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By Root 2384 0

people who say this nearly always have a look on their face that suggests they’re saying something incredibly profound, the possibility of which has never occurred to me. Of course I’ve long since sorted this one out. I despise my father because of his own despicable actions, not because of the actions of the industrial economy. I despise the industrial economy not because of my father but because of the despicable actions of the industrial economy and because of its effects on those I love. They’re entirely separable.

I always respond to this argument: “I could have had the best childhood in the world, and 90 percent of the large fish would still be gone from the oceans. Salmon would still be in trouble. Dioxin would still be in every mother’s breast milk.”

The argument is a transparent attempt to avoid looking at the real issues.

121. Roycroft, 8.

122. Note that I said raise not give birth to. There are already too many industrial humans, and there are plenty of unwanted industrial humans already here who need plenty of love.

Carrying Capacity

123. Catton, vii.

124. Ibid., 39.

125. Ibid., 41.

126. Mumford, City, 38.

127. Ibid., 36.

128. Ibid.

129. Catton, 43.

130. Ibid., 42.

131. Ibid., 43.

132. Ibid., 52.

133. Faust, 81.

134. Neal Hall, personal communication, November 1, 2002.

135. “Population Increases and Democracy,” http://www.eeeee.net/sd03048.htm (accessed September 23, 2002).

136. One could argue, of course, that because the constant importation of resources is necessary to the perpetuation of cities (and their political/historical successors: empires and nation/states), and because those who have fully internalized the values of these ever-expanding cities have come to identify their own survival with the perpetuation of the city/empire—instead of identifying with their survival as human animals within a community that includes both humans and a landbase—all wars of empire are in some twisted sense wars of self-defense.

137. From the perspective of the activists, this may not be a bad thing: not only do they get job security, but they get to pretend they’re doing something meaningful while not threatening their own identity—or privilege—as civilized.

138. “Witch Hunting and Population Policy,” http://www.geocities.com/iconoclastes.geo/witches.html (accessed September 23, 2002), referencing Krag and Devereux.

139. Genesis 1:28.

140. Pearce, 5.

The Needs of the Natural World

141. Cited in Catton, 93.

142. The night I gave that talk I was suffering a flare-up of Crohn’s disease. After I got home I collapsed and was in bed for months. I took Western medicines. Now, as I put the final editing touches on this book, I am in the midst of another flare-up, this one far worse. I have been sick for five months. At first I tried ignoring the sickness, hoping it would go away on its own. That didn’t work. Then I tried herbs from an extraordinary Chinese herbalist, but they didn’t work either. I tried Western meds. They aren’t helping. Now I am set up to take a high-tech drug in two weeks (twelve-and-a-half days, actually, or, to be more precise, 289 hours, not that I’m counting). It’s supposed to work wonders. My point in mentioning this is that these are not abstract questions. I am fully aware that without these high-technology drugs I would quite possibly die within the next month or two. This disease—a disease of civilization—would probably kill me. I am also aware that the fact that these drugs will probably save my life is not a good enough reason to not take down civilization. Years ago I interviewed someone who had been an anti-civilization philosopher until open heart surgery saved his life. That changed his perspective. Saving my own skin is not a good enough reason to kill the planet. I am also aware that I am taking this high-tech medicine, with all of its attendant costs to the planet, to vivisected animals, and so on. If not taking it would by itself stop the horrors, I would of course not take it. But my not taking this particular medicine will not stop the horrors. I will take it.