Post by wombat on Mar 25, 2015 22:07:11 GMT -5
The question of what is a primitive skill do not need to be modelled on what we have seen on ‘Dual Survival’ or Ray Meares’ programs (as good as they are), but rather, ‘What are the broad skills we need to create a long term community outside of civilisation? How will we not only survive, but remain happy and healthy? How do we defend ourselves against the encroachment of civilisation’? Many have already started asking these questions, but there appears to be reluctance to embrace the term primitivism. Many others have advocated terminology such as anarchoprimitivism and primal war, and encouraged primitive skills, but it is certainly becoming a dirty word in contemporary anarchist circles. I would like to state for the record that anarchoprimitivists are here, and not going anywhere. We will be around, annoying you with our unassailable logic that civilisation sucks, and if some say we aren’t primitive enough for their liking, that’s just too bad.
I really liked this essay. Much of what he talks about regarding primitive skills I've also considered. I've emphasized one question in an attempt to expand on my opinions. For me, bringing up concepts like the Permanent Subsistence Zone recognizes many things. First, that there is no "outside of civilization", this is something I'm sure we can agree on, thus could be seen as semantics, but it also exposes another thing. That we need not attempt to practice as anarchoprimitivists only on the fringe. While I can agree that urban areas are fraught with difficulty to restore and not ideal places to start, the edges of civilization need not be the only places to examine. Here, I'm thinking in the present, for present practicing foragers and other subsistence practitioners, that consideration of where matters, but it need not be divorced from lands that may hold more significance than just some place.
To some, the place matters a great deal and trying to be a forager within this context might be wanted by some. I wanted to bring this up for discussion and see how others consider the issue.