"If we wish to stop the atrocities, we need merely to step away from the isolation. There is a whole world waiting for us, ready to welcome us home." Derrick Jensen
- Posts filed in Book excerpts
A World of Make-Believe
January 4th, 2015We live in a world of make-believe. Think of it as a little game–the only problem being that the repercussions are real. Bang! Bang! You’re dead–only the other person doesn’t get up. My father, in order to rationalize his behavior, had to live in a world of make-believe. He had to make us believe that […]
Read More... Filed in Book excerpts, EssaysClaims to Virtue
November 30th, 2014It’s not possible to commit deforestation, or any other mass atrocity—mass murder, genocide, mass rape, the pervasive abuse of women or children, institutionalized animal abuse, imprisonment, wage slavery, systematic impoverishment, ecocide—without first convincing yourself and others that what you’re doing is beneficial. You must have, as Dr. Robert Jay Lifton has put it, a “claim […]
Read More... Filed in Book excerpts, EssaysThought To Exist In The Wild
November 1st, 2007Awakening From The Nightmare Of Zoos Excerpt from the book by Derrick Jensen and photographer Karen Tweedy-Holmes THE BEAR TAKES seven steps, her claws clicking on concrete. She dips her head, turns, and walks toward the front of the cage. Another dip, another turn, another three steps. When she gets back to where she started, […]
Read More... Filed in Book excerptsOut of the Ashes: An interview with Judith Herman
May 1st, 1998Violence and its Aftermath A different version of this interview appeared in A Language Older Than Words DJ: What is the relationship between atrocity and silence? JH: Atrocities are actions so horrifying they go beyond words. For people who witness or experience atrocities, there is a kind of silencing that comes from not knowing how […]
Read More... Filed in Book excerpts, Interviews by Derrick Jensen