Bear with me. This is complicated.

Here goes . . .

We have been indoctrinated to see anarchists as violent extremists. But is this necessarily true? Do the words “violent” and “extremist” always go together? No. Anarchists are extremists, yes, in that they would relegate all forms of human-made governing structures and laws to the dustbin. But why? How could they think that way? Wouldn’t the result be chaos, “every man for himself”? I.e., is what they are calling for actually possible? I think so. And it may be coming directly at us, as formerly powerful human-made structures and organizations — banks, money, corporations, entertainment, academia, medicine, local, state, federal governing bodies and laws, both visible and invisible, continue to show evidence of corruption to the point where they might just crumble to dust.

And guess what? This may be a good thing. Because what informs and inspires anarchy is animism.

Two days ago, I was standing in line at Kroger, waiting on a woman in her early 40s and her young overweight son. The woman herself looked both physically strong, and yet exhausted, as if she leads a hard life. But: in her groaning overloaded basket she had $277 worth of “food,” packaged junk mostly, plus lots of sugary sodas. The wait took a long time. She pulled out four credit cards and a debit card. Tried the debit card first, but it didn’t go through. So she inserted the credit cards, one after another, putting a small portion of her bill on each one. “How much is left?” she asked the clerk, pulling some cash out of her pocket. Okay, $70 cash helps, but . . . The clerk waited patiently . . . Finally, she asked him, “How do I use my debit card as a credit card?” He pointed to a button, and she was able to complete the transaction. During this ten minute ordeal, at first I watched in selfish consternation (come on, lady-buying-junk-food, you’re holding up the line) — which then melted into compassion. What kind of economic edge is this woman riding, that she must use multiple, nearly maxed out credit cards?

Yesterday evening I told my son Colin about this incident, and when he heard about all the credit cards, his eyes widened. He then told me a story of his own. He had been at Kroger about a week ago, when an obese black woman in front of him, who had bought a similar mountain of packaged junk for food, discovered that her phone did not work. She would need to put more money into it. She didn’t have cash with her. What would she do? She needed to call her son to have him pick her up!

Colin heard all this, and somehow maneuvered to get the woman out of the line, so that he could hand her $20 to put on her phone without anyone knowing.  As you can imagine, her gratitude was boundless.

This is our reality now, full of incidents like the two above, as clearly desperate people navigate our inexorably decomposing social and economic milieu which requires continuous adjustment on everyone’s part, and often results in miracles of connection. Like Colin’s story. Like the one I told about the woman who went out of her way to return my wallet.

I haven’t personally noticed that many “empty shelves” yet, except for certain items at Aldi, which remain missing for weeks. Like cat food! Like non-gluten bagels! Two of my “necessities.” I know that’s bullshit. What IS necessary these days depends on just how far  you’ve gone down the scale of being able to provide for yourself and others, as inflation eats away at all but oligarchs’ incomes,  savings, retirement funds.

Yesterday, all day long, I noticed that I was filled with a sense of dread, impending doom. I stayed with the feeling, noticing it more and more viscerally, and sensed that I was dipping into collective dread, much as I would at times notice myself dipping into the collective currents of F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real), coursing through the collective unconscious during the long strange Covid Con saga.

I knew that if I just “got outside,” worked in the soil, the dread would disappear, and it did. Moving back into the natural world did wonders, as usual.

Early this morning, I found myself reading through a number of posts on the three-month old nevermoremedia.substack.com. Internal guidance directed me there, where I found the same kind of attitude that I myself have entertained for nearly 50 years. On this substack website it’s called “anarchy,” which is equated with “natural law.” I.e., only as we recognize our communion with mother nature, do we feel both our individuality and our social connections. And when we do, man-made governments are not necessary.

For example, try this one on for size, and there are more where that came from. All thought-provoking.

THE INEVITABLE TRIUMPH OF ANARCHISM

Me? I couldn’t get enough. It starts with a quote from Emma Goldman, an old hero of mine.

Which brings me to the main subject I wanted to write about today: “religion,” the etymology of which I have long considered to refer to a “binding,” like a ligament binds. On the other hand, it turns out that the etymology of this word is open to debate.

But if we do see religion as something that binds? What is it to which we are bound? And I would say, to the natural world which our embodied selves are embedded within and breathe in unison with all other embodied beings — insects, animals, birds, trees, plants, minerals, the Earth herself, out to the solar system, the galaxy, on and on, no end to it. The divine embraces and nourishes all, filling and fueling the universe.

ANARCHY, as an ideology; ANIMISM as what powers anarchy.

BTW: Note also, one way of parsing the etymology of anarchy = no archon!

(I first read about archons in John Lamb Nash’s fascinating book on the gnostics, Not in HIs Image, and was so freaked out I couldn’t finish the book. I’ve gotten stronger since.)

From Spiritual Ecology, and the Living Breathing World of Animism

Anima Mundi is a far cry from Christianity, or any belief system that features a disembodied “God” (or gods, goddesses) who created, or caused, this natural world to come into being. As if from a “Big Bang.” To me this is nonsense! As causality itself is nonsense, a mental apparatus we humans “thought up” in order to make linear sense in 3D of the mysterious multidimensional panorama of Being.

Rather, I sense that what we refer to generically as “the world” always was and always will be, all beings within it breathing together, rising and falling in what Buddhists refer to as “co-dependent arising.” Aliveness and consciousness as primary. An external “God” unnecessary. Ockham’s razor!

And with that in mind, perhaps the fact that more and more people are leaving Christianity and declaring themselves Atheists is the first step in a more mature direction. I know that’s how I evolved. From believing in the Big Daddy Sky God (Roman Catholic version), to Atheism (very short lived), to immersion within the divinity that shines through all.

In other words, for me, Christianity is a childlike form of religion, because it needs a Big Daddy God to make sure people follow the tenets of decency towards one another. Certainly better than hedonism, pure unadulterated selfishness! Yes! Way better than acting as if, and assuming that, “nothing matters, there is no meaning in the world, so just do whatever you want. Who cares if it harms another?” This degeneration does seem, increasingly, to infect especially younger generations, raised on screens, at one remove from organic life on earth.

But anarchy, if seen as the mental structure that accompanies animistic immersion in the whole of Being, makes both individuality and social connection automatic. Just as it was automatic for my son Colin to help the woman who stood in line before him at Kroger. He didn’t think. He just responded. Just as it was automatic — once I got through my egocentric impatience with both the time she was taking and her obvious disregard? indifference? uneducated? understanding of what food actually nourishes the human body/mind/spirit — for me to respond with empathy, to actually feel myself inside this woman, desperate to successfully juggle multiple nearly maxed-out credit cards in order to incrementally pay her $277 bill.

Another way of talking about animism, this ancient religion, this binding back to nature, is to invoke the contemporary phrase, “spiritual ecology.” Here’s a beautiful meditation on the mysterious presence that we share with all beings.

What Is Spiritual Ecology?