The Politics of the Places Nobody Watches

We assume hierarchy needs an audience. Out here the pecking order runs perfectly well without witnesses. Something is in charge - probably several somethings, depending on the time of day or the season. The system works because nobody’s performing for approval and no one’s checking whether the rules are fair.

There’s an efficiency to power when it doesn’t need to justify itself, when it’s all about function rather than performance. It makes you wonder how much of human organisation is actually necessary. This clearing in the woods doesn't care about transparency or accountability. It sorts itself out through more primal, blunter methods. Who eats whom, who gets the light, who survives winter. Sometimes it can be cruel, but it’s never sentimental.

Nothing is owed anything, and they doesn’t expect to be. It’s oddly refreshing. The idea of a world that simply gets on with it, no meetings, no consultation period, no carefully worded emails. Just results.

Listen : ‘Mind’s a Lie’ by High Vis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=147BrDp-XuA

Read: Chaos Magic by Jen Knox (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2025) – https://www.jenknox.com/

Watch : On Falling (2025) dir. Laura Carreira – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMlBMSdU7IY