Edward Abbey would have turned 80 years old today, January 29.
To mark the occassion, James Bishop published a nice article in last weekend’s Arizona Republic. It suggests that Abbey is still selling well. Not well enough for my tastes, but nothing suits me these days. I’m grumpier than ever and for good reason.
Michael Lewis says “Ed would have been pleased to see the beginning of the Great Dénouement,the Start of the End of Civilization, if that’s what it is.”
I agree.
Some bright news from the film industry… it looks like Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang may finally make it to the big screen.
It was one of the announcements at the Sundance Film Festival this month.
This makes the third Abbey book that’s been made into a movie. Fire on the Mountain and The Brave Cowboy (Lonesome Are The Brave was the film title) are the other two.
It will be nice to see the gang back in action….
The Federal government has launched a propaganda campaign to label
monkeywrenchers and “eco warriors” terrorists. Not saboteurs. Not
arsonists. Terrorists.
It’s a very calculated, politicized move to play off of the irrational fear of terrorists in a propagandized populace. Similar to a corporate branding campaign, where the ultimate goal is clearly establish an image in the mind of a consumer. Here, the goal is to label anyone that questions the illogic of profits over the environment as a terrorist. Environmentalists are terrorists. Or at least in the minds of Bush, Cheney and their ilk.
Conservatives have been pretty successful with past campaigns. The words “liberal” and “liberalism” have become a pejoratives in the view of many.
Conservative is good.
Liberal is bad.
Neo-cons generalize and portray liberals as weed smokers that kill babies and try to spread socialism and communism. Liberals and “progressives” want to keep America weak and give tax dollars to deadbeats.
Thought McCarthysm was dead? Guess again.
Environmentalists are “wackos and tree-huggers.” All of the diction is designed to brand a person or group as unstable. Irrational. Dangerous and not to be trusted.
Edward Abbey wrote about the differences between terrorism and sabotage,
always careful to distinguish between acts of violence against machines
and inanimate objects and living things.
While I’m sympathetic to their cause and understand their passion, I
think it’s clear that the acts of ELF are in fact damaging to living
things. But this latest effort by the government goes beyond ELF.
In case you’re wondering why the government would do such a thing, there
are a host of reasons. As Abbey once said, “the worse the environment
gets, the more popular environmentalism becomes.” This is a problem for
industries and businesses that profit off of environmental destruction
and therefore a problem for the government lackies that protect their
schemes.
When it comes to terrorism, I think it’s pretty clear who the real terrorists are. The real terrorists are apathetic developers, politicians and corporations that myopically and mindlessly destroy habitat for the sake of amassing great sums of wealth. But that’s not what is being portrayed in the media, by the government and by neo-con propagandists.
They’d have you believe that infinite growth and development is good, and that anything that stands in the way of what Abbey called “the blob” must be eliminated.
That means anyone that values flora and fauna over concrete and steel. If that’s you, you are the enemy.
Thanks to driving rain that started Friday night and will last until through today, Martin Luther King Day, my camping plans were washed away. That leaves me two weekends to make good on my resolution to go on at least one backpacking trip per month in 2007.
In the interim, here I am, once again pecking away on this phosphorescent collection of plastic and silicon.
I’m not really sure how big of a deal MLK day is out west or in the north, but here in the Delta, it’s a pretty big deal. Dr. King was murdered just ten miles or so from my doorstep, and there’s now a civil rights museum next door to the Lorraine Motel where the dastardly deed was done.
It’s nice to have those civil rights here in the good ole USofA but unfortunate that our nation doesn’t extend civility and human rights toward Palestinians and Iraqis. Or that most humans don’t extend any rights toward non-humans.
And speaking of national holidays, isn’t it time we had a federal holiday honoring Native American Nations? In 2005, there was a House Resolution proposing such a holiday. It never made it to the Senate, thanks to two Republican Senators from Oklahoma, of all places. Why not cancel Columbus Day, a day that recognizes a mass murderer, and replace it with a day that honors some real American heroes?
Recognizing Dr. King is nice, but what about the Chickasaw that were present in the Delta way before the days of African slavery? They were run out of town on a rail (well, by foot actually) and largely forgotten. Outta sight, outta mind. All that’s left today is a reconstructed historical site struggling to remain open thanks to limited funding.
If you have interest in seeing a national holiday for Native American Nations, you can sign a petition here.
I dream of a day when all living things are looked upon as equal. Not just humans. I believe we should extend the sanctity of life to all things, because all life is interdependent. Who’s to say that I’m more important or less important than a chipmunk, a honey bee or even a worm? Or even a tree. Why not a rock?
Christians and other religious folks would have you believe that man is created in the image of a god, has a soul and is placed above other living things in creation. But there’s no proof of this. None. Nada.
It’s fantasy.
It’s an anthropocentric viewpoint that leads humans to all sorts of dangerous conclusions, usually at the expense of other living things that are supposedly lower on the totem pole of existence. Wilderness is overdeveloped because the so-called needs of man (wants) supposedly take precedence over the needs of elk, mountain lion, rattlesnakes and flora. Natural resources are seen as a way to generate revenue and have no apparent value outside of the myopic view of the venture capitalist.
Profit trumps habitat.
But it is a fatally flawed philosophy, one that has dire consequences we’re beginning to see.
Here’s what Edward Abbey had to say about it.
I’ve always been suspicious of the USDA Organic certification process, and my bullshit detector went on full alert when larger companies starting buying smaller producers and turning them into massive food machines.
After the acquisitions, the next step was to begin the lobbying process in the hope of changing organic standards. The goal being to water down organic standards and therefore (supposedly) reduce costs.
Who benefits?
The chemical lobby supports this measure (duh),and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the lead players from major food conglomerates, chemical companies and guvment officials aren’t spending a lot of time together chasing little white balls around a chemically enhanced country club lawn discussing how they can all profit by dismantling the organic “threat.”
Organics have become an industry and all of the aforementioned groups are looking for any way they can to pad their pockets, especially the guvment.
Organic foods are now a booming industry. High growth. Big profits to be made. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could benefit from that little label without having to change all your production methods that much? Hmmm….
I like organic foods, but what good does it really do to have organic foods that are shipped 1500 miles using fossil fuels? The food may be better, but there’s still that old fossil fuel problem.
The folks in this article have an answer to all of these issues.
Today, the first day after the Epiphany or Twelfth Night for Christian folks, kicks off the Mardi Gras season.
Laissez les bon temps roulez, mes amis?
Mardi Gras is more than King Cakes and parties. Mardi Gras also means tons of trash, and lots of folks burning fossil fuel like there’s no tomorrow to get to New Orleans, a city with some pretty well documented problems. Crowds, noise and usually violence.
I’ll pass.
I’ll be celebrating next weekend by camping in our balmy mid-January temps. While it should be in the forties, it will be nearly 70 degrees next weekend in the Smokies, warm enough to rouse black bear during their hibernation. If the trend continues and worsen, and we have every reason to think they will, this could have a dramatic effect on the Southern Appalachian ecosystem.