END:CIV - Resist or Die - WWW.ENDCIV.COM
-
0:50 - 0:53- People often say that
there's a war against nature -
0:53 - 0:56and that this is
the third world war. -
0:59 - 1:02- It's getting more stark;
it's getting worse and -
1:02 - 1:05the rate of change is accelerating,
whether we're talking about the -
1:05 - 1:10extinction of species or
the thoroughness of the techno-culture. -
1:12 - 1:16- The world right now is,
frankly, very frightening. -
1:16 - 1:20For what we consider
to be industrial civilization, -
1:20 - 1:24I would say is extraordinarily uncivilized,
-
1:24 - 1:26actually quite savage.
-
1:30 - 1:33- It's not an exaggeration
to say that we're -
1:33 - 1:37living in an ecological apocalypse.
-
1:38 - 1:41- Between years 1980 and 2045
-
1:41 - 1:43we will lose more species
of plants and animals than -
1:43 - 1:46we have lost in the
last 65 million years. -
1:50 - 1:54We have two big-picture
time pressures that really mean -
1:54 - 1:57we should be acting a lot
more urgently than most of us have. -
1:57 - 2:00And one of them is peak oil,
or energy collapse, -
2:00 - 2:03and one of them is climate change,
or runaway global warming. -
2:04 - 2:07- I think that most people,
even most scientists, -
2:07 - 2:10continue to underestimate how far
-
2:10 - 2:13down the path to climate catastrophe
-
2:13 - 2:15we've already travelled.
-
2:15 - 2:17- For the most part,
we're oblivious to it, we don't -
2:17 - 2:19want to know about it,
we don't want to hear about it. -
2:20 - 2:23- The one thing I'm most afraid of
is that we're going to -
2:23 - 2:27mount a tremendous campaign
to sustain the unsustainable. -
2:28 - 2:30- At this point, scientists
are saying that the Earth's -
2:30 - 2:32temperature may increase
by as much as 10 degrees. -
2:32 - 2:35At that point, there may not
even be bacteria left. -
2:36 - 2:39- When the oil starts
to really run dry, -
2:39 - 2:42and when those in power
have to assert their power -
2:42 - 2:44in a time of dwindling resources,
-
2:44 - 2:47I think they're going
to turn to much more -
2:47 - 2:50blunt and cruel methods
of enforcing their power. -
2:52 - 2:54- The whole climate is
changing: the winds, -
2:54 - 2:57the ocean currents,
the storm patterns, -
2:57 - 2:59snow pack, snow melt,
-
2:59 - 3:01flooding, droughts.
-
3:09 - 3:13GAME OVER
-
3:19 - 3:22Somewhere in northern California
-
3:30 - 3:33- It's stunning how fast
the destruction is proceeding. -
3:42 - 3:46Every day that passes,
the world is in worse shape. -
3:48 - 3:51'The sad-looking man you see
on the screen is Derrick Jensen. -
3:51 - 3:55Jensen is the best-selling author
of several non-fiction books -
3:55 - 3:59including "A Language Older than Words"
and "The Culture of Make Believe". -
3:59 - 4:04His books deal with topics such as
surveillance, child abuse, the environment, -
4:04 - 4:07and something he calls "civilization".
-
4:20 - 4:24But it's statements like these
that make him so controversial:' -
4:24 - 4:27They're thinking of raising
the Shasta Dam in California, -
4:27 - 4:31and the reason that
Senator Feinstein gave was... -
4:31 - 4:35"It is Californians' God-given
right to water their lawns." -
4:37 - 4:41You know, there is no way
to argue with that... -
4:41 - 4:44...except with explosives.
-
4:46 - 4:52'That was Mr. Jensen in 2006, the same year
he published a two-volume set called 'Endgame.' -
4:53 - 4:57In 'Endgame' , he argues that there is an
urgent need to bring down civilization.' -
5:03 - 5:05- If people would have brought down
civilization a hundred years ago -
5:05 - 5:08people in the Pacific Northwest
could still eat salmon. -
5:08 - 5:10There's going to be people sitting
along the Columbia fifty years from now -- -
5:10 - 5:13they'll be glowing for one thing --
but they'll be starving to death, -
5:13 - 5:15and they'll be saying,
-
5:15 - 5:19"I'm starving to death, because
you didn't take out the dams... -
5:19 - 5:23...that killed salmon, and
those dams were used for barging, -
5:23 - 5:26and for electricity, for alumninum
smelters for beer cans, so -
5:29 - 5:31God damn you."
-
5:31 - 5:35He lays out his case against
civilization by enumerating 20 premises. -
5:37 - 5:39Due to time limitations and
the fact that most people -
5:39 - 5:42would not tolerate a twenty-hour
movie, we will explore -
5:42 - 5:44four of these premises,
and accompany them -
5:44 - 5:46with real-life examples.
-
5:46 - 5:49Premise I
-
5:50 - 5:53Industrial civilization, civilization itself,
but especially industrial civilization -
5:53 - 5:55is not, and can
never be, sustainable. -
5:56 - 6:00It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure
out that any way of life that's based -
6:00 - 6:03on the use of nonrenewable
resources won't last. -
6:06 - 6:10But what is civilization?
-
6:11 - 6:15Civilization is a way of life
characterized by the growth of cities. -
6:16 - 6:20- So you've got groups of people living
in a dense enough population that -
6:20 - 6:22the local landbase cannot support them.
-
6:22 - 6:24What that means is you have to get
-
6:24 - 6:26your basic resources from somewhere else
-
6:26 - 6:28because you've used them up where you live.
-
6:29 - 6:31So you're going to go out into
the countryside and gather up -
6:31 - 6:34whatever it is you want,
bring it back in. -
6:55 - 6:58If you require the importation of resources,
-
6:58 - 7:01it means you've denuded the landscape
of that particular resource. -
7:13 - 7:15- There's no way that in the
long term you can continue -
7:15 - 7:19to destroy the land that you need for your survival,
-
7:19 - 7:21or the waters that you need to drink,
-
7:21 - 7:23and expect to continue to live.
-
7:25 - 7:30- Industrial civilization requires
ever-increasing amounts -
7:30 - 7:32of energy and ever-increasing
amounts of land, -
7:32 - 7:35ever-increasing amounts
of resources of all kinds -
7:35 - 7:37in order to perpetuate itself,
-
7:37 - 7:39in order to continue to grow,
-
7:39 - 7:41in order to just maintain itself.
-
7:41 - 7:43And we live on a finite planet,
-
7:43 - 7:46and those aren't available. Of course,
-
7:46 - 7:49unfortunately for us and most living creatures,
-
7:49 - 7:53that culture won't stop until
it's consumed as much as it can, -
7:53 - 7:56or, of course, until we stop it ourselves.
-
8:12 - 8:15- If you have a finite amount of anything,
-
8:15 - 8:19if you start using it,
eventually you use it up. -
8:22 - 8:26And so it would seem that if
your entire culture is based on, -
8:26 - 8:30I don't know,
let's take a random resource... -
8:30 - 8:31...oil...
-
8:32 - 8:35...that you would think about
what's going to happen -
8:35 - 8:37happen when the oil runs out
-
8:38 - 8:40- We've found energy resources
-
8:40 - 8:42that have allowed us to escape
-
8:42 - 8:44some of the kinds of
-
8:44 - 8:46limits that previous cultures
-
8:46 - 8:48have had to face much more quickly.
-
8:49 - 8:52They used to collapse because
they ran out of resources, -
8:52 - 8:54easily accessible resources.
-
8:54 - 8:56The limit being the distance that people
-
8:56 - 8:58could travel with things like horses,
-
8:58 - 9:01or other pack animals.
That ended with the beginning -
9:01 - 9:04of the fossil fuel age; now
they can go all over the planet -
9:04 - 9:06and take what they want.
So globalization has only -
9:06 - 9:09accelerated this tremendously
destructive process. -
9:10 - 9:13- We've poured our wealth into
-
9:13 - 9:16building an infrastructure for daily life
-
9:16 - 9:18that has no future. I do think that
-
9:18 - 9:21oil problem is going to accelerate
-
9:21 - 9:26within the next three to
five years, maybe even sooner. -
9:26 - 9:30The numbers indicate that we've
probably peaked in global production. -
9:35 - 9:38- Where do you find the break from that?
-
9:38 - 9:40I mean, all of it is a giant machine or
-
9:40 - 9:42ensemble that just moves forward.
-
9:42 - 9:45Technology, for example, never takes a step back.
-
9:45 - 9:48This whole thing just
keeps going like a cancer. -
9:48 - 9:51- I don't know of any civilization
that's been sustainable, -
9:51 - 9:53I don't believe there ever has been one.
-
9:53 - 9:56Technology, at its essence,
is really our culture's... -
9:57 - 9:59...determination,
-
9:59 - 10:01that comes from certain
-
10:01 - 10:03philosophical and historical sources,
-
10:03 - 10:06that we will be nothing else
but more relentlessly technological. -
10:11 - 10:14- There is no clean green path to
-
10:14 - 10:17living in a lifestyle that
we're all used to in -
10:17 - 10:20industrialized nations.
This way of life is OVER. -
10:20 - 10:25- Civilizations are often
cutting their own throats, -
10:25 - 10:28very visibly, very obviously,
but they just keep on doing it. -
10:28 - 10:32- Every civilization is defined by hubris,
-
10:32 - 10:34it's defined by its denial
-
10:34 - 10:37to recognize that it
lives in a natural world. -
10:37 - 10:40As a matter of fact, every
civilization, in its founding lies, -
10:40 - 10:42elevates itself above nature,
-
10:42 - 10:45and claims that it is the
controller of the whole world. -
10:53 - 10:58Figure 1
-
11:00 - 11:04- The first written myth of this culture
is Gilgamesh deforesting the plains -
11:04 - 11:06and hillsides of Iraq.
When people think of Iraq, -
11:06 - 11:09what's the first thing they normally
think of? Cedar forests so thick -
11:09 - 11:11that sunlight never
touches the ground? -
11:11 - 11:13That's how it was, prior to the
arrival of this culture. -
11:13 - 11:18Clearcuts
-
12:09 - 12:14So, as a longtime, grassroots,
environmental activist, -
12:14 - 12:18and as a creature living in
the thrashing endgame of civilization, -
12:18 - 12:21I am intimately acquainted
with the landscape of loss, -
12:21 - 12:25and have grown accustomed to
carrying the daily weight of despair. -
12:25 - 12:28I've walked clearcuts that
wrap around mountains and -
12:28 - 12:30drop into valleys and
climb ridges to fragment -
12:30 - 12:34watershed after watershed,
and I've sat, silent, -
12:34 - 12:37near empty streams that
two generations ago -
12:37 - 12:40were lashed into whiteness
by uncountable salmon -
12:40 - 12:42coming home to spawn and die.
