A positive example of a Turkish Reforestation program

I only but recently had the privilege to talk to Mr. Ömer Adigüzel from Gömürgen help organization. The organization primarily raises funds to help with reforestation of a Turkish savannah region which formerly was green, but by land exploitation suffered ecological crisis. Check out their homepage for more info:

http://www.goemuergen.de/?lang=en

Take a look, and if you feel so inclined, support them...

Uncivilization and civilization in warfare - a survival post

This is something that I have been moving in my brain ever since I realized that we actually DO have a global conflict. Most do not want to accept it, but World War III is here. It is quite a different war to most any before, for it is a global guerrilla war. Ever since someone established the "Dschihad", the so - called "Holy War", that is so.

Then, since when is it so?

Since Hasan ibn-Sabah founded the Assassins, if you ask me. Or even earlier, who knows... maybe this war has its roots in the Alexandrine Reign period. All that, however, does not quite matter at all.

Crucial to our survival is to accept that this conflict is not locally bordered. It is a war that is fought by each and everyone against each and everyone. Noone is to be trusted, every human being is a potential enemy. The core of the conflict has at least five fronts. From a military strategic point of view, fighting this war with regular troops is frankly absurd. And believe me, it is not done. Since it cannot be estimated who is a terrorist and who not, institutions of warfare, secret services and the like fight just about everyone or regard each and every individual with distrust. To that end rules of conduct are modified until it is unintelligible where justice might be misconceived as legal crime. The mimickry of democracy is kept up, because systems of democracy are slow to react in a conflict, but on the other hand, peoples used to a democratic system would get ever so slightly nervous if their human rights are constricted and thusly be rendered indomitable. So, for instance, it might be supposed, that, hypothetically, acts of terrorism might be staged with press involvement.

Why that, one may ask?

Our civilization, and many civilizations before, always has centered around economics. And there are countries in the world whose economics are only stable in situations of warfare. Warfare is an economic factor, and the almighty money rules everywhere in the world. Weapons are bought and sold, and the same manufacturer might provide weapons for one party and the other. People in fear tend to buy more, consume more, be it just to keep storage supplies of food.

So big term economics are involved in this war, and even the so-called spiritual leaders of the "Dschihad" party are not so naive as not to obey Mammon. It is always the money.

Then, what is money?

Money is a symbolic substitute for the traded goods. Goods are estimated by their value, and originally, money served the purpose of symbolizing both the ideal value as well as the concrete value. This symbolizing process found its culprit in the establishment of deities of economy, such as the often quoted "Mammon" (Pluto), but also Slavonic, Celtic and Ancient German deities. What has to suffice, however, is that money is personified, indicating a psychological context. We still worship this god, we just do not call it worship.

If that is so, it is not at all about Yahweh, Allah, God, or whatever, but about money. If money is a substitute for the traded goods, this conflict is a conflict to gain dominion over the fellow humans for one´s own prosperity. It is a fight for habitat, for evolutionary predominance, and not different to the mating and breeding fights of raptors.

If that is so, it is permitted that our warfare be regarded as such: A mating and breeding ritual, and please take note I am not talking racial context here, for it is bullshit.

If, in turn, that is so, the cerebral region involved to execute the measures of warfare might be located in the cerebellum. Ratio has nothing to do with this impulse to kill, as we are led to believe. It is a mating / breeding reflex.

Now I have uttered the demand of a "civilized warfare" in a recent post. By that, I mean quite the contrary, and this oxymoron leads me to the question of uncivilization and civilization. Civilization in its literal translation means an organization "in civitate", which has different connotations, meaning "citizenship" and the location in a city at the same time. Organization needs rules, this is a fact. To establish rules in a sustainable manner needs a rational act. Rules established in a state of fanatism are not only prone to errors, but simply not sustainable. A state of mind that is obligatory in a mating reflex / territorial conflict is not capable of establishing sustainable rules.

This is one aspect that renders civilization in this case impossible. What is more grave, however, is a speciality of human disposition. Humans are the only raptor species in the mammal animal world lacking a biting constraint in case the opponent signals defeat. Even dogs have this constraint, naturally, that is. Humans will carry on until the opponent is utterly destroyed, with no regard to their own future prosperity, or even survival.

In psycho - analysis it is crucial that all parts of the psyche are at least taken as existent. Modern society, and not only western society in that, dismisses the mere possibility of a war undertaken out of irrational motives as impossible and rids itself of any possibility of working out the motive. This is undertaken out of the disregard of irrational values per se. Rules and codes of conduct do not allow us to accept the irrational as even given, and thusly civilization hinders our capability of coping with the irrational. Since this war is undertaken out of the most extremely irrational reasons and motives, but veiled by a thousand rationalistic claims, it is not possible to cope with the motives of this war at all. We tell ourselves more myths about rationality than we ever have about myth and fairy tale.

