Rewilding means a return to living in reciprocity with the ecologies in which we dwell, and with each other. It is a movement that critiques and rejects social hierarchies and authoritarianism as the “natural” state of humanity. Through contemporary anthropology, paleoanthropology, and archaeology, the rewilding philosophy pieces together how humans created and thrived in egalitarian societies for tens of thousands of years-perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. In one sense, it is essentially a call to anarchy: stateless societies, with collective decision making.
Hierarchy at the scale of what we call “the state” only becomes possible from the intensification and the control of food production, through the growing of annual grains. This sedentary, predictable surplus provides the material conditions for a small group of people to force a larger group of people to produce this food for them. These authoritarian societies take many different shapes, from less violent and coercive to the most extreme forms of control and domination, so abhorrent, we recognize them as so-called “crimes against humanity.” Through the rewilding lens, fascism can be seen as the ultimate pinnacle of the authoritarian, hierarchical state, of domestication to the fullest extent possible; using the most modern technologies for total and complete submission of people and of nature. Fascism is the furthest, most oppositional force from our innate wildness. This means that rewilding is inherently anti-fascist.
When rewilding as a buzzword for “returning to a wild state” hit the mainstream mostly through diet and fitness culture (such as the so-called paleo lifestyle), it was watered down and perceived by a public that has been taught misconceptions of “wildness.” Projections of grunting cavemen and social darwinism’s notions of aggression and competition stand in for actual anthropology of living, thriving, egalitarian societies. This biased and incomplete picture of wildness has cast an oppressive shadow over the term rewilding, allowing in individuals who promote hate and inequality as the natural state of humans. As we have seen in the past, fascism is often a reactionary attempt by the people to maintain order during a decline or societal collapse. As we enter a time of economic uncertainty, climate crises, and more, fascism is a growing, ever present threat. To keep rewilding on course, to educate people on the collaborative, mutual aid relationships that define human wildness, rewilders must actively work against fascism today, and the fascist creep, into our ideologies and movements.
To talk with me today about this growing threat, is Alexander Reid Ross. Alexander is a scholar with a diverse background. He earned his PhD in the Earth, Environment, Society program at Portland State University. He is the editor of the book Grabbing Back: Essays Against the Global Land Grab, and authored a book on the transnational far right called Against the Fascist Creep. He is a researcher whose focus is on exposing the far right and fascist movements that exist today.
Notes
@areidross on twitter
Against the Fascist Creep by Alexander Reid Ross
Palingenetic ultranationalism
Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior by Christopher Boehm
The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout
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