Down with the Cities Part 16

I also noted earlier that the city continues its limitless expansion on a global scale, and that, inversely proportional to this, farmland is limitlessly plundered. This too shows us that the city is not long for this world. The contradictions and tyranny of the urbanites, who seek to continue their gluttony even as they steal the farmland that produces their food, are beyond the comprehension of the ordinary person.

A short time ago I happened to visit a public facility in f.u.kui, and spoke to one of the personnel. "This area used to be prime rice paddies," he explained. "But as you can see, it is now a fine public meeting hall and a big parking lot. In this way we continue to lose farmland. When I think of what will eventually happen, shivers run down my spine."

In the neighborhood of my daughter's farm they are talking about making a golf course. If they go through with the plan, the developers will purchase the fields and wooded areas around my daughter's farm and make it all into a golf course. I asked if anyone was opposing this plan and was told that not one person in the village was against it. If anyone were to oppose the plan they would be ostracized from the village since, once the golf course is completed, not only will the fields and woods be transformed into piles of money, but there will be a rest facility, a restaurant, and jobs. In this way little effort is required of the city in order to steal more farmland and urbanize it. And what is really surprising is that I have not yet heard of any plan to convert the city into farmland.

Biotechnology: Violating the Province of Nature

The city is replete with evidence of self-destruction, and it projects many images of people digging their own graves, so one could not possibly write about all of them. But I would like to add a final word about biotechnology.

The work of evolving and fostering the species is the province of Nature, and has taken billions of years. Whether it be a single gra.s.s seed or a single tree leaf, nothing came into being overnight; each thing is the product of the complex and wondrous interaction of species that have repeated adaptation and selection over an incomprehensibly long time. If, in this net of interaction among species, even one of the nodes should exhibit unusual development or disappear, the balance of the ecosystem is disturbed; species that cannot stand the strain will perish, and the ecosystem then reorganizes itself to seek a new point of balance. This is what I mean by natural selection (the dispensation of Nature).

But now we see those cleverly conceited, high-handed, and arrogant human beings invading the province of Nature, and trying their hand at biotechnology; in a short period of time they are attempting to change that which Nature has taken billions of years to make, or to create something new. The species adapt to their environments (air, water, sunlight, the Land, and the net of interactions among species) and survive by maintaining their balance through mutual a.s.sistance, but in order to do this it requires the total history of its own evolution since the time it appeared.

If human beings now carry through with their desire to make sudden changes in the species, there is a danger that the balance of the ecosystem will require a great upheaval (the iron hammer of Nature) in order to correct the distortion brought about by human violence and seek the next level of balance. This is Nature's retaliation.

Nature's retaliation will first of all attack human beings directly (in correcting the imbalance brought about by biotechnology, there is no better way than striking down its inventor, human beings).

If we continue eating strange new creations which are not of the earth and which violate the natural diet of human beings (for example, soybean protein cultured in tanks with colonic bacteria, or isomerized sugars and oligosaccharides made from transformed bioma.s.s) cell regeneration will be adversely affected, and a.s.similation will be disturbed. By changing our diets and ingesting synthetic chemical compounds we will increase the incidence of cancer and liver disorders.

Because the purveyors of news will perish as well, they will not give us the news that "humanity perished after eating artificial food." By producing our own food and by a.s.similating the blessings of Nature in our own locale, we can at least preserve the unurbanized portion of the land. The city will take a lot with it when it goes.

Chapter VII Notes

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The reason Africa is turning into a wasteland is not because of drought, but because of the city's meddling. It was the deception of the city that made the native peoples of Africa, who formerly, though poor, managed to provide themselves with all their own food, believe they must escape poverty, keep domestic animals, destroy their verdure, and ultimately dig their own graves. (Rain clouds do not arise in regions with no trees.

Droughts are man-made, and they further make it difficult to reestablish trees. In this way deserts form, and the land dies for good.)

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It appears that the United States, in order to prepare for the future shortage of petroleum, is now embarking upon a policy of closing its own oil fields and depending solely upon imports.

When the world's petroleum starts to run out and other countries begin to panic, the U.S. will quietly tap its own carefully stocked reserves, and, ignoring the panic of other countries, work for its own prosperity and world hegemony.

But it remains to be seen if things go as they plan. If the U.S.

tries to keep all the oil to itself it will have to fight with other countries, whether they be enemies or allies, and it will no doubt come under concentrated nuclear attack.

