Discuss: Resistance Resisters

I think it’s not so much a taking down of a death dealing civilization, but more of an overpowering of deadly civilization.

I think that’s why in times of trouble, people are always looking for a messianic figure to funnel a greater power and deliver them from a status quo they find to be oppressive.

The “messiah” is, however, in all of us.  We all know in our hearts when we are corrupting our purity and when we are presenting an example of it to others.

Acting on the awareness of the difference is all it takes to turn the destruction around.  Personal sacrifice - which is to say, sacrificing the known for the unknown - creates rather than destroys.  Good luck, everyone.

Do any of you people even bother to check if this guy is just making it up? Because if you look in the back of his books you will never find a citation of a peer reviewed journal article, you know those things that are the basis of the way that the scientific community publishes its findings.
He only sites newspaper articles and other books by like minded individuals who also don’t site a reputable scientific journal.
Where are the mass balance equations that describe the loss of top soil to eolian process? Where is the data that indicates that we are above carrying capacity? All he does is repeat “it’s so obvious, and if you don’t agree you are in denial”. He offers nothing, brings no data to the discussion. Jensen is an idiot with no understanding of chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, and the scientific method in general. And you all follow behind, so assured that he is right without actually checking for any relevent data.

The Empire had no beginning. When man first pulled himself from the muck he found the Empire waiting. The Empire will know no end. Every time men foolishly destroyed a limb of the Empire, they would grow to become new a branch of it. Even if you burned the Empire to the ground it would not die. Its roots were too deep to reach and too strong to remove. In time it would sprout again in the hearts of those that had burnt it. The Empire is me. The Empire is you. There is no escaping it. The Empire is humanity.

It might be simpler, and less violent, to design a new system before getting rid of the old one.

Perhaps that could be the subject of Derrick’s next article.

On post 234: to me, an argument against the desperate struggle to gain another convenience and gain another moment of mediocre life tangled in a morass of de-gassing plastic needs not the support of data tables and replicable models construed by a systemized thought structure - especially since this structure is the very one from which the argument seeks liberation.

To me, the argument is about naturally refined taste, the sublime qualities of life and their eternal resonance.  Comparing them, to say, a happy meal is pointless.  It’s just a matter of what you like.

However, the problem is not proselytization, but survival for those who find the rapaciousness of life forms concerned with base gratification no matter the consequences.  The problem is that their practices share little or none with other breeds. 

Capping the consequences of the system they practice limits their use to a fair share.

The so-called “mainstream” is neither main nor the only stream and it should not be allowed to engulf the others.

We already have a better system and many of work hard to live within it while still under the “invisible hand” of the Masters of the Universe falso economies.

A better way isn’t some ethereal mystery but, rather a shaking off of the yoke of oppressive corporatocracy.

Simple things are grow your own non GMO food if you can. Wear the clothes you already own instead of making the Gap shareholders richer at the expense of sweatshop labor and unchecked pollution as by product of production. The greenest product is the one you already own.

I am camping this weekend 11 miles from home on the still beautiful California coast. A conscience decision to minimize my gas use and still have a vacation with friends.

The new civility is about sharing, about re-evaluating our needs and the true cost of said needs and a thicker deeper richer enjoyment of life. I leave you with that as I pack up my well worn bed roll and mended clothes and head out with my bicycle in my car to ride up and down the coast this weekend.

I will also take time to remember those who sacrificed and died in the service of their country…right or wrong and know that it is up to me make that in the future patriots don’t die for Exxon, Halliburton or Bechtel.

Happy holiday!  Wouldn’t it be nice if our Rulers used it to declare a moratorium on war?  No way.  That is not even “on the table”.  Ever wonder why?  Read what is below, and see if it rings a bell. If it doesn’t, you may have to wait for some tremendous shock to wake you from a profound cultural trance…

The word “fascist” will probably not be used again to proudly describe a nation-state or program (except by a few die hard fanatics). The reason is not because of the nightmares of the holocaust, but rather because Mussolini and Hitler were defeated. To lose a contest for domination is the ultimate shame for those dedicated to victory and rule at all costs.  So don’t look for swastika arm bands or heil Obama cheers in the white-house or elsewhere.

The heart of the fascist mindset is a total, ruthless pursuit of power and domination.  “Full Spectrum Dominance” as our beloved military so candidly expresses it.  The ultimate goal is to control (enslave) every human being on the planet. The fascist is resolutely masculine and (not so secretly) despises all that is feminine, because to him this equates to weakness, the ultimate sin.  Thus cooperation, compassion, love, spirituality, are only seen having value in serving to manipulate the naive.  A peace parley would be seen as a good opportunity to assassinate one’s enemies.  One’s “allies” are understood to be a temporary expedient until such time as they too must succumb to your domination.
All this is to somewhat flesh out my belief that abuse of power has been from the beginning of the human experiment the fundamental cause of our most serious problems.  By whatever name, this poison pervades the whole gamut of human relationships, and unless processes are engaged to heal it, we will fritter away our time devising ever more elaborate band-aids to cover over the rotten wound at our hearts.

Actually, that’s what Gandhi did: he confronted the English, told them waht they were doing was evil, and informed they had to stop or else… when England scoffed/ignored Gandhi, Gandhi did what needed to be done.  This is what needs to be done in the U.S.  First, we try legal means.  Then we confront them when they bend laws or act unconstitutionally.  Then we warn.  And then we act.  It’s not a matter of winning or losing so much as it is doing what’s right.  Just like during the Vietnam War, young people shouted, “1,2,3,4… we don’t want your Fucking war!”  Sure we were chased by police on horseback who had billy clubs.  Sure some kids got hit.  But we never gave up.  Wave after wave of young people got up, shouting slogans… day and night.  And the war finally ended.  Permits for demonstrating?  Hell no!  We didn’t need a permit according to the Constitution!

“Plowboy” criticizes Derrick for not taking up arms himself right at this moment—a fact which “proves” Jensen is a fake revolutionary. Question for “plowboy”: was Malcolm X a “fake revolutionary” because he preached similar arguments—in favor of actual physical resistance to oppression—but did not take up arms against the power structure? Fuck no. What people like Malcolm were doing then, and what ppl like Jensen are doing now, is to build a radical resistance movement capable of organizing, acting, and winning this struggle. Jensen is not a plowshare activist—no disrespect to them—and he probably doesn’t see any value in doing one illegal action which would land him in prison for the rest of his life to make a “moral statement.” He—like all serious people—wants to win. That’s all that matters. And any movement needs people to organize, speak, write, and deconstruct the myths and lies of the dominant culture. That is what people like Jensen have been doing. And that is what they should, in my view, be doing.

A lot of these comments suggest that many “progressives” and “environmentalists” are beyond redeemable in their strange commitments to the tired, old, and just plain stupid, capitalist-serving, power-serving myths about “personal responsibility” and other dogmatic pacifistic lunacy. As the world burns…