Political Media Review

The last two generations have seen a key shift in political organizing, one in which television coverage is regarded a harbinger of success. And since the 1990s, that media-centric focus accelerated with the ascension of the Internet, social media and affordable, high-quality audio and video equipment

Rhetoric for Radicals is about organizing, activism, and radicalism; in short, it’s a comprehensive text for changing the world. This book approaches activism as a rhetorical labor and argues in a concise, yet substantive, five chapters that effective radicalism must involve sound rhetorical practice.

Using art as a medium, or platform, for ideological proselytizing has always been a difficult process for the artist. Will the political content outweigh and compromise the aesthetics, or will the artist’s style dilute and deflate the message? Derrick Jensen walks a fine line in his fiction; as a radical political thinker and primitivist evangelist, he is peerless.

…we are animals, and aren’t able to decide not to have feelings. Just like the earth, we are going to quake if sufficiently shaken. We don’t get to choose whether or not traumatic events will damage our psychic infrastructure.

As an activist, being effective is more important than merely being busy. A hectic schedule does not automatically translate into social change and doing more is not the same as achieving more.