nothing to see here

do something.

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:12:45 GMT

www.commondreams.org
50 Simple Ways to Get Off
If you're in love with the world, fall in love with trying to save it

by Derrick Jensen

Years ago I was interviewed by a dogmatic pacifist (note to self: bad idea), who in his (grossly inaccurate) write-up said he thought I wanted all activists to think like assassins. That's not true. What I want is for us to think like members of a serious resistance movement.

What does that look like? Well, to start, it doesn't have to mean handling guns. Even when the IRA was at its strongest, only 2 percent of its members ever picked up weapons. The same is true for the Underground Railroad; Harriet Tubman and others carried guns, but Quakers and other pacifists who ran safe houses were also crucial to that work. What they all held in common was a commitment to their cause, and a willingness to work together in the resistance.

A serious resistance movement also means a commitment to winning, which means figuring out what "winning" means to you. For me, winning means living in a world with more wild salmon every year than the year before, more migratory songbirds, more amphibians, more large fish in the oceans, and for that matter oceans not being murdered. It means less dioxin in every mother's breast milk. It means living in a world where there are fewer dams each year than the year before. More native forests. More wild wetlands. It means living in a world not being ravaged by the industrial economy. And I'll do whatever it takes to get there (and if, by the way, you believe that "whatever it takes" is code language for violence, you're revealing nothing more than your own belief that nonviolence is ineffective).

That's fine, Derrick, but what do you want me to do?

Part of me wants to tell you to bring down the industrial infrastructure, the engine driving the destruction of the planet, converting so-called raw materials-read: living beings, biomes, and indeed the world-into products for sale. But there's also a part of me that doesn't want to suggest that, because I'm guessing you wouldn't do it anyway. And besides, I don't know you, and no one who doesn't know you should ever tell you what to do (and if they do, you shouldn't listen). In any case, ignoring what I have to say may not be such a bad idea, since what I really want is for people to think for themselves-not to bring down the industrial infrastructure because I tell them it's killing the world, but rather for them to deeply attend to our current crises and come to their own conclusions about what we must or must not do, what we must unmake and what we must make anew.

But, Derrick, what do you want me to do right now?

Okay, here's a list:

A lot of the indigenous people with whom I've worked have said to me that the first and most important thing any of us needs to do is decolonize our hearts and minds. Decolonization is the process of breaking your identity with and loyalty to this culture-industrial capitalism specifically, and more broadly civilization-and remembering your identification with and loyalty to the real physical world, including the land where you live. It means re-examining premises and stories this culture handed down to you. It means seeing the harm this culture does to other cultures, and to the planet. It means recognizing that we are living on stolen land. It means recognizing that the luxuries of this way of life do not come free, but rather are paid for by other humans, by nonhumans, by the whole world. It means recognizing that we do not live in a functioning democracy, but rather in a corporate plutocracy, a government by, for, and of corporations. Decolonization means recognizing that neither technological progress nor increased GNP is good for the planet. It means recognizing that this culture is not good for the planet. Decolonization means internalizing the implications of the fact that this culture is killing the planet. It means determining that we will stop this culture from doing that. It means determining that we will not fail.

And this is just the absolute beginning of decolonizing. It is internal work that doesn't accomplish anything in the real world, but it makes all further steps more likely, more feasible, and in many ways more strictly technical.

Next, ask yourself what are the largest, most pressing problems you can help to solve using the gifts that are unique to you in all the universe. People sometimes ask why I write instead of blowing up dams, to which I reply that my only D in college was in quantitative analysis chemistry lab, meaning you don't want me anywhere near explosives. Some people have said I should be an organizer instead of a writer. These people have never seen my work space; if I can't keep track of my pens, how would I possibly keep track of anything more complex? Likewise, I've filed dozens of timber sale appeals, but it was a very laborious process for me; it took me twelve hours to do what others could do in two. And I write terrible press releases. I can, however, write books. Harness your gifts, and put them in the service of your landbase.

