 Jeff Vail's short, free online book A Theory of Power begins with a series of provocative theses:
- The best representation of our world, of what 'is', is not matter, but the connections between matter.
- These connections define 'power-relationships' -- the ability of one entity to influence the action
of another. - The 'law' of evolution can therefore be restated as: if new patterns of forces can survive
their impacts with one another, if they tend to hold together rather
than tear apart, they then represent a stable collection of
power-relationships which survive, self-replicate, and mutate into
further new patterns which are in turn subject to the same law. - This law applies to physical (matter), biological (gene) and cultural (meme) patterns;
all matter and life and consciousness, and their evolution, are
'creatures' of their/our material, genetic and cultural constituents,
created for the perpetuation of these patterns and sustained through
their stable power-relationships.
- Because of the evolutionary success of memes (due to their
ability to adapt and change much more quickly and successfully than
genes), culture has come to play an increasingly dominant role in our
planet's power-relationships.
- Most significantly, the advent of agriculture, which was
provoked by climate change (the ice ages) brought about a
necessary power shift from the individual to the group in the interest
of memes' survival, to the point the individual became largely
enslaved to the culture, and the survival of the civilization culture now outweighs in
importance the survival of any of its members or communities.
- A consequence of that has been the advent of the
codependent cultural constructs of market and state, and, as agriculture
has enabled exponential growth in population and created new scarcities,
egalitarian societies of abundance have given way to hierarchical
societies of managed scarcity.
- This hierarchy has been further entrenched with the cultural
evolution of technologies that enable even greater self-perpetuation
of the memes that gave rise to it, and have led to the 'efficient'
subjugation of the human individual to technology -- that's the
power-relationship that most supports the survival and stasis of the
culture, and under it even those at the top of the hierarchy become
slave-hosts to the memes and culture.
- These memes and culture can now self-perpetuate and thrive
more effectively with technology and the artificial constructs of
market and globalizations than they could with inefficient and
unreliable human hosts, so technology growth is now even outstripping
human growth, to the point that humans are becoming commodities and
could even become redundant.
- So: if we are now becoming slaves to the machine-powered
perpetuation of memes that are outgrowing their need for us (to the
point that although catastrophic global warming and human extinction now seem
inevitable, this is not something our meme-culture 'cares' about)
can we, the human slaves, thanks to the genetic and memetic evolution
of self-awareness, 'liberate' ourselves and defeat the meme-culture
before it destroys us? In other words, can we consciously, collectively
take control for the first time over power-relationships, and establish
new power-relationships that put the genetic survival of the human race
(and, hopefully, the survival of all other life on Earth on which that
genetic survival depends) ahead of the reckless survival of the
Frankenstein 'civilization' culture we have created?
Vail's answer to this final question is a qualified 'yes'. He argues
that the way to establish power-relationships that put our genes'
interest ahead of memes' is to "confront hierarchy with its opposite --
rhizome -- a web-like structure of connected but independent nodes",
borrowing from successful models in nature of such structures. The
working units (nodes) of this 'revolutionary' structure are
self-sufficient, egalitarian communities, and the concept of 'ownership'
in such communities is eliminated to prevent the reemergence of hierarchy.
Rhizome-based
structures need to be developed and then institutionalized from the bottom up
to replace hierarchical ones, Vail argues, in all areas of our society
-- social, political, economic, educational etc. to entrench the power
and sustainability of self-sufficient communities and render them
invulnerable to re-expropriation of that power by hierarchies. In
practical terms, he says:
Power remains distributed to the
level of the individual rhizome node through local, functional
self-sufficiency—a modern equivalent to the Domestic Mode of
Production. In other words, functional self-sufficiency means the
ability to produce at the household level at least the minimum
necessities for day-to-day existence without relying on outside agents
or resources. Self-sufficiency removes the individual rhizome node from
dependence on the standard set of outside suppliers. It does not
eliminate exchange, but creates a situation where any exchange exists
as a voluntary activity. The commodities that each node must provide
for itself include staple foodstuffs, energy for heating, basic habitat
and small group interaction.
Self-sufficient energy coops, and local permaculture-based food
movements are examples of rhizome structures. Such networks are also
the most effective means for the dissemination of information on how to
make rhizome activities even more effective -- they have much less
signal loss than hierarchical methods that require information to flow
up and then down controlled and constricted paths. Rhizomes are also,
while less 'efficient', more effective and more resilient than
hierarchies.
