Derrick Jensen
"Rethinking Civilization"
Friday, May 02, 2003, 12:30 PM
Derrick Jensen is a longtime activist and the author of The Culture
of Make Believe, A Language Older than Words, Walking on
Water, Listening to the Land: Conversations about Nature, Culture,
and Eros, and Railroads and Clearcuts. He writes for The New
York Times Magazine, Audubon, and The Sun Magazine, among
many others. Derrick Jensen's formal education includes a B.S. in Mineral
Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.F.A. in
Creative Writing from Eastern Washington Univerity.LECTURE SUMMARY
Derrick Jensen gave what may have been the most unconventional talk in the four years of the Environment Matters Lecture Series. The response from those attending was also singular. Three out of four people loved the talk, and one out of four hated it. There was no middle ground.
Many people found Jensen's style disorganized and undisciplined. What they may not have known is that Jensen's presentation, far from being an off-the-cuff haphazard stream of consciousness, is actually a carefully choreographed performance. Its nonlinear style, jumping from one subject to another is actually a statement: this subject material is connected in a web, not in a line. Jensen's presentation is hypertext.
Unlike many speakers, (and this summary) Jensen does not use euphemisms for murder, rape and genocide. Instead he graphically describes the violent, ugly side of human nature, and connects it to human violence against nature.
More than one attendee asked, "did he have to use such awful language that was so denigrating, especially to women?" To which Derrick would respond, ""Well, that's exactly the point. Our culture uses that language every day, with reference to women and entire people. Somehow its OK to spell out 'fuck Iraq' on an aircraft carrier, as a prelude to killing tens of thousands of people, but it is offensive to use that same word in a person-to-person situation, like a lecture, to unmask its objectification of individuals, social groups, and nations (see "Freedom Fries")".
Jensen's jarring, profane, angry presentation ultimately focuses on objectification as the key problem with our culture. We objectify each other, which allows incredible acts of violence, and more subtle modes of discrimination and exploitation. And we objectify nature, with the same results: our culture has violently exploited nature. It's easy to do when you don't enter into a personal relationship with the exploited.
Jensen asked the audience, "How many of you have talked with animals?" At first, a few people raised their hands. But when Jensen asked, "How about pets, for example?" Nearly everyone's hand went up. So we can communicate with nature. We can treat non-humans personally. Later he asked the audience, "How many of you think we're going to undergo a voluntary transition to a just, sustainable world in the near future?" He was met with laughter. He said that this is the typical response. At a previous lecture, one member did raise his hand, looked around and saw he was alone in his optimism, thought about the question again and then lowered his hand, saying "Oh, "voluntary" I didn't hear the part about voluntary."
So Jensen finally came to this: "We're fucked."
This isn't really a satisfactory position, but in Jensen's opinion, it's realistic. He maintains that false hope, and the happy talk it engenders, is far more dangerous. Jensen defines hope as wishing for a future over which you have no agency (e.g., hoping your plane doesn't crash). Still, how does one move forward with such a dismal outlook? Jensen balances "We're fucked," with "Life is really, really good."
It's a matter of scale. On a big scale we have some huge problems, but on a small scale, a personal scale, life can be wonderful. We have to fight for the "really, really good" of the personal, against these big problems. For Jensen, this means ensuring that the coho salmon that swim up Elk Creek in his back yard will have a home year after year. He doesn't hope for this. He will do whatever it takes to ensure this.
