Articles by Robert Jensen
We Are One Species
Counterpunch ·
An excerpt from An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity. https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268203665/an-inconvenient-apocalypse/
Why Is This Not Enough?
Merion West ·
An excerpt from An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity. https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268203665/an-inconvenient-apocalypse/
A portrait of the artist as an old man: Wes Jackson in conversation with Robert Jensen
The Ecological Citizen ·
An edited transcript of Episode 5 of “Podcast from the Prairie.” https://podcastfromtheprairie.com/
Men and feminism: Do your own thing and do the right thing
Good Men Project ·
Offering men arguments from justice and self-interest for embracing feminism.
Earth Day: Enemies and Opportunities
Common Dreams ·
It’s time to talk honestly about “fewer and less”: fewer people consuming less energy and materials.
“Methodism to My Madness”: A “Podcast from the Prairie” Conversation with Wes Jackson
Resilience.org ·
An edited transcript of Episode 4 of “Podcast from the Prairie.” https://podcastfromtheprairie.com/
Take Nobody’s Word for It: A Conversation with Wes Jackson
Los Angeles Review of Books ·
An edited transcript of Episode 3 of “Podcast from the Prairie.” https://podcastfromtheprairie.com/
A Practical Radical Politics
Counterpunch ·
In this essay I want to present a case for a practical radical politics—holding onto radical analyses while making decisions based on our best reading of the threats and opportunities in the moment. This requires consistency in analysis (which is always a good thing) while being wary of dogmatism in strategy (which is almost always a bad thing).
My plan is to articulate the values on which my worldview is based; identify the hierarchical systems within the human family that undermine those values; and describe the history of the ecological break between the human family and the larger living world. From the analytical, I will offer thoughts on coping with the specific political moment of 2022 in the United States and with long-term global ecological realities. I have no grand strategy to propose, but instead will try to face my fears about the tenuous nature of life today politically and the even more tenuous nature of what lies ahead ecologically.
Working for what is possible requires commitment. Recognizing what is not possible requires humility. All of it requires us to embrace the anguish that is inevitable if we face the future without illusions.
Critiquing Transgender Theology: A review of Janice Raymond’s Doublethink
Lesbian and Gay News; Feminist Current ·
My review of Janice Raymond’s book, Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge to Transgenderism.
Intellectual Grounding: A Conversation with Wes Jackson
Front Porch Republic ·
An edited transcript of Episode 1 of “Podcast from the Prairie.” https://podcastfromtheprairie.com/
What Do Men Tell Us about Pornography? What Does Pornography Tell Us about Men?
Dissident Voice ·
A version of this essay was presented to the Engage Conference: Masculinity, Patriarchy, Feminism on November 19, 2021.]
Defining racism: Individuals and institutions, systems and structures
ABC Religion & Ethics ·
The expanded public space for conversation about racial justice in recent years has not always led to greater precision in how we use words. More clarity in definitions of systemic, structural, and institutional racism would help sharpen analysis and guide policy choices. This essay offers one way to make sense of individual versus institutional forms of white supremacy while distinguishing between systemic and structural factors. In addition to critiquing the dominant culture, I also point to failures of analysis on the left. My goal is to go beyond jargon and dogma that fosters in-group solidarity, in the hopes of contributing to a truly intersectional analysis.
Pornography: Doing the Worst to Women, Bringing out the Worst in Men
Countercurrents ·
This is an expanded version of testimony delivered to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation, November 2, 2021.
Instituting Liberty: Contested, Changing, Conflicted Definitions
Common Dreams ·
Reasonable people can disagree, and a university should be a place where those disagreements are celebrated. That would be a good starting point for a Liberty Institute.
“A Certain Terror”: A White Male Perspective on Being an Ally
Merion West ·
A version of this essay was presented to an online Diversity & Inclusion gathering on August 12, 2021.
Can we learn from history?
Common Dreams; Counterpunch ·
Looking back at dissenters’ reaction to 9-11.
Restless and Relentless Minds: Thinking as a “Species out of Context”
Resilience.org ·
The stability of the Earth’s ecosystems, and hence the future of the human species, depends on people recognizing and responding to multiple, cascading social and ecological crises that can easily overwhelm our imaginations. We need to cultivate restless and relentless minds to deal with unprecedented analytical questions and moral challenges if we are to go beyond the failed approaches of our current politics. This requires a sense of history deeper than we typically see in current debates. Since the advent of agriculture more than 10,000 years ago, humans have been a “species out of context.” That awareness will help us formulate “questions that go beyond the available answers,” which are necessary if we are to fashion effective responses to the crises. In this presentation, Robert Jensen highlights a half-century of work by one of his elders, Wes Jackson of The Land Institute in Kansas (USA), to suggest approaches to analyzing the threats at this moment in history. This lecture draws on Jensen’s 2021 book, The Restless and Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson: Searching for Sustainability (University Press of Kansas) and a forthcoming book co-written with Jackson.
Making sense of sex and gender: A review of Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism
Dissident Voice; Counterpunch ·
A review of Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism by Kathleen Stock.
The Dangers of White Male Supremacy
YES! Magazine ·
This essay is an expanded version of my review of Ijeoma Oluo’s book _Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America_ that appeared in the magazine’s print edition.
