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Title: Garden Issue 2 Author: Garden Date: May 12, 2022 Language: en Topics: anti-technology, neo-luddism, deep ecology, Garden #2, Garden Source: Retrieved on September 30, 2022 from https://archive.org/details/garden-iss-2-v-2/page/n1/mode/2up
Our mission is to organize coherent and direct action against the global
techno-industrialist system. With this publication, we aim to
disseminate ideas relevant to this cause in order to inspire others like
us to stand in opposition to a force which we have judged to be
ethically, philosophically, and practically irredeemable. It is our view
that the techno-industrialist machine is a violent, destructive, and
irreparable system of subjugation, and because of this we do not support
any social or political efforts to rehabilitate it. It is on these
grounds that we repudiate reformist and environmentalist sentiments,
which we believe serve only as distractions that do nothing to counter
the true goal of techno-industrialism; that is, the total enslavement
and annihilation of Wild Nature. More pressing still, it is our belief
that the technoindustrial system presents an absolute and urgent
existential threat to all life on earth. Thus, we are not a partisan
movement, nor do we have any interest in furthering the ideologies of
any movement on the left-right political spectrum. We reject the call to
engage with issues such as social justice, feminism, anti-racism. If you
believe these issues are the most pressing issues facing society today,
stay away. We vehemently oppost racism, nationalism, ethno- 5
nationalism, any form of fascism or defense of the rule of law. It is
our opinion that the pursuit of any one of these values will be
meaningless on a dead planet. If you identify with any of these
viewpoints, stay away. Finally, we do not advocate that anyone consider
this publication an exhortation for violent or illegal action of any
kind. We denounce violence as a matter of pragmatism, not a matter of
principle. It would be anathema to a nascent anti-tech organization to
openly incite violence, which would prompt law enforcement to hinder our
ability to spread our message. We hope only to exercise our right to
freedom of speech in order to present our personal views authentically
and honestly. Always for Wild Nature, Garden
Power Grid
The prospect of a real, violent uprising against the technological
system seems, for many, impossible. The machine is too large, the
methods of destroying it too extreme, too costly, too messy in their
implications. The system, therefore, we tell ourselves, will simply have
to collapse on its own. We will have to wait for nuclear war or a
Carrington Event or for the Yellowstone supervolcano to erupt and
smother the fires of industry with vengeful ash, or better yet, for the
ruling class and their technophile acolytes to simply come to their
senses, apologize, and turn the machines off themselves.
We wait for a miracle. We wait for poetic justice. For the gods of
climate change to swing down from the rigging and declare âENOUGH!â and
thereafter we will rejoice and set ourselves to building our better,
cleaner world. We busy ourselves with attempts at educating and
organizing our communities, preparing for the day the miracle manifests.
We plant communal gardens, cook for the homeless, learn foraging,
publish zines. Frankly put, this is not enough.
There are two things a revolutionary must keep in mind:
1. The system is not invincible. In fact, it is weak, fragile, made
vulnerable in its complexity to sabotage.
2. An anti-tech revolution will only be made possible by direct action
against the systemâs component parts.
It is highly unlikely that an anti-tech organization, or even a network
of organizations, would be able to change the world in day. Such an
organization or network cannot cut the internet cables that encircle the
planet. It canât launch nukes at Silicon Valley and it canât heist
airborne Ebola out of USAMRIID and hold the world hostage. But that
doesnât mean a hypothetical revolutionary organization is powerless.
What follows is a short exploration of purely hypothetical scenarios.
This is merely a thought-exercise. We do not endorse or condone any
illegal activity. The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate the
vulnerabilities in a system that so many see as omnipresent, omnipotent,
and eternal. If we can learn to change the way we see the system, then
we are that much closer to changing the world. This particular
thought-exercise will focus solely on the United States electrical power
grid.
PHYSICAL THREATS
The machine is massive.
In America alone, there are over 55,000 electrical transmission
substations. However, if a mere nine critical stations were to fail, the
entire nation would be plunged into a crippling darkness. In April 2013,
a still-unidentified group managed to infiltrate a crucial substation
belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) located in California. The
attack took place in the middle of the night, when the group entered an
underground vault at PG&Eâs Metcalf substation and proceeded to cut
fiber cables. Following this, the group began firing on the substation
for a total of twenty minutes, during which time they succeeded in
taking out seventeen transformers before vanishing long before police
arrived. While the attack did not succeed in causing a blackout, it did
constitute the âmost significant incident of domestic terrorism
involving the grid that has ever occurredâ in the United States,
according to former Federal Energy Regulatory (FERC) Commissioner Jon
Wellinghoff. In the wake of the attack, the FERC launched a study and
reliability assessment for the entire US power grid. They discovered
that physical attacks on nine key substations could disable power for
the entire country, coast to coast. Nor would repairing the damage be
any easy feat. Here, the technological systemâs global complexity shoots
itself in the foot. If the crucial high voltage transformers are
irreparably damaged, it is highly unlikely that they would be replaced
at all. The great majority of such units are custom built. The lead time
between order and BOOK AUTHOR 10 delivery for a domestically
manufactured HV transformer is between 12 and 24 months, and this is
under benign, low demand conditions. The first practical application of
the transformer was invented in the USA by William Stanley, but largely
as a consequence of American trade policy (âIt doesnât make any
difference whether a country makes potato chips or computer chipsâ-
attributed to Michael Boskin, Chairman of President George H W Bushâs
Council of Economic Advisors). Furthermore, there is the simple fact
that the US does not manufacture high voltage transformers anymore. In
fact, there are few that do. Worldwide production is less than 100 per
year and serves the rapidly growing markets of China and India. Only
Germany and South Korea produce for export to the US. Ordered today,
delivery of a unit from overseas would take nearly 3 years. The factory
price for an HV transformer can be in excess of $10 millionâtoo
expensive to maintain an inventory solely as spares for emergency
replacement.