It is crucial for survival, then, to recognize this fact:

Civilization is dangerous. It renders us defenceless against the forces that motivate this war. To survive, we must look more clearly towards the motives, and to do that, we must, at least theoretically set aside the rules established, and the codes of conduct that we were told to cherish. That does not mean setting aside all of them. Uncivilization is not a lack of civilization, but literally a resetting of our perspectives. To me, it is necessary to question the current rules, and then, in a truly rational act, establish new ones more suited to the task. Some of them might be bitter to swallow, but we got no choice.

It´s about the survival of our species, not the individual.

 

Great new post on Dark Mountain Blog

Find out about the lessons of Burdock:

Click

Schwelm blüht auf! - uncivilizing a city;-)

 Now this darkmountain blog certainly got me by the balls, for it´s what I have been doing for years, with great pains for the most part, and I did not realize there were other people like me out there. One big fancy of mine is the "Schwelm blüht auf!" project I undertake with my employer, the GSWS. At the core of the project is something like "official guerrilla gardening";-). We sell wildflower seeds at non-commercial prices to private households (1,50€ per package for 2 - 3 m²) and corporations alike.

 Also, the city management does use the same mixture now, so I can show you how it looks like in the entire city now;-). I am a bit proud of that achievement, for just two years ago, wildflowers were nowhere to be seen in cities. Now the neighbouring communes have jumped on the train - at least private households did.

OH, and we do not exactly encourage guerrilla gardening, do we? Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm.... er... let me put it this way.... erm... we have no control over what you do with those seeds, do we?*ggg*

There will be a photo contest soon, on who has the wildest garden in Schwelm, and all that is officially sanctioned. I have hope.;-)

The wilderness within - uncivilisation, a poet´s war

That dark mountain project got my mind racing. The receiving of its aims and its manifesto coincides with a development of myself that is currently on the way. All in all, I recognize the hand of the Fates in that, the dynamics of the forces of the land. But this is secondary.

Uncivilization.

What does it mean to me?

To make something out of it, I must first lift the shroud on civilization a tiny bit. It is funny: We all talk about being "civilized" and being proud of it. What does that mean?

We do not fart or burp in public, we do not have sexual intercourse in public, we do not go nude, there are restrictions on gestures and obscenities, we MUST go shopping, we MUST have this and that (try telling your employer you have no TV nor personal computer nor radio or even a newspaper abonnement and you get a picture). It is smiled upon being religious or believing anything, Christianity as well as Muslim belief, and laughed at being witch or druid, shaman or whatever. It is even worse with Buddhists, for they are instrumentalized by the wellness industry (as are Taoists). There are taboos and restrictions everywhere and yet we live in the most liberal of societies, meaning, you will not be persecuted for trespassing, not as gravely as could possibly be. Latin "civitas" meaning citizenship, controls by social measures the individual. It is commonly feared being tauted as antisocial, and we are led to believe that "the system" is right and righteous. While it has succeeded in providing the minority of middle Europeans and Americans with a relatively long period of peace and prosperity, it was achieved by a grave price to be paid, and we lived on a loan.

The European union, for instance, was founded in the belief of its stability. Do not take me wrong. If countries collaborate with each other, that is a good thing. Open frontiers might be disputeable, but for the most part, we benefited by it. The concentration upon economical profit of the few, however, has led to a financial crisis that might as well be a death blow towards the whole system. This is so because the union achieved rested upon economical values alone, and no union of the actual people. This is so because of the belief in the almighty financial standard set by bankers, brokers and other wizards and high priests of economy. Do not get me wrong: I am no dewy-eyed dreamdancer most of the time, but there´s one thing I might ask (as a man with a historical approach to ontology) to illustrate the culprit.

We postulate a sacral meaning in archaeological finds of, say the bronze age, when the ritual tool might as well have been, say, an umbrella stand. What, then, would following cultures postulate when they excavate the interior of a bank, pompous and megalomanic as is? With all that marble and brass and glass and fancy furniture? Just asking.

