Against His-Story, Against Levithian

210 Pages·1983·0.706 MB·English

by  Fredy Perlman

Against His-story, Against Leviathan
Fredy Perlman
1983
Contents
1 4
2 13
3 24
4 37
5 46
6 53
7 57
8 61
9 68
10 75
11 82
12 88
13 92
14 100
15 111
16 119
17 129
18 139
19 146
20 159
21 169
2
22 178
23 186
24 198
3
1
Andwearehereasonadarklingplain
Sweptwithconfusedalarmsofstruggleandflight
Whereignorantarmiesclashbynight.(M.Arnold)
Hereonecanneitherstandnorlienorsit
Thereisnotevensilenceinthemountains
Butdrysterilethunderwithoutrain…(T.S.Eliot)
The darkling plain is here. This is the waste land: England, America, Russia, China, Israel,
France…
Andwearehereasvictims,orasspectators,orasperpetratorsoftortures,massacres,poison-
ings,manipulations,despoliations.
HicRhodus! Thisistheplacetojump,theplacetodance!Thisisthewilderness!Wasthereever
anyother?Thisissavagery!Doyoucallitfreedom?Thisisbarbarism!Thestruggleforsurvival
is right here. Haven’t we always known it? Isn’t this a public secret? Hasn’t it always been the
bigpublicsecret?
Itremainsasecret.Itispubliclyknownbutnotavowed.Publiclythewildernessiselsewhere,
barbarism is abroad, savagery is on the face of the other. The dry sterile thunder without rain,
theconfusedalarmsofstruggleandflight,areprojectedoutward,intothegreatunknown,across
theseasandoverthemountains.We’reonthesidewiththeangels.
Ashapewithlionbodyandtheheadofaman,
Agazeblankandpitilessasthesun,
Ismovingitsslowthighs…(W.B.Yeats)
…is moving its slow thighs against the projected wilderness, against the reflected barbarism,
against the savage face that looks out of the pond, its motion emptying the pond, rending its
banks,leavinganaridcraterwheretherewaslife.
InawonderfullylucidbooktitledBeyondGeography,abookwhichalsogoesbeyondhistory,
beyondtechnology,beyondcivilization,FrederickW.Turner(nottobeconfusedwithFrederick
JacksonTurner,thefrontiersman’sadvocate)drawsthecurtainandfloodsthestagewithlight.
OthersdrewthecurtainbeforeTurner;they’retheoneswhomadethesecretpublic:Toynbee,
Drinnon,Jennings,Camatte,Debord,ZerzanamongcontemporarieswhoselightsI’veborrowed;
Melville,Thoreau,Blake,Rousseau,Montaigne,LasCasasamongpredecessors;LaoTzeaslong
agoaswrittenmemorycanreach.
Turner borrows the lights of human communities beyond civilization’s ken to see beyond
geography.Heseeswiththeeyesofthedispossessedofthisoncebeautifulworldthatrestsona
turtle’sback,thisdoublecontinentwhosepondsemptied,whosebankswererent,whoseforests
becamearidcratersfromthedayitwasnamedAmerica.
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…avastimageoutofSpiritusMundi
Troublesmysight…
Focusingontheimage,Yeatsasked,
Andwhatroughbeast,itshourcomeroundatlast,
SlouchestowardBethlehemtobeborn?
ThevisionisascleartoTurnerasitwastoYeats:
Thedarknessdropsagain;butnowIknow
Thattwentycenturiesofstonysleep
Werevexedtonightmarebyarockingcradle.
Seersofoldreturnedtosharetheirvisionswiththeircommunities,justaswomensharedtheir
cornandmentheirhunt.
Butthereisnocommunity.TheverymemoryofcommunityisafoggedimageoutofSpiritus
Mundi.
The seer of now pours his vision on sheets of paper, on banks of arid craters where armored
bullies stand guard and demand the password, Positive Evidence. No vision can pass by their
gates.Theonlysongthatpassesisasonggoneasdryandcadaverousasthefossilsinthesands.
