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Home Immuno-Activism
Immunogentility

The term "immuno-activists" (aka immunogentry or immunogentiles - from the Latin gentilis, "belonging to a clan or tribe") is a new way to describe an ancient phenomenon - the continually emerging individuals in all our social bodies who inexplicably care about distant harms and move toward them to help instead of closing their eyes or running away. This bio-metaphoric thinking suggests three premises:

  1. natural born activists (those who feel and work for eco-social causes even if they are not paid) constitute our body politic's true immune system, not the hired guns of centralized power like police, health industry suits, or the military;
  2. like our own immune cells, activists are always a small minority in their body politic, but as long as they are competent, energetic and know what they are really fighting, that's sufficient and OK;
  3. immuno-activists could be a lot more effective if they recognized their mutual calling and focused more on the causal agents behind most societal dis-ease rather than on battling specific symptoms.


"Is it the End?" Activism at the Breaking Point

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As our ecological demise continues to accelerate, some desperate artists and activists look to earlier resistance movements for guidance and inspiration. The following segment from END:CIV entitled "Fuck Patience" illustrates their reasoning and goals.

"END:CIV is a film that examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: "If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?" END:CIV is currently in production." Visit their website here. For more work in this radical vein, see also submedia.tv.

 

Blessed Unrest: The Rising Power of Immuno-Activism

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Paul Hawken Describing the Emerging Gaian Immune System - from "Blessed Unrest"

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Courtesy of Velcro Ripper (6 min)

Hawken: "Globalization’s depredations have had a nearly 500-year head start on humanity’s immune system. The exponential assault on resources and the production of waste, coupled with the extirpation of cultures and the exploitation of workers, is a disease as surely as hepatitis or cancer... In essence, the environmental movement can be seen as humanity’s response to contagious policies killing the earth, while the social justice movement addresses economic and legislated pathogens that destroy families, bodies, cultures and communities.” And the greatest pathogens of all are the corporate Big Bodies.

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