2011 Edelman Lecture: Derrick Jensen

Environmental Activist Derrick Jensen gives the 2011 Edelman Lecture, "Civilization and Resistance." March 9, 2011, Pacific Northwest College of Art. A podcast of the complete lecture is available at: http://untitled.pnca.edu/multimedia/show/1869/

Derrick Jensen is the acclaimed author of fifteen books, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. Author, teacher, activist, small farmer and leading voice of uncompromising dissent, he has been hailed as the philosopher poet of the environmental movement.

His premise is as profound as it is persistent: industrial civilization is inherently unsustainable. It will always require violence to biotic and human communities. And it will create a culture where trauma is normalized, where living beings become objects, and where the only relationship left is one of domination. He has packed university auditoriums, conferences, and bookstores across the nation, stirring them with revolutionary spirit.

Derrick Jensen asks, "Do you believe this culture will undergo a voluntary transformation to a sane and sustainable way of living? If you don't, and you care about life on this planet, what does that mean for your strategy and tactics? The answer is that we don't know because we don't talk about it." Derrick talks about it. Weaving together history, philosophy, environmentalism, economics, literature and psychology to produce a powerful argument and a passionate call for action, he points 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.

About the Edelman Lecture
When the late Portland architect and photographer, Alfred Edelman, taught three-dimensional design at PNCA he challenged his students to consider the principles of engineering, kinetics, physics and other subjects seemingly dissimilar to art. In doing so he brought the outside world into his classroom. Founded by Carol Edelman, the Alfred Edelman Lecture was created to enhance the student's understanding of the visual world by presenting timeless and/or unique ways to examine and manipulate three-dimensional space; and to be a catalyst for lively discussions in the classroom at PNCA.

www.pnca.edu

Category:

Education

Tags:

• pnca
• portland
• environment
• philosophy
• literature
• art
• education

[crazymadfrog]

So you are immortal I suppose? Focus on his words, his mind, his passion instead of being so stupid, willC801 you fool! Oh you probably can't comprehend what he is saying and are illiterate so use any books which you may possess as doorstops! Maybe you should club yourself to death with one! One less idiot to have to convert....LOL!

[willC801]

FUCK HE GOT OLD.

[antoniozart]

as an artist ~ and a sometime gallery owner~ i have only carried "socially conscious art" on theme/subjects such as Cancer and Coming Extinctions... we DO need new stories... i am writing and illustrating childrens books... new ways to look at the adult world on the verge of self~destruction...

no more wallpaper interior decorations for the bourgeoise... posters for causes are better than landscapes that look pretty.

[gtrplyr5204]

Where can I see the full video of the lecture? Is there one?

[wda013]

" 200 species go extinct TODAY. "

--

" For 200 years we've been conquering Nature. Now we're beating her to death. "

-- Tom McMillan (*1945, Canada)

[wda013]

" trying to write a-political is in itself a political statement "

and (imho) the statement of a brownnoser/bootlicker/coward/d­enialist at that.

--

" If you are 'neutral' in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. " -- Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu

" I don't believe it's possible to be neutral. The world is already moving in certain directions. And to be neutral, to be passive, in a situation like that, is to collaborate with what is going on. " -- Howard Zinn

[zezt]

yeah, people tend to look at science as NOT stories but facts, but no sorry it is stories, and a big one goes 'YOU ARE MACHINES living with animal machines in a machine world'!