Turner,himselfaguard,aprofessor,hasthecourageofaBartolomédeLasCasas.Hestorms
thegates,refusestogivethepassword,andhesings,herants,healmostdances.
Thearmorcomesoff.Evenifitisnotmerelywornlikeclothesormasks,evenifitisgluedto
faceandbody,evenifskinandfleshmustbeyankedoffwithit,thearmordoescomeoff.
Oflate,manyhavebeenstormingthegates.Onlyrecentlyonesangthatthenetoffactoriesand
mineswastheGulagArchipelagoandallworkerswerezeks(namelyconscripts,inmates,labor
gangmembers).AnothersangthattheNazislostthewarbuttheirneworderdidn’t.Rantersare
legion now. Is it about to rain? Is it the twilight of a new dawn? Or is it the twilight in which
Minerva’sowlcanseebecausedayisalldone?
***
Turner,Toynbeeandothersarefocusingonthebeastthatisdestroyingtheonlyknownhome
oflivingbeings.
Turner subtitles his book, “The Western Spirit against the Wilderness.” By Western Spirit he
means the attitude or posture, the soul or spirit of Western Civilization, known nowadays as
Civilization.
TurnerdefinesWildernessthesamewaytheWesternSpiritdefinesit,exceptthatthetermis
positive for Turner, negative for the Western Spirit: Wilderness embraces all of Nature and all
thehumancommunitiesbeyondCivilization’sken.
In A Study of History, Arnold Toynbee expressed enthusiasm for history and for civilization.
AfterseeingtheriseandfalloftheNaziThirdOrderandalltherefinementsitbroughtinitstrain,
Toynbeelosthisenthusiasm.HeexpressedthislossinabookcalledMankindandMotherEarth.
ThevisioninthisbookiskintoTurner’s:MankindisrendingMotherEarthasunder.
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Toynbee’s term Mankind embraces the Western spirit as well as the human communities be-
yondCivilization’sken,andhisMotherEarthembracesalllife.
I’ll borrow Toynbee’s term Mother Earth. She’s the first protagonist. She’s alive, she’s life
itself.Sheconceivesandbirthseverythingthatgrows.ManycallherNature.Christianscallher
Wilderness. Toynbee’s other name for her is Biosphere. She is the dry land, the water and the
earth enveloping our planet. She’s the sole habitat of living beings. Toynbee describes her as a
thin,delicateskin,nohigherthanplanescanflyandnolowerthanminescanbedug.Limestone,
coal and oil are part of her substance, they are matter that once lived. She selectively filters
radiationfromthesun,preciselyinsuchawayastokeeplifefromburning.Toynbeecallsheran
excrescence,ahaloorrustontheplanet’ssurface,andhespeculatesthattheremaybenoother
Biospheres.
Toynbee says Mankind, human beings, in other words We, have grown very powerful, more
powerful than any other living beings, and at last more powerful than the Biosphere. Mankind
hasthepowertowreckthedelicatecrust,andisdoingit.
There are many ways to speak of a trap. It can be described from the standpoint of the self-
balancingenvironment,ofthetrapper,ofthetrappedanimal.Itcanevenbedescribedfromthe
standpointofthetrapitself,namelyfromtheobjective,scientific,technologicalstandpoint.
ThereareasmanywaystospeakofthewreckingoftheBiosphere.Fromthestandpointofa
singleprotagonist,Earthherself,itcanbesaidthatSheiscommittingsuicide.Withtwoprotag-
onists, Mankind and Mother Earth, it can be said that We are murdering Her. Those of us who
acceptthisstandpointandsquirmwithshamemightwishwewerewhales.Butthoseofuswho
takethestandpointofthetrappedanimalwilllookforathirdprotagonist.
Toynbee’s protagonist, Mankind, is too diffuse. It embraces all civilizations and also all com-
munities beyond Civilization’s ken. Yet the communities, as Toynbee himself shows, coexisted
withotherbeingsforthousandsofgenerationswithoutdoingtheBiosphereanyharm.Theyare
notthetrappersbutthetrapped.
