civilization – Another End of the World is Possible

Hope Beyond Hope

We all hold to faith or hope in things that are no longer working for us. We continue to believe in systems that are not just broken but irredeemable. And our belief in those system and our hope in those things keeps them alive and prolongs the harm they do.

Hope Beyond Hope: in memoriam Michael Dowd

Michael Dowd invited us, at the end of the world, to love the world.

The Original Heresy: Homesickness, Civilization, and Transcendental Religion (part 1)

The original heresy is the belief that the earth is not our home, that our real life is somewhere else—whether in heaven or a future technotopia. We embrace this heresy to make sense of that nagging feeling that something is wrong with the world itself. But the real reason we feel this way is because civilization alienates us from everything that makes us human.

We won’t be the first civilization to collapse — but we may well be the last

“Our civilization’s collapse will be unique in size, magnified by the destructive force of our fossil fuel-driven industrial society. But it will replicate the familiar patterns of collapse that toppled civilizations of the past.”

Hospice for the Human Species

Rather than focusing on trying to save our lives or save civilization or save what we have currently, Post-Doomers ask “How can we live with this awareness of the end of the world, meaningfully and productively, in community with each other and with the planet?”

“Why sustainability is bad for the environment” by Paul Kingsnorth

Sustainability does not mean defending the non-human world from human expansion. Instead, it has come to mean sustaining human civilisation at the comfort level which the world’s rich people feel is their right.

“This civilization will not learn anything from this virus.” by Paul Kingsnorth

We should be saying: no more normal. Not now, not ever.

What Jeff Gibbs Should Have Said in ‘Planet of the Humans’

Solving climate change alone will not save us—especially when the so-called solutions involve ramping up technologies that are decimating the biosphere. Nothing can make a difference unless we find a way to end our fatal addiction to economic growth.

What Pirates Taught Me About Anarchism (Anarchism for Civilians series)

Civilized societies are not less violent than non-civilized societies–-though they may appear to be the more privileged citizens. One of the defining characteristics of civilization is the depersonalization of violence.

What Midwives Taught Me About Anarchism (Anarchism for Civilians series)

Though they’re often used synonymously, civilization is not the same thing as culture. Many of the things that are attributed to civilization, such as art and healing, existed before civilization and outside of states. And many of the lauded “improvements” brought by civilization were not really improvements, or else they were improvements which came at a terrible cost.