Beyond Hope

In the latest issue of Orion Magazine we are brought an excerpt from Endgame, the upcoming new book by Derrick Jensen, one of my favorite authors to make it their business to meticulously describe exactly what's wrong with western culture and civilization. The excerpt is on a subject I've seen him write and speak about before at great length, but it's nice to see it in this form. It's about the problem with hope.

When we stop hoping for external assistance, when we stop hoping that the awful situation we're in will somehow resolve itself, when we stop hoping the situation will somehow not get worse, then we are finally free

re: Beyond Hope

this tiny excercpt and your gloss on it seems to me to be confusing "hope" with "denial" and "sloth."hopelessness will not get middleclass white gringos to pay more taxes and vote for something other than (the promise of) personal wealth. Hopelessness and the belief that Armageddon precludes personal and political responsibility are one and the same (the why is a complicated and long argument, but, for example, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/144222_wink17.html)politics is _also_ about hope. why do you think the protestors on monday were wearing white? want to take a guess at how many of them would describe themselves as Christian in culture if not conviction?anyway, my .02 cents.

re: Beyond Hope

do you not have time to read the Jensen article? it's shorter than the SeattlePI one you link to.i kind of assume when i link and quote that people are going to read the original context but maybe i shouldnt think that. i shouldn't have included the quote, i guess, just the link.i think your point is well taken but you're thinking of a different audience. Jensen starts off his article saying "THE MOST COMMON WORDS I hear spoken by any environmentalists anywhere are, We're fucked. Most of these environmentalists are fighting desperately, using whatever tools they have

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