There are potentially two ways of looking at the world, which ought to be complementary. The mythic way of looking is where true poetry comes from and our deep love of nature comes from. To culture and place, that's a very mythic thing. They can't really be rationalized. But we do rationalize it. And we're moving into this hyper-rational computer world of algorithms and mathematics. We fundamentally are not rational beings. I've discovered that I'm more sociable than I was before. Now I've been locked down as hermit; maybe I think I enjoy being less social than I thought.
Paul Kingsnorth doesn’t fit neatly into Left or Right — which is only one of the reasons we consider him one of the more interesting thinkers of our time. He has been talking and writing about nature for over 25 years, and during that period he has developed a his own self-reliant, localised form of environmentalism.
Formerly a climate activist, Paul grew disaffected with the movement when he came to the realisation that “economic monster” that enveloped the world was too great to fight against. Instead, he channelled his energies into writing books, essays, novels and poetry, all of which have been hugely influential in the way we view our relationship with the modern world and its maladies.
In his own life, he has tried to “secede from the system” as much as possible by living on his own farmstead out in western Ireland in county Galway. While he admits that it is impossible to fully withdraw from the world, small acts of resistance — whether they are using an unconnected compost loo or refusing to use a smartphone — allows him to “jump off the treadmill”. His recent conversion to Christianity came as a surprise, not least to Paul, and it gave him a deeper appreciation of the importance of limits and humility. Below are some excerpts from this enthralling interview:
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