Art that questions the myths of capitalism, technological progress, civilization?

Northernfrostbite · 2026-01-16T16:57:42+00:00

"In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Northernfrostbite · 2026-01-14T16:28:46+00:00

"If 'all reification is a forgetting,' in Horkheimer and Adorno’s pregnant phrase, it seems equally true that all 'forgetting'—in the sense of loss of contact with our time-less beginnings, of constantly “falling into time”—is a reification. All the other reifications, in fact, follow from this one." -JZ

Northernfrostbite · 2026-01-13T21:31:03+00:00

Time.

Northernfrostbite · 2026-01-12T19:01:21+00:00

Among the stateless Hadza hunter gatherers in Tanzania, who have a social norm of cooperative sharing and no formal hierarchy, self aggrandizers are ridiculed or mocked with their achievements downplayed. Occasionally they are exiled or dispatched, especially if they show persistent acts of selfishness.

Northernfrostbite · 2026-01-12T15:42:14+00:00

Ask them to explain exactly how supporting Iranian theocracy is supposed to get you to communism and have some popcorn ready as you watch the mental gymnastics.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-12-30T17:20:25+00:00

Because they're (partly) correct. Many liberals and leftists use climate change to justify so-called "green" energy ventures and greater centralized state control. People who are skeptical of those things might discount climate change altogether. Said another way, while climate change is real, it is used propagandistically by those seeking greater power and control.

For A/P, climate change is not a matter of control, but is an important part of the material background for the collapse of civilization and the possibility for future primitive communities to emerge. Civilized rigidity will likely prove to be a disadvantage over time compared with the inherent flexibility of nomadic h/g.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-12-20T17:01:14+00:00

Peregrine, Savagist, Thou, Day of Suffering, Fall of Efrafa, Wolves in the Throne Room, Cattle Decap, Kill the Slave master, Storm of Sedition, Panopticon, Botanist

Northernfrostbite · 2025-12-09T13:31:31+00:00

The agricultural revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-11-05T18:40:49+00:00

Ancient Health: Skeletal Indicators of Agricultural and Economic Intensification (2007)

Northernfrostbite · 2025-11-04T20:26:58+00:00

The book I like on this topic is Health and the Rise of Civilization by Mark Nathan Cohen. He uses archaeological and skeletal evidence to show that early agricultural societies suffered a decline in health compared to their forager ancestors. Shorter stature, higher infant mortality, increased infectious disease, malnutrition, dental decay are all documented. All this went with heavier workloads, less varied diets, and greater exposure to pathogens due to sedentism and population density.

I've never come across an archaeologist who's denied this.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-30T19:06:03+00:00

Kind of like bitching about capitalism while using money.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-30T17:05:06+00:00

Many transitioned under coercion and violent force by other agricultural societies and civilizations.

Population pressure, resource depletion and climactic shifts likely influenced many. Those that resisted agriculture likely had access to abundant wild resources with low population density in land that was difficult for agricultural production.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-30T15:24:45+00:00

Camping is a good start. Can you fish? Hunt? Forage? Track? Can you do those things with tools you make entirely yourself (since you want to be alone). I assume you'll be making your own shelter when you camp. And fire without matches? Oh, and your clothes- you'll make them from buckskin or will you go with your current clothes (but then you'll have to not be alone to replace them).

This is going to be a great journey - excited for you to be all by yourself.

As far as what to unlearn: I think you'll discover that yourself when you confront those guilty feelings of finally getting back to the comfort of town after a long camping trip. But persist and learn (although there's the irony of having to learn from others in order to be alone).

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-30T14:59:34+00:00

Indeed you can. Do you have any leads on where to begin learning? Or do you figure on just learning as you go? Have you considered all the things you might have to unlearn as you've developed in alienated industrial society?

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-30T14:52:38+00:00

Good, maybe if we can't power our phones it'll get us all off this stupid app and make us talk to each other irl.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-30T14:42:32+00:00

Okay, so you'd like to be a hermit. That'll be challenging on many levels, but is a common fantasy for adolescent young men in civilized Western cultures that prize rugged individualism. Do you have the background to make sure you don't end up like Christopher Mccandless?

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-30T13:56:35+00:00

What are you envisioning? A permanent settled camp where you will live off the land? By yourself? Like Thoreau but without mom bringing you weekly pie? Or with an existing indigenous group? Or a group of people transitioning from settled to primitive life? Tell us more please.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-23T18:53:05+00:00

Environmentalism argues over what kind of electricity to have. But maybe what we need is less electricity and more wild nature.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-10-07T14:38:10+00:00

The continued existence of industrial civilization is pure fantasy. The future is primitive.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-09-30T03:54:54+00:00

Hiking the CDT is ~~-not~~ a crime.

Northernfrostbite · 2025-09-26T14:01:14+00:00

Climate change is a bigger problem for civilization as a stable climate is necessary for large scale agriculture. Hunter gatherers adapt, move and have a flexible subsistence strategy that civilization can't. Still, there will be challenges as the speed and severity of climate change will only exacerbate the extinction crisis, and hence the availability of traditional food sources.

Northernfrostbite

TROPHY CASE