Next, Vail argues that, once established, to defend against attacks
from vestiges of hierarchical systems, rhizome networks need to adopt
asymmetrical methods -- by reducing the desire of hierarchy to
re-achieve power (e.g. by making it difficult or unrewarding to do so
on its own terms) and by becoming 'invisible' to the hierarchy (e.g.
dropping out quietly and not taking part in the hierarchy's social,
political and economic activities). Vail concludes:
A new vision, with individual
freedom to pursue arts and spirituality, above the pettiness of
bickering for power, may prove possible if we learn to control the
powers that have dominated us throughout history. In the spirit of this
vision, the message will ultimately fail if forced upon others. Only
through personal example, by showing that a realistic and preferable
alternative exists, will these concepts succeed on a large scale. We
will act as pioneers, who will begin to create diverse rhizome nodes,
each one representing an individual’s struggle to solve the
problems of hierarchy and human ontogeny. The more we learn and break
free from the control of genes and memes, the more success these
pioneers will have. Effective tools and practices will spread, and the
rhizome network will grow and strengthen. As this network evolves, it
will provide a realistic, implementable alternative to
hierarchy—an alternative that fulfills our genetic ontogeny and
empowers us as individuals. Nature has shown us that the structure of
the rhizome can compete with hierarchy and stratification. When
combined with an understanding of reality and humanity that makes us
our own masters, we may finally learn from the events of the
past…and gain control of our future.
This is entirely consistent with the approach I have been arguing
for
-- the bottom-up creation of a combination of working models of (a)
self-sufficient, sustainable (probably polyamory) egalitarian intentional communities operating under Gift Economy principles, (b) natural
enterprises and (c) peer-to-peer information and organization networks.
The
concern many have expressed about models like Vail's and mine is how to
scale them up -- how to get them to the 'tipping point' at which, like
viruses, they start spreading quickly and supplant the old hierarchical
ones. One approach Vail mentions is Hakim Bey's Temporary Autonomous Zones
(TAZs, or 'pirate utopias'). Bey's zones are based on the principles of
(a) 30-50 person 'bands' replacing families (Bey quotes Gide:
"Families, how I hate them! The misers of love!"), (b) a continuous
'festival' culture of conviviality, abundance, sharing, celebration,
and joy and (c) no private ownership.
I really like the idea of a festival culture. Bey sees the zones as temporary
(nomadic, to prevent their being attacked by the prevailing
hierarchical culture). Vail says they will only be needed "until the
size of the rhizome network provides enough power" to sustain them.
But
that's not how viral models work in nature. They get a foothold and
then replicate. Assuming we can create some successful working models
without having them destroyed by fearful or envious corporatists (and
though I'm perhaps naive, I don't think the establishment would be
bothered to try to destroy them when they're below the radar screen,
and after that it's too late), how might they replicate virally?
Suppose we were to invite people to just begin. We could use Open Space invitations to find the people who are ready
to create some working models of TAZs. We could facilitate Open Space
sessions to let invitees form TAZ 'tribes', each tribe consisting of
about fifteen contiguous intentional community 'clans' of about 100
people, with each clan having 2-3 natural enterprise 'bands' operating
within them. Then, any clan that was so popular that it attracted new
members to grow beyond the magic number of 150 people would 'split'
into two new intentional communities (members would self-select which
of the two clans to belong to), and any tribe that exceeded about 2000
people would 'split' into two new tribes the same way. This is the way
viruses replicate, and the way that some groups of animals
instinctively hive off when their membership exceeds a certain
threshold. As our rhizome-culture working models became more and more
popular, and the hierarchical civilization culture collapses, we would
simply and organically take over. Bottom-up, a model that has evolved
to work replacing one that has ceased to function. That's life.
These
sustainable, natural bands, clans and tribes would support each other
through network connections, physical and technological. Each would be
autonomous and self-sufficient, and evolve in its own self-determined,
wonderfully diverse way.
The great challenge, of course, is
finding arable land that can sustain these extraordinary experiments.
One solution would be simply to wait until climate change, pandemic,
economic collapse or other disasters depopulate an area to the point
its land becomes free or nearly so. Another approach I've mentioned
before is to find philanthropists willing to donate the land on a
successful-efforts basis. Or, we they could start in Russia and other
countries where serious depopulation has already begun.
Are you ready for this? Is the world?
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MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
