Green Anarchy #25

96 Pages·2008·12.28 MB·English

by  Green Anarchy Collective

GREEN ANARCHY
GREEN ANARCHY
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SPRING/
SUMMER 2008
ISSUE #25
$4 USA, $6 CANADA,
$7 EUROPE, $8 WORLD
FREE TO U.S.PRISONERS
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CCoonntteennttss
Direct Action
::
Anarchist Resistance, pg 26
Ecological Defense and Animal Liberation, pg 40
IIIssssssuuueee ###222555 SSSppprrriiinnnggg///SSSuuummmmmmeeerrr 222000000888 Indigenous Struggles, pg 48
Anti-Capitalist and Anti-State Battles, pg 54
Prisoner Escapes and Uprisings, pg 62
Articles
Symptoms of the System’s Meltdown, pg 67
Silence byJohn Zerzan, pg 4
Sections
Straight Lines Don’t Work Any More
by Rebelaze, pg 6
Welcome to Green Anarchy, pg 2
Connecting to Place In the Land of the Lost:
The Garden of Peculiarities: Fragment #42-44, pg 46
Questions for the Nomadic Wanderers
State Repression News, pg 70
by Sal Insieme, pg 8
Hope Against Hope: Why Progressivism is as Useless Reviews, pg 74
as Leftism by Tara Specter, pg 12 News from the Balcony with Waldorf and Statler, pg 80
Sermon on the Cyber Mount Letters, pg 86
by The Honorable Reverend Black A. Hole,pg 14 Subscriber and Distributor Info, pg 90
Second-Best Life: Real Virtuality Green Anarchy Distro, pg 90
byJohn Zerzan, pg 16 Announcements, pg 92
Canaries In the Clockwork by earth-ling-gerring, pg 17
A Specious Species by C.E. Hayes, pg 18
... ... ... iiinnn ttthhheee mmmiiidddsssttt ooofff aaaccctttiiivvviiitttyyy,,,
Alone Together: the City and its Inmates
by John Zerzan, pg 20 ttthhheeerrreee iiisss aaa bbbllluuurrrrrriiinnnggg bbbeeetttwwweeeeeennn
The End Of Slavery: Urban Scout On Creating A World ttthhheee sssooolllooo aaannnddd ttthhheee ssswwwaaarrrmmm...
Beyond Civilization, with Lisa Wells, pg 23
Dwelling-while-letting-be
by Dr. Peters’ Cassandra Complex, pg 32
Reflections on the Joys, Dilemmas, and Miscellaneous and the pieces
Exhilaration of a Decivilizing Papa, part I
by Felonious Skunk, pg 36
fall
Reclaiming the Myth-Time: Finding our Place through
Story and Song by Scavenger, pg 44
Force of Habit, Habit of Force:
where they may
The (Screen) Door of Perception by Dan Todd, pg 47
with a little help
A culture beyond time by Thomas Toivonen, pg 52 from
Maroons: Guardians of the flag of liberation
by Hadotso, pg 58 thoughtfulness
Laughing in the Face of Power by a disgruntled recklessness
hopelessness
animal with a sense of humor, pg 64
connectedness
Zerzan & Zerzan Anti-Civ Madness Tour 2007, pg 81
happiness
G8, Germany: The Aftermath, by Jacob Duval pg 82
and the mess
Feral Visions: Fight or Flight?, by Allie MoCat pg 84
Page 1 SPRING/SUMMERw ‘0it8h tIiSmSeU tEo rest
Welcome
Welcome was Silence, a look at the overwhelming “roar
of standardization, its information-noise and
harried, surface ‘communication’ modes”. He
declares a need for silence as a response to and
an escape from the “unrelenting, colonizing
penetrability of non-silence, pushing into
every non-place.” John also examines the bleak
urban landscape in Alone Together: the City and
its Inmates, and the hyper-alienated cyber-world
((bbaacckk)) in Second-Best Life: Real Virtuality. There is
an interesting look at techno-narcissism in A
Specious Species by C.E. Hayes, and a spoof of
the overwhelmingly obedient religiosity towards
science in Sermon on the Cyber Mount by The
Honorable Reverend Black A. Hole. Hope
Against Hope: Why Progressivism is as Useless
as Leftism by Tara Specter, challenges us to “feel
life itself coursing through our veins in the act,
to feel ourselves at one with the spirit of all that
lives,” as it critiques the likes of Murray
Bookchin and those who “buy into the time of
IIssssuuee ##2255--SSpprriinngg//SSuummmmeerr 22000088
the false ecology and thus into the myth of
progress.” There are numerous personal, reflec-
Green Anarchy
tive, strategic, and practical thoughts expressed
to
in pieces like Connecting to Place In the Land
of the Lost: Questions for the Nomadic Wan-
derers by Sal Insieme, Reflections on the Joys,
“ Dilemmas, and Miscellaneous Exhilaration of
Oh, a false clock tries to tick out my time.
a Decivilizing Papa, by Felonious Skunk,
”
To disgrace, displace, and bother me. Reclaiming the Myth-Time: Finding our Place
through Story and Song by Scavenger, and Lisa
– Bob Dylan, Restless Farewell
Wells’ interview: The End Of Slavery: Urban
Scout On Creating A World Beyond Civilization.
