Dammit, Chris. Kingsnorth, too? I actually am not quite surprised, after hearing his comments two or three years ago about why he voted for Brexit. There's this little coterie including him, Christopher Eisenstein (who wrote a 9,000-word screed at the beginning of the pandemic decrying so many things that it was impossible to keep track), others we've talked about -- people who attracted readers like us by initially saying, "Look, this all doesn't have to be the way it is; we can do better" but whose inclinations seem to have tumbled them down a rabbit hole of magical thinking that basically ran right into libertarianism and married it. I don't understand it at all.
It is to me such an unreachable way of viewing the world, to hold fast to this idea that you can live in a way that doesn't affect other people. Or to think that you can live in a way that is pure and organic (plant those trees in Ireland!) and so well-fed in body and spirit that you can escape the physical effects of the industrial world (as if micro plastics and tens of thousands of unregulated chemicals will never penetrate your excellent immune system); or that you will be protected from the bottomless hunger of capitalism if you just buy your land and hide away.
What must be dead inside a person to make them so cruel? Exactly. I wonder this all the time. What's being asked of us for the health and safety of others is so minimal. I just don't understand how people justify their arrogance.
And, btw, I love your quote from Eloghosa Osunde, whom I'm going to have to check out.
The idea that the pandemic will lead to the weak humbling the strong is such bullshit. More specifically, Christian bullshit. It’s wishful thinking to rewrite reality; this idea that the poor will persevere when, really, they are the ones who always suffer the most.
If you throw your hands up and claim it’s God’s chosen method to “correct” humanity, then the entire Global North should be gone right now.
If anything, the pandemic is evidence that whatever God exists doesn’t care about justice, however it may be defined.
Kingsnorth has been problematic for a while. Google ecofascism and he's one of the guys who comes up.
I had huge issues with that last book of his about writing: Savage Gods -- in which he acts as though Ireland is the west of England, and especially the way he erases that his wife has essentially supported him all along -- first by working for a salary, and then, in Ireland, by homesteading and homeschooling the children he only ever mentions as a burden.
Then he flirts with Buddhism in the most annoying way ("I became a Buddhist" he declares after one weekend sesshin.) but discards it because ... it doesn't make him the center of salvation. I was not at all surprised to hear he joined the Eastern Orthodox church -- authoritarian, slightly arcane, and your spiritual life is all about your own salvation, not the salvation of all.
Sorry to rant, this one has been building for a while.
On the other hand, Amitav Ghosh's new book, The Nutmeg's Curse, is like Shock Doctrine put into a global context of empire and written by a non-western person. It's really beautifully written, and totally eye-opening.
The first thing I thought was ecofascism, and I'm glad more informed people than me have said same. Rich white men want poor people to die, while they are holed up off the grid. It figures he voted for Brexit while living in Ireland.
I know I’ve said it before, but your writing gives voice to thoughts I have that I only wish I could express so clearly. Thank you. And fuck that Kingsnorth douchebag.
Assholes and arrogance are so exhausting. They make it hard for me to enjoy things like our Victorian Christmas downtown, because antimaskers gotta breathe all over everyone. I stayed home. I'm still staying home. I like it here in my bubble.
I do like the phrase, "a delicious little sign from God." I'll take that in the form of a rare bird or a tree in a blaze of color.
So very much in agreement. “Exhausted” is an excellent descriptive word for how I feel, hearing so much bullshit from those who subscribe to conspiracy theories. We are left with a very real shitshow to which the medical community must tend.
Thank you again, Chris, for a thought-bending journal entry.
Just read Anne Helen Petersen's newsletter where she recommends this one for 'anyone who is a little cranky but also incredibly tenderhearted', and it's the most validated I think I've ever felt, and yes, I'm shamelessly hitching a lift on your wagon :) Thank you for articulating this mix of hope and melancholy, of rage and tenderness - it's truly the most authentic encounter of my week (which probably speaks volumes about my current hermit vibe here in a rural in-between, but still).
Listened to a Jack Kornfield podcast last night and his quote - forgive yourself for being a learner in the world - resonated so much with this. Keep cracking the heart open. Keep steering back towards the better path.
“A delicious little sign from God”? I am seething. I am not familiar with Paul Kingsnorth, but this thinking it seems to me is symptomatic of what is terribly wrong in our world. It is particularly heartbreaking to know that people who possess substantial intellect are so very cruel and obtuse.
