So I'm working my way through the Derrick Jensen Reader, and I had a couple unrelated thoughts.
First, he's a fantastic writer. So, leaving aside the content, I can really see why he's so popular.
Second, and I'm sure I'm going to get slammed for this, but does anyone find the portrait of his father as so unredeemably evil a little hard to believe? I mean in Jensen's description, his father raped and beat him, his sister and his mother. I know these kinds of things happen. It just set off alarm bells in my head the way I think the UVA story did for many people...as in like this is just too perfectly awful and most abuse is much more mundane. But no doubt that's just my naivety and prejudice.
Third, he really seems to have a catastrophic vision of the future. I mean if I'm understanding him right, he believed circa 2004 that human civilization would collapse within 100 years. I'm no environmental expert, and I know the situation is dire, but that prediction sounds kind of hysterical to me.
Fourth, and maybe this will be cleared up for me later in the book, I don't entirely understand what his vision of an ideal society would be....it sounds like he's in favor of bringing down electrical grids, etc. I don't know, I'd just like a clearer picture of what he's advocating.
He's a primitivist. His vision of an ideal society is one of mass death for at least 90% of the human population and miserable, disease-ridden, short lives of hunting and gathering for the survivors.
You'll be hard pressed to find people around here who don't think he's a douchebag.