A Parody of Inherent Contradiction
Composing with a vocabulary most people don’t share only gets you so far. Take John Zerzan, for instance. Zerzan is anarcho-primitivist and writes about civilized destruction from a very deep, intellectual level. His conversations about the philosophy of taking modern culture back to its early Homo roots is beyond the knowledge of common understanding, and so far beyond the thought processes of primitive people’s, there’s little room to convert heady, mind games into a present, spiritual overview.
I find trouble connecting to their ideas. As much as I’m alienated by popular culture, mass-marketed schematics and basic communication, I also feel very distant from many of the radical, green, anarchist environmentalists from our latest activist craze. I’m intrigued by their attempts and successes in reaching larger, supportive audiences, but can’t fully comprehend the methods and tools used to do it. There isn’t a variety of innovative departure or a divergence from the currently used mediums of destruction. Maybe we’re the middle children of the movement, further along the stone path than the moderate environmentalists of the 1970’s and 1980’s but not yet near the soft, fertile, soiled end. It’s clear there are fully active, violent and completely insane clusters of radicals putting an immediate stop to earth destruction, but the vast majority of us are of nature’s adoration and not natural fortification.
Some of my critiques and attitudes come from jealousy. I’m not doing enough, and not spreading my passionate, verbal ilk to those who need it most. But I see their faces in films, read their names in books and wonder if their perspectives are cleverly marketed to people like me, just as mass media markets to convention. I’m a bystander, writing my own stances for myself and the few who read an everyperson’s blog. I desire to be known, yet argue internally over the inherent contradiction. That phrase, ‘inherent contradiction’. What does it mean?
When considering morals, values, ethics, judgment or anything along the spectrum of acceptability, restraint and merit, I convince myself via inherence, a brief but fully-enveloped and embalmed venture into my brain, or my cognitive and mnemonic stores of beliefs. Immediately I’m aware if what I do next will hurt another individual, group, ecology, energy or universal intangibility. What I’m never sure of – or really can’t seem to overcome – is the hurt it causes me. But that’s another, more personal journey.
From the awareness of my inherited stance, I can easily determine if that next move is contradictory. Less often than all, I avoid doing and avoid hypocrisy. When I was younger this wasn’t so easy to come by, finding and using my awareness of inherent contradiction. I was reckless, and though the ideals were present, I was so impulsive and flagrantly pleasure-seeking, my ration and passion couldn’t compete. It’s much easier today, yet I’ve begun to channel it to the motives of others and have been second-guessing my lifestyle and path because of exposure, or a lack thereof. Does the level of influence and importance hinge on Candide?
I’ve never read Voltaire’s satire, yet I understand the basic premise of the plot, and through some collective unconscious of knowledge, literature and philosophy, there’s conjointment. I’m autonomously brought to lexical parallax, a multiple-viewed wordplay whereby one hilarious character from an Enlightenment comedy now represents a whole demographic of people I’ve been trying to summate candidly enough as to not be offensive to them or anyone affiliating with them. There’s parody of major theme and ridicule of major party, yet it’s not that funny unless the wit is contagiously inherent. I don’t know, maybe you get it too.
You see, I used to think my desire for mental constructs was learned from years of schooling and even more years of higher education. Now, I’m more inclined to say this is how I’ve always been. I’ve always found the earth more important than myself. I’ve always loved to write words, play with words and create words to describe indescribable. I’ve always made fun of others, which today has become solemn critiques of more than their work. I make fun of their being, but I never fail to make fun of mine. I think that’s what gives me free reign and a terrible rapport with overly-sensitive academics. I’m open-mouthed and -hearted. I can’t hesitate because I’ve already tapped my internal reserves. I do it synchronously as we communicate. Or I’ll fabricate, with expectation, what you might say. Either way, you need to defend what I already think I know or come up with a new angled frame.
But all of this is less about the frame of ‘inherent contradiction’ with which I work and more about the over-analyzation of simple, survival actions intended to salvage what is left of fairly abundant green and primal ecologies. The people I’ve looked up to or respected as brave compatriots for a sustainable future are also decimating it a little more than I am, with exception. I’ve always found it worthwhile to learn about how some of the radical environmentalists and anarchists live. John Zerzan, for example, lives in Eugene, Oregon, in a little cabin-styled home as part of a collective. He doesn’t drive or own a car, doesn’t have a computer and doesn’t have a credit card. As for resources such as water, electric, sewage and waste, a collective might or might not take care of such needs sustainably. I’d like to find out.
Me, I live in a three bedroom, one bath, two story, 850 square foot house with a partner and two dogs. I use electric and water supplied by the city. I have a company pick up my trash and recyclables once a week. I own a car and drive it about 20 miles a week, at most. I don’t have a credit card or debt. I make all my meals each week sans two. I use three personal item outlets, all with power strips I unplug each night. The other stuff is pretty common sensical – recycled toilet paper, cloth napkins, reusable water containers, canvas shopping bags, scrap paper for tablets, and a few other odds and ends. To change my entire energy and waste infrastructure is desired, but I’m not at the economic level capable of achieving it yet. I’m poverty-level, although my partner isn’t. I do have the technical ability to head in such a direction but a space is needed, as are friends to do it with. Now it feels like a classified ad. I’m also interested in gardening and farming, hunting and gathering, but as before, no space and no help. It’s a domesticated issue I can only complain about for now, yet my circumstance with love is euphoric and the balance tilts firmly with it.
Before heading off to appease other intellectual needs, a fair-minded assessment is just. I don’t intend to offend. I don’t want to ridicule or blaspheme those I know are making productive strides in an inherently, non-contradictory direction, yet I’m not interested in continually and conceptually outwitting those I have no hope for or whom have no hope for themselves. Instead, I want to encourage even more highly-developed and evolved survival behaviors, techniques, mentalities and personalities by challenging, conflicting with, and supporting those I have much in common. It’s a psychological fault to resort to accusation when one feels inadequate, and that’s where I’m at. No Candide at this time, just candid, brutal honesty about what else needs to be accomplished.



