Purity/Seriousness

Visions of the Rewilding Renaissance Common Misconceptions
#1

Hey Folks,

I got a letter on Myspace the other day that I thought i would share here. It’s the same kind of thing I get pretty much all the time.

I don't mean to come off so blatantly rude, but while I'm glad that you bring the concepts of rewilding, etc. to the attention of many people, things such as this "Nuclear Winter Formal" with a "Post-Apocalyptic" fashion show, as well as other things you've said, promoted, etc. in the past send the message that you are not fully serious with your concern for our current conditions as a society and where they are taking us. it seems as if rewilding and returning to an indigenous lifestyle are merely a fashion statement or for you or some kind of fad you're trying to start. again, i do appreciate that you bring a lot of things to light for people who would otherwise be ignorant of the way things should be, and you are intelligent and informed about all of these things, but it seems like you're not sincere about it at all. if you are, and i am wrong, then i apologize, but i really wish you would treat such matters much more seriously.

Now, I don’t quite understand why this happens continually. I think several things are going on.

The first is that most people cannot read into the irony of my style, so they think I’m “faking” or mocking them… they don’t realize that I am mocking myself.

The second is that they don’t think you can care about collapse, and simultaneously have fun with it, which I think is necessary for psychological survival (at least for me). This comes back to our whole purity issue.

What get’s me the most is the questioning of my seriousness… I mean, the proof is in the pudding, right? What have I done? I teach these skills, I created this site, I run rewild camps, I write articles about escaping civilization on my blog… and people question my seriousness with these issues!? Meanwhile, what are they doing to promote rewilding?

Someone on another message board defended me saying this:

don't be so dismissive. I think the guy is for real, but recognizes that any attempt to criticize civilization, while simultaneously being a beneficiary of it (as are all of us here in the western world), will carry with it a few contradictions. he has fun with it. I think it goes a little deeper than hipster irony. hell, I would hasten to say that most of us here have our own beef with western civ, but perhaps a lot of us are a bit too humorless or pure to admit our contradictions.I'm glad that somebody is trying hard to make primitivism accessable and hip. For too long these ideas have been confined to 'hippie' and 'crusty' ghettos. Somebody has to clue the hipsters in. Even if it means brewing PBR clones from foraged wild hops and grains, and giving your friends asymmetrical haircuts from sharpened rocks.Rock on, Scout.

Does anyone here experience these serious/purity issues from their communities?

#2

I’ve been treated like shit or just completely ignored by ripped-black-cotton-clothes-wearing so-called-primitivist “crust punks” because i was dressed too normal to be considered like-minded… those kids all have cellphones. I guess wearing ripped black cotton is the only indication of someone being seriously anti-civ? should i throw out my buckskins?

Oh one other time, i got called an undercover cop (in complete seriousness) by some jackass portland anarchists for standing on the sidelines at an anti-war march and making jokes about how symbolic protest never does anything. Those people know all about effective action, once they realized i wasnt a cop they invited me to join their anarchist philosophy study group. Ha! yea no thanks.

Most of the primitivists ive met have had a good sense of humor. But with the hatemail you constantly receive, I guess a lot of them dont. That or theres just a couple people that really hate you and send hatemail from multiple sources. Must be a full time job…

#3

No laughing. Seriously. Hey, wipe that smirk off your face. This is serious. What? You want to celebrate the end of civilization? Get outta here you punk kids.

#4

over a year ago i had a partner who had two children

we frequently attended events and gatherings and even actions with them.

i am guessing that due to our ages and ‘family’ status we were frequently viewed with suspicion.

most of the area anarchist scene was teens and twenty somethings with a few people in their 60’s who were revered as veterans of the struggle.

there weren’t any others like us. the people in the area who were 25-60 were entirely missing the message of anarchy or were just not participating in that community.

it made it hard on us many times. my partner was new to the whole idea but was an amazing person who had boundless passion, i am sure that her process of figuring it all out appeared odd to some especially when contrasted with my long held values and vision.

interestingly, or maybe not, i’d say none were anti-civ or even primitive oriented at all. and most were angrily opposed to any of the thoughts or possibilites, and many were simply irate with zerzan

#5

Get over it, have fun, accept contradiction. This is what I’ve learned from you, urban scout. Simply put, it’s OK to be a hypocrite when you are trying to work out a new way to live. It’s inevitable, because you can’t magically shift to an entirely new culture. You have to make it a piece at a time. And if you aren’t having fun doing it then why are you doing it?

When I found Urban scout’s site, I was mired deep in peak oil paranoia, anarchist anger and the stark reality of not knowing what to do about any of it. I really just needed to lighten up. Scout, your blog is one of the things that allowed me to do that.

Anyway, I’ve found that most people that get to far into the “this is serious” mindset wind up addicted to some mind-altering substance. They need the excuse of the drug to lighten up. How many black block punks spend their weekends totally drunk? Quite a few.

#6

This is exactly the thread I needed to read. Thanks to everyone who’s written (so far). I grew up in a parochial culture where everyone was placed neatly in a box. Unfortunately, my child self readily absorbed every nuance of that cultural undercurrent, as years went by. Even today, I feel uncomfortable with the idea of being half in one box and half in another. But now having a metaphor like this (multiple feet in multiple boxes) helps me stand back and look at myself and be more OK with where I am right now.

