‘Jensen’s is not a revolutionary theory
That said, they have no fucking idea what revolution means, or how it could come about. Capitalism and the state are massively powerful and adaptive human systems, and they can only be destroyed through the coordinated action of the great majority of people in this society, and world.
Assuming from the get go that a majority of people are insane and therefore not worth thinking about prevents Jensen and Co from being revolutionary at all, which is why there is so much reliance on collapse as a solution in his work.
Collapse does not equal revolution
But anyone with a thought in their head can see that even if the perfect storm of capitalist transition, peak oil, and climate change comes about, the resulting devastation will not eliminate either capitalism or the state.
The police and military forces of the world will still have the guns and money, and indeed, crisis is almost always used as an excuse for greater violence and oppression than otherwise. This is well demonstrated in Naomi Klein’s *The Shock Doctrine* which shows how present day capitalism thrives precisely on collapses, by using them to justify mass theft, privatization and so on…whether that be after the Tsunami, New Orleans, Iraq, or the entire post-collapse Soviet Union. “
What’s with that photo?
Are you a puritan too? or does it appeal to your dirty mind? Because you’re the second person to complain about it. Is the naked body obscene to you? Or do you just prefer a penis picture?
ATTENTION ALL PURITANS: I chose the photo because I did not want a literal picture of civilization collapsing, I prefer a more artistic statement. To me, after much searching, this seemed perfect, at least for me, it has the mood of apocalypse written all over it. I like it, and am not offended by it, nor is there anything dirty, obscene or pornographic about it, except to a mind predisposed to think that way. It’s artistic. I just deal with the vegan police, do i have to deal with the sex cops now too? Did I violate a law? Do you burn books too? Warning: do not every travel to France or Europe, you might see a horrid picture of a naked body on and advertisement somewhere.
what’s the problem with the photo?
this is an artistic image.
and, as a woman, i’m somewhat disturbed by the implication inherent in your question that there’s something shameful about a woman’s body. should we all be cloaked in burkas?
back in the ’90s, the supreme court was unable to define what pornography actually is and so they basically said that an image may be said to be pornographic to a person if it elicits a “prurient” response.
what that means is that pornography is in the eye of the beholder with the dirty mind.
i see a picture that represents nature and impending doom.
what do you see?
A haunting beautiful girl almost androgynous the ghost of our world…
Your are someone who can see past a naked body and perceive the art, not some alleged pornography, and grasp the evocation of a world in crisis, not only a woman’s breasts and genitals. The only disturbing or shocking thing about this image is what the perceptive person senses about a planet in its death throes. Thank you.
We are definitely in need of a radical new resistance movement. Have you seen Jensen’s new book and the movements based on the book?
http://deepgreenresistance.org/
I looK forward to reading it.
It seems important that you do read it, given that you have offered a critique already.
Is this standard operating procedure for you, Dr. Best? Would you offer a diagnosis, and then go searching for the evidence needed to back up your words later?
Perhaps you’ll have a different critique after reading the actual strategy, rather than a pre-packaged set of ideas which have been put forth by others who have yet to read the book. Clearly, if you are to be considered a serious person, you need to familiarize yourself with the actual strategy you’re criticizing if you’re going to take it upon yourself to go about criticizing it.
I would second Desert Dreamer’s recommendation that you check out the topic you’re expressing such a strong opinion on before offering – or ideally before even formulating – such a strong opinion as to why such a strategy won’t work.
I am a fan of Jensen’s work. Ironic comment you make, since I said nothing about this critique either way. I posted it for debate purposes: nothing more nothing lsss.
The italicized text makes me assume that it was cut and paste from somewhere else where a lengthier discussion is happening (on Facebook maybe)…? In any case, I am simply responding to this post.
Simply said, believing a collapse is a solution to the world’s problems is like believing the Dark Ages solved inequality, classism, sexism, speciesism, racism, etc., etc.
