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Derrick Jensen's 'Beyond Hope'

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Module 2 Presentation: Beyond Hope
Beyond Hope is a short read from page 27-31 by Derrick Jensen in regards to his activist friend John Osborn. This read revolves around how most environmentalist are desperately fighting; using whatever legal tools those in power grant them to try and protect the earth from the harm it is going through. If they cannot stop the manufacturing or release of poisons, land corruptions, or abuse to plants and animals; they will have to settle for saving just one tree at a time.
Jensen then goes on with Osborn’s summary of why he does what he does. He mentions how, no matter what environmentalist do, the efforts are insufficient. Saying how those in power are hell-bent on destroying the planet, and most of us don’t care, nor strive to do anything about it. The topic for John Osborn is “Hope” and how we rely on the thought of it; it becomes a crutch, keeping us chained to “the system” in a sense. …show more content…

In the economy, we have a false hope that somehow, suddenly, the system will change inexplicably. We hope that new found technology will save us and the environment. Or maybe even a “greater being” will make everything whole again. With all these false hopes, there are no results, because hope is a mere longing for betterment, in which you have no agency, making one powerless.
With hope, you are only wishing for a better end. You are not acting upon that wish to change what you hoped for in the first place. Osborn’s example was “I hope I eat something tomorrow” but instead of hoping, you will simply do because you have that control. Whereas another of his examples was, “I do hope that the next time I get on a plane, it doesn’t crash”. For this situation, all you can do is hope, because, unless you were the pilot; you have no control as a passenger on how the plane will

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