I’ve thought much about similar concepts. I spent much of twenties as a folk musician with aspirations of stardom. I am currently a father and that has mellowed out such drives. I think a lot about such things though. I am an artist and a prolific songwriter and my music was much appreciated by many many people. I think at times about performing again or writing a book or painting.. One of the first thought cycles in that pertains to legacy. We have become much enamored of legacy in modern life. We want to be an individual human rather than a face of Human. I am currently trying to get farther away from ego before I put something out for folks to hear or see. I don’t want what I do to be tainted by a desire for a legacy. I believe in the beauty of Human and not just human. I want to be interested rather than interesting. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to be interesting. I sometimes think that recorded thought (in books or music) like mirrors, taints our view… removes us from ourselves.. Narcissus is alive in all of us “modern” humans. Perhaps in the end I will try to just tell my stories and play my songs to those in front of me and never from a stage but rather in a circle and then I’ll thank the Spirit, fold my hands and see what the person next to me will dazzle us with. By the way, I appreciate what you are doing and your time in developing your thoughts. And yes, you will change completely if you live long enough. There are patterns in the human life cycle. My writings of yesterday are amusing to me when they are now considered foolish, and yet somewhere someone has a scratchy recording of my old songs that they listen to everyday and those songs mean the world to them at times. There is no black and white, perhaps there isn’t even any gray. Live how your living. Be who you’re being. Enjoy… or don’t.

I am a graduate of several Tracker School courses, and, perhaps more importantly, an implementer of the skills I gained from my experience. I am also a permaculture designer and homeowner (home mortgagor) who is soon to be a steward and agroforester, or analog forester, of a sizeable tract of land. Buddhism, ancient civilizations, and the evolution of human consciousness deeply inspire me, and systems theory has become a new and fascinating lens through which I view the world.

Reading through this site, and this post in particular, has helped me tremendously by shining light on an outdated belief I have been carrying around. The idea of wilderness, or nature, or the earth, as a magical and pure place that has been negatively impacted by human action is an absolute fantasy. Not because we are not currently destructive, but simply because we have no idea whatsoever what wild or wilderness is.

I propose the observer effect: everything that is observed is effected by the observer. As long as we, human beings, have existed, we have been observing and interacting with the natural world. All human knowledge concerning nature has been gained by interacting with, and therefore effecting, the natural world. We simply cannot know what wild is; we can merely choose what we bring to it.

That being said, the implementation of mutual beneficialism seems to be an appropriate solution. If we must, by default, effect some change on the natural world, at least we can aim to make that change a mutually beneficial act. The fact that many indigenous peoples continue to successfully cultivate and sustain a harmonious relationship with their environment is likely due to their understanding of such an arrangement.

We, as westernized, civilized, linear-thinking people, have mostly forgotten the tremendous support that can be gained from a mutually beneficial relationship with our environment. Maybe this is due to a lack of cultural mythology, spiritual arrogance, or unwillingness to accept our own mortality; whatever the reason, it might not be important. What is important is to become aware of the destructive (including self destructive) quality of our actions, know that there is a genuine alternative, and begin to support ourselves by supporting the natural systems in place.

The continued survival of our culture or society is really irrelevant; we all die sometime. All that is really relevant is the ability of each of us who desires to live to fully engage with the world in a symbiotic way. It might not be rewilding, or whatever label comes next, but it would be a step toward achieving the same kind of balance that has nurtured indigenous people in Australia, Africa and South America for thousands of years.

It takes a great deal of courage to walk on the edge and report to the world, so my hat’s off to you. Thanks for letting me add a few lines.

Ride on.

