Endgame Volume I_ The Problem of Civilization - Derrick Jensen [181]
In retrospect, that might not have been the most relational thing I could have said.
We had this conversation the same day U.S.-backed troops massacred the MRTA members who had taken over the Japanese ambassador’s house in Peru. I said to her, “If the MRTA members are going to give their lives, the least I can do is tell the truth. You’re fired.”
Her request—that I tone things down to not offend fence-sitters—is the non-battle-cry of cowards everywhere: Too scared even to say that they themselves are frightened, they resort to telling others—for their own good, of course—to tone down their words or actions so some mythical third party won’t be affronted or frightened. You must never blow up a dam, they tell us, or mainstream Americans will consider all environmentalists terrorists. You will actually hurt the cause of salmon. Likewise, You must never demand an end to old-growth logging (or even think about stopping industrial forestry), or you will alienate potential political allies. And, You must never speak out against capitalism (industrialism, utilitarianism, Christianity, science, civilization, and so on) or no one will take you seriously.
It’s not always cowards who say such lines. Sometimes it’s people who for whatever reason fail to grasp the insatiability and utter implacability of the dominant culture’s death urge. There were (and are) Indians—many of them—who pleaded with their relations to not upset the civilized: if only we all go along with this latest of the ever-shifting demands of the civilized, the logic went (and goes), we will finally be left somewhat alone on the remnants of our land. And there were Jews—many of them—who fell into the trap Nazis laid, baited with false hopes. If only we are reasonable, the logic once again goes, they, too, will be reasonable. If only we show ourselves to be good and worthy Germans—in some cases even good and worthy Nazis—the mass of good Germans will speak and act to protect us from harm.
What a load of horseshit.
It’s easier to see this sad gullibility in retrospect than in the present, isn’t it? It always is.
I think it’s just as much a mistake to count on help from the mass of good Americans as it was from the mass of good Germans. Some will certainly help, but I don’t think there will ever be a mass awakening, where suddenly the majority, or even significant minority, of people do what is best for their landbase.
When I lived in Spokane, I had a friend with whom I would get together for dinner once a month or so. Sometimes we’d go to the symphony, sometimes to pick up trash by the side of a road. And we’d talk. Given what you know about me from my books you can probably guess that I often found myself itching to talk about taking down civilization. That’s not an itch I generally leave unscratched. But I was delicate, because nice as this person was, and as dedicated to cleaning up roadside trash, he was definitely what my former agent would have called a fence-sitter. When I’d get too explicit about the need to take down civilization he’d too-quickly make a joke, or get distracted, or suddenly remember something important he had to tell me on some other subject—any other subject—or he would get angry at me about something that didn’t actually make him angry. So I learned to keep it light, to only hint, to make smaller and smaller talk while the world burned.
Fast-forward a decade to my last week before I left Spokane. He called me on the telephone. I could tell he was both excited and agitated.
He said, “I did it. I made the plunge.”
“What did you do?” I thought maybe he was getting married, though so far as I knew he wasn’t dating anyone.
He said, “I wrote a twenty dollar check to a local environmental organization.”
I told him, sincerely, that I was happy for him.323
The seventeenth premise of this book—and this is sort of a combination of the second premise, that this culture will not undergo a voluntary transformation,