The Ecomodernist Manifesto is a program for genocide and ecocide

[GliderGuider]

Derrick Jensen calls it straight. So-called "ecomodernists" are simply more apologists for Gaiacide.

The Ecomodernist Manifesto is a program for genocide and ecocide

The idea of a 'good, or even great, Anthropocene' as promised in the Ecomodernist Manifesto is purely delusional, writes Derrick Jensen. Worse, it underlies a narrative in which the wholesale destruction of nature and of sustainable indigenous societies is repackaged as a noble mission - one whose ultimate purpose is the complete alienation of humans from the planet that spawned us.

Robert Jay Lifton noted that before you can commit any mass atrocity, you must convince yourself and others that what you're doing is not atrocious, but rather beneficial. You must have what he called a "claim to virtue".

The United States has never committed genocide, but rather has fulfilled its Manifest Destiny. It has never waged aggressive war, but rather has 'defended its national interest' and 'promoted freedom and democracy'.

Today, the dominant culture isn't killing the planet, but rather 'developing natural resources'.

Far from attempting to 'decouple' our well-being from that of the planet - which this culture has been trying to do for a few thousand years now, to the detriment of everyone this culture encounters - we need to recognize and remember that our own well-being has always been intimately dependent on the health of the planet.

[hatrack]

1. But it's genocide and ecocide you can Feel Good (TM) about!

And How You Feel (R) is the Most Important Thing In The World (TM)!

Don't forget - it's different when we do it!

[cprise]

4. In a Brave New World sort of way, yes.

And that's what ecomodernism is about, the re-making of life forms as friendly agents of industry. Nature's systems become just another target of extraction... and because physical limits are finally observed in some sense, there is much to "love" about its harmonious orchestrations.

[The2ndWheel]

2. Civilization is the physical manifestation of our abstract imagination

We think we can decouple ourselves from nature, so we try. Why? Because we don't like limits. I would guess no form of life enjoys limits, but lions haven't figured out how to domesticate zebras yet. Zebras haven't figured out how to build guns or walls yet either.

Want to fly? Don't grow wings, build a plane. Breathe under water? Don't grow gills, get a tank of air. Go 50 miles in an hour? Build a car. Communicate in seconds around the globe? Build the internet.

Obviously in none of those instances are we actually flying, breathing, etc. It's our technology doing it. That's the decoupling. That's why we think we can do it. That's also why our impact continues to grow.

[hunter]

3. I have trouble convincing others we should be paying people to live lightly upon the earth.

The "work ethic" has been beaten into us.

The false reality of "economic productivity" has been beaten into us.

Automobiles and big houses in the suburbs are symbols of our economic status. Or nice apartments and condos in desirable urban neighborhoods, made desirable by forcing low income people out.

90% of our work is bullshit. People need to chill out, use birth control, and drop out of the high energy industrial economy, otherwise we're all toast.

I guess we're all toast.

The funny thing is the people on the top of the heap think they'll escape the fire.

Yes, they may die of natural causes before their personal empires disintegrate, but their empires will disintegrate.