Urban Scout Vs. Rewilding

People have called me many names:

Self-serving new-age nihilistic pseudo-hippie/yuppie quack-opportunist poseur-hipster-douchebag green-capitalist-bastard egotistical-celebrity-anarchist tool that gives everyone douchechills with a BS agenda, a trust fund from granny, and an obsession with publicity.

A poster of Meta-filter asked the question: Urban Scout, sincere crusader for sustainability or poseur-hipster-douchebag?

Much of what I do involves performance art, so you could label me a poseur. I dress in (what I think look like) hip clothes, so you could call me a hipster. I often make egotistical jokes about myself and others, I could see why someone would call me a douchebag. On top of that I sincerely teach rewilding skills to people and educate people on the ills of agriculture. My life revolves around teaching sustainability. So you could call me a sincere crusader for sustainability. Can’t I have all of these qualities simultaneously? This “one or the other” mentality reflects back to artistotles “is” of identity; you can only “be” A or B, not both.

This question (although intellectually incoherent) haunts me because of the sheer number of people who attack me using this aristolian logic. Most often people say that I “talk” more than I “walk” without thinking about the importance and need for talking about things. People need to understand this stuff. I sacrifice my own relationship with nature by sitting inside thinking and writing so that people will learn why civilization doesn’t work and what does work. I get off on thinking about this stuff and writing so I don’t think of myself as a martyr. It just really upsets me when people don’t see the value of talking about things. I keep talking because of the shit I see in the media projecting a fucked up world view.

George Bush Jr. said during his State of the Union Address:

America is leading the fight against global hunger. Today, more than half the world’s food aid comes from the United States. And tonight, I ask Congress to support an innovative proposal to provide food assistance by purchasing crops directly from farmers in the developing world, so we can build up local agriculture and help break the cycle of famine. (Audience Applause.) [emphasis added]

If we really want to “fight” third world hunger we would leave them the fuck alone! Not teach/force them to practice the very pestilence that brought their culture and landbase to its knees to begin with. If Americans really wanted to stop population growth they would not provide “food aid,” but landbase rejuvenation. (not to mention that initiatives to buy food from 3000 miles away in third world countries makes us more dependent on foreign food sources… so much for the “locavore” movement…)

I can’t help but think… doesn’t everyone know that agriculture causes famine? As time passes and things get worse, I keep forgetting the complete lack of even the most simple ecological understanding making its way up the pyramid. This doesn’t look good for the planet…

The most recent National Geographic contains cover story on the “Black Pharaohs of Egypt.” Throughout the article we see the scary desert scape of Egypt; sand without soil. Does anyone every wonder why? No, because we would rather talk about “Black Pharaohs” than ecological genocide. Then we would have to face what we currently do to the planet. Doesn’t discussing the race of civilizations rulers sound so much more interesting? I mean, imagine a ruler in your head. Now imagine they have black skin.

On one page in the issue we see an advertisement for a special National Geographic television program on “Climate Change.” The page after that contains an advertisement for chips. It depicts three rows of crops; potatoes, corn and wheat.

Next to eat crop we see a particular bag of chips made from the crop. The tag line says, “The Best Snacks On Earth.” Do you see the irony here? An advertisement for agricultural crops that cause deforestation and desertification wedged between photographs of desert landscapes devoid of life created by older civilizations and a special television program on the problems we face because of climate change that we contributed to through deforesting the planet. No doubt many people sit in horror as they watch the ice caps melt before their eyes and the last polar bear drown on their televisions, all the while snacking on a bag of Sun Chips.

No one has any fucking idea why civilization causes a loss of biodiversity, desertification and climate change. They don’t even think about food subsistence. They believe that humans practice agriculture just like we breath the air. We cannot question it because we can’t see the link. Our ability to see through civilization’s agricultural propaganda and rewild will determine whether or not we survive the collapse as individuals, communities and as a species.

What, no applause?

If we want to rewild the planet and create sustainable cultures we need people spreading the ideology of rewilding in order to diffuse the effects of civilization. Marketing the sustainable world view of rewilding fills probably 95% of what I do. If rewilding meant running away to the wilderness, which it doesn’t, it wouldn’t have much of an impact on many people. The more people turned on to rewilding the softer the crash because it means more people focused on dismantling civilization and restoring the biodiversity of their bioregion.

Though marketing rewilding fills 95% of my time, this doesn’t mean that I don’t walk my talk since cultures have many members who serve different functions. Just because I don’t focus on medicinal plants doesn’t mean I don’t walk my talk. Just because some of us people-who-rewild don’t care to know how to tan hides or build bow-drill fires doesn’t mean we don’t walk our talk. It takes a village. It takes people promoting and tending to the culture. It takes people building the boat for the rewilding culture to sail in. Whether you call it ideology, mythology, propaganda, marketing or world view those elements form the frame of the cultural rewilding boat. Understanding ways of living that promote biodiversity and ways of living that don’t forms the foundation of rewilding cultures. You can’t build cultural foundations with your hands, you build it with your words, observations, stories. Some people work as frame builders for the boat, others learn to navigate the oceans once in the boat. Most people focus on one thing but do a little of everything. If you really understand how talking fits into culture building, thinking of people as talkers and walkers makes no sense; talkers and walkers do not exist. People serve different functions, all talkers, all walkers.

