A Green State of Mind

by Terry Gerych:

Below are some 20 premises of the writer Derrick Jensen, some of whose books I’ve read. I happen to agree pretty much with them. Which brings up the topic line listed as the subject of this post: did we sign up for this? I could make it into a long discussion, but I won’t right now. Right now, it’ll suffice to point out one of Derrick Jensen’s premises listed below, taken from his writing: “our culture, and most people, are insane”. Insane, or maybe just plain stupid, or depraved. The point to be made, if one accepts this premise as I do, is that this can’t be a ‘free’ choice. No one would ‘freely’ choose to be insane, stupid, or depraved. No one chooses to have cancer, to die suddenly, unexpectedly, violently. No one sets out to break another’s heart, or to have their own heart broken. Yet these things happen all the time, to us, and to others. If they haven’t happened to you yet, give it time. Your turn is coming.

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Local businesses are vital in that they create tight interconnections between workers, owners, consumers, taxpayers, and voters. People have a greater ability to control their own economic destiny when working with their neighbors. They can see the cause and effect of economic actions and are able to hold people responsible for their actions.

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In the various movements for ecological, social, and economic justice there is a recurring question as to how participants conduct themselves in order to get the best results for their cause. For protecting the environment there is the issue of reducing material pleasure in order to consume and pollute less. For social justice there is the issue of preserving equality while recognizing difference. For economic justice there is the issue of allowing people to be able to make a living but not to engage in gross conspicuous consumption that is also exploitation. All of these discussions revolve around how to be serious in the movement, and the need to sacrifice for the purported goals. But this debate appears to cover over the possibility of desire to be expressed as a political act, which would in turn rearrange the whole process of being in a movement and the criteria for meeting long-term and short-term goals. Acknowledging desire as pivotal to a new type of political practice, especially a practice outside of the confines of the nation-state and capitalism, requires an introduction of enjoyment as a pleasure in creativity. In other words there must be a politics of joy in order to make the movements have a strong foundation that spans beyond generations. But it must be an enjoyment and joy that is always escaping the limits of simple and safe pleasure.

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