As for the holiday lights, I welcome the cheer that they emit. I’m not too keen on the inflatables but I suppose the children like them. Strings of lollipop colored lights do it for me.
I enjoyed the quote from Eloghosa Osunde. Did you know that she was a 2020 MacDowell Colony Fellow? The MacDowell Colony is located in Peterborough,NH which is about 20 miles down the road from Keene. If you re-visit Walden Pond, you should check it out.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of the scientists and healthcare personnel who are helping us through this devastating pandemic. They are the true Angels.
Thanks again for the great writing. And just a thought. Might you consider visiting the bookstore on Christmas Eve Day? I worked in a sign shop for more that 30 years. It was definitely fun to be there during the days just before Christmas. There were always visitors and lots of cups of steaming coffee to enjoy and to share with others.
Paul Kingsnorth is ideologically painting himself into a corner. The first piece of writing I read by him, “Dark Ecology” published in Orion magazine in 2012, is brilliant https://www.orionmagazine.org/article/dark-ecology/ . Since then, he’s moved toward more railing at what he calls The Machine while simultaneously becoming more dependent on it. Could he continue to live on the west coast of Ireland without his internet and social media exposure and the income he makes from it? I doubt it, his books don’t sell that well and now that he’s announced he’s unvaccinated, how many will come to sit at his feet at his expensive writing retreats. That said, I do get Kingsnorth’s deep-seated distrust of technological hubris. Nothing supports that distrust more than the news of the Covid Omicron variant with its myriad mutations and its potential to render the current vaccine less effective. Nature always bats last as the saying goes. It’s also worth considering in your judgement of him, Chris, that he is in the UK where vaccine mandates are in effect in some places, and Johnson and his cronies have managed the pandemic rather poorly. Kingsnorth knows English history and rightly so has a rational skepticism for whatever magic bullet the London crowd is handing out.
In any case, cheers and as always, I enjoyed this one. I always look forward to Irritable Métis in my Inbox.
Dammit, Chris. Kingsnorth, too? I actually am not quite surprised, after hearing his comments two or three years ago about why he voted for Brexit. There's this little coterie including him, Christopher Eisenstein (who wrote a 9,000-word screed at the beginning of the pandemic decrying so many things that it was impossible to keep track), others we've talked about -- people who attracted readers like us by initially saying, "Look, this all doesn't have to be the way it is; we can do better" but whose inclinations seem to have tumbled them down a rabbit hole of magical thinking that basically ran right into libertarianism and married it. I don't understand it at all.
It is to me such an unreachable way of viewing the world, to hold fast to this idea that you can live in a way that doesn't affect other people. Or to think that you can live in a way that is pure and organic (plant those trees in Ireland!) and so well-fed in body and spirit that you can escape the physical effects of the industrial world (as if micro plastics and tens of thousands of unregulated chemicals will never penetrate your excellent immune system); or that you will be protected from the bottomless hunger of capitalism if you just buy your land and hide away.
Why???
What must be dead inside a person to make them so cruel? Exactly. I wonder this all the time. What's being asked of us for the health and safety of others is so minimal. I just don't understand how people justify their arrogance.
And, btw, I love your quote from Eloghosa Osunde, whom I'm going to have to check out.
The idea that the pandemic will lead to the weak humbling the strong is such bullshit. More specifically, Christian bullshit. It’s wishful thinking to rewrite reality; this idea that the poor will persevere when, really, they are the ones who always suffer the most.
If you throw your hands up and claim it’s God’s chosen method to “correct” humanity, then the entire Global North should be gone right now.
If anything, the pandemic is evidence that whatever God exists doesn’t care about justice, however it may be defined.
Kingsnorth has been problematic for a while. Google ecofascism and he's one of the guys who comes up.
I had huge issues with that last book of his about writing: Savage Gods -- in which he acts as though Ireland is the west of England, and especially the way he erases that his wife has essentially supported him all along -- first by working for a salary, and then, in Ireland, by homesteading and homeschooling the children he only ever mentions as a burden.
Then he flirts with Buddhism in the most annoying way ("I became a Buddhist" he declares after one weekend sesshin.) but discards it because ... it doesn't make him the center of salvation. I was not at all surprised to hear he joined the Eastern Orthodox church -- authoritarian, slightly arcane, and your spiritual life is all about your own salvation, not the salvation of all.
Sorry to rant, this one has been building for a while.
On the other hand, Amitav Ghosh's new book, The Nutmeg's Curse, is like Shock Doctrine put into a global context of empire and written by a non-western person. It's really beautifully written, and totally eye-opening.
