Month: January 2017

Les défricheurs

Recensé : Les défricheurs. Voyage dans la France qui innove vraiment. – Éric Dupin, La Découverte, 2014

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Cet ouvrage est le fruit d’une enquête de terrain de près d’un an et demi (entre 2012 et 2014) dans toute la France, pendant laquelle l’auteur est parti à la rencontre de ceux qu’il nomme les « défricheurs » – c’est-à-dire des gens vivant en rupture avec les valeurs dominantes de la société, et qui « s’emploient à innover, à expérimenter de nouvelles façons de vivre, de consommer ou de produire. »

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Les défricheurs

Recensé : Les défricheurs. Voyage dans la France qui innove vraiment. – Éric Dupin, La Découverte, 2014

*

Cet ouvrage est le fruit d’une enquête de terrain de près d’un an et demi (entre 2012 et 2014) dans toute la France, pendant laquelle l’auteur est parti à la rencontre de ceux qu’il nomme les « défricheurs » – c’est-à-dire des gens vivant en rupture avec les valeurs dominantes de la société, et qui « s’emploient à innover, à expérimenter de nouvelles façons de vivre, de consommer ou de produire. »

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Dark Mountain – First Issue (6)

In “Beyond Civilised & Primitive,” Ran Prieur explores a dichotomy that has long been part of the debates raised by the environmentalist movement since its inception; a set of standardised images relative to our concepts of mankind and society, which tends to give rise to many a pipe dream on either side.

According to “primitivism,” in order to escape from the many ills of modern-day society, mankind should return to the Golden Age of pre-civilisation — as exemplified by the so-called “primitive” nations we know today, or following our fantasies concerning the lives of prehistorical humans:

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Dark Mountain – First Issue (6)

In “Beyond Civilised & Primitive,” Ran Prieur explores a dichotomy that has long been part of the debates raised by the environmentalist movement since its inception; a set of standardised images relative to our concepts of mankind and society, which tends to give rise to many a pipe dream on either side.

According to “primitivism,” in order to escape from the many ills of modern-day society, mankind should return to the Golden Age of pre-civilisation — as exemplified by the so-called “primitive” nations we know today, or following our fantasies concerning the lives of prehistorical humans:

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Dark Mountain – First Issue (5)

Another conversation from this Issue #1 which I found rather thought-provoking is one that took place between Anthony McCann and Derrick Jensen — titled “A Gentle Ferocity.” This is how the former introduces the latter:

[Jensen] has a hardcore reputation. Books such as Endgame (2006) have made him arguably the most prominent contemporary ‘critic of civilisation’, if we can talk about such a category. But Jensen does not only offer critique, he advocates actively bringing down the systems on which we currently depend. He reports conspiratorial conversations with ex-military personnel and hackers who discuss ways of bringing global trade to its knees. He champions direct action against an industrial system which destroys the natural world – perhaps most famously in his calls for people to blow up dams to save salmon rivers. His anger is directed, too, at those who say there is no room for violence in activism: he enjoys ‘deconstructing pacifist arguments that don’t make any sense anyway.’

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Posted on by daoyang 0

Dark Mountain – First Issue (5)

Another conversation from this Issue #1 which I found rather thought-provoking is one that took place between Anthony McCann and Derrick Jensen — titled “A Gentle Ferocity.” This is how the former introduces the latter:

[Jensen] has a hardcore reputation. Books such as Endgame (2006) have made him arguably the most prominent contemporary ‘critic of civilisation’, if we can talk about such a category. But Jensen does not only offer critique, he advocates actively bringing down the systems on which we currently depend. He reports conspiratorial conversations with ex-military personnel and hackers who discuss ways of bringing global trade to its knees. He champions direct action against an industrial system which destroys the natural world – perhaps most famously in his calls for people to blow up dams to save salmon rivers. His anger is directed, too, at those who say there is no room for violence in activism: he enjoys ‘deconstructing pacifist arguments that don’t make any sense anyway.’

Continue reading →

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Dark Mountain – First Issue (4)

In “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist,” Dark Mountain co-founder Paul Kingsnorth reminisces on formative experiences that made him develop deep feelings for the natural world, along with the consciousness that man is not at the center of the universe — in other words, the “ecocentrism” described earlier in this issue by J. M. Greer. According to Kingsnorth, while this ecocentrism was present with great purity at the heart of the early green movement, it started to disappear with the mutation of this movement into “environmentalism” (where the “environment” is considered as something “out there,” separate from people), and its passage into mainstream society:

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Dark Mountain – First Issue (4)

In “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist,” Dark Mountain co-founder Paul Kingsnorth reminisces on formative experiences that made him develop deep feelings for the natural world, along with the consciousness that man is not at the center of the universe — in other words, the “ecocentrism” described earlier in this issue by J. M. Greer. According to Kingsnorth, while this ecocentrism was present with great purity at the heart of the early green movement, it started to disappear with the mutation of this movement into “environmentalism” (where the “environment” is considered as something “out there,” separate from people), and its passage into mainstream society:

Continue reading →

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Dark Mountain – First Issue (3)

“Black Elephants and Skull Jackets” documents Dougald Hine’s no-holds-barred conversation with Vinay Gupta. The two met in a Mayfair squat, as faculty members of the Temporary School of Thought, “a free university where anyone can pitch up and offer classes,” which was about to be held in said squat for three weeks (among the lectures they presented: “Deschooling Everything,” “Economic Chemotherapy,” “Infrastructure for Anarchists,” and “Avoiding Capitalism for the Next Four Billion” — audio and notes here). Hine and Gupta later went on to co-found the Institute for Collapsonomics.

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Dark Mountain – First Issue (3)

“Black Elephants and Skull Jackets” documents Dougald Hine’s no-holds-barred conversation with Vinay Gupta. The two met in a Mayfair squat, as faculty members of the Temporary School of Thought, “a free university where anyone can pitch up and offer classes,” which was about to be held in said squat for three weeks (among the lectures they presented: “Deschooling Everything,” “Economic Chemotherapy,” “Infrastructure for Anarchists,” and “Avoiding Capitalism for the Next Four Billion” — audio and notes here). Hine and Gupta later went on to co-found the Institute for Collapsonomics.

Continue reading →

Posted on by daoyang 0