So glad you make an episode on this topic! I am a great fan of Kingsnorth as someone I think is a contemporary prophet, yet I also think thoughtful critique is needed for this essay and some of the assumptions behind it. And yet, I wonder how can we both integrate the ascetic impulses that Kingsnorth represents yet also still be open towards the goods of civilization in principle? That is my enduring question because I still see value in both aspects of this question.
I know, for me, part of my resistance to Kingsnorth in 2024 is that I bought into Kingsnorth hook, line, and sinker in 2020-21 or so. In that process, I believe I encountered the limits of an anti-technological and anti- civilizational perspective. One of the results of this has been me moving from the edge of cornfields to the heart of the city.
However, in some ways, those motives are better served by the city, than the country/suburbs, as my friend Eric Brende has argued. In the city, one can live on a human scale, walk, and bike instead of drive, etc. The ability to do without technology and private property is served by the human interdependence of the city.
To the extent that city is a synonym for civilization (which is, I know, arguable), there is a case that asceticism/simplicity and civilization are not completely at odds.
So glad you make an episode on this topic! I am a great fan of Kingsnorth as someone I think is a contemporary prophet, yet I also think thoughtful critique is needed for this essay and some of the assumptions behind it. And yet, I wonder how can we both integrate the ascetic impulses that Kingsnorth represents yet also still be open towards the goods of civilization in principle? That is my enduring question because I still see value in both aspects of this question.
Absolutely! That is a very important topic.
I know, for me, part of my resistance to Kingsnorth in 2024 is that I bought into Kingsnorth hook, line, and sinker in 2020-21 or so. In that process, I believe I encountered the limits of an anti-technological and anti- civilizational perspective. One of the results of this has been me moving from the edge of cornfields to the heart of the city.
However, in some ways, those motives are better served by the city, than the country/suburbs, as my friend Eric Brende has argued. In the city, one can live on a human scale, walk, and bike instead of drive, etc. The ability to do without technology and private property is served by the human interdependence of the city.
To the extent that city is a synonym for civilization (which is, I know, arguable), there is a case that asceticism/simplicity and civilization are not completely at odds.