I just finished writing the first draft of my newest column, “Emulating and Idolizing Indigenous Cultures is Stupid and Dangerous,” which points out that the Modern Primitive movement actually has very little to do with indigenous cultures, but more so with a strange (and deeply inaccurate) romanticized notion of them — and that actually holding up indigenous cultures at this point in history could be disasterous. I'll probably publish it tomorrow after proofing it and all that.
Anyway, I wanted to share one of the quotes I use in it.
It is better to do your own duty
badly than to perfectly do
another's; when you do your duty
you are naturally free from sin.
- the Bhagavad Gita: ch.18 v.47
My core premise is that we have reached a point in our cultural evolution where we should shift our emphasis from empowering society to empowering — and ennobling — the individual above all else (“primitive” cultures tended to use body modification and ritual as an act of social control — it was system sustaining behavior).
And I'm not too cool with the system and it'll be a cold day in hell before I smile at watching body modification fulfill that role in modern times!
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