The Garden of Peculiarities Review

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(More customer reviews)Sepulveda (page 17) expresses his typical disdain for authority: "The institutional propaganda of school and the authoritarianism of expert scientific voice have impelled civilized populations to internalize the notion of the monolithic subject whose incorporeal identity reifies itself into an expansive ego, thus reproducing the instrumental logic of colonizing western thought."

Sepulveda (page 23) calls his readers to: "refashion your perspective to appreciate day, night, the seasons, waves, the potency of rivers, the birds` songs, the movement of animals, the woods, bees, women, men, and all of the constellations of peculiarities that form other constellations of peculiarities and that spring savagely like orchids in the forest." Beyond these small islands of poetry, there is little else in "The Garden of Peculiarities" to recommend. Sepulveda`s book is beyond repair.

Sepulveda (page 26) again expresses his typical disdain for authority: "Schools and factories are centers of control imposed by the state. In order to abolish the state, it is necessary to abolish factories and schools. The authoritarianism that the civilized order reproduces in these institutions is responsible for ethnic cleansing, political genocide, and social exploitation. In order to construct a world without hierarchies, jails, propaganda, or coups, it is necessary to sweep away the state. And it depends on us to wipe it off the face of the earth."

Sepulveda (page 35) expresses his disdain for employment: "The imposition of work as a tortuous activity, or justifying action of hypocritical and self-righteous pragmatism, is a way of assuring domestication. Salaried work assures the territorialization of entire populations in zones delimited by authoritarian institutions. In this way, the state guarantees the sedentarism and social control necessary to administrate production."

Sepulveda (page 36) expresses his disdain for identification numbers and writes the following. "Along with domiciliation comes numbering. First it was numbers on houses, later individuals: telephone numbers, computer passwords, national identification numbers, social security or union cards, etc. This is how ideology constructs its methods of identification and inserts the notion of identity while at the same time fostering human commodification. Every creature is converted into a digit easily archived, categorized and reified. Domestic animals are numbered and become domestic fetishes."

Sepulveda (pages 88-89) writes: "Any attempt at standardization whatsoever is a form of domination because it imposes a single mode of being over peculiarity. Every value-driven or ideological matrix is an example of this domination, given that the only possible integrity is connected to the multiple, simultaneous and peculiar flowering of nature. Standardization is a form of colonization that imposes a unifying pattern over the differences and peculiarities of everyone. Every model hides a system of planning that organizes the model itself. Every plan requires linear temporality in order to progress and foster the motion of development."

Why would I read this book, and give it two stars rather than the one star that it deserves? My reason: I am curious where the author departed from truthful and authentic thinking (in my view). The libertarian instinct for separation from authority is the masculine perspective of giving that seeks freedom while searching for its own individualization. However, the return to authority brings the total experience back to harmony and collective unity, this is the feminine perspective of receiving. Sepulveda does not recognize this division of labor, instead he sees the ruling authority as the patriarchy that must be destroyed thereby returning to the peculiarities found in the Garden of Eden (for lack of a better description). By denying all authority, Sepulveda lacks the authority to hand ultimate authority over to nature. Authentic authority cries out for a fuller declaration, but authority relates to our innate receptivity that is left mostly unexplored by Sepulveda. Sepulveda wants to return to the undifferentiated unity (no sense of ego or I-ness, only "peculiarities"), blaming the world`s problems on the tendency to standardize and think instrumentally. Ironically and correctly and not said overtly by Sepulveda, this is now blaming the word`s problems on a lack of receptivity coming from the feminine (the proclivity that seeks sanctuary in the hated standards), thereby revealing Sepuleveda`s attack on the matriarchy (contradicting Sepulveda`s stated goal). Once we have eaten from the tree of knowledge, going back to the Eden cannot be done.

If you are interested in authetic environmental philosophy as an alternative to Sepulveda, I recommend Goldsmith`s book:

The Way: An Ecological World-View

If you are interested in integrating the masculine and feminine perspectives (rather than Sepulveda`s confusion), I recommend Wilber`s book:

Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Second Edition

If you are interested in seeking a break from authority by a less extreme flight (compared to Sepulveda), I recommend Ibrisimovic`s book:

My Stories

In concluding, I will let Sepulveda (page 136) have the last word: "The destruction on September 11, 2001 of the pillars of global capitalism, symbolized by the number eleven that formed the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, has opened an irreparable tear in the plastic bubble of the empire of standardization. This is the beginning of the end and inaugurates a new era in the quest for ancestral wisdom found in the garden of each and every peculiarity."

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Product Description:
Penned by Chilean anarchist Jesús Sepúlveda, The Garden of Peculiarities is a substantial 21st-century anarchist essay. Previously published in Spanish and Portuguese, it makes the case for neo-primitivism, or green anarchy, as the best tool for activists battling mega-corporate globalization. Written in terse, pointed prose, the book thoughtfully analyzes the deficiencies of postindustrial culture and explores the best human and plant-centered alternatives for dealing with them.