How brave is George Bradford?

"How deep is Deep Ecology?" is a pamphlet written by George Bradford (David Watson), a member of the Fifth Estate editorial staff. The Fifth Estate is an anti-authoritarian, left-wing magazine published in Detroit. It's often regarded, rightly or wrongly, as anarcho-primitivist. The social ecologist Murray Bookchin had a long standing feud with the magazine. However, the left-wing tint of the FE editorial collective made them highly critical of Deep Ecology, as well.

Bradford's pamphlet says very little about Arne Naess and the more philosophical or spiritual sides of Deep Ecology. Instead, it concentrates on the political campaigns of the activist group Earth First, at the time headed by Dave Foreman. Bradford considers the politics of Earth First to be genocidal, crypto-racist, fascistic and ultimately "reformist". The notorious interview with Foreman in Simply Living is featured, together with some other statements by this group.

Still, Bradford's pamphlet is ultimately a powerless response to Deep Ecology. The reason is simple: as an anarcho-primitivist (or something close to it), Bradford shares many of the stated goals of the deep ecologists themselves. Bradford, too, wants to abolish modern civilization, international trade and most technology, proposing a more decentralized and entirely self-sufficient society living in harmony with nature. Of course, this can only be accomplished by dramatically lowering Earth's population - an issue Bradford constantly attempts to sidestep.

But not entirely! At one point, the progressive anarchist shows that he, too, is no stranger to "genocide". Advocating the abolition of modern medicine, Bradford says: "We are going to have to relearn to live with death, which may mean letting die people whom technology keeps alive, if we are to avoid being drawn into a deepening technological control of life". While this statement presumably refers to people in long-term care facilities, most people around the world are "kept alive by technology", are they not? So what's the *real* difference between Foreman and Bradford?

I don't consider myself a supporter of Foreman, but somehow, I feel that he dares to "talk the talk" in a way Bradford for some reason doesn't want to do...

How deep is deep ecology? Perhaps the real question is: how brave is George Bradford?