My Anti-Genomics Guerrilla Ontology

This is a communique of my individualist anti-tech refusal to conform to the Reality that was always artificial, in the way that Realities are not Real, of genomic-salvation, which could also be called the-false-promises-of-genetic-engineering.

The government of the United Kingdom, which considers itself to be the authority ruling over this archipelago in the North Sea, has announced that it is funding genomic research, with the promises of hopefully saving babies born with genetic diseases, improving the speed of cancer diagnosis and positioning the UK as life-science “superpower” through new technologies [1]. As an individual who was born with the genetic disease of a pineal germinoma – a form of cancerous brain tumour that forms in the womb [2] – I sincerely appreciate where many of those wanting to believe in genomic-salvation come from. But I don’t believe in genomic-salvation and find that my desire for integrity and authenticity has brought me to this place, of me writing this.

Genomics is an area of biological research that investigates all aspects of what scientists call genomes – the genetic information of organisms – including the editing of genomes. Genome editing is largely comparable to genetic engineering, in many ways – though scientists position them as distinctly different. Rebellions against genetic engineering are not new [3] and individuals like Rene Riesel [4][5], as well as others of an anti-tech, new-Luddite or primitivist [6] perspective, have sought to challenge the practice. But, despite the real and horrifying dangers that genome editing poses when weaponised [7], there is very little in the way of challenge towards genomics, with some advocating that its “good, bad and ugly” aspects be weighed up against each other [8], others advancing the idea that it has the potential to make humanity more moral through editing over apparently genetic immoral traits [9] and some transhumanists just going full swing into positioning self-performed biohacking as some form of liberation [10] – from the “tyranny of biology”(?).

I do not believe that techno-progressive narratives and the engineering efforts of scientists are capable of overcoming this rising tide of disease, illness and pandemics, which instinct, intuition and what information I have, leave me inclined towards the perspective that this tide is technologically driven. Over 100 years ago the great “fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal wearer and sex maniac” Edward Carpenter made similar observations about the detrimental impacts of industrial civilisation on the health of individuals attempting to live amidst the machinery [11], which has only expanded to become more totalising since Carpenter was writing. Carpenter’s “cure” to civilisation is for humanity to become re-united with nature, which is similar (but different) to the eco-egoist union [12] and becoming-feral [13] that has been the main focus of my ontological-anarchist writings. Following from this, I am inclined towards guerrilla ontology, through non-localisable localism, as an individualist mode of rebelling against the narratives of genomic-salvationism. Whenever the notion of the promises of genomic research comes up, my desire is to respond with doubt, skepticism, pessimism and opposition toward dogmatic scientism and techno-progressivism, and to do so in such a way as to remain unknowable to those who would desire my annihilation. I want to throw wildly seeds of doubt, skepticism and pessimism, so that a great garden, or maybe a even a forest, of opposition towards dogmatic scientism and techno-progressivism might grow; where living beings might find space to live, with me joining them gladly.

The words of Lev Shestov “The business of philosophy is to teach man to live in uncertainty – man who is supremely afraid of uncertainty, and who is forever hiding himself behind this or the other dogma. More briefly, the business of philosophy is not to reassure people but to upset them” have come to my mind. I feel inclined towards this perspective, whilst also feeling sympathy for those who want the promises of genomic-salvationism to be true. I know how hard it is to live with cancer and how painful it is to watch individuals I love struggle with illness, without any ability to improve the situation. My belief and experience is that healing is not easy and is often very painful. This, to me, speaks to a quality of what John Moore describes, in his Primitivist Primer [15], where he describes primitivism as a mode of medicine-practice. While I don’t call or consider myself a primitivist, I am attracted to this and know that I am coming here from a desire for health and healing. I remember the doctor who gave me the news, on my 19th birthday, that they had found a legion in my brain, with full knowledge that he would be sharing with me some of the most upsetting news of my life.

For greater healing than that offered by the myths of techno-progressivism!

Against the false promises of genomic-salvationism!

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-175-million-for-cutting-edge-genomics-research

[2] https://www.thebraintumourcharity.org/brain-tumour-diagnosis-treatment/types-brain-tumour-children/germ-cell-tumours/

[3] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08873631.2021.1928828

[4] https://libcom.org/article/progress-domestication-rene-riesel

[5] http://www.notbored.org/biotechnology.html?fbclid=IwAR0uhIfQT-5AydgoAbMJcog7rrwuXi8OAu_SPSfJ-bqouoyl6B0XpmKWEKo

[6] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/tom-smith-genetic-engineering-and-primitivism

[7] https://www.technologyreview.com/2016/02/09/71575/top-us-intelligence-official-calls-gene-editing-a-wmd-threat/

[8] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/conor-mcloughlin-biotechnology-confusion-fear-and-protest

[9] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/various-authors-the-raven-anarchist-quarterly-18

[10] https://www.vice.com/en/article/d7yzmm/geneticists-are-concerned-transhumanists-will-use-crispr-on-themselves

[11] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/edward-carpenter-civilisation-its-cause-and-cure

[12] https://www.nightforestpress.com/post/an-eco-egoist-destruction-of-speciesism-and-species-being

[13] https://ecorevoltblog.wordpress.com/books/

[15] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/john-moore-anarchist-speculations