I’ve just realized one reason that primitivism and primitivist thinking makes me uncomfortable.

Here’s a quote from a recent post on the Anthropik website:

Rather, primitivism says that it isn’t humans who are the problem, but civilization, and one of the worst problems with it is that it is so deeply dehumanizing.

I don’t deny the validity of that statement. I certainly acknowledge the rampant destructiveness of civilization, and I no longer deny the fact that the collapse of civilization, in some form or another, is probably inevitable.

But when browsing through various primitivist websites, I notice how much The End of Civilization is on their radar, and frankly, it gets kind of depressing.

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I survived jury duty yesterday without being selected to sit on a jury.

I had received a summons in June, but it came on the heels of a friend’s wedding and was also right in the middle of midterms, so I had it postponed. Actually, I tried to get excused completely, but they wouldn’t let me off the hook. They only postponed it three months. This time they told me I couldn’t even get it postponed, so I had to go in.

I ended up sitting on three jury panels. They would summon up eighteen of us at a time to sit in front of the judges and lawyers, and both sets of lawyers asked a bunch of questions, and at the end, decided on six to eight people to serve as jurors.

It was more interesting than I had thought it might be.

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I have once again reentered the world of martial arts.

Last night I joined a Shaolin kung fu class, taught by a classmate from acupuncture school, in the Shaolin Wahnam tradition of Sifu Wong Kiew Kit.

I still question my motivations, primarily because, as I’ve said so many times before, I don’t want to train for violence. But if I get good at fighting, then it will be a tool I am more likely to use in difficult situations.

However, that wasn’t my primary consideration in joining the class. Mainly, I went because I want to be healthy.

In my ideal world, I would have tremendous strength and vitality to do whatever I want to do. If I want to live sustainably, if I want to build my own house or hunt/gather/raise my own food, or if I want to have a family and build a successful practice, that requires energy.

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