As far as your personal views changing, as I think has already been brought up here, that’s totally the way it goes all the time anyway. I’ve started many projects of different kinds over the years and sometimes they stretch out just a little too far. Whenever this happens, I always find fault with the way it was handled or with the resulting content. So take this as a lesson in crafting – don’t stretch it out over too long a time, or you’ll end up wanting to keep rewriting the whole thing. My advice is to take notes (even very detailed notes, with occasional passages about something you feel strongly about) and then, after you feel your notes and experience are sufficient to complete the work in some form, do it! In a matter of months, or at most a year or two. Inevitably, you’ll disagree with some of that later on, but at least it’s finished and consistent throughout. Spreading the production of it out over so many years in effect can make it more like a journal, which is great in its own right but not quite the same as a book attempting to convey a consistent message.

Okay and as for “hate” and not wanting to be a part of it! This is a subject I am still very much digging into (as with plenty else), so my views on this might (or WILL) change. I try to approach things from a logical viewpoint, and proceed with the assumption that Balance is always the way of the Earth. First off, wherever there is Love, there will be Hate. The capacity for one brings the capacity for the other, and so cannot be erased without also erasing the other. So rather than trying to cast out any form of hate, I would suggest that what’s more important is self-discipline and careful consideration for when each is appropriate. Consider also that, as Love is an “ultimate” form of Liking, so is Hate an “ultimate” form of disliking. It doesn’t make sense to me that only Loving, Liking, and Disliking should be “approved.” Example: You are out hunting with your dog (a friend of many years), and your dog steps on a very-well-hidden metal-toothed animal trap from someone else that you couldn’t spot. Many emotions could come out of this – I’ll bet one of them will be *ultimate dislike* (Hate) for the presence of the trap, and maybe the person who set it up, for not being smart enough to realize what it might cause. This doesn’t mean the hate will be permanent or that forgiveness should be impossible. Now consider if it was a child of yours who got his or her foot stuck in the trap. Or even the possibility, in some case, that the trap was really intended to trap that individual. Hmm? I bet you’d have quite a lot of anger, rage, hate, in that moment. I personally think it would be “wrong” to Like or only Dislike what happened in that instance. If you do not ever hate, I think you’ll be unable to see the serious immoralities when they come up. And in the extreme case, if one constantly Loved/Liked everything all the time, this would be a contradictory emotion, for those Loved/Liked things which directly contradict each other.

As I see it, there is always a time for Love and a time for Hate (where they are hopefully balanced with one another in the end). I am interested in any counter-points there are to this. I think in terms of “rewilding”, I would look at what civilization (anti-wildness) causes to the Earth and its Life, and be filled with much hate. What I would DO about that hate is another matter with its own moral considerations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people

Mattheo, the scythians are the last indigenous “white” people as far as I can tell. Truly indigenous, not farmers and conquerers like the celts, etc. Of course, then ended up doing all that. LOL. but its the furthest back a “white” person can trace their own indigenous culture. I’m reading “The Horse, The Wheel and Language” which is all about that stuff. Great book.

Hey Esmeh, I’m not “afraid” I’m embarrassed that what I have told here is not an accurate representation of what I think anymore. I’m embarrassed for myself. LOL!

Wild Girl, No worries! I’m still going to publish my book and stuff, so I’m sure you’ll end up with a copy at some point.

Gabe, Dude I love how you compared me to David Bowie. hahaha. That’s totally awesome! Great thoughts and I totally agree. Maybe I’ll get to play in a movie with puppets some day.

You should find this interesting.
http://www.nextnature.com

Take care Scout, good luck with your book

I sympathize with your feeling very strongly.

I seem to remember reading that you’re starting to play an instrument of some kind? I don’t remember which. But if you someday decide to make an album of tunes you’ve written or like to play, I think you’ll run into the same problem you have now.

It’s the artists curse!

You, as an artist, are constantly moving forward in real-time on the trajectory of your muse – in this case the muse of: “non-culturally appropriated, authentic, regenerative, indigenous life connected to family, community, the land and spirit.” It inspires you to create artifacts as you go. Artifacts that express where you are with your muse at that specific time.

You’ve created your own theater space called “Rewilding” that gave you a stage to display your artistic ideas and communicate them to all of us out here in america: the audience that fills the theater and watches raptly, then responds (as I am here) to your artistic pieces.

