & achieved. Bows, arrows & clubs will not get us there. Nor will mere violence. If there must be violence, it must be informed by our minds, not just our guts & hearts. Revolutions can be intelligent, & a few have been. A small few have even been largely peaceful.
A lot of us are not going to survive what is coming, no matter how we try - the Earth is burning, & so are several billion of us. But it is our nature, is it not, to try? To accept suffering & death as a price of glory? To finally refuse to surrender, to lie down & be trampled upon, spit on, raped & robbed by tyrants?
Dare to denounce What Is & adventure for what could be. Stop treating What Is as though it were an implacable monster before which any of us need kneel. Extinguish rather than toady to what is no good. If what once seemed useful became a boomerang that turned on you - as, for instance, your bank, Obama, senator or congressperson - withdraw all of your money & support, & beg your neighbors to see the wisdom of this. Quit your political party. Examine the several fascinating alternatives to capitalism. Vote only for politicians who acknowledge the existence of & swear loyalty to humane economies, & above all speak well of & extend support only to politicians who take no payola or any services from corporations, oligarchs & lobbyists they say they oppose. Do not attend any church that preaches this is a god's business, not yours. File lawsuits against every corporation that offends you, & do not be ashamed of filing mere nuisance suits. Pay not in coin or respect to the masters of this world what the masters crookedly assert is theirs. Complain loudly, brazenly & incessantly, as a bear screams if its self, mate or cub is insulted. Join public protests, but do not just stand on corners - march to the doorways of newspapers, broadcasters, government offices, corporations, churches & every place that practices deceits to mislead, misinform or maltreat us ... & get in there if possible, & convert rather than just confront thy offenders. Rewild thyself, & thereby save us all.