Endgame Volume I_ The Problem of Civilization - Derrick Jensen [185]
This is the typical response of the civilized to any threat to their perceived right to exploit. Recall once again Thomas Jefferson’s explanation of what would happen to those Indians who fought back: “In war, they will kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them.”330 Unfortunately, Indians and their allies have not yet been able to stop the grinding of this machine-culture. Yet they have still received that fury for even trying, and often for merely existing and showing to their exploiters that other ways of being are possible (and desirable).
You really wanna see some hatred? You wanna see some violence? Thwart the civilized. Shut them down. Stop them from destroying the planet.
The civilized will smile as they tear you limb from limb.
THEIR INSANITY WAS PERMANENT
Now, were Columbus and his fellow European exploiters sim- ply “greedy” men whose “ethics” were such as to allow for mass slaughter and genocide? I shall argue that Columbus was a wétiko, that he was mentally ill or insane, the carrier of a terribly contagious psychological disease, the wétiko psychosis. The Native people he described were, on the other hand, sane people with a healthy state of mind. Sanity or healthy normal- ity among humans and other living creatures involves a respect for other forms of life and other individuals, as I have described earlier. I believe that is the way people have lived (and should live).
The wétiko psychosis, and the problems it creates, have inspired many resistance movements and efforts at reform or revolution. Unfortunately, most of these efforts have failed because they have never diagnosed the wétiko as an insane person whose disease is extremely contagious.
Jack D. Forbes 331
WHY CIVILIZATION IS KILLING THE WORLD, TAKE EIGHTEEN. AN ACTUAL conversation that took place in an exercise center near Seattle. Men and women walked on treadmills as they stared at televisions, read books, or looked in mirrors.
One woman said, “I can’t handle my neighbors’ trees. I wish she’d cut them down when the crane comes through. After the last storm a branch came right through my deck.”
Another woman responded, “I know what you mean. Last year no one in my neighborhood wanted to cut their trees. Luckily, when I had the crane come, everyone on our cul-de-sac changed their minds, and we were able to get rid of sixteen of those trees.”
The first: “I still have two trees left. I’m ordering the crane this year. I don’t want one to fall on my house.”
A third woman, an environmentalist, said, “An arborist could thin the branches so the wind will go through them and the tree won’t fall.”
The first: “If anyone comes out, the tree goes!”
The third: “Wow. I was just thinking about all the things trees do for us. They exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. They provide homes for animals, who are fun to watch. They—”
A fourth woman interrupted: “Trees are a mess. You know, the manager here had fourteen taken out of her yard when she moved in so she could have some light. And my neighbor has this stupid 150-year-old tree that just has to go. Its roots are pushing up our three-thousand-dollar shed. No tree is worth that.”
First woman: “I’ll replant anyway. Just not with some ugly evergreen. Maybe a dwarf tree.”
I have to admit it discourages me that at this late date we still have to fend off this argument that we must not tell the truth for fear we will frighten