The Song of Seven

“Why don’t we start with the first song?” I asked as we climbed the mountain path. We were heading to the top so that the archmage could show me the landscape and point out escape routes and other defensive positions and dangerous regions.

“Two reasons,” the archmage said as he walked two steps ahead of me. “First, because the first song is arguably the hardest lesson to grasp. It is the most ethereal. The first song has no easy rules. The first song is about a perspective shift, and you are more likely to understand that perspective once you have learned the other songs.”

He paused for a moment and then pointed, “That river is shallow and filled with rocks. The Knights cannot use their large boats to patrol that river. That makes it very safe for the resistance. They know this however, and they monitor the point where it connects to the larger Dog Leg River. So make sure you don’t follow it right to the end on either side.”

“And the second reason?” I asked.

“The Empire loves straight lines. The Empire loves the myth of progress. The Empire loves to pretend it is the end of history. The Freepath is a circle. We start with the Second Song, and follow the Seventh Song with the First Song. This makes the Song of Seven itself into a circle.”

“Memory aid and learning device all wrapped up into one?”

“Precisely.”

“Couldn’t you have shown me the escape routes on a map?” I asked, now breathing hard.

“You will remember it better after this walk, and will more easily recognize the landmarks having seen them in person.”

“Curse your solid reasoning and good logic,” I said as we marched on.

The world has gone mad. No, that’s not correct. The human world has gone mad. We have gone mad.

An estimated 150 species go extinct every day. More than 150 acres are deforested every day. Air pollution contributes to roughly 9% of deaths globally. 2.8 million people die every year from causes related to obesity. Suicide is the tenth most common cause of death in the United States. The world population is well over 7 billion and feeding those people requires that 11% of the earth’s land mass be put under cultivation. We are hollowing out the planet and cooking it, even as we are filling it up with us. The challenges facing the human race as it attempts to face down the rest of the universe on its own are overwhelming.

We have gone mad. And we are destroying everything we touch in our madness. We have gone mad. And we need to heal ourselves.

Nobody else is going to save us. We have to save ourselves.

The goal of the Defenders of the Flame is to extend the life of the Flame as long as possible, the goal is to keep the Song going as long as possible. The Goal is not to sing the Song as long as possible. But a song is not random. A song has rules. These are our rules. This is our song: The Song of Seven.

Our Song has seven fractal verses. These verses explain the essence of the Flame. These verses are guide for how to keep the Flame burning without the Flame becoming a wildfire that leaves only cold ash.

The Second Song: Be Free

• Take your life into your own hands
• Defend your ability to walk away

You have the right to abstain and to not participate. You have the responsibility to allow others to abstain or not participate.

Most of us are familiar with the warning “You’re taking your life into your hands.” But where else does your life belong, but in your hands? What other hands should hold your life?

To be able to choose to stop, or to be able to decide not to participate is the most basic proof of freedom. Somebody who is allowed to choose between a set of limited choices, but is not allowed to not participate is still a slave. The ability to walk away and find a better deal is the barest proof of your freedom. If you can do this, you are at least partially free. In every situation where you cannot do this, you are constrained.

In order to retain the ability to walk away, one must seek to hold their life in their own hands. Because as soon as another person holds your life, you will have difficulty walking away.

These two points are brother and sister of the same idea. They are also seemingly at odds with the idea of being indigenous, since the place you live would seem to always hold your life in its ancient hands, but you can always leave a place- you can walk away. If you live in the hands of another who will allow you to walk away, then you live in the hands of a good parent. If you live in the hands of one who does not allow you to walk away, then you live in the hands of a master. If you are prevented from walking away from a situation by one in whose hands you do not live, then you are faced with an opponent.

If you are not free then you are either a child or a prisoner. A child can choose to grow up, and a prisoner can attempt to escape. Do not be one who chooses to do neither.

Take your life into your own hands

We caution people by saying that they are taking their life into their hands. But this creates a question. In whose hands does our life belong if not our own? Who should trust with your life other than yourself? Who should have say and control over your life if not yourself.

You have the right to make your own decisions. You have the right to your own conscience.

To make your own decisions is to accept the consequences of those decisions. This means that you have none to blame but yourself for your own actions.You are responsible for and to blame for the consequences of your actions, but only your own actions. This can be difficult to accept. The desire to blame others is a tempting one. But one who does not accept the consequences of their decisions is either a slave or a child.

A child is one who has not yet gained or accepted that they are responsible for their own decisions. A slave is one who has had control over their own decisions taken away by force. To be a child is not shameful, but to remain a child is shameful if it is not the result of disability. To be a slave is not shameful, but to remain a willing slave is very shameful.

The Empire will seek to become your eternal father. Empire will seek to take your life into itself, to own you. But Empire will also seek to blame you for any consequences. Empire seeks control without consequence. Empire seeks to own you.

Those who seek to make decisions for you, seek to control you, and thus to own you. Those who claim responsibility for you and your actions believe you are their property. The ethos of the second song is to own oneself, to be the property of nobody else. Seek to own the risks to also own the reward. Take responsible for yourself and take ownership of your life.

Take your life into your own hands.

Defend your ability to walk away

You have the right to abstain. You have the right to quit. You have the right to change your mind. You have the right to refuse requests. You have the right to deny demands

If you are unable to walk away, then you are either a child or a prisoner. A child is one who has not yet learned enough to walk away and provide for themselves. A prisoner is one whose ability to walk away has been forcibly restricted. There is no shame in being a child. But as stated above, there is shame in seeking to remain a child through fear or inaction. There is no shame in being a prisoner, but there is shame in being a compliant and willing prisoner.

You may enter into agreements, but if somebody tells you that you cannot exit an agreement, they are seeking to entrap you. There may be consequences, or a price to be paid if you wish to exit an agreement amicably. But to prevent one from ceasing participation is imprisonment.

Empire will seek to restrict you. Empire will tell you that participation is not optional. Empire will tell you that you owe it loyalty due to the accident or your birth and you cannot withdraw your participation. Empire seeks to restrict your ability to abstain or withdraw consent. Empire will seek to restrict your ability to deny requests, and force you to acquiesce to its demands. Empire has attempted to divide the world up and declare everything a part of one aspect of Empire.

Resistance must begin in the mind.

Seek to find and maintain avenues of escape, even if you never use them. Seek to protect your ability to refuse requests and demands.

Defend your ability to walk away.

The Third Song: Be Adult

• Speak out (critical thinking)
• Start Fires (self-sufficiency)
• Fight Back (Self-Defense)

You have the right to be educated so that one can think, provide and defend ones self as an adult. You have the responsibility to provide an education to future generations which will enable them to think, provide and defend themselves as adults.

Have you ever thought about civilization’s caffeine addiction? Have you ever considered the implications inherent in the fact that as a culture we must drug ourselves daily with stimulants in order to convince ourselves to participate in the collective game we all agree to play? One fifth of all Americans admit to dreading Mondays. 10 to 15% of people admit to having a episode of clinical depression in their lifetime. Just over 9% admit to using illicit drugs. Alcohol and Marijuana remain the most abused illicit drugs in the USA.