The first thing I thought was ecofascism, and I'm glad more informed people than me have said same. Rich white men want poor people to die, while they are holed up off the grid. It figures he voted for Brexit while living in Ireland.
Ahh, People love to blame God or gods for the evil that they do to themselves to others.
Nice piece, Chris. Thank you.
I know I’ve said it before, but your writing gives voice to thoughts I have that I only wish I could express so clearly. Thank you. And fuck that Kingsnorth douchebag.
Assholes and arrogance are so exhausting. They make it hard for me to enjoy things like our Victorian Christmas downtown, because antimaskers gotta breathe all over everyone. I stayed home. I'm still staying home. I like it here in my bubble.
I do like the phrase, "a delicious little sign from God." I'll take that in the form of a rare bird or a tree in a blaze of color.
Of all the plot points 2021 could hit, I’ll admit I did not see “Paul Kingsnorth takes the Benedict Option” coming.
So very much in agreement. “Exhausted” is an excellent descriptive word for how I feel, hearing so much bullshit from those who subscribe to conspiracy theories. We are left with a very real shitshow to which the medical community must tend.
Thank you again, Chris, for a thought-bending journal entry.
You just brightened my morning. Thank you. You are one of my favorite angry tender writers.
Just read Anne Helen Petersen's newsletter where she recommends this one for 'anyone who is a little cranky but also incredibly tenderhearted', and it's the most validated I think I've ever felt, and yes, I'm shamelessly hitching a lift on your wagon :) Thank you for articulating this mix of hope and melancholy, of rage and tenderness - it's truly the most authentic encounter of my week (which probably speaks volumes about my current hermit vibe here in a rural in-between, but still).
Listened to a Jack Kornfield podcast last night and his quote - forgive yourself for being a learner in the world - resonated so much with this. Keep cracking the heart open. Keep steering back towards the better path.
Hi Chris,
“A delicious little sign from God”? I am seething. I am not familiar with Paul Kingsnorth, but this thinking it seems to me is symptomatic of what is terribly wrong in our world. It is particularly heartbreaking to know that people who possess substantial intellect are so very cruel and obtuse.
As for the holiday lights, I welcome the cheer that they emit. I’m not too keen on the inflatables but I suppose the children like them. Strings of lollipop colored lights do it for me.
I enjoyed the quote from Eloghosa Osunde. Did you know that she was a 2020 MacDowell Colony Fellow? The MacDowell Colony is located in Peterborough,NH which is about 20 miles down the road from Keene. If you re-visit Walden Pond, you should check it out.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of the scientists and healthcare personnel who are helping us through this devastating pandemic. They are the true Angels.
Thanks again for the great writing. And just a thought. Might you consider visiting the bookstore on Christmas Eve Day? I worked in a sign shop for more that 30 years. It was definitely fun to be there during the days just before Christmas. There were always visitors and lots of cups of steaming coffee to enjoy and to share with others.
Wishing you a great week ahead,
Melissa
Paul Kingsnorth is ideologically painting himself into a corner. The first piece of writing I read by him, “Dark Ecology” published in Orion magazine in 2012, is brilliant https://www.orionmagazine.org/article/dark-ecology/ . Since then, he’s moved toward more railing at what he calls The Machine while simultaneously becoming more dependent on it. Could he continue to live on the west coast of Ireland without his internet and social media exposure and the income he makes from it? I doubt it, his books don’t sell that well and now that he’s announced he’s unvaccinated, how many will come to sit at his feet at his expensive writing retreats. That said, I do get Kingsnorth’s deep-seated distrust of technological hubris. Nothing supports that distrust more than the news of the Covid Omicron variant with its myriad mutations and its potential to render the current vaccine less effective. Nature always bats last as the saying goes. It’s also worth considering in your judgement of him, Chris, that he is in the UK where vaccine mandates are in effect in some places, and Johnson and his cronies have managed the pandemic rather poorly. Kingsnorth knows English history and rightly so has a rational skepticism for whatever magic bullet the London crowd is handing out.
In any case, cheers and as always, I enjoyed this one. I always look forward to Irritable Métis in my Inbox.
Oh, it gets more interesting. Read the following blog post and then search for Paul's comments. ecosophia.net/the-way-of-participation-a-response-to-paul-kingsnorth/
Go down the rabbit hole of magic, demons, and yes, covid. What a world the internet is,
Feckin' Kingsnorth...