merefaith: discipleship in the ruins of empire

Yesterday I was visiting Jesus Radicals, a website dedicated to Christian anarchism, where I came across a report from a conference held in Philadelphia back in October. Its keynote speaker was Ched Myers, author of a great political commentary on Mark, Binding the Strong Man, and a promoter of alternative economics. However, this event, called "Gathering Around the Un-Hewn Stone," aimed for a much larger prize. Why stop at critiquing global capitalism when you can go after the whole system - and I mean the whole system. Myers did nothing less than question, well, civilization itself.

Hunter-gatherer economics? "Rewilding"? "Feral faith"? Do what now?

Needless to say I launched into a bit of reading to learn more about - picture this - the anti-civilization movement, also known as primitivism. Joined with anarchism it becomes anarcho-primitivism. And it's got some Christians right in the thick of it.

The critique is more substantial than the constructive proposals. In essence, the emergence of organized, complex societies built on agriculture and the division of labor has resulted in the creation or expansion of various ills that did not plague humanity in the long prehistorical era. The list includes social stratification and oppression, gender inequality, burdensome work, and increased warfare and disease.

It's not entirely as crazy as it sounds. The original sins of agriculture, as it has been commonly practiced, have been documented by Jared Diamond (PDF) and Richard Manning, among others. The evidence from contemporary hunter-gatherer communities suggest that under such conditions the amount of time spent on "work" is far less than the hours put in by, say, a decently successful middle-class American. There is debate as to whether pre-civilized humanity was more or less violent than today. Meanwhile, in the Bible, we do find some attacks on mass society, at least as it manifests in oppressive forms (cf. J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image, and the chapter on Genesis 1-11 as Mesopotamian ideology critique).

And, of course, we know full well by now that our current course of allegedly never-ending economic expansion and resource depletion is unsustainable. But a massive die-off of the vast majority of the world's inhabitants so that the survivors can "rewild" themselves is particularly unsavory. Not to mention that, having been nearsighted before LASIK surgery, that my life would not have gone very well if there were no civilization.

The anarcho-primitivists, so far as I can see, are short on solutions for a way forward. Some, it seems, actually think we should all be hunter-gatherers again and abandon science, medicine, indoor plumbing, hot showers, even coffee for those of you strangely in love with the bean. Most, I imagine, try to be more nuanced, but I have yet to see a vision of the future that seems worthy, attainable, and accounting of civilization's benefits. It will be fascinating to keep reading, but I won't be working on those atlatl skills just yet.