THE EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF UNCIVILISATION
- We live in a time of social, economic and ecological unravelling.
All around us are signs that our whole way of living is already
passing into history. We will face this reality honestly and learn
how to live with it.
- We reject the faith which holds that the converging crises of our
times can be reduced to a set of ‘problems’ in need of technological
or political ‘solutions’.
- We believe that the roots of these crises lie in the stories we have
been telling ourselves. We intend to challenge the stories which
underpin our civilisation: the myth of progress, the myth of human
centrality, and the myth of our separation from ‘nature’. These
myths are more dangerous for the fact that we have forgotten they
are myths.
- We will reassert the role of storytelling as more than mere
entertainment. It is through stories that we weave reality.
- Humans are not the point and purpose of the planet. Our art will
begin with the attempt to step outside the human bubble. By careful
attention, we will reengage with the non-human world.
- We will celebrate writing and art which is grounded in a sense of
place and of time. Our literature has been dominated for too long by
those who inhabit the cosmopolitan citadels.
- We will not lose ourselves in the elaboration of theories or
ideologies. Our words will be elemental. We write with dirt under
our fingernails.
- The end of the world as we know it is not the end of the world full
stop. Together, we will find the hope beyond hope, the paths which
lead to the unknown world ahead of us.