Human Sacrifice (with some reference to “The Culture”)
I would contend that we live in a pro-human sacrificial society, or put differently a society biased towards Human Sacrifice. This isn’t always a bad thing, for example the idea of heroic self-sacrifice, but is manifested in support for the Death Penalty (although this perhaps reflects the non-taboo nature of murdering another human being as if murder were a taboo we wouldn’t be considering murder as a “punishment”). Maybe the Question is: Is Civilisation Pro-Human Sacrifice by Nature?
This is not, however, a tract against Civilisation or Society but I may contend that as we abolished Death millennia ago with the introduction of an Afterlife, the idea, if not the actuality, of Human Sacrifice must be introduced to maintain the idea of a Birth-Death Cycle. If we don’t really die then what’s the point in having children? The ‘point’, and this has been with us since the Neolithic, is that for Society to be preserved it must perpetuate itself-agrarian societies produce more food by producing more labourers (children/ extended families).
Maybe if, like the fictional ‘Culture’, we weren’t so hung up on Death and could just quietly get on with propagating our society by having children?
28.3.2008
Was thinking of editing the above (the idea for which, well I’ve wanted to write about HS for about five years and really got thinking about the issues above when I read “Look to Windward” summer 2007) and either removing or clarifying references to the ‘Culture, but in (too much) reading about Green Anarchy and Anarcho-Primitivism, I found this (which at present am half way through reading): http://www.geocities.com/vcmtalk/primalwound.html
(but which is very good by the way if maybe somewhat speculative)
Still, I can’t help being reminded by my, I guess Feminist, critique of what I like to refer to as the “Neolithic Mode of Production” in that agrarian communities need more labourers to produce more food, this is done through childbirth, which is why modern women ovulate thirteen times a year (as compared to women of the Dogon people and other communities who ovulate less than six times a year), which could therefore be considered unnatural. This in itself has a connection with women in the ‘Culture’ who are both able to control when they ovulate and self-terminate a pregnancy, due to successive genetic modifications. Men and women are also able to change gender completely and become a fully-reproductive capable female/ male (and back again although the process does take a year).
Last summer was also when I, briefly, described myself as a “Post-Primitivist” (!), if there is such an animal.
My individual philosophy is very similar to that of the “Zetetic Elench” of ‘Culture’ fame (first introduced and described in “Excession”) and probably has been since my teens. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zetetic_Elench
I want to see how I relate to other ideas and experiences and refute or incorporate them on my terms. Unlike the ‘Elench” I would say I disagree with a society having a philosophy other than general respect and all that bollocks, but I strongly agree with each individual in that society having their own philosophy. There is scope for religion but I disagree with a religious society (and maybe that is the problem with the ‘Culture’ for all its utopianism and technology for its religion, its State Religion I might add, is its Contact and Special Circumstances sections which interact, covertly and overtly, with less developed societies).
Maybe it could be said that I believe in Society but not Civilisation. However, I am not anti-civilisation per se and despite what I said above I guess the only thing I can say about Primitivism and its critique of Technology is: all things in moderation. Cop out I know.
What I would argue against is the “Eco-Fascist” critique of Green Anarchists is this: they are entirely and consistently against the State, therefore by definition they are not Fascists.
Oh, one last random statement to sum up/ create utter confusion (delete as appropriate):
DEATH IS OVERRATED!
posted by Legal Smeagol at 4:42 PM
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