Honesty is the center of gravity for a cognitive stance.
“Intimate self-knowledge is only possible through brutally honest holistic self-awareness and critical self-analysis. We must take the time to authentically get to know ourselves. “
This statement underscores the true essence of cognitive liberation, though for some people, critical self-analysis is easier said than done. People like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Hannah Arendt, or any other human being who has been imprisoned and physically and mentally tortured for long periods of time and survived to convey their experiences, only did so because they had a deep personal and psychological understanding of who they were relative to the external forces around them.
Unfortunately, as you pointed out, “Those that profit from these lies and manipulations are counting on the fact that people are too conditioned, compliant, and distracted, to question their lies.”
Given our present technocratic dystopian nightmare, I believe that liberating one’s self toward a path of honest and authentic living is going to require a FIFTH DEGREE BLACKBELT in Cognitive Jujitsu. We have cultivated and army of tattooed walking barcodes who can barely read and write, and who think JFK is an airport.
Please understand, I am a peace-loving optimist by nature, but I firmly believe that given the level of tyranny, violence, and apathy we are experiencing on a global scale—leaving the path of death and following the path of life will simply not be enough to turn the tide. There are armies of psychopaths in three-piece suits out to put an end to us and life as we know it. They, like the high school bully, will follow us to the ends of the earth to steel our lunch money until we finally make the decision to fight back and do whatever it takes to—as they say in spheres of law enforcement— neutralize the threat.
Thanks again for sharing your work and experience. I look forward to reading more insightful chapters in your book.
Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts and ideas. It has taken me a while to find the time to compose a proper response. So I hope you don't mind a long winded reply.
I agree with your assessment of the current state of things. Definitely with your point about the "army of tattooed walking barcodes". Many are as you say, too far down that road to recover. Not because it's impossible but because most don't really want to. As Huxley correctly predicted, people now enjoy their servitude. Not only do they enjoy it they will even fight to protect it.
I think you may be thinking that what I call the "path of life" is a pacifistic metaphor. This concept is based more on nature than on ideology. In nature life chooses life. It is a very human thing to fight for an ideology. This is why I say the only moral combat is in self-defense. Self-defense is life choosing life. The fight to save a life rather than to fight for conquest.
It is not possible to be a martial artist and pacifistic at the same time. Although, like you I am peace-loving but I am absolutely not a passivist. In every scenario where it is possible I will choose peace. In the scenario that gives me no choice I am prepared for combat.
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war."
- Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings.
You said, "leaving the path of death and following the path of life will simply not be enough to turn the tide."
This is why I think you might assume that the "path of life" is a pacifistic metaphor. It's not, because it is really just a fact of nature. In reality, in nature, life will always choose life. To preserve life, life must be defended. This is why I made the distinction, that it is best to fight in alliance with life rather than to fight against death. This is not about, not fighting, it's about fighting more intelligent and moralistic battles.
Yes, I am against "revolution" because this has always been a tool of the establishment. Revolution has always been used to maintain the status quo of the power elite. Resistance is not futile but revolution actually is.
Revolutions have never really changed the status quo. They are used as a controlled demolition of the apparent social order so that a "new" social order can be installed. Every time this is done the underlying power structure remains strong and intact. The power elite has never lost power they've only rearranged the offices and changed the names on the door.
Rebellion is completely different. Rebellion is uncontrollable. Rebellion is a force of nature. It needs no movement, no following, no organization. The primordial spirit of rebellion is the inherent refusal to accept domination. In every wild animal this exist. This is what must be bred out of any animal before it can be domesticated. This is what was bred out of humanity in order to domesticate our species.
You say we must, "finally make the decision to fight back and do whatever it takes to—as they say in spheres of law enforcement— neutralize the threat"
My response to this is basically the same as what I said about revolution. What will actually "neutralize the threat"? Not just shift the threat into reorganization.
What I really want is authentic change. Not a reorganization of the apparent social order, but the creation of a completely new social order. One based on a coherent natural social order entirely free of dominance by tyrannical humans.
The tyrannical human has always existed. What happened to change the balance is that civilization gave the tyrannical human an extraordinary advantage. That advantage did not exist in a natural social order. This is the real problem.
Humanity was conditioned to be a domesticated species. This took thousands of years. Undomesticating will take a very long time to achieve but not as long as the original domestication took. We can never be rid of tyrannical humans. So we must develop a natural resistance to them. We don't do this by changing them, we do this by changing ourselves. We won't change the fact that governments want to control us, so instead we become uncontrollable.
