THE CULTURE OF MAKE BELIEVE -- by Derrick Jensen
so i'm reading this book. he's exploring racisism, hate, corporations, and all the horrors we humans have visited upon the world and each other and trying to understand them.
anyway, i'm in the chapter entitled Giving Back The Land, where the author (who i like) asks the reader to conduct an experiment. to support his theory that hate and violence just come out when your feelings of entitlement (i deserve this because i am me) are threatened, we are asked to imagine how we would react if we were raised in a slave-owing society and were told to stop. then, if we have trouble imagining how we'd feel (angry, put upon, outraged tending towards violence), he asked us to imagine that we were told that we could never own/work/exploit land again. and, were we to say "but the land isn't ALIVE and dosn't mind being worked" we were told that we have just been raised wrong, we're immoral bigots and hurry up and move out of your house so we can buldoze it. then, the author, just in case we're not really getting it (being a potential apartment dweller and not so tied into land-ownership) the scenario is changed to someone taking away our clothes 'cause they were made in sweatshops, our computers 'cause they give people cancer, our cars 'cause they're exploitive, our meat 'cause it's factory-farmed, our cheap vegetables, our coffee, our chocolate, and everything electrical 'cause the power grids kill things.
Mr. Jensen then asks us if we're mad, upset, outraged at the thought of someone taking these things away from us, against our will, and suceeded at keeping them away from us. and i thought about it. and i thought "but they havn't taken the land from us in that situation so i could feed myself." and i thought, "most of my clothes i made myself". and i thought, "i'm currently not eating meat so if i can figure out how to grow soybeans i'm okay." and i thought and i thought and i realized that the last scenario is exactly what i'v expected my entire life. between nuculear war and the Rapture, the daily news and Sunday School, i always expected to be without anything, everything, and if my knees last i'll have to make my way eating roots and berries. it was interesting. i was sitting there thinking "i'd miss books."
anyway, i'm in the chapter entitled Giving Back The Land, where the author (who i like) asks the reader to conduct an experiment. to support his theory that hate and violence just come out when your feelings of entitlement (i deserve this because i am me) are threatened, we are asked to imagine how we would react if we were raised in a slave-owing society and were told to stop. then, if we have trouble imagining how we'd feel (angry, put upon, outraged tending towards violence), he asked us to imagine that we were told that we could never own/work/exploit land again. and, were we to say "but the land isn't ALIVE and dosn't mind being worked" we were told that we have just been raised wrong, we're immoral bigots and hurry up and move out of your house so we can buldoze it. then, the author, just in case we're not really getting it (being a potential apartment dweller and not so tied into land-ownership) the scenario is changed to someone taking away our clothes 'cause they were made in sweatshops, our computers 'cause they give people cancer, our cars 'cause they're exploitive, our meat 'cause it's factory-farmed, our cheap vegetables, our coffee, our chocolate, and everything electrical 'cause the power grids kill things.
Mr. Jensen then asks us if we're mad, upset, outraged at the thought of someone taking these things away from us, against our will, and suceeded at keeping them away from us. and i thought about it. and i thought "but they havn't taken the land from us in that situation so i could feed myself." and i thought, "most of my clothes i made myself". and i thought, "i'm currently not eating meat so if i can figure out how to grow soybeans i'm okay." and i thought and i thought and i realized that the last scenario is exactly what i'v expected my entire life. between nuculear war and the Rapture, the daily news and Sunday School, i always expected to be without anything, everything, and if my knees last i'll have to make my way eating roots and berries. it was interesting. i was sitting there thinking "i'd miss books."
posted by naudy at 10:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home