When you hear the idea of "The New Renaissance", what do you think of? What are you imagining? When I think about what Daniel Quinn's vision of humanity is, I am often stuck with the concept of what I don't want to be. I think of a tribe of capitalists holding together their capitalist ways on that sliver of land known as Manhattan. I spend time imagining space for other ways of life, but I am somewhat stumped to think of what it might be other than what I've already got to work with.

                It seems likely that the future will always be ahead of us, just quite out of reach. I think what most readers of Daniel Quinn hope is that there is first: a future to imagine, and second: to be the cultural 'winners', that is, to be in the position to write the history books in their favor.

                There are plenty of philosophies and writings that share the urgency of writers like Quinn who see a system beyond repair. In the same fashion, they all have in common a single conclusion; that the course of history must be changed by individuals engaging in collective action. All critiques of civilization recognize that the power of today's rapidly devolving society is fueled by the alienation of individualism, consumerism, and other 'me-first' ideologies.

The Overt Rebellion, or Subversive Normalcy

                What challenges most readers and those who have gone down the rabbit hole is that age old question, "What now?" Many folks who agree with damning critiques of civilization are like a protester in a street, they are simply content to feel good about what they are shouting in the street; rarely, do they remember what they heard. Most participants at a protest will politely read the pamphlets handed out, some will donate to the cause, but rarely will a rally or protest or any other kind of counter-culture theater attract a group of people who commit themselves to each other to become a living example, a true counter-culture of that culture they were previously protesting. 

                Most readers of Quinn and other writers are members of a protest movement. They are shouting into the darkness their greatest hopes and greatest fears, and have made a friend or few based on how often they showed up to the protest. Protest theater, while feeling productive, or at the very least cathartic, and giving one a feeling that there is a mass of people who feel like you feel, it is important to remember the admonition of one of the original counterculturalists, Timothy Leary, "Overt rebellion is part of the game." The system has 'protest permits'. The system offers up police protection for peaceful protesters while physically drawing a curtain around this political theater to create a physical barrier in which only the anarchists and other jesters can 'break'.

                We are stuck individualizing our revolution because of how hard it is for the ego to admit that we are playing their game. We assert our rights as individuals even while arguing over principles of tribes. We stand alone, black and bruised by our own bubbles, arguing over the concept that there is 'no one right way' to do anything.

                Material nihilism and subjective modernity, ideas that you have to stop consuming to stop consumer culture, and 'voting with your dollar' are still part of this overt strategy to contain protest culture with ever more translucent lines. Most Ishmaelites I know are very self-aware, thus I use the word translucent, not transparent. Only through education and fervent reading on the state of culture have previously invisible lines even become something you notice you've been looking through this whole time.

The Third Handle

                We are for the most part, as culture protesters, trapped. We are forever looking to change the system, subvert the system, bring down the system, or anything other than feel like a participant. I believe what we Ishmaelites are truly looking for is a way to live alongside the system. This is an important concept. To truly disengage, to truly grasp the 'third handle', we must let go of the other two obvious handles and concentrate on groping for the handles we cannot see. 

                The concept of living alongside the system means that you are no longer operating as a virus vying for a chance to change the DNA of the organism that is modern american(western) culture, but an entirely new organism that is looking to use the same resources in a new way.

                Luckily, some philosophies already point in the right direction. There is a biological explanation for how to start over when it comes to culture -- return to the roots, look in nature, and ask, what is our way? This is the translucent line. There is a biological, functional framework within which 99.99 percent of all other human cultures have used to guide in the creation of their culture. 

                We are afraid of crossing this line. We all have our reasons, and they are all very personal, very individual. The few of us out there becoming new cultural organisms are not doing it alone. If you are doing it alone, you are doing it wrong. 