This is not a plan to rescue those that have grown to love their servitude. They've chosen their path. Those that choose freedom must take a different path. Those living inside of a 15 minute city will not be able to organize themselves as a voluntary free society. We need to exit and build a new society.
Then as you say, "They, like the high school bully, will follow us to the ends of the earth to steel our lunch money". That's definitely a problem. But I don't actually think it's what will happen. Here's my reasoning for that prediction.
What I see is, "they" continually work to manufacture the compliance of the population. This is because they know how expensive forcing compliance can be. They have learned it's easier to manipulate people into obedience. So this is what they will continue to do. They already have enough people willing to submit. The only people they will go after, to "follow to the ends of the earth" as it were, is those that are a threat to the territory that they already dominate. Sure there will likely be some shows of strength, some demonstrations of superiority.
This is where our strategy of being too difficult to oppress will work. We will become too expensive to dominate. Resistance movements throughout time have proven that this can work.
Vietnam for instance, is a classic example of this fact.
My favorite historical example of this principle is the Shinobi. Basically farmers resisting the unbelievably powerful oppression of an empire. They survived by becoming incredibly difficult and expensive to dominate.
"The greatest victory is that which requires no battle."
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my comment and for clarifying your position.
I totally agree with everything you stated, and yes—I misinterpreted your reference to “path of life" as a pacifistic metaphor. In this regard, I understand that the path of life concept is based more on nature than on ideology, and that nature chooses life.
A good example of nature choosing and preserving life is the relationship between animal predators and prey and the natural defense mechanisms that help keep that balance in check.
Years ago, I studied soil management and spent some time analyzing soil samples under a microscope. The vast universe and interconnectedness of microbiology (bacteria, saprophytic fungi, etc.) living in the rhizosphere is another example of the natural path of life. Their function is to help feed and support the life of plants, which also includes creating defenses against destructive microorganisms.
See: Life in the Soil (The first time I watched this I was floored.)
Rebellions, as you aptly pointed out, are nothing more than a transfer of wealth, control, and power. As the saying goes, “never pray for a new king.” I’ve been around radical circles who talk about Mao and Lenin like they were godlike heroes. Collectively, these men and their regimes have killed more people than cancer.
“Those that choose freedom must take a different path. Those living inside of a 15-minute city will not be able to organize themselves as a voluntary free society.”
This is true, until they move to a more rural, agrarian landscape only to find that the vultures have descended on their property claiming eminent domain.
“However, with one clink of the mailbox, Garrett’s assumptions were rocked. “We got a letter from the county basically saying our farmland was going to be the spot for a new $200 million water intake facility, chosen from three or four potential sites.”
“No discussion. No face-to-face explanations. Just a notice that I was supposed to get ready to surrender the land.”
This is just one of many examples of what is happening to hardworking, salt-of-the-earth folks living outside of 15-minute cities.
Hopefully, in our lifetime, the strategy of being too “difficult to oppress” will kick in and the soulless, tyrannical cabal of greed mongers will find the enlightened masses of people (as you say) too “expensive to dominate.”
“Resistance movements throughout time have proven that this can work. Vietnam for instance, is a classic example of this fact.”
Yes—but at a tremendous cost. The bamboo spikes and jungle booby traps had a hard time competing with flamethrowers, napalm, and blanket bombing. The health and environmental effects resulting from the war in Vietnam continues to be felt to this day, not to mention the final political outcome of that country. Today Vietnam is a major trading partner with the US and receives funding from none other than the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a well-established CIA cutout as is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
See: U.S. Relations With Vietnam, Bilateral Relations Fact Sheet
I swear, I don’t have any answers. The more I learn, the less I know. I’m still trying to figure out how we got from the Beatles and The Mamas and the Papa to bands like Tool and Hole. 🤷♂️ (Tool and Hole! Whew!)
BTW—I’m familiar with Sun tzu’s, The Art of War. I haven’t read it, but now I am inclined to finally pick it up.
Are you familiar with Allen Watts? You may have heard of him. He was one of the greatest thinkers of the mid-twentieth century. This guy is right up your alley. :)
In the 60's he was a huge part of the spiritual movement, but never fashioned himself as a spiritual leader of guru, so to speak. He had a vast knowledge of Buddhism and other religions and spiritual beliefs. He gave a number of lectures which he and others had the foresight to record. Sadly, Watts died at age 58 in 1973. He was a devout alcoholic and drank and smoked himself to an early grave.
