20 June 2004
Dear Friends,
Last month, I wrote to you about Civilization and Savagery, an essay which has meanwhile had some feedback and prompts a sequel; for which I have borrowed the title, Beyond Civilization, from a book of the same title by Daniel Quinn.1 This book is having a major impact upon what I have been thinking about, and writing about, for many years past, and I would like to share some thoughts with you in this swiftly shifting light.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
– R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983.2
In Civilization and Savagery, I quoted the Dictionary definition of "civilization" as An advanced state of cultural and material development in human society, marked by political and social complexity and progress in the arts and sciences – and proposed a counter-definition of civilization, as I have been using the term, as follows:
A civilication consists of a population of civilized humans. A civilized human is one who in no way imposes, or attempts to impose his or her unsolicited will upon that of another. Defensive responses to the unsolicited imposition of will are not inconsistent with being civilized. Pre-emptive use of force is the opposite of civilized behavior, and is the defining mark of savagery and barbarism.3
I was immediately challenged with the suggestion that I find an alternative word; that civilization is and always has been a term denoting a hierarchical structure which cannot be reconciled with the sense in which I use the term. I acknowledged this as a valid point, yet I was unable to find in my Thesaurus a satisfactory synonym. I could find no alternative English word which conveyed the sense of "gentle refinement," "enlightenment," "cultural sophistication" I have always associated with the word, "civilization," and whose opposite is described by "barbarism" and "savagery." I concluded I had done well enough – or at least as well as I could do – to have distinguished between "civilization" (in quotes), denoting the Dictionary definition, and civilization (in italics), as I have been using the term in my peculiar writings.
My critic subsequently loaned me his copy of Daniel Quinn's book,1 which I have recently finished reading, and I began to comprehend the larger significance of my friend's criticism. Quinn's book has brilliantly clarified for me a concept – a meme – toward which I have been struggling for many years.
Meme is a word coined by Richard Dawkins,4 denoting an element of human culture equivalent in function to a gene in cellular biology. Just as genes carry the code within the nucleus of every cell, which specifies the structure and design of a biological organism, so memes carry the code within the minds of every human individual, which specifies the structure and design of an entire human culture. Here are some of the memes Quinn writes about, which define, in part, "our" culture, i.e. so-called "Western Civilization":
- Western Civilization is the final and highest of all human inventions.
- Ours is the one right way for people to live and everyone should live like us.
- Civilization must continue at any cost and must not be abandoned under any circumstances.
Like genes in the cells of the body, memes are replicated within the "cells" (individual humans) of a culture through a multitude of channels, such as parental instruction and unconsciously conveyed attitudes; schools, churches, books, popular music, magazines, television, movies, advertising, etc., etc. They are not necessarily shared by everyone on Earth, yet they are effectively beyond doubt or question for any "civilized" human on Earth, particularly "Westerners," now, and in the historical and possibly prehistoric past, and into the foreseeable future. They frame the visible and imaginable "field of view" within the culture of "Western Civilization," and define the "box" which encloses all within its precincts.
It is Daniel Quinn's thesis that if humanity are to remain very much longer resident upon planet Earth, we will necessarily have abandoned certain "lethal memes," and substituted for them other memes. A "lethal meme," like a "lethal gene," is one which destroys its possessor. The meme, Civilization must continue at any cost and must not be abandoned under any circumstances, is Quinn's primary example of a lethal meme. It binds its possessors into "doing civilization," even when, as in the case of contemporary humanity, doing so is globally suicidal.
Quinn points out that the dwellers in many civilizations in the past have not possessed this particular meme, and so after some hundreds or thousands of years of "doing civilization," have ceased doing so, and have simply walked away from their civilizations, and abandoned them. He cites numerous examples, particularly in the western hemisphere, of abandoned civilizations, which have posed persistent and inexplicable puzzles to our anthropologists – who do possess the meme that Civilization must not be abandoned under any circumstances.
To the civilized mind, abandoning civilization simply isn't done, because of the corollary meme, civilization is the greatst of all possible human inventions. So if the appearance of abandoning civilization manifests in the anthropological record, in the minds of our anthropologists there must be some "rational explanation" for it, such as famine, plague, war, or natural cataclysm – anything other than the voluntary, intentional, mass abandonment of civilization.