The implication cannot be understated: A physical attack on nine crucial
electrical substations that succeeded in destroying high-voltage
transformers would plunge the United States into a darkness that would
not be quickly or easily reversed. This would provide fertile ground for
any hypothetical antitech organization to seize momentum and gain power.
It should also be noted, in passing, that the vast majority of
electrical substations are completely unmanned, unprotected, and have
zero video surveillance. The only thing standing in the way of a
determined revolutionary group or individual is often a chain link fence
and some barbed wire. We will not be expounding on precisely which
substations are the most crucial according to the FERC. We leave it to
our readers to continue their own research independent of this
publication.
CYBER THREATS
The U.S. power grid is old. It is unwieldy. The reality it was created
to serve no longer exists. It was simply not designed to withstand the
threats that now confront it.
Chief among these threats are cyberattacks.
The grid is vulnerable to cyberattacks that could cause catastrophic,
widespread, and lengthy blackouts. The effect on hospitals, police
departments, banks, gas stations, military bases, and families across
America could be disastrous. Grid owners and operators, many of which
are small to medium sized companies, have to overcome a number of
challenges to counter this threat. A 2019 Government Accountability
Office review of cybersecurity risks facing the electric grid identified
difficulties in hiring a sufficient workforce, limited sharing of
classified threat information between the public and private sectors,
resource constraints, reliance on other critical infrastructure that
could be vulnerable to cyberattack, and uncertainty about how to
implement cybersecurity standards and guidance.
One of the greatest cybersecurity threats to the electric grid involves
a mundane function known as âindustrial control systems.â ICâs are used
to manage electrical processes and physical functions like opening and
closing circuit breakers. These systems are now being merged with
technologies BOOK AUTHOR 12 that connect to or rely on the internet.
This enables remote monitoring and can improve cost and energy
conservation, but it also creates more access points for determined
hackers.
In 2015, the insurance underwriter Lloydâs developed a scenario for an
attack on part of the Eastern Interconnection, which provides power to
around half of the United States. Under the scenario, a cyberattack
targeting power generators would cause a blackout in 15 states and the
District of Columbia, leaving 93 million people without power. Much like
in the case of physical attacks, a mere fraction of the total active
generators in the system would have to be targeted. Only 10% of Eastern
Interconnectionâs generators would need to be taken offline in order for
the system to fail entirely.
CONCLUSION
The system is not invincible. It only wants you to think it is. The
electrical grid, the lifeblood of the industrial system, is increasingly
vulnerable to complete and utter destruction. That being said, it is
unlikely that a disorganized, untrained individual or group would be
capable of accomplishing that destruction without discipline and
practice. There are electrical substations in every community in the
country. There is certainly one near you. It is highly probable that any
dedicated individual or group would attempt to âpracticeâ sabotage on
targets local to themselves, before moving on to more crucial
substations.
Once again, we do not advocate for illegal activity. This is merely an
academic approach to the problem of the power gridâs vulnerability and
resilience in the light of 21st century threats.
Societies
INTRODUCTION
Less than 25% of children today regularly go outside their house to
play, and fewer than one in ten children play in wild nature as compared
to over half of all adults when they were children. In fact, children
spend so little time outdoors that they are unfamiliar with some of our
commonest wild creatures (Moss, 2012). Due to the decrease in autonomy
within our technological society, the lives of young people have become
largely sedentary, giving rise to a number of negative health effects
linked to an inactive lifestyle such as Vitamin D deficiency, obesity,
cardiovascular diseases, and high blood pressure. Skills that would be
constituted as necessary for our survival such as hunting, gathering
food, building shelter, collecting firewood, and crafting tools are no
longer essential when such necessities can be provided by the system for
the price of labor. Because our basic needs lie in the hands of large
organizations and institutions, education no longer prepares individuals
for self-sufficiency, but dependency.
The subjects that occupy a studentâs time--math, science, writing, and
technology--are skills valued not for the well-being of the individual
but for the needs of the system. The student is often perplexed
wondering, âWhatâs the point of learning these things if Iâll never use
them in my day-to-day life?â The answer? To âto get a well-paying job.â
Public education only became mandatory with the rise of industrialism,
and the two phenomena cannot be divorced. (Dwyer & Peters, 2019).
The education received today is incompatible with an active lifestyle.
