AndrewBrunelle.com

What does it mean to be human?  Seriously, what does it mean?  Who are we as a species and why are we here?  It is a very complex question that takes great thought to answer.  Some people would say that we are the eyes of the world, documenting what is happening all around us.  Others would say that we are the dominant species, at the top of the food chain.  Others would say that we are an offshoot of gorillas and other primates who have learned how to communicate effectively through the invention of language to create wonderful things and a few bad things.  Any way you put it, to be human is something unique to our species.  It is something that only we can claim to be and it is something the comes with great responsibility.

We have the power to do good or do evil.  We have the power to eradicate all useless life (from our narrow perspective) from the face of the Earth or to work with the Earth to create more diversity.  We have the power to be constructive or destructive.  But with great power comes great responsibility.  Sure, if the world goes to hell and we all die, responsibility will be left with whatever is left.  But the destruction will be mostly the humans’ fault.  It’s no one’s fault individually, but collectively.  It is the civilization we have created that is responsible for all the destruction.  The people who initially started civilization didn’t know where it was heading, so it is futile to play the blame game.  Sure, power is addictive and since us humans crave power ever since the advent of agriculture, it was only inevitable before the world became what it is today and what it will become in the future.  But it is not in our nature to do things like this.

Certain traumas happened on this planet thousands of years ago that forced us to take action to ensure our survival.  Many traumas happened in a short period of time that damaged us psychologically as well as physically.  Some of these traumas may include the magnetic reversal of the  poles, the ice age, global food shortages, global cooling/warming, continental drift, earthquakes, etc.  I am not sure which of these actually happened while humans were on the Earth, but I have seen some documentaries that say that there were many traumas, even possibly being visited by aliens who manipulated our DNA.  But that’s just a theory.

Nevertheless, our psyches were badly damaged and we needed some part of us to take over during our time of trauma and the ego stepped right in.   The ego is basically a defense mechanism brought on by intense psychological or physical stress.  I remember hearing Michael Tsarion say something like, “It’s like the secretary is in charge while the boss is at lunch.  The ego is saying, ‘I saved your ass, so I demand respect and I deserve to be in charge.  Don’t mind that I’m underqualified and make frequent mistakes.  Until the boss gets back, I am in charge.’”  Very interesting and it resonates with me deeply.  The ego has been running the show for at least 10,000 years, possibly more.  The ego runs on fear and zero-sum thinking.  The ego is overly defensive for its own safety.  The ego will do anything in its power to preserve itself.  The ego is always thinking about expanding because of its underlying fear of being inadequate.  Our whole society is built around this fear-based ego.

So what was there before the ego?  We simply had the self.  We were more of a collectivist race than an individualistic, or egoistic one.  It was a time where we did not fear anything, not even death because we understood the world as a whole, not as an individual.  We knew our place and did our best to stay in it because our survival as a whole depended on it.  Sure, it wasn’t as glamorous as  life is today for us humans, but it worked really well.  That is, until all those traumatic events that scarred us for so very long and continues to scar us today.  The society we built was around fear and other so-called negative emotions, so how could we possibly expect it to be universally good?  We let the ego take over and look out for our best interests when the ego only looks out for itself because of its fear-based mindset.

In order to overcome the evils of the world, we need to let go of fear.  Fear, the mind killer, the tool that manipulates us all.  As a collective unit, we need to stop all the fear and replace it with love.  Unconditional love.  We need to try and lose the ego and get back to being ourselves–to be the true human beings that we are.  Otherwise, we will surely go extinct and after billions of years, not leave a trace of us ever being here.  Is it better to be glorious from the egoic perspective and burn out with our monuments eventually crumbling or sustaining ourselves as long as the sun and Earth permit?  The question is up to you.

If you found this post funny, insightful, helpful, or throught-provoking, feel free to donate to my site.

I find that with all this talk about anarcho-primitivism, there’s really not much more to say about it other than the fact that it is the only way we can live on this planet as humans indefinitelly until some global catastrophe kills us off.  We need to start living like every other species on this planet before every other species is gone.  It will not be an easy transition, but once we do it, it will be more natural than any way of life in the past 10,000 years.  Why do we think we have the right to systematically exterminate everything around us that doesn’t relate to us?  Or to only keep what serves us and killing the rest.  Killing weeds is a great example.  Weeds deserve to live on their own terms.  But the societal-industrial complex tells us we need to exterminate all weeds because they’re ugly.  I say, “Fuck that, I let the weeds grow.”  They’re quite striking.