Well It’s Time, Time, Time…
We still wish to do so, and our goal is to con- Dwelling-while-letting-be by Dr. Peters’
Time moves fast. Time moves slow. But for tinue to publish about twice a year. However, Cassandra Complex, explores the topic of
those who are still trapped by it (almost every our release date won’t be as predictable six “death consciousness, including the fear of
single one of us to some degree), it sure moves. months in advance. Who knows what might death, as one of the key pillars of the civilized
Being an abstract understanding of reality, time come up? Babies? Rabies? Scabies? Maybes? order engulfing us in artificiality.” A culture
can be subjective, collaborative, and authori- We would rather organically balance our ener- beyond time by Thomas Toivonen, focuses on
tative. It changes pace and purpose depending gies and take our time to create a provocative the Piraha people and their perceived immediacy
on the situation, temperament, or company, but and worthwhile project, then rush some partial of experience in their view and comprehension
for most of us, it still ticks out our lives. It product for people to consume at regular of the world (with limited binary quantification:
slips away, catches up on you, and drags on. intervals. We realize that some people will give numerals, color, language, etc.). In applying this
But, there is so much to think about and so us shit (especially our major distributors), call concept to the rest of us, Toivonen asks
much living to do despite its oppressive us slackers or lifestylists (anarcho-careerists and “Perhaps time is not linear and part of the
looming death tone. And, priorities shift as activists), or predict our eminent demise (those fundamental structure of the universe, not a
time adjusts. We find ourselves immersed not who have always wished for it), but we ain’t dimension in which events occur in sequence
in better or worse activities, but different and sweatin’ it. We’re not fighting for a world with but a constructed dimension. And perhaps it’s
sometimes still very similar. As you may have trains that run on time. We don’t even fucking possible that instead of being an objective thing
noticed, some time has passed since our pre- want trains, nor the mass society or culture that to be measured, time is actually part of a mental
vious issue of Green Anarchy. Time got away needs and wants them. Don’t worry, we plan measuring system that keeps us from descend-
from us while we were busy living (exploring on unleashing the virus we call GA as often as ing into total anarchy.” Maroons: Guardians
our world, licking old wounds, playing with we can and as thoroughly as possible. But, we’re of the flag of liberation by Hadotso, extensively
wee ones). And no matter how hard you try gonna do it on our time. And our watches seem reports on the various fugitives and runaway
(caffeinated or not), you can’t catch time. to be broken… captives who disappeared into the wilds of the
This being said, we still very much feel the Americas to create autonomous and resistant
importance of this project, despite (and maybe What’s In the Mix? cultures. Laughing in the Face of Power by a
because of) a depressing social scenario for disgruntled animal with a sense of humor, takes
This issue was some time in the making and
all who wish to live, and especially for those an unexpected peek at comedy as a strategy of
includes a variety of articles from the collec-
who wish to live wild. We want this journal to subversion, focusing mainly on anti-authoritarian
tive and by folks who sent them in to us. We’d
remain a breathing and blossoming forum for comedian, George Carlin. Our State Repression
like to thank all those who contributed. Always
all those who want to see civilization aban- News section covers most of the suppression
extremely anxious for us to get another issue
doned and life freely experienced. We have and legal news facing those attempting to pose
of the magazine out on the streets, John Zerzan
attempted to balance a huge and extensive a challenge to the machine, including a rap-up
was quite prolific this time, as he kept writing
project that advocates, debates, reports, and ex- on the “green scare” trials and sentencing. We
while some of us were off doing other things.
plores ideas and practice with a life fully lived. took a slightly different approach for most of
Perhaps his most unique and unexpected piece
the direct action reports, as a year was a lot to
GGGRRREEEEEENNN AAANNNAAARRRCCCHHHYYY ###222555 PPPaaagggeee 222
cover in our usual listing format. Let us know If it is at all possible, try to
what’s black and white and read all over?
if this was more interesting and helpful. We, of share the magazine, as our
course, also have the customary opinion sec- costs for this particular aspect
tions, consisting of reviews, letters, reportbacks, are about $1,500 per issue
and everyone’s favorite grumpy ol’ men, and steadily rising. We also
Waldorf and Statler. We hope this will give you ask that non-incarcerated
more than enough stuff to chew on for a while. people try to help with this
If you’re the type to read it all through once, cost if they can, either by
maybe come back to it with different eyes now sending donations to under-
and again. Or, if you like just a little taste once write this cause or by helping
in a while, there is quite a smorgasbord to chose to procure grants for this
from. Let us know what you think, and help to specific purpose. Any help
make future issues reflect your anti-civilization along these lines is appreci-
anarchist opinions and critiques by contributing ated, as our largest readership
your thoughts (and/or actions). is in the prison system.