One would almost think that we were trying to hide from the reality of our situation.

I suspect we are hiding from our feelings of helplessness.

Attempting to medicate our pain is not the approach of somebody who believes that their situation can be solved. By attempting to medicate our collective depression, anxiety, angst, malaise and more away; we are saying that we cannot remove the factoring that are causing or contributing to those feelings.

When reports that Will Hayden, formerly of Sons of Guns, was being charged with abuse of his daughter surfaced, he is reported to have warned her: “Don’t tell anyone. I’m all you have.” This nasty comment cuts to the core of abuse. Helplessness and power imbalance are the source of abuse. And our duty as adults is to remove that helplessness and redress those power imbalances as soon as we can. Growing up is a slow and involved process, but we are prolonging the period of helplessness and thus we are making the abuse worse. We need to increase our ability to take action.

So how do you remove that feeling?

How will you know that you are an adult?

You will know that you are an adult when you are sitting in a shelter that you built for yourself, wearing clothing that you made. You have eaten nothing in the last five days that you did not gather, grow, catch or hunt for yourself- and which you prepared for yourself. You will know you are an adult, when the tools you used were made by you, to obtain the food and cook it also.

Can you feed yourself without a supermarket? Can you feed yourself without a garden? Can you feed yourself without modern tools? Can you effectively spot deception from a con artist or a would be dictator? Can you evaluate your own activities and spot when you are wasting effort or going astray from your goal? Can you defend your position in a discussion? Can you defend your psyche from emotional abuse? Can you defend yourself socially from bullying? Can you defend yourself physically from assault?

These are the three pillars, and they are a skill set. Once upon a time people earned the right to be called adult. How is the title of adult earned? What is required? A skill set divided into three broad groups, three areas of competency that enable an individual to live life on their own terms… To carry their life in their own hands To maintain the ability to walk away should they choose too.

Speak out (critical thinking)

Without the ability to think critically, others will be more than willing to think for you.

Critical Thinking is the basis for all other skills. One acquires all additional skills through one’s ability to think. One learns and grows by thought.

“It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.”
Piter de Vries, Dune – 1984

Without the ability to think critically, your success in using all subsequent skills will be based on luck and mood. Learn to think.

When people talk about self-sufficiency or self-reliance, generally what people talk about is physical skills. They talk about skills such as farming skills, and gardening skills and survival skills. They talk about skills like sewing, and knitting, and leather-working. There are a host of skills both essential and strongly useful that people generally talk about when they talk about self-reliance.

And here we are talking about critical thinking.

It’s enough to make you wonder what we’re smoking.

Critical thinking is the core of a self-reliant adult human being. In the classic novel The Sword in the Stone, the young (soon to be king) Arthur is sent on an adventure to talk with a badger. The Badger tells Arthur about a mythical time of creation when all the animals asked the creator for their special gifts, and that humans were last in the line. When the creator finally got to humans, the human said he did not want a gift. What he needed, the human said, he would make.

In other words, the human gift was the gift of the power to think. It is this ability that helps us learn agriculture, and make tools, and create language, and work leather, and sew and knit, and garden, and learn edible plants, and store our learning in culture and writing. The ability to think is the ability to grow beyond the limitations of form.

And the ability to think critically is the ability to think for ones self. Without the ability to think critically we must learn on faith. We must trust that what is taught to us is accurate. We must trust that the people teaching us have our best interests at heart and know what they are doing. We must trust that what we are taught- even if accurate in itself- is based on accurate information and thus can be used to further extrapolate. Without the ability to think critically, learning becomes an act of trust. Learning is a process of analysis and discovery, it is the very opposite of trust. It is experimentation, and testing, and challenging of hypotheses, and debate, and discussion and practice.

Critical thinking is the ultimate toolbox with which to handle the world. And here’s the best part. If you don’t believe me. study critical thinking and decide for yourself!

Start Fires (self-sufficiency)

Without the ability to provide for oneself, to be self-sufficient, we remain at the mercy of those who would provide for our needs.

We live in a world of grocery stores, computer shopping, virtual entertainment, and weekend airfare to Las Vegas for the masses. It is entirely reasonable within the realm of this reality to question why anyone would bother to learn how to make an article of clothing- we have machines for that. It is entirely reasonable to wonder why anyone would bother to learn how to grow a garden- we have machines to do that. And on and on.

We need far fewer humans involved in these tiresome tasks than we used to. Why bother learning these skills, when there are games to play and entertainment to consume?

Firstly, because people must still do these tasks, and if you stop to take a look at the conditions those people who make your clothes, or your computer, or your cell phone toil in, you may be less than pleased.

Secondly, because it is useful. Most people (80% in Canada and the U.S., and roughly 57% worldwide) live in urban areas, but despite this most of us live within an hour or two of areas that are entirely without modern convenience. Even forgetting this for a moment. Consider the possibility of a car breakdown or a prolonged power outage, or an oil shortage, or a hurricane or some other natural disaster. Would it not be useful to have short and long term practical skills to help handle such situations? How to improvise shelter, or how to build fire, or how to give first aid, or grow crops while waiting for relief workers- would these things be appreciated?

Thirdly, because it is gratifying. Fashion changes faster every year, and yet the people known for their style seem to change very little. They found a look that was theirs and took ownership of it. Would it not be more iconic to claim your style by making it yourself? Anyone who has ever gone camping can testify to how good it feels to accomplish those survival style tasks, and to have the knowledge that if needed, you could start a fire with a stick and length of shoelace. Drawing back a bow and arrow you made yourself puts you in connection with a tradition spanning back over thousands of years and feels powerful and deeply human. The act of tending a garden and growing things for yourself, is the act of giving life and is life affirming.

In the end it boils down to the choice between living as a consumer, or living as a producer.

Fight Back (Self-Defense)

Without the ability to defend yourself, then you are putting your faith into the hands of those who would threaten and harm you.

People often associate the warrior with violence. This is an error, a miss-weighting of the warrior. The warrior is somebody who invests in his community and is willing to sacrifice to help his or her community endure. The Warrior is the essence of responsibility and adulthood. A warrior is willing to fight for his or her people, but above all else- a warrior is willing to contribute his or her works to the community.

The warriors are the pillars that support any society, and a society of people unwilling to defend themselves and their community is a society of children waiting to be butchered.

We live in a world that both glorifies and is horrified by violence. We pay good money to sit and be entertained by visceral blood and violence on the big screen. We have police and military to deal with those violent actions we prefer not to think about. We tell our children not to fight. And ambient in our culture is the idea that violence is beneath us, or that it is somehow against our better nature.

So why are we talking about defense?

Isn’t this something we should strive to be bigger than?

Aren’t the best solutions non-violent ones?

To answer the last question first, normally non-violent solutions are the best solutions. A non-violent solution has the advantage of not placing the participants in danger of physical harm. But keep in mind that most non-violent solutions require either the willing cooperation of all parties involved, or the threat of repercussions to ensure the cooperation of all parties involved.

