A primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of green paper. Derrick Jensen More Quotes by Derrick Jensen More Quotes From Derrick Jensen We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems. Derrick Jensen roles example integrity You can rarely prove something to someone who does not want to see it proven, and even more to the point, you can almost never prove something to someone who has financial or ideological reasons to not see it proven. Derrick Jensen financial doe want Violence, and evil, doesn't always come dressed in black, and it doesn't always look like Charles Manson. Nor does it always come to us as obvious and arrogant[...]. Often it comes to us with the simple plea to be reasonable. Derrick Jensen black simple evil Within this culture wealth is measured by one's ability to consume and destroy. Derrick Jensen ability wealth culture A wonderful thing happens when you give up on hope, which is that you realize you never needed it in the first place. You realize that giving up on hope doesn't kill you, nor did it make you less effective. In fact it made you more effective, because you ceased relying on someone or something else to solve your problems - you ceased hoping your problems somehow get solved, through the magical assistance of God, the Great Mother, the Sierra Club, valiant tree-sitters, brave salmon, or even the Earth itself - and you just began doing what's necessary to solve your problems yourself. Derrick Jensen giving-up hope mother Hope is a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency; it means you are essentially powerless. Derrick Jensen longing agency mean So many indigenous people have said to me that the fundamental difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that even the most open-minded westerners generally view listening to the natural world as a metaphor, as opposed to the way the world really is. Trees and rocks and rivers really do have things to say to us. Derrick Jensen rocks views rivers The stories we are told shape the way we see the world, which shapes the way we experience the world. Derrick Jensen shapes stories world We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls. Derrick Jensen sustainability soul culture Love does not imply pacifism. Derrick Jensen pacifism doe Those in power have made it so we have to pay simply to exist on the planet. We have to pay for a place to sleep, and we have to pay for food. If we don't, people with guns come and force us to pay. That's violent. Derrick Jensen gun sleep people Like the layers of an onion, under the first lie is another, and under that another, and they all make you cry. Derrick Jensen layers onions lying The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human (and nonhuman) impoverishment. Derrick Jensen environmental degradation economy 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. Derrick Jensen mainstream resistance lines Every morning when I awake I ask myself whether I should write or blow up a dam. I tell myself I should keep writing, though I'm not sure that's right Derrick Jensen blow writing morning Forests precede us and deserts dog our heels. Derrick Jensen desert dog forests We have a need for enchantment that is as deep and devoted as our need for food and water. Derrick Jensen enchantment inspiring water a real partnership in which all parties help all others to be more fully themselves Derrick Jensen marriage party real In order to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other, and especially to ourselves. Derrick Jensen order lying way No matter what we call it, poison is still poison, death is still death, and industrial civilization is still causing the greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet. Derrick Jensen mass-extinction matter civilization