If a child is constantly engaged in exploration in nature and outdoor
activities, how will they have time for what subjects our society
considers crucial? In school, a child is given the bare minimum of what
is required of outdoor activity, no different from the amount of time
allotted to federal prisoners, while free time at home becomes occupied
by homework and studying. After primary school, outdoor play is largely
reduced so that even more time can be dedicated towards education, and
an adolescentâs sedentary life is solidified. From the classroom for
classwork to the bedroom for homework to the dorm for university studies
to the desk for 9-5 salary drudgery. Sitting becomes the mode of Man.
This is in contrast with hunter-gatherer societies. Play-time decreases
with age, certainly, but physical and outdoor activity remains part of
everyday life.
CHILDREN AS TEACHERS
Although certain aspects of a hunter-gathererâs upbringing differed
across the different cultures and societies, the stages that made up
oneâs childhood followed a similar pattern. Infancy was primarily spent
in the camp and in the care of the mother wrapped around the parent
receiving attentive care. During early and mid-childhood, children were
given freedom to explore outside of the camp, often in peer groups
playing and engaging in subsistence tasks. Many learning experiences
took place in this stage. When they reached adolescence, tasks were
carried out more seriously with less time towards play. The child would
be already fairly independent at this stage, relying on oneâs own
abilities for obtaining resources. Learning came in different forms of
teaching across hunter gatherer societies, but practice was almost
always active, hands-on, and self-directed. Direct-teaching from adults
occured for certain instances, but was not employed in every facet of
learning and still left a lot of room for a childâs autonomy. In the
modern education system, children are subject to unnatural conditions
that diminish their autonomy.
Children have to raise their hands to speak or to get up from their
seats and must eat on a schedule. Children also must be at school and in
classes at a certain time to avoid tardiness.The increase of
insufficient sleep among adolescents has been attributed to the early
mandatory start time of institutional schools, homework, and
after-school activities. Lack of sleep is tied to poor mental health,
including depression, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation
(Wheaton et al, 2017). The teacher, too, is burdened, but with keeping
many children in the classroom cooperative and focused and is also under
the authority of the school system. The relationship between the
"student" and the "teacher" is much more balanced in hunter- -gatherer
society, because there is not one adult employed to act as a teacher.
Much of the learning for a child is done on their own, making adult
interference unnecessary. The mixed-age groups huntergatherer children
interacted with also provided easier development of skills since those
younger could learn from older children.
Among the Aka of the Congo, direct teaching overall was very short,
subtle, and non-verbal. There did not exist a hard-line between
âteacher,â and âstudent,ââ as is common in institutionalized education.
Aka children had knowledge comparable to that of the adults, and would
often hunt cooperatively in multi-age groups using nets (Hewlett & Lamb,
2005). Aka children acted as teachers themselves for other children,
just as much as adults did (Boyette & Hewlett, 2017).
Among the Martu of Australia, children were observed to be very active
and independent hunters without the need for direct instruction and
supervision from adults. Physical stamina, rather than age, played an
important factor in determining how skilled of a hunter one was. Some of
the younger hunters were more skilled than the older children. (Hewlett
& Lamb, 2005).
Young Hadza children of Tanzania spent the majority of time in camp
without adult supervision, spending several hours a day collecting and
processing food on their own, as well as moving around in mixedage
groups with other children to play or visit water sources (Levy et al,
2021).
Within the Maya of Zinacantan, Children of all ages acted as both the
learner and the teacher. Older siblings often taught their younger
siblings how to do everyday tasks such as washing and cooking. Children
as young as four years old already took on responsibility in initiating
learnable situations with younger siblings. Teaching skills developed
over time in children, with more verbal use for demonstrations,
feedback, and explanations common during midchildhood. Children
developing competence in teaching helped their younger siblings increase
their participation in culturally important tasks. Because play was
multi-aged, older children would show a younger child how to do a
certain task so they could participate in the play activities (Maynard,
2002).
Mix-aged playgroups among the Bayaka of the CongoBrazzaville allowed for
children to learn gender roles and cultural practices. A younger child
may be encouraged to share a food or play item by an older child, and
imitate dances (Salali et al. 2019 ). In a society absent of report
cards, records, attendance, schedules, and grade levels, a childâs
education did not require high regulation and tracking as with modern
education. Children were able to develop skills in their own time making
progress through carrying out activities independently, learning from
other children and acting as the teacher for other children.
CHILDHOOD AUTONOMY
A society that "frees" its citizens from the burden of daily physical
tasks seems to offer a more carefree childhood and lifestyle. One is not
made to âgrow up too fastâ in order to reach an early stage of
self-reliance. This has the consequence of holding back oneâs autonomy.
Children are limited in their ability to exercise independence. Control
must be continuously exerted over the child up into late adolescence.
Certain "rebellious" tendencies arise when one feels a lack control over
their environment or are not given enough opportunity to fulfill
important roles alone. Among hunter-gatherer societies, autonomy of
children is something that was greatly respected, as it allowed them to
reach early independence and encouraged them to become effective and
trusted members of the community. The child could deem their actions
useful to the group while having the freedom to perform such efforts by
themselves. There is great value in this.