You don’t have a culture without stories. If we want a new culture, we need lots of stories. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions. We need to out-compete civilization’s propaganda. When I see hundreds of thousands of people rewilding, telling their own stories, I’ll know that I have done my job well. When I have hundreds of friends rewilding in my bioregion serving their own roles in the culture, I’ll know that I have done my job well and feel happy that I have a culture to support me. Hopefully, they’ll recognize all of the foundational work that I have done to make the culture happen.

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9 Comments on “Urban Scout Vs. Rewilding”

  1. I’ll tell you straight up.
    I don’t have a problem with either your walk or talk. Its all about getting the information out there after all.
    Civilization is inherently evil.
    So is big agriculture.
    But is my truck garden evil? it kept me through winter.
    What about my Bee’s? as a small keeper I sweat getting the girls through the winter. would not my bee’s and I’s relationship be considered symbiotic.
    The big bee concerns harvest too much honey and starve the hives.
    they don’t care how many die. All they care for is profit.
    By the way I do like the vegan rant.
    Vegans in my lingo just means bad Hunter. Dragon

  2. Hey Scout. I really like what you have to say about the boat. I have been interested in rewilding, more and more finding it a necessity. I try to spread the idea when I can. Reading your post on agricultural deforestation has been very informative. Its something that I’ve thought nothing of before. When I mention it to other people they get glass eyed, and it flies right past them (something its cool to be green hollywood hasnt talked about). Its simple though. You look at some past civilizations and this led to their demise. No they didnt have to deal with global warming but they stripped their land for crops and materials. Eventuly the land couldnt provide for their population anymore. Anyway back to the boat analogy. It makes me feel good. I believe in rewilding but have taken no steps into it. I feel I’ve been so trapped into todays society I dont know how or where to start to break free. I feel like a giant hippocrate. I’m about 10 years removed from nature and the comfort I felt in wilderness in my youth. I miss that. For now I will do what I can to spread rewilding.

  3. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what you said, namely stories, bringing back the stories, and songs. And I saw dreamkeeper and it made me cry cos of the stories. They have power.

  4. Hey Dragon,
    Thanks for seeing my perspective! I don’t see civilization as good or evil, just not a way of living that works. Whether you believe civilization is “good” or “evil” doesn’t change that it fucks up the environment, you know? Blah blah. I don’t think having a small garden destroys biodiversity. Even the NW coast tribes who subsisted using horticulture, had small agricultural gardens for growing Tobacco for ceremonies. Agriculture can work on a small scale for certain things, but when it becomes used for food subsistence, than you have a huge problem. I don’t really know anything about bees or bee keeping. Could the Bee’s live without you I think says whether the relationship works symbiotically. Could you live without the bees? I don’t know enough on this yet, I’m still working on defining this kind of thing, like where exactly do you draw the line of domestication. It can look pretty blurry through my civilized eyes, but I know the line is probably very clear for more wild things.

    Lobo Victim,
    You are the reason I keep writing blogs! Thank you so much for your kind words. I didn’t really want to write that blog on rewilding because I figure so many other people have covered that subject that I would sound more like a mocking bird. I’m glad you heard it here first! Haha. Of course, it’s written in my own voice and in my own words so in that sense I’ve “owned” it. There are many ways to start breaking out of the ruts our culture puts us in. If you feel at a loss and have internet access, I suggest browsing the rewild.info website.

    Fen,
    Thanks for your kind words. Is Dreamkeeper a movie? It sounds good?

  5. i don’t think civilization in general is inherently evil, but i do believe that big government is. it is entirely immoral and impersonal to follow the laws set up for us by some empty cash-lined suit. a major part of my philosophy on rewilding is the ANARCHO part of anarcho-primitivism. corrupt government is the reason people can’t see what mass agriculture, mono-cropping, and GMO’s do to our world and our society. all government is corrupt, even the most socialist and pro-proletariat. emphasis on smaller communities is the only thing that can make this world truly sustainable. and besides, letting others decide what one can and cannot do only destroys a part of our individuality and our personality. keep up the good shit.

    hails from santa fe, new mexico.

  6. I love spritely Penny Scout and her daring feats! and feets! You all are so daring and adventurous… Animals as refuse makes me sad, especially seeing Coyote on a trash heap. Pretty representative of civ in general.

    My theory is that Aries people – especially those who can summon fire – do not tolerate cold well. Also, as men age, “balls-deep” gets to be shallower. I hope you all were careful about not getting water into mouth or other orifices because of the possibility of contact with giardia, nasty bug that it is.

    The Natives from whom I descend practiced separation of labor AND of living quarter. We women lived in semi-subterranean houses with the children, and the men lived in a group in the sweat house. Boy children were sent to the sweathouse around age 7. Also, no woman was ever to touch fishing equipment…yet, I was gifted with a shuttle as I gently extracted soap root from around the perimeter of an old sweathouse site!!

    Thanks for all you Rewilders do!!