Remember, Green Anarchy
Odds and Ends is an all-volunteer project,
costing thousands of dollars
The costs of producing Green Anarchy always
per issue. The many ways you
increases to some degree, but recently the
can support it include: be-
postage rates to ship the magazine, especially
coming a PAYING distributor,
overseas, has gone up phenomenally. This has
subscriber, or special donor.
caused us to raise our prices accordingly, with
Also, consider ordering from
foreign distributors affected most. Please wwwwwwwww...gggrrreeeeeennnaaannnaaarrrccchhhyyy...ooorrrggg
our extensive distro (located
understand this is out of our hands and we still
on page 90), which includes
wish to send out free copies to those who want
over 80 pamphlets and zines, ...contact us to become more involved in the magazine.
them, but probably not as many. If we were
books, and videos. Now you
previously sending you some, it may not last
can order and subscribe online
unless you make an effort to contact us and (under 1000 words), letters (under 500 words),
with our new PayPal account. We are always
communicate your situation. As anarchists, we poems, and images (as TIFF’s if possible or
looking for technical equipment and supplies
are not a charity, but believe in the idea of original hardcopies). We prefer that you email
(check our website for details). We are also
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looking for physical help, for specific projects
We also want to make a special note about attachment). Check our website for updates on
and for temporary or long-term editorship.
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And don’t be afraid to add your voice to the
over 1,300 copies per issue. While we are The deadline for contributions is June 18, 2008.
ongoing anti-civilization discussion by
dedicated to continuing to send free copies to
sending us your contributions for the next For an Uncivilized Reality,
those who have been kidnapped by the state, we
issue: articles (up to 4000 words), reviews The Green Anarchy Collective
ask that you not sign up everyone on your unit.
Spring 2008
Disclaimer:
...and now it is
The editors of Green Anarchy do not nec-
essarily agree with or endorse all or any
time for play
particular article, action, announcement,
perspective, or language used in each issue.
Most articles are written and contributed
by people unknown to us. The news and
actions are reported on as journalists.
Green Anarchy intends to provide an
ongoing anti-civilization discussion of
theory and practice, NOT periodically
release our position paper, ideological
requirements, or directive for action.
Articles are selected for print when we
feel that they have a nugget of interest to
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a letter or email: [email protected]
PPaaggee 33 SPRING/SUMMER ‘08 ISSUE
by John Zerzan
Silence
Silence
used to be, to varying degrees, a means of isolation. In the industrially-based technosphere, the Machine has almost
Now it is the absence of silence that works to render today’s world succeeded in banishing quietude. A natural history of silence is needed
empty and isolating. Its reserves have been invaded and depleted. The for this endangered species. Modernity deafens. The noise, like
Machine marches globally forward and silence is the dwindling place technology, must never retreat––and never does.
where noise has not yet penetrated. For Picard, nothing has changed human character so much as the
Civilization is a conspiracy of noise, designed to cover up the loss of silence.7 Thoreau called silence “our inviolable asylum,” an
uncomfortable silences. The silence-honoring Wittgenstein understood indispensable refuge that must be defended.8 Silence is necessary
the loss of our relationship with it. The unsilent present is a time of against the mounting sound. It’s feared by manipulative mass culture,
evaporating attention spans, erosion of critical thinking, and a lessened from which it remains apart, a means of resistance precisely because
capacity for deeply felt experiences. Silence, like darkness, is hard to it does not belong to this world. Many things can still be heard against
come by; but mind and spirit need its sustenance. the background of silence; thus a way is opened, a way for autonomy
Certainly there are many and varied sides to silence. There are and imagining.
imposed or voluntary silences of fear, grief, conformity, complicity “Sense opens up in silence,” wrote Jean-Luc Nancy.9 It is to be
(e.g. the AIDS-awareness “Silence=Death” formulation), which are approached and experienced bodily, inseparably from the world, in
often interrelated states. And nature has been progressively silenced, the silent core of the self. It can highlight our embodiment, a qualitative
as documented in Rachel Carson’s prophetic Silent Spring. Nature step away from the hallmark machines that work so resolutely to
cannot be definitively silenced, however, which perhaps goes a long disembody us. Silence can be a great aid in unblocking ourselves from
way in explaining why some feel it must be destroyed. “There has the prevailing, addictive information sickness at loose in society.10
been a silencing of nature, including our own nature,” concluded It offers us the place to be present to ourselves, to come to grips with
Heidegger,1 and we need to let this silence, as silence, speak. It still who we are. Present to the real depth of the world in an increasingly
does so often, after all, speak louder than words. thin, flattened technoscape.
There will be no liberation of humans without the resurrection of The record of philosophy vis-à-vis silence is generally dismal, as
the natural world, and silence is very pertinent to this assertion. The good a gauge as any to its overall failure. Socrates judged silence to
great silence of the universe engenders a silent awe, which the be a realm of nonsense, while Aristotle claimed that being silent caused
Roman Lucretius meditated upon in the 1st century BCE: “First of flatulence.11 At the same time, however, Raoul Mortley could see a
all, contemplate the clear, pure color of the sky, and all it contains “growing dissatisfaction with the use of words,” “an enormous
within it: the stars wandering everywhere, the moon, the sun and its increase in the language of silence” in classical Greece.12
light with its incomparable brilliance. If all these objects appeared to Much later, Pascal was terrified by the “silence of the universe,”13
mortals today for the first time, if they appeared to their eyes suddenly and Hegel clearly felt that what could not be spoken was simply the
and unexpectedly, what could one cite that would be more marvelous untrue, that silence was a deficiency to be overcome. Schopenhauer
than this totality, and whose existence man’s imagination would less and Nietzsche both emphasized the prerequisite value of solitude,
have dared to conceive?”2 diverging from anti-silence Hegel, among others.
