Livelihood

This week I have been battling questions about work, career, and finding my place in the mess of civilization, and I have started to suspect that the re-wilding practice I have undertaken for this class is one of the most disrupting influences in navigating my way.  Compromise seems like defeat, tolerance seems like a mask for manipulation, and work looks like theft.  As I have repeatedly said in class and in my last post on this blog, I am suspicious of mind-body practices designed to increase feelings of calm and well-being since our society seems to be suffering from a debilitating complacency that could be exacerbated by meditative practices.  Accommodation of discomfort affords the continuation of abusive systems of power.

In Nature Is Ordinary Too, Giblett (2012) reviews the work of Raymond Williams on the false binary of nature and culture, which he reintegrates by way of the idea of livelihood.  Livelihood, according to Williams, is both nature and culture, because it describes the way in which humans and nature are interwoven into each other.  Giblett says that nature is "ordinary, the stuff of work and everyday life," which has been the major discovery of my re-wilding practice on this blog.  Although I have spent several periods of my life living somewhat sustainably on the land, I am no longer content with personal salvation.  

My re-wilding practices have led me to question: How can we re-invent livelihood in our culture in a way that is life-giving?  If we sacrificed dignity and integrity for illusory security and indulgent comforts, what kinds of labor and value can we now wisely offer world? 

References:

Giblett, R. (2012). Nature is ordinary too. Cultural Studies, 26(6), 922-933. doi:10.1080/09502386.2012.707221