Below are links to a few of his lectures. Please be aware that any music or images associated with Watt’s voice recordings have been imposed by the people posting the videos.
Oh yes Alan Watts was a great orator. Such a clear voice and sharp wit. I see him as more of a professor of Asian philosophy really, as you said he let his uncontrolled habits do him in. My biggest hero and spiritual inspiration is Ōsensei Morihei Ueshiba. Oh yeah and Bob Marley 😊.
I know what you say about the farm lands is true. There is no good way to change that.
When I think of remote I think of wilderness, not rural farmlands. Especially any farmlands that are nearest to the urban centers. We live in a rather remote rural area. But it's not wilderness and it's not what I would consider ideal. If it really gets ugly we will definitely have our go bags packed and be ready to roll. 😏 No matter where you live there is most likely some wilderness (or wilderness like) area. The defining quality will be ruggedness and difficulty of getting around.
James C. Scott an American political scientist and anthropologist studied agrarian politics, oppression and domination. He was very interested in anarchy and in people in the world that had been able to resist domination by state powers.
He wrote a book about these techniques used by non-state societies to avoid state control:
The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia
He studied certain groups in the mountainous jungles of Southeast Asia that managed to avoid exploitation, taxation, and grain cultivation. Scott's main argument is that these people are "barbaric by design": their social organization, geographical location, subsistence practices and culture have been carved to discourage domination.
As I mentioned before, the Shinobi also accomplished this. I'm not talking about the Hollywood ninja version but the actual history of how and why the Shinobi clans moved into the forest and developed the martial art skills of ninjutsu.
Myself, back when I was a young man, lived in the mountains of California and was an outlaw farmer. In the days before cannabis was legal. 😏 It was a terrible time to be an outlaw farmer too. There was what was called CAMP going on. A huge campaign against growing pot in CA. We were diving under the bush to hide from helicopters on a regular basis. My dog even learned to dive under cover with me lay down and become totally silent. 😆 Back then I was actually really into the defiance and the challenges.
What it will come down to is the transhumanist technocratic neo-fudalist empire will win dominance over most people by making non-compliance too difficult and mass elimination of huge portions of the population.
This post-human apocalypse is unfortunately inevitable, I don't see any way around that. So my vision is not about overthrowing any of it. My vision is about how to avoid it and preserve at least a small part of the human species and our humanity.
So the only strategy I can see that will actually work is the reverse strategy. We become too difficult and expensive to dominate.
The only way to do this is by extreme methods.
Mountains and forest not farmlands. This is a path only the strong and self-reliant will be able to take. The focus must be on self-defense not revolution. Becoming extremely dangerous yet hidden and very remote. This is a very long range vision not something I will really see in this lifetime. This is something hopefully our children and their children will create.
Eventually as the post-human technocratic neo-fudalistic dystopia begins to fail, as it most certainly will, we will have preserved our humanity. If we don't preserve our humanity then there really won't be anything worth saving anyway. Those that can do this will be the people that will build the rebirth of human civilization using intelligence and coherent natural social order as a template.
What you are saying about soil science is right on. My mother studied soil science back in the 90's and she taught me a lot about that and why organic food is superior food.
You should check out Gavin Mounsey.
@gavinmounsey
He is I think one of the most important voices on Substack. I'll definitely be buying his book soon.
What he teaches about "food forest" is exactly the type of knowledge that can make the strategies I was describing possible.
After I posted my comment, I thought to myself, there is know way this man is not familiar with Allen Watts. What an incredible perspective. One of my greatest pleasures is laying in a hot, soothing bathtub listing to one of his lectures.
Ōsensei Morihei Ueshiba --- I notice that there are a number of his videos out on YouTube that I will be checking out.
Also, thanks for the James Scott link.
Are you familiar with Larken Rose? He views are similar to Scotts. He wrote, “The Most Dangerous Superstition.”
Thanks for sharing your outlaw farmer experiences. The image of you laying low with your dog is vivid. 👍
“We live in a rather remote rural area. But it's not wilderness and it's not what I would consider ideal. If it really gets ugly, we will definitely have our go bags packed and be ready to roll.”
I hear you.