Down to earth, nature is filled with silences. The alternation of the Deservedly well known is a commentary on Odysseus and the
seasons is the rhythm of silence; at night silence descends over the Sirens (from Homer’s Odyssey) by Horkheimer and Adorno. They
planet, though much less so now. The parts of nature resemble great depict the Sirens’ effort to sidetrack Odysseus from his journey as
reserves of silence. Max Picard’s description is almost a poem: “The that of Eros trying to stay the forces of repressive civilization. Kafka
forest is like a great reservoir of silence out of which the silence trickles felt that silence would have been a more irresistible means than singing.14
in a thin, slow stream and fills the air with its brightness. The mountain, “Phenomenology begins in silence,” according to Herbert
the lake, the fields, the sky––they all seem to be waiting for a sign to Spiegelberg.15 To put phenomena or objects somehow first, before
empty their silence onto the things of noise in the cities of men.”3 ideational constructions, was its founding notion. Or as Heidegger
Silence is “not the mere absence of something else.”4 In fact, our had it, there is a thinking deeper and more rigorous than the conceptual,
longings turn toward that dimension, its associations and implications. and part of this involves a primordial link between silence and
Behind the appeals for silence lies the wish for a perceptual and understanding.16 Postmodernism, and Derrida in particular, deny the
cultural new beginning. widespread awareness of the inadequacy of language, asserting that
Zen teaches that “silence never varies….”5 But our focus may be gaps of silence in discourse, for example, are barriers to meaning and
improved if we turn away from the universalizing placelessness of power. In fact, Derrida strongly castigates “the violence of primitive
late modernity. Silence is no doubt culturally specific, and is thus and prelogical silence,” denouncing silence as a nihilist enemy of
experienced variously. Nevertheless, as Picard argues, it can confront thought.17 Such strenuous antipathy demonstrates Derrida’s deafness
us with the “original beginnings of all things,”6 and presents objects to presence and grace, and the threat silence poses to someone for
to us directly and immediately. Silence is primary, summoning presence whom the symbolic is everything. Wittgenstein understood that some-
to itself; so it’s a connection to the realm of origin. thing pervades everything sayable, something which is itself unsayable.
GREEN ANARCHY #25 Page 4
This is the sense of his well-known last line of the Tractatus A century and a half later, Samuel Beckett made use of silence as an
Logico-Philosophicus: “Of that which one cannot speak, one alternative to language. In Krapp’s Last Tape and elsewhere, the idea that
should remain silent.”18 all language is an excess of language is strongly on offer. Beckett com-
Can silence be considered, approached, without reification, in the plains that “in the forest of symbols” there is never quiet, and longs to break
here and now? I think it can be an open, strengthening way of knowing, through the veil of language to silence.27 Northrup Frye found the purpose
a generative condition. Silence can also be a dimension of fear, grief– of Beckett’s work “to lie in nothing other than the restoration of silence.”28
even of madness and suicide. In fact, it is quite difficult to reify Our most embodied, alive-to-this-earth selves realize best the limits
silence, to freeze it into any one non-living thing. At times the reality of language and indeed, the failure of the project of representation. In
we interrogate is mute; an index of the depth of the still present this state it is easiest to understand the exhaustion of language, and
silence? Wonder may be the question that best gives answers, the fact that we are always a word’s length from immediacy. Kafka
silently and deeply. commented on this in “In the Penal Colony,” where the printing press
“Silence is so accurate,” said Mark Rothko,19 a line that has intrigued doubled as an instrument of torture. For Thoreau, “as the truest society
me for years. Too often we disrupt silence, only to voice some detail approaches always nearer to solitude, so the most excellent speech
that misses an overall sense of what we are part of, and how many finally falls into silence.”29 Conversely, mass society banishes the
ways there are to destroy it. In the Antarctica winter of 1933, Richard chance of autonomy, just as it forecloses on silence.
Byrd recorded: “Took my daily walk at 4PM… I paused to listen to Hölderlin imagined that language draws us into time, but it is
the silence…the day was dying, the night being born––but with great silence that holds out against it. Time increases in silence; it appears
peace. Here were imponderable processes and forces of the cosmos, not to flow, but to abide. Various temporalities seem close to losing
harmonious and soundless.”20 How much is revealed in silence their barriers; past, present, future less divided.
through the depths and mysteries of living nature. Annie Dillard But silence is a variable fabric, not a uniformity or an abstraction.
also provides a fine response to the din: “At a certain point you say Its quality is never far from its context, just as it is the field of the non-
to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, to the world, Now I am mediated. Unlike time, which has for so long been a measure of
ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself estrangement, silence cannot be spatialized or converted into a medium
and wait, listening.”21 of exchange. This is why it can be a refuge from time’s incessancy.