Diversity is key here.  We need diversity in nature and the world.  Not human-centered diversity, where every human walks around with a tag saying their race, ancestry, and sexual orientation.  I’m talking about a diverse Earth.  With many creatures who are allowed to live without having to constantly worry about their entire habitat being destroyed because some asshole wants t0 raise cheap beef.  I’m not saying that beef is bad, just that the way we “manufacture” beef is so unnatural that the meat we get has hardly any nutrients left in it.  We used to hunt our meat and we would only hunt to the extent that the animal population would allow.  And this limited our population.  The domestication of animals is definitely a part of the problem.  But the biggest problem is the domestication of humans.

I always thought it was funny when I heard about a domestic violence call.  What are they trying to say?  Are we really domesticated?  My conclusion is yes.  We are domesticated by the people above us.  The people who rule us.  Our bosses.  Our government.  The people behind our government.  The elites we never see.  They try and shape our worlds to think we can’t get out, that we have to play along, the same way a rancher leads a cow to a slaughterhouse.  We are captive in this society because the very few people at the top do everything in their power to keep it this way.  They keep the poor and middle class down while the rich get richer and richer every second of every day.  Some people say that money is the root of all evil.  But what about the system that makes money necessary?  Isn’t that more evil?  And all this wealth is stolen if you trace it back far enough.

Every bit of money and wealth is stolen in one way or another.  We stole this land from the Native Americans and they stole it from the non-human species before, but I wouldn’t really call it stealing because they lived in balance and we have destroyed this pristine piece of land here in America.  We’ve turned it into the third mall from the sun.  We’ve paved and cut down every forest, sure to put a Wal-Mart every 10 miles.  We are so dependent on this system that we have no choice but to live in it.  Otherwise, we starve to death.  We become homeless.  There are no real choices.  There is the illusion of choice in things like Baskin Robbins 31 flavors or hundreds of flavors of Pop Tarts.  But we have no real say in how we live.  It’s the government’s way or the highway.  It’s completely against freedom of choice.  We can’t live out in the woods because all the edible plants have been exterminated for monoculture farms that grow genetically-modified corn and soy products to be shuffled into every processed food on the planet.

Our food is grown with oil instead of soil.  We don’t have hardly any viable topsoil left because our ancestors lost it all through their irresponsible farming practices.  So, the oil crisis is bigger than we once thought.  But once it runs out, it will kill a lot of people due to the shortages in food.  Perhaps billions of people will die.  But it makes sense.  There are way too many people on this planet thanks to the unsustainable agriculture system, so it’s going to happen eventually anyway.  A mass extinction of humans is imminent.  Even if we go back to being hunter-gatherers, this planet can’t support 7 billion or more of them.  Ideally, half a billion or less is what this planet can support when it comes to humans.  And that’s with the assumption that we go back to living as we once did, in harmony with nature.  Otherwise, far less humans are all that are sustainable for a healthy Earth.

I hate it when people say that we can expand our population still further.  They say things like, “There’s plenty of places on the Earth where more humans could fit.”  But at the expense of what?  Other animals?  The environment?  The atmosphere?  Why do you think there are so many websites devoted to environmentalism that don’t want to change their lifestyles, just make them greener?  Because people resist change so adamently that I fear it is impossible to convince people that we are living the wrong way and the only tangible option for humans to get back in balance is through a severe crash that will kill billions of people within a century or faster.  It’s the same reason I’m shouting into the wind right now because most people would rather deny all these facts and just keep living in the deadly consumer culture.  But as Ghandi said, “Even if what you believe and do does not matter, it is very essential that you do it.”

So, I guess I’ll continue to write about what I believe in and the closer we get to society completely breaking down, the more people will read.  Now, to think up an apt title for this article…

If you found this post funny, insightful, helpful, or throught-provoking, feel free to donate to my site.