Theoretical versus Practical

Like everyone else, I’ve read the blogs, watched the YouTube videos, read articles and then some on what we need to do and get this revolution in consciousness going for real. Authors, speakers and film makers like Michael Tsarion and Chris Everard point to the history of these controlling groups, the language of symbolism that they use, the rituals and so forth.

Michael Tsarion

Chris Everard. (Why do almost all conspiracy research guys always look grouchy? Is it a prerequisite?)

Researchers like David Icke rightly point out that there is no cavalry coming, that it really is up to us to join in and fight back peacefully, that we outnumber them by the millions and billions. None of that is controversial.

 What I think keeps many people back is fear and it’s an understandable reaction. That fear is closely related to the impulse to survive. You have kids, a mortgage, a car and retirement savings to make on a monthly basis. In an unsteady world, people are afraid to walk away or give up their comforts in order to resist a system, which I am positive, even if many of them won’t admit it, is slowly killing them also. It’s the regimentation of work, it kills creativity, spontaneity, and I also suspect libido but don’t quote me on that.

You think most of humanity actually ENJOYS facing traffic like this everyday, to and from work, to pay the bills?

 Authors and lecturers pass on the message to lose the fear, that it’s all an illusion and in some cases that if we just love enough, or shine enough light then it’s all going to be A-OK. I wish it were that easy, I think if more practical advice and a new way of looking at our civilization were presented, then some alternatives can hopefully be realized. What I do see is a lot of rhetoric, wishful thinking, bizarre visions from channeled sources (let’s not go there)  but not enough practical advice.

Not likely to happen.

The only people who I do see strategically making plans and concepts for a post-capitalistic world are surprisingly, the anarchists. Now before any of you freak out over that word, anarchism is much more that a bunch a thugs running around breaking windows and looting stores. Real anarchism is essentially about citizen-directed movements and organizations. The internet, before it became super commercial, was anarchist in nature. So are many cooperative movements and organizations. It’s about the people who work the mills also own the mills.

Different kinds of anarchism and their respective flags

Even under the umbrella of anarchism, you have a variety of types of anarchism like anarcho-syndicalism (which Professor Noam Chomsky is an advocate for), eco-anarchism espoused by the likes of Murray Bookchin and anarcho-primitivism which believes in a  going-back to the land philosophy and it’s biggest advocates are writers like John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen.

Bookchin was a very serious and prolific writer on anarchist ideas.

While I don’t agree with everything he says, I cannot deny that Derrick Jensen is one powerful writer, visionary and poet. I first read “A Language Older than Words” about 7 years ago and I was hooked. I read his other tomes,”Endgame Vol.I and II”, “Welcome to the Machine”, “The Culture of Make Believe” and ‘What we Leave Behind”.

Watch the talk and you won’t have to read these books, but you’ll still be missing out on some fantastic food for thought.

Jensen makes the point that civilization by its nature of cities, and cities based on the import of resources it requires continuously to prosper, are inherently violent. If your water supply runs out, and the next town has water, you’ll just go take it.  That in essence, our civilization is based on an understanding of violence, either implied (Give us your water or else)  or real (i.e Iraq). This violence permeates every aspect of our culture, from the objectification of women (do you only see her as a series of orifices which porn and the sex industry tells us) to the violence in families and in the media. Jensen rightly points out that because it’s everywhere, we’ve become numb to it. What I really admire about his work though is that he offers alternatives, even if it may make us uncomfortable. Like entering into a relationship with Nature. Speaking to the trees, the land and the animals. He gives some ideas where many New Agers fail.

I think the biggest failing of many in the so-called spiritual community is that they still ground their thinking based on a capitalistic model of abundance which is actually very anti-Nature at its heart. Chris Hedges said it best when he defined capitalism as essentially the commodification of absolutely everything including human life. And THAT has nothing spiritual about it.

This is a long watch, Jensen is not a very camera-friendly subject. His speaking style and his writing style are very different also but it’s worth a watch because he points out many things which serious alternative thinkers fail to consider or pick up on.