-
12:42 - 12:45- Here in BC, and across North America,
-
12:45 - 12:47when they do industrial
logging they actually take -
12:47 - 12:50and just remove all the trees.
They level everything, -
12:50 - 12:53they leave nothing but
stumps and slash piles, -
12:53 - 12:56and they burn the slash piles
and they take out all the timber -
12:56 - 12:58and what's left is a wasteland,
-
12:58 - 13:01and it's like they take a rainforest
and turn it into a desert. -
13:01 - 13:03That's what a clearcut is.
-
13:14 - 13:17They use them for pulp;
they export them whole -
13:17 - 13:19to the United States and to Japan.
-
13:19 - 13:22There's not very much milling
that happens anymore in BC, -
13:22 - 13:25it's just getting exported for pulp and paper
-
13:25 - 13:28and fibreboard, and plywood, and whatever else.
-
13:28 - 13:31Not a lot of value added.
-
13:33 - 13:37This tree has been
selected to be cut and -
13:38 - 13:41usually the company will only clearcut
-
13:41 - 13:45but this tree is in what they call
-
13:45 - 13:47a stream-side selection zone.
-
13:47 - 13:50they've got it marked blue,
because it's a selection zone. -
13:50 - 13:53In a clearcut they don't paint the trees
-
13:53 - 13:55that they're going to cut down.
-
13:55 - 13:58They only paint the ones
that they're going to leave. -
14:15 - 14:18- There's still a strong push to harvest
-
14:18 - 14:21as much of the western
red cedar as they can. -
14:21 - 14:24They're bringing in huge
helicopters to do that. -
14:24 - 14:27And they're high-grading...
-
14:27 - 14:31...selecting only the really
good, high-quality timber -
14:31 - 14:33and leaving the rest laying there...
-
14:34 - 14:36...in a junk heap.
-
14:38 - 14:41So, that's why we keep on,
-
14:41 - 14:43you know, fighting back.
-
14:48 - 14:51I think the last straw was when
-
14:52 - 14:54they wanted to log the Valley of Ista
-
14:54 - 14:57because of its historical and
-
14:57 - 15:00spiritual significance to our people.
-
15:00 - 15:05But they log it in spite, you know,
-
15:05 - 15:07just to make a point
-
15:07 - 15:09against our resistance, against our
-
15:09 - 15:12our overall position,
-
15:12 - 15:14you know, with regard to treaties
-
15:14 - 15:17or encroachment of industry development
-
15:17 - 15:20in our territories.
-
15:24 - 15:27- In a lot of these areas,
like this clearing behind me -
15:27 - 15:31up on the hill,
you can see the soil is exposed, -
15:31 - 15:35the ultraviolet kills
off all the mosses, -
15:35 - 15:39the funguses that hold
the soil together. -
15:39 - 15:42When the stumps rot
and the roots die, -
15:42 - 15:44then the slopes slide,
-
15:44 - 15:47and often there's not much regrowth,
there's no regeneration of the forest. -
15:47 - 15:49They do some replanting --
-
15:49 - 15:52it doesn't always work
because there's no soil left: -
15:52 - 15:54it washes down into the streams,
it kills the salmon, -
15:54 - 15:56it fills up the reservoirs,
-
15:56 - 15:59all kinds of flood damage downstream.
-
16:00 - 16:04- That's terrorism.
Stripping down all the trees, -
16:04 - 16:07ripping out all the
trees in the forest... -
16:07 - 16:10...and now they're going
to rip out the -
16:10 - 16:12guts of the land
-
16:12 - 16:15looking for copper and gold.
-
16:16 - 16:17And...
-
16:19 - 16:22... this has to have some
kind of focus to it... -
16:23 - 16:27...to address the
injustice to our people, -
16:27 - 16:30the injustice to the land,
to the water, -
16:30 - 16:33to the wildlife;
the injustice to the -
16:33 - 16:35marine life and the salmon life.
-
16:35 - 16:39And the injustice to the people
that want to stand up for it. -
16:41 - 16:44- When we blocked the road --
-
16:44 - 16:46these trees are very valuable
-
16:46 - 16:48and the laws are all profit-driven,
they're all driven by -
16:48 - 16:50the corporations,
the police are there -
16:50 - 16:53to enforce the
corporations' right to log, -
16:53 - 16:56not to enforce our
right to stop them -
16:56 - 16:59and protect the ecosystem.
There's so little -
16:59 - 17:01that's left of the
old-growth forest like -
17:01 - 17:03this that we see on the sides here
-
17:03 - 17:06that people are putting
their bodies on the line, -
17:06 - 17:08they are willing
to make huge sacrifices -
17:08 - 17:11to stop the forest from being sacrificed,
-
17:11 - 17:13and the water,
and the air quality, -
17:13 - 17:15and the global climate.
-
17:28 - 17:35Premise II
-
17:46 - 17:48Traditional communities do not often
-
17:48 - 17:50voluntarily give up
or sell the resources -
17:50 - 17:52on which their
communities are based -
17:52 - 17:55until their communities
have been destroyed. -
17:56 - 17:58They also do not
willingly allow their -
17:58 - 18:00land-bases to be damaged
so that other resources -- -
18:00 - 18:04gold, oil, and so on --
can be extracted. -
18:05 - 18:09It follows that those who want
the resources will do what they can -
18:09 - 18:12to destroy traditional communities.
-
18:18 - 18:23- Our people, we say, have been
there since time immemorial. -
18:23 - 18:26- Prior to invasion
-
18:26 - 18:29and conquest, colonization,
-
18:29 - 18:33lands in North America were occupied by
-
18:33 - 18:35populations of people
that had a profoundly -
18:35 - 18:37different relationship with the land.
-
18:37 - 18:40- They live with the land,
all the ceremonies that have -
18:40 - 18:42come up have to do with
-
18:42 - 18:45celebrating the renewal of seasons and
-
18:45 - 18:48life and affirming all of that.
-
18:48 - 18:51- One thing about indigenous peoples is that
-
18:51 - 18:53there's always the idea
that you have to live -
18:53 - 18:55in balance, you know, emotionally,
-
18:55 - 18:57physically, spiritually,
-
18:57 - 19:00you have to have balance,
and so this same -
19:00 - 19:03philosophy was applied to the
natural world that they lived in. -
19:05 - 19:08- The Tolowa, on whose land I now live,
-
19:08 - 19:10weren't civilized,
they didn't live in cities, -
19:10 - 19:12they didn't require the
importation of resources, -
19:12 - 19:13they lived in villages, camps...
-
19:13 - 19:16...and lived there for 12,500 years if
you believe the myths of science. -
19:16 - 19:19If you believe the myths of the Tolowa,
they lived there since the beginning of time. -
19:20 - 19:22- I think that what we have had in
-
19:22 - 19:25indigenous societies all along is a very,
-
19:25 - 19:27kind of, common sense, a very practical
-
19:27 - 19:30approach to why it's important to
-
19:30 - 19:32treat the world around you,
-
19:32 - 19:35the natural world, in a good way.
-
19:36 - 19:39- Our people never exploited
more than what we needed. -
19:39 - 19:42We respect the land, we respect the animals,
-
19:42 - 19:44we respect the water, we respect the air,
-
19:44 - 19:47the wind, the fire, all the sacred elements.
-
19:47 - 19:50And we believe that they all are living,
-
19:50 - 19:53living things, so...
-
19:53 - 19:57...I suspect that's the way
it was before contact. -
19:58 - 20:00- The stories that we have
-
20:00 - 20:02about our relationship to each other
-
20:02 - 20:05and to the land and
to any spiritual aspect, -
20:05 - 20:08any deities, arise from our relationship
-
20:08 - 20:10with the land.
-
20:10 - 20:12The salmon were considered to be our...
-
20:12 - 20:17...mentors, caregivers -- lifegivers.
-
20:17 - 20:19They were equal to us, in fact,
-
20:19 - 20:22all things that have
form were equal to us. -
20:22 - 20:24We weren't about dominating.
-
20:26 - 20:29- The spiritual relationship
that our peoples had -
20:29 - 20:32prior to invasion
-
20:32 - 20:35with all of creation,
and recognizing that -
20:35 - 20:38all beings have a spiritual essence,
-
20:38 - 20:41a spiritual entity,
and that if we want -
20:41 - 20:44to live in this
universe in a good way, -
20:44 - 20:47that it was absolutely essential
that we learned how to -
20:47 - 20:49maintain respectful relations
-
20:49 - 20:51with all of creation.
-
21:02 - 21:04They made us many promises,
-
21:04 - 21:07more than I can remember,
but they never kept but one; -
21:07 - 21:11they promised to take our land,
and they took it.
-Red Cloud -
21:18 - 21:21When Europeans came to this land
-
21:21 - 21:24it was with...
-
21:24 - 21:28such a rapacious appetite
-
21:28 - 21:32it still has not been sated.
-
21:35 - 21:37- They brought Christianity,
-
21:37 - 21:39they brought colonization,
-
21:39 - 21:42and, certainly,
they did bring civilization. -
21:43 - 21:46- They came in, and they
were sent with this, -
21:46 - 21:49commission, they felt,
apparently, to dominate the land -
21:49 - 21:52and it was just there for the taking --
these people would accept -
21:52 - 21:56beads, or just kind
of get out of the way, -
21:56 - 21:59and of course they had superior
firepower at that time, too. -
22:00 - 22:03- Right off the bat,
with Christopher Columbus -
22:03 - 22:05landing in the Caribbean
region on what is -
22:05 - 22:07today Haiti and
the Dominican Republic, -
22:07 - 22:10they initiated almost
immediately a genocide -
22:10 - 22:13down there that
depopulated most of the -
22:13 - 22:15nation, the Taino,
and the Arawaks. -
22:15 - 22:18One of the main things that
happened was the introduction -
22:18 - 22:22of diseases, which was
basically biological warfare. -
22:22 - 22:24- The smallpox was spread through
-
22:24 - 22:27tobacco and blankets
-
22:27 - 22:29and given to the Indian people.
-
22:30 - 22:33So it didn't take them long to be
-
22:33 - 22:37decimated because they were pure.
-
22:37 - 22:40And the smallpox was vicious,
very vicious. -
22:40 - 22:42- When Europeans came,
much of what they -
22:42 - 22:46were interested in was
rapid resource exploitation. -
22:46 - 22:49They wanted to get
wealthy in the new world. -
22:49 - 22:52And as they were seeking that wealth,
-
22:52 - 22:54they worked with indigenous
nations to undermine -
22:54 - 22:57traditional economies
and undermine the -
22:58 - 23:00relationship that indigenous
populations have with -
23:00 - 23:02the lands so that indigenous
peoples could then do -
23:02 - 23:06do the work of resource
exploitation and extraction -
23:06 - 23:09for the Europeans so that
they could get wealthy. -
23:10 - 23:12- In imposing those things
on indigenous peoples, of course, -
23:12 - 23:15they just destroyed indigenous
peoples and their nations and -
23:15 - 23:18their way of life.