Tough Love for Mediocre White Guys: Getting White men to give up dominance is a challenge
YES! Magazine ·
A review of Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo
Male violence makes single-sex shelters a necessity
Lewiston Sun Journal ·
In a democratic society that respects individual rights, conflict is inevitable when rights collide. Such conflict is playing out in a Maine homeless shelter, where women are expected to endure abusive behavior in the name of inclusivity. Women assert their right to seek safety from men’s violence. The transgender movement asserts the right of anyone to self-identify with any gender. We side with women.
Pornographic distortions: The struggle for intimacy in the 21st century
Feminist Current ·
“Pornographic distortions,” refers both to the ways in which pornography distorts human sexuality, and the way in which pornography’s defenders distort the views of critics.
Getting Radical: Feminism, Patriarchy, and the Sexual-Exploitation Industries
Dignity: A Journal of Sexual Exploitation and Violence ·
The sexual-exploitation industries, including prostitution and pornography, are patriarchal institutions that are inconsistent with dignity, solidarity, and equality. Radical feminism offers a compelling analysis not only for women but also for men striving to be fully human.
Wes Jackson: How to Respect One’s Tools
Merion West ·
An edited transcript of Episode 2 of “Podcast from the Prairie.” https://podcastfromtheprairie.com/
‘A simple boy from the prairie’: An interview with Robert Jensen
Feminist Current ·
When a European graduate student emailed to ask if I would participate in an assignment to “do an interview with one of my favourite authors,” I said yes. My books have not exactly been best-sellers, and so I was an easy target for anyone describing me as a “favourite author.”
From Pornography to Agriculture: Challenging Hierarchy
MerionWest.com ·
“At the core of this analysis is a claim that, at first glance, may seem to be a stretch: The erosion of human dignity in our broken world starts with the erosion of the planet’s soils.”
Against Hierarchy
Voice Male magazine ·
It’s getting harder for people in the United States to turn away from the sexism, racism, and inequality that is woven into the fabric of society. From the women’s march of 2017, to the ongoing protests against white supremacy in policing and other institutions, to the wider attention being paid to extreme disparities in wealth—the demand for justice intensifies.
Who is we?
The Ecological Citizen ·
Glaring inequality, both between and within societies, makes it difficult to talk about ‘we’ – a collective human project of understanding and responding to multiple, cascading ecological crises. Assigning responsibility for today’s social injustice and ecological unsustainability, and levels of obligations to repair the damage, is required, but that is only a first step. A decent human future also requires us to understand human–carbon nature and face the reasons it will be difficult to move from 8 billion people in a high-energy global society to a smaller population in a low-energy world. No existing ideology or culture is going to provide us with a template for dealing with what lies ahead, and the sooner we confront the magnitude of the challenge, the better for everyone.
Seize a wrench and the day
Land Report, and Resilience.org ·
Living resourcefully, in good humor, and not worried about badges
What is really radical in sex/gender politics?
Culturico ·
The political left, and much of mainstream feminism, is characterized by an analysis of how systems and institutions shape our choices, a critique of capitalist media, and a commitment to a scientific/materialist worldview. But when faced with radical feminism’s compelling critiques of patriarchy, leftists and many feminists routinely abandon those principles. Radical feminist critiques of prostitution, pornography, and transgender ideology should be part of a consistent, coherent left analysis.
‘Cancel culture’ cannot erase a strong argument
Feminist Current ·
In the current squabble on the liberal/progressive/left side of the fence over so-called “cancel culture,” in which one open letter in favor of freedom of expression led to a rebuttal open letter in favor of a different approach to freedom of expression, I can offer a report on the experience of being canceled.
How to Get Off Fossil Fuels Quickly—and Fairly
YES! Magazine ·
When it comes to a just transition, it’s going to take a radical reimagining not only of our economy but also of our culture and the shape of our social structures. YES! co-hosted a conversation with experts from the nonprofit The Land Institute to discuss policy proposals and new ways to rebuild our sense of self and community from the bottom up.
Why Do Men Like Pornography?
Public Seminar ·
And why radical feminism helps us find a path to real intimacy.
What can people think of doing when they have little money?
Agriculture and Human Values ·
COVID-19 already has sparked thoughts of long-term economic hardship, with a recession unavoidable and a depression possible. Only a few weeks into the pandemic, countless citizens are struggling to make ends meet. And this acute crisis doesn’t change the need to reduce our use of fossil fuels if we are to head-off the more serious ecological and health consequences of greenhouse gas accumulations. If we are to meet a zero-fossil carbon target by 2050, economic hardship will be part of the equation.
Apocalypse, Now and Forever: Review of “Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back”
Resilience.org ·
Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back is a thoughtful, engaging book that ends in failure. But Mark O’Connell shouldn’t take that assessment too personally. His book fails in the way that his culture—the modern, cosmopolitan, left/liberal, individualist culture—routinely fails in the face of multiple, cascading ecological crises.
Review: ‘Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity’
Feminist Current ·
Peggy Orenstein insists that we not flinch in uncomfortable conversations with boys and men about the dark side of sexuality. In her new book, Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity, she reports on her refreshingly honest interviews with guys about how they understand what it means to “be a man” in the sexual arena.
Pornography undermines the #MeToo movement
Medium.com ·
[An edited version of this essay appeared in the Houston Chronicle.]
The #MeToo movement fights back against sexual harassment and assault, rejecting the idea that women exist for men’s sexual pleasure.
But alongside the growing success of that movement, the pornography industry continues to thrive by presenting explicit images that sexualize exactly this idea — that women exist to serve men’s desires, whatever those desires might be, no matter how much humiliation and suffering they impose on women.