#7

I feel like I’ve always had my feet in different boxes, kind of like doing a little dance, haha.
US I admire how you always share these struggles with us, and I always wonder wtf is the point of a imo, pretty ignorant thread posting, I mean, I can see where he got to the fashion thing but like… wtf is the point of pulling something like that out to completely debase you and say you aren’t serious or don’t care. And further, what does it matter if you do or don’t?
Maybe that poster was having feelings of jealousy, who knows.

#8

i think we’re all born into a bind. this society sucks, and it’s beginning to crumble. i think a lot of good-hearted people see the many fractures of this society and really do want to do something about it. they want to do what they can to make a difference. people choose a lot of different ways of going about it, and many of these ways are still locked in mindset of reform or individual change. i find myself running amidst mainstream environmental circles and have friends who devote most of their time to mainstream reforms (heck, i do this). because of this, i often don’t know how to go about offering a critique because my critique runs so deep and is so offensive to many (i recently posted on a mainstream youth environmentalist blog about moving “beyond nonviolence” and it quickly became the most viewed and discussed post ever on that site: ). also, in many ways i hesitate to offer it sometimes because i’m really really glad to see people care enough to do something in spite of being entrenched in a culture that tells them that they should just get a job and then retire and die. i really don’t want to alienate people who care by offering a critique that could paralyze them. for someone like me who was born in the thick of civilization, i’ve had to shed my whole identity before i could think of what to do.

when feeling slightly backed into a corner by recognizing civilization for what it is, i find that it’d be really easy for me to revert to my training and play the card of of the christ figure who is alone in his ultimately righteous and correct way of thinking. criticizing others who are doing good things because they care becomes really really easy because it’s obvious that i know the right way and they don’t (i think daniel quinn talks about the meme of the “one right way to live,” i think we see this in activists who think there’s “one right way to change”). that doesn’t mean that criticism shouldn’t be offered, but i think it’s best to do that in a relationship with a person, where i don’t don’t just drop bombs on them and expect them to pick up the pieces alone.

i reckon i say all of this, Scout, because i think that’s probably where that criticism comes from… from a good-hearted person who cares deeply and offers a criticism from being born in this fucked up society and not knowing what to do about it. i wouldn’t worry too much about it at least insofar as the concern is whether ze recognizes the worth of what you’re doing. if you are concerned about the person offering criticism, let them know how you feel, but perhaps as compassionately as possible recognizing that we’re all in a bind and many of us don’t yet know what to do except sling arrows.

#9

That was a great post wildeyes, thanks for that. This is a very important topic and im really happy ro read everyones opinion on it.

#10

Yeah, “training” is just the right word for it. Pavlov’s bell and all that.

#11

Wow. Thanks everyone for chiming in. And thanks Andrew. I really needed to hear that!

#12

I call it “Gallows Humor” soldiers are famous for it. I once saw a group of Marines; mostly between the age of 19 and 25. who had just been part of a large battle. who were looking at the aftermath with horror in there eyes where heavy equipment had buried quite a few people alive in dug out positions. Ones who had refused to surrender. When one young Marine who had been looking at a hand sticking out of the ground says, I’m going to give Habibe Five and thank him for dying for his country, and does. Everyone there absolutely looses it with laughter and the whole platoon lines up to give Habibe five, pretty soon the whole company is in on it, then the MPs; who to this point have been hiding safely behind the battle zone show up and tape off the area. A lot of people who here this story have no idea what’s going on, they just think that Marines are sick bastards; including the MPs. But what was really going was a group of young men giving Honor to a vanquished enemy who if the situation were different might have been one of there team and trying to rescue some of the sanity that they’ve lost, with laughter, that’s way better then tears to heal your soul. I think Urban Scout looks at the world the same way these particular Marines looked at there world that day. You got two choices laugh to vent the emotion of the world’s destruction, or despair and give in to tears and defeat. We have to keep moving on with what the world gives us and I’d rather do it with laughter on my voice then tears in my eyes

#13

Tears don’t equal defeat. Tears are actually a sign of emotional health and vitality. Defeat (in this context) means failing to own up to your emotions, whichever emotions they may be.

Emotional paralysis is defeat. My aunt is emotionally paralyzed and she is consequently losing her will to live. She doesn’t cry … I wish she would. That, or joke. Or both.

If those soldiers, in the aftermath of the battle, had bitterly mourned for the destruction around them, they would have come to closure. They came to closure in their own way by gallows humor, but there are many paths to the same mountain top.

On a side note… I think it goes without saying that a soldier would rather emote with a laugh than a tear - it’s part of the “be tough” military culture. As long as they have SOME way to emote, they’re in good shape.

#14

We save the tears for alone times mostly. But they’re there.

#15

yeah. disease of civilization #6,327: unshed tears. which leads to the next several hundred diseases. . .

#16

So Scout,

When are you going to go “Beyond Hipster”?

What value do you get out of participating in that scene?

It seems to me, you often complain about the scene.

Rarely, and correct me, please, do you ever gush about this scene.

Branch out, brother.

I got housewives planting permaculture gardens.

#17

A hipster is defined as someone who constantly complains about hipsters.

#18

roflmao!!!

;D

#19

Laugh, cry, laugh until you cry…it’s all good. If the native communities who’ve survived civilized genocide can still make light, joke and laugh, why not those of us waking up to the world? Laughter is serious business…for myself, sometimes I think I’d go insane without it.

Purity is what white sugar has. Nothing in nature is pure. Isn’t the point of rewilding to get dirty?

#20

:-*