Such explanations are never entirely satisfactory, for the reason that there is no imaginable catastrophe so final that it would result in the destruction or abandonment by its survivors of their entire civilization. Famines, plagues, earthquakes, and wars typically run their course, and life goes on for those who survive them. The survivors do not for these reasons abandon their civilization. Yet there are many examples of civilizations which have been destroyed or abandoned by their own builders, never to rise again. This is the story, in fact, of every civilization that has ever risen, excepting only our own, and those which have been consumed or destroyed by competing civilizations such as ours.
The fact is, in Quinn's analysis (and in mine), that beyond a certain point, civilization (as defined in the Dictionary) simply does not work. Every culture which has embarked in the past upon the path of civilization has discovered this, and has eventually abandoned it, unless it was destroyed first by another civilization. Ours is the only culture in human history, Quinn writes, which has been so suicidally persistent in our dogged determination to follow the path of civilization to the bitter end, no matter what, even over the precipice of global catastrophe. If our persistence on this path continues very much longer, we shall perish. If we're still here, say, a hundred years from now, we will have long since abandoned civilization too, and moved beyond civilization.
So what, if anything, lies beyond civilization?
All life forms, Quinn observes, have evolved patterns of social interaction over the course of millions of years which work for them, such as schools of fish, pods of whales, flocks of birds, herds of elk, prides of lions, colonies of bees, etc. These social patterns are not perfect, for nothing ever is; yet they have become highly refined by evolution over immense stretches of time. They work extraordinarily well, and are very difficult (though not impossible) to improve further. The tribe is the social pattern, for humans, which corresponds in other species to schools, pods, flocks, herds, etc. Like those patterns, the human tribe has evolved over vast expanses of time to a high degree of effectiveness and refinement; in our case, about three or four million years. Nevertheless,
Tribal life is not in fact perfect, idyllic, noble, or wonderful, but wherever it's found intact, it's found to be working well – as well as the life of lizards, racoons, geese, or beetles – with the result that the members of the tribe are not generally enraged, rebellious, desperate, stressed-out borderline psychotics being torn apart by crime, hatred, and violence. What anthropologists find is that tribal peoples, far from being nobler, sweeter, or wiser than us, are as capable as we are of being mean, unkind, short-sighted, selfish, insensitive, stubborn, and short-tempered. The tribal life doesn't turn people into saints; it enables ordinary people to make a living together with a minimum of stress year after year, generation after generation.5
Human civilization, in contrast, is a quite recent development, having made its appearance little more than 10,000 years ago; yet it has supplanted with few exceptions all previous social patterns. As already mentioned, however, every human culture that has ever attempted civilization has eventually abandoned it, with the single exception of "Western Civilization," and of those civilizations which, like the Aztec and the Inca, were overtaken by the advance of "Western Civilization," and were destroyed by force before they were voluntarily abandoned. The final result is that "Western Civilization" is the sole remaining example upon the Earth of the social organization known as civilization. Quinn calls it the culture of the Takers. He calls all "non-Taker" culture the culture of the Leavers.6
To those who possess (or are possessed by) the meme, and its corollaries, that Western Civilization is the final and highest of all human inventions, the idea that the tribe offers a viable alternative to civilization is virtually unthinkable. Although it does no such thing, it seems to suggest an atavistic return to a primitive and barbaric past that cannot be entertained in a civilized mind. Indeed, the option of returning to the caves and mud huts of our ancestors, and chasing down rabbits and deer with spears, stones, and throwing sticks, although a few heardy souls may attempt it, is definitely not on any path available to the 6.5 thousand million contemporary residents of planet Earth. There is no way, or need, to return to the primitive lifestyles of our pre-civilized past; the vector of human evolution does not point backwards.
However, if the vector of human evolution does not point to utter annihilation in a very short time, it points clearly beyond civilization. And that must involve returning to a time-tested pattern of social interaction that had worked in circumstances of endless variety for millions of years before civilization was ever imagined; and works just as well today as it ever has in the past. That pattern is the tribe.
