When I give presentations about the impacts of inherent privilege, I’m usually addressing an audience who have resigned themselves to the fact that the only way to create justice is to reform the monstrosity that is modern society. They never consider abandoning or dismantling the systems that make up modern society – and not because they perceive that to be impossible, but because they think of the system and life itself, as being one and the same.
What is the system?
It is a series of large institutions that collectively provide the structure of our living arrangement. What is our living arrangement? It is civilization – or more accurately – industrial civilization.
What is civilization and what made it industrial?
Civilization is a form of living that requires a division of labor to import and export goods and services. It became industrialized when we began using fossil fuels as a method to increase the speed and efficiency of production. The consequences of this have been enormous. In short, it is destroying everything in its path … including us.
Industrial civilization is life in our eyes.
It’s all we know. There are those who live outside of it but they are being absorbed and devoured by it and quickly disappearing. Those of us born into it – who are striving for justice – don’t realize that the very way we all stay alive requires massive amounts of injustice. Our inherent privilege clouds our perception, allowing us to observe our version of the the world involuntarily hoisted upon everyone else without ever realizing how fucked up that is.
Those of us who want justice in this world, continue to perpetuate injustice by our very pursuit of justice within the industrial model. It’s a predicament. The industrial model doesn’t believe in predicaments. The industrial model was created to solve problems. The industrial model is not the problem but rather the predicament. Huh? When the very thing that we’ve created is supposed to be a solution but ends up being a problem creator, there eventually comes a time when we’ve gone so far over the edge of the cliff that gravity takes over. That time is now. We, like Wylie Coyote, were once airborne over the cliff. I say were because we are no longer just hanging out there off the edge, but rather we are plummeting toward the surface.
Our response to our quick demise is to pass policies, to vote, to protest and to go to environmental and social justice conferences. The sad part is that we don’t know we’ve gone over the cliff let alone that we’re racing towards the ground. The world burns and still we never consider addressing the actual system that was formed as a result of our civilized living arrangement. The civilized narrative is so strong we can’t even see it.
I’m often asked, “Have you given up the fight for life?”
No. How can one give up something they don’t even know exists. Civilization and the institutions (and the larger systems those institutions create) are not life. They are death. Instead what we’ve given up is being conscious. The one thing we claim to have over other species is the one thing most of us have never had. If we did, we surely wouldn’t continue to work so diligently trying to reform that which is killing us.
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Easy to say, super difficult to do. It isn’t just a matter of being conscious or aware. Speaking about inherent privilege, how many can actually “leave” the system behind? And is this even possible? We all use stuff, technology and resources coming from the system. Dismantling it is not an easy task when you have seven billion who cannot agree on basic values and the stories that shape their lives. We are falling, but there’s falling by blaming and whining and falling by supporting initiatives that create new and local system of resilience. We may accomplish more with compassion than… Read more »
If no one even considers dismantling it’s doubtful they will find compassion living in a system they never question.
I think many people would give up this way of life if they hadn’t lost the skills it takes to live sustainably. Growing food, sourcing water, making clothing, keeping warm and so on. All of these skills require community which is the most tragic loss of all.
You should at least credit Guy McPherson. But YES,
Credit him with? If you mean dismantling I’m gonna go with Derrick Jensen in 2005, Quinn in 1992 and native peoples for 12000 years before my good friend.
Hard stuff to face, I call this industrial civilization a metastatic culture which like cancer destroys the very substrate of our existence. The most healing thing for me in the face of all this is to get as close as possible to the living earth.