thecages

Ok, here we go, it's high-minded blab time[5].

The core principle of anarquismo sin adjetivos is that all forms of anarchism (Social Revolutionary to Anarcho Capitalism to Primitivism) are welcome and that spending energy on arguing amongst the different streams is wasteful. After all, the end goal is always freedom.

Apart from this concept, which I support, my interest is individualist evolutionary which is
an approach that is:
a) not radical - there's no talk of bombing government buildings
b) not communal - fuck collective ownership
c) not anti-capitalist

What it is, is seriously opposed to coercion[1] and seriously in favour of individual contracts (social or otherwise).

That said, I do try to take in as much as possible of many of the other forms, but there are some which I simply cannot take seriously; for example, primitivism.

The founding idea of primitivism is that modern society is deeply and fundamentally screwed up - to the extent where there is no way of correcting[2] it.
The only practical solution (proposed) is to abandon modern society and return to a primitive (hunter-gatherer) existence.
This is sometimes referred to as 'going feral'.
This involves renouncing all things modern including phones (easy) and dentistry (fuck) and moving back to the wild.

There are a couple of groups/communes that are actually doing this. They are selling all their possessions[3] and moving out into wild reserves where they proceed to build housing from bark and animal hides that they tan themselves.

Here's one: they seem to go by two names, Rewild and Wild Roots.
Perhaps they are two groups who've merged[4].


Here's the deal:

Wildroots is a 30-acre radical homestead adjacent to the Pisgah NF in Madison County, Western NC. (about 45 minutes from Asheville). Our focus is on experiential learning and living, while practicing, developing and sharing skills for rewilding and reconnection. Check out our website for our calendar of upcoming events, and to subscribe to our mailing list. Visitors are welcomed, and we're always looking for new folks to join us.

Ok, first let's start with some mockery:

• Can anyone take a person seriously who describes themselves as feral with pride?

• And how about people who sign their letters as

        Much Love,
       Sky and Griffin

• These groups also seem to face some conflicting urges. They want to get their message out and therefore have websites, but websites are a modernity and therefore fundamentally evil. The end result is that their sites tend to say things like:

[You'll] be unable to contact us through email or voicemail. It ties us to town & tends to become distracting & somewhat irritating after awhile. Any
correspondence will have to be done via our PO box:
Sky & Griffin
PO Box 108
Eagle, AK 99738

• They are pacifists who wouldn't dream of killing any living thing, but whoop with joy at donated hides or found roadkill.
  

As hunting season begins, we start contacting taxidermists and butchers for hides, and already we've received 50 fresh deer hides from a local butcher, many
of which we freeze at our neighbor's house for later use. We have fleshed many hides in great efforts that sometimes last into the night, a group of a few of us compiling buckets of fat and scrapings, happy in contradiction as a car blasts light and music onto our efforts. We have also managed to scrape and tan
some hides while dealing with the general inundation.

• Lastly, do they take along scissors? It could get mighty hairy out there after a few months.

But really here's why I can't take them seriously:
Primitivists stand fast in their belief that society (again with the save-the-world nonsense) can't be corrected and so they withdraw from it.
But they insist on making a point of, by their hairy example, wanting to pull the rest of society along with them.

'Come, we must all go back to the wild'.
Fuck you! Stop prescribing a cure for me.

If primitivists were pure in their intentions they would leave behind their artifacts (web sites, flyers, books, tie-dye banners) for others who are interested in primitivism to learn from, but would not insist on the breadcrumbs and healing vibe.

And people like this do exist: they're called ascetic hermits. And that is a lifestyle for which I do have an enormous amount of respect (though it is not the lifestyle that I choose for myself).

[1] From Practical Details by Josiah Warren

Society must be so converted as to preserve the sovereignty of every individual inviolate. That it must avoid all combinations and connections of persons and interests, and all other arrangements which will not leave every individual at all times at liberty to dispose of his or her person, and time, and property in any manner in which his or her feelings or judgment may dictate, without involving the persons or interests of others.

[2] One thing I thoghroughly dislike about anarchists is the notion of correcting/fixing society. Society isn't asking to be fixed. Wanting to heal the world and bring about a utopian society is paternalistic crap. All that is important is that each person should be allowed to think for themselves, make their own decisions and act freely.

[3] What do they do with the money made from the sale, do they burn it? And do they sell their possessions at a profit?

[4] Do they wear Survivor-style buffs and rename their tribe when they merge?

[5] As always I have to qualify this blab by saying that I, living in the glass house that I do, should not be throwing stones. In the put-up-or-shut-up stakes I'm the last person to be making a noise. But, here goes anyway...