A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #468 - ANARCHONATURISM. - Disobeying by Going into Nature (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Does anarchic "hiking" exist, or can it exist today? The question may 
seem idle, especially in times when everything seems to be on fire and 
everything pushes us to stay on the barricades. Or worse, it risks 
appearing like an attempt to escape the world. --- Yet I believe it's 
our duty to be interested in Nature, not only in terms of 
environmentalism, which prescribes its respect and protection, but also 
to recover its free and undefined dimension.

We also need to understand the bourgeois/industrial distinction between 
the urban world and the natural world. A distinction that leads us to 
mistakenly consider the urban sphere as autonomous and distinct from the 
natural world, confined to parks and reserves. This is an ideological 
opposition that supports a predatory approach to the exploitation of 
resources, but also serves the purpose of disciplining our bodies and 
our desires.

Trapped as we are for much of our time in closed, artificially lit 
environments, we are increasingly losing the ability to experience the 
potential and limits of our senses.

The (techno)urban environment that surrounds us increasingly shapes a 
frictionless society, in which we will be allowed to consume without any 
apparent risk, without threatening contact, without needless waste of 
time or energy. A death drive is embodied behind the "promises" of smart 
cities, in which standardized and homogenizing functioning tends to cage 
humanity in its dual nature as a living being and a cultural being (the 
Aristotelian zoon politikòn).

In contrast to all this, Nature offers us a fertile testing ground in 
which to experiment with our own way of being in the world, so that each 
of us can seek to "obey the laws of our being," to borrow a phrase from 
Henry David Thoreau, a key figure in anarcho-naturism. An individual 
capable of tenaciously pursuing this form of experimentation, the 
philosopher tells us, becomes an advocate of "new, universal, and freer 
laws," or will ensure that "old laws will be extended and interpreted 
more freely in his favor." The "true America," Thoreau warns, is not one 
where we are forced to sacrifice the best of our vitality in order to 
have meat and coffee every day, but rather "is that country where we are 
free to lead a life that can enable us to do without all these, and 
where the state does not attempt to compel us to finance slavery, war, 
and other superfluous expenditures." In this sense, "America," even with 
its hands soaked in the blood of the natives, has represented a place of 
the soul, a spiritual goal for the liberation of the self and of 
communities. A promise, today more than ever, betrayed. A man who 
wanders through the woods, who builds his own shelter, who feeds himself 
there, who gathers wood to light a fire, was already suspect in 
Thoreau's time, something halfway between a vagabond, a brigand, and a 
hermit. Today, in an age of progressive security, he would certainly be 
considered a criminal.

As in many other areas of life, we are witnessing a gradual regulation 
of behavior in nature, especially in wooded areas, whose use (a 
deliberately inappropriate term) must comply with specific tourism 
standards. Lighting a fire is permitted in designated areas, with 
charcoal and not wood; camping outside designated areas is prohibited, 
and so on.

All these measures, at first glance, might seem like common sense, aimed 
at limiting the risk of fires and environmental damage. However, these 
measures are often useless, and often poorly enforceable, because they 
don't actually target those who truly pollute or threaten their own and 
others' safety. I'm referring to rural mafias and "Sunday shoppers," 
capable of ruining entire ecosystems in a matter of hours. Those who 
approach Nature with a free and critical spirit, however, usually begin 
with a very different approach of respect and communion, a state of mind 
that cold law can neither comprehend nor foresee. Laws of this kind 
serve only, in my view, to reinforce a paternalistic and repressive 
approach to all those potentially liberating and "uncontrolled" experiences.

Proof of this is the security crackdown imposed by the Anti-Rave 
Decree-in its own way, a restriction on the possibility of experiencing 
a different relationship with Nature-and by the very recent Security 
Decree 15/2026, which significantly tightens the carrying of bladed 
weapons. Once again, a measure that will likely have a negligible impact 
on crime (do we really think a criminal will stop carrying weapons out 
of respect for the new Decree?), potentially impacting instead the 
freedoms of a few (generally) respectful visitors to wooded areas. Yet 
another way to restrict citizens' behavior from above. And this despite 
the fact that the vast majority of forest fires and land use stem from 
eco-mafias; despite the fact that almost all knife crimes (not to 
mention femicides) are committed with kitchen knives in domestic settings.

Faced with these demented excesses, let us return to listening to 
Thoreau, not as a teacher (that was the last thing he wanted), but 
rather to recover the disobedient dimension he showed us. But above all, 
let us reclaim our lives, our bodies, let us return to listening to 
ourselves, to our inner laws; let us follow the invitation to bring life 
to its bare minimum, freeing it from the trappings that weigh it down 
and sadden it. Let us therefore go to Nature, disobeying.

Riccardo Riccer

http://www.sicilialibertaria.it/wp-content/uploads/aprile2026_compressed.pdf
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