So I'm reading Volume II of Derrick Jensen's Endgame at the moment; unfortunately the Blackrose Anarchist Library had only volume II on the shelf when I went to check out books for my New York vacation, so I'm reading II before I read I. That's ok, I love Jensen's writing and everything, but he tends to say similar things over and over again (basically, Jensen says, in a nutshell "Western Civilization is not a sustainable way to live, therefore, we need to end Western Civilization,") so it doesn't matter that I missed all of the first half of the book.
Endgame is, actually, quite different then Jensen's usual fare...it isn't as depressing. Jensen usually lists all the shit that is wrong with the world without talking much about solutions he'd like to see...in that, Endgame is markedly different, because Jensen spells out what he'd like to see happen...he talks for example about how we don't need to send millions and millions of dollar upon dam removal; that all it would really take would be concerned citizens with sledgehammers; (I really like this part of the book, since the trip I just took down the Hudson River...)
So I agree with Jensen's basic premise: Western Civilization certainly is destructive and it is coming down anyway, regardless of wiether concerned people help it fall or not. I think it is coming down way faster then we originally thought it might...lots of people had lots of predictions, I'm not sure anyone would forsee that we'd be in the beginning of the end by 2008; I mean, it seems clear to me at this point that we've reached peak oil, that electric cars and a few windmills thrown quickly up aren't going to save us..that our water siduation, and all the natural disasters we are experiencing, along with crazy food prices and crazy prices in general...well, you get the picture. We've used up our most vital natural resources...we're just starting to see now that we have close to seven billion people that we can't afford to feed and keep warm (whoops!) So anyway, Endgame is an enjoyable read, if you enjoy reading about the end of our Civilization; as I do.
I've also been enjoying walking around this little piece of property my parents own in a little town called Prattsburgh in Upstate New York (well I guess hamlet would be a more accurate description, since approximately 2,000 people live there, including an isolated group of old-order Amish.) I've been picking wild strawberries and currants and blackberries, and talking to the land (as Jensen recommends,) asking it what it wants. I try to picture what I, and what the land, would like it to be like in a 1,000 years. It seems clear that factory cow farms, Natural Gas drills and the local logging industry are not what this landbase wants....these are not sustainable industries, and the land is not happy. The factory cow farm bordering my parent's property is especially distrubing; it keeps growing by leaps and bounds, and whereas it used to be a cow farm with cows grazing and wandering about, you don't see that anymore. Now, you see big long buildings with thousands of cows kept mainly inside these buildings. You would hardly know there where cows there, if you didn't smell the manure and see the bucketloaders of shit coming out of the buildings. My dad worked briefly for this "farmer" years ago; he didn't like his "farming" techniques then, when the cows still at least had some grazing land, I bet he really wouldn't like his techniques now, with the cows standing in a cement/metal building in their own shit all day, just waiting to be milked, like a biological machine. My sister and I took a walk past the so called farm yesterday and I whispered to her "let's let the cows go..." She giggled and whispered back "no they'd come into my yard.." She and her husband are currently renting the house on the land my parents own. I could tell she agrees with me that this is not the right way to keep animals, but she, and I am afraid to do anything about it.
This is what it boils down to on most environmental issues; people know what is right and what is wrong, but collectively, we are afraid to make the moves that need to be made. I bet, deep down inside, the cow farmer himself knows his techniques are not right..but he feels, in order to keep his lifestyle the way it is, that this is the only thing he can do; in essence, he is afraid to make the necessary changes to give cows the life they deserve. I'm a firm believer that very few people are actually evil; I think most of us are just scared to act in the ways that we know are right...I know that is my problem. If I wasn't afraid; dams everywhere would be coming down, cows would be freed, zoos would no longer exist, logging equiptment would be obsolete. My actions are hindered by my fear....I tell myself I am doing what I can by stepping out of civilization as much as possible, that the pyrimid will come down if enough people simply step out of it...but deep down, I know this isn't enough...
Love ya,
Carrot
