Against the megamachine : essays on empire and its enemies

Urban-industrial civilization is a vast junkyard. Everything, from the planets to the cells of our bodies, is contaminated with its poisons. What it means to be human is now in dangerous flux, while the entire edifice sways over us, threatening to crash down in ruins. The green world in which we evolved is being shredded by our instruments and our way of life... David Watson's wide-ranging essays - published in the Fifth Estate, one of North America's most original radical journals - ponder such themes as the state, empire and war; humanity's tragic relation to the natural world; and the contemporary mass society generated by industrial capitalism and modern technology. His impassioned critique offers a vision of social transformation open to diverse possibilities, and suggests where a new politics must begin: as a radical challenge to the mystique of progress, in defense of nature, memory and spirit. "David Watson is one of the handful of thinkers and authors who have managed to address technology in all of its dimensions - its effects on individual consciousness, on political power, on social and cultural forms, and on the natural world - to reveal something far more profound and terrifying, though still beneath the awareness of the public and the otherwise politically engaged community of activists. Technology must move to the forefront as an activist issue, and only through works like this will we understand the subject well enough to act." - Jerry Mander Contents 6 Author's Note & Acknowledgment 10 Introduction by Richard Drinnon 14 PART I: CATCHING FISH IN CHAOTIC WATERS 20 Catching Fish in Chaotic Waters: An Essay on Empire and Mass Society 22 PART II: WE ALL LIVE IN BHOPAL 40 Notes on the Disappearance of History 42 Earth Day? We Want a Festival of the Oppressed 49 Earth Day or Capital's Spectacle? 49 1970-1990: Whose Earth? 51 Toward a Festival of the Oppressed 54 We All Live in Bhopal 57 Industrialization a Nightmare 58 Industrial Culture and Industrial Plague 59 Going to the Village 61 Stopping the Industrial Hydra 63 Autopsy of a Petrochemical Disaster 64 The Failure of Technology 66 The Earth Is a Company Town 68 Economic Boom = Ecological Bust 70 The Greenhouse Effect: Capital's Business Climate 72 Disaster Fuels the Machine 74 Limits of Environmentalism and Leftism 76 A Mechanized Pyramid 79 Revolution Against the Megamachine 81 Our House Is on Fire 83 Endnotes 84 Biosphere 2 and the Future of the Earth 86 Six Theses on Nuclear Power 90 1. The Nuclear Power Complex Is Inherently Totalitarian 90 2. Nuclear Power Is Fundamentally a Matter of Psychology 91 3. Technolatry Is a Form of Denial 92 4. Nuclearism Undermines Human Autonomy 94 5. "No Nukes" Is Not Enough: Industrial Capitalism Is the Enemy 95 6. Industrialism Is an Empire - Life Is the Economy 96 PART III: AGAINST THE MEGAMACHINE 98 The Fall of Communism & the Triumph of Capital 100 1. 100 2. 103 3. 108 4. 115 5. 122 6. 127 Against the Megamachine 132 Technology Is a Way of Life 133 A World of Means 135 A Depopulated World of Matter and Motion 137 Technology Is Not "Neutral" 138 A Fundamental Mutation Has Occurred 141 Meaning Has Been Reshaped 143 The Media: Capital's Global Village 145 A Revolution in Human Response 147 Mechanization Penetrates Every Province 149 Only the Circuitry Acts 151 Technology Refused 153 "Primitive Fears" 155 Technology Out of Control 157 Toward an Epistemological Luddism 159 The Snowmobile Revolution: Notes on Technological Invasion 161 The Bikini Islanders 162 The Snowmobile Revolution 163 A Note on Anthropology 165 The Language of Domestication & the Domestication of Language 167 Domain Conquered by Pedagogues 168 The Sword and the Book 170 Endnotes 172 Anarchy & the Sacred 174 Beyond Anarchism? 174 The Anarchist Vision Must Evolve 176 Science Based on Faith 178 Anarchism Not a Paradigm 180 A Defense of Spirituality 182 A Fundamental Solidarity of Life 185 Matters of Interpretation 187 The Failure of Civilization & the Failure of Noam Chomsky 190 Is Technology Neutral? 