is gained through conquering new territories, and eventua lly results in an establishment of worldwide imperium. Centur y-old trade monopolies and colonia l politics in many regions have established a pat tern of globa l development. This development is in para llel with the pressure for the nations to live according to the colonia l system. Their pat tern of interaction with nature has changed, they no longer live a longside nature as a par t of an ecosystem. Agriculture is no longer a way to live, it has become a means to produce colonia l commodities. The relation bet ween human and nature has been reduced into a product-oriented work relation. Belief and cultura l systems in cer tain locations have either been displaced, changed, or lost. A ncient knowledge that had long f lourished in native’s soil was uprooted and replaced. However, the loca l knowledge deemed useful by the colonizers was extracted, transformed into a new product, and reintroduced to the colonized as a commodit y to consume. The roots planted by this conquest culture entrenches itself in the societ y, even after decolonization. It grips even stronger when the ideologica l war bet ween the Western and Eastern bloc demands the globa l nations to pick a side. Asia, especia lly Southeast Asia, which has long been the war zone of colonia l trade politics, now turn into one of the proxy wars zones bet ween the West and the East. Traces of colonia l domination and conquest become a foundation to establish ideologica l hegemony in this wars zone. Years of ideologica l war f lourished a long with the opium that cursed this land and put it in a vicious circle of dependence towards intoxicating things. The histor y of defeat to the system repeats itself, the new generations now inherit the remnants of roughly the same war crimes. This generation becomes the fruit resulted from regiona l conquest when the system puts them in a situation in which they have no choice. The journey of life seems to become a cycle of life that merely feeds a cer tain dominant system. People seem to be trapped in the role of commodit y users produced by the system itself. Yet on the other hand, the system a lso depends on something that has long lived with the conquered people. That something, the one to be conquered to become a territor y of power, is the landscape of nature with its primordia l cycle that can over turn other systems at any time. This cycle forces other systems to inevitably adapt to Ear th’s system. As an organic system that a lways provides a livelihood for human civilization, it is only natura l that humans and man-made systems will have to adjust to the natura l landscape at one point. When a dominant system relies on the landscape but is unable to exist in its sma llest nooks, the people can easily ignore the system. This neglect becomes an oppor tunit y for humans and nature to create their own pat terns of interaction, away from the dominating consumption pat terns that are identica l to the desire for conquest. At this point, an at tempt to reduce the user culture might be carried out to create a momentum of resistance against the dominant conquest system that has penetrated ever yday life and dictated pat terns of human consumption, even consumption of knowledge.
51