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Wild & Free
Reading through some archived material on Ran Prieur’s website from last month and came across this telling quote from someone who has made a name for himself in opposition to the destructive tendencies of civilization:
I’m coming around to the idea that going primitive, like marrying a movie star or climbing Mt. Everest, is one of those things that everybody feels the desire to do, but almost nobody would actually enjoy doing. […] I think we need to do what makes us feel wild and free, even if our ancestors didn’t do it.
I tend to think that this recognition, as it becomes conscious within primitivist thinkers is what will lead to the movement’s either unraveling, or else it’s total transformation into something which I fear might be very much in line with a technocracy (which I think itself forms the original blueprint for the scientifically-managed New World Order, in turn founded on Auguste Comte’s Positivist state).
Moreso than primitivist thinkers adopting the stance Ran begins to sketch above though, I see it much more likely that “those in power” begin to recognize and manipulate the growing desire to “go primitive” and create situations in which we can live out this dream (which we are also afraid of, which is what makes it so exciting), but only in terms which make us FEEL wild and free, without allowing us to actually be that… This I believe is just one of several wide-open doors in the primitivist philosophy which somebody with enough charisma and energy could severely exploit to negative ends…
- Prev: Garden of Weedin’
- Next: The Law of the Water
September 9th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Makes me think of video games. Kind of a long-shot, I know, but think about it…
September 9th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
I think video games are a great analogy, actually! Not a long shot by any means. I think Ran Prieur - if I recall correctly - was recently even applauding a video game about farming
September 9th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Well, yes. I see what you’re saying and I agree with it mostly. But what solution have you? Our current way of life is clearly not working. [Unless you believe that global capitalism and its consequences of climate change and mass murder is a working system, which I don’t think you do.]
I’m willing to accept that this whole solar system is one big spiritual prison, with no other solution than leaving it and returning to the Pleroma. But then there’s not much left to do but attend to my own personal spiritual liberation, which seems a little narcissistic. So that leaves me with some incentive to try to work out a solution with other like minded people.
September 9th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
I have no solution, and not having a solution is not a preliminary requirement for talking about the problems. If we don’t talk about the problems, we’re not going to just magically wish up a solution.
I’ve toyed with that idea a lot, but I’m just not willing to accept it at this point.
September 9th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
the majority of people feel “wild and free” by buying an SUV and living in a 3,000+ SF mcmansion. the larger the private space they are able to occupy, the more they feel they are spreading their “own” thoughts and interests around. which of course isn’t the case. it’s just for the most part useless shit which will be sold for pennies upon their deaths.
brion gysin was free. “i am here to go.” that is an admirable way in which to express freedom. not hoarding, not sitting back passively on a mental and spiritual level and believing that freedom is occuring when it never has for the person. encouraging this infantile generation to express their “freedom” when they have never understood the actual definition of the word is dangerous.
September 9th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
oddly enough, i just read this helen keller quote:
This great republic is a mockery of freedom as long as you are doomed to dig and sweat to earn a miserable living while the masters enjoy the fruit of your toil.
September 9th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Excellent point. What Ran is talking about is not an issue for most people. They already feel free. What Ran is talking about is what will eventually become a new marketing segmentation, just as the hippy generation created new marketing segments by companies in response to cater to those needs and keep them in the consumerist system: New Age, anybody?
Watch this video for more:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12669.htm
September 10th, 2006 at 2:24 am
You can more than count on it. REI and other “outdoor adventure” capitalists have created a totally self regenerating and highly profitable paradigm out of this. I don’t think it would be a stretch (and we all have one or two relatives deeply involved in this) to call it a religious movement. Definite consumer cult. They call it a “lifestyle”. What’s the dif- ? Could easily grow into something more.
September 10th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
I get what you’re saying, but I think REI and similar do too good of a job channeling those feelings for them to ever explode in a negative way via that market segment.
September 10th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
Copy that. I’m not saying they are some dangerous Cthuhloid menace, I just think it gets goofy when a friend of mine who would rather upgrade his mountain bike, then pay his kid’s health insurance. Can tend to be a selfish enterprise. I rarely blame the machine, just more concerned with the operator.