15 quotes
If your community is founded on an injustice, that injustice cannot be questioned.
The Culture of Make Believe (2003)
From the beginning, this culture - civilization - has been a culture of occupation.
Endgame (2006)
To believe Christianity stands in opposition to slavery is at best to think anachronistically and at worst to not understand Christianity.
The Culture of Make Believe (2003)
From the perspective of those who are entitled, the problems begin when those they despise do not go along with--and have the power and wherewithal to not go along with--the perceived entitlement.
The Culture of Make Believe (2003)
I quit work two weeks later--having sold another eighty of my hours--and knew I could never again work a regular job.
A Language Older Than Words (2000)
People often say that violence accomplishes nothing, that it's ineffective. Violence is dreadfully effective. That's why those in power use it.
I would say that when hope dies, action begins.
Love does not imply pacifism.
Endgame (2006)
When we realize the degree of agency we actually do have, we no longer have to "hope" at all. We simply do the work.
If we wish to stop the atrocities, we will need to understand and change the social and economic conditions that cause them.
The Culture of Make Believe (2003)
If any thing can be predicated as universally true of uncultivated man, it is that he will not labour beyond what is absolutely necessary to maintain his existence.
The Culture of Make Believe (2003)
Perception creates behavior. Perception encourages behavior. And because this institution--this artifice--continues to socially reinforce patterns of perception and behavior, if this behavior is destructive, it may not be a bad idea to eliminate or curtail the institution.
The Culture of Make Believe (2003)
Given the current levels of violence by this culture against both humans and the natural world, however, it's not possible to speak of reductions in population and consumption that do not involve violence and privation, not because the reductions themselves would necessarily involve violence, but because violence and privation have become the default of our culture.
Endgame (2006)
Jeanette [Armstrong, "a traditional Okanagan Indian"] said, 'Attitudes about the species communication are the primary difference between western and indigenous philosophies. Even the most progressive western philosophers still generally believe that listening to the land is a metaphor.' She paused, then continued emphatically, 'It's not a metaphor. It's how the world is.'
A Language Older Than Words (2000)
I've always wanted to blow up dams in order to save salmon, sturgeon, and other creatures whose lives depend on wild and living rivers. But that's not right. We need to blow up dams for the rivers themselves, so they can be again the rivers they once were, forever, the rivers they still want to be, the rivers they themselves are struggling and fighting to once again become.
Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth (2006)