For the Inuit of the Hudson Bay, it was believed children developed
reason during middle childhood and, out of respect for their personal
autonomy, adults often tried not to interfere in their learning
development. The role of an adult in a childâs education was geared
towards encouraging and guiding rather than directly teaching or
controlling. Teasing and playing games were commonly used to aid in a
childâs motivation (Boyette & Hewlett, 2017). They also provided freedom
for them to explore their natural environments to the extent of their
physical capabilities with little adult interference (Gray, 2009).
Within many of the traditional Native American tribes, noninterference
was considered crucial when it came to the learning development of
children. Children were believed to be competent enough in making their
own decisions, and were allowed freedom to develop in their own time.
Training was mostly done through trial and error with developmental
tasks being encouraged and rewarded but not deliberately taught or
forced (Newcomb, 2008).
Subsistence tasks were also left for the children to carry out within
the Aka Hunter Gatherers. Assignment of commands would appear to be
harsh to the majority of modern parents, but this method of teaching
still provided room for autonomy as children were never coerced or
forced to ensure commands were carried out. Cooperation involved
willingness from the individual. This was used as a form of, âdemand
cooperation,â which provided an opportunity for children to âconsider
the relationship between cooperation and autonomy in specific
activity-relationship contextsâ (Boyette & Hewlett 2017). A young child
could also use adult tools such as a knife on his own to cut up food
without the parent taking it away and cutting up the food themselves.
Adult interference in such a process only went as far as gestures and
moving the childâs arm occasionally to give direction (Hewlett &
Roulette, 2016).
Today much of a childâs environment is considered off-limits with the
perceived danger of the things around them, while objects are kept away
so as to be out of reach. The rise of industrialism and urbanization
have only increased parentâs concerns about the safety of their child.
When it comes to outdoor activities, many parents worry about cars,
street crime, and other dangers. Modern Society has produced the
âhelicopter parent,â as adults feel their role in parenting is the
complete protection of their child from anything that might hurt them.
Children are forced to heavily rely on adult supervision in order to
play outside which then puts responsibility on the parent, who may
decide it is easier to have their children inside occupied by
electronics where they know their child is safe. This has the
unfortunate consequence of keeping a childâs time restricted to indoors,
and limiting their autonomy. Thus does a parent become a warden and the
child an inmate.
Parental supervision in hunter gatherer societies was not obsolete,
especially during infancy most children were restricted to the camp, but
much leeway was still provided for them to learn skills autonomously.
This required the openness of the parent to allow their children to take
risks and not intrude on a lot of their activities.
Adults of the ParakanĂŁ of Brazil did not interfere with their childrenâs
lives nor offer praise or keep continuous track of their development.
Children hardly went to adults asking for help. Boys as young as eight
practiced with bow-and-arrows, and girls weaved play baskets for
themselves by taking a big knife into the forest to cut green palm
leaves (Pellegrini & Smith, 2005)
Children among the Aché of Paraguay already gained a considerable amount
of knowledge on subsistence early on in childhood. Such knowledge
included identifying edible fruits, stinging plants, animals, and being
able to forage on oneâs own. By the age of eight they learned more
difficult skills like tracking, and spent time in the trees collecting
fruit for themselves and other adults. At the age of ten, Aché children
already started to become highly independent, using hunting tools such
as bows and arrows (Hewlett & Lamb, 2005).
Among the Mbendjele of the northern Republic of the Congo, learning
tended to be self-motivated and implicit (Boyette & Hewlett, 2017).
During middle childhood, they already could forage food for themselves
since they had knowledge of what plants were edible, and how to use
tools like machetes properly. An adult would not instruct a child on how
to use a tool, but instead provided negative feedback if the way they
used it posed great interference (Salali et al, 2019).
Young children are hardly looked at as capable participants in
industrial societies. Parents will take initiative in the most simplest
tasks for children. A comparative study between middle-class LA (Los
Angeles) families and two non-industrial societies, the Matsigenka and
the Samoans, found that lack of consistency in chore assignments and
codependency across practical tasks among the LA families impeded on
oneâs desire to willfully help out. Matsigenka and Samoan children are
encouraged to fulfill assignments on their own, which gives them freedom
for self-reliance as they learn through trial and error towards
effectively executing tasks (Ochs & Izquierdo, 2009). As young as six
they are already self-sufficient in many subsistence activities, whereas
the LA child is cushioned with a lack of real obligations.
Although task assignments can sometimes be unfavorable to children
within hunter gatherer societies, they usually would rather carry out
necessary demands themselves.
Children among the Runa, forager/farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon, were
observed in how they felt engaging in subsistence activities. Children
unanimously emphasized how accomplishing a task felt good. Another boy
described how he felt happy to have successfully hunted a tapir because
that meant his mother would no longer be hungry; a thirteen year old boy
was satisfied with building his first house so that his younger brothers
had a place to sleep; a young girl, like Kiwa, declared that she was
proud when her manioc beer was served to guests and family members. All
these children emphasized the re-relational aspects of their practical
self-sufficiency (Mezzenzana, 2020).
