In the introduction Paul Kingsnorth writes an explanation for the book and a little background as to why he wrote it. This chapter can be split into three major points. First, his own history, second, the world and what it should be, and third the Machine itself.

“I’ve never been addicted to drugs or alcohol, but I have often been addicted to dreams.”

Kingsnorth tells us that throughout his life he has always been the sort of person to prefer elves and trees to concrete and computers. He gives a short chronicle of his activism which in younger years consisted of chaining himself to trees and then later of writing articles and moving to rural Ireland. The point of all this is to show just how much of his life has been spent in working against the machine and cutting against the grain of this current world.

“the [world} that is manifesting to replace [the old world] is a left-brain paradise, all straight lines and concrete car parks.”

The grain he cuts against is the grain of this new world. In fact I believe it would be more accurate and I think Kingsnorth would perhaps agree that he is not the one cutting against the grain of the world but rather the world is cutting against its own grain. One thing that readers may note is that he speaks of left-brained as a derogatory term. In our usual parlance left-brained is seen as more of a good thing, a strong and intelligent trait. This specific usage will be explained in a later chapter (chapter 23). Throughout this book much of what he talks about is the fact that the Machine has become so deeply rooted that it controls even our understanding of it. Many of the things he says will seem wrong in a way that we can’t quite explain without simply assuming he must be wrong, and for those of us who have always felt something was wrong in the world it will also feel somehow very right. That was me when reading it, I instantly began thinking things like “what about progress” and “sure it would be nice but we can’t go back to being savages now.” however at the same time his words resonate on a very deep level, past the conscious thinking. When you read on Kingsnorth answers your objections by very simply questioning why they should be objections at all. Why should progress be king?

“The malaise is deeper older and more consequential than any of this, and it affects the very basis of our humanity.”

Kingsnorth does not give us a clear definition of The Machine he writes against. I think this is mostly due to it being one of those things which cannot be correctly defined with mere English. C.S. Lewis in the space trilogy talks about the higher things being too clear for our fuzzy words. Some commonly hard to define words include Love, Thought, and Human. These are always the things which can be described and everyone knows when they see it, yet aren’t quite so easy to pin down and put beneath the microscope. Thus in writing this book by the end of every reader will have a very clear mental picture but no clear summary tag. Though it can’t be defined some of its attributes might be helpful in revealing its nature to the reader. Kingsnorth describes it as the thing whose values are “money and numbers and profit and growth,” it’s the mechanical and planned over the natural and organic, and the centralized system over the local individuals. The fact that he names it the machine (following the poem “Other” by R.S. Thomas) is perhaps the best tool for communicating this things essence.

He ends his introduction by giving the purpose of his book: to tell the tale of the machine, its beginning and end, its flaws and its offers, and how we may resist its efforts to engulf us.

For God, For Christ, For Humanity—The Scribbler

P.S. Apologies for the delay, life is hectic.