Generally, indigenous peoples suffered -
23:18 - 23:2290% or more depopulation rate
-
23:22 - 23:25upon having contact with Europeans.
-
23:25 - 23:28It was a genocide, war for territory,
-
23:28 - 23:31because the Europeans
wanted to take the resources. -
23:39 - 23:42- Settler society has worked to destroy
-
23:42 - 23:44what it needs to live,
-
23:44 - 23:46and that's suicidal.
It's a suicidal mission. -
23:46 - 23:50There's no way that it can be
sustainable in the long term. -
23:58 - 24:05Premise III
-
24:06 - 24:08- I gave a talk in Oregon a couple years ago,
-
24:08 - 24:10and this guy afterwards said,
"You know, you talk a lot about -
24:10 - 24:13this culture being based
on violence, but I don't see it, -
24:13 - 24:15you know, I'm not violent".
-
24:15 - 24:18I said, "Okay, first off, where is your shirt made?"
He looked and it was made in Bangladesh. -
24:18 - 24:20I was like,
"Look, do we even need to talk about that?" -
24:20 - 24:22- He's fucking faking he's dead!
-
24:22 - 24:24- Yeah, he's breathing.
-
24:24 - 24:26- He's faking he's fucking dead!
-
24:27 - 24:28GUNSHOT
-
24:29 - 24:31- He's dead NOW.
-
24:31 - 24:34- Our way of living,
industrial civilization, is based on, -
24:34 - 24:37requires, and would
collapse very quickly -
24:37 - 24:41without persistent
and widespread violence. -
24:43 - 24:45- A large explosion! A large explosion!
-
24:47 - 24:48- Wow.
-
24:50 - 24:53- I'll just take a couple eggs. How many you want?
-
24:53 - 24:55- Two, two is good.
Okay. Now what next? -
24:55 - 24:57- Some ham, tomato.
-
24:57 - 24:59- Tomato, okay,
how about that? -
24:59 - 25:01- Okay, some onion.
Ooh, and cheese! -
25:01 - 25:05- Everything, then, right, you want everything.
Okay. I understand, okay. -
25:05 - 25:08We'll just pop this on. Now watch!
-
25:08 - 25:10I'm chopping the ham and veggies,
grating the cheese, -
25:10 - 25:12and whipping the eggs all...
-
25:12 - 25:14...in three seconds.
The machine that just made -
25:14 - 25:19those smoothies for Verna and Fred,
can make an omelette. -
25:20 - 25:23There's not much time left to get
this beautiful hope diamond necklace, -
25:23 - 25:25less than 50 seconds. Gillian?
-
25:25 - 25:28- Absolutely, John, you're going
to want to give us a call to get -
25:28 - 25:30this beautiful hope diamond necklace.
-
25:30 - 25:33This is a 45.52 carat
diamond surrounded by -
25:33 - 25:3516 white diamonds.
-
25:35 - 25:38It has a platinum chain
bearing 46 MORE diamonds. -
25:39 - 25:42- These are twelve four-ounce southern
-
25:42 - 25:44barbecue chicken breasts.
-
25:46 - 25:48These Stuffin GourmetÂŹĂ,
farm-fresh chicken breast; -
25:48 - 25:51they come from the
barnyard to your backyard. -
25:51 - 25:54They're wonderfully marinated
and guaranteed to be tender, -
25:54 - 25:58juicy, and downright delicious.
-
25:58 - 26:00- Fine-tune those measurements,
we keep them on file. -
26:00 - 26:02They're saved,
they're on our computer. -
26:02 - 26:05Go back into the section
where you reorder, -
26:05 - 26:08and fine-tune those
measurements for us. -
26:08 - 26:10And then we'll have
a chance to send you -
26:10 - 26:12another pair of customized jeans
-
26:12 - 26:15that we really believe are
going to fit perfectly. -
26:17 - 26:20- We're going to do a countdown,
-
26:20 - 26:22starting from 5.
-
26:22 - 26:24Everybody got to help me out here,
-
26:24 - 26:255,
-
26:25 - 26:264,
-
26:26 - 26:273,
-
26:27 - 26:282,
-
26:28 - 26:291
-
26:29 - 26:30(explosion)
-
26:30 - 26:32Ho!
-
26:36 - 26:38It worked!
-
26:49 - 26:51Second, I said,
"Okay, do you pay rent?" -
26:52 - 26:54He's like, "Yeah..."
-
26:55 - 26:57I said, "Why?"
-
26:57 - 26:59He said, "Because, I don't own."
-
26:59 - 27:02I said, "No, no, no, what would
happen if you didn't pay rent?" -
27:02 - 27:04He said,
"Well, the sheriff would come and evict me." -
27:04 - 27:06I said, "I don't know what that means.
What would happen? -
27:06 - 27:09He said, "Well, the sheriff would come
and he would knock on the door..." -
27:09 - 27:11I said, "Okay, great, what happens
if you open the door... -
27:12 - 27:15...and you say,
'Hey! I'm just finishing up making dinner. -
27:15 - 27:17You want some?'
-
27:17 - 27:20And the sheriff sits down, you feed him
you don't poison him -
27:23 - 27:25And then, after dinner you say,
-
27:25 - 27:29you've been somewhat pleasant
company, but not all that pleasant, -
27:29 - 27:31so I would like for you to leave
my home now.' What would happen? -
27:31 - 27:33He said, "Well, the sheriff would
pull out his gun and say, -
27:33 - 27:35'I'm here to evict you,
because you didn't pay rent.'" -
27:35 - 27:39I said, "Ahh. So, the reason you pay
rent is because if you don't, -
27:39 - 27:42some guy with a gun is going
to come take you away." -
27:42 - 27:45He said, "I think I get it."
-
27:45 - 27:46I said, "Well, let's try again.
-
27:46 - 27:49What happens if you're hungry,
so you go to the grocery store -
27:49 - 27:51and you just start eating.
What's going to happen?" -
27:51 - 27:52"someone will call the sheriff."
-
27:52 - 27:55I said, "Yeah, it's the same guy who's going
to come with a gun and take you away, -
27:55 - 27:56he's a real asshole, isn't he?"
So, one of the reasons -
27:56 - 27:58we don't see a lot of the violence,
is because it's exported. -
27:58 - 28:00Another reason we don't see a
lot of the violence is because -
28:00 - 28:02we've been so metabolized
into the system -
28:02 - 28:05that we've bought into this
strange notion that it's okay -
28:05 - 28:08to have to pay to exist on the planet.
-
28:08 - 28:10That's really, really weird.
-
28:10 - 28:12And, if you don't pay,
then some guy with a gun is going to come -
28:12 - 28:14and bad things are going to happen to you.
-
28:14 - 28:19Figure II
-
28:29 - 28:31A few years a go,
I got a call from a friend of mine. -
28:31 - 28:33She's an environmental activist.
-
28:33 - 28:35She was crying, and she said,
-
28:35 - 28:38"This works just killing me,
it's breaking my heart." -
28:39 - 28:41I said, "Yeah, I know. It'll do that."
-
28:42 - 28:44Then she said,
-
28:44 - 28:46"The dominant culture
hates everything doesn't it?" -
28:46 - 28:48I said, "Yeah, it does. Even itself."
-
28:48 - 28:51She said, "It has a death urge, doesn't it?"
I said, "Yeah, it does." -
28:51 - 28:53She said, "Unless it's stopped, it's going
to kill everything on the planet, isn't it?" -
28:53 - 28:55I said, "Yeah it is, unless it's stopped."
-
28:56 - 28:58Then she said,
"We're not going to make it -
28:58 - 29:00to some great, new,
glorious tomorrow, are we?" -
29:08 - 29:14Green is the color of money
-
29:18 - 29:21- 98% of the old-growth forests are gone.
-
29:21 - 29:2499% of the prairies are gone.
-
29:24 - 29:2980% of the rivers on this
planet do not support life anymore. -
29:29 - 29:31We are out of species, we're out of soil,
-
29:31 - 29:33and we are out of time.
-
29:33 - 29:35And what we are being told
-
29:35 - 29:37by most of the environmental movement
-
29:37 - 29:40is that the way to stop all of this
-
29:40 - 29:42is through personal, consumer choices.
-
29:43 - 29:45- By simply purchasing our product,
-
29:45 - 29:48the consumer can make a small,
easy step to a greener Earth. -
29:48 - 29:50So, by taking that
one roll, and buying -
29:50 - 29:52that one roll, you can
help save millions of trees. -
29:53 - 29:57- I think we can really look at the history
-
29:57 - 29:59of the environmental movement to tell
-
29:59 - 30:01us a lot about why it hasn't been working.
-
30:01 - 30:05There was a lot of pretty
radical and militant environmentalism -
30:05 - 30:08happening, especially
in the 70's and 80's. -
30:08 - 30:11In a lot of ways, that was kind of
a heyday for environmentalism. -
30:11 - 30:13You know, Greenpeace was founded.
-
30:13 - 30:17It started to become very mainstream in
some quarters to be an environmentalist. -
30:17 - 30:20And then there was also
a shift around that time when... -
30:20 - 30:22...corporations realized that they could sell
-
30:22 - 30:25a lot of things by calling them "green".
-
30:26 - 30:28- Green-washing is an
attempt by corporations to -
30:28 - 30:33put labels on their
activity that are popular -
30:33 - 30:35and that appeal to
people's sensibility about, -
30:35 - 30:38and concern for, the
environment and for ecology. -
30:41 - 30:44- For the mast majority of
people within society today, -
30:44 - 30:48there's a total sense
of denial and disconnect -
30:48 - 30:52between what they
think is good and right -
30:52 - 30:57and then their actions as a
society or as a civilization, -
30:57 - 31:00especially as it relates
to the natural world. -
31:02 - 31:07- I have a real problem with a lot of the
"solutions" that are put forward by people -
31:07 - 31:10because they confuse what is
real with what is not real. -
31:10 - 31:14What they do is take the
industrial economy as a given. -
31:14 - 31:20"How can we save the industrial economy, and oh, it would be nice if we still have a planet."
-
31:22 - 31:25- It doesn't matter if I buy,
-
31:25 - 31:28hemp soap if there's a
runaway greenhouse effect -
31:28 - 31:30and the planet becomes uninhabitable.
-
31:30 - 31:32- The modern mainstream
environmental movement of the -
31:32 - 31:34big environmental organizations --
-
31:34 - 31:37Greenpeace, and Sierra Club,
and the others -- -
31:37 - 31:41is rooted in that very same cultural lie
-
31:41 - 31:44that nature is resources.
-
31:44 - 31:47Nature is things to be used and managed.