Who,then,isthewreckeroftheBiosphere?TurnerpointsattheWesternSpirit.Thisisthehero
who pits himself against the Wilderness, who calls for a war of exterminationby Spirit against
Nature,SoulagainstBody,TechnologyagainsttheBiosphere,CivilizationagainstMotherEarth,
godagainstall.
Marxists point at the Capitalist mode of production, sometimes only at the Capitalist class.
Anarchists point at the State. Camatte points at Capital. New Ranters point at Technology or
Civilizationorboth.
IfToynbee’sprotagonist,Mankind,istoodiffuse,manyoftheothersaretoonarrow.
TheMarxistsseeonlythemoteintheenemy’seye.Theysupplanttheirvillainwithahero,the
Anti-capitalist mode of production, the Revolutionary Establishment. They fail to see that their
hero is the very same “shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless
asthesun.”TheyfailtoseethattheAnti-capitalistmodeofproductionwantsonlytooutrunits
brotherinwreckingtheBiosphere.
Anarchists are as varied as Mankind. There are governmental and commercial Anarchists as
well as a few for hire. Some Anarchists differ from Marxists only in being less informed. They
wouldsupplantthestatewithanetworkcomputercenters,factoriesandminescoordinated“by
theworkersthemselves”orbyanAnarchistunion.TheywouldnotcallthisarrangementaState.
Thename-changewouldexorcizethebeast.
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Camatte, the New Ranters and Turner treat the villains of the Marxists and Anarchists as
mereattributesoftherealprotagonist.Camattegivesthemonsterabody;henamesthemonster
Capital,borrowingthetermfromMarxbutgivingitanewcontent.Hepromisestodescribethe
monster’soriginandtrajectorybuthasnotyetdoneso.TheNewRantershaveborrowedlights
fromL.Mumford,J.Ellulandothersbuthavenot,tomyknowledge,gonefurtherthanCamatte.
Turner goes further. His aim is to describe only the monster’s spirit, but he knows it is the
monster’s body that destroys the bodies of human communities and the body of Mother Earth.
Hesaysmuchaboutthemonster’soriginandtrajectory,andhespeaksoftenofitsarmor.Butit
isbeyondhisaimtonamethemonsterordescribeitsbody.
It is my aim to speak of the beast’s body. For it does have a body, a monstrous body, a body
thathasbecomemorepowerfulthantheBiosphere.Itmaybeabodywithoutanylifeofitsown.
It may be a dead thing, a huge cadaver. It may move its slow thighs only when living beings
inhabitit.Nevertheless,itsbodyiswhatdoesthewrecking.
IftheBiosphereisanexcrescenceontheplanet’ssurface,thebeastthatiswreckingherisalso
anexcrescence.TheEarthwreckerisarustorhaloonthesurfaceofahumancommunity.Itisnot
excretedbyeverycommunity,byMankind.Toynbeehimselfputstheblameonatinyminority,
on very few communities. Perhaps the cadaverous beast was excreted by only one community
amongthemyriads.
***
The cadaverous beast excreted by a human community is young, it is at most two or three
hundred generations old. Before turning to it, I’ll glance at human communities, for they are
mucholder,theyarethousandsofgenerationsold.
We are told that even human communities are young, that there was an age when all was
water until a muskrat dived to the seabottom and brought earth to the turtle’s back. So we’re
told.
Supposedlythefirstwalkerswhobenefitedfromthemuskrat’sexertionsweregiantsorgods
whoarenowadayscalleddinosaurs.
Modern graverobbers have been digging up these god’s bones and displaying the bones in
glasscasesofPositiveEvidence.Thegraverobbersusethesebonecasestobullyallstoriesother
thantheirownoutofhumanmemory.Butthegraverobber’sstoriesaredullerthanmyriadother
stories,andtheircasesofbonesshedlightonlyonthegraverobbersthemselves.
