Saturday, September 6, 2008

The Case For Violence


Derrick Jensen is arguably the most dangerous and contraversial authors and speakers concerning the defense of the earth at all cost, and also possibly the most effective. In his two part epic manifesto, Jensen lays it out as clearly as possible, using plain english (or Finnish, Hebrew, Dutch, German or Danish if you prefer) that civilization, as we know it, can never sustain itself. This, Jensen points out, is not unlike the "great civilizations" that now line the oceans floor or the walls of a museum, and is also unique, in that the enemy we have now created is not an outside force waiting to invade and enslave the civilization, but is in fact ourselves, crumbling from the inside. He also points out the ominous truth that those who are profiting from this demise, will not stop on their own, and therefore, as reason follows, must be stopped.

Do not get me wrong, Derrick is not volleying for the salvation of this civilization, rather, a more expiditious decline. His belief is in the soil and waters of the Earth that we have inhabited since day one of our existence, and have destroyed over the past few thousand years. He lays out, clearly, the manmade deconstruction of the ecology of our living space, the vast abuse of resources by our cities, the greed driven raping of the rivers and wetlands, and the for profit depletion of entire populations of wild animals, and unlike liberal environmentalists, does not simply stop with the outline of our destruction. He procedes to make the most sane and logical case for violence that I have ever heard.

He is not talking about random, unjustified violence, like that used by the state in the form of police or military. Jensen speaks concisely of a bottom up defensive measure that is always shunned by a culture that is used to only one type of violence that is accepted, that being violence from the top down.
in an excerpt from Endgame: “We must keep in mind that the capitalist regime in Washington continues to harbor journalists, military leaders, politicians, and CEOs who have put in place and praised U.S. military and economic policies that kill millions of people annually.”

Anytime an act of defensive measure is reported on, of that defensive measure is carried out against "our" people, it is always, and without fail, reported as criminal and since 9/11, terroristic. Jensen inverts that upon the state, and points out it's bias and it's ludicrousy.

I do not want to paint him as a stern faced revolutionary though, well not always. Jensen is quite possibly the funniest and most enjoyable person to listen to in modern day journalism. Whether he is rewriting Star Wars, or mocking nearly every single group on "the left", or telling simple schoolyard jokes, he has the charm and wit of a Lenny Bruce. Derrick will be joining us on my radio show, Rabble Rouse Radio, on Monday September 29th, at 9:00 PM to listen to Derrick speak and have a chance to call in with a question.

www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE

1 comment:

Michael Caddell said...

we're gonna jam your switchboard when Derrick Jensen comes on ... you'll have lots of fun figuring out how to moderate those anarchist tongues wagging all at once with DJ.

when he came to Blue Barn Radio as our first guest, everybody cracked up during and after the program.

this is gonna be a great show! I'm telling everybody about it and you better get his book up on the btr web site, cuz he don't get paid beans for all that fine writing.