A Language Older Than Words Ch. 4,5,6

Once again Derrick Jensen has our jaws dropping in chapters 4, 5, and 6. His words are controversial, and yet his support is convincing. The literature is infused with excellent anecdotes, compelling stories, and allusions to Descartes and other great thinkers. Seeing as the the reading as a whole is broken down into three chapters, I will break my analysis down into three parts. The fourth chapter, entitle cultural eyeglasses, delves into some of our societal lies. The fifth chapter, entitled cranes, Jensen talks about self confidence and growing up. The sixth chapter, a safety metaphor, he initially addresses the human/animal dynamic and then talks about fear.

Cultural eyeglasses opens with discussion about a set of scientists that studied monkeys who had been treated extremely poorly as infants. When it was these monkeys turns to parent their own children, they had no idea what to do. They either ignored the children or beat them to death. This opening anecdote transitions effectively into a series of statistics about the abuse and neglect of children in America. Essentially the point that Jensen is trying to make is that "the physical cannot be separated from the nonphysical." The one strong example given is the Nazi regime. Although they were adamant that Jews, Russians, homosexuals etc. were subhuman, they couldn't justify such conclusions 100% in their head. Later in the chapter, he briefly talks about how self experience is the most important of all proof. Essentially equations and theories are used to explain phenomenon that need not be explained, and thus are cheapened with such descriptions. One of the most striking conclusions that Jensen comes to in this chapter that "the world is drowning in a sea of words, and I add to the deluge, then hope that i can sleep that night, secure in the knowledge that I have done my part." Essentially what this implies is that the world is just words, Jensen speak words, and he is content with that. Regardless, Jensen brings it all back to the animal conversations going on all around us.

Cranes, the second chapter from this reading, is short but fairly straight forward. The topic Jensen addresses across the four pages of this Chapter is that breakdown is the best foundation for build up. On a personal level, he was abused and plagued by turmoil growing up. As a result though, he was able to start from scratch and develop into a fully functional adult. As he says, "mythologies of all times and all places tell us that those who enter the abyss and survive can bring back important lessons."

The last chapter of this set of reading is titled "The Safety of Metaphor" opens with Jensen discussion his mission to find out if others converse with animals. The conclusion that he comes to is that no one believes him because there is not proof. To combat this fact, Jensen references how most of the important things we know are internal truth, and not empirical fact. The difficult truth is that we ignore problems that we label as unsolvable. Animals do not do this, for they are all "pulling towards life." The problematic thing in our society is that we as humans refuse to break away from the worlds injustices because that is the easy path. "We lie, destroy, rape, murder, experiment, extirpate, all to control this wildly uncontrollable symphony."

The biggest thing this reading brought to my attention was the ignorance we are plagued by. The first chapter proves we are ignorant of is the truth that lies right before our eyes; that jews are human, that we are all talk, that politicians are corrupt. The second chapter proves that we are ignorant to the fact that we can succeed by rising from the ashes of distress. The last chapter proves that we are ignorant of the connections and relations we are missing out on; ignorant to the fact that we are destroying what we set out to save. Jensen shocked me with the revelation of all of this ignorance.

A great connection from this excerpt to other class readings is with the article that touched on the benefits of becoming vegetarian. That article really summed up the ignorance that Jensen was speaking out against in these three chapters. For instance, the vegetarian article talked about how the amount of food fed to the chickens that we eat as meat could feed four times as many people as those fed chickens actually do. It also talked about the fossil fuels and toxic emissions necessary to maintain livestock. The statistics are amazing, and yet we continue to eat meat and play into this vicious cycle of waste. This is the sort of ignorance that Jensen says is destroying the world. We choose to ignore blatant facts, because the prospect of solving the world's injustices is much more difficult than refusing to believe they don't exist.

As a result of this article, I intend to fight ignorance. In the days, weeks, and years to come, I will make a conscious effort not to lie to myself. Lying to yourself only pacifies the sorrow that would be a direct result of the truth. For instance, I intend to buy products that were not made in a fair environment. Things that were created because of slave labor or sub-human wages will not be found in my possession. Thanks to Jensen, I can no longer remain comfortably ignorant on such topics, just so the goods I buy are dirt cheap. Another impact this article has made on me is in regards to his allusions to the fact that if you survive going through hell, you'll be better off for it. From now, anytime I experience extreme sorrow, hardship, or turmoil, I will come out not only being a better person but actively acknowledging that I am a better person.

Questions:

What were some of the exact responses you got when you asked people if they talked to animals?

What happens if you don't survive hardship? Is hardship just a waste in that case?

How can we convince society to stop turning a blind eye to injustice?