Underminers - A Practical Guide for Radical Change - Keith Farnish (2012).pdf

Industrial Civilization is likely to be the last great empire humanity will ever see. If it is allowed to continue in its ravenous way then there is no future for humanity, for the natural systems and processes that allow humans to exist on Earth are the very things that Industrial Civilization is destroying. In fact, no form of civilization has ever been sustainable nor ever will be. In order for humanity to continue on Earth then civilization has to stop, and people allowed to return to a way of living that is connected to the real world.

We are not able to do this. At least not until we become Underminers. The industrial system depends, for its survival, on humans being disconnected from the real world and mentally attached to the machine that we fuel with our civilized lives. The Tools of Disconnection keep us in that state, and the only way to prevent us from being responsible for our demise is to undermine those Tools of Disconnection. Once we are free from the grip of the machine and reconnected with the real world then the myth of Industrial Civilization will die, and humanity will be able to continue.

Underminers is the timely follow-up to Time’s Up! An Uncivilized Solution to a Global Crisis. It takes up where that book left off, with a detailed, highly practical approach to the process of undermining in all its many hues. At once entertaining, shocking and inspiring, Underminers draws on the author’s own experience dealing at first hand with the lies of the industrial machine, and that of a wide range of other people who have their own unique take on the swath of topics covered in the book.

From the reasons we are unable to act, to the nitty-gritty of keeping ourselves and others safe during the undermining process, the first half of the book is an invaluable guide to navigating the industrial system and becoming a fully-formed Underminer. The second half details, with surprising openness how the reader can utilize their abilities and new-found determination to be an effective Underminer; whether that be undermining the advertising industry or the political machine, turning symbolic protestors into real activists, building self-determined communities or simply being ourselves – connected, free human beings.

“How incredibly helpful, that Keith Farnish has given me a new word to describe how I act in the world. Here I thought I was a crank, a doomer, a scold, a Cassandra, a downer, a bummer, a fearmonger, just because I want to help rid the world of a culture that is systematically killing off the life of this planet. That’s what that culture tells me, anyway. Turns out I’m an Underminer! Sounds like a noble profession to me. It even comes with an instruction manual now. How about that!” – TS Bennett, Writer & Director “What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire”

Table of contents :
Introduction 5
Part One: Groundwork
Chapter 1: Shake Yourself from Sleep 9
Collapse and Connection, by Carolyn Baker 13
Chapter 2: Undermining the Tools of Disconnection 19
The Road to Hell, and How We Got There, by Dave Pollard 22
Chapter 3: Who Are The Underminers? 53
Chapter 4: The Principles of Undermining 65
Survival and Undermining, by CrimethInc. 66
Chapter 5: Ground Rules 84
Why Anonymous Works, by The Hivemind 97
Part Two: Undermining
Chapter 6: Removing the Veil 108
Investigating and Exposing by Nicky Hager 135
Chapter 7: Undermining the Machine 164
Fashion is Scary Medicine by Ana Salote 183
The Corporate Media – Undermining The Silence by David Edwards 224
Guerrilla Gardening by Richard Reynolds 241
Chapter 8: Real Activism 247
Chapter 9: Recreating Community 290
Chapter 10: Reclaiming Ourselves 341
A Life out of Empire by Guy McPherson 349
Epilogue: A Last Toast to the Old World 359
Notes and References 362