Have you ever wondered why the titans of capitalism have not gone after mainstream environmentalists? Capitalists show no restraint when it comes to violently shutting down things that bother them — from escaped slaves to the Chipko women to the Chiapas conflict to the Water Protectors. So why are so many in the “liberal” media and academia allowed to publish? Indeed, why are they paid handsomely for their milquetoast critiques of our system? Why does capitalism reward these ideas, these people?
No, it is not because of their body type, though that is a factor.
It is because the titans of industry don’t care what we say. They don’t care what we think. They don’t care about those with an enormous platform or loud voices. They don’t even care when we all get together and march through the streets. This is the fundamental flaw in protesting. Really, it’s the flaw in our whole representative political system. All politicking does no actual thing. Though it does keep us all busy, too busy to do actual things. Which is why it is encouraged by capitalists… But all talking, writing, even thinking about what we “should do” is worse than useless. It takes time and energy, and yes, thought, away from actually doing the work. We are lulled into a false sense of security. Well, we thought about it, came up with a plan, now we’re fine… when nothing has actually been done. And that too is just fine with capitalists…
They don’t care about our petty little lives and silly little ideas — they care about what we do. Particularly those things we do to negatively affect their wealth streams. And mainstream anything — be it environmentalism, social justice protestors, artists and novelists, even the oxymoronic travesty that is punk now — does not harm capitalism. To the contrary, the mainstream is mainstream because it is actively supporting those wealth streams, participating in them.
We are all still being good little consumers. One might even point out that many of the prominent Green-ish folks are advocating for more consuming, building back better, digging up more resources and churning them into wealth, using bodies and lands to make a brighter, less polluting future. (Where? And for whom…) They do not even hold back from considering such things as confining all humanity into urban wastelands and feeding us all energy intensive Soylent Green wannabe gloop or powering this brave new world with nuclear energy. (Why not go full Matrix while they’re at it…) Mainstreamers have bought into the buying your way into salvation fantasy, hook, line and sinker.
Of course, the capitalists are content. For them, the various green deals are merely different paths to increased wealth extraction. Yet it should be pointed out that none of these things is actually happening. There may be more solar panels in the world now, but we are more dependent than ever on fossil fuels. Veganism might be more popular than any previous food fad, but it is still dependent upon industrial agriculture and immense supply chains and inconceivable levels of degradation — merely replacing CAFOs with palm oil plantations or slash and burn livestock feed production with water-guzzling almond monocultures in the desert. And really, it’s not even replacing. It’s adding on to the original horrors. And nobody ever turns their attention to the fundamental problem behind all this waste — that we are pretending to be separable and separated in superior ways to our biophysical support systems. That we are poisoning the things we rely upon for our own existence, while we play our infantile status games. (I mean, it would be farcical if it weren’t so catastrophic…)
No… There is no brave new world on the horizon. Just more of the same until we choke on all this too much.
Which is precisely what things like Helene and Milton are… the planet choking.
But what happens when we do actual things to bring ourselves within planetary boundaries? Well, first of all, this is a much quieter project. It does not come with a bullhorn and a million followers on social media. It will not earn you wealth or prestige. You may feel like you are disappearing, which, in most ways, you are. When you turn away from rampant capitalism, perpetual growth, and relentless consumption, you are turning away from the means of promoting yourself, of remaining visible. You are becoming small, yes, human-scaled, but in the age of super-sized, this feels like an inconsequential life. It can feel hopeless when you look out from your little boundaries and see all the growing transgression in the world.
But what happens when we do things that start to affect that transgression, start to hem it in with planetary limits? What happens when our actions affect capitalism? Or even cross into a level of public awareness that our small actions merely have the potential to become an effective force? If mainstream greens were actually doing something, anything, to bring themselves or to advocate bringing the human project within biophysical limits, then they would be silenced. There would be no more publishing, no more income, no more interviews and public attention. And then the usual witch-hunts would run their course. There would be mocking, delegitimizing, derision. The subject would be beaten down to invisibility. And if scorn proves insufficient, or if the authorities are merely sufficiently annoyed, there follows imprisonment, expulsion, and bodily harm, often targeting loved ones, usually ending in an unmarked grave.