Defense is not about violence, and it is not about non-violence. Defense is the ability to keep ones self safe from harm. You can use others for defense, but in doing so you are dependent upon them.

There are many types of defense- verbal defense, emotional defense, physical defense, social defense. These are all methods of keeping you and others safe from harm. The core of this is simple. If you are not able to provide your own defense, then you can hardly be said to be self-reliant.

We may not like the idea of practicing to defend ourselves from a violent attack by another human being, but it beats the alternative. Because if you do not practice to defend yourself, you are practicing to not defend yourself should that violent attack occur.

The Fourth Song: Be Just

• No Kings
• No Conquests
• No Dogma
• Live for Tomorrow’s Tomorrow

You have the right to choose with whom you ally yourself and with whom you associate. You have the responsibility not to coerce or force others into associations they do not choose.

The second and third songs relate to your own freedom. The fourth song relates to the freedom of others. The danger of the Hungry Empire is not that it is self destructive. The danger is that the Hungry Empire imposes itself self-destructive nature upon the rest of humanity. This has been going on for some ten thousand years of human civilization. The fourth song is the antidote. Because the Hungry Empire arises from the Free Tribes. The Hungry Empire is born from among the Free Peoples. And so, if any group is able to re-establish a version of the Free Tribes, they must guard against the Hungry Empire arising again.

And so the fourth song teaches how to live as a tribe without falling to the temptations of the Hungry Empire. A people who follow the fourth song, might become self-destructive. But as long as they adhere to the fourth song, they will not spread their self-destructive ways to other peoples. They might kill themselves, but they would not become a cancer upon the world as the Hungry Empire does.

People from the civilized world, when looking upon the fourth song for the first time, may be surprised at the contents of the song. The fourth song prohibits ideas that are seen as normal or self-evident in civilized society. And this is the point. This is the danger. The Hungry Empire has made its contagious nature an integral part of its structure. This is why joining the Free Tribes is a revolutionary act.

No Kings

I promise to worship no king or god, spouse or parent, man or beast or anything of which I may conceive.

All gods are damned. I will not elevate another above myself or myself above another. The first king was a leader who thought that the ability to coordinate a group gave him the right to own that group. The empire was merely the first group of thugs who realized that if you hold food hostage and others to farm for you, then you can have more for less labor.

Hierarchy is the root of all oppression. As soon as you start ranking people, you are saying that some people are more or less deserving. You are saying that some people are more or less human. There is no way to justify this without oppressing people. The crowning of kings is oppression. There is not just monarchy. The crown and the halo are abominations, marks of Empire.

You cannot worship a god without worshiping their priest or god king. You cannot bow to a god without also bowing to the priest. All gods require representatives on earth. And so all worship is oppression. Even the worship of the non-human entities creates human inequality and oppression. One can deal with supernatural entities as one likes, but never worship those entities.

You can respect elders. Natural leaders can emerge organically in a crisis. You can give thanks to gods or entities. None of this requires support. You can make an alliance and show support without bending the knee. Accept no one as your better. Consider nobody your subordinate.

Kings make slaves. When mortal or divine, all hierarchies are abominations. To accept hierarchy is to accept the Hungry Empire and begin devouring all life. Inequality generates more inequality. Hierarchy creates more hierarchy. You cannot rank people without breaking the human spirit.

Worship no king or gods.

No Conquests

I promise never to wage war as the Empire wages war, and to oppose such wars when and where I find them.

The Empire will never stop waging war upon all life, including themselves. I need not fight them with sword or fist, but I must oppose them if I respect life and the earth that will support my grandchildren. Whether I fight with words, or with spears, by teaching or by negotiation, I must fight or I will be complicit as the Empire swarms across the earth and devours it and every living thing in their way.

Wars of conquest flow from hidden ideas of hierarchy. To conquer another people is to say: we are more important than you. To wage a war of conquest is to make slaves and take prisoners. And as being a willing slave is deplorable, so is taking slaves. As being a compliant prisoner is deplorable, so is keeping prisoners beyond the conflict itself.

One can feud with neighbors without waging wars of conquest. One can raid or engage in border skirmishes without waging wars of conquest. One can defend the land where you live without waging wars of conquest. One can act to deter invaders without waging wars of conquest.

But when you say: What’s yours is now mine”, you are proclaiming yourself king. When you say” We need breathing room,” you are saying that they are not fully human comparable to yourself. Conquest is the ultimate act of hierarchy. To say that these people do not deserve to exist.

Conquest is never acceptable.

You cannot justify conquest by attaching moral excuses to it. There is no noble crusade. To conquer is to engage in intentional extinction. To conquer is to murder cultures. And in doing so, you become the Empire. When you decide to take from others the ability to live as they choose, you have accepted the Locust Crown.

The Empire seeks to expand at all times. It expands outwards regardless of the borders and people living in the lands where Empire has expanded. Empire will claim that resistance to its conquest is itself criminal. Empire may honor other imperial opponents, but it will never honor free opponents.Empire considers the free peoples lesser. Empire believes it is more important than the free peoples. Empire cannot countenance freedom. It cannot countenance any people remaining beyond its control. And so it will expand, and it will conquer until it has devoured the whole world.

Conquest makes kings. Kings kill the story. There are no acceptable forms of hierarchy.

Wage no wars of conquest.

No Dogma

I promise not to impose my preferences regarding how to live on others, respecting the idea that there is no single right way to live.

Although there are many wrong ways to live. There is no single right way to live. I will not even seek to impose my way of life upon the Dreamers. I will oppose the actions of the Dreamers, but I am not their god and I am not their king and I will not become what I hate by seeking to force another to think as I do. I may explain and I may answer questions, but I will not impose my beliefs upon others.

The idea that your way is the only right way is an act of imposed hierarchy. You are proclaiming your way to be King. You are saying that those who do not follow your way are less human. To claim that only your way is acceptable is to attempt to conquer through the mind. To enforce dogma is conquest. Conquest creates kings. Kings kill the story.

It is reasonable to say: “My way is the way I prefer to live.” It is fine to say, ” My way is the best way for me to live.” It is fine to say, “My way is aligned with life in the universe and the life of the story.” You may trumpet your way to your heart’s content. You may even warn against certain specific ways. But you may not say that only your way is acceptable.

You must accept that other ways may also align with life. Other ways may also sustain the life of the story. You must accept that the best way for you to live may not be the best way for another to live. You must accept that if there are no kings, then nobody has the authority to impose a way of life upon another. No matter how much you may prefer your way, you cannot impose your way upon others without donning the Locust Crown.

Empire will insist that their way is the only acceptable way. They will claim that progress has created their way and that all other ways were leading to their way. Empire will claim that all other ways are primitive ways to be discarded. Empire will simultaneously claim that there are no other ways, that there is no other way to live. Empire will criminalize all competing ways and down adherents of other ways as outlaws. Empire will lie and cheat adherents of all other ways, because it does not believe adherents of other ways are fully human.

