Announcement and Call for Submissions! Oak: A Journal Against Civilization

From It's Going Down

A call to participate in a new anarchist journal, entitled, Oak, from an anti-civilization perspective.

There is no food that means more to me than the acorn, for the acorn fulfills both a promise and a fantasy: that the forest will provide for me.

– Samuel Thayer

Issue 1: Perpetual Apocalypse – Spring 2020

Few things are as breathtaking as a forest of oak and its many expressions. The incredible symphony of falling acorns — a harbinger of bounty and community. For millennia the acorn has provided food for humanity and countless other species. The promise and resilience of the oak stands as a reminder of possibility. It’s likely that for thousands of years fires were set, not just to create areas for game, but to preferentially seed oak trees. It seems fitting that we should show homage to the ubiquitous oak by celebrating it in our title.

Since I can remember there’s been unceasing division within the anarchist and anti-civilization milieus, both at large and in my immediate experience. It seems we’re always knives first, taking aim at the comfortable targets a few degrees away from us. While I’m all for good sparring practice, I believe the connections must remain if we are to survive and thrive.

The possibility of maintaining an intimate and dynamic meshwork of communication is real. In the wake of civilized life, finding someone — anyone — who also chooses to reject the dominant paradigm of perpetual nightmare should be exhilarating. There will always be lines to draw, many of them are already drawn for us by the active overlords and domesticators. But many other lines are blurry at best and, given our context, meaningless at worst. Too many disagreements in the digital age end in snarky division articulated via electronic communication, a pathetic reality not worthy of our once-wild selves.

So here, in Oak, we will attempt to let those divisions fizzle in the ether of the internet. We may still draw lines and gnash teeth in these pages, but it will be in the realm of action — the realm of articulated living — that we will brandish our weapons, both literal and figurative.

The battles ahead are more meaningful than suffixes and prefixes added for personal identification; words will be spoken out loud that make the clattering disagreements coming through keyboards and illuminated screens seem less than petty. The world is literally dying. Some form of it will always exist; the wild, the uncontrollable will always prevail. But until that time when we are dust and bones, I hope we can tie our meshwork of personalities and ideas together, spar as needed, and realize some semblance of a world (perhaps many different worlds) without civilization.

***

We are looking for all relevant works to the anti-civilization and anarcho-primitivist discourse. All submissions will be reviewed with care and with the intent to publish as many as possible, working directly with authors over any editorial concerns.

Oak will be magazine format, hopefully with available funds for at least a color cover. The exact format will be determined based on the scope and content of submissions, as well as available funds. Oak will operate with the goal of being interesting to the passerby and attractive to the inquisitive. Currently Oak is scheduled as a bi-annual.

In addition to print, each issue will be produced as an audiozine. We are looking forward to curating interviews, readings, music and much more in a multi-episode production of each issue.

Please submit any work by November 30th, 2019 or get in touch by November 15th if you need more time on a longer piece.  Submission guidelines are being developed, until then we ask for endnotes rather than footnotes and consistent document formatting in each submission.

We are looking specifically for pieces that look at some of the following (don’t consider this list exhaustive):

  • Pipeline blockades and diversity of tactics, including perspectives from the front-lines
  • Forest defense updates
  • Resistance dynamics amidst rising state fascism and exponential climate change
  • Subsistence journals, wild experiences, lessons learned from living with and through the land
  • Anti-civilization praxis, challenges and ideas

Some brief words on this issue’s theme of Perpetual Apocalypse: Worlds have been and are being destroyed. In each instance of devastation, from the perspective of life within each area, each multiplicity of connectivity, the apocalypse was and is real. The death of the planetary world as a singular event is not within the capacity of the human experience, thus apocalypse is both perpetual and unending in civilized life — we merely see each apocalypse from a voyeur’s perspective. How much longer do the spectators have before the fire is no longer just illuminated pixels?

The theme is nothing more than possible inspiration, though pieces that are inspired by it are of course appreciated. We are aiming for a vibrant, diverse and engaging magazine of anti-civilization thought, practice and, above all, life.