This is a common story. It is not, however, the story of most forms of protest in this system. How many people who write about what “should happen” in prominent media have been targeted? How many protesters, even those who have been arrested, have had their whole life turned into pain and then oblivion? How many just keep churning out books… The capitalists don’t care. They are not threatened. Writing matters not one whit…
As you can imagine this creates a certain level of conflict in my own life. I don’t believe in all this scribbling mainly because I am allowed to continue doing it. That is partly because of my privilege base, but it’s also because what I am saying doesn’t matter — even when what I am saying is describing what I and others are doing to escape this system. Even when my message is explicitly to stop buying shit, to drop out, to walk away. No, to run away, screaming… and don’t look back!
I’ve had people tell me I should publish my thoughts in a book or some more prominent media platform. Well… first, I don’t want to make people pay for my thoughts, which are probably no more valid or worthy than their own… Then, is there really any publisher who will support this message of mine? If it were less consequential, maybe. But if the ways of being that I follow were to become common, there would not be a publishing industry. Do you think they don’t know that?
But there is a less brave face to this as well. I don’t actually want to be a target. I don’t crave attention of any kind, but I really don’t want negative attention. Most of the people who defy this system with bodily acts are the same. They don’t want more pain. They are trying to escape pain. I don’t want to suffer for the cause. And I certainly don’t want my loved ones drawn into that quagmire. I simply want the whole need for a cause to go the fuck away.
But the strongest argument against finding a bigger soapbox is that bigger is the problem. Bigger and especially not doing bigger, just writing bigger. It does not matter what I write. What matters is what I do. And if I were to put more of my time and effort into this writing, then I would be doing less.
I struggle with this. Half of me wants to yell “Turn off the damn machines and go live a real life!” Because this is the only one I get. And a real life is not electronic. It is not symbolic or representative. It is messy and squishy biology. It is the hard facts of geology. It is the endless fascinating quest for energy, which in human bodies takes the form of producing delectable — that is, nutritious — food. It is reproducing and raising that next generation into viable beings. It is tending to a small corner of the world and leaving it in a better state than I found it. It does sometimes take the form of thinking, yes. I love beauty and comfort and all the bizarre little ways that this universe creates pleasure for its beings. I think about the meaning of that and all the myriad implications.
On the other hand, I love writing. I create stories. I turn this language on its head sometimes and force it to talk about the things it despises, like mortality and responsibility and real love and all the “shoulds” that flow from even five minutes observation of the actual world. But I love the process of manipulating these stupid symbols to create a message that may be understood by some other being. Maybe even a message that outlasts my words. I know it is unimportant relative to doing actual things, but I am good at this stupid human trick and that is a seductive drug.
So I have to remind myself regularly that the life I am living is not in these words. The meaning of that life is not to be found in a mind. It is found in a body. It is the body. It is the being and the doing and the practice of life. And very little of that practice can be found in human ideas, particularly those that are in print.
However, that practice, that praxis, is absolutely inimical to the project of this culture. If every body is living a real life for themselves, there is no profit for the elites. There is no work done for the elites either. In fact, there are no elites. Living a real life tends to reveal the lack of justification for hierarchy. The ideas of an elite thing crumble when every body is just a body with a life to live. Just… but how much is in that just! Capitalism can’t compete with real life. And so it must silence anyone who draws aside the veil and reveals the joy beyond its synthetic and sterile confines.
When people do that, when they do things to get away from this culture, to break their bonds to this culture, or even just show that there are good reasons to want to escape by embodying those reasons, capitalism is threatened. This is not merely philosophy. Capitalism is not merely philosophy either. It is an embodied way of being that takes material wealth and physical work from this planet to reward a very few people. Without those material inputs, there is no capital output. There is no reward. There is no wealth. There is no hierarchy. When people refuse capitalism, capitalism is physically harmed.
Think about that! And then pay attention to the people and the ways of being that provoke a response from capitalism. Because those people, those ways of being can bring down capitalism, can end this nightmare culture.
And then notice what capitalism allows, what it encourages and rewards… Notice who receives attention and who is visible. Notice what is actually being done in all their words.
The prominent paths are not the ways out.
The ways out are small and silent and obscure. And they do not come with publishing contracts… The ways out are doing the work and being an embodied life. The ways out do not need leaders or mass action or public law. They do not require expert opinion or explication. The ways out are just that… out. No more of this…
But there is such joy to be found out here! And that terrifies capitalists…
October 16th addendum
It seems that I was unclear yesterday. Maybe it sounded like I was throwing in the towel on this writing project. Maybe it sounded like I don’t believe in thinking, or that I am willing to act without thought. I don’t think I said any of that… But then I wrote it and I read what I think I wrote, not always what is there… handicap of being your own editor.