It is not only the natural world that is accessible via silence. Cioran Gurnemanz, near the opening of Wagner’s Parsifal, sings “Here time
indicated the secrets in the silence of things, deciding that “All becomes space.” Silence avoids this primary dynamic of domination.
objects have a language which we can decipher only in total silence.”22 So here we are, with the Machine engulfing us in its various assaults on
David Michael Levin’s The Body’s Recollection of Being counsels silence and so much else, intruding deeply. The note North Americans
us to “learn to think through the body…we should listen in silence spontaneously hum or sing is B- natural, which is the corresponding tone
to our bodily felt experience.”23 And in the interpersonal sphere, of our 60 cycles per second alternating current electricity. (In Europe,
silence is a result of empathy and being understood, without words G-sharp is “naturally” sung, matching that continent’s 50 cycles per
much more profoundly than otherwise. second AC electricity.) In the globalizing, homogenizing Noise Zone we
Native Americans seem to have always placed great value on may soon be further harmonized. Pico Ayer refers to “my growing sense
silence and direct experience, and in indigenous cultures in general, of a world that’s singing the same song in a hundred accents all at once.”30
silence denotes respect and self-effacement. It is at the core of the Vision We need a refusal of the roar of standardization, its information-
Quest, the solitary period of noise and harried, surface
fasting and closeness to the “communication” modes. A No
silence
earth to discover one’s life path ––as comfort, to the unrelenting, colonizing
and purpose. Inuit Norman penetrability of non-silence,
ally, and stronghold
Hallendy assigns more insight pushing into every non-place.
to the silent state of awareness The rising racket measures,
called inuinaqtuk than to by decibel up-ticks and its
dreaming.24 Native healers polluting reach, the degrading
very often stress silence as an mass world––Don DeLillo’s
aid to serenity and hope, while White Noise.
stillness is required for success Silence is a rebuke to all this,
in the hunt. These needs for and a zone for reconstituting
attentiveness and quiet may well ourselves. It gathers in nature,
have been key sources of indig- and can help us gather our-
enous appreciation of silence. selves for the battles that will
Silence reaches back to end debasement. Silence as a
presence and original com- powerful tool of resistance, the
munity, before the symbolic unheard note that might pre-
compromised both silence cede insurrection. It was, for
and presence. It predates what example, what slave masters
Levinas called “the unity of representation,”25 that always works feared most.31 In various Asian spiritual traditions, the muni, vowed
to silence the silence and replace it with the homelessness of symbolic to silence, is the person of greatest capacity and independence––the
structures. The Latin root for silence, silere, to say nothing, is one who does not need a master for enlightenment.32
related to sinere, to allow to be in a place. We are drawn to those The deepest passions are nurtured in silent ways and depths. How else
places where language falls most often, and most crucially, silent. is respect for the dead most signally expressed, intense love best trans-
The later Heidegger appreciated the realm of silence, as did mitted, our profoundest thoughts and visions experienced, the unspoiled
Hölderlin, one of Heidegger’s important reference points, especially world most directly savored? In this grief-stricken world, according to
in his Late Hymns.26 The insatiable longing that Hölderlin expressed Max Horkheimer, we “become more innocent” through grief.33 And
so powerfully related not only to an original, silent wholeness, but perhaps more open to silence––as comfort, ally, and stronghold.
also to his growing comprehension that language must always admit
December 2007
its origin in loss. (endnotes on page 7)
Page 5 SPRING/SUMMER ‘08 ISSUE
Thus always does history, whether of
part of me yearns for the same wildness they
marsh or market place, end in para- say my ancestors dreaded as they sought shelter
dox. The ultimate value in these from the terrors of the unknown, freedom
from their hunger and the ravage of nature’s transporting me from place to
marshes is wildness, and the crane is
so-called volatility and unpredictability. Even place. This mantra of feeling
wildness incarnate. But all conserva-
then, in sneaked the soothsayers and manipu- paralyzed allows me to trick myself into
tion of wildness is self-defeating, for lators, the land-grabbers, the domesticators thinking that someone else will clean up the
to cherish we must see and fondle, and and the measurers. whole stinking mess and turn things around
when enough have seen and fondled, I mourn all day every day, my heart breaking toward meaning once again. But really, I know
a little more over what we’ve lost because of “someone” won’t. I know that I can only
there is no wilderness left to cherish.
all these abstractions that have subtly divided change myself, and that is the only way I know
—from Aldo Leopold’s “Marshland Elegy” us from our core selves and what really how to change the world. I just don’t want to
matters. I have allowed these divisions and do the work because it’s so difficult.