Despite toting around Tainter’s and Diamond’s books as if they were bibles, many collapsitarians live in a fantasy world where they believe the collapse is going to take place overnight and the next morning the sun will shine and all the good people will be left standing in fields of plenty (usually chock full of animals for the eating/using). Chances are the collapse is going to be a long protracted process, which will involve the elite attempting to hoard the last of the resources and pulling out every technology they have on reserve to keep the masses from retaining/regaining those resources (there is a good reason why they are privatizing everything now). People currently hanging out at Wall St. and the Brooklyn Bridge think that the police are the last step. They are the first step on the modern day ladder of state protection. The elite own DRONES (Gandhi never saw a single drone in his lifetime). When armed Predators start returning home, then you know a real revolution has probably begun (i.e., the sign that the elite are truly frightened/threatened). Right now, I suspect they are munching popcorn and enjoying themselves watching the videos of the “protests” that they in fact funded.
As for Jensen and Keith…
Lierre Keith’s idea of a lovely post-collapse world would be lots of reclaimed prairie lands thriving with cows and other non-human animals that we not only can eat, but should eat (okay, maybe only their organs). I won’t even bother to go into the misinformation she doles out on plant-based nutrients, paleoanthropology, morphology/biology, and agriculture. I realize that for some vegans the “vegetarian myth” controversy is old news, but for anyone not up on Keith’s nonsense, check out an interview of Peak Crackpot here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNON5iNf07o
Derrick Jensen often offers random nuggets of true wisdom on the state of the environment and direct action. However, he (an ex-vegan) now thinks we should eat meat because it’s part of the “Cycle of Life” – he says the plants take in sunshine, animals eat the plants, humans eat the animals, and then the worms and microbes in the soil eat humans when they die. But he also says that if we abstain from eating animals and only eat plants, then we are buying into hierarchy (the idea that animals are more important than plants). Confused much? I think Keith has been filling his head with so much nonsense that he can’t think straight on the subject anymore.
editing went awry!
— many collapsitarians live in a fantasy world where they believe the collapse is going to take place overnight and the next morning the sun will shine and all the good people will be left standing in fields of plenty (usually chock full of animals for the eating/using). Chances are the collapse is going to be a long protracted process, which will involve the elite attempting to hoard the last of the resources and pulling out every technology they have on reserve to keep the masses from retaining/regaining those resources —
— The elite own DRONES (Gandhi never saw a single drone in his lifetime) —
What has Ghandi got to do with this?
— However, he (an ex-vegan) now thinks we should eat meat because it’s part of the “Cycle of Life” —
Derrick has never been vegan. He has an incurrable progressive disease, which has meant that if he ate vegan, he would be dead within a few weeks. He can only eat meat. His body cannot tolerate/digest a high vegetable diet.
Derrick doesn’t subscribe to the idea of a great chain of being: he wishes to see empty cages (nonhuman animals) and empty green houses (battery farming of plants), and a total recovery of all ecosystems with human animals, nonhuman animals, plants and everyone else living free: total liberation… Derrick understands that if you have a dead planet, then all the gold in the world, and all the armies in the world, and all the revolutions in the world won’t save you… and you know, i’m inclined to agree… the planet is in a emergency position: we don’t really have time to build a revolution, we need to be having solid discussions, plans and actions which actively stop the biocide.
That’s not to say we shouldn’t try for revolution. If you can do it in time, I’ll be there.
Derrick is against ‘Lifestylist’ actions being suggested as political acts. Yes, he recylces, yes he composts, yes he uses minimal amounts of heating, yes he’s been wearing the same shoes for the past 10 years, he doesn’t have a cell phone or tv… he does everything he can reduce his contribution to harm as far as he can… but he doesn’t pretend these are effective or political acts. Necessary acts, yes. Just like political veganism is a necessary act. But we could wait a lifetime for everyone to go vegan: everyone won’t… so in the mean time we need our own underground railroad to rescue the victims of civilisation and smash the cages enslaving them. We need to be doing everything we can to recover ecosystems. We need to be doing everything to stop the murder of the planet, nonhumans, and societies who still know what it is to live as part of the earth.
