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Showing posts from November, 2019

Eco-Communalism: Political Philosophy of Deep Ecology

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Eco-Communalism  Eco-communalism is an environmental philosophy based on ideals of simple living, self-sufficiency, sustainability, and local economies. Eco-communalists envision a future in which the economic system of capitalism is replaced with a global web of economically interdependent and interconnected small local communes. Decentralized government, a focus on agriculture, biodiversity, and green economics form the basis of eco-communalism.  Eco-communalism finds its roots in a diverse set of ideologies. These include the pastoral reaction to industrialization of William Morris; the Small Is Beautiful twentieth century philosophy of E.F. Schumacher; and the traditionalism of Gandhi.  Eco-communalism is an ideology merging aspects of socialism with that of green politics, ecology and alter-globalization. Eco-communalist generally believe that the expansion of the capitalist system is the cause of social exclusion, poverty, war and environmental degradation through glo

Techno-Anarchism: Political Philosophy of Transhumanism

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Techno-Anarchism  Techno-anarchism is any ideology based on the premise that advances in science and technology could and should bring about a stateless society. Presenting a  "cybersociety" - a postpolitical, non-hierarchical society made possible by cyberware, in which the computer-literate, super-intelligent, open-minded, change-oriented, self-reliant, irreverent free-thinker is the norm. Techno-anarchism is therefore an ideal society, in which laws, government, and social conditions are solely operating for the benefit and well-being of all its citizens, set in the near- or far-future, as advanced science and technology will allow these ideal living standards to exist; for example, post-scarcity, transformations in human nature, the avoidance or prevention of suffering and even the end of death. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, several ideologies and movements, such as the cyberdelic counterculture, the Californian Ideology, transhumanism, and singul

O Superman! Nietzsche’s Übermensch

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Nietzsche’s desire was for an ''Übermensch” — that is, for a new human who was to be neither master nor slave. This is the utopian New Humanity sought after by many ideologies but strangely enough by both Christianity and one of its harshest critics Friedrich Nietzsche. From Nietzsche’s phrase, “Death of God” philosophy seeks to reconcile a radical theism and a radical atheism. Nietzsche summons a "transvaluation of values," by which the individual is free to create in line with self-realization. As such an example of spiritual anarchism, Nietzsche’s Übermensch also influenced the expression of political anarchism.  Anarchist Emma Goldman, in the preface of her famous collection Anarchism and Other Essays , defends Nietzsche from attacks within anarchism when she says "Friedrich Nietzsche, for instance, is decried as a hater of the weak because he believed in the Übermensch. It does not occur to the shallow interpreters of that giant mind that this visio

Ursula K. Le Guin inspired Spiritual Anarchism

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“Anarchism is like Christianity; it’s never really been practiced...[but] it is a necessary idea.” -Ursula K. Le Guin Spiritual anarchism may be understood not just as a political or practical theology, but also as a significant pathway to a mystical apprehending of cosmic consciousness. The path towards cosmic consciousness requires complete freedom from the constraints and laws of prefigured systems and institutions. We are asked then to purge the law of men from our inner-self, our truest self.  “Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world,” St. Paul tells us. Though this process may not be self-evident and difficult for most, this is likely because of the tyrannical influence of the patterns of this world. We are asked by St. Paul to put on our New Humanity.  There are many mystics who have found their path to cosmic consciousness in this way - mystics such as Lao Tzu, Buddha, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, Spinoza, Emerson, and Thoreau. Though many of these may no