Bioregionalism is the Answer to Empire

By S. Brian Willson (July 12, 2017)

COLLAPSE IS IMPERATIVE for the future of life as we know it.

Primary Meme of US culture: Profits for a few (mostly White men/patriarchy) through expansion at ANY cost =US empire. This selfish model is now global on a finite planet. John Locke defined empire as a way of life that takes wealth and freedom from others to provide one’s own welfare, pleasure, and power. It is an ecological disaster and morally indefensible.

A Previously unthinkable premise to ponder: The US as a nation and culture is irredeemable and unreformable, built on three Genocides.

Genocide #1: Our origins derive from forceful dispossession of Indigenous and their land, killing millions with impunity, justified through a myth of exceptionalism. This set in motion a pattern of a pretend society, built on lie after lie, from Manifest Destiny to Full Spectrum Dominance. The past is never in the past, as its features always remain present in the psyche.

Genocide #2 was forceful dispossession of Africans of their labor and dignity, killing millions with impunity.

Genocide #3 was and remains the forceful dispossession of “Third World” peoples of their resources and labor, killing millions with impunity.

The US, as is typical of empires, is unsustainable, built on unspeakable behaviors. The wool has not been pulled over our eyes. Our eyes are the wool. Our US model has morphed into neo-liberal globalization, destined to destroy virtually all planetary life.

But Humans ARE redeemable and reformable if we choose to re-organize into bioregionally sufficient food and simple tool cooperative cultures, similar to ancient Indigenous models. Ceasing obedience to nation states will free up our energy and imaginations to create new social configurations integrated within bioregional carrying capacity.

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One thought on “Bioregionalism is the Answer to Empire”

  1. Good post, Brian. Bioregionalism is the answer to many questions that are rarely asked.

    It’s time to turns our backs on national and international politics and organize locally, reorganize bioregionally and relearn how to live in place.

    Peter Berg called it Reinhabitory Strategies.

    Planet Drum is still working to spread the word of Bioregionalism. http://planetdrumfoundation.weebly.com/

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