Thestoriesareasvariedastheirtellers.Inmanyofthestories,memorystrainstoreachanage
whenit,memory,waslodgedinagrandmotherwhoknewtheswimmers,crawlersandwalkers
asherkinbecauseshewalkedonherhindlegsnomorefrequentlythanthey.
Inoneancientaccount,thefirstgrandmotherfelltoearthfromaholeinthesky.
In a modern account, she was a fish with a snout who, having playfully practiced breathing
bystickinghersnoutabovewater,survivedthankstothistrickwhenherponddriedup.
Inanotherancientaccount,theBiosphereswallowedseveralgrandmothersbeforethegeneral
progenitor made her appearance, and is expected to swallow this progenitor’s great grandchil-
dren.Toynbeemayturnouttobewrongabouttherelativepowerofthetwoprotagonists.
Manystoriestellofminiaturegrandparents,midgets;amodernaccountcallsthemtreeshrews.
These midgets inhabited the earth while the giants, the dinosaurs, walked about in the light
of day. Prudent tree shrews climbed down to feast on insects at night, not because the giants
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weremean,butbecauseofthediscrepancyinsize.Manyofthetreeshrewsweresatisfiedwith
this arrangement and they remained tree shrews. Some, undoubtedly a small minority, wanted
towalkaboutinthelightofday.
Fortunatelyfortherestlessones,thedinosaurswereamongthegrandmothersswallowedby
the Biosphere. Former tree shrews could bask in the sun, or dance and play in broad daylight,
without fear of being trampled. Minorities among these grew restless; some wanted to crawl,
others to fly. The smug, conservative majorities, happy with their capacities, fulfilled by their
environments,remainedwhattheywere.
***
ThemanagersofGulag’sislandstellusthattheswimmers,crawlers,walkersandfliersspent
theirlivesworkinginordertoeat.
Thesemanagersarebroadcastingtheirnewstoo soon.Thevaried beingshaven’tall beenex-
terminatedyet.You,reader,haveonlytominglewiththem,orjustwatchthemfromadistance,
toseethattheirwakinglivesarefilledwithdances,gamesandfeasts.Eventhehunt,thestalking
andfeigningandleaping,isnotwhatwecallWork,butwhatwecallFun.Theonlybeingswho
workaretheinmatesofGulag’sislands,thezeks.
Thezek’sancestorsdidlessworkthanacorporationowner.Theydidn’tknowwhatworkwas.
They lived in a condition J.J. Rousseau called “the state of nature.” Rousseau’s term should be
brought back into common use. It grates on the nerves of those who, in R. Vaneigem’s words,
carry cadavers in their mouths. It makes the armor visible. Say “the state of nature” and you’ll
seethecadaverspeerout.
Insistthat“freedom”and“thestateofnature”aresynonyms,andthecadaverswilltrytobite
you.Thetame,thedomesticated,trytomonopolizethewordfreedom;they’dliketoapplyitto
theirowncondition.Theyapplytheword“wild”tothefree.Butitisanotherpublicsecretthat
thetame,thedomesticated,occasionallybecomewildbutareneverfreesolongastheyremain
intheirpens.
Eventhecommondictionarykeepsthissecretonlyhalfhidden.Itbeginsbysayingthatfree
means citizen! But then it says, “Free: a) not determined by anything beyond its own nature or
being;b)determinedbythechoiceoftheactororbyhiswishes…”
The secret is out. Birds are free until people cage them. The Biosphere, Mother Earth herself,
is free when she moistens herself, when she sprawls in the sun and lets her skin erupt with
varicolored hair teeming with crawlers and fliers. She is not determined by anything beyond
her own nature or being until another sphere of equal magnitude crashes into her, or until a
cadaverousbeastcutsintoherskinandrendsherbowels.
Trees, fish and insects are free as they grow from seed to maturity, each realizing its own
potential, its wish — until the insect’s freedom is curtailed by the bird’s. The eaten insect has
madeagiftofitsfreedomtothebird’sfreedom.Thebird,initsturn,dropsandmanurestheseed
oftheinsect’sfavoriteplant,enhancingthefreedomoftheinsect’sheirs.
