Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Uncivilization

Paul Kingsnorth sounds, at first, like one of many not-quite-Prophets from the ranks of Nomads.

"Crisis" keeps showing up in how he sees the world (four times in this article). He gets active in environmental movements - a plan to build new highways across England is specifically mentioned - gets arrested, is completely ready to be at the forefront of it all.

And then...

He sets up the Dark Mountain project. It is, for lack of a better word, anti-activism. Don't worry about the environment, he says. You can't save it. It's time to start mourning the losses that cannot be avoided, and to prepare for dealing with a changed world. Not nihilistic, necessarily, but certainly practical: What can be done, really?

"...what all these movements are doing, is selling people a false premise. They’re saying, ‘If we take these actions, we will be able to achieve this goal.’ And if you can’t, and you know that, then you’re lying to people."

It's not the direction one might expect. Which makes it potentially more worthwhile to consider. Even if another path is eventually chosen.  A very Reactive point of view.

Bonus Nomad: Reference is made to poet Robinson Jeffers, who was particularly active in the 1930s and 1940s with works that reflected the larger world of Nature. (That is, about the same point in the last Saeculum.) He built a stone tower overlooking the Pacific to inspire his writing. Born in 1887, he is   - no surprise -  of the (previous Nomad archetype) Lost Generation.

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