An interesting and thought provoking read...
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/7277
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/7277
A particularly pessimistic view on life, the universe and everything!
Basically he regrets the passing of the "classical" Green movement, and is basically thinking/hoping that the existing civilisation will inevitably collapse, forcing the survivors back into equanimity with Nature. He dismisses Science as having no solutions either now or in the future, whilst effectively blaming it for all the current "ills" of society.
What a sad, bitter outlook to life.....
The writer admires the Unabomber. That says everything I think we need to know about them.
I'm in agreement with boatman's 2nd statement.
That's pretty shortsighted, don't you think?
He might just agree with that guys ideas, not his actions.
I think the man has some very valid points for the many of us to think about. I'm always surprised at how folks so easily dismiss things they don't like or want to hear. Pointing fingers instead of using ones head is so easy...unless offcourse you use that head to stick it into the sand.
I do believe current society is going to collapse, simply because it is not sustainable for very much longer, unless we do make some fundamental changes. That has nothing to do with sentiments, but with simple mathmetics.
I don't believe he's all that pessimistic, but it might be because many refuse to open up their eyes and prefer to waste away their happy little lives without making changes.
A particularly pessimistic view on life, the universe and everything!
What a sad, bitter outlook to life.....
So he collects vastly more scythes than he needs which is as consumerist as you can get. Modern life and facilities offer more freedom than people have ever known even and the opportunity to turn their back on the "grid" if they wish.
Actually the Aboriginals did live pretty well in tune with their enviroment. If you want bushcraft, here's the people to show it to you. It was the arrival of the Europeans that created havoc... as pretty mucg everywhere else in the world those daysActually, Huon, that last bit was very illuminating (Oh, and I agree fully with the rest of your post as well, but I digress!)
Mankind is the "devil" whose interference with "the natural order" should be forever broadcast as evil, to those of a certain mindset. Science is just the latest "human attribute" to beat us all with! Because as you point out, we've been doing pretty well with just fire and big sticks at making permanent changes to the ecosystem for thousands of years. Australia and the Aborigines is another example of this.
But it was the whole tone of defeatism and negativity in that article that got to me. As are certain "cast in stone" assumptions, underpinning most of which is the idea that science won't help - eg oil will run out. Really? What if I told you that we could potentially genetically alter and breed breed bugs to eat waste vegetable matter and excrete benzene? Absurd? No - already happening - the next step is moving from small-scale tests to commercial production. I'll give you another. "Uranium reserves will run out in the next few decades". Actually - no they won't. Uranium is actually a very common element, but normally found in very low concentrations - eg in seawater. Extraction is purely an engineering problem, easily solved if it becomes economically attractive to do so.
The issue underpinning most doomsday scenarios tends to be population growth. However, even there things are looking up. The geometric progressions suggested 50 years ago have not been borne out - it actually looks as if things are spinning down. Sure, it will probably get bigger than the current 7 billion - maybe up to 9 billon - but the Earth can sustain that many people with existing resources. And if we really need more food, convert hundreds of square miles of desert in - say - Namibia into hydroculture greenhouses, water and energy provided by a mix of solar and nuclear energy and desalination plants. Need more rare minerals? Plenty in the Asteroid belt.......
I say - take heart, folks! Admire all the great things that Science has brought us, and all the even greater things it'll do in the future. As bushcrafters, let us revel in the information we can gather of the natural world around us just from sitting at a table talking to our peers, or reading manuscripts, satellite maps etc etc etc.. Let us rejoice that - if we so desire - we can actually fly off to all these wonderful places and explore them for ourselves, supported by the very best science - and generations of experience from our ancestors - can provide us with. And if we have accidents exploring some of these places, let us give thanks that with gps, mobile phones, helicopters, on-site medics etc, we can be found and whisked off to a trauma centre to get our injuries fixed.
You can?? Just like that? Go ahead. Show us. I dare you!Modern life and facilities offer more freedom than people have ever known even and the opportunity to turn their back on the "grid" if they wish.
Actually, Huon, that last bit was very illuminating (Oh, and I agree fully with the rest of your post as well, but I digress!)
Mankind is the "devil" whose interference with "the natural order" should be forever broadcast as evil, to those of a certain mindset. Science is just the latest "human attribute" to beat us all with! Because as you point out, we've been doing pretty well with just fire and big sticks at making permanent changes to the ecosystem for thousands of years. Australia and the Aborigines is another example of this.
But it was the whole tone of defeatism and negativity in that article that got to me. As are certain "cast in stone" assumptions, underpinning most of which is the idea that science won't help - eg oil will run out. Really? What if I told you that we could potentially genetically alter and breed breed bugs to eat waste vegetable matter and excrete benzene? Absurd? No - already happening - the next step is moving from small-scale tests to commercial production. I'll give you another. "Uranium reserves will run out in the next few decades". Actually - no they won't. Uranium is actually a very common element, but normally found in very low concentrations - eg in seawater. Extraction is purely an engineering problem, easily solved if it becomes economically attractive to do so.
The issue underpinning most doomsday scenarios tends to be population growth. However, even there things are looking up. The geometric progressions suggested 50 years ago have not been borne out - it actually looks as if things are spinning down. Sure, it will probably get bigger than the current 7 billion - maybe up to 9 billon - but the Earth can sustain that many people with existing resources. And if we really need more food, convert hundreds of square miles of desert in - say - Namibia into hydroculture greenhouses, water and energy provided by a mix of solar and nuclear energy and desalination plants. Need more rare minerals? Plenty in the Asteroid belt.......
I say - take heart, folks! Admire all the great things that Science has brought us, and all the even greater things it'll do in the future. As bushcrafters, let us revel in the information we can gather of the natural world around us just from sitting at a table talking to our peers, or reading manuscripts, satellite maps etc etc etc.. Let us rejoice that - if we so desire - we can actually fly off to all these wonderful places and explore them for ourselves, supported by the very best science - and generations of experience from our ancestors - can provide us with. And if we have accidents exploring some of these places, let us give thanks that with gps, mobile phones, helicopters, on-site medics etc, we can be found and whisked off to a trauma centre to get our injuries fixed.
Mmmmm ... I enjoyed that, thanks Bilmo. It's feelings and ideas I hear so often in my work, from people who feel "stuck" in some way. I could bore for England about it but I'll stop at a couple of quotes from writers who have helped me become me.
One is Ursula K leGuin, a superb sci-fi/fantasy writer; in her seminal novel Left Hand of Darkness she has a short tale about someone who is running away from somewhere [Mishnory] the hero says that as long as you are running away from Mishnory you are on the Mishnory road. To go somewhere else you must have a new direction. Kaczynski is still on the old road, he runs away from somewhere he does not run to somewhere; he cannot be where he is in his soul this way.
The other is TS Eliot who I came to love in the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] form at secondary school. East Coker (one of the 4 Quartets) says
In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.
This is utterly true. When students and clients come to embrace this in their own way they suddenly find that they are no longer running away from something old and distasteful but running towards something new.
That was all very deep and meaningful but it works, and thank you again, Bilmo, for stirring my grey matter this way