The tyranny of ideology is still hierarchy. The tyranny of ideology is always oppression. The tyranny of ideology is the way of the Hungry Empire.

Enforce no doctrine or dogma upon others.

Live for Tomorrow’s Tomorrow

I will take no actions which will harm future generations, even to the seventh generation.

There is no such thing as sustainable growth upon a finite world. I must live with the future in mind, and seek to act so gently and walk so softly that even if I were to walk for one hundred years I would not wear down the earth. I must put back what I take and seek to make it more alive than before I had arrived. I must make an offering to the other life with which I share this place or I will look up one day and discover that I have not paid attention and have stripped away an essential species.

If I wish to leave a place for my grandchildren I must leave a place for the grasshopper and the goose, the fox and the ferret, the lobster and the larch tree.

The Hungry Empire seeks to maximize size and splendor. The Free Tribes seek to maximize time and diversity.

Empire seeks to be more now. The free peoples seek to be more as measured through time. Empire seeks to have more and be more in the present moment. The free peoples seek to extend their flame as far into the future as can be managed.

Empire seeks to maximize production. The free peoples seek to maximize resilience.

To seek growth at the expense of enduring longevity is the way of the Locust. Life is filled with times to feast, but life cannot be a never-ending feast. To seek only to feast is to starve future generations. The larger the feast, the less time the feast can last. The more resources tied up in the infrastructure of Empire, the less is wild to grow a new tomorrow.

You put effort into planting seeds for the next generation. if you do not, then your generation may be the last. To live by maximizing production now, is to claim your generation is more important that all others. This is an act of conquest against the future. Such a conquest will render you as the Last King. To do this is the murder the story.

And if you live like this, then you have chosen to wear the Locust Crown. The diversity of the world should be greater when you leave than when you arrived. The redundancy of the Story should be stronger when you leave than when you arrived. The longevity of the tribe should be enhanced when you leave, compared to when you arrived.

Seek to have enough, and then invest the excess in the future of all life. Invest in life. Do not invest in yourself alone. For that is the way of hierarchy. To horde your excess for your own use is to wear the Locust Crown.

Live for tomorrow’s tomorrow even to the seventh generation.

“Therefore he who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”

Tao Te Ching

The Fourth Song is a warning against Hierarchy

Hierarchy is oppression. One cannot place a person above another without engaging in oppression. One can make the oppression polite. One can make the oppression more palatable. But the ranking of human beings is oppression. To rank humans is to decide who is more or less human, more or less worthy of respect, more or less worthy of rights. And this is the foundation of the Hungry Empire. Oppression is the defining feature of civilization.

The Code of Kings

The Hungry Empire lives the inverse of the four laws (No King, No Conquests, No Dogma, Protect the Future).

The Divine Right of Kings

A would-be ruler seeks to restrict and control the actions of intended subjects. They rule by divine right (or similar nonsense), and the masses are duty bound to submit and obey them. If the masses do not submit, the ruler is justified (by this logic) to use force to require obedience.

Defend against this by:

• Retaining control of the your actions
• Retaining control of your culture

The Right of Conquest

A would-be conqueror seeks to gain control of territory and to control the movement of the intended conquered. A ruler has the right to be master over all the territory which they can take and hold. This, of course, ignores the fact that their military takes the territory and their police control it. The ruler rarely does anything.

Defend against this by:

• Retaining control of your movement
• Retaining control of your territory

The One True Church

A would-be thought leader seeks to control the beliefs and possible thoughts of the intended victims. The would-be thought leader declares dissenting ideas to be heresy, or treason. The thought leader labels questioning as disloyalty or blasphemy. The thought leader finds no heterodoxy acceptable, there is only one way, one religion, one church.

Defend against this by:

• Retaining control of your thoughts
• Retaining control of you ideology

Growth without End

The propagator of a pyramid scheme seeks to control the legacy, future resources, and options of their intended victims. The pyramid scheme seeks to expand continuously. It seeks to grow more this year than it grew last year. And it seeks to do this every year. Devouring the world, they would still be hungry. Devouring the universe, they would not be satisfied.

Defend against this by:

• Retaining control of your options
• Retaining control of your legacy

The Fifth Song: Be Independent

• Grow Your Own
• Keep Water Clean
• Build Your Home
• Warm Yourself
• Band Together

You have the right to choose how you make your way in the world and how you make your life. You have the responsibility to not prevent others from choosing how they make their living and not closing off the ways in which others make their life.

‘I cannot read words…. But I do know how to read the land. Both are important.’

Roy Sesana, Bushman

We are missing the owner’s manual. The owner’s manual that we are missing, is the owner’s manual for human culture, including how to be a community, how to be an adult, how to live on this planet without rendering it uninhabitable. We had this information once, and it was hard won.

Early humans probably used their advanced technology such as spears and fire, to hunt many of the great species such as the mammoth to extinction. This was not likely done intentionally, and the loss of such game animals would have been a damaging blow to a hunter gatherer culture. These failures led to laws and taboos and methods of living. These lessons and methods were encoded into the stories and cultures of the people who learned them.

Every technological advancement, from language to fire to farming to internal combustion engines presents a challenge to human culture. Technology accelerates the effect we have upon the rest of the web of life. It gives us an advantage, but it can be dangerous. Technology can be thought of as speed, both traditional term and the drug.

Technological advancements act as a speed boost in the metaphorical arms race of natural selection, allowing humans to do more with less work. Technological advancement also acts like the drug known as speed, in that it gives a psychological rush and euphoria that can make it hard to manage the new technology effectively. As mammoth hunters learned when they discovered that they were now too good at their profession and thus there were no more openings for new mammoth hunters, owing to their being no more mammoths.

Farming was another huge technological methamphetamine, The increased yields of farming leading to huge growth in population that drove expansion that led to conquest. Where farming overrides gardening or managing already existing crops, humans experienced the rush of being in control of the world around them in a way unlike anything previously experienced. And the military potential of a population much larger than others around them backed by food stores larger than any around them, allowed this euphoric rush to spread like a revolution across the planet. This was like the extinction of the mammoths, arable land depleted, land deforested or desertified or both, groundwater depleted and on and on. But as long as the revolution kept expanding, the consequences of not learning how to manage this new technology could be hidden from view or mitigated.

Whenever the revolution found people who still had a working user manual, they overwhelmed them, and either marginalized, assimilated or eradicated them. And so not only do we not yet have a user’s manual for our new way of life, we have destroyed huge portions of the old user’s manuals.

And so here we are. The rampant expansion that was initially started by advances in neolithic farming techniques and then boosted by every major technological advancement since is coming due. We strove to expand our way out of every problem, like a drug addict seeking to avoid withdrawal by adding new addictions. The future hangover just kept looming bigger each time we deferred having to deal with it.

And so here we are. The hangover is starting to become unavoidable and we’ve burned all the owner’s manuals. It’s not a good place to be.

