Re: <nettime> The Dawn of Everything (very short review)

[mp <mp@aktivix.org>]

Thanks for this...

On 06/12/2021 11:28, Felix Stalder wrote:
> While the book is great, it has a glaring hole in it. What is almost
> entirely missing is the discussion of how this "carnival parade" of
> social forms structured the relation to the environment, or, more
> generally, how they were embedded in, and impacted on, the metabolic
> system. While for much of the historical period they cover, this might
> not have been too much of a concern, it is clearly one for us now and if
> we are to remake our social relations, then this will be a key dimension
> to transform. But it would probably be too much to ask from one single
> book, already long enough, to cover everything, even with this title.

...I am still reading, between other projects, but after the
introduction and going through the index, I could sense it was probably
going to remain absent. I grabbed hold of a .pdf to do a search for
terms like "extractivism", "plough" and so on that relate to the
emerging ideas in regenerative agroecology and beyond, and which would
constitute the needed links with social metabolism etc. But no. Nothing.

That seems like a fundamental mistake with that title and given current
predicaments.

If one wanted to be annoyingly critical, one could say that they've
picked bits and pieces from the archaeological records and applied their
pre-existing political analysis and vision to those records, but there's
no need for that. It's a very useful collection of references, concepts,
and ideas yet to be combined with other contemporary ideas to paint the
picture needed to move towards a more-than-sustainable, gross-negative
future.

You might enjoy the work of Chris Gosden, Oxford archaeologist, who has
been setting out a new dawn for quite some time already. His latest book
moves a little more in the direction that Graeber/Wengrow did not manage
to go. Introducing a conceptual framework he calls 'the triple helix' -
consisting of magic, religion and science - the title is potentially
misleading and understated. I consider it a major contribution to the
history of ideas.

It's titled 'The History of Magic: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the
Ice Age to the Present' (2020) and he sets out to bring together the
triple helix in a vision that incorporates elements of the inter-species
interconnectedness that advances in ecology are currently spawning, as
well as quantum physics, and more, with an environmentalist tenor, to
pave the way for what I dream to think of as a 'magical turn' in the
road towards an age of synthesis.

The book ends thus:

"...We will continue to use science to understand and change the world.
But magic has an older sibling’s capacity to calm the energies of
science and its technologies, allowing us to think about the ends to
which scientific discoveries can be put. Religion encourages a sense of
wonder at powers beyond the human; magic helps us to explore our shared
substance and commitments to the rest of the world; and science provides
distance and techniques for manipulating the physical aspects of the
universe. Magic, religion and science all reach inside us to designate
various human capabilities: our empathetic qualities through magic; our
feeling of wonder at the scale and beauty of the cosmos through
religion; and our technical skills and abilities through science. All
elements of the triple helix of magic, religion and science are
necessary, as they help us to reach out to the universe, exploring and
connecting with it in various ways. No one strand is inherently more
important than the other two, and magic is certainly not the least of
the three. Magic offers the possibility of a communal life – a life
lived together with all the cosmos. Although such a change in relations
is difficult, the stakes are high; a truly open community is hard to
obtain or sustain, but the need to cool the planet and live in a greater
state of equality is urgent. Failure invites catastrophe for the fragile
networks of life on Earth, threatening the many strands of sentience.
Magic allows for a sense of kinship with all things, living or not. And
with kinship comes responsibility, the same sort of responsibility we
feel towards our family and friends. Whereas science asks, ‘Can we do
that?’, magic asks, ‘Should we?..".

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