(But the only thing more over-rated than civilization are symbols of civilization.)
We have become civilized therefore we have, become.
But what is civilization?
Is it a socioeconomic arrangement?
Capitalism Vs Socialism?
Is it intellectual thought?
Is it agriculture?
Domestication?
Is it technological and scientific development?
Is it culture?
Is it religion? Language? Art? Literature? Politics?
Is it global interconnection/ interdependence via modern forms of communication and travel?
A combination of development of all of the above?
We are told it is something to revere and without it we will surely perish. Without it we are nothing and we will return to a form of existence that was 'nasty, brutish and short.' This is a myth that has been busted many times.
Really, civilization is nothing but symbols. Abstract ideas that ultimately life does not require. It is a collection of ideas that often get in the way of the very things we are told depend on it. Harmony, quality of life, connectivity, a meaningful existence.
To blindly accept that pre-civilization, we had none of these things, is arrogant and incorrect. A number I like to quote often, is that for 99% of human existence we were not civilized. We were not domesticated, we did not farm, we did not have much of a religion (if any), our technology was very rudimentary, language was not necessary, and art was not needed or prevalent. What we did have was direct lived experience with very few symbols disconnecting us from real life. Arguably, day to day life was art, was religion, was science. We can look to the few remaining gatherer-hunter tribes for evidence of quality of life, pre-civ.
Ultimately, untouchable abstract concepts do not substitute lived experience.
When we watch the flames of Notre Dame lick the Parisian sky, we naturally mourn the loss of a massive symbol of civilization and its achievements. Yet, we aren't mourning in quite the same way, the breaking up of the ice bergs, species extinction, young black men shot by police, Palestinian homes getting wrecked, the murder of trans-gendered person, kids dying in ICE detention and on and on. Yet, these are the natural outcomes of civilization. Religion, technology, economic disparity, politics, 'society,' are killing the planet and pitting us against each other. Now one of civilizations greatest symbols is up in flames, so perhaps it is a good time to seek some perspective and to ponder what really matters to us. Whether this thing we call 'civilization' is really all its cracked up to be...
Nothing lasts.
It will fall. It will crumble. It will burn.
But everything that matters will survive.
Don't believe me? Or want to consider this more?
Start here:
-The Hazda
-Against Civilization
-The Garden of Peculiarities
-Abundance Without Affluence
-A People's History of Civilization
-Why Hope?
-Feral
