Flux

It is clear that civilization is a war against life; it was founded in the domination of other species, and in its present maturity has dealt a devastating blow to biotic diversity worldwide. Most people involved in this debacle wouldn't point to the destruction of biological diversity as the overarching goal of their culture, so what would they point to? I think most people's responses would unite in a theme of "progress" towards some achievable goal of human prosperity. This myth of "progress" (a single course for all humanity to follow) is central to the civilized culture.

Politics is the futile steering of this unstoppable train of "progress" to the left or to the right before its inevitable destruction. Liberals are in denial about the true make-up of civilization. They fantasize about "progress" towards a utopia of social equality. The conservatives in power seem to be more accepting of the inherent oppressiveness of civilization and thus dream of "progress" towards increasing wealth and development. The obsession with attaining some higher state of being, not currently realized, is also manifested in religion (the Christian heaven and the Buddhist nirvana). Could it be that these desires for “salvation” and “enlightenment” were fabricated by people who weren’t very happy with their place in the world? “Progress” is so appealing because we all want to move away from the wretched state of affairs civilization has presented us with.

Combined with anthropocentrism and "faith" in governments, gods, and other abstract ideologies, “progress” is the social fuel of civilization. It is what causes people to build dams, skyscrapers, and shopping malls. It is grounds for the perpetration of genocide. It convinces people they are working themselves to death for “the good of society”. It puts people on a frantic treadmill of production, becoming sick and abused. There is a prevalent fear of wasting away one’s life because of this cultural urge to get somewhere. But what you find when you rid yourself of distractions is that there is no need to go anywhere or do anything because the Earth is our home and it’s just fine and lovely without our “improvement”. In fact, life is most enjoyable when doing nothing at all but eating, sleeping, making love, and enjoying the wonders of our surroundings. This leisurely way of life is the way of the native, and the reason why many indigenous people have been accused of being “lazy”. By practicing the art of nothing, humans can be at balance with the entirety of life and the elements. This eternal cyclical relationship contrasts with the linear dead-end route of civilized “progress”. Civilization is comprised of a species that is foolishly lost. You don't have to fight your way home, you can drift.

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Perhaps life is chaos, unruly anarchy. Perhaps this is why systems of control and order are running up against the walls they have made to make sense of the massive complexity that is existence. Nothing is more fulfilling and satisfying than just being. What’s so wrong with throwing up your hands and saying enough!? Then proceeding to dance in the rain, climb a tree, or run through the tall grass. Drop everything immediately. In your loss you will not find despair, but rather ecstatic liberation from the ruts of routine and monotony. Beauty is found in the flow of life, not in remembering the past or looking to the future. Give in to the disorder that is every passing moment. Give in to the wind, the waves, and the wild. When your physical constituency passes with time, you’ll return to the eternal soil and feed the cycle that was not structured or engineered, but just is. No plan, no design. It’s utterly beautiful chaos. It is nonsensically improbable that we are alive. The future is unwritten. Celebrate everything.

Walls

Civilization constructs numerous physical and mental walls. These barricades, blockades, fences, and facades separate people from themselves, each other, and the greater community of Life. This is best exemplified by the lines drawn in the dirt that people call "nations". Migrating birds, along with 10 million other wild species, don't seem to take notice of political property boundaries. Nations are indeed artifacts of the human imagination. Emma Goldman explains the consequences of these borders,

"Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better, grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.
The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, with the result that from early infancy the mind of the child is provided with blood-curdling stories about the Germans, the French, the Italians, Russians, etc. When the child has reached manhood he is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord himself to defend his country against the attack or invasion of any foreigner. It is for that purpose that we are clamoring for a greater army and navy, more battleships and ammunition."

Why does civilization systematically divide and partition? In order to achieve control. With control, the system seizes autonomy and awareness from living things and concentrates it into an artifical centralized authority. Theft is a necessary precursor of all power and property. This is the essence of all hierarchical human relations (i.e. governments, religions, institutions). Elitism and authority are civilized fabrications that do not occur in the natural realm. There are no kings, politicians, or committees that rule the forest, prairie, or swamp. The systems that maintain balance in the natural domain are infinitely complex and rely upon diversity as opposed to the imposed uniformity of civilization. Thus, civilization is counter-evolutionary and clearly a biological catastrophe as it has initiated a new era of extinction.

Empiricism

Life is the combined experiences of the trillions of living things on the planet. Each living entity has a unique perspective on Life. If I am able to perceive these experiences it is through sensory perception that I will come to understand Life. All I can truly know at any given moment is the image in my eyes, the sound in my ears, the scent in my nose, the taste in my mouth, and the impact on my skin. It recently dawned on me that my past and my dreams have the same fundamental structure: they are both an assortment of perceptions stored in my mind. The only difference between the two is their abstract categorization. It is merely frail labels that separate fact from fiction in the human mind. Can we ever truly comprehend the complexities of the universe and Life? No. We are imperfect beautiful biological beings with no almighty power. If power isn't a figment of our imagination how can we know that it is humans who are intended to rule the Earth and not any one of the other billions of species that have ever existed or will exist? I marvel and worship the unknown complexities that bind us to the web of Life. Should you choose to believe that the unknown complexities of existence are manifested in a being (many choose a superior deity) just remember that it is equally likely that a flying spaghetti monster created the universe.

Ants

With agriculture human beings multiplied like never before. With industrial technology they have rose to 6 billion. Each civilized human is an individual unit comprising a massive superorganism. We are not unique in our extreme colonial nature. There are more than 10,000 different species of ants that form highly structured superorganisms that can consist of millions of individuals. Watch people move about in a city (or watch Dance Monkeys Dance). Millions of units constantly participating in this social scheme, interacting in an artificial environment suited to their specific superorganism. Not unlike ants. In fact, some ants even practice agriculture of aphids and fungi. There is a key difference between ants and civilized humans though. It has to do with the human mind. Ants evolved to form social superorganisms as a result of environmental factors and natural selection. Each ant is instinctually a constituent of their colony. Human beings have developed superorganisms because they found out how to do so with their minds. We are not hardwired to live in cities and sit at computers, we evolved living in tribes integrated with the natural environment.

Domesticated animals like cows and sheep have been bred to be dependent on civilization. Humans have not. We are all born wild and only through rigorous conditioning do we tolerate a lifeway contrary to our biological desires. We are coerced into living a life against our intuition with government, religion, advertising/propaganda, and the general ignorance of an alternative. What you may discover though is that we still have free will, we have the choice to continue our designated contribution as cog in the megamachine of destruction. Domestication can be reversed. Rewilding is possible. Civilized humans have, can, and will go feral.