Daniel Quinn distinguishes between civilization, tribe, community, and commune, and provides examples, one in his own personal experience, of tribal solutions in entirely contemporary contexts. Briefly, a civilization is a failed experiment in hierarchical social organization, characterized prototypically by a "pharoah" who lives in luxurious splendor, and an underclass of "toiling masses" who live in poverty and "build pyramids" for the pharoah. Civilization works favorably (for awhile) for the pharoah and the privileged few at the top of the hierarchy; increasingly disfavorably for those, descendingly, at all lower hierarchical levels; and ultimately catastrophically for everyone involved in it, or touched by it. Civilization is inherently unsustainable, and is ultimately either destroyed by a competing civilization, or is voluntarily abandoned by its builders.
A tribe is a non-hierarchical social organization, polished by evolution over the course of millions of years, that facilitates the livelihood of all members of the tribe alike.
A community is an "inside the box" social adaptation to civilization, and does not offer an escape route beyond civilization. A commune is a closed social organization based upon social, religious, moral, or ethnic values, and as such does not offer an escape route beyond civilization either.
Of the four types of social organization, only the tribe offers an escape route "out of the box" created by civilization. The primary example Quinn uses to illustrate tribal life in a contemporary setting is the circus. A traditional travelling circus is a non-hierarchical tribal community which supports, and is supported by, all its members. It furnishes a viable livelihood to each, and each member of the circus tribe contributes to the success of the whole. There is a "Boss," because this occupation is required in order to secure the success of the circus. Someone must coordinate the various elements of the tribe, secure bookings, etc. Yet when it's time to raise the Big Top, the "Boss" can be found pounding stakes beside the "Clown," the "Bareback Rider," and the boy who waters the elephants. He's no pharoah, and nobody is building a pyramid for him. Reciprocally, the success of the circus contributes alike to the success of each member of the tribe.
Quinn also mentions the example of the tribal newspaper, the East Mountain News he and three partners started up and ran in Madrid, New Mexico for awhile a number of years ago. Even though there were only four members in this particular tribe, the venture fulfilled all the tribal criteria. The members of the "East Mountain News tribe," if I may call it that, shared a "very low standard of living," with the consequence that the little the paper earned was sufficient to sustain them. Also, they all loved the paper, and their individual contributions to it. It was what they actually wanted to do, rather than a means to the end of earning money so they could afford to do something else. It provided an outlet for their synergistically combined creativity, and their achieved standards of journalism, editorial content, and photography could stand with pride beside those of any newspaper anywhere. "We were nothing like the size of an ethnic tribe," Quinn writes, "nor were we living in community, but we were nonetheless receiving the chief benefits of tribal life."7
Daniel Quinn's approach to what I have been calling the "human predicament" is for me highly illuminating and liberating, for it disarms my resentments and antagonisms against the pharoahs. I have long been intuitively aware that resentment of the pharoahs is fruitless, for they are not, ultimately, the source of our predicament. Yet I have resented them anyway, because I could see no alternative to carrying on the pointless toil of pyramid building. I too have been trapped by the meme, Civilization is the greatest of all human inventions and must not be abandoned under any circumstances, and have been focusing my frustrated attention upon the project of "rescuing" civilization; running in circles trying to contribute my little to redefining it, repairing its flaws (at least conceptually), and setting it, somehow, upon a sound and auspicious course. I had been writing that we had never yet experienced true civilization on planet Earth – but we could, if only.... Silly me, I've been flogging a dead horse.
We've experienced civilization all right, italicized or enclosed in quotes, it doesn't matter. I stand corrected. Quinn's thesis clearly discloses to me that it's about time we start experiencing something else; that civilization itself is a fatally flawed system which cannot by any means be repaired or resuscitated. Quinn's analysis of the mystery of vanished civilizations reminds me of Shelley's poem about Ozymandias of Egypt:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
This is the epitaph, ultimately, for any and every human civilization that has ever been: Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away. And our anthropologists, visiting the "colossal Wreck" of yet another failed civilization, ponder anew the puzzling conundrum of what mysterious calamity could possibly have brought low so magnificent an edifice of human accomplishment. Ha! No mystery here; it was the pharoah's "wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command" that did it.
What people (aside from rulers) don't like about hierarchal societies [Quinn writes] is that they don't exist for all their members in the same way. They provide a life of unbelievable luxury and ease for the rulers and a life of poverty and toil for everyone else. The way rulers benefit from the success of the society is vastly different from the way the masses benefit, and the pyramids and the temples testify to the importance of the rulers, not to the masses who build them. And so it goes, through every phase of life in a hierarchal society.
