There is a marvellous moment in a speech by Derrick Jensen¹, in which he refers to a chapter in his book “A Language Older Than Words” in remarkably scathing terms:



Pride can be a terrible thing sometimes, and I find it very hard to look at something I have written and not at least feel some pride – after all, in almost all cases quite a lot of work went into it; as though I have incorporated a part of myself into the words. Now it’s time to swallow my pride, just like Derrick did in that speech.

I have written some real garbage on The Earth Blog.

There, it’s done. There is a proviso to this statement; for it is made retrospectively – at the time, just like when Derrick was writing the chapter ‘Violence Revisited’, I didn’t think it was garbage at all. There’s no way I would have knowingly submitted something I thought was bad to this website; but things change, and regular readers of this blog will understand that the nature of the articles and the feelings behind them have, and I can’t put this any other way, radicalised.

When I started, I really thought that things would get better within the confines of the system of corporations and government; that is was possible to create great and meaningful change simply by adjusting policies, implementing new ways of doing the same things, and that everyone was in a position to be a part of that change. I even thought that the mainstream environmental movement – the WWFs, Sierra Clubs and Greenpeaces of this world – would be instrumental in creating this change.

How deluded is that?

On reflection, not only was I deluded, it would also be morally wrong of me to leave anything that I now profoundly disagree with on The Earth Blog. It’s going, and you’re going to be witness to it. We are going to walk through every single article I wrote in the period before I realised Industrial Civilization was a hopeless case, take a look at it, and if it doesn’t make the grade I’m going to take the metaphorical razor blade and slice the article out of existence.

Hmm, I see a little problem: by the time you read this, if the article is not there then you can’t see how deluded I was. What I will do, therefore, is still delete the article, but provide a link to the Google cache if it exists, so you can see what the article looked like, but it won’t really be there.

Let’s do it!



The Consuming Monster - Wednesday, March 1st 2006

Just a few words on consumption, nothing wrong with that, it can stay.


Why The Public Won't Change - Saturday, March 11th 2006

Actually, that’s quite ahead of it’s time (for me) and reflects the later article with a very similar name. Keep.


For Those Who Still Deny It's Happening - Read This Please - Tuesday, March 21st 2006

This is a straight to the point look at global warming and its causes, but is pretty naïve, and doesn’t reflect many of the (albeit spurious) arguments deniers make. I can do a lot better. DELETED.

Oh, I can’t find a Google cache for this, c’est la vie.


Carbon Storage : An Easy Solution...For Idiots - Saturday, April 1st 2006 [Google cache]

This is just all wrong! It talks of possibly using CCS as a stop-gap while renewable energy takes over, but it smacks of technology being a way forwards, and also alludes to global agreements over emissions being achievable. It must go. DELETED.


Make (Energy) Poverty History - Thursday, April 6th 2006 [Google cache]

Yuk, this is really horrible! My ideas of “poverty” are really screwed, and completely ignore the existence of non-civilised societies. And with the phrase, “Technology is certainly one way around it, and a solution in itself,” the article seals its own fate. DELETED.


Not On My Planet - Sunday, April 16th 2006

Wow! I was writing an article a week, that must have been when I had no other blogs or books to write (or bread to bake). Anyway, this was written in response to a public meeting I spoke at which was full of NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard-ers). It’s well meaning, but far too mainstream to keep. DELETED.

Again, no Google cache for some reason.


A Special Offer To All Consumers - Monday, April 24th 2006

Quite funny, but also a bit trite – I’ll keep the phrase “For an extra fee, users can enjoy the extra benefits of our Carbon Filters, which will expertly screen out any information related to climate change, sea level rise and global warming.” Because my mate Tony thought that idea up. No cache again, but nevertheless DELETED.


Something, Something and Recycle - Wednesday, May 3rd 2006 [Google cache]

I have some affection for this article, and often mention the title to people, but unfortunately it contains the phrase “In our version of a civilised, free society, people will almost always take the least cost, least effort option.” At the time I had no concept of what “civilised” actually meant, and assumed it was possible to have a free, civilised society. It’s got to go. DELETED.

