Derrick Jensen: Endgame

[G_j]

Derrick Jensen: Endgame

What if you live in the most destructive culture ever to exist? What if that culture refuses to change? What do you do about it? Derrick Jensen: Endgame Part One http://www.endgamethebook.org http://www.derrickjensen.org Derrick Jensen named Press Action Person of the Year for 2006 From the Press Action website http://www.pressaction.com "The recipient of this award was never in doubt. Derrick Jensen's Endgame, released in late spring, was the best work of nonfiction in 2006. Given the significance of its subject matter and the urgency of Jensen's message, Endgame is the most important book of the decade and could stand as the must-read book of our lifetimes. But be careful. The book is likely to send you into periods of despondency over the bleak future of the planet. But Jensen explains that if enough of us stand up and work together to fight the fascists, the crash won't be as devastating. And the long struggle will eventually result in an explosive renewal of all forms of life on the planet.
" From the website http://www.endgamethebook.org: "Having long laid waste our own sanity, and having long forgotten what it feels like to be free, most of us too have no idea what it’s like to live in the real world. Seeing four salmon spawn causes me to burst into tears. I have never seen a river full of fish. I have never seen a sky darkened for days by a single flock of birds. (I have, however, seen skies perpetually darkened by smog.) As with freedom, so too the extraordinary beauty and fecundity of the world itself: It’s hard to love something you’ve never known. It’s hard to convince yourself to fight for something you may not believe has ever existed." --from Endgame, Volume I "Hailed as the philosopher poet of the ecological movement, best-selling author Derrick Jensen returns with a passionate forecast of how industrial civilization, and the persistent and widespread violence it requires, is unsustainable. Jensen's intricate weaving together of history, philosophy, environmentalism, economics, literature and psychology has produced a powerful argument that demands attention in the tradition of such important books as Herbert Marcuse's Eros and Civilization and Brigid Brophy's Black Ship to Hell.
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[BrklynLiberal]

1. I have to buy the book, and then get the courage to read it...

[G_j]

2. have you read any other books of his?

They can be devastating!
I know people who have said they were very much changed after reading him. I tend to agree.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. I have not...but now I feel I must.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. I hate reviews like this.

They not only force me to read the book, but also to go looking for two or three other books I either read or should have, 30 or 40 years ago. Now I not only got Jensen, but for the second time this week I'm being pushed back at Marcuse, whom I have paid scant attention to since my undergrad days in the early 60's. Shit. I suppose my next click on Amazon is gonna be expensive.

[RadicalTexan]

5. I don't like his woo-woo quasi-Native-American spiritual outlook, but I LOVE him

I'm no anarcho-primitivist, but I think he has some GREAT points.

I loved his book "Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution."

[Kitty Herder]

10. "Walking on Water" is amazing.

I also loved A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make-Believe, although I found some of the ideas in them hard to swallow. He lost me with Endgame, however. I still love Derrick Jensen, though, for revolutionizing the way I see the world.

[glitch]

6. Lots of mp3s of his talks at radio4all.net

not for the timid, here's one: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/29483

Thanks for posting, yet another book I need to get.

[G_j]

7. thanks

great find!

[Delphinus]

11. His book, Endgame, was definitely

not for the timid. I only read the first book - couldn't do the second.

Will listen to this sometime this week. Thanks for sharing.

[BeFree]

8. Yeash...

I used to get all po'd and upset over what I was seeing. So I took a close look at those who were not po'd and upset, and what I found was that those folks just ignored the situation.

Well, I had to try ignorance to see how it would work for me... I gotta tell ya, I am hardly ever po'd and upset about the present day and upcoming ecological disasters headed our way.

And then I read articles like this

[Kitty Herder]

9. I loved Derrick's previous books.

They changed how I see the world around me. To realize that the culture one lives in is insane changes everything.

However, I disagree with the methods for changing our culture that he recommends in Endgame. Many, many human lives would be lost if civilization were brought down. That is completely unconscionable. Not only that, I don't think it could be done without also destroying ecosystems.

I even joined Derrick's email list, although I had to lie and say that I did believe in the methods outlined in Endgame in order to do so. I enjoyed discussing his ideas with other people. But I eventually left the discussion group because my conscience wouldn't allow me to stay.