Books & DVDs & CDs

Marijuana: A Love Story

Marijuana legalization—that long-deferred dream of stoners everywhere—is overtaking the nation. No longer will people be imprisoned for decades for possession of a plant. No longer will patients be denied marijuana needed for medical treatment. Even folks who just want to get high will have easy, safe access.

But for many that dream has become a nightmare. Legalization has achieved one thing: the wholesale handover of marijuana to a few large corporations. In state after state, the wealth-building capacity of this extraordinary plant is now concentrating into the control of the already rich. From seed to smoke, legalization is eroding the lives and livelihoods of the people it was supposed to help: the patients, growers, trimmers, “mules,” and activists who created the colorful and committed culture that is now under threat.

We can end the war on weed without turning it into a war on small family growers—but it will depend on how much pressure we are willing to apply to force law makers to serve local communities rather than corporate interests. Marijuana: A Love Story is a report from the front, a reminder of how and why we fell in love with this plant, a cautionary tale of corporate power, and a call to once more “Free the Sacred Herb.”

Bright Green Lies

“Bright Green Lies exposes the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of leading environmental groups and their most prominent cheerleaders. The best known environmentalists, he illustrates, are not in the business of speaking truth, or even holding up rational solutions to blunt the impending ecocide, but a mendacious and self-serving illusion that provides comfort at the expense of reality. They fail to state the obvious. We cannot continue to wallow in hedonistic consumption and industrial expansion and survive as a species. The environmental debate, Jensen argues, is, because of them, distorted by hubris and the childish desire by those in industrialized nations to sustain the unsustainable. All debates about environmental policy needs to begin with honoring and protecting, not the desires of the human species, but the sanctity of the earth itself. We refuse to ask the right questions because these questions expose a stark truth—we cannot continue to live as we are living. To do so is suicidal folly.

‘Tell me how you seek and I will tell you what you are seeking,’ the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said. This is the power of Bright Green Lies. It asks the questions most refuse to ask and in that questioning, that seeking, uncovers profound truths we ignore at our peril.”

—Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of America: The Farewell Tour

Beneath & Beyond

Derrick Jensen & Fiona Corke

Beneath & Beyond all of our beliefs, our social structures
Beneath & Beyond who we believe we are
Beneath & Beyond our questions are answers

… if only we knew how to really listen.

Evoke reflection, conversation and discussion about what’s most important in our relationship to this earth, to our friends and loved ones, and to ourselves. Discover more about ourselves and our place in the world and in the lives of others both human and nonhuman.

Thought to Exist In The Wild & other Essays

Volume 3 of the Voices of Resistance series, by an independent publisher, collects many of Derrick Jensen’s short writings into an original print edition.

Monsters

Monsters is a collection of wild, weird, and whimsical tales with a twist. These stories are not about mythical creatures; here, the creatures speak for themselves. By turns macabre, melancholy, and magical, these stories will leave you wondering who the real monsters are and how they can be defeated.

The Myth of Human Supremacy

In this impassioned polemic, radical environmental philosopher Derrick Jensen debunks the near-universal belief in a hierarchy of nature and the superiority of humans. Vast and underappreciated complexities of nonhuman life are explored in detail—from the cultures of pigs and prairie dogs, to the creative use of tools by elephants and fish, to the acumen of caterpillars and fungi. The paralysis of the scientific establishment on moral and ethical issues is confronted and a radical new framework for assessing the intelligence and sentience of nonhuman life is put forth.

