Page 190: The tricky bit

Rhiannon's "Celtic Reconstructionist"/Feraferia philosophy advocates a return to the "simple times" before human mass productivity (of food and other items).  As Rhiannon and Nigel discuss, back to nature/cultural resistance philosophies have a central implication (which some might call a "fatal flaw").  Namely that:

[Hunter-Gatherer] population densities tend to be lower than those of agriculturalists, since cultivated land is capable of sustaining population densities 60–100 times greater than land left uncultivated.
 (From this article: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Hunter-gatherer#encyclopedia)

60 times is a lot.  Going all the way back to the "wilderness" (assuming a 60X productivity) would suggest a U.S. population of 6 million versus 350 million today.  That would be in the ballpark of the North American indigenous population before Columbus.

Of course, most cultural resistance movements don't advocate a return all the way to hunter-gatherer status. However, most anti-globalization, anti-corporate farming, and anti-mass production philosophies do advocate at least a part-way return to the "old ways".  Whether it is right or wrong to go back, the fact is that the "old ways" cannot realistically support the current human population of almost 7 billion people.  Even if the factor is 10X and not 60X, that's a lot of people that can't be supported.  If they can't be supported, they die.  It seems clear that most of the movements haven't thought through the full implications of their philosophies -- or if they have, they aren't talking about it.

A (very) few of the resistance movements do openly acknowledge the ultimate implication of their advocacy.  One of them is here: http://www.optimumpopulation.org/.  They have drawn a logical, if chilling, conclusion that "fewer emitters = fewer emissions".


The Optimum Population group is very real.  It has the famous Sir David Attenborough as a public face.  They really do publicly advocate an outright reduction in the human population:

OPT researchers have concluded that, in the absence of radical breakthroughs in energy technology, an environmentally sustainable population for the UK may be lower than 30 million  
(quoted from their website)

30 million compares to the current UK population of 61 million people.

They don't mention what they plan to do with all the bodies.

Page 208: Feraferia

Many, many people believe that some sort of cataclysm is coming.  Extreme weather, rising sea levels, asteroids, soil exhaustion, war -- something is going to get us.  Many people believe that, in the aftermath of the inevitable disaster, a new culture will rise.  Neo-pagans tend to believe (hope?) that the new society will be much more devoted to the ideals of the Great Goddess.

Feraferia is one vision of the potential future utopia that awaits.  Created by Frederick Adams, the Feraferia philosophy/religion is a "Paradisal Fellowship for the loving celebration of Wilderness Mysteries with Faerie style, courtly elegance, refinement & grace." (quoted from Earth Religion News via the book Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler).

Feraferia was derived, at least in part, from a book called The Recovery of Culture by Henry Bailey Stevens.  Stevens' theory was that our primate ancestors lived in perfect peace and in balance with nature before the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry. Agriculture begat the ownership of land and animal husbandry begat the ownership of property that eventually spawned war -- over land and property.

Stevens believed that agriculture and animal husbandry were the "original sin" that literally cast humanity out of the Garden of Eden that was our primate past.

Feraferia wants to take us back to that past by worshiping the wilderness.

Agriculture and animal husbandry by humans emerged in the Levant and in Mesopatamia during neolithic times (9-10,000 years ago).  No one really knows how or why.  But more on that later...