hey,
i saw this movie a couple nights ago - http://zeitgeistmovie.com/
you can watch in on the site
it’s about the lies and manipulations created by those in power to control and rob the masses.
perhaps not a lot new for folks who read about this kinda stuff, but it was a concise summary reminding me that those in power are out to screw anyone to make a buck.
the other piece that i’m left with is, how to respond knowing (as i believe) that those in power will not stop until there is nothing left and the world is left in ruins. it makes me feel that the little steps i take are insignificant compared to what is needed to make changes - if indeed it’s possible for us to make a significant impact.
:-\
I’ve always felt invigorated by movies and stories like that (I’ve seen it - crazy intense!!!).
In a funny way, I love them, because they help me clarify for myself what the hell I want. Clearly, we can’t stop global warming, or the war in iraq, or the million incubating superflus and superbugs in laboratories around the world, or the mad cow prion, or the RF implantation scheme.
But knowing the true face of civilization, and all those horrors that represent its true intent, I know what direction to go in to make a life worth living.
And anymore, that alone seems to matter. What comprises a life worth living, a life lived straight out of my heart? A rewilded life?
Because the cops don’t actually protect and serve people like me, the Constitution doesn’t actually protect ‘rights’, all the famine and medieval misery that my people used to experience my culture now exports to the third world.
So how do I begin to disengage from this horror factory of a culture? How do I live a life worth living?
So I write, and I paint, I eat and I sing, with family and friends instead of TV and the media. I replace this culture’s stories with new stories that matter to me. I have children (someday) that I adore and swear to never let schooling touch them. I make mistakes, and grieve, and celebrate.
I don’t know, I think we have it pretty sweet. Now, more than ever, no one can deny that only the insane choose the way of this culture. And for us to choose something else, we have to first rewild, to become sane again. Then we can create new healthy things. It all feels pretty simple to me.
Not to detract from your post, but … Noam Chomsky’s really good for that. (Not so good on anarcho-primitivism per se, though!)
i find it interesting in reference that what willem said about us having it sweet, as i sway between this feeling a deep gratitude for being alive in this time, and deep anger/confusion/sadness at being alive now.
a story i think is relevant that a mentor shared with me.
there’s a girl who grew up in a poverty situation and so she didn’t eat very often. this was ‘normal’ for her as this was her life situation very many years. she became used to being chronically under-fed. then, her family had a turn for the better and came into a fair bit of money. food became plentiful in the family and the girl was well fed. at first she was totally grateful and ecstatic at all the food and how good it felt to feel full and eat what she needed. then, as time passed, this too became ‘normal’, that she had enough food to eat.
what i take from this is that we live in a culture that creates profound feelings of disconnection, anger, despair etc. it has us believe we live in a dead world where humans are outside of ‘nature’ and where life is hard and toil is our lot. so when we start to wake up, the alternative to this starts to look pretty sweet. as we start to heal and the feelings of deep disconnection, anger, despair, etc, start to fade, and more joy, connection and play comes into our lives, at first this feels (to me at least) like i want to jump with joy at the amazingness of it all.
as time passes and this becomes more and more strongly a reality (the animist, rewilded way of being), it seems to me that it will become more and more ‘normal’. this isnt’ to say that i will feel less gratitude for being alive, but i think to illustrate that in a rewilded situation, i don’t believe that we would think about all of this kind of stuff - it would be normal that we feel connected. i don’t think that birds or trees or mosquitoes or bears spend much time thinking, wow!, i’m connected and one with the world! i think it’s just the way things are. (assuming my anthropomorphizing is accurate).
I find i oscillate between the confusion/pain/despair that have been forced on me by the culture, and the joy and pleasure in being able to re-find and re-discover a way of being that is indescribably richer and deeper. whenever i come across a new idea that shifts my perception (like for example, the language re-wilding thread about describing so-called objects in terms of how they affect the world around you - what an amazing idea and how much more alive the world would be!), i get really excited and want to share with others. this is the juicy stuff for me, that’s where i want to be, walking that journey of discovering a new way of being WITH others.
yo!
(hopefully that wasn’t too much of a tangent)
"as time passes and this becomes more and more strongly a reality (the animist, rewilded way of being), it seems to me that it will become more and more ‘normal’. this isnt’ to say that i will feel less gratitude for being alive, but i think to illustrate that in a rewilded situation, i don’t believe that we would think about all of this kind of stuff - it would be normal that we feel connected. i don’t think that birds or trees or mosquitoes or bears spend much time thinking, wow!, i’m connected and one with the world! i think it’s just the way things are. (assuming my anthropomorphizing is accurate). "
Patrick,
yes you are on to something when you say,“this isnt’ to say that I will feel less gratitude for being alive,…”
The joy and excitement of realizing this interconnection and truly feeling it as an experience rather than a concept doesn’t fade, leaving a void. It becomes a foundation for developing a relationship and continuing to explore and deepen the connection through that relationship. The joy and excitement part is not the destination, it’s the starting point for living in a new “normal”, which is even more exciting to me.