About ten years ago, I lived and volunteered on a few organic farms up and down the east coast. I worked on one farm in Vermont that was pretty rural. The guy had a wife and two kids and a small house on about 4 acres. He had pigs, cows, a woodburning stove, and ten-gallon buckets filled with sawdust for toilets. The workload was brutal and he couldn’t make it without the help of volunteers. His operation was small and netted about $21k a year, money he earned from selling produce at the local farmers market where the competition was stiff. You couldn’t just sell spinach, carrots, and kale like every other tent set up in the market, you had to have “value added” products like honey and spices, etc. Also, tent space at the market was a premium, and you were not always guaranteed an ideal location. At every farm I worked, one of the adults, usually the wife, had to work a straight office job to make ends meet, sawdust filled buckets and all.
Having grown up in hardcore Brooklyn, I somehow deluded myself into thinking that farmers and agrarian communities were altruistic, noncompetitive, honest, and more self-aware. Man, was I wrong. One or two of my community experiences was like living under the unspoken rules of a twisted Home Owners Association (HOA) without having to sign a 40-page agreement. Whatever folks were serving up interpersonally was the soup de jure — take it or leave it.
What is your present living experience like? How dependent are you on things like transportation, gas, electricity, etc. If you care to share, I’d be interested to know what your community is like. How likeminded are your neighbors and to what extent do they share your values and life view? If you like, you are welcome to message me directly.
Thanks again for sharing. I’m sure you must feel as grateful as I do for having figured out a few things about how the world really works.
Kind regards, and in the immortal words of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul:
Honesty is the center of gravity for a cognitive stance.
“Intimate self-knowledge is only possible through brutally honest holistic self-awareness and critical self-analysis. We must take the time to authentically get to know ourselves. “
This statement underscores the true essence of cognitive liberation, though for some people, critical self-analysis is easier said than done. People like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Hannah Arendt, or any other human being who has been imprisoned and physically and mentally tortured for long periods of time and survived to convey their experiences, only did so because they had a deep personal and psychological understanding of who they were relative to the external forces around them.
Unfortunately, as you pointed out, “Those that profit from these lies and manipulations are counting on the fact that people are too conditioned, compliant, and distracted, to question their lies.”
Given our present technocratic dystopian nightmare, I believe that liberating one’s self toward a path of honest and authentic living is going to require a FIFTH DEGREE BLACKBELT in Cognitive Jujitsu. We have cultivated and army of tattooed walking barcodes who can barely read and write, and who think JFK is an airport.
Please understand, I am a peace-loving optimist by nature, but I firmly believe that given the level of tyranny, violence, and apathy we are experiencing on a global scale—leaving the path of death and following the path of life will simply not be enough to turn the tide. There are armies of psychopaths in three-piece suits out to put an end to us and life as we know it. They, like the high school bully, will follow us to the ends of the earth to steel our lunch money until we finally make the decision to fight back and do whatever it takes to—as they say in spheres of law enforcement— neutralize the threat.
Thanks again for sharing your work and experience. I look forward to reading more insightful chapters in your book.
Kind regards.
🙏
Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts and ideas. It has taken me a while to find the time to compose a proper response. So I hope you don't mind a long winded reply.
I agree with your assessment of the current state of things. Definitely with your point about the "army of tattooed walking barcodes". Many are as you say, too far down that road to recover. Not because it's impossible but because most don't really want to. As Huxley correctly predicted, people now enjoy their servitude. Not only do they enjoy it they will even fight to protect it.
I think you may be thinking that what I call the "path of life" is a pacifistic metaphor. This concept is based more on nature than on ideology. In nature life chooses life. It is a very human thing to fight for an ideology. This is why I say the only moral combat is in self-defense. Self-defense is life choosing life. The fight to save a life rather than to fight for conquest.
It is not possible to be a martial artist and pacifistic at the same time. Although, like you I am peace-loving but I am absolutely not a passivist. In every scenario where it is possible I will choose peace. In the scenario that gives me no choice I am prepared for combat.
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war."
- Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings.
You said, "leaving the path of death and following the path of life will simply not be enough to turn the tide."
This is why I think you might assume that the "path of life" is a pacifistic metaphor. It's not, because it is really just a fact of nature. In reality, in nature, life will always choose life. To preserve life, life must be defended. This is why I made the distinction, that it is best to fight in alliance with life rather than to fight against death. This is not about, not fighting, it's about fighting more intelligent and moralistic battles.
Yes, I am against "revolution" because this has always been a tool of the establishment. Revolution has always been used to maintain the status quo of the power elite. Resistance is not futile but revolution actually is.