Earth at Risk: Building a Resistance Movement to Save the Planet

The annual conference Earth at Risk: Building a Resistance Movement to Save the Planet features environmental thinkers and activists who are willing to ask the hardest questions about the seriousness of the planet’s situation, and this book presents an impassioned critique of the dominant culture from every angle. Speakers from the conference are featured in this volume and include William Catton, who explains ecological overshoot; Thomas Linzey, who gives a fiery call for community sovereignty; Jane Caputi, who exposes patriarchy’s mythic dismemberment of the goddess; Aric McBay, who discusses historically effective resistance strategies; and Stephanie McMillan, who takes down capitalism. One by one, they build an unassailable case that the rich should be deprived of their ability to steal from the poor and the powerful of their ability to destroy the planet. These speakers offer their ideas on what can be done to build a real resistance movement: one that includes all levels of direct action that can actually match the scale of the problem. Also included are the speakers Derrick Jensen, Arundhati Roy, Rikki Ott, Gail Dines, Waziyatawin, Lierre Keith, and Nora Barrows-Friedman.

A French translation is available: Ecologie en résistance : stratégies pour une terre en péril

A German translation is available: Voices of Resistance Vol.1

The Knitting Circle Rapist Annihilation Squad

The six women of the Knitting Circle meet every week to talk, eat cake, and make fabulous sweaters. Until the night they realize that they’ve all survived rape­ and that not one of their assailants has suffered a single consequence. Enough is enough. The Knitting Circle declares open season on rapists, with no licenses and no bag limits. With needles as their weapons, the revolution begins.

Earth at Risk DVD

Earth at Risk: Building a Resistance Movement to Save the Planet, a conference convened by Derrick Jensen, featured thinkers and activists who are willing to ask the hardest questions about the seriousness of our situation. Each of the people on this DVD presents an impassioned critique of the dominant culture. Together they build an unassailable case that we need to deprive the rich of their ability to steal from the poor, and the powerful of their ability to destroy the planet. They offer their ideas on what can be done to build a real resistance movement–one that can actually match the scale of the problem.

The Derrick Jensen Reader: Writings on Environmental Revolution

In an age marked by seemingly unstoppable environmental collapse and the urgent quest for solutions, environmental philosopher Derrick Jensen, the voice of the growing deep ecology movement, reveals for us new seeds of hope. Here for the first time in The Derrick Jensen Reader are collected generous selections from his prescient, unflinching books on the problem of civilization and the path to true resistance.

Truths Among Us: Conversations on Building a New Culture

From acclaimed author Derrick Jensen comes a prescient, thought-provoking collection of interviews with 10 leading writers, philosophers, teachers, and activists who argue against society’s belief that corporations and governments know what is best for the future, instead choosing to help acknowledge the values we know in our hearts are right—and inspire within us the courage to act on them. Among those who share their wisdom here are acclaimed sociologist Stanley Aronowitz, who shows that science is but one lens for discovering knowledge; Luis Rodriguez, poet and peacemaker, who suggests embracing gang members as people instead of stereotypes; Judith Herman, who offers a deeper understanding of the psychology of abusers; Paul Stamets, who reveals the power of fungi that is often ignored; and writer Richard Drinnon, who reminds us that our spiritual paths need not be narrowed by the limiting mythologies of Western civilization. Reaching toward a common goal of harmony with the world surrounding us all, these diverse voices articulate different yet shared visions of activism.

Dreams

Drawing heavily from his own life experience living alongside the frogs, redwoods, snails, birds and bears of the upper northwest, Jensen challenges the “destructive nihilism” of writers like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris who believe that there is no reality outside what can be measured using the tools of science.

Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet

For years, Derrick Jensen has asked his audiences, “Do you think this culture will undergo a voluntary transformation to a sane and sustainable way of life?” No one ever says yes. Deep Green Resistance starts where the environmental movement leaves off: industrial civilization is incompatible with life.

Mischief in the Forest

Old Mrs. Johnson lives alone in the forest and loves to knit sweaters and mittens for her grandchildren in the city. One day, when returning from a visit to the city, her solitude comes to an end when her mischievous forest neighbors reveal themselves in a delightfully colorful fashion — someone took her yarn. The colorful mystery is solved when the birds, rabbits, snakes, trees, and other dwellers of Mrs. Johnson’s neighborhood are seen playing with the yarn. Suddenly the forest doesn’t seem so lonely, and the visiting grandkids take great delight getting to know its inhabitants. This picture book is a lesson for both young and old to connect with one’s surroundings and embrace the role of good neighbors with the rest of the natural world, whether in the city or in the forest.

