Endgame Volume I_ The Problem of Civilization - Derrick Jensen [104]
But really there are just people. None rich. None poor. Except in our minds.
And so people starve.
When I predicted the urban poor might suffer under civilization’s collapse, I may have been falling once again under the spell of the abuser who says we cannot survive without him. When civilization falls, many of those who die—or at least those who starve, which is what we’re talking about right now—will be those who continue to believe what may be the central delusion of this culture, the delusion that there are rich and there are poor, that monetary wealth—and by extension food, and land (which means food)—is held by anything other than social contract and force. If the “poor” do not fall under this spell, and they can convince enough others it’s not immoral to defend themselves from the hired guns of the (formerly) rich, there is a good chance they will survive.
My statement that ownership is merely based on shared social delusion is not entirely accurate. First, we all know that the civilized notion of ownership is in truth based on force: the acquisition and maintenance of the property of the rich is the central motivating factor impelling nearly all state violence. But there’s a deeper point to be made here, having to do with the mixing of one’s body and the soil. When I say that I’m living on Tolowa land, I don’t mean to imply that their ownership of this land is delusional, or even that it is based on social convention. Quite the contrary. They belong to the land, as the land belongs to them. It is still ownership, but not in the way that the civilized mean it. Typically when we the civilized speak of owning something, it means a person has the right to do what he wishes with it, to destroy it if he so pleases. It’s my computer, so if I want to throw it off a cliff, nobody can stop me. But this other type of ownership has to do with responsibilities, and it has to do with the deal we spoke of earlier between predator and prey. If you live on a piece of land—if you own a piece of land—if you consume the flesh that is on that land, you are now responsible for the continuation of that land and its health. You are now responsible for the health of all the various communities who share that land with you. And because members of this community will consume your flesh, too, they will be just as responsible for the continuation and health of your community. At that point you will own the land, and it will own you.
Just as those who wish to dominate and exploit will use any excuse to maintain and expand their control, those who see themselves as victims will find any excuse to maintain their belief they could not survive without their exploiters. I’ve known many women who stay with men who beat them and their children because they do not know how they would otherwise pay the rent. This logic is insane: it is also all-too-common. I’ve known many people who sell their hours to jobs they hate for the same reason. This logic is just as insane, and, if anything, is even more common. I remained in those abusive relationships I mentioned earlier in part because I thought I could do no better. At the time it seemed to make sense: from the outside I now perceive my own insanity.
All of these are stupid reasons to stay in intolerable situations, and in all of the cases I know personally—the abused women, people who hate their jobs, my own ill-chosen relationships—the fears went entirely unrealized when the people had the courage to finally make a move.
How