My third suggestion is to ask yourself: what do I get off on? One reason I don't burn out as an activist is that I love what I'm doing. I was out one day with a wetlands specialist. We were trying to stop a developer from ruining a forest. The specialist dug into the soil, rubbed some between his fingers, and compared the color to a chart, which would help him determine if these were wetlands. I asked, "Do you get off on this?" He laughed and said digging in dirt was his second favorite thing to do after playing with his dogs. I laughed too and said I wouldn't like to do that work. I, on the other hand, have condemned myself to a life of homework: I get off on trying to figure out, for example, the relationship between perceived entitlement, exploitation, and atrocity.

My next suggestion is to make protecting the land where you live-and by extension the rest of the natural world, since protecting the land where you live will be insufficient to protect anadromous fish, migratory songbirds, or anyone in a world being burned alive by global climate change-the most important thing in your life. That may sound drastic, but we're talking about life on the planet here. There can be nothing more important than this.

So, Derrick, what exactly do you want us to do?

I want you to make the time to find what or whom you love-whether it's salmon, sturgeon, a patch of forest, survivors of domestic violence, your own indigenous tradition, migratory songbirds, coral reefs, or Appalachian mountaintops-and I want you to dig in and defend your beloved with your life, and, if necessary, with your death. I want for your actions to positively contribute to the health and defense of the planet. I want for you to figure out how to make it so the world-the real, physical world-is a better place because you were born, and because you lived here.

All of this leads to the point, which is, put simply, to do something. Several years ago I was giving a talk to several hundred people about bringing down civilization. The audience was excited. The atmosphere was like a rock concert. I suddenly stopped and asked, "How many of you have ever filed a timber-sale appeal?" Four or five. "How many have worked on a rape crisis hotline?" Ten women. "How many have done indigenous support work?" Three or four. And so on. It's all well and good to talk about the Great Glorious Revolution, but what are you doing right now?

The big dividing line is not and has never been between those who advocate more or less militant forms of resistance, or between mainstream and grassroots activists. The dividing line is between those who do something and those who do nothing.

Do something.

That's what I want you to do. That's what the anadromous fish and the Appalachian mountaintops want you to do too.

in defense of a tree

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:06:20 GMT

among urban super-progresives, it can be trendy to scorn the holiday tree (christmas, solstice, or otherwise. i've known jewish families to have trees...). don't cut down the trees! they say, and they look down on you if you do. much like vegetarians, this is good intent gone awry.

holiday trees are, in my experience, a very green tradition! when we lived in vermont, we knew many farmers who made some extra money by growing several acres of holiday trees. they either sold them cut-your-own style, or to someone who would sell them on a local lot or would drive the trees south to sell. this acreage provided one or two thousand dollars a year for very little effort - one or two thousand dollars that can make the difference between breaking even and going under. farming is extremely intensive work, in exchange for very little money: in every farming family that we know, at least one person has a job off the farm to make ends meet and to provide health insurance (which is otherwise prohibitively expensive). holiday trees are very low maintenance: they don't require fertilizer or pesticides, you don't have to mow them or feed them, pretty much you just plant them and walk away. because the farmer makes money off the trees, you can bet that he replants every one that is cut down. in this way, there is a constant crop of celebration-sized trees ready to harvest. tree lots are generally not fenced, providing easy grazing ground and protection not just for squirrels and rabbits, but even for larger wild animals. and because the land is producing, tree lots give farmers a reason not to subdivide their land and sell to developers.

once the trees get to the city, boy scout troops and churches are often their purveyors, raising funds for projects throughout the year. most towns have composting programs for them. they pickup trees on scheduled times to take to a town composting lot. in some towns, the compost is available for residents to use in their gardens, in other towns, the compost is used by the town in public parks and gardens.

in our family, we have a tradition of fetching (whether we cut it ourselves or buy it from a lot) a tree on solstice day. at night, after dinner, we decorate the tree very simply, with only one string of white lights, and a sparse collection of cranberry strings, some small red glass ornaments, willow wreaths, golden leaves, and glass icicles. finally, we add real candles in holders i brought back from germany. we turn out the house lights and light all the candles on solstice night - after solstice we use the electric lights - and let them burn down while we listen to music.

as i laid on the couch last night, i thought:

ages ago, people lived with the trees
and on solstice they went outside to decorate the trees,
waiting in vigil for the sun.
then we moved into villages, and towns, and cities
and we began to bring the trees into our homes
so that we could remember what it was like to
live with the trees.

