I have come to the conclusion that there are only 4 activities worthy of our time and energy at this juncture in human history. Because we have been brought to the brink of geno/ecocide by capitalist industrial civilization, it seems that our only realistic and potentially fruitful endeavors are to withdraw from participation in the system, engage in permaculture and restoration of land bases, create self-sufficient and sustainable communities, and develop and implement strategies aimed at the dismantling of industrial civilization's infrastructure. The tactics that may be used to dismantle the systems of oppression and enslavement are many. It is up to each one of us to decide for ourselves which we are willing and able to engage in, but engage we must. The future of all life on this planet is at stake. So far this is what I'm thinking/feeling/doing about these 4 options: Withdrawal, unplugging, divesting, going over the wall, call it what you like...This might be easier for me than most as I have been a fringe-dweller most of my life, choosing to participate in the System as little as possible. But now, more than ever, it is important we choose, deliberately and consciously, to starve the Beast. The first thing would be to stop entirely the use of fossil fuels and petroleum based products. Although it may seem an impossible task, it is not. But first, let's look at why: The Twin Sides of the Fossil Fuel Coin - Guy MacPherson http://youtu.be/Ina16XSJQvM Helen Caldicott: The Medical Implications of Fukushima, Nuclear Power and Nuclear Proliferation (HD) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htpj5LNw3D0 "The task of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much personal integrity as possible; it is to dismantle those systems." Lierre Keith Artwork: http://www.androidjones.com/new-work/2012/11/7/election-2012.html
It was my birthday a few days ago and like many people do, I conducted a review of the past year of my life.
If nothing else, 2012-2013 catalyzed my waxing radicalism. I moved my position from one of passive resistance to deliberate and strategic activism. I made this transition during the course of re-examining the current state of affairs in our world. In doing so I went through all of the stages of loss and grief: denial, shock, pain, guilt, anger, bargaining, depression, reflection, loneliness, resignation, acceptance and finally, renewed hope accompanied by a new commitment to life. Even though I have lived my whole life with an underlying sense of foreboding about the course of civilization, in order to navigate human society I've had to deeply bury my premonitions as I watched societal abuses accumulate and the onslaught of the natural world increase with each passing year. Survival in the system dictated a certain level of conformity on my part, and this in turn required the adoption of a set of values that were in compliance with consensus reality, no matter how foreign these values were to my truest sense of self and my heart. I admit, I have not always been true to myself. The schism created in my psyche by this forced participation in the demise of humankind, and indeed all other living Beings, was, and still is, a difficult burden to bear; I grew up rebellious and outraged while at the same time continually seeking a way to reconcile myself with the way of the world. It left me wallowing in a psycho/spiritual quagmire without a compass. Regardless, or perhaps because of this, I have lived the better part of my life in the margins, preferring a pacifist/observer stance supported by the relative freedom I could glean at the periphery of civilization as opposed to the confining strictures of complete conformation with the system, not to mention wholesale abandonment of my inner self. My belief has always been: once a participant, a perpetrator you are. I chose to participate as little as possible, or rather as little as patriarchal, capitalist/industrial civilization would allow, given we are all forced to participate at some level in order to survive in this world. It was easy enough to do, especially if I could keep myself outside of the occidental world, which includes my home country. It was also much easier to ignore the state of the world while living off the grid; instead I focused my attention on my local community and found my joy in the natural environment. I admit I deliberately isolated and insulated myself. Upon my return to Canada in 2011, after the better part of two decades lived in Central America (Costa Rica and Belize), the first event to smack me in the face was the catastrophe at Fukushima! I could assail you with a litany of world events, all horrific and devastating, that have As we enter the new year 2013, the most prominent and compelling issue on my mind is climate change resulting from the ravages of corporate, industrial civilization. Married to that concern is my resolution to get as far away from this civilization as possible.
There are many reasons why I am choosing to become a refugee of our current civilization, reasons that have nothing to do with fear and everything to do with love. I love my children and I love their children, my grandchildren. Despite what I can see, and so often wish I could unsee, I still nurture a faint hope that they will be able to experience a fulfilling and happy life on this planet, even though it may not even remotely resemble my own experience, of the natural world. As a child I was still able to breathe in great gulps of fresh air, drink from streams, and didn't worry if there were poisons in my food. Throughout this past year I deliberated whether or not it was worth staying in North America and fighting 'the beast' or if the time had come to go 'over the wall' for good. I have since realized that there is no more 'over the wall', there is nowhere left on this planet that isn't touched by and threatened by corporate capitalist industrialization, a system hell bent on extracting every last resource until Gaia herself is utterly destroyed. There is nowhere left to go. However, the system does have an edge, a periphery at the fringe where the possibility for minimal participation still exists. That is where I intend to go. To the fringe. "Stewart has proposed that earlier bouts of climate change helped the many hominin species to evolve, by forcing them into isolated refuges where they evolved separately ..." (Science, doi.org/jcz). http://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2012/09/23/tipping-points-for-runaway-climate-change-part-one/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8GqE_QyEZg&feature=youtu.be Landscapes, like old lovers, seem to keep an unspoken promise of a road back to them. The memories of the terrain beckon, the way the memories of old lovers sometimes echo a call into the future, if only for familiarity's sake.
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