That’s what we’re trying to do here. We need to build a new owner’s manual, assembling it from the remains of the previous ones and combining it with new scientific discoveries in the hopes of making something that is universal by virtue of being modular and interchangeable. We are building a user’s manual that can be used anywhere because it is designed to adjust to the location and cultures it encounters. We are building a user’s manual that is the human cultural equivalent of Lego- building blocks not rules carved in stone.

The hangover is unavoidable now, and those of us without a user’s manual are going to make that hangover worse. Our goal is to not be those people.

Grow Your Own

If you cannot grow your own, you are helpless before those who do. If you hunt and gather only, then you will almost always be limited to nomadism- which is acceptable so long as this is understood. If you wish to settle, grow your own and no more. Accumulating excess feeds the Locust

Grow for sustenance and not for trade. You may trade some of your excess, but seek first to provide for your own needs.If you do not provide for your own needs, then you will need to seek assistance from another. And they will be your master. A community that provides for its own needs can not easily be blackmailed. Such a community cannot be easily bullied. A community that provides for its own needs can not be easily forced to join Empire.

Grow for redundancy and not to maximize production. Grow food in multiple areas so that a blight at one garden does not cost the whole crop. Grow enough food to account for the fact that some crops will not grow, pests will take others, and some may spoil. Do not grow for maximum production. Grow hardy plants. Grow nutritious plants. Do not grow high production crops. Grow a variety and not a monoculture. One crop may fail. A food supply based upon a single crop is brittle. Grow multiple crops to improve nutrition. A varied diet is a healthy diet. Grow a garden and not a farm. Grow based on multiple small plots that can be tended by hand. Do not grow massive farms that must be worked by laborers.

Grow for concealment and safety, or your crop shall be stolen. Empire loves to confiscate the food of others for its armies. Kings love to demand tax in the form of food so that they do not have to grow any for themselves. Raiders and criminals may seek to steal your food. So grow your farms in locations where their presence may be disguised as something else or hidden altogether. Grow decorative gardens which are also edible. Grow in places where crops will be mistake for weeds or wild flowers. Grow places which are physically concealed. Grow food which may be left in the ground out of sight. Grow for concealment and safety.

Grow items that are easily stored and not items which must be eaten quickly before they spoil. The longer a food can be stored, the more food security it provides. Grow foods that can be stored without refrigeration. The less refrigeration required, the less power intensive the food supply. Grow food that retains nutrition while stored. Food stores are a hedge against future troubles. The easier a food is to store, the better a hedge it is.

Grow for sustenance and redundancy. Grow for variety and concealment. Grow a garden. Retain your independence. Grow your own.

Keep Water Clean

Water Pollution spreads cholera and a host of other ailments, it destroys crops and fish stocks. Keep your water clean, for the water is literally the life of your tribe.

Separate drinking water, wash water, and waste water. Waterborne diseases are your enemy. Learn the waterborne diseases and their symptoms. Cholera can kill in hours.

Boil water for ten minutes before use. Tea keeps Cholera Away. Cultivate the drinking of teas and tinctures to keep drinking water sanitary. Boil drinking water before use. Boil cooking water before use. Boil wash water before use. Boil water for medicine before use. Boil any water intended for human use.

Keep the midden away from the kitchen. Don’t crap where you eat. Micro-organisms can travel. Water can travel. They can meet underground. Keep the midden away from the garden. Keep the midden away from the kitchen. Keep the midden away from the washing area. Keep the midden away from the medicine hut. Learn to make bleach and sanitize items which are reused. Learn to make rubbing alcohol and sanitize items which are reused. Learn to distill water. Moonshine keeps Cholera Away.

Learn to build simple water filters. Rocks keep Cholera Away. Make filters which can be easily cleaned, and clean them regularly. Learn to store water safely and have a reserve. Make water storage that can be easily cleaned, and clean them regularly. Do not waste water or use water excessively. Sieges can hinge upon the safety of the defenders water supply. Keep your water clean and plentiful, do not waste it.

Water is life. Retain your health. Keep water clean.

Build Your Home

If you cannot build your own permanent shelter, then you will always be a guest or a prisoner. It does not have to be proud, a humble home will keep you warm and dry and suit your needs. But build your own home. Or at the very least, prove you are able to do so.

Learn the Vernacular traditional building methods of your region. Use what other people have tested. Use what people used before modern heating. Ventilation saves lives. Build a smoke hole or proper chimney. Allow for proper air flow. Build for natural cooling by air flow in hot climates. Insulation is your friend. Use earth sheltering to minimize energy use in hot and cold weather. Build thick walls. Build small windows.

Small spaces heat quicker. Build for low ceilings. Build multiple small rooms with doors rather large open spaces. Build to allow animals and livestock to share the shelter, beneath the human occupants, and thus contribute heat.

Keep the midden separate to keep things sanitary. Do not crap where you sleep. Human waste spreads human diseases. Without internal plumbing, middens can stink. Angled roofs shed water. Build paths for the water to flow or it will end up in your house. The more rain or snow your region receives, the steeper the roof should be. Natural Light kills microbes. Build to allow areas to be opened for spring cleaning.

Maintain control of your habitation. Build your home.

Warm Yourself

Make your clothes and start your own fire. If you cannot keep yourself warm in whatever climate you call home, you are helpless and doomed.

Wear layers. your body will warm trapped air. Layers can be added or removed to modulate body temperature. Small pockets in clothing, like quilting in winter jackets, will heat faster. Avoid exposed skin in both cold and hot weather. Exposed skin increases heat loss. Exposed skin can be damaged by heat and cold. Water steals heat. Keeping dry saves lives. Wear clothing that retains heat where possible. And dry clothing when necessary.

Learn to work with animal skins, leather is sturdy and fur is warm. Learn to work with plant fibers, linen and cotton and other plant fibers to create breathable cloth. Learn to work with animal fibers, wool retains heating capacity when wet.

Retain your mobility. Warm yourself.

Band Together

One must be able to stand alone, but the lone warrior starves in the winter and dies when they stumble. Band together, find other warriors, build your tribe.

Living in a group provides redundancy. Others can help you when you fall. Build a tribe where all can do the basics, but individuals can specialize. Build a tribe with no single points of failure. Make sure the tribe does not depend on the essential skills of one individual. Trade skills. Provide aid. Nobody goes hungry unless everyone goes hungry. Build a tribe that does not abandon its sick. Build a tribe that does not abandon its aged or infirm. Once you have joined the tribe you are of the tribe. One can only leave the tribe by their own volition or by exile for a transgression.

Build a tribe and not an empire. Build according to the Song of Seven. Do not wear the Locust Crown. Build a tribe with no hierarchy. Build a tribe with no coercion. Build a tribe that honors consent. Build a tribe where members would rather die that be taken from it.

Build something greater than yourself. Band together.

The Sixth Song: Be Interdependent

• Spirit before Wording
• Safety before Prevention
• Prevention before Healing
• Healing before Punishment
• Tribe before Outsider
• Outsider before Monster

You have the right to actively participate in your community and how your community runs. You have the responsibility to actively include others in the community and enable them to participate in how the community runs.

