Derrick Jensen at Vets Hall 03-29-06

Recorded by George Cadman
Edited/Uploaded by Skidmark Bob


Derrick Jensen, an American author who lives in Northern California, has published several books which challenge contemporary society and cultural values, including The Culture of Make Believe (2002), and many essays.

Jensen emphasizes the hate, dishonesty, and destructiveness in contemporary industrialized culture. He argues that this culture will soon collapse because of the damage being done to the planet.

Jensen proposes that a different way of life is possible, and it can be seen in many past societies including many Native American cultures. This different way of life is characterized by honesty, appreciation of beauty, and connection with the natural world.

Politically Jensen's work is in favor of a revolution in values, the self, and society. His ideas are often in line with eco-anarchism, anarcho-primitivism and neo-Tribalism.

Common themes in Jensen's work include discussion of his abusive father, the similarity of different forms of oppression in industrial society, the role of lying in maintaining systematic oppression, interspecies communication, and what he sees as the need to bring down civilization.

Related authors include Jack Forbes (Columbus and Other Cannibals), Dave Edwards, Daniel Quinn (Ishmael, The Man Who Grew Young), John Zerzan (Against Civilization: A Reader and Elements of Refusal), Neil Evernden (The Natural Alien), Stanley Diamond (In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization) and Lewis Mumford (Technics and Human Development and The Pentagon of Power).

He has taught creative writing at Pelican Bay State Prison and Eastern Washington University.

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