-
31:47 - 31:50Nature is, as the philosopher
-
31:50 - 31:53Martin Heidegger put it,
just a vast gasoline station -
31:53 - 31:58that we can endlessly extract from.
-
31:58 - 32:01They may say we need to
manage it more wisely, -
32:01 - 32:04but as long as they maintain the mindset that
-
32:04 - 32:07we are the lords of creation and
-
32:07 - 32:10creation exists for us as resources
to be transformed into commodities -
32:10 - 32:13for us to buy and sell,
as long as they maintain -
32:13 - 32:17that perspective on what it
means to be an environmentalist, -
32:17 - 32:20then they're working
within the same framework of -
32:20 - 32:25an ultimately self-destructive
path that the culture is on. -
32:26 - 32:30In May 2010, 21 logging companies signed a deal with several major environmental
-
32:30 - 32:34organizations, including Greenpeace
and the David Suzuki Foundation. -
32:34 - 32:38The deal, known as "The Canadian Boreal
Forest Agreement" aimed to silence all -
32:38 - 32:41criticism of logging practices
in the boreal forest. -
32:41 - 32:44The Marketplace is also
going to be very important -
32:44 - 32:47Many cusomers have been pushing for
change in the boreal forest. -
32:47 - 32:49The Forest Product Association
-
32:49 - 32:51and its 21 member companies are
-
32:51 - 32:54responding to the demand for greener products,
-
32:54 - 32:57and that marketplace is
going to pay close attention. -
32:57 - 33:00If the change isn't happening,
then they're going to put -
33:00 - 33:02pressure on the parties who
were part of the agreement -- -
33:02 - 33:05the environmental organizations,
the forest products companies -- -
33:05 - 33:08to do the things that
they've set out to do. -
33:08 - 33:11And the will reward the companies
-
33:11 - 33:13when things begin to be implemented and
-
33:13 - 33:16the change happens on the ground.
I'm fully confident of that. -
33:16 - 33:19- One interesting piece of the agreement is
-
33:19 - 33:23with Greenpeace,
David Suzuki, Forest Ethics, -
33:23 - 33:26Canadian Parks and
Wilderness on our side, -
33:26 - 33:29when someone else comes and
tries to bully us, -
33:29 - 33:32the agreement actually requires
that they come and -
33:32 - 33:35work with us in repelling the attack and we'll be
-
33:35 - 33:38able to say, "Fight me, fight my gang."
-
33:38 - 33:41- I personally have no use for large,
-
33:41 - 33:44institutionalized environmental organizations;
-
33:44 - 33:47I think they're more of a problem than a help.
-
33:47 - 33:49They're just eco-bureaucracies.
-
33:49 - 33:51And, you know, I won't name any
because I don't like to badmouth -
33:51 - 33:53organizations, except for one, which I
-
33:53 - 33:55feel that I can, and that's
Greenpeace. And the reason I -
33:55 - 33:59can criticize Greenpeace is
I am a co-creator of Greenpeace, -
33:59 - 34:03and therefore I feel like Dr. Frankenstein
sometimes, and I feel that since I helped -
34:03 - 34:05create the thing I can certainly criticize it.
-
34:05 - 34:07And I think that Greenpeace has become
-
34:07 - 34:10the world's biggest feel-good
organization now. People join it -
34:10 - 34:14to feel good, to feel, "I'm part of
the solution, I'm not part of the problem." -
34:14 - 34:17Greenpeace brings in close
to $300 million a year, -
34:17 - 34:19and what do they do with that money?
-
34:19 - 34:21Generate more money. And the people who
-
34:21 - 34:24are at the top of the totem pole
now are not environmentalists -- -
34:24 - 34:26they're fundraisers,
they're accountants, -
34:26 - 34:28they're lawyers,
they're businesspeople. -
34:29 - 34:31People are voting with their dollars at
the checkout stands. It's because -
34:31 - 34:34they know the polling shows that the public cares,
-
34:34 - 34:36and ultimately they're going to care about their
-
34:36 - 34:40profit margin and whether they can sell products.
-
34:40 - 34:43What's happened in British Columbia with the
-
34:43 - 34:47environmental movement, it's been stalemated.
-
34:47 - 34:53The big leaders there compromised;
-
34:53 - 34:55they went in bed
-
34:55 - 34:57and it snuffed out that movement.
-
35:19 - 35:21- So what happened was there was direct action,
there were blockades -
35:21 - 35:23there was an international market campaign
-
35:23 - 35:25that put a lot of pressure on the companies
-
35:25 - 35:27that were logging in the Great Bear Rainforest.
-
35:27 - 35:29But the end result was that it all fed into
-
35:29 - 35:32a closed-door negotiation with
-
35:32 - 35:35Tzeporah Berman as chief negotiator
-
35:35 - 35:38on the conservationists' side,
where a lot of the groups -
35:38 - 35:41that actually did the work,
the direct actions, -
35:41 - 35:44and did the market campaigns
were shut out of the process. -
35:44 - 35:47Public oversight was removed
and the protocol agreements -
35:47 - 35:50that were signed with First Nations
and with conservation groups -
35:50 - 35:52were basically shunted aside.
-
35:52 - 35:55So the protocol agreements gave
-
35:55 - 35:57the negotiators a mandate to
-
35:57 - 36:00negotiate for 40 to 60
percent conservation -
36:00 - 36:03but what happened was
they agreed to 20 percent. -
36:03 - 36:05- It's not strange to me
when people tell me that -
36:06 - 36:08the former president of Greenpeace
-
36:08 - 36:10now works for the logging industry of Canada.
-
36:10 - 36:12The former president of Greenpeace Australia
-
36:12 - 36:14now works for the mining industry. The former
-
36:14 - 36:16president of Greenpeace Norway works for the
-
36:16 - 36:20whaling industry. See, because it's
just one corporate job to the next. -
36:21 - 36:25In 1975 Greenpeace launched
its anti-whaling campaign, -
36:25 - 36:29confronting whaling fleets on the high seas.
-
36:31 - 36:35In June 2010, Greenpeace agreed
to a deal that would allow -
36:35 - 36:39nations like Japan to continue hunting
whales for commercial purposes. -
36:44 - 36:46The only measure in which
we'll be judged by those -
36:46 - 36:49come after is the health
of the land and -
36:49 - 36:51the health of the water,
the health of the Earth. -
36:51 - 36:54They're not going to give a
shit as to whether we recycled; -
36:54 - 36:57they're not going to give a shit
as to whether we wrote our legislators; -
36:57 - 36:59they're not going to give a
shit as to how hard we tried. -
36:59 - 37:02What they're going to care about is whether they
can breathe the air and drink the water, -
37:02 - 37:04whether the land will support them.
-
37:04 - 37:06And they're not going to
care how hard we tried, -
37:06 - 37:09they're not going to care about any of that --
what they're going to care about is... -
37:09 - 37:13...do we live on a living planet?
-
37:19 - 37:25Figure III
-
37:29 - 37:31OK, so...
-
37:38 - 37:42... I don't know if you know this, but
-
37:42 - 37:46the original draft of the
movie Star Wars was not -
37:46 - 37:49written by Lucas.
-
37:49 - 37:52The original draft was
written by environmentalists -
37:52 - 37:55and it's a little bit different.
-
38:01 - 38:03For one thing, it wasn't
actually called "Star WARS". -
38:05 - 38:08It was called "Star
Non-Violent Civil Disobedience". -
38:08 - 38:11But the plot of Star Wars, for those
of you who don't remember, is that -
38:11 - 38:15the Empire has created this
giant machine called the Death Star. -
38:15 - 38:19And it's a machine that's
capable of destroying entire planets. -
38:19 - 38:23In the movie the rebels find a
way to destroy the Death Star, -
38:23 - 38:25and then at the very
end, Luke Skywalker -
38:25 - 38:27uses the force to get past all the
-
38:27 - 38:30tie fighters and to drop a torpedo
down a thermal exhaust port, -
38:30 - 38:33and to blow up the Death Star.
-
38:35 - 38:37Once again, the first draft
of the movie written by -
38:37 - 38:39environmentalists was a bit
different: the rebels -
38:39 - 38:43didn't actually blow up the
Death Star. Instead they used -
38:43 - 38:47other methods to slow the
intergalactic march of empire. -
38:47 - 38:51For example, they set up programs for
people on planets about to be destroyed, -
38:51 - 38:54to produce luxury items like hemp
hacky sacks and gourmet coffee -
38:54 - 38:56for sale to inhabitants of the Death Star.
-
38:56 - 38:58Audience members will also
discover that there are plans afoot -
38:58 - 39:00to encourage loads of troopers
and other citizens of the empire -
39:00 - 39:02to take eco-tours of doomed planets.
-
39:02 - 39:05The purpose will be to show to one and all
that these planets are economically important -
39:05 - 39:07to the Empire and so should not be destroyed.
-
39:07 - 39:11In a surprise move that will get
viewers to the edges of their seats, -
39:11 - 39:13other groups of rebels will file
lawsuits against the Empire, -
39:13 - 39:16attempting to show that the Environmental
Impact Statement that Darth Vader -
39:16 - 39:19was required to file, failed
to adequately support its decision -
39:19 - 39:22that blowing up this planet would
cause "no significant impact". -
39:22 - 39:24Viewers will thrill to learn
of plans to boycott items produced -
39:24 - 39:26by corporations that have Darth
Vader on the board of directors, -
39:27 - 39:29and they'll leap to their
feet in theaters worldwide -
39:29 - 39:33when they see bags full of letters
written directly to Mr. Vader himself -
39:33 - 39:35asking that he please not
blow up anymore planets. -
39:35 - 39:38Now, we all know that all
would be enough not only to -
39:38 - 39:41bring the Empire to its knees,
but to make a damn fine and exciting movie. -
39:41 - 39:43The thing is: there's more.
-
39:43 - 39:46Thousands of renegade rebels,
unhappy with what -
39:46 - 39:49they perceive as toadying on
the part of the mainstream rebels -
39:49 - 39:52decide, in a scene guaranteed
to bring tears to even the eyes -
39:52 - 39:54of the most cold-hearted
theatergoers, to stand on -
39:54 - 39:58the planets to be destroyed, link
arms, and sing "Give Peace a Chance." -
39:58 - 40:01They send DVDs of that
to Darth Vader and his -
40:01 - 40:03boss the Grand Moff Tarkin, to whom they
-
40:03 - 40:05also send wave after wave of loving kindness.
-
40:05 - 40:07A the few rebels sneak aboard
the Death Star and lock themselves -
40:07 - 40:09down to various pieces of
equipment. And stirring debates -
40:09 - 40:12are held onscreen as to
whether the rebels should -
40:12 - 40:14voluntarily surrender on approach
of the troopers, or whether -
40:14 - 40:16they should remain locked down to the end.
