Beyond Civilization

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by Daniel Quinn


  Gotcha that way!

  Someone else will try this: “But aren't you in fact saying, Mr. Quinn, that having no one right way to live is the one right way to live?”

  No, I'm not saying that, because that's just meaningless babble. Having no one right way to live is not a way to live, any more than having no one right way to cook an egg is a way to cook an egg.

  Knowing that there's no one right way to live won't tell you how to live, any more than knowing that there's no one right time to go to bed will tell you when to go to bed.

  The beginning is not the end

  Beyond civilization isn't a geographical space up in the mountains or on some remote desert isle. It's a cultural space that opens up among people with new minds.

  As you discuss the ideas found in this book with your friends, you'll be able to spot the old minds easily. They're the ones who are always “playing the devil's advocate,” always proposing and concentrating on difficulties, always nailing the progress of your dialogue down to problems. Focus instead on what you want to happen and how to make it happen, rather than on all the things that might keep it from happening.

  Believe it or not, a real person once said to me, “Yes, but won't we still have to pay taxes?” Yes, and you'll still have to curb your dog and observe the speed limit and shovel your sidewalks when it snows. And it will still be a good idea to get to the airport a few minutes before your flight leaves.

  What, no miracles?

  Jack and Jill spent some days with their friend Simon on his small sailboat. One morning they woke up to find the boat was sinking.

  “What in the world are we going to do?” Jill asked.

  “Don't worry,” said Jack, “Simon's very ingenious.”

  Simon called to them, “Come on, we've got to abandon ship.”

  Jill was alarmed, but Jack reassured her that Simon wouldn't let them down.

  “We're only a hundred yards from shore,” Simon said. “Let's go!”

  “But how are we going to save ourselves?” the couple wanted to know.

  “We're going to swim for it, of course!” Seeing Jack's look of disappointment, Simon asked him what was wrong.

  Jack said, “l was hoping you could find a way of translating us directly ashore, without our having to get wet.”

  An early reader expressed the same disappointment with me. He was hoping I'd be able to find a way of translating us directly to our new economic homeland without our having to “get wet” in the Taker economy that surrounds us. The ultimate New Tribal economy (which at best I can only dimly imagine) is the dry land ahead. To reach it while holding ourselves disdainfully aloof from the economy around us would make walking on water seem like a very minor miracle indeed.

  140 words of advice

  You don't have to have all the answers. Certainly I don't have them. It's always better to say “I don't know” than to fake it and get into hot water.

  Make people formulate their own questions. Don't take on the responsibility of figuring out what their difficulty is.

  Never try to answer a question you don't understand. Make the askers explain it; keep on insisting until it's clear, and nine times out of ten they'll supply the answer themselves.

  People will listen when they're ready to listen and not before. Probably, once upon a time, you weren't ready to listen. Let people come to it in their own time. Nagging or bullying will only alienate them.

  Don't waste time with people who want to argue. They'll keep you immobilized forever. Look for people who are already open to something new.

  A dynamite ending

  Like any author, I figured that, when the time came, I'd have a dynamite ending for this book—a great clash of cymbals, a ray of pure sunshine knifing through the clouds (you know), but nothing like that presented itself. I mentioned this to Rennie yesterday afternoon, just as a matter of interest. I wasn't expecting her to work on the problem, because it didn't occur to me it was a problem. All the same, at three in the morning, she woke me up to explain why no terrific ending had presented itself and why no terrific ending was going to present itself. While she was at it, she told me I should include Hap and C.J. in the dedication and that this was the first of my books she actually wanted to have dedicated to her (the other dedications she more or less just put up with).

  There's no ending in this book at all, she told me, because it's all one hundred percent beginning, and of course she's right.

  But this just means no dynamite ending is going to turn up here. The dynamite ending is on the other side of this page and on out past the cover, where the actual revolution is going to take place.

  The dynamite ending is for you to write.

