Mythic Thread of the Collapse and After

Visions of the Rewilding Renaissance
#1

Walking in life these days it seems as if the thread or idea of the Collapse and a post-Oil world is becoming stronger and stronger. There are some obvious reasons for this (Oil at $120 a barrel) and more and more people just becoming aware of the realities of our effects on the planet. However, it also seems to me that there is an element of something bubbling out of the Dreamtime, from the place of visions and dreams that is making this more real for more people all of the time. It’s almost as if in the past, the possibility of Collapse and a new world was a possibility and even a probability but didn’t seem that real. Now, it seems to me that it is becoming more Real all the time…Anybody else have similar experiences?

Also, if we carry this “mythic thread” strongly in our lives in what we say and do, does this help bring about this change? Is this a kind of visionary or mythic rewilding?

Just some thoughts…

#2

Yes! In my interactions w/ people at the bus stop, at work, and other public places, I have a lot of experiences with people, Joe and Josie Citizens, who seem to be aware that something is systemically dysfunctional about our society. … and those who, in one way or another, acknowledge or anticipate the approaching end of civilization. … and even people who are making comparisons between defining aspects of civilized culture and “primitive” (I still hate that word!) culture. Like the guy who randomly said to me (after I told him very vaguely that I was figuring out a new approach to life), “You mean like going from eating vegan to bow hunting?”

I try to work in a lot of subtle encouragement for rewilding in the conversations I have with people. This morning at work, I had some pretty gnarly menstrual cramps. I said to my co-worker, “Did you know that our bodies are not actually designed to get menstrual cramps? They’re due to our modern diets and lifestyles. Women in indigenous hunter-gatherer groups almost never have them.”

(And from my own experience, I remember there was much less pain in the couple of months when I tried the paleo diet! After I discovered what a difference diet made in that respect [and I wasn’t even eating many wild foods, except for some of the meat and fish], I became convinced of the argument that cramps are non-existent in societies that not only eat, but live, “paleo.”)

Anyway, not to get too off-topic… I agree with you, the reality of collapse is starting to show itself. An ex-boyfriend (now friend) and I were talking about this once. I liked his way of wording it: “All the indicators [of a process of collapse] are present.”

#3

I too have been noticing a growing lack of faith in the future of civilization. Usually it isn’t so clearly articulated however. I think for most people it is a result of the ever-increasing difficulty of living in this system - the lowering of wages, the increasing cost of living, etc - and growing awareness of climate change and the basic unsustainability of a civilization based on fossil fuels. I think it’s natural that the more people feel exploited, the closer they get to losing their homes, going hungry, etc, the more they will question things.

I also really agree with George Orwell:

Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different?
(I like that quote enough to make it my signature - it explains what I've been feeling most my life).

I think the farther our culture moves away from what is natural (the more unnatural it becomes), the more this vague feeling of “wrongness” and a desire to return to an older, more natural way of life begins to surface. Also, the worse things get (the more the planet is destroyed), the more it becomes apparent that we are heading for our own destruction unless we can chart a new course.

Also, I believe that we are in a pivotal time in history, of massive, rapid change, so it makes sense that the Collective Unconscious (or whatever one wants to call it ;)) will reflect this.

I think that this “mythic thread” CAN provoke change, but only by prodding people to action. Just thinking/feeling this inside oneself is NOT enough, IMO. In fact, I think that believing that it IS enough could potentially be a barrier to change, if it leads to people NOT taking any further action.

But it is a great start - and possibly even a necessary prerequisite for change - because someone surely won’t take action to change themself and the world around them if they don’t believe that any thing needs changing.

#4

I agree, but I have found it’s really difficult to convince people to rewild in a way that is consistent with my ethical principles of having anti-authoritarian (edit for clarity: “egalitarian”) relationships. That difficulty, however, doesn’t keep me from finding ways to “prod” people in a way that respects their individual autonomy.

People also have made all kinds of assumptions about rewilding (“won’t you be lonely living in the forest/mountains all by yourself?”) that I feel they won’t seriously begin to understand what rewilding means until they explore it for themselves… and as long as they hold those negative myths, they won’t even try. I mean, I try to dispel the myths as they are presented to me, but I don’t think that addressing each one as it comes up is enough to convince someone of the total rewilding picture.

Maybe it’s easier for other people, but for me, “rewilding outreach” has been a long and tedious slog.

#5

Yeah. I don’t have any experience trying to help others to understand rewilding (only recently having consciously started down that path myself), but I have years of experience with outreach around activist issues (anti-war, anti-capitalism, etc), and I have also found it to be a very difficult, uphill battle.

It seems like if someone is already thinking along certain lines, and WANTS to know more, then they are very open to what I have to say. But convincing someone of something that they don’t want to be convinced of is practically impossible (IOW, those whose mindsets are firmly in a different camp).

And when it comes to even MORE radical POVs, like all living things on earth having equal rights, disputing the right of humans to “own” land, etc, I’ve become convinced that it is impossible for the vast majority of people to EVER come around to that mindset, because they have been so fully domesticated & indoctrinated by civilization that they will never even WANT to be free.

So, what I was referring to in my post above, was only about the “mythic thread” provoking people to change from within themselves (them feeling it and acting on it on their own). I personally no longer have any interest in convincing others of these fundamental things - either they feel it or they don’t. But if they are searching for guidance or whatever, then I’ll be glad to help however I can.

#6

Don´t forget how the destruction of the world shows up again and again in novels, comics, music, movies, series, documentaries, art, games, etc etc etc. This is probably one of the most recurring of contemporary themes out there. Certainly a collective dream/myth running trough society here.

Often its just people toying with the idea of great change along the lines of Bakunin: the urge to destroy is a creative urge. But the idea is certainly out there in the open, in our story-landscape for anyone to interact with. Its only the invested elite that might see taboo here, but i cant seem to find this taboo anywhere else. I find that lots of people seriously try and engage me when talking on the end of civilization and i think that is made possible by these shared myths which allow them to at least play with the creative possibilities they allow.

#7

Sometimes it is the destruction of the world (like the Death Star in Star Wars) and sometimes it is the dismantling of civilization, leaving the rest of the world to go on without it.

Battle of the Myths! :slight_smile:

#8

It seems like a lot of people have an easier time talking about collapse in terms of myth than about in terms of actually living thru it. Seems to me that, in some ways, that should give us an opening to discussion. Unfortunately, in practice, that opening doesn’t get me anywhere. I think that being capable of talking about it in mythic terms sometimes makes it easier to distance themselves from the impact. I suspect the myth of dualism is somehow behind that, and effectively ‘breaking’ “natural” human thinking.

But mostly, I don’t start up conversations like that. I just try to make suggestions for concrete problems to nudge folks in a saner direction.