Civilization Is Not And Can Never Be

Question Four: What Book Would You Give To Every Child? Answer: I Wouldn't Give Them A Book. Books Are Part Of The Problem: This Strange Belief That A Tree Has Nothing To Say Until It Is Murdered, Its Flesh Pulped, And Then (human) People Stain This Flesh With Words. I Would Take Children Outside And Put Them Face To Face With Chipmunks, Dragonflies, Tadpoles, Hummingbirds, Stones, Rivers, Trees, Crawdads. That Said, If You're Going To Force Me To Give Them A Book, It Would Be The Wind In The Willows, Which I Hope Would Remind Them To Go Outside.

The Pretense That Humans Are Superior To Nonhumans Is Entirely Unsupportable. I Have Seen No Compelling Evidence That Humans Are Particularly More "intelligent" Than Any Other Creature. I Have Had Long And Fruitful Relationshis With Many Nonhuman Animals, Both Domesticated And Wild, And Have Reveled In The Bouquet Of Radically Different Intelligences - Different Forms, Not Different "quantities" That They Have Introduced To Me, Each In His Or Her Own Time, In His Or Her Own Way.

Casey Maddox Wrote That When Philosophy Dies, Action Begins. I Would Say In Addition That When We Stop Hoping For External Assistance, When We Stop Hoping That The Awful Situation We're In Will Somehow Resolve Itself, When We Stop Hoping The Situation Will Somehow Not Get Worse, Then We Are Finally Free - Truly Free - To Honestly Start Working To Thoroughly Resolve It. I Would Say When Hope Dies, Action Begins.

If Any Thing Can Be Predicated As Universally True Of Uncultivated Man, It Is That He Will Not Labour Beyond What Is Absolutely Necessary To Maintain His Existence.

No Matter What We Call It, Poison Is Still Poison, Death Is Still Death, And Industrial Civilization Is Still Causing The Greatest Mass Extinction In The History Of The Planet.