If You Only Had A Limited Time

We Are Members Of The Most Destructive Culture Ever To Exist. Our Assault On The Natural World, On Indigenous And Other Cultures, On Women, On Children, On All Of Us Through The Possibility Of Nuclear Suicide And Other Means--all These Are Unprecedented In Their Magnitude And Ferocity.

A Wonderful Thing Happens When You Give Up On Hope, Which Is That You Realize You Never Needed It In The First Place. You Realize That Giving Up On Hope Doesn't Kill You, Nor Did It Make You Less Effective. In Fact It Made You More Effective, Because You Ceased Relying On Someone Or Something Else To Solve Your Problems - You Ceased Hoping Your Problems Somehow Get Solved, Through The Magical Assistance Of God, The Great Mother, The Sierra Club, Valiant Tree-sitters, Brave Salmon, Or Even The Earth Itself - And You Just Began Doing What's Necessary To Solve Your Problems Yourself.

Within This Culture Wealth Is Measured By One's Ability To Consume And Destroy.

To Be Clear, Civilization Is Not The Same As Society. Civilization Is A Specific, Hierarchical Organization Based On 'power Over.' Dismantling Civilization, Taking Down That Power Structure, Does Not Mean The End Of All Social Order. It Should Ultimately Mean More Justice, More Local Control, More Democracy, And More Human Rights, Not Less.

Slavery Was A Central Concern Of Governance Form The Time Of The First Nation-state. The Code Of Hammurabi, The Earliest Know Set Of Laws For Governing An Empire, Prescribed Death For Anyone Who Harbored A Fugitive Or Otherwise Helped A Slave To Escape. The Relationship Between The Law And Bondage Goes Back Even Farther: Indeed, The Oldest Extant Legal Documents Don't Concern The Sale Of Land, Houses, Or Even Animals, But Slaves.