Thestateofnatureisacommunityoffreedoms.
Suchwastheenvironmentofthefirsthumancommunities,andsuchitremainedforthousands
ofgenerations.
Modern anthropologists who carry Gulag in their brains reduce such human communities
to the motions that look most like work, and give the name Gatherers to people who pick and
sometimesstoretheirfavoritefoods.AbankclerkwouldcallsuchcommunitiesSavingsBanks!
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ThezeksonacoffeeplantationinGuatemalaareGatherers,andtheanthropologistisaSavings
Bank.Theirfreeancestorshadmoreimportantthingstodo.
The!Kungpeoplemiraculouslysurvivedasacommunityoffreehumanbeingsintoourown
exterminating age. R.E. Leakey observed them in their lush African forest homeland. They cul-
tivated nothing except themselves. They made themselves what they wished to be. They were
not determined by anything beyond their own being — not by alarm clocks, not by debts, not
by orders from superiors. They feasted and celebrated and played, full-time, except when they
slept. They shared everything with their communities: food, experiences, visions, songs. Great
personalsatisfaction,deepinnerjoy,camefromthesharing.
(Intoday’sworld,wolvesstillexperiencethejoysthatcomefromsharing.Maybethat’swhy
governmentspaybountiestothekillersofwolves.)
S. Diamond observed other free human beings who survived into our age, also in Africa. He
couldseethattheydidnowork,buthecouldn’tquitebringhimselftosayitinEnglish.Instead,
hesaidtheymadenodistinctionbetweenworkandplay.DoesDiamondmeanthattheactivity
of the free people can be seen as work one moment, as play another, depending on how the
anthropologist feels? Does he mean that they didn’t know if their activity was work or play?
Doeshemeanwe,youandI,Diamond’sarmoredcontemporaries,cannotdistinguishtheirwork
fromtheirplay?
Ifthe!Kungvisitedourofficesandfactories,theymightthinkwe’replaying.Whyelsewould
webethere?
IthinkDiamondmeanttosaysomethingmoreprofound.Atime-and-motionengineerwatch-
ing a bear near a berry patch would not know when to punch his clock. Does the bear start
workingwhenhewalkstotheberrypatch,whenhepickstheberry,whenheopenshisjaws?If
theengineerhashalfabrainhemightsaythebearmakesnodistinctionbetweenworkandplay.
Iftheengineerhasanimaginationhemightsaythatthebearexperiencesjoyfromthemoment
theberriesturndeepred,andthatnoneofthebear’smotionsarework.
Leakey and others suggest that the general progenitors of human beings, our earliest grand-
mothers, originated in lush African forests, somewhere near the homeland of the !Kung. The
conservative majority, profoundly satisfied with nature’s unstinting generosity, happy in their
accomplishments, at peace with themselves and the world, had no reason to leave their home.
Theystayed.
A restless minority went wandering. Perhaps they followed their dreams. Perhaps their fa-
vorite pond dried up. Perhaps their favorite animals wandered away. These people were very
fondofanimals;theyknewtheanimalsascousins.
Thewanderersaresaidtohavewalkedtoeverywoodland,plainandlakeshoreofEurasia.They
walkedorfloatedtoalmosteveryisland.Theywalkedacrossthelandbridgenearthenorthern
landoficetothesouthernmosttipofthedoublecontinentwhichwouldbecalledAmerica.
Thewandererswenttohotlandsandcold,tolandswithmuchrainandlandswithlittle.Per-
hapssomefeltnostalgiaforthewarmhometheyleft.Ifso,thepresenceoftheirfavoriteanimals,
theircousins,compensatedfortheirloss.Wecanstillseethehomagesomeofthemgavetothese
animalsoncavewallsofAltamira,onrocksinAbrigodelSolintheAmazonValley.
Some of the women learned from birds and winds to scatter seeds. Some of the men learned
fromwolvesandeaglestohunt.