-
40:17 - 40:20And in a brilliant and
brave touch of authenticity, -
40:20 - 40:23the rebels are never
able to come to consensus. -
40:23 - 40:26But there's more. Once inside the Death
Star, a splinter group breaks off, -
40:26 - 40:30they burn a couple of transporters,
and they etch "Galaxy Liberation Front". -
40:30 - 40:33And then another group breaks
off from that group and they -
40:33 - 40:36finally make it to Darth
Vader's private room. And when -
40:36 - 40:38they get there, they sneak up behind him
-
40:38 - 40:40and then they hit
him with a vegan cream pie. -
40:40 - 40:43And the directors decided
to cut that because -
40:43 - 40:45it was way too close to
-
40:45 - 40:47a scene in another movie they
were developing at the same time -
40:47 - 40:49called "The Plot to Pie Hitler".
-
40:49 - 40:51As the Death Star looms directly
overhead, a few of the rebels -
40:51 - 40:54advocate picking up weapons to fight back.
-
40:54 - 40:56And those rebels are
generally shouted down by -
40:56 - 40:58pacifist rebels who argue that attacking
-
40:58 - 41:00those who run the Death
Star is "just another -
41:00 - 41:02example of the Empire's harmful philosophy
-
41:02 - 41:04coming in by the back door.'
-
41:04 - 41:06"If we want to change
Darth Vader," they say, -
41:06 - 41:08"we must all first become
that change ourselves. -
41:08 - 41:10To change Darth Vader's heart,
we must first change our own. -
41:10 - 41:13We must, above all else,
have compassion for -
41:13 - 41:17Darth Vader, and remember that
he, too, was once a child." -
41:17 - 41:20So finally Leia, Luke, Han, Chewbacca,
and a couple of robots show up -
41:20 - 41:23and tell these others they've found a
way to blow up the whole Death Star. -
41:23 - 41:25And the rest of the rebels,
of course, are just horrified. -
41:25 - 41:28A scuffle breaks out between Leia,
Luke, Han, and Chewbacca and the two -
41:28 - 41:30robots on one side and the
pacifists on the other. -
41:30 - 41:32And the pacifists chase those four
from the room and from the film -
41:32 - 41:34which is not a big deal because
they are minor characters anyway. -
41:34 - 41:36But anyway, the way the
movie ends is that -
41:36 - 41:38the Death Star looms closer
and closer and then you see -
41:38 - 41:40the Death Star, and then
you see the planet, -
41:40 - 41:42and then you see the Death Star,
and then you see the planet, -
41:42 - 41:45and then you see the Death Star
and you see the laser start to glow -
41:45 - 41:47this hellish red, and
then you see the planet again, -
41:47 - 41:49and you see this little light --
-
41:49 - 41:52and what that is: that's the environmentalists
getting away before the planet gets blown up. -
41:52 - 41:54And then you see the Death
Star again and then it -
41:54 - 41:56blows up the planet,
and then, the final -
41:56 - 41:59shot of the movie, which reveals
what complete triumph this was for the -
41:59 - 42:01rebels, is a still showing an
-
42:01 - 42:04article on the lower left of
page 43 of the New Empire Times -
42:04 - 42:07that devotes a full 3 sentences
to the destruction of the planet. -
42:07 - 42:09So it's like, "Yeah we got some press!"
-
42:11 - 42:16Premise IV
-
42:19 - 42:22The culture as a whole and
-
42:22 - 42:28most of its members
are insane. -
42:30 - 42:33The culture is driven by a death urge,
-
42:33 - 42:38an urge to destroy life.
-
43:01 - 43:04- The public really needs
to understand that no combination -
43:04 - 43:09of alternative miracle fuels,
or biodiesel, or ethanol, -
43:09 - 43:14or nuclear, or sun, or solar,
or used french fry potato oil, -
43:14 - 43:19no combination of these things is going to
allow us to keep a happy, motoring society going. -
43:20 - 43:24- We are using up all the very
easily accessed energy sources: -
43:24 - 43:28and we've really built this huge way
of life based on cheap oil, essentially. -
43:30 - 43:34- The world as we know it, which
relies entirely on oil to function, -
43:34 - 43:37is nearing its end.
-
43:38 - 43:42- We are headed for the crash.
That oil is not going to come again. -
44:00 - 44:09Fort McMurray
Alberta, Canada -
44:16 - 44:19- The tar sands are probably one
of the biggest industrial -
44:19 - 44:21projects in the history of mankind.
-
44:22 - 44:24- The tar sands are the largest,
-
44:24 - 44:27most destructive environmental
project on the planet right now. -
44:30 - 44:32- It's oil extraction,
-
44:32 - 44:35it's some of the dirtiest oil on the planet,
-
44:35 - 44:38which means that it takes
the most energy to extract, -
44:38 - 44:42and the reason that we're extracting this
-
44:42 - 44:44this particular brand of dirty, dirty, oil
-
44:44 - 44:47is because there's no other oil left to extract.
-
44:47 - 44:49- Tar sands really aren't oil.
-
44:49 - 44:51Effectively, the process by which you
-
44:51 - 44:53mine and refine tar sands
-
44:53 - 44:56is adding about a hundred
million years of development -
44:56 - 44:58through a synthetic process.
-
44:58 - 45:00The tar sands deposit
is an area that covers -
45:00 - 45:03the size of the state of
New York, or larger than England -
45:03 - 45:05is already considered the largest industrial project
-
45:05 - 45:07in human history, and it's barely begun.
-
45:09 - 45:12- They extract it from the sand by
-
45:12 - 45:15steaming and heating water,
basically boiling it... -
45:15 - 45:20...so the oil sits on top of the water like a froth,
-
45:20 - 45:23then they scrape it off, and that's the bitumen.
-
45:24 - 45:28- There's mining processes
and in situ processes, -
45:28 - 45:30and both of them are pretty
much trying to extract -
45:30 - 45:32bitumen out of the sand.
-
45:33 - 45:36- To produce one barrel of oil
-
45:36 - 45:38you have to first, after
you've cleared off the ground -
45:38 - 45:40and broken all the trees down
and so forth, then dig a pit, -
45:40 - 45:43which can be up to two hundred feet deep.
-
45:43 - 45:45For each barrel of oil, there's
four barrels of water used, -
45:45 - 45:47in a process called a slurry
-
45:47 - 45:49where you spin it at a high speed,
-
45:49 - 45:51high velocity, with high
temperatures of water, -
45:51 - 45:54to separate the bitumen,
which is the pre-synthetic oil, -
45:54 - 45:57from the sands itself,
and all the clays and silts. -
45:57 - 45:59But that's after you've already
dug out what has to be -
45:59 - 46:01to be hundreds of tons of Earth.
-
46:03 - 46:07- The energy that's required to
actually do that is approximately, -
46:07 - 46:09people say for almost every barrel of oil you need
-
46:09 - 46:12about a half a barrel of energy just
to produce this, -
46:12 - 46:14so for every barrel of energy input,
-
46:14 - 46:16two barrels of oil are produced,
-
46:16 - 46:18whereas with conventional
crude it was very, -
46:18 - 46:20very minor in terms of the energy
-
46:20 - 46:23that's inputted to actually
get the crude oil out. -
46:23 - 46:26So the ratio that's most important to
talk about is a ratio you could use -
46:26 - 46:30in a country like Iraq, where for
each barrel of oil you use to try to -
46:30 - 46:34get more oil you'll get about
a hundred barrels back. -
46:38 - 46:43Fort Chipewyan
Alberta, Canada -
46:53 - 46:56- The Athabasca River, which runs
through northern Alberta, -
46:56 - 47:00where you have many different native
communities living along the river, -
47:00 - 47:05is being sucked of its water to
fuel the tar sands operations. -
47:07 - 47:10- Because of the contamination of the river
-
47:10 - 47:13from oil sands discharges
-
47:13 - 47:16of things like oil and grease and
-
47:16 - 47:18untreated sewage into the Athabasca River,
-
47:18 - 47:20and sometimes there's accidents,
-
47:20 - 47:22spills of these toxic chemicals
-
47:22 - 47:25directly into the Athabasca Rivers.
-
47:27 - 47:29- The community of Fort Chipewyan,
both the Mikisew Cree -
47:29 - 47:32and the Dene Chipewyan First Nation,
-
47:32 - 47:34who have been fighting
and really at the front -
47:34 - 47:36of raising the alarm about what's happening,
-
47:36 - 47:39and their community has been seeing all of this
-
47:39 - 47:43rise in rare cancers, autoimmune diseases,
-
47:43 - 47:47arsenic in the land,
the moose meat, the fish -
47:47 - 47:50are at high levels of
heavy metals, mercuries, -
47:50 - 47:54basically the whole environment
up there is contaminated. -
47:56 - 47:58- How this is effecting my community is that
-
47:58 - 48:01it's killing off the people of Fort Chipewyan.
-
48:01 - 48:05It's what I've called before
"a slow, industrial genocide." -
48:05 - 48:07I buried my auntie,
-
48:07 - 48:10I buried my uncle, I got
an auntie living with it. -
48:10 - 48:13And this is a war for our lives,
-
48:13 - 48:15because the government is allowing
-
48:15 - 48:18the people of Fort Chip to die.
-
48:18 - 48:20- The tar sands are not only fueling
-
48:20 - 48:24the second fastest rate of deforestation
-
48:24 - 48:26in the world outside of
the Amazon River basin, -
48:26 - 48:28they're already the second fastest
-
48:28 - 48:30contributor to climate
change in North America. -
48:30 - 48:33And with the goals of production that
they're talking about, the CO2 emissions -
48:33 - 48:35will make it so the only way
-
48:35 - 48:38you could outstrip a
climate change contributor -
48:38 - 48:40for North America would
be to combine all -
48:41 - 48:43the coal-fired power plants from
-
48:43 - 48:46Alberta to Arizona and in between,
across all of North America. -
48:47 - 48:49- I think that the tar
sands is the absurdity -
48:49 - 48:52of still desiring oil
-
48:52 - 48:54when we know so well
-
48:54 - 48:56that, for example, fresh water is just
-
48:56 - 48:58an elemental part of human existence
-
48:58 - 49:00and they're running full force towards
-
49:00 - 49:03extracting these last little bits of oil
-
49:03 - 49:05to sustain this plastic culture,
-
49:05 - 49:07this plastic civilization,
-
49:07 - 49:10to the destruction of the environment
in which we can live. -
49:12 - 49:14- People say it's like the
world's addicted to crack, -
49:14 - 49:18and this is like the dirtiest
and most disgusting form of crack -
49:18 - 49:20that'll keep it addicted
for a lot longer, right. -
49:20 - 49:22This is actually what it is.
