Jan/Feb 2007 issue #60 of Hope Dance: Radical Solutions Inspiring Hope
(hopedance.org)
Endgame Vol I: The Problem of Civilization
Endgame Vol II: Resistance
By Derrick Jensen (Seven Stories Press)
`The world will be saved, if it can be, only by the unsubmissive.’
-André Gide, as quoted in Endgame
In "Endgame," Derrick Jensen describes how the End Times may very well
occur on earth as a consequence of excessive appropriation,
extraction, misuse and damage upon life, land and the ecosystem. As
oil companies justify exhausting our natural resources by touting the
resilience of Mother Earth as `a tough old gal,’ the discerning, such
as Jensen, recognize that resource depletion is irreversible. In this
book, the environmental activist, teacher, farmer and author of the
acclaimed "A Language Older than Words" and "The Culture of Make
Believe" urgently calls upon people of conscience to dismantle
industrialized civilization-and eradicate an inequitable, toxic and
unsustainable society until now maintained by violence, hypocrisy,
occupation, and exploitation -if we are to avert what some say is the
inevitable Apocalypse.
Conjuring vivid imagery with passionate prose, Jensen gives us a
glimpse of what is at stake when governmental and corporate entities
behave no differently than sociopaths. Jensen (who himself survived
brutality and rape at the hands of his father) adroitly draws
connections between marauders, tyrannical regimes and domestic
abusers. We must hold abusers accountable-whether for ravaging the
environment or humanity. Since those who render assaults upon
civilization will likely not reform voluntarily, Jensen proposes that
we use any means at our disposal to confront those who are `destroying
the natural world, eliminating indigenous cultures, exploiting the
poor, and killing those who resist.’ In response to pacifists who
maintain that violence doesn’t accomplish anything, Jensen points to
interlopers who have profited handsomely to demonstrate the
indisputable gains that violence engenders. He advocates that the
concerned, powerless, outraged or ill-treated among us fight fire with
fire when confronting dubious logging companies, dam builders,
slaughterhouses, and arrogant appropriators and wage an armed
struggle, if necessary. As such, "Endgame" has the ability to both
empower and repel survivors of all stripes who have long struggled
with the knowledge that, like the disappearing salmon Jensen tells us
just might not regenerate, some of those who are violated develop the
resilience necessary to fight back, while others never recoverto
acquire a fighter’s attitude.
Endgame is predicated upon 20 distasteful but all-too-true-premises
that humanity lives by, all which give insight into the subjective
justification applied by ruling elites. Would-be Endgame readers
involved in corporate or colonial enterprises likely wouldn’t
recognize themselves in thesepages, but may more readily see
themselves as enlightened educators, pioneers, liberators,
missionaries, capitalists, asylum or fortune seekers, or even
Darwinians. Does the woman who commands that chainsaw-wielding
landscapers destroy trees as old as the hills (because the foliage
compromises the view from her kitchen window) merit having her way
because accepted standards of land ownership give her the authority to
do so? If consumption is regulated and eco-villages instituted before
necessity imposes it, will that erode our constitutional rights? Does
the Holocaust entitle Zionists to perpetrate genocide againstthe
Palestinian people and seize land bases in the name of self-defense
and self-actualization? If we defend the earth from toxic human
influences by eliminating those elements that imperil life and nature
when are we entitled to do so, and in which cases might we ourselves
be committing genocide? Using reasoning, allegory and analogy,
Jensen’s writings elicit moral dilemmas and in so doing, show how our
own truths can be uniquely personal.
Although the sort of resistance the author proposes may be shocking to
the average person, those who have wrestled with the same problems
Jensen has taken on in Endgame will understand the feelings of
desperation that provoke the tormented to rise up to injustice. While
we can surmise that there are security issues that prohibit too much
disclosure in "Endgame," and the author does cite what other activists
have done, Jensen does not spell out where and when violence would be
appropriate or indicated, leaving that up to the reader.
The author also acknowledges that he, justifiably, does not have the
stomach to inflict violence. The question remains whether Jensen can
convince countless wounded others who, with histories and reasons akin
to his own, are just as loath to commit atrocity or destruction.
Jensen opens our minds to different ways of seeing, perceiving,
weighing and considering. His ideas are inspirational, and even
present paradoxes that can avert us from thinking in absolutes. The
author stops short of providing road maps on how to grapple with the
End Times, urging us to consult the myriad ways in which the earth
continuously flourished prior to the Industrial Revolution. Unlike
manuals such as IntheWake.org, "Endgame" is not the resource for those
seeking practical guidance on how the energy descent will occur, or
how to (hopefully) outlive the crash of modern civilization. But if
you are looking for provocative, sentient discussions about how and
why it is our responsibility to preserve planet earth and the marvels
it contains, then "Endgame" is for you.
– Lucine Kasbarian’s ancestors were forcibly driven from Eastern
Anatolia during the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians. She studies and
practices indigenous traditions that face obliteration, and is the
author of "Armenia: A Rugged Land, an Enduring People" (Dillon Press/
Simon & Schuster).
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