The difference between the circus and Disney World is that the circus is a tribe and Disney World is a hierarchy. Disney World has employees, not members. It doesn't provide these employees with a living, it just pays them wages. The employees are working for themselves, and if Disney World can no longer pay them, they'll abandon it immediately. The owners have an investment in its success and benefit from its success. The employees are just employees.
Kids of all ages run off to join the circus. No one runs off to join Disney World.8
"Western Civilization," which has overtaken and destroyed all others which had not already self-destructed, was built by a meme, specifically the meme, Ours is the one right way for people to live and everyone should live like us. It has been sustained long past the point of its own self-destruction by the meme, Civilization must continue at any cost and must not be abandoned under any circumstances. These and their corollaries are the "Killer Memes" at the heart of the contemporary and historical human predicament. The pharoahs and the pyramid builders are alike gripped by this complex of memes, and will continue their futile and self-destructive toil for as long as they possess (or are possessed by) them. The most effective answer to a meme is another meme. Try this: There is no one right way for anything to live.9
When we imbibe and understand this, the "Killer Memes," Ours is the one right way for people to live and everyone should live like us, and Civilization is the greatest of all human inventions and must never be abandoned under any circumstances, are irrevocably disarmed, and no longer bind us to a suicidal social system.
So... what do we do about it? Simple: just walk away from it, as our predecessors in many lands have done before us – if you don't like it, that is, if you're tired of hauling your quota of rocks up the slopes of the magnificent pyramid you've been building. Otherwise, haul away, until you do get tired enough of it to quit.
That's it. No need to get excited about it, no need to get upset. If you're tired of building someone else's pyrimid, quit. Do something else. Do whatever you like. Run away, and join the circus. Or, start a circus of your own, and maybe others who have seen through the memes that artificially sustain civilization will run away too, and join your circus!
For me, these are exhilerating, exciting, liberating thoughts – partly because they illuminate for me that this is what I'm already doing, and have been doing for the past 15 years. In 1989 I left the stone I had been hauling up someone else's pyramid, and ran off to do... I had little idea what. I didn't know any of this stuff back then, and I spent a good deal of time groping in the dark, casting about almost at random, and often in anguished desperation, for the thoughts, the vocabulary, the memes I needed to articulate, even to myself, what it was I wanted. All I knew when I started out was, "Not this!" Okay, if not this, what? I couldn't have said. Thank you, Daniel Quinn, for your magnificent book. It truly is what you had in mind when you wrote it: a Manual of Change.10
Also, I have been hung up on the logjam of all the things that seemingly "have to happen" before we can wiggle, somehow, out of the human predicament. Clearly, if we've got to get all our ducks in a row before we can begin our move beyond civilization, we're never going to make it. But we don't have to worry about any of that. We don't have to worry about what anyone else decides to do, or not do, or when, or how. Once we've got the meme, There is no one right way to do anything, we're liberated, because that applies to ourselves, as well as to everyone else, and every step we take can be a step beyond civilization.
We don't have to worry about what the pharoahs are going to do about it, either, because like it or not, there's nothing they can do about it, if all we do is just walk away. We don't need to threaten the pharoahs, or oppose them in any way. We can begin the New Tribal Revolution, as Quinn calls it, right here, right now, anywhere, any time. We don't have to go anywhere else to do it – although communicating with one another would help push things along. And so, that's what we're doing already, isn't it?
Perhaps now, on the basis of the ideas developed so far, I can take another stab at my flawed attempt at a counter-definition for civilization mentioned above.
What's wanted is a word to substitute for civilization, which is also distinctly opposed to savagery and barbarism; and there is no such word in the English language. The reason, of course, is the meme we have which insists that Civilization is the greatest of all human inventions, and must not be abandoned under any circumstances. Once you lose civilization, according to this meme, what you're left with can only be savagery and barbarism. This, of course, is the Killer Meme we've been grappling with, and we won't be getting any help from conventional English, which like every other implement in our civilized cultural toolbox, is fitted to the task of perpetuating the Killer Meme that perpetuates civilization, and threatens to drive us all into the ground.