This system, however powerful, has reached its limit. Nothing wrong with that, shit happens, and it has happened before in history. What actually IS wrong, is that the whole bubble that´s now bursting was built on lies in the first place. And although I do not want to offend anyone´s beliefs, it was the predecessor of Mammonism who set the groundwork for the methodology of lying and advertising. I daresay the example of Galileo Galilei might do as an illustration. Nothing wrong with modifying opinions. If I´d learn the Earth were round while I thought it a disc my whole life, I´d have a discussion, and maybe then modify my opinion. That this is not only due to the almighty Enlightment movement, anyone can learn from the works of Platon and other philosophers, where there was a culture of discourse BEFORE the time of Galileo Galilei, and the manuscripts were available at that time. What did the church (I am talking church, not Christians) do? They burned him. I guess there are many kinds of problem solutions, and this has to be one.

Another example as to advertising is that most Christian churchs are built upon the sites of ancient pagan temples (The Kölner Dom in Cologne is an example). Many Christian fairs have a pagan background, as chrismas (Jul) and Easter (Ostara). They were chosen for a recognition effect. Then unique selling points were created. And negative stimuli were established.

I want to emphasize that I do not speak against Christians (once more). I only use this to illustrate the point, and Christianity is in the same treadmill as any belief other than that in the superiority of the economic system. Jesus himself threw the merchants out of the temple in Jerusalem, and we might at that. And Jesus was a man who spoke his word in a world where this was not wished for and where one could be punished far more gravely than we can nowadays. So my respect goes to Him and the God he stands for, even if it were for these things alone.

But all this does not work anymore, for we simply cannot tell the truth from the lies by rationalism alone, for rationalism in itself is (partly) a lie. We are not exclusively rational beings, and the so-called ratio we employ is just a disguise for our greed, our hate and envy, and those seem to be the pillars on which the system rests. These pillars have been tauted as "Evil" by cultures and myths ever since the first story was told.

If that is so, we have - as rationalists, and true rationalists at that only one option:

To postulate that we cannot know and tell the truth by secondary reception through opinions and the force-fed propaganda of a system built on lies.

If that is so, and we want to think on, we have no choice but to ask what value is still current.

I have chosen the path to go back into myself, into the woods of my soul, into the twilight. Any truth, I found out, has to be simple enough to be reduced to the max. What does that mean? First I have to ask the big questions:

I was born. What was before?
I live. Where am I headed?
I love. How do I make the most of my life and my love?
I die. What will be then?

It is a question of fear. Man is but another animal, but an ill-equipped one with no claws or decent teeth, but with an abnormous degree of self-reflection. And hubris, by the way. And we know that we will die. All culture is based upon that fear, all religion and all myth is based on the passing of life and the coming of death, and Mammonism feeds on that fear and its more complex subdividions.

- being not loved
- having no sense in life
- having no income and material prosperity (ultimately the fear of starvation)
- becoming sick and therefore weak
... and so forth.

If we as individuals work on our fears, we rid the system of a means of control over us. I am an ugly, fat, balding bastard with a funny stature, and yet I am loved by a beautiful woman:**ggg*. I have no TV, no playstation, and my bike is soon on the verge of collapse, but if I can´t afford it anymore, what the heck, I love hiking, too. I cannot afford hiking boots, so what, I´ll make myself some mocassins or walk barefoot.. When hiking, I know some plants to eat, fruit and other natural edibles to collect. I have a strong and deep belief, and I know my soul is far older than this life, I now know it to a degree that can only be described as exstasy. I am a poet, and while I am afraid to die, I am not afraid of Death anymore. I love life a lot, but there can be rest behind the dead, blank, wall... and I suspect there is a garden of twilight behind.     

And even if all that were idle thoughts, I would simply refuse to do as told.

And I am angry at the system, for it shits on everything that is holy to me. Friendship, courtesy, love, respect, care, the soul, and even the body.

I want to fight it, for it is the Grey, that I will fight, "Vrtreach the Cursed", omnipotent though as it seems. Is there hope?

There are many of us out there, not only in the the dark mountain movement, but bushcrafters, storytellers, craftsmen, artisans. And we have dreams, and life, and virility, for we are not entirely bundled up by the system. We can always discover the wilderness within, the world of myth and creativity. "Die Gedanken sind frei!" (Thoughts cannot be restricted).

But what is that wilderness within? How could we possibly retrogress? Shall we live as apes in the trees, feeding on bananas?

To me, there is darkness, a darkness different from the twilight within, but generated by it through misinterpretation. It is a challenge of the collective soul that we must face. There are helpful psychological properties we can rely on, though-we must not go without guidance.

