Comments on: Post Apocalyptic Book Club: Book 1: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

By: Yuonne Brucki

Yuonne Brucki — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:10:21 +0000

It’s good to see someone else who thinks like I do. With so much ignorance in the world these days it’s nice to know there’s someone out there who isn’t an idiot.

By: taxi insurance

taxi insurance — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:29:00 +0000

I could not agree more. Drive, First Break all the Rules, and The Dream Manager are all excellent books. I would also recommend “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job” by Patrick Lencioni.

By: Mariano Chango

Mariano Chango — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:05:16 +0000

Find your Doncaster Plumbers today

By: Obrazy na ścianę

Obrazy na ścianę — Wed, 04 May 2011 17:46:44 +0000

Nice article, are you seling links from your website? I’m interested…

By: Traverse Davies

Traverse Davies — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:14:21 +0000

In the short term maybe it’s a brake… but long term I think that the FBI cracking down on the populace is what will help incite people to action.
Right now there is very little action in the populace because we have bread and circuses (okay, maybe it’s McDonalds and reality TV… same idea) but as things get worse, people are more willing to take risks. Eventually, if you get in trouble for reasonable action it makes you more willing to undertake unreasonable action.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:10:30 +0000

Greentangle, that’s a good post, and I liked that the FBI came up in the comments – we talk a lot about apathy, and the media, and all that stuff…I was questioned by a homicide detective for marching in a protest (well, theoretically for scaring a police horse, but still – homicide?).

I have known several people who had FBI knocking on their doors, skulking around asking about them.

We’ve all heard the stories about people mysteriously turning up on TSA lists and anyone can find information about the way police & FBI infiltrate groups (here, by arresting random punk kids and stealing their clothes for undercover officers to wear, among other tactics).

It has a definite chilling effect on doing anything at all – if I’m going to have an FBI file for peaceful protest, if they send people to prison for trespassing at the School of the Americas, and if you know there’s a large chance that anyone you talk to at an activist event is an undercover officer, and a larger chance that the whole thing is being filmed and audiotaped — that is definitely a brake on anything you might try to do that’s larger or more political than planting a garden.

By: greentangle

greentangle — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:21:13 +0000

I didn’t get into the book, but I’m loving this great conversation about revolution, modern day apathy, religious/spiritual motivation, Jensen (who I’m pretty much in complete agreement with), etc. It was interesting that you brought up slavery, Sharon, and now the subject of the charismatic leader has come up. A few years ago I wrote a column after reading a book about John Brown and I touched on some of these issues of apathy and violence. I plugged the column in as my website link if anyone’s interested in reading it. Very glad you started this.

By: Jennie

Jennie — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:24:18 +0000

I think the leaders will definitely have to be of the local variety. We are not going to solve this problem with a large and in charge leader of a national persuasion. There are too many variables and too many distractions at that level. Local solutions work better, local leaders will too. Just as the solutions for Luna won’t work for us on Earth, the solutions for Colorado won’t work for New York.
Local leaders, and local solutions to the problem I think will result in less violence. A series of local community gardens implemented in the next couple of years will do more to change this country than the entire Congress can in the same amount of time.

The question Sharon put forward, “Why are we so blase about this?” is one I have asked myself numerous times over the past couple of years. Mannie’s perspective of odds helped me see it a little better though. I think most people run the odds in their heads and figure it isn’t even worth fighting. I think the problems are just so entrenched and so huge that people don’t know where to start, so most of them just don’t. We aren’t under military threat by a recognizable entity. If anything, we are the ones threatening others with military force. “If you don’t take our money and give us oil in exchange we’re going to bomb you.” We paid good money to get in this situation.

We can’t revolt against the oil rich nations, they are halfway across the world. We can’t revolt against ourselves for buying into the suburbia myth.

So, while the limitations described in tMiaHM and the consequences thereof are relevant, the methods used are not so. I think we’ll get more results, faster, if we work on local levels to find and enact sustainable solutions.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:58:16 +0000

p.s. this discussion really makes me think that we should discuss Antarctica – it’s plot is like the Pilgrim’s Progress of green activist theory.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:56:51 +0000

Rebecca, that’s my point exactly – you can make small political changes with violence, but you can’t change the underlying system. Even Haiti’s original revolution didn’t change the plantation system, or the underlying system of exploitive trade that the plantations serviced. It just put different people in charge of it.

We need a whole new system. Some people think you can do that by destroying the existing system and starting from the ground up, but even if that’s true, is there time?