-
49:22 - 49:25It is the most insane
thing that people are doing. -
49:31 - 49:33- We probably agree that civilization's
-
49:33 - 49:36going to crash, whether or
not we help bring this about. -
49:36 - 49:39If you don't agree with this, we
probably have nothing to say to each other. -
49:39 - 49:42We probably also agree that
this crash will be messy. -
49:42 - 49:47We agree further that since industrial
civilization is systematically dismantling -
49:47 - 49:49the ecological infrastructure of the planet...
-
49:49 - 49:52...the sooner civilization comes down,
whether or not we help it crash, -
49:52 - 49:55the more life will remain afterwards
to support both humans and nonhumans. -
49:57 - 50:02Figure IV
-
50:06 - 50:09- The genesis of Endgame, the book,
-
50:09 - 50:12was really because I did some talks
-
50:12 - 50:15around the possibility of fighting back.
-
50:15 - 50:18And the response by the
audience was really predictable. -
50:18 - 50:21If it was an audience made up of
sort of mainstream environmentalists -
50:21 - 50:23and peace and social justice activists,
-
50:23 - 50:27often, they would put up what
I've taken to calling a "Gandhi shield". -
50:27 - 50:30Which is, they would say the names "Martin
Luther King", "Dalai Lama", and "Gandhi" -
50:30 - 50:33again and again, as fast as they can,
to keep all evil thoughts at bay. -
50:34 - 50:37And if it was grassroots environmentalists,
-
50:37 - 50:39they would do the same thing
but then they would come -
50:39 - 50:41up to me afterwards and they would say,
-
50:41 - 50:44WHISPERING "Thank you so much
for bringing this up." -
50:44 - 50:48Pacifying Resistance
-
50:49 - 50:52- Especially in North America,
the pacifists and non-violent -
50:52 - 50:56advocates have had a very defining role,
-
50:56 - 50:58and even a censoring role, in determining
-
50:58 - 51:00what other people's participation can be
-
51:00 - 51:04in a whole range of social struggles, and
-
51:04 - 51:07that the way that they've
affected social struggles -
51:07 - 51:10has made it very much easier for the state
-
51:10 - 51:12to control those social struggles,
-
51:12 - 51:15that non-violence plays a function
-
51:15 - 51:17of recuperating social struggles,
-
51:17 - 51:20of taking out their teeth
and making them harmless, -
51:20 - 51:25so that they can just exist in
this cesspool of democratic plurality. -
51:27 - 51:30- I wonder, what happens to
that kind of energy or -
51:30 - 51:34idealism or faith that something
is about to change -
51:34 - 51:37when it's certainly not going to change at all?
-
51:39 - 51:41- What are the false hopes that
keep us tied to the system? -
51:41 - 51:43What are the false
hopes that bind us to -
51:43 - 51:46unlivable situations and
blind us to real possibilities? -
51:46 - 51:49Does anybody really think that
Weyerhauser's going to stop, -
51:49 - 51:51deforesting because we asked nicely
-
51:51 - 51:54that Monsanto will stop Monsantoing
because we ask nicely? -
51:54 - 51:56I was talking to this person in the
States several years ago and they said, -
51:56 - 51:59"If we can just get a Democrat in the
White House, things are going to be OK." -
52:01 - 52:03- We've got a couple of myths
on the left that I would -
52:03 - 52:06REALLY encourage us to get over.
-
52:06 - 52:09The first is that social change
happens by moral suasion. -
52:09 - 52:12It doesn't. It happens by force.
-
52:14 - 52:17- The problem with persuasion
as a strategy is that -
52:17 - 52:20it only works on people who can actually
-
52:20 - 52:23be convinced, and who can be
-
52:23 - 52:25relied upon to act from their position
-
52:25 - 52:27after their minds have been changed.
-
52:27 - 52:30And the problem is that we're not dealing with
-
52:30 - 52:32individuals who can be convinced or persuaded,
-
52:32 - 52:35we're dealing mostly with large,
-
52:35 - 52:39abstract, social organizations,
and corporations which are -
52:39 - 52:43basically sociopaths made out
of huge numbers of people. -
52:45 - 52:48- You can't argue with psychopaths,
you can't argue with fascists, -
52:48 - 52:50and you can't argue with those
-
52:50 - 52:54who are benefiting from an economic system.
-
52:54 - 52:56You have to stop them through
some form of force, -
52:56 - 52:58and that force can be violent or nonviolent.
-
52:58 - 53:01Could you have stopped Ted
Bundy by peaceful means? -
53:04 - 53:07- The Left, to a large extent subconsciously,
-
53:07 - 53:09has as its primary role
-
53:09 - 53:12to make resistance harmless.
-
53:12 - 53:15States have recognized that
-
53:15 - 53:18resistance will never disappear,
that struggles will never disappear -
53:18 - 53:21and in the past they
tried suppressing struggles -
53:21 - 53:25the first time that they
showed their heads, that there was -
53:25 - 53:27any sign of them, and
that proved ineffective. -
53:27 - 53:30So nowadays that way
that states rule is by -
53:30 - 53:33accepting the inevitability
of conflict and resistance, -
53:33 - 53:36and just trying to manage it permanently.
-
53:36 - 53:39"Keep the march going,
there's nothing happening here! -
53:39 - 53:42There's nothing happening,
just one more line of police, -
53:42 - 53:45so please keep the march going!"
-
53:46 - 53:49- Social movements in North America are locked
-
53:49 - 53:53into this pacifist doctrine that is imposed by
-
53:53 - 53:55the middle class reformists
-
53:55 - 53:58who want to control
the movement and dictate -
53:58 - 54:01how it conducts itself.
-
54:04 - 54:07- Advocates of nonviolence
frequently say that nonviolence -
54:07 - 54:09works, and the principal
examples that they use of that -
54:09 - 54:12are Gandhi in India and Martin
Luther King in the U.S. -
54:12 - 54:15The problem with that is,
this constitutes a really great -
54:15 - 54:19historical whitewashing,
that in fact the resistance in -
54:19 - 54:21India was incredibly
diverse, and Gandhi was -
54:21 - 54:23a very important figure
within that resistance, -
54:23 - 54:27but the resistance was by no
means pacifist in its entirety. -
54:28 - 54:31- Gandhi gets used as a way
to shut down conversation. -
54:33 - 54:36- Especially in the West,
Gandhi is used as a way -
54:36 - 54:38to quell any ideas of
-
54:38 - 54:41either direct action or what's
perceived as violence or, -
54:41 - 54:43sort of, you know, resistance that
-
54:43 - 54:46goes beyond what is seen as a sort of a
-
54:46 - 54:50pacifist or a peaceful means of resistance.
-
54:50 - 54:53- For years, I really bought into the whole
-
54:53 - 54:56Gandhian myth that is really sort of
-
54:56 - 55:00forced down the throats of
activists in the United States, -
55:00 - 55:03and the people who disabused
me of that myth were -
55:03 - 55:05when I first actually
met some people from India. -
55:05 - 55:08The people I talked to
certainly didn't deify him, -
55:08 - 55:11and many of them despised him.
-
55:11 - 55:14And they felt he was a
collaborator and he was somebody -
55:14 - 55:16whom the British could work with.
-
55:20 - 55:22- Gandhi's very well known in the West,
-
55:22 - 55:25but when you go to India, there's
a freedom fighter and revolutionary -
55:25 - 55:27leader called Bhagat Singh,
-
55:27 - 55:31who's in India probably
almost as well known as Gandhi -
55:31 - 55:33as a part of
-
55:33 - 55:36the independence movement and a
leader in the independence movement. -
55:36 - 55:40But in the West, most people
probably have never heard his name. -
55:40 - 55:43And the reason why that is, is that he used
-
55:43 - 55:45direct action tactics.
-
55:45 - 55:48There were generals of the
British army that were killed; -
55:48 - 55:51there was a bomb thrown
in a British assembly to -
55:51 - 55:54basically attract the
attention of the public; -
55:54 - 55:58there were weapons that people
were getting off of railway cars. -
56:01 - 56:03- With Gandhi and the
Indian National Congress, -
56:03 - 56:06where you had the moderates
and the extremists, -
56:06 - 56:09the moderates were legal;
constitutional reform -
56:09 - 56:11was their only method,
-
56:11 - 56:15and they were criticized for
being a middle class clique, -
56:15 - 56:19for being too slow,
for being too legalistic, -
56:19 - 56:21and for being basically ineffective.
-
56:21 - 56:24The extremists, on the other
hand, were accused of being -
56:24 - 56:28too aggressive, of being too fast
and reckless and irresponsible. -
56:29 - 56:32- Gandhi basically got negotiating power
-
56:32 - 56:36from the fact that there were
other elements in the struggle -
56:36 - 56:39which were even more
threatening to British dominance. -
56:39 - 56:42So the British specifically
chose to dialogue with -
56:42 - 56:45Gandhi because he was,
perhaps for them, the least -
56:45 - 56:48threatening of the important
elements of resistance. -
56:48 - 56:52- Gandhi came in as
being the middleman. -
56:52 - 56:55His theory of nonviolent,
passive resistance -
56:55 - 56:59seemed to be a bridge between
the extremists and the moderates. -
56:59 - 57:02- The British were bled white after WWII,
-
57:02 - 57:05and didn't have the
morale left anymore for -
57:05 - 57:08a big fight, and they
helped choose somebody -
57:08 - 57:10that they could work with.
-
57:10 - 57:14They knew a revolution was coming and they
wanted to blunt it as much as they could. -
57:14 - 57:17- India went from being
a colony to a neocolony. -
57:17 - 57:20The British were still able to
maintain their interests, less directly, -
57:20 - 57:26with Indians being in
positions of management. -
57:31 - 57:33- My problem isn't with
-
57:33 - 57:37somebody doing nonviolent
actions, it never has been. -
57:37 - 57:39I mean, I say all the
time that we need it all. -
57:39 - 57:42My problem is that
-
57:42 - 57:46so many pacifists, especially
in the United States, -
57:46 - 57:50end up not supporting
-
57:50 - 57:52more radical or militant work.
-
57:54 - 57:57- The problem when this
debate comes up is that -
57:57 - 58:01you can't just assume
that people that are -
58:01 - 58:04resisting and are using
a means of resistance -
58:04 - 58:07haven't thought about what
they're doing. And that's what -
58:07 - 58:09I think is often the
problem. When people -
58:09 - 58:12decide to take certain actions
and when people decide -
58:12 - 58:14that, "Hey, you know,
our marches aren't enough," -
58:14 - 58:16or they're doing this or doing that,
-
58:16 - 58:18there's this assumption
by a lot of people that -
58:18 - 58:22want to toe the Gandhi line that,
"Oh, they're just not thinking about it." -
58:23 - 58:26- What most states will choose
to do in similar circumstances -
58:26 - 58:29is to find the elements
of the resistance -
58:29 - 58:32that are most easy to control
and most easy to co-opt, -
58:32 - 58:36to negotiate with them, and then
to hand over power to THEM in order -
58:36 - 58:39to continue the system
that had already existed. -
58:42 - 58:44- So again, you have the state
doing the same thing it did -
58:44 - 58:47with Gandhi and Martin Luther
King it does with, for example, -
58:47 - 58:50the environmental movement. So
it invites the responsible leaders -
58:50 - 58:53of the environmental
movement into inquiries, -
58:53 - 58:57government commissions,
debates. It recognizes them -- -
58:57 - 58:59they're the legitimate leaders --
because again, -
58:59 - 59:04it doesn't want the movement to begin to
adopt more militant resistance tactics. -
59:04 - 59:07- The powerful do not ever
give up without a struggle. -
59:07 - 59:09Those are the famous
words of Frederick Douglass -
59:09 - 59:12when he said, "Power concedes
nothing without a demand. -
59:12 - 59:14It never has, and it never will."