To me, the figure of Telesphoros in the Jungian interpretation means a lot.  C.G. Jung had a distinct opinion towards spirituality. He estimated belief and spirituality as crucial for the mental and physical well-being of the individual. The current crisis of meaning in post-everything society can also be a chance. The Telesphor to me always has the function of a psychopomp. He is the eternal child, guiding the path into the deep and the twilight, "playing a board game like a child, the kingdom of children", and he leads the way "to the land of dreams". We all have this land within our souls. The otherworld is always connected to our world via the chord of our sould, and it has never ceased to commune with us-it was us who ceased to listen. It is still there, in the woods, in the experience of deep flow in forest environments:

D. Flow (Csikzentmihalyi) involves high-stakes outcomes, high intensity, intrinsic motivation, balance of demands and abilities, merging of awareness and action, absorption into the activity, present-centeredness, healthy loss of ego (or ego-boundaries), and self-transcendence. It is a primary characteristic of optimal mental health, and Flow is characteristic of many nature encounters, both nearby and wilderness-based. Mitchell shows its connection to mountaineering and, presumably, many kinds of wilderness experiences: "The mountains offer the antithesis of alienation; they offer the potential for flow." Goleman argues that meditation fosters Flow and uses this concept to explain a variety of effects and experiences of meditation.

Since I take Flow and the concept of Sartori, as well as the term Eucharist / Eu-Kairos
and the Druidic concept of the Awen as being if not identical, but motivated by a similar experience, and all those concepts offer strategies to reach it, and strategies there are, important to master the crisis, for this experience is a direct link to the subconscious. To reach it can rid myself of all the lies I have been force - fed, of all the names society forces us to fight upon. One could say I follow the psychopomp, the eternal child-and it is a very actual inner child, as you can see in this blog;-)- into the deep, symbolized by the cauldron of virility, the dark and fertile Earth. No lies here, but the real cake. To become uncivilized, we must follow our inner child and let loose. We must listen to the wizard in ourselves, the sage, the warrior and the dragon as well as the beast, especially the latter. We have been told our inner animal were evil. And that might be the case if it were about ravaging. But the Hornéd God is NOT the devil burning and roasting souls in the purgatory. The substance of the latter I very much doubt, if one pope can simply uncreate it, and there are so many lies, I simply cannot tell if either concept be true. What I CAN tell, however, is the unpersonal experience of ultimate inspiration by flow / satori / awen / eucharist / eu-kairos / meta - kairos, and from that cauldron an endless flow of myths and stories, of essays and pictures and knives is flowing, of feelings, psychic and corporeal sensations. By allowing them, I feel much more whole than I have ever felt before, and I feel capable to love. I love people, I love the Earth with all her animals and plants, I love the stars. This is the way of the Hornéd God, gentle as a stag and treading lightly upon the Earth, the lover, but also the hunter, and the prey at the same time. He, in turn, is but a spirit of the Earth, embedded in the law of the universe, and do I understand a black hole? There certainly is the ONE. But this GOD is so grand I cannot begin to imagine his grandeur, and I can imagine a lot of things. But I must not. I must not give it names, as long as it is there for good. I CAN talk to spirits, and I will not burn in hell for it. They are smaller, more intelligible entities, items of the Law of the universe that I can understand. To me, there is not "Thou shalt not make images of the Lord, your God", but rather "Thou cannot". And it is not that "thou shalt not have other Gods other than me", but "thou cannot". With terror I look into the abyss. The void between the stars dwarfs any human concept of hell and heaven at the same time. And at the same time it dwarfs the feeble efforts of a mad system, and even my fears, and even my death. And , here finally comes the culprit, I can allow my soul being a part of it. And with that power of the otherworld, the virile essence of the eternal cauldron, the abyss of inspiration, I can forge the sword that will not be the doom of tank and rocket, but the doom of the idea of tank and rocket, of whip and credit card alike.

And forging this sword I will. I will put on "that mask of burning gold" (W.B. Yeats) and the mantle set with stars. I will forge the blade in my spine to even finer delicacy, and I will allow my dragon to spread its wings. And fly. Above the ground and deep into the Earth, the rich and fertile soil. In forests deep will I wander as a stag, as a fox and a hare. I will feel the lust of the running deer and the fury of the wild boar.

I will allow my lust and my rationalism, my anger and my love. I will be giggling and crying and dancing and fighting and making peace. I will destroy, and I will heal.

Thus, or so I believe, the curse can be broken. 

Hope.

There´s a good fellow living in the thicket;-) ( a robin?*ggg*). I cannot relate to his writing style, but the message I can relate to:

http://www.eco-action.org/dt/poets.html

Another one from the dark mountain project.

Check. This. Out.

I stumbled across this blog here.

If you do not shy away from thinking, and thinking consequentially and even radically, this might be the cake.

There is also the "dark mountain project". Its manifesto you can read here.