The stories we are told shape the way we see the world, which shapes the way we experience the world.
Derrick JensenRead
So long as we only believe in the justice of the state, of the law-made by those in power, to serve those in power-so long will we continue to be exploited by those in power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how blind faith in state justice allows those in power to exploit others.
Derrick Jensen emphasizes that placing unwavering trust in the justice system, which is crafted by those who hold power to benefit themselves, will perpetuate the cycle of exploitation. It suggests that critical examination of laws and the motives behind them is essential to liberate oneself from the control of the powerful elite.
Themes
JusticePowerExploitationLawState
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a discussion about social justice reform.
More from Derrick Jensen
All quotes →Those in power have made it so we have to pay simply to exist on the planet. We have to pay for a place to sleep, and we have to pay for food. If we don't, people with guns come and force us to pay. That's violent.
Derrick JensenRead
So many indigenous people have said to me that the fundamental difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that even the most open-minded westerners generally view listening to the natural world as a metaphor, as opposed to the way the world really is. Trees and rocks and rivers really do have things to say to us.
Derrick JensenRead
When dams were erected on the Columbia, salmon battered themselves against the concrete, trying to return home. I expect no less from us. We too must hurl ourselves against and through the literal and metaphorical concrete that contains and constrains us, that keeps us from talking about what is most important to us, that keeps us from living the way our bones know we can, that bars us from our home. It only takes one person to bring down a dam.
Derrick JensenRead
The big dividing line is not and has never been between those who advocate more or less militant forms of resistance, or between mainstream and grassroots activists. The dividing line is between those who do something and those who do nothing.
Derrick JensenRead
By deafening ourselves to the emotional consequences of violence we have become confused by its relationship to sex. We have come to believe that violence equals aggression, and we have come to base our model of sexuality on our model of violence... converting an act of aggression into an act of consensual sexuality.
Derrick JensenRead
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