Pixie (DJ forum mod)
I still am waiting for a time to read Derrick’s new work before I comment on it positively or critically, as I do see big problems with the collapsarian model, whether he ultimately holds that view or not. And instead of bringing up the vegan debate, my problems with Lierre Keith book against veganism, or any disagreements I might have with Derrick, I would rather emphasize that I share his critique of pacifism, his call for resistance, his critique of civilization as a ten thousand year long disaster, and especially in the crucial moment of the occupation struggles where new alliances are being forged, I would rather focus on the many things we share on common than whatever differences we might have, and that **very much** includes a critique of the elitist lifestyle vegan movement (which I have ruthlessly criticized as a vegan for 18 years now, which you should know or should be obvious from this blog, but I was an activist and leftist before a vegan and so had a unique and varied background many vegans are not fortunate enough to have). I didn’t get to be friends with Ward Churchill, have him write the introduction to my Terrorists of Freedom Fighters book, or contribute to subsequent volumes I edited by criticizing him for not being vegan or attacking the Makah Indians for whaling. I would be happy for Derrick to know this. Alliance politics means putting aside differences and focusing on commonalities and a shared enemy. I stand with all brothers and sisters in the planetary resistance movement, and I agree with the essence of your message and the need to take down global capitalism and “civiization” as we know it. I really wish more environmentalists and humanist radicals got the vegan message and according the vegan and animal rights movement more respect, and that we could enter into productive dialogues and conversations and learn from one another for each side only has part of the message and necessary approach. This is offered in the spirit of respect, dialogue, and alliance. Thank you, Steve
Pixie, thank you for responding to my post.
GANDHI lived in a different time and place. Today’s tactics will need to address the technology that people are up against today (and will be up against tomorrow) – surveillance, drones, robots, etc. My point was that many collapsitarians think the collapse is around the corner and then all will solved. It is more likely that the fascist state will only go into further lockdown when things begin to fall even further apart. Regardless of whether the world is in a state of emergency or not. For example, if you’ve got surveillance tracking you everywhere you go, you’re not going to be effective in trying to address this emergency.
I didn’t say Jensen subscribes to the notion of the “great chain of being.” I wrote that he said that it’s okay to eat meat because it’s part of the “cycle of life” (there is a difference between hierarchy in the former and a circular pattern in the latter). Please reread what I wrote – I think maybe you misunderstood me. He claims that eating nonhuman animals is justified when viewing nonhuman animals and plants as equal in moral consideration. See this link (at about 14:00 he talks about this). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wcRKZyB76g Crohn’s disease doesn’t seem to enter into the conversation as far as his reasoning for eating meat.
After doing a search, I think perhaps you are right about him never being a vegan – though a number of people seem to think he was vegan, too, so perhaps somewhere along the way I was misinformed. His thinking is still muddled on this topic regardless, for the reasons already stated.
In any case, I am still disgusted with Keith’s active agenda to misrepresent veganism to the extent she has (if she were sincere about alliances with vegans, she would take a step back). Jensen’s further nonsense justifying meat eating just adds to it. And by the way, you say Jensen wants “total liberation” – well, that’s not going to happen if we’re still killing sheep to eat their livers (no matter how “wild” those sheep happen to be). Oppression is oppression.
I understand and respect Mr. Best’s standpoint about alliances (he has a much more mature and unhypocritcal stance regarding alliances than Keith does). However, I feel that when it comes to someone who actively misrepresents veganism, an alliance with them is going to be unbalanced. I do not believe the “vegan lifestyle” activism is going to “save the world” either, but also wouldn’t suggest that a vegan animal activist pair up with someone who purposefully maligns and misrepresents veganism as an active agenda – for fuck’s sake, she wrote a whole book on the subject. The planet is indeed in a dire state; that doesn’t mean animal activists have to team up with people who are aggressively against what they stand for (and be patronized and belittled while they are at it – see next paragraph). I get and understand the call for “alliances,” but I also understand where one could/would be justified in drawing a line with certain organizations and people.