For the Hadza, children spent a considerable amount of time and energy
at a very young age doing subsistence tasks. Young children also spent
more time outside the camp (OâConnell & Hawkes, 1995). They often
foraged and collected food for themselves, some as young as three
already digging up baobab pods during foraging trips (Hewlett & Lamb,
2005). Despite the high energy cost of participating in foraging
expeditions, children were still able to collect enough calories to
support their efforts (Hawkes, & OâConnell, 1995). And despite the more
laborious activity, children still incorporated a lot of play into their
tasks. Work-play was observed to be common among the Hadza children,
decreasing as they got older (Levy et al, 2019).
Daily life during childhood for the Baka of Southeast Cameroon was very
active and largely devoted to food procurement activities. Children
prefered to act autonomously and garner their own food supply without
the reliance on adults (Hagino & Izumi, 2014).
This is in contrast to today, where children fully rely on adults to
provide all their food procurement, which is more than likely whatever
ultra-processed ready-to-eat junk foods that are becoming increasingly
part of the modern childâs diet (Wang et al., 2021).
LEARNING THROUGH PLAY
It is not only education that has become separated from an active
lifestyle, but play has also been reduced to sedentary indoor
activities. Screen-time surpasses outdoor activity among adolescents,
and children from as young as toddler age exceed the recommended amount
of screen usage (Barnett et al., 2018; Chaput, 2018). Even seemingly
innocent or productive activities such as listening to music, art,
chores, and reading are typically spent indoors. A young childâs
interactions within their play-environment are primarily artificial.
Instead of nature as a play device, children are subject to recreational
areas, plastic toys, and virtual technologies for entertainment.
Exploration in nature has been replaced with exploration online.
The value of play among hunter-gatherers extends far beyond just mere
distraction of a childâs attention, but includes many activities put
towards useful work which allows for an earlier gain of independence.
Spear hunting among the Chabu hunter-gatherers of Ethiopia was a complex
skill that involved an adult present on the hunts to act as a teacher.
Before such elaborate teaching took place, the child already started
learning to spear hunt at around the age of six through seven through
play hunting with their peers. This method of learning was encouraged
from different figures in the childâs life, while also allowing the
child to observe the hunts. Role-playing had a positive effect on the
transition into the actual learning phase, because in most cases the
child was self-motivated to begin learning. The child also had the
option to choose who they would like to accompany them on the hunts
(Dira & Hewlett, 2016). By the age of fifteen they were regular hunters.
Similarly, children in the Agta of the Philippines were also encouraged
to engage in play which incorporated skills such as building houses,
fishing, foraging, and hunting. They had very little responsibilities
and lived a mostly carefree childhood. Around the age of ten they were
allowed to join hunting parties if they had an interest in doing so.
Foraging usually took place when children accompanied other parties of
children and women where they were able to observe and help out in
forage procurement. Young children would regularly catch game through
shooting small birds with catapults, and fish in rivers as a source of
entertainment. Through these activities they were able to progress their
abilities while being able to obtain their own resources (Hagen, Minter,
& Van Der Ploeg, 2017).
As young as three, Batek children of Malaysia were able to engage in
play with other children without direct supervision from adults. Adults
did not normally participate in childrenâs play activities, and they
were encouraged to go to the forest as much as possible. A childâs
activities usually included, âchopping trees with bush knives, building
fires, pretending to cook or actually cooking small amounts of rice or
other food, digging as if digging for tubers, climbing trees, gathering
sticks as if they were rattan, âmoving camp,â building miniature
shelters, and other activities imitative of the skills they saw
performed by adults inside and outside campâ (Endicott & Endicott, 2014)
Herder children among the Maasai communities in Southern Kenya regularly
participated in herding games which aided in the development of
livestock-related skills. These activities put the children in
continuous contact with cattle which allowed them to practice,
communicate, and transmit these skills to their peers. There was little
adult interference within their play, and the children were able to
freely enrich the human and livestock relations of the overall Maasai
society (Aumeeruddy-Thomas & Dounias, 2017).
What essentially sets play among non-industrial societies apart from
industrial societies is the performance of real activities and the use
of real objects incorporated into play as opposed to imitation items. A
2017 study revealed that a childâs preference for pretend play is mostly
due to fear of oneâs incapability to carry out real tasks and lack of
permission to. Out of a sample of a hundred children aged three to six,
65% preferred real activities instead of their pretend equivalents.
These included activities such as baking cookies, cutting vegetables,
feeding babies, and fishing (Lancy, 2020).
Though imitation toys were not entirely absent from a childâs play time
among Hunter Gatherers, much of the play items could be put to real use,
even if not as durable as actual tools. Modern parents spend hundreds on
toys each year as their childâs boredom from playing with last yearâs
gifts needs to be replenished by the next new thing. Hunter Gatherer
children were without the reliance on Santa Claus, Toys R Us, and a lot
of commercialized toy products. Instead, hunter gatherer children had
put their craft-skills into practice since much of their toys were hand
made with only natural material from their environment.
