Why anti civilization ?
The anarchism as philosophy and practice is to combat all forms of domination imposed socially. In its origin, it identified two forms of major domination:
capitalism and the state.
As the anarchist thought developed, he went to investigate increasingly more subtle forms of domination such as gender, race and sexuality.
By doing a reading of human history, it is possible to observe and identify the emergence and development of different forms of domination, and so understand what their roots and how they have developed over time. You can for example see how kingdoms and empires have become liberal democracies and came to dominate by other means without the state has lost its essence as a tool of domination.
But few dare to seek the origins of domination at the very origins of civilization.
This neglect is to be expected in a society that has little interest in their origins, calling all happened before the invention of writing as "prehistory".
Thus the study of history becomes the study of civilizations. We learn in the classroom and in the history books about ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and about the great voyages, but almost nothing about the history of uncivilized man. Nevertheless, civilization is a "Invention" recent, having emerged just over 10,000 years, while the human being is already moving by land to over 200,000 years.
It surprises me that most anarchists know little about how humans have lived for most of its history, and still live many people who have not yet been incorporated by civilization.
This lack of knowledge is even more surprising by the fact that the most anarchical societies that have existed and exist on earth are uncivilized societies.
In fact, I believe that the key to understanding the origins of domination is in the origins of civilization, which is also the origin of man and separation of nature and man by nature of domination. I do not want to imply here that all non-civilized societies are egalitarian, and even paint a romanticized image of these societies as diverse in their practices and customs. But with the emergence of civilization opened a Pandora's box that led us to this sick society in which we live.
Civilization is a society based on cities, human settlement using a greater amount of resources than their bio region is able to provide, requiring the import of resources to maintain. Among its typical characteristics are sedentary, intensive agriculture in order to meet the food needs of its population, symbolic communication, specialization and division of labor, domestication of plants and animals including humans, resource accumulation, increasing complexity, division classes and an extractive and unsustainable economy.
All these features were present in the first civilization: Sumerian civilization. As if that were not enough, the quality of life of its inhabitants was much lower than that of their ancestors. Archaeological evidence shows a drop in life expectancy and a body degeneration marked by a reduction in the average size of its population and a higher incidence of degenerative diseases and bone fractures and dental problems among other things.
These findings will face against the progressive myth that sees history as a long march towards progress in which companies will step by step overcoming its contradictions and abandoning practices and mentalities "backward".
The truth is that civilization always expanded through war and conquest and maintained based on domination and ecological destruction. Combat at its roots the domination of human and wild nature means fighting not only the state and capital, but also civilization. This project does not imply an attempt to return to the past or to imitate the ways of life of our ancestors, but a recognition that while we live in a civilized way we will never be able to fully realize ourselves as human beings and to get rid of the chains of domination .
I do not know how far that struggle will lead us and to what extent it is possible to reverse the damaging effects of over 10,000 years of civilization and domestication, but I believe it is worth entangling ourselves in the debate and the practices arising from criticism of civilization. This post is a sincere attempt to make a modest contribution to this debate, provide material for reflection and expose my criticism of ideas, and find others who have some affinity with my ideas.