That’s the first of the articles that I still linked to on the main page gone. Ouch!


Why David Blaine Matters - Wednesday, May 10th 2006

Sounds like a trivial article, but it’s the first appearance of the phrase “what really matters” which is significant here. A bit muddled, but worth keeping as it seems to suggest a change in direction.


Let The Children Talk - Friday, May 19th 2006

My 7 year old daughter write this; there’s no way I’m deleting it.


4 Essential Ways To Save The Earth - Wednesday, July 5th 2006

This took me weeks to write, was spread over five separate articles and at the time I considered it to be my magnum opus. How proud I was. Tricky decision: if one part is bad then I have to delete the whole lot.

Part 1 [Google cache]: Ok, up to the description of the four “legs” of a solution, it’s not bad, and we do need research to find out what is going on, but what’s this? Political Action? “Ultimately we need global agreements to ensure...” Oh dear, it’s gone all Kyoto and Copenhagen already. Let’s see what Part 2 is like.

Part 2 – Research [Google cache]: Just the one phrase required to consign this to the razor blade treatment: “Research seems to have become poor cousin of the great actions that we can take as a civilisation”. Uurgh, great actions as a civilisation, I feel all dirty reading that.

Well, that’s it, it all has to go. DELETED-1-2-3-4-5. Sorry about all the lost comments, people.

For completion, here are the caches of the other parts: Part 3 – Political Action [Google cache], Part 4 – Legal Action [Google cache] and Part 5 – Individual and Community Action [Google cache]. Please don’t read the last one, it’s really horrible!


In This Climate Of Fear The Energy Giants Must Not Win - Thursday, July 13th 2006

Again, this is something I have referred to in the past – let’s see if it stands up...

Well, that was ok. Quite a few logical traps, and surprisingly radical thinking considering I hadn’t yet become uncivilised.


What If...We All Became Vegan? - Tuesday, July 25th 2006

This is still my most referenced article by far, and from what I can make out, still the only dietary article around that focuses on the gross area of land use. In the light of Lierre Keith’s justified attacks on industrial activity but, I think, unjustified attacks on vegan ethics this needs to remain.


A Call For Action : Please Read This - Thursday, July 27th 2006

This is a tricky one. There are lots of comments, and it’s not a bad little vignette, but near the end it suggests that governments and businesses could be part of the solution, which is clearly not the case given that they have no intention of taking us out of Industrial Civilization. So a compromise, I won’t delete it, but I’ll take it off the links list.


What If...The Population Stopped Growing? - Monday, August 7th 2006

Given the current surge in writing about the “population problem”, and the attempt by various parties, especially in the USA to take the emphasis off lifestyle and place it on absolute population, it’s good to have an article like this to use. I hadn’t read this for ages, and am rather pleased that it seems to stand up well.


The Problem With...Tourism - Thursday, August 24th 2006

It was around this time that I started increasing the time between articles to, frankly, make them better; and also started to focus on many more specific topics rather than making general comment, using a new thread called “The Problem With...” This first one is nicely focussed, and I can’t see anything wrong with it.


What Is The Point Of Investing In The Future If There Is No Future To Invest In? - Thursday, September 7th 2006 [Google cache]

I sense this might be a problem: “Making The Market Economy Stable”! And then realised the article actually showed it to be impossible. But there are problems: first, I talk about coveting as a natural desire, whereas it is almost absent from stable tribal societies; second, I fall into the trap of proposing a model of sustainability without any suggestion of how to get there – that’s not a good way to work. Despite the obvious effort put into it, it has to go. DELETED.


The Problem With...Plastic - Friday, September 22nd 2006

Nothing wrong with this one: quite hard-hitting as it goes, and a nice little conundrum that doesn’t resolve (obviously, if you think about it) until the end.


