The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future

THE FINAL EMPIRE: THE COLLAPSE OF CIVILIZATION AND THE SEED OF THE FUTURE

by WILLIAM. H. KÖTKE

If you would like to further the creation of this work, please send donations to William Kötke c/o Harbin Hot Springs, P.O. Box 782, Middletwon, CA 95461. Final Empire is freely made available below, but is not to be reproduced for profit.

Table of Contents

Volume I - THE COLLAPSE OF CIVILIZATION

Introduction

Pt. 1: THE HISTORY OF DISINTEGRATION

1. The Pattern of the Crisis
Collapse on the Periphery 1
Collapse From the Center 9
The Record of Empire 12

2. The End of Civilization 17
An Inheritance of Destruction 19
China 20
Indus River Valley 21
The Indo-Europeans of Central Asia 21
The Empires of Greece and Rome 22

Pt. 2:THE COLLAPSE OF THE ECOSYSTEM

3. Soil: The Basis of Life
The Organic Rights
The Soil 26
The Process of Soil Collapse 28
Soil Exhaustion 29
Soil Compaction 31
Soil Erosion 33
Soil Abuse by Grazing: Herding, The Hooved Locusts 35
Desertification 40
Irrigation Projects: Green Today, Gone Tomorrow 41
The Damn Dams 44

4. The Forest 49
How the Forests Went Down 51
Deforestation Follows the March of Empire 54
The Poison Air, The Poison Rain 54
The Vanishing Tropical Rainforest 55
The Planetary Greenhouse 56
The Failing Ozone Layer 57

5. The Phantom Agriculture 59
Industrial Agriculture 62
Living on Oil-The Green Revolution 66
The Monocultural Instability 67
The Seeds of Monoculture 69
The Starvation that is Called Progress 71
The Inventory 76

6. The Dying Oceans 79
Ocean Pollution 80
Ecological Sinks are the Sores of the Earth 83

7. Extinction of Life by Species Increment 85

Pt. 3: THE EXHAUSTION OF THE INDUSTRIAL EMPIRE

8. Population, Poisons, and Resources 91
The Human Population Disaster 91
The European Population Explosion 93
The Industrial Poisons 94
The Case of Poland 98
Modern Living Environments are Toxic 100
Municipal Waste 101
Toxic Industrial Waste 102
Radioactive Waste 103
The Profits and Losses of Empire 106
Poison and the Morality of Empire 107
The Fuels of Empire 108
The Minerals of Empire 111
Elite Control of the Industrial Process 112

Pt. 4:THE ANALYSIS OF EMPIRE CULTURE

9. The Cultural Dynamics of Empire 120
The Cultural Inversion 122
The Dynamic Cultural Factors 124
The Cosmology of Empire 127

10. The Psychology of Empire 133
Human Life is Severed From its Source 134
Disorder in the Society of Cells 134
The Failure of Bonding 139
Free Floating Anxiety: The Negative Psychological State of "Civilization" 141
The Crisis of Identity 144
The Anguish of Sexual Love in the Empire 146
A Culture of Violence 148
Institutionalizing the Masses 149
The Social Isolate Becomes An "Individualist" 152
The End of Empire 154

11. The History of Modern Colonialism 159
The Invasion of The Americas 160
The Onset of Machine Culture 164
The End of Peasant Subsistence Culture 165
The Conquest of Rationalism 168
Europe Explodes Across the Earth 170
Slavery and Empire 174
The World-Wide Extermination of Natural Culture 178
Opium and Empire 179
The Rubber Boom 183

12. Colonialism In the Modern World 189
Zaire: The Congo Atrocity Evolves 189
Antarctica: Empire at the End of the World 191
Empire in the Modern World: Managed Opinion 193
Controlling the Colony 194
Creation of the "Internationalist" Empire 196
Booklist for Volume I

Volume II
THE SEED OF THE FUTURE

Vol.II Pt. 1: CREATING A WHOLE LIFE

13. The Principles of Life 205
The Moral Basis of the Life of the Earth 205
Balance is the Foundation of Life 206
The Cycles of Life 209
Life Cooperates 211
The Consciousness of Life is Creative 212
The Psychobiological Perspective 213
The Cult of Science 214
All Is Mind 215
From the Unseen to the Seen: The Manifestation of Material Reality in the Hopi View 216
The Illusion of Matter 219
What is it that Creates Forms? 220
The Creation of Form-Morphic Resonance 223
Does the Life of the Earth Have a Plan? 227
The Social Conditioning of Human Health 228
The Medical Question of Identity 233

14. Culture As Organism 237
The Cultivated Life 237
Culture is an Energy Code 241
Human Culture is the Womb that Bears the Individual 243
The Birthright of Identity 244
The Morality of the Cell (Our Ancestor) 245

Vol. 2 - PT. 2: LIVING ON THE EARTH

15. The Life of The Tribe 247
Living in Harmony 248
The Tukano: A Primal Adaptation 248
Peace With the Earth 252
Non-Hierarchical Self-Government of Natural Societies 256
The Essene Community: An Example of an Integrative Womb 260
Integrating Ourselves and the New Culture 262
The Security of Children in the Extended Family 266
Awareness is Power 267
Reality Conditioning 268
Communication is Relationship 270
The Pleasure of Life 272
Healthy Culture: Glimpses From the Past 274

16. The Restoration of the Life of the Earth 279

The Simplicity 280
The Adaptation of the Most Ancient Ancestors: Rainforest Permaculture 281
The Complexity 282
Beyond the European Row-Crop Garden: A Look at Some Recent Methods 284
Food From Trees 285
Spirulina: The Sunlight and Water Food 286
The Ecological Health Garden 287
The ‘Do Nothing’ Farmer 288
European Mystic Gardening 290
Findhorn: Communication With the Spirit of Life 291

17. Permanent Desert Culture
The Forager Example 295
A Sedentary Example 299

18. Choosing Reality
Claiming Our Birthright 309
The Civilized Alien 310
Gaia's History 312
The Moment of Opportunity 314

Vol. 2 - PT. 3: ON THE WATERSHED

19. The Natural History of the Watershed of the San Francisco River 319
The Elevational Life Zones 321
The Moisture 323
Life Before Empire 325
The Fire Regime 327
The Human History 328
Transition to Sedentariness: The Kiva People 331
True Forager/Hunters: The Apache 335
The Arrival of Empire: The Story of the Last Native People on the Watershed 344
The Ecological Effects of Colonization 348

20. Planetary-Watershed Restoration 359
Forage Farming: A Permaculture of the San Francisco River Watershed 359
Specific Water Retention Strategies 363
The Trees 365
Placing the Tree 367
A Walk Up the Watershed 369
The Habitation 378
The Mattole Watershed: One Example of Restoration 381
On the Watershed: Some Practical Considerations 384
Time To Move 385
Creating the Future 386