Serpent Visions

(This treatise was written in a moment of existential and socio-political frustration. I imagine its context will become more clear if/as I keep posting thoughts like these).

      My desperate thoughts revolve around two assumptions. First, the world and its capacity to support human life (or life in general, for that matter) is rapidly and unprecedentedly changing for the worse. More conservative philosophies would push back here, calmly pointing out that climate has fluctuated frequently and dramatically throughout Earth’s history, which is true. On the other hand, I feel that the immense influence of the Anthropocene is objectively unlike anything else in the past- that we are collectively, systematically, and swiftly destroying too many of the ecological subsystems which all work together to maintain a healthy, livable, biodiverse, and balanced global ecosystem. Other revolutionary and activist efforts for the cause of ecological restoration have apparently hitherto failed to enact change from the top down. But another movement has been taking place, one which rejects the widespread socio-cultural paradigm in favor of one of their own creation. This route largely ignores the power structures so bent on ecological annihilation for capital and political gain, and instead cuts straight to the core problem- the collective addiction to comfort, convenience, and consumption. While, admittedly, only a handful of intrepid and radical souls seem to be adopting such an alternative way of life, they are least demonstrating its efficacy in social, ecological, political, and even cultural reform. 

      The second primary assumption upon which my thoughts depend is in regard to the Academy. The framework of educational (indoctrinational?) institutions appears to retain its age-old identity as an ivory tower, even after “progressive” cultural influence (although it also seems to insist it is actually made of humble clay and mortar). A great feeling of dread enters my heart when, in the midst of this mass ecological and socio-political rape and violence, and potentially the relatively imminent destruction of the human species, I am instructed to translate antique Latin letters discussing dinner condiments. In other words, my assumption is that the Academy, or at least the surely-important field of Classical Studies (of which I have hitherto been a part), is doing absolutely nothing in the face of humanity’s greatest crisis. 

      For many, this is acceptable. They probably feel that our ecological issues are for more qualified others to tackle- engineers, biologists, meteorologists, computer scientists, and so on. This is not so from my concerned perspective. Our current predicament is not something to be associated with a mere few sects of science and society, but rather all of it. The food we eat and how it is grown, transported, and sold. Our transportation habits. The vile corporations to whom our money continuously flows like ritual offerings to the temple, who have effectively dominated our economy and government, who have spread enough propaganda to fully inculcate a sickness, an addiction to consumption into every citizen. The petty political divide fabricated by those at the top to keep us, the people, fighting each other instead of (easily!) toppling their power structures, their lofty thrones built upon the poor, the marginalized, nuclear stockpiles, weapon caches, and the bodies of brave soldiers too indoctrinated in lies to question their mandated violence. The screens, the cameras, the microphones, the Big Brother we have all accepted as a given, installed in our homes, eternally fixed in our grasp, forever beaming distracting bullshit and corporate propaganda into our exposed psyches, promising spiritual and material fulfilment with one hand and robbing us blind of both with the other. 

      What I propose is not new. Rather, what I propose is a model of society which existed long before ours, long before the Greeks codified rational philosophy and the Egyptians constructed the pyramids. What I propose is a rejection of the current civilization of comfort, convenience, and consumption, and the adoption of egalitarian, collective, self-sustaining social models wherever like-minded and open-hearted people can coordinate, locate, construct, and create one. To this end, I intend to found a commune with those kindred spirits whom I have befriended in my life, either immediately following my doctoral graduation (another four long and burdensome years of half-heartedly playing the game), or sooner, after dropping out. As a community, people can establish a constitution, but I also strongly encourage an active cultivation of a sort of collective spirit, a unified resolve/will to be handed down from generation to generation, so that the overly-rigid words of the constitution, stale with old age, do not become irrelevant or too ambiguous for future generations, with the result that they turn on one another and split according to alternative interpretations (sound familiar?). A sense of we’re-all-human-and-we’re-all-in-this-together is what is so fundamental to a peaceful, stable, fruitful social existence. And this is precisely what the country, no, the world lacks right now. We all have different ideas of who we are and where we ought to go. We are too divided, individualistic, egotistical. We do not love our neighbors. We are suffering from extreme and chronic anxiety and depression as a result of this spiritual deficit, and what I propose is, in my mind, the only pragmatic solution.