When Memes Fail Us
Yes, there has been a major electoral upheaval, and it seems there are many confused people out there working under some pretty strange assumptions. But no, this isn’t as much of a shift as it may seem.
cultural stories
Dark Mountain Issue 10: Uncivilised Poetics
There’s something dishevelled and unsettling about poetry.
There’s Much that Don’t Matter a Fig
Most of us resist new circumstance, and so the finest art is the skill (the cultivated humility) of accepting new circumstance (a rare skill) & then of the knowledgeable application of ancient morals to explain it.
An Afternoon in Early Autumn
I think it was the late science writer Stephen Jay Gould who coined the term “deep time” for the vast panorama opened up to human eyes by the last three hundred years or so of discoveries in geology and astronomy.
Earth Church Is Not Cool
This frees us from the need to answers to the question “how should we live?”, at least in any grand manner.
Language Patterns, the Media, and Cultural Re-storying
Stories can indeed change the world — and if they are used carefully, wisely, and with love, they can change it for the better.
Poacher’s Pilgrimage: An Island Journey
When we were young growing up on the island, the old folks used say that on a moonless night, they’d move from house to house by just the light of a glowing peat taken from the fire.
A Prosperous Descent: Telling New Stories as the Old Book Closes
OVER THE LAST two centuries in the West, we have been telling ourselves that economic growth is the most direct path to prosperity, that the good life implies material affluence, and that technology and ‘free markets’ will be able to solve most of our social and environmental problems.
Into the Ruins: Review
Those who enjoy fiction set in the deindustrial future should check out Into the Ruins.
History as a Commons
We spoke about the importance of looking at the social, political and ecological elements of history, how history belongs not in dusty old shelves, but as a part of our everyday lives…
Retrotopia: Diminishing Returns
I’d seen newsboys shouting “Extra! Extra!” in old vids, but didn’t have a clue what they were yelling about. Now I knew, and I also knew one of the ways that people in the Lakeland Republic got news about fast-breaking stories.
A History from the Future: A Prosperous Way Down
This is an excerpt from David Holmgren’s A History from the Future – a prelude to his upcoming book RetroSuburbia.