One of the features of rules is that they exist to persuade in favor of the status quo.

Inter Sufficiency or inter sufficient is a word built from the words interdependency and self-sufficient. The word means to be self sufficient in order to be part of a healthy interdependent group. The premise is that you cannot contribute properly to the group and the group cannot function in a healthy manner unless all members are able to contribute sufficiently to make everyone feel as though the arrangement is fair. Intersufficiency can be seen a trait of both a group and an individual. An inter sufficient group is one where the members are all self-sufficient enough without the group that all members are able to contribute without coercion. An inter sufficient individual is one who is able to provide for themselves, but who is also able to apply those self-sufficiency skills for the benefit of the group.

“The Problem with young people today is respect.

The first problem is that they do not respect themselves.

How can they become good people if they do not respect themselves? We need to help them discover self-respect by letting them achieve challenges and build their confidence.

The second problem is lack of respect for each other. They need to be able to earn the respect of their peers, but they don’t know how to.

They think that respect comes from having what they have: new clothes and things like that. Respect does not come from what you have: it comes from what you do. And if they cannot respect each other, they cannot respect themselves.

Of course, if they respect themselves. And respect each other, they will find it very easy to respect their elders.

If we deserve any respect of course!”

Dogon Elder of Western Africa

Spirit before Wording

To agree to follow and uphold the spirit of the law is essential to the functioning of the tribe. A tribe that does not value and uphold the spirit of the law will inevitably cease to be a tribe. The disintegration will follow a pattern. First, one of more factions within the tribe will shift from following the spirit of the law, to following the letter of the law. If other members of the tribe do not call this out and prevent it from continuing, the faction will become emboldened. The faction will then move from following the letter of the law, to simply attempting to appear to follow the law. They will subvert and violate the law when they think they will not be caught doing so. Again, other members of the tribe must call this out and prevent it from continuing. Otherwise the faction will continue to be emboldened. At the final stage, the faction will cease to even bother to follow the law, but will instead argue for an essentialist definition. That they are in the right because of who they are, rather than how they behave. The corrupted faction will still expect other members of the tribe to follow the law and, in their words, play fair. This despite the corrupted faction refusing to also play fair. At the final stage, the tribe is cancerous, and in a de facto state of undeclared civil war. In order to survive the final stage, the tribe will have to rebuild itself from scratch as though it were a new tribe freshly founded, once the corrupted faction has either been held to account or (more likely) driven out.

Safety before Prevention

Safety before Prevention means that laws should be built to encourage safe behavior. This is as opposed to building laws which seek to prevent negative consequences of unsafe behavior. Prevention is noble, but active safety is preferable. This can include simple things, but it can also include things as extreme as exile of members who continue to harm other members.

Encouraging safe behavior wherever viable is the best course of action and laws should be built to facilitate this. Learn how to nudge behavior with positive influence. Learn how to encourage positive behavior through supportive community laws and traditions. Look to laws surrounding driving. Laws requiring prospective drivers to pass a driving exam is safety before prevention.

Learn the safest methods of doing actions and build laws and traditions to facilitate these. Nothing can be made completely safe, but safety should be the first goal.

Prevention before Healing

Prevention before Healing means that laws should be built to prevent the consequences of unsafe behavior. If safety is analogous to driver education, prevention is equivalent to seat belts and air bags. You should attempt to build laws and traditions which are seat belts. This can include things like non-lethal duels to deal with disputes that might otherwise turn violent. This is the equivalent to putting up guard rails at a steep cliff.

This as opposed to building laws which will help to heal the damage caused by unsafe behavior. Since damage is inevitable, healing is necessary- but prevention takes precedence. Where unsafe behavior is unavoidable, laws should be crafted to keep the tribe as safe as is viable.

Healing can be possible where prevention fails, but prevention must be prioritized.

Healing before Punishment

Healing before Punishment means that laws should be built to heal damage caused by unsafe behavior. This as opposed to building laws which punish unsafe behavior. If safety is driver training, and prevention is air bags, the healing is the ambulance that arrives after the car crash. This can include forcing one to make reparations or do repairs. This can include free medical care in the event of an assault.

Healing is necessary, as things will always go wrong, and a tribe must always be ready to heal when the tribe wounds itself.

Punishment should always be the bottom priority. Punishment does not deter bad behavior. Punishment is catharsis for the victims and the tribe, and nothing more. There is no evidence to suggest punishment is an effective method of behavior modification. And your priority should be those harmed by the actions.

Prioritize healing, and do not aim for punishment as it will not generate positive results. But prioritize healing after prevention and safety. It is much better that harm not occur in the first place, than that the harm is healed after the fact.

Tribe before Outsider

One cannot protect everyone. Everyone is divided into tribe, outsider, and monster. Everyone who follows the free peoples is at least an outsider. An outsider is not an enemy, not automatically a threat. They can be relied upon to follow laws which the tribe will recognize. But they are not the tribe. And if the outsider is given the same preference as the tribe, then the tribe diminishes compared to other tribes.

One should not seek to mistreat outsiders. One should not side with the tribe member who has obviously broken laws. The commandment still requires that the laws be applied justly. This simply means that all other things being equal, the tribe is protected first. Eye witness testimony should be given higher trust than eye witness accounts of outsiders. But eye witness accounts by a tribe member should not be trusted over physical evidence provided by an outsider. The law must still be just to function.

The laws should also be built to protect the tribe as a whole, giving precedence to the needs of the tribe over the needs of outsiders. However, outsiders are likely to be neighbors. And weight must be given to inter group relations. Look at what conclusions outsiders will draw from your laws. Ask if you are making enemies. What will protect the tribe in the long term? Do not simply show favoritism. Laws must protect the tribe. Laws should not make enemies of outsiders.

The laws must be built to favor the ingroup over the outgroup. The Tribe will give precedence to their tribe over other tribes.

Outsider before Monster

The tribe and outsiders are at least fellow members of the free path. They share fundamental perspectives and base laws. Those who do not practice the Free Path cannot be trusted to deal fairly with the Free Tribes.

The history of North America is the history of Empire betraying the free peoples. The United States has broken over two hundred treaties made with the first nations of North America. And the Supreme Court acknowledged that this was true, but refused to rectify the injustice. Empire lies, it breaks treaties, it breaks promises, it steals, it kidnaps, it enslaves, it murders.
Empire must always be assumed to be lying. Free peoples must always assume agreements with Empire will not be honored. Assume that treaties are made in bad faith. Assume that negotiations are a diversion while Empire moves troops into place. Assume testimony by Free Peoples will be ignored, hidden, or misrepresented. Assume that when agreements are apparently met, that some harm has been concealed. Assume blankets have been impregnated with smallpox. Assume land ceded has been exhausted or contaminated or both. Assume bad faith in everything that Empire does. Else you will not survive.

To deal fairly with Empire is to be betrayed. Every time. Empire is criminal in its construction.