Resistance Against Empire

A scathing indictment of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, this collection of interviews gathers incendiary insights from 10 of today’s most experienced and knowledgeable activists. Whether it’s Ramsey Clark describing the long history of military invasion, Alfred McCoy detailing the relationship between CIA activities and the increase in the global heroin trade, Stephen Schwartz reporting the obscene costs of nuclear armaments, or Katharine Albrecht tracing the horrors of the modern surveillance state, this investigation of global governance is sure to inform, engage, and incite readers.

Lives Less Valuable

Putting corporate disregard for ecology on trial, this novel follows Vexcorp, a wealthy corporation counting the lives of others and the health of the environment as expenses on a balance sheet; Malia, an activist who has lost faith in systemic reform; and Dujuan, a street thug torn by grief at his younger sister’s death.

Songs of the Dead

A serial killer stalks the streets of Spokane, acting out a misogynist script from the dark heart of this culture. Across town, a writer named Derrick has spent his life tracking the reasons for the sadism of modern civilization. And through the grim nights, Nika tries to survive the grinding violence of prostitution.

What We Leave Behind

What We Leave Behind is a piercing, impassioned guide to living a truly responsible life on earth. Human waste, once considered a gift to the soil, has become toxic material that has broken the essential cycle of decay and regeneration. But life will not go on without the root of sustainability: one being’s waste must always become another being’s food.

How Shall I Live My Life?: On Liberating the Earth From Civilization

Derrick Jensen discusses the destructive dominant culture with ten people who have devoted their lives to undermining it in this collection of interviews.

Whether it is Carolyn Raffensperger and her radical approach to public health, or Thomas Berry on perceiving the sacred; be it Kathleen Dean Moore reminding us that our bodies are made of mountains, rivers, and sunlight; or Vine Deloria asserting that our dreams tell us more about the world than science ever can, the activists and philosophers interviewed in How Shall I Live My Life? each bravely present a few of the endless forms that resistance can and must take.

Now This War Has Two Sides (Double CD)

Examining the premises of his latest controversial work, Endgame, as well as core elements of his ground breaking book Culture of Make Believe, this two hour lecture and discussion offers both a perfect introduction for newcomers and additional insight for those already familiar with Derrick Jensen’s work.

Whether exposing the ravages of industrial civilization, relaying humorous anecdotes from his life, or bravely presenting a few of the endless forms that resistance can (and must) take, Jensen leaves his audience both engaged and enraged.

As the World Burns: 50 Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial

Two of America’s most talented activists team up to deliver a bold and hilarious satire of modern environmental policy in this fully illustrated graphic novel. The US government gives robot machines from space permission to eat the earth in exchange for bricks of gold. A one-eyed bunny rescues his friends from a corporate animal testing laboratory. And two little girls figure out the secret to saving the world from both of its enemies (and it isn’t by using energy-efficient light bulbs or biodiesel fuel). As the World Burns will inspire you to do whatever it takes to stop ecocide before it’s too late.

Derrick Jensen, activist, author, and philosopher, is the author of Endgame, volumes one and two; A Language Older Than Words; and The Culture of Make Believe (a finalist for the 2003 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize), among other books. Jensen’s writing has been described as “breaking and mending the reader’s heart” (Publishers Weekly).

Activist and artist Stephanie McMillan began syndicating her daring political cartoons in 1999. Since then her work has appeared in dozens of publications and has been exhibited in museums across the country. A book based on her comic strip, Minimum Security, was published in 2005.

Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos

“A zoo is a nightmare taking shape in concrete and steel, iron and glass, moats and electrified fences. It is a nightmare that for its victims has no end save death…” Combining elegant, stunning photos with a deep and probing essay, this book presents a critical look at zoos, the individual animals who live in them, and at ourselves.

