It's no wonder we don't defend the land where we live. We don't live here. We live in television programs and movies and books and with celebrities and in heaven and by rules and laws and abstractions created by people far away and we live anywhere and everywhere except in our particular bodies on this particular land at this particular moment in these particular circumstances.
Derrick JensenWe have been too kind to those who are killing the planet. We have been inexcusably, unforgivably, insanely kind.
Derrick JensenI no longer see Descartes' statement as arbitrary. It is representative of our culture's narcissism. This narcissism leads to a disturbing disrespect for direct experience and a negation of the body.
Derrick JensenThose 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 JensenI am only so beautiful as the character of my relationships, only so rich as I enrich those around me, only so alive as I enliven those I greet.
Derrick JensenI think a lot of us are increasingly recognizing that the dominant culture is killing the planet.
Derrick JensenBut what, precisely, is hope? At a talk I gave last spring, someone asked me to define it. I turned the question back on the audience, and hereโs the definition we all came up with: hope is a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency; it means you are essentially powerless.
Derrick Jensen