Green Apocalypse?

"END CIV: Resist or Die" is a surprisingly well-produced film with a somewhat extreme message.

Its message is inspired by Derrick Jensen's books "Endgame", Volumes 1 and 2. I've read excerpts from them on the web. Jensen is a left-wing primitivist or deep ecologist, who wants to abolish modern civilization and high technology in favour of a sustainable lifestyle in harmony with Nature. It's not clear whether Jensen considers himself to be an anarcho-primitivist, but his message sounds less intellectual and more "direct action" oriented than the anarcho-primitivists I'm familiar with. Apparently, Jensen is affiliated with a group called Deep Green Resistance (DGR).

Apart from Jensen, "END CIV" features fellow DGR-ers Lierre Keith and Aric McBay, Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd, John Zerzan, James Howard Kunstler, Earth First and Qwatsinas, a Native activist and leader of the Nuxalk nation.

The film discusses four premises, taken from "Endgame". They are: Industrial civilization isn't sustainable; Industrial civilization inevitably destroys traditional communities and steal their land; Industrial civilization is based on widespread violence and would collapse without it; The culture as a whole and most of its members are insane and driven by a death wish.

The goal of Jensen is to literally destroy civilization, not by persuasion or civil disobedience, but by force and disruption. "END CIV" attacks Mahatma Gandhi, instead pointing to a certain Bhagat Singh who fought the British colonialists in India with guns and bombs. Martin Luther and the Dalai Lama are also criticized, while the movie shows footage of Malcolm X. Another adversary is Greenpeace, which Jensen believes has sold itself to the logging and whaling industries. Paul Watson is also critical of Greenpeace, and believes that notorious Greenpeace defector Patrick Moore isn't an anomaly.

The goal of the DGR seems to be a society similar to that which existed in North America before the White colonization and settlement. "END CIV" puts heavy emphasis on Native activism. Despite the militant message, it's not at all clear how the "deep green resistance" really wants to end civilization, especially since Jensen claims that most people (not just the establishment) are sociopaths who deliberately destroy Nature. Thus, a political movement seeking popular support seems out of the question. Who would vote for Derrick Jensen? Logically, Jensen should simply sit back and wait for the collapse to unfold, but that (clearly) is not his agenda. He wants to help the process along. The pictures of anarchists smashing police cars, masked guerrilla warriors and Iraqi "resistance fighters" mauled by U.S. troops suggest that some kind of apocalyptic scenario is being offered here.

At the very end, Jensen compares the present system to Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, and by implication with the Holocaust. A Manichean struggle between Light and Darkness is conjured up, with most people on the wrong side of the barbed wire...

I can't say I like this perspective. However, since "END CIV: Resist or die" is a good introduction to the ideas of this particular current, I give it three stars.