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Beyond Civilized and Primitive: an essay on permanence & culture

Joel Hollingsworth

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Posts: 2103

Location: Oakland, CA

posted 15 years ago

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This essay is a very good read, in my opinion. One quick (maybe not representative) excerpt:

Agriculture, whether or not it's a good idea, is in no danger. The movement to switch the whole planet to synthetic fertilizers on dead soil (ironically called "the Green Revolution") had not even started yet when another movement started to switch back: organic farming. Present organic farmers are still using oil to run tractors and haul supplies in, but in terms of getting the soil to produce a crop, organic farming is agriculture without oil, and it's the fastest growing segment of the food economy. It is being held back by cultural intertia, by the political power of industrial agribusiness, and by cheap oil. It is not being held back by any lack of land suitable for conversion to organic methods. No one says, "We bought this old farm, but since the soil is dead, we're just going to leave it as a wasteland, and go hunt elk." People find a way to bring the soil back.

That comes up in the context of a grand sweep from our murky speculations about pre-history to some plausible notions of what the future might be, with a generally open question of what we might learn from the ways of life we know about. It has recently been improved by gently removing, in the author's words, "several rambling paragraphs of fringe science and non-western metaphysics."

Enjoy!

Edit:

Gaah! Oops. Here's the link, better late than never I hope:

http://ranprieur.com/essays/beyondciv.html

"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.

tel jetson

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Posts: 3706

Location: woodland, washington

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posted 15 years ago

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link, please.

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Joel Hollingsworth

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Posts: 2103

Location: Oakland, CA

posted 15 years ago

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Thanks! I just added it.

Anonymous

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posted 15 years ago

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This is long but great.

"In a blow to both primitivism and "progress", it turns out that most of these people were not living in the timeless ways of their ancestors -- the "Indians" of American myth were post-crash societies!"

Dang.

I also enjoyed his link about the practice of jubilee.

wooo! I finally figured out how to make a text link!

Joel Hollingsworth

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Location: Oakland, CA

posted 15 years ago

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Oh, thanks for pointing that out! I'll have to remember that for the future.

And yes, the practice of jubilee is a very radical idea. Ran's comment that slaves in classical times were treated better than Wal*Mart employees was not hyperbole.

tel jetson

steward

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Location: woodland, washington

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posted 15 years ago

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I like that a lot. who is this Ran Prieur character?

find religion! church
kiva! hyvä! iloinen! pikkumaatila
get stung! beehives
be hospitable! host-a-hive
be antisocial! facespace

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