This morning
I woke to gaze out subdivisions in my own life because of the The Buddhist phrase “do nothing” I some-
my bedroom window onto a lush May world, fallow ignorance and unconsciousness that times scorn as an escapism. Yet our human
where a riot of rhododendron blossoms spills defines me as part of the herd because I’m a doing has become our undoing until we feel
over the roof of a garage below my bedroom, social animal and others influence me for we have no other options than to do just that—
where dogwood and chestnut trees bloom with better or worse. Is it the way I’m wired? My nothing. To be fair, most of us are takers—city
joyous abandon, where a thousand different laziness and ineptitude have weighed me down dwellers who feed off nature without any
trees burst with resplendent green and nature further into this bog of confusion and ingrati- means to return her generosity, even if we
breaks my heart with its beauty. I listened to a tude that erodes a meaningful life. I have no gave such return a thought. We plod along
bird singing in an evergreen tree with a haunt- idea why I’m alive right now, in a time with in our demeaning, demanding lives and jobs
ing lonely melody that rose and fell because everything costs so much
until an airplane drowned out its song. “““... ... ... nnnaaatttuuurrreee iiisss fffeeeaaarrreeeddd aaannnddd hhhaaattteeeddd on every level. We do this because
The bird must have flown away be- aaannnddd nnneeeeeedddsss tttooo bbbeee cccooonnntttrrrooolllllleeeddd,,, we “choose” to go along with the
cause after the growl of the plane died, dddooommmeeessstttiiicccaaattteeeddd,,, aaannnddd dddooommmiiinnnaaattteeeddd dominant nightmare (hardly a
all I heard was the distant, incessant aaattt aaannnyyy eeexxxpppeeennnssseee tttooo ppprrreeessseeerrrvvveee ttthhheee choice, since we’ve forgotten
white noise of a freeway. My heart everything about autonomy, our
“““sssaaannniiitttyyy””” ooofff rrreeeaaasssooonnn... IIInnn ttthhhiiisss wwwaaayyy,,,
ached for those perfect and patient one chance for survival). So,
ttthhheee eeevvvaaasssiiivvveee,,, aaadddaaapppttteeeddd,,, aaauuuttthhhooorrriiitttaaarrriiiaaannn
worlds in our own backyards which most of us don’t even know what
mmmiiinnnddd hhhaaasss mmmiiissstttrrruuusssttteeeddd aaannnddd
have always existed but which re- the night sky looks like or what it
eeevvviiisssccceeerrraaattteeeddd rrrooouuunnnddd ttthhhiiinnngggsss
main undiscovered due to our own feels like to pad along the forest
llliiikkkeee ooouuurrr EEEaaarrrttthhh,,,
dull-sightedness. We are too busy with floor in bare feet. What if we all
naming and categorizing, counting stopped right now and did
and delineating. nothing for a few hours or even
Everything in this civilized life a day? The late Aldo Leopold,
rakes my sense of wholeness raw, whose quote begins this essay,
shreds it until I want to run and hide shot wolves reflexively in his
my head in cool and silent darkness younger days, but as he spent
beneath the ground. All the fre- more time in what remained of
netic symbols and empty promises wild places, he sensitized himself
wrought in sounds, signs and words, to and mourned the diminishing
the perpetual profit-seeking seduc- presence of wilderness. Later he
tion, the invasive blare and glare, the ... ... ... (((aaannnddd))) hhhaaasss fffooorrr ttteeennn ttthhhooouuusssaaannnddd wrote about how deeply he re-
screeching rush, the inattentiveness yyyeeeaaarrrsss sssooouuuggghhhttt tttooo hhhaaammmmmmeeerrr cccuuurrrvvveeesss gretted his careless actions. In
and distraction on blank faces, the iiinnntttooo ssstttrrraaaiiiggghhhttt llliiinnneeesss (((ooodddddd hhhooowww this way, he painfully discovered
caffeinated and drug-addled jitters llliiinnneeeaaarrr tttiiimmmeee iiisss mmmeeeaaasssuuurrreeeddd ooonnn aaa his own authenticity.
that pulsate through veins and rrrooouuunnnddd cccllloooccckkk fffaaaccceee))),,, wwwhhhiiiccchhh aaallllll llleeeaaaddd What if we just sat somewhere
brains, the weariness, the threadbare fffuuurrrttthhheeerrr aaannnddd fffuuurrrttthhheeerrr aaawwwaaayyy fffrrrooommm and breathed in and out and
insatiable appetites that goad con- trusted that life would carry us
mmmeeeaaannniiinnnggg aaannnddd hhhooollliiissstttiiiccc eeexxxiiisssttteeennnccceee...”””
sumers and leave them forever on along in its slow geo-logic, beyond
empty. What we have here is the war our foolish and dreadful mis-
of assaults on our well being by those who so much misery and violation, brutality and takes, just sat and held by simply breathing,
would dominate and drive to own every person, destruction everywhere. And like other ordinary without needing to see and fondle, grab and
every object, every ounce of “intellectual folks, I feel too paralyzed, too helpless to do litter, without competition or fear. My guess
property” on the Earth. anything. I find comfort in saying that I’m is that few of us could do it, least of all
I’m part of all of this even though I chide helpless because it allows me to continue with myself because I can hardly give attention
myself for sitting here typing on a computer my cowardice, my laziness, my ignorance to anything for over three seconds. Yet a deep
screen instead of dancing among the trees along which all define me in my puny state of needing and growing part of me instinctively knows
a river somewhere (while they still exist and shelter in right-angled buildings and a hunk that the tired, cadaverous tricks of authoritar-
while I still exist with them). Yet the deepest of engineered metal strapped around me to ian manipulation just don’t work any more.
