Quoted: Lierre Keith on liberalism and the necessity of oppositional culture

I'm currently reading Deep Green Resistance, which is a joint effort of Aric McBay, Lierre Keith and Derek Jensen. All three of them are radical, anti-civilization, deep green activists. I've loved their other stuff (Lierre wrote The Vegetarian Myth, Derrick wrote Endgame, which is 900 pages about why civilization is killing the planet, and Aric and Derrick teamed up to examine waste in What We Leave Behind). But this book is knocking it out of the park. Anyone who has ever thought about being a serious activist for any social or environmental issue should go read it right now.

Lierre has an awesome chapter in which she discusses the history of the left and liberalism and the difference between an alternative culture (one which rebels against the mainstream in matters of culture, art, etc.) vs. an oppositional culture (one which challenges mainstream economic and political power structures):

"[The] focus on individual change is a hallmark of liberalism. It comes in a few different flavors, different enough that their proponents don't recognize that they are all in the same category. But underneath the surface differences, the commonality of individualism puts all of these subgroups on a continuum.


[The continuum] ends at the far extreme where personal lifestyle becomes personal purity and identity itself is declared a political act. These people often have a compelling radical analysis of oppression, hard won and fiercely defended. This would include such divergent groups as vegans, lesbian separatists and anarchist rewilders. They would all feel deeply insulted to be called liberals But if the only solutions proposed encompass nothing larger than personal action--and indeed, political resistance is rejected as "participation" in an oppressive system--then the program is ultimately liberal, and doomed to fail, despite the clarity of the analysis and the dedication of its adherents."