-
59:22 - 59:26Figure V
-
59:28 - 59:32If we use more efficient electricity,
-
59:32 - 59:34appliances, we can save this much
-
59:34 - 59:37off of the global warming pollution that
-
59:37 - 59:40would otherwise be put
into the atmosphere. -
59:40 - 59:43If we use other end-use
efficiency this much, -
59:43 - 59:46if we have higher-mileage
cars, this much. -
59:46 - 59:48And all these begin to add up:
-
59:48 - 59:51other transport efficiency,
renewable technology. -
59:51 - 59:54We have everything we need,
-
59:54 - 59:57save, perhaps, political will.
-
59:57 - 60:00But you know what, in
America, political will -
60:00 - 60:02is a renewable resource.
-
60:05 - 60:07- When we see solutions,
all the so-called solutions -
60:07 - 60:09put forward to global
warming, the thing -
60:09 - 60:11they all have in common
is that they take -
60:11 - 60:14industrial civilization
as a given, and they take -
60:14 - 60:18the natural world as
the dependent variable. -
60:18 - 60:20It's all about saving civilization.
-
60:20 - 60:22And that's entirely backwards.
-
60:22 - 60:25What it should be is:
we need to do whatever -
60:25 - 60:29it takes to save
life on the planet. -
60:31 - 60:33- In the next 40 to 50 years,
we're going to see the -
60:33 - 60:36extinction of more species
than we've seen in the past -
60:36 - 60:3865 million years.
-
60:38 - 60:41That, to me, is a red light,
-
60:41 - 60:45and a siren going off
as a call to people -
60:45 - 60:47who will cut through the crap and
-
60:47 - 60:49do what is necessary
to protect the Earth -
60:49 - 60:52for here and now, and
for future generations. -
60:52 - 60:54It is you that are going
to have to answer to your -
60:54 - 60:56children, 50-75 years from now
-
60:56 - 60:59when they ask what you
did during the eco-wars. -
60:59 - 61:02And in that sense,
-
61:02 - 61:05each one of us has to live the life
-
61:05 - 61:08today, at this very moment, doing the things
-
61:08 - 61:11that we would be proud to tell our ancestors about.
-
61:12 - 61:14If we are serious about saving life on Earth
-
61:14 - 61:17we've got to start fighting back
-
61:17 - 61:21in the ways that people do
when they realize they need -
61:21 - 61:23to form a serious resistance movement.
-
61:24 - 61:27- Most indigenous populations
who maintain any -
61:27 - 61:30sense of a traditional worldview
-
61:30 - 61:34know that the way of life that
-
61:34 - 61:37settlers society has imposed on this
-
61:37 - 61:39land is unsustainable.
-
61:39 - 61:42Yet, there has been a sense
-
61:42 - 61:44that we really need to kind of
-
61:44 - 61:46wait until it collapses,
-
61:46 - 61:49or wait until they're done doing,
-
61:49 - 61:51or they've reached their
limit and they can't -
61:51 - 61:54continue the way that
they've been going on, -
61:54 - 61:56and be patient.
-
61:57 - 62:03Fuck patience
-
62:11 - 62:14I think really the big problem is power,
-
62:14 - 62:16and that's something liberals
have a lot of trouble kind of -
62:16 - 62:18thinking about or wrapping
their heads around. -
62:18 - 62:20And the problem is that
this culture has -
62:20 - 62:23clearly defined hierarchy.
There are people -
62:23 - 62:26who are clearly in power,
and who benefit -
62:26 - 62:28from power, and benefit
from destroying the planet, -
62:28 - 62:31and who benefit from
exploiting other people, -
62:31 - 62:33and they've been doing
that for a long time. -
62:33 - 62:37And their power is more important
to them than anything else. -
62:37 - 62:40- There is no personal
consumer choice that is -
62:40 - 62:43going to dismantle the systems of
-
62:43 - 62:46power that are behind the
destruction of our planet. -
62:46 - 62:49What we need is organized
political resistance. -
62:49 - 62:51- You cannot just simply ask
the state for these reforms, -
62:51 - 62:53or for any kind of gains or concessions,
-
62:53 - 62:55you have to force them to do it.
-
62:55 - 62:57And that's the power of disruption.
-
62:58 - 63:00It was a bloody day at the Mohawk Indian
-
63:00 - 63:02community in Oka, Quebec, near Montreal.
-
63:02 - 63:04"Provincial police in riot gear stormed
-
63:04 - 63:06the barricades the Mohawks had set up.
-
63:06 - 63:09There were clouds of tear
gas, a hail of bullets, -
63:09 - 63:11and in the midst of the battle, a policeman
-
63:11 - 63:14was killed. All this because of
-
63:14 - 63:17a dispute over a piece of
forest the Indians claim is theirs, -
63:17 - 63:20a forest town council wants to bulldoze
-
63:20 - 63:22to expand the local golf course."
-
63:22 - 63:24"Police retreated as
abruptly as they'd attacked, -
63:24 - 63:27leaving behind their cruisers.
They also left a heavy -
63:27 - 63:29front-end loader which the Mohawks
-
63:29 - 63:31immediately put to their own use.
-
63:31 - 63:33The police cruisers, crushed and useless,
-
63:33 - 63:35became barricades themselves."
-
63:36 - 63:39We treat these trees and
the land like our mother. -
63:39 - 63:42These people are raping our mother.
-
63:42 - 63:45What would you do if
they raped your mother? -
63:47 - 63:49- These politicians are servants of the
-
63:49 - 63:52system; it's their job to keep
it going, it's their job -
63:52 - 63:54to keep profit rolling
in for the ruling class. -
63:54 - 63:57And they will never, ever, act in the
-
63:57 - 64:00people's interests or the interests of the planet.
-
64:00 - 64:02It doesn't matter what we say,
-
64:02 - 64:04the only thing that they
will respond to is -
64:04 - 64:06force, and the threat
of social disruption. -
64:06 - 64:09And if we allow them to stay in power,
-
64:09 - 64:11they will always take back any gain
-
64:11 - 64:13that we manage to get from them.
-
64:13 - 64:15- It's really important
to recognize that -
64:15 - 64:17no struggle is done,
-
64:17 - 64:19that there's not any possibility
-
64:19 - 64:22of any lasting victory
as long as the state -
64:22 - 64:24still exists, but we can
definitely see in the histories -
64:24 - 64:26of struggle, small gains have been won,
-
64:26 - 64:28and ways in which we've
empowered ourselves -
64:28 - 64:30by the use of all tactics, and I think
-
64:30 - 64:33it's not even important to
-
64:33 - 64:36really say if a particular tactic is
-
64:36 - 64:38violent or not because this is just
-
64:38 - 64:41kind of a moral category
meant to restrict action. -
64:41 - 64:43I think it's more important to look
-
64:43 - 64:46at which tactics can be empowering,
-
64:46 - 64:48and liberating, and useful.
-
64:52 - 64:55- Purely above-ground
means are designed to -
64:55 - 64:58facilitate the expansion
of global capitalism. -
64:59 - 65:01- These are serious power structures
-
65:01 - 65:03that are making vast sums of money.
-
65:03 - 65:05They are backed up by
-
65:05 - 65:07the power of the armed
state in every way imaginable. -
65:07 - 65:09They've got armies on
their side, they own -
65:09 - 65:12the mass media, the banks,
all the money is on their side. -
65:12 - 65:15- If there's any doubt
about the leadership that -
65:15 - 65:18our military is showing,
you just need to look at -
65:18 - 65:20this F-18 fighter
-
65:20 - 65:23and the light-armored vehicle behind it.
-
65:24 - 65:26The army and marine
corps have been testing -
65:26 - 65:30this vehicle on a mixture of biofuels,
-
65:30 - 65:33and this navy fighter jet
-
65:33 - 65:36appropriately called the "Green Hornet"
-
65:36 - 65:39will be flown for the first time in just
-
65:39 - 65:41a few days, on Earth Day.
-
65:41 - 65:44- Crazy Horse one-eight,
request permission to engage. -
65:44 - 65:46- Picking up the wounded?
-
65:46 - 65:48- Yeah, we're trying to
get permission to engage. -
65:49 - 65:51- Come on, let us shoot!
-
65:52 - 65:54- Bushmaster, Crazy Horse one-eight.
-
65:57 - 65:59- They're taking him.
-
66:00 - 66:02- Bushmaster, Crazy Horse one-eight.
-
66:04 - 66:06- This is Bushmaster seven, go ahead.
-
66:06 - 66:10- Roger. We have a black SUV,
or Bongo truck picking -
66:10 - 66:12up the bodies. Request
permission to engage. -
66:15 - 66:19- Bushmaster seven, roger. This is
Bushmaster seven, roger. Engage. -
66:19 - 66:21- One-eight, engage. Clear.
-
66:21 - 66:23- Come on!
-
66:25 - 66:27- Clear.
-
66:44 - 66:46So if the law will
not do the right thing, -
66:46 - 66:49other people will have
to do the right thing, -
66:49 - 66:51and they'll have to do the right thing by
-
66:51 - 66:53breaking the law. And that
-
66:53 - 66:55precedent has been set many times
-
66:55 - 66:57throughout our history: the people
-
66:57 - 66:59who saved the Jews
from the German Nazis -
66:59 - 67:02broke the law for
higher ethical purpose. -
67:02 - 67:04The people who liberated slaves in our
-
67:04 - 67:07country through the
underground railroad system -
67:07 - 67:10to protect them from slave masters and a
-
67:10 - 67:13very barbaric law in
the United States at that time. -
67:13 - 67:15They did the right thing.
They broke the law -
67:15 - 67:17for higher ethical purpose.
-
67:20 - 67:22- We need to start and get out there
-
67:22 - 67:27and go beyond hitting "Like" on
Facebook and signing online petitions. -
67:27 - 67:30We need to be out there
in the real world fighting back. -
67:31 - 67:33- I think one of the things
that we really have to accept -
67:33 - 67:36and internalize is that
the majority of institutions, -
67:36 - 67:38and the majority of people,
-
67:38 - 67:40are never going to be on our side.