GREEN ANARCHY #25 Page 6
To the extent that I continue to pretend that tame to fit into this delusional nightmare at any expense to preserve the “sanity” of
they work (even typing words on a computer of civilization. reason. In this way, the evasive, adapted,
screen validates them), as long as I give them If you could stand on the moon and look at authoritarian mind has mistrusted and
any part of my conscious attention, I am per- Earth, you would see no lines, no boundaries, eviscerated round things like our Earth, has for
petuating the fear, division, and destruction no color-coded maps. You’d see a lovely blue ten thousand years sought to hammer curves
that are components of an inauthentic mind. globe. The artificial lines of private property, into straight lines (odd how linear time is
Authenticity, creativity, and wildness are cities, counties, regions, states, and countries measured on a round clock face), which all lead
threats to the authoritarian mind, which intends with their numbered roads, their rail ways, and further and further away from meaning and
to control and conserve everything in its favor their grids of time, longitude and latitude, are holistic existence.
forever, as if existing in an embalmed state nowhere at all except in the hegemonic and We feel the authoritarian mind tighten its
so that even worms can’t bring new life from dominating mind. These are imaginary rusting grip around our throats and ram its
death. Some green anarchists are actually symbols that police states protect for the corroded cables and lines into our souls. If
conservatives because of a longing for wealthy and powerful, the marks of petulant we long for meaning and holistic existence
stewardship of the Earth. But life is by fools. The existence of maps is the invention to re-ignite our lives and perception, let us
definition about cycles, transformation, and of separation and starvation, butstill only an then bend and curve those lifeless straight
change; and change is all about the unknown, illusion, because we are all connected with lines back into living circles, cycles, spheres
which can instill fear even in the most stalwart each other and with the planet itself in ways and spirals with passion.
heart. But there is a lesson in this: Only when we cannot even yet imagine.
we understand something, can we begin to Here is an example of how fear and
love it. How, then, can we love when we loathing got it wrong from the begin-
understand so little? Science can do nothing ning: “Everything in nature is curved.
except to compartmentalize and tear apart There are no straight lines. Even space
the wholeness that’s more than the sum of itself is said to be circular. Inner space,
its parts, so true understanding cannot come some say, is angular, since only humans
from science. Spirituality brings in the danger abstract and construct straight lines. But
of crystallizing some mediated belief system the curvature of the brain translates to
(religion), so understanding cannot come the curvature of the mind, and that must
from spirituality. That leaves us with the eter- be why we always reason in circles.”
nal wisdom of the human body (so immensely Such regret (I see that statement as an
complex), that sacred container in which we expression of regret) suggests how
live, that wildness and vastness that we are nature is feared and hated and needs to be
taught to fight and force to conform and controlled, domesticated, and dominated
S i l e n c(econtinued from page 5) 18 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (London: Routledge,
1974), p. 89.
19 Quoted in James E. B. Breslin, Rothko: A Biography (Chicago: University
by John Zerzan
of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 387.
20 Quoted in Hannah Merker, Listening (New York: HarperCollins, 1994),
Endnotes: p. 127.
21 Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk (New York: HarperPerennial, 1982),
1 Martin Heidegger, What is a Thing? (Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, pp 89-90.
1967), p. 288. 22 E. M. Cioran, Tears and Saints, translated by Ilinca Zarifopol-Johnson
2 Quoted in Pierre Hadot, The Veil of Isis, translated by Michael Chan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), p. 53.
(Cambridge, MA: Bellknap Press, 2000), pp 212-213. 23 David Michael Levin, The Body’s Recollection of Being (Boston: Routledge,
3 Max Picard, The World of Silence (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1985), pp 60-61.
1952), p. 139. 24 Norman Hallendy, Inuksuit: Silent Messengers of the Arctic (Toronto:
4 Bernard P. Dauenhauer, Silence: the Phenomenon and Its Ontological Douglas & McIntyre, 2000), pp 84-85.
Significance (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), p. vii. 25 Emmanuel Levinas, Proper Names, translated by Michael B. Smith
5 Chang Chung-Yuan, Original Teachings of Ch’an Buddhism (New York: (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 4.
Vintage, 1971), p. 12. 26 Emery Edward George, Hölderlin’s “Ars Poetica”: A Part-Rigorous
6 Picard, op.cit., p. 22. Analysis of Information Structure in the Late Hymns (The Hague: Mouton,
7 Ibid., p. 221. 1973), pp 308, 363, 367.
8 Henry David Thoreau, “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,” in 27 Samuel Beckett, “German letter” dated 9 July 1937, in C.J. Ackerley and
The Works of Thoreau, edited by Henry Seidel Canby (Boston: Houghton S.E. Gontorski, The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett (New York: Grove
Mifflin, 1946), p. 241. Press, 2004), p. 221.
9 Jean-Luc Nancy, Listening, translated by Charlotte Mandell (New York: 28 Northrup Frye, “The Nightmare Life in Death,” in J.D. O’Hara, editor,
Fordham University Press, 2007), p. 26. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Malloy, Malone Dies, and The
10 I first encountered this term in Ted Mooney’s novel, Easy Travel to Other Unnamable (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970), p. 34.
Planets (New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1981). 29 Thoreau, op.cit., p. 241.
11 Aristotle, Works of Aristotle, translated by S. Forster, Vol. VII, Problemata 30 Pico Ayer, The Global Soul (New York: Knopf, 2000), p. 271.