So let me respond to these concerns. First, no, I’m not going to stop writing. I could hardly do so, as this is just who and what and how I am. However, I harbor no illusions about ever being published. My message is not something publishers are going to invest in. (Now, my poetry… ‘nother kettle…)
And no, I don’t approve of a life without thought. That’s what all this writing is: my thinking. I am not entirely sure what thinking is, nor am I entirely convinced that I am doing it. I tend to view thought as the way this organism that is I-am coordinates itself. I don’t believe in a mind. I might be convinced of a sort of spirit of place, the experiential sum of every being that makes up my body. In any case, thinking is how this being makes sense of experience, though there must be sense and experience. Thinking is embodied.
Still, what I think of thinking is ancillary. That wasn’t what I was talking about at all.
My main point has nothing to do with me, actually. It’s that what we think and what we say do not overly concern the people who are in charge of this system. Because what we think and what we say do not affect those people, nor the system. Protest and politicking and most media do not have any tangible effects. When we march, we might feel great, but nothing actually gets done. When we elect our candidate and when that person goes off to Washington, it feels like we are participating. And maybe some things happen now and then — but only indirectly. Washington does nothing. No politician does anything that needs to be done. Sometimes when they get their act together (which isn’t much of a thing these days) they might cause other people to do things, but that’s as much action as we get out of the whole political game. Most media… well, nothing ever gets done through a keyboard or a screen. This is all talk. Some of it might be good talk, talk that is like thinking, coordinating the organism that is a community. But most media is just talk to be talking. Either way, it does nothing. And we have a bloody lot of stuff to be doing!
The indifference of capitalists to many forms of talk — from politics to books to TikTok — should tell us that this talk is not accomplishing anything that needs to be done to reign in the hyper-consumption of our economic system. Talk is not perceived as detrimental to profits. Moreover, the more prominent a voice, the more mainstream an opinion, the less likely it is to change things in ways that will bring us back within the planet’s boundaries. Because that change would definitely hurt profit. Make no mistake, the present economy will tank when we are finally serious about ending the destruction. (Well, it will tank regardless… tanking is what it is currently doing… pro-tip from your friendly banker). And those who benefit from this system will use everything in their copious toolkit of suppression to shut down any talk of things that would lead to that crash or even point out that the crash is coming (happening). So there is an inverse relationship between the prominence of ideas and the utility of those ideas in creating change. Capitalism does a very good job of threshing out anything that threatens it and promoting what fits within its program. So if you want to know what will not work to get us all out of capitalism, listen to the loudest voices, those with the book contracts, political careers and lots of screen time.
However, nothing that comes out of our heads and our mouths bothers capitalism overmuch. As long as we keep buying crap, as long as we keep selling ourselves, as long as we do not do the work of cleaning up and changing ourselves, then what we say does not affect the system. It is the same as belief. It doesn’t matter what we believe. What matters is what we do. Capitalism does not care what you say, think, or believe about it — as long as you keep acting like a capitalist pawn, as long as we keep buying our way into a brighter future…
But as soon as you start acting… well, capitalism notices very quickly, particularly if you are a loud sort of personality. If you want to make necessary change in your life without landing yourself in a world of hurt, then you’d best be quiet about it. And the best way is to just turn away from the whole mess. Do not engage with the people who will hurt you. Walk away.
This is a rather successful strategy for much of the world. And it is much of the world. This culture is not nearly as global as it would have you believe. Even within this country a sizable minority, bordering on majority, has turned away from the capitalist project. It can’t be otherwise. Most of us can’t afford to stay. We can’t afford both housing and food. We can’t afford to meet our needs within the “normal” political economy. So we have bootleg networks. Gifting economies, reciprocity, sharing. We help each other. These edge space economies are how we have survived capitalism. They are also the normal ways that humans distribute resources and labor, throughout time and disparate cultures. In fact, capitalism would fail utterly if these edge spaces did not exist, if we did not prop each other up. Because if the world is not eating, then it sure isn’t working and buying and generating profits.
But anyway…
I don’t know if this is any clearer. Again self-editing… But let me clearly state that I am not against thought or talk or writing. Nor do I advocate following the unexamined path through life. Unless you happen to already live within the planet’s limits and aren’t causing any undo harm to other beings… In which case… you probably aren’t reading this… which is itself damning commentary on commentary…
Sigh…
