Endgame

You know the feeling you get when something is wrong, but you can't quite put your finger on it, or maybe you think you know but you can't quite articulate it well enough, or maybe what you think scares you because of the enormity of the consequences of your acceptance of a problem or situation? 

Maybe, just maybe, I've found a book which will help me to accept, contextualise and articulate my thoughts and words on something that is on my mind - Derrick Jensen's Endgame : Volume 1, The Problem of Civilisation.

So what is on my mind? I'm interested, very interested, in environmental issues. Specifically, there's the issue that most 'developed' and indeed 'developing' countries are fixated on continued and probably endless economic growth in a world where there are finite, and in many cases, dwindling, resources.

Nobody, especially our puppet leaders, seem able to mention the unthinkable - that endless growth cannot possibly continue, and that the environmental damage we're doing to the planet - our home - is so immense and that most western civilisations are able to 'outsource' the worst, lowest paid jobs, and much of the destruction and degradation to 'less important', less visible and less vocal parts of the world.

Endgame essentially says that the problem is that 'civilisation' cannot be sustainable and never has been, and goes on to explain this and other related matters in great detail. If you accept what the book is about, and in all honesty, I would defy most rationally minded people not to, then some very deep and awkward questions sit in your mind.

I'll be exploring some of these in due course, but suffice to say, this book is a game changer, if not a life changer for me. Where do you go from here?