Endgame: Volume 2: Resistance

published	June 1st 2006 by Seven Stories Press
binding	Paperback
isbn	1583227245 (isbn13: 9781583227244)
pages	496
description	Whereas Volume 1 of Endgame presents the problem of civilization, Volume 2 of this pivotal work illustrates our means of resistance. Incens...more [close] Whereas Volume 1 of Endgame presents the problem of civilization, Volume 2 of this pivotal work illustrates our means of resistance. Incensed and hopeful, impassioned and lucid, Endgame leap-frogs the environmental movement's deadlock over our willingness to change our conduct, focusing instead on our ability to adapt to the impending ecological revolution. Derrick Jensen, activist, author, small farmer, teacher, and philosopher, is the author of A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make Believe. A finalist for the 2003 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize whose writing has been described as "breaking and mending the reader's heart," Jensen's speaking engagements in recent years have packed university auditoriums, conferences, and bookstores nationwide. [close]
date added	02-03-07 edit book

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Momma Willy rated it:

05/31/08

bookshelves: environment, non-fiction

Read in May, 2008

Throughout the book I was reminded of Kurt Vonnegut. Both Vonnegut and Jensen use Jewish Holocaust examples to engender fear and illustrate the dangers of complacency. Both use slim facts to support an outrageous plan that feels shockingly plausible. Where Vonnegut uses quirky characters to point out flaws in the dominant paradigm, Jensen is passionate about dams and salmon using that struggle to offer rationale and action for change. While he advocates violence and specifically the use of exp...more Throughout the book I was reminded of Kurt Vonnegut. Both Vonnegut and Jensen use Jewish Holocaust examples to engender fear and illustrate the dangers of complacency. Both use slim facts to support an outrageous plan that feels shockingly plausible. Where Vonnegut uses quirky characters to point out flaws in the dominant paradigm, Jensen is passionate about dams and salmon using that struggle to offer rationale and action for change. While he advocates violence and specifically the use of explosives to blow up dams, he frequently acknowledges his own cowardice to do so.

He advocates a return to the land, without so-called modern conveniences. Throughout the books, I had an underlying question of whether he really advocated this overthrow, or if it was something else in a guise that simply escaped my understanding.

Yet despite the inherent flaws with Jensen’s arguments, his work gets under your skin. Often chastising us for our complacency fueled with consumer comforts, despite incredible environmental degradation, and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Jensen maintains a strange hold on optimism. This makes his brand of hope feel tangible.
“Over the years I have been criticized because I do not suggest models by which people should live. ‘You’re only interested in tearing things down’ some people say ‘not in providing alternatives.’ I do not provide alternatives because there is no need. The alternatives already exist, and they have existed and worked for thousands and tens of thousands of years.” (page 889) Even more optimistically outrageous, is that he thinks the overthrow of civilization will happen in our lifetimes.

Hi Ho (a Vonnegutism meaning to reflect on what you just read and to point out the simplicity of accepting a complex event)

I included this book in my survey of books available on Sustainability because it offers a philosophic approach to the basic idea of how to get from here to there. Here being a place where we are past peak oil to utopia. Reminiscent of the Monkey Wrench gang, he believes a small group of impassioned (and armed) people can bring down the dams, radio towers, and Wal-Marts. He argues against visualizing change as an effective way to attain change, similarly pacifism can’t work because the dominant powers don’t care, if they did we wouldn’t have this mess that we call civilization.

While Jensen draws parallels between an abuse of power in a family and one of governmental scale, he makes this argument so skillfully that again, I felt inspired. Often this type of comparison feels hollow and forced; something about Jensen’s passion again calls the reader to believe and to act. He uses the tradition of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and the picket pin to make this point even more graphic.

“Attached to each dog rope, was a picket-pin, normally used to tether horses. During battle, the pin was driven into the ground as a mark of resolve. Once the pin was driven, the Dog Soldier would remain staked to that piece of ground even to his death. Retreat was no longer an option. The pin could only be removed when everyone was safe or when another Dog Soldier, relived him of his duty.

It is time. I have driven my picket pin. I am staked out, and willing to give in no more.
Where will you drive your own picket stake? Where will you choose to make your stand? Give me a threshold, a specific point at which you will finally stop running, at which you will finally fight back?....What are your gifts and how can you use them in the service of your land base? What can you do? …What are you willing to do?” (page 890)

In the end, I am so grateful for Jensen’s writing. Alternately, very sobering recalling the pacificism of the pre German holocaust. His voice is needed to contrast the paternalistic writing in Natural Capitalism and the ever so hopeful tone of WorldChanging. If there is cataclysmic collapse of civilization I have no doubt Derrick will be sitting near a river looking for tiny fishes swimming against the current, with a big smile on his face.

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Endgame: Volume 2: Resistance

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