Program Information

Derrick Jensen: Bringing Down Civilization

Series:

Subtitle:

We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist

Program Type:

Speech

Featured Speakers/Commentators:

Contributor:

Maria Gilardin Contact Contributor

Date Published:

Jan. 26, 2005, 8:22 a.m.

Summary: Why do we act as we do? What are sane and effective responses to outrageously destructive behavior? If civilization is destroying us and the earth, do we need to bring down civilization?

Credits:

Notes: Derrick Jensen: Bringing Down Civilization
Derrick Jensen wrote in his early book: "Listening to the Land": "We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means--all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity."

And he follows that with a question: "Why do we act as we do? What are sane and effective responses to outrageously destructive behavior? What will it take for us to stop the horrors that characterize our way of being? My work and life revolve around these questions."

When I recorded him in the Oakland, California warehouse of AK Press, he asked that question in a much more pointed way: If civilization is destroying us and the earth, do we need to bring down civilization?

Derrick Jensen lives in Northern California, he teaches creative writing in prison and has written many books, among them
The Culture of Make Believe, A Language Older Than Words, and Listening to the Land.

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