Some Thoughts

[edwschreiber at earthlink.net]

 SOCIATRY OF THE ENDGAME
 

Civilization is not sustainable. This is especially true for industrial civilization. Traditional communities do not give up or sell the resources on which their communities are based until their communities have been destroyed. Those who want the resources will do what they can to destroy traditional communities. Our way of living – industrial civilization – requires persistent and widespread violence.

Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed.  When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.

It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control - this is called production. If we do not put a halt to it, civilization will continue to immiserate the vast majority of humans and to degrade the planet. The effects of this degradation will continue to harm humans and nonhumans for a very long time. 

Given the current levels of violence by this culture against both humans and the natural world, however, it’s not possible to speak of reductions in consumption that do not involve privation, because violence and privation have become the default of our culture. Yet some ways of reducing production and consumption would consist of decreasing the current levels of violence – required and caused by the (often forced) movement of resources from the poor to the rich – and would of course be marked by a reduction in current violence against the natural world.  Personally and collectively we may be able to both reduce the amount and soften the character of violence that occurs during the ongoing and perhaps long-term shift. Or we may not. But this much is certain: if we do not approach it actively – if we do not talk about our predicament and what we are going to do about it – the violence will almost undoubtedly be far more severe, the privation more extreme.

>From the beginning, this culture – civilization – has been a culture of occupation. These “rich” claim they own land, and the “poor” are often denied the right to make the same claim. A primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of pieces of green paper. Those without the green papers generally buy into these delusions almost as quickly and completely as those with. These delusions carry with them extreme consequences in the real world. Those in power rule by force, and the sooner we break ourselves of illusions to the contrary, the sooner we can at least begin to make reasonable decisions about whether, when, and how we are going to resist.

>From birth on we are individually and collectively enulturated to hate: hate life, the natural world, the wild, wild animals, women, children, our bodies, hate and fear our emotions, hate ourselves. If we did not hate the world, we could not allow it to be destroyed before our eyes. If we did not hate ourselves, we could not allow our homes – and our bodies – to be poisoned.

The material world is primary. This does not mean that the spirit does not exist, or that the material world is all there is.  It means that spirit mixes with flesh.  It means also that real world actions have real world consequences. It means this mess really is a mess. It means we have to face this mess ourselves.  It means that for the time we are here on Earth – whether or not we end up somewhere else after we die, and whether we are condemned or privileged to live here – the Earth is the point.  It is primary.  It is our home. It is silly to think or act or be as though this world is not real and primary.  It is silly to not live our lives as though our lives are real.

It is a mistake to base our decisions on whether actions arising from them will or won’t frighten fence-sitters, or the mass of Americans. Our current sense of self is no more sustainable than our current use of energy or technology. The culture’s problem lies above all in the belief that controlling and abusing the natural world is justifiable. 

Within this culture, economics – not community well being, not morals, not ethics, not justice, not life itself – drives social decisions. Social decisions are determined primarily (and often exclusively) on the basis of whether these decisions will increase the monetary fortunes of the decision-makers and those they serve.

Social decisions are determined primarily (and often exclusively) on the bases of whether these decisions will increase the power of the decision-makers and those they serve. Social decisions are founded primarily (and often exclusively) on the almost unexamined belief that the decision-makers and those they serve are entitled to magnify their power and/or financial fortunes at the expense of those below.

If you dig at the heart of it - you will find that social decisions are determined primarily on the basis of how well these decisions serve the ends of controlling or destroying wild nature.