A rope made of twisted fiber could have many uses for a huntergather
child as a swimming aid, as a lasso for roping practice, a swing at a
playground, as a noose to play trapping, or as net material for play
hunting. Toy utensils were sometimes carved from small pieces of gourd,
and a tiny acorn cup could serve as a drinking cup for a doll. Leaves
and grasses were commonly used for play activities such as pretend food,
mats for furnishings, as covers for huts, or stuffing dolls (Cunnar &
Ember, 2015).
Gikuyu boys from Kenya were found to make axes, spears, slings, and bows
and arrows, like their fathers, whereas girls made pottery for use in
real and imagined cooking, clay dolls, and baskets of plaited grass
(Pellegrini & Smith, 2005).
One anthropologist among the Nayaka never witnessed children play with
toys that they had not made themselves (Naveh, 2014). There was a lack
of many toys among the Siriono of Bolivia. Miniature bows and arrows for
boys and spindles for girls were the only items used for such activity
(Holmberg, 1969).
Other forms of play among hunter gatherer societies did sometimes
involve the participation of adults, such as socializing games among the
Inuit. These games were a way to set up problems for the child who is
being socialized to solve. This required adults to test them which was
done with or without the knowledge of the child. Conflicts or
ambiguities would be created to be resolved, testing the limits of
things, of people, of situations, and of the children themselves
(Briggs, 1991).
As with the Inuit, Mbuti children of the Eastern Congo also engaged in
socialization games as a way to learn important values, but with little
adult interference. This was done by imitating adult arguments they had
seen and attempting to solve them more effectively. If the children
found they could not improve upon the argument, then they usually
resorted to ridicule until they had fallen into hysterics (Gray, 2009).
It is evident that play is an integral part of childhood and learning
development, which also encourages kids to carry out useful tasks. The
educational aspect of play among hunter gatherers is notably different
from the play involved in drawing a childâs attention to schoolwork. The
integration of âeducationalâ videos and video games have become further
utilized in classroom settings as an attempt to get children interested
in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics ) learning.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality games that serve to immerse oneâs
senses further into virtual platforms are already being encouraged and
put to use in some elementary schools (Sobel & Jhee, 2020; âVirtual
Reality,â 2019). Any skills gained from the virtual media implemented in
a childâs learning is only towards skills useful to the functioning of
our system.
Technology as an attempt to get children enthusiastic about being
outdoors seems like a clear solution to some people when it comes to the
lack of activity outside, but one is reminded of the quick loss of
enjoyment one feels after engaging with an entertainment media or device
after so long. It was only expected that a mobile gaming app like
Pokémon GO, which was positively received for getting children out the
house, would pass as a fad. Even if the technology used in such a way
was continuously updated for the upkeep of a userâs stimuli, the
connection one develops can hardly be recognized as a connection to
nature but towards the technology itself.
CONCLUSION
Motivation towards learning was easier to encourage in hunter gatherer
children, because much of what they needed to learn was actively
exercised throughout their lifestyle. They were not made to wait while
going through years of sedentary education and exams before being given
the ability to make use of what they learn. Children also saw how such
skills were utilized within their community which they would willingly
partake in. There was less studying and more doing. Today the challenges
and rewards provided are largely unsatisfactory and meaningless, making
oneâs life understimulating
The Education in hunter gatherer societies bestowed more freedom for
children to learn and grow into self-dependent individuals. School-life,
Work-like, and play-time were not entirely separate in the life of a
hunter gatherer child. One could learn through fulfilling demands within
the community, and playing with mixed-age peers which involved
practicing important skills that they would later use in life more
seriously. Self-sufficiency was highly valued, and adults made sure to
not hold back a childâs learning and autonomy by allowing them to
participate in handling adult tasks while not interfering in many of
their activities. Children were never restricted from the outdoors, as
nature was an essential part of their lifestyle.
The Education in our progressing technological society restricts a
childâs ability to become self-dependent, as a studentâs time is spent
sedentary indoors with computers and papers, developing skills only
useful towards future employment. As further advancements are made in
our society, more is implemented in education that a child is made to
learn.
The mental well-being, physical health and autonomy of children is at
great stake today. WIthout self-dependence, a childâs future is being
put in the hands of an exploitative system concerned about its own
needs.
âBeauty will save the world.â - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Progress with its machines has made the world regress to a place where
there is no beauty. If beauty is undermined, what will save the world?
What is beauty? A lot of things can be beautiful and a single definition
wonât do justice to such an abstract concept, but what we can
objectively determine is the simplicity which is the basis for it - that
is wild nature.
Beauty has been an inherent need for as long as we can trace back human
activity, and even though aesthetic principles have changed throughout
history, humans still hold a somewhat unanimous agreement upon what
makes something beautiful, with the sense of beauty seemingly being
ingrained in human nature as a whole.
The patterns that keep coming up are all rooted in nature. Beauty is the
natural order of the world. The naturalistic explanation is quite simple
here, so only a general outline of the theory will do the job.
Beauty became part of us because it helped our ancestors survive.
Symmetry in nature used to let us know everything is as it should be.
Man relied on his aesthetic senses in order to correctly assess
everything from edible foods to the weather and mating partners. In this
way, beauty, and an appreciation for pattern and form, become a trait
necessary for survival. We find comfort in beauty because in it, we find
life itself.