I read about one third of Deep Green Resistance (a library copy). Lierre Keith’s constant patronizing got on my nerves. The “Just Grow Up” theme got old and tiresome, and was especially annoying when directed toward vegans. If she wants alliances to happen, maybe she ought to project a different attitude toward vegans. McBay’s chapters are far more enlightening. And it seems Jensen only wrote the preface, so it’s really ultimately Keith and McBay’s book.
Thanks HMC, great comments as always, and it’s nice to see the debate remain civil. I agree with you that Keith’s book set the possibilities for alliance politics back a quantum leap, and whatever critical points she had against veganism (made all the suspect with the underwriting of the Weston C. Price foundation (a pro-meat, animal holocaust, earth-destroying front group/extension of agribusiness; see: http://www.westonaprice.org/), and whatever valid political points she made against lifestyle single issue veganism (which with I would wholeheartedly agree), her faulty nutritional critiques to justify the slaughter of the innocent.
(For a vegan dietitian critique, see: http://www.theveganrd.com/2010/09/review-of-the-vegetarian-myth.html; for a critical but sympathetic leftwing critique, see: http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/vegetarianmyth05032009/; and for a fascinating, gloves-off melee of support and critique of her book, see:
http://vegansofcolor.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/vegetarian-myth-lierre-keith/. Finally, for a compelling example of a vegan/AR-oriented (more welfarist as of late) critique of agricultural society that really does get it, while exposing Keith’s gross underestimation of the role of animal exploitation in the rise of civilization and all its environmental destruction and social pathologies, see Jim Mason, An Unnatural Order).
Whatever blatant, by now, much-discredited dietary disinformation there may be in the book, I am sure she, Jensen, and I would have many points in common, but the kind of attitude HMC complains about above does make alliances challenging. (“In the narrative of my life, the first bite of meat after my twenty year hiatus marks the end of my youth, the moment when I assumed the responsibilities of adulthood,” Keith writes.)
For ten years now, I have extended by hand to the left for a common and productive dialogue, and it’s still hanging awkwardly in the air. Just once, I’d like to see someone from the left initiate a dialogue with political or radical vegans and animal liberationists with whom they could indeed have a productive and mutually-informative conversation.
Similarly, there are a fair number of vegan/AL groups in various cities making genuine efforts to be heard, respected, and included, only to be arrogantly patronized, rebuffed, or ignored in nearly all the reports I have read. Until we bridge this gap, and until we can bridge this gap, and begin taking initial steps toward exploring commonalities and talking to one another in respectful, open, and informed ways on both sides, there is not going to be a revolution worth fighting for, and the concerns that leftists have for people, indigenous cultures, radical democracy, and ecology are all going to hell in a hand basket unless the connections and alliance are made with the political vegans/AL camps, as the latter’s concerns for a world of justice, nonviolence to all beings, and ecology cannot progress without alliance with the left.
The sooner we all recognize this, the stronger we all will be and the better the chances for a different world. It is madness and suicide to ignore this, and not a day goes by it does not confound me that intelligent people from different political and ethical positions cannot recognize the most glaringly obvious facts that without alliances deeper, broader and more inclusive than ever before imagined let alone attempted, we are all fucked.
So Derrick (we’re still Facebook friends), Lierre, anybody (!), anytime you want to have a forum or debate that will be respectful, informed, and constructive, with no tofu pies thrown, and hopefully help us begin to break this impasse, and add some real energy to the resistance movement we all want, please contact me, and can start to organize it. I can think of few more important steps to take at this point.
Steve
I admire your tenacity in extending your hand in endless open invitation to a respectful and genuine dialogue. I find it a truly magnanimous gesture on your part.
Though, I would thoroughly understand if someone distrusted making an alliance with another person who openly and aggressively trashed what they stood for. I would also understand if someone distrusted making an alliance with another person who ran to the enemy for help, especially when that other person has been outspoken in telling people for years not to trust the enemy and that it’s our duty to subvert the enemy. When banned from the UK, at least you had the balls to face the enemy and call them out directly. As far as I know, you didn’t run in fear (of anything). Enough said.
