Civilization Anonymous

Right now I'm reading Gary Jennings's novel Aztec, which makes for a fascinating read on the mysterious Mesoamerican civilization which participated in huge human sacrifices as part of their religion.  With the structure that Jennings employs, I see an implicit critique of "civilizing factors" that play with the populace of a given region.  Whether it's an Aztec civilizing method, a Maya one, or a Spanish one, it seems that the same devotion to creating an empire and enslaving as many people as possible follows the same trajectories no matter where civilization goes.  And it creates similar kinds of craziness along the way, especially among the elite classes who walk around thinking they can do whatever they wish.  All the elites are are thugs who have a bloodline to support.

As I read the novel, I feel a tremendous loss actually.  There are all sorts of cultures that got lost in the mad dash to civilize.  The Aztecs at least never tried to obliterate other cultures, only insisting that they pay tribute once they'd been properly dominated and once they'd taken enough prisoners for their bloodthirsty sacrifices. 

All of us who have been civilized have ancestors from way, way back who were at one point indigenous to some area, whether it was in the Americas or Eurasia or Africa, or more rarely Australia or Pacific/Indian/Atlantic islands.  If a person is a white or Asian or African-American then it's pretty much assumed that somewhere in the Eastern hemisphere is our ancestral home, but if you're like me, you must have more than a couple.  I'm part Swede, Italian, French, English, Scot and Irish.  For all I know, my ancestors could also include Russian or Slovene or Basque people or what have you.  Civilization has flattened us all into cutouts.  From civilization's point-of-view, most of us are interchangeable.  Actually, all of us are, just that some are interchangeable at a higher level or a lower level.  Rarely do people cross across the chasm of class anymore, though the hero of Aztec is just such a fellow.  He's got a fascinating and rich history to draw from.  But he is a Cassandra sort of figure, one who is doomed to be a truthteller and whose ability to see things as they are, up close and without judgment, will bring him to a fate easily foretold.  (Maybe that's not fair--I checked out the blurb for the second of Jennings's Aztec books, I know Mixtli will be executed at the end of this one.  However, I think Jennings sets up the expectation fairly well.)

The seductiveness of civilization as we know it is difficult to pass up.  Mixtli judges a lot of the tribes he encounters through that lens, especially the Maya who at one point knew the glory of a former day.  There is no record of what happened to the Maya--they just disappeared.  Daniel Quinn hypothesizes they just walked back into the jungle, that they decided civilization was a fool's errand.  A friend of mine who studied anthropology said there would be some sort of record of that in what they left behind.  Even though this is the case, I'm intrigued by the idea that the Maya might have just decided "Feh!  Let's get out of here and go dance with the monkeys!"  I don't know. 

Still the seductiveness of civilization doesn't adequately cover for the wounds we've all suffered to become civilized (synonyms: domesticated, socialized, addicted, insane).  On my way in to work tonight, I was musing that all Americans are de facto qualifiers for Al-Anon because of the man sitting in the Oval Office.  Because of the dry-drunk pResident of the quickly Unraveling States of Addiction, we can all legitimately claim to be members of Al-Anon because it only requires there be a problem of alcoholism/addiction in a relative or loved one.  Now, I'm being molto generous with describing Arbusto as a "loved one", but because we are all enjoined to be in relation to the psychic vampire (or "cunt", rather-- the onomatopoetic/metonymic representation for bloodsuckers of all Republicunt striping), we can I think dispense with formalities.

Perhaps though, it would be better to create a new fellowship to address the deeper problem that is our notion of civilization.  I admit I'm powerless over civilization, and that my life has become unmanageable, and I dream that Gaia and Sol and the Space-Between will deliver me from its grasping and necrotizing claws.  I can make the decision to turn my will and my life over to Gaia and Sol and trust they will lead me out of civilization into a new freedom and a new happiness.  I can take my moral inventory and own up to it and admit my civilized character defenses and acquire new behaviors that will put me on the path toward living a life that is constant prayer and meditation.  I choose today not to take things personally, as much as I am tempted down that path.  Please let me put my energies toward scaling the wall and getting beyond "toxivilizaton." ("Toxevilization" anyone?)