Today’s media headlines are full of topics about climate change and propaganda on addressing the issues of industrialized societies effect on the environment, but fail to offer a realistic solution to the disastrous effects civilization has had on the human race and the planet.
Many people around the world are searching for a way to “bring down civilization.” What we need to understand is that the machine is being funded and kept alive by the masses. Mass production wouldn’t be possible without mass consumption. If we really want to bring the system down, we need to find a way to convince the masses to voluntarily dump civilization and return to a sustainable way of living.
The invention of the monetary system has made it possible for someone far away you have no influence on to collect taxes and fund the system that entraps them. Globalization is making it possible for large conglomerates and corporations to buy out local businesses and control employment, destroying local economies.
Indigenous societies and people like the Amish are perfect examples of peoples that survive without civilizations use of technology and resources. We can learn much about surviving without the technological infrastructure from them.
In short, if we want an eco revolution, it would be best if we could get the human race to participate in a “strike” of civilization and a return to local land based communities (particularly the American public). This would include simple steps towards deindustrialization, like planting community gardens, stop paying taxes, going to school, work, and learning to hunt and gather wild food and medicinal plants. We need to put aside the state regulated propaganda we’ve learned in schools and take the system down from the inside out. One person can’t do it alone, but with the mass cooperation, we can surely dump the system and change the world.
Michael Sykes is an 18-year-old anarchist from Lambertville, MI, currently serving a prison sentence for eco-related acts of property destruction, committed while he was a minor. He was convicted of setting fire to two homes under construction, and accused of attempting to cut down a utility pole, burning down other homes under construction, and setting fire to a Kroger’s semi-trailer. He was tried as an adult and is currently serving a 4-10 year prison sentence with somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000 in restitution. While Michael was 17 at the time of the alleged crimes, he was tried as an adult. His motivation was to interfere with sprawl, because he “was tired of seeing all the forest being destroyed.”