Regarding the act of writing a publicly published book on underground resistance tips on organization and tactics… Perhaps “Deep Green Resistance” will inspire some people. But on charging $22.95 for a publicly sold paperback book that allows the forces of evil to better understand how the underground works, I will simply quote from Frederick Douglass in A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave…
“I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the underground railroad, but which I think, by their open declarations has been made most emphatically the upper-ground railroad. I honor those good men and women for their noble daring, and applaud them for willingly subjecting themselves to bloody persecution by openly avowing their participation in the escape of slaves. I, however, can see very little good resulting from such a course, either to themselves or to the slaves escaping; while, upon the other hand, I see and feel assured that those open declarations are a positive evil to the slaves remaining, who are seeking to escape. They do nothing towards enlightening the slave, whilst they do much towards enlightening the master. They stimulate him to greater watchfulness, and enhance his power to capture his slave. We owe something to the slave south of the line as well as those north of it; and in aiding the latter on their way to freedom, we should be careful to do nothing which would likely hinder the former from escaping slavery. I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave. I would leave him to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors, ever ready to snatch from his infernal grasp his trembling prey. Let him be left to feel his way in the dark; let darkness commensurate with his crime hover over him; and let him feel that at every step he takes, in pursuit of the flying bondman, he is running the frightful risk of hiving his hot brains dashed out by an invisible agency. Let us rend the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints on our flying brother.”
I wonder if it’s better to start extending a hand to those who may be of real substantial help in the future…hackers, electrical engineers, surveillance experts, veterans, etc. Just a thought.
Ok, bottom line, you admire the gesture, but strongly disagree, and are likening Jensen-Keith as the enemy? That I am running to? First, I strongly disagree with many positions, but agree with many, that makes for an interesting and possibly productive debate. How else can we influence those who pose obstacles to alliance unless we attempt at least one talk? Nothing compromising about this, we happen to be in some kind of dialogue with their supporters here, so why not? Second, I don’t expect the offer to be accepted, so it seems a moot point. I would be delighted to have the alternative group on our side, but that seems like a clandestine alliance, no, and not exactly a public forum. I would just like to dialogue with some influential proponents of the left, and the point is to find those who disagree, not agree, but provide some common ground to maybe reach some understanding. I’d rather than than more anti-vegan propaganda spread around, and tarnishing the entire AR movement with the same liberal lifestyle brush. You make it sound like I am trying to talk to agribusiness executives, not fellow revolutionaries, whatever the flaws in their positions or antipathies to veganism. We need to talk to all kinds of people,, Jensen and Keith are just two, and there are many other types, including the folks you mention, and I invite you to recruit some to our side indeed.
Whoops. I apologize for not being clear – I believe this is a misunderstanding. I was obviously being far too ambiguous in what I wrote.
I wrote:
“I would also understand if someone distrusted making an alliance with another person who ran to the enemy for help, especially when that other person has been outspoken in telling people for years not to trust the enemy and that it’s our duty to subvert the enemy.”
That “someone” was referring to you. The “Another person” or “other person” I was referring to was Jensen. He ran to the FBI (the enemy) for help. This he did after years of books and lectures and whatnot calling people to subvert the enemy. I won’t go further into it here.
The funny thing is, after I thought about it, that “other person” profile also fits Keith, since she ran to the enemy for funding.
I was trying to say that if you (or any other vegan/animal rightist/liberationist) were to find it disagreeable to extend a hand to people of this sort, it would be entirely understandable. There are people in Jensen’s own movement who are put off by his hypocritical actions.
And yes, if, regardless, you extend your hand to them, I genuinely find it to be admirable/magnanimous that you can overlook these things, as others may have serious difficulty doing so. I have sympathy for both sides of the issue.
I wasn’t attacking/criticizing you. I’m sorry you thought so.
