Tag Archive | "Derrick Jensen"
Starting over
Judging from my email in-box and the occasional comment in this space, my essays have taken a surprising turn. It seems my efforts are worth alerting the authorities, at least according to comments from anonymous cowards who hide behind online monikers. Unsurprisingly, the black helicopters haven’t arrived yet. Apparently the authorities are otherwise occupied. If [...]
Continue reading...Or die trying
Friday, February 11, 2011
I wrote an entire book on the life of the mind, if you can imagine that. A significant portion of the book was dedicated to the importance of a liberal education, and I’ve written about that topic in this space, too: Liberal teaching means putting everything I know, and everything I am, at risk in [...]
Continue reading...Mike and Karen’s Excellent Adventure
Sunday, November 21, 2010
by Mike Sliwa and Karen Sliwa We are retiring so we can travel. That’s the official story we generally tell people if we don’t feel like explaining the whole collapse of civilization spiel. Our close friends and those sympathetic to what we’re trying to accomplish get the real story. We know this might be considered [...]
Continue reading...Fear and loathing in the blogosphere: doom, gloom, and controlling the message
Saturday, December 12, 2009
I spend quite a bit of time reading the work of other bloggers. Believe it or not, I’ve read a few books, too. This post follows my usual approach of being an equal opportunity offender as I comment on the philosophy of James Howard Kunstler, Dmitry Orlov, and John Michael Greer, along with a few [...]
Continue reading...Balance is for Buddhists
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Balance is a central tenet of Buddhism, foundational to the four noble truths and the eight-fold way. Balance is a superb notion and I strongly support, for individuals at least, balance, moderation, and many other principles of Buddhism. Indeed, had Buddhism found roots in this country a couple hundred years ago, we probably would have avoided, or at least delayed, the series of catastrophes we now face. But with fewer than one percent of the American population dedicated to Buddhism, it's a little late for balance and moderation to work their magic at the scale of this country, much less planet Earth.
Continue reading...A matter of life and death
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A collapse in the world's industrial economy is producing the expected results, finally, too late to save thousands of species we've sent into the abyss, but perhaps barely in time to save a few remaining species, including our own. If you care about other species and cultures, or even the continued persistence of our own species, then you support our imminent return to the post-industrial stone age. Such a return saves the maximum number of human lives, over the long term.
Continue reading...Still hanging around
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
I'm not happy. The latest projections on climate change from the Hadley Center indicate we'll not voluntarily power down quickly enough to save our species. Seems even if we reduce emissions to 47% below 1990 levels by 2010 (yeah, right) we'll still warm the planet sufficiently to destroy all planetary ice by century's end, and therefore ensure the extinction of our species. No surprise there, of course. When the Nobel committee gives away the Peace prize to the gutless (but "pure") scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), you know we're screwed at our own hand.
Continue reading...The role of a social critic
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
One of the honors students was in Zimbabwe last summer as the Zimbabwean economy crashed. His description of the human horrors, which included starvation and mass murder, was quite a lesson for those who believe we'll behave when the grocery stores are empty. And also quite a lesson for those who believe the mainstream media are providing relevant world news.
Continue reading...Denial, back in style
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Yesterday I delivered a presentation to a room full of Honors College students, peppered with a few faculty and administrators. The response was overwhelmingly disappointing. Seems nearly everybody in the room -- and in the country, for that matter -- wants to keep the current game going, no matter the costs. They don't view civilization as a problem at all, evidence notwithstanding, and they think the solution to our fossil-fuel dilemma is to drive less and bicycle more.
Continue reading...
Friday, February 18, 2011
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