an acquaintance wrote the following poem:

"Build an altar,
Adorn it in the finest way,
Believe in it in the greatest way,
Adore it in the deepest way... then
Burn it."

which may be whatever it was in his mind. when i read it, i saw the buddhist teaching of impermanence, and i thought of the tree. in each season - when we follow the seasons - we build our altars: trees in the winter, gardens and grills in the summer, whatever you do in between. so we go to all this trouble to decorate our houses, now to bring a bit of bright into an otherwise dark time of year. maybe we bring out the same decorations year after year, but it's different every year regardless. separated from the land, we retain these traditions still, even if we don't remember why or if we do them only in service to the gods of commerce, and they remind us that we are beings of cycles, that all things change, that nothing lasts forever, and this is good.

please think for yourself.

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:01:12 GMT

i just listened to a phenomenal lecture recorded in 2006 by paul bergner (a seriously kick ass herbalist in colorado). in my practice, i educate people, and i explain to them HOW to think and feel and recognize what is going on in their bodies. i explain that i am NOT a doctor, and i don't give them stuff in a or for their black box. seeing an herbalist requires thought. this lecture reminded me how much deeper that goes, how much i'm only just scraping the surface of critical thinking, how much more i need to do.

it was oh so good.

so then i check in on facebook, something i don't really do that often. and there's a letter from the - whatever they call their guy in charge, and it includes this paragraph:

We've worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone's needs are different. We'll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you're sharing with online.

and i think (again), it's an epidemic! americans can't fucking think!! moo! baa! rote repetition is NOT a substitute for reasoned, critical, open thought.

(that is, apparently, my rant for the night.)

laptop purchasing advice

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:36:38 GMT

i need to buy a laptop, and i need to do it before the end of the year to qualify for some business tax stuff. i can get an educational discount on a mac, so i guess that's the way to go.

anyone have suggestions?

i'm a pretty light user these days - i use microsoft office, and internet apps, i play some music. i print stuff and use a USB, and connect to various wireless networks. i can imagine that i might do some basic photoshop stuff at some point, or run dreamweaver or something.
my only thing is that i'm twitchy: i HATE waiting on applications. so i need something that doesn't lag.

also, if anyone has not-mac (and NOTlinux) -- which i guess means, windows -- laptop suggestions, i'd entertain them. i love love LOVE my thinkpad, the trackpoint was the greatest invention EVER. i will be sad to give that up (but it belongs to my work, so...)

i rarely click your links

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:38:43 GMT

but ryn sent me this one today.
smiley!

http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/bio-diversity/?hp

resolved.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:09:00 GMT

summer 2011.
mongolian horse trek.

(for the record)

yesterday and today

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:56:18 GMT

yesterday a woman literally gave me the shirt off her back, as a gift. she feels gratitude, she feels i have taught her something. i feel like a child next to her.

today my mother wrote to me to say it is the 20th anniversary of the wall coming down, and she was remembering that i was there. i thought, oh, nonono, i'm not ok with that. it's not ok that it was 20 years ago, i have not done things 20 years ago. i am overwhelmingly not ok with 20 years ago. i am not old enough to have lived these things 20 years ago, i am not wise enough yet, i haven't learned.

i think this is a very strange time in my life. maybe that's what the middle of thirty is supposed to be.

oversimplified.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:19:58 GMT

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48605/title/Junk_food_turns_rats_into_addicts

the article mentions that it's the "high-fat" food that makes the rats behave like they're addicted. that's so misleading! good fat is good, all crap is crap. it's the high-CRAP food that makes the rats be addcited. if they were being fed a high-fat diet of good quality fat that was appropriate for a rat, they would not be acting this way.

the study shows some interesting things (though i have issue with harming rats to discover something that didn't require a study to begin with!), but the design flaws and the overgeneralized conclusions they're going to come to invalidate any goodness.

it's not that hard, people! ho-ho's are not food, for rats or for people. end of story.

gah!

opening reception!

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:49:49 GMT

you are cordially invited to my newly renovated office in brookline

for a grand opening reception!

sunday, november 1, 2009
3:00pm - 7:00pm

33a harvard st., suite 200 · brookline, ma 02445
617.750.5274 · katja@katjaswift.com
www.katjaswift.com