It’s most likely my fault; I’ve heard the news about Whitney at 5 am, and it was downhill from there, I’m exhausted and not thinking very clearly today; since I had never heard the allegations against DJ, it didn’t make sense to me. The only I know who cries to the cops like a baby is Francione. Thanks for the clarification, no hay problema,
I take full responsibility – what I wrote was not even remotely clear. I guess I was hesitant to directly bring up Jensen’s trip to the FBI, thinking that maybe it would open a whole new can of worms, esp. with someone coming over from Jensen’s forum with intentions to nitpick what is written here in this post.
Unfortunately, these are no “allegations,” since Jensen himself fully admits he went to the FBI. He was receiving death threats and approached the FBI voluntarily, from what I know. He explains that he did it for ligation reasons (in case he has to defend himself, he will be able to more easily fight his case in court, or something to that effect).
Deep Green Resistance, Death threats and the Police
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/audio/deep-green-resistance-death-threats-and-police/8014
Some of the criticism written in the comments section really hit the nail on the head.
I just find it really creepy that someone who has for all these years pushed others to fight the state actually ran to it for help (for any reason). Maybe I am being too harsh.
Your Francione comment made me laugh out loud. It would never surprise me that HE (Francione) would run to the authorities (he gives a good fluffy talk about non-hierarchy, but he’s a capitalist at heart, whether he likes to believe it or not – he is a bit confused when it comes to economics). On the other hand, Jensen running to the FBI did surprise me.
I’m so very sorry about Whitney.
Your poem… I, too, oftentimes fantasize about Earth returning to a thriving state sans human animals. What’s worse, the reality is that even if we humans were all wiped from the planet today, it would still take thousands of years for much of the Earth to return to the condition of its former health as a result of our rapacious ways (e.g., the ocean). I have little hope (maybe none) that humans will get a clue that we are simply one animal among so many, and that this planet is really theirs, not ours, and that their bodies are theirs, not ours to do whatever horrible things to them as we wish.
I didn’t hear about the DJ incident, but I can tell you, Francione alleged (never a shred of proof and of course a blatant lie) I made death threats against him, and named 5 other people allegedly involved or in conspiracy with me (they were all devout (then ex) supporters of his! Them, as if not bad enough, he turned outright McCarthyite and accused me of being the “leader” (!) of the ALF (a globally decentralized network), AND said I involved my students in illegal raids and sabotage (“OK class, you can do ten years if caught, but i will give you extra credit!”). Scandalous. The first story is on Will Potter’s blog archives, and the second should be somewhere online. I then exposed this “anti-capitalist” as a multi-millionaire who owed the government one year 33 million dollars in unpaid taxes, which means he cleared about 100 million in just one year; that led him to red flag an urgent letter to me at my school address (to catch the administration surveillance monitors), saying “as a colleague [!] he felt the duty to warn me a student had called him [why him? and not the school EEOC office!!] to complain about sexual harassment charges.”!! How low, what scum, what a fraud and hypocrite; thank God he crawled back under the rock beneath his mansion for his shrill fascist voice is hardly heard anymore. As I maintain, if he is not on the FBI payroll, he ought to be paid for doing their work for them. I have it all documented, it’s irrefutable,
Haven’t heard much from Master Francione or his five devoted underlings on the internet for some time now. But I just assumed that had to do with everyone dutifully migrating over to Facebook, of which I am not a part. Perhaps he’s afraid to show his face to the 99% (esp. after you outed him – job well done!🙂. If he’s not plugging his propaganda anymore, so much the better for everyone.
