Re: Primitive Society:
As Gek is aware, I recently went on a slightly bizarre holiday to Dorset, which was an introductory training course to Bushcraft and Survival skills. Some have mocked this as some tree-hugging, 'finding myself' exercise, but nothing could be further from the reality of my intensions or experience. It involved - building a shelter, sleeping in it for a week, primitive fire-lighting techniques (fireflash+knife+birch bark; Flint and Steel ; Friction by bow-drill), navigation, tracking, setting traps and snares, primitive fishing, food preparation and cooking (I skinned a rabbit and made a rather nice stew), water collection and treatment.
I mention this because, whilst the whole experience was fantastically fulfilling and re-energising, it did leave me feeling grateful for modern civilisation. Building a fire by friction is exceedingly hard work, takes hours, is exhausting, and there's no guarentee you'll actually manage it. And certainly the 3 hours work gek cites is way of the mark for temperate climates - there is surprisingly little vegetation that is edible (getting carbohydrates is particuarly difficult), so many more hours would be needed than that to find food - some agriculture would be necessary, and catching wild animals is always going to be hit and miss.
The experience was surprisingly re-energising, both mentally and physically. At the moment my exercise routine doesn't extend outside the walls of dmz, so to spend a week of continuous physical exertion, with the country air in my lungs, improved my health dramatically. The mental improvement was most notable though. The days consisted of specific tasks, all of which were completed by the end of the day, in stark contrast to the manner of my current employment, and the issues and difficulties that go with modern life. I slept beautifully, with none of the usual unresolved issue driven insomnia and exhausting REM sleep.
Undoubtedly these aspects were hugely satisfying, but by the end of the week, I was thoroughly looking forward to going back to london, to sleep in my own bed, to have running water, readily available food and warmth. But even more than that, it was clear that living like this would be incredibly boring. The daily grind of lighting a fire, maintaining it, and food collection and preparation would become unbearably dull.
Above all I came to appreciate some of my more recent musical experiences as the truly amazing achievements they are (a wonderfully energetic and puzzling Battles gig, DMZ, Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda at the Tate).
Re: Climate Change and Resource crisis against the Capitalist Real
Gek's right, the pressures of climate change and resource crisis may require a fundamental shift in economic and political structures. I'm not convinced by this construct of the 'Capitalist Real', in fact , I think that's a misleading and unhelpful term that K-p's put forward. Undoubtedly, the Reality aspect of that phrase deserves consideration - as an expression of current totalitarian control over thought/action and a reinforcement that the current state of affairs is the only possible one, the 'natural' one, the only alternative in this Globalised world.
It is the reference to Capitalism that I have a beef with. Both sides are happy to accept that the current situation is a capitalist one (by which i mean, the political elite, and k-pesque Marxists), as it suits their world views. But I would question that as a fact. Throughout all of the developed world, tax rates sit somewhere around the 40% mark. In other words, 40% of all goods and services are provided for by the state. That doesn't really sound that laissez-faire to me. Furthermore, the economy scarcely resembles any of the theoretical contructs that proponents of free-market economics use to justify their arguments, which necessarily imply a large number of small firms in each market. The reality is a small number of large firms.
The current reality can scarcely be described as Capitalist.
It would be better described as Monopolist Real.
I think thinking about it in those terms might yield better insight in to how climate change and resource crisis might break down the current reality - since a capitalist structure might well remain in tact, even a free market one, and may even provide the solution. The problem is one of monopolists reinforcing their market power through control of consumers (via increasingly sophisticated and deceptive marketing) and governments (from the process of Globalisation), leaving us with an imposed monoculture designed for as little disruption to the hegemony of the banks and big business as possible.