  Bibliography

  Anderson Ray C. Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model. Atlanta: Peregrinzilla Press

  Ray C. Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model. Atlanta: Peregrinzilla Press 1998.

  Associated Press. “Brother in Custody for Alabama Death,”

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  Anderson Ray C. “Child Charged with Attempted Murder,”

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  Anderson Ray C. “Berkeley Cracks Down on Homeless,”

  Attali Jacques. Millennium: Winners and Losers in the Coming World Order. New York: Random House

  Baltrusch Libby S. The New Age Community Guidebook: Alternative Choices in Lifestyles. 4th Ed. Middletown, Calif.: Harbin Springs

  Bass Dina. “Poll Finds Sharp Rise in Drug Use Among Youngsters.” Los Angeles Times

  Briggs John and David F. Peat. Seven Life Lessons of Chaos: Spiritual Wisdom from the Science of Change. New York: HarperCollins

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  Cooper Diana Starr. Night After Night. Washington, D.C.: Island Press

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  Gmelch Sharon Bohn. “Groups That Don't Want In: Gypsies and Other Artisan, Trader, and Entertainer Minorities.” Annual Review of Anthropology 15 307–330.

  Gorbachev Mikhail. The Search for a New Beginning: Developing a New Civilization. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco

  Gore Al. Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. New York: Houghton Mifflin

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  Irvine Martha. “Chicago's Homeless Face 'Eviction.'” The Associated Press

  Killion Thomas W. Gardens of Prehistory: The Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture in Greater Mesoamerica. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press

  Kim Eun-Kyung. “Survey Shows Teen Drug Use Rose.” Associated Press

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gal Drugs in Greater Numbers Than Before.” Montgomery Advertiser

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  Lloyd Leslie. “Six Plead Guilty to Killing Family.” Associated Press

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  Myers Patricia. “The Circus Is His Life; Aerialist Is 6th-Generation Performer.” Arizona Republic/Phoenix Gazette

  Nissen Hans J. The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000–2000 B.C. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

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  Price Jenny. “At Least 4 Dead in School Shooting.” Associated Press

  Reavis Dick J. The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press

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  Rivera Barbara. “Circus Life a Family Affair.” Tulsa World

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  Shiner Michael Tim Newburn. “Definitely, Maybe Not? The Normalization of Recreational Drug Use Amongst Young People.” Journal of the British Sociological Association 31 3 511–529.

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  Wagner David. Checkerboard Square: Culture and Resistance in a Homeless Community. Boulder: Westview Press

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  Zuckoff Mitchell. “Under the Little Top; Welcome to the Big Apple Circus, Where a Community of Performers Juggles Life's Ups and Downs in a Single Magical Ring.” Boston Globe

  Dial-a-tribe

  The New Tribal Revolution is nothing if not a great educational experiment, and it can only succeed if we share our wisdom, experiences, and discoveries with regard to making a living tribally. Luckily, we have a terrific medium for doing exactly this by way of the internet. At www.newtribalventures.com you can be in touch with like–minded readers ready for involvement in this next great adventure.

  Those who are not online can reach me at Beyond Civilization, P.O. Box 66627, Houston TX 77266–6627. Your letters are gratefully received and will always be read with interest, but please understand that I can't answer each one individually.

  Copyright © 1999 by Daniel Quinn

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following: The Providence Journal Company for excerpts from “The Circus Atmosphere at Ninigret Park” (Providence Journal-Bulletin, July 12, 1994).

  Published by Three Rivers Press, New York, New York.

  Member of the Crown Publishing Group.

  Random House, Inc. New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland

  www.randomhouse.com

  THREE RIVERS PRESS is a registered trademark and the Three Rivers Press colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Quinn, Daniel.

  Beyond civilization: humanity's next great adventure/Daniel Quinn.

  1. Civilization—Philosophy. 2. Human ecology. 3. Social change.

  4. Forecasting. I. Title.

  CB19.Q56 1999

  901—dc21 99-22636

  eISBN: 978-0-307-55464-2

  v3.0

 

 

 


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