Jul 09 2009

Derrick Jensen: Personal Change Does Not Equal Political Change

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derrick jensenIf you’re a politically progressive minded person like me, you are conscious of your footprint on the planet. Maybe you drive a hybrid car, carry your own canvas tote bags to the grocery store, have traded plastic disposable water bottles for a reusable metal one. Maybe you shower in 5 minutes or less, patronize your local farmers market, use only energy-efficient light bulbs, and eat organic. Perhaps you grow your own vegetables and compost your scraps. Or even shop exclusively at used clothing stores, and recycle gray water in your yard, hoping that if everyone modified their own behavior, we could save this planet ravaged as it is by green house gases and chemical pollution. That’s the standard mantra of many individuals and groups who quote Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the Change you wish to see in the world.” It’s a comforting thought, but an entirely ineffective way to save the planet according to writer Derrick Jensen. In his new essay Jensen asserts that “[c]onsumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organized political resistance.” Further Jensen makes the provocative claim that “simple living as a political act is suicide.”

GUEST: Derrick Jensen, activist and the author of many books, most recently What We Leave Behind and Songs of the Dead.

Read Derrick Jensen’s article here: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/08

6 responses so far

6 Responses to “Derrick Jensen: Personal Change Does Not Equal Political Change”

  1. Carless Since April '08on 09 Jul 2009 at 4:04 pm

    I disagree. I think that multiple strategies need to be implemented, including lifestyle changes and political resistance. Obviously, individual actions are cumulatively destroying our planet. Somebody’s throwing plastic into our gutters, which are poisoning our seas. I’ve even seen peace activists throw cigarette stubs into the gutter, even when they know that cigarette filters are toxic to sea life.Each of our actions can influence others.(Ralph Nader has called this “the force of example.”) Because I know people who ride bicycles instead of cars, I eventually started doing the same–after a 25-year hiatus from bike-riding. People see me gardening, and they start doing it, too. (“Human see, human do.”)… Personally, I agree with the Zapatista approach to change: in order to create a new world, one must act outside of the existing world. The existing world needs to be made irrelevant. And obviously, our world in its present form cannot continue…. I disagree too about the effectiveness of boycotts. United Fruit became so unpopular that it had to change its name to Chiquita, and Coca~Cola is clearly concerned about its reputation. More stores are selling reusable bags because people are buying them. Vegetarian food is readily available (on a scale unimaginable a generation ago) because of popular demand. … Regarding Jensen’s analogy of people dumpster diving to stop Nazis, I don’t think people dumpster dive with that intent but rather for economical and environmental reasons. Combating ignorance and engaging in civil disobedience are ways to confront oppression…. However, as Jensen pointed out, these individual actions are not going to dismantle the dams which are wreaking wholesale destruction on eco-systems. Neither will they stop the continued developments on wetlands, the “kidneys” of our waterways; or green house emissions from factories; etc., etc. I wish he had left us with concrete examples for undertaking this. I’ve yet to encounter an effective environmental organization here in L.A. There’s too much in-fighting and pettiness. And anyway, most Americans are just sheeple on their way to the slaughterhouse.

  2. Peter Ruheon 10 Jul 2009 at 1:32 am

    I just want to point out that
    “Be the Change you wish to see in the world.” was never said or written by Mahatma Gandhi, see
    http://www.gandhitopia.org/forum/topics/a-gandhi-quote

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