The fundamental problem with my failed definition of civilization is neatly encapsulated in its concluding statement, "Pre-emptive use of force is the opposite of civilized behavior, and is the defining mark of savagery and barbarism." Actually, pre-emptive use of force is the defining mark of civilization! Think about it. "Civilization" and "savagery" are not opposites at all; they're virtually synonymous. Infected myself by the Killer Meme when I wrote my definition, I had not understood this. I was therefore attempting to redefine "black" as "white." Sorry, it can't (truthfully) be done. "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
Therefore, it's back to the ol' drawing board. The wanted word or concept to substitute for civilization has to do with the tribe. However, a tribe can be, but is not necessarily, one of barbaric savagery; which is to say, wielders of pre-emptive force. Plunder and rapine are one way to make a living, but they're not the only way. (They're just the only way to make a civilization. The pharoahs plunder the pyramid builders; that's what civilization is; which is why the pyramid builders eventually quit and walk away from it. But by this time, you already know that, right?)
So we cannot simply substitute "tribe" for "civilization," and have done with it. We need something we maight call a tribal ideal, a formula for a "nice tribe," which would be associated with warm and fuzzy concepts like "gentle refinement," "enlightenment," "cultural sophistication," etc. Thus,
A tribe that adheres to the "tribal ideal" is one whose members adhere to it; and a member who adheres to the "tribal ideal" is one who in no way imposes, or attempts to impose his or her unsolicited will upon that of another. Defensive responses to the unsolicited imposition of will do not violate the "tribal ideal." Pre-emptive use of force is the only action contrary to the "tribal ideal," and is the defining mark of savagery, barbarism, and civilization.
How's that? This, like its predecessor, is a "draft proposal," subject to revision and refinement. Perhaps it may eventually contribute some little to the human march beyond civilization. This time, however, I'll not claim I haven't overlooked anything. If I have, I will appreciate your bringing it to my attention. Thank you.
Finally, one last quote from Daniel Quinn's book:
The New Tribal Revolution is nothing if not a great educational experiment, and it can only succeed if we share our wisdom, experiences, and discoveries with regard to making a living tribally. Luckily, we have a terrific medium for doing exactly this by way of the internet. At www.newtribalventures.com you can be in touch with like-minded readers ready for involvement in this next great adventure.
Those who are not online can reach me at Beyond Civilization, P.O. Box 66627, Houston TX 77266-6627. Your letters are gratefully received and will always be read with interest, but please understand that I can't answer each one individually.11
If you haven't already, get a copy of Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure by Daniel Quinn, Three Rivers Press, New York, 1999, ISBN: 0-609-80536-3, and read it. Although it is not a very long book, I have touched upon only a few of its many high points. The entire book is a high point.
This essay is followed by a sequel, The Tribal Ideal, "Dear Friends," 7/2/04 edition.
- Civilization and Savagery – 5/25/04;
- Beyond Civilization or The Killer Meme – 6/20/04;
- The Tribal Ideal – 7/2/04;
- Leavers and Takers – 8/6/04;
- In the Hands of the Gods – 8/18/04.
- The Gods & the Law of Life – 9/9/04.
- The Metaconsciousness Myth – 9/22/04.
- A Pact With the Devil – 10/14/04.
- A Metaconscious Mosaic – 10/27/04.
- More About Metaconsciousness, Part I – 2/5/05.
- More About Metaconsciousness, Part II – 3/20/05.
_____________________________________
1. Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure, Three Rivers Press, New York, 1999, ISBN: 0-609-80536-3.
2. Quoted in ibid., p. 137.
3. Civilization and Savagery, "Dear Friends," 5/24/04 edition.
4. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, 1989, cited by Quinn, 1999.
5. Quinn, 1999, p. 61, boldface emphasis added.
6. Not in Beyond Civilization. Earlier on, Quinn had developed the vocabulary, Takers, and Leavers, to denote, respectively, civilization, and all other (i.e. "uncivilized") cultures, in Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn, A Bantam / Turner Book, New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland, 1992, p. 39.
7. Quinn, 1999, p. 141.
8. Ibid., p. 72.
9. Ibid., p. 184.
10. Ibid., p. 4.
11. Ibid., p. 202.
"Beyond Civilization or The Killer Meme" copyright 2004 by J. Harmon Grahn. Copying and redistribution, in whole or in part, are permitted in any medium provided this notice is included.
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Harmon