But why does this matter? If the sense of beauty is hardwired in us, and
we accept that beauty activates the reward mechanisms in us, producing
pleasant feelings - the next logical conclusion would be acknowledging
the major importance of beauty in our day-to-day life and in our
society.
Inasmuch as beauty provokes happiness and comfort, so does the opposite
cause man sadness, discomfort, misery. Science can only attest to this.
Different experiments and studies examining peopleâs behaviour while
perceiving architecture show that not only looking at attractive and
dull structures will make us feel bored and uncomfortable - it is also
linked to raised hearth rates and stress levels, surely leading to more
problems in the long run.
More and more studies have shown that environments which are
aesthetically pleasing to us improve our physical and mental wellbeing.
An interesting study which looked at the strong impact of beauty was
done in a hospital with two wards, one of which was old and dull, and
another which was freshly renovated and decorated with art. Recovery
factors were examined through interviews and through empiric
observations.Not only did the patients of the beautiful ward report a
more comfortable and happy stay, they were also, to the researcherâs
surprise, released on an average of a couple days earlier and requested
less pain medication during their hospitalisation. In another study,
beauty scored even higher than cleanliness and safety in the factors of
a city which affect individual happiness.
Most will agree that people nowadays are on average pretty depressed and
unsatisfied. We would not be remiss in wondering if this unhappiness is
linked with the scarcity of beauty in our day-to-day life.
Humans have left the natural world--the essence and blueprint for all
concepts of beauty and art--behind - and now dwell in manmade
environments. Even though these man-made environments try to replicate
properties of nature through various supplementary means- -sidewalk
trees, manicured lawns, floral wallpaper - it is clear that something
essential is missing.
The foundation for our human-made environment long ago ceased to be
beauty. Beauty, like nature before it, has for epochs been replaced by
functionality, efficiency and cost. Beauty becomes an obstruction to
these three pillars. An aberration. A luxury. City-dwellers should just
look out the window for proof of this, where gentrification's great
copy-paste gray-and-white rectangles give houses all the warmth and
vibrance of the reptile storage facilities behind the zoo. Another great
example of this is the USSRâs brutalist architecture.
What should we do about this? There are two options: either we return to
the origin of pure beauty, nature - or we try to model our manmade
environment after natureâs principles. I can only bring a critique to
the second option, which is tantamount to reform.
Civilisation will never be able to replicate natureâs simplicity, and in
trying to do so it will cut the branch itâs staying on, that being the
aforementioned leading principles of functionality, efficiency and cost.
Putting beauty in front of those will greatly halt mass production and
progress, which would send civilisation to its collapse.
Less radical reform wouldnât face such problems, but wonât fix anything
at all either. Redecorating a few facades and planting some flowers in
the local park wonât have a serious, long-term and global effect on
manâs condition. Nature is redecorated every spring, and it never even
has to lose its pure essence of beauty to do that.
We call for a return to beauty. For an end to efficiency. An end to
modern brutalism. This is our call:
Destroy the ugly.
Return to the beautiful.
Turn the world into the wild.
Beauty will set us free.
Nature will set us free.
Brandon "Branwell" Manwell, known by many as "Forest Anon", currently
lives completely removed from civilization in a shack built of fallen
Douglas Fir limbs in the Mojave Desert National Park, where he has lived
alone since 2018. He maintains a strong but sporadic internet presence,
giving his viewers the opportunity to share in his adventurous, off-grid
lifestyle. He has been the subject of an FBI investigation, and makes
his own Douglas Fir wine. He likes living in nature, is happy, and
enjoys his life. What follows is an exclusive interview Mr. Manwell
agreed to give Garden for this issue. He can be found on instagram
@____b.well____ and on YouTube as "Forest Anon".
Garden: When did you know you wanted to live on your own in the wild?
How did your journey begin?
Forest Anon: Iâve always loved the freedom and adventure that wilderness
provides. I grew up in a busy suburb that was surrounded by grassy hills
and sandstone peaks, and every day in order to escape the city I would
go seek out hidden gullies with patches of woods in them where I could
read or camp for a few nights. Those places took my mind away from the
city and comforted me during rough times. They taught me a lot of what I
know about wilderness and wildlife today. But over time as the city kept
expanding and developing new housing tracts I began seeing some of my
most cherished places either becoming less secluded or entirely
excavated and paved into cul-de-sacs. It was an overwhelmingly
claustrophobic feeling and I wanted to go somewhere a man could breathe
freely and roam around being himself.
At first I chose to hobo around the desert because my great grandfather
was a prospector who had lived a life full of adventure out there. I had
fallen in love with the deep solitude and mystery of the desert
landscape. I tramped around living in abandoned mining cabins in those
mountains for five months. But I soon realized those cabins were rich
with history and it began to feel like I was intruding. I wanted to go
somewhere I could build myself a little shack to create my own history
in.
I didnât want to destroy any wilderness by cutting down trees to do it,
so I picked a forest that was predominantly douglas fir. The trees here
shed their lower branches which make great timber for building. I camped
for a week looking for the perfect spot and when I found one close to
water, and with a view I thought perfect, I broke ground and began.