No, it’s more than that, for they had colonized FB for a year or so as well; I believe the troubles began when Herr Francione could not stop himself and began banning more and more people from his pages and cult forum for ever smaller transgressions. The Church of Vegan Abolitionism imploded from within, with more and more people turning against him, until, I do suspect, the only brain-dead bloggers still pushing the party line and supporting him unqualifiedly are funded by his multi-million bankroll. He even broke with his closest and most loyal ally, Roger Yates. At the same time, I had opened up a new political and radical form of veganism and abolitionism (I prefer the term “total liberationism,” as he has irreparably ruined the term “abolitionism” (to me lifestyle, single-issue veganism) and co-opted and domesticated the dynamic and pluralistic 19th century abolitionist tradition in the US. The stultifying hegemony of Franciombes seems to have cracked into a plurality of abolitionisms now, and only the hard-core and addicted Kool-Aid drinkers in need of Absolute Truth and a Leader continue to follow, defend, and parrot him. I hope he has abandoned his effort to lead a Jim Jones camp, perhaps he needed to go to Guyana, and, mercifully, his pompous, shrill, narcotizing, depoliticizing, bourgeois, hypocritical, uber-aggressive “Jainist” voice seems to have faded into oblivion. May it forever remain so. Unfortunately, the cult of lifestyle veganism , whose response to every daunting planetary social, psychological, moral, political, economic, and ecological problem is “Go Vegan!” is alive and well, carrying on without a Fuhrer, but not without a guiding and unifying dogma.
wow! I missed out on all the fun! Maybe I should have opened a facebook account after all, ha ha! I would have made myself a big bowl of popcorn and really enjoyed that show. I can’t believe the sacred unit fractured from within. Et tu Roger? That’s the most surprising of all.
Well, thank you for informing me of this. It’s the best news I’ve heard in a while. Evil tho it may seem, I feel strangely gleeful knowing things finally backfired on the Master.
With even darker days ahead, lifestyle veganism won’t be able to keep the momentum. Super congress decisions will only be the next step of many that will push Mordor into further darkness. When Daiya is no longer found on the grocery shelves, it will surely be a dark day for the lifestyle vegans, Oh the Humanity. I read today that a town in Minnesota is hiring private security in lieu of police in order to cut costs. Blackwater type thugs will be ruling our communities eventually, with an assortment of drones watching our every move. If Occupy Wall St thinks the pigs are awful, wait till they get a load of the mercenaries (considered part of the military’s “total force”). People are oblivious. And the real media black out has already begun – the people just don’t know it.
The elite’s slogan: The world is privatized. If we want it.
Despite the psychic toll on me, it was well worth the effort to help bring down this Stalinist statue erected over Park Total Liberation. Nice piece here about waking up to the depth of our problem, democratization without massive reductions in population and consumption, and without promoting veganism and anti-specialism, arguably will worsen the problem in democratizing access to resources and modernizing more millions or billions of people., but then again, it does allow us to dislodge the corporate hegemony and make rational decisions: http://www.countercurrents.org/murray141111.htm
I just unwittingly insulted pigs by using the term to refer to cops. Last time.
Without question, go to the nearest farm sanctuary and apologize.
Yes, good article on scarcity. Thank you for posting it.
I agree with the author. And tho not many Americans understand the implications of Peak Everything (including the Transition Town folks, ironically), I do believe the elite do. By elite I mean the Rockefellers et al. Nobody attains that much power/wealth by being ignorant of the future. And they are prepared to grab the few last cookies out of the cookie jar. I’m less worried about the good people fighting over the last cookies as I am about the elite coming in and taking them by force. What good is a nice little egalitarian, peaceful, democratic, self sufficient community (like a supposed Transition Town) if the elite-hired mercenaries storm in and take all the town has got by force? If they take control of the last accessible water sources? If they force you stop growing your own food? If they enforce laws that tell you can’t use your own herbal medicine? If they take control of the last decent top soil? There is a reason for land grabs in Africa and South America – countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel and others can no longer grow their own food, so they take land from others to grow food for themselves. It will happen here in the U.S. eventually. Gates knows what he’s doing by setting up a massive seed vault in Norway (Norway!). Trust me, those seeds aren’t being saved for you and me.
There is a race on between countries to attain the last of the oil. It’s happening in the arctic as the ice there melts. And keep a watch on the China Seas – if true war (not occupation) breaks out anywhere next, good chance it will be there, on the water that covers deposits of oil and gas. We aren’t setting up bases there to watch China. It’s to move in on the oil/gas. Energy is everything.