As such, All tribes of the free path must be given precedence over the Monsters of the Empire.

The Seventh Song: Be Whole

• Speak Truth
• Keep Learning
• Repair Damage
• Tell Stories
• Stand Strong
• Nurture Life
• Seek Insight

Humans are social creatures, and as much as we would like to be independent, the goal is to be a culture. You have a right to a healthy culture and community. You have a responsibility to contribute to culture and community to keep it healthy.

The Seventh Song is all about attitude and culture. What attitudes and assumptions does a culture encourage? What are the values of a culture? These are the questions for which the Seventh Song provides guidance. The Seventh Song lists the values and the motivations of each of the seven siblings, and presents them as paths that members of a culture can use to help to build and grow that culture.

Speak Truth

Nobody can speak without lying forever. Speak truth does not mean never telling a lie. Speak Truth does not mean only speaking truth. Much of what is considered truth is subjective. People will honestly disagree about what is the truth in any situation.

Instead speaking Truth means two things. It means speaking truth to yourself and to the community.

The individual must speak truth to themselves. It is very easy to lie to ourselves. And if we lie to ourselves, lying to others is easy. The simplest way to speak truth to ourselves, is to refuse to justify our actions. If our actions do not stand on their own, a justification is just a lie we tell ourselves to feel better about it. Speaking truth to yourself also means avoiding passive language and weasel words in your self talk. Do not say: something needs to be done. Say I want somebody to do this. Do not disguise your meaning, especially not to yourself. Speak truth also means not framing things so as to put yourself in a better light than you deserve. Frame your actions in as cold a light as you can manage. Be harsh with yourself and do not assume good intentions of yourself. The second song says to take your life into your own hands. You cannot do that if you pretend that your actions are the fault of others.

Speaking Truth also means Speaking Truth to the community. We must not lie to the community. Lies poison a tribe. If we lie to our community, then the community operates under incorrect information. If we lie to our community, then the community is hobbled by these lies. This does mean that one must never lie. Never lying to everyone is an impossible standard that people will always break. Speaking truth to the community means speaking truth in your formal interactions with the tribe. Treat as sacred the information you provide to your tribe. In your social interactions, you may speak as you see fit. But treat anything presented to the tribe as an oath sworn on life.

Remember also that Empire will lie. Indeed Empire is built from lies. The fundamental concept of Empire is itself a lie: the lie that one can expand infinitely and grow forever. Empire also lies constantly to enemies, and lies even more flagrantly to enemies who are not also Empire. Empire must be assumed to be lying in all interactions with the tribe. Assume the Empire is lying. Because it is.

Do not provide truth to Empire. Such truths will used as weapons against the tribe. Lie to Empire. Deceive Empire. Omit information. Distort information. Deflect and divert. Use sleight of hand and misdirection. To give Empire true information is to arm Empire against the tribe.

The Tribe deserves your truth. Empire does not. You do not need to never lie, but be sure that you do not fail to speak truth.

Keep Learning

Keep Learning means exactly what it sounds like. Stagnation is a dangerous temptation. It is easy to stick to what has already worked. It is easy to avoid what takes work to learn.

But tactics stop working. Strategies are exposed and defeated. People learn, and what worked before stops working. Situations change, and what worked before stops working. You must keep learning if you wish to continue succeeding. Success is a moving target. And you may learn a better way to do something you already knew how to do. You may learn an easier way to do something that previously was hard. In learning you may improve what was already good. You may make what was good into something amazing.

When we stop learning, we start dying. Our brains need to learn, it needs to keep growing to sustain itself. Learning can stave off cognitive decline. The learning brain stays healthy longer. So seek out things you haven’t tried. Seek out things you don’t understand. Fill in gaps in your knowledge.

Learn multiple ways to do the same thing. Build redundancy. The warrior who knows three ways to make fire will still have two ways to make fire when conditions make one way impossible to use. The warrior with three special attacks will not be caught flat footed when the enemy blocks your first special attack. Build resiliency. Learn ways to lesson the damage caused by setbacks or problems. Learn ways to nullify opponent’s tactics. Learn ways to heal from damage. Keep learning.

And everything you learn can be passed on to the tribe. And thus the tribe can be improved. The flame can be extended further, because all benefit from the accumulated knowledge.

Approach life as a mystery to be unfolded, a lesson to be learned, an adventure to be experienced. Keep Learning.

Repair Damage

Things break. People Break. Relationships break. Communities break.

Put them back together.

The world is a finite place. Do not assume that there will always be more. Do not assume that you can replace what is broken with something new. If the flame is to be preserved, resources must be conserved.

Never accept the idea that something is beyond repair. Never accept the idea that something is irrevocably tainted. Do not accept the idea that something must be pure to be valuable. Everything good has been broken and rebuilt. Stitches and patches are marks of honor. Heirlooms and antiques are better to have than new toys.

Obsession with the new and pristine is damaging. New things mean that old things become waste. The world has enough waste. New things mean more materials must be used. The world has only so much. New things mean we must relearn how to use the new thing. The weight of a new tool is different than the weight of an old tool. Replace only when absolutely necessary.

Things are remade by being destroyed. To repair is to recreate. You break stones to make walls. You destroy sand to make glass. You break glass to make windows. You destroy plants to make thread. You cut thread to make fabric. You cut fabric to make garments.

Approach life with the idea that waste is a sin. Approach life with the idea that everything should be repaired and reused and repurposed. Everything you repair extends the flame. Everything you rebuild keeps the flame alive.

Repair walls. Repair tools. Repair relationships. Repair Culture. Repair Stories. Repair Damage.

Tell Stories

Humans are built from stories. Our minds use stories to process and think. Our personality is a collection of stories stitched together with other stories. We encode information in stories and we store them in our brains. Without stories we can’t think. We also use stories to provide meaning and belonging. Without stories we lose hope.

A tribe needs purpose and lineage. A tribe is built from culture. Culture is nothing but stories. And humans use culture to assimilate useful stories quickly. It uses recurring themes and recurring characters. It uses mnemonic hooks on which to hang information. And if any culture or tribe is going to survive, it needs stories that it tells and retells. It needs stories for which it lives. A tribe needs purpose and lineage and all of these things come from stories.

Retain control of the stories. Your stories are the tribe. Guard your stories as fiercely as you guard the members of the tribe. Empire will seek to destroy your stories. Empire will seek to erase your stories. The Empire will try to pretend that your stories never existed in the first place. Empire will seek to impose its story upon you. Empire will seek to make you slave within the story of Empire. If you wish to survive, you must remain free of the story of Empire.

Who tells the stories, chooses the past that is remembered.

Who tells the stories chooses the future we point towards.

Take time to listen to stories. Take time to tell stories. Keep the storytelling as part of cultural events. Keep the storyteller alive in all of us. Tell stories.

Stand Strong

No culture survives contact with Empire through diplomacy. No Culture survives contact with Empire through peace and tolerance. It is madness to assume that your tribe can coexist with Empire when no tribe in the last ten thousand years has managed the trick. You can give peace a chance, but the Empire won’t.

