Even if we live tribally (in the sense you use the word in Beyond Civilization), aren’t we still going to crash just as fast as if we work for a hierarchical corporation? We’re still dependent on agriculture. What is to stop the new tribalism from damaging the planet just as much as civilization, provided that we’re still dependent on growing all of our own food?

There’s nothing wrong with “being dependent on agriculture.” Almost every extant Leaver people is “dependent on agriculture.” The problem is not in “being dependent on agriculture” but in continuing the food race between agriculture and population (see pages 113-14). Going tribal will not end the food race, but neither will, say, finding an alternative, nonpolluting energy source. Nothing will end the food race but ending the food race; does that mean that nothing else is worth doing?

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ID: 452
posted: 29 Jan 2000
updated: 01 Apr 2002