Because you and I are savages.
OK now, I understand you might not like being called a “savage”, but before you do something rash (like stop reading), let me explain. read more »
May 25, 2012
Time: the elephant in the room.
“Clocks slay time…time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.” –William Faulkner
“You can’t go back.”
“We must go forward.”
Yeah, ok…
…now take a moment, look away from the computer, and think of a pink elephant hovering over your head. read more »
May 1, 2012
What Antarctica says about Star Trek.
The view from McMurdo.
“The land looks like a fairytale.” — Roald Amundsen (1872—1928) about Antarctica.
“Great God! this is an awful place.” — Robert Falcon Scott (1868—1912), also about Antarctica.
Antarctica. What does that have to do with primitivism?
Probably not much. In fact, maybe just this: Antarctica told me that Mars sucks. Oh, and that Star Trek is basically a load of bull.
Yeah, honest. That’s what she said.
Now let me explain. read more »
April 23, 2012
Road of Technology and Path of Spirit
“Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology…. read more »
April 3, 2012
Meeting a Man who quit Money.
Sometime around two years ago I read an article about this guy who, the article said, lives in a cave outside Moab Utah. The article also said his name was Daniel Suelo.
“Hmmm…interesting”, I thought. (After all, what self-respecting primitivist wouldn’t enjoy a story about a guy living in a cave?)
It also said he had given up the use of money about 10 years prior, and hadn’t used a penny since.
“Wow. Seriously?” read more »
March 22, 2012
Authenticity, with Cowboys and Wolves.
“The accusation that we’ve lost our soul resonates with a very modern concern about authenticity.” –Patricia Hewitt
Alright, since I’m traveling down in the southwest at the moment…Colorado to be exact, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite old cowboy sayings. And ironically, it fits real well with most cowboy culture here in colorful Colorado.
The saying goes: “That cowboy is all hat and no cattle.” read more »
March 15, 2012
The Science of Happiness.
“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?” — Albert Camus
On a recent overnight flight between Los Angeles and Aukland, I beat back boredom by watching an in-flight Australian reality T.V. show on, of all things, the subject of happiness. The show took a group of eight chronically unhappy middle-class people from Sydney (seriously!) and put them together with a team of “happiness therapists”. At the beginning of the program, they took a psychological test in which each of them rated well below the national average “happiness score” for the typical Australian.
Then the team of therapists went to work, and at the end of the program these folks were tested again. All of them tested happier. What I thought was most interesting (from a primitivist perspective) were the interventions used. read more »
September 21, 2011
An ancient escape from work.
“By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.” — Robert Frost
“Work sucks.”
For most of us, this cliche rings true. And in my experience, the exceptions tend to prove the rule. A tiny minority seem to get joy and fulfillment from their jobs, but such folks usually have jobs where most, if not all of society’s “dirty work” is left to others. Like the primitivist writer Bob Black, I tend to define work as “forced labor”, so that makes perfect sense — after all, it’s the labor we don’t want to do ourselves that we’re tempted to force on others. read more »
August 26, 2011
The hearth outside my cabin.
“A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.” –Mae West
I sure hope that’s true. Especially the “fire making up for going bald” part.
Anyway, as I mentioned in a previous post, I once participated in a year-long primitive skills immersion in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with some mighty-fine folks. However, when we went into the forest to make camp, we kinda over-did the building of our first hearth.
August 17, 2011
Straight talk from Fox
Well, this week the words just aren’t coming to me, so instead of trying to fake it I’ll leave folks with a few of my favorite words from one of my favorite poets: Mary Oliver. This poem of hers continues with the theme I started exploring last week, a theme that I think is fundamental to any understanding of primitivism, or just life, for that matter. That life (and death) are not to be denied, but instead loved. Please sit with this poem for awhile. Let it sink in deep, if you will. Listen to the words of our brother, the Fox.
August 5, 2011
Why it might be scary if life is good.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature…. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing!” — Helen Keller
In an earlier post I wrote: “Life being good is maybe one of those deep dark profound and scary secrets that virtually nobody in America really believes anymore…”.
Now I’m sure some readers ran right over that without hardly a second look, but others might have stopped and thought: Really? What is this guy talking about? How can it be “scary” for life to be good? What is so “deep and dark” about that?
Well, think about it. read more »