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927), p. 896, lines 20-26. 31 Mark M. Smith, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill: The
12 Raoul Mortley, From Word to Silence I (Bonn: Hanstein, 1986), p. 110. University of North Carolina Press), p. 68.
13 Blaise Pascal, Pensées, edited by Phillipe Seller (Paris: Bordas, 1991), p. 256. See also Thomas Merton, The Strange Islands (New York: New Directions,
14 Franz Kafka, Parables, cited in George Steiner, Language and Silence (New 1957); specifically, this passage from “The Tower of Babel: A Morality”:
York: Atheneum, 1967), p. 54. Leader: Who is He?
15 Herbert Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement, Vol. Two (The Captain: His name is Silence.
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969), p. 693. Leader: Useless! Throw him out! Let Silence be crucified!
16 Martin Heidegger, “Letter on Humanism,” Basic Writings (San Francisco: 32 Alex Wayman, “Two traditions of India––truth and silence,” Philosophy
Harper San Francisco, 1992), p. 258. East and West 24 (October 1974), pp 389-403.
17 Jacques Derrida, Writing and Difference, translated by Alan Bass (Chicago: 33 Max Horkheimer, Dawn and Decline: Notes 1926-1931 and 1950-1969
University of Chicago Press, 1978), p. 130. (New York: Seabury Press, 1978), p. 140.
Page 7 SPRING/SUMMER ‘08 ISSUE
place comes alive again in a certain sense. It
CCoonnnneeccttiinngg is rejuvenated and revitalized for another year
ttoo of birth, growth, and death (and all the life in
between). And it is only through sweat and
time, joy and sorrow, warmth and frigidness,
that I will grow to be a part of it and under-
stand it and add my influence in a balanced,
PPllaaccee.. .. .. yet distinct way. It is from this learning and
unlearning, disconnecting and reconnecting,
that I grow and explore. With my roots planted
firmly in the ground, dreams flowing from
there, and passions freely explored…
We’ve all seen the bumpersticker: All Who
Wander Are Not Lost. True enough, but does
this inherently imply one knows where they
are, have been, or are going? Sure, there is an
intriguing element of romanticism to it (some-
thing I’m not sure I want leading me around).
Some of my favorite songs, images, and stories
are about the spontaneous and freewheelin’
traveler serendipitously flowing and colliding
with unexpected situations, characters, and
experiences. The allure of this archetype
suggests something profound, perhaps the long-
ing to connect to some missing or repressed
sense, or possibly a distinct yearning for some-
by
thing intensely deviant from the crap put
Sal Insieme before us, possibly it’s never fitting into a
grossly disjointed world, or maybe simply a
response to boredom. It does seem necessary
to be physically in motion to chase our dreams
(if chasing them is how we wish to live them),
and conceivably, for some, this also applies
to location(s) of habitation. There are many
Q lessons to be learned and inspiration to be
uestions
for the gained from the drifter’s and mobile
adventurer’s narratives for sure, but there also
seem to be many limitations, trappings, and
Nomadic Wanderer
delusions, often poetically realized in the
terminal chapters of their journeys. But I don’t
All Us necessarily have the desire to be a ragged road-
in of
worn wandering sage-like phenomenon, I just
wanna live, here and now. But hey, the travelin’
is the moment, so why worry about any pre-
Livin’ on the road my friend, was gonna keep you free and clean. sumably more fixed context or situation?
Well, here’s the dilemma as I see it, in this
Now you wear your skin like iron and your breath’s as hard as kerosene.
post-modern reality where most of us are all
–Townes Van Zandt, Poncho and Lefty
so dislocated and separated from our world
I’ve been traveling so long…How’m I ever going to know my home…When I see it again. (to more or lesser extents, without a doubt,
but those who claim they are not are rarely
–Joni Mitchell, Black Crow
honest with themselves), many of the more
“Ah, my friends from the prison they ask unto me, ‘How good, how good does it feel to be free?’ radical and inspiring respond to this condition
And I answer them, most mysteriously, ‘Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?’” by surfing the waves of displacement, and
perhaps at the expense of deeply connecting
A -Bob Dylan, Ballad in Plain D
to a place and bioregion. To be clear, for me,
s I gather up my rambling scribbles, aqua-delight is only revealed to us in the place is not merely a physical locality or abstract
wandering emphasis, and drifting thoughts middle of winter, a time when many abandon spot on a map, but a context or situation which
into a (hopefully) more coherent and com- the dank and saturated northwestern lands includes plants, animals, land formations,
municative form, I reflect upon the place I for sunnier and drier ground. To me, the beauty climate, patterns, narratives, people, etc (and,
am becoming a part of… I have just returned of this cascading water is a celebration of the unfortunately in most places, culture, politics,
from a hike up the mountain with some of my essence of this place, of the seasonal shifts and other hyper-socialized phenomenon). And,
neighbors to a spectacular waterfall high atop and the cyclical nature of its patterns. It re- by deeply connecting, I don’t presume to know
our watershed. It triggered in me a rein- minds me of the vital and tangible substances for others what that specifically means, nor
vigorated contemplation of the concept of which we are all comprised of (quite literally, do I limit this to a mere “biological” under-
connecting to place and motivated me to finally as this is part of my water source). For me, it standing. There is much to be explored on this
wrap up this piece (for now). You see, this is only after weeks of pounding rain that this topic, and this initial exercise is not meant as
GREEN ANARCHY #25 Page 8