When oil becomes truly scarce here in the U.S., guess who will attempt and no doubt attain and use the last of the oil for their own purposes? The elite maybe? Bingo. There is also peak natural gas that’s happening quick too. Guess who will have the heated homes? And light at night? Poor neighborhoods will suffer first. First the streetlamps at night will go out permenantly, and then energy will be redirected to those homes deemed important. These things won’t happen overnight. Probably in increments, so as the people barely know what’s happening to them at first (they’ll no doubt be told to conserve, conserve, conserve). And it won’t happen without an intense police/surveillance state happening beforehand, while the elite still have the energy to sustain it. And privatization of energy facilities, water, etc. is already a pre-empted move to control what’s starting to dwindle. By the way, at any time, our president can legally announce the nation in an emergency state for whatever reason he deems is an “emergency,” such as a “financial emergency,” and he gets to play dictator after that. If I saw it happen in Michigan, I know it can happen nationwide.
The show Jericho gives a little bit of an idea of what might happen when shit really hits the fan. When energy is no longer available. When adjacent towns start fighting over the last available resources. And when the military and mercenaries step in to take over. And what it might take for the townspeople to overcome this.
But like the author said, no one wants to hear this. The worst of it? No side gives a shit about the animals. Not the elite. Not the townsfolk, who still want their steak, chickens, eggs, wool, leather, etc. And yeah, no doubt they’ll fight over THAT.
But “YAY for vegan victories!” right?
Me? I dig that 60,000 fish were freed last month. I’m still smiling over it.
Here’s even more good news:
“Militant Forces Against Huntingdon Strike Twice in Sweden”
http://www.negotiationisover.net/2011/11/17/militant-forces-against-huntingdon-strike-twice-in-sweden/
Do you suppose Occupy Wall St. will ever support similar efforts here in the U.S.?
(ps – Kalle Lasn from Adbusters – the elite-funded magazine that kick started OWS – has now decided that OWS is over and the protesters might as well go home:
“But what’s next, now that winter is on its way and mayors in New York and Oakland, two of the movement’s epicenters, have sent riot squads to shut down the camps in their cities? Lasn told me during the same interview that perhaps the occupation as we know it was coming to an end. ‘Some heroic people will hang in there and sleep in the snow and inspire us all with their guts,’ he predicted, ‘but by and large I think this movement is kind of peaking now and probably moving into its second phase, where people will go home and initiate myriad projects of all kinds.’
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/16/occupy-wall-street-2/?iid=SF_F_LN
Right. Beyond that…I have no comment.)
What traitorous, opportunist, cowardly, reactionary crap! Self-fulfilling prophecy time lady? I think this has more legs than she admits, let’s hope so and that today’s fascist crackdown will only kick this up even higher.
Tho “she” is a “he,” I agree with your sentiments. Let the people wake up even further, evolve, and break beyond the barriers of the tight parameters established by those who started it and who would see it end when they think it prudent.
Am I the only person that sees Jensen as completely wrong? I am not discussing the condition of the environment it is in a horrible state that is not in dispute.
What I dispute is his explantion of the nature of civilisation and cities. According to Jensen importation of goods is because that resource is nolonger available in that area. That assertion is simply not true – goods being imported may have NEVER been available in that area. The local people may not have the technology to produce a certain good. His assertion also over looks the nature or trade. Trade is not inherently evil – an exchange of foreign goods can be a great thing for both parties. Cities have been created for a variety of reasons that are natural – they have grown up where there is a natural confluence of resources and transportation or perhaps for reasons of protection. Once his premise on civilisation is disproven and it is very very weak his whole argument falls apart.
There is no proof to back up the premise that large groups of people living together is inherently destructive.
Saying something with passion and vigour does not make it true. Calling me a series of names does not make it true. Proof makes something true. I am much more inclined to accept Jarod Diamond’s arguments than Jensen’s.