Continuing Thoughts on Primitivism

I'll keep posting stuff I'm reading and thinking along these lines for awhile, until either the concept runs dry or I change my point of view.

It appears to me that God has ordained a somewhat more simple existence for men. His chosen people were simple herdsmen in lands where cities and high degrees of specialization were considered places of sin. The Bible uses primarily agrarian concepts to explain deep theological principles.

So why are we now building jet engines and killer flying robots (drones) to kill our enemies? How did we get that far? Sin? Prideful nature of man?

I'm about to watch this long video here and see what thoughts come of it. This fellow, Derrick Jensen, seems to be one of the players in the debate of primitivism and what it should look like. Some of the others have left me turned off based on their leftist principles. I'll explain more of that later as well.

A Debate to Wade Into

I have recently uncovered that there is a debate going on in the anarchist-primitivist movement. It involves such people as John Zerzan, Derrick Jensen, and Bob Black. There are a lot of people weighing in on this.

My general philosophy is that of a Christian Anarchist, but the primitivist movement has always been loaded up with weirdos and leftists. Weirdos I can stand, but leftists I cannot. So it's news (good news) to me that there is a part of this movement that rejects the leftist ideals.

I shall surely research more.

A View of Civilization

Does civilization improve the net happiness of human beings? This would seem like a "duh" question. Of COURSE civilization improves everyone's happiness. You get more stuff! Like iPhones and the internet and cappucino.

As I have begun "decivilizing" my life, I've found that more and more I'm happier with simple things. Going to a movie theatre would be a horror for me. I much prefer sitting on the porch and watching the sunset. Going to a restaurant is no longer enjoyable. Stirring a soup pot over the woodstove in winter has become a family discussion point.

If you cut your life free of the concept that "things make us happy" then you can begin to see where the lie of civilization unfolds.

I reject the Hobbesian viewpoint that life before civilization was "nasty, brutish, and short". We don't even see evidence of that today, where the only hunter/gatherer societies have been pushed into adverse environments that "civilized" man doesn't want.

Jared Diamond, in one of his books, noted that no culture affords its adherents more leisure time than primitive hunter/gatherer ones. The book, "Stone Age Economics" would seem to validate this, as it has documented observations where hunter/gathers spend no more than 4 hours a day providing their needs. A four hour workday! When was the last time you could survive on just that?

Men with industrial minds require others to share that same viewpoint. They cannot share a world with happy and simple agrarian peoples. The other model is simply too appealing. Do you not dream of a much simpler, agrarian life?

Quoting my wife on Homeschooling

Paraphrasing here, because this was in the middle of a long anti-government rant:

A free person can never develop from an enslaved mind.

She's explaining that if you send your child to public school you are essentially dooming them to a life of slavery to the state and the corporations.

I don't entirely agree with her. Both her and I are public school educated and we have developed the freedom mindset, even if we still struggle with the shackles of the system. But we are both stubborn throwbacks and dead-enders.

EDIT: My wife says I misunderstood her and I should rectify the situation immediately or I don't get any of the delicious beans and ham that have been simmering on the woodstove all day.

She says that free people don't come from enslaved children. She means that you have to free yourself intellectually first and then your life second.

She's right about that. It took us 20 years to get to that position, and we did it in fits and starts. Yet look at my oldest son Jared. He's 16 now and as far as being liberty-minded, he's in the same place now as we are at 40.

Rumors of My Demise

I'm still alive. Barely. Bleh. This flu has taken a lot out of me over the past week. I'm on the downhill side of it now so I'm up and moving around again, but I haven't been this sick in a couple of years.

The big sale on knives was a success and I've sold most everything. I've got a couple in a near-finished state in the shop from before I got sick so you'll be seeing some new items soon. I'm also going to be trying my hand at sheath-making again. That wasn't a success before and I don't know that it will be this time either, but I haven't been able to locate a leathersmith to team up with down here. Knives always sell better with a matching sheath.

I've gotten a few custom orders in lately too, which is always good. I'm going to try to arrange on my Etsy site a way to sell custom orders directly, but I think customers do like the discussion back and forth as to what sort of knife they would like. It's not often in this world anymore that you get to have something crafted to your exact specifications.

Well, that's my energy level for the day. I'm guessing my body is putting everything it's got into healing so I'll be back up and running again soon. Stay kicking out there, folks. Winter is almost over. We'll be planting our spring gardens before we know it.

Over the Fence

Chatted with my neighbor over the back pasture fence this evening at sunset. He was out taking his dog for a walk. Or a ride, I guess. He comes out there on his 4 wheeler.

He says the company they work for is going to be laying off some folks, maybe even him.

Frightening. They're a scrap metal yard. I would have thought the scrap yards would be somewhat recession-proof.

ACHHHHHEWWWW!

I've got the flu. Blech. I had thought I had the flu back over the Christmas holidays, but it never manifested into anything real. I guess that was just a warm-up exercise.

I ran into my friend up at the grocery store this morning, where I went to grab some orange juice. My wife and I have a running argument as to whether or not orange juice actually helps you kick a cold. I say it does because of the Vitamin C, and she says there is no real Vitamin C in there, only sugar. I haven't won an argument with her in a decade but I still got my orange juice.

 

So my friend asks me if I'd called this other fellow about a job that needs doing. The other fellow's house burned down and he needs someone to haul off all of the debris (after knocking down the rubble with my backhoe). Might be about 3-4 days work, which would cover me for about 2 months. I hadn't been able to get in touch with the other guy, but I need to try again.

 

Where am I going with this fever-addled story? I was just pondering on the fact that the self-employed don't get any "sick days". There is no pay for the man who stays at home due to illness. I'm not reflecting on the fairness or justice of this. No, I haven't joined the "Occupy" movement. I'm just reflecting on the situation and the need to store up a little food and cash to get you through.