{"id":8711,"date":"2013-08-24T16:09:45","date_gmt":"2013-08-24T16:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=8711"},"modified":"2013-08-24T16:09:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-24T16:09:45","slug":"the-timeless-appeal-of-the-apocalypse-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/the-timeless-appeal-of-the-apocalypse-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The Timeless Appeal of the Apocalypse (Again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ResidentEvil_Alice\"<\/a>Cross-posted on the Corner<\/a>:<\/p>\n

To my disappointment, I missed this event:<\/p>\n

Uncivilisation 2013<\/a> is a gathering of people searching for answers to questions about our collective future in a rapidly-changing and depleting world. For one long weekend in August, the woods and chalk downland of the Sustainability Centre in Hampshire will be home to a festival of literature, music, art and action. It will be a place of encounters and conversations, learning and sharing, stories, ideas, music and performance. There will be campfires, wanderings in the woods, children\u2019s activities, and workshops in everything from writing to scything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Scything.<\/p>\n

Some background:<\/p>\n

The Dark Mountain Project is a network of writers, artists and thinkers who have stopped believing the stories our civilisation tells itself. We see that the world is entering an age of ecological collapse, material contraction and social and political unravelling, and we want our cultural responses to reflect this reality rather than denying it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Something tells me that the \u201ccultural response\u201d that the Dark Mountaineers are planning does not involve the acquisition of heavy weaponry, canned goods, a comfortable, yet invulnerable, mountain redoubt and the recruitment of Resident Evil\u2019s Alice, a handy companion in the event of any apocalypse I can envisage.<\/p>\n

H\/t: David Thompson<\/a>, who anticipated the event in a possibly<\/em> sarcastic fashion:<\/p>\n

Who here could resist a congregation of climate catastrophists and unemployed poets \u2013 sorry, \u201cartists and thinkers\u201d \u2013 who tell us their words \u201cwill be elemental\u201d and will \u201cweave reality,\u201d and who also tell us they will write these elemental, reality-weaving words \u201cwith dirt under our fingernails.\u201d These brave People Of Tomorrow\u2122 will gather in tepees and fiddle with twigs, while awaiting the end of capitalism and bourgeois decadence. They will dine on halloumi burgers and Fair Trade carrot cake. Women will blossom in a \u201ccreative making and conversation space.\u201d Men will be helped to \u201creconcile their polarities.\u201d Oh, and there\u2019ll also be a scything workshop. Poetry and scything is clearly the way forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, scything.<\/p>\n

Then again, what good is the apocalypse without a grim reaper?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted on the Corner: To my disappointment, I missed this event: Uncivilisation 2013 is a gathering of people searching for answers to questions about our collective future in a rapidly-changing and depleting world. For one long weekend in August, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[511,351],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8713,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711\/revisions\/8713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}