Written by William H Kotke, this is effectively two books in one, the first entitled ‘The Collapse of Civilisation’ is another shocking summary of the devastation that civilisation (or the culture of empire) has wrought throughout the planet, while the second ‘The Seed of the Future’
is an attempt to come up with solutions.
Book one includes chapters on the history of disintegration, soil, forest, agriculture, oceans, extinction, population poisons & resources, cultural dynamics of empire, psycology of empire and colonialism.
Soil erosion is not a ‘glamour’ issue with the world media, but it is one of the most life-threatening problems on the planet…… Erosion, desertification, toxification, and non-agricultural uses will eat up one-fifth of the worlds arable land between 1975 and 2000. Another fifth will go by 2025.
Kotke recognises that this culture, now on a global industrial level, has a long history of turning eco-systems into desert. Its very nature is one of using the planet as ‘resources’ to increase population and the wealth of the elites. If you still believe that the system can be reformed, this book is likely to open your eyes to the frightening reality.
The spread of civilised agriculture is undoubtedly the greatest catastrophe ever to strike the planet. Previous disasters such as the die-off of the dinosaurs are measured by the numbers of species lost. Since the advent of agriculture we are beginning to count the number of eco-systems destroyed. Each major food gaining method of the iperial system – herding, irrigation, plow agriculture, and industrial agriculture – progressively depletes the ability of the earth to sustain life. Civilised agriculture cannot endure.
Most civilised people probably aren’t ready for the spiritual emphasis of the second book, the need for humans to reconnect to the planet in a spiritual way, similar to how many indigenous cultures view the world. But, it must be said that anyone who spends any amount of their time with their hands in the soil and their hearts in the garden, will hopefully find their own spiritual connection with nature and the earth. Kotke also emphasises a need to rebuild communities or tribes on a local level, while recognising that the earth is actually a living entity in its own right. Deforestation being similar to removing the skin of an animal. He discusses how science is slowly coming to recognise many of the things that ancient cultures instinctively knew – the earth is our mother and we should love her and work with her to increase diversity, life and planetary wellbeing.
It is a devastating and yet beautiful book, which should be read by anyone who feels that civilisation is not ‘the only way’ and that humans could have a place here in harmony with the rest of creation.
Table of contents of The Final Empire.
The crisis of the planet Earth is so profound that all of our lives will be caught up in it. Our lives will change because of it. Our lives will change because of the apocalyptic events happening now and the even greater dislocations to come. We cannot avoid these great trends of history but we can exercise awareness and skill in action in dealing with them. The tumult will be environmental and it will also be within the social body of civilization.
Book I begins with a straight-forward examination of our ecological situation on the planet. This is not pleasant knowledge but it is imperative that we understand the full dimensions of the problem before we invest our lives in a solution. Book I also includes an explanation of how we humans have arrived at such a point of personal and planetary suicide. In this section the cultural dynamics, the psychology and the history of our culture is examined in order to gain insight for the future.
Book II is a plan of action for us to regain paradise. This section answers the question of how to live in balance with nature. This is not a theoretical answer. It involves an actual watershed, what its ecology is and what the food sources are. This section takes those much abused words, “sustainable” and “balance with nature,” and puts them on the ground. We will be urged to immediately create a new ecologically sustainable land based culture that will take us through the future times. Those who can respond will be accepting an initiatory challenge such as has seldom happened to our kind. The challenge is to bring out of the greatest wave of death and destruction the earth has ever known, a new world of wholeness and relationship of all of the tribes that live in ecological sustainability. This era is the first time in two million years that all of the tribes can connect as a planetary whole in a geographical and material sense.
When our great, great, great grandchildren look back at the crisis that their ancestors had lived through they will understand why we changed ourselves, our culture, our relationship with our mother the earth and our relationship with the creative spirit of the cosmos.
Buy the book from Authorhouse.
The materialistic values of civilization teach us that the accumulation of wealth is progress. The material wealth of the civilization is derived from the death of the earth, the soils, the forests, the fish stocks, the ‘free resources’ of flora and fauna. The ultimate end of this is for all human species to live in giant parasitical cities of cement and metal while surrounded by deserts of exhausted soils. The simple polar opposites are: the richness and wealth of the natural life of earth versus the material wealth of people living out their lives in artificial environments.