Revolutions have never really changed the status quo. They are used as a controlled demolition of the apparent social order so that a "new" social order can be installed. Every time this is done the underlying power structure remains strong and intact. The power elite has never lost power they've only rearranged the offices and changed the names on the door.
Rebellion is completely different. Rebellion is uncontrollable. Rebellion is a force of nature. It needs no movement, no following, no organization. The primordial spirit of rebellion is the inherent refusal to accept domination. In every wild animal this exist. This is what must be bred out of any animal before it can be domesticated. This is what was bred out of humanity in order to domesticate our species.
You say we must, "finally make the decision to fight back and do whatever it takes to—as they say in spheres of law enforcement— neutralize the threat"
My response to this is basically the same as what I said about revolution. What will actually "neutralize the threat"? Not just shift the threat into reorganization.
What I really want is authentic change. Not a reorganization of the apparent social order, but the creation of a completely new social order. One based on a coherent natural social order entirely free of dominance by tyrannical humans.
The tyrannical human has always existed. What happened to change the balance is that civilization gave the tyrannical human an extraordinary advantage. That advantage did not exist in a natural social order. This is the real problem.
Humanity was conditioned to be a domesticated species. This took thousands of years. Undomesticating will take a very long time to achieve but not as long as the original domestication took. We can never be rid of tyrannical humans. So we must develop a natural resistance to them. We don't do this by changing them, we do this by changing ourselves. We won't change the fact that governments want to control us, so instead we become uncontrollable.
This is not a plan to rescue those that have grown to love their servitude. They've chosen their path. Those that choose freedom must take a different path. Those living inside of a 15 minute city will not be able to organize themselves as a voluntary free society. We need to exit and build a new society.
Then as you say, "They, like the high school bully, will follow us to the ends of the earth to steel our lunch money". That's definitely a problem. But I don't actually think it's what will happen. Here's my reasoning for that prediction.
What I see is, "they" continually work to manufacture the compliance of the population. This is because they know how expensive forcing compliance can be. They have learned it's easier to manipulate people into obedience. So this is what they will continue to do. They already have enough people willing to submit. The only people they will go after, to "follow to the ends of the earth" as it were, is those that are a threat to the territory that they already dominate. Sure there will likely be some shows of strength, some demonstrations of superiority.
This is where our strategy of being too difficult to oppress will work. We will become too expensive to dominate. Resistance movements throughout time have proven that this can work.
Vietnam for instance, is a classic example of this fact.
My favorite historical example of this principle is the Shinobi. Basically farmers resisting the unbelievably powerful oppression of an empire. They survived by becoming incredibly difficult and expensive to dominate.
"The greatest victory is that which requires no battle."
Sun tzu, The Art of War
Adam,
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my comment and for clarifying your position.
I totally agree with everything you stated, and yes—I misinterpreted your reference to “path of life" as a pacifistic metaphor. In this regard, I understand that the path of life concept is based more on nature than on ideology, and that nature chooses life.
A good example of nature choosing and preserving life is the relationship between animal predators and prey and the natural defense mechanisms that help keep that balance in check.
Years ago, I studied soil management and spent some time analyzing soil samples under a microscope. The vast universe and interconnectedness of microbiology (bacteria, saprophytic fungi, etc.) living in the rhizosphere is another example of the natural path of life. Their function is to help feed and support the life of plants, which also includes creating defenses against destructive microorganisms.
See: Life in the Soil (The first time I watched this I was floored.)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICWjcgXoE6c
Rebellions, as you aptly pointed out, are nothing more than a transfer of wealth, control, and power. As the saying goes, “never pray for a new king.” I’ve been around radical circles who talk about Mao and Lenin like they were godlike heroes. Collectively, these men and their regimes have killed more people than cancer.
“Those that choose freedom must take a different path. Those living inside of a 15-minute city will not be able to organize themselves as a voluntary free society.”
This is true, until they move to a more rural, agrarian landscape only to find that the vultures have descended on their property claiming eminent domain.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See: Farmer Fights Eminent Domain, Rejects Government Land Seizure
Link: https://www.agweb.com/news/business/farmland/farmer-fights-eminent-domain-rejects-government-land-seizure
Excerpt:
“However, with one clink of the mailbox, Garrett’s assumptions were rocked. “We got a letter from the county basically saying our farmland was going to be the spot for a new $200 million water intake facility, chosen from three or four potential sites.”