– Steve Kirk for Oak Journal

All recipients are encouraged to forward this announcement to relevant parties and not the cops. Please reach out with ideas, inspirations, criticisms, etc: oakjournal@protonmail.com

There are 14 Comments

So to put it in a nutshell, action-oriented ‘big tent’ anticiv propaganda?

Lol at an anti civ journal basically calling for left unity.

Steve Kirk, some questions:
1. how do you define anti-civ?
2. what is your publishing experience?
3. how much do you pay?

Red cedars (or thuja) are way more significant for how they're "pioneer" trees in forests. They're sensual, organic-like, provide with a life-supporting environment, create super-comfy and calm surroundings for laying down in a forest and relax in the shade. They're also being used for the Sacred Fire.

They also sexy trees when got yellow ribbon tied around their waist, I hug them hard!

idk how that makes red cedars more "significant" or why you even care

Different poster here but I did wonder about the thought process. Oaks are great but their cultural significance is especially attested in the European traditions (cf. the white goddess, the golden bough etc...)

The British fleet and Spanish Armada, the wood that Empires and gunship diplomacy were built from!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9wht6xbM9Y
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-33330706 MC Treez rap song page
Caveman Karl by MC Treez
I am Karl Caveman
I want to live like an Indian
Civilization was a mistake
All that it has ever done is take
I want only what nature gave
That's why I want to live in a cave
I'm not part of civilization
I am Karl the Caveman
These cities are too stressful and cramped
I'll go into the wild like Alexander Supertramp
I know what I want
To be caveman on the hunt
Burn oil that's not there, that's you're plan?
And I'm crazy for being a caveman?
I do; I wanna be a caveman
I am sick of civilization
It is all about domination
It is all about subjugation
And it's about extermination
Of the poor native populations
Whether ours or another species
They just treat them all as enemies
Standing over now their properties
So, they can build their societies
They forced us to do all of their work
That sickens and destroys all of our Earth
In my clan, there will be no chiefs
History's leaders all have been thiefs
My tribe is egalitarian
Everyone will be head of the clan
We will live free being Indians
They did here before Europeans
Like they did in Europe as cavemen
I will prowl the forest on the hunt
I'll use my skills to get what I want
I use my tracking and shooting skills
That's how I will get all of my kills
Don't need it brought by automobiles
It is the simplest way to live
That is why it is called primitive
I'll wear my animal skin
To protect me from the cold harsh wind
Creatures got good fur from adaption
Not from changing the place that they live in
My tribe will use some of our weapons
On just animals for food we'll kill
Not for control of land and kill people
I'll use edible books for berries
Not let any of them poison me
I'll pick only what's necessary
That's right; I will know all of the land
Just like the back side of my own hand
I will need no kind of map
Navigate as easy as I rap
I'll know where to set all of my traps
Cuz I will know where the animals go
And if I see them, I'll have my bow
They will feel the sting of my arrow
I will use them for fur and meat
Not like farms which very badly treat
Them and torture them before people eat
I will start fires with a bow drill
Using my primitive woodsman skills
So, I can keep warm when there's a chill
And cook the animals I have killed
It can remain wild and free
Until I put it in my belly
And it will be for my tribe to share
Cuz it is for each other we care
We care for the tribe, not just ourself
Not acquiring more personal wealth
I will be the one with the great forest
I'll survive because I'm the fittest
No prey round will go undetected
I'll be naturally selected
To survive and happy to live
Cuz I'm living as a primitive
That means I don't make things complicated
The Earth doesn't need domesticated
I'm happy with what Earth created

I'm Annie Oakley, and this is my rap!
Imma gun totin western gal
I'm they ruler
In this here town
And down tne tavern
I wear jeans and a 6 shooter
Like the cowboys
Branding cattle and cutting down forests
Ìm Anney Oakley cave boy
Dont you go shittin
In this here cave
My granpa is buried outside
Where yoy piss in
Your purty little forest
Git the hell out caveboy
Before I put a cap
In your ass
Im Annie Oakley
Ruler in this 2 horse town.

This project sounds like the worst of all possible combinations, especially considering how stupid Kirk’s essay in the latest FE is. But at least there won’t be any interminable KT essays.

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