The Trouble with “Uncivilization”

There is a tremendous lurking flaw in any initiative that frames itself as a negative. We know that, yet we struggle with finding a framework, and a simple title for it, that denotes the activities around weening our attention from the grip of civilization without resorting to this awkward and negative term, Uncivilization. This may

Uncivilization and Uncertainty, a cross post from Fine Lines

Uncivilization, the byword of the Dark Mountain Project, is a great “Dumbwaiter Speech,” that pared down “Elevator Speech” distilled to a single word. Scaled up to a sentence we have, “What do we do when we stop pretending?” This hits the point precisely. We face this question as individuals and within the various affiliations we

Aphasia

“There’s no money in it!” So long as we look to an extractive model to determine how we shape and define our perceptions of value we are condemned to suffering and implicated in its proliferation. We interpret the deep and profound roots of our predicament as an inevitability. We call this human nature. This conflation

Awe and Wonder

It’s customary to link awe with shock these days. “Shock & Awe!” Followed by that grimacing grin primates and dogs instinctively make when something that pleases them also uncovers a deep well of shame. The look we came to identify with W…. Shock & Awe would come to be the signature spell of the late

Self Mastery, not Self Control

The title of this post is a nod at an earlier post, Mastery, not Control, in which I laid out a case for distinguishing between these two terms and showing the consequences related to each. In the end, that post did rely on distinguishing self-mastery from the will-to-control. This is still the case here, but

Living Like a Caveman

I’ve had the pressure of a thought building up for a while. It has to do with what is so misdirected about the entire virtual-world-based enterprise. You can see that this might give some pause. Still, this day of Steve Jobs’ passing might be the time to flesh it out. I sit here writing on

Craft and Technique

An aspect of Craft and Strength is the discipline with which their practices demand and develop our abilities to relate to and use Technique and Power without driving us to succumb to their degrading effects.

On Medieval Cathedrals and the Limits of Proprioception

The inevitable question arrived via Twitter. “If civilization is all bad, what about the cathedrals?” I must say I invited this kind of question, literally asking for examples to unpack…. Still, I’m leery of the exercise. I don’t write to convince anyone. I write as a record and a way to extend and fill out

Cross-post from Antonio Dias Art

I’ve created a new site for my painting. I’ve cross-posted a series of essays from this site to introduce to readers/viewers there. Now this post goes in the opposite direction. ‘There’s a dimension that we don’t understand.” In Stephens’ & Swan’s biography, deKooning, (Milton) Resnick said, “There’s a dimension that we don’t understand. In other

Beginner’s Mind

Maybe there is a simple way to state this difference? These toxic dynamics pit the will-to-control against life’s uncertainty. In the name of “eradicating” uncertainty they permit an escalating violence against all life. They act out a systematic program with an ever-widening scope of destruction “in our name.” They are locked within an Ego delusion of accelerating urgency to provide permission for their ill-considered but overly elaborated “plans.” What is missing, what is aggressively stripped from their equations, is any genuine compassion.

The Confusion Between Collapse and Failure

As more and more people begin to show an awareness that civilization is in danger of collapse, we are still struggling with what I think is an important conflation of two different mechanisms as if they were the same. Civilization is indeed in danger of collapse. I agree with those who say it’s been collapsing

The Reductivist Empire

The weaker we are, the harder it is to hope. The weaker we are, the easier it is to settle for wishing. When we’re strong, we understand life is fragile, contingent, and ultimately tragic; and that hope is the form of our desire to make something of our circumstances, to give life meaning. In weakness, we settle for wishing that things were easier, wishing that someone, somehow will alleviate our burdens. We enter into bargains, looking for saviors, heroes, or just an end to our suffering, suffering that leaves us feeling that life is nothing but a burden.