“No discussion. No face-to-face explanations. Just a notice that I was supposed to get ready to surrender the land.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is just one of many examples of what is happening to hardworking, salt-of-the-earth folks living outside of 15-minute cities.
Hopefully, in our lifetime, the strategy of being too “difficult to oppress” will kick in and the soulless, tyrannical cabal of greed mongers will find the enlightened masses of people (as you say) too “expensive to dominate.”
“Resistance movements throughout time have proven that this can work. Vietnam for instance, is a classic example of this fact.”
Yes—but at a tremendous cost. The bamboo spikes and jungle booby traps had a hard time competing with flamethrowers, napalm, and blanket bombing. The health and environmental effects resulting from the war in Vietnam continues to be felt to this day, not to mention the final political outcome of that country. Today Vietnam is a major trading partner with the US and receives funding from none other than the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a well-established CIA cutout as is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
See: U.S. Relations With Vietnam, Bilateral Relations Fact Sheet
Link: https://2021-2025.state.gov/bureau-of-east-asian-and-pacific-affairs/releases/2025/01/u-s-relations-with-vietnam/
I swear, I don’t have any answers. The more I learn, the less I know. I’m still trying to figure out how we got from the Beatles and The Mamas and the Papa to bands like Tool and Hole. 🤷♂️ (Tool and Hole! Whew!)
BTW—I’m familiar with Sun tzu’s, The Art of War. I haven’t read it, but now I am inclined to finally pick it up.
Are you familiar with Allen Watts? You may have heard of him. He was one of the greatest thinkers of the mid-twentieth century. This guy is right up your alley. :)
In the 60's he was a huge part of the spiritual movement, but never fashioned himself as a spiritual leader of guru, so to speak. He had a vast knowledge of Buddhism and other religions and spiritual beliefs. He gave a number of lectures which he and others had the foresight to record. Sadly, Watts died at age 58 in 1973. He was a devout alcoholic and drank and smoked himself to an early grave.
Below are links to a few of his lectures. Please be aware that any music or images associated with Watt’s voice recordings have been imposed by the people posting the videos.
Enjoy!
🙏
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The False Idea of Who You Are - Alan Watts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yaBJVfyy00
Alan Watts Why the Urge to Improve Yourself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTe7MSoOwc4
Happiness is NOT the Meaning of Life - Alan Watts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsdoJ9x8IBs
Oh yes Alan Watts was a great orator. Such a clear voice and sharp wit. I see him as more of a professor of Asian philosophy really, as you said he let his uncontrolled habits do him in. My biggest hero and spiritual inspiration is Ōsensei Morihei Ueshiba. Oh yeah and Bob Marley 😊.
I know what you say about the farm lands is true. There is no good way to change that.
When I think of remote I think of wilderness, not rural farmlands. Especially any farmlands that are nearest to the urban centers. We live in a rather remote rural area. But it's not wilderness and it's not what I would consider ideal. If it really gets ugly we will definitely have our go bags packed and be ready to roll. 😏 No matter where you live there is most likely some wilderness (or wilderness like) area. The defining quality will be ruggedness and difficulty of getting around.
James C. Scott an American political scientist and anthropologist studied agrarian politics, oppression and domination. He was very interested in anarchy and in people in the world that had been able to resist domination by state powers.
He wrote a book about these techniques used by non-state societies to avoid state control:
The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia
https://archive.org/details/james-c.-scott-the-art-of-not-being-governed-anarchist-history-of-upland-southeast-asia-2009
He studied certain groups in the mountainous jungles of Southeast Asia that managed to avoid exploitation, taxation, and grain cultivation. Scott's main argument is that these people are "barbaric by design": their social organization, geographical location, subsistence practices and culture have been carved to discourage domination.
As I mentioned before, the Shinobi also accomplished this. I'm not talking about the Hollywood ninja version but the actual history of how and why the Shinobi clans moved into the forest and developed the martial art skills of ninjutsu.
Myself, back when I was a young man, lived in the mountains of California and was an outlaw farmer. In the days before cannabis was legal. 😏 It was a terrible time to be an outlaw farmer too. There was what was called CAMP going on. A huge campaign against growing pot in CA. We were diving under the bush to hide from helicopters on a regular basis. My dog even learned to dive under cover with me lay down and become totally silent. 😆 Back then I was actually really into the defiance and the challenges.