191 Unquestioning Affirmation of Civilization 192 A Humble Call to Subvert the Human Empire 194 PART IV: CIVILIZATION IN BULK 200 Civilization Is Like a Jetliner 202 Civilization in Bulk: Empire and Ecological Destruction 204 A False Turn 205 A Society Free of Work 206 Equilibrium Exploded 208 Civilization Is a Labor Camp 210 Endnotes 212 Insurgent Mexico: Redefining Revolution and Progress for the 21st Century 217 Undogmatic Revolutionaries 218 Revolt after Revolt 220 Land and Liberty 223 Two Mexicos 225 The Political Economy of Cholera 226 No Room to Move 228 A Way Out 230 Fight for More Being 232 Endnotes 236 Deep Ecology & Environmental Philosophy: On the Ethics of Crisis and the Crisis in Ethics 239 A Deep Social Ecology? 239 Deep Ecology and Dualism 242 The Problem of Scientific Naturalism 245 Beyond Intrinsic Value 247 "All My Relations" 251 Saving Ourselves 253 Endnotes 255 Homage to Fredy Perlman (1934-1985) 259 1. The Death of Fredy Perlman 259 Against History 260 From Theoretician to Singer 261 2. An Exemplary Life: A Memoir of Fredy Perlman 263 From Rebel to Revolutionary 264 An Exemplary Life 265 The Unabomber & the Future of Industrial Society 267 1. Go, Unabomber 267 2. Enter Ted Kaczynski 269 3. Enter the Neo-Luddites 272 4. Two, Three, Many Unabombers? 275 5. Things Fall Apart 278 Endnotes 280 PART V: THESE ARE NOT OUR TROOPS 284 1492-1992: The Fall of the 500-Year Reich 286 History Symbolic 287 The Legacy of Progress 288 A Drop of Vengeance 290 The Forest Beckoning 291 Looking Back on the Vietnam War 293 Introduction: 20 Years after the War 293 Looking Back on the Vietnam War: History & Forgetting 298 1. An Orwellian War 298 2. A Shooting Gallery 300 3. Indian Fighters 302 4. The "Lunarization Program" 304 5. A Country Shattered 307 6. Bloodbaths 310 7. America's Next Vietnam 313 War in the Persian Gulf: Imperial Death Trip to Nowhere 315 Destroy Kuwait to Save It 316 Ship of Fools 318 Endnotes 319 These Are Not Our Troops: This Is Not Our Country 320 A Planetary Frontier 321 Television and Mass Society 322 The State Controls Discourse 323 Denial and Reversal 325 The Populace Succumbs 326 Home Is Now the State 327 Baby-Killers 329 Turn the Guns Around 330 Support the Troops: Incite Mutiny 332 Watching the Dogs Salivate: Remarks on the 1992 Elections 333 On the Road to Nowhere: The New Nomadism 342 Pioneer Ideology 343 Everyone Must Eat Hamburgers 345 Cowboys and Astronauts 347 We Remain Foreigners 348 Introduction by Richard Drinnon PART I: CATCHING FISH IN CHAOTIC WATERS 1. Catching Fish in Chaotic Waters: An Essay on Empire and Mass Society PART II: WE ALL LIVE IN BHOPAL 2. Notes on the Disappearance of History 3. Earth Day? We Want a Festival of the Oppressed 4. We All Live in Bhopal 5. Stopping the Industrial Hydra 6. Biosphere 2 and the Future of the Earth 7. Six Theses on Nuclear Power PART III: AGAINST THE MEGAMACHINE 8. The Fall of Communism & the Triumph of Capital 9. Against the Megamachine 10. The Snowmobile Revolution: Notes on Technological Invasion 11. The Language of Domestication & the Domestication of Language 12. Anarchy & the Sacred 13. Beyond Anarchism? 14. The Failure of Civilization & the Failure of Noam Chomsky 15. A Humble Call to Subvert the Human Empire PART IV: CIVILIZATION IN BULK 16. Civilization Is Like a Jetliner 17. Civilization in Bulk: Empire and Ecological Destruction 18. Insurgent Mexico: Redefining Revolution and Progress for the 21st Century 19. Deep Ecology & Environmental Philosophy: On the Ethics of Crisis and the Crisis in Ethics 20. Homage to Fredy Perlman (1934-1985) 21. The Unabomber & the Future of Industrial Society PART V: THESE ARE NOT OUR TROOPS 22. 1492-1992: The Fall of the 500-Year Reich 23. Looking Back on the Vietnam War 24. War in the Persian Gulf: Imperial Death Trip to Nowhere 25. These Are Not Our Troops: This Is Not Our Country 26. Watching the Dogs Salivate: Remarks on the 1992 Elections 27. On the Road to Nowhere: The New Nomadism