Now however, you’re feeling like the whole stage itself won’t fit your muse. You feel limited by the theater you’ve been using for a decade now – you feel like some people are associating you with the theater (the artifice – the word “rewilding”) and whatever they’re projecting onto it (hatred sometimes, and other stretches), instead of understanding that it’s really never been about the theater for you, fundamentally. The theater is just a dead space. It’s always been about the SPIRIT – the exploration of your muse in real time, that is the meat of what you’re about.

Seeing that people are limiting the bounds of your expression to this artifice, this wooden theater stage of ‘Rewilding,’ makes you feel like “fuck rewilding. This term, which I coined, is old fucking news. It’s an artifact. It’s like performing on a fossil. I’m moving on before people think I’m a fossil too! (that is: hold you to the fossilized pieces that make up Rewild or Die, and basically kill your trajectory there in the theater of Rewilding, to lay and languish in perpetual pathetic fossilized shame.)”

But I’ll tell you what brother – think of it like Ziggy Stardust – it was a mantle you created and wore (this word rewild, these essays of Rewild or Die, the tone you took in them) – that seem to you like you’re a bit of a martian spaceman singing far out lyrics that you can’t always relate to…

So this is what you do – You publish “Rewild or Die,” then you have a primal ritual to pre-empt modern society’s obsession with fossilizing/killing/martyring its artists: you have a final spectacular cathartic farewell/suicide concert to the term rewild. A sacrificial pyre – the word dies so that your muse (which is WAY beyond the confines of the word Rewild) can live.

You walk away from the burned out hull of the piece you created, as the artist: Peter Bauer, creator, not crushed by the weight of, or owned by, or calcified by, his own work. Not able to be piegon-holed by haters or fossilizers the world over. You’re one step ahead of them.

As David Bowie was the master of the pop artifact Ziggy, so you are the master of the pop artifact “Rewild or Die.” You have to give it its last suicide celebration, and walk away unscathed. Let that stage of your life say it’s last words, it’s adieu. Put out the book as a time piece of when you were a Martian glam rocker (that’s how it seems you feel about it these days) and triumphantly go forth! Free, reborn. Create on! Artist Peter Bauer.

To be true a philosophy in context must always be evolving, adapting and changing in response both to counterarguments and the realities of the ever-shifting world. To live is to grow; but time is not linear, and what will be doesn’t always require the destruction of what once was.

so many good/wise things said already, why repeat? it’s reassuring to know you are frail in the ways that humans are, but you are also immensely courageous and alive!

think of the words ‘green’ ‘sustainable’ ‘ecofriendly’. Everyone trying to use/abuse them in ways that are constantly shifting and changing…and we know it’s mostly total bullshit. but it doesn’t keep ambitious souls from trying/flailing/succeeding/failing- and life goes on….

I deeply empathize with what your feeling. Oftentimes when I look at something I wrote in the past, I’m filled with this sense of other. Because I grow everyday, and each experience I have furthers that growth, looking back at my less-wise-self usually makes me feel annoyed or uncomfortable with who I was then.

I don’t often use the term “rewilding” when describing what I do to my friends or family, especially because I can’t stand labeling myself. By all means it has made getting the message across far easier for civilized folks, and that’s it’s only purpose for me. Kiriko put it succinctly: “A smart reader recognizes the written word for what it is: a tool for understanding the specific state of mind, shaped by the time and place it was written.”

I feel that if I had a group of friends in my life that were all into “rewilding” and used the term to identify with, I’d become annoyed and probably distance myself. I don’t have a group of friends that are into rewilding, so it isn’t something I’ve experienced but I can imagine how I would react.

This is a great final chapter, and I’m proud of you for enduring this long, and making your desires a reality.

I have to ask, I know this is a bit random, but what is it that interests you about the scythians? I used to really be into nomadic horse-cultures when I was younger, and the scythians really interested me.

Anyways, Godspeed Urban Scout.

Just be specific and your words can’t honestly be misconstrued.