What it will come down to is the transhumanist technocratic neo-fudalist empire will win dominance over most people by making non-compliance too difficult and mass elimination of huge portions of the population.
This post-human apocalypse is unfortunately inevitable, I don't see any way around that. So my vision is not about overthrowing any of it. My vision is about how to avoid it and preserve at least a small part of the human species and our humanity.
So the only strategy I can see that will actually work is the reverse strategy. We become too difficult and expensive to dominate.
The only way to do this is by extreme methods.
Mountains and forest not farmlands. This is a path only the strong and self-reliant will be able to take. The focus must be on self-defense not revolution. Becoming extremely dangerous yet hidden and very remote. This is a very long range vision not something I will really see in this lifetime. This is something hopefully our children and their children will create.
Eventually as the post-human technocratic neo-fudalistic dystopia begins to fail, as it most certainly will, we will have preserved our humanity. If we don't preserve our humanity then there really won't be anything worth saving anyway. Those that can do this will be the people that will build the rebirth of human civilization using intelligence and coherent natural social order as a template.
It's a dream I know. 😊
What you are saying about soil science is right on. My mother studied soil science back in the 90's and she taught me a lot about that and why organic food is superior food.
You should check out Gavin Mounsey.
@gavinmounsey
He is I think one of the most important voices on Substack. I'll definitely be buying his book soon.
What he teaches about "food forest" is exactly the type of knowledge that can make the strategies I was describing possible.
https://open.substack.com/pub/gavinmounsey/p/stacking-functions-in-the-garden-199?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=n9t36
Thanks!
I've been on an organic whole food plant based diet for close to 23 years.
The last time I was sick and down with the flu was around 1998.
My transition didn't just happen over night. Its took me YEARS to get here.
🙏
After I posted my comment, I thought to myself, there is know way this man is not familiar with Allen Watts. What an incredible perspective. One of my greatest pleasures is laying in a hot, soothing bathtub listing to one of his lectures.
Ōsensei Morihei Ueshiba --- I notice that there are a number of his videos out on YouTube that I will be checking out.
Also, thanks for the James Scott link.
Are you familiar with Larken Rose? He views are similar to Scotts. He wrote, “The Most Dangerous Superstition.”
Link to the audiobook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y460qLK0-ZA
Journalist / filmmaker James Corbett from The Corbett Report conducted a number of interviews with Rose.
Link: https://corbettreport.com/?s=larken+rose&et_pb_searchform_submit=et_search_proccess&et_pb_include_posts=yes&et_pb_include_pages=yes
Thanks for sharing your outlaw farmer experiences. The image of you laying low with your dog is vivid. 👍
“We live in a rather remote rural area. But it's not wilderness and it's not what I would consider ideal. If it really gets ugly, we will definitely have our go bags packed and be ready to roll.”
I hear you.
About ten years ago, I lived and volunteered on a few organic farms up and down the east coast. I worked on one farm in Vermont that was pretty rural. The guy had a wife and two kids and a small house on about 4 acres. He had pigs, cows, a woodburning stove, and ten-gallon buckets filled with sawdust for toilets. The workload was brutal and he couldn’t make it without the help of volunteers. His operation was small and netted about $21k a year, money he earned from selling produce at the local farmers market where the competition was stiff. You couldn’t just sell spinach, carrots, and kale like every other tent set up in the market, you had to have “value added” products like honey and spices, etc. Also, tent space at the market was a premium, and you were not always guaranteed an ideal location. At every farm I worked, one of the adults, usually the wife, had to work a straight office job to make ends meet, sawdust filled buckets and all.
Having grown up in hardcore Brooklyn, I somehow deluded myself into thinking that farmers and agrarian communities were altruistic, noncompetitive, honest, and more self-aware. Man, was I wrong. One or two of my community experiences was like living under the unspoken rules of a twisted Home Owners Association (HOA) without having to sign a 40-page agreement. Whatever folks were serving up interpersonally was the soup de jure — take it or leave it.
What is your present living experience like? How dependent are you on things like transportation, gas, electricity, etc. If you care to share, I’d be interested to know what your community is like. How likeminded are your neighbors and to what extent do they share your values and life view? If you like, you are welcome to message me directly.
Thanks again for sharing. I’m sure you must feel as grateful as I do for having figured out a few things about how the world really works.
Kind regards, and in the immortal words of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul:
“KEEP ON THE GOOD FOOT!”
✌️
What a refreshingly sane intellect.