We're all cut off from nature. Seasons barely mean anything. We live our lives moving from one almost - hermetically sealed bubble to another. A morning coffee on the back deck, maybe a weekend hike? It doesn't matter how nice the zoo enclosure is, it's not the real thing and the animals inside know it.
We're cut off from each other. We all know about capitalist alienation here. We live in cities great and small and barely speak to anyone. Too tired and beaten down to go meet people in real life, we resort to choosing madness by arguing politics online. Our need to connect will prevail, even if it's forced down the most twisted paths.
We're cut off from ourselves, our own inner lives. How many of us feel like spectators to our own lives? More and more we have to choose life paths and ever-lengthening careers to avoid starvation and misery. Less and less time is left to us to think and feel and ponder and reflect. What little time we do have, we frantically rush to avoid thinking by endlessly scrolling and/or binge-watching. Our fountain of inner life ebbs to a trickle.
I don't know my neighbor and "nature" is a local park or that cold white shit on my car. No wonder we're all going fucking insane
Making regular hiking a priority, and especially moving to the Rockies so there's always a bigger challenge, was immensely beneficial. The disconnect from nature is a lot less impactful when you're constantly immersed in it and planning around conditions. Do it with someone else and it's a big bonding experience where you're bringing out the best in your partner. The community up there is close-knit and positive, with people helping each other to summit safely and lots of naturalists excited to talk about the flora/fauna/geology. It's the perfect hobby and platform for further self-actualising ones.
I actually do live right in the Colorado Rockies foothills, and it does indeed help me immensely. And I plan on leaving the state in a few months to an area with similarly incredible nature opportunities. But here I was speaking more of daily life
Definitely a niche case with a lot of opportunity sacrifice. If someone can swing it though, it'll probably be one of the best decisions of their life. Being caught in the Separation of Town and Country is a losing battle.
Right now I live for the vacation days that I get to spend portaging through Algonquin Park with friends and partners.
I'm picking up what you're putting down. Here we see an example of how hard-nosed material analysis can actually merge with introspection about the human condition. Our alienation from everything is driving our behavior into horrifying directions. Marxism can provide a basis on how to build a society that removes those shackles. I like to think that if the material conditions are suitable for nourishing the human soul, it will blossom.
I'm not going insane, YOU ARE! ALL OF YOU ARE THE INSANE ONES!!! HA HA HA HA
None of this applies to me. I mean I'm currently in New York for a short period but I've lived most of my life in a rural environment in Central America that's very much connected to nature and full of community. This sounds more like the problems that every developed country seems to face.
developed country
You're right, but I wonder if there's a better term than "developed country" for the bleak alienated misery that tends to happen north of you.
Tell that to my boss
:grillman:
But fr I feel this deep in my soul.
I mean basically, yeah. Humans had a pretty great thing going for a few hundred thousand years prior to settled society. As the author of "Civilized to Death" notes, agriculture and farming doesn't seem to be an inevitable development. It was usually a last-ditch effort to avoid dying to famine or some other catastrophe. We don't like farming, we're a wandering species that enjoys leisure. And I see no way to go back. There's not even anything resembling an intact Earth to go back to!
There is still plenty of intact Earth to hunter-gather in although it would be difficult to go there, avoid the law, and find others to do it with you. Personally I do not think I am cut out for hunter-gathering and quite like agricultural society, although its benefits are definitely squandered due to class society. Sorry you feel this way though. :meow-hug:
I'm not so sure about the "plenty of Earth" part. We're looking at a near-complete systems collapse of the biosphere as a whole. Wildlife and life in general is dying off in astonishing numbers, and human civilized encroachment continues to push past the brink. As the societies created by the industrial revolution push forward with their agenda of reducing the biosphere down to its component chemicals, the idea that we could collectively throw up our hands and "return to the forests" so to speak grows ever more far-fetched.
And anyway, as I said earlier, that's not even necessarily what I want. Maybe a possible (if not plausible) future would be something along the lines of solarpunk inspired; I'm not an anprim precisely because there are huge advantages that living in a modern and technological society do confer. But it's come at a huge cost and we've rushed too quickly into it without consideration for what we've left behind.
the idea that we could collectively throw up our hands and “return to the forests” so to speak grows ever more far-fetched
Oh yeah I was not suggesting this. Even 20,000 years ago (before agricultural, horticulture, etc) there wouldn't have been enough land for 8 billion people. I just meant enough for people who really want to. And of course that will keep decreasing...
"Go forth and do praxis" is always a helpful reminder. The internet is only as real as we allow it to be.
I think I'm going to go pick some more fruit off my trees after reading that and make something nice to hand out tomorrow. :anprim-pat:
