I have been reading my way through Derrick Jensen's books. He could be described as an environmental activist or perhaps an environmental anarchist, by some. I find I agree with many of the things that he says--that our culture is insane--for instance. Or that schools exist to mold children into industrial clones. Yes I can relate.
As I usually do, I pursued information about him to his website and there found a discussion board that seemed like an opportunity to engage in deeper discourse about some of the ideas that he expounds upon. Then it got a little weird. In order to join the discussion board there was basically a quiz, the answers being vetted by a board of moderators. The topic of the board revolves around a two volume set of books called Endgame. The premise of these books is that the dominant culture is destroying the natural world and needs to be "dismantled". Throughout his books there are frequent references to blowing up dams and equally extreme measures. In order to "Pass" and become a member of the board the task was to answer the questions in a way that made it clear that you bought the whole dismantle the culture premise.
I have nothing against dismantling the culture but in the broad picture trying to promote change via violence generally doesn't achieve the intended result. In fact it often has the opposite effect. The example that comes to mind is the World Trade Center. There were people who believed that they had reasons to take issue with the United States (as many countries do). The acts of violence that resulted unfortunately had the opposite effect from that intended. Not only did it increase the unpleasant actions on the part of the United States towards nationals from other countries, it had the effect of reducing the freedom that U.S. citizens enjoyed. and creating Homeland Security to Big Brother all of us. Pre 9/11 was such an innocent time.
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