A New Hope

                 We can arm ourselves with the ability to co-create new culture with others if we understand, commit to dealing with, and move on from these three concepts:

• "Fighting the system" and other overt, western culture-reinforcing activities. Fighting the system is like moving to Zion in 'The Matrix'. A distraction to keep the most malcontent occupied, which is destroyed and remade in the image of zeitgeist, not objective human reality. Ask the Greek Cynics, The Roman Christians, or the American Revolutionists. All would be imaginably horrified by the future they shaped 
• Individualism. believing in yourself, believing in your own opinions only alienate yourself from the possibility of growing with others. You are not post-modern, you are not pre-apocalyptic, you are a Subjective Materialist, like every other member of the Western Culture.
• Resisting biology. Look at whales. They live as individuals but thrive in pods. Dogs live as individuals but thrive in packs. Humans are no different. They survive as humans, but only thrive in tribes. 

Walk away and lay down your cultural arms

                As difficult as it may be to imagine, simple walk away from silly conversations as to whether or not people should be kept healthy, protected from greed and a right to earn a fair share of the pie. Walk away. Stop arguing with those who deny climate change and the need to protect the womb of our lives, our planet. Walk Away. We knwo these truths to be self-evident, all life was created equal (but not equally tasty).

                And yet, walk away to where? There are sacrifices to be made, most importantly we need to ask to where? From what? There are three important subjects within tribal and cultural philosophies that also need to be challenged:

• You can live on your postage stamp of resources. Living alongside Western Culture is now more possible than ever and your only choice to operate is as if your land is your land and their land is their land. And our land is our land. Without the belief in your rights to your tribe's property, without understanding of what it takes to understand what it means to live alongside western culture, your failure is guaranteed. Your success will be measured in your ability to live alongside western culture while being distinctly different. Whether you believe you will succeed, or believe you will fail, you are probably right. You aren't the first, you won't be the last. There are thousands of thriving communities and your fears are unfounded.
• Your opinion doesn't really matter. How you feel, what you think, what you know, how you see yourself, none of this is as important as the vision of the tribe. there is no better way to say it other than to shock you and then explain what I mean later. You must submit to the group and give up your old sense of individuality, practice tribalism, and then revisit your new individual sense much later once it has had a chance to adjust itself to the concept that your ego doesn't matter; that only the superego of the tribe must be served. This is how culture is brought about. There is no other way. The ego must die and be rebuilt not through looking into the mirror and finding out 'who you really are', but in the faces of the others you have committed to creating a new life with will you find your new self. The idea of the true self is a lie. Your self is constantly being remade.
• Come out of the cave. Trading with your cultural neighbors isn't a slap in the face to your own culture. Trade is a symbol of peace and understanding, not of weakness and certainly not hypocritical. Stop imagining the peasant, pre-industrial, or post-technological lifestyle. What's available in nature and in industry is much more wonderful than that which you imagine you will have to remake from scratch. It is however important to teach your children childish things like what there is to eat outside of a store. But what do you then teach your children when they grow up? That is up to your culture. Think of the lesson of the movie "The Village". You cannot build a wall around the minds of your young people. Thusly, you cannot build walls around your adults. Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Psychology, Computer Networking, these are all things that have brought us closer to the possibility of co-existing as tribes alongside the culture of individuality.

Share your passion

                I have heard many people hide their passion for carving out a slice of the world that doesn't worship individuality from the ones that are the closest to them; the one's most likely to commit to submitting their ego to a greater cause. Ones who are most likely to actually trust us enough with their own lives.

                There is a biological, rational, scientific solution to the culture of the individual and it's ravages on our hearts, minds and living environment, and that is tribal living. You are the one charged with escaping subjective materialism and becoming the co-creator of your own culture. Giving up western culture isn't about giving up technology, it's about learning how your social proficiencies have become atrophied. It's not about tearing down the walls of a 'civilization' (whatever that is), it's not about atoning for sins of the forefathers or those who stole your foreskin. It's not about learning how to shit in the woods. 

                It's about giving up the ego, and remaking it in the images of others. You will not succeed by writing the story of your ideal lifestyle. Your disappointment in not attracting any attention to that story will only attract others who too are disappointed. Only by actually engaging others in this conversation, only by understanding our participation as the vanguard of a new protest movement will we be able to extract ourselves from this theater. 

                Only bold strokes in slaying our egos in the fertile soil of the ones we love will the seeds of new culture spring.