| Back | Pagan Autonomism |
|
Pagan Autonomist Movement In the beginning the whole world was pagan . People lived in small communities which governed themselves and where everybody knew everybody else. There were no kings or emperors because there was no way for anybody to exert power over others at a distance and people had not yet started to congregate together in cities. Things changed because of changing technology. Agriculture enabled more people to live in a smaller space while the invention of the stirrup enabled armed men on horseback to roam over a large area and plunder from the more settled people. Over time the originally autonomous small communities came under obligation to powerful kings. At first the kings were content with a tribute in return for protection and otherwise left the communities alone. But increasingly they wanted a more intimate role in the life of their subjects. They wanted to shape their beliefs and their character and their relations with each other so that they became more obedient and productive at the same time and provide a greater tribute to the kings without rebelling. The people lost the ability to think and act for themselves and became dependent on the kings for their ongoing survival. In short they were no longer heathens but serfs. In the present day we see this tendency accelerating with power seeping away from the mass of people and becoming centralised in the hands of a very few who want increasingly to tell the rest what they should be thinking and doing. This is a problem for two reasons at least. Firstly the majority are denied the opportunity to exercise their full potential. Secondly there is no mechanism to ensure that the few rule wisely and well for the common benefit. On the contrary the few can increasingly do what they like regardless of what the rest feel about it. So there is a need for a movement that counteracts the centralising tendency and starts to pull away from the centre. We need a centrifugal force to balance out the centripetal one. This force is the Pagan Autonomist Movement. All round the world there are people pushing for power to be exercised on the small-scale, at the local level. They are getting together with others like themselves and taking control of some of the activities of everyday life. In some parts of the world - what is usually called the less developed world - the heathen way of life has never been entirely extinguished. From time immemorial peasants have tilled their own land and governed themselves in their villages. But in the developed world this has been almost entirely lost and the heathen way of life can seem something very new and strange. The pagan path is one of taking responsibility for one's own life. The pagan path is not always easy but the rewards are a greater sense of satisfaction with life, a greater freedom to act according to your own desire and a chance to make an impact on the world at large. Pagans work together with other pagans as in most fields of life little can be achieved alone. Mostly pagans put their energies into their own community, but pagans need to be aware of the bigger picture. Pagan communities across the world need to support each other to nurture the strength and vitality of pagandom as a global phenomenon. The Pagan Autonomist Movement doesn't need to insist that the whole world becomes pagan. There is room and indeed a need for territorial government over large areas such as countries and perhaps over the whole of the planet. The majority of people may not become pagans. Still they are benefitted by those who do. By providing an alternative to the modern system pagans help ensure that modern life doesn't get too bad or if it does then people can escape it. How radical are pagan autonomists? Do you really mean how extreme or confrontational are pagan autonomists? If so the answer is that we aim to be somewhere in the middle ground. We see ourselves as being more radical than the Transition Town movement, but less radical in this sense than the Occupy or Anarchist movements. We discourage involvement in street protests as we believe this is usually unproductive and deflects energy away from constructive activity. We aim to play a part in building a broad coalition of people across the world working for a more decentralised social and economic structure and that the more kinds of people we can work with the better including people who are in positions of influence. Nevertheless we are aware that Pagans have often been forcibly opposed by Imperialists both historically and in the present day and we prepare ourselves for passive resistance to unreasonable intrusions into our private and community lives. Pagan Autonomist Supporting the Good World Order by supporting the small community. LEFT AND RIGHT DEVOLUTION |
| Back |