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Gensuikin [The j.a.panese Congress against A and H Bombs] is expecting too much if they believe that world peace will come about with the disappearance of nuclear weapons. If you want to get rid of a skin eruption you must see to the health of your entire body; it does no good just to remove the eruption. Should you get rid of nuclear weapons but leave the city -- totally dependent upon petroleum and other buried resources -- just as it is, new eruptions will continue without end. Even if there are no nuclear weapons, new machines of ma.s.s killing will appear without end. In time the oil will begin to run out, and the city will sense that it is about to perish; at this point the Great Petroleum Grabfest will inevitably begin, and it will not matter whether or not there are nuclear weapons. After all, the city will be desperate. The city will no doubt use chemical weapons.

It will spread deadly bacteria all over the place. It will use neutron bombs and death rays as well. The city will make use of the latest high technology, and all manner of new weapons which have been secretly developed will have their first battlefield tests here.

Once this war begins there will be none of those half-hearted attempts at talking peace. If, because of a reconciliation many human beings remain, the problem of who gets the oil will still remain, and everyone will feel as if they have not attained the object of their war, which is the maintenance of the prosperity of the indolent cla.s.ses. In this war it is impermissible to allow the continued existence of those who do not belong to the indolent cla.s.ses.

Prisoners of war and slaves are nothing but an impediment. As long as one has oil (and mineral resources) machinery will act as one's slaves and servants. That is why the urban indolent cla.s.ses will start the petroleum war.

By "indolent cla.s.ses" I mean those people who claim that they "cannot live" without elevators, air conditioners, refrigerators, jets, trains, cars, telephones, computers, robots, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, propane gas, instant noodles, bread, ice cream, sake, beer, cigarettes, songs, dancing, sports, television, newspapers, and magazines. These people are, in other words, the city people, the secondary/tertiary industry people.

If they did not have oil, it would be impossible for them to maintain the civilization and culture I have described above, so to them oil has a greater and more necessary existence than does the Earth. The disappearance of oil is of greater significance to them than the disappearance of the Earth. This is why they will do everything in their power to seize the oil.

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A company that allegedly cheated countless people out of great amounts of money by means of high-pressure sales tactics and fake gold. (Translator's note)

CHAPTER VIII Everybody Farms

-- Escaping the City, Becoming a Farmer --

Since the city is the Great Evil that will ruin humanity and the Earth, we must somehow get rid of it.

In order to accomplish this, it is important for as many people as possible to break away from the city and become independent farmers, and to take up Natural Cycle Farming, in which one does not depend upon the city, but only upon the blessings of Nature.

It follows that the conventional professional farmers must extricate themselves from modern urbanized high-quant.i.ty agriculture and establish themselves in self-sufficient compound small-scale farming.

As the numbers of such farmers grow, the city will shrink and weaken, and when the effect has grown sufficiently, the city will perish.

A Society in which Everyone Farms Guarantees Our Future

Above is the blueprint for the eradication of the cities that I gave in Chapter V. To express it succinctly, it is the return to primitive communistic society in which everyone farms; it is the sliding back into an anarchistic agrarian society that has no need of state power; it is the realization of an agrarian society that has ceased all harmful and wasteful activities (i.e., the activities of the secondary and tertiary industries). [45]

Getting out of the city and beginning to farm is, as I noted in Chapter VI, easier said than done owing to a number of difficulties. Especially difficult to the city white collar worker is getting land.

I have repeatedly said that the agriculture problem is one of agrarian population, [46] and that the problem of the agrarian population is one of land. [47] Not only is the land problem the root of the agricultural problem, it is of such great significance that it influences, not only the city, but also all of humanity, all other living things, and yes, the fate of the entire Earth (just look at the present state of things -- the city digs up the land and continues to cover it with concrete; the end result is that we will have starvation in the middle of convenience).

The Land Is Nature Itself

And now we arrive at the obvious question -- who shall possess the Land? The answer is that it shall not be possessed by individuals; it is not the territory of local governments nor of nation-states; it was not meant for the public use of all the peoples of the world; and it is not held in common by all the living things on the Earth.

The Land is none other than Nature itself. Long before living things -- including human beings -- appeared on the Earth the Land already existed. It is therefore perfectly well for us to conclude that the Land belongs to no one; it is the Earth itself, it is Nature itself. So it is unpardonable for anyone, no matter who, to destroy or contaminate the Land. It is the vilest act of desecration to use the Land for selfish purposes, or to use it arbitrarily for the benefit of a group or a nation-state.

What is known to the city as construction and development is to Nature (the country) nothing less than violent acts of destruction and contamination. The countless large buildings in the big cities (which look like the many monuments in a cemetery), paved roads, amus.e.m.e.nt parks, subways, factories, and public facilities found in the country also tear up the Land and cover it with concrete. [48] None of these things can be made without hurting the Earth.