Endgame (two volumes)

In Volume I: The Problem of Civilization, Jensen lays out a series of provocative premises, including “Civilization is not and can never be sustainable” and “Love does not imply pacifism.” He vividly imagines an end to technologized, industrialized civilization and a return to agragrian communal life.

If Volume I lays insightful framework for envisioning a sustainable way of life, Volume II: Resistance catapults this discussion into a passionate call for action. Using his premises as guidelines for exploring real-world problems, Jensen guides us toward concrete solutions by focusing on our most primal human desire: to live on a healthy earth overflowing with uncut forests, clean rivers, and thriving oceans that are not under the constant threat of being destroyed.

Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control

Take the humanity, the unpredictable humans, out of the never-ending loop. Move toward a fully automated world. Welcome to the machine.

From biometric passports to identity chips in consumer goods, from nanoparticle weapons to body-enhancing and mind-altering drugs for soldiers, Welcome to the Machine shows how we are all trading our humanity for a place at the consumer table.

Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution

Remember the days of longing for the hands on the classroom clock to move faster? Most of us would say we love to learn, but we hated school. Why is that? What happens to creativity and individuality as we pass through the educational system?

Strangely Like War: The Global Assault on Forests

In this short, hard-hitting expose, the authors detail the activities of an industrial forestry system increasingly globalized, operating outside of any local or even national controls, and now threatening the basic life support systems of the planet itself.

The Culture of Make Believe

What begins as an exploration of the lines of thought and experience that run between the massive lynchings in early twentieth-century America to today’s death squads in South America soon explodes into an examination of the very heart of our civilization. Readers of Jensen’s other work will recognize his deft and startling interweaving of the deeply personal, the political, the historical, and the philosophical, as he attempts to understand the atrocities that characterize so much of our culture.

A Language Older than Words

At once a beautifully poetic memoir and an exploration of the various ways we live in the world, A Language Older than Words explains violence as a pathology that touches every aspect of our lives, and indeed affects all aspects of life on earth. This chronicle of a young man’s drive to transcend domestic abuse offers a challenging look at our worldwide sense of community, and how we can make things better.

Listening to the Land

Listening to the Land is a collection of interviews with environmentalists, feminists, theologians, philosophers, and Indians centering around the question: If the destruction of the natural world isn’t making us happy, why are we doing it?”

Railroads and Clearcuts

Railroads and Clearcuts reveals how the big four timber companies in the Pacific Northwest got their land illegally from the public domain.

CD – The Other Side of Darkness

This new triple CD contains one CD of Derrick’s final Language Older Than Words talk, one CD of his Culture of Make Believe talk, and one of Q and A.

A typical Jensen event is multidimensional and feels a bit like traveling beneath the earth among tree roots, as they twist their way into soil, rock, river beds and accompany fish, insects, discarded tires, cellophane wrappers, animal minds, history, and human instinct on strange and interlocking journey.

Speaking in an almost improvisational style, Jensen explores the nature of injustice, of what civilizations do to the natural world and how, in the face of the resulting horror that is one of the all too apparent consequences of grave injustice, civilized human beings create intricate systems of denial, silence, abnegation, deception and self-hatred to keep it at bay.

He also reaches back to our collective childhoods, to the reality of magic in life, to discuss how nature has spoken to us and to how we must remember all the conversations we’ve had with her and renew them. It’s his antidote to cynicism and apocalypse. That there is a language much older than the lying language we use daily, without being aware, to dispel the horrors of modern living and dying.

If there is a connection between Tiger Woods, newspaper journalism, the bad moods of trees, child abuse, amnesia, school, language, and salmon, Jensen finds those connections in a most personal way and exploits them so that the listener can actually experience the intricacies of Jensen’s point of view.
It is indeed a heart rending, mind expanding, and ultimately healing exercise to explore Jensen’s root system, with him not so much as a guide, but an experienced fellow traveler.

CD – Stand Up Tragedy

$10.00, autographed, and postpaid.

One CD is essentially the talk I gave on the Language Older Than Words tour, and the other CD is a “best of” Q and A.