But none of them ever worked. And everyone knows it. The armored Christians who later
“discovered”thesecommunitiesknewthatthesepeopledidnowork,andthisknowledgegrated
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on Christian nerves, it rankled, it caused cadavers to peep out. The Christians spoke of women
whodid“luriddances”intheirfieldsinsteadofconfiningthemselvestochores;theysaidhunters
didalotofdevilish“hocuspocus”beforeactuallydrawingthebowstring.
These Christians, early time-and-motion engineers, couldn’t tell when play ended and work
began.Longfamiliarwiththechoresofzeks,theChristianswererepelledbytheluridanddevilish
heathenwhopretendedthattheCurseofLaborhadnotfallenonthem.TheChristiansputaquick
endtothe“hocuspocus”andthedances,andsawtoitthatnonecouldfailtodistinguishwork
fromplay.
Ourancestors—I’llborrowTurner’stermsandcallthemthePossessed—hadmoreimportant
things to do than to struggle to survive. They loved nature and nature reciprocated their love.
Wherevertheyweretheyfoundaffluence,asMarshallSahlinsshowsinhisStoneAgeEconomics.
PierreClastres’SocietyAgainsttheStateinsiststhatthestruggleforsubsistenceisnotverifiable
amonganyofthePossessed;itisverifiableamongtheDispossessedinthepitsandonthemargins
of progressive industrialization. Leslie White, after a sweeping review of reports from distant
placesandages,aviewof“Primitivecultureasawhole,”concludesthat“there’senoughtoeatfor
arichnessofliferareamongthe‘civilized.’”Iwouldn’tusethewordPrimitivetorefertoapeople
witharichnessoflife.IwouldusethewordPrimitivetorefertomyselfandmycontemporaries,
withourprogressivepovertyoflife.
***
ThemainpartofourpovertyisthattherichnessoflifeofthePossessedisbarelyaccessibleto
us,eventothoseofuswhohavenotchainedourimaginations.
Ourprofessorstalkoffruitsandnuts,animalskinsandmeat.Theypointtooursupermarkets,
full of fruits and nuts. We have an abundance our ancestors didn’t dream of, Q.E.D. These are,
afterall,therealthings,thethingsthatmatter.Andifwewantmorethanfruitsandnuts,wecan
go to the theater and see plays; we can even sprawl in front of the TV and consume the entire
world-widespectacle.Hallelujah!Whatmorecouldwewant?
Thankstoourprofessors,webarelyhaveaccesstoourdangerous,demonic,possessedances-
torswhothoughtfruitsandnutswerenottherealthingsbuttrivia,whoabandonedthemselves
tovisions,mythsandceremonies.Thankstoourprofessors,wenowknowthatvisionsareper-
sonaldelusions,mythsarefairytales,andceremoniesareplay-actingwhichwecanseeanytime
inmovies.
WeevenknowalotaboutPossession.Possessionisownership.Wepossesshousesandgarages
and cars and stereo equipment, and we’re constantly running to possess more; there’s no limit
towhatwewanttopossess.Surelyitmustbesaidthatpossessionisourcentralaim,nottheirs.
Rare is the professor who, like Mircea Eliade, frees himself of the armored vision and sees
through the iron curtain of inversion and falsification. And even Eliade fogs what he sees by
claimingtofindanalogiesandvestigesinourworld.Thestraitthatseparatesusfromtheother
shore has been widening for three hundred generations, and whatever was cannibalized from
theothershoreisnolongeravestigeoftheiractivitybutanexcretionofours:it’sshit.
Reducetoblankslatesbyschool,wecannotknowwhatitwastogrowupheirstothousands
ofgenerationsofvision,insight,experience.
Wecannotknowwhatitwastolearntoheartheplantsgrow,andtofeelthegrowth.
Wecannotknowwhatitwastofeeltheseedinthewombandlearntofeeltheseedinearth’s
womb,tofeelasEarthfeels,andatlasttoabandononeselfandletEarthpossessone,tobecome
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