They will invade you while they negotiate. They will lie while they sign peace treaties. They will kidnap your members and claim they went willingly. They will give poisoned gifts. They will arm rival tribes and then arm you as well. And they will never stop expanding. They will never stop devouring

So stand strong. Empire is always your enemy. Ignore any promises they make. Assume Empire always means the opposite of what it promises. Assume Empire will do the worst thing possible, the most vile thing given the situation.

Do not fight fair. Ignore honor. The Empire uses honor as a smokescreen. Honor is a trick by which the large man tricks the small man into fighting on the large man’s terms. Don’t be fooled. Don’t think the Empire will act with the honor they demand from you. Empire has never treated free tribes with honor in the entire history of civilization. They will demand you fight fair, even as they cheat, and then they will accuse you of doing the cheating.

If you wish to survive, ignore the demands of Empire. Do not face them square. Do not face them on the field of battle. Be strong. Not stupid. Be strong. Not dead. Be strong. And remember that strength comes from endurance.

The Empire cannot be beaten. But it can be outlasted. It can be outsmarted. Do not protect houses or furniture. Do not protect land. Do not protect honor or reputation. Protect people. Protect the tribe. Protect culture. Protect language. Protect Stories.

Do what it takes to resist the advance of Empire. Stand strong

Nurture Life

We depend upon the lives of those around us for own. We depend upon plants for oxygen. We depend on the web of life for our food. That web of life is vast and powerful, but fragile and easily damaged. Nurture life, because you depend upon the lives of others for your own.

The Empire does not nurture life. The Empire consumes life. The Empire offers you a choice, feast with me and starve tomorrow. Fight against me a die today. You may join Empire and help destroy life. Or may resist and probably die.

And if you wish to avoid becoming the Empire without noticing, you must nurture life. Nurturing life means giving back more than you take. This is the essence of the Corn Lady. The garden soil should be healthier after the harvest than it was before. The tribe should be stronger for your time with it, rather than weaker.

It means coppicing trees instead of cutting trees down, and planting two trees for every one that you cut. It means leaving offerings of food for the raven and the vulture. It means leaving the guts of a kill for the coyote and the wolf. It means caring for your tribe without asking for reward or compensation. It means opposing the philosophy and methods of the Hungry Empire.

It means making your goal, the flourishing of all life, not just your own. Nurture Life.

Seek Insight

The more you know, the more you learn how much more there is to know. Every insight expands the things of which you are capable. The World expands with your mind. Seek unknown insights. Seek what is known to nobody else. The edge of the map reads, here there be dragons. It should read, here there be wonders.

Seek the edge of the map. Hunt for dragons. We find fractals in vegetables. We find medicine in bee venom. We find electrical power in a waterfall. We find miracles in a grain of sand.

Seek known insights. What is new to you, may be known to others. Look for answers among what is already known. Look for new ways of understanding things already understood. Look for new ways to solve problems that already have answers. Look for ways of combining two disparate subjects. Look for ways of applying known solutions to unsolved problems.

It is often impossible to foresee what new things any discovery may unlock. The printing press was adapted from winemaking tools. The theory of natural selection grew from insights on geology and gardening. Plastics were synthesized from fossil fuels. Penicillin came from mold contamination.

This does not mean seeking Insight at all costs. The seeking of insight can be a very extractive process. Empire seeks in sight at all costs. It clearcuts forests to measure logs. It kills entire species to study their biology. It invents new things with no thought to the cost of the ecosystem. And now the world lies scalped, broken, and polluted at the feet of Empire.

Seek insight responsibly. seek insight sustainably. Be polite and respectful as you seek new insights. The world is full of Wonders. And those wonders have a right to be there just as much as you.

Seek the unknown. Seek surprise. This is where the breakthroughs lie. Seek Insight.

The First Song: Be Indigenous

You belong to your place, it does not belong to you

You have the right to a home and ecosystem which can support your life. You have the Responsibility to protect the ecosystem which will be home to future generations.

“We have only one thing to give up. Our dominion. We don’t own the world. We’re not kings yet. Not gods. Can we give that up? Too precious, all that control? Too tempting, being a god?”

Anthony Hopkins, Instinct, 1999

The word indigenous means ‘belonging to a place’. This is a reversal of our usual way of thinking, which tells us to think: “This is my land. This is my property. This is my house.”

To be indigenous is not to say, “This is my land,” but rather, “I am this land’s.”

If the land, the place, belongs to you, then it is yours to do with as you please. If you belong to the land, that changes what you are free to do with regards to it. The land is vast and much grander than you. It contains you, you do not contain it. It sustains you, you do not sustain it. The land is ancient and wiser than you will ever be. Buried within the earth and ecosystem to which you belong are hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary wisdom learned generation after generation on a scale that you are scarcely about to conceive.

This wisdom created you, and your parents, and their parents, and their parents back so many generations that they cease to be homo sapiens, that they cease to be primates, that they cease to be mammals, that they cease to be vertebrates, that they cease to be life as we define it.

How can you own something as old and vast and wise as that? You cannot save through delusion. If you try to own something so much beyond you, the best you can achieve is to destroy it.

The rule to ‘Be Indigenous’ is the most important rule of all of them. And if this rule is taken to heart, all the other rules will either fall into place or become unnecessary. Belong to the place that sustains you, that is enough.

You belong to your place, it does not belong to you

Ownership is all about hierarchy. Hierarchy is the way of the Hungry Empire. The idea that you can own something alive is a dangerous idea. One should even be careful about claiming ownership of pets and livestock. It is best to think of these as relationships. Even if you plan to eat the livestock, there is a relationship. You still have obligations. Even if the pig will be your supper, it is alive and it deserves your respect in the relationship you share.

The idea that you can place yourself above the living land itself is ludicrous. The living land is the closest thing to a living god that we have. And we are a part of that living land. We have duties to the Whisperers. It is no surprise that the first religion humanity conceived was animism. Seeing the life in all things is inevitable when one has a relationship with the life around you.

To imagine that we own the land of which we are a part is like imagining that the index finger owns the body. Or that one neuron can own the whole brain. Bacteria does not own the stomach in which it sits, much less the body in which the stomach rumbles. To imagine that we do, is to make us into a cancer in the body upon which we live. We become an infection would could kill our host. We are not above the rest of the living land. We are not kings. We are not gods. We are not in charge.

Forget this.

Let your ego melt back into the great collective of the living land. Accept that you are a single drop of water in a mighty ocean. There is a peace in this. There is no need to control the world. No need to manage something we don’t own. The world can manage itself as long as we are not constantly damaging it. Give up your pretensions of grandeur. To do otherwise is to oppose life itself. No living things can exist in a vacuum. No living thing can own that which sustains it. All attempts to do so lead to the obliteration of the host.

Earth does not belong to us. We belong to it.

Recommended Reading

• The Tales of Adam, by Daniel Quinn
• The Book of the Damned, by Daniel Quinn