Never Trust A Celebrity Philanthropist - Tuesday, October 10th 2006

Can’t really delete this one even if it was rubbish (which, fortunately it just avoids being) because it was quoted in The New Yorker, and also led to a lot of other things beside. In a way this article, topical as it was, made The Earth Blog just a little bit famous.


What If...There Were No Countries? - Friday, October 27th 2006 [Google cache]

I’m not sure how I came to believe that a single world government would save the human race; possibly because I had recently lost faith with national governments and was just looking for an alternative. Nevertheless, despite a hell of a lot of work going into it, it is hopelessly naïve and also just plain wrong to suggest we should encourage political homogenisation (see the article later on). I feel a bit nauseous reading it. DELETED.

I might use the phrase, “Pride in your country be damned! What about pride in your planet?” somewhere else, though.


The Problem With...Christmas - Thursday, December 7th 2006

It’s the end of September, and the shops are already filling up with tinsel and holly tinged goods: no effort will be spared to try and prop up the faltering global economy with a monumental pile of seasonal tat! For that, and also because it still takes me back, this one can stay.


In January 2007, I started work on A Matter Of Scale, and everything began to slip into place, but out of the 25 articles I wrote in 2006, only 12 remain. A massacre perhaps, but a necessary one. Now it’s time to move on.

---

1. "Now This War Has Two Sides", http://www.akpress.org/2008/items/nowthiswarhastwosides

Hi Keith, was curious last night as to why Derrick Jensen was not enamoured of that particular chapter in his book, so I went back and read it. Did he give any indication of the offending part in the talk you mention? Because I would like to hazard a guess: I recall when reading the chapter for the first time, I was really taken aback by his discussion of being excluded, as a white man, from an all-black informal basketball game. It seemed really out-of-step with his usual good understanding of oppression. I wonder if that's what now bothers him, because it bothered me and makes me more likely to recommend more recent books of his to people? Just curious. And totally relating to your purge- I feel so embarrassed by earlier postings on my own blog, but can't quite bring myself to do anything about it!

Hi Morag, I've responded elsewehere, but for the purposes of this thread, I think I agree about the Jensen passage in question - it is definitely out of character. As for the purge - in my case I didn't want people to read stuff I no longer agreed with as they might think it was still valid; but sometimes it's nice to keep a history of your train of thought.

K.

Ack! I was hoping you'd just amend them in red, crossing out all the offending passages. Oh well. Quicker this way, I imagine.... But now I'll never see the true history of this blog... Btw, would you double check links? I kept trying to access some stuff off the left side of the page and the links did not work. Best to ya and your autumn cleaning!

[Thanks Vera. It's a hard rain, but when it falls it washes away all but the strong stuff. I'll do a quick link check - I've had a tidy up of links and got rid of the chaff, but might have mucked a few things up. Thanks for the nice comments.

Keith]

I can empathise with this feeling of embarrassment over a former state of personality. However, we are all fallible, we all must come from somewhere, and charting that development can be just as inspiring.

I must say, that deleting old posts, which are clearly part of the history of your personality, smacks of ego. You are editing a biography in order to make yourself seem flawless and consistent, when that is not the truth.

Instead, this particular blog post could have been the disclaimer to all previous posts you now don’t agree with, which would have been enough, and would allow the blog to remain a faithful representation of the development of your character.

It is a shame, that’s all.

[Hi Marmaduke, I do have everything on record still, and in the final analysis the post is surely far more damning than anything I actually wrote - I'm really having a pop at myself here! I'm sure there are plenty of songs you have written than you don't perform anymore, or at all, because you are no longer happy with them - is that hypocritical? I don't think so. Similarly, do reputable scientists still support hypotheses that have been superceded? No, because they no longer hold true in the scientific consensus.

Because I have chosen to take out something from the blog - which, after all, isn't a record of my life and certainly not a biography, but a set of essays I consider to be worth reading - is surely just creating a consistent picture rather than a pile of contradictions. My ego often crumbles before my own inanity...

K.]