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Civilization is the problem. Hansen recommends a book that incites violent sabotage, and promotes illegal activities to bring about an end to industrial civilization. Is this kind of book legal in the US?
James Hansen has called for industrial sabotage and defended lawbreakers before, but did he really read all of Keith Farnish’s words before he endorsed the book “Times Up”?
Farnish has put together a frightening compilation. He tried non-violent protest with Greenpeace for five years, but then he changed tactics. He got angry, and recommends you do too:
“Constructive Anger, on the other hand, does achieve something useful – even if it may not be exactly what was originally intended. For instance, if all the evidence you have to hand suggests that removing a sea wall or a dam will have a net beneficial effect on the natural environment then, however you go about it – explosives, technical sabotage or manual destruction – the removal would be a constructive action. If this action was fuelled by anger then your use of explosives involved Constructive Anger.”
The four key rules of sabotage
1. Carefully weigh up all the pros and cons, and then ask yourself, “Is it worth it?”
2. Plan ahead, and plan well, accounting for every possible eventuality.
3. Even if you understand the worth of your action, don’t get caught.
4. Make the Tools of Disconnection your priority; anything else is a waste of time and effort.
What Keith suggests is vigilante terrorism, to paraphrase:
1. Stepping outside the law is essential. (But don’t get caught).
2. Blowing up Dams is ok, if you feel the action is a net benefit to the environment.
Thus any 17 year old zealot might be “inspired” to dynamite say, Hoover dam, and that would be “OK” according to Farnish, and by inference, to Hansen. After all, the kid did a net-benefit analysis on the action. He just forgot it might kill some people.
Like any fundamentalist terrorist Farnish and his fans would probably reconcile the collateral damage in any case. Presumably the natural environment is better off without those people, who as Farnish would say, are a part of a “Culture of Maximum Harm.” He predicts billions will die as civilization collapses, and in his Key Rules, he warns against getting caught, but not against hurting people. If it smells like Enviro-Jihad…
The confusing phrase “tools of disconnection” mentioned in rule 4 BTW, appears to be a clumsy reference to picking targets that are meaningful (according to him).
In his delusional view, he talks of “early adopters” and quotes the percentage of any population willing to take up new ideas, only he thinks his idea, (to promote and survive some apocalyptic collapse of civilization) is somehow a “new idea”, instead of a big step backwards.
Here are a few other selections from the free online version.
“Don’t waste time protesting: this changes nothing – that is why it is legal.”
“It is not possible for a corporation to be “green”, therefore at no point must the message be allowed to include business as an ally; politicians are not enablers of change, they exist to maintain the status quo, so are not going to play a part in the solution; connection can only be made with an artefact of the real world, it cannot be reproduced in a technological “experience”. In this case, sabotage needs to be focussed on exposing the damaging alternatives to real change as “greenwash”, lies and attempts to keep us as parts of the machine.”
“Getting rid of civilization is not going to be easy, but the alternative is far, far worse.”
What I am going to propose is radical, fundamental and frightening.”
…all laws exist: “to maintain economic success above anything else –”
“Industrial Civilization has to end; I made that clear in Part Three. There is no doubt that, sooner or later, it will collapse, taking much of its subjected population with it: oil crisis, credit crunch, environmental disaster, pandemic – whatever the reason, it will eventually fail in a catastrophic manner. This may not happen for fifty or a hundred years; by which time global environmental collapse will be inevitable. That is one option; the other is for it to die, starting now, in such a way that those who have the nerve and the nous to leave it behind can save themselves and the natural environment that we are totally dependent upon.”
“[I]t is possible, indeed probable, that to create catastrophic collapse within an economy, and thus bring down a major pillar of Industrial Civilization, the public merely have to lose confidence in the system. This is reflected in other, related parts of civilization: following the attacks on the World Trade Centers in 2001, the global air transport industry underwent a mini-collapse; the BSE outbreak in the UK in the early 1990s caused not only a temporary halt in the sale of UK beef, but also a significant drop in global beef sales. Anything that can severely undermine confidence in a major part of the global economy can thus undermine civilization.”
“Because they are only present in civilizations, neither governments nor corporations have any part to play in the solution. Despite the protestations of the mainstream environmental movement, it is obvious now that the best thing corporations and governments can do is to shut up shop and leave humans to go back to the emphatically less destructive beings they were before Industrial Civilization took control.”
If Hansen was a reasonable concerned citizen he would immediately disavow this book and discourage all who call for similar illegal potentially dangerous action. Likewise, the climate change topic is owned by NASA and the IPCC–where are their moderating responses? Silence is tacit approval. Are they really happy to ignore the safety of the same public who funds them?
Farnish’s downloadable “book” is here.
In 2008, Anthony Watts described James Hansen’s efforts to support eco-vandalism.
James Delingpole does a great job here.
UPDATE: People are finding it hard to see the James Hansen official review on the book on Amazon. So I’ll add it here, so it can be seen that Hansen approved of the book, used his NASA title, and endorses the idea that the “system” (meaning democracy/voters/media/money/civilization etc) is the problem and that we have to “force” people to change it:
“Keith Farnish has it right: time has practically run out, and the ‘system’ is the problem. Governments are under the thumb of fossil fuel special interests – they will not look after our and the planet’s well-being until we force them to do so, and that is going to require enormous effort. –Professor James Hansen, GISS, NASA”