Garden: Is it true you live in a national park? How does that work? How
do you avoid detection and harassment by law enforcement?
Forest Anon: I live in a national forest -- illegally -- on the side of
a spur that juts out from the mountains and overlooks the forest and
desert. As long as you establish your home deep enough in the forest
where there are no trails or human traffic, and as long as itâs
reasonably inaccessible to the novice hiker or hunter then you will most
likely be safe from any human contact or authorities. But the good thing
about living minimal like this is if I were ever discovered it would be
easy to just pack up and start again on a new mountain.
Garden: Describe a typical day for you, from morning to night.
Forest Anon: My daily routine depends on the season, but the birds
usually wake me up at 6:00am when they announce their arrival at the
feeders. I put on clothes, stuff my sleeping bag in one of my backpacks
to keep the mice out, and then I go outside to pour a bucket of water
from of one of my five gallon jugs. I rinse my face, brush my teeth,
sweep the pathway, fill the bird feeders and mouse dish if needed, and
then I walk four hundred yards down to the creek to take a bath if there
is no snow.
I spend a lot of time at the creek seeing what kind of critters are
around and inspecting the plant life to study how the forest is
recovering from the recent fire. After that I hike back up here to the
shack where I either read in the hammock or sit on my bench and watch
the birds at the feeders. If I have wine brewing Iâll check on it. If
itâs spring Iâll tend to the gardens. The heatwaves of the south western
United States make summers the hardest, and I spend most summer days
pouring water on myself and praying for the sun to set.
At sunset Iâll get a fire going to make supper. Once I finish eating
Iâll pour myself some wine and sit on the hillside while I watch the
twilight fade over the desert. That is my favorite part of the day. When
darkness has fully engulfed the mountains Iâll walk back to the cabin,
feed the fire, read and write, and watch the mice chase eachother. Then
I rinse myself in the bucket one last time, unroll the sleeping bag onto
my cot and go to bed.
Garden: You were investigated and interviewed by the FBI. Do you mind
discussing what that was like, and what led to it?
Forest Anon: The FBI opened an investigation on me because I had
anti-tech literature visible on my shelves in a YouTube video, and I had
once spoken critically of Israelâs lobbying for conflict in the Middle
East. This was enough to warrant a seven month long investigation that
began on May 29th, 2020 and ended on January 14th, 2021 after I agreed
to an interview.
They never found me. My mother emailed me saying they were harassing old
family members for my whereabouts, and kept giving each of them a number
for me to call. I called it and scheduled an interview with them in a
random shopping plaza a few cities away.
I was interviewed by three Joint Terrorism Task Force agents, and after
speaking for a couple of hours they determined I wasnât any kind of
threat to society. They understood I was harmless. They even recommended
me books and gave me tips on how to make cheap hummingbird food.
Using the Freedom of Information Act I filed a request for my dossier,
and received forty six heavily redacted pages of the two hundred and
seven that are my FBI file. Their profile analysis ends with, âHe liked
living in nature, was happy, and enjoyed his life.â
Garden: You maintain an impressive internet presence and following, both
on Instagram and YouTube. How do you get power, internet, etc.? Do you
feel itâs important to be available online because you are showing
people thereâs another way to live? Or is there another reason?
Forest Anon: I have two handcranks I use to charge up a series of
powerbanks, that way I only need to crank once a week. But during the
cold months Iâll have to do it two, sometimes even three times. I like
to stay connected for a few different reasons. Some are just simple ones
like keeping in touch with friends from my old life. But one reason as
of late is I saw the feedback I received, like people telling me my
videos bring them joy and make them appreciate life, or help them
through dark periods. This one person told me they are stuck inside due
to medical issues and my videos make them feel free; it all makes me
feel like there is a big reason for doing this. To be told I make
someone feel free or desire to live means the whole world to me. Freedom
and life are the two greatest gifts.
Garden: Do you ever get lonely?
Forest Anon: I do get lonely sometimes when the fire is on its last
embers, and itâs usually when I think of old memories. But once you
shake it off and start a new day youâre just too busy to be lonely. Itâs
also a big part of why I feed the mice and birds. They are great
entertainment and even better company.
Iâve only ever had one visitor and that was my friend Penguin who
recently passed away. He got snowed in for three days and swore he would
never return. Since the whole FBI ordeal Iâve chosen to not have
visitors in order to keep this place a secret. Although I sure would
like one every now and then.
Garden: For those of us who long for a life closer to nature, can you
say you recommend your path? Or, put another way, what are the pros and
cons to the Forest Anon lifestyle? Are the sacrifices worth it?
Forest Anon: I strongly recommend this life to anybody who likes nature,
freedom, solitude, and adventure. Itâs often very hard and you have to
be okay with being extremely comfortable sometimes. But when you start
to witness things you know nobody else does, like animals whimpering in
thunderstorms, trees crashing through the canopy, beetles that take
decades to emerge from their larval state, deer drinking unaware from
the stream youâre sitting in; you never want to go back to a regular
life. The sacrifices are worth every minute. Even the rough ones. I
wouldnât trade it for all of the mansions and money in the world.
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