-
67:41 - 67:43And so we have to sit down --
-
67:43 - 67:45as individual activists
-
67:45 - 67:47and as communities of resistance,
-
67:47 - 67:49as a culture of resistance --
and we have to say -
67:49 - 67:53"Okay, well, what will it take to stop
this culture from destroying the planet?" -
67:53 - 67:55You know, part of the
answer is obviously that -
67:55 - 67:58persuasion hasn't worked and persuasion
-
67:58 - 68:01is not going to work.
If we want to be... -
68:01 - 68:04...successful, then we have to
look at what resistance -
68:04 - 68:07movements in the past have done,
and what they've learned -
68:07 - 68:09and kind of the different phases
-
68:09 - 68:11that they've gone through
as they've tried to -
68:11 - 68:14assert themselves and
try to be successful. -
68:15 - 68:17- When I say "organize
political resistance," -
68:17 - 68:19I mean we need to
face power head-on. -
68:19 - 68:21Once you name power,
-
68:21 - 68:23you will find that
power is sociopathic, -
68:23 - 68:25that the people in
charge will do whatever -
68:26 - 68:28it takes to shut you up.
-
68:29 - 68:31- The thing about when
you enter into a greater -
68:31 - 68:33period of social conflict,
-
68:33 - 68:36what you don't want
is people promoting -
68:36 - 68:38non-violence because
that's going to disarm -
68:38 - 68:41the people -- it's going to
disarm the people in the face -
68:41 - 68:43of an aggressive enemy,
and in the face -
68:43 - 68:45of hard social conditions.
-
68:45 - 68:48You want them to have
a stronger fighting spirit -
68:48 - 68:50because without a fighting spirit,
-
68:50 - 68:52you lack the will to resist.
-
68:56 - 68:58- The smartest thing the Nazis did was
-
68:58 - 69:00they made it so that at every
step of the way, it was in the Jews' -
69:00 - 69:02rational best interest to not resist.
-
69:02 - 69:04Would you rather get an ID card,
-
69:04 - 69:06or do you want to resist
and possibly get killed? -
69:06 - 69:08Do you want to move to a ghetto,
-
69:08 - 69:10or do you want to resist
and possibly get killed? -
69:10 - 69:12Do you want to get on a cattle car,
-
69:12 - 69:14or do you want to resist
and possibly get killed? -
69:14 - 69:16You want to take a shower,
-
69:16 - 69:18or do you want to resist
and possibly get killed? -
69:18 - 69:20At every step of the way,
it was in their -
69:20 - 69:22rational self-interest
to not resist. -
69:23 - 69:25But I'll tell you
something very important, -
69:25 - 69:28which is: the Jews who participated
in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising -
69:28 - 69:31had a higher rate of survival
than those who went along. -
69:32 - 69:36- I think that if any of us were
alive in Nazi Germany right now, -
69:36 - 69:39we would know what a resistance
movement should be doing. -
69:39 - 69:41And we need to think about
-
69:41 - 69:44the culture of industrial civilization
-
69:44 - 69:47as if it's a culture of occupation,
-
69:47 - 69:49because it is.
-
70:06 - 70:11Figure VI
-
70:21 - 70:24- If Nazis or other fascists
took over North America, -
70:27 - 70:29what would we all do?
-
70:31 - 70:34What would we do if they implemented
Mussolini's definition of fascism: -
70:34 - 70:36"Fascism should more appropriately
be called corporatism -
70:36 - 70:38because it is a merger of
state and corporate power." -
70:48 - 70:50What if this occupied country
called itself a democracy, -
70:50 - 70:53but most everyone understood
elections to be shams, -
70:53 - 70:56with citizens allowed to choose between
different wings of the same fascists, -
70:56 - 70:58(or, following Mussolini, Corporate) party.
-
70:59 - 71:02What if anti-government activity was
opposed by storm troopers and secret police? -
71:02 - 71:04Would you fight back?
-
71:04 - 71:07If there already existed a resistance
movement, would you join it? -
71:09 - 71:13Would you resist if the fascists irradiated
the countryside, poisoned food supplies, -
71:13 - 71:15made rivers unfit for
swimming and so filthy -
71:15 - 71:17you wouldn't even dream
of drinking from anymore? -
71:19 - 71:22If fascists systematically
deforested the continent, would you join -
71:22 - 71:25an underground army of resistance,
head to the forests, and from there -
71:25 - 71:28to boardrooms and the halls of the
Reichstag to pick off the occupying deforesters -
71:28 - 71:31and, most especially, those that
give them their marching orders? -
71:37 - 71:39Give me a threshold.
Give me a specific point -
71:39 - 71:41at which you'll finally take a stand.
-
71:41 - 71:45If you can't or won't
give that threshold, why not? -
71:47 - 71:52Directed, filmed, produced, and edited
by Franklin Lopez -
71:52 - 71:56Inspired by Endgame
Volumes I and II by Derrick Jensen -
71:57 - 71:59LYRICS: When I face the page,
I place the rage, -
71:59 - 72:02place it into stasis
rather than erase it. -
72:02 - 72:04That's the basis
cover all the bases, -
72:04 - 72:07watch what you say on the cell,
they gonna trace it. -
72:07 - 72:09Stacked deck
don't expect any aces, -
72:09 - 72:12camera eyes watch you
in public places, -
72:12 - 72:14and I hate this,
so I take this -
72:14 - 72:16mic and I write
like these words, -
72:16 - 72:18and my legs and they walk me through my paces,
-
72:18 - 72:21people chase it, glittery lights but I've seen the heights.
-
72:21 - 72:23My time is not wasted, I'm tracing the sky,
-
72:23 - 72:25I read all the smoke
that I toke to meet -
72:25 - 72:27all the spaces of mind in time.
-
72:27 - 72:30Look, just face it,
this life is mine, -
72:30 - 72:32that's why I'm not
racing the finish line. -
72:32 - 72:34Will come the time, the moment designed
-
72:34 - 72:36to shine i won't replace it
-
72:36 - 72:39So I take my time, grind it up and break it,
-
72:39 - 72:41roll it up so fine, light it up and blaze it.
-
72:41 - 72:43Smoking blunts, smoke 'em up,
end times -
72:43 - 72:45on the grind training for the signs
-
72:45 - 72:47Take your fist and raise it up to the sky.
-
72:47 - 72:49See the fire in her eye.
-
72:49 - 72:51Do or do not do there is no try.
-
72:51 - 72:54Hard to find what's true, that is no life.
-
72:54 - 72:56They clipped your wings, how you gonna fly?
-
72:56 - 72:59You gonna lie?
You gonna die, -
72:59 - 73:01so until that day,
are you gonna try? -
73:01 - 73:03One by one
we multiply. -
73:03 - 73:06Eyes to the sun,
just let it shine now. -
73:06 - 73:09Now get into it
-
73:09 - 73:11Now choose
your side -
73:11 - 73:13We got
to do it, -
73:13 - 73:15The time
is right -
73:16 - 73:19Now get into it
-
73:19 - 73:20Now change
your life -
73:20 - 73:23Only you
can do it -
73:23 - 73:25The time
is right -
73:34 - 73:36Anymore pollution
and you're
going to fry, -
73:36 - 73:39so get into it,
it's do or die. -
73:39 - 73:41Without action,
factions of crews
divide, -
73:41 - 73:44but you can't
be stupid
if you
choose to ride. -
73:44 - 73:46And you can't
ride the fence,
better choose
your side. -
73:46 - 73:48Keep doing
what you're told,
or do
what's right. -
73:48 - 73:51You going
to roll over
or you going
to fight? -
73:51 - 73:53No justice
no peace,
the war's
tonight, -
73:53 - 73:56and I'm a
poltergeist,
you know,
a violent spirit, -
73:56 - 73:59the product
of a world
with too much
violence in it. -
73:59 - 74:02So many
people, trees,
animals are
dying a minute. -
74:02 - 74:04Can't ask
them to stop,
they ain't trying
to hear it. -
74:04 - 74:06Until we get
physical,
they ain't
gonna fear it. -
74:06 - 74:09To go to war
with the machines,
start tryin' to kill it. -
74:09 - 74:11Until it dies,
everyday's
a violent day. -
74:11 - 74:14And they
expect you
to protest in
silence and stay -
74:14 - 74:16pacifist and
uneffective
while we die
and decay. -
74:16 - 74:19We need
to rise up,
fuck kneeling
to pray. -
74:19 - 74:21Preachers
and teachers
lead us astray, -
74:21 - 74:23politicians
and cops
all they say is: -
74:23 - 74:26"Obey your
corporate masters,
buy what
they've got on
display." -
74:26 - 74:29Stop buying
their shit
and start
making
them pay. -
74:29 - 74:31To hell
with their
games --
we ain't
gonna play. -
74:31 - 74:34Let's fight
them 'till
they kill us or
they take us away. -
74:34 - 74:36Start throwing
molotovs,
stop throwing
bouquets. -
74:36 - 74:39Take it to
those bastards
like Ted Kaczynski. -
74:39 - 74:41Monkeywrench machines
and write communiques -
74:41 - 74:44on walls with spraypaint
just big circle A's! -
74:44 - 74:46Now get into it
-
74:46 - 74:49Now choose your side
-
74:49 - 74:51We got to do it
-
74:51 - 74:54The time is right
-
74:54 - 74:56Now get into it
-
74:56 - 74:59Now change your life
-
74:59 - 75:01Only you can do it
-
75:01 - 75:03The time is right
- Title:
- END:CIV - Resist or Die - WWW.ENDCIV.COM
- Description:
-
http://endciv.com
END:CIV examines our culture's addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: "If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?"The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As we write this, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day, the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don't have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system — it seems to be coming apart already.
But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future.
Backed by Jensen's narrative, the film calls on us to act as if we truly love this land. The film trips along at a brisk pace, using music, archival footage, motion graphics, animation, slapstick and satire to deconstruct the global economic system, even as it implodes around us. END:CIV illustrates first-person stories of sacrifice and heroism with intense, emotionally-charged images that match Jensen's poetic and intuitive approach. Scenes shot in the back country provide interludes of breathtaking natural beauty alongside clearcut evidence of horrific but commonplace destruction.
END:CIV features interviews with Paul Watson, Waziyatawin, Gord Hill, Michael Becker, Peter Gelderloos, Lierre Keith, James Howard Kunstler, Stephanie McMillan, Qwatsinas, Rod Coronado, John Zerzan and more.
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 01:15:51
submedia edited English subtitles for END:CIV - Resist or Die - WWW.ENDCIV.COM | ||
submedia edited English subtitles for END:CIV - Resist or Die - WWW.ENDCIV.COM | ||
submedia edited English subtitles for END:CIV - Resist or Die - WWW.ENDCIV.COM |