Every day I wake to read a mish-mosh of reports on the environment and the many creative ways that culture is changing to meet the needs of man in a world of diminishing resources. I am sick of our efforts to prop the man man world up by creating new crap: LED lights, wind turbines, a better clothing tag.
Why are we so afraid to live in the world we inherited? What's so frightening about a world without man's stuff? The natural world has been humanity's only task ever. We just had to live, nothing more. Play would have been perfectly ok too. The rest is mental gymnastics and masturbation. Can't we apply the same "I can," spirit that ignites our desire to invent to learning how to live without our unnecessary crap? Invention will never die.
I can find 100 new articles a day reporting on innovations in home building: container homes, apartment buildings with tiny apartments and low utility needs and the like. To build any of these things is to presume that no human after is will have a better idea than us. In other words, what we build lasts too long. Why not build for our time only and let the next generation build for theirs? Let them experience the spirit of discovery and invention too. I would love to see us make buildings that are designed to be re-digested by the earth in the span of one human lifetime.
And what's wrong with a world that's illuminated for the duration of time that the sun is out? Perhaps we're afraid to remember our affinity for the stars? Perhaps contemplation seems frightening after so many years of fast edited movies. If 2012 produces real change it'll be because humanity is so utterly sick with what it's created that we will imbibe the meme with our need for change and cause that change by it. Our current condition, that of the sinking ship would reverse quicker than you could say "capitalism sucks" and return to a world of abundance if we just gave up the belief that we own it or control it. It's about time we stop assuming that the world without man's crap will be a lesser world. It's the only world. This world we glom on top of it is a weak mimic, an illusion, our weakest self. I think I just discovered the meaning of "scared of your own shadow."
8 comments:
I hope you can appreicate the irony of a post like this written on a modern computer posted to blogger.com so that people all over the world can read it on the internet.
Too many humans...
I sure can! : ) It's funny, I had many similar thoughts as I wrote it, the coffee I'm drinking (from Guatemala) the can of dog food I just opened (factory made!). Yet still I say, let the ship sink, faster the better!
I get the sentiment that the web has been a high point in man's world and yes it seems something worth saving but man evolves and the web is likely just a clumsy precursor to that we're heading towards telepathy or a group mind. you sure cant resist moving forward because of fear of losing something that's transitory anyway.
For what it's worth I've been following you guys for a long time and I think what you're doing is amazing. I wish most days I could get out of the rat race and join you.
So, I want you to know I can appreciate the feeling of your post and I didn't mean to blast you or anything.
I agree with you that there is a lot of man made (useless) crap. I guess where we part ways in agreement is that I think for every useless thing, there is something great created that mankind has never had at anytime in the past. I don't think its fair or wise to toss the baby out with the bath in this case.
You guys kind of live the best of both worlds. You have all the benefits of the DIY lifestyle as well as the benefits of living in the 21st century. There is a good PBS documentary, Frontier House, about a bunch of families that moved out to Montana to live with 18th century technology. It was very difficult for them and in the end they failed by the standards of the time to survive. They would have all died in the winter if the experiment had continued.
Anyways, sorry for the long post. Even though I somewhat disagree with this one post, I very much enjoy reading yours and Mikey's posts. =)
I hear you Joe. And think about it all the time. What I've recently come to believe is that it's only been "civilized folks" or if you must, "white folk" who've struggled against the land so severely. Indigenous people don't and most have not for a long time. Sure they may have times of drought or even disease, but every species is balanced by the larger system, we make of this a tragedy. But what I mean to get at is it's not true that "people" have struggle against nature forever and therefore must exert their will over it, it is true that white people, those who brought about civilization have struggled in this way. I am starting to believe the cure is hidden in the symptom.
As for housing I believe as long as we are living in permanent communities, rather than a hunter/gatherer lifestyle, we should build homes for extended families which would last practically forever.
Right now we pay strangers to warehouse our elders and we pay strangers to warehouse our children for for the sake of "having a home of our own". Housing 3 or 4 generations of a family in a single home was the standard 100 years ago, and will be again when the oil bubble pops.
The only reason we have fragmented the family is all of the advertising whose only goal is to increase demand for disposable household goods and disposable houses for that matter. Most McMansions are so poorly built I doubt they will last even one generation
Where I grew up in England the houses were stone with slate roofs. They didn't need much up keep and were passed down generation to generation.
Having the family self-sufficient, growing their own food, spinning their own clothes, making their own tools, means that whenever society goes through a bad patch the family will have food, shelter and others to lean on and learn from.
well said dael, though it's interesting to consider how hard it would be to mix generations under one roof today. perhaps it's because life is changing so fast that the generation gaps are so giant. look at the tech understanding of just a single generation. perhaps if life and change returned to a slower rhythm we'd have a way to relate across generations. I agree with you that our society's structure left the old without purpose and usefulness and therefore marginalized. there's a strange irony to realize that they ushered in this culture.
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